1828.] St. Omer. 245 



the only possible advantage offered by an English school in France is 

 offered to French youth, whose parents never avail themselves of it, 

 unless, indeed, we count the benefits enjoyed by the keepers of the said 

 schools, who avoid, for the most part, the surveillance of the parents, 

 charge nearly as much as they would in England for the board, &c., 

 which costs them about half, and, to crown the matter, have the modesty 

 to claim their payments half a year in advance ! With respect to the 

 actual effects of an education at an English boarding-school at St. Omer, 

 all I can tell you is, that the young gentlemen I have happened to meet 

 with, differ in no other respect from the population of a Woodford or 

 Hammersmith academy, except inasmuch as they are more vulgar and 

 gauche in their manners, more coarse and heavy in their appearance, and 

 in their habits. The chief circumstance, as it seems to me, of gain, is their 

 having learned to talk indecently in two languages instead of one : not, 

 however, that they speak French any better than boys who learn it in 

 the ordinary English manner ; the only difference is, that they speak their 

 bad French ten times faster a disadvantage perhaps, rather in the pro- 

 portion of ten to one. The truth is, that if boys are to receive their 

 elementary education in France at all, it should be at a French school : 

 such, for instance, as that attached to the Royal College here, or at the 

 college itself. 



There are several schools for females at St. Omer. The one best 

 worthy of mention forms part of the establishment of a convent of 

 Ursuline nuns, which has lately (since the reign of the parti-pretre) been 

 permitted to regain all its former privileges, which were lost at the 

 revolution. In 1800, the superior, having returned from emigration, 

 succeeded in re-uniting some of the sisters, and establishing herself in 

 a small school in the town, which was shortly afterwards, by favour of the 

 authorities of the town, removed to the old locale., called the Jardin Notre 

 Dame. Here they contrived to maintain themselves till 1816, when a 

 royal ordonnance established the little society on a permanent footing, 

 and enabled them not only to increase their own number, but to extend 

 their school, which is now as flourishing as it was before its fall. I am 

 disposed to think that, for the early education of a young female (even 

 of Protestant parents) no better plan can be adopted than that of placing 

 them in an establishment of this kind that is to say, provided they are 

 allowed to quit the parental roof at all, for they are likely to learn quite 

 as much here as elsewhere of what it is desirable for them to know : 

 and they cannot learn much harm. But I suppose no parents, even 

 Catholic ones, think of leaving their children under the influence of a 

 society like this, after an age at which they become susceptible of a 

 permanent influence at all. The principal ordinary school for females 

 is situated in the rue Royale. It has extensive gardens, a private 

 chapel, &c. and may be considered as a respectable establishment of its 

 kind. There are also three other French pensionnats for females. 



Finally, St. Omer has to boast of several charitable institutions, all of 

 which rank here under the general name of hospitals. There is the 

 Hopital General, for the reception of orphans, and children of the lowest 

 classes ; the Hdpital de St. Louis, for the treatment of the sick poor ; 

 and the Hopital St. Jean, and Hopital St. Anne each a species of alms- 

 house ; and the Military Hospital. With the exception of the latter, 

 all these establishments are served by the sisters of various religious 

 orders. 



