THE LATEST REFORM IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. 37/ 



They did this with an honesty of purpose, a generosity of intent, 

 a perseverance, and a wise discretion, which are above all praise. 

 They engaged in the arduous task of regenerating these bodies by 

 the infusion of entirely new and healthy blood ; they endeavoured 

 to accustom them to self-management, they encouraged them to 

 union and cooperation, and finally resigned a considerable pro- 

 tion of their own absolute authority for the sake of these newly 

 associated institutions. Prepared for these changes by a series 

 of eloquent writings, such as Kenan's " Questions Contem- 

 poraines " and Lavisse's " Questions d'Enseignement National," 

 and " Etudes et Etudiants," public opinion readily joined the 

 chorus of applause. In due time Parliament voted the required 

 grants and credits, and at the present day the countrv has been 

 gathering for some time the firstlings of these high-minded 

 endeavours, and of all this disinterested exertion. 



At Paris the field of operation had been wisely limited from 

 the very beginning. By general consensus of opinion, it was 

 esteemed, that there could be no question of incorporating the 

 ColUge de France, the Ecole normale supdrieure, the Ecole poly- 

 technique, the Museum and the Ecole des hautes Etudes, in the 

 scheme under consideration. These time-honoured and world- 

 famous institutions ought to be left untouched and taken into 

 account only, whenever the question arose of increasing and 

 expanding their resources and privileges. Thus it was stipulated 

 that only the Ecoles or facult^s of Protestant theology, of law, oi 

 medicine, of pharmacy, of science and of letters were to be asso- 

 ciated and to henceforward constitute the " Corps universitaire." 



The first steps and measures the Republican State was pre- 

 vailed upon to take in its touching anxiety for higher education 

 and scientific culture, were of a purely financial character. And 

 indeed there was proper urgency for its following such policy. The 

 preceding Governments, however prosperous and brilliant they 

 were, had done absolutely nothing, not even in Paris itself, in the 

 way of endowing France with an appropriate scientific equipment 

 of buildings, laboratories and instruments. Almost everywhere 

 the buildings were wretchedly bad ; nowhere could they be said 

 to be even barely sufficient, says Liard in his " L'Enseignement 

 sup^rieur en France." 



"My contemporaries [he continues] will never forget the cheer- 

 less, stuffy garret rooms of the old Sorbonne, the fetid and dele- 

 terious hotbeds of seosis and infection of the dismal old Ecole de 

 medicine ; the sweating, mildewed and leprous walls of the old 

 Ecole de pharmacie. The sum total of annual subsidies to all the 

 laboratories of the science-faculte did not amount to fr. 10,000 [i.e., 

 not yet ^^420.] In all the departments, the professors and lecturers 

 were sadly underpaid. All the establishments and installations 

 looked hideous, unkempt, smutty^ and_ penurious, in comparison with 

 those of most of the foreign universities." 



However, in spite of the formidable burden, with which the 

 debacle of 1871 had saddled France, the Republican Government 

 did not hesitate a minute to follow the policy of the late^ Prussian 

 kingdom, which, although poor and uncommonly parsimonious, 

 had never been found stingy as far as military and scientific 

 expenses were concerned. It liberally rebuilt the Sorbonne and 



