MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. . 
‘at least twenty thousand masters of 
primary schools, not to speak of 
Men of business, merchants, and 
artists, who ought to receive a 
liberal education. Of these a great 
‘part must necessarily belong to poor 
families, for the son of a rich man 
will not employ his time for such 
‘moderate salaries. It therefore 
‘becomes necessery that the colleges 
‘be encouraged by the government, 
and the three hundred and twenty 
colleges, formerly existingin France, 
were ill supplanted by one hundred 
‘and four ‘central schools, one for 
each department. These schools 
were also objectionable, as each was 
to contain nine masters and a libra- 
rian; a number often ridiculously 
disproportioned to the little villages, 
which have become the chief places 
of the departments. 
bampagne proposes that the 
-eentral schools, or universities, 
: should be restricted to the twenty- 
nine cities where there are tribunals 
_ of appeal ; and that there be founded 
-one hundred and fifty small colleges, 
each with five professors, in towns 
of the second “order. This idea 
‘seems to have been in part adopted 
' by the government, the secondary 
schools, or colleges, having been re- 
“established ; while the lycées supply 
the place of the central schools or 
‘universities. 
He afterwards proceeds to consider 
the plan of education, supposing 
‘that the boys leave the primary 
schools at the age of ten years, and 
remain at the secondary till the age 
of thifteen or fourteen. He proposes, 
as already mentioned, that there 
should be five professors in each 
secondary school, two for grammar, 
-onefor elements of history and thearts 
_ of composition; one for arithmetic 
and sinmple geometry, one for draw- 
1007 
ing. The professors of grammar 
are chiefly for instruction in the 
French language, interspersed with 
elements of Latin and of geography. 
Herightly recommends that grammar 
be taught from the native tongue; 
and regards it as absurd to place 
abruptly the rudiments of Latin in 
the hands of children, to whom the 
words adverb, pronoun, verb, mood, 
number and case, are as unintelligible 
as the Latin itself, and the child is 
taught the unknewa by the unknown; 
a great cause that so many educations 
totally fail: nay, perhaps, the more 
understanding a child has, the more 
he appears a dunce, because dulness 
may learn by perseverance, where 
intelligence is totally confounded by 
seeing the palpable darkness. This 
observation may explain why so 
many men of distinguished talents 
have appeared dunces in common 
schools. 
After some observations upon the 
hours of labour employed by each 
professor, he recommends that a 
person skilled in natural history 
should accompany the boys in their 
walks, to give them some rudiments 
of botany and mineralogy, which 
might be useful to them on many 
occasions. His remarks on the 
central schools are also just and 
practical, but do not fall into my 
present design. ‘The professorship 
of legislation is a truly singular title 
for a teacher of the laws of nations, 
and of the French laws. The 
academy of legislation existing at 
Paris, is liable to the same objection, 
and should be styled the academy 
of jurisprudence. There ought, as 
he observes, to’be four ‘professors, © 
of natural Jaws, of ancient laws, of 
civil and French law: and he adds 
that there might even be a professor 
of the forms of procedure, which 
might 
