128 MEMOIRS OF 



the Council of State, we find M. Cuvier appointed President 

 of the Comite de 1'Interieur,* and from this time his legis- 

 lative duties were so mingled with those belonging to the 

 University, that it becomes difficult, and, in fact, almost im- 

 possible, to speak of them separately. Called to these im- 

 portant charges when all required to be revived and re-organ- 

 ized, it is scarcely possible for us to conceive the difficulties 

 that were presented to him : but with what vigour and ta- 

 lent did he put all into action ! Public Instruction being 

 attached to the Presidency, he was obliged to draw out the 

 plans for study ; to regulate the discipline of the schools; to 

 decide according to the actual necessities of a new order of 

 society ; and, nevertheless, only to obey these necessities so 

 long as they did not interfere with those principles of public 

 or domestic order, without which there is no repose, either in 

 a family or a state : in short to give the rising generation 

 the knowledge and habits most calculated to preserve the 

 great ties of society, and to select those who were most 

 worthy of disseminating such knowledge into every part of 

 the kingdom. How vast then must have been that capacity 

 which besides these duties, embraced every branch of science 

 and literature ! I dare not dispute that others may have 

 been equally gifted by a beneficent Creator, but I dare affirm, 

 that the one ruling principle of order was the human agen- 

 cy by which M. Cuvier brought his heaven-born faculties 

 into full force. 



M. Cuvier greatly occupied himself with municipal and 

 provincial laws, and those relating to public instruction ; 

 every branch of which was the object of his. exertions. His 

 projects were often too much modified before they were exe- 

 cuted, for the Jesuits, as a matter of course, were his formi- 

 dable enemies. Not contented with issuing ordonnances 

 from the Department of the Interior, he composed a great 

 many Memoirs to accompany them, which exposed their 



* A committee belonging to the Council of State, especially appointed 

 to advise with the Minister of the Interior on all administrative questions, 

 to draw up the ordonnances issued from that body, and to prepare the 

 plans of various laws. This committee examines all the disputes which 

 arise between individuals and the administration, authorizes the grants of 

 mines, the construction of bridges and roads, superintends the statutes of 

 different societies, and judges if it be advisable to accept legacies or dona- 

 tions to public establishments, the clergy, &c. 



