324 



WA^TJ^RE 



[AuGu^t 6, 1903 



,adopt scientific methods. Naiturally evefy student could 

 not be turned into a man of science, but every one had 

 ;3 right to know the scientific truths on which his, pro- 

 fessional education was based, while, the small ^lite of 

 really talented students should have the opportunity of 

 engaging in scientific investigation. In the case ot 

 ihese exceptional students the method of Working in 

 •common with their masters had hitherto been largely 

 neglected. Yet its importance in working out a dis- 

 •covery to its fullest extent is not only beneficial to all 

 parties, but often of the highest importance to the 

 country at large. Another objection urged by the 

 K^pponents of reform was that a university by defini- 

 I tion implies the concentration of subjects, whereas 

 imodern science on the contrary is fissiparous by nature, 

 ever splitting up into new branches and specialities. To 

 .this it was easily answered that one of the chief dan- 

 ;gers of the day was excessive specialisation, and that 

 .the university is therefore the best antidgte, as its chief 

 .function is to coordinate knowledge and make it a 

 .general object of culture. Warned by the excessive 

 .specialism that is rampant in German universities, the 

 French have taken for their motto, " Specialisation 

 isubordinated to a general culture." 



In 1883 Jules Ferry brought the question within the 

 rsphere of practical politics by a circular addressed to 

 the faculties ; after speaking of the efforts he had made 

 to develop in higher education the sentiment of re- 

 sponsibility and the habit of self-government, he went 

 on to say : — 



" We shall have obtained a great result if we are able 

 to constitute one day universities uniting within them- 

 selves the most varied kinds of teaching,, in order 

 mutually to assist one another, managing their own 

 .afifairs, convinced of their duties and of their merits, 

 inspiring themselves with ideas suitable to each part 

 of France with such variety as the unity of the country 

 allows, rivals of adjoining universities, associating in 

 these rivalries the interest of their own prosperity with 

 the desire of the big towns to excel their neighbours 

 and to acquire particular merit and distinction." 



In conclusion he invited the faculties to give their 

 opinions on his suggestion. These were, in the main, 

 favourable. It was left, however, to his successor, M. 

 Ren6 Goblet, to take the first official steps. It was 

 evident to all that the new universities could not be con- 

 stituted after some ideal plan, but would naturally have 

 to be built up out of the existing faculties. To group 

 the latter in collective wholes, effacing all distinction 

 I between them, would have proved too drastic a 

 measure. The best way of building up a university 

 was to begin by strengthening and not by weakening 

 the faculties. This was done by restoring to them the 

 " personality civile " which had lapsed, and recognising 

 their capability to receive and hold property. At: the 

 same time another decree, without giving them the 

 absolute right to frame a budget, allowed them the 

 right to expend all subventions, to which no conditions 

 had been attached by the parties making them, whether 

 departments, communes, or private individuals, on 

 the creation of new courses of instruction, on labora- 

 tories and libraries, and on scholarships. To regulate 

 this expenditure a council was created called the 

 '' Conseil general des Facultes." This council, estab- 

 lished for purely financial reasons, was destined 

 to become the real nucleus in the development 

 of the universities. As M. Liard has well 

 said, " the decree of 28th December, 1885, was 

 truly the provisional charter of the universities be- 

 fore the universities." Linking together the faculties 

 of a single town, the Council not only dealt with the! 

 . functions for which it was first created ; it was soon; 

 allowed, under certain conditions, to draw up the pro-i 

 (^grammes of courses and lectures, to exercise certain 



NO. 1762, VOL. 68] 



disciplinary powers, to make financial proposals to the 

 Minister, and to engage in a multiplicity of tasks which 

 fall to the lot of an ordinary university to perform. In 

 1889 the separate faculties received the right to friame 

 budgets of their own. At the same time those grants 

 were directly paid to them which the Ministry pre- 

 viously had itself expended on buildings and equip- 

 ment. So far the Government had only proceeded by 

 way of decrees, a method which is not unknown in 

 England, and corresponds roughly to an order in 

 council, but in 1890 the moment seemed to have come 

 for legal enactment, and M. Leon Bourgeois, the then 

 Minister of Public Instruction, brought forward a Bill 

 to settle the whole subject once for all. 



Nothing gives a better idea of the enormous sacrifices 

 made by the Republic for the sake of higher education 

 than the preamble of the Bill, which ran as follows : — 

 ". The Republic has understood that university educa- 

 tion is in the highest degree necessary ; that if primary 

 education is, according to the phrase of one of our pre- 

 decessors, the canalisation by which knowledge is dis- 

 tributed to the very lowest strata of democracy, univer- 

 sity .education is the source where it collects and whence 

 it f^ows. It has understood that a particular dignity 

 and utility are attached to this grade of education, that 

 in it especially are formed and trained the men who are 

 capable of conceiving general ideas, by the power and 

 novelty of which the real influence of nations is 

 measured to-day. Therefore it has liberally given to 

 it the necessary millions which had been persistently 

 refused by former administrations. 



" In the last 15 years it has renewed the buildings 

 of the faculties. 



" It has supplied almost entirely their equipment, 

 their laboratories, their libraries. 



"It has enlarged and increased the scope and range 

 of their teaching. 



"It has more than doubled their budget. 

 " It has improved the position of the ' personnel ' and 

 endowed their teaching with the requisite resources. 



" It has created two categories of student, formerly 

 unknown in France, students in science and in letters. 

 " It has introduced more science into those courses 

 in which the preoccupations of professional studies pre- 

 dominated, and it has imposed a professional task on 

 those orders of faculties which were without it. 



" It has restored to the faculties the ' personality 

 civile,' a right which a suspicious rigime had denied 

 they possessed. 



" It has rendered relationship possible between them 

 by giving them a common function to fulfil. 



"It has given full liberty to science and theory. 

 "It has favoured the coming together of students as 

 well as that of teachers. 



" In conclusion it has seen the number of its students 

 rise from 9000 to more than 16,000, foreigners return- 

 ing to its schools, and frequenting them in greater 

 numbers than in any other country in Europe. "_ 



The Bill itself proposed to create universities in the 

 fullest sense of the word out of the existing groups of 

 faculties in the seven largest towns. Unfortunately 

 local influences proved too strong ; the other ten towns 

 possessing two or more faculties demanded equality of 

 treatment. The former adversaries of the project joined 

 forces with them, and in the end the Government was 

 obliged to withdraw the Bill. 



Beaten on the question of establishing local uni- 

 versities of the fully equipped type, the reformers took 

 once more the line of least resistance, and in 1893 an 

 Act was passed investing with the " personality civile " 

 the groups of faculties formed by the union of several 

 faculties, and represented by the Conseil G^n^ral. This 

 was followed in 1896 by an Act introduced by M. 

 •Poincare, which converted these groups of faculties Into 



