ON ECONOMIC TRAINING IN THIS AND OTHER COUNTRIES. 385 



inquiring minds is not, however, afforded to the professors, and they liave 

 to tight against a tendency to fall into prosy sermons and easy repetitions 

 of old theory. No fees are charged to the students, nor is any record kept 

 of their names unless they wish to obtain certificates. The lectures are 

 delivered twice a week (two on Economics by M. Leroy-Beaulieu, and two 

 on Statistics by M. Levasseur), in the afternoons. The auditors are for 

 the most part a casual collection of shifting persons, of whom many are 

 foreigners passing through Paris, who attend once or twice out of curiosity 

 to see the lecturer. There is no discussion either during or after the 

 lectures. The professors are paid a fixed stipend by the State. They 

 appear to regard their lectures in the main as vehicles for the dissemina- 

 tion of generally received economic theory. So far, however, as they 

 employ their leisure in prosecuting original research, their stipends may 

 be regarded as an endowment for the advancement of Economics. Their 

 personal examples are stimulating. It would be difficult to mention two 

 more active economists in Europe. But in their lectures they are perhaps 

 too dogmatic to supply students with the zest of grappling with ' unsettled 

 questions,' or with the incentive to enlarge, however little, the bounds of 

 knowledge by pointing out to their hearers the frontiers of ignorance 

 which are often in sight. 



(ii.) The oldest chair of Political Economy is in the Conservatoire des 

 Arts et Metiers, and was first filled, in 1819, by J. B. Say. The instruction 

 now given here is of a more popular character, consisting of lectures 

 addressed to the working classes at a late hour of the evening. M. Levas- 

 seur delivers a five-year cycle of about fifty lectures a year on Economics, 

 and M. de Foville a four-year cycle on Industry and Statistics. There are 

 on the average from 300 to 400 auditors. They pay no fees. The pro- 

 fessors are appointed and paid by the Government. 



(iii.) By a law passed in 1877 Economics was for the first time officially 

 incorporated into the organisation of higher education in France, by being 

 made an obligatoi-y subject in the second year's studies of the faculties oi 

 law. Economics in France lias, it is said, laboured under the disadvantage 

 of offering no opening for a career. On the other hand, the youth of tlie 

 country flock to the schools of law, for to lawyers all careers are open — 

 politics, journalism, literature, education, legal practice, and many official 

 appointments. The professor of Law is overworked, and the professor of 

 Economics underworked. The faculty of Law, therefore, generally expects 

 of its pi-ofessor of Economics that he shall be able to help in legal instruc- 

 tion and examinations ; and there has been a tendency to select a lawyer 

 rather than an economist for these chairs. This reproach, however, is 

 rapidly being removed, and the new professors of Economics are in many 

 cases vigorous and promising in their proper spheres. Economics has 

 recently been transferred from the second to the first year's programme. 

 The law students are said to show a better intelligence of law now that 

 they also study Economics. It can hardly yet be stated what effect this 

 organisation will produce on Economics itself. 



In addition to this obligatory study. Economics may be taken as one of 

 the eight optional courses at a later period of preparation in the Law 

 faculties. For this purpose there is generally a special course of lectures 

 on Finance, in which financial legislation is a prominent topic ; but the 

 option in favour of Economics is not much exercised. 



The professors and lecturers in Economics and (in italics) in Finance 

 in the official faculties of Law are as follows : — 



1894. cc 



