EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 553 
appear to be kept in very good order. The alterations going 
on may be the cause of this. 
The staff of the school consists of a director, six 
ordinary professors, two extraordinary ones, four repetitors, 
an almoner, an economist, two overseers, and a secretary, 
with the necessary subordinates. The director and pro- 
fessors are nominated, and their appointments revoked, by 
the crown. Their salaries are fixed by the Minister of the 
Interior, under whose control the subordinate officers are 
placed. He likewise corresponds immediately with the 
director of the school, who has its entire management, and 
who, in his turn, communicates with the other members of 
the staff. 
Besides the lectures given by the professors, in their re- 
spective departments, they are required to interrogate the 
pupils for at least an hour and a half each week, on the 
subject-matter of the instructions they have given, so as to 
ascertain if they are acquainted with it. The result of 
these inquiries is sent to the director of the school. Every 
month a written composition is exacted from each student on 
some branch of the curriculum determined on by the pro- 
fessors, who inspect the same, and return the theses, with 
their notes attached to them. 
In the absence of a suitable class-book for any department, 
the teacher in that particular division is called upon to furnish 
one for the use of his pupils. The period of instruction 
occupies ten months in the year, there being two vacations, 
one of two months in the summer, and another of a fortnight 
in the winter. 
A preliminary examination is instituted of candidates prior 
to their admission as students, the last fortnight in July, in 
the presence of the director; which is conducted by three 
persons unconnected with the school, these being nominated 
by the Minister of the Interior. It consists of — 
1st. A knowledge of the French language, including 
orthography, grammar, special syntax, grammatical analysis, 
logical analysis, and a composition on a given subject. 
2d. Arithmetic, including the four rules, applied to whole 
xxix. 71 
