1797°] 
(i, 385 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF 
| FRANCE. 
THE National Inftitute holds, every 
three months, a public fitting: that 
of the fumarer quarter was held on the 
r5th Meffidor (July 3)*. 
Joacuim LEBRKTON, fecretary tothe 
clafs of moral and political {ciences, read a 
fummary of the eat that clafs 
for the laft three. months. ONGES, as 
fecretary to the clafs of literature and the 
fine arts, and Prony and-LACEIVEDE, 
fecretaries to that of the fciences of phy- 
fics dnd mathematics, alfo entered into a 
detail of the proceedings of their re{pec- 
tive claffes. \ 
In this fitting, the National Inftitute 
was to have exercifed the finett of its 
privileges, that of crowning ufeful ta- 
Ients. RapERER, however, in the 
name of the clafs of moral and political 
fciences, announced that no one of the 
memoirs which had been received had 
been judged worthy of the prize. The 
f{ubjeét for competition was the queftion : 
For what ocbjeéis, and on what conditions 
does it belong to a republican fiate to make 
public loans ? The memoir having the fol-° 
lowing motto: Tanium ne feries jundturaque 
pollet, was the only one which feemed to 
deferve an honourable mention. 
The competitors had, in general, paid 
too much attention to the confideration 
of the expediency of borrowing. The 
queftion is again open to competition ; 
and the prize is to be awarded on the 
25th of the enfuing Methdor (July 3, 
1798). The memoirs are to be fent in 
before the 15th Germinal (April 4, 
* 1798). The-reporter ftated feveral par- 
ticular points which the clafs was defirous 
Should be treated ; among them was the 
following :—TJo determine the circumflances 
in which a public loan foal! not be followed 
by an augmentation of falaries, ; 
~ In opening the fitting, the prefident, 
PasTORET, announced four new fub- 
jects for prizes, two of them propofed 
by the clafs of moral and political {ciences, 
and the other two by that of literacure 
and the fine arts. 
CLASS OF MORAL AND POLITICAL 
SCIENCES. 
Subject for the firft prize. 
What are the means the beft calculated to 
lay the foundation of the morals of a na- 
tion 2 

* The Proceedings of all the former Sittings 
have been exclujfvely detailed in the Monthly 
Magazine. 
’ French, 
The memoirs are to be, written ir 
French, and fent in before the asth 
Germinal, of the fixth year. 
Subject for the fecond prize. 
Refearches and obfervations rélative te 
the progre/s of the public mind in France, 
from the time of Francis I, to the convoca= 
tion of the States-General, in 1789. 
The memoirs are to be written in 
French, and fent in before the r5th 
Nivofe, of the feventh year. 
CLASS OF LITERATURE: AND THE 
FINE ARTS. 
Subject for the firft prize. 
What bave been the caufes of the perfec- 
tion of ancient fculpture, and what are the 
means.of attaining that perfection ? 
The memoirs are to be'written in 
Prench, and fent in before the firft Ger 
minal, of the fame year. 
Subject for the fecond prize.” 
Refearches into the means of giving, ix 
France, a new impulfe to the fludy of the 
Greek and Latin languages. 
The memoirs are to be written in 
and fent in before the firft 
Vendemiaire of the fame year. 
The prizes in every cale to be a gold 
medal, of the weight of five bedfograms. 
General condiitons to be fulfilled by thofe whe- 
Shall contend for the prizes, to what- 
ever fulyedi the competition may refer. 
Perlons of every country, the mem= 
bers and affociates of the inftitute except 
ed, are admitted to the competition. 
No name is'to be annexed to-the ma. 
nu(cript, but merely a fentence or de- 
vice. A feparate paper, fealed, and 
containing, befides the fentence or de- 
vice, the name and addrefs of the com- 
petitor, may, if it fhould be thought ne- 
ceffary, be fent with it. This paper 
will not be opened by the inftitute, -un- 
lefs the memoir to which it. refers 
fhould have obtained the prize. 
The works deftined for competition 
may be fent to the inftitute under a co- 
ver, direéted to the minitter for the home 
department. They may alfo be addreff- 
ed, poft-paid, to one of the fecretaries 
of @he clafs by which the prize has been 
offered, or may be delivered into his 
hands. -In the latter cafe, the fecretary 
will give a receipt, and will mark the 
fen'ence or device of the work, and ‘its. 
number, according to the order of time 
in which it fhall have been received. 
The Commiifion of the Funds of 
the 


