MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
Noa. 87. 
JUNE 1, 
1802. [ No.5, of Von. 13- 
—_——. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
LETTERS written during an EXCURSION 
through FRANCE to GENEVA. 
(Continued from page 313 of No. 86.) 
LETTER) Veo) 
Paris, Dec. 95 1801. 
OU know that the French Republic 
has laid a foundation of valt extent 
for public education: time only can de- 
termine whether the fuperftructure will be 
worthy of it: the labourers at prefent em- 
ployed are moft of them faid to be men of. 
great ability and perfeverance. Many 
public fchools are eftablifhed, in feveral 
of which lectures are gratuitoufly deli- 
vered. B, attended one of thefe gra- 
tuitous courfes on chemiftry. To give 
you a minute account of the nature and 
management of thefe public f{chools would 
be fuperfluous, as you have probably pub- 
lications in England to which you can 
refer for it; but we muft not entirely omit 
the notice of them: they are to be claffed 
under the following heads:—I. Central 
Schools—II. Polytechnic Schools—III. 
Schools forthe Public Service—IV. Schools 
of Medicine. 
The Central Schools are fcattered in the 
different departments (Paris not having 
above three or four of them), and may be 
confidered as the firft nurfery, from which 
the young plants are to be removed into 
the Polytechnic School, and thence, at a 
proper feafon, into the various foils which 
are moft likely to fuit them. The Cen- 
tral Schools, which are furnifhed with 
Profeffors, doubtlefs of various merits and 
acquirements, are many of them fupplied 
with good libraries, mathematical inftru- 
ments, and philofophical apparatus. The 
dead languages are faid to be more induf- 
trioufly cultivated now than they were 
fome time ago. 
The Polytechnic School embraces, as its 
name implies, a very comprehentive fyftem 
of education, and indeed ftands in fo high 
and well-merited eftimation, that no one 
can be admitted as a pupil in any of the 
*< Schools for the Public Service,”? until 
he has previoufly paffed, with credit, an 
examination at the Polytechnic School, 
which I conceive is, in many refpects, not 
unlike the Royal Inftitution, recently 
efiahlithed in London under the aufpices 
Montuiy Mas. No. 37. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
of Count Rumford: both thefe inftitutions 
have, for their principal objeSts the cul- 
tivation of {cience in general, and a dif- 
fufion of the knowledge of the more ufeful 
arts. Le€tures on various fubjeéts are de- 
livered in the halls of both; each has its 
laboratories, its mechanical inftruments, 
and its colleCtion of models. The Royal 
Inftitute was, however, originally founded 
by private munificence, and is now fup- 
ported by private contributions: it has no 
{chool attached to it, the pupils of which, 
previoufly to their adimiffion, muft have 
given proofs of their talents. The Poly- 
technic School is a national eftablifhment, 
fupported by the National Treafury, for 
purpofes of national utility ; the courfe of 
ftudy occupies three years; pupils in their 
firft year attend Lectures on Geometry, 
Chemiftry, and Phyfics—in their fecond, 
on the Conftruétion of Bridges and Roads, 
on Architecture and Decoration, on Me- 
chanics, and on Chemiftry—in their third, 
on Fortification, Mechanics, Chemiftry, 
the Art of Drawing and Mathematics. 
The “ Polytechnic Journal,” in which an 
account is given of the general ftate of the 
inftitution, the progrefs of the pupils, 
&c. &c. continues, I believe, to be pub- 
lifhed monthly. 
Schools for the Public Service.—Thefe 
arenumerous: the moft important of them 
are the Navigation School—The School 
for Naval Architesture—The Marine 
School—-The School for Military Engi- - 
neers—The Geographic School—The 
School for Bridges and Roads—The Ar. 
tillery School—and the School of Mines. 
This laft has a cabinet of minerals (firuated 
in the Hotel des Monnaies) arranged with 
exquifite elegance and tafte: my Manual 
fays, that it was begun in the year 17738, 
by the colleétion which M, Le Sage had 
been eighteen years in forming. The room 
in which it is depofited is large, lofty, 
and in every refpect worthy of the purpofe 
to which it is applied: the fpecimens are 
exhibited in glafs-cafes, which form, in 
the centre of the room, a fpacious amphi- 
theatre, where pupils attend Lectures on 
Mineralogy, Chemiftry, &c. When we 
entered this room, a number of perfons 
were familiarly converfing with the Lec- 
turer, who feemed as if he had juit con- 
cluded the labours of the day; he wag 
ye fitting 
