bears no appearance at present of a monastic or ecclesiastical character. We were conducted to the apartment of the proviseur, M. Pierrot, who readily allowed us to make a tour of the establishment. The proviseurs of these colleges, as I believe has been before mentioned, correspond to our Heads of Houses, with the exception of having no spiritual functions, and, indeed, being in all cases at Paris laymen, one college only excepted, that of Stanislas, where the head, M. l'Abbé Gratry, takes the name of directeur; and there is no aumônier or chaplain in that college, where four other ecclesiastics are associated with the directeur.

It may be here mentioned, that the day after the grand concours at the University, each of the seven great Colleges at Paris had their own special distribution of prizes, accompanied with addresses, &c., from the Municipal and University Authorities. The principles upon which the prizes were awarded were very similar to those adopted by the University; and it may be observed here, as an element of contrast between the other Colleges and that of Stanislas, that it alone in the distribution of its prizes took any notice of proficiency in religious knowledge: in its programme of honours Étude de la Religion occupies the first place.

The subjects, generally speaking, which are proposed for examination and reward are almost as special and numerous in all the Colleges as in the minor

school before described of M. Mourice; from philosophy, rhetoric, Greek, and Latin, down to chemistry and the English and German languages. This speciality, if I may so call it, of study and distinction, has evidently a tendency to distract the mind of the student, and to produce bad moral results. A young man is rewarded simply because he may have acquitted himself well in one of the numerous branches of study, and one only. He is thus tempted to forget the universal harmony and connexion subsisting among the various objects of intellectual pursuit, and is induced to substitute in his own mind as his intellectual plenum, some one technical and material science, as chemistry or botany, in lieu of the prima philosophia of human and divine wisdom, which unites, animates, and elevates all sciences, and makes them profitable and ennobling subjects for human study, and fit instruments for human education".

This practice of giving the highest distinctions, that the University and its Colleges have to bestow, to special excellence in individual branches of study, having this direct tendency to lead the young student to put science, or even single departments of it, into the place which ought to be occupied by wisdom and virtue alone, his mind, instead of being a monarchy presided over by conscience regulated by

7 See note to p. 70, at end.

divine law, is in danger of becoming a democracy, in which various plebeian powers struggle for the mastery.

But this speciality of rewards is a large subject; and it is time for us to return to the College of Louis le Grand. This, as has been already mentioned, is one of the largest colleges of Paris. It gives instruction to 1094 students, of which 432 only are lodged within the walls (called pensionnaires libres); 122 are externes libres, i. e. day scholars; 471 are élèves des institutions et pensions, i. e. are lodged, &c., in boarding-houses, but suivent les cours du college; 27 are boursiers royaux; 37 boursiers communaux (i. e. the charge of their education is defrayed by the crown or commune); 5 are demi-pensionnaires libres.

To say a few words of the numbers, &c., of the other colleges of Paris. That of Henri IV. has 788 students distributed pretty much in the same proportions as Louis le Grand; St. Louis has 958, also on the same system; Charlemagne (the college which has been recently the most distinguished for the literary success of its scholars) has 827, none of whom board or lodge within the walls. It has no aumônier or chaplain. Bourbon has 1120 students, and is precisely on the same footing as Charlemagne, i. e. all the students are day scholars, and for the most part they reside in some boarding-house (pension) in the city. The two following colleges, on the contrary,

receive only internes as they are called (i. e. boarders), the colleges Stanislas and Rollin, the former having 290, the latter 390 students.

Those students who are lodged in pensions in the town are conducted by a professeur twice a day to the college to which they belong, and return under his charge; and the director of the pension takes care that they are prepared for the lessons which they have to say at the college, and thus discharges the duty—which is called répétition—which is performed by a private tutor in our large schools and universities. Every pension is attached to some one particular college, the classes of which are attended by all the members of the pension above ten years of agé.

The College of Louis le Grand consists of three quadrangles, assigned respectively to le petit collége, le moyen college, and le grand collége. These divisions contain the students ranged according to their age and proficiency; and there is no communication, except on stated occasions, between these different divisions. The restraint to which all the internes are subject is very rigorous; they are not allowed to go out of the precincts of the college more than twice a week, i. e. Sundays and Thursdays; their amusements, therefore, ordinarily are confined to these quadrangles, which have a very dull and monotonous appearance.

Their games are playing at ball and gymnastic ex

ercises, at which, to judge by the poles, like lofty masts of a ship, which they climb, and the long cylindrical bars along which they run at full speed, at a distance of ten or twelve feet from the ground, they are very active and adroit proficients. And not merely are they thus confined in space, but they are never left to themselves without the presence and superintendence of either a professor when they are en classe, or a maître d'étude (a very ill-paid and subordinate functionary) when they are preparing their lessons: their recreations also are under similar controul, which does not cease at night; for at each end of their bed-rooms, which are long and spacious, is a bed for a professor, and the room-door has an aperture through which a sergeant on guard during the night is bound to look every hour, and to see that all is quiet and orderly in the apartment, which is lighted by a lamp. The neatness and airiness of the rooms, especially of the infirmary, was very remarkable; and the same may be said, I think, of the kitchen and the refectories.

The refectories are furnished with tables, each table affording room for ten youths. During the repast one of the students reads to the rest some book of history, &c., from a raised rostrum, for which labour he is rewarded with a better meal than the rest after they have been served. The carte du jour for a fortnight, which is hung up in the kitchen, did not exhibit a very various or copious supply of viands.

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