3. In 1805 a curious change was made, and one very characteristic of the school. The pupils have always been somewhat turbulent, and generally on the side of opposition. In the earliest times they were constantly charged with _incivisme_, and the aristocracy was said to have “taken refuge within its walls.” In fact, one of its earliest and of its few great _literary_ pupils, M. de Barante, confirmed this statement, adding, as a reason, that the school gave for a while the only good instruction in France. It was in consequence of some of these changes that the pupils who had hitherto lived in their own private houses or lodgings in Paris, were collected in the school building. This “_casernement_” said to be immediately owing to a burst of anger of Napoleon, naturally tended to give the school a more military character; but it was regarded as an unfortunate change by its chief scientific friends. “_Ah! ma pauvre école!_” M. Biot told us he had exclaimed, when he saw their knapsacks on their beds. He felt, he said, that the enthusiasm of free study was gone, and that now they would chiefly work by routine and compulsion. 4. The year 1809 may be called the epoch at which the school attained its final character. By this time the functions, both of boards and teachers, were accurately fixed, some alterations in the studies had taken place, and the plan of a final examination had been drawn up, according to which the pupils were to obtain their choice of the branch of the public service they preferred. In fact, the school may be said to have preserved ever since the form it then assumed, under a variety of governments and through various revolutions, in most of which, indeed, its pupils have borne some share; and one of which, the restoration of 1816, was attended with its temporary dissolution.