That primary schools be established throughout the Republic, and that three progressive stages of education be established embracing all that a man and a citizen should know. That each Department should possess a Central School. That a Normal School at Paris should teach the art of teaching. That special schools be established for the study of the sciences, Oriental languages, the veterinary art, rural economy and antiquities. It appointed a Commission to examine and report upon works relating to the moral and physical education of children and opened a competition for the composing of elementary books. It systematised the teaching of the French language. It ordered an inventory to be taken of collections of works of art. It fulminated against the degradation of public monuments. It founded national rewards for great discoveries. It gave lavish help to artists and savants. It offered a prize for the perfecting of the art of spinning. It ordered the publication of a translation of Bacon's works found among the papers of one of the condemned on the 9th of Thermidor. It decided that scientific voyages should be organised at the expense of the State, and that the Republic be charged with the maintenance of artists sent to Rome. It decreed the adoption, began the discussion, and voted the most important articles of the civil code. It inaugurated the telegraph and the decimal system, established the uniformity of weights and measures, the bureau of longitudes, reformed the calendar, instituted the Grand Livre, increased and completed the Museum of Natural History, opened the Museum of the Louvre, created the Conservatoire of the Arts and Crafts, the Conservatoire of Music, the Polytechnic School and the Institute. The truly great work of education initiated by the Convention can only be appreciated by recalling its previous condition. The old colleges were utterly neglected. In such as survived, little more than Latin (and that inefficiently) and a few scraps of history were taught. The natural sciences were wholly neglected; the children of the noblesse were educated by private tutors, and only in showy accomplishments. Madame Campan relates that the Princess Louise had not even mastered the alphabet at twelve years of age.