France -- Civilization; France -- Politics and government; France -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
Like public charity, public education again becomes effective; Fourcroy,
after 1806,[31143] lists 29 organized and full lycées; besides these,
370 communal secondary schools and 377 private secondary schools are
open and receive 50,200; there are 25,000 children in the 4500 schools.
Finally, in 1815,[31144] we find in France, restored to its ancient
boundaries, 12 faculties of Law or Medicine with 6,329 students, 36
lycées with 9000 pupils, 368 colleges with 28,000 pupils, 41 small
seminaries with 5233 pupils, 1255 boarding-schools and private
institutions with 39,623 pupils, and 22,348 primary schools with 737,369
scholars; as far as can be gathered, the proportion of men and women
able to read and to sign their name is raised under the empire up to and
beyond the figures[31145] it had reached previous to 1789.
In this manner are the worst damages repaired. The three new
administrative services, with a different set-up, do the job of the old
ones and, at the expiration of twenty-five years, give an almost equal
return.--In sum, the new proprietor of the great structure sacked by
the Revolution has again set up the indispensable apparatus for warming,
lighting and ventilation; as he knows his own interests perfectly,
and is poorly off in ready money, he contributes only a minimum of the
expense; in other respects, he has grouped together his tenants
into syndicates, into barracks, in apartments, and, voluntarily or
involuntarily, he has put upon them the burden of cost. In the meantime,
he has kept the three keys of the three engines in his own cabinet, in
his own hands, for himself alone; henceforth, it is he who distributes
throughout the building, on each story and in every room, light, air and
heat. If he does not distribute the same quantity as before he at least
distributes whatever is necessary; the tenants can, at last, breathe
comfortably, see clearly and not shiver; after ten years of suffocation,
darkness and cold they are too well satisfied to wrangle with the
proprietor, discuss his ways, and dispute over the monopoly by which he
has constituted himself the arbitrator of their wants.--The same thing
is done in the material order of things, in relation to the highways,
dikes, canals, and structures useful to the people: here also he repairs
or creates through the same despotic initiative,
* with the same economy,[31146]
* the same apportionment of expense,[31147]
* the same spontaneous or forced aid to those interested,
* the same practical efficiency.[31148]
Summing it up and if we take things as a whole, and if we offset the
worse with the better, it may be said that the French people have
recovered the possessions they had been missing since 1789:
* internal peace,
* public tranquility,
* administrative regularity,
* impartial justice,
* a strict police,
* security of persons, property and consciences,
* liberty in private life,
* enjoyment of one's native land, and, on leaving it, the privilege of
coming back;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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