书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
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第1141章

[62] "Ambroise Rendu et 1'Université de France," by E. Rendu (1861), pp. 25 and 26. (Letter of the Emperor, Floréal 3, year XIII, and report by Fourcroy.)[63] "Recueil," etc., by de Beauchamp, I., 151. (Report to the Corps Législatif by Fourcroy, May 6, 1806.)[64] "Procès-verbaux et papiers" (manuscripts) of the superior council of the University, session of March 12, 1811, note by the Emperor communicated by the Grand-Master: "The Grand-Master will direct that in all boarding-schools and institutions which may come into existence, the pupils shall wear a uniform, and that everything shall go on as in the lycées according to military discipline." In the decree in conformity with this, of Nov. 15, 1811, the word military was omitted, probably because it seemed too crude; but it shows the thought behind it, the veritable desire of Napoleon. - Quicherat,"Histoire de Sainte-Barbe," III., 126. The decree was enforced "even in the smallest boarding-schools."[65] Testimony of Alfred de Vigny in "Grandeur et Servitude militaires." Same impression of Alfred de Musset in his "Confession d'un enfant du siècle."[66] Quicherat, ibid., p.126.

[67] "The Modern Régime," I. (Laff. I. p. 550.)[68] Hermann Niemeyer, ibid., I., 153.

[69] "Travels in France," etc., II.,123. (Testimony of a French gentleman.) "The rapid destruction of population in France caused constant promotions, and the army became the career which offered the most chances. It was a profession for which no education was necessary and to which all had access. There, Bonaparte never allowed merit to go unrecognized."[70] Véron, " Mémoires d'un bourgeois de Paris, " I., 127 (year 1806).

[71] Guizot, ibid., pp.59 and 61. - Fabry, "Mémoires pour servir àl'histoire de l'instruction publique," III., 102. (On the families of these favorites and on the means made use of to obtain these scholarships.) - Jourdain, "le Budget de l'instruction publique (1857), p. 144. - In 1809, in the 36 1ycées, there are 9,068 pupils, boarding and day scholars, of whom 4,199 are boursiers. In 1811, there are 10,926 pupils, of whom 4,008 are boursiers. In 1813, there are 14,992 pupils, of whom 3,500 are boursiers. At the same epoch, in private establishments, there are 30,000 pupils.

[72] Fabry, ibid., II.,391 (1819). (On the peopling of the lycées and colleges.) "The first nucleus of the boarders was furnished by the Prytanée. . . . Tradition has steadily transmitted this spirit to all the pupils that succeeded each other for the first twelve years." -Ibid., III., 112 "The institution of lycees tends to creating a race inimical to repose, eager and ambitious, foreign to the domestic affections and of a military and adventurous spirit."[73] Quicherat, ibid., III., 126.

[74] Hermann Niemeyer, ibid., II.,350.

[75] Fabry, ibid., III., 109-112.

[76] Ambroise Rendu, "Essai sur l'instruction publique," (1819), I., 221. (Letter of Napoleon to M. de Fontanes, March 24, 1808.)[77] "Mémorial," June 17, 1816.

[78] Pelet de la Lozère, ibid., 154, 157, 159.

[79] "Mémorial," June 17, 1816. "This conception of the University by Napoleon must be taken with another, of more vast proportions, which he sets forth in the same conversation and which clearly shows his complete plan. He desired "the military classing of the nation," that is to say five successive conscriptions, one above the other. The first, that of children and boys by means of the University; the second, that of ordinary conscripts yearly and effected by the drawing by lot; the third, fourth and fifth provided by three standards of national guard, the first one comprising young unmarried men and held to frontier service, the second comprising men of middle age, married and to serve only in the department, and the third comprising aged men to be employed only in the defense of towns - in all, through these three classes, two millions of classified men, enrolled and armed, each with his post assigned him in case of invasion. "In 1810 or 1811up to fifteen or twenty drafts of this" proposal "was read to the council of State. The Emperor, who laid great stress on it, frequently came back to it." We see the place of the University in his edifice:

from ten to sixty years, his universal conscription was to take, first, children, then adults, and, with healthy persons, the semi-invalids, as, for instance, Cambacérès, the arch-chancellor, gross, impotent, and, of all men, the least military. "There is Cambacérès,"says Napoleon, "who must be ready to shoulder his gun if danger makes it necessary. . . . Then you will have a nation sticking together like lime and sand, able to defy time and man." There is constant repugnance to this by the whole Council of State, "marked disfavor, mute and inert opposition. . . . Each member trembled at seeing himself classed, transported abroad," and, under pretext of internal defense, used for foreign wars. "The Emperor, absorbed with other projects, saw this plan vanish."