best and in
the most convenient order. Don't trouble yourself about the waiters
or the kitchen; a grand central society, an intelligent and beneficent
agency, presiding at Paris takes charge of this and relieves you of it.
Pass your plate, and eat; that is all you need care about. Besides, the
charge is very small."[6315]

In effect, here as elsewhere, Napoleon has introduced his rigid
economical habits, exact accounts and timely or disguised
tax-levies.[6316] A few additional centimes among a good many others
inserted by his own order in the local budget, a few imperceptible
millions among several hundreds of other millions in the enormous sum of
the central budget, constitute the resources which defray the expenses
of public education. Not only does the quota of each taxpayer for this
purpose remain insignificant, but it disappears in the sum total of
which it is only an item that he does not notice.--The parents, for the
instruction of a child, do not pay out of their pockets directly, with
the consciousness of a distinct service rendered them and which they
indemnify,[6317] but 12, 10, 3, or even 2 francs a year; again,
through the increasing extension of gratis instruction, a fifth, then a
third,[6318] and later one half of them are exempt from this charge.

For secondary instruction, at the college or the lycee, they take out
of their purses annually only 40 or 50 francs; and, if their son is a
boarder, these few francs mingle in with others forming the total sum
paid for him during the year, about 700 francs,[6319] which is a small
sum for defraying the expenses, not only of instruction, but, again, for
the support of the lad in lodging, food, washing, light, fire and the
rest. The parents, at this rate, feel that they are not making a bad
bargain; they are not undergoing extortion, the State not acting like a
rapacious contractor. And better yet, it is often a paternal creditor,
distributing, as it does, three or four thousand scholarships. If their
son obtains one of these, their annual debt is remitted to them and the
entire university provision of instruction and support is given to
them gratis. In the Faculties, the payment of fees for entrance,
examinations, grades and diplomas is not surprising, for the
certificates or parchments they receive in exchange for their money are,
for the young man, so many positive acquisitions which smooth the way to
a career and serve as valuable stock which confers upon hi