cely more than
the plan, a few corner and foundation stones and the permission
or injunction to build; the rest concerns the communes and private
individuals. They must exert themselves, continue and complete it, by
order or spontaneously and under its permanent direction.

VIII. Public Education.

State appropriations very small.--Toleration of educational
institutions.--The interest of the public in them invited.
--The University.--Its monopoly.--Practically, his
restrictions and conditions are effective.--Satisfaction
given to the first group of requirements.

Invariably the government proceeds in the same manner with the
reorganization of the other two collective fortunes.--As regards the
charitable institutions, under the Directory, the asylums and hospitals
had their unsold property restored to them, and in the place of what had
been sold they were promised national property of equal value.[31120]
But this was a complicated operation; things had dragged along in the
universal disorder and, to carry it out, the First Consul reduced and
simplified it. He at once sets aside a portion of the national domain,
several distinct morsels in each district or department, amounting
in all to four millions of annual income derived from productive
real-estate,[31121] which he distributes among the asylums, pro rata,
according to their losses. He assigns to them, moreover, all the rents,
in money or in kind, due for foundations to parishes, cures, fabriques
and corporations; finally, "he applies to their wants" various
outstanding claims, all national domains which have been usurped by
individuals or communes and which may be subsequently recovered, "all
rentals be-longing to the Republic, the recognition and payment of which
have been interrupted."[31122] In short, he rummages every corner and
picks out the scraps which may help them along; then, resuming and
extending another undertaking of the Directory, he assigns to them,
not merely in Paris, but in many other towns, a portion of the product
derived from theatres and octrois.[31123]--Having thus increased their
income, he applies himself to diminishing their expenses. On the one
hand, he gives them back their special servants, those who cost the
least and work the best, I mean the Sisters of Charity. On the other
hand, he binds them down rigidly to exact accounts; he subjects them
to strict supervision; he selects for them competent and sui