same time, it
is an established fact that the French girls' schools which are managed
by nuns, and especially those of the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, are
far above the other female educational establishments. Most of the male
lay teachers are appointed from the primary normal schools which exist
in the chief town of every department; and it is a noteworthy fact that
the majority of them are ardent Republicans, notwithstanding the fact
that during the Empire every effort was made to win them over to the
imperial side. In every normal and primary school was the bust of
Napoleon, and a liberal distribution took place of the famous _Journal
des Instituteurs_, every paragraph of which, political or educational,
was dressed up in Napoleonic attire. Possibly, some of the lay primary
school-teachers may have adopted republicanism out of a spirit of
natural opposition to their old adversaries and competitors, the
_instituteurs congreganistes_. Of these, too, a word must be said. While
in the secondary clerical schools most of the instructors are Jesuits,
in the primary schools most of the teachers belong to the confraternity
of the _Ecole Chretienne_, the members of which, without taking the vows
and assuming a lifelong engagement, agree nevertheless to remain single,
to submit to the discipline of the society and to wear the
ecclesiastical dress. Strict Ultramontanists, these brethren have been
somewhat unjustly nicknamed the _freres Ignorantins_. Living as they do
in common, with but few wants, and receiving, whenever they require it,
pecuniary aid from the wealthy party to which they belong, they are
satisfied with a rate of pay less than one-half that of the lay
teachers, and are thus preferred in a large number of communes on the
simple ground of economy. Their plan of instruction is the same as that
adopted in the secular primary schools, except that religious
instruction and exercises of course play a larger part with them than
with their lay brethren. The ultra radicals, who in a large measure
control the educational appropriations in the town-council, are bitterly
opposed to any portion of the public instruction remaining in the hands
of the clerical element, and their most strenuous efforts are used to
have all these _congregational_ schools of both sexes closed. They would
concentrate the entire national educational system under the control of
a body of lay teachers to be paid by the towns and by the state. In
the