New-York tribune., 1868-02-20
THE SCHOOL OF THE FOTURE-EDVCA
TION IN FRANCE.

coming 10 D6 lOOkcu upOh 40 VI bhO hioo III
portance. Whether trade shall be free or not
may await the laws of national growth; bound
aries NAV be settled another time; all ques-
tions of arts or arms may be dallied with and
deferred; but how the children are to be
taught, whether by compulsion or by free-wlll,
and what they are to be taught, whether use
full or useless things, are questions that, IL Is
now getting to be seen, cannot be put off with
safety. Not only is every family concerned IN
the decision; the State itself is found to be
prosperous or failing, rich or poor, leading or
following, according as this question has been
wisely looked to in the past, or has been
neglected from the beginning until to-day.
Italian uncertainty aud imbecility, Spanish
bigotry, French levity and narrowness, English
materialism and conceit, all come out of the
schools, and It's useless to hope that these
faults will mend themselves, 80 long as the
cause of the evil remains. The reason of the
superiority of the German people, particularly
of the PI1lssians, to the other peoples OF Europe
in morals, in intelligence, in thrift, in all the
qualities that make men fit for society, is owing,
more than to all other causes combined, to the
admirable system Of public instruction estab-
ished there, and to the complete way in which
that system is carried out. And it is possible
that the growing interest in the subject of
education, and the increasing concern mani
tested as to the deficiencies of existing methods,
may be owing to the silent influence of the
Prussan example. But, for whatever reason,
it is certain that the interest and the concern
are felt. Even Spain, degraded as that miser-
able country is, below the level even of Turkey,
feels of late some suspicion that she is In bad
way, and a movement has been made there
to establish better schools and to compel
the attendance of children. OF course, no
permanent Improvement can be hoped for
so long as Isabella and the priests continue
to hold the nation by the throat; but it is some
thing that there exists any party in the king
dom strong enough to start movement toward
a better state of things. In France, more in
teresting, because more hopeful, condition of
affairs attracts our attention. NJ. Duruy, the
able Minister of Public Instruction, has pro-
posed plans, and even begun to carry some OF
them into operation. for the better education
of French girls. more particularly those OF the
higher class. He is trying to get them out OF
the hands of the priests and nuns, who at pre-
sent have almost the exclusive charge OF their
instruction-with what result, in one direction
at least, has been clearly and eloquently
pointed out ny M. Micbelet in his La
"Femme.r NJ. Duruy wishes to give girls
wider course of studies than the Church allows.
He thinks it is necessary to enlarge their minds
and to teach them to think, while the Church
is anxious to keep them ignorant, and to pre-
vent them from thinking. The Romish Church
long ago saw that it's hold on the men of
France was weakened, and it shrewdly con-
cluded that the only way to regain its lost
numbers was to get control of the race in its
infancy. And this it has been trying for years
to do by means of the mothers. Having the ex-
elusive charge of the girl from her earliest
youth, it has patiently and deliberately stulti-
fed her, has kept her ignorant, dwarfed her
mental faculties by preventing their free use,
encouraged her in frivolous ways Of spending
her time, allowing her to compromise for in
diligence by a superstitious and slayish devo-
tion to church duties, and has succeeded in
making the present generation of French
mothers almost as bgOted as Spaniards, and
willing to surrender the education of their
children, dyed in the very womb with Catholic
prejudice, to the exclusive control of the
Church.
Many Frenchmen are alive to the danger of
this state of things, and have spoken, written,
and talked against 1t, for some time past; but
nothing practical had been accomplished until
NJ. Duruy, having at once the will and the
power, determined to set new fashion. He
has accordingly established, at the Government
expense, courses Of lectures on great variety
e hoa cod nil abad op1
learned men TO take charge of them, and has
opened them to the wives and daughters of
France without charge OF course, this pro-
ceeding has provoked a wide discussion, and has
made great commotion. The clergy are down
upon it, to man. They preach against it,
pray against it, and write against it, with an in
temperate zeal that shows they fear their citadel
is in danger Foremost among them is M.
Dupanloup, the Bishop of Orleans who pours
out the vials of his wrath on NJ. Duruy and
his schemes, which he declares are calculated
to destroy the established reputation of French
girls for docility and maidenly modesty. The
good Bishops objections seem ludicrOus to En-
glish and American ears. With all his praises
of the French virgins, he seems to charge them
with an excessive frailty, for he AYERS that, if
they attend these lectures, the policemen
and the student of the Latin Quarter
will look at them, and we are left to
infer that if man looks at them they are
undone. Our readers viii, perhaps, hardly be-
lieve that this is the Bishops principal objec-
tion, but he makes none more forcible. 1t is
not likely that the discussion will end here.
Since so important parsonage as NJ. Duruy
haa ii lar0a Erapaa will M
doubt be allowed in defending 1t, and the be-
levers in the necessity of improving the educa-
tion of French women are too large class,
and include too many of the best intellects in
the State, to leave us in any doubt that the