The ordnance department of the navy is carried on by a large detachment of artillery officers and artificers provided by the war office for this special duty.

The fleet is divided into the Mediterranean squadron, the Northern squadron, the Atlantic division, the Far Eastern division, the Pacific division, the Indian Ocean division, the Cochin China division.

The chief naval school is the École navale at Brest, which is devoted to the training of officers; the age of admission is from fifteen to eighteen years, and pupils after completing their course pass a year on a frigate school. At Paris there is a more advanced school (École supérieure de la Marine) for the supplementary training of officers. Other schools are the school of naval medicine at Bordeaux with annexes at Toulon, Brest and Rochefort; schools of torpedoes and mines and of gunnery at Toulon, &c., &c. The écoles d’hydrographie established at various ports are for theoretical training for the higher grades of the merchant service. (See also [Navy].)

The total personnel of the armée de mer in 1909 is given as 56,800 officers and men. As to the number of vessels, which fluctuates from month to month, little can be said that is wholly accurate at any given moment, but, very roughly, the French navy in 1909 included 25 battleships, 7 coast defence ironclads, 19 armoured cruisers, 36 protected cruisers, 22 sloops, gunboats, &c., 45 destroyers, 319 torpedo boats, 71 submersibles and submarines and 8 auxiliary cruisers. It was stated that, according to proposed arrangements, the principal fighting elements of the fleet would be, in 1919, 34 battleships, 36 armoured cruisers, 6 smaller cruisers of modern type, 109 destroyers, 170 torpedo boats and 171 submersibles and submarines. The budgetary cost of the navy in 1908 was stated as 312,000,000 fr. (£12,480,000).

(C. F. A.)

Education.

The burden of public instruction in France is shared by the communes, departments and state, while side by side with the public schools of all grades are private schools subjected to a state supervision and certain restrictions. At the head of the whole organization is the minister of public instruction. He is assisted and advised by the superior council of public instruction, over which he presides.

France is divided into sixteen académies or educational districts, having their centres at the seats of the universities. The capitals of these académies, together with the departments included in them, are tabulated below:

Académies. Departments included in them.
Paris Seine, Cher, Eure-et-Loir, Loir-et-Cher, Loiret, Marne, Oise, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-et-Oise.
Aix Bouches-du-Rhône, Basses-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes, Corse, Var, Vaucluse.
Besançon Doubs, Jura, Haute-Saône, Territoire de Belfort.
Bordeaux Gironde, Dordogne, Landes, Lot-et-Garonne, Basses-Pyrénées.
Caen Calvados, Eure, Manche, Orne, Sarthe, Seine-Inférieure.
Chambéry Savoie, Haute-Savoie.
Clermont-Ferrand Puy-de-Dôme, Allier, Cantal, Corrèze, Creuse, Haute-Loire.
Dijon Côte-d’Or, Aube, Haute-Marne, Nièvre, Yonne.
Grenoble Isère, Hautes-Alpes, Ardèche, Drôme.
Lille Nord, Aisne, Ardennes, Pas-de-Calais, Somme.
Lyons Rhône, Ain, Loire, Saône-et-Loire.
Montpellier Hérault, Aude, Gard, Lozère, Pyrénées-Orientales.
Nancy Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse, Vosges.
Poitiers Vienne, Charente, Charente-Inférieure, Indre, Indre-et-Loire, Deux-Sèvres, Vendée, Haute-Vienne.
Rennes Ille-et-Vilaine, Côtes-du-Nord, Finistère, Loire-Inférieure, Maine-et-Loire, Mayenne, Morbihan.
Toulouse Haute-Garonne, Ariège, Aveyron, Gers, Lot, Hautes-Pyrénées, Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne.
 There is also an académie comprising Algeria.

For the administrative organization of education in France see [Education].