There are quite a number of foreign colleges at Paris, such as the Egyptian, the Japanese, the Armenian and the Polish colleges. The former Irish college, now called Collége des Fondations britanniques, is under the patronage of the French Minister of Education. It is here that young men speaking the English language are specially educated for the priesthood, the whole of the instruction being given in English and the management being in the hands of British and Irish ecclesiastics. About 15,200 scholars attend the private colleges in Paris.
Proceeding now to speak of the actual condition of the lycées, or lyceums, it may at once be stated that boarders at one of these establishments in Paris pay from $200 to $300 annually, and in the provinces from $150 to $200, according to age. Considering that this one charge covers board, instruction, books, washing, clothes, writing materials, medical attendance and medicine, it will readily be understood that the income from this source is totally inadequate to meet the outlays. The government, besides providing a large number of gratuitous scholarships, makes up the deficit, whatever it may be, and thus really maintains the lyceums. There are in Paris five national lycées, besides the lyceum at Vanves, situated at a little distance to the south of the capital, at what was once the villa of the prince de Condé, on the Vaugirard route. At Vanves the younger pupils have the opportunity afforded them of pursuing their studies in the country, and only entering one of the Paris lycées when they have worked themselves into the fifth class. The most famous as well as the largest of the lyceums of Paris is the Lycée Descartes, formerly called the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. It stands in the Rue St. Jacques, on the spot formerly occupied by the Jesuits' Collége de Clermont, which was founded in 1563, and confiscated when the Jesuits were expelled from France by the duc de Choiseul in 1764. As is well known, Molière and Voltaire, two of the bitterest enemies of the Jesuits, were educated at the Collége de Clermont. At Louis-le-Grand were also educated Crébillon, the author of the Sopha; Gresset, the writer of Vert-vert; Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins, Crémieux, Eugène Delacroix, Victor Hugo; the eminent surgeon Dupuytren; Jules Janin, Villemain, Littré and Laboulaye. At present 540 of its 1200 pupils are day scholars.
Sainte-Barbe, the most celebrated of the free colleges of Paris, sends its pupils to the course of instruction at the Lycée Descartes. Sainte-Barbe was founded in 1460 by the Abbé Lenormand, and reorganized after the Revolution by Delaneau: it stands in the Place du Panthéon, on a small plot of ground, and is so thickly surrounded by buildings that the play-ground is not even large enough for the pupils to move about in. The younger among them are therefore sent to the branch of the school at Fontenay-aux-Roses, a stately château with spacious grounds. Both Ignatius Loyola, who founded the order of Jesus, and Calvin, who did his best to destroy it, were educated at Sainte-Barbe, as were also in more modern times Eugène Scribe, the singer Nourrit, the celebrated painter in water-colors Eugène Lamy, and General Trochu. The present director of Sainte-Barbe is M. Dubief, formerly inspector of the Academy of Paris, and who succeeded in 1865 the lamented M. Labrouste, to whose untiring exertions Sainte-Barbe owes in great part the high reputation it has enjoyed in recent times.
On the Boulevard St. Michel, on the spot where once stood the old Collége d'Harcourt, is the Lycée St. Louis, now called, after the famous mathematician, the Lycée Monge. Although the Lycée Monge is specially devoted to scientific training, it has numbered among its pupils Charles Gounod the composer and Egger the Hellenist.
In the rear of the Panthéon, on the site of the abbey of Ste. Geneviève, founded by Clovis in 510, stands the Lycée Corneille, formerly called the Lycée Napoléon, and before that the Collége Henri IV. To the archæologist the cellars, the kitchens, the chapel and the old tower of the twelfth century cannot fail to prove of the greatest interest, while the remainder of the structure, built during the reign of Louis XIV., makes this unquestionably the finest of the lyceums of Paris. At the Lycée Corneille were educated Casimir Delavigne (whose bust by David d'Angers adorns the interior), Sainte-Beuve, Haussmann, Alfred de Musset, St. Marc Girardin, Émile Augier, Remusat, the prince de Joinville and the dukes of Nemours, Aumale, Montpensier and Chartres. The three lyceums above mentioned are on the left bank, the remaining two on the right bank, of the Seine.
In the Rue Caumartin, near the Havre railway-station, on the site of the Capuchins' convent, stands the Lycée Condorcet, or, as it was called until recently, the Lycée Bonaparte. All the pupils are day scholars, and most of them come from the adjacent wealthy district of the Chaussée d'Antin, the Boulevards and the Madeleine. Among the pupils of this aristocratic educational establishment may be named J. J. Ampère, Alexandre Dumas fils, Adolphe Adam the composer, Edmond and Jules de Goncourt the novelists, Alphonse Karr, Henry Monnier, Nadar, Taine, Eugène Sue; the mulatto Schælcher, now Senator of France; the celebrated Jesuit Father Ravignan, and the poet Théodore de Banville.
The Lycée Charlemagne is in a building in the Rue St. Antoine, formerly used as the Jesuits' convent. Being situated in one of the poorest sections of Paris, the children from which as a rule do not get beyond the primary schools, it receives most of its scholars from the numerous boarding-schools of the Quartier du Marais. Among the many well-known names formerly on the roll of the Lycée Charlemagne are those of Gustave Doré, Théophile Gautier, Admiral Jurien de la Gravière, Michelet; the dramatic critic Francisque Sarcey; Got the comedian, and Buffet the statesman.
These five lyceums of Paris, with their 7500 day scholars and boarders, and the eighty lyceums in the provinces, have precisely the same programme and rules of government throughout. The boarders are divided into three sections, the first being for the petits—viz., boys averaging from seven to twelve, who are instructed in the elementary course, comprising the eighth and seventh classes; the second is for the moyens, who receive instruction in the grammar course, comprising the sixth, fifth and fourth classes; the third is for the grands, who, taking their place in the third and second classes, proceed with the higher course, embracing rhetoric, philosophy, and, if desired, special mathematics. Although at playtime the boys meet in a common play-ground, during school-hours they are distributed in different rooms or studies (études), one class generally corresponding to a study. There is thus the eighth, fourth or second study, just as there is the eighth, fourth or second class. The professors—of whom there are from fifteen to thirty, the number of boys ranging from three hundred to twelve hundred—superintend the classes, while the dozen poor, ill-paid ushers have to keep order in the études. The scholars signify their contempt for the ushers—officially known as maîtres répétiteurs—by nicknaming them pions or watch-dogs. Yet not an usher but is appointed, like all others engaged in the lycée, by the minister. Each one of them has obtained his degree as bachelor, and many only accept the situation as a means of economically pursuing their studies toward the higher degrees and fellowships. Where the class is a large one, the corresponding study is usually divided into two, so as to reduce the number in one étude to about thirty. The lads making up each étude sleep in one dormitory on little iron bedsteads, only separated from each other by the width of the bed. The usher in charge sleeps at the extremity of the dormitory, his bed being the only one provided with curtains.
A boy entering the lyceum at seven or eight years of age has already learned the rudiments, and is accordingly placed in the eighth class. In those exceptional cases where the boy comes to school unable to read or write he passes the first year in the preparatory class. In the eighth class, and the next year in the seventh, he is taught French grammar, spelling, arithmetic, sacred history and elementary Latin exercises and translation. In the sixth and fifth and the fourth classes the Latin authors the boy has to study become gradually more and more difficult. The professor of history who accompanies the students throughout their lyceum course, instructs them as they advance each year to a higher class, in Greek and Roman history and modern and ancient geography. So also the professors of English and German, of physics, natural history and mathematics keep up with their pupils, and guide their studies, each in his special branch, until they graduate. Drawing and music are also taught without extra charge two hours a week, but those children whose parents really desire them to make progress in these special branches have to take—and pay extra for—private lessons called répétitions. In the third and second classes, as also when the pupils are going through the course of rhetoric, Greek as well as Latin is studied, together with the French classic authors, Corneille, Racine, Molière, Bossuet, Boileau, La Bruyère, La Fontaine, Fénelon, Massillon and some of Voltaire's works. The history of France is also studied, but scarcely with that thoroughness which characterizes the study of history in the German gymnasia.
The pupil's last year is passed in the philosophy class, formerly called the logic class, which is specially devoted to the study of the human understanding; thus, as Mr. Matthew Arnold well puts it, "making the pupil busy himself with the substance of ideas, as in rhetoric he busied himself with their form, and developing his reflection as rhetoric developed his imagination and taste." During this last year, however, classic studies are pursued with none the less vigor, for on his proficiency in these branches depends very largely the student's success at the second and final examination for his degree. It is only since 1874 that this examination has been divided into two parts—the first at the close of the year of rhetoric, the second at the close of the year of philosophy, the student being required to pass on both occasions. Each of the two examinations is divided into the épreuve écrite and the épreuve orale. In the latter the candidate is examined generally on all the subjects studied. The épreuve écrite consists, the first year, of a translation and Latin discourse—the second year, of a Latin dissertation and a French dissertation. Those educated in Paris have to pass their examination at the Sorbonne, while those educated in the provinces are examined by one of the sixteen faculties of France, at Poitiers, Caen, Toulouse, Bordeaux, etc. It is scarcely necessary to observe that the bachelor's degree confers no sort of privilege in France. The diploma which attests to its recipient having passed through a regular course of classical study opens up no career to him, but with this diploma he can study law or medicine or qualify for the special schools, such as the Polytechnic, St. Cyr and the normal schools, and on leaving these his position is assured.