ing the école, are exercised for three months daily, and after that twice a week during the months of June and July only.

In the "Cabinet des Modèles d'Architecture"* are some very beautiful models of arches of various descriptions, staircases, steam-engines, cranes, also of an ancient temple. After looking into two amphitheatres "d'analise physique,"† I passed through two small gritty "yards of recreation," into a capital billiard-room, adjoining which was a room entitled "Coiffeur," for hair-cutting.

I now proceeded to the dormitories, composed of forty-two exceedingly clean, light, airy sleeping apartments, each containing from seven to ten iron bedsteads, with neat check side-curtains. Above every white pillow there hung horizontally a brass-handled sword, over which was a shelf bearing a wooden cocked-hat box.

In four long dining-halls, surrounded by wooden benches, were five marble tables, at each of which sat from eight to ten students, and in the middle of every table, instead of an épergne with artificial flowers, &c., was a tin circular basin, into which the students as they were eating chucked their scraps. In the vestibule were three cocks, and troughs for washing dirty hands and hungry faces. The kitchen, which, though exceedingly small, by admirable arrangements was quite large enough for its purpose, contained four great caldrons.

I was now led to the penal department, consisting of fourteen prisons, ten feet square, containing each a table, a stool, and a window boarded up to the upper panes. In these cells refractory students are subjected to solitary confinement from four to a period not exceeding fifteen days."

In a detached building of twelve windows in front, and three stories high, is the infirmary, or hospital. In the upper portion, which only contained six patients, I was conducted into two apartments, with one floor, if possible, more dangerously slippery than the other, containing in shelves and pigeon-holes " lingerie," beautifully clean and neat, and a woman as clean, as neat, and with a mind as strongly imbued with soap, as the linen over which she presided. She told me with great pride that every pigeon-hole (they were each one foot ten inches square) had its élève-or, rather, said she, correcting herself, it contained the linen of each élève, every article of which, she * Museum of architectural models. Physical analysis.

showed me, was marked with his number. She added, they were allowed clean sheets once a fortnight in winter, and once in three weeks during summer.

In a small, gritty entrance-yard the élèves receive their friends, who are not allowed, when visiting them, to enter any farther. Opposite, but within the walls of this admirable, useful, and well-organised establishment, is a magnificent house, the quarters of the general commanding.

Twice a month, by order of the Government, there is an inspection, "en grande tenue," of the general, colonel, captains, and adjutants; and the élèves, about once a week in like manner, are inspected by the general

After going through the various studies I have enumerated a certain number of the students are sent to the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées to pass through another and a higher course of studies, which I will now briefly descride.

ÉCOLE NATIONALE DES PONTS ET
CHAUSSÉES.*

ABOVE my head, and over a lofty gate, in la Rue des Saints Pères, I saw drooping and dripping for it was raining harda tricolor flag, and under it, in gold letters, " ECOLE NATIONALE DES PONTS ET CHAUSSÉES." On each side was inscribed in letters of black paint—

"PROPRIÉTÉ NATIONALE.† LIBERTÉ, FRATERNITÉ, EGALITÉ."

After passing the lodge of the concierge, and crossing a large open court, I ascended by a small staircase to the room of the principal inspector, whom I found ready to attend me, and who informed me-as I was aware-t —that he had, through the Director, received a special order from the Minister of Public Works to give me whatever information I desired.

Commencing at the upper story, in which was his own

* National School for Bridges and Roads.

National Property.

apartment, he conducted me to a passage, in which are eight small rooms of study, each containing ten desks.

Around the walls of every room, in wooden frames, three feet high, covered with glass, were arranged drawings relating to the particular course of study of each, in order that the students, when not otherwise occupied, might have an opportunity of regarding them. These rooms and the whole establishment are warmed by hot water (not steam), according to the system now generally adopted in all the government buildings in Paris.

At the end of the passage we came to a door, on which was written" Office de Service." Here reside two retired officers of artillery, who form the "Police" of the establishment, who restrain any irregularity, and who thus divest the professors and director of all responsibility on that subject. In the wall is a "boîte aux lettres," or box for letters, written by the students, all of which, whether for the purpose of science or addressed merely to their friends, are, as an indulgence, franked to their respective destinations by the "Ministre des Travaux Publics."*

On public occasions the élèves wear a uniform, slightly embroidered on the collar; at their studies they may dress as they like. They are, however, strictly forbidden to wear the uniform of the Ecole Polytechnique, and are not allowed to smoke or play at cards.

We now proceeded to a vestibule where was a spacious oak table, from the middle of which protruded and arose a large stove. In the adjoining library—a fine solid room, containing 16,000 volumes and 3000 brochures, warmed by two stoves, and having at one end, on a small platform, the elevated desk of the librarian—were four tables covered with books and inkstands, lying on loose green cloth. At each table were ten chairs, five on each side. In this reading-room, open from twelve to five and from seven to ten, absolute silence must prevail. "Le silence le plus absolu y est de rigueur." A third library contains, in cabinets, lettered, numbered, and closely packed in shelves only a few inches asunder, 3000 valuable drawings of railways, bridges of stone, wood, and iron, and other engineering subjects. Attached to these three rooms is a small one, a peaceful retreat for the librarian.

On descending to the ground floor I entered a laboratory,

*Minister of Public Works.

in which twelve students at a time, each at his severely burned table, and with a compartment of shelves of his own, covered with bottles, and containing his "Pharmacie," analyse their limes, cements, &c.

I was now led into a very handsome stone promenade, communicating with a small and a large amphitheatre. In the former I found thirty scholars, on benches, one above another. In front of them was a large black board, at the foot of which, in an elbow-chair, before a rectangular oak table, sat the professor.

In the grand amphitheatre, which, by a similar arrangement, can contain two hundred students, each bench, divided into twelve separate seats, is numbered in front by a brass shining plate. On the wall, close to the black board, hangs in a glass case a tell-tale list of the names of the occupiers of each seat, so that the professor, without moving anything but his head, or without a word of inquiry, can by a glance at once inform himself of the name of any one who disturbs him. Behind, in the small private room of the professor, I found a similar black board, exactly of the same dimensions, "pour s'amuser.”* these amphitheatres, besides mathematical and geometrical demonstrations, the students are instructed in geology, mineralogy, political economy, architecture, surveying, levelling, irrigation, draining, the construction of roads, canals, bridges, and in the German and English languages.

In

On opening a door on the left, over which was inscribed "Galerie des Modèles," I entered a lofty long hall, containing models of machinery of almost every description, of different sorts of bridges, lighthouses, of the principal aqueducts of France and of foreign countries, also plans of the best modes of irrigation. There were likewise, admirably arranged and lighted, fragments of the most important portions of the interior of steam-engines: among these I observed a locomotive engine, sawed and separated into two pieces, so as to enable the stu dents, as it were by dissection, to anatomise the reality of these powerful bodies. Adjoining were plans explaining the construction of atmospheric railways; a very interesting model of the "Pont au double" near Notre Dame in Paris, which, although of a span of 115 yards, with a rise in the arch of only Gallery of Models.

*To amuse himself with.

ten feet, is composed of nothing but a conglomeration of broken stones and cement.

Among the drawings are some showing an infinity of purposely confused details, exhibited as a style which, instead of being imitated, should be shunned. I here inspected a variety of plans, elevations, and sections by the students, many admirably and beautifully executed.

Beyond this interesting gallerly I entered one devoted entirely to harbours and canals, containing, besides various models of both, dredging machines, bridges of boats, &c. Above is a gallery full of theodolites, spirit-levels, and a variety of other mathematical instruments, the cost of which in Paris I observed to be less than half the prices in England.

Lastly, I was conducted into a hall full of specimens of mineralogy, previous to leaving which I ascertained from the superior that, for the elucidation of the details I had witnessed, there are employed fifteen professors; that the Government liberally gives to each student 150 francs a month during the three years which form the course of his education in this valuable establishment; besides which, there exists in "la Rue des Coutures St. Gervais" a private one on a similar plan, entitled "Ecole des Arts et Manufactures,"* for the education of young persons (above sixteen years, and possessing a certain knowledge of algebra, geometry, and mathemetical drawing) who are desirous, by the aid of science, to be made competent to practise as civil engineers, as builders, or as directors of factories.

LES CASERNES.†

As the momentum or force with which a cannon shot strikes any thing that opposes its progress does not depend solely on its weight, or solely on its velocity, but on the product of both, so does the real power of an army depend not solely on its numbers, or solely on its military knowledge, but on the combined powers of both; and thus, just as a small shot can, by

*School of Arts and Manufactures.

The barracks.