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It is, therefore, to be desired that each lesson in class should have for its complement one hour's solitary study at least.

Some persons desire, on the contrary, that the lesson in class should be preceded by study as in England, where the master chooses a good work as a textbook, of which the pupils study certain fragments at a time, without any other aid than their own powers and will. The professor questions them closely on this fragment, assures himself that the pupil has mastered the ideas of the part of the book which he has studied by himself, explains the most difficult passages, and adds some observations to complete or to correct the work of the pupil.

This system also produces excellent results, it is already adopted in France with respect to the reading of literary works, but in the special colleges the two methods should be combined. The pupils who constitute the preparatory class know little or nothing, their memory alone has been called into play, and their reflective powers have remained almost completely inactive; they therefore, require many lessons, but short ones, frequently repeated; and the instruction in class should be followed by a time of study, during which they should endeavor to commit to memory the notions which have been imparted. Later, when their minds are furnished with the ideas acquired, and judgment comes to the aid of memory, this solitary study will become more fertile in results, - and it will then be good to make the pupils get up, before the class lesson, the subject which the professor proposes to treat.

In establishments where the pupils were all residents (internes) this regular succession of class and study might be introduced without difficulty, because in these cases the occupations of the whole day, from sunrise till sunset, might be regulated by the heads of the establishments; but the special schools will be mostly composed of day scholars (externes), the whole of the instruction must, therefore, be comprised between eight o'clock in the morning and four or five o'clock in the afternoon, in order that the day scholars may have the advantage of all the lessons and exercises.

This consideration precludes the laying down of any absolute rule for the employment of time in the schools. It is merely established as a principle that each lesson in class, during the first years at least, should not exceed one hour, excepting the lessons in composition, which may be prolonged; that the pupils should be allowed, after two hours of work, an interval of ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, which should be employed in gymnastic exercises, without prejudice to the longer periods of recreation which follow the meals, and finally, that, except during the last year, all evening work should be interdicted.

M. Duruy, the author of the system of Secondary Special Schools (although the main features had been recommended by a commission instituted by his predecessor in 1862), supported the unanimous action of the corps legislatif in its behalf, by all the measures within reach of his department.

A Superior Council of Improvement composed of members eminent in their respective vocations, was instituted to advise the central ministry. This Council informs the administration upon the parts of the general programme which require to be extended or contracted. The local councils correspond with the Superior Council at Paris, which shares with the minister the direction of the new instruction.

At the end of the course, the pupils appear before a jury to undergo an examination, at the end of which, if successful, they receive a diploma. This jury is composed of three members, appointed by the minister. The pupils of the private institutions are admitted to the examinations, like those of the state schools, and can obtain the same diploma. A special diploma has been instituted for persons who may desire to open schools of special instruction. This diploma can only be obtained at the age of eighteen, after written and oral examinations, which include all the principal subjects of the course.

It was of special importance to find capable, learned, and experienced masters, to give the new instruction in the lyceums and communal colleges. The government provided for this in three ways: (1,) by creating the Normal School of Cluny; (2,) by instituting a new agregation; (3,) by insuring the present and future position of the professors.

The Normal School of Cluny has proved its claims to recognition among the state institutions of established utility and scientific character. It is located in the old Benedictine abbey of that name, where are still existing grand memorials of piety, science, and toil, left by that learned and teaching order. The rich country that surrounds it exhibits in its varied scenery, all kinds of culture, prairies, vines, and woods. It is near the great industrial centers, Creuzot and Lyons, and not far from Etienne and its mines. The government judged that it could not find in the country a place more suitable for the instruction of the pupil-masters destined to develop industrial schools. Its corps of instruction consists of a director, a sub-director, a chaplain, a steward, seven professors, three preparateurs, and a chief gardener. In respect to funds, it is on the same footing with the lyceums; it has its own treasury, into which flow all the receipts, and which pays all expenses. Its graduates have proved, after brilliant examinations, their title to the new agregation established for them. Those not employed, and who are not responsible for their inactivity, receive 400 francs; the titulary professors have a fixed salary of 2,000 francs at Paris and Versailles; 1,200, 1,500, and 1,800 francs in the departments. They share, also, in the casual emolument. The division professors and the charges de cours, do not have this last advantage; but their fixed salary is 2,400 francs at Paris and Versailles, and 1,500 and 1,800 francs in the other lyceums.

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MARQUIS OF POMBAL.

SEBASTIAN JOSEPH DE CARVALHO E MELLO, MARQUIS OF POMBAL, the great statesman and educator of Portugal, was born in 1693, in the reign of John V., who laid out 225,000l. on a chapel, measuring 17 feet by 12 feet, in the Church of St. Roque, and left his country at his death burdened with a debt of three millions sterling, "with a nominal navy and a nominal army, dismantled and abandoned fortresses, nominal lines of defense, nominal regiments of observation, and apparently on the brink of ruin." Long before Pombal came into power he appears to have contemplated this state of things with something of the resolute spirit of Chancellor Erskine, who, while yet a young lawyer, being checked in censure of some legal abuse by the remark, "It was the law before you were born," replied, "It is because I was not born that it is law, and I will alter it before I die." Accordingly, when at length the Portuguese reformer had power commensurate with his will, he unflinchingly. devoted his energies to the uprooting of ancient prejudices and the establishment of beneficial changes.

Pombal entered the University of Coimbra in 1717, but quitted it in disgust at its "routine of unprofitable studies," and entered the army as a private, according to the custom of Portugal. Promoted to the rank of corporal he relinquished this nominal profession of arms, and devoted himself thenceforth to the study of history, politics, and legislation. While occupied with these more congenial pursuits he was presented by an uncle to Cardinal Motta, at that time high in favor with John V. The Cardinal's shrewd perception at once fixed on Pombal as one whose talents might be turned to account, and he strongly recommended him to the King. Dom John, however, beyond appointing him member of the Royal Academy of History, and expressing an anxiety that he should undertake the biographies of certain Portuguese monarchs, does not appear for some time to have further noticed him.

Having married in the interval Donna Theresa de Noronha, a widow, and niece of the Count dos Arcos, Pombal seems to have

seriously desired some active employment in the State; but he continued unemployed till the latter end of the year 1739, when by Cardinal Motta's recommendation he was sent to London as Minister. There he studied hard, in spite of ill-health, to acquaint himself with the history, constitution, and legislation of Great Britain, but remained ignorant of the English language; an odd fact, which the Conde da Carnota excuses by the remark that French was the language chiefly spoken at the eourt of George II., and that most of the best works then in vogue on politics or legislation were by French writers. In the course of his reading these authors, Sully became the model example of a Minister in the eyes of Pombal.

In 1745 he represented his government at Vienna, where he married the Countess Daun for his second wife. In 1750 he became Minister of Foreign Affairs, and enjoyed the confidence of Dom Joseph, who, for 27 years, sustained his measures of political, religious, and educational reform. In the first year of his ministry he succeeded in restricting the jurisdiction of the Inquisition, and prohibiting its private tortures and public executions, which had for so long a period disgraced the country. So early in his ministry as 1751 a decree regulating its practices was promulgated. By this decree it was enacted that no auto-da-fé was henceforward to be celebrated and no sentences were to be executed without the consent and approbation of government, which reserved for itself as a court of appeal the province of inquiry and examination, and of confirming or reversing the sentence.

In 1761 (Sept. 19), he secured the passage of a law by which all slaves arriving in Portugal and touching her soil were declared to be ipso facto free men; that other law of mercy which forbade at home the imprisonment of debtors who were bona fide unable to meet the demands of their creditors; and many other edicts, all emanating from the same spirit.

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When the city of Lisbon was well-nigh destroyed by the earthquake on the morning of All Saints' Day, in 1755, and the conflagration which followed the falling of the roofs of the numerous churches on the millions of tapers which were burning in honor of the festival, the efforts of the Minister rose to the greatness and urgency of the occasion. What is to be done," said the King, who happened to be at a country residence on that fatal day, "to meet this infliction of Divine justice?" "Bury the dead, and feed the living," said his intrepid Minister Pombal-and at once entered his carriage and drove to Lisbon, to share the danger and alleviate the calamities of the earthquake and fire; and for several days his

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carriage was his head-quarters, where he issued over 200 regulations, which not only brought order out of chaos, but permanent improvement out of these terrible disasters. In an incredible short space of time two hundred decrees were promulgated respecting the maintenance of order, the lodging of the people, the distribution of provisions, and the burial of the dead. In these numerous decrees Pombal entered into the minutest details; and, such was the rapidity with which they were conceived and promulgated, that many were written in pencil on his kness, and without being copied, were hastily forwarded to their various destinations. The wounded were removed and their wounds dressed; the houseless were collected and lodged in temporary huts; provisions were brought from all quarters and distributed to the poor; monopolies of all kinds were forbidden; troops were drawn from the provinces to preserve order; idlers were forced to work; the dispersed nuns were reassembled; the ruins removed; the dead buried, and public worship restored:

Before the earthquake not a single regular street above the length of 100 yards existed. Now they were rebuilt handsome, solid, level, and well paved. A public garden was for the first time laid out. Sewers were constructed in the new streets. Rules for enforcing general cleanliness were likewise made. Much was done not only in the useful but the decorative line, and Lisbon rose from ruin in renewed beauty; but many of Pombal's plans were destined never to be carried out, and the one most regretted by the Portuguese-namely, the magnificent promenade which he designed to form on the shores of the lovely Tagus, from Santa Appallonia to Belem, a distance of about five miles, was never even commenced. Pombal next turned his attention to the interests of agriculture as one of the chief sources of national prosperity, without exactly copying the spasmodic efforts of an ancient king (Dom Alfonso IV.), who enacted that the husbandman who neglected his lands should, for the first offense, forfeit his flocks, and if he persisted in careless or unskillful cultivation, should be hung. Stringent and compulsory edicts now rescued great tracts of soil from obstinate cultivation of the poorest sort of vines, and devoted them to corn and timber, while the importation of mulberry trees at the rate of 20,000 plants and upwards in successive years quadrupled the production of silk goods, and turned the attention of landholders to a new branch of industry.

It was through Pombal's judicious policy that the vine in the Upper Douro, and of which the "genuine old port" is made, was

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