of Jesus Christ. "How!" said Coquerel; "as I believe in my own." But although his church at Paris lost the government support, the other liberal Protestant churches of France receive it; so do the Jews, who are certainly not believers in the doctrine mentioned. I ask Victor to explain the Commune, and he replies that when the Republic was formed, Sept. 4, 1870, the Empress Eugenie and the other Bonapartists opened the doors of the prisons and allowed the criminals to escape, and that it was these people, joined to those who had nothing to lose and the mechanics who had no work, who established the Commune. I give this on Victor's authority. I tell him that I think of going to the house of my American friend, with whom I am intimate, and telling her that I have come to dine on pot-luck. He says that that is not the style in Paris; that a certain person left word that he was coming to dine with him, but that he himself said to the concierge, "Have the goodness to tell that gentleman when he comes that I have gone to England." But my friend receives me with much hospitality. In 1795, during the Revolution, the metrical or decimal system was introduced into France. It was confirmed by a special law, which came into operation in 1840, under Louis Philippe, and those using the old weights and measures are liable to prosecution. They have not as yet, however, entirely disappeared. In Paris I saw in schools tables and models to illustrate the system, which has now been adopted in other countries, and seems not unlikely to spread over the civilized world. Since my return from France I have seen the chart in one or more schools in Ohio, and I there heard mentioned that the system can be, or has already been, introduced into school treatises on arithmetic. Some idea of the elegance of French computation may be obtained from the fact that in the centigrade thermometer the zero is the freezing-point of water, and one hundred degrees is the boiling-point. I am told that all the administrations in France are held by the men who occupied them under the Empire. The emperor or president appoints his ministers, and the ministers appoint to inferior offices. Thus, Mr. Gréard, who is at the head of grammar school instruction in this department, or that of the Seine, in which Paris is situated,-was appointed by the minister of public instruction. He holds his office at the will of the minister, but it is very rare for the office-holders to be put out: it is the fashion to keep them. Of course the eight years and more since the downfall of Napoleon have witnessed some changes by death, but officers like judges were not removed on his downfall. The minister is much more likely to be changed than the subordinates. Although, however, I have just spoken of having been told that the ministers appoint to inferior offices, I think that they do not, without the consent of the general government. The French republic, it seems to me, may be compared to a coat-of-mail of plate-armor,-cumbrous, rigid,—and our Federal republic to a coat of linked or chain-armor, pliable. CHAPTER X. Wednesday, June 5th.-When I meet an unknown little one upon the street who smiles at me, then I conclude that she is a pupil in one of the schools that I have visited. To-day, about 9.20, I arrive at another asyle or infant school, but find that the exercises do not begin until ten; they continue until twelve, when the children breakfast, and then play in the yard. "They make good use of those moments," says the teacher in charge. I ask her the dif ference between the schools under the care of the clergy and those under the laity. She replies, "Mon Dieu! I don't know;" but I afterwards understand that there is no difference in recitations. She says that there are parents who do not wish to send their children to clerical schools, and some who do not wish to send them to laic. She thinks that the poorer class send them to the Sisters on account of the gifts. This teacher is a substitute. She is filling the place of the assistant, who is taking her holiday. There being no regular holidays in the infant schools, the teachers are allowed a month, and their places are filled by substitutes. This one is called a suppléante; she is of a higher grade than the remplaçante. Besides the two teachers, there is a hired woman, who keeps the rooms clean, takes care of the children's breakfasts, and so on, and receives the astonishing salary of seven hundred franes, or near one hundred and forty dollars, and boards herself. These women must always be at their posts; thus she is now moving constantly among the children while they are gathering for school, and she must stay until the last are gone or towards evening. The principal is not here just now, and while the children are gathering the supply-teacher is seated before them, and is at liberty to converse with me. While they are coming together she hisses and makes a noise like kissing to preserve order. I think that a bell would be better; but then the door-bell is ringing at intervals for a child to be admitted. The principal has her home in the building, there being very few infant or grammar schools where the principal is not thus lodged. The rent is the teacher's perquisite, in addition to her salary. Some are nicely lodged, and this is a new building; but in old parts of the city some are but poorly lodged. There are generally a parlor, two sleeping-rooms, a dining-room, a kitchen, and a cabinet. What the principal has here would cost her to hire twelve hundred francs, because this is an expensive quarter; but the allowance to those who are not lodged is only six hundred francs. The salary of the principal begins at sixteen hundred francs and increases to two thousand, a proportion being always deducted towards her retreat or pension. The pension always amounts to one-half of the highest salary; which in her case being two thousand francs, the pension will be one thousand,―about two hundred dollars. The assistant teacher, now absent, begins at twelve hundred. francs, and increases to sixteen hundred, the supplyteacher, here present, receives a salary of six hundred francs, and three francs a day while employed. She, too, must give up five per cent. or more towards her pension. The remplaçante, which is a still lower grade, receives nothing but three francs a day when employed. To pass a few moments to the head-teacher of one of the girls' grammar schools, Miss Fleutet lately told me that her salary begins at two thousand francs, and, to give with strict correctness the amount reserved for the pension during the first three years, it is one-twelfth the first year and one twentieth for the other two. After the end of these three years her salary is raised to two thousand three hundred francs, one-twelfth being retained the first year and onetwentieth for the others, as before. Two thousand nine hundred francs, or near six hundred dollars, is, I think, the amount of the highest salary paid to a principal in a girls' grammar school. The principal of a boys' grammar school begins with two thousand two hundred francs and rises to three thousand four hundred, or about six hundred and eighty dollars. The pension is received at fifty-five years of age, and after twenty-five years of service. Assistants in grammar schools who are not lodged in the schoolbuilding (or at least the male assistants) also receive a moderate indemnity of four hundred francs. To return to the infant school which I am visiting: when it is twenty minutes after ten the principal has not yet come. The supply-teacher has the clapper, of which I have before spoken; and when she claps, the children clap too and become quite quiet. She cannot begin to instruct them until the principal comes. One little fellow enters, crying and kicking, in the arms of the serving-woman. She takes him out into the yard, and his brother is sent to console him because his mother has left him. Then the servingwoman comes in with a cup to get some eau rougie from his basket. "We must spoil him a little," she says. Eau rougie is wine and water. I see in the next room the crucifix and the image of Mary beneath it, and I am told that the government gives them both. One of the children has brought a large bunch of white pinks (if I may say so), and the serving-woman is going to throw away part of the flowers from |