Salaries and pensions.—It is an interesting feature in most of the European schools, whether private or public, that some arrangement is usually made for the granting of pensions to teachers who have served a certain length of time in the institution. The Merchant Guild of Prague has provided a pension fund, to be made up partly of grants made by the Merchant Guild itself, by contributions of the professors of the school, and by a certain per cent of the surplus income of the school.

Every professor is entitled to a pension after serving ten consecutive years as a member of the faculty of the Commercial Academy. The pension is payable as soon as the professor, in consequence of bodily or mental disease, becomes unable to act as instructor; in all cases upon the completion of forty years of service. The amount of the pension, after ten years of service, is 40 per cent of the salary, and rises 2 per cent every year, so that after forty years of service a professor is entitled to his full salary for the rest of his life.

The professors are appointed at a salary of 1,000 florins, which is raised every five years by the sum of 200 florins, so that after twenty-five years of service the salary amounts to 2,000 florins. Every professor who wishes to enjoy the pension privilege must, within twelve months after his definitive appointment, contribute the third part of one year's salary to the pension fund, and must further contribute a third part of each quinquennial addition to his salary. The widow of a professor who had become entitled to a pension is entitled to a pension of 350 florins a year so long as she remains a widow, and the allowance to the widow for the support of the children of the professor who had become entitled to a pension is calculated according to the rule adopted by the Government for civil-service officials, provided that the pension of the mother and the allowance of the children shall not exceed the sum of 525 florins.

The

The preceding pages contain a description of the two most important higher schools for commercial studies in Austria, but these two schools do not, by any means, represent the only opportunity for youth who expect to enter business to acquire a special training for their future work. Indeed, it may be doubted whether any other country has organized so complete a system of commercial instruction as Austria. department of education has given special attention, in the last few years, to the development of this branch of instruction, and while the number of schools is not large, considering the needs of a modern industrial and commercial community, the system on which they are organized is an excellent one, and there is no doubt that it will be further extended in the near future.

Professor Glasser's book on Commercial Education in Austria gives full information as to the present state of commercial education, so far as it can be ascertained from an exposition of the laws bearing upon the subject, and by the statistics as to attendance, etc., in these schools. According to a table printed in that work, there are 13 commercial high schools of the general rank of the Commercial Academy in Vienna and the similar one in Prague, in the Austrian monarchy, excluding Hungary. About 3,000 pupils attend these schools. There are 104 other schools, which may be classed as commercial institutions, covering the ground, more or less fully, appropriated in this country by the commercial colleges, though in nearly all cases the curriculum is based upon more scientific principles and is more carefully developed in the Austrian schools than in our own. The same experience has been met in Austria as in other countries, that the attempt to develop commercial courses side by side with other courses in the same institution has not been successful. Generally speaking, such courses have given satisfaction to no class of people; they interfere with the healthy development of the other courses in the institution, and are uniformly neglected by the authorities of the institution with which they are connected.

See list of authorities used in the preparation of this report.

HIGHER COMMERCIAL INSTRUCTION IN FRANCE.

1.-THE SUPERIOR SCHOOL OF COMMERCE AT PARIS.

I. HISTORY OF ITS FOUNDATION AND DEVELOPMENT.1

In 1820 two Paris merchants, MM. Brodard and Legret, interested in the future of French commerce, conceived the project of founding a school for the purpose of preparing young men for business by special studies, supplementary to their general instruction. These men of enterprise, whose names deserve to be saved from an unjust oblivion, created for this purpose, in the Hotel des Fermes in rue de GrenelleSaint-Honoré, an establishment of a type at that time absolutely new, to which they gave the name "Special School of Commerce."

Such an enterprise, which seems to us to-day so natural, was bold for the epoch at which our modest innovators undertook it. In fact, public opinion did not at that time recognize either the necessity or even the possibility of such instruction, for which practice alone up to that time had provided. If people would admit, on being pressed, that our industry needed trained assistants, capable of constructing and caring for the machines which it employed, by repairing accidents which occurred in foundries and machine shops, no one thought that commerce could ever become a subject of instruction in the school, because, as every one claimed, on account of the multiplicity of the specialties of which it is composed.

The basis of this idea, which furnishes some specious arguments of a nature very seductive to the prejudices of the superficial minds of mere routinists, will not bear examination. For if it is true that after having studied the sciences listed in the programme of commercial instruction there are still in each branch of commerce peculiar difficulties, dangers, resources-in a word, trade secrets, so to speak-it is not less true that the man who has been prepared by study will advance more surely and steadily along his chosen way, and that, circumstances being equal, he will possess after a short period of practice an undisputed superiority, thanks to the instruction which he has received. In other words, there exists an amount of commercial knowledge, at once theoretical and practical, which one can acquire in a school, and which can be taught only there. It must be added, of course, that the actual management of real business affairs can alone complete this instruction.

The creation of a special school of commerce, a scientific institution up to that time without a predecessor, offered other numerous difficulties. It was not only necessary to group into one body of studies, methodically organized, all those branches of knowledge which might be useful to a merchant, but also to choose and train professors, to select and classify the studies, and, finally, to find a public, a clientele. In a word, one had to create the pupils, so to speak, and this was not the easiest thing in the world, considering the ideas of the time.

Moreover, the obstacles which these innovators encountered did not come alone from the prejudices against which the schools of commerce to-day must still struggle. It was denied at that time that we possessed the qualities essential to commerce; that our French spirit was suited to the slow continuousness of distant trade; to the chances of long-extended speculations upon which the business of importation and exportation depends. One did not see that our spirit, because of its very impressionableness and mobility, lends itself admirably to all these forms of business. Finally, men refused to recognize that our French intelligence, so keen, so supple, so broad, contained the germs of ability which necessity on the one hand and our

For a full account of this branch of instruction in France consult Léantey, Ecoles de Commerce, from which the account here given is taken, partly in translation, partly in abstract. Consult list of authorities used in preparation of this report.

2 The School of Arts and Manufacture, which was to provide so well for this instruction, was not founded until later (1829).

high tastes and love of riches on the other were destined to develop. In proof of this fact the industrial and commercial progression, proven by statistics, may be cited-a progression which would have been doubled and tripled by that economic instruction, the lack of which France cruelly misses to-day.

In 1820 there were in addition, in the very situation of things, other serious obstacles. The country had just emerged from the great wars of the Republic and Empire, which had excited all its brilliant faculties, and it was very difficult for the nation to pass over quickly to the consideration of industry and commerce; to enter without hesitation upon that which men disdainfully called "à mercantile career." The young men of the middle class of society, for whom this new establishment was specially intended, leaned toward the so-called liberal careers; they wished to be lawyers, physicians, writers; no one wished to be a merchant. These young men regarded it as a sort of derogation, an acknowledgment of inferiority, to devote themselves to commerce-that is to say, to a specialty of the "earth, earthy," which did not merit serious study; and we have seen that the university, whose classical spirit incited to the admiration of the past, has contributed no little to confirm our countrymen in these ideas, which have paralyzed, and still paralyze, the industrial and commercial enterprises of France.

It was under these circumstances, little favorable to its development, that the new school, shortly after transferred to the Hotel Sully in the rue Saint Antoine, was organized. Some large buildings, spacious courts, and a large garden were put at its disposal. A physical cabinet, a chemical laboratory, and collections of products were established at a large cost. A numerous personnel, too numerous perhaps, was brought together. Finally, the school assumed a uniform, carried a sword, and all its internal movements were carried on to the sound of a drum.

But besides these features, a little ambitions for the ends of a private school, a council composed of distinguished men, members of the institute, bankers, manufacturers, merchants, who comprehended and appreciated at its true value the attempt of MM. Brodard and Legret, devoted itself to framing a programme of instruction, an organization of studies, and modifying it according to necessity and assuring its execution. Having learned by study and experience what various qualities and what various branches of knowledge are indispensable to one who would undertake a commercial career, these men, among whom we find the names of Chaptal, Jacques Lafitte, Ternan, Louis Marchand, Casimir Périer, J. B. Say, Charles Dupui, etc., sketched out with a firm and sure hand the programme and the regulations of this new institution. Their wise provisions have been preserved in the school. They have served as a model, as a point of departure, for all the attempts of the same sort which have been made in France and in foreign countries. It was as a result of their advice, for example, that the new scheme of instruction was originally distributed into three years and divided into three departments or so-called "offices." No student could pass from one department to another without passing an examination. This council, which has continually maintained within the school its healthy traditions, the cause of its prosperity, is still in existence.

The beginning of the school was happy; pupils began to arrive promptly. One can even say without exaggeration that they came from every part of the globe. The proportion which has always maintained itself between French pupils and that of foreigners showed itself at the beginning, in the ratio of one-third or less of foreign students and two-thirds for France. The faculty, well chosen, learned, and devoted, knew how to carry out in a happy way the plans adopted by the council, and during the first two years the future appeared to be secure.

However, misfortune arrived. The charges of the school were heavy, and, in fact, high in proportion to the real capital of the enterprise. The continued success of the school would have been able to meet this loss, but the current began to change before the prolonged difficulties rendered more serious by political events. The faculty found it impossible to repair the losses under the circumstances. Faults of administration were added, the situation became each day more difficult, the school changed hands several times, and finally came to an end after the revolution of July. From 1820 to 1830 the Special School of Commerce was under the successive direetion of MM. Brodard and Legret, its founders; M. Monnier des Taillades, a former professor; M. L. Pelleport, a merchant; M. Poux-Franklin, and Adolphe Blanqui, directors of studies.

Adolphe Blanqui, who held the chair of history, commerce, an did not fear to undertake, upon his own personal account, an en that time had demanded so many victims.

Adolphe Blanqui was young, without wealth, already a father times were bad and the future threatening for his the heritage of ruin with a firm resolution to to ion which at that time narrowly followed t national labor," resolved not to allow an insti

to the diffusion of the principles of political economy and to commercial liberty, to which he had already devoted his life. He brought to this useful work an indefatigable activity, an inexhaustible and charming spirit, a wide experience, and the numerous and useful relations which his brilliant qualities and the gracious amenity of his character had gained for him.

Adolphe Blanqui changed the name of the school and called it the "Superior School of Commerce," which name it still bears to-day. He then transferred it from the magnificent Hotel Sully to the more modest location in the Rue Neuve Saint Gilles. There, as a wide administrator, he could limit the expenses and bring them into proportions better adapted to the resources of the moment. Followed by the pupils who loved him, surrounded by a small group of instructors faithful to the enterprise, he was an example to all of labor and devotion. He sacrificed his person and recoiled before no obstacle, and all this was done in such a way that in studying the history of this struggle, which lasted until his death, more than twenty-five years, one does not know which to admire the most-his courage, his activity, the variety of his knowledge, the fecundity of his genius, or the charming influence he exercised upon all who came near him.

The reputation of the institution increased with the growing celebrity of its director. The personality of Blanqui dominated it and protected it at the same time. Deputy from Bordeaux, elected a member of the institute in 1838, a brilliant writer, a popular professor, he threw upon the school the reflection of his own reputation. He created for it connections wherever his writings were read and appreciated. He drew upon it the attention of the Government, whose aid he secured for it, and the institution was then known throughout the entire world under the name of "Ecole Blanqui."

Another man who was also to acquire a certain celebrity, and to honor the school where he had been trained, and to contribute largely to its success was M. Joseph Garnier. Twenty years younger than its director, he became his coworker and then his partner. His lovely character, his just and kind spirit gained for him the sympathies of many by which the institution profited. He remained as a professor of the school until his death, almost five years after. Certainly one can say that if commercial instruction had found in the numerous economists who have held power since 1820 the devotion and assistance which these two men of whom we speak had given, the destinies of this instruction and consequently the economic condition of the country would have been entirely different. It is a great misfortune that men did not understand at that time the importance of such instruction, the necessity there was of developing it, of extending it, of sustaining it, and we are paying dearly to-day for this lack of insight on the part of our governors.

In 1839 the growing success of the Superior School of Commerce led Adolphe Blanqui to transfer it to the Rue Amelot, to the building which it still occupies. He could then undertake certain needed modifications which were not possible while the school was in the Hotel Sully. The institution was again to go through a period of embarrassment, which, although it did not affect the instruction of the school, nevertheless created great difficulties for its director. Finally, after a quarter of a century of persevering and courageous struggle, Adolphe Blanqui died prematurely in 1851, at the age of 56 years, without seeing the results of the efforts which his profound faith in the future of economic instruction had led him to undertake.

This École Blanqui, for one can fairly call it so since it had really become his work by virtue of all that he had done for it, was then acquired by M. Gervais de Caen. This able administrator, who knew how to improve the financial situation of the school and make of it a good business venture, said modestly of his own term of office "that it had come like the labors of the last hour, after the greatest heat and the severest labors of the day." He had, therefore, in his own words the easy merit of contributing to the solidity of the enterprise which had resisted so many storms. He brought to its succor financial resources and the skill of a sound, industrial, and commercial administration.

M. Gervais de Caen, who directed the school for thirteen years-that is to say, until his death in 1867-gave, at least to the pupils whom he had under his care, the future merchants and administrators, an example not to be despised, of a good, well-managed business enterprise, thanks to the order and economy of his management, showing those positive results which the labor of man ought to produce.

M. Gervais de Caen, moreover, did not apply his habits of industrial and commercial administration in a way prejudicial to the instruction of the school. He resolved to maintain the traditions which he had learned in his work with Blanqui. He urged upon the instructing body the loftiness of its mission, demanding of them to take the largest possible part in the incessant progress of science and of the special aid which it brings each day to commerce and to industry. Having outlived the storms, the Superior School of Commerce certainly achieved under his direction a normal rate of advance, reaching each year and oftentimes surpassing the figures fixed for its permanent numbers.

Interested in establishing the necessary discipline for the conduct of the studies, which had heen very much relaxed under the direction of Adolphe Blanqui, Gervais de Caen has expressed the following opinion resulting from his long experience: First, that one can not carry on the instruction and education of young men from 16 to 25 years without a personal and constant supervision; second, that in a great city like Paris with young men of this age, belonging almost always to families in easy circumstances, one can not influence efficiently the day pupils from the double point of view of instruction and education. In consequence, and although they were elements of financial profit, M. Gervais de Caen did not hesitate to exclude day pupils from the night courses of the school, nor did he believe in the isolated work in private rooms, and he suppressed this absolutely. This last point of view, which has been enforced since that time in the Superior School, and was later adopted by the School of Higher Commercial Studies, and also the view relating to the exclusion of day pupils and to the necessity of a discipline sufficiently severe to maintain the morals of the resident pupils, have appeared to us worthy of production in this place.

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At his death M. Gervais de Caen, who had no natural heirs, made a will in favor of the daughter of his predecessor. The direction of the school was intrusted provisionally to Aimé-Girard, who for ten years had occupied most brilliantly the chair of chemistry in this establishment. During the last two years of the preceding administration and the two years of the provisional administration which followed the number of pupils was not maintained; it even sensibly diminished. The only school in Paris where one could pursue commercial studies found it difficult to keep up its numbers; in spite of its brilliant past and its reputation without a rival, it had scarcely 70 pupils in 1869.

It was then that the Paris Chamber of Commerce, always solicitons for the interests of national commerce, was impressed with the situation. Its president, M. Deniére, thinking that such a school would secure a greater prestige in the eyes of merchants if it were patronized by the chamber, proposed to his colleagus its acquisition. In the session of the 27th of January, 1869, the chamber accepted the proposition of the president and authorized him to treat with Mademoiselle Blanqui for the purchase of the school and the hiring of the building which it occupied. The purchase was made at the price of 120,000 francs, and the rent of the buildings was fixed at 25,000 franes per year on the following 15th and 18th of February. The first task of the Paris Chamber of Commerce was to select a director of the school. It made a choice of one of the professors of the school, M. Schwaeblé, a former pupil of the polytechnic school, thus showing its firm intention of maintaining the traditions of the school and to raise, if possible, the scientific level of commercial studies, which it had just taken under its efficient and lasting protection. The chamber was happy in its choice of M. Schwaeblé as director, who saw the number of its pupils increase from 70 to 92 in its first year.

During the unhappy war of 1870 and the insurrection which followed the courses of the school were suspended. The building, changed into a hospital rendered very great services, and the faculty proved that it was equal to the most difficult tasks, and that it knew how to fulfill its duty on every occasion.

As soon as it was at all possible the courses were opened again, and the success of the school went on increasing. The chamber, studying the interests of Paris and its commerce, and desiring that the sons of merchants of our city should benefit to a greater extent by the special instruction of this school, decided in 1873 that day pupils, taking a lunch at the school, should be admitted from that time forward. As soon as this decision was made the number of pupils increased, and the figure of 130 was quickly reached and several times passed. We should like to go into details upon this phase of the school, and its remarkable achievements would furnish.us interesting descriptions under more than one head, but we must limit ourselves to absolute essentials.

M. Schwaeblé died in the month of July, 1880, some days after the close of the school year. He had been present at the distribution of the prizes, and he was said to have expressed the wish not to die before the close of the school year. The chamber of commerce had to appoint his successor. A former pupil of the polytechnic school had served it well, and it was again a former pupil of this school which the chamber chose to replace M. Schwaeblé. M. J. Grelley, professor of physics in the school and a friend of M. Schwaeblé, was appointed to succeed him. This choice was not less happy than the preceding one. For no person could have been better prepared for this difficult function than M. Grelley, nor more capable of performing it satisfactorily than he. Formerly a director of an important foundry, Initiated into practical affairs, a good accountant, M. Grelley bad been long familiar with administrative, industrial, and commercial questions. On the other hand, his position in the school which he was called upon to direct, the justness and amenity of his character assured him the devoted aid of his colleagues. Under the excellent direction of M. Grelley, assisted by the counsel of the members of the chamber of