37. Kings, aristocrats and tyrants, whoever they may be, are slaves in rebellion against the sovereign of the earth, which is mankind, and against the legislator of the universe, which is nature.

37. Decree upon the Deputies on Mission.

April 30, 1793. Moniteur, May 3, 1793. 281-283).

(Reimpression, XVI,

Among the institutions of the revolutionary government there was none more characteristic than the deputies on mission. (They are also known as the representatives on mission.) The first appearance of the system was at the time of the King's flight; after the 10th of August it developed rapidly. This decree applied only to the deputies sent on mission to the armies, but their powers were typical of all those sent out. It simply defined what had already grown up in practice. In No. 45 the duties and powers of the deputies on mission are more fully set forth.

REFERENCES. Gardiner, French Revolution, 146-147; Stephens, French Revolution, II, 320, 364-371, 548-554; Aulard, Revolution Francaise, 342-348.

The National Convention, after having heard the report of its Committee of Public Safety

decrees:

I. All the powers delegated by the convention to the commissioners whom it has appointed to repair to the departments for recruiting, to the armies, upon the frontiers, coasts and in the harbors, are revoked. All the deputies who are on mission, except those hereinafter named, shall return directly to the body of the assembly.

9. The commissioners of the Convention to the armies shall bear the titles of representatives of the people sent to such army; they shall wear the costume decreed the current April 3.

IO. The representatives of the people sent to the armies and the generals shall co-operate in order to make appointments immediately for all the posts vacant or which shall come to be vacant, whether by death, resignation or dismissal, in con. formity with the method of promotion which has been decreed; and in cases of urgency and the lack of persons who have the

qualifications required by the law, they can appoint provisionally and for fifteen days only.

II. The representatives of the people sent to the armies shall exercise the most active surveillance over the operations of the agents of the executive council, all contractors and dealers for the armies, and over the conduct of the generals, officers and soldiers; they may suspend all civil agents and appoint [others] provisionally.

12. They can also suspend the military agents, but they can replace them only provisionally until after the approval of the Convention for suspension or until the persons appointed or elected in virtue of the law have arrived at their posts.

13. They shall look after the condition as regards defence and supply of provisions for all places, forts, harbors, coasts, armies and fleets of their district; they shall cause inventories to be prepared for all the magazines of the Republic, and they shall cause an account to be rendered daily of the condition of all the descriptions of supplies, arms, provisions and munitions.

14. They shall cause inspection to be made of all the armies and fleets of the republic; they shall cause to be returned every fifteen days lists of the effectives of each corps, signed by the civil and military agents; they shall take all measures which they shall deem suitable to accelerate the armament, equipment and incorporation of the volunteers and recruits in the existing organizations, and the armament and equipment of the fleets of the Republic; in these operations they shall co-operate with the admirals, generals and division commanders, and other agents of the executive council.

15. In case of insufficiency of the forces decreed, they may make requisition upon the National Guards of the departments, whom they shall cause to be organized into battalions after the method which shall be decreed; they shall also make requisition for the mounted National Guards, in order to complete the existing organizations; and when the organizations shall be complete, they can form new squadrons of them, making use of pleasure horses and those of the Emigrés or those which can be procured.

16. They shall take all measures to discover and to cause to be arrested the generals, and to cause to be arrested and

arraigned before the revolutionary tribunal every military man, civil agent and other citizens who may have aided, favored or advised a conspiracy against the liberty and security of the Republic, or who may have plotted for the disorganization of the armies and fleets and squandered the public funds.

17. They shall cause to be distributed to the troops the bulletins, addresses, proclamations and instructions of the Convention, which shall be addressed to the armies by the committee of correspondence; they shall employ all the means of instruction which are in their power, in order to maintain there the republican spirit.

18. The representatives of the people sent to the armies are invested with unlimited powers for the exercise of the powers which are delegated to them; they can make requisition upon the administrative bodies and all civil and military agents; they can act in the number of two and can employ the number of agents which shall be necessary for them. Their orders shall be executed provisionally.

20.

The representatives of the people sent to the armies shall render account of their operations, at least each week, to the Convention; they shall be required to address each day to the committee of public safety the record of their operations, copies of their orders and proclamations, and of all inventories and lists of supplies, which they shall have caused to be drawn up; they shall also address each day to the committee of finance and to the national treasury a detailed account of the lists of expenses which they shall have examined and endorsed.

21. The committee of public safety shall present each week to the Convention a summary report of the operations of the various commissioners; the committee of finance shall also make each week a report of the expenses examined and approved by them; these reports shall be printed and distributed.

22. The representatives of the people sent to the armies shall be renewed by half each month; they shall return to the Convention only after an authorisation given by it, except in urgent cases, and in virtue of a decree of the commission with a statement of reasons.

23. The committee of public safety shall furnish instructions to the representatives of the people sent to the armies, in order to secure uniformity in their operations.

26. The representatives of the people sent to the armies, who are appointed by the present decree, shall continue, each in his district, the supervision over the recruiting and the organization into departments and districts of the countries recently united to the Republic.

27. The committee of public safety shall send the present decree to the commissioners of the Convention at present on mission. Those who are appointed by the present decree shall repair directly to their new posts, and those who are at present with the armies shall remain there until they may be replaced.

38. Documents upon the Convention and Education.

The Convention was greatly interested in education. Much time was devoted to the formulation of educational plans, even at the most critical stages of national danger. The plans first adopted were frequently changed. Of the plans here given the first two represent the most ambitious schemes of the Convention for primary and secondary schools respectively. Document C is the final scheme for the whole educational system.

REFERENCES. Stephens, Yale Review, IV, 314-323; Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire Generale, VIII, 534-556.

A. Decree upon Primary Education. May 30, 1793. Duvergier, Lois, V, 309.

I. There shall be a primary school in all places which have from four hundred to fifteen hundred persons.

This school shall serve for all the inhabitants except people who shall be more than a thousand toises distant.

2. There shall be in each of these schools a teacher charged to instruct the pupils in the branches of knowledge necessary to citizens in order to exercise their rights, to discharge their duties and to administer their domestic affairs.

3. The committee of public instruction shall present the proportional method for the more populous communes and the cities.

4. The teachers shall be charged to give lectures and instruction once per week to citizens of every age and of both

sexes.

5. The project of the present decree presented by the committee of public instruction shall be irrevocably placed as the order of the day for every Thursday.

B. Decree upon Secondary Education. February 25, 1795 (29 Ventôse, Year III). Duvergier, Lois, VIII, 29-30.

Chapter I. Institution of the Central Schools.

1. For instruction in the sciences, letters and arts there shall be established in the entire extent of the Republic cen tral schools distributed on the basis of population; the proportional basis shall be one school for three hundred thousand inhabitants.

2. Each central school shall be composed of, 1st, a professor of mathematics; 2d, a professor of experimental physics and chemistry; 3d, a professor of natural history; 4th, a professor of agriculture and commerce; 5th, a professor of the method of the sciences or logic; 6th, a professor of political economy and legislation; 7th, a professor of the philosophical history of peoples; 8th, a professor of hygiene; 9th, a professor of arts and crafts; 10th, a professor of general grammar; 11th, a professor of belles-lettres; 12th, a professor of ancient languages; 13th, a professor of the living languages most appropriate to the localities; 14th, a professor of the arts of design.

3. In all the central schools the professors shall give their lessons in French.

4. They shall have every month a public conference upon matters which affect the progress of the sciences, letters and arts most useful to society.

5. At each central school there shall be, Ist, a public library; 2d, a garden and a cabinet of natural history; 3d, a cabinet of experimental physics; 4th, a collection of machines and models for the arts and crafts.

6. The committee of public instruction remains charged to cause to be composed the elementary books which must serve for the instruction in the central schools.