water, which is utilized on sewage farms. The larger sewers, which
vary between 9 and 20 ft. in width, are bordered by ledges, between
which the water runs, and are cleansed by means of slides exactly
fitting the channel and mounted on wagons or boats propelled by
the force of the stream. Of the main collectors, that serving the
north-eastern quarters of the city and debouching in the Seine at
St Denis is the longest (712 m.). The other main sewers converge
at Clichy, on the right bank of the Seine, where a powerful elevator
forces the sewage partly across the bridge, partly through a tunnel
acting as a syphon below the river-level, to the left bank. Thence
part of it is distributed over the estate of Gennevilliers, from which
it returns purified, after having fertilized the plots, to the Seine.
At Colombes a second elevator drives the surplus unused sewage
to the hills above Argenteuil (right bank), where begins a conduit
extending westwards. This conveys a portion of the sewage to a
third elevator at Pierrelaye, whence it is distributed on the hills of
Méry and the remainder to the Pare d’Achères (left bank), the irrigation
fields of Carrières-sous-Poissy (right bank), and finally those of
Mureaux, opposite Meulan. Certain parts of Paris lie too low for
their drains to run into the main sewers, and special elevators are
required to raise the sewage of the districts of Bercy, Javel and the
Cité. The sewers are used as conduits for water-pipes, gas-pipes,
telegraph and telephone wires and pneumatic tubes.
Lighting.—Gas-lighting in Paris is in the hands of a company whose operations are supervised and directed by municipal engineers. The company pays to the municipality an annual sum of £8000 for the privilege of laying pipes in the streets and 2 centimes for every cubic metre of gas consumed; in addition, the profits of the company, after a fixed dividend has been paid on the stock, are divided with the municipality. The company is bound to supply gas at 30 centimes per cubic metre to private consumers and at half that price for public services. In 1905 the total sum paid by the company amounted to nearly £1,000,000. It was provided that on the expiration of its charter the plant should be made over to the municipality. Electric light is supplied by a number of companies, to each of which in return for certain payments a segment (secteur électrique) of the city is assigned, though the concession carries with it no monopoly; the municipality has an electrical station of its own beneath the central markets.
Law and Justice (see France: Justice, for an account of the judicial system of the country as a whole).—Paris is the seat of four courts having jurisdiction over all France: (1) the Tribunal des Conflits, for settling disputes between the judicial and administrative authorities on questions as to their respective jurisdiction; (2) the Council of State, which includes a section for cases of litigation between private persons and public departments; (3) the Cour des Comptes; and (4) the Cour de Cassation. The first three sit in the Palais Royal, the fourth in the Palais de Justice, which is also the seat of (1) a cour d’appel for seven departments (seven civil chambers, one chamber of appeal for the correctional police, one chamber for preliminary proceedings); (2) a cour d’assises; (3) a tribunal of first instance for the department of Seine, comprising seven chambers for civil affairs, four chambers of correctional police; (4) a police court where each juge de paix presides in his turn assisted by a commissaire de police. Litigations between the departmental or municipal administrations and private persons are decided by the conseil de préfecture. Besides these courts there are conseils de prud’hommes and a tribunal of commerce. The conseils de prud’hommes settle differences between workmen and workmen, or between workmen and masters; the whole initiative, however, rests with the parties. There are four of these bodies in Paris (for the metal trades, the chemical trades, the textile trades and building industries), composed of an equal number of masters and men. The tribunal of commerce, sitting in a building opposite the Palais de Justice, is composed of business men elected by the “notables” of their order, and deals with cases arising out of commercial transactions; declarations of bankruptcy are made before it; it also acts as registrar of trademarks and of articles of association of companies; and as court of appeal to the conseils de prud’hommes.
Prisons.—There are three places of detention in Paris—the Dépot of the prefecture of police (in the Palais de Justice), where persons arrested and not released by the commissaries of police are temporarily confined, the Conciergerie or maison de justice, for the reception of prisoners accused of crimes, who are there submitted to a preliminary examination before the president of the court of assizes, and the Santé (near the Place Denfert-Rochereau), for prisoners awaiting trial and for remanded prisoners. The old prisons of Mazas, Ste Pélagie and La Grande-Roquette, the demolition of which was ordered in 1894, have been replaced by the prison of Fresnes-lès-Rungis for condemned prisoners. The prisoners, kept in solitary confinement, are divided into three groups: those undergoing short sentences, those sentenced to hard labour while awaiting transference to their final place of detention or to sentences over a year, and sick prisoners occupying the central infirmary of the prison. The Petit Roquette (occupied by children) was replaced by the agricultural and horticultural colony of Montesson, inaugurated in 1896.
Education (see also France).—In 1905 there were 170 public écoles maternelles (kindergartens) with 57,000 pupils, and 48 private schools of the kind with 7800 pupils, besides a certain number of écoles enfantines, exclusively managed, as are the écoles maternelles. by women, and serving as a link between the latter and the écoles primaires, for timid and backward children of from 6 to 8 years of age. There were 374 public primary schools with 173,000 pupils, while over 63,000 children were educated in private primary schools. Subsidiary to the primary schools are the caisses des écoles (school treasuries), which give clothing, &c., to indigent children and maintain the cantines scolaires for the provision of hot mid-day meals; the classes de garde and the garderies, which look after children beyond the ordinary school hours; the classes de vacances, school camps and school colonies for children during the holidays; and the internats primaires, which for a small payment board; and lodge children whose parents or guardians are unable to do so satisfactorily.
The higher primary schools (écoles primaires supérieures), which give a course of 3 or 4 years, number 86 for boys (Collège Chaptal,[1] écoles, J. B. Say, Turgot, Colbert, Lavoisier, Arago) and two for girls (Sophie Germain and Edgar Quinet). Supplementary courses take the place of these schools for children who can afford two years at most for schooling after leaving the primary school. Side by side with the higher primary school, the teaching in which has a commercial rather than an industrial bias, are the écoles professionelles, technical schools for the training of craftsmen. The École Diderot trains pupils in wood- and iron-working; the École Germain Pilon teaches practical drawing, and the École Barnard Palissy teaches applied art; the École Boulle trains cabinet-makers, and the École Estienne teaches all the processes connected with book-production. The school of physics and chemistry imparts both theoretical and practical knowledge of these sciences. The École Dorian is a school of the same type as the École Diderot, but is intended for very poor children, who are received from the age of seven and boarded and lodged. Six écoles ménagères train girls in the duties and employments of their sex. The municipality also provides gratuitous popular courses in scientific and historical subjects at the Hôtel de Ville, and there are numerous private associations giving courses of instruction (the Philotechnic Association, the Polytechnic Association, the Union française de la jeunesse, &c.). Teachers for the elementary primary schools are recruited from two training colleges in the city.
Secondary and Higher Education.—There are 13 lycées for boys and a municipal college—the Collège Rollin. These give classical and modern courses, and usually have classes preparing pupils for one or more of the government schools. For girls there are five lycées.
The five faculties of medicine, law, science, literature and Protestant theology, and the higher school of pharmacy, form the body of faculties, the association of which is known as the University of Paris. The faculties of science and literature, together with their library, are established at the Sorbonne, which is also the seat of the académie, of which Paris is the centre, and of the École des chartes. The faculty of medicine with its laboratories (école pratique) occupies separate buildings near the Sorbonne. The law school is also close to the Sorbonne. Of the 12,600 students at the university in 1905–1906 some 1260 were foreigners, Russians and Rumanians being most numerous among the latter. The faculty of law is the most largely attended, some 6000 students being enrolled therein. The Collège de France, founded by Francis I. and situated opposite the Sorbonne, gives instruction of a popular kind to adults of the general public; the various branches of learning are represented by over 40 chairs. The Museum d’histoire naturelle gives instruction in the natural sciences; the École pratique des hautes études, whose students are instructed at the Sorbonne and other scientific establishments in the city, has for its object the encouragement of scientific research. In addition, there are several great national schools attached to various ministries. Dependent on the ministry of education are the École normale supérieure, for the training of teachers in lycées; the École des chartes (palaeography and the use of archives); the École spéciale des langues orientales, for the training of interpreters; the École nationale et spéciale des beaux-arts (painting, sculpture, architecture, &c.), in the various departments of which are conferred the prix de Rome, entitling their winners to a four years’ period of study in Italy; the Conservatoire national de musique et de déclamation (music and acting), which also confers a grand prix and possesses a fine library and collection of musical instruments; the École nationale des arts decoratifs (art applied to the artistic industries); the École du Louvre, for the instruction of directors of museums. Depending on the ministry of war are the École polytechnique, which trains military, governmental and civil engineers; the École supérieure de guerre (successor of the officers’ training school, founded in 1751) for advanced military studies. Attached to the ministry of commerce and industry are the École centrale des arts et manufactures for the training of industrial engineers, works managers, &c.; the Conservatoire des arts et métiers, which has a rich museum of industrial inventions and provides courses in science as applied to the arts. The Institut national agronomique, a higher school of scientific agriculture, is dependent on the ministry of agriculture, and the École coloniale for the instruction
- ↑ The Collège Chaptal has a wider scope than the higher primary schools; it has in view general culture rather than commercial aptitude, and also prepares students for the great scientific schools (école des mines, école polytechnique, &c.).
