The Parisians were interested on Thursday in a ceremonial which
may prove of importance in the history of Continental education. It was the inauguration of the " University of Paris." The Republicans have resolved to break up the ex- cessively centralised system, under which there is practically but one University in France, and to restore in the great centres the older system abolished by Napoleon I., under which every University can grant degrees on its own respon- sibility, There are still many restrictions, but if the new system works it is hoped and believed that great varieties will be introduced into the methods of the higher culture, so that there might be practically a Cambridge, an Oxford, and a Victoria University in France. The best minds have for some time past urged this experiment, but it was resisted for fear that intellectual localism might become political localism. So strong is this feeling that, although the Assembly has consented to the innovation, the Minister of Public In- struction devoted his speech on Thursday to proving that it was not anti-Republican, while the principal non-official speaker, M. Lavine, anxiously demonstrated that it tended to extend equality. By and by perhaps we shall hear that local differences will be allowed in Lycees, so that every scholar in France will not be learning Ca-ear at one and the same moment of time.
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