COLE EOLYTECHNIQUE is one of the most celebrated military academies in France. In 1793, all the public establishments in Paris were in a convulsed state, owing to the revolution. In 1794, M. Lamblardie, director of the Fonts et Chaussees, proposed the establishment of an Ecole Centrale des Travaux Publics, to educate young men for mili tary, naval, and civil engineering. Monge and Cannot favoring his plan, it was carried out, and a school established at the palais Bourbon. The first list of professors com prised names which afterwards acquired European celebrity—including those of Lagrange, Prony, Monge, Hachette, IIassenfratz, Fourcroy, Vauquelin, Berthollet, Chaptal, Pelletier, Guyton-Morvean, and Merimee. In 1795, the name was changed to E. P.; many alterations were made in the organization; artillery studies were included in the course; and the pupils were ordered to wear a uniform. When Napoleon went to Egypt, 40 pupils from the E. P. accompanied him, many of whom greatly distin guished themselves. Napoleon made the organization of the school more strictly military in 1804, to identify it more fully with the army. The school was dissolved in 1816, again in 1830, and again in 1832, on account of the impetuous way in which the pupils mixed themselves up with the political disturbances of those years; but as the school suited the military genius of the French nation, it was re-established on each occasion, after the restoration of tranquillity. Candidates can be admitted only by competitive
examinations, which take place yearly. A proclamation from the war office, made public before the 1st of April, informs intending competitors of the subjects on which they are to be examined, and the time when the examinations begin. To be eligible as a candidate, the youth must be French, and must be more than sixteen, and less than twenty years of age before the 1st of Jan. following; but soldiers are admissible up to the age of twenty-five, provided they can give proof of two years of service in the regu lar army. The cost of board alone is 1000 francs (nearly £42) a year. A complete course of instruction lasts for two years; when the pupils who have satisfactorily passed the final examinations have the privilege of choosing, from among the various public services supplied from this school, the particular branch they wish to enter, such as artillery, engineers, the staff, the department of telegraphs, or some of the other govern ment monopolies. The school was reorganized by a decree of the 15th April, 1873.