SOCIOLOGICAL INSTRUCTION A T PARIS 207
Turning to the two Parisian public higher academic institu- tions, we find that but four hours weekly are devoted in the Col- lege de France to economic topics, and eleven hours in the Universite de Paris. Most of the courses in political economy offered by the University form part of the curriculum of the Faculty of Law. It is necessary, furthermore, to add a word in explanation of the character of these courses. One of them on "Financial Legislation" occupying three hours weekly is in the main purely legal in character, treating of financial laws in themselves, of their interpretation rather than of their effects on the economic life of the nation. Another course, that on "Industrial Legislation and Economy," occupying two hours weekly, is likewise partly legal in its nature. The courses, how- ever, which I have added to give a total of eleven hours include these five hours about which it is very questionable whether they should have been counted at all.
In this comparison I have purposely left out of consideration the licole Libre des Sciences Politiques, which, though it offers a number of courses on subjects falling within the domain of political economy and finance, aims chiefly at the preparation of young men for the French administrative and diplomatic service.
The result, so disadvantageous for France, of the comparison I have carried out above is further fortified by the fact that French economic instruction is as a rule elementary, not to say rudimentary, in character, and incontestably inferior in scientific spirit to what the Germans offer. Moreover, the teaching of the universities too frequently deserves the name "official" so contemptuously applied to it. It too rarely avoids the tone of polemic. Many of the lectures are in form and contents more- like the argument of an advocate hired to defend a client or prove a prisoner guilty than like the fair dispassionate sum- ming up of the case by a judge whose sole desire it is to ascer- tain the truth. Right here lies the reason for the utter contempt with which economic theory, or, at all events, the official eco- nomic theory, is generally regarded in France. French profes-
