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PREFACE.

“ In the month of August, M. le Comte D’Allon-ville, whilst presiding at the distribution of prizesat this school, informed the public, that M. Dar-lay, Professor in the Royal College of Clermont, in-tended to open a gratuitous course, on geometry andmechanics applied to the arts, in the evening, for thebenefit of the working classes.

“ M. Petit, engineer des fonts et chaussies, is en-gaged in establishing the same plan of instructionin the manufacturing town of Louviers: and seve-ral great manufacturers have promised to employ alltheir interest in performing the same service forthe towns of Elboeuf and Sedan .

“ Some professors and engineers, animated by agenerous desire to promote the public good, haveproposed to deliver lectures at Cimoges, Poitiers ,Tonnerre, Aix, Strasbourg , Rennes , Douay, Va-lence, &c. In all places these offers have beenreceived with a just and lively gratitude.

“ It thus appears, that on the 26th of October,1824, instruction was afforded to the workingclasses at a single point only in France , and thatpoint the capital.

“ On the 26th of October, 1825, this insl 'uction,every where gratuitous, is offered to all the me-chanics of fifty-nine towns : the population of whichamounts to 2,040,000.”

The farther progress of these valuable arrange-ments for multiplying popular instruction, Dupinhas exhihited in the following passage:—“ Thiswinter (Dec. 1826), thanks to the benevolence and