Not only were the endowments which provided for instruction confiscated but the educational staff, nearly all ecclesiastic, was one of the most proscribed among those proscribed.
Whilst military requisition and the closing of the schools suppressed the pupils, massacres, banishment, imprisonment, destitution and the scaffold suppressed the teachers.

Whilst the ruin of universities and colleges did away with theoretical apprenticeship, the ruin of manufactures and of trade abolished practical apprenticeship.

Through the long interruption of all studies, general instruction as well as special competency became rare product in the market .-- Hence it is that, in 1800, and during the three or four following years, whoever brought to market either one the other of these commodities was certain of a quick sale;[3342] the new government needed them more than anybody.

The moment the seller made up his mind, he was bought, and, whatever he may be, a former Jacobin or a former emigre; he is employed.

If he brings both commodities and is zealous, he is promptly promoted; if, on trial, he is found of superior capacity, he will, like Mollien, Gaudin, Tronchet, Pasquier and Mole, attain to the highest posts, for he finds scarcely any competitors.