One of the indications of the secularistic tone of the
Govern- ment, as well as of the Assembly, is the reception given to General Farre's declaration against special Army chaplains, except in cases of the mobilisation of the troops, or in case of any camp or fort upwards of five kilometres—about three miles—distant from a regular church. General Farre, the Minister of War, declared that he should himself have pro- posed the repeal of the Army Chaplains' law of 1874, if nobody else had done so, since he held that the influence of the ordinary Army chaplains, when acquired at all, was acquired at the expense of the officers ; whereupon the repeal was adopted by 342 votes against 111, or by more than three to one. The main objection to this step is, that it is hardly possible for the ordinary parochial clergy to give any serious attention to the spiritual condition of soldiers quartered amongst them in any number ; and also that whenever the Army takes the field, the temporary chaplains can, of course, know nothing of the soldiers under their charge. If this measure is popular, or even not unpopular, with the French Army, the Army chaplains must have greatly neglected their duty.
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