The French Chamber on Saturday, the 22nd inst., reached what
was really a test vote on the separation of Church and State. The Opposition had prepared a number of interpella- Lions, and hoped for support from those moderate Liberals who, though hostile in principle to clericalism, think that the time for abolishing the Concordat has not arrived. Accord- ingly on Friday week, after the reactionaries had endeavoured to prove that M. Combes was forcing on a rupture with the Vatican, and was surrendering a right valuable to France of protecting all Roman Catholics abroad, M. Deschanel, the "brilliant" ex-President of the Chamber, and often named as one ambitious of the Presidency of the Republic, was put up to represent the moderate view. He also strongly emphasised the value of the protectorate ; but his main arguments were that the State ought to be impartial and neutral in the conflict between the Church and the civil power ; that the Budget of Public Worship was a guarantee against the financial inde- pendence of the Church, and therefore ought to be maintained; that the freedom of faith should be protected as wellas the freedom of unbelief ; and that the separation, if accomplished, should be accomplished by a Government which, unlike the present one, while devoted to free thought, respected religion, and which, in short, would do the work as gently as possible by some formula consonant not only with liberty, which was a much-abused word, but with reason and justice.
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