We have discussed elsewhere the motive of Prince Bismarck's -firmness
on the School Inspectors' Bill. That motive certainly is not any indifference to religious instruction or any sympathy with the Secularists. Indeed, if we may trust a telegram received yesterday from Berlin, Government still intends to make religion an essential part of the teaching of every public elementary school, though it proposes to grant the child a dispensation from reli- gious instruction in the school, on proof given that sufficient instruction in religion is obtained from other sources. Secularist parents, therefore, will not be allowed to withdraw their children frOm religious teaching on the ground that they teach them some- thing not religious, but intended to take the place of a religion, at home. Prince Bismarck has not reached anything like the amount of toleration for parental authority implied in our Con- science Clause. He will admit varieties of faith as conscien- tious, but not the absence of faith.
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