THE POSITION OF M. COMBES.
WE retain our conviction that in assailing the schools maintained by the monastic Orders the statesmen now ruling France have committed a serious blunder. They have irritated that section of the nation which, whether from religious or political feeling, is fervently Clerical almost to frenzy, so that its patriotism is absorbed in a stronger emotion, and it will stop at nothing, not even treason, if only it may overthrow, or even greatly discredit, the Republic. The rulers have inspired half France with a feeling of pity for the nuns, who are not hated even by their opponents, as the monks are ; and above all, they have succeeded in what seemed to be impossible, that is, in connecting, by however subtle a thread, the ideas of Clericalism and of liberty. If a man may not teach to children at his own expense the religious ideas which the parents of those children wish to have taught, he has prima facie reason for saying that he and the parents and the children are deprived of liberty. It would have been far better to close all monasteries whatever as injurious to the State, leaving the nunneries and their female pupils alone until their schools were emptied by a change of opinion. We must, however, as impartial onlookers, acknowledge that M. Combos is a stronger man than we imagined, and whatever the results of his policy, may succeed in carrying it out. It is clear from his speech of Monday to the Republican Committee of Commerce and Industry that the French Premier is a determined man, that he spurns the notion of compromise, and that he fuses together in his mind the two ideas, which have no necessary connection, of Republicanism and "laicisation." No fiercer speech against Clerical- ism has been uttered even in France since the Terror fell. It is one which almost makes us believe the otherwise absurd rumour that M. Combes proposes one day to make of education a State monopoly, and compel all France to be taught from childhood in the same way and by the same lay teachers. He declares that his Ministry will not falter, that the monks shall not continue "their work of moral enslavement," that "France shall not be cut in two by the deeper and deeper chasm cleft in it for half a century by monasticism between the two halves of her youth." There is something of the strong dogmatism of the trained schoolmaster in M. Combes, as well as the resolute governing faculty, and he does not hesitate to avow something like a loathing for his Clerical antagonists. He satirises the recalcitrants who met the gendarmerie with slop-pails as "priests with indulgent nost:ils," and talks of "the braggart threats of a cowled nationalism" with a haughty contempt which must be intended to indicate that no terms of peace not founded on the submission of the Church are to him conceivable. He will, he declares, make the Republic so victorious that to oppose it shall be fatal to all claim to enter the service of the State, and in his view, despite the fact that France maintains the Roman Catholic Church out of taxation, the State must become "lax." He commits himself, his Government, and the Republic to a struggle which can only end either in the complete submission of the Church, or in his own final overthrow.
It is by no means certain that he will lose the battle. As we have repeatedly pointed out, the Chambers have always been more irreligious than the people, the Senators and Deputies belonging usually to classes which are essen- tially Voltairian, and smarting under the language of their Clerical opponents, who, it must be admitted, indulge in a fury of expression as inconsistent with good manners as with Christianity. The Deputies have always been less moderate than the Government, and would probably accept measures much more drastic than have yet been EmPosed by any serious legislator since the time of Bapo.lee n. Many of them are filled with the kind of fanaticism which makes them regard attendance at Mass as a crime in an official justifying dismissal, and many more have an intellectual contempt for the obscurantism which the less educated Roman Catholiz clerov thick beneficial, or even necessary to the maintenance of faith. They will not, of course, disobey their constituents; but it is very doubtful whether their constituents care much about their anti- Clerical policy. Acute observers tell us that outsiders fail to perceive the depth of the indifference to religious questions which of late years has spread through France. A section of the electors grow furious when the Church is excited, but the majority are entirely secular, and so long as certain observances at marriage or burial are provided for, display no interest in any ecclesiastical controversies whatsoever. It seems to be certain that the Government has received thousands of adhesions from municipal bodies throughout France, and they would not have been sent up had not those who sent them felt pretty sure of the general trend of opinion. Moreover, it is not certain that even the Church as a whole is much irritated. The Orders have contrived to alienate many Bishops and more cuth. They demand a kind of strenuous observance which the average peasant has not to give, and they have of late—not unnaturally under the circumstances—made the immense mistake of linking themselves closely with the anti-Republican parties, whom the ordinary French- man of the provinces regar4s with a sleepless distrust. There is too much, he thinks, of the ancient regime about their talk and their ways. Social jealousy operates very strongly still in France, and the opposition of the upper classes to the Republic does but make the majority more zealous in its defence. If the monks wish its overthrow, then, thinks the average Frenchman, the monks must go. It is clear that this sentiment of the people has been strongly reported to the Vatican, or the Pope would not confine himself to expressions of " sadness " at the policy of M. Combes, nor would so many ecclesiastical authorities in France be suspected of what till Napoleon established the Concordat was known as Gallicanism. If the electors are favourable to him, even to the extent of indifference, M. Combes will continue, in the absence of any new question, to hold power.
French politics and personages are always interesting even when they do not concern the world ; but the import- ance of this particular question does not depend upon M. Combes's personality. It is the Republic which is valuable to Europe, for the Republic implies peace. The Republican leaders know well that the moment the soldier becomes all- important their reign will be over, and most of them are sincerely interested in the internal reforms to which, as M. Combes clearly told his audience, war would be fatal. The finances of France must be put straight or there will be a calamity, and even M. Rouvier shrinks, we regret to see, from drastic reforms, and hopes to postpone the evil day of heavy direct taxation by using windfalls like the profits of con- version, and by modest alterations in the liquor laws. Some kind of concession must be made to the artisans, who com- plain everywhere of insufficient pay and a total absence of security ; and every concession of the kind arouses class hatreds and a feeling, very strong in France, that if the owners of property are compelled to yield to the humanitarian senti- ment, they will at last be compelled to make still larger concessions to the sentiment of equality. There are evi- dences also that the prosperity of France, as revealed by the returns of savings-banks and the statistics of trade, is not increasing pan i pasta with that of her neighbours and rivals, and this fact gives a handle to the discontented which the Republic must remove or else lose its glamour. Altogether the Republicans, though they have strengthened their Army, and though, as M. Combos says, "they are resolute to draw the sword if necessary for the safeguard- ing of her honour and her rights," are heartily desirous of peace. That is their claim on us and on the world, and it is one which even Conservatives, however doubtful of some of the tendencies of Republican thought—and we quite acknowledge how dangerous some of them are—ought not to forget.
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