Clause 7 of M. Ferry's Bill, which disqualifies the teachers
of the unrecognised religious Orders from giving the instruction needful for a University degree, was passed on Wednesday, in the Chamber of Deputies, by 330 votes against 185; and the Bill itself by 362 votes against 159. Apparently the ablest speech against the bad clause—Clause 7—was made by M. Lon Renault, who showed that so long as the Jesuit Order in France is not dissolved by the Government, the Law Courts have refused to interfere with their liberty of action; and that if the State wishes really to get rid of the Jesuits, it will have to tear up the Concordat, encroach on the reli- gious domain, and enter into the history of all ecclesiastical procedure, in the whole of which the Jesuits have, by their learning and ability, obtained a very powerful influence. The true policy, he said, is not to make these petty assaults on scraps of the teaching of various religious orders, but to stimu- late sound competition with the teaching the Government dis- trust,—to win over the parents by offering them better teaching for their children than the Jesuits offer. That, is no doubt,. the truly statesmanlike suggestion. The Jesuits succeed not in any great degree by their sacerdotal influence, but chiefly by their cleverness, painstakingness, and sagacity as teachers and men of the world. The most telling speech on the other side was made by M. Paul Bert, the famous physiologist and vivisectionist, who raked up all the world- famous charges against the immoral casuistry of the Jesuits. As, however, M. Paul Bert's own moral code is consistent with the deliberate infliction of very cruel torture on the highest of the brutes in the so-called cause of science, as the report of the English Vivisection Commissioners painfully proved, we should hardly be disposed to regard him as a final authority on the casuistry of education. However, the Ferry Bill has now passed the Chamber. What will be its reception in the Senate will scarcely be seen during the present Session.
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