The new French Premier, M. Combes, is fighting the Roman
Catholic Church through the police, which is a grave mistake. The unauthorised Orders have transferred their two thousand schools nominally to laymen, and demand that if they are interfered with it shall be after trial and sentence by the Courts. M. Combos, however, as Minister of the Interior, insists that the legal question is settled, and has ordered notices to be served on them to close within the week. This iolent measure will not endanger M. Combes's majority, as the Radical Deputies, if asked, would banish all monks without compensation; but it arouses bitter resentment among ardent Roman Catholics, and will increase their zeal for the overthrow of the Republic. It is, moreover, a stupid kind of persecution. If the Government thinks it indispensable to close the religious schools throughout France, it should license them, and charge heavily for the licenses. They would soon begin to die away.
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