M. Combes, the French Premier, appears determined to • carry
on his war against monastic institutions. While declining to accept a proposal introduced by M. Girard which would debar any person vowed to celibacy from teaching in any school, he pledged himself on the 12th inst. in a speech in tbe Senate to introduce a Bill interdicting all members of re- ligious Orders from teachingm primary, intermediate, or higher
• schools. He might even go further on M. Girard's lines; but he -thought that he should wait until France had decided next
year whether she would or would not disestablish the Church. No vote was taken; but the Ministry, though divided upon details, seems resolute in its hostility to monks and nuns. It is said that the Bill will close three thousand five hundred educational establishments, whose pupils must be provided with • instruction by the State. The expense will be great, and there may yet be opposition from an unexpected side. The'Bill, it will be perceived, is hostile not only to religious liberty, but to the principle of liberty itself, inasmuch as it refuses liberty of association. A man does not cease to be a citizen because he is a monk.
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