The bitterness of the French Chamber against religion knows no
limits. On Tuesday, a motion was made for the abolition of all Prison Chaplaincies, and but for the Reactionaries, who for once voted with the Government instead of abstaining, would have been carried by three to one. As it was, it was only lost by a majority of 12, the numbers being 253 to 241. On Thurs- day, again, M. Bardeen actually proposed that some lads should be refused admission to the Naval School at Brest, because they had been educated at Jersey in schools kept by the Jesuits ex- pelled from France. A furious debate arose, M. de Cassagnac, of all men in the world, fighting hard for religious liberty, and asking whether French Catholics were to be prevented from dying for France. The motion did not go to a vote, but it is quite evi- dent that there was violent difference of opinion, for the Premier,. while asking M. Bardeen not to raise so great a question in so incidental a manner, but to bring in a Bill, said he had no- sympathy with parents who sought teachers out of France. It is stated, moreover, that N. Goblet, before the Committee on the Separation of Church and State, has made such statements that the Pope has addressed to the Nuncio a letter which says that if the engagements between the Church and the Republic are not kept, he shall know how to act. In other words, he will declare the Republic hostile to the Catholic Church. All this is going on, be it remembered, when France is in danger,. and requires every ally she can obtain.
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