M. Jules Ferry delivered on Friday week, at Epinay, a
speech which has created unusual enthusiasm among French Liberals.. Its point was that the men who, in the Press, the Tribune, and all public assemblies called for the counter-revolution were trained by Jesuits ; and that if the Society were allowed to engage in education, it would so attract parents by offering their children comfort in the schools, that it would bring up a whole generation opposed to the generation trained. in the State schools,—in ideas, in objects, and in poli- tical aspirations. France would thus be divided against itself, and the ultimate result would be civil war. It was necessary to prevent such a catastrophe, and no• time was so good as the present, when the Government was strong from its newness, and supported by the immense majority of the people. This argument is applauded as wisdom even by the moderate Daais, but is nothing but the assertion of the right of the State to the monopoly of teaching,. lest a division of that function should end in a serious intellec- tual divergence among the next generation. The matter can be tested by changing the word " Jesuits " to " Hugaenots." Lads trained by Huguenots will grow up differing in ideas, objects, and aspirations from lads trained either by Catholics, how- ever moderate, or by sceptics. Has the State, therefore, the right to prohibit Huguenot teachers from educating Huguenot children ? Or if it has, where is the objection to a Catholic Government acting on the same principle, and suppressing heretical education, lest the new genera- tion should, in time, commence a civil war M. Ferry made a second point, which is also admired, that Jesuits resist or evade State inspection ; but nothing prevents his securing in- spection, by any legal strictness necessary, for all schools alike. Nobody has ever supposed that State inspection, in qualified. hands, and with a fair admixture of female inspectors for the more rigorous convents, would do schools any harm.
Previous page
