SECULAR EDUCATION.
[TO THE EDITOR OF VTR " SPECTATOR."] Sin,—I had occasion recently to make inquiry through some French correspondents as to the effect on personal and com- mercial integrity of educational legislation in their country. I have received a reply which is so conspicuous by its frank- ness and obvious sincerity that you may perhaps be able to find room for an extract which I have translated and enclose herewith. It will, I hope, give food for reflection to some who, in our own country, are advocating the " secular " solution of the educational problem.—I am, Sir, &c., 12 Evelyn Mansions, S.W. EVELYN HUBBARD.
[TRANSLATION.]
Paris, January, 1911.
DEAR SIR,—We beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter. It is certain that the want of religious education greatly affects the " moral" of those educated in Government schools, and if these youths do not belong to some family whose good principles counteract this disastrous influence, they fall an easy prey to the passions and to vice.
The Godless schools (" P ecole sans Dieu"), as they are commonly called, are the worst evil due to the Republic, and specially to the Government of the last ten or fifteen years. Our youth is now too deeply imbued with bad principles by masters who have no principles themselves for us to expect any rapid recovery from this deplorable state of things. Our country is not indeed want- ing in honest folk. . . . Criminals, thank God, are still a minority in our land, even though the statistics published by the Minister of Justice show an alarming increase of crime. We do not wish to blacken our own nation, but we must recognise that these pro- gressive evils are ominous for the future of our country. . . • Every age and every country, unfortunately, have their black sheep (" brebis galeuses "), and, though one must not generalise from par- ticular instances, our country seems to be more exposed to the contagion than others by reason of our famous " State morality" so much extolled by the schoolmasters and educationists of to-day.
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