M. Combes has taken another stride towards the suppression of
monastic Orders in France. He has brought in a Bill sup- pressing all their schools, and prohibiting all monks and nuns from teaching, except in private. Substitutes for the schools thus abolished are to be supplied by the State at a cost of £2,400,000, besides £320,000 for an addition to the numbers of male and female teachers. The Bill is strongly resisted by most respectable members of the Republican party, such as M. Ribot, partly on the ground of the expense, which Id. Comber; is accused of understating, but chiefly as an infringement of the guaranteed liberties of the people, which it undoubtedly is. The disqualified teachers are citizens as well as monks, and as such entitled, when otherwise qualified, to set up schools. M. Combes, however, declares that Clerical teachers "deform the minds of French youth," and the Chamber appears to agree with him, for on Monday the Bill was declared " urgent " by 310 votes to 262. This is con- sidered fatal to any chance of resistance, and on Tuesday the debate in consequence became languid.
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