The French Government is certainly " Radical " enough upon
the question of religion. Its new educational law provides that no religions teaching, even of the most undogmatic kind, shall be given within the school buildings, but that an addi- tional holiday (Thursday) shall be granted, during which religion may be taught, if the parents wish, in " un local 86pare." This clause has passed the Senate, by 156 to 121, after an attempt to allow religious teaching in the Town Hall, which the Govern- ment strenuously resisted. An effort was then made to allow the schoolmaster to teach religion out of hours, if he chose ; but the proposal was rejected, by 170 to 102, the Government adding that they would prevent this, even in the case of nuns. The pretext for this desperate secularism is, that if religious teaching were allowed in any way the priest would rule, but the_ real feeling even of the Senate must be that religions teaching is valueless or injurious. To understand the extreme length to which matters have now gone, we must remember that the Act will apply to girls' schools, though five-sixths of all mothers in France wish their daughters to have some religious in- struction.
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