An Advance Move in France.
A new step in the onward progress of Republicanism in France is the movement for freeing the educational institutions of the nation from the withering influence of the Jesuits. The Committee on the Higher Education bill introduced by the government, are largely in favor of the measure, which states that according to existing law foreigners are not allowed to teach in France, and declares that “the same exclusion should apply to an order essentially foreign by the character of its doctrines, nature, and aim, and its statutes.” The Jesuits now have 27 colleges in France, with 848 teachers, and there are 26 other communities having 61 establishments and 1,089 teachers, who would be deprived by this bill of the right of teaching. Of course, there is great excitement in clerical circles, and the papal organ at Rome bitterly denounces the measure, but we trust the government may be able to put its foot on the deadliest enemy of its free institutions.—Christian Weekly.