The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-07-24
|CLERICALS
UP IN ARMS
Protests Against Closing
of Schools.
ENFORCING FRENCH LAW
Crowds Sympathize With
Nuns and FriarS.
Education is Compulsory and There
is Said to Be No Room in the
Lay Schools for the
Children.

Paris, July 23-The agitation provoked
by the order Of Prime Minister Combes
to close the Congregationalist schools re-
when M. Ferry, then Premier, expelled
the Jesuits In 1880.
Demonstrations In favor of the Nuns
and the teaching friars are taking place
In Paris, and many places in the prov
inces where the projects presented them
selves and at the schools. and ordered
that the institutions be closed. Up to
the present. however. no serious incidents
have been recorded.
The Nationalists have Joined the Clerf-
Gals in engineering the agitation. and
their leaders are in the forefront Of the
effervescence in Paris.
Considerable sympathy has been work.
ed up on behalf of the nuns, and their
schools have been made the particular
objects of demonstrations. The Clericals
called upon their sympathizers to meet
outside of the school conducted by the
Sisters OF st. Vincent de Paul, In the
northeast quarters of Paris, which was
closed this afternoon, and a considerable
crowd gathered there. compelling a large
body of police and mounted municipal
guards to form a Gordon in the streets
leading to the school.
A Few Collisions.
A few trifling collisions occurred be-
tween the Clericals ana counter demon
strators, who replied to the Clericals'
cries of Long live the good Sisters
and 'Vive la liberte," with Down with
the priests, ana Long live the repub-
lic"
A Nationalist member of the Chamber
OF Deputies was arrested while trying to
force his way through, the police Gordon,
but Was subsequently, released, A num-
Der Of antl-eierical meetings In the Latin
quarter this afternoon led to some efrer-
vescefiee, but no disorders few stu
dents. followed by crowd composed OF
the rougher element, marched up and
down the boulevard st. Michel till a
late hour chanting anti-Clerical refrains
ana shouting Down with the priests and
the Pope but these fed at the sight
of the mounted guards and patrols.
The greatest excitement in the provinces
is displayed in the Clerical stronghold
of Brittany, where the peasans have
gathered in front OF the nuns schools in
several places and declare they will not
allow the nuns to be expelled. At Lam
derneau a crowd of farmers and women
have mounted guard before the school
of the White Sisters awaiting the arri-
val of the police. The inhabitants of the
village of Ploudaniel, who also are
guarding the Sisters school, seized lay
schoolmaster and thrashed ffn with
nettles.
At La Bresse. in the department OF
Vosges. the commississary of police. ac
companied by Gendarmes. thrice tried
to approach the congregationist school in.
order to effect its closure, but was
obliged to abandon the attempt because
of threatening attitude of the population.
"Down with the Tyra ats"
At st. Ambroiz, near Mines, tho demon
strators detached the horses from the
carriages which were conveyed the sisters
to the railway station and dragged the
vehicles. with their occupants, back to
the convent, shouting Down with the
tyrants." The Gendarmes were power
less to prevent the demonstrators from
carrying out their plans and reinforce
ments had to be summoned. Against this
and similar incidents. however, must be
set off the addresses in support of the
government voted by many municipal
councils. While considerable sympathy
is felt with the sisters personally, prime
Minister Comes undoubtedly feels that he
is supported Dy the mass Oh the country
and is not likely to recede from the posi-
ton he has taken. The trouble Is caused
mainly by the ambiguity of the wording
of the law of the associations which has
led branches of the congregations, such
as the schools now closed to suppose that
their position was legalized by the request
for authorization. This was even the in
depreciation of the matter accepted by
M. Waldeck-Rousseau. the former min
lister. but Prime Minister Combes take
contrary view.
The Temps takes NJ. Combes severely
to task. The establishments now closed,
says The Temps, appear to have been
drawn into a trap and the paper points
out that there are not enough lay schools
to receive all the children turned into
the streets, and that primary instruc-
ton being obligatory, the government
should have provided accommodation in
the official schools. Twenty thousand
children in Paris alone will need schools.
The Temps asks what the government
intends to do, and adds: IF 1t allows
the schools to ask for authorization and
to reopen in the autumn, it was not worth
while to take the trouble TO close them
with such great noise"