The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-24
RELIGIOUS RIOTS OF PARIS
SYMPATHY FOR THE NUNS AND
 THEIR SCHOOLS.

Considerable Feeling Worked Up in
 Their B'hnIf-CoIIisiOns Between the
 CIericaIs and Counter Demonstrators
 -Antt.Clorical Nreetings-Thc Greatest
 Excitement in Brittany-Premier
 Combes Not Likely to Recede.
 Paris, July 23-The agitation pro- vokeG by the order of Prime Minister Con10es to close the congregationist schools recalls to some extent the scenes enacted when M. Ferry, then premier, expelled the Jesuits in 1880. Demonstrations in favor oS the nuns and teaching friars are taking place in Paris and many places in the provinces where the projects presented themselves at the schools and ordered that the in- stitutions be closed. Up to the present, however, no serious incident has been reported. The nationalists have joined the clericals in engineering the agita- tion and their leaders are in the fore front 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 os demonstrations The cler- icals called upon their sympathiZers to meet outside of the school conducted by the Sisters of St. Vincent of de Paul, in the northeast quarter of Paris, which was closed this afternoon and a con- siderable crowd gathered there, com- polling large body of police and mounted municipal guards to form cordon in the streets leading to the school. A few tritling collisions occur red between the clericals and counter demonstrators, who replied to the cleri- calls cries of Long live the good sis ters" and ''Vive la liberte" with Down with the priests" and Long live the re- public" A nationalist member of the chamber of deputies was arrested while trying to force his way through the police cordon, but was subsequently, re- leased.
 Anti-clerical meetings in the Latin quarter this evening led to some effer- vescence, but no noteworthy disorder A few students, followed by a crowd composed of the rougher element, marched up and down the Boulevard St. Michael till late hour. chanting anti-clerical refrains and shouting Down with the priests and the pope" but these fled at the sight of the mount ed guards ad patrols.
 The greatest excitement in the prov s, .,, aJo hold of Brittany. where the peasants have gathered in front of the nuns, schools in several places and declared they will not allow the nuns to be ex- pelled For instance, at Landerneau crowd of farmers and women have mounted guard before the school of the white sisters, awaiting. the arrival Of the police. The inhabitants of the vil- 1age of Ploudaniel, who also are guard ing the sisters school. seized lay school master and thrashed him with nettles. At la Bresse. in the depart ment of Vosges, the commissary of po- lice, accompanied by gendarmes, thrice tried to approach the congregationist school in order to effect it's closure, but was obliged to abandon the attempt be-
 
 population. At St. Ambroix, near Mines, the demonstrators detached the horses from carriages which were con- veying the sisters to the railway sta tion, and dragged the vehicles with their occupants, back to the convent. shout ing Down with the tyrants.' The gen. darmes were powerless to prevent the demonstrators from carrying out their plans and endorsements had to be summoned. Against these and similar incidents, however, must be set ooff the addresses in support of the government voted by many municipal councils.
 While considerable sympathy is felt with the sisters personally, Prime Minister Combes undoubtedly feels that he is supported by the mass of the country and is not likely to recede from the position he has taken up. The trouble is caused mainly by the ambig- uity of the wording of the law of asso- citations, which has led branches of the congregations, such a sthe schools now closed, to suppose that their position was legalized by the request for author ization made by headquarters. This was even the interpretation of the mat ter accepted by M. Waldeck- Rousseau. the former premier, but Prime Minister Combes takes contrary view.
 The Temps takes M. Combes severely to task. The establishments now clos ed, says the Temps, appear to have been drawn into a trap. an dthe paper points out that there are not enough lay schools to receive all the children turned into the streets and that primary instruction being obligatory, the gov- ernment should have provided accom- mediation 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 it allows the schools to ask for au- thorization and to reopen in the au- tumn it was not worth while to take the trouble to close them with such great