Page:Jesuit Education.djvu/238

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218
JESUIT EDUCATION.

ships. Hitherto the winners of scholarships had been listed in the order of merit, with the mention of the college or school to which they belonged. Now all the winners were to be arranged alphabetically, with no mention of the institutions to which they belong. Several reasons were given for this change, but the suspicion has been expressed that the real motive was to prevent the Jesuit college from occupying so large a place in the public eye.[1] It may appear unfair to make such a charge; however, such suspicions have been expressed by men who are not Jesuits, nor biased towards the Society. Thus, about twenty years ago, Albert Duruy said of the movement against religious orders in France and the Jesuits in particular: "Without proofs, without thorough inspection, they slander and accuse the congregations... They do not try to compete with them, they find it simpler to suppress them."[2] In fact, the recent movement in France against religious orders has been ascribed, undoubtedly with good reasons, to the same motive.

A few years ago there was an attempt made in France to introduce a Bill to suppress the religious schools, which (at the expense of the State schools) were gaining more and more in public favor. A Parliamentary commission was then appointed which was presided over by M. Ribot, and which took a quantity of very valuable evidence from various witnesses. Nothing, however, as may be seen from M. Ribot's report,[3] was established against the Jesuits or any other religious schools; on

  1. From the North-West Review, August 22, 1900.
  2. Revue des Deux Mondes, 1880, I.
  3. La réforme de l'enseignement secondaire. Armand Colin, Paris.