Within the last two or three decades, neither the Jesuit colleges nor the schools of the other Congregations in France were inferior to the State schools. The very contrary is true, as may be seen from the remarkable testimony of an anti-clerical writer in the Contemporary Review.[1] The article, "Monastic Orders up to Date," is filled with virulence against the religious orders, the Roman Congregations, and the Catholic Church in general. Yet the superiority of the schools of the religious over the State schools is candidly admitted. Speaking of the charges brought against the religious orders in France, the writer says: "The members of these communities have, it is said, taken elementary, intermediate, and technical education into their own hands, are successfully preparing youths for schools, professions, and university degrees, and supply both army and navy with officers. The official report on the Budget of Instruction for 1899, querulously affirms that they and their schools act as a sort of drain upon the natural clients of the University. But why should they not? They are more successful than their lay competitors, and more deserving of success. If the education which they give be very imperfect, and it is sometimes this and more, it is on the whole the best that is to be had in the country. Lay instruction in France is purely mechanical, that given by the Congregations is living and human. Both aim at cramming, but the religious teachers do their work efficiently and successfully, their rivals with a degree of slovenliness which is in-
- ↑ March, 1900, p. 441.
see Figaro, April 5 and June 2, 1879; De Badts de Cugnac, Les Jésuites et l'éducation, pp. 17, 19 foll.
