the same time be religious. Without speaking of professing
Christians, many heads of families, even lukewarm, indifferent or
skeptical, judge that this mixture of the two is better for children,
and especially for girls. According to them, knowledge and faith should
not enter into these young minds separate, but combined and as one
aliment; at least, in the particular case in which they were concerned,
this, in their view, was better for the child, for themselves, for the
internal discipline of the household, for good order at home for which
they were responsible, for the maintenance of respect, and for the
preservation of morals. For this reason, the municipal councils,
previous to the laws of 1882 and 1886, still free to choose instruction
and teachers as they pleased, often entrusted their school to the
Christian Brethren or Sisters under contract for a number of years, at
a fixed price, and all the more willingly because this price was very
low.[63102] Hence, in 1886, there were in the public schools 10,029
teachers of the Christian Brethren and 39,125 of the Sisters. Now, since
1886, the law insists that public instruction shall be not only secular,
but that lay teachers only shall teach; the communal schools, in
particular, shall be all secularized, and, to complete this operation,
the legislator fixes the term of delay; after that, no member of a
congregation, monk or nun, shall teach in any public school.

Meanwhile, each year, by virtue of the law, the communal schools are
secularized by hundreds, by fair means or foul; although this is by
right a local matter, the municipal councils are not consulted; the
heads of families have no voice in this private, domestic interest which
touches them to the quick, and such a sensitive point. And likewise, in
the cost of the operation their part is officially imposed them; at the
present day,[63103] in the sum-total of 131,000,000 francs which primary
instruction costs annually, the communes contribute 50,000,000 francs;
from 1878 to 1891, in the sum-total of 582,000,000 francs expended
on school buildings, they contributed 312,000,000 francs.--If certain
parents are not pleased with this system they have only to subscribe
amongst themselves, build a private school at their own expense, and
support Christian Brothers or Sisters in these as teachers. That is
their affair; they will not pay one cent less to the commune, to the
department or to the State, so that their tax w