ill be double and they
will pay twice, first for the primary instruction which they dislike,
and next for the primary instruction which suits them.--Thousands of
private schools are founded on these conditions. In 1887,[63104] these
had 1,091,810 pupils, about one fifth of all children inscribed in
all the primary schools. Thus one fifth of the parents do not want the
secular system for their children; at least, they prefer the other
when the other is offered to them; but, to offer it to them, very large
donations, a multitude of voluntary subscriptions, are necessary. The
distrust and aversion which this system, imposed from above excites can
be measured by the number of parents and children and by the greatness
of the donations and subscriptions. Note, moreover, that in many of
the other communes, in all places where the resources, the common
understanding and the generosity of individual founders and donators
are not sufficient, the parents, even distrustful and hostile, are now
constrained to send their children to the school which is repugnant
to them.--In order to be more precise, imagine an official and daily
journal entitled Secular journal, obligatory and gratuitous for children
from six to thirteen, founded and supported by the State, at an average
cost of 582,000,000 francs to set it agoing, and 131,0000,000 francs
of annual expenditure, the whole taken from the purses of taxpayers,
willingly or not; take it for granted that the 6,000,000 children, girls
and boys, from six to thirteen, are forced subscribers to this journal,
that they get it every day except Sundays, that, every day, they are
bound to read the paper for six hours. The State, through toleration,
allows the parents who do not like the official sheet to take another
which suits them; but, that another may be within reach, it is necessary
that local benefactors, associated together and taxed by themselves,
should be willing to establish and support it; otherwise, the father
of a family is constrained to read the secular journal to his
children, which he deems badly composed and marred by superfluities and
shortcomings, in brief edited in an objectionable spirit. Such is the
way in which the Jacobin State respects the liberty of the individual.

On the other hand, through this operation, it has extended and fortified
itself; it has multiplied the institutions it directs and the persons
whom it controls. To direct, inspect, augment and diffuse its p