among his measures carried
through the Chamber of Deputies the notorious "Article 7" indirectly
aimed at Jesuit influence in _secondary_ teaching as well: "No person
can direct any public or private establishment whatsoever or teach
therein if he belongs to an unauthorized order." The Jesuits had at that
time no legal footing in France, but were openly tolerated. The Senate
rejected this article under the Freycinet Ministry and the law was
finally adopted thus apparently weakened. But Jules Ferry, nothing
daunted, immediately put into operation the no less notorious decrees of
March, 1880, reviving older laws going back even to 1762, which had long
since fallen into disuse. By these decrees the Jesuit establishments
were to be closed and the members dispersed within three months.
Moreover, every unauthorized order was, under penalty of expulsion, to
apply for authorization within a like limit of time. The expulsion of
the Jesuits was carried out with a certain spectacular display of
passive resistance on the part of those evicted. Later in the year
similar steps were taken against many other organizations.

It is evident from the above that the promotion of educational reform
under Republican control was definitely connected with measures directed
against clerical domination. The French Catholic Church, on its part,
treated every attempt toward laicization as a form of persecution. But
Jules Ferry unhesitatingly extended his policy when he became Prime
Minister. His measures were genuinely neutral, but his reputation as a
Voltairian freethinker and a freemason inevitably afforded his opponents
an excuse for their charges.

Jules Ferry's reforms in education, extending over several Cabinet
periods as late as 1882, included secondary education for girls, and
free, obligatory, lay, primary instruction. To Americans accustomed to
such methods of education it is difficult to conceive the struggles of
Jules Ferry and his assistant on the floor of the House, Paul Bert, in
carrying through these measures for the training of the democracy.

In foreign affairs Jules Ferry inaugurated a more active policy
symptomatic of the return of France to participation in international
matters. At the Congress of Berlin, France had avoided entanglements,
but, even at that early period, Lord Salisbury had hinted to M.
Waddington, present as French delegate, that no interference would be
made by England, were France to advance claims in Tunis