A WELL DESERVED SENTENCE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 188, 3 November 1876, Page 13

A WELL DESERVED SENTENCE.

4- 4- - ■ ■ The learned and honorable Order of the Jesuits, which has always preserved the chivalrous spirit of its soldier founder, vindicated itself from a foul aspersion and a vile calumny in Paris towards jfthe close of last week. About two months ago an examination -was held at the Sorboime for admissions to the Polytechnic School, and in the course of the proceedings it leaked out that some of the candidates had been informed of the questions to be put to them and their correct solution. The Radical journals, the ' Republique Francaise* (Ganibetta's paper), 'Les Droits de L'homwe' 'La France, 3 the 'Tribune/ the 'Peuple,' and the f ßien Public ' at once accused the Jesuit Fathers of being the delinquents, and forthwith launched forth into the most violent tirades against the Jesuit school in the Rue des Postes and its Superior, Father dv Lac. The Fathers protested their innocence and defended the credit of their school, and the matter excited such indignant interest on both sides that two Government Comniissions C> were issued to inquire into it. The evidence taken by the committee proved that the disclosures were made in other educational establishments, but the newspapers named abated not a -jot of their violent and libellous language against t-^e sons of Loyola. The honor of his order, the existence of his college at length compelled the long-patient Father de Lac to def end°hiinself publicly, so he summoned the proprietors of: the papers named before the Ninth Chamber of the Police Correctionelie, and the result is, thut after hearing the evidence and briefly consulting, the Judges returned into court with a sentence against the journalists, inflicting on each a fine of £80 sterling. The sturdy example of the Jesuit Fathers was followed by the parents of the boys maligned, and a similar fine was imposed in each case on this accusation. The liberty of the Press should be preserved with jealous care, but this is not a

case in which it was at stake. It was here the bigoted fury of t partisan that was arraigned for punishment. The calumny against the Jesuits, like many another, was spread all over the earth and into places where, perhaps, the news of its" being a vile concoction may nerer penetrate. And these are the weapons which the godless teachers of youth would use to undermine the structure of secular and religious learning built up age after age by the true Church !—! — ' Ulster Examiner/ August 5.