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Show TYRANNY IN FRANCE. Mr. Stead, is a consistent friend of liberty. Other journalists in England may. deliberately overlook the efforts of the French government to stifle religious freedom because the people who are opposed are members of the Catholic church. Not so Mr. Stead. In the current issuojof the ''Review ''Re-view of Reviews" he. comments on the proviso of the Separation bill, which enacts that any minister of religion who attacks public officials in his sermons ser-mons or attempts to influence the electors or to jeiu; to illegal acts is punishable by. fine or im pris6umciit;. ,Thi minister of religion is in Mr. lead's opinion, worth very little who, when great moral issues come before the country, does not attempt at-tempt to influence the electors. Under-this kind of guaranteed liberty, he points out,. half the son-conformist son-conformist ministers in England and Wales, two-thirds two-thirds of the Catholic priests in Ireland, and a considerable number of the Presbyterian ministers minis-ters iu Scotland would find themselves in the police courts at the next general election. Mr. Stead warns the French government, who have yet to learn the alphabet of religious toleration, tolera-tion, that it is a mistake to gag the church. But they are infatuated by a hatred of Christianity, and care not what happens if they can deal it a severe se-vere blow. |