Patriotism an Offence The world is watching with close attention trials of certain former. leaders of France on charges of "sar guild." That may be one reason why the government at Vichy seems to be pre= apy real news about these trials Zrom getting to the public; it may be that a cence shame would prefer to have these indecent proceedings buried. But they will not be Zotten, By the outcome of these trials will the sincerity of the Petain regime be judged. M. aig Be att attri of Germany. Under M. Daladier France went fee emo a ate Sunday School Founder Today is the 205th anniversary of the bixth of Robert Raikes. That may not mean much to many people nowadays, but for the generations of children, who since' 1780, every week Went unwillingly' o Sunday school, the date hae a sinister significance. Robert Raikes was the fon of a printer in Gloucester, and proprietor of the "Gloucester Journal." On the death of his father in 1757 he seceded him in. business, which he continued {0 conduct unfit 1002, To: gether with some others he started a Sunday School at Gloucester in 1780, and on gi publicity {0 the enterprise in the column his own paper the notice was copied by London Journals and awakened considerable attention, For nearly thirty years he continued actively. engaged in the the promotion of the movement, and lived to witness its wide extension through= out England. Whether or not he proved a benefactor to the children of Britain must olways be a matter of opinion, Possibly that of the very young will stil be decidedly in the negative for memory recalls so many Sunday aficrnoons when youth would rather have been out enjoying the fresh air, than proving to teachers that they really had' Learned the collect for the day, or some appropriate Biblical verses. Their elders on the other hand probably have had many reasons to bless Robert Raikes. {0% doing what How many. Vielorian mothers and fathers where able to secure quictness in the house, while they slept off the heaviness of a large midday meal? Sunday school for them was a convenient means of secing to the religios education of their children, the maintenance of an atmosphere of complete propriety and gotting in an undis~ turbed "forty winks." Some who are no longer young may aver that Sunday school was a direct incentive to petty Larceny; but they are reviving: memories of that tightly clutched sixpence, to go Into the box to provide the benighted heathen with red flannel vests or something equally unnecessary, which dwindled to a copper or two before the local sweet shop was passed. Robert Raikes has much to answer for, but this can be said in his favour: Sunday infinitely better than having to sit the parlour reading an elevating book ig what so many a poor child bad to Go uni the wild delight which Raikes conceived came into being.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.