President Eliot on Private Schools.

At the recent hearing before the committee of the Massachusetts Legislature on education, in regard to the bill relating to the schooling of children and the supervision of public and private schools, President Eliot spoke very earnestly against that portion of the bill which imposes upon the public school authorities the duty of approving private schools. He alluded particularly to the effect this provision would have upon the relations of the Catholic and the Protestant portions of the community. The breach between the two divisions of the population should be closed as much as possible; but the inevitable tendency of an act giving the public authorities the right to supervise private schools would be to widen the breach to an alarming extent. Whenever the election of a school committee happened to come up, everybody would go to the polls knowing that the approval of parochial schools would come before the committee then elected, and hence the religious question would always be a dominant element in the election. A less desirable issue could hardly be brought up in a city or town election when there is a division of the population between Catholics and Protestants. President Eliot said he believed it to be possible to reconcile the Roman Catholics to the American public school; but the proposed legislation would have the effect of enlisting the conscientious Catholics, now considerably divided, solidly and powerfully in favor of the parochial system. They would believe the legislature to be directed against themselves and against the rights they hold sacred.