M. DELAHAYE: “M. Briand’s law is older than himself. We find traces of it in all the Masonic convents.... Gentlemen, why are we going to vote this additional law, as we did the first Separation Law, without changing an iota?... Because the lodges have so decided. “The Convent, the public should be told, is the general assembly of the lodges.... The Convent, called during the Revolution _La Convention_, is the source of all our evils. On 12 November, 1904, brother Lafferre (a senator), thirty-third degree, read the following _ordre du jour_: ‘The general assembly of the Grand Orient addresses to M. Combes warm assurances of sympathy and confidence, and begs him to persevere courageously in the struggle to defend the Republic against clericalism, and accomplish social, military, and fiscal reforms. The Assembly demands that at the session of January, 1905, Separation and the _retraites ouvrières_ be discussed simultaneously.’” M. Lafferre and the reporter of the new Separation Law here applauded ironically. M. Delahaye continued: “Let us pass to the Convent of 1905, séance 23 September, 1905. “Le Frère Roret, reporter (of the Masonic Commission): ... A wish more important, and which will be adopted without discussion, emanates from the Congress of the region of Paris. It regards the Separation and has been slightly modified by the (Masonic) Commission (of political and social studies). The Congress demands that the Separation Law voted in the Chambers be amended by the Senate. Your Commission judges that it is most important that this law be voted immediately and promulgated before the legislative elections (May, 1906), so that the country may see that it is a liberal law and not at all vexatious.... Your Commission proposes the following vote: ‘The Convent emits the wish that the law, imperfect but perfectible, be adopted by the Senate as rapidly as possible and promulgated before the elections, but that it be amended later by the Republican Parliament and rendered more distinctly _laïque_.’”