The public schools shall be open to the adherents of all religious sects without any offence to their freedom of conscience or of belief. The Confederation shall take the necessary measures against such Cantons as shall not conform to these provisions.” Primary instruction was first made compulsory under this Constitution of 1874. The promotion and organization of the elementary education are left in the hands of the Cantons, subject to the control of the Confederation; but it must be exclusively under the civil authority. This does not exclude the clergy--if not Jesuits--from the position of teachers and other school officers, but simply requires, if occupying these positions, they must stand on the same footing as laymen. No person who belongs to a religious order, claiming allegiance paramount to the state, can be a teacher in the public schools. The provision guaranteeing freedom of conscience and belief is complied with by the Cantons in a way suitable to their wants. Religious instruction is usually given on fixed days, at stated hours, so that every facility for absenting themselves is afforded to children whose parents wish them only to receive secular instruction. In many instances the religious instruction is confined to truths common to all Christians, and to readings from the Bible. In reference to the relation of the schools to religion in Switzerland, Matthew Arnold reported: “Whoever has seen the divisions caused in a so-called logical nation like the French by this principle of the neutrality of the popular school in matters of religion might expect differently here. None whatever has arisen. The Swiss communities, applying the principle for themselves and not leaving theorists and politicians to apply it for them, have done in the matter what they consider proper, and have in every popular school religious instruction in the religion of the majority, a Catholic instruction in Catholic Cantons, like Luzern, a Protestant in Protestant Cantons, like Zurich; and there is no unfair dealing, no proselytizing, no complaint.” The first school-year varies from five to seven years of age, and runs up to twelve, except in a few Cantons, where it extends to the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth years. Primary instruction is left to the determination of the several Cantons, only it must be, under the constitution, “adequate.” With the exception of the Canton of Solothurn, where all children must receive their primary instruction in the public schools, a person is not obliged to send his children to the public school. He is perfectly free to have them instructed wherever he wishes, provided they receive an education, at least as good as that which is given in the public schools. Parents who neglect or refuse to do one or the other are cited before the authorities and subject to a fine, and in case of a repetition of the offence to imprisonment. In most of the Cantons the gratuity covers books and other school-materials to