Count  Zedlitz,  the  successor  of  Dr.  von  Gossler,  maintained  the
same  attitude,  and  under  his  regime  the  principle  of  imparting
religious  teaching  in  the  language  of  the  parents  and  the  home
was  consistently  upheld  throughout  Polish  Prussia.  It  was  a
later  Minister,  Dr.  Studt,  who  ventured  to  reverse  this  principle,
justifying  his  action  by  considerations  of  State  policy — the
awkwardness  of  a  hi-lingual  system  of  education,  and  still  more
the  persistent  efforts  of  the  Poles  to  make  their  privileged
position  a  means  of  racial  isolation.  His  decision  still  holds
good,  and  in  view  of  recent  Ministerial  declarations  it  is  not
likely  that  this  part  of  the  Government's  Polish  policy  will,  for
the  present  at  least,  be  reconsidered,  in  spite  of  the  bitterness
Avhich  it  has  created.  To  make  matters  worse,  a  Ministerial
decree  of  April  12,  1899,  required  teachers  to  disuse  Polish  in
the  family  circle.  These  teachers  are,  of  course,  Germans,
imported  from  other  parts  of  the  kingdom,  who  have  married
Polish  wives.
