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Noirlieu, curé of the parish of St. Jacques, and formerly preceptor to the Duc de Bordeaux. Next went in quest of Monsieur Jules Gondon, one of the Rédacteurs of the newspaper, the Univers, now the principal organ of the church party in France. He was at home, and gave me a very courteous reception. Shortly after my entrance there came in à propos a priest, one of the professors of the great theological seminary of St. Sulpice, (in the Place, and near the church of that name,) with whom, at Monsieur Gondon's instance, I made an engagement to visit the seminary on Thursday next, August 8th. Monsieur Gondon spoke with a great deal of interest about Dr. Pusey and Les Tractes, and the British Critic, the last numbers of which he has on his shelves: it is evident that hopes are entertained in France of a rapprochement between the English and Gallican Churches, and Monsieur Gondon himself has just published a volume entitled "Mouvement religieux en Angleterre; ou, le Retour de l'Eglise Anglicane à l'Unité."

I have been much interested by conversations with Monsieur Gondon on this and subsequent occasions; his language was very explicit with respect to the present position and feeling of the Clergy in France. The Bishops, it is well known, are all nominated by the king, but the Pope has the power of refusing his sanction to the nomination, a power which he has sometimes been known to exercise.

But what is very remarkable is, that notwithstanding this royal prerogative, there are not two bishops in France who are not ultramontanes, that is, entirely devoted to the interests of the Roman See'. This has arisen from the almost entire demolition of the French Church as a national establishment; and the real gainer by this extinction of the Gallican Church, as such, is Rome; although that destruction was brought about by principles hostile to Rome, and to Christianity in general.

In France, at present, we see on one side the French clergy and the Pope, and on the other the majority in the chambers, and the throne: the latter unfortunately driven by suspicion of, and antipathy to the clergy, into a state of practical opposition to Christianity, and resting for its support on principles not of sound reason and religion, but of a vain and arrogant philosophy, which tends to the destruction of monarchy, and to the dissolution of social order. It is said to be the opinion of the higher powers in

3 Les Evêques français qui ont professé, ou qui peuvent professer encore, les opinions gallicanes, (qui, après tout, ne sont que des opinions,) ne sont pas pour cela moins dévoués aux intérêts du SaintSiège que les Ultramontains. Le Gallicanisme n'a jamais prétendu transformer l'Eglise de France en un établissement national, dans le sens qu'on attache à ces mots en Angleterre. S'ils avaient eu cette témérité, Rome les eût aussitôt déclaré schismatiques. Grâce à Dieu, la France catholique n'a pas à rougir d'un Henri VIII.; et quelqu'ait été le dévouement de Bossuet à Louis XIV., il n'eût jamais poussé la complaisance jusqu'à meriter l'éloge qu'Henri VIII. a fait de Cranmer.

France, that religion was of great service as a political and moral engine, as long as the people were illinstructed, and while the science of legislation was little understood, but now that constitutions and codes have been perfectionnés by human experience and skill, Christianity has become obsolete as a safeguard of political institutions, and a religious foundation is no longer necessary to the fabric of government. Certain it is that the throne of France has at present no religious basis; and that the Church has not only been almost wholly severed from the State, but after a very few years from that severance, which took place in 1830, finds itself placed in a condition of direct and active opposition to it.

Monsieur Gondon kindly sends us the Univers daily; he says that the Quotidienne is no longer à catholic paper, as such, i. e., that it treats religious questions rather politically than religiously*; it is still, however, more favourable to the Church than its contemporaries. The Univers seems to be written with considerable vigour.

Dining this evening, Aug. 5th, with an English family, heard of a young man of high rank, rapidly rising in the English navy, who had been induced to renounce his profession, as contrary to the divine

4 La Quotidienne a toujours été et est encore un journal dont l'esprit est très catholique. J'ai dit qu'elle n'est pas un journal religieux dans le sens, qu'elle est avant tout l'organe d'un parti politique. La Quotidienne est le principal organe du parti légitimiste.

law, and to join the Plymouth Brethren. This is by no means a solitary case-what is the remedy? I see none, but in Church education in our middle and aristocratic schools. People object to this kind of education as too dogmatic (as they call it) for young persons. But the whole practice of the Christian Church since its foundation, has been to give her children a dogmatic education. Look at all the sermons of St. Augustine and St. Chrysostom to young people, they are essentially dogmatic. Look at the creeds, on which those sermons chiefly treat, they are a collection of dogmas. "No, but" (our anti-dogmatic teachers say,) "they will not prejudice the minds of young people; put the Bible into their hands, and let them find out the truth for themselves." "Yes, by all means, put" (I reply) "the Bible into their hands as soon as they are able to treat it with due reverence; but, as you value the Bible, give them for its interpretation the aid of the Church, which the Bible declares to be 'the pillar and the ground of the truth.' If a child is to be left alone with the Bible-without any help from the Church-what reason in the world is there why his mind should not run through all the heresies which have been condemned by the Church from her foundation? and if you are willing to allow that he will require help, why should he not have it, both the earliest and the best?

A gentleman at dinner, a strong Conservative,

of diplomatic and literary reputation, spoke in very strong terms of the dangers to which, in his opinion, England was now exposed, from the adoption, or at least the encouragement, on the part of the State, of the voluntary principle in matters of religion. He saw no other result from this than a total separation of Church and State, and an indiscriminate national acknowledgment of all forms of religious belief. This is precisely the condition of things in France at this day, and its results in this country render it peculiarly interesting to an Englishman, who sees the unhappy tendency of England to follow in the steps of France.

The public buildings and social gaieties of Paris are apt to dazzle the sight and absorb the thoughts; and Englishmen have not, I think, profited so much by visits to the French capital in a religious, moral, and political point of view, as might have been the

case.

Tuesday, August 6.-Monsieur Bonnetty called and carried me to the Bibliothèque du Roi, to examine the MSS. of Theocritus, of which there are more than twenty in that collection. I have now (Saturday, 10th) looked through one-fourth of that number, and do not find that they are of very great antiquity; none, as far as I have yet seen, older than the 15th century, or the end of the 14th. He introduced me to Monsieur Hase, member of the Academy of Inscriptions, and chef of the MSS. department of the

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