tionnel says is believed to exist on equally authentic evidence, in two or three other places (at Treves, St. John Lateran, and Fribourg), besides Argenteuil. We heard of other instances, which seem to be the results of a blind superstition and of a reckless infatuation, affording the strongest arguments for scepticism, and the most powerful weapons against Religion and the Church. Again, as to the anti-nationality of the clergy, and especially the Jesuits, a friend of mine, a professor of history, stated to me to-day that he finds it necessary in his lectures to animadvert very severely on the antiGallican temper in which the Jesuits have treated French history, especially that of Napoleon's Russian campaign. But for this, perhaps, the country has in great measure to thank itself, for since she withholds all power and control from the Bishops of the Church in all matters of national education,-from the collegiate institution down to the smallest village

2 Le Constitutionnel est une bien pauvre autorité ! Il est faux que la même robe existe dans plusieurs endroits à la fois; mais on comprend sans un trop grand effort de raison que la robe de N. S. puisse se trouver à Argenteuil, que sa tunique puisse être à Trèves, et que Fribourg possède un morceau de la robe et de la tunique. Pour rendre une anecdote piquante, on devrait bien ne pas la dénaturer ; mais le Constitutionnel n'y regarde pas de si près.-Let me be allowed to refer the writer of this note to the following words of Pope Benedict XIV. De Festis, vii. 91. Christi tunica etiamnum asservari dicitur Augustæ Trevirorum (at Treves); Salmeron autem custodiri eam refert Argentolii, oppido haud longè a Lutetiâ Parisiorum dissito. The Pope therefore thought it was the same robe.

school, and assigns the conduct of public instruction to persons, some of whom have publicly and professionally given expression to opinions hostile to Christianity and the Church; and since the state pays indiscriminately the teachers of various religious communions, down even to Jewish rabbis-while the clergy of France know of no religion but one—it is not to be wondered at that their sympathies are rather with the Vatican than with the Tuileries, that their tendency is to regard themselves as ministers of the Church rather than as citizens of France, and that their energies are directed to support the chair of the successor of St. Peter, rather than the throne of the king of the French '.

That this is a very critical season for France cannot be doubted, and it is no less evident that a more critical one still will shortly ensue. No one seems able to divine what would happen on the decease of the present king,—an event which, humanly speaking, cannot be very far distant. France is now but little fit for a monarchy, and still less so for a regency. The Duc D'Orléans, had he survived, might, it is generally supposed, from the respect in which he was held, have been able to continue the existing dynasty, but not so it is thought will his brother the Duc de Nemours; and there is evidently great difference

3 Peut-on s'étonner que la chaire de Saint Pierre soit plus chère à des Catholiques que le trône d'un roi de la terre ?

between the capabilities of a regent and of a king. It was observed to me by my friend at Versailles (where so many sad reflections on French history naturally arise) as a fact which had sunk into the mind of the French nation, that since Louis XIV.just 200 years ago-no son had succeeded his father on the throne of France, and that the heir to the crown had frequently been cut off by untimely death.

He added, that France was one of the most dangerous countries in the world for its rulers, and the most difficult to govern, because there is the greatest facility, from the cheapness of instruction, for transition from the lowest ranks of society to the highest :

"My servant there," he said, "who has just left the room, thinks that there is no social position which, if circumstances are favourable, he may not reach Look at the leading personages of the present government-why should not any young man, if he has ordinary industry and abilities, become a professor in a college, and why should not any professor become a Villemain, a Guizot, a Cousin, or a Thiers? Hence there is no one of common powers and enterprise who does not think that the highest offices are open to him, especially in revolutionary times, and hence there is no repose or contentment, but a perpetual restlessness and agitation of mind in the social system of France, incessant disquietude for the present, and insatiable ambition for something higher "

We returned to Paris as we had left it, by the railroad of the rive gauche, which has acquired an unhappy celebrity by its fatal accidents not long since. The carriages are of an inferior description, and their tremulous motion and the shocks occurring in their course do not inspire the traveller with much confidence in their security. The view of Paris from the railroad, which takes the high ground over Sêvres, &c., is beautiful and magnificent.

Saturday, August 11.-Went with Monsieur Gondon to No. 18, Rue des Postes, a building now occupied by the Jesuits, where they have a private chapel, a beautiful garden, and the other appurte nances of a monastic institution. After waiting in the parloir a few minutes, we were escorted up stairs into the private apartment of the Père Boulanger, who is Provincial of the Order in France. Ladies are

not admitted beyond the parloir (or ante-room next the vestibule) in this and similar establishments. There are twenty-four Jesuits in this house. This was Saturday, and the provincial said it was a busy day with them, as, "On se confesse tous les Samedis et on confesse les autres." He was, however, very courteous, and seemed desirous of detaining us as long as we could stay. He deplored the condition to which the Jesuits were reduced in France, and said they had no power of opening any school, or of giving any public instruction, but that still a number of persons resorted to them privately for counsel and

assistance. They are prohibited as an Order, and exist only here as individuals. He showed us the beautiful view of the garden out of his window, with the city of Paris just beyond it, and a large building close to the garden, which is rapidly rising at the public expense, for the reception of the Normal School for training masters, under Government, i. e. University inspection, which we suggested to him was intended as a defence of the Parisians against the movements of his Order1. There was little reason, he said, to fear the Jesuits now, as they were few in number, and were scattered about France in small companies, of which there were not more than twenty; but, he added, placing his hand upon two works which have just been published by two of his order in Paris, one entitled De l'Institut des Jésuites, by the famous Père de Ravignan; the other, in two volumes, specially against Messrs. Michelet, Quinet, &c., by le Père Cahour, with the title Des Jésuites, par un Jésuite: "You will here see, sir, what is to be said in behalf of the Jesuits, of whom the world in France speaks so ill." He took a pen and wrote a few words in the fly-leaves of these books, and kindly presented them to me.

After some conversation concerning the present state of Religion and the Church in England, he asked pleasantly, "When, sir, you come to have saints in England, and when you wish to canonize some of

4 See note to p. 43, at end.