had, no doubt, more of natural virtue in them than those of the venerable magnates. At the close of the ceremony M. Mourice announced that the school would meet again on the first Monday in October. This is the only vacation, worth the name, in the Parisian schools. The expense of board and education, exclusive of a few extras for drawing and the living languages, is 1000 francs, equal to about 40l. a-year : this is the usual sum for the best schools in Paris; the school-year, too, it must be observed, consists of ten and a-half months, but there are two jours maigres, Friday and Saturday, in each week, on which days the boys have no meat. I forgot to mention that the master always spoke to and of the boys as Mons. So-and-So, which sounded strange to my English ears. At this distribution I was introduced to one of the parochial clergy of Paris, who said he was about to make a tour in Scotland, to visit the scenes described in Walter Scott's novels, and to study the character of the present schism in the Kirk. It is usual for the curés of Paris to take some recreation at this period.

I inquired of M. B concerning the means of subsistence of the parochial clergy in France. It is well known that no such things as tithes exist in this country; the clergy are all salaried by the State; archbishops receive 15,000 francs, equal to 6007. per annum; bishops 10,000, equal to 400l. per annum, with allowances for expense of visitations, 1000 francs

per annum. The cures are divided into two classes, according to the population of their parishes; those of the first class belonging to a population of 5000 souls and upwards, and receiving a salary of 1500 francs; those of the second class, 1200 francs. In most parishes of large population, beside the curé, there are vicaires, his curates in fact, who receive their salary from the revenues of the parish church (fabrique), or from the commune to which they belong. The cures of the Parisian and populous and wealthy parishes generally receive further emoluments, not only from masses, but fees, sometimes very considerable, at marriages and burials.

I observed to M. B, that the chairs in the churches seemed to me to have greatly increased in number, beyond what they were ten years ago, and that barriers had been fixed in the churches, preventing the free ingress of the people beyond the mere entrance and the side aisles of the church. The payment, as above noticed, for admission within these precincts for a sermon is three sous, and it varies according to whether the mass is high or low; this impôt is nominally for the chair; hence, though the congregations have been greatly augmented in numbers, they consist mainly, in the body of the church, of the wealthier classes alone, and it can hardly be said that "to the poor the Gospel is preached;" for the margins of the churches, to which the poor are relegated, are hardly accessible to the voice of the

preacher. M. Banswered, that the tax upon the chairs is absolutely necessary for the maintenance of the fabric (there being no church-rates in France, any more than tithes), and for the provision of the necessaries (as wax-lights, chasubles, incense, oil, payment of choristers, &c.) for public worship. It is much to be regretted that there should be no public means for supplying these requisites, without making uncatholic distinctions between rich and poor, and depriving the poor of those privileges which belong to them as members of the family of Christ-members valued as the special "treasures of the Church," in primitive times".

This afternoon M. Gondon brought me a present of his recently published volume, entitled, Le Mouvément Religieux en Angleterre, par un Catholique3, which appears to give a pretty fair view of the state of religious controversy in England; and promises to render service to us, by showing us the necessity both of caution and of charity. When I asked what was the difference, in his opinion, in the public mind of France, concerning matters of religion at the present time, as compared with ten years back, he said, there was a very remarkable one (which, as far as I have

2 Cette appréciation de ce qui se passe dans les églises de Paris est exagérée. See note to p. 56, at end.

3 M. Gondon has published in the present year (1846) a Histoire de la Conversion de Soixante Ministres Anglicans et cinquante personnes de distinction, &c.

observed, is eminently true), that whereas at that period politicians, and publicists, and philosophers, were ashamed of being thought to believe in the doctrines of Christianity, they now profess themselves to be greatly aggrieved, and are very indignant if they are not recognized as good Catholics. This is very evident, as he observed, from all the Government documents and official speeches of the present time: witness the language of M. Thiers' famous Rapport, just presented to the Chamber of Deputies, concerning National Education. Another proof of it has just been given by M. Villemain, Minister of Instruction, in his official address to the University, of which more by-and-by. The Catholics in France, however, it appears, place no reliance in these professions, as they see that the most important offices in public instruction are conferred upon persons who are notorious for their sceptical tenets, and that others are discouraged, and even dismissed from public offices, without any apparent reason but that of zeal for religion. He said, that the Catholics had no expectation or desire of encouragement from the State, that they only hoped for liberty and toleration. When I asked him whether as a Catholic, and therefore believing one religion, and one only to be true, he did not think it to be the duty of the State, for the sake of its own happiness and safety, and for that of the people, especially of the poor, to maintain that religion, as far as was compatible with the principles of tolera

tion, and to discourage dissensions, and to promote unity? and whether it was not its duty to God, who had promised that nations and kings should be the champions and nursing fathers of His Church, to endeavour to bring about the fulfilment of the Divine prophecies in its behalf? he only replied, "that perhaps this might be considered as the ultimate result, but that at present they must be content to obtain the spiritual independence of the Catholic Church in this country." He did not seem to apprehend that, in asserting their complete independence, and effecting their absolute emancipation from all civil power in their own country, they might themselves cease to be citizens of France, and leave her throne and laws without monarchy and religious support, and subject her to the thraldom of an extra-national and antinational despotism of a spiritual and unlimited kind.

I have found the opinion entertained by many persons on France, which is expressed somewhere very strongly by De Maistre, that the civil power, by depressing the Church and depriving it of its legitimate rights, is throwing the clergy at the feet of the Pope as his devoted slaves and vassals; and that thus the spirit of republicanism is fighting the

4 Ce serait là sans doute le devoir d'un Gouvernement Catholique, mais le Gouvernement Français n'est, aux termes de la constitution, ni Chrétien, ni Juif, ni Mahométan; mais il partage à la fois tous ces cultes. Le Gouvernement n'ayant pas officialement de foi religieuse, et devant protéger également toutes les croyances, lui est-il possible d'encourager une au détriment des autres?