ignorance, more especially of the conditions in which the religious life of the two nations develops itself, is as great on one side of the Channel as on the other; and that many Englishmen, even among those who are animated by the most sincere Christian spirit, and perhaps even Catholic Englishmen, have failed to understand the character of the struggles to which, in the last few years, that development has given rise. That inability to accurately appreciate the position is, in my opinion, the outcome not only of the erroneous view of certain facts which is entertained by the Press, but springs from a remoter and deeper source: namely, from insufficient study (which need not surprise us in the case of Englishmen, inasmuch as very many Frenchmen are in the same boat) of that event, so great and so complex both as regards its causes and its effects, which, from the point of view of philosophy and social science, dominates the whole of our history: I mean the Revolution of 1789. In the course of this article I shall more than once have occasion to insist on the fact of that domination, for in my view it lies at the very root of the question under consideration and alone can make clear the meaning of what is happening and threatens to happen in the religious world of France. For the sake of clearness I must begin with a statement of the facts which have given rise to such a commotion in our midst.

I

It is in this connection that the delay of which I have unintentionally been guilty has been actually advantageous: the facts can now be more clearly stated. Last year, at the time when this Review asked for my assistance, two particularly striking events had attracted its attention and that of the English public in general. One was the recent passing of an Act dealing with associations which had been introduced and championed in both Chambers by M. Waldeck-Rousseau the President of the Council, whereby the religious Congregations were removed from the operation of the general law, and were subjected to special treatment; the other was the outburst of an excessively lively spirit of resistance, provoked by an abusive interpretation of that Act, and which, more especially in the Breton Departments, where religious faith is still an extremely active force, went so far as to give rise to violent conflicts with the authorities and with the armed forces which were summoned to assist them. I will examine each of these events in turn, and then will proceed to show how far more serious for the Catholics the situation has now become.

The mere fact that a law dealing with associations was a necessity in France suffices to prove the existence of a state of affairs which is peculiar to my country, and is calculated to surprise many of those who, like the English, are accustomed to the various features of corporate life. At the very outset the influence of the French Revolution shows itself. Its chief social characteristic manifested itself in the establishment of the principle of individualism, and by the violent destruction of all organised bodies of spontaneous growth; and the religious associations, which are nowadays designated by the name of Congregations," had less chance than any of escaping the results of that sweeping measure, for the reason that in the minds of the first members of the Constituent Assembly the feelings awakened by the philosophical doctrines of the eighteenth century allied themselves to the general mad passion for universal levelling.

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All associations were abolished by the Revolution, and a few years later, when the reorganisation of the new France was effected, the penal code gave the final sanction to the individualistic régime by a clause which prohibited all meetings of more than twenty persons. Corporate life, which for centuries had been as powerful and as productive in France as in the neighbouring countries, was thus destroyed; and therewith disappeared the Province with its distinctive characteristics, the Commune with its franchises, and the trade guild with its special organisation. Those institutions were forms of corporate existence in its political aspect, just as the monastic association was its religious manifestation. I say that it was destroyed, but

I ought to say that it was left in a state of suspended animation, for it is not in the power of man to abolish for ever the effects of a natural right and of one of the inherent needs of humanity. Events soon proved the truth of this statement. The religious associations, for the reason that they answer to the requirements of certain characteristics of the Christian soul, in which faith lights the mystic flame of a spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion, were the first to reappear, even before the revolutionary storm had completely lulled; and soon, by degrees, as the work of reconstituting the social edifice proceeded, the necessity of providing for the requirements of the homeless poor and for popular education, which had become almost entirely disorganised, induced the newly constituted authorities to seek their aid. To do so was one of the earliest acts of the First Consul. It is true that the laws which dissolved the associations were not formally abrogated: they merely became a dead letter, purely by reason of the moral and political circumstances of the age;

and nowhere is it better understood than in England, where so many ancient statutes exist and nominally have the force of law, but in reality have ceased to exert the slightest influence, that desuetude may be tantamount to abrogation.

But how did it come to pass that in the new society, the product of the Revolution, these moral forces came so promptly to the assistance of the religious associations? Under the old régime, in which the Catholic Church and the Monarchy were so closely allied, politics and religion were intimately connected with each other. The King gave effect to the laws of the Church in his character of lay bishop, as the saying was, and monastic life, as everything else, was under his control. The ecclesiastic, bound by his vows as regards both spiritual and temporal matters, suffered a form of disfranchisement which was almost equivalent to civil death; consequently, he was not a citizen in the sense in which others were citizens. The mighty blast of liberty, which swept away those institutions of a past age which had been undermined by long existing abuses and by the influence of the new doctrines, were bound to destroy the old conception of the religious life. The civil constitution of the monastic orders collapsed at the same time as all the other institutions of the old régime. In the eyes of the new society the members of religious bodies were simply citizens, subject, like others, to the general law and, consequently, endowed with the rights and the liberties which belonged to all other members of the community. It is perfectly clear that one of those rights is the right to live with others and to pray with others, to accept certain rules which merely bind the conscience without involving any civil consequences. This implies the right to worship and the right to teach, both of which are directly derived from liberty of conscience.

Such is the position of the religious orders in the French society which sprang from the Revolution of 1789; and I do not think that any Englishman will find therein anything contrary to the interests of the community. I will return to this point later on when I come to examine the arguments with which the enemies of the religious Congregations attempt to justify the proscriptive measures of which those bodies have been made the victim.

But before I proceed further I must conclude the brief historical retrospect which is absolutely essential to a clear comprehension of the subject. As I have already remarked, the religious Congregations were not the only victims of the individualistic doctrines proclaimed by by the Constituent Assembly of 1789. At the same time, and under the

influence of the same ideas, the ancient structure of the provincial and communal organisation, which had been gradu ally undermined by the centralising monarchical government, began to make room for a new administrative system, under which the State exercised control over all the elements of national activity. At the same time also the corporations of artisans, the nature of which had been only too completely altered by the interfering action of the royal power, lost their ancient influence by reason of the introduction of a system of control conceived solely in the interest of the Crown and were utterly suppressed; the working classes being deprived even of the liberty of meeting and taking steps to protect their common interests, the legitimacy of which the State refused to recognise. This was so entirely contrary to the ordinary natural rights of humanity that, just as in the case of the laws which violated the liberty of conscience, it was inevitable that the necessities of social life should ultimately have their revenge. But whereas the spontaneous energy of religious faith and the pressing demands of charitable and educational needs soon sufficed to resuscitate the religious associations, in the economic world the revival came but slowly, for the reason that it was hampered by the existence of an unending state of war, by the resistance of successive governments in whom it produced an uneasy feeling, and by the opposition of the industrial magnates whose interests it threatened. The revival came nevertheless, and proceeded to develop an ever-increasing vigour as and when the struggles to which the organisation of labour gave rise rendered such development necessary. I shall not dwell upon the history of these social movements with which England has been made familiar by the rise of trade unions; to do so would be to go beyond the bounds of my present subject. All that it is necessary to establish is the fact that, by virtue of the inherent strength of the natural rights of mankind, the freedom of economic association again became a recognised institution and vindicated its rights before the legislature. It was for the first time tentatively recognised by a law passed in 1864, and received its definitive legal sanction in 1884. All other civil associations were still for a long time forbidden; and it was only in 1901 that the general freedom of association was partially established and organised by law. I say partially, for here we touch the kernel of the question, and the law, which might have been a charter of liberties for all citizens without distinction, was in reality a proscriptive enactment directed against a whole section of the community; so much so that it can far more fairly be described as a law directed against the Congregations than as a

law dealing with the right of association. What was the reason, and how did it come about, that the recognised right of all citizens was refused to the religious orders? It will be my task to try to supply the answer to this question.

II

For the sake of clearness I must begin by explaining to my readers the legal position occupied by the Congregations three years ago when the new law was introduced. The Legislative Assemblies at the time of the Revolution, carried away by their hatred of Catholicism, which was made manifest at the very outset of their labours and subsequently led to the commission of so many excesses, did not limit themselves to the abolition, as a natural result of the new principles, of the civil consequences of the vows pronounced by the religious orders. They first suppressed the monastic orders and then abolished all Congregations, not even excepting those the members of which were not bound by any perpetual vow and did not belong to the ecclesiastical profession. It is unnecessary for me to recall the sanguinary persecutions which accompanied these proscriptive edicts the recollection of them is fresh in the memory of all, and England, who gave generous hospitality to so many poor fugitive priests, will certainly not have forgotten them. But in spite of it all, the imperious call of the Faith, and the irresistible attraction possessed by the most sacred of rights, soon brought about the resuscitation of some of the proscribed Congregations, and that too in the very centre of persecution. I have pointed out how, as soon as the social reorganisation of the country took place under the guidance of Bonaparte, the sovereign authority hastened to have recourse to their assistance in order to provide for the care of the sick and for the education of the children of the poor. Both these influences gained in intensity under the various forms of government which followed during the course of the nineteenth century, with the result that, as the needs of modern society made unceasing demands for fresh forms of self-sacrificing devotion, the Congregations, both male and female, continued to multiply. In some cases they attached themselves to institutions which existed under the old régime; in others they formed entirely new bodies; but in every case they consecrated themselves to devotional exercises, to almsgiving, to charity, to education, and to the work of healing a large number devoting their zealous activities to distant mission-fields in the French colonies and in those of other countries where their services were readily and gratefully