This change in the attitude of the French Government will
probably extinguish the Monarchical party, which is dying away, and retains its lingering vitality only as the party which defends the Church. On the other hand it will make the Radicals and Socialists more determined and fierce than ever. They do not only detest the Church; they dread it. M. Clemenceau, who, though out of the Chamber, is editing La Justice, expresses this feeling in the plainest terms, declaring that the Church will not accept mere tolerance, and that "its knee will soon be on the throat of M. Clemenceau." Every occasion will therefore be taken of reviving the old bitterness, and the Catholic Church will have to steer its course most carefully, especially as the wise chief now at its head is older than Mr. Gladstone. The recanta- tion of the Government will probably secure for M. Carnot a second term at the December election, but it will also throw the whole force of the Parisian mob against his nomi- nation. In all probability the Moderates, with their strong Minister of the Interior, M. Raynal, will win completely, but the battle will be one of the fiercest ever waged. The con- viction of the Extremists that the priesthood is hostile to Republicanism as well as to licence is traditional from 1789, and is irremovable by argument, or even by facts.
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