French Radicals are said to be greatly pleased with a
recent utterance of the Pope. His Holiness has hitherto steadily refused to express an opinion about the Law of Associations or its working, and now that he has broken silence in a brief to the Archbishop of Paris, he has only said that he "assuredly shares the sadness the Archbishop experiences at this moment." The Radicals interpret this as proof that Leo XIII. will do nothing to oppose them lest the existence of the Concordat should be endangered; but there is surely another interpretation possible. The Pope is one of the shrewdest of diplomatists, with a well-tried faculty of patience, and he may very well perceive, or think he perceives, signs of a reaction in France against the law which will either cause its repeal or render it ineffectual. He cannot undo what has been done, and may dread that his personal intervention would provoke every unbelieving Deputy in France to still further attacks upon the Church. The Pope's avowed doctrine, it should be remembered, is that good Roman Catholics may in France accept any Government provided it is not openly hostile to religion, and though M. Combos must strain his patience, he can wait. He is certainly wise if he wishes disestablishment to be postponed.
