THE "ODIUM THEOLOGICUM" IN FRANCE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—There has been of late in many minds a disposition, fostered by the Law of the Associations, to charge against the Anti-Clerical party in France intolerance and illiberality. But the attempt to fix upon the Clericals the persecution of Dreyfus has been, I think, rendered unsuccessful by the paper of Lord Russell of Killowen given in Mr. Barry O'Brien's Life of him at p. 318. None the less, however, does it stand clearly out that the Clericals are very hostile to the present Government, while there is some ground for the opinion that the supporters of M. Waldeck-Rousseau do not regard without prejudice those officials who observe the practices of the Catholic religion. In this state of things—which a plain man would think suffi- ciently to be regretted, and, if possible, to be bridged over— we at Pau have just been startled by a pronunciamiento in the New Year's pastoral of the Bishop of Bayonne (Mgr. Jauffret) forbidding the faithful to co-operate with Pro- testants in works of charity. This prohibition has already led to the resignation of several benevolent ladies from mem- bership of mixed Committees of various oeuvres. As a conse- quence, the Catholic poor here suffer that Clerical discipline may be enforced and maintained, while the Press—as, for example, the Deplehe of the 4th inst.—scoffs openly and bitterly. To the lay mind it seems a pity that this reactionary Bishop should have thus given such occasion to the enemy to blaspheme, if not, at the same time also, to his brethren
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