The French Government is carrying out sharply its policy of
persecution against the unauthorised Monastic Orders, though it has not yet ventured to touch the Nuns. The Capuchins, at Toulouse, Nantes, Lyons, and Carcassonne ; the Recollets, at Macon ; the Marists, at Toulouse and Lyons ; the Fathers of the Sacred Heart and Dominicans, at Toulouse ; and the Ber- nardins, at Fontfroide, near Narbonne, have all been extruded from their residences by force,—the display of which, of course, the Religious Orders and their friends, took care to invite. The feeling thus excited amongst the religious section of French society is naturally very bitter, and will certainly be very last- ing, while the popularity which the Government gains with the extreme party is both very slight and very temporary ; it will pass away in a few days, unless the flame is fanned by fresh exertions of the same kind. The political gratitude even of very vindictive foes for the sufferings inflicted upon their enemies by their friends, is not a durable emotion, while the political resentment of those who suffer, whether directly or by sympathy, certainly is. The Republic, in committing its first serious sin, is also making its first fatal blunder.
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