FRENCH PIETY IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS. T HE little discussion with reference
to Madagascar, which took place in the French Chamber on Tuesday, was absolutely devoid of any intrinsic importance. M. De Mahy, who introduced, the question, was himself at the pains to make it uninteresting by wandering off to Mr. Gladstone's speech in answer to Sir Charles Dilke, a region to which the Foreign Minister was quite willing to accom- pany him. With Egypt in view, it was not likely that French Deputies would trouble themselves much about the religious condition of Madagascar, or would be much shocked by the want of patriotism displayed by French Protestants, who are base enough to look with favour upon Protestant missions, even when they are carried on by Englishmen. The incident only deserves notice as an example of the curious tendency of French politicians to be Catholics abroad, and Free-thinkers at home. Wherever French Catholic missions are to be found, they have a protec- tor ready in the French Government. When once Europe is left behind, the Republic is willing, and even anxious, to remember that France is the eldest daughter of the Church. The interests of missions are treated as identical with the interests of France, the missionaries are regarded as the pioneers of French influence, and. as such are rewarded with whatever friendly offices a great Power can render to its subjects. Yet all this time the Govern- ment may be, and probably is, the active antagonist of the Church at home. Its Bishops are reprimanded or prosecuted, its clergy have their stipends withheld, by the very Cabinet which has been making things easy for the Bishops and clergy in another continent. There is no attempt made to reconcile these two characters. They are parts which have nothing in common beyond the fact that they happen to be sustained by the same actor. It is strange that the maintenance of friendly relations with ecclesiastical persons abroad should not have disposed the French Government to modify its dislike of ecclesias- tical persons at home. It must be so much pleasanter, one would think, to be on good terms with people with whom one is constantly brought into business relations. Even a Minister of Worship must find civility more agreeable than rudeness, must like to see a Bishop leave his room, after an interview, in good humour, rather than with the air of a martyr. Yet in spite of this, the dis- tinction between Catholics in France and Catholics out of France is carefully kept alive • and though the Republic seems more and more willing to make the cause of the Church its own, wherever the Church is in contact with populations only imperfectly subjected to French influence, its good-will dies out the moment France is re-entered. It is easy to divine why the French Government should make this difference ,where French missions are concerned. In the first place, missionaries in general, and Roman Catholic missionaries perhaps even more than others, are well con- tent to use the arm of flesh when they can. The support of a powerful Government does make their work easier. For one thing, it gives them greater freedom of hand. They have not to be continually asking themselves whether the spiritual gain of a certain course of action is worth the bodily risk it involves. We say this with no intention of disparagement. A missionary who is anxious to do as much work as possible among a possibly hostile popula- tion„must take such precautions as are open to him against death or deportation. If he is to work, he must live ; if if he is to work in that particular country, he must live in it, not out of it. The kind of security he is in search of is just that which can be best given by the State of which he is a subject. Consequently, the extension and consolidation of French power is a very great object with a French mis- sionary. In proportion as it is attained, he is free to carry out the spiritual ends for which be is labouring. He does not need to subordinate good work to caution or to leave promising converts uncared for, lest he should be expelled the country altogether. He is quite prepared, therefore, to do his utmost to increase the influence of his country, because the influence of France means, at all events, an enlargement of the mission-field and the unimpeded employment of the mis- sionaries. The effect of this way of looking at things is to make the missionary a willing and useful agent of the Government He asks for no reward because he receives all that he wants in this way in the shape of opportunities for work. The French Government is quite wise enough to see that agents who are paid in this way come much cheaper, and in the end are much more effectual, than the ordinary subordinates of the Foreign Office. Conse- quently, they deserve all the protection the Republic can give them ; and in furthering the objects of their mis- sion, purely spiritual as these may be in themselves, the Republic is directly advancing its own interests. The same rule applies more or less to all missions. They help to extend the influence of the country to which they belong. But it applies with special force to French missions, from the special characteristics of French patriotism A French missionary is not a Frenchman first and a Catholic afterwards, but he has a peculiar faculty of keeping the two characters abreast of one another. He believes that he is advancing the cause of the Catholic Church when he helps France, whose children it is that have brought Catholicism with them, to extend her influ- ence. Ile believes that he is advancing the cause of France when he wins new converts for the Church which speaks to those converts by French lips. This is the stuff of which good, because enthusiastic, agents are made, and it is eminently the stuff which a French missionary can supply. Over and above this advantage, moreover, France reaps another and very real benefit from the support of mis- sionary enterprise. The recent change in the attitude of the Pope towards the French Republic has surprised and Pained some, perhaps many, French Catholics. What, they ask, has the Republic done that it should be thus favoured ? It is easy to reckon up the insults it has offered to the Church and the clergy ; and though the _Pope professes to draw a fine distinction between the Republic and the Republican Government, it is a dis- tinction which is invisible, and therefore valueless, in practice. The explanation in part is, that the Pope 18 the common father of Catholics in all countries, and that his policy cannot always be made to square with the interests of his spiritual children in any one country. In Africa the Roman Church looks forward to a great future, and if this future is ever reduced into P°8seasich, it will be by means of French missionaries. Ec'nsequently, it is a matter of great moment with op XIII to further, by every means in his power, the progress of French missions, and in this work he can be greatly hindered, or greatly helped, by the Government of the Republic. It is easy to imagine how this fact may influence his relations with the Republic. A law has been passed, we will suppose, or some administrative measure has been taken, that is very distasteful to French Catholics, and they urge its demerits. the Pope to denounce it in terms befitting If Leo XIII. had only France to think of, he might comply with their prayer, for the existing Administration of the Republic is so bad, he might argue, that nothing is to he gained by keeping on civil terms with it. But then, it is only in France that it behaves so ill. Outside France it takes quite another line. It is as friendly to the Church in Africa, as it is hostile to the Church in Europe. Consequently, the Pope pauses and falls to thinking. Nothing that he can say or do can make much difference to the course of events in France. The Government of the Republic has quarrelled with the Church deliberately and of set purpose, and it is not likely that its policy will be modified by a few hard words more or less. But in the French dominions outside France, the case is different. There the Republic is doing the work of the Church ; and it would be a very great pity to check its action by useless, though irritating, denunciations of its action at home. Consequently, the Pope makes up his mind to say as little as possible about the wrongs the Church has suffered in France, in consideration of the very different treatment accorded to her outside France. The French Government, though it will do nothing to con- ciliate the Vatican, is probably not sorry to find that it is conciliated beforehand, and it redoubles its civilities to missionaries in Africa as a cheap way of averting possible inconvenience in France. This is a sufficient explanation of the attitude of the French Government towards French missionaries in Africa and elsewhere. What it does not account for, is the maintenance of an exactly opposite attitude at home. What does the Republic gain, or expect to gain, by bully- ing the clergy, and setting all religious people against it ? The best answer, probably, to this question is to say that at home it is more an affair of persons than of principlee. A reconciliation between the Republic and the Church would mean the disgrace or retirement of the instruments by which the Republic has hitherto chosen to work. A Prefect whose official life has been spent in thwarting and annoying the Bishop, a whole array of subordinates who have taken their cue from their chief and treated the curds as they have seen. the Prefect treat the Bishop, have every- thing to lose from a reconciliation between the Church and the Government. A bureaucracy so situated may be trusted to make what efforts it can to avert the catastrophe ; and in France those efforts are not unlikely to be successful.
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