In the Times of Tuesday the Paris correspondent discusses the
reception of the recent manifesto of the Bishop of Nancy. It contained a recommendation that the Bishops and all the clergy should abstain from takingpart in elections. This wise
suggestion has been received with mixed feelings, many Roman Catholics preferring the "more vigorous "programme of the Archbishop of Toulouse. The Archbishop would like to place Roman Catholics under the direct control of their Bishops in the matter of elections. The adverse criticism of the Bishop of Nancy's policy represents it as robbing Roman Catholics of their individuality by asking them to accept a vague conservative policy. This seems, indeed, a perverse criticism, for it is surely the Archbishop of Toulouse who would like to rob Roman Catholics of their individuality. A Roman Catholic voting-machine could be used only in the interests of an intramontane policy. We are glad to learn, after all, that as many as fifty Bishops have assured the Bishop of Nancy that they support his programme. It is only by some such policy as his that the average Frenchman, who is of course a Republican, can be saved to the Church.
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