27 SEPTEMBER 1986, Page 15

One hundred years ago

THE Times' correspondent in Paris publishes and vouches for an account of the means by which M. de Freycinet compelled the Pope to give up his project of sending a Legate, and after- wards a Nuncio, to Pekin. The Legate, Mgr Agliardi, was actually appointed and instructed, when the French Pre- mier forwarded to Leo XIII a despatch threatening that if an Envoy of any description were sent to Pekin, 'the French Ambassador to the Vatican would be at once withdrawn, the Con- cordat would be abolished, Church and State in France would be separated, and the state grant of 50,000,000 fr. a year to the Catholic religion would be sup- pressed.'

The Spectator, 25 September 1886