The blunder is the greater, that it is clear enough,
both from the Pope's new brief on the subject, and from one published by the Bishop of Amiens Monsignor Guibert), that the rulers of the Church are quite alive at present to the folly and mischief of which their own extreme partisans are guilty. In a pamphlet called " La Crise Rdligieuse et la Pacification," Monsignor Gui- bert has written thus :—" The doctrinal exaggerations of certain self-styled Catholic papers ; the needless controversies of certain members of the clergy; above all, the foolish attempt to connect religious with political parties, have not a little contributed to excite unfortunate prejudices against religion ;" and much more in the same vein. In short, this outbreak of political spite against the religious Orders has come at the very moment when the rulers of the Church were disposed to discountenance most positively the political Quixotism of the last few years among the Ultramontanes, and to impose the curb on their own hottest spirits. Thus, while the new Government in France are doing all they can to fan the religious passions of the hour, the ecclesiastical powers are doing all they can to moderate the political passions of the hour. That the Church should try and calm men towards political Republicans, while the Republican Government tries to infuriate them towards the Church, is a melancholy fact for those who, like ourselves, are sincere and hearty friends to the Republic. But for the present, it is the fact. And doubtless both will reap the fitting reward.
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