Political Evolution. 51 



In the rise of what afterwards became "imperialism/' 

 that most cynical and unscrupulous of tyrants the first 

 Napoleon availed himself of the rising tide in favour 

 of freedom of conscience to legislate for the restoration 

 and support of the French Church, and here some his- 

 torical students might suspect that we encounter a real 

 theocratic reaction. Such a suspicion, however, would 

 be groundless. Not upon the old basis of " revelation," 

 but on that of the common rights of different religions 

 to the support of an indifferent State, was the re-establish- 

 ment effected, and while the lay power thus asserted 

 its supremacy and independence more than even under 

 the old kings, privileges conceded to the really Christian 

 monarchs were retained by the man whose treatment 

 of Pius VII. proclaimed at once his paganism and his 

 brutality. 



The Restoration did, indeed, more or less ally itself 

 with the strong desire entertained by an influential portion 

 of the nation for a reversion in the theocratic direction, 

 especially under Charles X., with speedy loss of his 

 throne as a result. Nevertheless, that even this monarch 

 was animated by the prevailing anti-theocratic spirit is 

 shown by that expulsion of the Jesuits which so shortly 

 preceded his own exile. 



During the reign of the "citizen king," theocratic 

 tendencies were notoriously in disfavour ; while under 

 Napoleon III., and through his act, the mediaeval theo- 



