THE PRESENT POSITION OF CATHOLICS IN FRANCE. 



by the State. Many of these Orders were amassing riches by 

 undertaking trade and manufactures, and it was felt that the money 

 thus obtained was being used to overthrow the constitution of the- 

 country, and if the atheism rampant in France was condemned, it 

 was only fair to ask whether the Church, which for more than ten 

 centuries had uncontrolled power over the religious training of the 

 people, must not bear her full share of the blame for the baneful 

 results of her teaching. 



The present religious situation was certainly a deplorable one. 

 The churches were for the most part vested still in the hands of the 

 bishops. The attempt to form Associations CuUueUes independent of 

 the Pope and to carry on worship in the churches apart from his 

 authority, had been resisted by the State, and in some cases the- 

 gens d'armes had been called in to prevent the churches being used 

 by any religious body but the one in whose hands the law still 

 vested them. The gi'eat majority of the people of the land refused 

 to worship at the accustomed altars, and at present no religious 

 movement existed which was capable of winning them over to a 

 purer form of Christianity. The members of the Institute were- 

 much indebted to Mr. Galton for the information he had given 

 them of the actual state of affairs. It was much to be hoped that 

 what he had said might serve to correct the numerous and gross 

 misconceptions which were so widely spread, and might induce them 

 to take a deeper and more generous interest in the religious perplex- 

 ities into which a great nation had been plunged by the caricature of 

 Christianity which for centuries had been taught to them instead of 

 the genuine doctrine of Christ. 



Eev. A. Irving, D.Sc, said that, as no one else seemed inclined 

 to speak, he would like to have the privilege of seconding the vote 

 of thanks to the author for his valuable, trenchant, and most 

 illuminating paper. From his perusal of Mr. Galton s book he had 

 expected much, and his expectations had been more than realised. 

 Many of the points discussed had received A'ery able treatment in 

 the columns of the Guardian for some years past by the Eoman 

 Catholic Correspondent of that journal, who writes under the nom 

 de plume, " Cis alpine." From such sources mainly the speaker had 

 been able to obtain pretty clear ideas of what has passed behind the 

 scenes in recent years in the policy of the Eoman Curia, more 

 especially in its relations with the French Government and the- 



