The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-26 00:00:00

The Count de Montalembert.

We would take the liberty of especially request-
ing our readers, says a weekly contemporary
(the _Register), to observe the answer given by anti-
cipation by the Count de Montalembert himself (in
the second portion of his great speech the other day
at Malines) to the objections suggested to many per-
sons whose opinions deserve great weight, by read-
ing the first half of his address without the second.
It would of course be too much to expect that all
will agree with all that helsays, even as his meaning
is explained by himself. But we do not see that
particular objections which have been raised could
have been more exactly answered if they had lain
before the Count as he wrote.

There are few things more remarkable than the
confident, joyful, nay, triumphant tone of these
anticipations of the condition and prospects of the
Church and religion in Europe. For this cannot be
mere sanguineness of natural character. It is no-
thing less than the exultant hope of a Christian.
For what he says of himself is true. No man has
suffered more than ho from disappointments and re-
buffs. Three-and-thirty years ago M. de Montalem-
bert entered public life with the consciousness of
talents of the first-class, and with the far greater hap-
piness of a cause woreey of ten-fold more than he
could give, and to which he was wholly devoted.
He cannot have failed to feel that ho was born a
great orator. He was heir to a great name, to a seat
in the French House of Peers (which, like the
Senate in the United States, was far more impor-
tant than the lower house), and to a future which,
judged by French standards, is very considerable.
Before his years enabled him to take his seat, he
made an impression upon the peers, which has not
even yet been forgotten, by his speech in defence of
liberty of education, when he pronounced for teach-
ing poor children, without authority from the or-
gans of the Government. Soon after he became the
leader of the Catholic party in Parliament, the in-
timate friend and sharer of the counsels of the bis-
hops and priests who were its life out of doors.
English travellers who were electrified by the sacred
eloquence of Father Lacordaire from the pulpit of
Notre Dame, thought it almost as great a thing to
have seen the great layman at its foot. For years
he had the joy of seeing the high success of a work
in which he was by no means the least important
labourer. No English Catholic could possibly be
what Montalembert then was; because there is no
other Catholic party large enough to place him in
incessant
work, a position. At last, after 18 years of
work, in opposition to the powers of the State and
the leading statesmen of France, the National feel-
ing was so greatly leavened that when the Revolu-
tion of 1848 came the populace of Paris declared in
support of the Church which in 1830 they had
regarded as their enemy and oppressor, and the
Ministers of the Republic proposed to the Chambers
and carried through it a measure for the freedom of
education which, though not all that could be de-
sired, was far wore than the Catholics had ever
hoped to see. As another change, the Religious
Orders, which had been driven from France, were
so openly
restored that Father Lacordaire took his
seat in the Chamber in his Dominican habit.
Thus far all had been victory ; not easy, indeed,
but wild,
and so much the dearer, because crown-
ing an obstinate long-continued struggle. And
what has followed? Two objects had hitherto
been inseparable in the life of this great and good
man--the maintenance of free institutions, and
parliamentary government, and the uniting all
French Catholics together as loyal subjects, both
to support these institutions of their country and to
demand, not as a favour but as a right, that they
should be enjoyed to the full Catholic Church, no
less than by politicians and traders ; that religious
worship and education should be as free as political
action or political discussion. For many years ell
Frenchmen had demanded liberty; all French
Catholics had demanded its application to reli-
gion. As the leader in maintaining these prin-
ciples he had come to the prime of life, and now
that he was approaching failing years ho might
expect that the success would make him, for many
years to come, one of the most powerful and most
useful public men in France. All at once
came a state of things in which the nation is ruled
by one man whose strength is in the support of
the army. Very many Catholics, probably the
great majority, have become advocates of absolute
Power, almost if not quite to the extent of laying
down that a man who professes political libery can-
not be a good Catholic. The effect of this last
change on Frenchmen at large hos been to make
them believe that the Catholic religion is really in.:
consistent with liberty, tied that the loud doini,_n_tio
for liberty uttered by French Catholics froro_.lB‘.l
till 1848 were insincere. So strongly was this I
a few years ago, that if another Revolution had
then taken place it. can hardly he d(uebritehtohmatitthie,:i
bishon the clergy, and thoseo would have beenlls:
m)
the fashion to call " clericals
among its first victims. Of course there were very
many Catholics who felt with Montalembert, but
their voice was unheard
because the only daily
Catholic newspaper
published in France took
strongly the oppeoit side-
Under these circumstances it was impossible that
M. de Montalembert should not feel that the 'work
of his life was being undone and didaanoured, and