The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-08 00:00:00

THE BISHOP OF NISMES AND COUN7*
DE PERSIGNY.

Several of the Parish journals again publish
articles on the Dappes affair, but in presence of the
note published on the subject in the Illoniteur, they
have lost much of their interest. Some of those
journals remark in severe terms on a publication of
the Bishop of Nismes against the circular of Count
de Persigny on charitable associations. The Con-
stitutionnel expresses itself in these terms :

" There was a report some days ago that several bishops
intended to make an appeal to the Minister of Public Wor.
ship against the measures adopted with regard to charit-
able associations, and we have now before us a long letter
on that subject from the Bishop of Nismes to the Minister.
What appears to have most shocked the right rev. prelate
is that the Minister of the Interior, in his memorable cir-
cular, placed the Society of St. Vincent de Paul on the
same footing with Freemasonry. The Bishop of Nismes is
no partisan of equality, and has a most decided aversion for
what modern France calls common law, equal for all. Was
it not this very prelate who, last January, protested so
strenuously against the application of the stamp-law and
the obligation to deposit episcopal writings for the
very singular reason that such formalities were
humiliating and degrading to the bishops, whose pastoral
letters would thereby be confounded pell-mell in the pre-
fectoral archives with contemptible pamphlets and other
ignoble publications ? Now, as then, equality in the eye of
the law is the point in question; the law makes no distinc-
tion between associations, and legal authorisation is neces-
sary for all without exception. The Bishop of Nismes thinks
the law ought to have spoken out sooner I He thus re-
proaches the Government with a toleration which it has been
compelled to withdraw, and for which those who enjoyed it
never showed the least gratitude. It is evident, however,
that the Bishop is wrong in exclaiming against the common
law, for, detest it as he may, he does not hesitate to take
advantage of it. It can hardly be in his capacity of bishop
that the venerable prelate criticises the decisions of the Go-
vernment on matters which do not fall directly under epis-
copal cognisance. It is simply from his quality of citizen
thathe derives the right to publish his opinions, concur-
rently with 'miserable pamphleteers,' who have never had
'a sense of shame,' and who carry their ribaldry to the ex-
tent of placing Jesus on a level with Barrabas,' and of
even speaking, in the same article, of Freemasonry and the
Society of St. Vincent de Paul."

The Siecle also remarks on the Bishop's letter in
the following manner :
" If there were any need of proofs to establish that the
Society of St. Vincent de Paul, as it was constituted before
the issue of the circular of the 16th Oct., had a political
object, wo have only to cast a glance in the vestries of
churches and in episcopal palaces. Several prelates, it is
said, are preparing refutations, protests, and remonstrances.
The Bishop of Nismes has already made public a letter ad-
dressed by him to the Minister of Public Worship. In this
epistle the prelate labours less to glorify the asasciation of
St. Vincent de Paul than to attack Freemasonry. From
its very commencement, this Order, if we can believe him,
was actuated by a bitter hatred for all noble and holy things
and it now hates the Gospel, hates and curses the Church,
hates even its own members :

'6 It hates it own members,' says the bishop. ' Every
one knows to what frightful irritations they are subjected,
the monstrous oaths imposed on them, the barbarous ven-
geance with which are menaced those who may venture to
betray the promises, or make known the secrets of this hideous
family. Accordinglyßome, knowing all these abominations,
has several times thundered against this sect, hostile to God
and man, to Church and State, to the sacerdall order, and to
Kings. Clement XII., Benoit XIV., Pius VII., Leon
XII., have issued formidable anathemas against it, and Pius
IX. himself, summing up the condemnations of his proces-
sors, denounced it in his turn in the first year of his glori-
ous Pontificate.

What charity ! what amenity ! The Bishops of
Nismes adds :

" More than one revelation obliges us to believe that
this Order has not degenerated, and that the lodges of the
Grand Orient have not ceased to be a cavern in which in-
fernal tempests aro prepared against social order and the
Church.'

Never before, with so much audacity, were hatred
and contempt excited against an entire class of citi-
zens; never was the arm of calumny employed with
greater fury !"

COUNTRY MARKETS.

BIRMINGHAM—Nov. 7.

At to-day's market there was a short supply of English
wheat from the farmers, which found buyers at a slight
advance on this day week. Foreign descriptions were at
late prices. New oats rather cheaper. Beans, barley, and
peas a slow sale.