Star.
London, England, 1831-06-07 00:00:00

THE ABBE GREGOIRE, LATE BISHOP

OF BLOIS.

France has just lost one of those great men
whose lives are models of consistency, and may be
compared to beautiful dramas, where all the stages
of the action are in harmony with each other. In
his youth, in his riper years, and in his old age, M.
Gregoire was always attached to the same things,
to letters, philosophy, humanity, religion. The
love of religion was the predominant feeling of his
breast, and contributed not a little to keep alive
that passion for liberty which the revolution of
1789 kindled within him. The study of public and
private rights, the meditation of the doctrines of
Christ, the great preacher of equality, and a deep
knowledge of the history of the primitive church,
had admirably prepared the Cure d'Embermenil
for our political reformation; he may be said to have
been a citizen before the French people had con-
quered that sacred name on the ruins of the
Bastille.

So early as 1778, an essay on the melioration
of the political, physical, and moral condition of
the Jews, had announced in NI. Gregoire a man
superior to the maxims of intolerance and fanati-
cism. This production, bold and new in its nature,
was received with favour by the clergy of France.
At the same time he was active in promoting the
education of his parishioners, both in a religious
and agricultural point of view, giving them free ac-
cess to a library adapted to their intelligence and
to their condition, which he sought to render more
free and happy by increasing their knowledge. It
was thus that M. Gregoire an:icipated, by more
than half a century, the generous attempts made
in our time to enlighten the popular mass, and di-
minish that inequality of civilization which, to the
prejudice of liberty, places so great au intellectual
distance between 'different parts of France. Gess-
ner, Ochs, Lavater, and other enlightened men,
whom he visited in their respective countries, had
been made the confidants of his philanthrophic
views, and felt for him the highest esteem. This
sentiment he had the good fortune to inspire to the
most remarkable men of his ege, who never ceased
to correspond with him as with the zealous friend of
humanity.
Perhaps there did not exist in all Europe, a re-
ligious body so moral and enlightaned, so humane
and full of consolation for the poor, as what was
then called in France the bas clerge: the curb;
in particular were a chosen class, with whom the
higher clergy, indulging in every pleasure, re-
laxed in their morals, greedy of distinctions and
of riches, could not for an instant have sustained
a comparison. The conduct of either class at the
revolution was in accordance with the difference
which existed in their moral condition. The grand
dignitaries of the church fought for their privileges
and their treasures, and even refused to succour
royalty in peril, and save it from destruction. The
inferior, the poor clergy, embraced the cane of
the people and of the King against the Court,
joining the generous citizens, who wished sin-
cerely to see the throne in alliance with liberty.
France will never forget the noble devotion dis-
played by M. Gregoire on different occasions, at
the meeting of the jeu de Paunte, on the 14th of
July, and at the celebrated discussion on the civil
constitution of the clergy.
Rome, which has modified its doctrines to serve
its ambition, and its still affected supremacy, may
have condemned the principles of the Bishop of
Blois ; but be who has sever ceased to appeal from
a condemnation which be considered as unjust, will
be acquitted at the tribunal of Reason, to whose su-
preme jurisdiction even pontiffs are subject. What
has become of the pretensions, the maxims, the
usurpations, the examples of the Gregories, the
Alexanders,and the Sextnses? Reason has defeated
and marked them with the stamp of eternal repro-
bation. Reason, whose rights are inalienable, has
stripped these usurpers of the inviolability, the in-
fallibility with which they affected to surround their
power, their relations, and their oracles.

In the stormy scenes which succeeded the Con-
stituent Assembly, M. Gregoire, whatever his ac-
cusers may have asserted, displayed still greater
courage. To give a faithful but brief summary of
his conduct, under the Convention, he proposed the
abolition of •the pain of death at the time of the
trial of Louis XVI. requested that the King should
be the first to benefit by the law, refused to sign a
letter which called for his condemnation. He pro-
tested, with the greatest energy, at the very mo-
ment of the abdication of Gobel, that he would
never abandon Christianity. Aided by Lakanal
and others, he laid foundations for the re-establish-
ment of public instruction : he protected the mo •
numents of the arts against the barbarism which
seemed to have spread over some parts of France.
Under the Directory, all his efforts tended to
the re-establishment of religion ; he has himself
proved, that four years before the famous concor-
date of Napoleon, the Christian worship had been
restored in 32,000 parishes, and that, of the 8000
remaining, 4,000 were petitioning for the re-open-
ing of their Churches. Named a member of the
Senate under the empire, he did not abjure the se-
verity of his principles, and, along with the Garats,
the Lanjuinais, and a few others, offered in his
conduct a striking contrast to the slavish submis-
sion of that assembly to the master whom it after-
wards betrayed.
At the first restoration, M. Gregoire, faithful to
his'prineiples, was for rejecting the Bourbons, until
guarantees of liberty had been required and ob-
tained at their hands.
In the great fault then eommitted of not re-
quiring from the Bourbons a formal declaration of
their submission to liberty, which they would then
no longer have looked upon as a gift of their mu-
nificence, which they might rt take at will, a fault
which has caused so many evils, and has finally led
to the irrevocable overthrew of the elder branch

of the Bourbons, the Bishop of Blois did not par-
ticipate.
Soon excluded from his Wshopric and from the
institute which he had founded, M. Gregoire with-
drew to Auteuil, which Moliere, Boileau, and
other celebrated men had successively chosen as
their retreat. He was thence called by the free
and unexpected choice of the electors of the here.
The public are well acquainted with the new tribu-
lations to which this event subjected him, and with
the act of ostracism inflicted on a delegate of the
people, by an assembly which contained more than
one member unworthy of a parallel with the vir-
tuous object of its enmity. Wise, but, perhaps,
timid, and, as he thought, pusillanimous friends
advised him to give up bis election. Such a re-
quest evinced but a slight knowledge of the fixity
of his opinions, and the constancy of his cha-
racter.

Instead of giving way to the storm be loudly
protested against the coup d'etat, as a violation of
the rights of the people. The Bishop of Blois has
rendered many services to the cause of liberty in
general, but one great trait marks his whole politi-
cal career. Ever since the Constituent Assembly,
he never ceased reclaiming the emancipation of the
blacks ; the independence of San Domingo was his
work ; and the whole population of the blacks, when
restored to the dignity of man, will ever celebrate
in him the Las Cases of its liberty.
In his illness and last moments, M. Gregoire re-
mained faithful to himself ; he died as he had lived,
with a sense of personal dignity, conscientious in
his actions as in his words, constant in the support
of doctrines embraced from conviction, the friend
of liberty, of humanity, and of religion.
He leaves behind him many esteemed works,
and a far greater number of good and noble ac-
tions. Mild in disposition, he was obstinate from
conviction ; he was easy of access, and a sure and
trusty friend ; his conversation was instructive—
grave, and yet cheerful ; in his countenance, calm

. _
and handsome, there was something singular in
the turn and expression, which called to mind what
1 Saint Simon says of a certain air which distin-
guished Fhnelon amongst his cotemporaries.
I