The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-05-24 00:00:00

REVIVAL OF RELIGION IN PARIS.

(From the Times' Paris Correspondent.)
To-day all is gaiety. The weather is beautiful, and the
festival (Whitsuntide) observed more universally than I can
recollect in Paris, not merely by increased numbers of people
making holiday, but in a religious sense.
A great revolution has, in truth, occurred here within a
dozen years. Twenty years ago, on visiting Paris for the
first time, 1 was forcibly struck by the impiety, the blas-
phemy, and the bad taste which distinguished the conversa-
tion one was compelled to overhear in public and in private.
During the Empire irreligion made in France the most ex-
traordinary progress it is possible to conceive. At all the
public institutious, the Polytechnic School for example, ridi-
cule of the Deity and of revealed religion appeared to have
been more strongly inculcated than any branch of learning
or science. At all convivial meetings the songs of Beranger,
and others equally impious and blasphemous without his poe-
, try to recommend them, were in the mouths of all. Even
at church Beranger's songs, and others which none but the
most vile and odious of the mob ought to be thought capa-
ble of uttering, were substituted by the young men who
chose to form part of the congregation for the sacred hymns
and canticles. In short, you everywhere found or met proofs
of the deep seat which impiety and infidelity appeared to
have made for themselves in the public mind. Tout cela est
change maintenant. Not only are you now spared the dis-
gust which the revolting language of the cafes and the streets
occasioned to you when it could be applied to the Deity and
to religion, but even amongst young men of good society it
has become de mauvais ton to speak even contemptuously on
such subjects. Not only has this negative effect been pro-
duced, but a positive one, which the most sanguine Christian
could not have hoped for. Not only are the churches
crowded on Sundays and holydays by women, as formerly,
but by men also, of all ages and of all classes; and not only
do they frequent the church,* but the sacraments. (The
Catholics have seven, as you know.) Even in the Polytech-
nic School, that hotbed of irreligion, as it is and was the
nursery of military talent, this progress is remarkable. Not
only are the students not now prone to the expression of im-
piety and infidelity, but at least 140 of them go regularly to
church.

How has all this been brought about? you will ask. Much
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the recal of the Parisians (at least) to a sense of religion,
by her charities, her piety, and her liberality ; but it has been
chiefly effected by the discretion and moderation imposed on
the clergy by the occurrences of 1830. Not all their good
conduct nor sanctity could have propitiated the people, had
they displayed even a remnant of the arrogance that (their
enemies say at least), characterised their body during the
Restoration. They have worked with zeal and with effect
in the education of youth, but, above all, they have avoided
giving offence to this excitable people by the slightest ap-
proach to coercion or domineering. This is is the secret of
their success. If this line be followed, object must be
religionng a
in that
France
has
since 1830.
attained. But if, as their opponents hope, they put forward
pretensions and assume an attitude different from that which
has so mainly contributed to bring about this almost mira-
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---- *
Of this I witnessed an example last night. I was, about
eight o'clock, passing by the church of Notre Dame de Lo-
rette, and, being struck by the entrance of a number of per
sons, was induced to follow to ascertain the cause. I found
the church full (one-fourth of those present were men),
acte d and,
on inquiry,. I learned that no particular ceremony ttr
them, that it was the mere efening service of the eve of the
Pentecost.