The Portland daily press., 1871-01-10
Pere Hyacinthe and the War.


Father Hyacinthe lectured on the Franco
Prussian War at Hanover-square Rooms on
the goth of December for the benefit of the
French wounded. We make an extract from
the published report:
With all my heart do wish, in the interest
of France herself, of Germany, and of Chris
tian Europe, that my country may be peace
full country. But you must not push nation
to extremity. You must take care that NO
thirst for vengeance grows with its growth:
that mothers do not everywhere call on their
little sons to cherish ever in their hearts an
undying hatred to Prussia. To meet such a
danger at its door, Germany, whose role is es-
sentially an intellectual, a moral and industri-
al one, must remain for generations military
nation, and therefore more or less under des.
potic rule. You must not let Napoleonic
Dir Decembre be followed by Prussian imi-
tation of that model, reviving the traditions
of Cesar, who acts in the spirit of Pagan
Rome. As to the annexation Of our two
provinces, l resist it with all my heart. If it
is pressed upon us it will be great msfor-
tune to my country; but that France will
thereby become second or third rate Power
do not believe.
When Calais was won by us-Calais, which
England held like pistol at the heart of
France-your Queen Mary said at her death
the name would be found engraven on her
heart. Yet no Englishman now thinks it
was misfortune to have lost Calais. OF
course Alsace and Lorraine are worth TO us
far more than Calais was to you. In part, no
doubt, they are German by language and de-
scent; but in nationality they are French,
and Germany will gain by leaving them to us,
for they act as aconnecting cord between the
heart OF the two nations; they are a sort of
canal by which the ideas of the two nations
may be, suitably reciprocated and exchanged.
do not, however, dwell upon this question.
which lies within the domain of the politician,
IL say that the two nations, though differing
in faeeA have 40 war to wage against each
other; Shat there is an alliance to conclude
between them-ay, more than an alliance, a
fusion. 1t is in the heart of France to make
such fusion-France which was in great
part Graded in the forests of Germany, and
which itself represents union between the
world of the north and the world OF the south.
1 And the monarch in whose hands are the
present destines, not only OF Germany but of
Europe. owes a great duty to civilization. and
will do well to act generous part toward the
French nation, instead of attempting the vain
task Of destroying it. Then, as to the religious
question. 1t is incontestably true that in one
sense this IS not war between two peoples,
but between two Churches. Germany repre-,
sents frotestantism in sense, but Germany
is both Protestant and Catholic. France rep.
resents Catholicism without doubt, but France
also represents reaction-a legitimate and
even an excessive reaction-from the Roman
system. II, then, there be no antagonism of
race, there can be none between the Churches
none, at least, to be settled by the sword.
Are we going two or three ages back, to the
days of st. Bartholomew and the Dragon
nadesS No! Religious wars are finished, and
finished everywhere. Proselytes are never
more to be made by the sword of the Judge
and of the soldier. Nor are religious coDtro-
versies the bitter, heated things they were. A
new phenomenon has arisen. The Churches
are drawing more closely together. Priests,