New-York tribune., 1877-03-10
THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.
STATE OF PUBLIC SENTIMENT.

TENTIoN-STATE OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHI-EDU-
CATIoNAL AND DIPLOMATIC REFORM.
IYRoA REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRBUSs1
PARIS, Feb. cor course, a certain degree of SEN
satiOn has been made here by the news from Con-
stantnOple but it is at the time curious to see
how altered matters in this respect since the
war; Let what will happen abroad let no matter
who be exalted or overthrown, the mind OF
France is, up to the present moment fixed
upon herself; all the external revolutions
imaginable do not affect her in the same degree to
which she is affected by great provincial eec-
ton or some Ultramontane bishops charge. Both
Government and country are determined to allow
nothing to lead them into Peace is the
national good to which they will adhere in
the face Of all adverse events. and to the notion
of any participation in warlike enterprise
the unanimous reply would be- mot If know
itw In this respect public instruction and financial
improvement the two main objects of the public
thought and the Exhibition Of 7S is the an
swer to all disturbances cOnspiraces in other
countries. On this point there certainly is curious
observation to make. The real struggle between
France and Germany on one side, and the effort on
the other to bring together France and Europe, are
carried on upon the standing ground of tue
Exhibition. If, as seems probable, every ma
ton in the world takes part in the Great
Germany remains alone aloof, the moral victory
will be with France and Chancellor Bismarck will
have committed mistake for about the first time
in his career 1t may turn out to be even greater
mistake than might be at first supposed for
it would range on Bismarcks side all
those who in France, his worst and
natural enemes-the clericals Here, in the
interior the Exhibition has grown to be the rallymg
point of all the living and modern forces of the
nation and the obstructives, the ultra royaliss and
clericas are those vino delight in predicting and be-
lieving (or hopngl that it will eventually break
down before its announced appearance
has taken place. This, therefore, for the
frat time puts the bitterest enemies of the German
Chancellor forcedly on his very side-and that
against the interests Of France; most eXtraOrdi-
nary circumstance 1t must be owned!
Now, apropos 70 clericaiism, a strange piece of
fanatcism took place the other day the lnstruc
tions for Lent" of the Bishop Of Chartres. In
stead of attempting to " turn the question"
this Jealous prelate declared ultramontanisn
to be Catholicism itself-is very and genius.
When one thinks of what passed some 10 or II
years ago, and compares that time with the
present, it is scarey possible to believe what is now
passing every day under ones eyes. For three
quarters OF a century an effort has been persist
entity made in France to bring liberal minds
into union WIFI tdIlOiiclsIu, anu vi INC
arguments employed that real genuine religious
faith in Catholic doctrine had nothing in common
with Jesuitism or UltramontanisIn that Chris
tian Catholicism had nothing whatever to do
with Papistry 1t was affirmed that purely
Papistc tcnes were held by no one since the days
Of Catherine de Mcdics and those of the sangnnary
"Ligue'-and this endured until the first years OF
the Empire. Then the began, and,
to show what has been the progress
made, you need only place in juxtapcsition
srch words rs those written by M0ntalem-
bert to Father Hyacinihe land intrusted to him for
pnblicationl and such an episcopal declaration of
principles as the one have quoted above. That in
The long ran violence of the kind alluded to de-
stroys its own end, is a simple truth, but in
an uurduratco nation like Franco the passage from
one state OF things to another is mostly fierce and
dangerous
Perhaps the fiery ordeal" must inevitably be gone
through in order that the eventual good may be at
tanned. but religious civil war in this country
would be vastly high price wherewith to pay for
universal disbelief than freedom of conscience,
for that is what has to be looked for. Ignorance
unbelievable ignorance in the upper ranks Of society
lies at the bottom of all. Science has made no
giant strides in France, has laid no hold Oh
the national mind. at all comparable with
what has occurred in other communities II
You overthrow what is rapidly becoming the
blind superstition Of Italian or Spanish brigand.
you suppant 1t only with utter disbelief to the
full as unreasOnng and as frivolous. When, ten or
Gftecn years ago, the best of French poticans-men
like Montalembert, BToglie and others joined by
priests such as Father Hyacinthe Father Gratz and
even the Bishop of OrlcaIs-when rlen
of this stamp raised the flag of Liberal
Catholicism" they determined to remain, as they
termed il, within the limits of the Dogma" they
gtll as they imagined, could rest within the pale of
the Church. yet reform all that the modern
spirit of investigation rejected. Bat when Tie
discoveries of science threw such startling
Hal,t upon certain fundamental convictions.
the followers of these men, what should lave
been properly so called their "schOOl," drew back,
dazzicd by the glare, and either mOaned for the
cool darkness to be restored to their aching eyebals
or threw themselves with frivolous recklessness
into wholesale negatOn. There was nowhere a
desire craving for the trnth-fOr the acquire
roent of certain scientific facts which to
base future speculaiions. The Conservatives
for the whole question soon became political) who
liked 10 believe in conventional paradise, and,
above all in eternal Punishment, soon saw that the
best chance for their fayoritc theories lay WITH
miracles. papistrv. and all the impossibilities Of
cioss superstition; they abdicated the exercise OF
their reasoning faculties, and accepted the heavy
woke from Which they could not escape believe
thry did this reluctantly, but they have done 1t
thoroughly and nothing now separates the cham
MONS of the so-called 'Ordre moral from the be-
nfchtcd fanatic who pins his whole hopes on Pill
crimages. The two profess the same doctrines.
II will, am quite aware he objected that what is
false cannot endure, and that TO require OF full
crown men with even an average education the be-
lief, that scarcely child nowadays accepts else
where. is like the task of filing broken vase with
wafer; it will be SAID that man placed In
ii I;lro,na of helieyiup i'm A Salette or IoIries,