Part 16

At nine went with M. Des Billiers to see the Bishop of Amatha, Vicar Apostolic of Western Caledonia. He was lodging in a house of the Maristes, Rue du Mont Parnasse; and had all the simplicity of a missionary. He received us in his sleeping-room, which was not even ordinarily comfortable. We had an hour's conversation with him. His society has been lately established, the actual Superior General being its founder--it is named after the Blessed Virgin; they take the three vows, and are bound especially to the practice of simplicity. The objects of their institution very much resemble those of the Société de la Rue Picpus. They have now four bishops in Western Oceania. "We did not choose this sphere for our labours," said the Bishop, "the Pope assigned it to us." The bishop lately massacred in those parts was of their society. The Bishop of Amatha has in all twenty-six missionaries under him--he is going out with eleven; and this very day, after many fruitless attempts, has received the promise of a free passage in the first government ship, for himself and his companions. As the transit costs 2000 francs a head, this was matter of great importance to him, as he has 40,000 francs to set him off, with his missionaries, from the Société de la Propagation de la Foi; but nothing for his after support. Thus, they live by cultivating the earth--and, he says, the natives are only excited to labour by seeing them labour. When asked whether the savages were more inclined to Protestantism or Catholicism, he answered, "They are ready to take whichever comes first; but in the long run we expel the Protestants. They see that we are consistent and invariable in what we teach--that we come and settle among them without wife or children; that we do not trade; and so they are unable to assign any motive for our conduct but charity to them; and this in the end works upon them." By the bishop's account he and his missionaries live in the midst of the savages. He seems about thirty-eight or forty years of age--able to "endure hardship," and quite willing, in a state of the most apostolic poverty. He knew and spoke highly of Bishop Broughton--also had heard a high character of Bishop Selwyn. I said, there was not upon the earth a bishop of a more Catholic heart or greater charity than he. He said, he heard he had put down trading among his missionaries, and brought them into order. "He is living," I said, "just the same life which you have described, cultivating the earth with his missionaries." The bishop's expression was, "We try to make the savages men, and then Christians. We have been calumniated as though we were agents of the French government; this will tell you," he said, "whether that is true:" and he read me an official letter refusing him a free passage. "This would not have been were we government agents." He spoke highly of the Anglican missionaries, but very badly of the Methodists--"they will do anything by any means, against us--but the others are men of education and good faith, and act honourably." Two Anglican ministers in Sydney, he said, had lately gone over to them; and a third, the best preacher in the city, was expected. They had a splendid cathedral there, which had cost 40,000l., and some 15,000 Catholics--the Anglicans about 2000, the Methodists 10,000. (I am told this is entirely incorrect; the numbers of the English Church are far greater.) "We want but England to be Catholic," he said, "in order to convert the world; men we can send in abundance in France, it is your resources we need." I said, "You must pray for that." "We do pray constantly for it," he said. He alluded to the corrupt state of morals in Sydney. At parting he regretted he could not answer my visit, as he was going to Auvergne, his own country, to-morrow, to see his family before leaving France.

It is, I think, impossible to conceive a higher degree of charity than the going to live among savages in Oceania. Banished from country and friends, without family ties or support from domestic affections--in danger at times of massacre, and always subject to every species of personal discomfort. If this be not an Apostolic life, I am unable to conceive what is.

_Tuesday, July 25._--Went to a Low Mass at S. Roch: this is a poor uncomfortable church. I do not like the demeanour of people at Paris, compared with those in the country; they seem afraid to show reverence.

M. des Billiers took me to the Hôpital Necker, for men and women, near the Rue de Sevres: his friend the almoner took us round; he seemed an example of the old French character, polite and gay, with a natural spring of cheerfulness, which woke a corresponding chord in every one he addressed. I was pleased to see, as we went through the wards, in which were several wounded in the affair of June, how every face of man, woman, and child lighted up with pleasure as he addressed them. This hospital is served by eighteen sisters of charity. After this nothing would do but he must take us to l'Institution des Aveugles, though he left a party in his own rooms. I have never been over an institution more interesting or more worthy of support than this. I had a feeling of dread in entering, to see all around me boys and girls deprived of the most precious of the senses--here, however, charity seems to have done all that is possible to alleviate their loss. They are employed in a great variety of occupations, not only reading, writing, and music, but in carpentering, printing, turning with the lathe, making shoes and slippers, and a great many other trades. Boys on one side and girls on the other were walking about the house and the garden as freely as if they possessed the blessing of sight--all seemed cheerful and even happy. We watched with astonishment a blind boy using a sharp instrument in turning the lathe, with as much precision and fearlessness as if he saw. Many likewise were practising music, and the sudden smiles which mantled over their countenances every now and then were pleasant to behold. I bought for twelve francs a pair of candlesticks, turned and polished with the utmost nicety,--all done by the blind. The eye can detect no inequality or variance in the work; they are as if they came out of a first-rate shop in London or Paris. It is true that this spectacle was after all not without pain; for even while feeling the charity which had successfully devised so many occupations for creatures lying under such a loss, the expression of each face, deprived, as it were, of its soul, afflicted one--and here were two hundred young people of both sexes in this condition; very often likewise their faces were otherwise deformed. We asked one lad to read to us: he passed his fingers rapidly over letters raised a little above the paper, and read us tolerably fast a passage respecting English rule in India, in which, oddly enough, my own name occurred. Another mode of reading, not by letters, but by other marks representing letters, and similarly raised, seemed more difficult, or the reader had less practice. Another blind man wrote a short sentence which we dictated to him respecting our visit. This seemed done by a very complicated instrument, which had about sixteen points, capable of forming all the letters and figures, in a sort of square hand; several of these points went to make a single letter; and they were touched by the hand as rapidly as I have seen lace-makers fix their pins. One blind boy kindly directed us over to the female part of the house: they move up and down stairs and about the corridors without hesitation. Our friend and conductor had a kind word for every different party, and seemed quite at home. It would have been impossible to be out of sorts in his company; he was ever chirruping round one.

Afterwards M. Des Billiers walked with me to the Enfans Trouvés, Rue d'Enfer. I had once before seen a house of this kind at Rouen, and this renewed all one's feelings of admiration and love for S. Vincent de Paul. If ever charity flowed in any human breast, it was in his. When people scruple at admitting some material miracle, such, for instance, as that mentioned above, wrought before his shrine, they forget that the whole life of this saint was a spiritual miracle infinitely more astonishing. It is a simple exercise of God's _creative_ power attending, it is true, on the virtue flowing over from our Saviour to His saints, that a malady is removed by the intercession of a saint, whose relics are approached in faith, but that man's naturally selfish and fallen spirit should become a shrine of self-denying, patient, suffering, and conquering love, from the baptismal font unto the grave, is a miracle of God's _redeeming_ power, of His election working in union with His creature's will, which does, indeed, awaken the greatest astonishment. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." It is said not to the Apostles, nor to those on whom they laid their hands, nor to the first ages merely, but without limit of time.

In the room where the infants exposed are first received there are eighty-five cradles; many of them were tenanted, some by infants apparently dying, or, again, only that day received; one was lying, just arrived, not yet undressed, washed, and clothed,--the children of shame and disease, too often; always, I fear, of misery; one could not look upon them without the deepest commiseration, or the highest regard to those sisters of charity, (for this hospital there are thirty-two), who fulfil their mission towards these the veriest outcasts of the world. The sister who took us round told us that twelve a day were baptized on an average; sometimes as many as thirty. If they survive the first few days, they are sent into the country to be nursed; but they are brought up in different houses, instructed for various trades, and kept, if necessary, till twenty-one years of age. At present the use of the tower is suspended during the day, but at night infants are so received, left sometimes without rags to cover them; a little badge is put on each, and any particular marks about them noted. In the day they are received upon the attestation of a public officer. We went through the ophthalmerie, and infirmerie. It was most interesting to see these little creatures of various ages, but nearly all suffering, finding from those who had become their parents in Christ the mercy which their natural parents had not shown them. I said to the sister that I feared they had few English among them: she assented. When will my country be foremost again in these works of saintly charity, in this bearing of the cross amid the sins and miseries of a fallen world? Would that instead of so much earthly wealth she were once more the isle of Saints. But this is impossible, so long as she denies, despises, or misunderstands the honour due to the virgin estate of those consecrated to God, or the power of Christ's sacrifice conveyed from the Lord to His members.

_Wednesday, July 26._--Had about an hour's conversation with the Père de Ravignan. He asked me if I knew the Comte de Montalembert, said his intended preface to the life of S. Bernard, on the religious orders, had already swollen to three volumes: he regretted that the Père Lacordaire was not at Paris, for me to see him. I asked why he had quitted the National Assembly. That, he said, has caused us some pain. His own generous nature led him to think that he might induce the liberal members there to extend their liberality to the Church, and to countenance liberty of teaching; but he soon found his mistake in this; they were false liberals, ready enough to apply their principles to state matters, but not ready to carry them into the domain of thought. They were liberal _against_ the Church, and despots _over_ it. M. Lacordaire had not entered the Assembly to gratify any wish of his own; he sat there on the Mountain; but this state of things, this difficult and confined position in which he could not act freely, was most repugnant to his disposition. So he resigned; it might have been better fully to have considered the reality before hand. As to the salaries given to the clergy, Le Père Lacordaire was not for discontinuing them. No doubt, miserable as they are in amount, and given in exchange for ample estates, it would be desirable to do without them, were it possible. But as the clergy is mainly drawn from the lower classes, this is not possible; and the small "casuel" they receive for baptisms, marriages, and interments, is necessary to eke out their scanty incomes. It was sad to see such a remuneration made to its clergy by a Catholic country, while England, he said, allowed such comparatively liberal stipends to the same class.

I asked him what were the strongest books on the Roman Primacy. He said the Brothers Ballerini, and Valemburg's Controversies. I remarked that for nearly three years my attention had been fixed on this subject, and that I had pursued it through Councils and Fathers down to the conclusion that the Pope had indisputably a primacy of order (or honour) in the whole Church, but had not a primacy of jurisdiction over the East. He did not advance anything new on this point. He quoted the usual passages of S. Irenæus, S. Victor, St. Cyprian, St. Augustine. I had considered, I said, all these, and a great multitude of others, but still my conclusion was against the primacy of jurisdiction, as concerning the Oriental Church. He then attempted to meet this by the paucity of documents in early times; but I said those which actually existed told against the Roman claim. "Suppose," said he, "you were to admit the Roman hypothesis; would you not find it solve all the passages?" I said this was the very way in which I had studied the question, and come to just the contrary conclusion. He said that he understood English, and would read my book, which I had offered to send him, and let me know his answer to my view.

I was struck again with the charity of his manner, and with his likeness to Manning. Went for half an hour to the adjoining church of S. Vincent de Paul. His shrine is still open over the altar. I saw various articles, clothes, books, crosses, carried up and put against the glass covering his relics, for the purpose of blessing them.

At one went to the distribution of prizes at the Petit Séminaire, 21. Rue N. D. des Champs. The four vicaires généraux of the Chapter of Paris sat in front, to crown with a chaplet the gainers of the prizes, and to present books to them and those who gained an accessit. There were a good many other clergy, and a tolerable number of laity, men and women, present, friends evidently of the young men and boys. I could not but be struck here, as elsewhere, with the great number of plebeian and unintellectual faces among the clergy, (to which, however, the four vicaires généraux, and some others, were exceptions.) As for the laity present, male and female, it was a mass of unredeemed ugliness. One of the professors read an address to the pupils of full a half hour, passing in view the whole life of the late Archbishop, his studies, labours, writings, acts, and lastly, his martyrdom and burial, not forgetting his solicitude for them. One of the last of his public acts was the coming there on Whit-Sunday, a fortnight before his fatal wound. I did not think this address good--it was monotonous both in tone and delivery;--very remarkable is the difference in the sound of the French language when read and when spoken. The recitation is so peculiarly spondaic, stiff, and conventional, in the former case; while, in the latter, it is easy and flowing. When this was done, the giving of prizes began. It took an hour; and no wonder, for at least two hundred wreaths and two hundred sets of books, single or double, were to be distributed. Many indeed received several wreaths and prizes. The winners came forward, ascended four or five steps, and were successively crowned and saluted on each cheek by one of the Vicaires Généraux; now and then they were taken to a friend or relative, male or female, when present, to receive their crown. It was put on the head, and then carried in the hand. I thought that at least the principle of emulation was not discouraged. But the great number of subjects which were rewarded was as remarkable as the number of prizes. It seemed as if they never would end. There was Excellence and Sagesse: Greek, Latin, and French composition; Latin verse; Philosophy, Rhetoric, Geography, English Language, &c.; and most of these divided into different forms. No merit could be said to be neglected. There was a first prize, and a second, and sometimes three accessit besides; and some reached nine, or even ten rewards. I dare say they all felt as young Greeks receiving the laurel crown. Certainly the mounting those steep stairs, in order to receive their crown, must have been a nervous operation.

At the conclusion, one of the Vicaires Généraux rose, and delivered a few words to the pupils with great simplicity and ease; the day of return was then announced for Thursday, 5th Oct. I marked many ingenuous and pleasing countenances among the successful candidates. A father near me was in a state of the greatest excitement at the prizes of his son, a lad of thirteen.

I went over for a few minutes to the exquisite chapel of Les Dames de bon Secours, or Garde-Malades: it was quite silent; and I could enjoy its beauty without interruption. I was told yesterday that the labours of these sisters by sick beds materially shorten their life; and that they enter the society with the full consciousness that the service they undertake is injurious and often fatal. Their work is, to attend on sick persons of good condition, and to use the opportunity, which sickness rarely fails to present, of directing the thoughts to religious subjects. A payment of five francs a day is made to the institution for their services.

Went to M. Gondon, who took me to the Comte de Montalembert's reception. The Bishop of Langres there, M. l'Abbé de Casales, two other members of the Assembly, also M. Bonnetty, M. de S. Chéron, translator of Hurter's Life of Innocent III., and about ten other gentlemen. La Comtesse was in Belgium, visiting her family. I had some talk with the Bishop. M. de Montalembert began a conversation about England, which interested me. "I am in great fear for you; if you resist the present crisis, as you did the first revolution and Napoleon, it will be a great glory. The glory of England is already great, but that will be almost miraculous. It is the struggle of paganism against religion. I admit that you have in England a larger amount of religion on the whole than any other country has: c'est une réligion bien mince, you will agree with me: there are very few among you who hold an integral Catholicism; but, however, religion of some sort there is. Yet, in spite of this, the great mass of your people is become heathen; they look at your books and your lives, and believe there is no other life, for you have taught them practically there is none. It is all very well to tell them that, were property divided among all, they would get some eleven shillings a week; whatever it be, they will try for it: if they do not believe the next life, they will try to get something of this. And then look at the state of things all over the Continent. If England outrides this storm, it will be marvellous. I wish she may with all my heart, but she alone remains." He seemed to think the German and Italian unities, if constituted, would alter the balance in Europe. As for the state of France no one, I imagine, can tell what is coming. M. de Montalembert and two others are the only members of the old House of Peers sitting in the Assembly. There is a fair number of old deputies; but the great mass of the rest are utterly unworthy, from education, position, or any merit whatever, to represent France. They are not up to any of the questions which present themselves. And from such an Assembly France is to receive a constitution. Of the French generals at present in power, M. Bédeau is the only one who is religious: I heard lately a remarkable trait of him. When in Africa with his army he met a priest, went forward to him, took him aside to some distance, and confessed to him; he then returned to his army, and said, if any one liked to follow his example, he would wait for him; they were going to fight, and no one could calculate the chances of war. How many did the like I did not hear.

_Thursday, July 27._--M. des Billiers came to go with me to M. Hervé, the surgeon of Les Sœurs de la Charité, to get his account of the material facts attending the healing of the novice on the 9th of May. We found him out, but Mad. Hervé gave the same account as we had before received; and told us if we would call later we could see M. Hervé. I did so, and he then said that he had deposited a medical account of the whole thing with the Sisters, which I might see in the Rue du Bac.

I went again to call on M. Noirlieu, but found him out. On the way went into the old abbey church of S. Germain des Prés: since I was last there the whole choir has been painted. I think this is the most pleasing and impressive of all the churches at Paris. I could not be there without emotion, considering the long line of Benedictines who had worshipped within those walls, and deserved so well of the Church of Christ by studying and editing her great Fathers. I saw commemorated in one monument three great names--Mabillon, Descartes, and Montfaucon; of the second, I think it was said, "qui luce, quam indagavit, nunc fruitur:" this comprehends everything,--to enjoy that light. O utinam!

I have been looking to-day at a short account published here: "Sur les soixante-dix serviteurs mis à mort pour la foi en Chine, en Tong-King, et en Cochin-Chine, déclarés vénérables par notre S. Père le Pape Gregoire XVI." It is a wonderful history: the deeds and sufferings of the early Church exactly reproduced in our own times. These martyrs were even more savagely tortured than those of old by the Romans. And some of them are only four or five years older than oneself, some of them natives of China, younger; so that while I have wasted my days in vanity, others, sharers of this same flesh and blood, have entered the noble army of martyrs. And if charity dispenses the place of the redeemed in the mansions on high, near to their Lord assuredly will be their place, who passed from the midst of a deceiving and voluptuous civilisation, unstained and unallured, into the midst of a population lying in the valley of the shadow of death; low, grovelling, filthy in mind and body, and this to save some souls, if it might be, out of that otherwise condemned mass. It would seem as if out of corruption at its worst degree the highest, purest, and most self-denying charity were to go forth, to show that God's arm is not shortened, and that we might be, if we would, all that the martyrs of old were. Moreover, the people of Cochin China are naturally of a peculiarly timid disposition; yet many have been found to emulate the courage of European priests and bishops, in bearing the most prolonged torments and trials. What a horrible thing does it seem, that we should be practically taught, that the system which produces these men is such a corruption of God's revelation as is but a step removed, if removed at all, from idolatry.