heart must we indeed be, if we be tempted to despond, forgetting that the Spouse of Christ in the hour of her humiliation is ever nearest to her triumph! Scarce had the artillery of July ceased to roar, and scarce had the monarchy of the barricades been erected, when one of the sainted daughters of St. Vincent of Paul beheld in a vision the glorious Queen of Heaven, robed in light more resplendent than the sun's, and the thousand converging rays of love darting from her hands, and who assured her daughter, that if her intercession were more earnestly and more frequently invoked, earth would not be so cold and cheer. less. This vision, after a preliminary investigation, is sanctioned by the authorities of the French Church; and medals, in commemoration of this signal grace of Heaven, are circulated among the faithful in France and the rest of Europe. We shall soon see how benignly fulfilled was the promise of the Queen of Heaven. It is singular enough, that a year prior to the July revolution, a distinguished member of the French priesthood said to the author of this article, "The best missionary now for our people were a pestilence." And indeed, when we consider how, in despite of all the lessons which the French people had received, the calamities it had endured, and the calamities from which it had so providentially escaped, a large portion of them, especially the inhabitants of Paris, seemed to have learned nothing and forgotton nothing; that they were still ready to renew the war against the Lord and against His Christ; to renew the game of impiety, rapine, havoc, and blood, we must admit that such a people was ripe for the vengeance of Heaven. Now the Almighty stretches forth His arm against the guilty race, and summons from the depths of Asia an appalling, mysterious malady, as the minister of His wrath. The pestilence sweeps along the Caucasian chain in the track of the Russian army, scourges unhappy Poland in its course, ravages Germany, and at length enters the French capital, black, fierce, and silent, like a conqueror resolved to accept no conditions. It sweeps down victims on every side; ten-twenty thousand souls it sends weekly into eternity: the over-crowded hospitals can no longer receive their patients-private houses are converted into hospitals—the clergy and sisters of charity, and virtuous laity, at this awful crisis outvie each other in the self-devotedness of love, and the illustrious Archbishop of Paris, emerging from his retreat, comes forth like a messenger of Divine mercy, to pardon his enemies, reconcile them with Heaven, and give his clergy the example of a sublime courage.

But while the Almighty was inflicting this severe visitation on the guilty city, He was pleased to temper His wrath with mercy. The supplications of His Virgin Mother are heard. The medals, representing the auspicious vision adverted to above, are put under the pillows of the victims of infection; and the most sudden and miraculous cures take place: and what is still more wonderful, the obduracy of sin is instantanuously softened--raving blasphemy is

hushed, implores Heaven for forgiveness, and receives the consolations of religion.*

It is from this period the great religious improvement in the French metropolis may be dated. A power, emanating from the Cross, subdues the most stubborn hearts, and infidelity, outwearied and vanquished, drops at its foot.

We shall now proceed to lay before our readers testimonies as to the state of religion and morality in Paris during the last nine or ten years; and these testimonies we shall take from the works of distinguished writers, natives and foreigners, or, where the names of the authors are not given, from periodical writings of established repute. After having pointed out the general state of religion in the French capital and in the surrounding districts, we shall notice the moral condition of the various classes composing French society.

Let us hear how a very competent judge described, nine years ago, the extraordinary religious reaction in the capital and the provinces.

"Yes," exclaims M. Roselly de Lorgues, "Christ is before the tribunal of the age. Arrogantly summoned before that tribunal, the age has at last acquitted Him. After having exhausted every system, tried every philosophy, consumed all the resources of knowledge and human pride; being overpowered at last by an indefinable feeling of sadness and lassitude, men call upon Him, who reigns in Heaven. Literati, orientalists, engineers, magistrates, diplomatists, naturalists, advocates, professors--the whole intellectual powers of the age, from the young Polytechnic school to the old Academy, have been seen assembled in mute attention round a Catholic pulpit, in order to receive their share in the bread of the word. The solemnities of the Church awaken and revive in the soul ineffable recollections and hopes. In those seasons especially, the crowd overflows the sacred precincts--the inclosure of our temples scarcely suffices for the affluence of the faithful. Yes, faith revives in our country. God, whom many of our scientific men would formerly have blushed to name in public, is now invoked every where-at the bar-in the drawing-room-at the tribune-in the lecture-hall. The majority of Frenchmen, hitherto indifferent about religion, are disturbed about the suppression of episcopal sees. Petitions on this subject, bearing innumerable signatures, have astonished the national legislatures.

"A member of the left side, distinguished for a frank and loyal character, supports the brothers of the christian schools. M. Dubois, a member of the University, defends them, and the whole Chamber declares itself in favour of those modest labourers in the cause of public morality. Again, when the expenses of public instruction come under discusssion in the Chamber of Deputies, and M. de Bellaique loudly complains of the want of religious education in the University, his words receive unanimous approbation.†

In public harangues, in speeches delivered at Athenæums, at academies, spiritualism raises its voice, and speaks every day in a clearer accent.

For a parellel fact, mentioned by St. Augustine, see "Dublin Review," vol. xv. p. 497. See the sitting of the 8th May 1834.

Men spoke formerly of Nature-they speak now of the Creator. They formerly used the word destiny, immutable order-they say now Providential law, Divine wisdom. The materialist philosophy writhes with vexation at seeing its lecture-halls forsaken; its organs feel, in their lifetime a mortal oblivion weigh like a tomb-stone over them. On the other hand, wherever a promise of immortality—a spark of faith illumines the soul, or warms the heart, there an eager number of youths are found collected. The erudite Catholicism of Baader-the Christian speculations of Goerres at Munich, have obtained more celebrity than all our Anglo-Franco-Germanism has been able to acquire in the Pays Latin."* Le Christ devant le Siècle, pp. 392-4.

Let us now hear a distinguished writer, the Baron de Guiraud, bear witness to the still further improvement, which the last seven years have superinduced in the religious feelings of the inhabitants of Paris.

"Yes, it is said, we concede it; more than six thousand young men hurry to Notre Dame, to St. Roch, wherever a preacher of any repute is to be heard; but in that number, how many Christians, and especially, how many Catholics can you reckon? How many, moreover, who put in practice what is taught them?

"How many? Ask Father Ravignan-ask the pastors of our parishes, whether those sermons be not attended with abundant fruit? Or, without recurring to such authentic sources of information, do as I have done, go and examine with your own eyes. Have you heard at the retreat of St. Roch this year (1841,) all those male voices mingling with the pious, infantine voices, that during the spiritual exercises, sang canticles to the blessed Virgin and the Holy Spirit? This was already a practical beginning. Every man, who, with a book in his hand, takes part with grave and attentive demeanour in all the exercises of piety performed in those sacred assemblies, has already overcome a great enemy-human respect. His most furious passions are less formidable; he will therefore conquer them likewise.

"And that which proves the truth of what I here advance, is the general communion, which followed on this retreat-a solemn communion where the men, who partook of the spiritual banquet, were almost as numerous as the pious women, who habitually attended the church; where two thousand Catholics at least, received from the hands of their archbishop the Eucharistic bread. I here state what I have seen-what I myself took part in.

"I will add, that at Saint-Eustache, the same spectacle of recollectedness and active participation in the devotions of the retreat, equally struck me. I will say nothing as to the multitude of persons.

"Around all pulpits, humble as may be the attainments of the preachers,

The pays Latin is that quarter of the city where the colleges of the University are situate. The Anglo-Franco Germanism is the philosophy of Cousin and Jouffroy, which is a combination of Reid, Dugald Stuart, and Kant and Hegel.

there is always such a crowd assembled, that the curious can never find a place. It will therefore be no matter of astonishment, that the voice of Father Ravignan should attract multitudes from all quarters of Paris. . .

"When on the termination of M. Ravignan's sermon, the canticles were resumed those canticles of grief and supplication-those canticles, which in a tone of deep lament, beg God to pardon his people; the high vaults of St. Eustache were filled with such a concordance of suppliant, agitated voices, that the whole nave seemed shaken; and in order to calm, or rather confine within the depths of the heart, all this profound emotion, the elevation of the Divine. Host was necessary, which shed, in exchange for those fervent prayers, the benedictions of the God who received them.

"Such is the material, or rather the moral fact-I will add, the divine fact, which I witnessed. It was above all, divine; for take from all this the grace of heaven; and then explain, if you can, all those assemblies-those prayers -those emotions-those sorrows-those ineffable joys, which then nothing justifies, which then have neither a motive, nor an object, nor a reason. For if all this be not religion, it is madness."- Universitè Catholique, vol. xii. p. 70. 1841.

No less satisfactory than the scene described by Baron de Guiraud, was the spectacle exhibited two years ago in the church of Notre Dame, where fifteen hundred men, all belonging to the educated classes, (consisting of professors, scientific men, lawyers, physicians, artillery officers in full uniform, members of the Polytechnic school, &c.,) received on an Easter Sunday, at the hands of Father Ravignan, the Holy Communion.

If such be the edifying spectacle exhibiteded in the interior of churches, the outward aspect of Paris has undergone no inconsiderable improvement. In Goerres' Historical Journal, published at Munich, a German traveller, three years ago, describes Paris as follows:

"As little for my part as I advocate the July revolution, and small as the joy which that revolution has brought to the king, whom it raised to the throne; yet it must be confessed, that the present government has introduced many essential ameliorations. I cannot as yet form any judgment as to the state of morals in Paris; but this I will assert, whoever visited that capital some years ago, must admit, that as far as outward decorum is concerned, its streets have been purged of much uncleanness. The Palais Royal, and in general all the public places and promenades, have been cleared of those unfortunate beings, who prefer lucre to their chastity; and if we add that gambling-houses and lotteries have beeen abolished, the above acknowledgment is only commanded by strict justice."-Historisch-politische Blatter, vol. v. p. 576.

But among the instruments employed by Divine Providence for bringing about this happy change in the Parisian mind, there is one ecclesiastic eminently deserving of notice. The abbé Desgenettes was appointed in the year 1834 to the curacy of Notre Dame des Victoires-a parish, where the Ex

change and the theatres are situate, and which is the chief centre of the irreligion, lewdness, and vice of Paris. Shocked at the scandals which surrounded him at the spiritual misery and degradation of the great bulk of his parishoners at the total neglect of all religious duties, (where out of a population of twenty thousand souls, scarcely more than five hundred could be brought together for the Sunday mass,) he poured forth his supplications to heaven, and besought the suffrages of the glorious Virgin, whose intersession on a recent occasion had just proved so efficacious. He communicated to some pious souls his project of founding a sodality in honour of the blessed Virgin for the conversion of sinners. Wavering and desponding, he delayed the execution of this project; but his mind being constantly haunted by the idea, he at last drew up the statutes of the confraternity, which on the 3rd of December, 1836, met with the sanction of the archbishop of Paris.

The extraordinary success, wherewith the Almighty hath blessed the labours of this zealous pastor, shall be recounted in his own words.

"Scarcely," says he, "had the Confraternity of the most holy and immaculate heart of Mary for the conversion of sinners been formed, than a change was soon apparent in the moral condition of the parish. The church was more and more frequented; the holy mass and other devotional exercises better attended; and the paschal season, from the multitude which approached the table of the Lord, afforded much greater solace to the pastor of the congregation. The number of communions, from the year 1837, stands in no proportion to that of preceeding years. In the year 1835, the number of communicants amounted only to seven hundred and twenty; on the other hand, in 1837, they amounted to nine thousand nine hundred and fifty! From time to time, I solicited the intercession of the members of the Confraternity in behalf of individuals known to me as living in a state of grievous sin, or of persons dangerously ill. The faithful observed this custom, and their Christian charity furnished me with an opportunity of tasking the same every Sunday; the Almighty rewarded the faith and the charity of these pious intercessors in behalf of sinners; for times without number hath the grace of conversion been granted at the prayer of the members of the sodality."-See the Manuel d'instructions et de prières a l'usage des Membres de l'archi-confrèrie du très saint et immaculè Cœur de Marie, par M. l'abbe Desgenettes.

In this book the reader will find recorded examples of the most miraculous conversions. He will read of hoary sinners, of seventy or eighty years of age, suddenly converted; he will read of men, who had not frequented a church for thirty years, living in the open profession of infidelity, or utterly indifferent to every feeling and principle of religion, suddenly awed by the presence of the man of God, fall on their knees, shed tears of repentance, and demand to be reconciled with heaven. The wonderful blessings, which have followed in the train of this religious association, have induced his present Holiness to bestow on it many indulgences; and to raise it to the title of an arch-confra