stem, the
details were as yet obscure and unsettled. The question remained in
abeyance. From the Chamber itself emanated the other propositions which
involved matters of principle; they sprang from the right-hand party,
and all tended to the same point--the position of the Church in the
State. M. de Castelbajac proposed that the bishops and ministers should
be authorized to receive and hold in perpetuity, without requiring the
sanction of Government, all donations of property, real or personal, for
the maintenance of public worship or ecclesiastical establishments.
M. de Blangy demanded that the condition of the clergy should be
materially improved, and that the married priests should no longer enjoy
the pensions which had been given to them in their clerical character.
M. de Bonald called for the abolition of the law of divorce.
M. Lacheze-Murel insisted that the custody of the civil records should
be given back to the ministers of religion. M. Murard de St. Romain
attacked the University, and argued that public education should be
confided to the clergy. The zeal of the new legislators was, above all
other considerations, directed towards the re-establishment of religion
and the Church, as the true basis of social power.

At the outset, the uneasiness and opposition excited by these proposals
were less animated than we can at present imagine. More immediate
dangers occupied the adversaries of Government and the public mind. A
general sentiment in favour of religion as a necessary principle of
order and morality, prevailed throughout the country; a sentiment
revived even by the crisis of the Hundred Days, the moral wounds which
that crisis had revealed, and the social dangers it had partially
disclosed. The Catholic Church had not yet become the mark of the
reaction which a little later was raised against it. The clergy took no
direct part in these debates. The University had been, under the Empire,
an object of suspicion and hostility on the part of the Liberals. The
movement in favour of religious influences scarcely astonished those
whom it displeased. But in the very bosom of the Chamber whence this
movement emanated, there were enlightened understandings, who at once
perceived its full range, and I foresaw the angry dissensions which
sooner or later would be stirred up in the new social system by some of
these propositions, so utterly opposed to its most fundamental and
cherished principles. They applied themselve