Protestant communion, such as the Church of England, however Scriptural and Catholic, should not be allowed by Romanists in France to be either Scriptural or Catholic, when the two forms of Protestantism, with which they are most conversant, (I mean, the modern Calvinistic and Lutheran, the religious services of both which communions are conducted in the vernacular language of the country, and they are the only forms of Protestantism publicly known and recognized by the State,) differing as they do in fundamental principles and practice from each other, are still seen combining together to form a Society, which sets at defiance, in its daily usages, the great principles of Scriptural, Primitive, and Catholic Church government and discipline.

The very interesting conversation which we had with the Sour Supérieure, who appeared to be wholly devoted to the duties of her office, and to be admirably qualified for the discharge of the functions which belong to such a position, made us feel more deeply the lamentable consequences arising from the neglect and contempt of these practical principles of Apostolical Church regimen. May it please Almighty God to give free scope to the good which these devout sisters have at heart, and for which they are ready to devote themselves body and mind, and may it please Him to remove the evil which threatens not only to frustrate in a great degree their pious exertions, but also to confirm the Romanist in his corrupt

practices and erroneous doctrines, and so far to impede the course of pure Evangelical truth and Apostolic order in this country!

The Superior put into our hands several printed Reports of their proceedings. I will only refer to one, the most recent, which gives an account of the annual service in the Chapel, above described, of this Institution. It there appears that this anniversary was opened with prayer, which was followed by a psalm and by five consecutive sermons or homilies preached by five different pastors! but on this solemnity, which was so honoured by preaching, there was no celebration of the Holy Communion; indeed it would seem to be impossible for these sisters and their pastors, who form (as they suppose) one religious society, to meet together to celebrate the divinely appointed Feast of Unity in the Christian Church!

It is much to be hoped that Societies of Sisters of Charity, which may be formed in England and other countries, may imitate this institution at the Barrière de Charenton in an earnest resolve to be religious and Christian establishments; but that they may avoid the deplorable error into which it has fallen of building on a false foundation, and in endeavouring to reconcile things that are incompatible, and so defeating its own designs.

We had been urged by a friend to go to the Ambigu Comique theatre, to see a piece called the "Miracle

pen

des Roses," as being a religious story, and showing, by the reception which it met with from the audience, that there was a good deal of religious feeling still existing in the middle and lower orders in France, and only requiring to be elicited. We went accordingly this evening. The play is founded on the history of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, which has lately been made familiar to the French public by the of Count de Montalembert. I cannot say that the anticipations we had been led to entertain were at all realized. Though the play, it is true, has not only a religious cast (though not consistently so), but a decidedly Roman Catholic one, we did not however perceive that the expressions in it indicating this character met with favourable response from the hearers. The great attraction of the "Miracle des Roses," as was evident from the marked applause which it called forth, was (what in our opinion was the worst part of it, viz.) a succession of tableaux, which divided the piece into thirteen portions-Acts being superseded by them. These tableaux were certainly wonderful feats of stage decoration and mechanical léger de main, and exhibited an extraor dinary series of celestial scenery and music, of religious solemnities in royal oratories, of baronial halls, and African deserts, of storms, inundations, and conflagrations, of angelic apparitions, and of cemeteries for lepers, and such like; and it seemed to us a proof of great literary degeneracy, and intellectual feeble

ness, that recourse was made to such trickery, justifying the repetition of the complaint—

"... migravit ab aure voluptas

Omnis ad incertos oculos et gaudia vana,"

6

and much more that such auxiliaries as these should be pressed into the service of religion, and that attempts should be made to popularize Christianity by devices which must inevitably have the effect of rendering the public mind in France less disposed to receive religion in its native purity and simplicity, if it should ever come to be presented to it in that form.

There were many points of morality in the dialogue of the drama which were irreconcileable with Chris

Ce n'est pas la

• Cette appréciation est complétement fausse. religion qui demande au théâtre son auxiliaire pour populariser le Christianisme; mais c'est le théâtre qui vient emprunter à la religion les poétiques légendes de ses saints dans un but tout profane et industriel. Y a-t-il lieu d'exprimer une grande surprise que le langage prêté à des auteurs ne soit pas en parfaite harmonie avec la doctrine Chrétienne? Les auteurs des pièces jouées à l'Ambigu Comique n'ont jamais eu la prétention d'être théologiens, et les théologiens Catholiques ne se sont pas encore occupés de travailler pour les théâtres du boulevard. Quelque blâmable que puisse être le fait de représenter sur une scène profane les cérémonies de la religion et les miracles de la Puissance Divine, le spectateur intelligent n'en est pas moins forcé de reconnaître que si le théâtre ne donnait que des pièces de la nature de celle dont il est question ici, il cesserait d'être une école de crimes et d'immoralité. Quelle qu'ait été l'ignorance théologique ou l'inhabilité de l'auteur, j'aime mieux voir le peuple applaudir au Miracle des Roses, qu'au succès d'un époux adultère, aux intrigues obscènes d'une vaudeville, et aux sarcasmes lancés contre la religion.

tian doctrine. I may notice, by-the-bye, an incidental inconvenience of all these scenic manoeuvrings. In one of the most magnificent tableaux, some of the ropes and pulleys went wrong, and the wooden and canvass framework of a fine old tree came in contact with one of the lights which was to produce a brilliant transparency. Some of the combustible material was thus ignited, and there was a general cry of alarm of fire; women started from their seats in the pit near us, and were rushing eagerly to the narrow corridors and outlets of the house, when providentially the efforts of the scene-shifters in putting a stop to the fire and adjusting the machinery were successful.

Saturday, August 31.-Received a visit from M. Boissonnade, who brought me a copy of his small edition of Theocritus. He also, like his brother academician M. Hase, seems to have good hopes of the progress of learning in France. One little circumstance which he mentioned did not seem to me to afford a very favourable prognostic; he said that publishers of classical books in France were very unwilling to undertake any editions with Latin notes, and they made it almost a sine quá non that critical or explanatory observations upon classical authors should be written in French. I told him that a similar disposition had in some degree prevailed among English publishers of classical works, and that it had exercised a very pernicious influence in practice, but that