it seemed to be on the wane at present, and that probably the ancient habit in this respect would gradually be restored.

Went to-day to the Louvre, to see the rooms for Egyptian and other antiquities, which have been recently added to the museum. They are very splendid, but a description of them would be out of place here. In the first of the rooms is a large portrait of the present king, an object, as I have before said, rarely to be seen in Paris.

While we are on this subject, let me observe, that at this moment there are no such things as Royal Arms in France. Over the shops you see frequently the words, Breveté du Roi, indicating that the marchand there resident has received a patent from the Crown for some invention or other; and surmounting these words is a large gilt escutcheon, purporting to be the Royal Arms, but what the Royal Arms are is left in complete uncertainty: the old Gallic Fleurs de Lis have faded from their ancient place, and what, or whether anything, is to be substituted in their stead, does not seem yet to have been deterinined. In the interim, on most of the shields, in the place of heraldic devices, are inscribed the first four articles of the Constitutional Charter of 1830, "Tous les Français sont égaux devant la loi," &c. &c. Those emblazonments which affect to be more loyal to the Crown than the rest, have simply the initials "L. P." (Louis Philippe) charactered upon the shield. Monarchical

insignia are disappearing rapidly from the face of France. The old ones have been destroyed, and the present dynasty has not created new ones in their stead; indeed Royalty seems ready to vanish away.

We visited the neighbouring church (to the Louvre), St. Germain Auxerrois, one of the few ancient Gothic churches of Paris. It is undergoing repair; but though some of the restorations are in good style, they are so lamentably disfigured in the interior by a great deal of tawdry and incongruous work, introduced without any regard to the general character of the building, that the effect of the whole does not promise to be at all solemn or impressive.

The misfortune seems to be a radical one. It is well known that the churches of France are no longer publicly regarded as the houses and property of Almighty God. The title-deeds of consecration, by which they passed from human hands into Divine, have been all cancelled and destroyed, and now the churches of this country are by law held to be the property, not even of the Church in trust, but of secular Corporations: they belong either to the Communes, or to a Board of Trustees called Fabriciens, and the board itself is termed the Fabrique of the Church. The building and reparation of churches depends therefore upon the taste of individuals, who frequently have no ecclesiastical feeling or knowledge, whatever may be their acquaintance with secular

architecture. It is not much to be wondered at, therefore, that the sacred edifices of Paris which have been recently erected (and the same applies to restorations), are for the most part planned and executed in a spirit much more appropriate and congenial to a Greek or Roman temple than to a Christian church. The ecclesiastical interference is so jealously excluded from participation in church building or church restoration, that a fact hardly credible if it did not rest on the best authority-it often happens that the first time that a Bishop hears of the erection of a church in his diocese, is when he is called upon to consecrate it". What the consecration is supposed to do, as it does to God, it is not easy to understand

not give the church

Went in the afternoon to the Collège des Irlandais, Rue des Postes, with Sir R. A. Chermside, who intro

7 On ne construit jamais d'église en France sans le consentement et le concours des évêques, et même le plus souvent c'est sur leur demande et après de pressantes sollicitations de leur part.

My friend, to whom I am indebted for the above note, will, I am sure, allow me to quote the following words of a Bishop's VicarGeneral, and of a Bishop, on this subject, in justification of my own assertions in the text :

"N'est-il pas vrai qu'on ordonne tous les jours des réparations à la cathédrale d'un évêque sans même lui en parler? Les Communes votent chaque année la destruction d'une église, font dresser des plans, et bâtissent de nouvelles églises sans même qu'on consulte l'évêque. Il n'en est le plus souvent instruit, que quand il s'agit de les consacrer."--Abbé Dieulin, Guide des Curés, I. p. 443. Lyon, 1844. Again, the Bishop of Langres (Tendances, p. 90), asks, "Lorsqu'il s'agit de bâtir une église, qui est-ce qui en décide souverainement? N'est-ce pas l'autorité départementale toute seule ?”

'duced me to one of the Professors and to the Principal. The college, as I was told by the former, was founded in the time of the persecution" in Queen Elizabeth's reign. It now contains about a hundred students; this is vacation time, but nearly half the number still remain here. The system of instruction is much the same as that of St. Sulpice, the great Parisian seminary for ecclesiastics. The usual time of residence is four years; but in cases where the student shows special aptitude for theological learning, it is extended to twice that term, and endowments (bourses, or demi-bourses) are applied in those cases to ease the charges of instruction. "The young ecclesiastics trained here are generally preferred by the Irish higher clergy, to those educated at Maynooth," said the Professor, speaking at the same time favourably of those trained in the Dunboyne establishment, the élite of Maynooth; and the reasons he gave for the preference were, the opportunity afforded to ecclesiastical students in a large city like Paris for learning the Ceremonial of the Roman Catholic Church, and becoming familiar with all the practice of the Ritual; next, the acquisition of a knowledge of the writings of French theological controversialists, preachers, &c., was very advantageous.

The great disadvantage under which the college labours, seems to be, that it is under no direct ecclesiastical or academic superintendence, but is left isolated and abandoned to itself, From the same

cause, I suppose, which has separated all the other ecclesiastical seminaries in France from the National University, viz. that the principles of the latter are hostile to the Church, the students of this Irish College never take any University Degree in Theology.

When I asked how any Irish divines ever became Doctors, the Professor said that they sometimes went to Louvain, but the usual mode was a shorter one : the merits of the theologian in question were made known at the Vatican, and a bonnet de docteur was sent him by the Pope. This exercise of universal academical power, by the See of Rome, in addition to its ecclesiastical jurisdiction, deserves notice. I observed that, in speaking of the late Dr. Baines, of Prior Park, the Professor styled him, not Vicar Apostolic, but Bishop of the Western District of England.

The College is a very spacious building, not very well kept, somewhat like Maynooth in slovenly looks, but the students have a grave and serious appearance. I observed one kneeling at his devotions on the ground in the large quadrangle, where others were walking, or sitting on the benches reading. The system, as I have said, of education resembles that of St. Sulpice; this is specially the case with respect to the two important exercises of daily meditation and periodical preaching.

In the Principal's room is a map of the estates of