1. Bourriette, injured in a quarry accident, had for twenty years so little use of his left eye "that he could not tell a man from a tree." Hearing of the miraculous spring soon after its origin-" Fetch me some of the water," said he; "the Blessed Virgin, if it be she, need wish it only, to cure me." As he bathes, the sight improves-before he has finished he can distinguish objects. Meeting his surgeon with "I am cured," the latter writes a few test lines in his pocket-book, "Bourriette a une amaurose incurable, et il ne guérira jamais." The patient reads it readily, and the surgeon can only exclaim, "C'est un vrai miracle.-Lasserre, op. cit.

2. M. Caral, æt. seventy-four, had for seventeen years a sore upon the face, which latterly had become a large, deep, bleeding "cancroid ulcer" caustics did not cure, and excision was decided upon; but on bathing with Lourdes water, it healed in eight days.-Annales, Juin 30, 1872.

3. Dr. Martel certifies that Sœur Jeanne had multiple abscesses in left cervical region, enlargement of mesenteric glands, and a tumour in the right breast, which had ulcerated and discharged for eight months: cancer was thought probable. During a novena, a compress of Lourdes-water was applied. That night the tumour disappeared, the wound healed, and a red recent cicatrix only was apparent. The pains were all gone, and the patient remained well.-Annales, Avril 30, 1877).

For the remaining three cases, which are crucial, special consideration is desired :

Sudden Union of Old Fracture.—P. Rudder, on Feb. 16, 1867, had his leg broken below the knee by a falling tree. The bone did not join under the usual treatment, and a large wound formed on the foot. He kept his bed twelve months, and then began to drag about on crutches. Eight years afterwards the lower part of the limb hung loose, the foot twisting in any direction, the heel bending up to the knee. The two ends of the broken bone (tibia?) were nearly an inch apart, and showed through the flesh, and from a large deep wound matter constantly discharged. In April, 1875, Peter with much difficulty reached "Lourdes-Oostacker," a model of the shrine, near Ghent. Praying with all his heart for health enough to do his work, "suddenly he feels his whole being penetrated with a strange emotion. Out of himself, he rises without his crutches, and throws himself on his knees. The leg is found to be quite cured, the bones united, the wounds healed, only a slight blue mark shows the place." ("Annales," Nov. 30, 1875.) The writer of this report verified the details from the patient himself at a later date when visiting in thanksgiving the real Lourdes ("Annales," May 30, 1878). He adds that twenty-two medical men and many hundred priests have examined Peter; also that certain enemies have beaten him; also that the whole moral tone of his village has changed now for the better.

Reduction of Dislocation, &c.-J. D., æt. twenty-nine, at seventeen had cholera, then typhus, followed by gastric derangements and

debility. In 1868, after a fall, extensive ulceration of right leg occurred, then retraction at the knee-joint, then convulsive attacks, in one of which the hip was dislocated. For five years she remained in bed with little change-always she expressed the greatest confidence in the Blessed Virgin. On September 6, 1878, Dr. Froidbise certifies to the above-mentioned conditions. The profuse discharge from the wound then and throughout the journey to Lourdes was most offensive. Bathing for the second time she finds her leg free from pain, and on taking off the bandages the wound is found quite healed. On Saturday, "the day she ought to be cured," she bathes for the ninth time. Violent pain makes her scream, the bones crack, the foot seems wrenched off, but really returns to its position; the bent leg resumes its shape, and the hip-joint becomes natural in appearance and use. The patient falls fainting in the water, but the cure is complete. She rises straight and agile, and walks in procession with equal steps, On September 19 the same Dr. Froidbise certifies that all the lesions have disappeared. In October the woman is reported well.-Annales, Dec. 1878.

Sudden cure of Varix.-Macary, carpenter, æt. sixty, for thirty years had varix of left leg, "avec nodosités énormes;" also, frequently varicose ulcers. Such a condition is practically incurable without an operation involving risk. The man himself had lost hope and patience, and given up the practice of his religion. Having asked for and received some Lourdes water, he dragged himself to his room, prayed, removed his bandages, poured some water into his hands, and so applied it to the leg; drank some; went to bed and to sleep. About midnight, he woke free from pain; the varicose lumps had disappeared. Dr. Bernet certifies that the ulceration is healed; no bandage is worn, yet there is no engorgement; instead of the varices small hard cords empty of blood are found; the saphena vein is normal.-Annales, Sept. 1871.

Such cases as the three last mentioned cannot cure themselves, and no amount of faith and hope that the mind of man can imagine, will unite a broken bone, reduce a dislocation, or obliterate a varicose vein. Such cases cannot be paralleled by any medical experience, or imitated by any therapeutic resource, and are as far removed from its future as from its present possibilities. To the sceptic we may give, without argument, the whole range of nerve disorders, but what explanation is there of the sudden and permanent cure of an organic lesion? What but the working of the uncovered finger of God?

E. MACKEY, M.D.

ART. VIII.-BELGIUM AND THE HOLY SEE.

THE

HE Consistorial Allocution addressed by the Holy Father to the Sacred College on the twentieth of August last, which we print in our present number, is the last word and the summary of a very painful and discreditable transaction. Belgium is a Catholic country; but her present Ministry is antiCatholic, and ruled by the Masonic conspiracy. The men now in power, though their tenure of office depends on the slenderest of majorities, are using their power with a recklessness which would be outrageous if mere politics were concerned, but which becomes treachery to their country when the questions involved touch the dearest interests of the people's religion. It is necessary that every cultured Catholic in Europe should understand the merits of the struggle between the Belgian Government, headed by M. Frère-Orban, on the one side, and the Holy See and the Belgian bishops on the other. The materials for forming a judgment are ample and easy of access. The Holy Father, himself, has ordered to be printed, in the form of a Blue-book, every document bearing upon the matter. This compilation was admirably translated and published as appendix to the Tablet of July 24th, and the important Allocution to which we have already referred sums up in language of admirable force and clearness, and in terms of magisterial emphasis, the whole of the situation which is bounded on the one hand by the Education law of 1879, and on the other by the withdrawal of the Belgian Envoy from Rome in the course of the July of the present year. In giving, as we feel it our duty to give, a brief history of all that has taken place, we shall take for our text the Allocution, and for our authority we can have nothing better than the official documents of which we have spoken.

an

In a former number of the DUBLIN REVIEW (July, 1879), Professor Lamy has described the nature of the new legislation which the Belgian Liberal Government has devised with the view of destroying the religious peace of the land and of striking a blow at the Church, in the only way in which, in a free country, her interests can be imperilled. We shall not, therefore, repeat what was then so exhaustively treated, but it may be well to make one or two remarks on the results of this fatal Education Bill since it became law. It will be remembered that the new Government, yielding to the pressure of its more advanced supporters, had introduced a measure that abolished the denominational system of primary education

which had been in force since 1842, and established, in the name of the Constitution, a neutral or godless system of instruction.* Recognizing the unpopularity of this scheme, the Ministers sought to conceal its principles by introducing a clause by which they hoped to deceive the peasantry and to make the new law appear to be what it distinctly was not. Thus, the fourth clause of the Bill decreed that a room in the school should be put at the disposition of the clergy for giving religious instruction either before or after school hours.† The false principles upon which the Bill was based, the illusory nature of the concession ostensibly made in Clause 4, as well as the erroneous interpretation of the Constitution, which served the Government as a reason for altering the old law, have been so ably discussed by Professor Lamy that we shall refer such of our readers as are not acquainted with this phase of the religious question in Belgium to the above-mentioned Article.

Despite the strenuous opposition of the Catholics, conducted by means of public speeches, pamphlets, and petitions-a petition with 300,000 signatures, that is to say, signed by 86 per cent. of the heads of families and electors in the kingdom, was presented to the Chambers-the obnoxious law was voted by 67 to 60 in the Lower House and by a majority of two in the Senate. In the latter Assembly a memorable scene occurred, and one Liberal was found who preferred the voice of conscience to his political allegiance. The late Prince de Ligne, a moderate Liberal in the English sense of the term, for thirty years President of the Senate, considered himself compelled by his Catholic principles and by his upright and honourable character to oppose the Government. In an eloquent and energetic speech, he denounced the proposed law as a loi de malheur, a name which it has ever since retained; after recording his adverse vote, he resigned both his office of President and his seat in the Senate, and withdrew from a party which he had well served, but to which he could no longer honourably belong. Notwithstanding the very narrow majority by which the Bill had passed, it received the Royal assent, and became law upon the 1st of July. Nothing remained for the Catholics but to organize a legal resistance to its execution. Driven from the official schools,

*In the framing of this Law there is the clear and evident purpose of withdrawing the people in their earliest years from the authority of the Christian religion, and of placing the education of youth under the absolute control of the State. By that Law the Church and her pastors were to have no entrance into elementary schools. It entirely separates instruction from religion, and prescribes that religious teaching shall be banished from the whole internal direction and discipline of the public schools. Allocution of August 20.

See DUBLIN REVIEW, July 1879, p. 172.

it was necessary for them to erect free schools at their own cost. The morrow of the vote in the Senate brought forth a collective Pastoral from the Bishops, dated the 12th June, stigmatizing in strong terms the new godless schools and forbidding Catholics to aid them in any way, whether as members of the School Boards, as inspectors, or as subscribers. The faithful were to refrain from sending their children to them, and were exhorted to assist by every means in the establishment of free religious schools. The text of this Pastoral will be found in our number for last July (page 184). This utterance was sharply commented upon in official circles and aroused great indignation in the Liberal Press, which declared that the Episcopate had exceeded the counsels of moderation given by the Pope, and was inciting the people to sedition. The principles inculcated, however, were clearly those of the Church, and, as we shall show later, the pastoral was approved by the Holy See.

If the clergy were thus active, the Catholic laity were not behindhand in the good cause. They declared that, as the Bishops had enjoined, every village should have its Catholic school, and that, as far as in them lay, the Government schools should be left without a pupil. The priests subscribed largely from their small stipends; the aristocracy, not wealthy in Belgium, undertook to raise schools upon their estates; in a word, all sincere Catholics did what they could in the arduous attempt to fight with private charity against the funds of the State.

A hard struggle it evidently was. The new law had deprived the Communal authorities of their ancient right to decide whether a Government school was or was not required in their respective districts, and to grant or refuse subsidies accordingly. Every Commune was now forced to erect a school and provide certificated teachers. In vain did many a Flemish Commune declare that it was impossible to tax the people to supply a want which did not exist; to no purpose did they urge that it was an injustice to waste the contributions of the people in building schools which would be tenantless and in paying teachers who would outnumber their pupils. The law insisted, and the schools must be forthcoming. The populations were doubly taxed; as citizens, by the impositions levied for founding Government schools to which they were opposed, and from which they could reap no advantage; as Catholics, by the necessity of subscribing independently for the religious education of their children. Ministers hoped that the double strain would finally force the Catholics to abandon the voluntary imposition, and consequently institutions out of all proportion to the needs of the case were imposed upon them.