But we should greatly err if we supposed that the Revolution is inimical only to the Catholic form of religion. I said just now that "Clericalism" means, for the Revolutionary publicists, primarily Catholicism. But in its full signification, it embraces Christianity in every shape, even the most shadowy, in every form, even the most attenuated: nay, every kind of Theism: everything which the world has hitherto known and reverenced as religion. M. Louis Blanc, than whom no one has a better right to speak with authority upon this matter, expressly tells "Nous entendons par le cléricalisme, non seulement le catholicisme, mais toute religion et toute religiosité, quelle qu'elle soit." So M. Vacherot declares that no religion is compatible with the Revolutionary ideal.* And this is the burden, day by day, of the Revolutionary Press throughout Europe, delivered in every variety of key, from the filthy ribaldry of Thersites to the dire vaticinations of Cassandra, heralding the approaching extinction, in fire and

us,

Van Humbeck, Minister of Public Instruction in Belgium when the Revolutionary party last held office in that country: "Un cadavre est sur le monde, il barre la route du progrès. Ce cadavre du passé, pour l'appeler par son nom, carrément, sans périphrases, c'est le catholicisme. . . . . C'est ce cadavre, mes Frères, que nous avons aujourd'hui regardé en face, et si nous ne l'avons pas jeté dans la fosse, nous l'avons soulevé du moins de manière à l'en rapprocher de quelques pas. C'est un grand résultat. Nous le devons à nos Frères d'Anvers. Nous les en remercions chaleureusement, maçonniquement."

*La Démocratie, p. 60.

bloodshed, of the Divine City. From a mass of extracts lying before me, which too amply warrant this assertion, I select the following as being one of the few that are neither obscene nor blasphemous. It is from the Mot d'Ordre, and may serve to show that religious Protestants are held in no less abhorrence than Catholics, by the devotees of the Revolution, nay, apparently in more. The immediate occasion of the outburst was the observance of Good Friday.

"Cette anomalie a une explication assez naturelle, c'est que ce deuil laïque et obligatoire n'est point particulier aux catholiques, et qu'il répond aussi aux exigences de la bigoterie protestante, qui est plus insupportable, plus haïssable que la bigoterie cléricale. Il n'est pas de Jésuite, pas de Prémontré, pas de Mariste, qui ne soit cent fois moins intolérant et moins hypocrite que le premier venu des ministres de la religion dite réformée, ou de l'église évangélique."

The war in which the Revolution is engaged is essentially a war against the Theistic idea. And it is simply because the Catholic Church is the only exponent of that idea worth considering in France, in Belgium, in Italy (for, speaking generally, whatever she loses in those countries is gained by Atheism), that she finds herself "in the fore-front of the hottest battle." I do not know who has better and more clearly stated this truth than M. Andrieux, a person who was once, and who may again be, of great political influence in France. The following is the text of a resolution adopted

III.]

"UNE SORTE DE RELIGION NOUVELLE.”

59

by acclamation, upon his proposition, at the AntiCouncil held at Naples, in 1869 :

"Considérant, que l'idée de Dieu est la source et le soutien de tout despotisme et de toute iniquité, considérant que la religion Catholique est la plus complète et la plus terrible personification de cette idée, que l'ensemble de ses dogmes est la négation même de la société, les Libres-Penseurs assument l'obligation de travailler à l'abolition radicale du Catholicisme et son anéantissement par tous les moyens, y compris la force révolutionnaire."

:

Such is the attitude of the Revolution towards "all religions and all religiosity." And the reason is because it claims itself to be a religion and a religiosity. Man is a religious animal. A religion of some sort he must have, even if it be a mere anti-religion a religion without God, without future life a religion which, to borrow a phrase from Aristotle, obliterates the higher self, the self of the reason and moral nature, and recognises only the lower self of the appetites and passions. Such a religion, or anti-religion, the Revolution provides and burns to substitute for all others.

*

This is a truth which it is well worth while to elucidate. I propose to do So, with the help of a distinguished man of letters, who may fairly be

* So M. de Tocqueville: "Une sorte de religion nouvelle; religion imparfaite, il est vrai, sans Dieu, sans culte, et sans autre vie, mais qui néanmoins, comme l'islamisme, a inondé toute la terre de ses soldats, de ses apôtres, et de ses martyrs." L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution, Liv, I, c. 3.

considered as the chief English authority regarding it. Mr. John Morley is the professed apologist of the Revolution. He has devoted many years of an active life to the endeavour to recommend it to his countrymen. And his character, no less than his ability, invests him with a special claim upon our attention. Although he has attained to a conspicuous place among party leaders, no one who has intelligently studied his writings can, for one moment, confound him with the sort of men of whom party leaders are usually made. A very able journalist the late Mr. Hannay--when some one accused Sir Robert Peel of having no principles, replied: "Oh yes, he has principles,—as a horsedealer has horses." The saying was monstrously unjust to that conscientious statesman. But who can deny that it is only too applicable to a large and ever-increasing number of prominent politicians? There is the gravest reason to fear that at no distant date the designation of public man will be as little honourable as that of public woman. "Estce qu'il n'est pas tout naturel que vos convictions tournent avec votre intérêt ? Elles ne changent pas pour ça: elles se déplacent: voilà tout." So observes the clever American lady in Rabagas. But Mr. Morley's convictions are of another order. They are held with an intensity of belief and an earnestness of purpose which breathe in every page of his writings. They are the very springs of his intellectual life. For these reasons Mr. Morley

111.] A BRITISH APOLOGIST OF THE REVOLUTION, 61

may claim to speak with authority, and not as the scribes of the newspapers, regarding the inner meaning and spirit of the Revolution, regarding its relation to religion. In the remainder of this chapter I shall do little more than collect and tabulate* his utterances on this matter. The necessity for doing so arises from the fact that Mr. Morley, with the one exception of his work on Compromise, has not systematically or consecutively expounded the faith that is in him. In an interesting article† he observes how dexterous Robespierre used to be in presenting a case. "First, he said everything important at the exact moment, when he had brought the minds of his hearers into the state most fitted to receive it. Second, he insinuated gradually and indirectly into their minds ideas which would have aroused opposition if they had been expressed more directly." This is also Mr. Morley's favourite method. And he has pursued it with great skill and with abundance of success.

"His plausive words

He scattered not in ears, but grafted them,
To grow there, and to bear."

He is well aware, as he has told us in his book on
Compromise, that "it is not easy to wind an

**

My references to Mr. Morley in this chapter, and throughout. the present volume, are made to the edition of his writings published by Messrs. Macmillan in 1886.

† Miscellanies, vol. i. p. 47.

Ibid. p. 6.