ion, if religion had been differently represented. Corruptio optimi pessima. What was to be done with priests, one of whom ended a sermon by the words: Long live the national sovereignty; long live the fair sex! To dare conceive the thought of converting to the faith such sheep and such shepherds, a saint was needed. Such an one was M. Tisserant, whose touching history seems made to present, in juxtaposition with the horrors to which human nature degrades itself, the spectacle of the sublimity to which it attains.

There were in the Seminary of St. Sulpitius, shortly after 1830, three young men; a creole of Bourbon, a creole of Mauritius, and a creole of St. Domingo. They confided to each other the resolution of devoting themselves to the evangelization of the negroes of their native land. God sent the same vocation to a pious and learned converted Jew by the name of Libermann; he was the first Superior, and they were the first members, of the Communion of the Sacred Heart of Mary (now united to that of the Holy Spirit). "The general end of our society," writes one of these founders, "is to occupy itself with the poorest and most abandoned peoples in the Church of God. The negroes being found at this moment more than any other people in this position, we have offered ourselves to evangelize them.”

One of the three missionaries raised up religious worship at Mauritius, another at Bourbon. M. Tisserant was sent to St. Domingo before the concordat, prepared by Mgr. Rosati, had been signed. But this concordat remained without signature, and the young missionary, repulsed from the land to which he wished to consecrate his life, saw himself forced to sojourn at St. Lucia and Grenada, where he did so much good that efforts were made to detain him. But his heart drew him towards St. Domingo, where he finally penetrated. For laborious years, he surmounted incredible obstacles, triumphed over the clergy, the ruling power, and the climate, at length inspired respect and confidence, and came to the point of negotiating with General Hérard the plan of a new concordat. Whence came the obstacle? A letter written from France by M. Isambert denounced the missionaries and the court of Rome as the emissaries of a dangerous policy. The advice of so great a friend of the negroes was obeyed; it was no longer doubted that the priests had formed the project of delivering up the island to France, the still more dangerous domination of the Church of Rome was dreaded, it was demanded that the concordat should recognize the liberties of the Gallican Church. Behold all our superannuated quarrels revived for the use of St. Domingo, and an old liberal of 1831

Z

sending to Port au Prince his animosities, as one exports thither old fashions and old clothes.

Unhappy people! with faith extinct, corruption overflowing, and ignorance displaying its thick shades, yet persuaded that a missionary thirty years old bore under his cassock the sword of General Leclerc, or the torches of insurrection! It feared French influence, and borrowed from France Gallican liberties. It put aside a Francis Xavier to listen to a diminished descendant of Pithou! There is nothing more frightful than to see our scholastic quarrels, our theses of the Sorbonne, or our parliamentary discussions translated into vulgar language, and aped at the other end of the world..

M. Tisserant, who had already received the co-operation of several French priests, was destined again, after many years of prayers, efforts, and infinite pains, to renounce this third or fourth plan of a concordat; he returned to France hoping for better days, and, in the ardor of his zeal, accepted meanwhile the apostolic prefecture of Guinea. The Papin, which bore him to the coast of Africa, was overtaken by a furious tempest. M. Tisserant exhorted his companions, and being unable to save their lives, he strove to save their souls. One of them, a young Israelite, touched by his virtue, fell on his knees, and entreated to be baptized. A few hours after, the priest and neophyte died, ingulfed in the waves, December 7, 1846. M. Tisserant was thirty-one years old.

With him would have been ingulfed the hope of the mission of Hayti, had not his example and merits raised up other devotees. A new attempt was made by Mgr. Spaccapietra to obtain, in the name of the Holy See, a concordat from the ridiculous Emperor Soulouque.

Finally, the advent, December 22, 1858, of an energetic, intelligent, and loyal President, General Geffrard, was the occasion of new negotiations, and Mgr. Monetti, a prelate of great merit, sent in 1860 by the Sovereign Pontiff, has just returned to Europe, bringing back a concordat ratified and signed.

The honor of the initiative belongs to General Geffrard himself, who, in 1859, sent to Rome a negotiator happily chosen, M. Faubert. Better acquainted with his own country than any one, the President well knew that all the population remained attached to the Catholic faith, with remarkable perseverance, despite the efforts of Protestant missionaries, facilitated by the bad example of the Catholic clergy, reduced to thirty-three priests, French, Corsican, Italian, and Spanish. He comprehended that the reform of the clergy depended on the hie

rarchical relations with Rome and the establishment of a seminary. The Holy See, as persevering in carrying the faith to this population as the latter was in desiring it, corresponded to these views.

On the 3d of December; 1860, Mgr. Monetti landed at Jacmel with several missionaries, amidst a joyous ovation of the inhabitants, already informed of the signature of the treaty with Rome by the President's speech at the opening of the Session, August 29, 1860. All the National Guard was under arms, a lighted taper in the right hand, and a musket on the left arm. From Jacmel to Port au Prince, the distance is twenty-two leagues, by difficult roads. The Prelate was received, December 11, by the General, ministers, magistrates, and people, with extreme enthusiasm. (The République, a Haytien journal, December 13, 1860.)

The enthusiasm equalled the ignorance and corruption. There were no sacraments without pay. The churches were full; but, in a parish of fifty thousand souls, occupying more than ten leagues, there was but a single priest, and of a hundred and twenty-four children baptized, but four legitimate children only! From December 3, 1860, to April 6, 1861, Mgr. Monetti visited the parishes, reanimated the zeal of the priests, and distributed the sacraments, while a French missionary preached Lent at Port au Prince, and others instructed the children, and gave to the people the unheard-of spectacle of gratuitous ministration to the dying.

The Senate and House of Representatives congratulated the President on having signed the concordat, which they regarded as the corner-stone of the civilization of the Republic.

This concordat (Moniteur haïtien, December 8, 1860) is composed of eighteen articles. It declares (Art. 1) the Catholic religion that of the majority, and recognizes its rights. An archbishopric is to be erected at Port au Prince, and several dioceses established on the island (Art. 2). The pay of the clergy, the appointment of canons, curates, and vicars, the establishment of religious orders, the free correspondence with the Holy See, the respect for canonical laws, the administration of large and small seminaries, the participation in that of the parochial funds, with a council of notables, are secured to the bishops by Arts. 6-14, 17. The bishops are appointed by the President, and instituted by the Holy See, and if the Holy See thinks fit to postpone or not to confer this institution, it informs the President of

Hayti, who, in the latter case, appoints another ecclesiastic.

(Art. 4.)

The bishops and members of the clergy are under oath.

(Art. 5.)

More than one civilized country might take this so provident and loyal concordat as a model.

After the exchange of ratifications, Mgr. Monetti stayed long enough at Port au Prince to congratulate President, Geffrard on the anniversaries of December 22 and January 1, to busy himself with the success of the reform of the clergy, and to address to the faithful, on the occasion of Lent, a touching and useful charge, followed by an exhortation to the priests themselves. Finally he signed, February 6, 1861, a regulation in pursuance of the concordat, which fixes the number of the dioceses at five, makes the number of the parishes equal to that of the communes, and fixes the salary of the clergy. (Moniteur haitien, March 30, 1861.)

Nearly at the same epoch, in the beginning of this year, the return of the Bulgarian nation to the Catholic Unity consoled the Holy Father. The foundation of five dioceses, and the signature of a concordat, after four years of unfruitful efforts, on a large island of the Caribbean Sea, where are deposited the ashes of Christopher Columbus, are not so important events; they are, notwithstanding, the proofs of a reviving fecundity of the faith, and the hope of a better future promised to a land which deserves, despite its wretchedness, our particular interest in many points of view, since it was French, is free, and has again become Catholic.

VI.

(Book VI. p. 226.)

TREATY OF PEACE BETWEEN THE KING AND THE ALLIED POWERS, CONCLUDED AT PARIS, MAY 30, 1814, AND WHICH PRECEDED THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA.

ART. 1. His Most Christian Majesty, sharing without reserve in all the sentiments of His Britannic Majesty in relation to a kind of commerce repulsive to the principles of natural justice, and the enlightenment of the times in which we live, doth pledge himself to unite all his efforts with those of His Britannic Majesty in the coming Congress, to cause the abolition of the negro slave-trade to be decreed by

all the powers of Christendom, so that the said trade may cease universally, as it shall cease definitively, and in any event, on the part of France, after a delay of five years; and that, moreover, during this delay, no trafficker in slaves shall import or sell them elsewhere than in the colonies of the state of which he is the subject.

VII.

(Book VI. Chap. III. p. 262.)

CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN AFRICA (1860, 1861).*

ALGIERS. 170,000 Catholics; 3,000,000 Mussulmans; 40,000 Jews; a dozen conversions a year; about 300 infants baptized in articulo mortis.

TUNIS. 12,400 Catholics; 2,000,000 Mussulmans; 40,000 Jews; one conversion in a year; 671 baptisms of children of infidels in articulo mortis.

TRIPOLI IN BARBARY. 28,000 Catholics; 2,000,000 Mussulmans ; 50 children baptized; a few secret conversions.

LOWER EGYPT. 24,000 Catholics; 300,000 Copts; 2,000,000 Mussulmans.

UPPER EGYPT. 3,300 Catholics; more than 4,000,000 heretics; 3,000,000 infidels. Religion is making some progress among the Copts, and conversions appear on the point of becoming still more

numerous.

GALLAS. 1,200 Catholics; 10,000 heretics; 30,000 Mussulmans; 1,000,000 infidels. The inhabitants are beginning to become accustomed to Europeans; roads are being opened.

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE (WEST). 5,500 Catholics; 40,000 heretics; 55,000 infidels. Progress is insensibly made. There have been recently some conversions, even among the Mahometans.

EAST CAPE. 5,000 Catholics; 50,000 heretics; 150,000 infidels. UPPER AND LOWER GUINEA AND SENEGAMBIA.

4,000 Cath

* I am indebted for this note to M. Ducros, Secretary of the Council of the Propagation of the Faith.