Christ as they had themselves, their zeal for God apparently bounded by the one idea of extending the dominions of the Pope, and salvation being in their view secured by baptism into the communion of the Papal church.

But whatever their motives, their enterprise and their enthusiasm were both boundless. Nothing seemed too great to attempt, or too difficult to perform. Such missionaries as Zavier defied all dangers, whether from heat, or deserts, or pestilence, or wild beasts, or hostile men. These operations show us the prodigious power of religious enthusiasm, and history informs us how well the Romish church understands its nature and its use. It is this power to which the leaders of the Papacy, in union with the statesmen and Emperor of France, intend to appeal in their present designs. The ancient supremacy of the Romish church, the former prestige and strength of the Latin race, the glory of France, these form the spell words with which Louis Napoleon's Jesuits hope to rouse the Catholic nations of Europe, and unite them under France as Imperial Head. Thus are the schemes of to-day connected with those of the past.

For more than half a century, from the landing of Clive in India till the fall of Bonaparte, the contest was carried on for the possession of the East, but France was unsuccessful, and forced back at all points, and the final result left her with only an inconsiderable territory around Pondicherry, while England rules over one hundred and fifty millions of East Indian subjects.

France, however, as we shall see, has not abandoned the idea of dominion in the East. Her plan for possessing herself of North America, and for securing all America for the Latin race, and Papal church, was as vast as the one she formed for India. In the exploration of the Western Continent, the missionary operations of the church had preceded the march of armies, and the progress of commerce-as they had also done in India. With the leaders of the Papacy, territory is sought only to extend the dominion of the Pope and the church, and with the newly awakening zeal of

Romanism as a stimulant, it is easy to foresee what would follow the establishment of French supremacy on this Western Continent.

At least a hundred years before the American Revolution, the Jesuit Missionaries were busy around the Lakes and in the Valley of the Mississippi. They had followed the great lakes to Superior, they had gone on southward to the Mississippi, and their stations were planted on the banks of the Ohio. From Quebec to New Orleans, the whole West has been one great Missionary field for the Church of Rome nearly two hundred years ago, and it is not strange perhaps, that the Catholic Powers should often consider whether it is possible for them to recover again this lost dominion of the West.

The French plan for the military occupation of North America embraced a series of fortified posts, extending from Louisburg on the Atlantic coast westward, to Quebec and Montreal, and along the great lakes, and then southward to New Orleans. Besides this general line, there were some strong positions on Lake Champlain, and in the upper portion of the Valley of the Mohawk, and on the upper waters

of the Ohio.

The immediate effect of this chain of forts was to confine the English to the Atlantic coast, rendering the expansion of the colonies westward impossible; the ultimate result of the scheme, had it proved successful, would have been, to expel from America the English, and the Protestant Church together.

In the progress of the war which followed these encroachments of France, she was driven from all these positions in rapid succession, till on the plains of Abraham, Montealm, in dying, yielded virtually to Great Britain all that France possessed in America, with the exception of New Orleans. This at length was ceded by Napoleon to the United States, and thus the colonial empire of France, both in India and America, vanished, leaving only a little patch of territory in India, and some insignificant islands in the West Indian group.

At the close of the war which ended with the fall of Bonaparte, France found herself stripped of her vast colonial possessions, which were all in the hands of the Power she hated, and feared more than all others-and by that same ancient enemy her navy had been utterly ruined. France was a mortified, defeated, and weakened Power, but she was not utterly discouraged. She accepted such a peace As was granted, and with bitter memories and meditated revenge, she silently bided her time. She had played a stupendous and bloody game for the control of the commerce and manufactures of the world, and with her the Romish church had attempted to extend the Papacy in all lands, and both had utterly failed.

Protestant England was the dominant power in all the earth, her navy had complete command of all seas, her commerce was the commerce of the world, and London was the great money centre of Christendom.

But mighty nations do not abandon a traditional policy, a national idea, because of severe defeat. They simply pause to recruit their strength-and such a people as the French, fertile in resource, energetic, and proud, recover very rapidly even from extreme disaster. In less than a century after the surrender of her North American possessions, forty-five years after the battle of Trafalgar, in which her navy was annihilated, and thirty-five years after Waterloo, where her military power was broken, France was prepared to renew the contest for the control of Europe and the world.

The French, through the period of their humiliation, could scarcely name Waterloo, or think of St. Helena, without an execration for England, and breathing a desire for vengeance. Actively and steadily she gathered her resources, improved her army, and enlarged her navy, and England soon began to be uneasy at the rapid progress of her formidable neighbor. France at this time had been placed permanently under the control of Louis Napoleon. The designs of the new Emperor none then could penetrate, but it was quite evident from his military and naval preparations, that he

intended that France should play no inferior part among the nations of Europe. This brings us to consider the position of the great powers of the world just previous to the Anglo-French Alliance; and it is hoped that this rapid review of French policy for a hundred years, will enable us to understand the nature and objects of this unexpected compact.

CHAPTER VIII.

CONDITION OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, RUSSIA AND AMERICA, WHEN THE ANGLO-FRENCH ALLIANCE WAS FORMED.

Mr. Kinglake, in "The Invasion of the Crimea," comments with great severity upon the Alliance with France, as the one step which rendered inevitable a war with Russia, which might otherwise have been avoided. He says that the French Emperor subordinated all other considerations to the plan of forming with England a combination against Russia. In studying the policy of France it is very important to remember this fact. France originated the war against Russia, and it began in a quarrel between the Latin and Greek Churches about the holy places at Jerusalem, which was carefully nursed by France into a cause of war, as will hereafter be made to appear, while England with alacrity accepted the proposal of France to attack Russia. But England had motives of her own.

Mr. Kinglake seems to think that the prominent motive of Louis Napoleon in seeking the Alliance was to gain support and recognition for that throne which he had so lately set up with perfidy and in the blood of his countrymen, and he presents no very satisfactory reasons for the course of England.

Events have shown already, and will yet more clearly reveal the real intentions of these two powers in forming that strange agreement, in which, without sufficient ostensible reasons, they suddenly abandoned the policy which for