WISHES FOR THE CLERGY.

IT were most devoutly to be wished that the Clergy had never séparated their interests from those of the People. However well endowed the Clergy of a State may be, the ruin of the People speedily involves theirs likewise. The example of the Greeks of Constantinople is a proof of this, whose Patriarchs intermeddled in the functions of the Emperors, and the Emperors in those of the Patriarchs. The People, drained by their Clergy and by their Princes, who had seized every species of property, even that of opinion, lost all sense of patriotism: What do I say? During the siege which terminated in giving the Turks possession of Constantinople, this was the general cry, "We "would rather see turbans among us than a car"dinal's hat." I must here observe that the religion of a State is not always it's firmest support, as has been so frequently advanced; for the Greek Empire of Constantinople fell, and it's Religion remained. The same thing happened to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. On the other hand, many religions have changed in different States, the Governments of which has continued to subsist: Such were the ancient religions of several Kingdoms of Europe, of Asia and of Africa, to which have succeeded the Christian and Mahometan Religions, whereas many of those States have not so much as changed a dynasty. The happiness of the People is the only immoveable basis of the happiness of Empires, it is likewise that of the happiness of their Clergy. The Greek Clergy of Constanti

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nople is reduced, under the Turks, to live on alms, in the very places where they once had the power, under their national Princes, to rear the superb Temples in which at this day the religion of an enemy triumphs. An ambitious Clergy impoverishes it's People, and an impoverished People sooner or later renders it's Clergy miserable.

Not only is the Clergyman united to the People by the bond of interest, but by that of duty. He is the national advocate of the miserable, and obliged to relieve them out of his own superfluity. Most part of the property of the Church has been bequeathed, expressly under those conditions. I could have wished therefore that the superior Clergy had been at the head of their flocks to defend their interests, as in the ancient times of our Monarchy, during which the People themselves elected their own Pastors expressly for this purpose. But since those ancient forms so respectable in themselves have changed, even in a body of men so tenacious of their conservation, I wish at least that the Clergy would instil into the National Assembly the evangelical maxims which it is their business to announce in our Churches.

I

do not speak of the penny paid to Cesar by St. Peter, in obedience to JESUS CHRIST himself; for -I will observe on this occasion, from the question put by JESUS to Peter, and his answer, that it was not customary among the Romans to exact tribute of citizens but of strangers. It is clear indeed from History that the Roman People, so far from paying imposts, was frequently supported by largesses of corn, and the tribute of the conquered Provinces.

Among

Among the Turks, the carach or tribute is paid only by the Greeks. This custom appears to me to have been generally prevalent over Asia. JESUS CHRIST Seems to extend it to all the Kingdoms of the World, as founded on natural justice. The question after all perhaps referred to personal, and not to territorial imposts. Be this as it may, seeing that from one abuse to another the financial Government has with us succeeded to the feudal,' it is now impossible to meet the exigencies of the State without levying contributions on all it's members. The greatest part of our Clergy has sacrificed in this respect their ancient prerogatives in a very generous manner; nevertheless the interest of truth obliges me to add, that they have likewise in this only done an act of justice, as a great deal of property was formerly conferred on them by the State, as well as on the Nobility, to the burthening of even the military service.

But the People at this day demands of them other contributions, to a considerable extent, of property bequeathed to them by individuals, for the benefit of the still more sacred service, that of the miserable. In this undoubtedly must be comprehended many of the rich Ecclesiastical Commendams, once destined to the relief of the leprous, and of wretches shut up in Hospitals. Let the Clergy then transfuse themselves into this Law of Nature, which is the basis, and the ultimate ob- i ject of the Gospel; of that Law which is the source of every virtue, of justice, charity, humanity, patriotism, concord, beneficence, politeness, and of every thing which renders man amiable,

even in the eyes of the men of the World: "Do not "to another what you would not another should do "unto you." Let them consider that this People, who in times past so liberally endowed them, is now sinking under a load of impositions; that the vices against which they have been so long preaching are not infused into Man by Nature, but they are the necessary results of our political Institutions; that they spring out of the extreme opulence of a small number of citizens who have swallowed up every thing, and out of the absolute indigence of an inconceivable number of others who no longer possess any thing; that on the one part, opulence produces voluptuousness, avarice, monopolies, ambition, which of themselves occasion so many woes to mankind; and that on the other, poverty reduces young women to the necessity of prostituting themselves, mothers to expose their own children, and that it generates sedition, theft, quackery, superstition, and that innumerable multitude of miserable beings, who, stripped of every thing by the first, are reduced to the necessity of finding a livelihood at their expense.

I could wish therefore that the Clergy would step forth to the relief of the wretched, and first of all make provision for the necessities of the poor members of their own body; that there may not be a single Ecclesiastic destitute of the decent means of support. Not a simple village Vicar ought to be without the actual necessaries of life so long as his Bishop enjoyed a superfluity. It accordingly appears reasonable to me, that the National Assembly should employ the revenues of

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the rich Abbeys, founded of old by the Nation, in distributions, diffused over the whole Kingdom, by the provincial Assemblies, to the indigent of all countries, and of every communion, known and unknown, after the example of the good Samaritan; for the charity of the Gospel should extend to men of every Religion, and French hospitality to the men of all Nations.

It is of essential importance that the Clergy should abolish in their own order those strange and shameful establishments, totally unknown to the Greeks, the Romans, and even to the Barba rians, I mean Convents, which in France are merely houses of confinement and correction. Those dolorous abodes, in which Monks undertake, for pay, the infliction of domestic and public vindictive punishment, are scattered in such numbers over the Kingdom, and have become so detestable as to tarnish the very names of the Saints whom they have presumed to adopt as patrons. In some of them are still to be seen cages of iron, the cruel invention of Louis XI. Most of them labour under a reputation so disgraceful, from the penances which they inflict, that a young man, or young woman, derives more infamy from having been an inmate, than from having been shut up in a common prison. Hence Monks and Nuns refuse to blush at executing the abominable functions of gaolers and executioners for the sake of a paltry emolument. Is it not wonderfully strange that persons consecrated to God, who professionally preach up humanity, consolation, and the forgiveness of injuries, should have suffered themselves to be made the instruments of cruelty,