sanctity and for true greatness of soul, among whom may well be placed the subject of this brief notice. The Count de Mun fought in the war of 1870. It was a strange irony of fate that placed such a lover of his country in the army of Metz and in the army of Versailles. Shut up with Bazaine at Metz he had not the chance of firing a shot in defence of Paris, and as an officer of the Versailles army he took part in the seven days' attack on Paris which was necessary to wrest the city from the hands of the Commune. Recalling, in his Memoirs, the events of those days, he relates how he entered the Church of Belleville for a moment with his friend the Marquis de la Tour du Pin. There he found altars desecrated and crucifixes overturned, and a throng of National Guards, deserters, workmen, and women, crowded together in terror. They did not appear to realise that they had before renounced the protection which they now were seeking. "As my friend and I gazed on these unhappy sights, we seemed to hear a faint voice in our secret hearts announcing to us the purpose and aim in life which would be given us from this sad meeting of the people and society before the overthrown cross." This was the beginning of his life-work. He sought and found the cause of national decay in the threefold legacy of the Revolution, namely, the abandonment of Christian ideals, exaggerated individualism, and economic liberalism. The equality so much vaunted had become merely a struggle for the survival of the fittest. The State was only meant to guard the ring, so that there might be a free fight and no favour. Add to this the disappearance of religion as a directing and restraining force, and it will easily be conceived how black appeared the future of France. M. de Mun perceived clearly both the evil and the remedies to be applied, and set himself to attack the problem from two sides. He saw that the chief sufferers from the unchristian state of things which prevailed were the working classes, who were weakest and least able to protect themselves. He realised, too, that in the people the Church would find her truest support, just as in the Middle Ages the people had been her defenders against the attacks of kings and emperors. So he anticipated the command of Leo XIII. "to go to the people." He founded his Oeuvre des Cercles Catholiques d'Ouvriers. These unions or associations of Catholic workmen directed by men trained in practical social policy were not merely a moral and religious force, but were the beginning of a school of Catholic social thought. The voice of M. de Mun was raised at Catholic conferences held all over the country. His speeches and addresses have been published in eight volumes. When the encyclical of Pope Leo appeared "On the condition of the working classes," the directors of the Oeuvre des Cercles could justly claim that their policy had not to be altered in any degree. The Oeuvre des Cercles Catholiques approached the reconstitution of society from one side. The Count de Mun hoped that by this leaven of workers, educated to the true principles of social life based on the teachings of the Church, the nation would gradually be transformed. But he knew that the co-operation of the State was essential, and his work with the people was the preface to a legislative programme. In connection with the Oeuvre des Cercles he founded a Conseil des Etudes to study economic laws from a Catholic standpoint and draw from the history and action of the Church in past ages practical means of dealing with the difficulties of the day. These researches were the basis of the measures and proposals put forward by M. de Mun and his followers in the French Chamber. His first speech there on a social question was in 1883. The two fundamental principles he insisted on throughout were a supreme power to protect the weak and defend their moral and material rights, and a society based on natural and spontaneous associations of all those engaged in the same work. The success he met with was greater than is apparent at first sight. M. Georges Goyau, writing in the Figaro in 1897, when M. de Mun was elected to the French Academy, drew attention to the fact that people had ceased to talk about "the ideas of M. de Mun." These ideas, even then, had become common property. Practically every element of good in the social legislation of France for more than a quarter of a century can be traced to Catholic initiative. At the close of his life the splendid eloquence of the orator was silenced, but the mind and pen of Count de Mun were active to the last. One of his latest acts was the establishment of a fund for sending chaplains to the front with the French troops. In the Bulletin des Armées de la République, printed to supply information about what was going on to the soldiers who were fighting, he employed his pen to point out to them the meaning of true courage. And in the Echo de Paris he was publishing daily a series of articles for the instruction and encouragement of his people during the war. His work began at the close of the war of 1870. He lived long enough to see his country pass successfully through the critical moments which marked the opening of the second Franco-German struggle---till the 26th of last October, when he died, at the age of 73. While France can produce such men we may have good hope for her future. Pope Leo XIII. once wrote to Count de Mun to thank him for the earnestness and ability with which he was striving to make the principles and teachings of the Church effective in the life of France; and he expressed a hope that many might arise to carry on the work as generously as he. Such men are wanted everywhere, not merely in France. The outstanding characteristic of the Count de Mun was that with him religion was his whole life, not merely a part of it. The principles of his religion influenced and guided every act of his life. In this he is a lesson for all Catholics. Even the best of us are too prone to divide our lives into watertight compartments. We may be very religious, but with most of us there are certain domains into which our religion does not enter. We have our Sundays and our week-days, our religious duties and our ordinary duties. We give generously enough to God what we do give, but there is a lot it never enters our minds even to offer. It never strikes us, perhaps, that the strong man is he who has one principle running through everything without exception, and that we, too, may be consistent if we please, and weave of our life a seamless garment. Every Catholic has the duty of an apostle, to make the light of his faith shine out in every phase of life, and in every act, whatever its complexion, to hold fast to justice, truth, honour, and love of God, A. M. A. THE IMPATIENT PRAYER Sadly, in the lone cathedral playing, In the chancel vacancy was brooding, Charmed the grave Apostles into smiles: Smiles that passed from one unto another, Coloured, 'neath the window warmly tinted- There, within the lone cathedral sighing, And I thought-" If God can hear in Heaven, And my sinful soul will be forgiven, Thus, the Lord's Eternal Gates assailing, But my only answer was the wailing Of the notes that died beneath my hand, And there came no peace unto my spirit, And there came no comfort to my heart, I had made my prayer: God would not hear it; So I went, and left the echoes chiding, R. M. THE PRIEST AND SOCIAL ACTION* T HE recent work by Father Plater published in the 'Westminster Library' is a' really valuable contribution to the literature of Catholic Social Science, and one that should exercise an effective and far-reaching influence. The author, whose own name is prominently and honourably associated with Catholic social movements of various kinds, gives us an excellent exposition of the leading principles of the science, and in addition a well-informed account of the remarkable work which Catholic priests have accomplished in Social Action in European countries and America within the last half-century. How splendid the work has been one can only realise by reading a book of this kind. In spite of the demands which the adequate discharge of their spiritual functions made on them, we find that these zealous pastors have been able, by a devotion to the interests. of their people and a spirit of self-sacrifice which are often truly marvellous, to labour long and fruitfully for the material well being of their parishioners. The striking instances mentioned of what individual priests have been able to accomplish in their own parishes, as well as the proofs given of the reforms that have been inspired by great collective bodies like the Boerenbond' in Belgium, the Action • The Priest and Social Action by Rev. Charles Plater, S.J., M.A, Longmans, Green & Co. (Price 3s. 6d. net). |