M. Combes, the Frenoh Premier, delivered on Monday a strong,
even a passionate, speech against Clericalism at the annual banquet of the Republican Committee of Commerce and Industry. He declared that peace was the first need and first duty of the nations, and that in France especially the principles of her Government were " incompatible with the fierce selfishness which regards a good as diminished if it is shared with others,"—a phrase we recommend to all Pro- tectionists. " France is wholly for peace; even her dreams are of peace." Her enemy is now internal. Royalty by right divine perished with the Comte de Chambord. " The Empire born of perjury and sedition perished by the hands of savages in the obscurity of a warlike adventure." Orleanism died of substituting " a system of cunning for the grandeur of the hereditary principle." Clericalism, however, placed itself at the head of the defeated parties, and they have risen in defence of the Congregations in inflexible opposition to the rights of the State and the interests of society. The situation
has become intolerable. The words seem to suggest still further legislation against the Church as immediately at hand. M. Combos may be a devotee of peace abroad, but he certainly is not afraid of internecine war within the civil domain.
