they not .' France was in one of its fits of " Liberal" ecstasy. "The charter — the free institutions it guar- anteed, the self-government whicli it held out to the hopes of the nation — was the jiopular idol. But in the midst of this impetuous rush towards ])olitical freedom
this plan, thought of studying law, and, under a pass- ing impulse, even of joining the army of Algiers, a folly to which in after-life he thus pleasantly alluded : "Je suis le premier de mon sang qui n'ai guerroyc qu'avec la plume." He had no real military ardor, and the pen in his hand proved a far more trenchant weapon tlian the sword.
In this restless state, utterly unable to make a choice for life, he wrote an article on Sweden, and presented it to the learned Protestant Guizot for publication in the Revue Frangaise, of which Guizot was editor. Though
appeared Oct. 15, 1830. In a little more than three months the country' was ablaze because of the severe attacks made upon the government by the triumvirate of L'Avenir. Jan. 31, 1831, two of its editors were in criminal courts answering to charges of bitterly assail- ing the king for exercising his constitutional right in clerical appointments. This time thej' were lucky enough to secure acquittal. But, instead of profiting bj' their experience, they only drew from it encour- agement to continue in their course, and, not content with the limited influence of L'Aveni?; attempted a
exception was taken to parts, and much erased that fresh and original enterprise. They formed a society
the young would-be litterateur thought his best, the article was printed, and at once established his fame as a good writer and careful observer. His literary friendships rapidly multiplied, and he counted among his most intimate associates Lamartine, Sainte-Beuve,
called Agence de la liberte reliffieuse. which publicly an- nounced that, attendu que la liberte se prtnd et ne se donne pas, three of their members would open a school, free and gratuitous, at Paris, for Catholic education, independent as well of the university as of all other
md Victor Hugo, "then the poet of all sweet and vir- state influence, by way of testing the right. The tuous things," cherishing the hope of "a universal , school was opened on JIa}' 1, 1831, after due notice to
religious restoration and rebirth of the world." He now also became a contributor to the Corresjiondant, a well-known Koman Catholic periodical, for which he continued to write all his life. But, restless as he was, he could not give up the plan of writing on Ireland, and at length, in the end of July, on the very eve of the Revolution, he set out for that country. The news of the re-overthrow of the Bourbons met him at Lon- don, and he went back to Paris ; not to stay, however, for his father insisted upon his quitting the scene, and he resumed his journey-. We cannot touch upon his Irish visit in detail, but we must at least allude to his call at Maynooth, for the scene he there Itehcld had no doubt a wonderful influence on his life-work. He himself describes a most striking scene of suffering and devotion which he enjoyed at a mass celelirated there, "the men kneeling in the mud, all uncovered
the prefect of police, by three members of the societj', Lacordaire, IM. de Coux, and ^lontalombert himself, who succinctly relates what followed : " The abbe La- cordaire delivered a short and energetic inaugurative discourse. We formed each a class for twenty chil- dren. The next day a commissary came to summon us to decamp. He first addressed the children : ' In the name of the law, I summon you to depart.' La- cordaire immediately rejoined : ' In the name of your parents, whose authority I have, I order you to re- main.' The children cried out unanimously, ' We will remain.' Whereupon the police turned out pupils and masters, with the exception of Lacordaire, who pro- tested that the schoolroom hired by him was his domi- cile, and that he would pass the night in it unless he was dragged out l)y force. ' Leave me,' he said to us, seating liimself on a mattress he had brought there ; ' I
though the rain fell in torrents, and the mud quivered remain here alone with the law and my right.' He beneath them." No wonder that such a scene deep- did not give way till the police laid hands upon him ; ened his ardent devotion to Romanism, and confirmed j after which the seals were aflixed, and a prosecution in him the hitherto half-resolved purpose to give him- \ was forthwith commenced against the schoolmasters." self to the service of the Church and of Freedom ! Montalembert's father Iiaving died soon after the Mrs. Olijihant may well tliink that it was this visit to commencement of these jiroceedings, he was entitled, Ireland that decided the future of Montalembert. He by successorship in the peerage, to trial befure the had seen the Island of the Saints, the island in which Chamber of Peers ; and before them he appeared on liberty was making common cause with faith, in which i Sept. 19, 1831, and there made tlie event memorable the standard of patriotism was waved from the altar \ by his first speech, one of the most brilliant upon rec- by the priest. In the Irish Church, then, the twin ord, and a clear foreshadowing, not alone of the elo-