Then there is an objection, not on the ground of right but of simple policy. “Supposing it possible to confiscate the priests’ stipends honourably, would it be wise or prudent to do so?” Whenever they are ill-used, even to a much less degree than that, they immediately proclaim themselves martyrs. If their salaries were withheld there would be an immense display of clerical indigence. The clergy might excite much popular sympathy by appearing as one vast mendicant order, with ragged cassocks, and they would certainly do all in their power to arouse the indignation of the peasantry against the Government. Then they would put a great part of the country under a sort of interdict. Even already the reactionary parties prepare the way for something of this description by spreading rumours amongst the peasantry. According to these rumours the republic intends to deprive the peasantry of religious rites, so that their children are to remain unbaptized, and their dead are to be buried like dogs. These rumours have frequently reached me through the peasants themselves, and they are generally traceable to the efforts of reactionary candidates during election times, Cautious republicans think that to abolish the _budget des cultes_ would be to provide the clergy and the monarchists with a very dangerous weapon. More than this, they believe that if disestablishment is intended to weaken and impoverish the clergy it will have an exactly contrary effect. The Church always gets whatever money she requires. Her power of renewing her wealth after immense losses is founded on the assured support of the rich. Here is a case in point. In consequence of the _laïcisation_ of a school a few “brethren of the Christian doctrine” were put out of employment. The curé of the place started a subscription to get a home for them, and in a week he had got together nearly two thousand pounds.[35] Now, for comparison’s sake, imagine starting a subscription in the same place for some purpose of secular intellectual culture, such as the encouragement of scientific research or the purchase of prints or casts. You could not, in such a place, scrape together two thousand pence. No one who knows France will venture upon predictions about French affairs. I may, however, indicate certain alternatives which the course of future events can scarcely altogether avoid. [Sidenote: Co-establishment not likely to be permanent in France.]