Divorce is another bone of contention between the Catholic clergy and the people. By the civil law divorce is recognised, and cases occur every year. The clergy denounce those who re-marry civilly as living in a state of concubinage, and much ill-feeling is the result. Although, as I have before remarked, the Catholic clergy have greatly improved in conduct since the concordat, yet, in popular estimation, there is still something wanting. I have not forgotten the excitement caused by a song which a young Haytian (black) wrote on the subject. A very good-looking priest had at all events been indiscreet, and the Archbishop decided to banish him from the capital to a rural district. A deputation of females, early one morning, waited on Monseigneur to remonstrate, but he was firm, and then the song declared:-- “Il fallait voir pleurer les mulâtresses, En beaux peignoirs et les cheveux au vent; Il fallait voir sangloter les négresses Tout ce tableau par un soleil levant. Bon voyage, Cher petit blanc! Tu vas troubler l’église et le ménage. Bon voyage, Saint petit blanc! Que de regrets, O mon sacré galant!” As there was a certain amount of truth in the scandalous stories afloat, Monseigneur was very irritated with the author, and imprudently applied to Government to have him arrested. He was arrested, but his influential relatives soon procured his release, but under the condition of suppressing the song. Of course he was the hero of the hour, and his verses had a greater success than ever. Although “the complete ascendancy of the Church of Rome is incompatible with liberty and good government,” yet it is a matter of regret that in Hayti the Roman Catholic priests have had so little success. Their task is no doubt difficult, and, under present circumstances, almost a hopeless one. They cannot cope with so vast a mass of brutal ignorance and gross superstition, and one of the best men among them used often to complain of the little assistance they received from what might be considered the enlightened classes. My friend Alvarez, the Spanish _chargé d’affaires_, was very indignant at the idea presented by a French author, Monsieur Bonneau, that Catholicism was incapable of contending with the Vaudoux worship; but there is no doubt that as yet nothing has had much influence in suppressing it. The Roman Catholic Church, however, has been greatly reinforced since I left Hayti in 1877. It now counts as many as seventy priests, and had above 64,000 Easter communicants in 1863. How many of these were in secret followers of the Vaudoux?