our Youth, who, perhaps, would be worse than the Youth of France, if they were enter’d as young into Company, and seated in the Centre of Joy and Pleasures. But I perceive, that instead of a Letter I am drawing a Case. Therefore here I drop my Brief, and think my Epistle long enough to be concluded. I am intirely Yours, &c.
LETTER XLIII.
SIR,Paris, May 28, 1732.
I was puzzled some time ago, to think what could make the French forget Father Girard and la Cadiere, and the pretended St. Paris; for I apprehended, those two Articles would be the Subject of Conversation a great while longer; but I was mistaken: ’Tis all forgot; and there’s something now upon the Tapis, of quite another Kind.
The Archbishop of Paris having thought fit to issue his Mandate for suppressing a certain printed Paper, intitled Nouvelles Ecclesiastiques, (a Sort of Ecclesiastical News-Journal) the Parliament of Paris was disgusted, and made an Arret, condemning the Archbishop’s Mandate. The Court took the Prelate’s Part, and declar’d all that was done by the Parliament upon this Occasion, null and void. The Parliament standing up mightily for its Privileges, which nevertheless it holds only by the good Pleasure of its Kings, discontinued its Assemblies, and the King was obliged to issue
repeated Orders, before the Members would resume their Business. Mean time the Advocates and Solicitors have thought fit to espouse the Cause of the Parliament, and refuse to plead till the King has done Justice to the Parliament, (’tis their own Term) by preserving it in the Possession of Appeals against Incroachments; which it has really enjoy’d for many Years, and which is the Ground of the present Disputes. The Parliament say, that they are the more justifiable in supporting this antient Prerogative, because they are obliged to it in Conscience, and for the Welfare of the State committed to their Charge. For, say they, what would be the Consequence, were the Archbishop’s Mandate to be authorized? The Pope and the Bishops would, by Degrees, assume that Right which they pretend to, of pronouncing Excommunications for very trivial Causes, and even of putting the King himself under an Interdict, and consequently of usurping a Temporal Despotic Power under the Umbrage of their Spiritual Power, which, say the Parliament, is absolutely contrary to the Liberties of the Gallican Church; by Virtue whereof, ’tis sufficient for the Parliament alone, in the like Case, to stigmatize and condemn those Nouvelles Ecclesiastiques, as they have already done for a long Time.
This is, in general, the Situation of Affairs, and the Substance of the Arguments made use of by the Parliament for the Maintenance of their Rights, which are stuff’d with Abundance of pompous Terms, such as the Obligations of Conscience, the Liberties of the Gallican Church, and a thousand such Expressions, with which the very Hawkers make your Ears ring as you go along the Streets. The Ladies too have for the present laid aside all the Jargon of Dresses, to learn that Language; and she who us’d to talk of Cornets
and Gorgets, now assumes the Style of an Advocate, pleads for Gallican Liberties, overturns the Church, and sends the Sacred College and the Bishops to the Gallies. In short, I can’t express to you, how ridiculous the French are in these Cases. Being fond of every Thing that’s new, be it good or bad, they catch at it blindfold; which is a plain Confirmation of the Inconstancy of these People, who are so fickle, that I verily believe, if any one should take a Fancy to preach Mahometanism to them, they would embrace it with their usual Levity.