pring he returned to the bosom of the
Church, and, by making our Empress a present of a valuable diamond cross,
of which he had pillaged the statue of a Madonna, he obtained the dignity
of a grand vicar, to the great edification, no doubt, of all those who
had seen him before the altar or in the camp, at the brothel, or in the
hospital.

Another grand vicar of the same Bishop, in the same city, of the name of
Rami, has two of his illegitimate children as singing-boys in the same
cathedral where he officiates as a priest. Their mother is dead, but her
daughter, by another priest, is now their father's mistress. This
incestuous commerce is so little concealed that the girl does the honours
of the grand vicar's house, and, with naivete enough, tells the guests
and visitors of her happiness in having succeeded her mother. I have
this anecdote from an officer who heard her make use of that expression.

In France, our priests, I fear, are equally as debauched and
unprincipled; but, in yielding to their vicious propensities, they take
care to save the appearance of virtue, and, though their guilt is the
same, the scandal is less. Bonaparte pretends to be severe against all
those ecclesiastics who are accused of any irregularities after having
made their peace with the Church. A curate of Picardy, suspected of
gallantry, and another of Normandy, accused of inebriety, were last
month, without further trial or ceremony than the report of the Minister
Portalis, delivered over to Fouche, who transported them to Cayenne,
after they had been stripped of their gowns. At the same time, Cardinal
Cambaceres and Cardinal Fesch, equally notorious for their excesses, were
taken no notice of, except that they were laughed at in our Court
circles.

I am, almost every day, more and more convinced that our Government is
totally indifferent about what becomes of our religious establishment
when the present race of priests is extinguished; which, in the course of
nature, must happen in less than thirty years. Our military system and
our military education discourage all young men from entering into
orders; while, at the same time, the army is both more honourable and
more profitable than the Church. Already we want curates, though several
have been imported from Germany and Spain, and, in some departments,
four, and even six parishes have only one curate to serve them all. The
Bishops exhort, and the parents advise their children to st