nefit of working-men who are isolated in their work, or employed
in small establishments, that the co-operation of the upper classes is
needed; and while I incline to think that there is still much ground for
the strong language on this point employed in the Report of 1885, there
appears to be no doubt that a great improvement has taken place during
the last three or four years. In 1884 the efforts of the Cardinal
Archbishop of Reims, the Bishop of Angers, and of other energetic
prelates, secured the active participation of the Holy See in the
promotion of this work. In February of that year a pilgrimage to Rome of
members of the Catholic Clubs of France was organised. The pilgrims were
received in special audience by Leo XIII., and he gave his Papal
approbation and benediction to the work in a very remarkable address
which produced a deep and widespread impression throughout Catholic
France. Similar pilgrimages were made in 1887 and in 1889.

One very important effect of this has been to bring about a better
understanding between the parochial clergy of France in general and
these steadily increasing lay organisations. It is in the nature of
things that the clergy should be slow in giving their unreserved aid to
any movement, no matter how admirable in itself, which involves a good
deal of extra-clerical activity in matters religious. This was
illustrated in the attitude of the English Protestant clergy towards
Wesley and Whitfield, and there are some curious coincidences--of course
absolutely undesigned--between some of the methods of the great and
powerful Protestant sect of the Wesleyans and those of M. Harmel's
Catholic Clubs.

The Methodist 'class-leader,' for example, reappears in a modified form
in the _zelateurs_ and _zelatrices_ of the Harmel Clubs and
fraternities. These are members, working-men and working-women, who are
willing to devote themselves to promoting religious sentiments and
practices among their comrades, and who hold regular meetings to
consider and work out the best and most practical way of doing this.

It is not surprising that in many cases the cures should have looked
with a little uneasiness upon the development of such a system until it
had been fully considered and formally approved by the highest authority
in the Church. Of its efficacy from the point of view of M. Harmel there
can be no doubt.

Something not wholly unlike the 'exclusive dealing' which contributes so
much to the st