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CHAPTER XII
ORGANISED PHILANTHROPY AND PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
It would be difficult to say whether or no
France compares favourably with England in
the matter of philanthropy and the poor laws.
But this much must be admitted in favour of the
Republican Government,—charity was never so
widely practised, was never so effectual or so
free-handed, as it is to-day in France. You will
hear the futile nobles and those who would pass
for a part of the aristocracy by the mere virtue
of adopting its vices and prejudices, assure you
that everything was better under the ancien régime; that shopkeepers, peasants, farmers,
and workmen were all better off when they depended
upon an absolute king. French Catholics,
like nearly all other Catholics I know, soar
above argument, logic, the surprises, revelations,
and irrefragable testimony of history.
What they desire to have been, to have happened,
must have been and happened, and there
is nothing more to be said. And so to-day,
