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Show ADVICE TO FRANCE. Archbishop Ireland at the Dominican College at Arceuil. Though clad in a frock coat and with nothing on his person to mark the pre-I pre-I late if we except his Episcopal ring and I a glimpse of violet silk. Archbishop Ire-: Ire-: land's figure was quite in keeping with the scene of which he formed part. White-robed sons of St. Dominic were around him. The youth of the college were .before him, awaiting their prizes and also a speech w hich he was about to deliver in their honor. There was another American prelate present. Mgr. Keane. There were men of note there blonging to the outside world and there was a good sprinkling of Paris clergy. This ceremony of distribution of prizes at the Arceuil College is aUvavs an important one. the late Pere Didon having hav-ing thrown into it from the first something some-thing of his life and energy. Archbishop Archbish-op Ireland'? presence on the present occasion oc-casion added eclat and importance. His speech was a masterpiece as to manner and matter. Addressing the youths before him, he told them in vivid language of the duty they owed to their countrr. "The bare fact." he said. . "of a Frenchman's preferring his own personal per-sonal views to the general good of his country is to me an enigma. Discuss among yourselves as much as you like, as free citizens have a right to do, only be ready when' occasion demands to sacrifice differences of opinion and to rally together in your country's cause. Speaking to you in the name of humanityfor hu-manityfor I have not the right to speak to you in the name of France I must tell you that I wish to see your country remain strong and Vigorous. My desire is that wherever the French tongue may be heard that tongue may remind us not only of the most heroic acts that have been performed, but also of what is most beautiful .nd religious In the world. Thus I feel impelled to say to Frenchmen: - "Unute in love of your country, for other nations are watching you, and those nations rub their hands together when they see you quarreling' among yourselves, and they say: 'Let the French alone and they wilUwear themselves them-selves out by their own internal divisions.' di-visions.' So, young soldiers of France whom I now address, begin life by the wide open path and always say to yourselves: "My country's welfare is before everything else. I take France as I find her and her well-being shall be my one rule of life.' " The Rev. Pere Feuillette, Pere Didon's successor as director of the Arceuil College, warmly thanked Archbishop Ireland. "I thank you." he said, "the representatives of that Episcopate across the seas where people love liberty lib-erty not only for themselves, but for others as well. I thank that American Episcopate for proving: 'to the world that the Church does not encase herself her-self in political formula; "that she is not afraid of freedom; that her dogmas dog-mas are not in contradiction with the constitutions of great countries or with, the liberties of peoples: that she possesses pos-sesses a divine flexibiliy. allowing her to adapt herself to all'civilizations; that she makes her way through all societies, socie-ties, young or old, barbarous or civilized, civi-lized, without attacking the form of any and asking for herself only right of way. You. Monseigneur." Pere Feuillette Feuil-lette continued, addressing Archbishop Ireland, "have been chosen among all others by the President of the United! States for the accomplishment of a great mission, viz., that of connecting the friendship of two great nations by the remembrance of glories and of trials-shared trials-shared in common. Speaking in'the name of all, let me'assure you of our' gratitude as patriots and as Catholics." Catho-lics." 1 Such words and others like them, spoken by one of the most prominent members of a great religious order in France, and addressed to him who on the occasion represented vhe Catholic Church of America, were doubly eloquent. |