EXPULSION OF FRENCH RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12303, 22 June 1903, Page 5

EXPULSION OF FRENCH RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

RECEPTION IN ENGLAND.

By Telegraph.— Association.—Copyright.

London, June 19. Thirty Benedictines and 65 students, expelled from the Douai College, in France, are settling in Portsmouth. At Charing Cross station they were welcomed by a hundred of the Roman Catholic clergy and representative laymen and presented with an address signed by 19 English Roman Catholic bishops, nine peers and 24 abbots. The Pope sent a message containing his blessing and good wishes.

The French correspondent of the Pilot, writing on April 30, slates: —Tliero happen to be in Douai two ver> flourishing religious establishments, a convent and the English college. Their suppression means a decrease of 350 people, and a considerable loss for the local commerce. The municipality, though :;ot clerical, are alarmed and urge their '•<•« Deputies to do something for them. The three Deputies would like to please their constituents, but what can they do? Thxy cannot speak, being dumb fish. They cannot vote against an application of a law, the principle of whioh they h«v« loduly supported; they cannot break away from their friend"! in the Chamber. What can thoy do? They sneak out of the particular ballot inwhich the English Benedictines are nan™ rrted, and write home that the Faubourg St. Honore will speak to :!(e Q.uai d'Orsay, and there is no fear. But the net 5 day a magistrate appears at the EnjruVn college, takes an inventory and larg r - 3 ea '•«, and on .luly 6, the collego, which wis a boast and a source of profit for the town, Las to be emptied and loosed.