THE NEW MEMBER OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume X, Issue 489, 25 August 1882, Page 5

THE NEW MEMBER OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY.

Some twenty years ago a young French priest visited Ireland, and was warmly received by the most eminent prelates, writers, and politicians in the country. A few months before, he had written to the editor of the Natwn, asking for a few back numbers of the p iper, which the present writer handed him, and informed him that the journal would be sent to him in future. * *u A k™"* 1 " 1 " 5168 in the by the Rev. Pere Perraud, of the Oratory ! were translated and published in the Nation, which clearly showed that Ireland had a talented friend in the French Press. He received the visits of some eminent Irishmen in Paris, and was encouraged to write a work on Ireland, which M. Gustave de BeauT^Jt^Fi £ ? <*c best that e ver appeared, including hia own remarkable book, but which the correspondent of the Times this week calls a A Pamphlet on Ireland." "L'lreland Contemporaine" was published in Paria, and was translated into English, and, I believe, into other languages. The voluminous " pamphlet » is the work taat principally contributed to secure the election of the good Bishop of Autun, almost without competition, to the highest honour a French litterateur, historian, or political economist can ambition. Mgr Perraud, or rather Abbe Perraud, obtained in Ireland the most trustworthy information on the state of the country and the causes of the sufferings of the people ; and in his precious volume exposes Ireland s wrongs, the injustice done to her; and the noble qualities of her eons and daughters in such a way as to enlighten the g^3 C wffin" 7° n the BUliJeCfc) aDd *° Wln the B ra tit U de g of eve£

In a few weeks, at the imposing ceremony of the reception of the new member of the Academy, M. Camille Rousaet, the great historian, who will have to receive him, will, no doubt, dwell at some length on this important pamphlet (I like to give the Times correspondent's name for the great work). Mgr. Perraud has published other books—" The History of the Oratory," &c. ; and some of his eloquent sermons and funeral orations are considered masterpieces of their kind. His love for Ireland has not ceased, for two years ago he offered the present writer to preach the sermon at the Madeleine for the victims of the famine, and would have done so but that the services of the Pere Monsabre had been engaged previously by the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris. The friend of the illustrious Bishop of Orleans, of Abb 6 Perreyve and Abbe Gratry, he laboured with those three gieat men for long years in the cause of religion and liberty, and their death was a great blow to him, and a loss to the country. Irishmen will, lam sure, learn with pleasure that the eloquent advocate of their cause has been chosen by the most learned body in Europe to take his place among them, and that his work on Ireland contributed to raise him to that eminent place, so envied and so difficult to attain. " J. P. L." in the Nation.