ENGLAND—British Hospitality Recalled

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 22, 4 June 1908, Page 31

ENGLAND— British Hospitality Recalled

In giving a short history of the French Chapel in Little George street, London, in the ' Catholic Weekly,' Mr. Wilfrid Wilberforce refers to the kind hospitality shown to the French refugees in England at the time of the Revolution. As early "as 1793 the number of refugees amounted to over 10,000, of whom 8000 were priests and 30 were bishops. Besides these were many nuns who had been driven from their convents. To the lasting! glory of this country (says Mr. Wilberforce), these victims of an anti-Christian Government were not only sheltered but supported by the people of England. In thirteen years Parliament voted close upon two million pounds for their benefit, and this large sum was^ supplemented by generous private offerings, in nearly all cases coming from Protestant sources. Winchester Castle was set apart as a residence for French priests, over 700 of them living there in community, supported by the English Government, while in 179& a large house was taken at Reading, . where another 200 priests found food and shelter at the public expense. Nor did English liberality end here. By the King's express order the clergy of the Established Church pleaded from their pulpits on behalf of the exiled Catholics, and the University of Oxford printed 4000* copies of the New Testament and the four sections of the Roman Breviary for gratuitous distribution among the French clergy who had taken refuge in England.