Note H — Chapter III · JOSEPH THE PEACE-MAKER.

"I hold it for certain that in 1802 the Concordat was, on the part of Napoleon, an act of superior intelligence, much more than of a despotic spirit, and for the Christian religion in France an event as salutary as it was necessary. After the anarchy and the revolutionary orgies, the solemn recognition of Christianity by the State could alone give satisfaction to public sentiment, and assure to the Christian influence the dignity and the stability which it was needful that it should recover."—Meditations sur l'état Actuel de la Religion Chrétienne, par M. Guizot, p. 5.