THE TESTIMONY OF PROTESTANTS AND FREETHINKERS TO THE SANCTITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 48, 26 March 1886, Page 19

THE TESTIMONY OF PROTESTANTS AND FREETHINKERS TO THE SANCTITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

_, _ THB CATHOLIC LAITY. MAJOB W F. Butucb writing in Mac MUlan's Magazine in 1878 speaks highly of the Irish soldiers. '• Who " he says referring to the Peninsu ar War, •' were these soldiers who so freely came tJ g fiH the ranks of our army in the hour of peril? . . . they were Irish peasants; ten years earlier they had been rebels ; but five years before they had been wild animals hunted from hilLtop to hiff-top fw,.T r 'iv Om a « ta g e . ecarcel 7 leas servile, they passed out from their hovel-homes to win for England her pinnacle of military ffSht -^° m °i t hU ? ted ? ea9ant waß found "»* the front lSe *J& i ? 6Bger i y be ! te , Pped into the vacant <*»<*» 'or it was his rightful place. Here at last he was at home. . . From the terrible ! breach of Badajoz and along the hill side of Faentes d' Onor h s wi d cheer rang out above the roar of cannon in joyous token of his Celtic birthright found even in deaths-Mr. Augustus J C Ha writing of Spain says, " The Spanish standard of mo™ of miners of religion, of duty of all the courtesies which are due from one E£nn mn a ?°, ,I h °™V Wide &P&H their ranks ' *" a yei 7 diff erent and in most of these points a much higher standard than the English S^-'v. \ Cheatm g and extortion seem incompatible with the 2? I nH? araCter ii ? VeQ c Poo""* peasant who V h&e Bbo wn us our way and has travelled a considerable distance to do so, has invariably refused to accept anything for his services ; yet all are most anxious to help stranger*. Tbe same liberal spirit seems to breathe through everything, and was equally shown at our little possada at Elche325 °%T E^ lißh J )U^ ie hooie-wliew, a number of mahned, tlfth? M? c °i lec <** dail * to receive the broken viands from w *}*?'• J he m P? ral ™** of mercy, to give bread to the hungry and drink to the thirsty, to take care of the sick to visit the captives and to bury the dead-these ?r the cWon dutteJ Tavs MT e R? fi ri^h rOmi " ( Wanderin^ iQ Spain »).-• . x£ SpUard?" Itll 5v i- ' l nowev f ignorant, has naturally the manners and renned feelings of a gentleman. A rude speech, a laugh at a stranger's expense would be voted simply indecent' by him. Snould an £ I JISTn f T° rr H Hrg r hi T eH a 9 t0 become d ™ k and ineipabte m a Spanish town, I believe he would be politely carried home and i?£hE3 ° red tO < Ti }* SPansW™S P ans W™ £ noVrunkarSi as he himself says ' I know when I have had enough.' Rare as may be his opportunities of getting etimulants, he would not pass the bounds of moderation when the opportunity of drinking at another's expense is offered him Then the Spaniard again is very contented : I diffirSTt e H g * "T^ h f Wnter .addß'. addB ' " A few * eek " "nee I was in a ! flf S \J' ™ aPPealeda PP ealed t0 a Passing stranger a Spanish hotel keeper £ iffc I he } el % re( l ulred wa * readily and freely given, and as I wa^lv fo^The h f , my g , eDerOU ? f , rieD u d at P«*il thanked him HEX 7 uVi c * c P> and ln< l uired who and what he was. 'Never SSnhT a J?' r WM the read * answer, < Protestant or Cathol£ Repubhcan or Carhst, you stood in need of help, and we are brothers because we are Christians.'" {Untrodden #£m).^ r KoeTaavi in another Iplace. "The Spanish women, as a rule, are good reSly religious very affectionate mothers, very generous frtendT"Jsnd again " I must say that the majority o f /oo? gfrb wh?n led to the otcn7itfvT nt a r rk^ d CoDtraßt ia P unfc y t0 an equaTnumber ?«n %? E 'agricultural labourers' daughters. In Spam the daughters purity is the mother's highest pride. "-May hew, in bis "ifflSh " f Dd thG « L ° DdOn PP r " < vol - IH - P- 384 "ays ♦J^lL vagiante were far more orderly than the English, Out of w^rth V eCe^ ediato the : cftßual " a^ d of thisrunion (Wandsworth and Chapham) during the distress in Ireland it is remarkable tija ;not even one commuted an act of iasubordination some of them were not particularly fond of work, but they were 'invariably honest, says my informant, at least so far as his knowledge went^«Again, the porter at the Holbern workhouse said — • The younir women from Ireland. . . were full of joke : but I never heard an SShTJhT'S fr ° m ° f thea> »« » «S and/ "Z* no doubt, that they were chaste and modest." (vol. 11l n 405? —A writer who signs himsrtf « The Riverside Visitor " writing in band Ward, at the end of 1879, speaks of tie Irish in London I "Little Ireland he says, is regarded with prejudice by those who know ft£»£s X it# Thiß prejudlCQ Comeß down f fom "he paSt or £ founded on the supposition that all « Little Irelands " are of the wild £l I7Vl 7V U hlS ' h6 c*? I *™'? • miß^e ; the <• wild Irish " form *Snnt«?!if **' . CBOt * c " Their d oiQgß, however, " come mo7t frequently before the outer world through the medium of the nol£e ai^oV^Sr ftS'J c " Wild Iri ' h "Me not tSe mosl fo?m S able of all the degraded classes. " Apart from the police whom they are Induced to regard as their natural enemy and iLitTmaS prey, the wild Irish are rather less thu more dangerous to otheS thaa are the generality of the wild tribes of civilisation " It is 7 wtßtched bomes is the weariness brought on by hard work, and not, as is commonly supposed, any preference for dirt ordisorder state of thln^,. SofcS £ffi]E!J?£ Jll r " th « irbeft f n g towards outsiders, the bulk of the inhabitants of the Little Ireland are specially ud characteristically cvnl. They axe frank too as well as Soluble in speakinV^flheJ ajaus, antfas a body they would ceruialy have tberightto describi themselves as poor but honest. Of course they have bUckThero amongrtthm,evenasabody they have their flults ; baethw hSi also their ylrtues. They are honest, hard-working, hard-lirinj »nd Undlj."-A writer in the Jtetme de, Devm Mo*ds for Not it ISM fiyes us this sketch of the character of I^uisPtyier leader o#!hSwiss ia the French wars of religion in thTslxKnth^aantSr £! authorities of the writer are PfyfL's

1570. "We see there only the leader of men, methodical, always occupied about the health of the soldier and his welfare cweM about the least details. For him as for those he leads to battle war ie a trade ; his honour is staked on waging it well, and he seems to ha*e no other source of action. He has, no doubt, at the bottom of his heart, a solemn and eincere faith, a Catholic faith ;it escapes sometimes, with all simplicity, in an appeal to Jesus or to the Blereed Virgin Mary ; we also perceive that here and there a certain anger breakß out, a certain indignation against political ambitions which under cover of religion, rend the fine country of France and rob it of all repose. Although a foreigner he seems somewhat more of a patriot than those he serves, or those against whom he fights. What nevertheless, predominates in his character is the pride of the leader not of a leader who has gathered together mercenaries from every country, but of the commander who knows nil his soldiers, who is their father, who feels himself bound to them by the closest ties who is sure of them as they are sure of him. The Bwiss ! at tbiß word the people must know they need fear neither disorder nor pillajre • the enemy, whoever he may be, must be moved at their approach ;' the bravest cavalry in the world must tremble at the sight of their lances ; the King and Court must feel secure and out of the reach of all danger only when their standards keep guard.— A writer in the Cape Monthly Magazine, writing in 1881, speaks of the Italian peasantry as an admirable people. " And " says he •• if we compare the poorer classes of Italy with the poorer classes of England the former beyond all question carry off the palm. In fact it seems to me that, taking them at tbeir best, the poor surpass the rich here especially the country poor,— the men are more manly, the women more graceful, the children more like the ideal angels of art. Gbrres the great German journalist says that if we look only to the relations of society, little more would be necessary to transform these peasants (of Italy) ' into noblemen than to change their outer garb.' And Cooper who lived a long time here says, 'A kinder and quickerwitted, and a more civil people than the most of the country population, is not usually seen.'"— Lord Provost Harrison addressing a meeting held in connection with the Edinburgh Maternity Hospital in the spring of 1883 is reported as follows :— " There were many places in Ireland, even in the wildest districts, where the fall of a young woman from chastity was practically unknown for generations It was a Bhameful thing they should have this sin so commonly in Bible-loving Scotland when such an immunity from immorality existed in Catholic Ireland." From r.n article entitled "From Montevideo to Paraguay," in Macmillan's Magazine for July 1885, we take the following :— Cleanliness is the rule in Paraguay, and it extends to everything, dwellings, furniture, clothes, and person. Nor are the poorer classes in this respect a whit behind the richer. ... In few words, then, the men and women, botb of them and either classes within its proper limits of occupation throughout Paraguay are as industrious, hard-working, diligent, painstaking, persevering a folk as I know of ; nor are the women more so than the men nor the men than the women. As ta complete demoralisation what the phrase may mean in a country where crime is almost unknown violence unheard of, where the sacredness of a plighted word habitually dispenses with the necessity or even the thought of a written bond, where the conjugal fidelity of the women is such as to be in a manner proverbial, and family ties are as binding ac in China itself, where sedition does not exist, Vendetta has no place, and every one minds bis own business, and that of his family without interfering with his neighbours, or the public order or law, I am at a loss to comprehend.— The Spanish working-man, "says Mr. George Higgin ia the Fortnightly Review for Sept. 18, 1885," " is really a most sober hardworking being, not much given to dancing, and not at all to drinking, they are exceptionally clever and sharp and learn any new trade with great facility. They are, as a rule, exceedingly honest, perfect gentlemen in their manners, anil the lowest labourer has a Sang froid and ease of manner which many a person in a higher rank in this country might envy. When in masses they are the quietest and most tractable workmen it ha 9 ever been my lot to deal with, and I speak from practical experience. The peasant and the working man— the real bone and sinew of the country- are as fine a race as one might wish to meet with."~Mr. John 0. Heywood, a Protestant writes thus concerning his experience in Rome to the New York Sun : — " If we confine our attention to the patrician and richer portions of the Roman population, the class from which • society ' is composed, we shall remark the good breeding, respectful conduct and filial devotion of children, evea after they have become men and women, the ties and attractions of home, the general purity of the young men, the uniformly molest deportment of the young women, the absence of profanity and ribaldry, decent and regular observance of religious duties, reverential respect for sacred things, no pride of place in the churches, the prince and beggar kneeling literally side by tide on the stone floors." CONVERTS. The Whitehall Review, writing of " Rome's Recruits," says •— " It could not well be lore of power or of fame that led Dr. Newman to exchange tbe Oxford that adored him, for the Birmingham that knows him not ; that tempted Cardinal Manning to step aside from the open path that led easily on to Lambeth Palace, and a seat in the Lords; that weighed with a hundred rectors and ricars— such as Oakeley, and Faber, and Bathurst— who left fat livings and certain promotion to labour as obsoure parish priest* amongst the ignorant, and poor ; that brought the noblest of earth's song and daughters— with such titles as Norfolk, Argyle, Leeds, Bucclengh, Hamilton, Bipon, Bute, Londonderry, Lothian, Queensberry, Denbigh, Gainsborough, and Herbert— to bow before the lowliest ministers of the lowly ; or that led poets like Coventry, Patmore and Aubrey de Vere, to adopt a creed that pat them oat of harmony with the temper ot their time. It was not love of ecc'.esiastidsm that made Henry Wilberforoe, Bdward Walford, Lord Charles Thynne, Mr. Oxen ham and a hundred more, le»ve the cure of souls in the Anglican system to Join a Church where, from one cause or another, they could sever rise •bore the level of the laity. It was no want of learning or disinclination to weigh evidence, that led men like the author of "The Apologia," ud Mr. Allies, after year, o* eootroyesvy, to etange one

creed for another. Pecuniary gain could hardly be the ground on which clergymen, with their wives and families, gave up their emoluments to fight against starvation as best they could with strange weapons, which one, at least, to our certain knowledge, wielded so ill that he sought at last shelter in a workhouse ; and love of money cannot be the conduct-gauge of a company that includes Thomas Henry, who became a priest of the old faith, rather than a worldling millionaire ; and George Lane Fox, that eldest son of Yorkshire's greatest gentleman, the squire of Bramham, of whose enthusiastic seal and charity, his co-religionists are proud to speak. It was not any want of hereditary Protestant traditions, careful training, and strong family ties that allowed nearly all of the Wilberforces, the descendants of Sir Walter Scott, the Lockharts, Dr. Arnold's eldest •on, Father Coleridge (brother of tbe Judge), Miss Stanley (daughter of the Bishop and sister of the Dean), William Palmer, (brother of the chancellor), the Bowrings, Miss Gladstone (sister of tbe exPremier), Lady Charles Tnynne, Mrs. Pye, (both of them daughters of bishops), and many more to drift away from the old moorings. Nor did they in most cases, scale St. Peter's bark without infinite suspense, heart-ache, and difficulty. . . . Nor can it be said that this Catholic revival has its origin in a dilettante antiquariauism, or in tho dreams of book-worms, brought up in a university, and unfamiliar with practical life, for some of its most ardent disciples are gathered from the ranks of gay guard pmen, and many a whilom Boldier and sailor son of England has doffed his uniform, to dun the cowl of the monk, and the cassock. Men of recognised learning in truth are there, such as Paley, Professor of Clnssics at Cambridge ; Professor Barff, the chemist ; Seager, Assistant Profes«or of Hebrew at Oxford ; and legal men, eminent as Sergeant Bellasis, or as Edward Badley, Hope Scott, Mr. Aspinall, and Mr. Bagshawe— Queen's Counsel, all four of them ; but everything is not grave and weighty where J. C. Burnand is, and Arthur a Beckett, and Arthur Sketculey — a Protestant curate in the olden time. Nor can silliness, as Exeter Hall supposes, be laid at the door of the ladies who have elected to become daughters of the Holy Roman Church. Adelaide Proctor, tbe poetess ; Elizabeth Thompson, the military painter ; Lady Qeorgina Fullerton ; Lady Gertrude Douglas, author of " Linked Lives," and many more whose names cannot find place on our list, because they are not publicly known, though familiar indeed whereever suffering is to be tended, and misery consoled, are not exactly those to whom silly women would seem to be an applicable term. It is evident, therefore, that on none of these grounda can we flatter onrselves that we have discovered a key to the Rome war I movement — how pleasant soever, that discovery might be to our Protestantism." — CATHOLIC PRACTICES. George Cowell F.R.C.S.— a Protestant, wrote thus in the Contemporary Review for March 1879 :— " lam quite willing to admit that it is an evil for the mind to dwell upon impurity ; but the object of going to confession is to Bpeak of it once and for the last time, in order to cease dwelling upon it, and to get rid of it once and altogether. Con science makes men brood over their ems ; but penitcuce and forgiveness blot them out. It is, of course, painful to the priest to have to listen, as it is often very painful to the physician to hear many things that are jaid to him. But neither can slop to consider what is good for himself ; each has a duty to perform, from which he cannot conscientiously flinch Few people havj any adequate idea of the amount of hidden vice that pervades « lie population of our large towns, i'.ut few would {jive any credence to the ghastly talc that could Le told of the amount of moral de^i.i'lation and ilepiavity, which exists in all classes of si-ncij, and even at all ages. ... It no doubt saves an immensity of trouble and anxiety toignoie the evils aruund us. Butbhouhl we i .nm In (il ihe law of love of wiiicli I have spoken, if, conKciom of the i< scerin^ s- >re in our midst, the wide development o( this nijsteiioua taint, thiscui-c of our natim — we yet put furtn no voice to dissipate the ignorance, Nirjtehed out no haiul to help the weakrn ss, held up m> hope t > promote tin; cuic? It m.iy bn possible to attack open vice in other wavp. but hiildan sin can only be discerned and cured in pi i vat,! confession. . . . The old saying that ' prevention is better than cure ' h quite. as true in regard to sin as it U (o diheawe, and it in tho power ot confession at) a preventative that makes it so incalculably valuabh; in the case of children. It is cf immense importance to nip kin, as it were, in the bud ; for cure is difficult when growth has taken p,atv. The practice of confession, therefore, may be said to possess a saiutury value. Sir Jobn Forbes, whose book I have already quoted, jjiven (' Memorandums made iv lieland,' p. 81) remarkable evidence of this value amongst tbe Irish Roman Catholics, and tested his facts by tho Poor-law returns. The information which I myself gained, a few years since, while travelling in the West of of Ireland, fully corroborates the evidence of fcir John Forbes."— Tbe followiug testimony, although it is that of a Catholic lady, is quoted with such approbation. by Mr. Matthew Arnold that we hold oureelves justified in quoting it :— Tbe late Mile. Eugenio de Guerin was a lady of exquisite genius, lo whose talents and virtues nun of note hnve borne the highest teslirnony. Sainte-Beuve, the eminent critic, called her "thia pure and innocent spirit, thin dove of Cayla " (her native place). And Mr. Matthew Ai cold speaks of her ad "one of the rarest and most beautiful souls," as "this religious and beautiful character," and, a^ain, be sa>p, •' she thus united extraordinary power of intelligence, extiaordinary forco of character, anl extraordinary strength of affection ; all these under the control of a deep religious feeling." And once more we quote fiom Mr. Arnold as follows : "Buthor Catholicism is remarkably free from the taults which Protestants ' commonly think inseparable from Catholicism ; tho relation to the prkst, the practice ot confession, assume, when she speaks of them, an aspect which is not that UDder which Kxeter Hall knows tbem, but which, unless one is of the number of those who prefer regardiug that by which men and nations 'lie, to regarding that by which they live, one is glad to study. 'La confession,' she frays twice in her journal, ' nest qtC tine expansion dv rtpentir dans Vamour; ' and her weekly journey to the confessional in the little church of Cahueac is bet ' cher p&lerinage; ' tbe little church is the place where she has

' laiiti tant de mitiret,' ' This morning,' she writes one 28th of November, « I w»s up before daylight, dressed quickly, and started with Marie for Cahazac. When we got there the chapel was occupied, which I was not sorry for. I like not to be hurried, and to hare time before Igoin to lay bare my soul before God. This often takes me a long time, because my thoughts are apt to ba flying about like these autumn leaves. At ten o'clock, I was 01 my kaees listening to words the most salutary that were ever spoken ; ani I went away feeling myself a better being. Every burden thrown off leaves us with a sense of brightness ; and when the soul has laid down the load of its sins at God's feet, it feels as if it had wings. What an admirable thing is confession 1 What comfort, what light, what strength, is given me every time after I have said, I have tinned.* This blessing of confession is the greater, she says, ' the more th« bf>art of the priest to whom we confide onr repentance is like that divine heart which has so loved us.' "—The testimony of an infldti writer to the salutary nature of the confessional may also be found in the historian Michelet's description of Joan of Arc :—": — " Jehanne was gentle in the roughest struggle, good amongst the bad, pacific in war itself ; she bore into war (that triumph of the devil's) the Bpirit of God. She took up arms when Bhe knew ' the pity for the kingdom, of France.' She could not bear to ace ' French blood flow.' TUis tenderness of heart she showed towards all men. After a victory sh« would weep, and would attend to the wounded English. Purity, Rweetness, heroic goodness (continues the historian) that this supreme beauty of the soul should have centred in a daughter of France may surprise foreigners who ohooso to judge of our nation by the lerity of its manners alone. We may tell them, and without partiality (m we speak of circumstances so long past) that under this levity, and in the midst of its follies and its very vices, old France was not Btyled without reason the most Christian people. They were certainly the people of love and grace ; and whether we understand this humanly or Christianly, in either sense it will ever hold good." But Jeanne was the daughter of love and grace most Christianly. Bhe was the faithful daughter of the Church — the spiritual nurseling of the Sacraments. One of tha things, as the historian narrates, moat strongly insisted upon by her was her frequent visits to the confessional. Haumette, her early companion, relates this particularly of her— and the grace she sought for herself she was most anxious to obtain for others. She would have the soldi «rs with whom she was associated frequent the Sacram«ok of Penance, and the joy of her firwt victory was marredbv the thought that so many men had fallen unconfessed*— The Church's doctrine concerning the worship of the Blessed Virgla has been of incalculable benefit to maukind. " The world," gays Mr. Lecky, •' is governed by its ideals and seldom or never has there been one which has exercised a more profound, and on the whole, a inert salutary influence than the mediaeval conception of the Virgin. Fat the firnt time woman was elevated to her rightful position and tht sanctity of weakness was recognised as well as the sanctity of sorrow. No longer the slave or toy of man, no longer associated only witk the ideas of degradation and of sensuality, woman rose in the person of the Virgin Mother into a new sphere, and became the object of a reverential homage of which antiquity had had no conception,. I ove was idealised. The moral cnarm and beauty of female excellence were fully Mt. A new type of character was called into being ; a new kind of admiration was fostered. Into a harsh and ignorant and benighted ago, this ideal type infused a conception of gentleness and purity unkuowii to the proudest civilisations of the past In tha pavvsof living tendrrnt ss which many a monkish writer has left in hoi. our of In-, celestial pation, in the millions who in many lands, and in rnai.y a'_ r es nave sought with no bairen desire* to mould their ch.iractt is into her nn w, ia those holy maidens who for the love of M iiy, have c epar.u»'d themselves from all the glories and pleasures of the wniM, to v t ., k in fasting* and vigils and humble charity to render tlu-or-elvi^ worthy of her benediction, in the new sen*j of li'iiom. in the eh.YilroiM respect, in the softening of manners, m the refinement of tastes displayed in all the walks of society ; in theso and in many other ways we detect its influence. Al4 that was best in Europe clustered around it, and it is the origin of many of the purcßt elements of our civ.lisation." (••nationalism in Kniope," Vol. 1., p.p. 213-14.)— Mr. Ruskin in nil " Fots Clavitfera " (41st Letter, May 1 , 1871), gives us the following : — ■" After the most careful examination, neither as adversary nor M friend, of the influences of Catholicism for good nnd evil, I am p<»> sunded that the worbhip of the Madouna has been one of its noblest and most vital graces, and has never been otherwise than productive of true holiness of life and purity of character. . . . There baa probably not been an innocent cottage home throughout the length and breadth of Europe during the whole period of vital Christianity iv which the imagined presence of tlie Madonna has not given sanctity to the humblest* dut.es, and comfort to the sorest trials of the lives of women ; and every brightest and loftiest achievement of the arts and strength of manhood has been the fulfilment of tho assured prophecy of the Israelite maiden, 4He that is mighty hath magnified me, and holy is His Name.' "— " I have alway* envied Catholics their faith in that Bweet, sacred Virgin Mother," say* Nathaniel Hawthorne in his Blithedale Romance, •• who stand* betweeu them and the Deity, intercepting somewhat of His awful splendour, but permitting His love to stream upon tbe worshipper more intelligibly to human comprehension through the medium of a woman's tenderness." OAXDMNIKS BEFUTBD. Against the charge that the confessional corrupts the female* mind, S r John Forbes, M.D,,F.K.5.,D.C.L., a Protestant physician of eminence, wrote as follows :—" So far from such being the case, it it the general belief in Ireland— a belief expressed to me by many trust-worthy men in all parts of the country, and by Protestants as well as Catholics— that the singular purity of female life among tb» lower classes there, ii in a considerable degree d«pendenton this very circumstance. No general statement?, however stioag, unless sapported by evidence of the most positive kind, can be admitted again** tbe testimony of facts like these ; and if the confessional is to be

condemned— and lam far from saying that it is not— its condemnation mu«t rest on something else than its influence in leading to vioe ana" immorality among the Catholics of Inland." (" Memorandums made in Ireland in the Autumn of 1852," Vol. IL, p. 83.)— The Bey. Po*« Potter of the Sbcth Btreet Baptist Ohuioh, New York, reading, in 1878, an account of a tour made by him in Europe, at a meetinj? of ministers, contradicts the notion that the Catholic Church is moribund and antiquated. » It has been anerted for many years that the Roman Church is losing its power over the masses of Europe, but this jsnot so. Bomanism is not dead : I candidly believe that it has jut begun to live. Its power, vigor, and life are manifested in many things. 1 hey are seen in its vast cathedrals and in the hastening of long-delayed works. . . Throughout Europe I expected to see nothing but decay, but I was greatly disappointed. The power and vitality of the Romish Church are further shown in the great confix n n .V W S Ch ther *?■** P 1 * 568 <* w °wniP. in the exhibition of a true Catholic spirit, and in the wonderful adaptation of the Church to the necessities of tbe times and to modern methods of work."— 22S If' I**l Bert j? J1879J 1879 stacked the religious orders and especially the Jesuits, M. de Maxade the well-known political writer of _the .Ami* det Deux Mondet, referred to bis attack as follows :— He tnougbt, perhaps, that he was showing up things that were not known, and proving himself very exact ; he was only drawing on archives, where, , for three centuries, they have been in the habit of going periodically to fish up old accusations, old stories, old texts, a fcHXS kIT* i*2 d S ° Yer ft fche miUi Br uit 7 ot tbe public, and a hundred time, set right or explained. M. Paul Bert did not perceive tbat in wishing to prove too much he proved nothing, and that in going beyond all measure, in becoming intoxicated with his own demonstrations, however he might please credulous imaginations or prejudiced minds, he was no longer speaking seriously.Wny, if all M. Bert said were true, we must conclude neither more nor less than that, for several centuries, and at the present day as well, whole generations have been formed in congregational schools to the art of quieting their consciences concerning all sorta of misdeeds provided tor by the criminal code . The congregations whose most active contingent; are the Jesuits, would pass their time in teaching their pupiU now to console themselves for tbe death of a father by receiving his heritage; how to play with murder, with theft, with the honour of families, with all descriptions of offences and crimes : without speaking of moral fraud. Under tbe veil of pious books obscenity would reign in the education given by religious houses I Young girls no more than youths would be out of the reach of corruption of mind and heart I But, indeed, if it were so, clause 7 would be altogether an insufficient palliative ; or, rather it would Dot be even necessary. Are there no laws and no regular system of justice to repress this preaching of crime and of license disguised üßder tbe name of teaching 1 If half of M. Paul Bert's assertions had any foundation, it is not the Minister of Public Instruction who ought to be followed as far as clause 7.. It is M. Madierde Montjau who would r!r, ng *.t* thousandfold . . . . This intrepid logician, for his part, takes no half measures with clericalism, which he proposes to "i^w^ 001 , aDd brMU £- Wby d 0 tlM * not K° to the length proposed by him ? . Because they knew very well that M. Paul Bert has given the rein to his imagination, that he has sustained a party to. sis, perhaps still more one of a sect, and that tbe iclitious houses, such as they are with their short-comings and their unfitnesses are not school* of immorality opone.l in tbe midst of French society -of the society of Kurope." The Saturday JUview, alluding to the same subject spoke thus. " Were M. Beits estimate of the Teaching of the Catholic clergy correct, every decent Frenchman would lone ago have withdrawn his daughters from their control. He would not have needed to inquire what tbe teaching itself was like ; its character would have been sufficiently displayed in the effect produced on the scbolais. According to M. Bert, the Jesuits are chiefly employed in teaching young men and women how far tney may go in breaking the Ten Commandments wiihout being guilty of mortal sia -It if BS bb | tßo rrt MofjOon S 1 ' 18 Bhould be consistently tramed to deal with thu Bevsnth Commandment in this spirit without their conduct being very plainly influenced by the process. How does it happen, then, that the virtue of Catholic Frenchwomen in at least tqual to that of the women who have thrown off all ecclesiastical rctiaints, and that men who have themselves quairelled with the Umrcb constan-lv send their daughters to be educated iv convent school*? Neither of these facts can be denied. Even their Radical neighbours will bear witness to the simple lives led by tbe wiv.a and daughters of the reactionary deputies who have been resisting tbe adoption of the 7th clause. It is not they who nave made Paris the aceue of so many scandal*. When the nominal Catholics who composed the Court of Napoleon 111 were running riot in every form of vicious extravagance j, the ladies of the Faubourg St. Germain were attending 1 n h , l i d^ a . an V? klng * fter th * P*° r - AQd n ° w . when tbi nominal Catho hcism of the Second Empire has given way to tke undisguu*! »>cularum of the Third Republic, the reaction is not the less fortunate in the oontrast."_We fiud tbe following contradiction StTdh TsVgTa" o^ 6 Middle H A ges given by the Quarterly Rev L for April 1879, page 6U :-" And us a matter of faci it is not to tbe period glorified by M. Micoelei's brilliant rhetoric tbat we must To «VSfJ^ rmß ?r? r I* 8 " 811 * intellectual greatness, for the inventions v™ "? h u e 8t tho root of our material civilization, for the establishment of the political institution* now existing which have moceeded in reconciling individual freedom with stability of Government. If we will use the term ' Ben lissance •in a sense at all approaching tbat of M. Michelet, we must put back the date of tbe f ß^! BOrne ceaturieß before the time of Columbus ; if not indeed, to the days of Charlemagne aud his cloister-schools at all events to the age of vast intellectual activity, when Dante's mystic song opens the volume of modern poetry ; when the revived study of Boman jurisprudence spread* from the law-schools of Boloiua throughout Christendom ; when St. I'liomaa Aquinasand his followers among ibo scholastic* survey the whole field ot imouu thought with a comprebeusive mastery, and map it out with a sabtlet/and precision unknown to tbe ancients, aid too little appreciated, because too little known among ourselves ; when fioger Bacon in his cell at

Oxford, start* the physical sciences upon the great career which they have pursued to our own times, and anticipates their principal achievements ; when Nicola di Pisano lays the foundations of the art-schools that were to cover the face of Europe with those vast edifices which (in the words of Milman) can hardly be contemplated without awe or entered without devotion, and to fill its churches and palaces with pictures which we admire, and wonder at, and copy but cannot rival."— ln 1880, Signor Petrucelli della Oattioa wrote to the Turin Qatette in defence of the Jesuits. He says that the accusations brought against them are totally groundless and he asserts that ha has good ground for his statement as be bad gone to their seminary after he bad been expelled from that of PomuoU because of his irreligion, and when his mind had already been filled with suspicion against the clericals. " Well, then," he says, " I can assure on mr honour that never did I hear from my masters a syllable savouring of immorality or seditious notions " The writer describes himself as a Darwinian— and the son of a Voltairian.— M. de Benan wriiiog in the Revue det Dewe Monde* of March 1, 1882, declares that nothing could replace " those great schools of seriousness and reverence, such as Saint Bulpice,and the devoted ministrations of the daughters of charity. The Saturday Review in reviewing the diary of a Florentine named Lucca Landucci published in 1553 speaks as follows :— " It is the fashion to represent Italian society in the sixteenth century as hopelessly corrupt. Morality and religion, we are constantly told, had alike ceased to operate as motives with men. This is not the impression which Landucci's diary leaves on the reader's mind, and we have no reason for thinking that he was an entirely exceptional chanacter The politics of Italy had been so artificial that they were estranged from tho movality of ordinary life ; but morality existed not the less. There was a sound remnant of honest citizens, who gathered all that was good in the quickened activity of Italy, yet knew themselves and the limits of their powers. The vices of the Italian Renaissance have passed into common-place ; its virtues are habitually overlooked. It produced a type of character of which Lucca Landucci may be taken as a specimen, which has a charm peculiarly its own. Beneath the splendid princes, beneath the humanists and courtly poets, was a body of simple straightforward folk, who were at the same time eminently civilised and cultivated.— A correspondent of the Times, who made a tour in the South of Ireland in the summer of '85, gives hit readers sjme details that should prove wholesome to those of them who, as the custom is, believe, or find it convenient to assert, that Irishmen are a thriftless race — desiring only to lead a life of idleness, and incapable of settling down to the pursuit of any useful industry.' The particular Bkelch to which we allude is that of the Cape Chpr fisheries inaugurated some five or six years ago by the parish priest of the district, Father Davis, who, inspired by the example set by some gentlemen who bad formed an association to aid the fishermen of Kiatale in reviving their native industry, determined on making a like attempt among his own parishioners. Having stined up his people ana induced certain of them to make the experiment he desired, and which proved successful, the priest bethought him of appealing for aid to that excellent woman, the Lady Burdett Couttg. His appeal met with an immediate response, and the lad} 'a purse was placed at his disposal, her only question being as to how the money might be most judiciously advanced. Father Davis recommended a loan rather than a gift, and a sum of £4090, afterwards increased to £6000, was provided. Father Davis described the fisheries as a '"peasant proprietorship on the ocean," and the correspondent adds : '• I was prepared to condole with him on the difficulty of exacting the stipulated instalments of the price. When farmers and crofters have everywhere been ' holding the rent,' it seemed impossible that as fishermen they would pay np pleasantly. He assured me that he had no trouble in the matter, and, indeed, the harvest of the sea has yielded bo richly that paupers have suddenly been transformed into capitalists." Another imputation, again besides, that of idleness and dishonesty, has been dispelled by the conduct of these fishermen, namely that of cowardice. " I have said," adds the correspondent, " that the Irish fishermen had formerly the well-deserved reputation of being listless ; and they were taunted with timidity besides. No one reproaches them with that now-a-days , in the Skibbereen district. On the contrary, the men of Cape Clear— the Caperu as they are familiarly called — have thecieditof being the most daring fisberd along thu coast; and one of the Manxmen was heard to say, after a half gale, the other day, ' Why should I have gone to sea 7 Even the Capers did not venture out. 1 And all is primarily owiug to the intelligent benevolence of Lady Bur. dett CouUs, but far more to the indefatigable co-operation of Father Davis. Mr. Davis told me everything about tbe fisheries, and I only hope my memory has berved me fairly. The one subject on which be was perversely silent was his personal share in tbe work. Vet those works speak eloquently fur him ; and it is almost impossible to exaggerate his services to his country. It is not only that he has revived, or rather created this industry iv Skibbereeu ; that he has taught his parishioners iudepeudence and self* reliance, putting many of them in a way to fortune, and offering comfort to many more. It in not only that be proposes to push bis spirited enterprise from Baltimore to Schull, and from Scbull to the Mizzenbead. But ho has shown of what uneducated Irishmen are capable when they are encouraged by a man they can trust, and directed by an intelligent brain."

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