The Press. — London, England, 1858-11-20 00:00:00

,4 r 01,16$ • ~a~' No. 290.—V0L. VI. LONDON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1858. ....SIXPENCE. UNSTAMPED.STAMPED.FIVEPENCE. pupils till they have lost all individuality of thought and all independence of action. M. DE M ONT ALEMBERT sighs Over the chasm which three hundred years ago was created between Rome and England, and he looks anxiously around for a coming MARCUS CURTIUS to jump into and close that yawning gulf which has swal lowed so many valuable lives and so many noble martyrs. He will look in vain. Never can we go to them, and never, without a miracle, will they come to us. Of the talents of Count DE MAISTRE, who, M. DE MONTALEMBERT appears to think, might have been that MARCUS CURTITS, we are well aware ; but when M. DE MONTALEM BERT lauds that able and astute statesman as the friend of social progress and of science, we are com pelled again to go back to the dry realms of histo rical facts, and in the letters of that very Count DE MAISTRE to Count RAZOVEMOFFSKY, we find that " Science renders a man idle, unfit for busi ness or any great enterprize, disputatious, ob " stinately attached to his own opinions, and " disdainful of others ; a critical observer of " government, and essentially an innovator ; " a scorner of authority and of national predi " lections." M. DE MONTALEMBERT surely is not so well up as he might be in the works of his illustrious prototype. That M. DR MONTALEMBERT should stretch out his arms towards England in hopes that She may fan the vitality and forward, at least indi rectly, the interests of the Papacy, does not sur prise us. The Jesuit Order have tried to their ut most and in every form the various organizations of Absolutism, and have found them wanting. Spain and Portugal, decayed and impotent, have almost sunk below the political horizon. Austria, lum bering and unwieldy, by her retrogressive Con cordat has only succeeded in giving fresh power and prominence to schismatic Sardinia. Russia has effectually secularized Popery, and Imperial France appears remarkably disposed to follow her example. What wonder, then, that the eloquent Propagandist of Roman policy should strive to get under the mantle of the great Protestant Power whose fleets, whose soldiers, whose mis sionaries, and, above all, whose language he sees spread over the face of the whole earth ? Taking into consideration, then, the antecedents of the illustrious author of the " D6bat sur Inde," we own we look somewhat shyly at the sieveful of eulogy which he holds out to us, we must be allowed to suspect his offered gifts, and we object to his Wooden Hone being brought within the walls of our Troy. tit V rtss. LOSDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1958. POINTS OF VIEW AND THEIR USES. N. DE MONTALEMBERT has been fortunate. Since the days when BALAK took the Prophet to so many places in the mountain that he might pro phesy pleasant things to him, and said, Come, curse me Israel from hence," there has not been a more acute appreciator of the value of a point of view than the author of the " D6bat sur Happier, too, in his attempts than BALAK, he has succeeded in getting half the English journals, not only to look at the history of the past and the prospects of the future from his point of view, but to see and discourse of them for the promotion of his cause. They have suffered him to place them so that only a part of Israel has come within their vision, and to listening Europe they have sounded a note harmoniously responsive to the touch of the inge nious and eloquent exponent of the world-wide advantages of Papal Unity. M. DE MONTALEMBERT has " stroked the raven down of Darkness till it smiled." The Englishman, pure and simple, sees in the eminent Frenchman only the enthu siastic panegyrist of his country and its Institutions ; while the Times and the Saturday Review, each the representative of a peculiar class of politicians and thinkers, talk of M. DE MONTA LEMBERT in a tone of exultation, sadness, and anger singularly combined as the Champion sent by PROVIDENCE to struggle for the emancipation of intellect. It is scarcely possible to conceive or to have put forward an aspect of the circumstances more calculated to touch the feelings and engage the support of Englishmen. We shall show poorly, no doubt, by the side of these enthusiasts, and for the present, at all events, we run the risk probably of being declared guilty of cynicism and incredulity, while our interpretation of this famous pamphlet and its real objects will be pro nounced ingenious but far-fetched and fantastic. We are convinced we are right, and every ad ditional examination of the works of M. DE MON TALEMBERT, and of the authors upon whom he relies and to whom he refers, strengthens that conviction. We do not underrate the powers of intellect of M. DE MONTALEMBERT, nor of XAVIER, nor of DE MAISTRE. We recognize in them men of the highest clam of talent, and of the most unshakeable tenacity of purpose. We see, but not quite as others see, that M. DE MONTALEMBERT, sometime editor of the 1 Avenir, the oppo nent _ of the educa tional measures of M. DE VILLEMAIN in 1842, the author of the " Catholic Manifesto " in 1843, and the inaugurator of the funeral service at LATEST EDITION. Notre Dame to O'CONNELL, is making now, as he has made before, powerful efforts to obtain elbow room. lie does not like, neither did ROBES PIERRE, to be " coudoyit." Our contemporaries, and with them many other readers of the " D6bat sur l'lnde," are persuaded that the author is seeking emancipation of the intellect of the entire world, in order that opinion may be free. We believe that he is struggling for liberty for himself and his Order, with a view, not to the emancipation, but to the conquest of the rest of the race ; and therefore it is that we cannot accept as implicitly as many of our countrymen appear to have done the eulogies which this illus trious foreigner has lavished upon everything English, from statesmen down to racehorses and stable-boys. Why do we distrust these pleasant things, and regard them as paraded under dis guise? Because they are familiar to us in other shapes, and because we remember their application to countries and to institutions entirely opposite to our own in spirit and in action. Language less fervent, less eloquent, but precisely analo gous in every other respect, was addressed in 1811 by the Father-General of the Jesuits—and it must be borne in mind in judging of these things that Rome is now absolutely under their govern ment—to Russia. Her Institutions, her Emperor, and her People were eulogized as ours are now. The Father-General asserted then the doctrine that absolute devotion to the Sovereign was the great principle to be inculcated in the education of youth, just as M. DE MONTALEMBERT goes now for the unlimited freedom of intellect and the refreshment of the " bath of liberty." We have not space to quote the original documents, but our readers will find them in the pamphlet of LEUTEROTII to which we alluded in our last impression. The Emperor of RusslA, an able and resolute man, was not to be hoodwinked by this ingenious flexibility. Ile perceived its true character, and by his famous Ecclesiastical Constitution of 1817 retained for Poland, where the main strength of the Papacy existed, no less than for Russia Proper, an independent National Church, of which Him self was the Bead. lie saved by his decison and perspicacity his Empire from political sub jection and spiritual absolutism. No doubt the Papacy, as represented by the Jesuits at Rome now, is the friend of education in one sense. It desires to be its exclusive possessor and admi nistrator. Its object has ever been to get hold of youth, and to keep youth in its schools, its colleges, and its monastic institutions, till its mind is moulded to the Papal model, and made a fitting instrument for the advancement of Papal policy. It would fill a book to give half the instances which we have under our hand, but those of our readers who may wish to examine into the subject for themselves will find the materials for conviction in the second volume of KRASLNSKI, in the remarkable work of GRniFIELD, and in an address delivered in later days by Father IGNA TIUS, once known as the Hon. and Rev. GEORGE SPENCER, to the Roman Catholics of London derry. But why need we dwell upon events which have become matters of history, when we have under our eyes the forcible abduction of the poor little boy MouvanA, and the scarcely less vio lent seizure of the children of the °WALLETS, of which an account will be found in another portion of our paper of to-day ? These, if we had no other knowledge of their policy, are sufficient surely to exhibit the view which the Papal Church enter tains of education and its progress. In their hands alone and within their walls must be the POSITION AND IMPOSITION. IT is the inherent blemish of Radicalism that it is one-eyed. It only sees half truths, and takes portions for wholes. It has its origin in ignorance of first principles ; and, in its develop ment, ;t suffers from an incapability of seeing anything distant whether in the past or the present. The facts of history and the lessons of experience are in grew misty vision produces • which, in turn, brint collision with others, which multiplies the become dominant in reason and philosoph We have seen thi the proceedings of M Teat part lost u n it. A !.s incon4et n 'on, ngs th ••• • • whe 4 inischi a O rr , : loPrij• -".!• matt • 74 iical in. . 434-fr ' • , • its stri AS • 11r. BR T etc ft I .107 jaw