The Press. — London, England, 1854-08-19 00:00:00

784 IC ittraturt. Evenings with the Romanists. By the Rev. M. Hobart Seymour, M.A. Loudon : See- leys. Tuts volume contains the substance of several oral controversies with Romanists on the lead ing points of difference between Protestants and Papists. Its author appears to have officiated as a clergyman in Ireland, but he does not tell the name of the parish where he laboured, or where the reported conversations took place. He dedicates the work to Lord Palmerston in a flattering letter dated from Bath ; and we could have wished that the author had been more particular, by giving the locality and dates of his missionary exer tions. It is written with considerable clever ness. A popular manner is preserved through out, and difficult questions elucidated with much perspicuity. One of its greatest merits is that the author does not understate the case of his Papal antagonist, but candidly puts the argument for him in full force. The most important point of the volume, however, is the preliminary chapter, discuss ing the " Moral Results of Romanism," which contains some very remarkable statistics. Mr. Seymour appeals to undisputable evidences to show that the crimes and vices of Romanist countries far exceed those of lands where Protestantism prevails. He thus explains his motive for entering on the investiga tion:— That the amount of crime in this country is too high, and the spread of immorality too extensive, is the lament of every good man. It has been suggested that new means should be tried to keep down the surging of crime and restrain the deluge of immorality, and—in the subtle spirit of a certain party among us—it is argued, that convents, and nunneries, and confessionals, so long banished from among us, should again be introduced, at least in some modified form, on the principle that, as the restraints and motives which our Protestant Christianity imposes upon crime and immorality have confessedly failed, there ought now to be trial made of the restraints and motives which are supplied by the institutions of the Church of Rome. He then proceeds to inquire whether con vents, nunneries, and confessionals have suc ceeded in keeping down crime and vice as well as Protestantism ? He shows, by refe rence to the parliamentary reports, that for ten years in England and Wales the total of committals for murders was 718, giving an average of 72 committals and 18 convictions for each year. He assumes that in England and in the continental countries the commit tals, and not the convictions, are to be taken as the amount to be considered in the statis tics of crime—an assumption which, though often adopted, is of very doubtful propriety. Taking the population of England and Wales at 17,927,609, he averages the murders to be at the rate of four to each million. He then takes the cases respectively of Roman Catholic countries abroad, and has recourse to the most authentic official statistics that can be procured. The result as to the crime of mur der stands thus : Roman Catholic Ireland - Belglum Bel • • - France - Austria - Bavaria • • - Sardinia • • - Lombardy • • Tuscany • • The Papal States .. Roman Catholic Naples Protestant England .. This table is a very remarkable one, though open to some critical strictures. Some of the countries tabulated above have been recently in civil war, and the integrity of their police cannot be trusted. Internecine feuds and the malignity of ascendant faction may • have contributed to swell the foregoing statement to its tragical character. Upon the fact, however, that there is a vast and plainly appreciable difference between the morality of Protestant and Roman Catholic communities we entertain no doubt. Our own ocular ob servation, as well as other evidence, have long satisfied us upon that question. It is attempted by the Papal apologists to contend that the crimes and vices of Romanist countries are to be attributed to their bad Governments and defective institutions ; but, 19 to the million. 18 - THE PRESS. as Mr. Seymour very conclusively argues, how comes it that where Romanism prevails the civil institutions should be so defective ? In the foregoing table the returns from Belgium are perhaps the most striking. There the Roman Catholic religion flourishes in full splendour and under the most favourable as pects. The population is well fed, and the " dangerous classes " are comparatively small in proportion to those interested in property ; yet the average return of murder is nearly as great as in Ireland, with its pauper peasantry and its long-standing agrarian ferocities. The character of Italy has long been notorious for its murders, despite of its numerous convents. But the result of Mr. Seymour's investigations with respect to the sensual vices of Protestant and Romanist countries is still more remark able. After appealing to the Registrar-General's return to show that the numbers of illegitimate children for London are about four per cent., he adduces evidence to show that at Paris illegitimacy is about thirty-three per cent. on the population ; and, after dwelling on Paris, he proceeds to examine the state of Austria : I take the figures for England from " The Report of the Registrar-General for the year 1847," as it contains all the details as to the illegitimate births more fully than the ordinary abstract ; and I take the figures for Austria from the governmental returns in "Die Statistik des Osterreichen Kaiserstaates," as published by the Ministerial Secretary of 1852. I omit fractions. Protestant England. Roman Catholic Austria. Bristol & Clifton, about 4 per ct. Troppau about 26 per ct. B ra df or d 8 Zara Bi rm i ng ham —6 Inn sp ruok —22 B r i g ht on 7 Laiba ch 38 Ch e lt en ham —7 Bruu n —42 E xe t er Lintz —4G Li ver pool 6 Prag ue 47 M anc h es ter& Self.— 7 Lemb er g 47 Pl ymou th —5 Klage nfort —56 Portsea 5 Gratz 65 es 419 The grossness and sensuality of life at Vienna have long been notorious. There is probably no part of the world where phy sical gratifications are more indulged in than in portions of the Austrian dominions. The contrast upon illegitimate births that Mr. Seymour makes between Catholic Austria and Protestant Prussia is also very striking : In Roman Catholic Austria. In Protestant Prussia. Vienna • . 5 1 per cent B erlin .. 18 per cent. P ra gue .. 47 Breslau .. 26 Lintz .. 46 Cologne • . 10 Mil a n .. 32 Kc oni g sbur g .. 28 Klagenfort .. 56 Dantztc ..20 Gratz ..65 Magdeburg .. 11 L e mbach .. 47 A ix la Chapelle 4 L a ibach • . 38 Stettin .. 13 Z ar a .. 30 P osen .. 16 B r un .. 42 P otsdam .. 12 -- - Such results cannot but be satisfactory to those who desire to see the cause of Protestant ism maintained. There are periods in the lives of nations when the moral ascendancy of particular classes exist independently of any positive enactments in their favour ; and the moral superiority of Protestantism is written in legible characters in the condition of the countries where it prevails. Nor should we be surprised at such a result. A scriptural faith exercises the whole intellectual faculties of a mind. In the Bible and the history of the Apostles there are numerous passages which at once touch the heart of childhood, fascinate the imagination of ardent and impas• sioned natures, and exercise the profoundest faculties of the sage. In Popery the round of pantomimic ceremonies and the personal au thority of the priest supersede the ennobling influences which invigorate free natures under the emancipating influence of Protestantism. Social conditions in Protestant countries, as everywhere else, may be exposed to the severe operation of the ordinance by which man must live by the sweat of his brow. There may be more cheap luxury and popular enjoyment in some of the Romanist countries, and, at a passing glance, a superficial traveller might conclude that life was happier than in lands where a severer morality prevails ; but man, as a being, is higher in the moral and thinking communities, which not only exhibit a purer mode of life but preserve it longer than where the lax morals and effeminate customs of Popery prevail. There is one fact attested by the history of Europe which is as remarkable as the statistics collected by Mr. Seymour, viz., that no Protestant country so advanced in civilisation as Spain was at the period of SATURDAY, the Reformation has ever exhibited such a contemptible decline. " The Moral Results of Romanism" prefixed to Mr. Seymour's volume is published sepa rately, and is well worthy of attention as a statistical testimony against Popery. The Works of Samuel Warren, D.C.L., F.R.S. Vole. 11. and 111. " Ten Thousand a Year." London: Blackwoods. AIdONGEIT the numberless anomalies in the position of literary men in this country, per haps the most remarkable was that which, up to the rise of Mr. Warren's popularity as a writer, compelled an advocate to choose be tween his predilection for literature and his practice at the bar. The old school of atter nies—the men of one idea—were as much wedded to precedent in the employment of counsel as in the drafting of a mortgage-deed. Eldon, they said, never wrote a work of imagi nation; Blackstone had the good sense to bid " farewell to his muse ; " and Lynd hurst had never blundered into poetry except, according to a newspaper paragraph, when he gave a young lady an orange at the dancing. school. For these reasons they con cluded that a profession which in its just exercise requires the most accurate knowledge of the workings of the human mind could not be safely pursued by one who in a novel dis played that, intus et in cute, he knew mankind, or was acquainted with much of that inex haustible science called knowledge of the world. Eloquence, they argued, was some thing which " the leader" must exhibit ac cording to the number of " guss " marked upon his brief. It never once seemed to them that true eloquence must be a combination of imagination with the power of stating and com bining facts and incidents, the use of imagery, the display of passion, the flashing of wit, and the wielding of humour. These qualities were assumed not to exist where they in fact might most reasonably have been expected to be found—in the writer of a novel or a poem. This style of judgment, however, is rapidly passing away. Mr. Warren, unlike several other literary lawyers, was known by his writings in the current literature of the day before he became known in his profession, and might, with more p ro priety than Talfourd, have a do p ted the line of Pope — "I left no calling far this idle trade." The secret of the success of his early con tributions to Blackwoods Magazine was probably the air of life-like truth which appeared in the detached tales of the " Diary of a Late Physician." Many fancied they could recognise characters or recal the memory of some family incident as they read Mr. Warren's descriptions or were interested in his plots. But the " Diary of a Late Physician," like most collections of short stories, did not afford an adequate notion of the author's power. The book be fore us, " Ten Thousa nd a Year," is the work of Mr. Warren by wh ich, if he produce no greater, he must take rank as an author. " Ten Thousand a Year" is full of observation of human life and powerful painting of passion, whether ambition, avarice, or revenge. The work is a picture of almost every class of English society, extravagantly coloured and exaggerated no doubt, but still preserving a sufficient• similarity not to shock by un truthfulness, or to lead us to fancy that what we read must be impossible. There is always a certain interest about the burlesque in fiction. When it is done with ability it ex aggerates peculiarities or incidents so skilfully that one can identify the private individual and the public character, or recognise the characteristics of an age and class, or the popular " folly as it fl ies. " If this grain of truth be not preserved the satirical novel b ec omes an extravaganza , with t he further dis advantage that the reader opens it with warning that the entertain ment is to amuse only from its absurdity. In " Ten Thousand a Year " Mr. Warren has succeeded to a great extent in observing the conditions we have mentioned. That such a man as Gammon may have existed—nay, that such a character is perfectly natural, no one can doubt; yet the \