The Press. — London, England, 1857-09-05 00:00:00

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 5, 1857. —one Polish—one Hungarian—one Flemish—and one Swedish. In Milan alone there have been 17,004) copies sold, and in England somewhere about 20,000. Of all versions of this beautiful book, 100,001 copies must have been sold up to this moment. We could have wished that the following passage had not appeared : In the January of the ensuing year an earthquake laid desolate a great part of the province ; and thus a new field was opened up to the charity of the good Archbishop. Everywhere he hastened to the relief of those who were the most distressed, especially visiting and comforting those districts whose inhabitants had no shelter left save what was afforded them by rudely constructed huts. The faithful pastor suffered in his dock, and made their mis fortunes his own. We huve, in our own times, seen heavier calamities full upon a portion of a proud empire, whose statesmen and whose press treat with contempt the rule of ecclesiastics ; but, notwithstanding the pride and power of that empire, we beheld its innocent and un• offending subjects dying like mangy dogs upon the public highways, while efforts, clumsy and unsyrnpathising, were being tardily made for their relief. It had been well for Ireland if, in the days of her tribulation, a Mastai had presided over the councils of her rulers—or if there had been less of the spirit of Political Economy, and more of the spirit of the Gospel. Such is not the language which an educated and independent Irishman should have em ployed to England. How did the Irish mem bers act when Lord George Bentinek, sup ported by a large party of Conservatives, endeavoured to obtain employment for the Irish masses by a great railway scheme ? The Irish M.P.'s returned by the priests pledged themselves at Palace-yard to support the motion of Lord G. Bentinek, and yet " the whip" made them vote with Ministers in three days afterwards. In order to relieve the Irish famine, the whole policy of the Government was altered ; Protectionists admitted that the ports should be opened, although by doing so their own interests, personal and political, were seriously compromised. The whole policy of Government, and the tactics of the chiefs of various parties, were altered to meet the Irish famine. Immense stuns were subscribed by private munificence in England, and all this was done after England had previously been vituperated and reviled by the demagogues and priests of Ireland, and after• its people had been held up as " Saxons," and everything done to alienate them. At the time when there was the cry of the "famine in the land," the O'Connell tribute was under process of collection, and--but these are unpleasant recollections, and we leave them with the remark that never did any country suffer more from priestly misgovernment than Ireland. This volume can be accepted only as a bold Papal pamphlet. There is no necessary con nection between the present Pope and the various hospitals and colleges founded by his predecessors ; and the " Institutions " of Rome are in nowisa superior to those existing in other Romanist cities, like Vienna, or Brussels, or Lyons. The ease attempted to be made by Mr. Maguire breaks down. He should have proved, which he does not, that the " Institutions " of R')me are better than can be found elsewhere. Entering Rome, " for the first time," on the 31st of October, 1856, the author composed his work and collected his materials in too brief a time. None but a practised writer, with con siderable readiness and energy, could amidst the turmoil of politics have produced so much matter ; and whatever may be thought of it in other respects, the work is a strong proof of the stial of the author for his Church, and the practical energy of his mind. The exaggera tion of its panegyric will be the best antidote to its fallacies. Chow-Chow. Being a Selection from a Journal kept in India, Egypt, and Syria. lly tlio Viscountess Falkland. London : Hurst and Blackett. " ' LADY SAHIB, want fine cheese ? Here " " Uncle Tom's Cabin." I got good pickle. " There box of French gloves. Take soap, " Lady Sahib ?' Then he tempts the lady's " maid with a gay ribbon, and by degrees the " contents of the chow-chow basket are dis " played. Side by side stand a bottle of " anchovy sauce and one of tincture of " rhubarb; there lies a Wiltshire cheese, sur " rounded by goa lace. English tapes, and " French ribbons. There are bottles of bac, less seriously, by the fall and the consequent crush ; but I the Pope was untouched—hie escape, under the circa m• stances, appearing to be something miraculous. Not the dast miracle was the wonderful presence of mind which he displayed at such a feoofut moment. How adroitly the panegyrist glosses over the dissimulation of Pio Nono, " God's Vicegerent," when he was in sore straits, the result of his own want of ordinary foresight ! Then let the " miracle" (!) be observed in the conclu ding part of the passage. A gentleman of Mr. Maguire's talents and attainments falls, un consciously perhaps, into the cant of the more credulous of his Church, but in that passage we oee the germs of all the flying Capuchins and winking Madonnas of which we have read. Many sovereigns have been fired at, and, like Queen Victoria, or Napoleon 111., or Louis Philippe, they have shown the coolest courage. We were not far from the last-named sovereign on the day when the infernal ma chine of Fuischi exploded, and when Marshal Mortier, Duke of Treviso, was killed by his aide. We well remember the " pluck" of the King. But on that, or other occasions, pane gyrists did not talk about " miracles." Parts of this volume actually nauseate by their gross adulation shall not dwell upon his courage in braving the perils of the Cholera Hospital ; for there is not to be found a Roman Catholic priest who, however naturally timid or apprehensive he may be, is no: at any moment ready to incur the danger of visiting and administering to the sick, no matter by what malignant disease they might be stricken down, and whether in the wards of an hospital, or in the fetid atmosphere of a garret or a cellar. It is almost offensive to hear the " Catholic priest" so extravagantly praised. Medical men of all creeds and classes brave these dan gers just as well. When did medical men ever shrink from their duty, even while epi demics are raging? The Romanists think that their Chur ch has a monopoly of the vir tues. Here is more of the panegyrist:— Gentle, merciful, compassionate, and paternal, Pins IX. is; but there is no sacrifice which he would not be pre. pared to make, no danger which he would not cheerfully encounter, in the vindication of the truth, or in the ills. charge of what he felt to be his duty. "I am prepared to go to-morrow to the Catacombs, as many of my pre decessors have done, if the interests of the Church of God require it," were words which be uttered in my presence ; and with such simple dignity, such all uncon scious nobleness of gesture, such a quick flushing of the face and lightning up of the eye—that there rose up before my mind those fearless martyrs of the early Church, who, though holy and gentle and mild as Pius, could yet meet the sword of the slayer without the betrayal of a single emotion of human weakness. - - - - And page after page is filled with this be smearing and bedaubing adulation. Each chapter ends and begins with suffocating eu logies. Thus the thirty-first chapter ends : I feel I have by no means done justice to the subject ; but I venture to think I have stated sufficient to show that Pius IX. has, iu his respect for the mouldering but still beauteous remains of ancient art, and IT those monu ments which help to illustrate one of the most interesting and important pages in the annals of the human race, displayed the enlightened liberality of a princely disposi tion, and the refinement of a scholar and a man of taste. And the thirty-second commences : It, would be an unpardonable omission not to allude to the eminent service which Pius IX. has rendered to the Church, through the successful labours of the Commis• sion of Sacred Archteology ; by which a flood of light has been flung into the inmost recesses of the Catacombs, to the confusion of the scoffer, and the more profound con• viction of the conscientious Mr Maguire lays it on strongly, but he over- I does it. His fanaticism for eulogy is too great. Cardinal Wiseman is plastered in the following fashion : I to that admirable work from the eloquent Pen of Cardinal Wiseman—" Fabiola,"—a work winch, to the most admirable portraiture of the faithful of the early Christian Church—the holiness and heroism of its martyrs and confessors—the purity of their lives, and their fortitude in facing death—has superadded to it the interest of a romance, and the fascination of a poem. With the impressions of this charming volume fresh in his memory, the visitor to the Catacombs needs no guide• book, no chattering cicerone,—his imagination fills the void, and lights up the darkness. The following statement shows the extent of "organisation" at the command of Car= dinal Wiseman : Perhaps no work in modern literature has had such a worldwide circulation as Cardinal Wiseman 's " Fabiola." It has been reproduced in almost every European language, and has been published iu various parts of America. There are no less than five different Italian translations of it—two French—two German—three Spanish—one Dutch 873 " blacking, and hair-dye in the neighbourhood "of fringes, pins, and needles ; there are " gum and gauzes lower down, tooth-brushes, " flannel jackets, and cigars ; deeper and deeper " rue found more treasures, till at last the " contents of the basket are exhausted; and " after the bohrait has shown his numerous " goods, all ends in half a yard of ribbon being " bought fur Madame Sahib's cap ! " This is the best explanation we can give of the mean ing of the remarkable title of this pleasant book, which, like a pedlar's basket of wares, as the authoress modestly says, " contains a " mass of mingled objects, good, bad, and " indifferent." This " mass of mingled objects" consists of selections from Lady Falkland's journal during her residence in the Presidency of Bombay and on her route home ; and although it is not an easy matter to give freshness and originality to subjects which have been ably treated by former writers, we are bound to say that few writers upon India enjoyed the advantages possessed by Lady Falkland, who as wife to the Governor of Bombay had access to every source of information, and hence her journal has a reality about it which, coupled with the acute observation and good descrip tive power of the authoress, renders it as pleasant light reading as we could desire. The forte of Lady Falkland, we should say, lay in her keen dissection of the peculiarities of Anglo-Indian society. Coming fresh from England, she was much struck with the limited nature of the topics of conversation. Dusty roads, cool houses, jungle fever, and the coming monsoon form the staple table-talk; but who, she asks, can be very communica tive after a drive to dinner in India ?" Those who have passed perhaps twenty or thirty years in India have lost much of their interest in the "courts, camps, and cabinets "of Europe; and the younger mem bers of society have all their hopes and expectations centred in the country to which their future belongs. It is, therefore, natural that who is to be the new councillor, or who has the vacant collectorate, or who is the newly appointed Chief Secretary, should be subjects of greater interest than whether Lord Palmerston will lose his elec tion, or who is to be the First Lord of the Admiralty. I knew in Bombay an old officer who had been at least forty years absent from Europe, during which time he had served his country well in a military capacity. had been in many climates, and seen many countries. His face was like a map : here you could see a corner of Sierra Leone, there you could trace a bit of Canada, and here was Ber muda. His career was engraven on his face. I happened once to mention to him a great event which had lately taken place in Europe. He stared at me and said, " I know nothing at all about it." Not discouraged, I started another topic connected with public affairs in England ; when I received a decided check by his answering, " I take no interest at all in it." I still hoped to rouse him from such a state of apathy, and spoke of the admirable speech of some well-known politi cian ; when to this he calmly replied, " I know nothing at all about him." This person belonged quite to the "old school." People now " run home," as it is called, oftener, get their ideas brushed up, and, what is far better, bring out new ones with them. It is seldom that members of the Company's service remain so long in India, but worn-out Queen's officers are occasionally sent there from our colonies by the authorities at home. Of this last class was my friend above mentioned. I afterwards knew an ancient general officer, who was appointed to a command in India • he was nearly blind and deaf, and, though the " pink " of courtesy and en amiable man, distinguished moreover as a soldier in earlier life, of course could no longer be active in the discharge of his military duties. His aides de-camp were for ever occupied in preventing his falling over the footstools in the drawing-room when he went out to dinner. He was not exactly '' the right man in the right place." - - - - - Etiquette in Anglo-India is carried to an absurd pitch. A rigid adherence to rank and precedence is maintained at every dinner table and in every ball-room ; nay, it is even carried out on board ship, and the poor captain has enough to do to quiet the petty jealousies of these bilious men and women In the cold season, in Bombay, there are more dinner parties and halls than at any other time. The former are very much like dinners in England, except that there is the punka to cool one; the room is better lighted, and there is a very great number of servants in attendance, and more space allotted for each guest here than in Europe. The ladies at Bombay are more tenacious of their rank than we are in England. A " burrah bibi " (a great lady), or wife of a gentleman high in the East India Company's service, is a very great person indeed. Of course, the women going into and leaving the dining room take precedence according to the rank of their husbands as they do in Europe; but I was at first surprised that at the end of the evening no one moved to go away till she whose husband held the highest official position rose to depart. This wait not the case at balls, for perhaps the