The Press. — London, England, 1856-10-04 00:00:00

OCTOBER 4, 1856. four" male waiters "upwards of fifteen " years of age," and there is " one " male waiter "under fifteen years of age." Amazing accuracy ! And still more amazing fact that four men and a boy could serve all the hotels in Belfast ! The report of " occupations " is pleased also to inform us on the same page that there are twenty " caretakers," but no " conservators "in the town of Belfast. There are only six malsters, and six distillers in the same locality. It has not even one "wine cooper:' nor one " salt manufacturer," nor a " salesmaster." Still more extraordinary is the fact (according to the Return) that there are one hundred and one "gardeners," but not a single unit to fill up the space left for " nursery and seedsmen." There is neither a " cheesemonger" nor a " poulterer " in all Belfast, and only eight " tobacconists" ! These latter are placed in the columns as " minister ing to food." Belfast enjoys a deserved name for its brilliant success in manufactures, and for its great factories, full of the best and newest machinery. It is strange, if true, that there are only "two" makers of " agricultural im plements" in the capital of Ulster, adjacent to the county of Down. But it is still more situ ular that there is not one " toolmaker " in the whole town ! There are (according to this Rey ort) two "tinkers" and five "makers of Jt w's-harps" in the place. In the column " ministering to health" there are forty-seven " physicians," fifty-two " surgeons," and only ten " apothecaries," to compound the prescriptions of the ninety nine doctors and surgeons of the locality. In the table "ministering to education" there is no " astronomer," and two " authors." How very accurate! In that "ministering to religion" there are eleven clergymen of the Establishment, and eight Roman Catholics, and no Unitarian clergyman at all. What does the Rev. Henry Montgomery, or Mr. Scott Porter, or the Rev. T. D. Hincks say to this last assertion? With so large a Roman Catholic population as is at Belfast, it is singular that there should be no "friar," and only a unit for "nuns and monks," and that there should be only two " Scripture• readers " for that city. But there are fourteen "unspecified" persons in the column "minis tering to religion." Then comes a column for the "unclassified," which informs us that at Belfast there is not one "ship agent," although it has thirty-five pilots," and upwards of twelve hundred sailors. That is certainly a very peculiar fact The Report is really quite waggish at times. It tells us that there are no " antiquaries " (p. 416.) at Belfast. Neither is there a " mes• merist" nor a "ventriloquist," and (fortunate locality !) there is not a solitary unit for its "quacks." Let our readers imagine the absur dity of assigning a place for " quacks" in the Census Report, as if Van Butchell himself would confess to being a " quack." There are but two " ballad-singers " in Bel fast, and there are no " fortune-tellers " there. The fallacy of the returns is shown by refer ring to the last statement of the page before us, that there are only thirty-eight" prostitutes" in that crowded hive of manufacturino. in dustry. Figures lik e th ese carr y th e i r own confuta tion. It seem that there are 27,103 males and 15,760 females, in the town of Belfast, upwards of fifteen years of age There are but 1,370 males, and 1,734 females, " under fifteen years of age," in the same town! From what we have read and heard of this pompous and most pretentious volume, we incline to think that it does not merit the public confidence; nor should we be surprised if, in the next s e ss i on , th e ex p ense o f th e Irish Census Commission and its stringent reform (if it is to continue) should become the subject of animated discussion. Medieval Preachers and Medieval Preaching. A series of Extracts, translated from the Sermons of the Middle Ages, chronologi cally arranged, with Notes and Introduction, by the Rev. J. M. Neale, M.A. London : Mozley. WHILE we commend the goodness of Mr. Neale's intentions, we are obliged to confess THE PRESS. ourselves doubtful of the utility of the present publication. Mr. Neale's design is to hold up as a pattern to modern preachers the practical, homely, and at the same time impassioned, addresses delivered to their flocks by the clergy of the middle ages ; and he is no doubt right in believing that the pulpit oratory of the present day is deficient in the power of awakening the conscience and stimulating devotion. The question is, whether this de feet be solely attributable to the clergy them selves, or whether it springs from the altered conditions of both the Church and society in the nineteenth century. We ourselves believe rather in the latter. There arc indeed two simple and well-known reasons why this should be so ; for in the first place the autho rity of the Church is weakened, and in the second the efficacy of all oral teaching is con siderably diminished. When a preacher felt that all his audience believed implicitly in heaven and hell, not as vague abstractions, but in the real and vivid shapes which they assumed in former times, and believed also that he himself held the keys of admission, — when priest and people alike felt as convinced of these things as of their own existence, a tone of fervour and passionate exhortation was to be expeoted which we desiderate in vain now. At the present day even the poorest audience is critical; and that is a difficulty which wo believe no preacher can ever fully overcome. In the second place, libraries and tract societies have in great measure cut the preacher's ground from under him—just as pamphlets and blue-books, and the Quarterly and the newspapers, have super seded the oratory of statesmen. We should apologise to our readers for the triteness of these observations, were it not that their application to the tone of our modern sermons seems to be generally overlooked. Mr. Neale, for instance, is inclined to insinuate that the Reformation was one great cause of the evil complained of. But the Reformation itself arose from those very same causes which were beginning to reduce men's emotions under the control of reason. On tho whole, the English Church seems to have done fairly. The preachers of the last century, notwithstanding their stilts and polish, accomplished, by Mr. Neale's admis sion, what the fervid and sublime eloquence of Massillon and his school failed to accom plish in France,—namely, the preservation of the national belief in revealed religion. A hundred years ago religious observances were fashionable ; the beaus went to church ; Top ham Beauclero had a large collection of sermons in his library. But men of this stamp would have smiled at the homely vehe mence of the n:lediteval preacher, and would have admired Massillon as they admired Gar rick: neither would have touched their hearts. The calm, logical arguments and elegant style of Sherlock and Jortin were more really useful perhaps under these conditions than any other method which could have been adopted. These are Mr. Neale's own words : Now there can be no doubt that there was some excuse for this style of preaching in the last century. When the state of religious, or rather irreligious, feeling was such that a divine. by no means disposed to take a gloomy view of things, could say, " It seems to be now generally assumed by mankind that the Christian religion is an imposition which it was left to this age to expose," it might be neces sary, even on the highest festival, to say something in proof of the fact, before anything was added of a more edifying nature. He that cometh to God, must believe that He is, before he can believe anything further with regard to His doings. And so in a fashionable congrega tion, as it was a hundred years ago, when Archbishop Potter, or Bishop Lavington, or Archdeacon Paley, or Dr. Jortin was to preach, when the pews of the then new church of St. George's, Bloomsbury, or the still aristocratic place of worship at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, were crowded to excess, and ladies were obliged to slide their hoops over one shoulder, in order to make room, just at the time when Lord Chesterfield was going out of fashion, and Dr. Blair was coming in, it might be necessary to prove to the worshippers on an Eastcr-dsy, or a Whitsun-day, that the Resurrection was not altogether incredible, and that the Descent of the Holy Ghost was within the bounds of possibility. For we must never forget that, however lowering and debasing was this constant struggle against infidelity,—however much it might be impossible to touch pitch without being defiled ( so that Douglas, the defender of Scripture miracles, based his argument on • foundation which destroyed all ethers, and even Leslie's celebrated criterion of their truth defends only one not recorded in the Bible), still the work which the Church of England then had to do—to defend revelation —was done, and was done effectually. If we compare the state of the French 953 and English Churches at the beginning and at the con• elusion of the eighteenth century, we shall find that with all her great preachers, her Massillon, and her Bossuets, and her Bourdaloues, the former failed, where the latter through the mercy of God succeeded. But that what the miserable condition of the last century rendered necessary should bo carried on by a dry tradition into this—that every festival should be made a lesson in evidences, and seasons of the highest joy ushered in by a decoction of Paley or Lardncr, is a disgrace from which we ought more thoroughly to have freed ourselves than is at present the case. We bow to Mr. Neale's larger experience. Yet we had not thought this was the prevailing character of sermons at the present day. We have been fortunate enough not to hear very many of these decootions of Paley and Lardner. How far the selections which Mr. Neale has published are adapted for imitation by modern preachers a clergyman must be able to judge better than ourselves. To us they certainly seem too full of allegory and far-fetched allu sions to be useful for a country congregation. We have not space for many extracts. We therefore select two from the sermons of St. Antony of Padua, " one of the most effective " and popular preachers of the middle ages " This is the fleet of Solomon, which through the sea of this world goes to Tarshish, that is, to those who search out the joy of this world that they may rejoice in it. By the gold, is set forth human wisdom ; by the silver, philo• sophic wisdom ; by the elephant's teeth, doctors who masticate that strong food, the Word of God, for little ones. By the apes, that imitate human actions, but live like beasts, we understand those who have come from among the Gentiles to the faith, and seem to hold it in word, but deny it in deed. By the peacocks, whose flesh, if it be dried, is said to remain imperishable, and who are vested with beautiful feathers, are signified perfect men, who are so tried by the tire of tribulation, that they are decorated and painted with various virtues. These are brought from Tarshish, that is, from the various waves of the sea of this world, by the preachers of the Church, to the true Solomon, Jesus Christ. • • • • • • • Natural historians tell us that the smaller bees are the better workers. They have subtle wings, and their colour is black, and as it were sunburnt; but the handsomer bees are of the number of those who do nothing. The small bees are penitents, who are little in their own eyes, and are always employed about some work, lest the devil should come and find their house empty and idle. They also have subtle wings, which are contempt of the world, and love of the heavenly kingdom ; by which, elevating themselves from this earth, they more subtilly contemplate the glory of God. They are also of a dark colour ' • whence, iu the first of Canticles, the penitent soul saith, " I am black , but c0u1d.... Penitents ought to do as the bees, who, when their king flies from the hive, fly with him, and crowd closely round him,—he in the middle, and they on every side ; and when the king can fly no longer, the company of bees carries him ; and if he dies, they all die together with him . Christ, our King, flew to us from the hive,—that is to say, from the bosom of the Father. Whom we ought to follow like good bees, and to fly with Him, and to place Him, that is, His faith, in the midst of us,—that is, in our hearts. And if any one of His members shall have fallen into sin, we ought to support and ►o bear Him up, and to die with Christ crucified and dying, crucifying our own flesh, with its affections and lasts. Their familiarity with scriptural language— another point very strongly put forward by Mr. Neale—is certainly a recommendation with these old preachers. We think that with a poor congregation this is a quality that tells very much. The volume contains selections from the sermons of twenty-one medieval preachers, commencing with Venerable Bede (ob. 735), and ending with Antonio Vieyra (ob. 1697). Though we do not think these extracts likely to be profitable for theological purposes, they are interesting and curious from a literary point of view, as showing the characteristics qualities of divines whose reputation survives, though but few readers have even the slight est acquaintance with their works. PERIODICAL LITERATURE. THE Westminster Review contains eight articles, of which certainly six are excellent, and on well-selected topics. There is nearly as much merit in this latter point as in good writing, and we should think, as regards the circulation of a Review, a great deal more. "Edinburgh Fifty Years Ago," " Silly Novels by Lady Novelists," and " France before the Revo lution of 1780," are admirable papers, whether we regard style or matter. From the first of the three we select an extract, showing that, even from the Whig or Radical point of view, Scotland was con tented and nourishing under the rule of Pitt and Dundas : An awful state of things this must seem to our modern politicians ! A country without political life, without public meetings, without newspapers, without a hustin is Could any endurable existence be led in such a set of con•