The National Register. — London, England, 1814-10-09 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. OCT. O. 1:LI'lEIV 01.' L ITERAI URE. EUSTACE'S LEVVER FROM PARIS. ( Conlinuat ion.) novr proceed with nur extracts from Mr. tustace's I.e!ter, which want of room prevented our continuing last week. " 13at I have dwelt, perhaps, too long," says this interesting ;triter, " upon the material part of Paris, its edifices and its ap pearanees ; on look to a more important object, and are impatient to hear something about the manners and the character of the mo th rn Parisians. " Has the Revolution altered their• ancient habits, or are they till the same good-honoured and lively people, proud of themselves and in►lulgent to others, content with the amusement of the day, with li!tle foresight or retrospect, polite and attentive, always de sirme-; to please, and not unfregnently very pleasing?--Alas ! no, my til e nd-... 5 0 many deeds of Hoed, so many scenes of misery, so many years of military oppression, anti such a familiarity with injustice and slaughter, mt►st he supposed not only to have checked the natise sprightliness of the race, lint to 'ke instilled into it a considerable portion of gloom and ftrocity " In the first place, the suppression of schools and colleges, at an early period of the ?evolution, and the £us pension of all Christian instruction which followed, and was continued fi n • several years, left a considerable portion of the rising generation either without any education at all, or confined them to the chance of domestic example and information, oftentimes neglected, and generally im perfect. " In the 4 0 :sx t place, the total neglect of all piddle worship, and the blasphemies written, spoken, and disseminated in the most pub lic and insulting manner, must have made upon the young and un flawed minds of many, a most unfavonrable impression; while the notorious contempt of all moral feeling and restraint, avowed by the government and all its agents, must havo spread corruption very generally over the country, and tainted the minds of youth with early and ineorrigilde vice. 44 Buonapatte, in restoring the public profession of the Christian and Catholic reli;ion, after all rather tolerated than encouraged its admission into the Lyceums and insfi:uts, which he established in th e place of schools and colleges. " Military tactics was the science there taught, enterprise and obedience was the spirit there encouraged, and Christian instruc was treated as a subaltern, and piobably a very insignificant part of youthfal instruction. A military impulse had indeed been given to the nation in the ' cry earliest stages of the Revolution, and the republican 'nett°, peace to Me cAtage, and tear to Me castle, had opened every country in Einope to the arms and the rapacity of the Fiend* s ddier. But the military sy;tens received its full perfection from the genius of Buananarte; he interwove it into all the institu tions of tke country, iuto all the offices of life, into all the operations of goverpment, and even into all the intercourse of sgeiety. Prints and pictures, .engs and shown, exhibitions and amusemints, all were employed as vehicles of this spirit ; and it would have been wowiciful indeed, it, accompanied by so many victories abroad and by so twiny pageants at home, it had not become the prevailing to-t< of the nation, and if' Franceltsellhad Ilia been converted into a camp, and every child into a soldier. " Now what was the spirit of the French army under Napoleon? a voirit of atheism and vice almost incredible. The soldier wa3 taught to adore his Emp. ►or and obey his ()Mears, and this was his only creed, his only duty : beyond this he was abandoned to his own discretion, that is, to his passions and to his ignoratsce ; and encouraged to give every appetite its full play. " such an army is a conkderaey of banditti, a legion of demons, IPt loose upon the creation to disfigure awl destroy its beauty. Now into this school of wickethiess every youth in France was compelled 641 to enter; and it is easy to imagine the "deep, the indeliide Mires s';on which the blasphemies atni the crimes of so tuany thousand fiends, must make upon the minds of boys of seventeen. The pre• vion4 instruction, even of pious parents, cannot he supposed to resist, for any titne, the deadly influence of such conversation and example; while if the mind be not fortified by holy lesson-, but, on the contrary, present a mere blank to its action, rapid indeed will be the wol k of perdition, and deep and lasting its impressi:,/,. " When it considered how often the raukei of the French ara:v have been thinned and filled up again, and how offen swept wary away and renewed, it will be easy to form an idea of the prJiligions multitudes that must have passed through it, and consequently how far its influence must have extended, and to what degree its spirit aml character must have become the spirit and character of the na tion itself. In truth, few among the younger part of the commit• laity can possibly have escaped the contagion, and it will not be (lc aggeration to say, that in itch country In:s atheism, perfecto, practical atheism, made such an zwliti progress as in France, and nowhere more completely debased the linntan mind, and (lc privet! it of every semblance of virtue, and every spark of worth and gencrositv.• • • , " After this statement of the numbers, the influence, and ON principles of the French army, you will not be surri:ed to hear that the national character is considerably imp:tired, that the levity and the frivolity, and, I add with regret, the good nature of the na tion have given way to a clouded aspect, roc1;11 mannerA, and a fcru . cions demeanour. " The youth, accustomed to the guilt and the bustle of warfare, seem impatient nodtr the weight of reflection, and harassed with the dead calm of peace. They want a greater stimulus to rouse their feelings, and they sicken at the insipidity and lameness of plays, visits, and conversation. The life of a citizen has no charms for them, and I am convinced that the French army would rti3h to war with delight, merely to shake off the intolerable load of still life, the ennui and destruvrement that devour them. " Aftet a sta:ement so unfavourable of public feeling, you will naturally expect a gloomy picture of the state of religion, and a severe censure of the anti-christian feelings of the French nation. But the accounts which we have received upon this subject for some years past were so exaggerated, that my observations may produce the same (fleet upon your mind, as they did upon my own, and tend rather to console than to afflict the benevolent Christian. It is to be remembered that the present generation in France, has heard words of blasphemy, and witnessed deeds of sacrilege and profany tion, that would terrify an English free-thinker, and almost make a demon-tremble ; that the Repablican Government employed sue cessivi ly the various means of violence, art, and seduction against Christianity ; that the First Consul treated it with contempt ; and that the Emperor, with every mark of public respect, hated 'and undermined it ; when to these hostile causes we snperadd the per nicious influence of the army, we shall have cause to wonder, not that religion should have bat that it exists and yon, and every friend of virtue and of truth, will rejoice when I add, that Chrtstianity has not only survivtd the most dreadful assault ever made upon it, but that it has triumphed, as its divine author pi o tnisel, o-,:er the gates of hell and over all the power of the enemy. •• • • " In Paris there are :.>9 parochial and succursaa (or dependent) churches. In these churches there is solemn service twice, that 14, 'at eight and ten o'clock in the morning, and e' ening service at three and five, every Sunday and holiday; besiles low ma4ses every lour from six to twelve. On the week days there are low masses wily. Now in all these churches and at all these services, there are mi. gregations more or less numerous according to the hour, but some times crowded, and in general very respectable. Even on week days, the churches arc not deserted : pious Christians may be seen on their knees at all hours ; and the ancient and affecting enstem the Catholic church, so much recommended by Erasmus, is not yet tUrgotteu or ne,lected even in this profaned capital.* " I perceived no want of devotion, no indecent levity, -no !nig placed conversation; all those wlto attend can ;knead only from • 1