The Press.
London, England, 1857-06-20 00:00:00

THE BOMBARDMENT OF GREYTOWN.

Lord CLAIJD HAMILTON inquired whether the
Government had taken any steps to obtain compen-
sation for the British subjects residing at Greytown
whose property was destroyed when that town was
bombarded in 1851. He asked also that copies of
any communication which had been interchanged
with the United States on the subject might be laid
on the table of the house.

Lhrd PALMERSTON characterised the act in ques-
tion as one of cruel violence, which reflected little
credit either on the Government who ordered the
bombardment or the naval officer who executed the
mandate. By the law of nations, however, the
British subjects who lost their property in the affair
could claim no reparation. Every power had the
right to seek satisfaction, at its discretion, by actual
hostilities, and was not responsible for the injuries
inflicted on the foreign residents of any place that
might be attacked. Illustrating this argument, the
noble lord observed that the subjects of a neutral
power who might have been residing in Sebastopol
at the time of its capture could claim no com-
pensation from the besiegers for any damage they
might suffer. _

Lord LOVAINE suspected that redress would have
been demanded for the Greytown outrage if the
offending power had been less formidable.
Mr. BENTiNcic remarked that the English Govern-
ment seemed always paralysed in the case of con-
troversy with the United States. The cause he
attributed to the fact that the manufacturers were
dependent upon America for supplies of raw mate-
rial, while the Government in their turn were afraid
of the manufacturers.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL stated that the law
officers of the Crown had arrived, after much
deliberation, and with considerable regret, at the
conclusion that there could be no claim of redress
established in behalf of the British sufferers from
the bombardment of Greytown. The French
Government, whose subjects were equally injured,
had formed the same interpretation of inter-
patio* law.

SATURDAY,

Mr. DISRAELI considered the explanation of the
Government most unsatisfactory. Greytown was
under the protection of England, and not under that
of France. But it was not true that France had
made no claim for redress upon the United States.
Such a claim, had, in fact, been made, and was still
pressed. The case of Sebastopol was not in point
that being a fortified town, while Greytown was de.
fenceless ; and the practice of all civilised nations
was opposed to the cruel course pursued by the
ccmmanders of the United States' vessels. Citing
some passages from a petition presented by the
Biitish sufferers, he expressed his belief that their
claim was well four ded, and that they had been
treated very unworthily by the Foreign Secretary.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL believed that the claim for
redress, under the circumstances, could not be sub-
stantiated. He adverted, however, to the amounts of
damages inflicted upon the residence of the English
Vice-Consul, and thought that explanation ought to
have been demanded for this outrage on the British
flag.
_ _

The subject then dropped.
SUPPLY.

The house having gone into committee of supply,
the remainder of the sitting was devoted to the dis.
cussion of various items in the schedule of Miscel-
laneous Civil Services.

The house adjourned at one o'clock.

3 rtiant.

AN EPISODE in the new Irish Secretary's re-
election last week has come to light, and as an
illustration of what electors expect, and members in
an official position anticipate, it is valuable. Just
before winding up his address, Mr. Herbert deli-
cately observed :

There is one more question to which I wish to ask your
atttention. It is rather a delicate one, but I trust to the
good humour, kindness, and good sense of my country-
men to listen to me for a few moments on the subject.
I allude to the subject of patronage. You all know,
probably—at all events, you all believe—that, in con-
sequence of the appointment I have received, I have a
considerable amount of what may be called, in familiar
language, " the loaves and fishes " under my distribi,tion.
CON. LAMB (an elector) : Signs by, you'll be troubled
with a great deal of applications. (Laughter.)
Colonel HERBERT : You are quite right. That's what I
was coining to. (Laughter.)
Cox. LAMB: 'Tie the most troublesome situation a man
can hold, God help you. (Laughter.) And half of them
that would cut your throat are bowing and scraping about
you now. (Laughter from the gallery.) You want a
couple of dozen clerks to read and answer your letters. I
hope you will be after making out an easy berth, you know,
for me, now in my old days. ( Laughter.)
Colonel HERBERT : So much do I consider myself in-
debted to the electors of the country, not only for the
honour of electing me, but for the kindness with which
they have always viewed any efloita of mine, and the for-
bearance they have exercised towards me, that I really
speak the honest truth when I tell you that, if I consulted
my own feelings, every man in Kerry who wanted a berth
should have the very best place I could give him, with
the least possible to do and the largest possible salary.
(Laughter. )
Cox. LAMB: That would just suit my knuckle to a
nicety. (Laughter.)
Colonel HERBERT : But I am placed in a public and
responsible position, in which it is my duty, as far as I am
able, to consult the public interests. I must just ask you
to consider that if I am guilty of perpetrating a job I dis-
grace myself, and reflect disgrace on you—( Hear, hear)—
because if a man has been without opposition for ten years
your representative, it reflects on your choice if it can be
fairly said of him, when lie comes into an official position,
that he has been guilty of a job. Do not for a moment
suppose that lam such a fool as to think I am going to
inaugurate a period of perfect purity, and do not imagine
that political and personal considerations will not have
their weight. But 1 must remind you that the tendency
of public opinion has been of late—most properly in my
mind—to put down, as far as it is possible, anything like
jobs or unfair patronage. Within the last few years a
system has been adopted in Dublin of holding up for
competition some of the best offices to be given away by
the Secretary. Do not suppose for a moment that I can
attempt to put aside that system. Still, do not suppose
that it will not be my wish, whenever I can legitimately, to
serve any one of my fellow•countrymen ; but I entreat of
you to remember that I have now the honour to be not only
your representative, but that the whole of Ireland has other
cl►ims upon me. (Hear, hear.)

Dn. NEWMAN has resigned the Rectorship of tho
Catholic University.
MR. W. H. Russ Eu. made his debut in Dublin on
Tuesday evening, and met with a most brilliant
reception at the Theatre Royal.

Mn. JOHN LOcKE, M.P., the City Pleader, and Mr.
R. Lush, both of the Home Circuit, are about to be
called within the bar on receiving the rank of Queen's
Counsel. The Queen has appointed the Rev. C.
Phipps Eyre to be rector of Marylebone.
ME. JOHN BRIGHT has arrived in London in
improved health.

JUNE 20, 1857.

I ittraturt.

Natural Religion. By M. Jules Simon.
Translated by J. W. Cole. Edited, with
Preface and Notes, by the Rev. J. B.
Marsden, M.A. London Bentley.
WE have deferred our review of this eloquent
performance until we could observe the effect
of its reception in England. In France it has
enjoyed much vogue, and passed through
three large editions. It has been read, admired,
and criticised in societies of all kinds, and has
justly been thought to uphold its author's
high literary credit. But in England, hitherto,
M. Jules Simon's performance has made no
noise, and attracted but little attention.
Nor are we surprised at a dissertation on
" Natural Religion " finding little favour in
England. For a long time past works on
Tho Evidences" have been out of fashion.
Our religious controversies have turned, not
on fundamental principles of " Faith," nor on
the great primary truths of theology, but on
questions of Church government, and on points
connected with the internal developments of
particular communions. Sixty years ago a
writer like M. Jules Simon would have found
more readers in England than he could expect
to obtain now. Our reading portions of the
religious public do not now care for an author
who addresses them on the metaphysical sub-
jects mooted in this volume,—" The Incom-
prehensibility of God "—" The Demonstration
of Providence "—" Objections to Divine Immu-
tability "—" Proofs of the Immortality of the
Soul,' &c. Tho half-educated among them
would say, " We knew before all that you have
" told us, and an ingenious Frenchman might
" have taken so much for granted." On the
other hand, our scholars, casuists, and theolo-
gical critics would perhaps be tempted to
exclaim, "We have seen these subjects more
" profoundly treated, and there are some phi-
" losophical objections on parts of them with
" which you have not grappled ; but we ap•
" prove of your Christian zeal, we applaud
" your excellent moral temper, and we admire
" the natural flow of your eloquence."

Most of the uses of the study of " Natural
Theology" are already familiar to the English
public. The stupendous fact of a great unseen
Creator, the certainty of future retribution in
a life beyond the grave, and all the sublime
conclusions of a positive Theism, are subjects
on which we do not expect our divines or reli-
gious moralists to address us. Bishop Turton's
remarks on the comparatively small value of
Natural Theology, in a practical point of view,
express the prevailing sentiments amongst us.
" When the utmost has been made," says Dr.
Turton, "of natural religion, it can give no
" intimation on subjects of which revelation is
" the most copious ; the various dispensations
" of God towards man, our redemption from
" the effects of transgression, and, in the lan-
" guage of the creed, the forgiveness of sins,
" the resurrection of the body, and life ever-
" " Philosophical religionism, of the
elementary kind, is certainly not much valued
by the worshipping Christians of England.
We were, ourselves, present once in a provin-
cial city, when one of the most philosophical
prelates now living delivered a sermon of con-
siderable ability. The argument was not above
the average understanding of a middle-class
congregation. The literary merits of the dis-
course were unquestionable. The logic was
lucid, and the rhetoric, if not luminous, was as
legitimate of its kind as if it had been
fashioned by a Quinctilian in lawn sleeves ;
but the heart was not touched, and the ratio-
cinative tone failed to produce effect. A pro-
fessional friend had gone with us, from feelings
of curiosity, to hear the argumentative divine;
and when leaving the pew, one of the congre-
gation—an unlearned man, but not devoid of
shrewd sense—expressed the feelings of the
auditors 7-" There was little in all of that to
" give any help to a poor sinner." English
readers of this series of discourses by M. Jules
Simon might be tempted to express a similar
sentiment ; and, from a purely Anglican point
of view, they would not be far wrong. But
they would make a serious mistake if they
depreciated the utility or disparaged the merits

THE PRESS.

of this masterly performance from other points
of view.

In order to estimate its value, we must re-
collect that M. Jules Simon's volume should be
weighed with especial reference to the present
state of religion and infidelity on the Continent.
There is, unhappily, a vast deal of infidelity in
many cities of Germany and Franco, under a
show of conformity to the religion of the Court
and Government. Infidelity, as it now exists
abroad, does not affect V oltarian levity, nor
does it seek to revive the impassioned
naturalism of the wild and melancholy Rous-
seau. It is not literary in its tone, like the
encyclopedia. In its general currency it can-
not be assimilated with the intellectual unbelief
of D'Alembert, and the savans of former days.
Its root is Socialism, more or less disguised,
end its only positive tenet is an extravagant
faith in " social organisation." Its professors
are not so propagandist as unbelievers in other
days. They think of religion as " sentiment,"
or " poetico-emotional aspirations of the
" imaginative organs." They are cool, steady
men of business ; hard, dry, and materialistic
in their views of lite ; more cosmopolite than
national in point of " country," and generally
more conversant with political economy than
with other branches of human knowledge. It
is of little use in controversy with them to
refer to the description of the Jews in the
works of Tacitus, or to Pliny the Younger's
Letters, or the " Apologies " of the early
Christian divines. They pass by all the topics
opened up in the Straussian controversy ; and
if we were compelled to name a special category
for their particular school of unbelief, we
would call it " The Infidelity of Political
Economy."
Any one who hasisojourned on the Conti-
nent, and paid attention to the forms of
thought existing in certain circles to the east
and west of the Rhine, must have met with
several specimens of the sort of unbelievers
that we have cursorily described. It is to
them that M. Jules Simon addresses this
work now before us, and it is to the classes of
persons likely to be influenced by such a school
of unbelief that this volume will he of value.
Few writers know how to hit the exact medium
between abstract philosophy and popular in-
telligence as M. Simon. Hs style has verve and
unction ; he has natural " religiosity" of mind,
and his tastes are those of a contemplative
nature addicted to reflection on grave moral
problems. More argumentative and less rhe-
torical than Chateaubriand, M. Simon is better
suited than the author of " The Genius of
Christianity " and " Atala " for polemical con-
troversy. He has strong human sympathies,
without the verbal sentimentalism which
weakens Lamartino. The popularity which
M. Simon's writings have attained may be
taken as a sign that there is a deeply thought-
ful class in France, wearied of the heartless-
ness that pervades much of. modern French
literature.

Ina critical point of view, one of the most
interesting features in M. Simon's writings is
the constant evidences shown is them of the
immense difficulty that an intellectual Roman
Catholic experiences in giving fair play to his
private judgment. There is a shakiness of
tone in many passages of this work which
reveal that he is not himself quite satisfied
with his conclusions. He seems at times as
if he were haunted with the question, " Is this
" only philosophy, or can it be accepted as not
" inconsistent with the ethics of the Church of
"Rome?" He exercises largely the right of
the sentire quce velis, but we are certain that
his Church would never allow its votaries to
use the privilege of the quce sentias dicere
claimed so largely by M. Jules Simon. We
believe, for our own part, that a school of
manly, free, and independent philosophers of
the Simon school would eventually be effica-
cious in the development of Protestantism. In
this respect Simon differs entirely from the
school of Des :Mitres, who laboured with
lamentable success to darken the intellect and
crush the reasoning powers of his readers and
admirers. " The Evenings at St. Petersburg."
by Des Maitres, was a more dogmatic work
than M. Simon has yet produced, and we
could wish that he were tempted to undertake
a detailed criticism of that ingenious piece
of profound perversity.

607

We shall proceed to give some extracts from
this interesting and eloquent writer. Wo
shall select examples of his popular and
didactic manner. As a specimen of the
first, we will take some of his passages on the
philosophy of " Prayer." The following
thoughts are inspired by noble feelings :

What resource have we against so many evils ? Glory 9
Let UR not adopt this mistaken flattery. Glory follows
success, and is nothing more than a time•serving courtier,
It belongs to the Alexanders and Caesars, those crowned
executioners, who would have been consigned to the
gibbet by the police of all nations if they had exercised
their talents on the highway. With a few more battalions,
Cartouche would have been a worthy associate. The
empty bubble of glory is not worth feeding on by antici-
pation. The pleasure of being inscribed after death in the
records of memorable deeds, and of furnishing a subject
for oratorical display, is a poor compensation for the mor•
tifications and iniquities of an entire life ! There is but
one true power, the sentiment of virtue; but where is the
soul to which it suffices? Such an exception is to be met
with, for the true exaltation of humanity, from age to age ;
but let us not attempt to measure men by the standard of
heroes!

What then are we to do? To what are we to attach our.
selves. To whom are we to have recourse when the
world has failed us? Where are we ti address our sighs
upon the brink of the grave ? In whom are we to trust
when our love is repulsed, our virtue calumniated, and our
honour tarnished ? Towards whom are we to lift our
cries against the pitiless disdain, against the closed hearts
which reject the offered sacrifice? Something within in-
spires us to raise our eyes to heaven, and to call God to
our aid. This is why so many men unacquainted with
science listen eagerly to those who speak to them of the
future. It is that they may adore and supplicate that such
a multitude of souls, disinherited in this world, dream of
the invisible universe, even when the lights of philosophy
are denied to them. If our nature is made to suffer, it is
also made to pour out our sufferings to God, and to find
in that complaint a solace and an encouragement. Prayer
softens, or rather destroys, solitude; from the moment
when the world abandons and flies us, we find ourselves
once more in presence of the only friend who never de-
ceives, of him whose name is Justice.
Anti he continues in a strain of uncommon
force and beauty. We have taken the liberty
of putting a passage in italics :

Prayer is not only a resource under calamity, but a pre •
servative against crime. A man yields himself up to the
influence of passion; instead of remembering the lessons
he has acquired in youth, he dreams of nothing but plea.
sure and interest. The violence of the sensations he has
stirred up within himself produces such a tumult in his
soul that be is lost to everything else. He applies the
utmost resources of his intelligence to the gratification of
his appetites, and, while he satiates them, he dreams only
of the means by which they can be revived, to be again
glutted with enjoyment. In this utter subordination of
his entire being to pleasure and the search after pleasure,
be loses his perception of what is beautiful and just ; his
will, incessantly drawn in one direction, loses its active
powers and becomes incapable of resistance. His reason-
ing faculty, badly cultivated, supplied through deteriorated
organs, full of disgraceful sophisms, weakened and misled,
can no longer distinguish or follow truth ; all that it re-
tains of strength is employed in the indulgence of ignoble
appetites, and perhaps, at last, sinks even below the level
of animal instinct. Thus falls from day to day this noble
creature, made to reign over creation and over himself, when,
instead of turning towards heaven and commencing the life
of the future upon earth, he takes the world for his 011, attaches
to it his concentrated power, and glories in the oblivion of
everything else. What can draw him back from these abysses
in which he revolves? Perhaps a sign alone was wanting
which might once more recall God to his thoughts. This
single idea would have assisted him to conquer himself.
The name brings with it an accompanying train of all that
is grand and noble. It signifies virtue and truth. It
affords a union of all the pleasures which the soul desires,
and compared with which the rest are as nothing. It is a
light which exhibits the rottenness of the evil painions
under its real aspect. However debased a mind may be,
there is somewhere within a collection of touching and
revivifying remembrances which the mighty name of GA
once more awakens. Every physician of the soul knows
that the cure is possible from the moment when the
patient can be induced to pray. Thus, whether as a con-
gelation or a remedy, prayer occupies an important place
in human life.

The animated force of the author's style can
be seen in these passages. He is, also, acute
in his analysis while discussing the metaphy-
sics of prayer. There is great breadth of
view in the following passage

:-

Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that prayer is
not solely an act of thanksgiving, or a sanctifying aspira-
tion in itself. It often becomes a supplication ; and per-
haps we may be permitted to say that the most perfect
form of prayer is that which combines both characters.
Now, when prayer comprises a request, it seems difficult
to reconcile this with divine immutability ; for, on the one
hand, we ask to obtain ; and on the other, God never
changes his decrees. To disentangle this contradietion,
let us first, before we dwell on the immutability of God,
inquire what we can demand from him. Undoubtedly
nothing that is wrong, for it would offend his all-perfect
nature even to conceive a desire contrary to virtue.
Neither can we address him with frivolous applications.
We cannot say, " Command this pear to ripen ;" or,
" Grant that I may gain this lawsuit." We are net
allowed to require of God what we should blush to ask of a

friend. Even though the matter involved our whole
fortunej is it consistent with the feeling of a religious
mind, only to appear before the Creator to make him a
confidant in a question of avarice? To the struggles ex-
cited by covetousness, God is indifferent ; or if he inter-
feres, it is only to aid courage and perseverance. it is
therefore by work, and not by wishes or vows, that we can
hope to succeed. In running across a plain, suddenly the
ground gives way, and I am thrown down. " Save me, omy
God!" is the cry which nature inspires me to utter. But
how will God save me ? By a miracle, in suspending the
action of the laws of gravity? No—such an expectation
never crosses my mind. I implore God to find me some
protecting stay, instead of allowing me to sink into the
abyss. But this branch or support is there, in the very
direction of my body. If it were so placed before I uttered
my prayer, I have prayed needlessly ; if it were not, and
God has placed it at the moment, the miracle is not less
surprising than would be a suspension of the laws of
gravity. Thus, my prayer, seriously addressed, becomes
the formal demand of a miracle. In reality, it is but the
nnrefiecting instinct of a weak being, who feels that he is
about to perish, and invokes the God from whom he de-
rives his existence. If we were always sensible of what
we do when we pray, we should not so readily ask for
miracles, neither should we request them, to obtain another
day upon earth of absence from God.
But, at the same time, even in this disserta-
tion on " Prayer," there are some statements
which we cannot accept, and which, in our
apprehension, are not parallel to scriptural
assertions. We are made constantly to recol-
lect that, though M. Jules Simon is a Christian
philosopher, he was reared in the Roman
Catholic faith.
We are induced to think that this forcible
writer has dieted his mind on Bossuet.
Thus, in his panegyric on natural religion,
he says :
Natural religion ;.E1 the enemy of superstition. Its pecu-
liar characteristics are perspicuity,precision, and sincerity.
It makes no pretensions to knowledge beyond its attain-
ment ; it does not conceal ignorance under high-sounding
words; it admits candidly that there are secrets inacces-
sible to science, and attempts only to determine with cer-
tainty points that can be accurately ascertained, and those
which, through the limited nature of human intelligence,
are difficult to discover. It imposes its own boundaries,
and suffers nothing within them to remain obscure and
unexplained. It never dreams or loses itself in clouds,
but is always clear, rational, and methodical. There is
nothing in it which cannot be reconciled to common
sense. It is intelligible to ordinary understanding, while
it satisfies spirits of a higher cpality. The poetry with
which it abounds is vigorous and healthy. It furnishes a
sound and solid nourishment to the mind, equally distinct
from materialism and ecstasy.
He then makes some reflections, to which if

we had space we should take strong critical
exceptions, and afterwards bursts forth into a
strain that reminds one of the " eagle of

Ileaux:--

We believe and admit creation, although we make no
attempt to explain it, fur it has no analogy with any human
act. In like manner, we follow with love and respect the
development of the views of Providence, without repre•
sewing God to our minds as an unskilful and uncertain
artificer. The true God has no human attributes.
Passion, inconstancy, and effort, belong not to his nature ;
that serene and omnipotent will extracts worlds from
nonentity, with all their incalculable developments; that
unlimited intelligence comprehends at the same moment
all time and all space; that supreme love embraces simul-
taneously all created beings, and sees every one present
before him in his individual identity. God has placed us
in the world to govern while we traverse it. We pass along
under his eye and hand, but in the fulness of the liberty
derived from him, sustained by the eternal decrees of his
power, animated by the never•ceasing love which he feels
for the creature he has made. Through him, nothing is
wanting to us here below in our only important under-
taking, for he has given us duty and freedom ; through
him, nothing can fail us in the future, for in death he will
satisfy the desires of our hearts and minds by giving us
himself for nourishment, by filling us with the eight of his
glory, and the overflowings of his love. What signifies it
that we must tread even over flints upon briars, to arrive at
such a termination? True happiness must be conquered
to ascertain its real value. We accept the trial coura-
geously ; and we convert our sacrifices into a hymn of
praise to the glory of the God who supports and calls us.
This world, so completely filled with his divinity, is no
longer a prison, but a temple.
And here is a passage from " The Demonstra-
tion on Providence," which reminds us
forcibly of both l3ossuet and Pascal :

Thus liberty, far from being the origin of disorder in the
composition of man, is essentially a benefit. The incon-
veniences to which it gives rise are amply repaid by the
corresponding advantages. Sometimes the part assigned
to it on this earth is not confined only to what concerns
mankind and human society. The presence of such an
intelligent spectator in the world, such a co-operator with
the forces of nature, cannot be regarded as an episode.
The organic and inorganic phenomena of the world are so
disposed as to furnish food to our activity ; the absence of
roan would render a vast number of them inexplicable.
%Awl he then adds a noble resection worthy of
Pascal's finest style :

If man had no existence, tho world would resemble one
of the palaces which have Lem restored aud rtfuruisluti

THE PRESS.

after a revolution, that they may be preserved to history
and art. All has resumed its place—the council-table,
the crown, the sceptre—nothing is absent but the king.
We are glad that this work has been trans-
lated, though we doubt whether it will receive a
large circulation in this country. Its accom-
plished editor has added some excellent notes
which render it fit for Protestant readers, and
he has drawn attention to the fact that the work
"disposes the reader to return once more with
" deeper reverence and gratitude to the in-
" spired Word of God." It confutes Atheism,
and it repels Pantheism, and its object is,
therefore, laudable. In justice to its trans-
lator (Mr. J. W. Cole), we may say that his
version preserves much of the smooth grace
and fluent ease of the original.

Histoire de la Chute du Roi Louis Philippe,
de ht Republique de 1848, et du Ritablissement
de l'Empire. By M. A. Granier de Cassagnae.
Paris : Plon.