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

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 5, 1857.

their bonds, and they pant to disenthral them-
selves. The churches aro decked with satin
and gold. Gorgeous furniture adorns the
greater part of their " 300 or .100 churches."
But the sacerdotal calling is the only trade or
profession that thrives at Rome. Art is culti-
vated there chiefly by foreigners from distant
lands. In the city of " God's vicegerent on
earth," of " Peter's successor," of " 300 or 400
churches," even the panegyrical pages before
us acknowledges that savings -banks, and rail-
ways, and telegraphs, and gasworks, are
adopted only after every other country has
had them at full work. _

Colleges are described, convents are pointed
out, and libraries are counted up ; but there is
one thing of which Mr. Maguire has not
spoken in the book, and that is of a spirit
superior to all that mere art can teach and
church melodies suggest—the spirit of Liberty.
Amid palaces, and convents, and magnificent
altars, and sumptuous processions, the soul of
man is crushed and degraded in the city of
" 300 or 400 churches." A few lines of the
Bible remembered amidst all this glare of
pomp and ecclesiastical parade would do more
good to the heart than the most brilliant cere-
monies or the professional hosannahs of the
trained bands of the Papal choir. Of all
places in the world, there is none like Rome
where a lofty spirit can so keenly appreciate
the glorious lines of the poet :

What's hallowed ground ?
Ilas Earth a spot
Its Maker meant not
Should be trod
By Man, the image of his God,
Erect and free,
Unsconrged by superstitious rod
To bow the knee?
There are many things, we admit, which
harass us in our Protestant ecclesiastical
affairs ; but it is only after a residence at
Rome, or after a perusal of panegyrics like
that before us, that we can feel truly thankful
that our lot has been cast in the land where the
Book,radiaut with celestial power, and stamped
with the inspiration of the Most High, speaks
to the universal heart with a hundredfold
moral power beyond the glozing rhetoric of
its priests, and the trilling cadences of luscious
singers, and the tutored utterances of the
mercenary crowd who at Rome sing to-day in
honour of Pius as they would have sung for
Diana of Ephesus eighteen hundred years ago.
Yet Mr. Maguire appears to us one of the
best specimens of a Roman Catholic advocate.
He is courteous to antagonists, and he is said
to be personally esteemed by his political
adversaries in Ireland. We only know him by
having heard him in the House of Commons,
where he speaks and votes as an " Indepen-
dent Oppositionist." In provincial journalism
he holds an eminent position, and in the Irish
department of the Times we have often seen
his name identified with the " Irish platform."
A work on Rome from such a man ought to
be of some representative importance; yet we
cannot accept the present vapid volume as
being equal to what Mr. Maguire's party, and
his own undeniable abilities, would demand.
The variety of his pursuits seems to have
pressed too much on his energies. . .

The worst feature of modern Romanism is
truly represented in this volume. It is ad-
dressed, unconsciously, to servile classes.
Modern Popery plans and caters for the crowd ;
it enlists " agitators " and manufactures clap-
traps; it invents statistics ; it lisps the rights of
human nature ; it talks prettily about chil-
dren ; it echoes the cant of perfectibility,
while it is drugging the knowledge that it
offers to minds thirsting for pure sustenance.
The late Daniel O'Connell, in many of his
phases, was a perfect representative of modern
Romanism. When it 'cannot be aristocratic it
will be democratic, or vice versa. When it can
be neither, it will be absolutist or monarchi-
cal. In Protestant countries, modern Ro-
manism assumes the language of intellectual
Jacobinism, and it disguises its politics with
a tincture of medireval sacerdotalism. It is
" Liberal" against anything but—priestcr*ft.
Of these characteristics we are often reminded
iu this volume.

We shall proceed to give Rome specimens of
this panegyric. Here is the Pope, as 117 st
seen by the enthusiastic member fur Duugar-
von. The italics are our own :