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

562

How loving husband clings to duteous wife;
How pure religion soothes the ills of life;
How Popish ladies trust their pious fears
And naughty actions in their chaplains' ears,
Half novel and half sermon.
There are some passages in this volume on
the confessional which we should extract, but
that they are too coarsely touched. We concur
with the author's opinions on the dangerous
character of that institution.

The mixture of truth and fallacy, of coarse
cleverness and blustering vehemence, in this
volume raise our hopes of the author, and
afterwards disappoints them. For example,
he says :

Great Britain will never recover the damage inflicted
by the Aberdeen policy upon her position and character.
The country must have other checks against ignorance,
ambition, flippancy, or cowardice, than the mere right of
refusing supplies. Under feudally this was ali well
enough ; but matters are changed. Englishmen who are
patriots, and who have means, intelligence, and leisure,
must individually study the foreign position and affairs of
the country. Diplomacy has been our misfortune. Gun-
powder and a free press have alone saved us
Great Britain, as a Protestant realm, is no match for
the other powers in the arts of diplomacy. The education
of a noble youth in England is well adapted for anything
else rather than to turn out a Machiavelli, or even a Met-
ternich. A Jesuit's education alone prepares a lad for
the duplicity, cunning, and finesse of diplomacy. I would
select a lad from Stoneyhurst, and an alumnus from May-
nootii, and back them against any three, nay, perhaps four,
whom another might bring from Eton, Harrow, or Oxford;
I will not, perhaps, include Cuddisdon. If craft, depth,
patience, simulation, pretence or policy, were the pro-
perties to be brought into play, in order to insure the
prize, the Stoneyhurst lads would win, and that, too, "in
a canter."

&nue of those opinions arc true ; but what
can we think of the reckless panegyric in the
passage which immediately folbws ?

The whole course of events has proved that we had not
a man in the kincdom, unless, indeed, it were Lord
Palmerston, who was dt to cope with the plenipotentiaries
who met at Paris.

The presence of the acute, hononrable, and chivalrous
Cavour from Sardinia was our mainstay.
Nor is it any derogation to that highininded nobleman,
Lord Clarendon. if we admit this.

In honesty of intention, devotioa to the cause of freedom
and justice, as a patriot, or as a well•intentioned man of
truth and personal honour, he had no superior at the table
of the congress. In other qualities he was deficient.

This praise of Lord Clarendon is significant.
The author probably forgets those passages in
the noble earl's life in which the Roman
Catholic prelate, Archbishop Nicolson, received
"an assurance of the veneration in which
" Lord Clarendon held the character of Pius
" the Ninth ;" and as this writer is so fierce in
dealing with certain French journalists, we
should like to have the benefit of his opinion
upon the case of " Birch versus Somerville."
The history of Lamennais in this volume is
too (old to be interesting, but the account of
Lacordaire is curious. The reply to Count
Montalembert is smart, but not subtle, and
is deficient in polemical art. The following
reference to the count and to Cardinal Wise•
man is one of the most favourable specimens
of the style of this volume :

It is generally believed that the work of M. de
Montalembert. if it does not contain original matter from
the pen of Dr. Wiseman, hsis been submitted to his
censorship, rather than criticism, previously to rublica-
tion. The literary labours of M. de Mmtalembert could
hardly be improved by Dr. Wiseman's erudition, although
to keep it entirely within the scope of the Jesuit's policy
may have rendered an appeal to the cardinal expedient
and unavoidable.

There is a gentlemanly hearing, a Christian tone, an
occasional clear insight, a noble frankness and candour in
the person, character. and literary labours of the Count de
liontalernbert which it is a' impossible to deny, as it is a
duty to acknowledge. Every candid and impartial British
reader of his work must share with myself the bitter regret
that one cannot view the count as a friend, because he
takes high rank in the army of our enemies. The cardinal,
his comrade in arms, we know to be our enemy ; we also
know that as • foreign prince, m an Italian prince, he is
bound in conscience (•if it be not a profanation of the
abode of reason an to speak of it) to uphold the political
interests of the Pope in Italy as well as everywhere else,
and to thwart and betray the interests of Britain which is
under the interdict of the Pope. Knowing all this. we
treat him as our enemy, and should be ir.deed struck as
with a panic if he were to attempt to injure our cause by
proclaiming himself our friend.
Wiseman, however, possesses a large share of the confi-
dence of the aggressive party, which is the Ultramontane
or high• Pope party in the Church of Rmne. He is Peen
much in their company both in England and on the Con•
tinent : he writes for them, he preaches, and he lectures
for them. He is consulted by them, and they do little or
nothing in Britain, or in France• without his advice or con-
federacy ; his time is well occupied, and, even in a pecuniary
sense, is not thrown away. The systematic development
and religiuns•house tiqt.ein in England
reward.

Of flu conventual
end Frame is bpi