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
tilend-...50 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 fin• 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 40: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
the 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 •