The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-10 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Question des So3urs de la Charite en Portugal,
1857-1862. I)'Apre3 la Presse et les Documents

Officiels. Bvo., pp. 449. Lisbonne.
Napoleon the Great, while yet First Consul of
the French Republic, wrote upon the 28th August,
1802 (a date known then absurdly as the 10th
Fructidor Year X.), wrote them to the Archbishop of
Paris, in respect to the Sours de la Charite—" My
instruction is to secure to these Good Daughters all
those prerogatives which they already possess, iu
order to enable them to continue the good labours
they have hitherto been doing—a testimony of
sympathy, on my part, which I am rejoiced to
render to them :" mon intention est de downer a ces
bonnes Filles toutes lea prerogatives, &c. (Corres-
pondence de Napoleon 1., iii. 8), That was the testi-
mony offered spontaneously and emphatically,
sixty-one years ago to those "ministering angels,"
then, as now, so familiarly flitting through
all the darkest haunts of disease, even amidst
the foul abodes in which the criminal popu-
lation fester, far and wide among the densely
peopled cities of the continent—that was the
impressive tribute of respect and admiration ex-
pressed towards the Scears de la Charite by the
young General, known then, as to all after times,
as the Child of the Revolution. And now, as it
were but yesterday, what is the tribute again spon-
taneously and emphatically offered to those gentle
ministrants at the sick-beds of the dying and the
suffering in the back-slums of our own vast capital,
and in the crowded wards of one at least of our great
London hospitals, by an aged philosopher like the
ex-Chancellor Lord Brougham P "It was more than
once urged," said that venerable orator, on Wed-
nesday evening last, in the midst of his noble in-
augural address to the Social Science Association,
" It was more than once urged at our last congress
that the invaluable attendance in French hospitals
of Soars de Cherite made their establishment in
this country not only expedient, but a kind of
duty. There is great satisfaction in finding that
steps have been taken with much success towards
the attainment of this object. The most important
by far is the foundation, by the sister of our col-
league, Lord Granville, Lady Georgiana Fullerton
(so well known for her excellent writings), of a
Sisterhood under a Paris superior, in a spacious
building, for which her coadjutor, Miss Easton, has
nobly contributed £5,000. These ladies being
Roman Catholics, their sisterhood is of the same
persuasion, and this somewhat interferes with
their attendance in hospitals. But Miss Brownlow
Byron has established another body of the same
kind—the All Saints' Home, in Margaret-street—
and there are no other attendants than these sisters
at the North London Hospital of University Col-
lege. This is a great benefit gained ; and undoubt-
edly- the exertions of this association, and of those
ladies especially who are in co-operation with us,
have mainly effected it. It is plain that the duties
of nurses offer a great and constant means of female
employment, as our amiable and able colleague,
Miss Hope, and her coadjutors in this town, have
shown, confirmed by the excellent training schools
for nurses under Mrs. Balfour. The Scours de Charite
also perform the service of nursing the sick at their
dwellings. I remember that, when attending M. de
Toequeville's funeral at Cannes, the feeling most gene-
rally expressed by all present was thankfulness for
the comfort which attended the last weeks of his life
from the care of these excellent persons. Surely those
who have introduced this sisterhood into our coun-
try are worthy of all acceptation. They well de-
serve to be the countrywomen of Florence Night-
ingale —and no higher panegyric can be pronounced.
Lady Georgiana Fullerton's fame as an author,
great though it be, is eclipsed by her distinction as
a philanthropist." It is Lord Brougham, remember,
who is speaking thus, not half a century back, but,
as it were, we repeat, only yesterday. It is Lord
Brougham who was speaking thus on the 7th of
October, 1863, in kindred words to those penned by
Napoleon the Great on the 28th of August, 1802.
In painful, almost we had said, in execrable con-
trast to which tributes of homage to these benignant
ladies the Scours de la Charite, tributes offered by
men as remarkable and authoritative as Henry
Brougham and Napoleon I3uonaparte—come forth in
the shape of this most distressing volume, now lying
upon our desk, the shameful disclosures here given
in regard to the treatment endured by those very
Sisters of Charity in the kingdom of Portugal.
Upon every page of these disclosures there is the
scathing brand of truth. The materials here grouped
together most impressively are taken from the
journals of the day between the year 1857 and the
year 1862 inclusively, and beyond that also from a
huge collection of oflicial documents. The facts
herein related therefore are perfectly well authen-
ticated. They speak, in the very simplicity with
which they are given, with most persuasive elo-
quence. Tney lift the veil again in regard to the
doings of a revolutionary party, not by any means
confined to Portugal in its operations, but ramifying
those its operations into all, parts of the European
Continent—a revolutionary party prostituting the
worst interests of liberalism by their most illiberal
proceedings in the name of that very cause which
they, beyond all others, are the most effectually un-
dermining. And in this—(as our introductory
quotation from the voluminous correspondence
of the great modern Conqueror and Law-
giver Napoleon, the Emperor and King,
will have already signally evidenced)
this, running directly counter to the opinions ex-
pressed, and the principles maintained by that in-
carnation of the Genius of the Revolution ! The
builder up anew, us Napoleon was, of the altars of
God after they had been, first of all polluted by
the worship of the Goddess of Reason, and after-
wards hurled down in ruins into the bloody dust,
in the midst of the hideous Saturnalia by which
the earlier phases of that great movement had been
inaugurated. The Question of the Scours de la
Charlie in Portugal (1857-1862), as here put for-
ward in this painfully interesting volume, appeals
to every generous heart, unbiassed by religious pre-
judice or political fanaticism, to every heart capable
of appreciating the generous sentiments expressed
in 1802 by the great First Consul, and in this pre-
sent year of grace 1863 by the eloquent lips of the
venerable ex-Chancellor Lord Brougham.

THE NEW ITALIAN CHURCH, HATTON-WALL,
HATTON-GARDEN.—The music at this church, which
has been erected for the worship of the Italians of London,
is on Sunday morning announced to be of a very grand
character. In addition to the selections from Mozart and
Haydn for the morning service, the offertorium, " Venite
Mortalis," by Gounod, will be sung. Madame Rose Hersee,
Miss Julia Elton, Mr. Swift, and many other distinguished
artistes, professional and amateur, form the choir at this
church. Zingarelli's " Laudate," and Rossini's "Tantum
Ergo," will be sung at the Grand Vespers at 7 p.m.
COLOSSEUM.—We have great pleasure in an-
nouncing
to the friends of Mr. A. Nimmo, the acting ma-
nager of tie above place of amusement, that he intends to
take a benefit; On Friday, Oct. 16 (morning and evening).
From the bill set forth there can be no doubt that the at-
tractions on this occasion, will be very superior. We wish
Mr. Nimmo a bumper.
AN EQUATORIAL CALM. ""WO knew that the
weather about the line was often calm, but had
pictured to ourselves a gorgeous sun, golden sunsets, cloud-
less sky, and sea of the deepest blue. On the contrary, such
weather is never known there, or only by mistake. It is
gloomy region. Sombre sky and sombre sea. Large cauli-
flower-headed masses of dazzling cumulus tower in front of
of a back round of lavender-coloured satin. There are
clouds of every shape and size. The sails idly flap as the
sea rises and falls with a heavy, regular, but windless swell,
Creaking yards and groaning rudder seem to lament that
they cannot get on. The horizon is hard and black, save
when bleat softly into the sky upon one quarter or another
by the rapidly-approaching squall. A puff of wind.
" Square the yards l'' The ship stirs again; another--she
moves slowly onward ;it blows—she slips through the
water ;it blows hard—she runs ; very hard—she flies; a
drop of rain—the wind lulls ; three or four more of the size
of half-a-crown—it falls very light ; it rains hard, and then
the wind is dead ; whereon the rain comes down in a torrent
which those must see who would believe. The air is so
highly charged with moisture that any damp thing remains
damp, and any dry thing dampens. The decks are always
wet. Mould springs up anywhere, even on the very boots
which ono is wearing ; the atmosphere is like that of a
vapour bath, and the dense clouds seem to ward off the
light, but not the heat of the sun. The dreary monotony
of such weather affects the spirits of all, and even the health
of some. One poor girl, who had ion.- been consumptive
but who apparently had rallied much' duritr, the voyito.e,
seemed to give way suddenly as soon as we had been a day
in this belt of calms, and lour days after we lowered her
over the ship's side into the deep,—.l3titler's Year in New
Zealand.