The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-09 00:00:00

CARDINAL WISEMAN.

(From the Times.)
At the Leeds Roman Catholic Literary Society,
last Thursday, Cardinal Wiseman courageously un-
dertook the maintenance and exposition of the
following thesis :—" Science has nowhere flourished
more, or originated more sublime or useful disco-
veries, than when it has been pursued under the
influence of the Catholic religion." On this subject
his Eminence had "been invited to expatiate,', and
he responded to the call by speaking for two hour
in hours
and a half, resuming his seat amid applause so voci-
ferous as to testify to his undoubted success the
opinions of those who had elicited his speech.
Whether the judgment of the public will coincide in
this conclusion we think exceedingly doubtful.
"Naturally," observed the Cardinal, " I go at
once to Italy to prove the theme which I have
before me." This instinctive reference he Justifieo
by remarking, that "in that bright and fair country
the influence of the Catholic Church had been the
most uninterrupted and the most untl.warted,"
and that he himself, moreover, there " received an
education which, if it had any limits as to the
depth and extent of the science he learnt, those
limits were in the deficiency of his own intellect,
and not in the restrictions the church put upon
him, or the imperfections of those who taught him."
With these views, accordingly, he selected Italy to
establish his case, and, after ingeniously recapitu-
lating those triumphs of Italian genius which were
not concerned with his subject, he proo-eeded to his
true argument by enumerating in succession the
several discoveries of which the germ or idea could
be traced with more or less certainty to the country
of the Popes. Maso Tiniguerra discovered the
art of copperplate engraving in 1450. Savino
Armati invented spectacles in 1317. Somebody,
undoubtedly an Italian, probably discovered the
thermometer about 1597. Harvey, who proved
the circulation of the blood, was the pupil of an
Italian who had proved something leading to this
conclusion. Linnaeus had based his system of
botany upon the discoveries of an Italian bo-
tanist. Sir Charles Bell was preceded in his ana-
tomical successes by Dr. Bellingeri, of Turin.
Galvani and Volta had originated that applica-
tion of electricity to science which gave us the
electric telegraph. The knowledge of hydrostatics
took its rise in the valley of the Po. and canals,
and locks dated from Italian engineers of the 13th
and 14th centuries. The reformation of the ca-
lendar was effected not only by an Italian, but a
Pope to boot. Finally, Galileo achieved in every
department of physics a variety of discoveries
comprising the germs of the most wonderful
inventions of other times. Considering that
these very " discoveries " brought Galileo to a
dungeon, under " the influence of the Catholic
Church," there was some audacity required in
citing such a witness. "The blood of Danton
choke you," cried somebody to Robespierre in
his agony, and the name of Galileo might almost
have done as much for Dr. Wiseman. The Cardi-
nal, however, boldly grappled with the subject,
and endeavoured to establish that silence was im-
posed "not upon science, but upon Galileo person-
ally," and upon him only " when his theory came
into collision with theology." Nothing much
worse has ever been alleged, but it might have
occurred to Dr. Wiseman's hearers that if a church
which maintained the authority of tradition against
the authority of intellect was entitled to suppress
by force whatever " came into collision with
itself," the results could scarcely be favourable to
the pursuits of science. Every schoolboy knows
that for many long years the Romish Church not
only asserted that the earth stood still, but pun-
ished all those who said it moved.
Considerable indulgence should, of course, be
extended to any speaker charged with the duty of
proving that a church with such tenets was exactly
the authority under which science would be most
freely developed, and perhaps Cardinal Wiseman
made as good a case as was possible. The
fallacy of his original assumptions will have
already betrayed itself to the reader. The ex-
amples which he quoted tend in no degree what-
ever to establish the thesis which he was commis-
sioned to prove. Before the revelation of Chris-
tianity Italy was the seat of empire, the school of
art, and the focus of civilisation. For many cen-
turies, and, indeed, up to the period of the Refor-
mation, it continued to be more or less in advance
of the other countries of Christendom, and when
the only rival repository of ancient learning was
sacked by the Turks the Greek refugees contri-
buted to their Italian protectors all the knowledge
which they had preserved. Add to these conside-
rations the natural brilliancy of the Italian intellect,
and enough appears to show why Italy, especially
in those times to which Dr. Wiseman referred,
produced a number eminent men and important
discoveries. It would be quite unnatural if it were
otherwise ; but the excellence in question is no
more attributable to " the influence of the Catholic
" Church " than the excellence of the Etruscans or
the Athenians. For some time, too, it must be
recollected that the Church of Rome was not
offensively disposed. It was not until its anger
and vindictiveness had been roused by the Re-
formers that it assumed its natural antagonism to
intellectual development. The Jesuits and the
Inquisition are of later days. When Popes appre-
hended no mischief from knowledge they were as
tolerant of discoveries. as Louis XV. was of
liberalism ; but the true "influence" of the Romish
Church must be tried by its temper after collision.
To prove his case (if he ever seriously enter-
tained such a design) Cardinal Wiseman should
have reviewed the progress of science up to the
present day, and contrasted the relative merits in
this respect of Protestant and Popish countries,
such as Spain and Great Britain, or Brazil and
the United States. That Italy, when Italy was
alone civilised, should have produced many of the
early masters of science was of course to be ex-
pected, but if any portion of this fruit was due to
the authority of the Papal See, how has it come to
pass that the Italian produce has failed, although
this authority 'survives, while other countries in
which this authority is repudiated have acquired
the excellence formerly pertaining to Italy ? Dr.
Wiseman's thesis might be concisely demolished,
we imagine, by the assertion, which surely he him-
self will hardly deny, that science, in his own accepta-
tion of the term has never flourished anywhere more
conspicuously than it flourishes at this moment in
Gret Britain, although we one and all declare that the
Bishop of Rome neither ha th nor ought to have any
authority in this land. In the philosophical studies
of optics, chemistry, mineralogy, or geology—in
the practice of engineering or mechanics--is there
any country, " under the influence of the Catholic
Church which can be compared for excellence with
Great Britain and the Protestant States of Ger-
many ? Is it possible that Dr. Wiseman can ex-
pect such a question to be argued ?
As a broad and general conclusion, there is no
historical fact more incontestable than that those
States which embraced the doctrines of the Refor-
mation have advanced in science, freedom, wealth,
and prosperity ; while those which rejected them
have either remained stationary or have decayed
in almost exact proportion to the blindness
of their bigotry. Spain became politically defunct;
Portugal ceased to be a maritime or a colonising
power ; Naples sank into the degradation we be-
hold. On the other side, Holland, which had fur-
nished a type of the forthcoming conflict in its vic-
tory over Spain, became a formidable state ; Prus-
sia in the course of a century and a half divided
the supremacy of Germany with the old imperial
house, and Great Britain became what it is. France
—midway between north and south, and contested
by Catholic and Huguenot, derived at least enough
vigour from Protestantism to run a course of its
own. In Switzerland the contrast is peculiarly con-
spicuous from the smallness of the scale. The
change from a Popish to a Protestant canton is a
change from apathy and stagnation to enterprise,
-vitality, and power.
What could have provoked the Cardinal to so
unlucky a subject we are at a loss to conceive. In
this country the church of his admiration has just
been practically identified with the obstruction not
only of scientific knowledge, but of all knowledge
whatever. Its "influence" has certainly not fos-
tered any growth of science in Ireland, though it
has been partially effectual in retarding the success
of institutions established in the interests of
science after the most approved models which
experience could suggest. The like spirit has
been consistently displayed on all occasion. The
Church of Rome claims, both in theory and
practice, the right of testing any study, discovery,
or pursuit by traditions and maxims of its own.
It tolerates or condemns a principle, not according
to the evidence of reason or experiment, but ac-
cording to its own predetermined views. It cir-
cumscribes the field of study by its own measure,
proscribes all books contrary to its own side of an
argument, and avowedly subjugates the intellect of
man to an irresponsible authority wielded by itself.
That " science should flourish most eminently"
under the operation of such a system is what Dr.
Wiseman mry still be " invited to prove," and, if
he. can do so, we shall consider that he has esta-
blished the very greatest miracle of all those claimed
by the Roman Pontiffs.

EX PLOSION OP A STEAMER ON THE RHONE.—As the
steamer Les Parisiens was ascending the Rhone from
Avignon to Lyons, on Friday morning last, the boiler
burst when off Audance, department of the Ardeche.
The steamer was literally cut in two, but the two parts
continued to float for about an hour and a half. By the
explosion two soldiers and two workmen were killed. It
is supposed that two other men, one of them a stoker,
were also killed, as they did not appear when called en.
Two other stokers were seriously injured,