The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-27 00:00:00

GRATIS.

STATISTICS OF THE ORDER OF
THE JESUITS.

There has appeared at Leipic (says the Coast'tidies-
nel) a very interesting work on " the actual organisa-
tion of the Company of Jesus." The information which
it discloses (founded upon documents, says the writer,
which have been obtained for the major part at the price
of considerable sacrifices, which he was obliged to make
in order to secure their authenticity), upon the position
of the Jesuits in various parts of the work?, has never
before been published in so complete a form. The diffe-
rent establishments of the order are variously called.
There are the Houses of Profession, which possess no
property, and in which the father Jesuits—the professed
of the order, live in common. The Residences are esta-
blishments of less importance, and have the right of
possessing property. The Houses, properly so called,
are embryo establishments in countries where the Com-
pany has tried to penetrate. The missions are formed
by isolated Jesuits, who feel their e ay. A mission be-
comes by degrees, by the adjunction of new members, a
college, or a nursery, for the Company, or a home of
probation, or a residence. The seminaries are the spe-
cial establishments in which the Society gives its theo-
logical instruction. The members may be divided into
three great classes :-Ist, the Pri.sts, amongst whom
are all the professed ; 2d, the Scholars and the Novices ;
and 3d, the Brothers occupied in domestic services and
with the material cares of the establishments. In 1626,
eighty-six years after the foundation, and under its sixth
General, Mutius Vitelleschi, the Company reckoned 29
provinces in Europe, viz., 4in Italy, 2in Sicily, 1 in
Sardinia, 5 in Spain, 5 in France, 3 in Belgium, 1 in
Scotland, 1 in Ireland, 5 in Germany, and 2 in Poland.
Out of Europe it had established 5 residences in
the Turkish dominions, 2 provinces in the East
Indies, 1 in the Philippines, 1 in China, I in Japan,
and sin America. These provinces contained 803 esta-
blishments, thus classed :-26 houses of profession, 222
residences, 51 places of probation, 48 seminaries, 542
colleges, and 71 missions. The monopoly of teaching
was then almost everywhere in their hands by means of
the colleges. They had 108 colleges in Spain, 79 in
France, 91 in Germany, 36 in Belgium, and 29 in Po-
land. The number of members of the Company was
15,493, of whom 13,369 were in the provinces of Europe.
The order continued from year to year to progress. In
1749, they had 89 houses of profession, 669 colleges, Eli
places of probation, 176 seminaries, 335 residences, 273
missions. The personnel amounted to 22,589 members,
of whom 11,239 were priests. The documents relative
to the following years are not so complete. On the sups
pression of the order by Pope Clement XIV., in 1773,
most of those papers were destroyed. Notwithstanding
the Papal bull, the Society continued to exist openly in
Russia. The chiefs, in the interval. and urn-;ii 1805,
when the order was re-established by a bull of Pope
Pius VII., assumed (instead of the name " General")
the title of " Vicars-General in White Russia." It is
now forty years since the Company has been re-consti-
tuted in an official manner. Its progress was at first
slow and concealed. Towards the end of the Restora-
tion (of the elder Bourbons) the order was beginning to
raise its head and to assume the boldest attitudes ; but
the revolution of 1830 arrested it in its progress. It dis-
appeared again, waiting till the storm should pass away.
It soon resumed its confidence, and it now openly pro-
claims its intention to reassume all the influence which
it possessed in the days of its splendour. The check
which the popular will, energetically expressed, has just
made it undergo in France, will not discourage it, br
cause it to relinquish its projects. The struggle
will continue under another form. In ansi out
of Europe the Society of Jesus actually possesses
fourteen provinces—those of Roue Sicily, Naples,
Spain, Paris, Lyons, Belgium, Englan'd, Austria, Ger-
many, Ireland, Maryland, and Mtssouri. The order
reckoned in these provinces, on, the first of January,
1838, 173 establishments, and 3,067 members ; on the
Ist of January, 1841, 211 establishments, and 3,565
members ; on the Ist of January, 1844, 233 establish-
ments, and 4,133 members. Thus in the space of six
years there has been an increase of sixty establishments
and 1,066 members. In 1844 the increase was still
more rapid. In the seven provinces of Rome, Sicily,
Turin, Paris, Lyons, and Belgium, the only ones ;eon-
cerning which the official accounts has reached R,onse,
the or-der had an accession from the Ist o's. January,
1844, to the Ist of January, 1845, of 394 nisw members. Indeed the reception of new members 'clad become so
numerous, that Father Rothaan, t-, General of the
Order, has deemed it necessary, in a circular to the
provincials, dated March, 1844, to point out the dangers
of so rapid an increase. Ths, province of Rome reckoned, on the Ist January, 18,1 T,, 702 Jesuits. It is at Rome that
the Genera/ of the Order resides, and in that city are con-. centrated the ';,rincipal establishments. The Company
has there its more important house of profession, and a
college, specially destined to form priests for Germany.
It has besides, at Rome, a college and a residence; a
pke of probation, properly so called; a place of proba-
tion of the third degree; a school for noble boarders;
and a seminary where missionaries are brougbt up for
the Society of the Propagation of the Faith. The other
establishments of the province of Rotes are generally
colleges, by means of which the Jesuit have the complete
control of the education of the yosiths. In the province
of Sicily the order is most fiuussshing, as also in those of
Naples and Turin. In the province of Spain its estab-
lishments have been disoseanised by the political events
of which that country has been made the theatre. On the
Ist of January, 1845, there were 113 Jesuits located in
some of the large towns of Spain. There were besides,
90 Jesuits belonging to the same province, but they had
retired into other countries. This province pod.
sesses a college and residence at Nivelles, in
glum, and a residence at Aire, in France. This
province has, in South America, residences in
Paraguay, Uruguay, La Plata, the Bsazils, New
Granada, and Chili. The province of Plsris consists of
Paris and of the North of France. 011 the Ist of Janu-
ary, 1641, this province contained 291 Jesuits, and on
the Ist of January, 1845,420 Jesuits. It had residences
and seminaries at Paris, St. Acheul, Strasburg, Nantes,
and many other cities and towns. As the colleges
are not open to them in France, they found one at
tt,e very entrance of the kingdom, viz., at Brugelette,
in Belgium, and it depends on the province of France.
This province has besides missionaries in Canada.
and China, and two establishments in North
America. The province of Lyons comprises ttie
South of France. It contained 290 Jesuits in 1841, and
446 on the Ist of January, 1945. There were residences;
&c., at Lyons, Aix Bordeaux, and the princical towns of
the South. This province had also Jesuits Algeria,
and missionaries in the East Indies, its ite Island of.
Madura, on the north-east of Java, in Sy , and in Ma-
dagascar. The province of Belgium is one of the most
flourishing at this moment. Thera were 319 Jesuits in
1841, and 472 in 1845. They nave colleges at Alort,
Antwerp, Gand, Brussels, &c. &c., besides residences.
This province has missioiss in Holland, and also in Gua-
timala (recently suppressed). The province of England
comprised 140 Jesuit% in 1841, and 164 in 1844. They
have here 33 establishments, viz., houses, colleges, resi-
dences, or else simple missions. They venture to show them-
selves less openly in England than in other countries. The
colleges take here the names, not of the towns, but of saints,
such as St. Ignatius, St. Thomas of Canterbury, &c.
&c. Their principal establishment in the college and
seminary of Stonyhurst, in Yorkshire, where there are
20 priests, 26 novices, and 14 brothers. The province
of England has twenty missionaries at Calcutta. The
English Government protects them as well as the Pro-
testant missionaries, when they are able to serve its mer-
cantile views in that part of the world, and at this mo-
ment it is helping them to found a new college, specially
destined for China. The province of Austria had
268 Jesuits in 1841, and 310 in 1844. It has 'seri-
leges in various cities. The province of Germany
chiefly consists of Switzerland. There were several
Jesuits in 1841 in Bavaria. At Dresden, the con-
fessor of the late king was a Jesuit. Th's Company
of Jesuits is waiting for the time when it may under-
take the re-conquest of Germany, and it exercises mean-
while its influence in that country by means of the
German college established at Rome, for forming secular
priests to be spread throughout Germany, Hungary, and
Switzerland. Between 1822 and 1842, 125 of these
priests have been sent into Germany, and 64 into Swit-
zerland. The vice-province of Ireland reckoned 63
Jesuits in 1841, and 73 in 1844. They have in Ireland
three colleges. The provinoe of Maryland comprises
establishments in Colombia, Maryland, Massachussets,
and Pennsylvania. The numbers were 109 in 1841, and
121 in 1844. The vice-province of Missouri comprises
the establishments of Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, the
Rocky Mountains, and the neighbouring country. It
possesses the colleges of St. Louis, St. Charles, Scc.
The mission in the Rocky Mountains consists of live
priests and six brothers. Total number in this province
24 in 1841, and 139 in 1844. Such is the positiou of this
Society throughout the world.
- B

IN jilt'.
_ ItOGRESS OF RAILWAY
new railway rai-
MINGHAM.—Since our last number
and othersseera not very reinfitely
jects, many of them directly,
ofhave well known werdth and
under the auspices of names made their appearance,
connected with Birminghfa.guarantee for 'the bona
influence, affording
associated. The prospectuses
referred to
and othtrs of national
fide character of the anurnedaerrtakings with whir:h the gen-
tlement
of these nevi, companies,.
-day, and in
halPicl'efaeerllinngo,4arned°tutilPeli;esn:ral disposition
in railways, we know of no matter which.
l
will engross a larger share of atter.tion, or be perused with
totahnf the present
mal ni alittnret importance,
:Pe a
deeper interest by the commercial and monied classes in our
town and
has fa districl t. The " Raldway Fever," as it may be
, iry laid hold of Birmingham. All classes of
tradesmen, and all grades ar:a professions, are embarking their
disposable capital in them' adventures ; many with a view to
permanent investment, in local lines, but the greater number,'we
need scarcely say, with the object of reaping immediate
benefit by successful speculation. To all we would repeat the
caution which, we offered last week, look well to the character,
station, and, respectability of the parties whose names appear
in the undertakings in which you propose to embark your
money. We give in another column a short notice of the
new ]lnes which have made their appearance since our l;st,
and we shall continue our notices next week.—Birminghant
Journal.

A TOBACCO TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.—A Tobacco
Temperance Society has, it is announced by the Spanish journals,
been formed at Soria, the object of which is to pat an end tO.
smoking. Persons of all classes, who prove that they have,
been constant smokers up to the time of their applications to
become members, are admitted, and receive a tick at, eh
which is written, " Thou shalt smoke no more ;" ar,d every
infraction of this injunction is subject to a pratalty esC
13 maravedis (about 15 centimes). To insure the object
of the society. each member is bound to accuse another, if he bre al
the rule. Every meeting commences with a mutual inspection of
hands, pockets, and clothes, and an olfactory test of the breath, to,
be practised by each member upon his neighbour. The produce of AL.
tines is to be laid out in subscriptions for journals ; but as there,
yet only fourteen members, and the taste of the Spaniards for c /gr.,"
and cigarets is so dely rooted, it can never expected that 'j
number will be great' increased.—Galipumi,