The Sun.
London, England, 1829-03-28 00:00:00

away on them: The leaders of our sects, indeed,
have profited greatly by the Jesiiits. Barclay, who
gave a force to the unlinked doctrines of George
Fox, the founder of the Quakers, had the advantage
of an education in a Jesuit seminary. John Wesley
too, who was a diligent student of the Catholic
writers, took more from the Jesuits than his followers
would be willing to acknowledge. But for the mass
of the people—how can they possibly come in col-
lision Nv t h Jesuits ? It is unworthy of English
gentlemen to allow themselves to be led away by a
silly clamour against Jesuits, originating in the jea-
lousy which the superior merit of the Jesuits has ex-
cited against them among their rivals. At the time
when the Jesuits were cruelly and most undeservedly
persecuted, Frederick of Prussia,who had more confi-
dence in his infidelity than to be alarmed on account
of Jesuits, gave an asylum to them in his domi-
nions, and knowing that the Jesuits were unrivalled
us teachers, and that his Catholic subjects of Silesia
were very much in want of education, he eagerly
availed himself of the opportunity of settling them
in that country. Had he occasion to repent this ?
So far from it, the Silesians are now the most in-
dustrious and patriotic of the Prussians, and it was
the Silesian levies which first defeated the French
at Dennewitz and the Katzbach. Though the Be-
nedictines have perhaps produced more men distin-
guished for research (one single Benedictine Abbey
has produced more learned men than the whole
Church of England). Yet the Jesuits have been
the most distinguished of the Catholic Orders in all
branches of knowledge. This has stirred up against
them, in all times, a host of enemies, for it is the
lot of excellence to be envied and abused. English-
men have generally formed their opinions of them
from the accounts of their enemies; and on the
faith of the provincial Letters of Pascal, and'
other works of the same school, religiously be-
lieve that the Jesuits are the inventors of a
code of morality, calculated to destroy all con-
fidence between man and man, and the advo-
cites of assassination of Kings, &c. Justice be-
gins at length to be done to the Jesuits by im-
partial Protestant writers. :-tautilin, Professor of
Theology at Gottingen, in his History of Theo-
logy, observes, that the morality attributed to the
Jesuits is of a much older date, and that they merely
displayed more ability in reducing it to a system
than others. " Long (he says) before the origin of
the Order of the Jesuits, morality had become ex-
tremely corrupt. A dangerous casuistry had been
formed, which multiplied ad ilufnituin the cases of
conscience, and employed on them all the arts of
dietetics, sometimes solving them ambiguously,
sometimes improperly, and sometimes evading
them—cases which ought never to have been even
agitered, and which involved immorality. Already
Abelard had proclaimed the direction of the intent-
tion to be the chief object of morality in human
actions. Many schoolmen and casuists had laid
down the distinction between moral or philosophical
and theological virtues, whence followed, as a mat-
ter of course, the distinction between philosophical
and theological sins. Probabilist?: had made its ap-
pearance at the Council of Constance. The dangerous
distinction between venial and mortal sins had long
been common, and those who had attempted to rec-
tify the notions on this subject could boast of
small success. In the old casuists many seductive
questions and decisions occur respecting the breach
of chastity. With respect- to the allowableness
of murder in certain ease,a, many opinions of the
Fathers can be cited, and even many opinions which
were delivered at the Council of Constance. The
Jesuits, who were instructed by their superiors to
devote themselves diligently to the study of Chris-
tianity, and to distinguish themselves by the manner
of treating it, with a view to heighten the influence
and splendour of their order, found the impure ma-
terials already in existence, and in reality did nothing
more than deduce immoral consequences very logi-
cally from the doctrines previously adopted and
maietained, and merely by the ability with which
they handled the subject brought it more into no-
tice. They were more dextrous logicians and prac-
tised schoolmen than the rest of their contempora-
ries, and to their superior subtlety they owe their
bud reputation." Those who wish to judge impar-
tially of the Jesuits, as compared with other Catho-
lics, we would refer to the suppressed " Travels of
Ulloa," lately published in Spanish, by Mr. Barry,
an Irish gentleman, who had the good fcrtune to
obtain possession of the manuscript at Madrid. It
will be seen from that work, that wherever the Je-
suits established themselves, improvement rapidly
followed, and that they spared n' degree of la-
bour in their exertions to improve the South
Americans, while their own lives formed in every
respect a praiseworthy contrast to the lives of
all other Priests, regular or secular. In one re-
spect the merit of the Jesuits has never been ques-
tioned, namely, skill in education. Education owes
more to them than to all other orders of men, Ca-
tholic or Protestant, They it was who first made
education a regular and consistent science. They
are the authors of the science of forming teachers.
It is greatly to the honour of the Jesuits, that all
who have ever been educated by them retain through
life a warm gratitude towards their instructors. We
have extracted from the Freeman's Journal an ar-
ticle Hal; honoureble to the Jesuits at Clongowes,
income( h as it is a testimony to them (coin the Pro-
testant Gentry of the county. We are neither Ca-
tholics nor Jesuits; but we hate persecution, even
when Jesuits are the object of it; and cannot help
thinking that a British Parliament is lowering itself
exceediegly in exerting its strength to crush these
poor humble scholars. Better far profit by their
- •
labours. There ii no country in which the busi-
ness of education is so ill understoed us in this. - It
would be far better to send the Protestant Clergy
to the school of the Jesuits, that they 'night learn
from them how to improve education among our-
selves, than to crush a Society from whose example
we have not yet sufficiently profited. Let us learn
from the Jesuits how to make the most of the ad-
vantegee we Qwe to the Reformation, instead of
putting them down because they excel us in educa-
tion, ft is altogetl}era pitifulbusiness. England
afraid of JesoifS Chronicle.

If a General .Officer was sent to command an ex-
pedition, who, from age or infirmity, were unable
t 6 mount his horse, or in any other manner head his
battalion;; those at head-quarters would soon find it
necessary to supersede such an appointment, and
send a fresh Coxrivinder in his stead. What ap-
plies to military appointrepnts cannot be of less im-
portance in civil ones; and when the public hear, as
•
they <L repeatedly, of the course of justice being p,gt
only impeile.d, but, in a great degree, actually etiper,
ceded, by the pliyeieal infirmities of those on whom
the command of legal ei:ppdition falls, they have a
right to complain of such a stale pf things, and to in-
sist that it should not, year after year, its,, 41,awed to
contiioe, Overloaded, too, as our legal trill is,
with persere; every way qualified to succeed to
commissions the service, it is the more to
be lament that a false gieacy towards indivi-
duals should w0...k a ,Ilezree of injury ai;id injustice
towards the public, wh'ich .implies a "Tot of Oijart-7'
courage in some quarter or other', N'hicti ought no
to exist. What is the use of the Law Comir.,gion
if it does not inquire into the extent of evil which
exists under this head ? and what the use pf that
spirit of legal reform of which we hear so much, i;
it does not extend itself to the fountain head ? We
mean no unkind allusion to any individual; but, on
the other hand, we deprecate mere personal feelings
of an opposite description entailing so severe a too:
and hardship upon the community, and in the end
conferring neither benefit nor honour upon the indi-
viduals themselves.—Morning &raid:
The Committee of Licensed Victuallers, ap.-
pointed to inquire into the best mode of procuring
relief from the annoyance of those who lay informa-
tions against them, on account of not having a
licence for the performance of music in their howea,
have at length determined oo bringing the subject
under the cognizance of Mr. Peel, by means of a
pe-
tition with which they have entrusted the Lord
Mayor. This is a most proper and judicious pro,
ceeding; and it is to be regretted that it was not