The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-04-07 00:00:00

LITERATURE

Works of Pope. A New and Illotrated Vdition
with Life, Notes, and Critical Notiees on each Poem.
By the 12isr. G. CRoz!y, LL.D. Vol. 'l. A. J. Valpy,

Landon.

We rejoice to see the "Bard of Twickenham" in his I
present attractive and popular form, as it will bb sure to I
place his wot ks in the hands of a multitude of readers.
Had Pope no other merit than that of being the model
of versification, we should be glad to. see him extensively
read. Poetry is too generally considered as the mere
impulses of an overflowing intellect; and hence the art
of writing poetry is neglected. No mere Mechanical
arrangement of words Rill ever suffice to make a goOd
poem; and, on the other iradd, no man, however highly
gifted, will write good poetry who does not clothe his
thoughts in fitting language. It is here that the works
of Pope are invaluable to the poetic .mind,,Jord to the
reading public at large, as they serve to &Rise a taste
for correct writing.
~
So much for the mechanical portion of Pope's works :
but he is also the great moral poet of mankind; and for
this noble title he posseksed;themost distinguished attri-
.butes. The strength iff'his phrases, the richness of his
style, his keenness Of thought, and a profusion of fitting
imagery, shed a charm over his pages, which 'renders
them irresistibly fascinating.; and though inferior 'in
force and originality to his great predecessor, " Glorious
John," the " High Priest of the-Nine," he was greatly
his superior in many respects; and they shine "twin
stars" of -an era rich in intellect.
;We do not know that the editing of Pope could have
been placed in better hands than in those of Dr. Croly.
To a perspicuous and manly style he adds an intimate
acquaintance with the genius and literature of poetry;
audthe present volume is, therefore, greatly enriched by
his labours.

IMPARTIAL VIEW, &c. OF MAYNOOTH COLLEGE,
B r BeGENE FRANCIS ii'BEIRNE, LATE STUDENT OF
MAYNOOTIL—DUBLIN : TIMS.

'Montaigne observes that the most crouching slave be-
-comes, when elevated to power, the most despotic ty-
rant. The great author of the Devil's Master-piece (as
Popery has been called with more homeliness than grace)
was not ignorant of the fact; and, preparing for the
erection of a spiritual despotism more rigid and cruel
than any civil tyranny which the world has ever seen, he
--takes-care that the administrators of his reign should be
duly qualified for the exercise of their powers. Popery
is Ithe same. all over the world ; we have little doubt,
therefore, that the code of discipline therein established
di&rS but.in local detail from that of the Sorbonne—the
"-universities of Seville and Salamanca, and the other
-schools of the Propaganda in which the art of domineer-
ing is experimentally, learned by the severest sufferings,
-under the severest submission. Judging, however, front
-the conduct and manners of the old continental priests,
.we should think that the order of things in foreign uni-
versities—though strict and rigid in most respects, was
either more humane, or more wisely adMinistered, than
• -that code of Deaca which We 'find embodied in the ap.-
pendix to the eighth report of the commissioners of
'lrish Education, under the heads of " STATI_TTA COL-
LEGII R. CATHOLICS APUD MAYNOOTII," and REGULA
PIETATIS ET DISCPLINX DOMESTIC/1: IN COLLEGIO R. C.
"SaNert PATRII;" and most fearfully exemplified, in all
its baneful effects, in the very able publication which is ,
now under our review. .No tyranny in the world was
ever more abominable—no sfaves ever kissed the rod
with more awful homage—no " swaggerino.upspring"
ever rose from the dregs of servility and baseness to a
greater degree of haughty and unfeeling despotism—
than that and those of the Royal College of Maynooth.
We have neither time nor space to accompany .Mr.
O'Beirne through the whole of his details, interesting
titatigh they be, and for the truth of which lie challenges
• time most minute-inquiry. But a few extracts will suf-
flee to show the-general character of the system, how ad-.
• mlrably it is calculated to its object—which to us appears
to be, not the formatiOn of accomplisl.ed seholars, or
sound,divines, or enlightened parochial pastors—hut a
-set Of-ministers bearing true and servile allegiance to the
pope, on the one hand—and "lording it over God's he-
ritage," the ,people, with equal craft and haughtiness on
the other.

•
" I will derminstrate," says Mr. O'Beirne, " that a system of
tyrannical misrule exists within the walls of the college, which,
while it tends 'to debase and degrade the minds•of the students,
and to render thorn in after tile the ready tools of any agitator
win chooses to tint an easy system of terrorism into practice,
sets the government of the country at defiance, and renders
most of ►ts measures nugatory iu spite .of the hundreds of
thou sands of pounds which it has improvidently lavished upon
that institution."

That which will strike most ?arsons with astonishment
is the rule of more than Phythagorean silence imposed
upon the Students:—

" Let me now sum up the periods of the day at which the
rule of silence does suit hold. - There are almost forty minutes
after breakfast, half an,hour after first class, an hour and ten
minutes after dinner, and about half an hour after supper.
These united periods make j oat two hours and fifty minutes. - So
that out of the twenty-four hours there are less than three grant-
,- ed,them for the exercise-of the faculty of speech ! When the
creator implanted that-glorious faculty in man, and imparted
to him, in that concession, a characteristic of distinguishing pre-
eminence over the brute, surely he did nut intend thathis handy
work should be thus disfigured. A heathen riter,•witli whom
every schoolboy is acquainted, knew how to appreciate:the dig-
nity of the human.mind,.and its handmaiden, speech,' and
dared it to be the bounden duty of every man to exert himself to,
the utmost • scat prreaCtre.cexteris aulmulibus,' and yet we'find
the professors of a cliristran creed enforcing with the-severest
:penalties a rule of discipline which makes ,the victims of their
poWer nu Leiter than brutes, for SEVEN-EIGIITIIS OF TliE DAY".I.'
—p. 41.

We need not go through (indeed, we would not for a
trifle) the literary and religious labours of the day; suf-
fice it to remark, with Mr. O'Beirne—
" That the multiplicity of exercises, religious and others,
through which the students have to pass during the course of the
day, ism) great, and attended by so much fatigue, that none but
the strong bodied PACO who have come just fresh from the Plough
azir the spade can endure the continued pressure of the rule of
rising. When.l observe, in addition, that there is no fire in
any of the students' rooms (with the exception of the few wbo
are on the Dunboyne establishment)—that they are never per-
mitted even to look at a fire, some idea may be formed of the
hardships which a person of delicate constitution undergoes, in
being forced to get out of bed in winter, morning after morning,
long before day-light, into"the celd damp air, where he must re-
main shivering until he has composed his bed, and swept the
_floor of the room with scrupulous exactness, and then must con-
tinue for the space of half an hour on his k,sees in a cold, dreary
prayer-hall, where there is net so much as a single stove !"
p. 3.
Wild -beasts-caged in a managerie enjoy -nearly as
much personal liberty as these -" free-born sons of free-
born men.': . Here is a specimen of moral restraint un-
paralleled, save within the pale of the church :
" Until within the last three or fear years they were allowed
to go to the FRONT. GATE of the college each morning after
breakfast, for the impose of transacting necessary business with
tradesmen, •washerwomen, &c., and
.of
,Making purchases of
books, pictures, articles of furniture, and Such other matters as
the fancy ofeach might suggest, reserving, however, a sufficiency
to keep their persons clothed, according to Maynooth fashion.'
All this business was transacted inside the gate, and a porter
was constantly stationed there, so that the egress of a student,
without permission, was impossible. The privilege of thus
transacting business at the gate for half an hour eaols morning
was considered a great convenience by the students. it was a
privilege, besides, looked upon as a PR ESCI: IPT IrE RIGHT, for it
had existed uninterruptedly from the foundation Of the college;
and vet * and **,asif to show that they piqued themselves
on the possession of a power so arbitrary, that unreilectiag
c:i PRICE was a suflicieut motive with them for its exercise, set
their positive interdict one fine morning' against any further
access of the students to the gate, except upon a siNG t,b: day of
the week. For this prohibition no motive was assigned; no
abuse was stated to have arisen out of the permission."—pp. 34,

The recreations of the students are thus comfortably
conducted. On one day of the week (Wednesday.) there
is generally a "public walk," upon which occasion "
considerable restraint is imposed on the students; and a
straggler is sure to 'be detected by the vigilant eye of
some monitor or spy, and when detected to be severely
:punished."
But the'daily recreation is the thing:— •
" The prescribed mode of employing the short,spnice of time
set part for after-dinner RECREATION Is walking on the college
corridors, or, in tine weather, on the walks set apart for excl.-
vise in ,tho college grounds. During wet weather, and, indeed,
during, a ~,reat part of the winter, the exterior walks (owing
principally to the low site which the college and its adjuncts oc-
cupy) are very unfit for walking vn the coldest and bleakest,
'days this walking is not only prescribed,l but commanded by;
the deans,•and, the luxury ota fire being altogether excluded.
fro-rn the aspirations of the students, theircondition, during this
period•of recreation, is frequently shivering and uncomfortable
to such a degree, that even the study-hall, with ite'strict
and those .nuisances springing front a bungling systemof warm-
ing the halls to which t have already adverted, is, in many
• cases, an escape from positive distress to comparative happiness.
Recreation then is frequently a sad misnomer for the hour after
dinner; and, as if to • ‘.pile the pyramid' of wretchedness, the
authority of the dean trinterposed even here, and recreation is
made a labour, performed in the midst of cold and ,discomfort.
The balls are kept diligently• closed under lock and key, or if
one of them were by chance left open and a few 'students, be-
coming aware of the fact, were to take the benefit of the heat by
- sitting in it after dinner, they would be dispersed in the twink-
ling of an eye, with a severe reproof, and compelled to terminate
their recreation by walking in the frosty air—with their toes and
:.fingers icy and chilblained, and ,their noses blue and frost-
bitten.
" But the restrictions on this' blessed recreation do- not end
here. To snake it still more unhappy, a frank and promiscuous
intercourse of the students wnh each other is prohibited. Those
who .came from the-sanie dincess are obliged to associate in
herds together. No matter how diametrically opposite may be
their mental qualities—no matter how stupid the mass, and how
gifted the two or three, or the. solitary one; each student must
Lerd with his diocesan;. A rigid scrutiny is constantly kept up,
for the purpose of securing an adherence to this most odious of

.
inandutes,• &c.
L 11e time which might he supposed to he the student's own
~.4-iViOsirriekt.hus, in many cases, the most irksome, perhaps, in the
__,/ -erftiKeAtily, ~, the role of silence ',mecums almost perpetual with
zrz -.. ':.--thir-lie Ivlri)., eing,hnt out of the society of congenial mints—of
being
~z.: -7,.1. :06:1 its of thought, whose manners and address re-
..— ~._.iii*ta'„t'Sst p.....wn, are thtust into an intercourse with perions,.
;,,ivto
?OR %tith s Isom they have but for ideas, and *hose
tiv,tnpie is the we Aber the detain of farmin, (,r the
N,--... .
4--
t 1 'fr' " ite 6111• ' ' a a d— 1
trifgr
.., s' . ,el4ces ur.a iniyovAuouiv,....e,e- ay, an unripe led
C .iii n.l.k.iita • • heir dreary rounds of
.the wrilks with closed lips
gti" .';
.::.12-4,1f ••tinZer the practical influence of a periiethallock-jaw.
t
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