The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-12-18
Father Hyacinthe.

New York is satisfied. Hardly had the
Richardson Mcfarland scandal begun to
die out, than new sensation was given il
by the French Charitable Society. Father
Hyacinthe's objections to publicity on this
side of the water, were overruled by bis
compatriots; he could not resist their appeal
for o lecture in behalf of the pOor-a lecture
which has been translated with various ap.
proximations to accuracy by the Metro
politan dailies.
The eloquent Carmelite was manifestly at
disadvantage He was suffering from
severe cold which seriously disturbed the
music OF his sonorous speech. He used
language unknown to a large part OF the
audience whom curiosity had allured to the
Academy of Music He was not familiar
with the operations of the society which he
had kindly consented to represent, and
hence wasted his strength in philanthropical
commonplaces. And, finally, he was erro-
neously suspected by some Of his over-sharp
critics, like the reporter of the Sun for in
stance, as foisting upon the assemblage one
of his old conferences, delivered il 1867, be-
fore the splendid assemblage OF Notre
Dame.
Yet, even that caustic censor could not
refuse him the tribute of admiration. No
doubt Hyacinthe has neither the scope, nor
the passion of Lacordaire. But he is bril-
liant orator Notwithstanding. If he deals
in commonplaces, he has the art of clothing
them with the air Of novelty. He has a
magnetic power over an audience, as Pres
sense, the most distinguished Protestant
preacher in France, testifes His firm per-
son, noble gestures, rapid, impassioned de-
livery and poetic style, explain the influence
which his liberal and semi-political dis
courses have exerted over the Partisan
mind Add to this 'the heart" of which he
discoursed so eloquently in New York, and
you have Michelet's Gaul, civilized-a
speaker, q man broad not deep, whole-soul-
ed creature, possessed by the influences OF
his age, and able to reproduce them better
than Lamennais and Montalembert, but with
out the power to analyze or explain.
When we consider the New York lecture,
and those more famous lectures OF 1867,
(Which we beg the New York Sun to read
again) we can form a tolerably accurate
idea of the man. He is by no means q
Luther. He is the precise opposite of q
Calvin-greatest OF the logical reformers.
He is sort of catholic Beecher, who en-
deavors to reconcile, in q vaguely philo-
sophie way, the conclusions Of the past, and
the aspirations of the present. He is q pu-
pill OF Lamennais, who yet refuses to break
with the church; who has his own way OF
reconciling democracy in politics with abso-
lutism in religion.
No one who has ever looked upon the
heavy-jawed, placid, beaming countenance
of Father Hyacinthe will confound him with
the martyrs of old. He advocates liberty of
the press, liberty Of conscience, liberty Of
worship; he opposes personal government
and the union OF Church and State in all Eu-
rope, except in Rome; he makes marriage q
duty TO God and society, except to the priest
hood; he makes the Pope supreme except
in the Syllabus of 1864, and except in
his control Of Father Hyacinthe; in word,
he seeks to reconcile the nineteenth century
and the middle ages. He accepts both. In
a word, his position is wholly anomalous.
And we see very clearly what the end must
be. Either he must break with his church,
as Lamennais did, or he must submit to the
Syllabus and the Gcumencal Council. He
is not the man to whom it is given to tra-
verse that bridge to heaven OF which Maho-
met speaks, that pcrillous passage whichis ass
thin as q spiders web and as sharp as the
edge Of sword
We have no idea what the Gcumenical
Council will do. 1t will be directed by the
most experienced statesmen confessors and
theologians-by casuists WAC lave tested
the individual conscience, and cardinals
who have felt the pulse Of nations. The
c0ngregated bishops of Catholicity will have
to deal with Gallicanism and with Fenian-
ism, with High Churchmen and with Bap-
tists-the extremes of the ecclesiastical
scale. They will not need to deal with
Father Hyacinthe; his case is already decid-
ed Deprived of a Partisan audience, he is
but the shadow OF great name.
LAND COMMISSIONER Leslie virtuously de-