Wilmington daily commercial., 1875-12-23
1frCTURE OF A SOUTHERN NATION OF
EUROPE.

EUhOEE.
We have already said that the Southern nations
of Europe are the debauched ones. This has
always been 80. 1t is according to all the truth
of history. The Northern tribes were rude, while
the Southern were yoluptuous; hence fell Rome
To point this contrast, at the present moment,
we may we'll take a description OF Portugal,
written by an intelligent Portuguese gentleman,
from Lisbon in September Of the present year,
and published in LippincoHs Magazine for Janu-
ary We need not dwell on the enormous natur-
al advantages of soil, climate, and productions
which warm and fertile Portugal possesses over
cold and sterile Scandinavia, yet contrasting its
social condition with that Of Sweden, we find
the former at disadvantage in every respect
The swedes are ge,leraly,if not highly, educated;
that is admitted, to begin on, by all sides; while
in Portugal, the public instruction is of the most
limited character. Now the authority We quote
describing with extreme sorrow, the degradation
OF his country makes the following statements.
fortifying them by abundant citations Of author
ities
l. That during the last hundred years, with
an average Of 250, 900 births per annum, the
population Of Portugal has not increased this
this fact being attributable to the enormous
death-rate Of infants, WHO die by neglect, star
vation or actual violence. 1.-THE crimes OF fosti-
eide and infanticide have become 20 common
that there is scarcely peasant woman in Por-
tugsl not guilty of them, either as principal Oh
accessory.
2. "Illegitimacy is more common in Portugal
than in any other country of Europe" Thif
fact can be proved, says this Portuguese writer
by comparing the figures Of marriages, births
and baptisms, but it is further shown by the
statistics OF the founding hospitals. Almos
every town or village in the kingdom has iti
rodd dos erpostos-literaly a wheel for exposed
ones-where the unfortunate babies may bt
placed in a turning basket or wheel, without dis
covery Of their depositors. One-eiglW, Of all th,
births that are reported in the Kingdom becom
foundlings while i" as for the non-reported one
their fate is known only to the recording angel.
Although the infants remain but shor
time in the founding hospitals, there are al
ways on hand in them 40, 600 infants, or one pc
cent OF the entire population of the kingdom
and further, despite their short stay, two third
of the infants die in the hospitals.
8. Public morality il frightfully degraded
The habit of promiscuous intercourse says
Portuguese authority, (Clandio Adriano de Cor
ta,) "has become common all over the country,
attributable. in his judgment to the indulgenc
of concubnage afforded by the secret roda c
the founding hospitals. In some districts tn
ratio of married to single persons was to l73
4. Not only is the country immoral, but vic
lent crime is terribly prevalent In one year,
the two districts of oporto and Guerda, ther
we're no less than three hundred and forty-tw
assassinations, and four hundred and sixty rot
berries ! ASSASSINATION" says McCuloch, g
common offence"
-Such.is the picture OF a Southern nation
Europe, drawn by one Of its own sons, writin
in grief and appealing to the hope Of bette
ment Here il an uueducated people, withot
schools, without general diffusion of INTEL
gence. In every respect its comparison vii
Scandinavia is disastrous to the uneducat,
country. One, within century, has sent oi
sweet singers like Jenny Lind and Christil
Nilsson has enriched the art treasures
Europe with sculpture like that OF Thorvaldse
and has added to the worlds literature such CO
tributions as those of Hans Christian Andersen
while the other has remained stagnant, dull al
voiceless, bound in the meshes OF ignorance a
prieatcraft. and lying, to-day, in moral degrad
tlon such as has just been described.