The Press. — 1854-08-19 (London, England)

THE PRESS.  as Mr. Seymour very conclusively argues, how comes it that where Romanism prevails the civil institutions should be so defective ? In the foregoing table the returns from Belgium are perhaps the most striking. There the Roman Catholic religion flourishes in full splendour and under the most favourable aspects. The population is well fed, and the " dangerous classes " are comparatively small in proportion to those interested in property ; yet the average return of murder is nearly as great as in Ireland, with its pauper peasantry and its long-standing agrarian ferocities. The character of Italy has long been notorious for its murders, despite of its numerous convents. But the result of Mr. Seymour's investigations with respect to the sensual vices of Protestant and Romanist countries is still more remark able. After appealing to the Registrar-General's return to show that the numbers of illegitimate children for London are about four per cent., he adduces evidence to show that at Paris illegitimacy is about thirty-three per cent. on the population ; and, after dwelling on Paris, he proceeds to examine the state of Austria : I take the figures for England from " The Report of the Registrar-General for the year 1847," as it contains all the details as to the illegitimate births more fully than the ordinary abstract ; and I take the figures for Austria from the governmental returns in "Die Statistik des Osterreichen Kaiserstaates," as published by the Ministerial Secretary of 1852. I omit fractions. Protestant England. Roman Catholic Austria. Bristol & Clifton, about 4 per ct. Troppau about 26 per ct. Bradford 8 Zara Birmingham —6 Inn spruok —22 Brighton 7 Laibach 38 Cheltenham —7 Bruun —42 Exeter Lintz —4G Liverpool 6 Prague 47 Manchester& Self.— 7 Lemberg 47 Plymouth —5 Klagenfort —56 Portsea 5 Gratz 65  es 419 The grossness and sensuality of life at Vienna have long been notorious. There is probably no part of the world where physical gratifications are more indulged in than in portions of the Austrian dominions. The contrast upon illegitimate births that Mr. Seymour makes between Catholic Austria and Protestant Prussia is also very striking : In Roman Catholic Austria. In Protestant Prussia. Vienna • . 51 per cent Berlin .. 18 per cent. Prague .. 47 Breslau .. 26 Lintz ..46 Cologne • . 10 Milan .. 32 Kconigsburg .. 28 Klagenfort .. 56 Dantztc ..20 Gratz ..65 Magdeburg .. 11 Lembach .. 47 Aix la Chapelle 4 Laibach • . 38 Stettin .. 13 Zara .. 30 Posen .. 16 Brun .. 42 Potsdam .. 12  -- Such results cannot but be satisfactory to those who desire to see the cause of Protestantism maintained. There are periods in the lives of nations when the moral ascendancy of particular classes exist independently of any positive enactments in their favour ; and the moral superiority of Protestantism is written in legible characters in the condition of the countries where it prevails. Nor should we be surprised at such a result. A scriptural faith exercises the whole intellectual faculties of a mind. In the Bible and the history of the Apostles there are numerous passages which at once touch the heart of childhood, fascinate the imagination of ardent and impas• sioned natures, and exercise the profoundest faculties of the sage. In Popery the round of pantomimic ceremonies and the personal authority of the priest supersede the ennobling influences which invigorate free natures under the emancipating influence of Protestantism. Social conditions in Protestant countries, as everywhere else, may be exposed to the severe operation of the ordinance by which man must live by the sweat of his brow. There may be more cheap luxury and popular enjoyment in some of the Romanist countries, and, at a passing glance, a superficial traveller might conclude that life was happier than in lands where a severer morality prevails ; but man, as a being, is higher in the moral and thinking communities, which not only exhibit a purer mode of life but preserve it longer than where the lax morals and effeminate customs of Popery prevail. There is one fact attested by the history of Europe which is as remarkable as the statistics collected by Mr. Seymour, viz., that no Protestant country so advanced in civilisation as Spain was at the period of