liked to have lived in the era of the Catacombs, but he forgets that if there were primitive and not Roman Catholic Christians martyred by Pagans, there was also a Romanist era of "acts of faith”—an era of Dominicans and Franciscans. Would he have liked to have lived at that era? Romanism and the middle ages knew no right but that of force. They struck with the sword, and will perish by the sword. A revolution, of which we all constitute a part at once philosophical, political, economical, and social, separates the present from the past. The very gate which closed every night the Ghetto of Rome, and separated the Jews from the world of the living, is broken down. So it is with other tyrannies over mind and body, and it will be as easy to restore the infallibility and omnipotence of the Pope as to bring back the era of the Catacombs and of the Inquisition. Even Rome, the eternal and the all-wise, has, according to our author, its faults. It is essential in politics to make people believe in a secret which has no existence. Mystery has always been a means of domination at Rome, and hence the abhorrence entertained of all critical spying into the emptiness of a magic word which derives its whole power from credulity fascinated by the love of the marvellous. "Confession and absolution of sins" are, it has been observed, "the greatest arcanum imperii by which to rule the world, than all the means hitherto invented by statesmen put together." The mystical name of Rome should, our author says, be light! "Light constitutes the real strength of civilised people." This is a truism, but it is questionable if light would be favourable to a power which has just been described as existing solely on a mysticism. "Let," our author goes on to say, " that ignorant crowd of monks, whom idleness as much as faith takes to the monasteries, devote their lives to the great human family, whose duties they have evaded and whose joys they have repudiated. They say they love God, and sacrifice themselves to that love. Let them prove it!" Further, let Rome throw her doors open to the savans, the literary and distinguished men of all countries. Cardinal Gonsalvi first understood that Rome, so rich in art and all the elements of intellectual taste, belongs to the world, and while its galleries are opened its hearth should not be fenced off from the visitor. Again, not only is there no society at Rome for the stranger, but the Roman is always intensely ignorant of all that is said, written, or done outside of its walls. This is in accordance with the principles of a Church which dreads light! And yet, being a "universal Church," how can it rule over the world of which it knows nothing? "To pray is much, but prayer alone does not suffice when we represent the wisdom of God here below." Rome, our author finally insists, ought to attract all the mind, all the intelligence of the world, to herself; she ought to be as a centre from whence terrestrial light and truth shall radiate just as divine light and truth do. "The day when Rome shall have so willed it, the reign of God will have begun on our dear planet." This is pleasant to contemplate-pleasant as a canvas of Domenichino's. But, alas! is terrestrial light and truth compatible with confession and absolution, with indulgences and pardons, and the very antithesis of a moral and intellectual state of society-monasticism and conventual life—or with human infallibility? Light and truth, as preached in the Gospel, are, indeed, utterly incompatible with the system and pretensions of the Church of Rome, and hence the very means proposed by our Ultramontane author to preserve it would inevitably hasten its downfal. says: Mr. Weld, after noticing historically the different Italian academies, 66 "A Galileo or a Cési would not now, it is true, be persecuted by the Inquisition; but there is no freedom of thought, espionage exists, and men's motives are questioned. Any money granted by government for scientific purposes is placed in the hands of the Jesuits; and thus science, which in England and France progresses, if not quickly, at all events steadily, in Rome is nearly at a stand-still." Even the InstitutoArcheologico confines its labours and researches entirely to Pagan archæology, apprehending that if it entered the field of Christian archæology the members would speedily find themselves in hot water. "The interpretation of Christian records by German philologists and antiquaries would assuredly often jar with Papal infallibility, and thus the Prussian Instituto-Archeologico wisely avoids this dangerous ground." So, also, of literature; what between the books denounced and prohibited, and the little inclination for reading among the Romans themselves, scarcely any resources of the kind are to be met with in Rome. Of magazines there are none; and the same may be almost said with respect to newspapers. To be sure, there is the Giornale di Roma and the Osservatore Romano, considered the Papal paper; but it is almost a farce to call these newspapers, their size being eighteen inches by twelve inches, the news bald and stale, local intelligence (excepting that connected with the Pope) nil, and the advertisements generally limited to two. If you pay a visit to a Roman, you will scarcely ever find a book on his tables. What works are to be found at the booksellers' nearly all treat of archæology, hagiology, and theology. The "Index Expurgatorius," established by Alexander V. to screen a corrupt government from hostile criticism, has not only effectually blighted Roman literature, but all taste for reading. This is precisely what a priestly government likes. Even in the instance of the expulsion of Mr. Home from Rome, Mr. Weld remarks: "The Church of Rome, though ranking among its members believers in miracles, performing Madonnas, and the healing power of saintly relics, will not allow thaumaturgy to be practised by laymen within its dominions." Mr. Weld's work is indeed the very antithesis of that of the anonymous French Ultramontane. Full of useful, desirable, and pleasant information, conveyed in the most simple and agreeable manner possible, the writer was not, at the same time, blind to the only infallible thing about the Papacy in the present day, and that is its decay as a worldly insti tution. On arriving at Civita Vecchia, he found the most noteworthy "lion" of the place to be the so-called miraculous picture of the Virgin in the church, denounced by Il Lampione of Florence as a vulgar imposture! He, too, on crossing the Campagna by rail (how could such a thing as a railroad be allowed to penetrate into the dark abyss of priestcraft and superstition?), saw "the grand grey oxen which gaze so curiously with their lustrous eyes at the passenger," and he too was spell-bound by " that fascinating though fallen city," whose name cannot be heard without emotion. Mr. Weld had been there before, and he found Rome as noisy The only pro and as dirty as ever, but no longer so cheap as it was. gress visible was a new column on the Piazza di Spagna, commemorating the dogma of the Immaculate Conception-a dogma which, curiously enough, is derived from the third chapter of Muhammad's Koran. (Dean Stanley, Lect. on the Hist. of the Eastern Church, p. 312.) There was still scarcely a day on which the images of one or more saints were not set up, the adoration of which was justified by Gregory II., A.D. 715, and which is yet, as Mr. Weld remarks, "entirely opposed to the pure and simple doctrine of the early Christians." There are fifty priests, Mr. Weld tells us, in the great asylum of lunatics at Aversa, near Naples, "who are said to be mad on account of the temporal power and its abuse by the Pope, and who would doubtless raise their hand against the Pontiff if opportunity presented, and so his Holiness does not go abroad without armed men at his side." Mr. Weld says of the cardinal-secretary, who is generally known on the continent by the name of " Satan," "Lofty as are the apartments of the cardinal-secretary in the Vatican, they are still within earshot of the wail that goes up from oppressed Romans. Dropping metaphor, be sure that he is well aware that just as the ripple is the parent of the wave, so the low murmurs that disturb the political atmosphere of Rome may be the prelude of the coming storm. Should it break, will he flee before it? To Antonelli, far more than to Pius IX., may the wrongs and oppression from which the Romans are suffering be ascribed, and should a day of reckoning come, this will be remembered against him. In the mean while, from his lofty eyrie in the Vatican we fancy hearing him exclaim: Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch Of the ranged empire fall!-Here is my space." Notwithstanding that Papacy is on the wane at Rome, a general belief prevails there, Mr. Weld tells us, that before long all the clergymen of Great Britain will abjure Protestantism. This at the very time that the same writer expresses his belief that the doctrines concerning "purgatory, pardons, worshipping, and adoration, as well of images as of reliques, and also invocation of saints," properly regarded by Protestants as "fond things vainly invented," are losing hold over many Roman minds. "But," he adds elsewhere, "is the Pope infallible? Assuredly not to a man, though tiara crowned and attired in gorgeous robes, and calling himself the successor of St. Peter and Vicar of Christ, will the Protestant look for the solution of those high questions which affect the salvation of his soul, but rather to that sacred volume which, in the words of Locke, has 'God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture of error for its matter."" Writing of the Catacombs-the subterranean cemetery of the primitive Christians and martyrs-Mr. Weld justly remarks that they possess peculiar interest to Protestants. "For, while the walls and roofs of the galleries and cubiculi are covered with figures, always symbolical of the Christian faith-such as an anchor, for hope; a stag, signifying the aspirations of David; a ship, emblematic of a church; a horn, strength in faith; a hunted hare, persecution; a fish, in Greek, the anagram of Jesus; a peacock and phoenix, resurrection, &c.-no example has been found of those ceremonies which, in the eyes of Protestants, deform the Roman Catholic religion. The early Christians, receiving their faith from the Apostles, regarded God as a Spirit, and worshipped him in spirit and in truth; looking to our Lord Jesus Christ as their Redeemer." The result of Mr. Weld's conversations with Roman gentlemen of the liberal party, was to impress him forcibly that the present Papal government is greatly abhorred; that the same abhorrence is felt for the priesthood, as a body, that the French are almost equally disliked, and that Garibaldi and Mazzini are idolised. "It is quite unnecessary," he adds, "to detail the reasons why the Papal government is odious to Romans generally; abuses are so numerous, corruption among officials so common, that justice is a mere farce." "Can we wonder," he exclaims elsewhere, "that a government like this should arouse hatred, wrath, and indignation? And these feelings rage all the more strongly, seeing that the government is in the hands of the priests. Fearful, indeed, will be that day should the contemplated changes in Rome fail to satisfy the legitimate expectations of the people, and an opportunity be afforded them of avenging the injuries that they have received from the Vatican!" "Italian unity," he adds again, "cannot be a political fact as long as a French soldier is quartered in Rome; at the same time, it is very questionable whether, when the terms of the Convention are acted upon, and a portion even of Napoleon's troops are withdrawn, Romans and others may not, with an impatience which there is reason to fear will greatly injure their righteous cause, rise and endeavour at least to strike off their chains, which otherwise would probably fall off without revolutionary force. For my own part, I have no hesitation in declaring, from what I heard and saw at Rome, that there are thousands of Italians who are ready to rise when opportunity offers, and act, if necessary, on the noble lines of their poet : Liberty smiles on daring hearts, NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. INDIA IN ITS RELATIONS TO EUROPE.* "THOUGHT," says a French essayist, "is a fatigue or a grief, the object of which is to revive the image of a fugitive Eden, the ideal of happiness, or the ecstasy of passion." Thought, in a more practical view of the matter, is the effort to trace events to their causes. It is the highest prerogative of humanity, and hence it is that we always hail a thoughtful man as one of the elect. How many strange events are being daily enacted around us, and how few care to fathom, deeply and carefully, the more obscure and less apparent causes which have combined to bring them about! The President of a mighty republic is carried away by the hand of an assassin. The felon was a rabid secessionist, people say, and are satisfied-just as if there had been no supersession of republican liberties in the North-no other causes in action. Dozens of European nationalities vex and chafe to the chronic disgust of quiet-loving optimists; but is their condition such as is calculated to allay national irritation, or to ensure obedience to the laws of a foreign power? There is evil abroad in the world, however little it may suit some dispositions to admit the fact. Evil is as old as man, and the Book of Job is the first protest known against the misfortunes of honest people and the triumph of evil-against, in fact, the moral government of the world. China, Hindhustan, Assyria, Bactriana, worshipped and doubted not. It was held as certain that God punished the wicked and rewarded the righteous. No one could question the judgments of God. An Idumean was the first to suggest the same doubts which have now and then surged to the surface from the times of Sophocles to those of Goethe, Pascal, and Voltaire. Job, a just and pious man, was struck down by misfortunes; he rebelled and was corrected, but before he bowed to the antique doctrine of necessity and optimism, he asked the imperishable question, Whence comes evil? and he further put that last question, whence according to thoughtful men human perfection can alone be sought for: "If evil exists, is it lawful to signalise it in order to correct it ?" All religions and all doctrines have sought to resolve the question, Whence came evil? The East has ever denied it. Man, nature, the world, are the admirable works of an ineffable Creator. The Vedas make optimism spring from the pure simplicity of pastoral life. The Chinese, according to Meadows, say man is excellent in his nature, the family is Voyages d'un Critique à travers la Vie et les Livres. Par Philarète Chasles, Professeur au Collège de France. Orient. Paris: Didier et Cie. June-VOL. CXXXIV. NO. DXXXIV. K |