From The Press.

THE CHURCH OF ROME, HER PRINCIPLE,

AND MODERN EUROPE.

of ascendency, is a fate which of all men a Roman Catholic priest is least able to digest. No wonder, therefore, that the Romish THE Catholic priesthood is now bestirring priesthood takes to opposition in Hungary, itself with unwonted activity. In Poland and, with its wonted skill in making use of their energy is so great that the best authori- any instrument which may be at hand, stimties concur in assigning the adhesion of the ulates the revolution to prevent the estabCatholic priests to the revolutionary move-lishment of parliamentary government in ment as the reason which induced the Rus- Austria. We know in England only too sian Government to declare a state of siege. well how manifold, how varied in form and Count Montalembert intimates that the pop-direction, the opposition of Catholics to ish clergy are pledged by principle to take equal rights and constitutional rule can be ; a part in asserting what is regarded as the and it can afford little pleasure to any Enright of their country; and that a certain glishman who seeks the triumph of a moderspiritual character has been impressed there- ate responsibility to public opinion throughby on the National party which is lifting up out the world to be told that Catholic its head against the Russians. It has long clergymen are busy in fomenting resistance been known to the world that in Austria the in Hungary. Romanist clergy have wielded a vast politi- France tells the same tale. The Catholic cal influence over the administration of that priesthood were among the most resolute nation. The Concordat was their work, and opponents of Louis Philippe's Government, it would be a miserably narrow view to take and the most efficient causes of its downfall, of that great contract to suppose that it The priesthood was overthrown indeed in merely regulated spiritual relations between the ruin which it had done much to produce; the priestly army distributed over the empire but its vitality was far from spent ; and the and their chief at Rome. All the political Government of the second of December was festivals and demonstrations among the pre-eminently its child. But for the Romish Tchecks manifestly attest the existence of a clergy Louis Napoleon would probably have clerical element; the same holds good of never occupied the throne of his uncle; Galicia and Croatia, and to some extent also certainly he could not have maintained himof Hungary. The rise of constitutional self on it. But he who consents to be freedom in Austria can be anything but a served by Rome must do the behests of welcome occurrence to the Romish clergy: Rome. Generous war for ideas, irrespecfor, though the Church of Rome has exhib- tively of results, is assuredly a principle ited the most wonderful power of accommo- which has never acquired credit with the dating itself to any outward circumstances Vatican. The irresistible course of human -being aristocratic among aristocracies, and events has set the Government of the Secin Australia and America democratic among cond Empire in array against the interests democracies-its essential principle is too of Rome; the stream of political life has plainly despotical to make itself feel com- taken a bend; it has started from the civil pletely at home except in a purely organized bank and made a deep indenture in the ecdespotism. A nation governed by a court, clesiastical. The consequences immediately and Catholic influence supreme in that court, declared themselves; and a compact phais the true type of political government lanx of Catholic priests, headed by bishops which Rome would, if she were able, bestow of admirable intrepidity, have taken the on every section of the human race. The field in open rebellion against a despot whose recent decrees of the Emperor of Austria will knows no limits. The Spanish clergy have inflicted terrible blows on the domina- have felt the wave; and, stimulated by a tion of the Catholic clergy in his empire: peculiar grievance of their own, are rising their pre-eminence is gone, all creeds enjoy to the same tide-level with their Gallican equal rights, and a toleration is established and Austrian brethren. The Church still which Locke himself would admit completely retain large territorial possessions in Spain, realized his idea. To have been so all-which the tendencies of the nineteenth cenpowerful so few years ago, and to be com- tury are prompting the constitutional Govpelled now to accept equality in the place ernment of Madrid to invade; the opposi

tion of the priesthood is becoming equally decided, and Carlist pretenders feel their hopes to revive.

to the Temps, is exhibiting some of the spirit which characterized his day. Whilst neology has wellnigh spent itself out in Germany, and in England doctrinal discussions have almost ceased amongst even the clergy, in France a very marked disposition has arisen to examine religious questions, and to pass its leading dogmas under review. Religious questions are forcing themselves into every branch of literature, and to no small extent into journalism; and at this moment there

It is scarcely necessary to say that in Italy the Catholic clergy are drawn up in masses on the field of the battle; the citadel of their mighty association is menaced; they have the colors, the centre, the life itself of their host to guard. Rome reduced to a spiritual power, shorn of every right of sovereignty, dwelling under the shelter of civil rule, and a stipendiary with a precarious is no question so interesting to the public as salary, whatever she may be for her members in foreign lands, is doubtless a ruined, paralyzed, stripped, and decaying wreck for the once proud priests of Italy. That they should struggle to avert such a doom, may be lamentable, but is natural; no body of men with such an interest at stake could do otherwise than resist to the death. Italians fighting for the Papacy fairly merit a sympathy very different from the feeling with which Romish priests in other lands combat against the rights and liberties of their fellow-countrymen. They would have been stronger in public opinion, had they been able to understand the distinction between civil and ecclesiastical rule; had they reserved absolute doctrines for the Church alone, and in temporal matters recognized that responsibility to the public welfare which cannot be neglected with impunity in the nineteenth century.

The Papacy, too, begins to experience some of the contingencies of war. For many years the unity of the Catholic clergy has deserved the admiration even of foes; they have stood man to man in close union in defence of the Pope. But as the contest advances differences disclose themselves; patriotism and the voice of reason will make themselves heard in some consciences; and the Pope has to find that a Passaglia may become one of the most annoying and damaging of antagonists. He has been sorely ruffled by the untoward event; the last Allocution bewails in terms of acute anguish the defection of some of his own sons, in their perversion by the devilish spirit of godlessness and rebellion. A split among the clergy would complete the ruin of the Holy See, and it is an occurrence which has often disclosed itself in history. The symptoms, moreover, in other lands are extremely unpleasant. The country of Bossuet, according

the inquiry whether M. Guizot is a Catholic or a Protestant. Jansenism is not forgotten amongst French descendants from the seventeenth century. Gallican liberties are talked of, and even an appeal to a general Council has already begun to be whispered. The Tuileries are driven by the course of events to break with Rome; and there is sagacity enough in the Nephew to avoid the rock on which, more probably than on any other, the fortunes of the Uncle were shipwrecked, and to sustain a contest with the Church of Rome on some other than principles of pure military despotism and self-will.

The revival

The Church of Rome seems to have overstood its day in its relations to the French Empire; yet what other course but resistance was really practicable? What do these stirring movements of the Catholic priesthood in every State of Europe indicate? What feeling do they spring from? What events do they portend? These are very solemn questions for the future welfare of the world. To us these agitations reveal another of those periodical convulsions, those dying struggles we almost venture to say, which have befallen the Church of Rome since she came into collision with the fundamental principles of the modern life of the world. of letters, still more the advances of physical science, have attacked the essence of the Romish system at its very heart; they are drawing its life-blood, and, to our mind, history exhibits a death-bed of four centuries. The cardinal principle of authority is in direct and hopeless contradiction with the fundamental elements of the human mind, and their development in recent times. It is impossible that any creed, any system of opinions, can permanently exist on the condition that men are not to think. The canker attacked the root of that principle at the Reformation, and the tree has been steadily

recess. The growth of modern life is most unequal in its several parts. But the principles of the Romish Church are attacked by an enemy little thought of, a foe possessed of a force as unrelenting as it is mighty, a power which no art or cunning can resist. The railway is attacking Rome, and Rome is dying of the railway. No force known to man can compete with the railway in powers of penetration: the strongest Armstrong gun possesses the range of a baby in com

decaying ever since. There are rights of tional prejudices, ancient customs, obstinate authority to which the highest and the most beliefs: it takes a very long space of time questioning intellects will ever readily sub- before the light of advancing knowledge and mit. The man who knows most about any-intelligence can penetrate into every dark thing-the astronomer on the motions of the stars, the sailor on a navy, the physician on medicine, and, we willingly add, the learned divine on theology-must ever carry greater weight than he who is ignorant; his assertions will be received with deference by those whose knowledge stands far below his own. Equally so, the most soaring intelligence among men will bow willingly to the declaration of revealed religion, if he believes that there is such a thing as revelation: he will accept information which flows from a knowl-parison with it. The great civilizer which edge which transcends his own. But in these cases there is no claim set up for that peculiar kind of authority demanded by the Church of Rome, and too often covertly insinuated by some of our clergy. In all, there is a distinctly implied admission, that it is to superior knowledge alone that reverence is paid; and that the humblest of the sons of men may at any time challenge the excellence of that knowledge, and, if successful, may destroy its claim to superiority altogether. Even a Newton may be proved erroneous; and the most scientific mind of our day may receive endless refutation in the next. The Papal Churchman and the infidel both combine in suppressing all notice of this vital distinction; the one, because he seeks to obtain for the assertion of one man or set of men an accuracy of thought and speech which we find differ's from that accorded to all other mortas; the other, because he is anxious to bring on revelation that discredit with which the false principle of authority is regarded amongst men of philosophical and intellectual ability.

George Stephenson created stands front to front with Rome, and is dealing out blows which will ultimately destroy its rival. For the railway makes man like to man everywhere: it searches out every dark corner, opens up every sheltered retreat, invades every clerical manor, strikes at every exploded idea, refutes with unanswerable logic every superstitious belief by the juxtaposition of light and knowledge, dissipates every cherished apprehension, sheds the rays of improvement on every antiquated district, and makes the glorious light of truth, knowledge, and heavenly hope known to every mind and heart of man. Here is the secret of the energetic action of the Romish priesthood: their flocks are departing, because an attractive force of immeasurably higher power is incessantly acting on their understandings.

We do not say that the victory will be gained all at once: the hold which the past ever has on human affection is far too strong for that. The expiring flame may often flicker in the lamp; the receding tide may ever and anon send back some rolling wave The principle, then, of the Church of Rome, of gigantic violence, that seems to threaten we say, is in direct collision with the essence the whole shore. But the triumph must be of modern civilization; and the ultimate is at last with the permanent force-Reason, sue is certain. There is no possibility of centious, extravagant, hasty, and presumpin the long run, must win the day. Not li going back to absolute dogmatism in any tuous intelligence; but the truth of things, department of human thought: Rome may the reason which sees and knows, the intelbe swallowed up in civilization, but civiliza- lect which obeys to superior insight wheretion cannot be swallowed up by Rome. The ever found, which submits with free will, laws of the mind of man are indestructible ever ready to challenge, but equally ready and irresistible: all that opposition can do is to reverence the voice of superior labor and to retard their discovery and their rule. The mass of men who compose Europe has been for ages divided into every variety of development,-of information, local habits, na

information,-like the sunflower ever turning its countenance to the illumination of God's light, and equally consenting to be warmed and vivified by an influence which is not her own.

From The Saturday Review. | those who live in the world consists in habitual CONVERSATION. readiness to talk or to be talked to on any rational subject. A lively intellect, combined with a sociable disposition, may attain a similar exemption from awkward narrowness, but the native inhabitants of the upper world were free-born.

TALKING is not a sufficient occupation for a life, but it is the best of all recreations or subsidiary employments, and a master of the art possesses the most useful and enjoyable of accomplishments. Even for his own special purposes, the professed talker ought to cultivate independent pursuits and interests. A mere idler in society loses the earnestness which forms the unseen basis of good conversation, and he is certain to fall into some of the innumerable mannerisms which beset the pertinacious votary of a single study. Sir Walter Scott said, after a course of London dinners, that the bishops talked better than the wits, and the lawyers better than the bishops. He was probably prejudiced in favor of his own profession, or the lawyers of the present time have degenerated; yet the comparison may have been so far just that the wits talked for the sake of talking, while the Law and the Church had something to talk about, and made conversation their pleasure instead of their business. In tact, in ease, in versatility, and in all other external conditions of agreeable intercourse, the class which calls itself society has an undisputed pre-eminence over the more laborious and active sections of the community. The occasional frivolity or dulness of Belgravia and Mayfair may, in some degree, be attributed to the abundant leisure which is most commonly found in the higher ranks. It is, however, happily not the fashion for the favorites of fortune to live in utter or ostensible idleness; and political life furnishes some of the leaders of society with a serious and worthy employment. Where a statesman happens, like Mr. Canning or Lord Melbourne, to be also remarkable for intellect and wit, he probably carries the art of conversation as far as its nature permits. The mere diner-out, even if his anecdotes and humorous turns are in themselves equally meritorious, trifles and banters, and discusses and narrates, with less authority and effect. In general, however, the best talkers of the best society are imported from its outskirts. They bring with them the originality and vigor which are not always nursed in the purple, and they find in the unprejudiced and polished circles which receive them an incomparable audience. One of the chief elements of superiority possessed by

Good talkers may be found in all educated classes, and the benefits which they confer on their fellow-creatures can scarcely be overrated. Many a happy husband and father, with his affectionate wife and thriving children around him, suspects, though he scarcely ventures to utter the heresy, that domestic life is a bore. It is pleasant enough to combine amusement with instruction in daily intercourse with the boys and girls, and a judicious wife may keep, for the most part, in decent obscurity the petty vexations of the servants' hall and the nursery. The man, however, who depends on children for society feels a void like that of a dairy-farm deprived of its due supply of super-phosphate. The process of giving everything out and taking nothing in can only end in exhaustion. The faithful partner of his affections may perhaps not be qualified to supply his intellectual craving, and if opportunity favors, a prudent regard for domestic happiness will at last drive him from home. The stupidity engendered by seclusion weighs upon the spirits and irritates the temper. It is better even to indulge moderately in neighborly scandal than to brood over family grievances; but real conversation is infinitely preferable to personal gossip, and those who propagate among their friends the habit and faculty of social thought are true missionaries of wisdom and of civilization. The best talkers, like the highest adepts in every art, are born with peculiar gifts; but their aptitudes may be cultivated by reflection, by observation, and especially by varied practice. Young men seldom talk well, but it is fortunate that they are not conscious of defects which might oppress them with unseasonable diffidence. They are generally positive, and if they are well-informed they are almost always pedantic. Their humor is conventional and lumbering, their philosophy displays itself in its processes instead of its results, and they have not yet mastered the resources of colloquial language. Yet those who are afterwards destined to excel in conversation possess the essential qualities of

gayety, of intellectua. openness, and of orig- | centricities of persons, but in the long run inality, which must be genuine although it they will be found far less tedious.

may be shallow. As their company is acceptable to one another, and still more agreeable to young women, the impatience with which masters regard the bungling of apprentices is not provoked by constant collisions.

The faculty of telling stories is popular and tempting; but it is rarely connected with the highest powers of conversation. Sir Walter Scott, who had an inexhaustible store of excellent anecdotes, was not considered a successful talker. Clever narratives, however, are generally acceptable at ordinary dining-tables, where anxious hostesses are sometimes contented if they can hear the sustained sound of the human voice. If sto

The aspirant to social success ought to avoid or postpone the choice of any special and limited department of conversation. A talker of the highest order ought not to encourage the expectation of squibs and crack-ries must be told, it is a universal and infalers as often as he opens his mouth. It lible rule that they cannot be too short. The should rather be his object to wait for occa- preliminary introduction or caption may alsions, to consult the tastes of his compan- most always be spared, for it is not material ions, and to deal willingly and readily with that the heroine of the story was the histoany topic which may command a temporary rian's grandmother, or that the unfortunate or accidental interest. A gentle firmness of butt was an acquaintance of his wife's uncle. manner, an unaffected simplicity of charac- It is better to say that an old woman or a ter, and, above all, a genial and eager en- country squire experienced the adventures, joyment of social intercourse, predispose all which derive no additional interest from the hearers to appreciate humor and concentrated deduction of a pedigree. Anecdotes interthought. It is by no means necessary to spersed with general remarks are more efpossess profound or extensive knowledge, fective than when they are strung together though the most recondite and out-of-the- in unintermitted series. The human mind way attainments may, in skilful hands, be- tires of sameness, even when all the compocome available for purposes of conversation. nent items in the catalogue are amusing. In A quick and intelligent mind seizes the sali- narration, as in discussion, it is important. to ent points in all subjects of discussion or al- remember that monotony is most objectionalusion, and to careless observers a good talker ble in the minor details of conversation. will often appear thoroughly familiar with Long sentences are even worse than long some unknown branch of learning, while he stories; and a professed bore may be recoghas himself never consciously attempted to nized by the prolix subdivisions of a speech conceal his total ignorance. It is indispen- which might in itself have been almost ensable to good conversation that every word durable. A strain on the attention is alshould have a meaning, and yet, that all ways unwelcome in seasons of recreation; heaviness and obscurity should be avoided. and when the conclusion of a sentence is anStudents of the art, even when they have at- ticipated some seconds before it is reached, tained the requisite lightness and quickness, the hearer too often feels as if he were lisought to be on their guard against tricks tening to a sermon, without feeling himself and repetitions. Paradoxes and broad exag-called upon to practise the corresponding, gerations are legitimate forms of humor, but duty of patience. they become tiresome when they are too constantly introduced. Personal satire ought indispensable to a colloquial speaker as to to be sparingly employed, on the ground that, when it is too largely cultivated, it almost always degenerates into perceptible illnature. Many able men, in narrow circles, who began with an intellectual and amusing perception of the faults of their neighbors, become, by degrees, mere inventors or retailers of commonplace scandal. The oddities of things are less popular than the ec

Command of appropriate language is as

an orator or an author. It is, fortunately, impossible to use fine phrases and rhetorical circumlocutions in good society. The general dialect of conversation is simple, pure, and idiomatic; but, except under skilful treatment, it is often incorrect and rarely felicitous. A good talker finds the right word by an unconscious instinct, as a clever horse on a rough road always puts his foot in the