supplied with suitable maintenance in accordance with their dignity; it is now notorious to all, that on account of the public vicissitudes of affairs, and especially after the change of political power in those countries, those objects could not for a long time back be secured or obtained.

"These things are treated at large in Apostolic letters of our predecessors, Roman Pontiffs, and particularly of Gregory XVI., of happy memory, in his letter of the 24th April, 1838, which commences, Multa præclare, and we are not ignorant that you are fully acquainted with them.

"But now, when you are about to return to the island of Bombay, there to enter upon the discharge of the duties of Vicar-Apostolic, we have judged it opportune, Venerable Brother, to signify to you that we lately received a letter written in that island on the 1st February, 1848, in the Portuguese language, and subscribed by about two hundred and twenty-five Catholics, in which they complain very much of the erection of Vicariates-Apostolic in the East Iudies, and especially of the above-mentioned letter Apostolic Multa præclare, and they implore the restoration of concord, which they lament to have been destroyed after the promulgation of that Apostolic brief.

"We wish those Catholics, in whose name that epistle was written, to be informed by you, that we received it, and accurately weighed its contents; that we indeed embrace them in Apostolic charity, and cordially impart to them the benediction of Almighty God; but, at the same time, we have not been able hitherto to find out any reason for satisfying their wishes for the recovery of concord, unless they obey St. Peter speaking through the Roman Pontiff, and make an end of resisting what the Holy See has decreed in support of religion. We desire them to remark that the circumstances are not changed which moved the Apostolic See, after diligent consideration, to take the advice, of which there is mention in the so often quoted letter Apostolic, Multa præclare.

"We recollect that we ourselves wrote a letter to the same effect to the Venerable Brother Joseph D'Silva Torres, Archbishop of Goa, and that we set before his eyes the great importance of avoiding every occasion of exciting schism. In fine, we hope that they will second our wishes, and will bring great cause of consolation to us by their Christian docility.

"But we recommend to you, Venerable Brother, to treat them, as far as you are able, with gentleness and benignity, and be careful to remove everything which may afford them reasonable ground for grief and displeasure.

"In the mean time, we most lovingly impart to you the Apostolic Benediction. "Dated at Rome, at St. Mary Major's, the 2nd day of April, 1848, in the second year of our Pontificate.

"PIUS IX., P. P."

ART. VII.-Le Protestantisme comparé au Catholicisme dans ses Rapports avec la Civilization Européenne. Par L'Abbé JACQUES BALMES. 3 vols. Louvain, 1846.

IN

one of the recent numbers of this Journal,* we have called the attention of our readers to the above-mentioned work, in which the benign influence of the Catholic Church on the civilization and freedom of Europe is most ably and systematically set forth and compared with the pretensions of her modern rivals. We saw how those monarchies, which, under the protecting influences of the Church, had been growing into temperate and free governments, being deprived by the desolating flood of the Reformation of the safeguards of their freedom at the moment of their greatest need, became rapidly transformed into despotisms. Thus was the way prepared for the violence and anarchy of the subsequent period, and though in the Catholic states religion retained sufficient power to ward off the evil day for a time, yet were they so weakened as to be unable to resist the unhappy effects of the irreligious and anti-social philosophy which, flowing from Protestant principles, began to inundate the world. We followed the author, as, after showing the superiority of Catholicism over Protestantism in regard of individual virtue and happiness, he proceeded to display the wonderful revolution the Church had wrought in civil and social life, in reforming marriage, in abolishing slavery, in protecting women and children, and to contrast with it the conduct of those Reformers who had ventured to condemn her. We have still to follow him yet further in unfolding the dealings of the Church as they affect the moral and social life of man, before we pass on to the third portion of his work, in which he considers man in his political capacity, and compares what has been there done for him respectively by the Church and Protestantism.

First, then, he investigates the influence of the Catholic Church on public manners, and here he shows the immense service she has rendered to society in limiting the duration and mitigating the spirit of barbarian warfare during the early part of the Middle Age. By the canons of numberless Councils, framed in many countries, and at various epochs, he proves how the Church ever protected the weak against the strong, repressed predatory warfare, aided the secular administration of justice, and shielded from violence defenceless woman, the trader, the pilgrim, and the monk.

The new code of warfare, which Christianity has gradually introduced among European nations, not only proceeds, as the author justly observes, from the general spirit of lenity that our divine religion breathes, but was greatly facilitated by the abolition of slavery.

The subject of public charity next engages attention; but as this is a subject frequently handled, we shall not here long detain the attention of the reader. After observing with M. de Chateaubriand, that pagan antiquity disburdened itself of the unfortunate portion of its population by two expedients-infanticide and slavery-M. Balmes proves by historical documents how, from the earliest ages, the Church devoted her solicitude to the spiritual and the bodily relief of the necessitous. As soon as she could emerge from her catacombs, her course, like her Divine Founder, was marked by monuments of beneficence. "Pertransiit benefaciendo.

Hospitals, orphanages, asylums for poverty and old age, popular schools sprang up on every side, wherever she was able to establish her peaceful and benignant sway. It is well observed by the author, that as it is to the principle of religious authority Catholics are indebted for unity of faith, so it is to the spirit of association, or union of hearts in charity, fostered by their Church, their good works owe their duration and efficacy. Not to individual benevolence alone, doth the Church intrust the exercise of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, but she concentrates and impersonates her charity, if I may so speak, in great institutions, whether in confraternities consisting of pious members of the laity, or in religious orders composed of such as by their vows have renounced the world. The concrete form, in which Catholicism knows how to embody its doctrines and its precepts, proves it to be a religion eminently social, and is one of the causes of its vast superiority to Protestantism. It was easy for the latter to uphold some of those beneficent institutions, which it had cost the Catholic Church such labour and such sacrifices

to establish. But how many glorious creations of Catholic charity, Protestantism has allowed to sink to the ground; how utterly incapable it hath shown itself of supplying their place by new foundations, and in how sickly and mutilated a form it lets those institutions languish which it inherited of the ages of faith, it is needless to remind the reader. Who can read without a sigh the following passage?

"As we approach the times wherein we live," says the author, "we see numberless institutes founded by the Church with a view to beneficence. Must we not admire the wonderful fertility of resources with which she afforded succour to every species of misfortune? What would have occurred without the rise of the Reformation cannot, indeed, be precisely estimated; but, at least, there is a conjecture which reasons drawn from analogy may authorize. If, under the shelter of religious unity, the development of European civilization had been carried out to its perfection; if the pretended Reformation had not plunged Europe into a series of perpetual revolutions and reactions, then, certainly, there would have sprung up from the bosom of the Catholic Church, and been organized on a vast scale in conformity with the altered state of society, some general system of charity, capable of preventing the plague of pauperism-that cancer of modern nations-or of applying to it an effectual remedy. What might not have been expected from the combined intelligence and resources of all the European nations, labouring in concert to bring about this grand result? Unfortunately, unity of faith was destroyed; authority, which then, as in all past and future times, is its necessary centre, was rejected. From that very instant, Europe, whose inhabitants were soon destined to become one nation of brothers, was converted into a battle field, where the combat was carried on with unexampled fury. The hatred engendered by religious differences, prevented any combination of efforts to encounter the new difficulties about to arise. Angry contentions, insurrections, and wars became acclimatized among us.

"Let us never forget the fact: not only did the Protestant schism prevent the union of all European nations for the attainment of the object we have here pointed out; but, moreover, it prevented Catholicism itself from exerting its full and regular influence, even in those countries where it preserved an absolute dominion or a decided preponderance. In those lands it has been constantly obliged to hold a defensive attitude; it has been compelled by the assaults of its antagonist to employ a great part of its resources in guarding its own existence. Hence it follows, that in all probability the actual state of things in Europe is entirely different from what it would have been on the contrary supposition. And perhaps, in the latter case, Europe would not have been under the sad necessity of exhausting itself in impotent efforts against an evil, which according to all appearance, and unless remedies hitherto unknown be devised, seems utterly incurable."-vol. ii. pp. 86-7.

The subject of religious toleration comes next under consideration; and here the author ably refutes the misrepresentations and sophisms, which heresy and infidelity have indulged in on this delicate matter. In the individual, toleration, or a spirit of conciliatory mildness, as it is the product of humility, is not only perfectly compatible with, but is the true concomitant of religious zeal. But the word tolerance has also a more restricted sense-it means indulgence towards the errors or weaknesses of others; and here it is not exclusively the offspring of meekness, but is also the result of temperament and habit. Take, for example, (to use a comparison of M. Balmes,) two Catholics; both are equally pious and charitable, but one has ever lived in a catholic country, where his religious tenets have never encountered contradiction; the other has passed his life among Protestants, and been wont to hear the doctrines of his Church controverted, and her worship turned into ridicule. It is evident that, while the former could scarcely listen with patience to the taunts and cavils of a protestant disputant, the latter would be far more tolerant towards the objections of his opponent.

If we apply these analogies to society, we shall find that at no period, and in no country, was religious toleration ever admitted as an absolute, unqualified principle; but was ever regarded as one susceptible of various modifications, and to be enlarged or restricted according to the exigences of time and place. While the Catholic Church has ever remained spiritually intolerant-that is to say, inimical to error, she has never resisted the establishment of civil toleration, when claimed by the wants of society. The history of catholic countries will show that in them the example of religious toleration has been more frequent, and the principle subjected to less narrow restrictions, than in heathen antiquity or in modern protestant states. But a heresy, whose old age is quite innoxious, may in its turbulent youth have been most adverse to the peace and well-being of society. A sect, whose toleration in country justice and expediency demand, could not perhaps, without the greatest detriment to social order, be

one