| | | | | How to convey the discoveries of the learned to the | ignorant mass has always been one of the most perplexing | problems of controversial tactics. To refute an adversary is, | at least in one's own estimation, a very easy matter. | Learning, logic, and a good cause will go a long way with | those who read and think; but if a man were as profound as | Aristotle himself, it would puzzle him to argue into | conviction people who will not read his arguments. | Various have been the devices to which proselytizers have | had resort, in order to overcome this difficulty. Erasmus | undermined the Papacy by squibs. The detestable casuistry | of the Jesuits fell before Pascal's playful Letters. The early | Reformers spread their doctrines by preaching in season | and out of season ~~ in the street, in the market-place, and | on the village common; for preaching was in their hands | something very different from the periodical recitation of a | string of common-places from a MS. The older churches, | on the other hand, have always relied on methods of | instruction ~~ on | symbols, and ceremonies, and pictures,

"the poor | man's books."

And both Romanist and Reformer have | made plentiful use of that vehicle of knowledge which Dr. | Johnson's Laird of Rum so fully appreciated ~~

"the | yellow sick."

But it has been reserved for these latter | days ~~ when persecution is out of vogue, art Popish, and | open-air preaching methodistical ~~ to invent the religious | novel. Whatever may be thought of it as an instrument of | instruction, the eagerness with which the combatants in our | late theological frays have seized on it is sufficient proof of | its value as a controversial weapon. The plan of its | composition may be easily described. The hero and | heroine either are, or come to be, of the author's particular | opinions. The result is, that they are conglomerates, | respectively, of all manly and feminine virtues, and are | ultimately rewarded with supreme and permanent peace of | mind ~~ with, probably, a fortune into the bargain. | Somebody else is of the opinions to which the author | happens to have a special aversion. He constantly meets | the hero or heroine in argument, and is as constantly | defeated; and the usual upshot is, that he steals the spoons, | or does something equally horrible, and comes to an evil | end. Sometimes, however, if the author is of a placable | temperament, he is allowed to be converted; and then his | abiding happiness is paraded as a conclusive proof of the | correctness of the author's views. The dialectical skill | required for this species of controversy is obviously of the | simplest order. In fact, the syllogisms employed being of | that kind which are denominated;

"a lady's argument," |

it has been usual to confide the wielding of this | weapon to female hands. | The book before us is the most recent specimen of the class. | It is of the Evangelico-Minerva type ~~ a cross between Dr. | McNeile and Mrs. Radcliffe ~~ and is written with the | laudable aim of opening our eyes to the dark Jesuit | intrigues with which the fair surface of society is mined. | Before we proceed to give an account of it, we entreat that | our printer may not be held responsible for any peculiarities | of language or orthography which may be detected in our | extracts. Our author's knowledge of English is small, but | his ignorance of French and Italian is unmitigated and | complete; and unluckily he has a predilection, common to | small novelists, for interlarding his sentences with French | and Italian words. We can only afford to give specimens of | his blundering. We have a

"Machieval order"

for | "Machiavellian" ~~ a gentleman is said to be by | the Jesuits, meaning that he is under their | surveillance ~~ Pio Nono always | appears as ~~ one of the characters is constantly | described as , for

"exigeant"

~~ and so | we might go on through a long list. However, we may | hope for better things in a second edition. In the errata we | are told to substitute seance for | sceance; and as the blunder | happens many times over, right through the book, and | therefore cannot well be a misprint, we may venture to | hope that the author is getting on his French, and that the | discovery of the spelling of that difficult word marks a | stage in the development of his studies later than the period | of his going to press. The author shrinks from fame behind | the veil of the anonymous; but we should imagine that he | must be an Irishman, not only because the scenes laid in | Ireland have more nature than any other part of the book, | but also because he displays a shamelessness in the | exhibition of his ignorance rare in a native of any other | country. He has selected Mr. Westerton for his publisher | ~~ the motive for which eccentric act seems, from the | following passage, to be his admiration for a striking | incident in the life of that great man: ~~ | | To make up for the shortcomings of the

"Heads of | Oxford College"

in not

"scotching the Jesuit | snake"

by flinging some light or lights out of some | door or doors unknown, the author proceeds unflinchingly | with his revelations. We will try to give a summary of his | tale of terror. There is an Irish proprietor, Mr. Fosterton, | with an excitable wife. They are deluded enough to | frequent

"Paul and Barnabas;"

and the Jesuits | consequently think they see their way to the possession of | the Fosterton estates. Accordingly, by the use of certain |

"subtle essences,"

or poisons, on which a Jesuit | father is said to have written a learned work, the Protestant | governess is made ill, and removed from the family. A | neighbouring baronet, who is a Jesuit, recommends a young | Italian to the post, who is also a Jesuit. It is part of the | creed of Exeter Hall and Mr. Westerton, that the Company | of Jesus consists alike of men and women, landed | proprietors and priests. This Jesuit governess is a | spirit-medium, and gives spirit-rapping | seances to Mrs. Fosterton; and by the help of the | valet, who is also a Jesuit, and who works a galvanic | battery from a neighbouring room, the spirits

"rap" |

Romanizing answers to the questions of the confiding | Mrs. Fosterton. Meanwhile, there is a fourth Jesuit staying | in the house. He is a captain in the Guards, and a Jesuit | priest; and a man with a

"flinty eye, glittering like | steel"

~~ a property we never observed in flint before. | This Jesuit, Captain Gardner, is an Admirable Crichton. He | shoots, dances, hunts, bets, writes plays, acts, sings, | mediaevalizes, and quotes "Froude's Remains" to Mrs. | Fosterton, and

"plays his thoughts"

on the | pianoforte a la German (as the | author elegantly phrases it), to the young ladies. Between | his mediaevalism and the revelations of the spirits, Mrs. | Fosterton is abandoning her belief in the

"martyr | Hooker"

(of whose martyrdom historians are | shamefully ignorant), and progressing rapidly towards | Rome, when an unlucky accident cuts short the Captain's | career. He has a pupil in the house, a concealed Papist, | who knows him in his sacerdotal character. This pupil falls | in with a neighbouring clergyman ~~ a dreary old | gentleman, who preaches by the hour against

"the | Moloch of superstition"

~~ and gets converted; and it | appears likely that he may betray the priestly character of | his Guardsman friend. Accordingly, the Jesuit Captain, | equal to any emergency, invites him to go out shooting, and | tries to shoot him. Unluckily, he only wounds him, and is | consequently obliged to beat a rapid retreat from the | country. Subsequently, we hear of the indefatigable man in | the disguise of a Polish Jew, trying to reconcile Judaism | with the Papacy. But the return of the season brings the | Fostertons to town. It is necessary that Mr. Fosterton | should be ruined. He is, therefore, enticed into play by | gaming friends ~~ some of them Jesuits; and he is so | utterly fleeced that he is compelled to borrow money by | mortgaging his Irish estates ~~ again to the Jesuits. | Meanwhile Mrs. Fosterton has fallen in with her sister, | Lady Drydale, who is a stanch Protestant, and does her best | to keep her sister from Romanizing. The Jesuits are | alarmed. She must be removed; and the

"subtle | essences"

necessary for this purpose are entrusted to | the spirit-rapping governess. This young lady, however, | has the remnant of a heart, and is with great difficulty | persuaded to her task. It is in describing her scruples and | her agony, after administering the first dose of the poison, | that the author discloses a depth of Jesuit intrigue the | thought of which freezes us with horror: ~~ | | | | We had flattered ourselves that, amid all the defections of | this backsliding age, the British cabman at least was a | stanch Protestant. We have often suspected governesses, | and have long seen something Jesuitical in the manners of | the Household Brigade; but we have always contemplated | with undisturbed complacency that well-weathered cape | and that battered hat, without a suspicion that they only | concealed the cassock and the tonsure. But we must follow | our over-scrupulous governess. She is driven to a | and she forthwith enters the chapel, which the author | pronounces, on account of its frescoes and arabesques and | painted glass, to be . And here we are introduced | to another class of society who are manoeuvring for our | conversion ~~ namely,

"aristocratic young ladies." |

They act, doubtless, in concert with the Guardsmen, | with whom frequenters of ballrooms may often observe | them to be conferring in a low tone of voice. A procession | enters the chapel ~~ | | Further on, we are told that these young ladies, whom the | Jesuits seem to have selected in most guardsmanlike style | , are . What a Marist may be, or how a | number of young ladies can be confraternity, the author | does not stop to explain. As far, however, as we can gather, | a Marist, male or female, is exactly the same as Jesuit, and | is invested with all the attributes which belong to that | semi-fabulous animal. After the procession comes a service, | peculiar, we suspect, to the

"Carmelite nunnery in the | City."

The female confraternity in blue and white | first sing that well-known hymn, Glorias | Laus, ,and then ~~ | | The service has the effect of entirely removing any scruples | the governess might have had about poisoning Lady | Drydale ~~ a feat she accordingly performs the same | evening. Mrs. Fosterton is in despair; and, by the advice of | the Jesuit baronet, her husband takes her to Rome for | change of scene. The author describes the perils of Rome | in a passage which displays alike his resources of metaphor | and orthography: ~~ | | This eloquent passage entirely throws into the shade Lord | Castlereagh's

"fundamental feature on which this | question hinges."

We certainly should feel no | tendency to enthusiastic pleasure if we had an iron rule in | our vitals; let alone its being engaged in the act of eating | them. Mrs. Fosterton, however, would surrender the

| "reigns"

to fancy, and was consequently meshed in the | wily act, etcetera. It required, | however, a journey to Paris, to enable the said wily net | finally to

"engulph"

her. The Empress Eugenie is | brought in to accomplish the catastrophe. Acting, of course, | under Jesuit orders, she invites Mrs. Fosterton to join her | and the Emperor in receiving the Eucharist at the Requiem | sung over the fallen in the Crimea. The Englishwoman | acquiesces with the prompt courtesy, and, together with her | husband, is at once rebaptised. But, unluckily, just at this | juncture, the Italian governess overhears the steward | reading the Epistle to the Corinthians. She instantly turns | Protestant; and, having written an account of all her crimes | to Mrs. Fosterton, dies of a broken heart. Mrs. Fosterton | becomes a confirmed lunatic; and her husband, his estates | gone to the Jesuits, lives on as . | We have omitted to mention Mr. Fosterton's chaplain, | whose adventures form an episode in the story. He is | trained up in rigid Protestantism by a widowed mother. | Unfortunately, he takes a liking for the Opera; and in | consequence of this departure from vital godliness, he falls | before long into the snare of Tractarianism, under the | influence of Captain Gardner and the governess's | spirit-rapping. Puri passu with | his progress in doctrine, he also makes progress in morals, by | falling in love with his patron's wife. The two passions | ripen together, and he declares himself to her, and goes | over to Rome, on the same day. He is received by no less a | person than Dr. Newman, whom, by the way, the author | coolly charges ~~ under the perfectly transparent | pseudonyme of "Dr. Freshman,"

"the leading writer of | the Tracts for the Times"

~~ | with having been a Jesuit priest some time before they | appeared. Dr. Newman has probably had enough of Lord | Campbell's justice ~~ otherwise, an action for libel might | have a salutary effect in staying the progress of this habit of | religious slander. | It may be said that we waste paper in exposing such trash | as this. Trash as it is, however, it is useful in gauging the | intellect and the veracity of a party which is likely to rule | the

"religious world"

for some years to come. | They sit in high places in the Church ~~ they are powerful | enough to overawe the House of Commons. At their | bidding, honourable men stoop to juggle with delusive | pledges about Maynooth, and to vote in hundreds for | fastening on their inferiors a Sabbatical yoke which they | themselves would shake off with contempt. It is | melancholy enough if one-tenth part of the ignorance and | malignity with which this book is rank can be imputed to | the party which holds an ascendency such as this. And yet, | as ballads indicate a nation's real feelings, so a religious | novel is now-a-days the true mouthpiece of a sect. | Treatises and sermons are written, and in the main read, by | the educated few ~~ what the people think is told in what | the people read. And so we are driven to the painful | conclusion that our religious future as a nation is in the | hands of a party whose intellectual qualifications may be | found in the columns of the Record, | the speeches of Mr. Spooner, and the novels | published by Mr. Westerton.