PROFESSOR HOPPUS'S CONTINENT IN 1835.
WE last week mentioned the countries which were the subject of Mr. HOPPUS'S volumes; his way turns out to have been as well beaten as the lands through which he passed are known. Reaching Ostend by the steamer, he passed on through the usual towns—Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp—by track-boat and dili- gence, to Brussels. He thence wended his way to Switzerland, both on land and on the Rhine, by Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologi e. Frankfort, and the other usual stages of the annual fleck of tour- ists. As some of the Professor's party were in delicate health, they took the easiest roads through Switzerland to Geneva, steamed across the Lake, and returned home by way of Paris.
In all this there is nothing but what is done every year by some thousands of persons. Nor was there any thing peculiar in the manner of doing it ; for Mr. Hoepus scampered along with the usual rapidity of his countrymen, often not remaining long enough to see the sights of a place, never stopping a sufficient time to examine it. Neither have the subjects to which he directed his attention much interest. He deals neither a ith men nor manners, nor the inward qualities of things, and even their outward forms are slightly though heavily described. The only marked feature in the volumes is the attention paid by the tourist to the external appearances which Romanism exhibited in the towns through which he passed. The cause of publishing such matters be tells himself in his preface. He made notes to fix his impressions; and they grew Insensibly under his hands, till their bulk, and the "request of friends," induced him to think of publication. To these the author has added some historical notices of the toWns be passed through, or the countries he visited ; varying in length from the brief account of Heidelberg, to the precis of the history of France which follows his arrival at Paris.
In a common traveller, the result of such a mode of proceeding would have been a very superficial book. The training of the Professor has enabled him to turn out a couple of volumes of solid commonplace, which derives somewhat of character from the pur- suits of the author. Every thing smacks of the school-room : the world is addressed like a parcel of great grown-up boys, who know nothing of the subject in hand, or at least nothing syste- matically, and who must therefore be dieted, as it were, on foot' " plentiful, plain, and wholesome." No kickshaws are admitted: the Professor never descends to a jeke ; and novelty is so com- pletely eschewed, that we question whether any person of aver- age reading will rise from the volumes with a new idea or a new image. Yet the book is the result of labour, and contains a quantity of compressed matter. Had as much pains been bestowed upon the compilation of' a school-book,, it would have been a valuable publication: but a dish for men 'should be of a different quality to that compounded for hobbledehoys. The only point upon which Mr. HOPPUS shows any thing like spirit, is the subject of Catholicism ; and here Ile is somewhat rabid, and, as we hinted last week, very unphilosophical. The Catholic soldiers attend mass professionally, and display levity and disre- gard of time ceremony. The thing which a discriminating observer would censure here, is not the creed, but the forced service. Had the Professor mingled in the world, he might have heard of such timings as men-servants in houses where attendance at family devotion is enforced, "damning the prayers" as they hurry along lest they should be behind-hand. The greater gravity of the English character, the severer and more formal discipline of our service, may restrain both English soldiers and sailors from out- ward irreverence in the presence of the Chaplain ; but the after conversation of officers and men, if written down, would probably prove as great a disregard to religion, as the mercurial indiffer- ence of our neighbours. The short and frequent prayers of the priests, and their immediate return to the affairs of life, trivial as they may be, shock our author. We see nothing more to censure in a Catholic priest kneeling before a shrine for a le ief space, and rising to salute a friend or what not, than in a Protestant clergy- man giving out a long-winded discourse, and then shaking hands with his acquaintance and gossiping about parish affairs in the vestry. The dressing-out shrines and images in modern fashions, is certainly offensive to a pure taste ; a severe one might also object to the statues of Christian men clothed in the garb of heathens, which figure along the walls of our cathedrals. The belief in the virtue of relics ,shows a state of ignorance in the people, and of ignorance, or worse, in the priests who profit by it ; but unworthy superstitions touching witchcraft, &c. have been held and acted upon by the divines of a severer religion, in other times. The gaudier ceremonies of the Romish Church may seem theatrical and in ill taste, to those whose ideas have been formed in a colder clime, and who cannot make allowances for differences of nation, custom, and intellectual advancement ; but the real questions are—do they suggest incongruous and absurd ideas to the natives ? and may not as pure and heartfelt a worship be of- fered up by a humble worshiper kneeling on the bare floor before a decked-out shrine, as by a respectable gentleman, accommodated with a pew and a hassock, kneeling, or making believe to kneel, before no shrine at all ? It is probable that the Pharisees of old could have beaten the most starched divine of the most starched conventicle in outward reverences ; but we know from the highest of authorities, that their external solemnities of manner were of no account. We learn from the same source, that a humble and contrite heart is the most acceptable offering; and, according to men of greater worldly experience, more penetrating observation, and more enlarged views than Mr. Hoepus,—as BECKFORD COOPER, and DEWEY,—this seems to exist in no less an extent, if not in a greater, amongst the humbler Catholic communicants, than amongst the English Protestants. As specimens of Professor HOPPUS, we will take two extracts; one of a matter that he sought for, the other of a person who fell in his way.
RELICS AT AIX-LA.,C/IAFELLE.
The great relics are kept in a large shrine of silver gilt, and of venerable aa- tiquity, in the form of a Gothic tomb, ornamented with several sculptures in relief, and magnificently wrought with what are said to be precious stones. This case being opened, the following articles are'gravely announced ;—the large cloth in which the body of John the Baptist was wrapped, after his decapita- tion; the robe of the Virgin Mary ; the swaddling-clothes of the manger ; and the linen which our Saviour wore on the cross, retaining visible traces of his blood. This last relic is regarded as the most important of the whole ; and when these objects are exhibited for public adoration, the final benediction is p onounced in connexion with it. These relics are shown for a fortnight every seven years, from the gallery of the church, to crowds of devotees; after which they are wrapped in new silk, of red, white, or yellow ; and the old silks which have been so long in contact with these sacred things, and have imbibed from them the odour of sanctity, are cut in pieces and distributed as present+ The multitude of strangers that used formerly to throng this city, dining the septennial festival, almost exceeds belief. The houses were crowded with pil- grims; while so many still kept flocking into the town, that the gates were obliged to be shut, until some had given place to others, and, at times, num- bers were even trampled to death. It is said that in 1496, on one single day of the festival, there were no less than one hundred and forty-two thousand arrivals and the golden pieces offered to the Virgin, in the same year,. for the miracles supposed to be wrought by means of the holy relics, were In number eighty thousand. Next were shown to us what are termed the small relies, which are carded roand the city in grand procession once a year, and are contained in a variety of shrines and eases. We now had the privilege of gazing on what were said to be the point of one of the nails with which our Saviour was pierced ; a piece o' the wood of the Cross ; a tooth of St. Catherine ; a bone of Charlemagne's arm, enclosed in a large case of silver, representing a hand and arm ; a piece of the cord with which the hands of our Saviour were bound on the Cress; and his leathern girdle, sealed with the seal of Constantine ; some hair of Jelin ti e Baptist ; an agnus Dei, or impression of a lamb bearing a cross, consecrated in 14:34, and accompanied with various relics ; a link of the chain which bound St. Peter in prison; a morsel of St. Simeon's arm, in which he held our Saviour; and another bone of Charlemagne ; a piece of the sponge with which the lips of Jesus were moistened on the Cross, set in a golden sun, orna- mented with enamel ; a spine of the crown of thorns ; another considerable piece of the Cross, inserted in a crucifix of gold ; the skull of Charlemagne, and his hunting-horn ; and the girdle of the Virgin Mari.
The bones said to be those of Charlemagne, are probably his real remains. There are many other relies ; hut surely these may be rTarded as enough. The costliness and beauty of the cases in which they are enshrined are extreme ; and several of the objects are seen under glass. The number of the depositories
which contain these relics is between thirty and forty, varying in m size, from massy shrines like small tombs oisilverand gold, to smaller eases of various forms, of the same m metals and of iv y, the whole being none or less adorned with precious stones or their substitutes. The priest who was in attendance, thinking' per- haps, that we betrayed symptoms of scepticism, said. Du mains ces relicuts sold Id depuis plusiturs sii.'elcs—a remark quite as foibem ing towards heretics as could be expected in such an atmosphere. Among other curiosities, which are also here preserved, and which were shown to us with the relics, are two exquisitely elegant crowns of gold, set with pearls, rubies, and diamonds : Lthese ecclesiastical regalia were given by one of the Dutchesses of Brabant to adorn the images of the Virgin and Child. In short, nothing conveyed to the mind a more impressive idea than this church and its contents of the amazing hold which superstition has been able to gain over mankind.
JE ROME BONA PA RTE.
In about three hours, the rain ceased, and the shining of the sun invited all to the deck ; when it proved that we had no less distinguished a person on board than Jerome Bonaparte, once King of the ephemeral monarchy of West- phalia; which was formed by the great conqueror out of Hesse Cassel, Hanover, Brunswick, and the Prussian territories west of the Elbe. Jerome is a thin man, of the middle size ; and some of the voyagers were struck with the likeness of his profile to that given of his brother Napoleon, whom he has been thought much to resemble. He commanded a large division of the French army at Waterloo, where he made the first charge against the Allied forces; and he is said to have possessed greater military talents than any of Napoleon's other brothers. Ile has the appearince of an amiable man, and his reserved manner and avoidance of the company on board, conveyed the impression of being rather the result of a consciousness that he was marked and observed, than of any aristocratic pride. His secretary accompanied him ; and on leavine•6 the vessel at Ouchy, the port of Lausanne, they both got into the same boat with the other passengers. The wife of Jerome, the Princess de Montfort, sister of the King of Wur- temherg, elicited from Napoleon, when at St. Helena, the following eulogy, for her fidelity to her husband, when the changing deertiniee of the Continent dis- solved the evanescent monarchy of Westphalia, and Jerome ceosed to be a King. " There exists a noble tewimony in favour of Jerome; I mean the love with which he has inspired his rife. The conduct of this woman, when, after my fall, her father, that terrible King of Wurtemberg, that despotic and cruel man, sought to divorce her from him, is admirable. That princess has with her own hands engraven her name on the tablets of history." Jerome succeeded, it is said, in securing to himself, as the fruit of his eleva- tion, an ample revenue, amidst the wreck of those many unsubstantial thrones which, like fairy creations, arose at the nod of the mighty conqueror, only to melt away and perish with his own changing fortunes. The ex-Kins would certainly not strike any one as at all wearing an air of gloomy disappointment or mortified pride; and for aught that appeared to the contrary, he may be not less happy—probably much more so—with his private station, his faithful wife, his single attendant, and his favourite white dog, than when he was re- ceiving the bought homage of time-serving courtiers, on a throne which he must have sometimes felt was precarious as the gossamer-web, which a breath may tear asunder.
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