PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC CHARITIES.* War has the author of Contrasts
risked the reputation which he gained by that exceedingly able book, in the present ungracious, uncourteous, uncharitable and altogether unprovoked attempt to throw into the shade the noble works of all the self-devoted Roman Catholic women since Roman Catholicism first was? He will reply,—in order to show young ladies that they can do good and obtain public gratitude without joining the Roman Catholic sisterhoods. We are heartily with him in his Protestantism, but was good ever done by under-rating the good effected by another ? and would not the interesting sketches of which his book consists, with the marvellous results there set down, have spoken for themselves, without one word of the invidious and cruel compari- sons, as our author miscalls them, which he draws? But herein lies our chief quarrel with him,—that he makes no comparisons, and the\ name on the title-page simply misleads. The book is so utte1 consistent with the title, that we cannot hold an author bla t for such misrepresentation, when the effect is to hurt, if -oz to injure, large classes of our fellow-Christians.
* Facia, non VerLa. By the Author of "Contrasts." London: W. lobister and Co. He calls it " a comparison between the good works per- formed by the ladies in Roman Catholic convents in Eng- land, and the unfettered efforts of their Protestant sisters." Now we have not a word "of the good works performed by the ladies in Roman Catholic convents in England;" and the only definite com- parison we find in the whole book is one between the condition of the Paris Chiffonniers, who are Roman Catholic, and the Bala- yeurs, who are Protestant, both of whom happen to live together- in the same quarter, and to follow somewhst similar and unplea- sant occupations. The balayeurs, unlike the chiffoniers, have been taken in hand by some ladies and gentlemen, and they are an example of piety, cleanliness, and sobriety. We need scarcely point out that many such instances would prove nothing. If the Roman Catholics could not put their finger on numberless localities in Protestant countries, where destitution, squalor, and vice are still rampant, and have been even triumphant, what be- comes of the stories of the achievements of these Protestant ladies? Such places are the very scenes of their labours and successes. Our author says that the Roman Catholics " are at the present time occupied in sowing dissension and ill-feeling amongst us," and it is precisely because we do not wish the same to be said of us, that we deplore such a book as this, and the author's blindness in not having seen, before his work issued from the press, that in this remark he had judged himself. The book is an ex parte state- ment throughout, instead of the judicial comparison it professes to be ; its claim for candour is only very partially redeemed by one or two passages, of which the following is much the kindest :— " Not only is the organisation of the Sisters of Charity honourable to. the Roman Catholic creed, but it is a disgrace to ourselves, as Protest- ants, that in this respect, and perhaps this alone, they are so far our superiors. Although-private and family nursing was carried on to e. degree among us which it would be impossible to surpass in any country in the world, it is only of late years (scarcely, in fact, anterior to the date of the Crimean war) that we have attempted to institute anything like a public organised system of nursing. Since the Crimean war, it is true, we have made great improvements, and have already com- menced more than one public school of nursing on a thoroughly organ- ised principle, but there is still a lamentable void to be filled up before we can reach the efficiency of the Roman Catholic sisterhoods."
Like many another Protestant, our author can be more charitable to religious bodies who are quite without the pale of Christianity than to his Christian brother of the Romish faith. We have, for instance, an interesting account of the work amongst the poor children of Houndsditch, of two Jewess sisters Harris, in which our author takes occasion to laud very justly "the indomitable energy of our English-bred women, whether Christian or Jewess," unwittingly, we fear, including in that designation the Roman Catholic lady also. If the principal title of the book—Facts, non Verba,—is not open, like the secondary one, to the charge of culpable misrepresentation, it is none the less a misnomer, since that title taken in connection with the secondary one, clearly implies that the Roman Catholic has no deeds to point to in illustration of the doctrine which he teaches ; which of course is absurd. Roman Catholic women in large communities were given to good works for centuries before Protestantism existed, and it was centuries more before Protestant women went beyond the spheres of their own homes, and entered on extensive philanthropic labours. It is but within the last half-century that the English lady has undertaken the grand work of ameliorating the evils of life amongst the poor, the sick., and the ignorant. Miss Night- ingale, Miss Rye, Miss Carpenter, are they not all still with us ? And is it not indisputable that it was the practice of the Roman Catholic convents that first suggested the seeking-out, the nursing, and the teaching of those whose miseries cried from the earth for help ? Was it not the Catholic lady, with her abused " ecclesias- tical, mediaeval milinery," who led the way into the haunts of vice and the homes of sickness ; and was not she the first—yes, a long way the first—in giving her gentle help to raise the fallen and confirm the repentant? And is the work of centuries to go for nothing, because the advance of thought, and consequently of civilisation and education, have recently stimulated English women to, and altogether new views about their mission have permitted, great and long-sustained efforts, and the setting on foot of in- stitutions on so large a scale and of so varied a character as those which this book describes? We do not for a moment doubt that Protestantism has much to do with our high place amongst the nations, but our author's hatred of Roman Catholicism. betrays him into a logical absurdity. He repeatedly insists, forcibly and wisely,. on the good effected by the co-opera- tion of the male and female intellect, and yet one of the strongest objections he urges against the conventual system is that the nuns are advised and directed by their priests. An animus runs through his whole work -which seriously mars the good
it is calculated to do. Take, for instance, the following far- fetched and foolish comparison between the Pilgrimage to Paray- le-Monial and Miss Rye's journey through Canada with her troop of little emigrants .—
" We lately heard long descriptions of the pilgrimage of our English Catholics to Paray-le-Monial, but perhaps, in the opinion of the reader, the sight of those little pilgrims to the far West is quite as edifying to man, and as pleasing to the eyes of the Almighty, as that of any Catho- lic pilgrimage ever undertaken. A curious contrast might be drawn between the struggle at the buffet at Montargis, in which our pions male pilgrims, after succeeding in driving their female companions from the refreshment-stand—half-killing one of them by the way— struggled among themselves which should obtain the greater share of the eatables, and the rough emigrants and backwoodsmen in America taking food from the refreshment-rooms, or their own stores, and enter- ing the cars, feeding unasked the little pilgrims their fellow-passengers."
Here, again, is a passage—not at all to the point of the book, which is nominally about the work done by Protestant and Catholic ladies—but simply introduced to put the Catholic in an unfavour- able light as compared with Protestant and Jew, without a hint of the many causes which may bring about the alleged result :-
" And here a very singular comparison may be drawn between the power of exercising charity among the three communities in London— the Protestants, Catholics. and Jews. Among the Protestants, it is cal- culated, that one in every twenty-five is dependent upon others to a greater or less extent for charitable assistance ; among the Catholics one in eighteen ; among the Jews, in consequence of the great influx of Jewish paupers from foreign countries, one in six. The Catholics, although poorer than the Protestants, are certainly far richer than the Jewish community ; yet, while the latter never apply to either Catholic or Protestant for assistance, the Catholic begs of both. I may be told that among the Jews are men of immense wealth. That is perfectly true ; but their wealth in the aggregate would not be greater than that of the Catholics, especially were the names of some of the converts who have lately joined that creed taken into consideration."
. Our author quotes with great indignation a passage from the Dublin Review, reflecting on the nursing in our English workhouses, but we cannot expect that Dublin reviewers should keep pace with English reform ; and it is only too true that till lately the picture
was, and even now of far too many workhouses, is, substantially correct.
The dark view of Roman Catholicism is the foil to a companion picture, in which Protestantism is painted couleur-de-rose. We -wish the author well out of the hands of the ladies whose trumpets he has blown with such prodigious flourishes, without, as far as we can discover from the title-page and introduction, either the wish or even the consent of the estimable ladies concerned. We can scarcely doubt that some of them, at least, will be overwhelmed with chagrin, when they find how con- spicuous a place they are unconsciously filling. Their trumpeter passes very lightly over failures and entirely ignores mistakes ; but will Miss Rye endorse cordially his encomiums on her efforts in behalf of poor governesses ? Our impression certainly is that the judgment did not prove altogether perfect which launched so many young creatures on a strange life in the colonies, out of reach of the restraints of home 'and friends. Again, will she accept his statement that she was "destitute of all assistance " in carrying out her children's-emigration-to-Canada scheme? Again our author passes over Miss Nightingale, partly because her name and work are well known, but partly also because the Minister of War supported her in it ; and he selects in preference the name of Miss Merryweather, who, "instead of being taken by the hand by powerful protectors at the commencement, has worked on in silence and obscurity." But was not Miss Merryweather supported from the very first, in her training-school and home for nurses, by Mr. Rath- bone's clear head and generous purse? And will Miss Chandler agree to the strict truthfulness of the assertion that " against apparently insuperable difficulties " she established her hospital for paralysis? Had she, in fact, succeeded at all, till Alderman Wire made her dream a sudden reality ? We are not calling in question the energy and the goodness of these ladies in seeking till they found assistance, but it is unnecessary to gild refined gold, and in works of charity any undue praise seems especially out of place.
The book, which, by the bye, is very indifferent as a composition, seems to us altogether a mistake. Even on a purely Protestant view of it, it is painfully invidious ; selecting not a dozen ladies' names from a list whose length nobody could even imagine. Why not wait till, as in the case of Miss Agnes Jones—who, by the bye, is not even mentioned by our author—the lady whose good deeds are to be extolled is beyond the reach of praise or blame? Or if, as an example and incitement to others, and in the interests of humanity, it is decreed that such a book must be written, at least it should not wholly forget Christian charity, or even sub- ordinate it to philanthropy. The work accomplished should be described and left to speak for itself, and not be made a vehicle for undue adulation on the one hand, or unmerited and most ungracious condemnation on the other. As the author of CO22-. trasts has in his wisdom launched this little work on the world, we can only hope that, at any rate, it may be a powerful advo- cate for the many most valuable and wonderful institutions that it tells of,—and that the spirit of a large forgiveness may fall with- out stint on the souls of our Roman Catholic pioneers.
Previous page
