Las Casas never forgot this treatment of the great admiral, his

warm personal friend; he distrusted princes ever after. He fell

into the error common to most men soliciting court favor, that

whatever was done to promote his wishes was done from personal

considerations to him, through his individual exertions and

influence, and not out of any regard for the welfare of the

Indians. On the contrary, the welfare of the Indians was all that

recommended him to the attention of the cardinals, or to royal

notice, and invested him with importance. The policy of the crown

was to save the aborigines from destruction. It might be a

selfish policy, but it surely was, at the same time, enlightened

and correct in every point of view. But every colonial official,

every special agent, every Spaniard was thwarting the

governmental plan, to promote their own interests and their

private emolument. The proceeds of the plantations, of the mines,

of the pearl fisheries, were in great demand at fabulous values,

while the labor of the Indians enslaved was cheap and abundant;

therefore, they were made slaves in the very face of the royal

prohibition.

It is true these slaves sickened and died within a short period,

but plenty more were forthcoming at a low rate; and thus the

desolation went on. The crown had resolved to check the atrocity;

but how could it be accomplished? The clergy were not implicated

in the guilt, but they were incapable of assisting at first, or

advising. The most of them, moreover, believed at one time that

the natives were not human. The Dominicans, who arrived out about

1510, thought otherwise; and they, in turn, under the guidance of

Las Casas, infused their opinion into the other brethren. His

discussion before the young emperor with Quevedo, Bishop of

Darien, was to settle their status; for Quevedo contended they

were not intellectual beings. Many doubts prevailed also among

the clergy, and it was the universal belief of the laity,

according to Remisal, until, in 1537, Paul III. issued his famous

bull declaring they were human and free, capable of instruction

and salvation. The crown had great difficulties in the matter,

and the ministers were much perplexed in learning what to do; but

the imperial troubles were not disclosed to Las Casas, for the

troubles were diplomatic secrets which to none could be divulged.

Their confidence in his veracity, sincerity, and

disinterestedness, was unbounded; he was the only one they could

trust for a correct account. He was successively created

Protector of the Indians, chaplain to the emperor, and Bishop of

Chiapa. While the sovereigns appreciated him, esteemed him, heard

every word he had to say bearing upon the subject, he mixed it up

so often with so many extraneous remarks, observations, and

quotations, that they must now and then have considered him an

intolerable bore. With this comprehension of the principles

maintained by the Castilian cabinet, a clue is discovered to

guide through the mazes and intricacies of Indian politics.

Emergencies sometimes compelled deviations or exceptions for the

moment; but when the necessity passed away, the policy was

immediately restored.

{839}

It is now time to turn to the new work of Mr. Arthur Helps. To

those who have read a page about Las Casas, this book can excite

only feelings of disappointment and regret. The public expected

some improvement at least on preceding biographies, which was

certainly a very moderate expectation; but it has not been

gratified. The volume is written with the design to expatiate on

the great virtues of the bishop, to eulogize his actions, to

excuse his errors, to defend his fame. But the memory of Las

Casas needs no aid of this kind in panegyric or palliation. His

deeds have passed into history, and by its calm, enlightened,

disinterested verdict he must stand or fall. So far he has not

been favored with a dispassionate hearing, nor by any means with

an enlightened public. A prejudice has prevailed against him,

from one cause among his countrymen, from another source abroad;

and Mr. Helps, without intending to do him harm, would strengthen

the prevailing impression abroad by his publication, if it were

generally read, but which is doubtful. On the second page, in

stating "the character of Las Casas," he writes:

"The utmost that friends or enemies, I imagine, could with the

slightest truth allege against him was an over-fervent

temperament. If we had to arrange the faculties of great men,

we should generally, according to our easy-working fancies,

combine two characters to make our men of. And in this case we

should not be sorry, if it might have been so, to have had a

little of the wary nature of such a man as King Ferdinand the

Second intermixed with the nobler elements of Las Casas.

Considering, however, what great things Las Casas strove after

and how much he accomplished, it is ungracious to dwell more

than is needful upon any defect or superfluity of his

character. If it can be proved he was on any occasion too

impetuous in word or deed, it was in a cause that might have

driven any man charged with it beyond all bounds of prudence in

the expression of his indignation."

It will be perceived, on perusal that, wherever the bishop has

been charged with any fault, imperfection, failure, or

inconsistency, this author readily admits it, and then proceeds

to offer extenuating circumstances, or to petition for mercy for

his hero, on the plea that he had good intentions or had done

important services. When, again, the author has some bright spot

to dwell upon in his career, it is presented in a questionable

shape, which deprives it of all lustre, leaving the suspicion on

the mind of readers that the bishop is a much overrated man. Mr.

Helps furnishes no new facts, he explains none that are old, he

states very few correctly. About dates the author is most

commonly in error when given; but for the most part he does not

deign to notice them, which in this case is a blessing; for he

seems as indifferent to their importance as if he were writing a

novel or a love-letter. In the composition, he has had recourse

to two works only--the _History of the Indies_, by Las Casas

himself, and the _History of Guatemala and Chiapa_, by

Remesal.

The _Historia_, by the bishop, is not the most important of

his many productions, nor are the selections from Remesal made

with much discrimination. _The Conversion of the Indians in

Verapaz, or the Land of War_, is interesting; but Mr. Helps in

his account does not leave much of its glory to Las Casas, while

Las Casas was for ever boasting, with truth, of that achievement

as his first success, and claiming it justly as peculiarly his

own. In the same _History of Guatemala_ it is narrated how

Las Casas refused to visit the viceroy in Mexico, because he had

ordered the hand of a priest to be cut off at Antequera. Mr.

Helps translates it, the priest's head at Antequera; probably he

does not know that Antequera is the ancient Spanish name for the

modern city of Oaxaca.

{840}

With this slender stock of material the book was written; and in

consequence, whenever a doubt arose about a fact, or a further

reason was required for some elucidation, it will be seen, on

every page, that writing history was made easy by guessing, or

moral observations, of which some specimens are selected:

"I do not know what transaction he alludes to."

"I hardly see him without prophetic vision."

"It moves our pity to think."

"Probably being somewhat tired."

"Perhaps not wishing to alarm."

"I think with Las Casas."

"There is no doubt."

"I have scarcely a doubt."

"If the writer of this narrative may be permitted

to fancy himself."

"I conceive for a single day."

"I fancy him sitting."

"It may be doubted, however."

"As it appears to me."

"I suspect the wisest amongst us would."

"I cannot but attribute."

"We may very well imagine."

"A young man, as I conjecture."

"Probably on that account."

"To me it seems."

"Always I imagine."

"We must not suppose."

"And so I think."

And so will every reader think. Mr. Arthur Helps has essayed to

write history before. _The Spanish Conquest in America_

stands to his literary credit. But he has a way peculiar to

himself in the gestation and parturition of his historical

offspring. He explains, in the preface to the third volume of his

_Spanish Conquest_, his obstetrical mode of doing this

thing. It is thus accounted for:

"In issuing this third volume, I take this opportunity of

making a statement, which perhaps it would have been well to

have made before.

"The reader will observe that there is scarcely any allusion in

this work to the kindred works of modern writers on the same

subject. This is not from any want of respect for the able

historians who have written upon the discovery or the conquest

of America. I felt, however, from the first, that my object in

investigating this portion of history was different from

theirs, and I wished to keep my mind clear from the influence

which these eminent persons might have exercised upon it. ...

Moreover, while admitting fully the advantages to be derived

from the study of these modern writers, I thought it was better

upon the whole to have a work composed from independent

sources, which would convey the impression that the original

documents had made upon the author's mind."

With this explanation, nothing more remains to observe. If he has

founded a school in this method, or if his original plan upon

which to write history will die out with him, is yet to be seen.

The _Spanish Conquest_, by Mr. Arthur Helps, is in thick,

solid, heavy form, and in volumes no less than four. Insatiate

Arthur! would not one suffice? His moral reflections and his

axioms have one merit, if the number of ages in which they have

been in common use can make them venerable. From the Pyramids

centuries may look down upon some of them.

In the _Life of Las Casas_, the author in the preface

informs the world that--

"There are few men to whom, up to the present time, the words

which Shakespeare makes Mark Antony say of Caesar, would more

apply than to Las Casas:

'The evil that men do lives after them,

The good is oft interred with their bones.'

At one inauspicious moment of his life he advised a course

which has ever since been the one blot upon his well-earned

fame, and too often has this advice been the only thing, which,

when the name of Las Casas has been mentioned, has occurred to

men's minds respecting him. He certainly did advise that

negroes should be brought to the New World. I think, however, I

have amply shown in the _Spanish Conquest_, he was not the

first to give this advice."

This is the way Mr. Helps enters the lists to be his champion. We

do not know where the evils of Las Casas live on--when the

ossification of the good with his bones supervened.

{841}

Instead of quoting Shakespeare, a few lines written by the great

British statesman, George Canning, for the Anti-Jacobin, in his

ode to the "New Morality." would be more applicable to Mr. Helps

himself:

"Give me th' avowed, erect, the manly foe,

Bold I can meet, perchance avert his blow;

But of all plagues, good heavens! thy wrath can send,

Save, save, oh! save me from the candid friend."

The memory of Las Casas has suffered greatly from many of those

unthinking, unsearching plagues, who are ever ready to confess

what "it is due to candor to state," etc. A dozen at least might

be counted of names high in the roll of literature: Llorente,

Washington Irving, Mr. Prescott, are among the number. The time

has come to explode this bubble about his want of fixed

principles. All are pleased to admit he was a good man, leading a

virtuous life, with a noble purpose in view; but that he was

inconsistent in recommending negro slavery, while advocating the

emancipation of the Indians. Now, if one be in his right mind,

and yet inconsistent in opinions or conduct, he cannot be

virtuous in principle or practice. The expressions are

incongruous. How can he be accounted virtuous, if at times he is

vicious? How can he be received as good, when he has advised what

is bad? Rectitude is wanting. In public life an inconsistent man

is dangerous; because he destroys order and promotes disorder; he

creates distrust in the absence of integrity in purpose. In

private life no dependence can be reposed in him; he is not

respected, and if the infirmity be great, his friends send him to

an asylum for the insane.

Navarete thus states the charge against Las Casas:

"It is this expedient of Las Casas which has drawn down severe

censure upon his memory. He has been charged with gross

inconsistency, and even with having originated the inhuman

traffic in the new world. This last is a grievous charge; but

historical facts and dates remove the original sin from his

door, and prove that the practice existed in the colonies, and

was authorized by royal decree long before he took part in the

question." [Footnote 78]

[Footnote 78: Navarete, _Viages and Descubriamentos_.

Tom. iii. p. 418.]

This charge was first made against the bishop by Dr. Robertson,

in his History of America, in 1777. The doctor therein contrasts

him with Cardinal Ximenes, Prime Minister of Spain, observing:

"Cardinal Ximenes, when solicited to encourage this commerce,

peremptorily rejected the proposition, because he perceived the

iniquity of reducing one race of men to slavery, while he was

consulting about the means of restoring liberty to another.

(_Herrera Dec_. ii. _lib_. ii. _cap_. 8.) But

Las Casas, from the inconsistency natural to men who hurry with

headlong impetuosity toward a favorite point, was incapable of

making the distinction." (_Herrera Dec. lib_. ii.

_cap_. 20.)

If Ximenes had been living when this exalted morality was

accorded to him, his astonishment would have been great; he

claimed no morality of that kind.

In turning to Herrera, at the eighth chapter, referred to by Dr.

Robertson, it will be found the doctor has drawn upon his

imagination for the paragraph on Ximenes. The cardinal was not

thinking about morality, but about money. Herrera states it thus:

"At the same time it was ordered that negro slaves should not

pass to the Indies; which order was understood at once; for, as

they went out, in the scarcity of Indians, and as it was known

that one negro did the work of four, whereby a great demand had

arisen for them, it appeared to the Cardinal Ximenes, that he

might place some tax on their exportation, from whence would

result a benefit to the treasury."

{842}

But Herrera, in the twentieth chapter, does, with truth, connect

Las Casas with the recommending of negro slaves. Every line of

this passage must be carefully noted, in order to understand what

follows. It is in these words:

"The licentiate Bartoleme de Las Casas ... turned to another

expedient, advocating that the Castilians, living in the

Indies, might import negroes; for with them on the plantations

and in the mines, the Indians would be much alleviated; and

that it be advised to carry out a large number of workmen, with

certain privileges accorded to them. Adrian, Cardinal of

Tortosa, heard these suggestions with much pleasure. ... And in

order to know better the number of slaves required for the four

islands, Hispaniola, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica, an opinion

was asked from the Royal House of Trade at Seville, and they

responding four thousand, persons were not wanting, who, to

gain favor, informed the Governor de la Bresa, a Flemish

gentleman of the council of the king, and his major-domo. De

Bresa begged the monopoly of it; the king granted it, and De

Bresa sold it to the Genoese for 25,000 ducats, on condition

that the king would not bestow another monopoly for eight

years. The grant was very injurious to the settlers of these

islands, and for the Indians, for whose alleviation it had been

ordered. Because when the traffic was free, as has been stated,

every Castilian carried out slaves. But as the Genoese sold the

privilege for each one for a large sum, few purchased, and thus

this benefit ceased."

Searches were made in Herrera to prove that the traffic did not

commence with Las Casas' advice. This fact was easily

established; but it did not meet the issue. The question was, did

Las Casas, in 1517, recommend the importation of negroes? and the

fact was made out. Several points were rendered clear, and made

so from the bishop's own _History of the Indies_; that he

recommended the measure hastily; that it was an unfortunate

recommendation; that his remorse was great for it; that he hoped

God would forgive him, for he had done it in ignorance. Those who

never examined further, infer that the criminality of the

slave-trade was deemed as sinful at that time in the first half

of the sixteenth as it is now in the last half of the nineteenth

century. Hence the mistakes among modern historians.

When the investigation would appear to be concluded, and Las

Casas condemned out of his own writings, the difficulty in the

case in reality only commences. The rubbish surrounding it is

removed; nothing more. What did Las Casas admit? Surely not the

charge that he was inconsistent; for two centuries elapsed before

the charge was made; but he accuses himself for having given the

advice hastily; that it eventuated unfortunately, (but not to

him;) that he gave it ignorantly; that he hoped to be forgiven.

To present the case in its opposite aspect: if the advice had

proved beneficial instead of injurious to the Indians, he would

not have suffered remorse. He had given the advice without

reflecting, without examination, consequently in ignorance; for

if he had reflected for one moment, he would have foreseen what

consequences would follow, and which proved disastrous to the

natives.

But, while presented in this light, it is somewhat weakened by

the accompanying words of Las Casas. Mr. Ticknor, in his

excellent _History of Spanish Literature_, explains the

remorse from another view. He concludes that the bishop, in

giving the advice, was ignorant of the fact that the African

negroes were captured in unjust war; and when he learns they were

made slaves, as the Indians were enslaved, his soul was filled

with horror for the sin he had committed in recommending the

importation. Some of the words of Las Casas will bear out this

hypothesis--on the first impression it would appear conclusive;

but, unfortunately, other expressions must be explained, so as to

give effect to every line.

{843}

Besides this, why should the bishop feel remorse for what was

done ignorantly, when engaged in the holy work to promote the

salvation of souls? Las Casas was too well versed in casuistry to

deem himself criminal under these circumstances. Moreover, the

bishop, when in the exercise of his sacred duties in his diocese

of Chiapa, wrote out a rescript for his clergy, dated in

November, 1546, wherein he charges them not to confess Christians

holding Indian slaves, but does not include negro slaves. This,

to be sure, might have been an oversight, were it not for a few

lines written further down, where he cautions his clergy to guard

well the holy sacrament of marriage as well among the negroes as

the Indians. The document will be found in full in Remesal. From

this it appears Las Casas, thirty years later, had not discovered

that negroes were on the same footing with the Indians, being

then seventy-two years old.

In his _Historia_, one hundred and first chapter, he writes

of himself:

"This advice--that license be given to bring negro slaves to

these countries--the Clerigo Casas first gave, not

understanding the injustice with which the Portuguese take them

and enslave them, which, from what happened from it, he would

not have given for all he had in the world; for he always held

it unjust and tyrannical making them slaves; for the same right

as in them as in the Indians."

The translation of Mr. Helps is not followed; because he does not

translate some of the words at all; and, in one instance, gives

to a verb a wrong expression, inconsistent with the sentence and

with a subsequent paragraph. The line, "After he had apprehended

the nature of the thing," is no more to be found in the passage

than in the Psalms. In the one hundred and twenty-eighth chapter

of the _Historia_, Las Casas again refers to the subject,

and states why, on the representation of the planters that they

would free their Indians if permission were given to them to

import negroes, he consented to recommend the measure to the

crown. He next alludes to the bad consequences flowing from the

_monopoly_, and concludes thus:

"Of this advice, which the clerigo gave, not a little did he

afterward repent, judging himself guilty from his haste,

(_inadvertenti;_) and because he saw, as it turned out to

be, as unjust, the capture of the negroes as of the Indians.

There was no other remedy than what he advised--to bring

negroes in order to free the Indians, although he might suppose

they were just captures, although he was not certain that his

ignorance and good intention would excuse him in the divine

wisdom."

It appears from the passage in Herrera, quoted above, that the

advice was bad; for a monoply of the traffic in negroes was

granted to De Bresa, who sold his speculation to the Genoese, and

they raised the price so high that the planters could not

purchase Africans nor import Christian-born negroes from Spain as

formerly. In consequence, the trade in Indian slaves, who were

cheaper, increased, to the chagrin of Las Casas for his

inconsiderate suggestion. His heedless conduct, in his own eyes,

at last appeared sinful. In some part of it he had displeased

God; for the Deity permitted the Indian servitude to go on,

which, in the mind of Las Casas, he would not have permitted had

not he incurred, in some way, the divine displeasure. Was it his

precipitancy of action in the measure? was it advising the

importation of Africans, some of whom might have been captured in

an unjust war, which incensed the Deity? Las Casas could not

determine, and hence his confusion of mind and forgetfulness of

the incidents in writing the _Historia_. Whatever view,

however, may be taken of it, or which preferred, it is certain

that, under no aspect, can the charge of inconsistency made by

Dr. Robertson, and stated by Navarete, be sustained.

{844}

Washington Irving's note on Las Casas, in the appendix to his

_Columbus_, evinces much commendable research, and a

collection of all the facts he could find. But unfortunately, he

had not studied the career of the bishop; he did not pursue his

examination deep enough; he also overlooked some evidence before

his eyes in Herrera. When Mr. Irving had finished his search and

noted the evidence, he stated confusedly what he had collected,

without discriminating between inferences and facts; sometimes

treating facts as inferences or excuses in the biographies of

Ximenes; sometimes treating the inferences in Robertson and

Quintana as facts. He entered upon the examination impressed with

the conviction that Las Casas had been inconsistent; that the

moral conscience of that age was against slavery as much as it is

now. He comes to no conclusion, and leaves the charge against the

bishop in the same condition he approached it.

Mr. Prescott, in his excellent _History of the Conquest of

Mexico_, in a note on Las Casas, copies only from Quintana,

and thereby copies also, many of the mistakes of that celebrated

Spanish author. The singular spectacle, therefore, among the

curiosities of literature is presented in Mr. Prescott's

_Conquest_, a work of sterling value, for its accuracy

resting always upon respectable authorities, wherein a note is

seen abounding in errors. Mr. Prescott is also a believer in the

inconsistency of the bishop, and that the moral sense at that

time was against slavery.

Mr. Ticknor, too, in his _History of Spanish Literature_, a

history renowned and properly admired everywhere, with all his

respect for the bishop, is not without his little literary

imperfections. It is evident he is not familiar with the events,

and their surroundings in the life of Las Casas. He places the

famous controversy of the bishop with Sepulveda in 1519. But in

that year was the well-known debate of Las Casas with Quevedo,

the Bishop of Darien, in the presence of the youthful sovereign.

Sepulveda was then a young man of twenty-six years. But Mr.

Ticknor wanders in good company, one of the most eminent of

England, the celebrated Sir James Mackintosh, who, in his

_Progress of Ethical Philosophy_, states Sepulveda met Las

Casas in argument in 1542. That, however, was the year of the

famous assembly convoked by imperial order, at Barcelona and

Molino del Rey, to take into consideration the bishop's _Brief

Account of the Destruction of the Indies._ Both of these able

historians are wrong about the date of the Sepulveda discussion:

even Mr. Helps knows better; it was in 1550. Mr. Ticknor further

reports that the _Brief Account_ was written for the emperor

and dedicated to the prince, afterward Philip the Second. It

would have been more proper to write that the _Brief

Account_ was written for the emperor, and ten years after

printed and dedicated to the prince, then in England, the Prince

Consort with Queen Mary.

The state of public opinion, in regard to slavery at that period,

requires a few words in explanation in order to leave no

uncertainty in the law, or stain on the crown, on the church, or

civilization. It differed much from the present, because the

condition of society was in many respects not analogous. Slavery

was not then considered immoral; but was actually, in its

practice, indicative of progress, in ameliorating the calamities

of war and the fate of captives by land and sea.

{845}

Every war undertaken by a civilized nation, and declared in the

usual forms, with the solemn religious ceremonies, was held to be

a just war. It was an appeal to the God of armies, as an umpire

or judge; it was the ordeal by battle. When a victory was won, it

was held by the victors a divine decision in their favor; the

vanquished were deemed criminals before high heaven; and as a

punishment they were put to death. When the prisoners were too

numerous for a general massacre, they were led captive to

colonize some vacant territory, and to work for their masters.

These victims did not feel grateful to their enemies for their

clemency; but poured forth their thanks to Providence for his

mercy. Their offspring continued in slavery; for the sins of the

father were visited on the children to the third and fourth

generations, for ever. Even in the course of time, when they

intermixed in blood, language, and religion with the descendants

of their conquerors, they were often held to servitude. This was

the theory and the practice under it; but subject to many

exceptions. Exchange of prisoners was sometimes effected; some

were ransomed; some were released. At the date of the discovery

of America, Spain had been at war with the Saracen for seven

centuries; it was not only a just war, but a holy crusade. When

captures were made on either side, slaughter ensued without

compunction; but not invariably. Both armies and navies were

acting on religious conviction; but both were better civilized,

the infidel being deemed the more refined of the two. It is true,

the old and young, the infirm and diseased, who were poor, were

slain or pitched overboard; while the rich and the strong were

held for slaves or for ransom. When a parent learned that his

child or relation was spared, only enslaved, he felt the joy with

which an American mother on the border hears the news that her

little girl has not been scalped by the Camanches when captured.

In Europe, therefore, slavery was deemed a mitigation of the

horrors of war: an evil inflicted by the hand of Providence, but

a lesser evil. No one spoke or wrote against the institution;

whoever had dared would have been considered not much better than

a brute. Perhaps a few Moslem fanatics desired more Christian

blood-letting; perhaps a few Christian fanatics wished a little

more of the fluid from the arteries of Moors. Yet in no period of

the world's history was it held just to retain slaves not

captured in a just war. In Jerusalem, they were returned to the

neighboring nations when acquired in private piratical forays.

This was the Hebrew law. The law of Moses forbade man-stealing,

mentioned in Isaiah, and repeated by Saint Paul in Timothy; but

man-stealing meant no more than any other stealing of movable

property.

In Athens, the same morality was recognized. Aristotle laid it

down in his "Politics" that barbarians could not be held in

servitude unless taken in a just war. Rome borrowed her

international code from Greece, as she borrowed everything else

intellectual. On the revival of learning in the west, the Roman

civil law was introduced through the continent of Europe. The

justice of war, the property acquired under it, the moral power

to enslave, when, where, and in what cases, was elaborately

taught at the universities. Its principles were as well

understood in the canon law as in the civil law; teachers in

ethical philosophy also expounded the doctrine which prevailed in

every tribunal or judicature. They all agreed in their premises

and maxims; they only differed in their application, as their

minds were clear or obtuse.

{846}

The rules for the interpretation of laws were the same in the

courts of civil or ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The presumption

of law was that, as slavery of the foreign infidel existed in

Spain, every infidel of a foreign nation was a slave. If one

claimed his freedom, the burden of proof lay upon him to prove he

was free. When negroes from Africa were brought by Portuguese

slave-traders to the Seville market, the presumption arose that

these creatures were of that condition. If one of them could show

that he was not a slave, that he was not captured in war, but

stolen from his tribe, he was adjudged a free man. It had always

been known that men were stolen and sold; but every slave

claiming to be free had to prove it. The public did not inquire

into the fact when they purchased; they did not send to

Senegambia. It is well known that mule-stealing is as common in

Kentucky as sheep-stealing in the State of New York. Yet no one

in the city, purchasing either kind of animal in the open market,

will hesitate to buy mules or mutton from a regular drover or

butcher. Who could wait, when taking his seat at breakfast, until

his conscience was appeased to find out first whether the veal

cutlet before him was not cut from a stolen calf? No one, high or

low, in Spain, had any misgiving in the traffic of slaves, either

in importing them to Andalucia or in exporting them to Jamaica.

But the natives of the Western Indies stood on a different

footing, and when their question was first presented by Queen

Isabella to the universities of Valladolid and Salamanca for a

just opinion, whether the Indians could be enslaved, the

professors unanimously decided they could not. The doctors of

theology, versed in the canon law, maintained the aborigines of

the western hemisphere were conceded to the crown by the bull of

Alexander VI. granting the sovereignty of America to the kingdom

of Castile and Leon, and the inhabitants, as wards to civilize

and make Christians in express terms to be found in the

pontifical document; that the sovereign had accepted it on these

conditions. To break the promise was to betray the trust. On the

other hand, the civil jurists held the Indians were vassals of

the crown acquired in peaceful discovery and not reduced by war.

Therefore they were never captured, and consequently could never

be enslaved.

The crown agreed with the lawyers on the question of title by

which the Indies of the West were held. The crown also recognized

the stipulations in the bull to civilize and christianize the

Indians. Consequently, it was resolved that just war could not be

undertaken against them; but the government placed over them

should be a missionary government; with a political polity, at

the same time, for colonists only, from Castile. Hence, the

innumerable mission establishments in America and the

comparatively insignificant civil institutions for the Europeans;

hence, also, the double aspect of formation in the vice-royalty--

the dual government under one head.

The royal officials sent out had no jurisdiction over the

Indians, except the viceroy; the religious missionaries had no

charge over the Spaniards. As the natives greatly outnumbered the

Castilians, the institutions, in a short time, inclined more to

the ecclesiastical than to the civil or political; and the

religious element continues predominant to the present day.

{847}

Presidents still govern in fact, although not in the same form as

the old viceroys; and as the viceroys represented the king in

temporal and spiritual matters, the republican presidents

endeavor to imitate, in the plenitude of their power, both the

sovereign and the pontiff.

Las Casas understood the law as laid down by the civil jurists,

and as understood also by the theologians. Sometimes he defended

the Indians under the civil code; sometimes under the canon law.

In one way he appealed to his countrymen's sense of justice; in

another, to their conscience. In general his arguments were based

on the bull of Alexander, contending that the natives were placed

in charge of the sovereigns by the head of the church for a

religious purpose. Llorente considers this course the weaker side

to take, because the pope has no prerogative to grant kingdoms,

and principalities, and discoveries at pleasure; yet he excuses

Las Casas, because this assumption of the pope's was generally

recognized in that age. But the excellent biographer overlooks

the words in the petition from Isabella to Alexander, desiring

the sovereignty. A saving clause will be found in it, which

intimates: "Distinguished lawyers are of opinion that the

confirmation or donation from the pontificate is not requisite to

hold possession justly of the new world." In that it will be

perceived a reservation is inserted against the very power to

grant that which it was requested to be granted.

The bishop was aware of this, but still preferred to appeal to

the conscience of the conquerors and colonists; to portray the

wickedness in enslaving, where their religious convictions might

be touched, rather than rely upon the law of the case where every

secular law was continually broken, and where even divine law was

not much better respected. His policy was correct; its good

effects ultimately were manifest, and at last eminently

successful.

At this time died Hernando Cortez, the conqueror and scourge of

Mexico. When his will was opened, one item directed, as Mr.

Prescott translates:

"It has long been a question whether one can conscientiously

hold property in Indian slaves. Since this point has not yet

been determined, I enjoin it on my son Martin and his heirs,

that they spare no pains to come to an exact knowledge of the

truth, as a matter which deeply touches the conscience of each

of them no less than mine.'

The historian, in a note on the same page, gives this extract in

the original, where it reads differently, thus:

"Item, concerning the native slaves in New Spain, aforesaid;

those of war as well as of purchase, there have been, and are

many doubts," etc.

The term, "by purchase," refers to those natives who were slaves

before the arrival of the Spaniards, and sold to him. Mr.

Prescott does not perceive the point for which Las Casas was

contending, and which touched the conqueror on his death-bed with

all his mighty crimes fresh on his soul at the last moment,

whether Indians, although taken in war, could be enslaved. On the

next page Mr. Prescott remarks: "Las Casas and the Dominicans of

the former age, the abolitionists of their day, thundered out

their uncompromising invectives against the system, on the broad

ground of natural equity and the rights of man." This is a

mistake; Las Casas and other Dominicans always held up the bull

of Alexander VI., as our abolitionists pointed to the National

Declaration of Independence.

{848}

The glamour perpetually before the eyes of modern biographers

about the natural equity and the rights of man prevailing in the

sixteenth century has misled them into many errors.

Cortez had no scruples on the subject of his negro slaves! He

does not provide for them. His man, Estevan, had the honor of

introducing the small-pox to this continent, at Vera Cruz. Many

of the race, both African and Spanish-born, were brought to the

Indies before 1500; but soon after their arrival, proving

refractory, they rebelled against the masters in what was called

the Maroon war. Others ran away to the mountains, enticing the

simple natives with them, where the negro lived in oriental

leisure and luxury, in his harem, who worked for him, and

provided for all his wants. In 1502, Governor Ovando recommended

that further importation be prohibited; because they escaped, and

would not work for the planters. The clergy joined in the

recommendation, because the negroes took the Indians with them,

whereby the Indian could not be instructed in religion.

In 1506, Ovando's recommendation was adopted; but in part only.

The introduction of negroes from Africa was prohibited, while the

colonists were permitted to bring over Christian negroes born in

Spain. The king gave a special license for a few Africans to work

in the mines, where they would not come in contact with the

natives. Mr. Bancroft, in the fifth chapter of his _History of

the United States_, is quite indignant at the royal hypocrisy;

he, too, has the disease of natural equity and rights of man in

the cerebellum. This historian observes:

"The Spanish government attempted to disguise the crime by

prohibiting the introduction of slaves who had been born in

Moorish families. ... But the idle pretence was soon abandoned.

... King Ferdinand himself (1510) sent fifty slaves to labor in

the mines."

The same chapter fifth is full of precious reading to those who

are curious to learn how facts sometimes may be interpreted, and

history made up.

These are the reasons why Cardinal Ximenes was opposed to the

trade, as explained by his biographers; and these, also, for the

repugnance of Las Casas to it, as stated several times in his

works. But the cardinal determined to raise revenue from the

traffic; he thereupon, in 1516, stopped the trade until he could

arrange the duties to be levied. For this stoppage, Dr. Robertson

fired off an eulogium, which was not applicable. Washington

Irving eagerly sought out the chapter in Herrera, referred to by

the doctor, and was duly disgusted on finding that Ximenes was

not thinking about sublime moral sentiments, but about money. The

biographer of Columbus was much perplexed; he could only console

himself for the discrepancy by remarking that, "Cardinal Ximenes

in fact, though a wise and upright statesman, was not troubled

with scruples of conscience on the question of natural rights."

How a cardinal can be an upright man without an invariable

delicacy of conscience, wherewith to decide justly at all times,

surpasses common comprehension. The excuse for Ximenes is about

equal to the compliment for John Smith, if it were said that the

ubiquitous John is an exemplary member of society when he is

sober.

On second thoughts, Mr. Helps, after all, may be entitled to

higher rank, by comparison with other authors, than on first

impression is accorded to him.

{849}

His home is in a hemisphere where historical questions, purely

American, are receding more and more from public consideration;

while most of the other gentlemen belong to this side of the

Atlantic, where such subjects are rising in the horizon, and

claiming greater attention. If facts, then, of the first

magnitude are Overlooked in the new world, how many more will be

overlooked in the old? If they do these things in the green tree

at Boston, what shall be done by a Dryasdust in London?

Space does not permit an examination of other faults of less

gravity attributed to Las Casas. It is said that, when he wrote

his _Brief Account_, he exaggerated in over-stating the

immense extent of the destruction among the aborigines; that his

excited feelings and tender sensibilities had led him astray by

the unparalleled atrocities perpetrated in his presence. But on

the contrary, it was the magnitude of these atrocities which

excited his feelings and shocked his sensibilities. Every word in

the _Brief Account_ can be maintained; furthermore, it will

be found his statement in that tale of horror is not only true,

but falls short of all the truth. Foreign nations, jealous and

dreading the greatness of Spain, eagerly translated and published

the _Account_. It soon appeared in print in English, in

French, in Dutch, and Latin; it would have also been presented in

German, if a German literature had been in existence: Caricature

pictures embellished the pages, depicting scenes in the many

modes of torture practised upon the Indians, upon the simple,

innocent, confiding, naked men and women, upon little boys and

girls, scarce beyond infancy.

These unheard-of crimes sent a thrill throughout Christendom, and

set a stigma for cruelty on the Castilian name. The Spanish

people, proverbial for their honesty, humanity, and integrity,

acting with little wisdom, denied the correctness of the account;

consequently, they were required to make good their denial. This

being impossible, the nation took vengeance on the memory of Las

Casas, when in his grave. But the conduct was foolish; the nation

was no more responsible for the outrage on the natives, than it

is responsible for a gang of desperadoes and outlaws in the

mountain, who let loose their bull-dogs on kids and lambs in the

Sierra Morena. Consequently, the name of Las Casas was held up to

national execration, wherever was spoken the beautiful idiom of

Castile. The learned looked upon his virtuous exertions with cold

suspicion; literature became tinctured with it; the church,

catching the tone of public opinion in the Iberian peninsula,

withheld her recognition and recompense; thus ignoring perhaps

her greatest ornament and benefactor in modern times. In the

course of years, his name passed almost into oblivion in Spain

when the asperity died out. But among the officials in Spanish

America, hatred to him was imperishable. So far down, even in

1811, the Consulado of the City of Mexico denounced him as a

"most illustrious Spanish declaimer, who wished to make himself

renowned at the expense of the true national glory; and if he

followed it some time, he gained at last the merited odium of

posterity and the contempt of all honest and right-minded

foreigners." At the same moment, nearly thirty millions of the

native population, the descendants of those whom he was mainly

instrumental in saving from slavery and consequent destruction,

sent forth daily their grateful hymns in praise of his virtues,

and in their orisons besought the heavenly grace to grant sweet

repose to his imperishable soul.

{850}

Well does he deserve their gratitude. At the beginning, Las Casas

was a missionary unto the missions; he taught the clergy first

that the natives were intellectual beings like themselves; he

organized the movement for the extirpation of slavery; he

instructed them how to appeal to the conscience of the dying man

holding fellow-men in bondage; he ordered them to refuse the

sacraments to the strong, who approached the holy altar; he

reported the plan for the missionary government to the sovereigns

in Spain; he organized it in America; and originated the method

by which the docile creatures were collected into communities or

pueblos, far removed from the white race; he laid down the rules

for the hours of labor and repose, for their instruction and for

their civilization. He instituted the regulations for the

guidance of the priests, and instilled into them the duty of

watching over their flock at all times, in all places; to shield

them from oppression; to alleviate their distress in sickness; to

soothe them in affliction; to counsel them when in health; to be

their guide, comforter, and friend. Nor has one of his teachings

been changed or set aside. They remain to this day in full vigor

in every pueblo, from the furthest confines of California to the

most remote mission of Paraguay. When he passed away from earth,

at the extreme age of ninety-two, the spirit with which his zeal

was animated, was caught up by the priesthood who sat at his feet

to listen to his inspired words. The germ he planted in their

bosom grew with their growth, strengthened with their strength. A

world was redeemed, and an humble monk from Seville, a truly

God-fearing man, Bartoleme Las Casas, was their redeemer.

The time has gone by when the European mind can do him justice.

Colonial affairs of the Western continent have no longer an

interest in that quarter. His native land has thrown him off. It

is only in America the greatness of his achievement can be

portrayed, the lustre of his fame renewed. Nor can this pleasing

task be accomplished in Spanish America, where as yet a

provincial literature prevails. It must come, if come at all,

from out of our own republic. More than one half of the immense,

wide-spreading territory of the United States once belonged to

Spain; and Spanish missionary institutions, laws, customs, and

manners underlie the Anglo-Saxon historical, legislative, and

judicial superstructure of a later period. Jurists are now in

search, groping in the dark, for the clue to that seemingly

inextricable labyrinth of civilization on which Spanish-American

history is founded, and from whence contemporaneous laws and

customs are derived, in order to elucidate intricate principles

daily arising in the adjudication of titles to lands.

The highest court approaches the deciding of such cases with some

trepidation and more distrust, lest they misapprehend a Spanish

colonial law or do not understand the reason for the enactment of

the law; or because, also, a contract may be misinterpreted from

misinformation of local institutions and local phrases, that

throw their atmosphere around expressed stipulations in legal

documents. They now feel the necessity for an exposition dating

back to the commencement of Castilian occupancy on this continent

and the institution of missions. In vain have they sought for

that source of knowledge, for that corner-stone upon which to

construct the true theory over again of viceregal domination.

{851}

At last they will turn to the works of Las Casas, to master their

contents; and when understood, they will lay their hand on what

remains of his noble intellect, and exclaim, "Thou art the man."

Then will be unfolded the mysteries of the Spanish colonial

double codes, and advocates will expound them with the courage

and confidence with which they expatiate upon the common law of

England.

It was as idle to look among various races of peaceful

aborigines, for the founder of their civilization, clothed in the

garb of a warrior, wearing a sword at his side, as to expect to

encounter the great protector and first chief magistrate of a

mighty military nation under the cowl of a monk. Las Casas was to

the Spanish domain west of the Mississippi river what Washington

was to our English territory east of it; and as resort is

constantly had to the writings of the great general, to

understand the principles of government in one portion of the

republic, reference must be made to the essays of the great

missionary to explain the ideas and objects for which the other

was inhabited. American jurisprudence will be the channel through

which a proper estimate of Las Casas will be attained. Then shall

his works be placed in the alcoves of libraries along with the

documentary legacies of Washington, of Jefferson, of Hamilton,

and Adams; and chapels will be erected to enshrine his relics in

marbles, in malachite and lazuli, in gems and in gold. For it

will then be established that Bartoleme Las Casas in America

gained and preserved more souls to the church, than in Europe the

heresy of Luther ever lost.

---------------

Sayings Of The Fathers Of The Desert.

There were two brothers of great sanctity, living in the same

congregation, who, by their merits, saw in each other the grace

of God. Now, it chanced that one of them went out on the sixth

feria, apart from the rest of the congregation, and saw a person

eating at an early hour. "Dost eat at this hour on the sixth

feria?" said he. The next day Mass was celebrated as usual, and

when the other brother looked at him, and saw that the grace

which had been given him was gone, he was sad. And when they had

entered his cell, he said: "What hast thou done, brother, for I

no longer see the grace of God in thee as heretofore?" "I

remember to have done nothing bad either in thought or in deed,"

was the answer. "Have you spoken to any one in an uncharitable

manner?" asked the brother. Then recollecting himself, he

replied: "Yes. Yesterday I saw some one eating at an early hour,

and asked him whether he ate so early on the sixth feria. This,

then, is my fault. But come, work with me for two weeks, and let

us pray God to forgive me." They did so, and after two weeks'

time he beheld God's grace again descending upon his brother,

and, giving thanks to God, who alone is good, they were full of

consolation.

-----------------

{852}

New Publications.

The Friendships Of Women.

By William Rounseville Alger.

Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1868.

Mr. Alger has certainly given us a charming volume, and one which

is distinguished for its freedom from the weak sentimentality and

doubtful moral tone that one fears to find in publications of our

day, whose aim it is to treat of the passions of the human heart.

He has chosen the noblest and purest examples in history to

illustrate his subject, and the incidents of life are selected

with good taste and judgment. The Catholic Church refines and

elevates every genuine sentiment of the heart, and we should,

therefore, naturally look for the most shining examples of

friendship among those of her children who have instanced in

their lives her divine power of purification and exaltation of

the soul. The best examples in this volume are such--St. Monica,

and her great son, St. Augustine; St. Scholastica and her

brother, St. Benedict; St. Jerome and St. Paula; St. Francis of

Assisi and St. Clara; St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane Frances

de Chantal; St. Theresa and St. John of the Cross; Sir Thomas

More and his daughter, Margaret Roper; Eugénie de Guérin and her

brother Maurice; Madame Swetchine and Father Lacordaire. In

several places Mr. Alger recognizes this fact, and acknowledges

that the Catholic faith tends to foster pure and exalted

friendships. Noticing some very remarkable intimate friendships

which sprung up between certain holy priests and their female

penitents, he adds: "Unquestionably there have been very numerous

friendships, worthy of notice, between clergymen and devout women

in the Protestant sects. But they are different from those in the

Catholic communion, which has, in this respect, great advantages.

In the Protestant establishment all are on a free equality, and

the religion is an element fused into the life. With the

Catholics, the overwhelming authority of the church invests the

priests with godlike attributes, while celibacy detaches their

hearts from the home and family, leaving them ready for other

calls. The laity are placed in a passive attitude, except as to

faith and affection, which are more active for the restrictions

applied elsewhere: and religion is pursued and practised as an

art by itself. The church ritual, by its dramatic contents and

movements, peerless in its pathetic, imaginative power,

intensifies and cleanses the passions of those who appreciatively

celebrate or witness it, and who are naturally attracted

together, as, in blended devotional emotions and aims, they

cultivate that supernatural act whose infinite interests make all

earthly concerns appear dwarfed and pale. The instances already

cited of the friendships thus originating, suffice to indicate

the wealth in this kind of experience which must remain for ever

unknown to the public."

The fact is plain, although Mr. Alger makes sorry work in

attempting to philosophize upon it. A month's experience in the

confessional, if that were possible for him, would teach him with

whom "religion is an element fused into the life," and that the

faith of a Catholic is not a matter of sentiment only, and it

might reveal to him, also, the secret of that holy friendship of

which, in truth, the world outside knows nothing. It certainly

does surprise us that, from his close perusal of the lives of

these friends in God, he has failed to discover it. We can tell

him, however, the reason why he has not found the secret of their

affection, for we read it plainly on every page of his book. He

fails to recognize the reality of the supernatural, and therefore

has no appreciation of any friendship which is not wholly human

in its foundation and motive. This is the fault we have to find

with modern non-Catholic literature, and which renders it so cold

and sterile.

{853}

We are not the ones to carp at human love and human friendship.

Both are of God, and blessed by him. The doctrines of Calvinism,

which has darkened the spiritual life of those who have been

nourished under its influence, and which stigmatizes the nature

of man, with all its aspirations, as of the devil, devilish, is

alone responsible for the degradation of the heart's affections,

and that dearth of human friendship of which the author complains

in his introduction, and the desire to reestablish which appears

to have moved him to the composition of this work. The revolt

against the doctrine of total depravity has resulted in pure

naturalism and transcendentalism. Hence, human reason is deified

together with the instincts. Reason is the highest, for there is

nothing above it; and "act out thy instincts," is the holiest,

for they are divine.

May not this inordinate cultivation of the passions, and their

unbridled gratification, which is the burden of the sensational

literature of our day, be a reaction from the unnatural

restraints of puritanism? The actual state of things we leave our

author to give in his own words. "The proportionate number of

examples of virtuous love, completing itself in marriage, will

probably diminish, and the relative examples of defeated or of

unlawful love increase, until we reach some new phase of

civilization, with better harmonized social arrangements--

arrangements both more economical and more truthful. In the mean

time, everything which tends to inflame the exclusive passion of

love, to stimulate thought upon it, or to magnify its imagined

importance, contributes so much to enhance the misery of its

withholding or loss, and thus to augment an evil already

lamentably extensive and severe." Why does not Mr. Alger ask

himself the reason of this increasing immorality, and the

diminution of the number of marriages? He says, again, "There

never were so many morally baffled, uneasy, and complaining women

on the earth as now." And why? His answer confirms what we have

before said. "_Because never before did the capacities of

intelligence and affection so greatly exceed their

gratification_." Mr. Alger sees no other heaven than this

earth, no "better part" than marriage; is blind to the

supernatural end of man; fails to appreciate the examples of

divine friendships he cites, and has no remedy to offer for the

evils he deplores, but the stimulation of another human

sentiment, purer in its conception, and less liable to abuse than

the more ardent passion of love, and the establishment and

cultivation of "woman's rights," to replace (we cannot help

thinking it) the convent and its supernatural life of divine

love; and substituting personal friendships for that charity

which embraces the whole race. For, he says: "Now, the most

healthful, effective antidote for the evils of an extravagant

passion, is to call into action neutralizing or supplementary

passions; to balance the excess of one power by stimulating

weaker powers, and fixing attention on them; to assuage

disappointments in one direction by securing gratification in

another." And, again: "The good wife and mother fills a beautiful

and sublime office--the fittest and the happiest office she can

fulfil. If her domestic cares occupy and satisfy her faculties,

it is a fortunate adjustment; and it is right that her husband

should relieve her of the duty of providing for her subsistence.

But what shall be said of those millions of women who are not

wives and mothers; who have no adequate domestic life, no genial,

private occupation or support? Multitudes of women have too much

self-respect to be desirous of being supported in idleness by

men, too much genius and ambition to be content with spending

their lives in trifles; and too much devotedness not to burn to

be doing their share in the relief of humanity, the work and

progress of the world. If these were but all happy wives and

mothers, that might be best. But denied that function, and being

what they are, why should not all the provinces of public labor

and usefulness which they are capable of occupying, be freely

opened to them! What else is it save prejudice that applauds a

woman dancing a ballet or performing an opera, but shrinks with

disgust from one delivering an oration, preaching a sermon, or

casting a vote?

{854}

Why is it less womanly to prescribe as a physician than to tend

as a nurse? If a woman have a calling to medicine, divinity, law,

literature, art, instruction, trade, or honorable handicraft, it

is hard to see any reason why she should not have a fair chance

of pursuing it."

Mr. Alger, however, catches some faint glimpses of the truth to

which we have alluded, and we wish that he would ponder well the

full meaning of his own language, when speaking of the friendship

of Madame Swetchine and Father Lacordaire--a friendship which

appears to have been a subject of intense interest to him, and to

have awakened his unqualified admiration. "No one who has not

read their correspondence, reaching richly through a whole

generation, can easily imagine the services rendered by this

gifted and saintly woman to this holy and powerful man. Community

of faith, of loyalty, of nobleness, joined them. It was in

looking to heaven together that their souls grew united. Drawn by

the same attractions, and held by one sovereign allegiance, such

souls need no vows, nor lean on any foreign support. _The

divinity of truth and good is their bond._" What is this

"divinity of truth and good"? Is it God, the living, personal

God, who redeems, inspires, regenerates, sanctifies, and

glorifies humanity, or is it not? What is the character of the

life born of this communion in God? Are such friendships possible

outside of revealed religion? We think not, and we regret that a

mind of such culture as our author has shown his to be, should

not see that he has been forced to go outside of the bounds of

his own theory to find the realization of his ideal.

The final chapter of his work, "On the present needs and duties

of women," is not so foreign to the title of the volume as one

might be tempted to believe on a cursory reading. Mr. Alger

finds, as he says in his introduction, that the position of woman

in society is descending. He looks for some "new phase of

civilization" to bring her back to a position of honor and

usefulness equivalent to that which she is so rapidly losing. He

blames Christianity and its traditions for making woman the

weaker vessel, and reducing her to subjection under the rule of

man, as the head of the divine institution of the family. It

seems to us that this relative position of the man and the woman

is established by pretty high authority.

"To the woman, also, he said, I will multiply thy sorrows and thy

conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, _and

thou shalt be under thy husband's power, and he shall have

dominion over thee._" This, however, Mr. Alger conveniently

rejects as a legend. But does he forget that the Christian church

emancipated woman, and redeemed her from that degraded condition,

into which, for want of the regenerating influence of the

supernatural life of that church, she is once again descending?

We are not surprised to see Mr. Alger throwing all revelation

aside, denying original sin and its consequences. But let him

beware. He will drag humanity back into the state of barbarism,

or drown it in the sink of heathen licentiousness. This modern

spirit of materialism, this throwing off the yoke of divine

authority, is the result of the old temptation, "Ye shall be as

gods, knowing good from evil," and we are present witnesses to

the curse that is falling upon those who give ear to the tempter.

Men and women forget God, and there is a fearful resuscitation of

the basest forms of heathen immorality among them. Will Mr. Alger

tell us to what principle (either of civilization or of religion)

he attributes the dying out of the non-Catholic native American

stock in New England, and what new phase of civilization will

prevent its total extinction?

Mr. Alger would regenerate the millions of women whose aimless

life he deplores, by making woman equal in all the duties of life

to the man. No matter what the whole world has said before, no

matter what superstitious revelations have said, no matter if the

teaching of the Bible distinctly shows the contrary, no matter if

the Christian church affirms by the mouth of St. Paul, "I suffer

not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to

be in silence; for Adam was first formed, then Eve."

{855}

"We are led," says our author, "by teachings of philosophy and

science which we cannot resist," to differ with the traditions of

the whole world and the Christian church, and as for the Apostle,

"his logic limps;" for, "did priority of creation confer

authority to govern, then man should obey the lower animals." (!)

Mr. Alger has a theory, and endeavors to illustrate it, and draw

the logical conclusions. We fear that those conclusions will

harmonize but ill with the experience of the human race, and will

be found sadly wanting in their adaptability to its needs.

------------

An Illustrated History Of Ireland.

With ten first-class full-page Engravings of Historical Scenes,

designed by Henry Doyle, and engraved by George Hanlon and

George Pearson; together with upwards of 100 woodcuts by

eminent artists, illustrating the Antiquities, Scenery, and

Sites of Remarkable Events.

1 vol. 8vo, pp. xiv., 581.

London: Longman & Co.;

New York: Catholic Publication Society, 126 Nassau Street.

We extend a most cordial welcome to this "Popular Illustrated

History of Ireland." It is precisely such a manual of that deeply

interesting and suggestive history, as should be in the hands of

every man or woman who claims connection with the ancient race of

the Gael, or who wishes to obtain a correct knowledge of that

people. Such a manual could only have been produced in our

generation. Thirty or forty years ago, it were an impossibility.

Little was then known of the genuine materials of the history of

Ireland; of the vast body of annals, which Eugene O'Curry

deliberately affirmed, some twelve years since, must form the

basis of any really intelligible version of the story of "ancient

Erinn;" of the Genealogies and Pedigrees, the Historic Tales, the

Law Books, the Topographical Poems, and of the whole mass of

miscellaneous historical literature, which the national historian

must avail himself of, before he can give us anything more than a

dry and meagre outline; before he can bring out in full relief,

the pregnant record of the colonization, conversion, invasions,

persecutions, wars, struggles, triumphs and reverses; sufferings

and sorrows of Innisfail; before he can supply those lights and

shades, all those minute circumstances, "which explain not only

historical events, but those equally or even more important

descriptions, in which the habits and manners, the social ideas

and cultivation, the very life of the actors in those events are"

depicted for our instruction as well as entertainment. It is true

there were then as now accessible scores, even hundreds of

so-called "Histories of Ireland," from Dermod O'Connor's rude and

ruthless translation of the _Foras Feasa Ar Eirinn_ of Dr.

Geoffrey Keating, down through the ponderous volumes of Leland,

and Warner, and O'Halloran, and Plowden, and Ledwich, and

Musgrave, to the crude compilations of Taaffe, and Gordon, and

Crawford, and Commerford, and Lawless; to the more polished and

pretentious, but not practically more useful, rather more

pernicious epitome of Thomas Moore. There were Ogygias,

Itineraries, Collectanea, Chronicles of Eri, and such pedantic

rubbish, in heaps on the shelves of public libraries, in old

book-stores, in the closets and chests of fossilized book-worms.

All of those pseudo-histories served rather to discourage than

advance the study of the real history of Ireland; to bring into

disrepute, rather than to exalt, the Irish name, and race, and

nation, and the glorious church founded by the great apostle of

the faith.

To a learned and faithful, though almost forgotten representative

of the venerable priesthood of Ireland belongs the high honor of

having produced, in the language of the stranger, the first truly

original work of an historical nature, an able, erudite, and

inspiring history of the most devoutly cherished inheritance of

the race, the ancient church of his native land; and this, too,

within the memory of men yet living, and not far past the prime

of life. We allude to the _Ecclesiastical History of

Ireland,_ of the Rev. Dr. John Lanigan, which was issued in

four volumes octavo, from a Dublin press, in the year 1822.

{856}

It commenced with the introduction of Christianity into Ireland,

and closed with the era of the Anglo-Norman invasion. Half a

life-time was given to the preparation of the book, the

accomplished author of which "spared no pains in the collection

and collation of such documents as materially" bore on the

subject, and such as were in his time accessible in the British

Islands, and on the continent. His aim was "to exhibit a faithful

picture of the doctrine and practice of the ancient Irish Church,

and to show its connection, at all times, with the universal

church of Christ." This he did as far as it was then in the power

of a great and zealous scholar to do. But he felt, and his

contemporaries were by him taught to appreciate, the want of a

familiar and critical knowledge of the immense stores of Celtic

lore, the full magnitude and importance of which it has since

taken more than the average of a generation of unprecedentedly

diligent research, and of unsurpassed ability, to ascertain and

make clear.

Soon after the publication of the really great work of Dr.

Lanigan--now altogether out of print--the famous Ordnance Survey

of Ireland was fairly entered upon. In its prosecution, some of

the most profoundly learned men of the country were employed,

under the superintendence of Colonel Thomas A. Larcom and Dr.

George Petrie. It was in connection with this great national

undertaking that the knowledge and skill of the lamented

scholars, Dr. John O' Donovan and Professor Eugene O'Curry, were

first utilized for the public good. Thenceforward, with and

without the aid of government, these great men pushed earnestly,

enthusiastically onward, in their investigations into the extant

materials of their country's history; rescuing from oblivion and

decay priceless memorials of the past, in every form and shape,

in Ireland and elsewhere whither they were called upon to exert

themselves; and classifying, systematizing, translating, editing,

annotating, and publishing, with unremitting industry, and with

marvellous power and tact, until they ceased from their labors

for ever, and passed hence to their reward. Great, indeed

irreparable, was the loss which the history and literature of

Ireland sustained in their deaths.

Without the impetus given to the investigation of the past of

Ireland by the great, single-handed enterprise of the Rev. Dr.

Lanigan, it is questionable whether the progress that was made in

the succeeding thirty years could possibly have been achieved in

the interest of the historical literature of the nation. Without

the help of O'Donovan and O'Curry and Petrie, the race could not

have had placed within its reach so vitally important a portion

of that literature as has been given to the public in a

thoroughly scholarly form and style, within the past twenty-eight

years, by the Irish Archaeological, Celtic, Ossianic, and kindred

archaeological societies, by Messrs. Hodges & Smith, by Mr. James

Duffy, of Dublin, and through various other agencies. Without the

advantages resulting from their labors, we could not have had the

many very able works on general and special topics of national

historical interest which, within our own recollection, have

proceeded from the pens of truly national writers. Without the

vast stores of information acquired by O'Donovan and O'Curry

themselves, while prosecuting their fruitful studies and

researches, even the _Irish Grammar_ and the magnificent

version of the _Annals of Ireland_ of the former, and the

celebrated _Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient

Irish History,_ the crowning work of the latter, could not

have been produced in our day and generation. And it is saying no

more than is frankly avowed by the vigorous writer of the

_Popular Illustrated History of Ireland_, that, without the

benefit of the light that has been thrown upon bygone times in

Ireland, since Dr. Lanigan published his _Ecclesiastical

History_, this latest and best of the modern histories of

Ireland could not have been prepared for publication, and issued

in such an appropriate style.

The work before us, for a copy of which we are indebted to "The

Catholic Publication Society," makes a handsome octavo volume of

over 600 pages, divided into 36 chapters, prefaced by an

admirably written and very timely disquisition on the Irish land

and church questions, the most vital questions of reform in

Ireland in our time; and supplemented by a very full index.

{857}

It is illustrated by ten full-page historical engravings, from

designs by Mr. Henry Doyle, a worthy son of the noble Irish

Catholic artist, Richard Doyle, who refused to prostitute his

genius in the interests of the assailants of his church through

the columns of the London _Punch_; and by over one hundred

very beautiful sketches on wood of the scenery, antiquities,

sites of remarkable events, etc. etc. The illustrations, woodcuts

and all, are in the very best style of the art which they

represent. Mr. Doyle's contributions of themselves would form an

attractive collection. The emblematic title-page, suggestive of

all that is grand and noble in the period of the independence of

the nation, is an exquisite picture. Of rare merit, likewise, are

most of the other designs furnished by Mr. Doyle. The Emigrant's

Farewell, opposite page 571, is a truthful, characteristic, and

painfully suggestive sketch.

The narrative itself is as fine a specimen of comprehensive

analysis and condensation as we have any knowledge of. It

faithfully reflects the present advanced state of historical

research in and relating to the country. It embodies all the

ascertained facts of the history of Ireland. The character of its

early inhabitants; their social, civil, and religious habits and

customs; their martial, legal, literary, and--noblest, most

glorious, most enduring of all--their missionary triumphs; all

are accurately, though succinctly, portrayed. The tragic eras of

the history of the nation, from the Invasion to the achievement

of Catholic Emancipation--more than 650 years--are also limned

in vivid colors. No available source of information has been

unheeded by the writer, who seems to have not merely read, but

studied earnestly, every published work of value or interest,

down to the very latest publication, bearing directly or

indirectly on the subject, not even excepting the driest and most

abstruse of the several society tracts and monograms of the

archaeologists. The sketches of early Celtic literature are

worthy of even O'Donovan or O'Curry, brief, precise, and

satisfactory. The book is trustworthy in all its peculiarities,

eminently so in its text and notes, which are presented in a

clear, unaffected, but most interesting style, and with a

conscientiousness which is not obtrusive, but which is

recognizable in every line of the writer.

We have been so interested in the details of the history, and so

delighted by the more purely narrative parts, that we find we

have marked for citation several peculiarly striking passages,

for which we have no room. One passage which we give will serve

as the meetest conclusion to our notice of the work; as well as

to indicate the spirit of the history, and illustrate the

flowing, artless, and pathetic style of the writer. In treating

of the extant memorials of St. Patrick, it is thus beautifully

remarked:

"One prayer uttered by St. Patrick has been singularly

fulfilled. 'May my Lord grant,' he exclaims, 'that I may never

lose his people, which he has acquired in the ends of the

earth.' From hill and dale, from camp and cottage, from

plebeian and noble, there rang out a grand 'Amen.' The strain

was caught by Secundinus and Benignus, by Columba and

Columbanus, by Brigid and Brendan. It floated away from

Lindisfarne and Iona to Iceland and Tarentum. It was heard on

the sunny banks of the Rhine, at Antwerp and Cologne, in

Oxford, in Pavia, and in Paris. And still the old echo is

breathing its holy prayer by the priest who toils in cold and

storm to the 'station' on the mountain-side, far from his

humble home. By the confessor who spends hour after hour, in

the heat of summer and the cold of winter, absolving the

penitent children of Patrick. By the monk in his cloister. By

noble and true-hearted men, faithful through centuries of

persecution. And loudly and nobly, though it be but faint to

human ears, is that echo uttered also by the aged woman who

lies down by the wayside to die in the famine years, because

she prefers the bread of heaven to the bread of earth, and the

faith taught by Patrick to the tempter's gold. By the emigrant,

who with broken heart bids a long farewell to the dear island

home, to the old father, to the gray-haired mother, because his

adherence to his faith tends not to further his temporal

interests, and he must starve or go beyond the sea for bread.

Thus, ever and ever, that echo is gushing up into the ear of

God, and never will it cease until it shall have merged into

the eternal alleluia which the often-martyred and ever faithful

children of the saint shall shout with him in rapturous voice

before the Eternal Throne."

------------------

{858}

Legends Of The Wars In Ireland.

By Robert Dwyer Joyce, M.D.

1 vol. 12mo, pp. 352.

Boston: James Campbell. 1868.

This handsome little volume is, we believe, the first

contribution of Dr. Joyce to Irish-American literature since his

arrival in this country. We have read several of his sketches,

years ago, in the Irish periodicals, and one of them, the

"Building of Mourne," appeared in one of the first numbers of

this magazine.

The stories Dr. Joyce has collated in this volume are told in an

easy, racy style, and make pleasant reading for a winter's

evening. They please us better than the majority of the sketches

and stories about Ireland which have frequently appeared here and

in England, as they are, with a few exceptions, free from that

exaggeration of plot and detail which take away the moral effect

of too many of the so-called legends. The book contains the

following stories:

A Batch of Legends;

The Master of Lisfinry;

The Fair Maid of Killarney;

An Eye for an Eye;

The Rose of Drimmagh;

The House of Lisbloom;

The White Knight's Present;

The First and Last Lords of Firmoy,

The Chase from the Hostel;

The Whitethorn Tree;

The White Lady of Basna;

The Bridal Ring;

The Little Battle of Bottle Hill.

---------

Verses On Various Occasions.

By John Henry Newman, D.D.

London: Burns, Gates & Co.

For sale at the Catholic Publication House.

Dr. Newman has conferred a long-expected favor upon many friends

in the collection and publication of his poems under the present

form. Those who have known and honored his course will appreciate

the thoughtfulness which prompted him to subjoin the dates of

their composition, as also the names of places where they were

written. To such also those poems will, of course, be of the

greater interest, which are, in fact, the sighs of his troubled

heart as God led him step by step toward the church. These were

composed between 1830 and 1833, and make up a large part of the

volume. In the _Apologia_ we get an insight into the trials

of his mind, as he faithfully held fast to truth, and fought for

it, even against his own, for conscience' sake. Here we look into

his heart, and witness the communion of his spirit with God. Dr.

Newman had many to doubt the sincerity of his course, the purity

of his motives, and the singleness of his purpose. Who can read

these spoken thoughts, spoken rather to God than to man, and

doubt him still? We cannot refrain from transcribing one already

well known, which is remarkable for the expression it conveys of

the deep emotions of his soul at a time when his mind was torn

with anxious doubt concerning the truth of Anglicanism. He felt,

as most converts feel in their journey to the Home of Faith and

Truth, that they are on the way to a promised land, led by the

cloud of desolation that God raises in the desert, and yet know

not where that Home is nor of what sort or fashioning it may be.

The poem we allude to is entitled,

"THE PILLAR OF THE CLOUD.

"Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,

Lead thou me on!

The night is dark, and I am far from home--

Lead thou me on!

Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see

The distant scene--one step enough for me.

"I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou

Shouldst lead me on,

I loved to choose and see my path; but now

Lead thou me on!

I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,

Pride ruled my will; remember not past years.

"So long thy power hath blest me, sure it still

Will lead me on,

O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till

The night is gone:

And with the morn those angel faces smile

Which I have loved long since and lost awhile."

We think some one has said--and if not, we say it ourselves--that

the next difficult thing to writing a book is to give it a name.

What every one has not failed to notice, who is conversant with

the sermons of Dr. Newman, we find equally true of these poems,

the felicity of his choice of titles.

{859}

It is the touch of genius; and we venture to assert that Dr.

Newman excels in this all living writers. There is no evidence

that these "Verses" were written or are published now for poetic

fame, and yet no one can help but accord to them the praise due

to poetry of a high order of merit; revealing at the same time,

as they do, what a great deal of true poetry does not and need

not necessarily show, the mind of the scholar and of the master

of language. The volume closes with the remarkable poem entitled,

"The Dream of Gerontius," which our readers have already enjoyed

from the pages of _The Catholic World_.

---------

The Blessed Eucharist Our Greatest Treasure.

By Michael Müller,

Priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.

Baltimore: Kelly & Piet.

This work is written in plain and unaffected style to promote the

noblest, best, and most useful of objects, the devotion to our

Lord Jesus Christ present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the

altar. Catholics are taught and believe this great mystery of

love; but many, though they believe, do not seem to realize

sufficiently what it is they believe. They have not thought much

upon it. They have, not penetrated its depths. Their knowledge is

superficial, and their devotion consequently is cold. And this

for many reasons is particularly the case in this country. Here

we have immense congregations and few priests, and they loaded

down with the building of churches, and a variety of work which

has been already done in other countries. The people often are

either out of reach of the church, or struggling for the means of

living, and therefore have grown careless, and failed to receive

the instruction which they require. Hence there is need, and

great need, of all the means of instruction which can be brought

to bear, and good books on the grand doctrines of religion are

calculated to do an incalculable amount of good. This book of

Father Müller's is intended to supply much needed instruction on

the Blessed Sacrament, and we hope it will receive an extensive

circulation. In reading it, we are reminded of the _Visits to

the Blessed Sacrament_ by Saint Alphonsus, which have been so

acceptable and useful throughout the whole church, and we do not

doubt many souls will derive great edification and pleasure from

its perusal.

-------------

The Cromwellian Settlement Of Ireland.

By John P. Prendergast, Esq. With three maps.

1 vol. pp. 228.

New York: P. M. Haverty. 1868.

This is the most thorough _exposé_ of the wholesale plunder

and robbery of the unfortunate Irish by the English soldiers

under Cromwell yet published. It quotes the documents by the

authority of which the land was taken from its rightful owners,

and parcelled out to the jail-birds of the "protector."

Mr. Prendergast is a Dublin lawyer. He was in the circuit in the

counties of Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford, Kilkenny, and Tipperary

for ten years, when he received a commission to make pedigree

researches in the latter county. His search for documents

relating to Ireland was not confined to that country alone. He

visited England, and examined the extensive Irish documents in

the libraries there. But, he tells us, it was in the castle of

Dublin he found the most important ones. These, along with

extracts from others, found elsewhere, make up his book. It is

full of historical materials on the confiscation of Ireland,

never before published, which make it an important work to be

studied by every student in Irish history. It throws a flood of

light on the manner in which the Irish were robbed, exiled,

murdered, and for no other purpose but to get their property for

the invaders. It tells a sad and sickening story of wrong and

outrage, unknown in the history of any other country in Europe,

much of which has been kept hidden, because the guilty parties

did not wish such things should see the light. But truth, like

murder, will out, and Mr. Prendergast, who, it is well to

observe, is not a Catholic, has done a good service to the cause

of truth, in the volume before us.

-----------

{860}

Manual Of Physical Exercises.

By William Wood.

With one hundred and twenty-five illustrations.

New York: Harper & Brothers. 1867.

That physical education is absolutely necessary to a full and

perfect development of the intellectual faculties, is now

universally conceded. In this connection, therefore, we have but

to add that the manual now before us gives, in simple phrase,

aided by, numerous appropriate illustrations, a vast amount of

information by which our health may be preserved, our strength

increased, our mental powers as a consequence improved, and

therefore, not only our individual comfort promoted, but our

general usefulness as members of the body politic very materially

enhanced.

-----------

Lives Of The Queens Of England, From The Norman Conquest.

By Agnes Strickland, author of

_Lives of the Queens of England_.

Abridged by the author.

Revised and edited by Caroline G. Parker.

New York: Harper & Brothers. 1867.

This excellent abridgment presents us with a series of

pen-portraits, strikingly and impartially depicted, of the Queens

of England, from Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the

Conqueror, to the present queen-regnant, Victoria. While giving,

in a modified form, the more delicate facts of their history, it

carefully retains all that is essential to a complete knowledge

of their lives, public and domestic, their political triumphs and

reverses, their private joys and sorrows.

-------------

Home Fairy Tales.

By Jean Macé.

Translated by Mary L. Booth.

With Engravings.

New York: Harper & Brothers. 1868.

In its illustrations, binding, and typographical excellence, this

volume ranks first amongst the many which, during the holiday

season just passed, have attracted the favorable regard of the

rising generation. But, while cheerfully according this meed of

praise to the Messrs. Harper, and no less acknowledging the merit

of Miss Booth's translation, a vivid remembrance of what best

pleased ourselves, in days gone by, compels us to add, that these

tales, unlike many others we might enumerate, will never become

household words with children. Fairy tales intended, as these

evidently are, to convey a moral, may be likened to sugar-coated

pills. The fault with these tales is, that the coating, so to

speak, is too thin, and, consequently, the unpalatable though

sanative globule too easily detected.

---------

The Lovers' Dictionary.

A Poetical Treasury of Lovers' Thoughts, Fancies, Addresses,

and Dilemmas, indexed with ten thousand references, as a

Dictionary of Compliments, and Guide to the Study of the Tender

Science.

New York: Harper & Brothers. 1867.

Of this anonymous volume, if the author's judgment and good taste

had equalled his industry, mere mention on our part would

suffice. But even a cursory examination compels us to add that,

while it contains many beautiful poems and elegant extracts, we

found very many indifferent, not a few objectionable from a want

of appositeness, and some that should not have been inserted.

Should the author compile another volume, intended for the

impressible of both sexes, we heartily wish him, in consideration

of his zeal, "a little more taste," the more fully to carry out

his good intentions.

------------

"The Catholic Publication Society"

has the following books in press, and

will publish them as follows:

March 10, _The Diary of a Sister of Mercy_;

April 1, _In the Snow; or, Tales of Mount St. Bernard_,

by Rev. Dr. Anderdon;

April 20, _Nellie Netterville; or, A Tale of

the Times of Cromwell_, by Miss Caddell;

May 10, _Problems of the Age_.