Volume 9 — The New Englander On The Moral Aspects Of Romanism.

In The Catholic World of April last, we vindicated the fair fame of the Catholic Church from some foul aspersions of a Protestant minister, the Rev. M. Hobart Seymour, contained in a book of his entitled, Nights among the Romanists.

The matter was a very simple one. This reverend gentleman, in the opening chapter of his book, gave us the "moral results of the Romish System," as he elegantly, in accordance with the exigencies of modern controversy, styles the Catholic Church. This "moral result" was, that Catholics are, everywhere, beyond comparison, more unchaste than Protestants—say from three or four to twelve times as much so. We do not exaggerate in the least. Every reader who reads this book will draw this conclusion. As The New Englander says, "The effect of this exhibit on the mind of the reader is overwhelming. To the Protestant reader it serves to close the case, at the outset, against the pretensions of the Roman Catholic Church to be the institution ordained of Christ to destroy the works of the devil."

This conclusion was reached by a comparison of the statistics of many Roman Catholic countries of Europe with Protestant England, in regard to homicide.

Then by comparing the amount of illegitimacy in certain Catholic cities with that in certain other Protestant cities in Europe. Passing by the first branch of the subject for reasons which we assigned, and which prevent us from taking up the matter now, we considered the second very fully and completely. We examined, with the utmost care and fidelity, the statistics of illegitimacy of all the leading countries of Europe, including the whole population of both city and country, and found Mr. Seymour's conclusions, in this respect, were utterly and completely false. The complete exhibit showed that, taking the number of illegitimate births as a standard of comparison, Catholic countries are not in any degree more unchaste than Protestant, but, on the contrary, the difference is in their favor quite decidedly, though not with that overwhelming preponderance claimed by Mr. Seymour in favor of Protestantism.

He states that he has taken his figures from official documents, (and we have not disputed this,) but these same documents give the account for the countries as well as for the cities, and Mr. Seymour cannot be allowed to plead ignorance in reference to them. He cannot, therefore, be excused from wilful and deliberate deception, when he suppresses these statistics so necessary to form a judgment in the case, and only gives such portions of them as shall seem to sustain a false conclusion. This is the true suppressio veri and suggestio falsi, which is certainly one of the meanest and most cowardly forms of lying known.

We felt a natural indignation at being made the victims of such treatment, and denounced the Rev. Mr. Seymour as a calumniator, and called on the Rev. L. W. Bacon, who had warmly recommended him and his book, to withdraw his recommendation, and cease to abet the circulation of a vile calumny, even though the Catholic Church were the object of it.

Mr. Bacon, in reply to our article, comes out in The New Englander, endorsing not only the statements, but the unjust and wicked conclusions of Mr. Seymour, and claims to have refuted the statements of The Catholic World. We will now proceed to show in what fashion he has done this.

The conclusions of Mr. Seymour in regard to the "moral results of the Romish system," rest mainly in a comparison of the city of London with the capitals of four Catholic countries, showing that while the rate of illegitimacy is only 4 per cent in the former, it varies from 33 to 51 per cent in the latter. This is reinforced by tables of ten Prussian cities (of which, by the by, the best two are Catholic cities) with ten Austrian; another of five English cities with the same number of Italian, with similar, though by no means such striking results. Then, lest countries should seem to get the go-by, various Protestant countries are compared with provinces of the Austrian empire, which, it is needless to say, make a bad show in the comparison.

As we have said before, we did not impugn in The Catholic World the accuracy of these figures, but we pointed out that we could not trust them as indicating the morality of London, Liverpool, and the English cities, because the rate of illegitimacy in them was lower than in the whole of England; and it is a most violent and incredible supposition, that cities acknowledged to be the hotbeds of vice should be purer than the countries in which they are situated. We suggested that other forms of impurity had probably replaced illegitimacy, and that, after all, London, Liverpool, etc., were not much, if any, better than the continental cities. We quoted some figures in reference to the amount of what is called the "social evil" in London, etc., from The Church and the World, a ritualistic journal. This, and this alone, Mr. Bacon attacks, of all that is contained in our article. Our other reasons in regard to the morality of London, etc., are left entirely unnoticed. We gave also some, as we conceived, very grave and strong reasons why the figures of illegitimacy should not be regarded as conclusive in regard to the continental cities. We pointed out the existence of very large establishments in them for the reception of foundlings, receiving all infants deposited in them; and suggested that, for this reason alone, the illegitimacy of whole districts of country would all show itself in the city. This is obvious enough; for example, if a large hospital of this kind existed in New York City, no one doubts it would receive infants from New Jersey, Connecticut, and all the adjacent country, and the rate of illegitimacy would represent all this part of the country, rather than the city alone. Mr. Bacon has not vouchsafed to give one word of reply to all this, or to discuss the matter at all. Now, as it concerns the good name of a large class of his fellow-men, and is evidence in rebuttal of a very grave accusation against them, this really seems more like the conduct of a partisan determined on victory at any rate, rather than of a Christian gentleman seeking to vindicate a fellow-Christian from an imputation against his character.

But whatever might be said about the comparative morality of certain cities, we vindicated the Catholic Church from the charge of having produced a moral result incomparably worse than Protestantism, and completely destroyed the overwhelming effect calculated to be produced on the Protestant mind by Mr. Seymour's conclusions, by giving one complete table of the percentage of illegitimacy in all the chief countries of Europe, both Protestant and Catholic, as follows:

Catholic Countries.

1825-37Kingdom of Sardinia2.1

1859Spain 5.6

1853Tuscany 6.

1858Catholic Prussia 6.1

1859Belgium 7.4

1856Sicily 7.4

1858France 7.8

1851Austria9.

Protestant Countries.

1859England and Wales 6.5

1855Norway 9.3

1858Protestant Prussia 9.3

1855Sweden 9.5

1855Hanover 9.9

1866Scotland 10.1

1855Denmark 11.5

1838-47Iceland 14

1858Saxony 16.

1857Wurtemberg 16.1

Every item of which was taken by ourselves, after a patient and minute examination, from the Journals of the Statistical Society of London, in the Astor Library, taking the latest accounts of each country in every case.

Here the whole question lies in a nut-shell. As Mr. Bacon says, "the criterion is in the number of illegitimate births." This table gives a complete view of this criterion, and therefore it requires to be refuted before it can be said that any refutation has been made of The Catholic World. How does Mr. Bacon meet it?

He does not meet it at all. He says that the figures of The Catholic World are "outrageously false," and "that he shall presently prove it." We have looked in vain for the proof that any figure of this table is either "outrageously false" or false at all. We do not see that he has said one word to bring any of them under even the least shadow of suspicion. We will give the substance of his arguments against the truth of our statements:

1. Mr. Seymour's book appeared, and no answer was made to it for many years, and therefore it must be presumed to be truth, as to its facts and conclusions.

To this we reply, that it makes no difference what presumptions may exist when they are upset by positive proof. Whether Mr. Seymour has been answered or not, does not change the rate of illegitimacy in any country of Europe in the least. Catholics may not deem it more worth while to reply to Seymour than to the McGavins and the Brownlees. The obviously sinuous and unfair selection of Mr. Seymour's statistics is a sufficient reason for allowing them to slide along with a thousand other calumnies so obviously false as not to be worth the trouble of refuting. However that may be, we have given the refutation, and that ends all the presumptions.

2. Mr. Bacon tries to produce an impression on the minds of his readers that we shall add up and arrange the figures to suit our convenience, and are not to be trusted because we profess confidence, in the outset, of the result of the investigation, on account of our belief that the Catholic Church is the church of Christ.

We will give an extract, that our readers may judge:

"But The Catholic World for April last crushes these formidable allegations with one single stroke of a priori argument: 'We know that she (the Roman Church) is Christ's church, and that just in proportion as she exerts her influence, virtue and morality must prevail; and that it is impossible to prove, unless through fraud and misrepresentation, that the practical working of her system produces a morality inferior to that of any other.' This, of course, is 'the end of controversy.' To go into details of argument would be superfluous, not to say ridiculous, after a demonstration so sweeping. But scorning criticism and ridicule, straightway down into details and figures marches The Catholic World. Having at the start announced it as de fide that the figures must be so found and so added up as to show a satisfactory balance in favor of his side, or else the foundations of the faith were destroyed and the hope of salvation cut off, he proceeds to the statistical business with that eminently fair, candid, and philosophical spirit which might be expected to result from such convictions."

The Christian, then, according to the reasoning of the Rev. Mr. Bacon, who, firmly believing in the divinity of the religion of Christ, expresses confidence in the result of any investigation as to the moral result of Christianity, is to be deemed a rascal who will not hesitate to employ any unworthy arts in selecting and adding up his figures so as to make the result come out in accordance with a foregone conclusion. We dismiss insinuations like this with the contempt they deserve. If we have done any thing of this kind let it be proved; if not, do not insinuate it to our prejudice.

3. Mr. Bacon says: "The gist of the article in The Catholic World is taken from one in The Church and the World, an ultra-ritualist journal, London, 1867."

This is entirely untrue. The "criterion" of the "moral results of the Romish system" was illegitimacy, and the "gist of the article" is in the comparison embraced in the tabular statement of the Roman Catholic and Protestant countries of all Europe, of which nothing whatever has been taken from The Church and the World. We cited the statistics of Ireland from this journal, warning our readers of the fact that we could not verify it out of the statistical journals, and therefore we did not include it in our table, as can be seen by referring to the article itself.

Besides this, nothing is taken on the authority of The Church and the World, except some statistics in relation to a side issue, the amount of prostitution in London, and other English cities. Mr. J. D. Chambers, M.A., Recorder of Salisbury, the author of the article in The Church and the World, states that there are 28,100 bad women in London, known to the Metropolitan Police, while it should be, that number, in all England, known to the Metropolitan Police. He also gives a table of the number of houses in other English cities where abandoned women resort, and this number does not correspond at all with the number of brothels reported by the police. It seems to us that Mr. Chambers may have been misled by the term "Metropolitan Police," in setting down the number of abandoned women to London rather than to England, without attributing to him any wilful falsification. And if these women are so well known to the Metropolitan Police, it may be inferred that, wherever they belong, they must carry on their nefarious occupation in London a good part of the time, and thus Mr. Chambers be substantially correct in his statement, after all. Mr. Bacon roundly asserts that Mr. Chambers has given the number of brothels in the leading English cities. This is incorrect, and, when the object is to fasten a brand of infamy on another's character, an inexcusable proceeding. Mr. Chambers has not given the number of brothels, but the number of houses to which bad women resort. There are many such resorts in New York City, which would not be reported as brothels in the police returns.

We wish the public to understand this fully. Mr. Bacon accuses Mr. Chambers of a gross exaggeration in the number of brothels in the English cities. He gives the table as follows:

Brothels inAccording to CATHO. WORLDin Fact

Birmingham 966 183

Manchester 1111410

Liverpool 1573906

Leeds 313 63

Sheffield 433 84

and hence deduces that Mr. Chambers is a wilful liar, to be branded as such.

Now, Mr. Chambers never stated the above number of brothels in those cities, but that number of houses where prostitutes resort, a very different thing.

We find in Thom's Almanac of 1869 the following table, for England and Wales, of houses of bad character:

Receivers of stolen goods 2230

Resorts of thieves and prostitutes5689

Brothels and houses of ill-fame 6614

Tramps' lodging-houses 5614

The last three figures may well be added up to give us the number of houses where prostitutes resort; the tramps' lodging-houses, according to Mr. Kaye's description of them, (in his Social State of England,) being little better than brothels. The public may now form an intelligent judgment which is the most guilty of misrepresentation, Mr. Bacon or Mr. Chambers, and which most deserves to be branded as a calumniator of his neighbor.

He thus finishes up the unlucky Mr. Chambers:

"The witness is impeached and kicked out of court with a very ugly letter burned too deep in his forehead to be rubbed out. We are glad to acknowledge that The Catholic World is not the guilty author of these impostures, and to express our unfeigned and most willing belief that that every way respectable magazine would be incapable of contriving such tricks."

Alas Mr. Bacon! we fear that in your inconsiderate haste to brand another, the ugly letter will be burned so deep in your own forehead that you will find it very hard to efface it.

4. Having finished up Mr. Chambers in this style, he considers that his refutation of The Catholic World is complete. He says:

"The figures with which The Catholic World attempts to vindicate the superior morality of Romish over Protestant countries, are taken from a discredited and refuted writer in The Church and the World… We have given facts enough now to discredit without any particular refutation whatever else of assertion may be contained in the article on the 'comparative morality of Catholic and Protestant countries' in The Catholic World for April, 1869. We do not need to rebut the testimony of this article point by point."

These facts given relate exclusively to Mr. Chambers and the statistics of prostitution, as we have shown above, and do not affect those relating to the "criterion" of illegitimacy.

The substance—as Mr. Bacon calls it, the gist—of the article of The Catholic World remains as yet intact; it has not even been examined by the critic. Who gave Mr. Bacon the right to say, as he does, that the substance of our article was taken from The Church and the World? There is an unblushing effrontery about this statement which is astonishing. There is nothing in the article to warrant it. Whenever we quoted The Church and the World, the reference is made at the foot of the page, and we distinctly state, there, that our figures on illegitimacy are taken from the Journals of the Statistical Society of London. Our readers can judge of this proceeding for themselves.

But Mr. Bacon criticises us in severe terms for using these Journals, and says:

"If we had been in search of truth, how much easier and better to go to the census returns, and get facts that can be trusted. But when the object is, as with The Catholic World, to find figures which shall tally with a conclusion already determined by theological considerations, doubtless it is well to keep clear of authoritative documents, and take only such figures as have been manipulated in a succession of magazine articles, constructed to serve a purpose."

What better authority can we have in this country, on statistics, than the Statistical Journals of London? It is all an idle pretence to speak of getting the governmental returns in any great public library. We hunted for them in the Astor Library, and could not find one of them. The Society of London is composed of Protestants. Mr. Lumley, the author of the principal article on statistics, is probably one too. He has taken his information, he tells us, in regard to Great Britain, from the Registrar's Reports; the others, from reports made to parliament, and from the Annuaire de l'Economie et de la Statistique, of Paris. We have not a shadow of reason to doubt either the accuracy or fairness of the returns, or that they have been taken from the best governmental census returns. It would have been more creditable if Mr. Bacon had favored us with a table taken from these same returns, which he says are so easy to be obtained, to show the "outrageous falsity" of our statements, rather than to attempt to refute us by the method of pure insinuation.

We challenge Mr. Bacon or any one else to produce a table of illegitimacy embracing all or nearly all the Protestant and Catholic countries of Europe, from the latest governmental returns, which shall differ essentially from ours, or from which any one may not draw precisely the conclusions we have drawn in respect to the moral results of Protestantism and Catholicity.

This is all we need say on the main issue in question.

We will now explain what was stated about the rate of illegitimacy in Ireland. Had we been inclined to proceed in the unscrupulous manner which Mr. Bacon insinuates in regard to us, we could have given this rate of three per cent from The Church and the World without remark, as it is simply given there among the other figures; but as we could not verify it in the Statistical Journals, we said so, in order to warn the public, and we stated that probably Mr. Chambers had access to the Registrar's Report, which we had not. For this, Mr. Bacon pitches into us in this style:

"What will be the amazement of the reader to be informed that there are no 'Registrar's Reports' for Ireland; that the Romish priests and the Romish party have constantly succeeded in preventing, for reasons satisfactory to themselves, any act of parliament for securing such returns from Ireland; and that the supposed 'Registrar's Report' of three per cent of illegitimate births is a mere fiction!"

Hold on, Mr. Bacon! do not go ahead quite so fast. There are Registrar's Reports for Ireland, plenty of them, to be seen in the Statistical Journals in the Astor Library. In Thom's Official Almanac and Directory, Dublin, 1869, we read, "The act for the registration of births and deaths in Ireland came into operation on the 1st of January, 1864." Then follows registrar's returns of these for 1864, 1865, 1866, and 1867.

The first return of illegitimate births has just been published. Our supposition was, that these returns were in existence, though not perhaps complete enough to warrant publication, and that they were known in England to Mr. Chambers and others, and this seems to be the truth. The rate for Ireland is 3.8 per cent, not so different from the figure of The Church and the World. We take the following from the Catholic Opinion, London, June 19:

"Statistics Of Illegitimate Births.

"The Scotsman, one of the leading organs of Presbyterian Scotland, gives the following:

"'We come next to a very painful and important point, and shall get away from it as soon as possible. The proportion of illegitimate births to the total number of births, is, in Ireland, 3.8 per cent. In England, the proportion is 6.4; in Scotland, 9.9. In other words, England is nearly twice, and Scotland nearly thrice worse than Ireland. Something worse has to be added, from which no consolation can be derived. The proportion of illegitimacy is very unequally distributed over Ireland, and the inequalities are such as are rather humbling to us as Protestants, and still more as Presbyterians and as Scotchmen. Takings Ireland according to registration divisions, the proportion of illegitimate births varies from 6.2 to 1.9. The division showing this lowest figure is the western, being substantially the province of Connaught, where about nineteen-twentieths of the population are Celtic and Roman Catholic. The division showing the highest proportion of illegitimacy is the north-eastern, which comprises or almost consists of the province of Ulster, where the population is almost equally divided between Protestant and Roman Catholic, and where the great majority of the Protestants are of Scotch blood and of the Presbyterian Church. The sum of the whole matter is, that semi-Presbyterian and semi-Scotch Ulster is fully three times more immoral than wholly Popish and wholly Irish Connaught—which corresponds with wonderful accuracy to the more general fact that Scotland, as a whole, is three times more immoral than Ireland as a whole. There is a fact, whatever may be the proper deduction. There is a text, whatever may be the sermon; we only suggest that the sermon should have a good deal about charity, self-examination, and humility."'

So that, after all, now that the truth is at last out, the "Romish priests and the Romish party" have no reason to be ashamed of it. Probably their reason is best known to themselves; for it would puzzle any one else to devise any earthly reasons why they should oppose the publication of the Registrar's Report, so honorable to the Catholic people of Ireland.

Mr. Bacon is "happy to announce" that, as a result of the attack of The Catholic World, a new edition of Seymour's book, with its opening chapter, is soon to appear. So, all the old calumnies and falsehoods are to be circulated with redoubled activity, and the commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor," conveniently be thrust aside. The statistics of London are to be reproduced, while those of England are kept in the dark. Paris is to be compared with London, to produce, as Mr. Bacon says, "an overwhelming effect on the mind of the Protestant reader," while not a word is to be breathed of England and France. Five Italian cities are still to be compared with five English, to show that the Italian Catholics are four times as depraved as the English Protestants, while the rate of illegitimacy in all Italy is considerably less than that of England.

And the tell-tale official reports of the census of Scotland, of Catholic and Protestant Prussia, are to be passed over in complete silence. The countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, are to be offset by provinces of the Austrian empire in which, as we showed in The Catholic World, a grinding law of the government hinders us from getting any real knowledge of the statistics of illegitimacy, and while the whole empire shows a rate smaller than any of those different countries. But we are tired of this disgusting enumeration of the fraud and trickery of the Rev. M. Hobart Seymour. The republication of his book cannot hurt us, and only tends to increase the growing distrust on the part of the public of the thousand and one calumnies so unscrupulously circulated concerning Catholics.

We have only to add that The New Englander very appropriately finishes its article against us by bringing out a very infamous falsehood of Mr. Seymour's about the morality of the city of Rome, which we shall not fail to pay our respects to in the next number of The Catholic World.