Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 18th September 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 893, Untitled Article

Page 893
Page 9
9 of 24

On this page

  • Text (4)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Untitled Article

      hild And I remember myself , af ter this , in my childish nlav ' playing , with boats of walnut-shells , at removing the separated members of families across the sea to rejoin each other in a foreign country . And I also distinctly remember putting a " Wesleyan preacher and a Eomancatholic priest in the same shell , as being part of my play . My notions on these points must have arisen from the practice of my mother of letting me stop in the room when nei ghbours called , some of whom were travellers , and men of tlioug ht , and talked of missions—missionaries then beginning to be a topic of conversation . These ideas continually haunted me as I grew up . And I had the advantage of a mother , to whom I owe whatever energy of character I have ; for it was her constant maxim to me never to shed a tear , or allow a fear to turn me from my purpose .

      My mind also spontaneously t urned t o reli gious speculation ; so that I had persuaded myself , at sixteen , that I oug ht to declare myself a Roman Catholic by conviction , ana decline to be confirmed according to the ritual of the Church of E ngland , in which I had been bred up . Shortly after this , I engaged myself to the bond of marriage . The man to whom I was betrothed was an officer in the Indian army . And before I betrothed myself to him , I told him , I felt within myself that a commission had been given me from above to devote all my energies to relieving human suffering wherever the scene of his duties might lie abroad . That , as this might interfere with his domestic enjoyment , it was right he should know before we were joined in marriage .

      He at once agreed to marry me on this condition , to which , as Mr . Harding has stated , he most faithfully adhered , and is at this day adhering : as because we found that the time was come when it was absolutely needful that a competent agent to look after the interests of the emi grants on landing in the colony , whom we had sent out in 1850 , from this country , and Captain Chisholm at once resolved to go to Australia at his own expense , and we accordingly halved our small income , and separated . In this , then , I have been favoured by Providence , as I have been in my children , with whom God has blessed us , and whose nurture and education was the only point my husband and myself had agreed to reserve before we married , as taking the first p lace in our p lan of life . We

      went to India , and there I founded an institution for the daug hters of European soldiers , called , a " F emale School of Industry , " several of which still exist . In 1838 , we visited Australia for change of air . There I found some hundred sing le females , unprotected , unemployed ; numbers more continuing to arrive in ships ; and ^ almost the whole falling into an immoral course of life , as a necessary result . I applied myself to the task of getting these poor creatures into safety , and decent situations as servants . I met with discouragement on all hands ; but I persevered , and I succeeded in my object . The Governor , at length , allowed me to sleep in a small room with the girls at the Emigrants' Barracks . It was , it is true , full of rats , as I found the first night I entered it ; but these I poisoned , and stuck to my post . I was thus able to get a personal influence and control over the girls . I founded a college to get them engagements in the Bush , and I got out some hundreds of

      girls into good places . In pursuing this object I at length found it necessary to take large parties of these unprotected girls into the Bush to procure places , and that I must accompany these parties myself . This I did for several years . The parties varied from 100 to 150 each . So I worked on for many years in Australia . I advanced much money for the conveyance of emigrants ; but so honestly was I repaid these advances , that all my losses did not amount during this period to 20 / . And , under God ' s blessing , I was the means of procuring engagements , and of settling no less than 1 , 000 souls , in the aggregate , before I left—a vast proportion of whom being young females , wore saved from falling into a life of infamy . I shall never forget the warmth of my reception this day , and that of the health of my husband and children , whom I liavo bred up in the maxim—to trust to thernHclvea , and work for themselves ; and never , if they have any regard for their mother ' s memory , to look for Government putronuge , or take Government Pay .

      Untitled Article

      PROGRESS OF ASSOCIATION . THE HOARD OK SUPPLY AND DEMAND . Wij are enabled , to state that a Provisional Committee has been formed to consider the p lan of a Board of Hupp /// and . Demand , suggested by M . . 1 . Leehevalier SI , Andre .

      Untitled Article

      THE JESUITS IN SICILY . Inn friends of the Jesuits and of monks may have hcen recently rejoiced to learn , through Lord Shrews'" H'y , that the city of Palermo possesses a free school for boys , and a college of young students who pay for their education , belong ing to the Jesuits , in addition to 44 <( » iveuts and 2 , ' A nunneries . An English journal has eagerly adopted these statements , and in disdainfully ' " epudiating the desire expressed by Lord Shrewsbury to W 1 e similar establishments transplanted into England , huHsti ^ niatizcd Sicily with the severe irony of " barbiu-ous . " '" a country not self-governed , we must always iiiijkh a clear distinction between the nation and the government ; . The government tends to barbarize the nation ; lmt the nation , though stripped of its political '" stitutions , may yet preserve some institutions which derive from a moral order of things that prevailed in > e . tter times , and may ho cling to civilization in the J » idst of imyonetH , monks , uik | Jesuits . Thus , it would unfair to cull Franca " barbarous" bucatwo ehe lift *

      fallen under the rule of bayonets , of monks , of Jesuits , and of a priesthood more servile than the clergy of any other Catholic country . Without drawing any distinction between the nation and the government , the Times in a recen t ar t icle de rided t h e miseri e s of S icil y , the country which has made the noblest efforts to reconquer independence , and which in spite of misfortune has by her very efforts proved worthy of a better lot , or at least not deserving to be struck from the list of civilized nations . Let us examine , however , the real extent of the influence of the Jesuits in Sicily .

      For the thirty-seven years during which the Jesuits were suppressed in Sicily—namely , from 1767 to 1804 , public instruction , which had been almost a monopoly in their hands , was entrusted to secular Lyceums , under a direction composed of the men of the highest intellectual eminence in the country . The literary history of S icil y in the eighteenth century , ( by Scina Palermo , 1827 , ) describes the revolution effected by the expulsion of the Jesuits in the intellectual culture of the nation . When the Bourbons of Sicily were the first in Europe ( after Russia ) to restore the Jesuits , it was too late to extinguish the lig h t or t o arres t t he pro g ress of

      intelligence . The Jesuits , on their return to the island , recovered only a fraction of the property and of the establishments they had formerly possessed—the hulk of them having been alread y disposed of ; and they found themselves ( as they remain to this day ) exclud ed fr o m all t h e g r e a t t owns excep t Palermo . They have no t a single es t ablishm e n t a t M essina , nor at Catania , nor at Sy racuse , nor a t G ergen t i , nor a t Cattag irone , nor at Trapani . During this interval of enlightenment , Sicily coul d boas t of d is t inguished savantsj such as P ia z zi , the astronomer ; Gioeni , the naturalist ; Gregorio , the publicist ; B alsamo , the

      economist ; Meli , the poet ; Giovarni and Salvatori ch B lasis , the theologians . Besides the ancient University of Catania , she ha d found e d ano t h e r a t P alermo , to which the majority of her savants were attached . The restoration of the Jesuits encountered the powerful opposition of all the talents in the island . Restricted to the capital , an d to six other t owns , which , wi t h P alermo , constitute b arel y 300 , 000 souls , or not quite an eighth of the entire population of the island , they could only to this limited degree enter into competition with the communal schools , whether private or governmental , for the instruction which is called in France " secondary , "

      that is , elemen t ar y Italian and Latin literature ; whilst all the rest of the secondary schools , and t he whole of the primary schools and universities continued exempt from their influence . The University of Palermo , and t he mag istracy to which public instruction was entrusted , con t inuall y resisted their encroachments ; and it would he possible to name one t own where , on an attempt being made to introduce the Jesuits , the entire population expressed their aversion to them by petitions unanimously signed and presented to the Government ; and another , from which they were ignominiously expelled b y t he indi gnation of the people in 1848 .

      Lord Shrewsbury says , that 800 boys are educated at Palermo in the Jesuit schools . For a population of nearly 200 , 000 , this number ( supposing it to be exact ) , is not very large . Even admitting that a third of the youth destined for the liberal professions have the misfortune to receive instruction in the . secondary schools of the Jesuits , rather than in the normal schools of public instruction , or in the numerous private establishmen t s , the evil is not so great as it seems . In the first place , as the Jesuits only g ive " secondary instruction , " almost all who receive it in their schools must

      necessarily pass into one or other of the three universities for the higher branches of education , to fit themselves for the professions . This transition opens to them a new field of intellectual culture , which wholly effaces the old . More to be pitied are Hit * children who are educated at the schools of the Jesuits , in preference to tin * colleges of the good Fathers Scolopi , or in private academics . The number of these children does not exceed 40 or 50 ; they belong to rich and noble families , and having no need of a profession , they do not ordinarily proceed from these schools to the universities to reform or to advance their education .

      Whilst , however , the Jesuits have displayed such zeal in extending their miserable system at Pal' -rnio , there have been found in that saint ) city honourable citizens who have constantly striven to promote the interests of a real and sound instruction . The Academy of Sciences , and the Communal Library , which are now placed under the auspices of the municipalit y , were founded by private individuals the one in IV ID , ( lie other in 17 ( 50 . A college and school of navigation , from which have proceeded the ablest and most skilful pilots in the Medi « tciTuncun , was founded and richly endowed in 17 H , ) by Joneph Giooni ; a public picture gallery wub established

      in 1815 by Joseph Ventimiglia , Prince de Belmonte ; an agricultural institute , endowed with rich lands in t he nei g hbourh o od of P alermo , and with a sum of 2000 ounces ( lOOOZ . ) per annum , was founded in 1829 by the Prince de Castelnuovo . A prize of 400 ounces ( 200 ? . ) to be g iven ev e r y fourth year to the student who should have distinguished himself most in the study of Greek and Latin literature , and of Sicilian history , was founded in 1834 by Paul

      di Giovanni . In fine , there is one fact which alone proves that Sicily will never become the abject pupil of the Jesuits , as the Times conjectures . During the ei g h t een mon t hs' freedom of the island in 1848 and 1849 , the Sicilian Parliament lost no time in suppressing the schools and foundations of the Jesuits , and in replacing them by national institutes . It proceeded also to suppress the monastic orders , commencin g wi th the Liguorini .

      It is against the will of the Nation that the Government maintains in Sicily such a pr o di g ious numb e r of convents . S ince t he coup d ' etat of 1816 , when Sicily was stripped of her ancient constitution , and of her la t er constitution of 1 S 12 at one blow , t he B ourbons have continued to impose upon her the Codes and the French system , as i t prevailed in t he kingdom of N a ples under M ura t , and they have always attacked all that savoured of old Sicily , excep t the monks . In this regard , the Bourbons have acted rather as the slaves of Rome than in their own interests . Generally speaking , the convents in their present condition bring no advantage to the Government , since neither their material nor their intellectual resources enable them to

      influence , alter the manner of the Jesuits , t he moral , in t ellec t ual , or political education of the country whilst , on t h e o t her hand , a posi t ive evil is caused b y withdrawing from a society not over-populated a great number of families who mig h t o t herwise be usefull y employed in industrial and p rofessional pursuits . F ormerl y , it was considered that to protect the mat erial prosperity of a country was as useful to absolutist as to free governments , but that was an illusion . C er t ainl y the nations have no hope of the future hut in free governments ; but is it not melancholy to find a portion of the press of a free country declaiming against the evil instead of denouncing t he cause , and holding up the victim to scorn rather than the murderer to execration ? G .

      Untitled Article

      CORSICA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY . [ We find in the Morning Chronicle the following account of the state of Corsica , so amazing and so full of interest , that we reprint it in full . ] It has been said that , in the ordinary course of retribution in this world , a man ' s smallest . sins are always moro heavily punished than his graver delinquencies ; and we are really sometimes tempted to believe that the obliquities of nations observe the same rule of requital . Among tho very li ghtest offences of I ' ranee against independent nationalities , was her annexation of Corsica in 17 <> 8 ; and , indeed , the original injustice has been more than compensated by the unmixed advantages which the island has obtained through the union . It would almost . seem ,

      however , as ii Corsica had been the commissioned delegate of all the vengeance which -Belgium , Spain , Prussia ., and Piedmont have scored up against their insatiable neighbour . Corsica at this moment governs France . A ( , ' orsuraii lias fastened a yoke upon her neck more galling than the chains of the haughtiest Hotirhon , mid a Cor . sicun oligarchy is dividing the rich spoils of her patronage , or assisting to crush her spirit and to perpet ante her servitude . During the last , war , the foremost missile hurled by tho libcllists at the . Emperor , was bis Corsicau extraction . Hut ( . he idiosyncrasy of Napoleon was far too strongly marked

      to admit of his being classed under any particular type oC national character ; and his mind , in common with those of all his adoptive fellow-countrymen , bad been formed and tempered in I lie liery crucible of the first Revolution . The point o ! " his birth possessed as little real importance as the question which has been recently agitated respecting the exact day on which if took place . It is far otherwise with Louis Napoleon Honapurte - -the son of an Italian and a Creole who never set foot , on French soil , except ; to pass and rcjuiss on the road to a prison , from the clone of his early childhood to the hour when the means of

      usurpation were put at , Ins disposal . The present , autocrat oi Franco has none of the excellencies or defects , and very few of tho cognisable features , of ( he French character . Ho is silent ., shy , and morose . 11 is abilities , which are doubtlens considerable , lie not , on ( ho surface , but in tho depths . Well read , and skilful with bin pen , he is essentially unsocial . Ambitious , he seems coumaral ively cureless of the shows of power . His personal indulgence , though unrestrained , is more systematic than extravagant . Although be is relentless in tlic purpose of requital ,

      ho knows how to conceal his sense of wrong , and to dolor his cherished ' vengeance . Great as in tho Butlering be ban nl times inflicted , be appears to he cruel rather at the crisis of opportunity than at the climax of passion . Such peculiarities are not I lie tokens of a Frenchman , and they are reproduced at liis feel , in the crowd of CorNican favourites among whom lie scatters the morsels of the dominion which lie has engrossed . Tho ollieo which approaches nearest to that of Prime- Minister wan lilled , till tho other duy , by the Cornican bailiff of tho Konupnrto ltiniily ; und wherever there ia iv noat or a divUnction

      Untitled Article

      September 18 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 893

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 18, 1852, page 893, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1952/page/9/