صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

The batteries on the north end of the island at once fell into our hands, and the work of the army was practically complete.

Thus ended a siege, which if it was unfruitful in great results, so far as our occupation of the enemy's territory was concerned, will ever be memorable as an exhibition of the courage, endurance, and skill of the American soldier of every grade, while the feat of destroying a great fortress, in spite of the intervention of two miles of an enemy's territory, challenged the admiration of the civilized world, and gave to it the most convincing proof, that our own resources, if fully drawn upon, were all-sufficient to meet the greatest emergency which might overtake us.

The Parrott gun which stood foremost among the enginery of this siege, has since fallen into disgrace, on account of the fatal results which attended its use at the bombardment of Fort Fisher, but it should be borne in mind that the bursting of a gun must necessarily be attended with disastrous consequences on the crowded deck of a vessel, while in a land battery, fewer men are exposed to its fragments. Twenty-four of these guns burst on Morris Island, but their explosion was attended with fatal results in only one or two cases. Setting aside the danger which attends the bursting of this gun, an important objection still remains, in its liability to fail at a critical moment, and leave an important point unprotected, while to replace a heavy gun which has been disabled at an inaccessible point, involves a large amount of labor, and some risk, for the mounting of a piece is usually regarded with great interest by an enemy, and prompt measures are accordingly taken to oppose such a step. Notwithstanding these defects, in the absence of a better weapon this gun will achieve wonders, wherever it is judiciously used.

No new principles are involved in its construction, and the patent which has hitherto been supposed to protect its manufacture, has lately been declared invalid by the United States Courts. The results which followed its use during our war, were those which usually attend the application of good workmanship and the best of materials to the construction of

[graphic]

a weapon whose fundamental principles have been previously established by experiment.

After the capture of Wagner the efficiency of the blockade was increased materially, although it would have been still more effective had the navy taken possession of the entire harbor.

We found the forts which had been captured well constructed works, and no time was lost in adding to their parapets and obstacles such portions as were required to fit them for a protracted defence, should the enemy attempt to recapture them.

Most of the guns in Wagner were found to be uninjured, and the defensive properties of the work were not impaired to any extent, so far as its artillery fire was concerned. The evacuation was compelled by the character of our siege works, which would have protected an assaulting party until it was able to cope with the garrison on nearly equal terms, when, necessarily, the stronger party must succeed.

Mining was not attempted, because the soil was shallow and subject to overflow. The rebels however feared something of the sort, notwithstanding the existence of these obstacles.

The valuable defensive properties of sand forts were fully demonstrated by this siege, as were the inherent weaknesses of masonry structures, and it is to be hoped that the lesson thus learned will not be lost upon those who are entrusted with the defence of our seaports.

ART. V. Catalogues of Colleges, Universities, and Seminaries, Male and Female. 1867-'68.

WE have now before us one hundred and twenty-seven catalogues, sent us from all parts of the country. These, we believe, represent all religious denominations in the United States, except Mormonism; there is not one of them that has any pretensions to respectability which we have not examined to a greater, or less extent, and we are glad to say that, with very few exceptions, all exhibit considerable improvement in literary taste. As we mean to give our in

pressions of as many as we can, though necessarily in the briefest manner, it is almost superfluous to say that we do not intend our present article as an essay on education; and still less do we intend to advocate the pet system, or peculiar views of any particular denomination.

If, in the course of our remarks, we evince a preference for any college, university, or seminary, it will be on account of its merit, so far as we are capable of judging of it, not on account of the sect which it represents. If we had any bias of this kind, it would naturally be in favor of the Episcopal Protestant church, in which we have been brought up, and from which we have never seceded; but we think it will be seen that while we have every disposition to do justice to the institutions of that church, we are not the less disposed to be just to the institutions of the Catholic church. In proof of this we will give precedence to the Catholic colleges and seminaries, and devote more attention to them. than to the institutions of all other denominations. This we do because we prefer to give whatever aid we can to the weak rather than to the strong. We do not mean, indeed, that our Catholic colleges are weak intellectually, for, as we shall show in the course of this paper, none are stronger in that respect. What we do mean is simply that they are weak pecuniarily, the Catholics of America being, in general, too poor to afford them an adequate support.

Did we interfere at all in theological subjects, it would be with the view of reconciling all Christian sects with each other; nor would we exclude the Jews from that union; but regarding this as a hopeless task, we confine ourselves to the cause of education. Not that we would ignore religion; we hold, on the contrary, that there can be no good system of education which is not based upon religion; nay, more, although we cannot pretend to be pious ourselves, we readily admit that the most pious educators are generally the best.

Most of our readers will doubtless deem it needless on our part to make these remarks, yet we are constantly receiving communications informing us that we have written this or that article in favor of this or that sect. Thus, a Protestant doctor writes to inform us that our article on Luther

[graphic]

is "grossly slanderous," and that we must not send our journal to him any more. A Catholic doctor writes from another point of the compass in reference to the same article, denouncing us, though in comparatively mild terms, for our ignorance and bigotry in "dishing up anew those stale slanders about the sale of indulgences "-adding that we evidently did it for the purpose of pandering to the bigotry of ultra-Protestants. A divine from a Pennsylvania village, writes to say that our friendship to popery gives the lie to the motto on our title page, meaning that if we have any pretensions to patriotism, we must at least say nothing good of Catholics as such; and nearly the same mail brings us a letter informing us that an article on Buddhism, which we had recently published, contained "several covert attacks on the Catholic religion," although it so happened that that had not been written by a Protestant at all, but by a zealous Catholic. One accuses us with being " a Jesuit in disguise," another with being "a malignant enemy of the Jesuits," and the twain are equally peremptory and indignant in ordering their names erased forever from our list!

We trust we need hardly assure our readers that we do not permit ourselves to be in the least influenced by communications of this kind; but while they do not at all frighten us, we do not think it irrelevant to allude to them in treating the subject of education. What will perhaps be deemed incredible, is, that we have experienced much more bigotry from intelligent Protestants than from intelligent Catholics; at least, we have experienced more enlightened liberality from the latter than from the former. We have been in the habit, from our infancy, of hearing the Catholic clergy spoken of as bigoted and intolerant in contrast with the Protestant clergy. We had always reason to doubt the truth of this; we were persuaded from our own observation that there were at least exceptions to the rule; but our experience in conducting this journal for nine years, during which we have had intercourse more or less extensive with clergymen of all denominations, convinces us that at least in the United States, the Catholic clergy are as liberal and tolerant as the clergy of any other church whatever. In nine

cases out of ten the Catholic bishops and archbishops evince more tolerance, and less bigotry, than the Protestant bishops and archbishops. The latter, though in general very good men, are either altogether indifferent, or they are terribly afraid that popery is preparing some dire calamity for the United States; and as bishops and archbishops are, in these respects, so will the parsons be. We mention these little matters because they have a direct and important bearing on the subject under consideration.

Probably the majority of our readers are not aware that for the last quarter of a century Catholic theological students have paid much more attention to philosophy than Protestant theological students. In the principal Catholic colleges of Europe students intended for the priesthood have to devote several years to the study of Aristotle and Plato; the students of Louvaine and Maynooth devote three times as much attention to the ancient philosophy as those of Oxford and Cambridge; and every enlightened person will admit that no works exercise a more powerful influence in liberalizing the mind, and purifying it from prejudices of all kinds than those of Plato and Aristotle. But they do not merely remove prejudices; their analytical discussions invigorate the intellect: they develop that persuasive power which, from its wonderful effect, may be called the magic of the mind.

This may serve to explain, at least in part, why it is that so many of the most learned and gifted members of the great Protestant universities of England, including ministers possessing benefices in the richest church in the world, have been induced to resign all and join the Catholic church. Those that are married cannot expect to become priests; and those who are in every manner qualified for the priesthood can only expect to address, in England, a congregation very inferior, so far as wealth and influence are concerned, to that which they have been in the habit of addressing as ministers of the Established Church.

It is evident that it is not alone the dogmas of the Catholic church that cause these conversions; for they were the same in Luther's time as they are now-just the same as they were when no Catholic was admissible to any public office

[blocks in formation]
« السابقةمتابعة »