II. The Catholic World" passes by this branch of the subject, for reasons which it has assigned," and which seem to us quite inadequate, and concentrates its "care and fidelity" on the next point-the statistics of

ILLEGITIMACY.

1. The Comparison of European Cities.-The author of Evenings with the Romanists, writing in 1854, gave the names and "official returns" of ten principal cities of Protestant Prussia, and of ten principal cities of Roman Catholic Austria. The cities of Prussia gave an average of 15 per cent. of illegitimate births; the cities of Austria, an average of 45 per cent. The comparison was expressly restricted by the author to the returns of city population,* as exhibiting the comparative power of the two forms of Christianity in restraining human nature from sin, in the presence of abounding temptation; he distinctly intimated that in the rural districts of the several countries no such disparity is to be looked for.

The Catholic World admits the statements (which it would be impossible to deny), and then rushes upon Mr. Seymour, with coarse epithets-"mean and cowardly liar," "calumniator," &c., &c., and claims, with that air of injured innocence which is so favorite a weapon in Romish polemics, that if the returns of the provinces were brought into the account, they

* Mr. Seymour had said, in 1854, "Name any Protestant country or city in Europe, and let its depths of vice and immorality be measured and named, and I will name a Roman Catholic country or city whose depths of vice and immorality are lower still."

Fifteen years later the Catholic World seems to accept the challenge, with great amenity, by citing "the case of Protestant Stockholm, where the rate of illegitimacy is over fifty to the hundred, quite equal to that of Vienna. Why did not Mr. Seymour cite Stockholm, which is notorious? I will answer: It was not convenient to spoil a good story."

We will not stand in the way of Mr. Seymour's answering for himself, if he likes. But it seems to us sufficient to say first, that the statement of the Catholic World is untrue. At the time of Mr. Seymour's statement the official return of illegitimacy in Stockholm was 29 per cent., which is considerably less than "over fifty to the hundred." Secondly, that the following eleven Roman Catholic cities were worse than the notoriously worst of all Protestant cities: Paris, 88 per cent.; Brussels, 35; Munich, 48; Vienna, 51; Laibach, 38; Brunn, 42; Lintz, 46; Prague, 47; Lunberg, 47; Klagenfort, 56; Gratz, 65 per cent.

would more than redress the balance of the cities. We proceed to put his proposition to experiment.

2. Comparison of European Provinces.-The Catholic World gives a hint of the way in which it would like to have the examination conducted; it would set the vast empire of Roman Catholic Austria, with its thirty millions of inhabitants, over against little Protestant Wurtemberg, with its million and a half; and would balance the average of the petty duchy of Baden with the average of the twenty millions of Prussia. There is no doubt that, under judicious manipulation, this method could be made to yield almost any result which the imperiled interests of the Roman Catholic Church. could demand. But it strikes us that we shall get more readily at the exact truth in the case, if we take Germany, province by province, and set the Protestant provinces by themselves, with their official returns of illegitimacy, and Roman Catholic provinces by themselves, with their official returns. Two provinces, Silesia and Westphalia, are omitted, as being divided between Protestant and Romanist populations in nearly equal proportions.

* The Catholic World goes off in a violent spasm of virtuous indignation at the injustice of producing these figures for Bavaria and Austria, where there exist "atrocious laws" forbidding to marry except under certain conditions,

This, then is what the government returns say: that in the fifty millions of the population of Germany the Roman Catholic population, in country and city together, is more than onehalf again more demoralized than the Protestant population. There are nineteen illegitimates among the former, to twelve among the latter.

3. Comparison of Mixed Populations. The Catholic World suggests that "where there is a large minority differing from the majority," the comparison of the statistics of morality "would be most interesting;" and laments that this "cannot be done except in Prussia." We are in a position, however, to relieve its despair, and grant it its heart's desire.

The empire of Austria includes a population of 31,655,746. Of these, 21,082,801, or two-thirds, are non-Romanists, belonging to the Protestant Church or the Greek Church. In nine of the Austrian provinces the population is almost exclusively Roman Catholic. In seven, the Roman Catholics are, on an average, in a minority of 46 per cent.

ROMANISM AND ILLEGITIMACY IN AUSTRIA, 1866.
Roman Catholic Provinces.

Mixed Provinces.

which leads to illicit connections, &c." "The Bavarians," it says, "are as good a people as any in Germany, and it is a shame to libel them." But inasmuch as Mr. Seymour had himself expressly made allowance for these "atrocious laws," it is difficult to see how the shame attaches any more to him than it does to the Catholic World.

Besides, one of the very things alleged against Roman Catholic countries is their proneness to atrocious laws" and "foundling hospitals," and licensed prostitution and other demoralizing instutions and usages. All that we charge is that, some how or other, such countries tend, as a general rule, to a state of

"Where there is a large minority differing from the majority," quoth the Catholic World, "it would be most interesting." It is so, indeed. This falling-off in the rate of illegitimacy from twenty-one to six, when the proportion of Romanists to the population falls off from ninety-seven to forty-six, indicates the salutary effect of Protestant Christianity, not only on its own followers, but also on the working of Romanism itself. We believe that, candid Roman Catholic writers themselves would acknowledge that their church is nowhere so healthy and free from abuses as where it is hedged about with plenty of heresy, nowhere so corrupt as where it is universally accepted and has everything its own way.

4. Comparison of Nations.-In his "Evenings with the Romanists," Mr. Seymour, anticipating the tu quoque retort of the Roman Catholics, said,

"If any man will name the worst of all the Protestant countries, I care not which, I will name a Roman Catholic country still worse. Let Protestant Norway be named; its population was 1,194,610, and the proportion of illegitimate births was, at the last returns, from seven to eight per cent. Let Roman Catholic Styria, a province with a similar amount of population, 1,006,971, be set against this; the illegitimate births are twenty-four per cent.! If Hanover be referred to, and among its Protestant population the illegitimate births are ten per cent.; then let the province of Trieste, with its Roman Catholic population, be remembered, its illegitimate births are above twenty-three per cent. !"*

In this way he proceeded to compare, in 1854, Saxony with Carinthia, and sundry other regions on either side, whereupon the Catholic World has a violent outbreak of mingled indignation and erudition, at the "extreme trickiness" of comparing "Styria, Upper and Lower Austria, Carinthia, Salzburg, Trieste, which are not countries at all, but simply the German provinces of the Austrian Empire, and Bavaria, with countries so different and wide apart as Norway, Sweden, Saxony, Hanover, and Wurtemberg." The regions in ques

demoralization which sends the Catholic World beating in every direction for ingenious and plausible explanations. Since Austria has dropped the Pope and his Syllabus out of doors, let us hope that the amendment of "atrocious laws," which has commenced, may go on to a happy completion.

* It is not strange that the lapse of fifteen years, in so rapidly changing a bit of country as the province of Trieste, should show a considerable modification of these figures, as in the foregoing tables.

tion seem to have been selected for their approximate equality in population, and it is a little difficult to see how their loss or gain of political independence affects the present case. But the style in which the Catholic World adorns its doctrine is beautiful. Comparing such provinces as Styria and Trieste, with such countries as Norway and Hanover! Outrage, indeed! Will some one charitably inclined send the Catholic World a copy of the Primary Geography studied in the 'godless" schools of New York City, that it may learn that for half a century Norway has been as much a province of Sweden as Styria of Austria, and that while its Article was awriting, Hanover was just as completely a province of Prussia? But the glory of its exact scholarship does not shine in full splendor until, in rebuke of Mr. Seymour's "extremely tricky" way of speaking of mere provinces as if they were independent nations, it proceeds to make out lists of "Catholic countries," and "Protestant countries," on sound geographical principles. Its "Catholic countries" include Sardinia, Sicily, and Tuscany, and his "Protestant countries" include Norway, Hanover, Scotland, and Iceland! We are more than ever impressed with the importance of the common school system to our Roman Catholic population!

The following are the percentages of illegitimacy in the several nations of Europe:

ILLEGITIMACY IN EUROPEAN NATIONS.

* Contains 35 per cent. of Roman Catholics.

+ Contains 41 per cent. of Roman Catholics. In the Catholic World, Hollard and Switzerland are not allowed to stand as Protestant nations, but are classified