age.

whom he has two sons. Kasin Khan, the eldest, is a good looking young man about twenty-two years of The reins of government being in the hands of a Moghul excites a great degree of jealousy in the minds of the Uffghans, but the prince gives the former a decided preference over his own tribe, as he finds that the rapacious exactions of the former from the subject are more enforced to enrich his coffers than they could possibly be through his countrymen, who, being accustomed to free and independent tenure of the land, are not so likely to assist in that system of plunder for which the Moghuls are proverbial.

The police of Heerat is strict, not so much for the sake of morality, as for the fines which come into government; and no one can appear in the streets after dark. This city is, of all others in Khorasan, celebrated for cheats, who allure the unsuspecting stranger into their houses to partake of an entertainment, and then lay him by the heels on a false charge of seduction of their female relatives, and breach of hospitality, for which the accused person may consider himself fortunate to escape with a mulct of five hundred rupees. On these occasions, they previously inform themselves of the state and condition of the person, and levy accordingly half of this fine goes to the informer as a reward for his ingenuity, and the other half to the minister and government.

I remained at Heerat nearly a month in my assumed character of a horse-dealer, and declared I should go to Mushid on pilgrimage, a common circumstance among people of that class, who visit this country. I deemed it expedient to announce this as my intention, being thereby furnished with an excuse for leaving Heerat at any time; and, what was to me of great moment, without encumbering myself with a number of horses, which I naturally said I could purchase on my return; by this means I only found it necessary to buy two during my sojourn there.'

This volume is altogether somewhat prolix, but contains a considerable fund of new particulars concerning countries hitherto almost inaccessible. A large and good map is prefixed, corrected by Lieut. P.'s own observation from older authorities; and farther partially improved by the help of the journals of Captains Grant and Christie, with the actual surveys of Captain Maxfield.

ART. IV. A History of the Jesuits; to which is prefixed a Reply to Mr. Dallas's Defence of that Order. 8vo. 2 Vols. 11. 485> Boards. Baldwin and Co. 1816.

THE

HE Society of the Jesuits has been pronounced by a deservedly admired historian * to be "the most political and best regulated of all the monastic orders," and that

*Robertson, Charles V. Vol. ii.

" from

"from which mankind have derived more advantages, and received greater hurt, than from any other of these religious fraternities." Allowing this to be true, it will not be uninteresting, nor unimportant, to consider the proportion which the advantages derived from this body of men have borne to the injury inflicted by them. As long as the world remains in its present state of imperfection, and the things which it contains continue to be subject to vicissitude, good will be found intermingled with evil, and evil with good; and it will be almost as impossible to experience the one in an unqualified and independent state, as it will be to enjoy the other without its concomitant portion of alloy. To effect a distinct separation of these two opposite qualities, so as to be enabled to form an accurate judgment how far, in any particular instance, liability to injury may be counterbalanced by the chance of benefit, is a task which seldom fails to recompense the pains of the inquirer, in proportion to the importance of the investigation itself. In prosecuting such a method of analysis with regard to the merits of the above-mentioned society, it will be requisite to examine the institution in its origin, its infancy, its progress, and at the period of its final establishment, before we come to consider the causes which led to its suppression, or the consequences which would be likely to accompany its future restoration.

We have before us, for this purpose, two publications; which, as a collision of opposite sentiments tends to elicit the truth, will be useful in aiding our conclusions on the matter in question. Of one of these, from the pen of Mr. Dallas, we have already presented an account to our readers, (Vol. lxxx. p. 413.) and his arguments in favour of the Society are combated in the other with some warmth of language and severity of reprehension. Mr. D.'s antagonist enters the lists by giving a history of the Jesuits, and prefixing to this history a reply to Mr. Dallas's defence of the order: but we were rather surprized at finding this introductory reply drawn out to such an unusual length as, together with an appendix subjoined to the second volume, actually to exceed by many pages the history itself. The writer, we suppose, must have felt that his talents, as well as his inclinations, lay principally in controversial discussion; and, having once attached himself to his prey, he was unwilling to let him depart without a due share of punishment.

"Non missura cutem, nisi plena cruoris, hirudo."

While the one of these gentlemen describes the Society, both in its original designs and in its actual operations, as the uniform

14

uniform messenger of peace and mercy, - the instrument employed by a benevolent Providence for diffusing happiness to the afflicted, and knowlege to the ignorant, the other views it as the organ of desolation and misery, and as the means of propagating the most pernicious errors in doctrine and encouraging the grossest iniquities in practice. The truth, às we have elsewhere intimated, may perhaps be fairly considered as lying between the opposite extremes; and, though certainly it would be far more consistent with our own ideas that it should be supposed to belong to the latter than to the former of these opinions, yet there are some few points inwhich we think the case is not yet clearly made out against the advocate of the Jesuits, and in which the arguments of his opponent are weak and inconclusive. These we may have occasion to notice more circumstantially hereafter in the mean time, our acknowlegements are certainly due to the author of this history for his patient and diligent research, for the trouble which he has taken in collecting a great variety of useful and interesting facts, for the order in which he has arranged this mass of information, and for the steadiness and resolution with which he has endeavoured to uphold the truth.

When we perused Mr. Dallas's work, it did not escape our notice that he had exposed himself to just animadversion, not only on the score of general insufficiency in his mode of reasoning, but by a certain petulance of style and impetuosity of language; which is too apt at all times to betray the disputant into erroneous conclusions, and to incapacitate his mind for the perception of truth. Having learnt severity from the example of his adversary, the author of the present history, of whom it cannot be said, as of the Grecian sage, μέλιτος γλυκίων ῥεὲν ἀυδή, — is very properly energetic in mainjeèv · taining his own cause, and in exposing that of Mr. Dallas. He is moreover generally found to argue with greater solidity; and, though in his zeal for victory he has occasionally incurred the charge of diffuseness, his pages will be found to have contributed greatly to the elucidation of truth. In the quantity of evidence which he has brought forwards for this purpose, it will be natural to suppose that some inequality is perceptible in point of strength; in a great variety of arguments, all tending to one point, some will be more and others less conclusive: but, if the generality of them be not deficient in force and perspicuity, the question under debate needs not be injured by a partial degree of weakness. Having said thus much of the reply, we shall beg leave to retire for a while from this field of controversy; and, leaving Mr. Dallas to fight his own battles, (a task to which we deem him fully com

petent,)

petent,) we shall proceed to an examination of the history of the Jesuits; stating the case to our readers in the several points of view in which it is susceptible of being considered; and enabling them as well as ourselves to draw conclusions from the premises.

After a suitable preamble relative to the first origin of this singular institution, the history details some of the leading particulars in the life and character of its founder. A quotation from this part of the work may serve to introduce it, and to exemplify the style of its author:

Ignatius Loyola, the patron and founder of this Society, was born in Spain. * He followed at first the profession of arms. Thrown upon the world by this occupation, he gave himself up to his passions; and the Jesuits, who have written his life, observe that vanity and ambition were his ruling pursuits. In 1521, being then 30 years of age, he was at Pampeluna when the French besieged it, and had his right leg broken, which was unskilfully treated. During his cure he met with a life of the Saints, written in a romantic style; he read it, and was impressed by it. If we may believe the Jesuits, he received from Heaven, in the first years of his conversion, miraculous favours, visions, raptures, and ecstasies, from which he appeared to gain extraordinary illumination. + Pasquier, who witnessed the birth of the Jesuits, was not wrong in calling Ignatius one of the most subtle and skilfuk politicians that his age had produced; and this will plainly appear when the analysis of the government, statutes, and privileges of the Society shall be given. He had such a military genius, that, after his conversion, having had a dispute with a Moor, who maintained that Mary had ceased to be a virgin by becoming a mother, Ignatius regretted that he had suffered this blasphemer to escape, and pursued him in order to kill him: happily, the mule on which he was mounted, took a different road to that of the Moor, and hindered him from executing this pious design.

He soon obtained disciples; but, meeting with opposition, he determined to go to Paris. That great city is properly the cradle of the Society. After having experienced various obstacles there, which would have discouraged any other person, he set about forming new disciples; those whom he had had in Spain having deserted him. His first converts were Le Fevre, who had been his private tutor, and Francis Xavier, who taught philosophy in the University; he added to them afterwards Lainez, Salmeron, Bobadilla, and Rodriguez: in order to fix his new disciples irrevocably, he took them on the day of the Assumption, 1534, to the Church of Montmartre near Paris, where Le Fevre, who had lately become a priest, said mass to them, and gave them the sacrament in the

*See his life by Baillet, and in the Continuation of Fleury' Baillet, section 6.'

See Baillet on the authority of Maffée and Bouhours.'

sub

subterraneous chapel. After mass, the whole seven, with a loud and distinct voice, took a vow to undertake, within a prescribed time, a voyage to Jerusalem, for the conversion of the Infidels; to abandon every thing they possessed in the world, except what they should need for their voyage, and, in case they should be unable to accomplish this, to go and throw themselves at the feet of the Pope, to offer him their services, and to proceed under his orders wherever he might think proper to send them. At length they were joined by three other disciples, namely, Le Jay, Codur, and Brouet. They arrived in Rome in 1538: being assembled at the house of Quirino Garzonio, they agreed that the Society should be established, as soon as possible, as a religious society, in order to prevent its being dissolved in future, and to enable it to extend itself in all places, and to subsist to the end of time. In spite of every obstacle which he encountered, he accomplished his object of obtaining the sanction of Pope Paul III. for his Order.+ He had presented the scheme of the insitution to that Pope in 1539, who referred it to three cardinals for examination.

Guidiccioni ‡, one of the Referees, a man of great merit and learning, strenously opposed this new institution; he even wrote a book to establish the reasons of his opposition, and his authority determined the two other Cardinals..

• During this examination, an event took place, which was the origin of the great credit which the Jesuits afterwards obtained at the court of Portugal. John III. King of Portugal, wished to send missionaries into India, and directed his ambassador at Rome to select ten for the purpose: that ambassador was Mascarenhas, who was closely connected with Ignatius, who is even said to have been his Confessor: he then asked him for some of his companions; Ignatius gave him Rodriguez and Bobadilla; the latter having fallen ill, Xavier was substituted.

• Mascarenhas carried these two missionaries with him into Portugal: they departed from Rome, 15th March 1540, above six months before the approbation of the institution. Rodriguez remained in Portugal, and Xavier went to India. Ignatius now engaged for unlimited obedience to the Pope; Paul III., flattered by this promise, began to shew himself more favourable. length, upon the most urgent solicitations, and upon assurances of the most entire submission, Paul III. by a Bull of the 27th of September, 1540, confirmed the Institution. Upwards of forty Bulls have followed, in which they have procured exemptions from all

* See Baillet.'

At

t This Pope, after he had founded the Order, struck two medals; one inscribed "The Gates of Heaven are opened;" and the other, "The security of the Roman people." How far that event contributed to promote "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men," let the present History shew.'

See Continuation of Fleury, Vol. xxviii. Lib. 139.'

See Continuation of Fleury, and Life of Xavier, by Baillet."

jurisdictions,