granted the clergy for murder committed, and the price fixed at $20 to the dean, and f 55 to a bishop or abbot (see Barnum, Romanism, p. 5G6). Statisticians have prepared comparative lists of the crime of murder com- mitted in Roman Catholic and Protestant countries. We insert here one of these, as these statistics exliibit plainly the moral i-esults of the Romish and Protestant systems. The Rev. M. Hobart Seymour gives in his Evenings icith the Ro)na7iists an introductory chapter on " the moral results of the Romish system," which em- bodies various statistics respecting crime drawn directly from official returns in the several countries named. Thus the comparative numbers of committals (or trials) for murder as given by Mr. Seymour for each million of the population, according to the censuses next pre- ceding 1854, were these :
Protestant England 4 to the million.
Roman Catholic Beliriura 18" '■ "
" " Ireland 19" " "
" " Sardinia 20 " " '•
" " France 31 " " "
" " Austria 36 " " "
" " Lombardy 45" " "
" " Tuscany 56 " " "
" " Sicily 90 " " "
" " Papal States 113" "
" " Naples 1T4 " " "
The Neic-Englander for July, 1869, and January', 1870, contains some additional statistics and later statements on this subject from official returns. These give the following proportion of convictions for murder and at- tempts at murder, and for infanticide, in England and France in the year 1865-6 :
England, li convictions to the million for murder, etc. France, 12 convictions to the million. England, 5 convictions to the million for infanticide. France, 10 convictions to the million.
The returns of suicides in England and France for the foiu: years 1862-5 give the following yearly average :
England, 64 snicldes to the million. France, 127 suicides to the million.
There were in the Papal States in 1867, according to official (French) returns, 186 murders to each million of the population. Mr. Seymour furnishes also various statistics showing the immorality of Roman Catholic cities and countries in Europe to be decidedlj^ greater than that of similar Protestant cities and countries, and often twice, thrice, etc., as great, and says : " 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." Mr. Seymour's statistics, though widely published, have stood for years unimpeached. In April, 1869, it is true. The Catholic World attempted to break the force of his argument by citing the case of Protestant Stockholm, which it alleged that Mr. Seymour wilfully suppressed, and where, according to it, the rate of illegitimate births to the whole number of births " is over fifty to the hun- dred— quite equal to that of Tienna." To this the Xeic- Englander of January, 1870, replies : " It seems to us suf- ficient to say, first, that the statement of the Catholic World is untrue. At the time of Mr. Seymour's state- ment the official return of iDegitimacy in Stockholm was twenty-nine per cent., which is considerably less than ' over fifty to the hundred.' Secondl^v, that the following eleven Roman Catholic cities were worse than the notoriously worst of all Protestant cities : Paris, 33 per cent. ; Brussels, 35 ; Munich, 48 ; Vienna, 51 ; Lai- bach, 38 ; Brunn, 42 ; Lintz, 46 ; Prague, 47 ; Lemberg, 47 ; Klagenfort, 56 ; Griitz, 65." The official statistics of Germany, as given in the New-Englander for Janu- ary, 1870, show an av^erage of 117 illegitimate births in everj' 1000 births in the Protestant provinces, and of 186 in 1000 in the Roman Catholic provinces; those of Austria gave for the Roman Catholic provinces in 1866 an average of 215 illegitimate births in every 1000 births,
MURDOCK
142
MURETUS
and in the mixed provinces (containin;!; 9 up to 83 per cent, of IJoman Catliolics, the remainder Protestants, (ireeks, etc.) an average of CO in every 1000. Tlie average number of illegitimate births in every 1000 births for the various nations of Europe is as follows :
TROTESTANT. \ KOMAN OATHOMC.
Denmark 110 Baden 1C2
Ell-land, Scotland, and IBavaria 22.5
\V..:.s C7 Belgium 72
HMil.nil (:;5 per c. R. C:.) 40 France 75
German Austria 181
Italy [defective] 51
Spain [defective] 55
Average.
or, rejecting
Spain
Italy and
V iih Saxony and
ll.,n..vci- 83
Swii'.cn, with Nonvav . . . 9C
S\vii/cihind(41perc.R.C.) 55
\\ uricniberg (between R.
C. Baden aud Bavaria). IW
Average ~88
Taking the average birth-rate in Europe — 1 a year for every 28 of the pojjulation— the returns in Italy show that more than one fourth of the births fail to be regis- tered ; and the official returns for Spain are notoriously untrustworthj-. It has been said that the official returns for Ireland gave only 3.8 per cent, of illegitimate birtlis, and most of this in the Protestant counties; but the registrar-general complains that many births and deaths are not registered; and the comparison of 1 birth only fur cvvTy 42 of the population as returned, with the av- erage European birth-rate of 1 in 28, would im])ly that nearly one third of the births in Ireland are unregistered. Tlie jjercentage of illegitimate births in Italy, Spain, and Ireland may therefore be much larger than the imperfect official returns indicate, and is of course untrustworthy. (Jther statistics of immorality are also given in the Xew-Enylander, but we have not room to (juote here further, and refer our readers interested in a compara- tive statement of the moral influences of Protestantism and Komanism to the periodicals cited.