"'The _Civilta Cattolica_ says, "This proportion of 28.3 of legitimate births for every one thousand of the population speaks very well for a capital city." And so it does; it shows, what we have always understood them to be, that the Romans are as virtuous and moral as any people of the world.' Thus THE CATHOLIC WORLD; to which it might safely add, that it shows that the separation of an enormous mass of the most vigorous part of the people under vows of celibacy and continence does not necessarily check the multiplication of the population." Weakness in arithmetic and a prurient imagination have, no doubt, given rise to the above elegant extract; but we rebut it by informing our friend of the _New Englander_ that there is a difference between 28.3 to the thousand and 1 to 28.3. Had he noticed this difference, he would not have digged this pit for himself. The figures prove nothing more than his own ignorance, putting the most charitable construction on it. We must give a specimen of the _New Englander's_ idea of fairness in controversy: "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 the Protestant countries, I care not which, I will name a Roman Catholic country still worse.' 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 Würtemburg; the regions in question seem to have been selected for their approximate equality in population." Well, as probably most people have not heard of the _countries_ of Carinthia, Styria, etc., we confess we were "erudite" enough to know and to point out that they were slices of Austria carved for the occasion, and we were a little indignant at the carving operation. "Show me a bad _Protestant country_ where you please, and I will show you a _Roman Catholic country still worse_." Hence, we have, according to Mr. Seymour: PROTESTANT ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES. COUNTRIES. Norway, Austria, Sweden, Austria, Saxony, Austria, Denmark, Austria, Hanover, Austria, We suppose this is all fair enough; but we cannot see it, our moral vision being so infirm.