Skip to main content

Full text of "The Dublin review"

See other formats 


GARSWELL  CO.,Iamited  j 

Bookbinders.  | 

LrJJ^oo'Ki.       A  TORONTO  f 

fnBLisHEBs.etc.O       ONT        I 

inmnnnni-i(i 'innnnnnin'aBgj 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/3sdublinreview15londuoft 


THE 


DUBLIN    REVIEW. 


THIRD  SERIES. 


VOL.  XV. 


JANUARY— APRIL 

MDCCCLXXXVI. 


LONDON:     BURNS     &     OATES. 

DUBLEN" :  M.  H.  GILL  &  SON. 

NEW  YORK  :    CATHOLIC  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY  CO, 
9,  BARCLAY  STREET. 


1886. 


THE 


DUBLIN  REVIEW. 


JANUARY,  1886. 

Art.  I.— proportionate  REPRESENTATION. 

Contemplated  with  eeference  to  the  Idea  involved   in   it. 

1.  The  Election  of  Representatives,  Parliamentary  and  Muni- 

cipal.    By  Thomas  Hare.     London  :  Longmans. 

2.  Minorities  and  Majorities :  their  Relative  Rights.   By  J.  G. 

Marshall.     London :  Ridgway. 

«S.   Works  of  Edmund  Burke. 

THE  question  of  Proportionate  Representation — although, 
owing  to  an  accidental  combination  of  circumstances,  it 
may  seem  for  the  moment  to  be  disposed  of — is  one  certain  to 
recur,  and  perhaps  more  than  once,  for  discussion,  because  it 
involves  a  deep  pi-inciple,  and  a  principle  carries  with  it  a  strong 
vitality.  It  concerns  the  philosophy  of  politics,  while  by  the 
superficial  it  is  frequently  treated  as  if  it  were  but  an  arithmetical 
conundrum.  Those  who  thus  regard  it  have  turned  out  the 
wrong  side  of  the  tapestry  for  inspection ;  the  pattern  is  lost  to 
them,  and  it  is  no  wonder  if  they  amuse  themselves  by  plucking 
at  the  stuck-out  ends  of  threads.  In  dealing  with  a  serious 
matter  of  ethics  we  cannot  make  a  beginning  unless  we  separate 
the  accidental  from  the  essential,  and  contemplate  the  problem 
in  the  light  of  that  idea  which  illustrates  it.  Let  us  thus  con- 
template "  Proportionate  Representation  "  in  its  connection  with 
two  things  of  which  the  modern  world  makes  boast,  without,  how- 
ever, at  all  times  appreciating  their  higher  claims  on  our  respect — 
viz.,  "  the  Nation,"  and  "  National  Progress.'^  Coleridge  once 
exclaimed,  "  Oh  for  a  statesman — a  single  one — who  truly  under- 
stands the  living  might  inherent  in  a  principle !  "  It  will  be 
well  on  the  present  occasion  to  confine  our  attention  to  the 
great  principle  at  issue,  discarding  all  subordinate  matters  of 
vol.  XV. — NO.  I.     [Third  Series.]  b 


/''  5' 


2  Proportionate  Representation. 

detail,  and  all  that  helon;^s  but  to  the  mere  polemics  of  party. 
Such  questions  as  the  "  Preferential  Vote/'  however  important, 
are  thus  outside  our  present  theme.  We  have  here  to  deal  with 
"  Proportionate  Representation "  in  a  form  so  simple  that  no 
one  can  charge  it  with  complexity.  Accordinp^  to  the  arrangements 
till  lately  prevalent  in  England,  the  majority,  however  small, 
was  commonly  represented  by  two  members;  while  the 
minority,  however  large,  within  the  same  electoral  district, 
was  left  without  representation,  as  it  is  now  in  the  new 
single-member  districts.  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  adopt 
the  simple  expedient  of  having  fewer  but  larger  electoral 
districts,  each  returning  three  representatives  or  more;  if  we 
give  to  each  voter  as  many  votes  as  there  are  members  to 
be  returned ;  and  if  we  permit  him  either  to  distribute  his  votes 
among  several  candidates,  or  to  concentrate  them  on  one,  as  he 
pleases  ;  then,  while  a  large  majority  can  return  two  representa- 
tives, a  minority  of  two-fifths  is  strong  enough  to  return  one. 
This,  though  far  from  being  the  exclusive,  is  the  most  typical 
formula  by  which  "  Proportionate  Representation "  can  be 
expressed.  Beyond  this  it  is  better  here  not  to  go  ;  more  subtle 
questions  belong  to  the  perfection,  not  to  the  principle,  of 
Proportionate  Representation. 

Neither  the  authentic  "  Idea "  of  National  Representation, 
nor  its  true  dignity,  is  understood  by  those  who  assert  that  men 
discontented  by  a  mere  majority  representation  are  labouring' 
under  a  sentimental  grievance.  The  injury  is  not  chiefly  that 
done  to  individuals,  or  to  the  local  minority,  which,  even 
when  nearly  equal  to  the  majority  in  numbers_,  and  more 
numerous  than  the  total  electors  of  several  represented  towns, 
has  often  found  itself  amerced  of  all  part  in  the  making  of  those 
laws  which  yet  it  is  bound  to  obey.  The  chief  injury  is  the  one 
inflicted  on  the  nation  itself,  whose  collective  interests  are 
postponed,  as  they  were  in  the  days  of  "Protection,"  to  the 
supposed  interests  of  a  section  of  the  nation.  It  is  the  old 
monopoly  again,  but  in  a  form  as  yet  not  commonly  detected  ; 
for  what  does  mere  majority  representation  mean  but  that 
majorities,  strong  enough  in  themselves,  are  artificially  pro- 
tected from  the  frank  competition  of  minorities,  the  latter  being 
often  down-trodden  and  misshapen  while  their  growth  is  still 
immature  ? 

The  "Public  Opinion,"  even  of  a  whole  community,  is  itself 
often  but  a  passing  thing,  self-corrected  on  mature  reflection,  as 
is  shown  by  the  "public  opinion"  of  England  during  the  days  of 
"  The  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill,"  and  of  the  late  Civil  War  in 
America.  What,  then,  is  to  be  hoped  for  if  the  rule  of  a  mere 
majority  among  electors  is  preferred  to  that  of  the  whole  body. 


Proportionate  Representation.  3 

that  majority  itself  often  consisting  mainly  of  the  least 
educated?  What  the  disfranchised  minorities  demand  is  not 
equality  of  power,  but  equality  of  treatment,  a  free  stage 
and  no  favour.  What  they  ask  from  their  country  is  not 
the  indulgence  often  given  to  the  weak,  but  a  common  right 
to  serve  her  so  far  as  their  humble,  but  not  inconsiderable, 
powers  permit.  The  answer  of  those  in  possession  is,  "  If 
you  want  power,  make  yourselves  a  majority ! "  This  is  a 
rough  and  ready  admonition  to  make  bricks  without  straw.  A 
minority  is  first  interdicted  the  ordinary  means  of  growth,  and 
then  admonished  to  grow.  The  food  that  stimulates  growth  is 
reasonable  hope;  and  hope  is  stifled  when  the  best  exertion  meets 
no  proportional  reward.  In  the  most  arduous  careers  men  advance 
by  degrees,  because  effort  is  not  in  vain.  With  hope  men  are 
strengthened  by  trial;  in  the  absence  of  hope  they  remain  inert. 
A  zealous,  patriotic  citizen  not  only  desires  to  see  his  country 
prosper,  but  also  aspires  himself  to  win  for  her  advantages 
especially  appreciated  by  him,  and  to  avert  from  her  particular 
forms  of  evil  not  brought  within  the  cognizance  of  all.  Deride 
such  aspirations,  and  you  freeze  that  life-blood  which  would 
have  gladly  poured  itself  forth  for  king  and  country.  A 
minority,  the  exertions  of  which  are  not  rewarded  within  just 
degrees,  either  becomes  extinct,  or  lives  on  not  to  work  but  to 
sulk ;  while  the  party  that  boasts  its  victory  degenerates  into  a 
triumphant  faction.  To  treat  men  with  contumely  because  they 
are  less  strong  than  ourselves,  is  a  violation  both  of  good  morals 
and  good  manners,  which  neither  an  individual  or  a  nation  can 
afford. 

But,  as  has  been  already  remarked,  it  is  the  nation  itself  that 
suffers  most  from  the  wrong,  and  this  consideration  brings  us  to 
the  heart  of  the  matter.  The  reason  that  so  many  miss  this 
truth  is  because  they  are  still  intellectually  running  in  the  rut  of 
past  times,  and  have  not  risen  to  the  full  conception  of  that 
actual  as  distinguished  from  virtual  representation  of  which, 
notwithstanding,  we  make  our  boast.  In  okl  times  the  represen- 
tation of  the  country  in  the  House  of  Commons,  while  nominally 
an  actual,  was  in  reality  chiefly  a  virtual  representation,  such  as 
it  remains  in  the  House  of  Lords,  largely,  though  not  exclusively. 
During  the  last  century  the  House  of  Commons  consisted  in  the 
main  of  England^s  country  gentlemen :  it  virtually  represented 
the  landed  proprietors,  farmers,  and  labourers,  and  the  old 
constitutional  traditions ;  while  the  popular  power,  though 
partially  represented  in  it  also,  was,  for  the  most  part,  not 
du'ectly  represented,  remaining  a  passive  thing,  but  one  of  great 
importance  because  it  included  a  latent,  active  force,  sure  to 
become  patent  under  the  stimulus  of  a  sentiment  that  strongly 


4  Proportionate  Representation. 

appealed  to  all.  Virtual  and  actual  representation  are  capable 
of  working  admirably  in  conjunction;  but  when  a  country  ceases 
to  be  contented  with  virtual  representation  in  its  popular  House 
it  must  go  on  to  a  real,  and  not  a  pretended,  direct  representation, 
— one  that  represents  it  intellectually  and  morally,  not  merely 
physically  and  numerically ;  one  which  represents  its  many  classes, 
interests,  and  opinions,  as  generated  both  by  historical  and  local  cir- 
cumstance, and  which  therefore  must  represent  its  local  minorities, 
which,  though  they  bear  the  common  name  of  minority,  are  yet 
essentially  different  things  in  the  different  parts  of  the  country, 
and  make  a  wholly  different  contribution  to  the  parliamentary 
stock  of  knowledge  and  judgment.  Virtual  representation  is 
good  in  its  place,  and  direct  representation  is  good  ;  but  fictitious 
representation  is  bad. 

A  country  may,  at  different  periods  of  its  existence,  be  guided 
by  a  single  man  who  is  recognized  by  all  as  their  virtual  repre- 
sentative ;  or  by  a  senate  consisting  of  those  regarded  as  its 
representative  men ;  or,  again,  by  such  a  direct  representation  of 
the  whole  country  as  presents,  in  its  Parliament,  a  true  and,  as 
far  as  may  be,  a  complete  image  of  that  country.  Under  all 
these  changes,  which  commonly  accompany  a  nation's  develop- 
ment, there  is  one  thing  that  remains  unchanged.  At  one  period 
the  nation  believes  in  the  wisdom  of  some  one  great  chief  or 
king,  at  another  of  some  historical  order,  and  later  in  that  of 
the  people  taken  collectively ;  but  at  all  those  different  periods 
alike  it  knows  that  a  nation  must  be  governed  by  wisdom,  and 
not  by  mere  will.  So  long  as  the  wisdom  recognized  as  a 
nation's  guide  is  that  of  a  particular  order  regarded  as  pre- 
eminently well  informed,  conspicuously  responsible,  and  profoundly 
interested  in  the  permament  well-being  of  the  whole  community, 
so  long  a  clumsy  method  of  testing  the  opinions  of  the  country 
taken  as  a  whole — opinions  intended  less  to  initiate  a  political 
course  than  to  add  to  it  a  new  sanction — is  found  sufficient :  and 
such  a  method  is  mere  majority  representation;  but  when  .a 
nation  deliberately  elects  to  be  self-governed,  which  few  nations 
do  prematurely  unless  they  are  artificially  stimulated,  it  is  bound 
to  ascertain,  with  a  scientific  accuracy,  if  it  can,  and  at  the  least 
with  a  conscientious  solicitude,  what  it  inwardly  believes  respect- 
ing the  true  and  the  right,  of  the  authentic  claims  and  the 
permanent  interests  of  all.  Whether  the  constitution  be 
monarchical,  aristocratical,  or  popular,  or  all  three  blended — the 
especial  merit  attributed  to  our  own  by  the  chief  foreign  political 
writers — to  teach  that  Will  apart  from  Wisdom  has  a  right  to 
govern,  or  can  govern  aright,  is  to  teach  a  moral  and  political 
heresy;  and  the  nation  which  gives  ear  to  such  teaching  buf  makes 
its  rounds,"  and  returns,  through  civilization,  to  barbarism. 


Proportionate  Representation.  5 

Let  us  apply  these  principles  to  Proportionate  Representation. 
A  self-governed  nation  has  undertaken  to  be  directed  by  its  own 
wisdom  ;  and  the  wisdom  of  a  nation  is  public  opinion  rightly 
formed  and  justly  estimated.  But  if  the  philosophic  schools 
may  err,  much  more  may  a  nation,  which  has  violent  passions, 
much  to  delude  it,  and  habits  rather  practical  than  reflective. 
How,  then,  is  a  genuine  public  opinion,  as  distinguished  from  a 
counterfeit  one,  to  be  formed?  The  following  remarks  deal  with 
that  question : — 

A  genuine  public  opinion,  which  alone  should  claim  the  name,  is 
a  rarer  thing  than  many  imagine ;  and  there  are  countries  in  which  it 
cannot  exist.  It  is  dissipated  by  the  fervours  of  faction,  and  frozen 
by  timidity  and  selfishness.  The  formation  of  a  true  public  opinion 
resembles  the  process  of  crystallization,  which  takes  place  perfectly 
in  proportion  as  it  takes  place  without  disturbance,  and  by  the  gradual 
operation  of  its  own  silent  and  interior  law  ;  the  minute  particles 
slowly  settling  down  into  the  definite  form,  hexagonal,  or  more  many- 
sided,  according  to  the  crystal's  special  type.  Public  opinion  consists 
of  numberless  individual  opinions,  attracting  each  other,  blended,  but 
not  merged ;  each  of  which  must  therefore  at  once  possess  the  inde- 
pendence of  real  and  free  thought,  and  unite  it  with  that  moderation, 
charity,  and  reverence  through  which  real  and,  free  thought  willingly 
submits  to  conscientious  modifications,  resisting  only  the  incompatible 
and  the  arbitrary,  until  at  last  there  arises  that  harmony  in  which 
many  minds  become  one. 

If  this  estimate  of  public  opinion  be  just,  that  singular  attri- 
bute of  a  wise  people  is  not  formed  by  loud  harangues,  partisan 
clamours,  unscrupulous  electioneering  contrivances,  anonymous 
newspaper  paragraphs  too  often  calculated  only  to  deepen  old 
prejudices  or  inflame  sudden  passions,  and  least  of  all  by  mob- 
processions,  with  banner  and  brass  band,  the  omens  of  that  time 
when  Liberty,  in  place  of  being  the  "  grave  mother  of  majestic 
works,"  is  forced,  after  many  a  discreditable  adventure,  to  put  on 
motley  attire,  and  take  her  place  in  pantomime.  As  little  is  it 
formed  by  depriving  a  nation's  scattered  minorities  of  political 
citizenship,  exalting  its  scattered  majorities  into  local  despotisms, 
flinging  the  disjecta  membra  into  a  Medea's  cauldron,  and, 
after  they  have  been  well  boiled  down  together,  lifting  thence  a 
renovated  Parliament  as  vivacious  as  old  Egeus  in  his  renewed 
youth.  The  formation  of  a  true  public  opinion  is  neither  a 
convulsive,  a  mechanical,  nor  a  magical  process.  It  is  not  a 
sprite  "dancing  in  the  air,"  nor  a  more  fleshly  apparition  rising 
from  below  and  vanishing  in  mist : — 

The  earth  hath  bubbles  as  the  water  has, 
And  these  are  of  them. 


6  Proportionate  Representation. 

It  is  not  the  resultant  of  fierce  antagonisms  made  fiercer  by 
insolent  methods  of  public  procedure  preferred  to  the  con- 
siderate and  the  courteous  by  enthusiasts  bent  upon  doing  a 
nation's  work  rapidly  rather  than  on  doing  it  well.  The  passions 
engendered  by  wrong  are  inconsistent  with  serious  thought,  and 
the  numberless  fictitious  "public  opinions"  refuse  to  coalesce 
and  become  a  real  one.  In  other  words,  the  multiplication  of 
exaggerated  local  triumphs  and  of  unmerited  defeats  deprives  a 
people  of  the  virtuous  use  of  its  political  faculties,  and  substitutes 
for  the  unity  of  a  true  national  existence  a  Babel  of  social 
sects  and  warring  interests,  to  the  destruction,  eventually,  of  all 
solid  patriotism.  A  nation  thus  maimed  is  rendered  unfit  both 
for  the  trials  and  the  magnificent  prospects  which  lie  before 
modern  civilization.  How  high  a  Christian  nation  might  rise 
above  what  has  hitherto  been  known  of  national  greatness,  if  it 
were  as  zealous  to  discharge  its  duties  as  to  claim  its  rights,  it  is 
hard  to  say  :  but  we  have  too  many  examples  to  show  us  how  low 
it  may  fall  when  counterfeit  freedom,  counterfeit  equality,  and 
counterfeit  greatness  are  substituted  for  the  realities,  and  walk 
in  the  train  of  a  counterfeit  national  representation. 

We  perceive  thus  at  once  the  fallacy  of  that  plea  so  constantly 
urged  by  the  apologists  for  mere  majority  representation — viz., 
"  the  minority  in  one  district  is  the  majority  in  another,  and  in 
Parliament  they  balance  each  other.'^  The  question  is  not 
primarily  one  as  to  the  balance  of  forces  in  Parliament.  It 
is  as  to  whether  the  nation  has  so  developed  public  opinion 
throughout  her  wide  domain,  and  so  adjusted  the  intellectual 
resources  thus  placed  at  her  disposal,  as  to  enjoy  within  the  walls 
of  Parliament  the  fall  contributions  which  she  ought  to  have 
drawn  from  those  whom  she  deems  fit  to  be  electors,  and,  indirectly, 
from  all  for  whose  weal  she  is  bound  to  consult.  Even  on  the 
assumption  that  public  opinion  has  been  duly  formed  though  not 
represented,  in  the  various  electoral  districts,  and,  again,  that  the 
minority  in  one  district  isthe  majority  inanother,  so  far  as  the  battle 
of  parties  is  concerned,  it  does  not  follow  that  any  corresponding 
compensation  takes  place  as  regards  political  opinion  outside  the 
ring  of  party  contests.  The  minority  in  one  district  and  the  major- 
ity in  another  may  be  in  harmony  so  far  as  adhesion  or  opposition 
to  a  particular  political  party  goes,  and  yet  the  most  intimate  con- 
viction and  ardent  aspiration  of  the  one  may  be  wholly  unshared 
by  the  other  :  the  one  may  be  zealous  for  religious  education,  the 
other  for  secular  ;  the  one  may  approve  of  intervention,  and  the 
other  of  non-intervention.  Consequently  as  regards  convictions 
cherished  by  large  bodies,  and  yet  left,  unrepresented,  the  sup- 
posed compensation  afforded  to  minorities  is  imaginary.  Add  to 
this   that,  except   where   two  parties  are  nearly  balanced,  the 


Proportionate  Representation.  7 

supposed  compensation  cannot  exist  even  as  regards  the  balance 
of  party  forces.  Catholic  Emancipation,  Negro  Emancipation, 
Parliamentary  Reform,  Commercial  Freedom,  these  great  measures 
had  met  with  considerable  support  from  the  thoughtful  for  many  a 
year  before  they  were  passed  into  law.  What  caused  a  delay,  in 
some  cases  so  full  of  mischief?  The  circumstance  that  in  districts 
where  the  party  supporting  those  reforms  lacked  a  majority,  the 
minorities  favourable  to  it  were  unrepresented.  The  game  of 
party  politics  was  played  merrily  enough,  but  the  wound  that 
went  on  festering  in  the  breast  of  the  nation  has  never  been 
healed.  Mere  majority  representation  unites  two  evils  of  an 
opposite  character.  During  inert  periods  it  resists  the  passing 
of  just  measures  until  the  reform  ceases  to  carry  with  it  a 
healing  eflficacy  :  at  periods  of  excitement  it  will  not  tolerate 
even  those  brief  constitutional  delays  without  which  a  nation 
cannot  distinguish  between  its  deeper  convictions  and  its 
superficial  theories  or  passions  ;  and  thus  for  reform  it  substitutes 
revolution. 

National  representation,  then,  when  contemplated  in  the  light 
of  an  idea,  means  the  proportionate  representation  both  of  a 
nation's  majorities  and  larger  minorities  throughout  the  whole 
country,  not  chiefly  in  order  to  adjust  the  relations  of  parties, 
but  for  the  purpose  of  eliciting  the  moral  intelligence  and 
maturing  the  wisdom  of  a  nation.  If  men  do  not  see  this,  it  is 
because  they  do  not  contemplate  the  nation  itself  in  the  light  of 
an  idea  :  if  they  recognized  its  majesty  they  would  at  once  be 
delivered  from  all  temptation  to  worship  that  idol  of  political 
materialists — a  majority.  What  is  a  nation?  It  is  not,  like  a 
handful  of  sand,  merely  an  aggregate  of  the  individual  grains 
which  compose  it.  It  is  an  organic  growth  the  life  of  which 
is  in  the  whole.  It  is  a  body  the  larger  portion  of  which  is 
subordinate  to  the  nobler,  the  heart  and  the  head.  It  is  a 
hierarchy  of  high  powers  which  only  continue  to  live  because 
they  are  ranged,  one  beneath  another,  in  just  subordination. 
The  several  atoms  which  compose  that  body  derive  from  it,  not 
their  strength  only,  but  their  sequent  existence.  Separated  from 
it,  their  fate  would  be  "  to  lie  in  cold  obstruction  and  to  rot ;  ■" 
and  their  noblest  heritage  is  the  obedience  they  owe  to  it  as  a 
whole,  and  not  to  any  mere  portion  of  it,  whether  the  major  or  the- 
minor,  taken  apart  from  that  whole.  So  long  as  the  individual 
members  of  a  nation  recognize  their  duties  to  it,  so  long  does  the 
nation  recognize  its  duties  to  them  all)  and  claim  to  be  the 
servant  of  each.  To  it  the  humblest  individual  member  is  an 
object  of  reverence.  The  nation,  indeed,  is  but  the  expansion  of 
the  individual,  a  larger  mirror  reflecting  his  latent  greatness.  It 
exists  for  him,  and  though  its  authority  is  not  derived  from  him. 


8  PropoHionate  Representation. 

yet  it  is  bound  both  to  promote  his  spiritual  interests  and  take 
charge  (5f  those  that  are  material.  The  obhgation  is  mutual; 
the  loyalty  is  reciprocal ;  and  the  dignity  of  the  nation  is 
enhanced,  not  abated,  when  it  acknowledges  the  duty  which  it 
owes  to  its  members,  even  when  but  a  minority.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  mere  rnajority  is,  as  such,  but  a  material  thing : 
if  by  an  act  of  self-will,  and  without  necessity,  it  revolts  against 
the  organic  body,  that  body  continues  to  be  the  nation,  evea 
when  numerically  a  minority,  and  the  revolted  majority  is  but  a 
populace,  not  a  people.  It  follows  that  servile  deference  to  a 
mere  majority,  as  if  it  possessed  a  virtue  inherent  in  itself,  and 
could  claim  to  be  the  representative  of  the  nation  beyond  the 
limits  assigned  to  its  power  by  the  national  constitution,  is 
simply  the  worship  of  material  force.  When  a  nation  far 
advanced  in  civilization  discovers  that  its  maturer  intelligence  can 
no  longer  be  adequately  expressed  by  adding  up  a  mere  sum  total 
of  local  majorities — just  as  the  thought  of  the  man  cannot  be  in- 
terpreted by  the  babble  of  the  child — and  finds  that  it  needs  a  finer 
organ  of  expression,  one  that  includes  the  voice  of  important  minor- 
ities, it  is  hound  imperatively  to  select  that,  the  more  exact  form 
of  expression  ;  and  the  local  majorities  are  bound  not  only  to  accept 
that  choice  but  to  rejoice  in  it.  They  are  disloyal  to  the  nation 
which  they  affect  to  represent  unless  they  desire  that  her  delibe- 
rate and  conscientious  will,  ascertained  in  the  most  exact  manner, 
should  prevail.  The  wrong  done  to  the  local  minority,  when 
deliberately  left  unrepresented,  is  a  two-fold  wrong :  it  is  the  ex- 
pansion of  that  injury  inflicted  on  the  sacred  right  of  each  individual, 
amerced  of  a  right  conferred  on  him  by  his  country ;  it  is  also 
the  image  in  miniature  of  the  injury  done  to  the  total  country  in 
which  that  conscientious  public  opinion,  which  ought  to  have 
grown  up  and  become  the  nation^s  guide,  is  murdered  before  its 
birth. 

It  is  thus  that  Edmund  Burke  speaks  respecting  that  will  of 
a  majority : 

In  a   state  of  rude  nature  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  People.     A 
number  of  men  in  themselves  have  no  collective  capacity.     The  idea 

of  a  People  is  the  idea  of  a  corporation We  are -so    little 

affected  by  tilings  which  are  habitual,  that  we  consider  this,  idea'  o£ 
the  decision  of  a  majority,  as  if  it  were  a  law  of  our  original  nature  ; 
but  such  constructive  whole,  residing  in  a  part  only,  is  one  of  the 
most  violent  fictions  of  positive  law  that  ever  has  been,  or  can  be, 
made  on  the  principles  of  artificial  incorporation.     Out  of  civil  society 

nature  knows  nothing  of  it In  the  abstract,   it  is  perfectly 

clear,  that  out  of  a  state  of  civil  society,  majority  and  minority  are 
relations  which  can  have  no  existence ;  and  that,  in  civil  society,  its 
own  specific  conventions  in  each  corporation  determine  what  it  is  that 


Proportionate  Representation.  9 

constitutes  the  people,  so  as  to  make  their  act  the  signification  of  the 

general  will 1  see  as  little  of  policy  or  utility  as  there  is  of 

right  in  laying  down  a  principle  that  a  majority  of  men  told  by  the 
head  are  to  be  considered  as  the  people,  and  that  as  such  their  will  is 
to  be  law. 

To  the  omnipotence  of  a  mere  majority  he  opposes  the  high 
and  special  qualifications,  both  for  counsel  and  rule,  often  bestowed, 
not  by  privilege,  but  by  nature,  on  a  minority ;  and  on  them  be- 
stowed, not  for  their  own  advantage,  but  for  the  behoof  of  the 
whole  nation ;  and  he  thus  characterizes  the  policy  which  would 
exalt  a  nation  by  practically  ostracizing  her  wisest  and  her  best : 
*'  To  give  therefore  no  more  importance  to  such  descriptions  of 
men  than  that  of  so  many  units,  is  a  horrible  usurpation."  * 
Again  he  shows  how,  in  various  countries,  for  various  functions, 
political  or  judicial,  the  power  of  decision  has  been  confided,  not 
to  a  simple  majority,  as  it"  a  magic  charm  resided  in  the  word, 
but  sometimes  to  a  larger,  sometimes  to  a  smaller  majority,  and 
sometimes  to  a  selected  minority.  A  majority  is  not  a  principle, 
but  one  of  many  modes  for  realizing  the  true  principle,  viz.. 
National  Representation.  He  sums  up  thus: — "Neither  the 
few  nor  the  many  have  a  right  to  act  merely  by  their  will,  in 
any  matter  connected  with  duty,  trust,  engagement,  or  obliga- 
tion.'' 

To  deny  that  numbers  alone  are  to  rule  is  not  to  affirm  that  civil 
position  and  privilege  alone  are  to  rule  ;  the  qualifications  to  rule 
wisely  and  justly  are  essentially  moral  qualifications  demanded 
and  imparted  by  nature,  and  recognized,  not  created  by,  con- 
vention. So  long  as  the  qualities  which  naturally  lead  to 
eminence  survive  in  sequent  generations,  their  claims  to  power, 
though  not  to  exclusive  power,  survive  also,  because  their  powers 
to  serve  the  nation  survive.  If  these  powers  survive  no  longer, 
the  order  which  had  once  possessed  them  deservedly  falls ;  and 
nature  supplies  its  place  : — but  not  by  substituting  the  mere 
rule  of  numbers  for  that  of  intellectual  and  moral  power.  Let 
us  listen  once  more  to  Burke,  He  speaks  of  the  qualifications 
for  liberty :  from  these  may  be  inferred  the  qualifications  for  the 
exercise  of  political  power  in  a  country  that  possesses  liberty, 
and  is  resolved  to  transmit  the  gift  it  has  inherited. 

Men  are  qualified  for  civil  liberty  in  exact  proportion  to  their 
disposition  to  put  moral  chains  upon  their  own  appetites  ;  in  propor- 
tion as  their  love  to  justice  is  above  their  rapacity ;  in  proportion  as 
their  soundness  and  sobriety  of  understanding  is  above  their  vanity 
and  presumption  j  in  proportion  as  they  are  more  disposed  to  listen 


*  "  Appeal  from   the  New  Whigs  to  the  Old  Whigs,"  pp.  210-219. 
(Eivington,  1825.) 


10  Proportionate  Representation. 

to  the  counsels  of  the  wise  and  good,  in  preference  to  the  flattery  of 
knaves.  Society  cannot  exist  unless  a  controlling  power  upon  will 
and  appetite  be  placed  somewhere  ;  and  the  less  of  it  there  is  within, 
the  more  there  must  be  without.  It  is  ordained  in  the  eternal  con- 
stitution of  things  that  men  of  intemperate  minds  cannot  be  free. 
Their  passions  forge  their  fetters. 

If  they  cannot  be  free,  much  less  are  they  fit  to  be  trusted 
with  preponderant,  and  least  of  all  with  illimitable,  political 
power  in  a  free  country.  It  was  not  in  contempt  of  the  poor, 
but  in  their  defence,  that  that  great  political  philosopher,  if 
possible  even  more  eminent  for  his  passionate  love  of  justice,  and 
hatred  of  injustice,  than  for  his  wisdom,  thus  rebuked  the  ethical 
heresies  which  in  his  later  years  threatened  with  destruction 
"  that  glorious  work  of  time  and  providence,'^  the  constitution  of 
England ;  while,  triumphant  in  France,  they  wrote  in  blood  on  the 
bosom  of  that  once  noble  and  religious  country,  the  sentence  of 
her  condemnation  and  of  her  shame.  In  this  high  philosophy 
there  was  nothing  one-sided.  Burke  knew  what  the  real  claims 
of  the  poor  are ;  and  for  that  reason  he  knew  what  they  are  not, 
and  denounced  those  who,  when  they  demanded  bread  gave  them 
a  stone.  They  have  a  high  political  function,  but  it  is  not  that 
of  predominant  rule,  however  their  numbers  may  predominate. 

The  most  poor,  illiterate,  and  uninformed  creatures  upon  earth  are 
judges  of  a  practical  oppression.  It  is  a  matter  of  feeling ;  and  as 
such  persons  generally  have  felt  most  of  it,  and  are  not  of  an  over- 
lively  sensibility,  they  are  the  best  judges  of  it.  But  for  the  real 
cause  or  the  appropriate  remedy,  they  ought  never  to  be  called  into 
council  about  the  one  or  the  other  ....  because  their  reason  is 
weak ;  because,  when  once  roused,  their  passions  are  ungoverned ; 
because  they  want  information ;  because  the  smallness  of  the  pro- 
perty which  individually  they  possess,  renders  them  less  attentive  to 
the  consequence  of  the  measures  they  adopt  in  affairs  of  moment.* 

Elsewhere  he  shows  that  such  statements  do  not  deny  that 
the  masses  have  a  momentous  civil  office,  but,  on  tlie  contrary, 
indicate  in  what  it  consists. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  teach  men  to  thirst  after  power.  But  it  is 
very  expedient  that  by  moral  instruction  they  should  be  taught,  and 
by  their  civil  constitutions  they  should  be  compelled  to  put  many  re- 
strictions upon  the  immoderate  use  of  it,  and  the  inordinate  desire.  .  . 
He  (the  '  true  Statesman  ')  thinks  of  the  place  in  which  political  power 
is  to  be  lodged  with  no  other  attention  than  as  it  may  render  the  more 
or  the  less  practicable  its  salutary  restraint,  and  its  prudent  direction. 
For  this  reason,  no  legislator,  at  any  period  of  the  world,  has  willingly 
placed  the  seat  of  active  power  in  the  hands  of  the  multitude ;  because 

*  Letter  to  Sir  Hercules  Langrishe. 


Proportionate  Representation.  11 

there  it  admits  of  no  control,  no  regulation,  no  steady  direction  what- 
ever. 27ie  people  are  the  natural  control  on  authority  :  but  to  exercise 
and  control  it  together,  is  contradictory  and  impossible* 

To  the  same  effect  Coleridge  speaks.  The  people  are,  he  says, 
the  very  life-blood  of  the  body  politic ;  but  in  health  that  life- 
blood  manifests  itself  by  the  glow  of  life  and  strength  in  the 
cheek : — if  it  flows  over  in  a  stream  it  is  because  a  wound  has 
been  inflicted. 

It  may  appear  to  some  that  the  principles  here  advocated  imply 
an  exclusive  admiration  for  aristocratic  and  a  narrow  prejudice 
against  democratic  institutions.  What  they  really  imply  is  a 
preference  for  the  English  Constitution,  the  boast  of  which  has 
so  long  been  that  it  alone  combines  the  three  great  elements  of 
power,  monarchical,  aristocratical,  and  popular,  to  a  constitution 
founded  on  the  popular  element  by  itself.  This  is  a  preference 
which,  at  least  till  lately,  the  two  great  historical  parties  of 
England,  the  Tory  and  the  Whig,  have  shared,  as  men  still  share 
a  belief  that  the  acephalous  and  non-vertebrated  animal  struc- 
tures are  inferior  to  those  which  include  a  head  and  a  spine. 
But,  if  England  should  ever  adopt  purely  democratic  institutions, 
it  will  become,  on  that  account,  not  less  but  more  necessary  that 
her  representative  system  should  represent  the  whole  community 
and  not  merely  a  sum  total  of  local  majorities.  In  an  admirable 
pamphletf  published  when  the  household  franchise  was  conceded 
to  boroughs,  Mr.  James  Garth  Marshall,  a  man  whose  whole 
heart  was  with  the  people,  and  who  loved  them  too  well  to 
pander  to  popular  passions,  thus  distinguishes  between  two 
opposite  things  which  are  often  called  by  the  same  name  : — 

Let  us  first  think  what  we  mean  by  the  term  democracy,  for  there 
may  be  two  very  different  kinds  of  democracy — the  one  just  and 
noble,  the  fruit  of  which  is  true  freedom  and  equitable  laws ;  the 
other  unjust  and  degrading,  which  is  destructive  to  true  liberty,  and 
which  leads  either  to  anarchy  and  confusion,  or  else  to  tyranny  and 
despotism.  The  main  principle  of  a  just  and  beneficent  democracy, 
with  parliamentary  government,  is  this — that  the  opinions  and  inte- 
rests of  all  classes  of  society,  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  should  be 
fully  and  equitably  represented  in  Parliament ;  and  that  any  party 
who  at  any  time  possess  overbalancing  power,  because  they  form  a 
majority  of  the  whole,  should  exercise  their  power  with  moderation, 
and  as  a  trust  for  the  public  good,  not  for  their  own  exclusive  advan- 
tage. To  stamp  our  democracy  with  the  character  of  this  higher 
principle  it  is  of  the  first  necessity  that  in  all  contests  between  oppo- 
site political  parties,     especially  in   contested   elections,  a  spirit  of 

*  "  Appeal  from  the  Il^ew  Whigs  to  the  Old  Whigs,"  p.  203. 
t  "  The  New  Franchise ;  How  to  Use  it.     An  Address  to  the  Working 
Men  of  Leeds."     By  James  Garth  Marshall.     1867. 


12  Proportionate  Representation. 

honourable  fair  play  should  be  observed.  ...  I  believe  nothing 
would  prove  more  effective  in  promoting  the  spirit  of  fair  dealing 
between  political  parties  than  the  measvire  now  adopted  by  Parlia- 
ment for  giving,  in  large  constituencies  having  three  members,  a  fair 
proportionate  weight  to  any  party  that  may  be  in  a  minority.  By 
the  new  Reform  Bill  it  is  enacted  that  in  these  constituencies  no 
elector  shall  vote  for  more  than  two  out  of  three  members ;  a  minority 
of  two-fifths  would,  if  they  voted  together,  be  able  to  secure  one  of 
the  three  members.  If  the  minority  were  less  than  two-fifths,  the 
majority,  by  distributing  their  votes,  would  return  all  the  three 
members.  I  think  the  cumulative  vote  would  have  been  a  more 
complete  and  satisfactory  arrangement ;  the  plan,  however,  of  thf» 
present  Bill  secures  substantial  justice,  and  a  triie  representation  of 
the  whole  constituency,  not  of  the  majority  merely. 

The  expression  "  cumulative  vote  "  means  a  system  of  voting  where 
each  elector  in  a  constituency  having  as  many  votes  as  there  are 
representatives  to  be  elected  in  his  county  or  borough,  and  distribut- 
ing his  votes  as  he  pleases,  may  at  his  option  give  one  vote  to  each 
candidate,  or  accumulate  the  whole  number  of  his  votes  in  favour  of 
one  candidate.  ...  (p.  13).*  It  is  therefore  desirable  that,  to  give 
the  fullest  development  to  the  advantages  of  the  cumulative  vote,  there 
should  be  riot  less  than  three  representatives  to  each  constituency, 
(p.  22). 

When,  some  eighteen  years  ago,  such  men  as  Mr.  J.  G.  Mar- 
shall, John  Mill,  Mr.  Fawcett,  Mr.  Hare,  and  others  wrote  on 
"Proportionate  Eepresentation,'^  the  subject  was  discussed  with 
more  reference  to  philosophical  considerations  and  less  to  party 
interests  than  it  has  recently  been.  In  the  years  referred  to  the 
question  was  treated  as  one  not  only  of  political,  but  of  great 
moral  significance.  Thus  Mr.  Marshall  remarked  :  "  It  is  when 
one  party,  under  the  present  system  of  voting,  feel  themselves  at 
an  unjust  disadvantage,  that  they  are  driven  to  various  violent 
and  immoral  expedients  to  maintain  their  position ;  to  bribery, 
intimidation,  and  the  raking  up  of  class  animosities."  This  is 
most  true  ;  and  from  this  it  follows  that,  if  '^  Proportionate  Repre- 
sentation" had  been  adopted  in  time,  there  would  have  been 
neither  need  nor  pretext  for  the  ballot,  that  cowardly  procedure, 
through  which  men  are  to  be  protected  from  the  consequences  of 
discharging  their  political  duties,  not  by  laws  punishing  intimi- 
dation, direct  or  indirect,  but  by  the  use  of  a  mask  when  they  vote, 
and  by  subsequent  lying  if  interrogated.  At  that  time  democracy 
had  serious  moral  and  patriotic  aspirations.  It  was  before  the 
days  of  the  Caucus. 

Let  us  not  be  outstripped  by  our  cousins  across  the  Atlantic  in  the 
endeavour  to  realize  this  great  improvement.     Let  us  prove  ourselves 

•  *  •'  Minorities  and  Majorities  :  their  Relative  Rights."    By  J.  G.  Mar- 
shall.    Ridgway. 


Proportionate  Representation.  13 

worthy  of  the  new  grand  onward  movement  of  democracy  in  our  owa 
England,  the  nursing  mother  of  free  institutions.  Do  not  let  demo- 
cracy be  amongst  us  degraded  by  narrow  party  or  class  prejudices. 
.  .  .  This  is  the  glorious  history  and  tradition  which  has  come  down 
to  us,  and  which  it  is  our  duty  to  maintain.  .  .  .  An  Englishman 
will  strike  down  his  opponent,  but  scorns  to  trample  on  him  when 
down.*  .  .  .  There  is  much  to  favour  the  establishment,  in  far  greater 
power  and  influence  than  it  has  yet  attained,  of  a  true  and  beneficent 
democracy  in  England  ;  I  do  not  mean  as  hostile  to  our  monarchic  and 
aristocratic  institutions,  but  as  combining  with  these  in  new  forms, 
and  giving  them  a  new  motive  force.  For  these  three  principles,  far 
from  being  necessarily  opposed  to  each  other,  are,  on  the  contrary,  by 
the  very  nature  of  human  society,  indispensable  to  each  other.  A 
democracy  without  fit  organization  is  a  rope  of  sand ;  is  no  more  able 
to  direct  and  take  care  of  itself  than  a  herd  of  wild  buffaloes  wander- 
ing over  an  American  prairie,  and  liable  at  any  moment  to  rush  off 
into  a  headlong  stampede,  they  know  not  why  and  care  not  whither. 
Brains,  and  not  numbers,  do  in  fact  rule  the  world  in  the  long  run, 
wherever  there  is  any  rule  or  order  at  all. 

The  warning  with  which  he  ends  is  even  more  a  moral  than  a 
political  warning  : — "  Let  them  avoid,  as  they  would  shun  a 
certain  shipwreck,  the  danger  of  being  tempted  by  the  possession 
of  new  and  great  power  to  use  that  power  for  unjust  or  selfish 
objects,  the  danger  of  setting  up  the  mere  arbitrary  tuill  of  a 
majority,  however  small  and  fluctuating,  as  the  supreme  law."*^ 

This  danger  is  one  rendered  much  more  formidable  by  the 
degree  in  which  the  mechanism  of  irregular  political  strategy 
has  recently  learned  to  blend  together  a  thousand  discordant 
wills,  and  thus  impart  to  them  "all  ambition's  singleness  of  aim." 
Formerly  the  power  of  mere  numbers  was  limited  by  its  own 
incoherency  and  self-contradictions.  The  science  of  modern 
agitation  has  flashed  an  intelligence — not  an  intelligence  from 
above — into  the  restless  mass,  but  done  so  without  communi- 
cating to  it  a  moral  purpose.  The  exclusive  rule  of  a  mere 
majority  is  a  bad  thing  because  it  is  the  rule  of  a  force  com- 
paratively material :  still  worse  is  the  rule  of  a  majority  represen- 
ting not  the  various  classes  and  conditions  of  a  nation,  but  mainly 
a  single  interest  and  a  single  instinct;  but  worst  of  all  is  the 
rule  of  a  mere  majority  wielded  by  a  small,  irresponsible,  perhaps 
invisible,  body  of  agitators.  A  nation  which  evokes  such  a  power, 
creates,  as  Canning  afiirmed,  a  Political  Frankenstein  whose 
earliest  impulse  must  ever  be  to  hunt  its  creator  to  death. 

The  quotations  made  above  from  Burke,  and  from  those 
writings  of  his  later  years  elicited  by  the  French  Revolution, 
which  threw  him  chiefly  upon  the  conservative  side  of  a  many-sided 

*  "  Minorities  and  Majorities :  their  Relative  Eights." 


14  Proportionate  Representation. 

intellect,  might  have  been  expected  to  exhibit  a  striking  contrast 
to  quotations  from  modern  writers  ardently  devoted  to  the  cause 
of  progress.  Notwithstanding,  many  of  these  later  extracts  have 
not  a  little  analogy  with  those  taken  from  Burke ;  and  it  would 
be  easy  to  add  very  largely  to  their  number,  while  quoting  only 
from  writers  whose  opinions  belong  to  those  of  the  "  advanced 
school/^     Thus  John  Mill  said : — 

The  natural  tendency  of  representative  government,  as  of  modern 
civilization,  is  toward  collective  mediocrity;  and  this  tendency  is 
increased  by  all  reductions  and  extensions  of  the  franchise,  their  effect 
being  to  place  the  principal  power  in  the  hands  of  classes  more  and 
more  below  the  highest  level  of  instruction  in  the  community.  But, 
though  the  superior  intellects  and  characters  will  necessarily  be  out- 
numbered, it  makes  a  great  difference  whether  or  not  they  are  heard. 
In  the  false  democracy  which,  instead  of  giving  representation  to  all, 
gives   it  only  to   the  local   majorities,   the   voice   of  the   instructed 

minority  may  have  no  organs  at  all  in  the  representative  body 

The  great  difficulty  of  democratic  government  has  hitherto  seemed  to 
be  how  to  provide,  in  a  democratic  society,  what  circumstances  have 
provided  hitherto  in  all  the  societies  which  have  maintained  them- 
selves a-head  of  others — a  social  support,  a  point  d'appui  for  individual 
resistance  to  the  tendencies  of  the  ruling  power,  a  protection,  a  rally- 
ing-point  for  opinions  and  interests  which  the  ascendant  public  opinion 
views  with  disfavour.  For  want  of  such  a  point  d'appui  the  older 
societies,  and  all  but  a  few  modern  ones,  either  fell  into  dissolution  or 
became  stationary  (which  means  slow  deterioration),  through  the 
exclusive  predominance  of  a  part  only  of  the  conditions  of  social  and 

mental  well-being The  only  quarter  in  which  to  look  for  a 

supplement,  or  completing  corrective  to  the  instincts  of  a  democratic 
majority,  is  the  instructed  minority ;  but  in  the  ordinary  mode  of 
constituting  democracy,  this  minority  has  no  organ. 

Mr.  Buxton  thus  justified  his  advocacy  of  Proportionate 
Representation  in  1867  : — 

It  seemed  to  him  that,  valuable  as  the  other  results  would  be  of  the 
adoption  of  the  proposed  arrangement,  no  one  of  them  would  be  of 
greater  importance  than  this  :  that  it  would  call  forth  so  much  political 

vigour  and  life  in  the  constituencies  to  which  it  was  applied 

It  would  be  invidious  to  do  so,  otherwise  he  could  easily  remind  the 
House  of  many  boroughs  and  many  counties  in  which  utter  apathy 
and  stagnation  had  actually  resulted  from  the  feeling  of  the  minority 
that  any  exertion  of  theirs  must  be  vain. 

Such  statements  strikingly  show  how  much  there  is  in  com- 
mon between  very  different  schools  of  thought,  when  each  is  at 
its  best — that  is,  when  each  has  derived  its  principles  from 
sincere  philosophic  and  ethical  reflection,  not  from  the  passions  or 
necessities  of  party,     A  Conservative  and  a  Popular   political 


PropoHionate  Representation.  16 

philosophy,  however  they  may  differ  in  detail^  are  seldom  wholly 
antagonistic,  if  grounded  on  real  thought,  except  when  each  turns 
out  its  worst  side  upon  the  other.  Under  the  influence  of  pride  or 
interest  mere  dead  "castes,"  grounded  on  accident,  or  injustice, 
and  separated  hy  eternal  and  impassable  barriers,  may  take  the 
place  of  those  living  orders  and  degrees  which  sustain  the  inner 
life  of  a  nation ;  and  an  intelligence  spell- bound  by  its  devotion  to 
old  traditions  may  waste  its  energies  in  endeavours  to  prolong 
decay,  and  keep  above  ground  what  would  be  better  beneath  it ; 
but  it  is  quite  as  true  that  there  is  a  spurious  progress,  the  very 
opposite  of  a  genuine  one,  and  that  the  most  ardent  zealots  for 
popular  liberties  may  render  it  impossible  for  them  either  to 
achieve  permanence  or  to  deserve  it.  Those  principles  which  are 
held  in  common  by  the  best  representatives  of  political  systems 
in  many  respects  at  variance,  possess  an  extraordinary  claim  on 
our  attention. 

In  Burke's  time.  Proportionate  Representation  was  an  idea 
which  had  not  yet  risen  above  the  political  horizon ;  but  its 
aurora  was  obviously  watched  for  by  a  philosophy  which  saw  so 
plainly  at  once  the  true  greatness  of  a  nation,  and.  the  counterfeit 
greatness  of  a  majority.  The  same  spot  may  be  reached  from 
very  different  directions,  and  those  who  have  held  many  great 
principles  in  common,  while  opposed  on  not  a  few  political  ques- 
tions of  the  day,  may  easily,  under  changed  circumstances,  arrive 
at  nearly  the  same  conclusions.  Assuming  that  a  nation,  long 
dependent  for  its  political  guidance  upon  its  most  highly  educated 
order,  an  order  identified  by  history  with  the  noblest  traditions 
of  that  nation,  and  by  property  with  its  gravest  interests  in  the 
present  and  the  future,  had  at  last  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  time  for  such  tutelage  had  ceased,  and  had  claimed  at  once 
the  rights  and  duties  of  manhood,  through  the  establishment  of 
a  very  extended  franchise ;  such  an  experiment,  upon  the  prin- 
ciples of  Burke,  whether  or  not  a  wise  one,  might  well  be 
regarded  as  the  expression  of  a  generous  aspiration,  not  of  an 
ignorant  arrogance,  and  as  one  which  need  involve,  if  undertaken 
in  a  righteous  spirit,  no  dangers  except  those  which  u  manly  pru- 
dence converts  into  a  "  glorious  gain.""  But  on  the  principles  of 
Burke  as  well  as  on  those  of  the  best  "  advanced  thinkers  ''  in 
our  own  day,  the  "  righteous  spirit "  and  the  "  manly  prudence  " 
would  alike  have  demanded,  not  the  claim  to  despotic  power  on 
the  part  of  every  shifting  majority,  but  the  zealous  repudiation 
of  any  such  claim.  On  the  principles  alike  of  Burke  and  of  a 
philosophical  democrat,  a  nation  thus  acting  for  itself  in  its  col- 
lective capacity,  giving  an  account  to  none,  stirring  up  its  strength 
when  it  wills,  and  committing  itself  to  courses  which,  if  erroneous, 
may  admit  of  no  retrieval,  is  pre-eminently  bound  to  ascertain 


16  Proportionate  Representation. 

that  its  Parliament  at  least  represents  the  total  judgment  of  the 
nation  impartially  collected,  diligently  sifted  and  justly  applied; 
it  must  rebuke  whatever  might  taint  its  deliberations  with  pas- 
sion or  pride;  it  must  repel  whatever  sophisticates  patriotic 
thought  by  overweening  class-interests,  and  whatever  discourages 
the  conscientious  growth  and  free  expression  of  opinions  at  the 
moment  unpopular ;  and  it  must  ban  all  those  illicit  modes  of 
political  action  which  give  a  reckless  minority  dominion  over  the 
nation  itself,  like  that  marvellously  small  minority  in  Paris  which 
created  the  "  Keign  of  Terror  "  during  the  French  Revolution. 
Finally,  it  need  hardly  be  said  that,  on  the  principles  alike  of  true 
Conservatism  or  true  Democ?:aey,  .powers  so  tremendous  can 
never  be  conscientiously  given,  on  any  pretext,  to  those  who 
have  not  learned  their  duties  as  subjects  and  citizens,  and  who 
consequently — more  sinned  against  than  sinning — are  necessi- 
tated to  abuse  the  powers  thus  prematurely  conferred  upon  them 
to  their  own  destruction  and  that  of  their  country. 

Once  more,  on  the  principles  alike  of  Burke  and  of  our  "philo- 
sophical Radicals,"  it  would  be  necessary,  if  a  nation  ventured  on 
a  change  so  great,  and  if  that  change  was  intended  to  be 
permanent,  to  effect  it  in  such  a  manner  as  to  allow  the  new 
institution  created  to  work  amicably  with  the  old  institutions 
retained.  Thus,  unless  we  desire  a  revolution  as  well  as  a  great 
political  development,  the  House  of  Lords  and  the  newly 
constituted  House  of  Commons  should  be  capable  of  working  in 
harmony.  The  House  of  Lords,  though  it  includes  the  most 
distinguished  members  of  the  professions,  the  Army  and  the 
Navy,  the  Church  and  the  Bar,  as  well  as  many  eminent 
men  of  letters,  and  statesmen  whose  training  was  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  and  thus  far  mUst  be  considered  a  directly 
representative  body,  though  not  an  elective  one,  is  yet  more 
eminently  a  virtually  representative  assembly,  and  as  such 
represents  much  in  the  present  which  is  most  unobtrusively  and 
disinterestedly  helpful  to  England,  and  much  besides  by  which  the 
past  still  ministers  to  the  present  and  the  future.  Now  that  the 
House  of  Commons  is  elected  by  Household  Suffrage,  it  is 
obviously  not  impossible  that  the  relations  between  the  two  legis- 
lative bodies  may  often  be  strained.  How  is  such  a  contingency 
.to  be  met?  We  know  well  enough  hovv  it  would  be  met  by 
a  country  as  impulsive,  and  as  ianatically  inexorable  in  the 
character  of  its  political  logic,  as  France  is.  But  England  is  a 
deliberate,  not  an  impulsive  country,  and  in  its  political  move- 
ments it  has  more  belief  in  the  judicious  than  in  the  merely  and 
dryly  logical.  It  would  think  twice  before  it  abolished  an  assembly 
to  which  its  liberties  have  owed  so  much  in  past  ages ;  such  as 
no  other  country  in  the  world  possesses  or  could  create.     In 


Proportionate  Representation.  17 

matters  of  detail  that  House  of  course  might  be  modified  ;  but  to 
alter  it  essentially  would  be  to  destroy  it,  and  thus  to  impoverish 
the  English  Constitution  by  eliminating  from  it  an  element 
necessary  in  itself  and  necessary  also  as  a  balance  to  other  elements. 
As  little  could  the  ^louse  of  Commons  be  now  altered  essentially, 
at  least  by  the  narrowing  of  the  franchise  recently  so  much 
enlarged.  But  it,  too,  might,  in  matters  of  detail,  be  modified, 
as  well  as  the  House  of  Lords,  if  experience  should  prove  that 
such  modification  was  needful ;  nor  is  it  by  any  means  philo- 
sophical to  assume  that  such  modification  may  not,  in  calmer 
days  than  these,  be  reached  through  the  principle  of  Proportionate 
Representation.  Such  a  modification  might  not  improbably 
recommend  itself  on  very  various  grounds  to  very  different 
persons,  after  a  mature  experience.  The  characteristic  tendencies 
attributed  to  Proportionate  Representation,  equally  by  its  Conser- 
vative and  its  Democratic  advocates,  suggest  such  an  anticipation. 
Both  classes  afiirm  that  its  effects  must  be  to  represent,  not 
numbers  only,  but  the  different  classes  and  varied  interests 
of  the  community,  as  well  as  the  more  permanent  of  its 
diversified  political  opinions.  They  point  to  the  circumstance 
that  it  must  admit  to  Parliament  men  of  high  and  known  ability 
and  of  exceptional  experience,  who  lack  the  pecuniary  means,  the 
connections,  the  strength,  and  the  popular  qualities  which  recom- 
mend men  to  large  majorities — thus  including  among  the  gifts 
bestowed  by  popular  institutes,  the  benefits,  without  the  defects, 
once  derived  from  such  boroughs  as  introduced  into  Parliament 
not  a  few  of  England's  most  eminent  public  servants.  By  others, 
members  of  opposed  parties.  Proportionate  Representation  is 
urged  on  us  because  through  it  alone  continuity  of  national 
policy  is  rendered  possible.  Without  it,  they  truly  remark,  our 
legislation  is  spasmodic  and  full  of  fierce  alternations  and  reactions. 
In  one  Parliament  there  is  an  overwhelming  majority  at  one  side, 
in  the  next  at  the  other  side,  both  alike  misrepresenting  the 
general  mind  of  the  nation,  exaggerating  its  most  transient  im- 
pulses, and.  not  seldom  at  variance  with  the  actual  majority  in 
the  country  at  large. 

"  Give  us,''  others  say,  "  in  the  interests  of  Democracy  itself,  not 
whatever  her  zealots  or  her  parasites  may  claim  for  her,  but  that 
which  is  needed  toenable  her  to  encounter  those  trials  which  noform 
of  government  can  elude.  Give  us  not  only  what  will  strengthen 
her  hands,  but  what  will  provide  her  energies  with  a  balance 
and  a  regulator.  Give  us  what  will  raise  the  masses,  not  pull  down 
those  who  have  won  for  themselves,  or  honourably  preserved  as 
their  inheritance,  the  natural  rewards  of  superior  intellect,  courage, 
and  perseverance — rewards,  however, which  ought  to  be  open  to  all. 
Improve  the  condition  of  those  who  still  remain  on  the  lowt  st  step 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  I.     [Third  Series.]  c 


18  Proportionate  Representation, 

of  the  social  ladder,  and  remove  all  obstacles  from  those  whom 
nature  has  qualified  to  rise  to  the  highest.  Give  us  a  parliamentary 
system  which  will  not  set  class  against  class,  but  which  will  be  the 
perpetual  educator  of  a  people." 

Few  nations  have  ever  had  such  great  opportunities  for  the 
formation  of  that  true  public  opinion,  which  can  alone  pi*event 
a  democracy  from  becoming  that  false  democracy  deprecated 
alike  by  wise  men  of  all  parties,  as  England  possesses  ;  for  she  has 
a  strong  natural  sense  of  justice,  the  best  help  to  just  thinking, 
and  also  the  gift  of  slow,  persistent  thought,  which  alone  makes  its 
way  to  steadfast  conclusions.  She  has  the  moral  courage  which 
enables  a  man  to  hold  fast  by  what  he  has  learned  of  truth,  and 
therefore  to  add  it  to  his  country's  common  stock ;  and  she  has 
not  the  vivid  impulses  that  incessantly  break  the  slender  tendrils 
of  growing  thought,  or  the  ardent  sympathies  that  make  a  man 
lose  his  individuality  amid  the  clamour  of  the  crowd.  What  at 
present  too  often  impedes  her  exercise  of  these  characteristic 
qualifications  in  the  political  sphere  is  chiefly  the  party  violence 
natural  to  a  country  the  government  of  which  is  party  govern- 
ment. The  antidote  to  this  evil  is  to  be  found  only  in  the 
upgrowth  of  a  true  and  moderate  public  opinion,  which  must 
needs  uplift  the  whole  soul  of  the  nation  till  it  becomes  fit  for  the 
highest  attainable  degree  of  liberty  in  union  with  order  and  with 
law.  Proportionate  Representation,  in  favouring  such  a  growth 
and  teaching  each  man  to  respect  "  his  neighbour  as  himself," 
sides  with  all  the  best  that  England  has  inherited  or  acquired, 
and  furnishes  a  protection  against  the  chief  dangers  that 
threaten  her  from  within  or  from  without.  It  harmonizes  with 
the  interior  gifts  by  nature  hers,  already  referred  to,  and  not  less 
with  the  external  gifts  bequeathed  to  her  by  a  heroic  past. 
England,  which  has  been  the  mother  of  parliaments,  should  be 
the  first  country  to  show  to  the  world  the  example  of  a  true 
parliament — the  undistorting  mirror  that  reflects  the  image,  not 
falsified,  and  yet  ennobled,  of  a  just,  wise,  and  valiant  nation. 
Whether  at  an  earlier  or  later  period — for  these  .remarks  do 
not  apply  exclusively  to  the  present  time — this  should  be  the 
privilege  of  England,  She  has  been  making  various  political 
experiments  of  late ;  and  experimental  philosophy  does  not 
hastily  make  its  boast  of  finality.  It  "lives  and  learns," 
preserving  what  is  sound  in  all  that  it  has  built  up  by  introduc-' 
ing  into  the  social  fabric  whatever  a  maturer  experience  proves  to 
be  yet  deficient. 

To  the  present  confused  state  of  Ireland  it  is  hardly  necessary 
to  refer.  It  has  more  to  do  with  her  past  than  many  suppose. 
Irish  history,  abounding  as  it  does  in  the  pathetic  and  the 
picturesque,  was  unfavourable  to  the  creation  of  public  opinion. 


Proportionate  Representation,  19 

even  in  its  rudiments.  The  clan  system  produced  everywhere  a 
breathlessly  rapid  succession  of  events,  but  not  of  the  events  which 
leave  behind  them  political  experience.  These  events  were  all  of 
the  same  sort,  each  clan  at  once  resembling  its  neighbour  clan, 
and  waging  war  against.it.  The  clan  system  fostered  a  passionate 
loyalty  both  to  ancient  chiefs  and  to  ancient  laws,  and  as  pas- 
sionate a  love  of  local,  though  not  of  individual,  independence  :  it 
produced  ardent  affections  and  fierce  antagonisms ;  heroic  self- 
sacrifice  and  barbaric  vindietiveness.  It  developed  high  domestic 
virtues,  and  much  of  moral,  though  not  conventional,  refinement ; 
and,  under  fortunate  circumstances,  favouring,  as  it  did,  the  con- 
ventual life,  it  stimulated  a  spiritual  intensity  which  once  rendered 
Ireland  the  land  of  saints,  and  might  have  rendered  her  such 
again  ;  but  it  left  neither  provision  nor  demand  for  industry, 
prudence,  or  the  other  political  qualities  which  build  up  states  ; 
and  of  course  it  did  not  bequeath  the  materials  out  of  which 
public  opinion,  a  great  but  somewhat  prosaic  thing,  shapes  itself. 

Later  times  have,  in  that  respect,  been  nearly  as  unfavourable 
to  Ireland.  The  penal  laws  crushed  out  the  seeds  of  public 
opinion.  Life  itself  seemed  but  an  untoward  accident.  It  left 
place  for  careful  broodings,  and  for  gusts  of  careless  gaiety  ;  but 
serious  reflection  did  not  seem  worth  while.  The  movement 
which  won  Catholic  Emancipation,  the  noblest  and  most  unsul- 
lied popular  movement  exhibited  by  any  people  in  modern  tinies^ 
bad  little  to  do  with  public  opinion,  though  much  with  public 
sentiment  in  its  highest  form,  that  which  blends  religious  aspira- 
tion with  the  true  and  wise  patriotism  in  which  neither  vanity 
nor  greed  has  a  part.  One  strong  man,  Mr.  O'Connell,  thought 
for  all  Ireland.  He  put  his  brain  into  a  people's  heart,  and  thus, 
while  giving  unity  to  a  people's  action,  superseded  rather  than 
elicited  individual  thought.  What  he  needed  was  a  single  and 
a  vehement  popular  response  ;  and  when,  under  the  influence  of 
the  "  Young  Ireland  "  part}',  a  sudden  and  semi-organized  public 
opinion,  began  to  manifest  itself  in  strange,  spasmodic  movements, 
the  apparition  thus  rudely  extemporized  proved  incapable  of 
coalescing  with  a  system  founded  on  the  will  of  one  great  man, 
and  must  either  have  speedily  destroyed  that  system  or  been  de- 
stroyed by  it.  The  attempted  revolt  of  1848,  into  which  its 
authors  rather  blundered  than  entered  deliberately,  prolonged  for 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  political  system  founded  on 
that  Sectarian  Ascendency  only  partially  overthrown  by  Catholic 
.Emancipation,  and  out  of  the  ruins  of  which  the  statesmanship 
of  that  day  had  not  the  wisdom  and  the  insight,  even  when  it 
had  a  serious  desire,  to  extricate  itself. 

The  late  Reform  Act  has  given  Ireland  a  franchise  practically 
much  wider  than  England  has  been  deemed  fit  to  use  after  a 

C2 


20  Proportionate  Repreaentcdion. 

political  education  of  two  centuries  and  a  half.  That  a  political 
power,  resting  on  what  is  in  Ireland  nearly  "  universal  suffrage," 
should  be  exercised  under  the  benign  sway,  at  once  enlightening 
and  restraining,  of  a  true  and  not  a  fictitious  public  opinion,  that 
is,  should  be  exercised  with  prudence,  mutual  respect,  and  right- 
eousness, must  be  the  aspiration  of  every  Irishman  who  is  a  lover 
of  his  country,  not  her  flatterer,  and  who  recognizes  any  connec- 
tion between  her  honour  and  her  interests,  or  between  politics  and 
morals.  Political  power,  however  large,  is  lasting  only  when 
those  on  whom  it  has  been  bestowed  are  competent  to  use  it; 
and  political  competence  is  not  communicated  to  the  inexpe- 
rienced by  an  "  infused  knowledge  "  of  politics,  but  by  that  moral 
discipline  which  respects  the  rights  of  the  whole  community,  and 
not  a  part  of  it  only,  whether  a  majority  or  minority.  Those 
who  have  loved  Ireland  longest,  and  with  the  most  appreciative 
love,  have  ever  cherished  the  hope  that  that  Apostolic  mission 
which  was  hers  of  old,  and  which  is  greater  than  any  political  or 
material  greatness,  was  reserved  also  for  her  latter  day  of  freedom, 
as  the  highest  reward  for  her  fidelity  during  the  centuries  of 
persecution.  Such  aspirations  are  too  often  forgotten  amid  the 
storms  of  modern  politics.  If  they  are  to  have  place  in  Ireland, 
and  to  shape  her  loftier  destinies,  that  political  career  which  lies 
before  her,  and  which  will  work  her  weal  or  her  woe  according  as 
it  is  directed,  must  advance  along  the  royal  road  of  political 
■virtue,  of  which  a  virtuous  public  opinion  is  an  essential  part. 

I  regret  that  it  was  not  till  alter  the  present  remarks  had 
been  written  that  I  saw  Mr.  Hare's  admirable  book,  the  name  of 
which  is  prefixed  to  this  essay.  It  is  a  book  of  deep  thought, 
expressed  in  language  worthy  of  that  thought.  Mr.  Hare  was 
one  of  the  first  among  those  who  devoted  themselves  seriously 
to  the  great  cause  of  "  Proportionate  Eepresentation,"  which  pro- 
bably owes  to  him  more  than  to  any  other  writer.  In  his  earlier 
works  he  had  advocated  an  area  for  the  exercise  of  the  Electoral 
[Franchise,  so  wide  as  to  meet  with  disapproval  from  many  of  his 
strongest  admirers.  Such  a  scheme  had,  however,  like  the  "  Pre- 
ferential Vote,"  no  essential  connection  with  the  great  principle 
of  "  Proportionate  Representation,"  and  he  has  much  modified  it 
of  late  years,  in  consideration  of  changed  circumstances.  In  a 
recent  publication  his  proposal  on  that  subject  is  as  follows:  "Evei;y 
elector  shall  be  entitled  to  one  vote  in  the  constituency  to  which 
he  or  she  is  registered,  and  may  give  the  same  to  a  candidate  for 
any  constituency  within  the  county  in  England,  Scotland,  and. 
Wales,  and  within  the  province  in  Ireland."  It  would  need  much 
space  to  do  justice  to  such  a  work  as  Mr.  Hare's.  Here  it  is 
only  possible  to  direct  attention  to  a  few  passages  which  bear 
upon  matters  often  grievously  slighted. 


Proportionate  Representation.  21 

One  of  the  rare  characteristics  of  Mr.  Hare's  ))ook  is  the 
elevation,  both  moral  and  religious,  of  its  spirit.  This  merit  is 
illustrated  in  his  manly  protest  against  the  Ballot  (pp.  14<3-4'7),  lu 
connection  with  which  he  quotes  from  Guizot :  "  Ce  ne  sont  pas 
les  hommes  qui  ont  invente  I'analogie  du  bien  avec  la  lumiere,  du 
mal  avec  les  tenebres/' 

Mr.  Hare  rests  the  principle  of  '^  Proportionate  Representa- 
tion "  on  the  solid  ground  that  political  aglion  is  essentially  a 
form  of  moral  action. 

The  indispensable  conditions  are,  to  render  the  duty  of  every  man 
as  perceptible  to  his  understanding  as  it  can  be  made,  and  to  remove 
every  obstacle  in  the  way  of  its  performance.  The  opening  to  every 
elector  of  the  power  of  performing  his  electoral  duty  is  the  first  and 
prime  necessity,  in  order  to  re-establish  the  sense  of  personal  respon- 
sibility,   or     the   empire     of   conscience,   in  electoral    action 

Lamentable  will  be  the  error  of  those  legislators,  unhappy  the  con- 
dition of  that  people,  who  think,  and  form  their  constitutional  laws  on 
the  belief  that  government  by  representative  institutions  can  be  safe 
or  permanent  without  the  aid  of  conscience. 

He  sees  nothing  but  a  narrow  jealousy  in  the  modern  law, 
which  excludes  ministers  of  religion  from  Parliament. 

Nothing  abstractedly  could  appear  more  unreasonable  than  the  ex- 
clusion of  a  set  of  men  whose  education  and  functions  necessarily 
point  their  attention  to  the  greatest  subjects  that  can  occupy  the 
thoughts  of  men,  and  whose  habits  and  duties  moreover  bring  them 
into  communication  with  every  phase  of  society,  and  especially  with 
the  poor  (p.  117). 

A  general  election,  he  asserts,  should  be  guarded  from  abuses 
by  the  august  ceremonies  of  religion. 

The  ancient  customs  of  the  kingdom  connect  religion  with  its  most 
important  events  and  transitions.  The  coronation  is  accompanied  by 
a  humble  recognition  of  the  sovereignty  of  God  over  all;  ...  .  the 
service  should  have  a  suitable  parallel  on  the  day  of  the  election  of 
the  representative  assembly  (pp.  149-50). 

Mr.  Hare's  book  is  replete  with  quotations  of  great  value. 
Some  of  these  remarkably  confirm  Burke's  assertion  that  a  mere 
majority  has  no  claim  to  act  as  if  it  were  virtually  the  State  em- 
Jbodied.  Thus  Pascal :  "  La  multitude  qui  ne  se  reduit  pas  a 
Punite  est  confusion.  L'unite  qui  n'est  pas  multitude  est  tyran- 
nic.'' This,  says  M.  Guizot,  "  est  I'expression  la  plus  belle,  et  la 
definition  la  plus  precise  du  gouvernement  representatif.  La  mul- 
titude e'est  la  societe  :  l'unite  c'est  la  verite — c'est  I'ensemble  des 
lois,  de  justice,  et  de  raison  qui  doivent  gouverner  la  societe " 
(pp.  222.-3).  Not  less  striking  is  Guizot's  remark  as  to  the  loss 
tt'hich  majorities  themselves  sustain  from  the  practical  suppression 


23  Olier  and  Dupanloup, 

of  minorities  in  the  electoral  districts,  a  loss  to  those  majorities  not 
less  heavy  than  that  which  they  would  suffer  if,  within  the  walls 
of  Parliament,  the  minority  were  by  law  condenined  to  perpetual 
silence.  Most  important  also  are  his  extracts  from  an  eminent 
American  authority,  Mr.  Calhoun.  "  If  the  representative  body 
be  the  creature  of  numerical  majorities,  the  Constitution  will  be 
ultimately  drawn  into  the  vortex  to  which  governments  by  such 
majorities  are  exposed.""  In  sush  a  case  Mr.  Calhoun  cautions 
the  minority  not  "  to  indulge  the  folly  of  supposing  that  the 
party  in  possession  of  the  ballot-box  and  th3  physical  force  of  the 
country  could  be  successfully  resisted  by  an  appeal  to  reason, 
truth,  justice,  or  the  obligations  imposed  by  the  Constitution." 
If  these  could  be  relied  on,  he  observes,  "  government  might  be 
dispensed  with  ^'  (p.  233).  The  appendices  attached  to  Mr. 
Harems  work  give  us  the  history  of  Proportionate  Representation, 
with  copious  illustrations  of  the  progress  which  it  has  made,^ 
whether  as  applied  to  Parliamentary,  Municipal,  or  Educational 
institutes  in  Europe,  America,  and  the  British  dependencies.  He 
has  also  shown  that  in  those  few  instances  in  which  the  experi- 
ment, as  some  have  alleged,  has  not  succeeded,  it  was  not  fairly 
tried ;  an  over-contident  majority  having,  in  these  cases,  wasted 
its  voting  power  in  an  endeavour  to  grasp  a  still  larger  number  of 
representatives  than  its  superior  strength  entitled  it  to  claim. 

Aubrey  de  Vere. 


Art.  II.— olier  AND  DUPANLOUP. 

1.  The    Life   of  Jean- Jacques   Olier.       By    Edward  Healy 

Thompson.    New  Edition.    London  :  Burns  &  Oates.  1885. 

2.  Life  of  Monseigneur  Dupanloup.  By  Abbe  F.  Lagrange. 

Translated    by    Lady    Herbert.      Two    vols.      London : 
Chapman  &  Hall.     1885. 

3.  Enchiridion  Clericorum.     Dublin  :  Browne  &  Nolan. 

TIT  HEN  Our  Blessed  Lord  was  besought  by  the  poor  blind  way- 
T  T  farer  of  the  Gospel  to  cure  him  of  his  malady,  He  at  once 
took  clay  and  anointed  his  eyes,  and  sight  was  restored  to  him. 
And  the  beggar  recognised  his  Benefactor,  and  glorified  Him. 
The  simple  clay  thus  became  in  the  hands  of  God  an  instrument 
of  unspeakable  power  and  efficacy  for  good. 

Now  the  blind  man  is,  after  all,  but  a  figure  of  the  world,  lying 
*'in  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death,"  and  supplicating  God,  by 
its  very  condition  of  utter  helplessness  and  misery,  to  come  and 


Olier  and  Dupanloup.  23 

open  out  to  it  the  light  of  heaven  and  the  brightness  of  truth. 
And  God,  again,  with  ineffable  condescension,  stoops  down  to 
earth  and  takes  the  very  clay  to  fashion  it  into  an  instrument 
of  unspeakable  power  and  mercy.  For  it  is  not  the  angelic  hosts 
of  heaven  whom  He  has  chosen  to  be  the ''Light  of  the  World," 
but  lowly,  simple  priests,  weak  creatures  of  clay — powerful  only 
in  the  might  of  God^s  strong  right  arm.  "  Vos  estis  lux  mundi : 
You  are  the  light  of  the  world,'^  Thus  God,  who  is  absolutely 
independent  of  all  means,  would  select  the  weakest  instruments 
for  the  execution  of  His  greatest  designs,  thereby  to  manifest 
more  clearly  the  infinitude  of  His  power.  He  loves  to  "  choose 
the  foolish  things  of  the  world,  that  He  may  confound  the  wise ; 
and  the  weak  things,  that  He  may  confound  the  strong ;  and  the 
base  things,  and  the  things  that  are  contemptible,  and  things 
that  are  not,  that  He  may  bring  to  nought  things  that  are,  that 
no  flesh  should  glory  in  His  sight "  (1  Cor.  i.  27). 

The  work  of  the  priesthood  is  thus  the  highest,  the  holiest, 
and  the  most  excellent  that  it  is  possible  for  any  man  to  be 
engaged  in;  for  it  is  nothing  less  than  the  co-operating  with 
Christ  in  glorifying  God  by  the  saving  and  sanctifying  of  souls. 
And  if  his  work  is  gigantic  and  incomparable,  his  powers  are 
,  nevertheless  commensurate  with  his  work  ;  and  his  exalted  dignity 
(though  not  of  this  world)  is  commensurate  with  his  powers.  In 
the  prerogatives  conferred  upon  him  in  the  Sacrament  of  Holy 
Orders  he  stands  alone  ;  his  position  is  unique,  unapproachable, 
and  eternal ;  his  words — the  words  of  consecration  or  absolution 
— are  as  irresistible  as  a  sword  of  fire.  They  may  go  forth 
unattended  and  unheeded,  but  they  work  a  change  which  the 
combined  forces  of  all  kings  could  never  effect.  Like  the  cloak 
of  Elijah,  or  the  rod  of  Moses,  they  open  out  passages  which  are 
closed  and  irresponsive  to  all  other  agencies. 

A  priest  is  not  like  other  men;  he  stands  on  a  pedestal, 
apart ;  he  is  a  new  creation,  and  his  position  is  without  parallel. 
Indeed,  there  is  none  like  to  him  in  heaven  or  on  earth.*  The 
gulf  that  yawns  between  the  greatest  sovereign  and  the  least  of 
his  subjects  is  but  a  tiny  span  compared  to  the  immeasurable 
abyss  that  divides  the  priest  from  other  men.  He  is  no  official 
of  the  State,  no  hireling  of  man,  but  the  duly  appointed  servant 
of  the  King  of  kings,  and  the  "  ambassador  for  Christ  ^'  (2  Cor. 
V.  20)  ;  not  choosing  his  position  as  a  lawyer  or  a  doctor  may 
choose  his,  but  being  chosen  for  it  by  God  Himself,  and  set  apart 
, — "  segregatus  " — Irom  the  world,  and  lifted  far  above  all  the 
interests  of  time — "  non  vos  Me  elegistis,  sed  Ego  elegi  vos," 

*  "  O  sacerdos  Dei ! 

Soli  Deo  et  Creator!  tuo 
inferior  es." — Cassian. 


24  Olier  and  Dupanloup. 

"  Speak  not  to  me/'  says  S.  Chrysostom,  "  of  tlie  purple  of  a 
diadem,  or  gold-embroidered  garments.  These  are  but  shadows 
in  my  eyes.  The  priesthood  is  more  venerable  and  greater  than 
any  regal  grandeur  or  magnificence  "  (Hom.  v.  in  iljud  Isaiae). 

Men,  for  the  most  part,  seldom  realize  this,  and  see  but  little 
distinction  between  priests  and  other  men.  And  how  should 
they,  since  the  distinction  is  in  the  soul,  and  therefore  impervious 
to  sense  ?  But  it  exists  as  a  great  and  an  undeniable  fact,  which 
becomes  to  those  wiio  possess  it,  and  are  aware  of  it,  a  source  of 
joy  and  encouragement  wholly  inexpressible.  Of  joy,  but  also 
of  fear  and  anxiety :  so  much  so  that  many  have  not  dared  to 
accept  so  crushing  a  burden,  but  have  fled  from  a  dignity  which 
carries  with  it  so  tremendous  a  responsibility.  The  greatest 
saints — and  that  is  merely  to  say,  those  who  best  understood  its 
excellence  and  character — shrunk  back  from  it  in  terror,  and  had 
to  be  forced  to  enter  the  sanctuary,  as  we  find  was  the  case  with 
S.  Chrysostom,  S.  Gregory,  S.  Ambrose,  S.  Martin,  and  many 
more.  As  for  S.  Vincent,  we  are  assured  that  he  "never  ceased 
to  accuse  himself  of  criminal  temerity  for  having  ventured  to 
become  a  priest,  and  that  he  never  gave  the  slightest  encourage- 
ment to  any  relative  of  his  to  aspire  to  the  ecclesiastical  state.'' 
It  were  greatly  to  be  desired,  indeed,  that  Catholics  better 
understood  the  nature  and  sublime  dignity  of  the  priesthood, 
for  since  the  majesty  and  perfection  of  a  religion  is  so  largely 
judged  by  the  powers  and  dignity  possessed  by  its  ministers,  it 
would  at  once  be  felt  how  unique  and  absolutely  exceptional  is 
the  true  Church  of  God.  Men  would  then  also  learn  better  how 
to  distinguish  between  the  person  of  a  priest  and  his  sacred 
office  ;  and  his  exalted  dignity,  as  the  ambassador  of  Heaven, 
would  be  less  easily  compromised  by  a  life  sometimes  possibly 
little  in  keeping  with  it. 

But  hitherto  we  have  only  been  considering  a  priest's 
functions,  and  the  unapproachable  and  dazzling  splendour  of 
his  position  as  the  vicegerent  and  plenipotentiary  of  Christ, 
entrusted  with  God-like  powers,  whose  effects  eternity  itself 
cannot  efface  nor  hell  destroy.  To  speak  of  these,  even  though 
we  be  priests  ourselves,  is  not  to  idly  boast,  but  merely  to 
recognize  the  unspeakable  mercies  of  God,  who  distributes  His 
gifts  where  and  to  whomsoever  He  pleases,  and  irrespectively  of  all 
merit.  Indeed,  it  is  of  great  importance  that  those  who  possess 
them  should  recognize  them,  in  order  to  be  thankful  for  them,"^ 
though  those  who  possess  them  not  have  no  right  to  complain, 
because  God  has  not  given  to  all  what  He  is  in  no  sense  bound 

*  S.  Teresa  observes  :  "  If  -we  do  not  recognize  the  gifts  received  at 
His  bands,  we  sball  never  be  moved  to  love  Him." 


Olier  and  Dupanloup.  25 

to  give  to  any.'  In  recognizing  them,  priests  recognize  the 
distinctness  of  their  call  to  follow  Christ  and  carry  on  His  work. 
They  recognize  themselves  as  at  least  de  officio,  '^salvatores 
mundi,"  to  use  S.  Jerome's  bold  words,  and  feel  the  full  force 
of  the  dictum  :  "  Sacerdos  alter  Christus."  Now  Christ  moved 
the  world  by  (1)  the  exercise  of  His  power,  and  (•Z)  by  the 
attractiveness  of  His  personal  sanctity.  His  power,  such  as  the 
power  of  offering  sacrifice,  of  transforming  slaves  of  Satan  into 
children  of  God,  of  forgiving  sin,  &c.,  is  conferred  without  our 
co-operation;  it  is  a  pure  gift  from  God.  But  to  the  exercise 
of  this  power  the  priest  must  bring  sanctity  of  life  and  purity 
of  morals. 

To  wield  the  power  of  Christ,  but  to  have  nothing  of  His 
holiness,  zeal,  and  personal  humility,  would  be  to  outrage 
Christ.  The  exceptional  character  of  a  priest's  functions  demands 
a  wholly  exceptional  purity  and  spotlessness  of  life — far  more 
than  is  demanded  by  any  other  sphere  of  human  activity. 
When  the  clergy  grow  lukewarm,  and  lose  their  fervour, 
nations  languish  and  peoples  perish.  The  Reformation,  in 
England  as  elsewhere,  would  have  been  impossible  had  the 
natural  guardians  of  virtue  been  true  to  their  trusts.  But  when 
the  salt  itself  loses  its  savour,  with  what  is  the  w^orld  to  be 
salted  ?  The  great  question,  consequently,  in  every  age  is  the 
proper  training  and  education  of  youths  destined  for  the  altar. 

The  first,  most  fundamental  and  fatal  misfortune  is  the 
admission  of  candidates  who  have  no  real  call.  Such  mistakes 
recoil  with  terrible  effect,  not  merely  upon  the  unhappy  men 
themselves,  but  upon  the  whole  Church,  bringing  irreparable 
scandal  and  bad  example  whenever  and  wherever  they  occur. 
Parents,  therefore,  who,  through  ambitious  or  interested  motives, 
exercise  an  undue  pressure  on  their  sons,  are  authors  of  incalcu- 
lable mischief  and  endless  sin,  and  prepare  for  their  children 
the  worst  chastisements  of  God,  both  in  this  world  and  the 
next.  They  may  seem  to  be  consecrating  them  to  God, 
they  are  really  immolating  them  to  the  devil.  And  though 
there  are  not  the  same  worldly  inducements,  especially  in 
England,  which  there  once  were,  there  are  quite  enough  to 
make  it  a  matter  of  consideration.  By  entering  the  sanctuary, 
many  a  man  who  would  otherwise  be  following  the  plough,  or 
exercising  some  equally  menial  oflHce,  is  raised  in  the  social 
scale,  and  exercises  an  influence  and  moves  in  a  society  which  in 
any  other  circumstance  would  be  wholly  impossible.  So9ially, 
pecuniarily,  and  mentally,  it  must  come  before  such  a  one  as  a 
decided  gain ;  and  to  say  that  there  is  never  any  danger  of 
being  swayed  by  such  worldly  advantages  is  to  say  that  men  are 
never  influenced  by  any  motives  which  are  not  good  as  well  as 


26  Olier  and  Bupanloup. 

strong.  When  such  enter  the  priesthood  from  higher  motives, 
and  at  the  call  of  God,  they  often  make  the  best  of  priests,  the 
most  zealous  of  pastors ;  but  we  take  it  that  some  at  least 
among  those  who  '^  go  out  from  amongst  us,"  leaving  an  odour 
behind  them  which  is  hardly  the  odour  of  sanctity,  were  never 
really  "  of  us/''  and  that  they  never  had  a  vocation — though,  of 
course,  vocations  may  be  lost. 

Those  who  seek  the  priesthood  as  a  means  of  obtaining  a 
livelihood,  or  of  passing  life  in  the  midst  of  easier  circumstances 
than  their  condition  would  otherwise  warrant,  enter  the 
sanctuary  by  the  window  as  thieves  and  robbers.  Widely  different 
from  these  are  the  signs  of  a  genuine  vocation.  True  aspirants 
ever  regard  the  priesthood  as  a  state  of  detachment,  of  poverty,  of 
pain,  of  sacrifice,  in  which  they  may  spend  themselves  and  be 
spent  for  the  good  of  the  Church,  and  the  salvation  of  souls. 
"  Ecce  nos  reliquimus  omnia  et  secuti  sunius  Te  "  should  be 
the  words  suggested  to  the  minds  of  all  who  see  them  and  know 
them,  and  benefit  by  their  ministrations. 

But  granted  a  true  vocation,  a  special  training  is  still  needed 
to  fit  the  candidate  for  orders,  and  to  mould  him  into  a  useful 
instrument  for  the  great  purposes  of  the  ecclesiastical  life. 

In  the  valuable  Life  of  M.  Olier,  by  Mr.  E.  Thompson,  we  are 
presented  with  a  most  interesting  account  of  this  very  work, 
which  formed  the  chief  and  quite  the  most  important  occupation 
of  his  life.  We  shall  now  consider  this  somewhat  closely,  and 
then  seek  to  trace  the  effects  of  such  a  system  in  the  wonderful 
career  of  Bishop  Dupanloup,  who  was  educated  according  to  the 
principles  and  plans  laid  down  by  that  great  founder  of  S. 
Sulpice,  and  may  therefore  be  taken  as  a  specimen  of  their  fruit. 

The  success  of  his  system  has  been  abundantly  attested  by  the 
wondrous  fruits  it  has  produced  and  the  extraordinary  change  it 
has  effected  among  the  clergy  of  France,  who,  for  personal  piety, 
as  well  as  for  missionary  enterprise,  are  now  generally  acknow- 
ledged to  be  the  foremost  in  the  world.  Not  only  is  the  whole 
history  of  the  planning  and  founding  of  S.  Sulpice  such  as  to 
inspire  our  confidence,  but  the  special  promises  and  assurances  of 
God  give  it  a  sanction  which  few,  if  any,  other  places  can  claim 
(pp.  415-17).  Indeed,  a  mere  glance  at  the  many  noble  and 
heroic  priests  that  it  has  given  to  the  Church  speaks  more 
eloquently  in  its  favour  than  any  words,  and  we  may  well  dispense 
with  praising  it,  in  order  to  occupy  ourselves  with  the  more 
profitable  task  of  describing  it. 

The  first  and  by  far  the  most  important  thing,  to  our  mind, 
at  least,  in  the  training  of  a  priest,  is  that  he  should  have 
the  most  exalted  idea  possible  of  the  excellence  of  the  sacerdotal 
state;    for    that   being   once   secured,   it  will  not   be   difficult 


Olier  and  Dupanloup.  27 

to  imbue  him  with  an  intimate  conviction  of  the  consequent 
necessity  of  fitting-  himself  for  it.  Every  man,  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  is  affected  and  influenced  by  his  ideal.  If  his 
ideal  fall  short  of  the  truth,  his  whole  conduct,  character,  and 
manner  of  life  will  suffer.  If  he  allows  himself  to  fancy  that  any 
state  is  to  be  likened  to  the  ecclesiastical,  or  even  to  be  placed  for 
a  single  instant  in  comparison  with  it,  it  will  lower  the  whole 
tone  of  his  life. 

Merely  to  bear  in  mind  the  unique  privileges  he  enjoys,  his 
intimate  and  daily  relationship  and,  we  may  even  say,  close 
familiarity  with  Jesus  Christ,  the  dazzling  source  of  all  purity 
and  holiness ;  the  control  he  exercises  over  His  real,  no  less 
than  over  His  mystical  body.  Sec,  would  be  enough,  one  might 
have  imagined,  to  dispel  every  thought  of  comparison  between 
the  sanctity  incumbent  on  him  and  that  which  should  adorn  the 
souls  of  others.  Indeed,  the  greatest  harm  must  inevitably  arise 
from  any  attempt,  intentional  or  unintentional,  to  dissemble  or 
to  diminish  the  degree  of  sanctity  which  is  demanded  of  a  priest, 
as  though  his  sacred  functions  did  not  put  forward  a  more  urgent 
claim  than  any  vows  of  a  simple  religious.  The  sentence  of  S. 
Augustin  is  celebrated,^  "  Vix  bonus  monachus  bonum  clericum 
facit/^  His  obligations  to  sanctity  arise  directly  from  his  posi- 
tion and  office,  and  we  fail  to  see  how  it  is  possible  to  reconcile  a 
call  to  offer  up,  morning  by  morning,  the  adorable  Sacrifice  for 
himself  and  for  the  world,  with  anything  less  than  the  most  ex- 
plicit call  to  a  state  of  life  with  which  such  an  obligation  is  not 
inconsistent.  While,  even  apart  from  that,  the  mere  fact  of  a 
number  of  souls  being  dependent  upon  him,  under  God,  for  the 
means  of  grace  and  salvation  would  surely  supply  him  with  a 
more  powerful  motive  to  acquire  a  high  degree  of  personal  sanc- 
tity than  any  that  might  be  offered  even  to  a  religious,  unbur- 
dened with  such  a  responsibility. 

We  secular  priests  are  too  easily  swayed  by  certain  unworthy 
views  sometimes  put  forward,  and  are  too  willing  to  listen  to 
those  who  would  persuade  us  that  we  may  rest  satisfied  with  a 
very  slight  tincture  of  sanctity.  Our  ideal  is  lowered ;  we  are 
made  to  feel  that  little  is  expected  of  us,  and  as  a  natural  and 
almost  inevitable  consequence,  considerably  less  still  is  got  from  us. 
We  seem  to  acquiesce  in  the  "  only  a  secular  priest "  view,  and  to 
forget  that  a  priest,  whether  secular  or  regular,  stands  on  the 
highest  pinnacle  of  God's  visible  creation  f  when  viewed  in  respect 
to  his  ofiice  and  powers,  and  that  his  state  is  something  so  great 
and  wonderful,  that  religious  vows  and  monastic  observances  can 

*  Ad  Aurel.,  Ep.  xl.,  ad  Ixxvi.,  in  med. 
t  "  Pars  membrorum  Christi  prima." — S.  Pet.  Dam. 


28  Olicr  and  DujMTiloiqy. 

add  little  lustre  to  its  brightness^  little  splendour  to  its  beauty.  If 
we  fall  so  far  short  of  the  ideal,  if  we  are  so  deficient  in  the  sanctity 
befitting  our  state,  let  those  who  have  spoken  lightly  of  it  recog- 
nize their  own  handiwork,  and  understand  how  they  have  been 
in  league  with  poor  human  nature,  which  is  always  satisfied  with 
mediocrity,  to  diminish  a  sense  of  obligations  which  undoubtedly 
exist. 

M.  Olier  undoubtedly  laid  great  stress  upon  the  necessity  of 
forcing  attention  to  this  point  upon  the  seminarists  of  S.  Sulpice. 
He  well  knew  that  the  first  condition  for  securing  a  steady  and 
sustained  struggle  after  perfection  was  to  impress  them  with  a 
thorough  realization  of  the  exalted  nature  of  the  state. 

As  nothing  so  insures  a  good  and  fitting  preparation  for  offering 
the  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass  as  an  intimate  sense  of  the  sublimity  of 
the  action,  so  nothing  so  ensures  a  good  and  fitting  preparation  for 
the  priesthood  as  a  thoroughly  accurate  conception  of  the  grandeur 
and  excellence  of  the  state. 

This  conception  M.  Olier  was  ever  striving  to  engraft  into  his 
pupils.     "  Priests,'"  he  would  say, 

are  set  in  the  Church  to  be  models  of  sanctity  to  all  conditions  of 
men ;  consequently  they  ought  to  possess  the  graces  and  the  virtues  of 
all  other  states ;  religious  as  well  as  seculars  ought  to  see  in  them  all 
that  is  necessary  to  their  own  perfection.  If  priests  who  are  detached 
from  the  world  are  said  to  live  like  religious,  it  is  only  a  sign  of  the 
corruption  of  the  age ;  for  it  ought  rather  to  be  said,  in  the  language 
of  the  saints,  that  religious  lead  the  lives  of  priests,  seeing  that  priests 
are  bound  to  live  in  such  wise,  and  religious  are  bound  to  imitate  the 
holiness  of  priests,  to  follow  in  their  footsteps,  and  sanctify  them- 
selves by  practising  those  rules  of  perfection  which  were  originally 
given  to  the  clergy, — '^  Life  of  M.  Olier,"  pp.  444-5. 

Thus  he  would  exact  as  high  a  degree  of  virtue  from  aspirants 
to  the  priesthood  as  would  be  demanded  from  a  novice  in  a  monas- 
tery, and,  though  he  laid  most  stress  upon  the  mollification  of 
the  will,  yet  even  corporal  penances,  such  as  the  use  of  the  dis- 
cipline, were  as  frequent  at  S.  Sulpice  as  in  many  religious  houses. 

He  not  merely  considered  a  high  degree  of  virtue  as  essential 
to  the  clerical  state  ;  he  not  merely  put  it  above  all  else,  but  he 
regarded  nothing  as  of  any  consequence  at  all  without  it  (p.  279). 
A  cleric,  he  said,  is  one  who,  if  not  already  in  the  state  of 
perfection,  at  least  aspires  to  it,  and  to  this  end  he  must  deny 
himself  and  die  to  the  world  (p.  445).  Priests,  he  wrote,  are 
like  living  Tabernacles,  wherein  Jesus  Christ  dwells  to  sanctify 
His  Church  ;  for  to  be  truly  priests  they  ought  to  bear  Jesus 
Christ  within  them,  labouring  with  all  their  might  to  conform 
themselves  to  Him  in  this  mystery,  both  as  to  their  exterior  and 
their  interior.  . 


Olier  and  Dupanloup.  29 

Indeed,  the  sublime  character  of  the  priesthood  was  the  constant 
subject  of  his  instructions  to  the  seminarists,  and  one  to  which 
he  was  ever  recurring  in  his  writings,  as  may  be  seen  in  his 
"Treatise  on  Holy  Orders"  and  in  the  little  work  entitled 
"  Pietas  Seminarii  Sancti  Sulpitii."  He  deemed  it  of  the  greatest 
importance  to  inspire  seminarists  with  the  sentiments  and  virtues 
of  Jesus  Christ,  who  should  be  found  living  in  each  as  really  as 
in  the  Apostle  who  said,  "  I  live — now  not  I — but  Christ  liveth 
in  me/'  Hence  he  especially  r-ecommended  the  serious  study  of 
our  Lord's  life  as  recorded  in  the  Gospels,  and  "  to  this  end  he 
directed  the  seminarists  to  read  a  chapter  of  the  Gospel  on  their 
knees,  with  head  uncovered,  and  therein  listen  to  our  Lord's  divine 
teaching;  then  to  consider  some  one  of  His  acts  or  virtues,  and 
lastly  to  examine  themselves  and  see  what  their  own  dispositions 
were  in  performing  the  same  act  or  practising  the  same  virtue" 
(p.  453). 

Though  the  sanctification  of  the  individual  was  always  the 
main  subject  of  his  thoughts,  M.  Olier  was  far  too  wise  to 
undervalue  the  advantage  of  natural  ability  and  secular  learning 
in  those  whom  he  was  preparing  to  combat  with  the  world,  but 
he  would  give  nothing  for  the  most  powerful  intellect  unless  it 
were  thoroughly  humble  and  submissive.  On  the  contrary,  he 
regarded  intellectual  gifts  as  positively  dangerous  in  one  deficient 
in  virtue  and  piety,  and  likely  to  lead  to  disastrous  results. 

The  only  true  knowledge  is  to  know  that  we  are  nothing,  and 
clearly  to  discern  our  nothingness  in  the  midst  of  our  endowments. 
This  pride,  this  vanity  of  the  intellect,  is  the  most  dangerous,  the 
most  deadly  of  all ;  it  is  a  vanity  from  which  a  man  scarcely  ever 
recovers,  for  human  learning  goes  on  increasing  with  age  and  experi- 
ence (p.  463). 

Though  he  encouraged  learning  so  long  as  it  was  unattended 
with  pride,  he  was  ever  careful  to  give  it  its  proper  subordinate 
place.  He  advised  those  under  his  charge  to  consult  their 
director  both  as  to  the  subjects  they  should  choose  and  the  time 
they  should  devote  to  them.  He  particularly  objected  to  their 
curtailing  any  of  their  practices  of  devotion  in  order  to 
have  more  time  for  study,  but  rather  urged  them  to  increase 
their  devotions,  so  as  to  acquire  greater  strength  against  the 
dangers  to  which  such  pursuits  often  give  rise;  and  frequently 
to  raise  up  their  minds  to  God  during  the  course  of  them,  and 
to  sigh  for  the  full  possession  of  the  uncreated  eternal  wisdom 
of  God  in  heaven. 

In  a  word,  personal  sanctity  was  held  out  as  being  so  essentially 
the  one  thing  necessary,  the  unum  necessariumi,  that  the  public 
opinion  in  the  seminary  accepted  it  as  the  measure  of  all  else. 


80  Olier  and  Dupanloup. 

Each  vied  with  the  other  in  a  holy  struggle  for  virtue,  and  all 
were  proud  to  undertake  the  lowest  and  most  menial  occupations. 
They  applied  themselves  with  the  greatest  assiduity  to  study, 
but  from  the  highest  of  motives  ;  for  being  inflamed  with  the 
love  of  God,  they  naturally  yearned  to  render  themselves  the  more 
fit  to  serve  Him  and  the  better  able  "  to  combat  vice,  to  resist 
the  torrent  of  human  opinion,  to  confound  heresy,  and  to  expose 
its  impostures  and  false  issues/' 

Perfection  may  be  said  to  have  been  the  atmosphere  of  the 
whole  house,  and  "  under  M.  Olier's  direction  the  seminary  is 
described  as  resembling  a  religious  community  in  the  glow  of  its 
first  fervour.  Each  new  comer,  as  he  entered  its  walls,  felt  as  if 
he  had  been  brought  into  the  society  of  the  eai'ly  Christians ; 
the  world  was  so  totally  renounced  and  excluded  that  even  to 
speak  of  it,  except  in  terms  of  condemnation,  occasioned  a 
remorse  of  conscience,  and  such  was  the  love  of  poverty  that  the 
inmates  seemed  to  vie  with  each  other  who  should  have  what 
was  worst  and  meanest,  and  perform  the  lowest  and  most 
distasteful  offices.  Everything  was  virtually  in  common,  for 
what  each  possessed  was  equally  at  the  service  of  his  brethren. 
Gathered  from  all  classes,  and  from  all  parts  of  the  country, 
there  were  no  difierences  or  preferences  amongst  them  ;  and  so 
completely  did  each  one  hold  himself  at  the  disposal  of  his 
superior  that  at  a  word  he  would  have  hastened  to  the  further 
end  of  the  earth"  (p.  460). 

This  is  certainly  a  beautiful  picture  of  ecclesiastical  life,  and 
from  what  we  can  gather  it  is  not  an  exaggerated  or  an  over- 
drawn picture.  Now,  such  an  atmosphere  of  sterling  ])iety  pos- 
sesses two  most  inestimable  advantages.  It  not  only  fosters  and 
strengthens  the  high  aspirations  and  generous  resolves  of  the 
youthful  aspirants,  and  imbues  them  with  an  indefatigable  long- 
ing to  spend  themselves,  and  to  be  spent,  in  the  service  of  God 
and  the  salvation  of  souls  ;  but  it  also  exercises  another  valuable 
efl'ect  which,  though  too  often  overlooked,  is  scarcely  less  im- 
portant. We  refer  to  the  efl'ect  upon  students  who  from  time 
to  time  enter  a  seminary  with  no  real  vocation.  It  renders  their 
detection  easy.  They  cannot  thrive  in  such  an  atmosphere,  but  . 
droop  as  hot-house  plants  would  droop  on  the  mountain  top. 
The  air  is  too  rarified  for  them.  They  become  conscious  of  an 
inability  to  keep  pace  with  the  rest.  They  have  no  heart  even 
to  make  the  sustained  eflbrt.  The  life,  in  effect,  is  sufficiently 
marked  and  sui  generis  to  become  positively  distasteful  to  all 
but  such  as  possess  a  real  vocation;  and  just  as  a  healthy  stomach 
will  eject  any  foreign  substance,  so  will  such  a  seminary  eliminate 
from  its  midst  any  unsuitable  subject.  It  is  not  as  in  some 
institutions  which  are  deficient  in  this  spirit,  and  differ  little  from 


Olier  and  Dujpanlowp.  31 

secular  colleges,  and  where  a  young  man  may  jog  on  in  a  happy- 
go-lucky  style,  and  run  through  all  the  Orders,  till  at  last,  when 
it  is  impossible  to  retreat,  he  makes  the  appalling  discovery  that 
he  never  had  any  true  vocation,  and  his  bishop  exclaims  with 
distress,  "  That  young  man  should  never  have  been  ordained." 

Quality  is,  after  all,  always  rated  higher  than  quantity,  and 
what  can  be  so  essential  as  to  secure  it  among  ecclesiastics  ?  It 
was  not  the  number  of  the  apostles  that  converted  the  Pagan 
world  to  Christianity,  but  the  fervour  of  their  zeal,  and  the 
strength  of  their  love,  and  so,  too,  in  these  days,  the  world  will  not 
be  influenced  and  sanctified  half  so  certainly  by  increasing  the 
number  of  priests  as  by  increasing  their  holiness  and  purity. 
S.  Philip  Neri  understood  this  so  well  that  he  used  to  say,  "  Give 
me  twelve  priests  fit  for  apostles,  and  I  will  convert  the  world." 

But  to  return.  If  the  sublimity  of  the  office  and  the  excel- 
lence of  the  end  were  the  most  powerful  ^motives  that  M.  Olier 
could  put  before  priests  to  induce  them  to  aim  at  a  heroic 
degree  of  virtue,  he  did  not  omit  to  impress  them  with  the 
necessity  of  using  the  vieans  of  arriving  at  it. 

In  addition  to  the  ordinary  means  employed  everywhere,  he 
laid  special  stress  on  the  necessity  of  a  very  close  and  continuous 
imitation  of  the  example  set  by  our  Divine  Lord  in  His  earthly 
life.  "It  is  this  spiritual  life,  this  hidden  life,  this  interior 
disposition  of  the  heart,  which  above  all  He  desires  of  us"  (453). 
**  Jesus  Christ  must  live  and  reign  within  us,  there  to  serve  and 
glorify  His  Father."  They  were  especially  to  imitate  this 
humility,  obedience,  and  self-sacrifice.  Indeed,  to  prevent  all 
assumption  of  superiority,  he  permitted  no  distinctions  in  the 
general  exercises  of  the  seminary ;  and  when  one  of  them  would 
arrogate  to  himselfa  precedence  on  account  of  his  better  birth 
and  position  in  the  world,  he  gently  rebuked  him  in  the  follow- 
ing words  : — 

If  you  love  Jesus  Christ  you  will  always  rejoice  to  be  near  Him 
or  Avith  Him.  I  would  advise  you,  therefore,  to  take  this  place 
(pointing  to  the  lowest),  for  it  is  the  one  He  loves  best,  and  has  chosen 
for  Himself,  and  where  you  Avill  be  certain  to  find  Him  (p.  446). 
.  The  servant  of  God,  therefore,  in  honour  of  the  adorable 
humiliations  of  our  Lord,  would  have  all  perform  in  turn  the  menial 
oflSces  of  the  house — sweep  the  floors,  wash  the  dishes,  wait  at  table, 
dole  out  bread  to  the  poor — in  all  which  he  might  have  proposed  him- 
self for  an  example,  and  have  said  with  St.  Paul,  "  Be  ye  followers  of 
me,  as  I  also  am  of  Christ  "  *  (p.  451). 

*  So,  too,  in  the  Grand  Seminaire  of  Bruges,  where  the  writer  of  this 
Review  had  the  great  privilege  of  passing  some  years,  the  Seminarists 
always  cleaned  their  own  knives  and  forks,  trimmed  their  own  lamps 


33  Olier  and  Dupanloup. 

As  for  obedience,  he  was  most  strenuous  in  his  efforts  to  in- 
culcate it  at  all  times  and  in  the  strongest  terms.  "  Obedience," 
he  was  accustomed  to  say,  "  is  the  life  of  the  children  of  the 
Church,  the  compendium  of  all  virtues,  the  assured  way  to 
heaven,  an  unfailing  means  for  ascertaining  the  will  of  God,  a 
fortress  into  which  the  devil  has  no  access,  one  of  the  severest, 
but  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  sweetest  of  martyrdoms,  seeing, 
that  it  makes  us  perfectly  conformable  to  Jesus  Christ.'^  The 
result  was  that  all  the  rules  of  the  house  and  all  the  regulations 
of  the  superiors  were  accurately  carried  out,  so  that  even  silence 
was  so  admirably  observed  that  M.  de  Bretonvilliers  could 
say  that,  except  in  time  of  recreation,  not  a  word  was  spoken,  al- 
though the  community  consisted  of  more  than  one  hundred 
persons  (p.  450).  An  amusing  little  anecdote  is  told  in  this  con- 
nection. *' The  young  Prince  de  Conti,  who  had  been  destined 
for  the  ecclesiastical  state,  being  present  one  day  at  some  public 
function  in  the  Church  of  S.  Sulpice,  asked  the  seminarist 
by  whose  side  he  found  himself  what  was  taught  at  the  seminary, 
lleceiving  no  answer,  the  Prince  supposed  he  had  not  been  heard, 
and  repeated  his  question,  but  with  the  same  result.  Again  for 
the  third  time  he  demanded,  '  What  are  you  taught  at  the 
seminary  ?  '  upon  which  the  student  made  him  this  reply,  *  My 
lord,  we  are  taught  to  keep  silence  in  church '^^  (p.  459). 

This  strict  attention  to  the  regulations  of  the  house  was  but  a 
means  of  inculcating  a  spirit  of  intense  submission  and  obedience 
to  alt  ecclesiastical  authority,  and  above  all  to  the  Pope  and  the 
Bishops.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  very  end  of  the 
seminary  of  S.  Sulpice  was  "to  inspire  the  clergy  with  love  and 
reverence  for  their  bishops,  on  whom  they  absolutely  depended, 
as  being  their  veritable  fathers  and  natural  heads  "  (p.  428). 

No  one  on  earth  [he  remarks  in  another  place]  is  dispensed  from 
submission,  however  exalted  the  lights  with  which  God  has  favoured 
him ;  they  ought  always  to  be  approved  by  him  who  holds  here  below 
the  place  of  God.  Such  was  our  Lord's  own  fidelity  to  this  rule  that 
in  His  infancy  He  was  subject  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  to  St.  Joseph. 
With  this  example  before  him,  who  would  wish  to  guide  himself? 
(pp.  449,  450). 

The  exhortations  and  instructions  of  M.  Olier  on  the  necessity, 
utility,  and  methods  of  prayer,  meditation,  interior  mortification, 
practice  of  the  presence  of  God,  devotion  to  the   Blessed  Virgin 

blackened  their  own  boots,  swept  out  their  rooms,  made  their  own  beds, 
and,  in  a  word,  cheerfully  undertook  all  the  duties  usually  allotted  to 
sei-vants,  except  that  of  making  their  own  fires.  This  they  never  did  : 
their  rooms  were  without  grates !  Indeed  the  spirit  of  the  place  was 
admirable,  and  most  edifying  and  impressive  throughout,  and  this  oppor- 
tunity of  testifying  to  it  must  not  be  neglected. 


I 


Olier  and  Dupcbnloup.  33 

Mary  and  to  St.  John  and  the  Apostles,  and  all  else  affecting  the 
spiritual  life,  we  reluctantly  pass  by,  from  sheer  want  of  space  and 
time  to  devote  to  them,  but  we  trust  that  the  reader  will  study 
them  for  himself. 

Having  glanced  at  the  great  work  that  M.  Olier  undertook 
in  remodelling  the  seminary  life  in  France,  let  us  now  turn  and 
consider  some  of  the  results  of  his  labours.  The  list  of  illustrious 
names  of  bishops  and  priests  who  have  passed  through  S.  Sulpice, 
or  other  seminaries  modelled  upon  it,  is  truly  prodigious,  and 
speaks  volumes  in  favour  of  his  method,  embracing  as  it  does 
men  the  most  distinguished  for  piety  and  learning,  as  well  as  for 
prudence  and  zeal,  that  France  has  ever  seen,  and  who  have 
proved  themselves  true  to  their  religion  and  faithful  to  their 
God,  even  in  the  darkest  days  of  general  persecution,  anarchy, 
and  revolution.  But,  instead  of  hastily  referring  to  all,  perhaps  the 
most  interesting  method  will  be  to  select  one  among  them  as  a 
specimen  of  the  rest. 

Let  us  take  Mgr.  Dupanloup,  who  entered  S.  Sulpice  in 
October,  1821,  and  looked  back  upon  it  to  his  dying  day  as  the 
most  sacred  place  he  had  ever  dwelt  in. 

There  [he  exclaims  with  warmth]  I  received  God's  best  gifts 
....  there  I  met  with  that  great  spirit  of  the  old  Church  of 
France ;  those  beautiful  and  pure  traditions  of  virtue,  of  sacerdotal 
wisdom,  of  piety,  of  respect,  of  docility.  It  was  there  that  I  knew 
those  great  and  noble  souls  who,  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  were  the  inheritors  of  the  past  greatness  of  the  French  clergy — 
M.  Emery,  Mgr.  de  Quelen,  M.  Frayssinous,  M.  Borderies,  M.  Clausel 
de  Coussergues,  M.  Clausel  de  Montals,  M.  Boyer,  M.  Desjardins,  M. 
Legris-Duval,  M.  de  Rauzan,  the  Due  de  Rohan,  the  venerable  M. 
Duclaux,  M.  Garnier,  ISI.  Mollevant,  M.  Teysseire,  M.  Gosselin,  M.  de 
Forbin  Janson,  and  many  others.  .  .  .  They  had  the  ardour  of  men 
who  have  just  come  home,  the  zeal  for  the  reconstruction  of  religion,  and 
a  kind  of  divine  inspiration,  mingled  with  energy  and  prudence,  ever 
pushing  them  on  to  conquer  back  what  had  been  lost. 

This  description  which  Mgr.  Dupanloup  gives  of  his  many 
illustrious  contemporaries  is  equally  applicable  to  himself,  and 
forms  a  very  faithful  sketch  of  his  own  character.  We  find 
combined  in  him,  in  a  remarkable  degree,  a  thorough  interior 
spirit  with  a  marvellous  zeal  for  souls ;  incessant  activity 
united  with  the  profoundest  recollection ;  constant  external 
labours  with  persistent  prayer  and  converse  with  God.  When 
we  view  the  works  of  his  ministry,  when  we  glance  at  what  he 
has  done  for  the  vineyard  committed  to  his  chare,  W3  won  der 
how  any  time  should  have  been  left  for  the  study  of  his  own 
interior  and  the  securing  of  his  own  sanctilication.  But  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  we  contemplate  his  hidden  life  and  consider  the  care 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  I.     [Third  Series.]  d 


34  Olier  and  Dupanloup. 

and  solicitude  lie  showed  for  his  own  progress  in  the  spiritual 
life,  our  surprise  is  equally  great  that  he  succeeded  in  getting 
throuo-h  such  a  prodigious  amount  of  external  work.  The  fact 
is  that  he  realized  better  than  we  do  that  the  work  of  a  priest 
among  souls,  even  when  natural  means  are  employed,  is 
essentially  a  spiritual  and  a  supernatural  work,  and  that  there- 
fore personal  sanctity  is  a  most  essential  factor  in  securing  its 
success.  To  be  so  engaged  with  exterior  labours  as  to  neglect 
the  interior  would  be  as  short-sighted  and  as  false  an  economy 
as  if  an  engine-driver,  anxious  to  arrive  immediately  at  his 
destination,  were  so  to  occupy  himself  with  lubricating  the 
wheels  of  his  engine  as  to  let  out  the  fire,  the  fundamental 
cause  of  its  every  movement. 

This  Dupanloup  thoroughly  understood,  and  therefore  his  first 
effort  was  to  keep  up  a  fierce  flame  of  divine  love  in  his  own 
heart,  so  that  he  might  inspire  others  with  similar  sentiments. 
Abbe  Lagrange  declares  that  "  it  was  impossible  to  remain  cold 
or  unmoved  before  this  man.  Whether  you  would  or  no,  he 
took  possession  of  you,  as  it  were,  and  made  you  share  in  the 
enthusiasm  with  which  his  own  soul  was  filled."  Indeed,  to  say 
that  he  had  passed  through  S.  Sulpice  is  almost  the  same  as  to 
say  that  he  had  learned  that  the  first  duty  of  a  priest  is  the 
sanctification  of  his  own  soul,  and  that  holiness  is  to  be  as  much 
expected  of  a  pastor  as  justice  of  a  judge.  The  one  should  be 
the  very  personification  of  holiness,  as  the  other  is  of  justice. 
His  own  words  beautifully  express  this  truth — 

The  priest  is  one  Avho  must  be  a  perfect  man;  he  needs  to  be  all 
man,  and  at  the  same  time  almost  divine,  to  represent  God  worthily 
to  men,  and  become  at  the  same  time  a  man  of  the  people  and  a  man 
of  God  (p.  129). 

In  fact,  the  thought  of  the  sublimity  of  the  priesthood  was 
ever  exciting  him  to  put  forth  fresh  efforts  to  render  himself 
less  unworthy  of  it,  "  Am  I  not  a  priest !  "  he  would  exclaim. 
"  And  what  ought  to  be  the  life  of  a  priest  ?  S.  Paul  sums  it  up 
in  these  words :  Vivo,  jam  non  ego,  vivit  vero  in  me  Ghristus. 
To  live  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ !  Jesus  !  to  love  but  Him !  to 
think  but  of  Him  !  to  see  but  Him  !  to  love  Him  passionately  !  '* 
And  these  were  no  mere  idle  desires.  He  struggled  hard  and 
neglected  no  possible  means  to  acquire  and  maintain  all  the 
virtues  required  in  a  good  priest.  In  spite  of  his  incessant  labour, 
he  was  most  faithful  in  the  performance  of  the  strict  rules  he 
had  laid  down  for  his  interior  life,  and  rarely  if  ever  began  his 
holidays  but  by  a  three  days'  retreat. 

The  following  extract  from  some  notes,  found  after  his  death 
in  a  secret  drawer  of  his  bureau,  gives  a  fair  insight  into  the 


Olier  and  Dupanloup.  35 

general  view  he  took  of  what  should  be  a  priest's  mode  of 
life  :— 

Like  Mary,  we  must  sit  at  the  feet  of  Our  Saviour,  and  listen  to  His 
words,  and  after  that  occupy  ourselves,  like  Martha,  in  our  different 
works.  The  two  lives  go  together,  one  sustains  the  other,  but  the 
contemplative  life  is  the  soul,  the  strength,  and  the  light  of  the 
active  one An  interior  life,  a  life  of  prayer,  is  indispen- 
sable ;  it  must  enlighten,  console,  strengthen,  and  direct  our  external 

life The    -union  of   these  two  lives  has  made    apostles  and 

saints.     They  were  perfectly  united  in  our  blessed  Lord. 

His  earnest  prayer  and  resolution  was — to  increase  in  the  in- 
terior  life.  Hence,  to  obtain  this,  he  came  to  the  following 
determination  : — 

Four  hours  of  prayer :  two  in  the  morning,  two  at  night — hours 
which  must  be  inviolable,  under  lock  and  key,  as  in  a  tower — tran- 
quillif.as  magna — as  at  the  Grande  Chartreuse,  otherwise  I  shall  have 
nothing  but  aranearum  telce.  Then  four  hours  of  work  in  my  room  in 
the  morning,  which  must  be  equally  inviolable,  otherwise  I  shall  do 
nothing,  and  fail  in  my  duty  to  God  and  the  Church.  .  .  .  The  rest 
of  the  day  must  be  given  to  labour ;  but  all  depends  on  those  four 
hours  of  interior  life,  and  next  to  them  on  the  four  hours  of  intellectual 
work.  .  .  .  One's  "  business,"  which  is  always  the  pretext  for  shorten- 
ing or  omitting  them,  will  only  gain  by  it.  I  shall  do  my  Avorks  with 
greater  facility ;  or  rather  God  will  do  them  in  me,  by  me,  and  often 
without  me,  and  for  me,  and  always  better  than  me. — Life,  p.  221. 

How  true  this  last  sentence  is,  yet  what  faith  is  needed  to  act 
constantly  upon  it !  Perhaps  if  the  principle  of  never  allowing 
the  pressure  of  business  and  missionary  labours  to  infringe  and 
encroach  upon  one's  religious  exercises  were  constantly  carried 
out,  one  might  witness  a  more  lasting  as  well  as  a  wider  impres- 
sion produced  on  the  age  and  country  in  which  we  live. 

The  influence  of  Dupanloup,  at  all  events,  cannot  be  denied. 
The  fuller  his  heart  was  tilled  with  love  of  God,  the  more  ardently 
•  did  he  burn  with  zeal  for  the  sanctification  and  salvation  of 
souls  ;  and  as  he  was  always  adding  to  the  strength  of  the  first, 
so  the  ardour  of  the  second  visibly  increased.  It  is  traceable 
from  his  tenderest  age,  but  breaks  out  into  a  veritable  flame  as 
soon  as  he  entered  S.  Sulpice,  and  was  entrusted  with  the 
catechetical  instructions  of  the  children.  Here  was  a  golden 
opportunity  of  influencing  and  moulding  the  unformed  minds 
of  the  hundreds  and  thousands  of  children  that  came  before  him. 
He  was  wild  with  enthusiasm  and  zeal,  and  soon  acquired  a 
power  and  an  influence  over  them  which  has  seldom  been  equalled, 
and  probably  never  surpassed.  The  fact  is,  he  did  not  consider  the 
instructing  of  the  young  as  a  secondary,  or  an  unimportant  work, 

d2 


36  Olier  and  Dujpanloup. 

but  quite  the  reverse.  He  regarded  it  as  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance, and  not  only  set  about  it  with  generosity  and  love,  but 
with  all  the  care  and  preparation  in  his  power.  He  felt  he  was 
occupied  in  the  greatest  of  works ;  in  the  work  that  Christ  has 
most  at  heart,  and  for  which  He  died — viz.,  the  sanctification  of 
souls.  He  fully  recognized  the  vital  consequences  of  early  train- 
ing and  first  impressions,  and  the  advantage  of  sowing  the 
virgin  soil  with  good  seed  before  it  had  been  breathed  upoli  and 
contaminated  by  the  foulness  of  sin  or  the  spirit  of  the  world. 
The  result  was  that  he  brought  to  his  work  the  most  careful  and 
laboured  preparation,  and  threw  his  whole  soul  into  it,  refusing 
courageously  everything  which  should  take  him  away  from  it, 
and  every  invitation  to  preach  in  Paris  or  elsewhere. 

All  that  he  read,  studied,  or  heard  he  brought  to  bear  on  his 
catechisms.  Even  during  his  vacations  the  same  idea  filled  his 
thoughts ;  he  would  prepare  everything  beforehand  for  the  next 
season,  the  details  for  each  day,  and  the  plan  of  the  whole;  it  was 
incredible  the  pains  he  took  in  this  preparation.  And  he  did  it  all  in 
writing,  with  the  utmost  care  and  minuteness,  leaving  himself  only  a 
margin  for  sudden  words  or  movements  (p.  70). 

Ten  thick  volumes,  all  wi'itten  in  his  own  hand,  remain  to  bear 
witness  to  his  unflagging  industry  and  scrupulous  exactness.  The 
result  might  be  easily  anticipated.  He  was  eminently  successful, 
and  soon  became,  according  to  the  expression  of  one  who  was 
to  receive  him,  later  on,  at  the  French  Academy,  "an  eminent 
catechist,  the  hope  and  ambition  of  all  mothers." 

In  England  we  seldom  find  any  but  children  of  poor  or  artisan 
parents  attending  the  ordinary  parochial  catechisms,  but  in  Prance, 
where  the  Catholic  instinct  is  stronsrer,  such  distinctions  are 
justly  considered  odious,  so  that  we  are  not  surprised  to  find 
among  the  children  listening  to  the  earnest  tones  of  the  young 
Abbe  some  belonging  to  the  highest  and  noblest  families  in 
Prance,  and  even  beyond  Prance.  "  They  came  from  all  parts  of 
Paris,  ....  poor,  rich,  even  royal  children ;  some  from  the  most 
miserable  quarters  of  the  town,  some  from  homes  of  the  greatest 
luxury"  (p.  70). 

His  success,  indeed,  was  marvellous  and  striking,  and  we  would 
gladly  enlarge  upon  this  subject  and  produce  some  of  the  many 
signal  proofs  of  it,  were  we  not  anxious  to  devote  a  little  space 
to  the  consideration  of  the  great  secret  of  his  success.  This  we 
find,  in  his  catechism  classes,  as  well  as  in  his  little  Seminary  of 
S.  Nicolas,  to  have  been  his  extraordinary  power  of  sympathy 
and  affection  for  each  little  one  as  it  came  before  him. 

He  succeeded  in  acquiring  such  an  influence  over  children 
because  he  began  by  engaging  their  attention  and  winning  their 


Olier  and  JDupanloup.  37 

hearts.  He  learned  to  know  and  to  love  each  one  separately,  and 
for  his  own  sake,  and  to  treat  each  according  to  his  disposition  and 
character,  and  not  all  according  to  one  inflexible  method,  or  upon 
any  predetermined  and  fixed  plan.  His  one  settled  conviction, 
however,  was  that  love  must  be  the  great  motive-power  tlirough- 
out.  Although  he  had  recourse  to  many  other  means,  although 
he  made  a  most  liberal  use  of  prizes,  feasts,  emulation, 
rewards,  which  he  declared  the  nature  of  children  imperiously 
demands,  the  main-spring  which  kept  the  whole  machinery  in 
motion  was  his  strong  personal  interest  and  attachment  to  each 
one.  Indeed,  he  used  often  to  say  that  the  "  one  indispensable 
thing  which  implies  all  the  rest  is  love  ;  love  which  the  children 
feel  is  theirs."     "  Children,"  he  would  say,  "  were  the  first  love 

of  my  life,  and  will  be  the  last I  have  always  loved 

children.  I  know  their  faults  as  well  as  their  good  qualities,  and 
the  former  make  them  oftener  more  interesting  to  me  because 

they  are  shown  without  disguise What  true  priest  does 

not  love  children  ?  .  .  .  .  I  would  call  childhood  humanity  in 
flower.  All  life  is  contained  in  it,  as  all  the  fruit  is  in  the 
flower." 

Hence  he  argued  that  no  one  can  find  elsewhere  a  more 
worthy  object  of  tenderest  love,  nor  even  of  the  loftiest  ambi- 
tion. "You  must  win  the  heart  of  the  child,"  he  would  say, 
"but  to  win  his  heart  you  must  love  him.  Be  fathers,  not 
masters,  to  these  boys  "  (p.  134).  So,  again,  he  was  wont  to  say 
that  children  should  be  at  their  ease,  and  frank  and  joyous 
with  their  masters ;  so  that  the  college  or  school,  instead  of  being 
a  place  of  dry  study  and  punishment,  should  be  really  felt  to  be 
a  home. 

My  only  desire  is,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  say  so,  to  give  them  an 
education  which  tends  to  their  greatest  happiness.  Let  us  devote  our- 
selves to  give  pleasure  to  the  children ;  to  reward  their  work  and 
courageous  efforts  by  giving  them  substantive  enjoyments ;  to  arrange 
that  their  fives,  although  laborious  and  serious,  should  at  the  same 
time  be  sweetened  by  bright  and  joyous  hours.  We  should  strive  to 
give  them  constant  recreation,  so  as  to  make  them  delight  in  their 
college  life ;  and  so  that  they  may  look  back  on  the  expeditions  and 
excursions  and  family  feasts  in  the  house  as  bright  spots  which  they 
will  remember  in  all  their  future  lives  (p.  146). 

In  this  respect,  his  treatment  of  the  scholars  at  the  college  of 
S.  Nicolas  suggests  to  our  mind  the  school  at  Woburn,  recently 
closed.  Indeed,  we  cannot  help  feeling,  as  we  read  the  remarkable 
words  of  Dupanloup,  how  deeply  in  sympathy  he  would  have 
been  with  many  of  Lord  Petre's  views.  When,  e.g.,  he  speaks  of 
the  necessity  of  obedience,  but  adds  that  it  must  not  be  con- 
strained and  servile,  nor  based  on  fear  of  punishment,  but  free 


38  Olier  and  Dupanlouio. 

and  filial  and  willingly  rendered,  and,  further,  that  "he  was 
determined  to  abolish  the  whole  system  of  material  punishments 
and  coercive  means  for  enforcing  the  will,"  we  feel  that  the 
renowned  Superior  of  S.  Nicolas  and  the  late  Warden  of  Woburn 
would  have  been  in  the  closest  possible  agreement. 

In  the  discussion  that  raged  so  fiercely  in  the  Tablet  a  short 
time  ago  on  the  subject  of  corporal  punishment,  it  would  be  easy 
to  determine  on  what  side  this  celebrated  educationalist  would 
have  ranged  himself.  Indeed,  we  may  safely  assert  that  the  large 
number  of  correspondents,  who  seemed  positively  to  exult  in  the 
tortures  they  had  to  endure  as  boys,  would  have  encountered  a 
formidable  antagonist  in  the  late  Bishop  of  Orleans,  who  fre- 
quently declared  his  conviction  to  be  that  "though  rough  violence 
and  constraint  are  easy  enough,  yet  that  nothing  is  gained  by  it, 
but  everything  is  lost "  (p.  136).  Such  rude  appliances  as  canes 
and  ferulas  may,  of  course,  serve  some  useful  purposes,  and  boys 
of  a  certain  disposition  may  sometimes  require  to  be  chastised  with 
a  rod,  but  we  regard  it  as  self-evident  that  the  profit  a  boy  is 
likely  to  derive  from  such  punishment  will  be  in  proportion  to 
the  extent  in  which  the  animal  preponderates  over  the  rational  in 
his  character.  Perhaps  this  may  account  for  the  singularly  bene- 
ficial effect  certain  implements  of  torture  seem  to  have  produced 
upon  some  of  the  correspondents  in  the  Tablet,  even  according 
to  their  own  account  ? 

But  this  is  a  digression.  Though  we  have  hardly  done  more 
than  glance  at  one  or  two  traits  in  Dupanloup's  character,  yet  we 
trust  enough  has  been  said  to  interest  our  readers  in  the  history 
of  this  great  man,  and  to  induce  them  to  read  his  life.  It  is  full 
of  the  most  interesting  and  practical  details,  and  will  unquestion- 
ably prove  of  immense  utility  to  all  who  peruse  it.  Throughout 
his  whole  career,  Dupanloup  is  always  worthy  of  himself,  and  of 
the  great  reputation  he  bore.  Whether  as  tutor  to  the  Due  de 
Bordeaux  and  the  Orleans  princes,  or  as  Superior  of  S.  Nicholas, 
whether  engaged  in  inaugurating  the  conferences  of  Notre  Dame, 
or  in  journeying  through  Belgium,  Germany,  Switzerland,  and 
Italy,  we  may  always  recognize  in  him  the  devoted  priest,  the 
zealous  pastor,  and  the  thorough  gentleman. 

As  bishop,  he  is  an  especially  commanding  figure,  and  rises  to 
the  full  height  of  his  exalted  position.  What  strikes  us  most 
forcibly,  whether  considered  as  a  priest  or  a  bishop,  but  especially 
as  a  bishop,  is  his  extraordinary  activity  and  incessant  occupation. 
He  was  always  throwing  the  weight  of  his  word  and  authority 
where  it  would  do  most  good ;  always  pursuing  some  important 
object,  or  accomplishing  some  important  work ;  always  stirring 
up  others  to  do  more  than  they  were  doing,  and  interesting  and 
inciting  them  to  exercise  their  gifts  and  energies  on  the  right 


Olier  and  Dupanlou^).  39 

side.  Even  as  a  bishop,  he  never  had  any  sympathy  with  the 
practice  of  those  who  seek  to  retain  all  authority  in  their  own 
hands.  He  had  a  truer  appreciation  of  the  results  of  division  of 
labour  and  the  multiplication  of  centres,  and  was  only  too  glad 
to  be  relieved  of  work  which  another  could  do,  in  order  to  turn 
his  energies  in  another  channel.  If  he  set  a  thing  going  which 
another  could  carry  on,  he  would  leave  it  in  order  to  start  some- 
thing fresh.  "  Set  every  one  to  the  work  he  is  fit  for  "  was  the 
maxim  on  which  he  acted,  and  the  resolution  which  he  constantly 
renewed  (p.  381),  As  a  consequence,  he  was  not  merely  an  in- 
defatigable labourer  himself  in  the  vineyard,  but  he  set  others* 
energies  in  motion  too,  and  wrought  in  a  few  years  an  extraor- 
dinary change  throughout  the  whole  diocese,  among  priests  as 
well  as  people.  It  is  indeed  amazing  to  contemplate  the  exertions 
he  underwent  in  his  innumerable  pastoral  retreats,  and  synods 
and  confirmations  and  parochial  visitations,  and  in  preaching  and 
writing,  and  counselling  and  directing,  in  rebuking  and  warning, 
in  pointing  out  dangers  and  laying  bare  fallacies,  and  exposing 
the  snares  and  wiles  of  the  enemy.  In  sermons  and  discourses, 
in  letters  and  in  pastorals,  in  pamphlets  and  in  books,  in  public 
and  in  private,  at  home  and  abroad,  he  was  ever  fulfilling  a  great 
mission  and  achieving  a  marked  success.  He  never  rested,  but 
.  watched  incessantly  over  his  flock  as  a  true  shepherd.  "  Our 
Lord  has  warned  us  that  it  is  in  the  night  and  during  sleep  that 
the  enemy  sows  tares  in  the  fields.  It  is  for  us  to  watch  always, 
always.  Our  life  is  but  a  prolonged  watching.^'  He  disclosed 
the  existence  of  free-thinking  schools  for  girls  in  Paris  ;  he  openly 
unmasked  the  League  for  Education ;  he  tore  the  veil  from  the 
materialism  of  the  School  of  Medicine  in  the  French  capital,  and 
pointed  out  the  immense  propaganda  organized  for  the  universal 
dissemination  of  impious  doctrines  (p.  349) .  He  seemed,  in  fact, 
to  foresee  everything,  and  to  be  ubiquitous.  Nothing  escaped 
him ;  nothing  was  suffered  to  pass  unobserved. 

Yet  this  great  bishop,  though  so  full  of  labours,  led  a  most 
.interior  life  of  union  with  God,  and  attended  with  the  most 
scrupulous  and  unremitting  care  to  the  sanctification  of  his  own 
soul.  His  activity,  in  fact,  was  a  direct  consequence  of  his  in- 
tense love  of  God,  which  would  not  permit  him  to  rest  a  moment 
as  long  as  there  was  anything  to  be  accomplished  for  His  service 
or  glory.  He  was  not  drawn  hither  and  thither  by  the  natural 
attractiveness  of  external  work,  for  the  impulse  sprung  from 
within ;  it  was  the  aching  desire  that  absorbed  him  to  give  prac- 
tical testimony  to  the  greatness  of  his  love  of  the  Good  Shepherd, 
by  feeding  His  lambs  and  sheep.  His  life  was,  in  fact,  but  one 
long  responsive  echo  to  that  cry  that  was  ever  ascending  from 
his  soul  to  God,  "  Domine  quid  me  vis  facere  ?  " 


40  The  Nerves  and  Over-Pressure. 

"  A  bishop/'  he  was  wont  to  say,  '•'  should  be  a  virgin,  a  con- 
fessor, and  a  martyr,  all  in  one ;  a  virgin  in  purity,  a  confessor 
in  patience,  and  a  martyr  in  self-denial,  zeal,  and  charity." 

To  understand  how  tar  he  realized  this  ideal  in  bis  own  person 
we  have  but  to  study  the  history  of  his  life  and  labours. 

John  S.  Vaughan. 


Art.  III.— the  NERVES  AND  OVER-PRESSURE. 

AMIDST  all  the  marvels  of  this  wonderful  body  of  ours,  there 
is  nothing  more  interesting,  and  yet  nothing  of  which  we 
know  so  little,  as  those  slender  white  strings  and  the  clustering 
grey  cells  associated  with  them,  which  together  we  call  the  nerves. 

The  enigma  of  the  nerve  cells  remains  as  yet  unsolved  by 
science.  But  it  is  not  so  with  the  nerve  fibres,  for  their  function 
has  been  ascertained  beyond  a  doubt.  They  are  discovered  to  be 
the  transmitters  merely  of  that  unknown  and  still  greater 
mystery  we  name  the  nerve  force,  or  nervous  agent — a  power 
which,  acting  upon  the  nerve  cells  stored  up  in  the  brain,  there 
awakens,  or  is  translated  in  consciousness.  How,  it  is  probable 
we  can  never  know.  It  is,  however,  a  great  step  to  know  some- 
thing about  the  nerve  fibres,  for  they  are  our  only  means  of 
.communication  with  the  outer  world,  and  through  them  we 
can  by  gross  means  stir  up  a  power  into  action  which  in  its 
turn  can  arouse  sensation,  the  highest  achievement  of  the  action 
of  force  upon  matter.  The  structure  of  these  nervous  fibres 
has  long  been  known,  and  corresponds  with  the  function 
assigned  to  them.  They  are  like  submarine  telegraph  wires,  as 
has  often,  but  not  the  less  truly,  been  said,  and  as  such  have 
a  central  core  which  appears  in  an  insulating  coating  and  then 
a  protecting  sheath. 

But  if  this  nervous  power,  which  we  can  excite  by  the  prick 
of  a  pin,  really  passes  from  the  excited  part  to  the  brain,  it- 
must  take  time  in  its  transit.  The  velocity  of  electricity  and 
of  light  has  been  measured  ;  can  the  rate  of  propagation  of 
this  nerve  force  be  determined  ?  It  can  ;  and  Helmholtz,  the 
illustrious  professor  of  physiology  in  Heidelberg,  has  made  this 
determination  with  great  accuracy. 

First  of  all,  we  must  be  convinced  that  there  really  is  some- 
thing travelling  along  the  nerve.  We  have  to  conceive  merely 
of  a  pulse,  a  transmission  of  motion  through  the  nerve.  What, 
then,  is  the  result  of  the  investigations  of  Helmholtz  on  the 
velocity  of  the  nerve  force  ?     It  is  one  which,  at  first  sight,  is 


The  Nerves  and  Over-Pressure, 


41 


most  astonishing;  for  the  rate  of  propagation,  compared  with 
other  forces,  is  extremely  slow.  The  velocity  of  light  is  about 
190,000  miles  a  second,  and  of  electricity  even  more;  but  the 
velocity  of  nerve  force  is  only  ninety  feet  a  second,  one-twentieth 
of  the  velocity  of  a  cannon  ball,  about  one-thirteenth  of  the  velocity 
of  sound  in  air,  and  not  exceeding,  but  about  equal  to,  the  speed 
of  an  express  train. 

The  rate  at  which  impressions  are  transmitted  through  the 
nerves  is  more  fully  compared  with  the  velocity  of  other  forces  in 
the  following  table,  the  measurements  throughout  being  in 
metres  (3' 28  feet  equal  one  metre),  as  the  most  convenient 
standard : — 


Metres  in  one  second 

Electricity     .         .         .         . 

.     464,000,000 

Light    .         .         .         .         . 

.     300,000,000 

Sound  through  |iron 

3,485 

„            „        water 

1,435 

„            „        air 

332 

Cannon  ball  . 

552 

Eagle's  flight . 

35 

Nerve  force    . 

.    .                28 

Greyhound  or  racehorse  . 

25 

The  arm  in  throwing  a  stone 

22 

Gale  of  wind  . 

20 

Arterial  wave 

9 

Muscular  contraction 

1—1 

The  velocity  of  nervous  transmission  in  our  bodies  has  also  been 
examined  by  inserting  fine  wires  in  the  finger  and  toe  of  a  living 
man  :  through  these  wires  the  nerves  could  be  stimulated  by  an 
electric  current,  and  the  rate  of  propagation  measured  by  very 
delicate  means.  No  sensible  difference  has  been  found  between 
the  velocity  in  the  nerves  of  a  man  and  in  those  of  a  frog. 
Therefore,  when  the  driver  of  an  express  train  points  to  the 
tender,  and  wills  to  move  his  fingers,  whilst  performing  the  act 
the  nerve  force  in  the  nerves  of  his  arm  rem'ains  stationary  in 
space,  or  nearly  so,  because  the  velocity  of  the  train  in  one 
direction  destroys  that  of  the  nervous  agent  in  the  other.  In  a 
creature  so  long  as  the  whale,  the  rate  of  nervous  ti'ansmission 
becomes  very  perceptible  when  the  extremities  have  to  be  moved. 
The  fact  of  a  harpoon  having  been  thrown  in  the  tail  of  a  good- 
sized  whale  would  not  be  announced  in  the  brain  of  this  creature 
till  a  second  after  it  had  entered;  and  as  it  would  take  a  little 
more  than  another  second  before  the  command  to  move  its  tail 
would  reach  the  appropriate  muscles,  a  boat's  crew  might  be  far 
away  before  the  animal  they  had  pierced  began  to  lash  the  sea. 
Similar  considerations  would  lead  us  to  see  that  we  could  not 


42  The  Kerves  and  Over- Pressure. 

move  our  fingers  and  legs,  for  example,  beyond  a  certain  rate ; 
for  were  this  rate  to  equal  the  time  occupied  by  the  transmission 
of  nerve  force  from  the  part  moved  to  the  nerve  centre,  the 
successive  stimuli  sent  along  the  motor  nerves  would  link  them- 
selves into  one,  and  the  muscle  would  remain  permanently  con- 
tracted. A  very  interesting  fact  connected  with  nervous  trans- 
mission is  the  efiect  of  temperature  on  the  velocity  of  the  nerve 
force. 

Besides  the  time  required  for  the  transmission  of  a  stimulus 
through  the  nerves,  the  mind  takes  a  certain  period  to  form  a 
conception  and  then  to  prompt  the  limbs  to  act  accordingly.  This 
time,  measured  by  a  similar  method,  has  been  found  to  be  about 
one-tenth  of  a  second.  Some  strange  results  have  been  deduced 
from  this  fact.  The  passage  of  a  rifle-bullet  through  the  brain 
would  not  occupy  more  than  a  thousandth  of  a  second  ;  a 
stroke  of  lightning  would  pass  through  the  body  in  inconceivably 
less  time,  and  thus  a  person  killed  by  either  of  these  means  would 
die  without  consciousness  having  time  to  be  produced.  The 
placid  aspect  of  those  who  have  thus  died,  and  the  testimony  of 
those  who  have  recovered  from  a  lightning  stroke,  go  to  prove 
that  no  pain  was  felt  prior  to  the  insensibility  which  followed 
the  act. 

The  nerve  has  the  property  of  receiving  a  peculiar  impression, 
which  is  inducted  in  both  directions  along  its  course,  producing 
contractions  at  its  extremities  and  sensations  somewhere  at  its 
origin  in  the  great  nervous  centre,  the  brain  and  spine.  Glisson 
was  the  first  who  gave  to  the  phenomenon  of  muscular  contrac- 
tion, under  the  application  of  stimuli,  the  name  Irritability; 
but  he  confounded  with  it  under  the  same  name  the  phenomenon 
of  contraction  from  simple  elasticity.  Haller  afterwards  restricted 
it  to  the  property  of  contracting  briskly,  inherent  in  the  muscular 
fibre  only,  Bichat  substituted  for  it  the  term  Contractility.  The 
word  Sensibility  was  originally  applied  to  the  property  peculiar 
to  external  nerves,  by  which  we  become  acquainted  with  the 
presence  and  qualities  of  surrounding  objects.  The  physiological 
system  of  Stahl  (who  thought  that  the  soul  governed  every  action 
in  the  body,  voluntary  and  involuntary),  and  likewise  that  of 
Bichat,  made  it  include  "every  nervous  co-operation  accom- 
panied with  motion,  even  though  not  attended  by  perception. ■'' 

Farther,  owing  to  the  ambiguity  of  the  words  in  ordinary 
language,  the  nerves  have  been  too  generally  said  to  be  irritable 
and  sensible,  though  they  are  merely  organs  for  conveying  the 
impressions  which  are  to  call  forth  these  properties  elsewhere. 

In  his  nervous  system,  man  presents  a  combination  of  the 
structures  and  activities  of  the  various  forms  of  life  below  him. 
And  yet,  elaborate  as  is  the  structure  provided  as  the  condition 


The  Nerves  and  Over-Pressure.  43 

of  our  varied  life,  and  diverse  as  are  the  results  which  ensue  from 
the  action  of  its  different  parts,  it  is  all  constructed  on  one  plan. 
But  simplicity  comes  with  analysis.  The  various  elements  which 
make  up  the  nervous  activity  are  presented  to  us  by  nature  in 
various  classes  of  animals,  separated  and,  as  it  were,  distinctly 
exposed  to  view,  while  through  them  all  there  runs  an  identity  of 
character  which  makes  them  easily  reducible  to  a  single  law. 
What  are  the  nerves  wanted  for?  Not,  in  the  first  place,  to 
make  the  body  alive,  or  to  give  it  the  power  of  acting.  The 
various  structures  of  which  it  is  composed,  each  for  itself,  have 
their  own  active  properties,  their  own  power  of  responding  to 
stimulus.  The  muscle  contracts  when  it  is  touched,  or  when  it 
is  galvanized,  though  no  nerve  be  present ;  the  gland  pours  forth 
its  secretion  under  the  like  conditions.  A  due  supply  of  blood 
alone  is  necessary  for  all  these  operations.  But  for  animal  life, 
except  in  its  lowest  grades,  this  kind  of  activity  is  not  enough. 

In  man  two  or  three  thousand  nerve- fibres  would  occupy  but 
an  inch  in  their  largest  part,  and  both  at  their  origin  and  their 
termination  they  are  much  smaller.  Many  of  them  are  con- 
tained in  every  nerve  that  is  visible  to  the  naked  eye.  But  there 
is  another  kind  of  nervous  matter  besides  the  fibres,  and  that 
consists  of  cells.  The  nerve  fibres  sometimes  run  into  them ; 
sometimes  they  pass  among  them  without  appearing  to  commu- 
nicate. Cells  of  this  kind  form  a  thin  layer  over  the  surface 
of  the  brain,  and  its  fibres  for  the  most  part  have  their  origin 
i'rom  or  among  them.  They  also  exist  in  large  numbers  in 
certain  spots  in  the  substance  of  the  brain,  and  they  are  found 
within  the  spinal  cord  in  its  whole  length.  They  have  a  pale 
pinkish  hue,  and  wherever  they  are  found  they  go  by  the  name 
of  "grey  matter,''^  the  nerve  fibres  being  called  the  "white 
matter." 

The  fibres  which  constitute  the  nerves,  strictly  so  called,  are 
conductors,  and  they  conduct  to  and  from  the  cells. 

What  is  the  part  played  by  the  grey  or  cellular  matter,  so  far 
as  we  can  discover  it?  In  order  to  gain  clear  ideas  on  this 
point  we  must  consider  the  general  plan  on  which  the  nervous 
system  is  arranged,  and  regard  it  first  in  its  simplest  forms. 
Omitting  the  lowest  members  of  the  animal  series  in  which 
nerves  are  found  (and  in  which  precisely  the  same  principles 
prevail),  we  find  in  the  class  of  insects  a  pattern  to  which  all  the 
higher  forms  may  be  referred.  The  nervous  system  of  the  centi- 
pede consists  of  a  series  of  little  groups  of  nervous  cells,  arranged 
on  each  side  of  the  middle  line,  a  pair  in  every  segment  of 
the  body,  and  additional  ones  in  the  head,  connected  with  the 
organs  of  sight,  smell,  touch,  &c.  These  are  all  united  to  each 
other  by  bands  of  fibres,  and  each  one  sends  out  nerves  to  the 


44  The  Nerves  and  Over-Pressure. 

organs  contained  in  the  segment  in  which  it  is  placed.  The 
nervous  system  of  the  highest  animals  is  but  a  repetition,  in 
an  enlarged  and  condensed  form,  of  this  simple  type.  The  masses 
of  cells  we  perceive  in  the  brain  and  spinal  cord  of  man  are  joined 
together,  and  constitute,  not  a  series  of  double  knots,  but  a  con- 
tinuous column  of  varying  size ;  and  those  in  the  head  are  enor- 
mously developed.  But  the  parallel  between  the  two  structures 
remains,  in  spite  of  these  changes.  The  spinal  cord  of  man  is  a 
series  of  groups  of  cells,  giving  oflp  nerves  on  each  side,  and  con- 
nected by  communicating  fibres  with  each  other,  and  with  the 
larger  groups  in  the  brain,  which  also  give  oflF  nerves  to  the  nose- 
and  eyes,  the  skin  and  muscles  of  the  face,  and  other  parts. 
Thus  in  man  and  all  animals  alike,  masses  of  grey  matter,  or 
cells,  are  placed  at  the  centre,  and  nerve  fibres  connect  them 
with  the  organs  of  the  body.  It  has  been  proved,  also,  by  the 
beautiful  experiments  of  Sir  Charles  Bell,  that  the  nerve  fibres 
are  of  two  kinds :  some  conveying  an  influence  from  the  organs 
to  the  centres  where  the  nerve  cells  are  placed,  and  others 
carrying  back  an  influence  from  them  to  the  organs.  So  these 
groups  of  cells  evidently  answer  to  the  stations  of  the  electric 
telegraph.  They  are  the  points  at  which  the  messages  are 
received  from  one  line  and  passed  on  along  another.*  But 
besides  this,  the  cells  are  the  generators  of  the  nervous  power. 
For  the  living  telegraph  flashes  along  its  wires  not  only  messages, 
but  the  force  also  which  ensures  their  fulfilment.  A  nerve  bears 
inwards,  say  from  the  hand  or  foot,  an  impression,  it  may  be,  of 
the  slightest  kind ;  but  the  cells  (richly  bathed  as  they  are  by 
air-containing  blood)  are  thrown  into  active  change  by  this  slight 
stimulus,  and  are  thus  able  to  send  out  a  force  along  the  nerves 
leading  to  large  groups  of  muscles,  and  excite  them  all  to 
vigorous  motion.  Just  so  a  message  from  one  line  may,  by  its 
stimulus  to  human  wills,  be  transmitted  from  a  station  in  twenty 
new  directions. 

In  its  simplest  form  this  is  called  the  "  reflex  function  " — a 
name  given  to  it  by  Dr.  Marshall  Hall,  to  whose  investigations 
we  owe  much  of  our  knowledge  respecting  the  law  of  nervous 
action. 

The  lower  portion  of  the  nervous  system,  controlling  as  it 
does  the  functions  of  chief  necessity  to  life,  is  of  paramount 
importance  to  health.  Derangements  of  its  action  are  seen  in 
the  paroxysms  of  asthma  and  the  seizures  of  epilepsy,  in  both 

*  They  are  called  "  ganglia  "  in  scientific  language ;  but  this  word  has 
no  deep  meaning ;  it  signifies  a  knot,  and  was  applied  to  them  simply  with 
reference  to  the  form  they  present  at  some  places.  Where  a  nerve  passes 
through  a  small  group  of  cells,  the  latter  looks  something  like  a  knot  tied 
in  it. 


The  Nerves  and  Over-Pressure.  45 

of  which  affections  the  muscles  are  thrown  into  excessive  con- 
traction through  a  morbid  condition  induced  in  the  spinal  cord. 
Of  a  different  order  are  that  languor  and  feeling  of  utter  dis- 
ability for  muscular  exertion  which  creep  over  us  at  times. 
These  feelings  show  that  the  nerve-centres  which  preside  over 
muscular  exertion  have  become  oppressed  and  sluggish,  perhaps 
through  being  badly  nourished  for  want  of  proper  exercise.  Of 
a  different  kind,  again,  are  tremblings  of  the  muscles,  or  in- 
voluntary jerks  and  twitchings,  and,  in  brief,  all  that  condition 
known  by  the  expressive  name  of  "  fidgets ;  "  and  which  will 
sometimes  affect  the  best-meaning  people  at  the  most  unbecom- 
ing times.  This  affection  is  capable  of  a  sufiiciently  simple 
explanation.  The  nervous  centres  which  control  the  muscular 
activity  (that  "  reflex "  or  involuntary  activity  which  has  been 
mentioned)  are  then  in  a  state  of  undue  excitement,  and  yield- 
ing to  stimuli  too  slight,  or  without  any  external  stimulus  at  all, 
they  call  the  muscles  into  irregular  and  spasmodic  contraction. 
Cramps  and  a  tendency  to  involuntary  sighing  are  often  due  to 
a  similar  condition  ;  the  muscles  themselves,  however,  sometimes 
sharing  with  the  spinal  cord  in  an  increased  excitability. 

What  is  the  source  of  this  irritability  which  renders  it  impos- 
sible to  keep  the  muscles  still  ?  We  can  answer,  in  general, 
that  irritability  means  weakness — it  is  a  tendency  to  too  easy  an 
overthrow  of  the  balance  in  which  the  living  textures  exist ;  the 
excessive  action  arises  from  too  rapid  a  decay.  A  philosophical 
physician  compares  it  to  the  whirling  movements  of  the  hands 
of  a  watch  of  which  the  mainspring  is  broken  ;  and  the  eminent 
French  experimentalist,  M.  Claude  Bernard,  has  thrown  a  light 
on  this  condition  by  pointing  out  that  an  unnatural  proneness  to 
activity  exists  in  every  organ  of  a  living  animal,  at  a  period  im- 
mediately preceding  the  death  of  the  part.  In  our  physical  as 
in  our  moral  nature,  strength  is  calm,  patient,  orderly ;  weakness 
hurries,  cannot  be  at  rest,  attempts  too  much.  The  first  external 
condition  of  the  normal  vigour  of  the  nervous  circle  are  freedom 
from  all  that  irritates  or  impedes  its  functions.  Among  these 
stimulij  fresh  air  and  pure  water  hold  the  first  place ;  sufficient 
warmth  is  second. 

With  regard  to  the  habitual  and  excessive  use  of  alcoholic 
liquors,  amounting  to  intemperance,  the  gravity  of  the  effects 
admits  of  no  question.  Digestion  is  interfered  with,  the  physical 
strength  is  undermined,  and  the  nervous  system  becomes  seriously 
impaired.  The  result  of  this  nervous  exhaustion  is  manifested 
by  the  tremulousness  of  the  hands,  the  twitching  of  muscles, 
and,  above  all,  by  the  enfeebled  will,  which,  in  many  cases,  be- 
comes powerless  to  resist  the  craving  for  drink  which  is  ultimately 
induced.     Moreover,  the  perversion  of  the  nutritive  processes- 


46  The  Nerves  and  Over-Pressure. 

leads  to  fatty  degeneration  of  the  heart  and  blood-vessels,  of  the 
kidneys,  liver,  and  other  parts  ;  and  side  by  side  with  this  diseased 
condition  of  body  there  is  gradual  loss  of  self-control,  with  per- 
version of  the  moral  sense,  so  that,  in  many  instances,  the 
habitual  drunkard  becomes  eventually  a  veritable  dipsomaniac, 
whose  only  chance  of  cure  is  restraint  in  an  asylum.  But  these 
effects,  grave  though  they  be,  do  not  end  with  the  individual, 
for  the  law  of  heredity  brands  the  offspring  as  victims  of  a 
diseased  organization,  manifesting  itself  especially  in  a  vitiated 
nervous  system.  For  example,  the  craving  for  drink  may  itself 
be  inherited,  or  the  thieving  and  cunning  propensities  developed 
in  the  parent  to  obtain  stimulants  at  all  hazards,  may  become  so 
intensified  in  the  offspring  as  to  render  hint  a  born  thief  and 
vagabond.  Or,  again,  the  parents'  loss  of  mental  power  and 
moral  discrimination  may  become  displayed  in  the  child  as  hope- 
less idiocy,  or  some  other  form  of  insanity.  Obviously,  it  is  not 
easy  to  collect  accurate  statistics  in  support  of  these  statements, 
but  the  following  will  suffice  for  illustration: — Out  of  300  idiots 
in  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  whose  histories  were  carefully 
investigated  by  Dr.  Stowe,  as  many  as  145  were  the  offspring  of 
intemperate  parents.  Further,  speaking  in  general  terms,  M. 
Morel,  than  whom  no  higher  authority  can  be  quoted,  says,  "  I 
constantly  find  the  sad  victims  of  the  intoxication  of  their 
parents  in  their  favourite  resorts — the  asylums  for  the  insane, 
prisons,  and  houses  of  correction.  I  as  constantly  observe 
amongst  them  deviations  from  the  normal  type  of  humanity, 
manifesting  themselves  not  only  by  arrests  of  development  and 
anomalies  of  constitution,  but  also  by  those  vicious  dispositions 
of  the  intellectual  order  which  seem  to  be  deeply  rooted  in  the 
organization  of  these  unfortunates,  and  which  are  the  unmis- 
takable indices  of  their  double  fecundation  in  respect  of  both 
physical  and  moral  evil.'' 

A  picture  of  the  savage  state  as  compared  with  modern  times 
shows  that  man  living  in  all  the  simplicity  of  nature  is 
exempt  from  those  bodily  ailments  and  mental  disquietudes 
which  are  produced  by  the  excesses  and  dissipations  of  civilized 
life.  The  inheritance  of  the  untutored  savage  is  health  and 
vigour  of  body,  with  insensibility  and  passive  content  of  mind. 
The  inhabitants  of  a  large  town  may  be  divided  into  the  follow- 
ing classes : — Literary  men ;  the  idle  and  dissipated ;  the  artificer 
and  manufacturer ;  those  employed  in  drudgery  ;  persons  re- 
turned from  the  colonies ;  the  female  sex,  consisting  of  the 
higher,  the  middle,  and  lower  orders  of  women.  From  a  survey 
of  the  employments  and  modes  of  life  of  each  of  these  classes, 
and  of  the  vices  and  preposterous  customs  of  society,  the  various 
sources    of   physical    degradation    and    of    disease    are  made 


The  Nerves  and  Over-Pressure.  47 

apparent ;    and  from  these  the   remote  causes  of  nervous  dis- 
orders are  deduced. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  about  the  fact  that  there  is  a  very- 
widespread  impression  that  primary  education  as  at  present 
conducted  is  pressing  injuriously,  and  with  a  constantly  increas- 
ing force,  upon  the  health  and  nervous  system  of  children,  and 
still  more  seriously  upon  the  health  and  nervous  system  of 
teachers  and  pupil-teachers  in  primary  schools,  spending  thereby 
most  wastefully  much  of  the  teaching  power  in  the  country. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  are  told  by  persons  in  authority — whose 
province  it  is  to  defend  the  system  which  they  are  working,  and 
working  with  the  highest  motives,  with  anxious  watchfulness, 
and  with  enthusiasm  for  the  great  national  work  in  which  they 
are  bearing  a  part — ^that  such  breakdowns  of  health  occur  but 
seldom,  or  that  they  occur  only  in  underfed  children,  or  in  children 
already  of  feeble  constitution,  on  the  verge  of  illness,  and  that 
such  disasters  to  individuals  are  no  more  than  must  be  expected 
in  the  severe  battle  of  life.  We  are  told  by  those  who  have 
access  to  scientific  analysis  of  statistics  that  the  death-rate  of 
children  of  school  age  is  diminishing,  and  not  increasing,  as 
would  be  the  case  were  the  outcry  against  "over-pressure  in 
education  "  founded  on  fact.  They  point  to  the  fact — a  most 
valuable  one  for  the  nation — that  many  children  taken  from 
squalid,  ill-regulated,  ill- ventilated  homes,  where  they  formerly 
wasted  an  undisciplined,  untaught  childhood,  spend  with  advan- 
tage to  their  bodily,  mental,  and  moral  vigour  several  hours  of 
each  day  in  wholesome  discipline  and  training  in  a  carefully 
constructed  schoolroom.  As  evidence  of  this.  Sir  Lyon  Playfair 
quoted  in  a  speech  some  little  while  back  in  the  House  of 
Commons  the  tables  published  by  the  Statistical  Society.  Two 
periods  are  compared  together — 1838  to  1854,  and  1876  to 
1880 :— 

In  the  latter  period,  among  children  from  five  to  ten  years  of  age, 
there  had  been  a  diminution  of  mortality  of  nearly  35  per  cent.,,  of 
which  but  6  per  cent,  could  be  accounted  for  as  the  effect  of  hygiene. 
And  what  diseases  have  come  down  ?  All  but  one.  In  the  ten  years 
before  the  Education  Act,  brain  disease  killed  1  in  2,000 ;  in  the  ten 
years  after  it  killed  1  in  2,000.  There  was  undoubtedly  a  large 
increase  in  the  number  of  suicides,  showing  that  there  was  something 
wrong  in  our  social  system ;  that  the  struggle  for  life  and  the  keenness 
of  competition  were  too  severe.  It  was  to  be  observed  also  that  the 
educated  people  committed  more  suicides  than  the  uneducated,  and 
therefore  to  that  extent  education  had  something  to  do  with  it. 

The  statistics  quoted  by  Sir  Lyon  Playfair  end  with  1880. 
What  will  be  the  tale  of  1881,  188^,  1883,  1884,  the  years  in 
which  it  is  said  that  the  educational  pressure  has  been  increasing. 


48  The  Kerves  and  Over-Pressure. 

and  during  which,  more  especially,  the  outcry  throughout  the 
country  has  taken  shape  and  made  itself  heard  ? 

Statistics,  in  truth,  hardly  touch  as  yet  the  fringe  of  the 
question,  and  at  the  best  give  the  verdict  "  not  proven." 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  since  the  recent  spread  of  education 
the  increase  of  deaths  from  hydrocephalus  has  not  been  among 
infants,  but  among  children  over  five  years  of  age.  And  what 
shall  we  say  of  those  who  are  carried  off  by  consumption  and 
other  wasting  diseases  in  which  overwork  has  been  a  leading 
factor  in  the  failure  of  health  ? 

Mr.  Mundella  has  stated  that  "  the  school  life  of  English 
children  is  the  shortest  in  Europe,  and  the  requirements  of  the 
English  educational  code  are  the  lightest.'^  This  defence  is 
open  to  a  double  reply.  First,  the  fact  that  on  the  Continent 
educational  codes  prevail  of  greater  severity  than  the  English 
code  is  no  proof  whatever  that  the  English  is  not  injurious  in  its 
efiects  upon  the  health  of  teachers  and  pupils  in  this  country. 
Second,  if  it  be  proved  that  the  foreign  codes  are  more  severe 
than  the  English,  and  it  can  be  further  proved  that  they  pro- 
duce no  harm  to  health,  then  the  conclusion  is  not  unreasonable 
that  on  the  Continent  the  science  by  which  educational  require- 
ments are  brought  into  harmony  with  growth,  development,  and 
health  has  attained  a  point  of  perfection  from  which  the  English 
educational. system  is  separated  by  a  long  interval. 

On  the  other  hand,  what  evidence  have  we  that  in  this  respect 
of  national  health  something  is  wrong  in  the  educational  machi- 
nery? In  the  first  place,  the  subject  has  been  often  discussed 
in  Parliament,  and  the  Education  Department  has  been  many 
times  placed  in  an  attitude  of  defence.  Such  questions  would 
hardly  have  been  raised  by  our  responsible  legislators  were  there 
not  a  very  strong  under-current  of  dissatisfaction  and  a  presump- 
tion that  there  were  grounds  for  this  dissatisfaction.  In  the 
second  place,  facts  have  been  collected — one-sided  facts,  perhaps 
— by  persons  not  themselves  engaged  in  tuition,  and  have  been 
published  in  pamphlets  which  reflect  a  widespread  feeling  of 
unrest. 

A  current  of  public  thought  finds  vent  in  the  daily  journals, 
in  leading  articles,  and  in  correspondence.  In  the  correspondence 
a  letter  now  and  then  in  defence  of  the  system  appears,  but  the 
bulk  of  the  evidence,  much  of  it  from  experienced  and  competent 
persons,  is  condemnatory  of  ''  results."  Of  articles  written  in 
the  journals  it  is  rare  indeed  to  find  a  sentence  in  palliation  of  the 
present  system. 

The  medical  profession  are  nearly  all  agreed  that  the  education, 
so  called  or  miscalled,  at  the  present  day,  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest,  is  doing  injury  to  the  health  and  nervous  system  of 


The  Nerves  and  Over-Pressure.  49 

very  many  of  the  rising  generation.  As  to  elementary  educa- 
tion, the  nation  can  hardly  realize  what  is  the  life  of  female  pupil- 
teachers.  Apprenticed  to  their  calling  at  the  age  of  thirteen  or 
fourteen,  they  spend  five  and  a-half  hours  a  day  in  the  fatiguing 
work  of  drilling  little  children  in  their  lessons,  and  in  trying  to 
maintain  their  attention.  They  then  have  to  spend  the  rest  of 
the  day,  commencing  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  until  eight, 
nine,  ten,  and,  before  examinations,  even  eleven  o'clock  at  night, 
"ay,  and  even  twelve," many  a  one,""  as  said  a  schoolmaster,  with 
scanty  time  for  meals,  and  almost  none  for  recreation,  grinding  away 
at  their  miserable  treadmill,  in  order,  not  to  improve  their  minds, 
not  to  develop  their  faculties,  but  to  meet  the  demands  of  an  inex- 
orable examination.  This,  bad  as  it  may  be  in  the  case  of  boys, 
is  more  acutely  wrong  in  the  case  of  girls,  coinciding  with  that 
critical  period  of  their  physical  development  v/hich  intervenes 
between  girlhood  and  womanhood,  when  the  physique  is  most 
sensitive  to  conditions  affecting  health  and  growth,  and  when  the 
foundation  of  a  healthy  or  a  weakly  womanhood  is  laid. 

Let  us  now  turn  our  thoughts  to  the  higher  education 
of  the  country.  Some  thirty-seven  years  ago  higher  educa- 
tion in  this  country  meant  a  classical  and  mathematical  train- 
ing brought  to  the  highest  perfection,  and  had  its  most  com- 
plete representation  in  the  Universities  of  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge. That  education,  the  result  and  the  wisdom  and  experience 
of  many  generations  of  the  ablest  and  most  cultivated  men 
in  the  kingdom,  had  a  clear  object  in  view,  and  as  a  rule  suc- 
ceeded in  attaining  that  object,  which  was  so  to  train  the  intel- 
lectual faculties  as  to  prepare  men  for  entering  upon  their  profes- 
sional studies,  whether  in  divinity,  law,  medicine,  or  statesmanship, 
with  sharpened  wit,  a  cultivated  power  of  mental  concentrationj 
undiminished  freshness  of  mind,  and  undamaged  physique;  a 
preparation  and  nursing  up  for  the  work  of  life.  In  those  days, 
examinations  were  few,  "  cramming "  and  "  coaching "  were 
little  heard  of,  breakdown  of  health  and  nervous  system  was  ex- 
ceptional, A  two-fold  change,  however,  was  coming  over  national 
requirements.  The  marvellous  opening  out  of  the  field  of  natural 
science  compelled  the  universities,  hesitatingly  at  first,  to  widen, 
their  borders  and  give  the  younger  science  a  place  beside  the  elder 
sisters.  In  the  attempt  to  combine  the  old  and  the  new  by  accre- 
tion rather  than  by  amalgamation  and  consolidation,  there 
resulted  for  a  time  a  great  unsettling  of  the  educational  forces 
and  processes,  at  least  in  the  older  university. 

The  second  change  has  proved  more  serious — shall  I  say  disas- 
trous ? — to  true  education.  The  awakening  of  the  national  con- 
science to  the  injustice  of  the  system  by  which  appointments  in 
the  public  services  were  distributed  by  private  patronage  rendered 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  I.     [Third  Series.]  k 


50  The  Nerves  and  Over-Press'^re. 

some  measure  necessary  which  should  be  fair  to  everybody,  and 
should  pick  out  for  the  service  of  the  nation  the  most  competent 
by  education,  ability,  and  acquirements.  What  method  could  be 
more  convenient  or  more  obvious  than  examination,  which  as  a 
rule  had  hitherto  worked  well,  both  in  influencing  education  and 
in  selecting  the  fittest  in  the  universities  ?  But  the  element  of 
competition,  at  first,  apparently,  a  wholesome  factor  and  a  useful 
spui*,  became  shortly  a  plague  spot,  which  has  grown  and  spread 
and  infected  the  whole  system  of  higher  education  in  the  country. 
We  have  competition  for  the  Indian  appointments,  for  our  Army, 
our  Civil  Service. 

And  what  shall  we  say  of  the  public  schools  ?  Here  also  the 
"  running  has  been  forced,^'  and  it  is  still  being  forced  by  com- 
petition. Foundation  scholarships  anc^  entrance  scholarships  are 
distributed  to  boys  little  above  childhood,  after  severe  competition 
which  implies  hard  study  and  grinding  almost  from  babyhood. 
Not  content  with  the  forcing  of  the  foundation  scholars,  of 
recent  years  school  authorities  have  caused  a  further  tightening 
of  the  educational  screw  to  take  efiect  on  non-foundation  boys 
by  ''  superannuation/'  a  scheme  devised  at  first  to  enable  a  head- 
master to  get  rid  of  idle  boys  who  lagged  behind  among  the 
younger  at  the  bottom  of  the  school,  and  were  doing  no  good  to 
themselves  and  harm  to  their  class-fellows.  Soon,  when  the  idle 
and  most  backward  boys  have  been  weeded  out,  the  rule  takes 
effect  on  boys  less  idle  and  less  dull,  until  at  last  even  the  lower 
parts  of  a  school  become  a  continual  competition  in  order  to 
escape  superannuation.  Verily  the  school  motto  ought  to  be 
JSxtremwiii  rapiat  scabies. 

Are  we  not  in  the  matter  of  higher  education  living  in  a  fool's 
paradise  ?  Are  we  not  in  the  name  of  Education  destroying  the 
very  objects  she  aims  at,  and  missing  her  goal?  Are  we  not 
sacrificing  the  tree  in  order  to  obtain  its  early  fruit  ?  Are  we 
not  passing  through  an  era  of  unscientific  education?  Educa- 
tion, in  its  truest,  widest,  most  scientific  sense,  should  aim  at  the 
development  of  the  "  whole  nature" — the  intellectual,  the  physical, 
the  moral,  and  the  spiritual ;  and  should  take  cognizance  of,  and 
be  guided  by,  all  the  various  factors  in  the  complicated  problem. 
Can  any  one  maintain  that  she  takes  cognizance  of  the  physical 
side  ?  Is  she  not  bound  hand  and  foot  to  the  thraldom  of  comi- 
petition  from  childhood  to  manhood?  Does  she  not  say  to  a 
child  in  the  nursery,  You  must  begin  your  grammar  and  your 
Latin,  or  you  will  not  be  able  at  eleven  years  of  age  to  try  for 
a  scholarship  which  has  been  your  passport  to  a  public-school 
education? — often,  in  the  case  of  children  of  the  less  wealthy 
clergy  and  professional  men,  the  only  chance  of  obtaining  such  a 
privilege.     Such  entrance   scholarships  being  open  to  all,  the 


I 


The  Nerves  and  Over-Pressure.  81 

candidates  are  many,  the  prizes  are  few,  the  competition  is 
severe,  and  the  poor  little  brain  is  driven  to  work  more  fitted  for 
boys  two  or  three  years  older ;  to  do  it  under  the  pressure  of  com- 
petitive strain,  and  with  its  futui'e  success  in  life  apparently 
depending  upon  the  result.  And  this  may  happen  at  eleven  years 
of  age,  or  even  earlier.  If  successful,  the  boy  takes  a  high  place 
in  the  school,  two  or  three  years  in  advance  of  the  average  boys, 
and  continues  to  rise — unless,  indeed.  Nature,  resenting  the  strain, 
reasserts  her  authority,  and  the  boy  becomes  for  a  time  dull  and 
idle,  to  the  disappointment  of  his  teachers,  the  discredit  of  him- 
self, and  the  salvation  of  his  brain.  Successful,  he  rises  in  the 
school  and  wins  a  scholarship  at  the  university.  Here,  again, 
competition  dogs  his  footsteps.  He  must  read  for  honours,  and 
must  win  honours,  or  his  scholarship,  perhaps  the  only  means  of 
completing  his  university  education,  may  be  forfeited.  His  univer- 
sity career  ended,  he  then  may  have  to  begin  the  work  of  life  an 
exhausted  man,  to  study  and  cram,  it  may  be,  for  a  competitive 
examination  for  a  public  appointment,  or  to  sit  down  and  reckon 
with  the  work  of  preparing  for  the  profession  by  which  he  has 
to  gain  a  living. 

Surely  this  is  unscientific  education,  imposing  burthens  upon 
young,  growing  brains  without  taking  thought  how  much  the 
nervous  system  ought  to  bear,  pushing  them,  urging  them, 
tempting  them  on  by  prizes  and  honours,  reckless  of  the  result 
to  vigour  or  intellect.  Can  this  all  go  on  with  impunity  ? 
Are  the  disasters  attributed  to  competitive  pressure  in  education 
imaginary?     Certainly  not. 

Have  we  not  heard  a  note  of  warning  from  India,  that  the 
intense  competition  for  its  Civil  Service  appointments — the 
parent  and  model  of  modern  competition — is  telling  its  tale  and 
bearing  its  natural  fruit  in  premature  failure  of  health,  ex- 
hausted faculties,  and  shattered  nervous  system  ?  Sir  Andrew 
Clark,  in  his  presidential  address  to  the  Clinical  Society  of 
London  (January  1883),  passed  a  severe  medical  condemnation 
on  this  particular  competition.  He  says :  "  Of  the  young  men 
who  win  appointments  in  the  Indian  Civil  Service  competition, 
I  have  ascertained  that  more  than  a  tenth  become  albuminuric." 
In  other  words,  some  of  the  great  organs  of  the  body  become 
diseased ;  temporarily,  perhaps,  yet  in  not  a  few  instances,  they 
have  received  such  a  shock  that  the  impress  of  the  damage 
remains,  ready  to  reappear  when  the  wear  and  tear  of  life  has 
fairly  set  in  and  tries  the  mettle  of  every  organ  of  the  body ; 
and  have  we  not  had  warnings  from  men  eminent  in  psycho- 
logical medicine — from  Dr.  Take,  Dr.  Langdon  Down,  Dr. 
Crichton  Browne  ?  In  the  "  Book  of  Health ''  there  is  an  article 
by  Dr.  Browne  on  "  Education  and  the  Nervous  System,"  one  of 

£  2 


52  Tlie  Nerves  and  Over-Pressure. 

the  most  forcible  expositions  yet  written  by  medical  authority 
of  the  physiological  laws  which  should  guide  education,  and  one 
of  the  strongest  arguments  yet  put  forth  for  the  necessity  that 
educators  "  should  work  in  harmony  with  the  laws  which 
medical  science  teaches/'  It  is  a  book  to  be  studied  by  parents, 
by  medical  men,  and  by  all  who  have  the  welfare  of  true 
education  at  heart.  Speaking  of  precocity  and  of  early  brain- 
forcing,  he  says:  "A  regard  for  the  future  of  the  race  must 
therefore,  constrain  all  medical  men  to  preach  emphatically  and 
constantly  in  the  midst  of  the  indiscriminate  educational  fervour 
which  prevails,  the  wisdom  of  cautiou  and  the  danger  of  brain- 
forcing.  It  cannot  be  too  often  or  too  earnestly  impressed  on 
parents  and  teachers  that  to  overwork  the  immature  brain  is  to 
enfeeble  it,  and  that  the  early  talent  which  they  seek  to  evoke 
is  not  a  thing  to  be  desired."  Again,  in  Germany,  Dr.  Treichler 
has  called  the  attention  of  physicians  to  the  great  increase  of 
habitual  headaches  amongst  boys  and  girls,  which  he  attributes 
to  the  exhaustive  effort  of  excessive  and  ill-directed  brain-work 
in  schools.  In  America,  the  late  Dr.  Edward  H.  Clarke  col- 
lected a  large  amount  of  testimony  bearing  on  the  effects  oa 
health  of  the  higher  education  of  women  in  America,  where  it 
is  often  pushed  with  a  remorseless  eagerness  as  yet  but  little 
known  in  this  country.  And  all  the  testimony  collected  by  Dr. 
Clarke  is  in  favour  of  one  conclusion :  that  severe  brain  work 
for  girls,  kept  up  continuously,  is  most  injurious  to  health,  and 
that  its  disastrous  consequences  are  most  frequently  and  ostensibly 
exhibited  in  the  nervous  system.  Professor  Loomis,  of  Yale 
College,  looking  at  the  increasing  physical  deterioration  of 
American  girls,  says  :  "  The  cry  to  our  older  colleges  and  time- 
honoured  universities  is.  Open  your  doors  that  the  fairer  part 
of  Creation  may  enter  and  join  in  the  mental  toil  and 
tournament !  God  save  our  American  people  from  such  a 
fnisfortune  r* 

Dr.  C.  R.  Mills,  of  the  University  Hospital,  Philadelphia,  who, 
it  may  be  remembered,  examined  the  brain  of  Guiteau  after 
his  execution,  delivered  a  lecture  a  little  over  a  year  ago  at  the 
National  Museum  at  Washington  upon  "  Premature  Diseases 
among  Men  in  Public  and  Private  Life,  brought  on  by  Over- mental 
Strain.^'  Members  of  Congress  and  senators  were  constantly 
giving  way,  so  Dr.  Mills  said,  under  the  strain  of  unusual  nervous 
excitement  and  mental  strain  brought  on  from  various  causes. 
Statistics  showed  the  average  age,  taking  all  classes  of  men  in  the 
United  States,  to  be  about  tifty  years,  and  this  shortening  of  life 
is  due  almost  entirely  to  over-mental  activity  or  irregularities  in 
life.  Taking  the  average  age  of  a  few  of  the  most  eminent 
English  and  American  statesmen,  that  of  the  English  was  found 


The  Nerves  and  Over-Pressure.  53 

to  be  72  years,  and  that  of  the  American  70  j'ears.  The  English 
Chief  Justices  have  averaged  a  life  of  68  years,  while  the 
Americans  only  reached  60  years.  He  said  that,  taking  146  repre- 
sentatives and  59  senators  of  the  American  Congress,  and  121 
members  of  the  British  Parliament  who  had  died  during  the 
period  from  1861  to  188S,  he  found  the  average  age  attained  by 
the  members  of  the  British  Parliament  was  68,  while  the  Ameri- 
can representatives  only  reached  55,  and  the  senators  61  years. 
These  deaths  were  caused  by  a  general  breaking  up  of  the  system 
and  debility,  brought  on  by  overwork,  nervousness,  mental  worry, 
and  irregular  habits.  The  most  marked  symptoms  preceding 
this  wrecking  of  the  nervous  system  were  peculiar  head  troubles; 
pains  in  the  back  of  the  neck  and  head,  vertiginous  attacks, 
and,  in  addition,  great  weariness  after  but  slight  exertion ;  palpita- 
tion of  the  heart,  dyspeptic  symptoms,  and  an  unnatural  hunger 
shortly  after  meals.  This  premature  discay.  Dr.  Mills  thinks, 
was  more  common  in  America  than  elsewhere,  on  account  of  the 
liberties  and  opportunities  there.  '  It  began  in  the  schools ;  all 
the  children  having  equal  efiances,  equal  incentives,  and  equal 
ambitions,  they  arrive  at  equal  mental  attainments. 

Professor  Huxley,  in  his  essay  on  "Technical  Education," 
says : — 

The  educational  abomination  of  desolation  of  the  present  day  is 
the  stimulation  of  young  people  to  work  at  high  pressure  by  incessant 

competitive    examinations The  vigour  and    freshness,  which 

should  have  been  stored  up  for  the  purposes  of  the  hard  struggle  for 
existence  in  practical  life,  have  been  washed  out  of  them  by  precocious 

mental  debauchery,  by  book  gluttony  and  lesson-bibbing I 

have  no  compassion  for  sloth ;  but  youth  has  more  need  for  intellec- 
tual rest  than  age  ;  and  the  cheerfulness,  the  tenacity  of  purpose,  the 
power  of  work  which  make  many  a  successful  man  what  he  is,  must 
often  be  placed  to  the  credit,  not  of  his  hours  of  industry,  but  to  that 
of  his  hours  of  idleness  in  boyhood. 

Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  in  his  work,  "Education:  Intellectual, 
Moral,  Physical,"  pleads  warmly  for  a  true  balance  of  the  educa- 
tional forces,  and  pithily  condemns  the  exaggerations  of  modern 
eystems.  "  For  nature,"  he  says,  "  is  a  strict  accountant,  and  if 
you  demand  of  her  in  one  direction  more  than  she  is  prepared  to 
iay  out,  she  balances  the  account  by  making  a  deduction  else- 
where." Again,  he  says,  "  Those  who,  in  eagerness  to  cultivate 
their  pupils'  minds,  are  reckless  of  their  bodies,  do  not  remember 
that  success  in  the  world  depends  more  on  energy  than  on  infor- 
mation, and  that  a  policy  which,  in  cramming  with  information, 
undermines  energy  is  self-defeating."  Dr.  John  Brown,  in  an 
article  on  Education  of  the  Senses,  in  "  Horra  Subsecivse,"  says  : 


54  The  Nerves  and  Over -Pressure. 

"  One  of  the  chief  sins  of  our  time  is  hurry :  it  is  helter-skelter, 
and  devil  take  the  hindmost." 

Should  the  nation  become  convinced  that  the  present  system 
of  competitive  examinations  is  a  mighty  evil,  a  counterfeit,  it 
will  demand  and  seek  for  a  remedy.  It  will  ask  whether  it  be 
not  impossible  to  retain  the  advantages  and  strike  out  the  evils 
which  beset  examinations.  It  will  study  out  more  scientifically 
what  the  aim  and  method  of  an  examination  should  be,  and  how 
it  may  become  possible  to  select  from  a  large  number  of  candi- 
dates all  those  who  will  give  evidence  of  good  ability  and  good 
training  under  whatever  system  they  may  have  been  trained. 
Finally,  when  the  grain  has  been  picked  out  from  the  chaff,  if 
the  number  of  the  grain  outnumbers  the  appointments  to  be 
won,  how  shall  the  final  selection  be  made  ?  Surely  not  as  now, 
by  an  exhausting  race  for  marks,  which  fails,  except  by  chance,  to 
select  the  most  competent,  which  damages  the  health  of  those 
who  succeed,  and  probably  many  more  of  those  who  fail,  and 
develops  the  educational  crammer,  reintroducing  thereby  "  pur- 
chase imder  an  alias. '*  May  we  not  find  a  possible  solution  of 
this  diflBculty  of  final  selection  amongst  competent  candidates, 
fair  to  all  and  damaging  to  none,  in  drawing  of  lots  ?  Have  we 
not  in  drawing  of  lots  also  a  means  of  distributing  entrance 
scholarships  in  public  schools  which  will  not  violate  the  laws  of 
physiology,  nor  impose  upon  young  children  and  young  developing 
boys  the  fatal  temptation  to  overwork  ?  The  foundation  scholar- 
ships were  intended  by  the  founder  to  help  poor  scholars,  but  they 
have  been  made  educational  engines  of  mischief.  Hundreds  of 
little  boys  from  twelve  to  fourteen  or  fifteen,  clever,  perhaps,  and 
worked  up  often  at  great  expense  in  money,  generally  at  great 
expense  of  mental  effort  and  continuous  application,  prostrate 
themselves  every  year  before  the  eleemosynary  Juggernaut.  The 
great  schools  with  their  seventy  foundation  scholarships  get  the 
"  first  growth  "  of  the  rising  generation,  and  thus  secure  for 
themselves  a  promising  stock  for  winning  the  great  prizes  in 
the  university  competitions.  Other  public  schools,  less  fortunate 
in  their  foundation,  in  order  to  hold  their  own,  offer  scholarships 
which  are  more  openly  used  as  bribes  and  advertisements.  I  have 
been  told  that  the  aggregate  winnings  of  boys  educated  in  some 
of  these  schools  amounted  to  £450. 

With  the  exception,  of  course,  of  art,  there  is,  perhaps,  no  sub- 
ject on  which  Mr.  Ruskin  has  spoken  at  once  more  rationally 
and  charmingly  than  on  education.  He  fully  recognizes  the 
truth  :  the  end  of  education  should  be  to  love  all  beauty  and  one's 
neighbour  as  one's  self.  Education  would  be,  not  a  laborious^ 
but  a  very  joyful  discipline,  if  Mr.  Ruskin's  programme  were 
adopted.     Here  is  his  new  code :  "  Every  parish  school  to  have  a 


The  Nerves  and  Over-Pressure,  55 

garden,  playground,  and  cultivable  land  round  it,  spacious  enough 
to  employ  the  scholars  in  fine  weather  mostly  out  of  doors. 
Attached  to  the  building,  a  children's  library,  in  which  the 
scholars  who  care  to  read  may  learn  that  art  as  deftly  as  they 
like  by  themselves  ;  a  sufficient  laboratory,  where  simple  chemical, 
optical,  and  pneumatic  expernnents  may  be  shown,  and,  according 
to  the  size  and  importance  of  the  school,  attached,  workshops — 
always  a  carpenter's — and  in  the  better  schools  a  potter's.  In 
the  school  itself  the  things  taught  will  be  music,  geometry, 
astronomy,  botany,  zoology,  to  all ;  drawing  and  history  to  chil- 
dren who  have  gift  for  either ;  and,  finally,  to  all  children  the  laws 
of  honour,  the  habit  of  truth,  the  virtue  of  humility,  and  the 
happiness  of  love." 

Mr.  Ruskin  has  given  us  an  amusing  instance  of  his  own  ex- 
perience of  the  rising  system  of  elementary  instruction.  Going 
the  other  day  into  the  parish  school  at  Coniston,  he  seated  him- 
self on  the  nearest  bench  and  learned  with  the  rest  of  the  class 
how  much  seven-and-twenty  pounds  of  bacon  would  come  to  at 
ninepence  three  farthings  a  pound,  "  with  sundry  the  like  mar- 
vellous consequences  of  the  laws  of  number." 

Feeling  a  little  uneasy  at  being  always  at  the  bottom  of  the 
class,  he  at  length  ventured  to  request  the  master  to  give  a  little 
respite.  During  this  welcome  interval  Mr.  Ruskin,  taking  a 
sovereign  from  his  pocket,  asked  the  children  if  they  had  ever 
been  shown  the  Queen's  arms  upon  it.  None  of  them  seemed 
to  know  what  the  Queen's  arms  meant.  "  Suppose,"  says  Mr. 
Ruskin,  "the  children  were  to  be  told  all  about  the  Queen's 
arms — what  the  Irish  harp  meant,  and  what  a  bard  was  and 
ought  to  be ;  what  the  Scottish  lion  meant,  and  how  he  got  caged 
by  the  tressure  of  the  Charlemagne ;  and  who  Charlemagne  was  ; 
what  the  English  leopards  meant,  and  who  the  Black  Prince  was, 
and  how  he  reigned  in  Aquitaine — would  not  all  this  be  more 
useful  to  the  children  than  being  able,  in  two  seconds  quicker 
than  children  outside,  to  say  how  much  seven-and-twenty  pounds 
of  bacon  would  come  to  at  ninepence  three  farthings  a  pound  ?" 
As  a  teacher  of  men,  Mr.  Ruskin  has  few  living  equals,  but  it  is 
evident  that  he  might  have  established  a  great  reputation  as  a 
teacher  of  children  had  he  adopted  the  scholastic  profession  as 
the  business  of  his  life. 

By  no  means  the  least  of  the  advantages  that  would  result  from 
the  practical  application  of  Mr.  Ruskin's  educational  theories 
would  be  the  removal  of  all  danger  of  overpressure.  The  delicate 
structure  of  the  juvenile  brain  would  not  suffer  if  the  studies  of 
childhood  were  made  as  fascinating  as  Mr.  Ruskin  wishes  to 
make  them.  The  prominence  which  is  at  present  given  in  our 
elementary  schools  to  instruction  in  the  theory  of  numbers  is  un- 


56  The  Ne'i^es  and  Over-Pressure. 

doubtedly  tlie  cause  of  the  overpressure  of  whicli  dull  children 
are  the  victims. 

We  are  of  those  who  believe  that  work  never  injured  any  man, 
or  child  either,  if  it  is  made  pleasant  to  the  worker  and  suitable 
to  his  capacity.  It  is  worry  that  kills.  The  stimulus  of  health- 
ful work,  whether  of  muscle  or  brain,  will  make  the  organ  grow. 
It  is  against  the  character  of  the  work  in  our  schools  that  we 
protest,  as  unphysiological,  useless,  and  injurious. 

Let  us  endeavour  to  sketch  a  plan  of  education  which  will 
commend  itself  to  the  common-sense  of  every  thinking  man.  Let 
us  begin  with  the  girls.  These  are  to  be  our  future  wives  and 
mothers,  and  the  end  of  education  must  be  to  fit  them  for 
fulfilling  the  duties  which  belong  to  such.  How  to  nurse 
children,  how  to  cook  food,  how  to  keep  a  house  tidy,  are 
matters  of  infinitely  greater  moment  for  a  girl  to  know  than 
the  populations  of  the  principal  cities  in  Europe,  or  the  latitude 
and  longitude  of  Japan  ;  yet  the  latter  are  carefully  taught  and 
the  former  are  utterly  neglected,  unless  through  semi- scientific 
lessons  on  the  composition  of  food  and  the  chemistry  of  cooking. 
There  are  thousands  of  infants  in  London  needing  to  be  nursed, 
and  thousands  of  school  girls  needing  to  be  taught  how  to  do  it; 
why  not  bring  these  two  classes  together  in  the  public  schools? 
Why  not  light  the  top  stories  of  these  buildings  from  the  roof? 
Furnish  them  with  wide  verandahs  full  of  plants,  and  accessible 
through  glass  doors ;  convert  these  rooms  into  creches  for  the  in- 
fants of  the  neighbourhood,  and  let  the  girls  of  the  school  take 
their  turn  in  washing,  dressing,  and  nursing  these  infants, 
cooking  their  food,  and  feeding  them.  Two  hours  a  day  spent 
by  each  girl  in  such  work,  amidst  the  bright  and  pleasant  sur- 
roundings we  have  sketched,  would  be  more  true  education  for 
her  than  any  we  know  of  being  given  at  present  in  public 
schools.  One  hour  for  sewing,  two  hours  at  separate  times  for 
acquiring  the  "three  R's,^'  and  one  or  two  hours  in  the  playground, 
would  make  six  or  seven  hours  of  "  schooling."  At  present,  we 
believe,  about  ten  minutes  at  a  time  is  all  that  children  are 
allowed  to  be  in  the  playground  !  Yet  it  is  in  the  playground 
that  the  emotions  are  developed,  and  where  children  can  be 
taught  to  regulate  and  control  them  ;  and  a  teacher  has  not  half 
learnt  his  work  until  he  knows  how  to  turn  the  playground  to 
account  as  a  moral  educator.  We  have  devoted  so  much  of  our 
space  to  the  education  of  girls  that  we  have  none  to  devote  to 
boys ;  but  the  same  principles  will  apply. 

Professor  Humphry,  of  Cambridge,  as  President  of  the 
Sanitary  Ins^-itute ;  Dr.  Theodore  Williams,  in  the  annual 
oration  before  the  Medical  Society  of  London  ;  Dr.  Kabagliati, 
of  Bradford,  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Conference  of  Elementary. 


The  Nerves  and  Over-Pressure,  57 

Teachers;  Dr.  Williamson,  of  Ventuor,  in  a  letter  to  the  Lancet; 
Dr.  Clouston,  in  lectures  at  Edinburgh,  and  others,  all  touch 
upon  the  relation  of  modern  education  to  health,  and  point  out 
the  dangers  that  are  being  incurred  from  the  want  of  proper 
adjustment  of  the  two.  Dr.  Thorburn,  in  his  introductory  lecture 
to  the  course  of  obstetric  medicine  at  Owens  College,  sounds  a 
note  of  warning  in  the  education  of  women,  and  quotes  opinions 
of  many  of  the  leading  American  physicians  as  to  the  ill  effects 
of  excessive  educational  work  on  American  girls. 

Before  concluding,  I  may  here  mention  that  the  state  of 
general  vigour  which  we  call  "  Tone  "  depends  upon  the  healthy 
action  of  the  nervous  centres.  It  consists  in  an  habitual 
moderate  contraction  of  the  muscles,  due  to  a  constant  stimulus 
exerted  on  them  by  the  spinal  cord,  and  is  valuable  less  for  itself 
than  as  a  sign  of  a  sound  nervous  balance.  Tone  is  maintained 
partly  by  healthful  impressions  radiated  upon  the  spinal  cord, 
through  the  nerves,  from  all  parts  of  the  body,  and  partly  by 
the  stimulus  poured  down  upon  it  from  the  brain.  So  it  is  dis- 
turbed by  whatever  conveys  irritating  or  depressing  influences 
in  either  direction.  A  single  injudicious  meal,  a  single  sleepless 
night,  a  single  passion  or  piece  of  bad  news,  will  destroy  it. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  vivid  hope,  a  cheerful  resolve,  an  absorb- 
ing interest,  will  restore  it  as  if  by  magic.  For  in  man  these 
lower  officers  in  the  nervous  hierarchy  draw  their  very  breath 
according  to  the  biddings  of  the  higher  powers.  But  the 
dependence  of  the  higher  on  the  lower  is  no  less  direct.  The 
mutual  action  takes  place  in  each  line.  A  chief  condition  of 
keeping  the  brain  healthy  is  to  keep  these  unconscious  nervous 
functions  in  full  vigour,  and  in  natural  alternations  of  activity 
and  repose.  Thus  it  is  that  (besides  its  effect  in  increasing  the 
breathing  and  the  general  vigour  of  the  vital  processes)  muscular 
exercise  has  so  manifest  a  beneficial  influence  on  a  depressed  or 
irritable  state  of  mind.  The  bodily  movement,  by  affording  an 
outlet  to  the  activity  of  the  spinal  cord,  withdraws  a  source  of 
irritation  from  the  brain ;  or  it  may  relieve  excitement  of  that 
organ  by  carrying  ofi"  its  energy  into  a  safe  channel. 

Andrew  T.  Sibbald. 


(     58    ) 


Art.  IV.— the  CHURCH  AND  LIBERALISM. 

IT  may  be  remembered  by  those  who  have  read  the  works  of 
Father  Hue,  which  excited  so  much  interest  about  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  years  ago,  that  that  zealous  missionary  and  charm- 
ing writer  relates  an  occurrence  that  once  took  place  in  a  house 
where  he  was  received  while  travelling  in  China.  The  good 
father,  as  any  other  Frenchman  might  have  done,  started  a  con- 
versation with  his  host  on  public  matters,  asked  what  was  the 
probable  policy  of  the  Emperor,  with  various  questions  of  a 
similar  character.  At  last  his  Chinese  entertainer,  after  listen- 
ing patiently  for  a  time,  replied  to  the  following  effect :  "  My 
good  friend,  what  is  all  this  to  us  ?  What  have  you  and  I  to  do 
with  politics  ?  Do  let  us  mind  our  own  affairs,  and  leave  these 
things  to  the  Mandarins,  who  are  paid  for  attending  to  them." 

Asiatic  maxims  are  not  always  applicable  to  our  widely 
different  usages  and  circumstances ;  and  it  must  be  admitted 
that  what  might  be  perfect  prudence  in  China  would  be  culpable 
negligence  in  England.  But  it  has  always  appeared  to  me  that 
the  answer  of  the  Chinese  to  Father  Hue  contained  a  volume  of 
good,  sound  sense ;  and  I  think  we  may  pay  a  tribute  of  respect 
to  a  people  who  calmly  pursue  the  business  incident  to  their 
state  of  life,  instead  of  plunging  themselves  into  that  fever  of 
political  excitement  which  threatens  to  .be  the  curse  of  modern 
Europe. 

Reflections  such  as  these  are  naturally  forced  upon  one  at  a 
moment  like  the  present,^  when  rival  candidates  are  wearying 
us  with  the  incessant  din  of  their  stump  oratory.  A  witty 
Anglican  prelate,  who  had  heard  that  he  ought  to  have 
"unlimited  trust  in  the  wisdom  of  the  English  people,'''  has 
recently  said :  "  If  I  listen  to  one  set  of  politicians  and  their 
followers,  I  hear  that  their  opponents  are  utterly  without 
patriotism,  principle,  or  common  sense ;  and  if  I  turn  to  those 
so  described,  they  tell  me  precisely  the  same  things  of  their 
accusers ;  and  if  I  put  both  these  declarations  together,  I  am 
driven  to  the  conclusion  that  there  is  not  an  ounce  of  sense, 
or  patriotism,  or  honesty  in  the  whole  electorate,  and  yet  I  am 
to  have  implicit  trust  in  this  electorate."  So  that  in  the  midst 
of  this  reign  of  confusion  and  unwisdom,  one  is  tempted  to  wish 
that,  among  the  various  goods  brought  from  distant  lands,  a 
cargo  of  plain  common  sense  could  be  imported  from  China. 

Before  my  readers  can  peruse  these  words  the  General  Election, 
with  all  its  tumult,  will  be  a  thing  of  the  past ;  and  even  were 

*  This  was  written  shortly  before  the  General  Election. 


The  Church  and  Liberalism.  59 

it  not  so,  I  should  not  desire  to  discuss  it,  or  to  raise  the  question 
as  to  how  Catholics  ought  to  vote.  This  last-named  point  has 
been  treated  in  the  pages  of  the  National  Mevietu  a  short  time 
since,  and  still  more  recently  by  high  Ecclesiastical  authority  in 
the  October  number  of  the  Dublin  Review — the  former  article 
being  written  rather  from  a  political,  the  latter  from  a  religious, 
standpoint.  Besides  which  there  have  been  other  Episcopal  moni- 
tions which  it  would  be  presumptuous  to  disregard. 

There  are,  of  course,  grave  motives  which  must  weigh  with 
Catholics  (as  with  other  men)  in  determining  for  whom  they 
should  vote — the  great  question  of  education  being  prominent 
among  them ;  while  other  examples  may  be  found  in  the  land 
question,  the  selection  of  statesmen  who  can  be  trusted  to  con- 
duct the  foreign  affairs  of  the  country,  the  Irish  problem,  with 
its  apparently  insoluble  difficulties,  and  by  these  in  various 
degrees  we  are  naturally  influenced.  Still,  when  one  considers 
the  complete  break-up  of  the  old  political  combinations,  and  the 
new  phases  of  political  faith,  it  must,  I  think,  be  admitted  that 
it  is  difficult  to  feel  any  intense  or  unqualified  enthusiasm  for 
either  party. 

There  must,  however,  be  a  time  when  (the  excitement  of 
electioneering  struggles  being  over)  we  shall  turn  away  from 
ephemeral  discussion  and  partisan  warfare,  in  order  to  search 
for  some  real  principles  to  guide  us ;  and  then  it  is  not  merely 
reasonable  but  our  bounden  duty  to  inquire,  in  the  first  place, 
whether  the  Church  does  not  give  us  some  instruction,  or  at 
least  some  caution  against  the  more  rampant  errors  of  the 
day. 

In  the  region  of  pure  politics  it  is  evident  that  great  latitude 
is  allowed  to  Catholics  ;  the  Church  does  not  profess  to  furnish 
her  sons  with  good  practical  sense  and  experience  in  secular 
matters.  Catholics  may  be  in  favour  of  a  restricted  or  an  exten- 
sive franchise,  or  even  universal  suffrage  ;  they  may  hold  in 
theory  that  a  Republican  form  of  government  is  best,  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  an  absolute  Monarchy  is  the  true  ideal;  they  may 
hold  what  opinion  they  please  as  to  the  benefits  of  a  subdivision 
of  land  among  the  peasantry  (providing  always  that  no  injustice 
is  done  to  any  one) ;  they  may  be  in  favour  of  Free  Trade  or 
Protection  ;  of  one  financial  system  or  another.  On  the  other 
hand,  I  think  it  may  safely  be  laid  down  that  no  good  Catholic 
can,  in  the  face  of  the  strong  declaration  of  the  present  Pope,  be 
what  is  commonly  known  as  a  Socialist.  Nor,  again,  can  he  be 
a  revolutionist;  he  cannot,  that  is,  be  a  party  to  the  destruction 
by  force  of  a  legitimate  and  established  government  on  the 
ground  that  he  believes  some  other  form  of  government  to  be 
better.     He  could  neither  take  up  arms,  on  such  a  ground  as 


60  The  Church  and  Liberalism. 

this,  against  the  Monarchy  in  England,  or  the  Republic*  in 
America. 

This  last  point  is'  especially  to  be  noted,  for  many  wrong 
deeds  have  been  perpetrated  (I  do  not  mean  by  English 
Catholics,  but  in  other  countries)  from  ignoring  it ;  yet  it 
seems  to  me  to  be  a  principle  of  natural  religion  as  well  as 
of  Christianity. 

Now  I  have  shown  that  a  man  may  hold  a  great  variety  of 
political  opinions,  and  yet  be  a  loyal  Catholic  ;  there  is  one  thing, 
however,  that  I  doubt  whether  he  can  be — namely,  a  real  consistent 
Liberal.  He  may,  it  is  true,  vote  with  the  English  Liberal 
party  ;  he  may  support  their  candidate  at  an  election,  and,  if  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  he  may  sit  on  the  same  side  with  them  : 
acts  like  these  do  not  commit  a  man  to  all  the  opinions  of  his 
associates  ;  a  vote  may  merely  imply  the  choice  of  a  lesser  evil, 
and  a  temporary  alliance  between  men  of  divergent  principles  is 
sometimes  permissible.  But  can  a  sound  Catholic  call  himself  a 
Liberal  without  making  considerable  qualifications  and  reserva- 
tions? This  is  the  point  I  now  proceed  to  discuss.  If  there 
are  any  opinions  in  the  world  which  are  the  watchwords  of 
Liberalism,  the}'-  are  such  as  these:  "Civil  and  Religious  Liberty;" 
Toleration  for  all  religions  as  of  right ;  entire  freedom  of  the 
Press  without  any  limit,  excepting  what  is  necessary  for  public 
peace  and  decency,  and  excepting,  of  course,  libels  on  private 
character ;  and  a  Liberal  would  surely  be  in  a  most 
anomalous  position  who  repudiated  these  standard  articles  of 
his  creed,  or  who  held  them  to  represent  an  evil  or  imperfect 
state  of  things,  suitable  perhaps  to  the  conditions  of  modern 
society,  but  contrary  to  the  true  Christian  ideal.  Yet  this 
I  believe  to  be  exactly  what  the  Catholic  Church  holds  about 
them. 

In  order  to  prove  this  I  shall  have  to  refer  to  certaiik  pro- 
nouncements of  the  Holy  See,  which  the  present  generation  may 
have  forgotten.  In  this  unquiet  age  there  is  a  perpetual 
tendency  to  take  a  fleeting  interest  in  the  news  of  the  day, 
letting  many  weightier  matters  drop  into  oblivion.  We  are 
like  the  Athenians  in  the  time  of  St.  Paul,  always  rushing 
hither  and  thither  to  hear  of  some  new  thing  ;  and  good  Christians 
are  carried  along  with  the  stream,  and  do  in  this  respect  much 
as  others  do. 

Now  in  the  year  1832  there  was  issued  by  the  then  reigning 
Pope,  Gregory  XVI.,  an  Encyclical,  addressed  in  the  usual  way 
to  all  Patriarchs,  Primates,  Archbishops,  and  Bishops,  and 
known  generally  as  the  Encyclical  "  Mirari  Vos."  It  seems  to 
have  been  intended  primarily  as  an  address  to  the  Catholic 
Episcopate  on  the  occasion  of  the  Pope^s  election  to  the  chair  of 


The  Church  and  Liberalism.  61 

St.  Peter,  but  it  also  included  a  condemnation  of  certain  politico- 
religious  opinions  then  brought  prominently  into  notice  in 
France,  and  specially  associated  witl>  the  name  of  the  Abbe  de 
Lamennais,  who  may  almost  be  considered  as  the  founder  of 
Catholic  Liberalism. 

Certainly  he  was  at  that  date  the  most  vigorous  defender  of 
that  phase  of  thought,  then  comparatively  new  to  the  Catholic 
mind ;  and  he  conducted  a  paper,  called  the  Avenir,  in  which 
he  maintained  the  errors  (for  such  we  are  bound  to  hold  them) 
that  brought  him  under  the  censure  of  the  Holy  See.  There 
were  two  points  he  particularly  insisted  upon :  Liberty  of 
conscience,  in  the  sense  that  no  Government  had  the  right  in 
any  case  to  restrain  religious  error  ;  and  the  unlimited  freedom  of 
the  Press. 
"  "■  What  have  Catholics  to  desire,"  he  said,  "  except  the 
effective  and  full  enjoyment  of  all  those  liberties  which  may  not 
legitimately  be  refused  to  any — religious  liberty,  the  liberty 
of  education,  together  with  liberty  of  the  Press,  which  is  the 
surest  guarantee  of  all  the  rest.''"'  * 

Again,  "  That  which  most  retards  the  triumph  of  truth  is  the 
support  which  material  force  attempts  to  lend  her — the  very 
appearance  of  constraint  in  the  essentially  free  domain  of 
conscience  and  reason." 

Let  us  see,  then,  how  Gregory  XVI.  deals  with  these  theories. 
After  condemning  that  principle  of  religious  indifferentisra 
which  teaches  that  the  salvation  of  the  soul  may  be  secured  by 
"any  profession  of  faith,"  irrespective  of  its  truth,  the  Pope 
says:  *'And  from  this  most  corrupt  source  of  indifferentism 
flows  that  absurd  and  erroneous  opinion,  or  rather  insanity,  that 
liberty  of  conscience  is  to  be  asserted  and  vindicated  for  every 
man.''^  He  quotes  St.  Augustine,  who  says,  "  What  worse  death 
is  there  of  the  soul  than  liberty  of  error  ? "  And  he  thus 
continues,  "  It  has  been  known  by  experience  from  the  earliest 
antiquity,  that  nations  which  flourished  in  wealth,  power,  and 
glory,  have  fallen  by  this  one  evil — unrestrained  liberty  of 
opinion,  license  of  speech,  desire  of  change."  These  last  words 
should  be  a  lesson  to  us  in  England,  since  our  modern  political 
leaders  and  writers  are  incessantly  dwelling  on  the  desirability 
of  change. 

Then  as  regards  the  liberty  of  the  Press,  the  Encyclical  thus 
speaks  :  "  To  this  may  be  referred  that  liberty — most  foul  and 

*  My  quotations,  botli  from  tlie  Avenir,  and  from  the  Encyclical 
"  MirariYos,"  are  not  taken  from  the  original  documents,  which  I  have  not 
got  before  me;  but  the  source  from  which  I  have  drawn  them  leaves  no 
doubt  on  ray  mind  as  to  their  accuracy. 


62  The  Church  and  Liberalism. 

never  sufficiently  to  be  execrated  and  detested — that  liberty  of 
the  bookselling  trade  to  publish  any  kind  of  writings  which 
some  men  dare  to  demand  and  promote  with  so  much  violence/' 
And  after  noticing  the  opinion  of  those  who  fancy  that  evil 
publications  are  compensated  by  some  good  books,  the  Pope 
adds  these  important  words  :  "  It  is  sinful  in  truth  and  con- 
demned by  every  law,  that  a  certain  and  greater  evil  should  be 
purposely  inflicted,  because  there  is  hope  that  a  certain  amount 
of  good  will  be  thence  obtained.  Would  any  one  in  his  senses 
say  that  poisons  should  be  freely  circulated  and  publicly  sold, 
because  something  of  a  remedy  is  possessed,  which  is  such  that 
it  sometimes  happens  that  those  who  use  it  are  delivered  from 
destruction  ?  " 

It  appears  that  a  letter  from  Cardinal  Pacca,  written  by  the 
Pope's  orders,  was  sent  to  the  Abbe  de  Lamennais,  together  with 
a  copy  of  the  Encyclical.  This  letter  throws  some  light  on  the 
meaning  of  the  stringent  language  employed  in  condemning  the 
unsound  opinions  referred  to ;  and  it  shows,  what  I  suppose  we 
might  have  otherwise  discovered,  that  it  was  not  intended  to 
censure  the  practice  of  allowing  diversity  of  religious  worship 
and  liberty  of  the  press  in  all  countries  and  under  all  circum- 
stances, but  to  teach  Catholics  that  a  state  of  things  where  such 
freedom  existed  was  by  no  means  an  ideal  to  be  aimed  at,  but 
rather  an  abnormal  condition,  to  be  tolerated  for  the  sake  of 
prudence  or  for  any  legitimate  reason,  but  not  to  be  treated  as  in- 
trinsically desirable.  Thus  Cardinal  Pacca  says ;  "  The  doctrines 
of  the  Avenir  on  the  liberty  of  worship  and  the  liberty  of  the 
press,  which  have  been  treated  by  the  editors  with  so  much  ex- 
aggeration and  pushed  so  far,  are  also  very  reprehensible,  and  are 
in  opposition  to  the  Church's  teaching,  maxims,  and  practice. 
They  have  greatly  astonished  and  afflicted  the  Holy  Father ;  for 
if,  under  certain  circumstances,  prudence  requires  to  endure  them 
as  a  less  evil,  they  may  never  be  represented  by  a  Catholic  as  a 
good  or  a  desirable  thing."  It  is  of  course  to  be  remembered 
that  since  the  days  of  Gregory  XVI.  a  great  part  of  Europe  has 
undergone  a  complete  moral  revolution,  and  that  the  rising  stream 
of  error,  which  the  Pontiff  then  combated,  has  since  then  swept 
like  a  flood  over  the  face  of  Christendom.  Had  Pope  Gregory 
been  writing  half-a-century  later,  he  might  have  modified  his 
language ;  yet  the  Church's  principles  remain  now  what  they 
were  then.  In  the  letter  above  mentioned,  some  further 
opinions  of  the  Abbe  de  Lamennais  relating  to  the  lawfulness 
of  rebellion  against  the  civil  government  and  to  the  union 
between  Church  and  State  are  censured,  but  I  do  not  propose  to 
dwell  on  these. 

The  unhappy  priest  whose  errors  were  here  condemned,  made 


The  Church  and  Liberalism.  63 

a  partial  and  temporary  act  of  submission  to  the  Papal  authority, 
but  not  very  long  afterwards  revolted  'against  it  completely  and 
finally. 

Events  which  occurred  fifty  years  ago  have  naturally  faded 
away  in  great  measure  from  the  minds  of  Catholics  of  the  present 
generation,  but  it  is  most  important  that  the  principles  then 
enunciated  by  the  Holy  See  should  not  fall  into  oblivion. 

The  Pope  who  succeeded  Gregory  XVI. — Pius  IX. — certainly 
did  not  allow  contemporary  Catholics  to  remain  in  ignorance  or 
forgetfulness  of  the  teaching  of  the  Church  as  regards 'the  popular 
theories  and  fallacies  of  his  day.  The  Encyclical  "  Quanta  Cura  " 
with  the  Syllabus  of  Errors  that  accompanied  it,  issued  on  the 
Feast  of  the  Immaculate  Conception,  1864,  bore  abundant  testi- 
mony to  the  Pontiflfs  zeal  for  the  instruction  and  enlightenment 
of  his  spiritual  children,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  it  raised  a 
storm  of  furious  opposition  and  resentment  such  as  modern 
Europe  had  not  for  some  time  witnessed.  Unbelievers,  and  Pro- 
testants, worldly  and  weak  Catholics,  joined  in  the  outcry.  But 
the  teaching  of  the  Church  remains ;  and  let  us  briefly  examine 
what  it  is.  We  find  here  that  the  Pope  warns  the  bishops  against 
men  who,  ^'applying  to  civil  society  the  impious  and  absurd 
principle  of  naturalism,  as  they  call  it,  dare  to  teach  that  the 
best  constitution  of  public  society  and  civil  progress  altogether 
require  that  human  society  be  conducted  and  governed  without 
regard  being  had  to  religion  any  more  than  if  it  did  not  exist, 
or  at  least  without  any  distinction  being  made  between  the  true 
religion  and  false  ones."  Also  that,  "  That  is  the  best  condition 
of  society  in  which  no  duty  is  recognized,  as  attached  to  the  civil 
power,  of  restraining  by  enacted  penalties  oflenders  against  the 
Catholic  religion,  except  so  far  as  public  peace  may  require." 
Again,  the  Pope  quotes  the  word  "  insanity,"  applied  by  his  pre- 
decessor Gregory  XVI.  to  the  opinion  that  "  liberty  of  conscience 
and  worship  is  each  man^s  personal  right,  which  ought  to  be 
legally  proclaimed  and  asserted  in  every  rightly  constituted 
society ;  and  that  a  right  resides  in  the  citizens  to  an  absolute 
liberty,  which  should  be  restrained  by  no  authority,  whether 
ecclesiastical  or  civil,  whereby  they  may  be  able  openly  and  pub- 
licly to  manifest  and  declare  any  of  their  ideas  whatever,  either 
by  word  of  mouth,  by  the  press,  or  in  any  other  way."  "  But,'' 
continues  the  Encyclical,  "  while  they  rashly  affirm  this,  they  do 
not  think  and  consider  that  they  are  preaching  the  liberty  of 
perdition." 

Pius  IX.  in  this  same  Encyclical  condemns  various  other  false 
opinions,  but  space  does  not  permit  me  to  cite  them  in  extenso  ; 
some  of  them  would  be  repudiated  by  moderate  Liberals ;  but 
the  following  deserve  attention  : — "  That  the  Church  can  decree 


64)  The  Chiirch  and  Liberalism. 

nothing  which  binds  the  consciences  of  the  faithful  in  regard  to 
their  use  of  temporal  things;"  and  "that  the  Church  has  no 
right  of  restraining  by  temporal  punishments  those  who  violate 
her  laws." 

The  "Syllabus  complectens  prsecipuos  nostrse  setatis  errores/^&e. 
which  accompanied  the  Encyclical,  has  "one  special  heading  for 
"Errors  which  have  reference  to  the  Liberalism  of  the  day," 
and  another  for  "  Socialism,  Communism,  Secret  Societies,  Bible 
Societies,  Clerico-Liberal  Societies,"  as  to  which  it  says,  "Pests  of 
this  kind  are  often  reprobated,  and  in  the  most  severe  terms," 
mentioning  at  the  same  time  the  previous  Encyclicals  and  Allocu- 
tions in  which  the  Papal  censures  are  to  be  found.  The  last  error 
alluded  to  in  the  Syllabus  is  as  follows : — "  The  Roman  Pontiff 
can  and  ought  to  reconcile  and  harmonize  himself  with  progress, 
with  Liberalism,  and  with  modern  civilization.'^ 

I  may  here  observe  that  I  have  abstained  from  any  argument  ia 
favour  of  the  infallibility  of  the  Papal  Encyclicals,  not  because 
I  have  any  doubt  on  the  subject,  but  because  it  is  a  matter  more 
properly  left  to  theologians;  it  is  enough  for  a  lay  writer  to 
remark  that  what  is  sometimes  termed  the  "  pietas  fidei "  requires 
that  we  should  fully  assent  to  all  the  teaching  of  the  Yicar  of 
Christ,  put  forth  in  his  capacity  as  Pope,  whether  we  believe  it 
to  be,  strictly  speaking,  infallible  or  not. 

I  had  proceeded  so  far  in  my  argument  previously  to  the  pub- 
lication of  the  recent  Encyclical  letter,  "  Immortale  Dei ; "  it 
now  became  necessary  to  ascertain  whether  the  inferences  I  had 
drawn  were  in  accordance  with  the  teaching  of  the  reigning 
Pontiff.  No  sooner  had  the  Encyclical  appeared  than  its  contents 
were  reported  with  exaggeration  and  misstatement.  Let  us, 
however,  see  what  lessons  are  really  to  be  learnt  from  it.  Since 
it  is  printed  in  extenso  in  another  part  of  this  Review,  I  invite 
the  reader  to  study  it  carefully  in  order  to  ascertain  whether  I 
am  correctly  representing  its  substance. 

The  following  are  the  principal  points  which  the  Pope  lays 
down  for  our  guidance  :  It  is  the  natural  condition  of  man  that 
he  should  live  in  civil  society,  and  this  implies  a  civil  authority ; 
but  the  authority  comes  from  God :  "  Whoever  possesses  the 
right  of  governing  can  receive  that  from  no  other  source  than 
from  that  supreme  chief  of  all — God."  If  the  rulers  of  a  State 
act  unjustly  or  injuriously  towards'the  people,  to  God  they  must 
render  an  account.  The  citizens  should  pay  to  their  rulers  some- 
thing of  the  same  respect  and  affection  that  children  should  do 
towards  their  parents ;  popular  violence  inciting  to  sedition  is 
treason  not  only  against  man  but  against  God. 

The  State  is  bound  to  satisfy,  by  the  public  profession  of 
religion,  the  many  and  great  duties  which  bring  it  into  relation 


The  Church  and  Liberalism.  65 

with  God ;  and  it  must  not  act  as  though  God  did  not  exist, 
nor  may  it  out  of  several  kinds  of  religion  adopt  indifferently 
which  it  pleases.  God  has  divided  the  charge  of  the  human 
race  between  two  powers,  the  ecclesiastical  and  the  civil ;  each  is 
the  greatest  in  its  own  kind,  each  has  certain  limits  within  which 
it  is  restricted.  Whatever  in  human  affairs  is  in  any  way  sacred 
is  subject  to  the  Church ;  but  things  political  to  the  civil  authority. 
Concordats  between  the  Eoman  Pontiff  and  civil  princes  are 
sometimes  advantageous ;  and  in  these  cases  the  Church  usually 
exhibits  the  highest  possible  degree  of  generosity  and  indulgence. 

Certain  modern  principles  are  out  of  harmony,  not  only  with 
Christian,  but  in  some  respects  with  natural  law — such  as  that  all 
men,  being  alike  by  birth  and  nature,  are  equal  in  their  relations 
of  life ;  each  is  master  of  himself  and  in  no  way  comes  under  the 
authority  of  another ;  he  can  think  freely  on  whatever  subject  he 
likes,  and  act  as  he  pleases,  for  no  one  has  a  right  of  ruling  over 
others.  In  a  society  founded  on  these  principles,  government  is 
only  the  will  of  the  people,  which  is  alone  its  own  proper  sovereign, 
choosing  indeed  to  whom  it  may  entrust  itself,  but  in  such  a 
way  that  it  transfers  not  so  much  the  right  as  the  function  of 
the  government  which  is  to  be  exercised  in  its  name ;  God  is 
passed  over  in  silence  ;  it  is  held  that  no  I'cligion  should  be 
publicly  professed,  nor  any  one  preferred  to  the  rest ;  every  one 
may  follow  what  religion  he  prefers,  or  none  at  all ;  consequently 
free  opinions  are  expressed  concerning  worshipping  or  not  wor- 
shipping God,  and  there  is  unbounded  license  of  thinking  and 
publishing.  States  founded  on  such  principles  as  these  do  an 
injury  to-  the  Church ;  and  even  natural  religion  can  show  us 
the  falsity  of  opinions  of  this  character. 

The  Pope,  not  content  with  himself  condemning  the  errors  he 
is  denouncing,  appeals  to  the  teaching  of  his  immediate  prede- 
cessors, and  reminds  us  that  Gregory  XVI.,  in  the  Encyclical 
"  Mirari  Vos,"  inveighed  with  weighty  words  against  the  sup- 
posed right  of  individuals  to  judge  of  religion  according  to  their 
present  preferences,  and  the  lawfulness  of  promulgating  what 
each  man  might  think  (making  thereby  a  revolution  in  the 
State) ;  also  against  those  who  desire  the  separation  of  the  Church 
from  the  State.  Pius  IX,,  too,  as  opportunity  offered,  noted 
many  false  opinions,  and  aftei'jvards  ordered  them  to  be  collected 
together  for  the  guidance  of  Catholics — an  obvious  allusion  to 
the  well-known  Syllabus.  *'  From  these  decisions  of  the  Popes, 
it  is  clearly  to  be  understood  that  the  origin  of  public  power  is 
to  be  sought  from  God  Himself,  and  not  from  the  multitude ; 
that  free  play  for  sedition  is  repugnant  to  reason ;  that  it  is  a' 
crime  for  private  individuals  and  a  crime  for  States  to  make  no 
account  of  the  duties  of  religion,  or  to  treat  different  kinds  of 
•  VOL.  XV. — NO.  I.     [Third  Series.]  f 


66  The  Church  and  Liberalism. 

religion  in  the  same  way ;  that  the  uncontrolled  power  of  think- 
ing and  publicly  proclaiming  one's  thoughts  has  no  place  among 
the  rights  of  citizens,  and  cannot  in  any  way  be  reckoned  among 
those  things  which  are  worthy  of  favour  or  defence." 

But  no  form  of  government  is  'per  se  condemned ;  nor  is  it 
per  se  to  be  condemned  that  the  people  should  have  a  greater  or 
less  share  in  the  government,  it  being  sometimes  not  only  useful 
but  a  part  of  their  duty  so  to  participate;  again,  though  the 
Church  judges  it  not  to  be  lawful  that  the  various  kinds  of 
worship  should  have  the  same  right  as  the  true  religion,  she  does 
not  condemn  that  kind  of  toleration  which,  for  the  sake  of  gain- 
ing some  great  good  or  avoiding  some  great  evil,  permits  each 
religion  to  have  its  place  in  the  State.  No  one  should  be  com- 
pelled against  his  will  to  embrace  the  Catholic  faith :  "  Credere 
non  potest  homo,  nisi  volens  "  (quoted  from  St.  Augustine). 

The  Church  will  steadily  encourage  and  promote  those  studies 
which  are  concerned  with  the  investigation  of  nature ;  and, 
being  a  foe  to  inertness  and  sloth,  she  wishes  that  the  talents  of 
men,  being  cultivated  and  exercised,  should  bear  still  richer  fruits; 
and  she  offers  inducements  to  every  sort  of  art  and  craft. 

The  Holy  Father  lets  it  be  understood  that  he  is  not  speaking 
merely  by  way  of  exhortation  or  counsel,  for  he  states  that  what- 
ever things  the  Roman  Pontiffs  have  handed  down,  or  shall 
hereafter  hand  down,  Catholics  must  hold  in  their  own  judgment, 
and,  when  occasion  demands,  profess  them  openly. 

Catholics  should,  as  a  general  rule,  and  allowing  for  exceptional 
circumstances,  take  a  part  in  public  affairs. 

In  matters  purely  political,  questions  concerning  the  best  form 
of  government  and  civil  regulations,  there  is  room  for  harmless 
disagreement ;  and  pious  men,  ready  to  accept  the  decrees  of 
the  Apostolic  See,  are  not  to  be  accounted  evil,  or  charged 
with  violating  the  Catholic  Faith,  because  they  differ  on  such 
subjects. 

Such,  then,  are  the  lessons  inculcated  in  this  noble  Encyclical. 
I  question  whether  any  one  will  deny  that  it  confirms  the  teach- 
ing I  had  already  gathered  from  the  pronouncements  of  the  two 
former  Popes,  and  adds  something  besides  no  less  pointed  and 
forcible.  It  is  not  difiicult  to  see  how  the  exaggerations  arose  to 
which  I  alluded  above.  It  was  reported  that  the  Pope  had  con- 
demned Liberalism  and  universal  sliffrage.  The  word  Liberalism 
does  not  appear  to  be  used,  however,  though  the  principles  that 
are  censured  are  those  which  the  word  generally  implies.  But 
universal  suffrage  is  plainly  not  condemned,  nor  indeed  any  other 
kind  of  suffrage,  provided  it  be  in  accordance  with  the  constitution 
of  the  particular  country.  Still,  when  one  finds  such  expressions 
employed  as  that  the  origin  of  public  power  is  to  be  sought 


The  Church  and  Liberalism.  67 

from  God  himself,  and  not  from  the  multitude  ;  when  one  notices 
that  even  the  opinion,  so  commonly  held  by  Catholic  theologians, 
that  civil  authority,  though  coming  ultimately  from  God,  is 
derived  mediately  through  the  people,  is  not  even  once  men- 
tioned, one  understands  how  it  may  have  happened  that  careless 
or  superficial  readers  misapprehended  the  Pontiff's  meaning.  It 
is  evident  too  that  the  Pope  is  mainly  thinking  throughout  of 
Catholic  countries,  though  he  nowhere  expressly  says  so ;  it 
must  he  remembei-ed  that  he  is  dealing  with  certain  false 
principles,  and  not  with  the  special  cases  of  particular  nations. 

After  making  a  deduction  for  distortion  and  exaggeration,  it 
nevertheless  remains  a  fact  that  opinions  generally  held  to  be 
vitally  connected  with  modern  Liberalism  are  denounced  with  no 
uncertain  voice;  for  example,  antagonism  to  an  established 
Church  as  such,  indifference  on  the  part  of  the  State  to  religious 
truth,  the  unlimited  right  to  publish  or  even  to  think  what  you 
please,  the  making  an  idol  of  the  people  by  imagining  them  to 
be  the  sole  source  of  all  legitimate  authority. 

I  disclaim  the  use  of  the  words  "  Liberal "  and  "  Liberalism  " 
in  their  narrow  party  sense  (as  they  are  used,  for  instance,  at  the 
English  elections) ;  but  suppose  we  take  a  philosophical  Liberal 
who  thinks  out  his  principles,  or  a  modern  lladical  of  the 
advanced  school,  and  put  the  Encyclical  before  him?  I  confess 
I  should  be  surprised  if,  after  reading  it,  he  did  not  feel  that  the 
Pope  was  his  natural  enemy. 

I  am  aware  that  it  may  be  argued  that,  although  Liberalism 
is  incontestably  condemned  by  the  Holy  See  in  one  sense,  it  is 
not  so  in  others.  I  entirely  admit  this,  and  I  only  say  that  I 
leave  it  to  the  judgment  of  my  readers  whether  the  vital  and 
essential  principles  of  Liberalism  are  involved,  or  are  not 
involved,  in  such  condemnation  as  we  have  been  considering. 

It  is  quite  true  that  certain  opinions  generally  associated  with 
advanced  Liberalism  are  free  for  all  Catholics  to  hold  or  reject 
as  they  please ;  as,  for  instance,  that  a  Democratic  Republic  is 
the  best  form  of  government.  This  may  seem  strange,  but  it  is 
well  known  that  the  Church  does  not  so  much  concern  herself 
with  forms  of  Government,  as  with  the  principles  on  which 
government  is  conducted ;  and  there  are  doubtless  men  (parti- 
cularly in  America)  who  hold  that  it  is  better  that  the  rulers  of 
a  State  should  owe  their  position  to  popular  election  than  to 
hereditary  succession,  but  that  when  once  elected  they  should  be 
implicity  obeyed.  The  Christian  law  of  submission  to  authority  is 
in  this  case  secured,  and  the  matter  resolves  itself  into  one  of 
human  judgment  and  prudence.  At  the  same  time,  I  question 
whether  a  man  who  thoroughly  accepted  the  teaching. of  the 
Papal  Encyclicals,  who  was  in  favour  of  the  temporal  princedom 


68  The  Church  and  Liberalism. 

of  the  PontiflP,  who  repudiated  the  theory  that  the  State  oughfc 
neither  to  encourage  religious  truth  nor  repress  religious  eri'or, 
and  who  detested  the  liberty  of  the  press — I  question  very  much 
whether  such  a  man  would  probably  be  in  practice  an  ardent 
Republican. 

I  desire  once  again  to  repeat  that  I  have  avoided  using  the 
word  "  Liberal  ^'  in  the  popular  sense,  as  commonly  understood 
in  England,  for  I  do  not  believe  that  the  line  of  demarcation 
(such  as  it  is)  which  separates  the  two  English  parties,  is  by  any 
means  an  available  criterion.  I  think  among  those  who  call 
themselves  Liberals  there  are  some  good  Christians,  who  would 
subscribe  ex  anirno  to  all  that  the  Popes  have  laid  down ;  and  I 
am  sure  there  are  many  Conservatives  who  hold  the  errors  that 
Gregory  XVL,  Pius  IX.,  and  Leo  XIII.  have  severally  con- 
demned, and  probably  others  besides. 

There  are  symptoms  indicating  that  this  country  is  advancing 
towards  a  state  of  political  decrepitude — one  such  symptom  being 
the  restless,  ceaseless,  desire  for  change ; — may  we  not  hope  that 
there  exist  means  of  arriving  at  truth  apart  from  the  rivalries 
of  contending  factions  ? 

And  in  any  case,  if  we  seek  to  form  a  sound  judgment,  the 
first  important  step  is  to  disentangle  the  mind  from  erroneous 
principles  and  false  maxims,  however  plausible  and  specious — a 
step  which  we  may  well  take  before  we  attach  ourselves  to  any 
so-called  party.  I  have  drawn  no  distinction  in  the  foregoing 
discussion  between  Continental  and  English  Liberalism,  for  I 
am  not  clear  that  such  a  distinction,  unless  in  point  of  degree, 
can  be  properly  drawn  ;  and  I  incline  to  the  opinion  of  the  writer 
in  the  National  Review,  already  alluded  to,  who  says : — 
"  Happily  for  us  there  is  still  a  wide  difference  between  the 
Liberalism  of  the  Continent  and  the  Liberalism  of  England,  but 
the  first  principles  of  both  are  the  same,  and  these  principles 
will  inevitably,  in  course  of  time,  lead  to  the  same  errors  of 
practice." 

But  I  accept  these  words  in  the  sense  of  being  applicable 
generally  to  the  principles  of  Liberalism  considered  in  the 
abstract,  and  not  necessarily  to  sects  or  parties  calling  them- 
selves by  the  name  ;  for  it  is  notorious  that  in  some  Continental 
countries  these  latter  are  especially  odious  on  account  of  their 
virulent  antagonism  to  the  Catholic  Church,  which  seems  to 
impress,  and  almost  to  terrify  them,  in  a  way  scarcely  possible  in 
England,  with  the  vastness  of  her  spiritual  power  and  the 
grandeur  of  her  Imperial  position. 

F.  R.  Wegg-Peossee. 


(    69     ) 


Art.  v.— the  STORY  OF  COWDRAY. 

Cowdray,  the  History  of  a  Great  English  House.     By  Mrs. 
Charles  Roundell.     Loudon:  Bickers  &  Son.     1884. 

IN  the  following  pages  I  shall  make  abundant  use  of  the 
materials  which  Airs.  Roundell,  with  great  care  and  skill, 
and  in  a  manner  most  courteous  to  Catholics,  has  brought  together 
in  her  handsome  volume.  Even,  therefore,  where  I  am  not  ex- 
pressly quoting,  the  reader  will  understand  that  for  the  most  part 
1  have  Mrs.  Roundell's  "  Cowdray "  before  me.  The  book  is 
dedicated  to  Earl  Spencer,  as  "  one  of  the  chief  representatives  " 
of  the  family  of  Montague,  which  no  doubt  he  is;  but  its  "chief 
representative  "  must  be  reckoned  Mr.  du  Moulin  Browne,  of  the 
line  of  Easebourne,  whose  interesting  collection  of  documents 
relating  to  his  ancestors  will  enable  me  to  add  particulars  of 
which  Mrs.  Roundell  was  apparently  not  aware  at  the  time  of 
writing,  as  likewise  to  tell  the  story  of  Cowdray  in  a  slightly 
different  fashion,  not,  indeed,  impugning  anything  that  lady  has 
set  down,  but  sometimes  shading  or  colouring  it  to  another  effect. 
And  now  to  introduce  my  subject. 

Hardly  any  part  of  Europe  is  so  crowded  as  England  with 
great  houses  the  record  of  which  is  a  brief  epitome  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  nation  itself.  But  impressive  as  are  the  names  of 
Chatsworth,  Hatfield,  and  Welbeck  (to  take  instances  close  at 
hand),  there  is  a  more  potent  charm  in  the  houses  which,  not 
standing  like  these  glorious,  but  fallen  down  and  in  ruins,  tell 
the  same  tale  pathetically  as  in  the  minor  key.  These  are  fit 
illustrations  of  "  the  chronicle  of  wasted  time,''  calling  up  from 
the  past  as  in  a  ghostly  procession  those  "ladies  dead  and 
lovely  knights''  whose  beauty  and  daring,  whose  high  and 
heroic,  or  strange,  criminal,  and  unhallowed  deeds  make  at  once 
the  truth  and  the  romance  of  bygone  centuries.  And  this 
sombre  hue  will  be  indefinitely  deepened  if,  in  the  story  of  an 
old  family,  we  can  admit  or  suspect  a  superhuman  element  to 
explain  the  catastrophe ;  if  it  should  appear  that  a  sin  may  be 
traced  through  all  its  consequences  to  the  final  disaster  which, 
making  a  clean  sweep  of  the  personages  moving  in  the  drama, 
did  at  the  same  time  bring  down  in  ruins  upon  them  their  very 
homestead,  and  force  upon  every  passer-by,  how  little  soever 
interested,  the  thought  of  a  crime  and  its  retribution.  Such  a 
house  is,  or  rather  was,  Cowdray  ;  such  a  family  the  descendants 
of  Sir  Anthony  Browne,  K.G.,  Master  of  the  Horse  to 
Henry  VIIL,  who,   on   the   Feast    of  the  Assumption,  1538, 


70  The  Story  of  Cowdray. 

received  "  a  grant  of  the  house  and  scite  of  the  late  monastery 
of  Battle  in  Sussex,  to  him,  his  heirs,  and  assigns  for  ever/' 

Battle  Abbey,  as  all  the  world  knows,  was  founded  by  William 
the  Conqueror,  at  a  place  anciently  called  Senlac,  nine  miles  from 
Hastings,  where,  October  14,  1066,  he  overcame  King  Harold. 
"  He  built  a  new  convent  near  Hastings/^  says  Hume,  "  which 
he  called  Battle  Abbey,  and  which,  on  pretence  of  supporting 
monks  to  pray  for  his  own  soul  and  for  that  of  Harold,  served 
as  a  lasting  memorial  of  his  victory."*  It  is  worth  while  to 
reflect  that  the  belief  in  purgatory  led  to  the  establishment  of 
almost  every  religious  house  in  Europe,  and  always  had  an  in- 
fluence in  their  foundation  and  growth.  Hume  was  a  keen- 
sighted  man,  but  nobody  at  this  time  of  day  would  imagine 
William  the  Conqueror's  alleged  motive  a  "  pretence,"  or  that 
he  thought  more  of  the  monument  to  his  victory  than  of  the 
monks'  prayers.  We  have  travelled  a  long  way  since  Hume 
wrote  his  History.  William  was  lavish  of  lands  and  privileges ; 
Battle  Abbey  ranked  in  the  later  language  of  Canon  Law  as 
nullius  Biceceseos,  and  few  monasteries  at  the  Reformation  can 
have  seemed  better  worth  plundering. 

The  last  abbot  was  John  Hammond,  and  no  more  than  three 
months  elapsed  between  his  surrender  of  the  consecrated  buildings 
and  the  establishment  in  them  of  Sir  Anthony  Browne  and  his 
family.  The  abbot's  lodging  became  the  homestead  of  the  in- 
truders ;  with  the  abbey  cloisters  much  of  the  fine  mediaeval  archi- 
tecture was  razed  to  the  ground ;  and  of  the  great  abbey  church 
not  one  stone  was  left  on  another.  .  Where  it  had  been  Sir 
Anthony  planted  his  garden,  and  made  a  double  row  of  yew-trees 
to  mark  the  nave  of  the  minster,  and  perpetuate,  by  their  very 
situation,  the  memory  of  a  sacrilege.  We  need  only  remember 
that  the  same  pulling  down  and  building  up,  the  same  desecra- 
tion of  holy  places  and  planting  of  new  homesteads  on  their 
site,  was  going  on  all  over  the  country,  to  see  with  our  mind's 
eye  the  first  act  of  that  tremendous  change  which  broke  the  old 
order  in  pieces.  Among  other  things,  it  gave  England  a  new 
peerage,  founded,  as  in  this  case,  on  spoliation  and  profaned 
sanctuaries.  The  feeling  has  hardly  yet  died  out  which  these 
events  stirred  up  in  common  minds  ;  less  than  half  a  century 
ago  it  led  an  illustrious  convert  to  attempt  reparation,  by  the 
building  and  endowing  of  many  churches,  for  what  he  deemed 
the  hereditary  guilt  of  his  house ;  and  when  he  died,  and  his 
title  passed  to  a  remote  branch,  it  was  said  that  the  reparation 
could  not  have  been  ample  enough,  and  that  the  "  accursed 
thing  "  had  not  been  cast  out.     So  tenacious  are  men,  even  in 

*•  "  History  of  England,"  ch.  iv.  p.  82.     (Ed.  1810.) 


The  Story  of  Cowdray.  71 

the  nineteenth  ^century,  of  their  old  belief  that  "  though  the 
mills  of  God  grind  slowly,  yet  they  grind  exceeding  small/' 
Sir  Henry  Spelman  wrote  his  '' Fate  of  Sacrilege"  in  a  time 
when  the  secret  judgments  of  Providence,  and,  on  occasion,  the 
manifest  interposition  of  God's  hand  in  great  events,  were  yet 
articles  in  the  faith  of  nations.  History  is  not  composed  now 
in  accordance  with  such  beliefs  ;  but  I  am  far  from  certain  that 
the  metaphysical  law  of  Nemesis,  the  doctrine  that  "  things  are 
what  they  are,  and  their  consequences  will  be  what  they  will  be," 
does  not  warrant  our  forefathers'  conviction  of  the  penalties 
which  followed  on  possessing  oneself,  by  fraud  or  favour,  of  title- 
deeds  consecrated  to  religious  and  humane  purposes. 

At  all  events,  it  was  long  believed  in  Sussex,  as  my  book  tells 
me,  that — 

when  Sir  Anthony  was  holding  his  first  great  feast  in  the  abbot's 
hall  at  Battle,  a  monk  made  his  way  through  the  crowd  of  guests,  and 
striding  up  to  the  dais  on  which  Sir  Anthony  sate,  cursed  him  to  his 
face.  He  foretold  the  doom  that  would  befall  the  posterity  of  Sir 
Anthony,  and  prophesied  that  the  curse  would  cleave  to  his  family 
until  it  should  cease  to  exist.  He  concluded  with  the  words,  "  By 
fire  and  water  thy  line  shall  come  to  an  end,  and  it  shall  perish  out  of 
the  land  "  (p.  141). 

An  English  clergyman,  who  had  been  vicar  of  the  parish  wherein 
are  the  ruins  of  Cowdray,  recalling  thirty  years  ago  the  tradition 
of  the  "  curse  of  fire  and  water ''  (which  he  had  gathered  from 
the  lips  of  the  villagers),  quotes  the  striking  words  of  an  observer 
who  cannot  well  be  deemed  favourable  to  monasticism — Arch- 
bishop Whitgift.  "  Church  land,"  wrote  that  prelate  to  Queen 
Elizabeth,  "  added  to  an  ancient  inheritance  hath  proved  like  a 
moth  fretting  a  garment,  and  secretly  consumed  both  ;  or  like 
the  eagle  that  stole  a  coal  from  the  altar,  and  thereby  set  her 
nest  on  fire,  which  consumed  both  her  young  eagles  and  herself 
that  stole  it.''* 

But  the  story  of  the  curse  has  come  down  to  us,  not  without 
reason,  in  a  different  form.  Instead  of  being  associated  with 
Battle,  the  scene  of  it  is  transferred  to  Cowdray  Park,  at  the 
upper  end  of  which,  as  may  still  by  the  careful  eye  be  discerned, 
stood  Easebourne  Priory.  This  foundation  was  established  about 
the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  by  John  de  Bohun,  Lord 
of  Midhurst,  for  a  prioress  and  five  nuns  of  the  Benedictine 
Order.  It  will  be  remembered  that  it  was  small  communities 
like  this,  of  twelve  and  under,  that  were  threatened  at  the  first 
visitation  of  the  monasteries,  when  the  commissioners,  not  yet 
understanding  how  far  Henry  would  go,  reported,  as  they  were 

*  Taken  from  Notes  and  Queries,  and  cited  p.  142. 


72  The  Story  of  Cowdray. 

bidden,  that  the  large  houses  of  monks  kept  good  order,  and  only 
the  smaller  merited  suppression.  Easebourne  had  an  indifferent 
reputation  long  before  its  end.  In  1441  it  appears  that  the 
prioress  was  severely  rebuked  for  her  extravagance  by  the  Bishop 
of  Chichester,  who  sent  his  commissary.  Master  Walter  Eston, 
to  hold  a  visitation  in  the  chapter-house,  and  the  prioress  was 
suspended  from  "all  administration  of  temporal  goods."  Two 
other  inquiries  were  held,  one  by  Bishop  Story  in  1478,  the  other 
by  a  commissary  of  Bishop  Sherburne''s  in  1521  ;  and  at  both 
the  nuns  complained  bitterly  of  their  superiors.  It  is  clear  that 
some  change  was  needed ;  a  house  so  ill  conducted  must  have 
been  i-eformed  or  suppressed,  and  in  the  dissolution  of  the  mon- 
asteries offered  a  fine  prey  to  secular  greed.  Accordingly,  in 
1535,  Margaret  Sackfield,  the  last  prioress,  gave  up  house  and 
lands  to  the  King's  commissioners,  and  the  few  inmates  of  the 
convent  went  back  to  their  homes.  The  year  after,  Easebourne 
was  granted  to  Lord  Southampton ;  Baldwin  Ham  met,  the  nun^s 
chaplain,  receiving  a  yearly  pension  of  one  hundred  shillings. 
In  the  survey  of  the  year  1568,  the  ''house  called  Easebourne 
Priory  "  is  mentioned,  "  wherein  be  granaries,  and  a  brewhouse, 
all  enclosed  within  the  park  of  Cowdray,  and  subject  to  the 
deer  coming  in.''  And,  three  centuries  after,  the  convent  garden 
still  remained,  divided  by  grey  stone  walls  and  arches ;  while  the 
convent  parlour,  part  of  the  cloisters,  and  the  refectory,  had  been 
turned  into  domestic  offices.  Tlie  habitable  part  is  still  a  dwell- 
ing, and  the  chapter-house  a  barn.  Now  it  was  at  the  surrender 
of  Easebourne,  says  the  other  story,  that  Dame  Alicia  Hill,  the 
sub-prioress,  reminded  those  present  of  the  curse  of  fire  and  water 
invoked  by  the  pious  founders  of  the  house  on  the  male  children 
and  heirs  of  whoever  should  despoil  it.  However,  Sir  William 
Eitzwilliam,  afterwards  Earl  of  Southampton,  not  only  accepted 
Easebourne  from  Henry  in  1536,  but  added  likewise  the  lands  of 
Shulbred  Abbey,  four  miles  off,  in  the  parish  of  Lynchmere, 
which  was  founded  by  Sir  Ralph  de  Arderne  in  the  reign  of  King 
John  and  dedicated  as  a  priory  of  black  Augustinian  Canons  to 
Our  Lady.  That,  too,  had  been  surrendered  by  its  prior,  George 
Waldene,  in  1535,  and  was  granted  to  Lord  Southampton  eight 
years  alter.  The  priory  was  degraded  into  a  farmhouse,  but 
Lord  Southampton  had  a  royal  patent  to  enlarge  Cowdray  Parkj 
and  to  set  up  there  an  embattled  castle  of  stone.  He  built  so 
much  that,  in  my  author's  opinion,  he  may  be  looked  upon  as 
having  erected  Cowdray.  And  so,  if  a  curse  there  was,  he  took 
it  home  with  him.* 

*  The  beginnings  of  Cowdray  House  are  traced  to  the  family  of 
De  Bohuns,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  HI.  It  was  sold  by  Sir  David  Owen, 
husband  of  Mary  de  Bohun,  to  his  relative  Sir  >V.  Fitzwilliam  in  1628. 


The  Stoo^  of  Cowdray.  73 

Henry  VIII.  bestowed  on  this  gentleman  so  many  favours 
that  he  was  reckoned  with  the  "  most  eminent  men  of  his  time." 
He  Vvas  Knight  of  the  Garter,  Keeper  of  the  Privy  Seal,  and 
Lord  High  Admiral.  In  1537  he  became  Earl  of  Southampton. 
But  the  human  interest  he  may  still  excite  (for  the  rest  is  of 
consequence  only  to  wyverns  and  griffins  and  lions  rampant  or 
couchant)  is  due  to  his  relations  with  Margaret,  Countess  of  Salis- 
bury, daughter  of  George,  Duke  of  Clarence,  and  the  last  of  the 
Plantagenets.  Her  father  died  in  the  Tower ;  her  elder  son.  Lord 
Montacute,  was  beheaded  on  Tower  Hill;  and  Henry  had  resolved 
that  the  Countess  herself  should  undergo  the  punishment  he  was 
desirous,  but  unable,  to  inflict  on  her  younger  son,  Reginald 
Pole,  whose  opposition  to  the  "  King's  matter  "  had  made  a  deep 
impression  abroad  and  at  home.  Late  in  the  year  1538,  Lord 
Southampton  was  sent  to  arrest  the  Countess,  his  cousin,  in  her 
own  house  at  Warblington,  near  Havant,  and  to  take  her  thence 
to  Cowdray,  as  the  first  stage  of  her  journey  to  the  Tower.  He 
did  as  he  was  bidden,  not  without  difficulty,  for  he  wrote, 
November  16,  from  Cowdray,  "We  have  dealed  with  such  a  one 
as  men  have  not  dealed  withall  before ;  we  may  call  her  rather 
a,  strong  and  constant  man  than  a  woman."  I  need  not  repeat 
her  familiar  story.  It  vvas  Southampton  who  discovered  in  her 
linen  wardrobe  a  tunic  of  white  silk,  embroidered  in  front  with 
the  royal  arms  of  England,  and  at  the  back  with  the  device  of 
the  Five  Wounds,  borne  by  the  Northern  insurgents.  This  tunic 
Thomas  Cromwell  held  up  in  the  House  of  Lords  when  Lady 
Salisbury  and  divers  others  were,  on  April  28,  1539,  attainted, 
without  trial,  of  high  treason.  It  is  probable  that,  until  the 
attainder  passed.  Lady  Salisbury  was  kept  in  prison  at  Cowdray. 
The  frightful  circumstances  of  her  execution,  which  took  place 
two  years  later.  May  27,  154)1,  have  been  described  often  enough ; 
but  there  is  a  comfort  to  the  mind  which  cannot  quite  rid  itself 
of  the  thought  of  righteous  retribution,  in  the  fact  that  Crom- 
well, who  invented  the  Bill  of  Attaindei*,  was  the  first  to  suffer 
by  his  own  contrivance,  and  before  the  Countess.  Ifec  lex  justior 
ulla  cannot  but  rise  to  our  lips  as  we  read  of  him  on  the  scaffold. 
Southampton,  however,  gained  not  a  little  by  acting  gaoler  to 
his  cousin,  and  so  carrying  out  his  motto,  LoiaulU  se  prouera: 
His  loyalty  and  the  way  he  "  proved  "  it  did  him  equal  honour. 
He  ordered  a  "  new  chapell '"'  to  be  erected  at  Midhurst,  as  a 
mausoleum  for  himself  and  his  wife  Mabell,  daughter  of  Lord 
Clifford.  But  he  died  at  Nevvcastle-on-Tyne,  in  the  Scottish 
expedition  of  1543.  His  remains  were  not  brought  home  ;  and 
as  he  left  no  children,  his  estates,  with  their  burden  of  sacrilege, 
passed  to  his  half-brother.  Sir  Anthony  Browne. 

Their  mother,  Lady  Lucy  Nevill,  was  daughter  and  co-heir  of 


74  The  Story  of  Cowdray. 

John,  Marquis  Montacute,  and  thereby  niece  of  Richard,  Earl  of 
Warwick,  the  King-maker.  She  married,  first.  Sir  W.  Fitz- 
williara,  of  Aldwarke,  in  Yorkshire,  and  afterwards  Sir  Anthony- 
Browne,  standard-bearer  to  Henry  VIL,  and,  from  1503  to  1526, 
Governor  of  Calais.  In  this  way  Lord  Southampton  and  the 
second  Sir  Anthony — the  first  of  the  Brownes  of  Cowdray — 
were  half-brothers.  The  Brownes  are  traced  to  Robert  le  Brown, 
who  represented  Cumberland  in  Parliament,  and  whose  second 
son,  Anthony,  settled  as  a  merchant  in  London,  about  the  year 
1350.  A  son  of  his,  Sir  Stephen,  was  Lord  Mayor  in  1439 ; 
and  the  harvest  being  scanty  that  year,  he  sent  to  the  Prussian 
coast  for  cargoes  of  rye,  which  he  gave  away  "  among  the  poorer 
sort  of  people."  When  they  married  into  the  family  of  the 
King-maker  the  Brownes  were  a  thriving,  prosperous  house,  and 
their  fortune  rose  steadily  with  the  times.  The  Sir  Anthony 
yvho  now  came  into  Cowdray  had  been  knighted  after  the  taking 
of  Morlaix,  in  Bretague,  in  1523.  The  same  year  he  and  the 
High  Admiral,  Lord  Surrey,  conveyed  Charles  V.  from  South- 
ampton to  Biscay.  In  1524  he  became  Esquire  of  the  Body. 
He  was  one  of  the  challengers  in  the  jousts  held  at  Greenwich 
by  the  King  during  the  Christmastide  of  that  year,  and  drew 
Henry^s  notice  in  such  a  way  that  he  became  one  of  his  greatest 
favourites.  In  1526  he  was  made  Lieutenant  of  the  Isle  of  Man 
for  the  young  Edward,  Earl  of  Derby.  Two  years  later  he  in- 
vested Francis  I.  with  the  Order  of  the  Garter;  and  in  1533 
he  accompanied  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  Lord  Rochford  the  brother 
of  Anne  Boleyn,  and  Sir  William  Paulet,  as  attendant  on  the 
same  King  when  he  proceeded  to  Nice,  to  "  commune  with  the 
Pope  there  concerning  his  stay  in  the  King^s  divorce.^'  In 
1539  he  was  made  Master  of  the  Horse,  "with  the  yearly  fee  of 
forty  pounds  for  that  service,"  which  next  year,  when  he  received 
the  Garter,  was  confirmed  to  him  for  life. 

It  is  not,  therefore,  surprising  that  he  came  by  so  magnificent 
a  share  of  Church  plunder  as  Battle  Abbey  and  its  appurtenances. 
But  he  was,  moreover,  the  husband  of  Alys,  daughter  of  Sir  John 
Gage,  and  Sir  John  was  one  of  the  commissioners  appointed  to 
dissolve  the  Abbey  of  Battle.  The  men  that  did  these  things 
have  left  behind  them  no  pleasant  reputation.  Sir  John  Gage, 
Constable  of  the  Tower,  appears  to  have  executed  his  trust 
with  so  great  severity  on  the  one  hand  and  profit  to  himself  on 
the  other  that  at  his  death  he  possessed  land  in  forty  parishes. 
Part  of  the  spoils  of  Battle  Abbey  was  the  Manor  of  Alciston,  in 
the  Rape  of  Pevensey,  which  to  this  day  is  held  by  the  Viscounts 
Gage,  who  recognize  in  Sir  John  a  fortunate  and  most  dis- 
tinguished ancestor.  When  Sir  Anthony  Browne  entered  on 
Cowdray,  he  himself  had  received  no  more  than  Battle  Abbey. 


The  Story  of  Cowdray.  75 

There  now  came  to  him  Easebourne,  Shulbred,  the  monasteries  of 
Bayham  and  Calceto,  and  the  Cistercian  Abbey  of  Waverley,  in 
Surrey.  But  even  this  did  not  suffice.  In  1545,  the  Priory  of 
St.  Mary  Overy,  in  South wark,  which  had  been  surrendered  to 
the  Crown  six  years  earlier,  was  bestowed  on  him.  The  church, 
now  styled  St.  Saviour's,  was  bought  by  the  parish ;  and  on  the 
site  of  the  priory  its  new  owner  built  a  mansion  which,  in  the 
time  of  the  second  Viscount  Montague,  went  by  the  name  of 
Montague  Close. 

Sir  Anthony  found  employment  enough  at  the  hands  of  his 
master.  In  1540,  he  was  sent  to  the  Court  of  the  Duke  of  Cleves 
to  act  as  proxy  in  the  unfortunate  marriage  of  Henry  and  the 
Duke's  sister,  Anne.  When  he  saw  the  lady,  "  so  far  unlike 
what  was  reported,"  and  that  Holbein  had  flattered  her  and 
deceived  the  King,  he  confessed  himself  dismayed ;  but  it  was 
too  late,  and  he  acted  as  proxy  in  the  wedding  ceremony  that 
followed.  His  wife,  Alys  Lady  Browne,  who  had  attended  Anne 
of  Cieves  on  her  arrival,  died  that  year,  and  was  buried  at 
Battle.  In  1543,  Sir  Anthony  joined  in  the  Duke  of  Norfolk's 
expedition  to  Scotland,  wherein  "they  burnt  about  twenty 
villages.^'  Next  year,  he  accompanied  Henry  himself  to  France  ; 
and  three  of  the  pictures  at  Cowdray  represented  the  chief  events 
of  the  unsuccessful  invasion — the  march  from  Calais,  the  Eng- 
lish encampment  at  Marquison,  and  the  siege  of  Boulogne.  Sir 
Anthony,  when  the  surrender  of  that  town  was  at  hand,  went 
from  Henry  to  treat  of  a  general  accord  with  the  ambassadors  of 
the  French  King,  and  the  army  returned  home.  In  1545,  he 
was  commissioned  to  raise  troops  in  the  southern  counties,  was 
made  Justice-in-Eyre  of  the  royal  forests  beyond  Trent,  and 
standard-bearer  to  Henry  VIII.,  as  his  father  had  been  to  Henry 
VII.  At  the  height  of  his  prosperity,  being  a  man  of  sixty,  he 
married  Lady  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  the  ninth  Earl  of  Kildare, 
celebrated  in  prose  and  verse  under  the  name  of  the  "  Fair 
Geraldine."  She  was  only  fifteen;  and,  surviving  her  husband, 
married  Sir  Edward  Clinton,  first  Earl  of  Lincoln,  by  whose  side 
she  lies  in  a  magnificent  tomb  in  St.  George's  Chapel,  Windsor. 

It  was  Sir  Anthony  Browne  who  warned  Henry  VIII.  in  his 
last  illness  of  his  approaching  end.  The  circumstances  of  the 
King's  death  are  obscure ;  and  I  shall  not  enter  on  the  question 
whether  the  famous  will,  disowned  b}'-  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  was 
forged  or  genuine.  It  appointed  Sir  Anthony  one  of  the  sixteen 
executors  and  guardians  to  Edward  VI.,  and  left  him  a  legacy  of 
three  hundred  pounds.  He  carried  the  news  of  their  father's 
death  to  Edward  and  Elizabeth,  then  at  Hertford,  and  a  few  days 
later  took  part  in  the  procession  that  conducted  "  the  King's 
Majesty  from  the  Tower  through  the  city  of  London,  in  most 


76  The  Story  of  Coiudray. 

royal  and  goodly  wise,  to  his  palace  of  Westminster,"  Saturday, 
February  19,  1547.  One  of  the  great  pictures  at  Cowdray 
represented  the  scene,  as  the  procession  came  through  Goldsmith's 
Row,  the  shops  set  out  with  golden  cups  and  beakers,  and  the 
master  of  each  at  his  door.  Sir  Anthony  rode  next  the  King, 
"  leading  a  goodly  courser  of  honour,  very  richly  trapped." 

He  began  soon  to  build  a  wing  at  Cowdray,  for  the  reception 
(or  safe  custody)  of  the  Princess  Elizabeth ;  but  it  was  finished 
by  his  son.  At  Byflete,  in  Surrey,  there  was  another  mansion  of 
his  building,  which  is  now  pulled  down.  There,  when  his  time 
was  come,  in  a  year  from  the  King's  death,  Sir  Anthony  breathed 
his  last.  May  6,  1548.  He  was  brought  from  Byflete  to  Battle, 
the  royal  standard  waving  before  his  body ;  and,  next  day,  at 
"  the  masse  of  the  Communion,"  his  armour  and  banners  were 
with  much  ceremony  offered  to  the  church,  and  hung  up  in 
memoriam.  Under  the  altar  tomb  he  had  prepared  with  colours 
and  rich  gilding,  at  Battle,  they  buried  him,  and  the  inscription 
over  himself  and  Dame  Alis  ends  in  the  old  way,  "  On  whose 
Sowls  and  all  Cristens  I  H  U  have  mercy.  Amen,"  and  the 
requiem  for  Sir  Anthony  was  sung  hard  by  the  ruins  of  the 
sanctuary  he  had  thrown  down. 

One  difierence,  however,  there  was  between  him  and  the  mul- 
titude of  those  who  despoiled  the  altar.  Amid  all  changes  he 
remained  a  Catholic.  And  he  brought  up  his  children  in  the 
same  faith.  Hence  it  has  been  observed  by  such  as  still  believe  in 
the  visitation  of  sin  even  unto  "  the  third  and  fourth  generation" 
that  the  curse  of  Cowdray  hung,  suspended  like  a  sword,  over  the 
heads  of  that  family,  waiting  until  sacrilege  should  be  made  per- 
fect by  denial  of  the  true  religion,  and  double-dyed,  as  it  were, 
in  the  guilt  of  apostasy.  All  which,  be  the  explanation  what  it 
may,  came  to  pass.  For  Sir  Anthony  left  an  eldest  son,  who 
prospered  like  his  father,  and  in  most  difiicult  times  kept  his 
religion  intact,  yet  lost  not  the  favour  of  the  Crown.  He  was 
knighted  at  the  coronation  of  Edward  VI. ;  and  in  the  only  pro- 
gress made  by  the  sickly  young  King,  in  1552,  Cowdray  was  one 
of  the  houses  in  Sussex  (Petworth  and  Halnaker  being  the  others) 
which  he  visited.  There  is  a  brief  but  quaint  description  of  his 
journey  in  Edward's  letter  to  his  friend  Barnaby  Fitzpatrick,  who 
had  been  the  Prince's  whipping  boy,  and  was  then  serving  in  the 
French  army.  When  Mary  came  to  the  throne  and  married 
Philip  of  Spain,  she  created  Sir  Anthony  a  viscount  at  the 
coronation  in  1554,  "  in  consideration  of  the  good  and  laudable 
service  "  which  he,  her  "  faithful  and  beloved  servant,  hath  done, 
and  still  continues  to  do,  as  also  his  nobility  of  birth,  early  care, 
loyalty,  and  honour."  His  grandmother.  Lady  Lucy  Nevill,  had 
been  daughter  and  co-heir  of  the  Marquis    Montacute.      He 


The  Story  of  Coivdray.  77 

therefore  chose  that  title,  modernized  to  Montague,  and 
diminished  from  a  marquisate  to  a  viscounty.  The  same  year  he 
was  made  Master  of  the  Horse,  and  despatched  with  Sir  Edward 
Carne  and  Thurlby,  Bishop  of  Ely,  to  Rome,  on  the  business  of 
England's  reconciliation  with  the  Holy  See.  They  had  not  pro- 
ceeded far  on  their  journey  when  Julius  III.  died.  Cardinal 
Cervini,  who  took  the  name  of  Marcellus  II.,  was  chosen  on 
April  9,  and  died  twenty-one  days  after ;  and  the  English 
ambassadors  reached  the  gates  of  Rome  on  the  very  day  that  his 
successor,  Paul  IV.,  was  crowned.  Owing  to  a  curious  circum- 
stance, a  delay  of  three  days  elapsed  ere  they  could  be  presented 
to  the  new  Pope.*  In  the  name  of  England  they  acknowledged 
his  supreme  jurisdiction,  offered  him  a  copy  of  the  Act  re-establish- 
ing his  authority,  and  besought  him  to  ratify  the  absolution 
pronounced  over  the  nation  and  the  Parliament  by  Cardinal 
Pole.  No  difficulties  could  be  raised  in  the  matter;  and  Lord 
Montague  and  the  Bishop  speedily  returned  home,  leaving  Carne 
as  accredited  ambassador  to  the  Holy  See. 

In  the  revolution  that  followed  Mary's  demise  on  November  17, 
1558,  Lord  Montague,  who  ceased  to  be  Privy  Councillor  under 
Elizabeth,  stood  by  his  colours,  and  was  one  of  the  small  minority 
that  protested  in  the  Upper  House  against  breaking  with  Rome. 
The  Bill  in  favour  of  the  new  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was 
carried,  indeed,  between  April  22  and  May  1,  1559,  by  a  majority 
of  three.  But  among  the  nine  spiritual  and  nine  temporal  peers 
that  voted  against  it,  we  find  the  name  of  Viscount  Montague. 
His  bold  and  manly  speech  is  also  on  record,  refusing,  "  out  of  a 
sentiment  of  zeal  and  honour/''  to  abolish  the  Papal  supremacy. 
Lord  Montague  insisted  that  "  he,  for  his  part,  had,  by  authority  of 
Parliament  and  in  the  name  of  the  whole  body  of  England,  ten- 
dered obedience  to  the  Pope,  the  performance  of  v/hich  he  could 
by  no  means  dispense  with."  He  and  Lord  Shrewsbury,  there- 
fore, voted  against  the  Bill.  It  was  an  "  uncourtly  act  of 
sincerity ; "  but  Viscount  Montague  lost  so  little  of  Elizabeth's 
favour  that,  in  1561,  she  entrusted  him  with  a  mission  to  Spain^ 
where  he  was  to  satisfy  King  Philip  of  the  "just  cause  she  had 
for  sending  an  army  into  Scotland,"  the  Queen  adding  that  she 
"  highly  esteemed  "  Lord  Montague  "  for  his  great  prudence  and 
wisdom,  though  earnestly  devoted  to  the  Romish  religion." 
By-and-by,  when  the  sending  of  armies  into  Scotland,  and  of 
other  things  besides  armies,  had  resulted  in  Mary  Stuart's  cap- 
tivity, and  the  end  was  come,  Elizabeth  appointed  Montague  one 
of  the  forty-seven  commissioners  who,  in  February,  1587,  went 
down    to    Fotheringay   and    tried    the    unhappy  lady   for   her 

*  See  Lingard,  vol.  vii.  p.  186. 


78  The  Story  of  Goivdray. 

life.  It  is  not  on  record  that  Lord  Montague  protested.  Next 
year  was  the  year  of  the  Armada.  Harassed  by  the  English 
vessels  all  the  way  from  Plymouth  to  Calais^  and  broken  by 
winds  and  storms,  it  came  to  ruin,  Flavit  Deus  et  dissiioavit 
€08.  And  when  the  danger  was  past  and  Elizabeth  held  her 
memorable  review  at  Tilbury,  "  the  first/^  as  we  read  in  that 
curious  document,  the  "  Letter  to  Mendoza/'  that  showed  his 
bands  to  the  queen  "  was  that  noble,  virtuous,  honourable  man, 
the  Viscount  Montague,  who  now  came,  though  he  was  very 
sickly  and  in  age,  with  a  full  resolution  to  live  and  die  in  defence 
of  the  queen  and  of  his  country  against  all  invaders,  whether  it 
were  Pope,  King,  or  potentate  whatsoever.^'  His  "bands" 
amounted  to  nearly  two  hundred  horsemen — "  the  same  being 
led  by  his  own  sons,  and  with  them  a  young  child,  very  comely, 
seated  on  horseback,  being  the  heir  of  his  house — that  is,  the 
eldest  son  to  the  son  and  heir ;  a  matter  much  noted  by  many.'' 
Thus  was  Lord  Montague  singled  out  as  the  pattern  of  Catholic 
loyalty  and  held  up  by  the  Government  itself,  from  whom  the 
*' Letter  to  Mendoza"  emanated,  to  the  admiration  of  Europe. 
He  had  perilled  "  his  whole  house  in  the  expected  conflict,"  and 
it  must  have  been  in  recognition  of  such  great  services  that 
Elizabeth  spent  nearly  a  week  at  Cowdray,  in  August,  1591. 

'^The  curious  and  minute  account  of  this  visit,"  says  Mrs. 
Roundell,  "  has  been  often  quoted,"  and  she  gives  it  in  full.  I 
regret  that  I  have  no  space  to  transcribe  even  a  part  of  it ;  but 
those  who  remember  what  Catholics  were  suffering  at  the  time, 
and  who  have  gained  some  knowledge  (not  now  a  difficult  matter) 
of  Elizabeth's  real  character,  will  find  in  it  fresh  evidence  of  the 
hypocrisy  of  all  concerned,  and  of  the  self-control  Or  servility 
of  those  great  Catholics  who  could  address  her  with  fulsome 
flattery,  whilst  their  brethren  were  rotting  in  prison  or  suffering 
on  the  scaffold  the  penalty  of  high  treason.  Yet  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  Lord  Montague  was,  in  the  language  of  Camden,  *'  a 
stiff  Romanist."  Among  the  ladies  at  Cowdray  during  Eliza- 
beth's visit  was  Lord  Montague's  sister  Mabell,  wife  of  Lord 
Kildare.  The  Queen  amused  herself  with  killing  deer  in  the  park; 
and  an  authentic  "  Queen  Elizabeth's  Oak,"  against  which  she 
rested  her  bow,  is  still  standing.  No  one  else  ventured  to  shoot 
except  the  unfortunate  Lady  Kildare  ;  and  as  she  brought  down 
a  stag,  Elizabeth  was  so  wroth  at  her  boldness  that  "  she  did  not 
afterwards  dine  at  the  Royal  table."  It  is  remarked  by  cynical 
persons  that  there  is  no  meanness  like  a  woman's ;  and  the 
Maiden  Queen  was,  if  we  may  argue  from  many  instances,  one  of 
the  meanest  characters  in  history,  as  she  was,  beyond  question, 
one  of  the  most  profligate. 

Some  time  before  her  visit  Lord  Montague  added  to  Cowdray 


The  Story  of  Cowdray.  79 

those  buildings  which,  in  Mr.  Freeman's  opinion,  made  it  ''one 
of  the  greatest  houses  of  the  best  house- buildinj^  time.''  He 
completed  the  great  quadrangle,  and  had  the  series  of  large  frescoes 
painted  which  recorded  the  achievements  of  himself,  his  father, 
and  Lord  Southampton  while  serving  abroad.  He  survived  his 
eldest  son,  and  died  October  19,  159£.  He  had  not  •  aly  shown 
much  kindness  to  Catholic  priests,  but  had  harboured  many. 
Topclyfe,  the  Jonathan  Wild  of  Elizabeth's  days,  and  "  famous 
persecutor  of  Papists,"  has  left  in  his  own  handwriting  the  con- 
fession on  this  head,  drawn  from  Robert  Gray,  a  priest,  in  August, 
1593.  It  is  far  too  long  to  transcribe,  but  the  sum  is  that  Lord 
Montague  and  the  "  old  Lady "  Montague  had  received  and 
treated  with  familiarity  and  kindness  both  traitorous  "  seminary 
priests "  and  "  Jhezewitts."  There  occurs  in  it  mention  of 
Father  Garnett,  in  whose  fate  so  many  Catholics,  and  Lord 
Montague  himself,  were  to  be  disastrously  involved. 

For  now,  despite  noble  alliances  and  great  wealth,  the  family 
began  to  decline  somewhat  from  its  pride  of  place.  Anthony 
Maria,  third  Viscount,  who  succeeded  his  grandfather  at  the  age 
of  twenty,  was  one  of  the  four  Catholic  noblemen,  esteemed  the 
mainstay  of  the  old  religion  in  England,  that  were  charged  with 
complicity  in  the  Gunpowder  Plot.  And  not  long  after  Guy 
Fawkes  had  been  taken,  he.  Lord  Mordaunt,  Lord  Stourton,  and 
the  Earl  of  Northumberland  were  lodged  in  the  Tower.  Lord 
Montague's  case  was  by  no  means  the  least  dangerous.  Guy 
Fawkes  had  been  a  member  of  his  household  at  Cowdray ;  and, 
in  consequence  of  a  hint  from  Sir  Robert  Catesby,  the  Viscount 
had  resolved  to  absent  himself  from  his  place  in  Parliament  on 
the  Fifth  of  November.  He  explained,  indeed,  that  it  was  the 
old  Lord  Montague  who  had  given  Guy  Fawkes  an  appointment 
in  his  house ;  that  he  had  scarcely  seen  the  man  for  twelve 
years;  and  that,  as  to  Catesby's  hint,  the  conversation  when  they 
met  in  the  Strand  "  on  the  Tuesday  fortnight  before  All  Saints' 
Day,"  when  Lord  Montague  was  on  his  way  to  dine  at  the  Savoy, 
had  turned  on  general  matters,  and  was  of  no  consequence.  He 
admitted  that  it  had  been  his  intention  to  be  in  the  country  on 
November  5th  if  he  could  have  got  leave.  The  Star  Chamber 
was  not  satisfied.  It  condemned  Lord  Montague  to  a  fine  of  four 
thousand  pounds,  and  to  be  imprisoned  during  the  King's  pleasure. 
But  he  compounded  for  his  fine ;  and  after  about  forty  weeks' 
imprisonment  in  the  Towex',  was  set  free.  There  seems  to  be 
little  doubt  that  he  escaped  worse  things  through  the  inter- 
cession of  Lord  Dorset,  Lord  High  Treasurer,  whose  daughter, 
Lady  Jane  Sackville,  he  married,  and  in  whose  will  he  is  men- 
tioned in  affectionate  terms. 

It  was  this  Viscount  that  drew  up  the  "  Book  of  Orders  and 


80  The  Story  of  Coiudray. 

Rules "  for  his  household  which  has  entitled  him  to  a  sneering 
criticism  in  Horace  Wal pole's  list  of  royal  and  noble  authors. 
He  says  of  the  volume  (which  still  exists  with  its  shield  of 
sixteen  quarterings  on  the  title-page),  "  It  is  a  ridiculous  piece  of 
mimicry  of  royal  grandeur ;  an  instance  of  ancient  pride,  the 
more  remarkable  as  the  peer  who  drew  it  up  was  then  barely 
twenty-four  years  of  age.  There  are  no  fewer  than  thirty-six 
different  ranks  of  servants  whom  he  calls  his  officers  ;  and  yet  it 
is  observable,  though  the  whole  line  were  rigid  Catholics,  that  no 
mention  is  made  of  his  chaplains  or  priests.  His  only  ecclesiastic 
is  his  almoner,  and  Jiis  business,  it  seems,  was  to  light  the  fires  iu 
his  hall."  This  reads  very  amusingly,  and  is  good  Walpole ; 
but,  as  Mrs.  Roundell  observes,  the  almoner  was  a  servant,  not 
an  ecclesiastic ;  and  we  need  not  look  far  in  the  year  1595  for 
reasons  why  even  "rigid  Catholics"  did  not  publish  the  names  of 
their  priests  and  chaplains  to  the  world.  As  time  went  on,  what 
with  paying  fines  for  recusancy  and  for  non-attendance  at  church, 
such  as  ruined  many  noble  estates,  what  with  keeping  up  princely 
establishments,  and  lavishing  money  on  State  occasions.  Lord 
Montague  became  a  poorer  man.  He  sold  Waverley  Abbey,  and 
drew  up  a  petition  for  help  to  that  royal  spendthrift,  James  I. 
Whether  he  built  the  fine  chapel  at  Cowdray  is  not  certain  ;  but 
a  brief  of  Urban  VIII.,  dated  February  17th,  1625,  erecting  aa 
oratory  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament  there,  makes  it  probable. 
According  to  the  account  of  Elizabeth's  visit  to  Cowdray,  it 
does  not  appear  that  any  religious  service  was  provided  for  that 
pious  lady  on  the  Sunday. 

This  Lord  Montague  died  in  1629,  but  we  must  not  pass  on  to 
his  successor  without  a  word  about  William,  the  third  brother  of 
the  Viscount  just  described,  whose  history,  taken  from  the  annual 
Letters  of  the  Jesuit  College  of  Liege,  has  been  published  in  the 
"  Records  of  the  English  Province."  William  Browne  was  born 
in  1576,  and  spent  his  youth  in  the  fashionable  amusements  of 
hunting  and  hawking.  It  happened  in  1618  that  he  went  on  a 
pilgrimage  to  Loretto,  and  on  his  way  paid  a  visit  to  the  Jesuit 
Fathers  of  St.  Omer.  He  bad  never  been  confirmed;  but  he 
now  received  that  sacrament,  and  resolved  instantly  to  join  a 
religious  order.  Whereupon  he  came  back  to  England,  and 
"disposed  of  his  stable,  kennel,  and  mew.^'  After  some  medi- 
tation as  to  his  future  course,  he  chose  the  humble  office  of  a 
Jesuit  lay-brother.  "  For  fourteen  years,"  we  are  told,  "  he  spent 
almost  two  hours  daily  in  the  kitchen,  washing  the  dishes,  &c. 
He  cleaned  the  out-offices,  lit  the  fires,  and  performed  other  the 
like  duties  with  so  great  a  sense  of  inward  pleasure  as  showed" 
itself  outwardly  in  his  countenance."  When  the  garden  was 
making  at  the  College  of  Liege,  he,  "with  a  sack  or  hodman's 


The  Story  of  Coivdray.  81 

basket  on  his  back,  which  he  so  fastened  by  a  double  cord  over 
his  breast  as  to  leave  his  hands  at  liberty,  in  which  he  held  his 
Imitation  of  Christ,  would  carry  rubbish  backwards  and  forwards, 
and  whilst  they  were  filling  his  hod,  he  would  sit  for  a  little  on. 
the  trunk  of  a  tree  and  draw  something  from  the  book,  wherewith 
in  the  meantime  to  feed  his  soul/'  When  his  mother  and  sister 
objected  that  such  conduct  was  lowering  the  dignity  of  the  house 
of  Montague,  he  answered  like  a  saint,  "  You  have  your  delights, 
whilst  I  in  the  meantime,  of  the  divine  bounty,  overflow  with 
heavenly  joys/'  A  youth  met  him  as  he  was  carrying  a  bucket 
of  hogs'  wash,  and  spoke  of  his  "  title  and  family  splendour/' 
William  said,  "  I  had  rather  the  whole  bucket  were  poured  down 
my  back  than  hear  such  words  from  you/'  He  thought  no  mean 
office  beneath  him,  but  if  any  spoke  of  reward,  his  answer  was, 
"  This  I  aspire  after,  that  I  may  please  God,  and  do  His  holy 
will.  As  to  heaven,  He  will  dispose  of  me  as  He  sees  tit/'  He 
was  not  by  natural  disposition  formed  for  labour,  '^  neither  did 
long  habit  ease  the  burden ; "  yet  he  could  say,  "  I  do  not 
*'  remember  for  tvrenty  years  to  have  needed  any  spur  but  the 
love  of  God  alone/'  He  helped  to  purchase  land  when  the 
English  novitiate  was  moved  from  Louvain  to  Liege,  at  which 
latter  place  he  lived  till  1637.  Then  the  plague  broke  out, 
and  two  other  lay  brothers  and  William  Browne  caught  it 
during  their  waiting  on  the  sick,  and  died  martyrs  of  charity. 
On  occasion  of  illness,  earlier,  he  had  composed  an  ascetical 
treatise,  still  preserved  in  the  Stonyhurst  library.  Another 
Jesuit,  who  must  have  lived  at  Cowdray  with  William  Browne, 
Father  Henry  Lanman,  was  converted  to  the  faith  by  one 
of  Lord  Montague's  Catholic  retainers,  and  reconciled,  as  he 
tells  us,  by  a  priest  named  Winckfield,  in  1596.  It  would  seem 
there  was  no  chaplain  at  the  time  within  the  walls  of  Cowdray. 

We  now  come  to  the  civil  wars  and  Francis,  Viscount  Montague, 
**  a  stout  Royalist/'  who  helped  Charles  I.  with  men  and  arms, 
and  suffered  greatly  in  consequence.  In  Evelyn's  "  Memoirs," 
under  date  1643,  are  quoted  letters  from  Sir  Richard  Browne, 
ambassador  in  Paris,  and  from  the  Secretary  of  State  in 
London,  which  prove  the  zeal  of  Lord  Montague  for  his  master. 
.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Commons'  Journals  contain  these  en- 
tries by  way  of  reprisal :  "  27th  June,  1613,  Resolved,  That  the 
estate  of  the  Lord  Viscount  Montague,  a  papist,  shall  be  forth- 
with sequestred/'  "  1st  April,  1644.  Ordered,  That  Captain 
Iliggons  do  forthwith  send  up  the  plate,  treasure,  and  other  goads 
found  in  the  Lord  Montague's  house/'  "18th  May,  1644. 
Ordered,  That  the  goods  brought  up  from  Cowdray  House  in 
Sussex  by  order  of  this  House  be  forthwith  stored  up  in  the 
stores  of  Cambden  House."  "  6th  June,  1644.  Ordered,  That 
VOL.  XV. — NO.  I.     \ Third  Series.]  G 


iJ2  The  Story  of  Gowdray. 

the  goods  that  are  brought  up  which  were  seized  at  the  Lord 
Montague's  House  in  Sussex,  and  particularly  those  goods  re- 
maining at  the  Talbot  in  Southwark  in  Captain  Higgons' 
custody,  be  carried  into  Cambden  House,  and  that  all  the  said 
goods  be  there  sold  at  the  best  value/'  Such  orders,  observes 
Mrs.  Roundell,  no  doubt  applied  to  the  Battle  Abbey  estates, 
then  worth  £1,200  a  year,  as  well  as  to  Cowdray,  But  Lord 
Montague  had  even  worse  to  endure,  for  Cowdray  was  occupied 
by  Royalist  and  Roundhead  in  turn.  First  came  Sir  R.  Hopton, 
who  had  surprised  Arundel  for  the  King  in  the  "  exceeding  hard 
frost  ■"  of  December,  1643,  and  left  a  garrison  there  ;  and  then 
Sir  William  Waller,  the  Parliamentary  general,  marching  in 
haste  to  encounter  the  ''four  troops  of  horse  and  one  hundred 
foote,"  which,  as  he  had  been  informed,  were  quartered  round 
Cowdray.  But  they  proved  "too  nimble"  for  him,  and  escaped 
to  Arundel.  During  the  siege  of  Arundel  which  followed, 
Cowdray  was  made  a  stronghold  and  storehouse  of  the  Parlia- 
mentarians. 

Thus  despoiled  of  goods  and  plate,  and  subject  to  the  quartering 
on  him  of  large  bodies  of  troops.  Lord  Montague  fell  into  great 
distress.  He  sold  West  Horsley,  disparked  the  lands  of  Battle, 
and  let  the  place  called  the  "  Almery  or  Almonry  House,''  with 
the  '*  various  parcels  of  land  belonging  thereto."  Yet  he  seems 
to  have  lived  extravagantly.  As  a  recusant,  he  had  forfeited  to 
the  Commonwealth  two-thirds  of  his  estate.  One  of  the  most 
interesting  papers  found  at  Battle  runs  as  follows  : — *'  Certificate 
of  the  value  of  the  two-thirds  part  of  the  estates  of  Francis 
Viscount  Montague  of  Battle,  in  the  several  Rapes  of  Lewes  and 
Pevensey,  sequestered  for  his  recusancy.  The  whole  estate  valued 
at  £1,200  per  An.  William  Yalden  of  Blackdowne,  Gent.,  offers 
to  rent  the  two-thirds  at  £800  per  An.  Exhibited  to  the  com- 
missioners for  compounding  of  Sequestration,  Dec.  16,  1650. 
Signed,  Richard  Sherwin,  Auditor,  Oct.  15, 1651.'^  The  Cowdray 
estates,  also  in  the  rapes  of  Arundel  and  Chichester,  which  were 
let  at  £1,575  per  annum,  in  like  manner  were  "  sequestered,"  and 
£1,050  taken  as  its  two-thirds  by  the  Commonwealth.  But  even 
when  the  "joyful  Restoration"  came.  Lord  Montague  had  to  pay 
subsidies  to  the  King  and  hearth-money ;  and  the  estate  never 
recovered  from  its  losses. 

The  Lady  Montague  of  this  date  was  Elizabeth  Somerset, 
youngest  daughter  of  the  Marquis  of  Worcester,  and  a  fervent 
Catholic.  Her  eldest  son,  Anthony,  quarrelled  with  his  father 
and  went  to  the  Hague,  but  returned  when  the  Civil  War 
broke  out,  joined  the  Royal  forces  under  Lord  Newcastle,  was 
wounded  at  the  siege  of  York  in  1644*,  and  taken  prisoner  at 
Marston  Moor.     He  escaped  and,  under  the  assumed  name  of 


The  Story  of  Cowdray.  83 

John  Hudson,  took  shelter  with  the  Eyres  of  Newbold,  near 
.  Chesterfield,  who  were  Catholics.  He  had  married  Bridget 
Maskevv,  of  York.  She  was  entitled, through  her  father,  to  large 
estates ;  but  Charles  II.  granted  them,  with  the  facility  of  a 
"  merry  monarch/^  to  Sir  George  Barlow,  and  refused  to  disturb 
the  settlement ;  and  so  they  were  lost  to  Anthony  Browne  and 
his  wife.  Anthony,  who  had  gone  up  to  London,  in  the  hope  of 
recovering  them,  went  on  to  Cowdray ;  but  the  old  servants 
were  dead,  his  father  absent,  and  there  was  no  one  to  recognize 
the  lame  and  weather-beaten  soldier.  He  returned  to  Newbold 
and  died  there  in  1666,  leaving  two  sons  and  two  daughters  in 
poverty.  His  eldest  son,  John,  died  unmarried.  About  1689, 
when  Anthony ^s  younger  brother  was  now  called  fourth  Viscount 
Montague,  Anthony's  second  son,  Gervase,  went  to  London  to 
see  his  uncle,  and  was  duly  acknowledged,  being  promised  the  next 
succession  to  the  title,  when  he  "  might  have  it  without  trouble 
or  expense."  He  registered  his  claim  in  the  Heralds^  Otfice,  but 
died  in  1696,  before  his  uncle.  He  had  worked  as  a  mason  in 
bis  time,  and  supplied  some  of  the  marble  used  in  building 
Chatsworth.  His  sons  put  forward  no  claim  to  the  peerage  ;  and 
although  his  grandson,  Joseph  Browne,  did  so  in  1793,  nothing 
came  of  it.  Joseph  Browne  was  too  poor  to  collect  the  necessary 
evidence ;  but  it  is  said  that  his  descendants  remain  at  North 
Wingfield,  in  Derbyshire,  to  this  day. 

Meanwhile,  the  fourth  Viscount,  who  was  made  Lord-Lieu- 
tenant of  Sussex,  in  1687,  by  James  IL,  had  come  and  gone, 
leaving  no  children,  and  in  1708  his  brother  Henry  succeeded. 
Of  him  it  is  recorded  that  he  destroyed  yet  more  of  Battle  Abbey. 
He  died  in  June,  1717,  and  strange  and  horrible  traditions  about 
him  are  still  rife  in  Midhurst  and  its  neighbourhood,  where  they 
have  been  handed  down  with  apparently  little  variation.     In 
character  he  is  described  as  violent  and  immoral ;  and  the  story 
ran  that  he  killed  the  priest  in  the  confessional,  who  refused  him 
absolution.     Thereupon  it  was  given  out  that  he  went  over  the 
sea;  but  the  more  romantic  story  is  that  he  spent  the  rest  of  his 
life  concealed    in    the  priest's  hiding-place,  which   the  famous 
Jesuit,  Brother  Owen,  or  "  Little  John,"  had  contrived  in  the 
ceeper's  lodge  at  Cowdray.     The  secluded  avenue  where  he  is 
[said  to  have  met  Lady  Montague  at  night  came  by  degrees  to 
Hiave  an  unpleasant    reputation,   as  though   haunted,   and  was 
snown  as  the  Lady's  Walk.    The  priest's  hiding-hole  in  the  lodge 
still  remembered  by  many  living  persons,  communicated  with  the 
roof,  and  had  a  secret  staircase  leading  up  to  it.     Blackwell,  the 
[arch- priest,  is  said  to  have  died  there. 

This  "  wicked  Lord  Montague  "  left  a  son  Anthony,  who  sold 
Jattle  Abbey  to  Sir  Thomas  Webster.    Though  a  Catholic,  he 

g2 


84  The  Story  of  Gowdray. 

was  chosen,  in  1732,  Grand  Master  of  the  Freemasons,  I  suppose 
when  it  was  still  imagined  that  a  Christian  might  belong  to 
them.  He  died  in  1767,  and  was  succeeded  by  Anthony  Joseph, 
seventh  Viscount,  who  married  a  Protestant,  Frances,  widow  of 
Lord  Halkerton.  To  this  mixed  marriage  is  attributed  the 
falling  away  of  so  illustrious  a  Catholic  from  the  religion  of  his 
fathers.  Lady  Montague  was  a  devoted  friend  and  follower  of 
Selina,  Countess  of  Huntingdon.  That  high-born  fanatic  preached 
at  Cowdray,  under  the  great  chestnut-trees,  and  encouraged  Lady 
Montague  to  go  and  do  likewise.  It  was  a  time  when  the  faith 
of  many  old  Catholics  was  growing  weak,  and  even  a  Duke  of 
Norfolk  had  apostatized.  Recusancy,  though  not  so  galling  a 
burden  as  in  the  days  of  Cromwell,  pressed  heavily  on  the 
shoulders  of  men  of  large  estate  with  its  double  land-tax ;  and 
Lord  Montague  decided  that  he  was  not  rich  enough  to  remain 
a  Catholic.  He  drove  to  the  parish  church  at  Midhurst;  and 
the  well-known  story  of  the  Catholic  coachman,  which  has  been 
told  of  the  Giffords  of  Chillington  and  others,  is  repeated  also  on 
this  occasion.  The  chapel  at  Cowdray  was  dismantled;  but 
Catholics  said  that  Lady  Montague  was  supernaturally  hindered 
from  profaning  it  with  her  new  services.  The  family  went 
abroad  and  settled  at  Brussels,  where,  on  Easter  Sunday,  1787, 
Lord  Montague  died.  But  he  died  a  Catholic.  One  account 
of  this  death-bed  repentance  was  given  in  the  Oentlertian's 
Magazine  for  1787,  by  the  Abbe  Mann,  Canon  of  Courtray, 
and  secretary  to  the  Academy  of  Sciences  at  Brussels ;  another  is 
preserved  at  St.  Scholastica^s  Priory,  Teignmouth,  and  has  been 
printed  in  the  "  Records  of  the  English  Province  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus."  The  Abbe  Mann  writes  that  he  was  sent  for  by  Lord 
Montague  a  few  days  before  his  death,  who  "  declared  his  regret 
and  remorse  for  having  abandoned  the  Catholic  religion,  in  which 
he  had  been  educated.  He  solemnly  and  repeatedly  protested 
that  it  had  been  no  conviction  of  the  truth  of  the  Protestant 
religion  which  made  him  take  that  step ;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
what  his  lordship  termed  the  vilest  of  motives,  to  wit,  libertinism 
both  in  faith  and  morals,  ambition,  and  interest."  After  he  was 
reconciled,  he  begged  the  Abbe  to  make  his  dying  sentiments  as 
publicly  known  as  possible.  The  matter  excited  some  attention 
both  in  Brussels  and  in  England ;  and  several  replies  were  made 
in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  to  the  Abbe  Mann,  not  denying 
his  account,  but  questioning  its  possibility  on  a  priori  grounds. 
The  other  story  says  nothing  of  the  Abbe  Mann,  but  introduces 
F.  Peter  Joseph  Rivers,  S.J.,  confessor  of  the  English  Bene- 
dictine nuns  at  Brussels,  as  receiving  Lord  Montague's  recanta- 
tion. Neither  piece  of  evidence  is,  however,  inconsistent  with 
the  other ;  and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  Lord  Montague  returned 


The  Story  of  Cowdray.  83 

to  the  .Church  in  his  last  moments.     Lady  Montague  survived 
her  husband  twenty-seven  years,  and  died  in  1814. 

It  was  during  this  interval  that  the  events  happened  which 
have   given    Cowdray  its  lugubrious  title  to  a  chapter  in  the 
"  Fate  of  Sacrilege.'^     The  apostate  Viscount  and  his  wife  had 
two     children,    Elizabeth    Mary    and     George    Samuel,    who 
succeeded  his  father  at  eighteen.     They  were  brought  up  in  the 
rigid  school  of  Evangelicalism ;  but  the  son,  who  was  sent  to  Win- 
chester, turned  out  a  wild  young  man,  to  whom  his  mother^s 
strict  government  was   hateful.     In  the   summer  of  1793,  he 
determined  to  go  abroad   with  Charles  Burdett,  brother  of  the 
well-known  Sir  Francis ;  and,  as  it  appears,  the  two  friends  had 
made  up  their  minds  to  shoot  the  Falls  of  the  Rhine  at  Laufen- 
burg,  about  half-way  between  Schaffhausen  and  Basle.     A  boat 
had  been  expressly  built  for  this  mad  undertaking,  from  which 
they  were  dissuaded  by  the  authorities  of  the  district  and  by 
everyone  who  knew  how  hopeless  it  was  that  they  could  come  out 
of  it  alive.     The  old  servant,  Dickenson,  who  accompanied  them 
from  Cowdray,  is  said  to  have  reminded  Lord  Montague  of  the 
"curse  of  water;  "  he  even  seized  his  master  by  the  coat  as  he 
was  embarking,  but  the  young  man  wrenched  himself  away,  leaving 
part  of  his  collar  and  neckcloth  in  his  servant^s  hand.     The  boat 
pushed  off;  and  an  old  man  of  eighty-five,  who,  as  a  boy  of  eleven, 
had  witnessed  the  tragedy,  survived  till  1867  to  leave  an  account 
of  it.     He  saw   the   two  English  gentlemen  rowing   past   the 
bridge  towards  the  rapids ;  at  the  first  groat  surge  one  of  them 
fell  forward  into  the  river,  and  not  many  moments  elapsed  ere  the 
boat  heeled  over,  and  both  young  men  were  seen  struggling  in  the 
wild  waters.     At  the  spot  called  Oelberg  they  disappeared  in  the 
eddies  of  the  whirlpool,  there  more  than  a  hundred  feet  deep, 
and  were  never  seen  again.     The  banks  were  crowded  with  spec- 
tators, but  no  efforts  could  save  the  swimmers  in  so  dangerous  a 
current.     Many  months  after,  in  May,  1795,  the  body  of  Lord 
Montague  was  found,  and,  by  direction   of  the  English  charge 
d'affaires  at  Berne,  received  decent  burial  in  the  churchyard  at 
Laufenburg. 

On  what  day  Lord  Montague  perished  cannot  be  known.  It 
is  said  to  have  been  in  October,  1793.  A  messenger  was  sent 
with  the  news  of  his  death  from  Berne  to  England.  But  while 
one  was  hastening  thither,  another  had  already  set  out  to  Switzer- 
land, bearing  the  intelligence  that  the  home  of  the  Montagues  had 
been  burnt  to  the  ground.  The  story  runs  that  the  two  couriers 
met  in  Calais. 

It  is,  at  any  rate,  certain  that  in  the  same  year,  and,  if  the 
tradition  be  followed,  on  the  same  day  of  the  year,  the  great 
house  which  had  been  erected  on  the  ruins  of  Easebourne  and 


86  The  Story  of  Gowdray. 

Battle  was  made  itself  a  ruin,  and  the  last  heir  male  in  the 
direct  line  (the  first  that  had  been  brought  up  a  Protestant), 
perished  in  the  Rhine.  Covvdray  was  burnt  September  24, 
1793,  The  fire  broke  out  in  the  north  gallery,  where,  during  the 
alterations  that  were  making  with  a  view  to  Lord  Montague's 
coming  marriage  to  Miss  Coutts,  the  pictures,  books,  and  plate, 
with  the  relics  from  Battle  Abbey,  had  been  stored  ;  and  nothing 
could  be  saved.  The  house  became  wholly  a  ruin.  Neither  was 
any  attempt  made  to  build  Cowdray  again  or  preserve  it  from 
decay.  In  a  little  while  the  walls  were  covered  with  ivy.  "  You 
may  see,"  writes  Cobbett,  who  visited  the  ruins  in  November, 
1825,  ''  the  hour  of  the  day  or  night  at  which  the  tire  took 
place,  for  there  still  remains  the  brass  of  the  face  of  the  clock, 
and  the  hand  pointing  to  the  hour."  Cobbett,  by  the  way,  is 
one  of  the  three  celebrated  men  of  letters  who  paid  a  visit  to 
Cowdray  and  have  made  mention  of  it.  Horace  Walpole  was 
there  in  1749,  and  wrote  an  account  of  his  journey  to  George 
Montague.  And,  in  the  autumn  of  1782,  Johnson,  who  was  then 
staying  with  Mr.  Philip  Metcalfe  at  Brighton,  drove  thither. 
*'  They  went  together  to  Chichester,  and  they  visited  Petworth 
and  Cowdray,  the  venerable  seat  of  the  Lords  Montacute.  '  Sir,' 
said  Johnson,  '  I  should  like  to  stay  here  four-and-twenty 
hours.  We  see  here  how  our  ancestors  lived.' "  *  It  is  to  be 
feared,  however,  that  the  ancestors  of  brave  old  Johnson  did  not 
live  quite  in  the  style  of  "  the  Lords  Montacute."  Cobbett, 
when  he  set  eyes  on  Cowdray,  could  only  remember,  characteris- 
tically, that  it  was  the  mansion  "  from  which  the  Countess  of 
Salisbury  (the  last  of  the  Plantagenets)  was  brought  by  the 
tj'^rant  Henry  VIII.,  to  be  cruelly  murdered,  in  revenge  for  the 
integrity  and  other  great  virtues  of  her  son.  Cardinal  Pole." 

The  house  that  had  thus  come  to  a  strange  end  was  assuredly 
among  the  finest  in  England,  with  its  great  quadrangle  enclosing 
a  space  of  turf  a  hundred  feet  wide  from  east  to  west,  and  a 
hundred  and  forty  long  from  north  to  south ;  its  turreted  gateway 
on  the  western  side,  flanked  by  wings  a  hundred  and  eighty  feet 
in  length  ;  its  two  square  towers  breaking  the  fa9ade  of  the  south 
gallery  j  its  chapel  that,  with  tracery  of  windows  and  embattled 
walls,  made  the  east  front  glorious  as  a  cathedral ;  its  grand  stair- 
case and  splendid  dining-room,  called,  from  its  adornments,  the 
Buck  Hall ;  its  graceful  chimney-shafts  and  stone  buttresses,  and 
octagonal  turrets  with  staircases  in  them,  all  which  is  computed 
to  have  covered  an  acre  of  ground.  The  Buck  Hall  resembled, 
and  in  some  respects  more  than  rivalled,  the  halls  built  by 
Wolsey  at  Hampton  Court,  and  at  Christ  Church,  Oxford.     It 

*  Bo  swell,  vol.  iv.  p.  107. 


The  Story  of  Coivdray.  87 

was  sixty  feet  in  height  from  the  floor  to  the  open  louvre,  which 
ascended,  "  a  beautiful  combination  of  tracery  and  pinnacles,"  in 
the  form  of  a  cupola  in  three  stories.  The  magnificent  open 
timber  roof  was  of  oak,  and  the  windows^  blazed  with  armorial 
bearings — Browne,  Nevill,  Sackville,  and  the  imperial  crowns  of 
iFrance  and  England,  as  well  as  the  shield  of  Henry  YIII. 
Above  the  cedar  wainscoting,  on  brackets,  stood  the  eleven  bucks, 
carved  in  oak,  from  which  the  hall  was  named ;  and  the  great 
mullioned  window  lighting  up  all  these  glories  reached  from  the 
ground  to  the  parapet  of  the  eastern  quadrangle.  And  Cowdray 
Park,  which  had  been  last  laid  out  by  "  Capability  Browne,"  was 
equal  to  the  house ;  the  Close  "Walks — four  avenues  of  fine  old 
yew-trees,  planted  at  right  angles,  and  stretching  a  hundred  and 
fifty  yards  each  way — not  having  their  like  in  England.  There 
was  a  "puzzle-walk,"  or  maze,  of  box -trees,  covering  a  large 
space;  and  lawns  stretched,  eastward  from  the  house  to  a  moat 
filled  by  the  Biver  Bother.  No  traces  are  left  of  the  bowling- 
green,  or  of  the  fine  hedges  of  yew,  box,  hornbeam,  and  holly 
that  once,  no  doubt,  flourished  at  Cowdray.  Some  of  the  large 
old  oaks  remain,  but  the  great  trees  that  sheltered  the  Close 
Walks  have  lately  been  cut  down,  and  the  yews  are  falling  into 
decay.  In  no  long  while  it  must  be  said  of  the  house  of  the 
Montagues  as  of  so  much  that  is  human,  Perierunt  etiam  ruince. 
But  now  the  rest  of  the  story  is  to  be  told. 

The  young  Viscount  Montague  had  left  by  will  the  whole  of 
the  Cowdray  property  to  his  sister,  Elizabeth  Mary,  who,  like 
himself,  was  brought  up  a  Protestant.  On  his  death  she  there- 
fore came  into  the  estates ;  and  the  title  went  as  I  shall  say 
hereafter.  This  Mary  Browne  (there  are  at  least  three  of  this 
name,  to  be  distinguished  for  various  reasons)  married  William 
Stephen  Poyntz,  of  Midgham,  in  Berkshire,  about  a  year  after 
her  brother  was  drowned.  From  the  shock  of  that  frightful 
accident  their  mother,  the  old  Lady  Montague,  never  recovered. 
But  not  only  so.  She  was  haunted  with  the  foreboding  that  a 
similar  misfortune  was  still  to  come ;  and  when  two  boys  were 
born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Poyntz,  their  grandmother  watched  over 
them  as  if  she  knew  it  was  their  fate  to  die  by  the  curse  of 
water.  It  is  said  that  when  she  was  old  and  feeble,  she  would 
wander  to  the  great  stone  basin  in  Cowdray  Park  and  feel  about 
with  her  silver-handled  stick  in  the  water,  imagining  that  the 
children  were  lying  there  drowned.  However,  she  died  in  1814, 
before  anything  befell  them.  Next  year  the  family  were  staying, 
in  July,  at  Bognor.  It  was  proposed  on  a  certain  afternoon  that 
they  and  some  friends  should  go  on  a  little  boating  expedition ; 
and  Mrs.  Poyntz,  who  had  a  terror  of  the  sea,  most  unwillingly 
consented.     However,  the  party  was  not  made  up  as  intended  ; 


i 


88  The  Sto')^  of  Cowdray. 

and  whilst  Mr.  Poyntz  and  his  two  sons  went,  the  mother,  with 
her  daughters,  sat  at  the  open  window,  watching  them.  There 
were  some  eight  persons  in  the  boat;  for  a  time  all  went  well, 
but  suddenly  a  puff  of  wind  struck  the  sail,  the  boat  capsized, 
and  the  boys  were  seen  clinging  to  their  father  in  the  water, 
whilst  he  endeavoured  to  keep  his  grasp  of  the  boat.  He  felt 
the  hold  of  the  children  loosening,  and  they  sank  before  help 
could  be  given.  Of  the  whole  party,  none,  except  Mr.  Poynta 
and  the  boatman,  were  saved.  It  was,  they  said  round  Midhurst, 
the  curse  of  water. 

The  mother,  who  survived  fifteen  years,  was  buried  at  Ease- 
bourne,  and  a  monument  by  Chantrey  was  erected  to  her  memory 
and  that  of  "  her  two  only  sons,  unhappily  drowned  in  the  flower 
of  their  youth,  under  the  eyes  of  their  parents."  Mr.  Poyntz 
lived  till  1840.  The  Cowdray  estates  were  then  divided  among 
his  three  daughters.  Lady  Clinton,  the  Countess  Spencer  (whose 
son,  Lord  Spencer,  was  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland  in  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's last  administration),  and  Lady  Exeter,  mother  of  the 
present  Marquis  of  Exeter.  The  co-heiresses  were  unwilling 
that  the  estate  should  be  broken  up ;  and  it  was  sold  for 
£380,000  to  Lord  Egmont,  whose  nephew,  the  present  Earl  of 
Egmont,  now  owns  it.  In  3874  the  keeper's  lodge,  haunted 
by  dreary  memories,  where  Lord  and  Lady  Egmont  resided, 
was  pulled  down,  and  a  new  house  has  since  been  erected  on  the 
site. 

"  What  a  melancholy  story !  "  the  reader,  especially  if  he  be  a 
Catholic,  will  exclaim.  Yes;  it  is  one  of  the  saddest  chapters  in 
the  history  of  sacrilege.  But  it  does  not  end  quite  where  Mrs. 
Roundell,  who  has  told  it  with  great  exactitude  and  clearness, 
breaks  ofl".  The  Cowdray  estates  have  gone  from  the  descend- 
ants of  Sir  Anthony  Browne;  but  the  name,  and  what  I  may 
perhaps  describe  as  a  claim  de  congruo,  or  in  equity,  to  the  peer- 
age, remains  in  a  line  that  has  been  always  Catholic.  George 
Samuel,  the  eighth  viscount,  was  not  the  last.  Anthony  Maria, 
second  Lord  Montague  (1572—1629),  had  two  brothers,  John  and 
William.  William,  as  we  may  remember,  was  the  Jesuit  lay- 
brother  at  Liege.  John  married  Anne  Giffbrd,  and  their  son 
Stanislaus  became,  through  his  wife,  Lord  of  the  Manor  of  Meth- 
ley,  near  Coleshill,  AVarwickshire.  Of  the  two  sons  of  this 
Stanislaus,  the  elder,  Francis,  settled  at  Cadiz  and  gave  Methley 
to  his  brother,  Mark  Browne,  of  Easebourne;  and  Mark,  who  was 
twice  married,  had  by  his  second  wife  (daughter  of  Sir  John 
Moore,  of  Fawley,  Berkshire)  several  children,  the  eldest  oi* 
whom,  Mark  Anthony,  became  a  monk  at  Fontainebleau.  All 
these  were  Catholics,  and  the  pedigree  of  the  Moores  of  Fawley, 
which  I  have  before  me,  and  which  is  too  intricate  to  give  here. 


The  Story  of  Cowdray. 


89 


is  connected  by  marriage  with  that  of  the  famous  Sir  Matthew 
Hales,  of  the  Blounts  of  Mapledurham,  the  Jerninghams  of 
Costessy,  the  Carys  of  Torr  Abbey,  and  the  Dukes  of  Norfolk. 
Mark  Anthony,  born  in  1744,  and  now  a  monk,  was,  on  the 
death  of  his  cousin,  George  Samuel,  dispensed  by  the  Holy  See 
from  his  vows,  and  acknowledged  as  ninth  Viscount  Montague. 
He  married,  in  1797,  Frances  Man  by,  daughter  of  Thomas 
Manby,  of  Beads  Hall,  Essex.  Of  this  marriage  there  was  na 
issue.  Lord  Montague  died  in  November  of  that  same  year ; 
and  the  title  became  extinct.  In  like  manner  the  three  baronet- 
■  cies  connected  with  the  Brownes  of  Betchworth,  in  Surrey,  and  of 
Kiddington  and  Caversham,  in  Oxfordshire,  have  died  out ;  and 
the  last  male  heir  of  the  Moores  of  Fawley,  Sir  Thomas,  sixth 
baronet,  expired  without  issue  in  1807. 

Mark  Anthony,  however,  left  two  sisters — Mary,  who  married 
Oliver  John  du  Moulin,  May  19,  1777,  and  died  April  26, 1784; 
and  Anastasia,  who  married  Sir  Thomas  Mannock,  and  died^ 
without  children,  in  1814.  Mary  Browne  du  Moulin  was  there- 
fore, in  her  issue,  heir-general  to  the  Brownes  of  Easebourne, 
and  to  the  last  Viscount  Montague.  Of  her  three  children, 
only  one,  Andrew,  had  issue — viz.,  Stanislaus,  who  died  in  infancy, 
and  Nicholas  Selby  du  Moulin,  who,  at  the  death  of  his  father, 
in  1854,  inherited  the  manor  of  Methley,  and  now  represents 
the  family  of  Mark  Anthony,  ninth  Viscount.  This  branch  has 
for  the  last  hundred  years  been  closely  connected  with  France. 
More  than  one  English  Catholic  of  distinction,  terrified  by  the 
Gordon  Riots  and  the-  No  Popery  spirit  they  evinced,  shrunk 
from  the  possibility  of  their  repetition  and  settled  abroad,  chiefly 
at  Paris.  Among  these  were  the  family  of  Du  Moulin.  But 
in  their  case  other  reasons  combined  to  keep  them  in  exile. 
Through  Barbara,  wife  of  the  sixth  Lord  Montague,  and  daughter 
of  Sir  John  Webbe,  and  later  through  the  marriage  of  Helen 
Moore,  of  Fawley,  to  another  Sir  John,  descendant  of  the  above, 
the  Brownes,  of  Easebourne,  had  been  brought  into  very  close 
connection  with  the  troubles  of  the  House  of  Stuart.  For  Sir 
John  Webbe,  of  Oldstock,  was  created  baronet  in  1644  by 
Charles  I.,  expressly  on  account  of  his  sacrifices  in  the  Boyal 
cause.  And  Helen,  Lady  Webbe,  was  mother-in-law  of  the 
famous  Lord  Derwentwater,  who,  indeed,  rode  to  join  the  Pre- 
tender from  Sir  John  Webbe's  house  at  Canford.  After  the 
failure  of  the  rising,  Lady  Webbe,  like  so  many  Jacobites,  lived 
out  of  England.  She  died  in  Paris  in  1771,  and  left  to  her  niece,. 
Lady  Mannock,  a  miniature  of  the  Pretender,  given  by  himself, 
which  has  now  passed  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  du  Moulin  Browne. 
Like  his  sister.  Lady  Webbe,  Sir  Thomas  Moore,  of  Fawley, 
settled  in  Paris,  and  there,  on  the  death  of  their  parents,  tlie 


90  The  Story  of  Cowdray. 

young  Du  Moulins  were  brought  up  under  his  guardianship. 
When  the  French  Revokition  came,  therefore,  they  shared  in 
the  disasters  which  overtook  so  many  ancient  French  houses 
with  which  they  were  allied.  Much  of  their  property  was  in- 
vested in  the  French  public  funds  ;  and  the  universal  bankruptcy, 
which  neither  a  Turgot  nor  a  Neckar  could  cure,  swallowed  it  up 
as  in  an  abyss.  The  culbute  generate  was  come.  Difference  of 
religion  between  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  branches  of  the 
Montague  family  led  also,  I  suppose,  to  their  not  keeping  up  a 
close  acquaintance ;  and  the  ancient  name  of  Browne,  of  Cowdray 
and  Easebourne,  seemed  lost  for  good.  In  1851,  however,  the 
public  were  reminded  of  its  strange  history  by  the  case  presented 
on  behalf  of  a  certain  Henry  Browne  to  the  House  of  Lords, 
claiming  the  "title  and  dignity  of  Viscount  Montague,"  as 
direct  heir  male  of  George,  son  of  John  Browne,  of  Easebourne 
or  Midhurst,  and  of  Anne  Giffard,  his  wife.  The  story  was  not 
lacking  in  curious  points,  especially  in  the  connection  it  suggested 
between  Lord  Montague's  property  at  Southwark  (St.  Mary 
Overy)  and  Fishmonger  Alley,  where  these  humble  kinsfolk,  as 
they  asserted  themselves,  of  the  great  house  of  Cowdray  had 
sometime  dwelt.  But  the  supposed  link  between  Charles  Brown6, 
of  Fishmonger  Alley,  and  the  Brownes  of  Easebourne,  resting 
mainly  on  a  French  letter  attributed  to  Elizabeth,  third  Lady 
Montague,  in  which  she  recognized  Charles  Browne  as  her 
cousin,  was  not  made  out ;  and  the  Committee  of  Privileges 
decided  against  Mr.  Henry  Browne.*  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
representation  of  the  Cowdray  branch  now  lies  between  Earl 
Spencer  and  the  Marquis  of  Exeter,  both  descended  from  the 
daughters  of  Elizabeth  Mary  Browne,  who,  as  we  have  seen 
above,  was  only  sister  of  the  eighth  Viscount ;  whilst  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  Brownes  of  Easebourne  and  the  title  of  Mon- 
tague rests  with  Mr.  N.  du  Moulin,  whose  father  was  heir- 
general  of  Mary  Browne  du  Moulin,  elder  sister  of  the  ninth  and 
last  Viscount,  Mark  Anthony.  So  much  has  been  lately  declared 
by  the  Heralds'  College ;  and  a  Royal  licence  granted  to  Mr.  du 
Moulin,  to  bear  the  surname  and  quarter  the  arms  of  Brown^.f 
Thus,  in  spite  of  its  many  vicissitudes,  this  ancient  Catholic 
family,  connected  by  blood  with  the  Plantagenets,  and  reflecting 
in  its  domestic  chronicles  the  history  of  the  nation,  from  Warwick, 
the  King-maker,  to  the  Reformation,  the  Great  Rebellion,  and 

*  I  have  taken  the  trouble  to  look  through  the  case  of  this  gentleman  ; 
but,  except  for  the  Montague  pedigrees  there  given,  and  one  or  two 
details  in  the  authentic  history  of  Sir  Anthony  Browne,  it  has  not  repaid 
me  for  the  time  expended  on  it. 

t  Mr.  N.  du  Moulin  Browne  has  one  surviving  son,  Charles,  married  to 
Winifred,  daughter  of  Henry  Bacchus,  Esq.,  of  Leamington. 


Religion  in  tJie  North.  91 

the  Gordon  Riots,  is  still  represented  in  its  most  honourable  dis- 
tinctions by  those  of  the  ancient  faith.  And  since  Battle  and  Ease- 
bourne,  Waverley  and  Overy  and  Shulbred,  Bay  ham,  and  Calceto, 
with  all  their  wide  lands,  once  consecrated  to  the  Church,  have 
passed  away  from  Sir  Anthony  Browne's  descendants,  and  the 
malison  of  fire  and  water,  if  it  was  ever  pronounced,  has  been 
more  than  fulfilled  in  the  burning  of  Cowdray  and  the  untimely 
deaths  here  recorded,  we  may  indulge  the  hope  that  at  length 
penance  has  been  done  and  the  evil  expiated.  But,  however 
that  may  turn  out,  there  are  few  chapters  of  romance,  it  seems  to 
me,  so  weird  and  curious  as  the  story  of  Cowdray.  Reading  it, 
I  can  hardly  forbear  imagining,  in  spite  of  much  recent 
philosophy,  that  Providence  is  indeed  the  other  side  of  history, 
just  as  real,  but  not  so  easily  authenticated.  I  seem  to  find  in  it 
a  stern,  yet  a  merciful  moral ;  and  whilst  I  would  not  rashly 
charge  those  who  succeeded  in  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth 
centuries  to  the  possessions  of  their  ancestors  with  the  guilt 
which  clung  to  them  in  the  sixteenth,  it  still  appears  to  me  that 
a  retribution,  accompanied  with  so  many  remarkable  circum- 
stances, may  warrant  us  in  believing  that  the  deeds  of  a  Henry 
VIII.,  or  an  Elizabeth,  and  of  those  who  abetted  them,  can- 
not escape  the  just  judgment  of  God,  and  that  the  words  of 
the  Psalmist  will  for  ever  hold  true,  "  Fret  not  thyself  because 
of  evil-doers;  neither  be  thou  envious  against  the  workers  of 
iniquity.  Por  they  shall  soon  be  cut  down  like  the  grass,  and 
wither  as  the  green  herb.'^ 

William  Bakuy,  D.D. 


Aet.  VI.— religion  in  the  north, 

rpHE  Jews,  after  the  Babylonish  captivity,  used  often  to  visit 
_L  one  another,  and,  while  mourning  their  losses  and  defeats, 
to  confirm  one  another  in  faith  and  hope,  and  rejoice  over  the 
inestimable  treasure  of  the  covenant  with  God,  of  which  no 
tyrant  or  conqueror  could  deprive  them.  "  Then  they  that  feared 
the  Lord  spoke  every  one  with  his  neighbour ;  and  the  Lord 
gave  ear  and  heard  it ;  and  a  book  of  remembrance 
was  written  before  him  for  them  that  fear  the  Lord  and  think 
on  His  name.^'  *  In  a  similar  spirit,  it  is  well  that  English 
Catholics  should  scrmetimes  hold  counsel  together,  and,  while 
deploring  the  wreck  and  ruin  that  heresy  has  made  in  their  much- 

*  Mai.  iii.  16. 


92  Religion  in  the  North. 

loved  country,  should  take  note  of  progress  made  here  or  there, 
confer  on  possible  opening?,  and  rejoice  together  over  the 
possession  of  covenanted  graces,  which  only  those  who  are  within 
the  bond  of  peace  enjoy.  A  recent  visit  to  the  North  of  England 
has,  in  this  connexion,  been  the  occasion  of  a  few  observations, 
and  suggested  a  few  reflections,  which  may  possess  some  interest 
for  the  readers  of  the  Dublin  Review. 

It  is  singular  that  the  county  which,  since  the  Refqrmation, 
has  been  noted  for  the  tenacity  with  which  a  considerable  pro- 
portion of  its  inhabitants  clung  to  the  old  faith — Lancashire — 
made  in  early  times  no  very  illustrious  figure  in  ecclesiastical 
annals.  The  counties  farther  north,  Cumberland,  Northumber- 
land, and  Durham,  teemed  with  saints,  but  Lancashire  then 
contributed  few  or  no  names  to  our  hagiology.  It  seems  as  if 
in  proportion  to  the  height  of  glory  to  which  those  counties  were 
raised  by  the  possession  of  their  great  saints  has  been  the 
degradation  and  completeness  of  their  fall.  Who  could  have 
believed  that  a  population,  amongst  whom  St.  Cuthbert,  with  his 
dying  breath,  enjoined  to  his  disciples  the  adherence  to  the 
"  pax  Catholica,"  would  ever  fall  from  unity  ?  that  the  men  of 
Durham  would  forget  St.  Godric,  or  the  sons  of  "canny  Cumber- 
land "  renounce  St.  Bega  and  St.  Herbert  ?  Yet  so  it  has  been  ; 
while  Lancashire,  in  the  darkest  times,  has  always  had  a  goodly 
roll  of  Catholic  missions.  The  writer  remembers  seeing,  some 
fifty'  years  ago,  a  map  of  England  showing  the  then  existing 
Catholic  chapels,  at  one  corner  of  which  Lancashire  was  exhibited 
on  a  larger  scale,  on  account  of  the  much  greater  number 
of  stations  which  it  possessed,  compared  with  other  counties. 
This  distinction  is  still  maintained,  though  it  need  hardly  be  said 
that  it  is  now  in  large  part  due  to  the  immigration  of  poor  Irish 
Catholics,  attracted  by  the  high  wages  given  in  Lancashire 
cotton  mills. 

Crossing  the  border  into  Westmoreland,  we  find  everything 
changed.  The  strong,  kindly,  straightforward  race  that 
inhabit  the  dales  of  Westmoreland  and  Cumberland  must  be 
admitted  by  their  best  friends  to  have  this  fault,  or  failing,  that 
they  are  somewhat  hard  and  unimpressionable.  Wordsworth, 
though  one  of  themselves,*  was  quite  incomprehensible  to  them  ; 
his  giving  himself  up  to  poetry  seemed  to  them  a  species  of  mild 
lunacy,  a  sign  that  he  was  rather  soft  in  the  head.  Practical, 
conservative,  unimaginative,  the  dalesmen  of  Westmoreland, 
having  once  lost  the  faith,  are  only  with  extreme  difficulty  brought 
into  a  posture  of  mind  which  makes  possible  a  return  to  it. 

*  His  family  came  from  Dent,  a  place  in  Yorkshire  just  across  the 
Westmoreland  border. 


I 


Religion  in  the  North.  9S 

About  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  a  pious  couple,  named,  if  we 
remember  right,  Braithwaite  or  Birthwaite,  endowed  with  an 
estate  in  land  of  considerable  value  the  Catholic  Mission  at 
Dodding  Green,  near  Kendal,  in  the  hope,  as  they  said,  that  it 
might  serve  as  a  centre  whence  to  "  evangelize  the  dales/'  The 
benefice  remains,  but  the  dales  remain  unevangelized  ;  and  this 
from  no  want  of  zeal  or  self-sacrifice  in  the  excellent  priests  who 
have  succeeded  one  another  at  Dodding  Green,  but  from  the 
stolid,  unsympathetic  character  of  the  surrounding  population. 
There  is  no  mission  at  Appleby,  or  Kirkby  Lonsdale,  or  Kirkby 
Stephen.  In  the  Catholic  Directory  for  1885,  only  four  places 
are  mentioned  where  mass  is  said  in  the  whole  county — 
Ambleside,  Dodding  Green,  Kendal,  and  Windermere.  At 
Ambleside  the  state  of  things  is  at  present  worse  than  the 
Calendar  represents.  Two  years  ago  Mass  was  regularly  said  on 
Sundays  during  the  summer  months,  in  a  large  upper  room  hired 
for  the  purpose,  and  as  many  as  seventy  or  eighty  persons  were 
sometimes  present.  Most  of  these  were  tourists,  but  a  certain 
number  were  persons  who  were  born  Catholics,  but,  partly  from 
carelessness,  partly  because  they  were  not  strong  enough  to 
resist  the  torrent  of  an  opposing  world,  had  ceased  to  practise 
their  religion.  This  last  summer  Mass  was  not  said  at  all  at 
Ambleside.  The  departure  from  the  place  of  an  admirable 
woman,  the  "  Lydia  "  of  the  little  northern  town — we  name  her 
not,  but  many  visitors  to  Ambleside  will  at  once  recognize  her 
from  this  description — who  had  for  many  years  kept  the  afiairs 
of  the  incipient  mission  together,  sought  always  to  bring  priests 
there,  and  served  as  a  centre  of.  information  to  Catholic  visitors, 
is  doubtless  the  chief  cause  of  this  temporary  collapse.  We  are 
sure  it  will  be  only  temporary,  and  we  believe  that  the  Bishop  of 
Hexham  contemplates  the  building  of  a  chapel  at  Ambleside, 
and  the  establishment  of  a  permanent  mission,  at  an  early  date. 
At  Kendal,  a  good  priest  has  laboured  these  thirty  years  ;  but 
the  hard,  unimpressionable  Westmoreland  nature,  of  which  we 
spoke  above,  has  been  always  against  him ;  and  the  position  of 
Catholicism  in  Kendal,  over  against  the  Protestant  denomina- 
tions, does  not  appear  to  be  essentially  difierent  now  from  what 
it  was  before  he  came.  At  Windermere,  or  rather  between 
Windermere  and  Bowness,  the  Bishop  and  Canon  Currie  have 
succeeded  in  erecting  a  suitable  chapel.  The  young  priest  who 
officiated  there  last  summer  was  an  unfortunate  selection  ;  the 
extension  of  faith  along  the  lake  shore  was  not  likely  to  prosper 
in  the  hands  of  a  man,  whom  a  recently  published  volume  of 
essays  shows  to  hold  very  advanced  Liberal  opinions  indeed,  and 
to  prefer  the  "  development ''  of  poor  Mark  Pattison  (once  nearly 
a  Catholic)    to    the  perseverance   in    the    truth    of   Cardinal 


94  Religion  in  the  North. 

Newman !  But  we  have  reason  to  know  that  this  matter  has 
been  set  right,  and  we  anticipate  great  things  in  the  future  from 
the  Windermere  mission. 

At  Grasmere,  where  the  population  has  much  increased  of  late 
years,  there  is  no  mission,  and  it  is  said  that  there  are  no 
permanent  Catholic  residents.  Langdale,  with  its  scattered  farms 
and  its  sturdy  quarrymen,  is  no  better  off. 

From  Westmoreland  let  us  pass  to  Cumberland.  Rounding 
Black  Combe,  and  travelling  on  for  thirty  miles  along  the 
Cumberland  coast,  one  meets  with  hardly  a  trace  of  Catholic  life, 
either  past  or  present.*  At  last  the  traveller  reaches  St.  Bees, 
and  here  he  finds  much  to  interest  him.  The  name  is  derived 
from  St.  Bega,  an  Irish  saint  of  the  seventh  century,  of  whom 
next  to  nothing  is  known  with  certainty.  Imagine  a  warm 
hollow,  some  five  miles  long  by  half  a  mile  broad,  lying  nearly 
north  and  south,  between  an  irregularly  shaped  four-sided  plateau 
on  the  left,  of  which  the  extreme  western  point  is  St.  Bees  Head, 
and  a  vast  undulating  country  to  the  right,  gradually  rising  to 
the  base  of  the  mountains.  The  land  in  this  hollow  is  of 
excellent  quality  ;  the  red  soil,  formed  of  the  detritus  of  a  Permian 
sandstone,  seems  to  suit  corn  and  root-crops  equally  well.  Near 
its  southern  end,  about  half  a  mile  from  the  sea,  is  the  ancient 
church  of  St.  Bega's  monastery,  enfolded  in  a  grove  of  fine 
sycamores.  Here,  says  tradition,  the  saint  founded  a  little 
monastery,  "  monasteriolum,"  which,  being  sheltered  by  the 
headland  west  of  it  from  the  view  of  any  passing  sea-rover,  and 
embowered  in  the  woods  which  must  then  have  covered  all  these 
lowlands,  may  well  have  lain  perdu,  screened  from  foreign  and 
unfriendly  eyes,  for  a  generation  or  two.  But  the  time  would 
inevitably  come  when  the  pagan  corsairs  from  Denmark  and 
Norway  who  rode  the  seas,  making  themselves  at  home  in  the 
neighbouring  harbours  of  Whitehaven  and  Workington,  would 
discover  the  little  house  where  Christ^s  servants  laboured  and 
prayed.  Having  discovered  it,  they  are  believed,  according  to 
their  savage  manner,  to  have  destroyed  it.  This  would  be  likely 
to  happen  some  time  in  the  ninth  century.  Anyhow,  no  house  of 
religion  existed  here  in  the  eleventh  century,  when  all  Copeland 
and  the  fine  vale  of  Egremont  were  granted  by  the  Conqueror  to 
his  follower,  Banulf  de  Meschiens.  This  Ranulf  had  a  brother 
William,  who  seems  also  to  have  had  large  possessions  in  these 


*  Inland  from  Sellafield,  however,  there  is  a  ruined  monastery  of  sin- 
gular beauty,  Calder  Abbey,  a  Cistercian  bouse  founded  by  monks  from 
Fumess  in  1134.  The  Byzantine  culture  of  the  day  could  no  more  pro- 
duce anything  so  noble,  so  exquisitely  and  delicately  fair,  as  Calder 
Abbey,  than  it  could  engender  a  great  epic  poem. 


I 


Religion  in  the  North.  9& 

parts,  and  who  refounded  tlie  monastery  of  St.  Bees  as  a  cell  to 
the  great  Abbey  of  St.  Mary,  at  York,  He  arranged  with  the 
abbot  that  a  prior  and  six  monks  should  always  reside  at  St. 
Bees.  Grants  of  land  were  lavishly  made  from  time  to  time  ; 
perhaps  too  lavishly.  It  was  a  noble  error  ;  but  still  this  heaping 
of  wealth  and  temporal  responsibility  upon  men  who  had  bound 
themselves  to  follow  Christ  in  poverty  and  simplicity,  without 
taking  sufficient  assurance  that  they  should  be  well  used — used, 
that  is,  for  really  advancing  Christ's  kingdom  on  earth — was 
certainly  an  error.  At  one  time  the  convent  of  St.  Bees 
possessed  lands  in  the  Isle  of  Man  (which  can  be  seen  on  a  clear 
day  forty  miles  across  the  sea),  and  also  in  Ulster ;  while  many 
rich  estates — Rottingtoa,  Sandwith,  &c.,  &c. — within  twenty 
miles  from  St.  Bees  owned  the  monks  as  landlords.  The  danger, 
of  course,  was,  in  this  and  so  many  other  cases,  that  the  spirit  of 
landlordism  would  grow  too  strong  in  the  community,  and  that 
the  function  of  witnessing  for  Christ  and  the  perfect  life  would 
be  obscured.  However,  of  all  this,  we  know  nothing  with 
certainty.  We  only  know  that  Mass  was  duly  said  in  St.  Bees 
Church  for  three  hundred  and  fifty  years;  that  then  the  Dissolution 
came,  and  the  Beformation ;  and  that,  with  the  establishment  of 
the  Church  of  England,  the  adorable  sacrifice  of  the  altar  ceased 
to  be  oflFered  there,  and  has  never  since  been  offered  down  to  this 
day. 

The  old  church,  though  it  has  been  violently  treated,  and 
"  restored  "  in  the  usual  Anglican  manner—  that  is,  with  a  signal 
lack  of  judgment,  feeling,  and  taste — cannot  be  visited  by  a 
Catholic  without  emotion.  Do  what  they  may,  play  what 
pranks  of  restoration  they  will,  a  mysterious,  inexplicable  charm 
still  hangs  about  places  where  Catholic  rites  were  celebrated  by 
our  forefathers,  even  after  three  hundred  years  of  Anglican 
intrusion.  You  find  admission  with  some  little  difficulty,  for  the 
principal  entrance  is  fastened  up  with  chains,  and  the  actual  way 
in  looks  like  the  road  leading  up  to  a  private  mansion.  A  fine 
old  Norman  doorway,  deeply  recessed,  is  at  the  west  end ;  but  it 
has  been  terribly  knocked  about,  and  the  sculpture  is  worn  and 
defaced.  The  greater  part  of  the  building  seems  to  date  from 
the  period  when  the  Norman  style  was  passing  into  the  Lancet  or 
Early  English.  Within,  all  looks  cleanly,  but  chilly ;  decent,  but 
dreary ;  inoffensive,  but  dull.  It  is  an  edifice  to  "  protest "  in,  not 
to  pray  in.  Where  the  high  altar  once  stood  is  now  a  Protestant 
communion-table,  decked  with  some  kind  of  Anglican  upholstery, 
and  made  to  look  as  much  like  an  altar  as  possible,  with  candles 
on  it  not  meant  to  be  lighted,  like  Pope's  "  tape-tied  curtains, 
never  meant  to  draw.''  The  Lady  Chapel,  now  entirely  separated 
from  the  church,  was  of  later  architecture,  as  the  remains  of  some 


96  Religion  in  the  North. 

fine  pointed  arches  testify.  It  is  now  used,  together  with  a 
modern  building  adjacent,  as  a  place  for  lectures  for  some  four- 
score theological  students,  who  are  here  trained  to  pass  the 
■ordination  examinations  of  Anglican  bishops.  It  is  needless  to 
mention  that  no  trace  of  the  ancient  veneration  of  the  patron 
saint  is  now  discernible.  Nurtured  on  such  spiritual  pabulum 
as  Burnet's  Exposition  of  the  XXXIX.  Articles,  the  fourscore 
students,  if  they  do  not  question  the  existence  of  St.  Bega,  are 
certainly  taught  to  mistrust  the  efficacy  of  her  intercession. 
Forgotten  in  the  place  where  she  had  been  honoured  for  nine 
hundred  years,  St.  Bega  has  migrated  to  the  neighbouring  city,* 
where  a  church,  administered  by  the  sons  of  St.  Benedict,  has 
been  built  under  her  invocation,  from  the  tall  belfry  of  which  her 
sculptured  form  seems  to  look  wistfully  and  reproachfully  towards 
the  valley  and  headland  which  she  loved.  Leaving,  therefore,  on 
a  Sunday  morning,  the  fourscore  students,  the  clergymen  who 
swarm  about  the  place,  the  tourists  and  t'lie  natives,  to  hold 
communion  in  the  desecrated  church  with  Henry  VIII.,  Thomas 
Cromwell,  Cranmer,  Parker,  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  other  founders 
of  their  institute,  the  Catholic  visitor  to  St.  Bees  follows  the 
blessed  patroness  to  Whitehaven.  There,  in  communion  with  all 
saints  living  and  dead,  and  with  the  Church  universal,  he  offers 
up  to  the  Eternal  the  same  spotless  sacrifice  which  was  St.  Bega's 
strength  and  joy,  and  which  will  continue  to  be  offered  on  the 
Cumberland  shore,  ages  after  the  now  dominant  Anglicanism  has 
been  shattered  into  fragments  and  come  to  nothing. 

In  presence  of  the  memorials  of  the  past  in  which  St.  Bees 
abounds,  the  mind  involuntarily  ascends  the  stream  of  time,  and 
tries  to  picture  to  itself  the  life  led  in  and  about  the  village  seven 
hundred  years  ago.  There  were  six  or  seven  black-robed  Bene- 
dictine monks  in  the  monastery,  who,  with  their  prior,  were  the 
owners  of  most  of  the  country  round  about.  These  men,  if  they 
resembled  the  average  run  of  members  of  their  Order  in  the  days 
before  relaxation|had  set  in,  were  possessed  of  some  learning,  and, 
by  copying  books  or  writing  them,  or  following  studies  connected 
with  the  ecclesiastical  calendar,  did  their  best  to  diffuse  and  ex- 
tend that  learning.  Like  other  Benedictine  houses,  they  must 
have  kept  open  a  school  for  boys.  They  sang  the  praises  of  God 
publicly  in  their  church  seven  times  a  day.  Perhaps  there  was  a 
hermit  living  in  a  cave  on  Sfc.  Bees'  Head,  and  an  enclosed  nnn 
or  two,  in  cells  near  the  monastery,  following  paths  of  perfection 
under  the  surveillance  of  the  bishop.  There  would  be  a  fisher- 
man or  two  living  near  the  beach ;  inland  would  be  a  few  colliers 
and  miners.     In  the  little  village  that  had  grown  up  near  the 

*  Whitehaven. 


Religion  in  the  North.  97 

monastery,  artisans  of  the  more  common  sort  would  be  found, 
and  hucksters,  male  and  female,  would  help  to  distribute  food 
and  common  wares  and  implements.  The  main  part  of  the  popu- 
lation of  the  district  would  be  the  agricultural  tenants  of  the 
monastery.  Among  them  there  would  be  all  gradations,  from 
the  knight  and  franklin  down  to  the  villein  and  cottier.  Across 
the  hill,  three  miles  off,  was  the  castle  of  Egremont,  where  a 
great  baron,  the  governor  of  "West  Cumberland,  kept  order  for 
the  king,  watched  the  frontiers,  and  had  the  power  of  life  and 
death  in  his  hands.  He  might  be  a  just,  God-fearing  man,  or  a 
cruel  tyrant,  or  anything  between  these  two ;  but  whatever  he 
was,  he  was  sure  to  have,  among  the  military  retainers  forming 
the  garrison  of  the  castle,  some  of  the  greatest  scoundrels  in  the 
universe.  These  ruffians  were  usually  foreigners — Normans, 
Flemings,  Poitevins,  Angevins,  Genoese,  &c.  They  loved  fighting 
better  than  work,  and  a  pampered  idleness  better  than  either ;  and 
they  would  stick  at  no  crime  in  order  to  get  money.  If  their  master 
did  not  keep  them  well  in  hand,  the  poor  cultivators  or  traders 
for  miles  round  the  castle  were  never  safe  from  depredation,  nor 
from  torture  if  depredation  gave  slender  returns.  Here  was  the 
weak  spot  of  the  civilization  of  those  days.  The  reign  of  law 
was  not  fully  established  ;  the  country  was  insufficiently  ^o^ic^^c?. 
The  peace,  honour,  and  prosperity  of  families  were  frequently 
dependent,  in  great  measure,  on  the  character  of  one  man,  who 
might  be  weak,  or  a  fool,  or  malevolent. 

Passing  in  thought  through  seven  centuries,  we  come  to  the 
present  scene.  The  monks  are  gone  ;  the  hermit  is  no  more  on 
the  hill,  nor  the  inclusa  in  her  cell.  Protestant  clergymen  and 
ministers,  of  many  creeds  and  systems,  have  taken  their  place. 
No  one  leads  an  ascetic  life  or  aspires  after  perfection ;  but  de- 
cent, respectable  lives  are  more  generally  led  than  was  the  case 
then.  Art  has  dwindled  ;  not  a  soul  in  the  district  could  now 
carve  the  lovely  mouldings  which  still  resist  the  weather  at  Calder 
Abbey;  but  all  industrial  dexterities  and  inventions  are  enor- 
mously advanced.  Instead  of  the  scanty  Catholic  population  of 
those  days — a  few  very  good,  more  very  bad,  most  neither  one 
nor  the  other — ain  endless  supply  of  average  Byzantines — people 
who  live  for  the  world,  are  guided  by  the  newspapers,  and  kept  in 
order  by  the  law — swarms  in  the  towns,  and  exploits  the  mineral 
riches  of  the  plains.  The  ideals  of  the  two  periods  were  wholly 
different,  or,  rather,  the  English  of  the  twelfth  century  had  an 
ideal,  and  those  of  the  nineteenth  century  have  none.  To  the 
former  it  appeared  certain  that  they  were  created  for  the  glory 
and  service  of  God,  and  destined,  unless  through  their  own  fault, 
to  enjoy  Him  for  ever.  Their  ideal,  therefore,  was  to  extend  that 
glory  on  earth,  or — the  same  thing  in  different  words — to  obey, 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  I.     [Third  Series.]  H 


98  Religion  in  the  NoHh. 

uphold,  and  propagate  with  all  their  might  the  Catholic  Church. 
Whatever  knowledge,  whatever  art  or  skill,  whatever  improve- 
ments in  law  or  government,  whatever  growth  of  empire  might 
be  won  and  realized  in  their  time,  all  easily  fitted  into  the  ideal 
in  the  light  of  which  they  lived.  The  English  of  to-day  cannot 
have  an  ideal,  because  that  common  spiritual  ground  on  which  it 
should  be  based  was  cut  away  by  the  convulsions  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  They  have  no  common  aims  except  such  as  are  intel- 
lectual and  material.  We  all  wish  that  the  Baconian  philosophy 
prevailing  among  us  may  help  us  to  subdue  nature  more  and 
more  to  the  needs  of  man ;  and  we  all,  or  the  immense  majority 
of  us,  wish  to  live  in  comfort,  and  to  make  money  that  we  may 
do  so.     But  here  the  agreement  between  us  stops. 

We  have  tried  to  draw — feebly  enough,  as  we  are  conscious — 
the  two  pictures,  but  we  will  not  attempt  to  decide  which  was,  or 
is,  the  more  hopeful  and  desirable  state  of  things.  That  law  has 
triumphed,  that  feudal  arbitrariness  is  no  more,  that  Egremont 
Castle  is  a  ruin,  and  its  garrison  of  ruffians  without  modern 
representatives — all  this  is  surely  matter  for  unalloyed  thankful- 
ness. But  that  religion  in  its  loftier  aspects,  its  deeper  andmore 
mysterious  meanings,  hallows  the  land  no  more  ;  that  counsels 
of  perfection  are-  undreamed  of;  that  Christian  philosophy,  made 
impossible  by  the  victory  of  the  sects,  is  no  longer  studied ;  that 
art  has  suffered  a  debasement  parallel  with  the  degradation  of 
theology  ;  all  this  seems  to  some  persons  a  very  real  loss.  Civil- 
ized man  will  prefer  the  Cumberland  of  the  nineteenth  century ; 
possibly  the  angels  might  give  sentence  for  the  Cumberland  of 
the  twelfth. 

The  Benedictines  have  a  firm  hold  at  Whitehaven,  where  the 
congregation  seems  to  be  predominantly  English.  But,  after  all, 
it  cannot  exceed  a  thousand  souls  out  of  a  population  twenty 
times  that  number.  From  Whitehaven,  which  is  the  oldest 
mission  in  West  Cumberland,  the  Benedictines,  following  the 
great  influx  of  Irish  Catholic  working-men  into  the  district  in 
recent  times,  when  the  iron  trade  was  good,  have  gradually 
extended  their  missions  all  through  the  mining  country.  They 
are  at  Cleator,  Cleator  Moor,  Egremont,  Frizington,  Harrington, 
Maryport,  and  Workington.  Very  different  was  the  state  of 
things  in  the  last  century,  when,  according  to  local  tradition,  the 
priest  at  Whitehaven  was  once  obliged,  no  one  else  being  pro- 
curable, to  cross  to  the  Isle  of  Man  on  a  sick  call  in  an  open 
boat.  The  writer  visited  the  mission  at  Cleator,  which  is  in 
charge  of  the  Rev.  Fr.  Burchall  and  two  colleagues.  Fr.  Bur- 
chall  came  here  from  Douay  seventeen  years  ago,  the  mission 
having  been  founded  thirteen  years  before  that  by  Fr.  Holden, 
from  Whitehaven.     The  population  on  the  moor  is  about  ten 


Religion  in  the  North.  99 

thousand ;  half  of  these  are  Irish  Catholics.  Fr.  Burchall  has 
absolutely  no  English  in  his  congregation.  These  poor  people 
have  supported  their  church  since  they  settled  here  with  a  self- 
denial  and  an  open-handed  zeal  which  it  is  touching  to  hear  of. 
Within  the  last  twenty  years  they  have  raised  .£'25,000  for  build- 
ing and  fitting  up  churches  and  schools.  Now  a  cloud  of  sadness 
rests  upon  the  district,  owing  to  the  long  depression  in  the  iron 
trade.  More  than  a  hundred  families  in  his  congregation — those 
chiefly  who  had  the  means  of  going — have  emigrated ;  and  Fr. 
Burchall  was  endeavouring  to  induce  the  guardians  to  consider 
with  favour  a  scheme  for  sending  to  Canada  or  Australia  a 
still  larger  number,  at  the  expense  of  the  rates.  Two-thirds  of 
the  Irish  population  on  the  moor,  he  said,  were  in  a  state  of  semi- 
starvation. 

The  riots  which  happened  on  the  moor  two  years  ago  have 
left,  Fr.  Burchall  stated,  but  little  trace.  At  first  the  "  gaffers  " 
(by  this  name  are  meant  the  foremen  standing  between  the 
masters  and  the  men,  in  mine  or  furnace ;  they  are  generally 
Scotchmen)  showed  a  disposition,  whenever  the  working  hands 
were  thinned,  to  get  rid  of  Irish  Catholics.  Fr.  Burchall,  hearing 
of  this,  went  to  Mr.  Lindo,  and  one  or  two  other  great  em- 
ployers, and  pleaded  his  people's  cause  so  effectually  that  the 
invidious  practice  complained  of  was  stopped,  and  has  never  been 
repeated. 

Religion  is  certainly  not  dead  in  West  Cumberland ;  yet  it 
must  be  remembered  that,  so  far  as  it  thrives  at  all,  it  is  more 
through  Irish  than  through  English  help.  In  other  parts  of  the 
county  things  are  not  satisfactory.  There  are  no  missions  at 
Keswick,  Penrith,  and  Silloth.  In  the  purely  rural  districts 
Catholicism  is  probably  as  nearly  extinct,  as  little  of  an  efficacious 
influence  in  the  people's  life,  as  in  any  part  of  England  that 
could  be  named. 

Such  facts  as  these  are  sometimes  put  to  use  by  the  extreme 
High  Church  party,  when  they  wish  to  impress  upon  their  sup- 
porters the  feebleness  and  sterility  of  any  movements  made  in 
this  country  towards  Rome.  They  say  that  the  system  of  Rome 
is  something  old-fashioned,  unelastic,  un-English ;  they  collect 
statistics  of  marriages  by  which  they  allege  the  stationariness, 
or  even  retrogression,  of  the  Romeward  movement  to  be  demon- 
strated ;  they  exult  in  the  diffusion  of  Ritualism  ;  they  triumph 
in  the  failure  of  the  prosecutions  ;  and  are  never  tired  of  asserting 
that  the  Catholic-minded  individual  can  find  amongst  them  what- 
ever good  and  beautiful  customs  Rome  retains,  and  these  without 
admixture  of  error.  No  doubt  they  prove  all  this  much  to  their 
own  satisfaction ;  but  whom  do  they  convince  of  their  Catholicity 
except   themselves  ?     Foreigners    universally   regard  them    as 

H  2 


100  Religion  in  the  North. 

Protestants;  even  their  own  countrymen  of  the  Low  Church 
and  the  Broad  Church  do  not,  for  all  their  posturing  and  assevera- 
tion, look  on  them  as  Catholics,  but  as  bad  or  inconsistent 
Protestants.  As  to  the  real  English  Catholic,  he  admits  with 
great  sorrow  that  the  eager  hopes  formed  forty  years  ago  of  the 
speedy  re-attachment  of  the  nation,  or  a  large  part  of  it,  to  the 
See  of  Peter  neither  have  been  fulfilled  nor  seem  to  be  in  the  way 
of  fulfilment.  But  who  is  to  be  compassionated  for  this  ?  Not 
he  only,  or  indeed  chiefly  ;  for  being  hemmed  round  about  by  the 
bond  of  peace,  and  united  to  the  Eternal  by  covenant,  he  possesses 
all  that  for  himself  he  can  possibly  desire.  Whatever  St.  Austin, 
or  St.  Bernard,  or  St.  Teresa  had  in  their  days  is  his  also,  or  may 
be,  if  he  will.     As  Dryden  says  : — 

God  hath  left  nothing  for  each  age  undone. 
From  this  to  that  in  which  He  sent  His  Son. 

The  persons  who  deserve  pity  on  account  of  the  state  of  things 
over  which  the  Ritualists  exult  are  those  who,  iu  defiance  of 
warnings  and  demonstrations  addressed  more  directly  and  tell- 
ingly to  them  than  to  any  other  class  of  Englishmen,  have  shut 
their  eyes  and  confused  their  understandings,  and  rejected  the 
great  gift  that  was  within  their  reach.  Some  fifty-five  years  ago 
Providence  raised  up  within  the-Church  of  England  a  man  in  whom 
intellectual  gifts  of  the  highest  order  were  coupled  with  a  strict 
conscientiousness  and  a  fervent  piety.  By  early  training  and 
family  connection  he  was  attached  to  the  (so-called)  Evangelical 
party.  All  that  Charles  Simeon  or  Rowland  Hill  or  Robert 
Cecil  had  to  teach,  this  man  had  learned ;  he  had  thought,  out 
their  thoughts,  and  traversed  the  ground  of  their  spiritual  ex- 
perience. Finding  their  presentation  of  religion  to  be  without 
a  rational  basis,  he  turned  to  the  theologians  of  the  High  Church 
school,  and  laboured  for  many  years,  in  concert  with  and  con- 
tinuation of  their  efforts,  to  construct  a  tenable  system  which 
should  let  in  all  the  doctrines  of  the  primitive  Church,  but  shut 
out  the  authority  of  Rome.  Whatever  Thorndike  could  say  on 
the  sacraments,  or  Field  and  Beveridge  on  ecclesiastical  unity — 
all  the  "  dissuasives  "  of  Taylor  and  Bull,  and  the  polemic  rants 
of  Baxter — the  subtle,  captious  pleadings  of  Chillingworth  and 
the  dry  argumentation  of  Barrow — he  knew  all  this — all  had 
passed  through  and  been  measured  by  that  capacious  brain. 
And  yet  the  end  of  all  was  that,  after  years  of  patient,  prayerful 
inquiry,  he  found  the  Anglican  position  indefensible  !  In  1845 
he  submitted  himself  to  the  authority  of  the  Holy  See,  and 
became  what  Anglicans  call  a  "  Roman  Catholic."  Now,  in  an 
honoured  old  age,  he  awaits  the  reward  which  God  has  promised 
to  fidelity  and  perseverance.     We  maintain  that  it  is  a  matter  of 


Religion  in  the  Xorih.  101 

most  serious  consideration  for  Anglicans  whether  the  fact  of  the 
conversion  of  this  man — pre-eminently  gifted  as  he  was,  and  as 
they  must  themselves  admit,  with  all  the  faculties  and  aptitudes 
which  qualify  men  for  carrying  on  a  difficult  theological  argument 
to  a  sound  conclusion — does  not  of  itself  render  their  position 
markedly  different  from  that  which  their  predecessors  held  before 
1845.  Have  they  not  j  ust  reason  to  apprehend  that  pre-Newmanite 
Anglicanism  is  one  thing,  and  post-Newmanite  Anglicanism, 
that,  namely,  of  the  last  forty  years,  quite  a  different  thing?  God 
does  not  give  such  a  mind  to  a  nation  without  a  purpose ;  and  if 
the  deliberate  conclusions  of  that  mind  condemn  by  implication 
the  adherents  to  the  system  of  religion  which  arose  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  surely  their  responsibility  in  still  adhering  to  it 
is  of  a  different  nature  from  that  of  those  who  could  honestly 
believe  that  the  Anorlican  case  ao;ainst  Rome  had  never  been 
answered.  The  force  of  this  consideration,  it  need  hardly  be  said, 
applies  much  more  closely  to  the  High  Church  party,  especially 
the  E-itualists,  than  to  any  other  Anglican  school ;  yet  it  is, 
perhaps,  in  some  degree  applicable  to  them  all. 

It  will  perhaps  be  replied  that  "  one  swallow  does  not  make  a 
summer."  The  genius  of  Newman,  some  will  say,  may  be  as 
towering  and  unique  as  you  describe  it,  still  no  one  man  can  fill 
the  mighty  round  of  studies  and  arguments  which  are  required  to 
Jhduce  men  to  unlearn  a  system  that  has  struck  such  deep  roots 
in  English  life  and  history  as  the  Church  of  England  has.  There 
are  subordinate  inquiries,  there  are  subsidiary  and  graded  labours, 
to  be  pursued  through  a  hundred  different  channels,  in  default  of 
which  the  English  mind  can  never  be  expected  to  be  rudely 
shaken  in  a  belief  and  an  aversion  to  which  it  has  been  wedded  for 
three  centui'ies.  This  is  most  true  ;  but  our  contention  regtrd- 
ing  the  heavy  responsibility  resting  on  the  High  Church  party, 
and  especially  the  advanced  section  of  it,  is  only  strengthened  by 
such  considerations.  For  they  are  precisely  the  men  from  whose 
ranks  competent  prosecutors  of  such  inquiries  might  have  been 
furnished  in  any  number ;  it  is  they  who  might  have  filled  up 
the  gaps  of  the  Catholic  argument  as  effectually  for  England,  as 
has  been  done  of  late  years  for  France  and  Germany  by  Con- 
tinental theologians.  "  This  was  looked  for  at  your  hand,  and 
this  was  baulked.^'  Newman  raised  the  standard  of  return  from 
captivity ;  but  the  general  body  of  the  High  Church  party  shrank 
from  facing  those  deserts  of  severance  and  desolation  which 
must  be  crossed  before  a  man  can  win  to  "  the  new  firm  lands  of 
faith  beyond;  ''"^  though  those  lands  are  truly  such,  and  far  unlike 
the  quaking  Serbonian  bog,  beset  by  mirage  and  vain-glorious 

*  Carlyle's  "Life  of  Sterling." 


102  The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 

illusion,  on  which  Ihe  unhappy  writer  of  these  words  tried  to 
rest  in  his  old  age,  but  could  not.  It  would  be  safe  to  promise 
one  and  all  of  them  abundant  work  for  fifty  years  merely  in 
demolishing  the  Anglican  platform  piece  by  piece,  and  adjusting 
the  Catholic  theory  to  the  modern  conditions  of  English  life.  To 
men  so  engaged  the  cry  of  "  disestablishment "  would  be  shorn 
of  nearly  all  its  terrors. 

On  the  state  of  Catholic  interests  in  Durham  and  Northumber- 
land we  may  perhaps  have  something  to  say  on  a  future  occasion. 


■sHSSEHM 


Art.  VII.— the    SLAY    STATES  OF   THE    BALKANS. 

1.  The   Historical    Geography    of  Europe.     By  Edward  A. 

Freeman.     London  :  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.    1881. 

2.  The  Races   of  European  Turkey.     By  Edson   L.  Clark. 

New  York.     1878. 

3.  Za    Bulgarie    Banuhienne.       Par    F.    Kanitz,       Paris: 

Hachette.     1882. 

4.  En  clega  et  au  deld,  du   Danube.     Par    Emile  de  Lave- 

LEYE.     {Revue  des  Beux  Mondes,  Juin   15-Novembre  1, 
1885.) 

5.  Through    Bosnia    and   the  Herzegovina.     By   Arthur  J. 

Evans.     London  :  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.     1877. 

6.  Tivelve  Tears'  Study  of  the  Eastern  Question  in  Bulgaria. 
.  •  By  S.  G.  B.  St.   Clair  and  Charles  Brophy.      London  : 

Chapman  &  Hall.     1877. 

A  NATION,  like  a  poet,  is  born  not  made.  The  electric  spark 
-^^  of  corporate  as  of  individual  vitality  must  bo  of  Prome- 
thean fire,  and  protocols  are  powerless  to  call  it  down  from 
heaven.  The  artificial  hatching  of  a  brood  of  States  on  the 
Balkan  slopes  has  been  one  of  the  boasts  of  modern  diplo- 
macy, and  these  nurslings  of  Europe  were  carefully  provided 
with  all  the  latest  improvements  in  the  machinery  of  national 
existence.  Yet  the  result  is  a  dismal  failure,  and  the  fledgling- 
nationalities,  regardless  of  the  remonstrances  of  the  brood-mother, 
seem  disposed  to  exercise  their  callow  powers  of  beak  and  claw 
in  attempts  at  reciprocal  destruction.  Nor  is  the  barn-yard, 
metaphor  a  whit  too  exalted  to  illustrate  the  motives  of  the 
strife ;  for  there,  too,  the  seizure  of  extra  booty  by  one  member 


The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans.  103 

of  the  amiable  fraternity  is  an  unpardonable  crime  against  the 
rest,  who  immediately  fall  on  and  peck  to  pieces  the  offending- 
favourite  of  fortune.  Yet  the  rival  States,  at  whose  duel  we  have 
been  assisting,  are  bound  together,  not  only  by  the  closest  ties  of 
kindred,  but  by  a  community  of  memory  and  tradition,  reaching 
back  to  the  dawn  of  modern  history. 

In  that  "  breaking  up  of  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  " 
which  let  loose  the  deluge  of  barbarism  to  submerge  the  classical 
world,  we  can  discern  three  main  tides  of  migration  pre-eminent 
over  all  counter  influences  in  determining  the  destinies  of  Europe. 
First  and  farthest  reaching  is  the  great  Teutonic  wave  of  yellow- 
haired  Northmen — Goths,  Franks,  Yandals,  Lombards,  early 
dispersed  from  their  original  home  by  the  Baltic  to  wander 
through  adjacent  lands.  Their  final  surge  to  the  south  and  west 
carried  them  across  Europe,  from  the  shores  of  the  Euxine  to  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  and  round  both  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean, 
which  they  fringed  with  a  chain  of  powerful  barbarian  kingdoms. 
Though  ultimately  restricted  within  narrower  bounds,  they  left 
in  all  lands  where  they  had  sojourned — save  in  Africa  alone — 
abiding  traces  of  their  presence,  in  the  creation  of  a  feudal  aris- 
tocracy, and  a  profound  modification  of  the  whole  structure  of 
society. 

Next  in  importance  was  the  more  sluggish  migration  of  the 
Slavs,  a  people  known  to  the  ancients  under  the  name  of  Sar~ 
matiaus,  who  had  replaced  the  Scythians  on  the  vast  steppes  north 
of  the  Euxine  between  the  Volga  and  the  Vistula.  Drawn 
gradually  southward  to  fill  the  void  created  by  barbarian  forays 
among  the  Mceso-Thracian  peoples,  they  colonized  the  whole 
Balkan  peninsula  outside  Greece,  and  later  formed  a  solid  wedge 
across  Central  Europe,  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Illyrian  shores  of 
the  Adriatic,  limiting  with  comparative  definiteness  the  easterly 
range  of  the  Teuton. 

The  slow  tide  of  Slavonian  advance  was  partially  overwhelmed 
and  thrust  aside  by  the  portentous  havoc-crested  billow  of 
Turanian  invasion,  launched  in  successive  breakers  of  barbarism 
on  the  frontiers  of  civilization  from  the  heart  of  the  Asiatic 
deserts.  Huns  and  Tartars,  Avars  and  Alans,  a  promiscuous 
horde  of  savage  semi-Centaurs  of  the  Steppe,  rolled  westward  to 
form,  under  Attila,  a  brief  empire  of  rapine  from  the  Danube  to 
the  Loire,  and  from  the  Oder  to  the  Alps.  Kapidly  ebbing 
eastward  from  this  high-water  level  of  devastation,  the  great 
surge  of  Tartary  left  no  abiding  mark  in  history,  but  subsequent 
invaders  from  the  same  quarter  have  added  two  foreign  members 
to  the  modern  European  family.  The  Hungarian  Magyars  and 
the  Ottoman  Turks,  though  hereditary  foemen,  are  brethren  in 


104<  The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 

race,   and   have    no    other  kinsmen   among   their  continental 
neighbours. 

The  Western  Empire  became  the  prey  of  the  Teuton,  while 
squalid  Slav  and  Hun  disputed  the  inheritance  of  the  gorgeous 
Caesars  of  Byzantium.  To  the  eflforts  of  the  latter  to  ward  off 
their  fate,  and  make  barbarism  itself  a  breakwater  against  bar- 
barism, was  due  the  introduction  of  two  extraneous  elements 
among  the  Southern  Slavs  on  the  Byzantine  border,  resulting  in 
their  division  into  as  many  strongly  marked  nationalities.  It 
was  the  Emperor  Heraclius,  who,  seeing  his  very  capital  threat- 
ened by  the  predatory  hosts  of  the  Avars,  brought  two  Slavonic 
tribes  from  the  slopes  of  the  Carpathians  to  settle  among  their 
tamer  race-brethren  in  Dalmatia  and  lUyria.  Croatia,  Slavonia, 
and  Northern  Bosnia  were  thus  occupied  in  630,  a.d.,  by  the 
Croats  ffom  White  Croatia  in  Pannonia,  and  ten  years  later  these 
military  colonists  were  followed  by  their  old  neighbours  the 
Serbs,  who,  after  exterminating  the  Avars,  transfused  their  bar- 
barian blood  into  the  earlier  Slavonic  peoples  of  Serbia,  Southern 
Bosnia,  Montenegro,  and  Dalmatia. 

It  is  in  the  capacity  of  protectors  of  the  Empire,  a  role  soon 
to  be  exchanged  for  that  of  its  executioners,  that  the  Bulgarians, 
too,  make  their  debut  in  history.  The  name  first  occurs  in  or 
about  479  a.d.,  as  that  of  a  people  called  in  by  the  Emperor  Zeno 
to  repel  the  two  Theodorics,  a  pair  of  Ostrogothic  chieftains,  one 
destined  to  earn  later  a  nobler  fame,  but  both  then  vying  with 
each  other  in  the  devastation  of  Thrace.  The  allies  of  Zeno  were 
not,  however,  like  those  of  Heraclius,  a  Slav  people  to  be  grafted 
on  the  older  Slav  stock,  but  a  Hunnish  or  Ugrian  tribe,  originally, 
it  is  plausibly  conjectured,  followers  on  the  skirts  of  Attila's  great 
raid  on  the  West.  If  so,  they  are  the  sole  fragment  of  that  dread 
host  who  have  preserved  an  abiding  place  in  Europe.  Their 
Asiatic  home  was  in  the  region  of  the  Araxes,  where  territory 
had  been  allotted  them  by  Persia  in  the  reign  of  Arsaces  I.  about 
120  B.C.,  but  this  they  had  exchanged  for  a  European  settlement 
on  the  banks  of  the  Volga  in  a  district  termed  "  White  Bulgaria," 
in  contradistinction  to  the  "  Black  Bulgaria,"  later  founded  by 
them  on  the  Danube.  Their  early  history  consists  of  a  series  of 
hideous  raids  on  the  blood-drenched  valleys  of  the  Balkans,  where 
similar  horrors  have  been  recently  re-enacted  by  their  descendants 
following  in  the  wake  of  the  Russian  columns  in  the  campaign 
of  1877.  Constantinople  itself  was  only  saved  from  destruc- 
tion at  the  hands  of  the  early  Bulgarians  by  the  fertile 
genius  of  Belisarius,  and  200,000  prisoners  are  estimated  to 
have  been  annually  deported  by  them  into  slavery  beyond  the 
Danube. 

It  was  in  681  a.d.  that  the  Bulgarians  permanently- established 


The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans.  105 

themselves  in  Mcesia,  on  the  southern  or  right  bank  of  that  river, 
where  they  rapidly  merged  their  language,  and  to  some  extent 
their  nationality,  in  those  of  the  conquered  people.  Their  in- 
trusion has,  nevertheless,  caused  the  broad  line  of  demarcation 
existing  to  the  present  day  between  Serb  and  Bulgar,  the  types 
respectively  of  the  western  and  eastern  branches  of  the  southern 
Slavonians.  The  latter,  who  may  perhaps  be  ethnologically 
defined  as  Ugro-Slavs,  have  shown  a  wonderful  tenacity  in  re- 
taining their  national  cohesion  and  identity,,  surviving  almost 
unchanged  on  their  ancient  territory  after  several  terms  of 
subjugation  by  the  two  great  empires  successively  seated  on  the 
Bosphorus.  Indeed,  Bulgaria  herself  has  more  than  once  ex- 
panded to  proportions  justifying  her  in  pretending  to  the 
Imperial  style  and  title.  Her  shadowy  glories  culminated 
thrice  in  a  brief  hour  of  empire,  and  three  short-lived  Bul- 
garian kingdoms  are  enum.erated  by  historians.  The  first, 
which  had  its  capital  at  Peristhlava,  owed  its  greatness  to  the 
conquests  of  Simeon,  a  youth  educated  in  Greek  learning 
as  taught  at  Byzantium,  and  designed  for  the  cloister,  but 
fitted  by  nature  to  play  the  part  of  a  warrior  king.  Baised  to 
the  throne  in  893,  he  extended  his  dominions,  during  a  reign 
of  over  forty  years,  across  the  whole  breadth  of  the  Balkan 
Peninsula,  and  ruled  in  Ochrida,  Philippopolis,  and  Serdica 
(Sofia).  Among  his  triumphs  were  the  depopulation  of  Serbia, 
where  fifty  wandering  hunters  are  said  to  have  been  the  sole 
remnant  of  inhabitants  left  by  him ;  and  the  humiliation  of 
the  Emperor  Romanus,  compelled  to  appear  as  a  suppliant  for 
peace  in  the  Bulgarian  camp  under  the  walls  of  Constanti- 
nople. But  with  the  death  of  Simeon,  the  Great  Bulgaria, 
founded  by  him  lost  her  self-sustaining  power,  and  a  temporary 
Russian  conquest  from  968  to  971,  by  a  prince  named  Sviatoslav, 
prepared  the  way  for  reabsorption  in  the  Imperial  dominions. 
The  revival  of  the  Byzantine  power  in  the  tenth  century 
crushed  out  the  independence  of  all  the  adjacent  States,  and  the 
Danube,  under  John  Zimisces,  became  once  more  the  frontier  of 
the  Empire. 

Cut  off  from  the  Euxine  seaboard,  the  Bulgarian  nationality 
was  reconstituted  farther  to  the  west,  and  the  second  kingdom, 
with  Samuel  as  its  founder,  had  Ochrida,  now  in  Albania,  for 
its  capital.  This  new  Bulgaria  was  annihilated  in  .1018  by 
Basil  II.,  who  owes  his  by-name  of  Bulgaroktonos,  "  The  Bulgar 
Slayer,"  to  one  of  the  most  savage  actions  recorded  in  history. 
Having  captured  15,000  Bulgarian  prisoners,  he  ordered  their 
eyes  to  be  put  out,  and  in  this  miserable  condition  restored  them 
to  their  country,  to  every  hundredth  man  one  eye  being  spared, 
that  he  might  act  as  guide  to  the  rest.     The  Bulgarian  Prince 


106  The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 

died  of  the  grief  and  horror  of  the  spectacle,  and  Bulgaria,  with 
this  tragedy,  is  temporarily  effaced  from  history. 

A  third  revival  was,  however,  in  store  for  her,  and  in  1187  the 
Bulgaro-Wallachian  kingdom  of  the  Asauides  was  founded  by 
two  brothers,  Peter  and  Asan.  This  third  Bulgaria,  with  Tirnovo 
as  its  royal  city,  took  in  nearly  the  whole  of  Servia,  Macedonia, 
and  Thrace,  and  while  it  included  the  mouths  of  the  Danube,  was 
cut  off  from  the  Egean  and  Adriatic  only  by  a  narrow  fringe  of 
coast  territory  still  claimed  by  the  empire.  Under  the  Tsar 
Joannice  it  attained  its  maximum  expansion,  and  was  from  1218 
to  1241  the  leading  Power  in  south-eastern  Europe.  But  once 
again  the  loss  of  its  animating  spirit  left  it  a  prey  to  foreign 
conquest.  In  1280,  a  Tatar  dynasty  was  seated  on  the  throne  of 
Tirnovo,  and  the  disruption  of  the  kingdom  quickly  followed. 
Three  separate  Bulgarias,  a  central  kingdom  of  Tirnovo,  the 
Euxine  province  of  the  Dobruja,  and  a  north-western  State  at 
Widdin,  fell  an  easy  prey  to  the  arms  of  Bajazet  in  1393,  when 
national  identity  was  submerged  for  centuries  under  the  tide  of 
Ottoman  conquest. 

In  the  kaleidoscopic  transformations  of  the  Balkan  countries, 
where  empires  at  one  moment  are  dissolved  into  States,  and  States 
again  combine  into  empires,  Serbia  too  had  her  meteor-blaze  of 
glory  and  dominion.  Her  early  history  is,  however,  more  modest 
than  that  of  her  neighbour,  as  she  remained  to  a  later  date  sub- 
ject to  the  Empire  and  gradually  developed  national  independence 
from  the  humble  germ  of  rural  communism.  The  Zupa,  a  word 
signifying  association,  was  her  first  political  organization,  and  as 
these  village  commonwealths  combined  by  degrees  into  federated 
systems,  a  group  of  separate  States  was  evolved  from  the  organic 
social  unit  of  Slavonian  peoples.  The  Grand  Zupans  or  Bans,  as 
the  chiefs  of  these  confederations  were  called,  at  one  time  num- 
bered thirteen,  and  at  another  seven  j  but  the  principal  Banates  of 
Serbia  were  two,  those  of  Desnica  and  of  Rascia  or  Dioklea, 
now  Novi  Bazar.  From  the  latter  was  developed  the  Serbian 
kingdom,  with  the  House  of  Nemanja  as  its  national  dynasty. 
The  reign  of  Stephen  Dushan  of  this  family,  from  1331  to  1355, 
was  the  golden  age  of  Serbia,  still  fondly  remembered  by  her 
poets  and  people.  Crowned  at  Skopia  as  *'  Emperor  of  the  Serbs 
and  Greeks,^^  Dushan  ruled  over  territory  extending  from  the 
Danube  to  the  Gulf  of  Corinth,  and  including  great  part  of 
Thessaly,  Macedonia  and  Thrace, 

His  death  was  quickly  followed  by  the  disintegration  of  the 
Serbian  empire,  but  a  halo  of  legendary  romance  is  thrown  over 
its  decline  by  the  leading  part  it  played  in  the  death  struggle 
of  Trans-Danubian  Christianity.  Lazar,  son  and  successor  of 
Stephen  Dushan,  the  last  Tsar  of  Serbia,  gave  his  life  for  a  lost 


The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans.  107 

cause  on  the  fatal  K6ssovo  Polje,  or  '^  Field  of  Thrushes,"  famed 
in  song  and  legeud  as  the  Koncesvalles  of  Eastern  Europe.  The 
battle  here  fought  on  June  15,  1389,  when  a  confederacy  of 
Serbs,  Croats,  and  Hungarians  was  defeated  by  Amurath  II. 
decided  the  fate  of  Serbia ;  for  though  delivered  once  again  by 
the  successful  campaign  of  Hunyades,  her  final  annihilation  was 
consummated  after  the  fall  of  Constantinople  by  Mahomet  the 
Victorious  in  1459. 

Meantime  two  other  States,  at  first  united,  had  been  formed 
out  of  the  fragments  of  her  wreck.  Bosnia,  including  Dalmatia 
and  the  territory  of  Zachloumia,  constituted  as  an  independent 
principality  with  the  title  of  a  kingdom  by  the  Ban  Stephen 
Tvartko  in  1376,  so  survived  until  incorporated  in  the  Ottoman 
dominions  in  1463.  Ere  this,  however,  in  1440,  the  lord  of 
Zachloumia  had  transferred  his  allegiance  to  Austria,  and  the 
title  of  Duke  of  St.  Sava  assumed  by  him,  acquired  for  his  prin- 
cipality the  name  of  Herzegovina,  or  the  Duchy  2^ar  excellence. 
This  semi-independence  was  but  short-lived,  and  in  1483,  twenty 
years  after  the  Ottoman  conquest  of  Bosnia,  Herzegovina  shared 
its  fate,  and  was  swallowed  up  by  the  omnivorous  Turk. 

The  kindred  State  of  Croatia  escaped  a  similar  destiny, 
having  long  previously  thrown  in  its  fortunes  with  Hungary  by 
electing  the  king  of  that  country  as  its  sovereign.  Since  then  a 
dependency  of  the  Hungarian  crown,  and  now  forming  part  of 
the  federated  Austrian  Empire,  it  is  represented  in  the  Diet  of 
Pesth,  and  has  a  local  Diet  in  Agram  for  the  regulation  of  its 
internal  affairs.  Croatia,  under  the  guidance  of  the  patriot 
prelate,  Bishop  Strossmayer,  has  been  a  centre  of  the  revival  of 
Slavonic  literature,  and  its  national  aspirations  take  the  form  of 
intense  jealousy  of  Magyar  ascendency. 

There  remains  but  one  of  the  family  of  southern  Slavonian 
States  to  be  enumerated,  Vi^hich,  though  the  least,  is  by  no  means 
the  last,  as  it  stands  in  the  proud  pre-eminence  of  unconquered 
independence.  With  the  area  of  an  English  county,  the  little 
territory  of  gorge  and  glen,  called  in  various  languages  the  Black 
Mountain,.  Montenegro,  Tchernagora,  and  Kara  dagh,  has  the 
history  and  traditions  of  a  powerful  nation,  for  here,  in  the  last 

I  fastness  of  the  Slav  race,  a  stubborn  and  indomitable  fragment 
has  for  centuries  held  at  bay  all  the  uncounted  battalions  of  the 
Turk.  It  was  here,  amid  the  bristling  peaks  whose  dark  forest 
mantle  has  given  its  name  to  the  country,  that  the  cause  of  free- 
dom after  K6ssovo  found  a  sanctuary  inviolate  down  to  the 
present  day. 
A  Prince  of  the  House  of  Balsa  then  ruled  the  Black  Mountain 
with  the  title  of  Lord  of  Zeta,  but  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries  a  series  of  elective  spiritual  rulers,  vladikas,  or  prince- 


108  •  The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 

bishops,  led  the  turbulent  Moatenegrin  clans.  In  1697,  the 
present  dynasty  acceded  to  power,  in  the  person  of  Petrovich 
Nyegush,  a  chief  of  Herzegovinian  extraction.  At  the  close  of 
the  war  of  1876-78,  the  little  State  was  formally  declared  an 
independent  principality,  under  its  present  ruler,  Nicholas 
Petrovich,  styled  Prince  of  Montenegro  and  the  Berda  (craggy 
peaks).  Thus  the  smallest  of  the  southern  Slav  nationalities  is 
the  only  one  that  can  boast  a  continuous  history,  unbroken  by 
the  lapsed  consciousness  of  an  era  of  servitude. 

For  with  the  Ottoman  yoke  a  silence  of  centuries  fell  on  the 
subjugated  States,  and  history  became  oblivious  of  their  existence. 
The  rule  of  the  Porte  was  probably  not  harsher  than  that  of 
Christian  governments,  and  as  to  Bosnia,  at  least,  we  learn  Irom 
a  contemporary,  that  it  was  lighter  than  the  native  sovereignty  it 
superseded,  its  financial  exactions  being  less.  The  kharaj,  a 
tenth  of  the  produce  paid  in  kind,  was  demanded  of  the  con- 
quered by  way  of  ransom,  but  the  Christian  peasants,  called 
rayahs,  from  a  word  meaning  flocks,  were  probably  not  otherwise 
■directly  molested.  The  tribute  of  children  was  indeed  levied  by 
the  Porte  for  a  time,  to  recruit  its  famous  Janissary  army  with 
baby  renegades,  everj'-  fifth  boy  being  conscripted  for  its  ranks. 
But  when  the  corps  grew  later  to  prize  its  privileges  too  highly 
to  share  them  with  any  save  its  own  descendants,  the  army  be- 
came a  hereditary  caste,  and  the  blood  tax  was  remitted. 

It  was  rather  with  the  progress  of  time  that  the  position  of  the 
rayahs  grew  intolerable,  and  that  not  from  the  tyranny  of  the 
central  government,  but  from  that  of  the  provincial  military 
aristocracy.  The  Turkish  begs  or  beys,  and  agas,  greater  and 
lesser  landowners,  held  their  domains,  spahiliks  or  tchifliks,  in 
guerdon  of  service  in  the  field,  and  were  only  legally  entitled  to 
demand  a  tithe  of  the  produce  from  the  cultivators.  But  from 
the  middle  of  the  last  century,  as  a  more  pacific  state  of  society 
debarred  them  from  the  resource  of  plundering  forays  on  their 
neighbours,  they  increased  their  exactions  both  in  the  shape  of 
rent  and  in  that  of  forced  labour,  introducing  the  corvee  system, 
that  parent  of  revolutions.  A  sixth,  a  third,  and  even  a  half  of 
the  produce  was  required,  while  the  law,  being  administered  by 
Mussulman  judges,  gave  no  hope  of  remedy  to  the  miserable 
Ohristians.  The  earlier  sympathies  of  Europe  were  meantime 
claimed  by  the  struggles  of  Greece,  and  the  state  of  the  other 
border  provinces  of  Turkey  remained  unknown  or  dis- 
regarded. 

It  Was  in  the  opening  years  of  the  present  century  that  the 
reveille  of  Slav  nationality  was  sounded  by  an  illiterate  swine- 
herd from  the  forest-clad  valley  of  the  Save.  George  Petrovich, 
■called  Kara  or  Tcherny  (black),  from  the  swarthy  bronze  of  his 


The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 


109 


skin,  was  one  of  those  remarkable  men  whom  nature  sometimes 
gives  to  a  people  in  a  great  crisis  of  its  destiny.  Like  the  great 
liberator  of  the  Hebrews,  he  began  his  career  as  a  fugitive  from 
justice,  having  slain  one  of  the  oppressors  of  his  countrymen,  and 
his  flight,  which  was  rather  a  family  migration,  was  shared  by 
his  aged  father.  But  on  reaching  the  Danube,  the  boundary  of 
his  country,  the  old  man's  heart  failed  him  at  the  prospect  of 
exile,  and  he  declared  that  he  would  prefer  to  return  alone  to  his 
home.  *'  Then,'^  said  Kara  George,  "  as  the  Turks  will  certainly 
torture  you  to  death,  it  is  better  for  me  to  kill  you  now,''  and 
drawing  his  pistol  he  shot  him  dead  on  the  spot.  On  a  later 
occasion  he  hanged  his  own  brother  before  the  door  of  a  shop,  in 
punishment  for  an  act  of  violence  perpetrated  on  one  of  its 
inmates.  Such  was  the  stern  and  savage  strength  of  the  man. 
who  in  ]  804  gathered  to  a  head  all  the  elements  of  brigandage 
and  outlawry,  half-predatory,  half-patriotic,  then  lurking  dis- 
organized among  the  impenetrable  oak-thickets  of  the  Serbian 
hills. 

The  moment  was  favourable,  for  a  mutiny  among  the  Janis- 
saries of  Belgrade  divided  the  Ottoman  rulers  amongst  themselves, 
and  it  was  actually  the  Turkish  Vali  who  first  called  the  Christian 
rayahs  to  arms.  Even  when  the  movement  thus  initiated  took  the 
form  of  a  national  rising,  the  Porte  remained  a  passive  spectator, 
while  Kara  George,  in  a  series  of  campaigns,  swept  the  country 
of  its  tyrants,  and  drove  the  pampered  and  demoralized  soldiery 
to  the  shelter  of  their  fortresses.  In  1806  he  defeated  them  in 
the  decisive  battle  of  Schabatz ;  a  little  later  took  the  great 
Danubian  stronghold  of  Belgrade,  and  in  the  following  year  was 
absolute  master  of  the  country.  Making  a  virtue  of  necessity, 
Turkey  in  1811  recognized  George  Petrovich  as  Prince  of  Serbia, 
but  the  stipulations  then  agreed  to  were  not  observed,  and  war 
broke  out  afresh  in  1812.  The  whole  military  strength  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire  was  now  put  forth,  and  troops  were  poured  into 
Serbia  across  the  Bosnian  frontier.  In  1813  the  reconquest  of 
the  country  was  complete,  and  Kara  George  found  himself  once 
more  a  refugee  in  Austria.  A  sanguinary  repression  followed,  300 
Christians  were  impaled  on  the  glacis  of  Belgrade,  and  similar 
scenes  of  horror  were  enacted  throughout  the  country. 

Another  national  leader,  Miloseh  Todorovich  Obrenovieh,  now 
came  to  the  front,  made  terms  with  the  Porte  by  the  betrayal  of 
his  former  associates,  and  was  recognized  as  ruler  in  1815.  Two- 
years  later  he  gave  a  further  proof  of  his  submission,  by  present- 
ing the  Turkish  authorities  with  the  head  of  Black  George,  who 
had  ventured  into  his  dominions,  and  in  whom  he  doubtless 
feared  a  rival  in  power.  The  ghastly  trophy  was  sent  to  Con- 
stantinople, and  affixed  to  the  gate  of  the  Seraglio,  in  which  grim 


110  The  Slav  states  of  the  Balkans. 

pre-eminence  the  mortal  remains  of  no  more  formidable  enemy 
of  Ottoman  rule  have  ever  mouldered  to  decay. 

The  sovereignty  of  Serbia  has  since  oscillated  between  the 
families  of  these  two  chieftains.  In  1842  Obrenovich  was  de- 
posed in  favour  of  Alexander  Kara  Georgevich,  son  of  the  hero  ; 
but  a  counter  revolution  sixteen  years  later  reversed  this  act. 
The  assassination,  in  1868,  of  the  late  Prince  Michael,  of  the 
House  of  Obrenovich,  was  ascribed  to  his  rival,  and  an  Austrian 
Court  of  Inquiry  having  found  that  Kara  George vich  was  privy 
to  the  crime,  declared  his  family  for  ever  barred  from  the  succes- 
sion by  it.  His  son,  Peter,  is  nevertheless  still  a  pretender  to 
the  throne,  with  the  powerful  support  of  Russia,  while  his 
marriage  with  the  daughter  of  the  Prince  of  Montenegro  has 
secured  him  an  ally  in  that  quarter. 

Practical  independence  was  conceded  to  Serbia  in  1829,  and 
the  crown  was  declared  hereditary  by  a  firman  of  August  15,  of 
the  following  year.  In  1876,  Serbia  having,  in  combination 
with  Montenegro,  drawn  the  sword  against  Turkey,  at  the  orders 
of  the'  Russian  Panslavist  Committee,  suffered  a  series  of  crushino- 
defeats,  in  which  half  her  army  was  annihilated  in  a  few  weeks. 
Led  by  the  Russian  general,  Tchernaieff,  it  contained  15,000  to 
20,000  Russians  in  its  ranks,  but  so  hated  were  these  foreigners 
that  the  officers  were  mostly  killed  in  action  by  their  own  men. 
From  the  field  of  Alexinatz,  of  twenty-two  Russian  officers  of 
one  regiment  who  went  into  battle,  only  four  returned,  the 
remainder  having  been  shot  from  behind  by  Serbian  bullets. 
Serbia,  nevertheless,  obtained  complete  independence,  and  a  slight 
increase  of  territory,  under  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  the  common 
charter  of  all  the  Balkan  States.  She  has,  as  we  have  seen, 
mainly  worked  out  her  own  redemption,  and  has  thus  fairly  won 
her  place  among  the  nations. 

Not  so  her  sister  principality  on  the  Lower  Danube.  Bulgaria, 
either  more  apathetic  or  less  oppressed,  remained  comparatively 
quiescent  until  artificially  leavened  with  foreign  revolutionary 
agitation.  Russia,  which,  in  furtherance  of  her  own  designs,  had 
placed  herself  at  the  head  of  the  great  Panslavist  movement, 
inaugurated  at  the  Ethnographical  Congress  of  Moscow,  in  1868, 
became  a  centre  of  disturbance  for  the  adjoining  countries,  and 
saw,  through  Bulgaria  more  especially,  her  way  to  the  fulfilment 
of  the  mysterious  prophecy,  inscribed  in  the  tenth  century  on 
the  statue  of  Bellerephon,  in  the  Square  of  Taurus,  in  Byzantium, 
**that  in  the  last  days  the  Russians  should  be  masters  of  Con- 
stantinople." 

Hence  it  was  by  Russian  money  and  Russian  agents  that  the 
Balkan  insurrection  of  1876  was  fomented,  and  on  Russia  rests 
the  responsibility  for  what  followed.     We  will  not  now  reopen 


I 


The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans.     .  Ill 

the  hateful  question  whether  Christian  or  Moslem  excelled  in 
atrocity,  for  though  the  halance  of  evidence  seems  to  be  that  the 
Bulgar  outdid  the  Bashi  Bazouk,  it  would  require  a  jury  of 
fiends  to  decide  adequately  between  them.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
the  rising  of  the  rayahs,  attended  by  barbarous  massacre  and 
maltreatment  of  their  Mohammedan  fellow-subjects,  was  followed 
by  savage  repression  at  the  hands  of  the  Turkish  soldiery,  but 
that  these  preliminary  horrors  were  eclipsed  by  those  that  suc- 
ceeded, when  the  march  of  the  Russian  columns  left  the  helpless 
Macedonian  villages  at  the  mercy  of  the  brutal  allies  hanging  on 
their  rear.  Pandemonium  was  indeed  then  let  loose  on  the 
slopes  of  Bhodope,  and  the  fragrant  valleys  of  the  attar  of  rose 
country,  still  redolent  of  their  blushing  harvest,  were  witness  to 
scenes  like  those  of  a  city  given  up  to  sack.  Thus  Bulgaria  won 
her  freedom,  secured  to  her  by  the  arms  of  Hussia,  and  affirmed 
by  the  Treaty  of  Berlin.  Restricted,  however,  to  the  space 
between  the  Balkan  and  the  Danube,  she  was  compelled  to  forfeit 
the  more  extended  territory  assigned  to  her  under  the  original 
Articles  of  Peace,  signed  at  San  Stefano,  and  the  district  south 
of  the  Balkans,  then  detached  from  her,  was  organized  as  the 
separate  province  of  Eastern  Roumelia,  with  an  independent 
administration  under  a  Christian  governor. 

Meantime,  at  the  other  extremity  of  the  Balkan  peninsula,  the 
two  remaining  border  States  of  Bosnia  and  Herzeg6vina  have 
exchanged  the  semi-despotic,  semi-anarchic  rule  of  the  Turk 
for  the  beneficent  administration  of  Austria.  Here  it  was  that 
the  first  spark  was  lit  which  fired  the  whole  train  of  events  from 
1875  to  1877.  A  local  riot  against  the  collection  of  taxes  in  August, 
1875,  in  one  of  the  remote  valleys  of  the  wild  limestone  country 
of  Herzeg6vina,  swelled  to  a  formidable  insurrection,  extending 
throughout  Bosnia,  and  agitating  Europe.  Eor  while  the  fighting 
men  defended  themselves  in  the  rece'ssesof  theircrags  and  forests,  the 
helpless  population  fled  in  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands 
across  the  Save  into  Austrian  territory,  and  over  the  Illyrian  Alps 
to  the  cities  of  the  Adriatic,  thrilling  the  civilized  world  with 
the  miseries  of  their  exodus.  The  spectacle  of  such  a  protest 
rendered  the  restoration  of  Turkish  rule  in  the  revolted  provinces 
an  impossibility,  since  their  helpless  wretchedness  had  made  them, 
as  it  were,  the  wards  of  Europe.  The  solution  of  constituting 
them  into  self-governing  communities,  as  in  the  case  of  the  more 
easterly  Balkan  States  was  equally  out  of  the  question,  for  here 
was  no  broadly  marked  line  of  race-division  following  that  of 
religious  separation,  but  a  people  homogeneous  in  language  and 
descent,  yet  split  into  two  hostile  camps  by  difference  of  creed. 
The  Mussulman  element  in  Bosnia  is  no  alien  caste  foreign  to  the 
soil,  and  tending  to  disappear  from  it  under  Christian  rule,  but 


112  .    The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 

an  integral  section  of  the  population,  surpassing  perhaps  the 
Ottoman  in  overbearing  insolence  towards  the  Christian  lower 
classes.  A  strong  hand  was  needed  to  do  equal  justice  between 
all,  and  Austria  alone  was  equal  to  the  task.  Hence  she  entered 
on  an  armed  occupation  of  the  rebellious  provinces  as  the  man- 
datory of  Europe,  to  restore  order,  and  re-organize  society  on  a 
new  basis.  The  difficulties  confronting  her  arose  mainly  out  of 
the  singular  religious  history  of  Bosnia,  which  has  no  parallel  in 
that  of  any  other  State  in  Europe. 

The  heathen  Slav  colonists  of  the  Byzantine  provinces  owed 
their  conversion  to  Christianity  to  two  brothers  Constantino 
(afterwards  Cyril)  and  Methodius,  born  of  noble  family  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Thessalonica,  early  in  the  ninth  century.  Con- 
staiitine  devoted  himself  first  to  the  apostolate,  and  Methodius, 
who  had  been  originally  a  soldier,  joining  later  in  his  labours, 
found,  in  his  proficiency  in  the  art  of  painting,  a  powerful  adjunct 
to  his  preaching  of  the  new  faith.  Bogoris,  king  of  the  Bul- 
garians, was  so  impressed  by  a  picture  of  the  Last  Judgment 
that  he  accepted  baptism,  and  the  mass  of  his  subjects  followed 
his  example.  Cyril,  who  died  in  868,  had  some  years  previously 
translated  the  Scriptures  into  Slavonic,  inventing  for  that  pur- 
pose the  alphabet  called  from  him  the  Cyrillic,  still  used  by  the 
south-western  Slavs. 

All  the  races,  Serbs  and  Bulgars,  converted  by  these  apostles, 
as  well  as  by  other  missionaries  from  Byzantium,  followed  the 
Greek  Church  in  the  great  Eastern  schism.  The  Croats,  on  the 
contrary,  having  received  the  Latin  rite  with  Christianity  origi- 
nally conveyed  to  them  by  missionaries  from  Italy  and  Dalmatia, 
adhered  permanently  to  the  faith  of  Rome.  But  in  JJosnia, 
v^^here  the  dividing  line  between  the  creeds  occurred,  there  was 
probably  little  zeal  for  either,  and  a  portion  of  the  population 
is  declared  to  have  been  converted  directly  from  paganism  to  a 
third  sect  whose  tenets  were  peculiarly  consonant  to  some  of  the 
Slavonic  heathen  beliefs. 

The  heresy  called  Manichaean,  from  its  founder  Manes,  was 
formed  by  grafting  the  tenets  of  the  Indo-Persian  and  Babylonian 
faiths  on  some  of  the  practices  and  precepts  of  Christianity.  Its 
fundamental  dogma,  of  a  dual  principle  in  creation,  had  its 
counterpart  in  the  mythology  of  the  early  Slavs,  who  adored  a 
white  god  and  a  black  god  as  the  good  and  evil  powers  of 
nature.  The  latter,  Tcherny  Boy,  had  his  prototype  in  the 
Manichaean  Satanael,  the  creator  of  the  ''world  of  iron,"  or 
visible  universe.  The  extension  of  the  sect  in  Europe  was  due  to 
the  transplantation  by  Constantine  Copronymus  in  the  eighth 
century  of  a  colony  of  its  votaries  from  Armenia  into  Thrace,  where 
the  free  state  of  Tsphrice  formed  by  them  became  the  focus  of  a 


The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans.  113 

propaganda  among  the  neighbouring  countries.  The  Paulician 
doctrines,  as  they  were  now  termed,  spread  so  rapidly  in  Bul- 
garia that  the  "  Bulgarian  heresy''  is  one  of  the  many  designations 
later  bestowed  on  the  sect.  The  more  ordinary  name,  Bogomil, 
is  probably  derived  from  the  Bulgarian  words,  Bog  z'  milui, 
"  God  have  mercy/'  a  Slavonic  rendering  of  their  Syriac  name 
Massalians,  meaning  ''  those  who  pray." 

Introduced  into  Bosnia  by  one  Jeremy,  between  925  and  950, 
the  new  sect  struck  its  root  so  deeply  there  that  in  the  twelfth 
century  it  was  among  the  Bosnian  glens  and  forests  that  its 
head-quarters  were  found.  Here  it  was  that' the  chief  here.siarch 
or  Bogomil  Pope  resided,  to  whom  the  Albigenses,  Patarenes, 
and  Cathari,  as  the  western  branches  of  the  sect  were  called, 
looked  for  instruction  in  the  tenets  of  their  religion.  These  con- 
sisted principally  of  a  fantastic  fable  as  to  the  creation  of  the 
world  and  man,  the  struggle  between  light  and  darkness,  and  the 
classification  of  the  various  forces  of  the  universe  as  belonging  to 
one  or  other  of  the  opposing  powers.  The  asceticism  of  the  sect  was 
founded  on  the  dogma  that  all  matter,  including  the  human  body, 
was  the  work  of  the  devil,  and  the  actions  of  material  life  conse- 
quently evil  in  themselves.  The  rigid  belief  that  marriage,  the 
possession  of  property,  and  the  use  of  animal  food,  were 
necessarily  sinful,  was  modified  in  practice  by  the  concession  of 
dispensations,  in  consideration  of  a  money  payment  to  the 
"  perfect,"  or  more  austere  of  the  sect,  constituting  its  hierarchy. 
Among  the  laity  a  certain  laxity  of  morals  was  the  result  of 
weakening  the  marriage  tie,  which  was  dissolved  almost  as  easily 
as  contracted.  The  Paulician  creed  is  remarkable  in  one  respect 
as  a  solitary  instance  of  a  heresy,  non-Christian  in  its  origin, 
having  been  propagated  with  success  in  Europe  after  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel.  For,  however  modified  in  its  later  forms 
by  diflPusion  among  populations  already  imbued  with  Chris- 
tianity, it  was  in  its  primitive  conception  distinctly  an  offshoot  of 
early  Oriental  Paganism. 

A  war  of  extermination,  waged  in  1238  against  the  Bosnian 
heretics  by  Koloman,  brother  of  the  King  of  Hungary,  resulted 
in  only  temporary  repression,  as  did  also  a  second  crusade  led 
eight  years  later  by  the  warlike  Archbishop  of  Colocz.  Not  to 
the  ravages  of  the  sword  but  to  the  preaching  of  the  humble 
brothers  of  St.  Francis  is  it  due  that  the  Latin  Church  has  kept 
even  a  foothold  in  Bosnia.  The  Minorite  Friars,  dispatched 
thither  in  1260,  rapidly  extended  their  Order  throughout  the 
country,  where  it  has  since  remained  the  bulwark  of  the  Catholic 
faith.  The  Bogomils  nevertheless  continued  to  flourish  ;  many 
of  the  Bans  of  Bosnia  during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies professed  the  heresy,  and  the  Council  of  Basil  in  1433 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  I.     [Third  Series.]  i 


114  The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 

was   attended   by  four  Bogomilian  or  Patarene   bishops   from 
Bosnia. 

Another  era  of  persecution  was  in  store  for  them,  under 
Stephen  Thomas,  who  reigned  from  1443  to  1461.  Their 
churches  were  destroyed,  their  priests  expelled,  and  they  emi- 
grated in  such  numbers  than  the  Franciscans  had  to  remon- 
strate with  the  King  on  his  severity,  which  threatened  to 
depopulate  his  kingdom.  In  Herzegovina  40,000  found  a 
refuge,  but  many  fled  to  more  remote  countries,  and  some  of 
the  strange  sects  found  in  modern  Russia  are  believed  to  have 
originated  in  this  migration. 

The  Bogomils,  thus  persecuted,  turned  in  their  despair  to  the 
common  enemy  of  Christendom,  and  invited  the  Turks  to  enter 
Bosnia.  The  troops  of  Mahomet  II.  did  so  in  1463,  and.  found 
an  easy  conquest  prepared  for  them.  The  keys  of  the  principal 
fortress  were  handed  over  by  the  Manichsean  governor,  and  the 
commandants  of  other  strong  places  followed  his  example. 
Within  a  week  seventy  cities  had  surrendered,  and  Bosnia,  by 
nature  rendered  impregnable  to  an  invader,  was  converted  into 
an  Ottoman  province  in  the  course  of  eight  days.  The 
Bogomil  population  conformed  almost  en  masse  to  the  creed  of 
the  conqueror,  and  became  its  staunchest  defenders.  No  more 
bigoted  Mussulmans  exist  in  the  Turkish  Empire  than  the 
haughty  Slavonic  nobility  of  Bosnia,  with  names  ending  in  vich 
and  ich  instead  of  Ali  or  Allah,  and  holding  the  title  deeds  to 
their  lands  and  castles  from  a  date  long  anterior  to  the  Mussulman 
conquest.  And  nowhere  have  the  Christian  subjects  of  the  Porte 
found  fiercer  persecutors,  or  more  tyrannical  oppressors,  than  in 
the  Bosnian  Beys  and  Kapetans,  of  like  race  with  themselves. 

From  the  date  of  the  Turkish  conquest,  the  Bogomils  of 
Bosnia  are  no  more  heard  of  in  history,  but  their  creed  still  has 
adherents  in  the  remote  districts  of  the  Herzegovina,  and  3,000 
fugitives  from  Popovo,  who  took  refuge  at  Ragusa  during  the 
insurrection  of  1875,  are  stated  to  have  professed  this  ancient 
faith. 

It  was  the  influence  of  a  Franciscan  Father,  Angelo  Zvizdo- 
vich,  head  of  the  convent  of  Foinica,  that  won  from  the  terrible 
Mahomet  II.  terms  of  toleration  for  the  Bosnian  Catholics  and 
their  priests.  Visiting  the  conqueror  in  his  camp  on  the  field  of 
Milodraz,  in  1463,  the  humble  friar  obtained  the  firman,  known 
as  the  Atname,  the  charter  of  his  Order.  The  Sultan,  in  this 
document,  orders  that  the  Brothers  shall  not  be  molested  in  their 
persons  or  property,  and  afiirms  his  will  by  the  following  oath : 
"And  I  swear  by  the  great  God,  the  creator  of  heaven  and 
earth,  by  the  Seven  Books,  by  the  great  Prophets,  by  the 
124,000  Prophets,  and  by  the  sabre  which  I  wear,  that  no  one 


The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans.  115 

shall  act  counter  to  these  commands,  so  long  as  these  monks  do 
my  bidding  and  are  obedient  to  my  service/^ 

The  Franciscan  Order  continued  to  be  exceptionally  favoui'ed 
by  the  Sultans,  and  the  Bishops  of  Bosnia,  who  always  belonged 
to  it,  being  men  of  irreproachable  lives,  and  great  diplomatic 
address,  attained  to  considerable  political  as  well  as  social  in- 
fluence. Under  successive  persecutions  of  their  flocks,  the 
Franciscans  were  indefatigable  in  succouring  and  encouraging 
them,  and  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  many  of 
them  were  martyred  while  doing  so.  The  history  of  Catho- 
licity in  Bosnia  is  thus  identified  with  that  of  the  Franciscan 
Order,  which  constituted  a  practically  autonomous  national 
church,  strictly  obedient  indeed  to  the  Holy  See  in  matters  of 
dogma,  but  often  in  conflict  with  the  Roman  Curia  on  questions 
of  jurisdiction  and  authority.  Even  in  the  minor  matter  of 
costume  the  friars  are  tenacious  of  local  usages,  and  a  traveller 
meeting  one  of  these  sturdy  warriors  of  the  church  militant, 
mounted  on  a  shaggy  steed,  bearded  like  the  pard,  his  tonsured 
crown  surmounted  by  a  scarlet  fez,  and  his  girdle  a  perfect 
armoury  of  weapons,  finds  it  hard  to  believe  that  the  formidable 
stranger  is  nothing  more  than  the  cure  of  the  parish  setting  out 
to  attend  a  death-bed  in  a  remote  district.  The  semi-indepen- 
dence of  the  Franciscan  Order  formed  an  element  in  the  compli- 
cated politico-religious  question  with  which  Austria  had  to  deal 
on  taking  over  the  administration  of  the  provinces.* 

The  problem  was  a  triple  one,  since  it  involved  the  interests  of 
three  rival  creeds,  whose  local  re-organization  in  each  case 
touching  the  rights  of  a  distant  and  supreme  authority,  could 
only  be  eflPected  by  judicious  diplomacy.  The  religious  bodies  in 
Mussulman  countries  form  distinct  political  organizations,  seek- 
ing representation  on  all  rural  and  municipal  councils,  and 
exercising  a  jealous  watchfulness  over  their  civil  rights,  while 
the  established  creed  of  Islam  is  an  integral  portion  of  the  State 
itself.  The  relative  numbers  in  Bosnia-Herzegovina,  out  of  a 
total  population  of  1,336,091,  scattered  over  an  area  of  27,000 
square  miles,  are  448,613  Mohammedans,  496,761  Greek  Chris- 
tians, and  209,391  Roman  Catholics.  The  two  first  of  these 
bodies  practically  demanded  local  autonomy,  while  in  regard  to 
the  third,  the  opposite  claim  for  reinforcement  of  the  central 
authority  came  from  without. 

The  Mussulmans,  having  neither  sacrifice  nor  sacrament,  have, 
properly  speaking,  no  sacerdotal  class,  and  the  Sultan,  who  as 

*  See  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  June  1,  1885,  for  an  instructive 
article  by  M.  G9,briel  Oharmes :  "  La  Question  Eeligieuse  en  Bosnie  et 
Herzegovine." 


116  The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 

Khallf  and  successor  of  the  Prophet,  receives  a  sort  of  consecra- 
tion, is  the  only  priest  in  Islam.  The  muftis  and  ulema  are 
teachers  and  interpreters  of  the  law,  acting  consequently  as  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  judges  ;  the  imams,  who  read  prayers  in  the 
mosques,  resemble  lay-clerks ;  the  dervish  orders  form  an  excres- 
cence on  the  teachings  of  the  Koran,  rather  than  an  integral 
part  of  it,  and  their  members  are  religious  guerillas,  scarcely 
classed  in  the  official  hierarchy.  The  Sheik-ul-Islam,  exercising 
the  functions  of  a  supreme  ecclesiastical  judge,  is  the  sole  authority 
with  whom  rests  the  ultimate  decision  as  to  all  local  questions 
connected  with  the  disposal  of  funds  and  nomination  to  places  of 
trust  or  dignity.  This  centralization  of  power  was  especially 
galling  to  the  Bosniac  Beys,  so  strong  in  their  spirit  of  national 
independence,  and  their  first  demand  from  Austria  was  for  the 
appointment  of  a  reis-ul-ulema  (head  of  the  doctors),  a  local 
ecclesiastical  superior  with  independent  jurisdiction.  This  request 
was  acceded  to  after  due  deliberation,  and  Hilmy  Effendi,  the 
mufti  of  Serajevo,  was  in  1882  appointed  to  the  post  with  a  State- 
paid  salary  of  8,000  florins.  With  him  was  associated  a  council 
of  doctors,  medjless-ul-ulema,  consisting  of  four  ulema,  with 
a  salary  of  2,000  florins  each,  the  creation  of  this  college  by 
Austria  furnishing  the  first  instance  of  the  establishment  of  a 
Mohammedan  Church  by  a  Christian  government. 

There  still  remained  to  be  settled  the  reorganization  of  the 
vakoufs,  or  endowments  for  charitable  purposes,  including  nearly 
a  third  of  all  the  available  land  of  the  country,  as  to  the  distri- 
bution of  whose  funds  a  system  of  proper  control  was  wanting. 
The  first  step  towards  its  creation  was  the  registration  of  all  such 
property,  a  task  completed  in  1884.  A  total  of  368  foundations, 
with  a  gross  income  of  167,000  florins,  was  returned,  and  the 
considerable  surplus  revenue  found  to  be  available  has  been 
assigned  to  the  formation  of  a  fund,  for  the  establishment  of 
Mohammedan  schools  and  the  maintenance  of  mosques. 

The  abuses  connected  with  the  supremacy  of  the  (Ecumenical 
Patriarch  cried  out  still  more  loudly  for  reform,  and  the  adherents 
of  the  Greek  Church,  numbering  40  per  cent,  of  the  entire  popu- 
lation, clamoured  no  less  unanimously  for  a  revision  of  their 
position.  The  organization  of  the  self-styled  Orthodox  Church 
may  be  described  as  a  pyramidal  system  of  simony,  with  the 
sale  of  the  Patriarchate  by  the  Porte  at  its  apex.  The  Patriar- 
chal election  of  1864  is  said  to  have  cost  100,000  ducats,  nearly 
w£*40,000,  half  going  to  the  Sultan  and  half  to  the  officers  of  his 
household.  The  money,  provided  in  the  first  instance  by  wealthy 
Phanariote*  families  constituting  a  company  of  shareholders,  is 

*  ThePhanaristhe  quarter,  originally  outside  Constantinople,  assigned 
as  the  residence  of  the  Greek  Patriarch. 


The  Slav  States  of  tlie  Balkans.  117 

refunded  by  the  sale  of  Sees,  while  the  bishops  in  turn  traffic  in 
the  appointment  of  the  lower  clergy,  the  contributions  of  whose 
flocks  must  in  the  last  resort  supply  all  the  funds  distributed 
through  this  ascending  scale  of  corruption.  The  vladikas  or 
bishops,  in  addition  to  a  large  sum  on  appointment,  had  to  pay 
to  the  Phanar  a  yearly  tribute  of  38,000  gold  piastres,  or  6,000 
florins,  while  they  levied  on  the  faithful  a  special  tax,  called 
vladikarina,  over  and  above  parish  dues.  Hence  the  demand  of 
the  Greek  Christians  for  local  autonomy  under  the  rule  of  a 
national  dignitary,  which  obtained  for  them  by  Austria  under  a 
convention  with  the  Phanar  in  1880,  gave  practical  independence 
to  the  Bosnian  Church.  His  Apostolic  Majesty  was  granted  the 
right  of  nominating  State-paid  bishops  on  merely  communicating 
their  names  to  the  Patriarch,  while  continuing  to  pay  the  yearly 
tribute  of  the  Sees  as  before.  In  April,  1881,  the  Archimandrite, 
Sava  Kasanovich,  was  consecrated  Metropolitan  of  Serajevo 
amid  universal  rejoicing,  shared  by  all  sections  of  the  population 
alike,  the  Mussulmans  sending  a  special  address  of  thanks  to  the 
government  for  its  judicious  selection.  The  abolition  of  the 
vladikarina  in  1884  relieved  the  people  of  a  vexatious  impost 
which  brought  in  little  to  the  treasury,  and  the  establishment  of 
a  seminary  for  native  priests  completed  the  list  of  reforms. 

The  Bosnian  Catholics  on  their  side  asked  nothing  from  the 
new  administration,  but  the  Holy  See,  while  conferring  on  the 
Austrian  Emperor,  by  the  Bull  of  1881,  the  right  to  nominate 
bishops  and  archbishops  for  Bosnia,  desired  to  modify  the  eccle- 
siastical organization,  then  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  the  Fran- 
ciscan Order.  The  parishes  were  served  by  the  convents,  the 
Superior  acting  as  cure  in  his  own  district,  and  the  Chapter  in 
other  cases  electing  to  the  post.  Dr.  Joseph  Adler,  a  secular 
priest,  who  filled  the  Chair  of  Theology  at  Agram,  on  his  appoint- 
ment in  1881  to  the  archiepiscopate  of  Serajevo,  desired  to  secu- 
larize the  Church  of  Bosnia  by  superseding  the  Franciscans  in 
the  parishes.  This,  however,  proved  impracticable,  the  first  and 
insuperable  difficulty  being  that  there  were  no  secular  clergy  to 
replace  them,  and  a  compromise  was  eflected  by  a  decree  of  the  Holy 
See  of  March  14,  1883,  the  Franciscans,  on  condition  of  ceding 
thirty-seven  parishes  in  the  dioceses  of  Serajevo  and  Banjaluka, 
retaining  the  control  of  the  remainder.  All,  in  point  of  fact, 
continue  in  their  hands,  no  other  priests  being  available,  but  the 
establishment  of  an  ecclesiastical  seminary  at  Serajevo  under  the 
control  of  the  Jesuits  is  intended  to  supply  this  want.  Other  Orders 
have  begun  to  establish  themselves  in  Bosnia ;  the  Trappists  have 
a  flourishing  agricultural  colony  at  Maria-Stern,  near  Banjaluka, 
and  in  addition  to  the  Sisters  of  Charity,  long  resident  in  the 
country,  two  other  congregations  of  nuns  have  founded  female 


118  The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 

schools  and  orphanages  in  the  two  principal  towns.  Franciscan 
bishops  were  appointed  in  1881  and  1884  to  the  Sees  of  Mostar 
and  Banjaluka,  and  thus  while  a  less  exclusive  character  has  been 
given  to  Church  organization,  respect  has  been  shown  for  the 
rights  of  the  Order  which  has  unquestionably  borne  the  burden 
and  heat  of  the  day. 

The  agrarian  question,  aggravated  in  Bosnia  by  the  ascendency 
of  a  dominant  creed,  has  been  approached  by  Austria  in  the  same 
spirit  of  moderation  that  guided  her  treatment  of  the  religious 
problems.  Here,  amongst  the  wooded  defiles  of  the  Western 
Balkan,  was  to  be  found  the  latest  survival  of  a  feudal  aristocracy 
in  Europe,  incongruously  associated  with  Oriental  manners  and 
Mussulman  belief.  Here,  even  in  the  present  day,  the  Bosnian 
Kapetan  or  Bey  might  have  been  seen  robed  and  turbaned  like 
a  Turk,  though  with  hooded  falcon  on  his  wrist,  riding  from  his 
castle  at  the  head  of  a  troop  of  armed  retainers,  to  enjoy  the 
knightly  pastime  of  hawking.  Yet  this  modern  representative  of 
the  mediaeval  baron,  proud  of  a  long  line  of  Christian  ancestry,  and 
boasting  his  Slavonic  name,  remained  in  feelings  and  prejudices 
more  Turkish  than  the  Turk  of  Stamboul.  On  one  point,  indeed, 
he  was  swayed,  perhaps  unconsciously,  by  Christian  tradition — he 
never  practised  polygamy ;  and  he  preferred,  if  possible,  to  win 
as  his  bride  a  Nazarene  maiden,  forcibly  captured  from  his  Alba- 
nian or  Montenegrin  neighbours.  Regarding  themselves  as  the 
advanced  guard  of  Islam,  these  warlike  nobles  opposed  armed 
resistance  to  every  attempt  to  curtail  their  privileges,  and,  on  the 
destruction  of  the  Janissaries  in  1829,  were  ready  to  march  on 
Constantinople  under  the  leadership  of  Hussein  Kapetan,  to  over- 
throw the  "  Giaour  Sultan,"  as  they  called  the  reforming  ruler, 
Mahmoud  II.  The  Bosnian  risings  of  1836,  1837,  1843,  and 
1846,  were  due  to  the  discontent  of  the  Beys,  a  considerable 
number  of  whom  were  decapitated  at  the  close  of  each,  and  it 
was  only  the  strong  hand  of  Omar  Pasha  in  crushing  out  the 
more  serious  insurrection  of  1849-51,  that  finally  reduced  them 
to  sullen  submission. 

These  were  the  turbulent  subjects  taken  over  by  Austria,  with 
the  duty  of  interfering  between  them  and  the  oppressed  Christian 
peasantry.  That  she  has  done  this  without  resorting  to  violent 
measures  of  confiscation,  but  by  simply  enforcing  on  the  ruling 
class  a  due  respect  for  the  existing  law,  is  no  small  tribute  to  the 
sagacity  of  her  statesmen.  The  decree  of  the  14th  Safer,  1276 
A.H.  (1859)  was  intended  to  redress  some  of  the  worst  grievances 
of  the  rayahs,  since  it  abolished  forced  labour,  and  fixed  a  maxi- 
mum rent,  varying  from  half  to  a  sixth  of  the  produce,  according 
to  fertility  of  soil  and  other  conditions  of  tenure.  The  rising  of 
the  peasants  in  1875  was  due  to  the  impossibility  of  enforcing 


The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans.  119 

their  rights  under  this  law,  the  administration  of  justice  being 
in  Mussulman  hands.  Hence,  the  agrarian  reform  required  to 
be  supplemented  by  judicial  reorganization,  in  Mohammedan 
countries  always  a  matter  requiring  delicate  handling. 

The  Mussulman  law  resembles  the  old  Jewish  legislation  in 
having  a  religious  basis,  being,  in  fact,  an  application  of  the 
teaching  of  the  Koran  and  of  the  Hadiths,  or  traditions  of  the 
Companions  of  Mohammed.  This  origin^,!  outline  is,  however, 
amplified  by  the  Kanoun,  a  mass  of  precedent-made  law,  con- 
sisting of  the  decisions  of  the  Khalifs  on  moot  points  brought 
before  them.  The  abrogation  of  this  code  would,  thei-efore,  be 
resented  by  a  Mussulman  community  as  a  violation  of  all  time- 
honoured  usage  and  tradition,  while  the  Koran  law  is  ill-adapted 
to  be  the  sole  standard  of  equity  in  a  mixed  population.  The 
reorganization  of  justice  completed  by  Austria  in  1883,  consisted, 
therefore,  of  leaving  to  the  Mussulmans  their  standing  judicial 
system  of  naibs  and  cadis,  while  establishing  new  tribunals  before 
which  every  Christian  should  be  at  liberty  to  have  his  case 
tried.  The  statesman  under  whose  direction  these  various  re- 
forms have  been  carried  out  is  M.  de  Kallay,  a  Hungarian  by 
birth,  at  once  Finance  Minister  of  the  Austrian  Empire  and 
Administrator-General  of  Bosnia-Herzegovina.  A  man  of  great 
and  versatile  gifts,  a  brilliant  writer,  an  eloquent  speaker,  an 
accomplished  linguist,  versed  in  Oriental  and  European  tongues, 
he  has  acquired  such  personal  ascendency  in  Bosnia  that  his  mere 
presence  there  suflSced  at  one  time  to  quell  an  incipient  rising. 
The  Bosnian  Budget,  moreover,  despite  the  expenses  of  a  newly 
organized  administration,  attains  the  financial  ideal  of  a  balance 
rarely  reached  by  older  States.  The  army  of  occupation,  num- 
bering 15,000  men,  is  not  a  charge  in  it,  nor  can  it  be  reckoned 
as  a  burden  to  the  Empire,  as  the  maintenance  of  these  soldiers 
would  have  to  be  provided  for  in  some  portion  of  its  dominions. 

The  most  striking  proof  of  the  success  of  the  Austrian  rule  is 
the  popularity  of  the  conscription,  enforced  impartially  on  all 
sections  of  the  inhabitants  alike.  Not  only  do  the  conscripts 
start  lor  their  destinations  vi^ith  bands  playing  and  colours  flying, 
but  the  quota  is  augmented  by  a  large  number  of  volunteers  over 
and  above  the  prescribed  number.  Thus  Austria's  achievement 
of  her  task  seems  to  fulfil  all  the  conditions  of  complete  ad- 
ministrative success. 

The  neighbouring  Balkan  States,  though  in  the  prouder  posi- 
tion of  self-governing  nationalities,  are  threatened  with  dangers 
which  might  make  it  a  happier  condition  for  them  to  be  under 
oqually  safe  tutelage.  Each  stands  in  the  path  of  a  great  inland 
empire,  driven  by  an  irresistible  impulse  to  seek  an  outlet  towards 
the  southern  sea.      Bulgaria  bars  the  path   of  Russia  to  the 


120  The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 

Bosphorus,  Serbia  that  of  Austria  to  the  Egean.  Hence  behind 
each  of  these  puppet  nationalities  looms  the  shadowy  form  of  the 
colossus  that  guides  its  movements  and  controls  its  destiny.  The 
creation  of  a  great  Yougo-Slav  Confederation,  extending  from 
Constantinople  to  Laybach,  and  from  the  Save  to  the  Egean,  is, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  dream  of  the  modern  Slavonic  school  of 
patriots,  this  ideal  having  in  a  measure  superseded  the  earlier 
one  of  a  Panslavonia,  including  the  northern  Slavs,  under  the 
headship  of  Russia.  The  internecine  rivalries  of  the  Balkan 
States,  however,  make  such  a  combination  practically  impossible. 

Nature  would  seem,  nevertheless,  to  have  adapted  these 
countries  to  form  a  united  whole,  since,  in  addition  to  the  great 
bond  of  race,  they  closely  resemble  each  other  in  climate,  geo- 
graphical conformation,  and  productions.  A  plateau,  more  or  lesa 
undulating,  shelving  downwards  from  the  Balkan  to  the  basin  of  the 
Danube,  is  the  general  surface  plan  of  all,  but  with  outline  much 
more  highly  diversified,  and  secondary  ranges  increased  in  height 
in  countries  remote  from  the  Black  Sea.  Thus,  while  Bulgaria 
rolls  away  from  the  Balkan  foot  in  wide  and  heaving  tracts  of 
lowland,  Serbia  is  traversed  by  deep  longitudinal  valleys,  com- 
municating only  by  difficult  passes,  while  her  central  masses  rise 
6,000  feet  above  the  sea,  and  her  champaign  country  is  confined 
to  the  Danube  slope  and  the  teeming  plain  of  the  Morava. 
Bosnia  is  still  more  wildly  broken  into  ravines  overhung  by 
cliff  and  crag,  and  in  both  these  countries  vast  tracts  are  covered 
by  primeval  forest,  in  some  places  of  giant  growth  and  im- 
penetrable thickness,  in  others  interspersed  with  open  glades, 
recalling,  with  their  native  grace  of  sylvan  scenery,  the  cultivated 
beauty  of  an  English  park.  Uncounted  herds  of  swine  fatten  on 
the  mast  of  the  Bosnian  and  Serbian  oaks,  and  are  yearly  exported 
in  droves  across  the  Save  and  Danube,  to  furnish  bacon  for  the 
Austrian  markets.  An  immense  reserve  of  national  wealth 
exists  in  these  forests,  requiring  only  increased  facilities  of  trans- 
port to  be  made  available. 

On  crossing  the  frontier  between  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  a 
sudden  transformation  takes  place  in  the  landscape  ;  wood  and 
vegetation  disappear,  while  soaring  ranges  of  skeleton  peaks,, 
pale  as  sheeted  ghost?,  with  hollow  flanks  scooped  in  shell-like 
curves,  proclaim  the  fact  that  we  are  in  a  limestone  country. 
Desolate  as  the  scenery  is,  it  has  an  unearthly  beauty  of  its  own,, 
in  the  free  play  of  light  and  colour  on  the  sculptured  crags,  on 
whose  pinnacles,  pure  as  statuary  marble  in  the  aerial  distance,, 
the  effects  of  sunrise  and  sunset  rival  those  which  the  Rigi 
shows  on  the  spectral  snows  of  the  Bernese  Oberland, 

The  Herzegovina  is,  in  fact,  a  limestone  desert,  barren  as 
beautiful,  and  cultivation  is  confined  to  scattered  oases,  where,  in 


The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 


121 


hif?h  plateau  basins,  between  the  mountains,  their  collected 
drainage  feeds  a  luxuriant  vegetation.  Tobacco  is  one  of  the 
products  that  thrives  best,  giving  here  returns  far  exceeding 
those  of  the  crops  raised  in  adjoining  countries.  The  most 
singular  feature  of  Herzegovinian  landscape  is  the  subterranean 
course  of  its  streams,  belonging  to  the  class,  styled  in  German, 
Hohlen  Flusse,  or  cavern  rivers.  Emerging,  full-sized,  from  a 
grotto,  to  fiow  through  the  valleys  which  they  sometimes  sub- 
merge in  winter,  they  dive  again  under  the  rocks  to  pursue,  un- 
tracked,  their  darkling  courses.  The  river  of  Trebinje  plunges 
thus  beneath  a  range  of  mountains,  and  burrows  its  way  to  the 
Valle  d'Ombla,  close  to  the  harbour  of  Gravosa,  on  the  Adriatic 
coast,  seven  miles  distant  as  the  crow  flies.  There,  at  the  foot 
of  a  limestone  cliff,  it  wells  up  fi'om  an  unknown  depth,  and 
forms  at  this  its  second  source,  a  pool  which  it  takes  1,800  feet 
of  line  to  fathom.  Yet,  despite  the  desolate  character  of  the 
Herzegovinian  scenery,  a  more  southern  type  of  vegetation 
prevails  here  than  in  contiguous  lands,  and  grapes,  figs,  and 
pomegranates  ripening  to  perfection  in  the  valleys  give  their  in- 
habitants the  right  to  look  down  on  their  Bosnian  neighbours  as 
slivari,  or  "  munchers  of  plums." 

Agriculture,  in  all  these  States,  is  in  an  equally  primitive  con- 
dition ;  the  furrow  is  barely  scratched  by  a  rude  plough  drawn 
by  a  team  of  buffaloes,  the  bough  of  a  tree  is  sometimes  the 
substitute  for  a  harrow,  and  the  grain  is  trodden  in  Scriptural 
fashion  on  the  threshing-floor.  Maize  is  the  staple  crop,  wheat 
and  rye  follow  or  alternate  with  it,  and  the  soil,  unrenewed  by 
manure,  is  left  to  recover  in  a  long  interregnum  of  fallows.  Lean, 
shaggy  cattle  roam  untended  over  great  stretches  of  wild  pasture,, 
and  sheep  and  goats  pick  up  a  scanty  living  among  the  poorer 
tracts.  Plum  orchards  are  seen  close  to  every  homestead,  since 
this  fruit  not  only  furnishes  the  national  beverage,  slivovltza,  or 
plum  brandy,  but  in  the  dried  state  figures  as  one  of  the  principal 
exports  of  Serbia  and  Bosnia.  Live  stock,  especially  swine,  are 
a  still  larger  item  of  their  external  trade,  and  in  1881,  325,000- 
pigs  were  sent  across  the  Serbian  border. 

Although  the  Balkan  peoples  are  nominally  a  homogeneous 
race,  the  national  type  of  the  Serb,  ethnologically  including 
Bosnians  and  Montenegrins,  differs  essentially  from  that  of  the 
Bulgarian.  This  diversity,  confirmatory  of  the  view  that  the 
Turanian  element  still  survives  in  the  modern  Bulgarian,  corre- 
sponds to  that  between  the  Polish  and  Russian  peasant,  the 
Slavonic  blood  of  the  latter  being  also  largely  adulterated  with  a 
Tartar  infusion.  The  Bulgarian  is,  unquestionably,  the  lower 
organization ;  generally  apathetic,  yet  capable  of  being  roused  to 
tigerish  ferocity,  he  is  at  once  more  patient  under  oppression. 


122  The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 

and  more  savagely  vindictive  whea  triumphant^  than  his  Western 
neighbour. 

In  externals  there  is  the  same  superiority  in  favour  of  the 
purer  race,  for  while  the  Ugro  Slav  has  the  low  brow  and  irregu- 
lar facial  outline  suggestive  of  the  animal  type,  the  Serbians  are, 
as  a  rule,  a  straight-featured  people,  with  a  high  average  of  good 
looks,  though  seldom,  perhaps,  passing  into  the  finer  perfection 
of  ideal  beauty.  In  national  costume,  too,  diversity  of  origin  is 
traceable,  for  while  on  the  Lower  Danube  we  find  the  sheepskin 
clothing,  and  heads  close  shaven  save  for  a  single  lock  of  hair — 
universally  distinctive  of  the  Tartar — we  meet  a  more  picturesque 
style  of  dress,  with  brighter  colours  and  greater  attempt  at  deco- 
ration, among  the  dwellers  by  the  Morava  and  the  Save.  The 
fez  is  the  universal  Serbian  head-dress,  both  for  men  and  women, 
while  the  use  of  coins  as  ornaments  is  so  extensive  among  the 
latter,  that  three  millions  sterling  are  said  to  be  withdrawn  from 
circulation  in  this  way.  Patriotic  fervour,  love  of  legendary  lore, 
popular  memory  of  ancient  tradition,  all  that  feeds  national  life, 
is  much  more  vivid  in  Serbia  than  in  Bulgaria;  and  in  the 
Western  State,  too,  society  is  still  constituted  on  its  primitive 
basis  of  indigenous  communal  freedom. 

No  country  in  Europe  is  so  purely  democratic  as  Serbia,  and 
nowhere  is  democracy  so  entirely  unhindered  in  its  working  ;  for 
here  are  no  conflicting  class  interests  requiring  to  be  safe-guarded 
by  artificial  checks.  An  English  traveller,  once  asking  if  there 
were  any  nobles  in  Serbia,  received  the  proud  answer,  "  Every 
Serbian  is  noble."  This  is  in  a  sense  true,  as  the  expropriation 
or  extermination  of  the  Turkish  Beys  during  the  long  wars  of 
independence  swept  away  the  class  of  great  landowners,  and  left 
the  Serbian  kmet;  or  free  cultivator,  without  any  overlord  on  the 
ground  he  tills.  The  ideal  of  peasant  proprietorship  is  here 
attained  without  that  pressure  of  population  upon  soil  which 
renders  such  a  condition  in  Western  Europe  the  Tie  plus  ultra 
of  rural  misery.  The  spirit  of  Serbian  independence  renders 
the  hiring  of  labour  for  farm  or  household  work  an  impossi- 
bility ;  and  even  cooks  and  housemaids  come  from  Hungary  and 
Croatia.  Hence  the  farms  cultivated  by  a  single  family  are 
necessarily  small,  averaging  from  ten  to  thirty  acres,  while  at 
harvest  time,  if  the  cultivator  requires  assistance  to  get  in  his 
crops,  it  is  supplied  gratuitously  by  his  neighbours,  who  make 
the  occasion  a  rural  merry-making,  called  moba. 

In  parts  of  Serbia  may  still  be  found  that  original  germ  of  the 
Slavonian  social  system,  the  zadruga  (association),  or  family 
community.  It  consists  of  a  group  of  households,  descendants  of 
one  family,  living  on  a  common  domain,  originally  inalienable  and 
indivisible,  under  the  headship  of  an  elective  chief,  the  starechina, 


The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans.  123 

or  elder.  The  corporation  thus  created  constitutes  a  legal  entity, 
and  forms  a  sort  of  rural  co-operative  company,  sometimes  num- 
bering 300  individuals.  The  domestic  arrangements  consist  of  a 
large  common  dwelling-house  standing  in  a  palisaded  yard,  and 
consisting  of  two  divisions  :  the  dining-room,  with  whitewashed 
walls  and  wooden  benches  and  tables,  where  all  meals  are  eaten 
and  public  affairs  discussed,  and  the  general  dormitory,  a  large, 
bare  apartment,  in  which  the  whole  community  sleep  in  winter 
to  benefit  by  the  warmth  of  the  stove  placed  in  the  partition 
wall  separating  it  from  the  refectory.  A  long,  low  building 
behind  or  beside  the  general  dwelling,  contains  the  separate 
summer  sleeping-rooms  of  the  individual  households,  opening  off 
a  verandah  in  front.  When  a  marriage  takes  place  a  fresh  com- 
partment is  added  on  at  one  end  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
newly  married  couple.  In  these  summer  cells  is  stored  all  per- 
sonal property,  wearing  apparel,  furniture,  trinkets,  and  any- 
thing acquired  by  private  industry ;  for  while  the  regular  labour 
of  the  individual  is  due  to  the  community,  anything  done  at 
chance  moments  or  recreation  hours  is  for  his  own  benefit.  The 
household  economy  is  directed  by  a  matron,  not  necessarily  the 
wife  of  the  starechina,  who  acts  as  mother  of  the  family. 
Granaries  and  sheds  for  implements  form  a  series  of  detached 
buildings  round  the  court ;  but  stables  and  shelters  for  cattle  are 
oftener  among  the  fields.  In  one  outhouse  may  generally  be 
seen  great  casks  of  plum-brandy  stored  to  age,  and  representing 
the  moneyed  reserve  of  the  association. 

In  many  places  whole  villages  were  formed  by  an  agglomera- 
tion of  such  communities,  but  the  system  is  gradually  dying  out, 
as  the  restless  ambition  of  the  younger  generation  exercises  its 
disintegrating  effects  on  the  patriarchal  regime.  The  Austrian 
Theilungs-Gesetz,  legalizing  the  subdivision  of  the  common 
domain,  has  worked  in  the  same  direction ;  for  formerly  a  male 
member  forfeited  all  rights  on  leaving  the  collective  home,  though 
a  girl  received  a  portion  on  marriage.  Widows  and  orphans,  sick 
and  infirm,  were  maintained  by  the  common  labour,  and  the 
absence  of  a  proletariate  class  in  Serbia  is  in  great  part  due  to 
the  zadruga  system.  To  the  same  result  tends  also  the  Home- 
stead Law,  rendering  inalienable,  even  for  the  benefit  of  creditors, 
the  peasant's  dwelling,  with  five  acres  of  land,  an  ox,  and  the 
[necessary  implements  of  culture. 

Thus  safe-guarded  in  possession  of  his  house  and  field  the 
Serbian  peasant  enjoys  complete  local  self  government.  The 
mayor  and  council  of  the  commune  or  opchtia,  are  chosen  by  the 
inhabitants,  and  the  former  sits  as  judge,  with  two  elected  assessors, 
to  try  ordinary  police  cases  and  civil  causes  involving  not  more 
than  2O0  francs.    A  tribunal  of  five  members,  elected  every  three 


124  The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 

months,  forms  a  court  of  appeal,  while  the  communal  councils 
also  select  jurors  to  try  the  criminals  of  their  several  districts  at 
the  assizes.  The  commune  takes  thought  for  its  memhers  in 
times  of  scarcity,  and  keeps  a  public  granary,  to  which  every  family 
is  obliged  to  contribute  182  kilogrammes  of  maize  or  wheat,  and 
a  reserve  of  sixty  to  seventy  million  kilogrammes  of  grain  is 
thus  constantly  maintained  in  view  of  possible  failure  of  crops. 

Serbia  is  essentially  an  agricultural  country  ;  its  whole  urban 
population  not  exceeding  200,000,  of  which  Belgrade  contains 
37,500  and  Nisch  12,801,  while  1,750,000  individuals  are 
engaged  in  rural  industry.  All  its  principal  towns  contain 
ruinous  quarters,  formerly  occupied  by  the  Turks,  but  deserted  by 
them  during  the  war  of  1876,  and  now  in  process  of  reoccupation 
and  reconstruction  by  the  Jews.  Most  of  the  handicrafts  in 
Serbia,  those  of  mason  and  carpenter  particularly,  as  well  as  the 
trade  of  innkeeping,  are  exercised  by  an  industrious  and  ubi- 
quitous race  of  Macedonian  Vlachs,  called  by  themselves  Roumeni, 
or  Roumanians,  and  by  others  Tsintsara,  from  their  mispronuncia- 
tion of  the  word  five  as  tsints,  instead  of  tchintch. 

Legislative  functions  in  Serbia  are  exercised  by  the  King,  in 
combination  with  the  Narodna  Skupchtina,  or  National  Assembly. 
This  body  consists  of  178  members,  one  to  every  3,000  electors, 
one  quarter  being  named  by  the  King,  and  the  remainder  elected 
by  suffrage  of  all  adult  taxpayers!  For  the  decision  of  questions 
of  constitutional  bearing  or  vital  importance,  an  enlarged  or 
extraordinary  Skupchtina  is  summoned,  with  a  quadruple  number 
of  delegates,  all  of  popular  election.  The  remainder  of  the  con- 
stitutional machinery  is  composed  of  the  Savjet,  or  Senate,  of 
fifteen  members,  and  a  Privy  Council  of  eight  Ministers. 

Political  parties  in  Serbia  are  numerous.  There  are  the  so- 
called  Liberals,  headed  by  M.  Ristics,  pro-Russian  in  leanings, 
though  less  so  than  the  Radical  Panslavists.  The  Progressists, 
led  by  M.  Garashanine,  side  with  Austria,  and  are  favoured  by 
the  King.  Their  home  policy  based  on  the  rapid  development  of 
material  civilization  with  increased  expenditure  and  centralized 
government,  is  opposed  by  the  rural  party  in  the  interests  of 
local  liberties  and  economy.  The  bureaucratic  Conservative  party 
is  headed  by  M.  Christies,  and  another  group  is  formed  of  young- 
men,  who,  having  studied  abroad,  are  imbued  with  Continental 
Socialism  and  enthusiasm  for  the  Paris  Commune. 

The  taxation  of  the  country  is  already  considerable,  and  it  is 
burdened  with  an  increasing  debt.  A  capitation  tax,  graduated 
according  to  income  and  earnings,  is  the  principal  impost,  and  is 
assessed  in  the  first  instance  en  bloc  on  the  communes.  A 
working  man,  at  the  lowest  end  of  the  scale,  pays  under  this 
head  from  2  francs  40  cents  to  9  francs  60  cents,  according  to 


The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 


125 


his  wages.  The  communes  have  power  to  levy  a  tax  on  a  similar 
basis  but  less  in  amount,  the  maximum  in  the  country  districts 
being  one-fourth,  in  the  towns  one-third,  and  in  Belgrade  one-half 
of  the  national  tax. 

The  churches  in  the  rural  districts  are  few  and  far  between, 
sometimes  only  in  the  proportion  of  one  to  every  seven  or  eight 
hamlets.  Neither  is  there  any  great  devotion  shown  in  frequent- 
ing them,  the  principal  religious  observance  of  the  population 
consisting  in  rigid  abstinence  on  more  than  half  the  days  of  the 
year.  The  custom  of  visiting  the  cemeteries  on  Fridays,  and 
depositing  offerings  of  wine,  bread,  and  other  food  on  the  graves, 
is  unquestionably  of  Pagan  origin. 

The  present  area  of  Serbia  does  not  include  the  ancient  centre 
of  its  nationality,  and  it  is  round  the  district  of  Stara  Serbia 
(Old  Serbia),  still  under  Turkish  rule,  that  its  historical  memories 
gather.  Here  was  Prisrend,  now  in  Albania,  its  Tsargrad,  or 
imperial  city,  the  capital  of  Stephen  Dushan ;  here  Ipek,  the 
seat  of  its  patriarchal  see  ;  here  the  ill-starred  Field  of  Thrushes, 
the  epic  battle-field  of  Serbian  song.  It  was  from  this  "Serbia 
Irredenta  "  that  a  great  national  exodus  took  place  after  the  un- 
fortunate Austrian  campaign  of  1689,  when  37,000  Serbian 
families  followed  their  Patriarch,  Arsenius  Tchernoivich,  across 
the  Danube  into  a  long  exile.  The  new  immigrants  were  estab- 
lished by  Austria  among  the-  soldier  colonists  of  that  military 
frontier  where  for  centuries  she  has  kept  watch  and  ward  for 
Christendom  against  the  van  of  Islam.  Here  the  peasant  war- 
riors, organized  on  the  zadruga,  or  family  system,  formed  a  sturdy 
militia,  bound  to  leave  the  plough  in  the  furrow  and  the  sickle 
in  the  straw  when  the  call  to  arms  sounded,  or  the  beacon  fires 
flashed  for  nine  hundred  miles  along  Save  and  Danube,  from  the 
lUyrian  shore  to  the  Carpathian  slopes.  Hither  the  Serbians 
brought  the  undying  memories  of  their  home,  and  building 
churches,  called  after  those  they  had  left  behind,  on  the  rocky 
peninsula  of  the  Frusca  Gara  (Wooded  Mountain),  between  the 
Danube  and  the  Save,  made  it  the  sanctuary  of  their  lost  nation- 
ality. In  one  of  these  shrines  is  deposited  their  most  venerated 
relic,  the  embalmed  body  of  Lazar,  last  Knez  of  Serbia,  slain 
in  the  tent  of  Amurath,  after  the  rout  of  Kossovo.  And  on 
June  15,  the  anniversary  of  the  fight,  thousands  of  Serbians  flock 
from  far  and  near  to  do  homage  to  their  dead  Tsar,  and  kneel 
beside  the  open  coffin  where,  after  the  lapse  of  five  centuries,  he 
etill  lies  in  state,  robed  in  the  mantle  of  faded  embroidery  he 
wore,  as  is  said,  on  that  fatal  day.  A  sense  of  loyalty  so  long- 
hved  and  tenacious  shows  an  earnest  depth  of  national  feeling 
that  augurs  well  for  the  future  of  Serbia. 

All  such  romantic  associations  are  left  behind  in  crossing  the 


126  The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans . 

frontier  of  Bulgaria,  where  a  more  squalid  population  amid  more 
sordid  surroundings  can  have  but  little  thought  for  the  abstract 
poetry  of  life.  The  ancient  glories  of  Bulgaria  can  scarcely 
indeed  be  vividly  present  to  the  modern  Danubian  rayah,  who 
lives  by  preference  in  a  hovel  without  light  or  air,  evading,  when 
possible,  the  decree  enjoining  the  construction  of  a  window  in  his 
domicile.  The  unprepossessing  aspect  of  the  rayah  village  is 
described  as  follows  by  Messrs.  St.  Clair  and  Brophy,  whose  resi- 
dence in  remote  parts  of  the  country  makes  their  book  one  of  the 
most  authoritative  accounts  of  rural  Bulgaria  : — 

A  sandy  ravine  sloping  down  to  the  Lake  of  Varna,  between  hills 
covered  with  the  remains  of  once  magnificent  forest,  some  three- 
score of  mud  houses,  or  rather  huts,  surrounded  by  irregularly 
shaped  enclosures  of  hurdle  work  in  every  stage  of  dilapidation,  two  or 
three  fountains,  many  wild  cherry,  plum,  apple,  and  pear  trees, buffaloes, 
pigs,  and  innumerable  cur-dogs  of  every  size  wandering  about  listlessly 
in  search  cf  food.  Such  is  the  general  appearance  of  our  village,  and, 
making  the  necessary  allowance  for  difference  of  position,  such  is  the 
aspect  of  almost  every  Eayah  (Christian)  village  in  the  Bulgarian 
Balkan. 

If  the  landscape  be  left  out  of  the  question,  these  villages  are  not 
picturesque  in  themselves,  and  the  prevailing  brownish  tint  of  the 
houses,  blending  with  that  of  the  cleared  land  around,  prevents  them 
being  easily  seen  at  a  distance  ;  enter  one  of  them,  and  if  you  happily 
succeed  in  avoiding  the  bites  of  all  the  dogs,  whom  the  arrival  of  a 
stranger  induces  to  pause  from  their  usual  avocations,  you  will  see  a 
mass  of  cottages  apparently  thrown  together  without  order  or  arrange- 
ment, built  of  mud  and  rudely  thatched  with  reeds,  upon  which  great 
stones  are  sometimes  placed,  as  upon  the  chalets  of  Switzerland,  to  pre- 
vent the  roof  being  carried  away  by  the  wind.  Each  of  the  ruinous 
fences  enclose  a  structure  resembling  a  child's  Noah's  Ark  immensely 
magnified  and  standing  upon  raised  wooden  legs ;  this  is  the  granary, 
containing  the  small  amount  of  wheat  or  Indian  corn  reserved  by  the 
Bulgarian  peasant  for  the  use  of  his  family.  A  rude  plough,  unaltered 
in  form  since  the  earliest  days  of  agriculture,  some  equally  primitive 
tools,  a  heap  of  logs  for  firewood,  a  ladder,  an  araba  or  springless  cart, 
a  few  melancholy  turkeys  and  a  brood  of  famished  chickens  trying  to 
pick  up  their  day's  meal,  these  are  the  inevitable  appendages  of  every 
house. 

The  interior  is  equally  uninviting,  as  the  furniture  is  of  the 
scantiest  and  rudest,  and  since  fear  of  brigands  forbids  any  exit 
being  left  for  smoke  and  other  exhalations  save  through  the 
door  or  accidental  chinks  in  roof  and  walls,  the  atmosphere  is  not 
of  the  sweetest.  The  most  prosp€g:"Ous-looking  establishment  in 
the  hamlet  is  the  tukhan,  or  shop,  where  the  bakal,  the  village 
publican,  sells  drugged  wine  or  fiery  raki  to  his  neighbours. 

The  farming  is  equally  slovenly  with  the  architecture,  the  rich 


The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans.  127 

but  neglected  soil  produces  poor  and  scanty  crops,  and  great 
tracts  of  waste  land  are  kept  for  pasture,  the  loitering  life  of  the 
choban  or  herdsman  recommending  it  to  the  rayah's  listless  dis- 
position. The  extreme  laxity  or  liberality  of  the  Turkish  land 
laws  has  also  encouraged  this  tendency,  for  the  usage  called  mera 
allowed  the  owner  of  a  tchijlik  or  farm,  as  well  as  municipalities 
and  other  bodies,  to  take  up  an  indefinite  extent  of  pasture,  paid 
for  only  indirectly  through  the  heylik,  or  capitation  tax  on 
animals  grazed  on  it.  The  right  of  cutting  wood  and  other  in- 
cidental privileges  of  ownership  were  enjoyed  free  of  charge  by 
the  occupier,  and  much  valuable  forest  has  been  wastefuUy 
destroyed  in  consequence. 

The  terms  on  which  arable  land  was  held  also  put  a  premium 
on  bad  farming,  since  tithe  was  taken  of  the  crop  alone,  the  land 
in  fallow  escaping  taxation.  Every  facility  was  granted  for  the 
acquisition  of  land,  since  any  subject  of  the  Porte  was  entitled  to 
occupy  such  as  was  not  already  cultivated  on  condition  of  paying 
the  taxes,  merely  taking  out  a  registration  paper  called  tapoUj 
at  a  fee  of  from  9c?.  to  Is.  3c?.  an  acre.  Such  an  occupier  could 
not  be  evicted,  and  after  twenty  years'  possession  became  absolute 
owner,  with  right  of  sale.  The  Christian  rayah  under  Turkish 
rule  was  exempt  from  conscription,  to  which  every  Mussulman 
was  liable,  paying  since  1856  the  askeri  heclele,ov  military  sub- 
■  stitution  tax  of  25  piastres,  about  a  pound  a  year.  In  addition 
to  the  ashar,  or  tenth  of  all  grain,  there  was  a  personal  or  pro- 
perty tax  called  verghi,  averaging  30  piastres,  or  24s.  The  heylik 
on  animals  was  on  the  scale  of  about  3s.  4c?.  per  sheep  and  2s.  6(i. 
per  pig,  and  there  was  a  trifling  but  vexatious  impost  on  orchards, 
vineyards,  and  market  gardens.  Considering  that  these  taxes 
included  the  rent  of  land,  they  would  not,  if  equitably  collected, 
have  been  excessive,  but  the  system  of  farming  them  led  to  great 
abuses,  in  which  government  and  contributors  were  alike 
cheated. 

The  rayah  had  probably  more  to  suffer  from  the  exactions 
of  his  clergy,  who  resembled  wolves  much  more  than  shep- 
herds. Down  to  a  comparatively  recent  date,  they  did  not 
even  speak  the  language  of  the  people,  all  services  and  offices 
being  held  in  Greek.  The  agitation  against  this  system  took 
the  form  of  a  religious  revolt,  the  congregations  closing  the 
churches  and  driving  out  their  foreign  pastors.  At  last,  in 
1870,  after  nearly  twenty  years  of  this  state  of  anarchy,  a  firman 
was  granted  by  the  Porte,  establishing  the  Bulgarian  Church 
on  an  independent  basis  under  an  Exarch,  to  which  dignity 
Anthimios,  Metropolitan  of  Widdin,  was  raised  in  February, 
1872. 

The  native  clergy  are  so  ignorant  and  uncultured  that  Padre 


128  The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 

Damiano,  head  of  the  Franciscan  mission  at  Varna,  "  a  Capuchin," 
says  Mr.  St.  Clair,  "  of  exemplary  life  and  character,"  spoke  to 
the  latter  of  their  shortcomings  as  forming  an  insuperable  obstacle 
to  the  reunion,  at  one  time  under  discussion,  of  the  Bulgarian 
with  the  Roman  Church.  "It  would/'  he  said,  "not  only  be 
impossible  to  admit  them  as  priests,  but  I  doubt  whether,  without 
previously  preparing  them  by  a  course  of  study,  I  should  be 
justified  in  accepting  them  as  catechumens."  If  such  be  the 
condition  of  the  pastors  in  regard  to  spiritual  knowledge,  the 
benighted  state  of  the  flock  may  be  easily  inferred,  and  we  need 
not  wonder  at  the  further  remark  of  the  authority  just  quoted : 
"  How  could  you  convert  to  any  faith  a  race  which  cannot  be 
made  to  believe  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul?" 

Devoid  of  this  firm  basis  of  religious  belief,  the  nominal 
Christianity  of  the  Bulgarian  is  largely  intermingled  with  super- 
stitions and  observances  handed  down  from  his  heathen  ancestors. 
Among  these  are  the  sacrifice  of  animals  in  honour  of  certain  of 
the  saints,  the  ofierings  of  food  to  the  dead,  the  veneration  of  an 
icon  or  picture  of  a  saint  with  a  dog's  head,  and  the  belief  in  the 
vampire,  or  malignant  resuscitated  corpse,  called  in  Dalraatia 
Vrikodlaki,  by  the  Gagaous,  or  semi-Tartar  population  of  the 
Black  Sea  region,  Obour,  and  by  the  Bulgarians  proper,  in  pure 
Slavonic,  Upior. 

Among  great  sins  ranking  with,  if  not  before,  infractions  of 
the  Decalogue,  are  reckoned  such  trivial  acts  as  the  following : — 
Washing  a  child  under  seven  years  old,  giving  a  child  a  spoon  to 
play  with  ;  letting  a  dog  sleep  on  the  roof  of  a  house,  which  is 
supposed  to  imperil  the  salvation  of  one  of  its  inmates,  selling 
flour  previous  to  making  a  loaf  from  it,  omitting  to  incense 
flour  brought  from  the  mill  to  exorcise  possible  demoniacal  in- 
habitants, or  failing  to  spill  some  drops  from  every  vessel  of 
water  fetched  from  the  fountain,  lest  an  elemental  spirit  floating 
on  it  should  enter  the  house,  or  the  bodies  of  those  who  drink  it. 

The  old  Lithuanian  worship  of  Spring  under  the  form  of  a 
serpent  is  commemorated  by  the  Blagostina,  the  Feast  of  Nature 
and  of  Serpents,  kept  on  March  25,  when  the  Greek  calendar 
honours  Constantino  the  Great.  Popular  belief  holds  that  the 
profanation  of  this  Serpents'  Sabbath  by  any  servile  work  will 
be  avenged  by  the  bite  of  one  of  these  creatures  in  the  course  of 
the  year.  The  celebration  of  the  Feast  of  the  Kings,  called 
Eslama  Gunu,  or  Dipping  Day,  by  the  compulsory  immersion  of 
every  man  in  the  fountain,  with  the  alternative  of  paying  a  for- 
feit in  wine,  has  a  parallel  in  a  country  as  remote  as  Abyssinia, 
where  all  the  inhabitants  on  the  same  feast  undergo  a  similar  but 
more  solemn  ceremony,  described,  perhaps  erroneously,  as  an 
annual  baptism. 


The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans.  129 

The  recourse  to  witchcraft,  officially  practised  by  a  revered 
matron  in  every  village,  in  case  of  illness  or  other  misfortune, 
is  common  to  all  barbarous  countries,  but  its  sanction  by  the 
clergy,  who  often  preside  at  the  stances  of  these  beldames,  is 
peculiar  to  the  East  of  Europe.  The  Bulgarian  observances 
with  regard  to  the  dead  argue  belief  in  a  material  survival  of 
some  principle  of  life  after  the  actual  bodily  decease,  associated 
generally  with  malignant  tendencies.  At  the  moment  of  death 
all  pots  and  vessels  are  reversed,  lest  the  soul,  finding  a  lurking 
place  in  them,  should  be  a  source  of  annoyance  to  the  house- 
hold. Death  Feasts,  called  Poniinki,  are  held  on  the  evening 
of  the  decease,  and  at  subsequent  intervals  of  ten  days,  three 
months,  six  months,  a  year,  and  three  years.  On  Palm  Sun- 
day, after  a  meal  held  in  the  cemeteries,  the  remains  are  left  on 
the  graves  to  be  consumed  by  the  dead  during  the  night,  and 
on  Easter  Monday  an  Easter  eg^^  is  left  on  each  tomb.  The 
Bulgarian  widow,  moreover,  is  bound  to  sprinkle  her  husband's 
grave  with  water  every  morning  for  forty  days,  that  he  may 
not  die  of  thirst.  Some  of  these  practices  are  doubtless  very 
ancient,  others  may  have  had  a  ghastly  cause  in  cases  of  pre- 
mature interment,  which  takes  place  immediately  after  death. 

The  belief  in  Vilas  and  Saraovilas,  fountain  and  forest  fairies, 
belongs  rather  to  the  domain  of  poetry  than  religion,  like  that 
in  the  elves  and  sprites  of  Northern  popular  mythology,  while 
Arab  and  Eastern  fable  have  supplied  other  fantastic  elements  to 
the  Slavonic  demonology.  A  more  mischievous  superstition  is 
that  which  forbids  the  harvest  to  be  housed  for  six  weeks  after 
cutting,  during  which  the  grain  suffers  heavily  from  the  depre- 
dations of  birds  and  other  waste. 

The  observance  of  183  Church  Feasts  is  a  serious  check  to  in- 
i3ustry,  while  the  ordinance  of  182  days  of  rigid  abstinence  ou 
bread  and  vegetables,  must  also  tend  to  diminish  the  working 
power  of  the  people.  The  exactions  of  the  clergy  are  heavy 
relatively  to  the  resources  of  the  country,  and  each  family  pays 
over  £3  yearly  in  various  fees  to  the  village  Pope,  besides  a  tax 
of  £2  for  the  Metropolitan.  The  priest  goei| round  once  a  month, 
accompanied  by  his  attendant,  generally  a  Mussulman  gipsy, 
carrying  a  vessel  of  holy  water,  a  brush,  and  wallet,  the  houses 
are  sprinkled,  and  at  each  a  piastre,  value  about  1  OcZ.,  and  an  oke 
of  flour  worth  an  equal  sum,  are  demanded.  Spiritual  minis- 
trations, except  as  mere  outward  forms,  are  little  regarded, 
and  inebriety,  the  prevailing  vice  of  the  people,  is  equally  common 
amongst  the  priests. 

With  such  a  state  of  religious  organization  the  moral  standard 
is  naturally  low,  and  honesty  and  truth  are  virtues  that  are  left 
to   the   Mussulman  section  of  the  population.     A   remarkable 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  I.     {Third  SeHes.]  K 


180  The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 

proof  of  this  is  aflPorded  by  the  fact  that  a  Turk  is  invariably 
selected  for  the  office  of  guarding  the  ripe  grapes  and  other  crops 
from  nocturnal  depredations,  no  rayah  being  sufficiently  incor- 
ruptible for  a  post  of  such  trust.  All  travellers  indeed  are  unani- 
mous in  lauding  the  fine  qualities  of  the  Turkish  peasant,  who, 
while  exempt  from  the  vices  of  his  urban  compatriots,  is  loyal  to 
a  bad  government,  and  faithful  to  a  false  creed.  Yet  his  days  on 
European  soil  are  numbered,  for  his  race  is  dwindling,  and  his 
rule  is  passing  away. 

No  picture  of  rural  life  in  Bulgaria  is  complete  without  allu- 
sion to  its  brigands,  who  may  be  divided  into  three  categories. 
The  first  is  the  Robin  Hood  of  Eastern  Europe,  the  gallant  out- 
law of  popular  sympathy  and  song,  representing  in  his  career 
rather  a  revolt  against  misrule  than  a  plea  for  plunder,  and  re- 
spectfully termed  Balkan  Chelibi,  or  gentleman  of  the  forest. 
A  certain  code  of  chivalry  rules  his  war  upon  society;  thus  he 
never  fires  first  or  from  under  cover,  but  advancing  into  the  open, 
boldly  confronts  his  foe.  Typical  of  this  class  was  Solhak,  lord 
of  the  mountain  some  years  ago,  who  devoted  the  money  he 
seized  to  charity  or  public  works,  such  as  the  construction  of 
roads  and  bridges.  His  words  to  Mr.  St.  Clair  were:  "Since 
Europe  has  interfered  with  our  interior  matters,  justice  must  fly 
to  the  mountain,  and  truth  and  honour  be  defended  by  an  outlaw 
such  as  I  am." 

The  next  description  of  marauder  is  the  Khersis,  an  ordinary 
depredator  on  a  small  scale,  generally  a  rayah  who  has  assumed 
a  Mussulman  nom  cle  guoi^e.  More  frequently  of  Greek  origin 
is  the  third  class  of  highwayman,  the  Haiduk,  a  bloodthirsty 
assassin  as  well  as  robber.  Such  was  Stirion,  a  native  of  the 
Greek  village  of  Akdere,  near  Cape  Emineh,  in  Roumelia,  said 
to  have  committed  seventeen  murders  with  his  own  hand.  From 
the  same  locality  came  the  still  more  dreaded  Kara  Kostia,  for 
years  the  terror  of  the  Balkans.  By  means  of  organized  relays 
of  horses  he  travelled  with  extraordinary  speed,  and  though  the 
head  of  a  band  of  three  men  and  a  woman,  committed  most  of 
his  atrocities  single-handed.  This  monster  was  at  last  slain  in 
fair  fight,  by  a  Turk  sixty  years  of  age,  Hassan  of  Ayajik,  an 
ex-Balkan  Chelibi,  who  went  in  chase  of  him  for  the  purpose, 
armed  with  a  knife  and  single  barrelled  gun.  He  came  at  last 
upon  him  and  his  four  companions,  with  the  result  told  by  Mr. 
St.  Clair  in  his  own  words  :  "  I  waited  till  Kara  Kostia  and 
another  were  well  in  line,  brought  down  the  two  with  one  bullet, 
drew  my  knife,  and  after  a  fight  killed  the  two  others.^'  The 
woman  was  also  killed  in  the  fight,  but  a  child  found  in  the 
saddle-bags  was  adopted  by  Hassan,  its  education  as  a  Christian 
being  entrusted  to  a  Bulgarian  priest,  in  accordance  with  the 


The  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans.  131 

supposed  religion  of  its  parents.  For  this  feat,  accomplished  in 
1863  or  1863  Hassan  refused  the  Government  reward,  saying  he 
had  only  done  his  duty. 

AsBulgaria  has  not  yet  enjoyed  an  independent  existence  for  ten 
years  it  is  too  soon  to  judge  how  far  the  evils  of  the  old  regime 
have  heen  corrected,  or  in  what  direction  modern  institutions, 
artificially  created,  will  really  work.  The  democratic  machinery 
bestowed  upon  her  by  Russia,  consisting  of  a  single  Chamber 
triennially  elected  by  universal  suffrage  under  a  constitutional 
Prince,  was  believed  by  the  cynically  disposed  to  have  been 
specially  devised  to  create  domestic  difficulties,  requiring  fresh 
intervention  of  the  protecting  Power.  Bulgaria  has,  at  any 
rate,  already  gone  through  some  of  the  critical  phases  incident 
to  the  infancy  of  nations,  and  her  constitution,  abrogated  by  a 
coup  d'etat  in  1881,  conferring  a  septennial  dictatorship  on  the 
Prince,  was  again  restored  by  him  two  years  later.  Meantime, 
both  Prince  and  people,  with  the  growing  sense  of  national  in- 
dependence, have  begun  to  feel  impatient  of  Muscovite  tutelage, 
exercised  in  the  form  of  the  administration  of  the  War  Office  by 
a  Russian,  and  in  the  organization  of  the  army  by  Russian 
officers. 

"  We  are  very  grateful,''  recently  said  the  Bulgarian  Primate 
to  an  English  traveller,  "^  to  the  Russians  for  having  delivered 
us  from  the  Turks,  but  now  who  will  deliver  us  from  the 
Russians  ?  "  This  revulsion  of  feelinsj  in  Bulgaria  against  her 
quasi-protector  is  part  of  a  notable  change  brought  about  in  the 
political  aspect  of  South-eastern  Europe,  by  the  diminution  of 
Russian  and  increase  of  Austrian  influence  among  the  Slavonian 
peoples  during  the  last  ten  years. 

Serbia  was  first  to  revolt  against  the  dictatorship  of  St.  Peters- 
burg, the  estrangement  produced  by  the  disastrous  issue  of  the 
Russian-prompted  war  of  1876  having  been  widened  by  the  un- 
disguised sacrifice  of  her  interests  to  those  of  Bulgaria  in  the 
negotiations  of  San  Stefano.  Serbian  statesmen  had  then  no 
choice  left  but  to  throw  themselves  into  the  arms  of  Austria,  and 
at  the  price  of  a  commercial  treaty  and  a  railway  convention  with 
the  latter  Power,  securing  the  constructions  of  lines  through 
Serbia  towards  Salonica  and  Constantinople,  a  small  accession  of 
territory  was  obtained,  including  Pirot  and  Vranja,  important 
strategical  points  on  the  future  Austro-Egean  railway  system. 

This  transference  of  allegiance  necessitated  not  only  a  change 
of  Ministers  at  Nisch,  but  also  an  ecclesiastical  coup  d'etat,  and 
the  resignation  of  M.  Ristics,  the  pro-Russian  Premier,  was 
shortly  followed  by  the  deposition .  of  Archbishop  Michael, 
Metropolitan  of  Serbia,  who  continued  to  agitate  against  the 
government,  at  the  instigation  of  the  Pan-Slavonic  Committee, 

K  2 


133  TJie  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans. 

His  resislance  to  a  tax  on  admission  to  the  religious  Orders  was 
the  immediate  cause  of  his  removal,  which,  to  the  disappoint- 
ment of  the  Russian  party,  was  calmly  acquiesced  in  by  the 
clergy,  as  was  the  nomination  of  his  successor,  Mgr.  Mraovich, 
the  present  Metropolitan. 

The  overthrow  of  the  recusant  Milan  himself  was  the  next 
object  of  Russian  iutrigue,  a  rival  pretender  to  his  throne  being 
found  in  the  person  of  Peter  Kara  Georgevich,  grandson  of  the 
hero  of  Serbian  independence.  In  consideration  of  a  marriage 
with  a  Montenegrin  Princess,  for  whom  the  Czar  provided  a 
dowry  of  £50,000,  this  claimant  was  induced  to  make  over  his 
rights  to  his  father-in-law,  and  a  treaty  was  signed  providing  for 
the  deposition  of  "  the  Austrian  King  of  Serbia,"  and  the  pro- 
clamation of  ISIicholas  of  Montenegro,  the  pensionary  and 
creature  of  Russia,  by  the  grandiose  title  of  ''  King  of  all 
Serbians.^'  It  was  in  1883  that  an  attempt  was  made  to  give 
some  practical  effect  to  this  document  by  a  rising  in  Serbia, 
instigated  by  the  partisans  of  Kara  Georgevich,  but  confined 
entirely  to  the  districts  adjoining  Bulgaria.  Even  here  it  was 
quickly  repressed,  but  the  cordial  welcome  accorded  to  the 
refugees  by  the  latter  State  was  one  of  the  local  irritants  tending 
to  inflame  the  hostile  feeling  recently  displayed  by  its  neigh- 
bour. 

"While  the  influence  of  the  rival  Empire  was  thus  becoming 
paramount  in  the  Western  Balkans,  the  restless  shuttle  of  Russian 
intrigue  was  weaving  its  tangled  web  over  the  eastern  half  of  the 
Peninsula.  Here,  as  our  readers  will  remember,  the  Muscovite 
designs  were  baffled  by  the  manner  in  which  the  Great  Bulgaria 
of  San  Stefano  was  halved  by  the  Treaty  of  Berlin.  Thus,  while 
the  Danubian  State  was  constituted  as  a  separate  principality, 
under  the  nominal  suzerainty  of  the  Porte,  the  province  south  of 
the  Balkans,  termed  Eastern  Roumelia,  was  created  into  an 
autonomous  or  self-governing  dependency  of  Turkey,  under  a 
Christian  governor,  nominated  by  the  Porte  and  approved  by  the 
Powers.  The  majority  of  the  inhabitants  are,  however,  Bul- 
garians, and  the  spectacle  of  the  severance  of  race  was  intolerable 
to  the  tender  susceptibilities  of  the  Power  which  had  partitioned 
Poland  without  a  pang.  Hence,  when  the  five  years'  term  of  office 
of  Aleko  Pasha,  the  first  Governor  of  Roumelia,  expired  in  1884<, 
Russia  opposed  his  reappointment,  and  secured  that  of  Gabriel 
Chrestovich,  a  creature  of  her  own,  better  known  to  recent 
history  as  Gavril  Pasha.  Under  his  complaisant  rule  an  active 
revolutionary  movement  was  set  on  foot,  and  the  secret  organi- 
zation of  Panslavist  Committees  fully  perfected  throughout  the 
country.  The  deposition  of  Prince  Alexander  by  a  popular 
demonstration  in  Sofia,  though  part  of  the  Russian  programme. 


Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties. 


133 


was  frustrated,  through  its  betrayal  to  the  young  ruler  by 
one  of  the  confederates.  His  adherents,  already  sullenly  resentful 
of  foreign  dictation,  organized  a  counter-conspiracy,  plot  within 
plot,  and  by  the  action  of  an  inner  circle  of  the  associates,  who 
obtained  the  direction  of  the  revolutionary  machinery,  were  able 
to  guide  it  to  their  own  ends,  and  anticipate  the  appointed  time 
for  setting  it  in  motion. 

On  the  morning  of  Friday,  September  18,  a  number  of  insur- 
gent bands,  converging  on  the  capital  of  Roumelia  from  the 
adjoining  districts,  appeared  in  the  streets,  surrounded  the  Konak, 
or  palace,  and  having  made  prisoners  the  Governor  and  Com- 
mandant of  the  militia,  proclaimed  the  union  with  Bulgaria,  and 
summoned  Prince  Alexander  to  Philippopolis.  The  latter,  who  was 
suspiciously  ready  for  the  invitation,  acceded  to  it  without  delay. 
He  entered  Roumelia  on  Sunday  the  20th,  amid  the  wildest 
enthusiasm  on  the  part  of  the  inhabitants,  and  thus  was  accom- 
plished the  first  act  of  a  bloodless  revolution. 

Its  ulterior  consequences  have  yet  to  be  seen,  for  the  brief  but 
sanguinary  struggle  between  the  Balkan  sister  States  is  but  the 
prelude  to  the  deeper  and  perhaps  more  sanguinary  game  yet  to 
be  played.  The  pawns  have  made  the  first  move  on  the  political 
chess-board,  clearing  the  way  for  the  larger  pieces  to  come  into 
action.  The  slightest  shock  to  the  nice  equilibrium  of  interests 
in  the  Balkan  peninsula  brings  Europe  at  once  face  to  face  with 
the  great  unsolved  problem  of  modern  diplomacy,  and  opens  up 
all  the  dread  possibilities  of  future  complications  implied  in  the 
very  name  of  the  Eastern  Question. 

E.  M.  Clerke. 


.   AnT   VIII.— CATHOLIC  UNION  AND  CATHOLIC 

PARTIES. 

Sanctissimi  Domini  Nostri  Leonis  Div.  Prov.  Fapje  XIII. 
Bpistola  Encyclica  "  De  Civitatum  Constitutione  Chris- 
tiand."  (Encyclical  Letter  of  Pope  Leo  XIII.  "On  the 
Christian  Constitution  of  the  State.") 

THE  Encyclical  "  Immortale  Dei ''  affects  Catholic  life  and 
action  in  every  quarter  of  the  world.  But  its  interest  will 
probably  be  greatest  in  France,  and  least  in  England  and  the 
United  States.  The  reason  is  a  very  simple  one.  The  Encyclical 
is  a  forcible  and  eloquent  statement  of  the  supreme  principles  of 
Christian  politics  and  their  application  to  modern  civilization. 


134  Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties. 

The  ethical  truths  which  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  here  re-affirms  are 
held  unanimously  and  firmly  by  all  Catholics  at  the  present 
moment.  At  the  period  of  the  "  Mirari  vos/^  and  even  in  the 
earlier  days  of  Pius  IX.,  there  might  have  been — nay,  there  was 
— a  considerable  minority  who  were  not  satisfactory  in  their 
views  as  to  the  absolute  lawfulness  of  certain  "  liberal  "  ways  of 
thinking.  But  Papal  pronouncements,  episcopal  comments, 
and  the  Catholic  press  have  spread  sound  doctrine  through  the 
whole  mass  of  the  faithful,  and  there  is  little  need  at  this  time  of 
day  to  insist  on  what  had  to  be  insisted  upon  in  1864.  It  is 
rather  the  application  of  orthodox  principles  which  is  now  in 
question.  As  one  of  the  French  bishops  said  the  other  day,  the 
Pope  has,  for  the  first  time,  placed  side  by  side,  in  the  same 
document,  the  principles  and  their  interpretation.  It  is  under- 
stood that  the  word  "  interpretation  "  here  means  softening  or 
toning  down.  The  predecessors  of  Leo  XIII.  had  warned  the 
flocks  of  the  danger  of  any  "  transaction  "  (to  use  the  French 
phrase)  between  Catholic  teaching  and  liberalistic  error ;  and 
they  had  not  omitted,  on  the  other  hand,  to  check  certain  too 
fiery  zealots  for  exaggerating  the  practical  application  of  their 
pronouncements.  The  present  Encyclical  does  both  these  things 
in  one  and  the  same  Letter;  and  the  novelty  and  the  chief 
interest  of  the  Letter  lie  (if  we  may  venture  to  say  so)  as  much  in 
the  rebuke  which  it  gives  to  exaggeration  as  in  its  statement 
of  Catholic  orthodoxy.  Now  we  who  are  citizens  of  English- 
speaking  States  have  had  little  or  no  difficulty,  all  along,  in 
understanding  the  real  limits,  or  the  real  meaning,  of  the  strong 
and  most  true  conservative  doctrines  of  the  *' Mirari  vos/'  and 
the  Syllabus.  We  have  never  considered  that  the  Chair  bf 
Peter,  in  anything  which  it  has  uttered,  has  condemned  either 
republican  institutions,  representative  government,  equality  of 
classes  before  the  law,  the  toleration  of  religious  liberty,  or  the 
permission  of  wide  freedom  to  the  press.  A  few  amongst  us — 
brought  up  on  old  Tory  traditions  in  the  nursery,  or  made  light- 
headed in  middle-age  by  the  assimilation  of  French  Legitimist 
articles — have  stood  out  against  the  "  modern "  spirit,  and 
refused  to  bend  the  knee.  These  have  denounced,  in  every 
variety  of  season,  the  whole  machinery  of  modern  politics — the 
vote,  the  Chamber,  the  Minister,  and  the  Sovereign.  The  people 
should  obey,  not  vote  ;  Parliaments  were  the  revolution  em- 
bodied; Ministers  should  be  Ministers,  and  not  masters;  and  the 
King  should  govern  as  well  as  reign.  As  for  republics,  they 
were  only  Freemasonry  triumphant,  and  a  Republican  President 
could  never  be  other  than  the  particular  tool  which  the  Lodges 
had  agreed  upon  for  the  moment.  There  is  quite  enough 
unhappy  truth  in  these  views  to  lift  them  out  of  the  self-contra- 


Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties.  135 

dictory  and  the  absurd.  But,  on  the  whole,  English-speaking 
Catholics,  whilst  accepting  with  full  loyalty  the  teachings  of  the 
Syllabus,  have  used  without  much  questioning  or  heartburning 
a  reasonable  liberty  of  interpretation. 

But  in  other  countries,  and  especially  in  France,  the  circum- 
stances have  been  very  different.  It  need  not  be  said  that  the 
French  Catholic  people,  the  French  Church,  and  the  French 
■clergy  must  be  of  greater  importance  in  the  eyes  of  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff  than  any  other  Church  or  people  in  the  world  taken, 
singly.  Their  numbers,  their  faith,  their  devotedness  to  the 
Holy  See,  their  literary  power,  their  grand  traditions,  and  their 
political  capabilities — all  these  and  many  other  qualities  go  to 
make  them  the  foremost  Catholic  influence  in  the  world,  next  to 
that  of  Rome  itself.  Whatever,  therefore,  divides,  estranges, 
or  weakens  the  Catholics  of  France  is  a  calamity  to  the  universal 
Church.  The  whole  world  knows  that  French  Catholics  have 
been  divided  in  opinion,  ever  since  the  Restoration,  on  questions 
of  the  gravest  importance.  It  was  not  so  much  that  some  loved 
the  Bourbon,  some  the  Empire,  and  others  the  constitutional 
monarchy  or  the  republic,  but,  what  was  far  more  serious,  those 
who  held  to  Legitimism  denounced  as  bad  Catholics  those  who 
tolerated  the  new  regime,  and  those  who  ])retended  to  march 
with  the  times  upbraided  the  more  conservative  party  as  men 
who  placed  dynastic  interests  before  those  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  Both  parties,  or  all  parties,  have  .been  to  blame  each  in 
its  turn.  There  were  extreme  men  among  the  bishops,  among 
the  journalists,  among  the  statesmen,  whom  no  one  could  doubt 
to  be  actuated  by  sincere  love  of  the  Church  and  the  Holy  See. 
The  wide  influence  of  the  school  of  Montalembert  made  it  abso- 
lutely necessary  at  one  time  for  the  Holy  See  to  formulate  certain 
views  on  modern  "  liberties."  But  it  has  been  evident,  at  least 
since  the  death  of  the  Comte  de  Chambord,  that  it  was  the 
extremists  of  the  opposite  party  who  were  now  doing  the  greatest 
amount  of  harm.  M.  Louis  Veuillot  did  one  service  to  the 
Catholic  cause  :  he  taught  her  champions  not  to  be  afraid  of  her 
enemies.  In  a  country  like  France,  where  the  public  are  so  apt 
to  think  a  cause  lost  if  it  is  silent  and  depressed,  a  man  who 
spoke  out  boldly,  contemptuously,  bitterly,  and  in  perfect  French, 
was  likely  to  do  as  much  good  to  Catholicism  as  a  Catholic 
Minister  in  the  Cabinet.  This  much  good  Louis  Veuillot  did. 
But  even  the  most  conservative  of  Catholics  can  hardly  help 
seeing  that  he  did  a  great  deal  of  harm.  It  is  always  a  thing  to 
be  watched  with  suspicion  when  vehement  politicians  begin  to 
speak  in  the  name  of  the  Catholic  Church.  The  Church  is  never 
merely  political,  and  she  is  never  violent.  The  best  of  Catholic 
laymen,  whether  journalists  or  orators,  are  without  that  tender 


136  Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties. 

solicitude  for  the  salvation  of  souls  which  the  Catholic  pastorate 
can  never  put  otf.  One^s  race,  one's  country,  one^s  king,  and 
even  one's  party  are  lawful  objects  of  devotion.  But  before  the 
Church  can  consider  country  or  dynasty  she  has  to  think  of  the 
souls  for  which  Christ  died ;  and,  in  spite  of  an  occasional  mis- 
take by  a  priest  or  a  bishop,  she  always  does.  When,  therefore, 
a  considerable  party  among:  the  French  Catholics  claimed  to  be 
the  only  Catholic  party,  readers  of  history  saw  how  it  would  end. 
Luckily,  the  life  of  the  Church  is  so  strong  that  divisions  which 
would  split  or  kill  other  organizations  are  const?.ntly  being  healed 
in  her.  An  unseemly  wrangle,  which  even  the  Archbishop  of 
Paris  was  unable  to  put  a  stop  to,  has  not  for  a  week  survived  the 
Letter  of  the  Pope.  The  present  Encyclical  may  be  looked  upon 
as  the  full  and  formal  statement  of  the  grounds  of  the  decisions 
given  in  the  letter  to  Cardinal  Guiberc. 

As  the  Encyclical  is  long,  somewhat  technical,  and  very  closely 
reasoned,  it  may  be  useful  to  many  of  our  readers  to  give  an 
abstract  of  it,  which  will  not  only  place  the  substance  of  it  at 
once  before  the  eye,  but  will  enable  any  one  to  follow  it  with  ease 
from  beginning  to  end  : — * 

PREAMBLE. 

The  Church,  though  her  primary  object  is  the  salvation  of 
souls,  nevertheless  is  the  principal  civilizing  force  of  the  world. 
Modern  principles — called  by  the  Pope  the  "Novum  Jus,^'  or  the 
"new  system  of  Law ^^ — represent  the  Church  as  a  reactionary 
power,  inimical  to  progress  and  liberty.  The  object  of  the 
Encyclical  is  to  compare  the  new  system  with  real  Christiark 
doctrine,  and  thus  to  bring  out  the  truth  on  this  subject. 

Chapter  L 

mTJie  Constitution  and  Character  of  States  which  accept 
the  Christian  Philosophy. 

1.  All  public  authority  (publica  potestas)  is  from  God;  because 
to  live  in  society  is  necessary  and  natural  to  man,  and  no  society 
is  possible  without  a  head. 

2.  Governing  authority  {jus  imperii)  is  not  necessarily  bound 
up  with  any  particular  form  of  State. 

3.  But  of  whatever  kind  the  rulers  are,  they  should  rule  as 
God  rules — justly,  not  like  rnasters,  but  like  fathers,  and  not  for 
their  own  benefit,  or  for  the  benefit  of  a  few,  but  of  the  whole 
community. 

*  The  original  text  of  the  Encyclical  is  given  in  our  present  number, 
p.  153. 


I 

i 

I 


Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties.  137 

4.  On  the  other  hand,  the  people  are  bound  to  reverence  and 
obey  their  rulers;  to  contemn  lawful  authority,  in  whomsoever  it 
is  placed,  is  no  more  allowable  than  to  resist  God's  own  will. 

5.  It  is  clear  that  the  State  is  bound  to  have  a  public  religion; 
for  the  same  obligation  of  worship  and  service  of  God  which  lies 
upon  individual  human  beings  lies  upon  a  community.  The 
rulers  of  a  State,  therefore,  as  it  is  their  duty  to  provide  for  the 
welfare  of  the  community,  are  bound  to  honour  the  name  of  God, 
and  to  maintain  in  all  its  sanctity  and  integrity  the  religion 
which  unites  men  to  God. 

Chapter  II. 
TJie  Church  in  the  Christian  State. 

1.  It  is  easy  to  recognize  which  is  the  true  religion.  Christ 
has  instituted  a  certain  Society  called  the  Church,  over  which  He 
has  appointed  rulers,  and  one  especially,  as  supreme  ruler — the 
Roman  Pontiff. 

2.  The  Church  is  a  perfect  Society,  complete  and  independent; 
and,  as  its  end  and  object  is  the  mcst  elevated  and  excellent  which 
can  be,  it  ranks  first  among  Societies,  and  therefore  above  the 
State ;  though  neither  can  it  in  any  way  injure  the  State. 

3.  The  Church  has  always  claimed  and  exercised  this  aljsolute 
and  rightful  authority  of  hers ;  and  it  was  clearly  a  providential 
disposition  of  God  that  she  was  endowed  with  "  civil  princedom," 
the  better  to  guard  her  freedom.  , 

4.  Thus  the  Church  and  the  State  are  each  limited,  and  each 
supreme  within  itsovvn  circle.  But  since  the  same  human  beings 
and  communities  are  the  subjects  of  both,  and  since  the  same 
matters  may  be  tlie  objects  of  both,  there  must  be  some  orderly 
and  fixed  relation  between  the  two.  That  is  to  say,  the  Church 
must  be  supreme  in  all  sacred  things,  in  all  that  regards  the 
salvation  of  souls  and  the  worship  of  God;  the  rest  is  the  domain 
of  the  State. 

5.  This  co-ordination  of  the  two  powers  in  tlie  Christian  State 
not  only  does  not  injure  the  dignity  and  the  rights  of  the  rulers 
of  the  Slate,  but  gives  to  them  an  augustness  and  a  stability 
which  nothing  else  can  give.  In  such  a  State  the  family  is 
guarded  by  Christian  marriage,  by  the  securing  of  due  authority 
for  the  husband  and  due  honour  to  the  wife,  by  the  regulating  of 
the  mutual  x-elation  of  parents  and  children.  In  such  a  State  the 
laws  are  made  for  the  common  good,  not  by  the  acclamation  of 
an  ignorant  mob,  but  by  just  and  prudent  men  ;  the  authority  of 
the  rulers  acquires  a  more  than  liuman  sanctity  ;  the  obedience  o-f 
the  people  becomes  more  dignified,  because  they  obey  as  to  God 
Himself;  mutual  charity,  kindness,  and  liberality  are  duties;  the 


13S  Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties. 

citizen  and  the  Christian  is  not  puzzled  by  havin^^  to  reconcile 
conflicting  connmands;  and  civil  society  shares  in  the  good  things 
which  Christianity  has  brought  upon  the  earth.  (This  paragraph 
is  illustrated  by  a  magnificent  passage  from  the  "  City  of  God  " 
of  St.  Augustine.) 

Chapter  III. 
The  "  Neiu  System." 

1.  There  was  once  a  time  when  the  Philosophy  of  the  Gospel 
really  governed  States ;  a  happy  time,  when  many  grand  things 
were  done  through  this  concord  between  the  Kingdom  and  the 
Priesthood. 

2.  The  sixteenth  century  brought  a  change;  first,  religion  was 
corrupted,  then  philosophy,  and  finally  civil  society.  The  four 
prijiciples  of  the  New  System  are  Equality ;  personal  Freedom 
from  authority ;  the  right  to  think  as  one  pleases,  to  act  as  one 
iikes  ;  and  the  denial  of  all  right  to  command.  That  is,  the  mob 
is  sovereign  ;  the  ruler  is  only  a  delegate  at  will ;  the  authority 
of  God  is  ignored  ;  no  public  religion  is  possible ;  all  religion  may 
be  called  in  question. 

3.  Under  such  a  system  the  Church  is  naturally  most  impro- 
perly treated.  The  State  encroaches  on  the  Church's  domain,  as, 
lor  instance,  in  regard  to  marriage  and  the  property  of  the 
clergy  ;  in  fact,  the  Church  is  treated  just  like  any  other  inferior 
society.  Laws  are  made,  administration  is  directed,  the  young 
are  deprived  of  Christian  training,  religious  Orders  are  robbed, 
the  civil  princedom  of  the  Popes  is  taken  away — all  for  one  end,  to 
weaken  and  embarrass  the  Church. 

4.  These  modern  principles  are  against  natural  reason. 
Authority  is  from  God ;  the  mob  sovereignty,  which  makes  rulers 
mere  puppets,  and  which  legitimizes  rebellion,  is  devoid  of  all 
reasonable  grounds.  The  theory  that  all  religious  forms  are  equal 
is  really  equivalent  to  Atheism.  Freedom  of  thought  and  of 
speech  is  not  true  liberty,  for  liberty  is  the  right  to  do  good  and 
to  be  good,  and  not  evil.  To  make  the  Church  subject  to  the 
State  is  unjust  to  the  Church  and  injurious  to  the  State. 

Chapter  IV. 

The  Real  Doctrine  of  the  Church  on  the  "  Liberties  "  of 
the  New  System. 

1.  This  doctrine  may  be  gathered  from  the  "  Mirari  vos''  of 
Gregory  XVI.  and  "Syllabus"  of  Pius  IX.:  public  power  is 
from  God  j  rebellion  is  not  lawful ;  indifference  in  religion  is 
wrong;  complete  freedom  of  thought  and  speech  is  against  reason; 


I 


i 


Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties.  139 

and  so  on.     But  in  matters  of  mixed  jurisdiction  the  Church 
always  tries  to  come  to  an  agreement  with  the  State. 

2.  No  form  of  government  is  condemned  in  itself.  It  is  not 
wrong,  in  itself,  that  the  people  should  have  a  greater  or  less 
share  in  the  government ;  such  a  participation  may  be  at  times 
a.  duty.  The  Church  does  not  condemn  those  governors  of  States 
who,  for  a  good  reason,  tolerate  the  custom  of  giving  each  kind 
of  religion  its  place  in  the  State.  She  is  solicitous  that  no  one 
be  compelled  against  his  will  to  embrace  the  Catholic  faith. 

3.  Unbridled  licence  she  cannot  tolerate.  But  true  Liberty 
she  promotes — the  Liberty  which  removes  errors  and  scandals, 
rules  the  State  on  wise  principles,  unshackles  trade  and  commerce, 
and  defends  the  country  from  foreign  domination  ;  the  Liberty 
which  opposes  the  licence  of  selfish  princes,  which  forbids  the 
intervention  of  the  supreme  authority  in  municipal  or  domestic 
affairs ;  which  protects  a  man's  dignity,  personal  rights  and 
equality  before .  the  law ;  any  liberty,  in  fact,  which  really 
tends  to  temporal  prosperity  as  a  means  to  man's  eternal 
welfare. 

4.  The  Church  recognizes,  as  part  of  God's  own  truth,  every 
truth  which  research  or  investigation  brings  forth ;  all  scientific 
progress  she  welcomes ;  she  has  no  objection  to  novelty,  or  to 
whatever  makes  life  brighter  or  more  comfortable  ;  she  promotes 
the  exercise  of  human  talent  and  injjenuitv,  the  cultivation  of 
the  arts,  and  enterprise  of  every  kind. 

Chapter  V. 
The  Duties  of  Catholics  at  the  present  moment. 

1.  A  Catholic  must  conform  his  judgment,  especially  as  to 
''modern  liberties,''  to  the  pronouncements  of  the  Holy  See. 

2.  As  to  his  action,  he  must  personally  conform  his  life  to  the 
Gospel  precepts,  and  be  firm ;  he  must  love  the  Church,  and 
strive  to  make  her  laws  respected  by  all, 

3.  In  public,  he  should  take  part  in  the  administration  of  his 
city  or  town,  and  should  especially  try  to  secure  religious  educa- 
tion for  the  young. 

4.  He  should  also  enter  the  wider  field  of  political  life — that  is 
to  say,  except  in  certain  special  circumstances.  A  Catholic  takes 
his  share  in  civil  administration,  not  because  he  approves  of  what 
is  wrong  in  the  modern  way  of  conducting  public  affairs,  Imt  in 
order  that  he  may,  as  far  as  possible,  turn  what  is  wrong  to  what 
is  right  and  really  profitable  to  the  public  good,  and  intending  to 
infuse  into  the  State,  like  salutary  blood  and  sap,  the  wisdom  and 
virtue  of  Catholicism. 


140  Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties. 

Chaptee  VI. 
The  Special  Duty  of  Union. 

1.  A  first  duly  of  Catholics  is  union  of  will  and  united  action. 
This  they  will  secure  by  obedience  to  the  Holy  See  and  the 
bishops. 

2.  Catholicism  is  inconsistent  with  the  holding  of  opinions 
approaching  Naturalism  or  Rationalism. 

3.  It  is  not  allowable  to  disobey  the  Church  in  public  matters, 
even  whilst  professing  to  be  a  good  Catholic  in  private  life. 

4.  In  merely  political  matter^?,  such  as  the  form  of  government, 
or  the  constitution  of  a  State,  Catholics  may  differ  without  blame. 
No  one — and  this  is  especially  addressed  to  newspaper  writers — 
must  say  a  man  is  a  bad  Catholic  on  grounds  such  as  these. 

Conclusion. 

By  taking  to  heart  the  doctrines  here  laid  down,  Catholics  will 
be  able  to  attain  two  most  important  objects :  first,  to  render 
assistance  to  the  Church  in  promoting  Christianity;  secondly,  to 
benefit  civil  society,  now  gravely  imperilled  by  evil  doctrine  and 
evil  aspirations. 

Such  is  the  substance,  and  indeed  the  most  important  words 
and  expressions,  of  a  Pontifical  document  which,  it  is  safe  to 
predict,  will  be  referred  to  and  appealed  to  in  the  course  of  the 
next  fifty  years  as  constantly  as  the  "Mirari  vos^'  or  the 
"Syllabus^'  have  been  during  the  last.  Looking  at  it  as  a 
whole,  there  can  be  no  mistaking  what  has  been  the  aim  and  the 
purpose  of  Leo  XIII.  in  giving  it  to  the  world.  Ever  since  his 
elevation,  the  present  Pontiff  has  kept  steadily  before  the  eyes  of 
the  Catholic  flock  one  grand  and  supreme  design.  This  is 
nothing  less  than  to  form,  by  moral  means,  a  Catholic*party 
over  the  ichole  civilized  icorld.  As  ue  are  convinced  that  this 
is  a  most  vital  matter,  and  as  it  is  very  desirable  that  no  mis- 
conception should  exist  as  to  what  it  means,  it  is  worth  while  to 
make  a  few  explanations. 

A  Catholic  "  party  "  was  once  unnecessary ;  that  it  is  necessary 
now  is  owing  to  the  changed  conditions  of  society.  For  a 
Catholic  party  is  by  no  means  synonymous  with  the  Catholic 
Church.  A  "  party  '^  means,  first  of  all,  only  a  part,  and  it 
leaves  to  be  interred  the  existence  of  opposing  parties  ;  it  means, 
next,  an  organization  \vhich  seeks  to  impress  its  particular  views 
on  social,  civil,  and  political  life;  not  hiding  its  head  in  meekness 
and  silence ;  not  going  out  into  deserts  to  exist ;  but  claiming  to 
live  and  act  in  the  full  society  of  other  men,  with  its  own  theories 


Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties.  141 

in  complete  operation,  and  a  more  or  less  aggressive  disposition 
to  draw  others  to  accept  them.  As  long  as  the  conservative 
forces  which  are  collectively  known  as  "  the  Christian  State  or 
nation  "  were  the  rule  in  the  greater  part  of  the  Christian  world, 
no  Catholic  party  was  needful,  or  possible.  The  sanction  of  law, 
the  weight  of  custom,  the  force  of  social  authority,  and  the 
power  of  venerable  tradition,  all  united  to  make  men  profess 
Christianity,  and  act,  on  the  whole,  as  Christians.  Christianity 
was  the  only  theory,  the  only  "  philosophy,'^  as  Pope  Leo  calls 
it;  and  it  was  also  the  only  allowable  way  of  living.  It  is  very 
possible  that  no  one  can  point  to  a  century,  or  even  to  a  decade, 
when  this  has  been  true  of  any  State  in  all  the  history  of 
Christianity.  But,  looking  at  our  own  times  and  at  the  times 
gone  by,  it  is  perfectly  undeniable  that  a  broad  view  of  this 
kind  is  justifiable  by  the  facts.  And  it  is  because  the  conserva- 
tive forces  of  the  past  system  have  one  by  one  been  dissipated 
and  have  disappeared,  that  a  Catholic  "  party  "  becomes  neces- 
sary. The  Church  neither  in  Catholic  States  nor  in  Protestant 
has  any  longer  a  voice  in  the  making  and  enforcing  of  laws. 
The  machinery  of  public  police  no  longer  enforces  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ.  The  Gospel  itself,  with  the  old  dogmas  and  the 
venerable  morality,  lies  torn  and  undecipherable  on  the  ground 
where  rival  philosophies  war  and  destroy  each  other.  If 
Catholicism  is  to  preserve  its  hold  upon  men  or  on  society,  in 
the  family,  the  town,  or  the  State,  it  must  no  longer  depend  on 
king  or  kaiser,  on  soldier  or  policeman,  on  magistrate  or  on 
squire,  but  simply  on  its  o\yn  inherent  power  and  force,  embodied 
in  the  lives  and  words  of  individuals.  It  is  needless  to  say  that 
we  here  abstract  altogether  from  the  supernatural  promise  of 
Christ ;  that  promise  in  no  sense  excuses  men  from  doing  their 
best  for  the  Church  according  to  the  time  in  which  they  live. 

Conservative  forces,  then,  at  the  present  moment  are  so   dead 
that  Catholicism,  as  far  as  public  or  official  recognition  goes,  is 
only  an  opinion — like  Calvinism,  Comtism,  or  even  Vegetarian- 
ism.    If  Catholicism  is  to  continue  to  hold  its  own  in  the  world. 
Catholics  must  believe  in  their  own  principles   and  set  about  im- 
pressing them  upon  mankind.     This  duty,  no  doubt,  falls  heaviest 
upon  the  clergy,  upon  the  bishops,  and  upon  the  Pontiff  himself. 
But  the  clergy,  however  united  and  zealous,  can   never  be  con- 
(sidered,  in  any  adequate  sense,  a  Catholic  "  party."     First  of  all, 
jthey  are  not  one-tenth  or  one-hundredth  part  of  the  mass  of  men 
[who  are,  or  who  ought  to  be,  exponents  of  Catholic  principle. 
^Secondly,  they  are  officials — tliat  is,   they  are  bound  by  obliga- 
I  tions  other  and  more  special  than  those  which  bind  them  as  men, 
and  as  Christians,  to  live  up  to  the  Gospel  philosophy.     Now  the 
essential  "  note  "  of  a  Catholic  "  party  "  is  that  without  going 


142  Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties. 

outside  of  the  family,  or  the  profession,  or  the  social  circle,  or 
the  political  arena — that  is,  as  men  associating  with  other  men — 
they  should  profess  and  act  up  to  the  Catholic  profession. 

It  is  to  form  such  a  Catholic  "  party  "  that  the  Pontiff  has  now 
crowned,  by  an  Encyclical  which,  in  spite  of  its  length,  is  weighty 
in  every  word,  the  utterances  of  five  years.  It  is  for  this  that  he 
has  stirred  up  to  activity  the  bishops  in  every  European  nation  and 
in  the  United  States  ;  that  he  has  received  deputations  of  clergy 
and  bade  them  go  home  and  make  good  Catholics  of  their  people; 
that  he  has  encouraged  the  laity,  urged  the  formation  of  societies 
and  clubs  among  working-men,  countenanced  the  quiet  but  un- 
compromising asceticism  of  the  Third  Order  of  St.  Francis, 
recommended  the  printing-press,  and  last,  but  not  least,  so 
repeatedly  expressed  his  anxiety  on  the  vital  question  of  education. 

Now  it  is  easy  to  read,  in  the  pages  of  this  Encyclical,  what  are 
the  Holy  Father's  ideas  on  the  essential  character  of  a  Catholic 
party.  In  a  single  word,  it  must  be  a  party  united  in  Catholic 
principles,  but  with  the  fullest  liberty  to  differ  on  every  other 
principle.  That  it  must  be  united  in  Catholic  principle  and 
Catholic  action  is  self-evident;  there  is  no  other  diferentia 
possible ;  it  is  this  which  gives  it  its  essence  and  its  name.  By 
Catholic  principle  is  meant,  as  the  Pope  explains,  the  doctrines 
of  the  Gospel  as  interpreted  by  the  Church,  and  (to  come  down  to 
practical  and  actual  considerations')  the  application  of  those 
doctrines  by  the  Holy  See  to  the  circumstances  of  the  present  day. 
The  chief  instruments  in  which  such  pronouncements  have,  in 
recent  times,  been  made  by  the  Popes  are  the  "  Mirari  vos  ■"  of 
Gregory  XVI.  and  the  '"'  Quanta  cura,"  with  its  syllabus  of  errors, 
by  Pius  IX.  Under  chapter  iv.  of  our  analysis  will  be  found 
Pope  Leo's  summary  of  those  erroneous  teachings  on  authority, 
on  rebellion,  on  free-thought,  and  on  religious  indifference  which 
are  usually  classed  collectively  under  the  name  of  the  "  modern 
liberties.^'  The  Pope  expresses  the  same  thing  from  a  different 
point  of  view  when  he  says,  as  quoted  in  chapter  vi.  2  of  the  fore- 
going summary,  that  Catholicism  is  inconsistent  with  opinions 
approaching  Naturalism  or  Rationalism ;  by  which  he  does  not 
mean  to  lay  down  that  a  man  always  ceases  technically  to  be 
a  "  Catholic "  by  holding  errors  connected  with  these  two  false 
systems,  but  that  such  a  man  is  not  a  Catholic  in  any  adequate  and 
complete  sense  of  the  word.  These  Catholic  principles  are  to  be 
acted  upon  openly,  boldly,  and  prudently,  under  every  circum- 
stance. They  are,  above  all,  to  be  carried  into  public  life.  A 
Catholic  who  lives  up  to  his  duties  in  private,  and  yet  in  his 
public  capacity,  as  a  voter,  a  member,  a  magistrate,  or  a  Minister, 
neglects  the  Church's  teachings  and  disobeys  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff  is,  in  our  present  view,  no  Catholic  at  all. 


I 


I 


Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties.  143 

But  just  as  it  is  essential  that  there  should  be  unity  in 
Catholic  principle,  so,  in  order  that  a  Catholic  party  may  exist 
at  all,  there  must  be  liberty  in  every  other  respect.  There  is  only 
one  bindinj^  ratio  in  the  hands  of  the  Church.  She  can  only 
unite  men  by  the  bonds  of  religion.  She  has  no  powei-,  apart 
from  accidental  circumstances,  to  hold  them  to  any  doctrine  or 
theory  on  matters  outside  of  religion  ;  such  as  science,  politics,* 
or  trade.  Any  attempt,-  therefore,  to  insert  in  the  constitution 
of  a  Catholic  party  views  on  matters  not  religious  must  result  in 
one  of  two  sorts  of  disaster  :  either  coalition  does  not  take  place, 
and  no  "party  "  is  formed,  or  else,  when  it  is  formed,  it  has  no 
claim  whatever  to  the  name  of  Catholic.  Thus,  for  instance, 
when  the  excellent  Comte  de  Mun — for  whose  splendid  exertions 
in  the  good  cause  no  praise  can  be  too  great — in  a  recent  mani- 
festo which  was  intended  to  form  the  programme  of  a  party,  pro- 
nounced for  certain  economic  views  which  may  or  may  not  be 
mistaken,  it  was  felt  at  once  that,  whatever  effect  the  address 
might  have,  it  could  never  result  in  the  formation  of  a  Catholic 
party.  Catholics  are  not  wanted  to  agree  on  financial  questions  ; 
and,  if  they  did  agree,  they  would  agree  in  some  other  capacity 
than  as  Catholics.t 

The  application  of  this  most  important  doctrine  to  politics  is, 
we  are  aware,  full  of  delicacy  and  of  difficulty.  Although  all 
forms  of  government  are  ^je?'  se  equally  acceptable  to  the  Church, 
yet  a  violent  change  of  government  is  a  moral  wrong,  and  we  are 
often^bound  not  only  not  to  approve,  but  even  to  fight  against,  a 
moral  wrong.  To  decide  ho\v  far,  and  under  what  circumstances, 
change  is  lawful,  or  at  what  period  I'esistance  may  cease  or  ought 
to  cease,  is  not  within  the  province  of  any  individual.  It  is  the 
prerogative  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff.  We  cannot  read  the 
present  Encyclical  without  mentally  applying  the  Pope^s  words 
to  two  very  different  cases — to  France  on  the  one  hand,  and  to 
Italy  on  the  other.  As  for  France,  there  was  no  question  of 
rebellion  or  of  violent  change  of  rulers.  Whatever  wrong  was  done 
by  Frenchmen  in  the  matter  of  violence  or  sedition  was  done  a 
century  ago.  Ever  since  the  Revolution  the  "  modern  liberties  " 
in  their  political  bearings  have  been  the  creed  of  the  majority  of 
the  French  nation.  The  changes  from  republic  to  empire,  from 
empire  to  monarchy,  from  one  monarchy  to  another^  then  to 
empire  again,  and  finally  to  republic  once  more,  have  all  come 


*  But  questions  of  science  and  politics  are  often  intimately  connected 
witli  religion. 

f  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say,  for  our  readers  must  be  aware  of  it, 
that  M.  de  Mun  withdrew,  with  the  greatest  humility  and  self-abnegation, 
the  manifesto  to  which  we  refer  as  au  illustration. 


144  Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties. 

about  under  the  invocation  of  popular  suffrage.  Whatever, 
therefore,  has  been  done  by  legal  and  peaceful  methods  one  has 
no  right  to  object  to.  It  noay  not  be  easy  to  fix  on  the  precise 
year  when  obedience  to  the  Bourbons  ceased  to  be  a  duty;  but, 
whenever  the  date  was,  it  is  now  long  gone  by,  and  it  seems  true 
to  say  that  any  change  of  government  which  has  since  been 
brought  about  or  accepted  by  the  representatives  of  the  masses 
of  the  country  is  a  valid  and  a  legal,  change.  Doubtless,  the 
doctrine  that  sovereignty  resides  in  the  people  is  a  false  and  con- 
demned doctrine.  But  no  such  doctrine  is  here  implied.  In  France 
the  head  of  the  State  is  not,  and  has  not  been  for  generations,  the 
sole  governing  power.  Call  him  king,  emperor,  or  president,  he 
has  been,  and  is,  only  a  president  after  all.  The  governing  power 
has  been  the  elected  chamber  or  chambers.  The  regular  way  of 
instituting  the  chambers  has  been  the  popular  vote.  Now  it  is  per- 
fectly clear  that  a  supreme  elective  chamber  can  call  upon  its  chief 
officers  to  resign.  This  is  very  far  from  that  mob-sovereignty 
which  the  Popes  have  rightly  denounced.  The  people  govern, 
but  not  the  mob;  which  means  that  the  people  govern  indirectly, 
by  more  or  less  stable  institutions,  with  due  and  proper  forms, 
checks,  and  balances,  and  altogether  without  any  right  to  rise  in 
passion  or  caprice  and  overthrow  the  institutions  they  themselves 
have  chosen.  The  governing  or  legislative  body  are  by  no  means 
the  mere  delegates  of  the  multitude.  Once  constituted,  their 
power  is  their  own ;  their  power  is  from  God ;  the  multitude 
must  obey  them ;  and  they  only  cease  to  have  authority  when 
they  cease  by  regular  and  legal  means  to  exist.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  practical  danger  in  every  form  of  popular 
government  is  that  the  mob  will  influence  both  the  making  of 
laws  and  the  administration  of  the  State.  Yet  we  must  not  be 
hurried  by  apprehensions  of  this  kind  into  a  condemnation  of  the 
thing  itself.  "  It  is  not  to  be  condemned  per  se"  says  Pope 
Leo,  "  that  the  people  have  a  greater  or  less  share  in  the 
government.^'  * 

As  to  France,  then,  one  main  object  of  the  Holy  Father's 
Letter  is  to  eliminate  from  the  programme  of  any  Catholic  party 
all  views,  or  pledges,  as  to  the  form  of  the  civil  government  of 
the  country.  The  present  form,  which  is  as  "  popular  "  as  a 
government  can  well  be,  is  valid,  lawful,  and  (with  whatever 
drawbacks)  sufficient.  Had  the  Pontiff  been  writing  when 
Louis  XVI.  was  in  prison,  or  even  in  1830,  he  might,  we  can 
conceive,  have  been  called  upon  to  pronounce  a  decision  as  to 

*  It  cannot  be  anything  but  an  accident  that  a  page  or  so  of  the  Latin 
text  of  the  Encyclical,  embodying  this  passage  and  others  like  it,  is  bodily 
omitted  from  the  version  printed  in  the  Annates  Catholiques,  Dec.  12, 
1885. 


Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties.  145 

whether  the  de  facto  ruler  or  rulers  of  France  ruled  also  de  jure. 
At  this  moment,  all  he  has  to  do  is  to  remind  his  flock  that  the 
ruler,  whoever  he  is,  is  to  be  obeyed.  That  this  reminder  was 
necessary  is  admitted  on  all  hands.  We  may  illustrate  this  by 
translating  a  few  sentences  from  a  letter,  dated  December  12, 
1885,  which  has  been  addressed  to  the  Holy  Father  by  the 
eminent  and  learned  Bishop  of  Autun,  Mgr.  Perraud : — 

It  has  too  frequently  happened,  especially  during  the  last  thirty 
years,  that  there  have  been  painful  differences  amongst  us  in  regard  to 
the  extent,  the  limits,  and  the  mutual  relations  of  authority  and  of 
liberty,  as  well  as  on  the  application  to  human  government  of  those 
ideal  and  perfect  theories  of  law  and  justice  which  cannot  suffer 
prescription  either  from  revolutions  of  the  past,  or  from  the  passions 
of  men,  or  from  the  arguments  of  a  philosophy  which  too  plainly 
exaggerates  earthly  power,  and  strives  to  build  upon  it  a  political 
system  alien  or  hostile  to  God.  It  was  time  that  a  serene  and 
sovereign  voice  should  be  heard,  and  that  we  should  be  taught,  on  the 
one  hand,  that  certain  truths,  stated  in  the  abstract,  can  never  become 
the  subjects  of  "  transaction  "  or  "  concession  ;"  and,  on  the  other,  how 
utterly  we  misconceive  the  character,  the  mission,  the  temperament, 
the  supernatural  and  divine  spirit  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  when 
we  beholden  her  the  natural  enemy  of  all  that  in  these  days  is  claimed 
by  an  age  which  is  enamoured  of  science,  liberty,  equality,  and  social 

progress Among  Catholics,  some  perhaps  held  too  cheap  the 

principles  of  absolute  truth  ;  whilst  others  did  not  sufficiently  take 
into  account  the  difficulties  which  reasonably  authorize  what  we  may 
call  an  imitation  of  divine  Providence,  which  is  so  full  of  indulgence 

to  human    slowness   of  heart With   what    supernatural   and 

apostolic  independence  you  soar  above  the  strife  of  men,  and  set  free 
our  beliefs  and  our  consciences  from  the  compromising  alliances  into 
which  juen  of  party  would  fain  drag  us — declaring  solemnly  that  the 
Church  neither  adopts  nor  proscribes  this  or  that  political  system; 
that  she  is  the  sincere  ally  of  all  governments  which  sincerely  respect 
her  rights  and  her  liberties ;  that  she  encourages  and  blesses  the 
accomplishment  of  all  duties  imposed  on  good  citizens,  and  all  that 
devotion  to  public  interests  which  may  prove  so  advantageous  to  the 
advance  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Another  French  prelate  has  commented  upon  the  Encyclical  in 
a  somewhat  different  tone.  ]\Igr.  Thomas,  Archbishop  of  Rouen, 
is  incontestably  one  of  the  most  eloquent  bishops  of  France ;  and 
his  eloquence  is  singularly  free  from  that  excess  of  sentiment  and 
that  verbiage  which  one  meets  occasionally  in  the  best  oratory  of 
his  countrymen.  He  is  very  outspoken.  In  an  address  delivered 
before  the  Catholic  Congress  of  Normandy,  held  at  Rouen  at  the 
beginning  of  this  last  month  (December),  the  Archbishop  declares 
that  the  principles  of  Lacordaire,  of  Dupauloup,  and  of  Cardinal 
Guibert  are  found  to  be  "  covered  with  the  majesty  of  the  Supreme 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  I.     [Third  Series.]  l 


146  Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties. 

Pontificate  in  the  Encyclical  Iinmortale  Dei."  Lacordaire  said, 
in  1860,  that  certain  principles  of  1789 — civil  equality,  political 
liberty,  and  liberty  of  conscience — had  been  universally  accepted 
in  France,  and  from  France  had  spread  over  two-thirds  of  Europe. 
Three  years  later,  seven  bishops,  amongst  whom  were  pro- 
minent Mgr.  Guibert  and  Mgr.  Dupanloup,  declare^  that 
"  public  authority  must  be  respected,  but  that  it  must 
also  be  controlled,  and  that  at  the  present  day  the 
great  and  only  means  of  sucb  control  is  that  public  liberty  which 
is  exercised  by  election  and  representation/'  And,  whilst  urging 
on  Catholics  to  accept  and  use  the  political  rights  offered  to  them, 
they  add  that  public  liberty  is  the  best  guarantee  of  religious 
liberty.  Now,  it  is  both  true  and  false  (as  it  seems  to  us)  to 
assert  that  this  is  the  teaching  of  the  Encyclical.  Pope  Leo 
admits  in  practice  all  that  these  prelates  contended  for  ;  but  then 
he  first  of  all  states  most  carefully  the  true  and  essential  principles 
by  which  the  admission  is  coloured  and  qualified.  To  say  that 
France  and  Europe  have  accepted,  civil  equality  and  religious 
liberty  is,  in  the  mouths  of  some  people,  only  a  rhetorical  way  of 
asserting  that  these  are  the  principles  they  hold  themselves.  To 
preface  the  admission  of  them  by  such  statements  as  are  given 
in  the  Encyclical  is  to  protest  that  they  are  not  an*  adequate 
expression  of  the  complete  truth,  but  only  working  arrangements 
rendered  necessary  by  a  very  untoward  set  of  circumstances.  And 
therefore  it  is  quite  possible  that,  if  not  Lacordaire,  or  Dupanloup, 
at  least  some  of  thei;.'  school  meant  a  good  deal  more  than  is 
laid  down  by  Leo  XIII.  Be  this  as  it  may,  Mgr,  Thomas  is 
quite  right  when  he  says  that  not  only  the  enemies  of  the 
Church,  but  a  good  many  of  her  friends  also,  have  been  in  the 
habit  of  representing  Catholics  as  "  bound  by  their  faith  and 
their  conscience  to  the  political  forms  of  the  past."  Henceforth, 
he  says,  no  one  can  without  disloyalty  address  this  reproach  to 
the  Church;  henceforth  the  name  of  "liberal  Catholic"  must 
disappear.^  We  should  be  very  glad  if  it  did.  The  Holy 
Father's  Letter  to  the  Archbishop  of  Paris  has  already  proved 
the  grand  Catholic  discipline  of  the  French  people.  That  Letter 
and  the  present  Encyclical  are  doing  two  things.  They  are 
not  only  schooling  the  fiery  tongues  of  the  chivalrous  Legitimists 
and  Monarchists  to  treat  with  forbearance  those  who  differ 
from  them  politically,  but  they  are  shaming   the    half-hearted 


*  It  appears,  from  tlie  Frencli  papers,  that  Mgr.  Freppel,  Bishop  of 
Angers,  has  interdicted  iu  his  diocese  the  reproduction  of  the  discourse 
of  Mgr.  Thomas.  But  this  action  seems  intended,  not  to  censure  the 
eminent  prelate's  views,  but  to  prevent  a  hot  polemic  in  the  diocese  of 
Angers  itself. 


Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties.  147 

"  liberalistic ''  friends  of  "  transaction  "  and  compromise  into  a 
more  sturdy  profession  of  those  sound  and  sterling  ethical  views 
which  alone  can  save  States  and  society  from  drifting  into 
anarchy. 

The  situation  of  Italy  is  very  different  from  that  of  France. 
It  is  not  necessary   to   say  anything  of  the  Austrian   or   the 
Bourbon.     They  are  out ;  the  Church,  if  she  got  anything  from 
them,  had  to  pay  for  it  dearly  enough;  and,  apart   from  the 
question  of  morality  and  of  law,  there  is  no  particular  reason  to 
be  sorry  that  they  have  gone.     But  the  cause  of  Italian  unity  is 
complicated  by  another  and  a  really  serious  question.     As  long 
as  Italy  refuses  to  acknowledge  the  temporal  sovereignty  of  the 
Holy  See,  the   Church  cannot  come  to  terms  with  her.     The 
temporal  princedom  of  the  Popes  is  on  a  very  different  footing 
from  that  of  any  other   Sovereign  whatever.     Ordinary  princes 
may  lose  their  dominions  by  bad  behaviour,  by  misfortune,  by 
revolution,  by  abdication,  by  breaking  their  compacts  with  their 
people,  and  although  the  fact  that  they  are  dispossessed  in  one  or 
other  of  these  ways  by  no  means  necessarily  releases  their  sub- 
jects  from   their   duty,  yet  still,  even   in   the   worst  cases  of 
violence,  a  time  may  come  when  the  accomplished  fact  has  to  be 
accepted  by  all   parties,  because   the   past   cannot  possibly  be 
brought  back.     But   the  sovereignty  of  the  Popes  over   some 
(indeterminate)  portion  of  the  earth  has  been  declared  again  and 
again  to  be  morally  necessary  for  the  good  government  of  the 
Church.     No  revolution,  no  pretended  popular  rights,  no  fancied 
iniquities  on  the  part  of  the  Popes  themselves,  can  take  away 
this   right   of  the   Vicar  of  Christ.     Fifteen  years   have    now 
elapsed  since  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  was  shut  up  in  the  Vatican, 
but  the  Pope  and  the  Church  are  as  far  as  ever  from  accepting 
the  situation,  from  condoning  the  violence  or  from  consenting  to 
the  eleemosynary  offers  of  the  Italian  Government.     And  if  it 
came  to  fifty  or  five  hundred  years  instead  of  fifteen,  it  would 
make  no  difference,  though   no  one  doubts  but  that,  in  God's 
good  time,  a  solution  of  the  difficulty,  through  the  triumph  of 
the  Church  and  the  Holy  See,  will  somehow  or  other  be  found. 
In   the   meantime,   though   neither   Italy  nor   any   country   is 
mentioned  in  the  Encyclical  by  name,  yet  there  is  one  significant 
sentence    which    undoubtedly    refers    to    it.      Catholics,    says 
Leo  XIII.,  should  take  part  in  the  life  and  work  of  the  State ; 
this  is  useful  and  right,  generally  speaking.     *'  Our  word?,''  he 
says,  "  affect  all  nations,  and  therefore  we  say,  generally ;  for  it 
may  happen  that  in  this  or  that  particular  State  there  are  grave 
and  just  reasons  for   not   participating  in  the  business  of  the 
republic,  or  taking  any  part  in  politics."     How  long  the  Italian 
Catholics   will  have  to   refrain    from  voting   or   acting   in  the 

L  2 


148  Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties. 

larger  concerns  of  the  Italian  political  system  no  one  can  at 
present  say.  In  spite  of  the  prognostications  of  pamphleteers 
and  the  oracular  utterances  of  the  European  press,  no  one  can 
decide  this  but  the  Pope  himself.  And,  as  it  would  seem,  even 
he  can  never  allow  Catholics  to  vote  or  be  voted  for  in  that 
particular  circle  which  he  considers  to  be  necessary  to  constitute 
the  civil  princedom  of  the  Holy  See  as  long  as  it  is  in  hostile 
hands.  But  one  prophecy  may  be  made.  There  is  certainly  one 
way  out  of  the  dead-lock.  To  form  in  Italy  a  Catholic  popula- 
tion, thoroughly  imbued  with  Catholic  feeling  and  living  up  ta 
Catholic  principle — understanding  the  Church  of  God,  and  loving 
her,  acquainted  with  their  religion  and  its  glorious  traditions,  and 
filled  with  a  well-grounded  contempt  for  the  wild  talk  of  Socialists 
and  Atheists — this  is  the  secret  which  will  loose  the  complicated 
knot.  And  it  is  precisely  this  which  the  present  Pope  has  been 
quietly  doing  ever  since  he  ascended  the  Chair  of  St.  Peter.* 

Turning  now  to  ourselves,  it  is  not  uninteresting  to  endeavour 
to  see  what  light  the  present  Encyclical  throws  upon  certain 
questions  which  have  lately  been  raised  amongst  us.  And,  first 
of  all,  how  far,  and  in  what  sense,  is  it  possible  to  form  a 
"  Catholic  party  "  ?  The  answer  to  this  seems  clear  enough.  The 
only  sense  in  which  a  Catholic  party  is  possible  is  in  the  adoption 
by  Catholics  of  a  strictly  Catholic  programme.  As  we  have 
already  said,  the  programme  of  a  Catholic  party  must  include  all 
that  the  Holy  See  declares  to  be  essential  or  expedient,  and 
exclude  all  that  it  pronounces  to  be  free  or  indifferent.  In  this 
country,  therefore,  a  Catholic  party  practically  means  identical 
views  and  united  action  on  such  subjects  as  Rationalism,  Naturalism, 
the  rights  of  the  Church,  the  independence  of  the  Holy  See, 
education,  religious  facilities  for  the  poor  and  for  soldiers  and 
sailors,  and  others  of  a  similar  nature.  To  think  alike  on  ques- 
tions like  these  is  the  bounden  duty  of  English-speaking  Catholics, 
and  doubly  so  since  the  new  Encyclical.  But  they  are  by  no 
means  to  confine  themselves  to  thinking.  There  must  be  outward 
and  visible  union  as  well.  "  Voluntatum  concordia — agendorum 
similitudo."  This  is  the  watchword  of  Pope  Leo  XIIL,  and  it 
might  well  be  adopted  as  the  motto  for  a  Catholic  Union.  It  is 
true  that  the  Holy  Father,  in  his  present  address  to  the  Catholic 
world,  does  not  lay  any  stress  on  unions,  societies,  guilds,  or 
congresses  among  Catholics  themselves.  It  would  have  led  him 
away  from  his  subject,  and  his  subject  is  sufficiently  wide  as  it  is. 
But  his  words  imply  the  duty — which  he  has  insisted  on  with 
great  emphasis  many  times  already — of  external  Catholic  organ- 

*  See  our  article  in  April,  1882,  on  the  Letter,  "  Etsi  Nos ;"  article  on 
"  The  Pope." 


Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties.  149 

ization.  "  Voluntaturn  concordia  "—union  in  views — itiight 
possibly  be  had  without  meetings  or  conferences,  though  it  would 
not  be  easy  ;  but  "  agendorum  similitude  " — a  united  policy — 
cannot  possibly  be  carried  out  unless  there  is  discussion  and 
organization.  What  the  Pope  most  insists  upon,  however,  in 
regard  to  Catholic  action,  is  that  Catholics  should,  first,  place 
their  services  at  the  disposal  of  the  public  ;  and,  secondly,  use 
the  opportunities  thus  obtained  in  order  to  make  Catholic  prin- 
ciples prevail.  No  Pope  has  ever  spoken  so  strongly  to  the 
"lazy'^  Catholics,"^  It  is  their  cZiifj/,t  he  says,  to  serve  their 
town  and  their  countr3^  If  they  hang  back,  the  reins  of  power 
will  be  seized  by  men  who  will  damage  both  the  country  and  the 
cause  of  religion.  But  the  Holy  Father's  views  as  to  the  policy 
and  behaviour  of  Catholics  in  posts  of  public  dignity  or  power 
deserve  to  be  seriously  weighed.  A  man,  if  he  is  a  public 
servant,  must  be  faithful  to  the  public  service.  No  one  is  morally 
justified  in  accepting  an  office  and  then  falsifying  his  explicit  or 
implicit  pledges.  Yet  the  Holy  Father  says  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  Catholics,  as  far  as  possible,  to  "  turn  the  public  system  to  real 
and  true  public  good,  and  to  make  it  their  deliberate  purpose  to 
infuse  into  the  veins  of  the  State,  as  salutary  sap  and  blood,  the 
wise  and  righteous  principles  of  the  Catholic  religion.""  \  This 
means,  among  other  things,  that  Catholics  are  bound  to  use 
their  influence  as  public  men  to  neutralize  the  effect  of  un- 
christian or  anti-religious  laws  and  institutions  in  the  admini.s- 
tration  of  which  they  share.  There  is  no  doubt  that  considerable 
difiiculty  exists  in  carrying  this  into  practice.  Deceit,  lying,  and 
injustice  are  as  wrong  in  this  matter  as  in  any  other;  and  if  a 
Catholic  cannot  honestly  and  openly,  as  a  citizen  of  a  constitu- 
tional country,  carry  his  convictions  into  practice,  he  had  better 
have  nothing  to  say  in  that  particular  department  of  the  State 
or  the  municipalit}'.  Eut  the  Holy  Father's  words  will  certainly 
bear  reflecting  upon,  for  in  these  times,  when  the  State  is  more  and 
more  drifting  in  the  direction  of  Atheism  and  Secularism,  it  ought 
to  be  remembered  that  a  true  Catholic  cannot  be  content  with 
passive  resistance  to  what  is  wrong,  but  must,  in  proportion  to 
his  opportunities,  take  a  more  or  less  active  part  in  opposing  it. 

*  Ipsis  (Catholicis)  otiosis,  facile  habenas  accepturi  eunt  ii  quorum 
opiniones  spem  salutis  hand  sane  magoani  aiferant. 

t  Utile  est  atque  honestum  ....  IS'ullam  velle  rerum  publicarum 
partem  attingere  tarn  esset  ia  vitio  quam  nihil  ad  communem  utilitatem 
afferre  studii,  nihil  oper^. 

3;  .  .  .  .  Dt  has  ipsas  rationes,  quoad  fieri  potest,  in  bonum  publicum 
transferant  sincerum  atque  verum, destinatum  animo habentes,  sapientiam 
virtutemque  Catholic^e  religionis,  tanquam  saluberrimum  succum  ac 
sanguinem,  in  omnes  reipublicas  venas  inducere. 


150  Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties. 

The  Pope  refers  to  tlie  most  significant  example  of  the  early 
Christians.  Their  character  and  principles,  us  he  rapidly  sketches 
them,  may  well  be  a  model  for  ourselves.  "  Of  exemplary  loyalty 
to  rulers,  obedient,  as  far  as  it  was  right,  to  the  laws,  they  shed 
abroad  on  all  sides  the  wondrous  lustre  of  their  holiness ;  they  were 
solicitous  to  help  the  brethren  and  to  call  others  to  the  wisdom 
of  Christ,  but  were  prepared  to  resign  their  posts  and  bravely  to 
die  when  they  could  not  retain  their  honour,  their  magistracies, 
or  their  commands  without  the  sacrifice  of  their  virtue/'  Here 
are  five  notes  or  qualities  which  a  Catholic  should  be  proud  to 
make  his  own  :  Loyalty,  obedience  to  the  law,  the  lustre  of  a 
holy  life,  solicitude  for  fellow-Catholics,  and  zeal  for  conversions ; 
and  with  them  all  a  readiness  to  give  up  any  public  post  or  dignity 
which  is  incompatible  with  one's  Catholic  profession.  It  is  the 
union  of  men  of  this  stamp,  to  carry  out  the  teaching  of  the  Holy 
See  and  the  bishops,  and  to  use  such  external  means  as  may,  with- 
out imprudence,  help  to  make  this  teaching  influence  municipal 
and  political  life,  that  constitutes  a  Catholic  party. 

But,  as  it  seems  to  us,  a  Catholic  party  must  necessarily  be 
neither  the  servant  nor  the  enemy  of  any  political  party  in  the 
State,  in  the  merely  political  capacity  of  that  party.  On  the 
one  hand,  it  cannot  unite  itself  with  such  a  party  or  serve  it, 
because  then  there  would  necessarily  enter  into  its  programme 
certain  watchwords  or  cries  which,  whether  useful  or  the  opposite, 
would  be  outside  of  what  is  distinctively  Catholic,  and  which 
therefore  could  not  bind  a  Catholic  as  sucli.  But,  next,  the 
Catholic  party  could  not  profess  hostility  to  a  political  party ; 
because  here  again,  if  it  did  so,  it  would  import  into  its  constitution 
ends  and  purposes  not  necessarily  Catholic — ends  and  purposes  in 
regard  to  which  Catholics  may  differ  and  yet  remain  true  to  their 
profession.  And  this  leads  to  the  consequence  that  a  Catholic 
must  be  left  free  to  ally  himself  with  any  political  party  whose 
programme  is  purely  political.  The  simple  reason  is  that,  if  you 
forbid  him  this,  you  must  invoke  other  than  Catholic  principles; 
and  this  you  have  no  right  to  do. 

We  are  aware  that  it  will  be  answered  at  once  that  no  political 
party,  whether  in  this  country  or  on  the  Continent,  is  purely 
political ;  that  every  party  includes  among  its  professed  aims 
certain  things  which  belong  to  the  domain  of  religion ;  and  that 
therefore  a  Catholic  in  choosing  a  party  commits  himself  to 
some  view  of  religion,  either  for  or  against.  This  is  so  far  true 
that,  in  order  to  make  the  foregoing  remarks  scientifically  accurate, 
the  words  "  political  programme '"'  ought  to  be  substituted  for 
"political  party."  As  parties  are  actually  constituted  in  France, 
for  instance,  or  in  Germany,  a  Catholic  could  hardly  unite  himself 
with  them  except  to  carry  out  a  definite  political  programme 


Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties.  151 

specially  announced  and  agreed  upon.  But,  on  the  whole,  this  is 
not  the  case  in  England.  The  two,  or  the  three,  great  English 
parties — if  we  consider  the  Radicals  as  one — do  not,  as  far  as  we  are 
aware,  require  aiiy  pledge  from  their  memhers  as  to  any  anti- 
religious  project  or  doctrine.  A.nd  although  the  bias  of  certain 
sections  of  politicians  is  well  known  to  be  in  an  undesirable 
direction,  yet  the  main  purpose  and  raison  d'etre  of  the  party, 
as  such,  is  purely  political ;  so  much  so  that  it  is  quite  under- 
stood and  expected  that  any  man  whose  religious  convictions  are 
offended  will  at  once  withdraw  from  party  co-operation  in  that 
particular;  and  no  one  questions  his  right  to  do  so.  Aristotle 
has  said  that  you  may  consider  a  thing  to  be  that  which  is 
principal  in  it.  An  English  political  party  is  almost  wholly 
political;  religious  questions  are  foreign  and  "  accidentaP^  to  its 
being;  and  therefore  it  is  true  to  say  that  a  Catholic  must  be 
free  to  join  such  a  party  or  oppose  it  as  his  political  feelings 
lead  him. 

For  the  same  reason  it  is  necessary  to  say  that  the  Catholic 
party,  as  such,  cannot  be  expected  to  unite  with  the  party  of  Mr. 
Pai'nell,  or  of  Home  Rule  under  any  aspect  whatever.  Let  it  be 
carefully  observed  that  this  is  not  to  say  that  an  English  Catholic 
may  not  be  doing  what  is  right  and  wise  if  he  joins  the 
Nationalist  movement,  or  gives  in  his  adhesion  to  the  National 
party.  The  merits  of  the  Home  Rule  movement  are  quite  out- 
side of  this  question;  and  we  say  nothing  except  that  personally 
we  wish  the  Irish  people  may  obtain,  and  speedily  obtain,  all  that 
the  true  and  enlightened  patriotism  and  statesmanship  of  their 
bishops  and  leaders,  as  distinct  from  the  vague  aspirations  of 
enthusiastic  multitudes,  may  consider  to  be  for  their  advantage  and 
their  glory.  There  is  no  blame  to  any  English  Catholic  if  the 
bond  of  the  Faith,  and  sympathy  with  suffering,  draw  him  to  the 
side  of  the  Irish  leaders  at  such  a  moment  as  this.  No  one  can 
doubt  that  English  Catholics,  like  other  Englishmen,  are 
naturally  singularly  unsympathetic  towards  the  Irish  people. 
They  take  no  trouble  to  understand  them,  they  feel  it  difficult 
to  unite  with  them,  and  they  consequently  seldom  win  their 
confidence.  The  grace  of  the  priesthood  and  the  relations  of  the 
pastorate  have,  it  is  true,  gone  a  long  way  to  counteract  nature 
in  the  case  of  many  Englishmen,  and  there  is  little  difference  to 
an  Irish  flock,  after  the  first  few  weeks,  between  a  good  English 
priest  and  a  good  Irish  one.  But  the  want  of  common  feeling 
which  undoubtedly  exists  between  the  two  races  should  be  reso- 
lutely overcome.  The  things  we  have  in  common  with  the  Irish 
people  are  more  in  number,  and  incomparably  weightier  in 
importance,  than  the  things  which  divide  us  ;  and  therefore  it 
is  pleasant  to  see  that  some  of  their  ablest  and  most  eloquent 


152  Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties. 

leaders  at  the  present  moment  have  gone  out  of  their  way  to 
hold  out  a  friendly  hand  and  make  friendly  promises.  But  to 
invoke  Catholicism,  or  Catholic  principle  to  force  Catholics  to 
join  the  Irish  movement  or  to  walk  in  its  ranks,  would  be  simply 
futile.  It  would  not  be  possible  to  succeed  in  such  an  object; 
and,  if  it  wei'e,  it  would  expose  the  name  of  "  Catholic  "  to  the 
hostility  of  every  political  opponent,  as  bound  up  in  what  Mgr. 
Perraud  calls  a  "  compromising  solidarity  "  with  purposes  out- 
side Catholicism  altogether. 

The  instructions  of  the  Popes  do  not  at  once  make  their  full 
significance  felt.  The  successors  of  St.  Peter  speak,  not  to  one 
nation,  but  to  the  world,  and  not  to  a  single  generation,  but 
to  every  age.  Their  words  are,  therefore,  necessarily  compre- 
hensive and  exact ;  they  are  meant  to  be  the  key  which  will  fit  a 
hundred  locks — the  door  by  which  every  variety  of  the  human 
race  will  find  its  way  into  the  fold.  They  seem  sometimes  to  be 
a  repetition  of  old  and  well-worn  truth,  and  at  others  to  fail  in 
direct  application  to  present  circumstances.  But  as  time  goes 
on,  a  Papal  Encyclical  grows  larger.  As  the  eye  recedes  from  it, 
the  intellect  grasps  it  more  clearly.  Nearly  every  sentence  in 
this  Letter  would  bear  a  commentary.  Its  full  meaning  will 
only  come  out  as  this  century  and  the  next  run  their  course. 
The  pastors  of  the  Church,  the  great  conservative  force  of  the 
world,  will  come  back  to  it,  as  to  a  mine  or  a  quarry,  for  treasure 
and  for  material.  The  age  will  be  moulded  by  it,  and  the  spirit 
of  the  time  made  to  go  under  its  yoke.  Whatever  may  be  the 
future  of  the  world  in  religion  or  in  politics,  he  is  a  wise  man 
who  makes  this  solemn  pronouncement  his  text  and  his  oracle. 
Whatever  fails,  this  word,  because  it  is  in  substance  the  word  of 
a  Greater  One,  will  never  fail. 


(     153    ) 


ENCYCLICAL    LETTER    OF  POPE  LEO    XIIL    ON   THE 
CONSTITUTION    OP    CHRISTIAN    STATES. 

Venerabilihus  Fratribus,  Patriarchis,  Primatihus,  Archiepiscopii  et 

Episcopis  Catholici  Orbis  Universis  Gratiam  et  Gomniunionem 

cum  Apostoliiza  Sede  Habentibus. 

LEO.  PP.  XIII. 

Yenerabiles  Fratres,  Saluteii:  et  Apostolicam.  Benedictionem. 

IMMORTALE  Dei  miserentis  opus,  quod  est  Ecclesia,  quam- 
quam  per  se  et  natura  sua  salutem  spectat  animorum  adipis- 
cendamque  in  caelis  felicitatem,  tamen  in  ipso  etiam  rerum  mortalium 
genere  tot  ac  tantas  ultro  parit  utilitates,  ut  plures  maioresve  non 
posset,  si  in  primis  et  maxime  esset  ad  tuendain  huius  vitae,  quae  in 
terris  agitur,  prosperitatem  institutum. — Revera  quacumque  Ecclesia 
vestigium  posuit,  continuo  rerum  faciem  immutavit,  popularesque 
mores  sicut  virtutibus  antea  ig-notis,  ita  et  nova  urbanitate  imbuit : 
quam  quotquot  accepere  populi,  mansuetudine,  aequitate,  rerum 
gestarum  gloria  exceiluerunt.  —  Sed  vetus  tamen  ilia  est  atque 
antiqua  vituperatio,  quod  Ecclesiam  aiunt  esse  cum  rationibus  rei- 
publicae  dissidentem,  nee  quicquam  posse  ad  ea  vel  commoda  vel 
ornamenta  conferre,  quae  suo  iure  suaque  sponte  omnis  bene  con- 
stituta  civitas  appetit.  Sub  ipsis  Ecclesiae  primordiis  non  dissimili 
opinionis  iniquitate  agitari  christianos,  et  in  odium  invidiamque 
vocari  solitos  iiac  etiam  de  caussa  accepimus,  quod  bostes  imperii 
dicerentur:  quo  tempore  malorum  culpam,  quibus  esset  perculsa 
respublica,  vuigo  libebat  in  cbristianum  conferre  nonien,  cum  revera 
ultor  scelerum  Deus  poenas  a  sontibus  iustas  exigeret.  Eius  atro- 
citas  calumniae  non  sine  caussa  ingenium  armavit  stilumque  acuit 
Augustini :  qui  praesertim  in  Civitate  Dd  virtutem  cbristianae 
sapientiae,  qua  parte  necessitudinem  habet  cum  re  publica,  tanto  in 
lumine  collocavit,  ut  non  tam  pro  christianis  sui  temporis  dixisse 
caussam,  quam  de  criminibus  f'alsis  perpetuum  triumpbum  egisse  vi- 
deatur.  Similium  tamen  querelarum  atque  insimulationum  funesta 
libido  non  quievit,  ac  permultis  sane  ])lacuit  civilem  vivendi  dis- 
ciplinam  aliunde  petere,  quam  ex  doctrinis,  quas  Ecclesia  catholica 
probat. — Immo  postremo  hoc  tempore  novum,  ut  appellant,  ins,  quod 
inquiunt  esse  velut  quoddam  adulti  iam  saeculi  incrementum,  pro- 
grediente  libertate  partum,  valere  ac  dominari  passim  coepit. — Sed 
quantumvis  multa  multi  periclitati  sunt,  constat,  repertam  numquam 
esse  praestantiorem  constituendae  temperandaeque  civitatis  rationera, 
quam  quae  ab  evangelica  doctriua  sponte  efflorescit. — Maximi 
igitur  momenti  atque  admodum  muneri  Nostro  apostolico  con- 
sentaneum  esse  arbitramur,  novas  de  re  publica  opiniones  cum 
doctrina  Christiana  conferre :  quo  modo  erroris  dubitationisque 
caussa.s  ereptum  iri,  emergente  veritate,  confidinius,  ita  ut  videre 


154  Encyclical  Letter  of  Pope  Leo  XIII. 

quisque  facile  queat  summa  ilia  praecepta  vivendi,  quae  sequi  et 
quibus  parere  debeat. 

Non  est  mag-ni  negotii  statuere,  qualem  sit  speciem  formamque 
liabitura  civitas,  gubernante  Christiana  philosophia  rem  publicam. 
— Insitum  homini  natura  est,  ut  in  civili  societate  vivat :.  is  enim 
necessarium  vitae  cultum  et  paratum,  itemque  ingenii  atque  animi 
perfectionem  cum  in  solitudine  adipisci  non  possit,  provisum  divinitus 
est,  ut  ad  coniunctionem  congregationemque  hominum  nasceretur 
cum  domesticam,  turn  etiam  civilera,  quae  suppeditare  vitae  mfficientiam 
perfectam  sola  potest.  Quoniam  vero  non  potest  societas  ulla  con- 
sistere,  nisi  si  aliquis  omnibus  praesit,  efficaci  similique  movens 
singulos  ad  commune  propositum  impulsione,  eificitur,  civili  hominum 
communitati  necessariam  esse  auctoritatem,  qua  regatur  :  quae,  non 
secus  ac  societas,  a  natura  proptereaque_a  Deo  ipso  oriatur  auctore. — 
Ex  quo  illud  consequitur,  potestatem  publicam  per  se  ipsam  non  esse 
nisi  a  Deo.  Solus  enim  Deus  est  verissimus  maximusque  rerum 
dominus,  cui  subesse  et  servire  omnia,  quaecumque  sunt,  necesse  est: 
ita  ut  quicumque  ius  imperandi  habent,  non  id  aliunde  accipiant, 
nisi  ab  illo  summo  omnium  principe  Deo.  Non  est  potestas  nisi  a 
Deo* — Ius  autem  imperii  per  se  non  est  cum  ulla  reipublicae  forma 
necessario  copulatum  :  aliam  sibi  vel  aliam  assumere  recte  potest, 
modo  utilitatis  bonique  commixnis  reapse  efiicientem.  Sed  in  quolibet 
genere  reipublicae  omnino  principes  debent  summum  mundi  guber- 
natorem  Deum  intueri,  eumque  sibimetipsis  in  administranda  civitate 
tamquam  exemplum  legemque  proponere.  Deus  enim,  sicut  -in 
rebus,  quae  sunt  quaeque  cernuntur,  caussas  genuit  secundarias,  in 
quibus  perspici  aliqua  ratione  posset  natura  actioque  divina,  quaeque 
ad  eum  linem,  quo  haec  rerum  spectat  universitas,  conducerent :  ita 
in  societate  civili  yoluit  esse  principatum,  quem  qui  g'ererent,  ii 
imaginem  quamdam  divinae  in  genus  humanum  potestatis  divinaeque 
providentiae  referrent.  Debet  ig-itur  imperium  iustum  esse,  neque 
herile,  sed  quasi  paternum,  quia  Dei  iustissima  in  homines  potestas 
est  et  cum  paterna  bonitate  coniuncta :  gerendum  vero  est  ad 
utilitatem  civium,  quia  qui  praesunt  ceteris,  hac  una  de  caussa 
praesunt,  ut  civitatis  utilitatem  tueantur.  Neque  uUo  pacto  com- 
mitteudum,  unius  ut,  vel  paucorum  commodo  serviat  civilis  auctoritas, 
cum  ad  commune  omnium  bonum  constituta  sit.  Quod  si,  qui 
praesunt,  delabantur  in  dominatum  iniustum,  si  importunitate 
superbiave  peccaverint,  si  male  populo  consuluerint,  sciant  sibi 
rationem  aliquando  Deo  esse  reddendam,  idque  tanto  severius, 
quanto  vel  sanctiore  in  munere  versati  sint,  vel  gradum  dignitatis 
altiorem  obtinuerint.  Potcntes  potenter  tormenta  patientur.'\—lt-A  sane 
maiestatem  imperii  reverentia  civium  honesta  et  libens  comitabitur. 
Etenim  cum  semel  in  animum  induxerint,  pollere,  qui  imperant, 
auctoritate  a  Deo  data,  ilia  quidem  officia  iusta  ac  debita  esse  sentient, 
dicto  audientes  esse  principibus,  eisdemque  obsequium  ac  fidem 
praestare  cum  quadam  smilitudine  pietatis,  quae  liberorura  est  erga 
parentes.     Omnis  anima  potestatibus  sublimioribus  subdita  sit.X — Spernere 

*  Bom.  xiii.  1.  f  Sap.  vi.  7.  X  Rom.  xiii.  1. 


on  the  Constitution  of  Christian  States.  155 

quippe  potestatem  legitimam,  quavis  earn  in  persona  esse  constiterit, 
non  mag-is  licet,  quain  divinae  voluntati  resistere  :  cui  si  qui  resistant, 
in  interitum  ruiint  voluntarium.  Qui  resistit  jjotestati,  Dei  (rrdinationi 
resistit ;  qui  autem  resistunt,  ipsi  sibi  damnationem  acqitinmt.*  Qna- 
propter  obedientiam  abiicere,  et,  per  vim  multitudinis,  rem  ad 
seditionem  vocare  est  crimen  maiestatis,  neque  humanae  tantum,  sed 
etiam  divinae. 

Hac  ratione  constitutam  civitatem,  perspicuum  est,  omnino  debere 
plurimis  maximisque  officiis,  quae  ipsam  iungunt  Deo,  religione 
publica  satisfacere. — Natura  et  ratio,  quae  iubet  singulos  sancte 
relig-ioseque  Deum  colere,  quod  in  eius  potestate  sumus,  et  quod  ab 
eo  profecti  ad  eumdem  reverti  debemus,  eadem  lege  adstringit 
civilem  communitatem.  Homines  enim  communisocietateconiuncti 
nihilo  sunt  minus  in  Dei  potestate,  quam  singuli :  neque  minorem, 
quam  singuli,  gratiam  Deo  societas  debet,  quo  auctore  coaluit,  cuius 
nutu  conservatur,  cuius  benelicio  innumerabilem  bonorum,  quibus 
affluit,  copiam  accepit.  Quapropter  sicut  nemini  licet  sua  adversus 
Deum  ofiicia  negligere,  oiiiciumque  est  maximum  amplecti  et  aninio 
et  moribus  religionem,  nee  quam  quisque  maluerit,  sed  quam  Deus 
iusserit,  quamque  certis  minimeque  dubitandis  indiciis  unam  ex 
omnibus  veram  esse  constiterit :  eodem  modo  civitates  non  possunt, 
citra  scelus,  gerere  se  tamquam  si  Deus  omnino  non  esset,  aut 
curam  religionis  velut  alienam  nibilque  profuturam  abiicere,  aut 
asciscere  de  pluribus  generibus  inditferenter  quod  libeat :  omninoque 
debent  eum  in  colendo  numine  morem  usurpare  modumque,  quo  coli 
se  Deus  ipse  demonstravit  velle.  —  Sanctum  igitur  oportet  apud 
principes  esse  Dei  nomen  ;  ponendumque  in  praecipuis  illorum  officiis 
religionem  gratia  complecti,  benevolentia  tueri,  auctoritate  nutuque 
legum  tegere,  nee  quippiam  instituere  aut  decernere,  quod  sit  eius 
incolumitati  contrarium.  Id  et  civibus  debent,  quibus  praesunt. 
Nati  enim  susceptique  omnes  homines  sumus  ad  summum  quoddam 
et  ultimum  bonorum,  quo  sunt  omnia  consilia  referenda  extra  banc  ■ 
fragilitatem  brevitatemque  vitae  in  caelis  coUocatuui.  Quoniam 
autem  hinc  pendet  hominum  undi([ue  expleta  ac  perfecta  felicitas, 
idcirco  assequi  eum,  qui  commemoratus  est,  finem  tanti  interest 
singulorum,  ut  pluris  interesse  non  possit.  Civilem  igitur  societa- 
tem,  communi  utilitati  natam,  in  tuenda  prosperitate  reipublicae 
necesse  est  sic  consulere  civibus,  ut  obtineudo  adipiscendoque 
sunimo  illi  atque  incommutabili  bono  quod  sponte  appetunt,  non 
modo  nihil  importet  unquam  incommodi,  sed  omnes  quascumque 
possit,  opportuuitates  atferat.  Quarum  praecipua  est,  ut  detur  opera 
religioni  sancte  inviolateque  servandae,  cuius  officia  hominem  Deo 
coniungunt. 

Vera  autem  religio  quae  sit,  non  difficulter  videt  qui  indicium 
prudens  sincerumque  adhibuerit :  argumentis  enim  permultis  atque 
illustribus,  veritate  nimirum  vaticiniorum,  prodigiorum  frequentia, 
cellerrima  fidei  vel  per  medios  hostes  ac  maxima  impedimenta  pro- 
pagatione,  martyrum  testimonio,  aliisque  similibus  liquet,  eam  esse 

*  Kom.  v.  2. 


156  Encyclical  Letter  of  Po'pe  Leo  XIII. 

unice  veram,  quam  lesus  Christus  et  instituit  ipsemet  et  Ecclesiae 
suae  tiiendam  propagandamque  deraandavit. 

Nam  unig-enitus  Dei  filius  societatem  in  terris  constituit,  quae 
Ecclesia  dicitur,  cui  excelsum  divinumque  mimus  in  omnes  saecu- 
lorum  aetates  continuandum  transmisit,  quod  Ipse  a  Patre  acceperat. 
■Sictit  misit  me  Pater,  et  ego  mitto  vos* — Jicce  ego  vobiscum  sum  omnibus 
diehns  usqve  ad  consnmmatio7icm  saeculi.j  Ig-itur  sicut  lesus  Christus 
in  terras  venit  ut  homines  vitaru  habeant  et  abundanthis  habeant,^  eodem 
modo  Ecclesia  propositum  habet,  tamquam  finem,  salutem  animorum 
sempiternam :  ob  eamque  rem  talis  est  natura  sua,  ut  porrif^at  sese 
ad  totius  complexum  gentis  humanae,  nullis  nee  locorura  nee  tem- 
porum  limitibus  circumscripta.  Praedicate  Evavgeliwn  omni  crea- 
iurae.§ — Tarn  ing-enti  hominum  multitudini  Deus  ipse  magistratus 
assignavit,  qui  cum  potestate  praeessent :  unumque  omnium  prin- 
■cipem,  et  maximum  certissimumque  veritatis  magistrum  esse  voluit, 
-cui  claves  legni  caelorum  commisit.  Tibi  duho  claves  regni  caelorum]] 
— Pasce  agnos.  .  .  .  pasce  oves:% — ego  rogavi  pro  tc,  vt  non  dejiciat  Jides 
tna.** — Haec  societas,  quam  vis  ex  hominibus  constet,  non  secus  ac 
■civilis  communitas,  tamen  propter  finem  sibi  constitutum,  atque 
instrumenta,  quibus  ad  finem  contendit,  supernaturahs  est  et  spirit- 
ualis  :  atque  idcirco  distinguitur  ac  dilfert  a  societate  civili :  et, 
quod  plurimum  interest,  societas  est  genere  et  iure  perfecta,  cum 
iidiumenta  ad  incolumitatem  actionemque  suam  necessaria,  voluntate 
beneficioque  conditoris  sui,  omnia  in  se  et  per  se  ipsa  possideat. 
Sicut  finis,  quo  tendit  Ecclesia,  longe  nobilissimus  est,  ita  eius 
potestas  est  omnium  praestantissima,  neque  imperio  civili  potest 
haberi  inferior,  aut  eidem  esse  ullo  modo  obnoxia. — Revera  lesus 
Christus  Apostolis  suis  libera  mandata  dedit  in  sacra,  adiuncta  turn 
ferendarum  legum  vcri  nomiuis  i'acultate,  tum  gemina,  quae  hinc 
consequitur,  iudicandi  puniendique  potestate.  "  Data  est  mihi  ornms 
potestas  in  caelo  el  in  terra :  cuntcs  ergo  docete  ovines  gentes  .  .  .  docentes 
eos  servare  omnia  qiiaecumque  mandavi  voblsT-W  Et  alibi  :  "  Si  non 
audierit  eos,  die  Ecclesiae.^'  W  Atque  iterum  :  "  In  i)romptu  lidbentes 
vlcisci  omncm.  inobedieutiani."  §§  Kursus  :  "  durius  agam  secundum  po- 
testatem,  quam  Bominus  dedit  mihi  in  aedijicationem  et  7io?i  i?i  destruc- 
tioncmy^^  Itaque  dux  hominibus  esse  ad  caelestia,  non  civitas  sed 
Ecclesia  debet :  eidemque  hoc  est  munus  assignatum  a  Deo,  ut  de 
lis,  quae  religionem  attingunt,  videat  ipsa  et  statuat :  ut  doceat 
omnes  gentes  :  ut  christiani  nominis  fines,  quoad  potest,  late  pro- 
ferat ;  brevi, '  ut  rem  christianam  libere  expediteque  iudicio  sue 
administret. — Hanc  vero  auctoritatem  in  se  ipsa  absolutam  planeque 
«ui  iuris,  quae  ab  assentatrice  principum  philosophia  iamdiu  oppug- 
natur,  Ecclesia  sibi  asserere  itemque  publice  exercere  numquam 
<iesiit,  primis  omnium  pro  ea  propugnantibus  Apostolis,  qui  cum 


*  loan.  XX.  21.  +  Matth.  xxviii.  20.             X  loan,  x,  10. 

§  Marc.  xvi.  15.  IJ  Matth.  xvi.  19.                 TI  loan.  xxi.  16-17. 

**  Luc.  xxii.  32.  f-f-  Matth.  xxviii.  18-19-20. 

XX  Matth.  xviii.  17.  §§  II.  Cor.  x.  6.                     lill  II.  Cor.  xiii.  10. 


on  the  Constitution  of  Christian  States.  157 

disseminare  Evang-elium  a  principibus  Synag-ogae  prohiberentur, 
constanter  respondebant,  obedire  oportet  Deo  mapis,  quant  Jtom'mibus* 
Eamdem  sancti  Ecclesiae  Patres  rationum  momentis  tiieri  pro 
opportunitate  studuerunt :  romanique  Pontifices  invicta  aniini  con- 
stantia  adversus  oppug-natores  vindicare  numquam  praetermiserunt, 
— Quin  etiam  et  opinione  et  re  eamdem  pi'obarunt  ipsi  viri  principes 
rerumque  publicarum  g-ubernatores,  ut  qui  paciscendo,  transigendis 
neg'otiis,  mittendis  vicissimque  accipiendis  leg'atis,  atque  aliorum 
mutatione  ofiiciorum,  agere  cum  Ecclesia  tamquam  cum  suprema 
potestate  leg-itima  consueverunt. — Neque  profecto  sine  singulari 
providentis  Dei  consilio  factum  esse  consendum  est,  ut  liaec  ipsa 
potestas  principatu  civili,  velut  optima  libertatis  suae  tutela,  mu- 
niretur. 

Itaque  Deus  humani  g-eneris  procurationem  inter  duas  potestates 
partitus  est,  scilicet  ecclesiasticam  et  civilem,  alteram  quidem  divinis, 
alteram  hurnanis  rebus  praepositam.  Utraqne  est  in  suo  g-enere 
maxima:  habet  utraque  certos,  quibus  contineatur,  terminos,  eosque 
sua  cuiusque  natura  caussaque  proxima  definitos;  unde  aliquis  velut 
orbis  circumscribitur,  in  quo  sua  cuiusque  actio  iure  proprio  versetur. 
Sed  quia  utriusque  imperium  est  in  eosdem,  cum  usuvenire  possit, 
ut  res  una  atque  eadem,  quamquam  aliter  atque  aliter,  sed  tamen 
eadem  res  ad  utriusque  ius  iudiciumque  pertineat,  debet  providentis- 
simus  Deus,  a  quo  sunt  ambae  constitutae,  utriusque  itinera  recte 
atque  ordine  composuisse.  Quae  autem  simt  a  Deo  ordinatae  sunt.\ 
Quod  ni  ita  esset,  funestarum  saepe  contention  urn  concertationumque 
caussae  nascerentur  ;  nee  raro  soUicitus  animi,  velut  in  via  ancipiti, 
haerere  homo  deberet,  anxius  quid  facto  opus  esset,  contraria  iuben- 
tibus  binis  potestatibus,  quarum  recusare  imperium,  salvo  officio, 
non  potest.  Atqui  maxime  istud  repugnat  de  sapientia  cogitare  et 
bonitate  Dei,  qui  vel  in  rebus  pliisicis,  quamquam  sunt  longe 
inferioris  ordinis,  tamen  naturales  vires  caussasque  invicem  con- 
ciliavit  moderata  ratione  et  quodam  velut  concentu  mirabili,  ita  ut 
nulla  earum  impediat  ceteras,  cunctaeque  simul  illuc,  quo  mundus 
spectat  convenienter  aptissimeque  conspirent. — Itaque  inter  utram- 
que  potestatem  quaedam  intercedat  necesseest  ordinata  coUigatio: 
quae  quidem  coniunctioni  non  immerito  comparatur,  per  quam 
anima  et  corpus  in  bomine  copulantur.  Qualis  autem  et  quanta  ea 
sit,  aliter  iudicari  non  potest,  nisi  respiciendo,  uti  diximus,  ad  utri- 
usque naturam,  liabendaque  ratione  excellentiae  et  nobilitatis 
caussarum  j  cum  alteri  pi-oxime  maximeque  propositum  sit  rerum 
mortalium  curare  commoda,  alteri  caelestia  ac  sempiterna  bona  com- 
parare. — Quidquid  igitur  est  in  rebus  humanis  quoquo  modo  sacrum, 
quidquid  ad  salutem  animorum  cultumve  Dei  pertinet,  sive  tale 
illud  sit  natura  sua,  sive  rursus  tale  intelligatur  propter  caussam  ad 
quam  refertur,  id  est  omne  in  potestate  arbitrioque  Ecclesiae  : 
cetera  vero,  quae  civile  et  politicum  genus  complectitur,  rectum  est 
civili  auctoritati  esse  subiecta,  cum  lesus   Christus  iusserit,  quae 

*  Act  V.  29.  t  Rom.  xiii.  1. 


158  Encyclical  Letter  of  Po'pe  Leo  XIII. 

Caesaris  sint,  reddi  Caesari,  quae  Dei,  Deo. — Incidunt  autem 
quandoque  tempora,  cum  alius  quoque  concordiae  modus  ad  tran- 
quillam  libertatem  valet,  nimirum  si  qui  principes  rerum  publicarum 
et  Pontifex  romanus  de  re  aliqua  separata  in  idem  placitum 
consenserint.  Quibus  Ecclesia  temporibus  maternae  pietatis  eximia 
documenta  praebet,  cum  facilitatis  indulgentiaeque  tantum  adhibere 
soleat,  quantum  maxime  potest. 

Eiusmodi  est,  quara  summatim  attigimus,  civilis  hominutn 
societatis  Christiana  temperatio,  et  baec  non  temere  neque  ad 
libidinem  ficta,  sed  ex  maximis  ducta  verissimisque  principiis,  quae 
ipsa  naturali  ratione  confirmantur. 

Talis  autem  conformatio  reipublicae  nihil  habet,  quod  possit  aut 
minus  videri  dignum  amplitudine  principum,  aut  parura  decorum  : 
tantumque  abest,  ut  iura  maiestatis  imminuat,  iit  potius  stabiliora 
atque  augustiora  faciat.  Immo,  si  altius  consideretur,  habet  ilia 
conformatio  perfectionem  quamdam  magnam,  qua  carent  ceteri 
rerum  publicarum  modi :  ex  eaque  fructus  essent  sane  excellentes 
et  varii  consecuturi,  si  modo  suum  partes  singulae  gradum  tenerent, 
atque  illud  integre  efficerent,  cui  unaquaeque  praeposita  est,  otiicium 
et  munus. — Revera  in  ea,  quam  ante  diximus,  constitutione  rei- 
publicae, sunt  quidem  divina  atque  humana  convenienti  ordine 
partita :  incolumia  civium  iura,  eademque  divinariim,  naturalium, 
humanarumque  legum  patrocinio  defensa  :  officiorum  singulorum 
cum  sapienter  constituta  descriptio,  tum  opportune  sancita  custodia. 
Singuli  homines  in  hoc  ad  sempiternam  illam  civitatem  dubio 
laboriosoque  curriculo  sibi  sciunt  praesto  esse,  quos  tuto  sequantur 
ad  ingrediendum  duces,  ad  perveniendum  adiutores :  pariterque 
intelligunt,  sibi  alios  esse  ad  securitatem,  ad  fortunas,  ad  commoda 
cetera,  quibus  communis  haec  vita  constat,  vel  parienda  vel 
conservanda  datos.  —  Societas  domestica  earn,"  quam  par  est, 
firmitudinem  adipiscitur  ex  unius  atque  individui  sanctitate  coniugii : 
iura  ofiiciaque  inter  coniuges  sapienti  iustitia  et  aequitate  reguntur  : 
debitum  conservatur  mulieri  decus :  auctoritas  viri  ad  exemplum 
est  auctoritatis  Dei  conformata :  temperata  patria  potestas  con- 
venienter  dignitati  uxoris  prolisque :  denique  liberorum  tuitioni, 
commodis,  institutioni  optime  consulitur. — In  genere  rerum  politico 
et  civili,  leges  spectant  commune  bonum,  neque  voluntate  iudicioque 
fallaci  multitudinis,  sed  veritate  iustitiaque  diriguntur  :  auctoritas 
principum  sanctitudinem  quamdam  induit  humana  maiorem,  con- 
tineturque  ne  declinet  a  iustitia,  neu  modum  in  imperando  transiliat : 
obedientia  civium  habet  honestatem  dignitatemque  comitem,  quia 
non  est  hominis  ad  hominem  servitus,  sed  obtemperatio  voluntati 
Dei,  regnum  per  homines  exercentis.  Quo  cognito  ac  persuaso, 
omnino  ad  iustitiam  pertinere  ilia  intelliguntur,  vereri  maiestatem 
principum,  subesse  constanter  et  fideliter  potestati  publicae,  nihil 
seditiose  facere,  sanctam  servare  disciplinam  civitatis. — Similiter 
ponitur  in  officiis  caritas  mutua,  benignitas,.  liberalitas :  non  dis- 
trahitur  in  contrarias  partes,  pugnantibus  inter  se  praeceptis,  civis 
idem  et  christianus  :    denique  amplissima   bona,  quibus  mortalem 


J 


on  the  Constitution  of  OhHstian  States.  159 

quoque  hominum  vitam  Christiana  relig-io  sua  sponte  explet,  com- 
munitati  societatique  civili  omnia  quaeruntur  :  ita  ut  illud  appareat 
verissime  dictum,  "  pendet  a  religione,  qua  Deus  colitur,  rei  publicae 
status :  multaque  inter  hunc  et  illam  cog-natio  et  familiaritas  inter- 
cedit."  * — Eorum  vim  bonorum  mirabiliter,  uti  solet,  persecutus  est 
Auo'ustinus  pluribus  locis,  maxime  vero  ubi  Ecclesiam  catholicam 
appellat  iis  verbis :  "  Tu  pueriliter  pueros,  fortiter  iuvenes,  quiete 
seues,  prout  cuiusque  non  corporis  tantum,  sed  et  animi  aetas  est, 
exerces  ac  doces.  Tu  feminas  viris  suis  non  ad  explendam  libidinem, 
sed  ad  propagandam  prolem,  et  ad  rei  familiaris  societatem,  casta  et 
fideli  dtedientia  subiicis.  Tu  viros  coniug-ibus,  non  ad  illudendum 
imbecilliorem  sexum,  sed  sinceri  amoris  legibus  praeficis.  Tu 
parentibus  filios  libera  quadam  servitute  subiungis,  parentes  filiis  pia 

dominatione  praeponis Tu  cives  civibus,  tu  g-entes  gentibus, 

et  prorsus  homines  primorum  parentum  recordatione,  non  societate 
tantum,  sed  quadam  etiam  fraternitate  coniung-is.  Doces  reg'es 
prospicere  populis,  mones  populos  se  subdere  regibus.  Quibus  honor 
debeatur,  quibus  afFectus,  quibus  reverentia,  quibus  timor,  quibus 
consolatio,  quibus  admonitio,  quibus  cohortatio,  quibus  disciplina, 
quibus  obiurg-atio,  quibus  suppliciura,  sedulo  doces;  ostendens 
quemadmodum  et  non  omnibus  omnia,  et  omnibus  caritas,  et  nulli 
debeatur  iniuria."  f — Idemque  alio  loco  male  sapientes  reprehendens 
politicos  philosophos  :  "  Qui  doctrinam  Christi  adversam  dicunt  esse 
reipublicae,  dent  exercitum  talem,  quales  doctrina  Christi  esse 
milites  iussit,  dent  tales  provinciales,.tales  maritos,  tales  coniug-es, 
tales  parentes,  tales  filios,  tales  dominos,  tales  servos,  tales  reges, 
tales  indices,  tales  denique  debitorum  ipsius  fisci  redditores  et 
exactores,  quales  esse  praecipit  doctrina  Christiana,  et  audeant  earn 
dicere  adversam.  esse  reipublicae,  immo  vero  non  dubitent  earn 
confiteri  mag-nam,  si  obtemperetur,  salutem  esse  reipublicae."  J 

Fait  aliquando  tempus,  cum  evangelica  philosophia  g-ubernaret 
civitates :  quo  tempore  christianae  sapientiae  vis  ilia  et  divina  virtus 
in  leges,  instituta,  mores  populorum,  in  omnes  reipublicae  ordines 
rationesque  penetraverat :  cum  religio  per  lesum  Christum  instituta 
in  eo,  quo  aequum  erat,  dignitatis  gradu  firmiter  collocata,  gratia 
principum  legitimaque  magistratuum  tutela  ubique  fioreret :  cum 
sacerdotium  atque  imperium  concordia  et  arnica  officiorum  vicissi- 
tudo  auspicato  coniungeret.  Eoque  modo  composita  civitas  fructus 
tulit  omni  opinione  maiores,  quorum  viget  memoria  et  vigebet  innu- 
raerabilibus  rerum  gestarum  consignata  monumentis,  quae  nulla 
adversariorum  arte  corrumpi  aut  obscurari  possunt. — Quod  Europa 
Christiana  barbaras  gentes  edomuit,  easqxxe  a  feritate  ad  mansuetu- 
dinem,  a  superstitione  ad  veritatem  traduxit :  quod  Maomethanorum 
incursiones  victrix   propulsavit:    quod   civilis   cultus    principatum 


*  Sacr.  Imp.  ad  Cyrillum  Alexand.  et  Episoopos  metrop. — Cfr.  Labbeum  Collect. 
Cor.c.  T.  III. 
+  De  moribus  Eccl.  cath.,  cap.  xxx.  n.  63. 
t  Epist.  cxxxviii.  (al.  5)  ad  Marcellinum,  cap.  ii,  n.  15. 


160  Encyclical  Letter  of  Pope  Leo  XIII. 

retinuit,  et  ad  omne  decus  humanitatis  ducera  se  mag-istramque 
praebere  ceteris  consuevit :  quod  g-ermanam  libertatem  eamque  raul- 
tiplicem  gratificata  populis  est :  quod  coraplura  ad  miseriarum  sola- 
tium sapientissime  instituit,  sine  controversia  mag-nam  debet  gratiam 
relig'ioni,  quaui  ad  tantas  res  suscipiendas  habuit  auspicem,  ad  perfi- 
ciendas  adiutricem. — Mansissent  profecto  eadem  bona,  si  utriusque 
potestatis  concordia  mansisset :  maioraque  expectari  iure  poterant,  si 
auctoritati,  si  magisterio,  si  consiliis  Ecclesiae  maiore  esset  cum  fide 
perseverantiaque  obtemperatum.  Illud  enim  perpetuae  legis  instar 
habendum  est,  quod  Ivo  Carnutensis  ad  Pascbalem  ii  Pontificem 
maximum  perscripsit,  "  cum  regnum  et  sacerdotium  inter  se  con- 
veniunt,  bene  regitur  mundus,  floret  et  fructificat  Ecclesia.  Cum 
vero  inter  se  discordant,  non  tantum  parvae  res  non  crescunt,  sed 
etiam  magnae  res  miserabiliter  dilabuntur."* 

Sed  perniciosa  ilia  ac  deploranda  rerum  novarum  studia,  quae 
saeculo  xvi  excitata  sunt,  cum  primum  religionem  christianam  mis- 
cuissent,  mox  naturali  quodam  itineri  ad  pbilosopbiam,  a  philosophia 
ad  omnes  civilis  communitatis  ordines  pervenerunt.  Ex  hoc  velut 
fonte  repetenda  ilia  recentiora  efFrenatae  libertatis  capita,  nimirum  in 
maximis  perturbationibus  superiore  saeculo  excogitata  in  medioque 
proposita,  perinde  ac  principia  et  fundamenta  novi  iuris,  quod  et  fuit 
antea  ignotum,  et  a  iure  non  solum  christiano,  sed  etiam  naturali 
plus  una  ex  parte  discrepat. — Eorum  principiorum  illud  est  maxi- 
mum, omnes  homines,  quemadmodum  genere  naturaque  similes 
intelliguntur,  ita  reapse  esse  in  actione  vitae  inter  se  pares : 
unumquemque  ita  esse  sui  iuris,  utnuUo  modo  sit  alterius  auctoritati 
obnoxius :  cogitare  de  re  qualibet  quae  velit,  agere  quod  lubeat, 
libere  posse  :  imperandi  aliis  ins  esse  in  nemine.  His  informata 
disciplinis  societate,  principatus  non  est  nisi  populi  voluntas,  qui,  ut 
in  sui  ipsius  unice  est  potestate,  ita  sibimetipsi  solus  imperat : 
deligit  autem,  qui  bus  se  committat,  ita  tamen  ut  imperii  non  tam 
ius,  quam  munus  in  eos  transferat,  idque  suo  nomine  exercendum. 
In  silentio  iacet  dominatio  divina,  non  secus  ac  vel  Deus  aut  nullus 
esset,  aut  humani  generis  societatem  nihil  curaret;  vel  homines 
sive  singuli  sive  sociati  nihil  Deo  deberent,  vel  principatus  cogitari 
posset  ullus,  cuius  non  in  Deo  ipso  caussa  et  vis  et  auctoritas  tota 
resideat.  Quo  modo,  ut  perspicitur,  est  respublica  nihil  aliud  nisi 
magistra  et  gubernatrix  sui  multitude  :  cumque  populus  omnium 
iurium  omnisque  potestatis  fontem  in  se  ipse  continere  dicatur,  con- 
sequens  erit,  ut  nulla  ratione  officii  obligatam  Deo  se  civ^itas  putet ; 
ut  religionem  publico  profiteatur  nullam  j  nee  debeat  ex  pluribus 
quae  vera  sola  sit,  quaerere,  nee  unam  quamdam  ceteris  anteponere, 
nee  uni  maxime  favere,  sed  singulis  generibus  aequabilitatem  iuris 
tribuere  ad  eum  finem,  dum  disciplina  reipublicae  ne  quid  ab  illis 
detrimenti  capiat.  Consentaneum  erit,  iudicio  singulorum  permittere 
omnem  de  religione  quaestionem ;  licere  cuique  aut  sequi  quam 
ipse  malit,  aut  omnino  nullam,  si  nullam  probet.     Hinc  profecto  ilia 

*  Ep.  ccxxxviii. 


on  the  Constitution  of  Christian  States.  161 

nascuntur ;  exlex  uniuscuiusque  conscientiae  iudicium  ;  liberrimae 
de  Deo  colendo,  de  non  colendo,  sententiae ;  infinita  turn  cogitandi, 
turn  cogitata  publicandi  licentia. 

His  autem  positis,  quae  maxime  probantur  hoc  tempore,  funda- 
tnentis  reipublicae,  facile  apparet,  qiiem  in  locum  quamque  iniquum 
compellatur  Ecclesia. — Nam  ubi  cum  eiusmodi  doctrinis  actio  reruni 
coDsentiat,  nomini  catliolico  par  cum  societatibus  ab  eo  alienis  vel 
etiam  inferior  locus  in  civitate  tribuitur  :  legum  ecclesiasticarum 
nulla  liabetur  ratio  :  Ecclesia,  quae  iussu  mandatoque  lesu  Cbristi 
docere  omnes  gentes  debet,  publicam  populi  institutionem  iubetur 
nihil  atting-e.re. — De  ipsis  rebus,  quae  sunt  mixti  iuris,per  se  statuunt 
g'ubernatores  rei  civilis  arbitratu  suo,  in  eoque  g-enere  sanctissimas 
Ecclesiae  leg'es  superbe  contemnunt.  Quare  ad  iurisdictionem  suam 
trahunt  matrimohia  christianorum,  decernendo  etiam  de  maritali 
vinculo,  de  unitate,  de  stabilitate  coniugii :  movent  possessiones 
clericorum,  quod  res  suas  Ecclesiam  tenere  posse  neg-ant.  Ad  sum- 
mam,  sic  agunt  cum  Ecclesia,  ut  societatis  perfectae  g-enere  et  iuribus 
opiuione  detractis,  plane  similem  habeant  ceterarum  communitatum, 
quas  respublica  continet :  ob  eamque  rem  si  quid  ilia  iuris,  si  quid 
possidet  facultatis  ad  ag-endum  legitimae,  possidere  dicitur  concessu 
beneficioque  principum  civitatis. — Si  qua  vero  in  republica  suum 
Ecclesia  ius,  ipsis  civilibus  leg'ibus  probantibus,  teneat,  publicequo 
inter  utramque  pofestatem  pactio  aliqua  facta  sit,  principio  clamant, 
dissociari  Ecclesiae  rationes  a  reipublicae  rationibus  oportere  ;  idquo 
eo  consilio,  ut  facere  contra  interpositam  iidem  impune  liceat,  omui- 
umque  rerum  habere,  remotis  impedimcntis,  arbitriura. — Id  A^ero  cum 
patienter  ferre  Ecclesia  non  possit,  neque  enim  potest  officia  deserere 
sanctissima  et  maxima,  omninoque  postulet,  ut  oblig-ata  sibi  fides 
integTe  relig-ioseque  solvatur,  saepe  sacram  inter  ac  civilem  potest atem 
dimicationes  nascuntur,  quarum  ille  ferme  est  exitus,  alteram,  ut 
quae  minus  est  opibus  humanis  valida,  alteri  ut  validiori  succum- 
bere. 

Ita  Ecclesiam,  in  hoc  rerum  publicarum  statu,  qui  nunc  a  plerisque 
adamatur,  mos  et  voluntas  est,  aut  prorsus  de  medio  pellere,  aut 
vinctam  adstrictamque  imperio  tenere.  Quae  publico  aguntur,  eo 
consilio  mag-nam  partem  aguntur.  Leg'es,  administratio  civitatum, 
€xpers  religionis  adolescentium  institutio,  spoliatio  excidiumque 
ordinum  religiosorum,  eversio  principatus  civilis  Poutificum  roman- 
orura,  hue  spectaut  omnia,  incidere  nervos  institutorum  christianorum, 
Ecclesiaeque  catholicae  et  libertatem  in  angustum  deducere,  et  iura 
cetera  comminuere. 

Eiusmodi  de  reg-enda  civitate  sententias  ipsa  naturalis  ratio  con- 
vincit,  a  veritate  dissidere  plurimum. — (i)uidquid  enim  potestatis 
nsquam  est,  a  Deo  tamquam  maximo  augustissimoque  fonte  proficisci, 
ipsa  natura  testatur.  Imperium  autem  populare,  quod,  nullo  ad 
Deum  respectu,  in  multitudine  inesse  naturu  dicitur,  si  praeclare  ad 
suppeditandura  valet  blandimenta  et  flammas  multarum  cupiditatuni, 
nulla  quidem  nititur  ratione  probabili,  neque  satis  habere  virium 
potest   ad   securitatem  publicam  quietamque   ordinis   constantiam^ 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  I.     [Third  Series.]  ai 


162  Encyclical  Letter  of  Pope  Leo  XIII. 

Eevera  his  doctrinis  res  inclinavere  usque  eo,  ut  haec  a  pluribus- 
tamquam  lex  in  civili  prudentia  sanciatur,  seditiones  posse  iure 
conflari.  Valet  enim  opinio,  nihilo  principes  pluris  esse,  quam_ 
delectos  quosdam,  qui  voluntatem  popularem  exequantur :  ex  quo 
lit,  quod  ■  necesse  est,  ut  omnia  sint  pariter  cum  populi  arbitrio 
mutabilia,  et  timor  aliquis  turbarum  semper  impendeat. 

De  relig'ione  autem  putare,  nihil  inter  formas  dispares  et  con- 
trarias  interesse,  hunc  plane  babet  exitum,  nolle  uUam  probare 
iudicio,  nolle  usu.  Atqui  istud  ab  atbeismo,  si  nomine  aliquid 
differt,  re  nihil  diiFert.  Qui  bus  enim  Deum  esse  persuasum  est,  ii, 
modo  constare  sibi  nee  esse  perabsurdi  velint,  necessario  intelligunt, 
usitatas  in  cultu  divino  rationes,  quarum  tanta  est  differentia  maxi- 
misque  etiam  de  rebus  dissimilitudo  et  pug-na,  aeque  probabiles, 
aequo  bonas,  aeque  Deo  acceptas  esse  omnes  non  posse. 

Sic  ilia  quidlibet  sentiendi  litterarumque  formis  quidlibet  expri- 
mendi  facultas,  omni  moderatione  postbabita,  non  quoddam  est  pro- 
pria vi  sua  bonum,  quo  societas  bimiana  iure  laetetur :  sed  multorum 
malorum  fons  et  origo. — Libertas,  ut  quae  virtus  est  bominem  per- 
ficiens,  debet  in  eo  quod  verum  sit,  quodque  bonum,  versari :  boni 
autem  verique  ratio  mutari  ad  hominis  arbitrium  non  potest,  sed 
manet  semper  eadem,  neque  minus  est,  quam  ipsa  rerum  natura, 
incommutabilis.  Si  mens  adsentiatur  opinionibus  falsis,  si  malum 
voluntas  adsumat  et  ad  id  se  applicet,  perfectionem  sui  neutra  con- 
sequitur,  sed  excidunt  dignitate  naturali  et  in  corruptelam  ambae 
delabuntur.  Quaecumque  sunt  ig-itur  virtuti  veritatique  contraria, 
ea  in  luce  atque  in  oculis  hominum  ponere  non  est  aequum  :  g-ratia 
tuteluve  leg'um  defendere,  multo  minus.  Sola  bene  acta  vita  via  est 
in  caelum,  quo  tendimus  universi :  ob  earn  que  rem  aberrat  civitas  a 
reg'ula  et  praescriptione  naturae,  si  licentiam  opionionum  praveque 
factorum  in  tantum  lascivire  sinat,  ut  impune  liceat  mentes  a  veritate, 
animos  a  virtute  deducere. — Ecclesiam  vero,  quam  Deus  ipse  con- 
stituit,  ab  actione  vitae  excludere,  a  leg'ibus,  ab  institutione  adoles- 
centium,  a  societate  domestica,  mag'nus  et  perniciosus  est  error. 
Bene  morata  civitas  esse,  sublata  religione,  non  potest :  iamque  plus 
fortasse,  quam  oporteret,  est  cog-nitum,  qualis  in  se  sit  et  quorsum 
pertineat  ilia  de  vita  et  moribus  philosophia,  quam  civilem  nominant. 
Vera  est  mag-istra  virtutis  et  custos  morum  Ecclesia  Christi :  ea  est, 
quae  incolumia  tuetur  principia,  unde  officia  ducuntur,  propositisque 
caussis  ad  honeste  vivendum  efficacissimis,  iubet  non  solum  fug'ere 
prave  facta,  sed  regere  motus  animi  ration!  contrarios  etiam  sine 
effectu. — Ecclesiam  vero  in  suorum  officiorum  munere  potestati 
civili  velle  esse  subiectam,  magna  quidem  iniuria,  magna  temeritas 
est.  Hoc  facto  perturbatur  ordo,  quia  quae  naturalia  sunt  prae- 
ponuntur  iis,  quae  sunt  supra  naturam  :  tollitur  aut  certe  magnopere 
niinuitur  frequentia  bouorum,  quibus,  si  nulla  re  impediretur,  com- 
munem  vitani  Ecclesia  compleret :  praetereaque  via  ad  inimicitias 
munitur  et  certamina,  quae  quantam  utrique  reipublicae  perniciem 
afferant,  nimis  saepe  eventus  demonstravit. 

Huiusmodi  doctrinas,  quae  nee   humanae  rationi  probantur,  et 


on  the  Constitution  of  Chnstian  States.  163 

plurimum  habent  in  civilem  disciplinam  momenti,  roinani  Pontifices 
decessores  Nostri,  cum  probe  intellig-erent  quid  a  se  postularet 
apostolicum  munus,  impune  abire  nequaquam  passi  sunt.  Sic 
Greg'orius  xvi  per  Enc^'clicas  litteras  boc  initio  Mirari  vos  die  xv 
Augusti  anno  :mdcccxxxii,  magna  sententiarum  gravitate  ea  perculit, 
quae  iam  praedicabantur,  in  cultu  divino  nullum  adbibere  delectum 
oportere :  integrum  singulis  esse,  quod  malitit,  de  religione  iudicare  : 
solam  cuique  suam  esse  conscientiam  iudicem  :  praeterea  edere  quae 
quisque  senserit,  itemque  res  moliri  novas  in  civitate  licere.  De 
rationibus  rei  sacrae  reique  civilis  distrabendis  sic  idem  Pontifex : 
"  Neque  laetiora  et  religioni  et  principatui  ominari  possemus  ex 
eorum  votis,  qui  Ecclesiam  a  regno  separari,  mutuamque  imperii 
cum  sacerdotio  concordiam  abrumpi  discupiunt.  Constat  quippe, 
pertimesci  ab  impudentissimae  libertatis  amatoribus  concordiam  illara, 
quae  semper  rei  et  sacrae  et  civili  fausta  extitit  et  salutaris." — Non 
absimili  modo  Pius  ix,  ut  sese  opportunitas  dedit,  ex  opinionibus 
falsis,  quae  maxime  valere  coepissent,  plures  notavit,  easdemque 
postea  in  unum  cogi  iussit,  ut  scilicet  in  tanta  errorum  colluvione 
haberent  catbolici  bomines,  quod  sine  oti'ensione  sequerentur.* 

Ex  iis  autem  Pontificum  praescriptis  ilia  omnino  intelligi  necesse 
est,  ortum  publicae  potestatis  a  Deo  ipso,  non  a  multitudine  repeti 
oportere :  seditionum  licentiam  cum  ratione  pugnaro  :  oliicia  re- 
ligionis  nullo  loco  numerare,  vel  uno  modo  esse  in  disparibus 
generibus  affectos,  nefas  esse  privatis  bominibus,  nefas  civitatibus : 
immoderatam  sentiendi  sensusque  palam  iactundi  potcstatem  non  esse 
in  civium  iuribus  neque  in  rebus  gratia  patrocinioque  dignis  ulla 
ratione  ponendam. — Similiter  intelligi  debet,  Ecclesiam  societatem 
esse,  non  minus  quam  ipsam  civitatcm,  genere  et  iure  perfectam  : 
neque  debere,  qui  summam  imperii  teneant,  committere  ut  sibi  servire 
aut  subesse  Ecclesiam  cogant,  aut  minus  esse  sinant  ad  suas  res 
agendas  liberam,  aut  quicquam  de  ceteris  iuribus  detrabant,  quae  in 
ipsam  a  lesu  Cbristo  collata  sunt. — In  negotiis  autem  mixti  iuris, 
maxime  esse  secundum  naturam  itemque  secundum  Dei  consilia  non 
secessionem  alterius  jiotestatis  ab  altera,  multoque  minus  conten- 
tionem,  sed  plane  concordiam,  eamque  cum  caussis  proximis 
congruentem,  quae  caussae  utramque  societam  genuerunt. 

Haec  quidem  sunt,  quae  de  constituendis  temperandisquc  civitati- 
bus ab  Ecclesia  catbolica  praecipiuntur. — Quibus  tameu  dictis  de- 

*  E<trum  nonnullas  indicare  sufficiat. 

Prop.  XIX. — Ecclesia  uon  est  vera  porfectaque  societas  plane  libera,  necpollet 
suis  propriia  et  constantibus  iuribus  sibi  a  divino  suo  Fundatore  collatis,  sed  civilis 
potestatis  est  defiuire  quae  sint  Ecclesiae  iura  ac  liniites,  intra  quos  eadem.  iura 
exercere  queat. 

Prop,  xxxis. — Reipublicae  status,  utpote  omnium  iurium  origo  et  fon?,  iure 
quodam  poUet  nuUis  circun)scripto  limitibus. 

Prop.  Lv. — Ecclesia  a  Statu,  Statusque  ab  Ecclesia  seiungendus  est. 

Prop.  LXXIX. — falsum  est,  civilem  cuiusque  cultus  libertatera,  item- 
que plenam  potestatem  omnibus  attributam  quaslibet  opiuiones  cogitationesque 
palam  publiceque  manifestandi,  conductre  ad  popuiorum  mores  animosque  facilius 
corrumpendos,  ac  indifferentismi  pestem  propagandam. 

M  2 


164  Encyclical  Letter  of  Pope  Leo  XIII. 

cretisqiie  si  recte  diiudicari  velit,  nulla  per  se  reprelienditur  ex  variis 
reipublicae  forrais,  ut  quae  nihil  habent,  quod  doctrinae  catholicae 
repug-net,  eaedemque  possunt,  si  sapienter  adhibeantur  et  iuste,  in 
optimo  statu  tueri  civitatem. — Immo  neque  illud  per  se  reprehenditur, 
participem  plus  minus  esse  populum  rei  publicae  :  quod  ipsum  certis 
in  temporibus  certisque  leg-ibus  potest  non  solum  ad  utilitatem,  sed 
ctiam  ad  officium  pertinere  civium. — Insuper  neque  caussa  iusta 
nascitur,  cur  Ecclesiam  quisquam  criminetur,  aut  esse  in  lenitate 
ikcilitateque  plus  aequo  restrictam,  aut  ei,  quae  g-ermana  et  legitiraa 
sit,  libertati  inimicam. — Revera  si  divini  cultus  varia  genera  eodem 
iure  esse,  quo  veram  religionem,  Ecclesia  iudicat  non  licere,  non 
ideo  tamen  eos  damnat  rerum  publicarum  moderatores,  qui,  magni 
alicuius  aut  adipiscendi  boni,  aut  prohibendi  caussa  mali,  moribus 
atque  usu  patienter  ferunt,  ut  ea  habeant  singula  in  civitate  locum. — 
Atque  illud  quoque  magnopere  cavere  Ecclesia  solet  ut  ad  amplex- 
andam  fidem  catliolicam  nemo  invitus  cogatur,  quia,  quod  sapienter 
Augustinus  monet,  credere  non  potest  homo  nisi  volens.* 

Simili  ratione  nee  potest  Ecclesia  libertatem  probare  earn,  quae 
fastidium  gignat  sanctissimarum  Dei  legum,  debitamque  potestati 
legitimae  obedientiam  exuat.  Est  enim  licentia  verius,  quam  libertasj 
rectissimeque  ab  Augustino  lihertas  ]jerditio}iis,-f  a  Petro  Apostolo 
vclameti  mulitiae  +  appellatur  :  immo,  cum  sit  praeter  rationem,  vera 
servitus  est :  qui,  enim,  facit  jjcccatum,  scrviis  est  peccati.  §  Contra 
ilia  germana  est  atque  expetenda  lil)ertas,  quae  si  privatim  spectetur, 
erroribus  et  cupiditatibus,  teterrimis  dominis,  hominem  servire  non 
sinit :  si  publice,  civibus  sapienter  praeest,  facultatem  augendorum 
commodorum  large  ministra,t :  reraque  publicam  ab  alieno  arbitrio 
defendit. —  Atqui  honestam  banc  et  liomine  dignam  libertatem, 
Ecclesia  probat  omnium  maxime,  eamque  ut  tueretur  in  populis 
firmam  atque  integram,  eniti  et  contendere  numquam  destitit. — 
Revera  quae  res  in  civitate  plurimum  adcommunem  salutem  possunt: 
quae  sunt  contra  licentiam  principum  populo  male  consulentium 
utiliter  institutae;  quae  summam  rempublicam  A-etant  in  municipalem, 
vel  domesticam  rem  importunius  invadere  :  quae  valent  ad  decus,  ad 
personam  hominis,  ad  aequabilitatem  iuris  in  singulis  civibus  con- 
servandam,  earum  rerum  omnium  Ecclesiam  catholicam  vel  inven- 
tricem,velauspicem,  vel  custodem  semper  fuisse,  superiorum  aetatum 
monumenta  testantur.  Sibi  igitur  perpetuo  consentiens,  si  ex  altera 
parte  libertatem  respuit  immodicam,  quae  et  privatis  et  populis  in 
licentiam  vel  in  servitutem  cadit,  ex  altera  volens  et  libens  amplectitur 
res  meliores,  quas  dies  ati'erat,  si  vere  prosperitatem  contineant  liuius 
vitae,  quae  qucddam  est  velut  stadium  ad  alteram  eamque  perpetuo 
mansuram.  Ergo  quod  inquiunt,  Ecclesiam  recentiori  civitatum 
invidere  disciplinae,  et  quaecumque  borum  temporum  ingenium 
peperit,  omnia  promiscue  repudiare,  inanis  est  et  ieiuna  calumnia. 
Insaniam  quidem  repudiat  opinionum  :  improbat  nefaria  seditionum 

*  Tract,  xxvi.  in  loan.,  n.  2.  f  Epist.  cv.  ad  donatistas  cap.  ii.  n.  9. 

X  I.  Petr.  ii.  16.  §  loan.  viii.  U. 


on  the  Constitution  of  Christian  States.  165 

studia,  illumque  nominatim  habitum  animorum,  in  quo  initia  per- 
spiciuntur  voluntarii  discessus  a  Deo :  sed  quia  omne,  quod  verum 
est,  a  Deo  proficisci  necesse  est,  quidquid,  indag'ando,  veri  attingatur, 
agnoscit  Ecclesia  velut  quoddam  divinae  mentis  vestigium.  Cumque 
nihil  sit  in  rerum  natura  veri,  quod  doctrinis  divinitus  traditis  fidem 
abrog-et,  multa  quae  adrogent,  omnisque  possit  inventio  veri  ad 
Deum  ipsum  vel  cognoscendum  vel  laudandum  impellere,  idcirco 
quidquid  accedat  ad  scientiarum  fines  proferendos,  gaudente  et 
libente  Ecclesia  semper  accedet  :  eademque  studiose,  ut  solet,  sicut 
alias  disciplinas,  ita  illas  etiam  fovebit  ac  provebet,  quae  positae  sunt 
in  explicatione  naturae.  Quibus  in  studiis,  non  adversatur 
Ecclesia  si  quid  mens  repererit  novi :  non  repugnat  quin  plura 
qiiaerantur  ad  decus  commoditatemque  vitae  :  immo  inertiae  desi- 
diaeque  inimica,  magnopere  vult  ut  bominum  ingenia  uberes  ferant 
exercitatione  et  cultura  Iructus  :  incitamenta  praebet  ad  omne  genus 
artium  atque  operum  :  omniaque  barum  rerum  studia  ad  bonestatem 
salutemque  virtute  sua  dirigens,  impedire  nititur,  quominus  a  Deo 
bonisque  caelestibus  sua  bominem  intelligentia  atque  industria 
detiectat. 

Sed  haec,  tametsi  plena  rationis  et  consilii,  minus  probaniur  boc 
tempore,  cum  civitates  non  modo  recusant  sese  adcbristianae  sajjien- 
tiae  referre  forniam,  sed  etiam  videntur  quotidie  longius  ab  ea  velle 
discedere. — IN'ibilominus  quia  in  lucem  prolata  Veritas  solet  sua 
sponte  late  tiuere,  bominumque  inentes  sensim  pervadere,  idcirco 
Nos  conscientia  maxinii  sanctissimique  officii,  boc  est  Apostolica, 
qua  fungimur  ad  gentes  universas,  legatione  permotij  ea  quae  vera 
sunt,  libere,  ut  debemus,  eloquimur  :  non  quod  non  perspectam 
habeamus  rationem  temporum,  aut  repudianda  aetatis  nostrae 
honesta  atque  utilia  incrementa  putemus,  sed  quod  rerum  publicarum 
tutiora  ab  offensionibus  itinera  ac  firmiora  fundamenta  vellemus  : 
idque  incolumi  populorum  germana  libertate  ;  in  bominibus  enim 
mater  et  custos  optima  libertatis  veritas  est:  Veritas  libcrahit  vos.* 

Itaquae  in  tarn  difficili  rerum  cursu,  catbolici  bomines,  si  rSos,  ut 
oportet,  audierint,  facile  videbunt  quae  sua  cuiusque  sint  tarn  in 
opinionihus,  quam  in  factis  oiiicia. — Et  opinando  quidem,  quuecumpue 
Pontifices  romani  tradiderint  vel  tradituri  sunt,  singula  necesse  est, 
et  tenere  iudicio  stabili  comprebensa,  et  palam,  quoties  res  postula- 
verit,  profiteri.  Ac  nominatim  de  iis,  quas  libcrtatcs  Yocant  novissimo 
'tempore  quaesitas,  oportet  Apostobcae  Sedis  stare  iudicio,  et  quod 
ipsa  senserit,  idem  sentire  singulos.  Cavendum,  ne  quem  fallat 
honesta  illarum  species :  cogitandumque  quibus  ortae  initiis,  et 
quibus  passim  sustententur  atque  alantur  studiis.  Satis  iam  est 
experiendo  cognitum,  quarum  illae  rerum  eftectrices  sint  in  civitate  ; 
eos  quippe  passim  genuere  Iructus,  quorum  probos  viros  et  sapientes 
lure  poeniteat. — Si  talis  alicubi  aut  reapse  sit,  aut  lingatur  cogita- 
tione  civitas,  quae  cbristianum  nomen  insectetur  proterve  et  tyran- 
nice,  cum  eaque  conferatur  genus  id    reipublicae  recens,  de  quo 

*  loaD.  viii.  32. 


166  Encyclical  Letter  of  Pope  Leo  XIII. 

loquimuT',  poterit  hoc  videri  tolerabilius.  Principia  tamen,  quibus 
nititur,  sunt  profecto  eiusmodi,  sicut  ante  diximus,  ut  per  se  ipsa 
probari  nemini  debean". 

Potest  tamen  aut  in  privatis  domesticisque  rebus,  aut  in  publicis 
actio  versari. — Privatim  quidem  primum  officiuin  est,  praeceptis 
evang-elicis  dilig-entissime  conformare  vitara  et  mores,  nee  recusare 
si  quid  Christiana  virtus  exig-at  ad  patiendum  tolerandumque  paulo 
difiicilius.  Debent  praeterea  sing-uli  Ecclesiam  sic  diligere,  ut  com- 
munem  matrem :  eiusque  et  servare  obedienter  leg-es,  et  honori 
servire,  et  iura  salva  velle  :  conarique,  ut  ab  iis,  in  quos  quisque 
aliquid  auctoritate  potest,  pari  pietate  colatur  atque  ametur. — Illud 
etiam  publicae  salutis  interest,  ad  rerum  urbanarum  administrationem 
conferre  sepienter  operam  :  in  efique  studere  maxirae  et  efficere,  ut 
adolescentibus  ad  religioneni,  ad  probos  mores  informandis  ea 
ratione,  qua  aequum  est  christianis,  pubhce  consultum  sit :  quibus 
ex  rebus  mag-nopere  pendet  sing-ularum  salus  civitatum. — Item 
cathoHcorum  hominum  operam  ex  hoc  tamquam  angustiore  campo 
longius  excurrere,  ipsamque  summam  rempublicam  complecti,  g'ene- 
ratim  utile  est  atque  honestum.  Gencratbn  eo  dicimus,  quia  haec 
praecepta  Nostra  g-entes  universas  attingunt.  Ceterum  potest  alicubi 
accidere,  ut,  maximis  iustissimisque  de  caussis,  rempublicam  capes- 
sere,  in  muneribusque  politicis  versari,  nequaquam  expediat.  Sed 
j^eneratim,  ut  diximus,  nuUam  velle  rerum  publicarum  partem  attin- 
gere  tarn  esset  in  vitio,  quam  nihil  ad  communem  utilitatem  afFerre 
studii,  nihil  operae  :  eo  vel  magis  quod  catholici  homines  ipsius, 
quam  profitentur,  admonitione  doctrinae,  ad  rem  integre  et  ex  fide 
gerendam  impelluntur.  Contra,  ipsis  otiosis,  facile  habenas  accepturi 
sunt  ii,  quorum  opiniones  spem  salutis  baud  sane  mag'nam  afFerant. 
Idque  esset  etiam  cum  pernicie  coniunctum  christian!  nominis : 
propterea  quod  plurimum  possent  qui  male  essent  in  Ecclesiam 
animati ;  minimum,  qui  bene.  Quamobrem  perspicuum  est,  ad 
rempublicam  adeundi  caussam  esse  iustam  catholicis:  non  enim 
adeunt,  neque  adire  debent  ob  eam  caussam,  ut  probent  quod  est 
hoc  tempore  in  rerum  publicarum  rationibus  non  honestum  ;  sed  ut 
has  ipsas  rationes,  quoad  fieri  potest,  in  bonum  publicum  transferant 
sincerum  atque  verum,  destinatum  aninio  habentes,  sapientiam  vir- 
tutemque  catholicae  religionis,  tamquam  saluberrimum  succum  ac 
sang'uinem,  in  omnes  reipubljcae  venas  inducere. — Haud  aliter . 
actum  in  primis  Ecclesiae  aetatibus.  Mores  enim  et  studia  ethni- 
corum  quam  long-issime  a  studiis  abhorrebant  moribusque  evan- 
gelicis :  christianos  tamen  cernere  erat  in  media  superstitione 
incorruptos  semperqne  sui  similes  animose,  quaqumque  daretur 
aditus,  inferre  sese.  Fideles  in  exemplum  principibus,  obedientesque, 
quoad  fas  esset,  imperio  legum,  fundebant  mirificum  splendorem 
sanctitatis  usquequaque ;  prodesse  studebant  fratribus,  vocare 
ceteros  ad  sapientiam  Christi,  cedere  tamen  loco  atque  emori  fortiter 
parati,  si  honores,  si  magistratus,  si  imperia  retinere,  incolumi  vir- 
tute,  nequivissent.  Qua  ratione  celeriter  instituta  Christiana  non 
modo  in  privatas  domos,  sed  in  castra,  in  turiam,  in  ipsam  regiam 


on  the  Constitution  of  Christian  States.  167 

invexere.  "  Hesterni  sumiis,  et  vestra  omnia  implevimus,  urbes, 
insulas,  castella,  municipia,  conciliabula,  castra  ipsa,  tribus,  decurias, 
palatium,  senatum,  forum :"  *  ita  ut  fides  Christiana,  cum  Evang-e- 
lium  publice  profiteri  lege  licuit,  non  in  cunis  vagiens,  sed  adulta  et 
iam  satis  firma  in  magna  civitatum  parte  apparuerit. 

lamvero  his  temporibus  consentaneum  est,  haec  maiorum  exempla 
renovari.  —  Catholicos  quidem,  quotquot  digni  sunt  eo  nomine, 
primum  omnium  necesse  est  amantissimos  Ecclesiae  filios  et  esse  et 
videri  velle  :  quae  res  nequeant  cum  hac  laude  consistere,  eas  sine 
cunctatione  respuere  :  institutis  populorum,  quantum  honeste  fieri 
potest,  ad  veritatis  iustitiaeque  patrocinium  uti :  elaborare,  ut  con- 
stitutum  naturae  Deique  lege  modum  libertas  agendi  ne  transiliat : 
dare  operam  ut  ad  eam,  quam  diximus,  cliristianam  similitudinem  et 
formam  omnis  respublica  traducatur. — Harum  rerum  adipiscendarum 
ratio  constitui  uno  certoque  modo  baud  commode  potest,  ciim  debeat* 
singulis  locis  temporibusque,  quae  sunt  multum  -inter  se  disparia, 
convenire.  Nihilominus  conservanda  in  primis  est  voluntatum 
-Concordia,  quaerendaque  agendorum  similitudo.  Atque  optime 
utrumque  impetrabitur,  si  praescripta  Sedis  Apostolicae  legem  vitae 
singuli  putent,  atque  Episcopis  obtemperent,  quos  S^nritus  saiictus 
jjosuit  regcre  Ecclesiavi  Dci.j-  I)efensio  quidem  catholici  nominis  neces- 
sario  postulat  ut  in  profitendis  doctrinis,  quae  ab  Ecclesia  traduntur, 
una  sit  omnium  sententia,  et  summa  constantia,  et  hac  ex  parte 
cavendum  ne  quis  opinionibus  falsis  aut  ullo  modo  conniveat,  aut 
mollius  resistat,  quam  Veritas  patiatur.  De  iis  quae  sunt  opinabilia, 
licebit  cum  moderatione  studioque  indagandae  veritatis  disputare, 
procul  tamen  suspicionibus  iniuriosis,  criminationibusque  mutuis. — 
Quam  ad  rem,  ne  animorum  coniunctio  criminandi  temeritate  diri- 
matur,  sic  intelligant  universi :  integritatem  professionis  catholicae 
consistere  nequaquam  posse  cum  opinionibus  ad  naturalisnuim  vel 
rationalismum  accedentibus,  quarum  summa  est  tollere  funditus  in- 
stituta  Christiana,  hominisque  stabiiire  in  socictate  principatum, 
posthabito  Deo.  Pariter  non  licere  aliam  officii  formam  privatim 
sequi,  aliam  publice,  ita  scilicet  ut  Ecclesiae  auctoritas  in  vita  privata 
observetur,  in  publica  respuatur.  Hoc  enim  esset  honesta  et  turpia 
coniungere,  hominemque  secum  facere  digladiantem,  cum  contra 
debeat  sibi  semper  constare,  neque  idla  in  re  ullove  in  genere  vitae 
a  virtute  Christiana  deficere. — Verum  si  quaeratur  de  rationibus  mere 
politicis,  de  optimo  genere  reipubHcae  de  ordinandis  alia  vel  alia 
ratione  civitatibus,  utique  de  his  rebus  potest  honesta  esse  dissensio. 
Quorum  igitur  cognita  ceteroqui  pietas  est,  animusque  decreta  Sedis 
Apostolicae  obedienter  accipere  paratus,  iis  vitio  verti  dissentaneam 
de  rebus,  quas  diximus,  sententiam,  iustitia  non  patitur :  multoque 
est  maior  iniuria,  si  in  crimen  violatae  suspectaeve  fidei  catholicae, 
quod  non  semel  factum  dolemus,  adducantur. — Omninoque  istud 
praeceptum  teneant  qui  cogitationes  suas  solent  mandare  litteris, 
maximeque  ephemeridum  auctores.     In  hac  quidem  de  rebus  maximis 

*  TertuU.  Apol.  n.  37.  f  Act.  xx.  28. 


168  Encyclical  Letter  of  Pope  Leo  XIII. 

contentione  nihil  est  intestinis  concertationibus,  vel  partium  studiis 
relinquendum  loci,  sed  conspirantibus  animis  studiisque  id  debent 
iiniversi  contendere,  quod  est  commune  omnium  propositum,  re- 
lig'ionem  remque  publicam  conservare.  Si  quid  igitut  dissidiorum  an- 
tea  fuit,  oportet  voluntaria  quadam  oblivione  conterere :  si  quidtemere, 
si  quid  iniuria  actum,  ad  quoscumque  demum  ea  culpa  pertineat,  com- 
pensandum  est  caritatemutua,  etpraecipuo  quodam  omnium  in  Aposto- 
licam  Sedern  obsequio  redimendum. — Hac  via  duas  res  praeclarissimas 
catholici  consecuturi  sunt,  alteram,  ut  adiutores  sese  impertiant 
Ecclesiae  in  conservanda  propagandaque  sapientia  ciiristiana : 
alteram  ut  beneficio  maximo  afficiant  societatem  civilem,  cuius, 
malarum  doctrinarum  cupiditatumque  caussa,  magnopere  periclitatur 
salus. 

Haec  quidem,  Venerabiles  Fratres,  liabuimus,  quae  universi& 
.catholici  orbis  gentibus  traderemus  de  civitatum  constitutione 
Christiana,  officiisque  civium  singulorum. 

Ceterum  implorare  summis  precibus  oportet  caeleste  praesidium, 
orandusque  Deus,  ut  haec,  quae  ad  ipsius  gioriam  communemque 
humani  generis  salutem  cupimus  et  conamur,  optatos  ad  exitus  idem 
Ipse  perducat,  cuius  est  illustrare  hominum  mentes,  permovere 
voluntates.  Divinorum  autem  beneflciorum  auspicem,  et  paternae 
benevolentiae  IXostrae"  testem  vobis,  Venerabiles  Fratres,  et 
Clero  populoque  universe  vestrae  fidei  vigiiantiaeque  commisso 
Apostolicam  Benedictionem  peramanter  in  Domino  impertimus. 

Datum  Romao  apud  S.  Petruui  die  1  Nov.  an.  mdccclxxxv. 
Pontificatus  Nostri  Anno  octavo. 

/  Leo  pp.  XIII. 


(     169     ) 


LETTER    OF    POPE    LEO    XIIL    TO    THE  BISHOPS    OP 

ENGLAND. 

VencraMlibus  Fratribus,  Henrico  Eduardo  Titulo  SS.  Andrcae  et 

Orefjorii  in  ]\[onte    Codio    S.lt.E.   Presbytcro   Cardbiali 

Manning^  Archiepiscopo  Westmonasteriemi,  ccterisqne 

Angllae  Episcupis. 

LEO  PP.  XIIL 

VeNERABILES     FrATRES,    SaLUTEM     et     AroSTOLlCAM 

Benedictionem. 

SPECTATA  fides  et  sing-ularis  in  liane  Sedem  Apostolicatii  pietas 
vestra  mirabiliter  elucet  in  communibus  litteris  quas  a  Vobis 
proxime  accepimus.  Quae  quidem  multo  g-ratiores  ob  banc  causam 
Nobis  accidunt,  quod  praeclare  confirmant  id  quod  probe  cog-no- 
veramus,  magnam  partem  vigiliarura  cog-itationuraque  vestrarum  in 
re  versari  de  qua  nullae  propemodum  curae  possunt  esse  tantae,  quin 
majores  pro  ea  suscipiendas  putemus.  Cbristianam  intelliginius 
adolescentulorum  vestrorum  institutionem,  de  qua  nuper,  collatis 
consiliis,  nonnula  decrevistis  utiliter,  et  ad  Nos  referendum 
censuistis. 

Ea  vero  Nobis  est  psrjucunda  cog-itatio  in  opere  tanti  momenti, 
Vos,  Venerabiles  Fratres,  non  elaborare  solos.  Neque  enim  sumus 
nescii  quantum  in  bac  parte  universo  Presbyterorum  vestrorum  ordini 
debeatur  ;  qui  scbolas  pueris  aperiendas  caritate  summa  et  invicto 
a  diflicultatibus  animo  curaverunt :  iidemijue,  docendi  munere 
suscepto,  in  fing-enda  ad  Christianos  mores  et  primordia  litterarum 
juventute  ponunt  operam  suam  industria  et  assiduitate  mirabili. 
Quam  ob  rem,  ([uantum  vox  Nostra  potest  vel  incitamenti  addere, 
vel  debitae  laudis  tribuere,  perg-ant  Clerici  vestri  bene  de  pueritia 
mereri,  ac  fruantur  commendatione  benevolentia(|ue  Nostra 
sing'ulari,  longe  majora  a  Domino  Deo,  cujus  causa  desudant, 
expectantes. 

Neque  minora  commendatione  dig-nam  judicamus  Catbolicorum  in 
eodem  g-enere  beneficentiam.  Si(|uidem  novimus  solere  ipsos, 
quidquid  in  scholarum  tuitionem  opus  est,  alacri  voluntate 
suppeditare  :  neque  id  eos  facere  solum,  quibus  major  est  census,  sed 
tenues  etiam  atque  inopes  ;  quos  quidem  pulchrum  et  permag-num 
est,  saepe  in  ipsa  eg-estate  nancisci  (|uod  in  puerilem  institutionem 
libentes  conferant. 

Profecto  his  temporibus  ac  moribus,  cum  ing-enuae  puerorum 
aetatulae  tot  pericula  undique  impendeant  tamtiue  varia,  vix 
quidquam  cog-itari  potest  opportunius,  quam  ut  institutio  litteraria 
cum  germana  fidei  morumque  doctrina  conjungatur.  Idcirco  scbolas 
ejusmodi  quas  appellant  liberas,  in  Gallia,  in  Belg-io,  in  America,  in 


170     Lettey  of  Pope  Leo  XIII.  to  the  Bishops  of  England. 

coloniis  Imperii  Britannici  privatorum  opera  et  liberalitate  con- 
stitutas,  probari  Nobis  vebementer  non  semel  diximus,  easque, 
quantum  lleri  potest,  aug'eri  atque  alumnorum  frequeritia  florere 
cupimus.  Nos(|ue  ipsi,  spectata  rerum  Urbanarum  conditione,  curare 
summo  studio  ac  magnis  sumptibus  non  desistimus,  ut  haruni 
scholarum  copia  Romanis  pueris  abunde  suppetat.  In  eis  enim  et 
per  eas  conservatur  ilia,  quam  a  majoribus  nostris  accepimus, 
maxima  atque  optima  liereditas,  nimirum  fidei  catholicae  incolumitas ; 
praetereaque  parentum  libertati  consulitur ;  et  quod  est  in  tanta 
praesertim  sontentiarum  actionumque  licentia  maxime  necessarium, 
bona  civium  soboles  reipublicae  educitur  : .  nemo  enim  melior  quam 
f[ui  fidem  Cliristianam  opinione  et  moribus  a  pueritia  complexus  est. 
Initia  et  quasi  semina  totius  humanitatis,  quam  Jesus  Christus 
hominum  generi  divinitus  peperit,  in  Christiana  adolescentulorum 
educatione  consistunt :  propterea  quod  non  fere  aliae  futurae  sunt 
civitates,  quam  quos  prima  institutio  pueros  conformarit.  Delet 
igitur  omnem  sapientiam  veterem,  ipsisque  civitatum  fundamentis 
labem  affert,  perniciosus  error  eorum  (|ui  puerilem  aetatem  malunt 
sine  ulla  institutione  religinsa  adolescere.  Ex  quo  intellig'itis, 
Venerabiles  Fratres,  quanta  animi  provisione  cavere  patresfamilias 
oporteat,  ne  liberos  suos  iis  committant  ludis  litterariis  in  quibus 
praecepta  religionis  non  queant  accipei'e. 

Ad  Britanniam  vestrara  quod  attinet,  id  Nobis  est  cognitum,  non 
modo  Vos,  sed  generatim  plurimos  e  gente  vestra,  de  erudiendis  ad 
religionem  pueris  non  mediocriter  esse  sollicitos,  Quamvis  enim 
non  omni  ex  parte  Nobiscum  consentiant,  intelligunt  tamen  quanti 
vel  privatim  vel  publice  intersit  non  interire  patrimonium  sapientiae 
Christianae,  quod  a  Gregorio  Magno,  decessore  Nostro,  per  Beatum 
Augustinum  accepere  proavi  vestri,  quodque  veliementes,  (juae  postea 
consecutae  sunt,  tempestates  non  omnino  dissiparunt.  Scimus  esse 
hodieque  complures  excellenti  animorum  habitu,  qui  fidem  avitam 
retinere,  quoad  possunt,  diligenter  student,  neque  raros  aut  exiguos 
edunt  caritatis  fructus.  I)e  qua  re  quoties  cogitamus,  toties 
commovemur:  prosequimur  enim  caritate  paterna  istam,  qua  non 
immerito  appellata  est  altrix  Sanctorum  Insula  ;  atque  in  eo,  quem 
diximus,  animorum  liabitu  videmus  spem  maximam  et  quoddam 
([uasi  pignus  esse  positum  salutis  prosperitatisque  Britannorum. 
Quapropter  perseverate,  Venerabiles  Fratres,  curam  praecipuam  de 
adolescentia  gerere ;  urgete  in  omnes  partes  episcopale  opus  vestrum, 
et  quaecumque  intelligitis  esse  bona  semina  cum  alacritate  et  fiducia 
colitote  :  dives  auteni  in  misericordia  Deus  incrementum  dabit. 

Caelestium  munerum  auspicem  benevolentiaeque  Nostrae  testem, 
Vobis  et  clero  populo(|ue  unicuique  Vestrum  commisso  Apostolicam 
Benedictionem  peramanter  in  Domino  impertimus. 

Datum  Romae  apud  S.  Petrum  die  xxvii.  Novembris  anno 
MDCCCLXXXV.,  Pontificatus  Nostri  Octavo. 

Leo  pp.  XIII. 


i 


(    171     ) 


Btuim  IJoticcs, 


The  Birth  Rate  in  France. — One  of  the  most  striking-  plie- 
nomena  of  our  times  is  the  stationary  condition  of  the  population  in 
France.  It  is  not  many  years  since  France  could  place  in  the  field 
a  far  larger  army  than  that  of  any  other  European  nation.  Her 
population  of  35  millions  vras  far  ahead  of  that  of  England  or  of 
Germany.  But  the  fecundity  of  the  Teutonic  nations  is  now  begin- 
ning to  tell.  Germany  has  now  a  population  of  over  45  million 
souls;  England,  that  in  1700  figured  with  18  millions,  is  now 
creeping  up  to  France  with  a  total  of  81  millions.  It  is  calculated 
that  if  the  present  condition  of  things  is  maintained  in  France,  the 
relative  strength  of  the  different  nations  will  stand  in  the  following- 
order  by  the  end  of  next  century :  Germany,  164  millions ;  England, 
142 ;  Austria-Hungary,  70 ;  France,  G4 ;  Italy,  56 ;  and  how  will 
la  revanche  be  possible  at  such  odds  'I 

But  a  still  more  curious  point  comes  out  upon  examination  of  the 
birth  rate  in  France.  Dr.  Lagneau  of  late  has  drawn  the  attention 
of  the  Academy  of  Medicine  to  the  fact  that  in  the  space  of  45  years 
— from  1886  to  1881 — twenty-six  departments  have  seen  their  in- 
habitants decrease  seven  per  cent,  by  a  progressive  movement,  which 
seems  to  obey  a  regular  law.  It  may  be  suggested  that  this  is 
due  to  the  emigration  of  the  agricultural  population  into  the 
towns.  But  this  explanation  fails,  since  the  official  returns  show  an 
excess  of  the  deaths  over  the  births.  In  forty  departments — that  is, 
about  one-half  of  the  whole  area  of  France- — the  deatlis  have  exceeded 
the  births  during  the  last  three  years.  S\ich  a  condition  of  things 
would  soon  bring  about  a  crisis  were  it  not  for  the  vigorous  families 
of  Brittany.  It  is  Brittany  and  the  Western  Departments  that 
preserve  the  population  of  France  from  disastrous  decreases. 

And  yet  before  the  French  Revolution  the  fecundity  of  France  was 
equal  to  that  of  most  other  European  nations.  It  Avas  about  the 
time  of  the  Code  TSapoleon  that  the  sudden  change  set  in.  The 
mean  number  of  births  in  France  in  10,000  inhabitants  stood  at 
380  in  1780,  in .  1810  it  had  fallen  to  825,  and  each  succeeding 
decade  brought  it  lower,  until  at  present  it  stands  at  245,  Let  us 
compare  these  figures  with  other  countries,  and  the  French  decadence 
becomes  more  striking.  In  the  same  number  of  inhabitants  Kussia 
has  507  births,  Prussia  885,  Spain  884,  Italy  870,  Great  Britain 
337,  so  that  France  actually  occupies  the  lowest  place  among  civilized 
nations. 

The  Cholera. — In  our  issue  of  October  we  threw  some  doubts 
upon  the  researches  of  Dr.  Koch  upon  the  germ  theory  of  cholera. 
This  claim  to  the  discovery  of  a  specific  micro-parasite,  the  comma 
bacillus,  in  the  discharge  of  cholera  patients  was,  in  our  opinion, 


172  Science  Notices. 

disproved  by  Dr.  Lewis.  But  more  complete  investig'ations  have 
only  served  to  confirm  the  conclusions  of  the  eminent  Berlin  savant. 
From  all  sides  on  the  Continent  we  hear  of  medical  men  giving"  in 
their  adhesion  to  Dr.  Koch.  The  pretended  discoveries  of  others, 
such  as  Dr.  Ferran  in  Spain  and  Dr.  Emmerich  in  Naples,  only  serve 
to  bring-  his  out  into  clearer  lig-ht.  With  so  larg-e  a  following  of 
scientific  men — and  Dr.' V'irchow  has  lent  his  hig'h  authority  to  the 
same  conclusions — we  can  hardly  doubt  that  we  are  now  on  the 
track  of  this  scourge  of  the  human  race. 

A  very  remarkable  case  has  just  occurred  at  Berlin  Avhich  goes  far 
to  strengthen  Dr.  Koch's  conclusions.  On  the  doctor's  return  from 
his  mission  to  India,  the  German  Government  despatched  at  diiferent 
times  some  150  medical  men  to  the  laboratory  of  the  great  microlo- 
gist,  tliere  to  be  initiated  into  the  methods  of  treatment  and  cultiva- 
tion of  the  cholera  bacillus.  Every  precaution,  of  course,  was  taken 
to  guard  against  infection,  but  in  spite  of  all  one  of  the  doctors  was 
attacked  with  diarrhopa,  which  afterwards  developed  into  a  mild 
form  of  Asiatic  cholera.  There  could  be  no  doubt  about  the 
symptoms,  or  the  source  of  the  malady  ;  the  patient's  discharges 
revealed  a  number  of  comma  bacilli  which  were  afterwards  success- 
fully cultivated  and  multiplied.  After  this  there  could  be  little 
doubt  of  the  specific  character  of  the  bacillus  discovered  by  Dr. 
Koch. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  famous  anti-cholera  inoculations  of  Dr. 
Ferran  are  discredited  everywhere.  At  one  time  the  Spanish  phy- 
sician was  hailed  as  a  great  benefactor  of  the  race — a  second  Jenner. 
And  now  a  Government  Commission  has  pronounced  the  inoculations 
barren  of  all  scientific  value,  and  dangerous,  inasmuch  as  persons 
inoculated  become  more  susceptible  to  cholera  and  other  diseases. 
After  so  definite  a  pronouncement,  the  scientific  world  may  bid  fare- 
well to  Dr.  Ferran,  and  the  fact  that  he  and  his  associates  charged 
the  better  classes  rather  high  fees  for  these  inoculations,  will  not 
tend  to  raise  any  sympathy  over  his  fate. 

Pasteur  and  Hydrophobia. — With  the  recent  increase  of  hydro- 
phobia in  our  midst,  M.  Pasteur's  latest  researches  into  this  fell 
disease  will  be  watched  with  breathless  interest.  We  drew  the 
attention  of  our  readers  to  his  preliminary  investigations  in  the 
Dublin  Review^  of  July,  1884.  The  great  physiologist  has  of  late 
greater  developments  to  announce.  He  has  actually  inoculated  two 
individuals  with  the  modified  virus,  and,  we  are  warranted  to  say, 
with  perfect  success.  A  boy  of  nine  years  old,  Joseph  Meister,  of 
Alsace,  had  been  terribly  worried  by  a  mad  dog  on  the  4th  of  July 
last.  He  was  rescued,  covered  with  foam  and  bleeding  from  fourteen 
wounds  all  over  his  body.  The  child,  in  the  opinion  of  the  doctors, 
was  doomed  to  a  certain  and  horrible  death,  when  it  was  suggested 
that  he  should  be  sent  to  Paris  to  allow  M.  Pasteur  to  place  him 
under  the  new  method  of  treatment.  Pasteur  naturally  hesitated, 
his  humane  feelings  were  cruelly  tried,  but  seeing  that  the  child's 
death  was  inevitable,  he  resolved  to  make  upon  a  human  being  the 


Science  Notices.  17S 

first  attempt  of  tlie  inoculation  Avhich  had  proved  so  successful  in 
the  case  of  animals.  He  did  so,  and  the  child  is  alive  at  the  present 
day,  a  living-  witness  to  the  value  of  these  wonderful  discoveries. 
The  latest  news  we  have  received  is  that  America  has  been  so  struck 
with  the  success  of  the  inoculations  that  some  hydrophobia  patients 
are  on  their  way  from  New  York  to  place  themselves  under  M. 
Pasteur's  care. 

It  is  only  fair  to  add  that  there  is  still  considerable  hesitation 
among"  medical  men  in  accepting-  the  great  Frenchman's  conclusions. 
In  a  case  of  this  nature  the  public  will  be  only  too  grateful  for  the 
fullest  criticism.  We  do  not  wish  to  indulge  in  false  hopes,  and  it 
seems  almost  beyond  our  wildest  dreams  to  expect  that  we  are  wuthin 
reach  of  seeing-  this  fell  disease  stamped  out.  The  ver\^  g-reatness  of 
our  hope  will  inspire  us  with  caution. 

Telpherage. — An  altogether  new  departure  has  been  made  in 
electric  transmission  of  goods,  and  has  been  honoured  by  the 
imposition  of  the  new  name — Telpherage.  The  term  in  general  must 
be  taken  to  mean  any  transmission  of  goods  to  a  distant  point  by 
means  of  electricity.  It  received  its  special  application  in  October 
last,  when  a  distinguished  company  of  visitors  assembled  at  Glynde, 
in  Sussex,  to  witness  the  performance  of  a  new  system  of  electric 
transmission  adopted  by  the  Sussex  Portland  Cement  Company. 
The  idea  of  propelling-  by  electricity  a  continuous  stream  of  light 
trains  along  a  single  rail  or  rope,  was  due  to  the  late  Professor 
Jenkin,^  of  Edinburgh.  But  the  electric  railway  of  Messrs.  Perry  &, 
Ayrton,  described  in  our  pages  in  July,  188:2,  first  gave  practical 
shape  to  the  idea.  At  the  time  the  Cement  Company  were  at  great 
expense  in  carting  their  clay  from  the  pits  to  the  Brighton  and  South 
Coast  Railway,  a  tramway  would  have  to  cross  some  valuable  fields, 
which  in  summer  could  not  be  interfered  with,  and  in  winter  were 
continually  flooded.  The  Telpher  lines  exactly  met  their  difficulty. 
The  line  now  opened  is  nearly  a  mile  long,  and  is  formed  of  a  double 
set  of  steel  rods  supported  on  wooden  posts,  about  eighteen  feet  high, 
and  eight  feet  apart.  The  train  consists  of  an  electric  locomotive, 
and  ten  iron  buckets  or  skeps  which  hang  by  their  travelling  wheel 
from  the  steel  line.  The  opening-  ceremony  was  performed  by  Lady 
Hampden,  amidst  the  applause  of  the  assembled  spectators,  who  felt 
that  they  were  assisting-  at  the  inauguration  of  a  great  commercial 
enterprise,  when  they  saw  the  skeps  move  up  a  sharp  ascent,  at  the 
rate  of  four  miles  an  hour.  There  are,  no  doubt,  many  advantages 
in  the  new  system  :  it  can  be  carried  across  uneven  ground,  streams, 
hedges  and  ditches,  and  will  not  interfere  with  agricultural 
operations.  A  line  such  as  that  at  Glynde,  will  cost  only  £1,:200  a 
mile,  and  this  includes  the  dynamos,  five  trains,  and  locomotive. 
The  working-  expenses  amount  to  about  'M.  a  mile.  Telpherage  will 
never  of  course  seriously  compete  with  railways,  but  it  may  success- 
fully and  cheaply  do  the  work  of  tramways,  steel  wire,  haulage,  and 
the  ordinary  carting. 

Weather  Cycles. — The  popular  mind  has  ever  tenaciously  held 


174  Notes  of  Travel  and  Exploration. 

to  the  idea  that  our  wet  and  dry  seasons  repeat  themselves  at 
certain  fixed  periods.  There  are  indications  now  that  science  .is 
beginning  to  lend  its  authority  to  the  notion.  It  is  generally 
admitted  that  the  Indian  famines  recur  with  fatal  regularity.  And 
now  the  Committee  of  the  Royal  Society  on  the  Decrease  of  Water 
Supply,  reports  that  there  appears  to  be  a  recurrence  of  low  water 
every  ten  years.  There  was  low  water  in  1824  and  in  1835;  the 
period  1834-5  was  low,  especially  when  compared  with  the  years 
immediately  before  and  following ;  1854  was  remarkably  low  ;  also 
1864-5,  1874-5  ;  and  lastly  the  present  low  period,  1884-5.  A 
writer  in  the  American  Meteorological  Journal,  under  the  heading 
"  Cold  Winters  in  Michigan  "  says  :  "  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
the  local  reports  of  severe  winters  place  them  at  intervals  of  between 
ten  and  eleven  years.  The  winter  of  1842-3  is  thus  shown  to  have 
been  extremely  cold,  also  the  winter  of  1853-4 ;  the  winter  of  1863-4 
noted  for  its  terribly  cold  new  year,  the  winter  of  1874-5,  when 
there  was  scarcely  a  thaw  between  January  1st,  and  the  middle  of 
March,  and  lastly  the  winter  of  1884-5,  which  beats  the  record  for 
extreme  cold  during  January  and  Februar}^"  It  is  not  well  to  rely 
too  much  on  local  weather  lore,  or  the  fascination  of  discovering  a 
"  period  ";  but  the  facts  above-mentioned  may  be  read  by  the  light  of 
our  experience,  and  stand  or  fall  by  that  test. 


^i\.u.  ^t  |;^.^(j^|  , 


(ij 


Journey  in  Somali  Land. — Mr.  F.  L.  James,  known  already 
by  his  book  on  the  Abyssinian  frontier  ("Wild  Tribes  of  the 
Soudan  "),  has  accomplished  an  adventurous  journey,  described  in  the 
Proceedings  Royal  Geog.  Soc.  for  October,  through  a  country 
which  includes  the  most  extensive  region  still  left  unexplored 
in  Africa.  Starting  in  a  southerly  direction  from  Berbera,  the 
travellers  crossed  the  mountains  bounding  the  maritime  plain  by  a 
difficult  pass,  4,700  feet  high.  A  waterless  zone  was  then  traversed 
in  nine  days'  march,  bringing  the  party  to  the  more  habitable  tracts 
of  the  interior  where  the  river  valleys  furnish  grass  and  corn  in 
abundance.  Even  here,  however,  there  was  at  times  great  difficulty 
in  obtaining  supplies,  as  the  tribes,  though  possessing  animals  in 
profusion,  could  not  be  induced  to  sell  them ;  while  in  other  places 
meat  Avas  to  be  had  in  abundance,  as  camels  are  fattened  for 
slaughter,  attaining  such  a  size  that  the  hump  alone  sometimes 
weighs  100  lbs.  They  are  driven  to  the  coast  and  sold  for 
18  to  25  dollars  each,  their  flesh  being  specially  prized  by  the 
Somals  from  the  idea  that  it  confers  the  camel's  power  of  enduring* 


A  otes  of  Travel  and  Exploration.  175 

prolonf^ed  hunger  and  thirst.  All  the  animals  of  the  Somali 
country  appear  to  possess  exceptional  powers  of  abstinence  from 
drinking^,  as  the  sheep  can  dispense  with  water  for  six  or  eight  days, 
and  horses  for  three,  without  showing-  signs  of  suffei'ing. 

The  Somalis  are  physically  a  fine  race,  and  in  their  features  and 
the  form  of  their  weapons  Mr.  James  traced  a  resemblance  to  those 
of  the  ancient  Egyptians  as  portrayed  on  their  monuments. 

Among  them  live  people  of  another  race,  called  Midgans,  con- 
sidered by  them  as  inferior,  and  much  despised  by  them.  These 
latter  use  bows  with  poisoned  arrows,  and  keep  flocks  of  tame 
ostriches  whose  feathers  are  sent  to  Berbera  for  sale.  There  are 
also  two  other  low  castes,  workers  in  iron  and  in  leather  charms, 
called  respectively  Tomal  and  Ebir. 

Mr.  James's  journey  was  not  without  the  excitement  of  danger, 
rather  increased  by  a  telegram  from  the  Foreig-n  Office  which,  too 
late  to  fulfil  its  purpose  of  preventing  his  departure,  served  only  to 
discredit  him  with  the  natives  Avhen  already  on  the  march.  The 
most  perilous  experience  of  the  expedition  was  its  stay  in  the 
dominions  of  the  Sultan  of  Barri,  the  Somali  ruler  of  the  Adone  or 
Shebayli  tribe,  numbering  fifty-six  villages.  This  wily  monarch  tried 
to  make  use  of  his  foreign  visitors  to  overawe  his  revolted  subjects, 
and  having  invited  them  to  take  up  their  quarters  near  him,  sent 
an  ultimatum  to  the  insurgents  representing  that  a  European  army 
had  come  to  his  assistance.  Mr.  James  having  refused  to  give 
effect  to  these  declarations,  found  himself  blockaded  in  his  zariba, 
an  object  of  hostility  to  both  parties,  who  ultimately  made  peace 
with  the  design  of  combining-  their  forces  against  him.  .  A  moon- 
light flitting  alone  enabled  him  to  escape  this  danger,  and  return  in 
safety  to  the  coast,  which  he  eventually  did  without  having  lost  a 
life  or  taken  one. 

The  Adone  tribe,  though  ruled  by  a  Somali  dj'nasty  and  aristo- 
cracy, "xre  bitter  enemies  of  the  Somali  people,  and  frequently  attack 
the  caravans  sent  by  the  latter  to  trade  Avith  them  for  grain.  The 
mass  of  the  Adone  tribe  are  negroes,  and  of  these  the  greater 
number  are  in  slavery.  Their  territory  is  the  fertile  valley  watered 
by  the  Webbe,  a  river  which,  despite  its  considerable  volume,  never 
reaches  the  sea,  but  loses  itself  when  but  a  few  miles  from  the 
coast,  within  half  a  degree  of  the  Equator.  Its  course  is  marked  by 
a  thick  belt  of  forest,  conspicuous  amid  the  pastures  and  lighter 
timber  of  the  rest  of  the  plain.  In  addition  to  great  herds  of  sheep 
and  cattle,  the  natives  with  the  help  of  irrigation-canals  cultivate 
durra  on  an  extensive  scale,  a  large  camel-load  being  obtainable  for 
seven  shillings'  worth  of  cloth.  The  stalks,  which  grow  to  a  height 
of  15  feet,  form  the  material  of  the  native  houses,  which  are 
neatly  built,  and  grouped  in  permanent  villages  in  the  valley. 

Trade  Relations. — Mr.  James  draws  attention  to  the  compara- 
tive absence  of  British  goods  from  the  country. 

All  the  cotton  cloth  [he  says],  with  but  few  exceptions,  is  of  American 
or  Indian  make,  and  the  only  EngUsh  cloth  we  took  was  taken  on  account 


176  Notes  of  Travel  and  Exploration. 

of  its  rarity,  as  presents  for  chiefs.  Natives  of  India  have  for  generations 
lived  at  Berbera,  and  supplied  the  traders  from  the  interior  with  goods  ; 
this  no  doubt  accounts  for  the  Indian  cloth  so  largely  used  ;  but  why  is 
American  cloth  so  common  there  ? 

I  trust  the  English  authorities,  now  firmly  established  at  Berbera,  will 
do  all  they  can  to  assist  natives  arriving  from  the  interior  in  disposing  of 
their  goods  at  the  coast.  The  custom  is  for  the  Ayal  Achmet  (Berbera 
tribe)  to  act  as  brokers,  and  too  often  most  of  the  profits  stick  to  the 
hands  of  the  middleman.  Till  lately  no  Ogadayn  ever  went  to  the  coast, 
but  entrusted  the  goods  to  coast  traders ;  now,  however,  they  are  begin- 
ning to  trade  for  themselves,  and  each  year  find  their  way  to  Berbera  and 
Bulbar  in  increasing  numbers.  This  must,  and  indeed  already  has, 
tended  to  open  up  the  countiy,  which  has  been  hitherto  closed  to  Euro- 
peans, more  from  distrust  of  their  motives  in  travelling  than  from  any 
real  hatred  to  the  white  man. 

The  scientific  results  of  Mr.  James's  expedition  are  represented  bj 
a  map  based  on  astronomical  observations,  and  a  larg-e  collection  of 
mammals,  plants,  birds,  and  butterflies,  including  several  new  species 
in  each  department. 

Comnaercial  Policy  in  the  East. — Mr.  Archibald  Colquboun 
delivered  a  valuable  address  on  this  subject  to  a  meeting-  of  the 
London  Chamber  of  Commerce,  held  on  September  29,  and  after 
reviewing'  the  restriction  of  British  trade  under  the  stress  ot 
increasing-  foreign  competition,  pointed  to  Eastern  Asia  as  the 
most  promising-  field  for  its  future  expansion  in  a  fresh  direction. 
Classifying-  the  new  markets  of  the  world  under  two  heading-s,  those 
which  are  read}^  made,  requiring-  only  to  be  rendered  accessible,  and 
those  where  customers  will  have  to  be  educated  to  civilized  wants, 
he  proceeded  to  say  : — 

The  great  new  field  for  our  commerce  lies  in  Eastern  Asia,  where  the 
markets  are  ready  for  immediate  development,  offering  pi'esent  relief, 
while  in  Africa  and  New  Guinea  are  to  be  found  markets  requiring 
"  education  " — markets  of  the  future.  Valuable  as  these  are,  they  are 
altogether  dwarfed  by  the  large  and  lucrative  outlet  for  our  trade  in 
Eastern  Asia,  the  most  promising  to  be  seen  in  any  part  of  the  world. 
This  latter  includes  China,  Corea,  Formosa,  Indo-China  (including  Siam 
and  the  Siamese  Shan  States),  Malaya,  Upijer  Burmah,  and  the  Burmese 
Shan  States  and  Tibet.  The  others  are  of  secondary  importance.  Com- 
pare these  Asian  markets  with  Africa.  In  Africa  you  have  a  population 
of  savages,  poor  and  unclad ;  in  China  and  Indo-China  educated  races, 
whose  civilization  dates  back  far  before  that  of  Europe — races  for  the 
most  part  energetic,  sober,  industrious,  hardy,  enjoying  a  great  amount 
of  freedom,  and  possesed  of  a  considerable  degree  of  affluence.  They  have 
all  trading  instincts.  In  vegetable  and  mineral  wealth  these  lands  are 
nnsurpassed.  This  field  can  be  approached  from  three  sides — (1)  By 
ocean  routes  and  inland  rivers ;  (-2)  from  India,  by  rail,  vid  British 
Burmah ;  (3)  from  Russia,  by  overland  caravan,  vid  the  desert  regions 
of  Siberia  and  Mongolia. 

A  railway  from  India  to  China  would,  it  is  said,  present  no  great 
physical  ditficulties,  and  should  the  recent  successful  expedition 
result  in  a  British  annexation  or  protectorate  of  Upper  Burmah,  the 


Xotes  of  Travel  and  Exploration.  177 

political  difficulties  would  be  summarily  disposed  of.  The  inter- 
position of  this  State,  "lying-  like  a  wedg-e,"  as  Mr.  Colquhoun  puts 
it,  "  between  the  two  g-reatest  and  most  populous  empires  of  Asia," 
has  hitherto  proved  a  hindrance  to  the  cultivation  of  direct  com- 
mercial relations  between  them,  and  an  alternative  route  through 
Siam  has  been  sugg-ested  for  tlie  proposed  railway.  The  cost  of 
inland  carriag'e  in  these  countries  has  been  shown  to  be  exorbitant, 
and  is  estimated  for  distances  of  400  to  500  miles  at  from  ^O  to  100 
times  that  of  railway  transport.  The  railway  returns  in  British 
Burmah  atford  a  hopeful  index  of  the  future  of  steam  transit  in  Indo- 
China  g-enerally.  The  line  from  Ilang-oon  to  Prome  disproved  all 
predictions  of  its  financial  fiiilure  by  returning"  a  profit  immediately, 
and  by  paying-  last  year  6  per  cent,  on  g-ross  outlay.  This  income  is 
mainly  earned  by  passeng-er  traffic,  and  the  first  section  of  the 
Rangoon  and  Tong-hoo  line  carried  11,000  passengers  during  the 
third  week  after  it  had  been  opened.  The  impending-  settlement  of 
British  relations  with  Upper  Burmah  will  doubtless  give  a  great 
stimulus  to  projects  for  opening  up  railway  communication  with  the 
far  East. 

Trade  of  Russian  Turkestan. — The  Times  of  September  23 
prints,  under  the  above  heading,  a  valuable  article  extracted  from  the 
Russian  Journal  of  the  Finance  Minister,  an  official  publication.  The 
]U'esent  Government  of  Turkestan  comprises  four  provinces  or 
districts — Syr  Darya,  Ferghana,  Zerafshan,  and  Amou  Darya — with 
a  total  extent  of  011,000  square  versts,  and  a  population  of  3,3;3u,000, 
divided  into  1,430,000  settled  inhabitants  and  005,000  nomads.  Soil 
and  climate  throughout  this  vast  region  naturally  present  great 
variations,  described  as  follows  in  the  official  article  : — 

A  sandy  soil,  very  imperfectly  watered  by  the  Syr  and  Amou  Darya  rivers 
and  by  the  Aral  Sea,  stretches  to  the  north.  The  steppes  between  the 
two  rivers  named  are  covered  with  thin  herbagCj.  without  the  smallest 
trace  of  a  forest,  and  they  are  remarkable  for  their  barrenness,  and  can 
only  be  utilized  for  pasturacje  by  the  nomads.  In  the  south  and  oast 
numerous  branches  of  the  Tian  Shan  range  form  a  district,  watered  by 
countless  streams  and  rivers,  with  a  fertile  soil,  and  having  a  rich  vegC" 
tation  of  grass  and  trees.  This  ijortiou  of  Tarkestau  embraces  part  of 
Ferghana,  Zerafshan,  with  Khouramiusk  and  Khodjent,  l>otli  in  the  sub- 
division of  Syr  Darya.  Its  numeroiis  valleys  and  hills  offer  the  greatest 
advantages  for  purposes  of  cultivation,  while  the  summits  of  the  moun- 
tains are  equally  suitable  for  ])asturage.  The  settled  population  occupies 
in  particular  the  hilly  districts,  while  the  nomad  tribes  are  scattered  over 
the  vast  Syr  Darya  and  Amou  Darya  stejjpes.  Of  these  tlie  Kirghiz 
are  the  most  numerous,  and  they  may  be  computed  at  000,000.  Before 
the  annexation  of  Turkestan,  the  nomad  inhabitants  formed  two-thirds 
of  the  population  ;  now  they  are  less  than  half.  The  settled  pojnilatiou 
presents  a  great  variety  of  races — Iranian,  Mongol,  and  Turk.  Tlie  most 
important  of  these  are  the  Sarts,  800,000 ;  the  Uzbegs,  200,000 :  the 
Tadjiks,  150,000;  and  the  Dangaus,  25,000.  In  the  towns  are  also  to 
be  found  Hindoos,  Persians,  Arabs,  and  Jews.  Tlie  town  population  is 
reckoned  to  be  fort}-  per  cent,  of  the  whole  settled  i)opulatiou.  Among 
VOL.  XV. — NO.  I.     \_Thvrd  Series.]  N 


178  Notes  of  Travel  and  Exploration. 

tlie  principal  towns  are — Tashkend,  87,000  ;  Khodjent,  40,000 ;  Khokand, 
34,000:  Andijan,  23,000  ;  Namangan,  16,000;  and  Samarcand,  35,000. 

Rural  Industry. — The  principle  of  division  of  labour  does  not 
prevail  either  in  the  rural  or  manufacturing  systems  of  these 
countries,  and  as  small  properties  with  every  variety  of  culture  pre- 
dominate in  the  former,  so  in  the  latter  no  one  house  is  devoted  to  the 
production  of  any  special  article,  but  deals  promiscuously  in  several. 
Even  the  cultivation  of  cotton  is  not  specialized,  but  carried  on  side 
by  side  with  that  of  other  agricultural  products.  Wheat  and  rice 
are  the  principal  grains  raised,  barley  and  millet  are  grown  in  inferior 
quantities,  and  irrigation  by  canal  is  almost  universally  required  for 
sill  these  crops.  The  richest  agricultural  districts  are  in  the  plains  of 
Ferghana,  Zerafshan,  Tchetchirk,  and  Angrena,  where  the  soil,  when 
irrigated,  is  very  productive.  The  cotton  crop  in  these  districts 
is  estimated  at  400,000  poods,  and  flax  and  hemp  are  also  grown.  A 
considerable  space  is  devoted  to  market  gardens,  melons  and  water- 
'  melons  being  the  crop  most  extensively  grown,  while  the  vine  and 
all  European  fruit-trees  flourish  in  the  orchards.  Dried  fruits,  sent 
to  all  parts  of  Siberia  and  Southern  Russia,  form  a  considerable 
article  of  export  from  Turkestan. 

The  production  of  silk  is,  however,  the  principal  rural  industry, 
and  the  total  quantity  manufactured  in  Central  Asia,  estimated 
at  103,000  poods,  brings  in  an  annual  revenue  of  some  thirteen 
million  roubles,  or  something  under  two  millions  sterling.  The 
rearing  of  cattle  is  almost  entirely  left  to.  the  nomads,  and  the 
number  of  animals  throughout  Turkestan  is  computed  to  be  :  goats 
and  sheep,  4,810,000 ;  horses,  640,000  ;  camels,  382,000 ;  horned 
cattle,  525,000 ;  total,  6,362,200.  Fishing  at  the  mouth  of  the  Syr 
Darya,  and  in  the  Sea  of  Aral,  brings  in  a  return  of  100,000  roubles, 
or  £13,000  to  £14,000  yearly ;  and  furs  of  the  wolf,  fox,  and  marten 
55,000  roubles.  Some  oil  wells  near  Khodjent,  giving  an  annual 
yield  of  about  750,000  poods  of  oil,  are  the  only  form  of  mineral 
wealth  yet  made  available. 

Manufactures  and  External  Trade. — Manufactories  or  work- 
shops have  been  established  in  the  towns  to  the  number  of  1,662, 
employing  6,050  workmen,  and  representing  an  annual  production  of 
2,850,000  roubles.     The  official  analysis  is  as  follows : — 

The  most  important  factories  belonging  to  Russians  are  forty  in  num- 
ber, of  ^Yllich  twelve  are  spirit  distilleries,  with,  a  production  valued  at 
500,000  roubles ;  five  are  tobacco  factories,  seven  leather,  two  for  cleaning 
cotton,  one  oil,  and  one  glass.  Among  the  numerous  small  native  work- 
shops, those  for  thi-ead  and  silk  are  the  majority.  Those  of  Ferghana 
alone  produce  more  than  a  million  roubles'  worth  of  silk  and  about  300,000 
roubles'  worth  of  cotton  goods.  It  is  impossible  to  compute  with  any 
accuracy  the  production  of  tissues  in  other  localities ;  but  it  is  extremely 
active  in  every  family,  which  annually  supply  a  large  quantity  of  cotton 
cloth  for  the  army.  It  is  also  difficult  to  state  with  strict  accuracy  what 
the  commerce  of  Turkestan  amounts  to.  The  business  transactions  of 
the  three  principal  towns,  Tashkend,  Khokand,  and  Samarcand,  are  esti- 


JS^otes  of  Travel  and  Exploration. 


179 


mated  to  reach  ten  million  roubles,  but  this  estimate  probably  falls  far 
short  of  the  real  truth.  The  following  table  may  approximate  to  the 
external  trade  of  Turkestan  : — 


EXPORTS. 


To  the  Fair  of  Nijni  jSTovgorod 
To  the  Fair  of  Irbit 
To  the  Fair  of  Krestovsky 
To  the  Fair  of  the  Steppe 
To  Orenburg  and  Orsk  ... 

ToTroitzky  

To  Petropaulovsk 
To  Semipalatinsk 


Total 


liirOKTS. 


From  Orenburg  and  Orsk 

From  Troitzky     ... 

From  Petropauloosk 

From  Fairs  of  the  Steppe 

From  Semipalatinsk  and  Semiretchinsk 


Roubles. 

5;000,000 

500,000 

500,000 

1,000,000 

1,300,000 

1,000,000 

500,000 

1,000,000 

10,800,000 


Roubles. 
5,500,000 
2,000,000 
1,500,000 
2.000,000 
1,000,000 


.Total  12,000,000 

Besides  these  avenues  of  trade,  Turkestan  is  in  constant  commercial 
relations  with  Khiva,  Bokhara,  and  Chinese  Kashgaria.  The  export  of 
Turkestan  to  these  countries  amounted  last  year  to  six  million  roubles, 
while  the  import  was  5,700,000.  Since  1806  the  commerce  of  Turkestan 
has  doubled.  Among  the  articles  exported  to  it  from  Kussia  in  Europe 
are  cotton  manvifactures,  linen,  and  fancy  articles.  Turkestan  sends 
back,'  in  return,  cattle,  and  about  a  million  roubles'  worth  of  Indian  tea. 

Kaflristan. — Sir  Frederick  Golclsmid,  in  a  paper  published  in  the 
Journal  of  the  Manchester  GeogTaphical  Society  for  the  quarter 
ending-  June,  1885,  gave  an  interesting-  summary  of  the  little  that  is 
known  of  Ivafiristan,  a  country  forming-  part  of  the  plateau  system  of 
Afghanistan,  but  acknowledging-  no  allegiance  to  its  Government. 
Fifteen  years  ago  no  stranger  was  known  to  have  entered  this 
secluded  region  and  left  it  alive,  and  the  spell  of  its  isolation,  as  far 
as  British  exploration  is  concerned,  has  been  broken  only  by 
the  journey  of  Mr.  McTSair,  of  the  Indian  Survey,  in  May,  1883. 
Lying-  south  of  the  Hindu  Khush,  it  can  only  be  entered  from  that 
direction  by  aprtss  13,000  feet  high,  while  the  ranges  th-at  enclose  it 
on  other  sides  must  be  crossed  at  altitudes  varying  from  near  14,000 
to  16,000  feet.  The  descent  of  Mr.  McNair  into  the  country  from 
the  pass  in  the  Hindu  Khush  traversed  by  him,  was  effected  by 
sliding-  in  a  recumbent  position  through  the  half-melted  snow,  in  which 

I  manner  the  bottom  of  the  steep  incline  was  reached  in  a  ver}-  short 
time.  The  English  traveller,  who  was  of  course  disguised,  remained 
only  a  few  days,  and  was  unable  to  e.xplore  the  country  syste- 
matically, but  succeeded  in  learning  many  interesting  details.  He 
describes  the  plateau,  with  an  area  of  r),000  square  miles,  as  consist- 
ing of  a  densely  wooded  country  much  diversified  and  very  pic- 
N  2 


180  I\^otes  of  Travel  and  Exploration. 

turesque.  The  population,  numbering'  over  200,000,  is  divided  int» 
three  principal  tribes,  speaking-  separate  dialects,  each  subdivided  into 
numerous  clans.  The  men,  though  not  tall,  are  of  "fine  appearance^ 
with  sharp  Aryan  features  and  keen  penetrating  eyes ;  blue  eyes  are 
not  common,  but  do  occur ;  brown  eyes  and  light  hair,  even  to 
a  golden  hue,  in  combination,  are  not  uncommon.  The  two  extremes 
of  complexion,  fair  and  dark,  or  rather  pink  and  bronze,  are  observed 
without  change  in  the  cast  of  features." 

The  Kafirs  have  always  been  noted  as  a  fair-skinned  and  blue- 
eyed  race,  and  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  has  left  on  record  a  description 
of  a  Kafir  slave — ''  The  most  beautiful  Oriental  lady  he  ever  saw, 
who  by  loosening  her  golden  hair  could  cover  herself  completely 
from  head  to  foot,  as  with  a  screen."  The  orig-in  of  this  isolated 
race  is  problematical,  nor  does  their  name  Kafir  (an  unbeliever), 
derived  from  their  worship  of  idols,  throw  any  light  on  it,  Avhile  the 
name  Siyah-posh,  or  wearers  of  a  black  garment,  applied  to  them 
in  Persian,  is  equally  devoid  of  ethnological  meaning.  The  explora- 
tion of  this  impregnable  and  almost  inaccessible  rock-fastness  is  one 
of  the  few  untried  tasks  left  to  geographers. 

Wew  French  Ports  in  East  Africa. — The  Times  of  December  1 
publishes  an  important  French  official  Report  on  the  new  colony  ot 
Obokh  on  the  Gulf  of  Tajourra,  from  the  pen  of  M.  de  Lanessan, 
the  same  Deputy  who  wrote  a  short  time  previously  a  vi>ry  able 
report  on  Burmah.  The  Gulf  of  Tajourra  is  a  great  inlet,  sixty 
miles  long,  on  the  African  coast,  immediately  south  of  the  Red  Sea 
and  nearly  opposite  Aden.  The  Bay  of  Obokh  is  a  secondary  in- 
dentation on  the  northern  side  of  the  greater  gulf,  sheltered  by  Ras 
Bir,  the  headland  that  shuts  it  in  on  this  side.  The  port  of  Obokh 
is  here  formed  by  two  lines  of  reefs,  and  is  divided  by  a  coral  bank 
into  two  basins,  rather  difficult  of  approach,  but  affording  fairly  good 
anchorage.  The  French  territory  is  situated  between  the  Italian 
colony  on  the  Bay  of  Assab,  thirty  miles  to  the  north,  and  the  recent 
English  annexations  of  Berbera  and  Zeila  in  the  Somala  country  to 
the  south.  A  plentiful  supply  of  fresh  w^ater  gives  Obokh  a  great 
superiority  over  the  adjacent  ports,  and  renders  possible  the  main- 
tenance of  some  cattle,  sheep  and  goats,  as  well  as  the  raising  of  a 
scanty  crop  of  vegetables  for  the  resident  Europeans' consumption. 
The  French  protectorate  extends  from  the  shores  of  the  gulf  to  the 
foot  of  the  mountains,  the  intervening  space  forming  a  hillock}'  plain 
about  twelve  miles  in  width,  inhabited  by  Danakil  tribes. 

The  Report  describes  as  follows  the  general  character  of  the 
countzy : — 

Those  onlj'  who  have  been  in  the  Bed  Sea  can  have  any  idea  of  the 
desolate  appearance  of  the  barren  plains  reaching  from  the  shore  to 
the  ruddy-tinted  mountains  on  the  horizon,  running  almost  parallel  to 
the  coast.  Nevertheless,  in  the  rainy  season,  the  torrents  from  the 
mountains  bring  a  fertilizing  supply  of  water  to  the  plain.  Grasses 
spring  up  along  the  ravines  through  which  the  fresh-water  streams  flow, 
and  round  the  lakelets  formed  wherever  a  depression  of  the  soil  exists. 


Notes  on  Novels. 


181 


This  enables  the  inhabitants  of  these  vast  deserts  to  rear  flocks  and  herds 
of  sheep  and  cattle,  and  also  of  camels,  which  are  hired  by  caravans  to 
carry  merchandise  from  the  sea  to  the  table-land  of  Abyssinia  and  back 
again.  Massowah,  which  the  Italians  have  just  occupied,  is  an  island 
without  water  or  herbage,  infected  by  the  pestiferous  raud  on  its  shore. 
The  bay  of  Adulis  (Zoulla),  a  little  to  the  south,  and  to  which  France 
has  rights  which  it  is  important  not  to  renounce,  is  perhaps  the  only 
point  on  the  western  shore  of  the  Red  Sea  below  Massowah  where  vege- 
tation is  to  be  found.  Farther  south  still,  the  Bay  of  Amphila,  where,  as 
at  Adulis,  a  starting-point  for  a  route  to  Abyssinia  may  be  found,  is  an 
absolute  desert,  where  brackish  water  only  can  be  found  at  some  distance 
from  the  sea.  Edd,  which  was  bought  by  a  French  firm  from  Marseilles 
about  forty  years  ago,  has  no  more  jDvomising  an  outlook,  although  the 
neighbouring  tribes  possess  a  great  number  of  head  of  cattle,  which  feed 
on  the  spare  herbage  of  the  j^laiu  during  the  rainy  season,  and  resort 
to  the  mountains  during  the  dry  months.  Assab  is  even  worse  off. 
Water  is  almost  entirely  wanting  ;  a  few  wells  supply  a  little  brackish 
water,  and  the  wants  of  the  resident  Euroi:)eans,  and  of  the  vessels 
touching  there,  have  to  be  rfiet  by  condensing  water.  Cultivation  is 
absolutely  impossible,  and  the  same  state  of  things  exists  on  the  whole 
coast  between  Assab  and  Obokh. 

The  latter  place,  wliicli  was  tminbabited  when  first  occupied,  has 
now  a  population  ot"300,  one-third  indigenous,  the  remainder  coolies 
and  Arab  workmen.  Tajourra,  at  the  head  of  the  gulf,  is  said  to 
have  1?,000  inhabitants,  a  figure  which  M.  de  Lanessan  thinks 
exag'g'erated.  Obokh  derives  its  immediate  importance  from  being 
the  only  French  port  between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  French 
territories  in  Indo-China,  on  the  route  to  which  it  supplies  the  want 
of  an  intermediate  coaling  station.  Its  prospective  advantages  are 
due  to  its  position  on  one  of  the  chief  maritime  outlets  of  the  trade 
of  Shoa,  the  richest  dependency  of  Abyssinia.  The  road  from 
Tajourra  to  Ankobar  is  the  most  direct  caravan  route  to  that 
-country,  from  which  the  Italian  port  of  Assab  is  cut  off  by  a  water- 
Jess  desert  150  leaunes  across. 


mt 


^' 


Rainbow  Gold  :   A  Xovcl.      By  Davtd  Christie  Muuray. 
In  three  vols.     London  :  Smith,  Elder  it  Co.     1880. 

IN  its  serial  form  "  Rainbow  Gold ''  has  already  found  many  admirers, 
and  it  is  not  likely  to  lose  popularity  in  its  new  dress.  Mr. 
Murray  has  provided  his  story  with  a  good  old-fashioned  backbone 
of  plot,  and  he  deals  with  none  of  that  dissection  of  character,  or 
analysis  of  motive,  which,  if  appreciated  by  the  few,  is  very  generally 
disliked  by  the  many.  "Rainbow  Gold"  may  be  read  easily, but Ts 
likewise  provocative  of  some  jdeasant  excitement.  For — and  on  this 


182  Notes  on  Novels. 

turns  the  tale — there  lies  a  vast  and  ill-gotten  treasure,  far  away  in  a 
lonely  spot  of  the  Balkan  mountains;  and  the  etforts  of  certain 
individuals  to  obtain  this  money,  and  the  crimes  committed  in  the 
endeavour,  lend  the  narrative  an  interest  which  may  he  safely  de- 
scribed as  thrilUng-. 

A  succinct  account  of  the  origin  of  the  treasure  will  be  useful  to 
the  reader,  and  can  be  told  without  prejudice  to  the  story.  Some 
five-and-twenty  years  before  the  Prologue,  the  State  jof  Del  Oro  in 
the  Spanish  Americas  borrowed  from  Europe  a  million  of  money. 
The  agents,  however,  who  should  have  taken  it  to  Del  Oro,  appro- 
priated it  instead  to  themselves.  IN'ot,  however,  to  enjoy  it,  for  they 
were  tracked  down  by  a  second  gang  of  thieves,  who  overtook  them 
in  a  pass  of  the  Balkans,  killed  them,  and  then  buried  the  treasure 
for  future  use.  This  came  to  the  knowledge  of  a  third  gang  of 
adventurers,  who  started  for  the  spot,  dug  the  treasure  up,  and 
divided  it.  Why  gang  No.  2  should  have  been  introduced  at  all 
is  indeed  not  quite  clear,  unless,  as  is  probable,  it  was  to  save  the 
hero.  Job  Round,  lieutenant  of  gang  No.  3,  from  any  participation 
in  bloodguiltiness. 

This  Job  Round  is  a  lovable  hero,  and  the  best  told  portion  of 
the  book  is  that  concerning  his  enlistment  as  a  young  man,  the 
episode  of  his  dog  Pincher,  and  the  callous  tyranny  of  Captain 
Cunningham,  an  odious  individual,  drawn  with  much  skill  in  a  few 
touches. 

It  is  pleasant  to  be  able  to  recommend  a  clever  novel  as  thoroughly 
wholesome  in  tone,  and  still  pleasanter  to  perceive  by  Mr.  Murray's 
pretty  dedicatory  verses  that  he  for  one,  has  at  heart  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  pure  and  honest  fame  of  English  fiction. 


Karma:  A  Novel.     By  A.  P.  Sixnett.     London:  Chapman  &  Hall. 

1885. 

THE-  school  of  mystical  romance  has  taken  a  ne'w;  departure  in 
"  Karma,"  as  the  story  is  founded  on  the  theories  of  "  Esoteric 
Buddhism,"  the  latest  product  of  the  frivolity  and  profanity  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  author  has  already  contributed  to  the  litera- 
ture of  this  sect,  and  having  read  one  of  his  previous  volumes,  styled 
'•'  The  Occult  World,"  we  can  aver  that  the  most  wonderful  revelation 
in  its  pages  is  the  fact  that  any  one  should  have  been  found  simple- 
minded  enough  to  write  them.  Mr.  Sinnett  must  at  least  be  ac- 
quitted of  all  wish  to  deceive,  from  the  artless  candour  with  which 
he  allows  a  reader  of  the  most  ordinary  intelligence  to  see  through 
the  transparent-  artifices  b}''  which  he  was  himself  duped. 

That  the  chief  apostles  of  the  new  creed,  one  of  them  a  lady,  were 
publicly  exposed  as  impostors,  on  the  evidence  of  their  own  hired 
accomplices,  will  probably  nowise  diminish  the  ardour  of  their  dis- 
ciples ;  and  the  machinery  of  sliding  panels  and  cupboards  with  false 
doors,  fully  described  by  these  witnesses,  will  still  do  its  work  in 
imposing  on  the  credulous.     The  agent  sent  to  India  by  the  Society 


Notes  on  Novels.  183 

-or  Psychical  Research  for  the  purpose  of  investip^atinn-  the  subject, 
broug-ht  home  convincing-  proofs  of  the  fraud,  of  which  he  gave  all 
details  and  particulars  at  a  lecture  delivei'ed  in  London,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Society,  some  months  ag'o. 

The  new  creed — Theosopln-,  as  it  is  sometimes  called — has  no 
apparent  connection  with  the  elder  Buddhism  to  Avhich  it  claims  to 
affiliate  itself,  and  is  rather  a  development  of  modern  Spiritualism, 
with  still  more  impudent  supernatural  pretensions.  That  letters 
and  other  objects  can  be  instantaneously  transmitted  from  the  most 
distant  places,  by  a  process  including-  disinteg-ration  into  their 
component  atoms  for  the  journey,  and  reintegration  on  arrival — 
that  the  adept,  assuming-  what  is  termed  an  "  astral  body,"  can  Hoat 
through  space  temporarily  disencumbered  of  all  terrestrial  disabili- 
ties— such  are  some  of  the  results  which  educated  men  and  women 
are  found  capable  of  believing-  in,  without  other  j^roof  than  some 
very  awkwardl}'  executed  tricks  of  legerdemain.  We  are  not  sur- 
prised to  hear  that  the  test-experiment  of  producing-  the  Times  on 
the  day  of  publication  in  a  distant  part  of  India  was  rejected  by  the 
operators,  on  the  ground  that  so  convincing  a  proof  would  leave  no 
merit  to  faith.  Baron  von  Mondstern,  the  hero  of  "Karma"  (the  word 
is  the  Eastern  name  of  the  law  of  metempsychosis),  is  an  adept  in 
all  these  mysteries  ;  and  a  party  of  fashionable  and  scientific  Eng- 
lish people,  assembled  at  his  castle  on  the  Rhine  to  investigate  them, 
are  the  actors  in  the  drama.  With  this  foundation  it  is  inevitable 
that  a  large  portion  of  the  book  should  be  occupied  with  occult 
manifestations  and  discussions  on  them,  but  the  ordinary  loves  and 
sorrows  of  human  nature  are  interwoven  into  the  grotesque  phantas- 
magoria of  clairvoyance  and  spiritualism.  The  levity  with  which  her 
tremendous  experiences  are  treated  by  the  lady  medium  may  be 
judged  from  the  following  specimen  of  her  conversation  : — 

"  Can  he  go  about  out  of  his  body  then,  too  ?  " 

"  Why,  of  course  he  can.  I  knew  him  out  of  his  body  long  before  I  knew 
him  in  it." 

"  What !  Do  you  mean  that  you  met  him  first  flying  about  in  the  air 
like  yourself  ?  " 

"  Well,  on  the  astral  plane,  at  all  events.  You  don't  think  much  about 
the  air  when  you  are  out  of  the  body.  It's  another  state  of  existence  you 
pass  into.  But  I  can  see  people  on  the  astral  plane  without  being  out  of 
the  body  at  all  for  that  matter  myself  ?  " 

Spiritual  society  does  not  seem  to  improve  the  diction  any  more 
than  the  morals  of  those  who  frequent  it.  As  metempsychosis  is  a 
main  article  of  the  Theosophic  creed,  part  of  this  lady's  revelations 
are  devoted  to  the  antecedent  lives  of  the  company ;  and  it  is  shown 
how  one  of  them,  in  the  apparently  undeserved  unhappiness  of  his 
actual  lot,  is  expiating  a  previous  career  of  self-indulgence  in  the 
character  of  a  young  Roman  of  the  classical  age.  Such  are  the  wild 
metaphysical  speculations  which  a  Society  divided  into  charlatans  and 
dupes  is  impious  enough  to  put  forward  as  an  improvement  on 
revealed  religion.  The  plot  of  the  novel  is  also  morally  objectionable, 


184  Notes  on  Novels. 

and  despite  the  brig-litness  with  which  it  is  written,  it  is  not  to  be 
recommended  on  any  grounds. 


WMte  IlcatJier.    By  William  Black.    London:  3Iacmillan  &  Co. 

1885. 

MR.  BLACK'S  renders  Avill  scarcely  need  to  be  told  that  his 
descriptions  of  moor  and  loch,  and  the  manners  and  customs  of 
their  huhihies,  are  always  fascinating  ;  but  through  all  the  persuasive 
eloquence  of  his  pages  Ave  find  ourselves  occasionally  wondering 
whether  it  is  the  fashion  in  Scotland  for  young  ladies  to  be  on  such  very 
friendly  terms  Avith  good-looking-  gamekeepers,  even  Avhen  doAA'ered 
Avith  all  the  gifds  and  graces  bestoAA'ed  by  him  on  his  hero,  Ronald 
Strang.  For  ourselves  Ave  confess  to  being  rather  on  the  side  of  Mrs. 
Grundy  and  the  social  convenances,  which  are,  after  all,  the  sanction 
of  the  minor  moralities.  We  cannot,  in  short,  forgive  Mr.  Black  for 
alloAving  the  prett}'  and  gentle  Meenie  Douglas  to  degrade  herself  by 
a  clandestine  attachment,  ending  in  a  secret  marriage,  to  an  inferior. 
Nor  is  the  case  mended  by  launching-  his  hero  on  a  career  of  drunken 
dissipation  and  Ioav  company  in  Glasgow,  hoAvever  probable  such  an 
episode  may  be  in  the  life  of  a  man  of  his  class.  True,  the 
redeeming  influence  of  the  heroine  is  made  the  instrument  of  his 
reformation ;  but  such  a  conversion,  in  the  ordinary  course  of  events, 
would  be  only  temporary,  and  the  young  lady  Avho  should  make  such 
a  mesalliance  Avould  incur  the  fate  she  deserved  by  finding  herself 
mated  for  life  to  a  sottish  boor.  The  embarrassment  of  the  situation 
is  solved  in  the  novel  by  the  interposition  of  an  American  millionaire, 
whose  daughter  has  also  fallen  temporarily  under  the  spell  ot 
the  fascinating  Honald,  and  who  takes  a  shooting  estate  in  the 
Highlands  for  the  express  purpose,  as  it  Avould  seem,  of  making  the 
ex-keeper  his  factor  at  a  salary  of  £100  a  year. 

Lovers  of  salmon-fishing  will  "  fight  their  battles  o'er  again  "  in 
reading  Mr.  Black's  vivid  accounts  of  protracted  struggles  with  the 
silver-sided  prey,  though  they  may  perhaps  be  tempted  to  shake  their 
heads  incredulously  at  the  idea  of  a  lady-neophyte  handling-  the  rod 
Avith  such  triumphant  success  as  Carry  Hodson,  even  under  the 
experienced  tutelage  of  Ronald  Strang. 


Andromeda.     By  George  Fleming,     London  :  Richard  Bentley 
&  Son.  1885. 

THE  ''  Andromeda  "  of  the  title-page — Avhy  so  called  it  is  not  very 
easy  to  see — is  Miss  Clare  Dillon,  a  young  lady  endoAved  with 
all  the  prescriptive  gifts  and  graces  befitting  a  heroine  of  fiction. 
Her  story  is  told  with  the  vague  and  dreamy  grace  which  gives  their 
special  charm  to  George  Fleming's  works,  but  which  fails  to  excite 
our  sympathy  for  a  girl  Avho  throAvs  over  successively  two  engaged,  or 
semi-engaged,  lovers,  to  marry  a  third.     Nor  can  we  feel  aught  but 


Notes  on  Novels.  185 

indignation  for  the  man  who  allows  liiraself  to  make  repeated  decla- 
rations of  attachment  to  the  betrothed  bride  of  his  friend,  and  so  win 
her  unstable  affections  from  him.  And  to  reward  the  false  friend  and 
faithless  -fiancee,  with  happiness  in  the  end,  is  a  violation  both  of 
poetical  and  natm-al  justice.  The  situation  is  rendered  additionally 
repugnant  by  the  fact  that  it  is  a  deformed  man  who  is  treated  with 
such  cruel  caprice,  and  indeed  all  the  canons  of  artistic  fitness  are 
outi'ag-ed  bv  assignino-  to  one  so  afHicted  the  part  of  a  hero  of 
romance.  We  cannot  congi-atulate  the  author  on  the  choice  of 
subject  for  a  tale,  which  certainly  owes  all  its  charm  to  the  telling. 
Among  minor  blemishes  we  woxild  point  out  the  incorrectness  with 
which  foreign  names  and  phrases  are  rendered.  Thus  dh  is  not  the 
past  participle  of  the  French  verb  dirc^  nor  is  San  Donatt  a  possible 
form  for  an  Italian  proper  name,  unless  with  the  prefix  Be  ,  since  San 
if  not  thus  qualified  necessarily  requires  the  singular  termination. 
Equally  unfortunate  in  point  of  grammatical  construction  is  the  com- 
pound Montener^;,  monte  being  masculine,  and  the  agreement  of  the 
adjective  invariable,  even  when  forming  part  of  a  proper  name. 


A  Strange  Voyafje.     By  W.  Clark  Russell.     London  : 
Messrs.  Sampson  Low  <Sc  Co.    1885. 

MR.  CLARK  RUSSELL'S  latest  novel  is  in  his  best  manner,  and 
may  fairly  rank  in  interest  and  power  with  "  The  Wreck  of  the 
Grosvenor."  The  thrilling  adventures  of  the  Silver  Sea  and  her 
passengers  are  described  with  amazing  foi'ce  of  graphic  realization  ; 
and  we  scarcely  know  which  to  admire  most,  the  fertility  of  invention 
that  can  give  fresh  novelty  to  the  oft-repeated  record  of  an  ocean 
voyage  or  the  picturesque  vividness  of  narration,  which  makes  the 
incidents  seem  living  reaHties.  It  might  have  seemed  impossible  for 
language  to  convey  almost  the  actual  bodily  sensations  caused  by  the 
endless  category  of  motions  proper  to  a  ship  at  sea — to  reproduce 
vividly  to  the  imagination  the  dizzying  swing,  the  reeling  lurches, 
the  quivering  and  strainings  of  the  wave-beaten  hull,  with  all 
the  accompanying  sounds  unheard  on  shore  ;  yet  this  strange  per- 
plexity of  turmoil  is  called  up  to  the  senses  in  page  after  page  of  the 
volumes  before  us.  It  is  not  easy  to  detach  a  descriptive  passage 
from  a  narrative  without  marring  its  effect,  but  we  cannot  resist 
extracting  the  subjoined  description  of  a  sudden  squall  in  the  midst 
of  a  tropical  cyclone : — 

I  was  intent  upon  my  work,  watching  the  ship  till  ray  eyes  reeled  in 
my  head,  in  order  to  "  meet  her  "  sharply  (with  the  helm)  as  she  wildly 
swung,  now  to  port,  now  to  stai'board,  when  a  furious  st[uall  came  down, 
in  a  long  fierce  scream,  that  rang  through  the  thunder  of  the  gale,  with 
an  edge  in  it  and  an  effect  I  am  powerless  to  describe.  It  made  the  storm 
of  wind  we  were  racing  before  horrible  with  its  amazing,  almost  human, 
yelling ;  and  it  turned  the  sea  into  wool  with  its  fury,  whilst  it  swept  a 
mass  of  rain  over  sky  and  ocean  that  was  a  perfect  sheet  of  water,  just 
rent  in  a  few  places  by  the  fury  of  the  cyclonic  power  that  was  driving 


186  Notes  on  Novels. 

it.  Our  decks  were  full  of  wet  iu  a  breatli ;  had  we  shipped  a  green  sea 
we  couldn't  have  been  more  completely  flooded.  As  the  ship's  bows  shot 
up  in  the  air  on  the  foaming  curl  of  a  great  billow,  the  water  came  splash- 
ing and  thundering  aft  till  I  feared  it  would  sweep  me  off  my  legs  ;  and 
then,  as  viy  end  of  the  vessel  lifted,  away  it  went  roaring  forward,  hissing 
and  foaming  round  the  companion  and  skylights,  and  flashing  in  lumps 
of  white  to  the  height  of  the  bulwarks,  where  the  wind  carried  it  off  in 
smoke.  A  yellow  gleam  of  lightning  sparkled  across  the  blown  and 
hurling  flood  in  the  air,  though  if  thunder  followed,  no  echo  penetrated 
through  the  dreadful  and  hellish  crying  and  yelling  and  shrieking  of  that 
moment. 

We  v?ill  not  forestall  the  reader's  pleasure  by  giving*  a  bald 
summary  of  incidents  which  owe  their  charm  to  the  narrative  power 
of  the  author,  but  merely  content  ourselves  with  pointing  out  that 
the  fiction  has  a  basis  of  fact  which  gives  it  an  added  personal 
interest.  The  "  Strange  Voyage"  of  the  novel  is  a  trip  to  the  Cape 
of  Hope  undertaken  as  a  cure  for  rheumatic  gout,  and  we  learn  that 
Mr.  Clark  Russell  has  just  sailed  for  the  same  destination,  with  the 
like  object  of  banishing  the  chronic  rheumatism  he  suffers  from. 
We  only  hope  that  the  real  cure  may  progress  as  rapidly  as  the 
imaginary  one  at  the  outset  of  the  voyage,  and  may  not  be  impeded 
ere  its  end  by  a  like  series  of  startling-  episodes. 


Slhiffs  and  Arrows.     By  Hugh  Conway  (F.  J.  Fargus). 

Arrowsmith's  Christmas  Annual,  1885, 

IF  Mr.  Julian  Loraine,  the  hero  of  this  little  story,  had  made  his 
marriage  settlements  before  instead  of  after  the  marriage,  the 
book  would  not  have  been  written.  For  it  is  at  the  solicitor's  office, 
when  the  bride  and  bridegroom  attend  to  give  the  necessary 
instructions,  that  Mrs.  Loraine  discovers  a  secret  so  ghastly  as  to 
blight  her  newly  formed  happiness — a  secret  which  compels  her  to 
fly  from  her  husband's  home  and  abjure  his  love.  The  w^ord  of 
explanation  which  would  have  cleared  away  the  terrible  mystery  is 
not  spoken,  and  the  wife  within  a  week  of  her  marriage  abandons 
her  devoted  husband  under  circumstances,  to  say  the  least,  of  grave 
suspicion,  Mr.  Loraine,  naturally  of  a  jealous  temperament,  can 
scarcely  be  blamed  for  entertaining  some  doubts  of  his  wife's  fidelity. 
After  two  years  he  obtains  a  clue  to  the  whereabouts  of  the  man 
whom  he  believes  to  have  been  her  companion ;  he  tracks  him  to 
France,  follows  him  along  the  Breton  beach,  and  in  a  sequestered 
spot  shoots  him  somewhat  unceremoniously.  He  then  nurses  him 
to  recovery  and  becomes  his  fast  friend,  finds  his  wife  under  the 
charge  of  a  Sister  of  Charity,  but  is  unable  to  conquer  her  reluctance 
to  a  renewal  of  their  united  life.  It  is  only  after  having  bade  her 
what  is  supposed  by  both  of  them  to  be  a  final  farewell,  that  he 
discovers  the  reason  of  his  wife's  estrangement.  Knowing  it  to  be 
groundless,  he  is  able  to  reclaim  her,  freed  from  the  fatal  barrier 
which  she  supposed  to  exist  to  their  love. 


Notes  on  Novels.  187 

Adrian  Vidal.    By  W.  E.  Norris.     In  three  vols.   London:  Smith, 
Elder  &  Co.    1885. 

TO  persons  curious  to  learn  how  a  storm  in  a  teacup  may  be 
admirably  described  throug'li  some  nine  hundred  pag-es,  we 
would  recommend  Mr.  j\orris's  last  novel.  This  teacup  hurricane — 
which  beg-ins  to  blow  gently  in  the  first  volnme,  gathers  force 
throug-hout  the  second,  and  threatens  utterly  to  wreck  the  domestic 
peace  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Adrian  Vidal  in  the  third — takes  its  rise  from 
proportionately  trivial  causes.  The  lady  has  an  unreasonably 
jealous  temper,  the  gentleman  a  foolish  habit  of  philandering-. 
There  is  likewise  a  certain  fat,  fiirtatious,  and  mature  Lady  St. 
Austell,  w^hom  the  experienced  novel-reader  will  recog-nise  as  having- 
met  before  under  various  disguises.  She  is  united  to  an  elderly  and 
■wicked  peer,  whom  we  may  descril)e  not  unfairly  as  Thackeray's 
immortal  Marquis  of  Ste^me,  much  diluted.  The  St.  Austells  go 
their  various  ways  until  they  come  across  ]\[r.  and  Mrs.  Vidal :  when 
they  ag-ree  in  persecuting-  with  their  attentions  this  unlucky  couple. 
Lady  St.  Austell  patronizes  the  young-  author  (Mr.  Vidal  is  a  rising- 
novelist);  Lord  St.  Austell  makes  himself  disagreeably  pleasant  to 
the  author's  wife.  The  hero  visits  Lady  St.  Austell  on  her  "  at  home  " 
days,  is  g-enerally  bored,  and  always  profoundly  conscious  that  she 
is  stout  and  ag-eing".  Lord  St.  Austell  pays  the  heroine  a  couple  of 
afternoon  calls,  utters  fatuous  speeches,  and  g-ets  properly  snubbed 
for  his  pains.  Hinc  illce  lacrijmai,  and  the  domestic  teacup  trouble 
mentioned  above.  Mr.  Norris  perceiving-  that  there  is  here  barely 
sufficient  ground  for  the  prolong-ed  estrangement  and  misery  of 
Adrian  Vidal  and  his  wife,  resorts  to  the  well-worn  expedient  of  a 
lady's-maid,  dark  and  handsome,  with  a  taste  for  scheming-  and  an 
old  g-rudg-e  against  the  hero.  This  original  creation,  together  with 
two  anonymous  letters,  succeeds  in  embroiling  for  a  time  the  happy 
little  household  in  Alexandra  Gardens.  But  for  a  time  only;  the 
storm  blows  over,  the  domestic  sky  is  once  more  blue  and  smiling, 
and  the  reader  leaves  Adrian,  a  poor  creature  "  without  much 
pluck,"  arduously  adding  his  quota  of  stones  to  the  pavement  of  a 
certain  melancholy  kingdom. 

The  book  may  te  recommended  as  better  than  nine  out  of  ten  of 
the  '"run"  of  novels,  as  unobjectionable  in  tone,  and  as  written  in 
a  flowing  pleasant  style.  The  author  invests  even  his  "  padding  " 
with  a  certain  .amount  of  interest.  The  reason  for  this  is,  that  he 
pads  evidently  from  his  own  experiences  as  a  toiler  in  the  field  of 
literature,  and  real  experiences  are  invariably  interesting. 


Maruja.     By  Bret  Harte.    London  :  Chatto  &  Windus.     1885. 

MR.  BRET  HARTE  is  nowhere  so  much  at  home  as  in  the  wild 
wide  lands  of  the  Pacific  slope,  where  savagery  and  civiliza- 
tion, order  and  anarchy,  cultivation  and  barrenness,  mingle  together 
in  a  confusion  that  is  rich  in  elements  of  the  picturesque.     These 


188  Notes  on  Novels. 

elements  the  gifted  writer  knows  how  to  combine,  with  all  a  poet's 
exquisite  sense  of  effect,  into  pictures  which  have  already  rendered 
English  readers  familiar  with  the  unsettled  borderland  he  so 
graphically  depicts.  In  the  present  tale  it  seems  to  us,  however, 
he  has  been  less  happy  than  heretofore,  as  the  more  complicated  plot 
lends  itself  less  readil}^  to  development  by  faint  and  suggestive 
touches  than  the  slighter  tales  he  generally  chooses  for  the  frame- 
work of  his  design.  Thus  the  shadow}-  outline  in  which  the  heroine's 
character  is  sketched  leaves  us  to  the  end  in  doubt  as  to  her  true 
nature,  and  her  perverse  rejection  of  all  her  earlier  suitors  is  rendered 
more  inexplicable  by  her  sudden  surrender  in  the  end  to  the  least 
attractive  among  them,  the  vagabond  son  of  an  American  speculator, 
returned  in  the  guise  of  a  tramp  in  time  to  claim  his  inheritance. 
The  character  of  the  old  Indian  butler,  under  the  influence  of 
growing  insanity,  resulting  in  murder,  would  also  require  to  be  more 
carefully  worked  out  to  enable  its  tragic  possibilities  to  be  fully 
realized.  The  Spanish  hacienda,  with  its  mingling  of  simplicity  and 
stateliness,  its  ample  hospitality  and  traditions  of  family  super- 
stition, furnishes  a  romantic  setting  for  the  drama. 


The  blaster  of  Uic  Mine.    By  Robert  B  uchanax.     London  : 
R.  Bentley  &  Son.    1885. 

IN  the  form  of  a  narrative  in  the  first  person,  3Ir.  Buchanan  has 
given  his  readers  a  powerful  and  interesting  story,  without 
•exaggeration  of  sensational  effect.  The  hero,  Hugh  Trelawney,  a 
well-born  lad,  is  thrown  by  his  father's  death  on  the  care  of  relatives 
in  a  lower  sphere  of  life,  and  compelled  to  earn  his  living  as  clerk, 
and  afterwards  superintendent,  of  a  Cornish  mine.  Although 
chance  enables  him  to  rescue  from  shipwreck  the  heroine  of  his  boyish 
devotion,  he  conceives  himself  precluded  from  aspiring  to  her  hand  by 
the  disparity  of  rank  which  circumstances  have  created  between  them, 
and  his  backwardness  in  responding  to  her  evident  wish  to  ignore 
the  barrier  very  nearly  leaves  her  to  become  the  prey  of  a  ruined 
spendthrift,  who  reckons  on  her  fortune  to  retrieve  his  desperate 
position.  The  flooding  of  the  mine  is  the  crisis  which  eventually 
clears  up  all  misunderstanding's,  andthe  hero's  self-sacrificinggallantry 
in  saving  the  life  of  his  rival  is  rewarded  by  the  hand  of  his  lady-love, 
with  an  abundant  measure  of  all  worldly  prosperity  superadded. 


Biibijlon.     By  Grant  Allen  (Cecil  Power).  London: 
Chatto  &  Windus.     1885. 

"  "OABYLON  "  is  an  art-novel,  and  its  title  is  a  pseudonym  for 
JL)  modern  Rome,  whither  all  the  characters  flock  in  for  the 
final  disposal  of  their  destinies,  with  a  well-timed  precision  that 
suggests  a  "  drive  "  of  game  to  the  battue  on  a  Scottish  moor.  The 
plot  turns  on  the  fortunes  of  two  peasant  lads,  one  English  and 
one  American,  each  a  heaven-born  artistic  genius ;  the  first  developed 


Notes  on  Novels.  18J> 

easily  and  naturally  into  a  gn-eat  sculptor  by  Lis  own  unaided 
instincts,  the  second  thwarted  lor  a  time  in  following'  his  natural 
bent  by  the  false  g-uidance  of  a  generous  but  injudicious  patron  who 
seeks  to  divert  his  g-enius  from  landscape  to  figure  painting-.  Each 
hero  is,  in  orthodox  fashion,  mated  with  a  fair  lady,  and  the  obstacles 
which  temporarily  obstruct  the  course  of  true  love  are  as  of  per- 
functory and  iinmistakably  flimsy  a  character  as  the  tissue-paper- 
lined  hoops  held  up  in  succession  before  the  acrobat  in  a  circus.  The 
extravagance  of  some  of  the  incidents  borders  on  .he  g-rotesque,  and 
the  scene  in  which  the  sculptor's  model  attempts  to  poison  her 
supposed  rival  scarcely  makes  a  pretence  of  vmiscinhlance.  The 
caricature  of  the  Italian  girl's  relig-ion  is  more  than  usually  offensive, 
and  the  irreverence,  perhaps  unintentional,  with  which  scriptural 
quotations  and  allusions  are  introduced  is  a  serious  offence  against 
g'ood  task.  Mr.  Ruskin,  under  a  transparent  disg-uise,  is  the  dtusex 
machind  whose  omnipotent  nod  brings  fame  and  fortune  to  the 
blighted  American  artist,  and  his  intervention  comes  in  time  to 
restore,  by  the  shock  of  glad  surprise,  the  kind  but  ill-judg-ed  patron, 
when  at  the  point  of  death  from  malaria  fever.  The  deliberate 
inhalation  of  the  Campagna  poison  is  the  novel  form  of  suicide 
selected  by  him  as  an  atonement  for  his  error  of  judgment,  while  his 
fortune  is  devoted  to  the  foundation  of  an  Art  Scholarship  in  Rome. 


Green  Pleasure  and  Grey  Grief.     By  the  Author  of  "  Phyllis,"  itc. 
London  :    Smith,  Elder  &  Co.     1885. 

IT  might  have  beeii  thought  that  every  possible  variation  on  the 
familiar  theme  that  ''  the  course  of  true  love  never  does  run 
smooth  "  had  been  long  ago  used  up,  hence  the  author  of  '^  Phyllis  " 
deserves  credit  for  having  given  a  comparatively  fresh  rendering  or 
the  hackneyed  theme.  A  supposed  stigma  on  the  heroine's  birth 
supplies  the  requisite  amount  of  friction  to  delay  the  movement  of 
the  drama,  and  maintain  the  reader's  suspense  during  the  progress 
of  the  inevitable  three  volumes.  The  heroine,  an  vu/enue  of  the 
approved  pattern,  with  all  the  infantine  nhandon  of  that  somewhat 
irritating  young  person,  flies  from  her  home  on  the  discovery  of  her 
misfortune  to  avofd  sharing  its  contamination  with  her  still  constant 
lover,  and  a  series  of  accidents  leads  her  to  the  door  of  her  unknown 
father,  to  be  tended  in  his  house  through  the  subsequent  brain  fever, 
which  no  heroine  with  a  shadow  of  self-respect  could  fail  of  deve- 
loping under  the  circumstances.  The  newly  discovered  parent  proves 
to  be  not  only  provided  with  a  marriage  certificate  in  due  form, 
satisfactorily  establishing  his  daughter's  position,  but  to  be  also 
uncle  to  the  hero,  and  the  true  and  lawful  possessor  of  the  title  and 
estates  wrongfully  enjoyed  by  the  father  of  the  latter.  The  poetical 
justice  hereby  wrought  upon  the  cruel  mother,  the  ogress  of  the 
tale,  thus  at  once  hurled  down  from  her  ])lace  of  dignity,  must  re- 
concile the  reader  to  the  antecedent  improbability  of  finding  the  two 
stock  characters  of  the  unknown  father  and  the  long-lost  baronet 


190  Notices  of  Catholic  Continental  Periodicals. 

combined  in  one  and  the  same  individual.  Eng-lish  country  life 
furnishes  the  background  of  the  story,  and  the  foibles  of  country 
society,  with  a  duchess  as  the  central  sun  of  its  firmament,  are  cari- 
catured in  sufficiently  vivacious  fashion.  The  principal  lovers,  for 
there  are  also  some  secondary  pairs  of  turtle-doves,  are  of  the  Edwin 
and  Angelina  type  of  gushing  efflorescence,  and  a  good  deal  of 
somewhat  maudlin  love-making  goes  on  between  them,  but  a  lively 
style  lends  vitality  to  the  narrative,  and  carries  it  on  with  unflagging- 
briskness  to  the  close. 


Mrs.  Dymond.     By  Miss  Thackeray   (Mrs.  Richmoxd  Ritchie). 
London :  Smith,  Elder  &  Co.     1885. 

MISS  THACKERAY  has  a  knack  of  showing  us  a  stoxy,  rather 
than  telling-  it ;  one  gets  the  impression  of  fjenre  painting 
magnified  to  life  size.  It  is  always  picturesque  and  true,  by  force 
of  delicate  colour  and  minute  detail,  qualities  which  make  restful 
and  pleasant  reading.  In  the  history  of  Susanna  Dymond  there  is 
an  atmosphere  of  loyalty  to  home  ties,  and  a  certain  sirnplicity  very 
far  removed  from  the  passionate  self-seeking  atmosphere  of  too 
many  novels.  We  wish  the  writer  had  not  a  haunting  delusion  that 
the  incense  of  continental  churches  is  the  type  of  a  dreamy  religion, 
and  that  those  who  practise  it  are  invited  to  suffering  and  the  anni- 
hilation of  their  life.  Some  scenes  arc  rather  marred  by  slight  hints 
of  this  mistake.  We  should  note,  too,  that  the  momentary  sight  of 
Marney's  infidelity  is  a  page  that  would  puzzle  a  very  ingenue  reader; 
but,  needless  to  say,  the  book  is  quite  radiant  with  a  pure  morality. 
Its  finest  parts  are  the  pictures  of  the  human,  homely,  hard-working 
Mrs.  Marney,  hiding-  her  husband's  worthlessness,  bearing  her  heart- 
break, and  faithfully  believing  in  a  character  against  whom  the 
reader  burns  with  indignation  for  her  sake.  The  death-scene,  where 
she  believes  him  to  be  beside  her  and  worthy  of  her  love,  is  a 
touching  page  of  tragedy.  For  these  self-seeking  days  there  is 
much  good  teaching  in  the  story  of  Mary  Marney's  noble  patience, 
dragging  through  life  in  the  shabby  menage  at  Neuilly.  It  is  one  of 
the  sad  things  that  it  is  good  to  know. 


Notices  0{  Catljoiic  Coiitrneiital  ^erioiitals. 
— t-*-* — 

ITALIAN   PERIODICALS. 

La  Civilta  CattoUca,  \7  Octobre,  1885. 

Russia  and  Mount  Athos. — From  the  Russian  correspondent  of 
the  Civilta  CattoUca.,  we  learn  some  curious  particulars  worthy  of 
the  attention  of  those  who  keep  a  watchful  eye  on  the  subtle  policy 
of  Russia,  ever  directed  to  the  acquisition  of  the  long-coveted  object 


Notices  of  Catholic  Continental  Periodicals.         191 

of  its  ambition,  Constantinople   and  the   remains   of  the  Turkish 
empire,  when  the  day  of  its  dissolution  shall  arrive.     He  notices 
first    the   extraordinary    and   expensive   warlike   preparations   and 
undertakings  connected  with  either  maritime  defence  or  ag-gressive 
projects  now  pushed  forward  with  a  feverish  activity  by  the  Russian 
Government,  which  seem  ill  to  accord  with  what  we  have  reason  to 
believe   concerning  its   financial  difficulties.     To   aggravate   these 
last,  the  country  is  now  threatened  with  an  alarming  scarcity.     The 
extreme  heat  and  drought  of  the  summer,  unexampled  as  regards 
northern  Russia  since  the  year  1748,  arrived  even  at  inspiring  the 
population  with  superstitious  fears.     More  solid  evils  have  resulted, 
such  as  the  extensive  confiagrations  in  the  forests.     Their  smoke, 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Moscow,  is  described  as  so  dense  that  the 
heavens  were  veiled  for  several  days  by  a  thick  shroud,  through  which 
the  sun  glaVed  like  a  fiery  l^all,  while  hosts  of  musquitoes,  expelled 
from  their  haunts  by  the  fiames,  invaded  the  city  ;  but,  what  was 
worse,  packs  of  wolves,  driven  from  their  summer  covert  by  the 
same  cause,  infested  the  country  and  entered  the  villages,  seizing  on 
the  domestic  animals  and  little  children,  nay,  even  attacking  grown 
.men  and  women,  wlien  they  surprised  any  alone.     Fires  also  Iiave 
been  fearfully  numerous  in  the  villages  and  provincial  towns,  which 
are,  for  the  most  part,  built  almost  entirely  of  wood,  so  that  it  has 
been  said  that  all  Russia  is  regularly  burned  down  in  the  course  of 
three  years.     This  year,  indeed,  the  fires  have  been  so  exceptionally 
frerfuent  and  destructive  as  to  have  alarmed  the  police.     In  the 
recent  disaster  at  Kline,  for  instance,  a  city  not  far  from  Moscow, 
the  flames   burst  forth  in   four  diflerent   quarters   simultaneously, 
pointing,  as  in  other  cases,  to  the  agency  of  incendiaries.     Even  at 
St,  Petersburg  and  in  the  vicinity,  fires  have  broken  out  with  no 
apparent  cause,  arid  the  police  have  apprehended  twelve  individuals, 
six  of  whom  were  women.     But  the  loss  of  the  harvest  is  the  most 
pressing  calamity.     People  ask  themselves  what  is  to  become  of  the 
commerce  of  Odessa  this  year,  and  who  is  to  give  bread  to  the 
peasant  ?     Under  these  circumstances,  and  with  the  consequences 
which  are  to   be  apprehended,  war  would  seem  an   impossibility. 
Facts,  however,  prove  that  it  is  not  so  regarded. 

For  a  long  time,  Russia  has  been  very  desirous  to  have  a  port 
in  the  Mediterranean,  and  that  for  obvious  reasons.  It  dominates  in 
the  Black  Sea,  and  a  considerable  fleet  in  the  harbour  of  Sebastopol 
can  command  the  Bosphorus  on  that  side  ;  but  what  it  wants  is  a 
harbour  on  the  other  side  of  the  Straits,  whicii  would  enable  it  to 
hold  Constantinople  between  two  fires.  Russia  is,  therefore,  striving- 
hard  to  create  this  strategic  position  for  itself,  to  which  the  other 
Powers  are,  of  course,  opposed.  The  writer  draws  attention  to  a  subtle 
plan  on  foot  to  get  possession  of  Mount  Athos,  which  could  be  easily 
converted  into  an  impregnable  fortress,  a  new  Gibraltar,  commanding- 
Greece,  Macedonia,  Egypt,  and  both  European  and  Asiatic  Turkey. 
But  Mount  Athos  belongs  to  Turkey,  and  is  tenanted,  as  all  know, 
by  monks,  schismatics  of  the  Greek  rite,  though  not  exclusively  of 


192  Notices  of  Catholic  Continental  Periodicals. 

Greek  nationality.  All,  liowever,  are  governed  for  their  g-eneral 
atFairs  by  the  Communal  Council,  composed  of  Greek  monks,  who 
naturally  favour  their  own  countrymen  more  than  those  who  are  of 
foreign  extraction.  These  last,  who  possess  six  of  the  monasteries, 
are  desirous  to  rid  themselves  of  Greek  supremacy,  and,  through 
the  Russian  ambassador  at  Constantinople,  have  claimed  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Russian  Government.  No  doubt  this  petition  has 
been  received  with  much  pleasiire  by  Russia,  which  will  now  become 
the  virtual  possessor  of  all  the  Russian  and  Slave  monasteries  at 
Mount  Athos,  and  will  be  able  to  despatch  tjiither  a  large  number 
of  men  under  the  guise  of  pilgrims,  and  enlarge  these  forts  for  their 
accommodation,  as  well  as  construct  a  harbour  to  shelter  the  vessels 
carr^'ing  them  from  Odessa;  for  how  could  any  objection  be  raised 
to  so  seemingly  reasonable  a  demand  as  to  be  allowed  to  provide  a 
safe  retreat  on  these  perilous  and  stormy  coasts  for  their  pacific 
fleet  ?  And  Turkey,  in  fact,  is  either  utterly  blind  or  turns  a  blind 
eye  to  the  disguised  occupation  of  so  important  a  post,  and  disregards 
the  reiterated  complaints  of  the  Communal  Council  and  its  endea- 
vours to  make  the  Porte  alive  to  the  intrigues  of  Russia.  Nay,  it 
has  declared,  through  the  medium  of  a  journal  published  in  Con- 
stantinople, that  these  accusations  are  devoid  of  all  foundation,  and 
has  even  sent  a  decoration  of  the  Turkish  Order  of  Osmanlie  to  the 
prior  of  the  Russian  monastery  of  San  Pantaleimon.  Russia,  in 
short,  says  the  writer,  has  introduced  a  formal  schism  at  Mount 
Athos  which  is  destructive  to  its  old  monastic  republic.  It  behoves, 
he  thinks,  those  who  have  a  vital  interest  in  the  question  to  decide 
upon  the  j^rudence  of  interference  before  it  be  too  late. 


19  Septemh'e,  1885. 

Antiquity  of  Coral  Formations. — Our' modern  philosophers  in 
the  department  of  natural  science,  for  the  most  part,  greedily 
welcome  any  fresh  discovery  which  seems  at  variance  with 
Christian  belief  regarding  the  antiquity  of  our  globe  in  its  present 
condition,  or  with  any  other  Biblical  statements,  or  hitherto-accepted 
deduction  from  such  statements.  Thus,  about  fifty  years  ago, 
Darv.in,  after  examining  the  coral  formations  among  the  Society 
Islands,  and  observing-  that  the  banks  descended  into  the 
ocean  to  depths  far  exceeding  the  limits  at  which  these  polj-pi  can 
work,  imagined  a  theory  to  account  for  what  he  considered  as  an 
established  fact,  of  which  more  anon.  According  to  him,  the  bed  of 
the  Pacific  Ocean  is  slowly  sinking,  and  by  this  process  the  coralline 
communities  have  been  enabled  to  continue  their  work  unin- 
terruptedly. Thus  a  coral  bank  of  the  depth  of  three  hundred 
metres  would,  he  cfalculates,  at  the  rate  at  which  coral  formations  are 
supposed  by  him  to  increase,  argue  an  abasement  of  the  bed  of  the 
ocean  requiring  300,000  years,  and  indefinitely  more  in  proportion 
to  the  depth  of  the  banks  in  question ;  while,  from  the  fact  that 


JVotices  of  Catholic  Continental  Periodicals.         193 

fragments  of  coral  had  been  fished  up  from  the  base  of  the  rock  he 
examined,  it  was  hastily  inferred  by  him  that  it  was  a  homogeneous 
■edifice  throug-hout,  the  entire  work  of  these  marvellous  creatures. 
All  this  was  confidently  accepted  by  geologists,  and  taught  in  their 
scientific  courses.  ]N'ow,  this  fine  theory,  which  was  grounded  on  an 
incomplete  induction  of  facts,  supplemented  by  conjecture,  of  which 
Mr.  Darwin  and  his  compeers  have  made  such  large  use  in  order  to 
fill  up  the  gaps  in  their  hypothetical  systems,  has  been  completely 
•exploded  by  the  recent  investigations  of  Murray  in  the  Challemjer. 
The  improvement  in  the  method  of  exploring  ocean  beds  at  the  depth, 
not  only  of  300,  but  of  thousands  of  metres,  has  brought  to  light 
facts  which  utterly  contradict  Darwin's  ingenious  conjectures.  The 
rocks  of  Tahiti,  the  very  same  that  Darwin  examined,  were  as- 
certained by  Murray  to  be  of  a  composition  totally  difierent  from 
what  he  had  supposed.  The  coral  constructions  do  not  plunge  down 
into  ocean  depths,  but  rest  upon  a  submarine  rocky  elevation.  At 
their  foot,  on  the  rocky  escarpment,  it  is  true,  fragments  of  coral 
detached  from  above  by  the  force  of  the  waves  had  become  com- 
pacted solidly  with  calcareous  deposits,  and  formed  a  s])ecies  of 
coating  perfectly  distinguishable,  upon  examination,  from  the  truf^ 
coral  formation  above.  Lower  down,  following  alwa3's  the  slope  of 
the  submarine  rock,  mixed  with  sand,  was  found  a  bed  of  coral 
■detritus,  the  residue  of  pieces  which  had  fallen  from  the  summit  of  the 
reef;  while,  descending  still  lower,  even  these  indications  disappeared, 
and  nothing  could  be  discerned  which  was  not  composed  of  volcanic 
materials  ;  demonstrating  plainly  that  the  island,  which  is,  so  to  say, 
a  skeleton  and  the  support  of  the  coral  reef,  is  a  thing  totally 
distinct  from  it,  and  is  nothing,  in  short,  but  the  cone  of  an  extinct 
volcano. 

It  may,  however,  be  ol}jected,  since  coral  reefs  are  so  numerous  in 
these  and  other  tropical  seas,  how  is  it  that  the  volcanic  upheavings 
on  which  they  are  said  to  rest  have  all  attained  precisely  the  height 
at  which  these  polypi  can  begin  to  work,  which  they  cannot  do  at  moro 
than  thirty-seven  metres  below  the  surface  of  the  sea  ."*  The  answer 
is  not  far  to  seek,  and  is  given  by  Murray.  Many  of  these  volcanic 
■cones  may  have  been  upheaved  above  the  ocean  surface,  but,  being 
generally  composed  of  loose  materials,  it  would  be  wonderful  indeed 
should  they  have  continued  to  resist  the  action  of  the  waves.  Now, 
as  their  force  becomes  reduced  almost  to  nothing  at  a  depth  of  about 
thirty  metres,  its  effect  would  be  exactly  that  of  lowering  the  cone 
to  the  depth  needed  for  the  formation  of  a  coral  bank.  Other  cones 
which  had  not  risen  to  the  proper  elevation  may  have  easily  received 
the  requisite  increment  by  marine  calcareous  deposits  which  are  con- 
tinually forming  in  these  seas.  Murray's  observations  receive  con- 
firmation from  those  of  Agassiz,  who,  in  the  reefs  of  Florida  and  tho 
Antilles,  could  discover  no  signs  of  abasement,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
proofs  of  upheaval.  The  peculiar  shape  of  the  coral  reefs  can  be 
readily  explained  when   we  note,  what    has  long  been   matter   of 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  1.     [Third  Series.}  O 


194}         Notices-  of  Catholic  Continental  Periodicals. 

observation,  that  the  coralline  community  works  much  more  easily 
and  rapidly  where  it  is  exposed  to  the  shock  of  the  waves.  Hence  it 
is  that,  as  soon  as  the  construction  begins  to  emerge,  the  external 
portion  grows  the  fastest,  and  the  result  is  the  shape  which  the 
reefs  assume  of  a  circular  chain  with  an  elevated  margin,  enclosing 
a  lagune  of  greater  or  less  depth.  The  reef  cannot  rise  any  higher, 
for  these  creatures  cannot  exist  unless  the  water  passes  over  them  for 
at  least  the  greater  portion  of  the  day.  All  foundation  being  now 
removed  for  the  necessity  of  supposing  a  gradual  lowering  of  the 
ocean  bed,  along  with  that  also  disappears  the  needless  conjecture  of 
thousands  of  centuries  for  a  construction  belonging,  as  it  appears,  to 
a  quite  recent  epoch.  Possibly  some  of  the  myriads  of  centuries  re- 
quired by  evolutionists  may  vanish  in  like  manner  through  the 
advance  of  science  and  a  severer  and  closer  scrutiny  of  facts. 


GERMAN   PERIODICALS. 

By  Dr.  Bellesheim,  of  Cologne. 

1.  Katliolik. 

The  Consecration  of  Holy  Oils. — The  author  of  this  series  oF 
interesting  liturgical  articles  proceeds,  in  the  September  number  of 
the  Katliolik,  to  inquire  what  are  the  Church's  views  as  to  who  is 
entitled  to  be  the  minister  in  the  ceremony  of  consecrating  Holy 
Oils.  The  principle  is  laid  down  that  the  porver  of  consecrating 
them  is  bestowed  on  every  priest  by  the  words  of  the  bishop  when 
conferring  the  priesthood,  "  Consecrare  et  sanctificare  digneris, 
Domine."  But  the  actual  exercise  of  the  power  is  not  allowed. 
We  thus  explain  two  apparently  opposed  points  of  discipline.  For, 
on  the  one  hand,  by  reason  of  the  importance  attached  to  the  Holy 
Oils,  their  consecration  has  been  reserved  to'the  bishop ;  and  yet,  on 
the  other  hand,  cases  may  arise  in  which  the  Holy  See  judges 
well  to  bestow  the  faculty  on  simple  priests.  An  important 
example  is  seen  in  the  action  of  Pius  VI.,  who  empowered  the 
French  bishops  to  grant  to  their  priests  the  faculty  of  consecrating 
chalices  and  patens,  nevertheless  who,  when  asked  to  also  extend 
to  simple  priests  the  power  to  consecrate  the  Holy  Oils,  refused  on 
the  ground  that  such  concession  would  conilict  with  the  time- 
honoured  custom  of  the  Latin  Church.  Indeed,  the  Church  is  emi- 
nently conservative,  although  wherever  doctrines  are  not  concerned, 
when  grave  reasons  urge,  she  is  not  averse  to  modification  and  pru- 
dential changes.  Whenever  grave  reasons  are  wanting,  she  never 
touches  her  liturgical  traditions.  We  may  here  note,  by  the  way, 
that,  as  regards  the  Greek  Church,  simple  priests  continue  to  the 
present  day  to  consecrate  the  Oleum  Catechumenorum  and  the 
Oleum  Infirmorum,  but  the  consecration  of  the  Chrisma  is  exclusively 
reserved  to  bishops  in  the  Greek  as  it  is  in  the  Latin  Church.  The 
author  of  this  article  proceeds  to  justify  the  Latin  practice  in  this 


Notices  of  Catholic  Continental  Periodicals.  195 

respect  by  dwelling  on  the  symbolism  of  the  Holy  Oils  as  typifying 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  on  the  nature  of  the  episcopal  order  as  imply^ 
ing  the  fulness  of  hierarchical  dignity  and  power.  A  second  article 
in  the  October  issue  explains  the  consecration  of  the  Oils  being 
fixed  for  Maundy  Thursday,  by  the  close  connection  between 
the  Holy  Oils  and  the  solemn  administration  of  baptism  which  took 
place  on  Easter  Eve. 

Another  article  discusses  the  modern  philosophical  system  as  to 
time  and  space.  Both  the  empirical  and  idealistic  doctrines  on  this 
important  point  of  ontology  are  refuted,  and  the  doctrine  of  St. 
Thomas  is  established  at  length. 

German  Bibles  before  Luther. — An  article  in  the  October 
number  contains  a  critique  on  Dr.  Jostes'  work,  "  The  Waldenses 
and  pre-Lutheran  German  translations  of  the  Bible,"  a  work  which 
should  have  special  interest  for  English  Catholics.  The  fabulous 
statement  that  it  was  Luther  who  first  gave  the  German  people  a 
translation  of  the  Bible  has  been  so  often  refuted  that  it  is  irritating 
to  have  to  refute  it  yet  once  again.  It  had  to  be  done,  however ; 
for  the  old  fable  was  presented  to  the  German  public  in  quite  a  new 
shape  in  1884.  In  1881,  Father  Klimes,  a  Cistercian  monk  of  Tepl, 
near  Marienbad,  in  Bohemia,  published,  for  the  first  time,  the  so-called 
Codex  Teplensis,  which  is  a  German  translation  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, belonging  to  the  second  part  of  the  fourteenth  century.  It 
soon  became  well  known  that  this  codex  had  served  as  the  model  on 
which  the  first  printed  German  Bibles  had  been  based.  Hereupon, 
curiously  enough,  two  Protestant  historians,  Messrs.  Keller  and 
Haupt,  proceeded  to  claim  this  Codex  of  Tepl,  not  for  the  Catholics, 
but  for  the  Waldenses.  The  result  of  their  researches  was  an 
apology  for  the  WaLdenses,  to  whose  energy,  zeal,  and  piety  the 
German  people  owed  their  first  translation  of  the  Bible.  A  young 
Catholic  historian,  Dr.  Jostes,  of  Miinster  Academ}^  joined  issue 
with  the  aforesaid  historians,  and  has  unanswerably  convicted  them 
of  grossly  misrepresenting  media3val  history,  and  being  ignorant 
of  Catholic  institutions.  These  historians  had  laid  great  stress  on 
the  fact  that  an  Appendix  contained  "  seven  chapters  on  Christian 
faith."  This,  they  maintained,  was  a  Waldensian  catechism.  Yet 
any  unprejudiced  reader,  only  superficially  acquainted  with  Catholic 
doctrine,  might  see  that  it  is  a  simple,  good  orthodox  Catholic 
sermon.  Messrs.  Keller  and  Haupt's  assumption  is  further  refuted  by 
the  register  of  the  Sundays,  which  is  unmistakably  Catholic  ;  noting 
the  celebration  of  three  masses  on  Christmas  day,  the  feast  of  All 
Saints,  Corpus  Christi  day,  and  some  other  saints'  days.  It  is  daring 
indeed,  in  face  of  all  this,  to  speak  of  it  being  a  Waldensian  cate- 
chism that  accompanies  this  old  translation  of  the  Bible.  Nor  can 
the  hypothesis  of  a  Waldensian  translation  find  any  support  in 
ecclesiastical  decrees  against  reading  the  Bible  in  the  vernacular. 
Doubtless,  in  Spain,  as  early  as  by  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
translations  of  the  Bible  had  been  suppressed  by  royal  decrees ;  it  is 
qiiite  useless^  however,  to  seek  for  similar  decrees,  whether  imj>erial 

O  2 


196  Notices  of  Catholic  Continental  Periodicals. 

or  episcopal,  in  Germany.  No  such  decree  was  in  force  in  this 
country  at  the  time  when  our  codex  was  written.  The  first  decree 
of  that  kind  emanates  from  the  Archbishop  of  Maintz,  in  1486. 


2.  Stimmen  aus  Maria  Loach. 

The  Pope  and  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew. — F.  Duhr, 
in  an  article  of  considerable  length,  answers  the  much-agitated 
question  :  What  was  Rome's  position  towards  the  St.  Bartholomew 
massacre?  In  the  Dublin  Review  of  October  last,  I  called 
attention  to  F.  Duhr's  first  article,  in  which  he  showed  that  the 
massacre  was  not  premeditated,  but  was  the  result  of  a  sudden  out- 
burst of  rag'e  on  the  part  of  Queen  Catherine.  Hence  an  antici- 
patory approval  of  the  tragedy  by  the  Pope  can  no  longer  be 
sustained.  But  is  it  not  true  that  the  Pope  approved  of  it  after  its 
accomplishment  ?  Not  a  few  Protestants  are  of  the  opinion  that  he 
did  :  an  opinion  rejected  by  Catholics,  who  establish  the  fact  that  the 
Pope  never,  directly  or  indirectly,  sanctioned  the  barbarous  massacre  j 
and  that  only  because  the  Pope  was  deeply  moved,  as  well  as 
deceived,  by  the  despatches  of  the  French  Court  was  a  Te  Deum  sung 
for  what  was  believed  to  be  the  escape  of  the  King  from  imminent 
danger.  The  first  part  of  this  usual  answer  is  reliable.  As  to  the 
Te  Deum,  it  cannot  any  longer  be  denied  that,  besides  the  French 
despatches,  other  news  had  reached  Rome  previous  to  September  5, 
lo?2.  Father  Duhr,  therefore,  sets  himself  to  answer  three 
questions :  1.  What  sort  of  news  had  reached  Rome  previous 
to  September  5  ?  2.  In  what  manner  was  it  received,  and  what 
kind  of  rejoicings  were  indulged  in  ?  3.  Can  the  latter  in  any  way 
be  accounted  for  and  approved  of?  It  would -detain  us  too  long  to 
follow  the  learned  author's  details.  It  remains  true  that  Gregory 
XIII.  took  part  in  the  great  Roman  procession,  that  he  had  a  medal 
struck  bearing  the  inscription  "  Hugonotorum  strages,"  and  that  he 
shared  in  the  common  feeling  that  a  powerful  adversary  had  been 
struck  down.  But  he  utterly  held  in  abhorrence  the  way  in  which 
the  Huguenots  had  been  dealt  with  on  that  5th  of  September,  1572. 
Vincenzo  Parapaglia,  ambassador  of  Emmanuel  Philibert,  Duke  of 
Savoy,  at  the  Roman  Court  wrote  to  the  Duke  :  The  joy  would 
have  been  still  greater  had  the  king  acted  against  the  Huguenots 
"  with  pure  hands,  and  in  accordance  with  legal  requirements." 

The  great  son  of  mediaeval  England,  Adam  of  St.  Victor,  who  by 
his  writings  shed  peculiar  lustre  on  the  French  Church,  is  the  subject 
of  a  very  pleasant  paper  contributed  by  Father  Dreves.  Father 
Baumgartner  continues  his  recollections  of  his  journey  to  Iceland. 
His  articles  in  the  September,  October,  and  November  numbers 
chiefly  dwell  xipon  the  deplorable  fact  that  the  decadence  of  Iceland 
dates  from  the  period  of  the  Reformation.  The  value  of  these 
capital  articles  is  enhanced  by  some  excellent  translations  of  northern 
poetry  into  German. 


Notices  of  Catholic  Continental  Periodicals.  197 

3.  Zeitschrift  fur  KathoUsche  Theolngie,  Innshruch. 

Gregory  the  Great's  Sacramentarium. — The  October  number 
gives  us  the  dissertation  by  Professor  Grisar,  S.J.,  on  PopeGreg'ory  I.'s 
Sacramentarium.  The  author  ditfers  from  those  medieeval  and 
modern  liturg-ists  who  ascribe  to  St.  Gregory  the  Great  far  more  in- 
novations in  matters  of  liturgy  than  he  made.  The  Pope  may  rather 
be  said  to  have  been  eminently  conservative,  only  yielding  to  most 
cog'ent  reasons  in  undertaking  to  alter  at  all  rites  which  he  found  in 
use.  Professor  Grisar  uses  Gregory's  famous  letter  to  Bishop  John  of 
Syracuse,  to  indicate  shrewdly  the  lines  on  which  the  Pope  proceeded. 
The  explanation  of  the  Kyrie  Eleison  and  the  Lord's  Prayer  being- 
inserted  by  the  Pope  immediately  after  the  canon  (Mox  post  precem) 
deserves  special  attention.  Next,  the  author  distinguishes  the 
original  portions  of  the  Sacramentary  from  what  in  after  times  has  been 
attached  to  it  by  other  writers.  A  fact  brought  into  due  prominence 
by  Professor  Grisar  is  the  connection  between  the  reform  of  the 
Sacramentarium  and  the  "  Stationes."  To  Gregory  the  Roman 
church  owes  the  revival  of  the  "■  Stationes."  The  Pope  gave  the 
Sacramentarium  such  a  shape  as  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  clergy 
and  people  on  those  occasions. 


FRENCH    PERIODICALS. 

Itcvue  des  Questions  Historiqucs.     Octobre,  1885.     Pans. 

"Was  Nero  a  Persecutor? — There  is  a  well-known  passage  in 
the  "Annals"  of  Tacitus  (Book  XV.  chap,  xliv.),  which  tells  of  the 
cruel  tortures  to  which  Nero  subjected  a  vast  multitude  of  Christians 
after  the  burning-  of  the  city,  that  he  might  divert  suspicions  and 
murmurs  against  himself  as  the  suspected  author'  of  the  conflagra- 
tion. The  authenticity  of  this  passage  has  recently  been  questioned 
and  denied  !  A  certain. M.  Hochart,  in  a  paper  entitled  "  La  Per- 
secution des  Chretiens  sous  Neron  "  (in  the  A/males  de  la  Faculte  des 
Lettres  de  Bordeaux,  No.  2  de  I'annee  1884),  maintains  that  the 
passage  is  an  interpolation,  introduced  into  the  text  of  the  "Annals" 
in  the  Middle  Ages  by  a  Benedictine  monk !  The  first  article  in 
the  present  number  of  the  Eevue  is  a  reply  to  this  strange  accusa- 
tion. The  Abbe  Douais,  Professor  at  the  Catholic  Institute  of  Tou- 
louse, under  the  heading-,  "  La  Persecution  des  Chretiens  de  Rome 
en  I'annee  64,"  discusses  M.  Ilochart's  criticisms  with  the  result  of 
entirely  rejecting-  his  novel  conclusion.  M.  Ilochart's  arguments 
are  too  numerous  to  be  detailed  here  ;  the  Abbe  gives  a  large  space 
to  them,  as  indeed  was  necessary,  in  order  to  render  his  own  replies 
intelligible,  and  the  student  who  would  appreciate  the  one,  will  seek 
to  read  the  other  in  the  article  itself.  His  arguments  may,  however, 
be  divided  (we  think)  into  three  classes ;  into  those,  namely,  which 
(1)  attack  the  assertions  in  the  passage  under  consideration,  those 
(2}  which  attack  the  language  of  the  passage,  and  finally  (3)  those 


]  98  Notices  of  CatJiolic  Continental  Periodicals. 

which  pretend  to  account  for  the  falsification.  Thus  first,  M.  Hochart 
asserts  that  Nero  was  too  popular,  even  after  the  conflagration, 
for  this  interpolated  account  to  be  probable ;  that  the  punishment  of 
fire  in  the  manner  described  was  impossible  at  Rome,  that  no  tri- 
bunal is  mentioned,  whilst  the  Romans  professed  and  had  too  great 
a  respect  for  legal  forms  for  such  a  summary'  proceeding ;  that  the 
victims  could  not  have  been  burned  in  gardens  on  the  Vatican,  &c. 
To  all  this,  the  Abbe  Douais  replies  carefully  and  at  length,  showing 
unhesitatingly  the  mistakes  made  by  M.  Hochart.  JNTero,  it  is 
shown,  Avas  suspected,  and  the  people  had  good  cause  to  suspect  him 
and  the  complicity  of  those  in  power,  judging  from  the  absence  of 
efforts  to  save  the  city  of  its  guardians  and  firemen,  the  visiles, 
sipTwnarii,  &c.  That  Tacitus  does  not  mention  the  tribunal  before 
which  the  Christians  were  cited  or  the  counts  in  their  indictment,  is 
shown  to  prove  nothing ;  neither  Suetonius  nor  Tacitus  considered 
the  punishment  of  Christians  a  thing  of  any  moment.  Tacitus 
speaks  of  them  with  supreme  contempt.  M.  Hochart  thinks  that 
the  recital  of  the  horrible  tortures  to  which  Christians  are  said  to 
have  been  put  "must  have  come  from  an  imagination  penetrated 
with  the  legends  of  the  martjTS  !  "  Why  ?  The  Abbe  shows  that 
their  inhuman  death  by  fire  is  not  impossible,  not  even  improbable. 
There  remains  the  question  of  the  intrinsic  difficulties  of  the  passage. 

Has  Tacitus  been  Falsified  ? — The  Abbe  shows  that  these  sup- 
posed textual  difficulties  are,  in  fact,  but  poor  assumptions  and 
indicative  rather  of  anti-Christian  animus  than  scholarship,  on  the 
part  of  M.  Hochart.  The  name  Christian,  the  latter  objects,  could 
not  be  known  to  Tacitus ;  the  Ronians  at  that  time  were  in  contact 
with  Jews,  and  a  Roman  writer  would  have  said  rather  "Messiani" 
than  "  Christiani "  from  the  Greek,  if  he  had  wished  to  designate 
the  followers  of  the  Messiah  to  his  contemporaries.  The  Abbe 
shows  first  that  this  difficulty  is  purely  an  imaginary  one,  and 
secondly,  that  de  facto  the  followers  of  Christ  were  then  known 
sufficiently  well  as  Christians  to  account  for  the  name  being  used  by 
Tacitus.  Such  other  objections  as  that  Tacitus  would  not  have  said 
"  auctor  nominis,"  nor  "  Tiberio  imperitante,"  but  would  have  said 
"  Tiberio  principe,"  are  abundantly  refuted  by  the  learned  writer,  as 
also  is  M.  Hochart's  specious  pretence  that  the  narrative  of  Tacitus 
suifers  by  the  interpolation  of  the  passage,  and  runs  consecutively 
when  it  is  removed. 

Nero  Whitewashed. — The  capabilities  of  the  Middle  Ages  in 
the  way  of  fatuity  and  falsification,  are  apparently  not  yet  sufficiently 
shown  up  by  the  detective  criticism  of  our  clever  age.  The  False 
Decretals  are  in  danger  of  being  capped  by  False  Classics  !  Nero 
does  not  deserve  what  has  been  said  of  him  in  this  affair :  the 
monk  in  "  some  monastery  of  the  West "  was  himself  in  part  deceived ! 
This  very  briefly  is  how  it  came  about : — The  persecution  (such  as  it 
was)  of  A.D.  G4  is  in  TertuUian  of  a  religious  character  merely. 
Later,  "  I'esprit  Chretien "  gave  it  a  political  character.  In  the 
fourth  centurj^  this  first  appears  j  the  Christians  came  to  be  blamed, 


Notices  of  Catholic  Conthiental  Periodicals.        199 

•at  the  dissolution  of  the  empire,  for  all  its  evils,  the  invasions  of  the 
barbarians,  &c.  A  Christian  of  that  time  "  consequently  "  Avould  be 
persuaded  that  it  was  so  in  Nero's  day,  and  that  the  Christians  muH 
also  have  been  reg-arded  or  at  least  blamed  as  the  authors  of  the 
conilagration  of  the  city.  The  falsifier  also  knew,  however,  that 
Nero  himself  was  accused  of  the  fire,  therefore  he  comUned  the  two 
stories !  This  narrative  found  its  way  into  Sulpicius  Severus  and 
thence  later  into  Tacitus  with  some  new  elements,  (1)  inas- 
much as  Nero  was  regarded  as  the  Anti-Christ  of  the  Apocalypse, 
{2)  owing  to  the  "  particular  concern  which  the  Roman  church  had 
in  showing  that  SS.  Peter  and  Paul,  in  order  to  found  it,  must  needs 
have  shed  their  blood  at  Rome."  Hence  the  slaughter  of  Christians 
on  the  Vatican,  where  it  could  not  have  occurred,  and  the  story,  as  it 
stands,  reveals,  "  one  cannot  doubt,  the  Western  monk  of  the  Middle 
Ages  !  "  Many  pages  are  devoted  to  refuting  this,  not  argument, 
but  fabrication.  M.  Hochart's  card-building  of  assumptions  cannot 
stand  against  common-sense  and  mere  facts.  The  falsifying  monk 
is  supposed  to  have  determined  to  add  a  chapter  to  Tacitus,  relative 
to  the  persecution  of  Christians,  and  on  M.  Hochart's  hypothesis,  did 
it,  as  the  Abbe  shows,  exactly  in  the  way  not  to  suit  his  own  avowed 
purpose.  But,  further  (for  details  the  reader  must  be  referred  to 
the  article  itself),  the  medireval  monk  has  no  need  to  help  on  the 
notion  of  St.  Peter's  supremacy  in  this  or  any  other  way.  The  fact 
of  St.  Peter's  presence  in  Rome  was  too  well  known,  and  proved  by 
too  strong  assertions,  to  need  this  help,  and  the  monk  could  only  have 
knowingly  falsified  without  provocation,  for  Avhich  uncharitable 
assertion  we  have  only  M.  Hochart's  fancies. 

St.  Bernard  and  the  Second  Crusade. — This  is  the  title  of 
the  next  article,  which  is  from  the  pen  of  the  Abbe  E.  Vacandard — 
an  article  which  may  be  recommended  as  containing  a  graphic  and 
detailed  account  of  the  preparations  for  the  Crusade  and  causes  of 
its  failure,  founded  on  the  original  sources  (the  chronicles  being 
largely  drawn  upon)  and  on  the  best  recent  German  authors,  Wilken, 
Kugler,  Giesebrecht,  Jaffe,  Neumann,  &:c.  The  Avriter  complains 
that  the  story  of  the  Crusade  is  mistakenly,  inefficiently  or  mislead- 
ingly  told  in  even  recent  and  good  French  works — and  his  leading- 
object  seems  to  be  to  establish  the  claim  of  the  French  Kmg 
Louis  VII.  to  the  glory  of  having  given  the  initiative  to  the  Crusade. 
The  sketch  of  S.  Bernard's  journeys  and  preachings  is  very  tuU  and 
interesting :  well  worth  tlie  reading.  The  writer  concludes  with 
some  good  remarks  on  the  view  to  be  taken  of  this  and  the  other 
Crusades. 

Other  articles  in  this  excellent  number  of  the  Revue  are  "  Les 
Questions  d'enseignement  dans  les  cahiers  de  1789,"  by  the  Abbe 
E.  Allain,  "  Isidore  de  Cordoue  et  ses  ceuvres,  d'apres  un  MS.  de 
I'Abbaye  de  Maredsous,"  a  most  interesting  paper,  in  which  the 
■writer  Dom  Germain  Morin,  O.S.B.,  rehearsing  the  arguments  for 
and  against  the  existence  of  an  Isidore  of  Cordova,  and  himself 


200  Notices  of  Books. 

siding-  against,  by  means  of  a  MS.  in  the  library  of  Maredsons  of 
the  twelfth  century,  clears  up  the  mystery  of  the  mention  of  Isidore 
of  Cordova  by  Sizebert  of  Gemblouc,  who  says  that  this  Isidore- 
''  scripsit  ad  Orosium  libros  quatuor  in  libros  regum."  In  all  proba- 
bility, the  Isodore  so-called  of  Cordova,  made  his  appearance  throug-h 
the  pen  of  a  copyist  in  some  Belgian  monastery  of  the  early  twelfth 
century.  The  work  on  Kings  mentioned  by  Sizebert,  was  not 
written  in  the  fourth  century,  but  in  the  ninth  or  tenth  by  some 
monk.  The  other  articles  of  the  number  are  "  La  Correspondence 
de  Catherine  de  Medicis,"  by  M.  G.  Baguenault  de  Puchesse,  "  La 
r^eographie  de  la  Gaule,  de  M.  Ernest  Desjardins,"  by  M.  Anatole 
de  Barthelem}',  and  lastly,  an  interesting-  criticism  of  modern  French. 
histor}^  class  books,  "  Les  Cours  d'histoire  a  I'usage  de  I'enseig-ne- 
ment  secondaire,"  by  M.  Felix  Aubert. 


Itfitias  of  ^i00lis. 


JUcclesmstical  Institutions :    yeing  part   of  the  Principles  of  Sociology. 
By  Herbert  Spencer.    London:  Williams  &  IS' org-ate.    1885. 

MR.  SPEiSCER'S  exposition  of  the  theory  of  evolution  has  at 
last  reached  the  stage  of  its  direct  application  to  religion. 
Ill-health,  which  we  are  sorry  to  hear  of,  has  delayed  the  completion  of 
this  volume ;  but  the  general  lines  which  it  follows,  and  the  conclu- 
sion it  enforces,  have  long  been  known  to  students  of  the  Spencerian 
philosophy,  and  it  has  so  far  not  suffered  by  the  delay.  We  do  not 
know  whether  w^e  are  to  attribute  to  the  same  cause  the  unexpected 
feebleness  of  the  indictment  now  drawn  up  against  natural  and  re- 
vealed religion.  We  confess  to  a  certain  disappointment  in  this. 
Knowing-  that  Mr.  Spencer  is  unhappil}^  not  a  believer,  we  felt,  witL 
Kant,  that  there  would  be  a  certain  advantag-e  in  having-  to  consider 
an  attack  made  by  an  adversary  of  such  known  ability.  We  might 
have  looked  for  new  objections,  or  for  old  ones  newly  shaped,  which 
would  have  led  apolog-ists  to  bring  out,  in  fresh  relief,  such  aspects 
of  the  truth  as  were  impugned.  Instead  of  these,  the  volume  before 
us  is  chiefly  made  up  of  series  of  quotations,  marshalled  with 
that  monotonous  wealth  of  illustration,  which  is  a  strong-  point  in  all 
Mr.  Spencer's  works,  since  it  leaves  the  reader  to  suppose  (as  it  has 
doubtless  already  persuaded  the  author)  that  they  are  all  of  them 
relevant,  and  prove  the  conclusion  they  are  intended  to  enforce.  In 
this  volume,  it  will  be  found  by  any  one  who  carefully  examines 
them,  the  proportion  of  inaccurate  or  irrelevant  instances  is  much 
larg^er  than  in  its  predecessors.  We  will  proceed  to  justify  the 
severity  of  this  opinion  by  a  brief  examination  of  the  work  itself. 
Mr.  Spencer  sets  out,  very  rightly,  by  inquiring-  into  the  source  of 


Notices  of  Books.  201 

the  religious  ideas  wliich  ecclesiastical  institutions  subserve  ;  and 
begins  by  stating-  that  the  belief,  of  "theologians"  and  others,  that 
there  is  "  an  innate  consciousness  of  deity,"  has  been  "  rudely 
shaken"  by  recent  investigation.  His  objections  are  drawn  from 
two  sources  ;  firstly,  cases  are  cited  to  prove  that  deaf  mutes  and 
others  who  have  been  from  infancy  cut  otf  from  intercourse  with  the 
minds  of  adults,  are  devoid  of  religious  ideas;  and  secondly,  the 
reports  of  travellers  are  used  to  show  that  these  do  not  exist  among 
various  savage  races.  It  is  characteristic  of  our  author's  method 
that  the  latter  quotations  (merely  given  as  additional  to  those  for 
which  he  refers  to  Sir  J.  Lubbock)  are  not  qualified  by  any  doubt 
as  to  the  correctness  with  which  an  European  iinderstands  a  savage  ; 
and  that  three  of  the  five  do  not  appear  to  refer  to  the  existence  of 
God  at  all,  but  to  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  But  supposing  them 
all  correct  and  to  the  point,  Mr.  Spencer  does  not  seem  to  have 
realized  that  no  one  now  thinks  supernatural  ideas — or  indeed  any 
ideas  at  all — to  be  "innate"  in  such  a  sense  as  would  be  open  to 
these  objections.  The  question  is,  not  whether  every  human  being 
is,  of  himself,  provided  with  any  definite  knowledge  at  all,  but 
whether  his  mind  is  so  constructed  as  to  assent  to  such  truths,  when 
their  terms  are  sufficiently  understood,  and,  if  needful,  as  in  certain 
cases,  the  grounds  for  them  are  presented  to  him,  Mr.  Spencer's 
objections  to  the  idea  of  deity  apply  as  much,  certainly  no  less,  to 
the  ideas  of  arithmetic  and  geometry,  or  even  to  the  fundamental 
principles  of  the  human  reason.  The  general  properties  of  number 
and  space,  and  the  laws  of  Identity,  Contradiction,  and  Excluded 
Middle,  are  far  more  hidden  from  the  deaf  mute  and  savage  than  the 
belief  in  the  existence  of  God. 

Mr.  Spencer  next  proceeds  to  develop  his  own  view,  which  he  has 
stated  before,  but  which,  he  thinks,  "  needs  re-emphasizing  "  and  sup- 
porting with  further  facts.  Our  readers  ])robably  know  it  to  be  the 
theory  called  "  Animism,"  which  ascribes  the  belief  in  the  existence 
of  one  or  many  gods  to  the  worship  of  deceased  ancestors.  Their 
spirits  are  supposed  to  be  still  dwelling  in  their  wonted  haunts,  and 
to  have  the  same  wants  and  passions  as  during  life,  whence  the 
otferings  of  food  made  to  them,  and  the  attempts  to  avert  their 
wrath.  If  we  ask,  whence  the  belief  in  the  existence  of  spirits  after 
death  ?  we  are  told  that  it  is  derived  from  the  phenomena  of  sleep, 
and  other  kinds  of  unconsciousness,  during  which  the  soul  is  thought 
to  be  wandering  from  the  body.  Supposing  every  link  of  this  chain 
to  hold,  it  would  supply  a  possible  "  naturalist "  explanation  of  the 
origin  of  supernatural  ideas.  iS'o  wonder,  therefore,  Mr.  Spencer  is 
so  satisfied  Avith  the  argument  that  he  cannot  help  saying,  "  this 
inference"  (that  ghost-propitiation  is  the  source  of  all  religion) 
"receives  support  wherever  we  look."  Accordingly,  he  collects  facts 
from  races  in  every  stage  of  civilization  or  barbarism,  to  prove  this 
important  point.  Some  are  dressed  up  for  the  purpose,  if  they  do 
not  already  suit,  such  as  a  very  important  quotation  from  the  Rev. 
Duff  MacDouald's  "  Afii-icana,''  which,  being  intended  to  illustrate 


202  •    Notices  of  Books. 

the  growth  of  ancestor  worship,  is  ''  placed  for  clearness  in  a  changed 
order."  Other  facts  can  hardly  have  seemed  very  convincing-,  even 
to  Mr.  Spencer,  such  as  Pinto's  cut  of  a  chief's  mausoleum,  which 
"  needs  but  additional  columns  to  make  it  like  a  small  Greek  temple." 
Others,  again,  are  accounts  of  worship  at  the  shrines  of  Greek  heroes, 
whose  apotheosis  is  distinctly  not  a  primitive  but  a  late  phenomenon 
in  the  history  of  religion,  or  of  prayer  and  ceremonial  at  the  shrines 
of  Mohammedan  saints,  as  to  which  we  prefer  to  accept  the  expla- 
nation given  by  3Iohammedans  themselves. 

The  like  unphilosophical  temper  is  shown  by  the  wa}^  in  which 
other  theories  of  the  origin  of  religion  are  disposed  of.  Thus, 
fetishism  is  rejected,  on  the  strength  of  four  instances,  two  of  which 
are  wholly  irrelevant.  Professor  Max  Midler's  theory  of  nature- 
worship  is  set  aside  merely  on  the  follovv-ing  grounds.  Certain 
Indian  tribes  called  the  stars  the  camp  fires  of  deceased  persons,  and 
they  have  afterwards  been  taken  for  the  deceased  themselves,  hence 
their  worship  may  have  arisen.  A  Hawaiian  king  was  called  "  the 
heavens,"  "  whence  it  is  clear  that  Zeus  may  naturally  at  first  have 
been  a  living  person,  and  that  his  identification  with  the  sky  re- 
sulted (the  "may"  is  dropped  here)  from  his  metaphysical  name." 
The  sun  is  a  favourite  name,  and  so  may  have  belonged  to  some  one 
whose  superiority,  or  good  fortune,  or  remarkable  fate,  may  have 
led  to  its  personalized  worship.  We  need  hardly  say  we  do  not 
accept  Protessor  Max  Midler's  as  an  adequate  account  of  the  origin 
of  religion,  though  we  think  it  superior  to  animism  and  fetishism  j 
for  that  very  reason  Ave  are  the  better  able  to  estimate  the  incredible 
feebleness  of  the  objections  here  raised  to  it.  The  records  of 
primeval  peoples,  and  the  real  opinions  of  savage  races,  are  still  so 
imperfectly  known  to  us,  that  nothing  can  be  safely  built  upon  them. 
The  most  that  we  are  warranted  in  doing  is  to  proceed  with  caution, 
endeavouring  to  separate  primary  developments  from  late  corruptions 
of  religious  belief,  and  thus  hoping  to  arrive  at  last  at  a  theory  based 
on  facts.  In  this  the  Abbe  de  Broglie  has  set  a  good  example  in 
his  recent  admirable  "  Histoire  des  Religions."  He  brings  forward 
against  each  of  the  three  theories  we  have  mentioned,  not  merely 
the  facts  which  each  quotes  against  the  others,  but  the  following 
objection  which  we  have  not  seen  answered.  Before  the  predicate 
"  God"  can  be  applied  to  any  object,  whether  the  sun,  a  deceased 
ancestor,  or  a  fetish,  some  idea  of  God  must  already  exist — we  do 
not  use  terms  for  which  we  have  no  meaning.  His  own  opinion, 
suggested  with  much  caution,  is  the  following :  If  we  suppose  that 
the  development  of  religion  in  the  race  corresponds  to  its  develop- 
ment in  each  individual,  and  examine  how  it  arises  in  the  child,  we 
shall  find  that  the  belief  in  a  superior  being  is  always  suggested  from 
without,  and  is,  at  least  to  some  extent,  external  in  its  origin.  But 
it  falls  upon  soil  which  is  every  way  prepared  to  receive  it.  The 
reason  recognizes  a  first  cause ;  the  conscience  accepts  a  legislator 
and  a  judge ;  the  heart  turns  unerringly  to  its  eternal  Father,  and 
seeks  an  adequate  object  for  its  love.     The  disposition,  therefore,  to 


Notices  of  Boohs.    ■  203 

believe  in  God,  is  innate;  but  not  the  belief  itself.  This  would 
imply  some  divine  communication,  whereby  the  existence  of  God, 
and  man's  relation  to  Him,  was  manifested  in  the  beginning  to  the 
human  race.  Animism  and  nature-worship  would  then  fall  into  their 
places  as  partial  expressions  of  the  orig-inally  communicated  truth. 
"Avant  de  dire,  'le  mort  est  un  dieu/  comme  avant  de  dire, '  le  soleil 
est  dieu,'  il  faut  deji\  avoir  I'idee  de  Dieu." 

This  view  is  at  any  rate  in  accordance  with  a  considerable  number 
of  facts.  Darmesteter,  a  rationalist,  has  collected  much  evidence  to 
prove  that  monotheism  was  the  belief  of  the  Aryan  race  before  their 
dispersion,  and  consequently  at  a  very  remote  period,  and  it  has  been 
shown  to  be  of  similarly  great  antiquity  in  Egypt  and  China.  There 
are,  moreover,  some  special  objections  to  the  "g-host"  theory.  The 
occurrence  of  precisely  the  same  fables  concerning-  heathen  gods  in 
many  widely  remote  countries,  points  strongly  to  their  having  an 
origin  in  the  worship  of  natural  phenomena,  not  of  deceased  ancestors. 
So,  too,  the  scantj^  knowledge  professed  concerning  the  dead  in  all 
early  conditions  of  mankind  (for  metempsychosis  is  evidently  a  later 
development),  even  among  the  Hebrews  and  Greeks,  is  much  opposed 
to  ghost-propitiation  being  the  basis  of  their  religion. 

Having  established  the  theory  of  animism  to  his  own  satisfaction, 
Mr.  Spencer  next  proceeds  to  inquire  whether  the  Jewish  religion  is 
of  supernatural  origin,  and  is,  therefore,  any  exception  to  his  rule. 
The  reasons  for  Avhich  he  rejects  it  are  instructive  as  showing  the 
peculiar  bias  of  his  own  mind.  In  the  first  place,  he  urges  that 
''  the  plasma  of  superstitions  amid  which  the  religion  of  the  Hebrews 
evolved,  was  of  the  same  nature  with  that  found  everywhere."'  We 
are  referred,  among  other  proofs,  to  Isaias  viii.  19,  as  if  that  passage 
contained  an  approval  of  wizards,  instead  of  a  condemnation  of  them ; 
much  as  if  the  prohibition  of  arson  or  murder  were  used,  to  identity 
the  criminal  law  of  England  with  the  "  plasma"  of  crime  amid  which 
it  has  evolved.  All  the  other  arguments  used  to  show  the  similarity 
of  Judaism  to  other  religions,  and  its  origin  from  polytheism,  are  so 
well  known,  that  we  need  not  dwell  on  them.  There  is,  indeed,  one 
which  we  have  never  seen  urged  before.  We  are  told  "there  is  the 
specific  statement  that  Avhen  helping  Judah,  the  Lord  could  not 
drive  out  the  inhabitants  of  the  valley  because  they  had  chariots  of 
iron  (Judges  i.  19) — that  is,  there  were  incapacities  equalling  those 
attributed  by  other  people  to  their  gods."  Mr.  Spencer's  eagerness 
to  make  a  point  at  all  hazards  has,  characteristically,  prevented  his 
noticing  that  the  "  incapacity  "  is  attributed  in  the  passage  quoted, 
not  to  God,. but  to  Juda ! 

The  chapter  closes  with  three  objections  to  the  supernatural  origin 
and  development  of  the  Jewish  and  Christian  religions.  The  first 
is  the  improbability  of  the  "  Theophania  "  to  Abraham ;  the  second, 
the. limited  powers  which  the  Scriptures  (as  interpreted  by  Mr. 
Spencer)  ascribe  to  the  Deity ;  the  last  is,  that  if  the  numerous 
parallelisms  between  the  Christian  and  other  religions  do  not  prove 
likeness  of  origin  and  development,  their  appearances  must  have  been 


204  Notices  of  Books, 

*'  arranged  for  the  purpose  of  misleading  sincere  inquirers."  It  does 
not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  this  candid  inquirer  that  another  expla- 
nation of  these  parallelisms  is  at  least  as  possible  as  his  own,  and 
that  his  objection  is  therefore  of  no  logical  value.  All  forms  of 
religion,  whether  natural  or  supernatural,  whether  derived  from  the 
same  source  or  originating  independently,  must  have  many  features 
in  common,  since  they  are  adapted  to  meet  certain  wants  and  desires 
of  men  who  resemble  each  other  so  closely  in  the  main.  This  has 
been  excellently  brought  out  by  M.  de  Broglie  in  tlie  work  to  which 
we  have  already  referred,  and  from  which  we  borrow  the  following 
illustrations :  All  palaces,  railway  stations,  theatres,  and  other 
special  buildings,  necessarily  present  many  points  of  likeness, 
although  not  designed  by  tlie  same  architect,  or  in  the  same  style. 
The  same,  too,  is  true  of  social  institutions ;  all  deliberative  assem- 
blies, all  civil  and  criminal  courts,  are  alike  in  many  particulars, 
though  they  have  arisen  independently,  and  under  different  circum- 
stances, because  their  objects  are  in  each  case  the  same.  Must  not 
this  be  true,  also,  of  religious  institutions,  which  are  designed 
(whether  by  God  or  by  man)  to  meet  special  demands  of  mankind  ? 
We  lay  stress  on  this  point,  because  it  applies  to  almost  all  the 
rest  of  Mr.  Spencer's  book.  He  tells  us,  indeed,  at  the  end  of  the 
first  chapter,  that  he  ''parts  company  with"  all  who  accept  the 
supernatural  origin  of  Christianity.  But,  as  he  continues  to  compare 
Christian  and  Jewish  ecclesiastical  institutions  with  those  of  other 
forms  of  religion,  we  should  be  much  tempted  to  follow  him  on  our 
own  account,  had  we  not  already  dwelt  at  such  length  upon  what 
seems  to  us  the  vital  part  of  his  book.  The  principle  we  have  just 
suggested  explains  all  the  parallelisms  of  any  importance,  which  we 
are  therefore  prepared  to  accept  as  antecedently  probable.  At  the  same 
time  we  should  be  sorry  to  endorse  Mr.  Spencer's  "facts,"  even 
where  we  agree  with  his  conclusions.  One  instance  of  his  unfitness 
for  the  task  he  has  set  himself  will  be  so  decisive,  although  so 
offensive,'  to  Catholic  readers,  as  to  justify  our  quoting  it.  He 
is  speaking  of  some  of  the  conditions  which  tell  against  monotheism, 
and  remarks:  ''Among  Roman  Catholics  the  V'irgin,  habitually 
addressed  in  prayers,  tends  to  occupy  the  foreground  of  con- 
sciousness J  the  title  *  Mother  of  God '  dimly  suggests  a  sort  of 
supremacy  ;  and  now  in  the  Vatican  may  be  seen  a  picture  in  which 
.  she  is  represented  at  a  higher  elevation  than  the  persons  of  the 
trinity."  One  cannot  help  regretting  this  passage  was  not  available 
to  illustrate  the  dense  prejudice  of  the  great  Protestant  tradition 
when  "  The  Present  Position  of  Catholics  in  England  "  was  written. 
And  the  punishment  which  fell  so  heavily,  if  so  deservedly,  upon 
Evangelical  clergy  and  writers  of  tracts,  is  much  more  merited  by 
this  chosen  leader  of  thought  and  philosophy,  who  has  so  signifi- 
cantly succeeded  to  the  calumnies  out  of  which  they  have  .been 
shamed.  The  last  chapter  of  the  work,  entitled  "  Religious  Retro- 
spect and  Prospect,"  is  merely  a  reproduction  of  an  article  that 
appeared  in  The  Nineteenth  Century  two  years  ago.   This  was  so  fully 


Notices  of  Books.  205 

criticized  after  its  publication,  that  we  need  not  further  review  it  now. 
We  are  g-lad  to  be  spared  the  task  of  following  its  tortuous  course, 
which  ends  in  nothing  but  confusion,  and  in  affirming  (often  in 
the  second  half  of  a  sentence)  what  has  been  denied  in  the  first  half. 
"  Quis  ten  eat  vultus  mutantem  Pro  tea  nodus  ?  "  All  the  tedious 
labour  of  these  many  volumes,  all  this  heaping-up  of  more  or 
less  correctly  recorded,  more  or  less  relevant,  facts,  is  to  end  in  the 
attempt  to  solve  a  great  enigma  which  is  at  the  same  time  stated  to 
be  insoluble  ;  or,  "  though  suspecting  that  explanation  is  a  word 
without  reason  when  applied  to  this  ultimate  reality,  yet  feels  com- 
pelled to  think  there  must  be  an  explanation."  Was  there  ever 
a  sadder  justification  of  the  divine  complaint,  "  Me  dereliquerunt, 
fontem  aquae  vivae,  et  foderunt  sibi  cisternas,  cisternas  dissipatas, 
quae  continere  non  possunt  aquas  ?  "  The  outcome  of  all  this  labour 
is  to  offer  men  the  feeling  of  wonder  in  the  presence  of  the  "  un- 
knowable "  (Heine's  "  Irish  bull  in  philosophy  ")  in  place  of  the 
knowledge  and  love  of  their  eternal  Father,  and  the  worship  of 
humanity  in  His  Divine  Son,  and  the  members  of  His  mvstical 
Body.  J.  R.  G. 


Eegestnm  dementis  Papcs  V,  ex  Yaticanis  Archetypis  SS.D.N.  Leo- 
nis  XIII  Pontif  Max.  jussu  et  munificentia  nunc  primum 
editum,  cura  et  studio  Monachorum  Ordinis  S.  Benedicti. 
Homae  :  Typographia  Vaticana  (Spithcever).     1885. 

OUR  Holy  Father,  Leo  XIII.,  besides  opening-  the  Vatican 
archives  and  calling-  upon  scholars  to  make  use  of  the  literary 
treasures  therein  accumulated  for  the  vindication  of  historical  truth, 
has  also  pointed  out  to  some  of  the  workers  the  line  they  may 
profitably  pursue.  To  Cardinal  Hergenroether  he  confided  the  task 
of  editing  the  Regesta  of  Leo  X.  Similarly  he  commissioned  five 
Benedictine  Fathers  to  publish  the  Regesta  of  Clement  V.  (1305- 
1313),  the  first  Pope  who  resided  at  Avignon,  thus  beginning  the 
"  Bab3donian  Captivity."  These  five  Benedictine  Fathers  are 
Abbot  Tosti,  vice-archivist  to  the  Hol}^  See,  Gregory  Palmieri,  John 
Navratil  and  Charles  Stastny,  of  the  monastery  of  Raigern  in 
Moravia,  and  Anselm  Caplet,  a  monk  of  Monte  Casino.  These 
united  workers  have  just  presented  the  world  with  the  first  instal- 
ment of  the  Regesta,  a  splendidly  printed  volume  in  folio,  contain- 
ing a  preface  of  325  pages  in  length,  and  a  portion  of  the  text  of 
the  Regesta  occupying  the  following  284  pages. 

The  preface  tells  us  something  of  the  actual  condition  of  the 
Vatican  archives,  and  traces  the  main  features  of  the  history  of  the 
Avignon  volumes.  The  Regesta  of  Clement  V.  are  contained  in  two 
series.  The  one  which  claims  our  special  attention  consists  of  no 
less  than  402  volumes  filled  with  the  original  papers  of  the  Avignon 
Popes.  These  volumes  were  removed  from  Avignon  to  Rome  by 
order  of  Pius  VI.  in  1784.  Besides  this  series  there  is  the  general 
department  of  the  Archives  which  contains  not   a  few  Avignon 


206  •   Notices  of  Books.  . 

documents  written  on  vellum.  The  reign  of  Clement  V.  has  here 
ten  bulky  volumes  devoted  to  it,  which  correspond  each  to  a  year  of 
the  Pope's  reign,  except  that  the  first  year  occupies  two  volumes. 
Attention  is  next  specially  due  to  the  very  careful  history  of  the 
Archives  during  the  reign  of  Napoleon  I.,  who,  when  at  the  summit 
of  his  power,  ordered  them  to  be  brought  to  Paris.  Worth  reading, 
also,  is  the  passage  in  which  the  learned  editors  trace  the  history  of 
two  volumes — the  only  ones  which  have  come  down  to  us  from 
a  period  antecedent  to  the  reign  of  Innocent  III.  These  two,  the 
Regesta  of  John  VIII.  and  Gregory  VII.  once  belonged  to  the 
famous  monastery  of  Monte  Casino  whence  they  found  their  way  to 
the  Papal  Archives. 

The  preface  is  followed  by  the  Regestum  of  the  first  regnal  year  of 
Clement  V.,  ending  November  14,  1306;   for  the  Pope's  election 
took  place  early  in  the  summer  of  1305,  he  consented  to  it  on  July 
24,  and  was  solemnly  crowned  on  the  24th  of  November  of  that 
year.  The  total  number  of  documents  for  this  period  amounts  to  1146. 
They  are  followed  by  the  "  Litterae  de  Curia  primi  anni,"  and  the 
regesta  "  litterarum  communium."      To  form  a  clear  idea  of  the 
meaning  of  these  names,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  during  the  thirteenth 
century  the  papal  officials  had  begun  to  embody  the  documents  in 
several  departments,  and  those  were  accounted  as  "  common  letters  " 
which  were   concerned  with  affairs  of  only  a  private  character ; 
whilst  those  of  public  interest  were  classed  as  "letters  of  the  curia." 
Our  editors  have  carefull}'  laboured  to  make  their  text  entirely  con- 
formable to  the  Vatican  originals.     Praiseworthy  as  this  endeavour 
may  be,  it  should  not  have  prevented  them  from  adopting  modern 
spelling  in  not  a  few  names  of  towns.     (For  English  places,  e.g., 
the  reader  is  referred  to  pp.  89,  128,  150,  202,  228.     As  to  the 
contents  of  these  Papers,  they  are  mainly  concerned  with  affairs  of 
benefices  and  the  administration  of  marriage.     Of  course  it  is  to 
France,  the  then  mainspring  of  European  politics,  that  they  mostly 
refer.     England  ranks  next  to  France,  perhaps,  both  because  of  the 
ascendency  she  was  gaining  under  Edward  II,,  and  by  reason  of  her 
dominions  in  France.     Not  a  few  documents  (pp.  273-320)  are  con- 
cerned with  affairs  of  the  Irish  Church.     This  collection  appears  to 
be  of  great  importance  also  for  the  history  of  the  dominions  of  the 
Holy  See,  as  an  example  of  which  may  be  quoted  the  Bull  by  which 
the  Pope  invests  King  James  of  Aragon  (p.  201)  with  the  isles  of 
Sardinia  and  Corsica.     The  volume  bears  its  testimony,  also,  to  the 
traditional  policy  of  the  Holy  See  on  the  Eastern  Question.    Clement 
v.,  like  his  predecessors  in  the  thirteenth  century,  largely  contri- 
buted towards  the  conquest  of  Palestine. 

The  complete  work,  it  is  expected,  will  extend  to  at  least  five 
volumes.  May  I  express  the  hope  that  it  will  meet  Avith  that 
approval  and  encouragement  from  English  scholars  v.-hich  it  so 
eminently  deserves.  Bellesheim. 


Notices  of  Books.  207 

Dissertaiiones  Selector  in  Historiam  Ecclcsiasticam.  Auctore  Berivardo 
JuNGMANN,  Professore  Theolo^iue  in  Universitate  Lovaniensi. 
Tomus  V.     Ratisbonae :  Pustet.     1885. 

THE  four  preceding'  volumes  of  these  Dissertations  have  been 
duly  noticed  in  The  Dublin  Review  (January,  1882,  p.  273, 
and  October,  1884,  p.  4G1).  The  fifth  volume  no  less  deserves, 
for  its  matter  and  merits,  the  attention  of  students  of  history  and 
theology.  It  consists  of  six  long  dissertations  covering  510  pages, 
and  evidences  the  same  sober  judgment,  critical  acumen,  ability  in 
tracing  causes  to  their  last  results  as  were  before  manifested  by  Pro- 
fessor Jungmann.  Perhaps  the  first  dissertation,  which  describes, 
the  state  of  the  Church  during  the  first  part  of  the  twelfth  century, 
will  most  attract  attention,  on  account  of  the  solid  explanation  of 
the  so-called  "Donatio  Constantini,"  a  mere  fable  originating  in 
France  and  dating  only  from  the  ninth  century.  The  foes  of  the 
Papacy,  however,  have  always  alleged  that  in  the  skilful  handling  of 
the  Holy  See,  it  was  a  most  powerful  means  in  the  establishment  of 
its  secular  power  during  the  Middle  Ages.  Professor  Jungmann, 
making  large  use  of  modern  German  researches,  clearly  shows  that 
the  "  Donation  "  originated  in  France.  Dollinger's  opinion  that  the 
document  had  a  Roman  origin  is  nowadays  quite  discarded.  English 
students  will  be  specially  interested  in  the  third  dissertation,  in  which 
the  author  traces  the  history  of  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury's  "cause." 
Of  course  he  was  not  able  at  the  time  he  wrote  to  make  use  of  the 
second  edition  of  F.  Morris's  "  History  of  St.  Thomas,"  only  recently 
published.  Had  it  been  available  to  him  he  would  have  found  in  it 
new  reasons  for  defending  the  great  Archbishop.  Of  still  greater 
interest,  perhaps,  is  the  dissertation  occupying  pp.  209-228,  which 
discusses  Henry  II.'s  claim  to  Ireland  and  the  Papal  docu- 
ments it  was  founded  upon.  Here  we  have  the  important  ques- 
tion. Is  Hadrian's  Bull  to  be  considered  authentic  ?  German 
critics  appear  not  to  be  at  all  favourable,  either  to  the  Bull  or  to  the 
document  in  which  Alexander  III  is  said  to  mention  it  (I  refer  to 
an  able  Article  in  the  KathoUk  in  1864).  Professor  Jungmann's 
arguments  produce  the  same  effect  on  the  reader's  mind.  He,  how- 
ever, refrains  from  giving  an  express  decision  against  it.  It  is 
not  needful  here  to  enter  into  the  details  of  the  dissertation.  I  may, 
however,  point  out  that  the  latter,  taken  in  connection  with  the  able 
articles  from  the  pen  of  Father  Morris  in  last  ye.^.r's  Irish  Ecclcsi- 
mtical  Bcmrd,  seem  to  give  a  final  negative  answer  to  the  long- 
agitated  question  whether  or  not  Hadrian's  Bull  is  genuine.  The 
three  following  dissertations  are  respe(?tively  occupied  with  Pope  Inno- 
cent III  and  his  negotiations  with  France  and  England,  his  opposition 
to  the  heretics  of  that  time,  and  the  state  of  Christian  society  during 
the  thirteenth  century.  That  portion  of  the  last  dissertation  which 
treats  of  the  "  Pragmatic  Sanction,"  appears  to  be  a  most  careful 
piece  of  work,  and  quite  deserves  that  the  student  should  consult 
it  at  length  in  the  volume  itself.  Bellesheim. 


208  Notices  of  Books. 


The  Chair  of  Peter ;  or,  the  Papacy  Considered  in  its  Institution, 
Development,  and  Organization,  and  in  the  Benefits  which  for 
over  Eig-hteen  Centuries  it  has  Conferred  on  Mankind.  By 
John  Nicholas  Murphy,  Roman  Count.  Popular  Edition, 
with  much  New  Matter,  and  the  Statistics  brought  down  to  the 
Present  Time.    London  and  New  York :  Burns  &  Gates. 

IT  is  not  yet  three  years  since  we  reviewed  the  first  edition  of 
The  Cliair  of  Peter,  and  it  is  a  real  pleasure  to  us  to  see  that  a 
second  edition  has  been  so  soon  required.  This  is  a  compliment 
Avhich  Mr.  Murphj-'s  efforts  well  deserve  ;  whilst  it  arg-ues  the  pre- 
valence of  interest  in  a  subject  which  is  the  crucial  point  in  our 
controversy  with  outsiders,  and  on  which  it  is  important  that  every 
Catholic  of  these  countries  should  be  well  informed.  It  is  unneces- 
sary to  repeat  now  the  account  we  gave  of  the  work  before  ;  suffice 
it  to  say  that  in  a  series  of  clearly  written  chapters,  precise  in  state- 
ment, excellently  temperate  in  tone,  the  author  deals  with  just  those 
questions  regarding-  the  power,  claims,  and  history  of  the  Roman 
Pontiff,  which  are  at  the  present  time  of  most  actual  interest.  On 
Avhat  proofs  is  their  claim  to  primacy  built ;  did  the  earl}'-  Christians 
really  know  anything  of  the  claim ;  was  St.  Peter  ever  at  Rome ; 
how  came  the  Greek  half  of  Christendom  to  turn  its  back  on  the 
Pope ;  what  is  the  origin  of  the  "  temporal  power,"  and  by  what 
influences  did  it  grow  ;  what  is  the  true  meaning  of  the  attitude  of 
the  Lutheran  revolution  against  Papal  authority — these  and  various 
other  subordinate  questions  occupy  the  second,  as  they  did  the  first, 
edition  of  Mr.  Murphy's  book,  together  with  some  interesting- 
chapters  on  such  subjects  as  how  the  election  of  a  Pope  used  to  be 
and  now  is  conducted,  what  are  the  cardinals  and  what  their  office 
and  history,  and  what  special  benefits  do  mankind  owe  to  the  Papacy. 
The  new  edition  contains,  in  addition  to  all  this,  fourteen  fre^h 
chapters,  the  chief  of  these  additions  being — a  fuller  account  of  the 
Greek  schism  ;  an  account  of  the  life  and  writings  of  Wycliffe ; 
and  chapters  on  the  Mendicant  Orders,  the  art  of  printing,  the 
Bible  before  the  Reformation,  alleged  imworthy  Popes,  and  the  Cul- 
turkampf  and  Catholic  organization  in  Germany,  Belgium,  and  other 
countries.  A  good  index  renders  the  whole  of  the  varied  contents 
of  this  excellent  book  a  doubly  useful,  because  quickly  utilized,  help. 
We  turned  with  no  little  interest  to  the  new  (37th)  chapter, 
headed,  "  Alleged  Unworthy  Popes,"  hoping  that  the  author  would 
not  shirk  the  unpleasant  and  yet  undeniable  things  which  are  on 
record  against  some  of  the  Popes.  Not  that  the  faults  of  the  Popes 
are  any  argument  against  the  Papal  claims  ;  it  is,  on  the  contrary,  of 
no  little  importance  to  show  that  such  personal  human  sin  in  some 
few  Pontifis  is  a  strong  indication  of  a  Divine  protection  according* 
to  Divine  promise.  How  much  sin,  however,  there  has  really  been ; 
how  far  what  has  been  said  of  "  bad  Popes  "  is  the  testimony  of 
history,  and  how  far  merely  the  "allegation"  of  slander  or  hatred 


f 


Notices  of  Books.  209 

— this  is  a  point  on  which  something-  should  be  clearly  stated  in  a 
popular  book,  and  we  are  glad  to  find  Mr.  Murphy  stating-,  briefly 
but  sufficiently,  the  case  against  the  value  of  Luitprand's  authority 
on  the  strength  of  which  so  many  Popes  have  been  classed  as 
"  bad."  The  author  then  glances,  in  succession,  at  the  lives  of  a 
series  of  thirty-one  Popes  (a.d.  891-1003),  and  acknowledges  the 
few  from  whom  censure  cannot  be  withheld.  We  regret-  he  did 
not  give  more  space  to  Alexander  VI.  than  the  note.  Leonetti's 
vindication  of  him  cannot,  we  fear,  be  accepted,  whilst  it  might  have 
been  shown  that  the  adverse  judgment  on  Alexander  of  such  a 
sterling  Catholic  as .  M.  Henri  de  I'Epinois  as  against  Leonetti's 
attempted  vindication,  is  evidence  enough  that  Catholics  are  willing 
to  leave  bad  Popes  as  they  are — only  wishful  that  they  should  not 
be  painted  blacker  than  truth  demands.  The  case  of  Alexander  VI. 
is  constantly  cropping  up  in  general  English  literature  :  one  hears 
of  him  twenty  times  for  once  that  Stephen  VI.  or  VII.,  or  John  XII., 
or  Boniface  VII.,  or  any  one  of  the  others  is  mentioned.  The 
very  name  Borgia  is  still  accepted  as  a  synonym  for  the  worst 
manifestations  of  human  passions.  It  might  have  been  well  to  say 
how  the  balance  of  evidence  for  and  against  him  stands  at  present. 
That  much  of  the  testimony  against  him  is  conflicting  or  uncertain 
is  very  true — even  the  Borgia  has  been  painted  too  black — yet  we 
should  certainly  not  like  to  defend  M.  Leonetti's  pronouncement  that 
he  has  been  "  the  most  wronged  of  all  the  successors  of  St.  Peter." 
With  Mr.  Murphy's  own  remark  at  the  close  of  his  note,  that  careful 
and  laborious  scrutiny  of  original  sources  is  necessary  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  truth  on  these  questions  of  character  we  quite  agree. 
"  The  Popes  have  need  only  of  the  truth."  Unfortunately  for  us, 
the  oft-repeated  accusations  thrown  at  them  are  not  the  result  of  care- 
ful and  laborious  scrutiny  of  sources. 

Biblia  sacra  vulgat(B  editionis  Sixti  V  Pont.  Max.  jussu  recognita 
et  Clementis  VIII  auctoritate  edita.  Tornaci  Nerviorum : 
typis  Soc.  Sancti  loannis  Evangelistse,  Desclee,  Lefebvre  et 
Soc.    1885. 

IN  the  Dublin  Review  of  October,  1883,  I  brought  before  the 
notice  of  its  readers  several  liturgical  publications  of  the  Tournaj 
Liturgical  Printing  Press  of  St.  John.  The  same  publishers  have  just 
brought  out  a  new  edition  of  The  Vulgate.  As  appears  from  the 
preface,  it  is  arranged  exactly  on  the  same  critical  principles  as  that 
of  1883,  except  that  the  size  is  difi^erent  and  the  ornamental  adjuncts 
are  changed.  The  present  is  a  most  handy  volume  in  small  octavo, 
printed  on  stout  paper,  in  double  colu!nns.  It  has  two  maps,  one  of 
JPalestine  in  the  time  of  Our  Lord,  the  other  of  the  journeys  of  St. 
Paul.  A  very  useful  index  of  lessons,  epistles,  and  gospels  of  the 
Sundays  has  also  been  added.  The  cheapness  (frs.  7 -50)  of  the 
volume,  which  extends  to  nearly  a  thousand  pages,  will  no  doubt 
be  an  additional  recommendation  of  it  to  students. 

A.  Bellesheim. 
■VOL.  XV. — NO.  I.     {Third  Series.]  P 


210  Notices  of  Books. 

Proprium  Officiorum  in  usuvi  Dioecesium  Anglice  cum  officiis  novis- 
simis  a  S.  Eituum  Congregatione  concessis.  Tornaci :  Societas 
S.  loannis  Evang^.,  Desclee,  Lefebvre  et  Soc.   Edit.  Pontif.  1885. 

THE  Society  of  St.  John  at  Tournay  has  just  published  the  English 
Proprium  for  the  breviary.  It  is  brought  out  in  two  sizes,  one 
for  the  breviary  in  two  volumes  in  quarto,  the  other  for  the  breviary 
in  four  "volumes  in  twelvemo.  The  former  is  printed  in  three 
columns  on  each  page,  the  latter  in  double  columns.  Both  are 
enclosed  in  red  borders,  and  printed  with  that  elegance  of  type  and 
ornamental  tetes  de  pages  for  which  the  Tournay  Breviaries  are  now 
famous.  The  approval  given  by  the  Congregation  of  Rites  to  this 
Proprium  is  dated  March  11,  1884.  It  may  not  be  superfluous  to 
state  that  an  English  Proprium  corresponding  to  the  other  editions 
of  the  Tournay  Breviary  is  in  course  of  preparation. 

A.  Bellesheim. 


The  Holy  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  according  to  St.  Matthew.  Trans- 
lated from  the  Vulgate  with  Notes  and  References.  Southwark  : 
Catholic  Truth  Society,  18;  West  Square.     1885. 

THE  value  of  this  little  brochure  is  not  to  be  measured  by  its  size 
nor  yet  by  its  cheapness  (it  is  some  three  or  four  inches  square, 
and  can  be  bought  for  1|(Z.,  or  If/.,  we  believe,  in  quantities).  It  marks 
a  first  step  in  the  effort  \ce  have  long  desired  to  see  made  to  render  the 
Gospels  accessible  and  attractive  to  the  Catholic  people — to  such,  chiefly, 
as  St.  John  Chrysostom  addressed  when  he  said  (as  quoted  in  the  Bishop 
of  Salford's  Approbation)  :  "  Excuse  not  thyself  from  reading,  by 
saying  '  1  have  a  trade,  a  wife,  or  a  family.'  Thou  hast  all  the  greater 
need  of  the  consolation  and  instruction  of  the  Gospel."  Undoubtedly 
perusal  of  the  Gospel  narrative  and  lessons  in  the  language  of  the 
Gospels  themselves  in  a  Catholic  spirit  of  reverence  is  highly  calculated 
to  vivify  faith  and  to  enkindle  devotion.  "We  have  only  to  consider  the 
early  Christians  to  believe  that  the  same  reverent  love  and  familiarity 
with  the  Scripture,  which  supported  them  amidst  the  surroundings  of 
Paganism,  might  equally  help  Catholics  of  to-day,  surrounded  as  we 
are  by  a  spurious  Christianity,  which  has  been  well  called  a  "civilized 
heathenism."  Here,  then,  as  an  instalment,  is  the.  Gospel  of  St. 
Matthew  in  a  small  and  portable  form.  To  render  it  more  pleasant 
to  read,  the  division  into  verses  is  not  observed,  but  the  text  runs  on, 
divided  only  into  paragraphs  according  to  the  sense.  Some  judicious 
notes,  sometimes  those  of  the  Douay,  occasionally  new  ones,  offer 
explanation  where  it  is  needed.  The  new  note  on  the  passage  relating 
to  St.  Peter  in  the  sixteenth  chapter,  is  clearly  and  well  done,  and  an 
improvement.  The  headings,  too,  at  the  top  of  each  page  are  also  a 
happy  idea,  pointing  out  the  lesson  or  subject  of  the  page.  Some- 
times they  are  really  useful  exegetical  keys.  For  example  "  Marriage 
indissoluble,"  "  Celibacy  recommended,"  "Voluntary  poverty,"  head- 
ings to  the  several  pages  of  chapter  xix.,  are  calculated  to  fix  attention 
on  the  true  interpretations.     Lastly,  the  type  is  large  and  clear,  and 


I 


Notices  of  Books.  211 

Tve  may  mention  that  we  have  noticed  only  one  oversight  in  editing, 
-where  "  illucidation,"  has  been  left  standing  for  "  elucidation  "  in  the 
heading  to  page  77.  We  would  like  to  quote  another  word  or  two  of 
a  Saint,  again  taken  from  the  Bishop  of  Salford's  warm  Commendation 
of  this  little  tract,  because  the  Saint  is  St.  Alphonso  Liguori.  ''  The 
contemplations,"  he  says,  "  which  devout  authors  have  written  on  the 
Passion,  are  useful  and  beautiful ;  but  assuredly  a  single  word  of  Holy 
Writ  makes  a  deeper  impression  on  a  Christian  than  a  hundred  or  a 
thousand  contemplations  and  revelations  ascribed  to  certain  holy  souls." 


Fifty  Years  of  Concessions  to  Ireland,  1831-1881.  Vol.  II.  Bv 
R.  Barry  O'Brien,  of  the  Middle  Temple,  Barrister-at-Law. 
London  :  Sampson  Low  &  Co.     1885. 

TWO  years  ago  we  noticed  the  first  volume  of  this  interesting- 
work,  and  from  it  we  augured  favourably  of  its  compietion  in 
the  second  and  concluding  volume.  That  now  lies  before  us,  and 
■we  are  pleased  to  see  that  the  hopes  we  formed  of  it  have  not  been 
belied.  The  two  volumes  form  a  solid  and  valuable  contribution  to 
the  literature  of  the  Irish  Question.  They  contain  a  clear,  forcible, 
and  temperate  exposition  of  Irish  political  history  for  the  last  fifty 
years,  written  in  a  style  singularly  attractive.  Mr.  O'Brien's  power 
of  research  and  his  command  of  facts  and  statistics  are  marvellous; 
yet  there  is  nothing  dull  or  monotonous  in  the  work.  It  combines 
the  laborious  accuracy  of  a  blue  book  with  the  dramatic  interest  of  a 
romance.  We  may  safely  affirm  that  befoi'e  long  it  will  be  recognized 
as  a  standard  authority  on  the  subjects  of  which  it  treats. 

The  present  volume  deals  successively  with  the  Encumbered 
Estates  Act,  Reform  Bill  1868,  Irish  Church  Act  1869,  the  Land 
Act  1870,  Intermediate  Education  Act  18?8,  Royal  University  Act 
1879,  and  the  Land  Act  1881.  Following  the  plan  adopted  in  the 
first  volume,  Mr.  O'Brien  examines,  one  by  one,  each  of  these 
"concessions,"  searches  their  previous  history,  examines. the  causes 
that  led  to  them,  the  spirit  in  Avhich  they  were  granted,  and  the 
mode  in  which  they  were  applied,  and  then  leaves  the  reader  to  judge 
whether  and  why  the  remedy  failed.  It  is  the  old,  old  story  of  justice 
denied,  because  delayed.  At  first  the  cry  for  relief  is  met  by  a  stern 
nan possumus,  an  absolute  refusal  even  to  consider  the  appeal;  then 
after  long  years  of  sulfering  and  waiting  comes  a  grudging  un- 
generous half  measure,  followed  by  a  renewal  of  agitation  and  dis- 
content; then,  all  too  late,  a  full  concession,  the  effects  of  which  are 
frustrated  by  its  being  administered  by  men  hostile  to  the  measure 
and  out  of  sympathy  with  the  people  whom  it  was  framed  to  benefit. 

There  were  concessions  to  violence,  none  to  justice ;_  surrenders  to 
treason,  but  not  to  right;  "  boons"  to  rebels,  but  scorn  for  the  constitu- 
tional agitator  ....  no  admission  of  wrong-doing,  no  desire  to  niiike 
reparation,  no  acknowledgment  of  faults,  no  deterrain.ition  of  aiuond- 
ment.     Nothing  was  done  to  satisfy  justice,  but  everythin'r  to  avert 

P  2 


212  Notices  of  Books. 

trouble  and  disaster.  There  was  hand-to-mouth  legislation,  but  no  true 
policy  of  redress  ;  no  statesmanship  (p.  418). 

As  an  instance  we  may  refer  to  the  chapters  on  the  Irish  Church 
Act  of  1869.     There  were  in  Ireland  in  the  years 

1672  Catholics,     800,000     Protestants,  300,000 

1736  „        1,417,000  „  562,000 

1834  „        6,427,712  „  800,000 

Yet,  for  close  on  300  years,  the  State  forced  upon  the  afflicted 
Catholic  majority  the  maintenance  of  a  Protestant  Church  whose 
revenues  were  plundered  from  their  own  old  Church  or  wrung-  from 
them  by  cruel  violence,*  an  alien  church  whose  tenets  they  abominated, 
whose  ministrations  they  could  not  use,  whose  very  existence  was 
an  outrag-e  on  their  dearest  feeling-s.  In  no  other  country  was  such 
a  thing-  possible.  As  Sydney  Smith  ^humorously  said,  "  There  was 
nothing-  like  it  in  Europe,  in  Asia,  in  the  discovered  regions  of  Africa, 
or  in  all  we  have  heard  of  Timbuctoo."  How  was  this  grievance 
dealt  with  by  the  British  Parliament  ? 

In  1843 — after  it  had  been  endured  for  nearly  250  years — 
Secretary  Elliot  refused  to  open  the  question. 

1844.  Sir  R.  Peel  refused  even  an  inquiry, 

1846.  Lord  John  Russell  again  rejected  the  measure  for  Reform. 

1849.  Motion  for  inquiry  lost  by  l70  to  103  votes. 

1853.  Lord  John  Russell  again  opposed  any  measure  on  a  basis 
of  equality. 

1854.  Motion  of  Reform  lost  by  117  to  31  votes. 

1865.  Home  Secretar}'  declared  ^'  no  practical  grievance  existed." 

1866.  Disraeli  rej,ected  motion  again. 

1867.  Motion  rejected  by  195  to  183  votes. 

At  last  Parliament  yielded  to  expediency  what  for  so  long  it  had 
denied  to  justice.  Between  1865  and  1867  the  Fenian  insurrection 
had  been  gradually  leavening  the  mass  of  the  Irish  people.  In  the 
latter  year  it  found-  its  way  to  England.  The  discovery  of  a  plot  to 
seize  Chester  Castle,  the  rescue  of  a  prisoner  in  Manchester  streets, 
the  blowing  up  of  Clerkenwell  Gaol  in  the  heart  of  London,  com- 
bined with  the  alarming  state  of  Ireland,  where  the  prisons  were 
filled  with  rebels,  and  the  villages  swarmed  with  troops,  while  the 
Habeas  Corpus  was  suspended  and  men  of  war  watched  the  coasts — 
all  these  at  last  forced  home  upon  Englishmen  the  stern  reality  of 
Irish  suffering  and  discontent,  and  in  1869  Mr.  Gladstone  Dis- 
established the  Irish  Church. 

This  is  a  fair  sample  of  the  "  Concessions  "  for  which  we  expect 
Irishmen  to  be  so  thankful.  Of  the  rest,  none  were  as  complete  as 
this;  most  were  only  half  measures  that  were  never  applied  and 
became  dead  letters  almost  as  soon  as  they  became  law ;  and  nearly 
all  came  too  late,  when  the  disease  they  came  to  remedy  was  incur- 

*  Of  £600,000  yearly  income,  £400,000  was  the  product  of  tithes!  Vide  the 
chapters  on  the  Tithe  Commutation  Act. 


J 


Notices  of  Books.  213 

able,  or  had  left  behind  it  the  germs  of  evils  more  fatal  than  itself. 
So  it  has  been  with  the  Land  Question.  For  centuries  the  sufferings  of 
the  many  were  ignored  for  the  convenience  of  the  few;  then  irritating 
''fractional  measures  "  Avere  passed,  till  we  have  seen  the  country- 
brought  almost  to  the  verge  of  Socialism. 

There  is,  however,  one  bright  and  cheering-  chapter  in  the  book — 
that  which  records  the  one  honest,  manly  attempt  of  a  British 
official  to  rise  above  the  prejudices  of  his  class  and  rule  Ireland  in 
sympathy  with  her  people  and  for  their  benefit.  Thomas  Drum- 
mond  was  Under  Secretary  at  Dublin  Castle  under  the  administra- 
tion of  Lord  Melbourne,  from  1831  to  1841.  He  had  previously 
studied  the  Irish  question,  and  learned  to  sympathize  with  the  Irish 
people.  "  Be  just  and  fear  not,"  was  his  principle;  "  no  redress, 
no  coercion,"  was  his  policy.  While  upholding  the  law  on  the  one 
hand,  Avith  the  other  he  set  himself  to  remedy  its  injustice.  Need- 
less to  say,  he  won  all  hearts  among  the  people. 

He  strove  manfully  to  wrest  the  country  from  the  hands  of  the 
Ascendency  faction,  who  for  140  years  had  preyed  upon  its  vitals. 
Bravely  he  bore  up  against  all  opposition.  Firmly  he  did  justice,  and 
feared  not,  but  he  sank  beneath  the  burden  he  had  undertaken  .... 
hounded  to  death  by  landlords,  Tories,  and  Orangemen. 

There  is  a  touching  account  of  his  death  on  page  454  : — 

The  last  moment  had  now  arrived,  and  Dr.  Johnstone  asked  Drum- 
raond  where  he  wished  to  be  buried,  "  in  Ireland  or  in  Scotland  ?  "  "  In 
Ireland — the  land  of  my  adoption,"  was  the  immediate  answer.  "  I  have 
loved  her  well  and  served  her  faithfully,  and  lost  my  hfe  in  her  service." 
All  then  ended.  One  of  the  best,  one  of  the  most  unselfish  and  pure- 
minded,  friends  Ireland  has  ever  known,  was  no  more. 

While  he  lived  there  was  a  rift  in  the  clouds  that  hung  over  un- 
happy Ireland ;  when  he  died,  the  clouds  closed  in  again,  and  all 
was  darkness. 

We  sincerely  hope  that  these  volumes  will  be  widely  read  in  this 
country,  feeling  sure  that  the  people  of  England  have  but  to 
know  the  Irish  case  for  their  sympathies  to  bo  aroused.  A 
little  more  sympathy,  a  little  more  justice,  a  few  more  men  like 
Thomas  Drummond,  and  who  shall  say  the  difficulty  is  insoluble  ? 
Unfortunately,  among  the  English  upper  and  middle  classes  there  is 
a  widespread  hereditary  ignorance  and  impatience  of  Irish  matters. 
It  is  too  readily  assumed '  that  Irish  wrongs  spring  merely  from  the 
picturesque  imaginations  of  fervid  orators  ;  and  their  mention  only 
provokes  a  contemptuous  shrug  of  the  shoulders,  and  :  "  Another 
Irish  grievance  !  "     To  such  we  earnestly  commend  this  work. 

Especially  is  its  appearance  opportune  at  this  time.  The  future 
is  big  with  •  impending  change — for  good  or  for  evil — in  Irish 
affairs.  At  such  a  crisis,  Avhen  feeling  runs  high,  when  passions  are 
roused,  and  the  air  is  filled  with  election  cries,  any  attempt  to 
.scatter  the  clouds  of  prejudice  is  welcome,  especially  when  it  comes 
in  such  a  moderate  and  well-studied  form  as  this.  We  cordially  Avish 


214  '  Notices  of  Books. 

it  success.    Jts  facts  are  well  arrang'ed,  its  premisses  are  clear,  its-- 
reasoning  cogent,  and  its  judg-nients  impartial — as  impartial  as  is 
possible  in  a  case  where  the  wrongs  are  on  one  side  and  all  the 
power  of  redi-essing  them  on  the  other.  J.  W.  D. 


Aletheia;  or,  the  Outspoken  Truth.  By  the  Right  Rev.  J.  D. 
RiCARDS,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Retimo,  and  Vicar  Apostolic  of  the 
Eastern  Vicariate  of  the  Cape  Colon}'.  New  York :  Benziger 
Brothers.     1885. 

THIS  volume  may  be  reckoned  as  supplementary  to  the  author's- 
well-known  ''  Catholic  Christianity  and  Modern  Unbelief"  In 
the  same  popular,  almost  colloquial  manner,  Dr.  Ricards  gives  an 
exposition  of  the  Catholic  Rule  of  Faith,  dwelling  on  the  necessity 
of  Revelation,  and  showing  clearly  that  its  true  sense  cannot  be 
determined  by  the  Bible  alone,  nor  by  the  vagaries  of  private 
judgment.  He  proves  conclusively  that  dogmatic  teaching  outside  of 
the  Catholic  Church  is  absolutely  human  in  its  origin,  fallible  in  its 
opei'ation,  and  powerless  over  the  conscience  of  mankind.  There  is 
an  excellent  chapter  on  "  Infallibility,"  and  an  especially  interesting 
one  on  the  "Dogma  of  the  Immaculate  Conception." 

Moi-e  chatty  than  formal  in  method,  the  book  will  probably  reach, 
and  we  hope  convince,  many  whom  a  less  discursive  style  would  fail 
to  interest.  It  is  full  of  information  and  full  of  earnestness.  There 
is  a  good  index.  The  publishers  deserve  a  word  of  commendation 
for  their  clear  type  and  good  paper. 


S.  Anselmi,  Archiepiscopi  Cantuariensis,  Cur  Dens  Homo.  Libri 
Duo.  Necnon  Eadmeri,  Monachi  Cantuariensis,  Be  Vita  S. 
Anselmi.     Libri  Duo.     London :  David  Nutt.     1886. 

TX7E  are  very  pleased  to  welcome  this  handy  little  reprint  of  two- 
TT  most  charming  works.  Eadmer's  "Life  of  St.  Anselm"  is, 
to  our  thinking,  one  of  the  best  biogTaphies  ever  penned.  The 
homely  style,  the  preservation  of  those  little  features  in  the  character 
of  the  Saint  that  most  of  all  we  would  have  preserved,  give  it  an  inte- 
rest that  perhaps  no  other  biography  can  claim.  We  have  had  many 
lives  of  St.  Anselm  since  Eadmer,  but  this  re-issue  shows  that  the 
affectionate  reminiscences  of  the  monk  of  Christ  Church  are  still  in 
favour.  The  type  and  arrangement  of  this  little  volume  are 
admirable,  a  very  pleasant  relief  after  the  rough  t3q)ography  of  Abbe 
Migne.  We  are  sorr}',  however,  to  find  that  the  editing  of  the 
work  is  not  quite  satisfactory ;  many  slips  and  blunders  have  been 
allowed  to  creep  in,  some  that  are  obvious,  others  that  so  obscure 
the  sense  that  one  is  baffled  to  discover  even  a  "  felicitous  emenda- 
tion." We  have  noted  six  such  mistakes  in  the  first  thirty  pages  of 
Eadmer.  On -page  9,  siam  for  Ji am ;  on  the  same  page  the  enclitic 
ne  is  separated  from  esse  ;  and  we  have  monachum  hoc  est  for  monachus 


Notices  of  Books.  '  215 

hoc  est.  On  page  15,  sine  quadam  pr<Bsagio  for  quodam  i  and  in  the 
same  line,  ver  visum  for  per  visum ;  and  on  page  22,  mtahihus  for 
(Btatibus ;  and  so  on.  If  ever  a  second  edition  be  called  for,  the 
removal  of  these  little  blemishes  will  not  fail  to  render  this  volume 
from  all  points  of  view  acceptable.  T.  A.  B. 


The  Life  of  Father  Luhe  Waddinq,     By  the  Eev.  Joseph  A.  O'Shea, 

O.S.F.  Dublin  :  M.  H.  Gill  &  Son.  1886. 
"IT^'E  cannot  say  much  for  this  book,  except  that  it  is  handsomely 
T  T  printed  by  Messrs.  Gill.  It  seems  to  be  a  mistake  to  have 
rushed  into  print  with  a  life  of  Wadding  at  a  time  when  it  is  well 
known  that  the  Irish  Franciscan  Fathers  have  not  yet  completed 
the  collection  of  materials  for  his  biography  which  they  have  for 
several  years  been  making  on  a  very  complete  scale.  A  man  of  the 
eminence  of  Luke  Wadding  should  have  a  monument  suited  to  his 
position  in  history  and  in  literature.  He  was  the  Allen  of  the  Irish 
exiles,  and  something  more.  He  was  a  historian  and  a  divine  of  a 
very  high  order ;  and  his  work  within  his  native  land,  in  addition  to 
what  he  did  for  it  abroad,  was  happily  successful  in  a  way  that  it  was 
not  granted  to  the  English  leader  to  succeed.  This  book  is  feeble  in 
literary  style  and  insufficient  in  its  grasp  of  material.  If  we  could 
look  for  nothing  better,  we  might  be  glad  to  have  it;  but  we  cannot 
honestly  commend  it  in  any  other  sense. 


r 


The  Life  of  a  Prig.     By  One.      London  :  Kegan  Paul,  Trench  &  Co. 

1885. 

THIS  very  clever  and  amusing  satire  is  solemnly  dedicated  to  all 
Prigs,  of  whatever  title  and  degree,  in  the  British  Islands — suggest- 
ing that  they  are  a  Most  Noble,  Rt.  Hon.,  Right  Rev.,  and  Reverend, 
and  numerous  company  !  That  it  should  be  ''  most  respectfully  and 
afifectionately  "  dedicated  to  them,  is  perhaps,  really  serious,  and  not 
merely  the  good  joke  it  appears  to  be  before  we  have  read  through  the 
book  itself.  -The  author's  protest  in  the  prologue  that  if  his  book 
'■'  should  have  the  effect  of  making  even  one  prig  more  priggish,  he 
will  not  have  laboured  in  vain,"  is,  of  course,  fine  irony.  The  Prig  of 
the  book  is  "  too  perfect "  a  being  to  be  real ;  he  is  not  "  intended  "  for 
anybody  ;  and  he  is  sprung  from  a  family  of  clergymen — a  fact  which 
he  "  knows  "  will  enlist  the  sympathies  of  his  readers.  At  his  birth 
the  first  question  discussed  regarding  him  is  whether  he  should  be 
destined  for  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  and  he  is  brought  up  in  "  an 
atmosphere  of  mortar-boards,  master's  gowns,  spectacles  and  Greek 
lexicons."  The  adventures  of  this  highly  favoured  entity  in  search  of 
a  religion  worthy  of  him,  is  the  burden  of  these  pages.  His  blinding 
conceit — latent  yet  to  a  great  degree — at  the  age  of  sixteen,  is  amus- 
ingly told — with  a  touch  of  burlesque  exaggeration,  which  here,  as 
elsewhere,  only  helps  the  moral  of  the  story  into  prominence.  Here 
is  one  sentence  from  his  diary  at  that  time  ; — 


216  •         Notices  of  Books. 

Eaten  too  mucli  at  tea.  Oh  why  do  we  gorge  ourselves  with  the 
luxuries  of  this  life  ?  Resolution  :  Will  endeavour,  as  much  as  possible, 
to  check  the  flippancy  of  those  around  me. 

Arrived  at  Oxford  in  due  course,  he  gets  into  a  set  who  are  the 
"  highest "  of  the  "  high  "  undergraduates.  He  has  ability  as  well  as 
conceit ;  yet  not  enough  of  the  former  to  prevent  the  amari  aliquid 
arising,  at  every  step  of  his  advance,  from  the  superabundance  of  the 
latter. 

Next  to  being  of  a  clerical  family,  a  student,  and  an  Oxford  man,  my 
great  pride  was  that  I  was  a  High  Churchman  ;  but  it  galled  me  to  discover 
that  there  were  others  higher  than  myself.  On  this  point  I  was  de- 
termined not  to  be  beaten. 

Through  all  the  gradations  therefore  of  Ritualistic  mimicking  of 
Roman  practices  he  passes,  ever  promptly  embracing  any  new  thing 
that  is  "  higher."  When  at  last  he  has  got  as  high  as  even  an 
"  Anglo-Catholic  "  can  go,  a  cruelly  candid  friend  points  out  to  him 
that  he  is  after  all  not  so  "  high  "  as  an  Irish  Papist  crossing-sweeper ! 
His  resolve  to  honour  the  Catholic  Church  -by  becoming  one  of  her 
distinguished  converts,  and  his  disgust  when  "instruction"  was  sug- 
gested and  he  Avas  even  offered  a  penny  Catechism,  are  excellently  told. 
Needless  to  say  that  this  appreciation  of  him  was  not  what  he  had 
hoped  for  from  the  Church,  and  therefore  he  passed  on  to  the  religions 
of  the  East,  feeling  that  in  each  of  them  in  succession — Buddhism, 
Confucianism,  &c.,  he  rose  still  higher  above  Romanism.  The  Prig 
ends  becomingly  in  Agnosticism,  in  which  he  finds  immense  satisfac- 
tion ;  at  least  he  is  an  Agnostic  until  the  moment  when  he  has  found 
a  lady  who  takes  him  at  his  own  magnificent  valuation,  and  then  he 
declares — it  is  his  egotistical  manner  of  "  proposing  "  to  her — the  truth 
at  last,  that  the  Ego,  his  Ego,  is  the  only  known  thing  to  him,  the  only 
thing  he  can  worship,  and  the  worship  of  it  "  the  highest,  the  deepest, 
and  the  broadest  religion."  Thus  is  the  moral  pointed,  that  conceit, 
self-sufficiency  in  the  search  for  the  religion  of  Christ  will  lead  astray  j 
and  this  amusing  little  squib  is  in  reality  a  veritable  sermon  in  a  laugh. 
In  addition  to  this  we  need  say  nothing  to  recommend  a  most  amusing 
and  clever  book,  whose  influence  certainly,  whatever  its  author 
intended,,  makes  for  the  spread  of  truth.  Indeed,  it  is  really  a  capital 
book  to  lend  to  "  inquiring "  friends.  We  have  refrained  from 
quotations,  and  must  only  mention  the  Prig's  young  Agnostic  pupil 
who,  knowing  the  "  Imitation  of  Christ"  by  heart,  quotes  it  at  every 
turn  against  his  Agnostic  tutor.  We  must  give  this  repetition  of  the 
moral  of  the  book,  as  humorovisly  told  in  the  Epilogue  : — 

On  my  wedding  tour,  I  met,  at  a  certain  railway  station,  the  Jesuit 
Father  whom  I  had  consulted  with  a  view  to  reception  into  the  Church 
of  Rome — the  Jesuit  of  the  penny  Catechism.  He  recollected  me  at  once, 
and  greeted  me  pleasantly.  I  was  a  little  disappointed  at  his  making  no 
inquiries  as  to  whether  I  had  become  a  Roman  Catholic,  so  I  said  to  him 
somewhat  sharply, "  Well !  Are  you  going  on  a  proselytizing  expedition  ?" 

"  No,"  he  answered.  "  I  am  going  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  on  an 
astronomical  expedition  on  behalf  of  the  British  Government." 


Notices  of  Boohs.  •  2]  7 

"  Indeed,"  said  I.  "  Perhaps  you  will  not  be  surprised  to  hear  that  I 
am  more  convinced  than  ever  of  the  childish  folly  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
religion.  I  have  discovered  the  highest  and  truest  religion.  The  way 
that  I  sought  a  religion " 

"  There  are  only  two  ways  of  seeking  a  religion,"  replied  he,  as  he  got 
into  his  train,  which  was  on  the  point  of  starting. 

"  Which  are ?  "  I  inquired. 

"  The  right  way  and  the  wrong  way." 

"  And  mine  was ?  " 

But  the  train  moved  down  the  platform  ;  the  Jesuit  merely  smiled  ani 
nodded  pleasantly  from  his  carriage  window. 


Life  of  Mary,  Queen  of  Scot f>.     By  Agnes  M.  Stewart. 
London  :  Burns  &  Gates. 

"ISS  STEWAET  is  right  in  believing  that,  notwithstanding  the 
_1_VJL  numerous  Lives  of  the  unfortunate  Queen  of  Scots  already 
existing,  there  is  quite  room  for  hers.  In  it  the  most  recent  results  of 
criticism  are  embodied  rather  than  discussed,  and  in  a  compendious 
form  it  gathers  up  the  details  scattered  in  countless  books  and  out-of- 
the-way  sources ;  it  forms  an  acceptable  popular  history  of  a  life,  the 
pathetic  interest  of  which  will  never  cease  to  be  felt.  Much  has  been 
done  of  late  years  to  defend  the  cause  of  Maiy  Stuart,  and  to  dissipate 
the  mists  of  a  prejudice  which  arose  out  of  the  lying  perversions  once 
prevailing  as  history.  We  need  only  allude  to  the  works  of  M.  Petit, 
]\Ir.  Hosack,  Col.  Maline  (who  replies  to  Mr.  Froude),  and  last,  but 
not  least,  of  Miss  Strickland.  Yet  these  "works  are,  for  one  reason  or 
other,  not  what  is  now  needed  by  the  ordinary  reader,  one  such  reason 
being  that  they  are  not  so  recent  as  some  of  the  controversies  Avhich 
have  newly  arisen  touching  the  Queen's  character.  Our  authoress  has 
taken  advantage  of  this  accumulation  of  able  defence,  on  it  to  support 
her  own  account — support  which  she  has  further  strengthened  and 
supplemented  by  her  own  researches  among  oi'iginal  records.  Fre- 
quent but  brief  notes  refer  to  her  authorities  for  the  leading  state- 
ments; she  abstains  from  declamation,  wisely  leaving  the  truth  which 
has  at  last  prevailed  to  enforce  its  own  moral ;  and  finally  she  writes 
in  a  quiet  narrative  style  which  well  becomes  the  dramatic  solemnity 
of  Mary's  misfortunes.  She  has,  in  fact,  produced  a  trustworthy, 
and  an  attractive,  because  simple,  narrative  of  the  life  of  a  most 
noble,  sorely  tried,  bitterly  persecuted  woman ;  a  life  which  especially 
teaches  to  her  own  sex  some  of  the  most  serious  lessons  it  ever  needs 
to  learn.  To  the  Catholic,  the  true  character  of  the  unfortunate 
Queen  has  a  significant  interest.  Miss  Stewart,  whilst  of  course  defend- 
ing Mary  against  the  false  charges  of  her  enemies,  has  effectively  set 
forth  her  piety  and  sterling  virtue ;  painted  her  as,  what  she  was,  a 
good  Catholic.  We  need  say  no  more  by  way  of  praise.  Miss  Stewart's 
former  historical  biographies  have  raised  her  above  the  need  of  recom- 
mendation. She  has  not,  we  think,  given  the  Catholic  public  any 
better  book  than  this. 

As  to  the  recent  controversy  raised  by  the  discovery  of  the  eccle- 


218  Notices  of  Books. 

siastical  dispensation  in  favour  of  Bothwell's  marriage  with  Lady  Jane 
Gordon,  Miss  Stewart  makes  large  use  of  the  Hon.  Colin  Lindsay's 
able  little  book.  This  is,  in  truth,  very,  satisfactory ;  Mr.  Lindsay's- 
contentions  seem  to  settle  the  question,  and  have  won,  as  is  well 
known,  from  Father  Stevenson,  a  retractation  which  is  highly  credit- 
able to  both  parties.  How  far  Mr.  Lindsay  is  opposed  by  the  German 
Jesuit,  Father  Dreves,  we  do  not  quite  know.  The  resume  of  his  article 
in  the  Stimmen  aus  Maria  Laach,  given  by  Dr.  Bellesheim  in  thi& 
Eeview  (April,  1885,  p.  434),  leaves  it  uncertain.  We  only  wish  to 
observe  that  the  words  which  Miss  Stewart  quotes  from  that  resume 
and  attributes  to  Father  Dreves — "  I  adopt.  Lindsay's  opinion  as  to  the 
invalidity  of  Bothwell's  marriage  Avith  Jane  Gordon,  though  not  at  all 
for  the  reasons  which  he  adduces," — are,  we  take  it,  the  words  and 
express  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Bellesheim.  Father  Dreves  apparently 
holds  a  different  opinion ;  but  we  have  not  the  Stimmen  to  refer  to.' 
It  is  also  Dr.  Bellesheim's  own  judgment  that  the  invalidity  of  the  dis- 
pensation arises  from  its  not  having  been  asked  and  made  to  include  the 
other  existing  impediment  of  "  mixed  religion,"  a  reason  which  we  do 
not  follow,  since  the  diriment  impediment — "  disparitatis  cultus,"  as  it 
is  called — obtains  only  between  a  Catholic,  on  the  one  side,  and  an  un- 
baptized  person  on  the  other.  Whatever  view  of  the  dispensation 
these  writers  have  taken,  the  character  of  Mary  Stuart,  Queen  of 
Scots,  remains — what  all  her  best  biographers  have  shown  it  to  be — 
innocent  of  the  crimes  which  hatred  feminine,  hatred  national, 
and  hatred  religious,  have  in  turn  and  all  together  tried  to  impute  to 
her.  The  text  and  a  translation  of  the  Dispensation  are  to  be  found 
at  the  end  of  the  volume,  together  Avith  some  other  interesting  ^;zeces 
justijicatives. 


Her  Rucklass  der  ScliottenMnigin,  Mary  Stuart,    Von  Dr.  Bernhard 
Sepp.     Munich.     1885. 

IN  this  little  work.  Dr.  Sepp  continues  the  history  of  Mary  Stuart,, 
which  he  is  g"iving'  to  German  readers.  An  indefatig-able  student, 
he  is  intent  on  collecting-  all  the  documents  Avhich  throw  light  on 
that  story.  We  find  here  in  brief  compass  an  account  of  the  various 
objects  left  b}^  Queen  Mary,  reproductions,  in  a  good  style,  of  her 
portraits,  an  inventory  of  her  g-oods  at  Fothering-ay,  and,  in  the 
Appendix,  fragments  of  her  diary  at  Glasgow  between  the  23rd  and 
27th  of  January,  1567  ;  two  letters  also  of  Mary's  to  Lord  Huntly 
from  Bolton  Castle,  August,  1568,  and  another  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Glasgow,  dated  Sheffield,  May  2,  1678.  The  next  volume  is  to 
contain  a  searching  criticism  of  Mary's  correspondence  with  Babing- 
ton.  There  is  an  interesting  argument  on  the  genuineness  of  the 
dispensation  gTanted  by  the  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  for  the 
marriage  of  Jane  Gordon  and  Bothwell.  Dr.  Sepp  is  very  strongly 
convinced  that  the  original,  discovered  at  Dunrobin,  and  published  in 
1874,  is  authentic. 


Notices  of  Books.  21^ 

A  Populai' History  of  Astronomy  during  the  Nineteenth  Century.     By 
Agnes  M.  Clerke,     Edinburgh:  A.  k  C.  Black.     1885. 

IN  one  sense  the  change  effected  in  the  inquiries  of  astronomy  by 
the  telescope  and  the  spectroscope  leads  the  science  away  from 
that  absorbing  attention  to  mathematical  calculation  which  Newton 
inaugurated,  back  again  to  that  observation  which  in  its  simpler  forms 
dates  far  away  into  the  obscurities  of  earliest  Chaldaean  and  other 
history.  In  this  sense  the  astronomy  of  the  eighteenth  century  is  too 
technical  in  method  and  detail  to  admit  of  that  sort  of  graceful  and 
popular  treatment  which  is  here  applied  by  Miss  Clerke  with  eminent 
success  to  the  history  of  astronomy  in  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
new  astronomy,  she  remarks,  is  more  popular  in  its  needs  and 
more  popular  in  its  nature,  the  kind  of  knowledge  it  accumulates  is 
more  easily  intelligible — at  the  same  time  it  is  equally  attractive  and 
even  impresses  the  imagination  more  forcibly  and  sublimely.  "  It 
has  thus,"  she  says,  "  become  practicable  to  describe  in  simple  lan- 
guage the  most  essential  parts  of  recent  astronomical  discoveries ;  and, 
being  practicable,  it  could  not  be  otherwise  than  desirable  to  do  so." 
We  will  add  that  in  Miss  Gierke's  hands  the  attempt  has  been  most 
successfully  accomplished.  Success,  in  this  case,  demanded  some  difficult 
conditions.  Familiarity  with  the  technicahties  and  processes  of  the 
science  were  needed ;  and  every  page  witnesses  to  her  wonderful  fit- 
ness in  this  respect.  There  was  also  needed  a  power  of  accurate 
analysis  and  clear  presentment  of  the  results  of  complicated  antece- 
dents; and  in  this  respect,  too,  the  book  before  us  excites  our  admira- 
tion. Precise  in  thought  and  statement.  Miss  Clerke  writes  in  a  highly 
cultivated  and  graceful  style.  Altogether  her  book  is  a  serious  and 
really  valuable  contribution  to  scientific  English  literature,  being  of  the 
(far  from  numerous)  class  of  reliable  books  that  are  accessible  to  the 
untechnical  reader.  What  she  says  of  the  attempt  to  do  that  which 
she  has  now  achieved,  we  may  transfer  here  from  her  preface  : — "  The 
service  to  astronomy  itself  would  be  not  inconsiderable  of  enlisting 
wider  sympathies  on  its  behalf;  while  to  keep  one  single  mind  towards 
a  fuller  understanding  of  the  manifold  works,  which  have  in  all  ages 
irresistibly  spoken  to  man  of  the  glory  of  God,  might  well  be  an  object 
of  no  ignoble  ambition," 

The  first  part  of  the  volume  is  devoted  to  the  progress  of  astronomy 
during  the  first  half  of  the  century,  and  "Herschel's  inquiries  into  the 
construction  of  •  the  heavens  strike  the  keynote  "  of  this  part ;  whilst 
"  the  discovery  of  sun-spot  and  magnetic  periodicity,  and  of  spectrum 
analysis,  determine  the  character  of  the  second."  With  which  mere 
broad  division  of  a  work,  crowded  with  interesting  biographies  and 
marvellous  details  of  scientific  success,  we  must  here  perforce  be  con- 
tent. Let  us  remark  only  that  a  knowledge  of  astronomy  may  here  be 
acquired  in  what  is  manifestly,  in  a  multitude  of  instances,  the  most 
fascinating  and  impressive  manner,  attaining  to  lohat  telescope  and 
spectroscope  have  revealed,  in  learning  hoiv  we  came  to  know  it 
through  the  labours  of  scientific  men.  For  example,  the  item  of 
knowledge  that,  until  lately,  it  was  supposed  that  Mars  had  no  moons,^ 


220  Notices  of  Books. 

and  that  in  1877  her  two  satellites  were  discovered,  and  are  probably 
the  smallest  heavenly  bodies  known,  is  a  mere  astronomical  detail 
which  puts  on  the  colour  and  interest  of  adventure  when  we  read  in 
these  pages  of  the  keen  search  for  Deimos  and  Phobos.  Let  us  add 
also  that  the  interests  of  students  have  been  consulted  in  this  volume 
"by  a  full  and  authentic  system  of  references  to  the  sources  of 
information  relied  upon,"  and  that  "  materials  have  been  derived,  as  a 
rule,  with  very  few  exceptions,  I'rom  the  original  authorities."  We 
may  well  be  pardoned  some  pride  in  speaking  of  this  work  of  a  young 
Catholic  lady,  the  excellence  of  whose  contributions  on  kindred  topics 
to  the  "  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  "  has  drawn  from  our  contemporary, 
the  Aihentnun,  the  high  compliment  that  Miss  Gierke  threatens  to  out- 
rival Mrs.  Somerville.  We  append  one  eloquent  extract,  the  con- 
cluding Avords  of  her  volume,  as  a  specimen  of  her  style,  leaving  the 
reader  to  find  more  substantial  excellence  in  the  work  itself: — 

Now,  not  alone  the  ascertained  limits  of  the  system  have  been  widened 
by  a  thousand  millions  of  miles,  with  the  addition  of  one  more  giant  planet 
and  six  satellites  to  the  ancient  classes  of  its  members,  but  a  complexity 
has  been  given  to  its  constitution  baifiing  description  or  thought.  Two 
hundred  and  fifty  circulating  planetary  bodies  bridge  the  gap  between 
Jupiter  and  Mars,  the  complete  investigation  of  the  movements  of  any 
one  of  which  would  overtask  the  energies  of  a  lifetime.  Meteorites, 
strangers  apparently  to  the  fundamental  ordering  of  the  solar  household, 
swarm  nevertheless  by  millions  in  every  cranny  of  its  space,  returning  at 
regular  intervals  like  the  comets  so  singularly  associated  with  them,  or 
sweeping  across  it  with  hyperbolic  velocities,  brought  perhaps  from  some 
distant  star.  And  each  of  these  cosmical  grains  ot  dust  has  a  theory  far 
more  complex  than  that  of  Jupiter ;  it  bears  within  it  the  secret  of  its 
origin,  and  fulfils  a  function  in  the  universe.  The  sun  itself  is  no  longer 
a  semi-fabulous,  fire-girt  globe,  but  the  vast  scene  of  the  play  of  forces  as 
yet  imperfectly  known  to  us,  offering  a  boundless  field  for  the  most 
arduous  and  inspiring  researches.  Amongst  the  planets,  widest  variety 
in  physical  habitudes  is  seen  to  prevail,  and  each  is  recognized  as  a  world 
apart,  inviting  inquiries  which,  to  be  effective,  must  necessarily  be  special 
and  detailed.  Even  our  own  moon  threatens  to  break  loose  from  the 
trammels  of  calculation,  and  commits  "  errors "  which  sap  the  very 
foundations  of  the  lunar  theory,  and  suggest  the  formidable  necessity 
for  its  revision.  Nay,  the  steadfast  earth  has  forfeited  the  implicit  con- 
fidence placed  in  it  as  a  time-keeper,  and  questions  relating  to  the  stability 
of  the  earth's  axis,  and  the  constancy  of  the  earth's  rate  of  rotation,  are 
amongst  those  which  it  behoves  the  future  to  answer.  Everywhere  there 
is  multiformity  and  change,  stimulating  a  curiosity  which  the  rapid 
development  of  methods  of  research  offers  the .  possibility  of  at  least 
partially  gratifying. 

Outside  the  solar  system,  the  problems  which  demand  a  practical  solu- 
tion are  ail  but  infinite  in  number  and  extent.  And  these  have  all  arisen 
and  crowded  upon  our  thoughts  within  less  than  a  hundred  years.  For 
sidereal  science  became  a  recognized  branch  of  astronomy  only  through 
Herschel's  discovery  of  the  revolutions  of  double  stars  in  1802.  Yet 
already  it  may  be,  and  has  been,  called  "  the  astronomy  of  the  future." 
So  rapidly  has  the  development  of  a  keen  and  universal  interest  attended 
and  stimulated  the  growth  of  power  to  investigate  the  sublime  subject. 
What  has  been  done  is  little — is  scarcely  a  beginning ;  yet  it  is  much  in 


Notices  of  Books.  221 

comparison  witli  the  total  blank  of  a  century  past.  And  our  knowledge 
will,  we  are  easily  persuaded,  appear  in  turn  the  merest  ignorance  to 
those  who  come  after  us.  Yet  it  is  not  to  be  despised,  since  by  it  we 
reach  up  groping  fingers  to  touch  the  hem  of  the  garment  of  the  Most 
High. 


La  Chine  Inconnue.     Par  Maurice  Jametel.     Paris  :  Librairie 
de  I'Art,  J.  Rouam,  Editeur,  29,  Cite  d'Antin.     1886. 

THERE  is  nothing  of  the  guide  book  or  of  the  traveller's  laboured 
information  about  M.  Jaraetel's  chatty  pages.  He  takes  us  with 
him  shopping  to  collect  curiosities,  and  we  learn  that  Chinese  porcelain 
can  be  bought  cheaper  in  London  than  in  Pekin.  We  handle  books 
printed  on  one  side  of  thin  paper  and  stored  in  book-boxes,  and  unroll 
pictures  on  pieces  of  silk  between  wooden  rollers.  The  albums  of 
illustrations  tell  a  sad  tale  of  Chinese  popular  art,  for,  according  to 
M.  Jametel,  the  harmless  pictures  are  unsaleable,  and  the  coarse  and 
offensive  are  in  point  of  art  the  best,  being  the  most  paying  matter. 
In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  as  the  author  reminds  us. 
Catholic  missioners  influenced  these  painters  in  ink ;  and  in  one  of  our 
raids  among  the  shops  there  comes  to  light  a  seventeenth-century 
"  Virgin  and  Child,"  roughly  but  reverently  daubed  by  some  Chinese 
copyist  of  Perugino.  We  are  reminded,  too,  that  the  Jesuit  missioners 
introduced  watches  and  clocks  to  the  Celestial  Empire ;  and  forthwith 
we  come  upon  the  appreciation  of  the  gifts — the  wealthy  citizens 
wearing  two  watches  in  a  double  pocket !  If  we  ask  why,  they  give  a 
genuine  Chinese  explanation  :  "  It  is  the  custom  !  "  Our  guide  takes 
us  to  the  crowded  junks  afid  sampangs  of  the  Yellow  Sea — those 
inexhaustible  waters  that  are  fished  by  the  sea  population  and  their 
slave  cormorants  all  the  year  through.  The  preservation  of  the  fish 
necessitates  a  vast  supply  of  ice ;  and  we  go  next  to  see  the  winter 
rice  fields  flooded,  and  the  coolies  gathering  the  thin  ice-surface  daily 
during  the  frost  and  storing  it  in  thick-walled  ice-houses ;  in  some 
places  a  store  for  three  years  and  a  supply  abundant  enough  to  permit 
the  dwellers  in  Canton  to  buy  iced  tea  in  summer  for  a  trifle  at  street 
stalls.  The  last  chapters  sacrifice  too  much  space  in  a  pleasant  book 
to  an  unpleasant  subject;  it  does  not  need  description  or  minute 
observation  to  be  assured  of  the  unhappy  fact,  that  vice  and  degrada- 
tion are  to  be  found  among  an  untaught  Pagan  people  in  much  the 
same  form  as  in  European  cities. 

Eugene  Delacroix.     Par  Lui-Meme.     Paris :  Librairie  de  L'Art^ 
J.  Rouam.     3  885. 

DELACROIX  died  in  1863,  and  the  present  vigorous  sketch  of  his 
life  is  said  to  be  "par  lui-meme "  only  because  it  strives  to 
show  the  man  as  well  as  the  artist  from  his  own  words  and  opinions, 
and  to  make  his  striking  character  portray  itself  in  the  estimate 
formed  of  him  by  intimate  friends  and  sympathetic  judges  of  his  work. 
His  "  Magdalen  in  the  Desert "  is,  perhaps,  the  best  known  of  his 
pictures ;  but  no  branch  of  painting  was  closed  to  his  versatile  genius, 


222  Notices  of  Books. 

and  to  his  tremendous  power  of  original  thought  and  nervous  energy 
of  labour.  He  was  a  man  of  the  world ;  and  the  only  teaching  of  his 
life  for  us  is  in  the  extraordinary  victory  his  energy  gained  over  life- 
long weakness  and  suffering,  and  over  that  haunting  melancholy  which 
cramps  the  usefulness  of  many  gifted  minds. 


The  Dictionary  of  English  History.  Edited  by  Sidney  J.  Low,  B.A., 
and  F.  S.  Pulling,  M.A.  London,  Paris,  and  Melbourne : 
Cassell  &  Co. 

AMONG  numerous  recent  books  of  reference  this  one  has  the 
charm  of  being  a  new  departure,  whilst  some  book  of  the 
sort  has  long  been  among  the  desiderata  of  English  history  students 
and  readers  generally.  The  plan  of  the  present  dictionary  is  excel- 
lently conceived  and  excellently  carried  out.  The  two  able  editors 
publish  a  list  of  their  principal  contributors,  which  at  once  inspires  no 
small  anticipation  as  to  the  merits  of  the  Articles — anticipations  which 
have  been  realized,  by  our  references,  to  a  very  large  extent.  "We 
gladly  note  that  there  is,  on  the  whole,  in  this  Dictionary,  a  pleasing 
absence  of  anti-Catholic  tone  and  bigotry,  and  a  conspicuous 
effort  to  be  fair  and  to  abstain  from  imputing  motives,  &c.  The 
Articles  are  of  varying. merit,  clearness,  and  accuracy — that  must  be; 
and  in  speaking  of  a  volume  containing  some  thousands  of  Articles  on 
a  multitudinous  variety  of  topics,  which  fill  some  eleven  hundred 
pages  of  double  columns,  we  need  not  pretend  to  have  read  the  whole, 
nor  to  be  English  Solomon  enough  to  criticize  everywhere  even  if  we 
had ;  but  we  have  seen  enough  to  recommend  it  to  students  as  a  very 
useful  work  of  reference.  Of  course  we  .should  much  prefer  a  similar 
work  written  from  a  Catholic  standpoint ;  but  such  a  work  does  not 
exist  in  English — when  may  we  hope  that  history  will  find  its  "  Addis 
and  Arnold  "  ?— and  a  great  portion  of  this  volume  deals  with  matters 
uninfluenced,  except  remotely,  by  such  a  consideration.  In  the  short 
article  on  Guy  Fawkes  we  are  referred  to  an  article  on  Gunpowder 
Plot,  which,  however  is  not  to  be  found ;  and  we  have  noted  some 
omissions  of  what  we  should  have  thought  needed  a  word  of  explana- 
tion to  the  "modern  reader"  whose  needs  have  been  consulted  in 
the  choice  of  subjects.  But  we  gladly  admit  that  there  is  sufficient 
explanation  in  these  pages  of  countless  other  subjects  of  perhaps  the 
most  frequent  occurrence.  There  are  some  excellent  tables — ex.gr., 
a  list  of  Speakers  of  the  House  of  Commons,  under  the  word 
"  Speaker  "  ;  and,  in  another  Article,  of  the  Lord  High  Chancellors  ; 
again,  a  complete  list  of  the  Lords  Lieutenants  and  Deputies  in  the 
Article  "  Ireland  "  ;  a  table  of  the  regnal  years  of  the  English  kings 
and  queens ;  and,  lastly,  we  must  mention  as  deserving  of  praise  the 
references  to  chief  authorities  appended  to  all  the  more  important 
Articles.  These  bibliographical  notes  are  valuable,  and,  when  supple- 
mented by  the  excellent  Article  on  "  Authorities  on  English  History," 
by  Mr.  Bass '  Mullinger,  occupying  twelve  columns,  they  may  be  said 
to  be  amply  sufficient  for  all  ordinary  requirements. 


Notices  of  Books.  223 

Histoire   des    Avocats    au   Parlement  de  Paris  1300-1600.     Par.   R. 
Delachenal.     Paris  :  E.  Plon,  Nourrit  &  Cie.     1885. 

INDUSTRIOUS  research  among  the  Archives  of  the  Parliament  of 
Paris  has  enabled  M.  Delachenal  to  present  to  his  readers  many- 
curious  and  interesting  details  concerning  the  early  history  of  its 
Advocates.  The  period  to  which  his  labours  are  confined — namely, 
the  first  three  centuries  after  the  formal  institution  of  the  Bar  as  a 
distinct  order  by  Philip  the  Bold — aftbrds  to  the  historical  inquirer 
a  wide  field  for  the  display  of  constructive  capacity.  Previous  works 
of  a  similar  character  are  silent,  or  pass  over  with  a  trivial  notice 
many  of  the  points  here  elucidated ;  biographical  details — so  plentiful 
in  more  modern  times — are  during  this  epoch  almost  entirely 
wanting,  so  that  much  of  the  present  history  had  to  be  extracted  by 
the  laborious  process  of  delving  among  original  manuscripts.  The 
plan  adopted  is  not  strictly  chronological ;  it  is  only  so  within  the 
sub-divisions  of  the  subject.  Thus,  for  example,  we  find  separate 
chapters  devoted  to  "  The  Relations  of  Advocates  with  the  Parlia- 
ment," "  Some  Privileges  of  Advocates,"  *'  Liberty  of  Speech," 
"  Payment  of  Fees,"  "  The  Advocate's  Robes,"  &c. ;  and  each  of 
these  is  treated  historically  so  far  as  the  nature  of  the  subject 
permits. 

Not  without  some  sad  reflections  upon  the  changes  wrought  by 
time  in  French  society,  do  we  read  here  of  the  close  connection 
established  in  early  times  between  the  law  and  I'eligion.  By  letters 
patent  of  Philip  of  Valois,  dated  April  22,  1340,  it  was  ordained 
that  a  Mass  should  be  said  every  day  on  a  movable  altar  in  the 
Great  Hall  of  the  Palace  j  and  the  leai'ned  counsel,  on  admission  to 
the  Bar,  had  to  pay  100  sous  towards  this  Foundation.  Again,  all 
the  advocates  and  proctors  were  necessarily  members  of  the  Confra- 
ternity of  St.  Nicholas — the  patron  saint  of  their  Order — whose 
feast-days  were  observed  with  much  solemnity  by  the  Parliament. 
The  subscriptions,  indeed,  of  the,  members  of  this  Confi-aternity  do 
do  not  seem  to  have  been  always  over-cheerfully  paid,  for,  by  an 
edict  of  May  3,  1492,  the  advocates  were  warned  to  render  what 
they  owed  to  their  Confraternity  under  penalty  of  fine  and  loss  of 
professional  privileges.  A  still  more  efficacious  means  of  compelling 
obedience  was  adopted  in  the  sixteenth  century,  when  tlie  Parlia- 
ment determined  that  the  hoods  and  head-dresses  of  the  recalcitrant 
barristers  should  be  seized  for  non-payment  of  their  contributions  ! 
Some  excuse  may  possibly  be  found  for  this  apparent  unwillingness 
to  part  with  their  sous  when  the  rate  of  their  remuneration  is  con- 
sidered, which  (even  allowing  for  the  greater  value  of  money  in 
those  days)  was  certainly  not  calculated  to  foster  extravagant  habits. 
Thus  we  find  that  in  l;i84  the  standing  counsel  of  the  city  of  Lyons, 
the  celebrated  Pierre  I'Orferre,  received  for  his  services  only  the 
annual  stipend  of  ten  francs  !  Miserable  as  this  salary  was,  it  seems 
to  have  been  one  of  the  great  prizes  of  the  profession  ;  for  towards 
the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  a  certain  Robert  Thiboust,  a  Pre- 


224  Notices  of  Books. 

sident  of  the  Parliament,  wrote  a  humbly  obsequious  letter  to  the 
authorities  of  that  city,  requesting  them  to  bestow  the  vacant  place 
on  one  of  his  own  nephews. 

The  Life  Around  Us;  a  Collection  of  Stories.     By  Maurice  Francis 
Egan.     New  York  and  Cincinnati :   Fr.  Pustet  &  Co.     1885. 

IT  is  curious  but  true,  that  avowedly  Catholic  stories  are,  as  a  rule* 
devoid  of  humour.  They  have  many  excellent  qualities  :  they 
preach  a  hig-h  ideal,  breathe  a  spirit  of  charity,  are  often  distin- 
guished by  pathos  or  imagination ;  but  it  would  almost  appear  as  if 
their  authors  considered  a  joke  heretical,  a  pun  as  verging  on  the 
profane,  and  failed  to  recognize  that  laughter  is  one  of  God's  most 
delightful  gifts  to  man.  This  attitude  of  mind  is  all  the  more 
remarkable  since  the  most  devout  Catholics  are  far  from  being  the 
most  solemn.  Nowhere  is  innocent  fun  better  appreciated  than 
among  religious  communities,  as  every  convent  girl  and  college  boy 
can  testify.  Nowhere  are  bright  Catholic  story  books  in  greater 
demand  than  for  the  convent  library  or  the  convent  prize-day.  But 
hitherto,  such  books  have  been  chiefly  conspicuous  by  their  absence. 
Here,  however,  in  Mr.  Egan's  capital  collection  of  stories,  The  Life 
Around  Us,  we  have  a  step  in  the  right  direction.  It  is  really  a 
welcome  addition  to  Catholic  literature,  and  should  soon  be  as  well 
known  among  readers  of  all  classes  as  it  undoubtedl}'  deserves  to  be. 
A  quotation  from  the  author's  amusing  preface  will  give  a  good 
idea  of  his  style  : — 

He  has  been  warned  that  the  good  Sisters  ....  would  not  like  the 
stories  that  end  with  marriages.  An  accompUshed  and  saintly  EeHgious 
to  whom  he  half-humorously  repeated  this  warning,  said,  quite  gravely, 
"  Nuns  do  not  object  to  other  people  marrying  if  they  have  the  vocation, 
and  are  worthy  to  make  happy  homes."  ....  Another  critic  shook  his 
head.  "The  love-making  in  the  stories  is  too  tame.  Young  people  will 
not  read  stories  unless  there  is  plenty  of  love-making  in  them."  The 
author  admits  that  he  is  a  homoeopathist  in  the  matter  of  love-making. 

He  has  made  a  very  little  go  a  great  way A  learned  pi-iest  who 

wrote  that  he  always  reads  a  good  story  when  he  finds  it,  complained 
that  "  Lilies  among  Thorns  "  had  as  many  deaths  at  the  end  as  the  last 
scene  of  "  Hamlet,"  and  that  "  A  Rosebud  "  and  "  Phillista  "  are  too  tra- 
gical  The  author  has  been  told  at  least  twenty  times  that  Bernard 

Devir  should  not  be  separated  from  his  devoted  mother — that  it  was 
wrong  to  seem  to  punish  her  for  her  pious  and  laudable  desire ;  that 
Jean  Marquette  should  have  been  ordained  a  priest  with  his  friend  Ned 
Barnes  ;  that  Tita  should  not  have  been  permitted  to  marry  John  Nelson; 
that  it  should  be  made  clear  whether  the  child  in  "A  Measureless 
lU  "  was  baptized  or  not ;  that  Priscilla  ought  not  to  have  made  a  mar- 
riage which  must  prove  unfortunate  owing  to  the  prejudices  of  her  friends ; 
that  the  Rosebud  should  have  gone  to  a  convent ;  that  Inez  should  not 
have  gone  to  a  convent ;  that  the  miserable  heroine  of  "  PhiUista  "  should 
have  become  a  nun  in  order  to  expiate  her  apostasy. 

With  regard  to  this  story  of  "Phillista,"  the  subject  is  one  worthy 
of  a  large  canvas  and  careful  painting.    Mr.  Egan  has  sketched  it, 


.  Notices  of  Books.  225 

so  to  speak,  on  a  couple  of  square  inches.  The  same  unsparing 
curtailment  of  great  themes,  due  to  the  exigencies  of  periodical  and 
newspaper  writing,  somewhat  mars  several  other  stories  besides 
"  Phillista,"  but  condensation  is  a  fault  on  the  right  side,  and  one 
with  which  modern  writers  can  too  seldom  be  reproached. 

Mr.  Egan  gives  some  amusing  specimens  of  English,  "  as  she  is 
spoke  "  by  foreigners.  Here  is  a  choice  bit  culled  from  the  letter 
of  a  French  Vicomte,  '^who,  having  spent  four  years  in  Washington, 
Avas  justly  regarded  by  his  Parisian  friends  as  a  master  of  the 
English  tongue." 

Dear  Fkiend, — You  have  no  doubt  great  surprise  for  receive  a  letter  of 
me,  but  i  may  make  it  only  a  billet,  for  my^  aunt,  which  is  a  priest.  Mon- 
sieur I'Abbe  de  Vaudrier,  have  come'vO  arrive  in  Paris.  He  have  come 
last  night,  and  it  must  that  i  give  to  him  great  attention,  which  is  a 
^lage,  but  right  that  it  should  be.  You  know  how  well  i  speak  the  Eng- 
lish in  Vasington,  but  i  have  much  improve  now,  for  i  speak  her  all  the 
day  to  my  brother  the  Marquis,  which  I  teach,  and  even  to  my  horses, 
of  which  i  say  "  Gro  Ion' — skedaddell !  "  and  they  go  Ion',  ....  My  aunt, 
M,  I'Abbe,  you  send  his  blessing,  and  have  great  pleasure  you  have 
marry  one  of  our  Faith. — Yours, 

Alphonse  de  Vaudrier, 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  marked  excellence  of  these  short  tales 
will  induce  Mr.  Egan  to  try  his  hand  at  a  Catholic  novel.  It  is 
likely  that  the  result  would  prove  in  every  way  satisfactory. 


I 


A  Schoolmastei'' s  Retrospect  of  Eighteen  and  a  half  years  in  an  Irish 
School.  By  Maurice  C.  Hime,  M.A.,  LL.D.  London: 
Simpkin,  Marshall  &  Co.    1885. 

THIS  is  a  pleasant  work  of  an  amiable  man.  The  author  does 
not  pretend  to  any  profound  educational  theories,  but  writes 
down,  simply  and  good-naturedly,  the  thoughts  that  rise  within  him 
after  a  long  educational  experience.  To  those  who  maintain  that  a 
schoolmaster's  work  is  bound  to  warp  and  sour  the  mind,  it  will  come 
as  a  surprise  to  find  a  man  writing  about  twenty  years'  experience 
with  a  glow  of  satisfaction  and  optimism.  But  such  is  the  tone  of 
the  work  before  us.  Its  author  must  have  been  singularly  fitted 
by  nature  for  the  important  post  he  holds,  and  the  nappy  state  of 
his  school  that  he  describes  must  be  the  refiection  of  his  own  genial 
and  sympathetic  disposition.  Almost  all  the  subjects  of  school  life 
enter  into  his  pages,  and  it  is  suggestive  that  a  large-minded  man 
like  Mr.  Hime  should  find  himself  falling  into  the  time-honoured 
views  of  educationalists.  He  has,  however,  some  points  peculiarly 
his  own — such  as  the  superiority  of  a  mother's  over  a  father's  insight 
into  a  boy's  character.  He  advocates  the  total  abolition  of  corporal 
punishment,  and  defends  his  case  with  no  little  skill.  His  latest 
development  is  the  interdiction  of  all  punishment  whatever  in  the 
school,  even  the  imposition  of  tasks  for  lessons  not  properly  learned, 
VOL.  XV. — NO.  I.     [Third  Series.']  Q 


226  :  J^oiices  of  Books. 

and  the  experiment,  so  far,  is  a  great  success.  We  can  readily 
accept  it  to  be  so,  but  it  can  only  come  abo  ut  by  the  strong-  personal 
influence  of  the  head-master  being  brought  to  bear  on  the  whole 
school.  We  may  add,  in  conclusion,  that  the  book  hails  from  the 
north  of  Ireland,  and  still  we  have  been  unable  to  detect  a  single 
word  against  Catholics  throughout  its  pages.  T.  A.  B. 


A  Journal  kept  by  Ttichard  Boyle  in  the  Year  1840.  Illustrated  with 
several  Hundred  Sketches  by  the  Author.  With  an  Introduction 
by  J.  HuNQERFORD  PoLLEN.  Londou  :  Smith,  Elder  &  Co. 
1885. 

THE  marvellous  thing  about  this  Journal  is  that  Dicky  Doyle  was 
only  fifteen  when  he  wrote  and  illustrated  it.  Sketches  by  a 
boy  of  that  age  might  reasonably  be  supposed  worthless ;  but  in  this 
case  the  truth  is,  as  Mr.  Pollen  says,  that  they  "  will  more  than  repay 
a  careful  study."  Genius  is  given,  not  acquired,  doubtless  j  still  it 
seems  little  short  of  incredible  that,  at  so  early  an  age,  even  the 
afterwards  famous  Dick  Doyle  could  have  so  far  developed  the 
power  of  observation,  and  acquired  facility  over  the  difliculties  of 
perspective.  The  text  and  sketches  are  here  reproduced  in  facsimile, 
and  no  doubt  there  is.  sometimes  in  the  one  indifferent  drawing",  as 
there  is  in  the  other  bad  spelling ;  but  it  is  wonderful  how  little 
there  is  of  either.  And  some  of  the  sketches  are  simply  marvels  of 
grouping— a  London  crowd  being  a  frequent  subject,  drawn  with  that 
endless  variety  of  detail  which  even  in  his  maturity  is  one  of  Doyle's 
best  titles  to  admiration.  A  row  in  the  streets,  a  review,  the  rush 
into  the  Academy  on  opening  day,  a  theatre  full  of  people  bending 
forward  in  breathless  admiration  of  a  great  artiste — tnese  are  ambi- 
tious subjects  for  the  pencil  of  a  boy.  This  boy  does  them  to  per- 
fection ;  and  in  others,  as  in  the  sketch  of  the  street  preacher,  or  of  the 
two  flunkeys  in  silk  calves,  picking  their  way  through  the  mud,  he 
is  as  irresistible  as  he  ever  was  in  Punch.  The  boy  must  have  been 
as  precocious  as  he  was  good.  Even  in  the  text  of  his  Journal,  with 
much  that  is  pleasingly  boyish,  he  has  mature  criticism  of  painters 
and  paintings,  and  shrewd  estimates  of  men  and  things.  We,  at 
least,  marvel  to  find  a  boy  of  fifteen,  in  describing  an  uproarious 
scene  at  the  Opera  House,  speak  of  "  such  a  yell,"  rending  the 
air  "  as  might  have  startled  a  futman  {sic)  even  if  he  had  been 
warned  beforehand." 

The  volume,  a  thin  quarto,  is  beautifully  brought  out,  and  bound 
in  an  appropriate  cover,  and  would  form  a  delightful  gift-book. 
Indeed,  we  expect  it  will  be  a  favourite  gift-book  this  season:  happy 
the  boy  who  gets  it !  It  is  impossible  not  to  catch  the  infection  of 
Dick  Doyle's  good-natured  fun.  Some  of  the  Sunday's  entries  begin 
with  "  went  to  3Iass  "  at  such  an  hour.  And  when  the  Catholic  boy 
-earns  that  this  highly  g'ifted  artist  was  ever  a  devoted  Catholic,  and 
j^eadily  preferred  sacrifice  of  temporal  prospects  rather  than  remain 


i 


Notices  of  Books.  227 

■attached  to  a  paper  which  insulted  the  Pope,  he  will  find  something- 
in  the  Journal  besides  mere  amusement.  Lastly,  there  is  a  portrait 
of  the  artist  as  a  frontispiece,  and  Mr.  Pollen  contributes  an  ex- 
cellent Introduction,  griving  a  sufficient  account  of  Doyle's  life  and 
the  character  of  his  artistic  work.  We  end  with  some  of  his  closing 
Avords : — 

Dick  the  man  may  be  discerned  in  the  wit  and  play  of  Dicky  the  boy, 

as  we  see  him  in  the  following  pages He  will  be  long  remembered, 

not  for  the  playfulness  of  his  wit  alone,  but  for  the  superadded  charm 
and  attractiveness  which  were  due  to  the  purity  of  his  character,  and  to 
his  many  noble  qualities  of  heart  and  mind. — R.I.P. 


Italj/  and  her  Invaders.  By  Thomas  Hodgkin,  Fellow  of  University 
College,  London,  &c.  Vol.  III.  The  Ostrogothic  Invasion, 
476-535.  Vol.  IV.  The  Imperial  Restoration,  535-553. 
Oxford  :  The  Clarendon  Press.     1885. 

FIVE  years,  in  these  days  of  '' making  many  books,"    is  a  long 
wait  between  the  second  and  third  volumes  of  even  a  history. 
Yet  Mr.  Hodgkin  had  nothing  to  fear  from  allowing  so  long  a  time 
to  elapse ;  we  cannot  fancy  any  one  who  read  his  first  volumes  having, 
even  in  that  long  interval,  forgotten  the  enjoyment  of  reading  them 
— their  charm  of  style  and  freshness  of  treatment.     It  may  be  well 
to  state,  in  Mr.  Hodgkin's  own  words,  that  his  object  in  this  great 
work  (which  is  not  yet  completed)  is  "  to  trace  some  of  the  changes 
by  which  classical  Italy,  the  kernel  of  the  Roman  Empire,  the  centre 
of  government  and  law  for  the  Western  world,  became  that  Italy  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  whose  life  was  as  rich  in  intellectual  and  artistic 
culture  as  it  was  poor  in  national  cohesion  and  enduring  political 
strength."     This  period  of  transition  is  a  mighty  drama,  devastating- 
*  the  stage  on  which  it  was  enacted  :  its  five  acts,  each   a  barbarian 
invasion  of  Visigoth,  Hun,  Vandal,  Ostrogoth,  and  Lombard.     The 
two  bulky  volumes  before  us  cover  the  fourth  of  these  invasions.    It 
is  at  once  obvious  what  exceptionally  dramatic  incidents  are  here  at 
the  service  of  the  historian,  and  Mr.  Hodgkin  handles  them  with 
•excellent  effect.      Using  original  sources  and  familiar  with  their 
smallest  details,  openly  an  admirer  of  the   stalwart  Northmen,  re- 
gretting the  failure  of  their  attempt  to  found  a  Gothic  kingdom,  yet 
careful  to  record  and  reprobate  their  faults,  clear  in  his  presentment 
of  events,  generally  sagacious  in  weighing  evidence  and  plausible 
in  his  conjectures,  writing  in  a  plain,  yet  forcible,  often  vivid,  style, 
he  makes  history  a  thrilling  romance — if  not  "  stranger  "  than  some 
modern  fiction,  far  more  interesting,  because  true  and  full  of  use- 
fullest  lessons.     Perhaps  no  one  will  agree  with  every  judgment  and 
opinion  of  the  author  ;  but  even  where  we,  as  Catholics,  more  par- 
ticularly regret  his  mistaken  views,  we  admire  his  wish  and  efibrt  to 
be  just.     We  could  not  in  a  short  notice  follow  Mr.  Hodgkin  in  his 
references  to  the  Popes,  yet  we  may  say  at  once  that  they  fail  chiefly 

Q  2 


228  Notices  of  Books. 

from  the  fault  of  a  Protestant  standpoint,  not  from  an  anti-Catholic 
bias ;  are  defective  rather  than  offensive  in  the  long  familiar  way. 

The  former  volumes  of  *'  Italy  and  her  Invaders  "  were  devoted  to 
the  inroads  of  Visig-oth,  Hun,  and  Vandal,  the  incidents  of  which 
centred  around  the  figures  of  Alaric,  Attila,  the  "  Scoui'ge  of  God," 
and  the  Vandal  Genseric — Gaiseric,  as  he  is  here  named ;  for  Mr. 
Hodgkin  has  the  present  mania  for  re-spelling  our  old  familiar  names 
— the  third  act  closing  with  the  fall  of  the  Western  Empire,  the 
deposition  of  Romulus  Augustulus  and  the  accession  of  Odoacer 
(Odovakar  here).  The  new  volumes  are  occupied  with  the  Ostro- 
gothic  invasion,  and  are  of  even  greater  interest.  The  story  which 
they  relate  never  loses  its  attraction.  The  descent  of  Tlieodoric 
into  Italy  with  a  people  in  his  train,  200,000  at  least  of  men,  women 
and  children,  even  as  the  children  of  Israel  led  by  Moses,  seeking 
to  penetrate  through  hostile  countries  and  win  by  the  edge  of  the 
sword  a  new  possession ;  "  the  death-grapple  "  between  Odoacer  and 
Theodoric,  the  latter  victorious  from  battle  to  battle,  then  checked 
before  Ravenna  till  Odoacer  yields ;  his  base  murder  by  Theodoric  ; 
the  reign  of  the  latter  over  Italy,  the  grandeur  of  his  administration 
— these  fill  the  third  volume.  And  in  the  fourth  we  have  a  scarcely 
less  thrilling  narrative  in  the  author's  most  graphic  style : — the 
efforts  of  Belisarius  to  restore  Imperial  ascendency  in  Italy ;  the 
three  sieges  of  Rome ;  the  failure  of  the  Gothic  warriors,  and  their 
final  departure  from  Italy,  "making  their  way  very  sadly  over  the 
Alpine  passes,  bidding  an  eternal  farewell  to  the  fair  land  of  their 
birth." 

The  chapters  which  interrupt  the  flow  of  this  narrative,  to  tell  us 
all  about  some  point  of  collateral  interest,  to  describe  an  ancient 
city,  or  explain  a  system  of  philosophy  or  a  famous  book,  though 
frequent,  are,  on  the  whole,  most  happy  and  interesting.  Such  are 
the  chapters  on  the  Gothic  king  and  people,  on  Boethius  and 
Symmachus,  on  the  Roman  aqueducts  and  wells,  the  descriptions  of 
Naples,  Ravenna,  Rome,  &c.  One  chapter  details  the  life  of  St. 
Benedict,  chiefly  from  St.  Gregory's  "  Dialogues,"  and  another, 
entirely  devoted  to  a  Pope,  is  headed  "  The  Sorrows  of  Vigilius." 
The  latter  is  an  attempt  to  state  the  complicated  and  difficult  story 
of  the  efforts  of  Justinian  to  win  from  the  Pope  the  condemnation  of 
the  Three  Chapters  ;  and  with  very  much  in  it  that  is  wonderfully 
clear,  honestly,  and  well  stated,  it  yet  fails  to  be  what  it  might  and 
ought  to  be.  In  giving  the  letter  which  Vigilius  wrote  to  the  Mono- 
physite  Bishops  this  might  have  been  added  concerning  it :  that  it  was 
written  in  538,  and  that  Vigilius  could  not  feel  himself  legitimate 
and  responsible  Pope  till  Sylverius's  death  in  540.  Whence  came 
the  change  in  the  heretofore  unscrupulous  creature  of  an  empress  T 
We  think  that  having  become  Pope  he  had  inherited  the  prerogatives 
of  Peter.  Mr.  Hodgkin  thinks  :  "  he  was  now  firm  in  his  seat,  and 
could  assume  the  attitude  of  unbending  orthodoxy  !  "  an  explanation 
Avhich  explains  nothing;  particularly  as  Vigilius,  anything  but  firm 
in  his  seat,  was  sooif  an  exile  from  his  Church  and  a  prisoner  of  the- 


Notices  of  Books.  329 

emperor.  Mr.  Hodg-kin  enumerates  the  cliang-es  of  judgement  on  the 
part  of  the  Pope.  It  should  be  remembered,  however,  to  use  Dr. 
Dulling-er's  words,  that  "  his  chang-ing-s  had  no  reference  to  dogmas 
of  faith ;  in  these  he  was  ever  the  same  ....  he  varied  only  on  the 
question  of  ecclesiastical  economy,  whether'  it  were  prudent  to  con- 
demn the  writings  which  the  Council  had  spared,  and  to  anathematize 
a  man  who  had  died  in  the  communion  of  the  Church."  This  is  the 
point  Avhich  the  author  fails  to  see.  It  is,  however,  the  true  key  to 
the  vacillations  of  Vig'ilius.  He  was  not  wanting'  in  courage,  and  on 
this  Mr.  Hodgkins  excellently  insists.  Indeed,  on  this  point  he 
gives  the  Pope  praise,  Avhich  many  Catholic  authors  have  failed  to 
award  him. 

The  following  extract  will  give  a  fair  specimen  of  Mr.  Hodgkin's 
style.  Readers  of  Gibbon  will  remember  the  same  incident  treated 
in  that  historian's  forty-first  chapter,  and  will  probably  agree  with 
us  that  Mr.  Hodgkin  has  nothing  to  fear  from  the  comparison  : — 

The  preparations  of  the  Goths  being  completed,  on  the  eighteenth  day 
of  the  siege,  at  sunrise,  they  began  the  assault.  With  dismay  the 
Romans,  clustered  on  the  walls,  beheld  the  immense  masses  of-  men  con- 
verging to  the  city,  the  rams,  the  towers,  drawn  by  oxen,  moving  slowly 
towards  them.  They  beheld  the  sight  with  dismay,  but  a  smile  of  calm 
scorn  curved  the  lips  of  Belisarius.  The  Romans  could  not  bear  to  see 
him  thus  trifling,  as  they  thought,  in  the  extremity  of  their  danger ; 
implored  him  to  use  the  balistge  on  the  walls  before  the  enemy  came  any 
nearer ;  called  him  shameless  and  incompetent  when  he  refused ;  but 
still  Belisarius  waited  and  still  he  smiled.  At  length,  when  the  Goths 
were  now  close  to  the  edge  of  the  fosse,  he  drew  his  bow  and  shot  one  of 
their  leaders,  armed  with  breastplate  and  mail,  through  the  neck.  The 
chief  fell  dead,  and  a  roar  of  applause  at  the  fortunate  omen  rose  from 
the  Roman  ranks.  Again  he  bent  his  bow  and  again  a  Gothic  noble 
fell,  whereat  another  shout  of  applause  from  the  walls  rent  the  air.  Then 
Belisarius  gave  all  his  soldiers  the  signal  to  discharge  their  arrows, 
ordering  those  immediately  around  him  to  leave  the  men  untouched  and 
to  aim  all  their  shafts  at  the  oxen.  In  a  few  minutes  the  milk-white 
Etrurian  oxen  were  all  slain,  and  then  of  necessity  the  towers,  the  rams, 
all  the  engines  of  war,  remained  immovable  at  the  edge  of  the  fosse,  use- 
less for  attack,  only  a  hindrance  to  the  assaulting  host — so  close  to  the 
walls,  it  was  impossible  for  the  Goths  to  bring  up  other  beasts  of  burden, 
or  to  devise  any  means  to  repair  the  disaster.  Then  men  understood  the 
reason  of  the  smile  of  Belisarius,  who  was  amused  at  the  simplicity  of  the 
barbarians  in  thinking  that  he  would  allow  them  to  drive  their  oxen 
close  up  under  his  battlements.  Then  they  recognized  his  wisdom  in 
postponing  the  reply  from  the  ballistas  till  the  Goths  had  come  so  near 
that  their  disaster  was  irreparable  (iv.  p.  192). 

Belisarius  is  one  of  the  best  drawn  figures  in  the  book,  and  the 
author  has  no  little  admiration  of  him.  Towards  Belisarius's  royal 
master,  Justinian,  he  is  somewhat  too  severe :  much  as  we  think  he  is 
mistaken  in  believing  Procopius's  scandalous  stories  of  Theodora. 
The  author  bitterly  regrets  the  failure  of  the  Goths  to  establish 
themselves  in  Italy,  and  blames  the  Popes,  who  loojced  with  preference 
to  Constantinople.    Brave  Teuton  welded  with  the  Latin  race,  there- 


230  Notices  of  Books. 

from  would  have  sprung  a  noble  people  to  cultivate  and  defend  Italy^ 
and  the  history  of  mediffival  Europe  would  have  run  in  other  channels. 
Theodoric  is  the  hero  of  the  volumes  before  us,  though  the  author 
considers  that  Totila  was  most  completely  the  type  and  embodiment 
of  what  was  noblest  in  the  Ostrogothic  nation,  and  would  have  held 
in  its  annals  (had  their  kingdom  lived)  the  place  which  Englishmen 
accord  to  Alfred,  Frenchmen  to  Charlemagne,  and  Germans  to  the 
mighty  Barbarossa. 

English  literature,  as  well  as  technical  history,  is  indebted  to 
Mr.  Hodgkin  for  his  fascinating  pages ;  and  we  desire  to  express 
the  sincere  hope  that  he  may  have  strength  to  pursue  his  subject  to 
the  end  with  the  same  care,  fulness,  and  enthusiasm.  We  shall 
certainly  look  expectantly  for  the  story  of  the  Lombards.  The 
maps,  numerous  and  carefully  done  by  the  author,  deserve  a  word 
of  sincere  commendation,  as  do  the  plates  of  coins  and  the  other 
plates  and  photographs.  The  author  has  set  a  good  example  in 
combining  simplicity  with  exactness  in  his  text,  leaving  crudities  and 
erudition  for  notes  and  appendices,  which  the  general  reader  may 
skip.  With  the  same  excellent  intention  ancient  geographical  names 
are  followed  by  their  modern  substitutes  in  parentheses. 


Lcs  Catholiques  Liberaux,  TEglisc  et  le  Liberalisme  de  1830  a  nos  jours. 
Par  Anatole  Leroy-Beaulieu.  Paris:  E.  Plon,  Nourrit 
&  Cie.     1885. 

THE  attention  of  the  Catholic  world  has  lately  been  fixed  upon 
France.  By  sinking  their  differences  French  Catholics  showed 
at  the  late  elections  that  they  are  a  large  and  powerful  minority  of 
the  French  nation.  As  long  as  they  remain  united  their  strength 
will  be  great.  To  understand  their  differences  we  must  study 
the  history  of  Catholic  parties  in  France  during  the  last  fifty  yeai's, 
M.  Leroy-Beaulieu  gives  us  an  excellent  sketch  of  this  period.  He 
writes  in  that  clear  and  forcible  style  in  which  the  French  excel. 
Our  only  complaint  against  him  is,  that  he  occasionally  forgets  his 
habitual  moderation,  and  indulges  in  that  very  bitterness  which  he 
deplores  so  much  in  his  opponents.  We  readily  admit  that  it  must 
be  difficult  for  any  one  who  has  smarted  under  the  lash  of  Louis 
Veuillot  to  write  with  moderation.  But  at  the  present  time  it  is  of 
the  utmost  importance  that  Catholics  should  pour  balm  into  the 
wounds  which  they  may  have  inflicted  upon  each  other,  and  keep 
their  swords'  points  for  their  foes. 

After  some  introductory  chapters  treating  of  the  principles 
of  Catholicism  and  Liberalism,  the  author  proceeds  to  sketch  the 
characters  of  the  originators  of  the  Catholic  Liberal  movement. 
And  here  we  may  observe  that  he  strongly  objects  to  the  expressions 
Liberal  Catholicism,  Liberal  Catholic.  The  system  was  a  species  of 
Liberalism,  not  a  species  of  Catholicism.  We  think,  however,  that 
although  the  originators  of  the  movement  were  Catholic  Liberals, 
their  followers  tended  to  become  Liberal  Catholics.     The  characters. 


Notices  of  Boohs.  231 

of  La  Mennais,  Lacordaire,  and  Montalembert  are  drawn  with  great 
skill  (chap.  v.).  The  effects  produced  upon  each  of  them  by  the 
condemnation  of  the  Avenir  are  admirably  summed  up  in  the  follow- 
ing passage : — 

La  Mennais,  a  rebel  by  disposition,  and  a  demagogue  without  knowing 
it,  soon  retracted  the  submission  which  he  had  promised  beforehand. 
Lacordaire,  the  most  humble  and  docile  of  the  three,  broken  down  and 
resigned,  saw,  as  he  said,  everything  crumbling  away  around  him ;  he 
could  hardly  keep  himself  from  despair,  and  thought  of  setting  out  for 
America,  or  of  becoming  a  country  cure.  Montalembert,  after  remaining 
uncertain  for  three  years,  persevering  in  a  disinterested  fidelity,  les.s 
perhaps  to  the  person  of  the  fallen  apostle  than  to  the  great  idea  which 
seemed  buried  in  his  fall,  paused  only  on  the  brink  of  rebellion  (pp. 
102-3). 

The  later  historj'-  of  the  movement  is  embittered  by  the  contests 
between  Mgr.  Dupanloup  and  Louis  Veuillot.  M.  Leroy-Beaulieu, 
of  course,  sides  with  the  former.  We  have  no  desire  to  pass  judg- 
naent  upon  the  combatants.  It  is  well,  however,  in  this  connection 
to  remember  the  weighty  words  of  the  Holy  Father  in  his  latest 
Encyclical:  — 

Those  whose  loyalty,  therefore,  is  apparent  on  other  accounts,  and 
whose  minds  are  ready  to  accept  in  all  obedience  the  decrees  of  the 
Apostolic  See,  may  not  in  justice  be  accounted  as  bad  men  because  they 
disagree  on  the  subjects  we  have  mentioned ;  and  a  still  graver  injury  is 
done  them  if  they  are  charged  with  the  crime  of  having  violated  the 
Catholic  Faith,  or  of  being  suspected  thereof,  which,  we  deplore  to  say, 
has  happened  more  than  once.  Let  this  precept  be  well  borne  in  mind 
by  all  who  are  in  the  habit  of  committing  their  thoughts  to  writing,  and 
above  all  by  the  editors  of  newspapers.  In  this  struggle  for  interests  of 
the  highest  order  there  is  no  room  for  intestine  strife  or  party  rivalries, 
but  all  must  strive  with  one  mind  and  purpose  to  secure  that  which  is 
the  common  object  of  all — the  preservation  of  Religion  and  of  the 
State. 


The  Chavipion  of  Odin ;  or,  Viking  Life  in  the  Days  of  Old.  A  Tale 
of  Ancient  War.  By  J.  Fkederick  Hodgetts.  London: 
Cassell  &  Co.    1885. 

IT  is  the  professed  aim  of  this  book  to  interest  English  boys  of  the 
Victorian  age  in  the  life  of  their  forefathers,  by  stringing  on  the 
thi-ead  of  a  personal  narrative  a  series  of  stirring  anecdotes  culled 
from  Scandinavian  sources.  There  is,  indeed,  in  these  pages  no  lack 
of  "  stirring  anecdote,"  or,  of  what  is  dear  to  every  boy's  heart,  deeds 
of  prowess  vividly  described.  From  the  time  when  Hahkon  is  in- 
troduced to  us  as  a  boy  tending  his  sheep  in  Sweden,  until  at  the 
close  of  the  volume,  we  find  him  the  Christian  ruler  of  East  Anglia, 
administering  that  Province  under  the  beneficent  kingship  of  Alfred 
the  Great,  the  narrative  never  flags. 

A  charming  scene  it  is  Avhere  Eadburga,  the  Christian  wife  of 
Hahkon,  soothes  her  wounded  husband's  convalescence  and  enforced 
inaction  with  "words  of  promise,  words  of  peace,  words  of  hope  and 


282  Notices  of  Books. 

comfort  that  seemed  in  wonderful  harmony  with  the  scene  around 
him.  Words  that  sound  to  us  now  as  they  did  in  those  early  days  of 
England  a  thousand  years  ago."  The  great  king  enters,  unobserved 
by  the  husband  and  wife,  and  stands  reverently  uncovered  while  the 
reading  goes  on,  but  when  the  book  is  closed  reveals  his  presence  by 
pronoimcing  in  a  sweet  clear  voice  the  word  "  Amen." 

The  Christianity,  however,  of  Hahkon  is  well-nigh  forgotten  when 
he  hears  from  Alfred  that  his  second  line,  with  Thorgills  at  its  head, 
has  been  beaten  by  the  enemy: — 

"  Hammer  of  Thor ! "  cried  Hahkon,  starting  up  at  the  unwelcome 
news.  "  Sieward,"  he  roared,  "'  my  arms  !  This  is  too  bad  !  Idling  and 
dreaming  here,  and  war  upon  the  water !  I  should  have  known  this  ere 
now.  Sir  King,  this  was  not  well !  Have  the  Danes  landed  ?  "  "  No, 
my  good  Storm-wind,  no,"  replied  the  King.  "But  thou  art  a  strange 
Christian,  Ethelhelm  (nay,  I  must  call  thee  Hahkon),  a  fierce  disciple  of 
the  creed  of  peace.  I  shall  have  doubts  of  Eadburga,  as  far  as  teaching 
Christian  duty  goes  !     A  fiery  Christian,  by  my  faith !  " 

This  extract  gives  a  fair  idea  of  the  spirited  style  in  which  this 
book  is  written,  and  which,  we  do  not  doubt,  will  carry  the  youthful 
readers,  for  whom  it  is  intended,  from  cover  to  cover  in  unwearied 
perusal. 

King  Solomon's  Mines.     By  H.  Rider  Haggard.     London  : 

Cassell  &  Co.  1885. 

WILDLY  improbable  as  many  of  the  incidents  in  this  fanciful  tale 
of  travel  undoubtedly  are,  we  no  more  question,  as  we  read,  the 
veracity  of  the  narrator,  than  a  right-minded  child  doubts  the 
historical  accuracy  of  "  Robinson  Crusoe  "  or  "  Sindbad  the  Sailor." 
Allan  Quatermain,  who  tells  the  story,  is  an  elephant  hunter  on  the 
East  Coast  of  Africa,  and  during  one  of  his  expeditions  obtains  from 
a  dying  man  the  fragment  of  linen  which  is  presented  to  the  reader 
in  facsimile  upon  the  frontispiece.  This  is  neither  more  nor  less  than 
the  map  of  the  route  (with  explanatory  directions  in  Portuguese) 
leading  to  King  Solomon's  Mines,  and  was  drawn  by  the  dying  hand 
of  Don  Jose  da  Silvestra  nearly  three  hundred  years  ago  in  circum- 
stances of  some  difficulty.  It  is  in  the  attempt  to  reach  the  fabulous 
wealth  indicated  by  the  old  Don,  that  Quatermain,  accompanied  by 
an  English  baronet  and  a  superannuated  captain  in  the  navy,  meet 
•with  their  marvellous  adventures.  Having  crossed  a  desert  and 
a  frozen  mountain  chain  (where  they  meet  with  striking  confirmation 
of  Don  Silvestra's  real  existence  in  the  form  of  Don  Silvestra's  well- 
preserved  remains),  they  reach  a  nation  of  black  warriors  who  have 
never  before  seen  or  heard  of  the  white  men.  By  thejudicious  use 
of  their  "  Winchester  repeaters,"  the  tube  that  kills  by  speaking,  and 
by  forecasting  an  eclipse  of  the  sun,  they  establish  their  position  as 
denizens  of  the  stars,  Avhom  it  would  be  rank  blasphemy  to  kill 
or  injure.  It  must,  however,  be  confessed  that  in  accomplishing  this 
desirable  end  no  small  amount  of  credit  must  be  ascribed  to  the  eye- 


Notices  of  Books.  233 

glass  and  false  teeth  of  Captain  Good.  The  Kukuanas,  and  Twala, 
their  king-,  are  somewhat  closely  modelled  on  the  Zulus  and 
Cetewayo,  and  our  travellers  sup  full  with  horrors  during  their  visit 
to  the  Koyal  Kraal.  A  revolution,  by  which  the  monster  king- 
is  deposed,  and  the  rightful  heir  to  the  throne,  in  the  person  of  one 
of  the  Englishmen's  black  servants,  is  successfully  established  in  his 
kingdom,  appropriately  terminates  in  a  single  combat  between  Twala 
and  Sir  Henry  Curtis,  Bart.,  in  which  the  latter  (astoundingly 
expert  in  the  use  of  the  Kukuana  weapons)  eventually  gains 
the  victory  and  shears  off  the  head  of  his  opponent  with  a  battle-axe. 
The  Avitch  Gagool  is  then  compelled  to  disclose  to  them  the  secret 
entrance  to  King  Solomon's  treasure  chamber,  but  while  they  are 
gloating  over  the  boxes  of  gold  and  handling  with  awe  the  multitude 
of  diamonds,  the  malignant  Gagool  slips  away,  touches  the  secret 
spring,  the  portcullis  of  solid  rock  descends,  and  our  travellers 
are  immured  with  their  new-found  wealth  in  a  living  tomb.  Had  the 
story  but  been  autobiographical  in  form,  we  should  here  surely  have 
surrendered  all  hope  for  them,  as  it  was  they  did  of  course  get  out, 
but  how,  we  leave  this  charming  book  to  disclose  in  its  own  way. 


Dreams  hy  a  French  Fireside:  Fairy  Tales.  Translated  from  the 
German  of  Richard  Leander  (Professor  R.  Volkmann),  by 
Mary  O'Callaghan.     London  :  Chapman  &  Hall.     1S8G. 

THIS  pretty  volume  has  a  special  interest  from  the  time  and 
manner  of  its  composition.  For  it  is  a  blossom  of  the  battle- 
field, written  by  a  German  soldier-professor  during  the  Franco- 
Prussian  war,  to  while  away  the  weary  winter  evenings  passed  before 
beleaguered  Paris,  with  a  labour  of  love  undertaken  on  behalf  of  the 
writer's  own  distant  fireside.  The  war-mail  that  brought  each  fairy 
fiction  fresh  from  the  camp  must  have  been  eagerly  looked  for  by 
the  soldier's  children,  and  Miss  O'Callaghan's  excellent  and  graceful 
translation  now  enables  their  English  compeers  to  share  their 
pleasure.  The  charming  illustrations  by  which  the  present  volume 
is  adorned  make  it  a  particularly  appropriate  Christmas  gift-book  for 
little  people. 


1.  Little    Dick's     Christmas     Carols,    and    other    Tales.     London : 

R.  Washbourne.     1886. 

2.  Christmas  Bevels ;    or,    the   Puritan^ s  Discomforture :  a  Brirlesque 

(6d.).    R.  Washbourne. 

3.  The    Wanderer  ;    or,    FaitKs     Welcome,   a    Play  for  Boys  (6rZ.). 

R.  Washbourxe. 

¥E  have  just  received  these  three  little  books  for  children,  from 
the  well-kown  London  publisher,  Mr.  Washbourne,  and 
feel  that  we  can  safely  recommend  them  as  suitable  presents  for  the 
young. 


234  Notices  of  Books. 

What  I  Believe.     By  Leon  Tolstoi.    Translated  by  Constantipte 
PopoFF.     London  :  Elliot  Stock.     1885. 

YET  another  prophet — another  philosopher !  "  The  name  of 
Count  Leon  Tolstoi,"  as  the  translator  of  this  volume  correctly 
says,  in  his  preface,  "  stands  hig-h  in  the  annals  of  his  country  s 
literature,  as  the  author  of  [the  novels]  *  War  and  Peace,'  and 
*  Anna  Karenine.' "  He  has  during-  the  last  seven  years,  we  are 
told,  ''  withdrawn  from  the  world  and  its  vanities,  and  has  devoted 
himself  to  the  study  of  the  teaching-s  of  Christ."  With  what  result, 
and  perhaps  also  in  what  spirit  and  with  what  careful  investig-ation, 
the  following-  passages  quite  sufficiently  show  !  ! 

Everything  tended  to  convince  me  that  I  had  now  found  the  true  in- 
terpretation of  Christ's  doctrine,  but  it  was  a  long  while  before  I  could 
get  used  to  the  strange  thought  that,  after  so  many  men  had  professed 
the  doctrine  of  Christ  during  1800  years,  and  had  devoted  their  lives  to 
the  study  of  Bis  teachings,  it  was  given  to  me  to  discover  His  doctrine 
as  something  altogether  new  (p.  48). 

There  is  nothing  that  is  obligatory  to  a  Christian,  if  we  except  fast- 
days  and  prayers,  which  the  Church  itself  does  not  consider  as  obhga- 
tory,  there  is  nothing  that  he  must  refrain  from.  All  that  is  necessary 
for  a  pseudo-Christian  [by  this  term  the  author  seems  to  mean  any 
member  of  a  Christian  religion]  is,  never  to  neglect  the  Sacraments.  But 
the  behever  does  not  administer  the  Sacraments  to  himself ;  they  are 
administered  to  him  by  others.  No  obligation  lies  on  the  pseudo- 
Christian  ;  the  Church  does  all  that  is  needful  for  him :  he  is  baptized 
anointed,  the  Sacrament  of  the  Holy  Communion  is  administered  to  him 
and  the  Sacrament  of  Extreme  Unction ;  his  confession  is  taken  for 
granted  if  he  be  unable  to  make  it  orally  ;  prayers  are  said  for  him,  and 
he  is  saved.  From  the  time  of  Constantine,  the  Church  never  required 
any  deeds  of  its  members  :  it  never  even  enjoined  a  man  to  refrain  from 
anything.  The  Christian  Church  acknowledged  and  consecrated  divorce, 
slavery,  courts  of  law,  and  all  the  powers  which  had  existed  before,  such 
as  war  and  persecution,  and  only  requhed  evil  to  be  renounced  in  word 
at  baptism.  The  Church  acknowledged  the  doctrine  of  Christ  in  word, 
but  denied  it  in  deed  (p.  206). 


True   Wayside  Tales.     By  Lady  Herbert.     Third  Series. 
London  :  R.  Washbourne.     1886. 

ANOTHER  instalment  of  these  most  attractive  Tales  is  a  very 
welcome  volume.  Many  priests,  nuns,  doctors,  and  others  who 
come  into  contact  with  the  under-currents  of  life,  meet  from  time  to 
time  with  such  incidents  as  Lady  Herbert  has  here  gathered  together 
from  many  quarters  of  the  world.  Such  incidents  illustrate  the  ever- 
working  providence  of  God  in  our  own  busy  everyday  life ;  they 
witness  to  the  actual  results  of  prayer,  to  the  power  of  a  habitual 
devotion,  to  the  marvels  of  grace  in  conversions,  to  the  strong  quiet 
force  of  good  example,  «fec.  To  have  witnessed  one  of  these  strange 
incidents  has  often  come  as  a  grace  to  a  hard- worked  priest,  almost 
borne  down  by  the  unequal  struggle  against  evil — a  grace  of  comfort 
by  its  whispered  word  of  encouragement  and  hope.  To  hear  of  them 
begets  oftentimes  a  more  vivid  impression,  making  for  edification,  than 


Notices  of  Books.  235 

is  caused  by  professedly  good  reading.  Their  truth  it  is  which  shines 
and  *' prevails  "  with  us;  and  when  they  are  told  in  Lady  Herbert's 
simple,  happy  manner,  the  perusal  of  them  is  as  pleasant  as  it  is 
profitable.  Indeed,  a  better  collection  of  short  stories  for  general 
circulation  we  don't  remember,  with  which  child  or  adult  may  advan- 
tageously Nvhile  away  the  leisure  half-hours.  Eesignation  in  suffering, 
the  power  of  faith,  the  power  of  a  mother's  prayer — these  are  a 
specimen  of  the  kind  of  lesson  inculcated  by  the  stories  themselves,  not 
merely  hung  on  at  the  end ;  indeed,  there  is  a  wise  absence  of 
"  preaching."  Finally,  we  should  add  that  the  volume  itself  is  brought 
out  in  a  manner  creditable  to  the  publisher — it  is  printed  in  good-sized 
clear  type,  on  good  paper,  and  is  very  neatly  bovmd,  and  sold  at  a 
low  price,  which  should  carry  it  to  many  households. 


A  Guide  to  the  Textual  Criticism  of  the  Neiv  Tcstainent.     By  E.  Miller, 
M.A.,  Eector  of  Bucknell,  Oxon.     London  :  G.  Bell  &  Sons. 

1886. 

ri^HIS  Guide  may  be  recommended  as  opportune  and  safe.  The 
X  revision  of  the  New  Testament  has  called  attention  to  a 
multitude  of  textual  questions,  for  the  solution  of  which  there  is 
much  need  of  a  guide.  Of  course  Dr.  Scrivener's  is  the  text-book 
on  the  subject.  But  as  the  work  is  too  large  and  costly  for  the 
general  reader,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Miller  has  done  well  to  provide  a 
shorter  treatise,  containing  the  main  truths  of  textual  criticism, 
Mr.  Miller's  guidance  has  also  the  recommendation  of  being  safe. 
He  is  no  advocate  for  the  advanced  or  extreme  school  of  critics, 
like  Westcott  and  Hort.  He  is  a  supporter  of  Dr.  Scrivener  and 
Dean  Burgon,  who  are  the  leaders  of  what  we  may  call  the  Con- 
servative party  in  textual  questions. 

Two  rival  schools  [the  learned  author  tells  us]  are  now  contending 
for  the  ascendency.  The  one,  of  German  origin,  is  strongly  and  ably 
maintained  in  England,  and  reckons  large'  support  amongst  Biblical 
scholars.  The  other,  headed  by  the  first  textual  critic  of  the  day,  and 
earnestly  advocated  by  accomplished  theologians,  counts  also  amongst 
its  adherents  Eoman  Catholics  in  England  and  the  Continent,  including 
experts  in  Italy  and  elsewhere. 

After  a  detailed  history  of  the  rise  and  growth  of  textual  criticism, 
JVir.  Miller  proceeds  to  state  the  case  as  it  now  stands  between  these 
'two  schools.  This  is  done  with  great  fairness  and  ability.  Dr. 
Hort's  extreme  theory,  which  rests  almost  entirely  on  two  Codices, 
the  Sinaitic  and  Vatican,  is  carefully  refuted  point  by  point,  and 
judgment  is  given  in  favour  of  the  traditional  Greek  text  as  it  has 
come  down  to  us  from  St.  John  Chrysostom  and  the  Greek  Fathers 
through  the  Cursive  MSS.  and  the  Textus  Receptus.  As  a  sort  of 
reductio  ad  dbsurdum  Mr.  Miller  says  the  extreme  textualists,  relying- 
on  the  Vatican  Codex,  leave  their  common  sense  behind  them,  and 
tell  us  "  that  our  Lord's  side  was  pierced  before  death,  that  the  sun 
was  eclipsed  when  the  moon  was  full,  and  that  it  is  possible  that 


•236  .  Notices  of  Books. 

St.  Paul  may  have  added  to  the  high  traits  of  Charity  that  she 
actually  refrains  from  seeking-  what  is  not  her  own."  Perhaps  the 
most  useful  part  of  the  Guide  is  formed  of  the  chapter  on  the 
Materials  and  Principles  of  Criticism.  The  tables  of  Uncial  MSS. 
and  Versions  are  very  handy  for  reference.  We  observe  in  the  list 
of  Uncials — the  latest  addition — the  Codex  Rossanensis  (2),  of  the 
sixth  century,  found  at  Rossano  in  Calabria,  in  ]  879,  by  Messrs. 
Oscar  von  Gebhart  and  Adolf  Harnach.  This,  we  believe,  is  the 
oldest  MS.  which  contains  the  Doxology  in  the  Lord's  Prayer.  So 
in  like  manner  the  newly -found  Ai6a;^;7,  or  Teaching  of  the  Apostles, 
is  the  earliest  authority  which  contains  the  Doxology,  though 
in  a  shortened  form.  The  Guide  also  contains  a  valuable  appendix, 
-summing  up  the  evidence  for  and  against  the  received  readings  of 
Luke  xxiii.  34;  Luke  xxii.  43,44;  Luke  ii.  14 ;  Matthew  vi.  13; 
John  iii.  13 ;  1  Tim.  iii.  16 ;  and  the  last  twelve  verses  of  St.  Mark. 
Perhaps  the  highest  praise  that  can  be  given  to  a  treatise  of  this 
character  is  to  state  that  it  is  accurate  and  painstaking.  To  one 
statement  about  Origen  we  must  take  exception — that  he  probably 
applied  to  the  New  Testament  the  same  mode  of  treatment  that  he 
had  employed  with  the  Septuagint.  Whereas  Origen  expressly 
says,  ''  that  he  thought  that  he  could  not  deal  thus  with  the 
New  Testament  without  danger."  Again  Mr.  Miller  speaks  of  the 
Great  Giver  of  the  Inspired  Word  being  also  the  Preserver  of  it, 
and  that  He  has  spoken  during  all  the  ages.  He  rebukes  those  who 
"  have  no  sense  of  Catholic  authority,  or  any  guidance  of  the 
Church  by  the  Holy  Spirit."  And  yet  in  another  place  he  speaks 
of  the  "Roman  branch  of  the  Church."  He  clearly  supposes  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  has  carefully  preserved  the  textual  integrity  of  the 
■Scripture,  but  has  not  cared  for  the  visible  unity  of  Christ's  Church  ! 


Queen  by  Right  Divine^  and  other  Tales :  Being  the  Second  Series  of 
"  Bells  of  the  Sanctuary."  By  Kathleen  O'Meara.  London : 
Burns  &  Gates. 

THIS  is  a  bright  little  volume,  containing  biographies  of  Soeur 
Rosalie,  Madame  Swetchine  and  Lacordaire.  The  life  of  Soeur 
Rosalie  occupies  more  than  half  of  it,  and  is  at  once  so  winning  and 
so  touching  a  tale,  such  a  story  made  of  golden  stories,  and  all  true, 
that  we  must  wish  the  book  a  very  wide  circulation.  It  is  a  book  to 
be  read,  to  be  lent,  to  be  given  away — a  sort  of  reading  that  in  the 
literal  sense  of  the  word,  "  does  one's  heart  good."  Jeanne  Rendu 
became  a  Sister  of  Charity  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  and  for  about  sixty 
years  was  called  "  our  mother  "  by  the  poor  of  Paris,  where  no  revo- 
lution can  ever  efface  the  name  of  Soeur  Rosalie.  Her  sphere  of  work 
was  the  region  of  the  Faubourg  St.  Marceau,  Avhere  a  wretched  and 
degraded  population  swarmed  in  ruinous  houses  of  narrow,  crooked 
streets — a  corner  of  the  city  ill-famed  since  the  Terror,  and  the 
stronghold  of  every  moral  and  physical  disease.  With  her  creche,  her 
schools,  her  "  patronage,"  her  nursing  of  the  sick  and  sheltering  the 


Notices  of  Books,  237" 

aged,  the  energetic  Sister  worked  all  her  days  to  lift  the  people  of  her 
dear,  neglected  Faubourg — body  and  soul — to  higher  things  and  to  a 
happier  life.  But  beyond  that  region  all  the  great  city  felt  her  charity, 
and  its  influence  spread  out  over  France  and  even  farther.  She  be- 
came the  recipient  of  the  bounty  of  the.  rich,  and  the  almoner  of  the 
Empire.  Her  convent  parlour  was  beset  by  all  ranks  in  need  of  sym- 
pathy, advice,  or  help ;  the  duchess  and  the  charwoman  waited  side 
by  side,  the  workman  and  the  ambassador,  or  man  of  letters.  "  Our 
mother  has  a  long  arm,"  the  working  men  said ;  and  we  hear  how  one 
of  them  came  naively  with  the  request  that  his  horse  had  died,  and 
unless  she  got  him  another  horse  he  was  a  ruined  man ;  whereupon 
*'  Soeur  Eosalie  took  her  umbrella  and  went  straight  off  to  an  ambas- 
sador whom  she  had  made  great  friends  with,  and  told  him  she  wanted 
a  horse,"  and,  as  he  gave  her  the  choice  of  his  stables,  slae  sent  a 
thorough-bred  riding  horse  to  her  poor  workman.  Again,  we  hear 
how  the  Spanish  Envoy  to  the  French  Court  came  to  the  Sister,  who 
was  every  one's  friend,  saying  he  dreaded  that  when  his  Lord  would  ask 
him  at  the  Judgment  Seat  what  had  he  done,  he  would  have  to 
answer,  "  Lord,  I  paid  visits."  The  wise  Sister  only  suggested  that 
he  should  go  on  paying  visits,  but  some  of  them  should  be  to  the 
poor ;  and  for  the  remainder  of  his  life  he  worked  under  her  direc- 
tion, receiving  from  her  every  week  a  written  list  of  poor  people  and 
their  needs.  The  breadth  of  her  sympathy  had  room  for  the  wicked 
and  violent,  as  well  as  for  the  peaceable  and  innocent ;  for  the  wealthy 
as  well  as  for  the  needy.  But  the  poor  were  her  first  love,  and 
having  the  delight  of  a  true  woman  in  affection,  she  set  great  store 
upon  the  affection  of  the  poor,  winning  it  by  her  bright  manner,  her 
tenderness  and  her  respect  for  their  mystery  of  sorrow.  She  was 
always  actively  doing  them  good,  but  she  was  all  the  time  taking 
pains  to  win  their  hearts  to  herself,  and  then  she  gave  her  conquests  to 
God.  Through  famine,  cholera,  and  revolution,  she  was  in  the  midst 
of  her  people,  pitying  and  loving  them  as  a  mother  does,  unchanged 
when  they  erred.  "  She  constantly  impressed  on  her  Sisters  that  they 
should  be  infinitely  indulgent  to  the  faults,  even  to  the  wrong-doings, 
of  the  poor,"  saying  that  others  were  lured  to  evil  but  they  were 
driven  to  it,  and  making  every  excuse  for  them  in  their  untaught  con- 
dition and  hard  lives.  In  1854  a  great  misfortune  came  to  her ;  it 
was  the  Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honour.  The  humble  Sister  actually 
fell  sick  with  inconsolable  trouble,  and  she  never  wore  the  mark  of 
public  honour,  saying,  in  her  sweet  way,  to  the  Emperor,  that  she  was 
afraid  St.  Vincent  might  not  know  his  daughter  if  she  had  that  on. 
So  the  Empress  promised  her  another  cross,  that  she  need  not  hide 
from  St.  Vincent,  and  sent  one  carved  from  the  oak  under  which  tlie 
saint  once  taught  the  children  of  the  Landes.  The  white  cornette  Avas 
seen  at  the  Tuileries,  in  return  for  the  Emperor's  invitation  at  his 
visit;  but  she  only  went  there  to  plead  for  her  people,  and  received 
for  them  generous  help.  One  February  day,  in  1856,  forty  thousand 
working  men  in  serried  ranks  walked  bareheaded  through  the  streets 
of  Paris.     It  was  a  funeral  procession,  where  the   noble   and   the 


•238  Notices  of  Books. 

wealthy — a  vast  concourse  from  the  workshops,  from  the  hovels,  and 
from  the  palace,  were  all  doing  honour  to  the  dead.  A  military 
escort  surrounded  the  hearse — a  pauper  hearse,  the  poorest  of  the 
poor ;  but  on  the  pall  of  the  coffin  glittered  the  Cross  of  the  Legion 
of  Honour.  It  was  the  last  and  only  public  triumph  of  Soeur  Rosalie. 
Twenty-five  years  after,  the  Grey  Sisters  were  to  be  expelled  by  a 
new  Government  from  their  house  in  the  Rue  de  I'Epee  de  Bois,  their 
schools  were  threatened,  their  aged  poor  were  to  be  homeless — in  a 
word,  all  the  magnificent  works  of  that  grand  life  were  to  be  ruined. 
A  workman  came  to  the  convent  and  asked  how  much  it  would  cost  to 
build  a  new  house.  "  Eighty  thousand  francs  !  "  was  the  despairing 
answer  of  the  Sisters.  The  men  of  the  quartier  began  collecting  the 
coppers  and  the  silver  of  their  wages.  The  name  of  Soeur  Rosalie  was 
on  every  lip  ;  should  her  work  perish  ?  The  news  of  the  brave  col- 
lection was  whispered  through  the  city,  and  help  came  from  richer 
hands  to  the  poor  quarter.  ''  By  Soeur  Rosalie,  you  shall  have  the 
money ! "  the  men  had  declared ;  "  there  are  no  traitors  in  the 
Faubourg."  And  the  money  was  gathered — not  eighty  thousand,  but 
a  hundred  thousand  francs — to  provide  a  new  home  for  the  Sisters. 
The  name  of  Scaur  Rosalie  was  still  a  living  power ;  the  poor,  whom 
she  loved,  had  justified  her  faith  in  them. 


SOME  CATHOLIC  ALMANACS. 

1.  The  Catholic  Directory,  Ecclesiastical  Register  and  Almanac  for 

1886.     London  and  New  York  :  Burns  &  Oates. 

2.  Catholic  Alvmnack  for  1886.     Compiled  by  the  Editor  of  "  The 

Catholic  Directory."  (Irf.)    Same  Publishers. 

3.  The  Catholic  Almanack  and  Guide  to  the  Service,  of  the  Church  for 

1886.     (Ic?.)     London  and  Derby  :  T.  Richardson  &,  Son. 

4.  Catholic  Church  Guide,  Almanac  and  League  of  the  Cross  Annual 

for  1886.     {Id.)     London  :  Williams  &  Butland. 

5.  The  Catholic  Calendar,  1886.    {M^)     London  :  R.  Washbourne. 

THE  present  is  the  forty-ninth  year  of  publication  of  the  familiar 
"Catholic  Directory,"  which  therefore  needs  neither  description  nor 
commendation.  This  year  it  follows  the  same  arrangement  as  hereto- 
fore, and  gives  the  newest  details  of  all  ecclesiastical  and  other  Catholic 
matters  in  England  and  Scotland.  "We  have  long  wished  that  to  the 
alphabetical  address  list  of  the  clergy  of  the  two  countries  could  be 
added  a  similar  list  of  the  clergy  of  Ireland  :  it  would  be  a  great  advan- 
tage. In  other  respects  the  "Directory"  is  full  of  condensed,  well- 
arranged  and  useful  Catholic  information. 

2,  Is  a  pocket-sized  Almanac,  giving  Feast  days,  the  particulars 
of  Mass  and  Vespers  of  each  Sunday,  and  other  useful  items  in  each 
month. 

3  and  4  are  similar  in  size  and  contents  to  No.  2,  each  of  them 
giving  in  addition  a  list  of  the  Churches  and  Chapels  of  London  and 
suburbs.  Number  4  has  also  a  list  of  the  officers,  branches  and  places 
of  meeting  of  the  League  of  the  Cross. 


Bodies  of  Devotion  and  Spiritual  Reading.  239 

5.  Now  a  well-known  and  reliable  "  Metropolitan  Handbook,"  has 
been  issued  since  1851.  It  also  needs  nothing  further  than  to  be 
named.  Concerning  London  itself,  its  information,  ecclesiastical  and 
secular,  is  full.     It  is  altogether  a  useful  guide  to  the  City  churches. 


^0olis  of  gtbatiaii  auir  Spiritual  ^leabing. 

1.  Meditations  on  the  Mysteries  of  the  Holy  Rosary.     From  the  French 

of  Father  Monsabre,  O.P.  By  the  Very  Re\r.  Stephen 
Byrne,  O.P.  New  York  :  The  Catholic  Publication  Society 
Co.     London  :  Burns  &  Oates.     1885. 

2.  The  Nine  Months.     The  Life  of  Our  Lord  in  the  Womb.     By 

Henry  James  Coleridge,  S.J.  (Quarterly  Series.)  London  : 
Burns  &  Oates.     1885. 

3.  Lives  of  the  Saints  and  Blessed  of  the  Three  Orders  of  St.  Francis. 

Translated  from  the  "  Aureole  Seraphique  "  of  the  Very  Rev. 
Father  Leon.  With  a  Preface  by  His  Eminence  the  Cardinal 
Archbishop  of  Westminster.  Vol.  I.  Taunton:  Published 
at  the  Franciscan  Convent.     1885. 

4.  Aux  Pieds  du   Saint- Sacremcnt.     Meditations,  Lectures,  Pri^res. 

D'aprSs  les  Peres,  les  Docteurs,  et  les  Saints,  Par  I'Abbe  J. 
Pailler.  1.  La  Cene.  D'apres  Bossuet.  2.  Octave  du  Saint- 
Sacrcment.  Par  Bourdaloue.  Bourges :  E.  Levrier  •  St.- 
Amand  (Cher),  chez  I'Auteur,  67,  Rue  du  Pont-du-Cher.     1886. 

5.  A  Catechism  of  the  Vows  for  the  Use  of  Persons  consecrated  to  God  in 

the  Religious  State.  By  the  Rev.  Father  Peter  Cotel,  S.J. 
London  :  Burns  <%  Oates. 

6.  The  Agonizinfj  Heart.     By  the  Rev.  Fa'ther  Blot.     Xew  Edition. 

London  :  Burns  &  Oates.  New  York :  Catholic  Publication 
Society  Co. 

7.  Life  of  Saint  Philip  Bcnizi,  of  the  Order  of  the  Servants  of  3Iary. 

By  the  Rev.  Peregrine  Soulier,  Priest  of  the  same  Order. 
Translated  from  the  French  and  revised  by  the  Author.  London : 
Burns  &,  Oates.  New  York :  Catholic  Publication  Society  Co. 
1886. 

8.  The  Manual  of  Lidulgences ;  being  a  Collection  of  Prayers  and 

Good  Works  to  which  the  Sovereign  Pontiffs  have  attached 
Holy  Indulgences.  Published  by  order  of  His  Holiness  Pope 
Pius  IX.     London  :  Burns  &  Oates. 

9.  A  Catechism  of  the  Catholic  Religion.     Preceded  by  a  Short  History 

of  Religion.  By  the  Rev.  Joseph  Deharbe,  S.J.  New 
Edition,  collated  with  the  latest  German  Edition,  by  the  Rev. 
George  Porter,  S.J.  London:  Burns  &  Oates.  New  York: 
Catholic  Publication  Society  Co. 

10.  Catholic  Religious  Instruction,  suitable  for  Standard  III.     London  : 
Thomas  Richardson  &  Son. 


240  BooJcs  of  Devotion  and  Spiritual  Reading. 

11.  i^iort  Readings  for  Catholic  Readers  (Four  Numbers).  Serjeant 
Jones  and  his  Talks  al?out  Confession.  Barnet :  St.  Andrew's 
Magazine  Office,  Union  Street. 

1,  rpHE  eminent  Dominican,  Pere  Monsabre,  has  published  seven 
X  series  of  meditations  on  the  Holy  Rosary.  Of  these,  the 
little  book  before  us  offers  three  in  an  English  dress.  The  medita- 
tions are  in  the  shape  of  short  discourses,  supposed  to  be  delivered 
by  a  priest  to  the  faithful  as  they  go  through  the  Rosary  together. 
They  doubtless  lose,  in  their  English  form,  some  of  that  brilliant 
artistic  finish  which  they  have  in  the  original.  But  the  devotional 
fulness  and  much  of  the  eloquent  energy  remain,  and  will  be  appre- 
ciated by  priests  and  readers. 

2.  No  book  could  be  a  more  appropriate  preparation  for  Christmas 
than  this  new  volume  by  Father  Coleridge.  It  contains  the  devout 
writer's  commentary  on  all  the  events  narrated  in  the  GTospels,  from 
the  salutation  of  the  Angel  to  the  eve  of  the  Nativity.  In  these 
pages,  therefore,  we  find  treated  such  subjects  as  our  Lady's  fulness 

'  of  grace,  her  "  trouble  "  at  the  message,  her  Divine  maternity,  and 
her  perpetual  virginity.  We  have  our  Lord's  life  in  the  womb; 
the  visitation ;  the  "  Magnificat " ;  the  birth  of  the  Baptist ;  the 
Canticle  of  Zachary;  the  trial  of  St.  Joseph;  and  a  beautiful  chapter 
on  the  "  longing  "  of  the  universe  for  the  coming  of  the  Saviour. 

3.  Many  besides  ourselves  will  welcome  a  good  collection  of  lives 
of  the  Franciscan  Saints.  The  present  volume  only  gives  the  first 
three  months  of  the  year ;  but  it  contains  many  interesting  and 
most  devotional  biographies,  such  as  the  life  of  the  Seraphic  Patri- 
arch himself,  St.  Jeanne  de  Valois,  St.  Angela  Merici,  St,  Margaret 
of  Cortona,  and  many  others.  The  book  is  well  printed  and  got  up, 
and  there  is  an  interesting  preface  by  His  Eminence  Cardinal 
Manning.  ♦ 

4.  The  Abbe  Pailler,  of  St.  Amand,  has  had  the  happy  idea  of 
bringing  out  a  series  of  chefs-d^oeuvres  of  great  French  writers  and 
orators  on  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  The  brochures  are  of  150  to  200 
pages  each,  and  those  we  have  now  before  us  contain  extracts  from  the 
works  of  Bourdaloue  and  Bossuet.  The  series  is  to  be  continued. 
As  the  price  of  each  number  is  only  half  a  franc,  it  is  to  be  expected 
that  not  only  in  France,  but  even  in  England,  large  numbers  will  be 
sold  and  distributed.  They  cannot  but  prove  most  valuable,  not 
only  to  priests  and  religious,  but  to  the  laity ;  above  all,  to  young 
people  and  to  the  households  of  the  poor. 

6.  Brief,  solid,  and  scientific,  this  Catechism  of  the  Vows,  by  a 
learned  Jesuit,  will  be  useful  in  those  numerous  communities  whose 
members,  to  their  commendation  be  it  said,  care  more  for  practising 
their  vows  than  for  discussing  the  strict  theology  of  them. 

6.  We  have  here  a  very  complete  manual,  containing  the  history 
and  practice  of  the  Devotion  to  the  Agonizing  Heart  of  Jesus,  to- 
gether with  an  account  of  the  Confraternity  (erected  by  Pope  Pius 
IX.,  in  1867),  and  of  the  cloistered  Congregation  for  promoting  this 
devotion,  founded  by  the  Bishop  of  Mende  in  his  episcopal  city,  in 
1860.     A  second  part  consists  of  devotions  and  meditations.     This 


Books  of  Devotion  and  SpiHtual  Reading.  241 

book,  which  seems  well  translated  (although  it  has  no  translator's 
name,  nor  any  approbation,  except  that  of  the  Bishop  of  Mans — it 
should  be  Le  Mans),  is  a  different  work  from  that  by  the  same 
author  called  the  "  Agony  of  Jesus." 

7.  The  very  scholar-like,  devout,  and  complete  Life  of  St.  Philip 
Benizi,  which  the  Servite  Order  has,  with  loving  care,  brought  out 
during  this  year,  which  is  the  sixth  centennial  of  his  death,  deserves 
a  more  extended  notice  than  we  can  give  it  in  this  place.  Pere  Soulier, 
who  seems  to  have  Avritten  it  in  French,  has  had  it  translated  simul- 
taneously into  Italian  and  into  English ;  and  the  English  version  now 
before  us,  though  anonymous,  is  evidently  the  work  of  some  one  who 
knows  both  English  and  French.  The  Servite  Order  is  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  products  of  the  thirteenth  century  (1233).  It  had 
seven  founders,  and  they  all  belonged  to  Florence,  and  were  all  of 
them  richmercbants  of  a  town  which  at  that  time  was  just  rising  to  the 
very  highest  point  of  its  historic  renown.  St.  Philip  it  was,  however, 
who  really  established  it.  He  was  a  Florentine  himself,  and  lived 
in  the  same  town  and  in  the  same  half-century  as  Dante  and  Giotto. 
The  Order  was  a  part  of  the  rich  and  abundant  manifestation  of 
Catholic  life  at  a  period  which  also  brought  forth  the  Divina 
Commedia  and  the  Duomo.  A  Life  of  St.  Philip,  therefore,  has  the 
character  of  the  day  in  which  he  lived — a  day  of  universal 
Catholicism,  a  day  of  great  Italian  Republics,  of  great  universities,  of 
constant  wars,  and  yet  of  much  calm  and  quiet  serving  of  God  all 
over  Europe.  Pere  Soulier  has  gone  to  the  best  sources  for  his 
facts ;  it  may  be  observed,  for  instance,  that  he  rectiiies  the  statement 
made  in  most  modern  biographies  of  the  Saint,  that  the  Council  of 
Lyons,  in  1274,  approved  the  Servite  Order.  It  did  something  very 
like  the  exact  contrary  ;  and  it  was  not  till  after  the  Saint's  death 
that  it  was  finally  approved  by  the  Holy  See.  The  style  of  the  Life 
is  easy  and  devotional. 

8.  This  is  a  reprint  of  the  translation  of  the  Roman  Baccolta  made 
some  years  ago  by  the  Professors  of  the  Jesuit  College  of  Woodstock, 
in  the  United  States,  and  authorized,  at  its  first  appearance,  by  a 
decree  of  the  Sacred  Congregation  of  Indulgences.  It  is  a  compact 
manual  of  over  500  pages.  Containing,  by  way  of  appendix,  prayers 
for  Mass  and  Vespers,  it  cannot  but  prove  a  most  useful  prayer-book 
for  all. 

9.  It  is  only-  necessary  to  note  this  new  edition,  brought  out  under 
the  care  of  the  Rev.  Father  George  Porter,  of  the  Catechism  so  well- 
kno^^:Q,  by  the  name  of  its  first  translator,  as  "  Pander's  Catechism." 

10.  We  presume  this  little  textbook,  containing  the  Catechism  to 
the  end  of  Chap.  V.,  a  life  of  our  Lord,  special  instruction  on  the 
Sacraments,  and  other  matters  which  make  it  a  complete  manual  for 
Standard  III.,  is  by  Canon  McKenna.  Our  readers  will  be  sure  to 
like  it  when  they  see  it. 

11.  These  excellent  papers  should  be  bought  and  circulated  by  the 
thousand.  "  The  Lazy  Mass  " — a  scolding  to  those  who  go  to  "  nine 
o'clock"    Mass — "The   Way  to   Live  Long" — about  fasting  and 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  I.     [Third  Series.]  n 


242  List  of  Books-received. 

abstinence — "  The  Carters — a  Family,  not  a  Profession  " — and 
"  Mixed  Marriages  " — are  the  names  of  the  tracts  which  have  been 
sent  to  us.  These,  and  others,  can  be  had  at  65.  or  Qs.  Q>d.  a  hundred. 
This  is  an  enterprise  worthy  of  all  support. 


LIST  OF  BOOKS  EECEIVED. 

In  consequence  of  the  space  required  in  this  number  for  the  important 
letter  of  the  Holy  Father,  a  large  number  of  Book  Notices  have  to  be 
necessarily  held  over  until  April.  We  regret  that  the  two  first-named 
books  did  not  reach  us  until  much  too  late  for  any  such  Notices  to  be 
penned  as  they  deserve. 

"  The  Life  of  the  Very  Rev.  Thomas  N.  Burke,  O.P."  By  W.  J. 
FitzPatrick,  F.S.A.     Two  Volumes.     London  :  Kegan  Paul  &  Co.* 

"  Biographical  Dictionary  of  the  English  Catholics."  By  Joseph 
Gillow.     Vol.  II.     London  :  Burns  &  Gates. 

"Ireland  under  the  Tudors."  By  Richard  Bagwell,  M.A.  Vols. 
I.  and  II.     London  :  Longmans  &  Co.? 

"  History  of  the  Church."  By  D.  Brueck.  Translated.  Vol.  II. 
New  York,  &c.  :    Benziger  Brothers. 

"  Life  of  Anne  Catherine  Emmerich."  From  the  German  of  Very 
Rev,  K.  E.  Schmoger,  C.SS.R.  Two  Vols.  New  York:  Fr.  Pustet 
&  Co. 

"  History  of  the  Jewish  People  in  the  Time  of  Jesus  Christ."  By 
E.  Schiirer,  D,D,,  M.A.  Translated.  Second  Division.  Two  Vols. 
Edinburgh :  T.  &  T.  Clark. 

"  Religious  Progress  :  the  Practical  Christianity  of  Christ." 
London  :  Trlxbner  &  Co. 

"  Jacob  Boehme  :  his  Life  and  Teaching."  By  the  late  Dr.  Hana 
Lassen  Martensen.     Translated.     London  :  Hodder  &  Stoughton.     * 

"  Zechariah  :  his  Visions  and  Warnings."  By  the  late  Rev.  W. 
Lindsay  Alexander,  D.D,,  &c.     London :  J.  Nisbet  &  Co. 

"A  Rabbinical  Commentary  on  Genesis."  Translated,  &c.,  by  P.  J, 
Hershon.     London  :  Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

"  Four  Centuries  of  Silence;  or,  from  Malachi  to  Christ."  By  Rev. 
R.  A.  Redford,  M.A.,  LL.B.     London  :  J.  Nisbet  &  Co. 

"  Translations  from  Horace."  By  Sir  Stephen  E.  de  Vere,  Bart. 
London  :  G.  Bell  &  Son. 

"  Novum  Testamentum,"  &c.  Divisionibus  logicia  analysique  con- 
tinua  sensum  illustrantibus  ornavit,  A.  CI.  Fillion,  Presby.  S..  Sulp. 
Parisiis  :  Breche  &  Tralin. 

"  Decreta  Quatuor  Conciliorum  ProvincialiumWestmonasteriensium." 
Second  Edition.     London  :  Burns  &  Gates. 

"Historical  Notes  on  Adare."  Compiled  by  the  Rev.  T.  E. 
Bridgett,  C.SS.R.     Dublin  :   M,  H.  Gill  &  Son. 

*'  The  Westminster  Hymnal  for  Congregational  Use."  Edited  by 
Henri  C.  Hemy.  Part  I.  Advent  to  Epiphany.  London :  John 
Hodges. 


THE 


DUBLIN  REVIEW. 


APRIL,  1886. 

Art.  I— the  DECAY  OF  THE  BRITISH 
CONSTITUTION. 

1.  Popular  Government.      By   Sir    Henry   Sumner    Maine. 

Second  Edition.     London  :  John  Murray.     1886. 

2.  The  FortnigUhj  Review,  Feb.  1886.     "  Sir  H.  S.  Maine." 

By  John  Morley. 

3.  Burke's  Reflections  on  the  Revolution  iri  France.     Edited 

and  Annotated  by  E.  J.  Payne.     Oxford.     1877. 

AMID  the  confusion  of  tongues  and  strife  of  words  in  our 
political  life,  it  is  often  hard  to  know  what  to  think  and 
how  to  act.  Are  we  being  gradually  raised  up  to  a  higher  social 
state  by  a  sure  (if  sometimes  painful)  process  of  evolution?  Or 
have  we  suddenly  reached  the  light  after  long  darkness,  and  stand 
on  the  threshold  of  a  new  age  ?  Or  is  it  the  threshold  of  anarchy 
and  decay?  Are  we  hastening  towards  democracy,  and,  if  so,  is 
this  good  or  evil  ?  Is  the  British  Constitution  vigorous  or  decay- 
ing, and  in  which  case  are  we  to  lament  ?  Nor  is  it  strange  if 
the  sentences  differ  when  the  words  that  compose  them  have  such 
different  meanings  in  different  mouths.  Who,  in  truth,  will  tell  ■ 
us  plainly  what  is  constitutional,  what  is  the  British  Constitution, 
what  is  evolution,  progress,  civilization,  what  is  sovereignty,  what 
is  the  people,  what  is  popular  government,  or  democracy,  or 
absolutism,  or  liberty,  or  loyalty  ? 

Still,  all  these  terms  are  capable  of  a  precise  meaning,  and 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  science  of  politics,  though  we  sadly 
neglect  it.  There  are  political  priYiciples  which  we  ought  to 
know,  because  they  follow  from  the  Christian  teaching  on  the 
nature  and  destiny  of  man.  For,  in  truth,  the  science  of  politics 
is  simply  a  part  of  ethics  ;  and  those  who  refuse  to  admit  this,  or 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  II.     [Third  Series.']  s 


244  The  Decay  of  the  British  Constitution. 

refuse  to  follow  the  Christian  ethics,  wander  about  in  the  dark. 
Thus  we  see  a  man,  second  to  none  in  culture,  wit,  and  penetra- 
tion, the  American,  Mr.  Lowell,  in  his  celebrated  address  on 
Democracy  (delivered  at  Birmingham  in  October,  1884),  fall, 
like  some  mere  newspaper  scribe,  into  verbiage,  incoherence,  and 
contradictions ;  and  all  for  lack  of  principles. 

But  our  present  business  is  not  with  Mr.  Lowell,  but  with 
another  leader  of  opinion,  the  well-known  writer,  Sir  Henry 
Maine.  In  a  volume  entitled  "  Popular  Government,^^  consisting 
of  four  essays  originally  published  in  the  Quarterly  Review, 
he  has  plunged  into  contemporary  politics,  and,  besides  showing 
with  pitiless  clearness  the  weaknesses  and  diflBculties  of  the  form 
of  government  recommended  by  the  Radical  party,  gives  as  his 
opinion  that  there  is  a  grave  defect  in  our  present  Constitution 
in  its  liability  to  hasty  change,  and  suggests  a  remedy  from  the 
example  of  America.  Let  us  in  this  article  examine  what  he  tells 
us  about  the  disease  and  about  the  remedy. 

Now  the  facts  of  the  case  are  something  like  what  follows.  In 
the  United  Kingdom,  according  to  written  law,  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  fundamental  or  constitutional  laws  requiring  peculiar 
forms  for  their  change.  Thus,  whether  the  object  of  the  law 
be  to  abate  a  nuisance,  like  hares  and  rabbits,  smoky  chimneys, 
and  quack  medicines,  or  to  abolish  the  House  of  Lords,  the 
procedure  is  the  same.  But  it  might  be  answered  that  written 
law  is  one  thing;  constitutional  practice,  amounting  to  customary 
law,  is  another.  This  is  quite  true ;  and  no  doubt  there  is  a 
difference  in  fact  observed  between  the  way  comparatively  small 
matters  are  dealt  with  and  the  mode  of  dealing  with  grave 
matters.  But  then  the  strange  thing  is,  that  while  the  small 
matters  can  be  introduced  by  private  members,  and  receive  a 
fair  examination  in  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  all  really  impor- 
tant matters  are  settled  beforehand  by  the  Secret  Council,  which 
is  known  as  the  Cabinet,  and  is  the  real  Government.  Free  and 
fair  examination  in  the  House  of  Commons  is  checked  by  the  fear 
of  the  resignation  of  the  Ministry  and  a  dissolution  of  Parliament,^  , 
and  is  checked  in  the  House  of  Lords  by  an  unwritten  law  or 
the  fear  of  abolition.  Sir  H.  Maine  has  some  striking  remarks 
on  the  extraordinary  institution  known  as  the  Cabinet.  "  It  is 
essentially  a  comijaittee  of  the  men  who  lead  the  party  which  has 
a  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons."  It  is  a  small  committee, 
numbering  less  than  twenty  ;  its  deliberations  are  secret,  and  the 
secrecy  is  well  kept.  And,  what  is  most  surprising,  this  secret 
council,  which  Sir  H.  Maine  compares  with  the  Spartan  Ephors 
and  the  Venetian  Council  of  Ten,  has  grown  up  wholly  unknown 
to  the  written  law,  and,  "through  a  series  of  constitutional 
fictions,  has  succeeded  to  all  the  powers  of  the  Crown,  has  drawn 


i 


The  Decay  of  the  British  Gonstitution.  245 

to  itself  all,  and  more  than  all,  of  the  royal  power  over  legislation. 
It  can  dissolve  Parliament  ....  it  can  arrest  a  measure  at  any 
stage  of  its  progress  through  either  House  of  Parliament  .... 
and,  indeed,  the  exercise  of  this  power  was  exemplified  on  the 
largest  scale  at  the  end  of  the  session  of  1884,  when  a  large 
number  of  Bills  of  the  highest  importance  were  abandoned  in 
deference  to  a  Cabinet  decision.  The  Cabinet  has  further  be- 
come the  sole  source  of  all  important  legislation,  and  therefore, 
by  the  necessity  of  the  case,  of  all  constitutional  legislation  ;  and, 
as  a  measure  amending  the  Constitution  passes  through  the 
House  of  Commons,  the  modification  or  maintenance  of  its  details 
depends  entirely  upon  the  fiat  of  the  Ministers  of  the  day." 

The  Ministers,  indeed.  Sir  H.  Maine  seems  to  think,  are  con- 
trolled, or  beginning  to  be  controlled,  by  what  the  Americans 
call  "  wire-pullers,"  and  have  to  follow  the  programme  that  a 
conference  of  these  leaders  of  their  party  dictate.  Be  this  as  it 
may,  the  subsequent  process  of  important  legislation,  we  arQ  told, 
is  as  follows.  The  Ministers,  in  a  course  of  Cabinet  meetings  in 
November,  arrange  the  legislative  proposals  to  be  submitted  to 
Parliament ;  next,  they  are  put  into  shape  by  the  Government 
draftsman,  and  so  much  depends  on  shape  that  we  are  to  credit 
this  lawyer  with  four-fifths  of  every  legislative  enactment.  Then 
the  Bills  he  has  made  ready  are  announced  in  the  Queen's  Speech  ; 
and  important  Bills  are  forced  through  the  House  of  Commons 
with  the  whole  strength  of  party  organization,  and  their  discus- 
^  sion  in  the  House  of  Lords  is  becoming  merely  nominal. 

Sir  H.  Maine  is  filled  with  dismay  at  this  method  of  legisla- 
tion. "  Of  all  the  infirmities  of  our  Constitution  in  its  decay, 
there  is  none  more  serious  than  the  absence  of  any  special  pre- 
cautions to  be  observed  in  passing  laws  which  touch  the  very 
foundations  of  our  political  system  "  (p.  240).  And  at  the  end  of 
the  second  essay,  after  describing  how  the  Franchise  Bill  was 
passed  in  1884,  he  concludes  with  the  ominous  sentence  : — 

We  are  drifting  towards  a  type  of  government  associated  with 
terrible  events — a  single  Assembly,  armed  with  full  powers  over  the 
Constitution,  which  it  may  exercise  at  pleasure.  It  will  be  a  theo- 
retically all-powerful  Convention,  governed  by  a  practically  all-powerful 
secret  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  but  kept  from  complete  submission 

I  to  its  authority  by  Obstruction,  for  which  its  rulers  are  always  seeking 
to  find  a  remedy  in  some  kind  of  moral  guillotine.  (P.  126.) 
But  Sir  H.  Maine  is  fortunately  not  one  of  those  political 
physicians  who  only  tell  us  of  our  diseases  and  not  of  how  to 
cure  them.  On  the  contrary,  after  the  melancholy  diagnosis,  he 
brightens  us  up  with  a  prescription.  He  suggests  that  we  should 
make  a  distinction  between  ordinary  legislation  and  legislation 
s2 


246  The  Decay  of  the  British  Constitution. 

which  in  any  other  country  wonld  be  called  constitutional ;  and 
that,  for  this  last  kind,  there  should  be  "  a  special  legislative 
procedure,  intended  to  secure  caution  and  deliberation,  and  as 
near  an  approach  to  impartiality  as  a  system  of  party  government 
will  admit  of"  (pp.  125,  126).  That  this  is  no  dream  or  im- 
possibility he  shows  with  irresistible  force  from  the  example  of 
the  United  States  ;  and  the  bright  picture  he  draws  of  the 
wisdom  and  stability  of  their  Constitution  contrasts  with  the 
lugubrious  picture  of  our  own  decay. 

The  following  is  a  short  summary  of  this  aspect  of  the 
American  Constitution  : — As  a  pi-eliminary,  we  must  understand 
the  composite  nature  of  the  Great  Republic,  which  corresponds 
to  its  title,  the  United  States.  For  it  is  made  up  of  a  number 
of  different  States — thirty-eight  when  Sir  H.  Maine  wrote,  but 
now,  I  believe,  thirty-nine — each  State  managing  its  own  local 
affairs  and  making  its  own  laws  within  certain  wide  but  distinct 
limits^  all  fixed  by  written  law.  Thus,  there  is  what  we  should 
call  in  England  an  organized  and  extensive  system  of  home  rule. 
But  more  than  this,  the  Federal  or  Central  Government  repre- 
sents the  totality  of  the  separate  States  rather  than  the  totality 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Union  without  regard  to  States.  "True, 
in  the  Lower  House  the  number  of  representatives  each  State 
sends  is  according  to  its  population.  But  the  Lower  House  is 
avowedly  subordinate ;  the  bulk  of  power  and  patronage  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  Upper  House,  or  Senate ;  and  this  is  composed  of 
two  senators  from  each  State,  without  any  regard  to  size  or 
population.  Thus  the  small  or  unpeopled  States  of  Rhode  Island, 
Delaware,  Vermont,  Colorado,  and  Nevada,  returning  one  or  two 
members  to  the  Lower  House,  have  just  the  same  number  of 
senators  a§  great  States  like  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio, 
that  send  respectively  thirty-four,  twenty-eight,  and  twenty-one 
members  to  the  Lower  House.  And  the  President — who,  unlike 
our  Queen,  governs,  but  does  not  reign,  and  who  has,  besides  his 
executive  functions,  a  real  power  of  checking  legislation  by  his 
veto — is  not  chosen  straight  by  the  whole  people  taken  in  a  mass, 
but  by  a  complicated  plan  that  gives  a  considerable  relative 
advantage  to  the  smaller  States.  So,  in  fact,  the  States  have  a 
real  and  recognized  national  life,  and  are  anything  but  mere 
administrative  provinces.  And  the  respective  orbits  of  the  State 
Governments  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  the  Central  Government 
on  the  other,  are  well  marked  out. 

With  this  preliminary  explanation  we  can  now  follow  Sir  H. 
Maine's  description  of  the  method  adopted  by  the  Americans  to 
prevent  hasty  changes  in  the  Constitution.  They  draw  a  hard- 
and-fast  line  between  ordinary  legislation  and  any  alteration 
in  the  structure  of  government.     We  need  not  trouble  ourselves 


The  Decay  of  the  British  Constitution.  247 

with  the  first,  as  we  are  not  called  on  to  adopt  it ;  but  the  second 
is  what  concerns  us.  Now  any  such  change  would  come  under 
the  head  of  a  constitutional  amendment,  and  can  only  be  passed 
VQi  a  special  way.  Supposing,  indeed,  Congress  by  any  mistake 
treated  it  in  the  ordinary  way,  as  though  it  was  a  Bill  about 
stamps  or  navigation,  what  would  happen  ?  Any  State  or 
individual  that  objected  to  the  change  would  bring  the  matter 
before  the  highest  judicial  authority — namely,  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States — and  they  would  declare  the  law  unconsti- 
tutional, being  beyond  the  powers  of  the  ordinary  Legislature, 
and  would  annul  it  as  a  usurpation.  And  there  would  be  an  end 
of  it.  So  there  can  be  no  disregard  of  the  law.  What,  then,  is 
to  be  done  if  a  change  is  wanted  ?  It  will  be  clearest  to  cite  Sir 
H.  Maine's  words  : — 

First  of  all,  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  and  the  House  of 
Representatives  [the  Lower  House]  must  resolve,  by  a  two-thirds 
majority  in  each  chamber,  that  the  proposed  amendment  is  desirable. 
The  amendment  has  then  to  be  ratified  by  the  Legislature  of  three- 
fourths  of  the  several  States.  Now,  there  are  at  this  moment  thirty- 
eight  States  in  the  American  Union.  The  number  of  Legislatures 
which  must  join  in  the  ratification  is  therefore  twenty-nine.  I  believe, 
however,  that  there  is  no  State  in  which  tbe  Legislature  does  not 
consist  of  two  Houses,  and  we  arrive,  therefore,  at  the  surprising 
result  that,  before  a  constitutional  measure  of  the  gravity  of  the 
English  County  Franchise  Bill  could  become  law  in  the  United  States, 
it  must  have  at  the  very  least  in  its  favour  the  concurring  vote  of  no 
less  than  fifty-eight  separate  legislative  chambers,  independently  of  the 
Federal  Legislature,  in  which  a  double  two-thirds  majority  must  be 
obtained.  The  alternative  course  permitted  by  the  Constitution,  of 
calling  separate  special  conventions  of  the  United  States  and  of  the 
several  States,  would  prove  probably  in  practice  even  lengthier  and 
more  complicated. 

This,  remember,  applies  to  the  Central  Government.  But, 
besides  this,  in  nearly  all  of  the  thirty-eight  States,  each  of  which 
has  its  Constitution  and  legislative  chambers,  analogous  restric- 
tions are  put  to  constitutional  changes,  requiring  more  than  an 
absolute  majority  in  either  House,  and  various  delays  and  ratifica- 
tions. Details  vary,  but  the  general  character  of  the  regulations 
are  the  same. 

This  example  of  America  makes  it  perfectly  plain  that  there 
is  no  insuperable  difficulty  in  distinguishing  constitutional 
changes  from  other  legislation,  and  in  making  these  changes 
much  more  diflScult  to  effect  than  the  making  of  ordinary  laws. 
It  may  be  remarked  by  the  way  that  if  a  little  more  attention 
were  paid  to  the  American  Constitution  and  its  working,  and  to 
the  chief  laws  and  customs  of  the  thirty-nine  States  that  compose 


248  The  Decay  of  the  British  Constitution. 

the  Union,  there  would  be  fewer  words  and  much  more  sense  in 
our  discussions  about  the  franchise  and  home  rule,  about  the 
laws  of  marriage  and  education,  about  the  laws  of  land  and 
debt.  And  undoubtedly  Sir  H.  Maine  has  done  a  good 
work  in  making  known  the  American-  plan  of  preventing 
hasty  changes  in  legislation.  And  I  expect  he  has  also  done 
good  service  in  bringing  home  to  many  of  us  various  features  of  our 
own  Constitutioii  which  are  so  disguised  by  legal  and  popular 
language  that  they  are  liable  to  slip  out  of  sight.  Whether, 
indeed,  we  ought  to  agree  with  the  general  drift  of  this  remark- 
able book  is  another  matter,  and  one  that  is  now  to  be  considered. 
This  drift  the  author  makes  pretty  clear  in  his  Preface.  It  is  to 
show  the  fragile  nature  and  great  difficulty  of  government  by 
the  Many ;  nay,  that  it  is  more  difficult  in  the  shape  it  is  tending 
to  assume  than  other  forms  of  government ;  that  the  perpetual 
changes  it  appears  to  demand  are  likely  to  lead  to  disappointment 
and  disaster ;  and  that  we  in  England  ought  to  adopt  some  plan 
like  the  American  as  a  check  to  these  changes  and  a  remedy  for 
the  infirmities  of  democracy.  And  he  does  not  hesitate  to  speak 
of  the  British  Constitution  as  being  in  its  decay. 

Now  at  first  sight  there  is  much  to  make  us,  as  Catholics,  in- 
clined to  follow  him.  He  recognizes  the  vile  corruption  of  the 
present  French  Republic  ;  and  his  remarks  on  the  necessary  im- 
perfection of  governments  chosen  by  extended  sufi'rages,  on  the 
delusive  character  of  the  so-called  will  of  the  people,  on  the 
contradictions  of  plebiscites,  on  the  prevalence  of  wire-pulling  and 
corruption,  on  the  vanity  of  the  flattery  that  is  bestowed  on 
democracy  and  the  people — these  remarks,  which  are  not  original 
indeed,  but  still  sensible  and  opportune,  have  brought  on  him 
the  reproach  of  repeating  the  familiar  remonstrances  of  Ultra- 
montanes  and  Legitimists.  And  has  not  Mr.  John  Morley,  in 
the  same  article  (in  the  Fortnightly  Review  for  February  last)  in 
which  he  thus  reproaches  Sir  H.  Maine,  also  written  that  the 
Ultramontane  Church  has  broken  with  knowledge,  has  taken  her 
stand  upon  ignorance,  and  that  "  the  worst  enemy  of  science  is 
also  the  bitterest  enemy  of  democracy,  cest  le  clericalisnie  ?  "  Is 
it  not  plain  that  we  must  follow  the  lead  of  Sir  H.  Maine  against 
our  common  enemy  ? 

But  stay  a  little.  We  must  above  all  things  do  nothing  un- 
reasonable, and  not  be  discomposed  by  reproaches  to  which  by 
this  time  we  ought  to  be  accustomed.  Mr.  Morley,  in  his  criti- 
cisms of  Sir  H.  Maine,  says  some  things  that  are  not'  true,  and 
others  that  are  ridiculous ;  but,  because  in  this  he  is  wrong,  it 
does  not  follow  that  the  main  position  of  his  adversary  is  right. 
And  in  my  opinion  he  shows  him  in  his  main  position  to  be 
wrong.     Sir  Henry  Maiue^  he  says. 


The  Decay  of  the  British  Constitution.  249 

attaches  an  altogether  excessive  and  unscientific  importance  to  form 
....  it  is  unreasonable  to  predicate  fragility,  difficulty,  or  anything 
else  of  a  particular  form  of  government,  without  reference  to  other 
conditions  which  happen  to  go  along  with  it  in  a  given  society  at  a 
given  time.  None  of  the  properties  of  popular  government  are  in- 
dependent of  surrounding  circumstances,  social,  economic,  religious, 
a.nd  historic.  All  the  conditions  are  bound  up  together  in  a  closely 
interdependent  connection,  and  are  not  secondary  to,  or  derivative 
from,  the  mere  form  of  government.  It  is,  if  not  impossible,  at  least 
highly  unsafe  to  draw  inferences  about  forms  of  government  in 
universals. 

Nothing  can  be  more  true  than  this.  I  need  not  add  his  illus- 
trations ;  for  any  one  with  the  smallest  knowledge  of  history  can 
find  illustrations  ad  lihitwni.  I  will  rather  turn  to  the  point  on 
which  Sir  H.  Maine  has  laid  so  much  stress — the  American  checks 
to  hasty  alterations  of  the  Constitution.  They  are  sensible  and 
just;  I  will  not  say  that,  something  like  them  might  not  with 
advantage  be  introduced  into  England ;  but,  if  I  am  told  that 
they  ^re  to  be  the  means  of  arresting  our  decay,  I  answer,  that 
this  is  like  throwing  a  straw  to  a  drowning  man.  Sir  H.  Maine 
only  touches  the  surface  of  things.  Even  in  America,  the  native 
home  of  these  elaborate  constitutional  amendments,  what  became 
of  them  in  a  great  crisis  when  there  was  a  conflict  about 
essentials?  They  were  suspended  in  the  revolutionary  period 
that  began  in  1861 — Sir  H.  Maine  tells  us  so,  and  with  perfect 
truth  points  out  that  the  War  of  Secession  was  a  War  of  Revo- 
lution— and  the  Constitution  was  altered  at  the  point  of  the 
sword.  And  to  the  judgment  of  the  sword  we  too  shall  come 
for  all  that  Sir  Henry  Maine  and  his  formalities  can  help  us. 
One  of  greater  name,  Aristotle,  gave  many  wise  counsels  about 
political  forms  to  the  Greeks,  who  certainly  were  not  less  intelli- 
gent than  we  are  ;  but  it  was  of  no  avail  to  keep  them  from 
revolution  and  decay. 

In  truth,  the  Conservative  Sir  Henry  Maine  seems  to  me  by 
his  silence  to  be  almost  as  anti-clerical  as  the  Radical  Mr.  John 
Morley  by  his  vituperation.  In  all  this  book  about  government, 
and  the  need  of  its  stability,  and  the  future  of  our  country,  there 
is  scarcely  a  word  about  the  real  foundation  of  all  authority  and 
order,  about  the  belief  in  God  and  the  moral  law ;  nor  is  there 
one  word  about  Freemasonry  and  other  secret  societies,  and  their 
deadly  warfare  against  Church  and  State,  order  and  liberty. 
This  silence  is  almost  incredible,  but  it  is  observed,  and  is  a 
portentous  sign.  For  if  we  may  take  Sir  H.  Maine,  as  I  think 
we  may,  to  represent  the  opinions  of  the  bulk  of  our  wealthy 
and  cultivated  classes,  then  they  are  blinder  than  the  French 
noblesse  before  the  First  Revolution.     Take  away  the  belief  in 


250  The  Decay  of  the  British  Constitution. 

God,  and  the  present  holders  of  wealth  and  power  have  just  so 
much  title  and  claim  to  that  wealth  and  power  as  their  bayonets 
and  bullets  will  give  them,  and  no  more;  and  all  their  appeals 
to  rights  and  loyalty,  all  their  denunciations  of  confiscation,  of 
wicked  riots,  of  treason  and  Socialism,  are  mere  idle  clap-trap.  But, 
to  return  to  the  book  in  question,  it  is  no  wonder  that,  as  God 
must  not  be  mentioned  (the  word  occurs,  indeed,  but  only  in  the 
phrase  "  Vox  populi,  vox  Dei "),  the  whole  description  of  modern 
democracy  is  obscured  by  a  fundamental  confusion.  In  the 
second  essay  he  praises  the  dictum  of  Austin  and  M.  Scherer, 
that  democracy  is  simply  and  solely  a  form  of  government,  the 
government  of  the  State  by  the  Many  as  opposed  to  government 
by  the  Few  or  by  One  (p.  59).  And  he  adds  the  following 
corollary : — 

The  advanced  Eadical  politician  of  our  day  would  seem  to  liave  an 
impression  that  democracy  differs  from  monarchy  in  essence.  There 
can  be  no  grosser  mistake  than  this,  and  none  more  fertile  of  further 
dehisions.  Democracy,  the  government  of  the  commonwealth  by  a 
numerous  but  indeterminate  portion  of  the  community  taking  the 
place  of  the  monarch,  has  exactly  the  same  conditions  to  satisfy  as 
monarchy;  it  has  the  same  functions  to  discharge,  though  it  dis- 
charges them  through  different  organs.  The  tests  of  success  in  the 
performance  of  the  necessary  and  natural  duties  of  a  government  are 
precisely  the  same  in  both  cases. 

This  is  excellent  doctrine — it  is  just  what  we  read  in  Catholic 
manuals  of  political  philosophy — always  assuming  that  democracy 
means  a  form  of  government.  And  this  no  doubt  is  what  it 
ought  to  mean,  and  what  it  does  mean  in  many  mouths.  But 
then  there  is  another  and  a  very  different  sense  in  which  it  is 
used,  and  in  which  Sir  H.  Maine  himself  must  be  taken  to  use 
it  if  his  first  essay  on  popular  government  is  to  have  any  sense. 
The  democratic  principle  he  speaks  of  (p.  5)  as  going  forth 
conquering  and  to  conquer,  and  as  being  opposed  by  the  "Syllabus" 
of  the  late  Pope — is  this,  forsooth,  a  mere  form  of  government  ? 
What  the  late  Pope,  just  like  the  Pope  that  went  before  him 
and  the  Pope  that  has  come  after  him,  denounced,  is  not  a 
form  of  government,  but  a  false  view  of  the  nature  of  all  men 
and  .the  nature  of  all  government.  The  common  name  for 
this  view  is  the  doctrine  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people. 
This  phrase,  indeed,  can  be  used  in  a  perfectly  harmless  sense,  and 
to  mean  much  the  same  as  the  proper  and  innocent  sense  of 
democracy — namel}',  a  form  of  government  where  sovereignty 
is  exercised  by  the  bulk  of  the  inhabitants,  or  by  their 
representatives.  Dr.  Brownson  in  America  and  Dr.  Barry  in 
England  have  used  the  phrase  in  this  sense.  Whether  this  use 
is  judicious   we   need  not  discuss.     The  point   is,  that  on  the 


The  Decay  of  the  British  Constitution.  251 

Continent  the  phrase  means  false  doctrine,  and  briefly  it  is  this — 
that  men  are  not  fallen,  but  by  nature  virtuous  and  wise ;  that 
they  owe  obedience  to  no  one,  but  are  by  nature  independent,  and 
may  do  as  they  like  ;  that  all  political  power  comes,  not  from 
God,  but  from  them  ;  that  they  obey  merely  because  they  have 
agreed  to  obey  ;  that  all  rulers  are  merely  their  servants  or  agents 
for  carrying  out  their  will,  and  can,  like  any  other  servant  or 
agent,  be  censured,  or  dismissed  at  pleasure ;  that  the  will  of  the 
people  is  the  supreme  law.  Now  we  need  not  trouble  ourselves 
to  pull  this  theory  to  pieces.  Enough  that  it  is  against  facts 
and  reason ;  that  even  formally  it  results  in  the  dilemma  of 
either  anarchy  or  else  the  absolute  rule  of  the  majority  ;  that  its 
issue  is  the  sovereignty  of  force.  So  we  reach  the  well-known 
seventieth  proposition  of  the  "Syllabus":  Auctoritas  nihil  aliud 
est  nisi  niimeri  et  materialiurti  virium  sumraa.  It  is  an  old 
story.  If  you  will  not  have  God  to  rule  over  you,  you  must  bow 
to  a  tyrant.  No  natural  law  is  recognized ;  no  right  is  secure ; 
and,  the  true  notion  of  liberty  having  disappeared,  the  word  is 
made  to  mean  the  beggarly  privilege  of  possessing  in  the  shape 
of  a  vote  a  nominal  fragment  of  the  sovereign  power.  .  This 
theory  in  various  forms  has  been  used  for  a  century  as  an  engine 
against  Christian  governments;  and  to  avoid  any  further  mistake 
I  will  call  it  the  Infidel  Theory  of  government  as  opposed  to  the 
Religious  Theory.  It  is  this  infidel,  theory  that  is  commonly 
meant  by  the  phrase  "  Sovereignty  of  the  People."  It  is  this  infidel 
theory  that  Mr.  John  Morley  means  by  democracy  when  he 
calls  clericalism  the  arch-enemy  of  democracy.  It  is  this  infidel 
theory,  and  not  any  form  of  government,  that  has  fallen  under 
the  successive  censures  of  Gregory,  and  Pius,  and  Leo.  It  is 
this  infidel  theory,  .finally,  which  Sir  Henry  Maine  in  his  first 
essay  with  the  greatest  complacency  appears  in  part  to  adopt 
and  approve.  He  leaves,  indeed,  the  doctrines  of  natural  virtue 
and  independence  to  popular  orators;  but  by  eliminating  all 
reference  to  God,  he  gives  at  least  a  tacit  approval  to  the  "  newer 
view  " — he  cites  that  rulers,  namely,  are  mere  agents  of  the  people, 
not  authorities  from  God;  and  he  gives  with  approval  the  doctrine 
of  Hobbes,  that  liberty  is  "  political  power  divided  into  small  frag- 
ments." The  true  notion  of  liberty  and  of  the  State  is  in  this 
way  altogether  obscured.  There  is  no  longer  any  security  for 
the  essential  rights  of  man,  his  faith  and  morals,  his  wife  and 
children,  his  house  and  home ;  for  no  law  is  recognized  but  that 
of  the  State,  and  so  no  rights  but  what  the  State  gives ;  and  we 
are  delivered  over  to  the  tender  mercies  of  Sir  James  Stephen 
and  his  Cesarism.  Of  course  it  may  be  said  that  Mr.  John 
Morley  with  his  democracy  comes  really  to  the  same  thing,  and 
that  your  sufferings  are  not  made  any  lighter  by  an  admixture 


252  The  Decay  of  the  British  Constitution. 

of  rhetoric  about  man's  virtue  and  equality.  Still,  anything  is 
better  than  brutal  cynicism,  and  the  worship  of  the  people,  though 
logically  worse,  is  morally  better  than  the  worship  of  the  State. 

But  to  return  to  Sir  Henry  Maine.  It  is  not  my  wish  to 
accuse  him  of  holding  the -infidel  theory  of  government;  I  do 
not  know  what  is  his  creed ;  but  his  book  on  popular  govern- 
ment, which  we  are  considering,  seems  to  show  that  he  does  not 
know  what  the  religious  theory  of  the  State  is,  and  the  all- 
importance  of  recognizing  it;  and  thus,  in  spite  of  many  acute 
observations,  he  misses  the  real  issue  and  misleads  both  himself 
and  his  readers.  Indeed,  it  is  high  time  that  Catholics  should 
separate  the  chaff  from  the  wheat  in  the  writings  of  this  attrac- 
tive author.  For  till  this  sifting  process  is  done  I  am  not  at  all 
sure  that  these  writings  do  not  do  more  harm  than  good.  Thus, 
in  the  distressing  controversy  about  the  sovereignty  of  the  people 
that  was  carried  on  some  eighteen  months  ago  in  the  columns  of 
the  Tablet,  one  (lay)  writer  gravely  asked  what  a  previous 
(ecclesiastical)  writer  had  meant  by  the  phrase  "natural  law,"  and 
proceeded  to  give  a  rechauffe  of  Sir  H.  Maine  and  John  Austin 
on  the  phrase,  somewhat  to  the  effect  that  it  was  nonsense. 
And  I  knew  well  a  young  student,  who,  after  sitting  at  the  feet  of 
Sir  H.  Maine  and  being  dosed  with  Austin's  "  Jurisprudence,"  and 
then  happening  (it  was  at  the  Education  crisis)  to  hear  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Westminster  speak  of  the  natural  rights  of  parents  and 
the  natural  law  above  the  law  of  the  State,  thought,  with  the 
characteristic  modesty  of  modern  youth,  that  the  Archbishop  did 
not  know  what  he  was  talking  about.  He  found  out  in  time  that 
the.  Archbishop  did  know  and  was  right,  and  that  it  was  he  him- 
self that  did  not  know  and  was  wrong.  But  I  fear  that  many 
never  get  to  this  second  and  more  sober  state  of  mind.  Now, 
the  source  of  the  mistake  is  the  first  and  most  famous  (though, 
in  ray  opinion,  far  the  least  valuable)  of  Sir  H.  Maine's  works — 
that,  -namely,  on  "  Ancient  Law."  For  it  contains  a  misunder- 
standing much  of  t'he  character  of  the  one  which  we  have  just 
now  examined,  and  which  confuses  democracy  in  the  sense  of  a 
form  of  government  with  democracy  in  the  sense  of  the  infidel 
theory  of  government.  So  in  "  Ancient  Law  "  he  confuses  the 
religious  sense  of  the  law  of  Nature — namely,  the  law  of  God  as 
far  as  made  known  to  man,  not  through  revelation,  but  through 
their  reason,  on  which  law  rest  all  natural  rights — this  sense  he 
confuses  with  the  infidel  sense  of  Nature  as  a  sort  of  lawgiver, 
laying  down  a  proper  rule  of  life,  and  conferring  natural  rights. 
This  no  doubt  is  nonsense,  though  we  Catholics  were  in  no  need 
of  Sir  Henry  Maine  to  find  it  out.  But  the  amazing  thing  is, 
that  you  might  read  through  that  whole  book  and  never  gues3 
that  the  words  "  natural  law"  and  "natural  riorhts"  were  in  current 


The  Decay  of  the  British  Constitution,  253 

tise  in  the  greater  part  of  the  Christian  world  for  centuries  in 
quite  another  sense.  This  is  a  lamentable  mistake;  and  there 
is  another,  which  he  has  borrowed  from  the  German  historical 
school — namely,  that  of  going  beyond  the  evidence,  jumping 
again  and  again  from  the  partial  to  the  universal,  from  the 
temporary  to  the  continuous,  from  the  possible  to  the  probable, 
from  the  probable  to  the  certain.  But  I  must  no  longer  wander 
in  this  field  of  criticism  and  lament  over  so  good  a  writer  being 
half-spoilt  for  want  of  a  little  training  in  logic  and  theology ;  for 
I  must  return  to  the  British  Constitution  and  its  decay. 

But  is  it  decaying  ?  Sir  H.  Maine  tells  us  it  is ;  and  although, 
as  we  have  seen,  he  gives  us  a  remedy  for  one  infirmity,  he 
alludes  to  others  for  which  he  offers  us  no  remedy,  and  for  which 
he  does  not  seem  to  have  got  one.  And,  in  fact,  he  has  been 
reproached  with  the  gloomy  and  desponding  character  of  his 
book.  Of  course  we  might  immediately  say,  as  we  have  just 
been  quarrelling  with  him,  that  because  he  says  we  are  all  going 
to  the  dogs,  therefore  we  are  not.  But  this  mode  of  reasoning, 
though  common,  is  not  always  satisfactory ;  and  in  this  case  there 
is  the  difficulty  that,  if  we  will  not  weep  with  Sir  H.  Maine,  we 
shall  have  to  rejoice  with  Mr.  John  Morley — which  of  the  two 
alternatives  is  perhaps  the  worst.  It  seems,  therefore,  the  best 
course  to  leave  these  writers,  and  to  look  at  the  matter  on  its  own 
merits.  Now  the  word  "  Constitution,"  though  it  is  somewhat 
vague,  still,  when  used  with  words  like  _  British,  Prussian, 
American,  means  the  sum  total  of  the  written  and  unwritten  law, 
of  the  legal  rules  and  moral  principles,  that  relate  to  the  supreme 
government  of  the  particular  country.  Of  course  we  cannot  fully 
and  really  understand  the  nature  of  the  supreme  government 
unless  we  also  know  a  jj^ood  deal  about  the  local  o^overnment  of 
provinces,  towns,  and  villages;  about  the  administration  of 
justice,  and  the  constitution  of  the  army ;  nay,  also,  a'bout  family 
life,  and  the  relations  of  masters  and  servants,  rich  and  poor. 
But  although  we  must  bear  all  these  things  in  mind,  still,,  as  we 
cannot  say  everything  at  the  same  moment,  we  can  treat  of  the 
supreme  government  separately,  remembering  at  the  same  time 
that  two  governments  apparently  alike  may  be  really  very 
different,  if,  for  example,  there  is  great  difference  between  the 
two  countries  in  their  laws  and  customs  on  property  and  servants. 
And  now  for  the  word  "decay,"  which  in  its  turn  requires  a  little 
explanation.  It  clearly  should  be  used  for  something  bad,  unless 
we  are  bent  on  misleading  people.  Thus,  if  by  gradual  and 
peaceful  steps  the  form  of  government,  say  in  Liliput,  is  com- 
pletely changed,  as  from  an  aristocracy  to  a  monarchy,  the  new 
form  being  more  suitable  than  the  old,  we  must  not  speak  of  the 
decay  of  the  Liliputian  Constitution.     There  is  no  decay,  "but 


254  The  Decay  of  the  BHtish  Constitution. 

vigorous  life ;  and  vigorous  life  may  sometimes  mean  change. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is  real  decay  of  a  constitution  when  it  suffers 
diminution  either  of  its  power  or  its  virtue.  The  one  loss  leads 
directly,  the  other  indirectly,  to  a  revolution — that  is,  to  a  sudden 
and  violent  change  in  the  constitution,  a  change  that  sometimes 
cannot  be  helped,  and  is  the  less  of  two  evils,  but  still  is  always  a 
great  evil.  Thus  a  constitution  is  in  decay,  if  a  powerful  class 
or  body  has  arisen  within  the  State,  and  remains  excluded 
from  all  share  in  the  central  government,  and  resents  the 
exclusion.  A  strong  constitution  will  absorb  the  new  body, 
and  become  all  the  stronger.  A  decaying  constitution  will 
reject  this  body  as  a  foreign  substance,  and  probably  end  in 
consequence  in  revolution.  But  the  other  head  of  decay  is 
equally  to  be  attended  to.  If  false  principles  of  law  and  govern- 
ment take  the  place  of  true,  if  frivolous  and  indolent,  or  corrupt 
and  vicious,  or  ignorant  and  fanatic  men  fill  the  offices  of  govern- 
ment instead  of  the  wise  and  the  good,  then  there  is  decay,  and  a 
liability  to  revolution.  For  it  is  the  part  of  a  fanatic  not  to  stick 
at  any  means  to  his  end  ;  and  then  again  if  the  "  rational "  doc- 
trine prevails  of  sovereignty  being  only  organized  force,  you  will 
find  it  hard  to  persuade  me  not  to  organize,  if  I  can,  a  force  on 
my  own  account,  and  put  the  crown  on  my  own  head. 

I  hope  I  have  made  clear  now  what  I  mean  by  constitution  and 
by  decay.  So  we  can  return  to  the  question  whether  the  British 
Constitution  is  decaying  or  not.  Now,  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
first  source  of  decay,  the  loss,  namely,  of  power,  cannot  be  proved. 
Undoubtedly  we  have  changed,  and  the  Constitution  at  present 
is  very  different  from  that  in  the  days  of  Chatham  and  Burke,  or 
even  Peel  and  Wellington.  But  change  is  not  decay.  What 
if  we  are  now  governed  almost  wholly  and  without  appeal  by  a 
secret  committee  of  the  party  that  has  the  majority  in  the  House 
of  Commons?  If  that  committee  is  composed  of  honest,  wise, 
and  God-fearing  men,  are  we  not  as  likely  to  be  as  well  governed 
as  in  any  other  way  ?  No  doubt  it  is  a  curious  form  of  govern- 
ment ;  but  it  is  no  exotic,  no  creation  of  a  doctrinaire^s  brain, 
but  a  native  growth.  There  is  nothing  like  it  elsewhere.  The 
practical  identification  of  the  legislative  and  the  executive  powers 
is  its  characteristic.  In  America,  on  the  contrary,  the  executive 
power  (the  President  and  his  Ministers)  is  distinct  from  the 
legislative  power  (the  two  Houses  of  Congress),  and  in  great 
measure  independent  of  it.  And  the  Continental  countries 
which  have  tried  to  copy  the  British  Constitution  have  failed  to 
work  the  plan  as  we  do,  either  from  the  Crown  not  being  alto- 
gether withdrawn  from  home  politics ;  or  from  there  being  a 
number  of  parties  which  can  be  played  one  against  another  by  a 
skilful  Minister,  instead  of  two  great  parties ;  or  from  there  being 


The  Decay  of  the  British  Constitution.  255 

irreconcilable  enmity  between  great  parties,  ins.tead  of  agreement 
in  essentials.  But  our  two  great  parties  are  disappearing,  per- 
haps I  shall  be  told.  Be  it  so.  But  what  of  it?  We  shall 
want  a  change  in  the  Constitution  then,  no  doubt.  But  why 
will  there  be  need  of  bloodshed  and  revolution  ?  Why  not  a 
peaceful  change,  a  healthy  growth,  and  adaptation  to  new  cir- 
cumstances, as  we  have  seen  before?  Till  you  show  me  that  this 
cannot  be,  and  that  our  common-sense  has  marvellously  dwindled, 
I  will  not  allow  that  the  form  of  our  present  Constitution  is  bad, 
and  the  Constitution  for  this  reason  in  decay. 

Yet  it  is  in  decay — only,  for  another  reason.  And  this  is,  that 
false  principles  of  law  and  government  have  in  great  measure 
driven  out  the  true.  We  are  still  profiting,  indeed,  from  the 
legacy  of  the  past,  but  are  busy  preparing  for  our  children  an 
inheritance  of  disaster.  For,  to  put  the  matter  shortly,  the 
religious  theory  of  government  is  being  driven  out  before  our 
eyes  by  the  infidel  theory.  Now,  as  I  have  already  explained,  the 
infidel  theory  has  various  forms,  but  the  essence  and  chief  malice 
of  them  all  is  the  same,  and  consists  in  denying  the  authority 
and  interposition  of  God,  whether  He  speaks  to  us  through  reason 
in  the  natural  law,  or  through  revelation  in  the  revealed  law ; 
and  in  making  all  law  and  all  rights  spring  from  human  will 
alone.  No  Catholic,  no  sort  of  Christian,  no  genuine  Theist,  can 
possibly  hold  this  theory  if  he  once  understands  what  it  means. 
On  the  Continent  the  theory  is  often  summed  up  in  the  phrase, 
la  Revolution;  and  it  is  in  this  sense  that  the  admirable 
Catholic  leader  in  France,  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  has  openly 
declared  war  on  the  revolution  ;  though  I  believe  there  are  some 
Englishmen,  perhaps  even  some  Catholics,  so  ill-informed  as  to 
imagine  that  this  champion  of  faith  and  morals,  liberty  and 
justice,  wishes  to  bring  back  the  whole  ancien  regime  of  the 
time  of  Louis  XV.,  not  omitting  the  royal  mistresses  and  the 
lettres  de  cachet.  Once  more,  the  spread  of  this  infidel  theory  is 
one  of  the  main  works  and  aims  of  secret  societies  in  general,  and 
in  particular  of  that  head  of  secret  societies,  Freemasonrj'^ ;  and 
against  all  forms  and  shapes  of  this  theory,  and  the  leagues  of  its 
promoters,  the  Holy  See  has  been  warning  us  again  and  afjaia 
for  a  century  past,  and  has  tracked  the  deadly  beast  to  its  lair. 

But  am  I  so  simple,  it  may  be  asked,  as  to  think  that  the 
"English  people  are  going  to  listen  to  Papal  Encyclicals,  and  shape 
their  principles  accordingly?  Well,  not  just  yet,  I  admit.  But 
a  select  few  can  do  the  listening  and  learning,  and  then  put  before 
the  others  in  a  clear  and  attractive  way  the  religious  theory  of 
government,  and  show  how  miserable  is  the  infidel  theory,  and 
teach  them  to  love  the  one  and  hate  the  other,  and  to  cast  out 
Freemasonry  and  other  works  of  darkness.     I  have  not,  indeed. 


256  The  Decay  of  the  British  Constitution. 

Mr.  Morley's  "  faith  in  the  people "  and  belief  that  "  human 
nature  is  good "  in  his  sense  and  Rousseau's.  But  that  is  no 
reason  for  falling  into  Sir  Henry  Maine's  despondency.  On  the 
contrary,  there  seem  to  me  good  grounds  for  thinking  that  thfr 
English  people  will  not  yield  to  the  venomous  doctrines  with 
which  they  are  being  assailed.  A  recent  Letter  of  the  Pope  ought 
to  make  us  ashamed  of  our  faint-heartedness,  for  he  tells  us  how 
he  is  moved  at  the  sight  of  the  multitudinous  good  works  of  the 
English  Protestants,  and  of  their  clinging,  so  many  of  them,  to 
what  fragments  of  the  Christian  faith  have  been  left  to  them  ; 
and  how  in  their  good  dispositions  he  sees  hope  for  the  future  of 
our  country  and  an  earnest  of  God^s  favour. 

And  then  we  ought  to  remember  that  once  before^  nearly  a 
century  ago,  the  infidel  theory  of  government  sought  to  gain 
possession  of  England,  nay,  had  almost  succeeded,  when  a  great 
and  good  man  arose,  and,  appealing  in  a  masterpiece  of  literature 
to  all  that  was  best  and  noblest  in  the  nation,  made  the  Christian 
principles  of  our  Constitution  for  many  years  secure.  What 
Edmund  Burke  did  by  his  "  Reflections  on  the  Revolution  in 
France  "  may  be  done  again,  as  it  needs  to  be,  in  our  own  day. 
And  that  celebrated  pamphlet  might  in  great  part  serve  as  a 
foundation  for  the  new  appeal  to  the  English  people.  For 
Burke's  strong  point  was  his  setting  forth  in  fascinating  words 
the  true  principles  of  all  government.  His  weak  point  was  in 
his  facts,  as  distinct  from  his  principles.  He  paints  England  and 
its  Church  as  they  ought  to  have  been,  not  as  they  were ;  and  he 
tries  to  persuade  his  readers  that  the  Revolution  of  1688  and  it& 
principles  were  not  opposed  to  the  true  principles  of  government. 
It  was  perhaps  fortunate  he  could  thus  delude  himself,  for  the 
influence  of  his  teaching  was  probably  doubled  in  consequence. 
But  it  was  a  delusion  for  all  that.  The  change  in  1688  may  or 
may  not  have  been  provoked  by  injustice  and  folly  ;  may  or  may 
not  have  been  beneficial  in  its  immediate  or  ultimate  results  ;  it 
was  certainly  a  revolution,  marked  by  greed  of  wealth  and  power 
and  by  almost  unexampled  treachery  ;  it  was  a  violent  shifting 
of  power  from  the  Crown  to  a  territorial  aristocracy ;  the  form  of 
government  was  changed,  not  by  law,  but  by  force ;  and  what  is^ 
this  but  revolution  ?  In  fact,  the  arguments  of  Burke  by  which 
he  sought  to  make  the  change  of  1688  accord  with  the  religious 
principle  of  government  have  long  since,  by  Hallam  and  others, 
been  torn  to  pieces.  But  this  is  now  a  matter  of  little  conse- 
quence ;  our  countrymen  now  are  not  given  over  to  the  worship 
of  a  political  fetish  styled  "  The  Glorious  Revolution  " ;  and  it 
would  make  little  difiference  whether  we  could  show  that  the 
right  was  followed  in  1688,  or  was  not.  Thus  Burke's  history 
and  facts  are  little  to  us  -,  whereas  his  political  philosophy,  and 


The  Decay  of  the  British  Constitution.  25 X 

the  words  iu  which  he  has  expressed  it,  are  a  permanent  treasure 
of  our  race  and  our  tongue.  He  is  pre-eminently  the  champion 
of  what  I  have  called  the  religious  as  opposed  to  the  infidel 
theory  of  government.  He  looks  on  the  formal  distributions  of 
power  as  little,  and  on  the  moral  principles  as  all-important.  He 
urges — we  might  think  we  were  reading  the  recent  Encyclical  of 
Leo  XIII.  on  the  Constitution  of  Christian  States — that  all  power 
is  a  trust  from  God,  and  that  all  States  should  have  a  religion. 
Let  us  hear  him  : 

The  ....  sense  of  mankind  ....  not  only,  like  a  wise  architect, 
hath  built  up  the  august  fabric  of  States,  but,  like  a  provident  pro- 
prietor, to  preserve  the  structure  from  profanation  and  ruin,  as  a  sacred 
temple,  purged  from  all  the  impurities  of  fraud,  and  violence,  and  in- 
justice, and  tyranny,  hath  solemnly  and  for  ever  consecrated  the 
commonwealth,  and  all  that  officiate  in  it.  This  consecration  is  made 
that  all  who  administer  in  the  government  of  men,  in  which  they  stand 
in  the  person  of  God  Himself,  should  have  high  and  worthy  notions  of 
their  function  and  destination  ;  that  their  hope  should  be  full  of  im- 
mortality ;  that  they  should  not  look  to  the  paltry  pelf  of  the  moment, 
nor  to  the  temporary  and  transient  praise  of  the  vulgar,  but  to  a  solid, 
permanent  existence  in  the  permanent  part  of  their  nature,  and  to  a 
permanent  fame  and  glory  in  the  example  they  leave  as  a  rich  inherit- 
ance to  the  world All  persons  possessing  any  portion  of  power 

ought  to  be  strongly  and  awfully  impressed  with  an  idea  that  they  act 
in  trust,  and  that  they  are  to  account  for  their  conduct  in  that  trust 
•  to  the  one  great  Master,  author  and  founder  of  society.  This  prin- 
ciple ought  even  to  be  more  strongly  impressed  upon  the  minds  of 
those  who  compose  the  collective  sovereignty  than  upon  those  of 
single  princes.     Without  instruments  these  princes  can  do  nothing. 

Whoever  uses  instruments,  in  finding  helps  finds  also  impediments. 

» 

Whereas,  as  he  shows,  a  large  governing  body  is  in  great 
measure  its  own  instrument,  less  liable  to  shame  and  less  exposed 
to  the  possibility  of  punishment : 

It  is,  therefore,  of  infinite  importance  that  they  should  not  be 
suffered  to  imagine  that  their  will,  any  more  than  that  of  kings,  is  the 
standard  of  right  and  wrong. — Reflections  on  the  Revolution  in  France, 
Clarendon  Press  edition,  pp.  108-110. 

And  not  merely  has  Burke  given  us,  as  it  were,  a  translatbn 
of  our  present  Pope's  judgment  against  the  evil  novum  jus  that 
threatens  us  ;  the  Papal  denunciation  of  that  other  and  allied  evil, 
the  secta  Massonum,  has  likewise  been,  as  it  were,  anticipated. 
-  But,  instead  of  citing  Burke,  I  will  rather,  on  the  principle  "  fas 
'est  ab  hoste  doceri,''  give  the  significant  comment  of  his  Oxford 
editor,  Mr.  E.  J.  Payne,  an  enemy  of  our  faith.  He  says  in  his 
able  Introduction : 


258  Tlte  Decay  of  the  British  Conatitutioii. 

Among  Burke's  historical  forecasts  none  is  more  remarkable  than 
that  which  relates  to  the  organization  throughout  Europe  of  secret 
political  societies.  Contemporary  critics  laughed  the  argument  to 
scorn  ;  but  its  accuracy  is  testified  by  the  history. of  liberal  [he  means 
liberal  in  the  Belgian  sense — i.e.,  irreligious]  movements  all  over 
Catholic  Europe  and  America.  Thirty  years  more,  and  the  world 
rang  with  the  alarm.  It  was  by  the  aid  of  these  secret  organiza- 
tions that  Mexico  and  South  America  threw  off  the  yoke  of  the 
priesthood  [and,  of  course,  were  all  peaceful  and  happy  ever  after- 
wards]. We  know  the  history  of  similar  clubs  in  Spain,  Italy,  and 
Switzerland  between  1815  and  1848;  and  the  great  power  for  attack 
provided  by  these  means  justifies  the  hostility  with  which  the  Catholic 
Church  still  regards  all  secret  organizations.     (P.  xlix.) 

I  think  I  have  said  enough  to  show  that  we  have  the  greatest 
orator  that  England  has  ever  seen  on  our  side  in  our  present 
struggle  to  uphold  the  true  against  the  false  principles  of  govern- 
ment. And  so  great  is  the  power  of  literature  that  this  is  no 
light  advantage.  And  so,  too,  it  is  no  light  advantage  that  the 
supreme  head  of  English  literature  is  also  fully  on  our  side,  and 
that  in  Shakespeare  is  to  be  found  for  ethics  in  general,  and  for 
politics  and  economies  in  particular,  a  whole  treasure-house  of 
wisdom.  It  is  indeed  time  that  we  should  know  at  last  what 
great  names  are  on  our  side,  what  weapons  there  are  ready  to  our 
hand.  I  must  not,  indeed,  begin  quoting  Shakespeare,  for  there 
would  be  no  ending,  and  will  only  add  the  remarks  of  Coleridge 
given  by  Mr.  Payne  (p,  xxix.)  that  Shakespeare,  as  manifested 
in  his  writings,  is  one  of  those 

who  build  the  commonweal,  not  on  the  shifting  shoals  of  expedience, 
or  the  incalculable  tides  of  popular  will,  but  on  the  sure  foundations 
of  the  divine  purpose,  demonstrated  by  the  great  and  glorious  ends  of 
rational  being  ;  who  deduce  the  rights  and  duties  of  men,  not  from  the 
animal  nature,  in  which  neither  right  nor  duty  can  inhere,  nor  from  a 
state  of  nature  which  never  existed,  nor  from  an  arbitrary  contract 
which  never  took  place  in  the  memory  of  man  nor  angels,  but  from  the 
demands  of  the  complex  life  of  the  soul  and  the  body,  defined  by  reason 
and  conscience,  expounded  and  ratified  by  revelation. 

Let  us,  therefore,  not  be  deluded  by  Sir  Henry  Maine  or  by 
any  other  authority,  and  be  made  eager  about  forms  and  con- 
trivances of  government,  neglectful  of  the  spirit  and  the  reality. 
It  is  easy,  if  you  dislike  a  form  of  government,  to  show  its  diffi- 
culties and  abuses.  For  all  are  conducted  by  men,  and  the  fallen 
nature  of  men  is  continually  showing  itself.  It  is  easy,  therefore, 
to  depict  the  bribery,  the  frauds,  the  caucuses,  the  manipulations, 
the  bombast,  the  lying,  the  petty  tyrannies,  the  mean  ambitions, 
of  political  life  in  democratic  America.  But  such  a  picture  is  of 
the  same  value  as  that  which  other  writers  draw  for  us  of  the 


The  Decay  of  the  British  Constitution.  259 

• 
eighteenth-century  monarchies  of  Western  and  Central  Europe — 
the  imbecility,  extravagance,  arbitrary  tyranny,  corrupt  courts, 
rule  of  mistresses  and  flatterers,  and  I  know  not  what  else.  Others 
will  tell  you  the  evils  of  bureaucracies  such  as  in  India  or  Russia — 
the  gulf  between  ruled  and  rulers,  the  corruption  of  the  lower 
officials,  and  the  arbitrary  deeds  of  local  tyrants,  for  which  no 
redress  is  possible,  all  the  members  of  the  bureaucracy  being 
bound  by  a  tacit  league  to  support  each  other.  A  plutocracy, 
again,  such  as  ruled  at  Rome  in  the  youth  of  Cicero,  or  in  Eng- 
land after  the  first  Reform  Bill,  with  indescribable  misery  of  the 
poorer  classes  ;  or  an  aristocracy,  as  in  England  after  1688  ;  or  an 
oligarchy,  or  this  form  or  that  form,  can  be  depicted  in  the  same 
way.  But  I'emember,  all  you  prove  is,  that  the  particular  form 
of  government  is  no  panacea,  does  not  change  human  nature,  is 
liable  to  be  made  an  instrument  of  our  evil  passions,  is  in  constant 
danger  of  lapse,  in  constant  need  of  reform.  You  do  not  prove  it 
bad  in  itself.  It  may  have  grown  unsuitable ;  indeed,  where  there 
are  great  changes  in  the  arts  this  is  likely ;  the  new  means  of 
communication,  railways,  telegraphs,  the  cheap  press,  and  the 
new  system  of  warfare,  may  well  require  new  forms  of  govern- 
ment. But  man  is  not  new  ;  and,  whatever  be  the  new  form  of 
government,  he  requires  the  same  help  against  his  evil  passions  as 
before.  But  I'evolution,  as  distinct  from  reform,  is  essentially  an 
unchaining  of  evil  passions. 

In  conclusion,  therefore,  let  us  be  tolerant  with  one  another  in- 
all  matters  that  are  not  essential,  and  allow  each  to  think  as  he 
judges  best  about  forms  of  government  in  general  and  in  par- 
ticular, whether  the  form  of  the  British  Constitution  should  be 
changed  or  not,  and,  if  so,  how ;  for  example,  whether  or  not  we 
should  change  our  centralized  for  afederal  system,  whether  or  not  we 
should  have  a  second  chamber  or  one  constituted  like  our  present 
one,  whether  or  not  any  settled  adult  should  be  excluded  from 
the  franchise,  whether  or  not  the  Crown  should  have  once  more 
greater  powers,  whether  or  not  the  executive  should  be  a  more 
permanent  body  than  at  present  and  jnore  independent  of  the 
Lower  House,  whether  or  not  we  should  adopt  some  system  like 
that  of  America  for  making  Constitutional  changes  difficult,  and 
many  other  like  questions.  Let  each  have  his  own  opinion  on 
these  matters,  and  follow  his  own  view.  But  how  pitiable  if  dif- 
ferences on  these  matters,  which  are  by  comparison  but  trifles, 
should  prevent  all  Catholics,  nay,  all  Christians,  joining  together 
against  their  common  and  irreconcilable  foe,  and  striving  to  keep 
or  restore  the  Christian  Constitution  of  our  country.  Let  us  be 
united  against  godless  schools,  godless  colleges,  godless  univer- 
sities ;  against  the  scandalous  law  of  divorce ;  against  the  pro- 
paganda of  blasphemy  and  of  filth  ;  against  the  doctrine  of  the 

VOL.  XY. — NO.  iL     [Third  Series.']  t 


260  The  Archduchess  Isabel. 

State  being  the  source  of  all  law  and  right,  and  the  corollary  of 
the  lawfulness  of  revolution.  And  as  to  secret  societies,  let  us, 
both  as  dutiful  children  listening  to  the  sovereign  Pontiff,  and  as 
reasonable  men  listening  to  the  evidence — and  the  evidence  is 
before  us,  the  texts,  the  documents,  abundant,  conclusive,  acces- 
sible, before  our  eyes  unless  we  close  them — let  us  declare  against 
every  secret  society  an  inexpiable  war.  Of  course  we  may  fail ; 
and  then  indeed  the  British  Constitution  would  be  in  decay.  Then 
indeed 

Strength  should  be  lord  of  imbecility, 

And  the  rude  son  should  strike  his  father  dead ; 

Force  should  be  right ;   or  rather,  right  and  wrong 

(Between  whose  endless  jar  justice  resides) 

Should  lose  their  names  and  so  should  justice  too. 

Then  everything  includes  itself  in  power, 

Power  into  Avill,  will  into  appetite  ; 

And  appetite  an  universal  wolf, 

So  doubly  seconded  with  will  and  power, 

Must  make  perforce  an  universal  prey, 

And,  last,  eat  up  himself. 

Troilus  and  Cressida,  act  i.  scene  3. 

But  shall  we  fail  ?  I  think  I  have  given  good  reasons  for  confi- 
dence ;  and  assuredly  we  shall  be  less  likely  to  fail  if  we  are  united. 

C.  S.  Devas. 


Art.  II.— the  ARCHDUCHESS  ISABEL. 

1.  Lettres  de  Philippe  II.  a  ses  Filles,  les  Infantes  Isabelle  et 

Catherine,  ecrites  pendant  son  voyage  en  Portugal. 
Publiees  d'apres  les  originaux  autographes  conserves  dans 
les  Archives  Royales  de  Turin.     Par  M.  Gachard. 

2.  Unpuhlished  Letters  in  the  Brussels  Archives. 

TRAVELLERS  who  have  visited  Belgium  with  an  eye  to  its 
history  and  traditions  cannot  fail  to  have  been  struck  by 
the  loving  remembrance  in  which  that  country  still  holds  the 
joint  sovereigns  known  generally  as  "  the  Archdukes,^'  and  of 
them  in  particular  the  Infanta  Isabel  Clara  Eugenia.  We 
believe  that  there  is  as  yet  no  published  biography  of  this 
princess;  and  yet  her  character,  the  epoch  at  which  she  lived, 
and  the  part  taken  by  her  in  European  politics,  as  well  as  in  the 
regeneration  of  her  own  long  desolated  provinces,  merit  for  her 


The  Archduchess  Isabel.  261 

no  small  share  of  attention  from  such  as  deal  with  the  past. 
The  contrast  between  Isabel  and  her  royal  father,  and  the 
favourable  effects  of  that  contrast  on  the  people  whom  she 
governed,  are  alone  worthy  of  some  study. 

The  daughter  of  Philip  II.  by  his  third  wife,  Elizabeth  of 
France,  she  inherited  the  charming  and  virtuous  character  of 
her  mother,  together  with  some  of  the  best  qualities  of  her 
grandfather,  Charles  V.  She  was  born  in  August,  1566,  after 
some  years  of  marriage,  when  Philip  had  almost  despaired  of 
other  issue  besides  the  ill-conditioned  and  ill-fated  Don  Carlos. 
He  rejoiced  greatly,  therefore,  over  the  birth  of  Isabel,  notwith- 
standing her  sex ;  indeed,  he  assured  his  wife  that  he  was  even 
more  content  than  if  the  child  had  been  a  son.  The  unaccountable 
etiquette  of  the  Spanish  Court,  howevei*,  did  not  allow  him  to 
be  present  at  the  Infanta's  christening,  which  ceremony  he 
witnessed  from  a  window.  At  a  month  old  Isabel  was  already 
pronounced  a  beauty.  "She  is  very  handsome,''  wrote  Tour- 
quevaulx,  the  French  ambassador,  to  Catherine  de  Medicis,  on 
the  18th  of  September;  "having  a  fine  forehead,  and  a  nose 
rather  large,  like  that  of  her  father,  to  whose  mouth,  however, 
hers  bears  no  resemblance,  although  it  is  true  that  some  call  it 
rather  large  also."  * 

In  October,  1567,  another  Infanta  was  born,  who  received  the 
name  of  Catherine;  and  a  year  later  the  good  Queen  Isabel  de 
la  Paz,  as  the  Spaniards  called  her,  because  she  had  been  part  of 
the  price  of  the  Cateau  Cambresis  treaty,  died  in  prematurely 
giving  birth  to  a  third  daughter,  just  baptized  before  its  flicker 
of  life  expired.  Philip  did  not  long  mourn  Elizabeth  de  Valois. 
In  1570  he  married  Anne  of  Austria,  when  futile  attempts 
were  made  to  persuade  the  little  Isabel  that  the  new  queen 
was  her  real  mother ;  but  she  was  not  to  be  deceived,  for,  wrote 
Tourquevaulx,  "she  had  the  mind  and  judgment  of  a  girl  of 
fifteen."  The  child  was  in  tears  when  she  made  the  acquaintance 
of  her  new  stepmother,  but  Anne  kissed  both  her  and  Catherine 
affectionately,  and  treated  them  in  every  respect  like  her  own 
daughters,  until  her  death  in  1580.  The  only  complaint  made 
by  their  grandmother  in  France  on  the  subject  of  their  bringing 
up  was,  that  she  heard  they  did  not  have  enough  country 
air,  as  the  Queen  lived  like  a  nun,  and  seldom  went  out  of 
her  apartments. 

Philip  II.  had  behaved  with  unnatural  hardness  towards  his 
eldest  son ;  but  he  seemed  to  concentrate  a  double  portion  of 
affection  on  the  two  daughters  of  Elizabeth  de  Valois.     A  whole 


*  Letter  of   September  13,  1567,  in  the   Bibliotheque  Nationale  at 
Paris,    Quoted  by  M,  Gachard. 

T  2 


262  The  Archduchess  Isabel. 

series  of  letters,  written  by  him  to  Isabel  and  Catherine  during 
his  progress  through  Portugal  in  the  years  1581-82,  have  lately 
been  edited  and  published  by  the  indefatigable  M.  Gachard, 
and  must  needs  astonish  all  who  have  considered  the  acts  and 
history  of  the  sombre  monarch  of  the  Escorial.  Here  the  stern 
ruler,  the  hard  master,  the  unscrupulous  intriguer  appears  in  the 
light  of  a  loving  and  thoughtful  parent ;  he  is  fatherly,  kind, 
solicitous,  nay,  even  playful  and  humorous.  So  true  is  it  that 
no  character  is  consistent  throughout,  and  that  there  are  dark 
and  light  threads  in  the  woof  of  every  human  soul.  We  have 
greatly  studied  the  life  of  Philip  II.,  yet  we  may  honestly  say 
that  until  the  publication  of  these  letters  we  had  never 
thoroughly  "  known  him  at  home." 

At  the  time  when  he  wrote  them  the  Infantas  were  just 
emerging  from  childhood  into  youth ;  he  had  left  Spain  for  the 
purpose  of  taking  possession  of  the  kingdom  of  Portugal,  lately 
conquered  for  him  by  the  Duke  of  Alva,  and  he  was  there 
joined  by  his  widowed  sister,  the  Empress  Mary,  her  daughter 
Margaret,  and  her  son,  the  Archduke  Albert,  who  was  not  at 
that  time  supposed  to  be  the  destined  spouse  of  the  Infanta 
Isabel.  That  letters  of  Philip's  should  be  bright  and  entertain- 
ing no  one  would  believe  who  had  not  read  these  communications 
to  his  daughters.  Here  he  describes  his  own  dress  on  the  day 
when  he  received  the  oaths  of  fidelity,  and  when  they  made  him 
wear  brocade  and  cloth  of  gold ;  he  talks  often  and  familiarly 
of  certain  old  servants  who  accompanied  his  Court,  especially  of 
one  Madalena,  whose  exact  office  is  not  known,  but  whose 
humours  the  king  tolerated  to  a  degree  hardly  credible. 
"  Madalena  is  very  desirous  of  strawberries,  as  I  am  of  hearing 
the  song  of  nightingales,  though  it  is  true  that  I  hear  them  now 
and  then  from  one  of  my  windows,"  *  he  writes ;  and  a  little 
later,  "  It  seems  to  me  that  Madalena  is  no  longer  so  vexed  with 
me  as  she  was ;  but  she  has  been  ill  for  some  time,  and  in  a  very 
bad  humour  ....  she  is  in  a  sad  state;  feeble,  old,  deaf,  and 
half  silly.  I  think  all  this  is  the  consequence  of  drink,  and  that 
she  is  glad  for  that  reason  to  be  away  from  her  son-in-law.  I 
have  not  seen  her  to-day ;  I  imagine  that  her  ill-humour  will 
prevent  her  from  writing  to  you,"  &c.  Elsewhere  the  king 
speaks  of  a  gold  chain  and  some  bracelets  which  his  sister 
and  niece  had  given  to  Madalena  on  her  being  bled,  in  accord- 
ance with  an  old  German  custom.  He  also  mentions  other  old 
servants  with  benevolence;  but  what  will  chiefly  strike  the 
reader  is  the  interest  which  he  takes  in  the  progress  and  pur- 

*  Letter  II.  and  Letter  XIII. 


The  Arcliduchess  Isabel.  2G3 

suits,  not  only  of  Isabel  and  Catherine,  but  also  of  their  little 
brothers  and  sister,  the  children  of  Queen  Anne.  Her  ofFsprintj 
had  mostly  been  puny  and  sickly ;  her  eldest  son,  Fernando, 
had  already  died  in  1578,  and  Diego,  who  was  five  years  old  in 
1581,  was  then  heir  to  the  crown.  Philip  writes  to  his  daughters 
that  Diego  may  wear  a  short  frock,  "  though  it  is  not  to  walk 
in,  to  judge  by  the  slowness  of  all  the  children  to  walk;''  and 
speaks  of  a  tooth  which  had  just  been  cut  by  Prince  Philip, 
and  which  seems  to  have  been  the  first,  though  he  was  three 
years  old.  Singularly  enough,  Philip  cannot  remember  the  ages 
of  his  sons,  and  asks  the  Infantas  to  recall  them  to  him.  It  is 
pleasing  to  find  that  the  two  princesses  seem  to  have  acted  like 
a  pair  of  young  mothers  to  the  little  children,  looking  after  their 
wardrobes,  and  seeing  that  their  apartments  were  warm  in  winter 
and  cool  in  summer.  Philip  II.  took  with  his  usual  sang  froid 
the  death  of  Don  Diego  from  small-pox  in  1582,  thanking  God 
that  he  had  preserved  the  lives  of  Catherine,  Philip,  and  the 
little  Princess  Mary,  who  had  all  been  attacked  by  the  disease. 
Yet  the  smallest  details  respecting  his  children  seem  to  have 
been  full  of  interest  for  him.  He  tells  the  Infantas  not  to  be 
proud  because  they  are  taller  than  their  cousin  Margaret,  "  for 
it  is  that  she  is  little,  and  not  that  you  are  well-grown.^'  He 
bids  them  teach  Margaret  to  speak  Spanish;  he  finds  some  fault 
with  the  orthography  of  one  of  Isabel's  letters.  It  is  a  pity  that 
the  royal  sire  did  not  occupy  himself  more  with  this  matter,  for 
of  all  the  bad  handwritings  which  perplex  the  historians  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  that  of  Isabel  is  perhaps 
the  worst — large,  clumsy,  blotted,  and  too  thickly  sanded.  It 
cannot  be  said,  however,  that  Philip  himself  showed  his  children  • 
&  good  example  in  this  respect. 

He  describes  the  weather,  the  scenery,  the  churches,  and  pro- 
cessions, in  one  of  which  there  were  some  representations  of 
devils,  the  description  of  which  seems  to  have  frightened  the 
little  Infante  Don  Philip.  "  I  don't  think  he  would  have  been 
afraid  of  them,"  wrote  the  king,  "  for  they  were  good  devils  ; 
one  saw  them  a  long  way  off*,  and  they  were  more  like  great 
dolls  than  devils ;  certainly  they  were  harmless,  since  they  were 
not  real  ones."  He  sends  his  children  a  sweet  lime  in  a  box, 
desiring  to  know  exactly  what  it  is;  he  asks  them  what  flowers 
are  out  in  the  fields  and  gardens  around  Aranjuez;  he  is  evidently 
a  man  who  delights  in  details.  Unfortunately  he  burned  his 
daughters'  letters,  but  we  cannot  be  sufficiently  grateful  to  the 
Infantas  for  having  preserved  his  own. 

Soon  after  Philip's  return  from  Portugal  the  Infanta  Catherine 
was  married  to  Charles  Emmanuel,  Duke  of  Savoy,  the  position  of 


364  The  Archduchess  Isabel. 

whose  States  made  his  alliance  necessary  to  the  king.'^  Of  Isabel's 
marriage  there  had  already  been  much  talk,  though  the  talk 
had  come  to  nothing.  The  Empress  Mary  desired  her  hand  for 
her  eldest  son  Rodolph,  but  whether  the  young  Emperor 
demanded  a  dowry  which  Pbilip  was  unwilling  to  give,  or 
whether  Philip  was  really  reluctant  to  part  so  soon  with  the 
best  beloved  of  all  his  children,  the  project  was  never  carried  out, 
althou":h  he  had  ffiven  his  formal  consent  to  the  match  when 
with  his  sister  in  Portugal.  All  accounts  agree  m  representing 
Isabel  as  handsome  and  charming,  with  very  pleasing  manners, 
although,  says  an  ambassador,  she  lived  a  retired  life  "  like  a 
religious."  Her  portrait  by  Rubens,  now  in  the  Musee  Royal  at 
Brussels,  is  a  heau  ideal  of  gracious  dignity.  Tall  and  power- 
fully built,  brown  and  rosy,  she  bore,  in  person  as  in  character, 
far  more  resemblance  to  Elizabeth,  her  mother,  than  to  Philip, 
her  sire.  She  had  neither  the  white  Hapsburg  complexion  nor 
the  blue  Hapsburg  eye.  She  was  broad,  bonnie,  buxom ;  her 
hazel  eyes  shone  with  benevolence  and  her  mouth  was  expressive 
of  candour  and  mercy.  For  man}'^  years  this  fair  princess  was 
destined  to  no  more  stirring  life  than  that  of  her  father's 
secretary.  She  was  the  only  person  to  whom  the  old  king 
would  speak  freely.  Seated  in  his  grim,  hermit-like  cell,  like  a 
garden  flower  planted  in  a  sunless  nook,  she  brightened  the  last 
years  of  his  life,  listening  to  his  explanations  of  political  events, 
overlooking  innumerable  papers,  and  scrawling  notes  in  her  bad 
hand.  Thus  the  flower  of  her  youth  passed,  till  at  last,  says  a 
Venetian  ambassador,  she  declared,  laughing,  that  it  would  be 
better  to  forget  her  birthdays  than  to  fete  them.  But  it  was 
her  father's  ambition  rather  than  his  selfishness  which  retained 
her  thus  at  home  unwed.  All  this  time  he  was  plotting  to  seat 
her  on  the  throne  of  France  as  Queen  Regnant  over  that 
unchivalrous  nation  which  invented  the  Salic  Law.  After  the 
death  of  Henry  III.  he  flattered  himself  that  this  law  might  be 
ignored,  at  least  by  the  Catholics,  in  favour  of  the  heiress  of 
Henry  II.'s  eldest  daughter.  This  was  the  cause  of  his  spending 
enormous  sums  on  the  League  which  should  have  been  spent  on 
Flanders,  and  of  his  driving  Farnese  to  fight  in  France  when 
his  armies  and  his  genius  were  urgently  required  in  the  Provinces, 
On  the  assembly  of  the  States-General,  Philip  sent  them  a 
splendid  embassy,  with  a  demand  that  Isabel  should  be  either 
declared  or  elected  Queen  of  France ;  and  on  this  proposal  being 

*  Like  Isabel,  Catherine  was  fondly  attached  to  the  husband  chosen 
for  her  by  her  father.  Indeed,  her  death  was  proximately  caused  by  her 
anxiety  for  the  Duke  when  ill  during  a  campaign.  She  died  in  1597^ 
leaving  five  sons  and  four  daughters. 


Tlie  Archduchess  Isabel.  265 

rejected  the  ambassadors  requested  that  the  choice  of  a  king^,  to 
be  also  the  husband  of  the  Infanta,  should  be  left  to  Philip. 
Nay,  they  even  tried  to  procure  the  election  of  one  of  the  arch- 
dukes. The  French  Catholics,  however,  were  not  more  willing 
than  the  Huguenots  to  give  their  country  to  Spain,  and  they 
gladly  accepted  as  real  the  conversion  by  which  the  freethinking 
Henri  de  Bourbon  purchased  the  throne,  on  July  25,  1593, 
thereby  cutting  off  for  ever  the  chances  of  all  Hapsburgs 
and  Guises. 

Thus,  after  spending  millions,  and  risking  the  safety  of 
Flanders,  to  establish  his  favourite  daughter  at  Les  Tournelles 
and  the  Tuileries,  Philip  was  still  in  the  enjoyment  of  her  society 
at  the  Escorial.  Now  that  there  was  no  longer  a  great  destiny 
before  her,  he  was  glad  to  retain  near  his  person  the  prop  and 
consolation  of  his  otherwise  loveless  old  age ;  although  it  has 
been  said  that  even  Isabel  did  not  entirely  escape  the  ineradicable 
suspiciousness  of  his  nature,  and  that  he  was  jealous  if  he  saw 
her  conversing  apart  with  her  brother,  the  Prince  of  Asturias. 

But  Philip  felt  his  end  approaching,  and  was  unwilling  to 
leave  his  daughter  without  an  establishment  in  life.  He  had 
thought  of  marrying  her  to  the  Archduke  Ernest,  but  Ernest 
had  already  preceded  him  to  the  tomb.  He  therefore  fixed  on 
Ernest's  younger  brother,  Albert,  who  had  creditably  governed 
Portugal,  and  was  now  engaged  in  the  more  arduous  task  of 
ruling  the  Low  Countries.  Philip  took  the  great  resolution  of 
conferring  these  provinces  on  his  daughter  and  nephew  as  an 
independent  sovereignty,  which,  however,  was  to  lapse  again  to 
Spain  on  the  death  of  Albert,  should  the  marriage  be  without 
issue.  The  act  of  donation,  and  Prince  Philip's  deed  of  renun- 
ciation, were  signed  at  Madrid  on  May  6,  1598. 

Albert  was  a  bishop  and  a  cardinal,  but  the  Pope  dispensed 
him  from  his  vows  in  consideration  of  the  good  reasons  which 
existed  for  the  marriage,  and  on  July  13  he  solemnly  laid 
his  cardinal's  hat  and  robes  on  the  altar  of  Notre  Dame  de 
Hal.  On  the  26th  he  convoked  the  States-General,  who  had 
never  been  legally  assembled  since  the  abdication  of  Charles  V. 
in  1554.  The  Belgians,  having  failed,  chiefly  through  their 
own  folly  and  disunion,  to  emancipate  themselves  from  the 
power  of  Spain,  were  thankful  to  accept  a  quasi-independence  at 
the  hands  of  Philip.  Jean  Richardot,  who  had  been  first 
discovered  and  placed  in  office  by  Don  John  of  Austria,  and  who 
had  now  risen  to  be  President  of  the  Council,  pronounced  a 
fulsome  panegyric  of  the  Hapsburg  family  in  general,  and  of 
Isabel  and  Albert  in  particular,  and  the  archduke,  having 
received  the  oaths  of  fealty,  set  out  for  Germany  to  see  his 
brother,  the  Emperor,  and  to  escort  to  Spain  the  Archduchess 


266  The  Archduchess  Isabel. 

Margaret,  ■who  was  to  marry  the  Prince  of  Asturias.  On  their 
journey  they  learned  the  death  of  Philip  IL,  but  this  made  no 
difference  to  Albert,  to  whom  the  greatness  of  this  world  was 
already  secured. 

Seldom  was  a  man  so  fortunate  who  had  so  little  courted 
fortune.  The  archduke  had  pursued  an  even  course  all  his  life, 
accepting  such  good  things  as  came  in  his  way,  but  making  no 
efforts  after  honour  and  glory,  as  his  brother  Mathias  had  done, 
with  very  ludicrous  results.  An  honest  and  conscientious  per- 
sonage was  Albert,  and  if  no  extraordinary  mental  gifts  marked 
out  his  path  to  greatness,  his  probity  at  least  merited  it  well. 
An  independent  sovereignty  was  now  to  be  his,  and  the  fairest 
of  living  princesses,  the  flower  of  European  royalty,  was  assigned 
to  him  as  his  partner  for  life. 

The  affection,  however,  with  which  Isabel  regarded  the 
husband  chosen  for  her  by  her  father,  denotes  a  singular  mixture 
of  warmheartedness  with  philosophical  coolness  in  her  character. 
She  had,  of  course,  ^een  a  good  deal  of  Albert,  who  had  resided 
much  at  the  Spanish  Court;  and  just  and  amiable  though  he 
was,  there  was  not  much  in  him,  beyond  these  qualities,  to 
inspire  love  in  a  woman's  heart.  He  was  small  and  stiff,  with 
an  exaggerated  Hapsburg  physiognomy,  and  no  originality  of 
mind.  Whether  in  the  beginning  she  was  really  attached  to 
him,  or  whether  she  only  accepted  him  out  of  habitual  obedience 
to  her  father,  it  is  certain  that  she  took  Albert  with  a  good 
grace,  and  was  his  dutiful  and  loving  wife  to  the  end. 

Their  wedding  was  grand  rather  by  proxy  than  in  reality. 
At  Ferrara  Pope  Clement  VIII.,  attended  by  a  train  of  seventeen 
cardinals,  met  the  royal  party,  and  on  November  15, 
1598,  after  Pontifical  High  Mass,  he  married  the  Archduchess 
Margaret  to  Philip  III.  as  represented  by  Albert,  and  Albert  to 
Isabel  as  represented  by  the  Duke  of  Sessa.  The  new  queen 
and  her  mother  had  seats  and  canopies  of  cloth  of  gold  and 
silver,  Albert  one  of  damask  and  satin.  They  communicated 
after  the  Mass,  and  the  Pope  bestowed  on  Margaret  the  Golden 
Rose. 

The  value  of  time  had  never  yet  been  learnt  by  the  Hapsburg 
family,  in  spite  of  many  sharp  lessons,  and  the  august  party 
made  a  long  stay  at  Milan ;  a  delay  very  irksome  to  the  States, 
who  were  longing  to  know  what  independence  would  be  like. 
It  was  not  till  the  end  of  February  that  Albert  and  Margaret 
reached  the  coast  of  Spain.  Their  entrance  into  Valencia  was 
magnificent  and  tedious  in  the  extreme.  Philip  and  Isabel 
looked  on  from  a  window  in  the  Plaza  d'Assen ;  and  as  the 
entrance  lasted  four  hours,  it  is  difficult  to  surmise  whether  the 
patience  of  the  actors  or  of  the  spectators  was  the  more  sorely 


The  Arcliduchess  Isabel.  267 

tried.  Preceded  by  a  train  of  splendidly  mounted  nobles, 
Margaret  rode  alone  on  a  white  palfrey,  under  her  gilded 
canopy ;  her  mother,  the  Archduchess  Mary  Anne,  and  Albert 
following  immediately  after.  Next  came  the  queen's  ladies 
on  hackneys,  attended  each  by  a  cavalier,  according  to  the 
Spanish  custom.  When  the  procession  reached  the  Cathedral, 
the  King  and  Infanta  descended  from  their  position  and  bestowed 
a  warm  greeting  on  their  spoiases.  The  marriages  were  com- 
pleted the  same  day. 

On  the  evening  of  June  7  Isabel  bade  an  eternal 
farewell  to  her  native  land.  The  king  and  queen  accompanied 
"  the  Archdukes,"  as  the  Infanta  and  her  husband  were  hence- 
forth generally  called,  and  the  Archduchess  Mary  Anne,  on 
board  their  galley.  Philip  loved  his  sister  with  a  great  affection, 
and  would  only  take  leave  of  her  at '  midnight  when  the  galley 
was  just  about  to  set  sail.  Through  the  luminous  gloom  of  the 
summer  night  the  daughter  of  Philip  II.  caught  her  last 
glimpse  of  the  arid  coasts  of  Spain.  It  is  not  recorded  that  she 
expressed  much  regret.  There  was  nothing  sentimental  about 
Isabel,  who  was  wont  to  take  things  as  they  came,  and  who  was 
not  unwilling  to  assume  a  recognized  and  important  position  in 
the  world.  Her  work,  albeit  a  difficult  one,  was  now  cut  out 
for  her,  and  she  entered  with  contentment  on  this  new  phase 
of  her  hitherto  uneventful  life. 

It  was  on  September  5  that  the  archdukes  made  their  "joyous 
entry  "  into  Brussels.  The  weather  was  rainy,  but  failed  to  damp 
the  ardour  of  the  people  at  welcoming  once  more  to  their  capital 
Dukes  of  Brabant  who  were  all  their  own.  The  entry  was  not 
more  gorgeous  than  many  another  which  had  taken  place  in  their 
days  of  servitude,  but  there  was  a  novelty  in  the  occasion  which 
excited  fresh  enthusiasm.  Three  miles  from  Brussels,  the  Infanta 
and  her  husband  were  met  by  the  magistrates  of  the  city,  the 
guilds,  and  the  three  Estates  of  Brabant.  '  The  nobles  wore 
Tobes  of  red  velvet,  the  bourgeois  the  same  colours  in  silk  and 
•cloth;  the  guildsmen  were  attired  in  white  and  blue.  Escorted 
by  this  brilliant  multitude,  and  mounted  on  richly  caparisoned 
horses,  the  archdukes  entered  the  city  at  four  in  the  afternoon, 
passing  under  a  triumphal  arch  with  pictures  of  the  fifteen 
provinces  hung  on  one  branch,  by  which  figure  their  donation  to 
the  archdukes  was  rather  obscurely  represented.  A  magnificent 
canopy  was  held  over  the  sovereigns,  who  dismounted  at  St. 
Gudule,  and  paid  their  devotions  there.  They  then  made  that 
devious  progress  through  the  city  requisite  for  a  properly  ordered 
-Joyeuse  Entree,  passing  through  several  more  triumphal  arches, 
and  between  a  series  of  scaffoldings,  on  each  of  which  a  maiden 
was  posted  to  represent  a  province.     Eager  crowds  looked  on 


268  The  Archduchess  Isabel. 

with  shouts  of  joy  while  the  Dukes  of  Brabant  crossed  that 
Grande  Place  where  so  large  a  portion  of  the  history  of  the  last 
forty  years  had  been  enacted ;  where  Egmont  and  Horn  had  shed 
their  blood  for  their  country;  where  the  mob  had  forced  the 
trembling  States  to  depose  a  viceroy  appointed  by  the  sovereign, 
and  to  throw  themselves  into  the  arms  of  the  Dutch  insurgents ; 
where  the  son  of  the  martyred  Egmont  had  collected  his  troops 
with  the  express  purpose  of  delivering  up  the  city  again  into  the 
power  of  Spain ;  and  where,  since  that  time,  three  more  royal 
governors  had  passed  on  their  triumphal  entry  into  the  subjugated 
town.  Now  the  land  had  its  will,  and  its  independent  sovereigns 
were  taking  possession  of  its  capital.  That  the  people  set  up 
their  shows  and  roared  for  joy  proved  nothing.  As  we  have  said, 
they  had  done  as  much  and  more  in  honour  of  every  one,  of  what- 
ever politics  or  nationality,  who  hnd  come  to  rule  them  since  the 
time  of  Requesens.  The  flowers  had  been  more  abundant  on  the 
day  when  Don  John  of  Austria  commenced  his  brief  reign ;  the 
allegories  more  intricate  at  the  entrance  of  the  puppet  Mathias. 
But  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  there  was  now  a  joy  founded  on 
reasonable  self-congratulation,  and  far  exceeding  the  ephemeral 
delight  consequent  on  sight-seeing,  and  bell-ringing,  and  unlimited 
largesse  of  confectionery.  Belgium  was  now  independent  of 
Spain ;  such  was  the  thought,  the  idea  rather,  that  filled  with  joy 
the  heart  of  everyone  who  retained  a  spark  of  patriotism.  Though 
Isabel  had  the  misfortune  of  being  the  daughter  of  Philip  II., 
yet  she  was  in  truth  also  the  descendant  of  the  ancient  Dukes  of 
Brabant  and  Counts  of  Flanders  ;  and  her  full-blown  smiling  face 
had  little  in  common  with  her  father's  pale  and  sombre  counten- 
ance. Her  husband  bore  far  more  resemblance  than  herself  to 
Philip,  but  Albert^s  physiognomy  was  forgiven  him  for  the  sake 
of  his  being  a  German  by  birth,  and  the  brother  of  the  Archduke 
Ernest,  who  had  been  beloved  at  Brussels.  Thus  there  was 
nothing  to  diminish  the  heartiness  with  which  the  thronging 
people  cried,  "  Vivent  les  Dues  de  Brabant !  "  At  Sainte  Gudule 
the  archdukes  took  the  oaths  formerly  administered  to  the 
independent  dukes,  on  the  gorgeous  missal  used  by  their  pre- 
decessors, and  which  now  may  be  seen  at  the  Bibliotheque  Royale 
at  Brussels,  bearing  a  singular  mark  of  the  use  made  of  it  at 
their  coronation.  They  swore  on  a  resplendent  page  where  the 
crucifixion  was  represented  in  gold  on  a  rich  red  ground ;  but  the 
September  day  was  hot,  their  robes  were  heavy,  and  their  fingers 
lifted  off  the  red  paint  in  ten  distinct  places,  of  which  fact  ocular 
evidence  may  be  had  to  this  day. 

The  new  sovereigns  began  to  rule  a  ruined  country,  with  two 
wars  on  hand  and  an  exhausted  exchequer;  but  Isabel,  and  in  a 
lesser  measure  Albert,  had  a  large  fund  of  common  sense,  and 


The  Archduchess  Isabel.  269^ 

their  start  was  a  good  one  so  far  as  unfavourable  circumstances, 
and  the  incubus  of  Spain,  permitted.  Their  first  act  was  to 
reassemble  the  States- General.  They  also  entered  bravely  on  the 
war  with  Holland.  On  horseback,  beneath  the  walls  of  Ghent, 
Isabel  harangued  the  soldiers  whom  her  consort  was  about  to  lead 
to  battle  against  Maurice  of  Nassau ;  and  although  Albert  suffered 
defeat  at  Nieuport,  the  subsequent  advent  of  Spinola,  with  plenty 
of  money  and  brains,  enabled  the  archdukes,  as  we  have  seen 
elsewhere,  presently  to  bring  the  two  years'  siege  of  Ostend  to  a 
triumphant  conclusion  in  1603. 

The  country  which  the  archdukes  had  come  to  rule  was  indeed 
in  a  terrible  state.  Provisions  were  dearer  in  Flanders  than  in 
any  other  part  of  Europe.  English  cruisers  intercepted  the 
Flemish  traders,  and  Dutch  sea-dogs  awaited  them  close  to  their 
•own  ports.  The  fields  were  unsown,  the  churches  were  half  in 
ruins,  the  woods  were  full  of  wolves ;  that  which  had  been  the 
richest  and  most  prosperous  land  in  Europe  was  now  the  most 
famine-stricken  and  forlorn.  The  people  looked  for  relief  to  their 
new  rulers,  nor  looked  in  vain. 

Isabel's  common  sense  made  it  very  clear  to  her  that  peace 
with  the  neighbouring  nations  was  highly  desirable  for  the 
obedient  Netherlands.  A  country  exhausted  by  thirty-five  years 
of  internecine  war  was  not  in  a  condition  to  be  further  crippled 
by  the  depredations  of  external  enemies ;  and  if  the  war  with 
the  Dutch  was  to  be  carried  on  at  all,  the  provinces  certainly 
could  not  afford  to  waste  their  strength  on  quarrels  with  foreign 
nations.  They  had  Spain  to  back  them  up,  it  is  true,  but  none 
knew  better  than  Isabel  the  state  of  the  Spanish  exchequer,  and 
that  her  brother's  influence  was  an  incubus  rather  than  an  aid. 
Each  enemy,  too,  meant  another  friend  for  the  Dutch  ;  whereas, 
if  she  could  contrive  to  isolate  the  belligerent  States,  and  turn 
every  man's  hand  against  them,  there  might  be  some  hope  of  the 
war  coming  to  an  end  one  way  or  another. 

Peace  with  England  seemed  to  her,  and  seemed  rightly,  the 
grand  desideratum,  so  far  as  external  policy  was  concerned. 
Some  attempt  in  this  direction  had  been  made  by  Cardinal 
Andrew,  of  Austria,  after  the  death  of  Philip  II.,  but  nothing, 
was  effected  until  the  accession  of  the  archdukes.  Elizabeth,  of 
course,  knew  perfectly  well  that  Spanish  influence  still  dominated 
the  Netherlands,  notwithstanding  their  so-called  independence  ; 
but  she,  too,  was  weary  of  that  desultory  and  informal  war,  and 
of  the  encouragement  given  by  Spain  to  the  belligerent  Irish ; 
for  the  Irish  war  was  the  curse  of  her  old  age,  and  Spain  kept  it 
alive.  The  archdukes  wisely  refused  to  enter  into  any  pourparlers 
until  the  negotiation  was  actually  on  foot,  and  Richardot  and 
Verreycken  met  the  English  envoys,  Beale  and  Edmondes,  at 


270  TJie  Archduchess  Isabel. 

Boulogne,  on  May  18,  1600.  They  were  joined  by  Balthasar 
de  Zuniga  on  the  part  of  Spain,  and  it  is  not  surprising  to 
learn  that  the  negotiations  were  nearly  broken  off  on  a  ques- 
tion of  precedence,  which  seemed  to  the  archducal  envoys  of  so 
much  importance  that  they  would  not  go  on  with  the  treaty 
until  they  had  referred  the  point  to  the  Courts  of  Spain  and 
Brussels."^  The  archdukes  proposed  the  sensible  expedient  of 
the  Spanish  and  English  ambassadors  entering  the  council-room 
together,  and  sitting  on  chairs  of  equal  splendour ;  but  to  this 
Spain  would  not  agree,  and  in  the  meanwhile  Albert's  position 
was  much  damaged  by  the  battle  of  Nieuport.  The  upshot 
was  that  no  progress  was  made  during  the  lifetime  of  Elizabeth. 
The  accession  of  James  I.,  the  commencement  of 

"  The  peaceful  times  of  good  Queen  Jamie," 

was  the  opportunity  of  all  such  as  desired  to  disarm  England  of 
her  thunderbolts. 

Softness  and  effeminacy  seemed  to  usher  in  the  new  century. 
The  great,  wicked,  gifted,  lion-hearted,  masterful  queen,  and  the 
dread  hidden  king,  with  his  vast  designs  and  strange  occult 
power,  who  had  so  long  been  her  antagonist  in  the  world's  arena, 
were  alike  in  their  graves,  and  their  places  were  filled  by  mere 
travesties  of  royalty.  James  I.  had  all  the  weakness  of  Philip  III. 
without  his  goodness.  When  he  shambled  to  his  new  throne, 
with  all  his  greedy  train  behind  him,  men  felt  that  the  heroic 
age  was  past. 

The  Infanta  Isabel  told  her  husband  that  now  was  the  time  to 
bring  some  good  out  of  the  negotiations  with  Edmondes.  The 
position  of  the  archdukes  had  indeed  suffered  through  their  defeat 
at  Nieuport  by  Maurice  of  Nassau,  but  had  been  more  than  re- 
gained by  the  taking  of  Ostend.  Immediately,  therefore,  ontlie 
accession  of  James,  the  archdukes  sent  the  Prince-Count  of 
Arenberg  to  congratulate  him,  and  to  sound  his  feelings  about 
tlie  peace.  James  replied  that,  as  King  of  Scotland,  he  had 
always  been  at  peace  with  Spain  and  Flanders  ;  but  that  he 
could  make  no  treaty  with  the  archdukes  unless  it  included 
Spain.  Thus  foreign  powers,  as  well  as  private  agreement,  per- 
sisted in  tying  the  weight  of  Spain  round  the  neck  of  the  arch- 
dukes. In  the  meantime  the  States  and  the  King  of  France 
had  each  sent  an  embassy  to  James,  who,  however,  was  rude 
enough  to  the  envoys  of  the  Dutch,  no  one  being   a  greater 

*  "  Nous  avons  este  en  paine  ....  s^achans  la  vanite  de  ceste  nation 
[the  English]  et  la  raison  que  noua  avohs  a  n'escouter.  ....  lis  crayn- 
droyent  d'estre  aygrement  reprins  par  leur  maitresse  "  [Elizabeth,  if  they 
should  abate  their  dignity  on  such  a  point].  Eichardot  and  Yerreycken 
to  Albeit,  June  7,  1600.     (MS.  in  Brussels  Archives.) 


The  Archduchess  Isabel.  271 

stickler  than  he  for  the  royal  prerogative.  Moreover,  he  was 
pleased  by  the  politic  action  of  the  archdukes,  who  released  all 
their  English  prisoners  as  the  subjects  of  a  friendly  prince. 
Rosni,  however,  the  clever  and  unscrupulous  agent  of  Henry  IV., 
nearly  defeated  their  projects.  He  and  Arenberg  vied  with  each 
other  in  bribing  the  whole  Court.  Rosni  carried  the  day,  spent 
60,000  crowns,  and  persuaded  James  to  sign  a  secret  treaty  with 
France,  binding  himself  to  aid  the  States  clandestinely ;  and 
this  in  defiance  of  Secretary  Cecil  himself.  But  E-osni  knexv 
not  the  Punic  faith  and  changeable  nature  of  the  king,  who  was 
again  treating  with  Arenberg,  and  his  coadjutors,  Grobbendonck 
and  Richardot,  so  soon  as  the  fascinating  French  envoy  turned  his 
back.  That  Philip  III.  would  marry  one  of  his  daughters  to  a 
son  of  his  own  was  the  hope  of  James ;  and  if  Cecil  wished  to 
play  false  to  the  Dutch  it  was  in  order  that  the  young  Infanta 
might  have  Holland,  Zealand,  and  Utrecht  for  her  dowry.  On 
no  other  condition  would  he  let  Spain  regain  them,  although  he 
would  not  have  objected  to  restore  them  to  the  archdukes,  if 
those  princes  had  had  children,  of  which  there  seemed  no  likeli- 
hood.* 

Isabel,  however,  thought  that  by  cleverly  managing  James,  an 
advantageous  peace  might  be  concluded  with  the  rebels.  Philip 
III.,  too,  was  desirous  of  an  accord  with  England,  and  sent  Don 
Fernando  de  Velasco,  Constable  of  Castile,  to  London,  he  having 
passed  through  Brussels  on  his  way.  It  was  on  this  occasion,  as 
is  well  known,  that  Catesby  and  Winter  sounded  the  Spanish 
ambassador  as  to  the  measure  of  help  which  might  be  expected 
of  Spain,  and  finding  him  cold  in  the  cause  of  the  English 
Catholics,  resolved  to  carry  out  their  desperate  plot.  The  ques- 
tion of  the  English  Catholics  was  another  matter  in  which  Spain 
hampered  the  action  of  the  archdukes.  Isabel  would  have  tried 
to  stipulate  for  the  free  exercise  of  the  Catholic  religion  in  Eng- 
land, but  she  only  obtained  that  boon  for  such  as  had  been  born 
her  subjects ;  t  for  the  Duke  of  Lerma,  who  governed  Spain,  had 

•  "  Si  Dieu  eut  donne  a  nos  princes  des  enfans,  une  grande  partie,  voire 
toute  la  diffidence,  eut  cesse,  et  fust  este  aise  de  les  persuader  a  s'y 
emploier."  Grobbendonck  to  the  Archduke,  November  8,  1604.  (MS.  in 
Brussels  Archives.) — The  Infanta  made  many  pilgrimages  to  Hal,  eatreatr 
ing  that  she  might  have  issue,  but  her  prayer  was  never  granted. 

f  How  this  stipulation  was  carried  out  is  shown  by  a  letter  from 
the  Mayor  and  Justices  of  Haverfordwest,  in  Pembrokeshire,  to  the 
Council,  January  11, 1621 : — "  Anna  Hayward  ....  refuses  to  come  to 
church,  and  pleads  exemption  from  the  oath  of  allegiance  as  born  in  the 
country  of  the  Archdukes,  whose  subjects  are  by  treaty  to  have  toleration 
in  religion.  James  Perrot  requests,  on  behalf  of  the  town,  that  if  A. 
Hayward's  plea  be  allowed,  she  may  be  ordered  to  quit  the  town,  where 
no  recusant  has  been  known  since  the  Reformation,  as  her  residence  would 
encourage  Jesuits  and  seminaries  to  come." — Domestic  State  Papers. 


272  The  Archduchess  Isabel. 

no  heroic  views,  and  valued  the  material  benefits  of  a  comfortable 
peace  with  England  higher  than  the  glory  of  relieving  his 
oppressed  co-religionists."^  Moreover,  throughout  the  peace  dis- 
cussions, the  Belgian  envoys  were  indignant  at  finding  the 
interests  of  their  country  entirely  thrust  into  the  background  by 
their  Spanish  coadjutors,  who  alone  were  regarded  as  of  much 
importance  at  the  English  Court.  Arenberg  and  his  colleagues 
insisted  chiefly  on  the  restitution  to  the  archdukes  of  the  cau- 
tionary towns  in  Holland  which  the  Dutch  had  entrusted  to 
Queen  Elizabeth ;  the  Constable,  on  the  contrary,  was  hottest  on 
the  curious  question  of  the  Indian  trade. 

During  the  war  the  English  sea-.rovers,  half  traders,  half 
privateers,  had  boldly  invaded  the  invented  monopoly  which  the 
Spanish  monarchs  imagined  themselves  to  possess  in  the  East  and 
West  Indies.  So  jealously  reserved  to  Spain  was  this  commerce, 
that  even  the  archdukes  were  excluded  from  it  by  the  act  which 
ceded  the  Low  Countries.  No  gleam  of  political  economy  had 
ever  penetrated  the  land  of  the  Cid.  This  science  was  discovered 
in  the  North,  and  the  North  cultivated  it  the  more  readily 
because  it  opened  up  fields  which  were  supposed  to  be  in  the 
clutches  of  the  Southern  maritime  powers.  To  keep  out  the 
daring  invaders  by  treaty  was  the  vain  hope  of  Velasco,  who 
<jared  but  little  for  the  towns,  which  were  the  first  thought  of  the 
archdukes.  Richardot,  however,  advised  his  masters,  unsupported 
as  they  were  by  Spain,  to  yield.  "  These  towns  would  be  no  use 
to  us  while  the  war  lasts,"  he  wrote,  ''  since  we  could  not  maintain 
them.  .  .  .  Also  it  would  be  more  conformable  to  the  clignity  of 
the  archdukes  that  the  English,  and  not  the  Dutch,  should  possess 
them,  and  more  profitable  also,  since  the  King  of  England  would 
be  able  by  these  means  to  bridle  the  States."  James  said  with 
truth  that  he  could  not  restore  the  towns  without  loss  of  honour,t 
and  what  was  worse  in  his  eyes,  loss  of  money ;  and  the  arch- 
dukes finally  directed  their  envoys  to  yield  the  point,  making 
the  best  terms  they  could. 

The  upshot  was  that  the  towns  were  left  to  James  to  do  what 
he  liked  with  them,  and  the  Indian  trade  abandoned  into  his 
hands,  and  that  the  English  Catholics  gained  nothing  by  the 
peace.  Such  fruits  did  James  reap  from  the  strength  of  his  pre- 
decessor, and  Philip  and  Isabel  from  the  weakness  of  theirs. 

This  lame  peace  was  signed  with  one  of  the  most  fantastic 
ceremonies  ever  devised  to  suit  two  religions  at  once.  We  cannot 
refrain  from  giving  some  account  of  it,  as  rendered  by  one  of 


*  Afro^pos  of  James's  honour,  Caron,  the  Dutch  agent,  was  at  that  very 
time  levying  troops  in  England  for  the  service  of  the  rebel  States, 
t  Eichardot  to  Albert.    (MS.  in  Brussels  Archives.) 


The  Archduchess  Isabel.  273 

Isabel's  envoys.  James  was  determined  that  all  the  world 
should  know  and  admire  when  the  war  of  thirty  years  came 
to  an  end.  On  the  morning  of  Sunday,  August  29,  the 
Spanish  and  Belgian  ambassadors,*  dressed  in  a  blaze  of  jewels 
and  embroidery,  were  conducted  by  several  noblemen  to  White- 
hall, through  streets  crowded  with  sightseers.  The  peace  was 
not  popular  in  London,  but  the  delight  of  the  citizens  in  a 
pageant  carried  the  day.  James  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  met 
the  envoys  in  a  saloon,  and  conducted  them  to  the  chapel,  where 
pews  with  brocaded  curtains  were  provided  for  the  Spaniards,  and 
tabourets  for  the  representatives  of  the  archdukes.  No  eccle- 
siastical personage  of  any  description  took  part  in  the  ceremony 
which  followed,  but  five  choirs  sang  in  exquisite  harmony  certain 
motetts  and  verses  in  English,  which  had  first  been  heard  at  the 
wedding  of  Philip  II.  and  Mary  Tudor.  Other  chants  in  praise 
of  peace  followed,  and  then  the  treaty  was  signed.  In  front  of 
the  king's  seat  was  a  table,  on  which  stood  two  gold  plates,  two 
chalices,  and  two  Bibles  of  St.  Jerome's  edition,  printed  by 
Plautino,  according  to  an  agreement  which  had  been  made  for 
the  satisfaction  of  both  parties.  The  king  moved  to  the  table, 
followed  by  the  envoys ;  the  treaty  was  kissed  and  sworn  to  by 
every  one  in  turn,  and  then  James  returned  to  his  place  holding 
the  hands  of  Velasco  and  of  Richardot,  while  '^the  people  without," 
hired  apparently  for  the  occasion,  shouted  "  Peace,  peace,  peace, 
God  save  the  king."  A  banquet  and  ball  followed,  at  which  the 
foreigners  were  much  struck  by  the  splendour  of  the  plate,  and 
the  beauty  of  the  English  ladies. 

In  1605  the  Gunpowder  Plot  threatened  seriously  to  trouble 
the  newly  made  peace,  as  James  insisted  that  Spain  and  the  arch- 
dukes had  cognizance  of  the  affair,  and  demanded  the  extradition 
of  Owen,  Baldwin,  and  Persons,  who  had  fled  to  Flanders.  He 
said  with  great  asperity  that  he  had  believed  the  archdukes  to  be 
absolute  sovereigns,  but  now  saw  that  they  were  only  lieutenants 
of  the  King  of  Spain.  Albert  and  Isabel,  however,  showed 
a  good  deal  of  spirit  in  the  affair,  and  indignantly  disclaimed 
any  complicity  in  the  plot  on  the  part  either  of  the  Pope  or  of 
themselves.  "The  Pope  abominates  the  conspiracy,"  they  wrote 
to  their  envoy  Grobbendonck,  "and  has  admonished  the  English 
Catholics  never  to  be  mixed  up  in  such  affairs."f     As  to  the  Jesuit 

*  Arenberg  excepted,  who  was  suffering  from  a  bad  attack  of  the  gout, 
perhaps  brought  on  by  his  envy  of  the  pre-eminence  and  brocaded  pews 
of  the  Spanish  ambassadors. 

t  "  II  a  escript  au  Nonce  d'advertir  aux  anglois  catholiques  d'icy  qu'il 
desire  qu'eux  les  catholiques  d'Angleterre  se  comportent  modestement  et 
paisiblement  sous  I'obeissauce  de  ce  Roy."  March  25,  1606.  (Brussels 
Archives,  MS.) 


274  The  ArchducJiess  Isabel. 

Fathers,  they  had  not  been  convicted  of  any  crime,  and  nothing 
more  could  be  done  than  to  request  their  Provincial  to  keep  his  eye 
on  them  until  the  case  had  been  investigated.  With  respect  to 
Owen,  the  archdukes  wrote  "  that  an  English  Catholic  gentle- 
man, who  had  well  served  the  late  king  in  his  army,  and  had 
lived  long  in  Flanders  without  reproach,  was  not  to  be  believed 
guilty  of  such  a  plot,  and  must  have  fled  only  because  he  was 
accused."* 

Nothing  would  induce  Albert  and  Isabel  to  deliver  innocent 
men  up  to  the  torturers  of  the  Tower  and  the  Star  Chamber. 
They  pursued  the  same  course  when,  two  years  later,  the  Earls 
of  Tyrone  and  Tyrconnel  fled  into  their  dominions  to  escape  the 
consequences  of  the  plot  fathered  on  them  by  the  designing 
Government  of  James;  although  the  mean  policy  of  Spain  finally 
obliged  the  archdukes  to  send  their  guests  into  the  States  of 
the  Church.  IsabeFs  kindly  and  noble  nature  made  her  the 
refuge  of  the  oppressed  and  persecuted  of  all  nations.  To  her 
Court,  later  on,  fled  the  Princess  of  Conde,  to  escape  the  wicked 
designs  of  Henry  IV. ;  and  the  poor  princess  never  ceased  to 
extol  the  magnanimous  hospitality  of  the  Infanta,  whom  she 
declared  to  have  inherited  all  the  virtues  of  Elizabeth  de  Valois. 

But  it  is  the  home  government  of  Isabel  and  Albert  which  is 
their  chief  glory.  In  this  matter  they  receive  scant  justice  from 
the  Liberal  historians  of  their  country,  and  overflowing  measure 
from  the  Catholic  ones ;  but  the  true  criterion  is  the  memory 
which  they  left  behind  them,  and  which  still  covers  them  with 
honour  among  the  mass  of  their  compatriots.  To  give  repose  to 
the  land  so  long  impoverished  by  war,  the  archdukes  concluded 
that  twelve  years'  truce  with  Holland  of  which  we  treated  in  a 
former  number.  Their  next  step  was  to  reorganize  the  law  and 
the  executive,  which  task  they  accomplished  in  1611,  by  framing 
the  code  known  as  "the  perpetual  edict."  The  arts  revived 
beneath  their  reign  in  the  long  desolate  land  of  Memling  and  Van 
Eyck.  Every  one  knows  the  favour  which  the  archdukes 
extended  to  Rubens ;  how  they  were  wont  to  visit  his  studio, 
and  how  he  was  their  ambassador  to  Charles  I.  and  Marie  de 
Medicis.  A  Belgian  historian,  Monsieur  Hymans,  has  taken 
occasion  thereby  to  say,  with  scant  justice,  that  their  prestige 
rests  solely  on  their  encouragement  of  the  arts  :  "  Le  genie  de 
Rubens,  la  protection  qu'il  re9ut  de  leurs  mains,  a  sauve  la 
popularite  des  archiducs."  f  It  is  somewhat  unreasonable  to 
assert  of  rulers  who  restored   peace,  law,  and  religion  to  their 


*  March  25,  1606.     (Brussels  Archives,  MS.) 
t  "  Histoire  de  la  Belgique,"  p.  294. 


The  Archduchess  Isabel.  275 

country,  that  their  renown  rests  solely  on  the  favour  they 
accorded  to  a  painter,  however  great. 

Science  and  literature  also  flourished  under  the  sway  of  the 
archdukes,  who  restored  to  the  University  of  Louvain  those 
cherished  privileges  which  the  Duke  of  Alva  had  abolished,  and 
assisted  on  one  occasion  at  a  lecture  by  Justus  Lipsius,  to  whom 
they  extended  their  enlightened  favours.  The  famous  Bollandus, 
and  other  celebrated  men  of  letters,  contributed  to  the  glory  of 
their  reign. 

We  have  said  that  the  first  measure  of  the  archdukes  was  to 
assemble  the  States,  which  had  not  been  regularly  convoked 
since  the  accession  to  power  of  Philip  II.  in  1555.  Taxes 
were  modified,  churches  were  rebuilt,  schools  were  established. 
It  was  the  Infanta  who  brought  the  reformed  Carmelites 
of  both  sexes  to  Brussels.  She  had  known  Saint  Theresa 
when  herself  a  child,  and  the  veneration  inspired  by  the 
mystic  doctress  of  the  church  had  never  diminished  in  Isabel's 
pious  heart.  She  saw  that  constant  prayer,  as  well  as  con- 
stant work,  was  needed  for  the  reform  of  the  country  which 
she  ruled.  She  sent  for  Mother  Anne  of  Jesus,  who  left  Spain 
with  six  of  her  nuns,  and  was  provided  by  the  archdukes  with 
a  house  and  a  church,  in  which  latter  Albert  deposited  the 
remains  of  his  patron  and  namesake,  once  Bishop  of  Liege, 
killed  in  1192.  Three  years  later  the  Carmelite  Fathers  were 
introduced.  The  secular  clergy  also  profited  by  the  liberality  of 
Albert  and  Isabel,  who  considerably  augmented  the  revenues 
of  St.  Gudule  on  condition  that  several  anniversary  Masses  were 
celebrated  for  the  souls  of  their  predecessors,  Dukes  of  Brabant.* 
Another  of  their  good  works  was  the  extirpation  of  the  usury 
practised  by  certain  Lombard  merchants,  who  lent  money  to 
workmen  on  the  security  of  their  wages,  at  an  interest  of  from 
22  to  32  per  cent.  This  outrageous  abuse  was  abolished,  and  a 
"  mont  de  piete  "  established  in  its  stead  for  the  benefit  of  the 
poor.  Houses  of  ill  fame  were  pulled  down,  and  chapels  built  on 
the  sites. t 

Nor  did  Isabel  neglect  more  frivolous  means  of  gaining  the 
affection  of  her  subjects,  imitating  in  this  respect  her  grand- 
father Charles  rather  than  her  father,  Philip,  who  had  always 
loved  to  be  as  a  Great  Mogul,  hidden  from  view  and  tormenting 
his  subjects  from  a  distance.  Isabel  was  cordial,  good-natured, 
ready  to  talk,  willing  to  shoot  at  popinjays,  and  fortunately 
able  to  hit  them.  One  year  she  promised  the  guild  of  cross- 
bowmen  to  shoot  with  them  on  the  occasion  of  their  annual  feast 


*  "  Histoire  de  Bruxelles,"  vol.  i.  p.  165.        f  Ibid.  p.  170. 
VOL.  XV. — NO.  II.     {Third  Series.]  u 


276  The  Archduchess  Isabel. 

in  May.  High  on  the  tower  of  the  Sablon  Church  the  bird  was 
fixed,  and  was  successfully  brought  down  by  the  adroit  arch- 
duchess, who  was  forthwith  proclaimed  queen  of  the  guild. 
Also  the  town  presented  her  with  a  prize  of  25,000  florins, 
which  she  employed  in  a  foundation  of  dowries  for  twelve  young 
girls  of  the  Sablon  parish,  on  condition  that  these  girls  should 
accompany  the  church  procession,  in  uniform,  and  wearing 
garlands,  every  Whit-Monday. 

The  day  came  when  Isabel  had  to  govern  alone  in  name,  as  she 
had  long  done  in  reality.  She  had  been  a  model  wife.*  She  was 
the  archducal  brains  ;  yet  Albert's  name  was  always  put  foremost, 
and  generally  alone,  in  papers  of  State.  She  was  the  true  ruler, 
yet  she  seemed  continually  to  submit.  They  were  a  just  couple ; 
and  though  in  most  things  his  superior,  Isabel's  grief  was  acute 
when  death  took  her  husband  from  her  side,  on  July  13,  1621.t 
The  bells  of  Brussels  tolled  for  an  hour  three  times  every  day  for 
six  weeks,  by  order  of  the  archduchess ;  and  she  was  said  to  have 
given  Albert  the  most  splendid  funeral  that  ever  princess  honoured 
her  spouse  withal.  He  was  laid  in  the  chapel  of  the  Miraculous 
Host  at  St.  Gudule,  in  the  tomb  where  Isabel  afterwards  joined 
him.  The  people  of  the  Netherlands  mourned  him  with  sincerity, 
for  he  had  been  kind  and  virtuous  in  life,  and  such  qualities  are 
never  without  weight  in  a  nation's  eyes.  Absurd  as  are  some  of 
the  phrases  of  the  panegyric  which  Eric  Puteanus  pronounced 
over  Albert,  it  was  still  true  that  ''he  constrained  even  his 
enemies  to  confess  that  his  actions  had  always  been  irreproach- 
able. His  life  was  well  regulated,  just,  and  holy,  and  may  be 
called  a  school  of  virtues,  since  he  himself  was  an  example  of 
well-doing  to  all  his  subjects.  To  banish  vice  from  his  provinces, 
he  closed  against  it  the  door  of  his  Court.  .  .  .  Having  lived  in 
righteousness  all  the  days  of  his  life,  why  should  he  fear  death  ? 
Let  those  fear  it  who  render  it  terrible  by  an  evil  life.'' J 

Albert  had  traded  well  with  the  few  talents  that  were  given 
him,  and  he  went  to  his  reward,  leaving  his  spouse  to  confront 
the  raging  sea  which  was  beginning  once  more  to  surge  around 

*  The  Frencli  resident,  M.  Pericard,  in  1620,  wrote  that  the  archduke, 
then  recovering  from  an  illness,  was  beginning  to  go  out  in  his  carnage 
"  with  the  Infanta,  who  is  his  inseparable  companion."  Quoted  by  M. 
Gachard,  "Lettres  de  Philippe  II.,"  p.  57. 

t  Philip  III,  had  closed  his  harmless  career  in  the  April  of  the  same 
year. 

X  "Pompe  I'unebre  de  I'Archiduq  Albert."  This  curious  old  volume 
contains  a  series  of  engravings  illustrating  the  almost  interminable  pro- 
cession of  churchmen,  nobles,  soldiers,  magistrates,  and  servants  who 
followed  Albert  to  the  tomb.  "The  Earl  of  Argyll  (Argil),  a  Scot,  and 
O'Neil,  Prince  of  Ulster,  Earl  of  Tyrone  (an  Irishman),"  were  among 
those  who  bore  the  cofBn. 


The  Archduchess  Isabel.  277 

the  Netherlands.  Nominally,  she  was  only  Regent  now,  and  not 
a  sovereign.  We  have  said  that  it  was  an  article  of  the  treaty 
by  which  Philip  III.  ceded  the  Provinces,  that  should  she  have 
no  children,  the  power  of  Spain  was  to  be  reasserted.  Pre- 
pared by  her  whole  training  for  offuscation,  she  submitted 
cheerfully  to  bear  a  burden  from  which  she  reaped  no  benefit, 
and  in  March,  1623,  convoked  the  States-General  that  they 
might  take  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  reigning  Spanish  sovereign, 
Philip  IV. 

Her  position  was  most  arduous.  Her  talents  as  a  politician 
caused  Spain  to  look  to  her  for  help  and  guidance  in  a  most 
delicate  crisis  of  history.  Europe  was  again  aflame  with  war. 
In  1618  the  Bohemian  Calvinists  had  seized  the  city  and  castle 
of  Prague,  where  they  also  crowned  as  their  king  Frederic, 
Elector  Palatine,  and  son-in-law  to  James  I.  James  was  in 
despair,  but  the  enthusiasm  of  the  English  Protestants  obliged 
him  to  send  an  army  to  help  the  Bohemians,  who  were  routed  by 
the  now  veteran  Spinola  and  the  Duke  of  Bavaria.  Frederic  was 
a  refugee  at  the  Hague  in  1620,  but  the  spark  which  he  had 
lighted  set  Europe  aflame  for  many  a  year  to  come.  It  is  gro- 
tesquely amusing  to  read  that  so  astute  a  man  as  President 
Jeaunin,  in  conversation  with  the  archducal  envoy  at  Paris, 
Peckins,  expressed  the  opinion  that  "  the  war  in  Germany  would 
go  off  in  smoke."  *  James  endeavoured  to  obtain  peace  through 
the  marriage  of  Prince  Charles  with  the  Infanta  Maria ;  a  project 
which  received  much  approbation  from  Isabel,  who  saw  in  it  a 
means  of  strengthening  the  position  of  Phihp  IV.,  checking  an 
European  war,  and  bettering  the  condition  of  the  English  Catho- 
lics. But  the  imprudence  of  Charles  and  Buckingham,  on  their 
harebrained  visit  to  Madrid  in  1623,  broke  off  all  hopes  of  the 
Spanish  match,  and  thenceforward  James  directed  his  efforts  to 
stir  up  the  enmity  of  different  nations  against  the  house  of 
Austria.  Although  the  Spanish  Court  had  thought  to  disarm 
French  hostility  by  the  marriage  of  the  Infanta  Ana  with 
Louis  XIII.,  and  of  Philip  IV.  with  the  Princess  Christine, 
Cardinal  Richelieu  clandestinely  helped  the  German  Protestants 
with  men  and  money  ;  until  the  accession  of  Charles  I.,  and  the 
open  aid  which  he  supplied  to  the  French  Huguenots,  led  to  a 
temporary  agreement  between  France  and  Spain.  Had  Isabel 
lived,  to  match  her  astuteness  against  that  of  Richelieu,  it  is 
likely  that  the  tremendous  conflict  between  France  and  Spain 
which  ended  in  the  loss  of  Artois  would  not  have  taken  place. 
She  was  always  working  a  double  work,  one  on  behalf  of  her 

*  "La  guerre  d'AlIemagne  s'en  ira  en  fumee."    Peckins  to  the  arch- 
dukes, March  1,  1619.     (MS.  in  Brussels  Archives.) 


78  Tlie  Archduchess  Isabel. 

family,  that  great  devotion  which  lay  so  deep  in  the  hearts  of  all 
who  came  of  Austrian  blood  ;  the  other  for  her  provinces  ;  nor  did 
she  slacken  in  her  vigilance  because  she  was  growing  old.  She 
corresponded  indefatigably  with  her  agents  ;  she  was  familiar  with 
all  the  details  of  her  army.  But  clouds  gathered  thickly  over  her 
latter  days.  The  twelve  years'  truce  with  Holland  expired  in 
1824,  and  Buckingham,  who  governed  England  at  that  time, 
hastened  to  conclude  a  defensive  league  with  the  belligerent 
States,  The  Dutch  rushed  gladly  back  into  a  war  which  had 
always  been  popular  in  Holland ;  and  though  the  Infanta  took 
Ereda,  she  lost  Buremonde,  Venloo,  Maestricht,  and  Bois-le- 
Duc.  Want  of  money  hampered  her  actions,  and  age  and 
work  told  on  her  physical  strength,  yet  she  was  always  the  same 
Isabel — equable,  pious,  hardworking,  practical. 

She  died  in  harness.  Since  the  death  of  Albert  she  had  re- 
nounced festivities,  and  even  worldly  dress.  Her  later  portraits 
represent  her  in  the  attire  which  she  always  wore  during  the 
last  ten  years  of  her  life,  the  habit  of  a  Carmelite  tertiary.  Her 
only  relaxations  were  an  occasional  picnic  pilgrimage  to  Notre 
Dame  de  Laeken,  with  the  ladies  of  her  household  and  some 
Beguine  nuns,  returning  in  the  evening  to  the  Old  Court,  whose 
brown  gables  and  turrets  then  covered  the  space  where  the  Palais 
Royal  now  stands  ;  or  an  expedition  to  Hal.  Thus  her  life  was 
one  of  hard  work  only  varied  by  devotion.  Death  was  to  her 
the  welcome  shade  of  evening,  signifying  rest  from  long  and 
ceaseless  labour.  She  had  been  declining  in  health  for  some 
time,  and  towards  the  end  of  November,  1 633,  she  became  seri- 
ously ill.  On  the  30th  she  received  Extreme  Unction,  in  the 
presence  of  Margaret  of  Valois,  the  first  wife  of  Henry  IV., 
banished  from  France,  but  kindly  received  at  Brussels  by  the 
compassionate  Isabel.  She  who,  more  than  fifty  years  before, 
had  stealthily  visited  Belgium  for  the  purpose  of  winning  it  from 
Spain  for  her  brother  Alen9on,  now  returned  thither  in  her  ex- 
treme old  age,  a  homeless  refugee,  an  unsuccessful  and  withered 
woman,  but  a  coquette  still,  flaunting  in  rouge,  wig,  and  false 
teeth;  and  stood  by  the  death-bed  of  that  just  and  upright 
princess,  whose  life  had  been  the  antithesis  of  her  own.  Isabel 
had  nothing  to  fear  from  death,  which  was  in  every  way  a  relief 
to  her.  "  It  was  with  joy,''^  says  a  Belgian  historian,  "that  she 
saw  that  death  approach  which  would  terminate  the  arduous 
labours  that  bowed  her  down.'^  * 

Seeing  one  of  her  servants  shed  bitter  tears,  she  said,  laughing, 
"  Look  at  that  man,  who  wants  me  not  to  die  1  "  Suddenly  she 
remembered  that  there  were  papers  in  her  desk  which  required 

*  Charles  Juste,  "  Histoire  de  la  Belgique,"  vol.  ii.  p.  146. 


The  Archduchess  Isabel.  279 

her  signature  before  they  should  be  sent  away.  She  bade  her 
attendants  support  her  head  and  guide  her  hand,  signed  the 
papers,  and  died. 

Thus  at  midnight  on  the  1st  of  December,  1633,  in  the  sixty- 
seventh  year  of  her  age,  passed  away  the  daughter  of  Philip  II., 
doing  her  duty  to  the  last.  No  better  epitaph,  no  higher  praise, 
could  be  coined  even  by  the  fulsome  panegyrists  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  Isabel  had  intended  to  be  buried  with  the  same  pomp 
as  Albert  had  been,  twelve  years  before  ;  but  such  was  the 
emptiness  of  her  treasury,  that  her  executors  were  obliged  to 
bury  her  rather  as  a  private  individual  than  as  a  sovereign.  She 
was  laid  at  Albert's  side  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament 
at  St.  Gudule,  where  their  remains  still  I'epose  in  that 
Eucharistic  Presence,  Whom  they  honoured  so  devoutly  in  their 
lives. 

Notwithstanding  her  personal  poverty  and  the  ravages  of  war, 
Isabel  left  her  capital  in  a  flourishing  condition.  Even  M. 
Hymans,  in  distinct  contradiction  of  his  own  sentiments  before 
quoted,  renders  her  the  justice  to  admit  that  Belgium  reaped 
the  benefits  of  plenty  and  commerce  from  her  reign. 

Belgium  [he  says]  had  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  calm  .... 
and  the  people  would  have  thanked  Heaven  could  they  have  retained  the 
honest  prosperity  which  marked  the  end  of  Isabel's  reign.  The  capital 
....  in  1630  counted  more  than  70,000  inhabitants,  and  the 
manufacture  of  carpets,    cloth,   and  goldsmith's  work,   favoured  by 

liberal  laws,  brought  a  considerable  revenue  to  the  inhabitants 

The  religious  orders,  protected  by  Government,  opened  their  schools 
to  the  people.  How  brilliant  was  the  country  at  that  time,  notwith- 
standing its  hard  trials,  compared  with  Avhat  it  was  destined  to  become 
in  less  than  thirty  years  after  the  death  of  Isabel.* 

Such  is  the  testimony  of  a  Liberal  historian  to  the  powers  of 
government  possessed  by  this  noble  ruler. 

If  not  exactly  what  the  world  calls  a  great  princess,  Isabel 
failed  of  such  greatness  rather  through  circumstances,  and 
especially  through  her  unavoidable  subordination  to  Spain,  than 
through  any  defect  in  her  own  character.  She  was  upright  and 
unselfish  in  all  the  relations  of  life.  Her  memory  is  yet  green 
among  the  people  whom  she  governed,  notwithstanding  that  she 
was  a  Spaniard,  and  the  daughter  of  that  monarch  whose  name 
had  been  so  hateful  in  the  Provinces.  Portraits  of  Isabel,  and 
gifts  bestowed  by  her  on  churches  and  other  institutions,  abound 
an  Belgium ;  especially  does  the  beautiful  little  reliquary,  pre- 
sented by  her  and  her  consort  to  the  Chapel  of  the  Precious 
Blood  at  Bruges,  recall  their  memory  every  Friday,  as  the  holy 

*  "  Histoire  de  la  Belgique,"  pp.  299,  300. 


280  Professor  JoiveWs  "Politics  of  AHstotle." 

relic  in  its  silver  slirine  is  borne  among  the  kneeling  people. 
Overlooking  the  scene  from  one  of  the  stained-glass  windows, 
which  are  recent,  but  splendidly  executed,  may  be  distinguished 
the  majestic  figure  of  Isabel,  in  a  blue  petticoat,  a  long  pelisse, 
and  a  large  ruff;  beside  her  stands  the  archduke  in  armour. 
Brussels  contains  several  relics  of  the  beloved  archduchess, 
besides  her  tomb  in  St.  Gudule,  and  her  portrait  in  the  Royal 
Museum.  At  the  Musee  des  Antiquites  may  be  seen  her  horse, 
well  stuffed,  and  perfect  except  the  nose,  worn  out  by  the  ravages 
of  time.  The  same  defect  naturally  enough  exists  in  the  ai'ch- 
duke's  horse,  also  there  with  its  housings.  But  a  yet  more 
interesting  and  very  characteristic  relic  of  Isabel  is  preserved  at 
the  Bibliotheque  Royal,  another  spot  eerie  with  memorials  of 
the  great  departed.  It  was  Isabel  who  established  at  Brussels 
the  confraternity  of  ladies  called  "  The  Slaves  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  Mary,"  and  the  Royal  Library  contains  the  illuminated 
roll  of  the  members,  their  arms,  and  signatures.  At  the  top  of 
the  first  page,  in  characters  of  unspeakable  clumsiness,  formid- 
able to  historians  of  the  seventeenth  century,  yet  dear  to  tliem  as 
the  autograph  of  one  of  the  best  of  princesses,  are  written  these 
words : — 

"Isabel  Clara  Eugenia, 

Esclava   de   la    Virgen  Maria.'' 

Nor,  in  her  case,  was  the  title  an  empty  boast. 

We  may  fittingly  conclude  this  notice  of  the  Infanta  Isabel 
with  the  eulogy  of  the  Conseil  d^Etat,  in  their  announcement  of 
her  death  to  the  fifteen  Provinces :  "  Her  death  was  the 
mirror  of  her  life,  which  you  know  to  have  been  full  of  piety 
and  other  incomparable  virtues,  worthy  of  the  love  and  respect 
of  all  the  world.''  * 

A.  M.  Grange. 


Art.  III.— professor  JOWETT'S  "  POLITICS  OF 
ARISTOTLE.'' 

The  Politics  of  Aristotle.  Translated  into  English,  with  Intro- 
duction, Marginal  Analysis,  Essays,  Notes,  and  Indices, 
by  B.  JowETT,  M.A.,  Master  of  Balliol  College,  &c.  Oxford  ; 
Clarendon  Press.     1885. 

THE   "  Politics "    of  Aristotle  is  the  one  of  his  works  most 
closely  akin   to  modern  thought.     In  it  we  have  the  traces 
of  speculation  which  expand  in  later  treatises  under  the  light  of 

*  Taken  from  the  "  Actes  des  Etats-Generaux,  29  dec.  1621." 


Professor  JoiveWs  "  Politics  of  Aristotle."  281 

larger  experience,  and  the  crude  forms  of  concrete  embodiment 
in  which  the  more  complex  organizations  of  the  modern  period 
are,  as  it  were,  "  blocked  out  ■"  for  inspection.  The  work  of  Pro- 
fessor Jowett  is  one  of  high  interest,  the  more  so  as  he  writes 
under  a  full  sense  of  the  simultaneous  likeness  and  yet  unlikeness 
of  the  old  to  the  new,  and  seeks,  wherever  they  can  be  found,  the 
due  modern  equivalents  for  the  sometimes  antiquated  symbolism 
of  the  ancient  formulas. 

The  edition  before  us  appears  to  be  incomplete,  containing 
only  the  former  portion  of  the  full  second  volume,  which  is  to 
contain  a  series  of  essays,  occasionally  referred  to  as  containing 
special  elucidations  of  particular  points.  We  learn  from  a  note 
on  p.  1  of  the  Preface  that  these  are  to  be  nine  in  number,  and 
will  discuss  such  subjects  as  the  life  of  Aristotle,  the  structure 
and  formation  of  his  accredited  writings,  the  style,  language,  and 
text  of  the  "Pohtics,"  Aristotle  as  a  critic  of  Plato,  &c.  On  this  last 
point  the  editor  allows  his  judgment  to  peep  out  pretty  frequently 
in  what  is  already  beiore  us — viz,,  that  he  oftener  than  not  quotes 
to  misrepresent,  and  misrepresents  in  order  to  condemn  his  pre- 
decessor. The  plan  of  the  work  comprehends  a  special  "Intro- 
duction^^ to  each  book  in  succession,  in  which  what  should  be  a 
clean  skeleton  of  its  argumentative  structure  is  exhibited.  We 
find,  however,  packed  between  the  ribs,  a  good  deal  of  com- 
mentary and  illustrative  padding — e.g.  on  pp.  lxii,-iii.,  Ixxxix.-xc. 
This  seems  a  grave  fault  of  arrangement.  We  pass  from  the 
main  line  of  an  Aristotelian  argument  continuously  to  a  siding 
which  runs  us  through  reflections  on  the  Middle  Ages  and  the 
French  Revolution — valuable  no  doubt,  sed  nunc  non  erat  his 
locus.  But  if  the  blemish  was  to  be  allowed,  some  notice  of  the 
curious  double  and  triple  parallel  forms  of  the  argument  (as  if 
divers  recensions  of  it,  some  condensed,  some  enlarged,  had  been 
compiled  from  the  notes  of  diffei'ent  pupils  at  a  lecture),  such  .as 
especially  distinguish  book  iv.,  but  are  traceable  also  in  books  iii. 
and  vii.,  might  have  found  a  place  here.  But  to  resume  the 
editor^s  plan  :  to  the  thus  padded  skeleton  of  each  book  there  is 
prefixed  an  italicized  summary  of  the  general  purport  in  a  few 
lines.  After  this  Introduction  comes  a  fairly  free  translation 
in  current  English  of  the  text  of  Bekker's  first  edition,  in  the 
margin  of  which,  again,  we  have  a  running  summary,  presenting 
each  link  of  the  argument  in  a  compact  form.  Thus  we  have  the 
work  really  projected  on  four  different  scales  j  the  most  condensed 
being  the  italicized  summaries,  the  most  enlarged  having  the 
proportions  of  the  actual  work.  An  index,  certainly  copious,  and 
as  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  test  it,  veracious,  completes  vol.  i. 
The  portion  of  vol.  ii.  now  before  us  contains  "  Notes  "  on  the 
difficulties  of  the  text,  chiefly  structural  and  grammatical,  but 


282  Professor  JoiveWs  "  Politics  of  Aristotle." 

occasionally  philosophical,  with  a  similar  index  to  them.  In 
these  we  occasionally  find  "  second  thoughts "  correcting  the 
renderings  in  vol.  i. — e.g.,  on  iv.  1,  4,  vol.  ii.  p.  148. 

The  whole  is  an  endeavour  to  put  the  student,  with  as  little 
trouble  to  himself  as  possible,  in  possession  of  the  treasures  of 
thought  which  the  book  contains ;  to  enable  him  to  extract  and 
digest  the  kernel,  without  wasting  time  in  cracking  the  nut. 

It  is  of  course  unfair  to  complain  of  defects  in  a  work  at  once  so 
copious  and  yet  of  which  the  last  instalment  has  not  reached  our 
hands.  We  will  only  say  on  this  head  that  we  expect  to  find  in  the 
Essays  more  of  the  correlation  of  the  "Politics,"  with  the  kindred 
works,  the  "Ethics ""  and  the  "  Rhetoric'^  than  we  so  far  are  able  to 
trace;  as  well  as  a  more  searching  inquiry  into  the  genesis  of  the 
"  Politics  "  as  a  distinct  work,  the  priority  or  posteriority  of  its 
various  parts,  the  extent  to  which  they  cohere  or  clash,  and,  where 
the  latter  is  the  case,  which  view  represents  the  maturer  mind  of  the 
writer.  Pending  this,  our  only  quarrel  with  the  editor  is  on  par- 
ticular passages,  where  he  seems  to  have  failed  to  seize  the  sense 
of  his  author,  or  has  even  confused  it.  But  it  is  fair  to  add  that 
most,  or  the  most  important,  of  these  are  such  as  divide  the 
suffrages  of  the  learned,  and  perhaps  will  continue  to  do  so. 

There  is  a  good  note  on  the  defensible  character  of  '^  usury 
laws.'^  It  might  be  perhaps  reinforced  by  the  parallel  of  rack- 
rents.  Sir  Henry  Maine  has  given  in  his  "Village  Communities'' 
some  valuable  traces  of  restriction  of  rents  by  custom  in  ancient 
societies,  which  has  left  its  trace  in  modern  manners.  Since  land 
as  well  as  money  is  an  article  of  first-rate  necessity,  and  not  only 
ancient  custom  but  very  modern  statute  has  recognised  a  limi- 
tation of  rack-rents,  it  seems  not  unreasonable  to  limit  rates  of 
usury  also. 

On  the  vexed  question  of  the  "  Delphic  knife  "  little  is  really 
known.  That  it  was  applicable  to  more  than  one  use  is  clear 
from  the  context  in  i.  1-3  ;  and  this  is  about  all  that  can  be 
absolutely  stated.  But  one  may  add  an  ilkistration  from  Sir 
Hudibras'  dagger,  which 

Was  a  serviceable  dudgeon, 
Either  for  fighting  or  for  drudging  ; 
When  it  had  stabbed  or  broke  a  head, 
It  would  scrape  trenchers  or  chip  bread,  &c. 

Shortly  afterwards  occurs  the  difficult  word  o/jLOKcnrovg  or 
ofiOKairvovg.  The  former  is  rightly  adopted,  but  probably  not 
rightly  rendered  by  "  companions  of  the  manger.''  It  is  cited  by 
Aristotle  as  from  Epimenides,  who,  being  a  Cretan,  probably  used 
Doric  forms ;  so  that  the  a  might  represent  the  normal  rj,  and  the 
word  be  normally  ofiOKi'jirovg.     The  a  would  then  be  of  course 


Professor  Jowetfs  "  Politics  of  Aristotle."         283 

long,  and  the  word  be  fit  for  a  hexametral  ending,  in  which 
measure  Epimenides  wrote.  Whereas  ofioKdirovQwith.  a  short  would 
be  impossible,  unless  by  arbitrarily  doubling  the  fi  it  became 
hUfiOKcnrovq.  This  latter  seems  an  unlikely  alternative.  Reading 
bjxoKairovQ,  the  sense  would  be  "  sharing  the  same  cultivable  area  " 
(fcfJTroe),  which  carries  us  back  to  the  ancient  village  communities, 
some  of  which,  as  the  editor  shows,  were  extant  in  Greece  at  or 
near  the  period  of  Aristotle. 

In  i.  3,  10,  the  editor  reads  aZ,v^  lov  locrinp  Iv  TreTELvolg,  as 
shown  by  rendering  it  "  may  be  compared  to  a  bird  that  flies 
alone  ;  "  but  records  in  the  note  ii.  p.  8,  an  overwhelming  balance 
of  authority  for  the  other  reading,  irsTToXq.  He  refers  to  an 
epigram  in  the  Anthology,  which  has  been  generally  interpreted 
of  the  game  of  ttsttoi,  but  remarks,  "  the  game  is  not,  however, 
called  TTfTTot."  As,  however,  he  does  not  urge  that  it  is  "  called  " 
anything  else,  the  remark  is  pointless.  Games  often  change 
their  names — e.g.,  whist  in  the  last  century  was  known  as 
"swabbers,"  and  until  stereotyped  by  accumulating  authority, 
often  varied  greatly  in  the  mode  of  play.  It  is  evident,  however, 
that  in  any  game  which  depends  on  combinations  of  pieces  on  a 
surface,  the  exposed  piece  must  either  take  or  be  taken,  being  at 
the  mercy  of  hostile  combinations.  This  seems  exactly  to  yield 
the  needful  point  of  illustration  for  the  isolated  human  being  in 
the  text.  On  the  contrary,  at^v^  .  .  ev  TTiTHvolg  would,  from  all 
that  we  know  of  a^v^,  probably  mean  "  unmated  " — a  novel 
phenomenon  among  adult  birds.  The  sense  of  "  non-gregarious  " 
is  not  here  apt,  because  many  such  birds  are  non-predaciou?,  but 
are  yet  what  the  human  a'^w?  would  not  be,  perfectly  able  to  take 
care  of  themselves.  It  seems  therefore  that,  alike  on  external  and 
internal  grounds,  the  readinoj  followed  here  is  the  worse. 

In  i.  3,  4,  a  serious  mistranslation  occurs,  although  the  point 
is  subordinate  only,  Aristotle  is  comparing  the  tool  with  the 
slave  or  minister  (w7rr;/otrrjc),  and  says,  "  if  the  shuttle  v;ould 
weave"  spontaneously,  there  would  be  no  need  of  hands  to  guide 
it.  He  then  distinguishes  productive  agency  (TrotrjrtKov)  from 
practical  (irpaKTiKov),  and  says  that  of  the  latter  the  slave,  &c.,  is 
the  tool.  In. the  course  of  this  argument  he  remarks  :  "  Now,  the 
tools,  so  called  [as  shuttle,  &c.],  are  those  of  productive  agency; 
whereas  this  [the  slave-tool]  is  a  property  (KTrifxa)  for  practical 
use.  Then  follows  a  sentence  which  illustrates,  not  both  these 
as  contrasted  (in  which  sense  the  editor  seems  to  take  it),  but  the 
former  of  the  two  only.  Aristotle  goes  on  to  insist  on  the  dis- 
tinction of  iroir\<nq  and  irpa^iq,  and  to  show  that,  as  each  needs  its 
tool,  the  slave,  who  is  a  KTxifia,  serves  the  uses  of  irpa^ig,  and  is 
related  to  his  master,  as  a  part  to  its  whole.  Our  editor  renders 
the  clause  above  italicized  by  "  whilst  a  possession  (icrij/ua)  is  an 


284  Professor  Jowetfs  "Politics  of  Aristotle." 

instrument  of  action  " — making  kt^juo,  in  short,  the  subject,  which 
we  believe  the  sense  requires  to  be  part  of  the  predicate. 

The  famous  crux  interpretum  in  i.  6,  1  ...  5  (vol.  i.  pp. 
9-10,  and  ii.  p.  19),  seems  to  us  wrongly  explained.  Aristotle 
has  been  at  the  end  of  i.  5  stating  his  own  theor}' :  "  It  is  clear, 
then,  that  some  men  are  by  nature  free  and  others  slaves,  and  that 
for  these  latter  slavery  is  both  expedient  and  right "  (Sikuiov). 
Let  us  call  this  A.  It  is  opposed  on  two  grounds  :  (a)  by  those 
who  contend  that  all  slavery  which  is  (vo/xw)  conventional — e.g., 
by  warlike  conquest — is  right ;  and  (6)  by  those  who  contend  that 
all  slavery  is  wrong  (aSiKov).  He  next  shows  incidentally  how 
(a)  and  (6)  argue  against  each  other  :  (6)  alleges  that  {a)  in- 
fringes a  higher  moral  principle  (like  impeaching  a  statesman  of 
unconstitutional  proceedings,  remarks  Aristotle),  and  that  he 
adopts  the  monstrous  (dnvov)  view,  that  brute  force  is  the  test 
of  moral  desert.  But  both  {a)  and  (h)  have  a  moral  element  in 
common,  remarks  Aristotle,  whereby  they  overlap  (£7raXXarr£/v), 
for  both  involve  moral  grounds  (apen))  ;  since  the  violence  (|3ia) 
of  conquest  is  not  without  moral  superiority  (jirj  avev  aptTrig),  and 
he  might  have  added,  but  leaves  understood,  that  the  moral 
ground  of  (6)  is  obvious.  Thus  they  are  thrown  back  on  defining 
the  right  (to  r^iKaiov),  which  (a)  does  by  laying  it  down  to  be  the 
rule  of  the  stronger  (to  tov  KpdTTOva  apyziv),  (b)  by  making  it 
mere  humanity  {ivvoia).  But  the  moment  these  divergent 
views  of  right  stand  clearly  defined  from  one  another  {^laaTavTidv 
ye  X'^'P'^  TovTwv  twv  A07WV),  they  are  both  obviously  untenable 
(this  he  does  not  say,  but  implies),  and  thus  both  (a)  and  (h)  are 
refuted,  and  boch  the  opponents  of  A  shown  thus  to  have  neither 
force  {liaxvpov)  nor  plausibility  {irLBavov).  He  then  gives  further 
reasons  why  those  who  argue  in  favour  of  all  slavery  by  right  of 
conquest  are  wrong  :  (1)  the  war  itself  may  be  unjust,  (2)  it  may 
reduce  to  slavery  a  man  who  is  Avholly  unworthy  of  being 
enslaved. 

Now,  Prof.  Jowett  does  not  seem  to  see  that  the  argument 
between  [a)  and  (b)  is  incidental,  but  by  taking  it  as  a  substan- 
tive part  of  the  author's  argument,  alters  the  proportions  and 
obscures  the  relations.  He  does  not  recognize  the  links  which, 
here  important,  Aristotle  leaves  to  be  understood  or  implied,  as 
above  stated.  He  does  not  grasp  the  meaning  of  Sm  yap  tovto, 
which  he  renders,  "  in  order  to  make  a  distinction  between  them;" 
and  continues,  "  some  assert  that  justice  is  benevolence ;  to  which 
others  reply,  &c."  "  Them  "  should  here  refer  to  ''  virtue  "  (as 
he  renders  aperrj)  and  "justice.^'  But  it  is  not  "  to  make  a  dis- 
tinction between  "  these  terms  that  the  two  counter-definitions 
of  TO  ciKaiov  are  given,  but  because  the  question  between  (a)  and 
(6)  about  slavery  has  resolved  itself  into  the  simpler  question. 


Professor  J oivett's"  Politics  of  Aristotle."  285- 

"  What  is  TO  ^iKutov  ?  "  Further  yet,  he  does  not  see  that  the 
Totc  filv  .  .  .  Toig  S'  are  the  same  two  previous  opponents,  (a) 
and  (6),  and  by  the  rendering  "  some "  .  .  .  .  and  "  others " 
effectually  confuses  the  relation  of  these  counter-definitions  to 
the  argument  beween  them.  It  is  true  that  Prof.  Jovvett  does 
bring  it  all  round  to  the  same  general  conclusion  in  his  notes 
by  saying,  "  But  all  these  views  are  untenable "  (although  he 
has  not  clearly  shown  what  or  why),  ''and  so  Aristotle  shows 
negatively  that  his  own  view  is  right."  That  is  so ;  but  we  defy 
any  one  to  arrive  at  that  conclusion  by  the  links  which  the  editor 
supplies.  The  Greek  text  is  undoubtedly  not  pellucid,  but  as 
compared  with  the  English  is  transparency  itself. 

On  i.  9,  8,  oTov  Gi^r^pog  K.r.X.,  "  for  example,  iron  ....  and  the 
like,"  one  might  expect  in  the  notes  the  well-known  illustration 
of  Aristophanes  ("Nub."  249),  aiSapioKTiv  wairep  iv  Bv^avrioj, 
and  the  scholiast's  quotation  there  from  Plato  Comicus,  also 
Aristides  (t.  iii.  241),  Bu^avrtoi  (ridripdo  vojui^ovai,  Kapxv^oviot 

tTKVTi(TlV. 

In  the  rather  difficult  passage,  ii.  4,  8,  about  the  dilution  of 
family  affection  in  the  Platonic  Republic,  where  wives  and 
children  are  no  man's  own,  the  editor  gives  (notes,  p.  50) 
the  choice  of  two  constructions ;  but  his  second  one  is  at  least 
incomplete,  since  it  leaves  otKEtorijra  without  any  regimen 
assigned,  although  it  is  the  most  important  word.  We  think 
that  neither  of  his  proposed  schemes  hits  the  truth.  The  words 
are,  avfxpa'ivu  Koi  Tr]v  OLKHOTriTa  ttiv  irpoq  aXki]\ovQ  Tr]v  cnrb  twv 
dvofiaTtov  TOVTtov  dia^povTiZiiv  i]Ki(TTa  avajKCilov  ov  iv  ry  iroXiTeiq. 
Ty  TOiavTij,  rj  Traripa  ojq  vIujv,  rj  vlbv  wg  irarpog,  i)  ojg  aEeX^ovg 
a\\i]\(i)v.  We  regard  the  last  thi-ee  clauses  rj  .  .  T]  .  .  ?},  as 
imperfectly  apposed  to  the  oiKctorijra  of  the  previous  clause,  the 
concrete  being  in  fact  apposed  to  the  abstract — "  to  esteem  very 
slightly  the  relationship  arising  from  these  terms,  whether  a 
father  as  related  (oIkhov)  to  sons,  or  son,  &c.,"  is  then  the  sense. 
One  may  add  that  the  last  wg  has  got  displaced :  it  should  follow 
adiXcpovg. 

On  iii.  3,  6,  the  question  of  a  State's  identity  as  parallel  to 
the  same  concerning  a  river — those  who  have  hunted  up  the 
traditional  fragments  of  older  Greek  philosophy  refer  to 
Heraclitus  the  saying,  "  The  rivers  into  which  we  go  are  the 
same  and  not  the  same,"  referring  to  the  perpetual  change  of 
constituent  particles.  A  reference  to  Plut.  de  EI  ap.  Delphos, 
c.  18,  where  it  is  given,  might  be  worth  adding  in  the  notes 
ad  loc.  Further,  ih.  3,  7,  we  think  the  editor  has  correctly  handled 
the  doubtful  passage,  ian  ^l  KOivtovia  iro\iTU)V  TroXirdag,  yivofxivqg 
kripag  T(^  ti^u  K.r.X.,  both  as  regards  structure  and  meaning. 

On   iii.  4,   17,  we  note   a   want  of  coherence  between  text 


286  Professor  Jowetfs  "  Politics  of  Aristotle." 

and  notes.  The  rendering,  "  A  woman  would  be  thought 
loquacious  if  she  imposed  no  more  restraint  on  her  conversation 
than  the  good  man,"  seems  quite  right.  But  the  illustration 
from  the  speech  of  Perikles,  commending  the  sex  when  the  least 
was  said  about  them  (Thucyd.  ii.  45),  looks  as  if  the  editor  had 
here  a  little  "  mixed  "  his  notions  of  active  and  passive.  His 
better  illustration  would  have  been  the  retort  of  Aias  to 
Tekmessa  (Soph.  Ai.  293),  yvvai,  yvvai^l  Koafxov  ri  aiyri  (pepu. 
Talk  in  mixed  company — not  by  female  tongues  alone — seems  in- 
tended by  Aristotle.  The  editor  is  quite  right  in  disregarding 
the  readings  or  suggestions,  aXaXog,  aXXog,  &c.,  for  XdXog  here. 

In  iii.  5,  9,  a  slight  mistranslation  of  the  text,  "  The  object 
is  to  deceive  the  inhabitants,"  is  corrected  in  the  notes  to 
"  The  object  is  that  the  privileged  class  may  deceive  their  fellow- 
citizens  "  {tu)v  (TvvoiKovvTCJv).  It  might  be  usefully  added  that 
the  point  of  view  seems  to  be  the  foundation  of  a  new  colony, 
when  the  terms  of  the  co-foundation  are  supposed  to  be  studiously 
kept  in  the  dark.  In  12,  6,  we  note  a  misprint,  "  height  in 
general  may  be  measured  either  against  height  or  against 
freedom,"  For  the  second  "  height  "  read  "  wealth  "  (ttXovtov). 
But  in  the  line  before,  the  text  is  corrupt  in  the  word  juaXXov, 
probably  a  copyist's  blundering  anticipation  of  IvaiuiXXov 
following.  The  translation  skips  it  as  if  recognizing  this,  but 
some  notice  of  it  would  have  been  proper  in  the  notes. 

We  encounter  a  difficult  passage  in  vii.  12,  1,  2,  in  which  the 
editor  seems  to  have  been  misled  by  a  wrong  division  of  the 
chapters  or  sections.  He  makes  a  principal  pause  at  the  bottom 
of  his  p.  227  (vol.  i.),  in  which  the  question  of  walls,  their  use 
and  ornament,  is  discussed  by  Aristotle.  But  the  first  sentence 
of  p.  228  belongs  to  this,  and  the  principal  pause  should  be 
where  he  gives  a  colon  only.  That  he  has  been  misled  somehow 
is  plain  from  the  fact  that  the  fxlv  and  Se,  those  poles  of  Greek 
structure,  are  here  violated,  against  which  trespass  he  himself 
protests  in  a  note  on  a  sentence  a  few  lines  below  (notes, 
p.  277).  Instead,  therefore,  of  "The  arrangements  should  be  as 
follows/'  we  should  read — "  And  these  matters  one  might  well 
arrange  as  above"  {koX  Tavra  juiv  S»j  tovtov  av  tiq  Siaicoo-yUJjo-Ete 
Tov  rpoTTov).  Then  follows  in  the  Greek,  rag  Si  roXg  Bhoiq 
airoSeSoinivag  okrjtTtte,  which  begins  a  new  section  regarding  the 
sacred  buildings  and  persons.  In  this  new  departure  our  editor 
displaces  the  first  two  clauses,  seemingly  to  humour  his  previous 
dislocation  of  the  sense.  In  the  difficult  sentence  r)iox  infr., 
containing  the  phrase  koI  tovtov  tov  koct/ulov,  we  cannot  now  pause, 
save  to  say  that  the  note,  p.  277,  explains  obseurum  per 
obscurius. 

As  a  specimen  of  translation,  admirable  on  the  whole,  although 


Professor  Joiuetfs  "  Politics  of  Aristotle."  287 

qualified   by  the  inexact  rendering  of  one  phrase,  we  may  note 
the  following  from  vii.  13  : — 

We  have  said  in  the  "  Ethics,"  if  the  arguments  there  adduced  are 
of  any  value,  that  happiness  is  the  realization  and  perfect  exercise 
of  virtue,  and  this  not  conditional  but  absolute.  And  I  use  the 
term  "  conditional "  to  express  that  which  is  indispensable,  and 
"  absolute "  to  express  that  which  is  good  in  itself.  Take  the 
case  of  just  actions  :  just  punishments  and  chastisements  do  indeed 
spring  from  a  good  principle,  but  thei/  are  good  only  because  loe 
cannot  do  without  them.  It  would  be  better  that  neither  individuals 
nor  States  should  need  anything  of  the  sort ;  but  actions  which  aim 
at  honour  and  advantage  are  absolutely  the  best.  The  conditional 
action  is  only  the  choice  of  a  lesser  evil,  whereas  these  are  the 
foundation  and  creation  of  good. 

The  italicized  clause  should  be  more  exactly,  "  and  yet  they 
are  forced,  and  have  a  forced  character  of  goodness.'"'  The 
difficult  phrases  t^  viroOicrewQ,  Ttivayaala,  al  S'  stti  rag  Tifxag  kuX 
evTTopiag  are  here  successfully  managed.  But  the  references  in 
the  notes  to  the  "  Ethics,"  here  pointedly  referred  to,  are  jejune. 
In  Nic.  Eth.  iii.  8,  §§  1-5  ;  x.  9,  §§  4,  9,  10,  pertinent  matter 
will  be  found  ;  as  well  as  in  x.  6,  §  "2,  which  alone  is  quoted. 
It  may  be  added  that  in  the  Greek  rendered  by  the  above, 
ai  diKaiai  TijULMpiai  Koi  KoXaaeig  is  probably  corrupt  for  al  Sia  rag 
Tifiwpiag  KOL  KoXaaug,  which  makes  the  contrasted  examples 
greatly  more  perspicuous;  "actions  done  through  [fear  of]  punish- 
ments and  chastisements  "  will  then  be  the  easily  intelligible 
subject  of  the  clause  italicized  above. 

In  vii.  16,  10  we  find  a  passage  of  much  difficulty,  we  fear 
mistaken  by  the  editor.  Aristotle  has  been  discussing  the  best 
age  of  either  sex  for  marriage,  and  says  :  in  St  17  ^la^oxi)  tCov 
TSKViov  Toig  iJ.lv  ap^Ofxivrig  earai  Trig  aK/irig,  lav  ycvriTai  Kara 
A070V  tvdvg  17  yiv£(Tig,  rolg  Se  7;S»/  KaTaXiXvfxlvrjg  Trjg  riXiKiag 
irpog  Tov  T<x)v  epdopijKovTa  Irijjv  apiOfiov,  rendered — "  Further, 
the  children,  if  their  birth  takes  place  at  the  time  that  may 
reasonably  be  expected,  will  succeed  in  their  prime,  when  the 
fathers  are  already  in  the  decline  of  life,  and  have  nearly 
reached  their  term  of  threescore  years  and  ten."  The  words 
italicized  show  that  roXg  fxlv  and  To7g  St  are  contrasted  by  the 
editor  as  "children"  and  "  fathers '';  whereas  the  Greek  suggests 
at  once  that  they  subdivide  children  only,  classing  some  as  born 
early,  others  as  born  later  ;  and  the  context  is  agreeable  to  this, 
taking  ap\oixivr]g  Tr]g  aKpng  to  refer  to  the  father  in  his  intellec- 
tual full  vigour  (1385,  b.  32).  The  ^la'^oxh  of  the  children 
(males,  as  fathers,  alone  seem  counted)  means  their  arrival 
at  puberty ;  reached  by  a  son  born  when  his  father  was  38,  at 


28S  Professor  JoweWs  "  Politics  of  Aristotle." 

38  +  14  =  52  for  the  father's  age,  and  by  one  born  when  his 
was  55,  at  55  +  14  =  69  for  the  same. 

In  viii,  3,  13  occurs  a  doubtful  word,  ypa(j)iKi)v.  There  we 
read :  "  With  a  like  view  they  may  be  taught  drawing,  not 
to  prevent  their  making  mistakes  in  their  own  purchases,  or  in 
order  that  they  may  not  be  imposed  upon  in  the  buying  or  sell- 
ing of  articles  ? "  We  pause  to  ask,  what  possible  influence 
on  shopping  and  merchandise  "  drawing  "  would  exercise  ?  We 
scan  the  notes  in  vain  for  any  suggestion  of  an  answer.  It 
seems  likely  that  Aristotle,  governed  by  a  sense  of  etymology, 
slid  unconsciously  from  the  sense  of  ypacpiKri,  "writing,"  to 
ypaijiiKri,  "drawing";  but  more  likely  still,  that  the  passage 
has  been  "  doctored "  by  some  shallow  mind  through  which 
his  work  has  filtered.  The  duplicate  treatment  referred  to 
above  is  nowhere  more  conspicuous  than  in  this  and  the  paul. 
supr.  viii.  3,  7.  Compare  the  use  of  ypa^^avraQ,  ypacpovai,  and 
ypa(f)r)v  by  Herodotus  in  the  same  sentence  of  his  History,  iv.  3P. 

Not  knowing  what  may  be  in  store  for  us  in  the  essays 
already  referred  to  as  promised,  we  can  only  censure  omissions 
from  the  notes,  which  they  may  possibly  supply,  on  the 
ground  of  arrangement.  We  think,  then,  that  as  notes,  p.  5, 
on  i.  2,  5,  illustrate  the  Hesiodic  line  about  "  house  and  wife  and 
ox  for  plough,"  from  Wallace's  "  Russia  " — "  The  natural  labour 
unit  {i.e.,  the  Russian  peasant  family  of  the  old  type)  comprises 
a  man,  a  woman,  and  a  horse,"  the  same  line  of  illustration 
might  have  advantageously  been  followed  at  greater  length, 
especially  as  regards  the  Kw/xrj  which  follows  in  the  same  section, 
upon  which  a  wealth  of  knowledge  has  lately  been  accumulated 
by  Sir  H.  Maine  and  other  writers.  Aristotle  himself  is  believed 
to  have  written  a  now  lost  treatise  on  "  Barbarian  Customs," 
whether  or  not  subsequently  to  his  "  Politics  "  is  not  certainly 
known.  Probably  his  rigid  distinction  between  Greek  and 
Barbarian  would  have  prejudiced  his  philosophical  acumen 
against  deriving  from  such  customs  any  light  to  be  thrown  upon 
the  political  pri7)iordia  of  Greece.  He  includes,  indeed,  the 
Cyclops,  "  in  which  the  individual  savage  gave  the  law  to  his  own 
household"  (i.  p.  20),  but  he  does  so  rather  because  the  cycle  of 
Homeric  song  had  brought  it  within  the  sphere  of  illustrative 
material,  than  because  it  had  a  value  of  its  own. 

We  read  (notes,  p.  8) — "The  rise  of  the  village  from  the 
family  explains  also  the  existence  of  monarchy  in  ancient  Hellas, 
for  in  the  family  the  eldest  rules."  Here  is  exactly  the  point  at 
which  our  knowledge  of  the  patria  potestas,  with  its  ancient 
Teutonic,  Sclavonic,  and  modern  or  very  recent  Indian  equiva- 
lents, might  have  been  usefully  drawn  upon.  Thus  Baron  von 
Haxthansen,  in  his  "  Studien,"  vol.  ii.  p.  132  foil.,  remarks — 


Professor  Jowett's  "  Politics  of  Aristotle."  289 

''The  unity  of  the  family  and  the  community  of  goods  formed 

the  primitive  character  of  the  Slavonic  society The  family 

had  its  centre  of  unity  in  the  Head,  in  the  Father ;  it  could  not 

€xist  without  its  head If  the  father   was  no  longer   in 

existence^  the  eldest  brother  took  his  place,  invested  with  the 
same  paternal  power.  The  same  writer  regards  the  "  House 
community^'  of  the  Southern  Sclavs  in  the  Balkan  as  containing 
the  same  elements  precisely,  but  with  a  precarious  duration — 
mostly  for  three  generations,  often  for  more.  Three  generations 
is  also  the  general  limit  of  the  Russian  family,  and  its  Hindu 
correlative.  Then  it  sends  forth  what  Aristotle  would  call  its 
cLTTOLKiai,  and  dissolves  by  depletion.  We  see  here  a  very  close 
parallel  to  Aristotle  in  i.  2,  5,  /xaXi'crra  St  Kara  (pvcriv  eoiKev  i? 
KWfJiri  aTTOiKia  oIkigq  eivai,  ovg  KoXovcri  riveg  OfxoyaXaKTaQ,  Traidag 
re  Kal  iraidbyv  iraioag.  Aib  koi  roirpivTOv  tjSacrtXeuovro  al  iroXeig, 
KoX  vvv  in  TO.  eOvT] '  Ik  (dacnXevofi^vwvyap  avvriXOov '  iraa-a  yap  oIkiu 
l5a(TiXeveTai  viro  tov  Trpeal^VTaTOV  '  loare  koL  al  airoiKiai  Sia  Trjv 
(Tvyyiveiav.  And  then  follows  the  passage  already  referred  to  as 
cited  from  the  home-life  of  the  Homeric  Cyclops.  How  close 
Aristotle  seems  to  have  been  here  to  the  right  track,  in  which  an 
ounce  of  experimental  observation  would  have  been  worth  pounds  of 
that  logical  deduction  from  imperfect  specimens  seen  through  a 
poetic  medium,  which  forms  the  staple  of  his  account  of  the 
early  elements  of  human  society  !  But  the  earliest  forms  of 
property  and  society  were  unknown  to  him.  He  does  not  appear 
to  have  heard  of  "marriage  by  capture,"*^  and  does  not  distinguish 
'*  endogamy  "  and  ''exogamy"  (i.  xix.-xx.). 

The  "scholarship"  (in  the  technical  sense)  of  this  edition  on 
the  whole  is  rather  below  the  mark  to  which  the  Oxford  chair 
of  Greek  had  accustomed  us.  Nor  do  such  works,  even  if  their 
own  verbal  accuracy  were  perfect,  seem  to  us  likely  to  raise  the 
standard  of  that  acquirement.  Tlie  vein  of  scholarship  which  was 
struck  pure  a  generation  or  more  ago  by  such  men  as  Gaisford  and 
Blomfield,  is  now  largely  blended  in  general  culture,  gaining 
perhaps  in  breadth  what  it  loses  in  fineness.  The  custom  was  to 
cultivate  ancient  philosophy  as  founded  on  a  knowledge  of  the 
philosopher's  own  language ;  now,  Prof.  Jowett^'s  vol.  i.  would 
supersede  that  wholly,  while  his  notes  in  vol.  ii.  would 
rather  help  to  engraft  some  knowledge  of  the  language  on  an 
independent  acquaintance  with  the  philosophy.  Each  method 
has  some  merits  peculiar  to  itself.  The  older  formed  rare  fruits 
in  such  higher  minds  as  enjoy  the  Platonic  double  outlook 
towards  philosophy  and  language.  The  latter  is  likely  to  conduce 
to  the  greater  knowledge  (or  at  any  rate  the  lesser  ignorance)  of 
the  greater  number,  and  to  enable  single-barrelled  mediocrity  to 
shoot  as  a  weapon  of  precision  within  its  own  limited  ranges. 


(     290     ) 


Akt.  IV.— the  PATRIAKCH  of  the  "ACTIVE 
ORDERS." 

THE  leading  characteristic  of  our  age  is  activity :  the  continual 
progress  in  science  and  all  that  tends  to  the  material 
comfort  of  man  is  proof  enough  of  this.  Even  in  religion  this 
feature  has  become  very  predominant,  and  on  all  sides  new 
communities  and  new  confraternities  are  ever  springing  up. 
Congregations  of  religious  women,  devoted  to  the  active  works 
of  charity,  are  now  to  be  found  in  every  country  of  the  world, 
and  in  some  Catholic  countries  in  almost  every  parish.  These 
congregations  are  mainly  devoted  to  nursing  the  sick  and 
educating  young  children.  Marvellously  has  their  number 
increased  during  the  present  century,  with  the  history  of  which 
they  seem  bound  up :  the  first  of  them,  however,  was  founded 
nearly  three  hundred  years  ago  by  one  of  whom  but  little  is 
known  in  England.  This  man,  the  Blessed  Peter  Fourier,  was 
one  of  those  great  saints  raised  up  in  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries  for  the  work  of  reform,  and  the  founding  of 
orders  and  congregations  to  cope  with  the  new  dangers  which 
threatened  the  Church  of  God.  His  life,  were  it  but  better 
known,  could  not  fail  to  extort  admiration,  even  from  those 
most  inimical  to  his  faith,  in  a  country  where  activity  of  all  kinds 
is  so  appreciated  by  men  of  every  class  and  creed.  Himself  a 
Canon  Regular  and  an  exemplary  parish  priest,  he  reformed  the 
monasteries  of  his  Order  in  Lorraine,  and  founded  a  congregation 
of  canonesses,  whose  great  object  was  to  give  a  gratuitous  educa- 
tion to  poor  girls.  This  alone  would  be  sufficient  to  excite  our 
interest  at  a  time  like  the  present,  when  the  minds  of  all  thinking 
men  are  occupied  with  the  question  of  education ;  and  this  inte- 
rest should  be  increased  by  the  knowledge  that  the  venerable 
Order  to  which  he  belonged  was  widely  spread  in  these  lands 
during  the  "  Ages  of  Faith." 

Peter  Fourier,  more  commonly  known  as  "  Le  Bon  Pere  de 
Mattain court/'  was  born  at  Mirecourt  in  Lorraine,  on  November 
30,  1565,  of  parents  who  for  their  loyal  services  to  the  Duke 
of  Lorraine,  their  sovereign,  were  ennobled.  When  fifteen 
years  of  age  he  was  sent  to  the  University  of  Pont-a-Mousson, 
the  rector  of  which  was  his  relative.  Father  John  Fourier,  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus.  During  the  time  he  spent  at  the  university 
he  was  remarkable  alike  for  his  piety  and  for  his  literary 
accomplishments.     In  1586  Peter  was  clothed  with  the  habit 


The  Patriarch  of  the  "  Active  Orders"  291 

of  the  Canons  Regular  of  Saint  Augustine  in  the  ancient  abbey ''^ 
of  Chaumouzey,  near  Epinal.  He  edified  his  brethren  "by  his 
irreproachable  life  and  extraordinary  austerity,"  and  was 
admitted  to  profession  in  1587.  Two  years  later  he  was  ordained 
priest,  and  afterwards  spent  several  months  in  prayer  and  penance, 
in  preparation  for  bis  first  Mass.  Then,  by  command  of  his 
superiors,  he  again  went  to  the  University  of  Pont-k-Mousson, 
this  time  for  a  further  course  of  theology.  He  developed  an 
extraordinary  ability  for  the  study  of  patristic  theology,  and 
became  so  proficient  in  it  that  he  would  often  quote  long  extracts 
from  S.  Basil  and  S.  Chrysostom,  S.  Augustine  and  S.  Gregory, 
giving  the  exact  reference.  At  the  same  time  his  knowledge  of  the 
"Angel  of  the  School "  was  so  profound  that  his  companions  were 
accustomed  to  assert  that  should  the  Summa  of  S.  Thomas 
be  lost,  it  could  be  restored  by  Peter  Fourier.  It  was  at  this 
time  that  he  became  united  in  bonds  of  friendship  with  two  men 
who,  like  himself,  were  to  be  reformers  of  the  Orders  to  which 
they  belonged.  These  were  Servais  de  Lairuels,  who  brought  the 
practice  of  the  Premonstratensian  Canons  more  in  accord  with 
the  constitutions  of  S.  Norbert;  and  Didier  de  Lacour,  reformer 
of  the  Benedictines  of  Lorraine,  and  founder  of  the  illustrious 
congregation  of  S.  Maur,  to  which  belonged  Mabillon,  Mont- 
faucon,  and  so  many  other  great  writers  on  ecclesiastical  subjects, 
and  which  would  have  enjoyed  an  unfading  celebrity  had  it 
produced  nothing  but  its  edition  of  the  Fathers.  These  three 
friends  must  have  encouraged  each  other,  and  each  aided  the 
others'  work,  as  did  three  other  friends  of  this  age — S.  Philip,  S. 
Charles,  and  S.  Ignatius.  The  Abbey  of  Chaumouzey  had  fallen 
from  its  first  fervour,  and  when  Peter  returned  to  it  from 
Pont-k-Mousson  in  1595,  he  found  that  Charles,  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine  and  Papal  Legate,  was  attempting  a  reform  of  the 
house.  Peter  lived  an  austere  and  mortified  life,  and  helped  the 
work,  so  dear  to  his  heart,  by  his  prayers  and  example.  This 
mode  of  life  was  but  little  pleasing  to  the  canons,  who  are  said 
to  have  meditated  an  attempt  to  poison  him,  as  did  the  monks 
of  Vicovaro  S.  Benedict.     They  did  not,  however,  yield  to  this 

*  la  the  "  Catholic  Dictionary "  it  is  implied  under  the  hcading^ 
"Abbot,"  and  distinctly  asserted  under  that  of  "Prior,"  that  the  Superiors 
of  houses  of  Regular  Canons  were  never  called  Abbots.  This  is  incorrect. 
In  England  alone  there  were  at  least  twenty  abbeys  of  Canons  Regular, 
without  including  those  belonging  to  the  Premonstratensians.  Two 
Abbots,  not  Priors,  sat  in  the  House  of  Lords.  As  examples  of  abbeys 
,  still  in  existence  may  be  mentioned  those  of  S.  Peter  and  S.  Agnes  at 
Rome,  and  S.  Plorian  in  Austria.  Pennotto  and  Zunggo,  historians  of 
the  Order,  and  Benvenuti,  a  writer  on  Canon  Law,  were  Abbots.  This 
is  but  a  small  matter,  but  may  put  on  their  guard  those  who  go  for  in- 
formation on  this  subject  to  the  "  Catholic  Dictionary." 
VOL.  XV. — NO.  II.     \ Third  Series.]  x 


292  The  Patriarch  of  the  "Active  Orders" 

temptation,  but  determined  to  send  him  from  the  abbey,  and 
therefore  g^ave  him  his  choice  between  three  parishes  served  from 
it.  He  rejected  two  of  these  because  they  were  rich  benefices,* 
and  chose  the  poor  and  lowly  parish  of  Mattaincourt,  in  the 
Vosges,  often  called  the  "Little  Geneva,"  which  was  from 
his  connection  with  it  to  acquire  a  fame  co-extensive  with  the 
Catholic  Church.  Peter  took  possession  on  the  Feast  of  the 
Holy  Trinity,  in  1597,  and  began  his  ministrations  on  the 
Feast  of  Corpus  Christi  of  the  same  year.  Finding  his  parish 
the  prey  of  Calvinism  and  given  over  to  vice,  he  set  himself 
to  reform  it.  By  his  example  and  charity  he  won  the  hearts  of  all; 
so  that  within  three  years  of  his  arrival  there  were  no  "poor 
strangers,''  as  he  called  those  alienated  from  the  Church,  in  the 
parish,  and  the  converted  people  were  leading  good  lives. 

Peter,  however,  as  his  biographer  Bedel,  a  Canon  Regular  and 
contemporary,  tells  us,  saw  that  to  work  a  lasting  reform  the 
children  should  be  trained  under  Christian  influences  from  their 
infancy  ;  an  instructive  lesson  for  all  in  these  times,  when  the 
question  of  the  education  of  our  poor  is  uppermost  in  our  mind. 
Peter 

fasted,  kept  vigil,  prayed,  wore  hair  shirts,  said  mass  every  day,  so 
that  he  might  obtain  from  on  high  a  blessing  on  his  labours,  and  the 
grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  see  the  fittest  and  surest  means  of  happily 
attaining  his  object.  After  much  prayer  he  concluded  that  there  was 
nothing  better  to  be  done  than  to  take  the  children  in  hand,  even  from 
the  cradle,  to  keep  them  carefully  from  sin,  and  to  bring  their  hearts 
tinder  the  influence  of  virtue,  so  soon  as  their  mother's  milk  was  denied 
them,  hoping  that  when  the  old  sinners,  who  till  then  filled  the  land, 
should  die,  their  place  would  be  taken  by  children  so  well  nurtured 
that  the  world  would  be  changed  in  fifty  years.f 

*  This  custom  of  serving  parishes  from  canonical  abbeys  is  still  kept 
tip  in  Austria.  From  one — that  of  S.  Florian — priests  are  supplied 
for  thirty-six  parishes.  Every  member  of  every  congregation  of  OC.RR. 
is  ehgible  for  any  benefice.  Before  acceptance  the  permission  of  his 
religious  superiors  only  is  required,  and  no  Papal  dispensation  is  needed. 
(See  Benvenuti,  "  De  Capacitate  CC.RR.  ad  Beneficia  Ecclesiastica 
Secularia."     Romae.     1732.) 

t  "  A  ceste  intention  il  jeusne,  il  veille,  il  prie,  se  matte  dehaires  et  de 
ciUces,  diet  la  messe  tons  les  jours,  afin  d'obtenir  d'enhaut  la  benediction 
sur  ces  travaux,  et  les  graces  du  S.  Esprit  pour  recoguoistre  les  moyens 
les  plus  propres  et  asseures  pour  atteindre  heureusement  a  ceste  fin. 
Apres  plusieurs  prieres  il  conclut  qu'il  n'y  a  pas  d'expedient  meilleur  que 
de  prendre  la  jeunesse  des  la  sortie  du  berceau,  la  seurer  soigneusement 
du  peche,  et  arrouser  son  coeur  des  influences  de  la  vertu  au  mesme 
instant  que  le  laict  cesse  de  rafraichir  ses  leures,  esperant  que  ces  vieux 
pecheurs  qui  pour  lors  occupoient  la  terre  venans  a  mourir,  et  des  enfans 
si  bien  instruicts  prenans  leur  place,  le  monde  changeroit  de  face  en  moins 
d'nn  demy  siecle."     ("  Vie  du  T.  R.  Pere  Pierre  Fourier,"  par  J.  Bedel.) 


The  Patriarch  of  the  "Active  Orders"  293 

Having  come  to  this  conclusion,  on  the  eve  of  S.  Sebastian  (Jan. 
19),  1598,  a  day  specially  commemorated  amongst  his  religious, 
he  prayed  that  fit  instruments  might  be  found  for  the  carrying 
out  of  the  work.  Moved  by  his  sermons,  five  young  women 
determined  to  renounce  the  world,  and  to  give  themselves 
up  to  the  practice  of  virtue  and  good  works  under  the  guidance 
of  their  pastor.  Peter  in  this  saw  the  answer  of  Heaven  to 
his  prayers,  but  proceeding  slowly  and  cautiously,  he  sent  them 
to  the  Abbey  of  Poussey,*  the  house  of  a  community  of  noble 
secular  canonesses,  that  they  might  be  tried  and  trained.  When, 
after  submitting  them  to  severe  trials,  he  was  assured  of  their 
stability  and  single-minded ness,  he  wished  them  to  return  to 
Mattaincourt,  to  live  together  in  one  house,  and  to  teach  the 
girls  of  the  parish.  He  applied  to  Monsignor  de  la  Vallee,  Bishop 
of  Toul,  in  whose  diocese  Mattaincourt  was  situated,  for  permis- 
sion to  carry  his  desires  into  effect.  The  bishop,  however,  was 
startled  by  the  novelty  of  the  scheme,  and  delayed  giving  an 
answer  for  some  months :  at  length,  after  he  had  taken 
advice  and  Peter  had  pleaded  his  cause  before  him  and  a  number 
of  priests,  secular  and  regular,  he  gave  the  much-longed-for  per- 
mission in  1599,  a  year  memorable  in  the  annals  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  as  being  that  in  which  the  parent  institute  of  the 
"  Active  Orders"  received  its  first  approval.  Peter  then  recalled 
his  young  community  to  Mattaincourt,  and  hired  a  house  for 
them  to  live  in.  Their  numbers  increased  rapidly,  and  this  in- 
duced Madame  d'Aspremont,  one  of  the  canonesses  of  Poussey, 
and  aunt  to  the  Bishop  of  Toul,  to  offer  another  house  at  S.  Mihiel, 
in  the  diocese  of  Verdun.     This  made  it  necessary  for  the  whole 

*  This  celebrated  abbey  was  founded  in  1026,  and  was  formerly  a  con- 
vent of  Benedictines.  Secular  canonesses  were  communities  of  ladiea 
unbound  by  vows ;  they  could  leave  the  chapter  to  marry,  but  whilst 
members  of  it  were  occupied  in  teaching  and  other  good  works,  and 
maintained  the  Divine  office  in  choir.  We  do  not  know  if  there  are  any 
still  existing  in  Germany,  but  in  France  they  flourished  till  the  beginning 
•of  this  century.  The  writer  of  the  article  on  this  subject  in  the  "  Catholic 
Dictionary  "  speaks  of  these  convents  "  as  being  little  more  than  an  agree- 
able reti'eat,  enabling  ladies  who  did  not  wish  to  marry,  or  lolio  had  out- 
lived their  charms,  to  live  in  the  society  of  persons  of  their  own  rank 
much  as  they  would  have  done  in  the  world."  (The  italics  are  ours.)  As 
many  canonesses  left  the  convent  to  marry,  the  injustice  of  this  descrip- 
tion is  obvious  ;  and  if  the  writer  of  the  article  finds  ladies  in  the  world, 
as  a  rule,  occupied  as  were  the  members  of  these  chapters,  he  is  singularly 
fortunate  in  his  acquaintance.  Perhaps,  though,  he  has  drawn  his  ideas 
from  those  chapters,  the  members  of  which,  "  ladies  of  princely  or  noble 
rank,  followed  the  example  of  their  male  relatives,  and  repudiated  the 
Catholic  faith  "  ("  Cath.  Diet."),  instead  of  from  the  faithful  ones,  which 
were  homes  of  virtue  and  fit  to  be  used  by  men  like  Blessed  Peter  for  the 
training  of  his  future  religious. 

X  2 


294  The  Patriarch  of  the  "  Active  Orders." 

question  of  the  institute  to  be  ao^ain  investif^ated,  this  time  hy 
the  Cardinal  Eric  de  Lorraine,  Bishop  of  Verdun.  After  a 
full  inquiry,  permission  was  granted  for  a  community  to  be 
formed  at  S.  Mihiel,  and  half  of  those  at  Mattaincourt  were 
sent  there.  The  numbers  of  the  two  communities  continued  to 
increase,  so  that  when  in  1603  a  petition  was  sfent  to  B.  Peter 
from  the  town  of  Nancy,  asking  for  some  of  his  workers,  he 
was  able  to  accede  to  the  request,  and  formed  a  third  community 
by  sending  some  from  S.  Mihiel  and  some  from  Mattaincourt. 
He  appointed  as  superior  of  the  house  of  Nancy,  Alix  Leclerc, 
the  first  of  the  original  five,  who  died  in  162£  in  the  odour  of 
sanctity.  In  this  same  year  (1603)  the  Cardinal  Legate,  Charles 
of  Lorraine,  issued  letters-patent  approving  the  institute.  In 
1613,  the  first  house  in  the  kingdom  of  France,  as  it  was  then 
constituted,  was  opened  at  Chalons,  and  Isabelle  de  Louvrois,  who 
like  the  Venerable  Alix  Leclerc  was  one  of  the  first  five,  appointed 
its  superior.  So  far  the  institute  was  not  an  Order,  and 
many  of  its  members  were  not  enclosed ;  thus  free  to  take  upon 
themselves  the  performance  of  all  active  works  of  charity,  they 
did  not  confine  themselves  to  education,  but  were  accustomed  to 
visit  the  poor  and  the  sick  in  their  own  homes.  Pope  Paul  V., 
however,  determined  to  permit  them  to  take  vows,  and  by  bulls 
dated  1615  and  1616  erected  the  institute  into  a  religious  order. 
The  rule  followed  was  that  of  the  Canons  Uegular.  B.  Peter 
relates  in  the  Esprit  Primitif  that  they  looked  throughout  the 
Church  for  a  rule  already  approved  by  the  Holy  See  and  followed 
by  saints — a  rule  "  full  of  sweetness,  charity,  and  the  love  of  God/' 
and  that  they  chose  "that  of  the  great  Saint  Augustine.'''  * 

The  approval  of  the  Holy  See  was  not  easily  obtained,  on  ac- 
count of  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  permitting  the  instruction 
of  externs,  and  at  the  same  time  maintaining  the  enclosure.!  To 
insure  the  latter,  Pope  Paul  made  some  very  stringent  regulations 
so  that  the  faithful  might  not  be  scandalized  by  a  startling  in- 
novation. He  prescribed  that  a  hall  should  be  erected  outside  the 
conventual  enclosure  ;  that  to  this  hall  there  should  be  two  doors, 

*  "  En  cherchant  parmi  toute  I'Egllse  une  regie  de  religion  bien  ap- 
prouvee,  et  ci-devant  suivie  de  plusieurs  saints  et  saintes,  et  qui  soit  des 
plus  parfaites,  et  pleines  de  douceur,  et  de  charite  et  de  I'amour  de  Dieu, 
et  des  plus  conformes  a  leurs  intentions  elles  se  sont  arrdtees  a  celle  du 
grand  Saint  Augustin." 

t  "  By  the  law  of  the  Church  at  that  time  scholars  became  cloistered, 
like  the  nuns,  for  the  period  of  their  stay  in  the  enclosed  convents,  and 
could  not  return  there  at  all  if  they  came  even  once  out  of  enclosure,  or 
enter  another  without  a  distinct  permission  from  the  Congregation  of 
Bishops  and  Regulars.  Public  day  schools  taught  by  nuns  were  of 
course  impossible."  ("  Life  of  Mary  Ward,"  by  M.  0.  B.  Chambers,  vol.  i. 
f .  259.) 


The  Patriarch  of  the  "  Active  Orders."  295 

one  openinf^  into  the  cloister,  the  other  into  the  world.  These 
were  never  to  be  both  open  at  the  same  time.  The  outside  door 
was  opened  first,  and  the  children  entered;  this  door  was  then 
locked,  and  the  nuns  entered.  So  soon  as  the  classes  were 
finished,  the  nuns  left,  and  then,  the  door  to  the  cloister  having 
been  locked,  the  children  retired."^  By  this  means  the  spirit 
of  the  enclosure  was  kept,  whilst  the  nuns  were  allowed  to 
engage  in  active  work  for  and  amongst  those  living  in  the  world. 
Thus  was  permitted  by  the  Holy  See  the  first  step  towards  the 
great  work  of  religious  women  labouring  amongst  women — that 
of  permitting  persons  living  in  the  world  to  enter  and  leave  the 
cloister  day  by  day  :  the  rest  followed  in  due  course.  But  the 
difficulty  in  obtaming  permission  for  this  admission  of  externs 
into  the  enclosure  was  so  great  that  Fr.  Guinet,  who  con- 
ducted the  affairs  of  the  Congregation  in  Home,  made  a 
vow  to  fast  on  bread  and  water  till  it  was  granted,  which  was 
not  for  two  years.  Nancy  was  the  first  house  to  embrace  this 
rule,  and  thus  the  first  whose  members  were  bound  by  vows ; 
S.  Mihiel  followed  next,  and  then  Chalons.  In  1628  a  further 
change  was  made  in  tiie  institute  by  Pope  Urban  VIII.,  who 
permitted  the  nuns  to  take  a  fourth  solemn  vow  binding  them- 
selves to  the  gratuitous  education  of  poor  childreu.f  At  the  same 
time  the  institute  was  erected  into  a  congregation  of  Canonesses 
Regular  of  Saint  Augustine,  under  the  title  of  Notre  Dame. 
The  congregation  of  Notre  Dame  increased  apace,  and  before 
the  death  of  Blessed  Peter  in  1640  it  had  spread  over  France,  into 
Westphalia,  and  even  to  northern  Italy.  In  all  there  were 
thirty-two  convents,  mostly  with  about  forty  canonesses  in  each, 
though  in  some  there  were  as  many  as  seventy. 

Side  by  side  with  the  religious  there  continued  to  be  societies  of 
pious  women  living  in  community  and  engaged  in  active  work — 
at  first  not  bound  by  vows,  but  later  on,  when  permitted  by  the 
Holy  See,  taking  simple  ones:  notably  in  Canada,  to  which  country 
the  work  of  Blessed  Peter  Fourier  spread  in  a  remarkable  way. 
M.  Chomedey  de  Maisonneuve,  brother  of  Sister  Louise,  one  of  the 
canonesses  of  Troye-,  was  appointed  Governor  of  Canada  He 
was  a  pious  man,  and  contemplated  taking  his  sister  and  some  of 
the  other  canonesses  to  Montreal,  Ville  Main  as  it  was  then  called. 
Circumstances    prevented   this,   but  at   their  request   Margaret 

*  Vide  Zunggo,  "  Hist.  Gen.  Can.  Eeg."  (Eatisbonae,1745),  vol.  ii.  p.  286. 

t  In  this  the}'^  differed  froiu  the  Ursuliues,  who  "  have  for  their  imme- 
■diate  and  more  distinctive  object  the  education  of  the  npper  and  middle 
classes — the  poor  only  forming  a  matter  of  secondary  consideration." 
("Nano  Kagle:  her  Life  and  Labours,"  by  Rev.  W.  Hutch,  D.D.) 
Another  institute — that  of  the  Blessed  Virgin — having  education  for  its 
special  object,  was  "approved"'  in  17U3. 


296  The  Patinarch  of  the  "  Active  Orders." 

Bourgeoys,  President  of  the  Congregation  externe,  or  Con- 
fraternity of  our  Lady,  attached  to  the  convent  of  Troyes^  and 
directed  by  its  canonesses,  gladly  went;  and  on  the  feast  of 
S.  Catherine,  1657,  opened  a  school  at  Montreal,  in  which,  in 
accordance  with  the  principles  of  Blessed  Peter  and  his  congrega- 
tion, the  poor  were  taught  gratuitously.  The  school  was  a  great 
success ;  but  Margaret  felt  the  need  of  fellow-workers,  and  there- 
fore returned  to  France  to  seek  for  them  among  the  members  of 
the  Congregation  externe  of  Troyes,  to  which  she  had  formerly 
belonged.  The  canonesses  assisted  her,  and  three  members  of 
the  confraternity  volunteered  for  the  work,  to  whom  a  fourth 
was  added  from  Paris.  Having  returned  to  Montreal,  she  opened 
a  boarding  as  well  as  a  day  school,  and  also  a  society  for  poor 
girls  who  had  left  the  latter,  similar  to  the  confraternities 
attached  to  the  convents  in  France.  This  confraternity  still 
exists,  and  numbers  about  five  hundred  members.  Fresh  workers 
volunteered,  and  in  1676  these  noble  women  were  formed  into 
the  "  Congregation  of  Notre  Dame,"  after  many  difficulties, 
arising  chiefly  from  the  non-enclosure,  had  been  overcome ;  and 
then  the  venerable  foundress  declared  that  God  had  permitted 
her  to  accomplish  "the  design  of  the  religious  of  the  Congregation 
of  Notre  Dame" — i.e.,  of  the  canonesses  founded  by  Blessed  Peter 
Fourier.  The  congregation  was  definitely  constituted  and  its 
rule  approved  in  1698  :  the  members  take  the  four  vows  like  the 
canonesses,  but  simple  ones.  Though  this  congregation  is  per- 
fectly independent  of  the  canonesses,*  "  yet  it  is  truly  the  work 
of  the  nuns  of  Troyes  by  the  hand  of  their  pupil ;  those  of  the 
congregation  of  Canada  are  indeed  the  daughters  of  Blessed  Peter 
Fourier,  and  of  the  mother  Alix  Le  Clerc."t  Margaret 
Bourgeoys  died  in  1700;  the  cause  of  her  canonization  was 
introduced  in  1871,  and  she  was  declared  Venerable  in  1879  :  the 
cause  of  her  beatification,  like  that  of  Ven,  Alix,  is  in  pi'ogress. 
At  the  death  of  Ven.  Margaret  there  were  ten  houses  in  Canada ; 
there  are  now  ninety -six,  spread  over  the  whole  of  British  North 
America  and  the  United  States,  with  876  professed  members — all 
under  a  Superioress-General,  who  resides  at  the  Mother  House  of 
Montreal.     They  have  schools  of  all  kinds  for  rich  and  poor. 

The  French  Revolution  nearly  destroyed  the  Order  in  France, 
but  with  quieter  times  it  revived.  Some  few  houses  never  ceased 
to  maintain  regular  observance  :  amongst  others,  that  of  Mols- 
heim,  in  Alsace,  kept  up  its  discipline;  this  community  was 
obliged  to  leave  Dieuze  on  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  but 

*  Neither  institute  is  in  any  way  connected  with  the  more  modem, 
congregations  bearing  the  same  name. 

f  Chapia,  "  Histoire  du  B.  Pierre  Fourier." 


The  Patriarch  of  the  "Active  Orders."  297 

only  to  move  to  Molsheira,  so  that  it  never  left  Frencli  soil,  and 
traces  its  history  uninterruptedly  to  Blessed  Peter.  In  Ger- 
many, Holland,  and  Belgium  too,  the  Order  flourished  ;  but  on 
the  breaking  out  of  the  Bismarckian  persecution  the  German 
nuns  moved  to  Holland. 

Provision  is  made  for  the  education  of  the  higher  classes  as 
well  as  of  the  poor,  and  in  France  at  any  rate  the  daughters  of 
the  elite  of  society  are  educated  by  the  canonesses  of  Notre  Dame; 
who  in  Paris,  amongst  other  houses,  have  the  great  educational 
establishments  of  Les  Oiseaux  and  Le  Boule.  The  education  given 
to  the  poor  has  never  been  confined  to  books.  Blessed  Peter  him- 
self says  in  his  account  of  the  "  the  primitive  and  legitimate " 
spirit  of  the  institute,  that  first  of  all  the  girls  were  to  be  taught 
to  fear  and  love  God,  and  then  all  the  duties  of  a  good  Christian. 
After  this,  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  and  the  different 
kinds  of  manual  work  suitable  to  girls,  and  such  as  would  be  a 
means  of  livelihood  to  them :  the  kind  of  education,  in  short, 
for  which  Catholics  are  now  contending  in  England. 

The  spirit  of  the  Order  is  best  described  by  the  saintly  founder 
himself.  After  having  told  his  nuns  that,  though  they  might 
have  served  God  unbound  by  vows,  they  had  embraced  their 
state  of  their  own  free  will,  he  continues  : 

Having  become  religious,  you  might  have  contented  yourselves 
with  working  out  your  own  salvation  as  so  many  others  do ;  but 
since  you  Avould  be  more  pleasing  (to  God)  if  you  also  toiled  to  save 
others,  you  must  try  to  do  so.  Since  there  is  no  way  by  which  you 
could  save  more  souls  than  by  teaching  little  girls,  it  seems  to  me  that 
if  you  are  willing  to  undertake  the  work  you  ought  to  determine  to 
teach  them,  taking  them  in  their  baptismal  innocence,  and  keeping 
them  in  this  state  of  purity  for  their  whole  life.  And  since  God 
would  be  better  pleased  if  you  were  bound  to  this  work  of  teaching  in 
Buch  a  way  that  you  would  be  unable  to  give  it  up,  beginning  to-day 
and  leaving  off  to-morrow,  you  must  find  a  way  of  engaging  your- 
selves irrevocably  and  for  ever.  And  lastly,  since  it  will  be  more 
pleasing  to  God  to  teach  gratuitously,  and  purely  for  love  of  Him, 
you  must  teach  for  nothing,  poor  and  rich  alike.* 

*  "Estans  religieuses  vous  pourries  vous  contenter  de  faire  vostre  salut 
comma  tant  d'autres,  mais  parcequo  vous  plaisies  davantage  si  vous 
travaillies  encore  a  sauver  les  autres  il  y  faudra  tascher,  et  d'autant 
qu'il  n'y  a  pas  moyen  pour  vous  de  sauver  plus  de  personnes  qu'eu 
instruisant  les  jeunes  lilies  il  me  semble  si  vous  en  voulies  prendre  la 
peine  qu'il  vous  faudroit  resoudre  de  les  enseigner  et  faire  en  sorte  que 
les  prenans  toutes  innocentes  comme  elles  sortent  du  Baptesme,  vous  les 
conservies  dans  cetto  nettete  tout  le  long  de  leur  vie,  et  parceque  Dieu  a 
plus  agreable  que  I'on  soit  oblige  a  cette  instruction  en  sorte  qu'on  ne 
puisse  jamais  la  quitter,  que  d'enseiguer  auiourd'huy  et  cesser  demain, 
d  faudra  s'il  y  a  moyen  trouver  quelque  fa90u  de  s'y  engager  irrevo- 


298  The  Patriarch  of  the  "  Active  Orders." 

We  have  here  an  epitome  of  the  spirit  of  the  "  Active  Orders  " 
of  women  in  the  Church,  given  by  him  who  may  rightly  be 
regarded  as  their  Patriarch.  Bedei  tells  us  that  the  canonesses 
of  Notre  Dame  acted  up  to  it,  and  that  they  believed  that  con- 
vent to  be  most  flourishing  in  which  the  work  of  teaching  was 
most  vigorously  performed.* 

We  have  seen  that  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  made  an  attempt 
to  reform  the  Canons  Regular.  His  efforts  were  not  crowned 
with  success,  and  after  his  death  the  Holy  See  commanded  the 
Bishop  of  Toul  to  make  another  attempt.  The  bishop  asked 
that  Blessed  Peter  might  be  associated  with  him  in  the  work, 
and  after  this  had  been  granted  made  a  visitation  of  the  Canons 
Regular  in  his  diocese.  Six  only  were  found  anxious  for  reform, 
and  these  the  bishop  determined  to  send  to  some  house  where 
they  might  be  trained  by  Peter.  As  abbot  in  convniendani  of 
Pierremont,  the  bishop  wished  to  send  his  small  community 
there ;  but  the  opposition  of  the  canons  of  this  abbey  rendered 
his  scheme  abortive,  and  be  turned  his  eyes  to  the  Premonstra- 
tensian  Abbey  of  Pont-k-Mousson,  the  abbot  of  which  was  Peter's 
old  friend  Servais  de  Lairuels.  The  worthy  abbot  and  his  com- 
munity would  gladly  have  helped  on  the  reform,  but  Charles, 
Duke  of  Lorraine,  heard  of  what  was  passing,  and  interfered  to 
prevent  Blessed  Peter  and  his  companions  going  there.  As 
commendatory  abbot  of  the  "  Canonica  "  of  S.  Remi  at  Lune- 
ville,  he  ofiered  them  an  asylum  in  that  house,  and  compelled  its 
reluctant  inmates  to  submit.  The  noviciate  of  the  reform  was 
established  in  1623.  To  the  original  seven  others  were  soon 
added,  and  on  the  Feast  of  the  Annunciation,  1624,  the  first  pro- 
fessions were  made.  The  abbey  was  then  handed  over  to  the 
newly  professed,  the  former  abbot  and  his  canons  retiring,  and 
receiving  pensions.  From  Luneville  the  reform  spread,  and 
within  four  years  it  was  accepted  by  eight  abbeys  in  Lorraine. 
These  were  in  1629  approved  by  the  Holy  See  as  the  Congre- 
gation of  "  Our  Saviour.^''  Peter  was  elected  General,  but 
declined  the  post,  which  was  then  conferred  on  his  friend  Father 
Guinet.      Father   Guinet  died   in    1632,    and  then,  after  two 

cablement  et  pour  tousiours,  et  enfin  attendu  qu'il  sera  plus  agreable  a 
Dieu  d'enseigner  sans  aucune  recompense,  et  purement  pour  I'amour  de 
luy  que  de  prendre  de  I'argent,  il  faut  enseigner  pour  rien,  pauvres  et 
riches  indifferemment." 

*  "Mais  ce  qui  les  distingue  c'est  de  chercher  Dieu  par  la  voye  de 
ceste  instruction,  et  comrae  la  diffei'ence  est  toujours  la  piece  la  plus 
pretieuse  comme  la  raison  chez  I'liomme,  elles  font  plus  d'estat  de  ceste 
instruction  que  de  toutes  les  autres  occupations  de  leur  institut,  et 
croyent,  sans  se  tromper,  que  ce  monastere  est  le  plus  fleurrissant  de  ce 
riche  parterre,  oii  cest  exercise  est  en  plus  grande  vigueur,  et  plus 
soigneusement  conservd." 


The  Patriarch  of  the  "  Active  Orders."  299 

unanimous  elections,  Blessed  Peter  was  constrained  to  take  his 
place  ;  he  accepted  the  post  as  unwillingly  as  the  great  legislator 
of  his  Order,  S.  Augustine,  accepted  the  bishopric  of  Hippo. 

To  know  something  of  the  history  and  spirit  of  the  Order  to 
which  a  saint  belongs  enliances  our  interest  in  the  story  of  his 
life,  and  enables  us  to  appreciate  the  hidden  sources  of  his 
action.  Every  Order  has  its  own  work  and  its  own  spirit ;  and 
Peter  Fourier,  in  his  zeal  for  apostolic  works,  his  tender 
love  of  the  Immaculate  Mother  of  God,  whose  praises  were  on 
his  dying  lips,  and  his  devotion  to  the  Divine  Office,  was  a 
model  Canon  Regular.  As  no  history  of  this  venerable  Order 
exists  in  English,  it  will  be  well  here  briefly  to  note  a  few  facts 
relating  to  it* — a  task  the  more  grateful  on  account  of  its  former 
splendour  in  these  lands,  and  its  revival  in  our  midst  in  these 
later  days.  We  learn,  then,  from  the  Bulls  of  the  Sovereign 
Pontiffs,  and  from  the  writings  of  the  great  historians  of  the 
Church,  that  the  Order  of  Canons  Regular  was  instituted  by  the 
Apostles  themselves.  Thus  Benedict  XII.  says  it  was  founded 
"  by  the  glorious  disciples  of  Christ  in  the  primitive  Church ;  "  t 
Pascal  II.  that  it  was  "  instituted  by  the  Apostles ;"  whilst  S. 
Pius  V.  writes  :  ''  And  so,  we  think,  beloved  sons,  that  the  Canons 
Regular  of  the  Lateran  congregation,  tuho  took  their  origin  from 
the  Apostles,  and  who  were  a  second  time  born  to  the  world  by 
the  way  of  reformation  from  the  same  Augustine  their  reformer, 
rightly  claim  that  they  should,  in  processions  and  other  public 
acts,  precede  all  other  ecclesiastical  persons,  secular  or  regular.^'  J 

Suarez  asserts  that  in  apostolic  times  there  were  three  great 
centres  of  the  regular  clergy — Rome,  Jerusalem,  and  Alexandria. 
•  At  Rome  they  were  founded  by  S.  Clement,  Pope  and  martyr, 
for  wiiom,  after  his  victor}^,  a  shrine  "  was  prepared  by 
angelic  hands,''^  who  third  after  S.  Peter  ruled  the  Universal 
Church,  and  whose  name,  S.  Paul  told  the  Philippians,  "  was 
written  in  the  book  of  life."  The  regular  clergy  flourished,  and 
about  the  year  4^92,  were  established   by  Pope  S.  Gelasius  in  the 

*  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  origin  and  nature  of  the  Order  is 
admirably  dealt  with  in  ''Suarez  on  the  Religions  State"  (translated 
by  F.  Humphrey,  S.J.).  Accounts  of  diflerent  houses,  too,  are  to  be 
found  in  Dugdale's  "  Monasticon,"  and  of  the  canonesses  in  Murphy's 
"Terra  Incognita;"  but  beyond  these  we  know  of  nothing  which  can 
be  relied  upon. 

t  Bulla,  "Ad  decorem,"  1339. 

X  "  Cum  itaque,  sicut  accepimus,  dilecti  filii,  Canonici  regulares  congi'e- 
gationisLateranensis,  qui  ab  Apostolis  originem  traxeruntquique  abeodem 
Augustino  eorum  reformatore  iterum  jDer  reformationis  viam  mundo 
geniti,  merito  praetendere  possunt,  se  omnes  alias  personas  ecclesiasticas, 
tarn  saeculares  quam  regulares  in  pi-ccessionibus  et  aliis  actibus  publicis 
prcBcedere  debere."     (Bulla  pro  can.  Lat.) 


300  The  Patriarch  of  the  "Active  Orders." 

Patriarchal  Basilica  of  S.  John  Lateran,  where  they  lived  in 
common  *•' secundum  regulam  sub  synctis  apostolis  constitutara." 
S.  Gelasius  had  been  a  disciple  of  S.  Augustine,  the  illustrious 
Bishop  of  Hippo  and  doctor  of  the  Church,  whose  reform  and 
rule  he  introduced  among  the  clergy  of  his  cathedral.  From 
S.  Jobn  Lateran,  "the  mother  and  mistress  of  all  churches,"  the 
reform  spread,  till  at  length  the  rule  of  S.  Augustine  was- 
universally  accepted  by  the  Canons  Regular,  and  the  saint 
himself  venerated  as  their  legislator.*  The  Lateran  canons 
were  reformed  by  Pope  S.  Gregory  the  Great,  and  there  are 
good  reasons  for  believing  that  the  missionaries  sent  to  England 
by  him  belonged  to  this  Order.  They  wei-e  again  reformed 
by  Alexander  IL,  who  introduced  some  canons  from  S.  Frigdian 
of  Lucca,  a  house  of  strict  observance.  The  Canons  Regular 
served  the  Basilica  of  S.  John  Lateran  from  the  time  they  were 
put  in  possession  by  Pope  S.  Gelasius  till  1331,  a  period  of  eight 
hundred  years.  Boniface  VIIL  replaced  them  by  secular  canons, 
and  later  on  an  attempt  was  made  to  have  the  basilica  served 
by  regulars  and  .=eeulars  at  the  same  time.  This  was  not  a  success, 
and  an  Italian  historian  gives  a  quaint  description  of  one  of  the 
(juarrels  which  ensued.f     It  was  on  the  feast  of  Corpus  Domini, 

*  In  the  "  Catholic  Dictionary,"  to  which  reference  has  been  made 
already,  the  writer  of  the  article  on  "  Augustinian  Canons"  wonders  how, 
if  S.  Augustine  formulated  a  rule,  S.  Benedict  could  be  regarded  as  the 
founder  of  Western  Monacliism.  The  answer,  however,  may  be  found  by 
referring  to  the  article  "Monk"  in  the  same  Dictionary,  where  it  ia 
correctly  stated  that  "  the  rule  of  S.  Austin  was  perhaps  rather  designed 
for  regular  clerks  than  for  monks,  who  for  a  long  time  after  their  insti- 
tution were  all  laymen."  The  distinction  between  "  Monk  "  and  "  Eegu- 
lar  Cleric  "  is  drawn  out  at  full  length  by  Suarez,  who  tells  us  that  there 
are  four  differences  between  the  two,  of  which  the  first  is  "  that  an  Order 
of  Clerics  is  in  itself  ordained  for  Divine  mysteries,  while  an  Order  of 
Monks  is  not  so  ordained  "  (see  Suarez  on  "  Keligious  State,"  translated 
by  Humphrey).  S.  Thomas,  too,  treats  of  the  distinction  in  the  Summa 
2a.  2£B.,  q.  189,  art.  8.  No  one  contends  that  S.  Augustine  composed  a 
rule,  only  that  he  formulated,  and  probably  reduced  to  writing,  a  rule 
promulgated  by  the  Apostles  (see  Possidius'  "  Vita  S.  Augustini,"  cap.  5). 
It  is  not  always  necessary  either  for  an  institute  to  have  its  rule  in 
writing :  e.y.,  the  Oratory  was  for  many  years  after  approbation  with- 
out a  written  rule  (see  "Life  of  S.Philip,"  by  Cardinal  Capecelatro).  It 
may  be  remarked,  too,  that  the  writer  of  the  article  in  the  "  Catholic 
Dictionary  "  takes  a  different  view  of  the  history  of  the  Canons  Regular 
from  that  maintained  inter  alios  by  Pascal  II.,  Benedict  XII.,  Eugenius- 
IV.,  Sixtus  IV.,  Pius  IV.,  S.  Pius  V.,  and  Suarez. 

■f  "  Dell'  anno  Domini  1440  di  Maggio  la  festa  del  corpo  di  Cristo,  li 
Fraticelli  di  Santo  Joanni  volevano  portare  lo  corpo  di  Cristo,  e  li  canonici 
non  volevano,  perche  lo  volevano  portare  essi.  Per  questa  casione  fu 
levato  il  tumulto,  e  furon  cacciati  da  Santo  Joanni  a  furore  di  Popolo,  e 
furono  cacciati  colle  pietre,  e  queUi  fraticelli  si  difendevano  molto  ))ene  : 
e  per  questa  casione  andarono  da  Papa  Eugenio,  e  parte  ne  rimase  nel 


The  Patriarch  of  the  "  Active  Orders."  301- 

1440^  and  the  regular  canons  (fraticelli)  wished  to  bear  the 
sacred  Host  in  the  procession,  as  did  also  the  seculars  (canonici} 
The  dispute  caused  the  mob  to  break  into  riot,  and  the  regulars 
were  driven  from  the  basilica  by  the  people,  who  threw  stones  at 
them,  but  the  historians  relate  that  the  "  fraticelli "  defended 
themselves  "  molto  bene/^  The  Pope  decreed  that  the  regulars 
should  be  restored  to  the  basilica,  and  accompanied  to  it  by  the 
Conservators  of  liome,  and  the  mayors  (capoHoni)  of  the  districts- 
into  which  the  city  was  divided.  In  1446  Eugenius  IV.  gave 
them  sole  possession  of  S.  John  Lateran,  which  act  was  confirmed 
by  Nicholas  I.,  but  they  were  eventually  displaced,  and  the 
basilica  made  over  to  secular  canons.  There  were  formerly  forty-^ 
five  abbeys  and  seventy-nine  other  houses  of  this  congregation 
in  Italy,  besides  many  convents  of  canonesses  (Pennotto).  All  that 
remained  were  seized  in  1866  by  the  Piedmontese  Government. 
After  the  capture  of  theEternal  City  by  the  agents  of  the  revolution- 
in  1870,  the  greater  number  of  the  canons  of  the  Lateran  congre- 
gation were  expelled,  though  a  few  were  left  to  serve  the  churches. 
There  are  two  churches  belonffinf]:  to  this  conirreffation  in  Rome  : 
"  S.  Pietro  in  Vincoli,^^  where  the  chains  which  bound  the  Prince 
of  the  Apostles  are  kept,  but  which  is  chiefly  known  to  tourists 
for  the  "  Moses  "  of  Michael  Angelo ;  and  that  of  "  Sant^  Agnese' 
fuori  le  mura,"  where  the  lambs  are  blessed  on  the  patronal  feast. 
The  revolution  which  has  nearly  destroyed  this  Order  in  Italy  has 
been  an  unwitting  benefactor  to  England,  for  through  it  the  Con- 
gregation of  the  Lateran  is  now  established  in  this  country.  In 
Jerusalevi,  the  Order  was  established  by  S.  James  the 
Apostle,  and  first  bishop :  and  the  Congregation  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  flourished  for  long  in  this  city.  Driven  away  by  the 
Moslem,  the  canons  were  restored  by  Godfrey  de  Bouillon,  the 
first  Latin  king,  and  remained  till  the  final  loss  of  the  Holy  City, 
when  they  sought  a  refuge  in  Europe.  James  de  Vitry,  a  Canon 
Regular  of  Oignies,  afterwards  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem  and  Car- 
dinal, relates  that  the  Canons  Regular  served,  amongst  other 
churches,  that  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  one  on  Mount  Sion,  and 
another  on  Mount  Olivet.  The  Patriarch  was  abbot  of  the  Churclt 
of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  by  the  canons  of  which  he  was  elected. 
At  Alexandria,  the  Canons  Regular  were  instituted  by  S.  Mark, 
the  disciple  of  S.  Peter,  and  Evangelist;  the  institute  was  soon 
adopted  in  the  neighbouring  countries,  and,  as  is  stated  by 
Eusebius  of  Csesarea,  spread  over  the  whole  East. 


Palazzo,  e  alio  Papa  li  seppe  molto  rio  ;  epero  commando  alio  Patriarca, 
e  alio  castellano,  che  fussero  rimessi  li  Fraticelli  in  Santo  Joanni,  e  furono 
ad  accompagnarli  li  Conservatori  e  26  Caporioni."  (Marangoni,  "  Istoria 
della  Capella  di  S.  Sanctorum,"  p.  192.) 


.302  The  Patriarch  of  the  "  Active  Orders" 

In  Europe  the  canons  quickly  multiplied,  aud  many  congrega- 
tions were  formed.  The  chief  of  these  was  that  of  S.  John 
Lateran,  the  history  of  whose  origin  has  already  been  I'elated ; 
to  this  was  united  in  1823  the  congregation  of  S,  Saviour  of 
Bologna.  Of  the  many  others,  four  may  be  mentioued 
as  specimens  of  the  rest:  "  S.  Ruf"  took  its  origin  from 
the  clergy  established  at  Avignon  by  S.  Rufus,  a  disciple 
of  the  apostles  and  companion  of  S,  Lazarus  and  S.  Mary 
Magdalene,  and  at  one  time  had  five  hundred  abbeys ;  to 
this  congregation  belonged  Adrian  IV,,  the  only  English 
Pope  :  "  S.  Victor  and  S.  Genevieve/'  which  had  thirty  abbeys 
and  one  hundred  and  twenty  other  houses  in  France,  besides 
many  convents  of  canonesses,  and  to  which  belonged  Hugh, 
Adam,  and  Richard  of  S.Victor:  "  Windesheim,"  founded  by 
Gerard  of  Daventer,  numbered  amongst  its  sons  Thomas  a 
Kempis,  the  author  of  the  "  Imitation  of  Christ "  :  "  Pre- 
montre,"  instituted  by  S.  Norbert  in  1120,  eleven  years  after  its 
foundation  had  five  hundred  relijj-ious  in  the  mother  house  alone. 

The  Canons  Regular  profess  a  life  whose  end  is  essentially 
"  apostolic.^'  In  the  fifth  century,  as  we  know  from  Cancellieri, 
their  chief  work  was  the  "administration  of  the  sacraments  and 
the  offering  of  public  prayers :"  *  it  is  the  same  now.  The 
"  public  prayers,"  or  liturgical  offices,  are  offered  with  the 
accompaniment  of  the  greatest  possible  splendour.  But  the 
canons  do  not  confine  their  labours  to  the  strictly  ecclesi- 
astical works ;  nothing,  unless  it  be  incompatible  with  the 
duties  of  clerics,  is  rejected.  Thus,  for  example,  the  hospice 
of  the  great  S.  Bernard  is  maintained  and  served  by  them ; 
as  was  formerly  the  hospital  of  Santo  Spirito  in  Rome. 

To  the  various  congregations  many  illustrious  men  have  be- 
longed. Amongst  these  have  been  thirty-six  Popes,  including 
S.  Leo  the  Great,  whose  "  Tome  "  is  inseparably  connected  with 
the  Council  of  Chalcedon;  S.  Patrick,  the  apostle  of  Ireland; 
S.  Remi,  apostle  of  the  Franks,  and  probably  S.  Augustine, 
the  apostle  of  the  English  ;  S.  Isidore  of  Seville,  who  is  spoken 
of  by  the  eighth  Council  of  Toledo  as  "  the  excellent  doctor. 


*  "  Ut  tradidit  Panvinius,  Rasponio  concinente,  Gelasius  Papa  circa 
annum  CDXCii.  clericcs,  qui  ab  arctiori  vitae  institute  canonici,  id  est 
regulares  vocati  sunt  Laterani  collocavit,  qui  Prosbyterorum  veterum  tam 
Cardinalium  quam  non  Cardinalium  loco,  Basilicse  Lateranensi  speciatim 
addicti  quotidie  deservireut,  in  administrandis  pra3cipue  sacramentis,  et 
publicis  precibus  fiendis."  (Cancellieri,  "  De  Secretariis,"  torn.  iii.  fol. 
1595.)  And  again  :  "  Canonicorum  porro  priscis  illis  temporibus  praeci- 
puum,  ut  dixi,  munus  erat,  sacramenta  plebi  Dei  administrare.  Nam  in 
psallendo  minus  erant  occupati,  quum  eo  tempore  psalmodiam  adhiic 
lidelis  populi  frequentarent."     (Ibid.  fol.  1597.) 


The  Fatriarck  of  the  "  Active  Orders."  303 

the  late  ornament  of  the  Catholic  Church,  the  most  learned 
man,  given  to  enli<;hten  the  latter  ages,  always  to  be  named 
with  reverence ; "  S.  Ildephonsus,  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  and 
S.  Lawrence  O'Toole,  Arcii bishop  of  Dublin  ;  Peter  Lombard,  the 
*'  Master  of  the  Sentences,"  and  Adam  of  S.  Victor,  the  mediaeval 
poet ;  S.  Bruno,  founder  of  the  Carthusians,  who  whilst  he 
was  scholasticus  of  the  Church  of  Rheims  "  was  looked  upon  as 
the  light  of  churches,  the  doctor  of  doctors,  the  glory  of  the  two 
nations  of  Germany  and  France,  the  ornament  of  the  age,  the 
model  of  good  men,  and  the  mirror  of  the  world  ;  ^^  "^  S.  Dominic, 
who  founded  the  Order  of  Preachers  to  which  he  gave  the  rule 
of  Saint  Augustine,  and  who,  whilst  yet  a  Canon  Regular -^  of 
the  Church  of  Osma,  suppressed  the  Albigensian  heresy,  and  in- 
stituted the  devotion  of  the  E-osary.  To  these  must  be  added 
four  of  the  nineteen  martyrs  of  Gorkum  j  and  at  least  one  of 
those  English  martyrs  whose  cause  is  now  before  the  Holy  See. 

As  one  of  the  great  objects  of  the  canonical  Order  is  the  per- 
formance of  the  liturgical  offices,  so  one  of  its  chief  characteristics 
is  its  devotion  to  the  Blessed  Mother  of  God.  S.  Isidore  of  Seville 
and  S.  Ildephonsus  of  Toledo  wrote  treatises  in  defence  of  her  per- 
petual virginity ;  S.  Ildephonsus  and  S.  Norhert  received  re- 
markable favours  from  her ;  "  The  Children  of  Mary,"  perhaps 
the  largest  confraternity  in  the  Church,  and  the  Kosary,  its 
most  popular  devotion,  are  due  to  the  canons.  In  their  churches 
votive  Masses  in  her  honour  are  frequent.  May  we  not  trace  to 
the  influence  of  this  Order  some  customs  of  Catholic  England, 
the  "  Dowry  of  Our  Lady/'  in  which  "it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  the  psalmody  of  the  Divine  office  continueduninterrupted,even 
in  the  smaller  parish  churches,  from  their  first  erection  in  Saxon 
times  to  the  Reformation,"  J  and  in  many,  if  not  all,  of  whose 
cathedrals  the  Little  Office  and  votive  Mass  of  the  Blessed  Virgin 
were  daily  said  in  addition  to  the  Office  and  Mass  of  the  day,  even 
on  feasts  of  Our  Lady.  §  Before  the  destruction  of  the  monas- 
teries by  Henry  VIII.  the  canons  possessed  three  hundred  houses 
and  some  of  the  finest  churches  in  England.  Amongst  these 
were  Carlisle  and  Bristol,  Bolton  and  Hexham,  Wroxton  and 
Newstead,  Plympton  and  Christchurch,  Darley  and  Walsingham. 
To  the  shrine  of  "  Our  Lady  of  Walsingham  "Ij  pilgrimages  were 

*  Alban  Butler,  who  quotes  an  old  writer  without  giving  his  name. 

■f  Lacordaire,  "  Histoire  de  Saint  Dominique." 

%  Bridgett,  ''  History  of  the  Holy  Eucharist  in  Great  Britain,"  ii.  159. 

§  Rub.  Brev.  Sarishur. 

II  This,  the  most  celebrated  shrine  of  Our  Lady  in  England,  was 
founded  in  1061.  The  chapel  was  in  all  respects  like  to  the  Holy  House 
of  Nazai-eth,  which  was  translated  to  Loretto  in  1294.  The  chapel  stood 
iipart  from  the  Priory  Church ;   foreigners  of    all    nations  and   many 


M4>  The  Patriarch  of  the  "Active  Orders." 

only  less  frequent  than  to  that  of  S,  Thomas  of  Canterbury, 
who  was  an  alumnus  of  the  Canonical  Order.  A.  friend  of 
S.  Thomas — S.  Gilbert  of  Sempringham — founded  the  only 
pre-Reformation  religious  institute  of  distinctly  English 
origin.  The  Order  of  Gilbertines  included  both  men  and 
women,  who  lived  under  the  same  roof,  though  of  course 
entirely  separated.  To  the  women  he  gave  the  rule  of 
^.  Benedict,  to  the  men  that  of  Canons  Regular*  To  the  Abbey 
of  Darley,  which  has  been  already  mentioned,  was  attached  a 
school  at  Dei'by,  founded  in  1160,  by  a  Bishop  of  Lichfield;  this 
school  is  still  flourishing,  and  is  the  oldest  in  the  kingdom. 
•There  were  two  mitred  abbots — Waltham  and  Cirencester — who 
sat  among  the  peers  of  England.  In  Ireland  the  Order  took  the 
same  position  as  that  of  S.  Benedict  in  England,  and  nine  of  its 
abbots  and  priors  sat  in  the  Parliament  of  Ireland — namely,  those 
of  Christ  Church  and  All  Hallows  Dublin,  Kells,  Connell,  Louth, 
Athassel,  Killagh,  Newtown,  and  Raphoe  ("  Cath.  Diet/').  At  the 
time  of  the  Reformation  the  canonical  houses  in  Ireland  out- 
numbered all  other  religious  communities  put  together;  the 
surest  way  to  preferment  was  to  belong  to  this  Order,  and  nearly 
all  the  cathedrals  and  large  churches  were  served  by  its  members 
(Helyot).  It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  S.  Patrick  was  a 
Canon  Regular;  there  are  proper  second  nocturn  lessons  and 
"  Martyrology  "  for  him  in  the  Breviary  of  the  Lateran  Con- 
gregation, in  all  of  whose  churches  a  Plenary  Indulgence  may 
be  gained  on  his  feast.  S.  Erigdian,  who  was  Bishop  of  Lucca, 
and  founded  the  Congregation  of  Canons  in  that  city  circ.  a.d. 
556,  was  an  Irishman.  In  Scotland  many  of  the  chief  monas- 
teries belonged  to  the  canons ;  amongst  others,  S.  Andrews, 
swhose  prior  was  mitred,  and  took  precedence  of  all  abbots  and 
priors  in  the  Scottish  House  of  Lords  ;  Scone,  in  which  abbey 
the  kings  of  Scotland  were  crowned ;  Holyrood  House,  founded 

princes  went  in  pilgrimage  to  it,  so  that  Blomefield  says  "  the  number 
of  her  devotees  seemed  only  to  equal  those  of  Our  Lady  of  Loretto  in 
Italy."  He  also  says  that  the  common  people  in  their  simplicity  believed 
"that  the  Milky  Way  was  appointed  by  Providence  to  point  out  the 
particular  place  and  residence  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and  was  on  that 
account  generally  called  Walsingharn  Way."  Erasmus,  that  within 
the  chapel  all  wa  s  "  bright  and  shining,  glittering  all  over  with  gold, 
silver,  and  jewels."  At  the  Reformation  the  shrine  was  destroyed,  and 
the  miraculous  image  jDublicly  burnt.  (Northcote's  "  Sanctuaries  of  the 
Madonna."^ 

*  The  Gilbertines  were,  with  perhaps  the  exception  of  the  Pre- 
monstratensians,  of  all  Canons  Regular  the  least  devoted  to  clerical 
and  "  missionary  "  works.  They  approached  more  nearly  to  tlie  monastic 
state  ;  that  is,  to  the  solitary  and  contemplative  life.  S.  Gilbert  wished 
them  to  approximate  as  nearly  as  possible  to  the  Cistercians. 


The  Patriarch  of  the  "Active  Orders^  305 

by  David  I.  in  1128;  Jedburgh,  Cambuskennetli,  and  Zona, 
where  was  a  convent  of  canonesses, "  which  was  probably  founded 
before  the  Benedictines  had  any  settlement  in  that  isle.^''  *  It  is 
worthy  of  note  that  two  eminent  members  of  the  Congregation  of 
S.  Victor — Adam  and  Richard — were  Scots. 

The  Canonical  Order  is  once  more  taking  root  in  the  "  Land  of 
Saints/'  In  England  at  the  present  time  we  have  a  Province 
of  Lateran  Canons,  houses  belonging  to  two  congregations  of 
Premonstratensians,  and  also  a  solitary  representative  of  the 
Congregation  of  the  Holy  Cross.  There  are  two  congregations 
■of  canonesses,  that  of  the  Lateran  established  at  Newton  Abbot 
and  at  Barnet,  and  that  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  at  New  Hall.f 
The  Lateran  canonesses  lived  in  exile  at  Louvain  during  the  days 
■of  persecution,  but  returned  to  England  at  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century.  They  have  perpetual  adoration  of  the  Blessed 
Sacrament  in  their  church  ;  whilst  the  canonesses  of  the  Holy 
Sepuhtlire  are  engaged  in  the  work  of  education. 

But  to  return  to  the  life  of  the  Blessed  Peter.  His  activity 
was  not  confined  to  education,  nor  to  the  formation  of  his  two 
congregations.  The  work  connected  with  these  latter  neces- 
sitated his  having  a  curate  during  the  latter  years  of  his  life ; 
but,  except  when  obliged  to  be  away  from  his  parish,  he  was 
himself  constantly  engaged  for  the  good  of  his  people,  and 
especially  of  the  poor.  Speaking  on  this  point  in  a  panegyric, 
Lacordaire,  the  eloquent  Dominican,  once  said  :| 

The  poor  came  to  him  naturally :  he  never  refused  to  see  them  j 
had  he  nothing  else  for  them,  he  had  always  Fourier,  On  the  great 
feasts  of  the  year,  when  the  rich  were  surrounded  by  their  friends,  he 
thought  of  his  poor,  and  prepared  a  little  feast  which  should  recall  to 
their  minds  with   pleasure  the  mystery  of  the  day.     If  there  were 

*  "  Practical  Observations  upon  Divers  Titles  of  the  Law  of  Scotland, 
<fcc."  By  James  Spotiswood  of  that  Ilk,  Advocate.     Edinburgh.    173-i. 

t  Since  the  above  was  written  the  writer  has  been  iutbrmed  that 
the  English  Canonesses  RejTular  of  Bruges  are  about  tu  establish  a 
€ommnuity  at  Hayward's  Heath.  These  canonesses  are  engaged  in 
education. 

X  "  Le  pauvre  venait  a  lui  naturellement,  il  ne  le  ref  usait  jamais  car, 
n'y  eut-il  rien,  il  y  avait  encore  Fourier.  Dans  les  grandes  fetes  de 
I'annee,  tandisque  les  riches  s'environnaient  de  leurs  amis,  lui  son- 
geait  a  ses  pauvres,  et  leur  preparait  un  petit  festin  qui  leur 
rappelait  avec  joie  le  mystere  du  jour.  Si  quelque  noce  avait  lieu  dans 
sa  paroisse  il  allait  y  chercher  la  part  de  ceux  qui  n'ont  plus  de  noces 
ici-bas,  et  il  les  faisait  entrer  par  lenrs  benedictions  dans  la  faniijle 
nouvelle  que  lui-m6rae  avait  benie  le  matin.  II  avait  coutume  de  se 
tenir  chaque  jour  au  devant  de  la  porte  pendant  quelqnes  heurcs,  si 
grand  froid  qu'il  fit,  afin  qu'on  I'abordat  sans  peines  et  que  les  plus 
timides  ne  vinssent  pas  a  craindre  de  le  deranger.  Quoi  qu'on  voulut  de 
lui,  sauf  le  mal,  il  etait  pret  et  riant." 


306  Tlie  PatHarch  of  the  "  Active  Orders." 

a  marriage  feast  in  the  parish,  he  went  to  it  to  seek  a  share  for  those 
for  whom  there  were  no  feasts  here  below,  whom  by  their  blessings 
he  made  to  join  the  new  family  which  he  himself  had  blessed  in  the 
morning.  It  was  his  custom  to  stand  for  several  hours  a  day  outside 
the  door  of  his  house,  however  cold  the  weather  might  be,  so  that  he 
might  be  found  without  difficulty,  and  that  the  most  timid  should  have 
no  fear  of  putting  him  to  inconvenience.  He  was  ready  and  willing  to 
do  anything,  except  evil. 

This  charity  united  him  heart  and  soul  with  his  flock,  every 
member  of  which  was  devoted  to  him  :  so  great  was  the  love  of 
his  people  that,  did  it  become  known  that  a  stranger  was  about 
to  visit  him,  they  sent  to  his  house  abundance  of  meat  and  wine 
and  fruit,  luxuries  unknown  in  the  daily  life  of  Blessed  Peter. 
New  ideas  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  and  the  afllicted  were  con- 
stantly being  put  into  practice  by  him  ;  amongst  these  was  the 
"Bourse  de  Saint-P^vre."  At  Mattaineourt,  as  elsewhere,  it 
often  happened  that  a  worthy  tradesman  was  reduced  to 
poverty  on  account  of  a  failure  due  to  no  fault  of  his  own. 
To  provide  against  this,  Peter  established  a  kind  of  friendly 
society — without  any  subscription,  however — of  which  all  his 
parishioners  were  members.  The  *•'  Bourse  ''  became  possessed  of 
much  property  from  legacies  and  donations,  and  this  property 
was  administered  by  a  committee  of  the  leading  merchants 
of  the  parish.  When  a  tradesman  experienced  losses,  he  made 
known  his  need  to  the  administrators  of  the  funds,  who  inquired 
into  his  case.  Did  this  prove  worthy  of  relief,  he  received  a 
sum  proportioned  to  his  necessities ;  this  he  returned  if  after- 
wai'ds  he  became  prosperous,  but  in  that  case  only,  for  should  he 
not  be  successful  the  loan  became  a  gift. 

The  Blessed  Peter  had  even  more  at  heart  the  spiritual  needs 
of  his  beloved  children,  and  for  their  benefit  founded  at  Mat- 
taineourt two  guilds  or  sodalities :  one  of  men,  under  the 
patronage  of  Saint  Sebastian ;  the  other  of  women,  in  honour  of 
Our  Lady,  and  with  the  title  of  the  "Immaculate  Conception.^' 
This  confraternity  of  the  Immaculate  Conception,  founded  as  it 
was  two  hundred  years  and  more  before  the  arch-confraternity  of 
the  same  name  was  established  at  Lourdes,  was  quite  in  accord- 
ance with  the  traditions  of  his  Order.  It  was,  in  fact,  a  revival 
of  a  sodality  founded  at  the  end  of  the  eleventh  or  beginning 
of  the  twelfth  century  by  the  Blessed  Peter  de  Honestis,  a  C^iinon 
Regular  of  the  congregation  of  Ravenna,  under  the  name  of 
the  "Children  of  Mary''  ("Figli  e  Figlie  di  Maria").  The 
first  woman  to  join  the  new  society  was  Matilda,  Countess 
of  Tuscany,  of  Canossa  fame,  who  died  in  1115,  when  the 
holy  founder  was  Prior  of  Santa  Maria  in  Portu.  This  con- 
fraternity of  the  "Children  of  Mary/'  which  appears  to  have 


The  Patriarch  of  the  "  Active  Orders*'  367 

been  the  earliest  of  the  now  numerous  sodalities  in  honour  of  Our 
Lady,  anticipating  as  it  did  the  "  Prima  Primaria""  of  the  Roman 
College  by  well-nigh  five  centuries,  was  re-established  during  the 
present  century  at  Rome,  in  the  Church  of  St.  Agnes-without- 
the-Walls,  by  Dom  Albert  Passeri,  Canon  Regular  and  Vicar 
General  of  the  Lateran  Congregation. 

Blessed  Peter  never,  till  he  had  made  Richelieu  his  enemy,  left 
his  parish  except  to  "  visit "  the  monasteries  under  his  charge,  or,  by 
command  of  the  Bishop,  to  give  those  wonderful  missions  in  the 
villages  of  the  Vosges  by  which  he  reclaimed  whole  districts  from 
Calvinism.  When  the  unscrupulous  French  Minister  wished 
to  annex  Lorraine,  Peter,  having  been  consulted  by  the  Duke, 
advised  a  line  of  action  which  resulted  in  his  country 
preserving  its  independence  for  another  century.  During  the 
ensuing  war  the  machinations  of  Richelieu  compelled  him  to 
leave  his  parish  and  his  native  land.  He  retired  to  Gray,  in 
Burgundy,  in  1636,  and  died  there  on  December  9,  1640, 
repeating  the  words  "  Habemus  bonum  Dominum  et  bonam 
Domiuam.^^  During  his  exile  he  occupied  himself  in  teaching 
the  poor  boys  of  the  parish,  when  he  could,  choosing  the  dullest ; 
at  the  same  time,  some  of  his  nuns,  who  had  followed  him, 
taught  the  girls.*  There,  as  at  Mattaincourt,  his  private  life 
was  very  austere — in  his  own  house  almost  that  of  a  Trappist. 
He  took  but  three  and  a  half  hours'  sleep  a  day,  and  this  brief 
period  he  passed  on  a  chair  or  a  bench — never  in  his  bed,  which 
was  only  retained  in  his  room  to  conceal  the  austerity  of  his  life 
he  never  indulged  in  a  fire,  except  when  he  was  ill  or  when 
strangers  were  present :  till  too  old  to  do  so,  he  always  went  on 
foot,  even  for  the  official  visitations  of  the  convents  of  his  two 
congregations ;  when  this  was  no  longer  possible,  he  used  a 
humble  cart:  and  he  ate  but  once  a  day,  towards  evening,  and 
then  only  a  meagre  meal  of  bread,  water,  and  vegetables.  In 
conclusion,  one  other  custom  of  his  must  be  mentioned  :  so 
imbued  was  he  with  the  spirit  of  his  Order,  that  even  when 
alone,  at  Mattaincourt,  he  used  daily  to  recite  the  Divine  Office 
publicly  in  the  choir  of  the  parish  church. 

After  his  death  the  canons  of  the  congregation  founded  l>y 
him  obtained  permission  to  remove  his  body  to  Pont-^-Mousson. 
The  people  of  Giay  opposed  the  removal  so  strenuously  that 
the  authority  of  the  civil  power  had  to  be  invoked ;  this  resulted 
in  a  compromise,  by  which  Blessed  Peter's  heart  remained  in  the 
place  of  his  exile,  whilst  his  body  was  borne  away  by  the  canons  of 

*  There  is  a  convent  of  these  nuns  still  at  Gray,  established  in  the 
house  in  which  Blessed  Peter  lived  and  died.  The  small  room  in  which 
he  died  is  preserved,  and  is  now  used  as  a  chapel. 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  n.     [Third  Series']  t 


808  The  Patriarch  of  the  "  Active  Orders." 

his  reform.     The  journey  was  one  long  triumphal  march,  and  no 
further  diflBculties  were  encountered  till  Mattaincourt  was  reached. 
Overtaken  by  night,  the  canons  were  reluctantly  compelled  to 
rest  there,  and  the  body  of  the  exiled  pastor  was  deposited  in  the 
church  he  had  served  for  so  many  years.     Next   morning  the 
canons    wished   to    proceed   on   their  journey,   but  they  were 
prevented  by  main  force  from  removing  the  body;  they  appealed  to 
the  Duke,  who  commanded  the  inhabitants  to  give  up  to  the 
canons  the  body  of  their  General.     The  men  of  Mattaincourt 
obeyed,  saying  they  would  not  resist  their  sovereign ;  but  the 
women  and  children  filled  the  church,  and  would  allow  no  one  to 
approach  the  body.     The  Duke  of  Lorraine  then  placed  troops 
at  the  disposal  of  the  canons;  the  people  in  reply  barricaded  the 
church  and  the  approaches  to  it.     When  the  canons  again  tried, 
the  men  offered  money,  lands, goods, in  short  all  their  possessions — 
they  offered  to  become  the  serfs  of  the  abbey— if  only  the  body 
might  be  left  with  them.     The  women  loudly  protested   that 
God  evidently  had  wished  the  body  to  remain  at  Mattaincourt, 
to  which  place  it  had  been  so  unwillingly  brought.     The  sons  of 
Blessed  Peter  could  no  longer  resist ;  the  troops  retired,  and  the 
body  remained  in  the  midst  of  those  who  so  truly  loved  their 
"  Bon   Pere "   that   they   were   ready   to  give  up   everything, 
even  life  itself,  rather  than  part  with  his  remains.     The  body 
was  buried  in  the  parish  church,  and  has  remained  there  to  this 
day.     The  "  Martyrology  "  relates  that  Peter  became  illustrious 
for  prophecy  and  miracles,  and  that  therefore  in  1730  Benedict 
Xm.  published  the  decree  of  his  beatification,  and  permitted 
his  feast  to  be  kept  on  July  7  in  Lorraine,  and  by  the  various  con- 
gregations of  Canons  Regular.      Miracles  are  still  worked  at  his 
shrine,  which  is  the  object  of  many  devout  pilgrimages ;  and  as 
the  process  of  canonization  is  progressing,  we  may  hope  soon  to 
have  in  the  Calendar  of  the  Universal  Church  the  feast  of  a 
saint  v^ho,  by  instituting  the  "  Active  Orders,"  has  been  so  great 
a  benefactor  to  the   poor  of  Christ — who  was  so  exemplary  a 
parish  priest,  and  who  excites  a  special  interest  at  this  moment, 
when  the  free  education  of  the  poor  is  claimed  by  the  anti-Christian 
revolution  as  its  peculiar  idea  and  work. 

P. 8. — The  writer  of  this  short  sketch  of  the  life  and  work  of 
the  Blessed  Peter  Pourier  wishes  gratefully  to  acknowledge  the 
valuable  assistance  he  has  received  from  the  Regular  Canons  of 
the  Church  of  S.  Mary  and  S.  Petrock  at  Bodmin,  and  the 
Superioress-General  of  the  Canadian  Congregation  of  Notre 
Dame. 


(     309    ) 


Art.  v.— BURMA  AND  THE  FARTHER  EAST. 

1.  Mission  to  the  Court  of  Ava.     By  Henry  Yule.     London : 

Smith,  Elder  &  Co.     1858. 

2.  History  of  Surma.    By   Sir  Arthur   Phayre.    "  London  : 

Triibner  &  Co.     1883. 

3.  Across  Chryse.      By  Archibald  R.   Colquhoun,  F.R.G.S. 

London  :  Sampson  Low  &  Co.     1883. 

4.  Burma,  and  the  Burmans.     By  Archibald  R.  Colquhoun, 

F.R.G.S.     London:  Field  &  Tuer.     1885. 

6.  British  Burr)ia  and  its  People.     By  Captain  C.  L  F.  S. 
Forbes.     London :  John  Murray,     1878. 

6.  The  Burman:    his  Life  and  Notions.     By  Shavay  Yoe. 

Loudon :  Macmillan  &  Co.     1882. 

7.  Reisen  in  Birma.      Von   Dr.  Adolf   Bastean.     Leipzig. 

1866. 

THAT  south-eastern  spur  of  the  Asiatic  mainland  which 
stretches  a  protruded  claw  so  far  down  to  the  Indian  Archi- 
pelago, has  had  a  semi-mythical  renown  in  many  tongues  as  the 
Golden  Land  of  the  Far  East.  Here  the  biblical  Ophir  has  been 
placed  by  some ;  here  the  AureaChersonesus,  or  Chryse,  of  Ptolemy, 
still  survives  in  modern  parlance  with  the  misleading  magic  of 
its  name;  and  here  the  sacred  language  of  the  East  itself  has 
localized  a  like  epithet,  since  the  Burmese  delta  lands  are  termed, 
in  old  Pali  writings,  Suvarna  Bhumi,  or  Region  of  Gold.  Yet  in 
truth  it  is  not  here,  but  in  the  Chinese  border-province  of 
Yunnan,  that  the  precious  metal  is  really  found,  and  only  the 
scanty  washings  from  its  reefs  of  ore  are  swept  down  in  the  drift 
of  the  Indo-Chinese  streams.  The  Golden  Peninsula  neverthe- 
less, though  not  in  this  respect  justifying  its  name,  is  a  region 
where  Nature,  in  spendthrift  mood,  lavishes  her  largesse  from 
full  hands.  The  air  of  the  jungle  is  faint  with  the  musky  breath 
of  balms  and  spices,  while  centenarian  teak-forests,  still  more 
prized  of  commerce,  flourish  in  unexhausted  productiveness ; 
mines  of  sapphires  and  rubies,  amber,  silver,  and  jade  tempt  the 
imairination,  and  iron  and  petroleum  the  more  practical  desires 
of  man  ;  on  the  teeming  soil  grain  flung  at  haphazard  fructifies 
almost  without  the  aid  of  husbandry,  and  the  annual  deluge  of 
the  south-west  monsoon,  at  once  irrigator  and  fertilizer,  nourishes 

Y  2 


310  Burma  and  the  Farther  East. 

the  superabundant  rice  crop  whose  overflow  supplies  the  world. 
Yet  a  sparse  and  semi-indigent  population  seem  to  profit  little  by 
the  bounty  of  the  earth,  and  the  thatched  bamboo  hovel  of  the 
native  looks  doubly  sordid  beside  the  stately  majesty  of  the 
tropical  forest. 

Burma  is  indeed  in  all  respects  a  land  of  incongruities,  where 
moral  and  physical  contradictions  are  met  at  every  point.  There 
gold  and  tinsel  glitter  side  by  side,  majesty  merges  in  monstrosity, 
and  the  gorgeous  vies  with  the  grotesque.  There  the  most  dreary 
of  creeds,  whose  hope  is  negation,  whose  heaven  annihilation,  is 
celebrated  with  the  most  glowing  pageantry  of  worship,  and 
mighty  shrines  aflame  with  gems  and  gilding  are  raised  to  one 
who  in  the  belief  of  his  votaries  has  ceased  to  be.  There,  where 
human  life  is  so  little  regarded  that  a  man  may  publicly  drown 
without  a  hand  stratched  to  save  him,  the  monk  strains  his 
drinking  water  lest  he  swallow  a  gnat,  and  the  triple-dyed 
murderer  will  not  slay  a  mosquito. 

Towards  these  tempting  tropical  regions  of  Indo-China  two 
Western  Powers  have  turned  emulous  steps  of  conquest,  creeping 
along  the  coasts  until  they  have  well-nigh  divided  the  littoral 
between  them.  France,  on  the  east,  has  by  a  series  of  annexa- 
tions commenced  in  186£,  secured  all  the  maritime  provinces  of 
Cochin  China,  from  the  delta  of  the  Cambodia  river  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Song-Koi,  the  Red  River  of  Tonquin.  England, 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  peninsula,  has  extended  her  elastic 
frontiers  from  the  head  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  round  its  whole 
farther  shore,  stretching  a  long  arm  southward  to  get  a  grip  on 
the  great  ocean  thoroughfare  of  the  Malacca  Strait. 

Between  these  two  encroaching  Powers  had  hitherto  lain  the 
great  Asiatic  Empires  of  the  Peacock  and  the  Elephant,  under  the 
twin  despotisms  of  Ava  and  Bangkok.  The  trumpery  splendours 
of  the  former  we  have  just  seen  shiver  into  dust  at  the  challenge 
of  civilization,  like  the  walls  of  Jericho  before  the  blare  of 
Joshua's  trumpet.  The  similar  end  of  the  latter  cannot  be  long 
delayed,  the  only  doubtful  point  being  to  which  of  the  expectant 
neighbours  its  forty-one  provinces,  equal  in  area  to  the  Austrian 
Empire,  will  eventually  fall  a  prey.  Already  commercial  rivalry, 
the  stimulus  of  national  ambition,  is  beginning  to  centre  round 
the  sacred  realm  of  the  Golden  Mountain,  and  competing 
engineers  of  both  nations  are  plauniag  routes  and  highways 
through  Siam  and  its  dependencies.  The  expansive  tendencies  of 
the  two  Western  Powers  will  eventually  obliterate  the  intervening 
territory,  and  its  partition  will  be  regulated  by  the  relative  force 
of  pressure  from  either  side.  Thus  Indo-China  promises  to  be  a 
second  field  for  international  rivalries  similar  to  those  in  action  on 
the  Perso-Afghan  border,  since  India,  in  outgrowing  her  Hima- 


Burma  and  the  Farther  East.  311 

layan  bulwark,  has  developed  a  vulnerable  point  at  either 
extremity. 

An  ancient  Burmese  prophecy  foretold  the  fall  of  the  native 
princes  as  soon  as  a  people  wearing  hats  should  settle  in  the  land, 
and  ships  ascend  the  Irawadi  without  oars  or  sails.  The  fulfil- 
ment of  this  prediction  has  come  none  too  soon,  for  in  the  crimes 
of  the  recently  dethroned  monarch,  the  iniquities  of  the  House 
of  Alompra  had  attained  their  full  measure  of  completion.  So 
obvious  was  the  gain  to  humanity  from  his  removal,  that  the 
action  of  the  British  Government  has  passed  almost  unquestioned. 
A  plausible  pretext  for  hostilities  was  never  wanting  against  such 
a  neighbour,  and  an  arbitrary  fine  of  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million 
imposed  on  the  Bombay-Burma  Company,  as  a  preliminary  to 
confiscating  their  property,  was  an  outrage  of  sufficient  magni- 
tude to  supply  one.  It  may  be  shrewdly  conjectured  that  the 
simultaneous  conclusion  of  a  Franco-Burmese  commercial  treaty 
was  at  least  an  equally  potent  factor  in  precipitating  a  rupture, 
while  the  desire  to  open  up  to  British  trade  the  great  untapped 
markets  of  the  Far  East  supplied  an  ulterior  motive  for  anticipat- 
ing possible  competitors.  The  decisive  swiftness  with  which  the 
blow  was  delivered  fairly  outstripped  remonstrance,  and  national 
jealousies  were  struck  dumb  by  the  unassailable  logic  of  an 
accomplished  fact. 

Yet  the  territory  won  by  an  almost  bloodless  campaign  forms 
no  inconsiderable  addition  even  to  the  British  dominions,  since 
Upper  Burma,  with  an  area  of  192,000  square  miles,  was  little 
inferior  in  extent  to  Imperial  Germany,  and  the  united  provinces 
form  a  fourth  of  the  Indian  Empire.  The  estimated  figure  of 
three  and  a  half  millions  of  population — less  than  that  of 
London — for  this  vast  and  fertile  region,  proves  how  much  bad 
government  can  do  to  neutralize  the  beneficent  intentions  of 
Nature. 

Three  river-valleys,  running  north  and  south,  constitute  the 
natural  divisions  of  inland  Burma,  and  the  intervening  mountain 
ranges  form  its  vertebrate  system.  The  Yoma,  or  backbone 
of  Arakan,  parts  the  province  of  that  name — a  strip  of  littoral 
along  the  Bay  of  Bengal — from  the  Irawadi  Valley,  while  the 
Pegu  Yoma  divides  the  latter  from  the  adjoining  valley  of 
the  Sittang.  The  broken  ranges  of  the  Salween  hills  intervene 
between  the  river  from  which  they  take  their  name  and  the  basin 
•of  the  last-mentioned  stream,  completing  the  triple  subdivision 
of  the  country.  This,  however,  is  lost  near  the  sea,  where  the 
expanding  river-valleys  merge  into  a  great  littoral  plain,  created 
within  recent  times  by  their  combined  deposits.  Barely  rising 
above  high- water  mark,  and  in  its  eastern  portion  sloping  from 
the  sea  inland,  these  mud-flats  are  converted  in  the  rainy  season 


812  Burma  and  the  Farther  East, 

into  a  series  of  lagoons,  where  the  villages,  reared  on  piles,  are 
islanded  amid  the  waters,  and  boats  form  the  only  means  of 
locomotion  of  the  amphibious  inhabitants. 

Despite  the  size  and  volume  of  the  other  two  Burmese 
rivers,  the  Irawadi  alone  forms  a  highway  to  the  interior.  The 
Salween,  which  traverses  16^  latitude  and  14*  longitude,  in  its 
course  from  the  Tibeto-Chinese  plateau  to  the  Bay  of  Bengal, 
runs  in  a  channel  too  steep  and  broken  for  navigation,  and 
only  by  steamers  of  light  draught  can  even  its  lower  reaches  be 
ascended  as  far  as  Shwaygyeen  (Golden  Island),  seventy  miles 
from  the  sea. 

The  Sittang,  which  zigzags  in  serpentine  coils  through  its 
350  miles  of  valley,  is  strangled  at  its  mouth  by  a  more  singular 
obstacle.  Its  funnel-shaped  estuary,  headed  by  a  narrow  and 
sinuous  ravine,  forms  a  trap  for  the  meeting  tides  of  the  Indian 
Ocean  and  Tenasserim  shore  deeply  embayed  in  the  Gulf  of 
Martaban,  and  a  great  bore  or  tidal  wave,  with  a  crested  front 
near  ten  feet  high,  drives  up  the  gorge  at  a  rate  of  twelve  miles 
an  hour,  lashed  to  increasing  fury  by  the  twisted  shores  that 
meet  and  check  it  by  turns.  No  craft  can  face  it  and  live,  and 
a  ship  conveying  a  detachment  of  Sepoys  during  the  first 
British  occupation,  foundered  with  all  on  board  in  the  bore  of 
the  Sittang. 

Thus  the  Irawadi,  so  called  from  Airawata,  the  elephant  of 
Indra,  remains  the  sole  key  to  the  upper  country,  and  all  life  and 
activity  are  concentrated  on  its  banks.  Navigable  for  840  miles 
from  the  sea,  it  carries  the  steamers  of  the  Irawadi  Flotilla 
Company  up  to  Bhamaw,  at  those  iron  gates  of  China  for  which 
modern  commerce  would  so  gladly  find  an  "  open  sesame.^'  Here 
it  has  still  a  width  varying  from  a  mile  to  a  mile  and  a  half, 
according  to  the  season,  and  is  navigable  for  large  boats  to  a 
point  150  miles  higher.  Its  total  length  must  thus  be  consider-r 
ably  over  1,000  miles  from  its  supposed,  but  hitherto  unexplored, 
sources  in  the  flank  of  the  great  Tibetan  plateau. 

Its  valley,  synonymous  with  Burma  proper,  is  in  its  upper  half 
impounded  between  lofty  mountain  ranges,  forming  a  cul-de-sac 
with  a  single  outlet  to  the  sea.  The  steep  slope  of  the  Central- 
Asian  tableland  to  the  north,  rising  in  the  north-east,  to  a  group 
of  peaks  18,000  to  20,000  feet  high ;  the  outlying  spurs  of  the 
Manipur  highlands  and  ribs  of  the  "  backbone  "  of  Arakan  to  the 
west;  the  5,000-foot  scarp  of  the  Shan  tableland  to  the  east, 
form  a  continuous  series  of  barriers,  traversed  only  by  the  rudest 
bridle-paths,  with  the  added  dangers  of  attack  from  semi-savage 
inhabitants. 

The  Irawadi  flows  mainly  through  a  wide  and  fertile  champaign, 
diversified  by  secondary  ranges,  which  at  some  points  approach 


Burina  and  the  Farther  East.  313 

the  river  and  contract  its  bed.  Where  it  quits  the  enclosing 
mountains,  about  eighty  miles  from  the  sea,  it  bifurcates  into  two 
main  branches,  ramifying  in  a  network  of  minor  channels,  to 
form  a  delta  with  a  spread  of  150  miles  along  the  coast. 

The  country  heretofore  known  as  British  Burma  consists  of  its 
lower  basin  forming  the  province,  anciently  the  kingdom  of  Pegu, 
with  a  narrow  strip  of  shore  on  either  side  the  river,  between 
the  mountains  and  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  divided  into  the  provinces 
of  Arakan  and  Tenasserim.  A  coast-line  of  1,900  miles,  with 
an  area  less  than  that  of  Great  Britain,  results  from  this  con- 
formation. The  almost  total  absence  of  roads  throughout  Burma 
renders  land  transit  practically  impossible,  and  restricts  traffic 
and  locomotion  to  the  rivers  with  their  creeks  and  affluents. 

But  three  seasons  are  recognized  in  Burma — the  cold,  lasting 
from  November  to  March,  distinguished  at  Rangoon  only  by  a 
keener  freshness  in  the  morning  air,  as  the  thermometer  rarely 
descends  below  50*^  Fah. ;  the  hot,  from  March  to  July,  at  the 
height  of  which  the  midday  temperature  averages  90®  Fah. ; 
and  the  wet  season,  which  covers  the  intervening  time.  The 
annual  rainfall  at  Rangoon  is  100  inches,  while  that  figure  is 
doubled  at  other  coast-towns,  and  eleven  inches  have  been 
registered  in  thirteen  hours. 

The  Burmese  language  is  monosyllabic,  belonging  to  the 
Tibeto-Chinese  family,  and  the  meaning  of  the  same  combination 
of  letters  is  capable  of  indefinite  variation  by  vocal  inflections 
very  bewildering  to  the  European  ear.  Ethnologists,  among 
many  heterogeneous  fragments,  distinguish  four  principal  races : 
the  Burmese,  who  claim  Indian  descent,  but  are  believed  to  have 
come  from  north  of  the  Himalayas ;  the  Peguans,  Mons,  or 
Talains,  identical  with  the  Annamese,  and  conjectured  to  be  the 
earliest  inhabitants ;  the  Karens,  now  a  hill-tribe,  probably  also 
indigenous ;  and  the  Shans  or  Tais,  supposed  immigrants  from 
Southern  China,  a  widely  diffused  nation  comprising  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Siam. 

The  number  and  splendour  of  the  Burmese  monasteries  and 
pagodas  testify  to  the  devotion  of  the  people  to  the  Buddhist 
creed  ;  yet  its  abstract  dogmas  do  not  exclude  the  more  primitive 
worship  of  spirits  or  demons,  known  in  the  East  as  Shamanism. 
The  nats,  as  these  invisible  genii  are  called,  seem  to  be  the 
personified  powers  of  Nature,  and  have  a  wild  and  extravagant 
mythology  of  their  own.  Invoked  on  all  occasions  with  multi- 
form rites  of  sacrifice,  they  have  their  special  shrines  near  every 
village,  rude  sheds  or  mere  bamboo  cages  hung  to  the  trees,  in 
which  small  offerings  of  food,  tobacco,  or  betel-nut  are  laid. 
"Witches  and  wizards,  believed  to  hold  converse  with  them,  are 
esteemed,  yet  dreaded,  and  their  intervention  is  invoked  in  all 


314  Burma  and  the  Farther  East. 

the  affairs  of  life.  The  sink-or-swim  test  of  English  witch-baiting 
is  also  practised  in  Burma,  in  exactly  similar  fashion,  by  flinging 
the  supposed  sorceress  into  the  nearest  pond ;  while  the  mediaeval 
fable  of  her  transformation  at  will  into  animal  form,  accompanied 
by  the  liability  to  suffer  in  her  actual  body  any  wound  or  damage 
inflicted  on  her  borrowed  shape,  is  also  current  in  this  remote 
corner  of  the  globe.  The  witch,  when  banished  from  her  native 
village,  must  be  separated  from  it  by  one,  two,  or  more  streams, 
according  to  the  potency  of  her  spells,  which  are  neutralized — 
again  as  in  Western  fable — by  running  water.  The  belief  that 
the  souls  of  those  violently  put  to  death  become  nats  to  haunt 
and  guard  the  spot  leads  to  a  more  ghastly  practice,  also  widely 
extended — that  of  burying  victims  alive  under  newly  founded 
cities  or  palaces,  to  secure  them  spiritual  wardenship. 

Such  superstitions  are  perhaps  a  reaction  from  the  intangible 
abstractions  of  the  official  creed,  since  Buddhism  presents  the 
unique  phenomenon  of  a  religion  of  atheism,  recognizing  no 
Supreme  Being  or  personal  ruler  of  the  universe.  Gautama  him- 
self, revered  as  a  sage  rather  than  worshipped  as  a  divinity,  is 
believed  to  have  passed  into  that  state  of  negative  beatitude  or 
annihilation — nibbhan  or  nirvana — which  implies  no  active 
consciousness  of,  or  response  to,  human  invocation.  The  motive 
and  reward  of  virtue  is  supplied  by  belief  in  the  transmigration 
of  souls  into  animal  or  even  inanimate  forms,  though  without 
continuity  of  consciousness.  The  moral  value  of  previous  lives  is 
summed  up  as  the  "  kan,'^  or  past  being  of  the  individual,  and 
his  recompense  or  punishment,  as  the  case  may  be,  consists  either 
of  an  ascending  series  of  happier  metamorphoses,  or  of  a  corre- 
sponding retrogression  in  the  scale  of  existence.  The  previous 
lives  of  Buddha,  550  in  number,  afford  endless  subjects  for  the 
sacred  drama,  under  the  name  of  birth-stories. 

Buddhist  cosmogony,  based  on  the  evolution  of  matter  from 
its  own  inherent  properties,  asserts  the  alternate  destruction  and 
reconstruction  of  the  universe  through  a  perpetual  series  of 
cycles,  water  being  always  the  reproductive  agency,  and  generat- 
ing the  protoplasmic  scum,  whence  the  germs  of  life  are  developed 
once  more. 

The  theng-being,  or  yellow  robe  of  the  Burmese  monks,  called 
pohn-gyees  or  pboongyees,  is  held  in  universal  reverence  by  the 
people,  and  their  monasteries,  called  kyoungs,  distinguished  by 
the  many-spired  and  pinnacled  triple-canopied  roof,  may  be  seen 
under  the  shade  of  their  sacred  groves  in  the  neighbourhood  of  all 
towns  and  villages.  They  serve  the  purpose  of  schools  where 
gratuitous  education  is  given  to  all  the  Burmese  youth,  among 
whom  illiteracy  is  consequently  rare.  Initiation  into  the  monastic 
order  is  a  ceremony  undergone  by  every  Burman^  being  regarded 


I 


Burma  and  the  Farther  East.  315 

OS  a  certificate  of  admission  into  the  pale  of  humanity.  The 
little  aspirant — for  the  investiture  generally  takes  place  in  early 
boyhood — is  conducted  to  the  monastery  by  a  cortige  like  a  bridal 
procession,  and  the  occasion  is  celebrated  with  great  festivity. 
In  some  cases  the  parents  take  the  boy  home  immediately  after, 
but  he  is  more  generally  leit  for  a  week,  or  even  for  the  whole 
Buddhist  Lent — from  July  to  October.  It  is  a  common  practice 
for  the  piously  disposed  to  pass  this  season  every  year  in  a 
monastery,  as  by  doing  so  considerable  spiritual  merit  is  acquired. 
The  monkish  vows  of  celibacy,  poverty,  and  obedience  are  never 
more  than  temporary,  and  the  exceptions  are  those  who  wear  the 
yellow  robe  for  life.  Among  the  special  insignia  of  the  monks 
is  the  awana  or  yap,  a  fan  made  of  the  leaves  of  the  talipot- 
palm,  whence  they  are  sometimes  called  talapoins,  its  use  being 
to  shield  their  gaze  from  distracting  objects.  As  they  live  by 
mendicancy,  the  begging-bowl  is  another  of  their  symbolical 
appurtenances.  The  robe,  whose  dye  comes  from  the  jack-tree 
(Artocarpus  integrifolia),  is  supposed  to  be  made  of  shreds  and 
patches  to  signify  poverty,  but  a  single  cut  with  a  scissors  some- 
times takes  the  place  of  the  literal  fact.  The  Buddhist  rosary  is 
made  of  the  seeds  of  the  Canna  indica,  or  "  Indian  shot,"  said 
to  have  sprung  up  from  the  blood  of  Gautama. 

In  the  early  morning  the  yellow-robes  may  be  seen  sallying 
forth  from  the  kyoungs,  and  wandering  through  the  streets  to 
receive  in  their  begging-bowls  the  offerings  of  the  faithful  in  the 
shape  of  rice  and  vegetables.  These  are  generally  abundantly 
supplied,  so  much  so  that  the  pious  mendicant  will  sometimes 
share  his  alms  with  the  brute  creation,  emptying  his  bowl  by  the 
wayside,  and  starting  on  a  fresh  round  to  have  it  replenished. 
The  fare  of  the  brotherhood  is  supposed  to  consist  of  the  broken 
food  thus  collected,  but  it  is  whispered  that  in  some  kyoungs  a 
professional  cook  is  kept,  to  serve  it  up  in  more  appetizing  form. 
The  routine  of  the  monasteries  consists  of  an  eight  o'clock  break- 
fast after  the  morning  stroll,  and  a  second  meal  also  in  the  fore- 
noon, monastic  discipline  proscribing  food  after  midday.  The 
rest  of  the  day  is  passed  in  chatting,  sleeping,  or  meditating,  as 
the  taste  of  the  individual  may  dictate.  No  sacerdotal  functions 
beyond  an  occasional  exhortation  are  performed  by  the  pohn-gyees, 
and  there  is  strictly  speaking  no  Buddhist  priesthood,  neither 
sacrifice  nor  public  worship  being  offered.  There  are  no  distinc- 
tions of  monastic  orders,  but  the  monks  are  divided  into  two 
hostile  sects  or  schools,  called  Mahah-gaudee,  and  Soola-gaudee ; 
the  former  admitting  considerable  relaxation  of  the  rule,  the  latter 
advocating  its  austere  observance. 

Tame  fish,  which  throng  in  shoals  to  the  bank  when  summoned 
by  a  familiar  call,  are  found  in  the  Irawadi,  near  the  island 


316  Burma  and  the  Farther  East. 

monasteries,  the  Buddhist  reverence  for  animal  life  being  shown 
by  the  monks  in  the  care  of  these  strange  pets. 

There  are  a  few  communities  of  Burmese  nuns,  odd-looking 
figures  with  their  white  robes  and  shaven  heads,  who  also  live  by 
begging,  but  do  not  trouble  themselves  with  education.  They  are 
generally  elderly  women,  and  are  bound  by  only  temporary  vows. 

The  profuse  ornamentation  lavished  on  the  kyoungs  may  be 
imagined  from  the  subjoined  description  by  Mr.  Scott  (Shway 
Yoe),  of  the  Royal  Monastery  of  Mandalay  : — 

At  the  foot  of  Mandalay  Hill,  just  outside  the  eastern  gate  of  the 
city,  it  extends  over  an  area  of  a  good  many  acres.  Every  building 
in  it  is  magnificent ;  every  inch  carved  with  the  ingenuity  of  a  Chinese 
toy,  the  whole  ablaze  with  gold-leaf  and  a  mosaic  of  fragments  of 
looking-glass  embedded  in  a  resinous  gum,  while  the  zinc  roofs  glitter 
like  silver  in  the  sun,  and  the  golden  bells  on  the  gable  spires  tinkle 
melodiously  with  every  breeze.  The  huge  posts  are  gilt  all  over,  or 
covered  with  a  red  lacquer ;  the  eaves  and  gables  represent  all  kinds 
of  curious  and  grotesque  figures.  The  interior  is  no  less  elaborate,  the 
panels  of  wall  and  ceiling  are,  some  carved,  some  diapered  with  the 
mosaic  mirror-work,  glistening  like  silver  with  a  rough  gold  network 
thrown  over  it.  The  wood  carving  is  particularly  fine,  the  effect  in 
some  places,  where  the  birds,  pecking,  taking  wing,  alighting,  and  in 
every  variety  of  attitude,  are  so  cut  as  to  appear  to  underlie  the  profuse 
flower  scroll-work,  being  particularly  clever.  The  amount  of  gilding 
spread  thickly  over  every  part  of  the  kyoung  alone  represents  many 
hundred  pounds. 

The  manuscripts  stored  in  the  monasteries  are  in  Pali,  the 
sacred  language  of  this  part  of  the  East,  and  are  written  on  palm- 
leaves  with  a  stylus,  a  cloth  soaked  in  oil  being  rubbed  over  the 
surface  to  render  the  writing  permanent. 

The  popular  saying  that  the  chief  products  of  Burma  are 
pohn-gyees,  pariah-dogs,  and  pagodas  seems  to  have  a  fair 
foundation  of  fact,  and  the  last  category  of  characteristic  objects 
is  certainly  numerously  represented.  Generally  built  solid,  or  at 
most  with  a  small  chamber  at  bottom,  they  are  so  far  symbolical 
of  the  religion  to  which  they  are  dedicated — an  elaborate  struc- 
ture with  nothingness  at  its  core.  The  name  pagoda — a  corrup- 
tion of  the  Cinghalese  dhagoba,  from  the  Sanskrit  dhatu  gharba 
(relic- shrine),  is  not  applied  to  them  in  Burma,  where  they  are 
called  Payah  or  Zaydee,  from  the  Pali  chaitya  (ofiering-place). 
The  fundamental  idea  of  the  pagoda  is  the  folded  lotus-bud, 
emblematical  of  the  human  avatar  of  Buddha,  and  this  archetypal 
form  is  the  substructure  of  all  the  extrinsic  ornamentation.  The 
most  celebrated  of  these  shrines  is  the  Shwe  Dagon  Payah,  the 
monster  pagoda  of  Eningoon,  a  goal  of  pilgrimage  to  all  the 
natives  of  Further  India.     Here  the  last  spur  of  the  Peguan 


Burma  and  the  Farther  East.  317 

Yoma  has  been  carved  into  a  terraced  base,  whence,  in  Colonel 
YuWs  words,  "the  golden  bulk  of  Shwe  Dagon  has  for  two 
thousand  years, 

Shot  upwards  like  a  pyramid  of  fire, 

across  the  dismal  flats  of  the  delta." 

Scaled  with  gold,  and  crowned  with  the  glittering  htee  or 
umbrella,  encrusted  with  gems  and  hung  with  bells,  the  gift  of 
Mendohn  Min,  Theebaw^s  royal  predecessor,  its  burnished  mass 
has  a  perimeter  of  1,355  feet,  and  rises  from  its  triple  terrace 
guarded  by  leogryphs  and  other  monsters,  to  a  height  of  321 
feet.  A  favourite  object  of  royal  munificence,  one  king  of  Burma 
devoted  his  own  weight  in  gold,  12  st.  3  lb.,  to  regilding 
it,  the  outlay  amounting  to  £9,000.  Its  mighty  bell,  the 
Mahah  Ganda,  "great  sweet  voice,^'  had  a  narrow  escape  of 
being  carried  off  as  a  trophy  by  the  English  to  Calcutta,  but  its 
unwieldy  mass  of  twenty-five  tons  capsized  the  float  transporting 
it,  and  slipped  into  the  river,  whence  the  English  engineers  could 
not  succeed  in  recovering  it.  The  natives,  some  years  later, 
having  received  a  scornful  sanction  from  the  authorities,  achieved 
the  feat  with  their  simple  appliances,  and  restored  it  in  triumph 
to  its  place.  This  monster  is  far  surpassed  in  size  by  the  bell  of 
the  Mengohn  Pagoda,  in  Upper  Burma,  weighing  ninety  tons, 
of  which  Colonel  Yule  declared  that  it  would  require  a  battering 
ram  to  bring  out  its  tone,  and  which  is  second  only  to  the 
"  Great  Monarch  '^  of  Moscow  presented  by  Catherine  II.  The 
Burmese  bells  have  no  clappers,  but  are  struck  with  sticks  or 
deers'  antlers,  the  object  being  to  call  the  attention  of  the  spirits 
to  the  fact  that  worship  has  been  offered. 

Superstition  rules  every  stage  of  life  in  Burma,  beginning  with 
the  selection  of  the  name  for  an  infant.  Choice  is  limited  by 
the  accident  of  birth,  names  beginning  with  certain  letters  being 
set  aside  for  the  difierent  days  of  the  week.  These  are  called,  as 
in  Europe,  after  the  seven  planets,  an  eighth  or  dark  planet  called 
yahen  being  interpolated  for  the  latter  half  of  Wednesday.  The 
calculation  of  the  horoscope  (za-dah)  is  an  indispensable  prelimi- 
nary to  beginning  life,  and,  being  carefully  preserved,  has  the 
authority  of  a  baptismal  certificate.  Innumerable  rules  of  con- 
duct are  derived  from  the  day  of  nativity,  such  as  that  the 
intermarriage  of  people  born  on  certain  days  is  unlucky. 

The  tattooing  of  the  centre  of  the  body  from  the  waist  to  the 
knees  is  universal  among  the  Burmese  men,  the  pattern,  pricked 
on  the  skin  with  a  stylus  charged  with  lampblack,  remaining 
permanently  traced  in  dark-blue.  Most  elaborate  designs  are 
chosen  from  books  of  samples  kept  by  the  sayahs  or  artists  iu 


318  Buiina  and  the  Fartlier  East. 

this  line,  but  the  process  is  so  painful,  causing  subsequent  irrita- 
tion, and  even  fever,  that  it  is  seldom  completed  at  once,  but 
done  at  intervals,  square  by  square.  Talismans  of  various 
kinds  are  also  inserted  under  the  skin,  showing  externally  as  pro- 
jecting knobs,  and  money  is  sometimes  kept  in  the  same  way. 

The  boring  of  the  girls'  ears  at  thirteen  or  fourteen  is  celebrated 
as  a  family  festival,  and  the  ornamentation  inserted,  consisting 
of  plugs  or  cylinders,  expands  the  orifice  so  much  that  the 
universal  cigar  is  sometimes  kept  in  it.  Long  strips  of  silk  or 
cotton  wound  round  the  body  iorm  the  national  dress,  supple- 
mented in  the  women  by  an  open  jacket.  The  hair,  whose 
length  is  a  matter  of  pride,  is  piled  on  the  head  in  a  topknot, 
sometimes  adorned  with  flowers,  or  bound  with  a  coloured 
kerchief. 

In  striking  contrast  with  the  splendour  of  the  religious  edifices 
in  Burma,  is  the  rudeness  of  domestic  architecture.  The  house 
is  a  structure  of  planking,  or  bamboo  and  matting,  raised  on 
piles  and  roofed  with  danee,  or  leaves  of  the  toddy- palm,  a  form 
of  thatch  so  combustible  that  a  hook  is  always  at  hand  to  remove 
it  bodily  in  case  of  fire.  The  furniture  is  equally  unpretending : 
no  chairs  or  tables  are  used ;  and  some  rugs  and  mats  by  way  of 
bedding  and  seats,  a  large  lacquer  dish  called  a  byat,  and  a 
mortar  for  husking  rice,  with  a  lew  earthenware  bowls  and  jars, 
form  the  principal  articles  needed  for  setting  up  an  establishment. 

The  meals,  generally  two  in  number,  taken  at  eight  a.m.  and 
five  P.M.,  are  of  a  corresponding  frugality.  A  mass  of  rice  served 
in  the  great  lacquer  dish  forms  the  piece  de  resistance,  and  is 
flanked  by  bowls  of  curry,  a  vegetable  soup  with  chillies  and 
onions,  salt  and  oil,  as  its  basis,  and  young  bamboo  shoots,  stems 
of  aquatic  plants,  succulent  arums,  asparagus,  and  aromatic  or 
acrid  leaves  of  mangoes  or  tamarinds  tor  its  miscellaneous 
ingredients.  The  roasted  eggs  of  the  iguana  and  green  turtle 
are  among  favouiite  dishes,  as  are  two  still  stranger  dainties,  the 
large  red  ants  called  kahgin,  fried  in  oil,  and  the  pupae  of  the 
silkworm  after  the  silk  has  been  unwound,  said  to  taste  like 
roast  chestnuts  when  cooked  in  similar  fashion.  The  insipidity 
of  rice-diet  apparently  leaves  a  craving  for  strong  flavours,  and 
Burmese  delicacies  are  all  of  overpowering  potency.  Durrian, 
their  favourite  imported  fruit,  whole  cargoes  of  which  were 
transported  by  the  Irawadi  steamers  for  the  royal  table,  is 
described  as  a  garlic  custard  with  superadded  whifis  of  the 
foulest  gases;  while  nga-pee,  the  national  condiment  par 
excellence,  prepared  from  dried  and  pressed  or  pounded  fish, 
resembles,  according  to  Colonel  Yule,  "  decayed  shrimp  paste." 
Little  care  indeed  is  used  in  the  curing  nrocess  even  of  the 

Ox 

better  kind  in  which  the  larger  fish  are  dried  and  pressed  whole. 


I 


L 


Burma  and  the  Farther  East.  319 

while  the  inferior  preparation  of  shrimps  and  misceiianeous 
small  fish,  brayed  in  a  mortar,  attains  an  advanced  stage  of 
decomposition  in  manufacture.  Hence  the  native  boats,  in  which 
it  is  commonly  stacked  in  bulk,  exhale  an  intolerable  stench,  and 
even  packed  in  jars  on  the  Irawadi  steamers  its  presence  is 
disagreeably  self-evident.  So  large  is  the  consumption  of  nga- 
pee,  that  18,500  tons,  value  £90,000,  have  been  imported  from 
Lower  to  Upper  Burma  in  a  single  year. 

The  so-called  "pickled  tea,^'  or  le'hpet,  is  not  in  reality 
prepared  from  the  leaves  of  the  tea-plant,  but  from  those  of 
another  shrub,  Elwodendron  orientale.  It  is  manufactured  by 
theShans  and  Paloungs  of  the  hill  country,  whence  it  is  floated 
down  on  bamboo  rafts,  and  its  sale  formed  a  royal  monopoly 
valued  at  90  lakhs,  or  £900,000.  Mixed  with  salt,  garlic,  some 
grains  of  millet,  and  a  strong  dose  of  assafoetida,  it  forms  a 
boriTie  bouche  which  only  a  Burmese  palate  can  relish. 

A  quid  of  betel-nut,  mixed  with  lime  and  the  astringent  cutch, 
is  never  absent  from  the  Burman's  cheek  ;  and  equally  inseparable, 
even  from  the  lips  of  women  and  children,  is  the  large  green 
cheroot,  composed  of  chips  of  wood,  sugai",  and  a  dash  of  tobacco 
rolled  in  a  teak-leaf,  and  attaining  the  formidable  proportions  of 
six  to  eight  inches  long,  with  a  diameter  of  an  inch.  The 
increase  in  opium-smoking,  and  in  importation  of  spirits  under 
English  rule,  have  exercised  an  unfortunately  demoralizing 
influence  on  the  population. 

Domestic  life  in  Burma  approaches  the  European  standard 
more  nearly  than  that  of  any  other  Eastern  country.  Polygamy- 
is  not  practised,  and  family  relations,  despite  the  facility  afforded 
for  divorce,  are  kindly  and  genial.  This  is  due  in  great  measure 
to  the  position  occupied  by  women,  who,  so  far  from  being 
secluded  or  suppressed,  enjoy  equal  rights  of  property  and  control 
with  men.  Singularly  intelligent  and  capable,  they  find  a 
congenial  field  for  the  exercise  of  their  faculties  in  trade,  and 
while  small  articles  of  food  or  luxury  are  on  sale  in  almost  every 
Burmese  house,  girls  of  good  position  do  not  think  it  derogatory 
to  keep  a  stall  at  the  bazaar,  as  much  for  pleasure  as  for  profit. 

Considerable  freedom  of  choice  is  allowed  in  respect  to 
marriage,  and  a  Burmese  courtship,  lasting  sometimes  for  years, 
is  not  very  dissimilar  from  a  European  wooing.  The  swain, 
accompanied  by  a  friend,  pays  his  visits  after  nightfall,  and  is 
received  in  state  by  the  young  lady  adorned  in  all  her  finerv,  and 
without  the  visible  intervention  of  parents,  whose  supervision  is, 
however,  exercised  from  an  adjoining  room.  The  marriage  is 
a  purely  civil  celebration  without  any  religious  formality. 

Cremation  is  practised  in  Burma  in  the  case  of  the  rich  or 
distinguished,  the  body  being  consumed  on  a  pyre.     A  strange 


320  Burma  and  the  FartJier  East 

analogy  with  ancient  Greek  and  Egyptian  custom  is  the  usage 
of  placing  a  gold  or  silver  coin  in  the  mouth  of  the  corpse,  called, 
too,  kado-ahah  (ferry-toll)  or  nibban-kado  (death-ferry),  just  as 
it  was  classically  termed  "  the  obolus  of  Charon/' 

Although  caste  distinctions  are  not  recognized  in  Burma,  there 
are  pariah  classes  socially  ostracized  by  the  rest.  Foremost  among 
these  are  the  para-gyoon,  hereditary  slaves  of  the  pagodas, 
devoted  to  the  service  of  those  edifices,  and  perpetually  excluded 
from  association  or  intermarriage  with  any  other  order  of  the 
community.  Similarly  proscribed  are  the  pah-gwet  (called  from 
a  ring  tattooed  on  the  cheek),  jailers,  lictors,  and  executioners ;  the 
sandalas,  coffin-makers  and  grave-diggers  ;  the  lamaing,  or  tillers 
of  royal  lands  ;  all  lepers,  deformed  and  mutilated  persons ;  and 
the  ta-doung-sa,  a  caste  of  vagrants  compelled  to  beg  their  bread 
and  wander  from  place  to  place.  Fishers  and  hunters  who  violate 
the  Buddhist  law  by  taking  life  are  regarded  with  aversion, 
though  not  considered  as  actual  pariahs,  and  the  yabains,  silk- 
worm-breeders of  the  forests,  are  regarded  in  a  similar  light. 
There  are  no  other  class  distinctions,  and  the  simplicity  of  Bur- 
mese life  levels  much  of  the  inequality  between  poverty  and 
wealth.  The  joyousness  of  the  national  character  shows  in  the 
variety  and  animation  of  popular  and  religious  festivals.  The 
New  Year,  falling  in  the  first  half  of  April,  is  ushered  in  by  the 
Water  Feast,  with  an  interchange  of  greetings  in  the  shape  of 
douches  and  shower-baths ;  and  a  little  later  is  held  the  nga-hloht- 
pwe  in  honour  of  the  rescue  of  the  fish  from  the  danger  of  being 
left  high  and  dry  after  the  rains,  and  their  transferrence  in  jubi- 
lant procession  to  the  river.  In  November  comes  the  sohn-daw- 
gyee,  when  all  the  houses  of  each  street  or  quarter  in  its  turn 
are  laid  open  at  night,  decorated  with  hangings  and  lights, 
tapestries,  carpets,  silver  vases  and  refreshment-tables  ;  the  girls 
seated  behind  rows  of  lamps,  and  laden  with  their  own  and  their 
friends'  jewellery,  forming  a  conspicuous  feature  of  the  spectacle. 
In  the  same  month  comes  the  tawadehntha,  when  the  ascent  of 
Buddha  into  heaven  is  celebrated  by  a  three  days'  carnival,  and 
a  fluttering  and  bedizened  crowd  escorts  to  the  pagodas  the  time- 
honoured  offerings  of  great  pasteboard  spires  glittering  with 
tinsel,  and  "  padaythas,"  trees  hung  with  shining  trinkets  or 
sometimes  with  solid  rupees,  then  called  "  ngway  (silver)  paday- 
thas,"  and  worth  from  five  hundred  to  a  thousand  of  the  coins 
they  bear. 

The  close  of  Lent,  at  the  end  of  October,  is  celebrated  with 
universal  illuminations ;  cornices  of  coloured  lamps  define  the 
pyramidal  outlines  of  the  pagodas ;  Mandalay  is  for  three  nights 
ablaze  with  variegated  light,  and  millions  of  oil  lamps  with  bam- 
boo floats,  launched  in  shoals  from  every  river-side  village,  con- 


Burma  and  the  Farther  East.  321 

vert  the  Irawadi  from  Bhamaw  to  China  Backeer  into  a  sea  of 
quivering  flame.  Joyous  crowds  under  some  pious  pretext  invade 
even  the  halls  of  the  monasteries,  and  the  blank  gaze  of  the 
seated  Buddha  in  the  sacred  niche  nowise  checks  the  mundane 
merriment  of  a  night  of  revel. 

Theatrical  performances,  held  in  the  open  air,  and  sometimes 
enacted  by  puppets,  are  the  most  popular  of  secular  amusements, 
the  subjects  of  the  plays,  according  to  some  travellers,  being  such 
as  the  Lord  Chamberlain  might  find  it  easy  to  object  to.  Horse- 
races are  also  much  frequented,  and  the  annual  boat-race  on  the 
Irawadi,  when  the  competing  craft  represent  different  villages  and 
townships,  is  watched  by  a  crowd  not  less  eager  and  far  more 
demonstrative  than  that  gathered  on  Barnes  Bridge  to  see  the 
finish  of  the  Light  and  Dark  Blues.  Lithe  and  hardy,  though 
undersized,  the  Burmans  are  crack  oarsmen,  and  the  crews  of  the 
royal  barges,  forty  to  sixty  strong,  are  said  to  be  the  finest  in  the 
world.  Some  of  the  population  lead  a  permanently  amphibious 
life  and  do  an  itinerant  trade  on  the  rivers,  where  they  may  be 
seen  navigating  their  floating  homes  under  the  shade  of  extra- 
vagantly wide  bamboo  hats.  Though  shrewd  in  bargaining,  the 
Burman  is  prodigal  in  spending,  and  money  slips  rapidly  through 
his  fingers,  whether  spent  in  gaming,  entertaining,  or  endowing 
pagodas. 

The  early  history  of  Burma  consists  of  wars  with  China, 
variously  recounted  by  the  historians  on  both  sides.  The  claim 
of  the  latter  to  regard  her  neighbour  as  tributary  rests  on  a  treaty 
dated  December  13,  1769,  which  does  not,  however,  seem  to 
bear  out  the  pretension.  The  Burmese  monarch,  magniloquently 
described  as  "the  Lord  who  rules  over  a  multitude  of  Umbrella- 
wearing  Chiefs  in  the  Great  Western  Kingdom,  the  Sun- 
descended  King  of  Ava  and  Master  of  the  Golden  Palace,^'  seems 
in  the  preamble  placed  on  the  same  level  of  dignity  as  "  the 
Master  of  the  Golden  Palace  of  China,  who  rules  over  a  multitude 
of  Umbrella-wearing  Chiefs  in  the  Great  Eastern  Kingdom.''' 
Nor  is  there  any  implied  subordination  in  the  text  of  the  treaty, 
whose  main  article  is  as  follows : — 

Peace  and  friendship  being  established  between  the  two  great 
countries,  they  shall  become  like  two  pieces  of  gold  united  into  one, 
and  suitably  to  the  establishment  of  the  gold  and  silver  road  [com- 
mercial intercourse],  as  well  as  agreeably  to  former  custom,  the  princes 
and  officers  of  each  country  shall  move  their  respective  sovereigns  to 
transmit  and  exchange  affectionate  letters  in  gold  once  in  every  ten  years. 

The  interchange  of  presents  here  agreed  on  took  place  down  to 
a  recent  date,  and  though  it  is  asserted  that  the  return  gifts  of 
China  came,   not  from  Pekin,  but  from  the  provincial  govern- 


322  Burma  and  the  Farther  East. 

ment  of  Yunnan,  this  distinction  seems  a  very  shadowy  foun- 
dation for  the  pretence  of  suzerain  rights  to  rest  upon.  The 
claim  of  the  Celestial  Empire  to  annex  the  northern  portion  of 
Burma,  mcluding  Bhamaw  and  adjacent  territory  for  fifty  miles 
to  the  south,  following  an  ancient  frontier-line  long  superseded, 
is  equally  untenable. 

Upper  and  Lower  Burma  originally  formed  the  rival  king- 
doms of  Ava  and  Pegu,  with  the  Peacock,  and  the  Henza,  or 
Sacred  Goose,  as  their  respective  symbols.  Their  fusion  dates 
from  the  revolt  of  the  former,  then  a  conquered  province,  under 
the  leadership  of  Alaung-pra  or  Alompra,  the  founder  of  the 
present  dynasty.  Born  in  1720,  of  the  despised  community  of 
those  who  live  by  the  chase,  the  Burmese  William  Tell  soon 
made  the  name  of  Muthsebo,  "  the  Hunter-Captain,*'  a  rallying- 
cry  of  national  liberty  instead  of  a  byword  of  reproach.  The 
handful  of  followers  who  at  first  supported  him  grew  into  an 
army  which  his  genius  enabled  him  during  a  five  years'  struggle 
to  lead  to  a  series  of  victories,  resulting  in  the  reversal  of  the 
previous  relations  of  the  two  provinces  and  the  final  subjugation 
of  Pegu  by  Ava.  The  French  and  English,  then  rivals  for  the 
supremacy  of  Hindostan,  took  opposite  sides  also  in  the  Burmese 
contest,  the  former  supporting  the  cause  of  Pegu,  the  latter  that 
of  the  revolted  province. 

But  the  excesses  of  the  house  of  Alompra,  among  whose 
descendants  a  strain  of  madness  has  developed  since  the  beginning 
of  this  century,  rendered  impossible  the  maintenance  of  this  early 
dynastic  friendship  with  the  rulers  of  Hindostan.  "  Of  all  the 
Eastern  nations  with  which  the  Government  of  India  has  had  to 
do,"  wrote  Lord  Dalhousie  in  a  celebrated  minute,  in  1856,  "  the 
Burmese  are  the  most  arrogant  and  overbearing.'*  This  character 
they  have  steadily  maintained,  and  a  series  of  insults  and  provoca- 
tions have  brought  about  the  annexation  of  the  entire  empire  of 
Ava,  as  the  result  of  three  Burmese  wars  fought  at  intervals  of 
nearly  thirty  years.  By  the  treaty  of  Yandabo  at  the  conclusion 
of  the  first,  in  February,  1826,  the  provinces  of  Assam,  Arakan 
and  Tenasserim  passed  under  British  rule,  while  the  second  closed 
in  1853  with  the  sacrifice  by  Burma  of  Pegu,  including  the  whole 
Irawadi  delta.  Upper  Burma,  thus  cut  ofi*  from  the  sea,  was 
rendered  practically  impotent,  and  its  facile  conquest  as  the  result 
of  the  third  and  latest  expedition  justifies  Lord  DalhousieV 
assertion,  thirty  years  previous,  that  he  held  the  remnant  of  the 
kingdom  of  Ava  "in  the  hollow  of  his  hand/*  The  brief  pro- 
clamation of  January  1, 1886,  in  which  Lord  Dufferin  announced 
the  incorporation  of  Theebaw*s  dominions  in  those  of  Her  Majesty, 
relegated  to  the  shadow-land  of  the  irrevocable  past  one  of  the 
most  typical  of  Eastern  monarchies. 


\ 


Burma  and  the  Farther  East.  323 

His  Majesty  of  the  Golden  Foot,  rejoicing  in  an  amplitude  of 
titular  redundancies,  was  a  despot  absolute  and  unlimited.  No 
hereditary  nobility  counterbalanced  his  supremacy,  and  all  official 
dignitaries  were  the  creatures  of  his  will.  The  deliberations  of  the 
Hlot-daw,  or  Royal  Council,  in  which  all  executive  and  judicial 
authority  centred,  and  the  Byadeit,  or  second  deliberative  Com- 
mittee of  State,  were  equally  under  his  control,  their  members 
being  nominated  and  dismissed  at  his  pleasure.  The  first  of  these 
was  composed  of  four  Ministers,  with  the  title  of  Woon-gyee — 
literally  "great  burden;"  their  assistants  being  termed  Woon- 
douk — "prop  of  the  burden."  The  second  consisted  of  a  like 
number  of  Atween-woons — Ministers  of  the  Interior — acting  also 
as  private  secretaries  to  the  king. 

The  royal  revenue,  about  £800,000,  raised  by  a  system  of 
extortion,  was  principally  based  on  the  ngway-daw — "royal 
silver'' — a  house  or  family  tax  amounting  to  about  7s.  6d.  a  head, 
and  assessed  on  a  Doomsday  Book  compiled  in  1783.  Fisheries 
and  various  forms  of  culture  were  also  taxed,  and  mines,  timber 
forests,  and  trade  in  "  pickled  tea"  formed  royal  monopolies,  while 
the  whole  labour  of  the  country  was  also  at  the  arbitrary  disposal 
of  the  State.  Each  province,  township  and  village  had  its  governor 
or  sub-governor,  and  the  revenues  of  the  several  districts  were 
assigned  to  members  of  the  royal  family,  ministers,  or  favourites, 
expressively  termed  myo-tsa — ''eater  of  the  town.''  From  these 
appanages  are  derived  the  names  of  the  Burmese  monarchs, 
always  territorial  and  never  personal  appellations.  Thus  Theebaw 
Min  is  simply  Prince  of  Theebaw,  that  province  having  been  the 
one  "eaten"  by  hini  before  he  became  the  general  devourer  of 
the  country  at  large. 

A  universal  conscription,  limited  by  bribery,  recruited  the  ranks 
of  a  pantomime  army,  by  no  means  destitute  of  fighting  qualities, 
but  rendered  grotesque  by  a  parody  on  European  discipline  and 
equipment.  Officers  mounted  on  elephants,  followed  by  umbrella- 
bearers,  grooms  and  chargers,  made  an  imposing  show,  but  the 
rank  and  file,  chatting  and  smoking  as  they  shutiied  along,  with 
helmets  carried  indifferently  on  their  heads  or  on  their  bayonets, 
uniforms  awry,  standards,  now  erect,  now  trailing,  were  the  veriest 
ragamuffins  that  ever  shouldered  musket.  The  picked  troops, 
called  a-hmo-daw,  were  a  standing  militia — hereditary  soldiers  of 
the  Alompra  dynasty.  Drawn  from  certain  districts,  lying  chiefly 
to  the  north  of  the  capital  near  the  cradle  of  the  race,  and 
exempted  from  other  forms  of  taxation,  these  serfs  of  the  spear, 
tattooed  with  a  dragon  between  the  shoulders,  furnished  the  royal 
guards,  and  were  the  only  real  soldiers  in  Burma. 

The  current  of  the  Irawadi  links  together  several  clusters  of 
forlorn  capitals  abandoned  by  the  caprices  of  the  Burmese  Court 

VOL.  XT. — NO.  II.     [Third  Series.]  z 


824  Burma  and  the  Farther  East. 

after  having  been  the  scene  of  its  fantastic  splendours.  Tagoung, 
destroyed  by  a  Mongol  invasion  before  the  Christian  era,  was  the 
first  of  the  series,  and  Old  Pagahn,  which  rose  on  its  ruins  about 
107  A.D.,  the  second.  An  existence  of  six  or  seven  centuries  did 
not  secure  this  metropolis  from  eventual  desertion,  and  its  name 
and  rank  were  transferred  to  another  site  200  miles  lower  down 
the  river.  New  Pagahn,  whose  most  ancient  shrine  dates  from 
850  A.D.,  was  par  excellence  the  city  of  pagodas,  and  the  ruins 
of  some  900  still  rise  above  the  jungle  for  eight  miles  along  the 
river-bank,  extending  inland  for  two  or  three.  Many  thousands 
of  these  edifices  are  said  to  have  been  sacrificed  to  the  defence  of 
the  city  in  1284  a.d.,  when  its  turn  for  destruction  came  at  the 
hands  of  invading  Tartars  and  Chinese.  The  proud  name  of 
Jayapura  (City  of  Victory)  bestowed  on  its  successor  Tsagain,  did 
not  avail  to  save  it  from  a  like  fate  sixty  years  later,  when  its 
honours  were  inherited  by  the  historic  city  of  Ava.  Founded  in 
1364,  on  a  site  known  as  Angwa,  or  fishpond,  its  familiar  name 
has  survived  its  official  or  sacred  title  of  Ratanapura  (City  of 
Gems),  and  is  identified  v^ith  the  culminating  splendours  of  the 
Peacock  Throne.  It  survived  until  destroyed  by  an  earthquake 
in  1839,  although  the  seat  of  government  oscillated  between  it  and 
its  latest  rival,  Amarapura,  the  City  of  the  Immortals.  Here  a 
population  of  90,000  were  gathered  when,  in  1858,  the  caprice  of 
Mindohn  Min,  Theebaw's  predecessor,  who  disliked  the  noise  of 
the  steamers  on  the  river,  commanded  a  general  migration  to  the 
swamp  and  jungle-covered  plain  of  Mandalay,  a  few  miles  higher 
up.  The  Chinese  settlers,  whose  houses  were  of  less  fragile 
structure  than  the  shanties  of  the  natives,  and  who  had  built 
themselves  a  substantial  joss-house,  alone  refused  to  obey,  and 
their  quarter  still  forms  an  extra-mural  suburb  to  the  present 
capital. 

The  approach  to  Mandalay  thus  lies  past  the  ruins  of  its 
predecessors,  and  the  beautiful  scenery  of  the  Irawadi  Valley 
gains  an  added  charm  from  the  remains  with  which  it  is  so 
thickly  studded  that  Mr.  Crawfurd,  the  British  Envoy,  counted 
200  temples  from  one  point  on  the  Tsagain  hills.  Colonel  Yule 
describes  as  follows  the  view  from  a  jutting  promontory 
near  Pagahn  to  which  he  says  nothing  on  the  Khine  could  be 
compared : — 

Northward  the  great  river  stretched,  embracing  innumerable 
islands,  till  seemingly  hemmed  in  and  lost  among  the  mountains. 
Behind  us,  curving  rapidly  round  the  point  where  we  stood,  it  passed 
away  to  the  west,  and  was  lost  in  the  blaze  of  dazzling  sunset.  North- 
ward rose  the  little  barren  broken  ridges  of  Tsagain,  every  point  and 
spur  of  which  was  marked  by  some  monastic  building  or  pagoda. 
Nearly  opposite  to  us  lay  Amarapura,  with  just  enough  haze  upon  its 


Burma  and  the  Farther  East.  325 

temples  and  towers  to  lend  them  all  the  magic  of  an  Italian  city.  A 
great  bell-shaped  spire  rising  faintly  white  in  the  middle  of  the  town 
might  well  pass  for  a  great  Duomo.  You  could  not  discern  that  the 
domes  and  spires  were  dead  masses  of  heathen  brickwork,  and  that 
the  body  of  the  town  was  bamboo  and  thatch.  It  might  have  been 
Venice,  it  looked  so  beautiful.  Behind  it  rose  range  after  range  of 
mountains  robed  in  blue  enchantment.  Between  our  station  and  the 
river  was  only  a  narrow  strip  of  intense  green  foliage,  mingled  with 
white  temples,  spires  and  cottage  roofs.  The  great  elbow  of  the  river 
below  us,  mirroring  the  shadows  of  the  wood  on  its  banks  and  the 
glowing  clouds  above,  had  been  like  a  lake  were  it  not  that  the  down- 
ward drift  of  the  warboats,  as  they  crossed  and  recrossed,  marked  so 
distinctly  the  rapidity  of  the  kingly  stream. 

The  ruins  of  Ava,  with  its  temple  spires  rising  from  a  thicket 
of  gardens  and  jungle;  those  of  Tsagain,  buried  in  a  mass  of 
tamarind-trees;  isolated  villages,  monasteries  and  pagodas  rising 
direct  out  of  the  flood-waters,  and  steep  crests  coroneted  with 
towers,  combined  to  form  a  scene  which  the  writer  thought 
could  not  be  surpassed  by  the  Lake  of  Como,  and  which  those 
who  had  seen  Como  declared  was  not. 

The  temples  of  Pagahn  are  singular  among  Oriental  remains, 
from  their  resemblance  in  general  outline  to  Christian  churches 
of  the  Italian  Gothic  order.  The  ground-plan  of  the  Ananda, 
still  used  as  a  place  of  worship,  is  a  perfect  Greek  cross,  and  the 
distant  view  of  the  Ganda  Palen,  another  of  these  buildings, 
when  seen  from  far  down  the  Irawadi,  gleaming  in  white  plaster, 
with  its  numerous  pinnacles  and  tall  centi-al  spire,  180  feet  high, 
suggested  to  Colonel  Yule  "  a  dim  vision  of  Milan  Cathedral." 
The  employment  of  European  artificers  has  been  conjectured  to 
explain  such  an  anomaly,  but  this  view  is  scarcely  supported  by 
the  purely  Oriental  character  of  the  architectural  details.  Here 
where  twenty-one  kings  reigned  in  succession,  and  where  rose 
the  twin  towers  of  gold  and  silver  described  by  Marco  Polo, 
the  jungle  growth  now  runs  riot  over  the  remains  of  palace  and 
pagoda. 

The  wide  plain  of  Mandalay,  extending  about  five  miles  in 
each  direction,  is  thickly  studded  with  houses  and  gardens,  to 
where  the  blue  Shan  hills  on  its  eastern  edge  lift  themselves 
steeply  as  from  a  lake  out  of  the  dead-level  of  its  rice-flats.  The 
myo,  or  city  proper,  consists  of  a  triple  enclosure,  square  within 
square,  like  a  Chinese  puzzle,  each  outer  face  measuring  a  mile 
and  a  quarter,  and  the  whole  containing  some  13,000  dwellings 
with  60,000  inhabitants.  The  external  walls,  thirty  feet  thick, 
deeply  crenellated,  and  heavily  banked  with  earth  inside,  are 
surmounted  with  bastions  at  intervals  of  200  yards,  and  girdled 
with  a  moat  fifty  vards  wide.    Here,  amid  a  thick  overgrowth  of 

z  'Z 


326  Burma  and  the  Farther  East. 

lotus,  floated  the  richly  decorated  royal  galleys  with  the  kalaweik, 
or  crane,  carved  on  their  springing  poops.  Bridges  lead  to  the 
twelve  gates,  distinguished  by  the  signs  of  the  zodiac  carved  on 
posts,  and  thence  to  wide  streets  planted  with  tamarinds,  but 
formed  by  poor  and  sometimes  ruinous  houses  or  sheds.  In  the 
centre  a  high  teak  palisade,  fronting  a  quarter  of  a  mile  each 
way,  encloses  the  palace  or  official  city,  with  the  residences  of  the 
Ministers,  a  third  quadrangle  of  brick  surrounding  the  innermost 
sanctuary  of  Burmese  royalty  itself.  The  visitor,  admitted  by  a 
low  postern  in  the  eastern  face,  called  taga-nee,  or  red-gate, 
sees  the  long  fafade  glittering  with  gold  and  tinsel  work  of  what 
a  British  Envoy  described  as  one  of  the  most  singular  and 
impressive  roj'al  residences  in  the  world.  The  position  of  the 
throne,  raised  like  a  high  tribune  at  the  further  end  of  the 
pillared  vista  of  the  Hall  of  Audience,  is  marked  externally  by 
the  sacred  spire  with  its  seven  diminishing  roof-canopies,  fantas- 
tically carved  in  flamboyant  pinnacles.  No  one  in  palace  or 
town  may  sleep  with  his  feet  turned  in  this  direction  ;  a  proscrip- 
tion the  more  difficult  of  observance  as  a  similar  rule  applies  in 
Buddhist  belief  to  two  points  of  the  compass — the  east,  where 
will  appear  the  new  Buddha  (Areemadehya),  and  the  west,  where 
stood  the  bowdee  bin,  the  sacred  tree  under  which  Shin  Gautama 
received  his  inspiration. 

A  gruesome  tale  of  the  building  of  Mandalay  is  told  by 
travellers,  and  among  others  by  "  Shway  Yoe  "  (Mr.  Scott),  in 
an  entertaining  book  on  Burma,  compiled  from  many  sources. 
In  accordance  with  the  popular  belief  that  the  souls  of  those 
who  die  by  violence  become  nat-thehn,  or  guardian  spirits  of  the 
place,  fifty-two  human  beings  of  both  sexes  and  all  ages  were 
buried  alive,  four  under  each  gate  and  corner  of  the  city  walls, 
four  under  the  throne,  and  one  under  each  gate  and  angle  of  the 
palace  enclosure.  Certain  rules  of  astrology  or  superstition 
guided  the  dread  selection,  and  while  it  was  impending  the 
streets  of  Mandalay  were  deserted,  no  one  venturing  out  save  at 
noonday  or  in  company.  Even  a  series  of  gratuitous  dramatic 
performances,  purposely  given  by  the  authorities,  failed  to  draw 
an  audience  under  the  shadow  of  such  a  doom. 

The  terror  was  renewed  some  years  later  when  the  septennial 
examination  of  certain  jars  of  oil,  buried  at  the  same  time  for  the 
purpose  of  this  test,  having  in  1880  shown  that  some  had  leaked 
dry,  the  ghastly  spell  was  declared  to  have  lost  its  efiicacy  and  to 
require  renewal.  Other  sinister  omens  pointed  in  the  same 
direction — an  epidemic  of  small-pox  carried  off  the  only  child  of 
Theebaw  and  other  members  of  the  royal  family,  a  tiger  broke 
loose  from  the  palace  menagerie,  and  the  nansin-budda-mya,  a 


Burma  and  the  Farther  East.  327 

huge  ruby,  emblematical  of  the  fortunes  of  the  dynasty,  was 
missed  from  the  crown  jewels.  The  Brahmin  priests,  kept  as 
royal  astrologers  and  forming  a  college  of  augurs  in  Mandalay, 
prescribed  a  fresh  immolation,  this  time  of  600  people — the  six 
classes  of  men,  women,  boys,  girls,  soldiers  and  foreigners  supply- 
ing equal  contingents  ;  the  warrants  were  issued  and  the  arrests 
began.  A  general  exodus  took  place,  happily  attaining  such 
proportions  as  to  alarm  the  authorities  and  raise  the  spectre  of 
English  intervention.  The  intended  massacre  was  countermanded 
and  public  opinion  tranquillized  by  an  official  denial. 

But  upwards  of  a  hundred  people  [says  Shway  Yoe]  had  been 
arrested,  and  some  of  these  declared,  when  liberated  months  after- 
wards, that  in  the  dark  nights  of  terror,  when  no  one  ventured  about 
Mandalay  streets,  people  were  buried  under  each  of  the  posts  at  the 
twelve  gates  aa  a  compromise  between  the  fear  of  the  spirits  and  the 
fear  that  the  English  troops  would  cross  the  frontier. 

It  was  indeed  none  too  soon  for  the  downfall  of  a  throne  rest- 
ing on  such  a  foundation.  The  reign  of  the  young  monk  sum- 
moned from  his  monastery  to  inherit  it  in  October,  1878,  speedily 
gave  the  final  blow  to  its  tottering  stability,  for  the  massacre  in 
February,  1879,  of  seventy  members  of  the  royal  family,  with 
every  circumstance  of  barbarity,  arrayed  public  opinion  in  Europe 
against  the  system  which  could  lend  itself  to  such  atrocities. 
Theebaw,  at  once  weak  and  wicked,  was  urged  on  in  his  career  of 
crime  by  female  influence,  and  his  worst  passions  were  stimulated 
by  Soo-Payah-Lat,  the  fierce  princess  who  shared  his  throne,  her 
elder  sister,  Selin-Soo-Payah  (anglicized  as  Selina  Sophia),  having 
declined  that  honour,  preferring  to  cut  off  her  hair  and  retire 
into  a  convent.  Petticoat  government  in  Mandalay  added 
financial  extravagance  to  its  other  sins,  and  a  State  lottery  was 
started  in  1879  to  replenish  the  exchequer.  The  several  Ministers 
vied  with  each  other  in  devices  to  attract  customers,  large  receipts 
being  a  passport  to  royal  favour ;  and  gratuitous  refreshments, 
singers,  dancing  girls,  and  dramatic  performances  were  provided 
in  the  courtyards  of  their  respective  offices.  When  these  in- 
ducements failed,  stronger  measures  were  resorted  to  :  gangs  of 
rowdies  were  employed  to  secure  purchasers  by  intimidation,  and 
mercantile  houses  were  compelled  to  subscribe  in  certain  propor- 
tions. To  the  same  category  of  financial  expedients  belongs  the 
act  which  immediately  led  to  the  British  ultimatum,  and  the 
final  overthrow  of  the  Burmese  monarchy.  At  the  instigation  of 
French  intrigue,  an  arbitrary  fine  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  sterling 
was  levied  on  the  Bombay-Burma  Trading  Company,  lessees  of 
the  teak  forests,  under  pretence  that  the  Crown  had  been 
defrauded  of  some  of  its  royalties  on  timber  during  past  years. 


328  Burma  and  the  Farther  East. 

the  object  of  the  demand  being  the  confiscation  of  the  Company's 
rights  and  their  re-sale  to  French  speculators. 

The  pomp  and  pageantry  of  the  Peacock  Throne,  now  things 
of  the  past,  are  illustrated  by  the  description  in  "  Shway  Yoe's  '* 
lively  pages  of  one  of  its  picturesque  ceremonials.  Once  a  year, 
at  the  time  of  the  south-west  monsoon  in  June,  his  golden-footed 
Majesty  mounted  the  white  elephant  sacred  to  his  use  alone,  and 
rode  in  state  through  streets  and  suburbs.  Not  indeed  to  rejoice 
the  loyal  gaze  of  his  subjects  with  the  spectacle ;  on  the  contrary, 
special  measures  were  taken  to  obviate  such  profanation,  and  all 
along  his  route  the  yazamat,  or  royal  fence,  a  lattice-paling  six 
feet  high,  was  erected  to  shield  the  royal  progress. 

Gorgeous  as  an  Eastern  idol,  the  king  rode  along,  his  pasoh, 
or  folded  robe,  adorned  with  the  royal  douiig-yohp,  or  peacock, 
partly  covered  by  the  loug  silk  surcoat  so  thickly  crusted  with 
jewels  that  its  colour  was  not  to  be  distinguished,  and  its 
resplendent  mass  weighed  100  lbs.  A  frontlet  of  gold  glittered 
on  his  brow,  above  which  towered  the  tharapoo,  or  spire-like 
crown,  aflash  with  many-coloured  rays,  while  the  twenty-four 
gold  chains  of  the  Order  of  the  Tsaloe,  linked  with  golden  bosses, 
hung  across  his  breast. 

Little  less  brilliant  was  the  cortege  that  followed  him,  woons 
and  woondoaks,  ministers  and  councillors,  in  due  order  of 
precedence,  wearing  long  crimson  velvet  cassocks,  matched  by 
tall  red  velvet  hats  with  the  tops  curling  backwards  like  a  shell, 
and  followed  by  umbrellas  numerous  and  many-hued — ^gold, 
green,  or  vermilion.  A  deathlike  stillness  prevailed  along  the 
route  of  the  procession,  though  the  people  were  doubtless  crowded 
behind  the  fence,  emulously  striving  for  peepholes  through  which 
to  view  the  royal  show.  Passing  through  the  eastern  gate,  with 
its  triple-canopied  roof  and  tall  columns,  and  past  the  carved  and 
gilt  fa9ades  and  spires  of  the  royal  monastery,  a  halt  was  made 
at  the  selected  portion  of  the  let-daw-gyee,  or  royal  acre. 

Here  [says  our  author]  ploughs  stand  ready  in  a  long  row, 
extending  away  as  far  as  any  one  can  see,  for  all  the  princes  and 
Ministers  must  plough  as  well  as  the  king.  The  royal  plough  is 
covered  with  gold-leaf,  and  the  part  on  which  his  Majesty  stands  is 
gold. roughened  with  pearls  and  emeralds.  The  milk-white  oxen  that 
draw  it  rival  the  Lord  "White  Elephant  in  the  splendour  of  their 
harness.  Crimson  and  gold  bands  hook  them  on ;  the  reins  are  stiff 
with  rubies  and  diamonds ;  heavy  gold  tassels  hang  from  the  gilded 
horns.  The  gold-tipped  ox-goad  his  Majesty  wields  is  covered  with 
jewels,  and  flashes  like  a  rod  of  fire  in  the  sun. 

The  antiquity  of  this  ceremonial  may  be  inferred  from  its 
association  with  a  legend  of  Buddha's  infancy,  which  relates  how 


Burma  and  the  FartJier  East.  329 

the  little  prince  Thei-dut^  afterwards  the  divinely  inspired 
Gautama,  having  been  forgotten  under  a  tree  by  his  careless 
nursemaids  in  their  absorption  in  the  royal  spectacle,  was 
miraculously  sheltered  by  the  shadow  of  the  tree,  which  preserved 
its  position  over  him  while  the  sun  travelled  through  its 
orbit. 

The  most  distinctive  attribute  of  Burmese  royalty,  the  sin- 
pyoo-dawj  or  White  Elephant,  is  incorrectly  so  styled,  as  his  hue 
is  more  nearly  mouse-colour  with  paler  blotches.  His  title  to  his 
high  prerogatives  is,  however,  capable  of  proof  by  subjecting  him 
to  a  douche,  when  his  skin  shows  a  reddish  tinge  instead  of  the 
negro  complexion  assumed  by  his  fellows  under  similar  treatment. 
A  palace  provided  with  solid  silver  cisterns  and  feeding  jars,  a 
suite  of  thirty  attendants  who  never  approached  his  presence 
save  with  shoeless  feet,  and  the  revenues  of  a  province  assigned 
for  his  maintenance,  were  among  the  privileges  of  the  favoured 
beast.  Royalty  itself  respected  his  rights,  and  when,  in  1826, 
his  income  was  temporarily  diverted  to  pay  the  English  indemnity, 
the  reigning  king  addressed  to  him  a  letter  of  apology  and 
explanation.  Two  white  and  four  golden  umbrellas  signified  his 
high  dig;iity,  nine  of  the  former  hue  being  the  insignia  of  royalty 
and  eight  of  the  latter  those  of  the  heir  apparent.  It  was  a 
curious  coincidence,  if  not  deliberately  brought  about  by  poison, 
that  the  sin-pyoo-daw  should  have  died  on  the  day  that  the  last 
Golden  Foot  left  Mandalay  a  prisoner. 

In  contrast  with  the  ceremonial  pomp  and  glitter  of  the 
Court  of  Ava  is  the  poverty  of  the  ordinary  dwellings  in  the 
capital,  presenting,  in  the  words  of  the  Times  correspondent,  a 
mingling  of  "  magnificence  and  squalor,  filth  and  splendour."  * 
The  peasantry  along  the  river  were  found  by  the  British  expedi- 
tion in  similar  wretchedness,  and  the  same  correspondent  describes 
the  villagers  as  living  in  direst  poverty — lodged  in  miserable 
houses  destitute  of  furniture  or  any  other  property,  while  the 
beauty  of  the  river  scenery  and  natural  riches  of  the  country 
formed  a  striking  contrast  to  their  condition.f 

Still  more  deplorable  was  the  state  of  the  outlying  country, 
where  total  anarchy  prevailed.  Some  districts  were  in  open 
rebellion,  in  others  bands  of  dacoits  (brigands,  so-called,  when 
mustered  in  gangs  of  more  than  five)  robbed  and  slew  with 
impunity,  secured  to  them  by  the  connivance  of  the  Tynedah 
Mingyee,  the  most  powerful  of  the  Ministers,  The  establish- 
ment of  any  form  of  civilized  government  cannot,  under  these 
circumstances,  fail  to  be  a  boon  to  the  people,  and  it  is  to  be 

*  Times,  January  6,  1886.     The  Capture  of  Mandalay. 
t  Timet,  December  15, 1885.     The  Biurmese  Expedition. 


;J30  Burma  and  the  Farther  EaM. 

hoped  that  no  caprice  of  English  politics  will  result  in  the 
restoration  of  Theebaw,  with  the  institution  of  local  self-govern- 
ment as  a  panacea  for  dacoity. 

The  progress  of  the  lower  province  under  British  rule  is  a 
favourable  augury  for  the  future  of  Upper  Burma.  The  increase 
of  the  former  in  revenue  and  population  from  1862,  when  it  was 
organized  under  its  present  form  of  administration,  until  1884, 
amounted  to  from  ten  to  thirty-one  millions  of  rupees,  and  from 
under  two  to  over  four  millions  of  inhabitants,  the  growth  under 
this  head  being  mainly  due  to  immigration  from  Upper  Burma. 
A  surplus  of  a  million  sterling  is  annually  paid  into  the  Indian 
exchequer,  and  the  relatively  high  figure  of  taxation,  amountingj^ 
to  about  13s.  l\d.  a  head,  is  shown  not  to  press  heavily,  by  the 
fact  that  the  standard  of  comfort  is  much  higher  than  in  Con- 
tinental India.  The  wages  of  unskilled  labour  range  from  5s.  a 
week  in  the  slack  season  throughout  inland  districts,  to  25s.  a 
week  in  the  busy  season  at  the  rice  ports.  The  general  average, 
struck  at  7s.  6cZ.  a  week,  compares  favourably  with  the  average  of 
2s.  3tZ.  for  British  India,  and  the  difference  in  the  profits  of  the 
ordinary  cultivator  may  be  assumed  to  be  in  the  same  proportion. 
Captain  Forbes  calculates  the  average  expenditure  on  necessaries 
of  a  household  of  five  persons  at  only  lOid  a  day,  allowing  them 
their  ordinary  fare  of  rice,  fish,  curry  and  vegetables,  with  \kd. 
thrown  in  for  the  indispensable  betel  chewing.  Their  outlay  on 
personal  decoration  is  disproportionately  large,  as  the  excess  of 
£1,340,000  of  imported  over  exported  treasure,  represents  the 
value  of  gold  and  silver  annually  converted  into  ornaments  by 
the  Burmans  and  Karens,  furnishing  a  basis  for  the  calculation 
that  every  household  of  six  persons  spends  on  an  average  £12  a 
year  on  imported  articles  and  jewellery.  The  comparative 
equality  in  the  distribution  of  riches  leaves  a  narrower  margin 
than  elsewhere  between  the  expenditure  of  different  classes  of  the 
population,  and  the  general  frugality  of  life  has  a  similarly 
levelling  effect. 

Commercial  expansion  has  been  still  more  rapid  in  British 
Burma,  which  with  only  a  fiftieth  of  the  population  has  a  trade 
equal  to  a  tenth  of  that  of  India.  Exports  and  imports  increased 
between  1876  and  1881,  the  first  from  £3,848,863  to  £8,525,000^ 
the  second  from  £2;i70,025  to  £6,985,000;  and  in  1884  a  total 
of  £19,174,751  was  reached,  representing  a  more  than  threefold 
increase.  Development  of  communications,  though  yet  in  its 
infancy,  has  brought  about  this  result,  and  there  is  yet  room  for 
vast  extension  under  this  head.  Down  to  a  recent  date  there  was 
not  in  the  greater  number  of  the  districts  of  Burma  a  single  mile 
of  metalled  road  outside  the  principal  towns,  and  the  difiiculties 
of  land  transit  are  consequently  almost  prohibitory.     Neverthe- 


I 


Burma  and  the  Farther  East.  331 

less,  the  value  of  goods  passed  through  the  Rangoon  Custom 
House  in  transit  to  Upper  Burma  increased  between  the  years 
1878-79  and  1880-81  from  £588,375  to  £907,269. 

This  represents  the  growth  of  trade  carried  almost  entirely  by 
water,  and  principally  by  the  Irawadi  Flotilla  Company.  In 
1868,  when  this  Society  was  formed,  there  was  not  a  single 
steamer  on  the  river,  and  they  began  operations  with  two  or 
three  cast-off  Government  vessels,  and  a  few  Hats  or  barges. 
They  now  own  twenty-seven  steamers,  160  to  320  feet  long, 
built  on  the  two-storied  American  model;  and  seventy  flats  of 
350  tons  burden,  which  are  towed  when  the  river  is  too  low  to 
tioat  steamers  heavy  in  cargo.  The  Flotilla  effects  a  weekly 
service  to  Bhamaw,  and  a  bi-weekly  to  Mandalay,  and  carries  a 
total  trade  of  50,000  passengers  and  three  millions  and  a  quarter's 
worth  of  goods.  The  length  of  160  miles  of  railway,  from 
llangoon  to  Prome,  opened  in  1878,  cleared  at  the  end  of  two 
years  a  profit  of  £60,000,  or  4^  per  cent,  on  capital,  and  the 
newly  opened  line  from  llangoon  to  Toungoo,  with  proposed 
extension  to  Mandalay  and  Bhamaw,  ought  to  prove  eventually 
still  more  remunerative.  The  combined  profits  of  both  are 
already  over  6  per  cent.  The  most  vivid  illustration  of  the 
development  of  the  country  is  supplied  by  the  history  of 
Rangoon,  grown  within  fifty  years  from  an  obscure  creek  with 
an  inssigniticant  junk  trade  to  be  the  third  port  of  India,  visited 
annually  by  584,450  tons  of  shipping,  and  with  a  population  of 
150,000.  Its  situation,  selected  by  the  genius  of  the  Hunter- 
Captain,  on  a  branch  of  the  Irawadi,  twenty-six  miles  from  the 
sea,  entitles  it  to  rank  as  the  Antwerp  of  the  East,  while  the 
name  Yan-kun  or  Ran-kun  bestowed  by  him,  and  interpreted 
to  mean  "  end  of  war,"  is  of  good  omen  for  a  commercial  settle- 
ment. The  greatest  rice  port  in  the  world,  its  export  of  this 
commodity  increased  between  1862  and  1874  from  284,228  to 
811,106  tons,  and  the  export  from  Burma  for  the  current  year 
(1886)  is  expected  to  reach  a  million  tons.  Nearly  nine-tenths  of 
the  entire  three  million  acres  under  cultivation  in  Lower  Burma 
are  devoted  to  rice,  of  which  102  varieties,  according  to  Dr» 
Hunter,  are  enumerated  by  the  natives.  The  Irawadi  delta^ 
with  a  soil  of  inexhaustible  fertility,  annually  submerged  by  the 
south-west  monsoon,  and  converted  into  a  sea  of  liquid  mud, 
supplies  spontaneously  all  the  conditions  for  its  culture,  and  only 
in  the  higher  lands  is  artificial  irrigation  required.  In  still 
more  remote  districts,  the  hill  population  practise  the  toilsome 
and  unproductive  system  of  cultivation  called  toung-ya,  which 
consists  in  clearing  and  burning  successive  patches  of  jungle, 
each  yielding  but  one  crop,  and  relapsing  into  the  state  of 
scrubby  thicket,  equally  useless  for  forest  or  tillage. 


332  Bwrma  and  the  Farther  East. 

But  as  these  districts  have  no  surphis  crop,  the  rice  of  com- 
merce is  grown  on  the  inundated  lowlands,  whither,  after  a 
preliminary  scratching  with  a  three-toothed  harrow  or  rake, 
miscalled  a  plough,  the  seedling  plants  are  transferred  in  the 
month  of  August  from  nurseries  on  drier  lands.  The  crop  is 
ready  for  cutting  in  Novemher,  when  gangs  of  Upper  Burmans 
arrive,  like  Irish  harvest-men,  to  do  the  work  of  reaping  for  the 
lowland  farmers.  The  grain  is  cut  close  to  the  ear,  and  the  straw 
burned  standing,  serving  to  some  extent  the  purpose  of  manure. 
The  paddy,  or  unhusked  rice,  after  being  trampled  from  the  ear 
by  oxen,  and  rudely  winnowed,  is  transported  in  great  country 
barges,  by  some  of  the  numerous  delta  creeks  to  Rangoon,  to 
become  there  an  object  of  insane  competition  between  the  rival 
firms.  As  it  sells  at  from  4s.  to  5s.  per  maund  of  80  lbs., 
while  the  rent  of  land  is  less  than  3s.  an  acre,  and  the  yield,  from 
one  bushel  of  seed,  between  forty  and  eighty  bushels  per  acre, 
an  easy  profit  accrues  to  the  farmer. 

Not  so  the  merchant,  whose  precarious  gains  are  limited  by 
keen  competition.  Scarcely  even  on  the  New  York  Stock 
Exchange  does  the  fever  of  speculation  run  so  high  as  in  the  rice 
market  of  Rangoon,  where  the  paddy-boats  are  as  eagerly 
hankered  for  as  the  gambler's  stakes.  Vain  are  all  efforts  to 
limit,  by  fixing  in  combination  a  maximum  price,  the  ruinous 
system  of  emulation  that  prevails ;  the  basket  measure  is  dimi- 
nished in  size  or  filled  up  by  a  false  bottom,  to  evade  regulations 
and  bribe  custom.  One  might  imagine  that  this  sharp  rivalry 
would  at  least  enrich  the  farmer,  but  practically  it  is  not  so,  for 
he  is  but  the  creature  of  the  chetty,  or  Madras  money-lender,  who 
controls  the  market  by  compelling  him  to  hold  his  crop  until  a 
certain  price  is  reached.  The  merchants  have  vainly  tried  to 
combat  this  system,  advancing  the  full  value  of  the  grain,  even 
before  sowing,  but  the  improvidence  of  the  cultivator  plays 
the  usurer's  game,  and  renders  him  eventually  his  bond- 
slave. The  rice-trade,  thus  undermined,  is  a  very  uncertain  one, 
and  the  firms  could  not  continue  to  subsist  were  it  not  that  they 
generally  own  a  second  business  as  well ;  dealing  in  piece-goods, 
silk,  cotton,  or  grey-shirtings  for  Upper  J3urmah,  working  teak 
saw-mills  or  importing  jute. 

During  the  busy  season  in  Rangoon,  from  January  to  May,  the 
river  is  alive  with  shipping,  sailing  vessels  that  have  chased 
the  albatross  round  the  Cape  of  Storms,  and  great  steamers 
("  ditchers,^'  as  they  are  locally  called)  come  by  the  short  cut  of 
the  Suez  Canal. 

Harbour-masters  and  river-pilots  [writes  Shway  Yoe]  have  a  busy 
time,  Coringi  coolies  swarm  in  the  town,  and  their  monotonous  chant. 


Burma  and  the  Farther  East.  333 

^*  Ell  -ya-mah-la,  Ta-ma-lay,  Madras  Ag-boat,  Ta-ma-lay,"  may  be 
heard  at  any  hour  of  the  night  or  morning  floating  over  the  river. 
The  British  sailor  overflows  into  the  town,  and  sings  noisy  old  salt 
sea-songs  round  about  the  Soolay  Pagoda,  gets  mad-drunk  on  arrack, 
and  not  unseldom  clears  Dalhousie  Street  with  a  linked-arm  rush  heed- 
less of  the  red-turbaned  guardian  of  the  peace.  The  Poozoondoung 
Creek  is  as  busy  as  an  ant-hill  all  day  long,  and  all  night  too,  when 
some  of  the  mills  are  lighted  up  with  JablochkofFs,  and  the  silvery 
rays  shine  ghastly  on  the  black  and  bronzed  mill-workers.  Here  we 
have  the  Madrasi  coolies  again,  making  noises  after  their  nature,  as  a 
kind  of  assertion  that  they  are  doing  hard  work.  The  lank  Chitta- 
gonian  firemen,  with  their  aquiline  noses,  are  coated  with  coal-dust,  and 
divide  their  time  between  firing-up  and  having  a  whifF  at  the  hubble- 
bubble  when  Sandy,  the  Scotch  engineer,  is  not  looking. 

Monkey  Point  meantime,  at  the  junction  of  the  Pegu  and 
Rangoon  rivers,  is  a  scene  of  frenzied  competition  between  rival 
brokers,  each  trying  to  secure  the  paddy-boats  as  they  drop  down 
the  creeks  in  the  early  morning,  for  his  own  particular  firm. 
Steam  launches  are  sent  far  up  the  Pegu  river  to  intercept  the 
descending  boats,  and  great  is  the  triumph  of  their  owners  when 
they  reappear  with  prizes  towing  astern.  Their  cargo,  which  is 
stowed  in  bulk,  is  discharged  at  the  mill,  and  we  will  pursue  its 
further  fate  through  our  author's  lively  pages  : — 

The  regulation  basket  [he  tells  us]  is  in  use,  and  we  do  not  care  to 
peer  too  closely  into  the  bottom  of  it.  The  owner  of  the  boat  is 
perched  on  the  lofty  carved  stem  of  his  craft,  and  placidly  smokes  a 
great  cheroot.  Presently  he  will  come  down  and  make  his  way  to  the 
office,  where  he  will  get  a  great  pile  of  rupees  to  carry  off,  tied  in  the 
end  of  his  pasoh.  The  greater  part  of  them  will  probably  find  their 
way  into  the  hands  of  the  oily  chetty  who  is  squatting  on  the  bank 
there.  The  rest  of  them  our  hlay  shin  will  most  probably  gamble 
away. 

Meanwhile  a  long  string  of  coolies  is  carrying  the  paddy  from  the 
coast  to  the  go-down,  a  gigantic  shed  where  there  is  already  a  mountain 
of  grain.  We  skirt  round  and  go  to  the  other  side.  There  a  few 
hundred  more  coolies  are  running  off  with  more  baskets  to  the  mill. 
The  paddy  is  thrown  into  huge  receptacles  on  the  basement,  winnowed, 
carried  up  in  lifts  to  the  top  of  the  house,  three  stories  high,  where  it 
is  first  of  all  passed  over  a  long  sieve.  Here  the  stalks,  leaves,  stones 
and  stumps  of  cheroots  are  separated  from  the  grain,  which  is  then 
passed  between  two  revolving  stones  just  sufficiently  wide  to  grind  off 
the  outer  husk  without  breaking  the  seed.  Then  it  is  re-winnowed  in 
fanners  and  passed  over  fresh  sieves,  where  the  broken  grains  fall 
through  while  the  part-cleaned  rice  goea  on  to  fresh  stones.  It  is 
found  that  perfectly  clean  rice  will  not  stand  the  long  sea  voyage,  and 
the  grain  as  it  is  sent  in  the  sailing  ships  has  still  the  inner  pellicle, 
and  is  mixed  with  about  twenty  per  cent,  of  unhusked  rice.  This  is 
what  is  technically  known  as  "  five  parts  cargo  rice,"  or  simply  "  cargo 


334  JSuTTna  and  the  Farther  East. 

rice."  Since  so  many  steamers  have  begun  to  go  through  the  Suez 
Canal  the  amount  of  "  white  rice  "  milled  in  the  province  has  been 
steadily  increasing.  Eice  of  a  specially  fine  quality  with  a  glaze  on 
the  surface  is  manufactured  for  Italy.  Clouds  of  rice-dust  float  all 
over  -the  mill  and  settle  everywhere,  making  queer  spectacles  of  the 
dark-skinned  Madrasi.  The  dust  is  carefully  swept  up  and  sold  to 
Chinamen,  who  fatten  their  pigs  upon  it.  The  milled  grain  descends  to 
the  ground-floor  again  and  pours  in  a  stream  through  shoots  into  bags 
standing  ready  on  weighing-machines.  There  is  a  crowd  of  Burmese 
girls  ready  to  sew  them  up  as  they  are  filled,  and  another  band  of  coolies 
to  carry  them  off  to  the  cargo-boats  ready  to  convey  them  to  the  ships 
up  in  the  Rangoon  harbour.  Paddy  that  came  in  a  Burmese  boat  in 
the  morning  may  by  night  be  safe  stowed,  in  the  shape  of  milled  rice, 
deep  down  in  the  hold  of  a  ship  bound  "  to  the  Channel  for 
orders." 

What  the  rice  trade  is  to  llangoon  the  timber-trade  is  to 
Maulmein,  the  port  of  the  Salween,  for  the  teak  forests,  lying 
mainly  to  the  east  of  the  Irawadi  basin,  find  their  outlet  by  the 
streams  draining  the  Siamese  borderlands.  The  value  of  the 
entire  export  of  timber  from  Burma  is  estimated  at  a  million 
sterling,  and,  in  1881,  266,000  tons  of  shipping  visited  the  pre- 
viously deserted  harbour  of  Maulmein.  The  richest  teak  country 
is  found  in  the  Shan  States  on  the  course  of  the  Upper  Salween, 
and  the  forests  there  show  no  signs  of  exhaustion,  though  the 
maturity  of  the  tree,  represented  by  a  girth  of  six  feet,  requires 
a  century  of  growth.  Elephants  are  much  used  in  the  teak- 
trade,  and  such  is  their  intelligence  that  they  can  be  trained  to 
work  in  the  saw-mills,  tending  the  machinery  and  adjusting  the 
logs,  without  human  supervision.  Zimme,  the  centre  of  the 
teak  districts,  keeps  1,000  of  these  animals,  and  they  may  be  seen 
herded  in  the  fields  with  ordinary  cattle. 

Shellac,  or  stick-lac,  producing  a  valuable  dye,  and  forming  the 
basis  of  sealing-wax,  is  found  in  these  forests  in  the  form  of  a 
transparent  gum,  exuded  on  branches  and  twigs  by  an  insect  as 
a  nidus  for  its  eggs,  and  is  collected  in  such  abundance  that  from 
Raheng,  on  the  Siamese  frontier,  1,862,000  lbs.  are  annually 
exported  to  Bangkok.  The  lacquer-tree,  called  thi-see  (wood-oil), 
forms,  when  in  flower,  with  its  pyramid  of  creamy  apple-scented 
blossoms,  a  splendid  ornament  to  the  Burmese  jungle.  Its  sap, 
though  darker  in  colour  than  that  of  the  urushi,  or  lacquer-tree 
of  China  and  Japan,  has  the  same  properties,  and  serves,  in 
addition  to  its  ornamental  uses,  as  an  ordinary  waterproof  glaze 
for  umbrellas  and  clothing.  The  finer  lacquered  articles  of  Burma 
are  made  on  a  foundation  of  bamboo  wicker-work,  smoothed  with 
a  paste  of  bone  or  other  fine  ashes,  and  varnished  with  the  sap 
run  fresh,  or  kept  in  water  to  prevent  its  solidifying. 


Burr)ia  and  tJie  Farther  East  335 

Although  the  sugar-cane  grows  freely  in  Burma,  the  sap  of  the 
Palmyra  palm  (Borassus  fiabelliformis)  fui'nishes  the  sugar  in 
general  use.  The  tree,  which  takes  thirty  or  forty  years  to 
mature,  yields  daily  from  17  lbs,  to  20  lbs.,  value  about  Sd., 
during  the  productive  season,  lasting  in  the  male  palm  for 
three,  and  in  the  female  for  eight,  months.  The  sap  of  the 
acacia  catechu  produces  cutch,  a  rich  brown  dye,  combining 
antiseptic  with  colouring  properties,  and  consequently  used  by 
fishermen  for  their  Jsails  and  nets,  which  it  preserves  from 
decay.  The  tree  is  felled  after  some  twenty  years  of  growth, 
when  its  inner  wood  is  cut  into  small  dice  and  boiled,  the  solid 
residuum  left  after  evaporation  being  then  cut  into  lengths  for 
sale.  The  Burmese  forest,  where  trees  grow  from  150  to  200 
and  bamboos  from  80  to  100  feet  high,  is  especially  luxuriant, 
and  the  fruit  and  vegetable  products  of  the  country  comprise 
nearly  all  the  familiar  tropical  and  sub-tropical  varieties. 

Its  mineral  riches  are  undoubtedly  great,  but  as  yet  only  very 
partially  developed.  At  the  silver  mines  of  Bau-dwen,  on  the 
Chinese  frontier,  where  10,000  Chinese  workmen  are  employed, 
about  150  lbs.  a  day  are  extracted,  and  the  royal  monopoly  of 
the  ruby  and  sapphire  mines,  eighty  miles  north-east  of  Mandalay, 
produces  a  revenue  of  1^  to  1^  lakhs,  or  £12,500  to  £15,000  a 
year.  The  rubies,  found  in  abundance,  are  small  and  mostly 
flawed,  the  sapphires  much  scai'cer,  but  superi(5r  in  size  and 
quality.  Amber,  salt,  and  jade,  the  latter  in  large  masses,  are 
all  found  in  the  Mogoung  district.  Speculation  is  already  busy  with 
the  mineral  products  of  Burma,  and  a  company  has  been  started 
to  work  the  lead-mines  of  Tetawlay,  in  the  Salween  district 
of  Tenasserim.  Gold  is  obtained  in  small  quantities  by  washing 
the  detritus  of  the  rivers,  but  is  principally  imported,  to  the 
amount  of  about  1,000  lbs.  in  a  year,  from  Southern  China,  in 
packets  of  leaves  about  the  size  and  thickness  of  ordinary 
letter-paper.  In  this  form  it  is  available  for  decorative  use, 
and  as  much  as  £10,000  worth  is  sometimes  expended  in 
gilding  a  pagoda.  Petroleum,  under  the  name  of  Rangoon  oil, 
has  long  been  exported  to  England,  but  the  cost  of  inland 
carriage  enables  other  oils  to  undersell  it  through  great  part  of 
the  country  itself,  thougli  its  price  at  the  pit's  mouth  is  only  from 
6d.  to  l^d.  per  cwt.  The  wells,  simple  perpendicular  shafts,  are 
scattered  over  sixteen  square  miles  in  the  district  of  Prome,  and 
their  production,  hitherto  not  accurately  ascertained,  could 
doubtless  be  largely  increased. 

Not,  however, from  its  internal  resources  alone  does  consolidated 
Burma  promise  to  be  a  valuable  acquisition,  but  froni  its  position 
at  the  portals  of  those  great  landlocked  provinces  of  Southern 
China,  to  which  "  the  gold  and  silver  road  "  of  commerce  has 


336  Burma  and  the  Farther  East. 

yet  to  be  opened.  Bhamaw,  at  the  head  of  the  Irawadi  Valley, 
was  the  terminus  of  the  old  trade  route,  whose  existence  was 
recorded  by  Marco  Polo  live  centuries  ago,  and  which  down  to  our 
own  clay  still  carried  a  through  traffic  of  half  a  million  sterling. 
The  Panthay  or  Mohammedan  insurrection,  by  which  Chinese 
rule  was  overthrown  in  Yunnan  for  nearly  twenty  years  (1855  to 
1873),  suspended  all  commercial  relations  beyond  the  frontier, 
and  the  anarchical  state  of  the  border  has  prevented  their  being 
resumed  on  a  large  scale.  The  mission  of  Mr.  Margary 
despatched  by  Lord  Salisbury  when  Secretary  for  India  in  1872, 
to  explore  the  route  from  Shanghae  to  the  Burmo-Chinese 
frontier,  was  frustrated  by  the  assassination  of  the  Envoy  while 
still  within  Chinese  territory,  but  other  travellers  have  since 
traversed  the  mountainous  district  between  the  two  countries. 
The  Catholic  Missionaries  of  Yunnan  have  done  so  successfully 
more  than  once,  though  not  without  encountering  hardships  and 
difficulties,  narrated  by  Pere  Simon  in  Les  Missions  Cdtholiques.* 
The  journey  of  Mr.  Archibald  Colquhoun,  an  engineer  by 
profession,  from  Canton  to  the  Irawadi  Valley,  has  thrown  much 
new  light  on  the  subject,  and  from  his  recent  appointment  to  the 
Civil  Service  in  Upper  Burma,  it  is  doubtless  intended  to  turn 
his  experience  to  account  for  the  public  benefit. 

The  failures  of  all  French  attempts  to  find  a  navigable  route 
inland  from  their  possessions  have  conclusively  shown  Burma  to 
be  the  true  key  to  the  Indo-Chinese  countries.  The  Meh-kong,  or 
Cambodia  river,  with  Saigon  as  its  port,  was  found,  after  an 
arduous  exploration  of  two  years  (1807-68),  to  be  nothing  more 
than  a  gigantic  torrent  whose  steep  gradients  and  whirling  rapids 
rendered  its  vast  length  and  volume  useless  for  transport.  The 
Song-kai,  or  Red  River  of  Tonquin,  is  equally  impracticable,  and 
the  fact  is  thus  established  that  there  exists  no  navigable  channel 
to  the  interior  from  the  mouth  of  the  Canton  river  to  the 
Irawadi  delta. 

Between  the  upper  waters  of  these  two  streams  lies  a  rugged 
mountainous  country,  inhabited  by  some  of  the  wild  hill-tribes, 
who  form  a  semicircle  hemming  in  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Burmese  lowlands,  and  cutting  them  off  from  direct  contact  with 
the  more  settled  races  beyond.  The  Kachiens,  or  Singphos,  to 
the  north,  extend  from  the  borders  of  Assam  to  those  of  Yunnan, 
and  the  Shans,  or  Tai,  on  the  east,  thence  to  the  Siamese  frontier, 
while  between  these  latter  and  British  Burma  intervenes  a  wedge 
of  territory  inhabited  by  the  Karens.  The  same  form  of  primitive 
culture  by  clearing  and  firing  the  bush  is  practised  by  all,  and 

*  "  Be  Birmanie  a  Yunnan  : "  Les  Missions  Catholiques.  November  23  to 
December  14, 1883. 


Burma  and  the  FartJier  East.  337 

among  all  the  same  form  of  government  by  tsobwas,  or  petty 
local  chiefs,  prevails.  All,  too,  share  the  same  creed  of  nat- 
worship,  or  Shamanism,  but  the  Karens  are  singular  in  preserving 
traditions  of  the  creation  and  fall  of  man,  obviously  derived  from 
Hebrew  sources,  however  remote,  since  they  are  a  close  para- 
phrase of  the  Book  of  Genesis.  Although  these  people  have 
ceased  to  worship  the  Supreme  Being  whose  existence  they  thus 
acknowledge,  they  are  predisposed  to  Christianity,  and  Mgr. 
Bigaudet,  of  the  Missions  Etrangeres  of  Paris,  reported,  in 
December,  1884,  that  the  Mission  among  them  continued  to 
prosper. 

The  most  commercially  important  of  the  hill-countries  is  that 
of  the  Shan  States,  which  occupy  a  vast  and  ill-defined  region  in 
the  heart  of  the  Indo-China  peninsula,  with  a  population 
variously  estimated  at  from  six  to  thirty  millions,  owning  nominal 
allegiance  to  the  neighbouring  powers — China,  Siam  and  Burma. 
The  tribute  of  the  Burmese  Shan  States  consists  of  such  fanciful 
offerings  as  wax  tapers,  silver  feathers,  and  tinsel  ornaments, 
symbolical  of  a  subjection  more  theoretical  than  real.  The  Shans, 
notwithstanding  the  absence  of  roads,  bridges,  or  navigable 
rivers  in  their  country,  are  indefatigable  traders,  transporting 
their  goods  hundreds  of  miles  on  bullocks  and  elephants,  or  on 
their  own  shoulders.  Journeying  by  mountain-paths,  and  sleeping 
in  the  open  air,  with  their  large  baskets  disposed  in  a  circle  round 
them,  these  hardy  pedlars  carry  British  goods  from  Maulmein  to 
the  frontiers  of  China ;  and  the  French  explorers  from  Saigon,  in 
1866,  found,  among  the  most  remote  Shan  States,  English  cloths 
evidently  manufactured  for  sale  in  Burma,  since  Burmese  charac- 
ters were  woven  into  the  stuff.  The  trade  in  piece-goods  thus 
carried  is  by  some  estimated  as  high  as  £80,000,  and  is  at  any 
rate  sufficient  to  show  how  large  an  opening  increased  facilities 
for  transport  would  here  render  available  for  trade. 

Zimme,  the  capital  of  the  Siamese  Shan  States,  a  walled  town 
•  of  100,000  inhabitants,  is  not  only  the  centre  whence  this 
itinerant  commerce  radiates  in  all  directions,  but  also  the 
entrepot  of  a  considerable  caravan  trade  from  China,  which  ought 
to  find  its  outlet  by  Maulmein.  Dr.  Richardson,  who  visited 
Zimme  in  182^,  met  there  Chinese  caravans  of  from  200  to  500 
mules,  which  brought  copper  and  iron  goods,  silk  (raw  and 
manufactured),  stains,  gold  and  silver  thread  and  lace,  musk, 
walnuts,  carpets  and  vermilion,  returning  with  loads  of  cotton, 
ivory,  skins  and  horns.  They  had  come  a  journey  of  two  months, 
travelling  with  a  rapidity  that  no  accident  was  allowed  to  delay, 
so  that  if  one  of  their  number  fell  sick  he  was  left  behind,  or 
if  a  death  occurred  they  made  no  halt  for  rites  of  sepulture,  but 
simply  covered  the  body  with  a  cloih  and  went  their  way. 


338  Burma  and  the  Farther  East. 

Lord  Mayo,  daring  his  visit  to  Maulmein  in  1872,  interviewed 
a  party  of  fifty-four  traders,  Panthays  or  Mussulmans  of  Yunnan. 
They  had  come  a  hundred  days'  march  by  way  of  Theinnee  in 
Upper  Burma,  and  had  traded  to  that  point  in  silk  and  gold 
thread,  bringing  thence  a  hundred  horses  to  sell  at  Maulmein.* 

Cotton,  largely  grown  in  the  Shan  States,  is  the  principal 
export  thence  to  China,  but  Mr.  Colquhoun  made  the  interesting 
discovery  that  a  peculiarly  choice  tea,  hitherto  believed  to  come 
from  Puerh  in  Yunnan,  is  really  grown  in  a  district  called  I-bang 
in  the  Burmese  Shan  States,  and  forms  a  most  important  item  of 
commerce  with  the  neighbouring  country.  In  these  districts, 
indeed,  the  idea  of  China  as  a  tea-producing  region  was  utterly 
scouted,  so  entirely  was  it  viewed  as  a  market  for  the  imported 
article.  Transported  by  caravan  to  the  Yang-tse-kiang  and 
down-  that  stream  to  Shanghae,  the  I-bang  tea  is  thence  shipped 
to  Pekin  and  the  northern  ports,  but  its  long  journeyings  have 
by  that  time  rendered  it  too  costly  for  the  further  voyage  to 
Europe,  and  Western  palates  must  wait  ere  trying  it  for  the  ful- 
filment of  Mr.  Colquhoun's  prediction  that  it  will  ere  long  be 
shipped  from  Rangoon  to  China  and  elsewhere. 

Horses,  known  as  Shan  ponies,  to  the  number  of  1,322,  value 
£13,553,  in  one  year,  and  live  stock  numbering  41,588,  value 
£126,943,  form  the  largest  imports  from  the  Shan  States 
into  British  Burma.  Their  trade  with  the  native  kingdom  was 
heavily  taxed,  and  its  amount  could  not  be  estimated. 

Southern  Yunnan,  accessible  only  through  these  States,  was 
found  by  Mr.  Colquhoun  to  be  much  richer  and  less  mountainous 
than  the  northern  half  of  the  province.  It  is  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal opium-growing  countries  of  the  world,  and  a  third  of  the 
cultivated  land  is  under  poppy.  Its  mineral  wealth  was  attested 
by  numerous  caravans  laden  with  ingots  of  copper,  with  coal,  iron, 
and  some  silver;  and  by  the  quantities  of  gold  seen  in  Tali-fu, 
in  process  of  being  beaten  into  leaf  for  the  Burmese  market. 
Mining  operations  are,  however,  discouraged  in  China,  both  from 
dread  of  the  turbulent  population  attracted  by  them,  and  from  a 
superstitious  idea  that  excavating  the  earth  disturbs  the  ancestral 
spirits. 

Of  the  two  routes  planned  for  the  future  Burmo-Chinese  Rail- 
way, destined  to  open  up  these  regions  to  the  outer  world,  the 
southern  one  from  Maulmein  is  advocated  despite  its  greater 
length,  as  offering  fewer  difficulties,  and  traversing  a  more  pro- 
mising country  than  the  northern  one  from  the  Upper  Irawadi 
Valley.      A   great  trunk-line   from     Bangkok   to   the    Chinese 

*  "  Trade  Routes  between  Britisli  Burma  and  Western  China,"  by  J. 
Coryton  :  Journal  Boy.  Oeog.  Soc.  1875. 


Burma  and  the  Farther  East.  339 

frontier  is  proposed,  and  the  King  of  Siam,  according-  to  Mr. 
Holt  Hallett,  is  willing  to  undertake,  at  a  cost  of  £5,000,000,  the 
construction  of  the  section,  575  miles  long,  which  traverses  his 
own  territory.  The  branch  to  connect  the  main-line  with  Maul- 
mein  can  be  made,  according  to  the  estimate  of  the  Indian 
Government,  for  £916,616,  and  an  additional  £2,000,000  may  be 
allowed  for  the  prolongation  from  the  Siamese  to  the  Chinese 
frontier.  The  outlay  of  Britain  and  Siam  would  thus  be 
respectively  three  and  five  millions,  for  a  total  length  of  over  six 
hundred  miles.  Mr.  Hallett  was  able  to  trace  a  path  for  three 
hundred  miles  of  its  course,  nowhere  rising  higher  than  1,643 
feet  above  the  sea,  or  580  feet  above  the  plains. 

The  counter  project  of  a  line  from  Bharaaw  at  the  head  of  the 
Irawadi  navigation  to  Tali-fu,  the  capital  of  Western  Yunnan, 
offers  much  greater  natural  difficulties  in  the  shorter  length  of 
295  miles.  The  rivers  here  run  deeply  canoned  in  gorges  divided 
by  water-sheds  from  6,000  to  8,000  feet  high,  and  the  wild  and 
barren  country  is  sparsely  inhabited.  Native  trade  has  never- 
theless begun  to  revive  even  by  this  difficult  route,  and  Pere 
Simon,  the  enterprising  missionary,  says  that  at  the  opening  of 
the  fine  season,  October  to  May,  as  many  as  five  great  caravans 
of  1,500  to  2,000  mules  frequently  arrive  in  Bhamaw  with 
Chinese  wares,  returning  thence  with  loads  of  cotton  and  salt. 
A  considerable  tide  of  emigration  is  also  setting:  from  China 
towards  the  valley  of  the  Irawadi,  and  it  seems  as  if  Burma, 
whose  greatest  want  is  population,  were  destined  eventually  to 
become  a  reservoir  for  the  vast  human  overflow  of  the  Flowery 
Land. 

Such  a  result  is,  indeed,  ardently  desired  by  political  economists 
and  philanthropists  alike.  Even  in  British  Burma  but  one- 
fifteenth  of  the  soil  has  been  brought  under  cultivation,  and  the 
waste  land  in  the  Upper  Province  must  be  in  a  vastly  larger 
proportion.  To  the  Chinese  race — frugal,  sober,  energetic,  and 
with  that  tenacity  of  national  type  which  enables  them  to  absorb 
and  assimilate  all  foreign  elements — the  future  of  this  part  of 
Asia  must  in  the  end  belong.  Endowed  beyond  all  Eastern  races 
with  the  capacity  for  receiving  Christian  truth,  their  fidelity  in 
adhering  to  the  faith  once  adopted  has  given  the  Church 
thousands  of  obscure  martyrs  among  the  most  seemingly  debased 
and  materialized  of  peoples.  Here,  were  the  barriers  of  official 
seclusion  once  overthrown  by  the  rising  flood  of  commercial 
intercourse,  a  vast  field  would  open  to  religious  as  well  as 
mercantile  enterprise. 

Europe  with  her  importunate  wants,  her  urgent  need  of 
expansion,  her  increasing  greed  of  fresh  territory  to  leaven  with 
her  ideas  and  her  commerce,  has   long  been   clamouring    for 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  11.     [^Third  Series.]  a  a 


340  Letters  of  the  Popes. 

entrance  at  the  gates  of  China ;  it  may  be  that  now  through  the 
valley  of  the  Irawadi  she  will  find  a  way  to  slip  into  the  great 
sealed  empire  through  a  postern  door.  It  is  from  this  point  of 
view,  as  offering  a  possible  point  of  contact  between  the  Farther 
East  and  the  Farther  West,  as  preparing  a  common  meeting 
ground  for  the  peoples  of  the  most  opposite  ends  of  the  earth, 
and  for  the  ideas  of  the  most  widely  contrasted  forms  of  civiliza- 
tion, that  the  annexation  of  Burma  and  its  future  under  English 
rule  become  matter  of  interest  to  the  whole  world. 

E.  M.  Clerke. 


Art.  VI.— the  LETTERS  OF  THE  POPES. 

Analecta  novissiona.  Spicelegii  Solismensis altera  continuatio. 
Tom.  I.  De  Epistolis  et  Registris  Romanorum  Pontificum, 
disseruit  Joannes  Baptista  Caedinalis  Pitra.  Parisiis: 
Roger  et  Chernoviz,  1885. 

IT  is  now  more  than  thirty  years  since  Dom  Pitra,  then  a  member 
of  the  community  of  Solesmes,  gave  to  the  world  the  first 
volume  of  the  "  Spicelegium  Solismense."  Like  many  another 
Benedictine  of  his  race  before  him,  he  was  content  to  call  a  great 
enterprise  by  a  very  humble  name.  He  professed  to  be  nothing 
more  than  "a  gleaner;'*  to  gather  up  after  other  men  the  scat- 
tered remains  of  ancient  learning  and  interest  which  they 
had  left  behind  when  they  reaped  the  harvest.  No  one,  iiowever, 
who  knew  what  his  brethren  had  done  before  was  unprepared 
for  the  result  of  his  labours.  French  Benedictines  had  already 
collected  "  gleanings,''  and  five  or  six  well-known  names  had 
shown  the  literary  world  what  to  expect  when  a  modest  scholar 
called  his  labour  by  that  or  a  similarly  unassuming  title.  Dom 
D'Acher}',  Dom  Mabillon,  Dom  Montfaucon,  Dom  Martene, 
Dom  Durand,  and  Dom  Bernard  Pez,  between  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century  and  the  first  quarter  of  the  eighteenth, 
had  written  great  works  ;  but  besides  the  books  which  every 
scholar  knows,  they  had  amassed  the  results  of  their  painful  labour 
and  search  through  a  hundred  libraries  in  various  collections  of 
Mbnunienta  and  Anecdota  which  are  almost  as  precious  to 
literatm-e  and  to  the  Church  as  anything  they  have  left  behind. 
Dom  Pitra  is  a  savant  of  the  ancient  type.  There  is  not  a  great 
library   in    Europe  where   he  is  not   known.     At   Oxford   and 


Letters  of  the  Popes.  341 

Cambridge  he  is  still  remembered  with  something  like  amaze- 
ment, as  a  man  to  whom  such  things  as  recreation  or  meals  were 
of  such  slight  importance  that  he  could  spend  the  hours  of  the 
livelong  day  in  the  musty  recesses  of  the  Bodleian  or  of  Trinity, 
with  no  solace'but  a  crust  of  bread. 

John  Baptist  Pitra  was  born  in  1812,  at  Chamforgueil ,  near 
Chalons,  in  the  diocese  of  Autun.  After  brilliant  youthful  studies, 
he  became  professor  of  belles-lettres  and  history  in  the  seminary 
of  Autun.  Soon  after  his  ordination,  which  was  in  1836,  he 
took  the  habit  of  a  Benedictine  in  the  Abbey  of  Solesmes  under 
the  celebrated  Dom  Gueranger.  Being  afterwards  transferred  to 
Liguge,  he  represented  that  monastery  in  the  Provincial  Council 
of  Perigueux,  in  1856,  and  drew  up,  as  secretary,  the  acts  of  the 
Council.  Dom  Pitra  soon  began  to  give  to  the  world  the  fruits 
of  that  learning  and  labour  which  have  rendered  him  so  well 
known.  His  Life  of  St.  Leger,  Bishop  of  Autun,  is  much  more 
than  the  recital  of  an  edifying  legend  of  the  seventh  century;  it 
is  a  monograph  on  the  times  of  the  Merovingian  kings.  His  Life 
of  the  Veu.  Libermann  is  a  perfect  picture  of  contemporary  history. 
Two  others  of  his  early  works,  entitled  respectively  "La  Hollande 
Catholique^^  and  "Etudes  sur  les  Bollandistes,"  are  the  fruit  of  his 
wanderings  and  searchings  in  many  libraries  of  France,  Belgium, 
and  Holland.  In  the  latter  work  he  does  full  and  generous 
justice  to  the  magnificent  historical  enterprise  to  which  the 
Jesuit  Father  Bolland  has  given  his  name,  and  at  the  same  time 
lays  the  foundation  of  that  reputation  as  a  critic  in  which  he  is 
unsurpassed.  As  he  became  known,  the  greatest  scholars  in 
France  sought  his  acquaintance,  the  grand  libraries  of  Paris  were 
placed  at  his  disposal,  and  the  Imperial  Government  itself  began 
to  make  use  of  his  services.  He  was  commissioned  to  carry  on, 
or  recommence,  the  famous  "  Gallia  Christiana'^  of  which  the 
last  printed  volumes  had  seen  the  light  before  the  great  Revolu- 
tion, and  the  last  written  pages  had  probably  perished  after  the 
death  of  Dom  Leveau,  about  1830.  For  this  purpose  Dom  Pitra 
visited  England,  and  searched  throujjh  every  collection  of  note 
in  the  kingdom— the  British  Museum,  the  Bodleian,  the  libraries 
of  Cambridge,  the  Tower,  the  Record  Office,  Lambeth,  the 
archives  of  Westminster,  and  the  libraries  of  many  private  gentle- 
men such  as  Sir  Thomas  Phillips  and  Lord  Ashburnham.  Thirty 
■or  forty  years  later,  when  Cardinal  Pitra,  now  Librarian  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Church,  published  extracts  from  the  Regesta  of 
Innocent  III.,  the  materials  were  those  he  had  seen  in  the 
library  of  Lord  Ashburnham ;  the  MS.  had  been  carried  from 
Rome  to  Avignon,  from  Avignon  to  London,  and  from  London 
Lord  Ashburnham  had  sent  it  back  to  Rome. 

It  was  in  1852  that  he  was  enabled  by  the  enterprise  of  Messrs. 

A  a2 


342  Letters  of  the  Popes. 

Didot,  of  Paris,  to  give  to  the  world  the  first  volume  of  the  famous 
^'Spicelegium  Solismense."  Of  this  volume  the  contents  are  well 
expressed  by  the  word  "  gleanings ; "  they  consist  of  interesting 
and  extensive  unedited  fragments  of  writers,  known  or  unknown, 
which  he  had  discovered  in  his  literary  and  critical  investigations. 
Greeks,  Orientals,  and  Latins,  anterior  to  the  fifth  century,  are 
all  included  in  this  first  part ;  and  the  luminous  introductions 
and  the  immense  array  of  learned  notes  enable  the  reader  to 
understand  the  full  significance  of  each  new  contribution  to 
Church  history,  to  liturgy,  or  to  letters.  A  second  and  third 
volume  appeared  three  years  later ;  they  contained  fragments  of 
early  writers  on  the  Creeds  and  subjects  connected  with  the  Creeds, 
the  largest  being  a  complete  unknown  work  of  Melito.  The 
fourth  volume  came  out  in  1858,  and  was  occupied  with  the 
ecclesiastical  writers  of  the  African  and  Byzantine  Churches.  In 
the  following  year  Dom  Pitra  was  sent  by  Pope  Pius  IX.  to  St» 
Petersburg,  and  began  the  immediate  preparation  for  those 
studies  in  Greek  Canon  Law  and  Greek  Hyranology  which  are 
perhaps  the  most  valuable  inheritance  he  has  given  to  the  Church 
and  to  literature.  We  are  wrong  in  implying  that  the  fruits  of 
his  researches  have  all  been  published.  Of  the  great  collection 
called  "  Juris  Ecclesiastici  Grsecorum  historia  et  monumenta," 
two  volumes  have  seen  the  light  ;  but  it  is  understood  that  three 
others  are  virtually  finished,  in  which  he  brings  down  the  work 
to  the  date  of  the  Council  of  Florence.  Four  volumes,  entitled 
"  Analecta  Sacra,"  published  between  1876  and  1883,  carry  on 
the  great  work  of  the  "  Spicelegium  ; ''  and  now  we  have  the  first 
volume  of  a  third  series  of  ''  gleanings,'^  which  the  eminent 
writer  calls  "Analecta  novissima."' 

It  was  while  engaged  in  Russia  on  the  great  enterprise  just 
referred  to,  that  he  found  time  for  researches  upon  another  sub- 
ject, in  which  he  maybe  said  to  have  made  a  discovery  of  extreme 
interest  and  value.  He  published,  in  Rome,  at  the  press  of  the 
Civilta  Cattolica  in  1867,  a  comparatively  short  work  under  the 
name  of  "  Hymnographie  de  FEglise  Grecque."  It  consisted 
in  great  part  of  a  dissertation  which  he  had  read,  some  five 
years  previously,  before  the  Academy  of  the  Catholic  Religion, 
To  the  cultured  and  representative  audience,  which  included 
several  Cardinals  and  many  members  of  the  Roman  prelacy,  the 
lecture  was  what  we  may  be  pardoned  for  calling  a  genuine 
"sensation.^'  And  well  it  might  be;  for  it  narrated  nothing 
less  than  the  discovery  of  the  metrical  laws  of  the  sacred  hymno- 
logy  of  the  Greek  Church.  To  explain  this,  without  going  into 
details,  it  may  be  observed  that,  to  most  persons,  the  greater 
part  of  the  Greek  Hymnology  seems  to  be  written  in  prose ;  a 
poetical  prose,  it  is  true — a  sort  of  Ossianic  prose,  reading  like 


Letters  of  the  Popes.  343 

*  translation  of  the  Choruses  of  Greek  plays ;  but  still  prose. 
Most  of  us  have  read  with  more  or  less  attention  the  considerable 
■extracts  from  the  Gxeok. Mencea  in  Dom  Gueranger's  "Liturgical 
Year."  Dom  Pitra,  who  had  lived  so  long  under  the  great 
French  restorer  of  the  liturgy,  was  familiar  with  these  and  similar 
compositions  long  before  he  went  to  St.  Petersburg.  The  Abbot 
and  himself  had  discussed  the  question  whether  these  originals 
were  verse,  in  any  strict  sense  of  the  word.  Unless  they  were, 
then  the  true  Hymnology  of  the  great  Greek  Church  was  confined 
to  three  hymns  of  St.  John  Damascene,  sung  at  Christmas,  at 
the  Epiphany  and  at  Pentecost  respectively  :  and  the  endless 
series  of  the  Mensea,  the  Triodion,  the  Pentecostarion,  the  Horo- 
logion,  the  Anthologion,  &c.  &c.,  of  which  there  are  fifteen  or 
twenty  volumes  in  print  and  AIS.  materials  for  as  many  more, 
would  only  differ  from  breviary  lessons  in  being  a  little  more 
rhetorical  in  their  language.  It  seems  incredible  that  this  opinion 
was  the  common  one,  being  held  by  such  authorities  as  Leo 
AUatius  and  the  Bollandists.  It  was  reserved  for  Dom  Pitra  to 
clear  the  mystery  up.  We  must  translate  a  picturesque  passage 
from  his  dissertation  just  referred  to.  After  describing  the 
many  efforts  he  made  in  various  directions  to  discover  the  metrical 
secret  of  these  masses  of  Church  hymnology,  he  continues  : — 

An  event,  which  I  must  be  excused  for  here  detaihng,  unex- 
pectedly put  the  clue  into  my  hand.  One  day  in  June,  1859,  a  ceno- 
bite  of  Solesmes,  commissioned  by  the  Pontiff  happily  reigning  (Pius  IX.) 
arrived,  unexpected  and  unknown,  in  the  capital  of  the  Czars.  His 
Benedictine  habit  easily  procured  for  him,  at  the  Dominican  Church 
of  St.  Catherine,  the  hospitality  of  a  cell ;  and  in  the  cell  there  was  the 
luxury  of  a  Greek  MS.,  which  proved  a  valuable  friend  in  need,  during 
the  long  and  tedious  hours  of  a  stranger's  first  days  in  a  foreign  country. 
The  pilgrim  had  come  from  the  banks  of  the  Tiber  to  the  shores  of  the 
Neva,  and  the  change  was  keenly  felt ;  but  the  hours  flew  quickly  past, 
thanks  to  the  pages  which  he  anxiously  and  eagerly  explored,  in  spite 
of  their  being  almost  illegible  through  damp.  Near  the  end,  the  in- 
terest became  more  intense  ;  it  was  a  legend  of  Mount  Athos  about 
Our  Lady  of  the  Iberians. 

In  the  days  of  the  Iconoclasts  a  sacred  image,  the  sole  treasure  of  a 
widow  of  Nicaea,  was  condemned  to  the  flames.  During  tlie  night  it 
was  entrusted  to  the  waves  of  the  sea,  and  instead  of  sinking,  it  re- 
mained erect  in  the  waters,  crowned  with  an  aureola  of  light ;  it  then 
disappeared,  leaving  behind  it  a  luminous  track.  Many  years  pass 
by,  and  the  heights  of  Mount  Athos  are  peopled  by  exiles  driven  from 
their  homes  by  Islamlsm  and  the  Iconoclasts ;  the  foundations  of  the 
Holy  Laura  are  laid  by  illustrious  abbots ;  celebrated  generals  become 
monks ;  Euthymius,  son  of  a  king  of  Georgia,  founds  the  monastery 
of  the  Iberi.  It  was  the  heroic  age ;  and  it  was  then  that  the  lost 
image  again  revealed  itself.     The  presence  was  announced  by  a  pillar 


34r4  Letters  of  the  Popes. 

of  fire  on  the  shores  of  the  sea.  Twice  the  monks  hastened  to  the 
scene,  and  boats  put  off  to  reach  it ;  but  common  hands  were  not  to 
touch  it,  and  it  disappeared.  At  last,  the  monk  Gabriel,  the  holiest 
of  the  Iberian  solitaries,  was  warned  in  a  dream  that  the  honour  of 
receiving  it  was  reserved  to  him.  He  was  placed  at  the  head  of  a 
procession,  and  walking  on  the  waters  in  obedience  to  the  command 
of  the  Abbot  Paul,  he  reached  the  spot  where  the  holy  image  was  and 
brought  it  back  in  triumph.  It  was  set  up,  as  queen  and  patron,  at 
the  principal  gate  of  the  monastery,  under  the  title  of  iLopTatria-a.  It 
had  its  feast-day  and  its  solemn  office,  Avith  the  eight  hymns  which 
the  Greeks  call  a  Canon.  The  MS.  of  St.  Catherine  ended  with  thia 
Canon ;  it  proved  to  be  an  acrostic  on  the  name  "  Gabriel,"  and  it 
presented  peculiarities  which  were  of  great  use  in  checking  the  legen- 
dary account  itself. 

But  these  were  matters  of  comparatively  slight  moment.  What 
fascinated  the  gaze  of  the  pilgrim  was  the  sight  of  certain  red  points 
or  stops,  which  divided  not  only  the  hymns  and  the  strophes,  but  also 
individual  verses  of  very  varying  form.  These  points,  placed  at 
identical  intervals  in  each  strophe,  measured  off  equal  numbers  of 
syllables,  to  the  very  end  of  each  of  the  eight  hymns  of  the  Canon, 
At  the  beginning  of  each  hymn  was  given  a  sort  of  refrain  (the 
Elpfios,  as  it  is  called),  which  was  evidently  nothing  else  than  the 
commencement  of  some  more  ancient  hymn,  intended  to  fix,  not  only 
the  melody,  but  the  number  and  the  measure  of  the  verses.  Eight 
times  did  the  Ilermus  change,  and  each  time  the  symmetrical  and 
regular  divisions  began  afresh,  invariably  marked  by  the  red  point — 
a  guide  and  index,  which  it  was  thenceforward  impossible  not  to 
observe.  The  pilgrim  was  in  possession  of  the  syllabic  system  of  the 
Greek  hymnographer  (p.  II). 

The  learned  Benedictine  goes  on  to  show  how  he  exannlned 
MSS.  to  the  number  of  nearly  200,  at  St.  Petersburg,  in  the 
Vatican,  and  elsewhere,  and  how  every  fresh  specimen  which  he 
came  across  confirmed  the  theory  which  he  had  formed  in  the 
cell  of  St.  Catherine's.  The  Greek  Church  hymns  were  neither 
classic  verse  nor  common  prose ;  they  were  constructed  on  a 
strictly  syllabic  system,  the  distinction  of  quantity  being  ignored, 
as  well  as  the  accentuation.  Each  strophe  had  precisely  and 
exactly  the  same  number  of  syllables ;  and,  besides,  each  hymn 
was  frequently  an  acrostic.  This  is  what  Cardinal  Pitra  has  dis- 
covered, and  his  discovery  governs  the  whole  wide  realm  of 
Greek  hymnology.  Those  who  have  no  respect  for  any  Greek 
poetry  except  what  is  in  classic  form,  may  probably  feel  inclined 
to  turn  away  with  contempt  from  these  eifusions  of  Byzantine 
devotion.  This  would  be  a  mistake.  It  is  not  impossible  to 
find  poetry — that  is,  the  rhythm,  the  swing,  the  music  and  the 
warmth  which  distinguish  verse  from  the  most  poetical  prose — 
it  is  not  impossible  to  find  all  these  in  series  of  syllables  which 


Letters  of  the  Popes. 


345 


are  indivisible  into  classic  feet,  and  which  refuse  to  conform  to 
the  very  artificial  moulds  which  Greek  and  Latin  tradition  has 
imposed  upon  literature.  There  is  a  great  deal  more  poetry,  for 
example,  in  the  Adoro  te  than  there  is  in  one  of  the  laborious 
Latin  hymns,  which  the  taste  of  the  Renaissance  has  contributed 
to  the  breviary.  Classical  measures  are  not  part  of  the  system 
of  the  universe.  In  true  poetry  they  have,  on  the  whole,  done 
more  harm  than  good  ;  no  modern  people  ever  having  had  real 
poetry  of  its  own  until  its  poets  had  discarded  them,  and  numbers 
of  fairly  promising  versifiers  having  spent  innumerable  barren 
hours  in  reproducing  cramped  imitations  of  classic  models. 
Probably,  the  whole  of  the  East,  with  the  exception  of  Arabia, 
but  including  the  Jews  themselves,  wrote  syllabic  and  acrostic 
verse,  and  had  no  other  feet  or  measures.  The  Greek  hymn- 
writers  wrote  upon  a  system  which  existed  widely  before  the  days 
of  Homer  himself,  and  which  has  survived  and  extinguished  all 
the  prosody  of  Roman  or  of  Greek.  It  is  interesting  to  observe 
that  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  Byzantine  hj'mns  were  com- 
posed about  the  ninth  century,  and  by  the  men  who  so  nobly 
opposed  the  last  of  the  Byzantine  heresies,  that  of  the  Iconoclasts. 
The  syllabic  system  of  verse-metre  has  a  very  significant  connec- 
tion with  dogma.  It  was  a  measure  so  rigorous  and  precise  that 
not  a  word  or  a  syllable  could  be  taken  away  or  added  to  it, 
without  its  being  noticed  by  the  simplest  of  the  faithful.  And 
the  truth  is  that  there  never  was  again  a  popular  heresy.  May 
not  this  have  been  the  effect  of  the  hymnal  metre  ?  True,  the 
schism  came ;  that  was  an  efl'ect  of  causes  which  no  formulary 
or  sacred  canticle  could  obviate.  But  the  monumental  dogma- 
tism of  the  hymns  remains  to  this  day,  enshrining  the  very 
truths  which  the  schism  denies.  Cardinal  Pitra's  own  disserta- 
tion, now  before  us,  has  three  long  "  offices  ^'  full  of  nothing  but 
the  acclamations  of  Greek  orthodoxy  on  the  primacy  of  St.  Peter. 
And  he  assures  us  that,  after  prolonged  examination,  he  is  able 
to  testify  that,  as  concerns  the  procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
among  thousands  of  doxologies  in  which  the  addition  might 
have  been  made  of  the  two  syllables /xovou  after  Ik  tov  liargog,  he 
has  never  found  it  in  any  single  example. 

We  must  now  attempt  to  give  the  reader  some  idea  of  the 
latest  contribution  to  Church  History  which  has  appeared  from 
the  pen  of  Cardinal  Pitra.  He  calls  it  "  Analecta  novissima  " — a 
last  Collection  !     Let  us  hope  that  his  augury  may  not  be  verified. 

"  I  cannot  hope''  he  says,  "  to  carry  this  new  series  very  far 

Old  age  goes  slowly  and  looks  forward  but  a  little  way  ;  the 
weight  of  years  is  upon  me,  and  time,  v/hich  has  nearly  failed  me 
in  finishing  this  volume,  must  be  economized  more  and  more, 
for  the  days  are  evil  1 ''     He  therefore  apologizes  for  writing  his 


3i6  Letters  of  the  Popes. 

introduction  in  French.  "  Besides/'  he  goes  on,  "  I  regret  to  have 
to  say  that  French  is  more  universal,  even  in  the  learned  world, 
than  the  tongue  of  Latium.  There  is  a  proverb  borrowed  from 
the  Middle  Ages,  Gr cecum  est,  non  legitur  (though  I  never  met 
it  in  any  of  my  ancient  MSS.)  ;  in  these  days  of  progress  many 
a  reader,  nay,  many  a  savant,  would  tell  you,  not  in  Latin,  but  in 
his  own  vernacular,  '  We  do  not  read  Latin.' "  But  no  apology 
is  necessary  from  Cardinal  Pitra.  He  writes  Latin,  it  is  true, 
with  the  ease  and  more  than  the  eflFectiveness  of  that  favourite 
Maurist  of  his,  Dom  Mopinot.  But  his  French  is  too  good,  too 
conspicuously  first-class  in  style  as  well  as  in  matter,  for  any  one 
to  object  to  his  using  it  in  an  introduction  which  combines  the 
solidity  of  Brewer  or  Gardiner  with  the  elevation  of  Monta- 
lembert.  He  tells  us  that  this  volume  has  been  a  long  time  in 
hand,  and  yet  that  it  is  published  hastily  at  last.  This  means 
that  it  contains  some  of  the  most  matured  and  well-thought-out 
views  of  a  man  who  has  spent  half  a  century  in  research.  True, 
many  hands  are  now  at  work  where  he  was  once  almost  alone  ; 
but  there  are  curious  proofs  in  these  pages  how  absolutely  right 
his  earliest  ideas  have  generally  been,  and  how  late  workers  have 
either  confirmed  what  he  suspected  long  ago,  or  gone  wrong  and 
deserved  his  censure — the  censure  of  a  genuine  scholar,  which  has 
more  in  it  of  personal  pain  at  blunders  committed  than  of  any 
kind  of  triumph  over  a  rival  in  the  field.  Meanwhile,  we  can 
well  sympathize  with  him  in  some  of  his  gentle  complaint.  He 
has  had  not  only  to  arrange  materials  as  they  unexpectedly  came 
to  hand,  but  to  carry  on  the  work  in  the  midst  of  the  trouble  and 
inconvenience  of  moving  from  one  diocese  to  another,  and  all  the 
worry  of  winding  up  one  administration  and  beginning  a  new  one. 
He  was  for  a  long  time  prostrate  with  a  severe  attack  of  sickness ; 
he  has  had  to  make  use  of  what  he  calls  a  "  respectable  "  but  very 
modest  suburban  printing-press  ;  and,  worse  than  all,  he  has  had 
to  work  under  the  stress  of  cruel  anxieties  and  even  persecutions, 
which  it  pleased  God  to  allow  to  come  upon  him  in  the  evening  of 
his  life.  He  concludes  four  pages  of  preface  with  these  words, 
which  we  translate  : — 

It  cannot  be  that  after  having  loyally  served  the  Church  for  twenty- 
three  years  in  the  Sacred  College,  for  forty-five  in  the  Order  of  St. 
Benedict,  and  for  fifty  in  the  priesthood,  the  writer  should  be  expected 
to  profess  his  orthodoxy,  Xevertheless,  as  it  is  a  good  thing  to  be 
always  ready  to  give  an  account  of  one's  faith,  I  conclude  with  a  form 
of  words  inserted  by  the  great  Benedictine  Pope  Gregory  XVI.,  of 
immortal  memory,  in  the  Constitutions  of  the  French  Congregation, 
approved  for  the  Abbey  of  Solesmes  :  Romance  Ecclesice  decreta  velut 
oracula  veri  Dei  auscultat,  laudans,  damnans,  anathematizans,  reprohans 
qucecumque Sedes  almaPetn  laudat,  damnat,anathematizat  atque  reprobat. 


I 


Letters  of  the  Popes.  347 

But  the  volume  before  us  is  itself  so  striking  an  evidence  of 
Cardinal  Pitra's  devotion  to  the  Holy  See,  that  if  he  had  written 
nothing  else  there  could  be  no  mistake  as  to  his  intense  Catholic 
loyalty.  It  is  divided  into  two  parts;  the  first  is  a  long  and  most 
able  and  splendid  historical  introduction  on  the  Letters  of  the 
E-oman  Pontiffs ;  the  second  is  a  collection  of  hitherto  unedited 
fragments,  most  of  them  bearing  on  the  subject  of  the  introduction. 
As  this  introduction,  extending  over  more  than  300  pages  of  the 
large  ocia.\o  format  which  is  familiar  to  most  of  our  readers,  is  an 
historical  publication  of  the  first  importance,  we  shall  best  please 
our  readers  by  giving  an  idea  of  its  matter  and  method,  closely 
following  the  eminent  writer  himself. 

The  Letters  of  the  Popes  are  the  most  striking  examples  of 
that  vast  epistolary  correspondence  to  which  Christianity 
seeras  to  have  given  the  first  impulse.  The  Pagans  did  not 
write  to  one  another.  We  have  a  few  letters,  like  those  of 
Cicero,  and  the  younger  Pliny  ;  letters  in  which  there  are  very 
few  touches  of  familiarity,  and  little  to  give  us  an  idea  of  what 
Roman  or  Greek  was  thinking  of  in  those  far-ofi'  days.  It  is 
the  same  with  the  non-Christian  East  of  our  own  day  :  they  do 
not  write  to  one  another.  But  Christians  learnt  to  write  as  they 
learnt  to  love.  The  Apostles  began  it;  their  friends  and  their 
"  family  "  were  wherever  the  Christian  name  had  spread.  The 
Epistle  to  Philemon  was  only  the  first  of  an  endless  series  of 
similar  letters ;  Bishops  wrote  to  distant  Churches,  or  to  one 
another ;  the  Acts  of  the  martyrs  were  generally  nothing  but 
circular  letters :  the  Basils  and  Gregorys,  the  Jeromes,  Augus- 
tines,  and  Chrysostomes,  with  many  more,  have  left  us  in  their 
letters  a  treasure  which  the  world  would  not  willingly  lose.  It 
is  not  only  their  personal  and  biographical  charm — their  tender- 
ness, their  familiarity,  their  devotion,  their  traits  of  heroism  ; 
they  contain,  besides,  the  history  of  the  Church,  her  legislation, 
her  discipline  and  her  doctrine,  so  fully  and  completely,  that  if 
€very  other  monument  had  perished,  they  alone  would  suffice  to 
re-construct  her  annals  and  her  theology. 

It  might  almost  be  said  that  the  Letters  of  the  Popes  would 
be  sufficient  by  themselves.  For  in  the  midst  of  the  universal 
interchange  of  thought  and  of  sentiment  in  the  Catholic  world, 
there  is  one  chief  and  predominant  voice,  which  is  never  silent. 
It  is  the  voice  of  the  "  Father,'^  the  letter  of  the  "  Pope,"  the 
bull  of  the  "  Apostolic  Lord."  No  emperor  has  ever  spoken  with 
authority  equal  to  that  of  the  mandate  of  the  Roman  See.  It  is 
a  curious  fact  that,  from  a  very  early  time,  a  Papal  rescript  was 
very  generally  called  by  this  very  phrase — auctoritas,  an 
"  authority."  Pope  St.  Zozimus  sends  an  "  authority  ''  to  the 
Bishops  of  France,  Pope  St.  Leo  to  those  of  Spain  :  the  Emperor 


348  Letters  of  the  Popes. 

Marcian  asks  for  "  an  authority,"  and  St.  Isidore,  in  his  orderly 
and  etymological  way,  explains  that  a  Pontifical  "authority  "  is 
equal  to  a  definition  of  an  Ecumenical  Council.  Such  letters  were 
eagerly  sought  for  ;  neither  pains  nor  expense  were  spared  to 
obtain  them.  Letters  from  E/ome  might  found  a  new  dynasty, 
as  St.  Stephen's  to  Pepin  did  for  France,  or  they  might  organize 
a  national  Church,  and  begin  a  period  of  history,  like  those  of 
St.  Gregory  the  Great  to  St.  Augustine.  Every  cathedral 
church,  every  abbey,  had  its  privileges,  its  briefs,  and  its  re- 
scripts from  the  Holy  See,  and  it  was  the  work  of  many  a  scribe 
to  write  up  the  Chartularium  or  the  BuUarium,  and  to  multiply 
copies.  Whatever  happened  in  Christendom  was  somehow  or 
other  enshrined  and  registered  in  a  letter  from  Rome ;  whether 
it  was  a  prince's  election,  a  bishop's  consecration,  a  nation's 
conversion,  a  schism,  a  foundation  of  church  or  convent,  or 
even  the  scandals  of  a  diocese  or  of  an  individual.  And  when 
we  remember  what  thousands  and  thousands  of  these  Ponti- 
fical documents  there  must  have  been  in  the  archives  of  Euro- 
pean countries  at  one  time  or  another,  and  with  what  care  and 
devotion  their  owners  preserved  them,  it  is  sad  to  think  of  the 
wholesale  destruction  which  seems  now  to  have  overtaken  by 
far  the  greater  part.  It  was  hatred  of  the  Papacy  which 
inspired  the  "  Reformers  "  when  they  made  bonfires  of  every- 
thing that  bore  the  Fisherman's  ring ;  but  since  the  "  bad 
times "  there  have  been  respectable  archivists  who  ought 
to  have  known  better.  Cardinal  Pitra  declares  that  he  knew  a 
curator  who  freely  cut  off  the  edges  of  his  parchments  to  make 
them  fit  his  boxes,  and  thus  had  the  seals  of  his  bulls  in  one 
place  and  the  bulls  themselves  in  another.  He  has  seen  collec- 
tions of  detached  seals,  the  bulls  to  which  they  belonged  having- 
disappeared  for  ever.  He  knows  a  garrison-town  where  for  fifty 
years  the  soldiers'  cartridges  were  made  of  torn-up  bulls,  diplo- 
mas, charters  and  valuable  monuments  of  the  past.  And  iik 
1853  it  was  stated  in  the  Moniteitr  that,  on  occasion  of  an 
order  having  been  given  to  pull  to  pieces  some  4,000  cartridges  at 
the  artillery  barracks  in  Paris,  it  was  found  that  they  had  been 
chiefly  made  of  valuable  parchments,  of  which  some  3,000  speci- 
mens were  recognized,  including  Papal  bulls  and  letters  of  St. 
Louis  ! 

Although  France,  in  spite  of  such  lamentable  facts  as  these, 
is  still  very  rich  in  ancient  Pontifical  diplomas,  and  although 
Cardinal  Pitra  has  personally  inspected  the  treasures  of  well-nigh 
every  library  in  Europe,  yet  it  is  naturally  in  the  presses  of  the 
Vatican  that  are  to  be  found  the  greater  part  of  such  remnants 
of  the  past  as  have  been  spared  to  us.  The  Registers  of  the 
Popes  {Regesta  Pontificum)  consist  of  some  two  thousand  and 


Letters  of  the  Popes.  349' 

more  volumes  bound  in  rich  red  moroeco,  adorned  with  the 
Pignatelli  arms — Pope  Innocent  XII.  having  had  them  so  bound 
in  the  seventeenth  century.  But  besides  this  magniticent  series, 
there  are  at  least  two  thousand  other  volumes  of  various  sizes, 
which  have  been  brought  together  since  then.  Many  of  our 
readers  will  have  seen  the  interior  of  the  Vatican  Library.  But 
the  precious  MS.  volumes  which  are  now  preserved  there  have 
gone  through  many  vicissitudes  before  they  came  to  their  present 
orderly  and,  let  us  hope,  safe  habitation.  Some  of  them  could 
tell  stories  of  Avignon,  and  of  that  castle  of  Cnrpentras  where  so 
many  MS.  treasures  were  stored  during  the  exile.  Others  have 
been  at  Assisi,  piled  up  in  the  sacristy  of  tlie  great  Convent, 
during  troubled  times  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Others  again  may 
have  been  in  that  trunk  which  "  went  astray  ""  and  found  an 
abode  in  the  Dominican  convent  at  Treviso  in  the  early  part  of 
the  fourteenth  century.  Here  man}^  of  them  went  on  that 
journey  from  Assisi,  Florence,  Pisa,  and  Perugia,  in  1339,  when 
John  of  Amelio  is  charged  to  gather  them  and  bring  them  to 
Avignon  absque  displicatione,  disligatione  et  dissolutione 
ulld?  Alas!  dislocation,  dissolution  and  every  other  fate  ex- 
pressed by  the  ominous  prefix  here  repeated  were  only  too  common 
in  those  uneasy  times,  and  the  Papal  archives  have  probably  left 
shreds  of  themselves  in  every  part  of  Italy.  When  the  Popes 
returned  to  Rome,  their  papers  seem  to  have  been  at  first  pre- 
served in  the  Dominican  convent  of  the  Minerva.  But  soon 
afterwards,  under  the  great  Pontiffs  of  the  Renaissance,  the 
library  was  separated  from  the  archives,  and  magnificent  rooms 
were  built  for  the  reception  of  both.  The  archives,  however, 
were  to  go  through  a  very  bad  time  still.  It  was  thought  that 
they  were  hardly  safe  in  Leo  X.'s  grand  buildings ;  and  therefore 
the  most  precious  papers  were  carried  into  the  Castle  of  St. 
Angelo.  If  they  had  been  handed  over  to  the  barbarians  at 
once  they  could  hardly  have  suffered  more.  The  ancient  tomb — 
for  it  had  been  a  tomb — was  sti'ong  enough  against  the  enemy 
without,  but  it  was  very  badly  adapted  to  contend  against  a 
worse  enemy,  the  damp.  The  rain  got  in  everywhere,  the  presses 
crumbled,  the  parchments  rotted.  In  Clement  VIIL^s  time  a 
great  apartment  was  built  high  over  the  dome ;  but  in  about  a 
hundred  years  we  read  again  of  damp  and  destruction,  and  fresh 
devices  of  architects  and  librarians.  When  the  French  invasion 
came,  the  archives  were  saved  by  the  man  to  whom  we  owe 
much  of  their  history — Gaetano  Marini.  The  French  comman- 
dant of  St.  Angelo  asked  Marini,  who  had  charge  of  the  archives, 
for  the  keys  of  the  collection.  Marini  appealed  to  the  commissary 
Monge,  who  by  great  good  luck  knew  how  to  appreciate  him. 
By  Monge's  orders  the  custodian  was  not  only  allowed  to  keep- 


550  Letters  of  the  Popes. 

them  in  his  charge,  but  was  given  the  assistance  of  baggage- 
waggons  and  French  soldiers  to  transport  the  whole  collection 
from  St.  Angelo  to  the  Vatican.  "  It  was  a  miracle  !  "  he  ex- 
claims ;  and  it  looks  very  like  one.  Every  one  knows  how,  some 
few  years  later,  the  Vatican  MSS.,  with  the  other  treasures  of 
the  city  of  Rome,  were,  by  the  orders  of  Napoleon,  carried  oflf  to 
Paris.  M.  Gachard,  in  his  "  Archives  du  Vatican,"  has  told  the 
story.  Cardinal  Pitra  gives,  with  great  appreciation,  the  text  of 
the  decree  of  Charles  Philippe,  the  brother  of  Louis  XVIII.,  by 
which  they  were  once  more  -taken  back  to  Rome  in  1814.  It 
took  a  long  time  to  put  them  in  order  again ;  indeed,  the 
Cardinal  is  clearly  of  opinion  that  a  great  deal  still  remains  to 
be  done. 

When  we  consider  the  vicissitudes  of  the  past,  the  constantly 
present  danger  of  fire  and  damp,  and  the  possibilities  of  the 
future,  we  may  be  grateful  that  these  precious  records  of  the 
Church  and  the  Papacy  have,  in  great  measure,  been  committed 
to  the  security  of  print.  Collections  of  them  had  indeed  been 
formed  before  the  invention  of  printing,  and  had  been  copied  and 
re-copied.  Most  famous  of  early  editors  was  the  Scythian 
monk,  Denis  the  Little,  better  known,  perhaps,  by  the  Latin 
form  of  his  name,  Dionysius  Exiguus;  a  wideawake  man,  says 
Cardinal  Pitra — a  man  of  many  accomplishments,  a  theologian,  a 
canonist,  a  chronologist,  an  arithmetician,  a  hellenist,  and  an 
excellent  Latin  scholar  besides.  He  seems  to  have  travelled 
everywhere,  from  the  Crimea  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  to  have 
picked  up  something  wherever  he  went.  He  made  no  fewer 
than  five  difierent  collections  of  Canons  and  Decrees,  and  his 
principal  collection,  formed  at  Rome  in  the  early  half  of  the 
sixth  century,  remained  the  standard  work  of  the  kind,  until  it 
was  displaced  by  the  Isidorian  compilation  and  by  later  collectors, 
such  as  Burchard  of  Worms.  But,  as  we  have  already  said, 
every  church  and  monastery  liad  its  own  private  codex,  care- 
fully written,  sometimes  on  purple  vellum,  in  letters  of  gold, 
lovingly  kept,  sometimes,  as  at  St.  Vaast  of  Arras,  under  the 
steps  of  the  high  altar.  The  first  printers  of  Papal  letters  are 
little  known  to  fame.  Cardinal  Pitra  has  seen  a  modest 
incunabulum  of  the  fifteenth  century,  containing  nine  bulls ;  he 
has  had  before  him  small  collections  printed  before  1600.  But 
it  was  only  in  the  reign  of  Sixtus  V.  that  the  work  of  editing  a 
Bullarium  was  officially  taken  up.  Very  few  collectors,  at  least 
on  this  side  of  the  Alps,  have  seen  a  magnificent  folio  in  three 
volumes,  with  the  ample  margins,  the  fine  paper  and  the  hand- 
some type  of  the  Pontifical  press,  which  bears  the  name  of 
Antonio  Carafa,  and  is  dated  the  ides  of  November,  1591,  in 
cedibus  populi  Romani,     It  is  the  first  grand  Bullarium  ever 


Letters  of  the  Popes.  351 

publislied.     And    yet    we   are   perhaps    vvron^   in   calling   it    a 
Bullarium,  for  Carafa,  a   critic  of  the  first  rank,  well  known  in 
connection  with  the  Sixtine  editions  of  the  Vulgate,  pursued  a 
plan   which,   could  it  have   been  uniformly  carried   out,  would 
have  given  the  world  much   more  than  a  collection  of  Papal 
documents.     He  has  printed,  not   merely  the   bulls  themselves, 
but  all  the  documents  which   have  any  connection  with  them — 
questions   from   bishops,   letters    of    princes,   texts  of    councils, 
everything  he  could  find.     After   his    work   was   finished,   but 
before   it    was    published,    Sixtus    had    already    commissioned 
Cherubini  to  begin  what  was  really  a  Bullarium — that  is  to  say, 
a  collection  of  such  Pontifical  letters    as  the  editor  considered  to 
have  the  solemn  forms   of  a  bull.     The   work  went  on,  under 
different  editors,  till  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Benedict  XIV.     Then 
it  was  interrupted  for  ninety  years.     The  Roman  archives  had 
journeyed  from  Rome  to  Paris  and  from  Paris  back  to  Rome,  when 
in  18o4,  under  the  patronage  of  Gregory  XVI.  and  the  direction 
of  the  munificent  Cardinal  Odescalchi,  the  thirty-third  volume  of 
the  Bullarium  issued   from  the  press  of  the  Apostolic  Camera. 
"  At  last !  "  say  the  editors,   pardonably  boasting  a   little  and 
betraying  their  mortality  by  their  short-sightedness,  ''at  last,  by 
the  help  of  God,  Roman  perseverance  has  gained  the  day.     This 
work,  which  Dionysius  Exiguus  began,   which   has  been  carried 
on  since  the  time  of  Leo  the  Great,    and  which  has  encountered 
so  many  difficulties,  has  been  destined   in  the  designs  of  Provi- 
dence to  be  finished  by  the   Holy  Father  Gregory  XVI.^'     But 
the  amiable  Pope  died  before  this  consolation  was  vouchsafed 
him.     Only  ten    new   volumes   had   appeared   when    Pius   IX. 
succeeded  in  1846.     Since  then  we  have  had  four  more,  the  last 
appearing  in  185U.     Thus  the  whole  series  of  the  Bullarium, 
including  that  of  Benedict  XIV.,   consists  in  its  original  edition 
of  forty-five  folio  volumes.     In  this  magnificent  series  we  have 
the  chief  and  solemn  Acts   of  the  successors  of  St.  Peter  from 
Leo  the   Great  to   Pius   IX.     No  collection  in  the  world  can 
approach  it  in  interest  and  value.     Cardinal  Pitra  asks  why  it 
should    not    be    brought   down   to    our   own    day  ?    The    great 
doctrinal  bulls  which  prepared  for,  preceded,  accompanied  and 
followed  the  Vatican  Council  would  form  a  volume  which  would 
worthily  take  its  place  among  the  august  records  of  the  teaching 
which  has  taught  all  nations. 

Cardinal  Pitra  has  not  a  high  opinion  of  the  Turin  reprint  of 
•the  Bullarium.  It  was  begun  in  1857,  under  high  auspices  and 
with  good  prospects.  It  has  got  as  far  as  Benedict  XIV.  But 
it  is  little  more  than  the  merest  reprint,  new  matter  having  been 
often  promised  but  never  given ;  and  (what  justly  incenses  the 
Prench  Benedictine  Cardinal)  the  name   of  Dom  Constant,  the 


So-2  Letters  of  the  Popes. 

prince  of  editors  of  Papal  letters,  is  throughout  the  edition  either 
spelt  "  Constant,"  or  abbreviated  beyond  recognition,  as  if  the 
directors  had  no  first-hand  acquaintance  with  him  whatever. 

The  name  of  Dom  Constant  brings  us  to  one  of  the  most 
interesting  features  of  the  Cardinal's  introduction.  Every  reader 
who  has  seen  the  Bullarium  is  aware  that  the  collection  goes 
back  no  further  than  Leo  the  Grreat  (MO).  The  enormous  diffi- 
culty of  separating  the  genuine  decretals  from  the  false  deterred 
early  editors  from  printing  anything  earlier  than  the  collections 
of  Dionysius.  How  was  Antonio  Carafa  to  till  the  void  between 
St.  Clement  and  St.  Syricius?  What  was  he  to  do  with  the 
pseudo-Isidore  ?  He  did  what,  perhaps,  was  the  best  thing 
under  the  circumstances  ;  he  gave  the  Isidorian  collection  a  place 
all  to  itself,  and  made  no  attempt  to  separate  the  wheat  from  the 
chaff.  But  there  appeared,  exactly  a  hundred  years  later,  the 
man  who  was  to  do  for  the  Papal  Letters  of  the  first  five  centuries 
what  he  and  others  of  his  brethren  did  for  so  many  patristic 
monuments — to  give  a  critical  edition  of  them  which  would  be  a 
final  edition,  accepted  as  such  by  every  future  inquirer.  Dom 
Peter  Coustant  was  born,  of  noble  parents  at  Compiegne,  in  1657, 
and  entered  the  Order  of  St.  Benedict  at  the  age  of  seventeen. 
Becoming  a  member  of  the  community  of  Saint- Germain-des- 
Pres,  he  was  associated  with  the  men  who  were  then  engaged  in 
the  great  editions  of  the  Fathers,  and  more  particularly  with  the 
editors  of  St.  Augustine.  In  this  work  he  soon  begun  to  show 
himself  a  critic  of  the  first  rank.  He  seemed  to  have  a  special 
gift  of  discernment  in  the  stupendous  task  of  separating  what 
was  really  St.  Augustine  from  what  was  falsely  attributed  to  him, 
or  inserted  by  copyists  into  his  text.  Since  his  day,  many  more 
sermons  of  the  Saint  have  been  discovered,  at  Bobbio,  at  Monte 
Cassino,  in  Rome,  but  not  one  of  those  which  he  admitted  has 
been  rejected,  nor  one  which  he  repudiated  been  taken  back.  In 
1687,  on  the  proposal  of  Mabillon,  the  General  Chapter  of  the 
Maurist  Congregation  decreed  an  edition  of  St.  Hilary.  It  was 
Dom  Coustant  to  whom  the  work  was  committed,  and  the  young 
Benedictine  justified  the  confidence  which  had  been  placed  in 
him  by  producing  the  folio  of  1693.  At  the  death  of  Tillemont, 
that  writer's  papers  were  placed  in  his  hands,  and  he  was  asked 
to  continue  the  "  Memoires  sur  I'histoire  ecclesiastique,"  But 
Dom  Coustant  declined  the  task.  We  do  not  know  his  motives. 
Cardinal  Pitra  suggests  that  it  was,  perhaps,  because  Dom 
Constant  was  the  most  Roman  of  the  family  of  Saint-Maur. 
"  Roman  "  he  certainly  showed  himself,  and  it  was  undoubtedly 
an  agreeable  work  that  he  took  up  when  he  set  about  an  edition 
of  the  Letters  of  the  Popes.  He  made  his  plans  on  the  largest 
scale.     He   was  to  print,  not  only  the  Letters  of  the  Pontifis 


Letters  of  the  Popes.  353 

themselves,  but  all  the  letters  and  documents  which  had  called 
them  forth.  He  was  to  distinguish  the  genuine  from  the 
spurious,  to  prove  the  authenticity  of  such  as  had  hitherto  been 
doubtful,  and  to  settle  the  important  matter  of  chronological 
order.  After  twenty  years  of  labour,  and.  a  vast  correspondence 
which  reached  as  far  as  Forli,  Monte  Cassino,  Naples,  and  Rome, 
the  first  volume,  with  the  handsome  figure  of  Innocent  XIII. 
-as  a  frontispiece,  was  given  to  the  world  in  1721.  It  was  the 
only  one  which  ever  appeared.  The  editors  announced  that  the 
work  would  be  pushed  on  as  far  as  Innocent  III. — the  precise 
point  where  the  regular  series  of  the  Regesta  begin,  and  where 
the  labour  of  the  critic  therefore  becomes  easy  ;  but  this  first 
volume  went  no  farther  than  Leo  the  Great.  Still  it  is  a 
critical  patristic  labour  of  the  first  class,  even  for  Suint-Maur. 
It  may  be  said  to  be  one  of  the  volumes  which  have  made  the 
name  of  Benedictine  so  famous  in  the  world  of  letters. 

The  great  critic  died  in  October  of  the  very  year  the  book 
came  out.  Two  years  later  Dom  Mopinot  writes  :  ''  I  mourn 
still  the  loss  of  this  excellent  man.  His  excessively  austere  life, 
his  too  great  application,  and  at  last  a  prolonged  febrile  attack, 
were  the  cause  of  his  death — and  he  is  in  heaven  !  "  "  Since  the 
death  of  Father  Mabillon,"  says  Dom  Tassin,  "  the  Congregation 
has  had  no  heavier  loss."  He  left  behind  him,  as  we  may 
naturally  suppose,  a  very  large  mass  of  papers.  His  friend  Dom 
Mopinot,  who  was  his  socius  in  the  great  undertaking  of  the 
Epistles,  continued  his  work  for  two  years.  Among  other  things, 
the  Epistles  of  St.  Leo  the  Great  had  been  copiously  annotated 
by  Dom  Constant;  and  we  can  still  see,  in  the  j\IS.  which  re- 
mains, the  loving  labour  of  his  confrere,  who  corrected,  re-wrote, 
added,  and  enlarged,  writing  the  most  admirable  Latin  in  the 
neatest  of  hands,  until  he  too  was  struck  down  by  death.  But 
other  causes  had  begun  to  operate  which  still  more  seriously 
impeded  the  Benedictine  editing.  These  were,  first,  the  quarrel 
with  the  BoUandists,  and,  secondly,  the  Jansenist  confusion. 
Then  came  the  great  Revolution.  From  the  wreck  of  Saint- 
Germain-des-Pres  a  few  remains  of  Maurist  learning  were  saved, 
and  the  papers  of  Dom  Constant  are  now  in  the  Vatican,  where 
they  have  been  used  as  a  mine  or  quarry  by  successive  collectors — 
the  Ballerini,  Thiel,  Jaffe,  and  others.  We  are  pleased  to  see 
that  Cardinal  Pitra  himself  promises  us  a  "gleaning"  from 
Dom  Constant's  notes  on  St.  Leo  in  the  fifth  volume  of  these 
"  Analecta."  No  one  knows  him  better,  and  no  one  could  have 
written  about  him  with  more  afiectionate  appreciation.  He  has 
himself  handled  all  his  remains — those  cahiers  on  St.  Leo,  written 
in  his  cell  in  Saint-Germain  in  1709,  on  old  and  wrinkled  paper, 
with  a  quill  that  evidently  wanted  mending,  his  fingers  probably 


354  Letters  of  the  Popes. 

half-frozen  by  the  excessive  cold  of  that  memorable  winter ;  the 
apology  of  Pope  Vigilius,  half  turned  into  Latin  by  Dom 
Mopinot ;  all  the  yellow  and  venerable  monuments  of  a  great 
moment  in  literary  history,  even  to  the  last  detached  leaves, 
relating  to  the  "dead  times"  between  Hormisdas  and  St. 
Gregory  the  Great,  lying  there  torn  and  stained,  as  they  have 
been  left  by  Andrew  Thiel — who  not  only  appropriated  (with  due 
acknowledgment)  the  labours  of  the  Maurist,  but  left  his  papers 
all  in  confusion  when  he  had  finished  with  them. 

It  may  be  thought  that,  however  valuable  may  be  the  general 
introductions  and  historical  summaries  of  a  master  like  Cardinal 
Pitra,  the  substantial  history  of  the  Papacy  or  of  the  Church 
can  gain  little  from  the  painful  gleanings  of  antiquarians  or  the 
printing  of  fragments  which  have  escaped  the  researches  of  the 
great  collectors.  There  is  quite  enough  in  the  present  volume  to 
refute  this  idea.  The  Cardinal  refers  to  much  that  has  been 
done  by  fellow-labourers  in  the  field  that  he  has  chosen ;  he  says 
little  about  what  he  himself  has  accomplished.  As  instances, 
varying  in  kind  and  degree,  of  what  the  "  gleaners  ""  have  done 
for  the  Popes,  we  may  mention  Pope  Gelasius  and  the  decree 
Be  Libris  (with  its  connection  with  the  Canon  of  Scripture) ;  the 
whole  life  of  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  which  seems  now,  thanks  to 
the  publication  of  so  many  of  his  letters,  to  have  assumed  the 
round  and  full  proportions  which  make  it  the  grandest  of  the 
Lives  of  the  Popes  ;  the  story  of  St.  Liberius,  in  which  even  Dom 
Constant  went  wrong,  and  to  which  Cardinal  Pitra  has  himself 
contributed  by  printing  for  the  first  time  the  important  verses  on 
p.  22 ;  and  finally  the  "  apology  "  of  Pope  Vigilius,  presented 
here  for  the  first  time  in  the  exact  words  of  the  three  Bene- 
dictines, Dom  Constant,  Dom  Mopinot,  and  Dom  Durand. 
Many  of  our  readers  will  remember  the  interminable  articles  and 
pamphlets  about  Pope  Vigilius  which  preceded  and  accompanied 
the  Council  of  the  Vatican.  They  will  not  have  forgotten  that 
the  name  of  "  Constant,"  generally  wrongly  spelt,  kept  makings 
its  appearance,  being  received  whenever  it  appeared  with  more 
deference  than  appreciation ;  the  truth  being  that  no  one  had 
ever  seen  a  treatise  by  Dom  Coustant  on  the  subject,  but  that 
one  or  two  had  heard  of  a  MS.  of  his,  and  perhaps  seen  a  sum- 
mary of  it  in  the  "  Spicelegium  Solismense."  Cardinal  Pitra  now 
prints  this  important  piece  in  its  completeness.  It  takes  up  ninety 
of  his  large  pages.  Every  question  connected  with  Vigilius  is 
treated,  and  handled  with  that  mastery  which  intimate  first-hand 
acquaintance  with  sources  alone  can  give.  Pope  Vigilius  has  the 
misfortune  to  have  had  both  smart  opponents  and  foolish  friends. 
The  well-known  work  of  Professor  Vincenzi,  which  was  often 
referred  to  in  the  pages  of  the  Dublin  Review  some  twenty 


I 


Letters  of  the  Popes. 


355 


years  ago,   is  written  on  the  principle,    abhorred  of  a   French 
Benedictine,  of  denying  the  authenticity  of  every  inconvenient 
document.     On  the  other  hand,  Vigilius  is  still  hotly  attacked. 
In  the  number  of  the  Revue  des   Questions  Historiques  for 
October,  1884,  a  writer,  who  signs  the  name  of  Abbe  Duchesne, 
has  printed  what  Cardinal  Pitra  calls  the  most   violent  attack 
which  even  Vigilius  has  ever  had  to  sustain.     One  might  have 
looked  for  better  things  at  the  hands  of  a  Review,  which  is 
generally  learned,  if  at  times  pedantic  and  sensational.     No  new 
evidence  seems  to  have  been  discovered.     All  the  documents  used 
by  the  Abbe — who  seems  to  be  a   professor   of  the    Catholic 
University  of  Paris — have  already  been  adjudicated  on  by  the 
three  great  Maurist  critics.     Probably  few  will  be  long  in  doubt 
as  to  where  the  truth  lies,  with  three  such  men  on  one  side,  and 
on   the  other  a  professor  who  contributes  no  new  element  to  the 
discussion   except  his  own   guesses.    Of  these  he  is  very  liberal 
indeed,  being  one  of  those  men  who  are  inclined  to  write  history 
by  analogy,  substituting  the  light  of  nature  for  painful  facts, 
and  possessing  a  wonderful  faculty   for  "reading  between  the 
lines"  and  discovering  "hidden  springs."     It  was  time  that  the 
"  apology  "  should  be  printed,  and  we  have  it  all  here — unequal 
in  style,  showing  marks  of  all  the  three  "  hands,^'  but  still  most 
solid,  severe,  detailed  and  convincing.     Dom  Constant  does  not 
proceed  in  the  radical  and  wholesale  manner  of  the  Professor  of 
the  Sapienzato  whom  we  referred  just  now,  and  reject  some  thirty 
documents  at  one  sweep.     He  rejects  the  "  Isidorian  "  letters ; 
and,  what  is  more,  he  refuses  to  accept  the   "  false  Damasus," 
or,  in  other  words,  the  entry  in  the  Liber  PontiJlcoMs  under 
the  name  of  that  Pope.     He  enters  into  the  history  of  the  Three 
Chapters,  and  shows  in  what  sense  Vigilius  condemned   them 
and  accepted  them ;  and  he  criticizes  in  the  most  masterly  way 
all  the  passages  of   the  African    writers  which  refer   to   him. 
When  we  remember  that  no  less  an  authority  than  Baronius  had 
condemned  Pope  Vigilius  at  least  as  an  intruder,  we  cannot  be 
too  grateful  for  a  dissertation  of  which  its  author  writes  in  these 
words  : — 

After  I  had  convinced  myself  with  certainty  of  the  truth  by  pro- 
found meditation,  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  draw  out  the  evidence 
which  had  satisfied  me,  not  only  in  order  to  repair  the  honour  of  a 
saintly  man,  but  that  false  prejudice,  resting  on  erroneous  facts,  might 
not  harm  the  discipline  of  the  Church. 

In  looking  through  the  "gleanings"  contained  in  this  new 
volume,  we  naturally  search  for  anything  new  relating  to  England 
and  English  affairs.  We  are  bound  to  admit  that  there  is  hardly 
anything  to  be  found.     The  Cardinal  prints  what  seems  to  be  a 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  II.     {Third  Berie8.'\  b  b 


356  Letters  of  the  Popes. 

lost  leaf,  or  appendix,  to  a  celebrated  Letter  of  Innocent  III.,  dated 
February  15,  1202,  ordering  certain  reforms  in  monastic  houses 
throughout  Europe ;  and  from  it  we  gather  that  the  Bishop  of 
Durham  and  the  Abbot  of  St.  Edmunds  were  to  act  as,  in  some 
sort,  the  Legates  of  the  Holy  See  for  all  the  exempt  monasteries 
of  England.  The  only  other  fragment  of  national  interest  if?  a 
smart  letter  from  the  same  vigorous  Pope,  addressed  to  the 
English  hierarchy,  on  the  subject  of  Peter's  Pence. 

It  ia  just  and  proper  [says  the  Pope,  with  dry  irony]  that 
as  "We  give  you  your  rights,  so  you  should  give  Us  ours ;  that, 
as  the  Gospel  expresses  it,  in  what  measure  We  mete  it  be  measured  . 
again  to  Us.  Now,  seeing  that  the  Penny  of  St,  Peter  is  faithfully 
gathered  in  England,  but  that  what  is  gathered  for  Our  use  is  not 
faithfully  transmitted  to  Us ;  therefore,  desirous  of  consulting  both 
for  the  welfare  of  the  collectors,  lest  their  souls  be  imperilled  by  a 
fraud  of  this  kind,  and  for  the  good  of  the  Roman  Church,  that  it  may 
avoid,  by  the  solicitude  of  Peter,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  Our  commis- 
sioner in  this  matter,  this  great  loss  and  injury,  We  have  given  him 
command  in  writing  that  he  cause  the  tribute  to  be  diligently  collected 
year  by  year  and  to  be  faithfully  handed  over  to  him  for  Our  use,  in 
order  that  by  him  it  may  be  transmitted  in  full  to  Ourselves ;  and 
that  he  quell  by  ecclesiastical  censure  all  that  contradict  or  rebel,  if 
any  there  be.  Wherefore  by  Apostolic  letter  We  charge  each  one  o£  you, 
that  you  with  humility  and  cheerful  devotion  give  ear  in  this  matter 
to  the  aforesaid  Bishop,  and  that  what  he  shall  lay  down  in  regard  to 
it  unto  the  advantage  of  the  Apostolic  See  you  observe  yourselves  and 
<iause  to  be  exactly  observed  by  your  subjects;  and  that  the  messengers 
whom  to  this  end  he  shall  think  fit  to  send  forth  to  you,  you  receive 
with  kindness  and  cause  to  be  so  received  by  your  subjects ;  but  if 
perchance  you  act  otherwise,  you  incur  (besides  sin  against  God)  the 
anger  of  the  Apostolic  See. 

This  remonstrance  is  dated  St.  Peter's  at  Rome,  the  last  day 
of  the  j'ear  1205.  At  that  very  time  two  claimants  to  the  See  of 
Canterbury  were  on  their  way  to  the  Eternal  City,  accompanied 
by  two  deputations,  one  from  King  John  and  the  other  from 
the  Cathedral  Monastery  of  Canterbury,  to  plead  an  appeal  of 
which  the  result  was  the  appointment  by  Innocent  of  Stephen 
Langton.  Two  years  had  not  elapsed  when  John's  behaviour 
about  this  appointment  made  the  Pope  lay  England  under  the 
famous  interdict.  What  was  the  effect  of  the  Letter  we  have 
translated  on  the  collection  of  Peter's  Pence  in  these  disturbed 
and  anxious  times  we  cannot  now  find  out.  Some  French  writer 
lately  discovered  that  it  was  precisely  in  the  reign  of  Innocent  III. 
that  commenced  that  favourite  process  with  philosophic  his- 
torians, the  decay  of  the  Papacy.  We  happen  to  have  some- 
thing like  6,000  Letters  of  this  Pope's  reign  ;  and  Potthast,  who 


Letters  of  the  Popes.  357 

has  analyzed  them,  says  that  they  are  clear  and  distinct  evidence 
that  it  was  at  this  very  moment  that  the  hold  of  the  Popes  on 
the  world  had  become  so  strong  and  universal  that  never  before 
or  since  had  that  ideal  been  realized  as  it  was  by  Innocent.^  Car- 
dinal Pitra  devotes  several  pages  to  au  interesting  examina- 
tion of  the  present  state  of  the  Registers  of  this  great  Pontiff 
(pp.  171  sqq.). 

There  is  another  passage  in  the  Cardinal's  introduction  which, 
although  it  informs  us  of  little  that  is  new,  is  interesting  to  re- 
produce here.  Among  imprinted  Bullaria,  he  tells  us  (p.  307), 
may  be  classed  in  the  first  rank  the  twenty-eight  folio  volumes 
of  English  bulls  preserved  in  the  British  Museum.  It  was  Sir 
James  Graham  who,  when  Secretary  of  State,  had  copied,  at  the 
expense  of  the  English  Government,  the  bulls  and  charters  in 
the  Vatican  archives  which  relate  to  the  history  of  England. 
Bunsen,  the  Prussian  ambassador  at  Rome,  and  the  learned 
antiquarian.  Sir  William  Hamilton,  were  the  intermediaries  in 
this  negotiation,  between  the  Vatican  and  the  British  Minister.f 
The  Holy  See  liberally  acceded  to  the  request  that  was  made, 
only  imposing  the  condition  that  nothing  should  be  printed 
without  notice  being  given  ;  a  precaution  that  seems  to  have  been 
inspired  wholly  by  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  Roman  authorities 
to  have  nothing  published  except  what  had  been  copied  cor- 
rectly. Mgr.  Marino  Marini,  as  prefect  of  the  Archives,  divided 
the  work  among  three  copyists,  one  for  England,  a  second  for 
Scotland,  and  a  third  for  Ireland.  The  threefold  series  thus 
obtained  advances  on  parallel  lines  from  Honorius  III.  to  Leo  X. 
After  the  accession  of  Henry  VIII.  we  have  a  mass  of 
Miscellanea  coming  down  to  the  days  of  the  last  Stuarts. 
There  is  an  index  in  two  volumes,  giving  with  "  concise 
elegance "  an  analysis  of  every  piece  in  the  collection.  They 
reached  London  in  the  early  part  of  the  year  1845,  and  were  by 
order  of  Parliament  deposited  among  the  additional  MSS.  of  the 
British  Museum,  numbers  15,351 — 15,400,  under  the  following 
title,  which  strikes  the  Cardinal  as  eminently  Roman : — 


*  Mr.  Creiglitoii,  in  his  recent  and  useful  book,  ''Epochs  of  English 
History  "  (p.  177),  calls  Innocent  III.  "  perhaps  the  greatest  and  wisest 
Pope  there  has  ever  been." 

f  This  is  what  Cardinal  Pitra  says,  but  there  must  be  some  mistake. 
Sir  William  Hamilton  "  the  antiquarian "  died  in  1803 ;  Sir  James 
Graham  did  not  become  Home  Secretary  till  1841.  Bunsen  was  at  that 
time  in  London,  but  had  spent  many  years  in  Rome.  The  dates  would 
:seem  to  point  to  Sir  William  Hamilton  the  philosopher  of  the  "  uncon- 
ditioned ;"  but  although  he  was  interested  in  every  kind  of  literary 
enterprise,  we  cannot  remember  that  he  had  any  influence  with  Pope 
Gregory  XVI. 

B  B  2 


358  Letters  of  the  Popes. 

MONUMENTA    BRITANNICA 

Ex  auiographis  Ronianorurn  Pontificuon  dei:)roriiiJta. 

MARINUS  MARINIUS 

Conlegit,  digessit,  cum,  indice. 

In  this  simple  title  [continues  the  eminent  antiquarian]  dictated 
at  Eome,  accepted  in  London,  and  written  in  letters  of  gold  in  the 
British  Museum,  there  is  more  than  literary  interest.  Perhaps  if  it 
had  been  after  the  days  of  '  Papal  Aggression,'  such  a  thing  might 
never  have  happened.  But  events  move  so  fast  in  these  days  that 
one  is  hardly  astonished  at  seeing  the  Pontifical  archives  opened  freely 
to  English  patriotism,  and  the  labour  of  Roman  clerks  and  prelates 
asked  for  by  a  Lutheran  ambassador,  forwarded  to  a  British  Secretary 
of  State,  solemnly  offered  to  the  Parliament  of  the  three  kingdoms 
and  placed  by  its  direction  in  the  grandest  of  the  national  archiva. 
Still  less  needful  is  it  to  notice  the  humble  paper  on  these  documents 
by  one  of  the  least  of  the  children  of  St.  Benedict,  who  went  from  an 
unimportant  abbey,  under  the  auspices  of  a  French  Republic,  to 
consult  in  London,  wearing  his  habit  freely  all  the  while,  the  secret 
archives  of  the  Vatican. 

This  passage,  wliicli  shows  that  a  man  who  has  a  passion  for 
the  "res  diplomatica "  has  not  necessarily  any  lack  of  fancy 
or  feeling,  was  written  in  1819.  The  Cardinal  now  goes  on 
to  say  that  he  ifc  gratified  to  be  able  to  add  that  England 
has  very  substantially  proved  her  gratitude.  Since  that  date 
not  a  single  year  has  passed  that  the  Vatican  Library  has 
not  received  volumes,  gilt  and  splendid,  sometimes  with  the 
Royal  Arms  on  their  bindings,  containing  the  precious  publica- 
tion of  the  Rolls  Series.  The  collection  has  a  place  of  its  own, 
and  very  properly,  for  it  is  incontestably  one  of  the  handsomest 
of  the  royal  offerings  which  the  Vatican  has  received.  Indeed, 
from  the  times  of  Pitt  and  of  George  IV.,  who  were  the  friends 
of  Pius  VII.  and  of  Consalvi,  there  were  already  presents  from 
England.  The  first  and  the  rarest  collection  of  English  State 
Papers  is  kept  in  seventy-three  splendid  folios,  with  an  inscrip- 
tion, which  we  may  well  give  here,  as  an  historic  souvenir  and 
as  a  tribute  of  respect  to  the  most  lasting  and  the  most  conserva- 
tive of  authorities : — 

RECORD  COMMISSION. 

Tills  Book  is  to  be 

Perpetually  Preserved  in 

THE  VATICAN  LIBRARY,  ROME. 


(    359    ) 


Art.  VII.— methods  OF  HISTORICAL  INQUIRY.— 11. 

1.  On   Heroes,   Hero-iuorship,   and  the  Heroic  in  History. 

By  Thomas  Carlylk.     Chapman  &  Hall.    1872. 

2.  Auguste  Gomte  and  Positivism.     By  John  Stuart  ]Mill, 

Third  Edition.     Triibner&Co.   1882. 

3.  History  of  Civilization  in  England  and  France,  Spain  and 

Scotland.     By    Hexry   Thomas   Buckle.     New  Edition. 
Longmans,  Green  &  Co.     1882. 

4  Physics    and    Politics.      By    Walter    Bagehot.      Sixth 
Edition.     Henry  S.  King  &  Co.    1875. 

5.  Comparaiive   Politics  (Rede  Lecture  in).     By  Edward  A. 
Freeman,  M.A.,  Hon.  D.C.L.     Macmillan  &  Co.     1873. 

S.  Lectures   on  the   Early  History  of  Institutions.     By  Sir 
Henry  S.  Maine.     John  Murray.     1875 

7.  The    Holy  Roman  Empire,     By   James    Bryce,    D.C.L. 

Seventh  Edition.     Macmillan  &  Co.     1881. 

I  PROPOSE  in  the  present  essay  to  add  a  few  observations  to 
those  already  made  by  me  in  a  former  paper  contributed  to  this 
Review  on  the  subject  of  methods  of  historical  inquiry.  Much 
thought  has  been  expended  in  the  effort  to  discover  the  pre- 
dominant or  pre-eminent  element,  if  such  there  be,  determining  the 
course  of  human  history.  This  is  the  search  after  what  is  called 
the  Philosophy  of  History  ;  and  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the 
theory  held  by  an  inquirer  regarding  history  as  a  whole  will 
determine  his  method  of  dealing  with  historical  facts,  for  he  will 
clearly  frame  his  history  in  accordance  with,  and  in  illustration  of, 
his  general  conception.  There  are  four  writers  whose  views  may 
be  taken  as  representative  of  different  modes  of  discussing  the 
question  of  the  philosophy  of  history — I  omit  for  tiie  present  the 
Christian  view — and  these  are  Carlyle,  Comte,  Buckle,  and 
Walter  Bagehot,  though  I  should  observe  that  the  last-named 
inquirer  only  attempts,  as  he  himself  says,  to  give  one,  and  that 
only  a  limited,  side  or  aspect  of  the  subject,  and  was,  as  far  as  I 
know,  himself  a  Christian.  An  outline  of  their  systems  will,  I 
believe,  serve  better  than  any  mere  critical  statement  to  exhibit 
the  present  state  of  the  question.  In  the  brief  sketch  here  attempted 
I  wish  it  to  be  clearly  understood  that  I  am  simply  stating  their 
opinions  as  they  themselves  set  them  forth. 


360  Methods  of  Historical  Inquiry. 

1.  According  to  Carlyle,  universal  history  is  fundamentally  the 
history  of  great  men  or  heroes.     All  that  has  come  to  pass  is 
really  the  embodiment  of  thoughts  that  existed  in  their  minds. 
Their  history  is  the  soul  of  the  world's  history.  Of  the  heroism  of 
the    great  man  the  distinctive  characteristic  is  this — that    he 
looks  through  the  show  of  things  into  things.     The  great  men 
penetrated  into  the  mystery  of  the  universe,  "  the  Divine  Idea 
of  the  "World/'  that  "  which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  Appearance/'  a& 
Fichte  calls  it,  of  which  all  appearance  is  but  the  embodiment. 
The  universe  is  the  realized  Thought  of  God.      It  is  the  message 
of  the  hero  to  make  known  this  mystery.      In  it  he  lives  ;  it  he 
announces  in  announcing  himself.     "  His  life  is  a  piece  of  the  ever- 
lasting heart  of  Nature  herself."    ("On  Heroes/' Lect.  v.)    The 
cardinal  feature  of  the  hero  is  that  he  is  sincere — not  the  sin- 
cerity that  calls  itself  sincere,  but  a  great  unconscious  sincerity;  he 
is  sincere  by  his  very  nature.    He  is  a  messenger  direct  from  the 
the  Inner  Fact  of  things  ;  in  intimate  contact  with  that  he  lives^ 
and  must  live.     He  is  not  the  creature  of  the  time ;  he  is  the 
lightning  direct  from  the  hand  of  God,  for  which  the  dry  fuel  was 
waiting  to  kindle  it,  without  which  the  fuel  never  would  have 
burnt.    He  is  "  the  indispensable  saviour  of  his  epoch.''    (Lect.  i.) 
All    heroes  —  the  hero    as  divinity,    as   prophet,    as   poet,    as 
priest,  as  man  of  letters,  as  king — Odin,  Mahomet,  Dante,  Luther, 
Johnson,  Cromwell — are  at  bottom  the  same.      It  is  only  by  the 
world's  way  of  receiving  them  and  the  forms  they  assume  that 
they  differ  so  much.     It  is  the  different  sphere  that  makes  the 
grand  distinction.     The    hero  can  be  poet,  king,  priest,  and  so 
forth,  according  to  the  sort  of  world  he  lives  in.     A   Mirabeau 
might  have  composed  soul-stirring  verses  had  his  career  and  edu- 
cation led  him  in  that  direction.      "  Napoleon  has  words  in  him 
which  are  like  Austerlitz  Battles."    (Lect.  iii.)     Petrarch    and 
Boccaccio  were  skilful  diplomatists.     The  most  significant  cha- 
racteristic in  the  history  of  any  period  is  the  way  in  which  it 
receives  great  men.      Hero-worship  is  the  animating  principle  in 
man's  life.     It  is  the  basis  of  religion — the  germ  of  Christianity 
itself;  it  is  the  basis  of  loyalty  ;  it  is  the  basis  of  society.     It  is 
indestructible —  imperishable.      This   indestructibility  of  hero- 
worship  is  the  everlasting  adamant  lower  than  which  the  revo- 
lutionary wreck  cannot  fall — the  eternal  corner-stone  from  which 
to  begin  to  build  up  anew.     As  has  been  said,  all  things  that  come 
to  pass  are  the  practical  realization  of  thoughts  that  existed  in 
great  men.    In  every  age  the  great  event  is  the  advent  of  a  thinker. 
His  thought  arouses  the  dormant  capacity  of  all  into  thought. 

The  Thoughts  of  all  start  up,  as  from  painful  enchanted  sleep,  round 
his  Thought,  ;  answering  to  it,  Yes;  even  so!  (Lect.  i.)     Thought i» 


Methods  of  Historical  iTiquiry.  361 

the  true  thaumaturgic  virtue  by  which  man  works  all  things  what- 
soever. All  that  he  does  and  brings  to  pass  is  the  vesture  of  a 
Thought.  This  London  city,  with  all  its  houses,  palaces,  steam-engines, 
cathedrals,  and  huge  immeasurable  traffic  and  tumult,  what  is  it  but  a 
Thought,  but  millions  of  thoughts  made  into  one  ;  a  huge  immeasur- 
able spirit  of  a  Thought,  embodied  in  brick,  in  iron,  smoke,  dust, 
palaces,  parliaments,  hackney  coaches,  Katharine  Docks,  and  the  rest  of 
it.     (Lect.  V.) 

That  which  a  man  knows  and  practically  believes  regarding  his 
vital  relations  to  the  universe  is  the  thing  of  chief  intiportance 
for  him.  What  is  a  man's  or  a  nation's  belief — heathenism, 
Christianity,  scepticism  ? — that  will  show  us  the  soul  of  the 
man's  or  the  nation^s  history.  "  Is  not  belief  the  true  god- 
announcing  miracle  'f'  "  says  Novalis.  The  history  of  a  nation 
becomes  great  so  soon  as  it  believes.  The  great  universal  war 
which  alone  constitutes  the  true  history  of  mankind  is  the  war  of 
Belief  against  Unbelief.  Of  such  war,  he  says,  Puritanism  was  a 
section.  In  the  great  struggle  of  truth  against  falsehood.  Nature 
herself  is  umpire.  She  is  a  just  judge.  If  a  thing  be  genuine  of 
heart,  she  harbours  it,  but  not  otherwise.  The  wheat  grows — 
the  chatf  she  absorbs.  The  soul  of  truth  lives,  while  the  body 
dies.  "  Give  a  thing  time ;  if  it  can  succeed,  it  is  a  right  thing. 
All  goes  by  wager  of  battle  in  this  world  ;  strength,  well  under- 
stood, is  the  measure  of  all  worth."  (Lect.  iv.)  "  Divine  right, 
take  it  on  the  great  scale,  is  found  to  mean  divine  might 
withal  1 "  (Lect.  vi.)  The  highest  wisdom,  the  only  true 
morality,  is  not  merely  to  bow  to  necessity — th;it  a  man  must 
do  ;  but  to  know  and  believe  that  what  necessity  has  ordained  is 
the  best  thing — that  the  soul  of  the  world  is  good — that  a  man's 
duty  in  it  is  to  conform  to  the  law  of  the  whole.  A  man  is  in 
the  right  path  and  the  path  to  victory,  in  so  far  as  he  co-operates 
with  the  real  tendency  of  the  world.  Such  is  a  brief  abstract  of 
the  views  of  Carlyle. 

2.  M.  Gomte  was  the  first  who  systematically  attempted  the  in- 
vestigation of  social  phenomena  in  accordance  with  the  principle 
that  the  state  of  the  speculative  faculties  of  mankind  is  the  chief 
agent  of  the  social  movement.  He  believes  that  there  is  a 
natural  evolution  in  human  affairs,  and  that  that  evolution  is  an 
improvement.  Social  progress — civilization — consists  in  the  pro- 
gress of  our  human  towards  a  supremacy  over  our  animal 
attributes.  In  this  progress  the  principal  agent  is  man^s  in- 
tellectual development.  All  society  is  grounded  on  a  system  of 
fundamental  opinions,  proceeding  from  the  speculative  faculty. 
As  to  the  natural  order  of  intellectual  progress,  he  conceives  that 
speculation,  on  every  subject  of  Human  inquiry,  has  exhibited 
three    successive    stages.     In    the   first,    the    theological,    the 


362  Methods  of  Historical  Inqui'ry. 

phenomena  are  regarded  as  governed  by  volitions  of  super- 
natural beings.  In  the  second,  the  metaphysical,  they  are 
ascribed  to  realized  abstractions — powers,  forces,  occult  qualities, 
regarded  as  real  existences,  residing  in  concrete  bodies,  such  as 
the  vegetative  soul,  the  plastic  force,  or  the  vital  principle.  In 
the  third  or  final  stage,  the  positive,  speculation  confines  itself  to 
discovering  the  laws  of  succession  and  similitude  of  phenomena. 
This  generalization  Comte  considers  to  be  the  fundamental  law  of 
intellectual  progress.  With  each  of  these  three  stages  of  specu- 
lation he  connects  the  correlative  state  of  other  social  phenomena, 
the  parallel  sequence  in  the  purely  temporary  order  consisting  of 
the  gradual  substitution  of  the  industrial  for  the  military  mode 
of  life.* 

3.  According  to  Mr.  Buckle,  the  actions  of  men  are  determined 
entirely  by  their  antecedents,  and  must  therefore  be  character- 
ized by  uniformity.  And,  he  says,  as  all  antecedents  are  either 
in  the  mind  or  out  of  it,  all  the  variations  in  the  effects — that  is, 
all  the  changes  of  history — must  be  the  result  of  the  interaction 
between  the  mind  and  external  phenomena.  The  regularity  of 
actions  is  proved  by  statistics.  The  physical  agents  by  which 
man  is  most  profoundly  affected  arc  four — climate,  food,  soil, 
and  the  general  aspects  of  nature;  by  the  last  being  meant 
those  appearances  which,  through  the  senses,  have  directed  the 
association  of  ideas,  and  so  have  produced  in  different  countries 
different  modes  of  national  thought.  Heferrinjj  first  to  the  in- 
fluence  of  the  first  three  of  these  agencies,  he  remarks  that,  of 
all  the  great  social  improvements,  the  accumulation  of  wealth 
must  come  first,  as  in  its  absence  there  cannot  arise  a  class  who 
have  the  leisure  to  apply  themselves  to  the  acquisition  of  know- 
ledge. Among  a  wholly  ignorant  people,  and  before  wealth 
has  been  capitalized,  the  rate  at  which  wealth  is  accumulated 
will  depend  only  on  two  conditions — on  the  energy  and 
regularity  with  which  labour  is  carried  on,  and  on  the  returns 
made  to  that  labour.  The  latter  is  determined  by  the  fertility 
of  the  soil,  the  former  is  entirely  dependent  on  the  influence  of 
climate.  Next,  as  to  the  distribution  of  wealth,  this,  in  an  ad- 
vanced social  stage,  depends  on  several  very  complex  circum- 
stances, but  in  a  very  early  stage  is  regulated  entirely  by 
physical  laws.     And 

those  laws  are,  moreover,  so  active  as  to  have  invariably  kept  a 
vast  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  fairest  portion  of  the  globe 
in  a  condition  of  constant  and  inextricable  poverty.  If  this  can  be 
demonstrated,  the  immense-  importance  of  such  laws  is  manifest. 
For  since  wealth   is  an  undoubted  source  of  power,  it  is  evident  that, 

•  See  also  Mill's  "  System  of  Logic,"  voL  ii.  book  vi.  se«.  7,  8. 


Methods  of  Ilistorical  Inquiry.  363 

supposing  other  things  equal,  an  inquiry  into  the  distribution  of 
wealth  is  an  inquiry  into  the  distribution  of  power,  and,  as  such,  will 
throw  great  light  on  the  origin  of  those  social  and  political  in- 
equalities, the  play  and  opposition  of  which  form  a  considerable  part 
of  the  history  of  every  civilized  country."  ("  History  of  Civilization," 
ch.  ii.) 

Examining  the  natural  laws  which  determine  the  propor- 
tion in  which  wealth  is  distributed  to  labourers  and  em- 
ployers, he  argues — Wages  vary  with  the  population  in  an 
inverse  order.  The  physical  agent  by  which  increase 
of  population  is  most  powerfully  and  universally  affected 
is  food ;  population  advancing  when  the  supply  is 
abundant,  standing  still  or  diminishing  when  it  is  scarce.  The 
food  necessary  to  life  is  less  plentiful  in  cold  than  in  hot  coun- 
tries, while  at  the  same  time  a  larger  quantity  of  it  is  required ; 
so  that  for  both  reasons  the  increase  ot  population  is  less  rapid, 
and  so  wafjes  tend  to  be  his/her.  Evidence  is  adduced  to  show 
how,  in  the  most  flourishing  countries  out  of  Europe,  by  the 
operation  of  physical  causes,  wealth,  with  its  attendant  conse- 
quence, social  and  political  power,  became  monopolized  in  the 
hands  of  the  few,  and  hence  the  national  progress  became  re- 
tarded.* Turning  to  the  influence  of  the  general  aspects  of 
'  nature,  he  divides  them  into  those  which  tend  to  excite  the 
imagination,  and  those  which  appeal  to  the  understanding. 
According  as  nature  presents  a  powerful  and  majestic,  or  a  small 


*  I  will  give  here  an  instance  in  illustration  of  Mr.  Buckle's  method  of 
inquiry.  It  is,  he  says,  a  scientific  principle  that  the  colder  a  country  is, 
the  more  highly  carbonized  will  be  the  food  of  the  people ;  while  the 
•warmer  it  is  the  more  oxidized  will  be  their  food  Thus,  in  India,  owing 
to  the  high  temperature,  we  should  expect  the  national  food  to  be  of  an 
oxygenous  rather  than  of  a  carbonaceous  character.  The  former  is  de- 
rived from  the  vegetable  world,  of  which  starch  is  the  most  important 
constituent.  Again,  the  great  heat  of  the  climate,  which  makes  labour 
very  diiiicult,  renders  necessary  a  food  which  will  yield  an  abundant  re- 
turn and  at  the  same  time  will  be  very  ~  nutritious.  In  accordance  with 
these  requirements  it  has  come  to  pass,  says  Mr.  Buckle,  that  the  na.tional 
food  of  India  has  always  been  rice,  which  fulfils  the  necessary  conditions. 
The  abundance  of  food  has  produced  a  large  growth  of  population,  and, 
as  a  natural  consequence,  wages  have  been  low.  Thus  we  find,  in  the 
history  of  India,  wealth  and  power  in  the  hands  of  the  upper  classes  con- 
trasted with  poverty  and  abject  submission  in  the  productive  classes. 
This  is  the  explanation  of  the  rise  of  caste  and  of  the  unprogressive  con- 
dition of  the  country.  Commenting  on  Mr.  Buckle's  attempt  to  derive 
such  vast  consequences  from  the  consumption  of  rice  in  India,  Sir 
H.  Maine  remarks  that  the  passage  ought  to  be  a  caution  against  rash 
generalization,  for  that  it  happens  that  the  ordinary  food  of  the  people 
of  India  is  not  rice.  ("Village  Communities  in  the  East  and  West," 
pp.  213-4) 


361  Methods  of  HistoAcal  Inquiry. 

and  unimposing-,  appearance,  the  imagination  is  in  the  one  ease 
inflamed^  while  man  acquires  a  sense  of  insignificance  which 
enfeebles  the  will  and  deters  the  mind  from  inquiry  into  the  de- 
tails of  the  surrounding  world,  or,  in  the  other,  he  experiences  a 
sense  of  power  which  encourages  him  to  surmount  obstacles, 
while,  the  phenomena  being  more  accessible,  it  becomes  easier 
for  him  to  inquire  into  and  generalize  them.  The  civilizations 
exterior  to  Europe  are  chiefly  influenced  by  the  imagination, 
those  in  JEurope  by  the  understanding.  "  The  tendency  has 
been,  in  Europe,  to  subordinate  nature  to  man  ;  out  of  Europe 
to  subordinate  man  to  nature^'  (ch.  iii.).  The  progress  of 
European  civilization  is  characterized  by  a  diminution  in  the 
influence  of  physical,  and  an  increase  in  the  influence  of  mental, 
laws.  Thus,  of  these  two  classes  of  laws,  the  mental  are  the 
more  important  for  the  history  of  Europe.  He  goes  on  to  say 
that  the  progress  of  society  is  twofold,  moral  and  intellectual. 
The  question  arises — which  of  these  elements  is  the  more  im- 
portant ?  We  are  confronted,  he  says,  at  the  threshold  of  this 
inquiry  by  a  serious  fallacy.  The  expression,  moral  and  intel- 
lectual progress,  in  its  general  use  conveys  an  idea  thai  the 
moral  and  intellectual /acu-^fi^^s  of  men  improve.  But  this  has 
never  been  proved.     Therefore  that  progress 

resolves  itself,  not  into  a  progress  of  natural  capacity,  but  into  a 
progress,  if  I  may  so  say,  of  opportunity ;  that  is,  an  improvement  in- 
the  circumstances  under  which  that  capacity  after  birth  comes  into- 
play.  Here,  then,  lies  the  gist  of  the  whole  matter.  The  progress  is 
one,  not  of  internal  power,  but  of  external  advantage.  The 
child  born  in  a  civilized  land  is  not  likely,  as  such,  to  be  superior  to- 
one  born  among  barbarians  ;  and  the  difference  which  ensues  between 
the  acts  of  the  two  children  will  be  caused,  so  far  as  we  know,  solely 
by  the  pressure  of  external  circumstances ;  by  which  I  mean  the 
surrounding  opinions,  knowledge,  associations — in  a  word,  the  entire 
mental  atmosphere  in  which  the  two  children  are  respectively  nur- 
tured."    (Ch.  iv.) 

Taking  mankind  in  the  aggregate,  their  moral  and  intellec- 
tual conduct  is  regulated  by  the  moral  and  intellectual  notions 
current  at  the  time.  Now,  the  standard  of  conduct  has  varied 
in  every  age,  and  therefore  the  causes  of  action  must  be 
variable.  But  moral  truths  have  undergone  no  change,  while 
intellectual  truths  are  ever  changing.  Since,  then,  civilization  is 
the  product  of  moral  and  intellectual  forces,  of  which  the  moral 
remains  stationary,  the  intellectual  must  be  the  cause  of  progress. 
The  progress  of  civilization  is  dependent  on  the  amount,  direction, 
and  diffusion  of  intellectual  knowledge. 

4.  Mr.  Walter  Bagehot  has  written  a  work,  entitled  ''  Physics 
and  Politics,"  on  the  application  of  the  principles  of  natural  selec- 


A 


Methods  of  Historical  Inquiry.  365' 

tiou  and  inheritance  to  political  society,  which  is  really  a  con- 
tribution to  the  science  of  history.  Science,  he  says,  is  beginning 
to  read  in  each  man's  physical  organization  the  result  of  a  whole 
history  of  all  his  life  and  of  that  of  all  his  ancestors.  The  nervous- 
system  has  the  power,  by  iteration,  of  organizing  conscious  actions 
into  more  or  less  unconscious  or  reflex  operations,  and  the  effects 
become  embodied  in  the  nervous  structure.  The  body  of  the 
trained  man  has  thus  become  a  storehouse  of  acquired  power, 
which  comes  away  from  it  unconsciously.  The  acquired  faculties 
then  become  transmitted  by  inheritance  through  the  nervous 
system.  No  one,  he  says,  who  does  not  lay  hold  of  the  notion 
of  a  transmitted  nerve  element  will  ever  understand  the  "  con- 
nective tissue  "  of  civilization.  There  exists  a  physical  cause,  in 
active  operation,  of  improvement  from  generation  to  generation. 
He  believes  these  principles  to  be  independent  of  any  theory 
regarding  the  nature  of  matter  or  of  mind,  and  that  tliey  have 
no  bearing  on  the  problems  of  necessity  and  free-will.  The 
doctrine  of  Conservation  of  Force,  if  applied  to  decision,  he  holds 
to  be  incompatible  with  free-will,  but  with  the  universal  con- 
servation of  force,  he  says,  he  has  nothing  to  do.  I  will  briefly 
call  attention  to  his  views.  Man,  as  we  find  him  at  the  dawn 
of  history — the  patriarchal  man — united  the  character  of  the 
child  with  the  passions  and  strength  of  the  grown  man  ;  he  was 
simple  and  violent.  His  mind  was  unstable;  his  notions  of 
morality  were  vague ;  he  had  no  idea  of  law  or  of  what  we  mean 
by  a  nation.  Thus  lav.'  is  the  primary  requisite  of  the  early 
man,  subjection  to  a  common  rule — a  polity.  Man  can  only 
make  progress  in  co-operative  groups — tribes  or  nations.  Unless- 
a  strong  co-operative  bond  is  made,  the  society  will  be  killed  out 
by  some  other  society  which  possesses  it.  Again,  the  members 
of  the  group  must  resemble  each  other  sufficiently  to  co-operate 
easily  and  readily.  The  co-operation  and  likeness  needed  were 
produced  by  the  authority  of  "  customary  law."  The  early 
polities — in  which  the  quantity  of  government  was  much  more 
important  than  its  quality — were  needed  for  creating  the  heredi- 
tary drill,  for  making  the  mould  of  civilization.  Rome  and 
Sparta  were  drilling  aristocracies,  and,  because  they  were  so,- 
succeeded,  while  Athens  was  beaten  in  the  great  game  of  the 
world.  The  early  polities  not  only  cemented  men  into  groups 
and  imparted  to  them  a  body  of  common  usages,  but  often  sug^ 
gested  national  character.  Mr.  Bagehot  believes  that  national 
character  arose  in  this  way  :  at  first  a  kind  of  "  chance  predomi- 
nance "  of  manner  set  a  model,  and  then  unconscious  imitation  of 
it — the  necessity  which  invincibly  constrains  all  but  the  strongest 
men  to  imitate  what  they  see  before  them,  and  to  be  what  they 
are  expected  to  be — shaped  men  by  that  model.     In  the  earliest 


366  Methods  of  Historical  Inquiry. 

times  every  intellectual  gain  that  a  nation  enjoyed  was  invested 
in — turned  to  account  in  the  shape  of — wavlike  power.  Every 
sort  of  advantage  tended  to  become  a  military  advantage.  Those 
nations  who  possessed  the  advantages  conquered  those  who  did  not 
possess  them.  War,  too,  engenders  certain  virtues — valour,  veracity, 
discipline.  The  nations  who  won  were  the  best  nations,  and  it 
was  by  war  and  conquest  that  progress  was  promoted.  The 
writer  discusses  the  different  kinds  of  advantages  which  tend  to 
make  one  nation  superior  to  another.  Much  the  greatest  is  law 
— the  legal  fibre,  already  adverted  to.  The  next  step  is,  having 
got  the  fixed  law,  to  get  out  of  it  to  something  better ;  other- 
wise the  civilization  will  be  an  arrested  one — the  propensities  to 
variation  which  are  the  principle  of  progress  will  be  extinguished. 
Then,  the  virtues  of  the  first  stage  should  be  kept  by  a  nation  as 
it  passes  into  the  second,  or  it  will  be  killed  out ;  there  must  be  a 
xmion  of  legality  with  variability.  Rome  won  her  position  in 
the  world  by  the  observance  of  this  principle ;  her  legality 
was  always  accompanied  by  a  capacity  for  adaptation.  Other 
advantages  are  :  superiority  of  political  institutions,  as  the  early 
Aryan  form  of  government,  in  which  the  contests  of  the  assembly 
fostered  the  principle  of  variation,  while  the  influence  of  the 
elders  acted  as  a  preservative  force ;  often,  mixture  of  races ; 
provisional  institutions,  as  slavery,  which  enabled  a  set  of  persons 
to  have  leisure  for  originality;  the  possession  of  higher  moral 
qualities ;  the  military  advantage  of  religion — strong  beliefs 
attract  the  strong,  and  then  make  them  stronger  ;  so  Stoicism 
was  popular  at  Rome,  Epicureanism  was  unpopular.  Mr.  Bagehot 
discusses  the  great  means  by  which  the  yoke  of  custom,  necessary 
in  the  first  instance  for  improving  the  world,  was  broken,  and  so 
civilization  prevented  from  being  arrested.  It  was,  he  holds, 
government  by  discussion.  Into  this  I  do  not  propose  to  follow 
him. 

I  will  conclude  this  notice  of  Mr.  Bagehot's  views  by  a  brief 
reference  to  his  account  of  the  origin  of  nations.  Diversity  of 
race,  he  says,  will  not  explain  the  difference  between  nations. 
While  all  Greeks  are  of  the  same  race,  Athens  and  Sparta 
exhibited  very  different  national  characteristics.  Nor  will 
natural  selection — the  survival  of  those  who  struggle  most 
successfully  with  surrounding  obstacles.  The  obstacles  were 
much  the  same  to  Spartans,  Athenians,  and  Romans.  Nor  will 
the  influence  of  physical  conditions.  The  Papuan  and  the  Malay 
have  for  ages  inhabited  the  same  tropical  regions  ;  or,  to  take  an 
illustration  from  the  lower  animals,  Borneo  and  New  Guinea,  as 
Mr.  Wallace  observes,  alike  in  their  vast  size,  absence  of 
volcanoes,  variety  of  geological  structure,  uniform  climate,  and 
forest    vegetation,    are    zoologically    entirely    different;    while 


Methods  of  Historical  Inquiry.  367 

Australia,  with  quite  different  physical  conditions,  is  character- 
ized by  birds  and  quadrupeds  having;  a  close  affinity  to  those 
to  be  found  in  New  Guinea.  The  problem,  says  Mr.  Bao^ehot, 
must  be  separated  into  two — the  makinf^  of  races,  and  the 
makinj^  of  the  minor  distinctions  between  nations.  He  observes 
that  the  causes  which  have  formed  nations  are  best  studied  by 
considering  the  causes  which  are  now  changing  nations.  As 
already  stated,  the  great  cause  is  the  influence  of  type — some 
chance  predominance  of  manner — which  invincibly  attracted  men 
to  copy  it  unconsciously.  This  appreciated  character  became 
encouraged,  while  the  contrary  character  was  avoided  and  per- 
secuted. The  foundation  of  New  England  is  a  modern  illus- 
tration. The  original  immigrants,  who  resembled  each  other  in 
character,  religion,  and  politics,  encouraged  and  exaggerated 
their  peculiar  characteristics,  and  discouraged  and  persecuted 
other  characteristics,  and  so  a  special  New  England  character 
grew  up,  which  has  in  many  traits  been  handed  down  by  in- 
heritance. There  is  another  auxiliary  cause.  The  early  stages 
of  civilization  are  distinguished  by  a  great  mortality  of  infant 
life  ;  those  children  live  who  can  most  easily  conform  to  the 
habits  of  the  tribe.  Besides  this  form  of  selection,  there  would 
probably  be  a  kind  of  parental  selection ;  those  children  being 
most  tenderly  treated,  and  so  having  a  better  chance  of  surviving, 
who  gave  most  promise  of  being  distinguished  by  the  approved 
national  habits.  Inheritance  does  the  rest — the  national 
character,  formed  by  imitation  of  appreciated  habit  and  per- 
secution of'  disliked  habit,  becomes  transmitted. 

5.  Mr.  Bagehot's  account  of  the  action  of  the  forces  of  natural 
selection  and  inheritance  in  history  is  one  of  modest  pretensions, 
as  may  be  seen  by  comparing  with  it  the  theory  put  forward  by 
the  accredited  organs  of  the  evolution  philosophy-  According  to 
the  latter,  natural  selection,  the  seizing  hold  of  useful  variations 
accidentally  offered,  favouring  their  possessors  in  the  struggle  for 
existence,  and  thereafter  handing  them  on  to  the  next  generation, 
has  been  the  sole  agency  which  brought  about,  not  only  all  the 
wonders  of  organic  life,  but  all  the  mental  and  moral  endow-  ^ 
ments  and  achievements  of  the  human  race.  In  this  view,  man 
lies  helpless  in  an  eternal  network  of  cause  and  effect;  free- 
will, purpose,  God,  are  set  aside  as  agents  in  the  growth  of 
civilization.  It  is  quite  impossible  to  accept  the  Evolution 
theory  of  the  genesis  or  of  the  development  of  the  human  spirit. 
There  can  be  no  point  of  contact  between  the  Christian  and 
evolution  doctrines  of  the  soul  of  man.  History  at  the  same 
time,  I  think,  clearly  proves  that,  in  early  times  at  least,  however 
much  it  may  have  ceased  to  act  since,  a  kind  of  what  may  per- 
haps be  called  "  natural  selection,''  did  operate  as  a  force  in  the 


•308  Methods  of  Historical  Inquiry. 

working  out  of  civilization — that  certainly  in  mciny  cases  pro- 
gress was  effected  by  the  winning  of  favoured  peoples.  But  it 
was  only  one  out  of  many  influences.  In  Mr.  Bagehot's  peculiar 
treatment  of  the  subject  he  is  careful  to  explain  that  he  is  only 
attempting  to  give  one  aspect  of  the  question,  and,  as  has  been 
seen,  he  indeed  confines  himself  to  the  physical  or  corporeal  side 
of  human  nature.  In  doing  so,  he  steers  clear  of  the  Necessarian 
doctrine.  All  that  he  contends  is,  that  the  nervous  system  may 
be  trained  by  habit,  that  the  results  of  that  training  may  be 
handed  on  to  descendants  through  the  nervous  system,  and  that 
a  trained  nervous  organization  may,  and  does,  supply  certain 
great  advantages  in  the  struggle  of  races.  The  free-will  operates 
on  the  hereditary  nervous  system.  But  the  kind  of  "  natural 
selection^'  which  I  have  pointed  out  is  only  one  very  small  factor 
in  the  history  of  civilization,  and,  even  within  its  own  narrow 
sphere,  is  traversed  in  all  directions  by  the  action  of  quite  other 
influences. 

There  is,  first,  the  incessant,  ubiquitous,  initiative  of  free-will 
exercised  by  the  members  of  the  community,  which  is  able  at  any 
point  to  affect  the  course  of  human  history.     Mr.  Buckleys  theory 
of  Necessary  Law  and  of  the  inefficacy  of  moral  causes  is  dis- 
proved as  well  by  the  testimony  of  consciousness  as  by  the  whole 
evidence  of  history.     Then  there  is  the  influence  and  initiative  of 
men  of  genius,  great  men,  heroes,  whose  mind  was  not  the  out- 
come of  evolution,  but  was  a  heaven-born  gift — whose  free  action 
has  profoundly  affected  the   history  of  the   race.     There   is  a 
certain  portion  of  truth  in  Mr.  Carlyle's  theory,  that  universal 
history  is  at  bottom   the  history  of  great  men.     But  his  whole 
theory  is  completely    disfigured  by  his   incessant  deification  of 
mere  force,  his  reiterated  doctrine  that  might  is  right,  that  suc- 
cess is  the  oneasure  of  merit,  and  by  the  idea  running  through 
his  works,  that  quantity,  so  to  say,  of  spirit  in  any  individual  is 
a  sufficient  proof  of  the  existence  in  that  individual  of  a  corre- 
sponding   amount  of   the    excellent    in   qvMlity  :    witness  his 
unfortunate  selection  of  "heroes"  in  many  cases.     Again,  there 
is  the  freely  exercised  influence  of  rulers,  of  governments,  through 
human  laws  or  positive  institutions,  whether  their  action  repre- 
sent the  combined  free-will  of  the  individuals  of  the  community, 
or,  as  has  been  so  often  the  case  in  history,  proceed  entirely  from 
themselves.     These  laws  or  institutions  may  be  attended  by  far- 
reaching  consequences  overriding  the  natural  growth  of  society. 
History  supplies  us  with  innumerable  examples.     How  often  has 
the  capricious  will  of  tyrants  altered  the  whole  character  of  a 
nation's  history  !     Finally,  and  above  all,  there  is  the  action  of 
Divine  Providence  in  history.     In  the  Christian  doctrine,  human 
•history  is  the  theatre  of  Divine  Providence,  which  presides  over 


I 


I 


I 


Methods  of  Historical  Inquiry.  869 

and  guides  the  course  of  events ;  while  man  has  the  mysterious 
power  of  choosing  between  good  and  evil,  God  so  orders  the 
course  of  history  as  to  make  all  things  tend  to  the  triumph  of 
good  and  the  overthrow  of  evil.  What  a  complete  revolution 
in  the  history  of  mankind  was  effected  by  the  establishment  of 
Christianity !  What  natural  laws  of  evolution  or  of  necessary 
sequence  could  account  for  such  a  vast  transformation  of  human 
society  and  history  ? 

I  have  given  a  brief  account  of  M,  Comte's  doctrine,  as  he  is 
generally  regarded  as  the  founder  of  the  so-called  Science  of 
Sociology.  But  his  whole  system  appears  to  me  a  gigantic 
failure.  To  take  a  single  example  as  a  specimen  of  the  rest :  to 
predict  from  the  law  of  progress,  through  the  three  phases  of  the 
theological,  the  metaphysical,  and  the  positive  theories  of  the 
universe,  that  Spain  would  necessarily  eome  to  hold  the  highest 
place  in  European  nations,  seems  to  me  a  mere  parody  of 
science. 

I  do  not  wish  it  to  be  understood  from  the  observations  here 
advanced  that  I  believe  that  no  generalizations  are  to  be  drawn 
from  history.  I  hold  that  there  is  a  certain  limited  science  of 
approjcimiate  generalizations  of  tendencies.  To  deny  this  would 
be  to  fly  in  the  face  of  historical  evidence.  Thus,  it  may  be  laid 
down  as  a  conclusion  from  history  that  despotism  tends  to  result 
in  certain  evils.  But  I  hold  that  the  despotism  was  established 
b}''  the  free-will  of  some  person  or  persons,  and  that  its  evil 
effects  may  be  resisted  by  the  free-will  of  individuals.  The 
correct  form  of  the  proposition — and  this  may  be  taken  as  the 
type  of  the  generalizations  of  the  social  science — is  this  :  "  In 
"niost  cases  despotism  tends  to  produce  certain  evil  consequences." 

6.  Mr.  Freeman,  in  the  Rede  Lecture  delivered  before  the 
University  of  Cambridge  in  1872,  has  grasped  in  a  remarkable 
manner  the  idea  of  the  unity  of  the  history  of  the  Aryan 
nations  of  Europe,  In  the  present  century  the  barrier  which 
had  separated  Greece  and  Kome,  as  known  tons  during  a  certain 
period  of  their  history,  from  all  other  times  and  places,  has,  he 
says,  been  broken  down,  and  a  new  world  has  been  revealed  to 
us,  in  which  times  and  tongues  and  peoples,  before  isolated,  are 
discovered  to  be  linked  together  by  the  bond  of  a  common 
primeval  brotherhood.  The  distinction  between '' ancient "  and 
"  modern"  history  has  been  shown  to  be  a  purely  arbitrary  one 
—the  study  of  history  is  one  study.*  The  great  fact  of  the 
[unity  of  history  must  now  be  boldly  faced.     The  history  of  the 

*  The  great  iastrumeat  in  effecting  this  change  was,  he  says,  and  as 
pointed  out  by  me  in  a  former  essaj'  on  this  subject  in  the  Dublin 
Review,  the  Comparative  Method. 


370  Methods  of  Historical  Inquiry. 

Aryan  nations  of  Europe  forms  one  long  chain  of  cause  and 
eflfect,  no  portion  of  which  can  be  understood  if  studied  apart 
from  the  rest.  And  of  this  history  Rome  is  the  great  centre,  to 
which  all  roads  converge,  and  from  which  they  all  equally 
diverge.  Take  the  history  of  Greece.  Greek  history  did  not 
end  with  the  battle  of  Chaironeia,  or  with  the  destruction  of 
Corinth.  He,  says  Mr.  Freeman,  who  would  understand  the 
influence  of  the  Greek  mind  and  tongue  on  the  history  of  the 
world,  must  not  confine  himself  to  the  narrow  bounds  of  time  and 
space  called  "  classical.^'  He  must  see  how  the  Greek  language 
and  Greek  arts  were  spread  over  every  coast  from  Cyprus  to 
Spain  ;  how  the  island  of  Sicily  was 

gathered  into  the  Hellenic  fold,  a  land  whose  Hellenic  life  lived 
on  through  the  rule  of  Carthaginian,  Roman,  Saracen,  and  Norman, 
and  where  the  tongue  in  which  the  victories  of  Hieron  had  been  sung 
to  the  lyre  of  Pindar,  lived  on  to  record  the  glories  of  the  house  of 
Hauteville  on  the  walls  of  the  Saracenic  churches  of  Palermo  ; 

how  in  the  Phokaian  settlement  in  Gaul — the  Massalian  com- 
monwealth— Greek  arts  and  Greek  letters  stood  their  ground  for 
ages,  and  how  "  the  spirit  of  the  men  who  sailed  away  from  the 
Persian  yoke  lived  on  in  their  kinsfolk,  who  withstood  the  might 
of  Csesar,  and  sprang  again  to  life  in  later  times  to  withstand  the 
sterner  might  of  Charles  of  Anjou; "  how  the  commonwealth  of 
Cherson — the  last  of  the  Greek  republics — lived  ages  after 
Athens,  Sparta,  and  Thebes  had  been  swallowed  up  in  tha 
Roman  Empire ;  how  the  great  Macedonian  conqueror,  Alexander 
the  Great,  carried  Greek  culture  and  the  Greek  language  over  the 
countries  of  the  East ;  how  the  first  Roman  historians  recorded 
Roman  legends  in  Greek,  and  how  almost  every  Roman  poet 
drew  his  inspiration  from  a  Greek  source ;  how  it  was  in  the 
Greek  tongue  that  the  oracles  of  Christianity  were  announced, 
and  how  Greek  was  the  speech  of  the  earliest  and  most  eloquent 
ecclesiastical  writers ;  how 

the  traditions  of  Greece  and  Rome,  the  conquests  of  Macedonian 
warriors  and  of  Christian  apostles,  all  joined  together  when  the 
throne  and  the  name  of  Rome  were  transferred  to  a  Greek-speaking 
city  of  the  eastern  world,  and  when  the  once  heathen  colony  of  Megara 
was  baptized  into  the  Christian  capital  of  Constantine,  whence  went  on 
the  long  dominion  of  the  laws  of  Rome,  but  of  the  speech,  the  learning, 
and  the  arts  of  Greece. 

The  unity  of  history  might  be  illustrated  in  the  same 
way  from  the  history  of  Rome.  And,  further,  the  history 
of  Rome  is  the  history  of  the  European  world.  The  Roman 
Empire  was  formed  by  bi-inging  under  its  rule  the  States  of  the 


I 


I 


Methods  of  Historical  Inquiry, 


371 


old  world,  while  oat  of  the  break-up  of  that  empire  the  kingdoms 
and  nations  of  modern  Europe  gradually  arose.  But  this  is  a 
subject  too  vast  to  attempt  to  trace  here.  It  is  sufficient  to  note 
that  the  law  of  almost  every  European  nation  but  our  own  rests 
as  its  basis  on  the  legislation  of  Servius  and  Justinian,  while  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  is  venerated  by  millions  as  the  vicar  of  Christ 
and  the  head  of  their  holy  religion.  Mr.  Freeman  gives  an 
illustration  of  the  oneness  of  history,  which  is  so  very  remarkable 
that  it  shall  be  my  apology  for  making  so  long  a  quotation : 

Let  us  stand  [he  says]  on  the  Akropolis  o£  Athens  on  a  day  in 
the  early  part  of  the  eleventh  century  of  our  era.  A  change  has  come 
since  the  days  of  Perikles,  and  even  since  the  days  of  Alaric.  The 
voice  of  the  orator  is  silent  in  the  Pnyx  ;  the  voice  of  the  philosopher 
is  silent  in  the  Academy.  Athene  Proraachos  no  longer  guards  her 
city  with  her  uplifted  spear,  nor  do  men  deem  that,  if  the  Goth  should 
again  draw  nigh,  her  living  form  would  again  scare  him  from  her 
walls.  But  her  temple  is  still  there,  as  yet  untouched  by  the  cannon 
of  Turk  and  Venetian,  as  yet  unspoiled  by  the  hand  of  the  Scottish 
plunderer.  It  stands  as  holy  as  ever  in  the  minds  of  men ;  it  is  hal- 
lowed to  a  worship  of  which  Iktinos  and  Kallikrates  never  heard  ;  yet 
in  some  sort  it  keeps  its  ancient  name  and  use  :  the  House  of  the 
Virgin  is  the  House  of  the  Virgin  still.  The  old  altars,  the  old 
images,  are  swept  away ;  but  altars  unstained  by  blood  have  risen  in 
their  stead,  and  the  walls  of  the  cella  blaze,  like  Saint  Sophia  and 
Saint  Vital,  with  the  painted  forms  of  Hebrew  patriarchs,  Christian 
martyrs,  and  Eoman  Caesars.  It  is  a  day  of  triumph,  not  as  when 
the  walls  were  broken  down  to  welcome  a  returning  Olympic  con- 
queror ;  not  as  when  ransomed  thousands  pressed  forth  to  hail  the 
victors  of  Marathon,  or  when  their  servile  offspring  crowded  to  pay 
their  impious  homage  to  the  descending  godship  of  Demetrios.  A 
conqueror  comes  to  pay  his  worship  within  those  ancient  walls,  an 
Emperor  of  the  Romans  comes  to  give  thanks  for  the  deliverance  of 
his  empire  in  the  Church  of  Saint  Mary  of  Athens.  Roman  in  title, 
Greek  in  speech — boasting  of  his  descent  from  the  Macedonian  Alex- 
ander and  from  the  Parthian  Arsakes,  but  sprung,  in  truth,  so  men 
whispered,  from  the  same  Slavonic  stock  which  had  given  the  empire 
Justinian  and  Belisarius — fresh  from  his  victories  over  a  people 
Turanian  in  blood,  Slavonic  in  speech,  and  delighting  to  deck  their 
kings  with  the  names  of  Hebrew  prophets — Basil  the  Second,  the 
slayer  of  the  Bulgarians,  the  restorer  of  the  Byzantine  power,  paying 
his  thank-offerings  to  God  and  the  Panagia  in  the  old  heathen  temple 
of  democratic  Athens,  seems  as  if  he  had  gathered  all  the  ages  and 
nations  of  the  world  around  him,  to  teach  by  the  most  pointed  of  con- 
trasts that  the  history  of  no  age  or  nation  can  be  safely  fenced  off  from 
the  history  of  its  fellows. 

He  says  he  knows  of  no  more  noble  subject  for  a  picture  or  a 
poem. 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  II.     [Third  Series.']  c  c 


ZIZ  Methods  of  Historical  Inquire/. 

7.  The  reader  will  have  noted  that  the  first  three  of  the  philo- 
sophers to  whose  views  I  have  called  attention  lay  stress  on  the 
influence  of  thought  in  history.  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  main- 
tains that  the  world  is  governed,  not  by  ideas,  but  by  feelings.* 
The  Duke  of  Argyll,  again,  on  the  other  hand,  says  that  among 
the  most  certain  of  human  laws  is  this — that  man's  conduct  will 
be  mainly  directed  by  his  moral  and  intellectual  convictions. t 
Sir  H.  Maine  holds  that  progress  is  the  same  thing  as  the  con- 
tinued production  of  new  ideas. J  The  last-named  writer, 
treating  of  kinship,  furnishes  us  with  some  very  interesting  and 
instructive  notices,  illustrating  the  slowness  with  which  new 
ideas  come  into  play  in  different  stages  of  society. §  In  an  early 
stage  of  social  life  the  relations  between  man  and  man  were 
expressed  in  the  idea  of  kinship.  This  idea,  which  at  first 
represented  a  real  fact — community  of  descent — came  after- 
wards to  be  extended  to  new  relations,  where  men,  not  really 
akin,  were  fictitiously  regarded  as  such.  No  new  idea  came  into 
being — the  old  idea  still  served  to  express  the  new  fact.  The 
citizens  of  early  commonwealths  considered  all  the  groups  of 
which  they  were  members — the  Family,  the  House,  the  Tribe, 
the  State — to  be  based  on  common  descent.  Yet  in  each  com- 
munity there  existed  records  and  traditions  contradicting  that 
assumption.     In  the  case  of  Rome 

we  perceive  that  the  primary  group,  the  Family,  was  being  con- 
stantly adulterated  by  the  practice  of  adoption,  while  stories  seem 
to  have  been  always  current  respecting  the  exotic  extraction  of  one  of 
the  original  Tribes,  and  concerning  a  large  addition  to  the  Houses 
made  by  one  of  the  early  kings.|| 

In  Irish  history,  the  Family  was  enlarged  by  adoption  ; 
the  Sept,  or  larger  group  of  kindred,  .assigned  a  special 
place  for  strangers  admitted  to  it  on  fixed  conditions ;  and  the 
Tribe,  the  political  unit  of  ancient  Ireland,  contained  a  number 
of  members,  chiefly  persons  who  had  taken  refuge  with  it  from 
other  tribes.  The  idea  of  consanguinity  was  even  extended  in 
Ireland  to  quite  another  form  of  relationship — namely,  Guilds.^ 
The  contract  called  by  the  Romans  societas  omnium  honorwm 
(commonly  translated  "partnership  with  unlimited  liability"). 
Sir  H.  Maine  considers  to  have  taken  its  rise  in  a  development 


*  "  Of  the  Classification  of  the  Sciences,"  pp.  37,  38. 
t  "  Reign  of  Law,"  pp.  388-9. 
i  "  Early  History  of  Institutions,"  p.  226. 
§  Ihid.  pp.  225-249. 

II  '•  Ancient  Law,"  by  Sir  H.  Maine,  pp.  129-130. 

^  See  Dr.   Sullivan's  Introduction  to  O'Curry's  Lectures  (pp.  ccvi, 
et  seq.)  on  the  tribal  origin  of  guilds. 


Methods  of  Historical  Inquiry.  373 

of  the  joint  brotherhoods  of  primitive  society.     Of  the  contract 
of  Mandatum  or  Agency  he  says  : 

The  only  complete  representation  of  one  man  by  another  which 
the  Koman  law  allowed  was  the  representation  of  the  Paterfamilias  by 
the  son  or  slave  under  his  power.  The  representation  of  the  Prin- 
cipal by  the  Agent  is  much  more  incomplete,  and  it  seems  to  me  pro- 
bable that  we  have  in  it  a  shadow  of  that  thorough  coalescence  between 
two  individuals  which  was  only  possible  anciently  when  they  belonged 
to  the  same  family.  * 

Sir  H.  Maine  believes — though  here  I  must  allow  the  theo- 
logians to  take  issue  with  him — that  spiritual  relationship,  in  the 
case  of  which  intermarriage  is  prohibited  by  the  Church,  is  an 
extension  of  the  idea  of  kinship  to  a  new  sphere.  Another 
peculiar  illustration  he  considers  to  be  the  institution  of  Fos- 
terage among  the  ancient  Irish,  or  the  giving  and  taking  of 
children  for  nurture,  in  which  the  relations  of  foster-parent  and 
foster-child  tended  to  become  indistinguishable  from  those  of 
father  and  son.f  Then  there  was  in  Ireland  Literary  Fosterage, 
an  institution  consisting  of  the  relations  between  the  Brehon 
teacher  and  his  pupils,  which  the  Brehon  tracts  expressly  state 
created  the  same  patria  potestas  as  actual  paternity.  These 
instances  are  given  by  Sir  H.  Maine  to  show  that  the  generation 
of  new  ideas,  which  he  believes  to  be  the  principle  of  progress,  is 
not  so  rapid  as  is  generally  supposed,  even  in  Western  com- 
munities. 

8.  Chronology  and  geography  represent  the  elements  of  time 
and  space  in  history.  They  may  be  called  handmaids  of 
history.  Chronology  is  the  chart  of  history,  and  I  may  simply 
remark  that  a  scientific  chronology  is  of  the  highest  importance 
in  historical  study.  Of  the  truly  great  value,  perhaps  not  hitherto 
sufficiently  acknowledged  in  practice,  of  the  study  of  historical 
geography,  I  may  cite  the  instance  of  Burgundy  in  illustration.  J 
As  Mr.  Bryce  remarks,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  any  geo- 
graphical name  which  has  caused  more  confusion.  The  following 
are  the  difierent  senses  in  which  the  name  is  most  frequently 
found  : — 

I.  The  Kingdom  of  the  Burgundians  (a.d.  406-534),  occupy- 
ing the  whole  valley  of  the  Saone  and  Lower  Rhone,  from  Dijon 


*  "  Early  History  of  Institutions,"  pp.  234-5. 

t  An  entire  sub-tract  is  devoted   to  the  Law   of  Fosterage  in  the 
Senchus  Mor,  one  of  the  tracts  of  the  ancient  laws  of  Ireland. 

This  account  is  abridged  from  Bryce's  "Holy  Roman  Empire," 
Appendix,  Note  A.  See  also  Freeman's  "  Historical  Essays "  ("  The 
Franks  and  the  Gauls  "). 

c  c  2 


374  Symposium  on  Home  Rule. 

to  the  Mediterranean,  and  including  also  the  western  half  of 
Switzerland. 

II.  The  Kingdom  of  Burgundy  in  the  Merovingian  period, 
somewhat  smaller  than  I. 

III.  The  Kingdom  of  Provence  or  Burgundy,  founded  a.d.  879, 
including  Provence,  Dauphine,  the  southern  part  of  Savoy,  and 
the  country  between  the  Saone  and  the  Jura. 

IV.  The  Kingdom  of  Trans-Jurane  Burgundy,  founded  a.d. 
888,  including  the  northern  part  of  Savoy,  and  all  Switzerland 
between  the  Reuss  and  the  Jura. 

V.  The  Kingdom  of  Burgundy  or  Aries,  formed  a.d.  937  by 
the  union  of  III.  and  IV.  From  1032  it  formed  part  of  the 
Empire.  It  has  since,  bit  by  bit,  been  absorbed  by  France, 
except  the  Swiss  portion. 

VI.  The  Lesser  Duchy,  corresponding  very  nearly  with  what 
is  now  Switzerland  west  of  the  Reuss,  including  the  Valais.  It 
disappeared  from  history  in  the  thirteenth  century. 

VII.  The  Free  County  or  Palatinate  of  Burgundy,  lying 
between  the  Saone  and  the  Jura.  It  was  a  fief  of  the  Empire, 
and  afterwards  became  French. 

VIII.  The  Landgraviate  of  Burgundy,  lying  in  what  is  now 
Western  Switzerland,  on  both  sides  of  the  Aar,  between  Thun 
and  Solothurn — hardly  mentioned  after  the  thirteenth  century. 

IX.  The  Circle  of  Burgundy,  established  by  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.  in  1548,  including  VII.  and  the  seventeen  provinces 
of  the  Netherlands. 

X.  The  Duchy  of  Burgundy,  the  most  northerly  part  of  the 
old  kingdom  of  the  Burgundians,  always  a  fief  of  the  Crown  of 
France,  and  a  province  of  France  till  the  Revolution.  Of  this 
Charles  the  Bold  was  duke  ;  he  was  also  count  of  VII. 


Henry  Worsley. 


i 


Art.  VIII.— a  SYMPOSIUM    ON  HOME  RULE. 
I.  The  Claim  for  Home   Rule,   upon    General  Principles. 

ALTOGETHER  apart  from  the  world  of  polities,  there 
J\.  are  many  minds  for  whom  the  Irish  Question  has  a 
singular  interest,  on  account  of  the  social  laws  of  which  it  reveals 
the  working,  and  the  problems  which  it  presents  for  solution. 
In  so  far  as  it  casts  light  upon  the  action  and  direction  of 
social  forces,  it  has  a  scientific  value  far  above  local  or  natiouul 


The  Clami  for  Home  Rule,  upon  General  Principles.  375 

interests,  and  aflFects  our  knowledge  of  a  far  wider  area  than  of 
Ireland  or  the  British  Empire.  We  cannot  look  upon  the  Irish 
Question  merely  as  a  troublesome  incident  of  our  own  times. 
There  was  an  Irish  Question  in  1573,  in  1649,  in  1688,  in  1782, 
in  1798,  quite  as  much  as  in  1829,  in  1848,  in  1867,  in  1870, 
in  1882,  or  1886.  For  three  centuries,  at  least,  it  lies  all  along 
the  line  of  our  history.  The  very  amount  and  persistence  of  the 
friction  shows  the  depth  and  the  force  of  the  causes  at  work. 
The  issues  now  involved  are  naturally  of  an  advanced  kind.  We 
may  take  comfort  in  the  thought  that  they  are  those  which 
could  occur  only  at  an  advanced  stage  of  the  political  education 
of  nations,  and  such  as  never  could  have  arisen  except  in  the 
midst  of  liberty-loving,  liberty-giving  peoples. 

Let  us  state  the  problem.  We  have  in  the  three  kingdoms 
more  than  thirty  millions  of  people  united  under  the  same  Crown 
and  Constitution.  Of  these,  four  millions  are  disaffected.  They 
themselves  would  use  a  stronger  word,  but  we  may  say  that  they 
dislikp  the  legislative  Union;  they  dislike  their  rulers;  they 
dislike  the  system  and  method  in  which  they  are  governed.  It 
is  no  part  of  our  plan  to  discuss  whether  this  disaffection  is 
reasonable  or  unreasonable.  It  is  enough  to  point  out  the  fact 
that  it  exists.  When  we  remember  that  it  has  prevailed  in 
three-fourths  of  the  island  for  centuries,  we  are  not  likely  to  be 
soothed  into  the  belief  that  it  is  merely  the  expression  of  a 
"  minority  "  or  the  work  of  "  agitators. '^  Both  countries  can 
afford  to  agree  that  disaffection  is  an  evil.  Whatever  may  be 
the  present  or  future  of  Ireland,  it  never  can  be  her  real  interest 
that  her  relations  with  any  people,  and  least  of  all  with  England, 
should  be  other  than  those  of  co-operation  and  goodwill.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  the  might  of  England  were  greater  than  it  is, 
it  never  could  be  her  interest  to  have,  so  to  speak,  within  her 
frontiers,  four  millions  of  secret  or  avowed  enemies,  ready  to 
hail  her  "  difficulty "  as  their  "  opportunity."  Such  dis- 
affection is  rightly  regarded  as  a  weak  point  in  the  Empire,  a 
drawback  in  peace,  and,  possibly,  a  danger  in  war.  It  is  certain 
that  disaffection,  as  an  evil,  ought  to  be  removed.  It  is  equally 
certain  that  it  is  not  an  evil  which  can  be  removed  at  the  point  of 
the.  sword.  It  is  plain  that  the  root  of  the  evil  lies  in  feeling. 
Force  cannot  suppress  feeling.  It  strengthens  it.  Force  can 
only  silence  the  outward  expression  of  feeling.  If  any  lesson 
has  been  clearly  conveyed  by  Anglo-Irish  history,  it  is  that 
force  is  a  remedy  for  rebellion,  but  not  for  disaffection.  If 
England's  mission  were  nothing  higher  or  better  than  the 
maintenance  of  mere  outward  public  order,  no  one  will  doubb 
that  her  soldiers  can  always  be  relied  upon  to  secure  it.  When 
we  are  reduced  to  look  no  higher  than  mere  brute  force,  we  have 


376  Symposium  on  Home  Rule. 

Mr.  Chamberlain's  authority  for  believing  that  thirty-two 
millions  of  people  will  have  really  nothing  to  fear  in  dealing 
with  four.  But  if  the  aim  of  England  is  something  nobler — 
as  to  all  patriotic  Englishmen  we  conceive  it  must  be — if  it  is 
not  only  to  provide  for  the  peace,  but  to  promote  the  happiness 
of  all  parts  of  the  three  kingdoms,  then  the  problem  is  one  of  a 
higher  kind.  We  conceive  that  to  all  Englishmen  the  first 
article  of  the  national  creed  is,  and  ever  must  be,  the  unity  of 
the  Empire.  By  every  title  of  duty  and  patriotism  they  are 
bound  to  seek  and  secure  it  as  something  sacred,  to  hold  it  as  a 
doctrine,  and  to  cultivate  it  as  a  virtue.  But  by  the  very  force 
of  the  fact  we  are  bound  to  believe  that  they  will  not  rest 
satisfied  with  anything  less  than  unity  in  its  highest,  strongest 
and  most  perfect  attainable  form.  When  we  remember  that,  in 
the  problem  before  them,  the  factors  to  be  united  are  men  and 
races,  living  and  intelligent  forces,  progress  postulates  that  the 
unity  desiderated  be  something  stronger  and  better  than  a  dead 
physical  bond,  and  that  the  object  aimed  at  be  to  promote  a  living 
moral  union  between  them.  It  is  patriotism  therefore,  as  well  as 
progress,  to  desire  to  see  all  parts  of  the  Empire,  and  especially 
its  three  nucleal  parts,  united,  not  in  fetters  of  force  and  fear,  but 
in  the  fellowship  of  friendship  and  freedom.  The  evolution 
of  such  a  union  is  the  task  not  of  soldiers  but  of  statesmen.  But 
to  succeed,  it  must  reach  the  evil  it  seeks  to  remedy.  It  must 
aim  at  effecting  a  change,  not  merely  in  what  Irishmen  say  and 
do,  but  in  what  they  think  and  feel  towards  this  country.  It  is 
easy  to  mistake  how  much  that  means.  Men  are  wearied  of 
hearing  that  it  is  only  a  question  of  dealing  firmly  and  fairly 
with  the  Irish  people.  Conservatives  emphasize  the  "  firmly '' 
and  Liberals  dwell  upon  the  "  fairly.''  Neither  seem  to  have 
any  well-defined  conception  as  to  how  much  is  implied  by 
firmness,  or  how  much  is  included  in  fairness.  Both  are  clearly 
separated  by  more  than  the  breadth  of  a  silver  streak  from  the 
mind  of  Irishmen,  whose  main  grievance  is  not  the  kind  but  the 
extent  of  the  dealing,  and  who  desire  to  be  spared  any  dealing 
whatever,  firm  or  fair,  in  those  things  which  they  conceive  to  be 
purely  their  own  concern.  Nothing  is  more  endless  or  hopeless 
than  any  attempt  to  settle  the  question  by  mere  polemio  or 
controversy.  As  in  all  great  questions,  the  facts  are  of  too 
vast  and  varied  a  kind  to  be  completely  grasped  by  any  in- 
dividual mind,  and  each  one  will  have  his  judgment  swayed, 
and  his  sympathies  awakened,  by  the  particular  section  of  facts 
presented  to  him.  The  worst  enemies  of  truth  are  not  those 
who  distort  or  deny  facts,  but  those  who  select  them.  It 
requires  but  little  acquaintance  with  such  questions  to  find  that 
facts  are  much  like   so    many    keys,    from    which,  by  skill  of 


1 


The  Claim  for  Home  Rule,  upon  General  Principles.   377 

touch  and  selection,  almost    any    kind    of  music  can  be  made, 
and  upon  which  the  "  Rights  of  En<>land  "  or  the  "  Wrongs  of 
Ireland"  can  be  played  with  equal  pathos  and  facility.     The 
public  mind  of  the    age    may,    perhaps,    alone  be  trusted  to 
gradually  grasp  the  facts  as  a  whole,  and  on  them  to  found, 
slowly  and  surely,  its  irresistible  verdict.     For  such  reasons,  we 
take  it  that  the  question  may  be  approached  with  better  chance 
of  success — at  all  events,  with  less  danger  of  coloured  views — if 
we  consider  it  from  a  hii^her    and  wider  ground  than  that  of 
the  mere  local  issues.     We    venture    to    indicate  certain  ideas, 
which  we  conceive  to  be  at  work,  in  one  form  or  another,  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  are  actors   and  supporters  of  the  movement. 
We  do  not  judge  of  their  soundness  or  unsoundness,  but  merely 
point    them    out    as    affecting,    at   least   to    some    extent,   the 
direction  of  thought  and  action  in  the   Home  Rule  Question. 
We  briefly  review  these  ideas  in  succession. 

1.  The  Idea  of  a  "  People.^^ — The  idea  of  a  people  has  a 
peculiar  interest  and  importance,  because  to  many  it  seems  to 
contain  the  root  of  the  Irish  Question,  and  to  some  extent  the 
key  to  its  solution.  It  is  often  the  preconceived  notion  which 
we  form  to  ourselves  of  what  is  meant  by  a  ''  people "  that 
makes  us,  almost  unconsciously.  Unionists  or  Home  Rulers.  We 
may  loosely  define  a  people  as  a  mass  of  men  living  together  on 
the  same  territory,  ^y  living  together,  we  mean  that  they  inter- 
dwell  and  intermarry,  and  are  thereby  bound  together  in  a 
community  of  blood,  life,  and  interest.  Races  of  widely  different 
type  and  origin  may  undoubtedly  be  welded  into  one  people,  as 
were  the  Norman  and  Saxon  in  former  times,  and  as  are  the 
various  nationalities  of  the  United  States  population  in  our  own. 
But  in  all  cases,  two  conditions  are  plainly  required.  First,  that 
the  element  races  should  be  poured  into  the  same  territory ;  and 
secondly,  that  they  should  unite  by  intermarriage  and  be  fused 
by  intercourse  and  concourse  in  all  the  purposes  of  life.  Apart 
from  these  conditions,  and  where  peoples  are  locally  separate, 
they  remain  distinct,  even  though  they  may  be  closely  combined 
under  the  same  political  sovereignty.  History  presents  such 
examples  as  Spain  and  the  Netherlands,  Turkey  and  Greece, 
Austria  and  Lombardy.  We  have  in  our  own  days  such  instances 
as  England  and  Ireland,  Russia  and  Poland,  Austria  and  Hungary. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  the  formation  of  a  people,  descent  from  a 
single  stock  is  clearly  immaterial.  A  people  is  moulded  and 
made,  not  so  much  by  its  past  origin  as  by  its  actual  circum- 
stances. It  is  not  by  being  horn  from  a  given  race,  but  by  being 
bom  into  it,  that  we  have  the  people,  or  "  natio  "  as  we  should 
have  preferred  to  call  it.  In  conceiving  the  notion  of  a  people, 
we   have,    therefore,  to  avoid  the  two  extremes  of  needlessly 


878 


SyniposiuTii  on  Home  Rule. 


narrowing  it  into  the  idea  of  race,  or  of  thoughtlessly  broadening 
it  into  the  idea  of  State,  an  error  which  is  peculiarly  mischievous 
and  mis-leading,  because  it  involves  an  utter  confusion  of  the 
natural  with  the  political  order.  The  State  is  the  work  of  man. 
The  people  is  the  work  of  nature.  Purely  artificial  conditions, 
such  as  arise  irom  accidents  of  power,  conquest,  combination, 
may  easily  unite  men  into  one  State.  Nothing  but  the  natural 
conditions  of  blood,  life,  and  place  can  unite  them  into  one 
people.  Union  into  one  State  is  man-made,  and  can  be  brought 
about  by  human  conventions.  Union  into  one  people  is  nature- 
made,  and  can  no  more  be  effected  apart  from  the  natural 
processes,  than  trees  or  animals  could  be  made  by  an  Article  of  a 
treaty  or  an  Act  of  Parliament.  The  State  is  a  combination  of 
citizens  under  one  supreme  government.  The  people  is  a  mass 
of  individuals  who  intermarry  and  dwell  together  on  the  same 
territory.  The  two  ideas  are  as  distinct  as  the  ideas  of  life  and 
government — nature  and  politics.  England  and  Ireland  form 
one  State.  Just  as  certainly,  they  form  two  distinct  Peoples. 
If  it  be  thought  desirable  that  in  the  two  countries  there  should 
be  but  one  people,  there  is  but  one  way  of  effecting  it.  A  given 
proportion  of  Englishmen  should  be  distributed  into  all  parts  of 
Ireland  (not  planted  in  separate  districts),  and  a  corresponding 
proportion  of  Irishmen  should  be  settled  in  like  manner  in 
England,  and  in  such  a  way  that  both  elements  in  both  countries 
may  be,  as  completely  as  possible,  fused  and  intermingled.*  Such 
an  experiment  in  the  wielding  and  welding  of  peoples  would  be 
rightly  regarded  as  gigantic  and  abnormal.  But  until  it  is 
made,  the  two  peoples,  as  peoples,  are  as  plainly  and  palpably 
distinct  as  the  two  islands.  A  union  on  paper  is  not  a  union 
in  nature.  Two  peoples,  naturally  distinct,  cannot  be  bewitched 
into  one  because  we  have  passed  an  Act  of  Parliament  or  made 
their  representatives  sit  in  the  same  Chamber.  It  would  be  mere 
political  superstition  to  believe  so. 

We  take  it,  therefore,  that  the  truest  idea  of  a  people  is  that 
which  is  expressed  by  saying  that  it  is  a  natural  product  of  the 
highest  order,  and  one  which  is  formed,  fixed,  and  individualized 
by  conditions  of  natural  force  and  endurance. 


*  It  may  be  worth  while  to  observe,  that  even  then  it  may  be  fairly- 
doubted  if  the  solution  would  be  a  final  one.  The  Irish  Sea  would  still 
be  broad  enough  to  make  the  two  countries  two  distinct  centres  of  asso- 
ciation and  intermarriage,  and  in  the  lapse  of  time,  the  natural  forces  at 
work  would  irresistibly  revive  the  distinction  of  peoples.  Give  nature  a 
separate  place,  and  in  the  long  run  she  will  make  a  separate  people.  Such 
an  evolution  might  be  the  work  of  centuries,  but  it  sufficiently  indicates- 
that  solutions  like  to  the  above  are  not  upon  the  lines  of  nature,  but 
rather  opposed  to  them. 


1 


The  Claim  for  Home  Rule,  upon  General  Principles.   379 

From  the  idea  of  its  iudividualitj,  \ve  pass,  at  one  step,  to  that 
of  its  personality.  Men  cannot  live  together  in  one  people,  in 
one  place,  and  under  like  conditions,  without  becoming  insensibly- 
like  to  one  another,  and  developing  a  like  type  of  character.  They 
will  be  instinct  with  a  deep  consciousness  of,  and  deep  sympathy 
with,  that  type  as  common  to  themselves  and  distinct  from  others. 
The  personality  thus  evolved  is  concrete  and  real  with  all  the  reality 
of  nature,  for  not  only  is  it  rooted  in  the  depths  of  the  individual 
nature,  but  one  of  the  most  stupendous  forces  in  nature,  the  prin- 
ciple of  heredity,  is  ever  at  work  in  its  construction.  By  association, 
men  have  their  characters  assimilated.  By  heredity,  the  common 
type  thus  formed  is  transmitted  with  all  its  leading  features 
developed  and  intensified.  That  is  only  to  say,  in  other  words, 
that  the  disposition  of  a  man  will  resemble  that  of  his  neighbours, 
and  that  he  will  transmit  it  to  his  children  in  a  more  pronounced 
form.  Thence  we  may  say  that  in  a  people  we  have  two  prin- 
ciples of  powerful  and  penetrating  influence  ever  at  work — one 
acting  laterally  by  association,  the  other  vertically  by  heredity — 
the  one  ever  tending  to  unify,  the  other  ever  tending  to  develop 
and  intensify  the  national  character.  That  character  includes  a 
whole  complexus  of  convictions,  perceptions,  habits  of  thought 
and  life,  tastes  and  sympathies,  the  joint  outcome,  during  ages, 
of  manifold  conditions  of  race,  place,  and  history.  A  people, 
like  a  plant,  if  it  grows  at  all,  must  grow  within  the  lines  of  its  own 
type,  and  external  conditions  will  not  prevent  it  from  presenting, 
more  and  more  clearly,  the  features  of  its  own  specific  structure. 
Its  progress  can  have  but  one  direction — namely,  towards  the 
fixity  and  fulness  of  its  national  character.  It  is  undeniably 
true  that  increase  of  communication  between  the  nations,  the 
spread  of  education  and  community  of  thought,  have  tended  to 
assimilate  peoples  and  abrade  differences  of  character.  But 
where  peoples  are  locally  separate,  the  forces  of  assimilation  from 
without  are  but  feeble  compared  to  the  forces  of  development — 
heredity  and  association,  from  within.  The  rate  of  intercom- 
munication, so  to  speak,  never  equals  the  rate  of  intra-com- 
munication.  and.  peoples  tend,  by  the  law  of  their  life,  more  ta 
distinctness  than  to  sameness  of  national  character.  This  perhaps 
would  go,  in  some  measure,  to  explain  the  fact — if  it  is  a 
fact — that  after  seven  centuries  of  English  rule,  nearly  a  century 
of  legislative  union  with  England,  and  more  than  fifty  years  of 
a  system  of  distinctively  English  education,  Ireland  is  to-day 
more  Irish,  more  intelligently  conscious  of  her  nationhood,  and 
more  articulate  in  her  cry  for  national  life  and  action,  than  she 
has  been  at  any  period  since  the  days  of  her  conquest.  We  may 
at  least  conclude  that  a  people,  if  it*  exists  at  all,  exists  in  a 
personality.     That  personality  cannct  be  treated  as  a  sentimenti 


380 


Symposium  on  Home  Rule. 


or  an  abstraction.  It  is  somethinn^  as  real  as  life,  and  as  endur- 
ing as  nature.  Nor  can  it  be  got  rid  of.  It  is  rooted  in  an 
individuality  of  character  which  the  centuries  of  its  past  have 
done  nothing  but  develop,  and  which  the  centuries  of  its  future 
will  do  nothing  but  strengthen  and  expand.  In  these  countries, 
men  rightly  hold  that  political  manliness  consists  in  being  not 
only  just  but  practical,  and  in  having  both  a  genuine  fondness 
of  facts  and  the  courage  of  facing  them.  The  existence  of 
a  people,  as  a  people,  is  a  fact  of  the  first  magnitude.  The 
personality  of  a  people,  and  the  claims  attaching  to  it,  are  facts 
of  the  highest  order.  A  view  which  consents  to  ignore  or  over- 
ride such  facts,  is  of  all  views  the  one  which  has  the  least  claim 
to  be  either  promising  or  practical.  We  cannot  say  to  a  people : 
you  form  one  State  with  us,  therefore  as  a  people  you  have  ceased 
to  exist;  you  have  bepn  conquered,  therefore  you  have  no  longer 
a  personality.  A  people  is  a  natural  fact.  Its  personality  is  a 
natural  force.  State  combinations  can  neither  make  them  nor 
destroy  them.  No  policy  is  so  quixotic  as  that  which  offers 
battle  to  the  facts  and  forces  of  nature. 

2.  The  Idea  of  "  Law." — From  the  notion  of  a  people  as  a 
unit,  and  a  personality,  naturally  arises  the  idea  of  Law.  Law  is 
to  a  people  what  a  rule  of  life  is  to  an  individual.  A  people 
cannot  but  live,  act,  and  seek  its  happiness,  and  law  is  the  way, 
the  fixed  method  by  which  it  seeks  it.  The  Irish  problem  in- 
volves one  of  the  highest  questions  of  law — the  right  of  law- 
making. In  forming  to  ourselves  a  clear  conception  of  the 
nature  of  law,  much  is  to  be  gained  by  realizing  its  connection 
with  the  two  ideas — "  Happiness  "  and  "  Contract.'^ 

If  law  had  for  its  object  nothing  more  than  the  quest  of 
abstract  justice,  it  might  be  regarded  as  an  exact  science ;  laws 
good  for  one  country  would  be  equally  good  for  another,  and  we 
might  have  one  code  for  the  whole  world,  as  easily  as  we  have 
one  multiplication-table.  But  justice  is  merely  the  basis  of  law, 
and  the  deciding  and  dealing  of  it,  but  a  small  part  of  its  scope. 
In  these  days,  our  laws  give  form  to,  and  take  charge  of,  the 
whole  public  life  of  the  people.  They  frame  and  guide  all  the 
great  works  of  public  utility,  the  machinery  of  government,  the 
administration  of  justice,  the  regulation  of  trade,  of  education, 
and  relief  of  the  poor.  In  all  such  works,  the  object  of  the  law 
is  not  merely  justice,  but  goodness — that  is,  it  aims  not  only  at 
protecting  rights,  but  at  appointing  the  best  and  most  efficient 
way  in  which  such  works  can  be  carried  out.  Its  scope  has 
clearly  widened  from  the  dealing  of  justice  to  the  doing  of  good. 
Instead  of  having  before  it  the  straight  line  of  justice,  it  has 
before  it  the  wide  field  of  goodness.  There  is  only  one  way  of 
being  just,  but  there  are  countless   ways  of  doing  good.     The 


The  Claim  for  Home  Rule,  upon  General  Principles.    381 

forms  of  truth  and  justice  are  one ;  the  forms  of  goodness  are 
many.  Thus  in  drafting  a  Poor-law,  when  we  have  done  perfect 
justice  to  both  the  ratepayer  and  the  pauper,  there  still  remains 
within  the  limits  of  justice  an  endless  variety  of  ways,  all  just, 
and  all  more  or  less  efficient,  in  which  the  law  may  be  con- 
structed. Out  of  these  ways,  one  has  to  be  chosen.  "What  is  to 
determine  the  choice  ?  In  other  words,  what  consideration  is  to 
give  to  the  law  its  form  and  direction  ?  To  that  question,  we  can 
conceive  but  one  possible  answer.  The  law  will  take  that  form 
which  will  tend  most  to  the  happiness  of  the  people  for  whom 
the  law  is  intended.  Within  the  limits  of  justice,  law  cannot 
be  conceived  to  have  any  other  aim  or  object  than  the  happiness 
of  the  people.  But  from  the  moment  we  grant  that  law  has 
for  its  object  the  popular  happiness — and  the  very  notion  of  law 
.  leads  us  straight  and  irresistibly  to  it — we  cannot  escape  the 
question  of  popular  character.  As  within  the  limits  of  right 
there  are  many  ways  of  being  good,  so  there  are  many  ways  of 
being  happy,  and  the  choice  of  the  most  successful  way  is  clearly 
a  matter  of  character.  The  question  of  happiness  is  inseparable 
from  the  question  of  character.  Each  one  is  happy  in  his  own 
way.  That  which  gives  happiness  to  one,  will  not  give  happiness, 
but  the  reverse,  to  one  of  opposite  disposition  and  temperament. 
In  like  manner,  each  people — for  the  people  is  only  the  individual 
in  aggregate — finds  its  happiness  in  that  which  is  best  fitted  to  its 
own  character.  We  can  readily  imagine  the  storm  of  indignation 
and  the  cry  of  execration  which  would  be  raised  in  this  country 
if  any  Ministry  proposed  to  remove  the  British  Constitution  and 
substitute  in  its  stead  the  Code  Napoleon — or  in  France,  if  it 
were  suspected  that  the  government  of  the  day  were  conspiring 
to  abrogate  their  actual  forms  and  the  Code  Napoleon  in  favour 
of  the  British  Constitution — or  in  either  country,  if  any  attempt 
were  made  to  force  upon  it  those  systems  of  law  and  government 
to  which  Russians,  and  even  Germans,  are  said  to  be  attached. 
This  seems  to  prove  how  much  law  has  to  do  with  national 
character.  Law  is  an  expression  of  natural  right,  but  within 
the  limits  of  right  it  is  quite  as  much  the  expression  of>  and  an 
adjustment  to,  the  character  and  temperament  of  peoples. 
Thence  we  take  it,  if  law  has  for  its  object  the  popular  happiness, 
it  is  bound,  by  the  logic  of  the  fact,  to  be  to  the  liking  of  the 
people,  and  in  harmony  with  the  character  of  the  people.  It 
never  can  be  so,  unless  it  has  its  root  and  its  inspiration  in  the 
mind  and  will  of  the  people.  That  is  only  to  say  that  the  action 
of  the  people  should  proceed  from  the  will  of  the  people,  and 
the  people,  like  to  all  things  living,  should  have  its  movement 
from  within,  and  not  like  things  mechanical,  from  without. 
That  a  man  should  be  constrained  to  adopt,  in  those  things 


382  Symjposiwni  on  Home  Rule. 

which  concern  himself  alone,  a  rule  of  life  and  conduct  dictated 
by  his  neighbour,  in  opposition  to  his  own  convictions,  tastes,  and 
sympathies,  and  be  thus  forced  to  seek  happiness  according  to 
the  will  and  wont  of  another,  is  plainly  unnatural  in  the  case  of 
individuals.  It  would  seem  monstrously  unnatural  in  the  case  of 
peoples.  If  a  people  has  the  right  to  seek  its  happiness,  and  if 
its  happiness  can  only  be  in  harmony  with  its  chai'acter,  and  if 
law  is  the  method  by  which  it  seeks  it,  it  seems  difficult  to  avoid 
the  conclusion  that  law-making  is  an  inherent  right  in  the  life 
of  every  people.  No  citizen  who  respects  himself  could  consent 
to  have  his  household  affairs  regulated  by  the  State,  by  the 
municipality,  or  by  his  neighbour.  No  people  that  respects  itself 
can  consent  to  have  its  internal  life  driven  and  regulated  by  laws 
made  by  another  people.  Each  people  knows  best  what  is  for  its 
own  happiness.  It  alone  has  the  consciousness  of  its  own 
character,  its  own  genius,  its  own  wants,  its  own  ways.  If 
another  people  imagines  that  it  possesses  this  insight,  and  takes 
upon  it  to  legislate  for  the  happiness  of  another  people,  its 
perceptions  will  be  probably  the  merest  guess-work,  arid 
its  legislation  the  merest  blundering.  The  good-natured 
meddler,  who  takes  complete  charge  of  your  happiness,  and 
insists  upon  regulating  it  after  his  own  taste,  down  to  the 
minutest  detail,  forcing  you  to  be  happy  according  to  his  way, 
is,  if  not  the  most  terrible,  at  least  the  most  ludicrous  of  perse- 
cutor?. There  seems  much  to  justify  the  conviction  that  one 
people  is  naturally  incapable  of  legislating  for  the  happiness  of 
another.  If  English  laws  have  failed  to  make  Ireland  happy, 
it  may  afford  some  consolation  to  think  that  the  failure  is  due, 
not  so  much  to  any  want  of  ctrength,  or  wisdom,  or  latterly  of 
goodwill,  in  those  that  made  them,  but  to  the  fact  that  they 
worked  upon  an  unnatural  method,  and  attempted  the  impossi- 
bility of  making  one  people  happy  by  another  people's  judgment. 
That  peoples  have,  by  the  law  of  their  life,  the  right  of  law- 
making, and  that  one  people  is  by  nature  incapable  of  success- 
fully making  laws  for  another,  are  positions  which  may  be  held 
totally  apart  Irom  any  consideration  of  separation  or  distinct 
national  independence.  To  apply  the  'principles  which  underlie 
them,  we  do  not  need  to  postulate  that  England  and  Ireland 
are  distinct  States,  but  we  postulate  what  nature  has  already 
granted  (and  with  a  certain  measure  of  emphasis)  that  the 
English  and  the  Irish  are  distinct  peoples.  To  hold  that  Home 
Rule  means  disintegration  of  the  Empire  seems  to  utterly  confuse 
two  different  sets  of  rights,  one  exterior,  the  other  interior — viz., 
the  rights  which  a  community  must  admit  to  be  exercised  over 
it  from  without  by  the  State  of  which  it  forms  a  part,  and  the 
rights  which  the  community  itself  exercises  inwardly  over  its 


The  Claim  for  Home  Rule,  upon  General  Principles.    3So 

own  members.  To  grant  a  people  which  forms  a  distinct  part 
of  the  Empire  the  interior  right  of  making  its  own  laws,  no  more 
disintegrates  the  Empire  than  the  right  of  a  municipality  to 
manage  its  own  affairs  disintegrates  the  State,  or  the  right  of  a 
citizen  to  manage  his  own  household  disintegrates  the  muni- 
cipality. That  is  only  to  say  that  the  exercise  of  interior  rights 
never  weakens  or  impedes  the  exercise  of  exterior  rights,  any 
more  than  a  man  becomes  less  bound  towards  his  rulers  or  his 
employers  because  he  has  the  control  of  his  own  servants  or  of 
his  own  children.  If  four  men,  with  their  families,  land  upon  a 
desert  island,  three  would  undoubtedly  have  the  right  of  controlling 
the  fourth  in  all  things  which  concern  their  common  safety, 
convenience,  and  welfare.  But  neither  their  numbers  nor  their 
strength  would  give  them  the  right  to  deprive  him  of  the  manage- 
ment of  his  own  household,  or  to  control  him  by  their  joint  will 
in  those  things  which  concern  the  happiness  of  himself  and  his 
household  alone.  Such  an  infringement  of  personal  liberty 
would  be  tantamount  to  slavery.  Nor  would  it  be  less  so 
because  they  took  him  into  their  counsels,  and  allowed  him  a 
voice  in  their  management  of  his  affairs.  They  would  still  be  the 
majority,  and  all  that  concerned  himself  and  his  happiness  would 
still  be  at  their  mercy.  A  slave  is  not  less  a  slave  because  he  is 
*  allowed  to  have  a  voice  in  the  choosing  of  his  chains.  The 
present  age  has  definitely  condemned  slavery,  and  has  decided 
that  in  those  things  which  concern  himself  alone,  every  man 
has  an  inalienable  right  to  be  free.  For  men  let  us  substitute 
peoples,  and  the  inference  would  be  that  when  one  people  domi- 
nates over  another,  not  merely  to  keep  the  latter  within  the 
same  State,  or  in  those  things  which  affect  their  common  well- 
being  (to  all  of  which  it  may  have  a  perfect  right),  but  to  such 
an  extent  as  to  penetrate  into  the  internal  and  personal  life  of  the 
subject  people,  and  absorb  and  control  the  regulation  of  its 
domestic  government,  we  have  a  case  of  something  which  closely 
resembles  political  slavery ;  at  least  we  have  a  state  of  things 
which  would  be  plainly  and  simply  slavery  in  the  case  of  indivi- 
duals. There  is  clearly  a  sense  in  which  neither  superior  strength 
nor  fact  of  conquest  justifies  a  man  in  becoming  the  master  of 
another  man.  There  is  likewise  a  sense  in  which  no  people, 
however  strong  or  victorious,  can  have  any  right  to  dominate 
another  people.  For  these  reasons,  many  minds  are  disposed  to 
see  in  the  Home  Rule  agitation,  in  the  growing  prominence 
recently  given  to  the  idea  of  federation,  and  to  the  marked 
tendency  towards  local  government,  so  many  evidences  of  the 
social  evolution,  which  are  but  the  higher  and  grander  expansions 
of  the  great  anti-slavery  movement  and  constitutional  movement 
which  preceded  them.    That  evolution  promises  to  do  now  for  the 


384  Symposium  on  Home  Rule. 

rights  of  peoples  what  was  then  so  successfully  done  for  the  rights 
of  individuals  and  citizens,  and  by  a  deepening  sense  of  the  dignity 
of  peoples,  as  of  the  dignity  of  man,  works  out  the  liberty  of  both, 
and  proves  how  even  in  the  political  order  not  might,  nor  strife, 
nor  violence,  but  "  the  truth  shall  make  us  free." 

Another  aspect  of  law,  bearing  still  more  closely  on  the  question 
of  law-making,  is  its  relation  to  the  idea  of  ''contract/^  To 
many  minds  the  mere  mention  of  contract  in  connection  with  the 
idea  of  law  and  government,  will  import  into  the  question  an 
unwelcome  flavour  of  Rousseau  and  the  principles  of  '89.  It 
is  very  certain  that  society  did  not  begin  in  the  for.nti  of  a  contract. 
It  would  seem  to  be  far  less  certain  that  it  will  not  end  there. 
At  least,  the  relations  of  society  have  for  ages  been  undergoing 
a  gradual  evolution,  and  straightly  and  steadily  in  the  direction 
of  contract.  One  mistake,  if  not  the  chief  mistake,  of  Rousseau 
seems  to  have  been  that  he  put  the  contrdt  social  at  the  wrong 
end  of  human  history,  and  not  to  have  seen  that  systems  of 
contract  were  to  be  the  fruit  of  evolution,  and  that  therefore  it 
was  the  future,  and  not  the  past,  which  belonged  to  them.  We 
cannot  look  back  without  finding  how  the  slave  became  the  serf, 
and  the  serf  became  the  free  workman  who  contracts  for  his 
labour;. or  how  the  more  or  less  despotic  sovereign  became  the 
limited  monarch  or  temporary  president,  whose  powers  have 
taken  the  shape  of  constitutions,  which  ai'e  simply  internal 
treaties  or  the  highest  form  of  national  contract.  Contract  has 
plainly  come  to  be  the  relationship  of  the  employer  to  the  em- 
ployed, of  the  governing  to  the  governed.* 

Moreover,  the  very  idea  of  Law  seems  to  include  in  itself  the 
idea  of  Contract.  If  law  be  the  fixed  method  by  which  a  people 
seeks  its  happiness,  that  method  must  be  in  some  form  or  other 
the  outcome  of  an  agreement  amongst  its  members.  Such  an 
agreement  to  act  together  in  a  given  way  is  clearly  a  contract. 
From  the  moment  that  we  accept  law  as  having  the  nature  of 
contract,  considerable  light  is  cast  on  both  the  making  and  the 
matter  of  law.  If  we  wish  to  know  who  should  have  a  share  in 
making  a  law,  we  have  only  to  ask  ourselves,  who  should  have 
share  in  making  a  bargain  ?     Clearly  those  whose  bargain  it  is. 


*  "  Nor  is  it  difficult  to  see  what  is  the  tie  between  man  and  man 
which  replaces  by  degrees  those  forms  of  reciprocity  in  rights  and  duties 
which  have  their  origin  in  the  family.  It  is  contract.  Starting  as  from 
one  terminus  of  history,  from  a  condition  of  society,  in  which  all  the 
relations  of  persons  are  summed  up  in  the  relations  of  the  family,  we 
seem  to  have  steadily  moved  to  a  phase  of  social  order  in  which  all  these 
relations  arise  from  the  free  agreement  of  individuals.  In  Western  Europe 
the  progress  achieved  in  this  direction  has  been  considerable." — Sir  H. 
Maine's  Ancient  Law,  p.  167. 


The  Claim  for  Home  Rule,  upon  General  Principles.   385 

and  who  are  parties  to  the  contract.     In  hke  manner,  if  law  is 
contract,  it  should  be  made  by  those,  and  by  those  alone,  whose 
law  it  is  and  whose  interests  are  affected  by  the  making  and  the 
keeping  of  it.     A  law  affecting  purely  the  domestic  government 
and  interests  of  Ireland   is,  or  should   be,  simply  a  bargain  or 
contract  by  which  the  Irish  people  agree  to  act  in  a  given  way 
in   their  own  country  to    recure    their  own  happiness.      They 
naturally  ask,  why  should  Englishmen  and  Scotchmen  be  called 
in  to  help  in  the   making  of  it — not  only  to  help,  but  to  decide 
whether  it  is  to  be  made  at  all,  or,  if  made,  what  form  it  is  to 
assume  ?    At  root,  it  seems  about  as  logical  as  if  one  Manchester 
merchant  selling  cotton  to  another,  were  required  to  call  in  a 
dozen  London  merchants  to  decide  first  whether  he  is  to  sell  it 
at  all,  or,  if  so,  to  dictate  what  are  the  conditions  under  which 
the  sale  is  to  be  effected.     In  certain  phases  of  the  present  agita- 
tion in  Ireland,  the  national    movement  has  been  accused  of 
threatening  or  impeding  that  of  which  all  free  men  are  rightfully 
jealous — the  liberty  of  contract.     But  if  law  itself  is  contract, 
then  Home  Rule,  or  the  right  of  a  people  to  make  their  own  laws, 
is  the  highest  and  most  precious  form  of  the  Liberty  of  Contract. 
If  law,  looked  at  as  a  contract,  indicates  its   maker,  it  no  less 
clearly  indicates  its  matter.     The  matter  of  a  bargain  can  only 
be  what  is  the  concern  purely  of  those  who  make  it.     It  is  clear 
that  A  and  B  alone  cannot  make  a  contract  which  concerns  A, 
B  and  C.    Laws  which  affect  the  interests  of  the  three  kingdoms, 
and  imply  the  united  action  of  the  three  peoples,  are  imperial 
contracts,  and  the  three  peoples,  through  their  representatives, 
must  unite  in  making  them.     Biit  laws  which  affect  the  interests 
of  one  people,  and  involve  the  action  of  its  members  only,  are 
purely  national  contracts,  and   that  people  alone,  through  its 
representatives,  has  any  right  to  a  share  in  their  formation.    That 
is,   the  law- makers  should  be  the  law-keepers,  and  laws,  like 
contracts,  be  made  by  the  parties  concerned.     It  is  possible,  of 
course,  that  law  may  be  something  more  than  contract,  and  that 
liberty  of  contract  may  mean  something  very  much  lesa  than 
Home  Rule.     But  if  the  assimilation  of  law  to  contract  leads 
logically  to  Home  Rule,  as  to  some  it  certainly  seems  to  do,  one 
of  two    things   appear   to    be   inevitable — either    Home    Rule 
\i\\\  be  conceded,  or  law  in  the  British  Isles  will  be  arrested  in 
its  natural  evolution  and  divorced  from  the  progress  which  law 
will  continue  to  make  on  the  lines  of  contract  in  all  other  parts 
of  the  civilized  world — the  most  improbable  of  all  improbabilities. 
3.  The  Idea  op  "  Liberty.^^ — The  idea  of  liberty  is  so  insepa- 
rably bound  up  with  that  of  law,  that  the  two  must  be  given  and 
taken  together.     In  these  times,  little  is  to  be  gained  by  leaden 
denunciations  of  liberty  ;  still  less  by  carping  distrust  of  liberty; 


380  Symposium  on  Home  Rule. 

and  le.ast  of  all,  by  empty  professions  of  love  of  liberty.  No 
one  can  disguise  from  himself  the  fact  that  liberty  is  the  great 
motive  idea  of  modern  life.  It  is  useless  to  argue  from  its  abuses, 
just  as  it  would  be  useless  to  denounce  free-will  on  account  of  the 
sinfulness  which  is  due  to  it.  Men  will  never  cease  to  love 
liberty  with  all  its  abuses,  far  better  than  oppression  with  all  its 
advantages.  They  would  cease  to  be  men,  if  they  did.  At  all 
events,  the  progress  of  the  world  is  plainly  and  steadily  in  that 
<iirection,  and  the  social  world,  like  the  physical  one,  never  stops 
or  turns  back  in  its  orbit.  Those  who  have  a  distrust  of  modern 
systems  will  find  their  hands  strengthened  in  the  defence  of  law, 
in  proportion  as  they  may  deign  to  give  proof  that  they  them- 
selves have  a  genuine  love  of  liberty,  and  a  clear  conception  of 
liberty.  It  only  concerns  us  to  examine  the  idea  of  liberty  in  so 
far  as  it  may  be  a  motor  in  the  question  we  are  considering,  and 
to  define  it  as  we  conceive  it  to  exist  in  the  minds  of  many  who 
are  moved  by  it.  We  may  take  liberty  to  be,  simply,  the  right 
of  every  man  to  do  what  he  pleases,  as  long  as  he  does  not 
attack  or  inconvenience  his  neighbour.  If  he  attacks  his  neigh- 
bour, the  latter  has  the  right  of  self-defence,  and  that  right  is  a 
natural  one,  proceeding  from  God  in  the  natural  order.  This 
right  of  self-defence  existing  radically  in  the  individual,  and 
collectively  in  the  community,  and  exerted  by  duly  appointed 
rulers,  identifies  itself  with  the  civil  power,  which  thus  in  the 
natural  order  comes  from  God,  is  His  ordinance,  and  bears  His 
sanction.  As  long  as  we  leave  our  neighbour  alone,  we  are 
absolutely  free.  It  is  only  when  we  attack  him  individually  or 
in  the  community,  that  the  right  of  self-defence  comes  into  play 
against  us ;  and  by  our  "  resistance "  we  resist  God  in  the 
natural  order.  Thence  it  is  only  when  we  transgress  that  our 
neighbour  or  society  can  rightfully  use  their  power  against  us, 
and  only  evil-doers  come  within  reach  of  the  sword.  The  right 
of  self-defence  vested  in  the  prince  "  is  not  a  terror  to  the  good 
but  to  the  evil."  As  long  as  we  do  not  hurt  or  hinder  our  neigh- 
bour, we  are  as  free  as  if  we  alone  stood  upon  the  planet.  Law, 
in  fact,  is  the  obverse  side  of  liberty.  That  a  man  should  seek 
happiness,  is  "  life."  That  he  should  not  impede  his  neighbour 
from  doing  likewise,  is  "  law.^^  That  he  himself  should  not  be 
impeded,  is  "  liberty." 

The  perfection  of  our  liberty  is  that  it  knows  no  bounds  except 
our  neighbour's  right  of  self-defence,  and  that  is  less  of  a  limit 
than  a  safeguard.  Next  to  being,  as  we  are,  absolutely  free 
within  our  own  sphere  of  action,  we  can  desire  nothing  better  than 
that,  in  the  event  of  our  wandering  beyond  it,  there  should  be  a 
power  at  hand  ready  to  replace  us  within  it.  It  is,  of  course, 
obvious  that  society's  right  of  self-defence  includes  the  right  to 


The  Claim  for  Home  Rule,  ui^on  General  Principles.   387 

free  itself  from  any  impediment  in  seeking  its  happiness,  and  con- 
sequently the  right  to  claim  the  co-operation  of  all  its  members 
in  all  things  that  are  rightful  and  needful  to  the  common  weal. 

The  above  conception  of  liberty  leads  to  certain  conclusions. 
Of  these,  the  first,  though  almost  a  truism,  is  not  unfrequently 
ignored — namely,  that  majorities,  or  the  State  of  which  majorities 
express  the  will,  have  not  the  right  to  do  all  things — even  those 
things  which  are  just.  Their  omnipotence  is  a  political  super- 
stition, and  a  heresy  against  freedom.  They  have  only  the  right 
to  defend  themselves,  and  to  claim  co-operation  in  those  things 
which  are  necessary  to  the  common  good.  When  the  majority 
goes  farther  it  becomes  a  despot  all  the  more  monstrous  because 
so  many-headed  and  powerful. 

It  would  likewise  follow,  that  we  are  not  to  be  carried  away  by 
the  specious  but  superficial  saying — All  parts  of  a  community 
must  be  subject  to  the  whole.  All  parts  must  be  subject  in  those 
things  tuhich  affect  the  welfare  of  the  whole.  In  other  things, 
which  concern  purely  the  well-being  of  the  part,  that  part  alone 
Las  the  right  of  control,  and  the  community  at  large  has  no 
authority  to  justify  an  interference.  Were  it  otherwise,  an 
Englishman's  house  would  cease  to  be  his  castle,  and  there  would 
no  longer  exist  any  guarantee  for  municipal,  household,  or  even 
personal  liberty,  except  by  the  gracious  permission  of  our  neigh- 
bours as  represented  in  the  State  majority. 

We  then  come  to  the  pertinent  part  of  the  consideration.  We 
have  in  the  British  Isles,  three  peoples  and  one  Parliament.  That 
means  that  we  are  in  the  illogical  position  in  which  all  governs 
each  in  all  things.  It  is,  of  course,  undeniable  that  all  should 
govern  each  in  the  things  ivhich  concern  all.  But  it  is  neither 
justice,  nor  logic,  nor  liberty  that  all  should  govern  each  in  the 
things  that  concern  each  alone.  The  logical  formula  of  liberty 
would  be  that  all  should  govern  each  in  the  things  that  con- 
cern all,  and  that  each  should  govern  itself  in  the  things  that 
concern  each.  At  present,  each  people  has  to  deal  with  two 
masters,  besides  itself,  in  managing  affairs  which  concern  itself 
alone.  The  fact  that  England  escapes  all  inconvenience  and  gains 
all  the  ascendency  by  her  preponderance  in  Parliament — 
a  preponderance  perfectly  due  to  her  in  imperial  matters,  and 
equally  undue  in  national  matters — makes  the  system  less  in- 
expedient, but  certainly  not  less  unjust.  It  has  been  urged  that 
the  actual  arrangement,  if  not  logical — a  matter  of  small  con- 
sequence— is,  at  least,  not  inequitable.  If  the  three'peoples  were 
of  equal  strength  and  equal  representation,  there  might  be  a 
semblance  of  equity  of  all  governing  each  even  in  the  affairs  of 
each.  But  even  then  the  system  sins  against  liberty.  An  Irish 
or  Scotch  people  could  have  no  right  to  regulate  the  domestic 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  II.     [Third  Series.^  m  d 


388  Symposium  on  Home  Rule. 

government  of  England,  because  the  English  people  had  a  voice 
in  regulating  theirs.  A  man  is  not  the  less  oppressed  because 
he  has  his  turn  at  oppressing  other  people,  and  an  interference 
in  our  neighbours'  concerns  is  not  in  itself  justifiable  because 
they  are  guilty  of  interfering  in  ours.  But  if  among  the  three 
peoples  one  has  an  overwhelming  preponderance  of  votes,  all 
semblance  of  justice  disappears  as  far  as  national  affairs  are  con- 
cerned. Any  measure  sought  by  one  or  otlver  of  the  weaker 
peoples,  however  much  it  may  be  desired,  however  needful  to  its 
prosperity,  however  exclusively  its  own  concern  and  interest,  is 
at  the  mercy  of  the  will  or  caprice  of  the  larger  people.  Thence 
what  we  may  regard  as  the  sophistry  of  the  saying,  "  We  treat 
the  Irish  people  as  we  do  ourselves.'^  England  makes  her  own 
laws,  and  by  her  majority  in  Parliament  can  pass  any  measure 
she  pleases.  Ireland  or  Scotland  cannot  pass  any  law,  but  must 
accept  what  is  decided  by  the  English  people.  England  governs 
herself.  Ireland  and  Scotland,  even  in  their  own  affairs,  are 
governed  by  England,  and  cannot  move  a  step  towards  their  own 
welfare,  except  by  the  consent  of  the  English  people  in  both 
Houses.  That  is,  England  makes  her  own  laws,  while  Ireland 
and  Scotland  must  be  content  to  have  their  laws  made  in  England 
and  by  England.  To  base  a  plea  of  equity  and  sameness  of 
treatment  upon  the  sameness  of  the  laws  and  franchise  obtaining 
in  the  three  kingdoms,  would  be  clearly  an  evasion.  It  is  the 
argument  of  a  master  who  says  to  his  servant — "  I  treat  you 
precisely  as  I  do  myself,  and  here  is  the  proof.  I  do  my  own 
\i'\\\,  and  I  require  you  to  do  my  wUl — therefore  we  are  both  in 
the  same  position  and  receive  the  same  treatment.'^  The  laws  in 
Ireland  and  Scotland  are  simply  expressions  of  the  will  of  the 
English  people.  When  the  master  says — I  do  my  will,  and  in 
managing  your  own  concerns  you  will  do  your  will — when 
English  laws  are  made  by  the  English  people  in  England,  and 
Irish  laws,  which  concern  Irish  interests  alone,  are  made  by 
the  Irish  people  in  Ireland — then,  but  not  till  then,  can  we  set 
i;p  a  plea  of  equality  of  treatment. 

The  idea  of  Liberty  has  an  important  bearing  upon  the  question 
of  how  far  Home  Rule  may  satisfy  the  Irish  people,  or  whether 
it  may  lead  to  a  policy  of  separation.  One  of  the  strongest  and 
deepest  motives  in  their  agitation  is  the  sense  that  their  position 
is  contrary  to  self-respect  and  to  liberty.  They  will  not  rest  con- 
tent with  anything  less  than  freedom,  but  freedom  does  not  mean 
separation.  Liberty  does  not  require  that  a  man  shall  not  be  con- 
trolled in  his  exterior  action,  which  is  exerted  in  co-operation  with 
others.  In  that  sense,  no  one  is  free.  A  man  cannot  do  what 
he  pleases  in  a  city,  nor  a  city  in  the  State,  nor  the  State  itself 
in  the  concert  of  States.     It  is  the  controlling  of  his  interior 


The  Claim  for  Home  Rule,  upon  General  Principles.   389 

action— action  which  concerns  himself  alone — that  destroys 
liberty.  Ireland  naturally  aspires  to  freedom.  But  her  freedom 
would  be  in  no.  sense  impaired  by  her  remaining  and  acting  as 
part  of  the  three  kingdoms  of  tlie  British  Empire.  By  having 
her  exterior  co-operation  in  imperial  affairs  governed  and  guided 
hy  an  Imperial  Parliament,  she  would  not  surrender  her  freedom, 
any  more  than  a  citizen  ceases  to  be  free  when  he  obeys  the  law 
of  the  State  or  the  municipality.  Ireland  is  an  island  on  the  side 
of  Great  Britain,  just  as  Great  Britain  is  an  island  on  the  side  of 
Europe.  As  Great  Britain  can  do  nothing  in  Europe  except  by 
the  consent  of  the  European  Concert,  and  is  not  the  less  free  on 
that  account,  so  Ireland,  formingas  she  does,  geographically,  a 
part  of  the  British  Empire,  has  nothing  to  fear,  but  much  to 
hope,  for  her  liberty  or  dignity  in  acting  as  part  of  the  system 
and  having  her  co-operation  in  imperial  affairs  controlled  by  an 
Imperial  Parliament.  •  Ireland  is  dissatisfied,  not  because  she 
forms  a  part  of  the  British  Empire,  but  because  the  English 
people  make  her  laws  and  manage  her  interests  in  all  that  con- 
cerns her  own  domestic  government.  At  least,  we  merely  wish 
to  indicate  that  the  idea  of  liberty,  which  has  certainly  been  a 
powerful  factor  in  the  movement,  does  distinctly,  by  the  very 
force  of  its  meaning,  imply  Home  Rule ;  and  on  the  other  hand, 
just  as  certainly,  it  has,  within  that  meaning,  nothing  which 
postulates  separation.  If  Home  Rule  is  a  condition  of  true  free- 
dom, it  is  even  more  the  interest  of  Great  Britain  to  concede  it, 
than  of  Ireland  to  possess  it.  Nations  grow  stronger,  not  weaker, 
by  the  imparting  of  liberty.  In  last  analysis,  all  life  finds  its 
happiness  in  law,  and  its  fulness  in  liberty.  Peoples,  the  highest 
of  all  living  things,  seek  both  as  the  breath  of  their  existence, 
and  progress  and  prosper  in  proportion  as  they  draw  nearer  in 
likeness  to  that  higher  order  in  which  the  trinity  of  life  and  law 
and  liberty  are  one  and  indivisible. 

4.  The  Idea  of  "  Loyalty." — The  good  understanding  now 
more  than  ever  to  be  desired  between  England  and  Ireland  has 
not  been  improved  by  the  resentment  which  Englishmen  naturally 
feel  against  Irish  disloyalty,  and  the  resentment  which  Irishmen 
feel  in  being  asked  for  a  loyalty,  which  to  them  would  be,  not  a 
duty,  but  a  degradation.  We  conceive  that  much  of  the  mis- 
understanding is  due  to  the  double  sense  in  which  the  word 
loyalty  can  and  ought  to  be  accepted.  No  one  will  question 
that  loyalty  is  one  of  the  most  sacred  of  duties,  and  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  and  reasonable  of  virtues.  Next  to  Religion,  by 
which  mind  and  heart  are  kept  lifted  up  in  lasting  and  loving 
allegiance  to  God,  we  can  conceive  nothing  more  beautiful  than 
loyalty,  by  which  they  are  turned  to  that  authority  by  which,  in 
.  Church  or  State,  God  is   represented.     We  mean  therefore  by 

D  D   2 


bCO  Symposium,  on  Home  Rule. 

loyalty,  the  reverence,  the  love,  the  service  which  we  {jive  to  a 
duly  constituted  authority.     As  far  as  the  civil  power  is  con- 
cerned, it  needs  but  little  analysis  to  find  that  it  consists  of  two 
distinct  and  separable  elements.     The  first  is  a  judgment  of  pur 
reason  by  which  we  recognize  the  necessity  of  public  order,  and 
a  power  to  maintain  it,  and  the  duty  of  rendering  obedience  to 
its  laws.     To  this  dictate  of  reason.  Faith  lends  a  still  higher 
and  holier   sanction.     The  second  is  an  afiPectioh  of  the  heart, 
^oy  which    we   love   the   constituted   authority,    wish  with  en- 
thusiasm its  permanence   and  pi'osperity,    and  find  our  happi- 
ness in  supporting    and   defending   it.      The   first   element  is 
essential.      The   second   is    accidental,   and   is    not   logically   a 
State  feeling,   but   a    people    or   race    feeling.      We   recognize 
and   obey   the    civil    power    because    we  are  reasonable   men ; 
but   Ave   love   it    because   it   is   ours,    and    we   see   in    it    the 
impersonation  of  our  people,  our  own  race,   with  whom  we  are 
united  by  every  tie  of  blood  and  interest.     Loyalty,  so  considered, 
is  simply  the  family  affection  of  the  nation  turned  towards  its 
natural  head,  in  whom   the  national  self  is  represented.     The 
first  element  is  loyalty  as  a  "  duty,"     The  second  is  loyalty  as  a 
"  feeling."     Loyalty  as  a  duty  may  be  expected  from  all  members 
of  the  same  State.    Loyalty  as  a  feeling  can  be  expected  only  from 
members  of  the  same  people  in  whom  the  civil  authority  is  vested. 
Thence  it  is  mere  confusion  of  thought  to  suppose  that  the  same 
conditions  govern  the  loyalty  of  a  dominant    as  of  a  subject 
people.     Love,  and  all  that  springs   from  love,  wish  for  perma- 
nence, enthusiasm  of  service,  may  be  naturally  expected  of  the 
one — a  people  can  hardly  help  loving  itself;  it  can  hardly  be 
hoped    for  in  the  other,  any  more  than  a  man  expects    filial 
tenderness  from  his  butler   or  his  junior  partner  in  business. 
An  Englishman,  an  Austrian,  a  Russian,  a  Turk,  who  does  not 
wish  well  to  the  British,  the  Austrian,  the  Russian,  or  Ottoman 
Empire,_is  rightly  regarded  as  a  traitor,  and  his  want  of  affection 
for  his  people,  unnatural  and  contemptible.     But  when  we  come 
to  peoples  distinct  from  the  above  races,  but  subject  to  them,  we 
are   obliged   to  modify,  and  in  some   measure  to  reverse,  our 
judgment   of  disloyalty.     What    would  be  the  candid    opinion 
formed  by  the  average  Englishman,  of  a  Pole  who  did  not  ^vish 
for  the  freedom  of  Poland,  or,  in  other  days,  of  a  Venetian  who 
did  not  desire  the  freedom  of  Lombardy,  or  of  a  Greek  who  was 
opposed  to  the  emancipation  of  Greece  ?     W^hat  would   he  say, 
for  instance,  of  a  crowd   in  the  streets  of  "Warsaw  cheering  the 
Russian    military    governor,    a   crowd   in   a    piazza  of  Venice 
cheering  an  Austrian  Archduke,  or  a  crowd  in   the  streets  of 
Athens  strewing  flowers  in  the  path  of  k  Turkish  Pacha.     Slaves 
or  hypocrites  ! — slaves,  if  they  meant  it ;  hypocrites,  if  they  did 


The  Claim  for  Home  Rule,  upon  General  Principles.    391 

not.  What,  then,  is  the  loyalty  clue  by  peoples  that  are  subject 
to  or  distinct  from  the  people  with  whom  they  form  one  State  ? 
It  is  a  question  of  duty  and  morality,  and  we  turn  for  guidance 
to  the  Church.  We  gather  her  teachings,  not  from  passages  in 
Encyclicals  in  which  the  Holy  Father  has  mainly  before  his 
mind  the  duties  of  the  subjects  in  general  towards  their  rulers, 
and  therefore,  for  the  most  part,  countries  which  are  governed 
by  their  own  peoples,  but  from  the  ordinary  and  practical  rules 
of  theology  which  tlie  Church  has  never  ceased  to  apply,  and 
which  no  confessor  would  dare  to  fail  in  applying,  in  guiding  the 
action  of  subject  peoples.  Let  us  put  the  case  in  the  concrete, 
and  suppose  a  contingency  very  hateful  and  very  improbable — 
that  the  Armada  had  been  victorious,  that  Spain  had  conquered 
this  country,  and  ruled  it  by  a  Spanish  Viceroy  in  London,  to 
the  sorrow,  discontent,  and  disgust  of  the  masses  of  the  English 
people.  An  English  Catholic,  in  these  circumstances,  asks  of  the 
Church,  or  of  his  confessor,  what  is  his  duty  as  far  as  loyalty  to  the 
Spanish  Crown  and  Government  is  concerned?  Is  he  bound  to 
recognize  it  ?  Yes,  as  the  government  for  the  time  established. 
Is  he  bound  to  respect  it?  Yes;  at  least  to  the  extent  of  obey- 
ing its  laws.  Is  he  bound  to  be  subject  to  it  ?  Yes ;  as  far  as 
not  to  disturb  public  order.  Is  he  bound  to  love  it,  and  to 
approve  of  its  domination  ?  No.  Is  he  bound  to  wish  for  its 
continuance?  No.  Is  he  wrong  if  he  declines  to  use  prayers 
which  express  that  wish  ?  No.  Is  he  bound  to  join  in  outward 
professions  or  demonstrations  which  go  to  express  enthusiasm 
lor,  or  approval  of,  the  Spanish  rule  ?  No.  May  he  hope  and 
pray  for  the  country  to  be  delivered  from  it  ?  Yes.  May  he 
join  a  secret  society  for  the  purpose  of  effecting  its  overthrow  ? 
No.  May  he  take  practical  steps  to  bring  about  its  overthrow  ? 
No ;  unless  there  are  good  grounds  and  reasonable  hopes  of  success 
in  so  doing.  In  a  word,  his  duty  of  loyalty  as  defined  by  the 
Church  consists  in  simply  not  "  resisting  "  the  power  which  is 
the  guarantee  of  public  order — the  "  powers  that  are,"  This 
teaching  of  the  Church  is  the  outcome  of  the  Apostolic  monition, 
and  is  what  we  should  expect  from  her,  a  combination  of  the 
spirit  of  reasonableness,  peacefulness,  and  liberty.  We  wonder 
if  the  given  case  in  point,  any  non-Catholic  religion  would  pre- 
scribe for  Englishmen  any  other  morality  than  that  of  which  we 
have  attempted  to  outline.  -The  Church  requires  this  measure  of 
respect  and  obedience  to  constituted  authority.  But  to  love  it, 
to  applaud  it,  to  pray  for  it,  and  wish  for  its  continuance,  are 
free  gifts  of  the  heart,  and  lie  clearly  outside  the  duty  of  loyalty. 
The  Church  requires  that  there  shall  be  a  civil  authority,  and 
that  its  laws  shall  not  be  resisted  as  long  as  it  lasts.  She 
recognizes,  but  she  has  no  mission  to  perpetuate,  the  domination 


392  Symposiuvi  on  Home  Rule. 

of  any  people.  In  her  ritual,  there  is  no  form  for  the  blessing- 
of  chains.  To  hold  that  loyalty  is  z  duty,  and  that  subject 
peoples  must  submit  to  the  rule  of  the  State  to  which  they  are 
subject,  is  a  position  which  no  one  will  call  in  question.  But  to 
go  further,  and  in  the  sacred  name  of  the  Church,  to  require  that 
the  subject  people  must  not  only  accept  the  domination  of 
another  people,  but  evince  a  loyalty  which  means  that  thpy  love 
it,  approve  of  it,  wish  and  pray  for  its  continuance,  is  neither 
theology,  nor  morality,  nor  Christianity,  but  a  rather  hateful 
combination  of  servility  and  superstition. 

What,  then,  has  England  to  expect  of  Ireland  in  the  matter 
of  loyalty  ?  One  half  of  Ulster  is  of  the  same  race  and  religion 
as  the  British  people.  From  them,  England  may  justly  expect 
loyalty,  not  only  as  a  duty,  but  as  a  race  feeling.  They  are  one 
race  with  her,  and  they  would  be  less  than  human  if  they  did 
not  give  to  her  the  loyalty  of  affection.  The  fact  that  it  is  also 
their  interest'  to  do  so,  need  not  be  supposed  to  diminish  the 
intensity  or  the  merit  of  it.  From  Celtic  Ireland,  the  Irish 
people — three  provinces  and  the  half  of  the  fourth — she  may 
always  expect  loyalty  as  a  duty — viz.,  non-resistance  to  public 
order,  and  loyal  co-operation  and  goodwill  in  working  for  all 
objects  which  have  in  view  the  common  good  of  both  countries. 
Less  could  hardly  be  claimed,  and  more  will  hardly  be  granted. 

In  attempting  to  approach  the  question  apart  from  mere  politics^ 
and  consider  only  what  affects  the  rationale  of  the  movement, 
the  four  ideas  of  "  People,^'  "  Law,"  *•  Liberty,"  and  "  Loyalty"' 
have  been  selected,  because  they  seemed  to  bound  the  position 
which  the  ai'gument  of  Home  Rule  may  be  supposed  to  occupy. 
The  idea  of  '"  People  "  teaches  us  that  Ireland  is  a  distinct  poli- 
tical unit  in  the  Empire,  with  wants  and  ways  of  her  own,  and  as 
such  has  a  natural  claim  to  distinct  political  treatment.  The  idea 
of  "  Law^^  teaches  us  that  that  treatment,  however  just  and  fair,, 
is  useless  and  unmeaning,  unless  it  proceeds  from  herself,  and  is 
the  outcome  of  her  own  will  and  character.  The  idea  of  "Liberty" 
teaches  us  that  her  claim  to  self-treatment  is  on  the  one  hand  a 
postulate  of  ordinary  freedom,  but  on  the  other  is  logically  dis- 
distinct  from  any  claim  to  exterior  independence  or  separation. 
Finally,  the  idea  of  "  Loyalty  "  teaches  us  what  is  the  spirit  and 
temper  which  may  be  reasonably  presumed  to  preside  over  the 
relations  between  the  two  countries;  how  much  may  not  be  justly 
withheld  upon  the  one  side,  how  much  may  not  be  rightfully 
expected  on  the  other. 

The  fear  that  Home  Rule  must  lead  to  disintegration  or  im- 
pair the  unity  of  tiie  Empire  seems  based,  first,  upon  a  narrow  or 
superficial  conception  of  unity ;  and  secondly,  upon  a  not  very 
high  conception  of  the  Empire.     The  Empire  is  not  a  dead' 


Tlie  Claim  for  Home  Rule,  upon  General  Principles.   393 

physical  mass,  that  becomes  united  the  more  its  elements  are 
kneaded  and  pressed  together.  It  is  a  combination  of  living  and 
intelligent  forces  Working  together  in  mighty  and  magnificent 
organization.  It  presents  therefore  the  character  of  a  living 
mechanism.  But  in  a  mechanism  unity  does  not  consist  in 
mere  closeness  of  contact,  but  in  the  accurate  and  admirable 
adjustment  of  parts.  Parts  of  a  machine  may  be  too  close 
or  clogged  to  work  well  together,  and  there  is  a  degree  of  union 
which  is  fatal  to  unity.  It  is,  at  least,  worth  while  to  consider 
how  far  Home  Hule  may  be,  not  the  disintegration,  but  the 
disentanglement  of  the  mechanism  of  Empire.  If  three  partners 
in  a  mercantile  firm,  zealous  for  the  consolidation  of  their  partner- 
ship, agree  to  live  in  the  same  house,  and  by  a  common  council 
regulate  the  details  of  their  respective  households,  the  purchase 
of  food  and  furniture,  the  education  of  their  sons  and  the  dressing 
of  their  daughters,  it  might  be  fairly  doubted  whether  the 
arrangement  would  for  long  contribute  much  to  their  peace  and 
happiness,  especially  if  one  of  the  three  were  dominant  and 
disposed  all  according  to  his  own  taste  and  judgment.  We 
venture  to  think  that  upon  the  day  when  this  artificial  union 
would  be  broken  up,  and  each  returned  to  the  peaceful  freedom 
of  his  own  establishment — (to  home  rule) — immeasurably  more 
would  be  done  for  the  unity  and  strength  of  the  mercantile  firm 
than  upon  the  day  when  the  ill-advised  arrangement  was  first 
entered  into.  There  are  plainly  cases  in  which  a  little  less  union 
means  a  great  deal  more  unity.  It  is  allowable,  therefore,  to  see 
in  Home  Rule  a  measure,  not  of  disintegi'ation,  but  of  wise 
devolution,  by  which  each  country  is  freed  from  unnecessary 
charge,  control,  interference  in  the  domestic  affairs  of  the  other  ; 
by  which  all  the  intelligence,  industry,  and  patriotism  in  each 
country  is  turned  full  on,  with  undistracted  energy,  to  the 
development  of  its  own  resources  and  ihe  v/orking  out  of  its  own 
destinies ;  by  which,  in  a  word,  all  parts  and  powers  of  the 
Empire  are  set  forth  to  function  with  a  minimum  of  friction 
and  a  maximum  of  force  and  freedom.  The  strength  of  the 
movement  will  lie  in  the  ideas  of  which  it  is  made  up.  These 
motive  ideas,  working  deftly  and  swiftly  in  the  minds  of  men 
and  winning  their  way  into  the  conscience,  are  the  real  agitators. 
They  are  not  of  a  kind  that  can  be  put  into  Kilmainham.  If 
they  are  those  of  justice  and  truth  the  future  belongs  to  them. 
Thepower  of  Great  Britain  is  no  argument  against  them,  any  more 
than  the  100-ton  gun  would  be  an  argument  against  a  proposition 
in  geometry.  The  American  people  were  immeasurably  stronger 
and  more  numerous  than  the  negro  population.  Yet  there  were 
at  work  in  behalf  of  the  latter,  ideas  which  were  stronger  than 
the  American  people,  and  which  finally  broke  the  bonds  of  the 


394  Symposium  on  Home  Rule. 

negro  with  the  very  hands  of  his  white  brethren.  If  like  ideas 
give  Home  Rule  a  place  in  the  programme  of  modern  progress 
nothing  will  resist  its  comings  and  the  happiest  part  of  its 
triumph  will  be  that  it  will  come  as  willing  work  and  gift  of  the 
conscience  and  strength  of  the  British  people.  History  will  see 
in  itj  not  the  fruit  of  strife,  or  of  race-hatred,  or  of  deeds  of 
violence,  but  rather  one  of  the  peaceful  victories  of  light  which 
mark  the  steps  of  the  progress  of  great  peoples,  and  which  unite 
in  the  same  glory  both  the  victors  and  the  vanquished.  Great 
Britain  is,  happily,  powerful ;  but  there  is  a  power  from  which 
she  cannot  escape — from  which  she  herself  would,  least  of  all, 
seek  an  escape — the  power  which  ideas  of  right  and  freedom 
exert  more  and  more  over  the  mind  and  conscience  of  peoples. 
When  we  believe  that  to  that  kind  of  pressure.  Englishmen 
are  likely  to  yield  the  most  readily  and  completely,  we  feel 
that  we  pay  the  highest  tribute  to  the  temper  of  the  English 
mind  and  the  fibre  of  English  character. 

■J.   MOYES. 


II.  The  Phobable  Consequences  of  Home  Eule. 

1.  Hor)ie  Rule.     A  reprint  from  the  Times  of  recent  Articles 

and  Letters.    The  Times  Office.     ]  886. 
3.  Ireland.    A  Book  of  Light  on  the  Irish  Problem,  contributed 

in  union  by  a  number  of  leading  Irishmen  and  Englishmen. 

Edited  by  Andrew  Reid.     London  :  Longmans,  Green  & 

Co.     1886. 

A  RUDE  shock  was  inflicted  upon  the  minds  of  the  public  when, 
towards  the  close  of  last  year,  it  was  announced  one  morning 
that  Mr.  Gladstone  was  prepared  to  treat  with  Mr.  Parnell  on 
the  subject  of  Home  Rule.  The  results  of  the  general  election 
had  then  become  known,  and  it  was  clear  that,  if  the  Liberals 
meant  to  enjoy  the  sweets  of  office,  they  must  make  terms  with  the 
compact  and  determined  body  of  men  whom  Mr.  Parnell  had 
obtained  from  "  the  free  and  independent  electors "  of  Ireland. 
Had  the  country  given  Mr.  Gladstone  a  clear  majority  over 
Conservatives  and  Parnellites  together.  Home  Rule  would  not 
have  found  a  place  in  the  programme  of  the  Liberal  party,  or 
exercised  the  constructive  ability  of  its  leader's  brain.  But  the 
majority  was  not  sufficient  to  crush  the  national  aspirations  of 
Mr.  Parnell  and  his  followers ;  and,  accordingly,  Mr.  Gladstone 
found  a  "  mission  " — a  mission  from  heaven  to  adjust  the  affairs 
of  Ireland,  which  somehow  was  intermixed  with  a  mission  to  sit 
on  the  right  hand  of  the  Speaker  and  continue  his  beneficent 
career  as  a  parliamentary  autocrat. 


The  Consequences  of  Home  Rule.  395 

Never  in  the  history  of  English  political  life  has  any  great 
leader  of  party,  with  such  cynical  indifference  to  the  judgment  of 
posterity,  with  such  total  disregard  of  his  own  repeated  and 
emphatic  assurances,  ventured  to  reverse  his  policy  in  order  to 
secure  a  short-lived  tenure  of  office.  We  live  in  an  age  when 
political  morality  is  enforced  upon  mere  electors  by  line  and 
imprisonment,  but  sin  in  high  places  goes  unpunished,  and  the 
bribery  of  place  and  power  is  pernaitted  to  dispose  of  the  destinies 
of  a  nation. 

In  one  form  or  another  the  discontent  of  Ireland  with  the 
"  Saxon  yoke '"'  has  for  half  a  century  been  before  the  English 
public ;  and,  whether  the  demand  was  for  Repeal  or  Home  Rule, 
it  was  always  regarded  by  statesmen  on  both  sides  of  the  House, 
and  by  Mr.  Gladstone  himself  among  the  number,  as  lying 
beyond  the  range  of  discussion.*  For  Mr.  Gladstone  in  his  con- 
verted frame  of  mind  has  been  reserved  the  privilege  of  fuKilling 
his  mission  by  proposing,  if  not  effecting,  the  disintegration 
of  the  empire.  He  has  not,  indeed,  as  yet  formulated  his  scheme, 
but  there  is  abundant  evidence  to  prove  that  some  measure  of 
Home  Rule  is  contemplated  or  promised  by  him ;  and,  as  we 
shall  endeavour  to  show  in  the  following  pages,  any  concession 
at  the  present  time  must  involve  one  or  both  of  the  countries  in 
irremediable  disaster.  Though  we  are  still  in  the  dark  as  to  the 
nature  and  extent  of  the  innovations  which  Mr.  Gladstone  in- 
tends to  propose,  it  is  clear  that  whatever  measure  of  Home  Rule 
he  may  think  fit  to  introduce' will  come  to  us  discredited  by  the 
circumstances  of  its  origin.  To  the  narrow  motives  of  party 
expediency,  and  not  to  any  far-seeing  political  foresight,  must  be 
ascribed  the  flagitious  compact  between  the  Liberal  party  and 
the  disaffected  Irish  members.  On  one  side  there  is  the  desire 
to  secure  at  any  price  a  uKijority  in  the  House  of  Commons,  on 
the  other  an  unconcealed  hatred  of  the  English  connection. 
What  can  be  expected  from  a  treaty  between  parties  actuated  by 
such  motives?  Not  a  measure  in  which  the  best  interests  of 
either  England  or  Ireland  will  be  carefully  considered,  and  cer- 
tainly not  one  in  which  the  rights  of  the  loyalists  in  Ireland  will 
meet  with  sufficient  recognition. 

In  the  establishment  of  an  emancipated  Ireland  there  are 
of  course  indefinite  possibilities  as  to  the  form  of  the  new 
constitution,  ranging  from  complete  and  absolute  independence 
to  a  moderate  measure  of  local  government.  We,  for  our- 
selves, regarding  the  policy  of  surrender  as  a  fatal  mistake,  do 


*  In  the  Mai'ch  number    of   Blackwood  some  of  the  utterances  of 
Liberal  statesmen  on  this  subject  are  judiciously  selected. 


396  SymposiuTn  on  Home  Rule. 

not  attach  very  much  importance  to  the  precise  amount  of 
concession  now  to  be  granted,  for  if  the  demands  of  the 
Nationalists  are  not  satisfied  in  full,  a  new  campaign  of  bluster 
and  violence  will  ultimately  secure  to  them  the  victory  which 
they  desire. 

No  one,  of  course,  has  ever  defined  "  Home  Rule/'  All 
the  complicated  details  of  government  cannot  be  crystallized 
into  a  definition.  The  meaning  of  the  words — if  they  ever  come 
to  have  any — will  have  to  be  collected  by  painful  study  of  the 
Act  of  Parliament,  treaty  of  peace,  or  other  document  whick 
declares  the  outlines  of  the  new  constitution ;  but  we  may  do 
something  towards  elucidating  their  possible  meaning,  if  we 
indicate  roughly  some  of  the  types  to  which  New  Ireland  may 
approximate. 

We  start  with  the  assumption  that,  for  the  present  at  least,, 
some  connection  is  to  be  maintained  between  the  countries  ;  that 
Ireland  is  not  to  be  set  up  in  life  as  an  European  power,  with  a 
green  flag  and  an  empty  exchequer.  Little  as  she  likes  it,  she 
must  continue  under  the  sovereign  authority  of  the  Crown  of 
Great  Britain,  and  bear  the  humiliation  as  best  she  can.  And 
the  very  fact  that  it  is  a  humiliation  is  what  makes  every 
scheme  of  Home  Rule  so  utterly  hopeless.  Nothing  will  ever 
satisfy  the  aspirations  of  Irish  agitators  so  long  as  England 
possesses  even  the  shadow  of  authority  ^vithin  the  ambit  of  their 
coast-line.  Mr.  Parnell  makes  this  perfectly  clear  when  he  says, 
"  No  man  has  the  right  to  fix  the  boundary  to  the  march  of  a 
nation,  no  man  has  a  right  to  "say  to  his  country,  '  Thus  far 
shalt  thou  go,  and  no  farther,'  and  we  have  never  attempted  to- 
fix  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  Ireland's  nationhood,  and  we  never 
shall.'' 

Whatever  grandeur  the  remote  future  may  have  in  store  for 
Ireland's  "  Nationhood,"  we  may  dismiss  for  the  present  the 
notion  of  her  separate  existence,  inasmuch  as  she  has  neither 
mone}'  nor  credit,  nor  the  means  of  acquiring  them.  Complete- 
independence  being  out  of  the  question,  the  loosest  bond  of  con- 
nection is  that  which  consists  in  a  common  Sovereign,  and 
nothing  more.  Two  countries  thus  united  are  only  an  offensive 
and  defensive  confederacy,  their  legislative  and  executive 
machinery  being  enJLirely  disconnected.  Sweden  and  Norway,. 
England  and  Hanover  in  former  times,  and  England  and  Scot- 
land before  the  Union,  furnish  examples  of  this  shadowy  con- 
nection. The  difficulties,  however,  which  oppose  the  creation  o€ 
an  independent  Ireland  are  not  got  rid  of  or  diminished  by 
simply  maintaining  a  common  sovereign  authority,  for  the 
financial  resources  of  the  country  would  not  be  thereby  in  any  ■ 
way  increased.     Repeal  of  the  Union,  or  the  establishment  of  a 


The  Consequences  of  Home  Rule.  397 

local  Parliament  with  unlimited  legislative  functions,  is  unwork- 
able without  the  separation  of  the  Treasuries ;  and  here  again  we 
are  met  by  the  unfortunate  complication  of  Ireland's  bankruptcy. 
The  scheme  which  will  probably  find  favour  in  the  eyes  of 
Ministers  is  that  which  includes  the  grant  of  parliamentary 
institutions,  coupled  with  so-called  guarantees  that  the  Irish 
Legislature  is  not  to  meddle  with  Imperial  affairs.  There 
remains  only,  as  the  minimum  of  "  remedial  legislation/''  the 
establishment  of  some  limited  form  of  local  government,  like  that 
which  prevails  in  London  and  other  large  towns.  But  to  this 
proposal  we  need  not  devote  any  attention,  because  it  certainly 
would  not  be  accepted  by  Mr.  Parnell,  and  his  approval  is  the 
touchstone  to  which  English  Ministers  must  now  submit  their 
measures. 

Home  ■  Rule  may  be  regarded  for  the  present  purpose  as 
equivalent  to  the  establishment  of  a  legislative  body  in  Ireland, 
controlled  by  certain  limitations  and  restrictions  to  be  settled 
diplomatically  between  the  high  contracting  parties.  It  is  in 
this  sense  that  we  shall  use  the  words  "  Home  Rule  "  in  the 
following  observations,  which  will  be  directed  mainly  to  exposing 
the  dangers  and  difficulties  of  such  a  scheme.  Before  passing  to 
that  subject,  however,  it  may  be  well  to  recall  to  mind  that 
Home  Rule,  as  now  demanded,  differs  essentially  from  Repeal  of 
the  Union  and  the  re-establishment  of  Grattan's  Parliament. 
The  latter  is  no  longer  within  the  bounds  of  possibility.  We 
cannot  undo  the  past,  and,  by  simply  abrogating  a  single 
statute,  recall  to  life  and  working  order  a  system  which  has  lain 
dead  for  nearly  a  century.  What  resemblance  can  be  traced 
between  the  political  conditions  of  Ireland  at  the  present  day  and 
at  the  time  of  the  Union  ?  The  position  of  parties  is  exactly 
reversed,  and  we  cannot  fail  to  perceive  that  any  Chamber  now 
elected  by  popular  suffrage  would  differ  widely  from  that  Irish 
Parliament,  composed  exclusively  of  Protestants  and  Orangemen, 
which  secured  its  legislative  independence  a  hundred  years  ago. 

One  of  the  gravest  objections  to  the  grant  of  Home  Rule  is, 
that  the  demand  for  it  springs  from  a  section  of  the  community 
avowedly  hostile  to  the  British  connection,  who  profess  the  most 
ardent  Nationalist  principles,  and  ;vho  can  rest  satisfied  with 
nothing  short  of  complete  independence.  Now,  it  is  grossly 
inaccurate  to  speak  of  Ireland  as  a  nation.  That  term  implies 
unity  of  race,  and  there  is  no  country  where  the  diversity  of  races 
is  so  fatally  coincident  with  diversity  of  religion  and  social  status. 
There  are  within  the  country  two  nations  whose  numbers  are, 
roughly  speaking,  in  the  proportions  of  three  to  one.  The 
minority  are  loyal  to  the  British  Crown,  Protestants  in  religion, 
and  were,  for  the  most  part,  landowners;  the  majority,  on  the 


398  Symposium  on  Home  Ride. 

contrary,  are  rebels  in  heart,  Catholics  in  profession,  and  were,  imtil 
lately,  the  tenants  of  the  Protestant  minority.  This  last  relation- 
ship has,  as  all  the  world  knows,  been  placed  on  a  new  foundation 
by  the  exceptional  legislation  of  recent  years.  If  English  states- 
men and  politicians  would  only  realize  the  fact  that  in  Ireland 
there  are  two  parties,  or  rather  two  nations,  and  not  merely  that 
one  represented  by  the  self-styled  Nationalists,  ready,  on  the 
removal  of  English  restraints,  to  fall  upon  each  other  with  the 
accumulated  rancour  of  centuries,  they  might  postpone  Home 
Rule  until  there  was  some  prospect  of  a  peaceful  issue.  A  war 
of  religion,  of  race,  of  agrarian  ferocity,  is  certainly  a  calamity 
the  mere  possibility  of  which  should  make  men  pause ;  and  it 
must  not  be  supposed  that  the  chances  of  success  are  at  all  repre- 
sented by  the  numerical  strength  of  the  two  parties.  The  supe- 
riority of  numbers  on  the  part  of  the  Catholics  scarcely  does  more 
than  counterbalance  the  advantages  possessed  by  the  Ulster 
Orangemen  in  resolute  courage  and  capacity  for  discipline;  and 
if  the  combatants  were  allowed  to  fight  it  out  the  victory  might 
for  some  time  be  in  suspense.  In  all  probability,  however,  troops 
of  American  Irish  would;  with  the  connivance  of  the  United 
States,  be  thrown  into  the  country  to  help  the  peasantry  of  the 
South  and  West ;  and  with  their  assistance  the  Orange  popula- 
tion might  eventually  be  exterminated.  The  future  of  the  country 
maybe  left  to  the  imaginations  of  those  who  are  acquainted  with 
that  interesting  ethnological  development — an  American  Irish- 
man. It  is  utterly  futile  to  bring  forward  examples  of  Home 
Rule  in  foreign  countries  as  precedents  for  Ireland.  In  none  of 
them  do  we  find  the  dependent  country  torn  asunder  by  the 
animosities  of  conflicting  races.  r>r.  F.  L.  Weinmann,  in  the 
little  work  which  stands  at  the  head  of  this  article,  has  given  a 
sketch  of  the  dual  system  of  government  in  Hungary  and  Austria, 
but  he  is  compelled  to  admit  that,  "  Although  there  are  certain 
points  of  similarity  in  the  relative  positions  of  Hungary  towards 
Austria  and  Ireland  towards  Great  Britain,  yet  in  many  other  and 
very  important  respects  there  is  as  wide  a  difference  between  the 
two  countries  as  possibly  can  be."  Another  essayist,  in  the  same 
volume,  expresses  the  opinion  that  something  closely  analogous 
to  the  constitution  of  the  American  States  should  be  conferred 
on  the  Irish  people.  "  The  nearest  analogue,"  he  says,  "  to  the 
reform  of  Irish  abuses,  and  the  development  of  political  and 
social  responsibility  in  Ireland,  is  the  State  of  the  American 
Union."  If  the  over-learned  Professor  had  a  character  for 
humour,  we  should  have  imagined  that  he  was  jesting  when  he 
wrote  of  "  the  development  of  political  and  social  responsibility 
in  Ireland."  Surely  no  country  in  the  world  has  ever  pushed 
this  responsibility  so  far.     It  is  only  by  the  permission  of  the 


I 


The  Consequences  of  Home  Rule.  399 

political  club,  commonly  known  as  the  local  branch  of  the 
National  League,  that  life  and  the  means  of  living  are  retained 
by  the  individual.  What  further  development  of  social  respon- 
sibility can  there  be  when  the  slightest  infringement  of  the 
rules  of  terror  is  punished  by  a  cruel  ostracism,  if  not  b}'^  active 
outrage  ?  Yet  the  Professor  craves  for  a  further  development  of 
political  and  social  responsibility  in  a  country  which  has  invented 
"  Boycotting  !  "  Each  State  has,  according  to  the  American 
Constitution,  the  power  of  making  local  laws  and  of  imposing 
taxes  on  property;  it  has  its  own  police  under  its  own  manage- 
ment, 

but  it  can  impose  no  customs  duty  or  excise ;  it  can  shelter  no  offender 
against  the  criminal  law,  and  pi'otcct  no  citizen  against  civil  process 
....  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  national  defence  or  with  foreign 
policy;  and  it  can  decHne  no  burdens  which  the  authority  of  Congress 

imposes  on  it  for  Federal  purposes Tlie  Supreme  Court  decides 

on  the  question  whether  enactments  are  constitutional  or  not,  and 
disallows  them  in  the  latter  contingency. 

Such  is,  in  brief,  the  constitution  to  be  bestowed  upon  Ireland ; 
but  does  the  writer  imagine  that  Irelahd  under  Home  Rule  will 
be  less  able  and  willing  than  she  is  at  present  to  "  shelter  offenders 
against  the  criminal  law,"  or  to  "protect  her  citizens  against  civil 
process?  "  The  same  fine  sense  of  humour  which  the  author  dis- 
plays in  recommending  a  further  development  of  social  responsi- 
bility, is  again  apparent  in  the  notion  of  Ireland  having  nothing 
to  do  with  the  national  defence ;  and  culminates  in  the  sugges- 
tion that  by  a  decree  of  the  Supreme  Court  the  question  is  to  be 
decided,  what  Irish  enactments  are  constitutional  or  not.  The 
Federal  process-server  who  brings  an  unpopular  veto  to  Dublin 
is  not  likely  to  fare  better  than  the  humbler  servant  of  the  law 
does  at  present  when  he  seeks  to  serve  a  writ  or  judgment. 
Willing  submission  to  the  central  authority  is  the  essence  of  the 
Federal  compact.  What  reason  is  there  to  suppose  that  Ireland 
will  suddenly  acquire  this  spirit  of  international  meekness  ? 
She  has  found  turbulence,  intimidation,  and  outrage  succeed  in 
winning  freedom  from  her  powerful  but  plethoric  mistress,  and 
it  is  extremely  improbable  that  the  victorious  weapons  will  be  at 
once  laid  aside.  No :  Federalism  is  very  well  for  States  whose 
tendency  is  centripetal;  it  is  but  a  temporary  expedient  to 
counteract  the  forces  of  disintegration. 

Accepting  Mr.  Parnell  as  the  fully  authorized  spokesman  of 
his  party,  we  find  a  declaration  of  Nationalist  policy  in  the  fol- 
lowing extract  : — 

Nothing  in  the  world  would  induce  me  to  accept  on  behalf  of  the 
Irish  people  anything  but  the  fullest  and  completest  control  over  our 


400  Symposium  on  Home  Rule. 

own  affairs.  What  we  want  for  Ireland  is  that  she  shall  have  control 
over  her  own  destinies.  What  we  want  is  that  Ireland  shall  have  the 
power  to  make  her  o^vn  laws,  without  the  bungling  and  fumbling  and 
obstruction  of  an  Imperial  Parliament,  and  that  to  our  people  at  home 
shall  be  handed  over  the  right  of  attending  to  their  own  concerns, 
.and  managing  their  own  business. 

Here  we  have  a  claim  for  the  fullest  autonomy,  but  there  is  an 
unfortunate  limitation  which  cannot  be  got  over  even  by  an  Irish 
patriot,  and  that  is  the  ever-recurring  difficulty  of  finance.  If 
Ireland  were  solvent,  and  possessed  among  the  nations  character 
and  credit,  she  might  of  course  take  over  her  share  of  the  National 
Debt,  and  henceforward  keep  her  accounts  in  separate  ledgers. 
But  this  is  not  possible.  The  connection  must  be  maintained 
between  the  countries  so  far  as  the  Treasury  is  concerned,  and 
there  is  no  department  of  the  State  which  is  more  frequently 
requisitioned  in  Ireland.  The  existing  loans  to  Ireland  from 
the  I  Imperial  Treasury  amount  to  no  less  a  sum  than  twenty 
millions  sterling.  Irish  Separatists  ought  in  common  prudence 
to  pause  before  killingso  auriferous  a  goose;  for, assuredly,  under 
a  system  of  Home  Rule,  these  large  grants  of  public  money  will 
.cease  to  be  forthcoming  from  English  resources. 

In  glancing  at  the  financial  aspect  of  Home  Rule,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  consider  both  the  present  and  the  future,  to  examine  the 
revenue  account  between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  as  it  stands  • 
in  1886,  and  to  give  due  weight  to  the  various  political  and 
economic  causes  which  will  be  brought  into  action  by  the  total 
or  partial  separation  of  the  countries.  The  first  branch  of  the 
subject  has  been  recently  examined  by  an  eminent  statistician 
in  the  pages  of  the  Nineteenth  Century*  and  he  comes  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  English  Government  is  a  loser  by  Ireland  to 
the  extent  of  about  £2,750,000  per  annum,  although  it  receives 
from  Ireland  over  £3,000,000  more  revenue  than  Ireland  on  any" 
fair  computation  ought  to  pay.  This  is  a  striking  result,  but 
there  seems  to  be  a  lurking  fallacy  in  the  word  "  ought.*' 
Inequality  of  taxation  is  certainly  implied  by  Mr.  Giffen's  state- 
ment, to  such  an  extent  as  to  impose  a  crushing  burden  on  the 
weaker  and  poorer  country.  But  what  is  the  fact  ?  Not  only 
is  Ireland  as  mercifully  treated  by  the  tax-gatherer  as  Great 
Britain,  but  she  is  even  better  off  than  her  neighbour — there, 
being  no  land-tax  or  assessed-taxes  in  Ireland.  The  great  mass 
of  the  present  revenue  is  collected  from  the  customs,  excise,  and 
income-tax,  and  these  are  levied  in  both  countries  under  the 
same  system  and  according  to  the  same  tariff.     In  Mr.  Giffen's 

*  "The   Economic  Value  of    Ireland  to  Great  Britain,"  by  Robert 
GiCen :  Nineteenth  Century,  March  1886. 


I 


The  Consequences  of  Home  Rule.  401 

""  ought/'  therefore,  there  is  a  covert  attack  upon  the  present 
system  of  taxation,  a  system  which  has  been  deliberately  adopted 
Sis  the  fairest  that  can  be  devised.  Taxable  resources  form  the 
basis  of  his  calculations,  and  his  figures  (which  are  of  course  to  a 
great  extent  fanciful  *)  lead  him  to  the  conclusion  that  Ireland 
pays  nearly  £7,000,000,  being  a  tenth  or  an  eleventh  ot  the  taxes 
•of  the  country,  while  her  resources  are  only  about  one- twentieth. 
This  anomaly  is  explained  by  the  circumstance  that  the  Irish  are 
A  poor  people  who  spend  an  inordinate  proportion  of  their  in- 
comes on  tobacco  and  whisky.  They  can  at  any  moment  untax 
themselves  by  limiting  their  potations. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Great  Britain  spends  on  Ireland 
much  more  than  she  receives  back  in  taxes ;  but  it  does  not 
follow  that  she  would  be  a  gainer,  even  financially,  by  the  quasi- 
independence  of  that  country.  The  cost  of  periodically  enforcing 
with  the  strong  arm  the  observance  of  the  guarantees,  or  the 
payment  of  Ireland's  quota  towards  Imperial  expenditure, 
coupled  with  the  probable  loss  of  a  considerable  portion  thereof 
in  famine  years,  would  probably  make  up  a  larger  Irish  bill  than 
.she  has  at  present  to  pay.  But  even  these  items  of  expenditure 
are  insignificant  in  comparison  with  the  loss  and  inconvenience 
which  would  result  from  the  adoption  by  the  Irish  Parliament  of 
an  old-world  commercial  policy.  The  prohibitive  duties,  certain 
to  be  imposed  in  Ireland  on  English  manufactured  goods,  would 
■deprive  England  of  her  nearest  external  market ;  while  the  system 
of  bounties,  already  indicated  by  Mr.  Parnell  as  one  of  the  bene- 
ficial results  of  Home  Rule,  would  fend  to  impoverish  the  Irish 
•community  for  the  sake  of  some  favoured  form  of  industry.  An 
important  part  of  the  affairs  which  Ireland  would,  under  any 
system  of  Home  Rule,  take  upon  herself  to  manage,  would  be 
the  raising  of  revenue  by  means  of  taxes ;  but  where  the  whole 
power  of  the  country  is  in  the  hands  of  a  single  class,  who  have 
hitherto  shown  themselves  not  over-scrupulous  as  to  the  means 
by  which  they  attained  their  ends,  what  hope  can  be  entertained 
for  an  impartial  distribution  of  the  burden  ?  Is  it  not  morally 
•certain  that  a  Parliament  elected  by  peasants  would  exhaust  every 
artifice  to  relieve  agriculture,  and  onerate  every  other  form  of 
industry  ?  What  would  be  the  fate  of  the  landlords  if  they  were 
handed  over  to  the  tender  mercies  of  an  Irish  Parliament  ?  The 
question  has  been  already  answered  over  and  over  again  by  the 

*  Among  the  figures  on  which  Mr.  Giffen's  arguments  rest,  we  find 
that  the  whole  income  of  Great  Britain  is  estimated  at  £1,200,000,000  and 
of  Ireland  at  £70,000,000,  while  their  respective  capitals  are  set  down  at 
£9,600,000,000  and  £400,000,000.  There  is  something  wrong  here  :  the 
income  produced  by  capital  in  England  being  only  12|  per  cent.,  whereas 
in  Ireland  it  amounts  to  17^  per  cent. 


403  Symposium  on  Home  Rule. 

leaders  of  the  "  National  "  movement.  They  have  declared  that 
the  unimproved  or  prairie  value  of  the  land  is  what  the  landlon 
is  entitled  to  claim  ;  but  it  may  be  doubted  whether  even  the- 
"  prairie  value  "  would  be  conceded  when  "  landlordism  '"'  had 
been  brought  fairly  "  to  its  knees  " — adopting  a  favourite  expres- 
sion of  tlie  agitators — and  had  been  abandoned  by  its  English, 
protector.  Even  if  bought  out,  the  purchase-money  would  pro- 
bably take  the  form  of  a  charge  upon  the  Irish  Consolidated 
Fund,  a  security  whose  value  is  still,  problematical. 

It  may  be  said,  how  can  you  assume  against  these  virtuous 
Irish  gentlemen  that  they  will  be  anything  but  the  most  upright 
and  impartial  of  legislators  ?  Is  it  fair  to  judge  men  before  they 
are  tried  ?  Unfortunately,  the  statements  we  have  made  depend 
on  several  concurrent  trains  of  inductive  reasoning.  First,  pro- 
ceeding from  the  present  representatives  to  their  successors  in 
College  Green,  it  seems  certain  that  the  same  spirit  will  animate 
the  two  bodies.  If  any  thing,  the  distinguishing  zeal  for  confisca- 
tion will  be  more  ardent  under  the  new  regime  than  at  present. 
There  is  no  reason  whatever  to  suppose  that  Mr.  Parnell  and  his 
Socialistic  followers  will  be  converted  to  the  moral  law  by  finding 
their  iniquities  unrestrained  and  unopposed.  We  might  as  well 
expect  to  find  the  butler  taking  the  pledge  after  he  had  just 
broken  open  the  cellar.  No ;  the  members  returned  by  the  new 
Irish  constituencies  will  probably  profess  still  more  "  advanced  " 
views  than  their  predecessors,  and  belong  to  a  lower  social 
stratum.  Their  numbers  must  be  increased,  and  the  rich  recruit- 
ing ground  of  the  London  daily  press,  fi-om  which  so  many  of 
Mi".  Parnell's  band  have  been  drawn,  will  be  no  longer  available. 
A  second  line  of  argument  which  helps  us  to  forecast  with  some 
confidence  the  actions  of  the  "  Reformed  Parliament  '^  in  Ireland, 
is  drawn  from  the  working  of  the  existing  representative  insti- 
tutions in  that  country.  The  Dublin  corporation  has  long  en- 
joyed an  unenviable  reputation  for  the  "  liveliness  "  of  its  debates 
and  the  political  views  of  its  members;  and  the  malversation 
of  the  provincial  municipal  authorities  was  exposed  some  years 
ago  by  an  exhaustive  parliamentary  inquiry.  But  the  bodies 
which  bear  the  closest  analogy  to  the  Parliament  of  the  future 
are  those  whose  duties  are  at  present  connected  with  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  poor  law.  The  Report  of  the  Select  Committee 
on  the  Poor  Law  Guardians  (Ireland)  Bill  of  last  session"^  enables 
us  to  estimate  the  spirit  in  which  a  Nationalist  Board  discharges 
its  functions.  In  almost  every  case  where  the  management  of  the 
Board  has  been  secured  by  the  elected  guardians,  who  are  the 
popular  representatives  as  distinguished  from  the  magistrates,  the 

*  Parliamentary  Papers,  1885.     No.  297. 


The  Consequences  of  Home  Rule.  403 

affairs  of  the  Union  have  fallen  into  the  utmost  confusion. 
Corrupt  contracts,  maladministration  of  the  funds,  appointments 
of  incompetent  relatives  of  guardians  to  responsible  posts,  out- 
door relief  on  an  extravagant  scale  bestowed  on  evicted  tenants 
and  the  families  of  suspects,  are  mentioned  by  almost  every 
witness  examined  by  the  Committee.  In  one  case  a  guardian 
was  himself  an  applicant  for  a  share  of  the  spoil,  in  another  a 
lump  sum  was  bestowed  on  a  tailor  to  buy  a  sewing  machine,  in 
another  on  a  blacksmith  to  put  a  roof  on  his  forge,  the  money 
being  in  all  cases  presented  in  the  accounts  as  if  weekly  payments 
had  been  made.  If  such  barefaced  dishonesty  is  practised  when 
there  is  a  conti'olling  authority  in  Dublin,  what  would  it  be  if  all 
restraint  were  removed,  and  the  chosen  nominees  of  the  people 
were  permitted  to  act  merely  on  their  own  views  of  what  was 
right  ?  A  Parliament  chosen  by  the  same  constituents  could  not 
differ  much  from  the  Boards  of  Guardians  in  its  leading  prin- 
ciples of  administration.  We  should  beyond  question  see  public 
money  diverted  from  its  legitimate  application  into  the  pockets 
of  private  individuals,  and  every  department  of  the  State  converted 
into  a  vast  machine  for  jobbery  and  oppression. 

The  fate  of  the  landowners  entrusted  to  a  Parliament  of  tenant 
farmers  or  their  representatives  would  not  be  long  in  suspense. 
The  confiscations  of  the  past  would  be  avenged  by  the  spoliation 
of  the  present  owners ;  and  these  owners,  it  must  be  remembered, 
are  not  the  descendants  of  the  original  grantees,  deriving  their 
titles  by  descent  from  them,  but  are  for  the  most  part  men  who 
have  invested  their  money  in  the  purchase  of  land  on  the  faith 
of  a  guaranteed  parliamentary  title.  Since  the  establishment  of 
the  Landed  Estates  Court  more  than  .£'50,000,000  has  been  paid 
for  land  sold  by  the  agency  of  that  particular  Court ;  and  on 
every  acre  so  sold  has  been  conferred  an  indefeasible  title  by  the 
Imperial  Parliament.  It  is  a  breach  of  faith  amounting  to  repu- 
diation of  a  solemn  obligation,  after  inducing  the  outlay  of  so  vast. 
a  capital,  to  turn  round  and  say  to  the  persons  who  have  been  so- 
cajoled  :  Make  the  best  terms  you  can  with  your  new  masters. 

The  principles  which  the  Irish  soi  disant  patriots  apply  to- 
the  agrarian  problem  will  assuredly  be  found  equally  attractive  • 
in  other  departments  of  industry.  Well-meaning  but  short- 
sighted persons,  carried  away  by  the  poverty  and  sufferings  of  a. 
particular  class,  have  unfortunately  sowed  the  seeds  of  Com- 
munism in  a  fertile  soil.  A  doctrine  at  once  so  dangerous  and 
attractive  cannot  fail  to  delude  and  to  destroy  a  people  once 
generous  and  virtuous,  and  to  blight  the  fair  prospects  of  Ireland 
with  the  double  curse  of  cupidity  and  poverty. 

An  Irish  Catholic  Barrister." 
VOL.  XV. — NO.  IT.     [Third  Series.']  e  e 


(    404     ) 


Sricna  |lotias. 


The  Sun. — M.  Faye's  brilliant  hypothesis  of  the  orig'in  of  the 
world  has  attracted  considerable  attention  abroad.  We  noticed 
in  the  last  issue  of  the  Dublin  Review  some  of  the  points 
of  the  theor}'',  principally  the  support  which  the  latest  results  of 
the  science  of  the  nineteenth  century  brings  to  the  Mosaic  account 
of  creation.  The  disting-uished  astronomer  has  recently  broug-ht 
forward  fresh  evidence  in  confirmation  of  his  theory  as  to  the  recent 
formation  of  the  sun.  He  divides  the  fixed  stars,  which  are  most 
probably  suns  to  their  systems,  into  three  classes — white,  yellow,  and 
red.  The  white  stars,  which  comprise  about  60  per  cent,  of  the 
whole,  have  reached  the  fullest  development  of  their  splendour. 
The  yellow  stars,  forming-  about  35  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  are  those 
that  are  hastening-  to  their  decline.  Their  temperature  is  not  so 
high ;  hydrogen  forms  a  cloud-like  envelope  around  them ;  our 
chief  metals,  in  the  form  of  vapour,  are  present  in  their  light. 
The  red  stars  are  relatively  small  in  number  j  they  are  almost  extinct. 
Strong-  absorption  bands  appear  in  their  spectra;  hydrogen  has 
almost  disappeared,  being  engaged  in  chemical  compounds. 

Our  sun  is  a  star  of  the  second  order — a  yellow  star.  It  has  passed 
through  its  phase  of  maximum  brightness,  its  light  and  heat  are  now 
■on  the  wane.  He  compares  our  sun  to  an  immense  heat-producing 
machine,  which  manufactures  enormous  stores  of  light  and  heat  by 
the  shrinkage  of  the  central  mass.  The  sun  spots  are  explained  by 
those  whirlpool  movements  analogous  to  the  cyclones  and  tornadoes 
of  our  atmosphere ;  they  have  their  origin  in  the  photosphere,  and 
are  carried  down  to  the  depths  of  the  sun  below.  There  the  metallic 
molecules,  meeting-  with  a  still  higher  temperature,  are  dissociated 
anew  and  hurled  violently  to  the  surface,  producing  the  famous  red 
prominences,  the  objects  of  so  much  scrutiny.  In  estimating  the 
quantity  of  heat  expended  yearly  by  the  sun,  and  which  has  been 
developed  by  progressive  shrinkage,  the  author  concludes  that 
fifteen  million  years  is  the  outside  age  of  our  luminary.  On  the 
other  hand  geologists  calculate  that  twenty  million  years  were  at 
least  required  to  bring  the  earth  to  its  present  state.  M.  Faye 
thus  finds  fresh  confirmation  of  his  theory  that  the  sun  is  younger 
than  the  earth. 

Hereditary  Stature. — ]Mr.  Galton  has  chosen  the  most  complex 
and  anomalous  of  all  subjects,  sociology,  for  investigation.  We 
have  endeavoured  in  the  pages  of  this  Review  to  present  our  readers 
from  time  to  time  with  the  curious  results  of  his  inquiries.  We  have 
now  to  chronicle  another  discovery  in  the  realm  of  humanity — the 
laws  of  hereditary  stature.  At  first  sight  it  would  appear  as  if 
nothing  were  farther  removed  from  scientific  analysis  than  the  height 


Science  Notices.  405 

and  stature  of  different  individuals.  Mr.  Galton  has  constructed  an 
ingenious  little  instrument  whereby  upon  certain  data  the  stature 
of  unknown  individuals  can  be  calculated.  Into  the  details 
of  the  little  indicator  it  would  be  out  of  place  to  enter.  It  is 
enough  to  say  that  the  average  height  of  brothers,  sons,  nephews, 
and'  grandchildren  can  be  read  off  at  a  glance.  Reljang  on  his 
science  of  heredity,  Mr.  Galton  has  drawn  up  a  paper  con- 
stitution for  an  hereditary  Upper  Chamber.  Two  great  mistakes, 
he  holds,  are  committed  when  we  follow  the  law  of  primogeniture. 
The  higher  qualifications  are  rarely  transmitted  beyond  the  grand- 
sons, nor  can  sons  and  grandsons  be  considered  to  monopolize 
all  hereditary  gifts  ;  tbey  are  shared  by  brothers  and  sisters  and 
their  children.  It  is  unjust  also  to  exclude  men  of  high  but  sub- 
ordinate rank  who  have  married  into  the  nobility ;  their  offspring 
cannot  fail  to  possess  high  qualifications.  If,  then,  we  open  the 
Second  Chamber  to  all  these  classes,  we  shall  have  about  twelve  times 
as  many  candidates  as  there  are  vacancies.  One  in  twelve  seems  a 
reasonably  severe  election  ;  quite  enough  to  draft  off'  the  incompetent 
and  not  too  severe  to  discourage  the  ambition  of  the  rest.  S.uch  a 
Chamber,  constituted  according  to  the  most  recent  scientific  canons, 
might  satisfy  a  modern  Democracy  that  professes  to  receive  its 
highest  inspirations  from  science.  And  Conservatives,  if  forced  to 
yield,  might  be  willing  to  accept  an  arrangement  which  accepts  the 
hereditary  ])rinci})le  as  a  starting-point. 

The  Industrial  Crisis. — The  situation  is  becoming  w^orse  and 
worse,  production  is  everywhere  diminishing,  wages  are  falling,  and 
the  most  favourably  situated  works  are  obliged  to  practise  the  most 
rigid  economy.  The  production  of  coal  has  fallen  off  very  consider- 
ably in  the  past  two  years  in  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Belgium. 
The  diminution  of  export  of  English  coals  has  been  most  marked  in 
the  direction  of  Russia,  where  the  protective  tariff'  has  been  estab- 
lished. Moreover,  Russia  is  developing  her  own  coal  industry, 
principally  in  the  Transcaucasian  district,  and  it  is  said  that  the 
Russian  coal  is  equal  to  that  of  Newcastle.  Germany  alone  is 
increasing  her  export  of  coal,  chiefly  in  the  direction  of  Italy.  The 
iron  trade  in  England  is  in  a  most  precarious  condition.  The  exports 
are  steadily  diminishing,  notably  those  to  Russia,  Erance,  Belgium, 
Italy  and  Spain.  We  receive  constant  notices  of  furnaces  being 
blown  out ;  and  the-  iron  districts  present  a  scene  of  desolation  and 
ruin.  France  is  also  affected ;  the  production  of  pig-iron  in  the 
North  shows  a  steady  diminution  during  the  last  two  years. 
Germany  is  again  one  of  the  fortunate  countries  where  the  crisis  is 
least  felt.  Thanks  to  her  high  protective  tariff  and  the  introduction 
of  the  Gilchrist-Thomas  converters,  her  production  of  iron  and  steel 
shows  a  small  but  satisfactory  increase.  Our  chief  supplies  of  copper 
come  to  us  from  Spain  and  the  United  States.  The  production' has 
increased,  but  prices  have  fallen  to  the  lowest  possible  figure. 
English  lead  mines  have  now  been  completely  abandoned.  The 
United  States  is  the  great  source  of  our  lead  supply,  and  there 

E  E  £ 


406  Science  Notices. 

are  not  wanting-  indications  that  here,  too,  the  mines  are  showing' 
sig-ns  of  exhaustion.  Fortunate  Germany  is  increasing  her  output 
of  lead.  In  the  manufacture  of  zinc,  too,  Germany  heads  the  list ; 
ahout  forty-five  per  cent,  of  the  total  production  comes  from  the 
Fatherland. 

Natural  Gas  as  Fuel. — In  the  neighbourhood  of  Pittsburgh 
there  are  a  number  of  petroleum  pits  that  furnish  a  constant,  supply 
of  natural  gas,  which  has  taken  the  place  of  coal  in  the  iron  and  steel 
furnaces.  It  is  well  known  that  natural  gas  is,after  hydrogen,  the  most 
powerful  of  all  combustible  gases.  Its  purity  renders  it  particularly 
adapted  for  the  manufacture  of  iron,  steel,  glass,  and  other  products. 
It  gives  off  neither  smoke  nor  offensive  vapours,  an  advantage  much 
appreciated  in  populous  centres.  It  dispenses  with  manual  labour, 
and  as  there  are  no  doors  to  be  opened  for  purposes  of  charging, 
cold  currents  of  air  are  excluded,  and  thus  the  smelting  can  be 
carried  on  without  interruption.  In  Pittsburgh  the  use  of  gas  has 
already  reduced  the  consumption  of  coal  by  one-fourth. 

Snow  and  Weather  Forecasts, — Dr.  Woeikoff,  the  eminent 
Russian  meteorologist,  has  made  some  important  observations  on  the 
influence  of  snow  upon  the  weather.  This  is  a  factor  in  meteoro- 
logy that  has  hitherto  been  neglected.  Dr.  Woeikoff  maintains 
that  the  severit}^  and  length  of  winter  depends  in  a  great  measure 
upon  the  amount  of  snow-fall.  When  the  ground  is  thickly  covered, 
and  the  snow  does  not  thaw,  we  shall  find  that  the  cold  weather  is 
considerably  intensified,  and  the  advent  of  spring  delayed.  The  reason 
probably  is  that  the  radiation  of  the  warmth  of  the  soil  into  the  air 
is  arrested,  and  thus  a  most  important  influence  in-  modifying  the 
cold  season  is  removed.  The  constant  contact  of  the  air  with  a  cold 
icy  surface  cannot  fail  to  have  a  very  refrigerating  effect.  Observa- 
tion seems  to  strengthen  this  view.  The  year  1877  in  Russia  was 
marked  by  the  absence  of  snow,  and  a  most  mild  season  was  recorded. 
The  same  thing  was  observed  in  Europe  during  the  winters  1879, 
1880,  and  1880-1881;  no  snow  fell  before  Christmas,  and  December 
was  a  mild  month.  Dr.  W^oeikoff  claims  another  result  from  his 
researches  ;  he  is  able  to  forecast  the  length  of  the  frost.  As  long  as 
there  is  little  or  no  snow,  he  argues  that  frosts  may  begin,  but  they 
will  not  last.  But  a  fall  of  snow,  not  very  heavy,  is  quite  enough  to 
make  the  frost  durable.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  important  this  observa- 
tion may  be  on  the  weather  forecast.  Should  there  be  to  the  nortlt 
or  east  of  any  region  any  broad  spaces  covered  with  snow  we  may 
predict  that  the  Avinter  season  will  be  affected  by  the  proximity  of 
these  snow  masses. 

British  Rainfall. — Dr.  Buchan,  the  veteran  British  meteorolo- 
gist, has  communicated  to  the  Philosophical  Society  of  Glasgow  a 
paper  in  which  he  sums  up  his  valuable  researches  into  British  rain- 
fall. It  is  well  known  that  the  annual  rainfall  differs  considerably  . 
in  its  distribution  over  our  islands.  On  the  east  coast  of  England 
it  is  as  low  as  25  inches,  over  central  England  it  rises  to  40  inches. 


Notes  of  Travel  and  Exploration.  407 

in  the  mountainous  parts  of  Wales  to  120  inches,  while  160  inches 
is  the  measure  for  the  Lake  district.  It  is  not  difficult  to  see  that 
the  south-westerly  gales  from  tlie  Atlantic  are  the  cause  of  this  un- 
equal downpour.  It  is  possible  by  the  rain-gaup^e  to  trace  their 
course  with  something*  like  precision.  The  storms  from  the  Atlantic 
are  evidently  diverted  by  the  rocky  shores  of  the  west  of  Ireland. 
Following  the  line  of  least  resistance,  one  branch  sweeps  round  the 
south  coast  of  Ireland  and  breaks  on  the  shore  of  Cornwall.  Its 
eifects  are  shown  by  a  fall  of  50  inches  in  Cornwall,  decreasing 
to  80  at  the  Isle  of  Wight,  The  Bristol  Channel  gives  another 
opening  to  the  storms,  and  central  England  receives  in  consequence 
a  more  copious  rainfall.  Another  breakdown  occurs  between  the 
Welsh  and  the  Pennine  range  of  mountains.  The  passage  here 
afforded  is  the  track  for  many  of  the  showers  that  visit  Derbyshire 
and  Yorkshire.  But  that  branch  of  the  Atlantic  storms  that  pass 
to  the  North  of  Ireland  is  the  most  heavily  charged  with  moisture. 
With  nothing  to  break  their  force,  these  winds  fall  in  all  their  fury 
on  the  Cumberland  and  West  Highland  coast.  No  one  who  has 
witnessed  one  of  these  gales  at  its  height  is  likely  to  forget  the  awe- 
inspiring  spectacle.  They  are  as  remarkable  for  their  vapour  as  for 
their  fury.  They  yield  on  an  average  a  fall  of  140  inches  per  annum, 
an  amount  about  four  times  that  of  the  rest  of  England.  Their  force, 
however,  is  quickly  spent,  for  the  east  coasts  derive  little  of  their 
moisture  from  the  westerly  gales.  The  water  supply  of  Suffolk  and 
Norfolk  would  be  seriously  diminished  were  it  not  for  some  very 
heavy  rains  from  the  east  and  south-east.  As  for  central  England, 
the  rainfall  depends  very  much  on  the  heavy  thunderstorms  that 
occur  in  summer.  This  is  an  ingenious  and  satisfactory  solution, 
and  we  may  safely  say  that  we  have  now  the  key  to  that  most 
puzzling  of  problems,  the  distribution  of  rain  over  our  islands. 


Botes  d  £riii)cl  anb  dS^^ploration. 


Exploration  of  Kilima-Njaro.* — The  great  snow-mountain  of 
Eastern  Africa,  long  regarded  as  a  mythical  ornament  of  travellers' 
tales,  has  within  the  last  few  years  been  brought  into  the  domain  of 
geographical  facts,  and  endowed  with  an  existence  as  palpable  as 
that  of  Ben  Nevis  or  Mont  Blanc.  True,  its  crowning  snows  have 
not  yet  been  trodden,  but  the  summit  which  thus  keeps  a  laurel  in 
reserve  for  the  mountaineer,  can  scarcely  have  a  surprise  in  store 
for  the  geographer,  so  accurately  has  it  been  observed  and  so  closely 
approached  by  the  latest  explorer.     Mr.  Johnston,  selected  as  the 

•  "  The  Kilima-Njaro  Expedition."  By  H.  H.  Johnston.  London : 
Kegan  Paul,  Trench  &  Co,     1886. 


408  Notes  of  Travel  and  Exploration. 

envoy  of  the  Britisli  Association  and  Roj'al  Society,  commanded  a 
small  expedition  for  the  scientific  survey  of  the  mountain,  with 
special  reference  to  the  distribution  of  animal  and  vegetable  life  on 
its  slopes,  his  general  directions  being  to  collect  as  much  as  possible 
near  the  snow-line.  The  present  volume  describes  his  adventures 
in  carrying  out  these  injunctions,  and  the  astute  diplomacy  required 
to  secure  the  goodwill  of  the  various  native  chiefs,  between  whom 
the  broad  slopes  of  the  mountain  are  parcelled  out.  The  most 
formidable  of  these  is  Mandara,  who  keeps  a  standing  army  of  1,000 
men,  but  whose  friendship  must  be  purchased  by  incurring  the 
hostility  of  all  his  neighbours,  his  relations  with  whom  consist  of 
perpetual  forays  on  his  side  and  reprisals  on  theirs. 

His  friendship  having  been  secured  by  a  letter  from  Sir  John 
Kirk,  backed  by  tbe  customary  presents,  the  traveller  obtained 
permission  to  effect  a  temporary  settlement  in  his  country.  A 
commanding  position  on  a  spur  of  the  great  mountain,  at  a  height 
of  5,000  feet  above  the  sea,  furnished  the  site  for  his  camp,  and  here 
he  established  himself  for  several  weeks,  his  domestic  arrangements 
including  a  house,  a  dair}^,  a  poultry-j'ard,  and  kitchen  garden 
planted  with  English  vegetables.  His  relations  Avith  his  host  were 
not,  however,  continuously  amicable,  and  he  even  underwent  a  short 
siege  or  blockade  from  Mandara's  forces.  The  highest  level  reached 
on  the  mountain  was  16,300  feet,  'J,o00  feet  from  the  summit,  but 
well  above  the  snow-line,  placed  here  at  14,000  feet.  The  buffalo, 
elephant,  and  Kudu  antelope  all  range  to  this  level,  although  it  must 
be  the  extreme  limit  of  vegetation.  The  lion  is  found  no  higher 
than  3,000  feet,  and  the  rhinoceros  and  zebra  do  not  pass  2,300. 

The  plains  surrounding  the  mountain  are  principally  occupied  by 
the  Masai,  a  fierce  race  of  semi-nomads  akin  to  the  Bari,  Dinka,  and 
Shillouk  tribes  of  the  Upper  Nile.  The  entire  manhood  of  the 
nation  is  trained  to  war,  and  their  predatory  raids  are  the  terror  of 
ail  the  neighbouring  countries.  They  are  no  doubt  invaders  from 
the  north,  and  the  original  inhabitants  are  those  known  by  the 
generic  name  of  Chaga,  who  form  a  ring  of  small  separate  states 
round  the  iTanks  of  Kilima-Njaro.  They  are  members  of  the  great 
Bantu  family  occupying  nearly  all  Africa  south  of  the  Equator,  and 
here  seemingly  disposed  to  industry  and  settled  habits,  as  they  show 
considerable  skill  in  diverting  the  mountain  streams  through 
artificial  water-courses  for  irrigation.  Mr.  Johnston  thus  describes 
their  general  social  organization  : — 

Throughout  Chaga,  by  which  is  meant  the  inhabited  district  of 
Kilima-ISIjaro,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  congeries  of  habitations  form- 
ing a  town  or  village  in  our  sense  of  the  word.  Each  family  lives  apart, 
■with  its  own  two  or  three  houses  for  men,  women,  and  beasts,  surrounded 
by  its  plantations  and  gardens,  with  plenty  of  room  for  expansion  all 
round.  In  another  sense,  however,  each  state  of  Chaga  may  be  looked 
upon  as  a  huge  straggling  city ;  one  vast  capital  of  huts  and  gardens 
equally  inhabited  and  cultivated  throughout  its  extent.  This  little 
territory  is  more  or  less  completely  surrounded  by  natural  defences — 
indeed  the  girdle  of  ravines  and  cUffs  has  formed  the  state  by  giving 


i 


Notes  of  Travel  and  Exploration.  409 

security  to  its  inhabitants — but  there  is  almost  always  one  easy  means 
of  approach  which  has  been  left  open  by  Nature,  and  that  is  therefore 
strongly  fortified  by  man.  Consequently,  nearly  all  these  tiny  Chaga 
kingdoms  have  their  "door"  of  entry,  which  is  at  all  times  strongly 
guarded,  and  often  serves  as  the  pretext  for  a  toll. 

A  narrow  tunnel  three  feet  hi^h,  three  feet  broad,  and  six  feet 
long",  is  the  approach  throug-h  which  the  visitor  has  to  wriggle  on 
all  fours  to  gain  access  to  the  interior. 

The  forest  stronghold  of  Taveita,  with  its  friendly  natives  and 
primitive  abundance,  is  the  favourite  resting-place  of  travellers  on 
their  way  to  and  from  the  coast.  A  little  republic  of  some  6,000 
inhabitants  of  mixed  nationality  scattered  through  clearings  in  the 
woods,  Taveita  owes  its  immunity  from  attacks  by  the  Masai  to  its 
girdle  of  impenetrable  jungle,  in  whose  intricate  mazes  the  invaders 
have  always  encountered  defeat.  Its  internal  affairs  are  administered 
by  a  senate  of  notables  called  Wazee,  or  elders,  whose  authority  is 
upheld  by  all  the  able-bodied  population.  Mr.  Johnston  describes 
it  as  a  rendezvous  of  tribes,  tongues,  peoples,  and  nations,  resembling 
in  this  respect  Stanley  Pool  on  the  Congo,  Dondo  on  the  Quanza, 
and  Khartoum  on  the  Nile,  and  says  that,  seated  in  the  porch  of  your 
comfortable  thatched  house,  built  in  a  few  days,  you  may  receive 
visits  from  representatives  of  most  of  the  nations  found  in  East 
Central  Africa,  as  all  come  to  Taveita  somehow,  "  whether  as  slaves, 
traders,  criminals,  tramps,  or  refugees." 

The  author  believes  the  country  explored  by  him  to  have  great 
commercial  possibilities,  and  to  give  facilities  to  traffic  not  found 
elsewhere.  The  tsetse  fly  is  absent,  and  the  mountain  slopes  furnish 
the  desideratum  of  a  healtiiy  and  temperate  climate.  Coff"ee  and 
sugar-cane  grow  wild;  quinine,  tea,  cacao,  and  vanilla  might,  he 
thinks,  be  easily  cultivated ;  gum,  copal,  and  india-rubber  vine  are 
produced,  and  masses  of  orchilla-weed  cover  the  forests  with  their 
grey-green  veil.  Elephants  and  ostriches  swarm  on  the  plains,  and 
the  country  is  described  as  "  a  sportsman's  paradise." 

Colonel  Prjevalsky's  Explorations  in  Tibet. — The  Times  of 
February  8  publishes  a  translation  from  the  Novosti  qf  the  Russian 
explorer's  journeyings  in  Tibet,  summarized  as  follows  : — 

Beginning  with  Tibet  itself,  he  describes  the  climate  as  passing  sud- 
denly from  extreme  heat  to  cold,  and  vice  versd.  In  southern  Tibet  the 
climate  is  somewhat  different,  for  there  the  summer  heat  is  less 
extreme,  and  the  cold  in  winter  more  moderate.  Notwithstanding 
this,  the  excessive  humidity  prevents  vegetation,  so  that  the  country 
does  not  possess  sufficient  pasture  for  cattle.  Only  in  the  western 
districts  is  a  little  grass  to  be  found,  while  trees  and  shrubs  are  com- 
pletely absent.  Despite  this  poverty  of  vegetation,  the  fauna  are 
abundant.  As  many  as  fifteen  kinds  of  mammiferie  and  fifty-three 
species  of  birds  are  to  be  found  in  this  region.  The  animals  which 
find  shelter  in  the  valleys  of  northern  Tibet  are  remarkable  for  their 
size.  The  first  place  must  be  assigned  to  the  flocks  of  wild  bulls 
(yaks),  which  are  not  fierce.  Then  come  the  antelopes,  sheep,  and 
wild  asses.     Many  bears,  wolves,  and  foxes  were  also  seen  by  the 


i 


410 


Notes  of  Travel  and  Exploration. 


expedition.  In  the  east  there  are  also  two  rivers  and  a  few  lakes, 
sufficiently  rich  in  fish,  but  those  of  few  kinds.  The  Mongol  inha- 
•  bitants  of  the  country  recall  by  their  manners  and  customs  their 
savage  origin.  They  live  in  yourts  made  of  felt.  Kaltsou,  the  country 
bordering  on  China,  presents  quite  another  appearance.  The  irri- 
gation there  is  abundant,  and  the  vegetation  extremely  interesting. 
It  was  here  that  Colonel  Prjevalsky  himself  discovered  a  root  weigh- 
ing twenty-six  pounds.  It  is  inhabited  by  Toungoutes  of  the  Bud- 
dhist religion,  greatly  resembling  our  gipsies,  and  living  in  cabins 
very  much  like  those  of  our  own  peasants.  Their  temples  are 
interesting  specimens,  of  Asiatic  architecture.  In  this  quarter 
another  people,  called  Daldy,  is  also  to  be  met  with,  and  they  differ 
in  very  few  points  from  the  Chinese.  These,  like  the  Turks,  are 
occupied  in  trade.  The  whole  of  this  region  is  divided  between  two 
creeds — Buddhism  and  Mohammedanism.  The  former  sensibly 
declines  among  these  primitive  people,  who  are  unable  to  compre- 
hend its  elevated  doctrine.  Besides,  its  effect  on  Asiatics  is  ener- 
vating, while  that  of  the  doctrine  of  Mohammed,  based  on  the  sword 
and  constraint,  is  to  produce  an  active  and  energetic  race. 

Chronology  of  the  Expeditions. — Colonel  Prjevalsky's  first 
journey  lasted  three  years  (1871-3),  during  which,  with  very  small 
resources,  he  reached  the  head  waters  of  the  Blue  River,  or  Yangtse- 
Kiang.  His  second  journey  (1876-77)  was  rich  in  scientific  results, 
though  cut  short  by  unforeseen  difficulties.  In  his  third  tour,  for 
which  he  started  in  1878,  the  sources  of  the  Hoang-ho,  or  Yellow 
River,  were  reached,  but  he  was  again  compelled  to  return  prema- 
turely by  want  of  transport  and  provisions. 

In  November,  1883,  he  undertook  his  fourth  journey,  having 
decided  on  following  the  desert  route  to  the  Yellow  River.  Two 
months  were  spent  in  crossing  the  desert,  as  it  was  the  season  of  the 
greatest  cold,  and  the  mercury  often  froze  in  the  thermometer.  No. 
member  of  the  commission  suffered  to  any  serious  extent.  Having 
reached  a  more  southerly  region,  the  travellers  found  a  higher  tem- 
perature, but  still  one  showing  variations  of  not  less  than  forty  degrees. 
In  January  there  are  in  the  sun  twenty  degrees  of  heat,  and  at  night 
twent}-^  degrees  of  cold.  February,  1884,  was  spent  in  the  moun- 
tainous parts  of  Tibet,  where  the  ornithological  collections  were 
completed.  The  travellers  fed  themselves  by  hunting,  and  they  also 
consumed  large  quantities  of  tea  and  cracknels.  For  bread,  the  roast 
corn  of  the  country,  called  "  zamba,"  was  used.  In  the  month  of 
May  the  expedition  reached  southern  Saidam,  the  ruler  of  which 
wished  to  oppose  its  passage,  but  was  cojppelled  (we  believe  by  force 
of  arms)  to  give  them  a  guide  and  some  camels.  Leaving  his  pro- 
visions under  the  guard  of  seven  Cossacks,.  Colonel  Prjevalsky  pro- 
ceeded to  the  source  of  the  Yellow  River,  which  at  this  point  has  a 
breadth  of  only  twenty  feet  to  thirty  feet,  and  thence  to  the  source  of 
the  Blue  River. 

Engagements  with  the  Natives. — After  a  march  of  about  160 
versts,  the  travellers  met  a  party  of  Toungoutes  who  showed  them- 


Notes  of  Travel  and  Exploration.  411 

selves  very  hostile.  Some  rifle-shots  were  exchanjsred,  but  it  was 
evidently  impossible  to  cross  the  Blue  River,  and  Colonel  Prjevalsky 
was  obliged  to  beat  a  retreat.  Two  fresh  attacks  on  the  part  of 
Toungoutes  did  not  prevent  his  returning  to  the  sources  of  the 
Yellow  River,  and  giving  the  name  of  "  the  Lake  of  the  Expedi- 
tion "  to  one  of  the  lakes  from  which  this  stream  springs.  From 
this  point  the  travellers  had  to  pursue  their  way  for  several  weeks, 
constantly  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  the  Toungoutes,  who  fired  their 
primitive  muskets  without  ever  being  able  to  hit  their  object.  This 
race  do  not  abandon  their  slain. 

Western  Saidam. — From  Southern  Saidam,  Colonel  Prjevalsky, 
accompanied  by  thirteen  persons,  directed  his  steps  to  Western 
Saidam,  where  the  soil  is  so  poor  that  it  will  not  support  any  animals, 
even  camels.  After  travelling  800  versts,  he  arrived  at  the  edge  of 
an  impassable  marsh  inhabited  by  swarms  of  pheasants.  At  a  place 
called  Gaz  the  party  halted  for  three  months.  From  this  point  the 
explorers  traversed  800  versts  more  of  West  Tibet,  in  which  they 
discovered  three  new  chains  of  mountains.  After  their  return  to 
Gaz  they  proceeded  to  Loto  through  some  passes,  and  found  thrre  a 
Turkish  population  who  gave  them  a  very  hospitable  greeting. 

A  similar  reception  was  accorded  them  in  the  western  region  of 
China  bordering  on  Eastern  Turkestan.  It  is  a  magnificent  country, 
fertile,  warm,  without  any  winter,  having  two  harvests,  one  in 
February,  the  other  in  July,  and  with  fruits  throughout  the  year. 
Among  the  population  are  to  be  found  Chinese,  Mongols,  Arabs,  Bok- 
hariots  and  Hindoos.  In  its  farther  progress  the  expedition  entered 
on  a  desert  pure  and  simple,  but  with  a  i'ew  oases.  How  few  these 
were  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  there  were  900  versts  between 
the  first  two.  The  oasis  of  Cherchen  contains  the  ruins  of  a  town, 
and  near  Cherchen  was  a  range  of  mountains,  hitherto  unknown,  to 
which  Colonel  Prjevalsky  gave  the  name  of  the  Czar  Liberator.  The 
rains  lasted  here  for  twenty  days  without  ceasing.  The  oasis  of 
Potam  contains  about  GO, 000  deciatines  of  fertile  land  (a  deciatine 
being  about  eleven  square  yards).  Colonel  Prjevalsky  was  the  first 
to  explore  the  Potam  river  which  has  a  length  of  no  more  than 
150  versts,  and  issues  from  a  marsh  in  the  desert.  The  finest  animals 
there  are  the  tigers.  Having  crossed  the  Potam,  Colonel  Prjevalsky 
passed  the  river  Tarim,  reaching  the  rich  oasis  of  Aksu,  and  on 
crossing  the  Thian-Shan  range  brought  his  fou'rth  journey  in  Tibet 
tx)  an  end. 

New  State  in  South  Africa. — Under  the  name  of  Upingtonia  a 
district  of  Ovampoland,  about  300  miles  long  by  120  wide,  has  been 
organized  as  a  state.  It  lies  between  the  18th  and  20th  degree?  of 
S.  lat.,  and  the  15th  and  20th  of  E.  long.,  and  is  200  miles  from 
Walfisch  Bay  at  its  nearest  points.  A  large  trek  of  Boers  is  already 
on  the  spot,  houses  have  been  built,  and  the  land,  which  is  given  to 
all  Europeans  free  of  charge,  mineral  rights  only  being  reserved,  is 
being  rapidly  brought  under  cultivation.  It  is  described  as  a  fine 
country,  suitable  for  the  growth  of  wool,  wheat  and  wine,  and  the 


412  I^otes  of  Travel  and  Exploration. 

present  occupants,  Boers  and  Englishmen,  are  anxious  to  be  taken 
under  Colonial  protection. 

Proposed  Congo  Railway  — The  crowning-  scheme  of  Mr.  Stan- 
ley's enterprises  in  Western  Africa  has  assumed  n  tangible  form  in 
the  foundation  of  the  Congo  Railway  Syndicate,  the  nucleus  of  a 
joint-stock  company.  With  Mr.  Stanley  himself  and  Mr.  Hutton, 
Chairman  of  the  Manchester  Chamber  of  Commerce,  are  associated 
Lord  Aberdare,  Mr.  Houldsworth,  Mr.  Jacob  Brig-ht,  and  other 
influential  men  as  members  of  the  new  Syndicate.  The  estimate  of 
capital  to  be  raised  is  from  one  to  two  millions  sterling,  and  an  inter- 
national character  will  be  given  to  the  enterprise  by  the  opening  of 
subscriptions  in  the  capitals  of  the  fourteen  Powers  represented  in 
the  Cong'o  Conference  at  Berlin.  The  administrative  seat  of  the 
company  will,  however,  be  in  England,  and  it  will  be  registered 
under  English  law,  while  a  Royal  Charter  from  the  Congo  State  will 
leg-alize  its  position  in  Africa.  Taking  the  larger  estimate  of  outlay, 
a  net  profit  of  £100,000  would  be  required  to  realize  a  dividend  of 
5  per  cent,  and  this  must  be  mainly  obtained  from  goods  carriage, 
as  a  large  passenger  traffic  can  only  be  looked  for  in  a  very  remote 
future.  The  object  of  the  proposed  railway  is  to  effect  a  junction 
between  the  limit  of  maritime  navigation  at  the  head  of  the  Congo 
estuary,  and  the  vast  system  of  inland  navigation  converging  on 
Stanley  Pool,  by  a  line  of  communication  flanking-  the  long  break 
of  rapids  which  now  intervene  between  the  upper  and  lower  water- 
channels.  These  obstacles  passed,  the  7,000  miles  of  navigable  high- 
way on  the  Congo  and  its  affluents  are  made  at  once  accessible  to 
European  commerce,  and  vast  tracts  of  the  heart  of  Africa  are  laid 
open  to  civilization. 

An  annual  sum  of  £62,000  is  now  expended  on  porterage  from 
the  Lower  to  the  Upper  Congo,  and  the  Congo  State  will  guarantee 
the  Company  a  yearly  outlay  of  £10,000  for  its  own  traffic  during  a 
term  of  ten  years  from  the  opening  of  the  line  to  Stanley  Pool.  The 
State  Government  also  makes  over  to  the  Company  40  per  cent,  of 
the  gross  Customs  revenue  from  export  duties  until  the  railway 
shall  pay  a  dividend  of  6  per  cent.  All  land  required  for  the 
establishments  of  the  railway  will  be  conceded  free  of  payment 
or  tax,  and  every  possible  assistance  will  be  rendered  to  the  under- 
taking by  the  State  officials. 

The  first  section  of  railway  will  be  a  length  of  fifty  miles,  to  which 
succeeds  a  stretch  of  the  river  navigable  for  eighty-eight  miles. 
Another  railway  of  ninety-five  miles  will  complete  the  connection 
with  Stanley  Pool ;  and  Mr.  Stanley  believes  that  the  actual  cost  of 
this  through  line  of  communication  will  be  £475,500.  The  very 
large  margin  allowed  for  in  the  limit  of  the  capital  of  the  Company 
is  intended  to  cover  the  further  outlay  required  by  development  of 
traffic,  such  as  the  junction  of  the  two  detached  railway  sections  by 
a  connecting  line,  and  the  creation  of  a  large  steam  flotilla  on  the 
Upper  Congo.  Recent  explorations  of  the  tributaries  of  the  latter 
show  that  their  value  as  means  of  communication  have  been  under- 


J 


Kotes  of  Travel  and  Exploration.  413 

estimated  rather  than  exag^j^e rated  ;  and  should  the  Mohan^i,  the 
g'reat  affluent  which  joins  the  main  stream  near  the  Equator,  prove, 
as  is  now  thought,  identical  with  Schweinfurth's  Welle,  the  riches 
of  the  Southern  Soudan  and  Upper  Nile  basin  would  find  their  outlet 
by  this  route. 

United  States  Report  on  the  Congo  State. — Lieutenant  Taunt, 
of  the  United  States  TSavy,  has  recently  returned  from  a  mission 
to  the  Upper  Congo,  and  reports  much  more  favourably  on  the 
resources  of  the  country  than  his  compatriot,  Mr.  Tisdell,  U.S., 
Consul  in  West  Africa,  who,  after  a  visit  to  the  Lower  Congo,  drew 
H  very  gloomy  picture  of  the  productiveness  of  these  regions.  As 
he,  however,  did  not  penetrate  far  into  the  interior,  much  of  his 
information  must  have  been  derived  at  second-hand,  and  his  coun- 
tryman, whose  journey  extended  to  Stanley  Falls,  over  1,000  miles- 
inland,  is  entitled  to  speak  with  much  greater  authority.  His 
verdict  is  that  there  are  on  the  Congo  abundant  resources  to 
develop,  and  that,  though  there  are  barren  tracts  on  the  Lower 
Congo,  there  is  no  considerable  region  absolutely  unproductive.  As 
to  the  climate,  he  himself  enjoyed  perfect  health,  and  believes  there 
is  no  reason  w^iy  all  Europeans,  with  ordinary  precautions,  should 
not  fare  as  well.  The  State  officials  are,  in  his  opinion,  very 
neglectful  of  the  rules  laid  down  by  Mr.  Stanley  for  sojourners  in 
Africa,  and  have  consequent!}'-  suffered  in  proportion.  Supplies  of 
European  vegetables  were  obtainable  at  most  of  the  stations,  and  the 
rearing  of  cattle  is  successfully  carried  on  at  some.  Near  one  of 
them  a  feeding  ground,  frequented  by  vast  herds  of  buffalo,  shows 
that  the  bovine  species  ought  to  find  a  congenial  habitat.  He 
advocates  an  increase  in  the  number  of  stations  as  likely  to  promote 
the  interests  of  the  Eree  States.  The  only  unfriendly  natives  seen 
were  those  at  the  mouth  of  Aruwimi  River,  and  he  ascribes  their 
hostility  to  their  distance  from  any  European  post. 

An  African  Eden, — This  favoured  spot,  described  in  glowing 
terms  b}'  Captain  Storms,  of  the  International  Congo  Association,  is 
a  new  station  called  Mpala,  founded  by  him  on  the  western  shore  of 
Lake  Tanganika.  Originally  entrusted,  in  1882,  with  the  charge  of 
the  station  of  Karema,  on  the  opposite  shore  of  the  lake,  he  reached 
his  post,  after  accomplishing,  in  ninety  days'  travel  from  Zanzibar,  a 
journey  which  usually  takes  from  four  to  five  months.  In  establish- 
ing the  new  post  at  Mpala,  he  encountered  at  first  great  difficulties 
from  the  natives,  but  reduced  them  eventually  to  submission,  symbol- 
lized  by  the  payment  of  "  bongo,"'  or  tribute.  He  also  claims  to  have 
put  down  the  Arab  slave  raids  which  previously  ravaged  the  country ; 
and  in  view  of  this  fact  it  is  matter  for  regret  that  the  Association 
should  have  resolved  on  the  abandonment  of  their  advanced  outposts 
on  Lake  Tanganika  and  recalled  their  representative.  Captain  Storms, 
however,  regards  this  step  as  but  a  temporar}?  one,  and  has  for  the 
present  installed  the  Algerian  missionaries  as  guardians  of  his  stations, 
with  all  their  stores  and  buildings. 

After  a  three  years'  sojourn,  he  pronounces  the  climate  as  leaving; 


414  Notes  of  Travel  and  Exploration. 

nothing'  to  be  desired,  either  from  the  point  of  view  of  salubrity  or 
agTeeabihty,  while  the  fertility  of  the  soil  is  such  as  to  yield  two  crops 
of  wheat  or  three  of  rice  in  a  single  year.  Palm  oil  and  india-rubber 
are  to  be  had  in  abundance,  the  ivory  furnished  is  said  to  be  of  the 
best  quality,  and  the  forests  contain  inexhaustible  supplies  of  valuable 
timber.  The  stations  were  not  only  able  to  subsist  on  their  own 
resources,  but  also  to  supply  the  wants  of  passing  caravans,  and  it  is 
to  be  hoped  the  resources  of  the  Association  may  soon  admit  of  their 
re-occupation. 

Baltic  Canal. — The  Times  of  December  15  gives  a  summary  of 
the  official  Expose  des  Motifs  attached  to  the  Bill  presented  to  the 
Reichstag-  for  the  projected  ship  canal  betAveen  the  North  Sea  and 
the  Baltic.  Military  and  naval  exigencies  are  set  forth  as  the 
primary  motive  of  its  construction,  necessitating  an  elaborate  system 
of  fortification  which  will  much  increjise  its  cost.  The  principal 
commercial  advantage  to  be  derived  from  it  is  the  shortening  of  the 
vo3'age  from  the  German  ports  to  the  Baltic  by  237  miles,  thus 
enabling  their  shipping-  to  compete  on  more  advantageous  terms 
with  that  of  Scotland  and  the  North  of  England,  relatively  better 
placed  as  regards  the  present  circuitous  route.  Thus,  while  the 
average  time  saved  by  the  canal  to  a  steamer  from  a  German  port 
or  from  London  would  be  22  hours,  the  passage  from  Hull 
would  be  shortened  by  but  15,  from  Newcastle  by  6|,  and  from 
Leith  by  3^  hours,  the  rate  of  steaming  being  taken  at  8'25 
nautical  miles  an  hour.  A  considerable  saving  would  also  be 
effected  to  shipowners  in  pilot  and  other  fees,  as  well  as  in  in- 
surance, the  dangers  of  the  Skaw  route  being  estimated  to  cause  an 
annual  loss  of  200  ships.  The  track  of  the  canal,  which  will  be 
53  miles  long,  Avill  leave  the  Elbe  estuary  near  Brunsbiittel, 
to  follow  the  Sudensee  and  Gieselau  valleys  to  Wittenbergen  on  the 
Eider  J  thence,  adopting  the  course  of  that  stream,  and  subse- 
quently of  the  Eider  cannl  to  Holtenau,  in  the  Bay  of  Keil.  its 
Baltic  terminus.  Its  surface  breadth  of  60  metres,  with  a  floor 
width  of  26,  and  a  depth  of  8o  metres,  will  enable  it  to  accommo- 
date the  largest  vessels  of  the  German  Nav}',  and  a  period  of  13 
hours  is  reckoned  for  the  passage.  The  cost  is  estimated  at  156 
million  marks,  including  8  millions  for  fortifications,  while  an 
annual  expenditure  of  close  upon  2  million  marks  will  be  required 
for  its  maintenance.  Toll  dues  will  be  levied  at  the  rate  of  about 
75  pfennigs  (Od.)  on  every  registered  ton,  and  this  charge  will 
include  pilotage,  lighting  (by  electricity),  and  tug  fees  for  sailing- 
vessels. 

Exploration  of  the  Persian  Border. — At  the  evening  meet- 
ing of  the  Ro3'al  Geographical  Society,  December  14,  Colonel 
C.  E.  Stewart  detailed  his  experiences  in  exploring  the  desert 
country  on  the  Perso-Afghan  border,  from  1882  to  1885.  The 
utter  desolation  of  these  lands  is,  in  part  at  least,  due  to  the  Mongol 
invasions  of  the  thirteenth  century,  j)revious  to  which  considerable 
cities  existed  in  countries  that  are  now  uninhabited.      Thus,  at  a 


Notes  of  Travel  and  Exploration.  415 

small  villag-e  called  Zuzan,  near  Kliaf,  where  Colonel  Stewart  bad 
Lis  headquarters,  he  found  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  city,  coverinj*-  a 
larg^e  area  of  g-round,  and  with  remains  of  fortifications  distinctly 
traceable.  An  old  villag-er  pointed  out  the  spot  called  the  Red 
Garden,  where  legend  says  Chinghiz  Khan  had  the  whole  popula- 
tion massacred  in  cold  blood,  and  where  all  vegetation  has  since 
refused  to  grow.  According  to  the  English  traveller,  not  Chinghiz, 
but  his  son  Tulai  Khan,  was  the  author  of  the  destruction  of  Zuzan, 
perpetrated  in  a.d.  1220-21.  The  remains  of  seventy  kanots,  or 
covered  irrig-ation  channels,  can  be  discerned  in  the  neighbourhood, 
and  it  was  their  dependence  on  this  artificial  supply  of  water  that 
rendered  the  ruin  of  these  countries  by  the  Mongols  so  final  and 
irretrievable. 

Mir  Alam  Khan,  the  Ameer  of  Khaian,  is  the  ruler  of  this  portion 
of  the  border,  Birjend  being  its  principal  town.  Opium  is  produced 
here  in  large  quantities,  both  for  export  and  for  home  consumption, 
hundreds  of  people  being  said  to  die  annuall}^  from  its  excessive  use. 
The  Lut  desert,  which  separates  the  Ameer's  territory  from  the  Persian 

{)rovinces  to  the  south,  is  believed  by  Colonel  Stewart  to  be  one  of  the 
lottest  parts  of  the  earth's  surface,  and  has  been  only  crossed  once  by 
Europeans  (the  Russian  mission  of  Khanikof,  iu  1801)  since  the  days 
of  Marco  Polo.  After  undergoing  terrible  sutferings  from  heat  and 
thirst,  the  English  explorer  and  his  party  were  forced  to  return 
to  Birjend,  brackish  water  being  only  found  in  scanty  supplies  at 
long  intervals,  and  an  antelope  with  two  kids,  the  only  living  things 
encountered  in  the  eighty  miles  of  desert  traversed. 

Visit  to  Herat. — Colonel  Stewart  was  subsequently  attached  to  the 
Afghan  Boundary  Commission,  and  was  one  of  the  three  officers  who 
visited  Herat  in  May  1885,  no  Englishman  having  previously  entered 
it  since  Sir  Lewis  Pelly's  sojourn  there  in  1860.  The  latest  visitor 
confirms  all  that  previous  travellers  have  said  as  to  the  luxuriant 
fertility  of  the  valley  of  Herat,  the  whole  of  which  for  a  length  of 
120  miles,  and  a  Avidtli  of  12  or  14,  he  describes  as  cultivated 
like  a  garden.  The  thickly  planted  villages  show  the  density  of 
population,  while  that  of  the  town  has  dwindled  from  its  ancient  figure 
of  100,000  to  about  12,000,  exclusive  of  the  numbers  of  the  garrison. 
Colonel  Stewart  concluded  by  urging  the  prolongation  of  the  Quetta 
Railway  to  Herat  via.  Kandahar,  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  which 
he  declared  to  be  not  physical  but  moral,  consisting  in  the  prejudices 
of  the  English  and  Afghan  peoples.  An  eventual  junction  with  the 
Russian  line  from  the  Caspian  to  Samarkand,  whose  completion  is 
expected  within  three  years,  would  establish  a  great  circuit  of  com- 
munication between  Europe  and  Asia. 

Petroleum  in  India. — The  suspicion  that  })etroleum  existed  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  Bolan  Pass  has  been  confirmed  by  the  Canadian 
experts  called  in  by  the  Indian  Government  to  test  the  niatter.  Their 
report  is  most  encouraging,  as  it  declares  the  supply  sufficient  not  only 
to  furnish  fuel  for  the  frontier  railways,  but  also  to  serve  for  illumi- 
nating purposes  throughout  Northern  India.     As  it  seldom  occurs  in 


416  Notes  of  Travel  and  Exploration. 

isolated  beds,  it  is  likely  to  be  found  in  other  places  in  the  same 
district,  a  fact  which  may  revolutionize  the  whole  condition  of 
the  North- Western  frontier.  For  as  the  Russian  advance  in  Central 
Asia  has  been  incalculably  facilitated  by  the  vast  development  of  the 
petroleum  trade  on  the  Caspian,  so  the  creation  of  a  g-reat  industry  in 
this  vulnerable  point  of  the  Indian  Empire  will  be  of  material 
assistance  in  helping'  forward  communications  over  the  Afghan  border. 
Already  the  engines  on  the  Pishin  railway  are  being  adapted  to  burn 
it  as  fuel,  and  the  Indus  flotilla  will  probably  follow  this  example. 
The  economy  effected  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  on  the 
Caspian  shore  petroleum  dregs,  the  form  used  for  fuel,  are  sold  for 
2s.  6d.  a  ton,  while  weight  for  weight  its  value  as  a  combustible 
is  double  that  of  coal. 

The  Transcaspian  Railway. — The  Times  of  February  18 
publishes  a  translation  of  an  official  memorandum  by  General 
Annenkoff,  director  of  the  Eussian  railway  intended  to  connect  the 
Caspian  Avith  the  Amu  Darya,  in  which  he  speaks  as  follows  of  its 
condition  and  prospects  : — 

From  Kizil  Arvat  the  line  takes  an  east-south-east  direction, 
crosses  the  oasis  of  Aschel,  and  passes  under  the  walls  of  Geok 
Tepe.  The  principal  station  on  this  part  of  the  line  is  Askabad, 
which  is  217  kilometres  (135J  miles)  from  Kizil  Arvat.  Further 
on  it  turns  round  the  point  made  by  the  Shah's  possessions  in  this 
quarter,  and  then  passes  into  the  Attock,  a  country  where  we  found 
many  villages  formerly  abandoned,  but  which  had  been  re-occupied 
since  the  Russian  annexation.  The  most  considerable  of  these  is 
Kahka.  Still  further  on  rises  Douchak,  whence  start  the  routes  for 
Sarakhs,  Meshed  and  Herat.  From  Kizil  Arvat  to  Douchak  the 
distance  is  391  kilometres  (249|  miles).  For  the  whole  of  the 
journey  drinkable  water  is  to  be  found  in  sufficient  quantities. 
From  Douchak  the  line  bends  east-north-east,  and  stretches  into  the 
desert  towards  Merv.  Here  streams  are  wanting,  but  two  large 
rivers,  the  Tejend  (lower  Heri  Rud)  and  the  Murghab  are  found. 
From  Douchak  to  the  Tejend  is  51  kilometres  (31^  miles).  The 
Tejend  is  an  interesting  river,  still  little  known  for  part  of  its 
course.  In  summer,  through  the  melting  of  the  snow,  its  water  is 
abundant.  In  winter  it  is  almost  dry ;  but  on  digging  up  the  bed 
of  the  dried-up  stream  water  is  generally  found  at  the  distance  of  a 
few  feet. 

New  Merv. — From  the  Tejend  to  the  Murghab  is  125  kilometres 
(78  miles) ;  from  the  Murghab  to  the  flrst  wells  bordering  Merv  is 
100  kilometres  (62|-  miles).  Throughout  this  region  the  most 
frightful  aridity  would  have  prevailed  if  an  irrigation  canal  had  not 
been  constructed  to  convey  water  from  the  Murghab  to  within  about 
thirty-seven  miles  of  the  Tejend.  Merv  is  a  rapidly-growing  town. 
Formerly  it  was  only  a  vast  enceinte,  intended  as  a  place  of  refuge 
for  the  people  of  the  oasis,  and  capable  at  need  of  standing  a 
siege.  Since  Merv  became  Russian  houses  have  sprung  up  as  if  by 
enchantment.     Plots  of  land  are  assia-ned  to  whoever  wishes  to  take 


Nates  on  Novels.  417 

them,  on  the  one  condition  that  he  immediately  sets  about  erecting 
a  building-.  Very  shortly  it  will  be  a  fine  town  with  large  streets 
and  wide  pavements,  and  avenues  planted  with  trees.  The  Murg-hab 
carries  in  summer  a  great  volume  of  water.  Its  current,  which  is 
about  300  metres  to  the  second  in  summer,  falls  to  about  seventy- 
five  in  winter.  The  area  of  cultivation  was  g^reater  before  the 
destruction  of  the  Sultan  Bend  dyke  in  1874.  Steps  have  been 
taken  towards  the  construction  of  a  new  dyke,  and  the  Russian 
Government  has  assigned  for  this  purpose  the  sum  of  600,000 
roubles.  ■ 

Further  Progress  of  the  Bailroad. — Between  the  town  of 
Merv  and  the  ruins  of  its  former  great  cities,  the  line  runs  through 
cultivated  fields  and  gardens.  Then  for  a  distance  of  190  kilometres 
(near  120  miles)  it  crosses  a  sandy  desert.  It  is  in  this  part  that 
the  greatest  difficulties  are  to  be  encountered  through  want  of 
water.  It  can,  however,  be  obtained  by  sinking  artesian  wells,  and 
the  nearer  we  approach  the  Amu  Darya  the  more  clearly  does  the 
water  from  the  wells  show  that  there  is  a  subterranean  communica- 
tion with  that  river.  The  Transcaspian  Railway  is  strictly  a  military 
line,  and  General  Annenkoff  concludes  by  summing  up  its  exact 
condition  at  present. 

Traffic  is  open  as  far  as  Askabad,  and  the  line  is  ready  thence  to 
Gaiours,  while  from  Gaiours  to  Merv  the  works  are  completed,  and 
bridges  and  stations  in  course  of  construction.  The  line  from  Merv 
towards  the  Amu  Darya  will  shortly  be  commenced.  The  whole 
line  will  measure  1,065  kilometres  (665 1  miles)  of  which  it  may  be 
said  nearly  600  (or  375  miles)  are  finished,  viz.,  from  Kizil  Arvat 
to  Merv.  Wind  and  sand  are  the  two  principal  opponents  of  the 
Russian  engineers,  and  General  Annenkoif  states  that  the  onl}^  way 
to  overcome  them  is  by  planting  trees  along-  the  whole  of  the  route. 


llotcs  0it  Itobek, 


At  the  Bed  Glove.     By  Katharine  S.  Macquoid.     London  : 
Ward  &  Downey.     1885. 

THE  "Red  Glove"  is  the  sign  of  a  glover's  shop  in  Berne,  and 
the  scene  of  the  story  is  laid  among  the  bourgeois  life  of  the 
quaint  city  by  the  Aar.  The  old  crone  who  owns  the  ''  Red  Glove  " 
takes  as  her  apprentice  and  companion  a  young  relative,  Marie 
Pevrolles,  and  the  lovely  orphan  girl,  fresh  from  her  convent  train- 
ing and  surroundings,  acts  as  an  unconscious  marplot,  ruffling-^  the 
meshes  of  small  intrigue  she  is  transplanted  into  the  midst^  of,  as 
a  fluttering  butterfly  does  the  gossamer  threads  of  a  spider's  web. 
Madame  Carouge,  the  glowing  and  beautiful  widow,  who,  as  the 


418  Notes  on  Novels. 

■wealthy  proprietress  of  the  Hotel  Beauregard,  is  a  personage  of 
much  authority  in  her  small  sphere,  had  set  her  lieart  on  marrying 
the  handsome  broad-shouldered  clerk,  Rudolph  Engemann,  ana 
seemed  tending  prosperously  to  that  conclusion,  when  lo !  a  chance 
meeting  with  Marie,  and  a  glance  or  two  at  her  sweet  downcast 
face,  turns  the  current  of  the  young  man's  feelings  in  another 
direction,  and  upsets  all  calculations  founded  on  his  previous  con- 
duct. Then  Madame  Carouge  plots  with  old  Madame  Bobineau,  the 
girl's  shrewish  guardian  and  employer,  to  marry  her  to  an  elderly 
half-pay  ca})tain,  who  is  only  too  happy  to  grasp  at  the  prize  offered 
to  him.  How  Marie  is  eventually  delivered  from  this  fate,  and  the 
coui"se  of  true  love  smoothed  by  favouring  circumstances,  will  be 
learned  by  those  who  read  the  third  volume  to  the  end.  The 
characters  are  sketched  with  graphic  touches,  and  the  setting  of 
Bernese  life  and  scenery  gives  freshness  and  piquancy  to  a  very 
bright  little  comedy  of  manners. 


The  Rise  of  Silas  Laphavi.     By  William  D.  Howells. 
Edinburgh  :  David  Douglas.     1885. 

THE  advance  of  the  American  novel  to  a  leading  place  in  English 
letters,  at  a  moment  too  when  the  vein  of  native  fiction  was 
showing  signs  of  exhaustion,  is  one  of  the  most  striking  features  in 
contemporary  literature.  It  is  especially  noteworthy  as  the  first 
successful  attempt  at  artistic  utterance  of  the  English  races  bevond 
the  sea ;  the  first  articulate  voice  from  those  newly-peopled  con- 
tinents which  promise  to  take  so  large  a  place  in  the  world's  future. 
ISow,  of  modern  American  romances,  this  latest  work  of  Mr.  Howells 
seems  to  us  to  have  the  most  solid  grasp  of  human  nature,  the 
firmest  touch  in  delineating  and  discriminating  character.  The 
author's  style  would  be  prosaic  were  it  not  for  the  intense  realism 
that  vivifies  its  details,  just  as  his  actors  would  be  commonplace 
were  they  not  dignified  by  his  insight  into  the  higher  possibilities 
of  even  ordinary  natures.  His  present  hero,  Silas  Lapham,  the 
self-made  man,  purse-proud,  boastful,  and  self-confident,  seems  at 
first  too  hopelessly  vulgar  for  interest,  but  as  the  inner  depths  of 
the  man's  nature  begin  to  grow  on  us,  as  we  learn  to  know  his 
homely  tenderness  for  his  wife  and  daughters,  his  rugged  rectitude 
in  business,  his  bulldog  tenacity  of  purpose,  we  feel  that  there  is  a 
massive  groundwork  of  dignity  beneath  his  self-assertion,  and 
recognize  a  pathos  even  in  his  unavailing  efforts  at  gentility.  His 
wife,  too,  Avitli  her  keener  spirit  and  finer  perceptions,  devotedly 
attached,  yet  courageous  enough  to  rebuke  him  when  he  falls  below 
her  standard  of  righteousness,  has  a  vivid  individuality ;  and  married 
life  in  its  most  ordinary  yet  perhaps  highest  aspect  of  mutual  help- 
fulness, moral  as  well  as  material,  has  seldom  been  more  powerfully 
])resented  than  in  their  relations  to  each  other. 

The  romantic  action  of  the  story  is  concerned  with  the  fortunes 
of  their  two  daughters — the  one  beautiful,  the  other  droll  and  clever 


Notes  on  Novels.  419 

— and  the  complication  that  arises  from  a  misunderstanding-  as  to 
which  of  the  sisters  is  the  object  of  a  charming-  young-  man's  devo- 
tion. The  situation  thus  created  is  powerfully  realized,  and  the 
hard  practical  sense  with  Avhich  the  beautiful  but  unintellectual 
sister  fights  off  the  g-rief  of  her  disappointment,  is  a  highly  original 
and  forcible  conception  of  g-irlish  nature.  The  author's  quiet,  shrewd 
humour  comes  out  in  many  passages,  notably  in  the  anal^^sis  of  the 
feeling-s  of  Silas  at  the  momentous  dinner-party  given  by  the  family 
of  his  future  son-in-law,  highly-cultivated  Bostonians  of  the  best 
class.  His  mental  struggles  over  every  article  in  his  clothing, 
culminating-  in  a  pair  of  yellow  gloves,  are  laid  bare  with  keen- 
edged  intuition,  yet  with  an  underlying;  sympathy  for  the  simplicity 
of  nature  that  redeems  the  coarse  texture  of  the  man's  external 
fibre.  The  satire  here,  as  elsewhere,  has  a  foundation  of  pathos 
that  distinguishes  it  from  cynicism,  recalling  the  beautiful  Italian 
proverb  applicable  to  so  much  in  life — Chi  jnu  inteude  piu  perdona  : 
*'  He  pardons  most  who  understands  best." 


A  Fair  Maid.     By  F.  W.  Robinson.     London : 
Hurst* ct  Blackett.     1886. 

MR.  ROBINSON  has  chosen  the  hop  country  of  Kent  for  the 
scene  of  his  story,  which  contains  a  forcibly- drawn  group  of 
characters.  Abel  Mayson,  the  hop-grower,  a  man  of  furious  temper 
but  strong'  affections,  upright  in  the  main,  yet  once  overborne  by  a 
strong  temptation,  when,  in  a  moment  of  pecuniary  distress,  he  robs 
a  dead  woman  of  the  money  intended  for  her  child's  portion,  is  the 
central  figure,  and  the  well-kept  secret  of  hie  life  the  mainspring  of 
the  plot.  His  niece,  May  Riversdale,  is  the  heroine,  the  Fair  Maid 
of  Kent,  who  gives  its  name  to  the  story,  and  the  hero's  part  is 
played  by  the  hop-grower's  son,  Dudley  Mayson,  returned  frorn 
Australia  a  successful  emigrant,  to  come  upon  the  gradual  unravel- 
ling of  the  dark  mystery  overshadowing  his  home.  He  ought 
naturally  to  have  bestowed  his  affections  on  his  fair  cousin,  who  is 
quite  prepared  to  accept  them,  but  they  are  given  instead  to  a 
mysterious  maiden  first  introduced  as  hostess  of  the  village-inn, 
and  subsequently  proved  to  be  the  defrauded  orphan,  on  whom  we 
could  wish  the  author,  in  an  overstrained  attempt  at  orig'inalit3',had 
conferred  a  less  grotesque  appellation  than  Grizzogan  Sliargool. 

This  singularly  circumstanced  young  person  is  not  happy  in  her 
relations,  her  family  circle  being  composed  of  a  sister  constantly 
hovering  on  the  verge  of  delirium-  tremens,  and  a  father  living  by 
his  wits,  who,  though  undesirable  company  in  his  own  person,  is 
being  constantly  hunted  for  through  the  story  as  a  clue  to  somebody 
else.  Indeed,  the  number  of  disappearances  or  occultations  of  the 
principal  personages  is  quite  a  feature  of  the  book,  so  that  they  are 
seldom  all  in  the  field  of  view  together.  In  families  of  the  Shargool 
type,  indeed,  an  occasional  withdrawal  from  the  blaze  of  publicity 
may  be   a   convenient   episode,  but  when   the  respectable  young 

VOL,  XV. — NO.  II.     [Third  Series.]  r  f 


420  Notes  on  Novels. 

brewer,  with  a  fortune  of  £80,000  a  year  and  a  flourishing^  business, 
underg-oes  a  similar  voluntary  eclipse,  we  beg'in  to  think  the  law  of 
probability  strained  a  little  overmuch.  Sudden  and  unexplained 
transferences  of  several  sums  of  £10,000  also  take  place  somewhat 
too  often  for  the  doctrine  of  averages,  all  the  money  transactions  of 
the  story,  indeed,  taking-  place  in  that  round  and  portly  sum.  But 
the  narrative  has  vitality  enoug-h  to  carry  off  these  improbabilities 
of  plot,  and  the  author  has  the  power,  now  g-rown  a  rare  one,  of 
sustaining  the  interest  through  three  volumes  with  unflagging 
spirit.  The  characters  are  not  mere  puppets,  but  clothed  with  a 
certain  amount  of  vitality,  representing  types  of  English  rural  life 
under  its  more  grim  and  uncouth  aspects.  Old  Jabez  Cloko,  the 
village  miser,  with  his  sordid  stealthiness  of  character  and  eventual 
lapse  into  crime,  is  an  original  though  repellant  portrait,  and  the 
ways  and  doings  of  the  waifs  of  society  are  described  with  a  strong, 
if  somewhat  hard,  realism. 


The  Duke's  Marriage.     London  :  R.  Bentley.     1885. 

IF  the  anonymous  author  of  this  work  be  a  novice,  a  brilliant 
career  as  a  novelist  ought  to  lie  before  him.  The  plot  is  full  of 
unexpected  complications  without  being  melodramatic,  and  the 
characters  skilfully  grouped  and  strongly  individualized.  The 
action  turns  on  the  courtship  by  the  Due  d'Alma,  a  young  French 
nobleman  of  high  family  and  large  fortune,  of  Gertrude  Corrington, 
a  pretty  English  girl,  the  daughter  of  a  general  officer,  but  brought 
up  in  very  second-rate  country  town  society^  The  series  of  obstacles 
which  delay  the  marriage,  apparently  imminent  in  the  first  volume, 
until  the  close  of  the  third,  spring  in  a  great  measure  from  the  in- 
tricacies of  the  French  marriage  law,  and  its  restrictions  on  the 
independent  action  of  the  intending  bridegroom.  The  resulting- 
plot  is  developed  through  a  sequence  of  extremely  lively  and  well- 
sustained  scenes  and  incidents,  the  most  interesting  of  which  are 
laid  in  France,  during  the  early  part  of  the  campaign  against  Prussia, 
amid  the  events  leading  to  the  fall  of  the  Second  Empire.  The 
descriptions  of  French  society  are  evidently  written  by  one  very 
familiar  with  it,  who  has  witnessed  the  working  of  the  machinery  of 
government  from  within,  and  has  seen  a  good  deal  of  the  seamy 
side  of  both  political  parties.  The  writer  is  perfectly  impartial, 
describing  the  corruption  and  intrigues  of  the  Imperial  system,  its 
rapacious  officialism  and  hierarchy  of  organized  rascality,  with  the 
same  uncompromising  fidelity  as  the  farcical  follies  and  frenzies  of 
the  ragamuffin  government  that  succeeded  it.  The  scenes  in  which 
the  prisons  of  Paris,  and  the  whole  working  of  the  administration 
of  justice  are  described  in  detail,  are  masterly,  and  apparently 
sketched  Avith  intimate  knowledge  of  the  subject. 

Equally  good  are  the  descriptions  of  the  Breton  chateau  and  its 
rural  surroundings  ;  but  here  we  must  take  exception  to  one  set  of 
incidents.    The  introduction  of  a  fraudulently  concocted  apparition 


Notes  on  Novels. 


421 


•can  perhaps  only  be  objected  to  on  the  score  of  taste,  as  the  fact 
that  such  things  have  been,  cannot  be  disputed ;  but  it  is  a  gross 
breach  of  truth  and  justice  to  represent  the  clerg-y  as  countenancing- 
the  imposture  without  investigation.  We  the  more  regret  to  have 
to  point  out  this  blemish,  as  other  Catholic  institutions  are  described 
with  sympathy  and  appreciation.  Soeur  Rosalie,  the  Sister  of 
Charity,  and  the  Augustinian  nuns  of  the  female  prison  of  St.  Lazare, 
are  lovingly  depicted  ;  and  the  most  charming  scene  in  the  book  is 
that  in  the  Carmelite  convent  at  Auray,  when  the  pale  waxen-faced 
sisters,  with  their  spiritualized  aspect,  confront  the  ragged  hordes  of 
the  Republic,  and  the  Breton  officer,  marching  in  the  Gardes 
Mobiles  to  their  protection,  begins  by  ordering  his  men  to  give  a 
general  officer's  salute  to  the  Reverend  Mother. 

One  would  hope  that  the  pictures  of  English  life  are  not  to  be 
taken  as  faithful  transcripts  from  nature,  as  the  manners  ascribed  to 
provincial  society  seem  more  suited  to  the  servants'  hall  than  to  the 
drawing-room.  It  is,  we  trust,  impossible  that  a  lady  should  publicly 
bandy  such  recriminations  with  a  young  gentleman  as  are  indulged 
in  by  the  heroine's  married  sister  at  one  of  the  Lewbury  parties. 


The  Bostonians.     By  Henry  James.     London: 
Macmiilan  &  Co.    1886. 

MR.  JAMES  has  given  an  appropriate  title  to  his  book,  which  is 
rather  a  brilliant  satire  on  some  aspects  of  society  in  Boston 
than  an  ordinary  romance.  He  has.  chosen  to  lay  his  scene  amongst 
that  strangest  of  all  phases  of  contemporary  life,  the  advanced  school 
advocating  female  enfranchisement  and  emancipation.  Here  we  find 
ourselves  among  a  rare  collection  of  oddities,  whose  portraits  are 
sketched  for  us  with  inimitable  humour,  and  with  more  depth  of 
insight  than  is  usually  to  be  found  in  Mr.  James's  highly  finished 
cabinet  pictures.  There  is  indeed  a  touch  of  Dickens's  great  power 
of  merging  comedy  in  pathos,  in  the  character  of  Miss  Birdseye,  that 
gentlest  and  most  tender-hearted  champion  of  the  self-asserting 
sisterhood.  We  seem  to  see  the  little  old  lady  whose  "  vast,  fair, 
protuberant,  candid  ungarnished  brow  "  was  "  ineffectually  balanced 
m  the  rear  by  a  cap  which  had  the  air  of  perpetually  falling  back- 
ward, and  which  Miss  Birdseye  suddenly  felt  for  while  she  talked, 
with  unsuccessful  irrelevant  movements."  The  remainder  of  her 
toilette  is  thus  summed  up  : — 

She  always  dressed  in  the  same  way :  she  wore  a  loose  black  jacket, 
with  deep  pockets,  which  were  stuffed  with  papers,  memoranda  of  a 
voluminous  correspondence,  and  from  beneath  her  jacket  depended  a  short 
stuff  dress.  The  brevity  of  this  simple  garment  was  the  one  device  by 
which  Miss  Birdseye  managed  to  suggest  that  she  was  a  woman  of 
business,  that  she  wished  to  be  free  for  action.  She  belonged  to  the 
Short-  Skirts  League  as  a  matter  of  course  ;  for  she  belonged  to  any  and 
every  league  that  had  been  founded,  for  almost  any  purpose  whatever. 
This  did  not  prevent  her  from  being  a  confused,  entangled,  inconsequent, 
discursive  old  woman,  whose  charity  began  at  home  and  ended  nowhere, 

FF2 


422  Notes  on  Novels. 

whose  credulity  kept  pace  witli  it,  and  who  knew  less  about  her  fellow- 
creatures,  if  possible,  after  fifty  years  of  humanitary  zeal,  than  on  the 
day  she  had  gone  into  the  field  te  testify  against  the  iniquity  of  most 
arrangements.  No  one  had  an  idea  how  she  lived ;  whenever  money  was 
given  her  she  gave  it  away  to  a  negro  or  a  refugee.  No  woman  could  be 
less  invidious ;  but,  on  the  whole,  she  preferred  these  two  classes  of  the 
human  race.  Since  the  Civil  War  much  of  her  occupation  was  gone,  for 
before  that  her  best  hours  had  been  spent  in  fancying  she  was  helping 
some  Southern  slave  to  escape.  It  would  have  been  a  nice  question 
whether,  in  her  heart  of  hearts,  for  the  sake  of  this  excitement,  she  did 
not  sometimes  wish  the  blacks  back  in  bondage.  She  had  suffered  in  the 
same  way  by  the  relaxation  of  many  European  despotisms,  for  in  former 
years  much  of  the  romance  of  her  life  had  been  in  smoothing  the  pillow 
of  exile  for  banished  conspirators. 

This  amiable  enthusiast  is  balanced  by  the  handsome  female 
lecturer,  who  had  always  "the  air  of  being  introduced  by  a  few 
remarks,"  and  "something  public  in  her  eye  from  the  habit  of  looking 
down  from  a  lecture-desk  over  a  sea  of  heads,  while  its  distinguished 
owner  was  eulogised  by  a  leading  citizen."  Equally  well  described 
are  Olive  Chancellor,  the  sombre  fanatic  in  the  same  cause,  and  the 
brisk,  somewhat  cynical,  little  doctress,  Mary  F.  Prance.  Among 
these  strange  beings  moves  the  heroine,  Verena  Tarrant,  still  fresh, 
innocent,  and  unspoiled,  though  the  daughter  of  a  mesmeric  char- 
latan, reared  in  an  atmosphere  of  imposture,  and  adding  to  her  gifts 
of  youth  and  beauty  that  of  oratory,  enabling  her  to  hold  audiences 
enchained^by  a  stream  of  silvery  nonsense  poured  forth  in  her  fresh 
young  voice. 

In  this  circle  of  modern  Amazons  the  hero,  Basil  Ransom,  an 
ex-planter  from  Mississippi,  appears  as  a  disturbing  element,  and 
triumphs  in  the  end  by  detaching  Verena  from  her  career  as  a 
reformer.  His  character  fails  to  excite  the  interest  it  is  evidently 
intended  to  create,  and  as  a  portraiture  of  a  Southern  gentleman,  is 
a  failure.  The  flourish  and  elaboration  of  manner  supposed  to  be 
distinctive  of  the  slave-holding  aristocracy,  is  among  them,  as  else- 
where, a  tradition  of  the  past,  and  Basil  Ransom's  compatriots 
repudiate  it  as  a  national  characteristic. 


Strange    Case   of   Dr.   Jehyll   and    Mr.    Hyde.     By  Robkrt  LouiS 
Stevenson.     London  :  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.     1886. 

MR.  STEVENSON'S  vivid  realism  of  style  enables  him  to  frame 
a  fascinating  tale  on  a  basis  of  fable  as  weirdly  extravagant 
as  a  nightmare.  A  man,  originally  driven  to  lead  a  life  of  dis- 
simulation by  the  desire  to  combine  external  decorum  with  secret 
self-indulgence,  attains  at  length  to  the  concoction  of  a  philtre  by 
which  he  can  dissever  the  two  opposite  strands  of  his  existence  j 
and  the  respectable  and  benevolent  Dr.  Jekyll  thus  transmutes  him- 
self at  will  into  the  monster  of  wickedness,  Edward  Hyde,  in  whom 
all  the  evil  of  his  nature  is  incarnated.  As  a  complete  bodily 
transformation  accompanies  his"  change  of  identity,  the  vices  and 
crimes  of  the  latter  can  never  he  brought  home  to  the  man  in  his 


Notes  on  Novels.  423 

original  character,  and  he  thus  acquires  complete  irresponsibility  for 
his  actions.  The  subtle  process  bj  which  the  lower  nature,  thus 
fostered,  g-raduallj  dominates  and  crushes  the  higher,  refusing  to  be 
bound  by  the  laws  that  had  given  it  a  separate  existence,  etfects  a 
tremendous  retribution,  as  the  man  becomes,  in  the  end,  liable  to 
transformation  at  any  time,  without  the  act  of  will  signified  by 
drinking  the  philtre,  into  his  worse  and  outlawed  self.  We  may 
thus,  if  we  so  choose,  regard  the  extravaganza  as  a  profound 
allegory,  personifjang  the  good  and  evil  tendencies  of  every  indivi- 
dual, and  the  moral  transformation  deliberately  invoked  by  the 
surrender  of  the  faculties  to  the  demon  of  excess.  The  gradual 
deterioration  of  the  better  nature,  through  toleration  of  the  misdeeds 
of  its  evil  shadow,  is  finely  marked,  and  the  hero's  eventual  helpless- 
ness to  recover  his  original  shape  accents  the  meaning  of  the  parable, 
as  the  enslavement  of  will  by  passion. 


Fiammctta:  a  Summer  Idyl.     By  W.  W.  Story.     Edinburgh  : 
William  Blackwood  &  Sons.     1886. 

MR.  STORY'S  idyl  is  the  oft-told  tale  of  a  man's  selfishness  and 
a  woman's  wasted  devotion,  artistic  being  superadded  to 
masculine  egotism  in  the  character  of  his  hero.  The  outline  of  the 
tale  is  thus  identical  with  that  of  "  Gwen,"  with  the  substitution 
of  Italian  for  Breton  scenery  and  surroundings.  The  somewhat 
bald  realism  of  the  narrative  contrasts,  too,  with  the  poetic  finish  of 
the  work — we  believe  also  by  an  American  author — with  which  we 
have  compared  it.  Fiammetta  is  an  Italian  peasant  girl,  whose 
beauty  catches  the  eye  of  an  artist-count,  on  his  summer  holidays, 
spent  in  his  dilapidated  hereditary  villa  in  the  Apennines.     The 

firl  sits  for  a  picture,  which  proves  to  be  his  masterpiece,  and  gives 
er  heart  to  the  man  while  inspiring  the  genius  of  the  artist.  The 
fancy  of  the  latter  is  indeed  caught  for  a  while,  but  pride  or  pru- 
dence forbid  an  inferior  marriag-e,  and  he  departs,  salving  his 
conscience  with  the  excuse  that  he  had  committed  himself  by  no 
verhal  declaration  of  attachment.  A  summons  to  Fiammetta's 
death-bed  during  the  ensuing  winter  gives  a  temporary  shock  to 
his  sensibilities,  but  is,  we  feel,  a  very  inadequate  punishment  for 
his  heartlessness.  Some  of  the  Italian  folk-songs,  put  into  the 
mouth  of  the  heroine,  are  perhaps  the  prettiest  part  of  the  volume, 
and  we  subjoin  a  translation  of  one  to  enable  the  reader  to 
judge  :— 

In  Maytime,  well  I  mind  it,  happ'd  the  story, 
That  we  two  fell  a-courting,  you  and  I. 

The  roses  of  the  garden  bloomed  in  glory, 
The  cherries  hung  a-blackening  up  on  high. 

The  cherries  on  the  boughs  were  turning  black. 

I  met  you,  and  for  sweetheart  took,  alack. 

The  leaves  are  falling  now,  the  summer's  over. 

And  I  have  lost  all  heart  to  play  the  lover. 


424  '  Notes  on  Novels. 

A  Family  Affair.    A  Novel.     By  Hugh  Conway.     Three  vols. 
London:  Macmillan  &  Co.     1885. 

¥EITTEN  in  a  graceful  and  agreeable  style,  this  book  is 
decidedly  pleasant  reading".  Like  its  predecessors  from  the 
same  hand,  the  plot  is  full  of  mystery,  and,  it  must  be  confessed,  of 
improbability.  That  the  daughter  of  a  baronet,  entitled  in  her  own 
right  to  an  income  of  £2,500  per  annum,  should  be  so  far  neglected 
and  abandoned  by  her  father,  and  other  relations,  as  to  lead  a 
solitary  life  in  her  early  girlhood,  strikes  us  as  an  incident  almost 
outside  the  fair  demands  upon  the  reader's  credulity.  This,  how- 
ever, is  the  experience  of  Beatrice  Clauson,  the  heroine.  While 
thrown  in  this  manner  upon  her  own  resources,  she  contracts  an 
unfortunate  marriage  with  her  drawing-master,  a  person  of  the 
worst  possible  character.  For  a  time  he  is  removed  from  her  life, 
inasmuch  as  he  is  sentenced  to  five  years'  penal  servitude  for  forgery ; 
but  the  five  years  come  to  an  end  at  last,  and  the  convict-husband 
reappears  full  of  affection — for  his  wife's  money  !  Meantime  the 
child  of  this  marriage  has  been  smuggled  into  the  house  of  the 
Messrs.  Talbert — two  prim  and  old-maidenly  uncles  of  Beatrice 
with  whom  she  has  found  a  refuge — by  the  device  of  having  it  left 
in  the  train  with  its  address  pinned  to  its  frock.  The  golden- 
headed  infant  wins  its  way  with  the  formidable  uncles,  and  Beatrice 
is  enabled  without  scandal — for  her  marriage  has  been  kept  secret — 
to  gratify  her  maternal  instincts.  When  the  time  comes  for  her 
husband's  release  from  Portland,  she  has,  of  course,  to  fly ;  and  with, 
her  baby  and  a  faithful  attendant  she  for  a  time  effectually  conceals 
herself  in  Munich.  This  attendant,  Mrs.  Miller,  on  her  return  from 
a  futile  attempt  to  buy  off  the  persecution  of  Maurice  Hervey,  the 
convict,  is  tracked  by  him  from  London  to  Munich.  Too  devoted 
to  her  mistress  to  allow  her  life  to  be  embittered  by  further  perse- 
cution, and  holding  with  fanaticism  the  gloomy  creed  of  predestina- 
tion, she  hurled  herself  upon  Hervey,  as  the  train  which  bore  them 
both  was  approaching  Munich,  and  clasped  in  a  fierce  embrace  they 
fell  from  the  iron  platform  between  the  carriages  "with  a  fearful 
thud  on  to  the  six-foot-way."  Neither  is  killed,  and  additional 
horror  remains  to  be  told.  'J'he  woman  disengages  herself  from  her 
insensible  victim,  and,  finding-  him  still  alive,  drags  his  body  across 
the  line  in  front  of  an  approaching  train.  After  this  we  consign  her 
with  relief  to  a  lunatic  asylum,  while  her  mistress  reaps  the  reward 
of  the  crime,  and  marries  the  man  whom  she  has  loved  for  years. 


The  Story  of  Catherine.     By  the  Author  of  "  A  Lost  Love  "  (Ashford 
Owen).    London:  Macmillan  &  Co.  1885. 

IN  pretty  but  melancholy  fashion  Ashford  Owen  tells  the  story  of  a 
girl  who  makes  a  secret  marriage  and  lives  to  repent  it,  as  is 
commonly  the  case.  The  subject  is  sad  in  itself;  but  the  melancholy 
tone  of  the  book  is  due  as  much  to  the  style  as  to  the  subject.  It  is 
difficult  to  say  precisely  in  what  this  melancholy  lies  which  seems  to 


Notes  on  Novels.  425 

cast  a  foreboding-  shadow  over  even  the  sunnier  portions.  It  is  a 
peculiarity  of  the  author's,  and  was  as  conspicuous  in  her  earlier  novel^ 
"A  Lost  Love,"  as  in  the  present  case.  The  opening*  scene  of 
Catherine's  story  is  placed  in  Algiers,  and  without  any  lengthened, 
word-painting,  the  author,  in  a  few  clever  touches,  places  the  un- 
familiar background  before  us  with  a  vividness  only  possible  to  one 
who  has  studied  it  personally.  The  following"  thumb-nail  sketch  is 
of  happy  effect : — 

The  building  lay  in  the  intense  sunlight,  with  its  straight  lines,  its  flat 
roof,  unbroken  but  by  two  corner  cupolas,  and  had  that  look  of  blank 
repose  which  belongs  only  to  an  Eastern  house.  The  whitewashed  walls 
seemed  to  have  no  shade  anywhere,  only  the  strong  light  rested  on  them 
more  softly  where,  in  a  northern  land,  the  shadows  would  have  lain. 

Catherine,  the  heroine,  is  a  gentle  and  winning  figure,  and  but  for 
her  one  act  of  disobedience  and  its  entailed  deceit,  good  and  dutiful  too, 
after  an  old  fashion  mostly  fallen  out  of  favour  with  modern  novelists. 
'  The  heinousness  of  her  disobedience  is  besides  much  lightened  by 
a  skilfully  contrived  chain  of  circumstances  that  prove  stronger  than 
her  will,  and  lead  her  almost  involuntarily  from  the  path  of  upright- 
ness. There  is  one  character  in  the  book  likely  to  win  all  the 
reader's  sympathy — this  is  Walter  Johnson,  Catherine's  life-long; 
friend,  a  Christian  and  a  soldier,  who  has  written  duty  and  self- 
sacrifice  upon  his  standard.  When  all  his  efforts  to  prevent  the  girl 
from  drifting  into  danger  have  proved  futile,  and  he  meets  her  again 
in  stormy  waters,  it  is  he  who  teaches  her  courage  and  the  necessity 
of  accepting"  the  cross  she  has  herself  chosen. — You  married  for 
your  pleasure  (he  tells  her,  when  Mark  Avron's  worthlessness  has 
become  only  too  clear),  and  now  for  God's  pleasure  you  shall  not  at 
once  leave  your  husband.  Duty  is  not  all  over.  You  will  remember 
that  yotir  husband's  honour  and  reputation  are  yours  also  through 
life.  J  ask,  in  your  Father's  name,  that  you  forgive  him. — The  book 
has  a  safe  moral,  and  many  readers  will  be  pleased  to  hear  it  is  in  one 
volume  only. 


Aunt  Rachel:  a  Rustic  Sentimental  Comedy.     By  David  Christie 
Murray.     Two  vols.     London  :  Macmillan  ct  Co.     188G. 

VERY  charming  and  quite  original  is  this  double  love  story  of  the 
old  maid,  Aunt  Rachel,  and  the  young  niece,  ftuth.  Heydon 
Hay  becomes  all  alive  to  us,  with  its  gardens,  where  village  vio- 
linists meet,  its  cottage  rooms  and  stony  pavements,  its  apple-trees 
and  laburnums.  The  author  in  his  Preface  states  that  an  otherwise 
friendly  critic  has  accused  his  rustics  of  talking  unlike  any  rustics 
of  the  real  world  \  and  this  charge  he  dismisses  admirably  b)-  re- 
minding" us  that  a  very  little  of  the  real  article  would  be  enough,  and 
too  much,  in  fiction,  and  that  in  the  Staffordshire  of  his  boyhood 
the  country  folk  did  not  talk,  as  now,  in  the  language  of  the  penny 
papers,  but  took  many  phrases  from  the  Bible  and  the  "  Pilgrim's 
Progress,"  and  spoke  in  his  hearing  quaint  wit  and  wisdom.    Nobody 


426  Notices  of  CatJiolic  Continental  Periodicals. 

■wants  to  chronicle  tlie  conversatbn  of  mere  clodhopper?.  These 
countrymen  are  something  more ;  they  are  the  best  of  the  Black 
Country  folk  in  a  time  not  long  gone  by.  The  old  violinist, 
Ezra,  is  good  company — he  who  had  laid  his  violin  by  since,  ia 
his  youth,  he  went  to  London  once,  and  heard  Paganini : — 

"What  was  it  like  .-^  "  returned  the  older  man.  "What  is  there  as 
it  wasn't  like  ?  I  couldn't  tell  thee,  lad — I  couldn't  tell  thee.  It  was- 
like  a  soul  a-wailing  in  the  pit.  It  was  like  an  angel  a-singing  afore 
the  Lord.  It  was  like  that  passage  i'  the  Book  o'  Job,  where  'tis  said 
as  'twas  the  dead  o'  night  when  deep  sleep  falleth  upon  men,  and  a  vision 
passed  afore  his  face,  and  the  hair  of  his  flesh  stood  up.  It  was  like  the 
winter  tempest  i'  the  trees,  and  a  little  brook  in  summer  weather.  It  was 
like  as  if  theer  was  a  livin'  soul  within  the  thing ;  and  sometimes  he'd 
trick  it  and  saothe  it,  and  it'd  laugh  and  sing  to  do  the  heart  good;  an' 

another  time  he'd  tear  it  by  the  roots  till  it  chilled  your  blood 

I've  heard  him  talked  of  as  a  Charley  Tann,  which  I  tek  to  be  a  kind  of 
humbugging  pretender ;  but  'twas  plain  to  see,  for  a  man  with  a  soul 
behind  his  wescut,  as  the  man  was  wore  to  a  shadow  with  his  feeling  for 
his  music.  'Twas  partly  the  man's  own  sufEerin'  and  triamphin'  as  had 
such  a  power  over  me." 

Ezra's  own  old  love  story  is  interwoven  with  that  of  his  nephew  and 
Aunt  Rachel's  niece.  Every  figure  is  a  character,  and  the  scenes 
pass  vividly  in  the  summer  village  till  the  happy  end.  The  book 
is  that  rare  achievement — a  novel  without  even  an  alhision  to  the 
evils  that  destroy  the  home  and  the  family,  the  very  g*roundwork  of 
Christian  society.  For  this  reason,  Heydon  Hay  village  has  a  re- 
freshing atmosphere,  and  the  story  is  most  welcome. 


I'otbs  of  Ca%Ik  Continental  ^ciiobitals, 

GERMAN   PERIODICALS. 
By  Dr.  Bellesheim,  of  Cologne. 

1.  Katholik. 

The  Gallican  Mass  from  the  Fourth  to  the  Eighth 
Century. — In  the  January  number,  Professor  Probst,  of  Breslau 
University,  has  a  learned  article  on  the  development  of  the  old 
Gallican  liturgy.  Up  to  the  fifth  century  it  was  in  agreement 
with  the  Western  liturg}',  but  soon  after-  a.d,  400  it  underwent 
several  changes.  As  S.  Leo  the  Great  had  shortened  the  Roman 
liturgical  rite,  so  the  Gallican  Bishops,  yielding  to  the  Avants  of 
their  period,  introduced  not  a  few  alterations  into  theirs.  Professor 
Probst  consults  chiefly  the  works  of  S.  Hilary  of  Poitiers  and 
S.  Germanus  for  his  description  of  the  oldest  liturgical  functions. 
The  striking  features  of  the  liturgy  of  the  Apostolical  Constitutions- 
are  found  in  the  oldest  Gallican  liturgy — viz.,  the  Oratio  pro  fidelibust 


Notices  of  Catholic  Continental  Periodicals.  427 

after  the  sermon,  the  prayer  of  tlianksg-ivino-,  the  kiss  of  peace  after 
the  offertory,  and  the  Preface.  The  old  Preface  was  common  to  every 
feast,  but  the  new  Prefaces,  which  began  with  S  Damasus,  varied 
in  expression — each  referring'  to  the  special  feast  for  which  it  was 
composed.  Professor  Probst  shows  clearly  from  the  best  Galilean 
authors  the  identity  of  the  old  Galilean  Preface  with  the  prayer  of 
thanksgiving-  in  the  liturgy  of  St.  Clement  of  Rome.  In  the 
February  issue  he  dwells  on  the  chang-es  which  the  liturgy  under- 
went in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century.  People  had  grown, 
wearied  of  the  lengthened  forms  of  former  centuries,  and  it  became, 
in  some  way  necessary  that  the  Bishops  should  abbreviate. 

Other  papers  in  the  same  number  deal  witli  modern  German 
philosophical  theories  on  time  and  space  and  the  observance  of 
Confession  in  the  rehg-ion  of  Buddha. 


2.  Historisch-politische  Blatter. 

Pernan  Caballero. — Perhaps  no  modern  Spanish  writer  rivals 
Fernan  Caballero  in  descriptions  of  the  customs,  feelings,  and  reli- 
gious piety  of  the  Spanish  people.  Her  real  name  was  Cecily  Biihl 
von  Faber,  the  daughter  of  a  German  convert  who  resided  in  Spain, 
In  two  articles,  William  Hosiius  tells  his  reminiscences  of  Seville, 
where,  during  more  than  a  year,  he  had  many  conversations  with 
that  celebrated  writer.  Fernan  Caballero's  beautiful  novels  have 
been  translated  into  German,  and  are  highly  appreciated  by  Pro- 
testants as  well  as  by  Catholics. 

Cardinal  Kollonitsch. — An  able  article  in  the  February  num- 
ber is  devoted  to  Cardinal  Count  Kollonitsch  and  his  share  in  the 
election  of  Alexander  VIII.  Kollonitsch  was  Bishop  of  Raab,  in 
Hungary,  where  he  proved  himself  a  champion  of  orthodoxy,  and 
where  he  also  strongly  supported  the  Emperor  Leopold  I.  against 
the  Turks,  when  in  1G82  they  invaded  Hungary  and  laid  siege  to 
Vienna.  On  the  death  of  Innocent  XI.,  in  1G89,  Leopold  I. 
desired  the  Cardinal  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  election  of 
Alexander.  He  did  this  with  a  view  of  obtaining  from  that  Pon- 
tiff such  aid  against  the  Turks  as  Innocent  had  given.  The  new 
Pope,  however,  would  not  grant  his  petitions,  adducing,  amongst 
other  motives,  the  necessity  of  succouring  James  II.  of  England. 
The  article,  which  is  drawn  from  many  original  documentsj  will 
be  found  to  be  a  valuable  contribution,  illustrating  the  beginnings  of 
Alexander's  pontificate. 


3.  Stimvien  aus  Maria  Laach. 
A  Description  of  Iceland. — The  January  number  gives  us  the 
sixteenth  and  last  of  Father  Baumgartner's  articles  on  Iceland.  We 
hope  that  these  entertaining  descriptive  articles  will  soon  be  gathered 
into  a  volume — it  will  prove  a  most  attractive  and  useful  book  of 
family  reading.     Prose  and  poetry  are  combined  in  these  splendid 


428  Notices  of  Gailiolic  Continental  PeHodicals. 

articles;  indeed  it  is  mainly  on  account  of  the  poetical  portions 
that  they  have  had  such  an  enthusiastic  welcome  in  Germany. 

F.  Beissel  gives  us  the  history  of  the  venerable  Cathedral  of 
Treves,  whose  beginnings  go  back  to  St.  Helena,  tbe  mother  of 
Constantine.  P.  Lehmkuhl  treats  of  the  observance  of  the  Sunday 
considered  as  a  social  question.  An  able  article  contributed  to  the 
February  issue  by  F.  Meyer,  the  gifted  author  of  the  "  Institutiones 
iuris  naturalis,"  examines  the  Pope's  recent  encyclical,  "  Immortale 
Dei." 

The  late  Father  Schneemann. — We  next  have  a  biography  of 
the  late  lamented  F.  Schneemann,  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
members  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  Germany  in  our  time.  As 
leader  of  the  staff  of  the  Stivnnen^  as  an  able  expounder  of  the 
"Syllabus"  of  1864,  and  as  editor  of  the  bulky  "  Acta  et  Decreta 
Conciliorum  recentiorum"  (the  "  Collectio  Lacensis  "),  he  has  won  for 
himself  the  reputation  of  being  a  sagacious  and  hardworking  theo- 
logian^ and  has  rendered  invaluable  service  to  the  cause  of  religion. 
It  may  be  truly  said  that  he  laid  down  his  life  in  its  service.  He 
died  after  a  lingering  illness,  contracted  in  Rome,  whilst  searching 
there  for  documents  bearing  on  the  Vatican  Council,  and  he  died  an 
exile  (in  Holland). 

4.  Zeitschrift  fur  Katholische  Theologie  {Innsbruck). 

The  Stowe  Missal. — Father  Grisar,  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical 
History,  contributes  to  the  January  number  a  carefully  written 
article  on  the  Stowe  Missal,  as  published  by  Warren  in  his  "  Liturgy 
and  Ritual  of  the  Celtic  Church."  Father  Grisar  holds,  with  Profes- 
sors Bickell  and  Probst,  that  the  Canon  in  the  Stowe  Missal  is  one  of 
the  oldest  liturgical  documents  we  have.  They  refer  it,  undoubtingly, 
to  the  time  of  Pope  Gelasius  (492-496),  and  consider  that  it  forms 
a  striking  example  of  the  development  which  led  from  the  Preface 
as  a  uniform  prayer  of  thanksgiving  to  the  Preface  as  commemorative 
of  the  varying  feasts  of  the  ecclesiastical  year. 

The  Emperor  and  the  Early  Councils. — F.  Blotzer  writes  on 
the  "  Holy  See  and  the  OEcumenical  Councils  of  the  Early  Ages  of 
the  Church."  The  chief  point  of  his  very  solid  contribution  is  the 
answer  to  the  question  :  What  importance  is  to  be  attached  to  the 
fact  that  Christian  Emperors  convened  the  general  synods  .'*  The 
present  article  is  mainly  concerned  with  the  Synod  of  Chalcedon.  Our 
author  narrates  the  relations  between  Pope  and  Emperor  before  and 
after  the  Council,  and  shows,  with  great  ability,  that  nothing  in  the 
facts  can  be  considered  prejudicial  to  the  authority  of  the  Holy  See. 

Another  article  worth  mentioning  here  treats  of  the  recent  con- 
troversies about  Inspiration.  Its  author,  Dr.  Schmid,. Professor  in 
the  Seminary  of  Brixen,  is  widely  known  by  his  work,  "  De  Inspira- 
tione  Sacrae  Scriptural."  English  readers  will  be  interested  to  know 
that  Dr.  Schmid  does  not  at  all  agree  with  the  view  expounded  by 
Cardinal  Newman  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  February,  lb84. 


Notices  of  Catholic  Continental  Periodicals.         429 

ITALIAN  PERIODICALS. 

JOa  Civiltd  Cattolica,  21  Novembre,  1885. 

Civil  Charity  and  Christian  Charity. — We  have  here  an  excel- 
lent article  on  this  subject.  The  civilization  of  the  people,  as  we  all 
know,  is  the  great  object  which  the  Masonic  sects  and  their  abettors 
put  forth,  the  word  not  being  taken  in  its  natural  sense,  but  really 
meaning",  in  their  jargon,  the  unchristianizing  of  the  world.  The 
word  is  the  sheep's  clothing  concealing  the  wolf  from  vulgar  eyes. 
Accordingly,  we  may  always  interpret  the  term  civil,  in  their  parlance, 
when  applied  to  any  institution,  as  tantamount  to  antichristian. 
Thus  we  have  civil  marriag-e,  which,  in  fact,  is  licensed  concubinage, 
as  opposed  to  the  sacrament  of  matrimony ;  civil  funerals — which, 
mean  that  a  man  is  buried  like  a  dog — as  opposed  to  the  holy  obse- 
quies of'  the  Church  ;  we  have  civil  virtues,  civil  morality,  and  so 
on.  Civil  charity,  the  writer  proceeds  to  say,  is  of  the  same  charac- 
ter. Philanthropy,  when  not  proceeding  from  Christian  and  super- 
natural motives,  is  not  in  itself  evil;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  a  natural 
virtue  which,  though  it  cannot  merit  an  everlasting  reward,  receives 
a  temporal  remuneration.  Not  having  God  for  its  object,  it  is  not 
divine,  but  purely  human,  beginning  in  man  and  terminating  in  man. 
It  is  the  virtue  of  the  Gentiles.  But  the  philanthropy  of  the  sects  is 
essentially  vicious.  By  their  own  confession  it  has  self  for  its  source 
and  self  for  its  end ;  nay,  they  assert  that  love  is  necessarily  self- 
interested;  and  one  of  their  mouthpieces  has  gone  so  far  as  to  say, 
"  Strictly  speaking,  I  must  affirm  that  the  primary  conditions  of  our 
being  are  outraged  in  the  vaunted  precept, '  Love  thy  neighbour  as 
thyself : '  this  maxim  betrays  a  very  deep  ignorance  of  human 
nature." 

The  practice  of  their  so-called  philanthropy  by  the  sects  agrees 
perfectly  with  their  theory.  When  they  give  it  is  from  self-love, 
either  to  get  praise,  or  to  purchase  an  amusement,  or  to  obtain  some 
worldly  profit.  But,  not  content  with  having  tlius  denaturalized 
even  Pagan  philanthropy,  they  set  up  their  civil  charity  against 
Christian  charity,  parading  and  magnifying  it  as  superior  to  the 
latter  in  every  way.  In  so  doing  they  have  two  objects — ^to  make 
money  and  to  get  credit.  Hence,  Avhen  any  public  calamity  occurs, 
they  strain  every  nervp  to  draw  attention  to  themselves,  by  their  col- 
lections, their  numerous  organizations,  and  pompous  pretences  of 
ministering  to  the  wants  of  the  sufferers.  Italians  have  had  abundant 
opportunity  during  the  last  few  years  of  seeing  Masonic  civil  charity^ 
in  action,  and  of  being  edified  by  it.  They  have  seen  a  host  of 
journals  labouring  to  collect  money  for  Venetian  inundations,  for 
the  earthquake  in  Ischia,  and  for  the  cholera  in  Spezia  and  Naples, 
and,  in  particular,  they  have  now  been  called  to  witness  a  curious 
exhibition  of  civil  charity  in  Naples  and  Palermo.  The  relieving 
squadrons,  white,  red,  green,  grey,  are  actually  decorated  with  the 
symbol  of  Redemption,  in  order  to  throw  dust  in  the  eyes  of  the 
devout  Neapolitans  and  Sicilians.     These  bands,  styled  erod,  are 


430        Notices  of  Catholic  Continental  Periodicals. 

nevertheless  largely  composed  of  unbelievers,  enemies  of  the  Cross 
of  Christ.  Honourable  exceptions,  of  course,  may  be  met  with  in 
their  ranks,  but,  speaking-  generally,  these  novel  crusaders  have 
earned  a  very  unenviable  reputation,  and  some  of  the  vk^itty  populace 
have  been  heard  to  enquire  to  which  of  the  three  crosses  on  Calvary 
they  were  devout.  It  is  too  true  that  amongst  them  are  to  be  found 
numerous  apostles  of  the  devil,  who  hasten  to  the  bedside  of  the 
dying-  to  keep  away  from  them  the  ministrations  of  the  Church,  and 
to  fill  the  ears  of  these  poor  creatures  with  blasphemy  in  their  last 
moments.  Others  visit  the  convalescents  to  corrupt  and  lay  snares, 
for  their  morals;  two  or  three  of  these  heroes  of  civil  charity,  indeed, 
have  had  to  decamp  from  houses  at  more  than  a  foot's  pace,  if  they 
would  carry  away  a  whole  skin.  Other  shameless  and  nameless- 
excesses  are  recorded,  of  which  the  less  said  the  better.  Meanwhile, 
notwithstanding-  the  enormous  contributions  made,  the  sick  poor  are 
in  the  most  deplorable  state  of  destitution,  and,  but  for  the  self- 
sacrificing  charity  of  the  clergy  and  religious  bodies,  would  be 
actually  dying  of  hunger.  Whoever  may  desire  to  relieve  these 
afflicted' populations  ought  to  follow  the  example  of  the  Holy  Father, 
and  transmit  their  donations  through  the  bishops,  clergy,  and 
parish  priests.  This  is  easy,  for  there  are  several  Catholic  journals 
which  make  collections  with  this  end  under  their  sanction ;  but  let 
them  beware  of  the  Liberalistic  organs  of  civil  charity,  if  they  wish 
to  be  sure  that  the  alms  they  send  reach  their  destination. 


2  Gennaio,  1886. 

Prospects  of  Bussia  in  the  East. — Some  remarks  of  the  Eus- 
sian  correspondent  of  the  Civilta  Cattolica  are  worth  recording  at 
this  juncture,  when  recent  events  have  increased  the  interest  long 
felt  in  the  Eastern  question,  and  rendered-  speculation  more  rife  than 
ever  as  to  what  may  be  its  ultimate  solution.  Come  what  may,  the 
writer  opines  that  Turkey  is  in  all  probability  doomed ;  but  it  is 
already  certain  that  the  authority  of  Russia  in  the  East  is  little  short 
of  annihilated.  Its  popularity  with  the  Bulgarians,  Roumenians,  and 
Servians  is  greatly  diminished,  and  thus  the  work  inaugurated  even 
in  the  days  of  Peter  the  Great,  and  prosecuted  with  such  unswerv- 
ing perseverance  by  his  successors,  the  great  work  of  the  unification 
of  the  East  under  the  sway  of  the  Russian  empire,  is  in  serious  peril 
of  failure.  Nothing  save  some  great  victories  could  repair  its  loss  of 
influence  and  authority ;  but  will  the  other  Powers  give  it  the  oppor- 
tunity by  conceding  to  it  free  action  ? 

Besides  the  external  obstacles  which  thus  beset  Russia's  road  to 
Constantinople,  it  has  also  to  contend  with  internal  difficulties  of  a 
very  grave  character,  which  •  cripple  its  powers  too  much  to  allow  of 
its  intervening  with  energy  in  the  case  of  any  event  which  from  one 
moment  to  another  may  be  expected  to  arise  in  the  East.  It  is 
suffering  a  financial  and  industrial  crisis,  daily  becoming  more 
intense,  and  not  only  incapacitating  it  for  pursuing  with  vigour  what 


N'otices  of  Catholic  Continental  Periodicals.  431 

it  regards  as  its  historical  vocation,  but  even  quite  impedino-  its 
liberty  of  action.  This  peril  existed  three  months  ag-o,  but  the  dis- 
tress has  since  made  rapid  strides.  Kussia  is  essentially  an  agricul- 
tural country,  and  the.  whole  of  the  vast  plain  stretching  irom  Moscow 
southwards,  and  from  the  Dnieper  to  the  Volga,  is  one  extended  field 
of  corn,  from  the  overflowing  abundance  of  which  Greece,  southern 
France,  and  particularly  Germany  and  England,  used  to  draw  large 
supplies  to  help  to  feed  their  numerous  populations.     Now,  the  com- 

Eetition  of  wheat  from  Australia,  the  United  States,  and  the  Indies, 
ad  already  dealt  a  heavy  blow  to  the  exportation  of  Russian  corn. 
Commerce  with  England  had  dwindled  to  half  what  it  had  been, 
while  the  protectionist  policy  of  Prince  Bismarck  was  more  and  more 
restricting  trade  with  Germany.  Then  came  the  law  passed  last  sum- 
mer by  the  French  Chambers,  raising  the  duty,  which  threatened  to 
close  the  ports  of  France  against  the  cereals  of  Taganrog  and  Odessa. 
Nevertheless,  Russian  cultivators,  although  reduced  from  lack  ot 
capital  and  of  agricultural  machines  to  the  simplest  modes  of  tillage, 
were  able,  thanks  to  their  ordinarily  abundant  harvests,  to  sustain 
themselves  till  the  fatal  drought  of  1885  came  to  ruin  all  tli£  crops. 
Far  from  being  able  to  export  grain,  the  sole  riches  it  possesses, 
Russia  has,  now,  not  sufficient  to  feed  its  own  numerous  rural  popula- 
tion. Misery  and  hunger  are  beginning  to  make  themselves  felt  in 
many  of  the  provinces.  What,  then,  may  be  looked  for  before  the  close 
of  winter  ?  Failure  of  industrial  produce,  an  exhausted  treasury,  and 
eighty  millions  of  starving  creatures  to  feed  !  But  this  is  not  all. 
It  is  not  merely  agricultural  distress  from  which  Russia  is  suffering, 
but  every  department  of  trade  seems  on  the  way  to  ruin.  Factories 
are  closing  one  after  the  other  all  over  the  country  and  in  the  very 
suburbs  of  St.  Petersburg.  Even  so  early  as  last  August  the  business 
transacted  at  the  great  annual  fair  at  Nijni-Novgorod  was  next  to 
nothings  and  now  the  host  of  unemployed  and  starving  poor  is 
daily  on  the  increase  and  assuming  the  most  alarming  proportions. 
Never  since  the  Crimean  Avar  were  so  many  vacant  houses  to  be  seen 
in  St.  Petersburg.  Crowds  of  people  belonging  to  the  lower  classes 
are  meanwhile  huddled  together  in  low,  unhealthy,  and  smoky 
quarters. 

Government,  for  some  time,  has  done  all  it  could  to  conceal  this 
distress  from  the  foreigner,  but  it  was  at  last  obliged  to  make  a  virtue 
of  necessity  ;  and  the  writer  proceeds  to  give  us  some  of  the  published 
statistics  of  the  lamentable  decline  of  commerce,  proved  by  the 
decrease  of  profits  accruing  from  the  duties,  one  of  the  chief  branches 
of  revenue  in  Russia.  How  to  make  head  against  this  disastrous  state 
of  affairs  is  a  question  occupying  the  public  mind,  beginning  with  the 
Ministry.  What  is  to  be  done  ?  One  person  suggests  a  great  addition 
to  the  fisheries  in  the  Polar  Seas,  but,  if  this  would  bring  in  money, 
it  would  necessitate  a  large  previous  outlay  ;  another,  the  closing  ot 
Siberia  against  American  traders  ;  a  third,  the  forcible  appropriation 
of  the  gold  mines  of  China,  in  near  proximity  to  the  frontier.  This 
iast  proposal  might  seem  the  most  likely  to  find  favour.     Meanwhile 


432  Notices  of  Catholic  Continental  Periodicals. 

ihe  Government  hesitates,  deliberates,  and  does  not  know  which  way 
to  turn  in  order  to  find  money.  Under  such  conditions,  it  is  difficult 
to  imagine  how  the  Government  of  Russia  could  think  of  entering' 
upon  warlike  operations  in  the  East. 


FRENCH   PERIODICALS. 

La  Controverse  et  Le  Contemiyorain,  Oct.  and  Nov.  1885.     Lyons. 

A  Corner  of  Old  Castile. — Several  papers  are  continued  in  these 
numbers — that  of  the  Abbe  Blanc,  "  Un  Spiritualisme  sans  Dieu," 
which  is  an  examination  of  M.  Vacherot's  philosophy,  that  of  the 
Abbe  Vig-ouroux  on  Voltaire's  attacks  on  the  Bible,  that  of 
Professor  Dupont  on  the  Eternity  of  punishment  in  Hell,  of 
which  we  have  given  some  details  previously,  and  that  of  Father 
Corluy,  S.J.,  on  the  Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.  Under  the 
title  "  Eome  and  sa  Legende "  M.  Leon  Lecestre  gives  in  the 
October  number  an  amusing  account  of  mediaeval  legends  about 
Rome,  founded  on  the  work  of  Signor  Arturo  Graf  ["  Roma  nella 
memoria  e  nelle  imaginazione  del  medio  evo."  Turin,  1882-84, 
2  vols,  in  8vo] ;  whilst  M.  Jules  Souben  contributes,  under  the  head- 
ing, "  Un  Coin  de^la  Vieille  Castille, '  one  of  the  brightest  papers  we 
have  seen  this  long  while  on  the  peasantry  and  country  cures  of 
Spain.  Clerics  who  aim  at  benefices,  parishes,  &c.  (which  go  by 
concursus),  pass  through  the  carrera  mayor  of  two  years  of  philosophy, 
and  five  of  theology.  Others,  with  less  ambition  or  destined  for 
rural  service,  are  content  with  the  carrera  vicnor,  g'iving  only 
five  years  altogether,  as  we  make  out,  to  a  course,  two  years  of 
which  are  devoted  to  moral  theology.  At  Burgos,  he  says,  they 
study  Goudin's  philosophy,  and  Father  Hurter's  theology.  The 
writer  is  a  layman,  we  suppose ;  his  testimony,  therefore,  is  worth 
reading,  followed  as  it  is  by  an  outspoken  protest  against  the  neglect 
of  oral  instructions  on  the  part  of  the  priests  : — "  Le  Cure  Castillan 
fait  preuve  de  qualites  solides,  d'une  purete  et  d'une  dignite  de  vie 
peu  communes.  II  s'enferme  dans  les  chambres  etroites  de  son 
presbytere  comme  un  moine  dans  sa  cellule  ;  un  scandale  est  chose 
extremement  rare  dans  les  rangs  du  clerge  Castillan ;  aussi  le  pr^tre 
est-il  a  juste  titre  estime  de  ses  paroissiens."  This  also  is  interest- 
ing :  "  Les  populations  rurales  de  la  Castille  sont  encore  pleines  de 
foi,"  though  the  bright  picture  which  the  writer  proceeds  to  draw, 
has  its  shadowy  details  which  are  sad  enough. 


Janvier  et  Fevrier,  1886. 

S.  Peter  at  Home. — The  paper. by  M.  P.  Guilleux,  of  the 
Rennes  Oratory,  entitled  "La  Venue  de  S.  Pierre  a  Rome,"  is 
begun  in  the  January  number  of  La  Controverse  and  concluded  in 
that  for  February.  The  ancient  and  universal  tradition  in  the 
Catholic  Church,  he  remarks,  as  to  St.  Peter's  stay  in  Rome  and 


Notices  of  Catholic  Continental  Periodicals.         433 

martyrdom  there,  was  first  opposed  in  tlie  twelfth  century  among* 
the  Vaudois,  but  with  erudite  criticism  only  at  the  Reformation 
period,  the  arguments  of  Belenus,  completed  by  M.  Flaccus  and  by 
Spanheim,  being  thenceforward  the  recognized  weapons  against  the 
tradition.  These  arguments  had  about  lost  their  force  with  histo- 
rical scholars  when  Ch.  Baur,  with  his  German  transcendentalism^ 
g-ave  to  the  controversy  an  entirely  new  aspect.  Baur  and  his 
friends  see  in  the  historical  witnesses  to  the  Catholic  tradition  only 
the  echoes  of  a  great  legend  formed  in  an  age  which  it  pleases  them 
to  consider  as  the  ''  prehistoric  age  "  of  Christianity ;  and  all  their 
efibrts  have  been  directed  to  bring  together  the  fragments  of  this 
pretended  legend,  to  show  how  it  arose  and  to  follow  its  growth  and 
transformations !  The  Abbe  Guilleux  replies  to  both  schools  of 
opponents ;  the  older  historical  criticism  is  dealt  with  in  the  January 
article,  and  the  legendary  theory  in  that  of  February.  It  will  be 
enough  to  have  mentioned  that  the  earlier  article  gives  a  good  brief 
reply  to  the  older  objections  still  in  vogue  fimong  a  certain  class  of 
writer's.  The  "  legend,"  Baur  pretends,  arose  from  the  rivalries  of 
his  Petrine  and  Pauline  parties  in  the  primitive  Church.  Each  of 
these  parties  originated  "  des  recits  legendaires  "  for  the  glorifica- 
tion of  its  hero  at  the  expense  of  the  other.  The  Roman  Christians, 
however,  who  could  not  escape  this  intestine  division,  had  less  taste 
for  abstract  questions  than  for  practical  solutions  j  and  "  irenic  " 
stories  invented  to  conciliate  the  rival  parties,  would  find  easiest 
acceptance  among  them — thus,  when  the  legend  of  Peter  at  Rome  as 
its  first  bishop  had  once  been  hatched,  it  quickly  triumphed.  The 
Judseo-Christians  first  brought  the  story  out,  poetically  as  a  set-off 
to  the  true  story  of  S.  Paul's  martyrdom  at  Rome,  in  their  deter- 
mination not  to  give  Pauline  Christians  the  advantage  of  a  martyr 
on  the  spot ;  they  "  were  led  to  imagine  "  the  voyage  thither  and 
martyrdom,  and  when  the  party  of  conciliation  became  the  dominant 
party  at  Rome,  "'  the  success  of  the  legend  was  assured  !  "  The 
Clementine  literature,  which  the  German  critic  holds  originated  in 
Rome,  offers  the  key  to  this  myth.  The  Simon  who  there  struggles 
against  S.  Peter  is  only  S.  Paul  personified  under  that  name. 
This  was  the  first  form  of  the  legend :  Peter  paid  at  Paul's  expense. 
The  next  form  it  assumed  was  among  the  Fathers  :  rivalry  had 
ceased,  and  both  were  at  Rome  and  were  martyred  together. 

Baur's  Petrine  Legend  is  Built  in  the  Air. — This  hypothesis 
vanishes  unless  three  points  are  granted,  and  these  three  points  are 
held  to  be  incontestible  by  Baur's  school — first,,  the  existence  of 
hostile  parties  in  the  bosom  of  the  early  Roman  Church  and  their 
fusion  into  a  neutral  party  which  reconciled  Peter  and  Paulj 
secondly,  the  fiction  that  the  journey  of  S.  Peter  to  Rome  was  an 
invention  of  the  Clementines,  and  that  the  Clementine  literature 
originated  in  Rome ;  thirdly,  that  the  Catholic  tradition  rests  on  this 
fiction.  We  can  only  indicate  that  the  writer  opposes,  first,  a  truer 
picture  of  the  interior  condition  of  the  Church  at  Rome,  which  so 
far  as  either  inspired  or  other  literature  gives  glimpses  of  it,  was  not 


434  Notices  of  Books. 

torn  by  contending-  factions.  When  S.  Paul  wrote  to  the  Romans, 
"  it  must  be  granted  at  least,"  as  Hageman  is  quoted  saying-,  "  that 
the  Catholic  Church  (the  Church  of  the  Conciliation  !)  was  already- 
formed  at  Rome,  and  this  long-  before  the  pretended  divisions  could 
have  reached  an  acute  stage."  So  that  a  neutral  or  irenic  party 
should  have  been  formed  when  S.Paul  was  yet  preaching  and  writing! 
Secondly,  the  theological  romance  under  various  forms  in  the  "  Re- 
cognitions "  and  "  Homilies  "  yields  nothing-  towards  the  formation 
of  such  a  tradition  as  the  Catholic  one  as  to  S.  Peter's  journey  to 
Rome.  This  point  is  treated  at  length,  as  also  is  the  non-Roman 
origin  of  this  Clementine  literature  ;  and  the  reply  to  the  third  con- 
tention of  the  critics  becomes  a  comparatively  easy  task. 

Among-  other  interesting-  articles  in  the  same  January  and 
February  numbers  we  may  mention  "  La  Societe  espagnole  sous 
Philippe  IV.,"  by  M.  Julio  Uzed,  in  which  that  writer  draws  the 
materials'  of  his  picture  from  the  dramas  of  Calderon.  There  is  in 
the  February  number  a  beautiful  sketch  of  the  Abbe  Hetsch'  by 
M.  de  Segmont,  and  Professor  Laray,  of  Louvain,  contributes  to  the 
same  number  an  interesting  exegetical  paper  on  the  "  Seventy 
Weeks  of  the  Prophet  Daniel." 


Itotias  of  ^00(ts. 


The  Life  of  the  Very  Rev.  Thomas  N.  Burke,  O.P.  By  William  J. 
Fitz-Patrick,  F.S.A.  Two  vols.  London :  Kegan  Paul, 
Trench  &  Co.     1885. 

AN  Irish  Dominican  assured  Mr.  Fitz-Pati'ick  that  the  life  of  Father 
Burke  could  be  bestwritten  by  a  layman,  especially  if  that  layman 
had  been  already  the  biographer  of  an  ecclesiastic.  And  the  present 
Bishop  of  Galway  said,  within  a  few  months  of  Father  Tom's  death, 
that  as  his  mission  was  primarily  with  the  laity,  there  was  a  special 
fitness  in  a  lay  gentleman  taking  the  lead  to  perpetuate  his  memory. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  about  Mr.  Fitz-Patrick's  qualifications  for  his 
work.  His  Life  of  Dr.  Doyle  is  known  on  this  side  of  the  channel  as 
well  as  in  Ireland ;  and  if  any  doubt  could  have  existed,  his  skill  and 
his  devotion  are  proved  beyond  question  both  by  the  two  handsome 
volumes  before  lis  and  by  the  thoroughness  with  which  he  has  pre- 
pared himself  to  write  them.  To  verify  facts,  he  tells  us,  he  travelled 
from  Dublin  to  Gloucester,  and  from  thence  to  Northumberland,  not 
to  speak  of  various  other  journeys.  And  the  names  of  numerous 
well-known  friends  of  the  great  preacher,  each  of  whom  contributes 
to  this  biography,  attest  the  trustworthiness  of  the  narrative.  It  is 
not  to  be  doubted  that  Father  Burke's  religious  brethren  were 
genuinely  glad  that  a  veteran  artist  like  Mr.  Fitz-Patrick  should  take 


Notices  of  Books.  435 

up  the  work.  It  Avas  a  difficult  life  to  write.  If  a  '^  life  "  should  be  a 
picture  of  the  man  as  he  is,  no  one  but  a  Pere  Chocarne  and  a  Lever 
rolled  into  one  could  ever  paint  the  portrait  of  Father  Tom.  A 
priest  would  have  toned  down  the  exuberant,  truly  Irish,  wild  yet 
melancholy  humour ;  a  mere  litterateur  would  have  been  unable  to 
even  understand  the  man's  inner  spirit — a  spirit  trained  and 
disciplined  in  the  Dominican  tradition,  as  a  fine  Irish  nature  has  been 
so  often  turned  into  a  perfect  soldier  in  a  g-ood  school  of  the  art  of 
war.  It  would  be  too  much  to  say  that  Mr.  Fitz-Patrick  will  please 
everybody.  There  are  anecdotes  which  are  not  in  the  best  taste,  and 
jests  which  are  not  superlatively  fine.  You  may  paint  a  man  with 
all  his  warts  and  wrinkles,  as  Oliver  Cromwell  wanted  to  be  painted; 
but  there  is  no  need  of  a  realism  which  reproduces  his  occasional 
forgetfulness  to  wash  his  face  or  his  hands. 

There  is  no  need  to  say  that  Nicholas  Burke — he  took  the  name 
of  Thomas  when  he  entered  the  Dominican  novitiate — was  a  native 
ofGalway;  he  came  into  the  world  just  one  year  after  his  fellow- 
Catholics  had  been  emancipated.  The  figure  that  stands  out  most 
prominently  in  the  opening-  chapters  of  this  entertaining-  book  is  that 
of  his  mother.  Wat  Burke,  the  father,  a  baker — a  stooped,  elderly 
man,  full  of  vivacious  and  humorous  talk,  who  struck  up  a  wonderful 
friendship — note  the  word — with  his  son  the  moment  the  son  could 
converse — is  well  touched-in.  But  his  mother  Avas  a  much  more 
serious  person.  She  was  unable  to  understand  a  joke,  and  found  it 
difficult  to  excuse  frivolity,  whether  in  a  child  or  in  a  Dominican 
Friar.  She  was  of  what  we  are  accustomed  to  call  the  old-fashioned 
school,  who  upheld  the  traditions  of  strict  discipline,  long'  prayers, 
and  the  use  of  the  rod.  '  She  had  been  a  Franciscan  Tertiary  before 
she  married  (all  the  Confraternities,  said  Father  Burke,  looked  grave 
when  she  approached  the  altar  of  Hymen) ;  and  she  was  a  woman  of 
deep  religious  feeling,  looking  in  all  things  to  the  one  thing 
necessary.  Her  charities  were  only  limited  by  her  means ;  the 
beggars  of  Galway  knew  her  only  too  well.  "  Give  unto  all,"  she 
would  say,  "  lest  he  whom  you  refuse  may  be  Christ."  She  thought 
her  husband,  with  his  light-hearted  fooling,  would  be  the  "  ruin  of 
that  boy ; "  "  why  not  show  him  an  example  of  gravity  and 
decorum  ?  "  On  her  own  part,  she  dealt  faithfully  with  the  child . 
After  an  unusually  wild  prank,  when  the  boy  had  perhaps  been 
brought  home  a  prisoner  by  a  neighbour  or  the  priest,  the  good  woman 
would  retire  into  an  inner  room,  lock  the  door,  and  then  kneel  dovvn 
and  begin  the  prayer,  "  Prevent,  we  beseech  Thee,  O  Lord,  our 
actions  by  Thy  holy  inspirations,  and  carry  them  on  by  the  gracious 
assistance,"  &c. ;  and  then  she  would  proceed  to  administer  condign 
correction.  In  after-life  Father  Tom  declared  he  never  recited  that 
collect  without  feeling  a  cold  thrill  between  his  shoulders.  "  If 
there  was  one  thing,"  said  Mrs.  Burke,  years  after,  *'  more  thau 
another  that  I  chastised  Nicholas  for  when  he  was  a  child,  it  was  his 
habit  of  mimicking  people.  They  used  to  call  at  my  house  to  com- 
plain of  him,  and  I  tried  to  beat  it  out  of  him  in  vain."     She  flogged 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  II.     [Third  Series.']  g  g 


436  Notices  of  Books. 


him  also  for  beginning  too  young  to  practise  tliat  oratory  for  which 
he  was  to  be  famous,  even  rousing  him  out  of  bed  to  be  punished  for 
mounting  on  some  barrels  to  make  an  election  speech.  She  had  her 
trials,  the  good  old  soul,  for  which  her  remedy  was  the  Rosary ;  and 
she  had  her  weakness,  which  was  a  game  of  cards — a  very  mild 
game  indeed.  She  died  at  a  very  advanced  age  in  1879,  having 
lived  to  see  her  son  famous ;  her  husband  had  been  taken  from 
her  seven  years  before. 

It  is  a  very  rare  thing  to  be  able  to  say  of  any  Irish  book  at  this 
moment — and  yet  it  is  true  to  say  of  this  one — that  there  are  no 
politics  in  it.  Father  Burke  had  all  the  attributes  of  a  patriotic 
agitator,  except  lively  faith.  Faith,  in  a  religious  sense,  of  course 
he  had,  and  as  large  a  measure  of  it  as  an  Irishman  should  have  ;  but 
he  did  not  believe  in  the  possibility  of  serving  Ireland  by  political 
means.  It  would  probably  be  saying  too  much  to  assert  that  he 
did  not  believe  in  the  political  future  of  Ireland  at  all.  He  himself 
would  have  asserted  the  contrary.  He  dwells,  in  his  speeches  and 
sermons,  with  delight  or  with  pathos  on  the  past ;  he  vindicates  his 
race  from  the  calumny  of  the  cold-blooded  maker  of  history  and  of 
the  hot-headed  Orangeman  who  cares  nothing  about  history.  But 
he  rarely  speaks  of  the  present — never  of  the  future.  He  is  studious 
to  condemn  no  man  ;  he  speaks  emphatically  against  outrage  and 
on  the  side  of  law  ;  and,  having  done  so,  he  does  not  think  it 
necessary  to  show  the  other  side  of  the  canvas.  This  can  be 
accounted  for  partly  by  his'  priestly  character  and  his  sense  of 
responsibility,  strengthened  b}^  a  residence  in  Rome  and  a  travelled 
culture,  both  of  which  tended  to  make  his  country's  grievances  less 
acute.  But  it  is  clear  that  he  was  of  a  sad,  almost  melancholy, 
frequently  despondent,  character  of  mind.  In  his  youth,  no  doubt, 
he  had  been  carried  away  by  the  greatness  of  O'Connell,  and  had 
keenly  sympathised  with  the  Young  Ireland  movement.  But  in 
184G  he  was  only  sixteen  years  old,  and  the  excitement  of  his 
spirit  was  rather  the  effect  of  the  verses  of  Clarence  Mangan, 
"  Speranza  "  and  Davis,  than  of  any  deeper  or  more  active  convic- 
tions )  whilst  the  memory  of  O'Connell  was  chiefly  the  memory  of 
one  who  was  the  pious  and  Catholic  leader  of  a  pious  and  Catholic 
people,  altogether  and  deplorably  different,  both  leader  and  people, 
from  anything  that  was  to  be  seen  in  the  experience  of  his  riper 
years.  There  sefems  to  be  little  doubt  that,  as  the  great  orator 
became  more  and  more  bowed  down  by  sickness  and  as  the  moment 
of  death  approached,  he  took  views  of  his  country  and  his  country- 
men which  were  exaggerated  in  their  despondency.  This  was  felt ; 
and  it  was  a  pity  that  it  should  have  been  so.  All  that  he  said — and 
he  said  it  nobly  and  eloquently — about  the  holiness  of  obedience  and 
the  duty  of  keeping  the  law  was  most  necessary'',  and  should  at  times 
be  said  by  every  Irish  priest  who  aspires  to  lead  his  countrymen  to 
their  true  welfare ;  but  it  might  have  been  said  with  a  warmer  tone 
of  feeling  for  the  present,  with  a  brighter  tinge  of  confidence  in  the 
future.     It  is  the  man  who  can  combine  the  priest's  austerity  with 


1 


Notices  of  Books.  487 

the  patriot's  "'enerous  lipat  and  the  orator's  supreme  gift,  who  will 
lead  the  people  of  Ireland  infallibly  to  freedom  without  letting  them 
cast  otf  the  yoke  of  their  religion. 

Father  Burke's  oratory  was  of  that  kind  which  is  so  good  that 
one  is  annoyed  it  is  not  absolutely  perfect.  But  the  written,  or 
published,  reports  of  his  efforts  have  so  many  slipshod  lines  and 
sentences  that  they  do  him  injustice.  It  was  because  he  was  so  in- 
comparable a  speaker — incomparahle  in  voice,  presence,  eye,  and 
inflection — incomparable  in  that  personal  sway  which  is  indescribable 
— that  he  neglected,  whether  consciously  or  not,  but  certainly  blame- 
lessly, to  reject  Aveak  phrases,  and  to  avoid  faults  of  taste.  A  written 
sermon  has  to  please  the  world — which  means,  the  general  level  of 
cultured  readers  ;  a  spoken  discourse  has  to  touch  this  or  that;  par- 
ticular audience.  With  a  little  more  care— which  he  was  perfectly 
right  not  to  give — the  reported  lectures  and  sermons  of  Father 
Burke  would  read,  many  ot  them,  with  the  sustained  fire  and  finish 
of  his  great  namesake  the  older  Burke.  They  are  sometimes  splendid 
examples  of  that  rolling  "  periodic  "  style,  which  enunciates  great 
truths  in  clause  after  clause  of  sonorous  phrase,  rising  and  falling* 
in  harmonious  antithesis,  but  culminating  at  last  in  a  climax  which 
is  sure  to  be  touched  with  the  rays  of  an  illustration  as  new  and  as 
telling  as  it  is  majestic.  At  other  times  they  are  a  sei'ies  of  bright 
and  telling  sentences,  uttered  as  if  extemporaneousl}'  (they  generally 
were),  and  producing  a  strong  effect  by  the  figure  of  repetition. 
Every  sermon  and  lecture  was  full  of'  anecdotes  and  reminiscences. 
Father  Burke's  "  I  remember  "  was  as  often  the  prelude  to  a  pathetic 
incident  of  Irish  life,  or  of  his  own,  as  it  was  the  signal  for  a  bit  of 
irresistible. drollery.  He  was  fond  of  apostrophe  and  of  exclamation. 
Thus  in  one  of  his  American  lectures,  which  bears  the  singularly 
suggestive  title,  '*  The  History  of  Ireland  as  told  in  her  Ruins,"  he 
exclaims : — 

Ireland,  what  shall  I  say  of  thee  ?  0  mother,  greatest  and  most  faith- 
ful of  all  the  nations,  fairest  and  most  loving  of  all  the  daughters  of  the 
Church  !  The  queen  of  martyrs  on  this  earth,  Ireland,  for  three  hundred 
years,  like  the  heroic  mother  of  the  Maccabees,  had  stood  erect,  cross  in 
hand,  whilst  her  children  fell  around  her.  Yet  she  bore  it  with  a  good 
courage  for  the  hope  that  she  had  in  God.    (Vol.  ii.  p.  85.) 

As  might  have  been  expected,  he  excelled  in  the  dramatic  pre- 
sentment of  the  incidents  he  narrated.  There  is  an  example  of  this 
^iven  by  Mr.  Fitz-Patrick  (vol.  i.  p.  212)  which  will  bear  quotation  : 

I  was  on  a  mission  some  time  ago  in  a  manufacturing  town  in  Eng- 
land. I  was  preaching  there  every  evening  ;  and  a  man  came  to  uie  one 
night,  after  a  sei-mon  on  drunkenness.  He  came  in  :  a  fine  man — a  strap- 
ping intellectual-looking  man.  But  the  eye  was  almost  sunk  in  his  head ; 
the  forehead  was  furrowed  with  premature  wrinkles ;  the  hair  was  white, 
though  the  man  was  comparatively  young.  He  was  dressed  shabbily, 
scarce  a  shoe  to  his  feet,  though  it  was  a  night  of  drenching  rain.  He 
came  in  to  me,  excitedly,  after  the  sermon.  He  told  me  his  liistory.  "  I 
don't  know,"  he  said,  "  that  there  is  any  hope  for  me ;  but  still,  as  I  was 
listening  to  the  sermon,  I  must  speak  to  you.     If  I  don't  speak  to  some 

G   G    2 


438  Kotices  of  Books. 

one,  my  heart  will  break  to-night."  What  was  his  story  ?  A  few  3'ears 
before  he  had  amassed  in  trade  twenty  thousand  pounds.  He  had 
married  an  Irish  girl — one  of  his  own  race  and  creed,  young,  beautiful 
and  accomplished.  He  had  two  sons  and  a  daughter.  For  a  certain 
time  everything  went  well.  "  At  last,"  he  said,  "  I  had  the  misfortune 
to  begin  to  drink,  neglected  my  business,  and  then  my  business  began  to 
neglect  me.  The  woman  saw  poverty  coming  and  began  to  fret,  and  lost 
her  health.  At  last,  when  we  were  paupers,  she  sickened  and  died.  I 
was  drunk,"  he  said,  "the  day  she  died.  I  sat  by  her  bedside.  I  was  drunk 
when  she  was  dying."  "  The  sons — what  became  of  them  ?  "  "  Well," 
he  said,  ''  they  were  mere  children.  The  eldest  of  them  is  no  more  than 
eighteen ;  and  both  are  now  suffering  penal  servitude."  "  The  girl  ?  " 
"  Well,"  he  said,  "  I  sent  the  girl  to  a  school  where  she  was  well  educated. 
8he  came  home  to  me  at  the  age  of  sixteen — a  beautiful  young  woman. 
She  was  the  one  consolation  I  had ;  but  I  was  drunk  all  the  time.'* 
"  Well,  what  became  of  her  ?  "  He  looked  at  me.  "  Do  you  ask  me  about 
that  girl  ?  "  he  said.  "  What  became  of  her  ? ''  And  the  man  sank  at  my 
feet.  *'  God  of  heaven!  She  is  on  the  streets  to-night  !  "  The  moment 
he  said  those  words  he  ran  out.  I  went  after  him.  "  Oh,  no,  no  !  "  he 
said  :  "  there  is  no  mercy  in  heaven  for  me."  He  went  away,  cursing  God, 
to  meet  a  drunkard's  death. 

Father  Burke's  American  tour,  witli  its  hundreds  of  sermons  and 
lectures,  was  u  real  triumph.  We  do  not  mean  merely  that  the  otFer- 
ings  which  he  received  amounted  to  about  £80,000,  to  the  great 
advantage  of  churches,  orphanages  and  hospitals,  but  his  occasions 
and  bis  audiences  were  such  as  to  bring  out  his  very  best  work. 
The  published  records  of  this  tour  are  undoubtedly  the  most 
worthy  remains  of  this  great  preacher.  He  was  at  his  greatest 
stature  in  America.  ''  Over  and  over  again  he  told  me,"  said  a 
Dominican  Father  who  knew  him  well,  "  that  he  could  never  speak 

at  home   as  in  America To  use  his  own  words,  *  I  never 

knew  what  freedom  was  until  I  set  my  enslaved  foot  upon  the 
emancipated  soil  of  Columbia.  Then  I  said,  I  am  a  free  man,  and 
I  will  speak  my  soul  "  (vol.  ii.  p.  30).  His  discourses  in  reply  to 
Mr.  J.  A.  Froude  are  effective  and  fine  even  in  their  printed  form ; 
but  delivered  as  he  could  deliver  them,  with  his  \inique  power  of 
voice  and  gesture,  and  to  the  overflowing  audience  who  thronged 
the  Academy  of  Music  to  hear  him,  it  is  no  wonder  if  his  friends 
considered  them  his  "  crowning  glory." 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  Mr.  Fitz-Patrick's  volumes  are  filled 
with  capital  stories.  As  has  been  said  above,  there  are  some  Avhich 
in  our  judgment  were  not  worth  recording  ;  and  we  confess  in  reading 
the  book  to  a  feeling  of  having  altogether  too  much — not  of  Father 
Tom,  but  of  some  of  his  traits  and  characteristics.  Still,  the  book  is 
one  to  possess  and  to  read.  It  has  the  advantage,  moreover,  of  being 
written  for  what  may  be  called  the  general  public,  and  not  merely 
for  the  household  of  the  faith.  The  writer  is  not  above  explaining 
or  illustrating  points  of  Catholic  belief  or  practice,  which  some  of  us 
can  hardly  conceive  to  be  capable  of  misconstruction  "by  our  non- 
Catholic  friends,  but  as  to  which  he  thinks  different!}',  and  is  probably 
right  in  so  thinking.     It  would  Lave  improved  the  book  if  we  had 


Notices  of  Books.  439 

Lad  a  little  more  of  the  celebrated  orator's  inner  life.  That  he  was 
&  man  of  deep  faith,  of  the  most  priestly  convictions,  and  true  zeal 
for  souls,  comes  out  very  clearly  ;  and  we  can  also  see  how  the 
searching-  education  of  a  relig'ious  life  had  put  him  on  his  guard 
against  his  weaknesses  or  his  possible  faults,  and  made  him  see  very 
distinctly  the  difference  between  real  and  sham  virtue,  between  the 
primitive  impulses  of  the  heart  and  the  ripe  judgments  of  trained 
asceticism.  Moreover,  the  copious  extracts  from  his  discourses  which 
are  given  by  Mr.  Fitz-Patrick  show  many  glimpses  of  a  fervent, 
patriotic,  and  poetical  nature.  But  we  would  fain  know  a  little  more 
of  that  soul  which  could  sway  so  wonderfully  the  souls  of  others.  It 
would  be  interesting  to  follow  him  to  his  Mass  and  his  cell,  and  to 
see  what  aspect  attracted  him  most  of  the  revelation  of  that  Master 
wham  he  served  so  gloriously.  It  would  not  be  indiscreet  to 
wish  to  lift  the  curtain  a  little  from  his  prayers,  his  mortifications, 
and  his  consolations.  It  would  not  be  impossible,  perhaps,  to  read 
the  secret  of  his  sometimes  strange  and  unseasonable  foolmg,  and  to 
find  out  what  sensitive  fibres  of  his  heart,  what  shyness  of  his  nerves, 
what  humility  of  his  spirit  these  outbursts  were  intended  to  shroud 
and  conceal.  A  chapter  by  a  brother  priest,  a  fellow-religious, 
might  have  told  us  some  of  these  things.  Meanwhile,  it  is  but 
justice  to  admit  that  we  can  gather  a  good  deal  from  the  narrative  of 
Mr.  Fitz-Patrick.  Father  Burke  died  at  the  age  of  fifty-two,  after 
months,  nay,  years  of  acute  suffering,  which  he  took  as  saintly  natures 
know  how  to  take  such  visitations  from  a  God  Who  wishes  to  draw 
them  nearer  to  Himself  No  one  who  heard  him  on  the  last  occasion 
of  his  appearance  in  England — at  the  opening  of  St.  Dominic's, 
Haverstock  Hill,  in  the  summer  of  188^— can  forget  the  feeling 
of  admiration  mingled  with  compassion  that  his  morning  sermon 
inspired.  We  cannot  agree  with  Mr.  Fitz-Patrick  that  the  sermon 
was  "full  of  vigour  "  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  was  sensibly  an  effort; 
but  it  was  the  efibrt  of  a  wounded  giant.  The  sermons  which  he 
preached  during  this  octave,  and  that  supreme  efibrt  which  he 
made  at  Gardiner  Street  two  months  later  for  the  starving  children 
of  Donegal,  were  undoubtedly  the  immediate  cause  of  his  death. 
He  died  at  Tallaght,  in  his  cell,  surrounded  by  his  brethren,  on 
July  2  of  the  same  year. 

ProUemes  et  Conclusions  de  V Histoire  dcs  lieligiom.  Par  I'Abbe  DE 
Broolie,  Professeur  d'Apologetique  a  I'lnstitut  catholique 
de  Paris.     Paris  :  Putois-Crette.     1880. 

WE  cannot  too  warmly  recommend  this  very  successful  attempt 
to  deal  with  one  of  the  most  difficult  and  important  speculative 
questions  of  the  day.  Every  one  must  have  noticed  how  frequently, 
of  late  years,  othe"r  religious  systems,  especially  Buddhism,  have 
been  advocated  in  such  a-  manner  as  to  weaken  the  evidence  for  the^ 
Divine  origin  of  Christianity.  The  general  principles  for  judgin"-  of 
all  such  points  will  be  found  in  M.  de  Broglie's  work,  which  we  liad 


440  Notices  of  Books. 

occasion  to  refer  to  in  the  last  number  of  this  Review  as  supplying 
the  answers  to  some  of  Mr.  H.  Spencer's  objections  to  relij^ion  in 
general. 

The  volume  bej^ins  with  a  sketch  of  the  moral  and  intellectual 
needs  which  all  religious  systems  profess  to  supply.  Next,  the 
earliest  religious  beliefs  attested  by  history  are  examined,  and  shown 
not  to  correspond  with  either  of  the  theories  (ancestor-worship  and 
Nature-worship)  proposed  by  the  rationalists  of  to-day.  Good  reasons 
are  adduced  for  believing  that  there  was  a  primeval  religious  tradi- 
tion containing  little  beyond  a  belief  in  the  existence  and  moral 
government  of  God.  From  this  starting-point  a  twofold  evolution 
has  proceeded.  In  the  first  place,  we  find  that  the  human  mind  left 
to  itself  has  gradually  corrupted  this  original  tradition,  and  evolved 
the  various  heathen  systems,  of  which  Max  Miiller's  '^  henotheism  " 
is  one  of  the  earliest.  The  downward  course  of  all  these  systems 
has  been  continually  arrested  and  diversified  by  the  eflbrts  of 
religious  reformers,  among  whom  the  Brahmins,  Buddha,  and 
Confucius  are  only  the  most  important,  paganism,  as  it  now  exists, 
being  the  result.  It  is  pointed  out  that  all  these  reforms,  being 
intended  to  supply  the  religious  needs  of  mankind,  must  necessarily 
have  much  in  common  with  the  true  religion  :  th6  resemblances  . 
between  Christianity  and  other  religious  systems  are  thus  accounted 
for.  But,  in  striking  contrast  with  the  irregular  and  multiform 
"  dissolution  "  of  the  primitive  tradition  is  the  steady  development 
of  monotheism,  under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  Judaism 
and  Christianity.  Buddhism  and  Mohammedanism  are  dwelt  upon 
in  most  detail,  owing  to  the  importance  given  them  at  the  present 
day  ;  but  all  other  religious  systems  of  an}-  note  are  sufficiently 
described,  and  their  good  sides  are  brought  out  quite  as  fully  and 
fairly  as  their  deficiencies.  M.  de  Broglie  is  careful  to  allow  for  the 
large  gaps  in  our  knowledge  of  religions  separated  from  us  by 
distance  in  time  or  difierence  in  mental  sympathies.  He  has 
evidently  carefully  studied  the  numerous  English  Avorks  on  Oriental 
religions  which  have  appeared  of  late  years,  and  this  little  volume 
may  be  said  to  give,  in  a  small  compass,  and  very  lucid  style,  an 
excellent  summary  of  his  subject. 


The  jE?ifflis7i  Catholic  Nonjurors  of  1715.  Being  a  Summary  of  the 
Register  of  their  Estates,  with  Genealogical  and  other  Notes ; 
and  an  Appendix  of  Unpublished  Documents  in  the  Public 
Record  Office.  Edited  by  the  late  Very  Rev.  E.  E.  Estcourt, 
M.A.,  Canon  of  St.  Chads  Cathedral,  Birmingham,  and  John 
Orlebar  Payne,  M.A.     London :  Burns  &  Oates.   (No  date.) 

THIS  handsomely  printed  volume  lies  before  us.  Every  student 
of  the  history  of  our  nation,  or  of  the  families  which  compose 
it,  cannot  but  be  grateful  for  a  catalogue  such  as  we  have  here. 
Genealogy  is  the  mistress  of  true  histor}^  and  genealogy  is,  to  a 
large  extent,  dependent  on  such  chance  lists  of  names. 


Notices  of  Books.  441 

We  have  read  the  Preface  j^iven  us  by  Mr.  Payne,  and,  as  we  do 
not  find  any  very  clear  account,  either  of  the  circumstances  under 
which  this  list  was  originally  drawn  up,  or  of  the  special  material 
he  has  made  use  of  in  this  edition,  we  purpose  to  lay  our  ideas  upon 
both  these  matters  before  our  readers. 

The  question  of  the  "  oath  of  alleg-iance,"  as  proposed  to  be  taken 
by  Catholics,  had  been  a  fertile  source  of  trouble  to  them  during;  the 
entire  Stuart  period.  Not  only  had  it  been  made  the  plea  for  con- 
fiscation of  Catholic  property  to  satisfy  the  o-reed  of  monarch  and 
courtier,  but  it  had  the  worse  effect  of  dividing-  the  small  Catholic 
body  into  factions,  opposing-  each  other  with  scandalous  bitterness. 
For  600  years  the  oath  exacted  had  been  ''to  be  true  and  faithful 
to  the  King-  and  his  heirs ;  "  but  the  "  Convention  Parliament "  at 
the  Revolution  thoug-ht  this  savoured  too  much  of  mere  passive 
obedience,  and  cut  out  the  word  "  heirs."  Some  Protestants  and 
Dissenters,  imbued  with  the  tenet  of  the  Divine  right  of  kings — 
a  Protestant  substitute  by  the  Stuart  monarchs  for  the  Catholic 
theory  of  the  Papal  power  over  the  rulers  of  Christendom — considered 
James  as  their  rightful  Sovereign,  and  for  conscience'  sake  refused  to 
take  the  oath  to  William  III.  These  men  were  headed  by  Sancroft, 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  several  of  the  bishops  of  the 
Established  Church.  As  a  natural  consequence,  they  were  deprived 
of  their  sees,  and  they  and  their  followers,  who  continued  to  look 
upon  them  as  their  rightful  bishops  became  known  as  the  "  Non- 
jurors," a  name,  by-the-way,  which  we  have  never  seen  used  of 
Catholics  except  by  Mr,  Payne. 

Catholics  also  grieved  at  the  Revolution,  regarding  it  as  the 
triumph  of  Protestant  principle  over  Catholicism,  and  as  the  possible 
dawn  of  future  difficulties  for  those  of  the  faith  who  had  enjoyed  a 
brief  respite  from  persecution  during-  the  reign  of  the  ill-advised 
James  II.  It  is  true  that  the  Stuart  family  could  have  little  claim 
on  the  gratitude  or  personal  regard  of  the  Catholic  body ;  but  at 
this  time  the  right  of  cashiering-  kings  was  advocated  by  very  few, 
and,  from  circumstances  which  cannot  be  divined,  the  Stuarts  enjoyed 
a  personal  attachment,  which  continued  for  half  a  century  after  they 
had  lost  the  throne. 

Immediately  after  the  accession  of  William  III.,  several  Acts 
were  passed  against  Catholics,  as  a  kind  of  retaliation  for  the  ob- 
trusive Catholicism  of  the  unfortunate  James ;  and  by  an  Act  7  & 
8  Will.  III.,  all  who  refused  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy 
could  be  treated  as  Pojnsh  recusants.  English  Catholics,  as  a  body, 
took  little  part  in  the  attempts  of  the  dethroned  King  to  recover  his 
empire ;  both  in  his  invasion  of  Ireland,  and  at  the  time  of  the 
threatened  invasion  of  England,  they  remained  quiet.* 

*  There  ia  no'  doubt  that  the  Pope  exerted  his  authority  to  prevent  Catholics 
engaging  in  attempts  to  overthrow  the  established  Government.  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  policy  of  Cardinal  Gualterio,  the  Protector  of  England,  as  regards 
the  attempts  of  the  Stuarts  to  regain  their  throne,  the  Pope  clearly  disapproved  of 
Catholics  taking  part  in  them.     In  a  Brief  to  the  Internuncio  of  Brussels  he 


442  Notices  of  Books. 

In  1714,  the  House  of  Brunswick  was  established  in  the  kingdom 
in  succession  to  Queen  Anne.  In  the  first  year  of  Georg-e  I.,  further 
Acts  were  passed  in  Parliament  against  Catholics.  The  oaths  of 
alleg'iance,  supremacy,  and  of  abjuring  the  Stuart  family  were 
required  of  all  who  held  any  public  otiice.  Further,  the  Act  em- 
powered any  two  justices  of  the  peace  to  administer  these  oaths  to 
any  person  they  might  consider  disaffected  to  the  King,  and,  on  his 
refusal  to  take  them,  he  was  to  be  considered  convicted  of  Popish 
recusancy.  This  was  termed  "constructive  recusancy" — that  is, 
by  the  refusal  of  the  prescribed  oaths,  any  one  was  placed  on  the 
same  footing-  as  Papists  who  refused  to  attend  church.  As  no 
Jacobite  could  take  these  oaths,  numbers  of  them  were  included 
in  the  lists  of  this  period,  although  they  were  not  necessarily 
Catholics. 

After  the  rebellion  of  1715,  retribution  was  visited,  at  first  upon 
the  Catholics,  and  afterwards  on  the  whole  body  of  nonjurors.  By 
the  Act  1  Geo.  I.,  which  is'given  at  length  in  Appendix  II.  to  Mr. 
Payne's  volume  (p.  365),  Catholics,  and,  as  far  as  we  understand 
the  meaning  of  the  words  "  Popish  recusants  or  Papists,"  all  who 
refused  the  three  oaths,  from  whatever  motive,  were  bound  as  an 
alternative  to  register  their  names  and  estates.  To  put  this  Act  in 
execution,  a  committee  was  appointed  called  "  The  Forfeited  Estates 
Commission." 

We  may  now  speak  of  the  origin  of  the  list  printed  by  Mr.  Payne. 
By  the  end  of  Trinity  term  171G,  Catholics  and  others  were 
bound  to  take  the  oaths,  or  to  register  their  estates  and  names. 
This  had  to  be  done  either  personally,  or  by  attorney  at  the  sessions, 
before  the  clerk  of  the  peace,  who  had  then  to  return  a  copy  of  the 
registration  to  the  Commissioners.  We  cannot  but  regret  that  Mr. 
Payne  gives  no  sample  of  the  documents  from  which  he  took  his 
information.  The  original  documents  are  to  be  found,  of  course,  in 
each  county,  and  are  of  special  importance  and  interest,  not  only  as 
having  the  autograph  signatures  of  the  persons  concerned,  but  also, 
in  many  instances,  having  the  seals  of  the  family,  which  are  most 
valuable  for  county  and  family  history.  Copies  of  the  registration 
were  sent  to  London,  and  these  are  now  to  be  found  in  the  Public 
Record  Office,  and  are  described  in  Appendix  II.  to  the  Fifth  Report 
of  the  Deputy  Keeper  of  the  Rolls,  and  are  indexed  under  "  Forfeited 
Estates,  P.  30  to  P.  127."  As  an  example,  we  may  take  the  bundle 
for  "  Bedfordshire"  (P.  31).  Here  we  have  a  parchment  roll  and 
a  paper  document.  The  parchments  are  the  actual  returns  sent  for 
the  county  of  Bedford,  and  (No.  1)  begins  "  To  the  Clerk  of  the 
Peace  for  the  County  of  Bedford  or  his  lawful  Deputy.   I,  Magdalen 

orders  hita  to  iet  it  be  known  that  Catholics  might  and  ought  to  take  the  oath  of 
fidelity  to  the  established  Government.  This  Urief  was  referred  to  in  an  English 
State  document,  printed  by  Chas.  Butler  ("Memoirs,  &c."),  who,  in  a  note,  says 
he  has  not  been  able  to  find  any  trace  of  such  a  document.  A  letter  in  the 
"Gualterio  Papers"  (B.  Museum  Add.  MS.  20310,  fol.  173)  quotes  the  Latin 
text  of  the  Brief.     For  the  Pope's  policy  cf.  also  Add.  MS.  20312,  fol.  210. 


Notices  of  Boohs.  4i3 

Gifford,"  &c.  Then  follows  a  detailed  account  of  her  estate,  which 
we  are  sorry  Mr.  Payne  could  not  find  room  to  g'ive,  and  the  way 
she  g-ot  it — namely,  throug'h  the  foreclosure  of  a  mortg-age  on  the 
property.  The  document  is  signed  by  Magdalen  Gitfard,  April  7, 
1717,  and  delivered  by  her  attorney, "  K.  Denton,  in  the  Open  Session, 
May  1,  1717."  This  is  a  sample  of  the  rest  of  the  documents. 
We  may  remark,  in  passinf^,  on  the  date.  The  title-page  of  Mr. 
Payne's  book  gives  1715  as  the  date  of  his  list,  whereas  it  is  clear 
from  this,  and  from  a  letter  printed  by  him  (p.  353)  in  his  Appendix, 
that  it  is  not  a  list  of  1715  at  all.  No  one  was  bound  to  register 
till  towards  the  middle  of  1716,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  numbers  did 
not  register  till  the  year  following,  and  even  later,  Mr.  Payne 
seems  to  associate  the  date  1715  with  the  list  because  he  looks  upon 
all  in  it  as  some  of  the  rebels  of  that  date  ;  at  least  this  idea  is 
borne  out  by  the'  binding  of  the  volume,  and  the  Jacobite  impress  on 
the  cover. 

The  paper  document  in  the  bundle  we  are  describing  is  indorsed 
"Abstract  of  the  Estates  of  Popish  Recusants  convict  and  Papists 
as  the  same  has  been  returned  by  the  Deputy  Clerk  of  the  Peace 
for  the  County  of  Bedford."  "  Examined  by  John  Cosin,"  From 
the  abstracts  for  various  counties,  a  general  schedule  (P.  2)  was 
drawn  up,  from  which  we  learn  that  the  total  annual  value  of  the 
estates  registered  was  £382,741  195.  2^d.  The  two  MSS.  in  the 
British  Museum  (Add.  MSS.  30211  and  15G29)  were  apparently 
drawn  up  by  the  same  secretary,  John  Cosin,  for  the  use  of  the 
Commissioners.  These  two  MSS.  give  the  names  and  value  of  the 
different  estates. 

In  1745,  James  Cosin,  a  son  of  tlie  late  secretary,  made  use  of 
these  papers  to  print  the  list  called  "  Names  of  the  Roman  Catholics, 
&c.,who  refused  to  take  the  Oaths  to  the  late  Majesty  George  I.," and, 
in  the  dedication  to  George  II.,  he  says  "it  is  now  published  with  a 
generous  view  to  promote  and  serve  the  true  Protestant  Interest  of 
these  kingdoms."  The  following  year,  1746,  Charles  Cosin  issued 
another  edition,  the  exact  counterpart  of  the  first,  with  a  new  title- 
page. 

What  is  the  meaning  of  Cosin's  title-page  ?  If  we  understand  the 
matter  rightly,  it  is  that,  whatever  may  have  been  the  value  of  the  list 
as  a  record  of  Catholics  only  when  it  was  drawn  up  somewhere  about 
1718,  when  it  was  printed  "in  1745  many  of  the  faraihes  therein  men- 
tioned objected  to  the  title  of  "  Roman  Catholic ;"  and  for  tiiis  reason 
the  MS.  title  was  cancelled,  and  a  new  one,  giving  a  wider  meaning  to 
the  list,  substituted.  Whether  this  be  the  correct  explanation  or  no,  it 
is  certain  that  others  besides  Catholics  availed  themselves  of  the 
"  Act "  to  register  their  estates,  and  thus  avoid  taking  the  oaths.  To 
be  convinced  of  this  it  is  only  necessary  to  glance  at  a  MS.  "Calendar 
of  Names  of  those  Persons  whose  Estates  were  registered  under  the 
provision  of  Acts  1  Geo.  I.  and  9  Geo.  I.  to  oblige  Papists  to  register 
their  Names  and  Real  Estates,  compiled  by  W.  H.  Hart,  F.S.A.y 
1880,"  and  to  be  found  in  the  Search-Room  at  the  Record  Office.  The 


444  Notices  of  Books. 

list  is  compiled  from  the  Exchequer  Records,  and  there  is  nothing  on 
the  face  of  the  entries  to  show  whether  the  parties  registering'  he 
Cathohcs  or  Protestant  nonjurors.  But  this  is  certain,  that  there  are 
many  Protestants  who  appended  a  note  to  that  effect  to  their  names. 

As  to  the  list  now  edited  by  Mr.  Payne,  we  have  little  doubt  that 
the  larger  number  of  persons  so  entered  was  Catholic,  though  we  are 
by  no  means  sure  they  all  were.  Turning  over  the  pages,  we  come 
occasionally  to  a  name  we  have  our  doubts  about ;  e.fl.,  p.  193,  "  Dame 
Dorothy  Yallop  "  we  do  not  remember  as  a  Catholic  name,  and  cer- 
tainly the  note  appended  by  Mr.  Payne  adds  to  our  belief  that  the 
family  was  not  Catholic.  If  there  was  the  least  doubt  on  the  subject, 
we  should  prefer  the  title  of  the  edition  of  174(>:  "Catholics,  !Non- 
jurors,  and  others."  At  any  rate,  we  seriously  object  to  that  of 
"  Catholic  Nonjurors,"  and  should  Mr.  Payne  think  of  following 
Cosin's  lead  in  giving  his  edition  a  new  title-page,  there  would  be 
little  difficulty,  as  the  present  edition  bears  no  date. 

We  cannot,  however,  feel  otherwise  than  grateful  for  the  volume. 
It  will  form  a  very  important  storehouse  of  matter  for  the  history  of 
Catholics  at  this  period.  The  names,  for  the  most  part,  form  a  roll 
of  as  staunch  supporters  as  the  Church  has  produced  in  the  long 
years  of  its  existence.  It  tells  us  of  a  century  and  a  half  of  imprison- 
ment, torture,  spoliation,  and  even  death  for  conscience  sake,  and  we 
trust  that  what  Mr.  Payne  has  done  may  induce  others  to  add  to  the 
store  of  knowledge  he  has  gathered  concerning  many  of  the  Catholic 
families.  There  is  much  to  be  done  in  this  way,  which  the  book 
suggests.  As  an  example,  we  may  take  the  name  of  *'  William 
Sheldon,"  of  Winchester,  given  on  p.  274.  It  is  of  interest  to  know 
that  this  staunch  supporter  of  the  Stuarts  followed  the  fortunes  of  that 
House  to  France,  and  that  a  descendant  still  lives  in  Brittany  in  the 
person  of  Edward  Sheldon.  It  was  this  William  Sheldon  who  built 
the  house  mentioned  in  Southgate  Street,  Winchester,  which,  being 
the  best  house  of  its  kind  in  the  city,  was  purchased  about  sixty  years 
ago  by  the  county  for  Judges'  lodgings.  He  was  also  the  owner  of  a 
more  ancient  building,  probably  of  the  period  of  Charles  I.,  in 
St.  Peter's  Street,  Winchester,  which  was  used  for  more  than  fifty 
years  as  the  home  of  the  Benedictine  nuns,  now  removed  to  Bero-holt. 
In  this  latter  house  Dr.  James  Smith,  the  first  Vicar  Apostolic  of 
the  Northern  District,  was  born.  Of  this  good  Bishop  it  is  related 
that,  whilst  on  a  confirmation  tour  in  the  North,  he  was  stopped  on  the 
Great  North  Road,  near  York,  by  Earl  Danby  and  some  companions, 
and  robbed  of  his  crosier,  a  present  to  him  from  the  Queen  of 
Charles  II,  The  Earl,  no  doubt  wishing  to  make  restitution,  pre- 
sented the  Bishop's  crosier  to  York  Minster,  where  it  may  still  be 
seen,  having  the  arms  of  Dr.  Smith  on  one  side  and  those  of  Catherine 
of  Braganza  on  the  other. 

In  conclusion,  we  may  express  a  regret  that  there  is  no  "  Index 
locorum"  to  this  edition,  and  that  it  is  impossible,  on  any  page 
other  than  the  first  of  each  county,  to  ascertain  without  reference 
back,  to  what  county  the  names  appertain. 


Notices  of  Books.  445 

A  Literary  and  Biographical  History  ;  or,  Bibliographical  Dictionary  of 
the  English  Catholics,  from  the  Breach  rvith  Rome  in  1534  to  the 
Present  Time  By  Joseph  Gillow.  Vols,  I.  and  II.  London  : 
Burns  &,  Gates. 

A  GENERAL  Eng-lish  Catholic  Biography  has  not  been 
_i\_  attempted  since  the  publication  of  Dodd's  "  Church  History 
of  Eng'land,"  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  During 
this  period  several  authors  have  written  notices  referring  to  indi- 
viduals in  particular  districts,  or  to  the  members  of  some  special 
religious  Order.  The  late  Rev.  Dr.  Kirk,  of  Lichfield,  alone  faced 
the  more  arduous  task  of  reshaping  and  continuing  Dodd's  short 
biographies.  At  his  death  he  left  his  papers  to  Canon  Tierney,  who 
purposed  carrying  out  his  friend's  wish,  but  was  unable  to  do  so. 

Mr.  Joseph  Gillow  has  now  taken  up  the  labour,  and  has  already 
issued  two  of  the  five  volumes  which  are  to  form  the  complete 
work.  He  is  to  be  sincerely  congratulated  upon  the  very  able 
manner  in  which  these  volumes  have  been  written.  The  public  will 
readil}'  accept  them  as  fair  specimens  of  what  they  are  to  receive  in 
those  which  are  forthcoming.  It  will  be  more  just  to  Mr.  Gillow  to 
touch  upon  a  few  shortcomings  before  the  attention  of  our  readers- 
is  drawn  to  the  merits  of  his  work. 

Some  fault  must  be  found  with  the  brief  genealogies  given  in 
some  of  the  biographical  notices.  There  is  a  Avant  of  clearness, 
which  necessitates  a  second  perusal  of  a  paragraph  before  the  actual 
relationship  of  the  individuals  named  can  be  ascertained.  We  need 
but  refer  to  the  article  on  the  Rev.  Joseph  Berington  as  an  instance 
of  this  obscurity  of  style. 

Amongst  a  few  minor  inaccuracies  may  be  numbered  the  alleged  ' 
authorship  of  the  excellent  little  book  called  "  Mrs.  Herbert  and 
the  Villagers."  This  unpretending  work  has  done  much  good  up 
and  down  England  for  the  better  part  of  a  century.  Not  only  has. 
it  given  to  the  young  and  to  the  simple  country  folks  a  better 
knowledge  of  their  relio-ion,  but  it  has  been  extensively  read-  by 
many  who  were  led  by  divine  grace  to  inquire  into  the  belief  of  the 
Catholic  religion,  and  thus  it  has  brought  numbers  to  the  Unity  of 
the  Church.  The  authorship  of  such  a  book  has  some  degree  of 
interest  attached  to  it.  Mr.  Gillow  attributes  it  to  Mrs.  Bodenham, 
wife  of  Charles  Thomas  Bodenham,  of  Rotherwas,  Esq.,  co.  Hereford. 
We  should  have  looked  upon  this  as  a  mere  typographical  error  had 
we  not  seen  it  repeated  in  the  notice  of  the  life  of  the  late  Mr. 
Ambrose  de  Lisle,  of  Grace-Dieu,in  whose  conversion  the  Rotherwas 
authoress  had  a  share  in  her  little  controversial  tale.  That  lady  was 
not  the  wife,  but  Miss  Elizabeth,  the  sister  of  Mr.  C.  T.  Bodenham. 
That  venerable  squire's  friends  will  doubtless  recollect  how  he  loved 
to  point  out  to  them  the  beautiful  spot  on  Dinedor  Hill  where  his 
sister  thought  over  in  solitude  most  of  the  subject-matter  of  her 
story. 

It  is  time  to  pass  to  a  graver  subject.     A  biographical  sketch  is 


41'6  Notices  of  Books. 

imperfect  if  it  be  not  comprehensive,  and  that  comprehensiveness 
must  be  adequate  to  the  latest  historical  researches.  Now,  in  the 
article  on  Cardinal  Allen,  we  see  no  reference  to  that  political  action 
of  his  career,  which,  however  justifiable  in  itself,  added  undoubtedly 
to  the  miseries  of  the  poor  persecuted  Catholics  of  England.  Dodd 
concludes  his  notice  of  the  Cardinal  with  a  defence  of  the  great 
Prelate,  and  rebuts  the  charges  of  disloyalty  and  conspiracy  brought 
against  him  by  Protestants  of  that  day.  Mr.  Gillow  has  passed  over 
this  great  historical  question  in  silence,  even  after  the  Fathers  of 
the  London  Oratory  had  published  the  second  volume  of  "  The 
JRecords  of  English  Catholics."  That  volume  contains  most  im- 
portant documents  bearing  directly  upon  a  policy  which  so  in- 
furiated Elizabeth  and  her  unscrupulous  ministers  that  they  resolved 
to  crush  the  last  remnants  of  the  Catholic  people  of  England. 

With  this  notable  exception,  Mr.  Joseph  Gillow  has  proved  himself 
gifted  with  historical  genius  and  impartiality.  We  have  only  to 
read  the  memoirs  of  Bonner  and  of  the  other  Prelates  so  unhappily 
connected  with  Henry  VIII. 's  divorce  and  schism  to  see  evident 
proofs  of  these  gifts.  He  thus  depicts  the  true  character  of  Bishop 
Bonner  : — 

"It  is  difficult  to  write  the  character  of  one  who  has  varied  his 
principles  and  behaviour,  but  if  any  one  merited  to  have  such  a  blot 
in  his  life  overlooked,  it  is  Bishop  Bonner.  He  was  not  one  of 
those  occasional  conformists  who  struck  in  with  every  change.  He 
was  indeed  carried  away  with  the  stream  in  the  earlier  part  of  his 
career,  but  he  quickly  recovered  himself,  and  ever  afterwards  re- 
mained firm  to  his  principles." 

No  less  true  and  just  is  the  author's  estimate  of  Stephen  Gardiner, 
Bishop  of  Winchester,  whose  history  is  even  more  surprising  in  its 
rebound  from  weakness  to  fortitude  than  that  of  the  rough-mannered 
but  honest-minded  Bonner. 

Mr.  J.  Gillow  has  wisely  found  room  in  his  "  Biographical 
Dictionary "  for  those  worthy  publishers  who,  though  not  authors 
themselves,  yet  risked  their  all  in  times  of  persecution,  vvhen  Catholic 
literature  had  but  a  very  limited  sale,  and  when  publishing  Catholic 
books  was  a  criminal  ofl:ence  in  the  eyes  of  English  law.  Another 
thoughtful  addition  has  been  the  introduction  of  the  names  of  those 
who,  in  spite  of  Penal  Laws,  opened  Catholic  schools  in  England, 
.and  to  the  best  of  their  power  promoted  the  education  of  such  youths 
as  could  not  find  access  to  foreign  colleges. 

In  a  Biographical  Dictionary,  as  in  everyday  life,  strange  indi- 
viduals cross  our  path.  The  same  volume  that  contains  the  lives  of 
great  nobles  and  learned  authors  gives  us  the  singular  history  of 
that  eccentric  lady,  who,  styling  herself  Countess  of  Derwentwater, 
-sought  to  make  good  her  claim  to  the  forfeited  estates  of  that  family 
without  troubling  the  House  of  Lords  or  petitioning  for  a  reversal 
•of  the  Act  of  Attainder. 

"In  September,  1868,"  says  Mr.  J.  Gillow,  "  she  took  active  steps 
ito  assert  her  claim  by  forcibly  taking  possession  of  .the  old  ruined 


Notices  of  Books.  447 

castle  at  Dilston.  She  hoisted  the  Radclyffe  flag-  on  the  tower,  and 
suspended  portraits  of  the  family  on  the  ruined  walls  of  the  prin- 
cipal hall.  Conformable  to  instructions  from  the  Lords  of  the 
Admiralty,  she  was  sp'eedily  ejected  by  their  ag-ent,  when  she  took 
up  her  quarters  in  a  tent  on  the  road.  After  other  proceedings  she 
was  imprisoned  for  contempt  of  court,  her  claim  having  formally 
been  investigated  and  found  to  be  invalid.  Nevertheless,  by  her 
eccentric  conduct  in  the  prosecution  of  her  claim,  she  continued  to 
keep  constantly  before  the  public  until  her  death,  at  her  residence  in 
Durham  Road,  Durham,  Feb.  26,  1880,  aged  49." 

"We  have  now  to  wish  Mr.  J.  Gillow  "  God-speed "  on  the  long 
journey  yet  before  him.  He  fully  deserves  the  best  wishes  of  English 
Catholics,  and  we  feel  sure  that  he  will  meet  with  every  encourage- 
ment from  those  in  whose  cause  he  is  labouring-. 


T?ie  Truth  about  John  Wyclif:  His  Life,  Writings,  and  Opinions, 
chiefly  from  the  evidence  of  contemporaries.  By  Joseph 
Stevenson,  S.J.     London  :  Burns  &  Gates.     1885. 

FATHER  STEVENSON  has  here  collected  into  a  volume  the 
series  of  papers  contributed  by  him  to  the  Month  during 
the  excitement  caused  by  the  celebration  of  the  quincentenary  of 
Wyclifs  death.  Much  of  the  interest  in  Wyclif  has  already  died 
out ;  but  he  must  always  be  looked  upon  as  an  epoch-maker,  and 
therefore  it  is  important  to  have  at  hand  a  view  of  his  work  from  a 
thoroughly  competent  writer. 

We  need  hardly  say  that  Fr.  Stevenson  has  made  himself  master 
of  all  that  has  been  written  on  his  subject.  To  Professor  Lechler 
especial  obligations  are  due,  and  are  cordially  acknowledged.  But 
most  of  all  we  have  been  struck  bv  the  way  in  which  Fr.  Stevenson 
has  made  use  of  the  State  Papers  and  other  original  documents 
v?hich  he  has  consulted.  We  may  note  in  passing  that  he  has  given 
(142  scq.)  an  interesting  abstract  of  a  register  in  which  are  recorded 
the  Acts  of  a  Visitation  of  the  Diocese  of  Norwich  in  the  years 
1428,  1429,  1430,  a  document  now  in  the  possession  of  his 
Eminence  the  Cardinal  Archbishop.  "  The  Book  of  Sentences  of 
the  Inquisition  of  Toulouse"  is  another  valuable  document  from 
which  much  information  has  been  drawn. 

The  main  contention  of  the  present  work  is  that  John  Wyclif 
was  indeed  the  Morning  Star,  or,  perhaps  we  should  say,  the 
Lucifer  of  the  Reformation.  England,  that  is  to  say,  was  not 
robbed  of  its  faith  by  Henry  VIII.  and  Thomas  Cromwell  ;  the 
tares  had  been  sown  long  before,  and  had  sprung  up  in  abundance. 
Even  before  Wyclif 's  time  the  germs  of  heresy  can  be  dete.-;ted  in 
England.  We  must  be  careful,  however,  not  to  accept  all  that 
Protestant  writers  say  about  the  forerunners  of  the  Evangelical 
doctor.  Lechler  claims-this  doubtful  honour  for  Grostete,  BractDU, 
the  great  jurist,  Fitzralph,  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  Bradwardin, 
Archbishop' of  Canterbury,  Longland,  the  author  of  the  "  Vision  of 


4i8  Notices  of  Books. 

William,  concerning-  Piers  the  Plowman,"  and  the  notorious  Occam. 
Fr,  Stevenson  has  no  difficulty  in  showing  the  orthodoxy  of  all  of 
these  except  the  last-named.  Occam,  he  acknowledg-es,  was  "  an 
wndouhted  predecessor  of  John  Wyclif,  a  man  who  resembled 
him  not  only  in  his  heretical  teaching-,  but  also  in  the  turbulence 
of  his  character,  and  as  such  we  g'ladly  resig-n  him  to  the  Wyclif 
Society."  Wyclif  sj^stematized  the  mass  of  error  already  existing' 
here  and  on  the  Continent,  and  supplied  new  weapons  of  fence. 
His  heresies  are  on  the  whole  the  same  as  those  of  the  Protestants 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  may  be  briefly  summarized  as  the  re- 
jection of  all  that  is  hard  to  believe  or  to  do  in  Catholic  faith  and 
morals.  The  teaching-  authority  of  the  Church  and  the  doctrine  of 
Transubstantiation  Avere  the  chief  objects  of  his  attack.  His  work 
as  a  destroyer  was  small,  however,  in  comparison  with  his  work  as  a 
translator  of  the  Bible.  Wyclif  must  undoubtedly  be  credited  with 
planning-  the  first  Eng-lish  translation  of  the  whole  Bible,  althoug-h 
he  himself  translated  only  the  New  Testament  and  a  small  portion 
of  the  Old.  Fr.  Stevenson  does  not  seem  to  us  to  be  at  his  best 
when  he  deals  with  this  matter.  We  think  that  Lechler's  summary 
of  the  case  may  be  accepted' as  fairly  correct : — 

I.  A  translation  of  the  entire  Bible  was  never  during  this  whole 
period  (before  Wyclif  s  time)  accomplished  in  England,  and  never  even 
apparently  contemplated.  II.  The  Psalter  was  the  only  book  of  Scripture 
which  was  fully  and  literally  translated  into  all  three  languages,  Anglo- 
Saxon,  Anglo-Norman,  and  Old  English.  III.  In  addition,  several  books 
of  Scripture,  especially  Old  Testament  books,  were  translated  partially 
or  in  select  passages — e.g.,  by  MUric,  laying  out  of -view  poetical  versions 
and  the  Gospel  of  John,  translated  by  Bede,  which  celebrated  work  has 
not  come  down  to  us." — Lechler  i.,  p.  331. 

Wj'ciif's  errors  were  not  confined  to  theology.  His  political 
doctrines  were  wild  and  subversive  of  all  authority.  John  Ball, 
Nicholas  Herford,  and  others  of  his  followers  attempted  to  put  these 
•doctrines  into  practice,  and  thereby  brought  upon  their  master  so 
much  discredit  that  the  spread  of  his  theolog-ical  errors  was  provi- 
dentially stayed.  Fr.  Stevenson  gives  us  a  graphic  account  of  the 
Insurrection  of  the  Villeins  in  1381 — an  account  which  shows  that 
poring;  over  dusty  documents  has  not  dimmed  the  eye  of  his  mind,  and 
makes  us  wish  that  he  had  made  the  other  parts  of  his  book  more 
•descriptive.  We  are  sorry,  however,  that  he  has  no  word  of 
sympathy  for  the  poor  villeins.  Their  grievances  were  many  and 
sore.  The  Statutes  of  Labourers  and  the  Poll  Tax,  passed  in 
defiance  of  the  economical  laws  of  supply  and  demand  and  taxation 
by  a  parliament  of  landlords,  clerical  and  lay,  brought  intolerable 
isuffering-  upon  the  poor.  We  cannot  wonder  at  the  results  of  John 
Ball's  sermon  on  the  famous  couplet :  "  When  Adam  delved  and 
Eve  span,  who  was  then  the  gentleman  ?  "  We  have  no  desire  to 
justify  the  excesses  of  the  insurgents,  but  it  is  well  to  remember 
that  the  accounts  which  have  come  down  to  us  are  from  hostile 
sources.  Fr.  Stevenson  concludes  with  a  sketch  of  Wyclif 's 
character : 


Notices  of  Books.  449 

Of  Wyclif  personally  we  have  been  unable  to  form  any  exalted  estimate. 
Intellectually,  there  is  little  to  admire  in  him.  He  was  a  voluminous 
author,  and  has  left  behind  him  a  large  mass  of  writings  upon  various 
subjects,  thus  supplying  us  with  ample  materials  on  which  to  form  an 
estimate  as  to  his  mental  capacity.  Those  writings  are  remarkable  only 
as  embodying  numerous  blasphemies,  heresies,  errors,  and  absurdities, 
expressed  in  obscure  language. 

Moi-ally,  he  does  not  command  our  respect.  He  attacked  the  Church 
of  which  he  was  a  priest,  and  in  which  he  continued  to  minister  long 
after  he  had  denounced  it  as  the  synagogue  of  Satan.  He  rebelled 
against  that  ecclesiastical  discipline  which  he  had  pledged  himself  to 
maintain  and  enforce.  During  many  years  he  drew  the  revenues  of  his 
benefice,  availing  himself  of  an  authority  which  he  declared  to  be  illegal 
and  ungodly ;  and  until  the  last  day  of  his  life  he  administered  to  others, 
and  he  himself  received,  the  Sacrament  of  the  Eucharist,  according  to  a 
ritual  which  he  denounced  as  false  and  blasphemous.  His  life  must 
have  been  a  daily  lie,  and  he  died  as  he  was  about  to  perpetuate  an  act  of 
habitual  mockery  of  the  great  Sacrifice  of  Calvary. 

The  religious  system  which  he  succeeded  in  introducing  among  his 
countrymen  proves,  upon  examination,  to  be  a  collection  of  errors  and 
heresies,  each  of  which  had  previously  been  condemned  by  the  common 
voice  of  the  Catholic  Church.  They  were  gleaned  by  him  from  that 
stock  of  falsehood  against  which  believers  had  been  warned  by  our  Lord 
from  the  beginning ;  but  disregarding  the  caution,  he  picked  them  up, 
made  them  his  own,  and  bequeathed  this  inheritance  of  evil  to  his 
native  country.  England  accepted  the  legacy  without  knowing  what  it 
■would  cost  her ;  but  the  knowledge  has  at  last  come.  It  is  only  after 
centuries  of  suffering  and  sin  that  our  bitter  experience  enables  us  to 
estimate  at  its  true  value  the  work  done  by  John  Wyclif. 

T.  B.   SCANNELL. 


Philosopliia  Lacensis,  sive  series  Institiitionum  Pliilosophiae  scholas- 
ticae.  Institutiones  Juris  Naturalis  seu  philosopliiae  moralis  uni- 
versce  secundum  principia  S.  Thomae  Aquinatis  ad  usum  scliola- 
rem  adornavit  Theodorus  Meyer,  S.J.  Pars  I.  Jus 
Naturae  ^enerale  continens  Ethicam  geueralem  et  Jus  Sociale  in 
g;euere.     Friburg-i :  Herder.     1885. 

THIS  series  of  philosophical  textbooks  is  being;  brought  out  by  the 
German  Jesuit  Fathers  who  formerly  resided  in  their  house  of. 
studies  at  Maria  Laach,  near  Coblentz.  Having-  been  turned  out.  of 
the  Fatherland,  they  now  pursue  their  noble  undertaking-,  as  best 
they  may,  in  exile.  The  first  instalment  of  the  series,  "entitled 
"  Philosophia  Naturalis,"  and  treating-  of  metaphysical  cosmolog-y, 
or  the  constituent  principles  of  bodies,  has  been  duly  noticed  in  this 
Review.*  We  desire  now  to  make  known  the  appearance  of  the  first 
part  of  a  work  on  Natural  Law  from  the  pen  of  Father  Mej^er. 
This  work  will  perhaps  appear  of  less  importance  in  Eng-land  than  in 
Oermany,  where  the  tendency  of  political  action  has  been  towards  con- 
ilscation  for  the  State  of  the  rights  of  individuals,  of  communities,  of 
the  Christian  Church.     However,  it  oug-ht  to  be  borne  in  mind  that 

*  January,  1881,  p.  224. 


450  Notices  of  Books, 

the  same  tendency  is,  more  or  less,  making-  itself  felt  in  every  other 
modern  country.  But  apart  from  these  practical  motives,  the  present 
volume  ought  to  be  of  great  and  permanent  value  on  account  of  the 
prominent  and  time-honoured  place  accorded  to  Natural  Law  in 
Christian  and  Catholic  philosophy.  The  close,  and  we  must  add 
true,  because  natural,  connection  of  natural  law  and  morals  was 
insisted  on  by  the  Scholastics/  and  from  the  Catholic  point  of  view 
must  continue  to  be  upheld. 

Father  Meyer's  work  will  consist  of  two  parts.  The  first  part 
and  volume,  the  one  before  us,  treats  of  Ethics  and  the  jtis  sociale  in 
general.  The  next  part  will  treat  of  social  bodies,  the  State,  the 
community,  and  the  family.  This  arrangement  will  be  acceptable  to 
the  student,  and  his  memory  may  easily  retain  the  short  clear  theses 
under  which  the  doctrine  is  formulated.  The  wants  of  our  owa 
times  are  not  forgotten,  nor  are  present-day  difficulties  shirked. 
Modern  systems,  and  mainly  those  which  originated  in  England,  as  of 
Benthan,  Mill  and  Herbert  Spencer  (pp.  106, 124, 127),  are  duly  dealt 
with.  Quite  a  feature  of  the  book  is  the  defence  of  the  ^'  lex  teterna,'* 
the  foundation  of  every  idea  of  right  and  justice  (p.  193-241).  In 
the  second  half  of  this  volume  (p.  294-482),  our  author  treats  of  the 
"jus  sociale  in  genere,"  and  sound  doctrine  on  such  important  points 
as  the  origin  and  nature  of  Society  and  Right  is  duly  propounded  and 
vindicated  against  ancient  and  modern  errors.  It  need  scarcely  be 
remarked  that  S.  Thomas  Aqainas  is  the  safe  guide  of  Father  Meyer 
throughout.  Scholars  in  England  are  familiar  with  Father 
Taparelli's  "  Saggio  di  diritto  naturale."  Meyer's  work,  both  for 
close  reasoning  and  scientific  handling  of  the  various  problems,  is 
far  superior  to  that  of  the  learned  Italian. 

Bellesheim. 


Jacobi  Lainez,  Secundi  Praepositi  Societatis  Jesu,  Disputationes  Tridentitue 
ad  Manuscriptorum  fidem  edidit  et  Commentariis  historicis 
instruxit  Hartmannus  Grisar,  S.J.  Two  vols.  Oeniponti : 
Ranch.     1886. 

AMONG  the  many  theologians  who  faithfully  served  the  Holy- 
See  during  the  Council  of  Trent,  perhaps  no  one  better 
deserves  a  biography  than  James  Lainez,  the  second  General  of  the 
Society  'of  Jesus.  Yet,  up  to  the  present  not  even  a  carefully  edited 
edition  of  his  works  has  been  published.  The  greater  gratitude, 
therefore,  is  now  due  to  Father  Grisar  for  a  work  which  will  be  oi' 
permanent  value — Lainez's  works  have  so  long  lain  in  the  dust  of 
archives,  chielly  because  of  the  difficulty  of  reading  his  handwriting. 
Father  Grisar,  in  these  volumes,  does  his  work  in  a  way  to  com- 
mand the  approval  of  scholars ;  they  are,  in  fact,  up  to  the  require- 
ments of  present  historical  criticism.  He  has,  at  cost  of  immense 
labour,  enriched  the  pages  with  some  thousands  of  footnotes,, 
indicating  the  sources  whence  Lainez  drew.  And  it  must  be  con- 
fessed that    this  very  learned  commentary  enables  one  to  better 


Notices  of  Boohs.  451 

appreciate  the  wonderful  sag'acity  and  diligence  of  the  man  who 
faced  the  Reformers  with  all  his  strength,  and  stood  forward  as  the 
defender  of  the  old  teaching-  against  the  new  schools  of  thought 
within  the  Church.  Each  of  these  volumes  is  prefaced  with  an 
historical  Introduction.  These  tell  us  of  the  laurels  won  by  Lainez 
as  pontificial  theologian  at  the  Council  and  at  the  Conference  of 
Poissy  in  1561,  and  of  such  documents  among  the  contents  of  the 
volumes  as  now  are  for  the  first  time  published.  The  singular  value 
of  some  of  these  is  pointed  out,  and  mention  is  not  omitted  of  such 
opinions  of  Lainez  as  could  not  now  be  upheld. 

The  great  feature  of  the  first  volume  is  the  "  Disputatio  de  origine 
jurisdictionis  Episcoporum  et  de  Romani  Pontifius  primatu  "  (pp.  1- 
371).  It  cannot  be  denied  that  this  too  has  its  drawbacks;  for  the 
author  largely  uses  pseudo-Isidore.  Besides  this,  Lainez  holds  the 
opinion  that  the  Apostles  received  their  jurisdiction  not  immediately 
from  our  Lord,  but  through  S.  Peter.  Due  allowance,  however, 
having  been  made  for  all  this,  the  "  disputatio  "  may  be  pronounced 
to  be  one  of  the  finest  specimens  of  theology  from  the  excited  period 
of  the  Reformation.  Grasp  of  thought,  close  reasoning,  great 
power  of  seeing  and  dealing  with  the  arguments  of  adversaries,  and, 
lastly,  a  wonderful  cleverness  in  using  the  telling  facts  of  church 
history,  give  to  this  work  a  value  which  will  not  decrease,  but 
rather  increase  with  time.  Indeed,  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that 
Lainez's  teaching  on  the  primacy  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  and  the 
jurisdiction  of  bishops  is  substantially  that  which  has  been  solemnly 
pronounced  by  the  Vatican  Council  in  July,  1870.  What  Father  Lainez 
emphasizes  is  simply  the  doctrine  approved  by  the  most  judicious 
theologians — viz.,  that  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope,  and  likewise  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  episcopacy,  taken  as  a  whole  body,  is  based 
immediately  on  divine  right,  while  the  jurisdiction  of  single  bishops 
is  derived  from  Christ  by  means  of  S.  Peter's  successors. 

The  value  of  Lainez's  dissertation  is  brought  out  by  the  letters, 
of  which  we  have  here  no  less  than  sixty-five,  written  either  in  Latin 
or  Italian  by  the  Legates  from  Trent  to  the  Cardinal  Secretary  of 
State,  S.  Charles  Borromeo,  and  by  the  latter  to  the  Legates. 
These  leave  no  room  for  doubt  that  Lainez's  doctrine  was  decidedly 
patronized  by  the  Holy  See,  and  that  Pius  IV.  counted  the  Jesuit 
father  amongst  his  most  aisle  and  trustworthy  champions.  The 
interest  of  these  letters  is  increased  by  the  fact  that  they  are  here 
for  the  first  time  published  from  a  MS.  preserved  in  the  municipal 
archives  of  Trent. 

In  the  second  volume  we  meet  with  twelve  dissertations  of  Lainez 
bearing  on  most  important  questions  connected  with  the  Council 
of  Trent.  Three  of  them  seem  to  deserve  special  mention — viz., 
that  on  the  question  of  the  so-called  lay-chalice  ;  the  speech  delivered 
before  Queen  Catherine  of  Medicis  at  Poissy  in  1561 ;  and  the  one  : 
"  An  Pontifix  reformandus  sit  per  Concilium."  They  are  followed 
by  ten  dissertations  on  moral  subjects.  It  only  remains  for  me  to 
remind    the  student  that  neither  Cardinal  Pallavicini's  history  of 

VOL  XV. — NO.  II.     [Third  Series-I  h  h 


45£  Notices  of  Books. 

the  Council  of  Trent,  nor  Theiner's  edition  of  Massarelli's  Acts  of 
the  same  synod  can  now  be  safely  followed  without  due  considera- 
tion of  Lainez's  works ;  for  these  throw  ne\v  light  on  many  parts 
of  the  Council,  and  fill  up  considerable  g"aps  in  the  documents 
handed  down  by  Massarelli.  Bellesheim. 


Les  Htif/uenots  et  Ics  Gueux,  etude  historique  sur  vino-t-cinq  annees  du 
XVP.  siecle  (1560-1585).  Par  M.  le  Baron  Kervyn  de 
Lettenhove.  Tomes  I.- VI.  Bruges  :  Beyaert-Storie.  1883, 
1885. 

M  KERVYN  DE  LETTENHOVE,  one  of  the  best  known  of 
,  Belgian  historians,  is  the  author  of  several  important  works, 
written  in  French,  and  of  high  repute.  A  score  of  years  ago 
he  published  the  History  of  Flanders,  where  he  was  born.  To 
him  was  entrusted  the  publication  of  Froissart's  works  in  twenty- 
eight  volumes,*  and  also  of  those  of  Commines  in  three  volumes. 
(Brussels,  1867-74).  In  addition  to  all  this  labour  he  had,  for  several 
years,  worked  at  the  History  of  Belgium  during  the  latter  part 
of  the  Sixteenth  Century.  The  reports  of  the  Royal  Academy,  of 
which  he  is  one  of  the  most  distinguished  members,  and  which 
selected  him  as  perpetual  President  of  the  *'  Commission  d'histoire," 
are  replete  w\th.pctits  memoires,  with  remarks  and  details,  hitherto  un- 
known, belonging  to  the  epoch  in  question.  In  his  studies  on  the 
"  Revolution  of  the  Low  Countries  in  the  Sixteenth  Century,"  he 
experienced  great  opposition  from  two  opponents,  MM.  Wauters 
and  Juste,  his  colleagues  at  the  Academy,  who,  notwithstanding 
their  historical  ability,  could  not  always  break  from  the  accepted 
tradition  as  to  the  greatness  of  character,  devotedness,  and  the 
political  aim  of  the  promoter  of  the'  Revolution,  William  the  Silent, 
Prince  of  Orange.  The  Apology  which  the  Prince  wrote  to  justify 
his  conduct  in  the  eyes  of  the  people  of  the  Netherlands  and 
Philip  II.,  has  always  been  considered  a  chief  source  from  which 
a  correct  knowledge  of  the  life  and  actions  of  William  may  be 
derived.  The  attractive  picture  which  Motley  gives  of  the  events  of 
this  period  so  far  deceived  many  persons,  that  they  accepted  as  in- 
fallible truths  certain  details  and  estimates  which  appeared  differently 
to  a  cooler  and  more  unprejudiced  estimate  of  their  circumstances. 
Dr.  Nuyens,  of  Holland,  Mgr.  Nameche,  formerly  "  Rector  mag- 
nificus"  of  the  Catholic  University  of  Louvain,  the  late  Canon 
David,  Professor  of  National  History  at  the  same  University,  have 
published  important  works  in  defence  of  the  Church  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  They  have  also  exposed  certain  authors  who  took  an  un- 
fair advantage  of  the  political  errors  of  Philip  II.,  and  the  intrigues 
of  Catherine  de  Medici,  in  order  to  throw  doubt  upon  historical 
facts,  and  to  exalt  as  much  as  possible  the  diiferent  persons  who 
caused  the  dissensions  and  revolt  of  that  period. 

*  Twenty-fiTe  volumes  of  Chronicles  and  three- volumes  of  Poems.     Brussels. 
1870-74. 


Notices  of  Books.  453 

M.  Kervyn  de  Lettenhove,  fully  alive  to  the  merits  of  the  afore- 
said authors,  especially  of  Dr.  Nuyens,  who  was  the  first  to  enter  the 
list  with  an  admirable  work  treating  of  this  period,  has,  so  to  speak, 
reconstructed  his  history  upon  a  new  basis.  He  has  not  confined 
himself  to  printed  sources,  but  has,  during-  several  years,  pursued  his 
own  researches  in  the  A.rchives  at  London,  Paris,  Brussels,  and  even 
of  St.  Petersburg  and  other  cities,  in  order  to  find  confirmation 
of  what  printed  documents  had  made  known.  He  paid  particular 
attention  to  the  correspondence  of  English  and  Spanish  Ambassadors 
at  the  French  and  other  courts.  He  exposed  the  malice  and  egoism 
of  these  diplomatists  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other,  the  intrigues 
of  the  Princes  v/ho  were  often  the  dupes  of  their  ambassadors.  It 
happened  more  than  once  that  Queen  Elizabeth  had  to  sacrifice  (at 
least  for  a  time)  her  own  views  to  those  of  her  counsellors  and  am- 
bassadors. At  the  commencement  of  the  period  we  are  here  con- 
cerned with,  it  was  Throckmorton  who  directed  English  affairs  on  the 
continent  rather  in  accord  with  his  own  ideas  than  with  those  of  his 
government.*  Then  there  Avas  Councillor  Cecily  who  had  the  re- 
putation "  de  dominer  le  diable  lui  meme,"  and  from  whose  intrigues 
Elizabeth  herself  could  not  escape. f  Moreover  there  were  still  other 
councillors  who  craftily  tendered  to  Elizabeth  such  reports  as 
necessarily  tended  to  war  with  Spain,  to  which  they  urged  her  whilst 
she  was  unwilling  to  listen.  In  fine,  there  Avas  the  ambassador. 
Dr.  Dale,  who  had  to  inform  Elizabeth  of  the  appearance  and 
character  of  the  Duke  of  Alengon  (Anjou,  younger  son  of  Henry  II. 
and  Catherine  de  Medicis).  Interesting  himself  rather  in  favour  of 
the  French  Prince,  who  ardently  sought  the  hand  of  the  Queen,  than 
of  Elizabeth  herself.  Dale  was  loud  in  his  praises  of  the  attractive 
appearance  of  the  Dukfe,  Avho  all  the  time  Avas  deformed  and 
exceedingly  ugly  ;  such,  too,  was  his  dissoluteness  that  he  was  known 
as  "  Sardanapalus,"  yet  in  the  Low  Countries  he  Avas  going  to  be 
honoured  as  "  The  Envoy  of  God.J  Kervyn,  by  means  of  the  corre- 
spondence of  the  ambassadors,  shows  that  Elizabeth  was  not  desirous 
of  war  either  Avith  France  or  Spain,  because,  in  case  of  defeat, 
she  feared  the  one  and  the  other  of  the  powerful  neighbours  in  the 
Low  Countries.  She  encouraged  the  Gueux  to  avoid  a  coUision  Avith 
the  Spanish  troops ;  she  urged  on  John  Casimir,  Prince  Palatine, 
^'the  Avaricious,"  an  expedition  against  France  and  the  Low 
Countries  Avith  the  negative  object  of  Aveakening  the  enemy.  Our 
author  furnishes  us  Avith  a  large  number  of  details  but  little  known 
regarding  the  movements  of  these  expeditions,  and  his  Avork,  on  the 
whole,  throws  still  more  light  on  the  characters  of  the  principal  actors 
in  this  historical  drama  :  Philip  IL,  Catherine  de  Medicis,  William  of 
Orange,  the  Elector  Palatine,  and  even  Queen  Elizabeth. 

The  character  of  Philip,  as  portrayed  by  the  author,  does  not 
appear  to  any  greater  advantage  than  it  did  in  Hiibner's  '*  Histoire 

*  "Kervyn  de  Lettenhove,"  i.  173  seq.  f    Ibid.  i.  61. 

1  Cf.  P.  Alberdingk  Tbijm's  "  Ph.  van  Marnix,"  p.  74  :  traduction  frano. ,  p.  82. 

H    H    2 


454  Notices  of  Books. 

de  Sixte  V/'  in  the  "  History  of  Pius  V,"  by  Fortoul,  or  in  Sterling-'s 
*'  Don  John  of  Austria."  The  light  which  was  reflected  on  him  by 
the  "  Correspondance  de  Granvelle,"  published,  by  order  of  the 
Government,  by  the  late  M.  PouUet,  Professor  at  the  University  of 
Louvain,  and  by  M.  Piot,  Royal  Archivist  at  Brussels,  has  in  no  way 
bleached  the  stains  from  the  political  career  and  personal  character 
of  this  roi  terrible,  who  was  consistent  in  his  principles,  distrustful 
and  g'loomy  in  politics — yet,  at  the  same  time,  in  his  domestic  life 
at  once  a  devoted  and  affectionate  father.  Severe  towards  his  son,  whose 
revolutionary  tendencies  he  feared,  he  was  always  to  his  daughters 
kind  and  even  tender  in  his  letters.  These  letters  have  been  published 
by  the  late  M.  Gachard,  Royal  Archivist  at  Brussels,  from  a  MS. 
found  in  the  Archives  of  Florence.  The  researches  of  M.  Kervyn 
have  also  exposed  the  insatiable  ambition  of  the  King  of  Spain,  He 
not  only  wished  to  invade  England  and  be  declared  its  sovereign  ; 
he  not  only  sought — a  fact  well-known — the  crown  of  France  for 
his  daughter  Isabella,  but  also  he  himself  aspii-ed  to  succeed  his 
uncle  Ferdinand  on  the  imperial  throne  of  Germany,  and  this  latter 
fact  influenced  him  to  consent  to  the  marriag'e  of  William  of  Orang-e 
Avith  the  Lutheran  Anne  of  Saxony. 

In  regard  to  Catherine  de  Medicis,  we  find,  in  the  work  of 
M.  Kervyn  especially,  confirmation  of  the  spirit  of  intrig-ue  of  this 
woman  of  high  intellig-ence.  Her  shifty  policy  is  here  exposed  in 
all  its  flagrancy.  That  Philip,  at  times,  considered  the  interest  of 
his  throne  as  the  interests  of  the  Catholic  Church,  that  the  English 
Queen,  Elizabeth,  sought  in  the  support  of  Gueux  and  Huguenots 
strength  for  her  Anglican  Church,  at  the  expense  of  the  peace  of 
Europe — may  be  granted.  But  Catherine  shows  only  as  a  naughty 
and  perfidious  woman,  sacrificing  the  principles  which  she  pi'etended 
to  defend,  ever  preparing  poison  and  the  poignard  for  her  enemies, 
without  preconcerted,  plan  however,  but  as  circumstances  lent  the 
opportunity — a  quality  of  the  Queen-mother  of  which  historians 
have  not  made  sufficient  account.  They  pretend  that  the  Massacre 
of  St.  Bartholomew  was  pre-arranged  eight  years  before  its  execution, 
which  would  be  in  direct  opposition  to  any  policy  of  Catherine's. 
Besides,  new  information,  furnished  by  M.  Kervyn,  leaves  no  doubt 
of  the  entire  spontaneity  of  the  revolution. 

Moreover,  from  MSS.  kept  in  the  Record  Office,  and  from  other  im- 
portant documents,  additional  information  is  gleaned  as  to  William 
of  Orange.  It  is  well  enough  known  that  he  sought  to  make  the 
Low  Countries  independent  of  Spain  whilst  he  feigned  obedience  to 
the  King;  and  that  he  preferred  pacific  means  to  a  war.  But  until 
now  it  has  not  been  sufficiently  made  evident  that  the  great  difference 
between  the  tendencies  of  William  and  of  his  co-revolutionists  was 
their  religious  sentiment.  The  Prince  thought  he  could  do  without 
the  clergy  in  founding  a  State  independent  of  Spain. 

This  last  circumstance,  the  author  of  this  notice  considers  he  has 
fully  proved  in  his  "  Histoire  de  Marnix,"  was  the  great  stumbling- 
block  to  William's  success.     "  The  Silent "  was  not  an  iconoclast,  but 


Notices  of  Boohs.  455 

liad  not  the  enthusiasm  necessary  for  founding-  a  new  Church  and 
independent  State  tipon  the  ruins  of  Catholicism.  He  sought  to  do 
^way  with  the  traditional  g-ood  feeling-  between  Church  and  State, 
and  to  replace  this  happy  state  of  affairs  by  indifference  in  the 
matter  of  relig-ion.  It  was  for  this  reason  tiiat,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  towns,  on  whose  fidelity  he  thought  he  could  rely,  declared 
themselves  for  the  Catholic  relig-ion  ■  and,  on  the  other,  that 
William  had  to  proclaim  himself  for  Marnix,  to  whom  he  was 
•opposed  at  the  beg-inning-  of  the  revolution.  Marnix,  the  chief  of  the 
■Calvinists,  was  an  ardent  follower  of  the  Elector  Palatine,  whose 
idea  was  the  formation  of  a  Calvinist  State  in  the  Low  Countries 
and  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  having-  different  centres,  -and  Heidel- 
berg- as  the  "  New  Jerusalem "  of  the  Apocalypse.  The  title  of 
"  prophet,"  had  been  given  to  Frederic  III.,  as  it  was  given  later  to 
the  Due  d'AleuQon.  To  Frederick  III.  all  the  excited  heads  in  the 
Low  Countries  paid  blind  obedience. 

Such  are  a  few  "of  the  facts  for  the  most  part  newly  furnished  by 
our  author.  The  work,  however,  deserves  to  be  thoroughly  enjoyed, 
and  should  be  read  calmly  from  end  to  end.  Its  principal  charm 
lies  in  the  fresh  details  with  which  the  book  swarms  throughout. 
The  logical  subdivisions  of  the  text  render  a  knowledge  of  its  con- 
tents easy  for  those  who  are  unaccustomed  to  read  a  work  of  such 
detail.  Its  style  is  at  once  attractive  and  concise.  The  scholar 
will  find  his  delight  in  the  corroborative  footnotes  with  which  the 
work  abounds.  The  more  general  reader,  if  unprejudiced,  will  find 
many  things  subversive  of  old  established  prejudices. 

Dr.  Paul  Alberdingk  Thijm. 


Decreta  Quatuor  Concilioruni  Provincialium  Westmonastcriensnim,  1852 
-1873.  Adjectis  pluribus  decretis,  rescriptis,  aliisque  docu- 
mentis.     Editio  2''*.     Londini :  Burns  et  Gates. 

AMONG  the  constitutional  methods  of  Church  government, 
provincial  and  diocesan  coxincils  have  from  early  times 
played  a  conspicuous  and  influential  part.  The  regularity  of  their 
recurrence  may  almost  be  called  the  pulse  of  ecclesiastical  life ; 
■certainly,  whenever  a  council  has  been  assembled  to  repair  errors 
and  restore  order  after  a  period  of  confusion,  such  council  has 
always  raised  its  cry  for  the  future  regular  holding  of  synods.  It  was 
natural,  therefore,  that  the  hierarchy  having  been  restored  to  this 
country,  a  provincial  synod  should  speedily  follow.  It  is  indeed 
almost  a  surprise  that  the  one  should  have  followed  so  closely  on  the 
other  J  for  Pius  the  Ninth's  Bull,  Universalis  Ecclcsi(B,  is  dated 
September,  1850,  and  the  first  synod  was  held  in  the  July  of  1852, 
the  No  Popery  riots  intervening.  The  last  synod  of  Westminster, 
the  fourth  since  the  restoration  of  the  hierarchy,  was  held  in  1873, 
and  it  has  been  a  good  thought  on  the  part  of  those  who  have 
brought  out  the  present  work,  to  gather  together  into  one  con- 
secutive 'volume,  well-indexed  for  quick  reference,  the  acts  and  the 
decrees   of  these  four  provincial  councils.     There  is   an  appendix 


456  Notices  of  Books. 

of  valuable  rescripts  and  -decrees,  also  indexed.  These  include 
the  Romanos  Puntijiccs  of  the  present  Pope,  and  the  Firmandis  of 
Benedict  XIV.,  on  the  jurisdiction  of  Bishops  as  to  Churches  of 
Regulars,  &c. ;  several  important  instructions  of  Propaganda,  as 
e.g.,  that  "  detitulo  Ordinationis,"  with  the  form  of  mission  oath,  that 
"  super  facultate  binandi,"  and  two  or  three  following-  ones  on  the 
method  of  procedure  in  various  matrimonial  difficulties  gf  frequent 
occurrence  in  the  circumstances  of  our  modern  society ;  some 
Rcsponsa  of  the  S.  Congregations  as  to  conditional  baptisms,  &c. 
Finally,  several  miscellaneous  papers  of  recent  date  have  been  added 
to  this  second  edition  ;  the  Concession  of  New  Breviary  Offices, 
a  decree  of  June  28,  1884,  *'  de  appellatione  ad  Metropolitanum " 
the  letters  of  Propaganda  of  last  January  on  non-Catholic 
[Jniversities,  and  of  last  March  on  the  interpretation  of  the  Rmnanos 
Pontifices. 


La  Civilization  en  Italie  uu  temps  dc  la  Renaissance.  Par  Jacob 
BuRCKHARDT.  Traduction  de  M.  Schmitt,  Professeur  au 
Lycee  Condorcet  sur  la  seconde  edition  annotee  par  L.  Geiger. 
2  vols.  8vo.     Paris :  E.  Plon,  Nourrit  &  Cie.     1885. 

THE  reputation  of  Burckhardt  is  made,  and  the  popularity  of  his 
works  is  assured.  It  is  agreeable  to  find  a  writer  on  the 
history  of  the  Renaissance  who,  whilst  thoroughly  in  sympathy 
with  his  theme,  is  not  fascinated  by  splendid  wickedness,  and  does 
not  find  in  a  picturesque  or  prodigal  magnificence  a  welcome  oppor- 
tunity for  word-painting.  By  the  side  of  some  recent  authors, 
Burckhardt  may  appear  tame.  His  method  of  working  has  itself 
an  apparent  ease  which  is  deceptive  ;  erudition  sits  lightly  on  him. 
In  reality,  few  tasks  are  more  difficult  than  the  selection,  in  the 
abundance  of  material,  of  the  typical  facts  which  are  made  the 
starting  points  of  a  series  of  reilections  always  instructive  and 
generally  just.  A  conspicuous  merit  of  the  book  is  the  author's 
soberness  in  formulating  judgments.  "  Without  doubt,"  he  says, 
''  there  is  a  personal  appreciation,  of  which  conscience  is  the  guide  ; 
but  a  truce  to  general  sentences  passed  on  whole  nations."  The 
reader  who  looks  to  find  opinions  ready  made,  and  roundly  ex- 
pressed, will  be  disappointed ;  perhaps  irritated  at  the  many  limi- 
tations and  exceptions  with  which  the  author  sees  fit  to  guard  his 
more  general  assertions. 

This  moderation  is  pre-eminently  in  place  in  discussing  a  move- 
ment like  the  Italian  Renaissance,  which,  with  its  mixture  of  formal 
•  beauty  and  moral  turpitude,  excites  a  passionate  reprobation,  and 
an  admiration  no  less  passionate.  If  the  recognition  of  the  supreme 
rule  of  conscience  may  not  seem  always  adequate  (II.  p.  191),  the 
tone  of  the  book  is  fresh  and  healthy.  Even  in  dealing  with  the 
characteristic  which  enlists  all  the  author's  sympathies,  and  which, 
gives  the  key-note  to  the  work,  the  development  of  individualism, 
ho    is    never   swayed    from    the   rectitude  of  his  judgment;    no 


Notices  of  Boohs,  457 

success  or  heroic  achievement  blinds  him  to  the  danger  of  the 
unchecked  assertion  of  the  individual  will.  Nay,  more  :  however 
frequently  the  idea  may  recur  in  his  pages  that  "  the  short  splen- 
dour of  the  Renaissance"  was  brought  to  an  untimely  close  by 
external  circumstances,  Burckhardt  makes  it  abundantly  clear — is 
it  in  spite  of  himself? — that  a  further  natural  development  on  its 
own  lines  was  impossible  ;  corruption  had  penetrated  throughout 
the  whole  of  society ;  and  its  essentially  worldly,  earthy,  and  un- 
spiritual  character  was  the  fatal  and  inevitable  cause  of  its  de- 
cadence. 

It  will  be  readily  understood  that  there  are  many  pages  which 
are  not  pleasant  reading  to  the  Catholic  solicitous  for  reputations 
which  their  owners,  in  their  day,  took  no  great  care  to  leave  untar- 
nished. It  is  vain  to  try  to  elude  the  force  of  the  fact  that  those 
•to  whom  the  interests  of  religion  were  primarily  entrusted  were 
overborne  by  the  current,  and  gave  in  their  own  persons  most  con- 
spicuous examples  of  worldliness.  As  we  look  back  on  the  later 
decades  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  the  earlier  years  of  the  six- 
teenth, it  almost  seems  that  then,  if  ever,  did  Christian  men  practi- 
cally admit  the  futility  of  individual  effort  to  stem  the  tide  of  evil. 
It  is  more  agreeable  to  turn  to  an  earlier  day.  In  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Renaissance  we  are  met  at  all  points  b}^  /Eneas  Silvius 
Piccolomini,  who  died  Pope  Pius  II.,  a  figure  whose  interest  and 
charm  it  is  difficult  to  exaggerate.  Endowed  with  a  marvellous 
versatility,  and  reflecting  more  faithfully  than  any  other  individual 
all  the  varied  movements  of  his  day,  he  is  at  the  same  time  inspired 
by  the  great  ideas  of  the  middle  ages  which  had  passed  away,  and 
anticipates  some  of  the  most  marked  and  essential  characteristics 
of  the  moderns.  He  was  the  first,  writes  Burckhardt,  to  enjoy  the 
splendours  of  the  Italian  landscape,  which  he  describes  with  enthu- 
siasm; he  finds  a  charm  in  an  isolated  object,  a  mere  detail,  a 
bridge  flung  boldly  across  the  ravine,  even  a  flower  shaken  by  the 
breeze.  "These  are  enjoyments  essentially  modern;  antiquity 
has  no  part  in  them."  Burckhardt's  aversion  to  feudalism  and  all 
its  works,  though  not  obtruded,  is  somewhat  amusingly  strong ; 
he  seems  to  turn  away  with  impatience  from  his  own  countr}^  to 
the  free  and  sunny  land  of  Italy.  Yet  the  "  look  of  envy  "  cast  by 
^^neas  Sylvius  on  the  "  happy "  imperial  towns  of  Germany,  as 
compared  with  the  cities  of  his  own  land  and  their  turbulent 
factions,  was  not  unjustified ;  he  had  had  long  and  intimate  experience 
of  both.  The  north  was  certainly  not  "  a  world  in  which  intellectual 
culture  and  wealth "  were  "  the  measure  of  social  importance " 
(II.  p.  105);  the  Medicis  may  excuse  such  an  ideal;  and  the 
distance  which  separates  the  Medicis  and  the  Fuggers  is  great. 

The  translation  reads  easily ;  if  anything,  too  much  of  good  is 
attempted.  Revue  histortque  does  not  immediately  suggest  von  Sybel's 
Zeitschrift;  nor  les  Ecrivains  de  Wattenbach,  his  Schrijtwescn. 

E.  B. 


458  J^otices  of  Books. 

Le  Morcellement.  Par  Alfred  de  Foville.  Chef  du  Bureau  de 
Statistique  et  Legislation  comparee  au  Ministdre  des  Finances, 
etc.     Paris :    Guillaumin,    1885. 

MANY  of  us  are  getting  tired  of  the  torrents  of  sentimental  and 
historical  bluster  about  division  of  land,  which  have  lately 
been  poured  out  upon  the  devoted  heads  of  electors,  and  English- 
men generally.  Many  of  us,  at  least,  would  listen  with  more 
respect  to  the  speeches  of  irrepressible  land-reformers,  if  their 
utterances  evinced  that  they  had  been  at  the  pains  of  addressing 
themselves  to  the  practical  aspects  of  their  subject — if  they  gave 
evidence  of  having  devoted  themselves  to  a  study  of  the  abundant 
materials  relevant  to  the  matter  which  exist  in  other  lands — ifj  in 
fine,  before  endeavouring  to  upset  an  established  order  of  things, 
and  urging  violent  experiments  upon  the  country,  they  had 
endeavoured  to  gauge  in  some  measure  beforehand  the  probable 
results  of  such  experiments. 

We  can  heartily  recommend  the  book  before  us  to  the  attentive 
consideration  of  land  reformers.  They  will  find  therein  abundant 
argument  in  favour  of  legislative  reform  with  regard  to  land.  They 
will  find  the  question  of  the  subdivision  of  the  soil  treated  not  by 
vapouring,  but  by  valid  reasoning  from  well -ascertained  facts  and 
figures.  Not  the  least  recommendation  of  the  volume  is  the  open- 
mindedness  and  impartiality  of  the  author,  who  apparently  Avrites  in 
support  of  no  party,  and  whose  olficial  position  has  doubtless  made 
him  familiar  with  the  bearing  of  the  statistics,  which  are  a  large 
portion  of  his  material,  if,  indeed,  it  has  not  afforded  him  facilities 
for  his  work,  not  given  to  ''  the  general." 

M.  de  Foville  treats  of  his  subjects  under  three  principal  aspects  : 

1.  The  division  of  land. 

2.  The  Parcellary  subdivision  of  land.  (The  strict  meaning  in 
the  French  administrative  terminology  oi  parcelle  is  a  portion  of  land 
situate  wholly  in  one  cantonal  district,  wholly  under  one  kind  of 
culture,  and  belonging  to  a  single  owner.) 

3.  The  dispersion  of  landed  property. 

The  author  shows  in  a  very  forcible  light  the  influence  of  national 
usage  and  its  sanction.  The  partition  of  land  in  France  is  less  a 
matter  of  law  than  of  national  feeling  ^and  tradition.  Indeed,  the 
maxim  of  equal  division  of  the  heritage  among  the  inheritors  is 
generally  observed  to  a  higher  extent  than  the  law  prescribes.  The 
custom  of  primogeniture  sanctioned  in  England  by  the  national 
usage,  would  in  France  by  the  generality  of  people  be  regarded  as 
abominably  unjust. 

The  mode  in  which  property  is  divided,  as  much  almost  as  its 
division,  affects  its  value.  When  the  property  of  a  single  owner  is 
distributed,  when  lots  are  isolated  in  other  properties,  there  is  always 
economic  loss.  This  case,  as  well  as  extreme  subdivision,  cause,  in 
a  way  which  might  be  easily  overlooked,  a  waste  of  land  in  the 
multiplication  of  cartroads  and  similar  ways. 

The  subdivision  of  land  in  France  is  not  by  any  means  to  be  wholly 


Notices  of  Books.  459 

ascribed  to  revolutionary  legislation,  there  is  abundant  testimony  to 
its  development  under  the  old  regime.  The  same  Earth- hunger 
(Balzac  calls  it  "  le  demon  de  la  Propriete  ")  was  felt  in  France  as  in 
Ireland.  The  land  was  bought  overdearly,  but,  once  acquired,  no 
labour  was  spared  upon  it.  The  very  rocks  were  covered  with 
•earth  or  pulverized  into  soil.  ''  La  propriete  y  est  toute  dans  le 
proprietaire,"  as  the  author  epigram matically  remarks.  And  accord- 
ingly it  is  hard  to  find  a  waste  spot  of  land  in  France. 

Turning  to  the  English  land  system,  which  he  has  evidently 
studied  with  much  care,  the  author  declares  that  the  old  landed 
system  of  France  was  far  from  presenting  the  abuses  which  obtain 
in  England.  The  conservative  spirit  of  the  Englishman  cannot 
postpone  indefinitely  a  reform  which  Mr.  Gladstone  has  already 
begun  in  Ireland. 

In  England,  the  father  has  the  sanction  not  only  of  law,  but  of 
custom,  in  leaving  nearly  all  his  property  to  one  child.  Hence  the 
unjustifiable  anomaly  of  2,000  proprietors,  now  at  this  close  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  owning  nearly  half  the  territory  of  Britain,  while 
the  large  towns  are  accumulating  an  increasing  multitude  who  are  a 
prey  to  frightful  ph3^sical  and  moral  suffering.  .  .  .  National  misery 
or  prosperity  are,  however,  due  to  far  too  complex  causes  to  be 
explained  otf-hand  by  the  respective  laws  of  succession. 

Not  that  the  laws  are  not  a  factor  in  the  question ;  Great  Britain 
indeed  shows  that  they  are,  and  it  is  a  "significant  symptom  when 
Englishmen,  generally  more  disposed  to  dwell  with  complacency  on 
their  superiority  than  to  accentuate  the  weak  sides  of  their  social 
organization,  are  to-day  endeavouring  to  reconstruct  artificially  that 
peasant  proprietorship  of  which  they  have  dried  up  the  natural 
source." 

We  have  already  occupied  too  much  space,  but  the  subject  is  a 
^*  question  of  the  hour,"  and  we  would  briefly  state  the  conclusions 
which  the  author  draws  from  his  facts.     These  are  : — 

1.  That  hereditary  partition  of  land  is  not  in  France  the  chief 
factor  in  its  subdivision. 

2.  That  territorial  subdivision  may  be  carried  much  further  before 
any  evils  arising  from  it  equal  its  advantages. 

8.  That,  where  the  subdivision  of  land  has  been  pushed  to  excess, 
a  spontaneous  reaction  has  commenced,  which  would  speedily  re- 
pair the  mischief,  did  not  transfer  duties  (which  have  now,  on  small 
transactions,  reached  about  loO  per  cent.),  check  trade  in  land. 
Apropos  of  free  trade  in  land,  it  is  a  pleasant  surprise  to  find  an 
apposite  extract  from  Xenophon's  dialogue  detween  Socrates  and 
Ischomaches  in  the  third  book  of  the  Economics.  The  volume  is 
much  enhanced  by  an  appendix  of  valuable  ineccs  justijicatives. 

M.  de  Foville  has  the  eminently  French  gift  of  investing  a  rather 
statistical  and  unpromising  subject  with  a  pithy  literary  style. 
"  It  is  noticeable,"  he  writes  (p.*  22),  "  that  ardent  reformers  pass 
one  half  of  their  time  in  clamouring  for  the  transfer  to  the  State  of 
rights  which  belong  to  the  individual,  and  the  other  half  of  their 


460  Notices  of  Books. 

time  in  demandino*  for  tLe  individual  the  rig-lits  which  pertain  to  the 
State."  M.  de  Foville  gives  full  recognition  to  the  revolution 
which  steam  transport  is  eifecting-  in  agriculture.  It  strikes 
us  as  a  curious  fact,  vfhich  seems  to  escape  M.  de  Foville,  and,  as 
far  as  we  know,  all  writers  on  the  subject,  that  the  development 
of  steam  navigation  tends  to  check  the  use  of  large  machinery  in 
European  agriculture.  "  JVeither  '  extensive '  nor  '  intensive ' 
culture "  writes  M.  de  Foville,*  "  as  practised  on  model  farms 
with  the  aid  of  large  machinery,  approximate  in  yield  to  those 
veritable  vegetable  manufactories  wnich  the  market  gardeners 
round  our  great  towns  are  progressivel}""  developing.  Between 
the  field  and  the  garden  competition  is  impossible.  In  the  garden 
the  owner  is  also  the  workman."  The  climax  of  productivity  is 
reached  by  the  small  proprietor  who  works  his  own  land. 


Manual  of  the    Seven  Dolours.     By  Father  Sebastian,  Passionist. 
Dublin  :  J.  Duffy  &  Sons. 

THE  sixth  edition  of  this  admirable  manual  of  devotion,  greatly 
enriched  by  additional  matter,  will  come  most  opportunely  at 
this  season  of  the  year  to  the  devout  servant  of  Mary.  Father 
Sebastian's  writings  are  generally  full  of  thought :  occasionally,  in 
the  present  volume,  the  matter  is  curious,  but  suggestive.  The 
"  Canonical  Oifice  of  the  Seven- Dolours  "  is  given  in  English  j  of 
course  this  can  only  be  for  private  devotion. 


The  Thirty  Years.     (Vol.  LIV.  of  the  Quarterly  Series.)     By  Father 

Coleridge,  S.J.     London  :  Burns  &  Gates. 

'TTJ'E   have  so  constantly  spoken  in  terms  of  highest  praise  of 

y  I       Father  Coleridge's  great  Gospel  Commentary,  that  we  have 

no  need  at  present  to   say  more  than  that  this  volume  of  "  The 

Thirty  Years  "  is  as  full  of  thought  and  devotion  as  its  predecessors. 


Ireland  wider  the  Tvdors.     By  Eichard  Bagwell,  M.A. 
Vols.  I.  and  II.     London  :   Longmans  &  Co.     1885. 

IT  is  a  hopeful  sign  of  the  times  that  Irish  history  is  being  now 
written  less  as  a  whole  and  more  in  parts,  each  of  which  is 
treated  with  that  measure  of  fairness  and  fulness  which  only  a 
specialist  can  give  to  it.  Mr.  Bagwell's  work  is  written  profes- 
sedly in  a  tolerant  spirit,  and  it  entitles  him  to  a  place  in  the  new 
school  of  writers,  whose  aim  is  to  give  more  Ijght  and  less  heat  in 
dealing  with  the  facts  and  features  of  history.  His  conception  of 
the  otidce  of  a  historian  is  that  of  judge,  who,  after  listening  to  the 
evidence  of  witnesses,  marshals  the  data  and  the  issues  in  a  charge 
to  the  jury.  It  is  undeniably  refreshing  to  hear  the  judicial  charge 
from  the  bench,  when  we  have  listened  ad  naustavi  to  the  special 

*  Caird,  at  least,  if  not  other  E  nglish  economists,  uses  "  intensive  " 
and  "extensive"  in  this  sense. 


Notices  of  Boohs.  461 

pleading  from  the  bar,  and  have  been  wearied  witli  the  declamation 
of  those  who,  like  Mr.  Froude  and  others,  hold  a  brief  for  a  given 
theory  or  a  given  party.  But  we  know  that  even  the  charges  of 
learned  judg-es  are  not  always  altogether  free  from  arbitrary  notions 
of  law  and  from  personal  bias  as  to  the  facts  at  issue  ;  and  how  far 
Mr.  Bagwell  fulfils  his  conception  must  be  left  to  the  general  reader. 
For  instance,  the  authenticity  of  Pope  Adrian's  bull  to  Henry  II. 
is  still,  we  venture  to  think,  commonly  regarded  as  a  vexed  question 
amongst  writers  on  Irish  history.  We  believe  that  so  learned  an  autho- 
rity as  Cardinal  Moran,  Archbishop  of  Sydney,  and  whose  researches 
on  Irish  history  were  well  known  to  Irish  readers  even  before  those 
of  Mr.  Bagwell,  holds  the  bull  to  be  a  forgery,  and  adduces  the  tes- 
timony of  the  Vatican  archivist  to  show  "that  nowhere  in  the 
private  archives,  or  among  the  private  papers  of  the  Vatican,  or  in 
the  *  Regesta,'  which  Jaffe's  researches  have  made  so  famous,  or  in 
the  various  indices  of  Pontifical  letters,  can  a  single  trace  be  found 
of  the  supposed  bulls  of  Adrian  and  Alexander."  Yet  Mr.  Bagwell, 
after  mentioning  that  "  Irish  scholars,  torn  asunder  by  their  love  of 
Rome  and  their  love  of  Ireland,  formerly  attempted  to  prove  that 
Adrian's  bull  was  not  genuine,"  adds,  "  but  its  authenticity  is  no 
loiifjcr  disputed."  (The  italics  are  ours.)  Mr.  Bagwell  has  no  doubt 
in  his  hands  ample  evidence  to  prove  the  genuineness  of  the  bull, 
and  has,  of  course,  an  undoubted  right  to  take  that  side  of  the  con- 
troversy which  seems  to  him  most  reasonable.  But  it  may  be  fairly 
doubted  if  he  has  the  right  to  settle  that  the  controversy  no  longer 
exists,  to  withhold  from  his  readers  all  evidence  for  or  against,  and 
ask  them  to  rest  satisfied  with  his  assurance  that  (Cardinal  Moran, 
Father  Morris,  and  others  notwithstanding)  "  its  authenticity  is  no 
longer  disputed."  That,  we  conceive,  is  following  out  the  concep- 
tion-of  a  judge  in  more  respects  than  in  the  impartiality  of  the 
charge.  To  sentence  to  death  controversies  still  unclosed,  plainly 
exceeds  the  right  of  any  historian. 

The  main  features  and  arrangement  of  the  w^ork  are  such  as  to 
entitle  it  to  every  commendation.  Although  the  author's  researches 
bear  chiefly  upon  the  Tudor  reigns,  he  has  wisely  consulted  the-  in- 
terests of  sequence,  by  devoting  the  first  seven  chapters  to  preceding- 
periods  of  Irish  history.  In  these,  the  early  condition  of  Ireland, 
the  Scandinavian  inroads,  the  invasion  by  Henry  II.,  the  visit  of 
John,  the  invasion  by  the  Bruces,  are  successively  treated,  and 
supplemented  by  a  sketch  of  the  Irish  Parliament.  The  remaining 
twenty-eight  chapters  bring  the  work  down  to  1678,  and  include  a 
remarkably  clear  and  interesting  account  of  the  country  during  the 
reigns  of  Henry  VII.,  Henry  VIII.,  Edward  VI.,  Mary,  and  Eliza- 
beth. This  comprises  the  Reformation  struggles,  and  one  of  the 
most  decisive  eras  in  Anglo-Irish  history — the  one  in  which  the 
conflict  of  religion  widened  agape  the  chasm  which  the  conflict  of 
race  had  already  opened,  and  lent  to  the  Irish  question  that  "  in- 
soluble" character  which  has  made  it  the  despair  of  statesmen  to 
the  present  day.     The  value  of  the  work  is  enhanced  by  a  number  of 


462  Notices  of  Books. 

coloured  maps,  by  which  the  reader  is  enabled  to  grasp  the  divisions 
of  the  country  at  various  stages  of  its  development.  We  under- 
stand thiit  Mr.  Bag-well  intends  to  complete  his  work  by  a  third 
volume,  and  until  its  appearance  we  reserve  a  fuller  notice  of  what 
is  already  a  valuable  contribution  to  Irish  history. 


Studies  of  Family   Life.     A  Contribution    to  Social  Science,     By 
C.  S.  Devas,  M.A.,  Oxon.     London  :  Burns  &  Gates.     1886. 

ME.  DEVAS  is  now  well  known,  and  holds  a  deservedly 
high  position  as  an  authority  on  matters  connected  with 
economics  and  social  science.  His  modest  volume  on  "  Family 
Life"  is  extremely  interestino-,  and  ought  to  be  widely  circulated. 
In  the  first  part  he  treats  of  Fore-Christian  Families  ;  in  the  second 
of  the  Cliristian  Famil}^ ;  in  the  third  of  After-Christian  Families. 
The  nomenclature  and  classification  are  original,  but  they  are  none 
the  worse  for  that.  By  a  somewhat  exhaustive  survey  of  family 
life  in  various  nations  before  the  advent  of  Christianity,  of  family 
life  based  on  Christianity,  and  of  family  life  as  now  exhibiting  itself 
among  those  who  have  cast  aside  Christian  doctrine,  in  part  or  in 
jts  entirety,  a  most  valuable  argument  is  drawn  out — one  which  will 
bear  a  deeper  consideration  than  that  which  we  are  able  to  afford  to 
it  in  this  number  of  the  Keview. 


1,  The  First  and  Three  Last  of  the  Minor  Prophets.     For  the  Use  of 

Hebrew  Students.  With  an  Appendix  on  Dan.  ix.  24,  27.  By 
Eev.  W.  Randolph.     Cambridge  :  Deighton,  Bell  &  Co, 

2,  Propadia  Prophetica  ;  or,  the  Use  a?id  Desir/n  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Examined  by  W,  R.  Lyall,  D.D.,  sometime  Dean  of 
Canterbury,  New  Edition,  with  Notices,  by  G,  C,  Pearson, 
M.A.,  Hon.  Canon  of  Canterbury.  London  :  Kegan  Paul, 
Trench  &  Co.     1885, 

3,  Old  Testament  Prophecy  of  the  Consummation  of  God^s  Kinfjdom^ 
traced  in  its  Historical  Development.  By  C.  Von  Orellt. 
Translated  byT.  S.Banks.  Edinburgh:  Clarke's  Theological 
Library.     1885. 

A  REVIEWER,  whose  hard  lot  it  is  to  read  a  stupid  and  ignorant 
book  on  the  prophet  Osee,  naturally  seeks  his  consolation  in  a 
renewed  study  of  the  prophecy  itself  Mr.  Randolph's  commentary, 
which  stands  at  the  head  of  our  list,  offers  no  real  help  to  the 
student  of  that  difficult  author,  whom  he  professes  to  explain.  But 
the  interest  of  Osee  is  ever  fresh,  and  perhaps  the  readers  of  The 
Dublin  will  not  take  it  amiss,  if  we  make  some  remarks  on  his 
historical  position  and  the  significance  of  his  teaching.  A  few  words 
at  the  close  will  suffice  to  justify  the  above  estimate  of  Mr. 
Randolph's  labours. 

We  might  have  gathered  even  from  the  language  and  thought  of 
the  prophet,  that  he  belonged  to  the  Ten  Tribes  and  not  to  the 


Notices  of  Books.  46& 

Soutliern  Kino-dom.  It  is  Israel,  in  tliat  narrower  sense  whicli  the 
word  assumed  after  Jereboam's  revolt,  whicli  constantly  presents 
itself  to  the  prophet's  eye.  Mizpah  or  Gilead  in  the  East,  Tabor  in 
the  West,  are  to  him  the  boundaries  of  the  whole  land  (v.  1,  vi.  8, 
xii.  12).  He  speaks  of  Sichem,  infamous  for  the  bloodshed  and 
treachery  of  the  Israelite  priests  (vi.  9).  He  is  familiar  with  Gilg-al 
and  Bethel,  the  seats  of  idolatrous  worship  and,  adopting-  a  play  upon 
words  which  Amos  (vi.  5)  had  l)roug'ht  into  vogue,  he  chang-es  the 
name  of  the  latter  from  Bethel,  ''the  House  of  God,"  to  Bethaven, 
"  The  House  of  Iniquity  "  (iv.  15,  ix.  15,  x.  5,  xii.  12) ;  he  makes 
frequent  mention  of  Samaria.  It  is  evident,  moreover,  that  he 
knows  Israel  and  its  chief  tribe  Ephraim,  by  a  long-  personal 
experience.  His  languag-e  has  that  Aramaic  ting-e  which,  in  early 
Hebrew  literature,  belongs  only  to  the  literary  productions  of  the 
North,  such  as  Debbora's  hymn  of  triumph  over  Sisara  and  the 
"  Song-  of  Song-s "  (^3n  vi.  9,  ^jnn  xi.  3,  mn  xiii.,  Wl^'y  viii.  6, 
nnj  V.  13).  But  we  are  not  left  to  circumstantial  evidence, 
thoug'h  that  of  itself  is  conclusive.  To  him  "  the  land "  (i.  2) 
means  Israel,  and  he  calls  the  Sovereign  of  the  Northern  King-dom, 
"  our  king- "  (vii.  5).  This  alone  would  be  enoug-h  to  invest  his  book 
with  a  unique  interest,  for  we  have  no  other  prophecy  from  a  subject 
of  the  Northern  King-dom.*  Amos  did  indeed  prophesy  in  Israel, 
but  he  went  there  as  a  stranger,  and  was  driven  back  to  his  native 
Judah,  while  Osee' belonged  naturally  and  irrevocably  to  the  nation 
in  which  his  prophetic  work  lay.  To  this  we  must  add  that  he 
carries  us  back  almost  to  the  beginning  of  prophetic  literature.  He 
w^as  not  the  earliest,  but  he  was  a  younger  contemporai-y  of  Amos, 
the  earliest  of  the  prophets  whose  writings  have  come  down  to  us. 
Lastly,  he  brings  a  new  and  fruitful  idea  into  Hebrew  religion,  and, 
in  setting-  it  forth,  he  at  the  same  time  lifts  the  veil  from  his  own 
sorrow-stricken  life.  As  Amos  proclaims  the  righteousness,  so  Osee 
the  unconquerable  love  and  tenderness  of  Jahveh,  and  thus  pre- 
pares the  way  for  that  "grace  and  truth  "  which  was  manifested 
in  Jesus  Christ. 

He  entered  upon  his  work  as  the  long  reign  of  Jeroboam  II. 
(B.C.  783-743)  Avas  drawing-  to  its  close,  and  to  this  period  the 
first  section  of  the  prophecy  (cap.  i.-iv.)  refers.  At  least,  it  is  plain 
that  the  rebellion  of  Shallum,  which  hurled  Jeroboam's  son  and 
successor  Zacarias  from  the  throne  on  which  he  sat  but  six  months, 
had  not  yet  occurred.  The  dynasty  of  Jehu,  in  which  Jeroboam  II. 
held  the  foiirth,  Zac-arias  the  fifth  place,  was  still  in  power.  "  And 
Jahveh  said  to  me  ...  .  Yet  a  little  and  I  will  visit  .the  blood 
of  Jezreel  on  the  house  of  Jehu,  and  I  will  cause  the  king-dom 
of  the  house  of  Israel  to  cease  "  (i.  4).  The  reign  of  Jeroboam  had 
been  one  of  outward  triumph  and  splendour.  He  had  extended,  or 
all  but  extended,  the  kingdom  to  its  old  limits  on  the  north  under 

*  Or  at  least  no  other  prophet  who  described  the  Northern  Kingdom  from  within. 
Elkosh,  where  Nahum  was  born,  may  have  been,  and  probably  was,  in  Northern 
Israel,  but  Nahum's  prophecy  has  no  local  colouring. 


464  Notices  of  Books. 

David  and  Solomon,  and  Amos  depicts  the  luxury  of  the  rich  at  that 
time.     He  speaks  of  those  who  were  "  at  ease  in  Sion  and  confident 
in  the  mountain  of  Samaria"  (vi.  1),  of  the  "  couches  of  ivory,"  the 
banquets  of  wine  and  meat,  the  precious  ointments,  the  song-s  and 
the  newly   invented  instruments  of  music  (Amos  vi.  4—7).     He 
tells  us,  too,  how  zealous  the  people  were  in  their  sacrificial  worship. 
They  thoug-ht  of  Jahveh  as  their  own  national  g-od.     He  had  done 
much  for  them,  and  they  in  turn  by  their  ritual  service  did  much 
for  him.     They  did  not  dream  of  any  possibility  that  Jahveh  mig'ht 
deliver  his  people  to  destruction,  since  the  ruin  of  the  people  would 
have  been  the  ruin  of  Jahveh  himself      In  short,  their  religion  was 
little  more  than  nature-worship,  ag-ainst  all  which  Amos  sets  and 
proclaims  a  g'od  of  righteousness.     By  this,  he  means,  right  and 
just  institutions,  not  chiefly  individual  righteousness  and  purity  in 
the  New  Testament  sense.     In  the  midst  of  wealth  and  prosperity, 
Amos  saw  the  greed  of  gain.     "  They  sell  the  righteous  for  silver 
and  the  poor  for  a  pair  of  shoes  ....  the  Avay  of  the  lowlj-^  they 
pervert "  (ii.  6).      The  ladies  in  Samaria  '^  oppressed  the  weak  and 
crushed  the  poor,  and  said  to  their  lords,  '  bring  forth  that  we  may 
drink'"  (iv.  1,  2).      Whereas,  it  was  justice,  not  sacrifice  which 
Jahveh  wanted.     "  I  hate,  I  despise  your  feasts  :  and  I  will  take  no 
pleasure  in  your  assemblies.      Yea,  if  ye  offer  me   whole  burnt- 
offerings  and  your  meat-oiferings,  I  will  not  accept  them  r   and  on 
the  peace-offerings  of  your  fatted  cattle,  I  will  not  look.     Take  thou 
away  from  me  the  din  of  thy  songs :  and  I  will  not  hear  the  melody 
of  thy  lutes.      But  let  judgment  roll  like  water,  and  righteousness 
like  a  perennial  stream"  (v.  21,  24).      It  was  on  righteousness,  not 
on  sacrifices,  that  Jahveh's  original  covenant  with  his  people  rested : 
"  Did  3'e  bring  me  sacrifices  and  meat-offering  in  the  desert  during 
the  forty  years,  0  house  of  Israel  ?  "  (v.  25).     Nor  did  Amos  believe 
in  the  necessary  and  continual  protection  of  Israel  by  Jahveh.     He 
had    led   Israel  from   Egypt,  but   so  also   he  had    brought    the 
Philistines,  from  Crete,  and  the  Aramasans  from  Kir(ix.  7).     Amos, 
with   the   clear  view  of  a   man,  whose   eye,  un dimmed  by  selfish 
passion,   looks    facts  in  the  face,  saw  the  Assyrian  host  looming 
in  the  distance.     "  I  will  lead  you  into  captivity  beyond  Damascus, 
saith  Jahveh,  the  god  of  armies  is  his  name  "  (v.  27). 

A  comparison  of  Osee  (iv.  15)  with  Amos  (v.  5),  perhaps  also  of 
Osee  (viii.  14)  with  Amos  (ii.  5),  shows  that  the  younger  was,  in 
spite  of  his  singular  originality,  acquainted  with,  and  influenced  by, 
the  writing  of  the  elder  prophet.  But  in  Osee,  as  has  been  already 
said,  a  new  element  appears.  He  had  known  the  greatest  sorrow 
possible  to  a  true-hearted  man,  for  his  wife  Gomer*  the  daughter  of 
Diblaim  had  been  unfaithful  to  him,  and  he  could  not  even  regard 
his  children  as  his  own.  Even,  however,  in  his  desolation,  when  his 
wife  was  his  wife  no  longer,  his  heart  yearned  for  her,  and  he  came  to 

*  No  symbolical  meaning  can  be  extracted  from  the  name  ("  completion  "),  and 
this,  among  other  arguments,  shows  that  she  was  a  real  wortian,  not  a  mere  figure 
in  a  parable,  like  Ohola,  Oholiba,  &c. 


Notices  of  Books.  -466 

see,  in  his  own  sad  fate,  an  imag-e  of  the  relations  between  Jahveh 
■and  Israel.  Nay,  it  was  as  if  God  himself  had  tau^•ht  him,  at  so 
terrible  a  price,  a  lesson  on  the  divine  dealing's  with  Isriiel,  as  if 
Jahveh  himself  had  said,  "Take  to  thee  a  wife  of  fornications  and 
children  of  fornications,  for  surely  the  land  committeth  fornications, 
abandoning"  Jahveh  "  (i.  2).  The  covenant  was  broken  like  that 
between  a  husband  and  a  wicked  wife.  "  Ye  are  not  my  people, 
and  I  will  not  be  your "  [God]  (i.  9).  It  was  the  abundance  of 
natural  wealth  Avhich  had  led  Israel  to  idolatry — into  the  worship 
•of  the  Baals,  to  whom  she  oft'ered  incense  (i.  15),  the  g-ods  who  had 
^iven  her,  as  she  supposed,  her  "  wool  and  flax,  oil  and  drink  "  (ii.  9). 
Restoration  could  only  be  affected  by  disaster.  The  fruits  of  the 
earth  would  be  withdrawn  ;  her  feasts,  her  new  moons,  her  Sabbaths 
{ii.  13),  that  sensual  and  ritual  service  of  Jahveh,  which  the  prophet 
scarcely  disting'uished  from  Baal-worship,  would  cease,  {ind,  in  her 
desolation,  the  memory  of  former  days  would  return.  "  She  will 
say,  I  will  g-o  and  return  to  my  first  husband,  since  it  was  better 
with  me  then  than  now  "  (ii.  9).  God  would  lead  her  away  from  her 
luxurious  life  into  the  desert,  and  then,  as  in  the  old  Patriarchal 
days,  he  would  "  speak  to  her  heart  "  (ii.  16).  Thence  her 
prosperity  would  be  restored  once  again,  as  under  Joshua  centuries 
"before.  Israel  would  pass  throug-h  the  valley  of  Achor — i.e., 
Affliction,  and  once  again  it  would  be  changed  into  the  gate  of  hope, 
as  "  in  the  days  of  her  youth,  on  the  day  she  came  up  from  the  land 
of  Egypt  "(ii.  17). 

This  first  section  closes  with  the  completion  of  the  prophet's 
history  in  his  conjugal  relations.  A  voice  within  bade  liim  seek 
out  his  erring  wife  and  love  her  still.  "  Jahveh  said,  Go  still,  love  a 
woman  beloved  of  a  paramour  and  an  adulteress  " — i.e.,  the  same  wife 
Gomer,  of  whom  he  has  been  speaking  all  through.  Osee  buys  her 
back  at  a  slave's  price,  keeps  her  many  days  under  penitential 
discipline,  which  makes  fresh  crime  impossible.  This  was  done  in 
wise  and  enduring  love.  So  the  sons  of  Israel  would  be  purified  by 
desolation.  They  were  to  be  left  without "  king  or  prince,  altar  or 
pillar,  ephod  or  teraphira."  But  in  the  end  they  were  to  return 
from  their  double  apostasy,  civil  and  religious.  The  prophet  at  that 
time  regarded  Judah  when  the  regular  succession  was  in  striking 
contrast  to  the  violent  changes  of  dynasty  in  Israel,*  and  which 
was  then,  probably,  under  the  rule  of  good  Uzziah,  with  special 
favour,  and  believed  that  the  two  kingdoms  would  be  re-united 
under  the  Davidic  house.  '-Afterwards  the  sons  of  Israel  shall 
return  and  seek  Jahveh  their  god  and  David  their  king,  and  shall 
come  trembling  [with  joy]  to  Jahveh  and  to  his  good  things  in 
the  latter  days  "  (cap.  iii.).  "  The  latter  days  "  signify  simply  the 
end  of  the  time  of  penance  which  the  prophet  has  in  view  •  David 
stands  for  the  Davidic  line  which  reigned  in  Judah  j  the  "good 

*  Micheas  seems  to  have  had  the  mushroom  dynasties  of  Israel  in  his  mind 
(it.  14,  V.  2)  when  he  speaks  of  the  Davidic  house  and  its  ancient  origin  in 
iJethlehem. 


466.  Notices  of  Boohs. 

thing's  of  Jahveh  "  are  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  which  were  in  the 
prophet's  eye  the  proper  wealth  of  the  Hebrews  (cf.  ii.  21-23,  and 
Jferemiah  xxxi,  12,  where  the  same  word  ^P  recurs  and  is  explained 
by  the  context). 

We  breathe  quite  a  different  air  when  we  pass  to  the  latter  of  the 
two  great  divisions  into  which  the  prophecy  falls,  when  we  pass 
from  ch,  i.-iii.  to  ch.  iv.-xiv.  Since  Osee  spoke  and  wrote  ch.  iii. 
the  house  of  Jehu  has  fallen,  and  though  the  final  catastrophe 
through  the  Assyrians  was  delayed  for  a  little,  the  whole  condition 
of  Israel  had  changed  for  the  worse.  Shallum,  who  murdered 
Zacarias  the  son  of  Jeroboam  II.,  could  not  maintain  his  power  :  a 
fearful  civil  Avar  broke  out  (see  especially  2  Kings  xv.  16)  which 
ended  in  the  enthronement  of  Menahem.  Even  Menahem  could  onl}"" 
subsist  by  paying  a  heavy  tribute — viz.,  a  thousand  talents  of  silver 
to  Pul.*  His  authority  was  weak  at  the  best,  for  his  son  Pekahiah 
was  murdered  after  two  years  reign ;  no  Israelite  king  was  ever 
after  succeeded  by  his  son,  and  the  kingdom  itself  was  tottering  to 
its  fall.  We  have  no  reason  to  carry  the  history  further,  for  Osee 
shows  no  sign  of  acquaintance  with  the  dismemberment  of  Israel  by 
Tiglath-Pileser  II.,  much  less  of  the  final  conquest  by  Shalmaneser 
and  Sargon.  He  does,  it  is  true,  mention  a  certain  Shalman  "  who 
spoiled  Beth-Arbel"  (x.  14),  but  there  are  not  even  plausible 
grounds  for  identifying  this  warrior  with  Shalmaneser  IV.,  who 
besieged  Samaria  (2  Kings  xvii.  2—5 ;  cf.  xviii  9).t  It  is  then  to  a 
period  of  confusion  after  the  death  of  Jeroboam  II.  that  the  second 
part  of  Osee's  prophecy  belongs.  The  style  is  so  emotional,  the 
transitions  so  abrupt,  the  mastery  over  literary  style,  then  just 
beginning  to  be  cultivated  among  the  Hebrews,  so  imperfect,  that 
this  latter  prophecy  cannot  be  clearly  subdivided.  Still  it  may  be 
fairly  said  that  ch.  iv.-viii.  treats  chiefly  of  national  godlessness, 
ch.  ix.-xi.  of  the  inevitable  retribution,  ch.  xii.-xv.  of  Israel's  better 
days  in  the  past,  and  the  future  yet  in  store  for  her.  Let  us  take 
these  subsections  in  order. 

The  worship  of  Jahveh  under  the  form  of  a  calf  was  of  course 
nothing  new,  but,  on  the  contrary,  hereditary  in  Israel,^  though 
Osee  protests  against  it  far  more  openly  and  energetically  than 
any  one  before  him,  and  looks  upon  it  as  mere  idolatry,  no  better 
than  Baal  worship.     "  That  too  is  from  Israel,"  it  is  a  mere  human 

*  Berosns,  in  the  extracts  of  Polyhistor,  mentions  a  king  of  Babylon  called 
Phalus  ;  but  no  such  name  occurs  among  those  of  the  Assyrian  kings  on  the 
monuments,  while  the  eponym  lists  entirely  ignore  the  name.  Most  likely  Sir 
H.  Rawlinson,  Lepsius,  and  Schrader  are  right  in  identifying  him  with  Tiglath- 
Pileser,  who  began  his  reign  over  Assyria  in  747. 

+  Schrader,  Nowack,  and  others,  conjecture  that  Osee's  Shalman  may  be  the 
"  Salamanu  "  of  the  inscription.  He  was  a  Moabite  king,  tributary  to  Tiglath- 
Pileser  II. 

X  The  representation  of  the  godhead  under  this  form  was  familiar  to  other 
Semites — viz.,  the  Phoenicians  and  Assyrians  ;  and  there  is  no  need  to  connect  it 
with  the  Egyptian  worship  of  Apis  and  Mnevis,  which  were  live  animals,  not 
images.  It  was,  of  course,  Jahveh  himself  who  was  worshipped  under  this  symbol 
in  Israel.     Elijah  and  Elisha  did  not  oppose  it. 


Notices  of  Boohs.  467 

invention,  "  a  workman  has  made  it,  and  it  is  not  God.     Yea  the  calf 
of  Samaria  will  be  broken  in  splinters  "  (viii.  6).     Nor,  a^ain,  was 
there  anything-  new  in  the  g'uilt  of  the  northern  priests  who  had 
failed  so  conspicuously  in  their  sacred  office.     "  Hear  this,  ye  priests, 
and  listen,  house  of  Israel,  and  g'ive  ear,  0  royal  house,  for  to  you 
judgment  appertains,  for  ye  have  become  a  snare  to  Mizpah "  in 
the  East  "and  a  net  spread  out  on  Thabor"in  the  West  (v.  1). 
"  It  shall  be  like  people,  like  priest "  (iv.  9).     Nor,  again,  was  there 
anything  new  in  the  mere  existence  of  oppression.     It  was  the  kind 
of  violence  that  was  new,  a  kind    of   violence    impossible   under 
a  strong  and  able  ruler  like  Jeroboam  II.,  but  only  too  possible  in  the 
confusion  of  civil  strife.     "■  There  is  cursing,  and  lying,  and  stealing, 
and  adultery :  they  have  broken  out  and  blood  bas  touched  blood." 
(iv.  2).     "  The  thief  goeth  "  (secretly),  "  and  the  troop  "  (of  robbers) 
"spreads  itself  out  in  the  street"  (vii.  1).     "They  devour  their 
judges"  (vii.  3).     "All  their  kings   have  fallen"  (vii.  7).     Judah 
also  now  appears  to  the  prophet  in  a  new  light.     He  had  before 
made  a  sharp   distinction   between  Judah   and   Israel.     "  On  the 
house  of  Judah  I  will  have  mercy,  and  will  save  them  through 
Jahveh  their  God  (i.  7),  but  Osee  now  sees  little  to  choose  between 
the  sister  kingdoms.     "Judah  also  has  stumbled  with  them"  (v.  5  to 
vi.  4  ;  vi.  11 ;  viii.  14).      Already  national  corruption  had  brought 
national  decay.     "Ephraim  is  a  cake  not  turned"  (vii.  8),  left  on 
one  side,  and  so  half  burnt  by  the  fire.     Whence  then  was  the 
remedy  to  come  ?     The  great  men  of  the  state  turned  naturally  to 
Assyria  and  to  Egypt.    Palestine  lay,  a  narrow  strip  of  land,  between 
the  two  great  empires  of  the  world,  and  its  strategic  position  was 
far  too  important  to  be  neglected  by  either  power.     From  one  or 
the  other  help  must  be  got ;   only  it  was  hard  to  say  which  Avould 
prove  the  preferable  protector,  and  hence  there  was  both  an  Assyrian 
and  an  Egyptian  party  in  Israel.     "  Ephraim  went  to  Assyria  and 
sent  to  the  contentious  king,  but  he  will  not  be  able  to  heal  jou 
and  will  not  take  away  your  wound  "  (v.  12).*     "  Ephraim  became 
like  a  dove  without  sense,"  flying  hither  and  thither  ;   "  they  call  on 
Egypt"  to  help  them,  "  they  go  to  Assyria"  (vii,  11).     The  natives 
as  a  whole  trusted  in  Jahveh  as  the  national  god,  \Aiho  depended  on 
Israel  the  country  of  his  altars  and  sacrifices.     "  They  cry  to  me, 
'  My  God ' ;  we  Israel  know  thee  "  (viii.  2).     "  With  their  sheep 
and  cattle  they,  go  to  seek  Jahveh  and  will  not  find  him ;  He  has 
passed  away  from  them  "  (viii.  2).     Even  when  real  their  repentance 
was  shallow  and  fleeting.     "  Come,"  the  people  say,  "  and  let  us 
return  to  Jahveh,  for  he  hath  toi'n,  and  he  will  heal  j  he  struck,  and 
he  will  bind  up.     After  two  days  he  will  revive  us,  on  the  third  day 
he  will  raise  us  up  and  we  will  live  in  his  sight "  (vi.  1,  2).     The 
same  god  who  rejects  their  feasts  and  sacrifices  will  have  none  of 
such  easy  repentance.     "  What  shall  I  do  to  thee,  Ephraim  ?   What 

*  For  r\yy  point,      yC»  ;   and  cf.  the  use  of  ^CTly^  in  the  Peshitto,  Acta, 
ix.  12.  '  ■ 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  II.     [Third  Series.]  i  t 


468  Notices  of  Books. 

shall  I  do  to  thee,  Judah  ?  your  love  [of  me]  is  like  the  morning" 
cloud,  like  the  dew  that  hastens  early  away  "  (vi.  4).  Yet  Jahveh 
has  his  remedy,  though  a  long  and  terrible  one,  very  different  from 
that  revival  after  two  or  three  days  which  the  people  expected.  "  I 
shall  be  as  a  lion  to  Ephraim,  as  a  lion's  cub  to  the  house  of  Judah. 
I  will  send  and  go  my  way  ;  I  will  carry  off  and  none  shall  deliver. 
I  will  go  my  way,  I  will  return  to  my  place  till  they  suffer  for  their 
sin  and  seek  my  face  :  when  in  straits,  they  will  search  for  me  " 
(v.  14,  15).  At  the  very  close  of  this  section,  in  which  punishment 
is  the  main  subject,  comes  the  most  concise  and  terrible  threat  of 
all.  ''  They  shall  return  to  Egypt "  (viii.  13).  In  the  night  of  the 
exodus  from  Egypt,  Israel's  national  life  had  begun,  and  they  were 
"  not  to  return  that  way  any  more  for  ever."  Now,  all  is  reversed, 
and  they  are  to  be  slaves  again. 

The  next  section  (ch.ix.-xii.)  is  written  in  a  calmer  spirit,  and  sticks 
closer  to  its  subject — viz.,  the  absolute  necessity  of  divine  judgment 
on  Israel.  It  was  the  gifts  of  .nature  Avhich  had  led  the  people 
astray.  They  rejoiced  like  the  nations  around  in  the  plenty  of  the 
threshing-floor  and  the  wine-press  (ix.  1,  2).  Jabveh,  the  God  of 
the  land,  had  His  share  in  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  then  all  was 
hallowed.  Those  were  rites  which  had  come  down  from  a  time 
antecedent  to  morality,  or  rather  to  any  developed  morality.  It 
made  men  satisfied  with  the  things  that  are  seen,  whereas  the  stern 
voice  of  conscience  summoned  them  to  live  for  the  unseen*  There- 
fore, says  the  prophet,  "  the  threshing-floor  and  the  wine-press  will 
not  feed  them,  and  the  new  wine  will  deceive  her,"  i.e.,  the  nation 
(ix.  3).  Further,  they  would  he  driven  from  the  land  and  the  worship 
of  Jahveh,  as  a  national  God,  who  could  only  be  worshipped  on  His 
•own  territory,  would  cease.  "  They  will  not  dwell  in  Jahveh's  land, 
and  Ephraim  will  return  to  Egypt,  and  in  Assyria  they  will  eat 
unclean  food.  They  will  not  pour  out  wine  to  Jahveh,  and  their 
sacrifices  will  not  be  sweet  to  Him.  As  the  bread  of  mourning  shall 
it  be  to  them.  All  who  eat  of  it  shall  be  defiled,  since  their  bread 
shall  be  [simply]  for  their  appetite ;  it  will  not  come  into  the 
house  of  Jahveh.  What  will  ye  do  in  the  day  of  assembly,  in  the 
day  of  Jahveh's  feast  ?  "  {ix.  3,  4,  5).  Their  sin  was  deep  as  that 
•of  the  Benjamites  of  Gibeah  (Judges  xix.,  xx.).  And  Jahveh  would 
surely  visit  it.  His  love,  ever  since  he  found  Israel  in  the  desert 
(ix.  10)  had  been  in  vain.  Ephraim's  name  means  "  fruitfulness," 
but,  be  his  children  ever  so  numerous,  they  would  be  "brought  forth 
to  the  slayer "  (ix.  13).  Thorns  and  briars  would  come  up  in  the 
^altars  (x.  8),  and  the  calf  be  carried  away  to  the  Assyrian  king  (x.  6). 
Their  fortresses  would  share  the  same  fate  (x.  14),  and  the  soldiers 
in  whom  they  trusted  (x.  13).  The  section  ends  like  "  a  dying  fall " 
of  music  in  the  pathetic  recollection  of  ancient  days.  "When  Israel 
was  young  then  I  loved  him,  and  out  of  Egypt  I  called  my  son." 
"With  the  cords  of  a  man  I  drew  them,  and  with  the  bands  of  love." 

*  See  the  vivid  picture,  Judges  viii.  27. 


Notices  of  Books.  469 

There  had  been  no  answer  to  the  love  on  Israel's  side.  To  Egypt  and 
to  Assyria  he  must  g-o.*  Yet  still  Jahveh  yearned  after  Israel^  as  the 
prophet  after  his  wife.  Jahveh  could  not  bring-  himself  to  destroy 
Israel  as  he  has  destroyed  Admah  and  Seboim,  the  "  cities  of  the 
plain."  To  exile  they  must  go,  but  the  exile  Avas  not  for  ever, 
*'  In  their  homes  I  will  make  them  dwell :  it  is  tne  oracle  of  Jahveh  " 
(xi.  11). 

It  is  this  promise  of  love  and  mercy  which  mainly  fills  the  con- 
cluding section  (xii.-xiv.).  Fierce  threatenings  mingle  with  the 
promises,  for  the  punishment  must  needs  come  first,  and  Judah  will 
not  repent  (xiii.  14).  Once  more,  also,  we  have,  and  at  greater 
length,  the  lingering  over  the  old  Hebrew  stories :  how  God  had 
met  Jacob  at  the  sanctuary  of  Bethel;  how  Jacob  had  won  the 
Rachel  he  loved  so  well;  how  faithfully  he  had  watched  over 
and  preserved  her;  how  Rachael  in  turn  had  been  the  type 
of  the  people!  whom  God  had  watched  over  and  preserved 
through  the  prophet  Moses.  Yet  Israel  had  forgotten  and  abused 
all  these  benefits.  But  at  last  the  threats  and  reproaches  are  over, 
and  only  hope  and  promise  remain.  Israel  is  invited  to  return  to  a 
God  Avho  will  freely  pardon,  and  who  asks  only  for  spiritual  sac- 
rifices. "  Take  with  you  words  and  return  to  Jahveh  :  say  to  Him, 
Thou  virilt  forgive  all  iniquity,  and  do  Thou  receive  good,  and  we 
will  render  to  Thee  our  lips  as  oflerings  instead  of  bullocks."  No 
longer  will  Ephraim  trust  in  Assyria  or  in  any  worldly  power.  ''  In 
Thee  [Jahveh]  the  orphan  finds  pity."  The  land  is  to  bear  plentiful 
increase,  for  the  prophet  is  a  true  Hebrew  patriot,-  with  a  vision  which 
does  not  reach  beyond  the  Hebrew  horizon ;  but  the  love  which  has 
given  its  special  character  to  the  prophecy  is  still  dominant ;  at  the 
conclusion  it  reaches  its  climax:  "I  will  heal  their  backsliding  :  I 
will  love  them  freely  "  (xiv.  5).  God's  love  is  of  course  love  to  Israel 
and  Judah  only.  Even  the  notion  that  other  nations  would  inquire 
at  the  shrine  of  Judah,  or  attach  themselves  as  proselytes  to  Israel, 
which  meets  us  a  little  later  in  the  prophetic  books,  is  unknown  to 
Isaiah.  But  Osee  insisted  on  the  moral — I  had  almost  said  the 
human — element  in  God,  for  he  had  learnt  that  what  is  best  iuid 
tenderest  in  man  is  but  a  faint  reflection  of  the  divine  nature.  And 
in  teaching  this  he  unconsciously  laid  a  stone  for  the  foundation  of 
a  religion  which  is  universal,  because  it  depends  not  on  country  or 
race  or  ritual  custom,  but  on  the  eternal  character  of  God.  Jesus 
himself  appftaled  to  Osee's  teaching.  "  Go  ye  and  learn  what  this 
meaneth :  I  desire  mercy  and  not  sacrifice  "  (Matt.  ix.  13  ;  see  also 
xii.  7). 

I  have  made  the  first  book  at  the  head  of  my  list  a  pretext  for  a 
little  essay  of  my  own  on  the  prophecy  of  Osee,  and  small  room  is 
left  for  a   detailed  criticism  of  Mr.  Randolph's  commentaries.     I 

*  I  translate  x.  5,  "Will  he  not  return  to  Egypt?"  "Yea,  to  Assyria  he 
will  go." 

t  This,  as  Ewald  rightly  says,  is  the  first  instance  of  a  typical  interpretation  of 
history  in  the  Old  Testament. 

ii2 


470  .  Notices  of  Books. 

may  be  excused  for  thinking-  that  there  is  no  occasion  to  say  much 
on  this  head.  The  plan  of  his  book  is  enough  for  its  condemnation. 
What  can  be  thought  of  a  writer  who  unites  in  one  volume  com- 
mentaries on  the  earliest  but  one  of  the  literary  prophets  and  on  three 
prophets  who  wrote  after  the  exile,  and  justifies  this  on  the  g-round 
that  young-  stu'dents  find  special  difficulties  both  in  Hosea  (Osee) 
and  Zechariah  ?  The  author  does  not  explain  why  the  same  reason 
did  not  make  him  include  in  his  scheme  Amos,  a  prophet  far  more 
closely  connected  with  Hosea  than  Malachias  with  Hag-geus.  Mr. 
Randolph  actually  begins  his  commentary  on  Hosea  without  even 
the  attempt  at  an  historical  introduction,  thoug-h  surely  the  young; 
student  should  have  his  atention  directed  to  the  place  the  prophet 
holds  in  the  development  of  Hebrew  religion.  Still  all  this  migh , 
have  been  forgiven,  if  we  g'ot,  instead,  that  careful  and  learned 
treatment  of  g-rammatical  points  which  shows  itself — e.r/.,  in  Mr. 
Lowe's  commentary  on  Zacarias.  But  there  is  nothing-  of  the  sort. 
Mr.  Randolph  has  not  known  how  to  avail  himself  of  Baer's  ci-itical 
edition  of  Hosea — of  the  emendations  proposed  by  a  succession  of 
scholars — of  the  commentaries  of  men  like  Ewald,  Hitzig'  and 
Nowack,  or  of  the  results  of  Assyrian  research.  We  fail  to  see  any 
help  of  any  kind  which  the  student,  young-  or  old,  can  derive  from 
Mr.  Randolph.  That  such  a  book,  filled  from  first  to  last  with  an 
exegesis  which  has  long  ceased  to  commend  itself  to  reasonable 
scholars,  should  have  been  published  even  after  the  issue  of  the 
Revised  Version  of  the  English  Old  Testament  is  a  mystery. 

The  two  other  books  on  our  list  are  concerned  with  much  the 
same  subject — viz.,  the  Old  in  its  relation  to  the  New  Testament. 
Both  are  written  from  a  conservative  point  of  view,  but  their  spirit 
and  merits  are  far  asunder.  There  is  some  excuse  for  Dean 
Lyall.  He  published  his  book  in  1840,  when  Biblical  criticism 
Avas  all  but  absolutely  unknown  in  England.  It  is  strange  at  this 
time  of  day  to  read  the  chapter  on  the  credibility  of  facts  related 
in  the  Old  Testament.  It  does  not  even  touch  the  negative  criticism 
as  it  has  existed  almost  for  the  last  hundred  years.  Mr.  Pearson, 
its  editor,  has  done  nothing-  to  bring  the  book  up  to  date, 
and  it  is  fair  to  say  that  this  an  impossible  task,  since  the  book 
Avould  have  to  be  rewritten.  Mr.  Pearson  has  found  it  easier  to 
disfigure  the  book  by  adding  notes,  in  which  he  attacks  the  late 
Dean  Stanley  with  monotonous  reiteration  and  amazing-  silliness 
and  spite.  This  is  a  grievous  wrong  to  Dean  Lyall,  a  genial  and 
pleasant  writer,  whose  name  is  now  connected  with  Mr.  Pearson's 
ridiculous  escapade.  It  is  a  relief  to  turn  from  Mr.  Pearson  to 
Dr.  Orelli.  Students,  however  much  they  may  diifer  from  his  view 
of  prophecy,  will  acknowledge  with  gratitude  the  real  learning  and 
moderation  of  his  Avork.  He  writes  with  the  true  German  thorough- 
ness. The  so-called  Messianic  passages  of  the  Old  Testament  are 
translated  and  commented  upon,  and  the  reader  is  put  in  possession 
of  the  Avhole.  literature  of  the  subject.  On  each  single  point  a  very 
fair  view  is  given  of  the  results  of  criticism,  even  when  hostile  to 


Notices  of  Books.  471 

Dr.  Orelli's  own  contentions.  History  and  grammar  are  by  no 
means  neg-Iected,  and  the  references  of  themselves  make  the  book 
very  valuable.  Very  high  praise  also  is  due  to  Mr.  Banks  for  his 
masterly  translation. 

W.  E.  Addis. 


Iinviortalittj :   a  Clerical  Symposium.     London  :   Nisbet  &  Co. 

THE  contributors  to  this  readable  volume  have  all  a  belief  in  the 
soul's  immortality ;  but,  representing  as  many  schools  of  thought 
as  there  are  sj)eakers,  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  their  views  or  their 
arguments  will  not  exhibit  more  variety  than  agreement.  They 
discuss,  not  immortality  alone,  but  the  resurrection  of  the  body  and 
the  relation  of  the  whole  doctrine  to  Christian  revelation  and  the 
Old  Testament ;  and  the  subject  is  perplexed  by  references  to 
Swedenborg,  Plato,  the  early  Egyptian  mythology,  and  the  fancies 
of  men  like  the  Rev.  Edward  White,  to  whom  life  beyond  the  grave 
seems  conditional  on  promises  made  in  Scripture  to  good  Christians. 
The  llabbi  Hermann  Adler  answers  Prebendary  liow,  and  Bishop 
Weathers  rises  to  speak  after  Canon  Knox  Little  and  before  Prin- 
cipal Cairns.  It  is  a  veritable  symposium  and  picture  of  modern 
society  distracted  with  old  thoughts  and  new.  The  least  satisfactory 
papers  are  tliose  by  the  Rev.  Edward  White  and  Prof  iStokes, 
which  defend  conditional  immortality.  They  disclose  the  usual 
British  inability  to  appreciate,  or  even  to  grasp,  what  is  meant  by 
pure  speculation,  combined  with  that  insular  treatment  of  the  New 
Testament  which  has  created  a  hundred  sects  in  this  happy  land. 
Rabbi  Adler  is  not  very  much  more  fortunate  in  his  eftbrt  to  pro- 
duce from  the  Pentateuch  and  the  earlier  prophets  evidence  which 
nil  the  world  wull  receive,  that  immortality  was  a  part  of  the 
Hebrew  creed  long  before  the  Captivit3\  It  is  surely  a  first  step  in 
any  such  demonstration  to  ascertain  whether  the  orthodox  Jewish 
■exegesis  will  stand  in  the  face  of  modern  criticism.  The  methods 
of  the  Talmud  are  one  thing,  and  a  sound  literal  interpretation  of 
Scripture  is  quite  another!  Prebendary  Row  seems  disposed  to  rest 
the  whole  weight  of  our  belief  in  immortal  life  on  revelation ;  but  it 
is  well  said  by  the  Rev.  John  Page  IIopps,  in  his  brilliant  paper, 
that  "  we  surely  risk  too  much  on  one  cast  when  we  disparage  all 
other  voices,  and  say  that  we  become  sure  of  immortality  only  as  we 
believe  that  in  Christianity  God  once  for  all  made  an  announcement 
on  the  subject  to  the  world."  We  must  add  that  Mr.  Page  Hopps 
is  a  Unitarian,  and  there  are  many  things  in  his  contribution  to 
which  Catholics  would  strongly  demur.  But  he  argues  powerfully 
for  the  reasonableness  of  immortal  life  from  a  scientific  point  of 
view.  Mr.  Garrett  Herder's  article  is  eloquent  and  convincing. 
Bishop  Weathers  alone  lays  due  stress  on  the  argument  from  the 
constitution  of  man's  nature ;  and,  unwelcome  as  it  may  sound  to  an 
age  very  little  acquainted  with  Christian  metaphysics,  it  is  one  of 
immense  cogency.     The  Bishop  appeals,  indeed,  tcf  tradition  and 


472  Notices  of  Books. 

revelation  before  he  turns  to  pure  reason.  He  traces  the  belief  in 
immortality  to  a  "  primitive  revelation  "  Avhich  "  finds  a  response 
in  the  deepest  instincts  of  our  nature."  It  may  be  remarked  by  the 
way  that,  grantinp:  such  instincts,  they  would  be  sure  in  the  long* 
run  to  make  or  find  an  outward  expression  of  themselves,  and  so 
give  rise  to  a  conscious  philosophical  creed  j  as  we  know  that,  in 
fact,  they  have  done.  Various  speakers  seem  to  have  been  disturbed 
by  what  Mr.  E.  White  terms  "  Bishop  Weathers'  very  confident 
definitions  and  assertions  "  on  the  nature  of  spirit.  "  What,"  asks 
Mr.  White.  "  can  the  Ri<:^ht  Rev.  writer  know  of  essences  ?  "  This 
is  taking-  the  "  know-nothing-  doctrine,"  as  Dr.  Brownson  called  it 
very  justly,  for  certain,  and  abolishing-  metaphysics  at  a  single 
stroke  !  We  may  know  a  great  deal  of  "  essences  "  provided  we 
will  view  them  in  operation.  Bishop  Weathers  does  not  say  we 
can  know  them  otherwise.  And  if  Mr.  White  cannot  tell  the 
difference  between  a  workman  and  his  pickaxe  by  considering  what 
each  of  them  is  able  to  do  and  not  to  do,  Ave  fear  that  even 
Aristotle's  Ethics  will  not  help  him  to  understand  essence.  Dr. 
Weathers  proceeds  from  a  knowledge  of  what  the  soul  has  done  "by 
intellect  and  free-will  to  an  inference  concerning-  its  nature.  He 
concludes  that  it  is  indestructible,  and,  by  the  law  of  its  being,  will 
live  for  ever.  Oddly  enough,  no  other  member  of  the  Symposium 
appears  to  have  remarked  that  this  argument  lies  at  the  root  of 
every  statement  made  throughout  the  book  in  favour  of  natural 
immortality.  What  are  they  all  founded  upon  except  the  acts  and 
faculties  which  we  observe  in  man  ?  But  when  it  is  stated  in  the 
abstract  it  seems,  in  the  English  way  of  looking-  at  things,  to  have 
lost  all  solidity.  We  ought  not  to  end,  perhaps,  without  calling- 
attention  to  Prof  Stokes's  extraordinary  accoimt  of  evolution  as 
"  the  sequence  of  cause  and  effect,  irrespective  of  intelligence." 
Assuredly,  if  this  were  evolution,  we  should  do  well  to  protest  that 
it  is  not  an  "  established  conclusion  of  science."  But  such  is  the 
abuse  of  terms  just  now  that  we  should  not  be  surprised  if,  in  various 
well-meaning  circles,  evolution  and  atheism  were  looked  upon  and 
denounced  as  equivalents.     ''  Quantum  in  rebus  inane  !  " 


Tijpes  of  Ethieal  Theory.  By  James  Martineau,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Principal  of  Manchester  New  College,  London.  Two  vols.  8vo. 
Oxford  :  The  Clarendon  Press.     1885. 

IT  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  this  is  the  most  considerable  philo- 
sophical work  that  has  appeared  in  England  for  many  years. 
It  covers  such  a  wide  field  that  the  longest  review  would  not  do  it 
adequate  justice;  I  shall  therefore  best  consult  the  reader's  con- 
venience by  giving-  only  an  idea  of  the  work  as  a  whole.  Dr.. 
Martineau  devotes  the  preface  to  a  sketch  of  the  philosophical 
developments  of  his  own  mind.  We  learn  that  he  was  first  led  to 
the  belief  in  an  ethical  world,  outside  the  rigid  system  of  Bentham 
and  the  Mills  in  which  he  had  been  trained,  by  his  own  moral  con- 


Notices  of  Books.  473 

sciousness.  A  little  later  the  study  of  Greek  philosophy  completed 
his  emancipation  from  a  thraldom  which  must  have  always  been 
uncongenial  to  his  mind ;  and  the  present  work  is  designed  to 
justify  the  opinions  he  then  formed. 

He  first  examines  those  ethical  systems  which  start  from  an 
unpsyckological  basis — from  a  study  of  the  universe  without,  not  of 
the  thinking-  mind  within.  They  belong-,  on  the  whole,  to  ancient 
philosopliy,  which,  "  looking-  out  throug-h  the  young-  eye  of  heathen 
wonder,"  turned  to  the  universe.  Christianity  first  concentrated 
the  mystery  of  the  world  in  man,  between  whom  and  God  there  is 
an  immediate  and  personal  relation.  This  effect  of  Christianity 
upon  ethics  was  delayed  by  what  he  calls  "  the  Augustinian 
Theology,"  but  what  we  should  rather  term  Calvinism ;  and  still 
more  by  the  Reformation,  for  "  with  the  proclamation  and  spread  of 
Protestantism  the  religious  value  of  morals  disappeared,  and  they 
were  deserted  by  that  sentiment  of  reverence  which  alone  can 
generate  a  true  science." 

The  systems  which  seek  for  an  external  basis  for  morals  are 
either  metaphysical  or  pliysical ;  and  the  former,  again,  either  admit 
that  God  transcends,  is  greater  than  nature,  or  consider  the  two 
to  be  "  immanent ;  "  that  is,  co-extensive.  Of  transcendent  meta- 
physical philosophers  Plato  is  chosen  as  the  type,  on  account  of  his 
doctrine  of  ideas,  which  is  expounded  with  singular  clearness  and 
subtlety.  But  it  is  shown  that  the  Platonic  theory  of  morals  involves 
some  very  important  assumptions.  The  supremacy  of  justice  implies 
a  moral  faculty ;  and  the  doctrine  of  the  "  summum  bonum "  that 
we  have  in  us  "  an  unspoiled  residue  of  an  uncreated  nature  and  a 
diviner  life ; "  so  that  our  aim  would  be,  not  obedience  to  God,  but 
communion  with  Him.  Dr.  jNEartineau  makes  a  very  interesting 
comparison  between  Plato's  ideal  Republic  and  the  Catholic  Church, 
which  is  (he  says)  "  the  middle  term  between  ancient  and  modern 
systems  of  society — the  one  dealing  with  individuals  as  organs  and 
media  of  a  common  life,  the  other  constituting  a  State  by  the 
aggregation  of  individuals."  He  has  probably  hardly  realized  that 
we  consider  the  building  up  of  the  mystical  Body,  and  the  perfect- 
ing of  each  individual  soul,  to  be  parallel  and  simultaneous  opera- 
tions of  the  same  Divine  Spirit.  In  this  connection  I  am  sorry  not 
to  see  how  our  author  explains  Plato's  dela  fiolpa  (Meno,  99d),  which 
has  always  seemed  to  me  the  most  remarkable  pre-Christian  antici- 
pation of  the  doctrine  of  grace. 

From  Plato,  Dr.  Martineau  passes  at  once  to  modern  philosophy, 
only  mentioning  scholasticism  cursorily,  and  not  quite  accurately. 
It  is  going  too  far  to  say  that  it  "  paid  no  respect  to  the  material 
world  as  having  any  irrefragable  rights  or  even  subsistence  of  its 
own."  We  cannot  but  regret  that  one  so  competent  to  appreciate 
the  mind  of  St.  Thomas  should  not  be  acquainted  with  his  account 
of  the  debitum  justitice  in  creation,  and  his  protests  against  Occa- 
sionalism. 

He  passes  from  Plato  to  the  more  or  less  developed  Pantheism  of 


474<  Notices  of  Books. 

Immanent  Metaphysics.  He  starts  from  Descartes,  showing*  very 
clearly  the  inconsistency  of  his  philosophy,  which  led  to  the  two 
opposite  extremes  of  complete  supernaturalism  in  Malebranche  and 
complete  naturalism  in  Spinoza.  Malebranche  is  very  sympatheti- 
cally dealt  with,  but  his  Pantheism  is  conclusively  shown.  The 
Catholic  philosopher  would  probably  be  most  interested  by  the 
very  able  criticism  of  Malebranche's  theory  of  cognition  which  goes 
over  the  ground  since  occupied  by  Ontologism. 

The  account  of  Spinoza  is  mainly  of  value  as  establishing-  the 
practical  atheism  of  his  system,  according  to  which  "  mind  does  not 
give  birth  to  nature,  but  nature  gives  birth  to  mind,"  and  man  is 
treated  as  a  spiritual  automaton  with  no  real  duties. 

All  the  systems  hitherto  examined  are  built  upon  some  ontologi- 
cal  foundation,  and  agree  in  recognizing  a  permanent  ground  for 
phenomena.  In  sharpest  contrast  with  them,  Comte  (as  is  well 
known)  denied  that  human  reason  has  any  other  object  of  thought 
than  phenomena,  their  co-existences  or  successions.  But  he  agreed 
with  Plato  and  Spinoza  in  approaching-  man  from  the  side  of  nature  ; 
and  his  ethical  system  is  therefore  as  '•  unpsychological  "  as  theirs. 
I  regret  that  I  cannot  follow  Dr.  Martineau  through  the  very 
searching,  though  scrupulously  fair,  examination  of  the  Positivist 
negation  of  philosophy.  There  is  no  such  refutation  in  our  language 
of  the  errors  which  have  had  such  an  enormous  influence  in 
England.  The  relativity  of  human  knowledge  is  shown  to  imply  a 
common  ground,  which  is  not  relative  ;  sensory  cognition  is  shown 
to  involve  intellectual  elements ;  and  the  power  of  self-introspection 
is  clearly  vindicated.  Comte's  assertion  of  the  three  stages  of 
thought  is  brought  to  the  test  of  facts,  and  show^n  not  to  correspond 
to  them.  In  dealing  more  specifically  with  his  ethical  system.  Dr. 
Martineau  points  out  that  there  is  no  way,  on  Comte's  premisses,  by 
which  the  centre  of  gravity  of  the  will  could  be  transferred  from 
personal  selfishness  to  universal  love,  which  is  his  fundamental 
postulate.  Public  opinion  would  not  do  it,  for  the  sum  of  humanity 
can  contribute  no  quality  that  is  not  in  its  separate  units ;  and  the 
public  reprobation  of  self-seeking  must  therefore  be  due  to  the 
feeling  implanted  in  each  individual.  Dr.  Martineau  states  very 
forcibly  the  inherent  weakness  of  the  Positivist  religion ;  how  the 
transcendent  reverence  and  trust  toAvards  a  higher  personality, 
which  Comte  inculcates,  is  falsified  when  directed  towards  the 
abstract  idea  of  humanity  : 

The  broken  gleams  of  loveliness  and  sanctity  in  character  penetrate 
ns,  from  their  relation  to  the  infinite  light  of  a  Divine  beauty  and  holi- 
ness. Take  away  that  relation,  and  they  become  fruitful  in  idolatry. 
Invert  the  relation,  treat  them  as  passing  contributions  towards  a  grand 
etre  that  is  worshipped  for  what  it  is  going  to  be,  and  they  can  but  foster 
the  sickliest  sentimentality. 

With  the  second  volume  we  enter  upon  the  study  of  the  psycho- 
logical systems,  of  ethics.  These  may  be  based,  either  upon  the 
assumption  that  there  is  in  our  minds  a  separate  category  of  moral 


JS^otices  of  Books.  475 

facts,  or  upon  the  postulate  that  there  is  no  such  categ-ory,  and  that 
the  facts  can  be  otherwise  explained.  The  former — "  Idiopsycholo- 
gical  Ethics  " — is  the  scheme  adopted  by  Dr.  Martineau  himself,  to 
which  he  devotes  the  most  important  part  of  his  work.  Starting 
from  the  fact  that  all  men  tend  to  approve  or  disapprove  of  their 
own  and  others'  acts,  he  proceeds  to  inquire  what  is  the  precise 
object  of  our  moral  judgments.  First,  they  refer  to  2}er sons,  not  to 
thing's ;  next,  they  consider  not  the  outward  act,  but  its  inner  springs 
or  motives.  This,  admitted  by  all  recent  English  moralists,  leads  to 
.a  more  important  point  which  they  generally  deny.  For  since  these 
motives  are  directly  discoverable  by  self-consciousness  alone,  and 
only  to  be  inferred  indirectly  in  others,  we  ourselves  must  be  the 
primary  object  of  our  moral  judgments.  This  he  regards  as  the 
most  certain  test  by  which  to  discriminate  true  from  false  ethical 
theories.  Next,  he  points  out  that  approval  and  disapproval  are 
reserved  for  voluntary  as  distinguished  from  spontaneous  actions  j 
and  the  differentia  between  these  is,  that  spontaneous  acts  are 
preceded  by  only  one  impulse,  while  voluntary  acts  require  at  least 
two,  which  must  be  simultaneous,  possible,  and  both  within  our 
ohoice.  Free-will  is  therefore  assumed  in  this  volume  as  a  postulate 
without  which  all  moral  judgment  is  a  delusion :  this  is  finely 
stated  in  answer  to  Mr.  Sidgwick. 

From  the  object  of  moral  judgment  Dr.  Martineau  passes  to  its 
procedure.  He  argues  that  we  only  make  an  ethical  choice  when,  of 
two  incompatible  impulses,  we  recognize  that  one  is  the  hifjhcr,  the 
other  the  lower:  this  "higher"  and  "lower"  being  regulated,  not 
according  to  the  scale  of  pleasure  or  of  beauty.  "■  We  are  sensible 
of  a  graduated  scale  of  excellence  among  our  natural  principles, 
quite  ditfei'ent  from  their  natural  intensity.  .  .  .  The  sensibility  of 
the  mind  to  the  gradations  of  this  scale  is  precisely  what  we  call  con- 
science." It  is  the  same  for  all  men,  as  is  proved  by  the  possibility  of 
mutual  converse  on  moral  questions ;  so  that  "  conscience,  like  intel- 
lect, is  the  common  property  of  humanity."'  And  the  identification 
of  this  common  order  with  the  will  of  God  ''  seems  to  construe  very 
faithfully  the  ^ense  of  authoriti/  attaching  to  the  revelations  of  our 
moral  nature  ;  they  are  in  us,  not  of  us;  not  ours,  but  God's."  For, 
*'  if  it  be  true  that  over  a  free  and  living  person  onl}^  a  free  and  living- 
person  can  have  higher  authority,  then  it  is  certain  that  a  subjective 
conscience  is  impossible."  He  next  classifies  the  springs  of  action, 
and  arranges  them  in  a  scale  of  relative  excellence,  as  follows  : — 

The  "  Propensions"  carry  us  simply  out  of  ourselves,  we  know  not 
whither  ;  the  "  Passions  "  repel  from  us  our  uncongeuials,  Le  they  things 
or  persons ;  the  "  AflPections "  draw  us  to  our  congenials,  who  can  only 
be  persons,  unequal  or  equal;  and  the  "Sentiments"  pass  out  by 
aspiration  to  what  is  higher  than  ourselves,  whether  recognized  as  per- 
sonal or  not. 

Each  of  these,  again,  may  be  either  primary  or  secondary;  the 
latter  being  merely  the  former  metamorphosed  in  self-consciousness. 
An  examination  ot'them  all  leads  to  their  being  arranged  in  an  order, 


476  Notices  of  Books. 

ascending  from  the  secondary  passions  (censoriousness,  vindictive- 
ness,  suspiciousness),  to  the  primary  sentiment  of  reverence  at  the 
summit.  Consequently,  the  following  definition  is  proposed :  "  Every 
action  is  right  which,  in  the  presence  of  a  lower  impulse,  follows  a 
higher ;  every  action  is  wrong  which,  in  the  presence  of  a  higher 
impulse,  chooses  a  lower." 

I  have  omitted,  I  believe,  no  essential  detail  of  Dr.  Martineau's 
theory,  though  the  extreme  brevity  to  which  I  am  compelled  gives 
no  idea  of  his  amazing  fertility  in  statement  and  in  defence.  I  am 
equally  unfair  by  not  expressing  the  restrained  fervour  and  deep 
reverence  that  come  continually  to  the  surface,  and  carry  away  the 
reader,  whether  his  reason  follows  or  not.  Still  less  do  my  limits 
allow  of  any  adequate  criticism,  which  I  would  not  attempt  Avere  not 
my  own  personal  unfitness  assisted  by  Catholic  philosophy.  I  will 
only  anticipate  the  remarks  our  readers  will  probably  themselves 
have  made.  Taking  the  author's  own  test  of  an  ethical  theory,  self- 
introspection,  I  cannot  find,  in  my  own  consciousness,  that  twa 
impulses  are  present  in  every  moral  act.  I  can  generally  find  only 
one ;  and  I  remark  that  in  two  of  Dr.  Martineau's  three  instances^ 
one  impulse  only  is  present  at  the  moment  of  the  act.  Of  course, 
foresight,  and  therefore  comparison,  are  needed  to  make  up  a  volun- 
tary act;  but  that  comparison  need  not  be  between  two  impulses- 
rather  between  those  moral  judgments  according  to  which  Dr.  Mar- 
tineau  has  graduated  his  table.  I  am  strengthened  in  this  by  remark- 
ing :  first,  that  the  secondary  passions,  being  the  lowest  in  his  scale, 
are  regarded  as  absolutely,  and  not  merely  relatively,  bad ;  secondly, 
that  a  conflict  between  some  impulses  (as  between  avarice  and  lust 
or  gluttony)  has  always  an  immoral  result,  whichever  prevails ;  while 
the  conflict  between  others  has  always  an  unmoral  ending.  I  con- 
clude, therefore,  that  of  two  competing  impulses  one  must  always 
have  an  intrinsic  moral  value,  if  the  result  is  to  be  approved  or  dis- 
approved by  conscience :  so  that  I  can  only  accept  the  conclusion  by 
substituting  "motives"  for  "impulses,"  and  leaving  the  decision  with 
the  morally-informed  reason.  ISor  is  this  a  vain  subtlety.  In  other 
hands-,  Dr.  Martineau's  theory  would  lead  to  a  revival  of  the  Jansenist 
delectatio  victrix,  which  makes  void  that  ver}^  free-will  he  holds  so 
dear.  Again,  the  definition  of  right  and  wrong  confuses  those  ideas 
with  the  notions  of  better  and  worse,  so  that  many  actions  would  be 
classed  as  wrong  which  the  most  rigid  moralist  would  never  con- 
demn. I  cannot  express  myself  more  clearly  than  J.  S.  Mill  does  in 
the  following  words  :  "  It  is  not  good  that  persons  should  be  bound 

to  do  everything  that  they  would  deserve  praise  for  doing 

This  distinction  Avas  fully  recognized  by  the  sagacious  and  far-sighted 
men  who  created  the  Catholic  ethics." 

Dr.  Martineau  next  passes  to  those  "  Heteropsychological  " 
schemes  which  attempt  to  bring  the  moral  phenomena  of  our  minds 
under  some  other  category.  The  most  important  of  these  is  of 
course  "  Utilitarianism  "  or  "  Hedonism,"  which  looks  on  morality  as 
equivalent  to  being  useful  for  happiness  in  the  sense  of  pleasure. 


Notices  of  Boohs.  477 

This  being  the  position  taken  up,  in  one  form  or  other,  by  most 
opponents  of  the  intuitive  school  of  morals,  is  more  searchingly 
examined  than  any  other.  I  can  only  notice  one  or  two  salient 
points.  A  discrimination  between  motive  and  resultant  pleasure 
clears  away  many  verbal  jug-g-les :  and  the  younger  Mill's  admission, 
that  there  are  "  higher  "  and  "  lower  "  pleasures,  is  used  as  a  wedge 
to  drive  into  the  heart  of  the  Hedonist  position.  It  is  also  clearly 
shown  that  although  there  is  some  provision  in  our  nature  for  con- 
verting interested  into  disinterested  feeling,  yet  the  greatest  happi- 
ness of  self  cannot  possibly  be  identified  with  the  greatest  happiness 
of  all.  Nor  will  the  praise  and  blame  of  society  (as  James  Mill 
thought)  suffice  to  do  so  unless  all  men  agreed  in  those  sentiments, 
which  they  would  only  do  if  Avhat  benefits  one  benefits  all.  The 
weakness  of  Utilitarianism  is  concealed  from  its  supporters  by  its 
appearing  after  most  of  the  ethical  convictions  of  society  have  been 
settled ;  their  benefits  are  apparent  enough,  and  they  are  compared 
■with  no  alternative. 

We  next  meet  with  the  ingenious  modification  of  Hedonism  Avhich 
is  due  to  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer.  Dr.  Martineau  at  once  denies  his 
fundamental  position,  that  pleasure  increases  vital  energy,  and  pain 
diminishes  it.  "  Pleasure  does  not  start  the  heightened  activity, 
but  closes  it."  Incidentally,  there  is  a  noble  defence  of  Asceticism 
against  Mr.  Spencer's  Philistine  conception  of  it,  as  the  mere  worship 
of  pain ; 

Its  aim  has  been,  not  [only]  to  suffer,  but  to  be  free  from  the  entangle- 
ments of  self,  to  serve  the  calls  of  human  pity  or  Divine  love,  and 
conform  to  the  counsels  of  a  Christ-like  perfection.  Condemn  its  method 
as  you  will,  and  satirize  its  extravagances,  this  was  its  essential  principle, 
as  it  still  is,  for  those  to  whom  the  garden  of  Gethsemane  is  more  sacred 
than  the  garden  of  Epicurus. 

Again,  it  is  pointed  out  that  the  very  essence  of  evolution  is  the 
addition  of  some  fresh  character  to  the  stock  handed  down  by 
heredity,  so  that  on  that  hypothesis  intellectual  and  moral  qualities 
must  be  different  in  kind  from  their  predecessors;  also,  that  there 
are  gaps  in  the  chain  of  evolution,  at  the  appearance  of  sentient 
and  moral  beings,  which  all  Mr.  Spencer's  ingenuity  has  not  bridged 
over. 

Two  more  systems  of  ethics  remain  with  which  Dr.  Martineau  is- 
much  more  in  sympathy  (though  he  thinks  them  insufficient)  than 
with  the  Utilitarian  school.  One  (Cudworth,  Clarke,  and  Price) 
endeavoured  to  reduce  moral  to  intellectual  preferences ;  the  other 
(Shaftesbury  and  Hutcheson)  identified  Right  with  the  Beautiful. 

This  is  a  very  meagre  sketch  of  the  whole  work.  Its  two  naain 
characters  will  at  least  have  been  a])parent:  the  exposition  of  an 
intuitive  system  of  morals,  and  the  refutation  of  all  contrary  systems. 
But  it  is  by  no  means  valuable  on  these  accounts  alone.  Through- 
out the  wh'ole  book,  but  especially  where  he  is  defending  his  own 
system,  a  large  number  of  passages  are  to  be  found  which  must 
interest  every  student  of  morals.     Such  are  a  very  striking  justifi-- 


478  Notices  of  Boohs. 

cation  of  the  belief  in  bell ;  keen  analyses  of  sentimentality  and  of 
'"  interest  in  religion  "  ;  the  extent  of  our  duty  to  God  and  to  our 
neig-bbour ;  commutative  and  distributive  justice  j  and  the  exceptions 
which  Dr,  Martineau  thinks  may  sometimes  be  made  to  the  rule  of 
veracity. 

The  whole  work  is  written  in  a  gTave  and  solemn  manner,  which 
seems  to  carry  us  into  an  air  purer  and  serener  than  that  in  which 
men  commonly  dwell.  We  can  only  all  the  more  desire  talis  cum 
sis,  utinam  noster  esses,  and  that  a  mind  so  qualified  in  all  ways  to 
appreciate  it,  should  not  have  entered  into  Catholic  philosophy. 
For  us,  however,  this  has  its  compensations.  Though  Dr.  Marti- 
neau's  course,  on  almost  every  subject,  is  not  identical  with  ours, 
yet  he  moves  on  lines  parallel,  and  so  near  to  us  that  we  are  often 
able  to  learn  more  from  him  than  from  expositions  of  our  own 
doctrines,  which  fall  upon  ears  that  are  dull,  because  familiar  with 


them. 


J.  R.  Gasquet. 


^if^  (if  Anne  Catherine  Emmerich.     From  the  German  of  Very  Rev. 
K.  E.  ScHMOGER,  C.SS.R.    Two  vols.    New  York  :  Fr.  iPustet 

&  Co.     1885. 

WE  shall  always  find  much  to  marvel  at  in  the  lives  of  even  the 
most  ordinary  of  God's  saints.  We  shall  not  be  astonished, 
•  therefore,  to  meet  many  strange  and  curious  incidents  in  the  history 
of  Sister  Catherine  Emmerich,  who  was  by  no  means  an  ordinary 
saint.  Quite  the  reverse.  She  was  a  saint  (and  the  word  is  only 
used  in  that  limited  sense  which  obtains  before  canonization)  of  a 
most  unusual  order,  and  led  a  life  so  wholly  mystifying-  and  super- 
natural, that  we  are  almost  more  impressed  by  its"  strangeness,  its 
difficulties,  and  the  awful  sufiering'S  that  accompanied  it,  than  by 
anything-  else.  The  life  of  this  wonderful  woman  should  do  much  good. 
It  should  teach  much  of  God's  bidden  ways,  and  His  secret  dealings 
with  chosen  souls  ;  yet  we  must  add  that  it  is  only  minds  of  a  certain 
temperament  that  will  profit  by  the  lesson,  and  we  fear  that  such 
minds  are  extremely  rare.  To  the  weak  in  faith,  to  the  sceptical 
and  critical — indeed,  we  may  say,  to  all  who  are  unfamiliar  with  the 
strangeness  of  God's  ways — it  may  have  even  an  opposite  effect ; 
while  to  the  pronounced  enemies  of  our  religion  it  may,  perhaps, 
furnish  some  material  for  ridicule  and  contem})t,  and  we  very  much 
question  the  wisdom  of  putting-  such  arms  into  the  enemies  hands. 
Indeed,  we  would  like  to  see  the  book  thoroug'hly  revised  and  altered 
before  putting  it  into  the  hands  of  the  public. 

Catherine's  familiarity  with  the  angels  and  the  saints,  and  even  with 
Jesus  Christ  himself,  was  so  great  and  unwonted,  that  as  we  read  we 
almost  imagine  that  we  are  dreaming  some  strange  and  beautiful 
dream,  or  that  we  have  wandered  by  chance  into  some  fancy  realm 
,of  fairyland.  The  great  citizens  of  the  heavenly  court  sometimes 
rendered  her  the  most  sig:nal  services,  and  often  saved  her  in  moments 


Notices  of  Books.  41 9^ 

of  imminent  danger.  Thus,  when  carrying-  linen  from  the  wash  to 
the  drying  loft,  she  met  with  an  accident  which  would  certainly 
have  proved  fatal  had  not  her  angel  interposed  and  "  seized  the  rope 
and  saved  her  from  falling  with  the  weight."  Indeed,  a  constant 
and  very  familiar  intercourse  with  the  world  of  spirits,  of  the 
details  of  which  there  is  ahundance  in  these  pages,  forms  perhaps 
the  most  marvellous  side  of  her  life.  Yet  the  severity,  hitterness, 
and  duration  of  her  sufferings  and  trials  are  from  another  point 
of  view  almost,  if  not  equally,  as  marvellous.  Interior  trials 
and  cruel  maladies,  most  varied  in  form  and  opposite  in  symptom, 
were  her  daily  hread ;  her  soul  was  tortured  with  sadness, 
anguish,  dryness,  desolation;  it  was  in  this  manner  that  she 
atoned  both  for  the  whole  Church  and  its  individual  members. 
Like  another  S.  Francis,  she  received  the  stigmata,  and  thoug-h 
repeated  tests  were  applied,  they  only  served  to  prove  its  genuine- 
ness the  more  completely.  Indeed,  we  may  conclude  this  brief 
notice  by  saying  that  there  is  nothing  stated  in  this  truly  wonderful 
life  which  any  properly  instructed  Catholic  would  hesitate  to  believe 
on  sufficient  grounds.  We  know  that  God  can  and  does  work  prodigies 
in  His  saints ;  the  whole  matter  resolves  itself  therefore  into  a 
question  of  evidence.  If  the  evidence  is  sufficient,  it  only  remains 
for  us  to  glorify  God,  who  is  wonderful  in  His  saints.  To  say  that 
the  evidence  put  before  us  in  this  book  is  strong  and  persuasive,  is 
possibly  not  to  say  too  much ;  the  final  verdict,  however,  we  must 
in  all  patience  leave  to  her  who  has  received  the  commission  from 
Christ  to  judge  and  decide  such  matters. 

Before  entering  upon  the  history  of  this  chosen  soul,  the  devout 
reader  should  carefully  study  the  Introduction  by  Fr.  Schmoger, 
C.SS.R.  It  will  aid  him  immeasurably  in  forming  a  just  estimate 
of  the  veracity  of  the  incidents  related,  and  by  indicating  the  tests  of 
virtue,  help  him  to  recognize  its  presence  in  the  person  of  Sister  A. 
Catherine  Emmerich.  

Christian  Constitution  of  States  Vy  Leo  XIII.  A  Manual  of  Catholic 
Politics :  With  Notes  and  Commentary,  by  the  Bishop  of 
Salford.  London:  Burns  &  Gates.  Manchester:  C.  McVeigh, 
14  Livesey  street. 

THE  Bishop  of  Salford  has  added  to  his  series  of  "The  People's 
Manuals,"  a  handy  edition  of  the  authorized  translation 
of  the  recent  Papal  Encyclical  on  the  character  of  the 
State  according  to  the  principles  of  Christianity.  Of  the  grave 
importance  of  the  subject  matter  of  that  Encyclical,  it  would  be 
superfluous  to  speak  •  while  the  manner  in  which  the  supreme 
Pontiff  has  dealt  withit,  justifies  the  description  of  his  letter  as  "The 
Catholic's  Manual  of  Politics."  It  must  therefore  surely  be  most 
opportune  at  a  moment,  when  here  in  England  the  new  franchise- 
has  placed  political  influence  in  so  many  hands  to  spread  abroad  and 
popularize  the  teaching  of  Christ's  Vicar.  For,  as  we  read  in  the 
Introduction  to  this  little  volume  : — 


-480  Notices  of  Books. 

The  momentous  struggle  between  political  atheism  and  Christianity  is 
being  waged  in  England,  if  not  as  fiercely  at  least  as  seriously  as  on  the 
•Continent. 

This  is  undeniable ;  and  it  is  of  vast  importance  to  teach,  a  multi- 
tude of  voters,  both  old  and  new,  to  look  oftentimes  through  the 
mere  conflict  of  "  parties,"  on  to  the  vital  principles  which  may  be 
threatened  now  on  one  side  and  now  on  the  other,  sometimes  even  on 
both  sides  alike.  It  is  these  principles  with  which  the  Holy  Father 
is  concerned  ;  he  has  studiously  emphasized  his  singleness  of  purpose 
in  this  regard.  The  Bishop  of  Salford  also  opens  his  Introduction  to 
Catholic  voters  with  this  clear  distinction  : — 

In  public  and  political  life  some  principles  and  maxims  are  Christian, 
and  as  such  to  be  known  and  openly  professed  by  Catholics,  while  others 
.are  purely  economical,  political,  dynastic,  or  constitutional ;  and  as  such 
are  outside  the  commission  of  the  Gospel — outside,  thereof,  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Church. 

And,  speaking  of  the  Encyclical  as  a  guide  in  politics : — 

As  such,  it  should  be  read  and  re-read,  and  studied  in  every  Catholic 
Club,  and  by  intelligent  Catholics,  young  and  old.  It  is  the  test  to 
which  they  should  apply  all  political  opinions  that  are  in  any  way  of 
doubtful  morality.  If  these  do  not  square  with  the  teaching  of  the  Pope, 
they  need  to  be  reconsidered,  reformed,  or  discarded.  It  is  the  code  of 
political  doctrine  which  must  be  held  by  all  Catholics,  to  which  ever 
party  in  the  State  they  may  belong. 

That  such  words  do  not  overstate  the  value  and  the  practical 
usefulness  of  the  Encyclical,  is  plain  enough  to  any  one  who  has 
read  it  carefully  and  can  see,  also,  the  signs  of  the  times.  We 
believe,  therefore,  that  the  present  publication  is  calculated  to  do 
much  good ;  and  we  trust  it  may  find  its  way  into  libraries,  clubs,  and 
wherever  those  who  no^v  enjoy  a  vote,  Avish  to  use  it  for  the  true  and 
permanent  interests  of  the  State,  and  in  the  service  of  Christianity. 
And  the  bishop  dwells,  rightly  we  think,  on  the  duty  of  using  one's 
vote  and  influence.  We  need  only  add  that  the  Pope's  letter  is 
here  divided  into  parts,  according  to  its  subject  matter  ;  each  part 
is  followed  by  a  commentary  in  which  much  subsidiary  matter  is  to 
be  found  on  interesting  points  raised  by  the  argument ;  short  foot- 
notes explain  as  need  arises,  terms  used  in  the  text ;  and  lastly,  each 
page  of  the  text  has  its  analytical  heading  which  brings  into  promi- 
nence its  meaning  and  drift.  The  footnotes,  will,  we  feel  sure,  prove 
useful;  see  as  an  example  the  one  on  page  66,  on ''Toleration  "; 
whilst  the  nature  of  the  sections  in  the  Commentary  may  be  gathered 
from  such  headings  as  "  Catholic  Principles  imbedded  in  the 
British  Constitution  and  in  the  Statute  and  Common  Law," 
"  Catholic  Laymen  and  Public  Life,"  "  The  Conduct  of  Priests  and 
Politics,"  and  "  On  Catholics  attending  Protestant  Worship,  and  on 
the  Right  Feeling-  towards  non-Catholics."  It  will  be  seen  that 
within  the  dimensions  of  a  twopenny  book,  much  has  here  been  done 
in  the  hope  of  making  intelligible  to  every  one  the  scope  and  practical 
;application  of  the  Holy  Father's  "  Manual  of  Catholic  Politics." 


Notices  of  Books.  481 

« 

Early  Christian  Syiribolism.  A  Series  of  Compositions  from  Fresco- 
Paintings,  Glasses,  and  Sculptured  Sarcophag-i.  Selected, 
Arranged  and  Described  by  the  late  William  Palmer,  M.A. 
Edited,  with  Notes,  by  the  Revv.  J.  Spencer  Northcote, 
D.D.,  and  W.  R.  Browxlow,  M.A.  London:  Kegan  Paul, 
Trench  &  Co. 

IN  the  eight  sumptuous  cahiers  of  this  important  work  we  have 
now  realized  for  the  first  time  an  idea  of  the  late  Mr.  William 
Palmer.  Some  seventeen  years  ago,  in  Rome,  he  was  studying  the 
ancient  Christian  inscriptions,  chiefly  of  the  Catacombs,  and  it 
struck  him  that  it  would  be  a  useful  enterprise  to  choose  and  classify, 
for  historical  and  controversial  purposes,  leading  examples  of  these 
representations,  accompanying  them  with  a  few  notes.  We  have 
here,  therefore,  arranged  under  fourteen  headings,  a  series  of  typical 
drawings  from  the  ver}'  dawn  of  Christian  art.  They  exhibit  to  the 
eye,  as  he  tells  us,  the  Christianity  of  the  third  century,  though 
possibly  one  or  two  may  belong  to  the  second,  and  several  of  them 
certainly  to  the  fourth.  The  author  does  not  pretend  to  present  any 
new  drawings  or  discoveries ;  most  of  them  had  already  been  long- 
known  in  the  pages  of  Bosio  and  Aringhi ;  others  were  copied  for 
the  author  from  the  Catacombs.  But  the  arrangement,  that  is,  the 
placing  certain  designs  side  by  side  in  one  composition  belongs  to 
Mr.  Palmer  himself;  and  it  is  the  portfolio  of  these  arrangements, 
together  with  the  Avriter's  notes,  which  Dr.  Northcote  and  Canon 
Brownlow,  zealous  in  the  cause  of  ancient  Christian  ichnography, 
'have  disinterred  and  now  present  to  the  public,  enriched  with  a  few 
notes  of  their  own.  The  first  "composition"  refers  to  what  the  author 
calls  "  the  Dispensation ;  "  the  new  Covenant,  and  symbolized  by 
Christ  the  good  Shepherd,  and  Christ  the  rock,  with  the  representa- 
tive figures  of  Moses  and  Peter.  Next  follows  the  "  Woman  " — that 
is,  an  illustration  of  prayer  to  the  Blessed  Virgin;  then  the  ''Rod" 
— St.  Peter  and  his  prerogatives,  supplemented  by  the  next,  in  which 
the  two  great  apostles  figure.  The  Scriptures,  the  Eucharist,  the 
Sacraments,  the  Virgins,  and  the  Martyrs  are  next  illustrated.  We 
have  then  a  reproduction  of  several  of  those  Old  Testament  types 
which  occur  again  and  again  in  the  old  Christian  inscriptions — 
•  Susanna,  Nabuchodonosor,  Jonas;  Herod,  also,  has  a  page  or  two, 
whilst  the  work  concludes  by  the  reproduction  of  symbols  of 
Baptism  and  Burial.  An  appendix  follows,  giving  the  celebrated 
"■  blasphemous  "  crucifix,  scratched  by  some  mocking  hand  on  a  wall 
in  the  palace  of  the  Ctesars,  probably  before  the  end  of  the  second 
century,  together  with  some  Gnostic  inscriptions,  &c.  The  value  of 
this  work  lies  in  its  systematic  arrangement.  Those  who  are  familiar 
with  the  writings  of  Dr.  Northcote  and  Canon  Brownlow,  not  to  men- 
tien  the  "  Roma  Sotteranea  "  of  De  Eossi,  will  find  no  novelties,  and 
Mr.  Palmer's  own  letterpress  has  been  anticipated  whilst  it  has 
waited  for  the  light  of  day.  But  still  it  is  a  valuable  guide  to  ancient 
ichnography  ;  and  as  in  the  old  Christian  art  the  same  subjects  recur 
over  and  over  again,  the  lessons  which  that  art  teaches  and  the 


482  \  Notices  of  Books. 

historic  facts  which  it  enshrines  may  be  learnt  very  easily  and  very 
clearly  from  a  book  of  this  kind,  which  has  the  further  advantage  of 
being-  beautifully  printed  on  large  paper.  It  is  dedicated  to  his 
Eminence  Cardinal  Newman,  in  whose  possession  Mr.  Palmer's 
drawings  and  MS.  seem  to  have  been  left,  and  who,  in  promoting 
this  publication,  doubtless  has  the  satisfaction  of  still  further 
ministering  to  the  good  memory  of  a  dear  friend.    ■ 


The  Divine  Office  considered  from  a  Devotional  Point  of  View.  From 
the  French  of  M.  I'Abbe  Bacquez.  Edited  by  the  Rev. 
Ethelred  L.  Tauntox,  Cong.  Ub.  With  a  Preface  by  his 
Eminence  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Westminster. 
London  :  Burns  &  Oa-tes. 
TliTE  have,  in  this  translation,  a  most  useful  and  welcome  addition 
\\  to  the  library  of  English  devotional  books.  Many  priests  and 
religious  know  and  use  this  work  in  its  original  language ;  but  very 
many  more  will  make  use  of  this  translation.  It  may  be  said  at  once 
that  the  translation  itself  is  fairly  good.  More  than  this  can  hardly 
be  stated  in  its  favour,  because,  although  the  English  version  reads 
for  the  most  part  smoothly  and  has  the  air  of  being  sensible  and 
correct,  there  are  numerous  feeblenesses  apparent  on  close  inspection, 
which  turn  out  on  examination  to  be  mistakes  of  rendering.  The 
work  is  divided  into  two  divisions,  the  first  of  which  treats  on  the 
Divine  Office  as  a  whole — its  excellence,  the  necessity  for  studying 
it,  and  the  way  to  go  through  it — whilst  the  second  goes  into 
details  as  to  each  of  the  Canonical  Hours.  There  are  at  the  end 
forty  or  fifty  pages  of  notes,  in  addition  to  the  numerous  footnotes 
scattered  throughout  the  work.  All  is  very  edifying  and  useful ;  but 
it  is  to  be  regretted,  perhaps,  that  the  editor,  who  has  thrown  in 
various  bits  of  his  own  here  and  there,  chiefly  in  the  notes,  did  not  go 
a  little  further  and  make  the  bibliography  of  his  subject  a  little  less 
incomplete.  For  example,  Abbot  Wolter's  "Psallite  Sapienter" 
might  have  been  mentioned — an  eloquently  wTitten,  though  too 
long-drawn-out  commentary  on  the  Psalms,  the  translation  of  which 
is,  we  suppose,  the  only  Catholic  commentary  in  English  on  the 
Psalms.  Perhaps  even  J.  M.  Neale  might  have  been  named;  he 
was  not  in  the  visible  Church,  but  he  is  perfectly  orthodox,  and  in 
every  way  excellent.  We  wish  some  one  would  translate  Thalhofer's 
"Erklarung;"  no  better  manual  of  the  Psalter  could  be  desired. 
On  the  Hymns  of  the  Breviary,  it  is  unsatisfactory  to  be  put  off  with 
the  Elucidatoniiin  of  Clictovseus  and  the  Elucidatio  of  Timothy  of 
Granada.  We  must  own  to  never  having  heard  of  the  latter  com-  • 
raentator.  The  original  French  note  gives  the  name  "  Tim 
Grateensis."  There  must  be  a  mistake  somewhere,  but  it  can  hardly 
matter  much,  for  neither  name  is  likely  to  be  met  with  in  the  oldest 
of  old-book  catalogues.  Reference  might  have  been  made  to  Mone's 
"Hymni  Latini  medii  oevi,"and  it  would  not  have  taken  up  much  space 
to  insert  a  complete  catalogue  of  breviary  hymns,  abridged  from  that 


Notices  of  Books.  483 

given  in  Addis  and  Arnold's  Dictionary  out  of  one  of  Bishop  Hefele's 
essays.  No  one  can  help  heartily  agTeeing-  with  the  author  on  the 
necessity  of  studying-  the  Divine  Office.  Full  as  it  is  of  history, 
tradition,  haj^iology,  and  spirituality,  it  easily  becomes  a  very  thick- . 
skinned  apple  to  those  whose  object  is  merely  to  get  it  recited  and 
done  with.  But  the  author  hardly  gives  sufficient  importance  to  the 
study  of  its  literal  and  historical  side.  This  refers  especially,  of 
course,  to  the  Psalms,  which  form  the  substance  of  the  Office.  The 
Psalms  are  comparatively  dry  and  vague  unless  we  can  distinguish 
one  from  the  other.  Devotional  or  mystical  applications  are  easy 
enough  to  make — easy  to  writers,  that  is,  of  the  French  school,  but 
by  no  means  equally  sure  to  strike  the  attention  of  readers  or  to 
touch  the  heart.  It  may  not  be  true  of  every  Psalm,  but  by  far  the 
greater  part  can  be  fixed  in  the  mind  by  the  circumstances  under 
which  they  seem  to  have  been  written.  The  utterances  of  David,  in 
the  persecution  of  Saul,  in  the  moment  of  victory,  among  the  rocks 
and  hiding-places  of  the  desert,  or  in  the  presence  of  the  Ark  of  God, 
have  each  their  special  and  marked  interest,  and  the  study  of  such, 
features  not  only  makes  it  easy  to  distinguish  one  Psalm  from 
another,  but  serves  to  show  the  connection  of  verse  with  verse,  and 
to  bring  out  occasional  picturesque  and  striking  references  in  the 
language  of  the  Psalm  itself.  It  is  true,  this  is  but  the  framework 
of  devotion ;  but  a  framework  is  very  useful.  We  heartily  recom- 
mend this  translation  to  priests  and  religious  ;  we  are  not  so  well  off 
in  the  matter  but  that  we  are  bound  to  thank  those  who  give  us 
works  of  this  kind  in  the  mother-tongue.  It  is  well  and  clearly 
printed,  and  the  notes  and  references  have  evidently  been  revised 
with  some  care. 


The  Idea  of  God  as  affected  by  Modern  Knowledge.     By  John  Fiske, 
London  :  Macmillan  &  Co.     1885. 

THIS  is  an  address  delivered  before  the  Concord  School  of  Philo- 
sophy, by  one  who  has  done  most  to  diffuse  a  knowledge  of 
Mr.  Spencer's  system  in  the  United  States.  He  professes,  and 
doubtless  considers  himself,  to  be  a  thorough  disciple  of  that  teacher; 
but  to  us  it  appears  that  he  has  hardly  succeeded  in  following  two- 
opposite  courses  at  the  same  time,  and  that  his  scheme  may  rather 
be  called  semi-Spencerianism.  We  gladly  recognize  that  he  believes 
in  the  existence  of  an  Omnipresent  Energy,  which  is  not  identical 
with  the  universe,  but  is,  "  in  some  incomprehensible  sense,  quasi- 
personal."  He  refuses,  therefore,  to  say  that  "  God  is  Force," 
"  since  such  a  phrase  inevitably  calls  up  those  pantheistic  notions  of 
blind  necessity  which  it  is  my  express  desire  to  avoid,"  and  prefers 
the  expression,  "  God  is  Spirit."  He  lays  stress  upon  the  service 
Avhich  the  doctrine  of  evolution  can  render  to  the  cause  of  Theism ; 
and  makes  one  remark  we  have  not  seen  elsewhere,  that  Darwinian 
biology,  "  by  exhibiting  the  development  of  the  highest  spiritual 
qualities  as  the  goal  towards  which  God's  creative  work  has  from 
the  outset  been  tending,  replaces  Man  in  his  old  position  of  headship 
VOL.  XV. — ^^o.  II.     [Third  Series.'}  k  k 


484  Notices  of  Boohs. 

in  the  universe,  even  as  in  the  days  of  Dante  and  Aquinas."  This 
is  so  far  satisfactory  that  Ave  all  the  more  reg-ret  the  confusions  and 
contradictions  into  which  Mr.  Fiske  has  been  led  by  following*  his 
teacher.  These  have  been  so  fully  discussed  on  other  occasions  that 
we  need  not  now  recur  to  them.  One  difficulty  that  he  raises 
need  alone  detain  us.  Following  one  Professor  Allen,  he  maintains 
that  there  have  been  two  different  opinions  in  the  Christian  schools 
as  to  the  knowledg-e  of  God  ;  and  he  sets  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
Origen,  and,  above  all,  St.  Athanasius  in  opposition  to  the  line  of 
thought  which  he  considei's  to  be  dominant  in  the  Church  since 
St.  Augustine.  We  need  not  say  that  he  has  been  misled  by  his 
authority,  and  that  no  such  difference  exists.  St.  Athanasius  has 
fortunately  left  us  a  treatise  (the  "  Oratio  contra  Gentes  ")  in  which 
he  describes  our  knowledge  of  God  with  a  clearness  and  precision 
which  he  could  not  have  exceeded  had  he  \vritten  after  the  Vatican 
Council.  We  could  wish  nothing  better  than  that  Mr.  Fiske  should 
read  it  for  himself  He  would  there  find  that  God  "  hath  not  made 
extreme  use  [KorexpwaTo]  of  His  invisible  nature,  and  left  Himself 
entirely  unknown  to  men ;  "  but,  for  the  very  reason  that  He  is 
invisible  and  incomprehensible  in  His  own  nature,  hath  so  ordered 
creation  that,  by  its  order  and  harmony,  it  may  point  out  and 
proclaim  its  own  Governor  and  Maker. 

Mr.  Fiske,  in  common  wuth  so  many  other  writers  at  this  day,  has 
never  realized  two  points  which  are  clearl}^  brought  out  in  the 
philosophy  of  the  Church,  and  which  would  solve  all  his  difficulties. 
The  first  is,  that  our  statements  concerning  God,  in  order  to  be  true, 
need  not  be  adequate  j  and  that  our  knowledge  of  Him  is  real, 
although  incomplete.  The  second  point  is,  that  the  perpetual  in- 
dwelling of  the  Divinity  in  external  nature  and  in  the  human  soul 
does  not  imply  an  identity,  or  fusion,  of  the  Creator  and  the  creature. 
If  these  are  borne  in  mind,  all  the  seeming  contradictions  which  are 
a  difficulty  to  our  author  at  once  disappear. 

Tributes  of  Protestant  Writers  to  tlie  Truth  and  Beauty  of  Catholicity 
By  James  J.  Treacv.  New  York  and  Cincinnati :  Fr.  Pustet 
&  Co. 

THE  compiler  of  these  "  Tributes  "  has  an  idea  that  non- Catholics, 
however  hostile  they  may  be  to  the  true  Church,  are  impelled 
by  a  special  dispensation  of  Providence  to  testify  to  "  the  truth  and 
beauty  of  Catholicity  ;  "  and  in  his  reading  of  the  works  of  the  various 
English-speaking  Protestant  writers  he  has  noted  the  passages  which 
seemed  to  support  this  opinion.*  His  book  is  consequently  a  series  of 
extracts  only  from  the  works  of  such  writers  as  Alison,  Froude, 
Macaulay,  &c.,  bearing  witness  to  the  excellence  of  the  doctrines 
and  practices  of  CathoHcism,  and  on  a  variety  of  subjects,  amongst 
others  of  the  Crusades,  Chivalry,  Penance,  Vows,   &c.     In  reading 

*  Since  this  was  written  we  see  with  pleasure  that  the  Holy  Father  has  sent  his 
benediction  to  the  author,  and  a  cameo,  as  a  mark  of  his  appreciation  of  the  book. 


Notices  of  Books.  485 

through  the  extracts  we  have  been  particularly  struck  by  the  tributes 
to  the  Catholic  clergy;  notably  by  that  from  "  The  Notes  of  a  Traveller," 
by  Samuel.  Laing,  in  which  the  Catholic  clergy  are  compared  with 
those  of  other  denominations.  The  book  will  be  welcome  to  many 
Catholics  as  containing,  in  a  compact  and  handy  form,  the  opinions  of 
some  of  the  most  important  Protestant  writers  in  favour  of  their  holy 
religion.  The  volume  is  neatly  got  up  and  well  bound,  and  would  form 
an  excellent  gift-book  or  prize.  » 

Hans  Holbein.     Par  Jean  Eousseau.     ''  Bibliotheque  d'Art  Ancien." 

J.  F.  Millet.  Par  Charles  Yriarte.  "■  Bibliotheque  d'Art 
Moderne." 

Ghiberti  et  son  Eeole.  Par  Charles  Perkins.  "Bibliotheque 
Internationale  de  l^Art." 

Le  Style  Louis  XIV.  Charles  Le  Brun.  Par  A.  Genevay. 
"  Bibliotheque  Internationale  de  I'Art."  The  four  volumes,  the 
same  publisher.  Paris :  Librarie  de  L'Arf.  Jules  Rouam, 
Editeur.     1886. 

ALTHOUGH  widely  different  the  one  from  the  other  in  subject, 
period  and  treatment,  we  place  these  four  volumes  together, 
because,  being  alike  Art  volumes,  and  coming  from   the   same  pub- 
isher,  we  are  unable  this  quarter  to  give  to  each   of  them  separately 
that  space  and  detailed  attention  which  we  should  like  to  give  and  they 
well  deserve.     They  are  books  for  artists  or  for  art  amateurs,  and  are 
illustrated  in  that  high  style  which  one  looks  for  from  the  publishing 
house  of  L'Art.     The  small  quarto  volume  on  Holbein  has  a  special 
interest  for   English   readers ;  and  although  we  will  not  institute  a 
comparison  (which  might  have  the  proverbial   quality)  between  the 
text  of  this  French  and  recent  English  sketches  of  the  artist  and  his 
work,  we  will  venture  to  note  the  advantage  gained  to  the  illustrations 
in  the  French  volume  by  its  larger  size.     The  drawing  and  execution 
of  the  numerous  full-page  illustrations  in  this  handbook  on  Holbein 
are   first-rate.     Most  of  the  plates  are  portraits,    and   they  so  well 
reflect  the  artist's  well-known  accuracy   of  drawing   as  to  be   really 
excellent    "  copies."     In  addition  to  a  criticism  of  his  chief  works, 
there  is  an  interesting  analysis  of  each  of  the  cats   in  the   "  Dance  of 
Death,"  and  a  double-paged  copy  of  Holbein's  sketch  of  Sir  Thomas 
More's  family — "  la  severe  famille  et  le  gi'ave  interieur,"  as  the  French 
critic  puts  it.     Another  recommendation  of  this  Holbein  is  its  mode- 
rate price,  2f.  50c.     The  companion  volume  on  the  modern  painter 
Millet  (he  died  early  in  1 875)  is  perhaps  of  less   general  interest  to 
English  readers.*     But  there  is  this  charm  about   all  the  works  of 

*  What  Mr.  Ruskin  has  said  about  Millet  in  his  "Fiction — Fair  and  Foul" 
(The  Nineteenth  Century,  October  1881),  though  only  a  few  lines,  is  of  singular 
interest.     The  fact  that  the  young  mar.  was  brought  up  chiefly  under  tlie  care  of 

K  K  2 


486  Notices  of  Books. 

his  best  (and  longest)  period  ;  he  devotes  himself  exclusively  to  the 
study  of  rural  scenery  and  peasant  life,  the  varieties  and  incidents 
of  which  he  reproduces  with  truthfulness  to  nature  and  the  A-'ariety 
of  nature  herself.  There  is  one  incident  of  his  artistic  career  which 
we  shall  be  pardoned  for  mentioning.  He  appears  to  have  been 
always  a  man  of  simple  life,  great  honesty  of  thought  and  conscien- 
tious withal ;  but  he  had  drawn  the  nude,  unsuspicious  of  evil  and 
seeing  in  it  only  "  une  vente  facile  et  utile  aux  siens,"  for  he 
had  a  Avife  and  family.  But  the  chance  remark  of  an  unknown 
bystander  as  they  looked  together  into  a  Avindow  where  one  of 
his  paintings  Avas  exhibited,  revealed  to  him  another  aspect  of  the 
affair,  and  he  refused  firmly  and  for  ever  after  "  a  peindre  ces  sujets 
demandes." 

Let  the  reader  please  take  the  very  little  we  can  here  say  of  the 
other  two,  larger  and  more  abundantly  illustrated  and  expensive 
volumes,  as  being  in  exactly  inverse  ratio  to-  their  artistic  excellence 
and  critical  merits.  Much  should  we  like  to  dwell  at  length  on  the 
volume  which  treats  of  the  many-sided  genius  of  Ghiberti  and  his 
chefs- cVa^uvre,  those  bronze  baptistry  gates  of  San  Giovanni  at  Florence, 

•  of  Avhich  Michael  Angelo  said  they  were  worthy  to  adorn  the  gateAvay 
of  Paradise,  and  which  have  never  since  been  excelled.  Mr.  Perkins — 
Director  of  the  Boston  (U.S.A.)  Museum,  and  '^  correspondant  de 
rinstitut  de  France" — writes  pleasantly  and  criticizes  intelligently. 
His  remarks  are  admirably  illustrated  by  reproductions  of  photographs 
of  the  gates  and  by  woodcuts  of  their  separate  panels  on  a  larger  and 
more  useful  scale.  The  other  Avorks  of  Ghiberti  are  not  forgotten 
either  by  the  writer  or  the  artist. 

Of  Le  Brun,  in  Avhom  the  author  recognizes  the  greatest  French 
decorator,  of  his  preponderating  influence  on  the  art  of  the  grand 
siecle,  of  his  works,  of  his  collaborateurs  and  of  the  period  in  Avhich 
he  lived,  M.  Genevay  has  much  to  say,  and  he  says  it  Avell;  indeed 
his  name  is  Avell  known  as  an  art  critic.  As  to  the  typographical 
beauty  of  the  volume,  and  the  choice  and  quality  of  the  numerous 

illustrations,  we  can  only  say  that  they  are  excellent,  and  sufficiently 

characterize  the  period  of  Avhich  the  book  treats. 


his  uncle,  the  Abb^  Charles,  which  Mr.  Ruskin  uses  to  point  a  moral,  seems  not  to 
be  mentioned  in  Mr.  Yriarte's  sketch.  Neither  is  there  in  this  French  volume  a 
plate  of  that'  particular  picture  of  Millet's  of  which  Mr.  Euskin  says,  with  grim 
sarcasm  :  "I  find  one  peculiarly  characteristic  and  expressive  of  modern  picture- 
making  called  '  Hauling,'  or  more  definite^  '  Paysan  rentrant  du  Fumier,'  which 
represents  a  man's  back,  or  at  least  the  back  of  his  waistcoat  and  trousers  and  hat,  in 
full  light,  and  a  small  blot  where  his  face  should  be,  with  a  small  scratch  where  his 
nose  should  be,  elongated  into  one  representing  a  chink  of  timber  in  the  back  ground ;" 
though  we  confess  there  are  some  others  which  (at  least  as  they  stand  in  these 
sketches)  sadly  lack  definiteness  and  meaning.  Mr.  Ruskin,  however,  perceived 
that  Millet  "had  indeed  natural  faculty  of  no  mean  order  in  him." 


Notices  of  Books.  487 

Etissiafi  Art  and  Art  Objects  in  liiissia :  a  Handbook  to  the  Reproduc- 
tions of  Goldsmiths'  Works,  and  other  Art  Treasures  from  that 
Country,  &c.  By  Alfred  Maskell.  In  two  parts.  Part  II. 
London  :  Published  for  the  Committee  of  Council  on  Education 
by  Chapman  &  Hall.     1884. 

THE  second  part  of  Mr.  Maskell's  book*  comprises  religious  art, 
arms  and  armour,  Eng-lish  plate,  and  miscellaneous  objects. 
This  division  of  the  work,  which  is  perhaps  due  to  publishers'  re- 
quirements, does  not  seem  very  judiciously  chosen.  The  chapters 
on  "religious  art"  and  "ecclesiastical  metal  work"  intervene  be- 
tween the  notice,  in  chapter  vi.,  of  the  regalia  and  other  artistic 
appurtenances  of  civil  pomp,  next  which  the  account  of  arms  and 
armour  might  have  found  a  more  suitable  place.  Under  "  religious 
art,"  too,  has  been  included  the  short  account  of  ornamental  needle- 
work, which  of  all  art-work  in  Russia  is  the  most  distinctly  charac- 
teristic and  independent  of  Byzantinism  or  other  Christian  influences. 
But  in  truth  the  field  of  the  author's  labours,  including-,  as  it  does, 
Greek,  Colonial,  Scythian,  Siberian,  Muscovite,  Russo-Byzantine, 
and  English  g-old  and  silversmiths'  arts,  is  so  vast  and  varied,  and 
so  utterly  out  of  proportion  to  the  dimensions  of  this  small  manual, 
as  to  present  g-reat  difficulties  in  the  way  of  a  methodical  and  lucid 
arrangement  of  the  very  diverse  materials,  while  the  few  and  meagre 
woodcuts  employed  fail  to  afford  any  adequate  illustration  of  the 
subject.  It  must  be  said,  however,  in  favour  of  the  author  that 
doubtless  there  were  "  circumstances  over  which  he  had  no  control," 
as  the  manual  is  one  of  a  series,  and  therefore  subject  to  certain  re- 
striction, and  taking  this  into  account  we  have  no  hesitation  in  say- 
ing that  a  large  amount  of  valuable  information  is  compressed  into 
its  small  compass.  It  is  for  the  most  part  compiled  in  a  guarded 
and  judicious  spirit,  as  is  only  wise,  seeing  the  immature  condition 
of  archffiological  science  itself  in  Russia,  the  diversity  of  opinion, 
the  scarcity  of  ancient  records,  the  heterogeneous  nature  of  the 
materials,  and  the  circumstance  that  the  author  is  apparently  un- 
acquainted with  the  language  of  the  coimtry,  and  consequently  with 
most  of  the  best  critical  work  which  has  been  done  of  late  years  in 
the  field  of  Russian  antiquity. 

While  acknowledging  the  value  and  usefulness  of  Mr.  Maskell's 
book,  there  are  several  points,  not  indeed-  very  material  ones,  upon 
which  it  may  be  worth  while  to  say  a  few  words.  A  brief  but  fairly 
clear  account  of  Church  architecture  is  the  first  subject  under  re- 
ligious art,  where  the  influence  of  the  Lombard  builders,  invited  to 
Russia  in  the  twelfth  century,  has  been  duly  noticed  by  the  author, 
who  would  have  given  much  help  to  the  reader  had  he  lettered  and 
described  his  ground-plan  of  a  Russian  Church  at  page  153.  This 
element  in  the  development  of  Russian  ecclesiastical  architecture  was 
mostly  overlooked  until  attention  was  drawn  to  it  by  Count  Stro- 
ganof  in  his  work  on  the  early  churches  at  Vladimir  na  Kliasme. 
Mr.  Maskell  scarcely  alludes  to  this  influence  in  small  objects,  as 

*  Notice  of  first  part  in  the  July  number  of  this  ItEViitw  (1885),  p.  229. 


488  Notices  of  Books. 

owing  to  most  of  them  having-  perished,  it  is  less  traceable.  We 
may,  however,  mention  a  little-known  chalice  of  the  twelfth  or 
thirteenth  century,  preserved  at  Pereiaslavl,  where  it  is  apparent  in 
a  remarkable  degree. 

The  "iconostasis"  is  described  on  p.  158  as  "a  solid  erection  ex- 
tending- from  side  to  side,  from  floor  to  roof."  The  iconostasis  is, 
however,  by  no  means  always  carried  up  to  the  roof.  It  is,  as  Mr. 
Maskell  judiciously  remarks,  interesting-  to  compare  the  modern, 
screen  with  the  septum  of  churches  like  St.  Clement's  in  Rome ; 
but  an  intermediate  phase  should  be  noted  in  Greek  and  Armenian 
Churches,  which  we  could  name  did  space  suffice,  and  even  in  the 
rock  churches  in  the  Crimea.  In  earlier  times,  the  author  states, 
the  iconostasis  was  lower.  It  would  be  more  accurate  to  say  that 
in  its  place  there  was  a  low  barrier  or  balustrade  {cancelli),  often 
connected  with  columns  which  supported  statues  (hence  the  term : 
Iconostasis),  were  subsequently  surmounted  by  an  architrave,  and 
eventually  developed  in  the  East  into  the  present  form  of  the  icono- 
stasis, and  in  the  West  into  the  rood  screen.  See  the  present 
writer's  remarks  on  this  subject  on  pp.  447—8,  in  the  number  of  this 
Review  for  last  April,  and  in  vol.  iii.  of  the  fine  work  "  La  Messe," 
by  M.  Rohault  de  Fleury,  who  has  thrown  much  light  on  this 
subject. 

The  remark  on  p.  153,  that  up  to  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century 
the  three  apses  were  all  of  them  surmounted  by  cupolas,  is  open  to 
objection.  There  were  a  few  instances  of  churches  with  numerous- 
cupolas,  notably  St.  Sophia  at  Kiev,  It  seems,  however,  to  be  mostly 
agreed  that  the  general  earlier  form  of  the  Russian  Church  had  but 
one  dome  or  cupola.  Kiprianof  seems  to  have  been  quoted  in  this 
connection  without  acknowledgment. 

The  notice  of  the  Church  of  Vasili  Blazhennoi,  would  rather  lead 
one  to  infer  a  direct  Indian  or  at  least  Asiatic  influence  in  its  con- 
struction. This  idea  is,  however,  mostly  abandoned  by  Russian 
antiquaries.  The  peculiar  shaped  cupolas,  the  superimposed  arches, 
are  traced  to  the  earlier  timber  churches.  The  edifice,  which  has 
usually  been  accounted  one  of  the  best  and  most  splendid  specimens 
of  Moscow  architecture  of  the  sixteenth  century,  is  a  tour  deforce,  in 
which  the  structural  principles  previousl}'  existing  were  translated 
frum  wood  to  brick  and  stone,  and  developed  to  a  fantastic  and 
meretricious  exuberance,  described  most  happily  by  Theophile 
Gautier :  its  character  is  pronounced  by  competent  judges  to  be 
thoroughly  Russian.  It  is  worth  noting  that  the  chief  architec- 
tural terms  are  genuine  Russian  words.  The  house  of  the  Romanofs 
in  Moscow  is  almost  the  only  specimen  of  Russian  secular  architecture 
extant  which  gives  an  idea  of  the  former  dwellings  of  the  nobles ; 
but  in  this  connection  the  drawings  made  by  order  of  Catherine  II.  of 
^the  palace  of  Alexis  Mikhailovich  (104:5),  at  Kolomenskoe,  are  of 
'  great  interest,  and  should  not  have  been  overlooked. 

Decorated  manuscripts,  both  because  they  frequently  supply  indi- 
cations of  date,  and  because  they  are  oftener  preserved  than  objects- 


Notices  of  Books.  48^ 

more  exposed  or  of  greater  intrinsic  worth,  afford  most  valuable 
materials  for  the  history  of  art.  For  here  the  ornamentalist,  un- 
trammelled by  any  constructive  necessities,  has  the  widest  scope  for 
his  conception,  and  can  give  the  freest  play  to  the  contemporary 
decorative  feeling  and  to  the  development  of  its  characteristics.  In  the 
manual  under  notice  the  subject  of  manuscripts  is  hardly  allotted  a 
space  commensurate  with  their  importance  as  an  element  and  illus- 
tration of  art  in  Russia,  and  here  too,  perhaps,  as  in  some  other 
respects,  the  author  seems  to  place  too  implicit  reliance  upon  Viollet- 
le-Duc.  For  instance,  it  is  surely  venturesome  to  speak  of  Slavonic 
ornaments  as  existing  in  manuscripts  of  the  tenth  century,  when 
the  earliest  monument  of  Slavonic  writing  dates  only  from  the 
eleventh  century.  Of  course  the  southern  Slavonians,  who  were  more 
directly  under  the  influence  of  Byzantium,  but  of  whom,  however, 
Mr.  Maskell  scarcely  says  a  word,  may  have  exercised  some  influence 
upon  the  workmanship  of  the  artists  and  artiticers  in  B^'zantium 
in  the  tenth  century,  though,  as  their  traditions  would  be  rude, 
this  does  not  seem  very  probable.  The  constant  conflux  of  foreigners 
to  the  capital  of  the  Eastern  Empire,  may  doubtless  have  been 
answerable  for  the  disorderly  exuberance  and  meretricious  diversity 
of  much  of  Byzantine  MS.  art.  The  homilies  of  St.  Chrysostom  of  the 
tenth  century  has  a  Slavonic  character,  says  Mr.  Maskell,  after  VioUet- 
le-Duc,  which  recalls  the  incrustations  in  coloured  glass  of  barbaric 
work. 

That  the  decoration  of  Greek  MSS.,  executed  presumably  in  Con- 
stantinople or  in  Greek  Scriptoria  at  a  date  anterior  to  the  earliest 
known  Slavonic  writing-,  should  display  Slavonic  character,  seems  an 
unlikely  supposition  only  explicable  on  the  hypothesis  of  Slavonic 
artists  in  Byzantium  at  this  early  date.  The  ornament  in  question 
does  not,  indeed,  in  our  opinion,  present  any  very  distinct  affinities 
with  extant  Slavonic  decoration  ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  strikingly 
reminds  one  of  the  Syrian  manuscripts  of  which  engravings  and 
notices  are  found  in  Lambecius,  and  in  some  respects  is  not  unlike 
the  ornament  in  the  Eusebian  Canons,  purchased  for  the  British 
Museum  at  Dr.  Askew's  sale  in  1785.  It  is  hardly  correct  to  say 
that  in  the  eleventh  century  the  gold  ground  of  manuscript  paintings 
entirely  disappears ;  the  celebrated  Ostromir  Gospels  of  that  period 
are  lavishly  decorated  with  gold. 

Coming  to  textiles  : 

The  designs  embroidered  or  woven  in  the  fabric  of  the  borders  of 
household  Hnen,  and  some  articles  of  costume,  are,  Mr.  Maskell  truly 
says,  especially  characteristic  in  Eussia,  and  mark  in  an  especial  manner 
the  artistic  tastes  and  originaUty  of  the  people.  This  class  of  work  is, 
for  the  most  part,  embroidered  (the  pattern  on  one  side  only)  in  red 
cotton,  m  simple  lines  or  cross  stitches  ;  or  in  white  with  threads  drawn 

out We   find    geometrical  mosaics,    lozenges   and   crosses  with 

denticulated  edges,  floral  motives  borrowed  from  Persia,  men,  animals, 
trees  and  monsters.  Often  the  figures  are  affrontes,  or  are  back  to 
back,  having  between  them  a  tree  or  flower.  It  is  only  necessary  to 
allude  to  the  frequency  of  this  figure  in  the  stufis  and  ornaments  of 
Persia,  and  the  worship   of   Mithras The   habit  of  embroidery 


490  Notices  of  Books, 

has  always  been  constant ;  old  pieces  descend  in  families,  and  tbe  same 
designs  with  slight  variations  are  perpetuated  from  generation  to 
generation,  forming  a  science  full  of  technicalities  perfectly  understood. 
The  origin  of  the  ancient  style  of  ornament  and  design  is  quite  un- 
certain. If  a  worker  were  questioned,  the  only  answer  would  be  that  they 
[_sic^  work  from  memory  and  tradition  transmitted  from  one  generation 
to  another.  It  is  equally  a  matter  of  uncertainty  to  fix  dates  or  loca- 
lities. The  figures  and  ornaments  are  not  peculiarly  national,  they  are 
to  be  found  among  many  peoples.  A  comparison,  however,  of  the 
figures  (such  as  the  double-headed  eagle  and  fantastic  quadrupeds) 
with  similar  figures  in  illuminated  manuscripts,  vvill  lead  to  some  con- 
clusions from  which  it  would  appear  that  the  designs  of  this  kind  of 
needlework  go  back  to  the  earliest  times  of  the  Russia  of  history. 
They  are  also  distinctly  Oriental.  They  are  Asiatic.  Again,  though  the 
peasant  is  absolutely  unaware  of  it,  every  line,  every  form  has  its  signi- 
fication. In  designs  which  are  composed  simply  of  geometrical  lines, 
where  the  figures  are  conventionalized  to  the  last  degree,  religious  signs 
and  religious  emblems,  signs  of  good  wishes  and  good  augury,  common 
to  the  East,  are  to  be  traced  (p.  178). 

We  may  perhaps  be  forgiven  this  long' quotation,  as  the  domain  is 
one  in  which,  if  anywhere,  a  Eussian  national  art  exists.  Mr.  Maskell 
has  in  the  above  remarks  evidently  followed  M.  Stassof,  who  has  made 
the  subject  of  national  embroidery  peculiarly  his  own,  but  who,  with 
the  enthusiasm  of  a  specialist,  may  not  improbably  have  pushed  too 
far  the  theory  of  the  sig-nificance  of  the  types  used  in  embroidery ; 
<;ompositions  of  animals  ajfrontes  or  adosses  would  be,  as  it  seems  to 
us,  naturally  enough  sug-g-ested  by  the  punched-out  bracteie,  nume- 
rously found  in  the  Kounjani,  which  were  sewn  on  to  g-arments  and 
hangings,  and  many  of  which  were  in  the  form  of  animals.  We 
venture  diffidently  to  hint  at  the  possibility  of  another  origin.  The 
wooden  dwellings  to  be  found  all  over  Russia  are,  for  the  most  part, 
log-built,  but  the  roof-edges  of  the  gable  and  the  similarly  shaped 
window  frames,  are  faced  with  flat  planks  which  have  been  fret-sawn 
into  ornamental  forms  usually  culminating  in  heads  of  animals 
.affrontes  or  adosses.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  is  a  very  ancient 
practice  ;  the  head  most  generally  represented  appears  to  be  that  of 
the  horse,  an  animal  held  in  honour  among  the  pagan  Slavonians, 
as  it  is  still  by  some  of  the  Siberian  or  Central  Asian  tribes. 
Whether  these  decorative  timbers  were  fret-worked  before  or  after 
they  were  sawn  into  the  boards,  their  employment  in  this  way 
suggests  very  naturally,  as  it  seems  to  us,  the  symmetrical  gemina- 
tion so  often  met  with  in  the  forms  affected  in  Kussian  embroidery. 

We  must  remark  that,  although,  indeed,  especially  at  the  present 
time,  large  quantities  of  needlework,  showing  the  design  on  one  side 
.only  of  the  material,  is  produced  for  cheap  sale  in  the  towns,  the 
genuine  and  most  prized  work,  Avhich  may  be  had  easily  enough  in 
the  country,  is  that  ■which  presents  exactly  the  same  appearance  on 
both  sides  of  the  fabric.  The  secret  of  this  cunning  work  does  not, 
however,  seem  to  be  easily  acquired  by  ladies  in  the  higher  classes, 
being  perhaps  kept  with  some  jealousy. 

Mr.  Maskell  might  easily  have  included  in  his  manual  a  list  of  the 


List  of  Boohs  received.  491 

works  referred  to,  and  an  index.  Sucli  additions  would  very  mate- 
rially have  enhanced  the  usefulness  of  his  book,  which  furnishes  in 
a  compendious  form  an  immense  amount  of  information  previously 
inaccessible  to  the  ordinary  reader.  The  author  fully  deserves  the 
thanks  of  all  interested  in  the  history  of  art,  for  a  work  which 
will  put  them  on  the  rig-ht  road  to  a  deeper  study  of  this  particular 
branch  of  the  subject,  and  which  will  prove  an  invaluable  mentor 
among'  the  precious  collections  preserved  in  both  the  Russian 
caj)itals. 


The  War  of  Antichrist  with  the  Church  and  Christian  Civilization.  By 
Monsignor  George  F.  Dillon,  D.D.,  Missionary  Apostolic, 
Sydney.     Dublin  :  M.  H.  Gill  &  Son.     1885. 

THIS  handsomely-printed  volume  consists  of  Lectures  g'iven  in 
Edinburgh  towards  the  close  of  1884,  in  which  Monsignor 
Dillon  exposes  the  designs  of  Freemasonry  and  kindred  secret 
societies,  which  aim,  under  the  cloak  of  humanity  and  philanthropy, 
at  the  destruction  of  Christianity  and  social  order. 

The  progress  of  Atheism  through  Voltaire  ;  its  use  of  Freemasonry 
through  the  "Illuminism"  of  Weishaupt  ;  its  progress  during  the 
first  French  Revolution,  and  under  such  Masonic  leaders  as  Nubius, 
Mazzini,  and  Palmerston  ;  the  use  of  English  and  Scotch  Masonry 
by  the  Stuart  partisans ;  but,  above  all,  the  baleful  influence  of  the 
'' Inner  Circle,"  through  which  all  revolutionary  organizations  are 
controlled,  are  clearly  and  calmly  told,  but  with  an  effect  more 
completely  crushing  than  Ave  remember  to  have  read.  The  cunning- 
abuse  of  national  sentiment,  studiously  designed  to  entrap  priests 
and  people  alike,  and  the  omission  of  Christ  from  Masonic  formu- 
laries, are  profoundly  significant  of  the  methods  of  Atheism  ;  while 
articles  on  Fenianism  and  practical  remarks  on  Catholic  organiza- 
tion bring  the  wide  interest  of  the  book  nearer  home.  The  lecture 
on  the  "  Spoliation  of  the  Propaganda "  .will  be  a  revelation  to 
many,  and  should  provoke  zeal  for  Catholic  interests  Avhich,  in  the 
instance  of  Propaganda,  has  not  hitherto  been  so  successfully  shown 
by  Anglo-Hibernian  as  by  American  Catholicity,  A  veiy  full  table 
of  contents  dispenses  with  the  need  of  an  index. 


LIST  OF  BOOKS  RECEIVED. 


"  The  Synods  in  English."  Being  the  Text  of  the  Four  Synods  of 
Westminster.  Translated  &c.  by  the  Rev.  Robert  E.  Guy,  O.S.B., 
with  a  Preface  by  the  Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Hedley,  O.S.B.  Stratford- 
on-Avon  :  S.  Gregory's  Press. 

"  The  Church  of  the  Apostles."  By  J.  M,  Capes,  M.A.  London  : 
Kegan  Paul,  Trench  &  Co. 


492  List  of  Books  received. 

"  Chapters  in  European  History."  By  William  Samuel  Lilly. 
2  vols.     London  :  Cljapman  &  Hall. 

"  Christianit}',  Science  and  Infidelity."  By  Rev.  W.  Hillier, 
Mus.  Doc.     Second  Edition.     London  :  J.  Nisbet  &  Co. 

"  Theolog:y  of  the  Hebrew  Christians."  By  Frederic  Rendall, 
A.M.     London :  Macmillan  &  Co. 

"  The  First  Century  of  Christianity."  By  Homersham  Cox,  M.A. 
London  :  Long^mans,  Green  &  Co. 

"  The  Pulpit  Orator."  By  Rev.  J.  E.  Zollner.  Translated  and 
adapted  bv  Rev.  Augustine  Wirth,  O.S.B.  Third  Edition.  6  vols. 
New- York  :  Fr.  Pustet  &  Co. 

'*  A  Life  of  Joseph  Hall,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Exeter  and  Norwich." 
By  Rev.  George  Lewis,  B.A.     London  :  Hodder  &  Stoughton. 

"  Quelques  Pensees  sur  I'Education  Morale."  Par  le  Baron  de 
Lenval.     Paris  :  E.  Plon  &  Co. 

"  Memoires  sur  les  regnes  de  Louis  XV  et  Louis  XVI  et  sur  la 
Revolution.  Par  J.  N.  Dufort,  Comte  de  Cheverny.  2  tomes. 
Paris  :  E.  Plon  &  Co. 

"  Flora,  The  Roman  Martyr."    2  vols.     London  :  Burns  &  Gates. 

"  The  Pope :  the  Vicar  of  Christ,  the  Head  of  the  Church."  By 
the  Rt.  Rev.  Monsignor  Capel,  D.D.     New  York :  Fr.  Pustet  &  Co. 

"  Humanities."  By  Thomas  Sinclair,  M.A.  London  :  Trtibner 
<feCo. 

"  Why  I  would  Disestablish  :  a  Representative  Book  by  Repre- 
sentative Men."  Edited  by  Andrew  Reid.  London :  Longmans, 
Green  &  Co. 

"  The  Second  Punic  War."  Being-  Chapters  of  the  History  of 
Rome.  By  the  late  Thomas  Arnold,  D.D.  Edited  by  William 
T.  Arnold,  M.A.     London  :  Macmillan  &  Co. 

"  F.  Boucher."  Par  Andre  Michel.  (Les  Artistes  celebres.^  Paris: 
Libraire  de  FArt,  J.  Rouam. 

"  A  Tale  of  a  Lonely  Parish."  By  F.  Marion  Crawford.  2  vols. 
London :  Macmillan  &  Co. 

''  Mrs.  Peter  Howard."  By  the  Author  of  "  The  Parish  of  Hilby." 
2  vols.     London  :  Smith,  Elder  &  Co. 

''Dagonet  the  Jester."     London  :  Macmillan  &  Co. 

'' Louise  de  Keroualle,  1649-1734."  Par  H.  Forneron.  Paris: 
E.  Plon  &  Co. 

"  Our  Administration  of  India."  By  H.  A.  D.  Phillips.  Bengal 
Civil  Service.     London  :  W.  Thacker  &  Co. 

"  Short  Easy  Mass  in  E  Flat."  Composed  by  J.  Cliffe  Forrester. 
Newbury :  Alphonse  Cary. 

"  The  Official  Baronage  of  England,  1066-1885."  By  James  E. 
Doyle.     London :  Longmans,  Gre^n  &  Co. 

"Tiresias,  and  other  Poems."  By  Alfred,  Lord  Tennyson. 
London  :  Macmillan  &  Co. 

"  The  Choice  of  Books,  and  other  Literary  Pieces."  By  Frederic 
Harrison.     London  :  Macmillan  &  Co. 


INDEX. 


Active  Orders,  The  Patriarch  of  the,  290 
•  Addis,  Rev.  W.  E.,  Notice  by,  462. 
Allen,' Grant,  Babylon,  noticed,  188. 
Almanacs,  Uatholic,  noticed,  238. 
Anselmi,  S.,  Cur  Deus  Homo  ?  noticed,  214. 
Archduchess  Isabel,  The,  2(50. 
Aristotle's  "Politics,"  280;  Jowett's  edition  of^  281;  verbal  criticisms  of, 

282  seq.;  "Scholarship"  of,  289. 
Athos,  Mount,  and  Uussia,  190. 

Bacuez,  L'Abbe,  The  Divine  Office,  noticed,  482. 

Bagehot,  Mr.,  on  Pliilosophy  of  History,  364. 

Bagwell,  R..  Ireland  under  the  Tudors,  noticed,  460. 

Balkans,  The  Slav  States  of  the,  102. 

Baltic  Canal,  The,  414. 

Barry,  Rev.  W.,  D.D.,  The  Story  of  Cowdray,  69. 

Bartholomew,  The  Pope  and  the  Massacre  of  St.,  196, 

Battle  Abbey,  70. 

Bellesheim,  Dr.  A.,  Notices  by,  194,  205,  207,  209,  210,  426,  449,  450. 

Bernard,  St.,  and  the  Second  Crusade,  199. 

Bibles  in  Germany  before  Luther,  195. 

Biblia  Sacra,  Tournay  Edition,  noticed,  209. 

Birth-rate  in  France,  171. 

Black,  William,  White  Heather,  noticed,  184. 

Blot,  Father,  The  Agonizing  Heart,  noticed,  239. 

Erownes,  The,  of  Cowdray,  74,  90. 

Buchanan,  Robert,  The  Master  of  the  Mine,  noticed,  188. 

Buckle's  Philosophy  of  History,  362. 

Buddhism  in  Burma,  314. 

Bulgaria,  Early  History  of,  104;  Present  condition  of,  126. 

Burckhardt,  J.,  La  Civilization  en  Italie,  noticed,  456, 

Burgundy,  The  Chronology  of,  373. 

Burke,  Edmund,  on  Representation,  8  ;  Father  Tom,  Life  of,  noticed,  434. 

Burma,  and  the  Farther  East,  309;  Physical  Geography  of,  311;  Language 
and  Religion  of,  313 ;  Products  of,  316  ;  Superstitions  in,  317 ;  Domestic 
Life  in,  318  ;  History  of,  321;  Pomp  of  Royalty  in,  328;  Commerce  of, 
330  ;  Future  of,  339. 

Caballeko,  Fernon,  427. 

Cabinet,  Sir  Henry  Maine  on  the,  244. 

Canal,  The  Baltic,  414. 

Canons  Regular,  History  of,  299;  Spirit  of,  302. 

VOL.  XV. — NO.  u.     [Third  Series.]  l  l 


494  Index. 

Carlyle's  Theory  of  the  Philosophy  of  History,  360. 

Castile,  A  Corner  of  Old,  432. 

Caspian,  Railway  across  the,  416. 

Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties,  133;  Party,  need  and  nature  of,  140; 

Party  in  France,  143  ;  in  Italy,  147 ;  in  England,  148. 
Catholic  Religious  Instruction,  noticed,  239. 
Charity,  Civil  and  Christian,  429. 
Cholera,  The,  171. 
Christmas  Revels,  noticed,  233. 

Chronology,  Value  of,  in  history,  373  ;  of  Burgundy,  an  example,  ib. 
Church,  The,  and  Liberalism,  58  seq. 
Clericalism  and  Democracy,  250. 

Clerke,  Miss  Agnes  M.,  Popular  History  of  Astronomy,  noticed,  219. 
Miss  E.  M.,  Slav  States  of  the  Balkans,  102  seq. ;   Burma  and  the 

Farther  East,  309. 
Coleridge,  Father,  S.J.,  The  Nine  Months,  noticed,  239 ;   The  Thirty  Years, 

noticed,  460. 
Commercial  Policy  in  the  East,  176. 
Comte's  Philosophy  of  History,  361. 

Congo,  Proposed  Railway  on  the,  412;  U.S.  Report  on,  413. 
Consecration  of  Holy  Oils,  The,  194. 
Constitution,  Decay  of  the  British,  243;  of  the  U.S.  of  America,  246;  the 

British,  how  far  not  decaying,  253 ;  and  in  what  way  decaying,  255. 
Conway,  Hugh,  Slings  and  Arrows,  noticed,  186  ;  A  Family  Affair,  noticed, 

424. 
Coral  Formations,  Antiquity  of,  192. 

Cotel,  Father  P.,  S.J.,  Catechism  of  the  Vows,  noticed,  239. 
Councils,  The  Early,  and  the  Emperors,  428. 
Constant,  Dom,  352. 

Cowdray,  The  Story  of,  69  seq. ;  The  Curse  of,  71,  85. 
Cumberland,  The  State  uf  Catholicism  in,  94. 

De  Broglie,  Abbe,  Histoire  des  Religions,  noticed,  439. 

Decreta  Quatuor  Concil.  Provincial.  Westmonaster.,  noticed,  455. 

De  Foville,  A.,  Le  Morcellemeut,  noticed,  458. 

Deharbe,  Father,  S.J.,  Catechism  of  the  Catholic  Religion,  noticed,  239. 

Delachenal,  R.,  Histoire  des  Avocats  de  Paris,  noticed,  223. 

Delacroix,  Eugene,  noticed,  221. 

Democracy,  Two  Kinds  of,  11  ;  and  Clericalism,  250. 

Devas,  C.  S.,  The  Decay  of  the  British  Constitution,  243  seq. ;   Studies  of 

Family  Life,  noticed,  462. 
Dictionary  of  English  History,  Cassell's,  noticed,  222. 
Dillon,  Mgr.,  War  of  Antichrist  with  the  Church,  noticed,  491. 
Doyle,  Richard,  Journal  kept  by,  noticed,  226. 
Duke's  Marriage,  The,  noticed,  420. 
Dupanloup,  Mgr.,  a  Specimen     Sulpitian,  33;    Interior  life  of,    34;   as  a 

Catechist,  36 ;  Labours  of,  as  a  bishop,  38. 

Eadmeri,  Vita  S.  Anselmi,  «o^iV^</,  214. 

Education,  Overpressure  in,  Huxley  on,  53;  Ruskin  on,  54. 

Egan,  M.  F.,  The  Life  Around  Us,  noticed,  224. 

Encyclical  of  Leo  XIIL,  as  regards  England,  134 ;    as  regards  France,  135  ; 

Analysis  of  the,  on  Constitution  of  a  Christian  State,  136  ;  Text  of  the 

"  Immortale  Dei,"  153. 
English  Catholic  Nonjurors  of  1715,  noticed,  440. 


Index.  495 

FisKE,  J.  M.,  The  Idea  of  God  and  Science,  noticed,  483. 

Fitz-Patrick,  W.  J.,  Life  of  Father  Thomas  Burke,  noticed,  434. 

Fleming,  G.,  Andromeda,  noticed,  184. 

Fourier,   Peter,  Life  of,    290;     Founds  "Active"   Teaching  Order,  293; 

Reforms  the  Canons  Regular,  298;  Virtues  of,  305. 
Franciscans,  The,  in  Bosnia,  115. 
Freeman,  Mr.,  on  the  Unity  of  History,  369. 
French  Ports  in  East  Africa,  New,  ISO. 

Gas,  as  fuel,  40G. 

Gasquet,  Dr.  J.  K.,  Notice  by,  472. 

Geuevay,  A.  Charles  Le  Bran,  noticed,  485. 

Gillow,  Joseph,  Dictionary  of  English  Catholics,  noticed,  445. 

Grange,  Mrs.  A.  M.,  The  Archduchess  Isabel,  260  seq. 

Green  Pleasure  and  Grey  Grief,  noticed,  189. 

Gregory  the  Great's  Sacramentarium,  197. 

Grisar,  H.,  S.J.,  Lainez's  Tridentine  Disputations,  noticed,  450. 

Haggard,  H.  R.,  King  Solomon's  Mines,  noticed,  232. 

Harte,  Bret,  Maruja,  noticed,  187. 

Hare,  Thomas,  on  Proportionate  Representation,  20. 

Hayman,  Dr.  H.,  Jowett's  Politics  of  Aristotle,  280  seq. 

Herat,  Visit  to,  415. 

Herbert,  Lady,  True  Wayside  Tales,  noticed,  234. 

Hereditary  Stature,  404. 

Hime,  M.  C,  A  Schoolmaster's  Retrospect,  noticed,  225. 

History,  Philosophy  of,  359  seq. 

Hodgett,  J.  F.,  The  Champion  of  Odin,  noticed,  231. 

Hodgkin,  T.,  Italy  and  her  Invaders,  noticed,  227. 

HomeRule,  The  Claim  for,  374;   and  "Law,"  380;    and  "Liberty,"  385; 

and  "Loyalty,"  389;    Fancied  danger  of,  292 ;    Probable  consequences 

of,  395;  Financial  Aspect  of,  400. 
Howells,  W.  D.,  The  Rise  of  Silas  Lapham,  noticed,  418. 

Iceland,  Description  of,  427. 

Inamortality,  noticed,  471. 

Industrial  Crisis,  The,  405. 

Ireland  and  Proportionate  Representation,  18. 

Isabel,  The  Archduchess,  Childhood  of,   261;    Mairiage  of,  265;   Goes  to 

Netherlands,  267 ;  Foreign  policy  of,  270 ;    Home  government  of,  274 ; 

Estimate  of,  279. 

Jamatkl,  M.,  La  Chine  Inconnue,  noticed,  221. 

James,  H.,  The  Bostonians,  noticed,  421. 

Jowett's  Politics  of  Aristotle,  Dr.  Hayman  on,  280. 

Jungmann,  B.,  Dissertationes  in  Historiam  Ecclesiasticam,  noticed,  207. 

Kaparistan,  179. 

Kervin  de  Lettenhove,  Baron,  Les  Huguenots  et  les  Gueux,  noticed,  452. 
Kilima  Njaro,  Exploration  of,  407. 
KoUonitsch,  Cardinal,  427. 

Lagrange,  F.,  Life  of  Mgr.  Dupanloup,  33. 

Leander,  R.,  Dreams  by  a  French  Fireside,  noticed,  233. 


496  Index. 

Leo  XIII.,  Letters  of,  353,  169. 

Leon,  Father,  Lives  of  Franciscan  Sainls,  noticed,  239. 

Leroy-Beaulieu,  A.,  Les  Calholiqucs  Liberaux,  noticed,  230. 

Letters  of  the  Popes,  340  ;  Value  of  the,  347;  Some  to  England,  356  ;  in  the 

British  Museum,  357. 
Liberals,  Can  Catholics  be  ?  60 ;   Gregory  XVI.  and  Pius  IX.  on,  61 ;  Two 

kinds  of,  67. 
"Liberty  of  the  Press,"  The  Pope  on,  61. 
Life  of  a  Prig,  noticed,  215. 
Little  Dick's  Christmas  Carols,  noticed,  233. 
Liturgy,  The  Ancient  Gallican,  426. 
Lyall,  Dean,  Propsedia  Prophetica,  noticed,  462. 

Macquoid,  K.  S.,  At  the  Eed  Glove,  noticed,  417. 

Maine,  Sir  Henry,  Popular  Government,  244  seg. ;    Mr.  J.  Morley  on,  248. 

Mandalay,  324  seq'. 

Manual  of  Indulgences,  The,  noticed,  239. 

Martineau,  Dr.  James,  Types  of  Ethical  Theory,  noticed,  Al'i. 

Maskell,  A.,  Russian  Art  and  Art  Objects,  noticed,  4S7. 

Matthew,  Gospel  of  St.,  People's  Edition,  noticed,  210. 

Merv,  New,  416. 

Methods  of  Historical  Inquiry,  359  seq. 

Meyer,  T.,  S.J.,  Disputationes  Juris  Naturalis,  noticed,  449. 

Mill,  John,  on  Representation,  14. 

Miller,  E.  A.,  Guide  to  Textual  Criticism  of  N.T.,  noticed,  235. 

Monsabrd,  Pere,  Meditations  on  the  Rosary,  noticed,  239. 

Moves,  Rev.  J.,  The  Claim  for  Home  Rule,  374  seg. 

Murray,  D.  C,  Rainbow  Gold,  noticed,  ISl ;  Aunt  Rachel,  noticed,  425. 

Murphy,  Count  N.,  The  Chair  of  I'eter,  noticed,  2GS. 

Nero,  a  Persecutor,  197. 

Nerves,  The,  and  Overpressure,  40 ;  Construction  of,  43 ;  Effect  of  intem- 
perance on,  45  ;  School  pressure  and,  47 ;  Competitive  examinations  and, 
49;  Medical  testimony  to  effects  of  overpressure  on,  51. 

Newport  and  Menevia,  The  Bishop  of,  Catholic  Union  and  Catholic  Parties, 
133  ;  Letters  of  the  Popes,  340. 

Norris,  W.  E.,  Adrian  Vidal,  noticed,  187. 

Novels,  Notes  on,  181,  417. 

O'Brien,  R.  Barry,  Fifty  Years  of  Concession  to  Ireland,  noticed,  211. 
Olier,  M.,  Method  of  Educating  the  Clergy,  26. 
O'Meara,  Kathleen,  Queen  by  Right  Divine,  noticed,  237. 
Orelli,  C.  von,  Old  Testament  Prophecy,  noticed,  462. 
O'Shea,  Rev.  J.  A.,  Life  of  Luke  Wadding,  noticed,  215. 

Pailleb,  Abbe  J.,  Aux  Pieds  du  S.  Sacreraent,  noticed,  239. 

Palmer,  W.,  Early  Christian  Symbolism,  noticed,  481. 

Pasteur  and  Hydrophobia,  172. 

Patriarch  of  Active  Orders,  The,  290  seq. 

Periodicals,  Notices  of  Catholic  Continental :  French,  197,  4-32  ;  German,  194, 

426;  Italian,  190,  429.  , 
Perkins,  C,  Ghiberti  et  son  Ecole,  noticed,  485. 
Persian  Border,  Exploration  of  the,  414. 


Index.  497 

Peter,  St.,  at  Rome,  432  ;  Baur's  "  Legend  "  of,  433. 

Petroleum  in  India,  415. 

Philip  II.,  Character  of  Letters  of,  to  his  daughters,  262. 

Pitra,  Dom,  340;  discovers   metrical  lavs  of  Greek  Hymns,  3i2;  his   Ana- 

lecta  Novissima,  315. 
Prjevalsky's  Explorations  in  Tibet,  409. 
Proportionate  Representation,  1  seq. 
Proprium  Officiorum  pro  Anglia,  Tournay  Edition,  noticed,  210. 

Rainfall,  British,  400. 

Randolph,  Rev.  W.,  The  Minor  Prophets,  noticed,  462. 

Regestum  dementis  Papse  V.,  noticed,  205. 

Religion  in  the  North,  91  se^r. 

Richards,  Right  Rev.  J.  D.,  Aletheia,  noticed,  214. 

Robinson,  F.  VV.,  A  Pair  Maid,  noticed,  419. 

Rousseau,  J.,  Hans  Holbein,  noticed,  4S5. 

Russell,  W.  Clark,  A  Strange  Voyage,  noticed,  185. 

Russia,  and  Mount  Athos,  190  j  Prospects  of,  in  the  East,  430. 

"Sacrilege,  Pate  of,"  at  Cowdray,  S5. 

Saidam,  Western,  411. 

Salford,  Bishop  of.  Manual  of  Catholic  Politics,  noticed,  479. 

Salisbury,  Lady,  A  Prisoner  at  Cowdray,  73. 

Scannell,  Rev.  T.  B.,  Notice  by,  447. 

Schmoger,  Father,  Life  of  Anne  Catherine  Emmerich,  noticed,  478. 

Schneeman,  The  late  Father,  428. 

Science  Notices,  171,  404. 

Sebastian,  Father,  Manual  of  the  Seven  Dolours,  noticed,  460. 

Sepp,  Dr.  B.,  Der  Riicklass  der  Schottenkonigen  Maria  Stuart,  noticed,  218. 

Serb  and  Serbia,  121. 

Shan  States,  The,  337. 

Short  Readings  for  Catholic  Readers,  noticed,  240. 

Sibbald,  Andrew  T.,  Nerves  and  Overpressure,  40. 

Sinnett,  A.  P.,  Kunna,  noticed,  182. 

Slav   States  of    the  Balkans,  The,   102 ;  Rise  of,  under  G.  Petrovich,  103  ; 

Christianity  in,  112. 
Snow  and  Weather  Forecasts,  400. 
Somali  Land,  Journey  in,  174. 

Soulier,  Rev.  P.,  Life  of  St.  Philip  Beuizi,  7ioticed,  239. 
South  Africa,  New  State  in.  411. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  Ecclesiastical  Institutions,  noticed,  200. 
State,  Constitution  of  the,  133,  136. 
Stevenson,  J.  S.  J.,  The  Truth  about  John  Wycliff,  noticed,  447. 

R.  L.,  Strange  Case  of  Jekyll  and  Hyde,  noticed,  422. 

Stewart,  Agnes  M.,  Life  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  noticed,  217. 
Story,  W.  W.,  Fiamtnetta,  noticed,  423. 

of  Catherine,  noticed,  424. 

Stowe  Missal,  The,  428. 

Sulpice,  St.,  M.  Ulier  there,  26  ;  Mgr.  Dupanloup  and,  33. 

Sun,  The,  404. 

Telpherage,  173. 

Thackeray,  Miss,  Mrs.  Dymond,  noticed,  190. 
Thijm,  Dr.  Paul  Albeidinck,  Notice  by,  452. 
Thompson,  E.  Healy,  Life  of  M.  Olier^  26.  .       , 

Tibet,  Explorations  in,  409. 


498  Index. 

Tolstoi,  Leon,  What  I  Believe,  noticed,  234. 
Trade  in  Somali  Land,  175  ;  in  Russian  Turkestan,  177. 
Travel  and  Exploration,  Notes  of,  174,  407. 

Treacy,  J.  J.,  Tributes  of  Protestant  Writers  to  the  Beauty  of  Catholicity, 
noticed,  484. 

Vatjghan,  B,ev.  John  S.,  Olier  and  Dupanloup,  22  seq. 
Vere,  Aubrey  de.  Proportionate  Uepresentation,  1. 
Vigilius,  Pope,  Dom  Coustaut  on,  354. 


Wandekek,  The,  noticed,  233. 

Weather  Cycles,  173. 

Wegg-Prosser,  F.  E,.,  The  Church  and  Liberalism,  58. 

Westmoreland,  Catholicism  in,  92. 

Worsley,  Henry,  Methods  of  Historical  Inquiry,  359. 

Wycliff,  John,  447. 


Ykiaete,  Charles,  J.  F.  Millet,  noticed,  485. 


END   OF    VOL.    XV. 


PRINTED  BV  BALLANTVNK,    HANSON   AND  CO. 
IjONSON  and  EDINBURGH 


\ 


Does  Not  Circulate 


AP   4    .D8  sue 


The  Dubl in  review 
AIP-2395  (awab) 


Dl.  15