Somers as a man who possessed all excellent qualifications except virtue.'

Mr. Macaulay, accordingly, in order "to come to a just judgment," adopts all that Addison* says, and rejects all that Swift says. His "character" of Somers is simply an elaborate eulogy, with the following mild description of his sensualism brought in at the end: "There is reason to believe that there was a small nucleus of truth round which this great mass of fiction gathered; and that the wisdom and self-command which Somers never wanted in the senate, on the judgment-seat, at the council-board, or in the society of wits, scholars, and philosophers, were not always proof against female attractions.'

On this we can only ask, What if Marlborough's private life had been like that of Somers? What an outburst of offended purity would have escaped our moralist! Instead of this, Mr. Macaulay throws overboard the wide-spread stories and lampoons of the day, which would have been enough to convict a Marlborough of outrageous libertinism; and we have this shameless twaddle about not being "always proof against female attractions."+

We have had so much of our author's ingenuity in darkening, that we must note another specimen of his exaggerations in the rose-colouring way. It is one which would probably escape most readers' notice, and it might be called trifling; but it serves, as one of a numerous class, to show exactly the kind of untrustworthiness of which Mr. Macaulay is guilty, even when he is neither abusing the Duke of Marlborough, the Jesuits, or the Anglican clergy. In the middle of this same eulogy on Lord Keeper Somers, we find the simple fact, that this nobleman gave Vertue the engraver a commission to engrave Tillotson's portrait magnified into,-"Vertue, a strict Roman Catholic, was raised by the discriminating and liberal

* Addison's formal opinion of Somers is expressed in a flaming panegyric in the Freeholder, to which Mr. Macaulay does not refer, possibly because its vague generalities would awake a suspicion of its sincerity.

We may notice, that in referring to the authority for Somers' character, which he really adopts, viz. Addison, he colours Somers' conduct towards Addison in his usual fashion. "By Somers, Addison was drawn forth from a cell in a college." This is his way of putting the fact, that Addison wrote a poem in praise of King William, with introductory verses addressed to Somers, to whom the poem was presented, and who, on receiving the poem (according to Tickell), desired his acquaintance. Addison was already practising as a courtier, and had got a hearty aristocratic "patron" in Montague, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. When estimating Addison himself as an authority, we cannot help quoting, as peculiarly applicable, a sentence in Johnson's Life: "In this poem (4 Character of the English Poets) is a very confident and discriminative character of Spenser, whose work he had then never read. So little, sometimes," continues Johnson, with an eye to unborn Macaulays, "is criticism the effect of judgment."

obscurity to the first This veritable Macau

patronage of Somers from poverty and rank among the engravers of the age." layism is pure fudge. When Somers gave him the commission referred to, Vertue was already much employed as an engraver through the patronage of Sir Godfrey Kneller, and his merits were so great, that he was rising inevitably to fame; but Somers was a Williamite Whig, and so he could not engage Vertue to engrave a print without taking rank with Mæcenas and Leo the Tenth, a rank to which, in Vertue's regard, he had not the smallest title; for among all the eminent "patrons" who afterwards aided Vertue in his great historical-portrait engravings the name of Somers is not found. Mr. Macaulay puffs Somers; we shall end our present remarks by commending to his notice what Walpole says of Vertue's character and habits. Vertue," he tells us, was incommode: he loved truth." And, again: "He was simple, modest, and scrupulous. He never uttered his opinion hastily, nor hastily assented to that of others." And once more: "One satisfaction the reader will have in the integrity of Mr. Vertue: it exceeded his industry, which is saying much. No man living, so bigoted to a vocation, was ever so incapable of falsehood. He did not deal in hypothesis, scarce in conjecture."

66

66

If we had to sum up the characteristics of our "historian," we think we should content ourselves with the above record of Vertue's merits, and inserting a negative before every one of them, append them to the portrait of Thomas Babington Macaulay.

Short Notices.

THEOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY, &c.

Sunday Evenings at Home. Lectures on Religious Truths; from Advent to Easter. By the Rev. W. J. Alban Sheehy, M.A.A. First Series. (Dublin, Duffy.) We have often wanted to see a volume like this of Mr. Sheehy's, containing the sort of doctrinal, spiritual, and scriptural information which we are too apt to fancy comes to young and uneducated Catholics by a sort of inspiration. Mr. Sheehy has accomplished this first section of his task in a way that we think will be very acceptable to the class of readers for whom he writes. We should add, that his volume is excellently suited for lending-libraries. We shall hope before long to see a second instalment of the whole work.

Manual of the Third Order of St. Francis. (Burns and Lambert.) A useful and complete manual for the Franciscan Tertiaries, and in

teresting besides to all who wish to see the working of Catholicism in those minor details which are less palpable to general observation. The advertisement implies that it is translated from continental writers; which we should have inferred from the peculiar manner in which certain amusements are spoken of at pp. 53, 54—a manner which is too vague for practical guidance in this country, and yet employs phrases tending to create morbid scrupulosity.

The Spiritual Doctrine of F. Louis Lallemant, S.J. Edited by F. W. Faber, D.D. (Burns and Lambert.) This is a work of great value, and belongs to a class of which we have few translated specimens in our language, and still fewer originals. Simple as are its form and diction, they are the vehicle for the deepest spirituality. Like all works eminent in this respect, its basis is a profound theology; without which foundation, it is almost a truism to say, books professing to treat of the spiritual life are apt to run into the turgid, sentimental, or commonplace, even where not guilty of exaggeration, deficiency, or error. St. Philip Neri's advice is well known: "Read the books whose authors' names begin with S." Now, though Father Lallemant is not a canonised saint, a glance at the short Life which is prefixed to the volume will show that he was a very saintly man; and his work, while composed with scientific precision, and therefore a sort of compendious treatise on the principles and order of the spiritual life, is remarkable for sweetness and unction. Indeed, the volume may profitably be used, as we have no doubt it will be used by many, as a book of meditation: e. g. we know of no work in English which contains so much in a concise and solid form on the subject of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the mysteries of the Incarnation, the properties of the Sacred Humanity, the different states of life of the God-Man, and the wonders of the Holy Eucharist. The translation is carefully and correctly done, and renders the original into readable and idiomatic English.

MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE.

The Catholic Church before and after Conversion. A Lecture; by F. Oakeley. (London, Burns and Lambert.) We hardly know whether to place our notice of this clever and instructive lecture under the head

66

ing of Theology" or "Miscellaneous Literature." The subject indi

cates the former; the treatment the latter. At any rate, it is one of the best things of Mr. Oakeley's that we have read; and is as amusing as it is full of thought.

99 66

A Special Report of the Trial of the Rev. Vladimir Petcherine. Edited by James Doyle, Esq. (Dublin, Duffy.) Notwithstanding the high. reputation of Mr. O'Hagan, to whom was intrusted the chief conduct of the defence of F. Petcherine, we confess that when we saw his speech puffed in the newspapers as "great speech," splendid speech," &c., we expected a grand outburst of clap-trap and rubbish. Our expectations were most agreeably disappointed. It is an unusually excellent specimen of legal advocacy and rhetorical power, and bears all that impress of sincerity and genuineness which have contributed so largely to Mr. O'Hagan's reputation. It well deserved to be reprinted, as the chief attraction in Mr. Doyle's report of the trial.

A Lady's Second Journey round the World, from London to the Cape of Good Hope, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Celebes, Ceram, &c. By Ida Pfeiffer. 2 vols. (London, Longmans.) Madame Pfeiffer is a wonderful woman. With no object but the collection of a few butterflies and fishes, the enjoyment of a change of scenery, and the collection of some rather superficial observations on the manners and customs of people of whose language she does not understand a word, she will make solitary journeys among cannibal Battakers, head-hunting Dyacks, and Alforas, through tropical forests and marshes, and over the most heart-breaking lung-bursting mountains. It is the pluck and strength of the woman, rather than her powers of observation and description, that render her books so popular. Her example shows that, in journeys for scientific purposes among savage tribes, a woman may travel with much more security than a man: and we beg to hint to some of our blooming sisters of the United States, that by following Madame Ida Pfeiffer they may establish their claims to equality of strength much better than by the adoption of short petticoats, long trousers, and transcendental theories on the rights of woman.

The Wanderer in Arabia, or Western Footsteps in Eastern Tracks. By G. T. Lowth. 2 vols. (London, Hurst and Blackett.) This wanderer goes over the usual road-the Nile, the desert, and Jerusalem; the only novelty is, that his wife accompanies him, and that he dwells on the small deeds and sayings of the "Sitt" (as the Arabs taught him to call her) in a very gallant and uxorious manner. There is, we are sorry to say, nothing new in the Englishman's religious observations. At the Monastery of St. Catherine, on Mount Sina, he observes that the church was all lamps and pictures and decoration, while the mosque consisted of "bare white walls and a matted floor-nothing there butAllah"! Allah being a kind of gloomy Calvinistic spirit, delighting in reprobation and whitewash, and carefully absenting himself from all places where there are lamps, pictures, and decorations." At Jerusalem our pilgrim believes every thing in general and nothing in particular. All traditions that are precise are doubtful; there must be indefiniteness, smoke, mist, gloom, &c., before the British imagination can be kindled; truth must be clothed in the garments of falsehood before the Englishman will acknowledge it to be true. The subjects of the illustrations are chosen for their easiness, without any consideration for their interest. They are entirely worthless.

Rachel Gray, a Tale, founded on fact. By Julia Kavanagh. (London, Hurst and Blackett.) A story of humble life, without any lovemaking, but turning simply on paternal and filial affection and piety. It is simply and touchingly told, and is in every way commendable. It advocates and insinuates true religious sentiments without a shadow of controversy, and without admitting any thing that can offend the most sensitive of those who differ from the authoress.

A new History of England, Civil, Political, and Ecclesiastical. By G. S. Poulton. (London, W. Freeman.) This is really a new history; history so transfigured and falsified, that not a single actor would recognise his own act. It is a bulky octavo of near 800 pages, intended to hit Popery through the ribs of English history, and to be a regular exposé of how "the Church of Rome, with its increasing wealth-its absurd and childish ceremonies-its numerous orders of covetous priests-its mocking fasts, worldly festivals, and profane holidays-its ecclesiastical wars and theological differences-its corrupt doctrines, impious decrees,

trumpery relics, and incredible fables-its avaricious and depraved members with its black deeds, cunning artifices, and daring atrocities,very soon became not only unlike, but in every way opposed to, the Church of Christ." Mr. Poulton has succeeded in murdering the history; but his malice is greater than his wit, and the blow certainly has stopped there, and has not passed on to Popery. The book is a favourable specimen of the intensity and profligacy of English bigotry.

In a late review of Lord Brougham's Analytical View of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia, the Athenæum, after asking "whether the books of Copernicus and Galileo have been removed from the Index? and if so, when?" makes the following remarks on the case, which utterly relinquish the old Protestant ground, on which so many unsubstantial arguments against the infallibility of the Church have been erected:

"That the sentence upon Galileo has never been reversed, we have no doubt; nor that the declaration of falsehood and heresy in the earth's motion has been allowed to stand. And for these reasons: Galileo, whatever his philosophical merits might be, was acting heretically, according to the maxims of the Roman Church, in persisting publicly to interpret the Scriptures in a Copernican sense, or in any sense; and the declaration of the Inquisition needed no reversal, for it never was, and never could be, considered, upon the maxims of the same Church, as binding on the conscience of any one, except the person on his trial, after his abjuration. Fromond and Riccioli, the two strongest antiCopernican Roman Catholic writers of the seventeenth century, both distinctly declare that the Inquisition has no authority in a matter of faith; and both distinctly pronounce that it is necessary the Pope himself should decide the point. That no Pope ever did interfere, that the Church permitted the apparent settlement of the question, and consented by inaction to the presumptuous declaration of its local judicature, is the real scandal; and it will be a scandal to the end of time."

In the preceding paragraph the reviewer owns that the Roman Index was only of local authority, not binding, for instance, in Spain, nor universally on all spiritual subjects of the Pope.

This, we conceive, gives up the whole Protestant ground of controversy. Hitherto they have cast in our teeth the pretended fact that our would-be infallible Pope has interfered with science, has condemned as untrue a doctrine since demonstrated to be true, and has been egregiously deceived, either in making a wrong definition of a doctrine which he had a right to define, or in mistaking the limits of his authority, and pretending to define a matter which he had no right to speak about. Now the quarrel takes a different turn-now" the real scandal is, that no Pope ever did interfere;" that the prohibition was only local and temporary, based not on the absolute truth of the doctrine, but on the effect it was likely to have on men's minds; imposed not by the Pope, or other infallible organ of the infallible Church, but by the "local judicature;" and never formally reversed, because, like all temporary expedients, it had died out, and become practically null and void, and therefore needed no solemn extinguishing.

When Dr. Cumming, on one side, maintains that the scandal is that the Pope did interfere, and the Athenæum, on the other, that he did not interfere, our best way is to withdraw from the arena, and to leave the combatants to inflict what punishment they choose on each other's eyes and noses.