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that they might, according to time and place, have been applied to various purposes, the above included. It may well be deducible from their general character of reductions or colonies, also from special examples, that the united Nuraghi of each territory might be available for all the several uses to which edifices could be applied in a society fairly civilized, and might often combine them all, particularly as society in those remote times would have retained in its customs something of the patriarchal character. Although they are generally built with a manifest view to the exclusion of intruders, and therefore for incidental refuge and defence, nevertheless he gives cogent reasons for believing that they were not designed, nor indeed well calculated, for the resistance of foreign invasion by a powerful force; nor were they, apparently, ever used for that end, as when the Sardinians had to contend for their national independence, it was to their natural fortresses, their own mountain fastnesses, that they betook themselves, together with their flocks and herds.

The writer has promised another article, with further statements and elucidations of his views as to the origin and uses of the Nuraghi.

15 Maggio, 1886.

Prospects of the Italian Kingdom.-Bonghi, in his paper, the Nuova Antologia, has been indulging, with a view to the coming elections, in one of his usual jeremiads over the past, present, and future fortunes of the political parties, and, consequently, of those institutions which, for men of his sort, constitute the whole of the Italy of to-day. He is convinced that, if all who are possessed of sense, judgment, liberality, and moderation, and who have engaged in public life, not for personal gain, but for a high national end, do not at the present crisis unite in one party who will thus form a government morally, intellectually, and materially strong, "we," he says, "shall have had at once the glory and the shame of having made and unmade Italy within a brief span of time." But is it conceivable, under present circumstances, that a party such as Bonghi has idealized, should issue from the electoral urns? Depretis, now discarded and condemned, was perhaps the only man capable-and that purely by dint of artifices and self-contradictions-to manufacture a working majority out of the discordant materials at his disposal. He has relied mainly, it would appear, upon the help of a fiction called transformation, a political recipe for getting on somehow, which consists in the Government pretending to favour the Left, from whom the Ministry were understood to be drawn, and who have had a majority in the Chamber, while in fact conforming its ideas to the Right. The Progressist party were to have the government in their hands, but to be content to be swayed by the notions of the minority, and the Right were to be content with exercising this influence without aspiring to rule. This could not last, and the result has been that Depretis is now denounced by his

Masonic brethren as a traitor, who instead of labouring, as he was bound, to demolish the throne and the altar, has been all along their disguised supporter and defender. The prospects are certainly very discouraging for legal Italy. Excluding, as we well may, the formation of a national party, as desiderated by Bonghi, Depretis being set aside, it is difficult to see how any one can replace the latter, to serve like him as a lightning-conductor for the protection of revolutionary Italy, or can offer any similar guarantee for its continued toleration on the part of the two great central European empires. The programme initiated by the Piedmontese Cavour seems about to have its collapse in the Piedmontese Depretis. It is a bad look-out for the Quirinal.

Since the above was written the Italian elections have resulted in a triumph for the Depretis Cabinet. The Ministry have conquered for the present, but their majority is composed of the most discordant elements; so that the difficulties which beset them are greater than ever. "All things considered," says the Eco d'Italia, it seems to us that Depretis, in spite of his unquestionable victory, is in a worse position than he was before."

We can specially recommend to notice an article in the number of May 15, entitled "Young Italy and the Old Papacy," in which the decrepitude of the former, by the confession even of its own leading journals, and the glorious vitality and indefatigable vigour of the latter are forcibly contrasted. Also two articles on Socialism in Italy, where it is making alarming progress. In the first of these articles, which appeared on April 17, the evil itself is strikingly set forth. In the second, which appeared on May 1, the remedy is prescribed, which may be summed up in the Holy Father's recent declaration. Let society be maintained Christian or re-Christianized, and the dreaded evil will disappear. This is the remedy; there is no other.

FRENCH PERIODICALS.

Revue des Questions Historiques. Avril, 1886. Paris.

The Authenticity of the Pentateuch.-M. F. Vigouroux, the well-known professor at Saint Sulpice, opens this number of the Revue with an article entitled " Étude Critique sur l'authenticité du Péntateuque, d'apres l'examen intrinséque de son contenu." The word "intrinséque" indicates the character of the article; it is the writer's own study of the sacred text itself, and not a study or criticism of the criticisms of others. He has never himself, he says, doubted the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch, but having read many proofs in various treatises, he wished to work out for himself a conviction on the point, and, as far as could be, an independent one. Treatises were left aside; the text was read and re-read, "thus to learn the secret of the Pentateuch from itself." We need not add

that an independent examination of the indications given by the sacred text as to its authorship, coming from so accomplished a scholar as the Abbé Vigouroux, is very interesting. Each age has its own special ways and manners; and no work, he contends, can escape bearing the mark of the age in which it was written, whether the writer was conscious or unconscious of such result-even malgré lui. But the age of Moses can be distinctly characterized; it is one of those well-marked periods-crises-in history that are highly distinguished from other periods. The Pentateuch is an œuvre de circonstance, and can be sufficiently characterized as belonging to the time of Moses. Thus far does the writer get in the present article, occupying some sixty pages: "De ce que nous avons déjà dit, nous sommes du moins en droit de conclure que l'ensemble des recits du Péntateuque convient parfaitement à l'epoque de Moïse, et ne peut convenir aussi bien à aucune autre époque de l'histoire d'Israel." It need scarcely be said that no idea could be given within these very brief limits of the minute examination of portion after portion of the text in pursuance of this proof. The author having promised to pursue his theme, ends with some severe remarks on modern critics of Germany and France who adopt rationalist views on the Pentateuch with a false air of independence-accepting them all the while without discussion. Speaking of his own country, he says there is less independent study than in Germany. "In France the Bible is scarcely read; the greater part of the incrédules who hold that Moses did not compose the five first books of Scripture do not know the reasons for their opinion, and simply rest upon the authority of German critics whose names they only just know, and of whose works they have not read a word!"

The Elements of Pontifical Diplomatics.-This is the title of the next article, which is from the pen of le Comte de Mas Latrie, of the Institute, and it will be of concern and value to the growing number of students in the original records of Church history. The science of diplomatics generally-the science, that is, of reading, classifying, testing, &c., original diplomas and documents-has advanced of late years, and pontifical diplomatics has particularly developed and grown in precision, whilst the opening of the Vatican archives has lent still fresh impetus to the historical movement of which it is so important an instrument. Here the reader will find, after a passing reference to what has lately been done by students in the Vatican archives, the history and description of the various kinds of documents which furnish matter for the history of the Popes and their acts, and a general idea of the rules and methods followed at various periods in the construction and naming of these documents. Diplomatics has been said to be the better half of the criticism of texts, and readers of the article will soon see illustration of how much these technical matters have to do with the value of a parchment or a letter. The author divides the history of papal documents into three epochs: the first from early times to the eighth century and the changes made by Adrian L.; the second, the period of the

Middle Ages, is "the epoch of Bulls," and ends with the introduction of briefs under Eugene IV. in the middie of the fifteenth century; and the third period embraces modern times. To each of these belong documents well marked from those of the other epochs, not only by name, but still more by manner of writing, style, method of being dated, signed, and promulgated. There is much in the writer's treatment of each of these three divisions which would be of interest to others besides the technical student, but it would be impossible to repeat them here. There is quite a history of the names of pontifical documents. Thus a Letter, Epistle, Authority, Precept, Decree, Decretal, Rescript belong to or began in the first period; Briefs and Motu Proprios belong to the third. Under his second division the author treats at great length of Bulls. The Benedictine editors of the Nouveau Traité Diplomatique divided the Bulls of the Middle Ages into two classes-the greater, or Solemn Bulls, and the less (Grandes ou Solennelles et Petites Bulles). M. Delisle, in his "Memoires on the Acts of Innocent III.," did not consider the distinction worth anything; and, as the writer says, a naturellement fait école," Cardinal Pitra having become to some extent a follower. The Count Mas Latrie goes back to the Benedictine division and defends it. He gives the characteristics of the Solemn Bulls (p. 434). Bulls were generally sealed with lead, but occasionally with precious metals, to mark some memorable event, and Leo X. appended a seal of gold to the Bull in which Henry VIII. of England was declared Defender of the Faith!

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Authenticity of Papal Briefs.-One other sentence from the Count Mas Latrie's article may be interesting. Treating of " Briefs," he defines a Brief to be " a letter or apostolic ordinance sealed with red wax and the ring of the fisherman, in addressing which the Sovereign Pontiff takes the title of Papa instead of Servant of the Servants of God, noting also his own number in the list of Popes of his name." Generally Briefs were very short, at least the more ancient; but the Benedictines have justly observed that this "briefness" of composition is not the mark of a Brief, but rather the simplification or abbreviation of the process of its being expedited. The passage of a Bull through the four bureaux took time; a special office was created for the expedition of Briefs under a Secretary of Briefs.. An advantage; yet it became infinitely easier for an unscrupulous official to send to its destination a false Brief than to pass a fraudulent Bull through its preliminary authentications! And we read that one Bartholomew Florido, Secretary of Briefs under Alexander VI., was degraded and condemned to death, the Pope commuting the sentence to imprisonment for life; while a certain Mascanbrun, "sous-dataire" under Innocent X., having been convicted of sending off a large number of forged Briefs, was beheaded. How many forged or tampered Briefs, one wonders, were sent off by others who were never detected!

Among the articles in the same number are-one by M. Paul Fournier, "Le Royaume d'Arles et de Vienne," sketching its relations

with the Empire from the death of Frederic II. to the death of Rudolf of Hapsburg (1250-1291); and another by M. Léon Lecestre on "Marie Antoinette's attempts to escape from the Temple and the Conciergerie."

Notices of Books.

Chapters in European History. By WILLIAM SAMUEL LILLY. Two Vols. London: Chapman & Hall. 1886.

THE

HESE two volumes have been so widely noticed and so highly praised by the general press of the country, that we need add nothing to show that they are both brilliant and profound. Mr. Lilly not only writes clearly, forming his sentences perfectly and choosing his words with very great felicity; but he has the faculty of saying what people will listen to. This is a gift quite distinct from that of making correct sentences. Mr. Lilly is eloquent, profound, philosophical, analytic, and many more things; but he is able to put his foot down every minute or two with an audible tread on good solid earth; and the reader feels very grateful to him. No doubt, he has one or two qualifications which make it easy for him to be interesting. He has read a great deal, and he seems to remember and to be able to reproduce all that he has read just at the very moment when it is wanted. His power of apt quotation is really marvellous-of quotation which is neither hackneyed nor too recondite, but just sufficiently new to cause a pleasant shock of surprise, and nearly always justifying itself by the new light which it brings along with it.

We consider these pages as one of the best fragments of Christian "apology" in the English language. Indeed, it would not be easy to find in any other language an argument so thoroughly honest, so firmly founded on facts, and so admirably expressed. A short account of the work will suffice to give the grounds of this judg

ment.

It consists of three well-defined divisions-although the various chapters which make it up have all (even the introductory dialogue) done duty in a previous state of existence as magazine articles: first, Christianity; secondly, the Renaissance; and thirdly, the French Revolution. But the spirit, the soul, of the book is one and one only; it is the demonstration that a belief in God and in Christ is absolutely necessary for society, under penalty of death and putrefaction. The theme seems trite; but in Mr. Lilly's hands it is fresh and fascinating. The preliminary dialogue introduces three speakers-Grimston, Temperley, and Luxmoore; the latter being the writer himself. It is devoted to a demolition of Goethe's cynical and unworthy view, that to a thinker the history of the world is

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