not of Orsi but of a nameless friend." Well, we did not happen to name him; but Orsi does. It is much to be regretted, indeed, that Mr. Ffoulkes had not access to Orsi's work; for he would have seen that this friend was no other than the learned Mamachius, about as good a judge on such a matter as can well be named. Mamachius declares it to be a matter "mihi certè exploratum et cognitum," that there were five originals in his time, all containing the words "quemadmodum etiam." And at last, after all his criticism and suspicions, Mr. Ffoulkes, at the end of his article, is obliged to admit, that he has himself just found an original in the British Museum; and that there, in black and white, are the very words in dispute. The question, then, we suppose, is at last settled. Every theological student, except Mr. Ffoulkes and the Union reviewer, will be unfeignedly surprised that it can ever have been raised.

We cannot gravely continue so puerile a controversy. If Mr. Ffoulkes brings forward hereafter any new point worthy of attention, we will not fail to notice it. But if he produces another paper like the present, we must leave him in full possession of the last word.

A Treatise on Auricular Confession, Dogmatical, Historical, and Practical. By Rev. RAPHAEL MELIA, D.D. Dublin: Duffy.

TH

HIS little work consists of two parts: the first mainly historical, the second dogmatical and practical. We cannot praise the latter too unreservedly. Dr. Melia has taken great pains, and with proportionate success, to place clearly and fully before his readers, the Church's teaching on this most momentous subject. We will give two extracts on matters of vital importance :-

"A person addicted to shameful sins, casting his eyes down upon hell, terrified at such a sight, tremblingly says, 'I do not want to go to hell; I am sorry for my sins.' But at the same time he does not hate his sinful pleasures as the cause of offending a Just God, who condemns to hell: nay, he would wish that there would be no hell, in order to enjoy more freely the gratification of the flesh. This poor sinner cannot be pardoned by God" (pp. 181, 2).

"Sorrow, moreover, must be supreme-that is, above all other grief: so that we have to detest, abhor, and hate sin beyond every other evil, and prefer to undergo any other evil than this one . . . so that we be heartily ready to sacrifice everything on earth, rather than offend God [mortally], and be disposed to endure any temporal evil and suffer every kind of affliction, rather than commit one mortal sin" (pp. 198, 200).

The first part of the work contains many most interesting facts; but we confess that, as a whole, we find it less satisfactory than the second.

This notice was written for our last number; but by an unfortunate inadvertence did not appear.

Latin Acts can be trusted for every individual fact they mention. Orsi's friend says, "plurane fuerint subsignata necne, non equidem laboro."

Notes on Doctrinal and Spiritual Subjects. By the late FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER, D.D., Priest of the Oratory of S. Philip Neri. Vol. 1, Mysteries and Festivals. London: Richardson & Son.

WE

1866.

E are indebted to the Fathers of the London Oratory for these memorials of their late and first Provost ; whose labours in our Lord's vineyard are now so well and so widely made manifest in the fruits of benediction which they have brought to so many souls; but whose singleness of purpose, unwearied zeal, and generous forbearance, are best known to those who were most in his confidence. Those who knew him in life, and who heard him preach, will be glad to possess the fragments which remain to us of those sermons, the charm and power of which were so irresistible. The "Notes,” we are told by F. Bowden their patient and laborious editor, "in their present form were not meant to be made public;" because, as it seems, they are neither more nor less than the notes which F. Faber provided himself with, either for the purpose of his sermons, or of the series of books which he had begun to publish; but which he never lived to finish, to the great sorrow of his many friends.

The account which the editor gives of this volume is so accurate and complete, that we can do nothing better than repeat it :—

"It is intended," says F. Bowden, "to serve as a collection, wherein may be found considerations, in a short form, upon the chief allegations of the Faith and the Spiritual Life; and from which religious communities, and those engaged in missionary labour, may draw materials for meditation and instruction" (Pref., xi.).

While the "Notes" serve to refresh the memory of those who heard the sermons, of which they are the outlines, they will serve also, as F. Bowden suggests, as hints for meditation of the most valuable kind; and, indeed, they may be regarded in that light alone by many to their exceeding great profit. Those who have to teach others, will find them a mine into which they may safely descend, and out of which they may bring up the most precious ore of truth.

The Passion of our Lord occupies a very considerable space, and every one who will look into it will regret that the Treatise on the Passion was never written fully out; for of that we have here but one chapter; and yet that chapter is a treatise of itself.

We shall make but one extract, when we should be glad if we could make many it is from the sermon which F. Faber preached so early as 1848, on the Feast of the Martyr S. Thomas, in the Martyr's church at Fulham. The Pope was then, as now, in trouble; he was even an exile and dependent on others for a refuge from the murderous men who had conspired to dethrone him. F. Faber's faith was not shaken, nor was his loyalty dimmed. He believed, and was therefore strong. He was not one who explained away the nature of the Church, or the supremacy of the Pope, or the severity of a doctrine, or the disagreeableness of a custom : the Church was to him the work of God; not that only, but the temple of the Holy Ghost, in which the Holy Ghost was ever living-the abiding and unfailing Teacher.

"Beware, in your conversation with others, how you represent the Church ⚫ of God to those whom you desire to allure within her pale; beware of representing her for one moment as though she were different from what she was in days of old; beware of representing her as abating one jot or tittle of the greatest of those pretensions which seemed most arrogant and most preposterous even in the middle ages; beware of representing her as changed one atom in this her temper and her spirit; no, we must adhere strictly and zealously to high principle, disregarding everything that present or temporary advantage may appear to put within our reach. Truth, remember-and this is one great distinction between Catholics and heretics-truth is not ours, but God's. Truth is not ours to bate and pare down. Truth is God's; it has God's majesty inherent within it, and it will convert the souls of men, even when it seems rudest and most repelling; and it will do so for this one reason-because it is God's truth, and because we through the grace of God have boldness and faith to put our trust in it. And again, beware of another evil, that of trying to throw aside or to pare down what seems most faithful and warm in the devotions of foreign lands; do not tell that cruel falsehood, do not tell it to those whom you love, and are longing and yearning to have within the Church, do not tell them that the faith is other here than what it is elsewhere; do not throw aside devotion and sweetness, and worship and affection, as though they were not fit for us, as though God's Church were not one; for this is nothing less in reality than to deny the unity of God's Church. Tell them not this. Take not the bread from between their teeth, to bring them within the pale of God's Church, to find that they themselves have been deceived, and that you, while you wished to attract and allure, have only so much the more effectually repelled them, and have taken from them that which, in a moment of faith and love, they would have most generously embraced. This is, indeed, doing a cruel work, and it is in this very respect that S. Thomas is to us so bright an example. Believe me, dear Brethren, if there be a land-if there be a people-in which high principle is acceptable from its own intrinsic value, or alluring from the national character of those around us, it is this dear land of ours. Let us have faith, firm, vigorous, unfaltering faith; and, trust me, there is in high principle something which humbles those who hold it. They are never humble who have not high principle. They may be courtly, they may be pusillanimous, but humble they cannot be; for there is in high principles, and high principles alone, that which humbles those who hold them, that which wins those to whom those high principles are put forward; and above all, there is in these high principles, and in none other, the plenitude of that heavenly blessing which Jesus has lodged in the bosom of His people."

Fitzgerald v. Northcote and another. Report in full from short hand notes, with introductory statement, correspondence, &c. London: Burns & Co.

HIS case, which deeply concerns the interests of education in general, and

Bench on the 5th of February, and lasted three days. It has been thought well to bring the whole proceedings before the public in a collected form. They who have done this are not afraid of the true verdict which its perusal will ensure. It is preceded by a short notice from the Rev. Edward Knight, vice-president of Oscott, and by a letter from the Bishop of Birmingham, written with his lordship's usual penetration and felicity.

The first thought which occurs to the reader of these proceedings is, that before an English jury a priest has little chance of success. Our boasted love of fair play and impartiality is here little better than a boast. Fair play turns to foul play whenever certain points are touched on which Englishmen have a strong bias. We admit the characteristic to be part of the English nature to a certain extent, and of this we should make much in order to encourage its growth; but it is well also to remember that even the English nation did fall in Adam, and that of this she gives abundant proof, even in that darling virtue in which it is popularly thought she excels all the world. An eminent lawyer, who was present at the trial, mentioned to us that he saw a change come over the jury the moment they saw and recognised the priest. The verdict seemed to be arrived at, and we all knew that they unofficially declared it, even before the priest had opened his mouth, and officially announced it as soon as they were permitted to speak.

The Catholics of England, and we might fairly say a great portion of the public press of England, and more privately the profession of the bar, have already reversed that verdict. St. Mary's Oscott comes out of the ordeal simply with honour. It is to the credit of Oscott that its President would not have hesitated to expel a boy of mutinous spirit and ungentlemanly conduct, because his father happened to be in a high position, and because this student's removal might occasion that of five other kinsmen. It is creditable on account of the spirit, which, as this act shews us, Dr. Northcote infuses into the society which he governs. The conduct of the students, upon hearing of the unfavourable verdict of the English jury, fully justifies the opinion which we have always entertained of the high and chivalrous character of the Oscottians. So far from rejoicing that their superior had suffered a defeat at the hands of one of themselves, they spontaneously declared that young Fitzgerald was not of them, and that they themselves were one in heart and sentiment with their President in this performance of his painful duty. It seems to us, that Dr. Northcote acted with singular forbearance and kindness towards the student, who brought on, after fair and clear warning, his own expulsion.

If the President and the Prefect have suffered much anxiety through the discharge of their duty, they have, at all events, the satisfaction to reflect that the prosecution they have endured has raised the college in the estimation of the Catholic public, rather than depressed it. We believe Dr. Northcote has had letters of congratulation and sympathy from the heads of even Protestant public schools. He has had not merely the congratulations and sympathies of Catholics, but their spontaneous and generous co-operation. We understand that the expenses of the defence have been almost wholly defrayed by the subscriptions raised mainly among old Oscotians and the houses of Catholic education which are scattered over England.

We cannot help rejoicing in another indirect result of this trial, we mean the public expression of opinion on the advantage of distinct ecclesiastical education for persons destined for the sublime office of the priesthood. Even Protestants, who cannot themselves appreciate the motives for it, have uttered this sentiment. For ourselves, we have always strongly felt that the advantages and blessings of purely ecclesiastical education are simply inestimable

This, of course, is no new idea to the Catholic episcopate of England; for, as the volume before us proves from the Archives of Oscott, so early as 1793, a "Plan of Oscott Seminary" was published in that year, and it was stated that the "end of the institution is to supply one priest yearly to the mission; and that as the course of education is limited to six years, it is necessary that the seminary be established for the education of six students." This was the original aim of those who first founded Oscott. That which caused its failure in those days, would be powerless now. And we have abundant testimonies from authorities in Rome, and at home, that the plan which was unsuccessfully attempted in 1793 has not been thrown aside, but that it has been matured, and will be attempted by all our bishops as soon as they see the fit moment has arrived. While we condole with Dr. Northcote, then, upon the annoyances he has had to put up with, we also congratulate him upon many advantages which this trial has brought out; and we state our conviction, that the least will not be this, that it has contributed to strengthen public opinion in favour of the instruction of the Council of Trent "De formá erigendi seminarium clericarum."

Missionary College, chiefly for Pagan Nations. London: Knowles.

WE hope in an early number to speak of the glorious enterprise whose

humble beginnings are recorded in this most admirable paper. It is, in truth, rather strange that the Catholics of these islands have hitherto possessed no such institution (for the admirable colleges of Allhallows and Carlow are not for heathen missions, p. 13, note), than that one should now be started. Catholic England, in giving F. Vaughan every assistance, will but fulfil her bounden duty, considering the millions of heathen dependent on this Empire. But in fulfilling her duty she will derive an inappreciable advantage; for such an undertaking as this college cannot but react in a most salutary way on our ecclesiastical training at home. This is pointed out, indeed, by the Bishop of Birmingham (p. 29) in his very touching letter.

We have been disappointed regarding a notice which we had hoped to insert on the Rev. Dr. M'Carthy's comment on "the Epistles and Gospels of the Sundays throughout the year" (Dublin: Mullany. London: Burns & Co.) We the less regret this, however, as an admirable criticism of the work appeared in The Month of February; with every word of which we concur, and to which we cordially refer our readers. Dr. M'Carthy's volume is among the most important Scriptural works which have been addressed in our time to the English-speaking Catholic world. We are obliged also to postpone until our next quarter a review of the eloquent and edifying life of the Hon. and Rev. Father Ignatius Spencer, by F. Pius, a Sp. Sancto, Passionist.