ideal of excellence different from ours, and it is therefore no wonder that she has not attained ours.

We give one or two examples to illustrate our meaning. Let any one read the following sentence out loud, and see whether any one of his audience would think it possible that it should be the natural expression in England of the thoughts of any person in the world :

:

"One must needs have tried corporeal infirmity, parted with his keenest repugnance, and afterwards became reconciled thereto, if he would know on what peaceful terms one may live with humiliation, habitual suffering, and constant inconvenience" (p. 191).

Again:

"Exaggerated expressions do not chord with the idea, and wound the ear of an exact mind" (p. 7).

These we might call merely French sentences in words more or less English. We might give similar instances from almost every page of the volume if it were necessary. In fairness we ought to add that there could hardly be a French writer more difficult to translate than Madame Swetchine. The short epigrammatic terms of French aphorisms are the despair of a translator.

We must not conclude our notice without adding that the book is beautifully printed and got up. In this respect it seems to us to mark an era in the history of Catholic publications. Till very lately they have been, as a general rule in these respects, sadly inferior to Protestant books; not without excuse, as Catholics in these countries are so much the poorer body. Lately, however, we have seen with great pleasure a decided improvement in this respect in Catholic works published in England; although we could not honestly say that it has, as yet, extended to the books put out by all Catholic publishers. The volume before us proves that it has fully extended to the United States. Nothing could be better than the type, the effect of the toned paper, and the elegant though unadorned covering; all is exceedingly creditable to the New York Catholic Publication Society, and we heartily hope they will succeed in maintaining the standard they have set.

S. Charles and His Fellow-Labourers.

London: Dillon.

IN N the introduction to this little book, which is brought out under the sanction of the oblates of S. Charles, one sentence may serve as the key-note to the whole. All persons interested in the education of youth should take it deeply to heart. It is an appeal used by a certain number of little boys who go about the steeets of Rome on Sundays endeavouring to bring together children for instruction in Christian doctrine. "Fathers and Mothers, send your children to learn the Christian doctrine or answer for it to God." We wish these words could be made to sound

effectually through the length and breadth of our metropolis, and in the courts and alleys where so many of our Catholic poor have their dwellings. It is not too much to say that the work of teaching Christian doctrine and bringing the young within the sphere of its influence, is one of the most important works of the age. Infidelity is daily gaining strength; its deadly poison is becoming infused with fatal success, to our own certain knowledge, into the minds of boys of eleven and twelve years of age. When such is the case, we are surely bound to use energetic efforts to counteract a dreadful poison of disease which is beginning to manifest itself.

As far indeed as zeal is in question, we are convinced there exists no deficiency on the part of those upon whom devolves the office of teaching Christian doctrine. We may be permitted, however, perhaps to think that frequently there is an absence of a good organization for the furtherance of this important object. And we trust that the diffusion of the little work we are noticing will have the effect of making Catholics perceive the enormous good that may be accomplished by collecting together children for instruction in our Sunday schools.

The pamphlet is divided into two parts. The first treats of the Apostolic spirit of S. Charles. Whilst mention is made of the several shapes in which this spirit developed itself, our Saint's mission in particular is seen to be this, viz., to revive faith in a people abandoned to ignorance and vice. For the furtherance of this object he was gifted, we are told, with a marvellous personal charity. And it was specially with regard to ignorant little children that this feeling exhibited itself. The root and basis of this yearning for their welfare was of course the importance of the individual soul. If anything were needed to stimulate the Saint's ardour in aiming at and reaching the immortal part of even the lowest creature, it was the thought how our Blessed Lord himself had laboured in order to gain the soul of the Samaritan woman. "Wonder," he would say, "wonder, as you think how anxious our Saviour showed himself for the one soul of that vile and wretched woman of Samaria. Christ gave a considerable portion of time to ensure the salvation of that particular soul. This fact, he urges, ought to be a spur to the zeal of all."

Next we are told of his jealousy for the service of God. Parents should not only themselves come to church, but bring with them their children, even though the latter are not as yet capable of understanding the meaning of what they see and hear. This suggestion of the Saint strikes us as most important; for in the first place, as regards the children of the poor in London, a negative good, at all events, is thereby done. You are keeping them for a certain period of time at a distance from the streets and all the abominations and bad influences with which they are associated. But this is not all. It is a great and decided advantage to accustom children to the Church as a place differing in its purpose from all others, and to the various objects which invest it. The constantly beholding the priest, moreover, in his official capacity of instructing and catechizing must have a certain amount of good influence upon minds even very slightly developed.

The second portion of the treatise shows how S. Charles carried out practically the great work of reaching the souls of the uneducated, old and young. When he came into residence as Archbishop of Milan, he made the confraternity of Christian doctrine his first care. In his first Provincial Synod he issued a decree to all parish priests that on every Sunday and festival day they should teach the Catechism in their churches; and, moreover, he insisted that they should exhort from the pulpit all, both old and young, to take up energetically the work he had so much at heart. Next, a local organization was given to each confraternity; and we direct special attention to one set of officials upon whom would devolve obviously one of the most important functions for the success of the great work. These were the persons who, characteristically enough, were called Fishers," and whose duty it became to traverse the towns and villages and bring to church the youth and growing-up population of both sexes to receive instruction in the principles of their religion. This idea, we conceive, ought to be taken up by ourselves if we look for any element of success in a work established on the same principles as that of S. Charles. The employment of persons who will make it a point to visit the houses of parents, to urge and encourage them to send their children to catechism and to reprove any unnecessary absence of the latter, this we considerif any permanent good is to be effected—an essential feature in any wellorganized system of Sunday-school teaching. Then we may look perhaps for some of the encouraging results which marked the work of the great Archbishop.

66

The assiduity with which the classes for Christian doctrine met Sunday after Sunday showed itself in a success truly marvellous. When S. Charles took possession of his see, there was an utter absence of schools for instruction in religion; at his death, 740 schools, representing scholars to the amount of 40,000, were in permanent existence in the city and diocese of Milan.

The New School History of England, from Early Writers and National Records. By the Author of "The Annals of England." Oxford and London: James Parker & Co. 1870.

TH

HE author of this little volume promises us, in a very condensed form, a history drawn from original authorities. He has weighed them conscientiously and diligently. We have not often seen a book which more strikingly illustrated the revolution in the whole manner of writing history which has been wrought out in the last half-century. We have turned especially to the periods most disfigured by the misrepresentations of bigotry, and we find our author, though a Protestant, stating facts with a degree of fairness and scrupulousness to truth until very lately quite without example VOL. XIV.—NO. XXVII. [New Series.]

U

among Protestant historians. For instance, the reign of Mary is thus written. It begins :

In

"Few sovereigns have a worse name among general readers than this Queen; but this is the result of her enemies only having written her history; for it is certain that she suffered far more, and was far more influenced by conscience in what she did than any other of the House of Tudor. She had hardly emerged from childhood when the trouble about her parents' marriage began, and from that time forward until her accession to the throne, she lived in constant dread as to her liberty, if not her life; being obliged to make the most humiliating submissions to her brutal father, and sheltered from the violence of her brother's advisers only by their fear of the power of Charles V. all these anxious years her only consolations were her religious exercises, her books, and such acts of charity as her limited income allowed. She had seen her mother die broken-hearted, and her tutor lose his life rather than slander his royal mistress; she had seen the Countess of Salisbury, her governess, and many of her intimate friends put to death; others had pined for years in the Tower; and when she became Queen she had just escaped a cunningly devised scheme for her destruction. It is not, then, to be wondered at that she found it too hard to pardon all the prominent actors in so much evil, though she did pardon many. Any blame that is to be given must, in part at least, be born by her advisers, and part must also be attributed to the then system of government which looked on any pardon too freely granted as a sign of weakness and an abandonment of the duty of a ruler" (p. 276).

"One of the persons who had been most harshly treated by Edward's advisers was Bonner, Bishop of London. He had been deprived of his see, and had been imprisoned for years in the Marshalsea, this place being chosen as a studied insult, as none but the vilest malefactors, pirates, and murderers were usually sent there. He had, however, a spirit that such usage could not break, and on one of the many occasions that he was brought before the Council, he replied to their threats: Three things I have; to wit, a small portion of goods, a poor carcase, and my own soul. The two first you may take, though unjustly. But as for my soul, ye cannot get it.' Of course he was set free on the accession of Mary."

With regard to the reformers, although always spoken of with a gentleness which curiously contrasts with the language of Dr. Littledale and other modern Anglicans, there is no disposition to make them heroes, saints, or martyrs.

"The lamentable events known as the Marian Persecution followed (A.D. 1555), but the odium of this cannot with justice be laid on the Queen, as is usually done. It is rather the harsh spirit of the age than any one, two, or three individuals (say Mary, Gardiner, and Bonner) that should bear the blame. The victims themselves had shown that they were willing to act in a similar way."

About Mary Queen of Scots the author's tone is equally fair. So again about the Crusades, and again about Elizabeth's persecution of the Catholics. In fact, the only instance we have seen to the contrary is a statement accusing Garnet, the Jesuit, of taking a part in the powder plot; for which, if he has really any authority not hitherto known, it ought certainly to have been given, for it contradicts all former authorities. The author's general tone being what it is, we do not set it down as mere calumny, but cannot help thinking that he has made some strange mistake.

We have specified these important particulars, feeling how important it is

that truth upon them should be put within the reach of English schoolboys who have hitherto been studiously fed with lies against the religion of their forefathers. But we may say that the author seems to have been equally careful and honest in his treatment of political and historical questions in general. There are, of course, points on which we do not agree with him; for instance, in his estimate of the evidence against Richard III. But he is always so honest and laborious, that we respect his conclusions even when we do not accept them. The chief blemish we have seen in the book is an occasional carelessness of style. So condensed a narrative also, from the necessity of the case, fails in being so brilliant as the detailed histories of our times. But the book deserves all commendation.

The Catholic Directory, Ecclesiastical Register, and Almanac for the year of Our Lord 1870. London: Burns, Oates, & Co.

W

E congratulate the Editor on the compilation of the New Catholic Directory for this year, which, in addition to the usual Calendar, contains much varied and valuable information, specially useful to both priests and laity. The Appendix on Ecumenical Councils cannot fail to be serviceable to many Catholics even, who may not have studied the subject, and we specially recommend it to the perusal of Protestants, by whom we are continually asked, "What is the meaning and what is the use of an Ecumenical Council?" This little sketch gives a list of all former councils, their special acts, &c., and adds some interesting details as to the Vatican Council now sitting.

1. The Tonic Sol-fa System for Sight Singing in Schools. Parts I and II. London Burns & Oates.

2. A Singing Class Primer; or, the First Rudiments of the Art of Singing for Schools. By the Rev. HENRY FORMBY. London: Burns & Oates. 3. The Catholic School Song-book. Edited by the Rev. HENRY FORMBY. London: Burns & Oates.

4. Music for the Catholic School Song-book. In Two Parts. Melodies for the Junior School Song-book; Melodies for the Senior School Songbook. London: Burns & Oates.

UR main hope of seeing the dawn of better times in Church choirs and singing lies in our being able to improve our resources for teaching singing in all our mission schools. The mission school points itself out as the natural nursery of the singers for the Church who are hereafter to prove