all in the original "consecrators" has never been settled; but it would leave it open to every other charge which Catholic writers have brought against it. Such as it is, however, the assertion has been caught up and repeated from mouth to mouth, especially of late. It has been put forward in Ireland by Dr. Mant, Mr. King, Dr. Todd, Dr. William Lee, and Dr. Alfred Lee: it has been echoed on this side of St. George's Channel by Archdeacon Wordsworth and Dr. Wilberforce. These names are sufficient to make it plain that this assertion has so far engrafted itself on the received traditions of history as to be accepted even by men of learning without suspicion, and to be adopted by serious students as well as by frothy rhetoricians.

This is the assertion which Dr. Brady, a Protestant Irish clergyman of well-known learning, who can write after his name that he has been chaplain to three Lord-lieutenants, now denies in the most formal and explicit manner.* He quotes, with seemingly cordial approbation, the words of a living writer, who has described it as "the most impudent falsehood in all history." Dr. Brady, at all events, gives chapter and verse for the opinion which he maintains. He has hunted up all the documentary evidence available in Ireland, and has used manuscripts in the State-Paper Office and the Bodleian Library in England. His researches have been aided by the valuable publications of Theiner, and he has also had access to the yet unpublished papers of Dr. Moran, who has devoted so much time to the documents relating to Irish Ecclesiastical History which exist at Rome. In the pamphlet before us, Dr. Brady goes through the several Irish sees in order, and endeavours to trace out the history of the occupant of each at the accession of Elizabeth. The result is, that out of twenty-six bishops, there is evidence, more or less conclusive, as to twenty-one that they never conformed to Protestantism, but died in full communion with Rome. The only one of whom it is certain that he joined the State religion is Curwin, the Archbishop of Dublin. As to four others the question must remain doubtful, though the evidence against them consists mainly in the fact that they accepted certain commissions from the queen as to civil and judicial affairs. This might be done, under the circumstances, without any formal apostasy on their part. Elizabeth's government seems to have been very weak in Ireland, at least beyond the English pale; and she may have been very willing to leave Catholic Bishops unmolested, or even to have employed them as her agents in temporal matters. It is certain that she left many of the sees vacant for a great number of years, being unable to find men fitted for her purposes to fill them.

Again, as to the succession from St. Patrick. No Irish Catholic Bishop can be discovered who has had any thing to do with founding the present Protestant hierarchy in Ireland except Curwin, already

*The alleged Conversion of the Irish Bishops to the Reformed Religion at the accession of Queen Elizabeth, and the assumed descent of the present Established Hierarchy in Ireland from the Ancient Irish Church, disproved. By W. Maziere Brady, D.D., Vicar of Donoghpatrick and Rector of Kil berry, and formerly Chaplain to the Earls of Clarendon, St. Germains, and Carlisle, Lords-Lieutenant of Ireland. London, 1866.

mentioned. Curwin was not consecrated in Ireland, but by Bonner in London. The line of St. Patrick's Bishops has, therefore, entirely died out, except so far as it is continued in the present Catholic hierarchy. The claim so confidently made for the present Anglican Bishops by Dr. Wordsworth and others is absolutely without foundation in history-as far, at least, as relates to their connection with St. Patrick.

Dr. Brady's conclusions are, as he tells us, confirmed by the researches of Mr. Froude. "I have examined, I believe thoroughly," says that writer in a letter to Dr. Brady, "all the Irish State-Papers in the Record Office during and from the time of Henry VIII. to 1574; and it is from them, in connection with the voluminous Mss. in Spain on the same subject, that I draw my conclusion respecting the supposed conversion of the Irish Bishops and Clergy to the Reformation. I am thoroughly convinced that (with the exception of the Archbishop of Dublin) not one of Queen Mary's Bishops, nor any one of the Clergy beyond the Pale, went over to the Reformation. Of the clergy, scarcely any within the Pale went over. The English Government, as their power extended, appointed new bishops to the Irish sees; but it was not till late in the reign of Elizabeth that even this was done."

"It

The assertion that the Irish Bishops "conformed" seems to rest mainly on their alleged presence at the Parliament of 1560. is well known," says Archdeacon Wordsworth,-how frequently are unfounded statements introduced by the words "it is well known"!"that twenty Irish Bishops were present in the Irish Parliament of 1559-60, when the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome was renounced." What is well known is, that these Bishops were summoned to the Parliament; but there is no evidence, as Dr. Brady remarks, "that they were present at all in that Parliament, nor that they, if they did attend on any day, were present on that particular day when the penal laws of Elizabeth were passed." We shall be curious to see what answer Dr. Brady's pamphlet elicits from Dr. Wordsworth and others. It is quite possible that some of the Irish Bishops may have hung back from open opposition to the Government; and it is in the highest degree probable that the Government felt itself too weak to attempt to deprive them. But even if it should ever be proved that individuals among them were timid and time-serving, as long as open apostasy was not insisted on, this would be very far from justifying the sweeping assertions which Anglican controversialists have allowed themselves to make. It is most amusing to see the anxiety of these writers to give a sort of technical and paper authority to an Establishment which all fair-minded men, whether Catholics or Protestants, have long since condemned as one of the most monstrous absurdities of which history makes mention, by taking away the character for consistency and honesty of a particular generation of Catholic prelates and to dignify by the title of successors of St. Patrick" a number of respectable gentlemen who would feel almost as uncomfortable in his company as they might in that of Mahomet or of Joseph Smith.

66

5. The great popularity of the remains of Eugénie de Guérin is certainly a remarkable and a pleasant phenomenon in the literary history of our time. We speak, of course, chiefly of England. Notwithstanding the great and solid merit of the writings themselves of which we speak, it is not very easy to account for the position they have so soon acquired in this country. Something may perhaps be set down to the happy contrast which they presented to the ordinary fare of English readers. The caterers to the public taste had been dealing very largely in, highly-wrought and overstrained fiction, and Eugénie's Journal came to us with something of the same irresistible deliciousness with which a whiff of fresh air, the breath of the downs, or the cottage-garden fresh with morning dew, greets the jaded organs of men who have been for some time inhaling the atmosphere of a theatre or a ballroom. Then, again, much of our prevalent poetry shows that the taste for self-analysis and the internal history of individual thought and feeling is still reigning; and Eugénie opened to us, with the most perfect unconsciousness and simplicity, the workings of a refined, tender, and cultivated heart. We all of us, besides, find unfailing attraction in personal history, if it be only connected with striking and attractive character, and can rouse our ready sympathies by incidents which touch or surprise us; and the story of Eugénie de Guérin, and her devotion to her brother and his memory, formed one of those true and sweet idyls of which family life is full enough, if we would but study them, instead of looking for refreshment and interest in the exaggerations and distortions of ordinary fiction. Other reasons may be given for the fact on which we are remarking, even without taking into consideration the peculiar delicacy and nobility of the mind whose private thoughts were unveiled to us in the Journal of Eugénie.

The Letters* which have now been published by M. Trebutien have the same undeniable charm about them which is so well known to the readers of the Journal. They are about one hundred and fifty in number, and range from 1831 to 1847; decreasing, however, in frequency in the latter years of the period contained between these two limits. Not many are addressed to members of her own family, as she was but seldom separated from them, unless we except Maurice himself. The bulk of the collection is made up of letters to three or four persons Mdlle. Louise de Bayne, afterwards Madame de Tonnac, seemingly the most cherished and valued of all Eugénie's friends; Madame de Maistre, with whom the correspondence begins with an answer to an inquiry about the health of Maurice de Guérin, and continues for some time before Eugénie had met her; M. H. de la Morvonnais, the intimate friend of Maurice; and Mdlle. Antoinette de Boisset, like Louise de Bayne, an old friend, whose name appears in the earliest pages of the volume before us, and to whom the very last letters contained in it are addressed. The letters to these four persons make up together about two-thirds of the whole collection. *Letters of Eugénie de Guérin. Edited by G. S. Trebutien. London,

None of the letters are quite insignificant; many of them are long and extremely interesting; all of them-even in their English dress, and Eugénie de Guérin's French is enough of itself to frighten a translator-have a wonderful delicacy and grace, and show that soundness of judgment and that purity of feeling which seem to have been instinctive with their writer. The home-life at Cayla is, of course, frequently set before us in all its pure simplicity; but there are some good letters from Paris, and a series at the end to M. de Guérin, Eugénie's father, written from Cauterets in the Pyrenees in 1846, when she was sent thither for her health, which describe that rather unknown part of the French frontier in a very lively way. Altogether, the volume before us is rich in treasures, and has very little of indifferent matter in its composition.

The manner in which the fame of Eugénie de Guérin has spread, and the short time which has elapsed since her death, have rendered it almost inevitable that our knowledge of her should have been acquired piecemeal. We trust that some one as familiar with her remains and the circumstances of her life as M. Trebutien has incidentally shown himself to be, may be induced before long to gather into a single work what is known about her; making her, of course, in the main speak for herself, but still arranging her remains in more perfect order, and adding from external sources what is wanting to make up a complete picture of this very beautiful character. Literature of this kind is becoming more common; and, for our part, when all due regard has been paid to the feelings of persons still surviving, and when the veil has not been too far lifted as to personal details which ought to be held sacred, we are glad to see that it is so. A book like that lately published by Mrs. Craven, the Récit d'une Sœur, to which we hope to draw our readers' attention in our next Number, contains a picture of character and a narrative of events which do not yield in interest to many even of the highest creations of fiction; while there is a force and beauty about its teaching such as cannot be found except in the truthful history of real life. We want some such memoir of Eugénie de Guérin and her brother; and until such a work is produced, it will still be difficult to give to ourselves a full and adequate account of the brother and sister to whom, after their deaths, so much well-deserved but unexpected homage has already been paid.

6. Glimpses of fresh national character are always welcome; and Norwegian literature seems to be a plant which has hitherto put forth shoots so few in number or so insignificant as to make it no great disgrace to our English public that it has hitherto paid it but little attention. Now, however, we have to welcome a true and thoroughly Norwegian genius in Björnstjerne Björnson; and if we may judge of the general value of his writings from the specimen given us by him in Arne, we may venture to predict that he may

*

Arne. A Sketch of Norwegian Country Life. By Björnstjerne Björnson. Translated from the Norwegian by Augusta Plesner and S. Rugeley-Powers. London, 1866.

become as great a favourite in this country as Frederika Bremer a few years ago. The translators give us a few interesting details as to this new author, who is yet young, having been born in 1832, on the Dovre Fjeld. From these it would appear that he has trained himself by the study of nature rather than of books, and is one of those writers who have begun by being dunces and scapegraces at school, unsuccessful at college, and whose early literary career was all but blighted by discouragement.

The story of Arne is simple though pathetic, and its incidents serve very well as the occasions for descriptions of the country life with which the author is familiar. These sketches are remarkably pretty-weddings, dancing-parties, nutting-parties, and the like. If Björnson has had a hard battle to fight himself up to literary eminence, it has in no manner made him sour or cynical. The general tone of this tale is happy and genial, though there are one or two shades of truly Scandinavian gloom, and a good deal of that mystical linking of external nature with human feelings which in English writers has sometimes an appearance of affectation. The manners described are simple and almost patriarchal, though the standard of morality seems hardly to stand at the highest level among the country folk in Norway. The characters are carefully and gracefully drawn; and there is a considerable sprinkling of quaint stories and characteristic poetry, which last seems to have been very successfully rendered by the translators.