to their real edification. It will suffice to give an account of the law passed by the Council of Trent.

That coun which the faithful were forbidden under

That council passed a law creating an "Index librorum prohibitorum,

certain penalties to read; among these were placed, in different classes, all versions of the Scriptures which could not be approved. The fourth rule with respect to these books is as follows:

"Rule IV. Since experience has proved that the reading of the Bible in the vulgar tongue, if it be permitted to all without discrimination, causes, by reason of the temerity of men, more mischief than it produces good, be it enacted,-that in this matter the judg ment of the bishop or inquisitor be followed, who are empowered to permit, on the recommendation of the curate or confessor, the reading of the Holy Bible, translated into the vulgar tongue by Catholic authors, to those whom they shall have judged to be capable of fortifying their faith and piety by this study, instead of receiving harm."

After passing in review the operation of this law in different countries, the author comes to England.

"In vain would any trace be looked for, of the legal promulgation of the Index in that country. The acts themselves of the Council could never be published there. The Church of England, cruelly oppressed by Protestantism, was obliged to be content to admit the laws of the Council in its practice without investing them with the legal forms which the churches in other countries gave to them. Although the restrictions which were there imposed on the reading of the Bible were less numerous than in other countries, the rules of the Index have nevertheless been observed in prohibiting the use of versions not approved, and in confining its approbation to the versions made by refugees at the colleges of Rheims and Douai. If the vicars apostolic of England have put no further restraint upon the reading of the Holy Bible in the vulgar tongue, it is because they have thought well to act according to the discretionary power granted them by the IV. Rule of the Index."-p. 56.

"In 1757, Benedict XIV. granted to all the faithful the permission to read versions of the Scripture that had been approved by the competent authority, and which were accompanied by a Catholic commentary."—p. 62.

In all this, there is nothing beyond a rational and parental care for the welfare of the people. At page 78, follows a long sketch of the use which is daily made of the Scriptures in the Catholic Church. As this could not be

quoted without adding to our remarks, already long, a series of numerous and minute details, we will be content with requesting those who are serious in thinking that the Catholic Church ungratefully neglects the use of a divine gift, to convince themselves of the contrary, by casting an eye over the account given by M. Malou, of the very varied and interesting manner in which the Scriptures are daily and thankfully used in the Catholic Church.

We regret that space does not permit us to follow the author through the remaining divisions of his subject, in which he examines the questions, whether the Scriptures themselves contain the precept obliging all persons to read them, and afterwards proceeds to give a learned summary of the doctrine of the Fathers, in which he shows the recent legislation of the Church to be contained in germ. The second volume contains a learned defence of the Canon of the Council of Trent, and discusses at length every minor detail belonging to the controversy, concluding with an historical sketch of the sterility of results, which has every where attended the efforts of the Bible Societies. In a word, the work will be found a complete mine and storehouse of all that in the way of arguments and erudition belongs to his subject.

But we must now bring our remarks on this all-important question to a close, wishing much prosperity to a University, which, phoenix like, displaying that wonderful vitality which can be found no where but in the Catholic Church, has, within the last dozen years, arisen from her ashes and entered upon a course of instruction that bids fair to draw the eyes of christendom once more to her schools of learning, and attract many a student from other countries to benefit by her instruction. We cannot witness in the work before us, the evidences of an erudition, such as must needs have been the fruit of many years' diligent labour, without the prayer, that an institution blessed with such teachers, together with all other Catholic seminaries, may by God's grace pour forth numbers of such virtuous and soundly instructed priests, as shall convince the happy people among whom they may be sent, that it is better for the flock to feed in peace by the shepherds' tents, than to wander on the mountains seeking their own food in cold. and hunger; and vindicate the divine wisdom of the Church, which will not give her people indiscriminately the dumb-material book of the word of life, but sends to 12

VOL. XXIII.-NO. XLV.

them its living teacher, their guide in prosperity, their adviser in doubt, their help in difficulty, their consoler in sorrow, their cheerful associate in joy, their advocate under oppression, their physician in miseries of conscience, their companion and comforter in the last sad hour of this mortal life, in a word, their pastor and friend. Alas, that people could ever have been brought to believe, that a steam printing press should be able in five minutes to furnish them with a more precious gift, than that work of divine wisdom and mercy, the true Catholic Priest.

ART. X.-1. Ellen Middleton. A Tale. By LADY GEORGIANA FULLERTON. 3 Vols. 8vo. London, Moxon, 1844.

2.-Grantley Manor.

A Tale. By LADY GEORGIANA FULLERTON, Author of "Ellen Middleton." 3 Vols. 8vo. London, Moxon, 1847.

3.-Amy Herbert. By a Lady. Edited by REV. W. SEWELL, B. D. 4th Edition, 2 Vols. 8vo. London, Longmans, 1847.

4.-Gertrude. By the Author of " Amy Herbert." 3rd Edition, 2 Vols. 8vo. London, Longmans, 1846.

5.-Laneton Parsonage. A Tale for Children. By the Author of Amy Herbert," &c. 3rd Edition. London, Longmans, 1847.

66

T

HE day, we fear, is hardly come as yet, when the name of a lady on the title-page of a work of fiction may be regarded in the light of a positive recommendation. We have not yet learned entirely to forget the prejudices of the olden time, when a lady's business with literature was limited, according to the received notions, to her prayer book and her volume of household recipes; and her judgment in matters of taste was supposed to range no higher than the management of a sampler, or the selection of patterns for needlework or embroidery. There are few, even still, who can bring themselves to judge an authoress by the same standard which is applied to an author; and even the most admiring and applauding critic, in expressing his approval of the production of a female pen, will almost insensibly mix up with his judgment of the individual some unconscious depreciation of

the intellectual powers of the sex, and, as if in despite of himself, resolve his sentence of commendation into a halfwondering, half-patronizing declaration, that is really "an extraordinary work for a woman!" Unfortunately, too, these vague and, as it were, half-instinctive prejudices are the most difficult to combat. The hereditary character follows each new generation of authoresses, like the fat widow of the warder of the German watch-tower, who, being too corpulent to make her way down the narrow stair of the turret in which her husband died, descended, from the mere impossibility of removal, as an heirloom to his successor and to all the subsequent warders of the castle. We fear that, notwithstanding the extraordinary advances which female authorship has made within our own day, an authoress must be prepared, for many a year to come, to take up, along with her title of authoress, an appendage somewhat similar to that which descended to the warders, in the traditionary stamp of inferiority which, with the mass of readers, still attaches to the work of a lady.

At first sight it might appear that this belief of the general inferiority of the sex would, by the contrast, be advantageous to an authoress of real merit, beyond the ordinary standard of the sisterhood of letters. But long observation has convinced us of the contrary. We cannot help thinking, paradoxical as it may seem, that the authoress of the very remarkable work entitled "The Two Old Men's Tales," acted wisely in not only abstaining from all unnecessary parade of the fact that it was from a female hand, but even insinuating the contrary, as far as the title could insinuate it; and if the MS. of "Ellen Middleton" or "Grantley Manor" had been submitted to us before publication, we should have felt greatly disposed to advise Lady Georgiana Fullerton to adopt the same course, and to allow the vigour, and originality, and truthfulness, by which they are both distinguished, to produce their own effect, unembarrassed by the question, whether, and how far, these are the qualities which we might most naturally expect in the known and acknowledged author.

For we have no hesitation in saying, that both these works are of a character very different from that which we ordinarily meet with from the novel-writers, whether male or female, of the present day; and we feel assured that

they could not have failed to force their way to popularity, almost under any circumstances of publication, no matter how unfavourable.

Every year, indeed, is going farther to elevate the pretensions, as well as to improve the character, of female authorship, both in our own country and upon the continent. On the foreign literature we do not mean to dwell; but it possesses a few names too prominent to be passed over in silence. Miss Bremer has long stood at the head of the young, but vigorous and respectable, literature of Sweden. Of the writings of this distinguished authoress we have already spoken at some length. With a few peculiarities of manner, which grate upon our conventional tastes, and with an occasional tendency towards German mysticism, which not even her strong native sense can overpower, her works, descriptive as well as imaginative, evince powers of the very highest order. There is more of genuine feeling, more of true simplicity and unaffected fidelity to nature in "The Home," or "Our Neighbours," than is to be found in a hundred of the ordinary novels which even our most popular writers produce; and indeed, although we must admit that her performances are exceedingly unequal, there are scenes in both of the works mentioned above, for which it would be difficult to find any counterpart, except in the writings of our distinguished countrywoman, Miss Edgeworth. In France too, the reader will at once remember the gifted but eccentric Madame Dudevant (Georges Sand). Her pre-eminence, it must be admitted, is one which no well-regulated mind will envy; but it is not the less true that this extraordinary woman stands in the very first rank of French fiction. In Germany-not to speak of Caroline Pichler, Sophia May, Henrietta von Montinglaut, and many lesser names-there is no novelist of the present day more popular, and certainly none_more_prolific, than the celebrated Ida, Countess of Hahn-Hahn. And of her it is true to say that, notwithstanding many and striking defects-notwithstanding occasional weakness or incongruity in the plot, a habitual tendency to speculate and philosophize rather than describe, a love of paradox which obtrudes itself even into the most exciting scenes, and an overstretched sentimentality which frequently destroys or overlays the genuine feeling with which her writings unquestionably abound-notwithstanding these and other peculiarities which, though admired