When she knew that George was near death, in 1830, she wrote to him asking for some last message. But the letter came too late; he was dying, and, though moved by the letter, he could not answer. The next king, William IV., a warm friend of Mrs. Fitzherbert, ordered that many of the jewels and other trinkets that she had given to the late King should be returned to her. She sought in vain among them for the miniature. Then she caused inquiries to be made. She learned that those about the King when he died knew that he had worn the miniature to the last, and that they believed it was buried with him. Later she had positive assurance from the Duke of Wellington. "When he was on his deathbed George IV. gave the Duke strict injunctions to see that nothing should be removed from his body after death, and that he should be buried in the nightclothes in which he lay. The Duke promised that his Majesty's wishes should be obeyed, and the King seemed much happier for this assurance. Left alone with the body, which was then lying in an open coffin, the Duke noticed that something was suspended from his neck by a muchworn black ribbon. He was seized with an uncontrollable desire to see what it was; so, coming nearer, he drew aside the collar of the shirt; and, lo! upon the dead man's breast was the tiny locket containing the miniature of Mrs. Fitzherbert. The Duke reverently drew aside the nightshirt over the jewel again, so that none might see it. The King was buried with the miniature next his heart."

Did Mrs. Fitzherbert find in the knowledge of her husband's fidelity to the poor memento of a love long dead any compensation for the years of cold neglect? Only a woman may answer this. After learning of this incident, however, we can never again read with quite the old zest and hearty concurrence, the pages which express Byron's fierce scorn, or Thackeray's contempt of George IV. We are, rather, prompted to strive, if possible, to enter into the charitable spirit evinced towards him by the present biographer of the woman "whom he wedded in his youth, wronged in his mature years, and neglected in his old age":"His conduct," says Mr. Wilkins, "to her may be palliated, but it can never be justified; yet even here much of it was due to inherent defects in his character, which was unstable as water. It is easy for those who live far removed by time and circumstances from his difficulties and temptations to condemn him. We at least will not add

to that condemnation, but remember only that there must have been good in him, or a good woman would not have loved him."

Concerning the heroine herself we have the estimate of Greville, who was wont to deal out eulogy with a sparing hand: "She was not a clever woman, but of a very noble spirit, disinterested, generous, honest, and affectionate, greatly beloved by her friends and relations, popular in the world, and treated with uniform distinction and respect by the royal family."

Was there any issue from the marriage of George IV. and Mrs. Fitzherbert ? "Neither by her first or second marriage, nor by her third marriage with George, Prince of Wales, had Mrs. Fitzherbert any children," is the answer of Mr. Wilkins. No document of the famous packet either supports or denies this conclusion. The arguments advanced in favor of the claims of the American Ord family are ably set forth in an article in the Month, for January, 1905, from the pen of Father Thurston, S.J., who supports the opposite opinion.

The triumph, within Catholicism, THE DOGMA OF THE RE- of Newman's principle of developDEMPTION.

By Abbe Riviere.

ment, and the present form of the rationalistic attack upon Christian faith, have combined to enforce the truth that dogma must henceforth be carefully studied and vigorously defended from the historic point of view. Our opponents, in the words of one of them, no longer attack us; they explain us; and they claim that they explain us away. It is useless to attempt to meet Harnack and Sabatier and Ritschl with metaphysical reasoning and deductive syllogism. They have shifted the conflict to the field of history; and on the field of history they must be encountered and overthrown. The history of each dogma from its origin must be traced through the centuries; and while growth, development, and unessential modifications are acknowledged, they will be shown, not merely to be nowise incompatible with identity, but even to be the characteristics by which the divine truth manifests its vigor and vitality. The fine work of the Abbé Rivière is a valuable contribution to the library of historic theology which

*Le Dogme de la Redemption. Essai d'Etude Historique. Par l'Abbé I. Rivière, Docteur en Theologie. Paris: Lecoffre.

Ehrhard, Battifol, and others have begun. It is a profound and extensive study, from the historical standpoint, of the dogma of Redemption, from its origin in the New Testament down to its formulation in Scholastic times. After an explicit statement of the Catholic doctrine, and, an outline of the various rationalistic systems which are trained against it, M. Rivière analyses the New Testament data to show the conception of the dogma as it existed in the mind of the primitive Church. He then proceeds to trace its development, first among the Greek Fathers, and, next, among the Latins. Thence he follows it up through the intermediary channels of the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, till we reach the medieval crisis and the orthodox reaction of the days of Abelard, St. Bernard, and Hugo of St. Victor, followed by the theological elaboration that took place chiefly through the labors of Peter the Lombard, Alexander Hales, and St. Thomas. The various juridical theories, and metaphorical formulations of the Fathers are analyzed and criticised in order to separate the essential from the ephemeral dress in which men, laboring under the limitations of thought and language which their age imposed on them, have clothed it. The entire study is a victorious demonstration that, from the beginning, the central idea which constitutes the mystery of the Redemption has endured as a fundamental article of Catholic faith. The book is a monument of patristic and theological erudition; it is characterized by that perfection of logical method and clearness of language which we are accustomed to look for in works emanating from a French pen, and which we seldom find, in an equally high degree elsewhere. Doubtless a complete solution of the great problem which M. Rivière has undertaken is not to be arrived at in a single essay, nor by one individual, but will be the outcome of many efforts of scholars whose works will, respectively, supplement one another. Meanwhile M. Rivière deserves our gratitude for having provided an effective answer to the thesis of Harnack, Ritschl, and Sabatier on the great dogma of the Redemption.

The Psalmist's exclamation, God LIVES OF TWO SAINTS. is wonderful in his saints, receives fresh emphasis from the fact that, side by side with the great founder of the Redemptorist Order, St. Alphonsus, illustrious for his eighty years of heroic vir

tue, and for learning that has ranked him among the doctors, the Church has raised to equal honor a simple lay brother of the same order, whose career was consummated within the brief span of twenty-nine years. St. Gerard Majella was among those canonized in 1904. This short popular life of the saint* is written with the very practical purpose of impressing on the reader's mind that, during his life, St. Gerard was the instrument of bringing to many souls who had been living in sacrilege, owing to bad confessions, the grace of repentance, and that, since his death, the same grace has been vouchsafed to many sinners who have invoked his aid. The preacher who has to speak of the necessity of a good confession will find this little volume a powerful ally.

Like all the other numbers of M. Joly's excellent series of Les Saints, M. Suau's St. Francis Borgia is an example of hagiology written with due regard to the demands of critical history. He gives us the man as well as the saint. The secular life of the Duke of Gandia, and the influence which he wielded in the social and political world, are finely related; and helps to the understanding of the immense benefit that accrued from his reception to the struggling society of St. Ignatius, then beset by powerful adverse influences. In a short chapter, or section, M. Suau very happily analyzes the spirit of the saint, characterized by cheerfulness, and a human tenderness which, without committing any rapine on the sacrifice that he had laid on the altar, prompted him to take a lively practical interest in the welfare of his numerous descendants. What a field for the imagination is opened by M. Suau's observation that, had Francis remained in the world, he might have been appointed governor of the Low Countries instead of the Duke of Alva! But, born to better things, he became a tower of strength to the Church and the Society of St. Ignatius: Après Saint Ignace, il n'est personne à qui elle soit plus redevable qu'à lui. Et dans l'Église Catholique, Borgia fut un des exemples les plus remarquants de renouvellement des âmes après la Renaissance, exemple d'autant plus saisissant, que son nom rappelait les plus grandes hontes de l'âge précé dent."

*Life, Virtues, and Miracles of St. Gerard Majella, Redemptorist Lay Brother. By the Very Rev. J. Magnier, C.SS. R. St. Louis: B. Herder. Les Saints: St. Francois de Borgia. Par Pierre Suau. Paris: V. Lecoffre,

HUMILITY OF HEART. Translated by Card. Vaughan.

One who knew intimately the late Cardinal Vaughan has said of him: "A more truly humble man I have seldom, if ever, come across. It

was the humility of a child, it was so sweet and simple, so strong and saint-like; may I not even venture to say Christ-like." To appreciate the full significance of this statement-which is but representative of the universal verdict recorded by those who had opportunity to judge what kind of man the late Archbishop of Westminster was we must remember how many endowments, native and acquired, he possessed that, naturally considered, would have spoiled the humility of a weaker manillustrious lineage, personal charm, the prestige of practical success, an ecclesiastical rank which usually condemns its holder to breathe a somewhat close atmosphere saturated with unmeasured reverent adulation. It is interesting and useful to know what masters of the spiritual life the Cardinal depended on for help to cultivate his most conspicuous virtue. His vade mecum was the treatise on humility written by Padre Gaetano Maria da Bergamo, a great Italian missionary of the eighteenth century. The Humility of Heart was his favorite book of meditation for thirty years. Towards the close of his life, during a period of leisure imposed by breaking health, he translated it into English; and earnestly commended it to the use of laity, clergy, and sisterhoods. Of its character it will be enough to repeat the judgment of Benedict XIV. on Padre Gaetano's works: "They have this quality, rare in our day, that they satisfy the intellect and the heart; their solid doctrine in no way dries up their tender devotion, and their devotional sweetness in no way detracts from the perfect solidity of their doctrine."

NEWMAN.

Before his death, Father Neville, ADDRESSES TO CARDINAL Newman's literary executor, prepared the contents of this volume for the press. Its main contents are a collection of sixty odd addresses to the Cardinal, with his replies,† on the occasion of his elevation to the purple. There is also a prefatory narrative of the events relating to the con

* Humility of Heart. From the Italian of Father Cajetan Mary de Bergamo (Capuchin). By Herbert Cardinal Vaughan. New York: Benziger Brothers.

† Addresses to Cardinal Newman with His Replies, etc. Edited by the Rev. W. P. Neville, (Cong. Orat.) New York and London: Longmans, Green & Co.