inferior to the better known translations given by Messrs. Burns and Oates.

7. Journal of the Waterford and South East of Ireland Archæological Society, April, 1897. By far the most valuable article in the excellent number of this learned periodical which has just been issued-and, we may add, admirably printed by a Waterford firm-is the opening paper by the Rev. Edmund Hogan, S.J., F.R.U.I. We are glad to see that not only is this article unfinished, but, even when finished. it will be merely the first of a series to be devoted to the worthies of Waterford and Tipperary. Father Hogan begins with the "Life of Father Stephen White, S.J., Theologian and Polyhistor." With his usual research, he has collected particulars about this remarkable Irishman, from all printed and unprinted sources, including the Archives of the Society of Jesus, in Rome and in other places. No other writer could have put together so minute a record of a career so far removed from our day, every paragraph bristling with names and dates, and every page ending with exact references to original authorities. Southey's Life of Nelson grew out of an article in the Quarterly Review; Dr. C. W. Russell's Life of Mezzofanti grew out of an article in The Edinburgh: the present article in like manner will develope into a book.

8. Messrs. Burns and Oates, Limited, of London and New York, have sent us two little books price two pence each one is "The Children's Bible History from the beginning of the world to the the martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul;" the other is "The Explanatory Catechism of Christian Doctrine chiefly intended for the use of children in Catholic Schools." Of the former one million and fifty thousand copies have been printed; the latter, issued six years later, has as yet only passed its half million. And some of us, poor authors, never reach our first thousand!

9. A Dream of Lilies. By Katherine E. Conway. (Boston: The Pilot Publishing Co.) This is the third edition of a beautiful volume prized by many of our readers. A great many of the poems are on sacred themes, and most of them could be read on one's knees before the altar. Their high inspiration as poems is worthy of their deep piety as prayers. Miss Conway's literary reputation as a writer of prose bespoke public favour for her poetry; but even with the large audience that she has secured, especially on her own side of the Atlantic, we are astonished that a volume, so daintily and therefore so expensively produced, should have reached so soon a third edition. We hope that in the next edition a lower standard of mechanical perfection will be aimed at, and that these beautiful poems will be given to a still wider circle of readers, printed on every page and on

less sumptuous pages. Of works that are well worth reading often, we prefer plain, work-day editions to éditions de luxe.

10. We mentioned in a previous paragraph a new penny tract published by the Catholic Truth Society-" Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament" by the Rev. George Bampfield. We mention. it now again in the hope of inducing many of our readers to become its readers. It is a very exquisite devotional treatise which, brought out in the ordinary way, would cost, not a penny, but at least a shilling. We think that we have seen nothing so good from the pen of its clever author. It explains very attractively the object and nature of a religious rite very dear to all pious hearts. For the practical reason just given for mentioning this little tract a second time, we cannot refrain from mentioning for more than a second time the astoundingly low price set upon the third edition of Father Gallwey's "Watches of the Passion." With well executed pictures, plans, and maps; with excellent paper, printing, and binding; each of the two volumes of this learned and very pious work, containing each more than seven hundred pages, is now given for three shillings. At least every convent should supply itself with a copy.

11. The German Publisher, B. Herder, of Freiburg, has houses also in Vienna, Munich, and Strassburg, and across the Atlantic, in St. Louis, Missouri. It is chiefly for the United States that he issues his English publications. The latest of these that have come into our hands are two of "The Tales of Foreign Lands" by Father Joseph Spillman, S.J., one being a tale of Japan, the other a tale of the Caucasus The Queen's Nephew," and "Children of Mary." Both are interesting and of course edifying; and Miss Helena Long has done the German Jesuit justice in her very skilful translation.

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12. Another German-American Firm which we have occasion to name very frequently in these book-notes-Benziger Brothers--have issued an illustrated edition of the New Testament, with clear type, a hundred really good pictures, and strong neat binding. It can be had from Burns and Oates and also R. Wasbourne in London; from M. H. Gill and Son in Dublin; and indeed from all Catholic booksellers.

13. As regards the increase of their accidental glory in heaven, none of the blessed can fare so well as the Founders of Religious Orders. Their children never forget them. A remarkable example of this is St. Alphonsus Liguori. We have frequently spoken of the fine Centenary Edition of his ascetical works brought out by the Redemptorist Fathers in the United States, and indeed we have returned to the subject in an earlier paragraph of these present Notes. Another less costly tribute is paid to the Founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer by one of his Irish sons, the Rev. J.

Magnier, C.SS.R., who has already issued sixteen penny Numbers, containing the smaller select works of St. Alphonsus, which may also be had in two shilling volumes well printed and well bound. These pious treatises have never been given so fully before in English, though Father Magnier most properly begins his work by expressing his profound gratitude to the late Dr. Nicholas Callan of Maynooth, who translated, and the late James Duffy of Wellington Quay, Dublin, who published, many of the devotional writings of Saint Liguori. The present series is issued by the representatives of that great Irish Catholic publisher, Messrs. James Duffy & Co., Limited, 15 Wellington Quay, Dublin.

14. The Firm just named are the publishers also of a volume which would have been placed first in this month's list if it had come into our hands soon enough. "The Spouse of Christ, or the Church of the Crucified." It is "a dogmatic and historic poem in four parts," of which two parts only are here given; and the author is the Very Rev. James Canon Casey, P.P., well known in the diocese of Elphin as a zealous and edifying priest, and well known on both sides of the Atlantic as the author of "Verses on Doctrinal and Devotional Subjects" and as an ardent advocate of Temperance in theory and practice. His various volumes, though all in metre, have all run through two or three editions. The same fate will speedily befall "The Spouse of Christ." The first part describes the nature and attributes of the True Church of God; and here the poet seems to us more successful than in Part II., which is a metrical history of the Church down to the time of St. Antony the Hermit. There is more unity of subject in Part I., and indeed we doubt if Canon Casey's Muse made a judicious choice when she undertook a metrical chronicle of ecclesiastical history, even from the special point of view which shows to us in that history another proof of the divinity of the one Church Catholic. Many of the episodes and personages of that history would be admirable themes for poetry, when taken separately; but it would be a perilous undertaking to versify Alzog or Rohrbacher. Thomas Davis's scheme for a complete and consecutive Ballad History of Ireland would have been a failure, however admirably certain battles or certain vivid moments of her story might be sung. At any rate we are glad that the Poet-Pastor of Athleague has not waited to complete his design, but has given us at once this excellent metrical summary of the treatise De Ecclesia which is sure to be studied with pleasure and profit by a wide circle of readers. It can only be by design that so skilful a master of the smooth heroic couplet allows such names as "Maximinian " to disturb its harmony now and then; but the eleventh line of page 83 has been shorn of two syllables. But few of Canon Casey's readers will scan his lines so jealously.

15. "Disunion and Reunion" is a volume of 170 pages, brought out by Messrs. Burns and Oates with their usual good taste, and containing the substance of twenty-four lectures by the Rev. W. J. Madden in the Catholic Standard of Auckland. The work goes back farther than most of the controversial treatises of the day, discussing the causes which led to the lamentable disunion prevailing amongst those who call themselves Christians. A small space is given to the Greek Schism and Photius, and of course a much larger space to Luther and Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. The true reformation wrought by the Church herself is the subject of the two concluding chapters of this useful, interesting, and well written book.

16. The Death of the Blessed Virgin, and her Assumption. From the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich. By George Richardson. (Dublin: James Duffy and Co.)

We question the utility of publishing detached portions of these contemplations; we should prefer to have the whole edited by a theologian. The little book has been very neatly brought out; the binding is particularly tasteful.

The

17. A pleasant sixpence worth of humour, wit and wisdom, is the new edition of "The Book of Modern Irish Anecdotes" edited by Patrick Kennedy, and published by M. H. Gill and Son, 50 Upper O'Connell Street. Mr. Kennedy, who died several years ago, was the author of "The Banks of the Boro," "Evenings in the Duffrey," and many other most entertaining and most meritorious works. present compilation does not consist of inane jokes but of interesting anecdotes that for the most part concern persons remarkable in Irish History or Literature. But as Swift, Sheridan, Curran, Moore, and O'Connell figure largely in these pages, they are of course brimful of fun. Although the index is in very small type, it cannot, in four pages, indicate the treasures contained in two hundred pages.

18. No publisher's name is given on the title-page of "Belfast To-day," a clever brochure written on behalf of the Mater Infirmorum Hospital in Belfast which is under the care of the Sisters of Mercy. It is so cleverly done as almost to belong to Literature, and is sure to enlist the sympathy of many in favour of the noble institution which it champions.

19. We must reserve for fuller appreciation next month a new volume of Conferences by the late Father Dignam, S.J., and three stories, "A Long Probation," "Dorothy Close," and "The Taming of Polly." This last comes from the United States, as do also three admirable Periodicals, "Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia," "The American Catholic Quarterly," and "The American Ecclesiastical Review" which furnishes its priestly readers with 120 pages per month of excellent and instructive matter. We hope that our own "Irish Ecclesiastical Record" makes its way into every parish in Ireland; but we are sure that its most attentive readers would have a welcome also for "the American Ecclesiastical Review."

JULY, 1897.

THE GOLDEN JUBILEE OF O'CONNELL'S DEATH.

EXACT

XACTLY half a century has gone by since Daniel O'Connell died at Genoa on the 15th May, 1847. The dead are soon forgotten, and nations have short memories; but O'Connell is not forgotten, and Ireland loves him still. A Jubilee is usually held in commemoration of joyful events, such as births are supposed to be; yet in the Christian Martyrology the natalis of a martyr is the day of his death, the day of his birth into true life. Thanks be to God, we are justified in hoping and believing that the holy death of our great Catholic Liberator was but his passage into everlasting life. The circumstances of it were thus referred to in the Cathedral of Armagh by Father Keane, O.P., during the celebration of its fiftieth anniversary:

"In Genoa the Superb, this very week fifty years ago, when the midnight chime was tolling, there went through the streets a procession of surpliced clerks with lights and tinkling bells, and prayerful groups of the faithful. They who met it on its way perceived with surprise that it was not one of the ordinary par ochial Clergy who bore the Adorable Sacrament, it was the Cardinal Archbishop himself, and pomp was there such as they had not seen before in the carrying of the Holy Viaticum. They soon learned that the greatest man in the world the famed Irish Chief, was dying in their historic city. There and then he expired, and may the Lord have mercy on his soul! He took his last look at his native land, when, support d on the steamer's deck by the arms of his chaplain and his medical adviser, his tearful eyes saw the beautiful Emerald Isle with the sad cloud of the Famine louring over her. When he shall see her again-not her verdant fields, her lakes and dells, her mountains bold, for all these shall pass away; but her people- the Irish race for whom he toiled and died—when he shall see it again, may it be enthroned and crowned in Heaven!"

VOL. XXV.

No. 289

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