final cause, and is, therefore, strictly a moral law, founding moral rights and duties. "The authority is not the authority of nature, but of Him who holds nature in the hollow of His hand." The fifth theory is that of "the divine right of kings, and passive obedience." This was the doctrine patronized by the Anglican divines under the Stuarts. It is the doctrine that the right of government is derived immediately and expressly from God, so that power cannot lawfully be wrested from those who are actually in possession of it. This theory rests on a false assumption, and is unfavorable to liberty. The sixth theory derives the civil authority from God, but through the spiritual authority. We came to this chapter with a sharpened curiosity, as we were anxious to know what Dr. Brownson, who still loves liberty, would say of a dogma which was set forth by the great Popes with vehement emphasis. He says: "Many theologians and canonists in the Middle Ages so held, and a few perhaps hold so still. The bulls and briefs of several popes, as Gregory VII., Innocent III., Gregory IX., Innocent IV., and Boniface VIII., have the appearance of favoring it." This phrase, we must say, puts the fact very mildly. After all that the Pontiffs, who are referred to, declared about the giving of the two swords-the temporal and spiritual-to Peter, and about the relation of the secular power to the spiritual as parallel with the relation of the moon to the sun, a much stronger phrase would have better represented the truth. But what-does Dr. Brownson think of the theory? "This theory," he says, "has never been a dogma of the Church, nor, to any great extent, except for a brief period, maintained by theologians and canonists." From which we infer that Dr. Brownson does not accept it. The historical statements by which this remark are surrounded need much revision. "The Pope conferred the imperial dignity on Charlemagne and his successors," says our author. This the Popes are anxious to make the world believe, but they have never succeeded in the attempt. "The suzerainty of the Holy See" over different countries, of which Dr. Brownson speaks, was in most cases a usurpation and a false pretension. Such claims excited indignation and resistance in the day when they were put forward, and, generally speaking, admit of no historical vindication. The seventh theory is that of Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Bellarmin, Suarez, and other theologians, namely, that princes derive their power from God through the people, " or that the people, though not the source, are the medium of all political authority, and therefore rulers are account

able for the use they make of their power to both God and the people." This theory is pronounced to be essentially sound, but is defective in not explaining how authority comes from God to the people. The eighth theory is the one which Dr. Brownson adopts, and it is stated as follows: "The right of government to govern, or political authority, is derived by the collective people or society, from God through the law of nature. Supposing a political people or nation, the sovereignty rests in the community by the natural law, or the law by which God governs the whole moral creation." The nation to which sovereignty thus belongs, is providentially constituted. The State-as distinguished from the government-is not of human make, but arises in the providential order. It is not the people, considered as a collection of individuals, but the people "fixed to the soil"-the territorial people, who make up the respublica. Dr. Brownson is careful to distinguish his doctrine from that of "individual democracy," and from the doctrine of "socialistic democracy." These two theories are cherished by European liberals, whom this volume unsparingly condemns. It is a defect of the present work, as we think, that it fails to define sufficiently the characteristics of that "people," in whom sovereignty is supposed to be vested. And the doctrine of abolitionists is not to be confounded with European socialism. There may be a humanitarian democracy which respects both natural rights and political guarantees.

The second part of Dr. Brownson's work is devoted to the consideration of the American system of government. He maintains truly that the States comprising the Union were never disunited or isolated political communities. He contends, therefore, that they were never severally possessed of sovereignty; that sovereignty belongs to them as united States. On this subject he departs from the principles of Madison and Webster, whose reasoning he considers to be vitiated, in a degree, by the social-compact theory of government. In framing the Constitution, Dr. Brownson claims, the several States did not part with a portion of their sovereignty, creating a new sovereign distinct from themselves. No State could thus surrender sovereignty, for it could not give away what it did not possess. Sovereignty, before and after the framing of the Constitution, vests in the State as united. He even considers this theory essential, if we would make secession invalid. Here we cannot but think that his reasoning is fallacious. He affirms that a State could not part with its sovereignty except to

a sovereign already existing. Why not? Why not give existence, by an irreversible act, to a new sovereignty which absorbs a portion of the sovereignty previously existing in the parties which give being to the new State? Dr. Brownson agrees with Mr. Sumner in holding to the doctrine of "State-suicide." A State by the act of secession goes out from the Union, but thereby comes under the Union. It is thrown into a territorial condition. All its local laws are still in force, except so far as war abolishes them, but it has no further rights or claims as a State. We cannot, in this place, enter into the controversy upon this important question. We contend, however, that the General Government which has carried this great war to a successful termination has the rights of a conqueror, and is qualified to exact such guarantees of the rebellious district as shall ensure future tranquillity. It is not essential that an explicit provision to this effect should be found in the Constitution. It is a right founded in nature and recognized in public law. There must be a settlement after such a civil war, and to maintain that the Government at the moment of complete victory, and by that circumstance, is disarmed and disabled, except so far as the trial and punishment of individual rebels is concerned, is to set up a doctrine at war with common sense. Effectual measures of security may be adopted, sure guarantees may be extorted, and we trust that blind faith or an easy good nature, or political selfishness and cunning, will not be suffered to deprive the country of the legitimate fruits of the war.

We have not space for additional observations upon Dr. Brownson's treatise. We reiterate the expression of our satisfaction that so able and high-toned a discussion-however marred by some theoretical errors-should have been given to the public.

MISCELLANEOUS.

COMPLETE WORKS OF ARCHBISHOP HUGHES.*-The late archbishop Hughes was not a very great nor a very learned theologian. His mind was not formed for profound and subtle speculation, nor was it capable of being strongly exercised by those principles and questions which underlie and penetrate every form of

* Complete Works of the Most Rev. John Hughes, D. D., Archbishop of New York; comprising his Sermons, Letters, Lectures, Speeches, etc., carefully compiled from the best sources, and edited by LAWRENCE KEHOE. New York: Lawrence Kehoe. 1866. 2 vols. 8vo. pp 668, 796.

Christian theology. He was no Aquinas nor Bellarmine, still less, was he formed by nature, by culture, or by grace, to be eminent for saintly devotion or for ecstatic rapture. He was no Thomas A. Kempis, nor Saint Bernard, nor was he inspired with a fervent care for men, like the founders of many of the monastic orders. But he was a great Ecclesiastical Prelate, made great by his eminent adaptation to the class of people that belonged to the Romish church in the dioceses which he ruled, and to the circumstances of trial and couflict by which they were surrounded. His administration was marked by great ability and eminent success. He was confronted with antagonists of great skill and intellectual power, who represented a powerful public sentiment. The political difficulties with which he was continually beset, he contrived to turn to the service of his cause, and he came at last to be acknowledged as a politician of no mean resources and no contemptible influence. He erected many churches, founded a multitude of monastic and other institutions. He was foremost to contend with every assailant of the Romish church. He was equally adroit and wiley when he addressed an Irish mob, who came directly from plunder and murder to the threshhold of his palace, partly in defiance, partly in fear; and when he entered the lists with a skillful and plain spoken writer or preacher who uttered plain truth that carried the convictions of all but the bigoted.

His collected writings are of no inconsiderable value, containing as they do the history of his own able and skillful administration, and incidentally revealing the history of the moods and attitudes of Protestantism during the period which this administration covers. They are most instructive as giving one most important phase of the times for some thirty years. They are no less interesting and valuable as revealing the movements of a mind of great administrative and strategic power. Any Protestant clergyman can learn much from these volumes.

AGASSIZ' GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES.*-These papers were prepared from notes for extemporaneous lectures, and originally published in the " Atlantic Monthly." They are properly supplementary to the "Method of study in Natural History" which had a similar origin and history. The topics of which they treat are as follows: America and the Old World, The Silurian Beach, The

* Geological Sketches. By L. AGASSIZ. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1866. Small 12mo. pp. 311. New Haven: T. H. Pease. Price $1.50.

Fern Forests of the Carboniferous Period, Mountains and their origin, The Growth of Continents, the Gological Middle Age, The Tertiary Age, and its characteristic Animals, The Formation of Glaciers, Internal structure and progression of Glaciers, External appearance of Glaciers. These topics are all of the highest interest, both to the scientific student and to the general reader, and they are treated by their author with his charateristic power and interest. His power of lucid and fascinating exposition approaches to genius. He invests common facts and wornout principles with a new charm and takes us step by step most easily up to the comprehension of the broadest and most inaccessible generalizations. We find ourselves at home, we scarcely know by what secret method of initiation, among the results of modern Geology and Paleontology. Prof. Agassiz is peculiar, we had almost said singular, in another particular. The study of nature is under his direction a study of the thoughts of the Creator. The investigation of the Geologic periods and the Geologic progress is a review of the original plan and anticipations of the intelligent author of the universe and of the conditions of its History. These views of his are presented, though not obtruded, on almost every page of this volume. Hence the value and interest of the work for the student of Natural Theology, and its great usefulness to counteract the both subtle and arrogant advocates of the doctrine of development or emanation, who are so numerous and influential among living physicists.

THE SOUTH SINCE THE WAR.*-These letters were written in the months of September, October, and November, 1865, in the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, chiefly for the Boston Advertiser and the Chicago Tribune. They are now with some additional matter published in a volume. They are written by a sharp observer and an apparently candid and honest judge. They are of great interest and value at the present time, and hereafter will be esteemed of priceless worth by all who wish to know what was the state of feeling and opinion at the South very soon after the war came to an end.

* The South since the War: as shown by fourteen weeks of travel and observation in Georgia and the Carolinas. By SIDNEY ANDREWS. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1866. 18mo. pp. 400.