the Catholic members of the government. The moment the noble lord resumed his seat, Mr. Keogh, the Irish Solicitor-General, intimated his fixed resolution at once to dissociate himself from the minister who could be so base to his own colleagues and supporters. The next day Mr. Sadleir intimated his intention to resign; and yesterday both these gentlemen, as well as Mr. Monsell, Clerk of the Ordnance, and Sir Thomas Redington, Joint Secretary of the Board of Control, communicated to the Prime Minister their determination to resign their respective offices. We believe this step was much desired by the Whig members of the cabinet, and that it has been equally distasteful to the Premier and the Duke of Newcastle. We wish these gentlemen had never taken office; but though we disapproved for many reasons of their conduct in that respect, we will do them the justice to say that their resignation under the circumstances does them credit.

66

IRELAND.-The Dublin Exhibition was opened with great pomp on the 17th of May. It is still however, incomplete. Hardly one-half of the goods," says the Celt Correspondent, "have yet found their proper places-and some of the most interesting compartments are absolutely vacant. In particular, there is no representation of France or America. The Zollverein, and Belgium are getting slowly into order-England is filling rapidly and the Irish department nearly settled. There is no catalogue published yetand in the constant alterations that are taking place, you cannot conceive how difficult it is to attempt giving a proper idea of it.

"The Picture Gallery is the great centre of attraction, and it is crowded every day with gay groupes of fashionables. It is a superb spectacle. Some of the best paintings in the English and foreign collections, public and private, have been swept into it, by the indefatigable canvassing of the Secretary. Maclise, Mulready, and Danby, the great Irish artists; Etty, Stanfield, Landseer, and Turner, the masters of the modern English school, are side by side with the finest hands of Belgium, France and Germany. Here again, however, in the absence of a catalogue, one writes very much at random.

"Of this, be assured, that the Exhibition is a decided success. Even the English press, so prone to deny every thing Irish, admits that the building is finer than the Crystal Palace, and, although there is not such a profuse display of goods, that the attractions of our Exhibition are greater. English and foreign tourists are beginning to tumble in, in myriads, and Dublin promises to be unusually gay during the summer.

Parliament has rejected the appropriation of £1,200 for the repairs of Maynooth. The Rev. John Kilduff, of Philsborough, has received Bulls appointing him to the vacant see of Ardagh.

About $50,000 have already been raised in the United States for the Catholic University in Ireland.

A Provincial Council was opened at Dublin on the 2d of June, the Most Rev. Dr. Cullen presiding. The following prelates, with a large number of clergymen, were present: Rt. Rev. Dr. Whelan, bishop of Aureliopolis, Rt. Rev. Dr. O'Conner, bishop of Saldes, Rt. Rev. Dr. Murphy, bishop of Ferns, Rt. Rev. Dr. Walsh, of Ossory, Rt. Rev. Dr. Haly, of Kildare and Leighlin.

ROME. The ceremony of the Beatification of Father Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionists, was celebrated on Sunday, the 1st of May, with great pomp, in the Basilica of St. Peter. Our readers know the rite of this sacred function, which we had occasion to describe when Blessed Claver was placed upon the altars. It consists essentially in the solemn reading of the Apostolic Brief, which declares that the servant of God is ranked in the number of the blessed, and that he may be honored as such.

After the reading of the new Brief, the picture, representing the apotheosis of the new Saint, is uncovered, his relic is incensed, and all the assistants fall on their knees to pray to the Protector whom the Church Militant has just acquired in Heaven. The "Te Deum" is then sung in thanksgiving to God, the proper prayer of the Blessed is recited, and the first Mass in his honor is solemnly celebrated.

That is a moment always full of emotion, and well calculated to draw tears from the eyes, wherein the servant of God is placed before the eyes of the Faithful, as in hea.

venly glory, and is saluted by the cannon of Fort St. Angelo, by the bells of the Basilica, by the trumpet of the soldiery, by the chant of the Ambrosian hymn, and by the prayers and supplications of the kneeling multitude.

Ceremonies of this kind have always the privilege of attracting to St. Peter's vast numbers of the Faithful. All wish to be the first to offer their homage to the Blessed. They wish also to enjoy the pomp of the solemnity. They wish to admire the decorations and the illumination of the tribune of the Basilica.

There has rarely been seen on a like occasion, so numerous a multitude as that which on Sunday filled the vast enclosure of the vastest temple in the world. Independently of motives of piety and curiosity which exist at the celebration of all Beatifications, the population of Rome wished to give to the Congregation of the Passionists a testimony of its sympathy and affection.

HAYTI. The Right Rev. Vincent Spaccapietra arrived at Port au Prince, in the month of May, as delegate from the Holy See to the court of the emperor. He was received by the people and the emperor with every demonstration of respect.

DEATHS.-Father Roothan, Superior-General of the Society of Jesus, died at Rome on the 8th of May, A notice of this eminent man will appear in our next number. At Paris, on the 3d of May, the illustrious statesman, orator and writer, Donoso Cortes, Marquis de Valdegamas, and ambassador of Spain at the French court. His death has created a great void in Catholic literature. We copy the following notice from the Celt. "JUAN DONOSO CORTES was born in Estramudura, in 1809, and had not reached his 44th year. So early as 1832, he was distinguished in his own province, as a champion of the present dynasty. Having soon after removed to Madrid, he became a lecturer on history, edited a newspaper, or magazine, and wrote some law tracts and political pamphlets. A discerning and generous government, encouraged his talents and rewarded his industry. He entered the Cortes, as a Moderado' politician, and between 1840 and '50, was considered one of the first orators in Spain. Successively minister to Berlin and Paris, he has distinguished himself still farther, among those able and loyal Spaniards, who labor so hard for the restoration of the former greatness of their country, when they strenuously keep clear of all revolutionary collusion. Above all and before all, the late statesman was a devout and consistent Catholic. Not only in his personal conduct, but in all he wrote, spoke and thought, the doctrines of our religion inspired him. In his youth, he had a bad fit of liberalism, but having emerged from it manfully, he dedicated all his great power, to the serving of our Holy Mother and Mistress, the Church. For such a man, the best memento that can be made, is a fervent prayer for the eternal repose of his soul."

The celebrated Lazarist, Father Gabet, missionary in Thibet with Father Huc, the narrative of whose travels has obtained such world-wide fame, died at Rio Janeiro, of yellow fever, on the 3d of March last.

Obituary. It is our painful duty to record this month the demise of Mr. Fielding Lucas, who departed this life on the 7th of June, aged 41 years. By his gentle disposition and urbanity of manners he had acquired the esteem of all who knew him. In his business transactions and habits he was distinguished for his assiduity, industry, and integrity. But in the midst of his usefulness he was snatched from life, deeply regretted by his family and friends, yet not without the consolation which Christian hope inspires. During his protracted sickness he bore his sufferings with a patience and resignation which edified all around him, and with the divine grace he became so disengaged from the world as to wish to be released from the bonds of mortality and to be with God. While we sympathise with his afflicted family, we congratulate them upon the happiness of witnessing in their midst a death so edifying and so promising for eternity. R. I P. PERSONAL. The Rev. Dr. Atkinson, of Baltimore, has been elected, it is said, to fill the place of Protestant Bishop of North Carolina, vacated by Dr. Ives.

Archbishop Mosquera, of Bogota, left this country recently for Europe.

The Right Rev. Dr. O'Reilly, Bishop of Hartford, and the Right Rev. Dr. Spalding, of Louisville, lately on a visit to Europe, have returned to the United States.

In reviewing a work of fiction written by a Catholic, a critic whom we highly esteem for his genius and wisdom, observed, "if we are to have fiction, he is probably as well fitted to give it to us as any one," or words to that effect, implying (at least on the surface) a doubt whether it is best to have fiction at all. Probably this was not the meaning of the illustrious publicist to whom we refer, but as the doubt itself is perhaps sufficiently common, we propose in the following paper to weigh it in the scales of practical philosophy, and ascertain, if possible, its validity. Catholic morality and Catholic prudence ought to give no faint, uncertain, hesitating response on such a question, but one which the simplest can understand and the obedient may follow. If fiction be wrong and pernicious, shall we be afraid to say so like men? If it be innocent and salutary, in itself considered, shall we throw a damper on the industry and genius of those who would fain provide it of the right kind, by sneering at it and them? Let us begin by saying that we submit the whole to the authority, whenever that shall deign to speak, of our holy Mother, and of those who teach in her name, and that the whole object of our discussion is to elicit truth, as far as simple, common sense may do it.

If we take the proposition, then, in the concrete, there is no doubt that the reading of novels may safely be pronounced injurious. That is, because almost all novels are filled with false views of life, are addressed to the passions, which they tend to stimulate, and the greater part of them inculcate directly or indirectly the love of frivolity, if not of absolute vice. Moreover, novel-reading is in itself an exciting, enervating, dissipating amusement, which relaxes the moral powers, exhausts the intellectual energies, and the organic force on which mental exertion depends, and so unfits and indisposes the mind for severer labors, and the will for the great and rude conflict of virtue.

All this and more I willingly concede to the enemies of novels, and it is enough to justify the terms in which this class of works is usually condemned by those who have the care of souls. The long and short of it is that novel-reading, when carried to excess, becomes a vice, and that a great many novels are pernicious in sentiment, and unfit to be read under any circumstances: a general warning, therefore, against them is fully warranted, the sense of which is that they are not to be read indiscriminately, and that it would be far better to read too few than too 38 VOL. I.-No. 7.

many. But, on the other hand, is it possible or even desirable that there should be no novels at all? Assuredly it is not possible to prevent the production of novels. They are published, by a moderate computation, at the rate of two or three per diem, French, German, English and American, omitting all mention of the innumerable tales which find their way to the public through periodicals. It is wonderful how they all find readers; yet they do. Many of them have an immense sale. Within the last eighteen months (indeed it is less) millions of copies have been sold of " Uncle Tom" alone. This does not look like novel-writing and publishing, or novel-buying and reading, coming to an end. The fact is that unless the millenium which some of our Protestant friends are still expecting, should actually arrive at last, there is not the remotest likelihood of a cessation of the stream of fiction so long as grass grows or water runs, or the imagination of man retains its fertility, or the passions do not cease to bud and blossom and bear fruit. The stream but grows broader and deeper as it rolls on. The finest and most philosophic intellects contribute to swell it with the most elaborate productions of their genius and their skill; the most accurate observation of men and of society, the keenest satire, the most delicate analysis of character, the most varied experience and knowledge, are brought to bear upon the production of works of fiction, which are no longer planned and written merely to amuse the leisure of girls and boys, but to instruct, to persuade, to extend political and religious ideas, to sap the fourdations of society and of religion, or to defend both against the unceasing assaults of radicalism and infidelity. It is no more possible not to read novels, than it is to prevent their production. They have become a power in the state, they thrill the heart of peoples and nations, and raise half humanity in insurrection to carry out the ideas they promulgate. Socialistic novels overturned the throne of Louis Philippe. Anti-Catholic novels are the source of half the current prejudices and obstinate misconceptions which inflame the hearts of Protestants against the Church, the priesthood, the religious orders, and even against private Catholics; and such influence, before now, has instilled the furious hatred and suspicion which committed convents and churches to the flames.

I have before me a novel written by one of the most distinguished pens in England-a female author of the highest celebrity and undoubted genius. Before reading it I had seen a number of laudatory reviews and notices, as well in English as in American literary organs, all couched in terms of high, although not unqualified, praise, all speaking of it simply as a literary work, without a hint of its bearing any other character, and I was consequently induced to read it. Somewhat to my surprise I found it a bitter anti-Catholic production, and a most plausible one too, full of apparent candor, speaking from apparent knowledge of what passes in Catholic countries and in the bosom of Catholic families, yet really, passionate, one-sided, unfair, and extremely well calculated by its appeals to the natural feelings, to enlist them all against our holy religion. Not one of its English or American reviewers has ever noticed this peculiarity, whether for praise or censure; and under cover of what we may fairly call this "Jesuitical" silence, the poison gains currency-a controversial book passes for a tale of passion, and what mischief it does, Heaven only knows.

Indeed, it may be affirmed, for that matter, that there is not a single work of fiction, emanating from Protestants, which does not directly or indirectly assail the faith or morals of the Catholic Church. The method of resisting these assaults and of carrying the war into the enemy's country, by a well-directed fire of philosophical and moral criticism, based on Catholic dogma, reducing to ashes the literary

and ethical outworks of the foe, knowing that the citadel itself must be battered down by another force, this, I say, seems the only resource of a layman. It is the only resource except one-that of writing counter-fictions, to take the place of such mischievous works, and in some measure to neutralize their influence.

That fictions of this sort-I mean Catholic stories and novels-will be written, is also, I think, certain, unless you can contrive to clap an extinguisher on the imagination of Catholics, and dry up the fountains of fancy and sentiment in every Catholic bosom. Otherwise it is impossible but that the beauties and pathos of Catholic history, the varieties and the dramatic capabilities of Catholic domestic life, will strike the thoughtful perception and awaken the inspiration of Catholic writers. Breathing a literary atmosphere, nursed with the artistic beauty of a noble national literature, of which works of fiction form a large part, it is inevitable that they will endeavor to reproduce what they admire. All Catholic nations, as soon as they become cultivated, produce a literature, which is tinctured with religious ideas in proportion to the vivacity and tenderness, to the depth and diffusion of their faith. And for my part it seems to me that it ought to be so. The waters of Mara were bitter, but the Lord shewed Moses a tree which, cast into them, turned them into sweetness. The doctrine of the cross purifies and sweetens every thing. Fiction may become not only innocent but salutary, when it paints the beauty of sufferings, teaches the reward of patience, and delineates the progress of the soul towards faith and virtue.

Moreover, it is the object of true fiction, (if I may say so,) not to paint life as it is not, to create a picture better and more attractive than reality, but to show life as it is, and to unfold the beauty that lies hid in the common every day reality of things. The fiction which does not augment our positive knowledge is poor, worthless and uninteresting. It was not for nothing that our Creator implanted this universal passion for fictitious narrative. Besides the stimulus of the intellect, and a thousand almost insensible benefits, of which even the poison of infidelity and sensual fancy cannot entirely deprive this class of writings,* some kinds of knowledge, and those very necessary, can hardly be communicated at all except by the medium of stories. You must have stories for children. All educators feel the necessity. Certain moral truths can be effectively inculcated but by fictitious examples. Fiction is an instrument, then, which we cannot do without. The point is to check its license, to restrain its excesses, to prevent its abuse, to give it a good direction, in fine. The most industrious novel-reader can only dispose of a limited quantity of fiction; it is a point gained if that, or at least, a part of it be innocuous. Ordinary readers can scarcely read more than a few romances in the course of a

*By this we do not mean that novels tainted by infidelity and sensualism are not the most pernicious and deadly of all human writings, with a preponderance of direct evil over the incidental good absolutely incalculable, but merely that even so criminal an abuse of the divinely bestowed gifts of genius and imagination does not exclude some of their natural good effects—a simple truism, which we insert to show our fairness. The boon of existence to the offspring of guilty passion flows from that immense beneficence of the Creator, which human malice cannot defeat, but if, notwithstanding one mortal sin is an evil outweighing all natural good, what is to be said of those books which could not have been written without committing a host of mortal sins, and which cannot be read, under almost any circumstances, without committing a host of others?-Books which directly cause the shipwreck of faith and virtue in untold thousands, and that, perhaps, after the mischievous brain which conceived, and the guilty hand that penned them, have long mouldered into dust.