cumstances, and we have sought to solve it; a problem purely of legal proof, and of the force and effect of circumstantial evidence; and above all, the perilous risk of eking out presumptions by prejudice in cases where it exists. It is as an illustration of this, that we have especially felt interested in the case, as displaying the same fatal vice in another form which produced the miscarriage of justice in the case of Father Newman.

We have treated the case of Kirwan, an Orangeman, upon precisely the same principles as we would apply to the trial of Father Newman, or rather of Achilli. In the one case

there was clear and cogent positive proof; in the other, slight and incomplete circumstantial evidence; yet in the former case the verdict was an acquittal, in the latter a conviction; and both alike through prejudice. We, of course, need scarcely say, that the prejudice in one case was vulgar, vile, and vicious; and in the other, rational, natural, and inevitable; but this only confirms our argument, for in proportion to the ground for a prejudice is the likelihood of its being acted upon, even by honest men; and our theme is, the force of prejudice.

THE VILLAGE MONICA.*

It was a nest of English homes
By open green and burn;

Such scene as he that longest roams
Sees not till he return.

A thousand hamlets shine as fair
On England's bosom broad,

But one thing rare-the Cross stood there
Of the true Church of God.

Seemed there all blessed things to meet,-
England's fresh hue, free eye,

Her peace, law, strength, and-oh, most sweet!
God's way to live and die.

Old friend, how I delayed to reach

Thy garden's trellised door,

Lest I should hear a stranger's speech

In the dwelling thine no more.

* A recent incident narrated to the writer by a priest cognisant of the facts.

"Sir, she is well, though bent her knee
With palsy cold; but, sir,

We pray you rest with us to see
To-morrow's change on her."

"What mean you, friends?" Still they replied: "Just as these ten years past

She holds on still, but the life-tide

Is now to ebb at last.

God will not fail: for forty years
She hath prayed on in pain,
That He would brim her cup with tears,
Nor loose her from life's chain,

Till He should conquer by His grace
The fierce soul of her son;

Now He hath looked him in the face,
And the victory is won.

And she asked too, and made us ask,
That the same blessed day

That won him back might end her task
And lift her soul away.

Three weeks ago the mission came,-
Those holy saints of God,

That have set every heart on flame
Wherever they have trod.

Then on the evil man at last

God's sudden sunbeam smiled;

He hath been to shrift these three nights past, And his soul is reconciled.

She, sir, as yet knows not a word,

But to-morrow Sunday is,

And when her son receives the Lord
She will be called to bliss.

But not at morning hour with those
That to Communion pass
Will he go up alone he goes
At the high noon-tide Mass,

Before all people to proclaim

That he hath turned from sin,
And shew, mid mingled joy and shame,
How God the lost can win.

After thanksgiving, sir, how soon
Will not he homeward fly!

And so we think, not long past noon
She will prepare to die."

Ah, the sweet faith with which was told
Their simple thought! even such
As drew forth power in streams of old
From His mere garment's touch.

And so it was. The King of Love
Entered the weeping man

Even at mid-day, while far above

New angel hymns began.

Twice struck the hour: I raised with awe

The latch, and glided in;

A weak form on the couch I saw

Two raised hands pale and thin

And the prayers for a passing soul I heard,
Broken by tears and sighing,-

That son weeping out the Church's word

By the knees of that mother dying!

Then the tapers burned, and the Priest in his stole
Did the dread sweet rites fulfil;

“I thank Thee, Lord," she said; and her soul
In the arms of her God lay still.

R. M.

Reviews.

MRS. CHISHOLM AND EMIGRATION.

The Story of the Life of Mrs. Caroline Chisholm. Trelawney Saunders, London.

Evidence before the Committee of the House of Lords upon Emigration, 1847 and 1848.

THE great moral law which regulates our social life declaring that by our fruits we shall be known, has made every man the centre of a circle within which his duties lie. Of those circles, some are wide, others narrow; but the amount of exertion required from those who are called upon to labour within their respective spheres is the same; because of every one it is demanded that he should exercise his entire powers, that he should work with all his heart and with all his strength. These circles are as numerous and as varied as the conditions of human life. They are ever shifting, yet ever the same. Within them the action of our being is carried on with motions combined, but never conflicting; inseparably associated, but yet distinct; rapid as the whirlwind, but with a measured regularity. They contract, they expand; they glow forth, and

again they all but disappear: each, though perfect in itself, is an essential unit in the great moral whole. They are like the stars of heaven, borne in their several orbits, but presenting to the careless observer an aspect of inaction: like them, when contemplated by a humble but inquiring mind, they astonish by their multiplicity and vastness, their confusion and distinctness, their elaborateness and simplicity, till we bow the head and lower the eye, and confess, "Surely there is one who has framed, and who directs the moral and the physical world-surely God is all, and man is nothing."

The first reward of the services of those who devote their energies to the good of others, is the expansion of their own circles of duty and of usefulness. When Mr. Nicholls first established himself in a retired rural locality, he quickly perceived the wasting effects of the poor-law system then in operation, and devoted his active mind to the consideration of the means by which its defects might be remedied. His exertions were at first confined to the parish in which he lived; and within that narrow circle he succeeded in carrying into effect most valuable reforms. The neighbouring parishes sought his aid, and formed a union, within which his wise and really beneficent principles were adopted. Pauperism diminished, poorrates fell, morality improved, and industry bounded forward. It was found that whilst the expense of supporting the poor became less, the sources from which that expense was supplied became enlarged by the stimulus of industry and the application of capital in its proper direction. Mr. Nicholls, having tested his doctrines by experiment, advocated them by his pen. He continued to do" what his hand found to do." Public attention was attracted. He entered into correspondence with the government, which, after various promotions, at last placed him in Ireland in a high official capacity, and founded the Irish poor-law on his report. We are far from giving our assent to all Mr. Nicholls' doctrines; much less are we disposed to approve of the Irish poor-law, in which his most solemn admonitions and wisest precautions have been disregarded; but we cite the example to prove with what elasticity the sphere of usefulness expands before the exertion of him who works within it. Whilst he thinks, and writes, and acts, his own ideas become enlarged. He grasps the details, follows where his subject leads, and is guided insensibly onwards far beyond the limits which at first bounded his view.

Another result of individual exertion for the common good is the institution of combined action. Sympathy is strong within our hearts, a spark suffices to inflame it. No good man ever laboured long for his fellow-man unassisted the

impulse of charity spreads as it were by contagion; the careless and inanimate plodders along the paths of selfish life waken to a sense of their usefulness; they shake off their sloth, and, recollecting that they are members of the great human family, join with a noble emulation in the work of charity. Nor are the consequences of a combination for good to be found less in the extent of services than in their durability, or rather their permanent progression. The good which an unaided man has done may die with him; but if he has associated with, and, as it were, attracted to himself a body of fellow-labourers, he has organised a source of supply that lasts for ever; the solitary impulse of an individual is perpetuated in an abiding system, and has proved the first germ of a cooperative continuity. The conquerors of the world pursue their course alone. They overthrow, or they sustain thrones; they enthral or liberate nations; they excite admiration, fear, wonder; they have no associates, they have only instruments; they strut the stage, and die; and what remains? The weak have been made strong, and the strong have been abased. Power has been taken from the hands of those who abused it, and given to those who will abuse it again; but, except in those rare instances in which the hand that acts has been guided by Christian principle, or restrained by Christian love, no permanent change has been effected in the general happiness of the human race. It is not so with the heroes of daily life their course is silent, their progress steady; they are strong because they are humble; they succeed because they are disinterested; they have drawn mankind nearer to his Creator by improving his social or his religious condition; and they form part of that great chain of reformers who have ever worked in secret for the gradual amelioration of man.

These remarks have been suggested to us by the little work the title of which stands first at the head of this article, and which contains some account of one of the most remarkable women of modern times. Mrs. Chisholm's name is now well known both in private society and in the deliberative assemblies of England and the Colonies. Thousands are indebted to her for all that they possess of health, of hope, and of happiness. To estimate the effect of her exertions, two things, however, are necessary. We must understand the nature and extent of those social evils with which she has contended so bravely; and we must become acquainted with the deplorable effects which have resulted from the neglect, on the part of governments and legislatures, of efforts such as those so successfully made by an unassisted individual, and that individual a woman.