176 SHORT NOTICES. THERE is no branch of pulpit oratory in which it is more difficult to excel than that which is commonly known by the name of “funeral sermons." We have had two instances lately, however, to which the palm of excellence must certainly be awarded; one by the Bishop of Southwark upon Mr. Pugin, which we fear has been left to an ephemeral existence which it did not deserve, by being published only in the columns of a newspaper; the other by Dr. Weedall upon the late Earl of Shrewsbury, which has just been published separately (London, Dolman). It is worthy both of its writer and its subject. It abounds with quotations from Holy Scripture, in a way which reminds us of mediæval or more ancient writers; whilst it portrays in very vivid colours the character of a truly Christian nobleman of the present day, such as the Earl of Shrewsbury pre-eminently was. The last number of the Dublin Review (Richardson, London,) will be heartily welcomed by all classes of readers; the articles on Japan, and Shetland and Iceland, will supply very agreeable food for those who are in quest of light reading; those on Christian political economy, on the French controversy as to the use of the Classics (very closely reasoned, and following the juste milieu), and on Bunsen's "Hippolytus and his Age," are of a more solid character; whilst the beautiful contrast between the two Dukes, the article on De Maistre, and that upon Convents-full of most valuable statistics-will be acceptable to all. We wish we had received Meditations on the Holy Childhood of our Blessed Lord, taken from the French, (London, Richardson,) in time to recommend it at its proper season. The Meditations, however, which are very sweet and simple, will be found suited to all seasons, and to contain "nourishment and counsel," as the title truly says, "for every circumstance of life." The Church and the Bible: how are they related to one another? (London, Burns and Lambert.) This important question is very ably answered in a popular form in this little publication, which is made up of five or six of the Clifton Tracts, together with a long and really valuable preface, forming an introduction to the whole. This is the first instalment of what had been long promised by the Editors, that they would collect into separate volumes all the tracts treating of the same subject; and we think they will be found very useful in this form. The present series consists of "The Church the Guardian of the Bible, and the Church the Witness, the Interpreter, the Dispenser, and our Instructor in Scripture." We have received Lady Bird, a tale by Lady Georgiana Fullerton (London, Moxon), and a second and cheap edition of Bertha, or the Pope and the Emperor (Dublin, Duffy). We must reserve them both for a more lengthened notice in our next Number. Meanwhile we strongly recommend them both to the attention of our readers. Obituary. Of your charity pray for the soul of MR. ROBERT THOMPSON, who departed this life at Tonbridge Wells, on Monday, January 10th, aged 64, fortified with all the rites of holy Church. R. I. P. LONDON: PRINTED BY LEVEY, KOBSON, AND FRANKLYN, Great New Street and Fetter Lane. The Power of the Pope in the Middle Ages; trans- lated from the French of Abbé Gosselin by the Rev. CATHOLIC NOVELISTS. Lady Bird; a Tale by Lady Geor- To Correspondents. Notice.-The "Short Notices " Number. are unavoidably omitted from this L. B. H., Tours. Declined with thanks. E. S. P., C Square. Declined with thanks. C. T. The Number of the Rambler which you require (that for December, 1850) is unfortunately out of print. Our Publishers will give full price for a copy of it in good condition, if any gentleman would kindly forward it to them. Correspondents who require answers in private are requested to send their complete address, a precaution not always observed. We cannot undertake to return rejected communications. All communications must be postpaid. Communications respecting Advertisements must be addressed to the publishers, Messrs. BURNS and LAMBERT; but communications intended for the Editor himself should be addressed to the care of Mr. READER, 9 Park Street, Bristol. The Rambler, A CATHOLIC JOURNAL AND REVIEW. VOL. XI. MARCH 1853. PART LXIII. DR. NEWMAN'S TRIAL. PROTESTANT MORALITY AND PROTESTANT JUSTICE. THIS case has at length reached its termination, and has become matter of history. It has taken its place among those events which illustrate the character of a country and of an age; and in this point of view we cannot allow it to pass without a few words of observation. As for "the unhappy man," to use the expression of Mr. Justice Coleridge, whose character and career formed the subject of inquiry, of course the case has no longer any interest; the question as to him is set at rest for ever. We advert to it only for the sake of the characteristics which it exhibits of Protestant law and Protestant justice; in a word, of Protestantism itself. We consider the whole case from beginning to end as neither more nor less than an illustration on a gigantic scale of the essential hollowness of the system of morality, public and private, national and personal, which pervades Protestant England. In that point of view it was that Dr. Newman first had occasion to take up the history of Achilli; and certainly, from the very opening of the legal proceedings down to the last words of Mr. Justice Coleridge, it has continually furnished fresh and fresh illustrations of the same principle. A brief review of its origin and history will place this truth in the clearest light. About six years ago, Giovanni Giacinto Achilli came to Corfu, a portion of the dominions of Protestant England, as a Catholic priest. He had hardly arrived, ere the Papal Consul demanded his surrender as having been guilty of "enormous crimes." However, he was not surrendered, perhaps because in a few days "he appeared as a Protestant." But somehow or other the people seem to have acquired a bad idea of his character, for they followed him in the streets with insulting and threatening words; and although he opened a Protestant church, he did not remain in the island long, but removed to Zante. There he continued only a short time, and next came to Malta, whence he proceeded to England, and threw himself upon the patronage of the Anti-Popery party in this country, as a convert from Romanism, who had revelations to make of the awful errors and pernicious practices which he professed to have found in the Romish Church. He was at once eagerly and ardently received by the Evangelical section of the Church of England, represented by such men as Lord Shaftesbury and Sir Culling Smith. They stopped not to inquire as to his antecedents, although there was enough and more than enough to set them upon inquiry. For he was clearly a fugitive; he had been claimed by the authorities of his own country as "guilty of enormous crimes;" the people of Corfu and Malta appeared to have imbibed some very unfavourable notions concerning him, and even openly insulted him, so that altogether within a year or two he had thrice changed his place of retreat. No matter, however; their bigotry was so bitter and so blind that they were ready to believe that he must needs have been a fugitive for conscience' sake, because the Romish Church would never punish priests for immorality; or they were willing to accept his professed conversion as "covering a multitude of sins. Any how, whatever his acts might have been, their hatred of Popery covered all squeamish scruples as to morality; Their great revenge had stomach for it all." So he was forthwith installed as theological tutor of an Italian Protestant College at Malta. The object of this institution was to spread Protestantism in Italy, by educating apostate priests for the work of Evangelism in that country. They found a few friends and fellow-apostates of Achilli, who now became his associates in this pious work. But ere long all this promise was nipped in the bud. "There came a frost-a killing frost." Immoralities were discovered in the Italian Protestant College, and among these apostate priests; and all were discovered to be so implicated that the committee broke up the establishment to get rid of the scandal. One should have thought that this would have been enough even for the most ultra-Protestant bigotry. There were some among them, however, in whom hatred of Popery was so strong as utterly to destroy every other feeling, so that they swallowed even this, and still paraded Achilli about as the great convert from Romanism. In this capacity he visited various towns in the country, holding forth upon the platforms of Anti-Popery meetings, or lecturing upon the errors and horrors of Romanism, and, above all, the atrocities of the Inquisition. This was his great topic, his favourite |