good are numerous enough to swamp the bad by merely asserting their existence. Yet over the greater part of the Continent, in every assembly where men meet together to regulate the course of the state or of the city, it is always the cry that the "Liberals " are the majority. In Italian cabinet councils, in French societies, in Spanish parliaments, even in the municipal assemblies of Catholic Belgium, it is always the same-the "Liberals" are the majority. It is not too much to say that cowardice and tepidity are crying evils in the Catholic masses at the present time. They love their trade, their social standing, their cheap press, their easy morality, their scoffing literature too much, and they love the interests of the Church too little. It is the very time for the preaching of the devotion to the Sacred Heart, for this is the very evil that drew our Blessed Saviour to reveal it.

We have been led into these reflections by the perusal of a new life of B. Margaret Mary, by Father George Tickell, a member of the same society that had the privilege of directing her and assisting her, in the persons of Father de la Columbière and Father Rolin. It is to be expected that the recent Beatification of the holy virgin will have the effect of sending the devout back to her life, to study more attentively her acts and words. Besides, the peculiar character of the revelation made to her is its great fulness, and the clearness with which it states the motives and the spirit of the devotion which she was charged to spread. Hitherto, her words have been venerated, indeed, but now they have a new kind of authority, for they have been approved by the judgment of the Church. Any one, therefore, who desires to enter thoroughly into the spirit of the devotion to the Sacred Heart should read and meditate very attentively the visions and revelations vouchsafed to B. Margaret Mary. We might suggest that it would be a useful thing to draw up a well-arranged compilation of her words and teachings; it would be a manual not only of her own "spirit," but of that of the Sacred Heart.

present state of Parayeye-witness would have

Of Father Tickell's labours we can say with pleasure that he has given us a real biography, in which the Saint is everything and the biographer keeps in the background. As far as we have verified it, the chronology and narrative are carefully given and trustworthy. Perhaps some attempt at a description of the le-Monial and its treasures of piety by an enhanced the value of the book. We must confess, also, that we find Father Tickell's style a little hard and dry for a life of a saint. Sermonizing and prosing is one thing, but unction is another. If a man is fit to write a biography he is fit to give us his own impressions of his hero, in that sort of commentary which is implied in chastened fervour of expression and unobtrusive moral instruction. The absence of this is calculated to injure the success of the work as spiritual reading. Many readers will still prefer the stately and rounded phrasing of Bishop Languet, as presented in the Oratorian translation. Moreover, in a work like the present, which comes before us with pretensions which we gladly allow, there is sometimes a certain slovenliness of language which should be noticed. It is to be hoped that it is not going to be the fashion to say "the Mother Greyfié," "the Mother de Saumaise," &c.; the use of the definite article is surely quite

as French as it is to say "the Father Lacordaire" or "the Sister Rosalie." And what are we to think of such expressions as, "In her manner of conducting her novices, her instructions . . . were likely to be of a solid character." "To supply them with fresh vigour in the practice of piety, she would vary the exercises of it." "All combined by giving up their hearts, as by one consent." "One whose character was a pernicious example." "A germ afterwards embodied." "She ambitioned to share." "An eventful incident." But works like this biography are too rare, to allow us to insist on such minor blemishes as these.

The Life of Madame Louise de France. By the Author of "Tales of Kirkbeck." Rivingtons: London, Oxford, and Cambridge.

IT

T is difficult to speak too highly on the interest of this book. The life of any member of an order so supernatural as S. Teresa's Carmelites must be attractive; there is a special interest in following the every-day incidents occurring to those, who have so unhesitatingly given themselves up to a life, so unearthly, and so impossible to any without a true vocation. One almost feels inclined to wonder that they should have any human tastes or inclinations left, after so readily giving up all that could make life supportable to an ordinary Christian; but to read of a real happiness, totally unlike anything that can be known in the world, and united with continual and cheerful self-sacrifice, is in itself so elevating and refreshing, that a habit of reading saints' lives alone must give Catholics quite a new power of comprehension. The ordinary pleasure of perusing a nun's life is of course greatly enhanced by the fact of her having been a princess. Undoubtedly, in the eyes of God, princess is an empty title, with no more meaning than any other name. But in the eyes of man--when not raised above such a feeling by extreme sanctity or sunk below it by fanatic revolutionarism-the idea of royalty will always possess a peculiar significance; and the ordinary actions of a Carmelite nun-such as sweeping rooms, performing penances, and conforming to rules, when gone through by a princess of France, create a feeling of admiration proportionate to the appreciation of her exalted rank. And this admiration is by no means ungrounded; for, brought up as unhappy royalty always must be, surrounded by flattering attendants and dutiful homage, continually imbibing a consciousness of natal superiority to ordinary human beings, such an acknowledgment of sinfulness as is implied by retiring into an order of life-long penance, must be in a princess little short of miraculous. But the Princess Louise's vocation must doubtless have been much aided by the fact of her having spent her earlier years at the Benedictine Abbey of Fontevrault, where her pious mother had her educated till the age of thirteen; and the example of the good Queen Marie Leczinska's own life was calculated to inspire no ordinary religious impressions.

We believe this is not the first time that the royal Carmelite's life has been produced in English; but the present volume, if, as it professes to be, an abbreviation, has certainly fixed on the most telling points of the

Princess's history. We imagine that, could we see the French original, we should find details of devotion to our Lady, which are here totally omitted; and of which we do not, of course, for a moment suppose the holy Princess to have been destitute. Still it is much to find an authoress, who is as yet out of the Church, entering so readily into the religious spirit and life as in the present instance. And we may be permitted to hope that her truly good work, of producing in a captivating and readable form the life of this saintly daughter of France, may some future day meet with a reward at present neither expected nor wished for.

Joan of Arc. By Monseigneur FELIX, Bishop of Orleans. Translated by Emily Bowles. London: Burns, Oates, & Co.

MON

ONSEIGNEUR DUPANLOUP has a right, if any one has, to panegyrise Joan of Arc. Next to his love of his Catholic profession comes his love for his country; and no eloquent Frenchman could live on the spot that the maid's heroism has rendered illustrious, without both himself and his countrymen feeling it to be only right and proper that he should celebrate her glory. The great French bishop walks almost daily along the banks of that Loire, that was crossed by the famous bridge, and that swept away the English men-at-arms; and his house is within a few yards of that cathedral (now rebuilt) to which her banner was borne. When the town of Orleans, on each recurring 8th of May, rings its bells and puts itself in gala train to keep its famous anniversary, the Bishop of Orleans naturally finds himself the chief actor in a fête which culminates in his own cathedral. To judge from the two published discourses which he has delivered on two or these occasions, he finds his own share in the historic ceremony as much a labour of love as of duty. There is no doubt that the opportunity, to a true orator and an earnest man, is a great one. He stands on a spot whose name is surrounded with a genuine historic halo; for Orleans, to a Frenchman, is as Marathon or Thermopyla. There is the sound and the crowd of a festival. The grand façade of S. Croix towers over an excited multitude, and its imposing nave is filled with an unusual gathering. The banner of the maid, the same that was borne before her into Orleans, is hanging before their eyes; and the orator can point to it as he tells his tale. The auditory comprises, besides the faithful of the town and the country, men of mark in Church and State. In this, his latest oration, Mgr. Dupanloup pauses to salute "the officers of our glorious army, the administrators of this noble department and city, our magistrates so worthily honoured, and the whole city of Orleans so faithful in its reverence for the imperishable memory of its deliverer"; and, not least, he has to acknowledge the presence of no fewer than twelve bishops among whom are the Bishop of Poictiers, where the maid was examined before the University; the Archbishop of Bourges, under the porch of whose cathedral the people pressed to touch her; the Bishop of S. Diè, among whose simple Picard people she had sighed to die and be buried; and, most touching of all, Cardinal Bonnechose, Archbishop of Rouen, the city that saw the flames of her martyrdom.

In

The discourse before us is not unworthy of its distinguished author. his former oration, delivered sixteen years ago, he had dwelt chiefly on the external aspects of Joan's enterprise; on her inspired mission, her heroism, and her execution. On the present occasion he has chosen for his theme her personal holiness. The most remarkable feature of the discourse is its plain avowal that its author hopes to see Joan of Arc one day a canonized Saint. After quoting words which express the conviction that her name should be inscribed in the ranks of the Blessed, he adds," This act of veneration may some day be decreed by the Holy Roman Church to Joan of Arc; and I own that I look for that day myself and desire it with ardour" (p. 34). And the whole panegyric, which is elaborately wrought out and furnished with notes, is a plea for her admission to the honours of sanctity. . Mgr. Dupanloup may be sure that, if the case comes before the Roman authorities, no Englishman will trouble himself to appear as devil's advocate. We say this, because there seems to be a slight appearance of surprise on the part of the eminent preacher, to know that the English of the present day recognize the purity of Joan's life and her miraculous mission. Setting aside certain prejudices on the score of religious matters, it is pretty safe to say that Englishmen of every party and persuasion wish the Maid of Orleans all the honour her champions can win for her. It is impossible here to enter into the question of the heroicity of her virtue. But it is certain that her story is one which no Catholic or patriot can read without sympathy and something more.

Miss Bowles's translation is readable. But the task of translating the Bishop of Orleans, especially in his moments of inspiration, is a very hard one, and we cannot say that this translation gives us the aroma of the classical French of the original. Mgr. Dupanloup, in one place, quotes Shakespeare. His translator might have taken the trouble to give us Shakespeare's exact words. To be sure it is in a speech of bitter irony that the Bastard Falconbridge calls France "God's own soldier." But we are thoroughly ashamed of Shakespeare in connection with "La Pucelle," and it was almost cruel of the Bishop to introduce his name. We can only hope that the weak claptrap of the First Part of Henry the Sixth is not Shakespeare's at all.

The Operations of War Explained and Illustrated. By EDWARD BRUCE HAMLEY, Colonel in the Army, C.B., &c. &c. Second edition. London and Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons.

W

HEN the Swiss General Dufour, who, we believe, was Louis Napoleon's master in the art of war, published his excellent compendious Cours de Tactique some twenty-five years ago, he gave a list of the principal authorities which he had consulted, and to which he would advise students of military history and science to refer. There were some fifty names in all-the great majority French of course, but a good number German, a few Italian, one or two Spanish, several Greek and Latin. There was not the name of a single

English author among them however, nor, indeed, with the exception of Napier's "Peninsular War," was there at the time a work in English military literature which could be regarded as entitled to a place in a catalogue, the first book in which was the Archduke Charles's "Principles of Strategy," and the last Xenophon's "Retreat of the Ten Thousand." The military critic may nowadays boast with some justice that we have changed all that. A library, and a very valuable library, of military literature in the English tongue is rapidly accumulating. Napier's magnificent "History" may be compared, not to disadvantage, with any of Jomini's works; and it has since been illustrated in detail by the publication of all the despatches and correspondence of the Duke of Wellington while in the Peninsula. The despatches of his great predecessor, the Duke of Marlborough, during the war of the Succession, after having lain in a lumber-room at Blenheim Park for upwards of a century, have also at last seen the light. A later crop of treatises and commentaries, occasioned by the Crimean, Italian, American, and German wars, has added to these standard authorities several works, which are not unlikely to live. Colonel Chesney's studies of the American War and the Waterloo Campaign, Mr. Hooper's book on Waterloo, Captain Hozier's "Seven Weeks' War," which, though hurriedly written, contains passages worthy of Napier's pen, may be mentioned by way of example. But among the labours of the modern English military school Colonel Hamley's "Operations of War" stands alone. It is a work of merit as unique in its way as is Napier's History. It is the most profound, the most systematic, and the most simple treatise on the art of war, it would be little to say, in the English language, but so far as we are aware, in any language. Its method is as clear and connected as the method of Euclid in dealing with geometry. Its style is so simple and so fine that it can be read with comprehension and pleasure by any reader of ordinary education.

The first edition of Colonel Hamley's book was published at a trying time -immediately before the commencement of the Austrian and Prussian war; and by many of his disciples and comrades the war was studied by the light of the principles laid down in the book. It is a great testimony to its value that the book bore the test triumphantly. Captain Hozier, who then accompanied the army of Prince Frederick Charles as military correspondent of the Times again and again referred to the rapid success of the Prussian system of tactics as illustrating some of Colonel Hamley's favourite dogmas; and it is a very striking evidence to his foresight, that at a time when the needle-gun was so imperfectly appreciated throughout the armies of Europe, and in general rather disparaged as too complicated an instrument for the rough work of war, he so wrote of its probable future effect in battle, that in his second edition he has had nothing to add on that subject except a foot-note. "To discern and provide for the new conditions under which armies will engage may in the next European war be worth to a people, not merely armies and treasure, but liberty and national life." These were the words in which Colonel Hamley anticipated the effect of the needle-gun in March, 1866, and the battle of Konnigratz was fought on the 3rd of July following. The needle-gun did not indeed destroy the liberty and national life of Austria; but while it abolished her rank as a German Power, it kept at bay the