as soft and melodious as the strains of music, so rich, full, and sonorous. The orations of Cicero, and the verses of Virgil, were worthy of a language harmonious like this; for though the Italian is somewhat changed, it is still the daughter of the Latin, and has all the exquisite grace of expression and flowing elegance of the parent tongue.

"Then, the dear Pope dwelt with touching eloquence upon the goodness of God, which had so miraculously saved him from a terrible death, during the accident at the Convent of St. Agnese. He related to us the incidents of that frightful scene. Some catacombs had been recently discovered near the church, and his Holiness went to visit them, accompanied by a large suite of cardinals, bishops, and foreign Ambassadors. After they had explored the subterranean home of the dead, they proceeded to the convent near by. In a great, old room of the building, long unused, the monks had prepared a collation. The Pope was seated in an immense oaken chair, with a high back and enormous arms. Before he commenced partaking of the refreshments a number of boys from a neighboring school were brought in to receive his blessing. He had just given it to them, and had commanded the servants to bring him some of the delicacies to distribute among the children, when a fearful crash was heard and the floor sank into a vault below thirty feet deep. Shrieks of ter. ror, and appalling cries of the wounded resounded through the convent. The crowd without, rushed along the corridors leading to the banquet room. The walls alone were standing. Far below there was a mass of rafters, and stones of the paved floor, and crushed and bleeding bodies. 'Save our Father! save his Holiness!' was the first thought animating the hearts of the throng around. Through the vaults below, they found their way to the scene of disaster, and removing tables, chairs, and mangled forms of men and children, at last they reached the great oaken chair, which had fallen over the Pope, and thereby preserved him from serious injury, perhaps from instant death. They raised it, and to their joy the good Pope was unhurt. His hands were clasped in prayer for the suffering creatures around him. He seemed to have no thought of himself.

"Oh! how frightful must have been your emotions, when you felt the floor sinking beneath you,' I exclaimed as I listened. He looked at me almost reproachfully, as he said, 'No, my daughter, I was calm; for in that fearful moment, I felt I was in the hands of a gracious God who would save me, if it were his divine will; but my heart was pierced with agony, as I heard the screams of the innocent children, and I thought of the poor mothers rendered desolate by this horrible accident; for I then believed many were killed, and that others would die of their wounds. However the result has proved less severe than I imagined, and, with the blessing of the Almighty, I trust all may recover.'

"The Pope asked O. her name, and she replied, 'Octavia ;'

while I added, 'She bears my name, your Holiness, and I was called after the Roman Octavia, whose character my mother greatly admired.' Whereupon his Holiness uttered a most charming panegyric upon the character of my illustrious namesake, saying,You should be proud of that name, for the Roman Octavia possessed every virtue and grace which should adorn a woman. Even now, in Rome, you will find an undying remembrance of her noble and generous qualities, and many monuments to her memory.'

"Thank you a thousand times, Mamma, for giving me the name of Octavia.

"I wish I could repeat to you all the words the Pope said, they were so genial, sparkling with intellect, and warm with kindness. After one hour's interview, we bade him farewell. But ere we left him, he gave me his benediction. As I knelt before him, he placed his hand upon my head, saying, 'May the blessing of God descend upon you, and his Holy Spirit guide you into all truth; may God's providence protect you and yours, and bring you in peace to the world of the redeemed.' The tones of his voice were so solemn, so full of affectionate feeling, tears of gratitude burst from my eyes, as I eagerly, and with the utmost veneration, kissed the hands he extended to raise me up. Then I asked him to bless my child; and she, kneeling before him, likewise received his benediction and we withdrew. M. D., as well as your two Octavias, was deeply impressed with the honesty, the truth, and nobleness of the Supreme Pontiff, and with a sincere admiration of his kind manner and cordial reception of us.

"In the ante-chamber we met again Monsignore Talbot, an extremely intelligent man, who had spent some years travelling in the United States. He accompanied us to our carriage, and after a little pleasant conversation we drove away. It was a bewitching afternoon, and the grand colonnade of St. Peter's was bathed in a golden flood of the sun's parting rays. The fountains were joyously casting up their bright waters, and earth and air seemed in a holiday mood.'

"It is impossible for me to tell you, Mamma, how happy I was, thinking of the sweet visit to his Holiness, and looking upon the grandeur which encircled me. The blessing and the prayer of that saintly man will be forever precious to my soul, and dear to me as the memory of the loved and the lost.

"I will write soon to Bishop Portier, and tell him of the message from his Holiness which he charged me to deliver. It is very kind, and manifests how deep an interest the Pope feels in the spiritual welfare of his distant children.

"Octavia has been long asleep, and I am quite weary, for it is past the midnight; but I care not for the lateness of the hour. I have faithfully given my darling Mamma a picture of the scene, and a true history of the incidents of our interview; and I will now knock

at the 'golden gate of dreams,' first asking the good God to bless Mamma, and dear little Netta, for the sake of their loving

"OCTAVIA."

There are various other passages we would like to extract, but our space is exhausted. The volumes are a little gossipy, and we have given but a gossipy notice of them, yet the reader will find in them little to offend, and much to please him. They are the genuine outpourings of a fresh, unsophisticated heart of a true Southern lady, with whom one cannot help being charmed, if he would. They are light, sketchy, imaginative, yet contain a very large fund of information of one sort and another, and indicate a highly cultivated mind, that is not a stranger to serious thought, perhaps to sad feelings, and to solid studies. At any rate, they are two charming volumes, and we assure the author that since Hillard's Six Months in Italy, we have read no work of travels which has pleased us so much, or which we can so warmly recommend to lovers of light reading or polite literature. The few criticisms we have allowed ourselves, detract little from their merits, which are real.

ART. VI.-The Eastern Question not yet settled. British India, &c.

THE succession of events is so rapid, and the changes in the aspect of things are so frequent, that a Review published only once in three months cannot keep pace with them. When our July Review went to press, Lord Palmerston appeared everywhere in the ascendant, and France everywhere as overreached and compelled to second the policy of Great Britain, British preponderance everywhere established, and not likely soon to be disturbed. But hardly were our speculations on the subject published before news from British India rendered our speculations, for the moment at least, doubtful, if not false.

An English periodical has pleasantly remarked of us, that our strongest passion after love for our religion is hatred of England. But this proves that even English periodicals are not infallible. We do not hate England, indeed

hatred is not with us a very strong passion, and we are not aware of hating any nation or any individual. We like England as the land of our ancestors. We like the English people, and perhaps have more points of sympathy with them than with any other European people. But both as a Catholic and as a patriot, we do dislike English preponderance, and we would rather, for the best interests of mankind, see any other European nation supreme than Great Britain. This is because we are, rightly or wrongly, opposed, heart and soul, to the British industrial and mercantile system. We have been opposed to that system ever since we had a thought on the subject, and our opposition becomes stronger and more intense in proportion as we see more of its workings, especially in our own country. Wherever the influence of Great Britain is felt, the virtue and simplicity, the peace and happiness of the people depart, and a fierce, bitter, all-absorbing struggle for the goods of this world alone ensues. English influence has ruined Portugal, has prostrated Spain, embroiled Sardinia, demoralized, to a fearful extent, the greater part of Italy, and weakened France. It corrupts morals, weakens the hold of religion on the heart, and diffuses a degrading heathenism. Her literature, her philosophy, her religion, as well as her industry and commerce, tend to materialize the nations, and to produce the conviction that man lives for this world alone. She is of the earth earthy, and the grand Apostle of Carnal Judaism. We cannot, then, but dread her preponderance, and though we may admire her intense energy, we cannot but deplore its direction.

We regretted that the opposition to the British system had, in the late Eastern war, no better representative than Russia, but we believed that the interests of religion and humanity required the defeat of what we regarded then and regard now as an unprincipled combination against her. We regretted the Anglo-French alliance, and in the war we own we wished the defeat of the Allies, not because we had any hostile feeling to France, but because we believed their success would tend to confirm British supremacy, which in our view is worse for the world than would be that of Russia, as bad as that no doubt would be. We believed that Great Britain was the enemy from whom France had the most to dread, and that Russia or Austria was the ally the Emperor should have courted. The true interest of France is to

labor to isolate Great Britain from the continent, above all to prevent her from finding, as in times past, an ally in Austria and Central Europe. France now, no doubt, has a good understanding with Russia, which we are glad to see, but it has been purchased at the expense of an equally good understanding between those old allies, Austria and England. What is desirable is that France and Russia should so accommodate their respective interests to the legitimate interests of Austria as to detach her from her English alliance, and enable her to act in harmony with them; for we regard English policy as alike hostile to every Continental State.

England depends for her rank as a first-class power on her Indian Empire, threatened by the Transcaucasian expansion of Russia and the African expansion of France. Her policy is, very properly, to guard against these two expansions; Russia dominant in the Turkish and Persian courts, and France dominant in Egypt and Syria, with a ship canal across the Isthmus of Suez, the Indian Empire is not worth a life's purchase and British preponderance has ceased to exist. Finding the new emperor of the French ready to engage in a war to consolidate his throne and to force his recognition as legitimate sovereign of France by the monarchs of Europe, England enlisted him in a war against Russia, hoping through his aid to cripple the power of Russia, and check her farther advance towards India, nothing doubting that she would be able to keep him faithful to her policy, through her hold on the Revolutionists, and her power, if he became restive, to stir up a formidable Red Republican movement against him. The war was declared, and grew to more gigantic dimensions than were counted on; Russia proved a more formidable enemy than had been anticipated, and though in fair fight, man to man, the Allies beat the Russians, they were able to do it only at a terrible loss to themselves. The Emperor of France having gained his objects in going into the war, and having secured the point of honor in the fall of Southern Sebastopol, succeeded in making peace, and in coming to a good understanding with Russia, before England had secured any of her own objects in the war. Russia had suffered, but she had neither been humbled nor effectually crippled, and as between France and England, the Peace of Paris, March