10. Adelaide, Queen of Italy; or, The Iron Crown. An Histori cal Tale. By Wм. B. MCCABE, author of " Bertha," etc. London: Dolman. 1856. 12mo. pp. 406. WE noticed briefly this Historical Tale by Mr. McCabe when it was first issued, but preoccupied at the time with other questions, we fear we hardly did it justice. We recall the attention of our readers to it at this time, because we think they will find it, in the present state of Roman and Italian affairs, full of interest and highly instructive. As a simple romance, the work is not without great merit; but its greatest merit is in its fidelity to history, and in giving a most vivid picture of Italy in the middle of the tenth century. Things are very bad in Italy now, but they were far worse then. Perhaps there was less absolute skepticism and indifference in religion then than now, but there certainly was more violence and barbarism in manners and conduct. Mr. McCabe shows very clearly the evils to which Italy is sure to be exposed by the usurpation of the temporal sovereignty of the States of the Church by lay princes and nobles. The system proposed by Count Cavour and the Italian patriots, and backed by Napoleon with his army, was in full operation at the time, and the result was a Reign of Terror; in comparison with which, the Reign of Terror in France under Robespierre and his associates was a Reign of Joy. Those Catholics who for a moment may have sympathized with the movement for the secularization of the States of the Church,-spoliation is the true name,―and for a union of all Italy under a native prince, or in a federal republic, would do well to read this work by Mr. McCabe, and to ponder well its lessons. 11. The Pretty Plate. By JOHN VINCENT, Esq. Illustrated by Harley. New York: Sadlier & Co. 1860. MESSRS. SADLIER & Co. have become the publishers of this charming little story for children; not one of the greatest, but one of the sweetest things we have seen from its distinguished author. 12. History of the War in the Peninsula and the South of France; from the year 1807 to the year 1814. By W. E. P. NAPIER, C. B. New York: Sadlier & Co. 1859. 8vo. pp. 792. WE forgot to mention at the time that the plates of this standard history of the Peninsular War had passed into the hands of the Messrs. Sadlier & Co., who are now its publishers. The work is well known, and has been received with great favor by the so-called liberal public. It has great merits, and we believe it is highly esteemed by military readers. 13. A full Course of Instructions for the Use of Catechists ; being an Explanation of the Catechism, entitled " An Abridgment of Christian Doctrine." By the Rev. JOHN PERRY. New York: Sadlier & Co. 1860. THIS is an American reprint of an English work, and is, we should judge, a most excellent and highly useful manual of Instructions on the Catechism for the use of Catechists. The catechism taken is one of the best we are acquainted with; but the mere committing of it to memory by children will, after all, hardly ground them, without further instruction in Christian doctrine. As there is in our whole English-speaking world such a scarcity of priests, others than priests must be called in to assist in teaching catechism, and for these a work of this kind is very much needed, indeed indispensable. The work, too, will be found of great utility to all persons who have been only imperfectly instructed in the faith. 14. Public Lectures delivered before the Catholic University of Ireland, on some subjects of Ancient and Modern History, in the years 1856, 1857 and 1858. By JAMES BURTON ROBERTSON, Esq. London: Catholic Publishing Company. 1859. 16mo. pp. 368. MR. ROBERTSON is Professor of Modern History in the new Catholic University of Ireland, and is known as the translator of Moehler's Symbolite and Schlegel's Philosophy of History. He is a man of respectable learning and ability, although we cannot speak in terms of unqualified praise of his translations from the German-hardly can we do it of any Englishman. These lectures lack philosophical breadth and comprehensiveness, and as far as we can discover, leave the subjects treated about where the author found them. Still, to those who are studying geography and history they have considerable merit. 15. Gems from Catholic Poets, with a Biographical and Literary Introduction. By JAMES BURKE, Esq. London: Catholic Publishing Company. 1859. 18mo. THESE are "Gems," but we are not sure but more brilliant gems might have been selected from our Catholic poets who have sung in English. Nevertheless, we commend them to our poetical readers. 16. Memoires of Rome. By DENIS O'DONOVAN, Esq. London: for we cannot say that we have read it. We are tired of the everlasting descriptions of the churches, monuments, ruins, works of art and processions, etc., of Rome, Christian or Pagan. The subject is worn threadbare. Mr. Donovan's Memoires may be as good as any other traveller's or residents' Memoires, but we want something else from Rome; something that goes deeper than the surface, and rises higher than artistic or even pious gossip-all we usually get in works of this sort. Mr. Donovan may have given us something more, but a fear that he has not prevented us from cutting the leaves of his volume. **Ir will gratify our friends to learn that the outcry raised from time to time against the Review has made little or no impression on its subscription-list. Whatever national prejudices or susceptibilities may have been offended, or however great the hostility that has been excited against it by men who forget that Catholicity is Catholic, it is very evident that there is a strong determination among Catholics of all nationalities to sustain it. The condition of the Review was never more prosperous, and never have we sent out a number with more heart or hope than the present. The number itself is not all we could wish it, for it has been written by the editor alone, and in great part while watching day and night in a sick-room. But we trust hereafter to be able to devote ourselves to the work in which we are engaged with less distraction than heretofore. We feel confident that the Review never had more, warmer, or more determined friends than at the present moment, and without respect to nationality. We wish no better or more zealous friends than we have among Catholics of Irish or French birth or descent, and the call upon all such, inconsiderately made, to drop the Review has not been responded to, and will not be. The discouragement under which our January number was prepared we no longer feel. We thank the Catholic public for the renewed confidence in our labors they have shown, and we assure them that we will do all in our power to deserve it. We will thank our friends and correspondents who write to us personally, to address their letters to the Editor at Elizabeth N. J., where he resides. Letters on business must be addressed as usual, Brownson's Review, or Messrs. Sadlier & Co., 164 William street, New York. BROWNSON'S QUARTERLY REVIEW. JULY, 1860. ART. I. The Power of the Pope during the Middle Ages; or, an Historical Inquiry into the Origin of the Temporal Power of the Holy See, and the Constitutional Laws of Middle Ages, relating to the Deposition of Sovereigns. With an Introduction on the IIonors and Temporal Privileges conferred on Religion and on its Ministers by the Nations of Antiquity, especially by the first Christian Emperors. By M. GOSSELIN, Director in the Seminary of St. Sulpice. Paris. Translated by the Reverend MATHEW KELLY, St. Patrick's College, Maynooth. London, Dolman: Baltimore, Murphy & Co. 1853. 2 vols., 8vo. IN the brief remarks we made on these volumes in the Review for January, 1854, we aimed simply to express our dissent from the author's theory, adopted from Fénelon, that the power exercised over temporal princes by the Sovereign Pontiffs in the Middle Ages was not inherent in the Papacy by divine constitution, but was a power conferred on the Popes by the concession of sovereigns, public opinion, and what at the time was the public law, the jus publicum, of Christendom. As to the merits of the work beyond the advocacy of this theory, which we did not, do not, and cannot accept, we offered no judgment, indicated no opinion. VOL. I.-No. III. 19 Having had recently occasion to consult it anew, and to examine it with more care than we had previously done, we have been struck with the wide and patient historical research it indicates, and the vast amount of most valuable historical information it contains. We have nowhere else found the origin of the temporal sovereignty of the Holy See more fully explained or more satisfactorily defended, and it would be difficult to find in the same compass so much light thrown on the relations during a great part of mediæval history of the Church and the Empire. The author is a man of extensive and solid learning, and his work, though defending what we regard as an untenable theory, has evidently been honestly and conscientiously written, and is one which should be in every scholar's library. The reperusal of these volumes has made us think better of the author personally, and more favorably of the animus of his work. His theory is virtually Gallican, and amounts to the same thing as the Four Articles imposed on the French clergy, in 1682, by Louis XIV. or his minister Colbert, but we are satisfied that his intention was not so much to defend Gallicanism as it was to defend the Popes in their mediæval relations with the temporal power from the charge of usurpation, so confidently and so intemperately brought against them by partizans of the Gallican school, as well as by non-Catholics, by showing that they held legally the power they claimed, though only jure humano, not jure divino. His aim was to vindicate the character of the Papacy in its relations with temporal sovereigns without assuming the high ground of Bellarmine and Suarez, and to indicate a ground on which he imagined all parties might meet and shake hands as friends and brothers. His aim was laudable, and in the estimation of a very considerable number of Catholics, and Catholics highly respectable for position, learning, and ability, he has fully accomplished it, for we hardly see a work produced since its publication in explanation of the history of the Papacy in the Middle Ages that does not adopt his theory. Nor is his theory without its side of truth. The historical facts, we believe, |