three, viz., the sharp-nosed, the broad-nosed, and the snig, are given by Mr. Yarrell. The murana of the ancients is figured from a drawing by Mr. Couch of one caught by a fisherman at Polperro, on the 8th October, 1834.

Passing by the Anguillidæ (sand-eels, &c.), which, by the way, we suspect to be a misprint, for we do not allow that the sandeels are of a different family from the Muranidæ, we come to the Lophobranchians* and the Syngnathida (pipe fishes), well illustrated by our author, who gives six species, and among them the interesting Hippocampus brevirostris, vulgarly known as the seahorse. In this family Mr. Yarrell makes out two genera of marsupial fishes, one of them with a prehensile tail, a sort of marine opossum, the Hippocampus aforesaid; and we expect that all systematic writers who insist on analogous groups will be very complimentary to him on the occasion. We have, among the mammiferous quadrupeds, the Marsupialia; the Opossum shrimps (Mysis) carry on the analogy among the crustaceans; the group occurs in the Syngnathida among fishes; but where is it to be found among the birds?

We must not tarry for the Plectognathians—though the uncouth forms of the Gymnodontidae (sun fishes) are a considerable temptation-nor for the Balistide-except to record the European file-fish (Balistes capriscus), taken off the Sussex coast in August, 1827, and obtained by Mr. Children, of the British Museum, who made it known in his anniversary address to the Zoological Club of the Linnean Society on the 29th November of the same year-and to notice another beautiful example of animal mechanism.

'The first and strongest spine of the back in this fish is studded up the front with numerous small projections, which under the microscope have the appearance of so many points of enamel or pearl arising from the surface of the bone, giving a rough denticulated appearance, and hence the name of file-fish. The second smaller spine has at the anterior part of the base a projection which, when the spines are elevated, locks into a corresponding depression in the posterior part of the base of the first spine, and fixes it like part of the work in a gun-lock; and from this similarity this fish on the Italian shores of the Mediterranean is called Pesce balestra. The longest spine cannot be forced down till the shorter spine has been first depressed.'-p. 358.

We now arrive at the Chondropterygians, the first family of which are the Royal Sturgeons (Sturionida). We have only one species, the common sturgeon (Acipenser sturio), but we cannot refrain from giving an anecdote of that barbaric prince Potemkin,

* Gills not pectinated, but in small round tufts.

as

as a pendant to some of the caprices of the Roman profligates. He frequently had his favourite sterlet-soup, at seasons when that fish is so enormously dear, that this soup alone, which might be considered only as the overture to his dinner, stood him in three hundred rubles. Being at Yassy, the prince had promised some of the women that went about with him everywhere, and formed his court, a soup of this kind;- —or perhaps, in one of those whims which were so common with him, he had a mind to it himself; but as the capital maker of it was at St. Petersburg, he despatched a Major to travel post, with orders to have a large tureen of it made, which he did accordingly, and brought it with him well luted. Now let the reader judge of the expense this fancy put him to the cook, as we may imagine, made a greater quantity of it than was wanted for the prince, and ate the remainder with his friends; nay, we may be very sure that he ate it better than the prince, to whom it must have come somewhat less fresh, after having travelled 2000 versts.' *

Next come the Chimarida, of which there is but one speciesand then the Squalida. Some of our readers will be startled at learning that we have no less than fourteen sharks and dog-fishes on our coasts, the ravening salt-sea shark (Carcharias vulgaris), the terror of mariners in most of the warm countries, being one. Of the Raida (rays, skates, &c.) we have as many as eleven species, most of which we put to better purposes than our forefathers, who manufactured dragons and cockatrices out of them.

The Petromyzida (lampreys) conclude the book, and of these the great lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) deserves notice. He who has tasted a well-stewed Gloucester lamprey-our Worcester friends must pardon us-a Gloucester lamprey-will almost excuse the royal excess. This delicious preparation is comparatively neglected in London, and yet it is a fish of the Thames, whence we have seen it taken-nay, not very long ago, a fine one was sacrilegiously kicked about a village on its banks as nothing worth. Mr. Groves should look to this.

Let us hope for pardon if we terminate our article with a very serious reflection. This book ought to be largely circulated, not only on account of its scientific merits-though these, as we have in part shown, are great and signal-but because it is popularly written throughout, and therefore likely to excite general attention to a subject which ought to be held as one of primary im

*The Life of Catherine II., Empress of Russia, vol. iii. p. 379, et seq.

portance

portance by all those gentlemen of education and property who happen to be more immediately connected with some of the most extensive, and which might be among the most useful and important, districts of this empire. We read in the newspapers ever and anon of alarming scarcities of food among the inhabitants of the Scotch islands and the coasts of Ireland. Why is this? The seas beside which the lot of these people has been cast abound, more than almost any others in the known world, with the richest and most grateful of food. Why do we hear of starvation among hundreds or thousands where Providence has prepared abundance, luxurious abundance, for myriads and millions? The fact is a very simple one, and it cannot be gainsayed. The Celtic tribes have retained to this hour the prejudices against fish and fishing, which we trace in every record of the uncivilized period of ancient Greece. While so many plans are in agitation for the improvement of the physical condition of one of the principal sections of our empire, why do we hear nothing of some national effort to overcome this fatal absurdity? Among the most crying cases of recent Irish calamity, a large proportion come from the little islands scattered along the mouths of the great Irish estuaries. These famishing people have their salvation before their eyes-but they will not turn to it with a good heart. It is the same, or even worse, with the Hebrides at this moment. And what wonder that such should be the case? We happen to number among the most esteemed of our personal friends one of the principal proprietors of that interesting archipelago and we are assured, that though, during thirty years past, that family has made every effort to encourage sea-fishing among their dependants, it has never been in their power to procure, except in the smoothest weather of summer and autumn, a decent supply of sea-fish even for their own table. The removal of a prejudice thus rooted might surely be the worthy object of some legislatorial measure-and by such only, we are well convinced, can it ever be effectually removed.

ART.

ART. III.-Die Römische Päpste, ihre Kirche und ihre Staat im sechszehnten und siebenzehnten Jahrhundert. Von Leopold Ranke. Bände 2 und 3. Berlin, 1836.

(The Popes of Rome, their Church and State, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By Leopold Ranke. 2nd and 3rd Volumes.)

E redeem the pledge given in a former Number (No. CX.) by introducing as early as possible to our readers' notice, the two concluding volumes of Professor Ranke's history of the Popes. The work proceeds to its close with the same calm impartiality in its judgments; the original documents are as copious, and, in some respects, as curious; the style maintains its ease and vivid perspicuity. The Popes, indeed, of this later period, are men of less marked and commanding character than the Pauls and the Sixtus V. of the former century. They are decent and dignified, sometimes learned, ecclesiastics-but they have ceased to sway the destinies of Europe by the force of their individual character. Though their religion, particularly during the first half of the seventeenth century, advances in the re-conquest of the world with unexpected and, as far as the popular histories in our own language extend, unmarked success: it is not the masterly combination of measures, the subtle policy, or the burning zeal which emanate from the head of Roman Catholic Christianity; it is the extraordinary activity of the allies which spring up on all sides; the adventurous spirit, the profound sagacity, and the inflexible perseverance of the regular Clergy, chiefly the Jesuits; the self-developed, and self-governed energy of the religion itself, rather than an impulse communicated from the centre of government-which commands and achieves that success. The effective leader in this great war of reprisal and reconquest against Protestant Europe, is not so much the Pope, as the head of the Jesuit order.

As temporal princes, the Popes gradually retired within the narrow sphere of their own dominions; they no longer, excepting in one or two fortunate acquisitions, sought to aggrandize themselves at the expense of their neighbours; they ceased to disturb the peace of Italy, much less of Europe, by schemes of personal ambition; they were sufficiently occupied by the increasing financial embarrassments of their own home territory-in maturing that progressive system of disproportioned taxation and mismanagement, which has reduced the rich and fertile Campagna to a wilderness or a morass. Even their nepotism was content with a humbler flight: it was now enough that a large estate and a splendid palace in Rome perpetuated the family name of each

successive

successive Pontiff. A new aristocracy gradually arose in Rome, to compete in wealth and magnificence with the old Colonnas and the feudal nobles of the former centuries. Besides its Churches, the Vatican and the Quirinal, modern Rome owes most of its splendour to the mansions of the Barberinis, the Borgheses, the Rospigliosis, the Ludovisis, the Albanis.

The descent, however, to this state of comparative peace and insignificance was slow and gradual. The great impulse of reaction against Protestantism was given during the pontificate of Sixtus V. Nor were the immediate successors of Sixtus men wanting either in vigour or individuality of character. The prosperous state of the religion could not but increase the influence, and add dignity to the name, of the ruling Pontiff. As southern Europe prostrated itself again at the foot of the Papal throne, the consciousness of his reviving power restored something of the ancient majesty to the demeanour of the Sovereign, and summoned up all the strength and energy of his peculiar character. At such times an inferior man could not attain that commanding eminence, nor a man of superior mind and resource refrain from putting forth all the force of his intellectual faculties, to consolidate his growing authority. He could not but feel the increasing responsibility of his station; the dangers through which the Papacy had passed, the difficulties from which it seemed triumphantly emerging, demanded his entire and exclusive devotion to the interests of the See, connected as they were with those of RomanCatholicism,-in the opinion of the Roman-Catholic, with those of Christianity itself.

The Pontificate of Sixtus V. is the period of the great crisis in the history of the Papacy; the turning point in the imperilled fortunes of the Roman Catholic system. The extent to which Protestantism had carried its encroachments; the depth to which the papal power had been undermined, is estimated by Mr. Ranke on the testimony of contemporary documents, to which we cannot deny great weight and authority, in terms which will surprise many readers of history. We transcribe an account of the losses suffered by the popedom, written from Rome itself, by Tiepolo, the envoy from Venice :

Speaking only of those nations of Europe, which not only rendered their allegiance to the Pope, but which followed in every respect the rites and usages of the Roman Church, celebrating their offices in the Latin language-it is known that England, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, in short, all the northern nations, are estranged from the papal see; Germany is almost entirely lost; Bohemia and Poland to a great degree infected; the Low Countries of Flanders so thoroughly corrupted that the violent remedies of the Duke of Alva will scarcely restore them to their former health; finally, France, through these evil humours, is