Here is a bold, unvarnished defence of the atrocious' notes-just such a defence as we should be likely to have from Brownson and M'Master, should they speak upon the subject. The miserable boggling of O'Connell and Bishop Hughes would not suit them. They would meet the question boldly. Their language to the timid trucklers of these times would be: "Gentlemen, stand up to the mark! no dodging now! It is no time to repudiate a work which has been the text-book of Catholics for two centuries and a half.' It is cowardly now to condemn those glorious old refugees who endured so much for the truth, and fought the great battles of the sixteenth century. Let justice be done, though the heavens fall."

What now are the conclusions to which we are brought from the history which we have here sketched? It is evident beyond a doubt, that the Douay Bible was published in Ireland, with the original notes, under the sanction and patronage of the primates, archbishops, bishops, and priests of the Roman Catholic Church. When it is considered that this fact was paraded upon the cover of every number of the work, and that the names of these gentlemen stand upon the list of subscribers, with their appropriate titles, in one edition of three thousand copies in 1813, and another of about the same number in 1818, and that the latter edition was being delivered to subscribers at the time of the excitement upon the subject occasioned by the publications of the Courier and the British Critic, and Dr. Troy's disclaimer; that so many copies of these advertisements could be afloat among the Irish Catholics, both clergy and laity, for so many years, and they be false in the most important part of their showing, and the scandalous and injurious falsehood concerning the high functionaries of the Roman Catholic Church, and yet the falsehood remain undiscovered by those interested, until it was made known by Protestants, is something that the utmost stretch of human credulity can scarcely credit.

If, then, it was a fact, that the said Bible, with its notes, was published under the sanction of the dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, the solemn public denial of the fact on the part of Drs. Troy and Murray, and the total silence of all the other ecclesiastics of the Church, both high and low, knowing, as they all did, that these distinguished archbishops had designed to deceive that portion of the public not attached to the Roman Catholic Church, makes them all guilty parties to the wicked transaction, and shows an awful state of depravity among Irish Roman Catholics.

Again: it is but too evident that the whole business of repudiating the notes of the Douay Bible, on the part of Drs. Troy and Murray,

Daniel O'Connell, and the Dublin Review, was a mere matter of policy, to turn away the odium of those flagitious notes from the Roman Catholic Church, and to secure the act of Roman Catholic emancipation. If this were not the case, why were these "atrocious" notes not suppressed when the first Irish edition of the Bible was issued, under authority, and revised by an appointee of the Archbishop of Dublin? and when they made their appearance, why were they not promptly criticised and condemned? Why was O'Connell so late in manifesting his horror of these notes? Why did no pious Roman Catholic in Ireland or England see the wickedness of these notes until Protestant editors dragged them out into the light, and it was obvious that they were about to prejudice the cause of Catholic emancipation? We could wish there was some evidence of the sincerity of the apparently frank and explicit disapproval of the language and sentiments of the said notes made by the archbishops and by the great self-styled Irish patriot-or "Ireland's paid friend."

Finally, after all, it is obvious that the said notes in the Douay Bible are regarded as "orthodox," and are supported by the leading influences of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, and probably elsewhere.

The worst of the original notes of the Rhemish New Testament, and the Douay Old Testament, have been published in numerous editions, and it is doubtful whether they ever have been omitted except in editions which were flung into the market, and were liable to fall into the hands of Protestants. The character of the notes in question was vindicated in the London and Dublin Orthodox Journal, and it is there asserted that "they have been the textbook of Catholics for two centuries and a half," and that they "have been allowed to circulate without condemnation by the proper authorities." This being the case, Roman Catholics in all countries are responsible for them. The Douay Bible, with its original notes, is an authorized publication of the Roman Catholic Church. And why should it not be? It breathes the spirit and speaks the language of that Church. The policy supported in the notes has been the policy of Romanism from its beginning. It has always invested the priesthood with the civil power to enforce conformity and submission to their ghostly rule, when it could do so. It has always persecuted, cursed, and murdered heretics when it has had the power. It has always borne with heretics, as a mere matter of necessity, when it could not destroy them "without disturbance and hazard of the good," and under no other circumstances. And why should the notes in this Bible, which teach these things, be repudiated by Romanists in any country or under any circumstances?

Such is Roman Catholicism here, in free America. It tolerates Protestantism simply because it must, anxiously waiting for the time when, by fire and sword, it can convert the weak republican Protestants of this land, and save them from perdition, and put obstinate heretics along with "other malefactors," where they will do no further harm to " the faithful."

ART. III-COUNT JOSEPH DE MAISTRE AND FRENCH ULTRAMONTANISM.

Euvres complètes du Comte Joseph de Maistre, 1 vol. 8vo. Paris: Migne. UNDER the piquant title, "Prophets of the Past," a young French writer published, a few years ago, several sketches which form, taken together, a gallery of portraits of no slight interest. These sketches, however, all belonged to the same school; and there was about them a family likeness, only slightly modified at intervals by a few peculiar idiosyncracies. M. Jules Barbier d'Aurevilly, introducing us to the "Prophets of the Past," reminded us of Don Ruy Gomez, in Victor Hugo's play, describing to the King of Spain, with true ancestral pride, all the worthies of the Silva family. The sole difference is this: the Spanish hidalgo, stopping merely at the most illustrious of his race, could say with a feeling of satisfaction, "J'en passe, et des meilleurs ;" our friend, D'Aurevilly, on the contrary, has given us all the "meilleurs," the best; and somewhat thin as is his gallery of ultramontanist lions, he would certainly have deteriorated from its worth had he attempted to put in, by way of making it complete, the small fry of littérateurs and publicists, such as the Deuillots, the Nicoles, and the Crétineau-Jolys of modern times, who have attempted to make us believe, that were it not for the Pope, the whole social edifice must fall to the ground.

Our purpose, on the present occasion, is to select from among the "Prophets of the Past" one portrait for close inspection, and we shall endeavour, while devoting a few pages to an account of the life and writings of Count Joseph de Maistre, to explain as accurately as we can, the nature of the reactionary movement against the principles of the French Revolution which began fifty years ago, and which, after the lapse of half a century, has been bursting forth once more with fresh energy, though under the sanction of far inferior talent.

The career of Joseph de Maistre is already familiar to most En

glish readers. He was born at Chambéry, the capital of Savoy, in 1753, and belonged to that aristocracy which, by its excesses, its frivolities, its gross profligacy, had been, even previous to the death of Louis XIV., preparing the elements of that fearful storm which ultimately swept away at one stroke all the landmarks of society: for it is a singular thing, that in speaking of De Maistre we cannot help identifying him with France. Exemplary in the performance of all his duties, distinguished for his uprightness, his sense of honour, his disinterestedness under the most trying circumstances, he had, no doubt, few features in common with the degraded noblesse, who had learned morality in the pastimes of the œil de bœuf, and high principle at the feet of Madame Du Barry; and yet, M. de Maistre was essentially French; French by that mixture of humeur Gauloise, so happily blended together with accurate learning, and an elegance which always springs from the heart; French, by the very garb under which he clothed his thoughts; French, by the extreme versatility of his talent, and a certain "quantum suff." of what our Gallican friends call fatuité, but which, when carried to extremes, we properly call impertinence; we may almost say that he was French in spite of himself. As a critic very aptly remarks, despite of his affected contempt for the Parisian qu'en-dira-t-on, he always felt anxious for the opinion they entertained about him; he would put in a work some passage carefully polished up, with a view to the Aristarchi of the Journal de l'Empire; or on another occasion, hesitating as to the propriety of allowing some startling assertion or seeming paradox, he would chuckle and say, "Never mind! let us leave them that bone to pick!"

Count de Maistre received a very good education at the University of Turin; he entered the magistracy, as it seems, a little against his own inclination, and was occupying a post of distinction when the Revolution broke out. In the "age of print," where was the young man who, even under the ermine of the law, amid red tape, precedents, and sittings in banco, had not found time to fire off his pamphlet, nay, his battery of pamphlets, against shams of every sort? In setting up as a reformer of abuses and an avenger of wrongs, the young barrister would only have been imitating what was everywhere going on around him; but we must confess that the extraordinary scenes he was called upon to witness, the unceremonious manner in which French republicans understood and applied their favourite doctrine, "the rights of man," were quite sufficient to startle any person possessing a tolerable perception of the grand principles of justice. An army had invaded Savoy, the republic of the Allobroges was constituted, and FOURTH SERIES, VOL. VIII.-14

all the inhabitants were obliged to present themselves at the municipality of their various residences to take an oath to the new order of things. This M. de Maistre never would do, and when the commissaries of the new government demanded of him a voluntary contribution toward the defraying of the war expenses, he unhesitatingly said, "I will not give money for slaying my brothers who serve the King of Sardinia." This scene took place at Chambéry. Madame de Maistre (the count was married, since 1786, to Mademoiselle de Morand) had travelled from Aoste, in order to share the dangers of her husband, and she was in such a condition that the slightest excitement might bring about the most dangerous results. Under these circumstances, let our readers imagine what must have been a domiciliary visit, that is to say, the presence of a band of soldiers invading the house, making the walls ring again with curses, threats, and choice sentences from the vocabulary of sans-culottism. Terror, before which Madame de Maistre had never yielded, at last overcame her when she saw her husband at the mercy of fifteen ruffians, whom his uncompromising firmness only stirred up to the paroxysm of rage; alarm brought on the pains of travail, and her youngest daughter, Constance, was thus ushered into the world amid the din of civil war and the strains of La Marseillaise. Count de Maistre saw that resistance would be in vain; he provided accordingly, as best he could, for the safety of his family, abandoned his estates, and repaired to Lausanne, where a mission from the King of Sardinia soon gave him an official position and a responsible situation. He had to solicit the protection of the Swiss Cantons on behalf of the unfortunate emigrants who, driven from Savoy by the violence of the revolutionary movement, wished either to stay in Switzerland, or merely to pass on for the purpose of enlisting in the royal army in Piedmont.

The youngest child of the Countess de Maistre not being strong enough to bear the fatigue of a tedious journey, was left behind under the care of her grandmother; the other members of the family joined the count at Lausanne, and they were all once more safe, but reduced to absolute want. Amid all the energy and enthusiasm of the French republicans, there was a sad deficiency of cash in those days; the road to glory was trodden by shoeless vagabonds; and few in number were the "regulation-jackets" which could muster together on a review or an inspection. But the "sovereign people" were by no means contented enough to thrust patient hands into empty pockets, while broad acres of pasture-land, ripe corn-fields, woods, and meadows were bringing in to monsieur le comte or madame la marquise comfortable incomes out of which they could