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NOTICES.

'ON Papal Conclaves.' By W. C. Cartwright. (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas.) This tastefully-printed little volume is an enlarged reprint of an article in the North British Review (No. XC.). Its author is understood to have contributed to the Edinburgh Review those interesting papers on Italian questions which have appeared within the 'buff and blue' covers from time to time during the last seven years; papers, it may be observed, which display a very large amount of agreement with those of the Christian Remembrancer on the same subject. The little work before us is not less curious and interesting, though its interest is of a rather different character. Details concerning the mode of a Papal election have an antiquarian character, excepting in so far as the future of the Papacy may depend upon them. But this future is so interesting and important to all Christendom that acquaintance with the past and with the rules of conclaves becomes highly useful, and we feel grateful to Mr. Cartwright for his careful researches in a very unbeaten tract of thought and study. For the sake of Christianity we hope that some explanation of the charges contained in Appendix A. may be forthcoming. But in any case we may recommend this volume as a mine of information hardly to be obtained elsewhere in the English language.

A good thought has been well carried out in the 'Sunday Library' (Macmillan). In our time we have had many Sunday Libraries: reprints of the old divines, centuries of sermons, and the like; but here we have a proof of the improved view of the Sunday, and what is suitable for it,—not mere 'goody' books of the dull S.P.C.K. order, but religious and, at the same time, interesting teaching. When we say that the accomplished and everready and ever-welcome author of the Heir of Redclyffe' has turned the annals of the Apostolic times into a narrative historically correct, and with her usual grace of style, we only announce, in the 'Pupils of S. John the Divine,’ a work somewhat pleasanter than Cave, and somewhat lighter than the ' Acta Sanctorum.' In what is promised as following volumes of the series some of the most picturesque writers are engaged,-Mr. Kingsley, Mr. Farrar, and Mr. Thomas Hughes. The possible danger is, of course, in the abeyance of dogma. To be systematically undogmatic is itself dogmatic; just as the secular view of education is itself denominational.

'The Dogmatic Teaching of the Book of Common Prayer on the Eucharist' (Longmans), by Mr. Estcourt, of S. Chad's, Birmingham, is a reply from a distinguished Roman Catholic, and a convert, to an article which appeared in this Review, and as such we feel bound to announce the publication, which is written generally with commendable good taste.

To those whose tastes lie in scurrility, in this case not unseasoned with cleverness, 'The Comedy of Convocation' (Freeman) will be acceptable. But the joke, such as it is, is tediously overdone.

Mr. L. C. Biggs has printed an annotated edition of the popular collection, 'Hymns Ancient and Modern' (Novello), which promises to be the basis of a variorum edition. A whole literature of comment, and much information as to the origin, history, authorship, and transformation of our popular English Hymns, is to be found in this pretty volume.

The Bishop of Oxford has condensed, and in condensing has gone carefully through, that monument of filial piety, the Life of William Wilberforce' (Murray). It now appears in a single volume, much more readable and enjoyable than in the old shape. But it has already attained the dignity of a standard book; and the present form is valuable chiefly because it will always command popularity as a gift-book.

'Vestiarum Christianum,' by Mr. C. Marriott. Messrs. Rivington are to be congratulated on this publication. It is quite a book de luxe, and the illustrations are admirable. We think that for archæological and historical purposes it is better than for practical ones. The attempt to show that our surplice and scarf' is of Apostolic date is, were it not advanced in perfect good faith, almost suggestive of a joke. Surely this is carrying the view that our Reformers' had a primitive ideal always in view, to an extreme. But Mr. Marriott always intends to be impartial, and he is always fair.

6

Mr. Perowne has published (Bell and Daldy) a second volume of his work on the 'Psalms,' which maintains the reputation earned by its predecessor.

There is something of a melancholy but deep interest in the republication of Newman's 'Sermons' (Rivingtons). They are edited by the writer's fast and early friend, Mr. Copeland; and are strictly and substantially a reprint. There is no reason to suppose that the writer disapproves of their reappearance : every reason to believe the contrary. It would be simply silly in this place to offer reflections on the amazing results which have attended these wondrous writings of this wonderful mind : the Great Day alone will disclose their effects. Being for the most part on matters which little concern controversies between ourselves and Dr. Newman's present communion, these sermons— and they include the 'Plain Sermons' as well as the six volumes of 'Parochial Sermons may still do much good; and we thank the publishers and editor for the spirit, for it required some, to do this service to religion.

'Metrical Epitaphs, Ancient and Modern,' by Rev. Geo. Booth (Hichens), like Martial's Epigrams, are good, indifferent, and bad -we mention these qualities in the order of quantity. Some which Mr. Booth has consigned to the publicity of type he had better have left in obscurity; and the general impression on our mind is that the English parochial clergy have been very neglectful in their duty, if some of the scandalous compilations which we find here can have been set up in 'God's Acre.'

Mr. Clark of Edinburgh has published two volumes of Keil and Deliztsch on the Minor Prophets-a branch of inquiry too much neglected among us. We see that the same indefatigable and punctual publishers advertise in the Ante-Nicene Library a treatise of Tertullian and the works of Cyprian. Doubtless it will be cared for that this useful series supplements, but does not interfere with, the Oxford patristic translations of past days.

In the Footsteps of the Holy Child' (Masters), Mr. Carter, of Clewer, adds to the many devotional works which he has written. The title, as we understand it, is derived from the fact that this manual follows the first Sundays of the Church's year.

Among the useful foreign books so carefully published by Mr. Clark, of Edinburgh, we have to mention 'Auberlen on Revelation,' which is a general criticism on Rationalism, and an able one. If M. Rénan is right in his view, that to oppose successfully a belief one must have first held it, the same perhaps applies to an unbelief.

Mr. Paget, one of the wittiest writers of the day, who has hybernated for some time, has, like his famous Owl, only awakened with new vigour. Lucretia; or, the Heroine of the Nineteenth Century' (Masters), is a most amusing book; the subject of Mr. Paget's satire being the sensational novels of the day, and the demoralizing of the female mind which Miss Braddon's school has produced. There is beneath Mr. Paget's comic and sparkling flow a deep under-current of religious and moral strength.

Mrs. Pender Cudlip was formerly known, as Miss Annie Thomas, as a novel writer, not without certain proclivities to Miss Braddon's school, so to dignify her compositions; but in a Noble Aim' (Masters), an unpretending little story, Mrs. Cudlip has extricated herself from old associations, and in applying her talents to a religious purpose (this tale is written for the benefit of a Home of Mercy) she has redeemed some former misapplication of them. There is a slip in the first page: London has no 'Metropolitan Church.'

'Sketches of the Rites and Customs of the Græco-Russian Church' (Rivingtons) is a very curious book in more ways than one. The author is an English lady, Mrs. Romanoff, married to a Russian military officer, and she has put into a sort of narrative or dramatic form some sketches of the inner history and outward form and practical working of the Church in Russia. This form is not, we think, a happy one. To those who like the fiction, and it is rather thin, the information will not be attractive; while, on the other hand, many who might both value and would profit by the liturgical and historical contents of what are substantially distinct essays, will be repelled by what looks at first sight like a little novel. But such as can get over this difficulty we feel assured will learn a good deal from Mrs. Romanoff. The volume is introduced to us by Miss Yonge.

'Annals of the Bodleian Library' (Rivingtons) is a perfect treasury of notes on matters archæological, academical, and bibliographical, by Mr. Macray, one of the Sub-Librarians. Few occupations are more pleasant than to be curators of famous libraries, and to pick up the domestic facts and stray scraps of literature and curiosities of authorship which are latent in ancient libraries. The Benedictines are the pleasantest of monks; and from good Antony Wood to the Bandinels, and Blisses, and Maitlands of our own days the pleasantest of companions are librarians. Mr. Macray is worthy of his fraternity, and this monograph does credit to his researches and love of his calling. There is an echo of Dibdinism in the preface which we could have spared. The Oxford authorities are wrong in translating 'The Girdlers' Company,' of London, by 'Societas Zonariorum.' The girdles are not for

the waist, but for the hearth; they are iron frames for baking cakes: grid, griddles, and by transposition girdles; the word grid is preserved in gridiron.

Mr. Renouf is a convert, and he belongs to a remarkable section of the converts, men who have not been able to renounce their reason, and who have not seen any grounds for accepting Ultramontanism. Whether they have found in their new communion what they expected to find, it is not for us to say. That they exist is an important phenomenon. The 'Home and Foreign Review'-Mr. Lockhart's controversy with Dr. Ward-the aspect of the Oratorians generally are signs, and in their way wonders, to such as ourselves. Mr. Renouf's pamphlet, 'The Condemnation of Pope Honorius' (Longmans), settles we use the word with thought-the question of the Pope's personal infallibility. If there is to be a General Council, and if it is to be fairly summoned and fairly conducted, this crucial question is not likely to be passed over as smoothly as that of the Immaculate Conception.

The spectacle of a good man struggling against the perverse majority of the wicked and faithless has attracted even heathen sympathies: the sight of a very silly and conceited person setting up his crotchets against the universal consent of reason and good sense has its interest too. Such as enjoy this last entertainment we can promise infinite sport in Mr. Rochfort Clarke's 'Protest against Images in the Windows of Churches' (Seeley and Jackson).

Among sermons we should like to call especial attention to a very practical volume by Mr. William Baird, 'The Hallowing of our Common Life' (Mozley). These discourses far exceed Dr. Caird's over-rated sermons on the same practical matters.

The Author of 'The Heir of Redclyffe' is among the most prolific of our writers. Her work on Names is a standard, but her severer studies are fringed with decorative fictions, the announcement of which is some difficulty. 'New Ground'-Miss Yonge is always taking new ground—is just published (Mozley) and the 'Monthly Packet,' which continues its useful, and, as we should judge from its crowd of correspondents, its popular career opens 'The Caged Lion'-a title which is mysterious in its suggestiveness.

Mr. Mackenzie Walcott has undertaken a task which might deter the most ambitious student, in endeavouring to compress into a single volume all that relates to 'Sacred Archæology,' which is the title, somewhat ambitious, of a work owning him as the author, and Mr. Reeve, of Henrietta-street, to whom we owe a long series of famous illustrated books on natural history, as the publisher. To say that Mr. Mackenzie's book is complete would be to say what the author knows that it is not; but it is a most useful manual, and within the same compass there is no work in our language which can compete with it. Mr. Walcott has long been known as an accomplished antiquary, and he has in compiling this volume gone through a course of multitudinous reading rare in these idle days.

Mr. George Huntington—formerly of Manchester, now of Tenby-has reproduced, we think with somecondensation, a series of sermons for the 'Church's Seasons' (Parker), which commanded attention when originally printed, and whose merits justify their re-appearance.

If the re-appearance of a 'Selection from Erasmus' Colloquies' (Parker) is to be esteemed a sign-which it is-of the good sense and practical wisdom with which Dr. Lowe governs Hurstpierpoint, few testimonials to the value of the school could be greater. We believe that Latin scholarship has suffered since our scholars have ceased to cultivate the use of Latin speech. Erasmus is an old-fashioned book: Cordery is more old-fashioned, and supposed to be vulgar. Perhaps we are wrong in suggesting cause and effect; but it is a fact that Latin scholarship has declined, and-is it because ?Latin conversation has been neglected. Even in our recollection it was a school practice to translate Greek into Latin.

To those whose taste affects allegories-our own does not-it will be a presumption in its favour that The Harvest : an Allegory,' by Mrs. F. Granville (Longmans), is introduced by Dean Hook.

Thoughts of a Physician' (Van Voorst). We find that this modest little volume is the second of a series- Evening Thoughts.' We wish that we were acquainted with its predecessor: the writer is a good and thoughtful man, evidently acquainted with the world and modern thought, and yet able to give to God His own. It may be called a Religio Medici' of the best

sort.

Mr. Chancellor Massingberd is known, and valued where he is known,— and we may add that he is always favourably known,-by advocating Christian union in a practical way We mean that he takes up the schism and disunion which is at our door first: not that he is insensible to the separation of great Churches, but he is more, or first, concerned with home sins. On a subject which he has made his own, he has published a set of 'Sermons on Unity' (Rivingtons), and the volume is enriched--v --we use the word without affectation-by an Essay from his pen which has appeared in our own pages.