both here and in Italy is said to be engaged. This paper takes its stand on the same points of practical reform which we have already mentioned in connexion with the project of 'La Chiesa e l'Italia;' and the prospectus of it promises that the subjects of controversy shall be discussed in a candid, courteous, and conciliatory tone,' after the manner of a periodical which was published for some years at Dublin under the title of "The Catholic Layman." That such a tone-a tone wholly unlike that of the many publications which have been sent forth by the more violent reformers of Italy*—is the only one from which real good can be expected, we need not take the trouble to argue. But it seems worth while to cite here a recent case in which, although the scene was in the heart of India, the actor and narrator was by birth a Neapolitan subject, and therefore one whose evidence may be especially valuable as to the best way of approaching the Italian mind.

'Father Felix,' a Sicilian Capuchin whose family name is Miritello, having gone to India as a missionary, with the usual prejudices of his country and his class against Protestantism of every kind, found himself disturbed by the Papal decree in favour of the Immaculate Conception; for, although he held this doctrine as matter of opinion, he was startled at its being erected into an article of necessary faith. After much uneasiness, he asked the English chaplain at the station where he was, to lend him some books on the controversy between the Churches, and received from him Jeremy Taylor's 'Dissuasive from Popery,' and Professor Harold Browne's well-known and excellent Exposition of the XXXIX Articles :'

'When I went home, I felt a kind of uneasiness in opening the books; however, I prayed to God for light, and took in hand Jeremy Taylor. The very title-page indisposed me; I felt that. it was too bad to call my religion popery, and read it with suspicion. I went on reading, but I found that there was generally in it a kind of misrepresentation-I should say exaggeration-of some points of the Roman doctrines; and I felt that it was not fair to charge the adversary with consequences drawn from an exaggeration of his principles. So I stopped reading, and would have thrown away the book, had it been my own. I thought that nothing could be derived from reading Protestant books; "for," I said, "truth has no need of misrepresentation;" and I regretted having asked for the books at all. . . . . . But [after two days] happening to open Professor Browne's work, and to read a portion, I find him so fair in representing the doctrines of the Roman Church, so faithful and guarded in his expressions, remaining a step behind rather than in advance of the

* See Wordsworth, i. 247; L. M. H.,' 69.

truth,

truth, that it conciliated my mind and my heart. . . . . What was more, I found each point strengthened by the authority of the Fathers.' -pp. 23-4.

This, which was contrary to all his expectations, raised the suspicion that the patristic quotations might have been falsified; but at Agra Father Felix found the means of satisfying himself on this head, and, after a time, having on full conviction made up his mind to leave the Roman Church, he was received into communion by the Bishop of Calcutta, and is now a missionary of our own Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The effect of the two styles of controversy on his mind (not that Bishop Taylor is at all to be classed with the extreme opponents of Rome) may read a lesson to all who take part in the discussion of religious questions.

One reform there is which is necessary in Italy before all others-we mean a reform in the English Church. The aspect in which our Church shows itself in that country is generally anything but attractive. At Rome, indeed, while the Papal Government compels us to worship without the walls, and in a building which must bear no outward sign of an ecclesiastical character, there is full provision of frequent services and administration of the means of grace; and how highly this ought to be valued in a city where Romanism puts forth all its fascinations-where anything short of the full Anglican system would afford an opening for contrasts to the disadvantage of our own Church-we need not say. At Genoa, Dr. Wordsworth was much pleased with the service, and the excellent chaplain, Mr. Strettell, is now raising funds for the building of a church. At Milan, a little church has been given up by Government for the use of the English. But in one great Italian city, admission to the English service is only to be had by paying a franc and a half for a ticket; and, lest the buyer should get too much for his money, a printed code of regulations explains that this ticket, although nominally good for a 'week,' will not clear him for anything more than the Sunday of those few weeks in which there is any service on a week-day. In another great city, we were assured that the chaplain had mixed himself up with a 'revival' in which all sorts of sects took part, and the chief performer was a highly excited footman! Dr. Wordsworth expresses a belief that in Italy more of English money is spent on the Vaudois than on the English Church (ii. 248); and both in this and in many other respects, there must be a very great change, if we do not wish our representations of our Church's character to be contradicted by the discreditable appearance which it too commonly presents in Italy.

Perhaps

Perhaps this article may suggest to some of the many Englishmen, who at this season begin their southward flight, lines of inquiry and exertion which they might not have otherwise thought of. As to the limits within which active efforts in the cause of Italian reformation ought to be confined, we have spoken too plainly to be misunderstood; so that nobody can draw from our words any encouragement to insult or wantonly to interfere with the religion of the country, or to engage in any attempts at proselytism. But without anything of this kindand even if he be not ready or willing, like the doughty polemic of Westminster, to engage in a theological tilt with everybody that he meets, an English traveller in Italy, who turns his attention to the religious condition of the country, may be able to learn much, and even to teach something. If he take care to ascertain well what is to be done, and in how far he himself is fitted to take a part in doing it, he may help in his degree towards the purification of the Italian Church and the promotion of Christian unity.*

ART. VII.-History of England. Reign of Elizabeth. Vols. 1 and 2. By James Anthony Froude. London, 1863.

WE

WE hasten to introduce to our readers these remarkable volumes, which shed new light-at times startling and surprising light on the annals of Elizabeth, that most important and critical epoch in the history of the world, especially in the history of England. They promise, if the continuation shall answer to the singular revelations of the first part, not less curious and instructive illustrations of the whole reign of our Virgin Queen. Often as this region has been traversed, beaten as it might seem into a dull and barren way by novelist, by poet, and by historian, it seems almost a new and unexplored country. We cannot say that the mists of intrigue and counter-intrigue are entirely dispersed, that the striking characters, conflicting with each other, conflicting with themselves, stand out quite clearly and distinctly; that some new perplexities do not arise; yet, on the whole, the times are developed before us more vividly and intelligibly than in any former history. We seem to know Philip, and Elizabeth, and Mary of Scotland, and Cecil, and Leicester, and Randolph, and Maitland, and Darnley, and Both

The influence of education is an important element in the religious prospects of Italy. We regret that we cannot find room for any details or remarks on this subject, and must content ourselves with referring to Dr. Wordsworth's volumes, especially to the English Churchman's' Letter, pp. 71, seqq.

well

well more intimately than ever before, while some new actors, especially the three successive Spanish ambassadors, come forth with bolder and more unexpected prominence. Mr. Froude has not taken up the gauntlet and challenged all comers in defence of the daughter of Henry VIII. In the two first volumes of his History he sowed his wild oats of paradox. To Elizabeth's nobler qualities—and with noble qualities she was endowed beyond most women, most queens-he does, when his work is carefully and calmly examined, full, not more than full, justice; but there is no disguise, no reticence, no timid and partial uplifting of the veil over her weaknesses, and weaknesses there were both in the Queen and in the woman which might almost justify those whom political or religious passions induce to take the darker view of her character. Mr. Froude might seem determined to show that Elizabeth was the legitimate daughter both of Henry VIII, and of poor Ann Boleyn; of Henry not in outward feature and form alone, but in the more living lineaments of character and of passions; not only in the commanding presence, the lion port,' the haughtiness, the force, the determined will, the despotic strength, in him hardly controlled, in Elizabeth under the strong control of her own wisdom, of the rising freedom of her subjects at home, and the turbulent and intricate state of public affairs abroad-so too in the vanity, the coquetry (we believe no worse either of Elizabeth or Anne Boleyn) of her mother. Mr. Froude will meet with more sympathy in his admiration of the qualities of the daughter than of the father. It was difficult to persuade us that it was only the kingly sense of duty to his subjects, the desire to avert the perils of a disputed succession, by providing the realm with a male heir, which induced bluff King Hal to change his wives as he changed his armour; to cut off, without scruple and without remorse, the heads of women which had rested on his bosom in tender love; to decapitate one wife on Tuesday, and marry another on Wednesday. We are disposed to believe, as will appear, that Elizabeth after a struggle-a most desperate and nearly mortal struggle-did sacrifice, for the security of her throne and the welfare of her people, the only real passion she ever felt; a passion, indeed, thrown away on a most worthless object. On her flirtations (we must use the term, for we know no better one), Mr. Froude is not sparing. They were at least more public, more undeniable, than the foolish levities, the silly speeches, the French gaieties, which cost her poor mother her head, but for which the historian of Henry VIII. had little charity. On those of Elizabeth her historian dwells with very amusing if not very edifying copiousness; and of these of course we have by no means seen the last, though we

see

see enough in these volumes. About this subject more hereafter. On the whole, indeed, we have some doubt, whether Mr. Froude has not unintentionally failed to hold with rigorous impartiality the balance between the greater and baser qualities, the nobler and more ignoble actions, the loftier and more ordinary touches of character in the Queen. While the intrigues, the duplicities, we fear mendacities, the injustices and ingratitudes, the parsimonies, the irresolutions, the vacillations, the caprices, the vanities, are spread out with the most minute particularity, on the other hand the unexampled difficulties of the Queen's position, the sudden revulsions to the great and lofty, the resumption of the lion port,' and of the sagacious, all-penetrating judgment, the proud and determinate resolve, the greatness in peril and in reverse, are compressed into paragraphs and sentences-pregnant paragraphs indeed, and emphatic sentences, but still comparatively brief, and therefore comparatively unimpressive.

A few words before we enter upon the work, upon its style and manner of composition. The style is excellent; sound, honest, forcible, singularly perspicuous English; at times with a sort of picturesque simplicity; pictures dashed off with only a few touches, but perfectly alive. The Carlylism which slightly infected Mr. Froude's earlier volumes has disappeared, except, perhaps, here and there in a sarcastic sentence. We have never to read a passage twice. We cannot express quite the same satisfaction with the mode of composition. We cannot think it the perfection of history, to give us the documentary evidence in the text, to offer the materials crude, undigested, unharmonised, not having passed through the mind of the author, not moulded up in a continuous, flowing, unbroken narrative. Still, if a defect, when compared with the highest ideal of history, this defect is not without its charm and attractiveness. There is something almost dramatic in thus introducing the actors on the scene, speaking their own words, betraying their own secret thoughts. We hear ambassadors actually conversing with their Sovereigns, and their Sovereigns dictating to their ambassadors. Above all we see the course of events day by day; not only the more serious and important communications, but the gossip of the hour; not the mature opinions only, but the guesses, the suspicions, the intrigue in all its growth and development, the counter-intrigue in its subtle under-workings. Mr. Froude may at least urge that his despatches and letters are more true and real, and therefore have better right to a place in history than the speeches, made for the characters, in the classic historians, and by some of their modern imitators. If truth and vivid reality be

after