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good repute into infamy; and that these unjust acts flowed more commonly from friends than from enemies. We shall see, in days not far distant from those I am now describing, the wretched end of those men I have mentioned, an end decreed by the government, applauded by the people. It came to pass that good ideas and wise laws, not being engendered in the mind of the king, nor understood by the multitude, (both the one and the other being too debased for such civil wisdom,) that a small number of wise men devised them, a somewhat larger number appreciated them, the populace despised them, (as it usually does a novelty,) and the government punished them as a crime."

We are not now about to enter upon an analysis and criticism of the remaining epochs of this history, which warrant these melancholy remarks; but we strongly recommend the perusal of them, and of the whole work, to our readers; not, however, as a faultless model of the style and spirit in which history should be written, but as containing much information upon a portion of Europe imperfectly known, many wise and profound observations of a practical statesman, and a severe but true exposition of the frightful political evils which Italy is doomed to suffer, " per servir sempre o vincitrice o vinta," to borrow the happy expression of Filicaja, in his noble sonnet. Colletta's history, considered as a literary work, has also the minor merit of being animated by several dramatic scenes and picturesque sketches of the most vivid and striking character. Such, among many others, is the scene with the "Eletto," and the departure of Carlo, to which we have already referred; the discovery of Herculaneum and Poinpeii; the great earthquake in Calabria and Sicily, and the tremendous moral effects on the minds of men, one of the most remarkable accounts we have read since Thucydides' immortal narrative of the plague of Athens first filled us with admiration; the capture of the Vardarelli, a renowned band of robbers; the death of Murat; and many other passages.

The want of all reference to authorities we consider a great fault, and but feebly apologised for in the preface', though there is good reason to believe that such authorities would be found to warrant Colletta's statements. But the absence of a due estimation of the high calling of the Church, and of her influence upon the well-being of a nation, is a graver fault. It is not that there is any positive denial of this, but that amid countless schemes of civil policy, the eternal truth, "unless the Lord keep the city the watchman waketh but in vain," does not seem to be deeply impressed upon the mind of Colletta; at the same time it may be doubted, whether the see of Rome is not mainly responsible

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for this state of mind, which we suspect to be by no means confined to Colletta, but to be very generally prevalent among highly educated Italians. This at least we know, that in no part of the globe are the practical abuses of her system more flagrantly developed than in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies; abuses, not, perhaps, by her wish, but by direct consequence from her teaching. We are well aware of the usual answer made to this charge, namely, that it is unfair to argue from the abuse against the use, from the corrupted against the legitimate state. But there is a practical reply which everybody acquainted with the south of Italy can make, which admits of no refutation; the use, whatever it be, is swallowed up in the abuse, the legitimate state is not to be found, the exception is every where the rule, and the consequence, the unspeakably awful consequence is, that a demoralizing and debasing superstition occupies the place of the Catholic faith. For the frightful reaction, so common among educated persons in Italy, to universal scepticism, dreary deism, or positive atheism under the veil of national conformity to Romanism, we hold the Church of Rome responsible. Colletta's view of the Church is more that of an enemy whose striving for temporal aggrandizement (in many instances too true a picture in the Two Sicilies) is to be resisted, than of a friend who brings the principles upon which alone life has value, death hope, and government security.

We have thought it right to notice these faults in the history before us, but with this notice we strongly recommend to our readers the perusal of a work which, besides the merit of being written, with some few exceptions, in excellent Italian, exhibits a most vivid representation of the most interesting part of Italy during the last century, and which bears eloquent testimony to that great and everlasting truth, that the power and security of governors is inseparable from the well-being and happiness of the governed.

ART. V.-An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. By JOHN HENRY NEWMAN. London: Toovey. 1845.

In the present state of the Church, it is not right that any time should be lost in noticing Mr. Newman's book, however generally and briefly. No one can deny that the departure of such a man from the Church of his fathers, after so many labours within it, after so many years spent in deep inquiries, after the influence of his name and character has been so widely spread, and when alarmed and unsettled minds are grasping even at the turning of a straw, to justify that plunge into the unfathomable gulph of Romanism to which they seem tempted, as men giddy upon the verge of a precipice-no man can deny that such an event is full of anxious interest. Perhaps this is the only instance which has occurred, where solid learning, and professed reverence for antiquity, have been followed by an abandonment of Christ's Church in England. That they never could lead to such an abandonment was prophesied and, without one misgiving, asserted at the commencement of the struggle in which the Church has been engaged for the last twelve years. That they have not led to it in the case of other men who have fallen, or rather have thrown themselves down from the pinnacle of the temple, in avowed and wilful blindness, is evident from their own apologies. The question was still to be resolved in the case of Mr. Newman himself; and considered as an answer to this question, the present volume possesses the deepest interest, and is of incalculable importance. No one who understood what was at stake, however rooted his confidence in his Church, could open it without some degree of anxiety; no thoughtful reader, we venture to say, who loves and cherishes his Church, will lay it down without a fervent thanksgiving to Almighty God, without comfort and relief at the thought that learning, and zeal, and logical acuteness, in a highly-gifted mind, when tried to the utmost against that Church, could find no stronger weapon against it than the present apology for Rome.

These words are no attempt to undervalue the acuteness, the various reading, the ingenuity which it exhibits. It is no unworthy contribution to the theory which other hands first raised up in foreign countries, and disseminated in this; but it would be a sad

reflection upon the English Church, if it could not find even at a few days' notice, and within the armoury already provided for it, a sufficient shield to turn aside the blow now aimed at it, until hands able and prepared have fortified this part of the controversy against Rome with some regularly-constructed defence. This is one great use (may we not say the providential use?) of controversies in the Church, that they lay open to view now one point, now another, which requires to be maintained and protected, until the whole fortress becomes impregnable. Never will those who believe in the truth of their Church be alarmed at any new assaults; rather they will expect, rather be thankful for, rather summon up all their energies gladly and cheerfully to meet them, having before them the great names of old, who before this have fought the same battle, though on different ground; and finding in their repeated triumphs the strongest proof of truth, the surest pledge that God is with their cause, the earnest of their own success. And this may be the last assault which Romanism is capable of making. The end of all things seems approaching; and beaten back from every other charge, compelled to abandon, one after another, its forgeries of antiquity, its promises of expediency, its misinterpretation of Scripture, its miracles and its visions, it would seem to possess but one body of reserve on which to fall back, and to lead on a new attack; and this is the "Theory of Development.". It is true that a movement of such subtlety, involving questions which lie at the very foun. dations of abstract truth, a movement which must shake not the English Church, but Christianity itself to its centre, and which comes upon us suddenly, and from an unlooked-for quarter, cannot be met, as it should be, and as becomes the character-the honest, manly, straightforward character of English Theologyon the spur of the moment. Far, very far from it! But it may not be difficult to detect at once a few of the leading fallacies on which it proceeds, so as to quiet uneasy minds, and dispel alarms until the attack may be regularly met. This is all which can be contemplated in pages like these. May God bless even these few suggestions, and guide ourselves in making, and comfort others in attending to them.

And first, though some following remarks may be called harsh imputations, needless reproaches, attempts to cast a slur on those whom we have lost, still the time is come when, in mere self-defence of the Church, and in mercy to the souls of others, it is necessary to remark on some personal circumstances of the present controversy, which are now authentically avowed in the Preface to this volume. The questions asked by all who have been subjected to the influence of Mr. Newman's VOL. IV.-NO. VIII.-DEC. 1845.

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writings-asked by them with alarm and with reason are these, "How can so good a man have fallen into a deadly error?

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And if Romanism be not a deadly error, why may we not follow a guide who has thus far conducted us towards acknowledged truth? Or again, if Romanism be error, and if our guide, a holy man, was not secured from it, where is the Providence of God? Where is our own security in prayer, in obedience, in piety, in all the supposed safeguards of a religious life? Or if he whom we thought so holy was not holy-if with all the outward marks of trustworthiness, he still was faithless within, whom are we to trust henceforth?" These are the questions, full of miserable doubt, and dangerous temptations, which the fall of such a man conjures up in the minds which cannot make any other estimate of goodness than abstinence from the sins of the world; which cannot realise to themselves the severity of God's judgments even upon a comparatively intellectual flaw in a character otherwise sound-and which anchor their hopes and belief, with a childish, not child-like weakness, upon some single leader, forgetting that Christ has commanded us to call no man Father upon earth, and that where his Spirit manifests itself as an outward guide, there not one, but two or three must be gathered together in his name. There are two remarkable passages, which it would be well to exhibit to such minds at the present moment-one, in Vincentius of Lerins (chap. x. et seq.), where he speaks of the errors of teachers as the temptation of the Church, and dwells at length upon the lapse of Origen. The other is one of those deep and masterly remarks of Bishop Butler, where he assigns to the imperfect evidence of Divine revelation one among many other tasks, that of trying the hearts and minds of men, who, from their constitution and circumstances, could scarcely be exposed to any other form of temptation. (Analog. part ii., chap. vi.) There is not space here to quote them. But the following facts may be useful for the same purpose-facts either avowed, or indicated with sufficient distinctness in the Preface to this volume, and which therefore may now be dealt with unhesitatingly; whereas before, they were only thrown out at random by violent assailants, or were listened to with feelings which repelled them as injurious calumnies, by those who could not bear to think or to speak evil of their brethren.

I. It is evident, then, that there prevailed in the writer's mind, from the very commencement of the controversy, not that alarmed, sober, cautious temper towards the Church of Rome, which the very existence of the Church of which he was a minister, much more her warnings and her teachings, must impress upon all her

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