lebrities; however, we should not fulfil our office to our friends of both arms of the service, were we not to tell them there are two other things they value to be got here also the oldest wines and newest news; wishing for the best bottle of wine in the service, or a hint of the earliest brevet, turn towards Limerick.

The city is, of course, governed by a mayor and corporation, and the former tell it not in the gun-roomis admiral of the Shannon, his jurisdiction extending as far as an arrow can shoot beyond Scattery. Several improvements are in progress in the old part of the city, especially one to embank the original island on which the city was founded, let our friends only avoid commissioners. A very epistolary abstraction termed "Woods and Forests," whose acquaintance with the locality is something like Mark Tapley's of Eden, very much confined to paper-has hitherto done much in wax and queen's heads, let us hope equal activity will be shown in providing an outlet for the tired citizen along his beautiful river. The only available exit at the opposite side of the river where, by accident, he might escape to fill his lungs with the freshness of the country, is of course blocked up, your genuine commissioner forming his plans on the curt maxim-"nothing for nothing"- —a third walk, where he was accustomed whilome to wander at his own free will, without the ghost of a commissioner stalking across his path, was too much to indulge in; and now, if found riding without special liberty, he is subject to the solicitous attentions of the Shannon Commissioners and Court of Queen's Bench. We hope our friends will keep a jealous eye on the Palace of Donald O'Brien and John's Castle, lest any of these red-tape apparitions, smit with a love of these old relics, should linger in their precincts, and Mary's Steeple be found eloping some fine morning, or John's Castle discovered on its way across the river.

A little way above the city, the tidal wave of the river terminates, and the rushing waters of the Upper Shannon meet those of the Lower; and here we would beg leave to part from thee, gentlest reader, for the present. Yet "parting is such sweet sorrow," we would fain draw out our verbosity longer than the "staple of our argu

"That river, on whose banks are found Sweet pastoral flowers, and laurels that have crowned Full oft the unworthy brow of lawless force; And for delight of him who tracks its course, Immortal amaranth and palms abound."

Yes, let the practical people of the world prattle as they please, there is a world about and around us, on the confines of the present, where we may acquire lessons of deepest wisdom. Some one speaks of standing high upon this vantage-ground of the present, and looking at the past, and Milton of the "bright countenance of truth shining amid the still air of such delightful studies." Beautiful, indeed, on the mountain tops, are the feet of those bringing tidings from the past; beautiful, indeed, the privilege to be perImitted to think and feel in concert with such pure minds. The revelations of history bring us into contact with those endowed with like passions, and thoughts, and sentiments to ourselves; gifted with that divine and sublimating spirit, we but too often neglect; and when we find those passions and thoughts linked with the purest love, as in the early teachings of our great saint, breathing the kindliest affections of the unchanging heart of man, every wall and ruin becomes hallowed by such associations. History is the great connecting-link of the soul with the feelings of the past, and what a well-spring of delight in those pure sympathies thus awakened; what freshness in the old truths ever gushing up; what a pervading soul of happiness, could we but perceive it! Yes, Schiller

"Sanft und eben rinnt der Lebens fluss,

Durch der schonhelt stille Schattenland."

Spite the destroying finger of Time -the crumbling of rock and ruinsoftly flows yet ever the calm undercurrent of life, "gliding through the "shadow land" of the beautiful. Nearly six thousand years have the trees of the forest waved in the sweet breath of heaven have the flowers been renewed in all their beauty and strength. So with the charities of life-ever different, yet the same.

D'AUBIGNE'S History of the Reformation is one of those books of which it is impossible that we should omit giving an account; and yet, as it has almost the interest of a romance-such is the power with which the author exhibits in actual picture, every scene which he has to describe-we cannot but hope that the volume which now demands our attention must be already in the hands of many of our readers. The book has been more popular in England than on the continent. Of the English translations of the three first volumes, from 150,000, to 200,000 have been sold, while the sale of the original did not exceed 4,000. Dr. D'Aubigné says, that great and serious inconvenience has arisen from inaccuracies in the translations-in one instance, likely to have led to the dissolution of the American Tract Society. The American booksellers, it appears, circulated 75,000 copies of D'Aubigné's work, in one or more English translations, but the scattered population in the New Settlements cannot be reached by ordinary booksellers, and among these the American Tract Society undertook to circulate an edition of 24,000 copies through the instrumentality of more than a hundred hawkers (Colporteurs).

The

Tract Society were accused by two presbyterian synods, of mutilating the work, and the effect of the accusation was so detrimental to the society, that Dr. D'Aubigné found it necessary to interpose.

The Tract Society, it would appear, altered the translation which they circulated in a few passages, but the context showed that what they printed was more in accordance with D'Aubigné's views than the passages in the version which they were pirating and paring for their public. In one passage vol iii. book ix. chap. 4, the committee of the Tract Society found these words "It is the Episcopal authority itself that Luther calls to the bar of judgment, in the person of the German

primate." On the committee were episcopalians, and they altered the phrase, "it is the authority of Rome itself, that Luther calls to the bar of judgment in the person of the German primate." On this D'Aubigné says "this is no doubt an important alteration, but the first translator had himself changed my idea. The French reads thus— "c'est l'episcopat tout entier que Luther traduit à sa barre dans la personne du primat Germanique."

"There," he adds, "is no question of episcopal authority but of the whole body of the Roman Catholic bishops. I pronounce neither for nor against the episcopal authority; I am content to point out an inaccuracy in the translation."

In vol. iii. book ix. chapter 2, the committee found the expression," the ancient structure of the Church was thus tottering," and they substituted "the ancient structure of Popery was thus tottering."

"In the French," says D'Aubigné, "there occurs neither Church nor Popery, but simply l'ancien edifice s'ecroulait,' nevertheless the committee's rendering is preferable. It is not the Church of Christ that was tottering, since the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. It is the Papal Church, as is evident from the context. Most of the other passages changed by the American society, were originally translated with tolerable fidelity; but it was suf ficient that some were not so to make the author feel the necessity of a new edition, carefully revised by himself."

We think Dr. D'Aubigné quite right in doing what he can to secure his share of the profits, that cannot but arise from the large sales in England of his work; but a translation, no matter by whom produced, could never be secured from such corrections and alterations as he mentions. The implied presbyterianism of the work would for ever subject it to this kind

of word-paring, which cannot but create distrust of all popular editions of books circulated by tract societies, and we suspect, that had the translation revised by himself been that in the hands of the committee, it would not have fared much better.

To guard as far as he could against blunders of translators, and tract societies, seemed to Dr. D'Aubigné a duty. It was important too to secure to himself some part of the profits arising from the English sale. These joint considerations having led to a change in his plan of publication, he has examined Mr. White's translation of the three first volumes," line by line, and word by word," in order to be able to authenticate its being every where faithful to the original, and the fourth volume, which has not appeared in any other than the English form, is the joint work of Mr. White and himself. The only mode in which he could secure to the publishers who have purchased the work from him, a fair return for their large expenditure, was to withhold from immediate publication the fourth volume in French. Throughout the three first volumes he has also introduced original matter, which has not yet appeared in any other form. Oliver and Boyd's edition of D'Aubigné's History of the Reformation is thus the most perfect form in which it can be obtained. We are glad that an arrangement has been made, securing to the author his fair remuneration, and giving the public the best guarantee for correctness that can be had under the circumstances.

We have said that Dr. D'Aubigné's style is singularly animated and picturesque. Indeed we know no book equal to those parts of his which give Luther's early life and struggles. It is far more authentic than Michelet's "Memoirs of Luther, written by himself," as he calls a book substantially made up from the "Table-talk," a work of very doubtful authority. Michelet, with great diligence and with great liveliness, is yet a writer that cannot be altogether relied on, as he does not seem to us to distinguish at all between the relative value of his authorities, and a theory will at any time mislead him. In all the circumstances that prepared

the age in which he appeared for Luther and Luther for his age, D'Aubigné recognises and seeks to exhibit providential purpose. The argument

is in substance the same as that illustrated by Dr. Miller in the " Philosophy

of History," and by Mr. O'Sullivan in an early work of his on the disposition of events leading to the Reformation in England.

The former volumes of D'Aubigné's History have carried on the narrative to the period when Protestantism began to exist in institutions of its own; and the present volume, occupied with the History of the Protest of Spire, the Confession of Augsburg, and the Reformation in Switzerland, is scarcely less interesting or important than those that have preceded it.

The period of the Reformation is emphatically the commencement of modern history. All things have become new. In the parent Church of the West, no less than in the communities which had hitherto acknowledged a dependence, more or less modified,upon her, the spirit of change was operating; and Rome, no less than Germany, was influenced by the great scenes in which the people were beginning to be felt a powerful and influencing element in the constitution of society. It must be remembered that in these early struggles religious feeling, everywhere awake and active, had not yet fixed itself into adverse dogmas. There was nothing even to render improbable a silent correction of the startling abuses of practice, that presented a more formidable objection to the claims of Rome than conflicting theories. No council had given its sanction to the views with which Luther was at war. The doctrine of justification by faith was in words-and we have no reason to doubt in meaning-expressed as strongly by Contarini and Flaminio as by Luther himself. Cardinal Pole was of opinion that Scripture, taken in its profoundest connexion, preaches nothing but this doctrine. The doctrines which afterwards obtained the sanction of the Council of Trent had not, at the period of which we are speaking, been yet authoritatively expressed in language irreconcileable with the views of the reformers. The

confession of Augsburg had not yet been drawn up. The order of Jesuits had not been instituted. Opinions were every where afloat unfixed; and we almost think that there was a moment when the adoption of reconciling language, and the correction of abuses which it was Rome's own interest to correct, might have appeased the fermenting spirit that threatened to convulse all society.

The position of the reformers at the period of the diet of Worms, with an account of which D'Aubigné's third volume closes, is scarcely intelligible without considering the peculiar nature of the constitution of the German empire.

The conquests of Charlemagne were conquests not for himself alone, but for the Church. An army of ecclesiastics followed the steps of the conqueror. The people were baptized in thousands, and the children educated. This was a more successful process than we should have anticipated. The missionaries were men in earnest in their vocation, and paganism was everywhere modified, if not actually overcome. Their legends of gods and tutelary spirits were in the feeling of the middle ages transferred to Christian saints, and the old symbols given a new interpretation. This first teaching, if we cannot recognise it as the truth, was yet a preparation for better, and much that was true was thus communicated-perhaps all that was possible under the circumstances of the case.

"The ascending day-star, with a bolder eye, Hath lit each dew-drop on our trimmer lawn; Yet not for this, if wise, shall we decry

The spots and struggles of the timid dawn, Lest so we tempt the approaching noon to scorn The mists and painted vapours of our morn."

The Unity of Charlemagne's extended empire was preserved, and expressed by the Unity of the faith. Apostacy from the religion of the empire was in itself an act of rebellion against the state, and was punished as treason. It seems fortunate that, in the early civilization of the barbarous tribes, their instructors were connected with a power other than that of the emperor, for we see no possibility of such an empire as Charlemagne's not ending in pure military despotism, had the emperor united in his own person the double claim of civil and of spiritual

supremacy. Suppose the continuance of the empire in such circumstances, then, instead of the growth and development of European mind, we must have had ages of such imperfect civilization as have paralysed and made a moral desert of Asia. The existence of the two powers in different hands seems to have been the only possible condition of preserving the germ of nationality in each of the several members of the empire, as that nationality was-in every thing-inconsistent with the claims of the emperor, and-in its distinctive religion the strongest form in which nationality is or can be expressed-was necessarily assailed by the teaching of the Church. We think it is demonstrable that the conflict of those two powers rendered impossible the continuance of the empire for any length of time. The Church, in its claim of universality, usurped a power which counteracted and controlled that other usurpation -the Empire. When the empire was broken into smaller and more governable portions, the acknowledgment of feudal dependence still united the dif ferent principalities that constituted its strange chaotic bulk, and though the emperor ceased to have dominion, in any proper sense, over any part of the empire, yet there were acknowledged relations of interdependence between its constituent parts and of dependence of all on the emperor. This latter relation, unfortunately, was expressed in the language of a state of things that had for ever passed away, being derived from the forms of much earlier periods, when the kingdoms were in real truth those of the emperor. This must be remembered in interpreting the language of any documents of the period. There was also the affectation of expressing, as far as it was at all possible, in the language of the Roman civil law, social relations, essentially distinct and modified by the differing laws of the various parts of a great extent of country. The continuance of such a state of things was impossible. The realization of such an empire as Charlemagne contemplated has been found impracticable. The claim of independence for the Church, necessarily arising from the doctrine of its unity and its government by another prince, was incompatible with the continuance of the empire; and it is a curious confirmation of the truth of

this view, that the first partition of the empire after the death of Charlemagne was the direct act of the Church. The unity of the Church itself, as far as it aims at universal dominion, has been found a dream incapable of realization, and it is probable that the theory of a Universal Church, like that of an universal empire, will be ultimately abandoned, as neither gives much aid in the removal of the social difficulties which have suggested them. As far as they have been tried upon earth they have failed, and with their Utopian possibility we are scarcely concerned. The problems of civilizing and educating man, in which the giant Empire and the universal Church failed-because the heart of a man was not given to the giant, and because the universality of the Church was but an abstraction of the schools, and had no other existence-are reserved for other powers for the people themselves— call their national governments what you will-kings, senates, or more popular names-and for national Churches. It is not surprising that popes and emperors were the last to see the inevitable tendencies of society. rels between them emancipated the people from both,

The quar

At the period of the Reformation, the power of the emperor was, through the whole of the states, practically undefined or rather was embarrassed by so many legal formalities, that it ceased, in any true sense, to exist. The maxims of the Roman jurisprudence were, to a great extent, those to which the notions of law were sought to be accommodated, and these maxims were favourable to the imperial authority. In his hereditary district, or within the province of Franconia, Swabia, and the Palatinate, the emperor sat in the law courts as a matter of right, or administered justice by his judges, and an appeal lay to him. In the electorates, however, and many of the principalities, the imperial jurisdiction did not exist. In his progresses, it is true, he at times sat in their courts of law; but this seems to have been but a formal piece of courtesy; no appeals lay to the emperor from the decision of the local sovereign. In suits between the electors themselves, or the states, the

proper judge was the emperor; but he had no power of enforcing his decision except by laying the matter before a diet; and the dispute, when the parties had strength enough for it, was usually left to be decided by private war. When one of the parties had exhausted all his means in this way, in stepped the imperial majesty, vindicating the violated law. The position, then, of the states constituting the empire, was practically that of independent powers, united by a tie of mutual confederacy,* with this inconvenient difference, that each separate state had at one time been part of the imperial dominions, and was still not only united to the common body represented in the person of the emperor by the relation of mutual alliance which we have described, but also owed to him, in the character of liege lord, the service of feudal vassals.

Whatever were the original rights of the emperor, they had gradually been so far diminished that the imperial power was scarcely more than nominal. The Emperor of the West existed but as a name. The states which constituted the German portion of the empire were, in every respect, independent. Lombardy was divided among a number of great families, and some barren claim of feudal superiority was all that remained for the emperor. If ceasing to be subject to the emperor could be called freedom, Lombardy was free. What were properly called the imperial domains produced little in the way of revenue, and between the demands of the pope, and the continued usurpations of his feudatories, we can scarcely point to any power remaining to the nominal ruler of the Christian world, in the wretched days that followed the reign of Charles the Fourth, except that of being the convener of general councils of the Church; and when the fate of Huss is remembered, and the vio. lation of public faith at the Council of Constance, Sigismond's position, as sovereign of Christendom, was scarcely an enviable one. The emperors, as such, were absolutely without any lands. The imperial domains had been all granted away, or usurped. Their chief revenue was derived from taxes,