All Catholics will feel the loss we have sustained in the person of this great man, and you will not fail to pray for the repose of his soul, now that he is in the presence of his Redeemer." Many prayers indeed were offered, and many masses said, in behalf of this indomitable champion of the Church, knowing that it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be released from their sins. So thought the Maccabees-so thinks the Church of Jesus Christ!

The funeral service took place in the church of St. Clotilda, the only modern one in Paris, of the medieval style. It was often before its altars, and under its pointed arches, that the noble Count, during health and sickness, was wont to pray. By his special request a simple low mass was celebrated during the obsequies, and no funeral oration, as is usual in France, was pronounced. His whole mind was absorpt, not for the vain breath of adulation, but for eternal refreshment to his soul. Like the saintly Monica, when lying on the bed of death at Ostia, the sea-port near the mouth of the Tiber, who called her sons Augustine and Octavius to her bed-side and said "My children, I have only one request, and it is this, that wherever you may be, you make remembrance of your mother at the altar of God!" -In like manner did the dying Count Montalembert; he wanted prayers and sacrifices for his soul. He cared not for public honours nor for civic distinctions-he desired no magnificent funeral-no display of pompous pageantry-no exhibition of armorial bearings-no elaborate panegyric, long or short, to recapitulate what he did, and what he wished to have accomplished, for the good of Holy Church, and the well-being of his fellow men. His dying petition was that "the prayers of the Church should be the last words recited over his tomb."

Such is a faint portrait of the late Count de Montalembert -such an imperfect outline of this great and wise and good man. No layman in modern times, with the exception of Daniel O'Connell-and Montalembert was frequently styled the French O'Connell-has rendered such signal services

to the Church as the noble Frenchman whose career, alas, too prematurely came to an end. Before attaining to his majority he acquired distinction as a Catholic publicist; before age permitted him to take his hereditary seat in the senate of peers, we have shown how at the bar of that house, he vindicated the rights of the Church and the liberties of Catholic education. During his whole life he devoted uninterruptedly his indomitable energies, both as a writer and a speaker, to promote the sacred interests both of the Creator and the creature.

As a statesman Montalembert held the highest place; as an orator he was second to none; as a diplomatist he would have been signally conspicuous. As a Christian Catholic he was worthy of the middle ages; he had the chivalry of the crusaders, the gentleness of the knights of old. He was enthusiastically devoted to the "ages of Faith;" he prized Catholicity as the pearl of the gospel; he wished that its diamond lustre should irradiate every land. Yet he was eminently tolerant. While with consummate dexterity he could beard ultra-Gallicanism-poignard Voltaireianism, and unmask the pliant policy of political adventurers, he comported himself in the most refined circles of ladies and gentlemen of all religions, or of no particular religion, with the grace of the courtier, and the easy deportment of the travelled man of the world. In society, people meet on the broad platform of universal philanthropy and toleration. In the Senate and in Parliament-in the pulpit and in the press, there is room amply sufficient for the development of all kind of views on religion and politics— on philosophy and ethics. But to obtrude-in season or out of season-one's peculiar crotchets upon others, whether they will or not, is of all nuisances the most insufferable. The greatest annoyance which can be encountered in the canting world is the religious bore. Montalembert knew nothing of humbug-on the contrary, he made himself all to all, to gain all to Holy Church!

Besides, he was free from all kinds of cant. Firm as the rock in his religious principles, he did not force

his convictions, much less parade before others unnecessarily the "Faith our Fathers held of God." Firm also in his political principles, he was not disposed cameleon-like to change them for place or pension; but having truth alone as his motto, he nailed, so to speak, his colours to the mast, and determined at all hazards to sail only in that barque of Peter which must ever weather the storm! Hence was he remarkable for his firmness of speech, his clearness of reasoning, his abhorrence (of tergiversation, while intense feeling animated his rounded periods, and gave zest to his glowing and masculine elocution.

The interesting memoir of his life and writings, by Mr. White, and published by Mr. Washbourne, Paternoster Row, to which, in our hurry, we are much indebted, thus winds up the character of this great and good man.

"Well versed in classical learning, and possessing a rare acquaintance with the literature of the chief nations of Europe, he spoke their dialects with wonderful fluency. He possessed, moreover, very great theological knowledge, and made profound researches in history. Indeed, he came to the tribune like an ideal orator of Cicero, 'peritus omnium artium atque scientiarum.' His oratory, in gesture and mode of delivery, was more English, or rather Irish than French, and it is said that he took Burke for his model. One of its most salient features was the skill with which he brought his immense historical learning to bear on every topic, religious or political, he had occasion to handle. His opponents declared he overwhelmed them beneath the torrent of facts, examples, illustrations, anecdotes, dates and precedents, from every period of history. In fine, we cannot bestow higher praise on him than by affirming that at the age of thirty he surpassed in eloquence the most consummate orators, and that in his 'Monks of the West,' he rivals the historical researches of Hurter. And to conclude, in the words of one of his most virulent political adversaries : He always made war at his own expense,' which is a great virtue now-a-days even for a rich gentleman. That with his name, his position, and his parliamentary antece

dents, he never accepted either place, decorations, or honours, is indeed rare. He had the great merit, at a time when so many political men desert the progress of ideas, and take refuge in gross sensualism, to preserve that ardent love and lively ardour for his principles which indicate a truly elevated mind.""

As His Grace of Argyll has written in rather a cavalier style respecting this illustrious publicist, we are desirous in the following chapter, to afford our readers the opportunity of pronouncing upon the merits of the author of "the Monks of the West." It strikes us that the Duke himself, despite his censoriousness, is not a little indebted to the laborious industry of the distinguished Count. Let the Life of St. Columba, as written by the respective authors, be placed in juxta position, and judged accordingly.

We must here, however, give an extract from the Duke's Iona, which it behoves us to correct :

"Long after the death of Columba, the community he founded in Iona, seems to have ordained and sent forth Bishops under circumstances which look very much as if their mission was conferred by the collective authority of the Brethren. If any Bishop was present at the consecration, which is a matter of inference only, he appears to have been regarded as the mere organ of the supreme authority of the Abbot and of the body over which the Abbot presided. All these things have been terrible scandals to later ecclesiastical historians, and have much exercised the ingenuity of Presbyterian and Episcopal controversialists."

Now at the present moment, we have neither time nor space to enter upon an elaborate critique of this extract, which betrays ignorance of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Be it known then to the " Presbyterian and Episcopal controversialists," that all the Priests of Iona, together with the Abbots, could ordain no Bishop whatsoever, nor yet appoint him to any See-not even to Timbuctoo!-as the late witty Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral-Sidney Smith-would have told his Grace of Argyll. The consecration of every Bishop must be by another Bishop; and the bulls of consecration can alone be issued by the Holy Roman See, which is the centre of Apostolic unity, power, and jurisdiction!

COLUMBA'S LAST YEARS-HIS DEATH-HIS

CHARACTER.

"WHEN King Aïdan brought his children to him, and spoke of his anxiety about their future lives, he did not content himself with seeing the eldest. 'Have you none younger?' said the abbot; 'bring them all-let me hold them in my arms and on my heart!' And when the younger children were brought, one fair-haired boy, Hector (Eochaidh Buidhe), came forward running, and threw himself upon the saint's knees. Columba held him long pressed to his heart, then kissed his forehead, blessed him, and prophesied for him a long life, a prosperous reign, and a great posterity.

"Let us listen while his biographer tells how he came to the aid of a woman in extremity, and how he made peace in a divided household. One day at Iona he suddenly stopped short while reading, and said with a smile to his monks, I must now go and pray for a poor little woman who is in the pains of childbirth, and suffers like a true daughter of Eve. She is down yonder in Ireland, and reckons upon my prayers, for she is my kinswoman, and of my mother's family.' Upon this he hastened to the church, and when his prayer was ended returned to his brethren, saying, 'She is delivered. The Lord Jesus, who deigned to be born of a woman, has come to her aid; this time she will not die.'

"Another day, while he was visiting an island on the Irish coast, a pilot came to him to complain of his wife, who had taken an aversion to him. The abbot called her and reminded her of the duties imposed upon her by the law