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THE AUTHOR'S PILGRIMAGE TO IONA.

BEFORE entering on our Special Review of the Duke of Argyll's elaborate work on Iona, we may be permitted to refer to a kind of pilgrimage which, some short time ago, we had the pleasure to make to that celebrated island. This very circumstance must serve to show the deep interest which we have taken in the subject of which we write, and that we have made ourselves acquainted with sundry details of which we would wish to speak.

It was during the month of July, 1869, that we took occasion to fulfil an engagement which in the previous year had been urged upon us, by the worthy pastor of Campbeltown, Argyllshire, who is a native of the Eternal City, and therefore an out and out Roman Priest. The reverend gentleman had invited us to speak in his church of St. Kieran. We did so, at the midday and evening services, and we were pleased to find that many non-Catholics were present, among others one of the leading law officials of Scotland. The honourable gentlemen of the wig and gown we have been gratified to meet on divers occasions. We freely acknowledge our indebtedness to them for the solution of sundry knotty points of the law of the land, and we venture to express the hope that they may reciprocate their obligations to us for our straightforward exposition of the law of the gospel! With them, it is true, that we have broken a lance in polemics-perhaps not unsuccessfully— although, may it be hoped, that we have not broken the peace. In defence of Holy Church have we had to enter into the arena, not only with a redoubtable lawyer-the historian and antiquarian of Forfarshire, who could "wondrous tales unfold" of Cardinal Beaton, George Wishart, and the notorious John Knox; but with a learned occupant of the

judicial bench in Perthshire, who in his exuberant zeal published a famous essay on "Christian Union," in which he invited Christians of all denominations to join together against the "man of sin," whom he politely designated as a "Superannuated Bedlamite;" as well as with the late Solicitor General for Scotland, who, when elevated to the Bench, delivered a valedictory address to the members of the Perthshire Bible Society, in which he laid the flattering unction to their souls that in the interpretation of the New and Old Testament, they required not the intervention of Pope, Bishop, or Priest! For many years have we observed a disposition on the part of sundry professional gentlemen of the long robe, to expound the laws both human and Divine. Now, if it would be incongruous for the clergy to dream of becoming lawyers, equally incongruous is it for the lawyers to dream of becoming preachers!

The church of St. Kieran is of comparatively recent erection, being tastefully decorated by the present incumbent, Father Celetti. It was, however, originally built through the exertions of the indefatigable, learned, and disinterested priest, Father Condon, of St. Lawrence's Church, Greenock, which he dedicated to the memory of his zealous compatriot St. Kieran, who, as second to St. Patrick, watches over the cathedral church of Armagh. This great servant of God came from Ireland in the sixth century, and after a laborious and successful apostolate in Cantyre, departed in peace, hallowed with the benedictions of a converted people. His remains were deposited in the neighbourhood of Campbeltown, and the place is still pointed out and held in singular veneration, although sadly neglected.

On Monday morning, at an early hour, we started with the public conveyance, and after a pleasant drive of some forty miles along the coast, we arrived at Tarbet, to join the steamer for Ardrishaig. There were many passengers on board, and among other notable personages the Very Rev. Moderator of the General Assembly, Dr. Norman Macleod, lately returned from India, and who enjoys a wide-spread popularity. Little did the ladies and gentlemen think, when

we sat down to dinner in the saloon, that there was another individual present (who chanced to be invited to take the head of the table) who was verily engaged in a polemical conflict with the worthy doctor-that he had mercilessly taken to pieces the late famous address delivered before the General Assembly, and that he had actually the proof sheets of his rather caustic review in his pocket!

The reverend gentleman had egregiously committed himself by a gratuitous onslaught upon the Ancient Church, which he denounced in the plainest terms as being "corrupt." He also had his fashionable "fling" at "mediæval Romanism;" he declared that the Kirk of Scotland had raised its voice against Roman superstition! We asked what was the Scottish Kirk as compared with the Church of Christendom? He said that he and his brethren "protested, and would continue to protest" against the Roman Church, and we told him to leave the Roman Church untouched, for that the stone on which that Holy Church was built, would ere long crush his Kirk and the General Assembly to boot. As to the truths of revealed religion, we assured him that he was an utter stranger-that he was no theologian-that he should continue to superintend "Some Words"-to re-edit his amusing tales, and to write no more anti-Catholic platitudes!

Passing through the Crinan canal, which is remarkable for its natural and artificial beauties, we step into another steamer, at the southern extremity of the peninsula of Craignish, and saluting as we sailed along the varied group of islands, we arrive at Oban, which is magnificently situated in a semicircular bay on the Sound of Kerrara. It appears that of late many new buildings have started into existence, which serve to beautify the village, but what of everything else was wanting is now to be supplied-a temple to God for the holy sacrifice of the mass.

In company with a reverend Jesuit Father, who had previously been a clergyman of the Church of England, we paced the ground which has been acquired for this purpose, on the west side of the Great Western Hotel. The position,

which fronts the bay, is every way eligible, and we felt grateful to Heaven that another altar was to be raised, and that the spirit of the monks of Iona, after the long lapse of hundreds of years, had descended to overshadow other religious men, the devoted sons of Loyola, who are now to rejoice in a marine residence in that romantic locality.

Next morning we embarked in the Mountaineer steamer, on our pilgrimage to the far-famed isle, and steered our way round the island of Mull, by the north-east coast. We stop not to describe the diversified scenery which flitted before our eyes, and therefore we leave Dunolly Castle, and Artornish, and Dunstaffnage and a whole world of picturesque spectacles to their slumbers in the guide books, and to be awakened by the tourists, as the case may be, at early morn, or late at eve. But our devotedness to the Madonna induces a passing notice of the interesting hamlet of Tobermory-or rather Tober Mary-which means Mary's well. This village derives its name from a celebrated well, with a small chapel, now in ruins, which was dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary. This, however, is only one of ten thousand different instances of places in Scotland, which were put under the patronage of the Holy Virgin, during the ages of Faith.

Meanwhile our dashing Mountaineer dances over the waves, as we rapidly pass by one islet and then another, till we approach the famous basaltic island of Staffa, which reminded us of the mural caves and columnar cliffs and tesselated pavement of Old Ireland's Giant's Causeway.

These curious phenomena-the lusus naturæ-we leave to the antiquarian and geologist, while we hasten on by

"Ulva dark and Colonsay,

And all the group of islets gay,

That guard famed Staffa round.”

In company with our fellow travellers we however landed under the escort of Ulva boatmen, on this wonderful island of Staffa. Its points of interest-the Clamshell Cave-the Buchaillie or Herdsman-the great Colonnade and Causeway -the Boat Cave-MacKinnon's Cave, and Fingal's famous cave-we stop not to describe. We are content with the

simple expression of our feelings in the glowing words spoken by the late Sir Robert Peel in his speech at Glasgow: "I have stood on the shores of Staffa; I have seen the 'temple not made with hands;' I have heard the majestic swell of the ocean, the pulsations of the great Atlantic beating in its inmost sanctuary, and sounding a note of praise nobler far than any that ever pealed from human organs." Let then this magniloquent peroration serve as the embodiment of what we also saw, and felt, and heard!

When the steamer gets under weigh again, the holy island of Iona is visible on the horizon, distant about nine miles to the south of Staffa. As we approach, the objects increase in bulk—the small become larger and the large, larger still. Then, of what we long heard, we now at last behold—the venerable cathedral-the dilapidated walls of the monastery and the various crosses that heavenward rise-the ruins of St. Oran's chapel and the Conventual Institute. Had we yielded to our religious emotions we should have knelt upon the deck, and exclaimed-Salve sancte parens, insula sanctorum salve !—Hail holy parent house-island of saints, all hail! We contented ourselves by uncovering when we stepped on the island, and by breathing an aspiration that Holy Church-for the salvation of souls-might once again resume her pacific and spiritual sway over the mountains and glens of Argyll. We stop not now to describe-what has been already so frequently done-the objects before us. We ambition not to write an architectural or archæological disquisition-our aim is not material but rather ethereal. We wish to wing our flight upwards-to breathe a more rarified atmosphere than this little world affords. We wish to commune not so much with the present as the past— with the spirits of the saintly dead, but whose souls now in glory surround the throne of the Eternal. Still we must confess that the objects before our eyes speak a language peculiarly their own, and impress the mind and the heart far more powerfully than the most graphic delineation. seeing is certainly more telling than hearing. The eyes have a wider range than the ears, and those who listen in

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