Among others our eye fell upon the name of the great oratorian of Edgbaston, Dr. Newman, who, with his friend St. John, had visited Monte Cassino shortly after his conversion, and before writing his name, he wrote as follows:

"O Sancti Montis Cassinensis, unde Anglia nostra, olim rivos Catholicæ doctrinæ saluberrimos hausit, orate pro nobis, jam ex hæresi, in pristinam vigorem, expergiscentibus."

The notorious Renan had also visited here in the days. when he was a Christian. He also wrote:-"Porro unum est necessarium, Maria optimam partem elegit!"

But we must reluctantly tear ourselves away from these delightful reminiscences, and resume our prosaic encounter with his Grace of Argyll, who thus refers to this magnificent monastery :

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"But rapid as was the spread of the great monastic order which poured forth its legions from this centre-Monte Cassino-more than a century elapsed before they reached the distant shores of Britain. For aught we know, Columba, though he survived him more than fifty years, never heard of the Rule of Benedict. What, then, was the monastic system in which Columba himself lived, and which he brought with him to Iona?" As regards the theology of Columba's time, although it was not what we now understand as Roman, neither assuredly was it what we understand as Protestant. Montalembert boasts, and I think with truth, that in Columba's life we have proof of the practice of auricular confession, of the invocation of saints, of confidence in their protection, of belief in transubstantiation, of the practices of fasting and of penance, of prayers for the dead, of the sign of the cross in familiar-and it must be added-in most superstitious use." Now, we submit that nothing could be more Roman and less Protestant than the very doctrines here enumerated, and which were taught and practised so sedulously at Iona. "On the other hand, there is no symptom of the worship or cultus' of the Virgin, and not even an allusion to such an idea as the universal Bishopric of

Rome, or to any special authority as seated there." This free and easy style in reference to the Holy Virgin, who under divine inspiration declared that all generations should call her "blessed," reminds us of a little incident which may not be out of place. It may vary the scene, but still bears home on the subject. Let us, then, pass for a moment "from grave to gay," and enliven our narrative by the rehearsal.

The scene lay in Perthshire, when the writer was Priest of the city of Perth. A worthy man from the famous Carse of Gowrie, who rejoiced in being the Precentor of Kilspindie, had called upon his reverence upon some business. The conversation turned upon religion, and the Precentor, whose duty it was on the "Sabbath" to sing the Psalms and give out the text, appeared to be on the most familiar terms with the Holy Apostles. He called them Peter and Paul, and just as some would speak of Argyll and Lorne. We were really anxious to give a poser to our friend of Kilspindie, and in the best humour possible, we said “Mr. Precentor, of the Kirk of Kilspindie, if you have not the religious feeling to call the Holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, have at least the politeness to call them Mr. Peter and Mr. Paul! His Grace of Argyll may perhaps learn a lesson from Kilspindie."

Well, granted that there is no reference to the Cultus of the Blessed Virgin, nor yet to Papal Supremacy, we ought to remember that St. Adamnan was not writing a dissertation on the Christian religion, but simply narrating the life of the Abbot of Iona, and that it did not come in his way to speak upon those subjects, no more than upon the great cotemporary events which occurred under the Roman Empire, and which forsooth his Grace, has found fault with him for not recording. Besides, at the very most, this is merely a negative argument, and cannot be adduced as proof positive against either of these doctrines.

MONTALEMBERT AND THE DUKE OF ARGYLL.

MONTALEMBERT began his political career in 1830. Descended from ancestors of great military renown, it was his wont to say that he was the first of his family who exchanged the sword for the pen-when with De Lamennais and Lacordaire he started the L'Avenir, bearing the motto:

"GOD AND LIBERTY: THE POPE AND THE PEOPLE."

Of him, Lacordaire, then a youthful barrister, wrote: "He is a most fascinating young man, and I am as fond of him as though he were a plebeian! Sure I am, that if he lives his destiny will be as pure as a Swiss lake among the mountains, and equally celebrated!"

In regard to the forthcoming journal, Montalembert reports what was contemplated:-"It was meant, according to the views of its founders, to regenerate Catholic opinion in France, and to cement the union between it and liberal progress. I hastened to aid in this work, with the ardour of my twenty years, from the west of Ireland, where I had just seen O'Connell at the head of a people, whose invincible attachment to the Catholic Faith had weathered the storm of three centuries of persecution, and whose religious emancipation had just been achieved by the liberty of speech and the freedom of the press."

The Count, with Lacordaire and De Coux, determined to test the liberty of education, which the Government had exclusively monopolized. They opened, therefore, on their own account a school for children in 1831-having given due notice to the Prefect of Police-and resolved to take the initiative by becoming schoolmasters themselves for a time in this struggle for educational freedom. Just as in those

evil days of bitter memory, when Catholic education was wantonly proscribed by the British Government, there started into existence throughout Ireland what were called the hedge schoolmasters, who, being denied all school-room accommodation, taught the poor children where there could be no obstruction, in the morasses of Connaught—under the hedges of Ulster-amidst the bushes of Tyrone, and by the lakes of Killarney and Connemara. The old hedge school master, David Mahony, had the high honour to teach to the then young child, Daniel O'Connell, the first letters of the alphabet! Such was the disastrous state of matters in Ireland when the Liberator was born! Yet the Irish have been taunted with ignorance, when education was regarded as a felony!

For this daring attempt to open a free school for free education, irrespective of Government interference, Montalembert was cited before the public tribunal. He appeared accordingly, but he protested against being arraigned before the House of Representatives, and demanded as his right to be tried by the Chamber of Peers. When asked for his designation, he astounded the French noblesse by his extraordinary answer-" Charles de Montalembert, schoolmaster, and peer of France!"

Then it was that he rose to deliver his maiden and neverto-be-forgotten speech, in which in a strain of lofty eloquence, which perfectly electrified the house, he advocated the liberty of the subject—the liberty of thinking-the liberty of speaking the liberty of teaching-the liberty of conscience! The Government party, while paralyzed, was, however, impervious to reasoning, however conclusive, and to arguments perfectly irresistible. The chivalrous young

Count was fined the nominal sum of one hundred francs, but, notwithstanding, he virtually carried the day!

In 1833 he was associated with other devoted young Catholic gentlemen in founding the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which had for its object to look after the poor, both as to temporal and spiritual matters. It has since been diffused throughout Europe and America, and has

thereby effected a world of good. Withdrawing himself now for awhile from the arena of political contention, he went to reside in Germany, and wrote in the most exquisite style, the life, beautifully illustrated, of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, from whom his wife, the Countess de MerodeWesterloo, was lineally descended.

In May, 1835, he took his seat again, midst tumultuous acclamation. The celebrated De Sainte Beuve describes him as having "the right to say all, to dare all," by means of that elegance of speech and gracefulness of delivery, which were pre-eminently his own. He could urge with unbounded freedom, in the most impassionate accents, the defence of that liberty which was his youthful day-dream; he could propound those lofty theories which, proceeding from any other, would have been scouted as romantic, but by him they were invested with all the charms of practicability. At one time he could be keen and sarcastic; at another he could speak with daring firmness to the monarch, while he would lay the unsparing lash of criticism on the members of the cabinet.

He revisited England in 1839, and delivered a magnificent oration in London, at the meeting of the Society of the Friends of Poland, when the Duke of Sussex was in the chair.

In 1840 he wrote from Madeira his celebrated paper “On the duties of Catholics on the question of liberty of teaching." About this time was organized the Comité electoral de la liberté religieuse, of which De Montalembert was appointed president, and De Vatimesnil-formerly minister of Public Instruction-the vice-president.

The noble speeches which he pronounced during 1844, elicited from the highest personages in France the most flattering encomiums. The elite of the French youth, so generous and so appreciative, gathered together in a body of three hundred, and marching to the Count's house in the Rue du Bac, St. Germain, offered him the most splendid ovation. They presented him with an enthusiastic address, and so likewise did the students of the great university of Louvain.