"The Lavanda at the Trinità dei Pellegrini is a totally different thing. If I had been able to plan my day beforehand, I should not indeed have chosen the evening of Good Friday for the excitement of such a scene, but when I returned home I had no sense of mockery or unreality. Whatever were the unavoidable accompaniments of crowd and confusion, the action itself was unmistakeably self-denying and charitable. The pilgrims, who have certificates from their priests, come from a distance, to perform what they consider acts of devotion. They are received at the Hospital; and for three days.-the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in Holy Week,-the noble ladies of Rome devote themselves, at special times, to the duty of attending upon the women; while cardinals, priests, and nobles wait upon the men. And the duty-so far as I could form any opinion-was very carefully and tenderly performed. The ladies, distinguished by their dress, paid no regard to the crowd. There were tables set out in the rooms into which we at first entered; the space which they occupied being separated by a cord from the rest of the apartment. Within this space passed young girls, with bright and pleasant faces, carrying trays of lettuce and fish; without, were elderly ladies-princesses and countesses-striving to act the part of police, and keep back the mob of bonnets and crinolines which was striving to press forward to the scene of the Lavanda. Priests, dressed, I am compelled to own, very like cooks, now and then appeared, but they took no part in the regulations. My small experience has led me to the conclusion that a crowd of wilful and pushing women, is more unmanageable than a similar crowd of men; and I greatly admired the lady who kept guard between two of the rooms, admitting only a few of us at a time, and then quietly closing the door, and placing herself with her back to it, smiling at us in the most good-natured way, though with an air of determination, which plainly showed that she did not intend to be trifled with. When at length we were permitted to pass, we were directed to descend into a lower apartment, which might have been a large scullery or washhouse. The pilgrims were seated on raised benches, and the ladieschiefly young girls-knelt before them. In the centre stood a bishop, reading some prayers, to which a response was every now and then given. The degradation, the mixture of poverty, and, in some cases, almost imbecility and idiotcy of the beggars, their unutterable dirt, the tainted atmosphere of the room, and the damp heat, must have rendered the duty of the delicate, refined-looking girls, an undertaking almost beyond endurance. One, who was waiting upon a singularly wretched looking creature, looked as if she was upon the point of fainting; but she finished her task, the woman put on her stockings-I am sorry to say the same which had been taken off, and which alone must have rendered the ablution nearly useless, especially as no soap seemed allowed-and then she left the room, leaning on the arm of the young girl, who evinced no feeling of repulsion, but took the poor creature under her care, and led her through the crowd with a simple devotion to the self-imposed duty which was most touching. Compared with this the Papal washing at S. Peter's must be a distressing mockery. We did not stay for the supper which is given after the Lavanda. Å few minutes in such an atmosphere, was more than VOL. XXIV. 2 P sufficient and what must it have been to the persons actually engaged in the work! "I had a short discussion with a gentleman whom I very much respected, as to the spirit with which an action of this kind was likely to be performed. He thought that a love of display must mingle with it; and looked upon it in the light of the precept, 'Do not your alms before men to be seen of them.' It did not strike me in the same way. The manner of the persons engaged was, for the most part, singularly simple, and there were too many to allow of a feeling of superiority to others. Then the crowd was so great and so mixed, -the greater number were foreigners, who could not have known one 'sister' from another. Abstractedly, I should agree that to perform a penitential act in the sight of curious spectators, without ostentation, was impossible; but what I saw that evening has shaken my faith in abstract judgments. And one thing I am sure we ought always to take into consideration, when judging the religion of continental nations, they are brought up in publicity as regards devotion. From their early childhood they are accustomed to go into a church, and kneel down to their prayers without the least thought of singularity or observation. It is to them as much a matter of course, as it is for us to attend a public service on Sundays; and the same spirit follows them, I suspect, through life. The English shrinking from being talked about, being unlike one's neighbours, is not an element in their nature; and as they have less shyness, so, as a natural consequence, they have less display. To me, it would certainly seem that the Lavanda at the Trinità dei Pellegrini is not intended in the least for show, but for a public recognition of the combined duties of personal humility and sympathy with the needs of the poor and suffering,-a recognition which could not be made if the act was done in secret. That there are many more such charitable deeds performed privately, by the very same persons who, on this one occasion, wait upon the pilgrims, is, I believe, generally acknowledged. To endeavour to enter into the spirit of other persons' actions is, however, very different from wishing to imitate them. The last thing I should desire, would be to see a ceremony like the Lavanda introduced into England. The mere fact that it was a novelty would, when combined with our national self-consciousness, destroy its simplicity; and a religious act which is not simple, must be as unimpressive to the spectators, as it is injurious to the participators."-Pp. 128-132. Miss Sewell's political bias is clearly in favour of the Re galant' uomo and his lion-faced warrior, and she has a right to her own opinion, which she will find many to endorse in this country; but for ourselves, we fully believe that if the true nature of Garibaldi's apostacy from the Church were better known, he would meet with little favour from persons who, like herself, rejoice to hold themselves members of the one Catholic Church through our communion. We cannot think, however, that even on the principle of universal sight-seeing, Miss Sewell was justified in fraternizing with the adherents of the "Chiesa Evangelica," by whom, she says, she and her companion were "evidently regarded as sorelle." She attended this conventicle at Florence twice, hearing sermons from two signori, the first simply a "gentleman," the second a renegade "canonico," who had evaded his trial under the protection of the Sardinian government. This sect, Miss Sewell tells us, "recognizes no priesthood or dogmatic teaching, except the one article of "Justification by Faith." "She longs so much that it should all be put on a safe and sound footing," "but fears that it might be made the focus of political excitement if the Government was not popular." This is very likely, but in the mean time we should think it was tolerably certain that it will become the focus of rationalism, and, it may be, infidelity. Miss Sewell, however, will not be prepared to accept the small excuse of "sight-seeing" which we have suggested for her. When at Rome on Easter Day, she conscientiously refused to be present at the services of S. Peter's, in order that she might perform her own devotions in the English Chapel. Such firmness of principle must be respected; but when we find the same person not hesitating to join in worship, which is indubitably both heretical and schismatical, we are forced to the conclusion that it was prejudice after all which influenced her; and we fear that the authoress of "Amy Herbert" has only swelled the number of English people who annually and daily confirm the notion so generally prevalent abroad, that the religion of England is hatred to Rome. Miss Sewell arrived at Turin on the very day of Cavour's funeral, and the latter part of her work is much occupied with a description of the sensation produced by the death of this statesman, who is with her evidently a hero. She gives some amusing accounts of the "impressions" made on foreigners who visit England, and we will conclude our sketch of this really clever book by one or two passages on that subject, which we commend to the thoughtful consideration of our readers. She is conversing in a railway carriage with a Sardinian gentleman : "Something was said about the English Church, and he launched forth into a satire upon our Bishops. He had seen a Bishop, in Ireland, going to a dinner party on a Friday, with a wife and daughter handsomely dressed, and quite decolletées. If he might have a large income, and a fine house, and a wife and daughters, he would not object to being a bishop himself.' I could say nothing, and he went on: As for the English, eating and drinking was their delight. He had been at a party (I did not understand where) connected with a society of Freemasons; the gentlemen drank till they fell under the table.""-Pp. 314–315. 1 The following is from an Italian catechism on "Protestantism," which thus describes the condition of England : "A. . . . . In religion there is a chaos and confusion of ideas, which it would be impossible to describe. There are hundreds of sects fighting like combatants in the lists. The Church established—that is to say, supported by Government, and of which the King or Queen is the head-knows neither what it believes, nor what it disbelieves. The socalled Bishops are such vile slaves, that they fatten upon the enormous incomes paid them by the Government. Ecclesiastical Benefices are set up for sale to the highest bidder, and the newspapers take care to advertise that with such a living, there will be very little to do, and with such another many advantages to be gained. The Thirty-nine Articles of their creed are so elastic, that every one can understand them in his own sense, however opposite may be the interpretations. Then as to morality, Protestants, taken generally, are the most addicted of all persons to sensual pleasures, robberies, murder, and suicides, as may be seen by their statistics. And with regard to the prosperity of England, take away the few rich persons who have colossal fortunes, and the people will be found to be groaning under a pauperism so deplorable, that in order to escape death from starvation, they are willing to pass the greater part of their days in deep coal mines, or in factories, where they die in a few years. And with all this, it still happens every year, both in England and Ireland, that some thousands die of hunger, or, if they wish to escape this misery, emigrate by hundreds and thousands, and drag their wretchedness to the distant countries of the American continent, or elsewhere. What do you think of such happiness as this? "Q. Indeed, I should never have believed it. But is what you have told me quite true? "A. In all which I have said there is not a tittle beyond the truth ; I speak of facts public and notorious, and of which whoever has been for some time in England, must have a personal experience. "And to tell you a few things more in detail, you must know that within the last few years, it has been reckoned that there are in London twelve thousand children educated in crime, thirty thousand thieves, six thousand receivers of stolen goods, twenty-three thousand drunkards, and two hundred and twenty thousand leading a life of shame. To this may be added infanticide, which may almost be called common in England amongst the poor, who are instigated to it by the hope of gaining a few pence. In Leeds, in one single year, there were numbered three hundred of these innocent victims. And then, such is the misery in Ireland, that in 1856, more than twenty-one thousand, according to the most moderate calculation, died of hunger alone. But to sum up the whole, I will conclude this sad picture in the words of a very recent writer, who, after sixteen years' residence and observation in England, thus expresses himself :— "If we put together all the evils of every description which may be found amongst Catholic nations, who number more than one hundred and fifty (or more strictly speaking, two hundred) millions of souls, the whole would not equal that of which I have just endeavoured to give a sketch.' And that we may form some idea of the felicity of the English, a Protestant author shows that if, during the last century, the population of England has trebled, the number of the poor has at the same time increased eight-fold in proportion. Such is the happiness of which the supporters of Protestantism wish to make Italy a sharer."Pp. 172-174. DEAN RAMSAY ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. By The Christian Life in its Origin, Progress, and Perfection. In a work which treats simply of the Christian character in its various developements Dean Ramsay is much more at home than in the doctrinal and controversial subjects with which he was occupied when we last noticed a production from his pen. His present book, although it shares the disadvantage unhappily so common in our theological literature of being a resumé of a course of sermons, contains much that is useful, and is written throughout with earnestness and sincerity. Its chief defect consists in the spurious evangelical phraseology employed by the author, which, however pleasing to the popular taste, tends to obscure the ideas he seeks to convey. We need no such stereotyped phrases for the transmission of truth; there is room in Catholic theology for a practical treatise on all the diverse stages of human probation, and, in fact, in this work there appears to be a want of any definite practical rule of life, although the general suggestions are often valuable. The Dean starts at the very outset with a proposition, the correctness of which we are disposed to question. He speaks of its being necessary for a real Christian to have two entirely separate lives-the outward life of labour, business, or engagement in the world, and the inward life of religion and the service of GOD. It seems to us that the true member of CHRIST can live but one life-the life which CHRIST lives in him, which guides every action and inspires every impulse of his outward course, which causes him, whether he eats or drinks, to do all to the glory of GoD, and which, while it brings every thought into captivity, directs also the whole tenour of his intercourse with his fellow men and bears him through the world as not of it. The Dean, in speaking of this "inner life," declares that in the case of many persons who have advanced far in their earthly career, it is the work of the preacher to endeavour to give this life a commencement in their souls, to effect in short, as he terms it, their conversion; and there is no doubt that the grace of baptism often lies so completely dormant that its awakening has all the effect of a new life. After discussing the means to be adopted for this end, he goes on to treat of the causes which prevent the growth of this spiritual life. He instances, first, infidelity, to which it appears to us he does not attach sufficient weight, viewed as one of the general causes of |