ter of religious houses. Nearly three thousand schools have been closed, ten thousand religious expelled, in many cases a few hours. after the decree was issued, and one hundred and fifty thousand little girls left shelterless, for nearly all the stricken schools were for girls. The opposition to the ministry is growing. One of the latest manifestations is the formation of a popular league, entirely according to law, to resist taxation.

GERMANY.

By-Election in the Late Dr. Lieber's District.-A great electoral battle for the late Dr. Lieber's seat in the Reichstag has just ended with a brilliant victory of the Centre-party's candidate. The enemies of the Catholics had made extraordinary efforts and used the most unscrupulous means in order to wrest from the Centre party the district which had been represented by Dr. Lieber for nearly thirty years. But they suffered a crushing and humiliating defeat. The Catholic candidate rolled up a majority which Lieber himself had reached only once during his long parliamentary career.

The Census of the Empire for the Year 1900.-The Imperial Census Bureau has just published the official result of the Census of 1900 arranged according to religious denominations. We copy some figures that will interest Catholic readers. On December 1, 1900, the population of the Empire counted 56,367,178. There were 35,231,104 Protestants; 20,321,441 Catholics. The Catholics, therefore, counted 36.05 per cent. of the population, whereas at the census of 1890 they counted only 35.75 per cent. In other words: in 1890 there were 570 Catholics to 1,000 Protestants; in 1900 there were 577 Catholics to 1,000 Protestants. The official census consequently affirms a slightly greater relative growth of the Catholic population than of the Protestant. In the Kingdom of Prussia (see MESSENGER, December, 1901, p. 1138), the Catholic population rose to 12, 113,670. During the ten years, from 1890-1900, the Protestant increase in Prussia was 7.7 per cent., the Catholic 10 per cent. It is consoling that by the showing of the official census the Church in Germany more than holds its own. And this is chiefly owing to the rapid growth of the Catholic population in North Germany, notably in Prussia. Were it not for the great and deplorable losses caused to the Church in Germany by the scourge of mixed marriages, the Catholics would gain upon the Protestants by leaps and bounds. In three States of the Empire the Catholics are in the majority. In Bavaria there are 4,362,563 Catholics to 1,749, 206 Protestants. In Baden 1,131,413 Catholics to 704,058 Protestants. In Alsace-Lorraine 1,310,391 Catholics to 372,078 Protestants.

Political Crisis in Bavaria.-A curious state of affairs exists in Bavaria. The dynasty and the Prince-Regent Luitpold are Catholics, more than two-thirds of the population are Catholics, the Centreparty in the legislature has a good working majority. Yet the government is liberal (that is to say unfriendly to the Catholics), the ministry is not only liberal but in its majority made up of Protestants, and the octogenarian Prince-Regent, who by the way has never been popular, is surrounded by Protestant advisers. Lately, however, as was stated in the chronicle (MESSENGER, July, p. 122), the very important law of the denominational school was forced through the legislature by the Centre-party. The government at first was reluctant but had to yield to the demands of the Catholics. The anger of the Liberals was great, and directed chiefly against the Minister for public instruction, Dr. von Landmann, who accepted the bill, though he himself is a Liberal. "Away with Landmann," was the cry in all the Liberal papers. They sought to bring about his down-fall by all means, open and secret. The opportunity presented itself when a professor was to be appointed for the University of Würzburg. The Bavarian Universities are honey-combed with Liberalism. (See MESSENGER, July, p. 122). The Minister appointed Professor Chroust to a chair of history. But as Chroust did not belong to the clique of the Voraussetzungslosen, the faculty of Philosophy protested against his appointment. The affair was brought into the legislature and the Minister publicly charged the Professors with prejudice and partiality. Thereupon the Rector and the majority of the Senate of the University sent their resignation to the Minister. This action caused a great sensation and was hailed with shouts of joy by all the Liberal papers of Germany. Minister von Landmann wished to discipline the rebellious Professors, but his colleagues left him in the lurch and nothing remained for him. but to resign his post, and the Regent accepted the resignation. Even the Berlin Protestant Kreuz-Zeitung declared that the authority of the crown must be shaken by the cowardly weakness of the Bavarian government. An influential North-German Liberal paper un

bosoms itself thus: "The down-fall of Minister von Landmann is hailed with joy all over Protestant and Liberal Germany as a crushing defeat of Ultramontanism.”

The Centre-party in the Bavarian Legislature, vigorously supported and seconded by the Upper House, at once passed a vote of want of confidence in a ministry which had sacrificed a colleague to a noisy and insolent minority. And to show to the government that from words they meant to proceed to deeds, when a demand for a supplementary grant of 1,000,000 marks for the purchase of works of art came before the House the Catholic majority promptly voted it down,

notwithstanding that before the crisis occurred they had stood for it. "Away with this Liberal ministry!" is the watchward of the Catholics. We want a ministry in harmony with the vast majority of the people of Bavaria !

To envenom the situation still further, the Emperor of Germany, by a most ill-advised interference, has, if we are to believe the cable dispatches of August 13, telegraphed to the Regent offering to supply the sum of money refused by the Legislature. The Prince-Regent has had the tact to decline the offer; nevertheless any one who knows the temper of the people of Bavaria can surmise their anger and indignation at this unheard of meddling on the part of Prussia with their domestic affairs.

The University of Munster.-With the creation of the law faculty at Münster, that ancient seat of learning has now recovered by royal decree the official name and title of "University." Mgr. Dr. Schröder, the distinguished theologian, formerly dean of the theological faculty of Washington, has been elected Rector magnificus for the year 1902-03.

THE GREEK RIOT AT THE HOLY SEPULCHRE,

Nine months' imprisonment for the Greek archimandite Bachumios -archimandrites are second only to Bishops-a month for another, and a week for a third, with varying penalties for nine other Greek ecclesiastics and nineteen seculars, are the consequences of their brutal and bloody attack on the Catholic Franciscan monks of the Holy Sepulchre. This long-delayed, or rather long-frustrated, act of justice is due to the German and Italian consuls. The Franciscans were right, and were sustained by the Turkish officials. But the tool of Russia, the adventurer Euthymios-who, by the way, gets off scot-free-wanted a profitable well for a new shrine, and tried to have it by force. The wounded Franciscans appealed to their respective consuls. France, at the instigation of Russia, endeavored to have the affair hushed up. But the German and Italian consuls insisted on the doing of justice to their compatriots, while France sees her protectorate thus quietly ignored.

THE READER.

"Father Marquette." By Ruben G. Thwaite. D. Appleton & Co. $1.00.

"Marquette stands in history as typical of the highest ideals and achievements in the splendid missionary enterprise of the Jesuits of New France. Others of his order in America were doubtless greater than he, suffered more acutely, spent more years in the service; but popular imagination in America has perhaps more generally centered upon the hero of this tale than upon any of his fellows. He was in truth a man of action as well as ideas; a true explorer as well as a scholastic; a rare linguist; a preacher of undoubted capacity; gifted with unusual powers of mastery over the minds of fierce savages; and his saintly character will long remain an inspiration to men of every creed and calling."

Such is the tribute paid to the priest-discoverer in the closing chapter of Mr. Thwaite's life of Father Marquette. Coming as this biography does from the pen of a professional historian one would expect to find it encumbered with numerous dates and references and foot-notes; but the author has written for the reading public and has studiously avoided filling his pages with explanations and sources of authority. He tells us in the preface that he drew most of his matter from the "Relations" and then proceeds to give us the story of Marquette's life. His book is most interesting; unlike Parkman he has read and studied the lives of the Jesuit missionaries with an unbiased mind, he has caught the spirit of their work and attributed to them. those exalted and supernatural motives without which their labors would be shorn of true greatness and heroism.

We were disappointed with the last chapter "Marquette's place in History." It should rather be entitled, "The grave of Marquette,'' for it devotes but a few lines to the analysis of his character. In this last chapter we have the account of the removal of the bones of the missionary from the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, where he died, to the Mission of St. Ignace on the northern point of the strait of Mackinac. Now that we have a book which all can consult and the authority of a reliable historian on the removal of the remains we trust that people will no longer believe the senseless reports about the finding of these relics near Frankfort and other towns along the eastern shore of the lake. These reports which have appeared so often of late

have no foundation in fact and seem to be advertising schemes for summer resorts in that section of the country.

Although we are pleased to see that the author has not overburdened his pages with notes, still we believe that he would have enhanced the value of his book by giving us some reference to his authorities. For instance, we should like to know what authority there is for the statement that the Marquettes owned a large part of the fertile valley around Laon, that Father Marquette was inspired with his desire to labor in Canada by reading the "Relations," that Joliet spent several years in exploring the western country before he accompanied the missionary on the voyage of discovery. Again, it would be interesting to know from what source he drew his data for the first chapter of his book; was it from Sparks, or Bancroft, or Shea, or Parkman, or Devisme, or Melleville, or Rochemonteix, or Margry, or Gravier, or Charlevoix, or was it from an article entitled: "The Family and Birthplace of Marquette," which appeared in the MESSENGER August, 1900?

We regret that Mr. Thwaite did not give us a more detailed account of Marquette's voyage down the Mississippi, and especially of his long and interesting narration of his reception by the Illinois chief. It was from this section of Marquette's journal that Longfellow drew the poetic description of the Black Robe in the last chapter of Hiawatha.

Fra Bartolomeo. London.

By M. E. James. Catholic Truth Society,

Raphael. By Virginia M. Crawford. Catholic Truth Society, London.

These two little books, only six pence apiece, are like two exquisite medallions. They are a fine protest against big books and much writing. In each of them there is a great deal of artistic instruction in the comments they make on the works of the two painters, and what is better still, there is a delightful character study of the subject of each sketch; both painters living at the same time and yet so different in their manner of life: Bartolomeo in the seclusion of his convent at Florence; Raphael in the midst of the luxury, splendor, riches and power which were lavished on him at Rome. The amazing capacity for work which each possessed is perhaps the most striking thing in the life of both; the pictures they made seem to be almost countless. Both died beautiful deaths: Bartolomeo as the holy friar ; and Raphael, the man of the world, quite ready for his summons, though it came when he was so young. The graphic descriptions of the storm evoked in Florence by Savonarola in which Bartolomeo

;