without bitterness or animosity: polemic acrimony was unknov. a to him. He never forgot, that in every heretic he saw a brother Christian; in every infidel, he saw a brother man. He greatly admired Drouen de Sacramentis, and Boranga's Theology. Tournely he preferred much to his antagonist Billouart. He thought Houbigant too bold a critic, and objected some novelties to the Hebraizing friars of the Rue St Honoré. He believed the Letters of Ganganelli, with the exception of two or three at most, to be spurious. Their spuriousness has been since placed beyond controversy by the Diatribe Clementine published in 1777. Caraccioli, the editor of them, in his remerciement q l'auteur de l'année Litteraire de la part de l'Editeur des Lettres du Pape Ganganelli, acknowledges that he filled sixty pages at least of them, with thoughts and insertions of his own compositions. In the hand-writing of a gentleman remarkable for his great accuracy, the editor has before him the following account of Our Author's sentiments on usury. "Mr Alban Butler's opinion " of receiving interest for money, in a letter dated 20th June "1735, but copied anno 1738."-In England and in some other. countries, the laws allow of five per cent, and even an action at law for the payment of it. This is often allowable in a trading country; and, as it is the common practice in England, I shall not blame any one for taking or even exacting "interest-money; therefore will say nothing against it in gen"eral; but, in my own regard, I am persuaded it is not war❝rantable in conscience, but in three cases; viz. either for a "gain ceasing, as merchants lend money which they would "otherwise employ in trade, lucrum cessans: or secondly, some “detriment the lender suffers by it, damnum emergens: or, third"ly, some hazard in the principal money, by its being exposed "to some more than ordinary danger in being recovered safe"ly. Some time afterwards the said Alban Butler was convinced there was no occasion of scruple in receiving interest for money, so that it was at a moderate or low rate of interest; "and that there was reason to believe the borrower made full "the advantage of the money that he paid for it by the interest."

'

Our Author's love of learning continued with him to the last. Literary topics were frequently the subject of his familiar conversation. He was a great admirer of what is called the simple style

of writing; and once mentioned that if he could acquire a style by wishing for it, he should wish for that of Herodotus. He thought the orator appeared too much in Cicero's philosophical works, except his Offices: that work he considered to be one of the most perfect models of writing which have come down to us from antiquity. He professed to discover the man of high breeding and elegant society in the commentaries of Cæsar; and to find expressions in the writings of Cicero which shewed a person accustomed to address a mob, the fax Romani populi. He believed the works of Plato had been much interpolated; and once mentioned, without blame, Father Hardouin's opinion, that theywere wholly of a fabrication of the middle age. Of the modern Latin poets, he most admired Wallius, and in an illness desired his poems to be read to him. He himself sometimes composed Latin poetry. He preferred the Paradisus Anime to its rival prayer-book, the Caleste Palmetum. Of the last he spoke with great contempt. The little rhyming offices, which fill a great part of it, are not very interesting; but, the explanation in it of the psalms in our Lady's office, of the psalms in the office for the dead, of the gradual and seven penitential psalms, and of the psalms sung at vespers and complin, is excellent. A person would deserve well of the English catholics who should translate it into English. The Cœleste Palmetum was the favourite prayer-book of the Low Countries. By Foppens's Bibliotheca Belgica, it appears that the first edition of it was printed at Cologne in 1660, and that, during the first eight years after its publication, more than 14,000 copies of it were sold. Most readers will be surprised, when they are informed that Our Author preferred the sermons of Bossuet to those of Bourdaloue: but in this he has not been absolutely singular; the celebrated Cardinal de Maury has avowed the same opinion; and, what is still more extraordinary, it has also been avowed by Father Neuville. Bossuet's discourse upon Universal History may be ranked among the noblest efforts of human genius, that ever issued from the press. In the chronological part of it, the scenes pass rapidly but distinctly; most every word is a sentence, and every sentence presents an idea, or excites a sentiment of the sublimest kind. The third part of it, containing his reflections on the events which produced the rise and fall of the ancient empires of the earth, is not inferior to

al

the celebrated work of Montesquieu on the Greatness and Fall of the Roman empire; but, in the second part, the genius of Bossuet appears in its full strength. He does not lead his reader through a maze of argumentation, he never appears in a stretch of exertion; but, with a continued splendor of imagery, magnificence of language, and vehemence of argument, which nothing can withstand, he announces the sublime truths of the christian religion, and the sublime evidence that supports them, with a grandeur and force that overpower and disarm resistance. Something of this is to be found in many passages of his sermons; but, in general, both the language and the arguments of them are forced and unnatural. His letters to the nuns are very interesting. Let those who affect to talk slightingly of the devotions of the religious, recollect that the sublime Bossuet bestowed a considerable portion of his time upon them. The same pen that wrote the discourse on Universal History, the funeral oration of the Prince of Condé, and the History of the Variations, was at the command of every religious who requested from Bossuet a letter of advice, or consolation. "Was he at Versailles, was he engaged on any literary "work of importance, was he employed on a pastoral visit of his "diocese? still," say the Benedictine editors of his works, "he always found time to write to his correspondents on spiritual In this he had a faithful imitator in our Author. No religious community addressed themselves to him who did not find in him a zealous director, an affectionate and steady friend. For several among the religious, he had the highest personal esThose, who remember him during his residence at St Omers, will recollect his singular respect for Mrs More, the supe rior of the English convent of Austins at Bruges. He was, in general, an enemy to the private pensions of nuns; (See Boudon's Letter, Sur le relachement qui s'est introduit dans l'observation du vœu de pauvreté. Lettres de Boudon, vol. 1. p. 590.) but in this, as in every other instance, he wished the reform, when determined upon, to proceed gently and gradually.

"

"concerns."

teem.

All who have had an opportunity of observing the English communities since their arrival in this country, have been edified by their amiable and heroic virtues. Their resignation to the persecution which they have so undeservedly suffered, their patience, their cheerfulnes, their regular discharge of their religious

observances, and, above all, their noble confidence in Divine Pro vidence, have gained them the esteem of all who know them. At a village near London, a small community of Carmelites lived for several months, almost without the elements of fire, water, or air. The two first, (for water unfortunately was there a vendible commodity), they could little afford to buy; and from the last (their dress confining them to their shed) they were excluded. In the midst of this severe distress, which no spectator could behold unmoved, they were happy. Submission to the will of God, fortitude and cheerfulness, never deserted them. A few human tears would fall from them, when they thought of their convent; and with gratitude, the finest of human feelings, they abounded; in other respects they seemed of another world. "Whatever," says Dr Johnson," withdraws us from the power of our senses; what "ever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over "the present, advances us in the dignity of human beings." It would be difficult to point out persons to whom this can be better applied than these venerable ladies,-whose lives are more influenced by the past, the distant, or the future, or so little influenced by the present.

Our Author was not so warm, on any subject, as the calumnies against the religious of the middle age: he considered the civilization of Europe to be owing to them. When they were charged with idleness, he used to remark the immense tracts of land, which, from the rudest state of nature they converted to a high state of husbandry in the Hercynian wood, the forests of Chanpagne and Burgundy, the morasses of Holland, and the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. When ignorance was imputed to them, he used to ask, what author of antiquity had reached us, for whose works we were not indebted to the monks. He could less endure, that they should be considered as instruments of absolute power to enslave the people: when this was intimated, he observed, that, during the period which immediately followed the extinction of the Carlovingian dinasty, when the feudal law absolutely triumphed over monarchy, the people were wholly left to themselves, and must have sunk into an absolute state of barbarism, if it had not been for the religions establishments. Thosé, he said, softened the manners of the conquerors, afforded refuge to the vanquished, preserved an intercourse between nations; and,

:

when the feudal chiefs rose to the rank of monarchs, stood as a rampart between them and the people. He thought St Thomas of Canterbury a much injured character. He often pointed out that rich tract of country, which extends from St Omers to Liege, as a standing refutation of those, who asserted that convents and monasteries were inimical to the populousness of a country he observed, that the whole income of the smaller houses, and two thirds of the revenues of the greater houses, were constantly spent within twenty miles round their precincts; that their lands were universally let at low rents; that every abbey had a school for the instruction of its tenants, and that no human institution was so well calculated to promote the arts of painting, architecture and sculpture, works in iron and bronze, and every other species of workmanship, as abbeys or monasteries, and their appendages. Thus," he used to say, "though the country in view was originally

66

a marsh, and has for more than a century wholly survived its "commerce, it is the most populous country in Europe; and pre"sents on the face of it as great a display of public and private strength, wealth and affluence, as can be found in any other part "of the world."-Fortunately for him he did not live to be witness to the domiciliary visit which in our times it has received from France. What would he have thought, if any person had told him, that, before the expiration of the century in which he lived, the French themselves would, in perfect hatred of Christ, destroy the finest churches of France?—At their profanation of his favourite church of St Bertin in the town of St Omers, that is said to have happened which Victor Vitensis relates to have happened in the persecution of the Vandals: (Hist. Pers. Van. 31.) "Introeuntes maximo cum furore, corpus Christi et sanguinem pavimento sparserunt, et illud pollutis pedibus cal "caverunt."

XVII.

OUR Author enjoyed through life a good state of health, but somewhat impaired it by intense application to study. Some years before his decease he had a slight stroke of the palsy which affected his speech. He died on the 15th of May 1773, in the 63d year of his age. A decent monument of marble was raised to his memory in the chapel of the English college at St Omers, with the following inscription upon it, composed by Mr Bannister: