bishops, thirty-five European priests, and five native priests. Baptisms of converts since then are numbered by tens of thousands, the mission organization being specially adapted to the instruction of all who present themselves. We are told that in the mission of Kiang-nan, in which the central residence is at Shanghai, there have been 14,500 converts since the Boxer excesses, and there are 87,700 under instruction, while the number of infants of pagan parents baptized in danger of death rises to 50,000 a year. The Manchurian missions lost heavily during the days of revolt, but two years afterwards they had two bishops, forty-three European and six native priests, with 25,900 converts. In Nanchang, capital of the Province of Kiang-si, where there was scarcely a European ten years ago, there are at the present moment three communities of French Religious-Priests of the Mission, Little Brothers of Mary, and Sisters of Charity-all full of zeal and working hard. More than 1,000 adults have been baptized since 1900, in spite of the Boxers. In the extensive prefecture of Nanchang there are now 4,000 baptized and 10,000 under instruction, while pagan children are being constantly baptized at the hour of death. In the public dispensary of the Sisters of Charity an average of 100 persons are cared for each day, and a hospital is now being erected. Workshops have been opened for young persons of both sexes, of whom 120 are now being instructed for Baptism. The Brothers have a college attended by the children of the mandarins and lettered class. They have also a preparatory school. There has been much opposition from the Chinese secret societies. Ten Christians have recently been martyred and the coadjutor bishop and several missionaries have been threatened with death. Armenian Converts.-For several years there has been a decided moveIment toward Catholic unity amongst the Armenians and Chaldeans of Upper Armenia and Mesopotamia. The results in Van and its neighborhood are thus summed up by the Dominican missionary, Father Galland. Four parishes have been created here, and are administered by Armenian priests, three of whom are converts from Gregorianism. Two orphanages have been opened under Dominican Sisters. Some of the orphans still bear traces of the wounds inflicted during the period of massacres and some are studying for the priesthood. Seven schools have been established, in which the teaching of Catechism is a novel feature in a land where religious instruction has been sadly neglected. THE READER. Historical Records and Studies. The U. S. Catholic Historical Society, New York. This energetic historical association continues not only with unabated but with ever increasing vigor, to issue its brilliant contributions to the varied and interesting studies of the growth of the Church in the United States. In the matter of its topics and in their presentation, the present volume surpasses even the splendid books already issued. The names of distinguished laymen and of illustrious members of the hierarchy are signed to its articles, and valuable maps and unusually well executed portraits give especial distinction to its pages. Among the portraits are those of Mr. Patrick Farrelly, Mr. Frederick Coudert and Major Kiely, and there are also reproductions of a couple of old fashioned pictures of two pious and devoted ladies, Mme. E. Bayer and Mme. Parmentier, who labored and effected much for the early Catholicity of Brooklyn. The article which these last named pictures illustrate is from the pen of Mr. Thomas F. Meehan, who has the happy historical faculty of singling out minute and domestic facts which escape the notice of the general writer, but which throws a truer light upon prevailing conditions than is given by chronicles of larger events. They are really the historical origins from which important growths develop. The same method is noticeable also in the article by Father Fischer, S.J., whose name is connected with the famous Waldseemüller-Map, which, let us say in passing, is again discussed by Prof. Herbermann in this number, who gives us also at the head of his paper, a picture of the now interesting Castle of Wolfegg, where the map was discovered. Father Fischer does not write about his map, but describes a special phase of what is of universal interest just now, viz., the collection of Peter's pence. He tells how the collection used to be made in Norway and Greenland when those countries were Catholic. The Greenland tithes consisted, we are informed, of calfskins, sheepskins, whalebone and teeth, all of which had to be turned into coin. The urgency seemed to be as great then as now. The story of the Marquette Statue is also told. Perhaps we missed it on glancing through the book, but there is an interesting item which it would be good for a historical magazine to record and which may be useful yet, but would have been of great service when the A. P. A. were contending that Marquette was not an American. Father Hamy tells us in his Au Mississippi that four of Marquette's relatives were French officers in the American Revolution, and three of them laid down their life for the cause. That interesting fact would have checked bigotry instantly. tributed this additional glory to the Marcy, who was Mayor of Laon in 1736. fought at their side, but was not killed. died in his native city of Laon, in 1811. On the whole we have to thank the distinguished and laborious President of this Historical Society for infusing so much life into the organization which is furnishing us with material such as no other similar association attempts to produce. The members of this body have the comfortable assur Three of the four heroes who con- ance when these volumes keep pouring in on them, that they are not benevolently or sentimentally sustaining a work merely because it has the guarantee of so many illustrious names on its roll, but they are receiving many times over the value of their yearly contribution. The Cambridge History. Vol. III. Macmillan Co., N. Y. There are certain historians, and Martin Hume, who writes in this volume about Philip III, is one of them, who always find comfort in weeping over the short-sighted policies of the rulers of the Latin nations, in dealing with their rebellious subjects. The expulsion of the Moriscoes from Spain he considers a most deplorable blunder. From an English standpoint it was. For Queen Elizabeth was at that time actually in league with the Moriscoes to let Mohammedanism back into Spain. King James I, at his accession, very “cruelly,” says Mr. Hume, sent to Philip III the treaty which he found among Elizabeth's papers. Lea, in his Moriscoes of Spain, and the Hume, who precedes the present writer, both admit the fact. Nor was the alliance merely on paper. There were freebooters like Ward and Verney and Bishop in command of the Moorish fleet at the time. Naturally Englishmen did not like to see these fine plans thwarted, but the Spanish writers of the time concur in saying that the expulsion of the Moriscoes was one of the best acts of Philip's reign. The Spaniards ought to know best what suited then, and English sympathy with the Moorish rebels was certainly out of place then, as there were some very interesting things of the same nature going on in Ireland at the same time. The Plantation of Ulster, which is treated in this same volume, might prove very illuminating reading. The number of exiles, according to Mr. Hume, was about half a million, perhaps more. Lafuente, the Spanish historian, who was better informed, brings it down to one hundred and fifty thousand. To the usual reproach that this barbarous act of the government robbed the nation of its most industrious and skilful laborers, the retort is at hand in the question: "if they were such marvellous cultivators and artisans, why were they never heard of after they were deported to Africa?" About the cruelty of the measure, of course, there may have been regrettable acts committed by an excited populace, but Spaniards may well challenge the world to show anything like the benevolent action of its government, in permitting these rebels to take their goods with them or to dispose of them by sale before they departed. It is in curious contrast with what was going on in England and Ireland at that very time. Evidently the expulsion inflicted no serious damage on the country; for "the next twelve years," we are told by Mr. Hume himself, "brought greater security and tranquillity than had been known for many years." The political importance of the kingdom increased, and all the nations of Europe were bidding for its friendship. There may, of course, have been considerable poverty and suffering in consequence of the displacement of this large population who had fastened on so much land and who had also shown their skill as artificers in flooding the country with counterfeit coin. But it must not be forgotten that just then Elizabeth had framed those infamous poor laws for her subjects which inflicted the curse of pauperism on England to such an extent that, in spite of its wealth, it has yet in it that great social plague spot which is filling her statesmen to-day with such serious concern. "Just then, also," we are told by Mr. Hume, "there was a development of literary brilliancy and activity so extraordinary as to have stamped an enduring impress upon European letters. It was the golden era of Spanish literature and it produced the great masterpieces of imagination, description, . verbal felicity and satire which have become Spain's principal contribution to the intellectual wealth of the world. The science and culture of Greece and the Orient had previous to the revival of Greek learning, reached Europe almost exclusively through the medium of the Spaniards. But great as these services were they sank into insignificance before the intellectual debt incurred by Europe to Spain, from 1540 to 1640. It was the time of Don Quixote, and the dramatic writers. Shakespeare and the Elizabethan dramatists liberally appropriated the inexhaustible supplies of the Spanish playwrights. Everything in Europe in those days was Spanish. Spanish dress, demeanor and manners were the rage. The games, dances, dishes, even the terms of endearment were Spanish, and in France, Spanish was the modish language, and as in England, Spain inspired its literature and created an influence which runs through the writings of both nations down to our own times. Not only was this power felt in literature, but Spanish tactics and army organizations were copied everywhere." On the whole, disaster did not seem to follow the Moriscoe expulsion. Passing to other topics in the volume, we fear that Father Gerard will be surprised to see that all that he has said about the Gunpowder Plot is not even accorded the courtesy of a notice, and Jesuits in general will be amused at the nonsense about "the cæca obedientia of the Society which was inculcated by visions;" how "the life of the Society was to furnish the individual conscience with its only motive;" how "like the modern state, the Society contemplates no other bond of union beyond that of the individual and the community;" how "there were to be no spectacles like those of the Borgia and Farnese Popes who founded dynasties;" and how "it enshrined the principle of Machiavelli that nothing was to count beside efficiency, and even more effectually than he, it absorbed all individual volition, thought and conscience into the service of the community." This is not history. De Principiis Theologiæ Moralis. By H. Noldin, S.J. Father Noldin is sufficiently known by theological students to render any criticism superfluous, and his clear and succinct fashion of expressing himself explains how the work has already reached the fourth edition. It is clearly printed, well indexed, which is a valuable quality in books of this kind, and its captions in heavy type, which easily catch the eye, make it a book that the moralist will like to have at his elbow. A Spoiled Priest. By the Rev. P. A. Sheehan, D.D. Burns and Oates, London. It is only on the inside that we have the additional title: "And Other Stories." The Spoiled Priest, in fact, is disappointingly brief. It is the unbloody tragedy of a plucked seminarian who, in this case, seems to have had the major orders. What became of him after he disappeared from Maynooth is left to conjecture. Irish people know what a spoiled Priest " means, but the title has an ugly sound for the rest of the world. The White Monks of Trabolgan, which is also in this volume, is one of those dreams of what might be. A white monk, picked up at sea, steers a German warship into an English or rather Irish harbor in the dead of night, and suggests to the captain to land five hundred sailors under the guns of the fort. The scheme is carried out, the English government gets word of it later, the monastery is confiscated, and after an attempt to convert it into a military school, the monk Felix, who had been the pilot for the fleet, remains the solitary guardian of the dismantled monastery. What does it symbolize? Or is it merely a flight of fancy? It is well told of course, as are the other stories of the book. Last Letters of Arthur Beardsley. Longmans, Green & Co., N. Y. Arthur Beardsley is the well-known English artist who died a few years ago, and who became a Catholic before his death. The letters in this volume give an outline sketch of how it came about. They are, indeed, sketchy in the extreme. Some of them consist only of a single line. Thus we have: 'Dear Mentor: The little sticks are quite adorable. I never wear an overcoat after the first of May. Yours, etc." "Dear Mentor: I shall be delighted to go with you to the color music. Thanks so much for the magazine. M. and myself most pleased to dine with you next Sunday. Yours, etc." There is not much soul-revelation in all this, and it is hard to make out their relevancy to the end in view, except to show that he was a very ordinary young man of the world, who went to the opera, read Zola, Voltaire, French novels and the rest. Later on, however, hemorrhages smote him into seriousness. Then he fell into the hands of some Jesuits, and we find him reading the lives of St. Stanislaus, St. Aloysius and other books, quite unlike the books of his earlier days. He is baptized, and in his last moments he thinks only of confession and communion, and is quite in ecstasy over the demonstrative and effusive piety of St. Alphonsus Ligouri. The book is a new way of telling "how I became a Catholic." It is a life-story, rapidly told and in an unusual fashion. The Garden of Allah. By Robert Hichens. Frederick Stokes Co.. N. Y. The publishers of this novel have sent out a circular in which they say that "the book's plane is singularly elevating." It is "singularly" the reverse; even if the ablest authority here and abroad have given it a wealth of favorable comment." In describing the fall of a virtuous man and his return to grace, it is not only not necessary to go into all the physical details of each bad act he commits, and to paint them vividly so as to inflame the imagination of the reader, but it is wrong morally; and as art it is meretricious. The absurd, sickly, distorted and maudlin piety which is exhibited by the actors in this story, while in the very commission of gross sin, shocks every sense of propriety. The book can never commend itself to Catholics. It is endorsed by Punch, but Punch is a funny paper and in proclaiming its approval American inability to grasp its humor and its sarcasm is again in evidence. The Story of the Congo Free State. By Henry Wellington Wack. Putnam, N. Y. Mr. Wack is an American who knows a great deal about Africa, and who was in England at the time the agitation began about the Congo Free State. In indignation, he betook himself to King Leopold, and was given possession |