Tanucci had to submit in silence to his defeat lest he should draw down the Queen's anger upon himself, for he had amassed great wealth, and he feared for his possessions. His successor as Prime Minister was the Marquis de la Sambuca, a Sicilian nobleman who had been Ambassador at Vienna; and under his administration the same irritating policy of interference in every detail of ecclesiastical discipline was carried to even greater lengths than previously, and constituted one of the most painful trials to which Pius VI. was subjected.

London, England.

DONAT SAMPSON.

T

OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE.

O THE majority of educated Americans the name Guadalupe Hidalgo is familiar as the place where the treaty which closed the war with Mexico was signed in 1848. For Catholics the suburb of the Mexican capital has a higher interest of a kind distinct from politics. It is the seat of the oldest and most remarkable shrine and pilgrimage in the New World, comparable indeed in many respects with those of Loretto, Assisi and Mount Alvernia. The city itself is insignificant, and counts only some six or seven thousand inhabitants, but on the patronal festival, the 12th of December, which is also that of the Mexican nation, the crowd of pilgrims and visitors often reaches a quarter of a million. These conditions have been scarcely changed during three centuries, as the Mexican annals tell us. In 1625 Guadalupe was credited with five thousand inhabitants, and long before that time it was noted as a place to which "great crowds came with special devotion to venerate the sacred picture there." The town is scarcely two miles from the capital, with which it is connected by a railroad since 1857. The service is now by horse cars, and Guadalupe is really a part of the City of Mexico, though with a municipality of its own.

The site is not attractive of residents in itself, though picturesque. It is at the foot of a rocky hill, the sides of which are dotted with thorny cactus and "Spanish bayonets," and beyond which a range of arid mountains rises towards the north. The shallow Lake of Texcoco to the east, and two streams, which in the rainy season become torrents, to the west, give natural limits that cannot be passed to the town's extension. The soil around is mostly alkaline and barren, and the wells mineral in character, and though medicinal,

unfit for common use. These conditions sufficiently account for the absence of any large population at Guadalupe, but the number and importance of the buildings there is in strange contrast to the fewness of inhabitants. Water is brought nearly three leagues for domestic use on a noble aqueduct of twenty-three hundred arches in masonry. The road to Mexico is bordered with chapels dedicated to the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, solidly built in the same material. The houses are also solidly built and show marks of antiquity in their construction sufficient to indicate that Guadalupe is not a place of yesterday. The central point of the town, architecturally, is the great group of the basilica and collegiate buildings connected with it. They are in the classic style of architecture with a wide plaza around the group and the mountain immediately behind their enclosure. The grouping is somewhat like that of a Californian mission. The basilica stands on the west side with towers at its four angles and a dome of Spanish fashion over its centre. A long and lofty building runs almost in a line with the front of the basilica towards the east, and a dome in its centre indicates the existence of a second church there in other days. A plainer church, without a dome, stands away back at the corner of the square formed by the basilica with the conventual buildings. Still further away in the same direction another dome indicates the place of another church. The mountain behind is crowned by a fifth domed structure, the ascent to which is marked by massive walls in masonry, beyond which a curious monument raises itself high in the air. It is the imitation in stone of a ship's mast with all sail set, and was the votive offering of a crew that attributed its preservation in shipwreck to the protection of Our Lady of Guadalupe long years ago.

The whole atmosphere of the town is, if we may so say it, a religious one. Masses are constantly being celebrated all through morning hours in the various churches, the basilica, that of the Indians, as the building adjoining the enclosure is styled, the sanctuary on the hill and that of the Well, the other two domed chapels. The Church of the Hill is quite modern, having been rebuilt in 1882, and the basilica seems constantly receiving repairs or additions. It is a noble building, both inside and outside. Its length is somewhat over two hundred feet, its width about a hundred and twenty, divided into nave and side aisles. The floors are in Mosaic of hardwoods, the lining of the walls marbles of various colors. Several fine oil paintings of recent execution decorate the interior. The altar of the miraculous picture is of elaborate workmanship as well as materials. The peculiar Spanish instinct for using the most costly material in the service of religion finds full expansion here. The inner frame of Our Lady's picture above the high altar is of pure

gold, the outer one of massive silver, as are many of the lamps and other furniture. The question of Judas, "Could not this ointment be sold for three hundred denarii and its price given to the poor?" is not asked by poor or rich in Mexico. "Is anything too good for Our Lady's service?" is the general remark of all classes when questioned on the subject by strangers of a more practical turn of mind, who are only lavish on public libraries, halls of fame and State Capitols.

The picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe itself is indeed the central fact in the existence of all these churches, as well as of the special devotion of the Mexican people to the Mother of God. It is always open to the public view in its place above the high altar, and its occasional removal to other places have been carried out with a solemnity and reverence to which it is hard to find comparison elsewhere. Viewed as a picture, it is singularly beautiful, yet it belongs to no school of art. There is nothing resembling it in the works of the European schools except so far as it has been copied since its own appearance. The cloth on which it is impressed is a coarse fabric like sackcloth and about five and a half feet by forty inches in dimensions. The figure of Our Lady is nearly four feet in height and may be called life size. She stands on a crescent moon with the hands joined on the breast and the head slightly inclined forwards. The hands and features are exquisitely modeled and of a flesh tint that may be called Eastern, but is neither Spanish nor Indian. The flowing robe of scarlets and purples in varying shades is like that, it is said, of the Mexican Indian women of rank. It is covered with flower patterns of conventional rather than realistic form, lightly lined with gold. The outer cloak is blue, shading towards green, and is surrounded by gold rays, beyond which is a border of small white clouds. On the head is a golden crown of conventional form, and an angel supports the moon below, with wings outstretched and only the upper part of the body shown above the clouds. The effect of the whole is as if the figure were standing before the sun, whose rays are visible all around it. The conception and execution have absolutely nothing in common with either the Spanish or Indian pictures used at the time when it was given to Lumarraga or to any Mexican school during the sixteenth century at least.

The materials used to produce the colors in the picture and their mode of application are facts for which science down to the present day fails to account. It has been submitted to commissions of artists and scientists more than once, notably in 1666 and 1794. The statements of all were that there was no sign whatever of lead or other priming on the cloth, and further that without such it is impossible

to paint upon it. The fabric is woven from fibres of the wild palm known in Mexico as izcotl, and used by the poorer class as a dress material. It is too porous to receive color on its surface with any regularity, and the weaving is so coarse that the light can be seen distinctly through. The back of the cloth of the picture is quite plain and shows no trace of other tint than its own. It is also rough in texture, while the front is smoothed by some means unknown to

The colors seem incorporated directly into the material as images of objects are sometimes impressed on others by electric discharges or temporarily by a magic lantern. The picture further seems in execution as if partly done in oil, partly in water color, pastels and distemper besides the gold. No painter so far has found the secret of uniting these different processes in a congruous and perfect composition, as that of Guadalupe is beyond question.

The gold used so freely in the crown, drapery and sun rays is still more inexplicable according to the testimony of the artists who have examined it. One of them, Cabrera, stated that at first sight he believed it gold in fine powder which could be blown off with the breath. He found, however, that it was solidly fixed in the body of the fibres, though at first sight suggesting comparison with the metallic powder on the wings of a butterfly. The same appearance can be noted to-day, two centuries since Cabrera made his examination.

The durability of both tints and the material under them is indeed. as inexplicable by any modern science as their origin. This picture on its ayate canvas has been nearly four centuries in its present place, exposed to the effects of sun and air, the smoke of thousands. of lamps burning around it and the alterations of temperature of a tropical climate, alternately dry and damp in excess. It was for more than a hundred years without even the protection of glass, and its existence goes back to the lifetime of Michelangelo and Titian. All familiar with old pictures know how the masterpieces of art of human origin have, without exception, suffered fading and obscuration from the passage of time, but this figure and its surroundings show no sign of discoloration. Decay's effacing fingers have been powerless on it. Its guardians unanimously assert that neither dust. nor soot ever settles on its surface, though they do in abundance. on the glass, even internally, and the frame. The countless moths, ants and other insect destroyers so common in Mexico have never touched its frail fibres. The ayate cloth is as perishable in its own. nature as it is common. Colors of all other kinds fade more rapidly in Guadalupe than in any European country, owing to its changes of temperature and the clouds of alkaline dust which fill the air in the dry season. Oil, distemper and gilding alike are speedily worn

away in the other pictures of the various churches within a few years. A special case is recorded of a copy of the miraculous picture made with special care by a celebrated Spanish painter, Bartolache, in 1789. He had a canvas prepared from the same material as that of the miraculous picture and treated with all mechanical methods known to him to fit it for artist's use. The copy was a fine one, though it failed to give the peculiarities of the original in the mingled appearance of oil, water and pastel colors. Senor Bartolache's copy was placed in the Church of the Well near by, but within seven years its colors had so changed that it was removed to the sacristy, where it perished completely within a few more years. The blues had become dirty greens, the other tints ash color and even mouldy. What the tints of the original are to-day can be seen by any observer. That it has received no aid from the retoucher is equally patent both from artists' inspection and from the records of the sanctuary, not to mention the publicity which would necessarily attend any interference with so sacred an object.

The authorship, the coloring and the durability of the picture of Guadalupe are thus all three beyond explanation by human science of the twentieth century, as by that of the four preceding it. Yet they are facts patent to the senses and confirmed by the testimony of fifteen generations of observers of all classes, friendly or hostile. History offers an explanation based on a supernatural manifestation in the past clearly told in detail. It is accepted with full confidence by the whole population familiar with it, both as reasonable in itself and as in accordance with Catholic faith. Clergy and laity, rich and poor, Spanish Creoles and Indians of native race agree in this acceptance. They further believe without doubt that a supernatural grace for the diffusion of spiritual and temporal blessings of God among men attaches to the picture as well as its marvelous physical properties. That belief finds and has found through three centuries practical expression in public acts. The Holy Picture of Guadalupe was carried from its shrine to the Cathedral of Mexico in solemn procession by joint action of the chapter, Archbishop and Town Council in 1629 as a protection against the sudden and prolonged rising of the waters of the adjoining lakes, which then threatened to permanently occupy the site of the city. Their recession after five years was attributed without hesitation to the influence of the Blessed Virgin in connection with the reverence shown her image. A similar public function was adopted by Church and State authorities in 1757 on occasion of an epidemic, and its cessation within a few days was confidently ascribed to the same influence. Of supernatural favors to individuals received at the shrine of Guadalupe the list is so like the history of Lourdes or St. Anne of Beauprè that we may