nothing good or lovely can survive. The worthless weed, the loathsome reptile, may meet its pestilential breath unharmed, but for all other things-oh, they must die in such an atmosphere,' said Lady De Vere.

"Frances felt it was impossible to dispute the justice of the obserration."-vol. iii. p. 106.

We are disposed to make every allowance for the tempting metaphor in which this sweeping denunciation is conveyed. But it will not do. The same unworthy sentiment is repeated over and over again. The conduct attributed to the actors in the diabolical plot against De Vere, is not the result of their own moral turpitude. It is the direct working of their creed; it is all laid at the door of the "moral mildew." Fitzgerald, we are told, "was no hypocrite, he was perfectly sincere in his opinions: what then must be the nature of the creed which he held?"-vol. iii. p. 285. And in truth, how, according to the writer's judgment, could it be otherwise.

"Yes,' said Clement gloomily, my fate is clear, I shall add another to the long list of victims to a Church, who, by the fallacies she inculcates, drives men to infidelity, and then exacts a fearful penalty for the opinions she has herself engendered.'

"Such of my readers as may have seen much of the adherents of the Church of Rome, in those countries where the Roman Catholic religion prevails in full force, will readily allow the truth of Clement's observation. In fact, the members of that communion are called upon to believe so much, that, unless blindly bigoted, they usually become latitudinarians, even to the verge of infidelity.”—vol. iii. pp. 250-1.

And this is the writer who professes her "hope of freeing herself from even the suspicion of harbouring unkindly feelings towards the individual members of the Church of Rome!" Verily she has the happiness of possessing

"That dark lantern of the spirit,

Which none see by, but those who bear it." But we have wearied out our reader's patience, and our own, with these extracts, which, for us, possess no interest beyond their very absurdity. If, however, we have dwelt thus long upon so silly and pointless a production, it is not that we attach the smallest importance to its contents; but that we would unite the well-disposed of every party, for the extinction of the reviving spirit of bigotry, to which, as one of a numerous class, it is calculated to pander. Far from injuring, such productions, must, in the judgment of every rational man, advance the interests of our cause. We have no fear

that there is any one silly enough to believe, that men are, even at this moment, dragged away, silently and mysteriously, to the dungeons of the inquisition, and put to death by a lingering and ingenious torture. We can scarcely deem it probable, that there are many antipopish throats, capacious enough to swallow, or stomachs sufficiently powerful enough to digest, the idea of this base and villanous conspiracy, into which monks, priests, cardinals, and even Pius himself, are made to enter. Had the history been carried back a few centuries, all had been well,-or, as it is, if the prize in question were worth the trouble, a duke, or even a viscount,—there might be something in it. But a paltry baronet !—pshaw-she should have baited the trap with something worthy of the ecclesiastical rapacity she pourtrays!

"Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus."

But putting its improbabilities, and still more its injustice, out of view altogether, what we would ask, is the good object which reading such as this is expected to promote, or what portion of the community is it likely to benefit? Will the Catholic be won from "the error of his ways," by what he cannot but deem a coarse and unnatural caricature of all that he has hitherto held sacred and venerable? Will the wavering Protestant be arrested in his career of doubt and uncertainty? Is there in these entire three volumes, or in any one of the many similar works in which the season is so fertile, a single principle in which he will find a secure resting-place? Surely, far from removing, this harsh and flippant abuse of the Catholic religion, without a single argument to support it, will rather tend to confirm his doubt, or perhaps convert it into a certainty. And for the steadfast and unwavering, if such there be among the readers, what single element of good does it contain? No religious instruction, no moral truth, relieves the harsh and embittered page. No lesson of history or doctrine may be learned amid the vapid outpourings of hollow zeal, hollow because it possesses not charity, which is its essence and its soul! Alas! there is no good purpose it can advance, no honest cause which it can subserve. One purpose alone it can forward, it can minister but to one cause, the hateful growth of discord, the unholy cause of bigotry.

When last we called our reader's attention to this far from unimportant subject, we had occasion in examining a number of anticatholic works, to compare them with a publication then comparatively new, Geraldine. We cannot refrain from again placing it side by side, with this vain, and, to forget every

serious feeling-silly production. How different the spirit in which it is conceived, the style in which it is executed! No idle declamation, no drawing upon the imagination for effect, no attempt to veil the difficulty in a maze of words, or deprive it of its efficacy even by those artifices which fiction might seem to render legitimate. No effort to refute a creed by distorting and blackening the character of those who profess it! Simple, but solid reasoning, honest and open discussion, are the sole instruments here employed. And how amiable the temper in which they are wielded! Not an unkind word, not an ungentle sentiment! No imputation of wrong or unworthy motives, not a shadow of this unamiable and ungenerous disposition. Strong in the consciousness of the truth herself had found, she would lead others by the same broad and open path! Meekness walks hand in hand with knowledge,—charity tempers the triumphs of faith!

This is true Christian controversy. And if ever fiction is to be made its vehicle, it is thus it must be einployed,-truth, meekness, above all charity, its ministers. Conducted in this spirit, we shall always observe it with interest, whether it come from friend or adversary, secure that the right cannot fail to be elicited by fair and impartial discussion. But where misrepresentation is substituted for argument, and invective takes the place of reasoning, where charity is flung to the winds, and peace forgotten or despised, there we shall hold no terms. And we trust the day is not far distant, when we shall be able to rally around us all that is honourable and right-minded in the community, prepared

"In every honest hand a whip,"

to scout the offender from the rank he dishonours, and purify our literature from a stain which has too long sullied the character of a free nation.

ART. III.-Prospectuses of New Life Assurance Companies (Various.)

THIS subject has been much written about within the last

few years; the public attention has been awakened, and the number of the offices professing to grant annuities and assurances has increased, is increasing, and ought-to excite the attention of the legislature. When an agriculturist tries a new kind of crop, he knows that it will in its growth be subject to be choaked by weeds of its own, or destroyed by insects which

VOL. IX.-NO. XVII.

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thrive better on that food than on any other. He will look ou in time, if he be wise; but are all agriculturists wise?

The sound policy of our times (sound as compared with that o other days) leaves every individual to increase, invest, or spen his money in his own way. It matters nothing to the publi whether one or another individual speculates well or ill; and th loss of A is only the transfer of certain moneys to B, who wil in all probability make a better use of them. So it is, as long as the ill success in question is simply the consequence of private negligence or folly, in matters which most persons can manage tolerably well. But it is a dangerous extension o this rule, to propose that it shall apply when knowledge of the subject is rare, and the scarcity of it tempts the ignorant to assume pretensions to it; still more dangerous when the mischief done is of an irreparable character, though only to an incautious person; and most dangerous of all when many join in the undertaking, which is to bring large profit or disastrous loss, as the case may be.

The legislature has accordingly often interfered with regulations or prohibitions. The medical practitioner must pass his examinations, because few persons can know a pretender from a competent physician, and the mischief done by the former is deadly. The trading company is frequently under restrictions imposed for public protection; in fine, it seems to be a standing principle with respect to large undertakings, that law assumes a right of regulation proportioned to the magnitude of the interests concerned, and the incapability of private persons to judge for themselves whether their benefit will be properly consulted. If this be so, what species of combination better deserves the protection of wholesome restrictions than that of an Assurance Company? Does the disinclination of speculators to embark in them render such interference unnecessary? Let the dozens of offices which are formed every year answer that question. Are the sums invested, or proposed to be invested, puny considerations? "CAPITAL 500,000l.! CAPITAL ONE MILLION!!!" The reader will be pleased to compare these quotations with the originals, the next time he passes any place where the poor bill-sticker is allowed to rest his limbs for a moment, or gets the wrong half of the Times newspaper. Are the persons whose eyes are to be caught by the preceding capitals, those who ought to pay for a happy delusion? It is prudence which will suffer, if anything suffers; while the fool who trusts to his strong limbs and sound lungs to keep him alive, till he has beaten the chapter of accidents, will think he

was the prudent person, and the man next door, who made sure (as he thought) of something for his family, was the fool. Are those persons such as can afford to pay for not knowing that which they never could have known? This is the worst of all; the victims must, from the nature of the case, be the widows and orphans of those who never had much to lose. Lord A, and honourable gentleman B, if your preserves had been in half the jeopardy which the preserves of the poor man's savings may very soon be placed in, neither Gods nor men, nor (newspaper) columns, could have kept you from showing that you know the rights of property and the feelings of the injured well enough-sometimes. Nor can you turn the tables by reminding us that the public cared as little for your interests in the matter of game as you can possibly do for their's in the savings of their own industry; for remember, the nation to which you made such frequent speeches about and concerning your manorial rights, was not your certificated gamekeeper, while you are the appointed guardians of that nation's public and private interests. All that is asked of you is, in the inquiry which there can be no doubt is approaching, to put your fellow-citizens on a level with your partridges; and may you, in return, be enabled to disperse before the first of September, and enjoy your care of the latter with the consciousness of having protected the former as effectually.

There exists at present an unlimited right to offer terms of assurance, except only when the office calls itself a friendly society, and assures support in sickness, as well as a sum at death. In this case, the rules by which every society is to be guided must have their safety certified by two actuaries, or persons skilled in calculation, before that society can commence operations. But if the proposed company be a simple assurance company, it may play with the money of any person whom it can induce to trust it, in any manner it pleases. If twelve selfmade directors, having duly nominated a physician and actuary, choose to undertake the assurance of lives at half-a-crown per cent. for all ages, there is nothing at this moment to hinder them except their own sense and prudence. They may think that the time is not yet come for terms of so very low a nature; nor is it yet come, in fact: but let competition run the course which it is running, and wait the end. We know well what coach-proprietors will do to turn a rival off the road; and though, perhaps, all things considered, we shall not get the length of assurance to any amount offered for nothing, and thanks for accepting it, yet we may come so near to such a