admirable translation of Amadis of Gaul) was a typification in person of a Minerva press denuded of its morality, or rather a dilution of the worst parts of a Minerva press twenty times more pernicious and contemptible than that of the present day. A pretty man, truly, to address a sermon to, against such innocent ribaldry as "The Carman's Whistle"!

We lament that our limits will not permit us to lay before our readers the entire article concerning "The Carman's Whistle," which, from its variety of information, and ripe and various reading, does much honour to Mr. Chappell. We must however be content to refer them to the book itself. "Before the days of the rebellion," says Mr. Chappell, concluding this particular subject," the wane of the empire of the ballad-makers had commenced;" (it has revived now with a vengeance!) and with them has music, as a recreation for the lower classes in England, also gradually declined. Men are now content to plod about their business, without one thought to that amusement which was deemed indispensable by their ancestors."

Concerning the old tune of " Trenchmore," Mr. Chappell has given us many curious passages. It seems to have been a very popular dance tune, from the numerous allusions made to it by the poets and dramatists of that day. In Beaumont and Fletcher's Island Princess we find a line,

"All the windows i' the town dance a new Trenchmore."

In Taylor, the water poet, another,—

Heigh, to the tune of Trenchmore I could write."

It is also mentioned by Delony in the second part of his History of the Gentle Craft; by Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, who says, that mankind are at no period of their lives insensible to dancing. "Who can withstand it?-be we young or old, though our teeth shake in our heads like virginal jacks, or stand parallel asunder like the arches of a bridge, there is no remedy: we must dance "Trenchmore " over tables, chairs, and stools." By Selden, in his Table Talk, who gives the following amusing description :

"The court of England is much altered. At a solemn dancing, first you had the grave measures, then the corantoes* and the

*For the most beautiful specimens of the corantoes, or courantes, see Handel's "Suite des Leçons," Scarlatti's " 'Harpsichord Lessons," Paradie's ditto, and J. S. Bach's "Suites Anglaises."

galliards, and this kept up with ceremony; and at length to Trenchmore and the cushion dance: then all the company dances, lord and groom, lady and kitchen-maid, no distinction. So in our court in

Queen Elizabeth's time, gravity and state were kept up. In King James's time things were pretty well, but in King Charles's time there has been nothing but Trenchmore and the cushion dance, omnium gatherum, tolly, polly, hoite cum toite, &c."

And yet this "Trenchmore," so widely popular, is after all but a meagre affair ;-four insignificant bars four times repeated!—without any striking peculiarity or strongly marked rhythm to recommend it. Several political songs were nevertheless sung to this air, so great was its popularity.

Mr. Chappell very appositely concludes his book with some remarks on the characteristics which distinguish English national airs from those of other countries, which will repay the perusal of all who may feel curious upon this subject. The last paragraph we cannot forbear quoting:

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"The editor trusts, however, that he has already satisfactorily demonstrated the proposition which he at first stated, viz. that England has not only abundance of national music, but that its antiquity is at least as well authenticated as that of any other nation. England was formerly called Merry England.' That was when every gentleman could sing at sight;—when musical degrees were taken at the universities, to add lustre to degrees in arts; when college fellowships were only given to those who could sing;-when Winchester boys were not suffered to evade the testator's will, as they do now, but were obliged to learn to sing before they could enter the school;-when music was taught in all public schools, and thought as necessary a branch of the education of 'small children' as reading or writing; when barbers, cobblers, and ploughmen, were proverbially musical; and when Smithfield with her ballads made all England roar.' Willingly would we exchange her present venerable title of Old England' to find her 'Merry England' once again."

With the enviable enthusiasm which dictated the above eloquent expression of a simple feeling of love for the most captivating of the arts, has Mr. Chappell performed his laborious task throughout; and he has produced a book which we anticipate posterity will not willingly allow to perish.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

The First, Second, Third, and Fourth Books of Reading Lessons, compiled by the Christian Brothers. Powell: Dublin.

We have to congratulate the Catholic body on the appearance of these admirable works, which, from the 1st book to the 4th, present the system of education adopted by the brothers of the Christian doctrine, and which are so framed as to keep pace with the gradual development of the powers of the human mind, in the course of instruction afforded in the Christian schools.

The first and second books of lessons, which commence with the alphabet, proceed by gentle gradations to instruct the child in the art of reading short and simple lessons; but that which renders these little books so instructing is the system adopted at the commencement of each lesson of arranging the principal words which occur in the lesson under the appropriate heads of NAMES, QUALITIES, and ACTIONS. This system enables a child not only to learn the common and ordinary reading lessons, but at the same time to acquire from the beginning of his instruction a knowledge of the various parts of speech, and to combine them. This plan is perfectly original; the lessons themselves tend to the enlightenment of the mind, and the improvement of the heart.

The third book consists of lessons, corresponding in matter and arrangement with the volumes previously published, but adapted to the study and use of those who have mastered the first two books, and consequently appertaining to a higher class of scholars. The following appeal to the pupils of the Christian schools, which occurs in the preface to the third book, is peculiarly just and affecting.

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Among the moral and religious pieces in prose and poetry, the pupils of the Christian schools will recognise the effusions of one whose voice once supplied the lessons now furnished by his writings, and whose living example impressed the moral which his memory must illustrate for the future. The look of attention, and the tone of benevolence in which these lessons were conveyed will indeed be missed, but his spirit will still speak to the hearts of those over whom he bent with more than parental solicitude."

In the fourth series, the brothers have, to use the language of their preface, "been careful to intermingle the grave with the pleasing, the eloquent with the useful,-the facts and principles of science with the truths of religion: consulting alike for the moral and intellectual faculties, and preventing the weariness that might result from an unvaried continuity of the same topics." This series extends over nearly 400 printed pages, and it embodies

VOL. XI.-NO. XXL

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under appropriate divisions ;-1st. RELIGIOUS LESSONS, consisting of some of the most approved articles, extracted from the works of Fénélon, Bossuet, Chateaubriand, Massillon, Dr. Machale, Dr. Wiseman, Dr. Murray, Abbé MacCarthy, Pascal, Abbé Murray, Gerbert, Dr. Doyle, &c. 2dly. SCIENCE, consisting of selections from Sir J. W. Herschel, Arnott, Mudie, Brand, Somerville, La Place, Nichols, Dick, &c., and affording instruction valuable even to the great majority of adults of both sexes, in the wonders of science, the atmosphere, mechanics, natural philosophy, illusions of sense, the solar system, astronomy, electricity, light, heat, the steamengine, &c. 3dly. HISTORICAL LESSONS, consisting of selections from Lingard, Bercastel, Chateaubriand, Moore, Père Geramb, C. Butler, Carne, Abbé Maury, Grattan, &c. 4thly. NATURAL HISTORY, including able and well-selected descriptions of metals, and their properties and uses. 5thly. MISCELLANEOUS LESSONS, embodying most useful, entertaining, and valuable information, on nearly all the subjects interesting to as Christians and social beings, and concluding with numerous chaste and beautiful poetical lessons, extracted from the works of the most approved modern poets. Nor should we pass from the description of this delightful and instructive book, without noticing the very admirable tables which it contains of the prefixes, affixes, and roots of words, which are so framed, as, from a few choice and easy examples, to fix in the mind a knowledge of the origin of English words, and of the languages, from which, according to their formation, they can be at once shown to have been originally taken, whether Saxon, Latin, Greek, &c.

This class-book we recommend not only as excellent in the great object of instruction, but as an elegant, and, we think, necessary volume for every library.

A Reply to Judge Burton, of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, on the State of Religion in the Colony. By W. Ullathorne, D.D. Sydney, 1840.

Semper eadem; the Church of England rivals us in her pretensions to this motto; whether under the eastern or the western hemisphere, in whatever land, and under whatever circumstances, her characteristics are as unfailing as her endowments. We have here a second "Voice from Australia;" the learned divine who pleaded then so eloquently on behalf of our suffering fellow-Christians, is now here to defend them and their Church; first injured, then, according to custom, insulted and vilified by a judge, who, finding himself too much restricted in the colonies in his attempts to wrong a numerous portion of Her Majesty's subjects, having had one unjust sentence set aside by his own brother-judges-and doubtless the others too closely watched to suit his purposes-has

quitted his character and his duties as a British judge, to take up the pen, and by dint of figures over-stated, under-stated, or duplicated, facts distorted in every possible way, or when convenient, quite concealed; accusations made with more or less clearness, according as they were more or less within the reach of investigation; by all those arts of falsehood in short-those " ingenious devices" so useful and so well known to his party-to raise a factious outcry in England against the government and the Catholics, and to get money; semper eadem. This laudable attempt of Judge Burton's has called up Dr. Ullathorne; and in his short and crushing pamphlet what a statement he has presented to the world! Could the Judge's party be ever brought to hear two sides of a question, or to answer argument otherwise than by invective,— could they be brought to admit that there were some limits to the axiom they have acted upon so steadily, that everything is lawful against Catholics, and that the amount of money and clamour to be raised by a book, is the only standard of right or wrong to be observed in it-how would they wince under this exposure of their Church, who, always the same-the same in Australia now-a-days as in Ireland—as everywhere-is still, as Dr. Doyle describes her, crying wolf' with all her heart to prevent men from enquiring into her hoarded wealth." How the clerical magistrates in our favoured land, who have transported men by the score for snaring hares, must rejoice in the clerical magistrates of Australia, who having caught these same men, order them to church on pain of twenty-five lashes a Sunday, send their children to schools afterwards censured by their own Archdeacon, who declared that the children" were in a loathsome and horrid state of disease from the neglect of the masters of both institutions," and preside over trils where torture is inflicted, and such sentences as the followingtly enforced.

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"Paramatta, April 24th, 1822.

"Reverend Samuel Marsden presiding on the Bench. "James Blackburn, attached to the prisoners' barrack, having been detected in the fact by the Rev. Mr. Marsden.

"The prisoner is sentenced to receive twenty-five lashes every morning, and be kept on bread and water, until he tell who are the four men that were with him gambling."

"Penrith.

"James Pharos, who was accused of robbery, which he at first confessed and afterwards denied, was, on the 18th of May, 1822, sentenced to be flogged every morning till he confessed where the stolen property was. Amongst the three presiding magistrates was

the Reverend Mr. Fulton."

How these poor men must have benefited by next Sunday's discourse! If they chanced to be Catholics, how they must have been touched by the disinterested and zealous charity of the good