The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-25 00:00:00

screws loose somewhere. So with this last sentence
from the lips of the French EMPEROR : it is as evi-
dently a pet little rhetorical flourish, as that other
dropped from the mouth of the American PRESI-
DENT. Now that we have got it we must make
the most of it—and chew the cud of sweet and
bitter fancy latent in it with a befitting sense of

gratitude.
So far as any glimmering notion goes that
might thence be afforded as to the probabilities of
that future which the EMPEROR speaks of
in terms so mysteriously generalised—the Imperial
reply to the address of the Legislative Corps, might
just as well never have been uttered. So utterly
blank is it As an index to coming probabilities, or
even possibilities. About Rome, for example, the
oracle is dumb—there is only the voice, as we have
said, the vox et preterea nihil—excepting only the
" hum" before•mentioned of the " words deceiving."
But, then, the Imperial speaker has obviously his
little game to play between the antagonistic
authorities still confronting each other in the
"almost but not quite" liberated Italian Penin-
sula. Rome all this time being, in NAPO-
LEON'S regard very much like the oyster ad-
judicated upon by that wily Lawyer in the fable
who settled the squabble for its possession between
two disputants by swallowing the oyster himself,
and handing a shell a-piece to those disputants.
Has not the French EMPEROR up to this moment
held possession for ten or twelve years of the Eternal
City ? And does he not now hand the nominal
unification of Italy to his Majesty VICTOR EM-
MANUEL 11., without Rome ! And to his Holiness
Pius IX., the nominal independence of the States
of the Church, minus the States themselves ! These
are the two empty shells handed to the right and to
the left—while the lawyer of sharp-practice is
quietly enjoying the deglution of his oyster in
between the two deluded disputants. A policy
like this, one would have thought (judging from
history) would have been the very last ever to find
favour in once haughty, high-spirited, chivalrous
France. A miserable dodge, a dirty little trick,
like that which a year ago thimble-rigged the pea
of Savoy under the Imperial Crown of NAPOLEON
111., one might have imagined (judging still from
history) must have alienated from a ruler who would
in such a flagrant manner as that speak and act
so very differently, the affections of a great
nation of Frenchmen. But the address
of the Legislative Corps to the EMPEROR
on Saturday assured his MAJESTY in so many
words;—" In Savoy and in the county of Nice you
have pacifically, and in virtue of a treaty sanc-
tioned by the popular will, restored to the Empire
provinces which had long been friendly, and are
now irrevocably French. In this circumstance
you obeyed the necessities of territorial defence,
the natural consequence of a notable aggrandise-
ment of a neighbouring State ; and your policy, as
firm as it was prudent, has given satisfaction
to France without [certainly a bold asser-
tion this !] without infringing upon European
rights." Assuredly after this, the annexation of
Savoy and Nice to France is—un fait accompli both
with regard to the French people and to their Sove-
reign. It remains with English diplomacy to see
henceforth, at any rate, that Europe is not outraged
either in the direction of Italy or elsewhere by any
similar Napoleonian tricks of annexation.

The decision of the Lords in the case of BROOK
T. BROOK calls for serious consideration of the
practical steps which should be taken in regard to
a considerable number of persons, many of them,
socially speaking, of the highest respectability, who
are now pronounced, by the highest legal autho-
rity, to have contracted marriages which are legally
null and void, or to be the descendants of marriages
which leave them, under the ineonvenience of
being, in the eye of the law merely, illegitimate.

We shall not waste time in attempting to con-
trovert the interpretation of the law of the land by
such high authorities ; even if their known bias as
Scotch or English Churchmen had something to do
in unconsciously influencing their judgment—there
it is. That it was honest, even if unconsciously
biassed, we have not the smallest doubt. That it
is law now, is certain. One thing is, however, to be
noticed in the judgments, as delivered by all who
spoke at any length—the marriage was confessedly
good, so far as the forms and ceremonies of the con-
tract went; the lex loci was admitted to be valid to
this extent. But it was held that forms and cere-
monies valid abroad could not cure a defect in the
essentials of marring, and that the essentials of a
marriage depended, not on the law of the place
where it was celebrated, but on the law of the
country where the persons were domiciled. Fur-
ther,
.as in all countries all restrictions cannot
be considered essentials, it was necessary to show
that the limitation arising out of the Act of 1835
was of the nature of an essential. The reason
assigned by all the learned Lords was,
that the Legislature enacted the restriction because
marriage between a widower and his deceased's
wife's sister was " contrary to the will of God." As
being so, it was again and again observed, the pro-
hibition to marry in this relation became an essen-
tial. Yet further, it was truly observed that it
was not the business of the judges to decide whether
such marriages were contrary to GOD'S law, but
whether the Legislature, from the time of HENRY
VIII,, so regarded them. And on that point there
can be little doubt.

We need hardlyisay that the vast majority of
intelligent persons now, both laymen and divines,
agree that there was, even to the Jews, no prohi-
bition of the kind proposed—rather the contrary.
And that, therefore, those who invented the canon
which prohibits the marriage referred to, and those
who, at the Reformation, transferred the canonical
prohibition to our Prayer-book, were equally mis-
taken as to the will of GOD. Hence with far better
reason might the laws against witchcraft, and
those which punished adultery with death, be part
of our legislation, since they were undeniably the
" will of GOD," as addressed to the Jews. It is
now conceded by all, whose opinion is worth the
slightest respect, that it never was the will of GOD
to prohibit a man from marrying his wife's sister,
except during her lifetime, in a country where
polygamy
was common. The canon, and its accept-
tance by our refcrmers, being then confessedly
founded on a misinterpretation of Scripture, even
those who would conform English laws to the laws
of MOSES have lost their own reason for this parti•
cular law. It is acknowledged then that what makes
this prohibition an essential is actually wanting ;
yet our judges feel compelled to treat the prohibi-
tion as based on the will of GOD, not because they
can affirm that it is so, but because their fore-
fathers, in the twilight of a crude refoi
thought so, and because English law declares it to
be so.

Ilowever, what ought now to be done ? Can it
be tolerated that numbers of virtuous and innocent
persons should be subject to serious legal incon-
veniences, because our worthy but half-benighted
ancestors mistook the will of GoD ? Thu decision
in this case of the highest authorities leaves but one
legal resort,--alteration of the law. Is it too much
to hope that the Lords, as legislators, will have the
good sense and wisdom to reverse their decision as
judges? Or rather to pronounce, in the former

capacity, that they can no longer permit to he law

what in the latter capacity they feel bound to affirm
is law. They have, ministerially, been compelled
to perform the cruel part of inflicting severe penal
ties on the perfectly innocent—can they be so
heartless as to leave the summa injuria consequent
on their summunz jus unredressed ? Or will they
go to the extreme of punishing those who did not
even intentionally violate the law of their " domi-
cile"—believing, on the authority of legal advisers,
that that Act left them a'means of marriage open,
which it might have prohibited directly, and not
through a construction which requires an hour's
judgment to prove it a sound one? In the case of
those who have married abroad, honestly believing
such marriages to be legal there, it revolts all our
notions of justice that they should suffer for the
obscurity of the Act.
There are, however, thousands besides affected byl
the law as it stands, who have morally a claim;
to release from all the civil penalties under which!
they lie. They have indeed defied a law, an Act
of Parliament, but they have not defied the principle!
on which the Act is based. They have not defied,
the principle which by the confession of all the,
learned Lords makes the prohibition an essential
of marriage. They have one and all respected
the will of GOD in the matter. They have
respected what Bishops and Archbishops have
acknowledged to be the will of GOD —at least
we doubt whether the most rigid canonist among
the Bishops would pledge his reputation for
Biblical scholarship on affirming that the canonical
interpretation of the old passage in Leviticus is
not a false one. They have obeyed the spirit of
the Act by violating its letter. Three learned
Lords especially declared that conformity to " the
will of GoD" was what the Acts on the subject
sought to attain. This intention of legislation hap
also been the intention of the persons who suffer
from rigid construction of the letter of the Act.
We must maintain that such persons are not to be
made the victims of Acts which do not, in the judg
ment of the vast majority of the living, fulfil

their own object.
All such persons may properly be regarded as
dissenters from the canons of their own Church
on this point, although termed Churchmen ; but
their Lordships have to consider the equally

large number of Dissenters who feel it to be a
direct infringement of their religious liberty that
they should live under Canonical and Episcopal

egislation.

It is Rot denied that, bu'

for the Canons which Dissenters do not"
acknowledge, but which the Church thus fat
accepts, no one would have now dreamed of the,
. t
absurd prohibition in question. It is also undeniable
that the Act by which Dissenters are persecuted isi
the late Bishop of LONDON'S Act, not Lord
LYNDHURST'S, as it is commonly termed. On the
23d of July, 1858, the venerable Lord, in his place
in the Upper House, declared that the Bill was sc
altered in committee in this respect that he could
no longer acknowledge it, and added emphatically
that "the Right Bev. Prelate was infact the author
of the Bill." Now that the Law Lords have shut,
the only, door supposed to be open, Dissenters will
certainly not be put down by a Bishop's Act which
inflicts on them' penalties because they cannot
conform to what they deem either his High Church
44
prejudices or intolerance, or bath. Let Bishops]
they will say, inflict penalties if they like, and it
their flocks will submit to it, on contumacious
Churchmen, but let not us who reject the authorit3
of canons and of prayer-books too, be tied V.
episcopal apron strings.
We have but one remark more to make. The
country has declared its opinion again and again,
not only by petitions of unusual weight and
character, and in great numbers considering the
small number of persons affected, but by their
representatives in the Lower House. If this
consideration and the position of severs: thousand
innocent persons do not move the House of Lords
this session to grant prompt redress, the wronged
parties must consider the best course they can take.,
It may be well worth their while to establish an
office to register the marriage contracts of those to
whom the Peers of England alone deny a web

proved right. Such a record of a con tract solemnl

made and witnessed will be satisfactory evidence of
marriage to all the parties most interested—and in
time, as in the case of the Society of Friends and
of the Dissenters, register of their own births
connection with their own places of worship, the
Legislature will be but too thankful to accept Bud
well-kept registers as valuable evidence of past
marriages. The bigotry of our METERS
Ox.romps, and CHEL:NISFORDS—their determination
to make Church supremacy ride roughshod over
Dissent and common sense too cannot last for
ever. All such obstinacy, though tenacious of life,
is mortal in a land of liberty; and, when it gives
up the ghost, the Registrar-General will be grate-
ful for the Registry which we venture to suggest.

His Serene Highness Prince Victor of Hohen-
lohc-Langenburg arrived at St.:Jarnes's Palace on Satur-
day, from Germany, in order to attend the funeral of hell
Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent. His serene high.
ness left town yesterday afternoon for Windsor.
His Serene Highness the Prince Holstein
Augustenburl,,, has arrived at Howchin', Hotel, fromi

Germany.
The Duke and Duchess of A tholl have arrived a
the St. George's Hotel.

The I)uehess (Dowager) of Sutherland and Lads
Blantyre left Stafford House on Saturday for Cliefden, neat
Maidenhead, to pass several weeks in retirement. _

-IFUNERA.L OF .11ER ROYAL BIG-LINESSi
THE LATE DUCHESS OF KENT.
The funeral of her Royal Highness the late..
:Duchess of Kent took place to-day at eleven o'clock!:•

The body, up to this time, has remained at Frog-i
`more, whence it was removed at four o'clock this,
morning. The removal was effected with the'
'strictest privacy. Oa arriving at Windsor the
:,,,coffin was laid in the Wolscy Chapel, adjoining the[;
,' '';Chapel Royal, where it remained until the hour p'..
i'
qfixed for the funeral ceremony. r.
,t.': The coffin bore upon a gilt plate the inscription :r.
;;ss
,(:.-
v--iLe 8
it', Victori Maria) Louisa), P.
k Ducis Lantia) et Strathernire Vidua,
'r: Matris Augustissimm et Potentissimaa :-
1: li)truim Illust ncipissa3 r
Illustrissimi Principis Edwardi,
Victoria°,
i: Dei Gr9,tia Britanniarum Regina,
,t:. Fidei Defensons,
~ Obiit sexto decimo die Martin, MDCCCLXL.
r Annoque 813 tatis 75."
~„

The following is the official programme of the
(ceremonial

On the niornin,;• of Monday, March 25, 1861, the remains
of her late Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent andl
Strathern, daughter of his late Serene Highness Francis'?,
Frederick Anthony Duke of Saxe Coburg Saalfeld, mother f"1
of her Majesty the Queen, and widow of his late Royal
Highness Edward Duke of Kent and Strathern, will be pri-,'!.1
vately removed from Frogmore House to the nave of SOI
George's Chapel, Windsor, near to the tomb of her late%
Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte, in the choir of
which chapel they will be deposited until the "ti
and consecration of the mausoleum now in the course ofl
construction in the grounds at Frogmore.
In strict accordance with the understood wishes of hei
late Royal Highness, the funeral will be conducted in the;
most private manner, and the following limited ceremonial
will be observed :ri

The body having been previously conveyed, in thel
strictest privacy, from Frogmore House to St. George's
Chapel, where it will be received by the Vice-Chamberlain
of her Majesty's Household, will there remain under the!
charge of the officers appointed by the Lord Chamberlain,
until the hour fixed for the funeral service.

At half-past ten o'clock those who have had the honour
to receive the Queen's commands to attend the ceremony,
but who do not take part in the procession, will be admitted
to St. George's Chapel, and will be at once conducted to
seats in the choir.

At eleven o'clock the royal family and other royal per-1
sonages will assemble in the Chapter•-room of St. George's
Chapel, from which they will be conducted to their places'
in the procession by the Lord Chamberlain.
The Dean and Canons of Windsor, attended by the choir,
will receive the body at the anti-chapel, and then join the
procession.

The remainder of those appointed to take part in the pro-
cession, having previcusly assembled in Wolsey's Chapel,
will form in the following order in the nave of St. George's'
Chapel

Pages of ler late Royal Highness.
Dressers of her late Royal Highness.
House Steward of her late Royal Highness.
Medical attendants upon her late Royal Highness.
Chaplains to her late Royal Highness.
Equerries to her late Royal Highness.

Gentlemen in Waiting upon the various members of the
Royal family, and representatives of absent royal per-
sonages.
Equerry in Waiting to the Equerry in Waiting to the
Prince Consort. Queen.
Groom of the Bedchamber to Groom in waiting to the
the Prince Conscrt. Queen;
Lord of the Bedcharcber to Lord is Waiting to the
the Prince Consort. Queen.
The Choir of Windsor,
The Canons of Windsor.
The Dean of Windsor.
THE CORONET

lof her late Royal Highness, borne by Lord James Murray,
Equerry to her late Royal Highness.

Controller in the The Vice-
Lord Chamberlain's The Lord Chamberlain, Chamberlain
Department.

THE COFFIN.

Supporters of the Pall.
Lady Fanny Howard.
Lady Augusta Bruce.
Lady Susan Lesliellel-
ville.

Supporters of the Pall,
Lady Katherine Ver

non licreourt.
Lady Garliner.
Dowager Lady Cow
per.

Garter King of Arms.
THE CIIIEF MOURNER.

HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE CONSORT;
supported by
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,
and
His Serene Highness the Prince of Leiningen,
and attended by

The Earl Spencer, Groom of the Stole to his Royal

Highness.
His Royal Highness Prince Arthur.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge.
His Royal Highness the Count de Paris.
His Royal Highness the Duke de Nemours.
His Royal Highness the Duke de Chartres.
His Royal Highness the Duke d'Alencon.
His Royal Highness Duke Philip of \Vurtemberg.
His Serene Highness Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar.
His Serene Highness Prince Frederic of Schleswig-

Holstein-Augstenburg.
His Serene Highness Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-
Langenburg.

Upon arrival within the choir, the coronet and cushion]
will be placed upon the coffin. His royal highness, the',
chief mourner, will sit at the head of the corpse. His Royal,
Highness the Prince of Wales and his Serene Highness the',
Prince of Leiningen will sit on each side of his royal high
ness. The ladies who support the pall will occupy stools]
on either side of the coffin. The Lord Chamberlain will
stand at the foot of the coffin.

The other royal personages in the procession will be con-
ducted to stalls in the chapel.
The attendants upon their royal highnesses will also be'
seated. The rest of the procession, having previously ad-
vanced towards the centre of the choir, will remain there
during the ceremony in the same order in which they en-
tered the chapel.

The "Dead March in Saul" will be played while the
procession moves up the chapel.

The first part of the service and the anthem having been
performed, the corpse will be lowezed into the entrance to
the royal vault, and the dean will conclude the burial ser-
vice, upon which Garter King of Arms will proclaim the
style of her late royal highness.
After which the Loyal family mad other royal personages,
will be conducted out the chapel, and the others cornpos• I
ing the procession will retire.

A guard of honour of the Scots Fusilier Guards will
mount during the ceremony at the entrance to St. George's;
Chapel.

LORD CHAMBERLAIN'S OFFICE.
Dress to be worn at the funeral of her late Royal High-
ness the Duchess of Kent by all who form part of the pro-
cession, or who are invited to attend the funeral.
Ladies.—Mourning morning dress, with crape veils; no
bonnet.

•,k4 g". 1:41 ,T-41 r 44.7 tu,
W k - •

MALTA, MARCH 22, 8 P.M.
M. Hensken, the Secretary of the American
Minister at Jeddo, Japan, has been murdered.
The Foreign Ministers are reported to have re-
tired to Kanagnawa. (?)
The Prussian treaty has been signed.

NAPLES, MARCH 24, 4 p.m.
It is asserted that Francis 11. will leave Rome
for Bavaria on the 2d April.
Neapolitan noblemen are daily returning from
'Rome to Naples.
Prince Dentice has arrived at Naples.

The formation of the new Ministry at Turin has
produced an excellent impression here. The office
of Director-General of the Post has been suppressed.

I Public opinion at Naples is favourable to the
centralisation of the Administration now being
,carried out.

POSEN, MONDAY.
M. Alukhanoff took his departure from Warsaw
with great precipitation.

He was unable, however, to avoid encountering
popular demonstrations at the railway terminus,
which were repeated at the other stations on his
route.

Advices from Berlin state that the anniversary of
the King's birth-day was celebrated on the 22d inst.
with great rejoicings.
At night Berlin was brilliantly illuminated.

The .tit. Petersburg Gazette publishes the Imperial
manifesto for the emancipation of the Serfs. It
bears date 19th February (March 3d).
BELGRADE, MARCH 23.

The Turkish Commissioner has proclaimed the
act of amnesty granted to the Christian refugees of
the Pashalik of Nissa.

The refugees have declared, however, that they
cannot venture to avail themselves of the amnesty,
and have sent a petition to the Sultan.
Servia is tranquil.
Agitation prevails in the southern frontiers of the
Principalities.

CONSTANTINOPLE, MARCH 16.

The Bulgarian bishops have been excommuni-
cated and sentenced to exile by the Greek Patriarch.
Sir Henry Bulwer and the Dutch Minister have,
however, interfered, and prevented the execution
of the sentence of exile.

The issue of guaranteed and redeemable paper
money is now under the consideration of the Go-
vernment, and is likely to be made.

PARIS, MARCH 24.

The Paris papers publish a telegram, dated Con-
stantinople, 13th inst., announcing that Prussia and
Austria, like France and Russia, had remitted notes
to the Porte stating the urgent necessity of reforms.
On account of the insurrection in the Herzego-
vina, and the fears entertained respecting other
provinces, the Porte had called out 50,000 redifs.
The emigration of Christians from Damascus
continued.

The Paris papers publish a telegram, dated Con-
stantinople, 20th inst., stating that the Porte had
consented to the prolongation of the occupation of
Syria.
The International Commission at Beyrout had
demanded the prompt execution of the condemned
Druses.

Yelp Pasha would leave for Paris on the 27th
inst.

WARSAW, MARCH 23.

A proclamation has just been published
announcing that the resignation of M. Muh-
kanoff has been accepted by the Emperor.
The announcement has been received with the
greatest enthusiasm by the people.

VENICE, MARCH 23.

In consequence of the popular demonstration
which took place here on the 18th inst. in honour
of Garibaldi five persons, natives of Udine—two
from Pardinone, two from Verona, and one from
Treviso—have been arrested and conveyed to
Olmutz. Two other persons have been conveyed
to Iglau and Hrubschitz.

VIENNA, MARCH 23 (Evening).
The Cesterreichische Zeitung of to-day.says :

" The Russian Ambassador here has been ordered
by his Government to officially declare that Russia
disavows any participation with Montenegro in the
insurrection in the neighbouring provinces, and
that Russia had sent an energetic note to the
Prince of Montenegro. M. de Balabine, on receipt
of this notification, made the necessary communi-
cations to Count Rechberg and Prince Callimaki,
the Turkish Ambassador."

TURIN, MARCH 24.

In the Senate M. Sforza has formally requested
the Government to take steps for inducing France
to withdraw her troops from Rome.
Count Cavour has announced to the Chamber of
Deputies that the Ministerial programme has
undergone no change.

LITERA7U.RE.

Lucy Melville ; or, Lost and Found. 3 vois.
Hurst ald Blackett.

This is a very pleasing story, there are a great
many characters introduced, and altogether we meet
with almost every variety of disposition. The
author is particularly happy in the sketches of
young girls, of whom there are many to grace and
enliven these pages. The heroine Lily is a delight-
ful picture of a sensitive and refined disposition '
early initiated into the cares and trials of life. The
story is another of those tales, whose name is, in-
deed, " legion," of an " enfant trouve," with which
the literature of every land abounds; but in this
case there is some novelty met with, as a very long
period elapses before the discovery is made. Mr.
and Mrs. Lacy are patterns of domestic bliss and
bright illustrations of virtuous parents, whose hope
is to rear up their family in the ways of pleasant-
ness and the paths of peace, and whose happy des-
tiny it is to have those prayers answered, and those
wishes fulfilled—a more charming family could
hardly be imagined than that of the Grove. Not
alone did the benignant influence extend over the
immediate members of the home circle, whose sons
grew up as the young plants, and whose daughters
shone as the polished corners of the temple, but all
those received beneath the roof were benefited.
Effie, the wild and untutored West Indian girl, and
Lily, the desolate outcast, were alike made happy
and at home there. Mrs. Granville is very
adroitly sketched as a woman who was so wrapt
up in external requirements, that she constantly
forgot everything else. Minnie, her beautiful young
daughter, reaped the bitter effects of the unwise
conduct on the part of her mother. Had it not been
for the fortunate introduction to Mr. and Mrs.
Melville, her death would have been a dark hour,
indeed, and the summons of the king of terrors
would have been more dreadful to the proud daugh-
ter of the princely house than to the meanest
dweller of the cottages around. Mary, the eldest
daughter of Mrs. Lacy, had married dr. Melville,
the rector of Mrs. Granville's parish, and the wise
counsel and loving ways practised at the Grove
bloomed with fresh beauty and flourished in in-
creased vigour in the new soil into which they had
been transplanted. Henry Granville, thy possessor
of the estate, was fortunate in choosing Ellen, the
second daughter of the Lacys, as his partner. The
excellent advice of Mr. Melville so affected his pre-
vious good disposition, that he eschewed his mother's
worldly maxims and set out for himself in the new
path put before him. He became one of those
favoured few and far between who are the protec-
tors of their property, in the purest sense of the
term, with whom the welfare of their people is a
sacred trust committed to them by Providence, for
which they will one day have to give a strict
account. Ellen is the most pleasing of the ladies
met with ; she is beautiful and graceful, but these
are her least attractions. She possessed an intelli-
gent mind and a kind heart. She was placed in
more difficult positions than the rest of her family ;
she emerged successfully from the trial, and when
exalted so much above them all, she was the same
unaffected and gentle being that she had been in
her girlish days. Dr. and Mrs. Scott are most ludi-
crous specimens of humanity. Mrs. Scott was the
sister of Mrs. Lacy, but of a totally different dispo-
sition. She had been quacking herself all her days,
and finally, to the horror of her friends, married
her laSt grand discoverer, in the medical line, in the
full hope and confident expectation that he would
be able to retire from business and devote all his
abilities solely to her. This hope proved futile and
this expectation illusory. 'When they were mar-
ried Dr. Scott threw physic to the winds, insisted
on the immediate and final dissolution of her
•nerves, of which every one who had met her had
heard so much, and if she proved refractory to the
rules of the new pharmacopoeia, he compelled her to
rise early and to take violent exercise before break-
fast. Her health improved greatly, but she felt
utterly disappointed. Mr. and Mrs. Bell and their
daughters afford a glimpse of another phase of life ;
here we meet with a vulgar woman who tyrannises
over natures refined beyond her comprehension. Mr.
Bery was the rector of the village where the Lacys
resided. He it was who first adopted the outcast
Lily, and, at his death, transferred her as a sacred
charge to the family at the Grove. The brief
record of his only daughter is a most touching pas•
sage in the story. Lucy Bery is one of those bright
beings who seem now, even here, to bear about
them traces of that angelic world on whose confines
their spirits are lingering. Mr. Bery was a true
pastor to his flock, and his whole life was devoted
to the holy work in which he had engaged. He
seemed a copy of the beautiful lines of Goldsmith—
" And as a bird each fond endearment tries
To tempt her new-fledged offspring to the skies,
lie cheered each flight, reproved each dull delay,
Allured to brighter worlds and led the way."

The meeting of the long parted parents and their
beautiful child is affectingly narrated, and at the
end of the story there are some bright pictures
drawn of the felicity of the group who have long
figured before us, This is a light story with
nothing very remarkable in it, but it gains upon
the attention by its beautiful descriptions of home-
life, and it interests throughout by its attractive
characters. Those who desire an agreeable subject
for a few hours' perusal will be delighted with
" Lucy Melville," and many might gain hints how
to make home happy, by studying the ways of the
household of the Grove, who truly dwelt together
in unity. These volumes present a graceful and
genial sketch of English country life, mingled with
variety in incident and vivid discriptions of dif-
ferent characters.

Paul the Pope, and Paul the Friar : a story of an
Interdict. By T. Adolphus Trollope, author Gf
"A decade of Italian Women," &c. Chapman

and Hall.
There are probably few readers of the present
time who are at all familiar with the events of the
great struggle between Pope Paul V. and the Vene-
tian Republic, which,in its day agitated all the
Courts of Christendom, and engrossed the attention
of monarchs and statesmen. Yet that struggle was
not withoutlasting effect, and had it terminated dif-
ferently the consequences to the ultimate develop-
ment of social and religious liberty might have been
serious. Pope Paul the Fifth, who had passed the
greater part of his life among the musty records of
Roman law, found himself unexpectedly elected to
the Pontificate in 1506. He came to his new dig.
nity impressed with the most exaggerated views
of his own authority and importance, and his pas-
sionate and obstinate temper seconded only too
well the suggestions of his intellect. He availed
himself of every opportunity of asserting the dig-
nity of the Popedom, and in several disputes which
occurred with the neighbouring States, at the com-
mencement of his reign, he cbtained speedy sub-
mission on the part of his opponents by threats and
menaces which he would not have scrupled to
fulfil. He found, however, a very different antago-
nist in the Republic of Venice. That state, then
eminent for the wisdom and patriotism of its rulers,
refused to accede to his unjust demands. The
Pope had long been displeased with the indepen-
dent attitude maintained by the Venetians, and was
not slow to avail himself of the opportunity of ex-
pressing his displeasure. The points in dispute
were two. In the first place the Senate had caused
the arrest of two priests who had offended
against the criminal law ; and, secondly, they
had confirmed an old law which forbade grants
of land to ecclesiastics. The immense portions of
territory which had passed into the hands of the
Church, and its exemption from taxation, rendered
this statute necessary. After the interchange of
remonstrances, expostulations, explanations, en-
treaties, and threats the Pope placed the whole of the
Venetian territories under an Interdict ; that is to
say, a wholesale excommunication. The senators
of Venice, however, were nothing daunted. They
refused to acknowledge that they had been in the
wrong, and consequently declared the Pope to be
acting under a mistake, and the Interdict to be null
and void. They adopted the most active measures ;
they prevented the publication or diffusion of the
obnoxious document; they insisted on the priests
continuing the performance of their accustomed
duties, and such ecclesiastics who refused to disobey
the Papal injunctions were at once transported be-
yond the frontier. They also kept up a large stand-
ing army ready to encounter less spiritual measures
of enmity, and made continual and earnest repre-
sentations to all the chief Courts of
Europe, of the state of the case. With
all this, however, they refused to make any
concession of their rights, and at length
after a protracted struggle, and the active inter-
vention of France and Spain, matters were brought
to a conclusion, the Pontiff being obliged to sur-
render his extravagant pretensions. The two
priests were surrendered to the French ambassador
under pretence of paying a compliment to his King,
and with the express stipulation that it was an
exceptional case. The laws were left on the statute-
books, and Venice came forth triumphant from the
dreaded encounter, professing complete equanimity
andindifference. The chief actor in the final
negotiations was Cardinal Joycuse, whom
Henry IV. despatched as envoy extraordinary
and mediator. The interference of Philip 111. of
Spain only tended to complicate affairs, while the
counsels of our timid and talkative James I. were
throughout most energetic and warlike. All
through this fierce encounter the Senate was ad-
vised, assisted, and supported by the counsels of
Paul the Friar, a member of the Servite brother-
hood, and one of the most eminent men of his day
for natural ability and acquired learning of every
kind. A contemporary and familiar associate of
Galileo, it has even been doubted how far the con-
struction of the thermometer is due to him, while

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