Stories of Rainbow and Luckey. By JACOB ABBOTT. Author of "Up the River." 16mo., pp. 192. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1861.

The Heroes of Europe. A Biographical Outline of European History, from A.D. 200 to 1700. By HENRY G. HEWLETT. 12mo., pp. 370. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1861.

The Children's Picture Fable Book. Containing 160 Fables, with 60 Illustrations. By HARRISON WEIR. Small 4to., pp. 278. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1861.

Pictures and Flowers for Child-Lovers. 24mo., pp. 211. Boston: Walker, Wise, & Co.

The Florence Stories. By JACOB ABBOTT. Excursion to the Orkney Islands. 16mo., pp. 252. New York: Sheldon & Co. 1861.

My Holiday Gift. A book of Pretty Poems, Stories, and Sketches, for boys and girls, by various Authors. A gift for all seasons of the year. 13 Illustrations. Small 4to., pp. 218. New York: Carlton & Porter.

The following are late issues from the METHODIST BOOK ROOMS, Carlton & Porter, New York:

May Coverley: the Story of God's Dealings with a poor Fatherless Girl. Five Illustrations. 18mo., pp. 262.

Andy O'Hara; or, The Child of Providence. 18mo., pp. 198.

Three Illustrations.

Parson Hubert's School; or, Harry Kingsley's Trial. Three Illustrations. 18mo., pp. 252.

Abel Grey: the Story of a Singing Boy. Five Illustrations. 18mo., pp. 242.

Nellie Morris and her Cousin. A Story for Girls. Four Illustrations. 18mo., pp. 192.

A Waif from the River Side; or, Stories, Sketches, Letters, and Poems. Selected from a Manuscript Newspaper. Three Illustrations. 18mo., pp. 172. The Story of a Scripture Text; or, What Four Little Girls did with a Text about Pleasant Words. Three Illustrations. 18mo., pp. 202.

Notice of the following is postponed to the July number: Autobiography of Dr. Carlyle. Ticknor & Co.

Evenings with the Doctrines. By Dr. N. Adams. Gould & Lincoln. Human Destiny. A Critique on Universalism. By C. F. Hudson. James Munroe & Co.

Personal History of Lord Bacon. By Dixon. Ticknor & Co.

The Pulpit of the American Revolution; or, the Political Sermons of the Period of 1776, with a Historical Introduction, Notes, and Illustrations. By JOHN WINGATE THORNTON, A. M. 12mo., pp. 537. Boston: Gould & Lincoln.

1860.

THE

METHODIST QUARTERLY REVIEW.

JULY, 1861.

ART. I. THE TEMPORAL GOVERNMENT OF THE PONTIFICAL STATES.

Or all the governments now existing in Europe, that of the pope is the most anomalous. Nearly every other state has introduced important modifications into its system within the past half century. The British Constitution, in which Parliament is said to be omnipotent, has evinced more than once the possession of that power of adaptation which has enabled it to weather the greatest storms of the past, and to brace itself for the encounter of still greater tempests, if need be, in the future. Nor have the despotisms of the old world remained unchanged. Russia has, of the free-will of her autocrat, provided for the abolition of the system of serfdom, which prevented her from entering into fair competition with her western neighbors in the arts of life. Austria, too, the most retrograde of powers, begins to discern the necessity of some concessions to the popular will, confessing, by a partial relaxation of her rigorous rule, that however adapted her institutions may have been to the past, they are not fully applicable to the exigencies of the times.

But the papal court claims infallibility; and this infallibility covers not merely symbols of faith and ecclesiastical forms, but extends equally to the administration of civil government within the dominions of the Church. Innovation has consequently come to be regarded as an acknowledgment of error, whether it pertain to matters of Church or State. In consistency with FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XIII.-23

this belief, we behold a singular retention of even the most antiquated forms. Not only do the officials that surround the pontiff remain such as they were ages ago, with powers and prerogatives defined with the utmost precision by inflexible tradition; but their very costumes have in no wise altered, though the fashions of the world around them have been modified a hundred times.* Even the Swiss guards who take their station at the door of the Sistine Chapel, or at the entrance of the papal audience chamber, exhibit the same motley dress, whose invention a current tradition (it is to be hoped, for his credit, a false one) attributes to the great Michael Angelo, who died three hundred years before this age of rifled muskets and Armstrong guns.

A government so inflexible as that of the Papal States, it might have been supposed, could scarcely have subsisted for so long a period, unless it possessed remarkable excellences, and answered, to an unusual extent, the desires of its subjects. And such, in fact, is the claim advanced by the adherents and warm admirers of the popes. It is thus asserted by the Rev. John Miley, D. D., in his "History of the Papal States:"

The sovereigns [the popes] who, in the face of so many disad vantages and obstacles, have succeeded in raising the States of Central Italy from the lowest abyss of ruin to a "condition of unexampled prosperity," to a condition in which "some evidence of improvement is to be met at every step" a condition in which "the people are well fed and prosperous," and in every way so well off as to draw from an English traveler who loves his country the wish that "our peasantry at home were as well dressed, as well fed, or half as happy as they appear to be;" the sovereigns who have secured the common weal in such an eminent degree as this, and that, too, in the teeth of the unceasing and baleful resistance they had to contend against, (albeit, their diurnal habiliments are not cut in conformity with the latest bulletin of fashion either from London or from Paris, but rather resemble those worn by dictators and censors during the pristine ages of the Roman Republic,) even on the ground of superior capacity and efficiency, have nobly vindicated their right to that scepter which, placed in their hands by Providence, their dynasty has wielded to the incalculable

*The dress of the priesthood, which at first was precisely similar to that of the laity, began to differ from the latter in the sixth century, when the Roman toga yielded its place, in common life, to the shorter and more convenient sagum. The council that met at Macon in A.D. 583 by its fifth canon forbids the use of the sagum and of all worldly clothing to the clergy. (Kurtz, Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte, Vol. 1, sec. 263, pp. 354-6.)

advantage of religion, of liberty, of the arts, of letters, and of whatever else is most essential to Christian civilization, for now considerably more than a thousand years.-Vol. iii, pp. 641, 642. London. 1850.

This fulsome panegyric of the papal government has even been surpassed by the extraordinary statements recently attributed (with how much truth we know not) to an American literary gentleman who has traveled more extensively, perhaps, than any other of our countrymen. The substance of his plea is condensed in the following sentence: "The government is an elective monarchy; it has a liberal Constitution, light taxation, very little pauperism, an economical administration, a cheap and free education for all classes, abundant institutions of charity for the needy and suffering." Some of the more specific assertions are these:

For many years there is a smaller proportion of clergymen holding office in the Roman States, than in some of the states of the Union. The salaries of the higher officers of state do not exceed $3,000 a year, and the whole civil list costs about $600,000. The Papal States, with a population of less than 3,000,000, have seven universities, and the city of Rome has more free public schools than New York, in proportion to her population, and what is better, a larger proportion of children attend them. Holland, France, and other free and enlightened countries, have from three to ten times as much pauperism in proportion to the population. The city of New York supports more paupers, has more uneducated children, and suffers from more crime, year by year, than the whole nearly 3,000,000 of people of the States of the Church.

We do not intend to enter into any minute examination of the particulars of this broad and bold defense of the pontifical government. The very circumstance that statements so paradoxical are advanced, may serve as a sufficient excuse for an investigation of the character and practical operation of that much lauded system. For the present let the revolt of the Romagnoli and the inhabitants of the Marches, comprehending about two thirds of the entire number of the pope's subjects, and the subsequent annexation to Sardinia, confirmed by an almost unanimous vote, be regarded as a sufficient rejoinder. The popular voice, with which that of posterity will accord, has already pronounced upon the character of an administration that has had a thousand years in which to develop its

true nature.

In the "liberal, constitutional, elective monarchy" of the Roman States, the supreme authority, legislative, judicial, and executive, is vested in the single person of the pope. In all these three departments, although he may seek the counsel of his subordinates, his decision is unrestricted and final. He is neither checked nor assisted by any representative body chosen, directly or indirectly, by the people or by any select portion of the people. In the temporal affairs of his kingdom the pope claims to be as absolute, as in the spiritual concerns of the world he is infallible. There is no such bill of rights as to deserve the name of a constitution; still less are there deputies chosen by the people, and sworn to watch over its execution. Nor does the pope owe his election to the people, or any body representing the people. He is chosen by the "Sacred College" of cardinals, who themselves were designated to this office by the sole appointment of previous popes. The pontifical monarchy can consequently be termed elective only in the sense that it is not hereditary, but that the new pope is created by electors who are themselves the creation of preceding popes. In this respect, as in many others, it is notorious that the Romans of our day are deprived of privileges which their ancestors possessed. It was an incontestable right of the people to participate in the election of the bishop of the city, and this prerogative was constantly exercised throughout long ages. "The Roman primate was elected," says Anastasius Bibliothecarius, who wrote in the latter part of the ninth century, "a cunctis sacerdotibus seu proceribus, et omni clero nec non et optimatibus, vel populo cuncto Romano." When the German empire became powerful, the pope was constrained, previous to consecration, to await the imperial sanction, and Otho I. prescribed that he should swear solemnly to preserve intact the rights of the clergy, the people, and the emperor. It was not until A.D. 1059 that an edict was issued empowering the conclave of cardinals to elect the Pope out of their own number.

Uniting in his own person such extensive and absolute powers, the pontiff could not find the requisite time, even if he possessed the administrative ability, to discharge the multifarious duties attaching to his office. His jurisdiction must necessarily be delegated. Both in ecclesiastical and in civil matters