Among new English books announced is Mary, Queen of Scots, and her Accusers; embracing a Narrative of Events from the Death of James V., in 1552, until the close of the Conference at Westminster, in 1569. By John Hosack, Barrister in Law. The work is to contain the "Book of Articles" produced against Queen Mary at Westminster, which, it is said, has never hitherto been printed, and will be published by Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh.
If this work be in Mary's defence, it is not the first one—to their credit be it said—produced by the Protestants of Scotland. We confess to some surprise that some one of the many English Catholic writers, with their peculiar facilities for reference to authorities, have not taken up and exposed the scandalous malice of Mr. Froude's attack on the memory of the unfortunate queen. His desperate attempt to advocate the genuineness of the silver casket letters, bold and ingenious though it be, is nevertheless a failure, and its unfairness and sophistry should be exposed.
New Publications.
Life Of Mother Margaret Mary Hallahan, O.S.D., Foundress of the English Congregation of St. Catherine of Sienna, of the Third Order of St. Dominic. By her religious children. With a preface by the Right Rev. Dr. Ullathorne. New York: The Catholic Publication House, 126 Nassau street. 1869.
All who are interested in the extraordinary, not to say miraculous, revival of the Catholic faith in English-speaking countries, will hail with delight the appearance of this book. It is a simple and evidently a truthful narrative of the life of one of those providential personages who, in all great movements, stand out as beacon lights to mark their progress. Margaret Mary Hallahan was born in London in 1802, of Irish parents, who had fallen from a respectable position in life to honorable poverty. She was their only child, and became a complete orphan at the age of nine years. Her education had been provided for, as well as circumstances would permit, by her kind-hearted father, in the schools established in London by the Abbé Carron, a refugee priest of the French revolution. Slender, indeed, were the prospects of a poor Catholic orphan girl in the capital of a country so full of bigotry as was England in 1811. Having spent a short time in the orphan asylum at Somerstown, she was placed under the care of a Madame Caulier, whose harsh discipline was hardly compensated by occasional acts of kindness. In her twentieth year, she was introduced by this lady to the family of Doctor Morgan, once physician to George III. Being then an invalid, he was attended by Margaret during the last six months of his life; and after his death she became the bosom friend of his daughter, Mrs. Thompson, whom she served, rather as a sister than as a domestic, for twenty years. Five years of this time were spent in England and fifteen in Belgium. In the latter country she became a member of the Third Order of St. Dominic, on the feast of St. Catherine of Sienna, in the year 1835.
On her return to England, in 1842, she took charge of the Catholic schools of Coventry, where Father Ullathorne, of the Benedictine order, was pastor. Her days were spent in the education of young children, and her evenings in the instruction, religious and secular, of the poor factory girls of the place. In a short time, there was a visible improvement in the Catholic community of Coventry; and Sister Margaret had the happiness of beholding a religious procession, the first of the kind seen in England since the change of religion, at the head of which was borne her own image of the Blessed Virgin, the only treasure she had carried with her from Belgium. A few pious companions, having united with Sister Margaret in the performance of good works, she and three others, by the advice of Father Ullathorne, and with the authorization of the general of the Dominican order, received the habit of the Third Order of St. Dominic, with a view to living in community, on the 11th of June, 1844. On the 8th of December, 1845, they made their religious profession. Soon after this, Father Ullathorne was appointed by the holy see vicar apostolic of the western district; and, having established his residence at Bristol, it was deemed advisable for the young community, of which he was the father and protector, to remove to Clifton, near his episcopal city. This was in 1848; and when, in 1850, the Catholic hierarchy was reestablished in England, Bishop Ullathorne, now transferred to Birmingham, founded the second convent of the Dominican Sisters at Stow. This became the general novitiate of the order in England, and here were established by Mother Margaret her boarding and free schools, her orphanage, and hospital for incurables. In 1858, she went to Rome to obtain of the holy see the canonical erection of her community into a congregation governed by a provincial prioress. Her request was granted by a brief given in 1859, by which she was named provincial prioress, which office she retained until her death, in 1868. Here we may be allowed to quote the words of her friend, Bishop Ullathorne, in his preface to her life:
"And now behold this lonely and poor woman, made ripe in spiritual wisdom and in human experience, returning, a stranger and unknown, to the land of her birth. Yet God has already prepared a way for her, and she begins a spiritual work which slowly rises under her hands, from humble beginnings, into the highest character, and surrounds itself with numerous institutions of mercy and charity. Foundress of a congregation of the ancient Dominican order, she trained a hundred religious women, founded five convents, built three churches, established a hospital for incurables, three orphanages, schools for all classes, including a number for the poor; and, what is more, left her own spirit in its full vigor to animate her children, whose work is only in its commencement."