F. Tondini has sent us two copies of this curious and valuable document, for which he will please accept our thanks. It contains the text of the Regulation in Russian, Latin, and French, with other pieces and notes, and is prefaced by an introduction. There is a great deal of political talent and skill exhibited in this code of the Russian Peter, which is the foundation upon which the modern schismatical Church of Russia is founded. There are also many things in it most whimsical and amusing. The Emperor Paul wanted to celebrate a Pontifical Mass in vestments of sky-blue velvet. Peter did not care about performing any such childish escapade as this, but he was resolved to exercise the governing power of a supreme pontiff, and he carried his resolve into execution. The one salient feature of his regulation is the systematic effort to degrade the hierarchy [pg 720] and clergy of the Russian Church, to make them impotent and contemptible. The able despot, aided by his unscrupulous instruments, succeeded but too well. The ultimate result has been that Russia is worm-eaten and undermined by infidelity and its necessary concomitant, the revolutionary principle. There is no salvation for it, even politically, except in a return to obedience to the See of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles. Our Episcopalian admirers of the Russian Church will find some wholesome reading in this interesting and learned work of F. Tondini.
Sadliers' Catholic Directory, Almanac, and Ordo for the Year of our Lord 1875. New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. 1875.
In the cursory glance we have been able to give this publication, we are glad to notice an evident effort to improve on the issues of previous years. We do not look for perfection in such difficult compilations, and anything approaching it is to be commended.
Ierne of Armorica. By J. C. Bateman. New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. 1874.
This work, reprinted from Father Coleridge's admirable Quarterly Series, was noticed, at the time of its original publication, in The Catholic World for June, 1873. We have also received from the same house: Moore's Irish Melodies, with memoir and notes by John Savage; Carleton's Redmond Count O'Hanlon, The Evil Eye, and The Black Baronet; the latter reprints, we believe, of works heretofore published by Mr. Donahoe of Boston.
The Milwaukee Catholic Magazine, January, 1875.
We welcome to our table this new contemporary, an octavo monthly of thirty-two pages, just come to hand. The editor having beautified the churches and dwellings of his locality with the productions of his pencil and crayon, now takes up the pen professional; though he has heretofore made occasional contributions to the press, which have recently been put into book-form. He brings to his task a refined, poetic taste, a genuine appreciation of the beautiful in art and nature, and a sturdy good sense, which will doubtless serve him well in his new relations. We wish him all success.
Announcement.—The Catholic Publication Society has in press, and will soon publish from advance sheets, two very important works in answer to Mr. Gladstone's late pamphlet; one by the Very Rev. John Henry Newman, D.D., and the other by His Grace Archbishop Manning. The former is entitled A Letter to the Duke of Norfolk, on the occasion of Mr. Gladstone's recent Expostulation, and the latter, The Vatican Decrees and their Bearings on Civil Allegiance.