AMONG THE BOOKS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 52, 28 December 1899, Page 4

AMONG THE BOOKS.

NEW BOOK BY CARDINAL MOHAN.

The Catholic Truth Society has sent us a new and valuable historic work from the pen of the Cardinal Arohbishop of Sydney. Its scope is fully indicated in its title : Tlie Catholics of Ireland Under the Penal Laws in the Eighteenth Century (pp. 218, demy Bvo., 2s 6d). As the eminent and learned author says in his brief preface, 'the subject-matter cannot fail to commend the little volume to those readers who rejoice in the triumphs of religion. Never has a whole nation suffered more for the Faith than Ireland ; and nowhere has fidelity to God and loyalty to the Holy See, amid unparalleled sufferings and national humiliations, achieved more glorious victories or been crowned with happier results. Those victories of the Faith and those grand religious results are a priceless heritage, of which the Irish race at home and abroad is justly proud.' In Cardinal Moran they huve found an able andinteresting historian, who, within the 200 pages of his book, contrives to pack an amazing 1 amount of information sorted out in fair order and pre?ented to the reader in a style which gives a charm all its own to this new volume of the Catholic Truth Society. In a brief compass the distinguished and scho arly author has done for the eighteenth century what he did for the seventeenth in hi* well-known Historical Sketch of the Persecutions S?ij/t J red by the Catholics of Ireland under the Mule of Cromwell and the Puritans

The book will possess a special interest for all, but especially Irish Catholics. A perusal of its contents will enable the reader to form some idea of the terrible sufferings to which the Irish were subjected, and of the sturdy character of the faith and devotion which could so triumphantly resist the operations of a fierce and savage penal code of which Edmund Burke, himself a Protestant, said that ' it was a complete system, full of coherence and consistency, well digested and composed in all its parts. It was a machiue of wise and elaborate contrivance, and as well fitted for the oppres- . sion, the impoverishment and degradation of a people, and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man.' The value of the book i<* enhanced by the author's deadly use of the writings of leading non-Catholic historians, such as Leoky, and by his frequent use of documents preserved in the archives of the Vatican, etc. The interest of the reader is likewise sustained by the wealth of personal details which, so to speak, bring us face to face with concrete examples of the working of the penal co.de. Instances in point occur constantly — such as the incident of the law regarding the possession of horses of £5 in value by Catholics (p. 22) ; the dangers, travels, and disguises of bishops and priests ; their biding places in bogs and mountains, etc ; their prison experiences ; the celebration of Mass in huts, bog*, garrets, mountains ; the priest-hunter and his ways ; the story of Father Sheehy (p. 59), and scores of other personal adventure and incident. The Catholic schoolmaster, too, was hunted down in those limes as well as the Catholic priest. But, as a set-off to this weary tale of woe, the Cardinal gives many instances (see especially p. 58) in which the hunted sogarth was protected from injury by the kindness of Protestants that were more just and compassionate than the laws. The tenth chapter is devoted to a very interesting account of the noble work done by the Irish Colleges of Paris and Rome in training secular clergy for the perilous work of the mission in the Old Land in those trying days. The dawn and progress of toleration are ably traced by Cardinal Moran, and his book — which is procurable from all the booksellers advertising in our columns — should find a place in every prize-list in our schools and on the book-shelf of every Catholic home. NEW EDITION OF BOOK BY EDITOR OP THE N.Z. TABLET. The Catholic Truth Society has forwarded us copies of a new edition of The Orange Society, by Rev. H. W. Cleary, editor of the N.Z. Tablet. This new edition (the twelvth, and not the eleventh as stated in Cath"lic Book Notes for October) is a handsome clothbound volume cf pp. xvi-459 and is issued in its new dress at 2s 6d. Catholic Book Notes for October, in the course of a prominent notice of the book, says : ' The eleven (Australian) editions were

issued in the same year (1897), which gives some idea of the interest the book excited in Australia ; and we are glad to announce that it is now available for use among ourselves. . . It is a valuable historical study, beginning with the foundation of the Society in Ireland in 1795, and traoing its operations down to the present day. A valuable appendix treats of the position of Catholics in the North of Ireland, and contrasts it with that accorded to Protestants by the Catholic majority in the South, thus affording a striking example of that " toleration" on which Protestants pride themselves. Father Cleary must have expended an immense amount of time and labour upon this book, for on every page we find references and footnotes which, while they greatly enhance its value, mutt have added materially to the work of compilation. Moreover, there is an excellent index, by means of which the various points treated of can be readily consulted. The book is a storehouse of facts and a model of its class.' In the course of a flattering and extended notice the New Era (the International Catholic organ) says : ' The book under review, in which the working of this nefarious system of religious boycotting and persecution is unveiled, introduces the reader into a veritable political chamber of horrors, blood-stained and blood-curdling.'