On the 4th of January as he was proceeding in his croydon, about half-past one o'clock, along the high road between Sutton and Howth, his horse became restive, plunged violently, and overturned the vehicle. Father Gaffney was thrown on a heap of loose sharp stones, and received so severe an injury of the head that he did not survive more than an hour. He expired in the cottage of a poor widow close by the roadside. Though speechless from the moment the accident occurred, the Rev. Mr. Čuddihy, who had hastened to the spot, was satisfied that the sufferer retained consciousness until the last rites of the Church had been administered to him.

The sudden painful death of so esteemed a priest and so worthy a citizen caused universal sorrow. The intensity of public feeling was shown in the only way then possible, by the immense number of the clergy who, with the Cardinal Archbishop, attended the office for the repose of his soul in the parish Church of Clontarf, and the multitude of people of every rank who followed his remains to the grave. In many a heart the memory of that sad day will long remain impressed. By the road that skirts the shore the lengthened procession wound its way, heedless of the bitter blast that swept across the sullen sea; yet noticing, perhaps, the grey shrunken outline of the mountains, and the slank gleams falling on them from broken clouds-pale intimations of a distant hidden brightness.

The subjects that occupied the good Father's mind during the days immediately preceding his melancholy death, and the engagements which he looked forward to fulfilling, are not without a deep interest for all who know him. On the day that he lay dead at St. Brendan's, he was to have taken part, as a member of the Grattan Memorial Committee, in the ceremonial of unveiling Foley's matchless statue of the leader of '82. Two days later he was to address the Association of the Sacred Heart at Fairview; the subject he chose for his discourse being "The Life of St. Columba," a most congenial theme. One can fancy how tersely yet eloquently he would have sketched the monk of Iona, whose passionate love for Ireland was shown in such affecting deeds and sung in such melodious verse; who thought "death in faultless Eire," better than "life without end in Albyn;" who, self-exiled to the "sea-spent Hebrides." could not rest in any spot whence a glimpse of his loved island could be caught; whose gray eye moistened even at the sight of the sea, because the white waves broke upon the Irish shore. It is a strange coincidence that St. Columba was strongly in the mind of another ardent lover of Ireland shortly before his tragic end. One of the last poems written by Thomas D'Arcy M'Gee, and published but a few days before he fell by the assassin's hand, was on the beautiful legend that tells how St. Columba received the dove that flew across the waters from Ireland to Iona, and began with the lines

"Cling to my breast, my Irish bird,

Poor storm-toss'd stranger, sore afraid!"

When the day arrived on which the members of the Fairview association were to have listened to the story of St. Columba's life,

the earnest voice of scholar and priest was stilled: Father Gaffney was in Glasnevin, sleeping with the faithful dead.

Another and a kindred subject likewise had a large share in his thoughts, and occupied much of his spare time during the last weeks of his life. This was a detailed account of a visit which he made during his last summer's vacation to the church of St. James in Ratisbon. His attention had been directed on that occasion to some beautiful Celtic stone carvings on one of the portals and on several of the pillars and balustrades of the Church. He took copious notes on the spot; a priest of the cathedral, Herr Töngler, a great architect and antiquary, who superintended the restoration of the church, gave him much highly valuable information; and this was supplemented on his return to Dublin by researches made in the Royal Irish Academy. The results of Father Gaffney's observations and studies it was his purpose to embody in a lecture and read on the 11th of January at a meeting of the Metropolitan branch of the Catholic Union. With characteristic care Father Gaffney had prepared a well digested paper on the subject; and with a kindness which has now a twofold value in our eyes, destined it for publication in the pages of the IRISH MONTHLY. In our next number we shall print this paper.

How gladly we should have received this valuable contribution from his own hand, and how heartily we should have offered our thanks with an earnest au revoir!

Now, alas! we can do no more than whisper the final earthly adieu-the sadly murmured Requiescat.

C

NO CARD SENT.

AN APOLOGY.

HRISTMAS pass'd by, you waited patiently
My Christmas greeting, but it never came.
The New Year dawn'd, and still you had no sign
That I was mindful of the gracious time.
Hear my excuse:

Why should I say to you
"A happy Christmas" I who wish your life
Were all one perfect round of happiness?
And year may follow year, but no year finds,
In what I feel for you, a change in me,
Whose fondest wish is that the new-born year
May be as the old years that have been ours.

J. F.

16

NEW BOOKS.

I. Centulle: A Tale of Pau. By DENYS SHYNE LAWLOR, Author of Pilgrimages in the Pyrenees and Landes." (London: Longman's.)

MR. LAWLOR assigns to a French friend of his the merit of the general scope and plan of this book, which aims at combining the attractions of a novel with the accurate details of a guide-book. The story increases in interest as it proceeds, and certainly there is no dearth of incident. But too many different subjects are attempted which could not possibly be treated satisfactorily together. There is, for instance, a minute history of "Our Lady of Lourdes," with an account of the language and country of the Basques, and of the customs and languages of the Gipsies; and all the changes of the story are interspersed with descriptions of Biarritz, Pau, Eaux-Bonnes, and other resorts of the health-seeker and pleasure-seeker. By the way, apropos of one of those subjects, can it be true that in the Basque language the same word stands for a fountain, a vineyard, or the summit of a mountain, and that that one word is ardlanzesaregarenenituricabarua? If so, it is no wonder that Scaliger, on first hearing the language spoken, said: They pretend to understand one another, but I don't believe they do."

II. The English Religion. Letters addressed to an Irish Gentleman. By A. M. (Dublin: M'Glashan & Gill. 1876.)

THIS shilling pamphlet of the very newest and freshest controversy is eminently readable, thanks partly to the large, clear type with which it is printed, but chiefly to the terse incisiveness of the style and the sound originality of the matter. There are nine of these letters, some of them quite too short, discussing the latest phases of the everchanging "English Religion" in a way which will often provoke the remark: "This must be by the author of the Comedy of Convocation.”* Although the Letters are addressed to an Irish gentleman and will be useful to those who are within the one Home of Faith, they would be studied with still greater profit by those who are without, and all the more so because there is no violence or bitterness, and the earnestness of tone is only relieved occasionally by a little gentle sarcasm.

III. Legend Lays of Ireland. By LAGENIENSIS. (Dublin Mullany.) THIS Collection of Irish Legends, told in verse by "Lageniensis," is unlike "our Lagenian mine," in this respect, that it sparkles less on the surface, and the deeper you go the more you discover of solid merit. The Legends themselves are very interesting, and are here gracefully versified; but many will read with even greater pleasure the copious annotations and illustrations which display such a profound and loving acquaintance with Irish scenery and history. The preface gives a very complete account of the legendary poetry of Ireland; and to each

We have since seen the accuracy of this conjecture acknowledged in an advertisement of the work.

poem notes are appended, full of minute and careful information about each of the places and persons mentioned in the text.

IV. Five Lectures on the City of Ancient Rome and her Empire over the Nations, the Divinely-sent Pioneer of the Catholic Church. By the Rev. HENRY FORMBY. (London: Burns, Oates & Co.) THOUGH the space that remains at our disposal hardly allows more than a catalogue raisonné of the books that await notice, we will introduce each briefly to our readers, hoping to be able perhaps to return to some of them again. The English priest, to whose zeal we owe the "Pictorial Bible Stories," and other works of similar aim, has here given us five lectures which were read before the Dominican Fathers of Woodchester, on the providential part played in history by the ancient and modern City of Rome. That part is described in the title of this volume, which developes with much ingenuity and learning a view for which, of course, the author does not claim originality, referring it at the outset to Eusebius and St. Leo, and among late writers to M. de Champagny. Amid the great variety of testimonies gathered from poets, orators, historians and philosophers, we note a lively passage from Les Césars of the writer just mentioned, which begins: "Romulus est frère de John Bull, leur ressemblance m'a toujours frappé." Some points of the parallel which he proceeds to institute would be disputed by John Bull's neighbours.

We may be allowed to mention that this book is itself the "pioneer" of a much more important work on the Roman Empire and the Christian Martyrs, which is to be illustrated by such distinguished Catholic artists as Mr. C. Goldie and Mr. Westlake. We hope that this pious design may be accomplished as speedily as a work of such difficulty permits.

V. Elements of Gregorian or Plain Chant, and Modern Music. By the Professor of Music, and Organist, in All Hallows College. (Dublin: M'Glashan & Gill.)

For those who are interested in the subject of this little treatise, it will be enough to transcribe the title-page, and to add that the work is printed very clearly and attractively. In a cheap and convenient form it gives manifestly the fruit of much study and care, and of long practical experience.

VI. History of the Catholic Schools of Kilkenny. By an OSSORY PRIEST. (Dublin: W. B. Kelly.)

THE filial piety of an Ossory Priest towards his Alma Mater has furnished us with this very interesting and useful contribution towards the ecclesiastical history of Ireland. On the principle of the division of labour it is well that histories of the various dioceses and diocesan institutions should be written by some of the learned ecclesiastics who are connected with them as it were by ties of blood. This department of our literature is very scantily provided. Meath has found an historian in the late Rev. Antony Cogan; and we were promised_a history of the diocese of Limerick from a highly competent pen.

St.

Kyran's is, we think, the first of the Catholic colleges to have its story told; and this is fitting, since it claims the honour of being (even in its present form) the oldest Catholic educational establishment in Ireland, tracing its pedigree in other forms back to Father Peter White's School in 1558. When shall the history be written of the greatest Catholic college of all, on whose prosperity the future of the Irish Church most of all depends-in which every Irish mother, whose proudest hope is to see her son a priest, must take a personal interest -the learned and venerable College of Maynooth, which, when the feast of its patron and of the patron of Ireland comes round next month, will appeal to all Irish Catholics to prove their love for Ireland and the Catholic Faith and the Irish priesthood and the beauty of God's house, by contributing generously towards the worthy completion of the new collegiate church wherewith the genius, faith, and patriotism of MacCarthy will crown nobly the work of the great Pugin?

VII. Judgments of Mr. Justice Barry, Mr. Justice Fitzgerald, and Mr. Justice O'Brien in the case of the Rev. R. O'Keeffe v. Cardinal Cullen. (Dublin: M'Glashan and Gill.)

THIS is the latest addition to the already extensive literature of this important lawsuit. It is a full and authorised report of each of the judgments delivered by their lordships. Judge Fitzgerald merely expresses briefly his concurrence with the arguments and conclusions advanced at great length and with consummate ability by Judge Barry; but it does not need much legal acumen to perceive that the last of the judgments, Mr. Justice O'Brien's, has a distinct and very great value of its own. It is well that we possess these important documents in so satisfactory a form.

VIII. The Angel of the Altar; or, the Love of the Most Adorable and Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. By the Rev. T. H. KINANE. (Dublin: M'Glashan and Gill.)

WE had a word of welcome for this excellent little work on its first appearance. Meanwhile it has reached its sixth issue and is destined in many new editions to inspire the hearts of the faithful with a warmer love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It contains a rich store of solid and devout matter, not only on the title-subject of the volume but on the devotion to the Blessed Virgin, the life of Blessed Margaret Mary, &c.; and prayers and practical exercises of piety are appended to each section. The zealous Author, whom his Archbishop has just appointed Administrator of Thurles, has drawn an additional blessing on his work by incurring the toil of presenting to Our Lady of Lourdes a splendid lamp which she will value less for the four hundred ounces of solid silver which it contains than for the devotion of the Irish hearts that send it as a token of their love to burn perpetually before that favoured shrine.