CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Church of Ireland. By Thomas Olden, M.A.. (Wells Gardner, Da,rton, and Co.)—This is a volume in that useful series, "The National Churches," and may be recommended as an able and impartial sketch of a great subject. Mr. Olden begins with St. Patrick, whose national character he vindicates as against the legendary additions to his life by which it has been sought to affiliate him, so to speak, with Rome. He insists on the early date of the Irish Apostle, putting him before Palladius. The mission by Celestine is entirely discredited, The independence of the Irish Church is, indeed, a note throughout the history ; nowhere does it conic out more plainly than in the case of St. Brigit. To her the Irish seem to have given, strange as it seems, a reverence much the same as was elsewhere paid to the Virgin. The con- quest of the island by Henry II. put an end to this independence. In the eighth chapter Mr. Olden discusses the question of the origin of the Church, and answers it by affirming that it came from the East. The next chapter is given to the "Irish Schools ; " and the next, again, to a particularly interesting subject, "The Irish Danes." The earlier portion of the book, which necessarily suffers from the disproportion between its narrow limits and large subject, is the more valuable. Bat it shows throughout proofs of learning, moderation, and candour.
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