CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Dublin Review. July, 1872. (Burns and Oates.)—This is a much more interesting number of the Dublin Review than the last. We must say, however, that the able writer of the article on the priesthood at Irish elections has evidently not informed himself of the true nature of the late Galway election, when he accepts Judge Keogh's quite unsus- tained assertion,—a very convenient one for the writer's point of view, —that the election turned chiefly on the question of unsectarian educa- tion, and that the priests were accordingly the best possible advisers the people could have had in relation to the election. Of course a Catholic writer would necessarily maintain that position, but in this case at least it would have exceedingly little relation to the actual elec- tion, which indisputably turned almost exclusively on the land policy and Captain Nolan's submission of his former evictions to arbitration. Now, on that question, on which the issue was really taken, we deny that the priests' judgment was one of any real authority, and we maintain most strongly that their interference with all sorts of threats to procure votes for Captain Nolan was utterly unjustifiable, even from their own point of view. For the rest, the article, though unduly Conservative in English politics and unduly sacerdotal in Irish politics, is one of very great ability. A still more interesting one to anybody who cares for the many difficult questions of Scriptural history and tradition, is that which attempts to show, and which does make out a fair case for the position though not one quite so powerful as the author thinks, that the woman who was a sinner who poured a costly box of ointment on our Lord's feet at a supper in Galileo, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the sister of Martha, are the same person. All we can say is, that the able writer overrates in this case the importance of the known data, and underrates the uncertainty due to the unknown elements of the case. The paper on Dr. Bain is able, though oddly written. The article on the Carte papers is very lively.
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