The History of the Italian Revolution. First Period: the Revolu-
tion of the Barricades (1796-1849). By the Chevalier O'Clery, , E.S.G. (R. Washbourne.)—This volume is the first of a series, and when we saw that it only brings us down to the year 1849, and that then we are about to enter upon "a tale of infamy, perfidy, and deceit as dark as any recorded in the annals of mankind," we conjectured that the Chevalier's enterprise would, when accomplished, as he says of the other volumes on the subject of the temporal power, form a large library." We were, however, relieved to find that, in fact, this not too- closely printed volume embraces the "history of Italian Revolution" not only from the year 1796, but from a time far antecedent to that date, namely, from the "formation of Christendom," and includes " four centuries of Papal rule." It is, therefore, possible that three or four more volumes may be sufficient to unroll the Chevalier's horrible tale. It would be an unworthy suggestion that any intellectual—we had almost said intelligent—English Catholics will accept this book as anything better than a tirade ; from a literary point of view, worthless ; historically, worse than worthless. This is one specimen, taken almost at random, of how the Chevalier reads the past :—" There was nothing new in the principles of Rousseau and Voltaire. They had been enun- ciated, though, perhaps, in less precise and elegant language, hundreds of years before The Hussites in Germany in the fifteenth century, and the Anabaptists at a later period, the Albigenses in France, the Lollards in England, preached the same doctrines that were heard in Paris during the Reign of Terror and the Co mmune." After this, it is superfluous to add that Garibaldi is a "revolutionary bravo," Cavour an "arch-conspirator," the reign of Pius IX. "the most glorious since Peter resigned to Linus the seal of the Fisherman," and Ferdinand of Naples entitled to "the gratitude of the Christian world."
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