to certain restraints, abolished the right of asylum in many churches, made a new division of the parishes within his diocese, and endeavoured to subject the regular clergy to the jurisdiction of the bishop. The most important event in the prelate's life is the Synod of Pistoia, the noise which it made at the time, the subsequent condemnation of it by Pope Pius VI., and the opposition of the Jansenists to the Bull, by which it was condemned, made us look with great earnestness into the work before us, for a full account of all these circumstances. To our great surprise, we found the account given of them very very meagre and unsatisfactory; the decrees of the synod and the Bull condemning them, should certainly have been inserted, if not in the body, at least in the appendix of the work now under our consideration. The synod seems to have consisted of about 220 ecclesiastics, collected from different parts of Italy, and known by their attachment to the new discipline. It was opened on the 20th of September 1786, and closed on the 28th of the same month. Bourgoing, in his "Memoires Historiques et Politiques" of Pius VI. says that the members of the synod, with the exception of five, adhered not only to the changes of discipline, which Ricci suggested, but also to his heterodox opinions." The bishops of Collé and Arezzo imitated the example of Ricci. The Pistoian decrees were rejected by the archbishops of Florence, Pisa, and Sienna, and by almost the whole of the Tuscan clergy. Pope Pius VI. condemned the acts of the synod by a bull, which, from its two first words, is called the Bull Auctorem Fidei. With the exception of the adherents to the new discipline, the bull was received by all the Catholic prelates of Christendom. The proceedings we have mentioned, raised great ferment in Tuscany; the whole territory was in a state of convulsion, when Leopold, on the death of Joseph, succeeded to the German empire, and fixed his residence at Vienna. On leaving Tuscany, he formed a provisional government, and authorized the members of it to annul all the new regulations, and restore every thing to the state anterior to any of Ricci's innovations. The provisional government readily conformed to these suggestions, the new GrandDuke entered into their views, and compelled Ricci to resign his see; the prelate, however, retained his opinions. But when the pope passed through Tuscany in 1805, Ricci made a formal submission to his holiness, retracted his errors, and accepted the bull in a manner which perfectly satisfied the pontiff. It should seem, however, that, at a future time, Ricci in some measure explained away his submission, by declaring that the pope had misunderstood his doctrine; and that he only condemned them in the sense in which the pope had thus misconceived them. But the harmony between the Pope and Ricci continued uninterrupted. Ricci died on the 27th of January, 1810. That his intentions were good, we see no reason to doubt; and it is probable that some of his. plans were, to a certain extent, salutary. The troubles which his projects occasioned in every part of Tuscany, and which ultimately endangered the tranquillity of the state, seem to shew that whatever was the value of his plans, the time of carrying them into execution was ill-chosen, and his manner of effecting them unwise. M. de Bourgoing, in the work we have cited, says, "that Ricci was rather a favourer of innovation than than of reform; and, that if there had been no superstition in Tuscany, a mere love of meddling would have made him busy himself in introducing it. With respect to the former of the publications before us, we must acknowledge that we have been greatly dissatisfied with it. Almost on opening it we perceived that it was the work of a Roman Catholic-and of a Roman Catholic who was acquainted with, and had probably taken a lively interest in, the recent disputes in his church. To these, the greater part of the proceedings of the Synod of Pistoia related. They would have afforded the writer a fine opportunity to explain what is so little known in this country, the particulars of the "Nova disciplina," or the " New discipline," by which, since the middle of the last century, the Catholic churches of Germany and Tuscany have been greatly agitated. The work, though omitting several things we should wish to have seen inserted, contains many particulars, both important and curious; and adds greatly to our knowledge of the ecclesiastical concerns of the continent, which is generally so scanty that it often excites the surprise of foreigners. We are, therefore, much obliged to Mr. Thomas Roscoe for introducing it to English readers. His translation is executed in a masterly manner, and does ample justice to the original. ART. XIII.-The Literary Remains of the late Henry Neele, author of the "Romance of History," &c. &c.; consisting of Lectures on English Poetry, Tales, and other Miscellaneous Pieces, in Prose and Verse. 8vo. pp. 543. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. 1829. MR. NEELE, whose unhappy death throws a disastrous shade over his biography, was one of those half-educated men of moderate talent, whose productions are too frequently valued much beyond their intrinsic merits. The surprise excited by the circumstance that he had found time, amidst the duties of a severe profession, to court the favour of the public by various fugitive pieces, and latterly by a work of some length, and of considerable research, may perhaps, in a great measure, account for the exaggerated estimation in which his compositions have been held by the partiality of private friendship. But to us, who have known him only as an author, and are obliged to judge of him by his desert in that capacity alone, Mr. Neele has appeared to possess little or no claim to that immortality which the editor of these 'remains' endeavours to confer upon him. We have seen nothing in the most important of his labours, the Romance of History, to call forth the eulogies which are here lavished upon it. We have already had occasion to express our opinion of that work, which seemed to our apprehension to be apocryphal as a history, and frigid as a romance. Nor should we have deemed it necessary to notice the volume now before us, if it had not contained a few lectures on English poetry, which, though neither very novel nor profound in their views, serve to remind us tastefully and pleasantly enough, of some of the choicest treasures of our literature. The minor compositions consist of tales, essays, and rhymes, which have all appeared within the last two or three years in various periodical publications. These pieces are generally characterized by a slight, a very slight, turn for humour, which seems to struggle, as it were,against a morbid temper. We regret to observe amongst them sonie unequivocal declarations of the author's want of belief in a future existence. To the encouragement of doubts upon this important point, his premature end is most probably to be attributed. The practical atheism which prevails in the world, to an extent greater, perhaps, than most people imagine, is sufficiently painful to the contemplatist; but to see it producing its natural consequences, in the self-destruction of a civilized being, who, if he had been duly impressed with religious sentiments, might still have been breathing amongst us, and honourably toiling up the steeps of fame, is an awful proof of the feebleness of the intellect, when it derives no assistance from religion. Mr. Neele was the second son of a map and heraldic engraver in the Strand, where he was born on the 29th of January, 1798. He was consequently little more than 30 years old when he cut the thread of his existence. He had, it appears, been much given to idleness in his youth; though placed in good time at a respectable academy, he acquired "little Latin, and less Greek.” In his mature years he laboured to redeem the truant disposition of his boyhood, and applied with great ardour to the modern languages. Having chosen the law for his profession, he was, after going through the usual apprenticeship, admitted to practice, and commenced business as a solicitor. His first appearance as an author occurred in 1817, during the period of his apprenticeship. Contrary to the usual rules of prudence in such cases, his father encouraged his dalliance with the muses at a time when precedents in conveyancing ought to have engaged all his attention. It is acknowledged by the editor that the small volume of poems which Mr. Neele, with his father's assistance, published thus early, displayed evident marks of youth and inexperience." Collins was his avowed model, and, if we are to rely on the friendly criticism of Dr. Nathan Drake, whose judgment, however, we do not always deem infallible," these firstlings of his earliest years" were very extraordinary efforts indeed," and placed the name of the author next to those of "Chatterton and Kirke White." A second edition of those compositions was printed in 1820, and was followed in 1823 by a volume of dramatic and miscellaneous poetry, which was dedicated, by permission, to Mrs. Joanna Baillie. He next became a contributor to the periodical publications, and a very industrious one too, if we may judge from the number of poems, dramatic sketches, and tales, which are reprinted in the work before us. In 1826 and 1827 he delivered, first at the Russell, and next at the Western Literary Institution, the "Lectures on English Poetry, from the days of Chaucer down to those of Cowper," which form the principal attraction of the present volume. Though written occasionally with much carelessness, yet we agree with the editor in thinking that they are " discriminative and eloquent, abounding in well selected illustration, and inculcating the purest taste." There are a few, and but a few, passages in them which were evidently intended for declamatory effect; but the style in which they are generally clothed is clear and well sustained, and the enthusiasm which sometimes breaks out through them, affords a decided proof of the author's predilection for the poetic branches of our literature. a mere We do not much admire the manner in which he commences his first lecture. Being about to open his subject in an institution in which the mechanical and useful arts had been then recently, explained, he would have been justified in admitting that poetry, as compared with those arts, required a different and a higher order of intellect, and was less essential than they are to the ordinary purposes of life. But it was adopting a very narrow view of his undertaking at the outset, to say that poetry was superfluity and ornament,' because, as Falstaff said of honour, "it cannot set to a leg, or an arm, or heal the grief of a wound; it has no skill in surgery." In the earliest ages of the world, poetry was history, and religion, and morality. In the more advanced ages, poetry served to inspire the soldier, to soften the manners of barbarians, and to procure for the fair sex that graceful deference, which is necessary to the support of their useful and civilizing influence. In all ages, poetry is the purest medium for preserving a settled language, and, perhaps, the best instrument for reforming a corrupt one. To this truth our own tongue bears ample evidence. It is not true, therefore, that poetry, even considered practically, is a mere superfluity and ornament;' it has attributes of the most useful nature, which rank it amongst the highest gifts bestowed on the intellect of man. The whole of the following passage borders very nearly on bombast : 'The canvas fritters into shreds, and the column moulders into ruin; the voice of Music is mute; and the beautiful expression of Sculpture a blank and gloomy void: the right hand of the Mechanist forgets its cunning, and the arm of the Warrior becomes powerless in the grave; but the Lyre of the Poet still vibrates; ages listen to his song and honour it and while the pencil of Apelles, and the chisel of Phidias, and the sword of Cæsar, and the engines of Archimedes, live only in the breath of tradition, or on the page of history, or in some perishable or imperfect fragment; the pen of Homer, or of Virgil, or of Shakspeare, is an instrument of power, as mighty and magical as when first the gifted finger of the Poet grasped it, and with it traced those characters which shall remain unobliterated, until the period when this great globe itself,— "And all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like an insubstantial Pageant faded, Had Mr. Neele been conversant with only a little more “Greek,” he would not have talked so confidently of the pen of Homer. We do not profess to understand the author's meaning, where he speaks of the same pen being as mighty and as magical as when first the gifted finger of the poet grasped it. But we must acknowledge that the lectures are not often blemished by passages such as this. Chaucer is allowed on all hands to be the great father of English poetry. He graced the reign of Edward III., and from that period to the reign of Henry VIII., the continued political and religious agitations of the country almost silenced the voice of the muses. The names of Lords Surrey, Vaux, and Buckhurst, and Sir Thomas Wyatt, prevent, however, this interval from being considered as a local blank. These names prepare us, as the twilight for the morning, for those of Shakepeare, Spenser, Ben Jonson, Fletcher, and Massinger, the poets of the age of Elizabeth, and the contemporaries of Tasso, Camoens, and Cervantes. It is worthy of remark, in passing, that at this period there appeared to be a striking congeniality of spirit between the literature of Spain and of England. This circumstance Mr. Neele has noticed. In Spain and England, Literature, and especially Dramatic Literature, flourished simultaneously; and a similarity of taste and genius appears to have pervaded both nations. The same bold and irregular flights of fancy, the same neglect of all classical rules of composition, more than atoned for by the same original and natural beauties of thought and diction; and the same less venial violations of time, place, and costume, characterise both the Castilian and the English Muses. There appears then to have existed an intercourse of literature and intellect between the two nations, the inter⚫ruption of which is much to be deplored. The Spanish language was then much studied in England; Spanish plots and scenery were chosen by many of our Dramatists, and their dialogues, especially those of Jonson and Fletcher, were thickly interspersed with Spanish phrases and idioms. The marriage of Philip and Mary might probably conduce greatly to this effect; though the progress of the Reformation in England, and the strong political and commercial hostility, which afterwards existed between the two nations, appear to have put an end to this friendly feeling. English Literature then, began to be too closely assimilated to that of France, and sustained, in my opinion, irreparable injury by the connection. Spain appears to be our more natural ally in Literature; and, it is a curious fact, |