ple process of boiling the sand of this pit for an hour in water, when the grease floats on the surface, and the white sand falls to the bottom of the pan. From the rock and red earth is extracted a black oil, which is genuine petroleum.'

M. DEPPING would have enhanced the value of his account of the waters of Plombières if he had mentioned their chemical composition, and had stated the nature of the complaints which they are supposed to alleviate or remove. - It should seem that the honest Germans, about a century ago, were accustomed to pass the whole day immersed in these waters up to the chin: in which attitude they took their meals, and conversed with one another, retiring from the liquid element only on the approach of evening.

St. Peter's Mountain, near Maestricht, forms an article of considerable length, and is calculated to awaken the curiosity of those who have never seen or heard of it: but, as we formerly reported Faujas de Saint Fond's Natural History of this extraordinary spot, (a work from which the present author has principally derived his information,) we deem it very unnecessary to recur to the subject.

*

The Lake of Geneva, Mont Dole, Mont Blanc, and their accompanying scenery, are pourtrayed with more or less felicity but the last-mentioned mountain is defrauded of its due proportion of consideration.

M. DEPPING has allotted the concluding chapter to rational explanations of pretended wonders and supernatural appearances: but the immediate causes of most of them are too obvious to have required any formal solution. We shall indulge, however, in one extract more, which can scarcely fail to attract the reader's attention :

'The vaults of the Franciscan and Dominican monks of Toulouse were formerly regarded as a wonder, and almost as a miracle. Every traveller went to visit, with sacred horror, the corpses which were there exhibited as the well-preserved relics of another age; and they came away with the persuasion of having seen excavations which repelled corruption from human bodies. This error long maintained its ground, from respect to the situation: but physical and chemical science has at length betrayed it to the public. These corpses, which I admit to be objects of great curiosity, were taken from the graves of the church and the cloisters of the convents in which they had been buried: where the lime, slaked during the building of the churches, had acted on them to such a degree as to deprive them of all their volatile particles, and to reduce a body of a hundred and fifty pounds weight to twelve pounds. M. de Puymarin, who weighed many of them, found none exceeding that amount; so that a hundred and thirtyeight pounds had disappeared, without depriving the body of its

*See Rev. Vol. xli. N. S. p. 459.

form,

form, leaving dust impressed with the human figure; the intestines caught fire, and were flexible as tinder; and the brain was reduced to a powder, like saw-dust,— a singular transformation of the once thinking part of these bodies. The countenance, however, still preserves all its characteristic features. On several, the expression of the passions is visibly depicted; while on others the contraction of the muscles exhibits a hideous grin. Maupertuis, in the last year of his life, often visited these vaults, as if to court familiarity with death; and he alleged that these mummies were apparently laughing at the living. A physician, attracted by curiosity, was so suddenly affected with the sight of the body and countenance of his father, who had died thirty years before, that he almost expired on the spot: which recalls to my recollection an anecdote that I once read in an old manuscript belonging to the Parisian library. As a party of Gray Friars of Toulouse were talking about ghosts and the spirits of the departed, one of their number boldly assured them that he would forthwith go down, without a light, into the vaults in which the dead bodies were kept. It was agreed that he should make the experiment; and down he went, with a knife, which he promised to fix in the ground at the end of the vault. They waited for his return, but the evening passed away without his re-appearing; and, on descending with lights, the friars found their brother stretched dead on the floor. Instantly, they proclaimed a miracle: but, on closer inspection, they perceived that the deceased was attached to the ground by his garments, and were at no loss to divine the manner of his death. Having stooped to put his knife in the ground, he had unconsciously transfixed his gown, in the dark when he attempted to rise, he felt himself detained; and his mind being, at that moment, filled with all the stories which he had heard about ghosts, he no doubt fancied that one of the dead was punishing him for his temerity, was seized with horror, and died from fear.'

That this story, whether true or apocryphal, is recorded in a manuscript preserved in the library at Paris, we presume not to deny but we have heard it referred to a city very remote from Toulouse.

We are unwilling to dismiss this publication from our table without suggesting that, as it particularizes many scenes and phænomena beyond the ordinary tracks of travelling, it may form a desirable supplement to the itineraries, guides, and post-books, which are now so liberally provided for the accommodation of Mr. John Bull, in his visits to the other side of the Herring-pond.

* De Puymarin, Details Chimiques et Observations sur la Conservation des Corps qui sont déposes aux Caveaux des Cordeliers et des Jacobins de Toulouse, dans le tome 3. des Mémoires de l'Académie de Toulouse.'

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ART.

IN

ART. IV. Fragmens rélatifs à l'Histoire Ecclésiastique, &c. ; i. e. Fragments relating to the Ecclesiastical History of the early Years of the Nineteenth Century. 8vo. pp. 365. Paris. 1814. N strict propriety, this book ought to have been intitled, "A Collection of Fragments relative to the Disputes between Bonaparte and the Pope, from 1808 to 1813;" disputes that excited much more interest and uneasiness among the Catholic population of the Continent, than most people will readily imagine in a Protestant country. At the commencement of Bonaparte's rule in 1799, the members of the clerical order were dispersed, and the exercise of religious duties was in a manner suspended in Paris and the principal towns of France; although a majority of elderly persons in the higher classes, and the bulk of the peasantry of all ages, continued seriously impressed with the precepts of their religious faith. As this foundation appeared to him sufficiently broad to form one of the main bases of the edifice of his power, he lost no time in putting on the garb of a true believer, and in professing himself the supporter of the church of Rome against the fashionable incredulity of the age; for, while he knew that he could command the good will of the Parisians by fêtes, by the embellishment of public buildings, and by the accumulation of paintings and statues, he knew also that the mass of the rural population required a treatment and an attention of a different kind. He bestowed his chief care on the pretended re-establishment of religion in the year 1802, when the popularity procured by those measures, and by the accomplishment of the peace with England, enabled him to carry the important point of the Consulat à vie. Had he been satisfied to abide by the conditions arranged at that time between him and the Pope, he might have governed the Gallican church in tranquillity, and have found in its ministers a powerful prop to his throne: but the intoxication of success led him in subsequent years, and particularly in 1808, to rise in his demands exactly in ecclesiastical as in political matters.

The anonymous production before us begins with a specific statement of the articles arranged between Bonaparte and the Pope in 1802, and promulgated under the title of the Concordat. We find after this period a considerable chasm in point of time; the next documents being dated in 1808, and consisting of addresses by some of Napoleon's dignitaries to the Pope, on the subject of the several points about which differences had arisen between the courts of St. Cloud and Rome. These differences becoming in the next year more serious, Bonaparte appointed the meeting of a Conseil Ecclésiastique, under the presidency of his relation, Cardinal Fesch, for the purpose

purpose of taking into consideration the following questions, the impatient and peremptory style of which discloses at once the quarter from which they originated.

1.- Questions relating to the Church in general.

Is the government of the church arbitrary? Can the Pope refuse to interfere in spiritual affairs, on pretence of motives founded on temporal considerations?

It is beyond dispute that, for some time past, the pontifical office has been limited to a small number of families; and that the affairs of the church are examined and transacted by a few prelates and divines appointed from the narrow limits of the environs, and who have not the means of knowing properly the great interests of the church. In this state of things, is it necessary to call a general Council?

Ought not the Consistory, or Pope's privy-council, to be composed of prelates of all nations, to afford his Holiness the requisite information?

'Supposing it agreed that no necessity exists for making changes in the present organization, does not the Emperor combine in his. person the rights formerly vested in the Kings of France, the Dukes of Brabant, and other sovereigns of the Netherlands, the Kings of Sardinia, the Dukes of Tuscany, &c. as well for the nomination of Cardinals as for other branches of prerogative?

2.- Questions relating to France in particular.

Has his Majesty the Emperor, or have his ministers, infringed the Concordat?

"If the French government has not violated the Concordat, can the Pope refuse institution to the Archbishops and Bishops who are nominated, and thus ruin religion in France as he has ruined it in Germany, which has been without bishops for ten years?

The French government not having infringed the Concordat,. his Majesty intends to consider it as annulled if the Pope refuses to execute it: but, in this case, what is proper to be done in behalf of religion? His Majesty addresses this question to prelates equally distinguished for their knowlege of religion and for their attach

ment to his

person.

3.- Questions relating to the existing State of Things.

His Majesty, who may justly consider himself as the most powerful Christian in the rank to which Providence has raised him, would feel his conscience uneasy, if he did not pay some attention to the complaints of the German churches respecting the destitute state in which the Pope has left them for the last ten years. His Majesty conjures his Holiness to restore order in these churches. The Archiepiscopal Prince-Primate has again addressed representations to him on this head. If the Pope continues, from temporal motives or sentiments of personal animosity, to leave these churches in their present ruined and forlorn condition, his Majesty, as liege-lord of Germany, heir of Charlemagne, true Emperor of the West, and Eldest Son of the Church, wishes to know what conduct

Ii3

conduct he ought to pursue in order to restore the benefits of religion to the inhabitants of Germany?

It is necessary to make a new nomination of Bishops in Tuscany and other countries. If the Pope refuses to co-operate in these arrangements, what steps ought his Majesty to take to regulate them?

The annexed Bull of Excommunication has been printed, posted up, and circulated clandestinely throughout Europe. What measures must be taken to prevent the Popes, in times of trouble and calamity, from carrying to excess powers equally contrary to Christian charity and the independence and honour of the throne?'

The answers to these questions are given (p. 104. et seqq.) at great length, and are marked, in course, by an eagerness to please the man on whom depended the hopes and prospects of the reverend members of the ecclesiastical council. Bonaparte claimed the right not only of nominating to bishoprics and archbishoprics, but of making the Pope, whether willing or unwilling, confer his pontifical sanction on these nominations within a prescribed time. To support these and other peremptory demands, his Generals were directed first to threaten the Pope, and eventually to eject him from all his possessions. Affairs had accordingly become very serious before the appointment of the next committee of French dignitaries, which took place in January, 1811; when the discussions in question had assumed a threatening aspect, his Holiness having now been forcibly removed from Rome, and confined as a close prisoner at Savona, near Genoa. On this occasion, our diplomatic acquaintance, De Pradt, was added, in his capacity of Archbishop of Mechlin, to the number of the members; and he behaved, we strongly suspect, in a manner more creditable to him as a courtier than a conscientious son of the church. Fortunately, however, the commission included some individuals of a sympathizing stamp, as may be collected from the following extracts of letters written to one of the French ministers from Savona, to which place several of these members had proceeded on a deputation to his Holiness:

'Savona, 17th May, 1811.

Our progress, since we wrote the letter which we had the honour of addressing to your Excellency two days ago, has been very slow, and it seems now to be clear that we shall not obtain our object. His Holiness always repeats that, excepting the provisional powers in question, he cannot take a step farther without having his liberty and the restoration of his counsellors: affirming not only that he stands in need of them for advice on a proceeding so new and important, but that the interest and honour of the church do not permit him to take on himself alone so heavy a responsibility. We have withdrawn our opposition to the Pope's resolu.

5*