Notices of Books.

The Life, Times, and Correspondence of the Right Rev. Dr. Doyle, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin. By W. J. FITZ-PATRICK, LL.D., M.R.I.A., &c. New Edition, greatly enlarged and enriched. Two Vols. Dublin: Messrs. Duffy & Sons; M. H. Gill & Son. 1880.

R. FITZ-PATRICK'S "Life of Dr. Doyle," published some

years ago, has only

eagerly sought for, and considered by booksellers as "very scarce." An American edition, by Donohoe, of Boston, was destroyed by fire in 1869. The author has therefore hurried this new edition, which he has been enabled to enrich with many valuable letters and details that were inaccessible to him at the time of his first writing. Every page of these two volumes gives evidence of Mr. Fitz-Patrick's zeal and industry. Among the letters which he has added to this edition are several from Dr. Doyle to Lord Monteagle. These, he tells us, have come into his hands after a negotiation protracted for twenty years, and the book is an accumulation of letters and anecdotes and information from an endless variety of persons and places that must represent an almost incredible amount of patient labour.

James Warren Doyle, famous under his literary signature of J. K. L., was born at New Ross (co. Wexford) in 1786, entered the Augustinian novitiate in 1805, went to Carlow College in 1813, and, from his professor's chair there, was consecrated Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin in November, 1819. He died in 1834, and during the fifteen years of his episcopate won for himself a name that must for ever be written in the history of the Church in this kingdom. Bishop Milner died eight years before him, but they may well be mentioned together as men whom Providence specially raised up, the one in the English the other in the Irish episcopate, as champions-sorely needed-of our holy religion, and pioneers of Catholic Emancipation. Our English bishop died three years before that happy event, but Dr. Doyle laboured so zealously and so successfully as to share with O'Connell the glory of winning it. How proud Ireland should be of him we may learn from Cardinal Wiseman, who, speaking at Carlow in 1857, said:

There was one object there, a tomb, which reminded him how much the awakening of a powerful religious feeling in Ireland was due to that great and noble theologian, the pride of his country, J. K. L. He remembered, when young himself, reading the glowing letters which awakened anew an enthusiastic feeling in every one who perused them, which, while they confounded the enemies of the faith, encouraged its friends, and which might be said to be the first trumpet note of that outspoken Catholicity and bold avowal of faith which had since become the general law of the country. He remembered the enemies of their faith perplexed-struck

by wonder at the man whose courage, and ability, and address, and learning, and eloquence, enabled him to speak so powerfully in defence and vindication of his religion.

Any biography of such a man not persistently inefficient would secure attention, but the popularity of Mr. Fitz-Patrick's is undoubtedly due in a great measure to the peculiar character and attraction of his method and style. Dr. Doyle was not only a political athlete, the champion of Catholic rights, a bishop of rigid rule, a preacher of surpassing eloquence, but on ordinary occasions and in social intercourse and domestic concerns his manner was generally marked by dignity and solemnity and a certain noli-me-tangere air that inspired awe and checked hilarity. At meetings of his clergy, we are told, he would rise from table as soon as dinner was ended, remarking, "These gentlemen will not enjoy themselves whilst I remain." And these gentlemen were the Irish priests of sixty years ago-of readiest wit, and, in spite of persecution, of irrepressible spirits. Yet Mr. Fitz-Patrick has not chosen to represent this lofty figure in the pose of a hero unconscious of human weaknesses and needs, and superior to human foibles, nor has he constructed an artistic biography, in which only telling points and valuable lines are preserved and skilfully interwoven. Not to speak of noted secular biographies, there is here no attempt at that admirable grouping of materials and highly wrought style which distinguished "Grace Ramsay's" Life of Bishop Grant of Southwark. Mr. Fitz-Patrick has rather followed in the footsteps of Boswell. As far as possible he has gathered together everything he could gather, things notable and trifling, directly or indirectly concerning his hero-they are here in chronological order and left for the reader to digest. He has searched -with marvellous assiduity and success-everywhere for letters, anecdotes, speeches, remembrances; they are here strung on the slight thread of his own narrative. He quotes Rousseau on the value of bagatelles and Xenophon's "the sayings of great men in their familiar discourse and amidst their wine, have something in them which is worthy to be transmitted to posterity." The very abstemious Dr. Doyle could never be taken "amidst his wine," but we have plenty of his familiar discourse, and we have an abundance of that of his P.P.'s and curates this often post-prandial—to enliven the story. Thus the life of a most holy and a most dignified bishop is not only a page of history that may not be neglected, but it has become an attractive and entertaining book that sparkles with wit. The author, indeed, seems to think wit a duty; for after a few rather stiff pages (dry, however, only by comparison), he will often abruptly intrude-" by way of contrast, a comic anecdote or two may now be told" (vol. i. 398). We do not wish, however, to quarrel with Mr. Fitz-Patrick's book for this good-natured excess of gossip and story; for, besides the amusement they afford, these form valuable memoirs pour servir for the historian of the period. Especially well do they depict the character of that past generation of the clergy in Ireland that intervened between the first relaxation of the penal code and final emancipation—an

unique character of strangely blended wit, child-like simplicity, and obstinate eccentricity.

Dr. Doyle's singularly innocent life, unrelenting zeal, constant labour, self-sacrificing devotedness to the Church and poor, justify Mr. Fitz-Patrick's treatment of him. Dr. Doyle would have been a hero to his valet if he had had one. His private and friendly letters are all dignified, and have a Johnsonian choice of sounding words. Even Goldsmith's remark to Johnson, "If you were to write a fable about fishes, Doctor, you would make the little fishes talk like whales," comes to mind when we read the following-we presume the ball was "sent" by accident

When at last (his new cathedral) was completed, one of the pupils (of Carlow College) sent a ball through its handsome stained-glass window. Dr. Doyle was deeply pained, and extremely angry. The boys were at study when he entered the hall, and a round of plaudits was, as usual, beginning to greet him, when he sternly cried, "Stop! I came not here to court your empty applause. You have committed an act from which the tramps of the road would shrink. My fine window has been smashed, and I shall be obliged to expend £10 upon a wickerwork to shield it from a repetition of your barbarity" (vol. ii. 308).

After that we can appreciate the following:

66

He used to accost men and boys on visitation days to test their knowledge of the Christian doctrine. One fellow seemed impenetrably stupid. You're an inert mass of matter!" exclaimed the Bishop, disdainfully. "Thank you, my lordship," acknowledged the man, who appeared to think that Dr. Doyle had said something complimentary (vol. í. 399).

The volumes, as we have said, abound in letters written by the venerable bishop. In spite of what the author and his critics have said, we adhere to our opinion that the political ones are incomparably the best. There are numerous letters, too, given in their entirety from the address to the signature, which swell the book beyond their worth; they ought to have been summarized. For the obvious reason that our notice must be short, we shall not quote any of those political letters. From the private correspondence we select a few passages from one letter, as interesting, and needing no introductory key to their meaning. It is dated from the Bog of Allen, May, 1823 :—

I am here placed in the centre of an immense bog, which takes its name from a small hill, under whose declivity the chapel and house are built where I now write. What perhaps interests me most in the wide and vast expanse of the Bog of Allen is that it afforded, for nearly two centuries, a place of refuge to the apostolic men who have gone before me preaching the faith and administering the sacraments to a people in every respect worthy of such pastors. The haunts and retreats frequented by the bishops of Kildare in the times of persecution are still pointed out by the aged inhabitants of these marshes with a sort of pride mingled with piety; and they say "There he administered confirmation; here he held an assembly of the clergy; on that hill he ordained some young priests, whom he sent to France, to Spain, or to Italy; and we remember, or we heard, how he lived in yonder old walls in common with the young priests whom he prepared for the mission. He sometimes left us with a staff in his hand, and, being absent months, we feared he would

never return; but he always came back, until he closed his days amongst us. Oh! if you saw him; he was like St. Patrick himself." What think you, my dear friend, must be my reflections at hearing of the danger, and labours, and virtues of these good men? and what a reproach to my own sloth, and sensuality, and pride! . . . . Their spirit seems to dwell here, and in these remote and uncultivated districts there are found a purity and simplicity of morals truly surprising.

After a long description of the anxiety of the people to approach the sacraments during his visitation, &c., he continues:

When I had written the above, this good old man, my host (the late Rev. John Lawlor), summoned me to take a cup of coffee. I should have preferred conversing with you to the end of the sheet, but I have few occasions of practising obedience, so I availed myself of the opportunity offered, rendered more sweet by the mixture of coffee. Such gall is not always infused into the cup which our superiors mingle; and if it were, it would not be like the chalice of the Lord. This superior of mine is quite an antique character; he is past seventy, of a robust, active, and athletic frame, and rude and simple in his manners, like those we read of in olden times. He has spent nearly forty years in the ministry in this neighbourhood, and has retained his first fervour and piety unimpaired. His books of piety are literally worn out with use, while the rest of his library is eaten with the moths, or have been removed by some of his literary friends who supposed they did him no injury by depriving him of what he seldom used. He counts himself the last of his brethren, and discovers merit in every one except himself. He sometimes rails at his people who return him the compliment; but he never inflicts a wound which he does not run to bind up and heal. I saw him at mass to-day, the most humble and devout of all who surrounded him, kneeling amongst the children upon the ground (vol. i. 239).

On Dr. Doyle's public life we must touch very lightly, partly because it is so well known in its main outlines, partly because no outline possible here could represent Mr. Fitz-Patrick's spirited and exhaustive account. No adequate acquaintance with the history of Catholic Emancipation can exclude Dr. Doyle. It was his pen that pleaded with statesmen and the public with such learning, political foresight, and lawyerly ability. It was Dr. Doyle who put O'Connell into Clare (vol. ii. 76). It was his famous evidence before the Lords in 1825 that broke through the long accumulated and thick mists of the great English Protestant tradition against Catholics. Friends and foes had but one criticism of this marvellous evidence. "Are you examining Dr. Doyle ?" asked a peer of the Duke of Wellington. "No, but Doyle is examining us," said the Duke. Lord Lurgan in his place in Parliament confessed that he was converted to the Catholic cause by Dr. Doyle's evidence; other members made a similar confession; and another peer said that, in his examination, "Dr. Doyle as far surpassed O'Connell as O'Connell surpassed other men."

Mr. Fitz-Patrick thinks himself called on to defend every view and statement of Dr. Doyle; this is not necessary-though the defence is always clever. He acknowledges in the Preface that J. K. L. did not escape the Gallican tone prevalent for twenty or thirty years after the French Revolution in the writings of Irish ecclesiastics, and that

Dr. Doyle, if now living, would most probably not hold some of the views to which he once gave expression. He would not, for example, propound afresh his scheme for the union of the Protestant and Catholic Churches a scheme which Dr. Milner regarded as 66 wrong and productive of mischief," and rendered still more dangerous from the "high character of the proposer." Dr. Milner also opposed the Emancipation Bill of 1821 almost as strenuously as Dr. Doyle worked for it; but Mr. Fitz-Patrick's admissions (vol. i. 172) alone show that Dr. Milner was in the right. In those troublous and dark days it was not easy even for such men as these to see clearly and ahead. After emancipation had been won, Dr. Doyle and O'Connell went different ways-the latter agitated for repeal. This disagreement occupies a large portion of the second volume, and is not less interesting than useful. We here specially admire and feel grateful to Mr. Fitz-Patrick for his industry in collecting and patience in carefully detailing so vast an accumulation of valuable and formerly private matter. The bishop was right and the Liberator was mistaken, but even in the heat of opposition O'Connell could not express his dissent from Dr. Doyle without a tribute to his greatness and his patriotism.

The effect of Dr. Doyle's writings on the public, both Catholic and Protestant, is a tribute to his learning and eloquence better than any words. He won the ear and even persuaded in Protestant England— and that when pleading the wrongs of the Catholics of Ireland! His famous "Vindication," in 1823, not only excited the utmost attention of enemies, but roused the despairing prostrate Catholics and electrified them into new life. Then followed-under the same signature of J. K. L.—his "Essay on Catholic Claims," his "Twelve Letters on the State of Ireland," and his numerous and magnificent replies to almost countless opponents. A man of vast and varied reading, of a memory almost preternaturally retentive and quick, of keen logical power, ready wit, utter unconsciousness of fear, and writing on the side of justice and truth-J. K. L. was irresistible. Sydney Smith, who entertained genuine admiration for him, wrote to him once urging him as the only man in Ireland able to do so"-to answer a bigoted charge of Archbishop Magee. "There he will find his match in J. K. L., and I will immolate the beast in the Edinburgh Review." Mr. Fitz-Patrick very pertinently remarks-" To find an Irish Catholic bishop and an Anglican dignitary conspiring for the overthrow of a Protestant prelate was in those days a novel spectacle" (vol. ii. 15).

During all this long period of fierce polemic, of vast political correspondence for every English peer or M.P. who wanted to know the truth, at last, about Roman Catholics wrote to Dr. Doyle-he was a model of a zealous and devoted bishop. Pastorals, rules for his clergy, letters of guidance, sermons-sermons that can never be forgotten by those who heard them-visitations, confirmations, retreats, and long hours at the altar-rails, not occasionally but regularly hearing the confessions of the poor people who flocked to him; comforting the