in manner—standing side by side, both reflected
in the glass above them.

An hour and a half limped heavily away in the
thief-and-rascal-crowded passages below, even
though assisted off with mutton pies and ale.
The hoarse messenger, uncomfortably seated on
a form after taking that refection, had dropped
into a doze, when a loud murmur and a rapid
tide of people setting up the stairs that led to
the court, carried him along with them.

"Jerry! Jerry!" Mr. Lorry was already
calling at the door when he got there.

"Here, sir! It's a fight to get back again.
Here I am, sir!"

Mr. Lorry handed him a paper through the
throng. "Quick! Have you got it?"

"Yes, sir."

Hastily written on the paper was the word
"ACQUITTED."

"If you had sent the message, 'Recalled to
Life,' again," muttered Jerry, as he turned, "I
should have known what you meant, this time."

He had no opportunity of saying, or so much
as thinking, anything else, until he was clear of
the Old Bailey; for, the crowd came pouring out
with a vehemence that nearly took him off his
legs, and a loud buzz swept into the street as if
the baffled blue-flies were dispersing in search
of other carrion.

THE CONFESSOR'S HAND-BOOK.

ARE we to confess, or not to confess, our sin
and failings to the Rev. Francis Clifford? That is
the question: or rather, one of the numerous
questions, to which that earnest gentleman's recent
appointment to the rectory and cure of souls in
our parish, has given rise. We are all in hot
water on the subject, down at Mickleham Regis,
and a very regrettable amount of acrimonious
feeling has been developed among us. The Rev.
Simeon Surtis, vicar of Mickleham Parva, the
adjoining parish, holds the practice in question
to be such an abomination, that the act of
sinning seems to be less odious in his eyes than
the auricular confession thereof.

Now, as the present writer, Miles Standard
Esquire, of the Holms, at the reader's service,
though a very obscure individual in every other
part of the world, is rather an influential man at
Mickleham Regis—a husband, moreover, and the
father of three grown-up daughters—it became
necessary that I should find some means of
arriving at a decision of some sort between the
opposing doctrines of these reverend guides and
pastors.

I must own that I like Clifford as a
man and a neighbour, and that I don't like
Surtis. And what is more to the purpose, my
wife and the girls are of the same way of thinking.
Surtis preaches against our county balls,
and is known to look with a jaundiced eye
at the girls' archery meetings. As for Clifford,
I really believe him to be a very good fellow,
earnestly labouring to do all the good he can
among our labouring population. Still, that
does not settle the question between the two.
Nor am I competent to decide, at all events
for others, on so important a matter. So,
being determined to obtain the best means
towards the formation of a rational opinion on
the real merits of the practice, I resolved on
writing to an old friend in Italy, to beg him to
get for me any book or books which should best
show the real practical working of the Confessional,
in a country where it enters into the
ordinary daily life and habits of the people,
and has become a constant constituent element
in the formation of the national character.

My friend executed my commission in a
satisfactory manner, by sending me a little Manual
used throughout the dioceses of a large part of
Italy for the instruction of Confessors in the duty
of the Confessional. I have studied the little book
with care, and, as the authority of my information
is unquestionable, as I am conscious that I
brought no overweening partisan prejudices to
the inquiry, and, lastly, as I have been no little
surprised as well as enlightened by my study of
the HANDBOOK FOR CONFESSORS, I have thought
that I should do well to communicate some of
my discoveries to the English public.

The book in question, then, is a small duo-
decimo volume, of some three hundred and fifty
pages, by "AGOSTINO VALENTINI, A BENEDICTINE
MONK," printed at Florence in 1853, and stated
in the title-page to be " FOR THE SPECIAL USE OF
SUCH AS ARE TO BE EXAMINED FOR THE HEARING
OF SACRAMENTAL CONFESSIONS."

The first thing that my study of it made manifest
to me, was the absolute necessity of some
such work for the use of priests who have to
enter the Confessional-box. (Readers who have
ever been in a continental church will remember
the little boxes with a closed centre compartment
for the priest to sit in, hidden from observation,
and furnished on either side with kneeling
accommodation for the penitents, who are to
mutter their communications through a little
grated opening in the partition which separates
them from the Confessor.) The duty of those
licensed by superior ecclesiastical authority to
hear confessions, is by no means, as I had
fancied, of that simple kind, for which some
knowledge of human nature, and a large and kindly
sympathy with its frailties, might be deemed a
sufficient preparation. Just as well might an
attorney be supposed to be duly educated for the
business of his profession by an abstract
reverence for the principles of justice, and the
possession of personal integrity! He requires, on the
contrary, as we all know, a learned knowledge of
the science of law, and considerable training in
the technicalities and specialities of his craft.
Quite as technical and as special, it seems, is
the preparatory study of the Confessor. And
just as any professional ignorance of his
business on the part of the attorney whom we
consult, may lead us into some error fatal to some
part of our goods and chattels: so, an imperfect
knowledge of his craft in a man's Confessor,
may, according to the Catholic system, lead him
into a perilous position as regards his
prospects in a future life.