master's dinner. After a furious cannonade of twenty-four hours, during which the bourgeois had to look on the burning of their homes without stirring to their rescue, the English fleet withdrew. It left Dieppe in ruins. Four thousand houses were burned to the ground. When some months later the restoration of the town was attempted, one-half of its population and three-quarters of its wealth were gone.

The most striking element in the life of Dieppe at the present day is unquestionably the fishing population, which inhabits the Faubourg of Le Pollet, and which still retains many of those marked characteristics of costume, language, and habits which modern civilisation tends so entirely to efface. A traditional rivalry between the Polletais and the Dieppois, which has now entirely disappeared, largely contributed in former years to preserve these distinctive features, which are still fostered by a life chiefly spent on board ship, and by almost exclusive intermarriage amongst their own tribe. The stalwart fishermen of Le Pollet are no unworthy representatives of their hardy ancestors. They are said to gain in deep-sea fishing really large sums of money, which with sailor-like indifference they leave in the hands of their wives and mothers, who but too often do not spend them wisely. Men and women alike are fervent and devout in the observance of their religious duties, and the responses at their popular church services are given with an energy from which many too languid congregations might take example--but all the remonstrances of their priests fail to cure the sailors of their habit of interlarding every sentence with an oath. The fisherman of Le Pollet, at confession, admits his fault, and promises, with an oath, not to swear any more.

With all their piety, the Polletais are not always amenable to their spiritual guides. On one occasion the Archbishop of Rouen thought fit to suspend the vicar and other priests of the parish, in order to punish the curé, who had incurred his Grace's displeasure. The poor curé, single-handed, could not minister adequately to so numerous a flock, and the Polletais, deprived of their sacraments, raged like furies. The Archbishop, desirous to convince them, determined to visit Dieppe, and the Polletais, on hearing of his arrival, did not go to sea that day, but marched in a body to S. Remy, where the prelate was presiding over an assembly of his clergy. Men, women, and children crowded into the church, shouting that they wanted their vicars and priests to confess them as usual. The archbishop came forward to address them, but on seeing the wrath with which they rushed towards him, he prudently re

treated through a door behind the choir. When the crowd missed his purple cassock from the church, they hurried out, vowing that they would drown the Archbishop for not allowing them to go to confession; and there is little doubt they would have kept their word if the Monseigneur had not eluded their search. A more pleasing feature in their character is the tender regard they show for the dead. A funeral in the Pollet seems to gather the whole population in mourning, whilst at the graveside they bid adieu to the poor remains with all the simplicity of a bygone age.

ART. VI.—RETREATS.

1. Retraite Pastorale. Prêchée au Séminaire de Besançon en 1837. Par Monseigneur REY, Evêque d'Annecy. (Paris.) 2. Retreats: A few Notes and Suggestions. (London, 1876.) 3. The Irish Church Society's Journal: October 1876-November 1877. (London.)

4. The Church and the World. (1868.) 'Retreats.' By the Rev. T. T. CARTER. (London.)

ANY ONE who knows what was the state and working of the Anglican Church forty years ago, and who sees what it is now, must be struck with astonishment at the marvellous revival that has taken place in it. The outward signs of her reawakened energy force themselves on the attention even of the most unobservant. The restoration of our cathedrals, one after another, till scarcely one has been left untouched— their old beauty, and something even of their old magnificence given back to them-the keener appreciation of their value and usefulness as centres of spiritual light and life, the varied attempts to make them a means of blessing to the vast masses that are now often gathered within them, the restoration of thousands of our churches from decay and ruin, the building of hundreds of new churches, many of them not unworthy to compare with the old ones in the best days of their architecture and adornment, the constantly increasing services within the churches, the care, the solemnity, the reverence, and devotion with which the worship of God is solemnised, the multiplication of clergy, the earnestness with which they devote themselves to their work, their enlarged

sense of the sacredness of their office, the increase of the Episcopate, and the demand which that very increase is eliciting for a still further increase, and, as a natural consequence of all this, the marvellous manner in which the faith, and worship, and rules of the Church have come to be known, and prized, and loved by her members--these are only some of the many signs of the extraordinary change that has passed over the Church. But what strikes us as a far greater, because far deeper, sign of revived life in the Church than all these is the manner in which she has been striving to meet the widely varying interior needs of individual souls. He, and He only, who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed with the devil, could have moved and guided His Church to deal with the countless forms of sorrow, difficulty, perplexity, temptation, and sin that are ever making their appeal now, as of old, to His divine compassion. Souls awakened and aroused from sin; penitents, cheered with the bright ray of hope, comforted and restored; still more, the young taught, shielded, guarded from pollution, and preserved in the brightness of innocence; the ignorant tenderly and gently instructed in the faith; those beset with intellectual difficulties firmly and authoritatively, but compassionately guided; fellowship, and sympathy, and support offered to the lonely, and to those who were found struggling almost in despair against the stress of the world's temptations: these are the proofs that there is working in the Church with new force and vigour the life of Him Who had compassion on the multitude, and would not send them away fasting lest they should faint by the way. And so the Church has had her missions, and has sent forth her bands of preachers to awaken the careless and ungodly. She has had her instructions to build men up in the true faith and in a holy life. She has restored the practice of catechising to train the young. She has had her special sermons and addresses for the explanation and defence of controverted truths to guide the perplexed. She has built her houses of mercy for the fallen. She has formed her guilds and societies to strengthen and protect the isolated. Everywhere, and in every way, she has been moved to invite men to listen to that call of intense and yearning love that is spoken by her Divine Head: 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' This to our minds is the most cheering feature that has marked the Church revival of our day. Never were human sorrows and human difficulties more felt for and ministered to. Never, amid all the wild wanderings of man, has there been more

ingenuity of love shown in seeking to draw him home to the Divine Heart of our Lord for peace.

Our readers must pardon us for so long a preface to the special subject of this article. We felt that we could not enter upon the history and purpose of Retreats rightly without looking upon them as part of that wonderful work which God has been doing through His Church in our days. And it is easy to see how Retreats find their proper place in that work. The one end and object of the foundation and existence of the Church Catholic is the bringing of souls into union with God. The Church exists with her Creeds, her Sacraments, her Ministry, that men may know God, and love Him, and give themselves to Him-that all bars and hindrances which keep men apart from God may be removed through the Cross and the Grace of the Divine Head of the Church; and that men may live to and for Him who gave them the great gift of life. We need do no more than refer to the marvellous words of S. Paul in the eleventh and following verses of the fourth chapter of his Epistle to the Ephesians, to show that it is to perfect the loving union of the soul with God that our Lord has brought us into union with Himself in His body, the Church. This is, of course, a first principle of Christianity, but it is a principle that needs to be definitely realized by every one of us, and it is the special object of a Retreat to make this great principle take hold of the soul and influence the life. If we were to be asked, 'What is the use of a Retreat?' we should answer, To bring home to the heart and soul of a man that he was made by God, and for God; that if he does not live to serve and please God, his life is but a wasted and ruined life, and that only in living for God will he enjoy the true happiness which God intended him to taste of when He gave him life. The exercises of a true Retreat are carefully adapted to bring this great truth, which lies at the root of all real and loving service of God, home to the heart. Those who are to take their part in the Retreat retire for a longer or shorter period from their ordinary occupations and interests to devote themselves entirely to prayer, meditation, self-examination, and communion with God. The hours of the day are arranged according to rule. The Retreat is ordinarily opened by an address in which advice is given as to the best way of turning the season of retirement to account. There is a celebration of the Holy Eucharist each morning. The ancient Hours of Prayer are said. Three times during the day an address is made by the conductor of the Retreat, in which he proposes a subject for meditation, and sketches

out the manner in which those in Retreat may meditate upon this subject. Then follows the time fixed for meditation, and each person meditates upon the appointed subject in the manner most calculated to meet the needs of his own soul.

The subjects thus selected for meditation are such as the following: (1) The end for which man was made. I came from God. I belong to God. I am destined for God. (2) The end of creatures. (3) The sin of angels, of men, our own sins. (4) Hell, as the consequence of sin. (5) Death. Its certainty. Its uncertainty. The soul after death. (6) The particular judgment, the soul before God. (7) The reign of Jesus Christ. The Incarnation. (8) The Nativity. The hidden life of Jesus Christ. (9) The Passion. (10) The love of God. These may, of course, be varied almost endlessly in their treatment, the object being to lead the soul to a firmer union with God. During the time of meals some book bearing upon the spiritual life is read aloud. All that might distract the mind from the great subjects which are brought before it is avoided. The reading of ordinary books, the writing of letters, conversation with companions,—all are given up. The time is passed in stillness and silence, that nothing may divert the soul from God. To see and know more of God, to recognise His claims upon us, to consider whether in very deed and truth we are answering to those claims in the purposes and acts of our life, and to entreat Him to fasten our souls on Himself; this is the object of a Retreat. It is an effort to act on the Divine promise: Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.' Considering how deeply the hearts of men have been moved and stirred during these many years past, and that, as we cannot but believe, by the Spirit of God, it is not surprising that they should have gladly availed themselves of the aid which a Retreat gives for deepening earnestness and true devotion. It is now about forty years ago since the first Retreat was held amongst us. In a most deeply interesting paper by Canon Carter, published in the Church and the World for 1868, he says:

'The first Retreat, held at a country parsonage in Kent, as well as one held in the following year at Oxford, was attended by eight or ten priests, and each lasted two days. There were offices of prayer, and the celebration of Holy Communion as usual. But in other respects these Retreats resembled more a meeting for mutual conference on spiritual subjects and private meditation than for such a course of teaching and connected contemplation as now forms the main feature of a Retreat At the third Retreat, held the following year, for the first time definite meditations were given; and after this