It would be interesting, and perhaps not wholly unprofitable, to bring together the various attempts that have been made to shadow forth the approaching crisis in the political world. As literary curiosities, such things may be worth preserving; and I therefore send you a few samples as a contribution.

The first is from the AbbÉ De la Mennais, whose words, uttered about twenty years ago, are thus given in a provincial paper:

"England, like all other countries, has had her period of aggrandisement; during a whole century Europe has seen her dawning above the horizon until, having attained her highest degree of splendour, she has begun to decline, and this decline dates from the day of which the fall of Napoleon, due principally to her exertions, marked the most brilliant period of her glory. Since that time her policy has undergone a striking change, which every year becomes more evident. Instead of that vigour and promptitude of resolution of which she used to give so many proofs (though they could not all be praised alike, because there were more than one act repugnant to morality), she is now timid, she hesitates, she labours painfully through the dark and crooked paths of diplomacy, and substitutes intrigue for action; incapable, it would seem, of taking a decisive part at the right moment, even on the most momentous occasions. The English nation has evidently lost its strength, or the belief in its strength; and as to actual results, one differs not from the other. Look at this England, so haughty, so wedded to her interests, so skilful formerly in defending them, so bold in extending their influence over the whole world; look at her now in the presence of Russia. Humbled, braved by that young power, one would say that she trembles before its genius. The Czars exercise over her a species of fascination which disturbs her councils and relaxes the muscles of her robust arms. The conquests of the Russians in the East menace the possessions of England in India; they close the Dardanelles to her fleets, they shut out her commerce from the mouths of the Danube and the shores of the Black Sea. After what fashion would she have resisted these things thirty years ago?"

The next quotation is from Alison's History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon, published in 1852. In chap. i. p. 68., after citing some lines from Gray on Education and Government, he thus proceeds:

"It will be so to the end of the world; for in the north, and there alone, are found the privations which insure hardihood, the poverty which impels to conquest, the difficulties which rouse to exertion. Irresistible to men so actuated is the attraction which the climate of the south, the riches of civilisation, exercise on the poverty and energy of the native wilds. Slowly but steadily, for two centuries, the Muscovite power has increased, devouring everything which it approaches—ever advancing, never receding. Sixty-six millions of men, doubling every half century, now obey the mandates of the Czar; whose will is law, and who leads a people whose passion is conquest. Europe may well tremble at the growth of a power possessed of such resources, actuated by such desires, led by such ability; but Europe alone does not comprise the whole family of mankind. The great designs of Providence are working out their accomplishment by the passions of the free agents to which their execution has been intrusted. Turkey will yield, Persia be overrun by Muscovite battalions; the original birth-place of our religion will be rescued by their devotion; and as certainly as the Transatlantic hemisphere, and the islands of the Indian Sea, will be peopled by the self-acting passions of Western democracy, will the plains of Asia be won to the Cross by the resistless arms of Eastern despotism."

I shall conclude with two or three extracts from a pamphlet, published some time last year at Toronto, and bearing the significant title, The coming Struggle among the Nations of the Earth; or the Political Events of the next Fifteen Years, &c. The writer begins by interpreting, as applicable to the present times, the prophecies of Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Apocalypse, from which he foretells the following events:

1. The seizure of Constantinople, and overthrow of Turkey by the Emperor of Russia.

2. War between France and Austria: overthrow of the latter, and consequent destruction of the Papacy.

3. The conquest of the Horns or Continental Powers by the Emperor of Russia.

4. Britain rapidly extends her Eastern possessions, prevents the occupation of Judea, and completes the first stage of the restoration of the Jews.

The writer then continues in the following strain:

"Turning his eyes eastward on the wealth and prosperity of the countries under British protection, the triumphant conqueror of Europe will conceive the idea of spoiling them, and appropriating their goods and cattle. Scarcely is this idea formed, than its execution is begun; and sudden and terrific as a whirlwind he enters the 'glorious land.' So sudden and unexpected is his onslaught, that the British power is unprepared, and Egypt, Ethiopia, and Libya fall into his hands.

"Meanwhile, Britain has been making strenuous efforts to stop the progress of this gigantic Napoleon; and every soldier that can be spared is sent away in the direction of the rising sun. But what can the British army do against such a host as the Russian autocrat has around him? Brave as the officers and men may be, what success or what renown can be gained in such an unequal conflict? In the critical emergency, the parent island sends a cry across the Atlantic, 'Come over and help us!' Swiftly is the sound borne over the waves, and soon an answering echo is wafted back from the shores of Columbia. The cause is common, and the struggle must be common too. 'We are coming, brother John, we are coming,' is the noble reply; and, almost ere it is delivered, a fleet of gallant vessels is crossing the Pacific, with the stars and stripes gleaming on every mast. Another force is on its way from the far south, and soon the flower and strength of Anglo-Saxon race meet on the sacred soil of Palestine. The intelligence of their approach reaches the sacrilegious usurper, and he leads forth his army towards the mountains that rise in glory round about Jerusalem. The Jews within the city now arm themselves, and join the army that has come from the east and west, the north and south, for their protection: and thus these two mighty masses meet face to face, and prepare for the greatest physical battle that ever was fought on this struggling earth. On the one side the motley millions of Russia, and the nations of Continental Europe, are drawn up on the slopes of the hills, and the sides of the valleys toward the north; while, on the other, are ranged the thousands of Britain and her offspring; from whose firm and regular ranks gleam forth the dark eyes of many of the sons of Abraham, determined to preserve their newly recovered city or perish, like their ancestors of a former age, in its ruins.

"All is ready. That awful pause, which takes place before the shock of battle, reigns around; but ere it is broken by the clash of meeting arms, and while yet the contending parties are at a little distance from each other, a strange sound is heard over head. The time for the visible manifestation of God's vengeance has arrived, his fury has come up in his face, and He calls for a sword against Gog throughout all the mountains. 'Tis this voice of the Lord that breaks the solemn stillness, and startles the assembled hosts. The scene that follows baffles description. Amid earthquakes and showers of fire, the bewildered and maddened armies of the autocrat rush, sword in hand, against each other, while the Israelites and their Anglo-Saxon friends gaze on the spectacle with amazement and consternation. It does not appear that they will even lift their hand against that foe which they had come so far to meet. Their aid is not necessary to accomplish the destruction of the image. The stone, cut without hands, shall fall on its feet and break them to pieces; and then shall the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, become like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor, and the wind shall carry them away. The various descriptions which we have of this battle, all intimate that God is the only foe that shall contend with the autocrat at Armageddon. John terms it, 'the battle of that great day of God Almighty;' and we believe the principal instrument of their defeat will be mutual slaughter. The carnage will be dreadful. Out of all the millions that came like a cloud upon the land of Israel, only a scattered and shattered remnant will return; the great mass will be left to 'cleanse the land,' and fill the valley of Hamongog with graves."

I refrain from quoting the remarks made by Napoleon, at St. Helena, respecting Russia, and the likelihood of her ultimately subjugating Western Europe, as your readers must be familiar with them from the writings of O'Meara and others.

Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia.

DERIVATION OF THE WORD "BIGOT."

At p. 80. of Mr. Trench's admirable little volume On the Study of Words, an etymology is assigned to the word bigot, which is, I think, clearly erroneous:

"Two explanations of it are current," writes Mr. Trench, "one of which traces it up to the early Normans, while they yet retained their northern tongue, and to their often adjuration by the name of God; with sometimes a reference to a famous scene in French history, in which Rollo, Duke of Normandy, played a conspicuous part: the other puts it in connexion with beguines, called often in Latin beguttÆ, a name by which certain communities of pietist women were known in the Middle Ages."

I agree with Mr. Trench in thinking, that neither of these derivations is the correct one. But I am obliged, quite as decidedly, to reject that which he proceeds to offer. He thinks that we owe—

"Bigot rather to that profound impression which the Spaniards made upon all Europe in the fifteenth and the following century. Now the word bigote," he continues, "means in Spanish 'moustachio;' and as contrasted with the smooth, or nearly smooth, upper lip of most other people, at that time the Spaniards were the 'men of the moustachio'.... That they themselves connected firmness and resolution with the mustachio; that it was esteemed the outward symbol of these, it is plain from such phrases as 'pombre de bigote,' a man of resolution; 'tener bigotes,' to stand firm. But that in which they eminently displayed their firmness and resolution in those days was their adherence to whatever the Roman see imposed and taught. What then more natural, or more entirely according to the law of the generation of names, than that this striking and distinguishing outward feature of the Spaniard should have been laid hold of to express that character and condition of mind which eminently were his, and then transferred to all others who shared the same?"

Of this it must be admitted, that "se non e vero, e ben trovato." And the only reason for rejecting such an etymology is the existence of another with superior claims.

Bigot is derived, as I think will be hardly doubted on consideration, from the Italian bigio, grey. Various religious confraternities, and especially a branch of the order of St. Francis which, from being parcel secular and parcel regular, was called "Terziari di S. Francesco," clothed themselves in grey; and from thence were called Bigiocchi and Bigiotti. And from a very early period, the word was used in a bad sense.

Menage, in his Origini della Lingua Italiana, under the word Bizoco, writes:

"Persono secolare vestita di abito di religione. Quasi 'bigioco' perche ordinariamente gli Ipocriti, e coloro che si fanno dell' ordine di S. Francesco si vestono di bigio."

And Sansovino on the Decameron says that—

"Bizocco sia quasi Bigioco, o Bigiotto, perchÈ i Terziari di S. Francesco si veston di bigio."

Abundance of instances might be adduced of the use of the term bizocco in the sense of hypocrite, or would-be saint. And the passage which Mr. Trench gives after Richardson from Bishop Hall, where bigot is used to signify a pervert to Romanism, "he was turned both bigot and physician," seems to me to favour my etymology rather than that from the Spanish; as showing that the earliest known use of the term was its application to a Popish religionist. The "pervert" alluded to had become that which cotemporary Italians were calling a bigiotto. Must we not conclude that Bishop Hall drew his newly-coined word thence?

T. A. T.

Florence.

"BOOK OF ALMANACS."

When I published this work, I knew of no predecessor except Francoeur, as noted in the preface; but another has been recently pointed out to me. There was a work compiled for the use of the Dominicans, entitled Kalendarium Perpetuum juxta ritum Sacri ordinis prÆdicatorum, s. p. n. Dominici. The copy now before me, Rome, 1612, 8vo., is said to be "tertio emendatum," which probably signifies the fourth edition. It contains the thirty-five almanacs, with rules for determining epacts and dominical letters from A.D. 1600 to 2100, and a table for choosing the almanac when the epact and letter are known.

This work must have been compiled before the reformation of the calendar. A note in explanation of the thirty-fifth almanac, contains the statement that A.D. 1736 belongs to that calendar, and to the letters D.C. This is true of the old style, and not of the new.

It seems, then, that Books of Almanacs are older than the Gregorian reformation: that they may have been completely forgotten, may be inferred from my book never having produced any mention of them either in your pages or elsewhere. Perhaps some older instances may be yet produced.

A. De Morgan.