GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 151, 24 March 1876, Page 9

GENERAL NEWS.

™J^? following from the 'Bombay Catholic Examiner' : " Ihe Catholics of Bombay and indeed of the entire Presidency, would have been better pleased had they been allowed to see notice taken in the daily papers of thepresence of their Bishop at the numerous state ceremonies and fetes that have made the past week memorable. We Catholics not only revere our Bishop within our churches, "but, knowing what a power he is in this city in the cause of truth, we are also right proud to have him as our representative, whereever personal presence indicates loyal respect to the British Crown. Bishop Meurin has declined only one of the many invitations sent to him during these last days ; that to the Masonic ceremony on Thursday afternorn. How strange then it seems, that his presence has been almost invariably ignored by those who have reported for the daily papers ! What will the Catholics of England say, when, on reading the account of the solemn Royal Levee, they fail to discover the name of the Catholic Bishop of Bombay ? But the Eight Eev. Dr. Meurin, S. J., the Catholic Bishop of Bombay, was present at the levee, and according to the official programme, he was one of the four (the Chief Justice, the Commander-in-Chief, the E. .man Catholic Bishop, the Commander-in-Chief of H. M.'s Naval Forces in India) privileged to ascend by the grand staircase, and afterwards to accompany H. R. H. to the Presence Room. The omission of this fact in the daily papers has, with much reason, pained us Catholics, and it would be a disgrace to us, if we did not let our fellow citizens know as much. Count Kotzbue, Governor of Warsaw, Poland, has issued three decrees which have greatly afflicted the unfortunate inhabitants of that much abused country. The first prohibits Roman Catholic priests from baptizing the children born of mixed marriages, even with the consent of their parents. The second forbids pilo-riu>acres to Catholic shrines, and the third orders all Catholic priests to celebrate with Te Deums the anniversaries of all battles against the Poles in which the Russians were victorious. Comparing the principal armies of Europe, we ' London Land and Water,' find the German with a stride of 31 and a cadence of 112 per minute ; the Austrian with one of 29£ in., and a cadence of 115 to 120 ; the Italian with one of 29Ain., and a cadence of 120 ; and the Englishman with a pace of 30in", and a cadence of 116 per minute. Hence the German infantry would gain 4Sin., every minute on the British, or at the rate of 240 ft. per hour. In like manner the Austrian and Italian gain 65in. in every minute, or at the rate of 345 ft. per hour on our troops, and 105 ft. on German infantry. Taking an eight hours' march as a fair sample of what might be expected from trained soldiers on active service, it therefore results that British infantry regiments would, at the termination, t>e 1920 ft., or more than a third of a mile, behind Germans, and 2760 ft., or more than half a mile in rear of Austrians and Italians. The gain or lrss of distance being, however, of less importance than the fatigue caused by its accomplishment, it is to this latter point that we would direct the attention of the military authorities. According to our own experience, gained during marches m India, aggregating several thousand miles, a short jerky pace is infinitely more trying than a long measured stride. In the first regiment in which the writer had the honor to serve "stepping out" was the order of the day, and the men made nothing ot rattling off their twelve or fifteen miles. But in his second corps a cramped, dancing sort of gait had come into vogue, to the great distress of every individual, officer or private, who possessed the ordinary length of leg. Of course, this is the man's factor to be considered when dealing with the question, the same length of pace being clearly impossible for a regiment of ducks and a battalion of storks. But it having been just proved that French soldiers, who are notoriously short-legged, can step 29£ in., at a cadence of 115 to the minute, there seem valid grounds for believing that something better than a pace of 30in., and a cadence of 116 might be expected of the comparatively long-limbed British soldier. There are one thousand convents and monasteries inhabited by twenty-one thousand monks and nuns, in Belgium. The income of the religiouß Orders in that kingdom is one hundred millions of dollars. The savant of France, and of the world, Monsignor I'Abbe Migro, told me that the great pyramid of Egypt gives the distance of the sun from the earth more correctly than the men of science who went out to make the observation by means of the passage of Venus over the disc of the sun. That as the pyramid was built by Melchisadech in the year 1400, it shows science was more advanced 4,600 years before Christ than in our days of so-called progress, and modern thought, and of philosophy. Melchisadech •was a man of principle. Again, he said, the pyramid tells the world the re6t of fatality will cease to exist in Europe in 18b2. It appears the " Pyramid "is a book, now published ; the good Abbe has promised me a copy, which I shall be glad to read, and when I have time I will send you an alaysis. Your readers will be glad to learn the good, kind and modest Abbe is now a Canon of St. Denis; he attends every office at the cathedral in spite of his great labors. He has published at least 300 works of 800 pages each. Let a man of judgment call upon him, he will be paid for his visit. — ' Correspondence of Westminster Gazette.' We recorded lately that the Duke Ferrari, of Genoa, had endowed that city with the enormous sum of 20,000,000 francs with a Tiew of assisting his fellow citizens in the enlargement of their port. It should be remembered that the Duke is a very devout Catholic and that he was rejected at the recent municipal election on account of belonging to the clerical party. The Italian papers comment upon the fact that no Liberal has ever been so generous as this Catholic Duke. The donation of 20,000,000 franca to his native city is but one item of his liberality. He has given the superb Brignole-Sala palace with its splendid collection of pictures and famous Van Dykes to the Genoese, as a public gallery, and is building a vast hospital for sailors, and a row of model lodging-

houses for working people, which will be let at moderate rates. — ' Catholic Review.' ! The new Catholic Club, which has been established in London, in the room of the late Stafford Club, was opened lately. It is described as being " a non-political club for Catholic gentlemen," and its founders have announced their intention of giving it in every respect the character of a first-class club. It opens with its full complement of members, 350, among whom are almost all the leading Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland. The Duke of Norfolk is the President of the Club, and Mr. W. S. Lilly, is at present acting as honorary secretary. A switch tender distinguished himself the other day in Berlin. He had just taken his place to change the track in order to turn a i train which was in sight, so as to prevent a collision with another train from an opposite direction, when at this critical moment, on I turning his head, he discovered his little boy playing on the track of the advancing engine. He might spring to the rescue and remove him safely, b\it then he would not have time to turn the switch, and hundreds of lives might be lost by his neglect. In an instant his resolution was taken. "Lie down!" he shouted to his boy, and the child, happily accustomed to obedience, promptly j threw himself on the ground, and the whole train passed over him, I the passengers little dreaming how much their safety cost that i father. The trembling man rushed forward fearing to find only a ! mangled corpse, but no words can express his joy at seeing his I child alive and unharmed. The next day the Emperor, having heard of the circumstance, sent for the man and presented to him the medal ofhonor. i Sister Teresa Brercton, one 'of the Presentation! order, who re- , cently went to the Mission in Madras under the direction of Bisliop j Fennelly, writing to a friend in Ireland, says :: — •' I never had a more j practical illustration of the love of God than when going through the | Suez Canal. On either side of us, far as the eye could reach, you could see nothing but a vast desert of sand, something like ashes in color, and through thi9 burning sand passed, over eighteen centuries ago, our good Mother and Sr. Joseph with the Divine Infant in their flight into Fgypfc ; and this for us. I could not but be forcibly struck | with the thought of the boundless love of the Eternal Father for llis ungrateful creatures, seeing io what he subjected the thiee most pleasing to him on earth that we might be saved ; and when I contrasted their position with mine how confounding it was ; they travelling on foot, poor and unattended — I, sitting at my ease yet still found it so difficult to bear up against the intense heat which commenced here and lasted until we got to the Indian Ocean." The ' Detroit Post ' unfeelingly says : " The atmospheric conditions don't seem to be favorable to the ' materializing ' business of late. First, ' Katy King ' suffered a fatal eclipse ; next, the effulgent Eddy operators went down under a cloud ; and now Mrs Parry, who has been electrifying the credulous in Western Michigan, has suddenly gone up in a flash of light. She was engaged in giving a s ance at Rochford, Kent county, a few evenings ago, and everything passed off a3 per programme until the imprudent spirit put forth its hand from the cabinet and boldly slapped Mr M LockI wood on the ear. That was exactly where it missed it, for he instantly I seiz. d the hand ai d called for a light. A light was brought, and, strange to relate, the spirit was found to have vanished, while there stood Mrs. Parry, hitched to the other end of the arm, tugging and pulling at it as if it was her own. ;^he got ir, but gi»es no more seanc s ; and the cabinet, having proved utterly untrustworthy for spiritual purposes, now does duty as a woodbox." The following are the closing words of a lecture on Grattau delivered in Montreal, on 22nd of November, by Father Murphy, who met such a shocking death in Canada: "In Grattan's grave I see a kind of providential destiny. His dust lies not in Ireland among the people of his love; but in England among the people whom his great generous heart could never hate, but whom bis fiery eloquence described as rich with the robberies of nil the universe. Even so : it is better so. Onlj an imperial ci y mightiest of all the word, like mighty London, is worthy of the dust of Henry [ Grattan j and only when the fleets of the Thames become the fleets of the Liffey should the dus> of Grattan be laid in Irish soil. And so on landing in Westminster, above the ashes of the man of '82 I [ could shed no tears : not for Grattan, for even to bis dust lias God given a glo'y ; none for Ireland, for out among that roar of London, and through-these dim a sles of Westminster I heard a voice proclaiming that Ireland would yet be worthy to give to Henry Grattan hie la-t and fittest grave." j The ' Secolo' of Milan notices the death, which occurred the other day near Florence, of Amerigo Vespucci, with whom, it says, expires a family which gave to Italy many famous men, and among them the adventurous navigator who bestowed his name upon the New World. We take from 'Galignani' the following accounf of a duel which has just had a fatal res .It. The Marquis Soffraga will be remembered as having been attached to the Spanish Legation in London for some time previous to the establishment of the Republic. He has since visited England once or twice on missions from Don Carlos. He we* a stout, fair, and good-looking man, and much liked by all who knew him. Mr. Lilburn is an English >esident at Biarritz, and married to a Spanish lady :—": — " A hostlr meeting with pistol* took place three three days back between Mr. Lilburn, an Englishmen, and a Spaniard, the Marquis de Soffraga, both living at Biarri'z, They went to Vera> a Spanish village on the frontier, near i-are, occupied by the I arliatf . According to the conditic b of the combat the adversaries exchanged shots at 32 paces, but without result. Second shots were fired at 16 paces, »nd M de Soffiaga fell dead. The cause of the encounter is attributed to various reasons, but the moat probable seems to be that Mrs. Lilburn had forbidden the marquis to appear in her drawingroom on account of something he had said. The deceased, only 30, was the son of the Duke de Rocca,,who occupied » principal poit k n«t? the person of Don Carlos."