GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 152, 31 March 1876, Page 9

GENERAL NEWS.

Says the Chicago 'Western Catholic': — We notice that even in Germany Irishmen occupy positions of prominence, and take an active part in the affairs of that country. But of course they are opposed to its persecution of Catholics and differ entirely from the views of Bismarck on the question of religion. We note by a late exchange that of the two counsels despatched by Germany to confer with the representatives of other great powers on the affairs of Herzegovina and Turkey, one was named Kotzabue, while the other possessed the peculiarly Teutonic application of O'Eourke. In the new Catholic University of Paris we observe that one of the Professors appointed in the Faculty of Law is Monsieur Connelly, a distinguished counsellor of the Cour de Cassation, or liigh Court of Appeal. Both of them we understand are Irishmen by birth." General Beauregard, in a letter to the New Orleans ' Picayune ' relates how the name " Stonewall" came to be applied to General T. J. Jackson : — •' During the battle of Manasses, about 11 o'clock, a.m., when that gallant meritorious officer, Brigadier-General BarViard E. Bee, was endeavoring to rally his troops in the rear of Itobinson's house, he noticed Jackson's Brigade, which had just arrived and taken position a little in the rear of him, in a small copse of pine bordering on the edge of the plateau where was about to be fought the first great battle of the war. Bee, finding that his appeal was unheeded by his brave but disorganized troops, then said to them, ' Rally men, rally ! See Jackson's brigade standing there like a stone wall.' Those words gave the appellation to that brigade, and thence to its heroic commander." Following the example of others, Russia now aims at increasing her influence in the clerical seminaries in Poland. In each seminary a teacher of the Russian language is to be appointed, who, naturally, will be a schismatic. In this way a spy will be introduced into the establishment, who, on the one hand, will magnify ants into elephants, and, on the other, will not give the best example to the students either on the score of knowledge or morals. Thus far this Polish letter in the ' Germania.' Miss Thompson, the now world-famous artist and painter of the celebrated picture called the " Roll Call," is a Catholic young lady, and a native of the Isle of Wight, where one of the Catholic Churches is ornamented with her paintings, which she has offered to the honor of God. Miss Thompson is still a very young lady, and it is to her excellent pencil that we owe the beautiful pictures of the " English Pilgrimages to Pontigny, Lourdes, and Canterbury," which originally appeared in the London ' Graphic,' and which have since been very extensively reproduced. She is now engaged upon a new work to be entitled " The Return of the Light Brigade from the Valley of Death." Mr. James Grant, a well-known English man of letters, abjured Protestantism, and was received into the Church by Cardinal Manning in the first week in December. Mr. Grant was at one time editor of one of the bitterest anti-Catholic papers in London, the * Morning Advocate.' " The compulsory education experiment," says the ' Albany Times/ "is giving rise to considerable trouble in Boston. The public schools in that city are kept open on Saturday until noon. The newspapers report that some time since a little girl of Abrahamic descent was arraigned before a police court on the charge of habitually absenting herself from school on Saturday. When her case was under consideration her father appeared to plead in her defence, and stated that as Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath he and his family attended divine service on that day. This however had no weight with the dispenser of justice, who pronounced the girl guilty of a violation of the Compulsory Education Act of Massachusetts, and sentenced her to undergo an imprisonment of throe months in a reformatory." If this is progress, it is progress backward, and in the direction of the blue laws. The annual report of General Sherman places the aggregate strength of the United States army at 1,540 officers and 24,031 enlisted men, made up as follows : — Five regiments of artillery, 270 officers, 2,504 men ; ten regiments of cavalry, 422 officers, 7,206 men; twenty-five regiments of infantry, 848 officers, 11,000 men; available recruits, hospital stewards, ordinance sergeants, &c, 3,321. " The correspondent of the London ' Daily Telegraph' tells us' 'Punch' says, that "the other day Princess Dolgourouky wore a pelisse made entirely of ermine, studded all over with diamonds set in turquoises ;" also that " the cloaks to be seen on the fair shoulders of the Princess de Sagan, Madame de Talleyrand, and Madame de Rothschild represent each, in fur alone, a value of .£4,000. This is going too fur with a vengeance ! Somebody ought to interfere and take up the subject, as this is evidently a ' great Pelisse case.' ** Seriously, aren't there any poor in Paris ? Isn't it going to be a hard winter ? And, instead of four thousand covering the value of one of these cloaks, wouldn't one of these cloaks cover the freezing misery of four thousand, and, in the end, considerably enrich the wearer ? The Parisian unscriptural motto seems to be, just now, Fiat Luxe." The Catholic ' Review ' says, "To whom do our readers imagine the world owes the Suez Canal ? To M. Lesseps ? No, but to Pope Sixtus V. If they will turn to the history of the Popes by the Protestant Ranke, they will find at page 246, vol., 3, of the Paris edition of his works, printed in 11338, a copy of a document written and signed by Sixtus V., in which that wonderful man explains his views as to the possibility of cutting a canal between the Mediterranean and Red Seas. When Mazzini was in Rome in 1848, Ferdinand Lesseps was sent thither as French envoy, and managed, it is said, to see the original of the above mentioned work, which inspired him with the idea of piercing the canal in ques-

tion. So the greatest engineering undertaking of modern times was, after all, due to a Pope of Rome." Next May the Holy Father will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his episcopal consecration. The Catholic world will join in that celebration with feelings of no ordinary joy. Rarely does a bishop, but still more rarely does a Pope, countj such jubilees. Pio Nono'9 life, so memorable in its events, will on this occasion afford another opportunity to the faithful throughout the world of expressing their filial devotion. Mgr. Germain, the Bishop-elect of Coutances, France,' is the youngest member of the Catholic episcopate. Dr. Antonia Borero took his seat as Pre-ident of the Republic of Ecuador on the 9th January. General Julio Saenz, Commander of the Forces, anticipating resistance to the inauguration of Mr. Borero by the Garcia Moreno officials still in power, deposed them and conducted the President-elect to power. Of course a new era of progress is now in store for poor benighted Catholic Ecuador. The removal of the Garcia Moreno officials was, of course, " on the square." It is expected that the revenue of France this year will "exceed £100,000,000 sterling, and be nearly £-4,000,000 in excess "of the estimates. Some time since a person called attention in the 'Breslnuer Zeitung' to the fact that the portrait of the Prince Bishop was hanging in one of the class rooms of the Gymnasium at Neisse, to which he had been a liberal benefactor, and asked whether it was proper that a "deposed" Bishop should be held up as a model for youth. The Government has caused the picture to be removed. A local paper asks whether the educational establishments in the diocese shall be required to surrender the endowments of Prince Bishop Henry, as well as his portraits. The British Empire includes within its Provinces and Colonies, 12 Archbishops, 71 Bishops, 36 Vicariates Apostolic, and 7 Apostolic Prefectures. In a very interesting article on the Trappists and their monasteries in the Fans ' Monde,' we find the following paragraph : "La Grande Trappe, as the principal Trappist monastery of France is called, is one of those innumerable abbeys built by our ancestors in the ages of faith. It stands in the centre of a dense forest. La Grande Trappe is called also Maison Dieu, Domus Dei, or House of God. The chapel is small and contains only one picture of any note. It was painied by Philippe de Champagne, and represents St. Louis. Ranee, the great jeformer of La Trappe, was one of its abbots, and established his order within its walls. He is buried there, beneath a plain marble slab. Since hi 3 death many famous persons have visited the place of his burial. Amongst these, we note James 11. of England and his Queen, Mary Beatrice, of Modena, the Duke of St. Simon, the Duke de Penthievre, Bossuet, Mabillon and others equally celebrated. The Revolution in the last ceetury confiscated and ruined this monastery as it did many others. It has been bought back by the monks who have established on their grounds a penitentiary for children. Everything about the place is exquisitely clean and neat, and the inmates appear happy and contented. Both Charles X. and Louis Philip visited La Trappe during their reigns, and Chateaubriand also came hither to study up his life of Ranee, a work which he never finished." The Bishop of Exeter, having been interrogated Jby a foreign ecclesiastical dignitary as to whether apostolic succession is a doctrine of the Church of England, has replied in the following manner : — " The Church of England desires to include within her pale both those who hold the doctrine of the apostolic succession and those who do not. To meet the need of the latter she nowhere requires any of her members or ministers to hold that doctrine. To meet the need of the former she provides that all her ministers shall profess that succession as a fact." The San' Francisco ' Monitor' congratulates tne French people on securing a Conservative Republic. It says : — "The bulk of the population was really afraid of republics, for they interfered with trade, threatened the rights of property, subverted the ancient customs, and ran counter to the most cheerful traditions ; so they naturally enough fell before the first despot who managed to get the army on his side and simply promised to let the people mind their own business. They had no hold upon the popular affection, and they fell unregretted. Now things seem to be considerably improved. A republic is existing which assails the rights of no one, and impartially deals out justice to all. It is, therefore, cheerfully supported and is gaining over adherents from the Imperialist, Orleanist and Legitimist factions. The one thing necessary is to so organise it as to secure it from the attacks of the radicals, and to prevent the possibility of its degenerating into Communism. Such is the object sought to be accomplished by the electoral laws recently introduced, and by the electi >n of senators which is now going on. The precautions and the reforms have the good wishes of every true friend of France. The Protestant vicar of All Saints', Lambeth, says, "In countries which are specially and eminently Christian, where churches, sanctuaries and religious houses are numerous; where, by the roadside and on the hilltop, stand the signs and symbols of the faith of Christendom ; where the Sacrament of Baptism is shed upon so many ; where post- baptismal sin is remitted by those who have authority and jurisdiction to bind and loose in the name of their Master ; and where the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, God manifest in the flesh, reposing in the tabernacle, or borne in triumph through aisle, and street, and garden, hallows and feeds the faithful, there the power and influence of the Evil One is circumscribed and weakened. Sacred oil for unction and holy water, and the lifegiving power of the Cross, and the relics of the beatified, as well as of the favored and crowned servants of the Crucified, make the devils flee away, and efficiently curb their power. Hence it is found that in countries where the Catholic faith has been halved or rejected, supei'stition has taken the place of the first theological virtue, faith."