GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 177, 18 August 1876, Page 14

GENERAL NEWS.

The Christian Sunday has been substituted officially in Japan for the " Ichiroku "as the national day of rest. From the 2nd of April Government offices were closed on the first day of the week. Saturday afternoon is in the public offices also observed as a half holiday. The Duke of Nassau, a Protestant, dispossessed since 1866 by the Prussians, has just accomplished a noble act of munificeuce and charity by giving the only palace he still possessed in Wiesbaden to be used as a place of worship by Catholics whom some Freemasons, calling themselves Old Catholics, have lately deprired of their church. The French pilgrims proceeded, on the sth May, to Santa Maria Moggiore, to see the sacred remains of Pius V., the outer lid of whose coffin is on that day annually opened, and wherein he may be seen in hiß crystal chasse, robed and crowned, bis long snowy beard flowing over his breast. His Holiness has sent 1,000 francs towards the reconstruct!^ of the facade of the Cathedral of Florence. The Holy Father is also having repaired, at his own expense, the part of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, which was threatened with ruin, and which is decorated with the most -venerable mosaics in Rome, A commission of four Roman architects watch over the works. Nano Naglb, the saintly founder of the Presentation Sisters, is not inattentive to her children of the present day. On the contrary, she has lately given another instance of her powerful protection. On Sunday, the 23rd of April, a fire broke out in the neighbourhood of the Galway Presentation Convent. Whilst the adjoining houses were wrapped in flames, the holy Sisters called on their patroness to protect them from the scourge, in honor of her approaching centenary. Suffice it to say, that their prayers were heard. A large coach factory, lately erected, and twelve cottages were burnt to the ground. The good Sisters are giving all the assistance possible to a dozen homeless families. A noteworthy sign of the times is the establishment of Catholic scientific societies. A Catholic "Victoria .institute" has recently been founded at Brussels, with 453 members j and a similar society has just "been founded at Borne with the promising title of the " Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas," which appeals to philosophers, theologians, and physicians." It seems to be " under distinguished patronage," and already reckons among its members eight cardinals, 20 archbishops, and 240 "professors, doctors, theologians, and philosophers." Both the Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas and Scientific Society at Brussels, are to publish periodical reviews. Thebe are very extraordinary accounts from Sicily of recent convulsions of nature and odd meteoric appearances. At Carleone tnere was an earthquake, accompanied by the appearance of a pillar of unearthly light. Padre Seccbi, at Rome, instructed the Syndic to inform, the population he expected the earthquake from the warnings of his instruments. In the district of Cefalu, in Sicily, a whole vUlage was swallowed up lately, but no one perished, the inhabitants being warned of their danger by subterranean noises and the gradual sinking of the houses. As usual, they are petitioning the Government for leave to rebuild on the same spot. Fatheeßttbke, the illustrious Dominican, in sending his contributions for the promotion of Irish studies in the Catholic University, speaks in warm terms of commendation of the cultivation of the olden tongue. The following passage from his letter deserves attention and lemembrance : " Some of the greatest scholars of our day seem to think the study of our most ancient Celtic language to be as important and necessary to literature as the cultivation of Latin and Greek, perhaps even more important to the philologist, because of its greater antiquity. It will ill beseem us Irishmen to lag behind in this study, because doubly easy and interesting to us : first, becanse it is still f thank God, a living, spoken language in many parts of our island ; and, secondly, because it is the language of our fathers, of many glorious saints and sages, and poets and warriors, and of the faithful people whose glories and sufferings make the history of our land." The Baron Felix Loe has been condemned to imprisonment in a fortress for six months. The Baron, it is almost idle to say, is well known in Germany aud elsewhere as an active philanthropic Catholic layman, and the news of his incarceration will be received with pro» found regret — and, we may add, with profound indignation. Baron F. DeLoe had been actively engaged in collecting means for the support of the persecuted clergy of Germany. By affording relief to the latter he was supposed to encourage them in their so-called rebellion. An enormous wild boar was being hunted recently in the wood of Fave, belonging to the Count Benoist d'Azy, near Nevers (Nievre), and was struck by a ball, when it dashed forward, and bursting through the hunters, started off at a great pace, pursuing its headlong course for three hours, followed by a troop of horsemen, and passing throudti the village of Choriu, to the great terror of the inhabitants. Soon af^pr it entered a field in which a laborer was at work, who did not see the animal until it was too close for him to make his escape. He therefore stood firm and, as the beast rushed to the attack, struck it a welldirected blow on the head with a hoe and killed it on the spot. "We have heard so much lately of the disgraceful want of liberty, which is experienced by Protestants in Spain," says a writer in the London ' Weekly Register,' "that we naturally like to know what is the exact number of Protestants who are subjected to this infamous tyranny. The best authenticated reports are surprising. It appears that 4,000 is the outside of the number of all kinds of Protestants in Spain. And this, too, after more than a quarter of a century of eager and affluent proselytism. Bibles have been sent by ship-loads to Spain; tracts have been distributed throughout the country j missionaries have done all they could j and yet, spite of the sympathies of innumerable tourists, Spanish Protestants only number 4,000. We are gravely asked to alter the religion of Spain, to introduce there the divisions of our country, solely to gratify these few bewitched Spaniards, and the tourists who call themselves Protestants. A concession has been made.on the part of the Spanish Government, in the direction of admitting

private Protestantism ; hut neither the Government nor the people would ever consent to make a Babel of the gloriously united Catholic Spain." Signoe Garibaldi has been doing the grand in some descriptive reports of the battles, sieges, and fortunes that he passed, and these have appeared in the Australasian newspaper. In one sketch an account is given of the taking of a German flag. The ' Geelong Advertiser,' however, wants to know, you know, whether as a matter of fact, the flag was taken in fair fight, and states that it was obtained surreptitiously, and consequently returned to the Germans from whom it was — well, I will saj annexed. Be careful, my youthful hero. It's a grand thing to do the Baron Munchausen, a.nd manufacture big lies for a too credulous public to swallow, but there is strong temptation to go a little too far for even old John Bull to gulp. That flag business having a slight basis of fact, was dangerous ground. Keep to the description of imaginary contests, of which you were the hero. The public will swallow the inventions as gospel, and you are not so liable to be bowled out. Facts are stubborn things — let them severely alone. Stick to fiction. Above all things " keep your eye on your father — he'll pull you through." — Tapley in the • Advocate/ The number of models of invention by American women exhibited in the Centennial Exhibition is greater than people have supposed. There are seventy-four of them, including a blanket-washer, a mangle, a frame for stretching and dyeing lace curtains, an ironer, bedsteads, easels, a composition building material, window-fasteners, lunch-heater, bureau, travelling bags, life preservers, dress elevators, flower stands, &c. The women of other countries have made divers contributions, Brazil, Sweden, Norway, Tunis, Japan, Egypt, England, and Canada are all represented. Aj large wall space is covered, and several cases are filled by needle work from the Kensington Art School, and there are models of convent buildings and gardens from Montreal. With its central fountain of blue and gray. &c, the masses of brightly colored pictures, the Women's Pavillion will wear perforce a cheerful if not elegant guise, and the exhibition will at least be valuable as showing that women are not idlers. It would be neither true nor just to call it forcible or wonderful iv any way. Manx years ago, a gentleman in a subordinate department of the Bank of Ireland discovered a device more usefuLthau hair-splitting, though of the like nature : he found out a way of splitting bank-notes, bo that each note became two, and to all appearance were the same as when they were one, including of course, the water-mark and all the rest of it. He was an honest man, and informed the Government of the result of his ingenuity ; whereupon, on his solemn promise of never revealing the secret, they made him Governor of the Bank. Another gentleman, but who, unhappily, is a rogue, has lately made his appearance in London ; he has invented a certain acid which causes the writing to disappear from the cheque, and then he fills up the blank space according to his aspirations. His modus operandi is the following : He procures a real cheque, drawn by a good name, for seventeen or nineteeu pounds ; the word " pounds" is obliterated so completely that no trace of the original writing can be discerned even under the microscope, and the words " hundred pounds" inserted in its place ; two ciphers are added to the figures, and then the thing is done, since all other parts of the document, including the signature, are quite correct. This ingenious plan is causing great consternation in London, and the gentleman who invented it could get a good round sum to retire from business. A few days since an exhibition of the new Oestberg fire extinguishing apparatus took place on the Linden Strasse in Berlin in the presence of the Emperor, the Empress, the Crown Prince, the Grand Duke of Baden, the Swedish Minister, the Ministers |of War and Interior, and other distinguished persons. The inventor, who is a Swede named Oestberg, and Messrs. Brandt and Nawrocki, who had charge of the exhibition were presented to the Empress before the experiment took place. Captain Ahlstrom appeared in a peculiar looking costump made of the Oestburg invention, and walked into an immense fire made of wood saturated with petroleum. The heat of the fire was so intense that no one else could approach -within 80 paces without being burnt or scorched. The captain, however, walked around in the glowing pile perfectly undisturbed, leaning on the burning wood, and finally quietly seating himself on the coals. He remained in the fire 15 minutes, and on his coming out, every one pressed round to see how much he had been injured. He was unharmed, and in spite of the Emperor's asseverations that he had seen enough of so dangerous an experiment, Captain Ahlstrom went again into the fiery oven. On finally emerging, he took off the suit, and appeared clothed in red flannel. The Emperor said, "One must see this to form any just conception of it." He then asked Messrs. Brandt and Nawrocki about the patent in Prussia, and when informed that the application for a patent had been refused, expressed great surprise. — 'Kolnische Zeitung.' The Paris correspondent of the London ' Standard ' says: " The art of killing made easy has made great progress of late years, but nowhere, perhaps, more than in F rance. The guillotine is already a very different object from it was when it left the hands of its learned inventor, and promises in time to become such a complete and attractive piece of mechanism that condemned men may ultimately embrace it, if not with joy, at all events with a kind of curiosity and confidence. That high and mighty personage in France known as V executeur des liautes-eeuvres — in plain English, the public executioner — has just added another important modification to the fatal French instrument of death, by which it will be entirely self acting. He has invented a few mysterious grooves which so work that as soon as the sufferer falls or is pushed on to the bascule, his head runs into the lunette, and the knife comes down the next second. Eeally French criminals cannot complain of the kind attention shown to them by the powers that be." The San Francisco ' Bulletin ' of May 22, reports that a few days ago the Gable Brothers, residing in Hungry Hollow, Yolo county, about five miles from Cache Creek, unearthed a pure ivory tusk, seven feet long and eight inches iv diameter at the largest end. They

observed the point of the tusk protruding from the bank of a washout or gully, about fifteen feet below the surface of the earth, and excavated for two days before they were able to remove this relic of the ancieut mastodon witiiout breaking it. The tusk, which in come places is clear, smooth, and susceptible of the finest polish, is carved almost to the shape of a crescent. Rev. Winfield Scott, who closely examined it, thinks that the point of the smaller end, ten or twelve inches in length, has been broken off. The specimen is now in possession of the discoverers, and is in a state of excellent preservation. Mr. Scott sought to purchase it for the Baptist University, but the owners decline to sell. They talk of sending it to Philadelphia for exhibition. The weight of the tusk is estimated at one hundred and fifty pounds. The mastodon that flourished it up and down the valley some centuries ago, must have been about four times as large as an ordinary-sized elephant. The Bombay ' Catholic Examiner' (Mcrch 11) says : — Mr. John M. Francis, an editor, politician, and diplomatist of high repute *n the State of New York, has given evidence, in the plainest language, showing how imbecile and inefficient Protestantism has proved itself to be in India, where for two hundred years Protestant England has had at her command every human appliance to conquer, to convert, and to civilise. Mr. Francis is neither a Catholic nor a friend of Catholics. How does he speak, from his own personal experience, during his travels in India ? "I have little faith that the people will ever be civilised into our ways. England's rule in Calcutta for nearly two hundred years has not accomplished that, nor has it made hardly a beginning towards reformation and the extirpation of heathenism. I conscientiously believe that missionary efforts in their behalf is in large part money and labor wasted. I beli eve that such agency, with half the expenditure of treasure and Christian work, would accomplish in our own country ten times more of blessed results than is possible of accomplishment here. The missionaries, so far as I know and believe, are sincere workers, and are doing their best for this people, under what seems to me very great discouragements. But here in Calcutta, in this city of British possession and government, America furnishes at least two missionaries to one that is put to that labor by English missionary organisations. Our missionaries are laboring earnestly here with what appears to me exceedingly small results in a Christian and, indeed., civilising point of view. I only wish these zealous labors were bestowed upon our heathen and the children of ignorance, poverty and sin, at home, as I feel sure they might be with far more effective results." • The native Catholics of Malta, like the colored Catholics of Washington, have been made the subjects of some unpleasant criticism concerning their conduct in the last Holy Week. There was no Lincoln monument unveiled in Malta, but there was the equivalent of that event in the presence of the Prince of Wales, and what seemed to be the apathy with which he was received, especially by the Maltese nobility, was commented on in the style with which everybody is familiar. The Maltese, however, are contented to appear wanting in loyalty, and they have explained that as the Prince visited them in Holy Week, it was manifestly impossible for them to attend balls and banquets even though given in his honor. Had he come at any other time they would have offered him a dinner, but a banquet at which the guest alone feasted while his hosts were fasting, could not but have been embarrassing on both sides. They did what they could for him, as some of them explain in letters to the • Osservatore Romano ' and the ' Voce della Verita/ by attending the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in one of their churches where a triduum was celebrated for the express purpose of praying for the spiritual and temporal welfare of their future sovereign. And as to the rest, though this the Maltese Catholics do not say, the attitude of the Prince toward the Catholic Church while in Malta was not such as to arouse any very ardent expressions of respect or affection toward him personally. His office, however, would have been treated with due respect at any time when that great Event which dwarfs all others into their true dimensions, did not attract all Catholic and Christian hearts to itself. — ' Catholic Review.'