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New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 188, 3 November 1876, Page 15

A recent decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Index ha vineplaced upon the list of prohibited books, a work known as Pomponius Latus,or Eight Months in Route during the Vatican Council, written m Rome, but published in Florence, and due to the pen of Marquis Francis Vitelleschi, Senator of the Kingdom of Italy. The 'Daily Telegraph' of London, with its usual respect for truth, announced the condemnation of the work, and named as its author the late lamented Cardinal Salvatore Vitellescui, adding its comments upon the facts, etc. The three brothers of the deceased Cardinal, including the benator, indignantly pronounced the assertion "an infamous lie " through the columns of the public press. Whereunon the 'Daily Telegraph/ m its issue of June 24, writes : " The declaration of the brothers Vitelleschi is perfectly consistent with our own! The Cardinal did not, nor could not have written the book, if he would not court the fate of Dollinger, but he furnished all the materials- The Voce della Verita,' referring to this persistency in falsehood, recalls the famous discourse attributed to Mgr. Strossmayer dunncr the \ atican Council, a composition which first saw the light in German then in Italian, and was finally translated into English. Mgr Strops' mayer himself, in the columns of the ' Allgemeine Zeitung,' solemnly declared the entire discourse an invention, but to what purpose ? Barmby, a publisher of Leeds, still advertises at the price of three half-pence, The Papal Pretensions Exposed by a Roman Catholic Jiisliop, and on the inside of the cover we read : " The following discourse is translated from the Italian version, and was pronounced in the Vatican Council by Bishop Strossmajer !" — ' N.Y. Freeman.' The Toledo (Ohio) 'Commercial' says :—" Saturday nio-ht witnessed the wind-up of the Adelphi variety season for the summer and the event was signalised by an event bordering on the tragic' Harry Devonport, a tight-rope performer and juggler, whose ho°me is in Detroit, has been playing a two weeks' engagement. Ainonoother duties he was required to give a free exhibition of tio-ht-rone walking in front of the theatre every evening. The rope was stretched across Summit-street from the top of the Adelphi to the top of the Speyer block, at an elevation of some sixty feet and was sustained by guy ropes held by men on the ground. Saturday night Mr. Devonport went through his performance as usual wind ing up with a performance upon a trapeze, which hun°- down some sixty feet from the rope. He was preparing to do his last feat which consisted of twisting both legs around the side-ropes of the trapeze, and dropping until he could touch the bars with his bent knees. He did this in one instance, and was preparing to reDeat it with one leg, when he shot like a rocket headformest° towards the pavement. The crowd surged and gave way, and then the unfortunate man, whirling just before he had reached the pavement struck with a dull thud the hard pebble-stone pavement on his right side. He was taken, apparently dead, into the Adelnhi and surgical aid summoned. An examination showed that he' had escaped with a compound comminuted fracture of the ri°-ht arm above the elbow and a fracture of the right wrist. He was taken to St. Vincent s Hospital, where he now lies, and his wounds were dressed." Business is not very lively in Europe at present. In Belgium the coal and metal trades are drooping, and they affect all the other branches. In Germany the condition of affairs is even worse and the Customs receipts of the first six months of 1876, as com' pared with the corresponding period in the previous year, show a deficit, and exports are diminishing daily j whilst in France accounts show that there xs a slackness in affairs generally.— ' Gali"nani '