GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 195, 22 December 1876, Page 9

GENERAL NEWS.

The Teutonic despotism in Central Europe is pursuing blindly its mad course, which can have but one end. At seven o ? clock on Saturday morning, the 10th Sept., the fathers of families whose sons^ had obtained a certificate of emigration, or had chosen to retain their French nationality, in preference to that into whose power their province had fallen, and who had returned to Strasburg to pass their holidays with their families, were summoned to the police office, and informed that their children must quit the country within three days. Thus those fathers, and brothers, and mothers, and sisters, were suddenly robbed of the pleasure of spending a-f ew weeks with their loved ones, after a year's absence, which they had been so long anticipating. So true is it that out of the Church there is either despotism or anarchy. — ' N. Y. Tablet.' Paris, with a population of 1,690,141, possesses more than five thousand acres of open ground planted with more than one million of trees. The wool clip of the country in 1875 was nearly two hundred million pounds, whereas in 1860 it was only sixty-five millions. In 1875 the country bought about fifty million dollars worth of woollen goods, and eleven million worth of wool. A Kbkbt paper says that recently, as the Bishop of Kerry came out of a chapel at Cahirciveen, where he had just administered Confirmation, he was presented, by a respectably-dressed woman in widow's raiment, with It beautifully bound " Life of the Blessed "Virgin," the donor accompanying her offering with the following suggestive words :— " My Lord, I brought it from America to you. I went to America twelve years ago a very little girl ; on my way I called to hear Mass at Killarney Cathedral where your Lordship officiated. After Mass I followed you into the sacristy and asked for your blessing on my journey ; on hearing my name, you quickly recollected me as the • little girl from this district who, seven years before that, answered so well in my Catechism.' You gave me your blessing, you gave me your gold, and jou pave me a splendid Douay Bible, with your autograph dedication of the gift ; so, in coming lately from America, I brought you this book, as a token of my veneration and gratitude." His Lordship, of course, kindly accepted the book. Petermann's 'Geographisce Mittheilungen/ a periodical which is generally considered to possess the latest and most accurate information, has some most interesting notes on the elements of which the population of the Turkish Empire is composed. The following summary table, showing the contrast in respect to religious denominations, may not be uninteresting :—: — Provinces. Christians. Mahorn. Totals. Turkish Croatia ... ... 105,000 72,000 177,000 Bosnia and the Herzegovina ... 747,000 408,000 1,155,000 Albania ... ... ... 763,000 714,000 1,477,000 Thessaly ... ... ... 148,000 23,000 171,000 Roumelia... ... ... 1,147,000 940,000 2,087,000 Bulgaria ... ... ... 1,603,000 1,303,000 2,906,000 Grand totals ... 4,513,000 4,460,000 7,973,000 A lady writing to the 'New York Times,' says: "Without giving any recipes for making soap, I' wish to tell all the hardworked fanners' wives how much labor they may save by not using such vast quantities of this article. For nearly five years I have used soap only for washing clothes. In all that time I have not used one pound of soap for washing dishes and other kitchen purposes. My family has ranged from three to twenty-five. I have used cistern water, limestone water as hard as possible, and hard water composed of other ingredients besides lime, and find with all these my plan works equally well. It is this. Have your water quite hot, and add very little milk to it. This softens the water, gives the dishes a fine gloss, and preserves the hands j it removes the grease, even that from beef, and yet no grease is found floating on the water, as when soap is used. The stone vessels I always set on the stove with a little water in them when the victuals are J taken from them ; thus they are hot when I am ready to wash ' them, and the grease is easily removed. I find that my tinware keeps longer when cleaned in this way than by using soap or scouring." The following extract from the report of" the British Governmect School Inspector for 1875 refers to the Catholic schools in the middle and lower wards of Lanarkshire, and is of interest as showing the vigorous condition of Catholic education and progress in Scotland : " Six or seven non-public schools are at present being erected in the district, chiefly by the Roman Catholics, who have shown very great energy of late in providing schools for the children belonging to their Church. By the kindness of Archbishop Eyre I am furnished with the authorised statistics from his secretary, Mr. M'Farlane. The number of the Catholic population in my district is about 422,700. The following table summarizes the

171,000

progress of Catholic school building during the past four years : Twenty new Catholic schools, hare been erected at a cost of £52,91-2 6s. m-, the number of children being 7,584 j and four mS." schools are being built at a total cost of jes.Blo ; the number of «^l? e vnl mg 86 *-: I ? aakln & » total cost of 431,722 9a. i>*d., wit? 8,449 children It thus appears that the average cost of thesTfct S^ff* "J**? 1 l 5!: m ' each ' and that the a^rage numbe? of children they (according to regulation) each contain fs 362. These schools are fitted up and furnished with all the modern desks and apparatus, and, indeed, so far as fabrics are concerned they will bear comparison with any school under my inspection." The above facts attest the extraordinary effort the Catholic Church is makimr for the education of her children, while Catholics, like all other?, 11l T£t S e P . ubl l C ' and five wiU BOOn be added - Numbers of the Arabs of the streets are pouring into the Catholic schools, and it is wonderful to see how soon they get tamed into the habits of civility, obedience, and attention to lessons. The schools afford the best of accommodation, a very important fact, considering di E •inline; but they also show a systematized and regimental regularity m all school things, a fact not less important.— < Charlottetown Herald. It has been stated on good authority, and can easily bo made to appear from the census returns of 1870, that there are in the United States, m round numbers, twelve million five hundred thousand bread-earners. By the^ruits of the labour of these millions nations are subsisted. They supply food, shelter, and raiment to the forty millions of people who make up our own population. Thus it is seen that every bread-earner his to fill, on an average, a little more than three mouths. Of the whole number of these bread-earners, there are not less than six millions (or about one-half) engaged in agricultural pursuits, and nearly two millions in other rural trades and callings, making with their food dependents a total of not less than twenty-four millions of consumers. The manufacturers, including all classes of operatives, earn bread for about two million of people. The commercial classes, including all that properly belong to them, support two and a half millions; the railroad and express companies about half a million, and the miners nearly half a million more. Yet while agriculture and mechanics taken together feed ten times as many as commerce, twenty times as many as manufacturers, and fifty times as many as railroad companies, yet the least of these by combination and management, exert far more influence in the country and incomparably more power with the Government than the tillers of the soil, and this for the simple reason that the latter do not exert the power which they might in the protection of their own interest.— Exchange. A handsome new state carriage, for the Eight Bey. D. Vaugban, Archbishop of Sydney, has just been completed, and is now on view at her Majesty's coach builders, Messrs. Morgan and o \£ ™ ong Acre ' P revious *» its dispatch in a week or two to New South Wales. The body of the carriage is of graceful and noble proportions, and is painted a rich lake color, relieved with delicate lines of crimson, the mountings, lamps, and fittings being silver plated. On the panels of the doors the armorial bearings of the Archbishop have been richly emblazoned by the celebrated mute artist, Mr. D. T. Baker, who has now had the nonor for many years of painting for the Royal Family and the Corporation of London. The arms of the Vaughan and Herbert families, with the Archbishop's crest and motto, are executed with taste and judgment, and greatly enhance the general appearance of the carriage. The interior is lined with blue morrocco leather; and ample provision has been made for books, vestments, etc. Altogether the carriage reflects great credit upon the eminent firm of builders who have produced it. — * Westminster Gazette/ This city is teeming with romance and tragedy, if one only knew just where to look for it. I was walking up Fourteenth Street yesterday with a lady, and as we passed an elegant brownstone house, surrounded by a garden, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, she said, "Do you see that house?" "Yes," said I, " and I have often noticed it and thought what fun it would be to live in such a place." " The people who live there don't find it such fun, she replied, and continued: "In the back bedroom of that house lives a lady who has not seen the light of day for years." "Poor thing!" said I; "is she stone-bund?" "No; she is not blind at all, but sees as well as 1 can," and she turned a pair of the brightest ferown eyes in the world up to mine. "Explain yourself, pray," said I; what is the mystery?" "There is no mystery, only the lady I speak of, who is still a young woman, lost her only child same years ago, and before she had recovered from the shock her husband died. Since that time she has not left those rooms ; the shutters are closed and the gas is kept burning just as on the night of her husband's death, so that she may take no note of time; and there she sits waiting patiently for the voice that shall call her to that country where there is no night." "What a very sad story," said I, is I looked back over my shoulder at the house, which seemed to gather the shadows as they passed. "Itis a Miss Havisham case in real lif e. The only difference," said my friend, " being that this lady's mind is as clear as the noonday sun. She is only dead to the world because her own world is dead/'— N. Y. Cor. ' Saturday Beview/ In recognition of the •ervices of Irishmen the General-in-Chief of the American forces became a member of the Irish association known aa the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, twenty-seven of whom had contributed over 10O,000doU. to succor his army in the Valley Forge. "I accept," he said, " with singular pleasure the ensign of bo worthy a fraternity as that of the Sons of St. Patrick in this city— a society distinguished for the firm adherence of its members to the cause m which we are all embarked." It has been a consolation to our country in her darkest sufferings. .It has been and it shall be throughout all time one of the greatest glories of our nation that George Washington, who rejected the honors of Britain, repudiated her title and cast down her yoke, accepted an Irieh ensignland became the first "adopted citizen of Ireland/*