GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 215, 8 June 1877, Page 17

GENERAL NEWS.

A person of considerable historical celebrity in France, at the period of the Restoration, has just died at Neuilly. M. Louis Paira, ex-officer of the royal guard, was one of the elegants of 1830. He 4(g>k,an active part in the rising in the Vendee, accompanied the Iro&iess of Bern, was condemned to death for contumacy, but afterwards acquitted, and then distinguished himself by the number of duels he fought. Soon after lie joined his regiment he fought six duels on one morning, and afterwards his opinion was sought for in affairs of honour. He was brave and bad nothing of the bully about him. He was a Protestant, but his funeral was attended by a large number of Legitimists. Scepticism is making great ravages among the non»ratholic young men of the country. In the Harvard College graduating class of the past scholastic year the number of infidels equalled the highest total of any one religious denomination. There weie nineteen of them, and six others were undecided as to their religious opinions. Every man exerts some influence for good or bad upon those with whom he comes in contact, and the character of the influence of these unbelievers is easily inferred. To counteract their influence and the materialistic tendencies of our age, of which they are the sufferers, we need men strongly grounded in their faith, whose religious convictions will be solidly built, and who, besides, will be able to meet and defeat these unhappy graduates of Harvard in the realms of science. To produce such men a Catholic university is necessary. When will our prelates begin the work ? — Mirror. Why does not somebody about the household of the Prince of

Wales, asks the Tatler, suggest that Monday in Passion Week is not quite the most appropriate day for a ball at Marlborough House ? There never was a, time when the fasts aud festivals of the Church of Englaud were more strictly observed than the present, and the selection of such a day looks almost like an intentional insult to the religion of not a few of those who have been honoured with invitations. It is the fashion now to tell Russian stories, and particularly stories about the Russian princes that live habitually here in France. Two have just been published that are worth repeating. The Russian princes in Paris are all men of large incomes, but generally spendthrifts. One of them borrowed the sum of ten thousand francs from a money-lender, giving his note for the same. On the day it fell due the holder presented it for payment, and was told by the prince that he had no money to waste in paying debts. At that moment a gentleman entered, and the prince handed him twenty thousand francs to meet the losses of the night before at the club. The Jew tore up his note of hand, and said when going out, " Now, prince, there is nothing between us but a debt of honor." The prince bowed, and handed over the money without a word. The second begins in the same way, but when the Jew presented his note the prince flew in a passion, called him hard names, and, drawing a revolver, made him eat the note of hand. A few days later the Jew received his money, with a thousand franc bill thrown in for interest. Shortly afterwards the Jew received a letter from the prince telling him that he was again in want of money, aud telling him to present himself with ten thousand francs and stamped paper upon which to write his infernal note of hand. The Jew came with the money. " Where is your paper for the note ?" he said, taking the money. •' Here it is, prince," said the Jew, drawing a large cake of gingerbread from his pocket. The prince laughed at the joke, and shortly afterwards paid the debt with interest. — From Paris Letter. Regarding the fishing disasters in the North Sea, the Lord Mayor, addressing the Chief Clerk, at the Justice-room of the Mansion House, March 7th, said it was his painful duty to malce a public announcement of perhaps an amount of distx'ess and loss of life unparalleled in the shipping annals in this country. He alluded to the loss, during the recent gales in the North Sea, of 36 vessels and smacks belonging to Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Gritnsby, Hull, and Ramsgate. No less than 215 men and boys had been drowned, and had left, entirely destitute. 88 widows, 164 children, and 15 aged relatives. He hoped that the public, with their usual kindness and genei'osity, would listen to his appeal on, behalf of the distressed sufferers, and that the fund which he was about to open at the Mansion House would meet with the success it deserved. A splendid testimony has lately been given to the Sisters of Charity in Hamburg, Germany. A Protestant paper of that city says : The Grey Sisters, the universal favorites of the public, though so indefatigable in nursing the sick by day and by night, are nevertheless depending on public charity. We could hardly believe this. These noble ladies, uniting in themselves all the good qualities of Catholicism, who have renounced all worldly joys to devote themselves exclusively to suffering humanity, are now themselves in the greatest want and distress. As our readers may see from an advertisement in our columns, several Sisters have fallen sick in consequence of the hardships of their vocation, aud since these noble women have nursed during the past summer, almost exclusively, indigent patients who were unable to make the slightest return, they are now without succour. Hamburg should on this occasion not only manifest her charity, but also accomplish a duty of gratitude. Who in Hamburg, that is able to do it, would not be willing to assist the good Sisters ? We do not entertain the least doubt that the committee will be rejoiced by the receipt of numerous and bountiful donations. This note was published on the 22nd of November, and on the 23rd of November the same journals gave a list of the donations, amounting to 5,271 marks, in one single day. It must be remembered that the population of Hamburg is almost entirely Protestant. As the telephone, the new invention of Professor A. Graham Bell, is but little understood, the following reprint of a description and explanation of the instrument may not be amiss : — The telephone in its present form consists of a powerful compound permanent magnet, to the poles of which are attached ordinary telegraph coils of insulated wire. In front of the poles, surrounded by these coils of wire, is placed a diaphragm of iron. A mouthpiece to converge the sound upon this diaphragm substantially completes the arrangement. The motion, of steel or iron in front of the poles of a magnet creates a current of electricity in coils surrounding the poles of the magnet, and in the duration of this current of electricity coincides with the duration of the motion of the steel or iron moved or vibrated in the proximity of the magnet. When the human voice causes the diaphragm to vibrate, electrical undulations are induced in the coils environing the magnets precisely analogous to the undulations of the air produced by that voice. These coils are connected with the line wire, which may be of any length, provided the insulation be good. The undulations -which, are induced in these coils travel through the line wire, and, passing through the coils of an instrument of precisely similar construction at the distant station, are again resolved into air undulations by the diaphragm of this instrument. — Boston Commercial Bulletin.