San Francisco Mail News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 237, 16 November 1877, Page 15

San Francisco Mail News.

(From, our Exchange*.)

„*wr, Born e, time ago Ttie C atJu>l ' l <> Review, in an article entitled "Where the Money Goes," which has just made the rounds of the world, coming back to it reprinted in a Bombay paper, showed very clearly to what good use the poor Pope might put the liberal contributions he received from the faithful of the entire world on the occasion of his jubilee, We find now, on the authority of Let Tablettes dvn/SjKctatiw, that the Pope's disposition of the large sum he received, 1fi,4< 6,381 francs, was within the lines which we anticipated. Xhe particulars are as follows :" Of the total, 9,190,000 francs was in gold, and the rest in paper. The money will be employed as follows, by order of His Holiness: Four millions will be paid into the funds of the Holy See ; four millions will be given to the present and former servants and soldiers who have remained faithful to the Pope, and their families ; four millions will be employed m restoring monumental churches, and in executing works of recognized utility, serving at the same time to encourage art and industry ; the balance, of 4,476,381 francs, will be distributed in subsidies to charitable institutions, such as hospitals, asylums, Ac., and to aid the clergy and religious orders in the poor parishes." Jhe Pope has sent a long and affectionate letter to Prince Amadeus, in which he rejoices with him that Divine Providence has seen nt to preserve him from the serious peril to which he was recently exposed, and expresses his hope that the Prince's life may long be spared for the good of his children. Archbishop McHale in a letter, August 16, declining to participate in a banquet to Sir W. H. Gregory, Galway, says :— " Let the nobility and gentry of the County Galway, even at the eleventh hour, shake off the trammels of caste with which they have been so long bound up and dissociated from the people ; let them raise their united voices in favour of rooting the people in the soil created for their use, reserving the just and equitable claims of their own order, which will be rightfully acknowledged ; let them Speak out in favour of an education m all degrees Catholic for the Catholic people of the land, allowing to the few of other denominations who dwell amon<* us the privilege of educating their children as seems best to them. Above all, let them unite in demanding back her own domestic Parliament for Ireland, without which every other measure will prove ultimately unprofitable, and the existence of which in our capital will be productive of larger benefits for their order than for any of the other classes of society. When this combination becomes a reality, believe me that no man in Ireland will prove himself more willing to honor those m high stations than your faithful servant " 1 " 1 . abstracts of the Irish agricultural statistics for the year 1877 have just been issued. According to the Registrar-General the total acreage under all crops in the current year is 5,265 230 acres, being an increase of nearly 60,000 acres on the previous year 1 here is an increase of 23,000 acres in the wheat crop, and of 64 040 acres in the quantity of ground under meadow ami turnip, Oats meanwhile have decreased 15,000 acres, and potatoes and flax about 9,000 acres each. There arc 13,000 more acres of land under cereal crops m 1877 than in the previous year. There is an apparent in. crease of "bog waste and water " in 1877 as compared with previous years, but the Registrar-General points out that this is only caused by the fact that mountain land, with a few head of stock upon it which m former years was entered as "grass," is now described as ''barren mountain land." The returns of live stock for 1877, compared with the previous year, show an increase in the number of horses and mules of 18,758; asses, of 1,577 ; pigs, of 42,957; and goats, of 2,47(. ; and a decrease m cattle of 121,413 ; in sheep, of 19,979 ; and m poultry 0 68 974 The number of scutching mills in Ireland in I *F%~ iS**' i' 17J; f einstei W3; Munster, 21; and Connaught, 19. lhe only remarkable feature in the abstract is the very serious falling off m the number of cattle. The cattle in Ireland in 18<6 numbered 4,117,440; at the same period of the year in 1876 they numbered 3,996,027, and the decrease of 120,000 is a very serious and remarkable fact. Incidentally, the Registrar-General states that there are still nearly 600,000 agricultural holdings in Ireland, another evidence, as the IWnnan points out, of the fact that in spite of everything the island remains what nature intended it to be — a land of small farmers. A few weeks ago a most extraordinary occurrence took place at Claret Rock, a place about five miles north of Dundalk, and situate in the heart of the * orkhill Mountains. Ou the morning in question, between four and hve o'clock, a blacksmith named Dooley and his two brothers were awakened by a loud rumbling noise, and dreadin* that something was about to happen the house, they jumped out of bed, and running to the door put their shoulders against it to secure it more effectually. They had scarcely done so when the covering of the whole roof was taken off the house, and the windows blown in by a ternhc hurricane which passed over it with a terrible roar. In a few minutes the noise ceased, and venturing outside, they found that, with the exception of the damage stated, the house was otherwise uninjured, but a cait which on the previous night had been laid down near the house was earned some distance away and thrown across agate with its shafts and axle broken. But what appeared strange to them was that a neighbouring house, only a few yards away, escaped without damage. It was subsequently found that the hurricane was conhncd to a strip of country about a mile in length, and which never exceeded one hundred yards in width. Outside of this tract the effects of the hurricane were iinfelt, whilst within this space it left palpable evidence of its fury, while it lasted. It first took effect on the top of a hill near Faughart, and sweeping down an extensive valley beneath ran iv a northerly direction for about a mile, then turned up abruptly towards the east across the mountains, and thence seaward. The damage occasioned in its route is considerable, but luckily there were no houses, with the exception of Dooley's in its path, otherwise far more serious injury would have resulted. As far as has been ascertained there has been no injury done to live stock, but all alou« its

route it swept everything before it, scattering trees, bushes, hay, etc., in every direction, and levelling hedges and ditches. „.„. The Hoty Father has been pleased to appoint the Rev. Canon * ltzgerald, ex-President of St. Colman's College, to the vacant See of Ross.

There is just now established near Kilsheelan, in the County of Tipperary, by some members of tho Order of Brother-Hospitallers of bt. John of God, in a house which the Count de la Poer has generously made over to them, with some land for that object, an admirable and much-needed institution. Anxious to extend to Ireland the beneficial results of their Missions in other countries, the Brothers of St. John of God are now opening, under the auspices of the Bishop of Waterford, an asylum for incurable indigent boys, thereby supplying one of the most pressing wants of the present age. The new institution of the Brother-Hospitallers is not self-supporting, but depends en« tirely for its existence upon the public.

Mr. Parnell, M.P., has written a letter to the Dublin Freeman, from London, under date August 18, replying to some remarks of that journal, and insisting that the Irish people ought to be afforded opportunities of considering, disregarding, and pronouncing their opinion upon the principles underlying the proposed change in the Parliamentary action of the Home Rule party. He claims that before steps had been taken by Mr. Butt and his party to ventilate their differences publicly he was opposed to publicity, but now the vindication of the Obstruction policy demands it. In conclusion, he says: " The English press is calling upon the Irish people to save them from 1 Obstruction.' I very much doubt if these people will turn any more heedful ear to them than they have overdone to Ireland in the time of her distress. Besides, a winter session is not at all out of the ran<»e of probabilities, therefore I think no time should lie lost in comin«* o to a decision as to our future action." °

It was no matter of secrecy in Rome during the celebration of the Papal Jubilee that on the occasion of the reception of the Scotch pilgrimage at the Vatican, an earnest supplication was made to the Holy Father that he would take such measures as he deemed necessary for the re-establishment of the Catholic Hierarchy in Scotland. We believe that since then the subject has engaged the attention of the Roman congregation, to which is entrusted the consideration of such questions, and that a favourable decision has been reported by it to the Sovereign Pontiff. As yet no further steps in the matter have been made public, but it is stated that before long the Catholic Church in Scotland will bo placed on an equal footing with the Church in England, and will have its regularly constituted Episcopacy to direct and preside over its concerns. The Catholics of Scotland— so many of whom belong, either by actual birth or by descent to the old Catholic land here at home—will rejoice at this fresh evidence of the paternal solicitude of Pius IX in their regard, and will be induced by it to labour all the more earnestly for the spread and glory of that Church of their love, for which they have made so manysacrifices and endured so many trials. We feel assured that in the better and more rational public opinion which has grown up since then— with the evidence of the moral and social blessings that have followed iv England on the re-establishment of the Catholic Hierarchy, and of the unaggrcssive character of the work which the Church in that country has been accomplishing— the reception of the re-erection of the Scottish Prelacy will be received in a vastly different spirit from that which encountered the re-establishment of the Hierarchy in England some seven-and-twenty years ago.—Bublin Freeman.

The Catholic Law School at Angers, France, has just achieved a victory which must be highly gratifying to all the Mends of Christian education. Out of the 71 students that the Catholic Faculty of Law at Angers, presented at the last examination, 62 were admitted before the State Faculty. This large number of successful competitors, proves better than any other argument that could be produced, how thorough the course of study is in this young and rising university. Speaking of Sister Mary Frances Clare, the Vnicen says, and says truly, that her narrow cell now covers the civilized earth. Her writings have acquired an immense popularity upon both sides of the Atlantic. The principal among them are the « History of Ireland " the Life of O'Connell, the Life of St. Patrick, the Life of St. Francis the Life of St. Joseph, the Histories of Kerry, and Cork," the " Patriot's History of Ireland," the " School History of Ireland," and the " Advice to Irish Girls in America."

There can be no object in any longer disguising the fact that England and Germany are at cross purposes concerning the RussoTurkish war. While Prince Bismarck wishes for the dismemberment of Turkey, together with a salutary blood-letting, calculated to eliminate Muscovite power of offence during the remainder of the century England is naturally desirous that the belligerents should be separated, as the renewal of fighting in the spring of 1878 may call for a British army in Roumelia. — London Register.

A local engineer has a letter from a friend in Chili, South America, who runs a train through the Andes, where the grades are 200 and 300 feet to the mile. The Chilian brakeman is described as a most recklessly indifferent critter, devoid of all emotion. "Often," he writes, "have I been running down a grade at a rate that brought my heart to my mouth, and those Chilian galoots would be laying off in the dumps, smoking their paper cigars, and regarding the scenery as calm and as cool as a canvas-covered ham. They didn't know the difference, forty miles an hour around embankment curves was all the same to them."

Upwards of 12,000 Circassians have arrived at Trebizonde bein" lodged partly in tents and partly in houses, and having rations pro" vided for them by the Government. Two shiploads have been sent to Kerasand, as no accommodation existed for them in Trebizonde. The embarkation of Circassians continues from Soukhum Kale (via Trebizonde). There seems to be no end to the fugitives arriving, or to the cattle they bring with them. Large ships are Bent every five days to bring off the people, and even at that rate it must take weeks to transport those that have already come in. It is stated that there are 1,000,000 Circassians who wish to emigrate to Turkey,