San Francisco Mail News

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 263, 17 May 1878, Page 15

San Francisco Mail News

(From out' Exchanges.)

Pius the Ninth, left written directions in which lie advised the Cardinals to leave to the Chapter of St. Peter's the charge of superintending his funeral obsequies, so that the attention of their Eminences Jnight be entirely devoted to the arrangements of the Conclave. At first, says the correspondent of the ZTniirrs, there was a division of opinion among the Cardinals as to the place of holding the Conclave, and their Eminences decided to separate and retire to seek the inspiration of God in prayer. The vote was postponed to the following *lay, when the meeting took place in. solemn silence. The vote having been taken, it was unanimous in favour of Home. All present, says the correspondent, regarded each other in astonishment. God had reconciled their opinions. The clergy of Cardinal Manning's Archdiocese sent to Home a message of congratulation to the new Pope, offering at the same time their most respectful homage to the Holy Father and asking his blessing. Cardinal Manning took it at once to the Vatican and thus wntes to his clergy :— " Your telegram came lasfnight, and I took it this morning to the Holy Father, who desired me to send his benecl etion to you, to the clergy, and to the laity of the diocese : adding t mt he had a special interest in, and every day prayed for, England. M. de Rossr, whose knowledge of science aud scientific discoveries are of world-wide fame, said recently in a lecture on the Catacombs of Rome : " Providence, which lias appointed Rome the centre of the Church, has gathered into this city in proportions vastly superior to any other locality the tokens of Christianity as it existed in the first centuries. The Primitive Church revives in the Catacombs her dogmas, her traditions, her cei'emonies ; all these are more clearly explained here than oven in the writings of the Fathers on whom, during the time of persecution, prudence imposed a necessary caution. Asia, Greece, Africa, Gaul, and Spain possess only isolated Christian mementoes of the three first centuries of Christianity, but in Rome they arc superabundant. Painting, carvings, incriptions, all remind us of the ancient Faith of the Church, absolutely identical with our own."

An extract from a letter of Cardinal Pecci, now Leo XIII., written in 1873, to the persecuted Bishop of Basle, may be taken as a prophecy of the glorious future of the Church and the termination of its struggle with the persecutors. " The history of the Church," he wrote, " teaches us that whenever a condemnation of heresy was followed by conflicts and persecutions they always terminated in the confusion of those who fostered them and in the greater glory of those heroes who invincibly sustained the assaults of error and perfidy.'" Victor Emmanuel is not the first king of Savoy who died at Rome. Quite near to "the Quirinal Palace, where Victor Emmanuel died, is the Church of St. Andrew, attached to which was the Novitiate of the Jesuits where St. Stanislaus died, and in which also died king Amadeus of Savoy, who relinquished his crown to enter the Society of Jesus.

v The present Rome correspondent of the London Time*," says the New Yorlt Graphic, a non-Catholic paper, "is that estimable gentleman, Mr. Gallenga, who began his career as a disciple of Mazzini. and engaged in a conspiracy for the assassination of Charles Albert, then King of Sardinia, and father of Victor Emmanuel. When the plot was ripe, Mr. Gallenga betrayed his fellow-con-spirators, received the reward of his treachery, and went to London with a special letter of recommendation to the Times. The ability of this man as a journalist cannot be questioned ; but he often seems to take delight in misleading bis own employers and in fooling the English public. His despatch of yesterday concerning the new Pope is a case in poiDt. Leo XIII., he tells us, in his replies to addresses, etc., 1 avoids all mention of the Virgin, with the purpose of discountenancing Mariolatry, which his predecessor so long encouraged !' Yes— and the Pope avoids all mention of the Holy Ghost, with the purpose of discountenancing belief in the dogma of the Trinity ; he does not, make any mention of hell — and therefore he is a Universalist. Mr. Gallenga has rather overshot his mark this time in his anxiety to show that the new Pope is at all different from the old Pope." "The Day we Celebrate" was responded to in Chicago on the 3 7th march in a remarkably able speech by Mr. Wm. J. Onahan, at the banquet of the 2d Illinois Regiment. We regret that we cannot reproduce the whole eloquent speech ; but we give with pleasxu-e its «mcluding passage :— " The glory of Ireland is not simply national. 'Mjis like her faith — Catholic and world-wide. It is written in the legends and traditions of her past ; it is inscribed on the crumbling ruins and decaying monuments of her former grandeur, and it is preserved to us in her ancient language and literature. It endures in the fame of her bards, the prowess of her chieftains, the devotion of her patriots, and the memory of her martyrs. It lives in the eloquence of her orators, the exquisite fancy of her poets, the force and brillinncj of her writers. Painters and sculptors have made it immortal on the canvas and in monumental marble. The virtue and constancy of her daughters, the wit and valour of her sons, preserve and perpetuate it in the faith that has consecrated her past, and the patriotism that illumines and guarantees her future. For some time past the Orangemen in Montreal have been even unusually blood-thirsty. On the night of the sth of March a young Catholic named Cummins was attacked by a gang of Orangemen on Wellington-street. They fired at him, but he escaped with the thrust of a sword through his foot. Two of the gang were arrested, md arc held on the charge of attempted murder. On the 10th another Orange mob attackeO. some Catholics on Papineau-squave, and a Catholic named Lacy was stabbed, one of the Orangemen being also injured. In the evening of the same day, a handsome young Catholic named John Gunning Bell was shot in the side while quietly passing through the Square and he is probably mortally wpunded. On the evening of the 12th a young Catholic, while entering his own house, was shot in the head and leg by two Orangemen, and was mortally wounded. The Orangemen are boldly avowing their purpose to shoot, stab, and kill.

It appears that in all of these affairs they went deliberately to work in cold blood to kill their foes. Meanwhile we should like to know what the authorities are' about.

THE German Emperor has strongly censured the decision of the Supreme Consistory of the Established Protestant Church of Prussia in forbidding the Rev. H. Hojsbach to assume the cure of souls in the parish of St. James, atßprlin, on the ground that in his inaugural sermon he denied the miracles related in the Bible, though permitting him at the same time to retain his old living in the parish of St. Mark, in the same capital, because they could hardly accept the said inaugural sermon as sufficient evidence of unbelief. — Now York Sun.

Two Catholic Chinamen are present every Sunday at Mass in St. Hod wig's Church, Berlin. They are members of the Chinese Embassy in Germany, and, judging from their gorgeous dress, they- must be of a high rank. They kneel during the whole time of Divine service, on embroidered cushions, which they carry under their arm when returning home. Just before Mile. Thorese Prevost-Paradol, the second daughter of the brilliant writer took the veil, her Mend the Baroness James de Rothschild begged her to reflect maturely, telling her affectionately if she did not feel a very decided vocation for the religious, life, and preferred to live in the world, the Rothschild family would give her a downy of 60,000 dols. The young novice replied that sbe was resolved to devote herself to God, and soon after made her religious profession. V

The Western Watqliman calls attention to the fact that the late Pope Pius IX. was once in America. The same treacherous coast which has lately proved so disastrous to the war-ship Huron and the steamship Metropolis, came near wrecking the sailing brig on which Monsignor Mnzi and Abate Ferretti were sailing on their voyage to Montevideo, South America. The vessel had to put in at Norfolk, Va., and again at Havana, for water. The Holy Father himself may not have known it, but the log-book of the Genoese brig shows that she landed at Norfolk with her precious human freight on that identical voyage. It will thus appear that Pio Nono is the only Sovereign Pontiff over whom the Stars and Stripes ever flung its sovereign protection. It is further affirmed that he was invited to preach at the first Plenary Council of Baltimore, and his declension came in alettor from Gaeta filled with kindness and fatherly sympathy for the American Church.

The Evangelical Protestants in Germany have at last become thoroughly frightened by the progress made among their own people by the infidel Socialists ; and they have formed a new party, headed by " several court preachers of .Berlin," and called '• The Christian Social Party," with the hope of thns making headway against the new propaganda. They propose *' to convince the people that there can bo. no true system of government which is not based upon Christianity." The proposition is a sound one ; but they should have remembered and acted upon it when Prince Bismarck and Minister Falk invented and enforced the present German system of Government wherein God is eliminated and the State worshipped in His stead. •' The Christian Social Party" will have its labour for its pains. There is but one Christian Social Party on the carth — and that is the Catholic Church. The German Protestants clapped their hands when they saw their Government enact laws to reduce the Church to ignominious bondage to the State ; they found it less funny when they discovered themselves bound in the same chains ; and now they are trying to assert for " Christianity" in the abstract the rights they denied to it in the concrete form of the Church. They will not succeed. England is developing a new " industry" — that of insuring the lives of children and then letting the children die. At an inquest, recently, as to the death of two children in Durham, Dr. O'Hanlon, medical officer to the local board, made the startling announcement that " in the last few years, ever since there bad been such an enormous canvassing going on amongst insurance companies, there had been a wonderful increase in the mortality among children." As a rule he found that the children were always insured. The Pall Mall Gazette thinks that Dr. O'Hanlon's disclosures and others of the same kind "justify the prevalent suspicion of a close connection between infant mortality and life insurance." British civilization is evidently makiug rapid progress.

Something worthy of universal imitation has been started in Komorn, Hungary, au association of prayer to root out the horrible custom of cursing and swearing which prevails to a great extent in Hungary. Some of the oaths and imprecations common there are not only blasphemous but indecent. The association is called " The Protector of the Most Holy Name of God." Forty-two thousand new members have joined it' in a short time. The Benedictine Fathers at Martinsberg are its directors.

Daniel O'LEAKY,,'"the great American pedestrian," and now champion of the world in that particular line of muscular effort, happens to have been born in Cork, where he made his debut thirty-two years ago. Pretty much all England was dead against him in the last great contest in London, bub be expected that and paid no heed to it. O'Leary did his work in such a thoroughly earnest and manly way that even thoss who wanted him beaten were obliged to admire him. "Whatever a mau's work may be, let him give all his energies to it, and the contest is already half won. The diocese of Waterford had the honour of receiving the last blessing sent to Ireland by Pope Pius IX.

The telegrams from Rome relating to Catholic affairs are almost wholly false. We learn from Rome tbat there was no truth in the telegram respecting Cardinal Franchi's circular to the Nimcios asking minute information as to their relations with the Governments to which they are accredited, and asking how foreign Governments would regard any change of politics in the Vatican towards an equally firm, but less aggressive course of conduct. No such circular, or any circular, has yet been sent by Cardinal Franchi. It is also not true, as telegraphed by the same agency, that King Humbert has sent a prelate of North Italy $p congratulate the new Pope in his name, or that the Pope sent back his thanks verbally through the same prelate. Somebody ought,to say a good word for Miss Ora Goodale, the Jersey City teacher, wpo, when the flames burst out in her schoolroom the other day, 'placed her back against the door, made, her boys

get their hats and books, and marshalled them in proper order to leave the room. The fire, which was only caused by bits of paper in the register, died out without doing much, damage, but Miss Goodale's courage was made evident. France has paid Germany all "but 3,286,380d015. of the 1,051,012,814d015. of the war indemnity. The Kome correspondent of the Liverpool CatJtolic Times, M&di Bth, says : — On Saturday there was a touching ceremony in the little chapel of the Holy Roman Inquisition. Dr. George W. Woods, U.S. Navy, was received into the bosom of the Holy Catholic Church by the Rev. Dr. O'Bryen. The Archbishop of Chalcedon administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to the convert. There jrinve present also two Russians, Baroness Von Tiesenhausen, Frl. Von 'fA.rneim and Mrs. Sydney Davies, from Syracuse, 2J. V., who were anxious to witness the ceremony previous to taking part in a similar one on their own account. The Holy Father afterwards gave an audience to the party. The new Pope has three brothers. The youngest of them, Cay. Gio. Battista Pecci, is married, with three sons and two daughtersone of his sons being in the Italian army. In summer the cavalier resides in Carpineto, the family homestead of the Peccis, a little village of 4000 inhabitants, on the Rome and Naples Railroad. During the winter he dwells in Rome, with the eldest of the bi others, Signor Carlo, an octogenarian. The other brother is a simple priest. England has passed a grinding law against the native press of India. Every line of editorial must bo submitted to English examiners beforo printing. The telephone has been adopted by the Chinese, the telegraph being useless as they have no alphabet. Five hundred miles have already been spoken over in China. Me. Cabi< Bremer writes in the Boston Transcript as follows : — " Major-General Wolseley, the chosen Chief of Staff in case of war, states in the March number of the Nineteenth Century that one-third of the men sent to Malta last year for taking precautionary measures ' Lad never fired a round of ball cartridge.' He also states ' during peace the military establishments are so reduced as to be mere skeletons of weak regiments, the administrative departments being kept up in name only,' and that the recruits are. boys, usually from 17 to 18 years of age. unequal to the discipline or hardship of a soldier's life. In case of war, he says that two army corps of 3000 each would be ready to take the field at once. This statement is open to doubt, as recently, when an additional regiment was required for strengthening the British army in the Cape Colonies, it took the Government over six weeks to fit it oat. But even if such a force could at once, fully equipped and ready, be transported to the Sea of Marmora and landed on either the European or Asiatic Coast, what would be its chances against a force, three times as great, of victorious, experienced and exasperated Russians ?" > Germany appears to suffer even more than in England from industrial depression. The American Consul atNuremburg describes the distress prevailing in the spinning and weaving district thereabout as so extreme that families are glad to get 15 to 25 cents a day for hard work without board. The beerhouses are filled with idle labourers and the prospects for work grow worse rather than better. '* There are thousands of suffering Gernian-Atnericans," says the Consul, "wandering about Germany in search of employment, and the means of returning 'home 'to the 'United States, which they lefti'u search of better wages," Bismarck has created a united Empire, but making the people prosperous and contented is quite another matter. One of the most unreasonably ferocious acts commited by the Paris Communists in 1871. was the double murder with which they began their criminal orgy. General Lecomte was a good soldier of the regular army, and that was his offence, General Thomas was not soldier enough for that to hurt Mm as he was only a National Guard-general ; but he was a republican, though not a red republican, Moderation was his offence. By the wanton murder of these two men the Communists began their defiance of law and humanity. Despite all the executions that followed the fall of the Commune, the first butchery was never t'uliy expiated; but now, seven years later,one of the perpetrators is in the hands of justice. Captain Garcin, who escaped from France, was cmdemned in contumacy ; but he has been foolish enough to return, and is caught. They have no sentimental humanity in France on points of that nature. Eras of good feeling are unknown. Garcin will be shot. There arc some executions that are the more effective ion coming very late ; and this is one of them.