San Francisco Mail News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 287, 1 November 1878, Page 16

San Francisco Mail News.

(From our Exchanges.) ■d- -v despatch from Vicksbmg brings the gratifying news that Bishop Elder, who was recently reported dead of yellow fever, has Bafely passed the crisis of his attack, and though much exhausted, is in a fair way to recover. Bishop Elder is the only prelate in the United States who suffered actual persecution for conscience sake during the war. . He was obliged to leave his episcopal home because he would not conform Catholic worship to the prejudices of a puritanical martinet. _ " Bishop Quintard. of Tennessee, is in New York, earnestly urging aid for the yellow fever sufferers in his diocese."— Daily Paper. Why is not " Bishop Quintard, of Tennessee," in his own diocese, attending to the spiritual wants of his stricken people 1 Because he is a mock bishop, and not a true shepherd. And that is the reason why. We do know of & single case where a Methodist pastor has abandoned Ins people in the present plague," says the Methodist. We turn to the Canton, Miss., correspondence of the New Orleans Times —a non-Catholic paper— and we read the following testimony, dated Canton, Miss., August 30 : " I have been informed that a resident lady, a member of the Methodist Church, desired to see her pastor once more before dying, but lo ! the pastor had gone long, lono- ago, he undoubtedly resting under his fig tree, out of danger, while his flock or members of his church must face death and die whenever they get ready. Likewise, the pastors of the Baptist and Presbyterian churches have deserted their post of duty and honour. They all got away in time, because they are not true soldiers— can't stand fire, and yet they want to be and call themselves ministers of God. If so, why did thoy not remain here and share with those truly godly men— Fathers Cogan and Dugan— the humble, unostentatious Catholic priests. God bless them. The Canton Protestant ministers have deserted their posts and left their dead and dying, regardless of consequences." Here is a picture of German freedom, drawn by a correspondent ol the 1 hiladelphia Times, writing from Berlin : " The poor policed penple don t know what freedom means. No one of them dares to lift his voice, in the presence of a witness, to utter anything against the idol of the nation. The Gefangniss would be the result of his rashness. All police are bound by their bread and butter interests, and dare not say what they believe. All the rest live in fear of the police. And yet we are asked to look on Germany as a land whose institutions are worthy of imitation ! A poverty-stricken empire without a constitution, and depending on the will of one man, who cannot afford to have honest criticism. I attended the other evening a meeting to listen to an address on political subjects delivered before the 1 arty of Progress. In the front row of spectators, directly in front of the speaker, sat a police lieutenant and his secretary, who took notes of the speaker's utterances, and these were forwarded to Berlin for the Ministers' reading. And the speaker was obliged to give fonr-and-twenty hours' notice to the police, who had the power at any time to dissolve the meeting."' Six years ago Prince Bismarck began his work of consolidating his empire by depriving the Catholic subjects of his Emperor of that liberty with which Christ has made them free. From that moment Germany has been under the curse of Heaven, and the devil has been permitted to sow broadcast there the seed of woe. Let us hope that Bismarck's repentence has not come too late. The great Dominican order is about to open a new and beautiful church in the old, historic city of Drogheda, where the infamous Cromwell gave up men, women and children to be butchered for five days by his savage soldiers. The Primate of All Ireland will preside, and the grand eloquence of Father Burke will ring out on an occasion feo honourable to the Order of uhieh he is so truly illustrious an ornament. Should any of i caders visit Drogheda on that most auspicious day let them not forget to make a pilgrimage to the convent where is treasured a precious relic of the bead of the martyred Archbishop of Armagh (Oliver Phmkct), who, in IGBI, was basely put to death in London, as the result of a foul plot against that glorious victim to persecution. A demonstration took place in Belfast recently which presents fome features that arc at once novel and agreeable. The Queen's Island men, employes in the extensive ship-building yards of Messrs Harland and Wolff, went on their annual excursion, and, as they are almost to a man of the Orange fraternity, the usual precautionary measures were taken for the prevention of' the row which it was confidently expected would break out between them and the Catholics, lhose measures were rot needed, for, so far from disturbances occurung, the opposing parties actually seem to have made an alliance for the day. Some Catholics it is said, marched in the procession, which was divested almost entirely of a party character, and the inevitable music included " St. Patrick's Day " as well as "God Save the Queen." It will be well, indeed, if the arrangement proves the commencement of a new departure in the North ; but whether it does or not, those who effected the arrangement must be allowed to have set an excellent example. _ Austria and Hungary celebrated, on the 20th August, the twentieth birthday of the Archduke Rudolph, the heir to the Hapsbur" throne Hungary aloue celebrated on the same day the annual feast of St Stephen, her glorious king, who proclaimed her constitution near a thousand years ago. This year the solemnity was more magnificent than usual. Mass having been celebrated at Buda, where the hand of the sainted king has been preserved for centuries, this relic was carried in solemn procession through the streets of the capital to the garrison church, where a Pontifical Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Simon, the Prince-primate of Hungary. After this the same procession returned to the parochial church, and a Te Den in concluded the solemnity. Hungary still glories in the name of the JRcnnuin Mananvm—" the realm of the Blessed Virgin "—and in spite of her "Liberal" Government the majority of the people remain as finnlv attached to the Church as ever.

The town of Ortaglien, Italy, has been gradually sinking until it is some fifteen feet below its former level, and the houses are all tipped from the perpendicular. The people have taken to the fields while an investigation is made into this extraordinary behaviour. A dispatch to the London Times from Home says Cardinal Ledochowski has received another summons to appear before the German Ecclesiastical Courts. The Calcutta co-respondent of the London Tinws telegraphs on August 25th :— The death of Abdulla Jan, youngest son of the Ameer of Cabul, and recognised heir to the Cabul throne, is an event of considerable importance, and may be expected to exert a very material influence upon Afghan politics. Abdulla Jan is described as weakly, and as having held out little or no promise of moral strength or mental ability. He was inferior in every respect to his elder brother Yakoob Khan, who is reported to be a fine, gallant soldier, and a great favourite with most of his father's chiefs. Unfortunately he is influenced by feelings of the strongest hatred to the English. F At a recent meeting of Lodge No. 311 of the Loyal Orange Institution, held in Liverpool, a letter was addressed to the Marquis of Salisbury, congratulating him on his successful labours at Berlin, and asking his Lordship's permission to give their lodge the name of " The Salisbury L. 0. L., No. 311," as " a memento of his gallant and noble conduct." To this letter Lord Salisbury's Secretary replied, thanking the Orangemen for the compliment, but quietly snubbing them by refusing, and ending thus : "Lord Salisbury thinks it better that you should adhere to what is, he believes, the ordinary practice of not naming lodges after living politicians." This is the way the money goes. Breakfast on the occasion of the Prince of Wales's visit to unveil the statue of the Prince Consort, £2000 ; thanksgiving for the recovery of the Prince of Wales, £13,000 ; reception to the Emperor of Eussia, £13,000 ; the Sbah of Persia's reception, £15,000 ; the Sultan's ditto, £30,000 ; flowers at the reception of the Prince of Wales on his return from India, £2000 ; banquet in honour of the Czar, £2076 ; and for the same occasion £7000 for upholstery, £93 for menu cards, £170 for bands, £25 for wands, £22 for gloves, £282 for gratuities— " tips "—and £7 for corkscrews ; flowers for Shah's reception, £527 ; and gloves at Czar's reception, £57. Then there are the bills in connection with the freedom of the City and the banquet to Lords Beaconsfield and Salisbury. The agents of her Imperial Majesty the Empress of Austria have concluded negotiations for leasing Summerhill House, County Meath, from the owner, Lord Langford, and it is her Majesty's ' intention to reside there during the coming hunting season, and to hunt regularly with the Ward Union and the Meath packs. The mansion will need some alteration and repairs to suit the royal sportswoman, and these will be at once taken in hand, so that all may be ready for her Majesty's reception before the commencement of the hunting season. Her presence, which will give great eclat to the sport in the Meath and Ward country, will, no doubt, be beneficial to the locality, and she may be assured of a warm and respectful greeting from a people, many of whose countrymen found a field for their bravery and talents in the army and public service of Austria when driven from their own land. The Parix Tin ion announces that a venerable ecclesiastic of the Diocese of Paris who had been marked out for assassination by the Commune is now engaged in founding a " Mission of Pardon." The greater part of those amnestied, who return from Noumea, New Caledonia, principally to Paris, are in a most wretched condition. All their business relations being lost, they find themselves literally outcasts, not even having the nourishment they could get in prison. The respected priest of whom we speak is trying to procure for these guilty men a charitable protection against destitution. His Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris has already founded a mission in favour of " The Orphans of th« revolt. It is thus that the Catholic Church auswers insults and persecution. The news of Bismarck's agreement with the Vatican is a bitter drink for the Italian radicals, and the leading papers of Italy are severe in condemnation of Bismarck. The Conner of Rome says contemptuously : —It has been frequently said and repeated that M. de Bismarck was the Cavour of Germany. Never «as a comparison more formally contradicted by the facts of the case. Count Cavour was a man of genius, who succeeded in rendering moral force triumphant over material force. M. de Bismarck has followed a diametrically opposite path, and all his successes have been due to material foree — a material force which he did not himself create, inasmuch as when he rose to power in an ancient and powerful State he found it ready at his disposition. Audacity and intrigue! that is what he has contributed of his own. Cavour, accordingly, has survived him- "** self, and his successors have been able to accomplish the great work inaugurated by him despite the insucccss of the national arms. Moral force produced the triumph of the Italian cause against the cannon themselves. But what would become of M. de Bismarck this day if should come to pass that his cannou failed him 7 Not only will he not, as far as can be seen, survive himself, but it may almost bo affirmed that he is condemned to witness while alive the decomposition of his own work. Child murder, there is no use denying, is much more common in England than is generally believed. So glaring had the crime become several years ago that an act was passed to put down a too common abuse of the system of insuring the lives of children. That act provides that no greater sum than £6 shall be paid by any society or company on the death of any child under the age of five years. It has been proved pretty clearly that the measure has been of little or no use. The mortality among infant children during- the first five years of life is admitted to be frightful, and, to say the least of it, looks suspicious. What should be done is to forbid the payment of any money on the death of a child under five years old, and to give encouragement for the class of insurance known as endowment insurance, by which a sum is paid not at death, but on a child attaining a certain age above five years. Until the law is altered to that extent we must not be surprised at a continued extraordinary mortality among infants. The Italian Government has refused to grant an Exequatur to Monsignor Celesia, Archbishop of Palermo, no recognition having been made of the King's alleged right of presentation to that See.