San Francisco Mail News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 295, 27 December 1878, Page 15

San Francisco Mail News.

The Papal Archaeological Academy will shortly resume its sittings. It has been closed for some time, but Leo XIII. has now granted permission for its resumption under the direction of Cardinal di Pietro. Besides the study of classical antiquities, to which the Academy formerly confined itself, it is now to turn its attention chiefly to the middle ages. The report is confirmed that the Duchess of Sutherland has left the Scotch Church, and has put herself under the instruction of the Fathers of the Oratory, preparatory to her reception into the Catholic Church. It is also announced that the Rev. Mr. Waite, a distinguished Fellow of Oxford, has become a Catholic. The Catholic Ecclesiastical College of Maynooth, County Kildare, Ir^J&ttd, narrowly escaped destruction by fire on the Ist November. The fire broke out in the new quadrangle, a braiding which has been erected within the past few years, and it spread rapidly. Captain Ingram, of the Dublin fire brigade, and a strong force of men, with several engines, were promptly despatched by rail to the scene of the disaster. The firemen worked vigorously, and were actively assisted ' by the students and townspeople, and after some hours the fire was got under control, and several threatened portions of the building saved. By midnight it was completely extinguised, but two wings of the building, the southern and western ends, were destroyed, but although the students lost all their personal effects, and some were rescued with difficulty, no lives were lost. The buildings are massive stone structures, with long corridors, and the students are locked in at night, making it difficult to escape in case of sudden fire. After an investigation the Dublin Fire Department ascertained that the fire was caused by overheating of the warming apparatus. This loss is estimated at 50,000 dollars. Great sympathy is felt for the students, and subscriptions will probably be opened in all the Catholic churches in Ireland for their relief. Thomas Aherne, the last of the Irish political prisoners, has been released. Mr. Parnell, M.P., is about to take an organizing tour among the Irish populations inhabiting the large towns of Great Britain. He has entered into an agreement with the Home Rule Exchange to visit 20 towns and address Home Rule meetings. He will be accompanied by the general secretary of the Home Rule Confederation, and will visit all the Home Rule Associations, with the view of organising the Irish electoral power in the large constituencies. In preparation for the demonstrations, the associations are preparing statements as to the relative value of the Irish vote and the balance of political parties in the places to be visited. The organising tour will commence immediately after the close of the Home Rule Convention opened in Dublin on the 21st inst. They are all not honeyed words that greet Lord Lome on the eve o his departure for Canada. The London World, for instance, treats this young man with sevr"-o disdain which is very bitter indeed. In an article headed "The M'Tappcrtif (readers of Dickens' "Barnabyf Budge*' remember what sort of person little Tappertit was), it speaks of the Queen's son-in-law and successor of Lord Dufferin as "an intruder among princes and a mock prince among peers," who " exercised his intellect upon the production of fifth-rate literary compositions in prose and verse, and in the delivery of little lectures in Highland towns." Some of the bodies drowned in the Princess Alice disaster were taken from the water, robbed, and thrown back again, and in more than, one case drowning passengers were passed by boatmen with the remark, " Oh, never mind him, he's alive ; look out for the dead ones." This is owing to the regulation which provides that a reward of ss. be paid for the recovery of every dead body, but fails to reward the rescuer of the living. The inconsistencies of British Sabbatarianism underwent some rough handling from Mrg. Capel in a sermon recently preached by him in one of the London churches. He was advocating the propriety of opening art galleries and museums on Sunday, for the use and pleasure of the workingmen who can find no other time to pay them a visit. He said there were many Pharisees in the world, who mouth a good deal about the " desecration of the Sabbath" but who in reality pay it very little honour themselves. As an instance of what he meant, he said that when he visited the Paris Exposition on a Sunday, he found there thousands of visitors who came to see and be instructed by the scientific and artistic wonders there were gathered toge^wr. On entering the British section he found every article in it ct^red up with canvas. The case was different when he went to the refreshment rooms of the same department. There all the waiters were busily engaged in furnishing English beef and sandwiches, British beer and London stout to as great a multitude as could, be served. He asked some of these officials if they had attended any religious services that day, but one and all declared that they had no time to do so. It seems all right to your British Puritan on his travels to keep men and women hard at work all day Sunday in ministering to the needs or luxuries of his body ; as to his mind, that is quite another matter. To look at pictures, and pay for seeing them on that day would seem to him to> be a breach of the third commandment. Mgr. Capel earnestly advocated the provision of healthy and refining sources of amusement for the people on Sundays. Says the Pilot : — We notice a great many American papers holding up their hands in horror at the statement that in the year 1876 there were arrested for drunkenness in Dublin 2427 persons. We turn to the Police Report of the City of Boston for 1877, and we find that in that year there were arrested as " common drunkards " 247 persons ; disorderly, 6212 persons ; drunkenness, 81G1 persons. Look nearer home for the horror, friends, and let Dublin alone. The population of Memphis, Term., when the fever broke out was 40,000. Through deaths, and the people fleeing from the city, it has been reduced to 8000 — 2000 white and 6000 coloured. The cheerful discovery is made at this late day that the British, on their own showing, were entitled to only 1,200,000 dolsi damage s instead of 5,000,000d015. in the fishery business.

Eleven men were waiting for a railroad train in. Franklin, Term., A negro was caught in a serious crime close by the station. The eleven men chased him a mile, caught him, hanged him, and returned to the station, where the train had been kept waiting for them. Col. Rivers, proprietor of the St. Charles Hotel, at New Orleans, places the material loss to the South on account of yellow fever at 200,000,000 dollars, which is also the estimate of Captain Eads. In large parts of the fever-infected districts the cotton crop will be lost for want of hands to gather il,.i 1 ,. The sugar crop is yet to be harvested and Col. Rivers has strong hopes that it can be saved. The other night, in New York city, an unknown man stopped at a dwelling-house and asked for something to eat. He was refused. The unfortunate wretch had been repeating his petition for assistance all that day and other days but without success. Upon being refused in this last instance, he staggered away crying, and had gone but a short distance when he fell dead — actually dying of starvation, and in a city loaded down with plenty. Such a fact is an awful condemnation of our system of republicanism,— or rather an awful condemnation of the popular ignoranceof true republicanism. France is at present a richer country than England in the sense that the annual savings of Frenchmen considerably exceed those of Englishmen. You cannot have your cake and eat it. Whatever a Frenchmen's income may be, he hardly ever lives up to it. If he is a peasant proprietor, he scrapes and saves to buy some extra piece of land ; if he is an artizan, or a servant, or a person in any way living by wages, he buys himself Rentes. The inundation in the Valley oE the Bormida, Italy, swept away houses and bridges, and reduced many families to utter destitution. '• A large number of staff officers had been endowed out of the French indemnity," said Herr Hassellmann, the Socialist, in his speech in the Reichstag, against the anti-Socialist bill, " but the rank and file got nothing, not even a diminution of taxes." Looked at in a certain light this may not be more than an argument ad captandtvm, but it is very strongly and forcibly put, and it is likely to live in the minds and in the mouths of the people. The speaker, though violent, was beyond doubt, very clever aud telling in his hits, which always had at least enough of truth to give them the force of truth in the minds of the masses. This, for instance : "In representing destitution as a consequence of Socialism, Prince Bismarck was mistaking cause for effect. The present destitution is the sequel of power and slavery," Bismarck's appearance, as he denounced Socialism in his Reichstag speech, is thus described : — As he raised his eyes for the firsb time, and, contracting his bushy brows into a frown, looked round the House rapidly, as though taking stock of his foes, his face wore an angry look, that boded evil to those who should cross him during the day's proceedings. Judging from his appearance as he subsequently stood up whilst speaking, it seemed that he had added a stone to his weight since last June, and that his health is far from what his friends must wish it to be. His delivery is more broken and spasmodic than ever ; he struggles obviously with some difficulty of breathing, and is obliged to pause from time to time (even in the middle of a sentence) apparently to gather strength or to control his temper. His hatids are hardly at rest for a moment — either they are twisting a huge lead pencil, brushing at his cuffs, or clutching at the shining breast-buttons of his dark cuirassier tunic. But his grey eyes are as bright and fierce as of yore, and his voice, at moments oE paramount excitement, rings out as defiantly and menacingly as ever. Altogether he is the most remarkable incorporation imaginable of conscious power and restraining passion, and it it is not to be wondered at that weaker natures positively cower before him when he is in one of his reckless and desperate moods. The Russian papers have lately contained reports about a band of robbers which has appeared in the district of Paulovsk, in Southern Russia, and has spread terror through all the neighbouring region. It is said to be over 200 strong. The captain is reported to be a peasant woman of singular beauty, who was previously connected with a gang of forgers of rouble notes, i'he Russian "[Government is so desirous of procuring the arrest of this female chief that it has set a price of 11,200 roubles upon her head. The Rothchilds hold about 4,400,000 dols. of the acceptances of the smashed Glasgow Bank, or almost half of the whole. They will not lose anything, as they do not live to lose. It is the many who will lose, including the poorer shareholders. The distress throughout Great Britain is increasing. The London Brief says that it is a mistake to suppose that India is as tranquil as she appears on the surface. Those residents who are uninfluenced by petty bias are almost universally of the opinion that it is merely the opportunity that is wanting for us to see a repetition of the scenes enacted in 1857. The Mussulman population are awaiting their leaders, and the leaders are biding their time. A Mussulman never forgets and never forgives. A miraculous cure through the intercession of Pius IX., of happy memory, has jusfe been reported to the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, and is substantiated by several distinguished persons. The case is that of a poor woman who had been suffering ten years from a very painful inflamation of her right foot, and whom poverty prevented from having regular medical attendance. The cure took place last May, but it was decided to let several months pass by, in order to prove its stability. A dscument has now been drawn tip stating the case, which has been signed by the poor woman and a number of other witnesses, among whom are the following persons who had known the poor woman for a number of years and assisted her in her need : Count Henry Soderini, his wife and two daughters ; Count Mucioli and his lady, and Monsignor Ricci, Chief Chamberlain to His Holiness Leo XIII, and known in Rome as " the Father of the poor." Herr Von Forckenbeck, the President of the German Reichstag, a Catholic and a member of the National Liberal party in Germany, has been elected to the office of Chief Burgomeister of Berlin. His almost unanimous election is a proof that the Beriinera have not only made considerable progress in toleration, but also that, in spite of the religious conflict now going on, the question of religious opinion ia rapidly passing into the background when qualification for civil employment is concerned,