San Francisco Mail News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 309, 21 March 1879, Page 11

San Francisco Mail News.

♦- (From our Exchanges.) Cardinal Fabio Asquini, one of the four members of the Sacred College created by Pope Gregory XVI., died at Rome, December 22 from the consequence of a fracture of the thigh bone by a fall last November. He was one of the few members of the Sacred College of Pope .Leo XIII. who have successively served four occupants of the Holy See. — R.I.P. On the 9th January, the anniversary of the death of Victor Emanuel, a funeral service for the repose of his soul is to be cele&^t2a^l b^s? ftßte basilicas ' A despatch from Rome states that, in addition to the proposed appointment of several Vicars Apostolic in parts of America destitute of Episcopal Churches, the Vatican intends to establish several new Bishoprics in the United States, and institute a new hierarchy different from the present one. The Pope has sent a circular to bishops outside of Europe with the view of extending the collection of Peters Pence m all countries in the world. The Roman correspondent of the Pilot writes :— A number of priests in Italy have received rewards or premiums at the Paris Exposition. Ihe following are amongst those thus rewarded : The Abbe Zanotti, director of the Glass Museum of Muiano, near Venice, a silver medai for a collection of the best classical types ; Abbe Francesco Faadi Bruno, honourable mention for his writing instrument for the blind; the Abbey of Moute Cassino, a gold medal for their publication, the Bibilotheca Casineusis,' etc.; the Mechtarist Armenians of Venice, silver medal for works published by them ; the Abbey ot Monte Cassino a bronze medal for artistic paleogranhic works': * aa di Bruno for a new style of barometer ; and Father Embriaco. of the Dominican Covent of the Minerva, Rome, honourable mention for a regulator pendulum, etc., etc. The latter has a great reputation for his admirable invention of water clocks, one of which adorns the gardens of the Pmcio. The eruption of mud at the foot of Mount Etna continues, and a smoking lake of steadily increasing dimensions has been formed Professor Silvestn says that there are two kinds of .craters— one in constant activity, emitting muddy and oily water, with exhalations of carbonic acid : and others intermittent, issuing with subterranean noises volumes of thicker mud. Among the Irish deaths announced by the last mail is that of Bishop James McDevitt of Raphoe. He was formerly a professor in All Hallows College, , and was but seven years a bishop, havin" succeeded Mgr. McGettigan on his translation to Armagh.— Lord O'Hagan, late Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who has inherited through his wife the large Townly estates in Lancashire, was once a reporter. Lord Beaconsfield acknowledged in Parliament tlie services rendered by Irishmen in India, and it mny not be uninteresting to state that the hero of this war, General Roberts, is an Irishman, as is also Sir Frederick Hames, the Commander-in-Chief of the forces in India. .Lord Beaconsfield might, indeed, have said that most of the military reputation of this Empire has been made by Irish Generals. J It is proposed to coustruct a tunnel under the Mersey. The cost is estimated at from £300,000 to £400,000. , on/? t* p P ear^ from a return issued that there are 5,783 English 1,386 Irish and 785 Scotch officers in the British army. Of non-com-missioned officers and men the numbers are, 121,709 English, 38,121 Irish, and 14,235 Scotch. When tens of thousands of the Irish people were perishing of hunflror in 1847, the notorious Newdegate got a resolution carried at a public meeting, that there was no reason to apprehend a scarcity of food. In 1878, while thousands of English workingmen and their families are suffering hunger and want, brutal office-holding toadies have assured the government that it is quite unnecessary to do anything to relieve them. Cardinal Manning did a kindly and courageous thing on Christmas Day. Preaching at the pro-cathedral, he severely lectured his wealthy co-religionists on their inconsiderateness to servants, and protested against the system of working their domestics on holidays and Sundays. His Eminence had another word of rebuke, too, and gave a not very flattering picture of professedly pious people whom he haa seen in wealthy mansions sit down to costly viands " without the outward reverence usually observed by devout Catholics With the expiration of the year 1878 the custom of awarding good conduct gratuities to soldiers has been abolished. The money realised by fines for drunkenness in the army has hitherto been appropriated for this purpose ; but it has been found of late years that the amount falls short of that expended upon good conduct gratuities. While, therefore, it is to be regretted that this encouragement to worthy men has been discontinued, it is a source of congratulation to the military authorities that drunkenness in Her Majesty's army has so far diminished as to materially reduce the amount of fines inflicted for this offence. The custom of making New Year's calls, formerly almost confined to New lork, has extended westward. The Cincinnati and St Louis newspapers contained whole pages of the addresses of women who were to receive their acquaintances. No more remarkable demonstration could be made of a nation's confidence in its own integrity and strength than the universal refusal of the American people to demand gold for their national paper when they were legally entitled to the exchange. The anti-Chinese Bill restricts to fifteen the number of Chinamen to be brought over at one trip on. any American vessel. But what about other than American vessels 1 Is the Bill in the interest of British ships, whose steerage profits will thus be materially increased ? J The total yield of precious metals in the United States durine the past year is estimated at 7,000,000 dols, *