Current Topics.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 340, 24 October 1879, Page 1

Current Topics.

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f^ N the Contemporary Heviem for August, Herr Von '; Bchulte, formerly Profesßor of Canon Law at Prague, and now occupying a Chair at Berlin, one of the , principal laymen who distinguished themselves as 1 leaders of the " old Catholic " movement, has an angry paper entitled " The Keligious Condition of Germany," It is needless for us to say that the writer is a violent anti-Catholic partisan, whose representations of everything connected with the Church are distinguished by rabies, but nevertheless he affords us some information that is at once interesting and instructive. He tells us, then, that the Catholics number 36 per cent, of the German population ; the Protestants, 62-5 per cent. ; the Jews, 1.2 per cent. ; and all the rest 0-3 per cent." He names the provinces of the German kingdoms that are almost exclusively Catholic, and of Austria he says. " The provinces which compose the Empire of Austria are almost entirely Catholic, for the 400.000 Protestanta are lost among the 21,500,000 Catholics, and only in a few small towns or districts is there a compact Protestant body " It is however, worthy of remark by us that we know, on other authority! that tins small Protestant minority, so small as to be considered lost amongst the Catholic majority, are treated with strict justice, and their religious prejudices in everyway respected ; their children especially are provided with the means of obtaining a Protestant education and their circumstances thus afford a happy contrast to those of New Zealand Catholics, condemned to suffer by the legislation oi a Protestant country, concerning which the cant cry " Liberty of conscience 1 is unceasingly and boastingly uttered. The writer continues It is a household word that the schoolmaster holds the future m his hands. The struggle which was ended years ago in Prussia, but is still going on in France, Belgium, and Italy, to retain the sectarian schools for the influence of the Church, proves how much truth there is m the saying." He then gives a table of statistics connected with the schools, and says : « If the proportion of the population oeiongrngto a certain religious body should regulate the proportion ot scholars connected with it, it follows that we should expect to find <«> per cent, of the scholars Catholics, 62 per cent. Protestants, and 1.2 per cent. Jews. The averages, however, show that of the scholars in the Gymnasia, 68.6 per cent, are Protestants, 21-1 Catholics, 9-9 Jews ; of the scholars in the Eealschulen, 11-6 percent, are Catholics, <9.0 Protestants, 8.4 Jews. We find that the number of Jewish scholars m the Gymnasia is steadily increasing, and that this is the case also with Protestants, though not in the same proportion, while the number of the Catholic scholars is on the decline. A man must have passed through a Gymnasium or a Realschule before he is qualincd to take any responsible office under Government." Hence he infers that the influence of the Catholics in the State must decrease, and his inconsistency is such that he at the same time accuses the hierarchy, an ambitious hierarchy continually thirsting for power, of an unbounded stomach, ever lanking themselves with princes P of voluntarily preventing the attainment by their subjects of the means of realising their desire to become a great power in the State. He, moreover, a little further on, again illustrates the folly they would betray by doing so, since of all their subjects none are more effectively useful to them and their cause than those who are receiving the highest education. «In almost all the universities," he says, « where Catholics are in a majority, associations of students have been formed, calling themselves sometimes ' Catholic Unions,' sometimes ' Brotherhoods,' sometimes by indifferent names but all bavin* the same object in view-to promote Catholic interest-, that is to be active in the cause of Ultramontanism." Besides which these ecclesiastics who ar; accused of promoting ignorance have done and are doing more than all the rest of Germany, according to his leport in the support and dissemination of literati' re and instruction There are the Unions, for example : " The ' Borromceus Verein.' which has ts quarters at Bonn, has for its object the dissemination of good

bo °ks For the advancement of Catholicism in Protestant parts of Germany,"— an object hardly to be forwarded by the hindrance of education—" there is the ' Bonif acius Verein,' which is spread over the greater part of Germany ; for missions beyond Europe there is the ' Franz-Xaverius- Verein.' " " For the purpose of popularising science in the interest of Ultramontanism, another Society was formed in 1876— ' Die GSrresGesselschaft Zur Pflege der Wissenschaft in Catholischen Deutschland.' This society publishes pamphlets, etc., on all possible subjects, and has just announced a historical year-book." Then the Catholic Press has made a remarkable progress. Of 1072 "Ultramontane" organs all over the world 267 are in Germany. "These figures show a marvellous activity, and prove that the organization of the Roman Catholic Press, determined on by the German bishops at the Fulda conference in 1867, has made gigantic strides. The 267 periodicals, to which more might be added since 1878, appear, some of them daily, some once, some twice or three times a week, some fortnightly, some monthly." Compared to all this the issues of the Protestant Press, the writer affirms to be scanty indeed. It must be evident then to all unprejudiced eyes that whatever be the reason of the comparatively small attendance of Catholics at the higher-class schools, it canno*- . because of the reason assigned by Professor von Schulte. But a the same time we are able to advance a reason for this ; it may probably be accounted for by the well-known conscientious objections of Catholics to such schools, which are secular and godless. Even from the godless primary schools, at which attendance is compulsory we find they are disposed to withhold their children the ill effects of the system are but too apparent in Germany and Catholics, we doubt not, are fully alive to them. Of what they are may be seen by the following passage which we take from the late Pastoral Letter of His Grace Archbishop Vaughan : — "Since 1842 Germany has had time to display, the quality of its 'advanced thought.' A leading non-Catholic journal, the Intelligencer, speaks thus :— ' Germany is reaping the harvest of advanced thought or scepticism ; crime has increased during the last six years in Prussia from fifty to two three hundred pjr cent.; the imprisonments in Prussia, Hanover, and the Rhine provinces alone (the statistics from the southern States, as Bavaria, Wurtemburg and Baden, not being yet published) have risen from 102,077 in 1872 to 133,734 in 1877, and the number to day is reckoned at 150,000, The prisons are all full, and patriotic men are urging the formation of a penal colony on some island of the Pacific or section of Western Africa. A few months ago the chaplain of the Imperial family, M. Bauer, in a sermon preached before the Emperor and princes, said : " Affection, faith, and ©bedience to the "Word of God are unknown in this country, in this our great German fatherland, which formerly was justly called the home of faith. On the contrary, it really seems as if it were the father of all lies who is now worshipped in Prussia. What formerly was considered generous and noble is now looked upon with contempt ; and theft and swindling are called by the euphonic name ' business.' Marriages are concluded without the blessing of the Church, concluded 'on trial, 1 to be broken if not found to answer. We still have a Sunday, but it is only a Sunday in name, as the people work during church hours, and spend the afternoon and evening in rioting in the public houses and music halls ; white the upper classes rush to the races, preferring to hear the panting of the tortured horses to hearing the "Word of God, which is ridiculed in the Press, and turned into blasphemy in the popular assemblies ; the servants of God arc insulted daily.' The Berlin correspondent of English journals adds : The German clerical newspapers, Protestant as well as Catholic, are writing in a like strain."

The article of Professor Von Schulte is, in a word, a tirade of abuse directed against bis Catholic fellow-countrymen, the Church, the Jesuits, and the memory of Pope Pius IX. It has been wrung from him by the total failure of his schism, which, even according to his favourable account, numbers in all Germany only 60,000 members, and, as we know, not only must eventually die out of itself, but even as the writings of its leaders make it very evident, is already rapidly losing all its sympathies with Christianity and becoming infidel. There is no vile accusation, no old worn-out calumny that the Professor does not repeat against all that is Catholic, nor, while

he does so, is he concerned to present Protestantism in a favourable light It seems to be his object to depict this as bad but the Church as being much worse. He has been stung by the conduct of the Protestants ; notwithstanding the virtues of the " old Catholics," and the horrible condition according to his showing of Catholics, th c Protestants have not leant towards his party. The contrary indeed appears to be the case. He complains as follows : " The signs of the times are not to be mistaken. Orthodoxy has already begun to hold out a hand to ultramontanism. There is a large class of the Protestant clergy who long for the same sort of power which the Romish clergy possess." Demoralised indeed they must be if they desire to reduce their people to the state of degradation which Professor Von Schulte represents as being that of German Catholics. But the fact is the Professor has over-shot his mark ; he has rushed to England for sympathy in his rabies and poured into English cars, with such an object, a torrent of abuse that can only be listened to by vulgar bigots. We find a proof of how men of culture have received him in the very cool notice of his article given by the Saturday Review. The reviewer passes over with silent contempt his gross charges against Catholics, and quietly inquires whether, when he speaks of putting a stop to " the present system of experimenting," he alludes to the " old Catholic " movement.

It is always pleasant news for us when we learn that Protestants of any rank or calling have been so circumstanced as to have had an opportunity of seeing members of the religious Orders as they really are. We rejoice at it, because we know how much of their dislike and suspicion against our nuns and monks has been caused by a total ignorance of them, and by the inheritance of the centuries-old calumnies invented for the spoliation of the convents by the wretched Henry VIII. These renewed from time to time by the tirades of pulpitbigots, or by the publications of shameless and shameful impostors, cut down in school-books as suitable poison for the minds of children, and chattered of here and there after the fashion of stupid but mischievous cant, are for the most part all that persons brought up in a Protestant country know of those self-denying and holy communities whose lives are in truth so beautiful, and so completely the opposite of all that is falsely and foully iumgiuecl concerning them. In a word, our feeling for Protestants concerning this matter rather than one of anger or indignation should be that of pity, for they arc deceived, and, unless under exceptional circumstances, it is impossible that they can be undeceived ; their own plain bight and healing alone arc sufficient for this, because pi ejudicc is fearfully strong, and the man must be reasonable and broad-minded indeed from whom argument is sufficient to remove it. We say, then, that it is particularly pleasing to hear that some people who have been brought up in the ordinary Protestant manner have been so placed as to have had their eyes opened to the truth, and we now find an instance of it. The correspondent of the Time?, in short, writing fiom Pietermaritzburg on July 17th, speaks as follows :: — '• Upon the village green of Ladysmith is the Dutch church, at present devoted to the purposes of a central hospital. It is surrounded by several large hospital marquees, in which the less serious cases are domiciled. Surgeon-Major Babington has now about GO patients under his care. Only six of these are wounded men ; the rest aie suffering from various maladies, principally, though, from fever Quietly and unostentatiously labouring to soothe and tend the sick arc five Sisters of Mercy from Bloemfontein. Surgeon-Major Babington spoke in terms of the highest praise about the assistance they ha 1 rendered him and the benefit his patients dciivcd fiom their cheering pi esence and womanly care. If this were a Franco-Prussian or Turco-Puissian war, we might perchance hear of Englishwomen coming forward to nurse the sick and wounded. There is, however, a lomantie attraction about the bearded, pathetic foreigner, that hardly distinguishes the snub-nosed ugly boys who fill our own lankb. As with their charities, so with their sympathy, English women lequire a dash of romance to touch their pockets and command their energies The residents of British extinction, about Lady&nnth have been exceedingly kind aud assiduous in their attentions to the hospital inmates. Fresh eggs, milk, butter, aud other delicacies of a like nafuie winch to an invalid are of impoitance have been brought from all diiections. One lady to her other donations adds th<> loan of her little thicc-y ear-old son. A Sister oE Meicy calls for him every attenuvm an<l takes him with her to a convalescent waul, vvlu'ie the: boy's childish laughter airl piattle aie looked foiwaul to with ihe yieatest inteiestby the soldiers." For our own pait we aie too \v< 11 pleased by heaung the bistcis" praises to caie about joining with this conopondcut in bis blame ot other ladies, but we have ahea'ly mini! c 1 more than once that it is t<> a kindred " dash ot lomance. ' with that to whkh he alludes that is due the prodigious preaching now Liking plrue id ioieign lands while such places as East London, and such individuals as " 'Any," are left to proceed heavcnvvanls or in the: contiaiy diieeliou as 1) -st they may unaided. Meanwhile wo me convinced i' will be giatcful to those liberal and kinel-heaite.tl Piotestauts. who bo well aided the Sisteis of Mcie-y the other day dining their b.i/aar at Wellington, to leain th.it when engaged in eluiug so they were returning to the Order the

kindness some of its members were, it may be at that very moment, bestowing upon British soldiers in the wilds of South Africa.

It is hardly credible, but as it comes to us on the authority of tha 1 : correspondent of the Times from whom we have already quoted, we conclude ie must be received as true. It seems that if a soldier died of disease or his wounds in South Africa during the war, the expenses of his funeral were defrayed out of the arrears of his pay. It is not recorded as to whether those who were killed in battle were mulcted after death in order to pay the men who dug the trenches into which their bodies were flung, but the one charge would seem hardly more outrageous than the other. It is to be concluded I rationally that the soldier who dies of disease contracted during warfare sacrifices his life for his country quite as much as the soldier who is literally killed. The service indeed appears to be a truly liberal one. The other day we were told of a man who had lived in it until olel age, and then been turned out to seek an asylum in a work-house, whose sour accommodation he might earn by daily breaking a ton of stones, and now we are informed that should a soldier succumb to the hardships of war and die of illness or of his wounds in any place where a coffin can be found for him, that grim luxury will only be provided at his own expense. Verily the recruits whom the Saturday Review asserts to be needful must have souls wholly devoured by martial longings or they will hardly be found to appreciate the many attractions held out to them.

In the Revue des Deux Mondes of August Ist, M. a. Valbert draws a sketch of Lord Beaconsfield, in which, although he gives his Lordship credit for success and talent, and appears to accord him as considerable measure of admiration, he still paints him in colour that betray some degree of ridicule. He says of all free peoples the English show the least reserve concerning their grievances. British good sense, justly boasted of, does not consist in never straying beyond that which is reasonable, but in balancing one freak by another. English bells ring all together at full swing, but they soon get tired of a monotonous peal ; nor does the action follow the word as swiftly as is the case elsewhere. Throughout the United Kingdom exaggeration reigns but docs not govern. In England hyperbole of insult is not a deadly poison, for Lord Beaconsfield has not died from it, and there is reason to hope that he will not soon die. In one of his writings he has recorded that his grandfather lived for ninety years, and as he unwillingly confessed that his father had died at eighty, he accounted for it by adding that the hardy old man had been carried off by an epidemic. He himself was just thirty when he wrote that he should in fifty years to come be found faithful to his present principles. He no doubt will endeavor to fulfil his prophecy, and to prove that a man may not be the less sound for having a crowd of enemies. No one can boast of having moie of them than Lord Beaconsfield, and it must be agreed he has clone nothing to soothe them, his ironical coolness and cutting malice have not helped towards this. Eut evpn though he were without reproach, if he had never committed a fault in Europe, Asia, or Africa, he would still have many irreconcileable enemies. Montaigne said of his friend, " If I hart been asked why I love 1 him, I should have answered, ' Because it was he.' '' More than one Englishman, if he were asked why he hated Benjamin Disraeli, would answer, " I hate him because it is he." Lord Beaconsfield is a parrcnv, and he only attained even to being so much by forcing himself forward. A brazen face, an unshaken confidence in his genius and his planet, sarcasms, threats, prophecies, the art of astonishing his neighbour, daring pranks and petty intrigues, a pride not overthrown by defeat, insolence mingled with allurement — such were the means he employed. He was still nothing when he wrote to O'Connrll, ''We shall meet one day at Philippi, and I will inflict upon you a humiliating and salutary lesson." He was of little account when he said to the House of Commons, who were stifling his voice with shouts of laughter, •• The day will come when I shall make you hear me." It might long have beeu believed that in this man of endless powers there was only a blusterer and an adventurer combined with a charlatan. What prodigies of boldness and ability have not been accomplished by the descendant of a race to which England refused all political existence, in order to impose his authority and leadership on the proudest aristoci.icv in Europe. Since the creation of the world, or rather since the .shcpheid, Joseph, became the minister of Pharaoh, no more adventurous wn^er was ever gained : and charlatanism, in this instance, has done no harm, it serves to lay the foundations of fortunes and to propagate religions. The Jew's son who now governs the British Emphe thirty-six yeais ago wrote that Joseph Smith, Father of the Mormons, would alwajs have more disciples than the rational Bentham. He had made this discoveiy in stepping out of his cradle" before Mormonism had come into existence; it is natural that he should have profited by it. M. Valbert gives Lord Beaconsfield credit for a good deal, amongst the rest for fidelity to the traditions of his nice : he says His Lordship asserts that if theie is anything which is better than a Chiiotian it is a Jew. But however much M. Valbert may bay in hi& favour, he has ceitainly hit upon nothing more happy

than this comparison of him with one of the arch-imposters of the century. It is very just and proves that the writer can read with a true eye.

It would appeal-, then, that there is a chance for journalists after all. There is a way opened to them by which they may avoid running about to inquire what has become of all the good people in 1881, when, we confess by no means to the detriment of the earthly atmosphere, they have been caught up into the clouds. We find, in fact, by a paragraph in a contemporary, that a society is being formed Lvi England for the conversion of Pressmen, who are to be invited to I ecome " temperate in dress, speech, and food." They are to turn over a new leaf, and attend 6ome place of worship once at least every Sunday, and if possible once also during the week. This is to be the principal means of bringing about their reformation, and we admit that it would be a most meritorious act on their part to make use of it. Mr. Spurgeon told his congregation the other day "He had the privilege once of hearing a reverend brother, he would not say how, when, or where ; but he always considered he should be rewarded for it at the resurrection of the just." Well, we don't want him t© say II how, when, or where," for we know all about it, and those journalists who submit to the guidance of this association will very speedily share his expectation. If they only comply with this one rule, temperate in dress, speech, and food," they must become to a dead certainty, and if they do not believe us, let them look at the sheets issued by the exceptional editors who are known to follow the rule ; if they don't there see the broad marks of men, who go slipshod, drivelling, and half -fed, their salvation is already secure, for to quote Mr. Spurgeon. once more, the sin is being " taken out of them in the same way as Eve was taken out of Adam — when in a deep sle^p." But are we not going to have a branch of the association in New Zealand ? Here is a truly Christian work for our " Christian Young Men's Associations." You know it will take clever fellows to knock the flashness out of our journalists, strip the loud toggery from off their backs, and reduce them to a becoming scale of diet — from the fatted calf of the ungodly to the approved milk and water. We decidedly know of no one who could undertake it but our •' Christian xoung Men." Their science united to the preaching of our parsons is the very thing. Let them begin then under pain of committing a sin of omission.

Distubbajstces in Ireland are the order of the day. Notwith- ! Btanding that Heaven-sent famine, that cause of the perpetual Te Benin that arises from the benevolent English heart at sight of sheepwalks and cattle-pastures that now occupy the place of many a happy ' homestead or comfortable village, marks of Heaven's favour towards ' prosperous England, not to be mistaken ; marks, however, that to those who judge otherwise, seem, for example, in some way comparable to that well at Cawnpore, which may be read as indicative of a better state of things in the Government of India, although as yet we have heard no voice that dared proclaim this truth. Notwithstanding all this there still would appear to be much needed to improve the condition of the Irish people. It is but those at a distance that are prepared to give thanks for the position occupied by them, or loudly to proclaim that now the valleys have been exalted before them by the piled up corpses that died in the agonies of starvation and its cruel consequences beneath their eyes. They are aware that milk and honey for all that are not flowing for them, but that still their condition m their own land is that of aliens, and that peverty is their portion, while they are never raised above the immediate danger of extreme need. It is easy then at any time to stir up the expression of discontent, and there are always at hand the means of exaggerating these into the signs and tokens of sedition, and so continually blackening the reputation of the people in the face of Great Britain and of all Europe. At the present moment it would appear that full advantage is being taken of this comfortable state of affairs ; an Irish agitation is called for by the exigencies of the situation, and an Irish agitation accordingly comes to the surface, and, so far as we can now see if destined to run its accustomed course. Meantime as we find a sketch of the last great agitation of the kind that took place in Ireland, that of the Fenian movement, a panic concerning which also certain English newspapers lately attempted to revive, gi yenv en to us by no friendly band, we think it opportune to furnish our readeis with some extracts from it, which we have no doubt they will find highly interesting, and, it may be, instructive at the same time. The sketch occurs, then, in a number of the periodical "All the Year E' imd," for June '67, a publication that was guided by one who favoured little anything connected with Ireland. The day, that o^g Fenian trial, on which the events described here occurred was 'ygj 26th April in the same year. Probably it will be rememberer by some of our readers, but there are many of them we are persuaded who can recollect having witnessed some such show of empty warfare as that thus narrated : " The castle gates are closed and covered with iron plates, lwop-holed for musketry. Over the black armour I see the brass helmets and flowing plumes of dragoon ; higher still, but some way behind, the wind plays among tl»c fluttering pennons

of the lancers. From the windows of houses opposite the gates' the Fenians, if there were any there, could see into the castle yard and witness all these preparations. A volley would tell with dreadful effect upon the troops." On St. Patrick's night we are told a second Fenian rising had been expected, but we have in our lifetime heard of so many risings being expected on that night that it seems to us quite the rational thing to expect. However, on this occasion the " authorities warned the dwellers in these houses that they might be required to move at once aud make room for troops. No second rising took place, and the occupiers pursue their trades as usual." The writer then goes on to describe the appearance of certain portions of the city. ; he speaks thus of the crowd outside the Commission Court : " There is no feverish or excited multitude such as you would expect if Fenianism had any root in Ireland. Knots of men and idle boys and girls gather here and there, speaking little. They ar« all from the lowest class, and are here because they have nothing to do elsewhere. These knots part and break up before the mounted police — light active men, who easily keep a wide passage clear. The prisoners will be brought into court by a passage in the rear, where a strong guard preserves an open space. Few attempt to trespass on the forbidden ground. The victims of Fenianism, like those of the plague, may be pitied, but few care to touch them. While I look and wonder where are the twenty thousand armed conspirators, there is a slight movement among the people. A suppressed cry is heard, and the troops take close order. The sharp, quick sound of cavalry rings on the pavement. Mounted police — lancers — more police — police on Irish jaunting-cars, ready to jump off on the instant — and then the prison van : a long dark carriage this, gloomy as a hearse, though bearing the cypher of the Queen. The accused are brought out separately, and enveloped in a cloud of police, You see a line of heads moving slowly up to and within the doorway and that is all. No cheer is raised, no sigh of popular sympathy is given, not even a prayer for a ' good deliverance ' is uttered. The crowd come here, it is plain, through curiosity, and not from any deeper feeling. At the corners of streets a few stones are thrown, once or twice wildly at the police, or a feeble execration is pronounced, But in the precincts of the Commission Court there is no manifestation even of pity." There, however, was deep and lasting pity, not in a mere crowd, but throughout the entire nation as the sequel well has proved. The description of the prisoners in court is striking : *' Almost without exception the principle conspirators on trial preserved a calm and dignified deportment. There was nothing theatrical or extravagant in their demeanour. Occasionally they exchanged a few words with their solicitors. Once, when the very man who was to have led the rebel forces in the south, rose, like a spectre, to the witness chair one of the accused changed his position with the other, and fixed a stern gaze upon the informer for hours." Of one of those poor wretches, the informers, the most degraded of all the bardlymankind that walk upon the earth, the description almost evokes compassion, that of the other revolts us only. " The informer cannot tell his owu true name. There is mystery, or romance, or shame, about his birth. As a chile 1 he was sometimes called by his mother's name ; as a man, by one indicating a connection with an old Irish family. In youth he served with the British army in the Crimea ; then he fought under the famous Kirby Smith as a faithful soldier of the Confederate army. When the civil war was over, he joined, as hundreds joined, the 1.R.8,, but he united commercial pursuits with preparation for treason. He was trusted beyond other chiefs of the conspiracy, and, until the moment of his- arrest, was faithful. He revenged his own betrayal, as he said, by betraying others- His evidence was valuable ; not so much because it was damnatory to the accused, as for its thorough exposure of the weakness and folly of the conspiracy. In the city of Dublin, with three hundred and forty thousand inhabitants, there were, he said, from fourteen thousand to eighteen thousand professed Fenians. Borne of these formed the wretched rabble that moved out to Tallaght and fled at the first touch of the police, There were at hand to arm these eighteen thousand men, only three thousand weapons ; but what weapons 1 Pikes, old bayonets, broken scythes, daggers made of iron hoops, and sharpened knives. The rifles and revolvers which were to sweep away the British army did not count three hundred. In Cork the preparations were still more preposterous. Fifteen hundred weapons of motly character to arm twenty thousand Fenians ! This man's evidence exposes to all the world, the miserable hollowness of the whole confederacy. But he is released from a torturing cross-examination at last, broken in health, and apparently despairing. He swooned on the moment of his arrest, and almost his last words, uttered with some emotion, are : ' If 1 swooned, would to God I had never revived ! ' Another Queen's evidence of a very different stamp appears. His presence is anything but prepossessing. Conspiracy can only be "baffled by the aid of conspirators, and this informer has done the work thoroughly. He prided himself upon his doings, and claimed credit as the spoiler of the plot. His name was taken (how or by whom none knows) from one of Virgil's sweetest pastorals. He, too, had fought in America, but as a lieutenant in the Federal armies. Thus waifs and strays from that gigantic struggle appeared [in succession

as informers on a witness table in Dublin. For seven months this man had been an active member of the conspiracy, but all the while he was also the paid agent of the Government. He it was whose secret information frustrated the raid on Chester, caused the arrest of Massey in the nick of time, and put the police on the track of M'Cafferty. I noticed that this witness was careful of his style, and corrected himself when he spoke without due grammatical precision. He was quick, ready, not easily abashed— the very man to be an agent of conspiracy, or its betrayer." The sentence passed upon°the prisoners excites the writer's horror. " The barbarous form of sentence delivered on those found guilty of high treason makes the blood rnn cold. It is, indeed, softened down from the horrible ' sentence of doom ' usual in ancient times, when the criminal was fated to be cut down 'yet quick ' and sensible, to be disembowelled while still alive, and to have his quivering vitals < flung in his face, or in the blazing fire.' Revolting as that form of sentence is, the annals of England present too many instances of its execution." Amongst these instances abundant and pre-eminent arc those of the martyred priests, who dared all the horrors of this sentence and its certain execution in order to keep alive the Faith in England, and to minister to Catholics who still continued firm in their religion. But even in its modified form the sentence is savage enough. " The condemned are scatenced to be quartered, and in fearful mockery their severed limbs are said to be placed at the disposal of Her Majesty.' A strange gift, indeed, to be placed at the disposal of a Christian sovereign, a woman, moreover, and one of true womanly instincts. It is impossible to fancy the Queen ever giving orders for the disposition of such ghastly remnants, and we may -well inquire with this writer, " Is it right, or fitting, or Christian, that the title of a merciful sovereign should be mixea up with such a sentence as this ? " We ask further, does Her Majesty know of it, or have the prejudices of her position inculcated and cherished through a life time led her to regard treason as the unpardonable crime, without the pale of mercy ? The writer says in conclusion, " A voice within each man's breast said that the Queen would give life even to the most guilty." Life, or rather a slower method of death? Have we not seen that this was in truth that which in some instances was granted ?

The report of the great work undertaken by them, which appears in another column, in a manner obliges us to congratulate the Catholics of Temuka on their spirit of true Catholic piety. So beautiful a church erected by them will be a monument which will in the best way testify to generations to come their faithfulness to the most ennobling gift conferred by God on mankind, the creed of the Catholic Church. We understand, moreover, that this fine building may in an especial manner be regarded as the actual woik of the Catholics, themselves, for in addition to the handsome money subscriptions, the drays and horses of a large proportion of the congregation are engaged in drawing the stones of which it is to be constructed, and we know of no higher use to which they can be put. It is, indeed, a privilege to be allowed to be thus occupied. These stones are to be employed for a higher purpose than were even those so carefully worked to build the great temple of Solomon ; they are to be used to construct a shrine in which God Himself, present in the Holy Eucharist, will dwell amongst His people here, most probably until the end of time. There is no work, then, on earth that can compare with that of the erection of a Catholic church ; their temple was the glory of the ancient Israelites, and to have built it was esteemed the grandest deed in all the great reign of the wise king ; his princes and valiant men esteemed themselves highly favoured in being permitted to take part in so august a work, but the glory of Solomon's temple was feeble as compared with that of the most humble church on whose altar the eternal God continually resides. All those, then, who are engaged in such a work as this are especially blessed ; and their memory will never die. Men may indeed forget them, but their names will be read by the All-seeing Eye. engraved on the stones ttey have prepared to shelter Him, and a prayer unheard on earth it may be, but constantly heard in Heaven, will ascend to the Throne of Grace from the sacred walls their hands have erected.

The San Francisco mail has brought us news from Ireland that is at once alarming and reassuring. The people, it appeal s, are vra-

reasonable enough not to like starvation, but desire to secuie for

themselves such a settlement on the land as may enable them to live f in some degree of decency and comfort. This is that pai t of the news which we find alarming, and what adds to its alarm is that a tenants'

meeting actually dared call upon Government to iclieve the existing distress, and that the Home Rulers propose an agitation by Irishmen throughout the woild in favour of the creation of a class of peasantfaimers. This we know is highly umea&onable, and they are very much to be blamed in not piefciring to hoc the people starve in suppoit of the luxuiy of an upper ten thousand that may be reckoned

amongst one of the most woithle&s in all Europe. But, fortunately, tbue is a reassuring side to the matter : we learn that great distress also prevails, and that it bids fair to be much increased by a total ailure of the potato crop. Wao kujwi lh;a wait hul may bj in

store for the country ? A sufficient number of these troublesome people may again get killed oft by famine and fever to insure the tranquility of those who remain. For surely, if it be lawful to cheer for a famine after it has run its terrible course, it is quite rational to invoke its repetition when the necessity seems to arise for it. We think this must seem fair logic, even to certain of our friends who correspond with the papers at Wellington.