THE NEW CARDINALS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 345, 28 November 1879, Page 11

THE NEW CARDINALS.

The Roman correspondent of the Tablet gives the following particulars of the lives of the four Cardinals created last week :—

Monsignor Pier Francesco Meglia was born in Santo Stefano al Mare, diocese of Ventinriglia, November 3, 1810. He became Secretary to the Nunciatura in Paris, and subsequently auditor. He remained in Paris while Cardinal Sacconi was Nuncio, and also dunce the early part of the nunciature of Cardinal Chigi. On the 22nd of September, 1864, Mgr. Meglia was consecrated Archbishop of Damascus, i.p.i., and sent as Nuncio to Mexico, where he did good service in reoiganising ecclesiastical affairs until the intrigues of Napoleon the Third against the liberties of the Church in Mexico rendered useless the further presence of a Nuncio in the country. In 1868 Mgr. Meglia was appointed Nuncio in Bavaria, in the room of Mgr' Gonella, created Cardinal. In Munich Mgr. Meglia discharged the duties of bis important office with remarkable ability, and, as there W / S i n °r ( i ther Nuncio in Germany, he had to watch over the interests of the Church within the German empire, and was highly esteemed for his sagacity by Prince Bismarck. In December, 1873, Mgr Megha was transferred to Paris, vice Mgr. Chigi, created Cardinal' and during the Governments of MacMahon and Grevy did his utmost to defend the rights of the Church in France and preserve harmonious relations with the Eepublican Government. Mgr. Lodovico Jacobini born at Albano on the 6th of January, 1830, was enrolled in 1862 among the Referendary Prelates of the Segnatura. Pius the Ninth nominated him Secretary of the Congregation for the Affairs of the Oriental Kite, and made him a member of the Politico-Ecclesiastical Commission for the Vatican Council. At that time Mgr. Jacobini was a Canon of St. John Lateran, Protonotary Apostolic Partecipante and Consultor of the Propaganda, and of the special

S21 gr l g on for Provin cial Councils. On the 21st of March, 1874, ne was consecrated Archbishop of Thessalonica, i.p.i., and sent as Nuncio to Vienna. Mgr. Jacobini exerted himself with much ability to ameliorate the unhappy condition of the Catholics in Kussian Poland, where the faithful were harassed by violence and schism. His conduct was highly appreciated in Rome, Austria, and Poland, and such was the esteem felt for him by the Emperor of Austria, that, by special arrangement, he will, after his creation as cardinal, continue his diplomatic functions at Vienna with the title on ,oah Cl °" . Mgr ' Doi aenico Sanguigni, born at Terracina, June A>, 1809, was auditor of the Nunciatura at Naples, and subsequently at Lisbon, under Mgr. (now Cardinal) Ferrieri. From Lisbon he went as Inter-Nuncio to Rio Janeiro, where he remained until 1874, conducting the negotiations between the Holy See and the Brasilia^ empire, and at the same time occupying himself with ecclesiastical afiairs in the various Republics of South America, before the institution of the Apostolic Delegations in Costarica. Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Chili, the Argentine Republic, Uruguay, and Paraguay. The position of the representative of the Holy See in those countries was rendered extremely difficult by the continuous civil wars, the constant C ifu ge !i, c civil go^mments, the frequent revolutions, and, above an, by the preponderance of Masonic and other secret societies. Mgr. Sanguigni, however, showed remarkable sagacity and talent. He was promoted to be Nuncio at Lisbon in 1874, and was consecrated Archbishop of Tarsus, i.p.i., on the 12th of June in that year.

The reports regarding a revolutionary movement in Spain continue to gather consistency, and seem to have more foundation than might have been expected. We learn this week that, in consequence of intelligence from the Spanish Embassy in Paris confirming the reported coalition of the Democratic, the Radical, and the Keformista parties, under the leadership of Martos, Salmeron, and Ruiz Zorilla, the Goverement of King Alfonso has decided to act vigorously against the committee and agents of the revolutionary party, and that, accordingly, in several of the large towns of the south many retired military officers and other persons have been already arrested and banded over for trial to special commissions. Amongst those wanted are no less than four generals. Finally, we are told that arms and a clandestine printing establishment have been seized by the police." It is wonderful how events repeat themselves at intervals. It is to be hoped that the sequel of all this agitation will not be, as in 1868, a revolution ; but it would argue great foresight to say positively that such will not be the consequence in a country like

It is satisfactory (says the Freeman) to recognise in the list of youths who have passed the intermediate examinations the names of several whose fathers and grandfathers have been distinguished in Irish literature. Among them is Francis Knowles Dobbin, grandson of our distinguished dramatist, James Sheridan Knowles ; Master Joseph Hardiman, Joseph Edward Stack, Master Edward Gannon, son of the late N. J. Gannon, Esq., national poet ; Master George F. Abraham, son of George Whitley Abraham, Esq., L.L.D. ; Master Gerald P. Fitzpatrick, youngest son of the biographer of Dr.. Doyle • and Master Richard Leyne, nephew of the late Maurice Leyne an able litterateur, and one of the Young Ireland party. A writer in the London Engineer, speaking of the men employed at the works of the Irish Great Southern and Western Railroad, near Dublin, says, "We have seldom seen, a finer lot of men, or more orderly or civil. They are very far removed from the ' 'cave 'arf a brick at 'im ' type, too often met with in our own manufacturine districts." &

During the recent progress of the Emperor William through Germany, being ieceived at Konigsberg by the notabilities of the place, his Majesty made a significant but very true remark : " God's blessing gained," said he, " all is obtained." True to the letter ; but when is one to know that God's blessing has been obtained by the persecution of the Church, the oppression of the people, the maintenance of an immense standing army, and a continued threat against the peace and tranquillity of the rest of Europe. There are distinctions of various kinds. One man has his portrait published because he changed tie current of the sea ; another because he revolutionised a country ; another because he slaughtered a whole family. But a visitor to the German Exhibition lately wai singled out and solemnly photographed because he was the milliontk visitor. Such is fate.

According to the Republique Francaite, Monseigneur Fava, Bishop of Grenoble, is to be brought before the Council of State for erecting the Church of Our Lady of La Balette into & basilica without having registered the Papal bull on the subject. This, says the correspondent of the London Times, shows that the Government is resolved to enforce even the minor provisions of the Concordat. Lourdes is now thronged with pilgrims, 6000 of them being Spaniards, headed by the Bishop of Leon, and the French visitors being equally numerous.

M. Lonn, of Cbartres, so favourably known in New York by hia admirable work, won the first prize of 4000 francs for designs of Joan of Arc wdndows,in Orleans Cathedral. Tne first Btone of Cologne Cathedral was laid on August 15, 1248. The 631 st year of its building was completed on the 16th of August and it is hoped that the next anniversary will really see the finishing of the great Minster. The two towers have now reached their last stage, and have only to be fitted with their massive caps of solid stone-work. For this purpose two great scaffoldings have to be erected at a dizzy height ; one of them, however, already approaches completion. When the caps have been finished, then a still higher storey will have to be added to the scaffoldings, in order to fix on the tops of the caps the gigantic foliated crosses, almost 30ft. high, which are to crown the towers. This operation will, it is expected, be performed next Spring.

Messrs. McQueen and Paris, late of Mr. Beissel's celebrated hairdressing rooms, have opeoed an establishment in Princes street, Dunedin, where work will be carried on in the most fashionable and elegant manner possible,