San Francisco Mail News

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 369, 14 May 1880, Page 16

San Francisco Mail News

[From our Exchanges.] £ h ? Em P res s of Austria, after a successful hunting season in Meatn, left Dublin on the evening of March 7 for Vienna. Hundreds of people gathered at the station and gave her Majesty a rousing " send off.

The reported attack on Mr. Parnell by some ruffians while he was addressing the people in Enniscurthy is a shameful affair. It indicates the desperate nature of the landlord opposition to the people s will in Ireland. It is possible in any community to hire a few scoundrels for a disgraceful purpose ; but we have no doubt that within a week the patriotic town of Enniscorthy will have wiped off this stain from its good name. Amongst those who, besides giving their adherence to the popular programme in its entirety, promise to pursue an active policy in the House of Commons, are :— Messrs. T. D. Sullivan, and H. J. Gill, who are m the field for Westmeath ; Messrs. Richard Lalor, and Arthur O Connor, who are the popular candidates for the Queen's County ; Messrs. R. H. Metge, and A. S. Drake, each of whom wants the second seat for Meatli; Mr. J. A. Blake, who is a candidate for Waterford County ; Mr. W. H. O'Sullivan, who seeks re-election for Limerick County ; Sir J. N. M'Kenna, who will, we expect, be reelected for Youghal ; Mr. Marum, who stand 9 for Kilkenny County : and others whom it would occupy too much space to mention in this place. It will be seen that the constituencies whose favour it is sought to conciliate by declarations of adherence to a policy of earnestness are some of the most important in the whole country and, although it is unsafe to hazard guesses on the point, we say that our own calculation is that the party of activity in the next Parliament will number at least thirty, and possibly forty. With such a force as this all rules designed to put down obstruction will be of very little use. 4. 4.i. W v en arnell canie here he said he was going to bring England to the bar of American public opinion. Has he done it, or not ? Even the scribes who write the anti-Irish articles for the Boston Advertiser and other respectable journals must bow their heads in assent The .Liverpool Catholic Times says :— "The English pilgrimage to Lourdes is arranged to take place about the 2nd of June and the Key. Lord Archibald Douglass has been requested to undeiake direction.

Royalty is being attacked everywhere in Europe, and the mania has crossed the ocean at last. Within a fortnight two American editors and one Canadian ditto have been attacked by assassins, with the usual results. The three editors easily whipped their men, without the aid of chain shirts or body guards. When will the gentlemen tQ e dagger learn not to waste their labour on charmed lives ? Ihe U.S. ship Constellation has already received more than enough provisions to fill her, with food for Ireland, and will probably sail on Thursday, March 25th, from the Brooklyn Navy Yard The following officers are to accompany her :— Commander, E. E Potter • lieutenant-commander, J. M. Forsythe ; paymaster, L. G. Billings Lieutenant N. E Mason, Lieutenant W. F. Low, Lieutenant Cogswell Kft a » H $P lne > (wn of « Miles O'Reilly,") and Master Graham; Jfinsign F. A. Wilner, boatswain E. Bonsai], and sailmaster T. B Wmte. The ship is capable of carrying nearly 2,500 barrels. Secretary inompson will receive contributions of all kinds. The carco consists of flour, oatmeal, seed potatoes, and such other provisions as may be donated. The New York Herald furnished one-quarter of the cargo, two other quarters were furnished by Mr. Grace, of New York city, and Congressman Morton, of New York, while the rest of ttie cargo was mede up from individual contributions. Messrs. B. K. Bliss, of New York city, gave 100 barrels of seed potatoes. The vessel was loaded by men gratuitously furnished by Mr. William R. (irace.

Eelix Pyatt to Garibaldi :— " Pnite your voice with that of the * x^ eh socialists to oppose the extradition of Hartmann." Garibaldi to *ehx Pyatt :— " Hartman deserves the esteem and gratitude of all honourable men. Political assassination is the secret means for preparing revolution." Was it worth while cabling the above correspondence of assassins across the Atlantic ? . _ The general results of the returns of births, deaths, and marriages m trance for 1878 have just been published. The total number of births was 936,000 of which 869.000 were legitimate aud 67 000 illegitimate. The still-born numbered 43,000 and the deaths 839,000. The births thus exceeded the deaths by 98,000 against 142,000 the excess m 1877. There was therefore, a considerably smaller increase of population in 1878 than in 1877. Marriages, on the contrary, slightly increased. There were 279,091 in 1877, and in 1878 there were 279,892— a difference, however, of only 800 in favour of 1878. A Paris correspondent of the London Times in discussing the question of expelling the Jesuits, says :— Nobody knows the consequences or extent of the conflict deliberately entered upon, and that the Cabinet may before long have to choose between acts of violence or resignation.

Mr. Jacob Bright, M.P., speaking at Manchester lately, said that for years and years the land question had been discussed and, at any rale the extreme wing of the Liberal party had sought in vain for great changes. What had bee? refused to argument would probably be given through disaster. It seemed likely that a large proportion of landowners of England would become embarrassed through the competition in the food supply, and from this embarrassment he expected the nation would derive the great advantage of having its land set free.

Chiswick House, which the Marquis of Bute has rented for three yeaTß from the Duke of Somerset, is not far from the mission at Turnham Green, where during the severe weather great distress has prevailed. The Rev. Father Dohcrty, who has a thorough knowledge of of the parish, received from the Marquis of Bute, on his coming to ceide at Chiswick, a sum of money sufficient to meet the wants of all

those who were really in distress. The munificent gift was administered with great discrimination, and every deserving case was promptly attended to and relieved, Mr. Gilbert Scott, son of the late Sir Gilbert Scott, the wellknown ecclesiastical architect, was on Sunday, March 14, received into communion with the Church by one of the rev. fathers at the Oratory, Bromplon. At the same time a large number of persons, lately members of the congregations worshipping at St. Alban's, Holborn, and other Kitualistic churches, made their professions of faith in the Catholic Church. Most of these conversions are attributed to a series of sermons having been preached by Father Keogh, at the Oratory Church.

Paris, March 29. — The decree against unauthorised religious soci-. eties will be published to-morrow. The first concerns the Jesuits only, while the second affects all unauthorised congregations. The first decree says : — The Government, considering that further tolerance cannot be extended to a society against which the national sentiment has declared itself, have resolved to dissolve the association, and the establishment occupied by its members must be closed and vacated within three months, which period may be prolonged until August 31, in the case of the educational establishment attached to the society. The second decree provides that any unauthorised congregation must apply to the government for authorisation, and that such bodies as shall not ask or eventually obtain authorisation shall be dissolved.

The ex- Empress Eugenic is on her way to South Africa, to visit the scene of her son's death. She travels as the Countess of Pierrefonds, and is accompanied by a small party called "a suite." The names of some of the members are announced, but we do not see Captain Carey's name among them. What has become of Carey ? When last heard from, he was talking about becoming a preacher. Perhaps he has joined the Salvation Army, the only army that he seems to have any fitness for.

*' It is alleged," says the cable man in London, " that the Pope, having heard that several Catholic dignitaries in England had used violent language against the British Government, and supported the Irish movement, has expressed disapproval of their conduct, and despatched letters of remonstrance to England." By whom it is alleged, or to whom the " letters of remonstrance" have been sent, the cable man finds it convenient not to say. We " allege" that the statement is an unmitigated lie. The Catholic Church is gaining ground now in places where formerly Mahometanism ruled supreme. There is a tribe of Arabs living east of the Jordan, who have embraced the Catholic faith, and who have a priest of their own, a native of Italy, that attends to their spiritual welfare. These Arabs are nomads, the same as their ancestors were in the days of the patriarchs. They take their flocks of sheep from one place to the other, and wherever they pitch their tents they erect a movable building for a church, in which divine service is celebrated on the very next morning. Every year during Holy Week they set up their camp on the shores of the River Jordan, and the priest on horseback, attended by the chieftains, leads them during their migration. Our contemporary, the Germania, to which we are indebted for these particulars, reports also that other Arab tribes seem inclined to follow the example set to them by the one east of the Jordan.

The Czas of Cracow publishes the text of a Polish address to the Czar to be presented on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his accession to the throne. One passage of the address is worded as follows :—: — " The Poles are emboldened to bring to the steps of the throne their petition that the Emperor, by magnanimously restoring the confidence of the Polish people, may afford them an opportunity of devoting their powers of peaceful national development to the welfare of the kingdom." The Vienna Presse notes that since 1862 the words " national " and " kingdom " in such documents have always been most carefully shunned ; and it thinks that if the text is genuine it indicates a rapprochement between Russia and Poland. Lord Macaulay says there is always a strong presumption against the sincerity of a conversion, when the convert is directly a gainer. In the case of the "conversion" of the whole diocese of Chelm from the Catholic to the Russian Schismatic Church, which was officially reported in 1875, the gain consisted in this, that those who embraced Schismaticism were allowed to live, whilst those who did not were simply massacred. Yet, even those who, in 1875, preferred bare physical life to their eternal welfare, do not seem to have been very sincere in their conversion, such as it was. A peasant of Surawnica, in the district of Zamosz, was recently charged with having taken his child across the frontier to have it baptised by a Catholic priest. He was put in chains and sent to Lublin. On the way he escaped, and thereupon the government ordered his wife and five children to be put in prison instead. Eighteen peasants of the same district are now in prison on the same charge, which, if proved, will entail their being sent to Siberia for the term of their natural lives. That is the most recent achievement of Russian " civilisation."

Edmond About, a brilliant French writer, who like so many others arose and fell with the Second Empire, has recently protested against the views of French society which the school of realists m romance is giving to the world. It does seem strange that the author of the " Roman Quef tion," who sold his pen to Napoleon 111., when it suited that meek Cassar to attack the Pope, should be urged to tell the truth ; he makes, however, a vigorous protest against the abominations of Zola, the Gonconrt brothers, and the whole group of "realists." If realism means to describe human beings as entirely diabolical and human nature as wholly beastial, Zola and his followers are realistic ; and if Frenchmen are what the realists describe them to be, the earlier the fate of the Cities of the Phun overtake France, the cleaner and better the world will be. The censorship of the press must be in very lenient hands :ndeed when the stupid and vile trash of the " realists " is permitted to run through edition after edition. It is strange that Frenchmen who pretend to be so unusually sensitive upon matters of patriotism can encourage an author against whom even About is compelled to protest.