San Francisco Mail News

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 381, 6 August 1880, Page 7

San Francisco Mail News

[From our Exchanges.]

The noble stand made by the Sovereign Pontiff upon the subject of the bill for amending the May Laws will let Prussia understand what it is to ha\e to do with a power that cares nothing for Herr Krupp's artillery. The Church must and will be free, and the whole tribe of Bismarck, by their temporary opposition and final defeat, only serve to make this evident.

Information having been given to the Vatican that the Albanian Catholics in the districts cc ded to Montenegro are disinclined to accept the dominion of that principality, from the fear that their religious convictions would not be respected, the attention of Austria and the other Powers has been drawn to the matter.

The Globe is informed on authority from Vitnna that the Emperor of Austria has interfered to prevent the ?ale of the houses and lands possessed by the Propaganda College in Rome and its vicinity. His Majesty sent a communication to King Humbert requesting that the Propaganda property should be exempt from seizure and sale by the Giunta Liquidatrice. That communication had no effect, and the property was advertised for sale by auction on the 12th of June. Tidings of the proposed sale were sent to Vienna, and the Emperor was greatly irritated and caused representations to be made to the Italian Government of so urgent a nature that they withdrew, or rather suspended, the sale, which will not at present be carried out.

A Catnolic has at last been elected a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. We believe that this is the first instance of that event ever occurring during all the career of Dublin University. We knew that King James 11. ordered the appointment of a Catholic fellow, but that was by royal prerogative, not by election. We fear that the election of a Catholic arises from fear of the " Royal University of Ireland," and not from liberality. At all events, let us hope that Irish Catholics will not be satisfied with the fact that on j gets a few " loaves and fi3hes," while five millions are left to starve.

An Irish Reform Bill is one of the first measures introduced by the new government — a similar measure, in fact, to the one which the old House of Commons, at the instance of the Irish secretary of the late government, rejected seven times. Significant this 1 Mr. Forster has commenced his official connection with Ireland well. All friends of Ireland will wish him " God speed." Mr. A. M. Sullivan was returned for Meath unopposed. In a speech made after the election he said he had not thrust himself on the county of Meath, but had come, forward at the unanimous solicitations of every class and of the people of all ranks in the county He did not want to see society wrecked. .He did not want to see the principles of justice invaded. He would ask the higher classes not to wait in Ireland for the fatal hour that had to strike in other countries when classes were laid low and revolutions were accomplished. He wanted to promote the peaceful growth of improved institutions, not

to see them brought about by wreck and havoc and disaster ; but he shrank from no disaster, and if the peop'e could only be saved by sacrifice or by disaster he was for saving the people, and he would offer his own life if necessary in the struggle. The American riflemen, on 16th June, paid their first visit to Dollymount range. At first they made a good many misses, but afterward shot well, making six, eight, and ten bull's eyes in succession. They only shot at 900-yard range. Seven Irish riflemen also shot their scores, ranging fiom 192, to 213, Joynt making the highest score.

Earl Cowper, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Countess, made a state entry into Dublin on the 27th of May. A person made a Knight of St. Patrick on the strength of rendering a public service is such a rare occurrence that it should be recorded with as much publicity as possible. The Duke of Edinburgh has, announces the London Gazette, been made a Knight of St. Patrick " for bis services in superintending the distribution of Irish relief funds." We cannot immediately remember that during our time any Knight of St. Patrick has distinguished himself in any way calculated to be of service to Ireland. The Duke of Edinburgh's services to the famine-stricken people of Ireland could easily have been more without any Eelf-sacrifice whatever. His royal highness has, however, lent his personal assistance to the relief dispensers, and that is something. Ireland is thankful for even Email things, and the people of Ireland generally will, no doubt, fully appreciate the fact that they have at last a Knight of St. Patrick who is capable of being useful as well as ornamental. We congratulate both the people of Ireland and the royal duke.

Denis Kearney has been released from prison by the California Supreme Court. The only charge against Kearney was that he had used abusive language. The impeachment proceedings against Mayor Kalloch ha*'e been set aside by the same court that sent Kearney to jail. There is no telling what any court may do when it gets fairly started on a case. The release of Kearney, however, is only simple justice. He was hounded down by . men whose rascalities he had exposed, and the law was twisted to make him a victim when it could not make him a culprit. Kallocb's case is very different from Kearney's, and should not be confouuded with it in any way. People who believe in chance will find it harK to account for the results of a little shooting afiair out in Leavenworth, Kansas, last week. Thomas Thurston fired two shots at an editor and killed the lawyer who had got the shooter acquitted of the charge of murder a month ago. Murderers can run on with a good deal of impunity until they get to fooling with editors.

It is sometimes a great comfoit to be deaf. A minister who was a passenger on board the Stouington at the time of the collision with the Narragansett, slept through it all, and the terror and tumult that followed, and knew nothing about the terrific crash that followed till next morning. The minister is also an editor, but an editor so deaf as that — well !

Arthur Cole Hill was in the Hudson Bay Company's employ, and held a position of considerable responsibility in Manitoba. He was an Englishman of education and intelligence, and fifty years old. He fell in love with an Indian ;*irl, married her, abandoned the little civilisation to be found in that region, and lived in a wigwam with his wife. During five years he was practically a member of her tribe, leading their iude life, and hardly ever seeing a white man. He died recently. To a former white companion he said that his marriage had been exceedingly happy, and that he had never desired to leave his savage surroundings.

Yellow fever has made an early appeararce this year. The Pacific Mail steamship Colon, which reached New York from Aspinwall, June 17, had lost two passengers by it on the voyage, and a third was ill when the steamer arrived. The Health Officer ordered her into quarantine at once and there probably is no danger of the disease spreading iv New York. But should it reappear iv the South, the consequences may again be seriou9.

Some of the papeis aro hinting that it was just a little bit mean in a popular actress, who sold an accumulation of jewels at auction, the other day, to include among them several which she had received as presents. Generally speaking, it is not creditable to turn presents into cash. But the actress had a distinguished precedent. General Grant did not hesitate to sell the house that had been bought for him at Washington, and put the money in his pocket. However, if everybody were as mean as Gen. Grant 1 Bradlaugh talks of paying a visit to America. That would be a mistake for Mr. Bradlaugh. If he is really desirous of meeting his American admirers we think a public subscription to send the latter over to England would be rapidly filled up. Isn'tJMr. Bob) Ingersoll quite enough for the United States without importing foreign blasphemers 1 Bilas Waite. who stole half a million dollars from the Brattlaboro' (Vermont) Bank was so excruciatingly pious that he would hardly do business with anyone who was in his eyes a worldling and sinner. That was how he came to get unworldly easygoing men as directors of his bank.

The charming Mr. Bradlaugh, M.P., during a visit to this country in 1877, was taken seriously ill. Through the kindness of some friends he was provided with a bed in St. Luke's Hospital and in course of time was cureu. On leaving the hospital he slipped into the nurse's hand a small package as a mark of his gratitude for her attention, at the same time saying, " Keep these ; one day they will be worth a great deal of money." The delighted attendant opened the envelope with visions of certificates of stock or some valuable security ; but it proved to contain only a number of Bradlaugh's autographs ! — The Hour.

Ingersoll has gone South, and the indignant letters from enraged ministers which have filled the papers are no longer seen. It will be difficult to convince the South, in this weather, that there ia no hell, and the indignant ministers may console themselves with that reflection. It is unlucky for the Christian religion in this country that ministers will insist on defending it. The ministerial apologies which we have read in the papers are as weak and super-

ficial, without being as smart, as Ingersoll's attacks. It is scandalous that in this country of progress Irgciscill should be received by appjoving crowds, but it is also scandalous that professed ministers of the Gospel, by their utter inefficiency, should force the lovers of Christianity to cry out " Save us from our friends I " Icgersoll is the child of Protestantism. He goes the whole length. He follows out the teaching of Luther to its logical conclusion. And the great Bhame is that Ingcrsoll does not stand alone : he repiebcnts a large and increasing clasp of Americans. What young man, brought up in Piotcstan*if.m has any f-ettled belief to-day ? In the last ten years the Bible has gone out of fashion, and the man who professes to accept it as the divine word of God is becoming very rare among " educated " people. Bob Ingersoll brings about his most telling and humourous effects by parodying the cant of Methodism. There is a certain fascination, too, for the American mind in a man who boldly "talks back " to God ; we like to joke about sublime things ; an immense advertisement hung across Niagara Falls would fill us with laughter and admiration. It would be such a big incongruity. Death is the most humorous word in our vocabulary, and obituary poetry makes us chuckle continually. The newspapers have made breaches of the commandments so amusing that reports of murder, adultery, and theft are the funniest things in their pages. It is only natural, then, that the juggler who uses the most sacred things in heaven and earth as appliances of his art, should have an audience. Many persons legard Ingersoll as a humourist, and grow tired of him ; others, the majority, look on him as a prophet because he expresses in public, what they have learned to think. Protestantism has brought forth Bob Ingersoll and his followers, and the sects arc terrified and weaponless before them. A writer in the Zion Herald is alarmed by the increase of divorces. " The family is endangered ; its stability and permanence are fact losing their hold on society. Domestic relations are growing weaker ; the affections and attractions of life do not centre in the home so much as they should do. All history proves that the first indications of decline among a people or nation arise from attacks on the family. Says a distinguished writer, speaking of divorce and other evils that threaten our institutions, everything ' depends upon our ability to keep/<Z7«iZy life pure and simple.' " But he can suggest nothing that can make marriage state anything more than a human contract. Protestantism tore away the sacramental character which Christ gave to marriage, and the "reformed" world today reaps the whirlwind it 6owed. The only remedy lies in the Church ; she alone defends the family and society with impregnable force ; she alone keeps back the torrent of licentiousness which the Reformation turned loose. Protestantism has accepted divorces ; and, in spite of its pretended following of the Scriptures, it has ignored Christ's direct declaration that marriage is indissoluble. What is left for the alarmed sects to do ? To teach any dogma implies that the sect thus teaching holds all the truth, and is infallible, which would be assuming a prerogative of Rome. The Methodists had really better look after their preachers. Every day some new story of ministerial misconduct floats to the ears of the public. If the Bible be a panacea for all spiritual ills, the Bible Society ought to distribute Bibles among the ministers who seem sadly in need of missionary effort. The lawmen in the Methodist communion ought to organise a society for the refennation of ministers. This kind of thing has gone so far that the unregenerate, when they hear of a scandal, have gotten into the habit of asking, " Was he at the Conference?" This is very often unjust--as unjust as the interrogation of the French king when he heard of a conspiracy — " Who was she ? " The latest scandal comes from Prattsburg, N.Y., and of course there is a he and a she in it, the papers print headlines about "preacher and pupil," and the impromptu court which sits on the case declares that he was not guilty, but he must not preach in Prattsburg any more I The verdict is deemed satisfactory, the reverend gentleman retires to shadier places, and she tries acetate of lead in large quantities, the quicksilver from the back of a lookingglass, and, finally liquid rouge ; and yet she still lives. The story is only one of a dozen in which the Methodist minister figures or has figured. No wonder that Bob Ingersoll gains so many recruits from among the Methodists, for if a tree is known by its fruit, the fruits of Methodism give but small guarantee of the soundness of the parent trunk. The Methodists had better not do so much talking about the spread of infidelity. Example is the best teacher, and the example of such preachers as have lately come to the surface can hardly be consistently used as arguments for religion and morality. A reformation of ministers is Heeded.

Alsace and Lorraine have belonged to the German empire very nearly ten years, and yet the people of the two provinces have not hitherto shown the least desire to call themselves German ; they still hope to be restored to France some day. Of late, however, a little change for what the Germans would call the better has set in, and this is chiefly owing to the way in which Marshal Manteuffel, the Governor-General of the new dominion, manages things and people. His predecessors used to take very high ground, indeed, and look upon their subjects, pro tern., as an inferior species, fit only to pay taxes and to supply soldiers for the army ; and as to the Catholic Church, to which the vast majority of the Alsatians belong, they would keep it down as much as they could. The present governor acts differently. He treats the Church with much more regard ; and as for the people, he tries as well as he can to attend to their wants and wishes. Every Saturday morning he receives every one who likes to call on him to bring forward any grievance, and he takes care fio find redress for these. In this way he has become unpopular with his subordinates, but extremely popular with the people, and done a great deal to reconcile them with their annexation to Germany. Mattre Rousse, an avocat at the Paris Court of Appeal, having been consulted on the position in which the decrees of March 29 place persons belonging to the unathorised religious congregations, Gambetta's paper, the Hepvbliqve Francaise, seems to have a plentiful lack of knowledge about some things in America. Advocating a proposition to put the church altogether under State control in France, it gays that "in the presence of the constantly-increasing

immigration of the Irish, even the United States are becoming alive to the grave inconvenience of the separation of Church and State." It is news to people over heie that the separation is regarded as an " inconvenience," though no doubt there are some fanatics in the country who would like to see the Government have power to " put down the Papists." If Gambetta and his friends had a little ef the broad American spirit of fairness, the prospects of real republicanism in France would be a good deal better than they are. The Radical war on religion in France is the great danger of the time. The country never will have a true republic till this is stopped. In thanking his electors for having returning him to the Chamber, Mgr. Freppel, Bishop of Angers, and now deputy for the Third Circumscription of Brest, say& :— Catholics of Brittany, you have Bhown your brethren the true ground of defence, and if the great example that you have just set them were every wheie followed, if the generous movements in which you have taken the initiative were tv extend from one end of the country to the other, the spirit of old France would awaken to the breath of faith and of religious libeity. and living in common, has expressed the following opinion — 1. That no law at present in foice prevents persons belonging to the unauthorised religious congregations from living together ; 2. That in the event of the government wishing to dissolve these associations, or some of them, it would not have the right to do so through an administrative channel, but that the ordinary lavr courts would have to be first consulted ; and 3. That the dissolution through an administrative channel would in its application be an impracticable measure, and one devoid of any possible result. Sunday, May 23, had been fixed for the demonstration at Pere Lachaise over the trenches in which were buried the Communists who fell at the commencement of the hand-to-hand fight with the army ; but the firmness of the Government in resolving to prevent such a glorification of the Commune happily told upon the leaders of the movement. The latter on Satui day issued two notifications of the abandonment of the demonstration under protest, in view of the intention of the Government to employ force, if necessary, and on Sunday only a few slight incidents occurred. Two men appeared on the Place de la Bastille bearing two led crowns, which they intended to deposit on the tomb. The police arrested them, and on the way to the station about a dozen persons attempted a rescue, one of them snatching a policeman's sword, but he was apprehended before he could make use of it. A procession, headed by a man carrying a large black crown, had come up at another point ; but the police seized the crown, and broke up the procession without encountering resistance. In Pere Lachaise several hundreds of persons walked silently by the trench, and many of them threw on it immortelles as they passed. Three persons were arrested for distributing immortelles, and altogether the arrests numbered thirteen. By four o'clock all was quiet.

Tne French news of the week is not uninteresting. In the case of the Lyons elections — which resulted a fortnight siuce in placing the veteran revolutionist, M. Blanqui, at the head of the poll, but not by a sufficient majority — a second ballot has been taken, with the result that M. Blanqui has been beaten by a Republican who is somewhat less extreme. At Brest, Mgr. Freppel, the intrepid and eloquent bishop of Angers, has been easily elected — a significant circumstance, considering that Brest is one of thore places in which the Government spends every year a large amount of money, and, therefore, ought, one would imagine, to have considerable influence. It is needless to say that the Catholic cause will derive great aid from the presence of Mgr. Freppel in the legislature, where, indeed, since the death of Mgr. Dupanloup and the exclusion of the Count de Mun from Parliamentary life, the advocacy of that cause has not been particularly powerful. Lastly, we have to notice the appointment of M. Chal-lemel-Lacour to the post of French ambassador in London, in place of M. Leon Say, who has been elected President of the Senate. H. Challemel-Lacour is an advanced Republican, and an intimate friend of M. Gambetta.

Now for the other religious orders. There are several hundreds of excellent charities throughout France which, if the decree of 29th March is enforced, will have to close their doors, and many thousands of poor orphans and other destitute people will become homeless and be thrown upon the charity of the people. Does the Republican Government oE France really mean to introduce the workhouse system in their country, the same as Bluff Harry did, indirectly, in this ? Take one instance out of a great many. The Trappist Fathero of N. D. d'lgny, in Champagne, arc supporting a flourishing orphanage. Father Mvard, the prior of the convent, declares in La Champagne that they will go on after the 29th inst. without asking for any license. The guardians of orphans who are afraid of the consequences can have their charges returned to them. In case of need, that is to say if the police should be sent to turn tne fathers and the orphans out, those children who have no friends in the world at all will be handed over to the public authority, but all of them will be furnished with cards for re-admission " when better days shall have set in." Certain it is that these better days will come, but woe to those who have brought on the evil days. Bismarck's new May Bill has met with precisely the fate that might that have been anticipated from the very first. The great chancellor has for its motto Dicide et imvera, which meaus in plain English, Get people by the ears and then you can do as you like. For once the great master in statecraft has overleaped himself, and fallen on the wrong side. His idea was to get full discretionary power into his hand?, and when once he had it he thought he could compel the Pope and the Church to give way and yield all his demands. They would not have done so even if the Prussian Parliament had granted him the power he asked for. As it is, the select committee of the Prussian Parliament, after considering the May Bill for nearly a fortnight, determined to reject it rather than agree to its fourth clause, by which the return of the "suspended" bishops was to depend on the will of the Government. Bismarck is stated to have been fairly driven out of his mind by this outcome of his gigantic efforts, and we shall soon see what he is really driving at. The Church, at any rate, can afford to wait, which he cannot.

Old Catholicism is not quite extinct yet in Germany, for there I are too many people interested in keeping up the semblance of this sham, but such strides as it makes amount to what the Americans call progressing backwards. The statistics of Old Catholicism recently published show that there are in Prussia thirty -six Old Catholic congregations, or associations, with altogether 18 483. If this figure were correct it would be as nothing by the side of the eight million Roman Catholics to be found in Prussia ; but it is the reverse of true, for, as an instance, the Gerinania mentions that at Bratinsberg, in Eastern Prussia, it is stated, there are but forty Old Catholics, whereas there were seventy four years ago, and of these several have returned to the Church. With regard to Bavaria, the Old Catholic " Register" remarks ;— " In consequence of the unfortunate policy of the Government, and for want of the necessary agitation, the number of Old Catholics has greatly fallen off. They are now less by 2000 than they were in 1878." And yet these people go on asking to have Catholic churches handed over to them for their sacrilegious antics ! However, of late their wishes have in no one instance been complied with. The death is announced of the Most Rev. Dr. Stephen Fennelly, Vicar-Apostolic of Madras. The Madras papers to hand this month bear willing and ample testimony to the services of Dr. Fennelly both as a bishop and as a citizen, and show that he was highly esteemed and venerated not only by his co-religioniits, but by his Protestant neighbours. Dr. Fennelly was a native of Ireland, having been born in the parish of Moyne, in the diocese of Cashel. He was born about the year 1817, and, having early in life chosen the ecclesiastical state as his career in life, was sent in 1833 to the College of Maynooth, where he pursued his studies, at the close of which he was ordained to the priesthood in 1843. It is curious that bis predecessor in the vicariate of Madras was his brother, the Most. Rev. John Fennelly. The following Nihilists were sentenced at St. Petersburg, 26th May : Michaeloff and Sabouroff are condemned to death. Dr. Weimer, fifteen years bard labour in the Siberian mines. Kalenkina (female prisoner), fifteen years hard labor in Sibeiia. Troschienski, twenty years hard labor. BerdinkofF, fifteen years bard labour in the mines. Lowentbal, ten years hard labor. Malinowska (female) and Boulonoff are banished to Tobolsk. Natinsen (female) six years hard labor, and Witanieff four years, at the Government factory. The prisoners heard their sentences with calmness. Not more than one hundred persons, mostly the friends and relatives of the condemned, waited to hear the judgment of the Court pronounced. Among those composing the small audience, however, was the German military attachee, General Werder. There is a man — Albert Schwanduschka— at Cottbus, in Prussia, who at one time belonged to the Catholic clergy, and who went over to Protestantism some years ago for the avowed purpose of marrying. He was received with open arms in the Lutheran Church, in which he became a " preacher of the Word." A short time ago his wife died, and forthwith he prepared to marry another, for which he required the consent of the Consistory of the Protestant Church of Silesia. But that Consistory did not think it consistent with the duties of a minister to marry a second time, so they refused. In consequence of this Schwanduschka married number two without the acquiescence of his superiors, which involved his giving Tip his living ; and it now appears that he has applied for admission as a priest to the " Old Catholic " Church. This is the kind of men that this body are recruiting their strength from — which shows, at any rate, that they are not over particular. The summary of the proceedings at what vas called th* "Old Catholic Synod" is precisely what any one familiar with this most wretched and despicable of heresies would have expected. In the first place, Herzog was there — of course he wa«, he has nowhere else to put himself since the Christian world ostracised him. When the Daily News correspondent informs us that " the subjects discussed did not present many features of general interest," we are plea&untly surprised to find that we are able to agree with a gentleman from whose statements, as a rule, we are conscientiously compelled to dissent. Mr. Loyson was also there, and (says the correspondent) " Gave token of his reconciliotion to Geneva and its Church, which he once stigmatised as a State without freedom and a Communion without religion." As neither the State nor the Communion h,\s changed in the least, it would be interesting to know what has induced Mr. Loyson to change his opinion of them. But what a finale ! After all the rhodomontade of this unfortunate man. about purifying the Church, with which he sought to cover out of sight his sin of apostacy, to finish by becoming a mere every-day Swiss Calvinist, which means in reality a free-thinker ! Bad as he is, Dollinger did well to wash his hands of the ex-Carmelite. We like a little proper pride, or rather proper self-assertion. The long illness of the Empress of Russia ended, towards the close of last week, in death. The ceremony of transporting her Majesty's remains from the Palace to the Fortress Cathedral of Peter and Paul took place on Monday, and was a remarkable one, the procession consisting of twelve sections, and including standard bearers of the various provinces of Russia and Bulgaria, a man in a suit of sable armour bearing in his hand a naked sword, the state coach of the deceased, drawn by eight white horses in gala trappings, deputations representing the Red Cross and other benevolent societies in which the Empress took a deep interest, the choirs, clergy, and members of the Holy Synod, the Emperor, attended by Count Alderberg, General Milutme, and other officers, and followed by all the princes of the family, on horseback, and finally a host of functionaries, civil and military, squadrons of horse, batta'ions of foot, a battery ot artillery, heralds, pages, and servants. The remains were interred on Wednesday. The death of the Empress 3s likely to have a marked effect, politically and socially, in the Czar's dominions. Her fiigidly decorous manners are said to have kept away from the palace mere intriguers, who will now, it is thought, flock round the nerveless Emperor. The Bill promised by Mr. Foster on the relief of the distress in Ireland has at last seen the light, and it is precisely of the inadequate character anticipated. It is simply a modification of the useless

Relief Act of the Beaconsfield Ministry. It increases from £760,000 to a million and a half the sum which the Church Commissioners may advance to the Board of Works for the purposes of that Act, it sanctions the granting of loans by the board "to railway and other public companies having borrowing powers," and it enacts that the board may, with the consent of the treasury, afford loans or grants, " not exceeding in all the sum of £30,000," for the purposes of th* Fishery Piers Act. The Bill also empowers the Commissioners of Public Works to undertake works of public utility when one-fourth, of the estimated expense has been provided, and confirms the power of the Lord Lieutenant to call extraordinary baronial sessions for this purpose. And this is all 1

Professor Ray Lancaster, of Exeter College, Oxford, has been delivering a very learned lecture on our " Unseen Enemies," or, in more intelligible language, on microscopic germs. From a vast amount of dissertation onmatters too scientific for general comprehension the learned doctor gave the easily-understood assurance that even the most malignant type of these germs can have their power for evil entirely checked by being once subjected to a temperature •qual to that of boiling water. So that if there be an infectious malady in a household all that need be done to effectually prevent the spread of contagion is to plunge all the linen that comes from the sick room into a copper of boiling soapsuds. The dullest intellect can comprehend this. It would be well if everybody bore it in mind.

What is a Christian ? was the question raised in the House of Lords on going into committee on Tuesday on the Burials Bill. The Lord Chancellor moved to insert at the end of clause 6 : " The word ' Christian' in this section shall include every religious service used by any church, denomination or person professing to be Christian." Both Lord Cairns and Lord Salisbury expressed their doubts of the noble and learned lord's efforts to define " Christian." The latter referred to the conduct of a professor at the infidel university of Paris. He said that : '. The students of that university, as was well known were a body opposed to Christianity, and on the election of a Protestant to a professorship the students expressed great dissatisfaction. But the professor reassured them by saying that, though he was a Christian he was a Christian without dogma and without belief . He thought there was in England a large and increasing body of whom that description would be true.

Some very remarkable disclosures may be expected during the inquiry into the finances of India. It is now said that a much greater deficit than the £4,000,000 lately avowed will be discovered, and that defective book-keeping extending over a lengthened period will also be brought to light. Is it too much to expect that the commissioners will be allowed to extend the inquiry so as to include these officials who ought to be held responsible for the existence of such an extraordinary state of affairs ? What with clerks who do not know how to keep books, and with higher-up officials who are sufficiently careless or ignorant to allow a mistake of some millions to pass muster, the finances of India have been brought to a position thoroughly disgraceful to the empire at large.

Pity it did not come sooner 1 Among the assets of the Glr s^ow Bank was a gold reef in the Indian mines. It now appears that this asset has turned out very valuable. According to rumour it may prove sufficiently valuable to ] eturn half of the bank's debts, the payment of which caused the ruin of so many persons. Those shareholders of the bank, however — and they formed the larger portion — who failed or compounded with the liquidators will reap no benefit from this unexpected stroke of good luck. The whole advantage of it will go to the very small number who have been rich enough to meet all the claims made upon them, and thereby retain their position on the roll of the shareholders.

A correspondent of the New York Times, writing from Liverpool about emigration, speaks very disparagingly of the average English emigrant. The English iarm labourer, he says, is chiefly remarkable for stolidity. He is seen but rarely at the shipping ports, for " his poverty makes emigration to the United States almost impossible." Most of the emigrants are from the manufacturing towns, and they have '"much of the ignorance and stupidity, with none of the physique of the agricultural labourer. Many cannot read and stil 1 more know nothing of tbeir destination or of what they are going to do." This writer thinks the departure of these people will be no loss to England and their acquisition no gain to America. The great proportion of the English steerage passengers, he says, " the limp, listless, pale-faced young fellows, with pipe in mouth and hands in pockets, and the slatternly young women who accompany them — must be regarded as a curse rather than a blessing to the country that acquires them." This is an astonishing way to talk about members of the glorious Anglo-Saxon race.

Mr. H. Woodger's hairdressing establishment, Royal Arcade, Dunedin, will be found furnished with every appliance required by fashion and comfort. Mr. Woodger's stock of tobaccos, &c, is also unrivalled.

Mr. P. Power, of Dunedin, wishes to dispose of a number of his paintings by art union. Mr, Power's artistic skill is well known, and should secure for his undertaking immediate and extensive patronage. His prize list is very attractive, containing several valuable portraits and landscapes. An oil painting of Mrs. Scott-Siddons, as Juliet, which forms the principal prize, has already been exhibited, and gained much admiration. The drawing for the beautiful ottoman, worked in chenille on black satin, will take place at the Dominican Convent, on Saturday, 14th inst. The holders of tickets are requested to attend. There are a few tickets still undisposed off, which may be had on application.

The Report of the New Zealand Insurance Company, which will be found elsewhere, bears ample testimony to the satisfactory condition of the Company in question. A dividend of 10 per cent., with a bonus of 5 per cent, added, has been declared, and a large sum placed besides to the reserve fund.