General News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 396, 12 November 1880, Page 11

General News.

For some time past the great journalist, Louis Veuillot, had not been feeling well, and one day lately, when taking his usual walk in the " Bois," accompanied by his amiable sister and daughter, he suddenly exclaimed, with a sigh : '• It seems to me that something within me has given way." The words were only too true. The able writer is attacked with a commencement of paralysis of the brain. What sadder fate can be imagined 1 A great mind, whose light shone gloriously before men, suddenly shrouded in darkness ; and an ardent champion of truth deprived of the weapon he had wielded so vigorously just when the battle is raging fiercest around him. And yet how elorious to have lost that weapon in so noble a cause, to have fallen fighting for truth and justice \—Catholie Mirror. Tue Killennv Journal says that lately, when over a hundred people were engaged in prayer in the church at Ballyragget, half the number witnessed what they describe as a beautiful and life size figuie of our Lady holding the Divine Infant. Some weru quite s-pell-bound, and during the time the apparition appeared experienced indescribable spiritual consolation. This manifestation tbey all state they are prepared to prove in the most solemn manner. Amongst others, it was seen bj' three members of the constabulary and by people of all conditions. Supernatural lights have also been seen over and within the church by numbers, and the visitors or angels are described by tlie simple, illiterate people in language which can leave no doubt of their perfect sincerity. From the position of the church, which is considerably higher than the surrounding cottages, it is impossible that any imposition could be pracised by chemicals or phosphorus, and on two occasions the apparition of our Lady was* seen outside at a distance from the wall of the church. These facts are related by numbers of people in the neighbourhood.

At a banquet given at Montevideo, by some French Communists, to celebrate the fall of the Bastille, an appalling tragedy occurred. One of the guests, a Mr Samoza, was so noisy, probably from inebriation, that he was unanimously requested to withdraw, ami this so angered him that he seized a carving-knife and plunged it into the bowels of a Mr. Anfossi, a married man with a large family. The victim fell on the floor, and expired in two minutes. A dreadful scene ensued, and the maddened Frenchmen were proceeding to hang the murderer on the spot when the serenos arrived and rescued him. This fearful business is but an appropriate termination to a banquet given to commemorate one of the bloodiest events iv that awful revolutionary era which left an indelible stain on the pages of French history. — Southern Cross.

M. Regel, late Russian Consul on the Rasso- Mongolian frontier, publishes the following, characteristic of Chinese views on freetrade :: — •' During my stay in the town of Thiko in the spring of last year a guard of honour, with flags, every morning and evening stood before a large proclamation posted in the centre ot the bazaar, and, after beating of drums, an official read the following :: — • In the last moon of this year a great misfortune befell the Celestial Empire. An Englishman, without receiving permission from Lhc Son o£ Heaven to trade upon his sacred soil, nevertheless dared to pass into the province of Yunnan, and, instigating a quarrel, was killed by the inhabitants, who did not know him. So, in consequence of this, the subjects of the Son of Heaven had to pay to the wife of this Englishman an enormous amount of silver. Wishing to tpue our beloved subjects from any similar misfortune in the future, we order in our wisdom that each of our subjects shall devoutly keep watch to prevent any other single foreign trader from penetrating into our Empire without permission. We order this to be read before all our subjects every clay, morning and evening.' " Forty thousand pilgrims were present on Sunday, August 22, ac the crowning of the statue of the Holy Lady of Bon Becour in thf Ardoche. The Cardinal Archbishop of Paris and the Bishops ot Marseilles, Nice, Valence, Montpelier, and Perigucux attended the ceremony, which, although it had been interdicted by the local mayor, passed off successfully. Brutal attacks on the Paris police have been recently made, showing premonitory signs of the evil caused by the return of the amnestied Communists. A gardien de la paix went, up to a woman to remonstrate with her on the scandalous uproar she was creating in the middle of the street, when she drew a large knife from her pocket and aimed at his heart. Luckily he dodged the blow, and with the assistance of two other men succeeded in disarming the virago and carrying her off to the nearest lock-up. Mr. Matthew Lynch, who was killed lately in New Mexico by a falling tree, left an estate of over 4,000,000d015. He was a Philadcldelphian, a Catholic, who fought through the Civil War and at its close went out to New Mexico with a small capital, which he used ia purchasing a canal supplying the mines of Elizabetbtown with water. Tbis started him on the road to wealth, and later he discovered the Aztec mines, which yielded 60,00 A dols. a month. His heirs are two brothers and one sifter.

At the recent Honour Examinations at the London University for First B. A., Catholic Colleges were classed as follows : Latin, First Class— John E. P. Wallis, Ushaw, bracketed 3 ; William J. Hudson, Clongowes Wood, and Joseph Paul Snow, St. Francis Xavier's, Liverpool, bracketed 6 ; David M. Moiiarty, St. Stanislaus, Tullamore, bracketed 9 ; Francis D. Byrne, Ushaw, and William P. Byrne, St. Bedc's. Manchester, bracketed 11. Out of 12 names in tho First Class six are Catholics. Second Class— John Huagerford Pollen, the Oratory School Edgbaston, bracketed 3. French. — Third Class — W. P. Byrne, St. Bede's, Manchester, f>.

Mr. George Ryder, the convert son of an English Protestant Bishop, is the father of three zealous Catholic priests, one of whjm is the well-known Oratorian controversialist. Dr. W. H. Rule, an eminent Wesley an minister, one, too, who has written much agt\inst the Church, also has a. sou who is a. priest.— ,-lre Mafia*