General News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 408, 4 February 1881, Page 9

General News.

The persecution of the religious orders in France seems to have had the effect of uniting Catholics and making them all the more eager to obtain religious instruction for their children. Good news comes from those Jesuit colleges which have been reopened, in spite of M. Ferry a-id his locksniith. The pupils are more numerous than they ever were before. The G-vienru: n. French paper, speaking of the' reopening of the College of St. Joseph of Tivoli says. "We knew before that the brutality of the Government would not frighten Christian families. Their children have returned in greater numbers than in preceding years. This is the best answer to the enemies of religion" and the Decentralization thus speaks :—": — " The re-opening of the College of Mongre took place very quietly. The number of pupils has sensibly increased. Last year they numbered hardly three hundred, this year they are nearly four hundred. A placard placed over the door of the chapel announces that the public is not admitted." From Lyons the same good news comes. Everywhere in France religion seems to be extending its influence. It is time that the French people learned that it is their only hope. The lesson of the Commune is lost unless they understand that Gambetta welcoming Garibaldi meanß license, not liberty, and that the radicalism of the men in power is not true republicanism. — Catholic Review. The Statist has an article on the practicability of establishing peasant proprietary in Ireland, and says: — " Money in abundance has been advanced in various ways to Irish landlords and others for purposes* of secondary benefit to Ireland, and there has been much loss. It is surely time to try "whether an advance for a primary object which the Irish people desire and which is needed to cure a discrepancy which has lasted for centuries between the laws of Ireland and the usages and ideas of the people will not be more successful. "We must urge, then, that a measure to expropriate a large part of the land of Ireland, giving a fair price to the landlords, and to settle thereon a peasant proprietary, is both immediately necessary and easily practicable. It is a measure worth some risks of loss, but no loss is really probable. It must be a bold and thorough measure, affecting a large transfer at once, while the Commissioners to be appointed should have most ample powers, and the local authorities should also be constituted soaa to give the whole Irish people an interest in the success of the work. Of course it would be a corollary of such a measure that the Commissioners would have power to give indefeasable titles, and that a cheap and easy system of transfer should be established. But Ireland, we hope, will not be the only part of the United Kingdom which will get the benefit of the last measure."

Six gentlemen, charged with uttering seditious cries, and insulting the police on the occasion of the application of the March Decrees in Paris, were tried on Saturday, November 13, before the Tribunal Correctionnel. M. Cochin and the Baron de Lassus, both contributors to the Jfranqais, who were present at the expulsion of the Dominicans, and told the Commissary of Police that his children would one day blush to hear his name, were sentenced — M. Cochin to one month, and the Baron de Lassus to two weeks' imprisonment, which, seeing the slight nature of their offence, appears unnecessarily severe. The Marquis de Bois Hebert and the Vicomte Amelot de la Roussilhe were charged with eayingto the police, " You are miserable wretches !'" and with crying, " A bas le gouvernement !" " A bas Conslans 1" The defendants were condemned to a fortnight's imprisonment. Their case was followed by that of Metrian, who, on seeing two young English ladies arrested for crying, "Vive le Liberte 1" exclaimed to the police, " You are executing a disgusting ta^k." The defendant was fined £12 sterling. Finally M. de Visinces, a student, was fined £8 for crying, " A bas les CrocheteuTS 1" There was a dispute the other night in a French theatre about a seat. The occupant refused to give it up on demand, and a policeman was called. That functionary ordered an evacuation. Said the occupant : — " You have a right to summon m»:, if you like ; but to turn me out is another thing. I know well you have become familiar with expuMons of late, but just bear in mind that I am not a Capuchin." The policeman retreated, and the listeners laughed. Several thousand persons collected in Paris the other day to witness Ihe arrival from New Cnledonia of the Communist female leader, Louise Michel, with the last batch of the annestied. M. Rochefort and M. Clemenceau received and kissed her, women threw themselves on her neck, and there was altogether a thrilling scene, till M. Rochefort got her into a cab.

Most of the Central and South American Republics are governed at this moment by enemies of the Catholic Church. Peru and Bolivia, Mexico and Ecuador, Paraguay and the Argentine Confederacy have all fallen away from that bond of Catholic union to which they are indebted for their very existence aa civilised communities. There is one creditable exception to be noted : it is the small Republic of St. Domingo, which occupies about one-half of the Island of Hayti. The latest intelligence from this island informs us that a Catholic priest, Father Agostinu Merino, was recently elected President of the Republic, and that, directly after his installation, he surrounded himself with a strictly Catholic ministry. St. Domingo is, perhaps, the only Republic of Central America whose budget shows a surplus instead of a deficit, and it is altogether a prosperous little commonwealth. It is not likely to fare any the worse for having a minister of the Church of Christ for its chief magistrate.— Universe. Parisian society has been inexpressibly shocked by the death of two young ladies belonging to the best socioty there — Mdlle. de Thannberg and Mdlle. de la Chevardierc. The two young ladies went with their friends to the tLeatre, and it was arranged that Mdlle de Thaunberg should sleep at the hou6e of Madame de la Chevardiere instead of going to her own home. A stove bad been lighted in the room of one of the young ladies, which opened into that which her friend was to occupy. They retired in good health and spirits, but

next morning when the maid entered their room with their chocolate they were found in their beds dead. They had been asphyxiated by the carbonic acid gas from the stove. The Chicago Tribune announces that, in a few months more, the larger part of the type-setting in its office will be done by machinery It has ordered a number of what are known as the Kosterbein typesetting machines, by by which type can be set very much faster than by the present hand method. One advantage to the paper of this plan will be that it will enable it to receive news up to a relatively late hour in the morning, and yet get its paper to the mails and on the street at the customary time. There is a type-setting machine in the office of the London Times, which is used in connection with a telephone in reporting late debates in the Parliament House ; but this machine was, we believe, invented by the originator of the Walter press. Our Chicago contemporary's machines are to come from Belgium, and are asserted to supersede any now in use. The experiment will certainly be watched with interest. The Marchioness of Ripon is a first cousin of her husband's, and 1 a very brilliant society woman, who, up to the period of her husband's 1 becoming a Roman CathoUc, divided with the late Lady Waldegrave the distinction of being the leader of fashion, and gave most charming dinners. She was strongly opposed to Lord Ripon's becoming a Catholic, and still more to his accepting the Governor-Generalship of India, whither she followed him with great reluctance. The climate has been fatal to so many Governor-Generals, including Lords ' Dallhousie, Canning and Elgin. The Special Commissioner of the London Daily Nens in " disturbed Ireland " writes to say that — " No ordinary traveller is in the slightest danger. Alone, unarmed, day or night, a stranger may go anywhere, without even the risk of being robbed." When shall we be able to assert the same regarding " immaculate" England, or even of our own great and glorious "Land of the Free?" — American Pa/per. London Truth says : When the Emperor of Germany was hunting a few days ago in the Hartz Mountains, he fired 16 shots at the deer, which appeared in large numbers wherever he went. In the evening the Chief Forester, who had conducted the hunt, showed him 23 of them dead, which he said the Emperor had shot. "Are you quite certain about that ?" asked his Majesty. " Yes ; positive." " Well," said the Emperor laughing, " that's very curious, for I fired only 16 shots." The murders which have taken place in Ireland during the last week have no connection (as far as yet appears) with agrarianism, and, therefore, need not hurry on a Coercion Act. The Limerick and Meath crimes are evidently connected with robbery, and in both cases, all the people joined in execration of the awful crime. — Universe. Nov. 20.

In consequence of the announcement that the Bishop of Rochester would occupy the pulpit of St. Paul's Protestant Church, Lornmore Square, Walworth, on Sunday evening, November 28th, the church was crowded to excess. It was generally understood that an Evangelical clergyman had been appointed to the living vacant by the death of the Rev. W. P. Cay- Adams, and that the ritual, for which the church had been so notorious, would be considerably curtailed. No alteration, however, was made in the service, and it is not expected that any change will take place for some time. The Bishop preached, and said that, although that was the first time he had been amongst them, he hoped it would not be the last. His lordship insisted on the necessity for worship in the spirit as opposed to external worship, and at the close of his sermon said : lam here as it is not desirable to keep this congregation in suspense on a matter about which they feel keen anxiety. I tell you face 10 face with my own lips what will not surprise you, that whatever is illegal in the services here will have to be discontinued." This announcement caused great commotion, some of those present hissing and others applauding. Nearly the whole of the congregation rose to their feet, and a few women ,-ci earned, but the church- wardens, aided by a few of the young men acting as sidesmen, speedily quelled the distuibance. On his way to the vicarage to disrobe, the Bishop was the subject of a hostile demonstration, a great mob following him, [ hooting and yelling, and greeting him with many uncomplimentary ivmaiks. Ai" cine point a iust» was made, and, but for the interposition of the police, his lordship would havr. been assaulted. As he left the vicarage and drove away the ill-feeling of the congregation was again manifested, and his cairiage was followed to the counnes of the parish by a large crowd, who kept up a continuation of groans and hisses. The new vicar is the Rev. E. F. Alexander. The concurrent testimony both of Mr. Chas. Mussel! and of an intelligent correspondent m the London Standard, goes to show that Lord Lansdowne rules over 1 35,500 acres in Ireland with a patriarchal rod, hard, if not of iion. The rules of his estate make his agent its master, and his tenants little more than seifs. If what the Standard correspondent asserts be correct, tfnd his tenants little more than serfs. If what the Standard correspondent atserts be correct, Lord Lansdowne has been making a handsome profit out of the board of works lelief fund. The charge is this : Lord Lansdowne bon owed the money fioni the Government on condition of paying 3£ per cent, for 35 years, when the debt could be wiped off. This money tie benevolently let to his tenants at 5 per cent, interest, the result of which double transaction is that for thirty-five years Lord Lansdowne will made l£ per cent., out of a fund which certainly was not intended to enable landlords to make money out of their tenants. Although the Enipje^s of Austria has taken Kilkenny Castle for two months, her Majestry's residence in it will be but for five weeks 1 duration, after which the Empiess returns t Vienna to assist at the marriage of the Aichdnke Rudolph, the Prince Imperial. In fire weeks, however, with the twenty-six horses and the twenty servants her Majesty brings with her, much good sport may be enjoyed. The Bishop of Manchester, leplying to a correspondent, condemns the expen-.es in connection with funerals as wasteful and extravagant, and says that an improvement in this respect will cume about as soon as people bring their comn oa sense to bear upon the consideration of the matter.

Mr. Walter Lambert (says the Irixh Time*), a large landowner and magistrate at Athenry, has been " Boycotted " by bi9 neighbours. His domestics and herdsmen have been warned to leave his employment.

The land agitation, as evidenced by the monster meetings reported in our news columns this week, is growing more and more widespread and intense. The demonstrations of Sunday last alone numbered nearly a score, all of which were of importance from the numbers in attendance, and from the character of the ppeeches and resolutions ; while there were meetings also on Fiiday week, Saturday, and Monday. The meetings in the North are particularly significant, and if we would allude to one of them in especial it would be to that at Glenfarne, where several Orangemen were present, and whe^e it was stated that three-fourths of the Orange body sympathised with the Land League. The presence of the Catholic clergy in great force on the land platforms continues to be conspicuous. We are glad to note that the question of " outrages " received attention at some of the gatherings, actual outrages being denounced, but the concoctions thereanent being also vigorously condemned. One of the speakers at Kiltimagb laid the commission of many ngrariau crimes at the door of the landlords, and this suggestion is one well deserving of consideration. Lastly, we would draw attention to Mr Dillon's advice to the farmeis at Sligo that the cost of the extra police should be every where deducted from the rents. Ceit airily the persons who created the disturbances wo'ild thus be made to '• pay the piper." — Nation, December 4th.

A movement has been started in Thuiles for the purpose of giving a welcome home to his Grace the Archbishop of Cashel, who is expected to arrive this week from Rome. No more proper movement has ever been set on foot. The Most Rev. Dr. Croke deserves, indeed, not only from his own people in Tipperary, but from the ■whole Irish people, whatever public honour or compliment can be paid to him by them, for in championing their cause here at home and in the Eternal City he has laid them under an obligation difficult to be redeemed. We are sure the Thurles demonstration will be a thorough and a memorable success. — Nation, December 4th.

Towards the close of last week several remarkable demonstrations took pla^e in Ulster in support of the Land League programme. At Pomeroy in Tyrone, at Moneymore in Derry, at Cavan, and at Scotstown in Monaghan, the people, Protestant and Catholic, assembled in thousands to hear the land agitators, and the result was the starting of the agitation in earnest in each of those districts — if. indeed, the land movement cannot be said to have been well started in some of them for some time previously. The Derry meeting bodes ill for the re-election of Mr. Attorney-General Law for that constituency ; but of the whole series the meeting at Scotstown is the most notable, for it indicates the defeat of a great landlord attempt to stop the progress of the agitation in the North. Lord Rossmore and one or two other personages of that ilk called, with a great flourish of trumpets, each for 1,000 men to assemble at the same time and place a» the popular leaders had fixed upon for their meetine, and for a few hours there was fear of a collision between two hostile assemblages. But although it is possible to call spirits from the *asty deep, it docs not follow that th^y will come. When Lord Rossmore and his fellowmagnificoes arrived near the scene of the expected battle they found that their forces numbered only about fifty men, while on the other Bide there were airayed thousands 1 Under the circumstances, it is needless to add, the. landlord demonstration was " postponed," and the other came off and proved a splendid success. — Nation, December 18th.