General News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume X, Issue 476, 26 May 1882, Page 13

General News.

The Japanese high-priest, Kitabateke, is now in Berlin for the purpose of gathering materials for the creation of a new State religion in Japan. "The variations of Protestantism," as Bossuet showed, are almost innumerable. Berlin is fertile in queer ideas about religion, but the Japanese high-priest would find an even richer hunting-field for religious aberrations in Protestant England — Universe. °

A novel charge of disturbing a congregation at a place of worship came before the Brighton magistrates lately in the shape of a summons against two young men, named Clark and Richards, for throwing stones at a church in Finsbury Road. The building is constructed of corrugated iron, and defendants had persisted in flinging stones on the roof, causing such a rattling that the Sunday morning service had twice to be suspended. The bench committed each defendant to imprisonment for ten days. ■A- Lofty mass of rock which threw its Bhadow over Las Vegas, N. M., half a mile away, lately tumbled into the valley. Five to fifteen thousand tons of rock were loosened from their foundation. Ihe mountain towered 5,000 feet above the Gallinus Kiver. The most remarkable result of this violent change is found to be the disclosing at the point of rupture, high on the mountain side, of aa eight foot vein of copper carbonates and sulphides, which was promptly located. Half way down the side of the mountain a coal bed was laid bare, which was also pre-empted as soon as discovered. The Very Rev. Thomas N. Burke, O. P., the. renowned Dominican preacher, it will surprise many to learn, has for his own church an old outhouse, or bam, which fortuitously came into the hands of his OrderatTallaghtin 1855. Such a church is his whose thrilling eloquence has been the magic touch to make stately edifices spring up in every part of the country. Acting under imperative instructions from the supreme head of his Order, he is about to commence the building of a new church at Tallaght. He appeals to his " old friend, the Catholic Public, " for the necessary help. We find the following suggestive article in an exchange : " Having entered a pew, move along ; do not block up the end of the pew as if you did not intend to have anybody else to enter it, or as if you were holding it for some special friend&. Do not rise to let others in, but move along and leave the pew invitingly open so that they will know they are welcome. If a pew holding six has five already in it, do not file out in formal processson to let one poor, scared woman go to the further end, but move along and let her sit at the end next the aisle. It is not necessary now for a stalwart man to sit at the end ready to rush out and kill Indians, as possibly it was once. " We arc told that there is not one law for the rich and another for the poor in this land of liberty and this centre of civilization of ours. It is hard to believe this in the presence of every-day surrounding circumstances. The intelligent working man— and all working men are nowadays intelligent -cannot fail to have some misgivings as to the evenness of the law when he comes to ponder over the case Mr. Lushington, the police magistrate, had to deal with recently. A man was charged with having gambled with beer and skittles on licensed premises, and only the charge was brought by accomplices in revenge for having been cheated, it is more than likely that the man would have been punished in some way. The intelligent working man will, no doubt, ask himself in his ponderings what is the difference between shooting pigeons in a gun club for a thousand pounds a side— not an uncom* mon practice — and playing skittles at a publichouse for a pot of ale and a shilling. Gentlemen's clubs may be gambling houses and drinking houses and open the whole twenty -four hours. Working men's refreshment houses can hardly be said to bs as extensively licensed. — Universe.

Leo XIII. has addressed a letter to Mgr. Strossmayer, Bishop of Diakovar, encouraging him to persevere in his efforts to bring about a union between the Eastern Catholic and Roman Church. Leo XIII., from the very beginning of his Pontificate, took special interest in the propagation of Catholic influence in the Slav provinces. During the canonization of the two Slavonic saints, Cirillo and Metovio, the Pope's brother, Cardinal Giuseppe Pecci, said that it was the opinion of the Pope that the Balkan provinces would for a long period be the centre of important events which would influence the future of Europe. Mgr. Strossmayer is destined to be the ecclesiastical Skobeleff who will raise the standard of Catholic union in those provices. The Servian Bishops of Carlstadt, Zara, and Cattaro are protesting loudly against Mgr. Strossmayer's influence, but the learned Bishop of Diakovar is persevering, and his pastoral letter has met with the approval of the Pope. Rome is going to harbour the third congress of atheists within her walls, so that " free thought may unfurl its banner under the very eyes of the Pontificate, and relieve mankind of the yoke of priestdom." These are the words of one of the orators who addressed a meeting of 4000 infidels, recently held at the Elysee Montmartre, in Paris, to provide the necessary lucre for those French representatives of the archfiend who are to attend the congress in the Eternal City. Let Londoners rej oice, for next year the same treat will be vouchsafed to them. The announcement with which M. Lepelletier, the high priest of atheism, makes this known to the world is worth translatSaa Here it is : "In 1883 we shall be going to London, for all religions are our enemies. On a Suuday we stfa'l tell these people the truth who dare not walk too fast on a-amdaj^or fearoft appearing to ba attending to their busibfeisTnor y<ft J too slow, for fear of appearing :o not be dead b*^* § *'f jKjlM^ g«&P.'l ItiJPnJni duty not only to averthrSVW^rWts of the earth, but also tyrants of heaven." There wem fools three, thousand years ago, whs said in their hearts/ "^hefe » 6b God.^Theyare all gone, and so are their names ; yet the " childish suDgratition," as the infidel referred to terms it, still BuWm&miteW? '