WHAT THEY SAW IN THE BOSTON CATHEDRAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 12, 11 July 1884, Page 27

WHAT THEY SAW IN THE BOSTON CATHEDRAL.

A Protestant lady (says The Pilot), writes in Every Other Saturday, Boston's newest and admirable periodical, a sketch of a visit to the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. After a description of the interior of the great church, and the ceremonies they happened to see, in which, by the way , occur a few natural and pardonable errors, she says : " Bat, if we were heretics in a Roman Catholic church, we had enjoyed it intensely. It is pleasant to one's heart to sit for an entire morning in bo beautiful an edifice. To hear the • upward streaming prayers ' which one might not always understand. To listen to words of mercy, we supposed were uttered, and to recall to our imagination the time when most all Christendom was Romish., Days of monasteries, monks, nuns, and knights flooded our thoughts. For an instant we were back again hundreds of years this bright nineteenth century morning, and then as suddenly occurred to our memory the well-known lines of Barry Cornwall : — " ' Fast are the steps of the knightly feet And the clang of the steel is o'er, And the priestly masses chanted sweet Are heard through .the aisles no more.' " But we had not seen all. The old Bishop still sat quietly, with the two youths on each side. We looked, and as we turned, a third youth, in purple, appeared, with a snuff-colored baldacchino, or canopy, of oblong shape, adorned with gold fringe. It had a long, crooked handle. This baldacchino was held over His Grace's bare and venerable head, and, rising, he also passed before us, bearing in his hands the Holy Eucharist, solemnly pacing through the little chancel-rail opening, and then we knew it was all over ; this was the last ceremony for that morning " Finally we entered into the charming little chapel on the south side dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. Fresh flowers adorned her altar, and her well-known features beamel on us from above, as we stood near. At the foot of this altar knelt a poor poverty-stricken woman prostrated with apparent grief and penitence. I saw the tears flowing down her sunken cheeks. I was moved to cast a pitying glance ou the kneeling form. She appeared to have some wound ia her head, for an old bandanna handkerchief was tied around her tangled hair. I had reft the others, and was alone with this woman who seemed unconscious of my presence. A priest sat in one corner readiug aloud from a little book. I listened and the words which I heard were these : < Behold, be not dismayed when fiery trials surround you; these woe.s, tribulations, and sufferings are intended to lead us nearer to God.' I looked at the poor penitent. I heard her sobs. Did a ray of consolation spring up in her heart ? Could she comprehend the balm intended ? •' I glided away, and as we passed out into the streets of th j city, into the noise, the bustle, the crowds, and saw the numerous equipages—the world in their fine clothes, ths bright sunshine, the gay streets— the contrast of the solitude of that little chapel, and the tear-stained penitent, was so striking— riches and plenty on one side —woe, suffering, and poverty on the other. The scene haunted me for days, and haunts me yet. I was thanked by my friend, the travelled Bostonian, as we joined the throng, for showing her a scene in, and a part of, her native city, to which she had hitherto been a stranger. '• Madalike Dub ant. '

At Tuesday's meeting of the Statistical Society a paper was read by the Registrar-General on the subject of Waste Lands in Ireland. The Registrar-General stated that since 1841 there was a gradual reclamation of waste land, an improvement, however, which has not been maintained during the last ten years, in which period the land is again falling out of cultivation. The Registrar-General objected to the statements made that there were five million acres of reclaimable land in Ireland. He placed the number of acres at less than three millions, an extent which everybody will yet say c.*n be but ill spared. A great deal of that, he thought, never could be made good land. While far from discouraging this reclamation, he thought an equal amount of attention paid to good farming would be productive of better results. An interesting discussion followed the paper Dublin Freeman. The Rome correspondent of the Dublin Freeman says that ihft article which recently appeared in tue \Moniteur De Rome on tbo subject of diplomatic relations between England and the Vatican has been strongly disapproved of by the Pope and Cardinal Jacobini The article is attributed to Mr. Errington, and I believe there is little doubt that, if not the writer, he was at least the inspirer of it It is also stated that Mr. Maziere Brady's article in the last number of the Fortnightly Review upon the same subject has caused much displeasure at the Holy See, and that the writer, who held an official position in the Pope's household, has been granted leave of absence for an indefinite period.— Pilot.