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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 26, 17 October 1884, Page 17

THe Yen. Archdeacon Coleman's collection for the Dunedin Cathedral Building Fund still progresses satisfactorily and much to the credit of the Catholics of the districts he visits. The Archdeacon will be in Lawrence and Waitahuna next Sunday ; in Waipori on Sunday 26 tb ;in Queenstown on Sunday Nov. 2nd ; and in Arrowtown on Sunday Nov. 9. As the generosity and religious zeal of the good people of each of the places mentioned are well known we have no doubt but that the appeal made to them will meet with a ready response. Some time ago a number of young men at Invercargill formed themselves into a club with the laudable end of promoting entertain* ments for the purpose of paying off the debt on the Dominican convent in the town. Their efforts have been very successful, and the net results of one of the concerts given some two or three weeks ago were £25. A good deal remains to be done however, sg the sum still due of £700 imposes a heavy burden on the Nuns. The rejection of the Gold Duties Abolition Bill by the Legislative Council means a continuance of the disabilities under "which a most deserving and useful class of colonists labour. The grievance { suffered by the miners is a heavy one, and it is much to be regretted that the Council has thought fit to perpetuate it. In this case a most necessary industry is taxed exceptionally, and in an extremely burdensome manner. In another place will be found an article from Natwe commenting on the admirable display made by the Christian Brotheis schools at the Educational Exhibition, aud which should put to shameall the enemies of Catholic elucation. The Christian Brothers in Ireland have won the especial admiration of the people because oE their rejection of Government aid rather than to draw the line required between secular and religious instruction, and to which Mr. A. M. Sullivan, in advocating the claims of religious (education in New Ireland, makes jeproachful reference. Mr; T. D. Sullivan, moreover, • the present editor of the Nation has written some spirited verses praising the Brothers' for their conduct in this matter, and which versesjwe quoted in a recent issue. To find such zealous teachers of religion so approved as secular teachers of the very highest order is a' powerful argument' against those who decry the system they uphold and practise, and makes manifest their, ignorance, or malice, or both combined . , One of the most lively of all possible societies appears to be that 1 of whose meetings at Kensington our daily contemporaries have given

reports during the last few days. If we may judge by the language published concerning that which the reporters pass over as impossible to publish, the tout ensemble must have been edifying indeed. The Society is called the " Rational Sick and Burial Association," and whatever it may produce in the way of burial, it must be admitted that as represented by the meetings in question it may at least produce extremely rational sickness. — Nothing can be more disgraceful than the reports to which we allude.

It is perhaps as a set off against the fact of the devotion and self-sacrifice shown by nuns and priests in attending on the cholera patients of France and Italy that the St. James \G-aaette publishes certain assumed records narrating feats of drunkenness and the encouragement given to such by nuns and ecclesiastics in the middle ages, and that our worthy contemporary the Dunedin Evening Herald quotes the article in question. Doubtful records of the middle ages are we know quite as much evidence as the ordinary Protestant requires, or, for the matter of that, can produce in order to counterac the influences likely to arise from the admiration deserved by Catho* lie heroism in the present. But the great Protestant Tradition must be maintained at any cost, if only by calumniating the past in order to divert attention from the present evidence. It is. neverthless, true that Walter Mapes, or Map, Chaplain to Henry 11, and commonly called the " jovial Archdeacon," wrote at least one drinking song in Leonine verse — but as he also wrote powerful satires in condemnation of ecclesiastical irregularities his transgression in that respect may perhaps be looked upon as in some degree mitigated. The fact, more* over, that a poet writes a drinking song is by no means conclusive as to drinking habits on his own part or a desire to encourage them on the part of others. Father Prout, again, another ecclesiastic by the way, says " A ' water-poet ' is a poor creature in general." Meantime, whatever may have been the accusations brought against nuns or priests in the middle ages there can be but little suspicions of undue joviality or of carousing attached to those nuns who have succeeded one another, as death called upon them to do, in thejhospitals of Toulon and Marseilles or the priests who have ministered to their flock without flinching in the pestilential atmosphere of Naples. — But these are matters concerning whose details we shall find but scant quotation in the columns of our contemporary the Evening Herald or those of any other journal that stoops to pander to bigotry. The report that a German firm have undertaken to supply the navy of their country with coal at certain islands in the South Pacific is suggestive when we consider that the annexation of Angra Pequena followed on the settlement there of a German merchant. There is a sentence also in an article published in connection with the asserted colonial designs of Austria by the Hamburger Naohrichten, that seems to have some bearing on the case. It is to the effect that commeicial business must be established before its protection or development could be thought of. But coaling stations may well be found capable of a very full development, Sabbatabianism is in the ascendant among us. In section 13 of the Police Offences Bill passed the other day in committee the following clause occurs :— " Any person who, on Sunday, ... plays at any game or pastime, in any public place, or discharges any firearms, shall for every such offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding £10." It is true that such silly interference with the liberty of the people, and above all, with that liberty of conscience concerning which so many boasts are made, still obtains, as a relic of religious oppression, in the Old Country ; and, as a case in point, we find that a zealous parson brought a young man before the magistrates the other day, at Clane, in Kildare, for playing marbles with his little brothers on Sunday — the magistrates very wisely dismissing the case. But that is no reason in the world why so senseless and ridiculous a law should be re-enacted here. We do not know whether Mr. Stout's allowing the clause to pass unopposed was a move of the Mephis-topheles-like sort, his intention being to discredit religion by making it absurd — but it may well have been so, that is, if Mr. Stout could stoop to such an action, and it is otherwise impossible to account for the course taken by him. At any rate, to impose such restrictions on the freedom of people who dissent altogether from the Puritan notions of the Sabbath, and either hold them as a monstrous distortion of the due observance of the day as commanded by the Christian Church, or reject them as wholly superstitious, is to act a very unwise and oppressive part, and one that may lead to a most undesirable reaction. There is still some hope that the Legislative Council may interfere to check the threatened mischief, and it is a case in which their preventive influence may be very laudably exercised. As wa anticipated the Castle inquiry into the revelations made by Casey and Philbin have simply resulted in the determined whitewashing o£ Bolton— that is, on the side of him that is turned towards the anti- Irish party — whitewash won't stick on the other side. The Nation of August 30, refers to the case as follows :: — '• Earl Spencer on Saturday last wrote to bis Grace the Most Rev. Dr. M'Evilly, Archbishop of Tuam, officially informing him that no public inquiry would be granted to test the accuracy or inaccuracy of the statements made by Casey and Philbin, the informers in the Maamtrasna murder trials. The Lord Lieutenant assured his Grace that a prolonged and

searching private inquiry has been held, and that this inquiry established two things, viz., that Myles Joyce and the four men now undergoing penal servitude were really guilty, and that neither Casey nor Pbilbin was in any way tempted to give false evidence. But who proves all this ? Why, the very men who are accused. It is as if a party of culprits presided at their own trial, and, after taking each other's evidence, returned a verdict of acquittal. George Bolton is the chief party against whom a serious charge is made, yet George Bolton is held guiltless, just because in the secrecy of the Castle he denies the truth of what Casey and Philbin say. Why should the three men not be put in the witness-box and examined and crossexamined publicly ? This is the only way in which the truth might be arrived at. Besides, if the Castle has such a strong case on its side, what possible objection can there be to the holding of a public inquiry ? George Bolton's private w«rd is not sufficient in the minds of the Irish people to disprove what the two informers state. If no public inquiry is held, the Irish public will believe that Myles Joyce was hanged illegally, and that four innocent men were transported." Denunciations of the Encyclical Hvmanum Genus continue to be the order of the day among Freemasons and their friends, if they reckon anyone outside of their own order as such which is somewhat questionable. There can, however, be no doubt whatever but that the Holy Father counted on the storm that must arise, and was prepared to meet it. We are told that the Pope has been tardy in his condemnation, but other Popes had preceded him in it ; that he has written a tiresome rigmarole, but that depgnds on the ability of the particular editor to judge ; that many clergymen belong to the society, but clergymen cannot consistently belong to a society where the Zendavesta for example, holdß a place on ajlevel with that occupied by the Bible ; that the Grand Orient of Paris has been condemned because of its atheism, but prominent English masons continue to make common cause with the Grand Orient, as for instance Admiral Hewett the other day, and Masons in communion with the Grand Orient are still admitted to take part in English Masonic ceremonies ; that all Christians should worship in common the " Supreme Author of the Universe," but Catholics worship the Triune God alone ; that princes and nobles belong to the order, but there is nothing to ensure princes and nobles against deceit, indeed the importance ascribed to their membership may make it all the more desirable that they should be deceived. Finally the unbounded charity of the society is vaunted, but there is every reason to believe it to be a charity confined to the members of the Society only, with those who are or have been dependant on them. And, indeed, if it were so vast, self-sacrificing, and universal as it is'asserted to be, there should be hardly any poverty left to relieve, considering the numbers of the Freemasons, and the great wealth of many of them. That the Society is charitable within its own limits and in more ways than one no one can deny. We have, indeed, lately had an example of this in the tender manner with which certain men accused of crime in Dublin have been treated— the men in question being Freemasons and those who managed their trials brothers in the order. A gentleman the other day furnished a highly sensational report to our contemporary the Otago Daily Tinws concerning the cowardly conduct of an Irish policeman who preferred to put foolish questions to a Chinaman rather than attempt to stop a runaway horse chat bade fair to damage the Chinaman's express. It turns out, however, that the policeman was an Englishman— and we can only, therefore, account for the mistake by supposing that on hearing the said policeman speak without dropping his h's, as many Englishmen do, some Cockney scribe took it as a matter of course that he must be " h Irish," and invented bis paragraph according to his prejudices and breeding. The friends of Mr. J. D. Pope, late of Lyttelton, will be glad to hear that he has settled in Wellington where he has found congenial occupation on the staff of the Evening Preas. Mr. Pope as & literary man should soon make his mark in Wellington, as he is an accomplished writer, and well up to the work generally. He has in the past furnished many well-written reports, and able articles to the Tablet, as well as to several other newspapers in the colony. In Lyttelton Mr. Pope will be especially remembered as the founder of St. Joseph's choir, and as organist the Church for many years. He also wa3 chiefly instrumeutal in establishing the brass band, and in having the instruments vested in the Town Council in trust for the ratepayers. He was as well in many other respects a useful and energetic member of society, and we have no doubt but that he will ere long have secured for himself a high reputation and many friends in his new sphere of life— in which we wish him success. The Cliptomaniac of our contemporary the Evening Star descends to the Limerick Police Court in search of a nasty case, in which some fellow cheated a girl of part of her fortune and married a richer one, in order to find an illustration of the marriage customs of the Irish peasantry.— The dirty records of a police court are not however, the place in which the customs of respectable people are to be discovered. If the gentleman, nevertheless, who clips news for our contemporary finds them congenial reading and thinks his subscribers have no higher tastes, we shall not dispute the matter with him.

Wk have been rackiog our brains now for nearly three weeks in a vain attempt to find out the lord who once played whist with Mr. George Bell fifty years ago. It could not have been Lord Shafteßbury, for Lord Shaftesbury certainly never played cards in his life, and would consider such an acknowledgment as that made by Mr. Bell— unless it took place on the penitents' stool, or in the shape of a warning addressed to the young — exceedingly inconsistent in a pious Christian. — It might have been Lord George Gordon, only he died about fifty years too early for the purpose, and what is more, be died a Jewish proselyte, giving us another example of the great Judaeo-Evangelical alliance. We are sorry Lord George Gordon died so much too soon for, otherwise, we should have hit on the very nobleman to take a hand at whist with Mr. Bell, and to be followed as a pattern by the much-flattered Mr. Bell in gratitude all his life afterwards.— But those who doubt that Mr. Bell would have made an excellent follower for Lord George Gordon, we refer to " Barnaby Budge," where they will find all their doubts put an end to.

Wb learn from the Paris Figaro that the acknowledgment made the other day by the Jews of the services rendered to their nation by Sir Moses Montefiore had not been undeserved. The Figaro gives a very remarkable case in which the venerable Hebrew acted a protecting part. Speaking, then, in connection with the strange and still unexplained affair at Tizla Eszlar, in Hungary, where a Jewish lad had accused his father of killing a Protestant girl in order to use her blood in some religious ceremony, he Figaro quotes from a pamphlet published by one Dr. Justus, at Paderborn, and in which it is songht to prore— although we believe the charge has been fully refuted—that in certain sacred books of the Jews the murder of Christians is enjoined, and the use of their blood in sacrifice approved of. In relation to this publication, however, the Union, of Alsace Lorraine had given the details of a case which took place some years ago at Damascus. There was, it seems, in the year 1840, in the town alluded to, a pious Capuchin called Father Thomas, noted for his skill in medicine and inexhaustible charity ; he had, moreover, particularly distinguished himself during an outbreak of the plague by his close attendance on the sufferers in the pest-house, so that from the Turkish Governor down, the citizens of every form of belief were supposed to hold him in love and honour. There were, nevertheless, some exceptions to the rule, and they were found among a group of Jews, of whom a man named David Harari, especially esteemed for his piety, was chief. One evening, then, it was indeed that of February 5, when Father Thomas was passing in front of Harari's house, he was invited in, but bad no sooner entered than the owner, his two brothers, his nncle, and two other Jews threw themselves upon him, bound and gagged him, and immediately sent for a Rabbi named Chakam, and Soliman, the Jewish barber. The barber was ordered to cut off the Capuchin's head, but, as his courage failed, the good and pious Harari himself seized the knife, and when, in turn, his hand trembled, Aaron, his brother, came to his aid, and while Soliman steadied the victim's head by holding his beard, his throat was cut and his blood received in bottles for superstitious purposes. The body was then cut into bits, the bones were ground up, and all the remains, in such a condition, were thrown into a sewer. Nor did the doings of these pious people rest here, for, when the sacristan of Father Thomas came to search for him in the Jews' quarter, where he knew him to have gone, he also was seized and treated in a similar manner. THe crime, however, did not reraain hidden ; the suspicions of the French Consul were aroused, and the result was a full discovery. Sixteen arrests were made : two of the prisoners died during the trial, four were pardoned, and among them Soliman, on condition of turning informers, and ten were condemned to death. No executions, however, followed, for Cremieux, who was afterwards Minister of Justice in France, and Sir Moses Montefiore, who is now the revered patriarch, interceded with the Government so successfully that a firman granting pardon to the condemned men was issued. "No plea," says the Union, " that could excuse or justify was urged. A penalty justly merited was remitted 1 " But if .such proofs of devotion as this have been often given by Sir Moses Montefiore to his people, it is not to be wondered at that they hold him in high esteem and consider him worthy of reward.

Messrs. Charles Begg and Co., Princes street, Dunedin, advertise a large assortment of musical instruments of all kinds, and by the best makers, for sale or hire on the most reasonable terms. They have also on hand a great quantity of music among which musicians of all classes will find their requirements provided for.

Mr. Edward Leen has taken the Club Hotel at Gore, which will be found to afford excellent accommodation, and be in every way a first-class house.

We desire to draw especial attention to the advertisement of a farm to be found elsewhere, the opportunity offered is an exceptional one, and we would gladly see dome one or other of our readers availing himself of it. The terms will be found easy.

Amongst the victims to cholera at Marseilles is Pere Roger, who bad.iad experience in several cholera epidemics in foreign countries. He died in the Convent of the Grey Sisters, where in a few days no less than twelve of the inmateß succumbed to the plague.