Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 26, 23 October 1885, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

Thb Auckland correspondent of the Otage Daily

MB. STOTJT's Times gives the following paragraph :— " In the EWE lamb, AND lectuiing field Miss Chapman is doing well, getting AN OLDER one. crowded houses. Her subject, quite as much as

her own capabilities, howev r, proves the attraction. Her comments on the conduct of Bishop Moran, both aB a xninietfr of the Gospel and as a politician, have been more vigorous than polite. As if we had not supped sufficiently of horrors in this polemical controversy, the ' Kscaped Nun.' Madame Auffray, is about to bear a hand in the fray, and to make it lively for some folk."— As to the first mentioned of the honourable parties spoken of in this paragraph, we conclude she is one and the same with a young person brought out under a pet name — evidently as a pretty little play-thing, or sweet ewe lamb, by the body over which Mr. Stout presides in Dunedin, and therefore, the only significance in her performance is that she may be looked upon as the especial protegee of our distinguished Premier, and we may naturally conclude that it is in his Honour's interest she, at least, attacks Dr. Moran as a politician. We congratulate Mr. Stout on the manly way taken by him to get the better of j, political foe, and let us hope that its astuteness may obtiin for him all the benefit to be desired at the next election. Something or another extraordinary is decidedly nfce«sary to rehabilitate the Premier whose career has been one series of humiliations after another, and who stands politically before the public as dirt-eater to the Colony in general. Whether a chivalrous devotion to the weakness of Sir Julius Vogel, or a more personal consideration has made the office an endurable if not an agreeable one, we need not stay to inquire, but to be a great man, especially a great man with a high salary, at any cost may, perhaps, be a consistent aspiration of the philosophic mind. We know little or nothing and have heard very liitle about Miss Chapman. If &he was ever a mptnber of the Duneiin Catholic congregation, she was neither prominent nor remarkable as such, and her defalcation has never been noticed nor her presence mis3ed. We were told however ) by a non-Catholic who attende 1 oue' of her discourses that the composition, aimed as a tremendous blow at the Catholic world, was made up by the young person herself, or by whomsoever it was that put her up to the time of day, from the ordinary cUp-trap books of Protestant controversy, with a palpable falsehood thrown in here and there by way of personal experience. We sc? besides by a short notice in a contemporary that she may again claim a special connection with Mr. Stout from using that favourite argument of his with respect to the undue proportion of Catholic or Irish prisoners. But Mr. Stout knows very well— for as for bis fair ewe lamb we need not accredit her with any particular knowledge whether borrowed or native, that such a record has no bearing Whatever on the Catholic religion and cannot be taken as a proof of the true condition of Catholic populations as such. Mr. Stout knows that the criminal statistics by no means g"'ve a full or perftct representation of the B tate of the cou try as to vice and crime. Many dishonest acts are committed that are concealed and many cases of wickedness occur, as for example that connected with the seduction by a schoolmaster of a girl ot tender years related at a meeting of the Salvation Army the other day — which should by justice go to swell the criminal record on the non-Catholic side. If, moreover, the religion of persons who commit suicide were reported it would be proved in New Zealand, as it is proved in every other part of the world, that the Catholics who are guilty of that horrible crime are vastly in the minority. That a Freethinker should denounce the crime of any Catholic community as telling against their religion is an act of unblushing impudence, when every one may point to the crime and abomination that distinguish those cities where Freethoueht is most fully professed. Take for example Paris with its century of Freethinking experience, and its 34,000 burglarp and would-be assassins. Mr. Stout, neveithele^, is a special pleader — owes his chief or even it may be bis orjly reputation as a lawyer to pifts in that respect, and to prove bis point for the moment is the ODly ambition he seems capable of in any argument. Of bis regaidfor the truth of any given cafe we have had a full llnstration in those statistics of the

ladustrial Schc 1 exposed by us some years ago, and which in a manner discreditable in a man. and impossible in a gentleman, he refused to ctify knowing that the Tablet would not be read by t people it was his interest to deceWe. We have, then, again to congratulate Mr. Stout on the valuable aid he has secured, and let us hope that the agreeable bleating of this ewe lauib may draw numerous followers within his fold and quite dispe. any fears he may labour under with regard to the political opposition of Dr. Moran. — The Auckland correspondent of our contemporary tells us besides that an " Escaped Nun " is about to deliver a course of lectures in his city — and of an " Escaped Nun," known in America and Bnglandas Edith, or Biddy, O'Gorman, we give a sketch in another place — and let as take this opportunity of apologising fo our readers for placing before them anything so humiliating and disgusting, but the superior enlighteument of Protestantism and Freethought, and the nature of the food they requiro oblige us to do so, and that must be our excuse. The Auckland Weekly News tells us, apropos of the " Escaped Nun " now visiting his city, that " in religion, as in politics, it can do us no harm to hear both sides of a question." And we have seen how people at Auckland have been hearing another side of the political question under the manly auspices of our tno6t honest and honourable Premier ; but if they and their kind had not already heard another side of the religious question from the mouth of any calumniator capable of concocting and repeating a dirty story for the last three hundred years, their ears have not itched as we have reason to believe that they have. From the time when the Reformation was bred in the lusts of Luther and cradled in the murderous adultery of King Henry VIII , down to the present time, as it was but natural, Protestantism and its offspring, Freethought, have been the hot-bed of prurience, and have needed for their nourishment and delight a diet of filth and abomination. Luther himself began it, and his revolting talk and sermons teem with such matter, and, through all the age 8 since, the course of things has continued the same— the culmination being reached, as we might suppose, in the grosser child of Protestantism, whose Freethinking ways lie wholly through an abyss of filth. Take, for example, the worship of the goddess of uncleanness as described by Mr. M. Arnold in his lectures in America. He speaks as follows :— " Now really when one looks at the popular literature oorf r the French at this moment — their popular novels, popular stageplays, popular newspapers— and at the life of which this literature of theirs is the index, one is tempted to make a goddess out of a word of their own, and then, like the town-clerk of Ephesus, to ask : ' What man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the French is a worshipper of the greit go Idess, Lubricity ? Or, rather, as Greek is the classic and euphonious language for names of gods and goddesses, let us take her name from the Greek Testament, and call her the goddess Asclgeia. That goddess has always been a sufficient power among mankind, and her worship was generally supposed to need restraining rather than encouraging. But here is now a whole popular literature, nay, and art too, at her service ; stimulations and suggestions by her, and to her, meet one in it At every turn. She is becoming the great recognised power there ; never was anything like it. M. Renan himself seems half inclined to apologise for not having paid her more attention. ' Nature cares nothing for chastity,' says he ; ' Leg frivoles ont peut*etre raison ; ' the gay people are perhaps in the right. Men even of this force salute her ; but the allegiance now paid to her in France by the popular novel, the popular newspaper, the popular play, is, one may say, boundless." The matter, therefore, among those who are at war with the Catholic Church has attained t» the proportions of a diatinct worship, and the united sects must have their ministers. The people on whom the blame 9hould fall are not so much the miserable creatures — the pimps who minister to the loathsome and growing appetite. We do not, for examp'e, blame Mother Jefferies one half so much as the men who employ her. It is those who indulge this disgraceful appetite — it is the systems in whoso blood the appetite is that are chiefly in fault. In matters of dirt, as in everything else, the demand will create the supply, and " Escaped Nuns," and other such lecturers will be always forthcoming. The libertine will never want bis Mother Jefferies. The calling referred to is, no doubt, an infamous one, but t-o far as infamy is excusable ! because some wretch or anothei will not or cannot work, and feels the doubtful necefsity of living.it is to be excusr?d. Let us at least

accord to Mr. Stout's ewe lamb and the older one all the indulgence that is their due. Why, indeed, should not the devil have big own ?

A SIQiariOANT SPEECH.

to be wondered at if has excited a storm of indignation in all quarters where the Irish cause is opposed. It seems to prove the falsehood of that statement we so often see advanced to the effect that the sympathy with Ireland felt by the American people properly so-called is but doubtful, and that it is but Iriih. Americans, and those who for objects of their own desire to stand well with them, who are the advocates and well-wishers of their cause. But even if an official so highly placed were to show himself desirous of conciliating the Irish population the fact would still be very important, for it would show how great was their power in the common-wealth proving at the same time that anything done for the sake of their favour was not regarded aa likely to offend any equivalent body of their fellow-citizens. We may then take it as admitted that the Irish cause stands well with the American peopl e as a whole, and that they watch its progress towards success with interest and approval. That such a condition of things should create anger and consternation in England is but natural. They have been accustomed there to view the American disposition as represented by such examples, for instance, as Mr. Russell Lowell, anxious to proclaim himself an Englishman in everything but the accidents of birth-place, and ever ready to protest, so far as his official position allowed of it, against anything tendering to favour the Irish cause. One of the English newspapers, moreover, that cry out in condemnation of the Vice- President's speech expresses an assurance that Americans residing in England will also disown its ■entiments, and the blow has evidently been felt as doubly severe owing to its being unexpected. It has rudely interrupted English conceit, and dispelled an agreeable popular illusion with provoking suddenness. The E.iglUh Press, it would seem, has talked in a very bold and even threatening strain concerning this matter, and one organ at l^ast has more than hinted at its affording a sufficient cause for a hostile declaration. We do not expect, however, that anything of the kind will take place. We are hardly destined to see a bom. bardment of any American port occasioned by English fears as to the American attitude towards Ireland. Nor, on the other hand, do we expect to witness the lauding of American troops on the shores of Ireland with a view towards bringing about the independence of that country. The very utmost that will occur will be a little pro. testing, with civil explanations in reply tending to appease but meaning very little. And the speech of the Vice President wil 1 •till stand for what it is worth. Its meaning, we say again, il either that an official of so high a rank, representing in this matter the great body of American opinion, truly and sincerely sympathises with the Irish cause, and ardently desires its success, in which case a very important effect must be produced upon the English mind which is singularly sensitive as to the reputation of England in the world ; or it means that so high an official finds the Irish element in the Great Republic so strong and vigorous, that he feels obliged to go out of his way, and act somewhat inconsistently with the position he occupies, in the desire to conciliate it, and secure its lasting friendship. And this, perhaps, would be the more significant interpretation of the two, as it would opsn a way for almost unlimited speculations as to the possibilities o[ the future.

FBUITS OP PROOKESS.

of the Church should be of interest to us. The onward march of the times should be such ai to fill us with admiration for the present and hope for the future, enabling us by its brilliancy to throw aside the last vestiges of superstition, and to recognise how much better is this condition of things than that which formerly prevailed. Very interesting, then, do we find a certain article in the London Spectator for August 22nd which gives us details concerning one of thode countries in which the marks of progress should be most evident, since the steps taken there to break away from the past and to set up the new and better order of things have been exceptionally energetic, and were not only the object of most certain hopea, but are now constantly pointed out as having already resulted in all that is excellent and hopeful. We allude to Italy, which having been raised from the dead by the great deliverer of the age, whose memory is embalmed in the sanctum sanctorum of every friend of the people, should afford us an example of popular happiness not to be equalled anywhere, much less surpassed. Certain strikes, then, having occurred in this model kingdom, and among the enfranchised masses of humanity whom it contains, the Spectator explains taem as follows :: — '• The immediate cause of the outbreak is said to be the inability of the peasants to pay the King's taxes ; but the rioters are much more likely to be agricultural labourers, whose contiition is probably moTe deplorable than that ct the tillers of th't

The expression of sympathy with Mr. Parnell and his aspirations on the part of the Vice- President of 'the United States is very significant and it is little

Anything that illustrates for us the progress of the period and shows us the true condition of the world, more or leas separated from the ancient traditions, the control of religion, and the influence

soil in any other European country, Russia not excepfced. . . According to the report of the Commission appointed by the Italian Parliament in 1877, and whose inquiries extended over seveial years, thejot of proprietors and farmers, if not brilliant, is at least tolerable, whereas anything worse than the condition of the labourers it is hard to conceive. The members of the Commission failed to arrive at anj exact conclusion as to the average pay of these unfortunates. According to some it runs from threepence to fourpence a day, according to others to sevenpence, without making any allowance for loss of time, either through bad weather or ill-health. For this pittance they hare to work like galley slaves, and out of it suchiof them as have families must provide food for their children, and keep a roof of 6ome sort over their heads. The utmost that a labourer can earn with the Kelp iff his family, says Signor Arcoeri Manio, a large land-owner, Is 884 lire a yeai, equal to a little more than ten pence a day. Their food consists of a coarse black bread, made of a mixture of rye and maize of inferior quality, rice soup, and dry haricots dressed with rancid oil. Wine and flesh-meat they never taste. ' Hard labour combined with insufficient food,' writes Signor Mereu in the Bibliothique\UnivertelU,' necessarily reacts with disastrous effect on the health of our agricultural masses who are forced by want to live in wretched hovels destitute alike of sunshine and fresh air ? The report of the Commission gives in this regard details which cannot be read without a shudder. In Lombardy as well as in the south whole families live pell-mell in huts reeking with every sort of abomination, ' in a state of revolting promiscuousness.' 'It is in the neighbourhood of rich and opulent Milan,' writes Commander Janciai (a gentleman who has published a summary of the chief facts contained in the Report), that the labourers are the most wretched ; the fever of exhaustion (pellagra) and phthisis make terrible ravages amongst them. They are worse fed than dogs,' " Let us, for our part, remark, moreover, that it was to the cost of these unfortunate people that their enlightened rulers — the men who form the admiration of all the Protestant and infidel worM — robbed, oppressed, and banished the religious orders, the friends of the poor, and from whose hospitable doors no one demanding aid there, was ever repulsed. As to the property, so confiscated, and in reality stolen from the needy population, it went, as we have learned from other sources, to enrich officials, whose greed, nevertheless, must be excused in consideration of their enlightenment. Was it not necessary to banish superstition from Italy, and were not those engaged in the task deserving of their reward ? The Spectator continues : — " This year the agitation seems to be more formidable than it was last ; the prisons of Mantua are overflowing with prisoners who have been brought in from the country, and the trouble is still far from being at an end. The authorities are seriously disquieted, and with reason, by the reluctance of the soldiers to act against the rebellious peasantry, with whom their sympathy is so great that they often given them a part of their rations." — Unreasoaab'e soldiers who sympathise wish those of whose flesh and bone they are in their misery, not understanding that the army of a kingdom united in the cause of progress should be above all that savours of the old-world Christianity. The commission gives several reasons for the want that prevails and among the rest, that of heavy taxation. " The taxe3 on land in Italy are equal to a charge of 30 per cent on the nett income derived therefrom. Nor is this the worst, for the imposts are unequal. In some districts they are more, in other 3 less. In the neighbourhood of Cremona, for instance, the fiscal burdens on land are equ<*l to an inoome tax of 60 per cent, per annum. Besides these there are taxes •a cattle, on salt, and on personal property while the Protectionist policy of the Italian government has the effect of artificially enhancing tho price of many articles used in husbandry." But let progress go its way, though all the world should starve, and even the ultimate beggarman must sacrifice his last rag to it. Enfranchised Italy must play her part as a great power, or enfranchisement is in danger of suffering a lo?9 of fame — among old fashioned people, that is, for in the engligbtened it will maintain its place, though natura itself should call out against it. It is interesting to learn, meantime, that the effect of the enlightened system now prevailing in Italy has been in some respects similar to that following on the enlightened English rule in Ireland, and if Protestantism, for English rule in Ireland has been distinctively and above all things Protestant, and the Revolution go once more hand in hand let us not be surprised. The alliance is only that of the parent with its offspring. Bays the Spectator once more ; " The young and vigjrou3, who desire to better themselves leave the country in droves. Taose of them who «an raise a few liras go to Australia or America ; the less fortunate foot it over the Alps and seek work in Germany, Switzerland, and France. According to official figures there are now living in divers foreign countries upwards of 1,200,000 Italian immigrants, and this estimate is beluved to be much below the mark. Ten years ago the emigration was at the rate of 40.000 ; last year there left the kingdom 140,000 individuals, by far the greater number of whom were adult males in the prime of life." Tho Italian, like the Irifh emigrant, also remembers, those whom he his left behind him »nd ec-no"! back ft grtfat p*rk of hia ekr«iaj# Co rfd thWm, thb infe'ctaie

25J?E '^ fromF '«cc alone where 200,000 Italian workmen are we *: iS°*l ?T te ? *° * moaQt to fiTe millionß Bterlin e- Bat •» we to find that the unfortunate Italian will rather look for a remedy, £ «i ?* la £ "' to * b * ir of the d °S that bifc him ' "»«» toward! those safe old paths in which, however poor his country may have Been, and the Spectator gives particulars that show much of its iertuity to exist in the imagination only, he had at least friends and comforters at hand to help him in his need, will he finally proceed rurtntr with the Bevolntion or turn upon it and retrace his steps! On this decision depends a gnat deal.

THE RADICALS

Thb English Radicals are showing their teeth. Mr. Chamberlain, their spokesman, declares that they will do everything possible to them for the .. purpose of opposing the Irish National party and wmartmg the interests of Home Bole. This is only what we might reasonably have expected, and, we may almost say, it ia as it should je. Wemnrth&vebeendull.indeed, not to know that there was but httle probability that the good will of the Radical party would attend opon the Irish cause. Here and there, indeed, a man distinguished among them, and of better faith than their general body, might be reckoned upon as a firm friend of Ireland. Such, for example, is Mr. Cowen to the best of oar belief, and we shall be ■nrpnsed if he is found wanting. Mr. Ooldwin Smith, however, has more fully represented the mind of his party-and who more than b« baa ever insulted or tried to injure the national cause. He has even asserted that if Home Rule were granted, the Radicals, when tbey came into power, would make it one of their first objects to overthrow n once more. The Radicals, in fact, can only see in an miand making her own laws, and prospering in all steadiness and moderation, an element in the Empire strongly opposed to their poUcy- which, being reduced to its true meaning, simply aims, like toe revolution on the Continent, at Communism and the abolition of •II religion- We have never had any friends in men of this school, and although pretences have been made by such men, not only in JSngland-as by Mr. Bradlaugh now and then-but even among ourselves, in the persons of some of Mr. Bradlaugh's admirers and champions, all that was feigned was done for the purpose of ■ecuring some object totally different from that pretended, and wholly at variance with the interests of Irishmen, and this, for our own part, we saw at the time as clearly almost as we see it now. Ireland is looking forward with hope to no form of extreme democracy. A democracy is out of harmony with all her traditions, and is at variance with the character of her people. She desires no chaDge in the nature of the Imperial Government, and is bette r pleased to remain under the monarchical than under the republican establishment. She desires only a fall measure of justice from the Government that actually exists, and if that were once granted she would be found one of the Government's chief supports in the stormy times that are ahead of it. We need hardly say that her intention is to remain Catholic, and one of the chief points insisted upon by the advocates of Home Rule is that under it she wou'.d have the power of directing the education of her people, so that Catholic truth might be fully and faithfully taught among them, and the restrictions removed from such teaching that under a Protestant, or worse still an infidel, government must ever be placed upon it. The only interference that would result from Home Rule in Ireland with the action of non-Catholics would be, according to the best of our belief that of prohibiting displays most hurtful to the feelings of the people and insulting to their faith, and which, in connection especially with that absurd and mischievous? system called the " Irish Church Missions," have been allowed to prevail too long. But a Catholic people could not be blamed for protecting the best sentiments of their hearts from outrage, nor could it be complained that m doing that only which the Imperial Government has done to protect Hindoo and Mahommedan populations, they were paseing any reactionary measures or interfering with the due liberty of the Protestant subject. Ireland's intention, nevertheless, to remain Catholic is that which the most makes her detestable in the eyes of English Radicals. Have we not here, indeed, the true brethren of those who abroad have persecuted the Church? Mr. Parnell was condemned because he once, with a desire to make the case of Ireland known to all sorts and conditions of men, held some communication with M. Rochefort and others of the extreme Revolutionists, but the Bishop of Nottingham has shown that they who follow the English Liberal leaders are in the train of men who are pronounced Garibaldians and in sympathy with the Revolution in its worst form. And all that the Liberals are in this respect, the Radicals are in an advanced degree. A chief feature in their plans, as they are now drawn out, is that one common to the whole revolutionary world, and *bich among ourselves has so long been established and prominent— that is the secularisation of education. This has been allotted a principal place in all the electioneering speeches so far reported to us, and is destined to occupy a large share of attention. And here we have another link unking the Radicals of England with the Communists and Secret Societies of

THE TRUE PROOF

reaches the Colony fresh testimony is brought to a similar effect. Now we are told of the Cardinal Archbishop of Seville dead on what is to the Catholic ecclesiastic the familiar " field of bononr " that is in assiduous attendance on his stricken people. Now we bear of the Archbishop of Granada who sells all that he possesses in order to devote the proceeds to the relief of his poor. And now of a Bishop of a southern diocese who having nothing else left carries hi« episcopal ring to the pawn-broker that he may obtain a loan — the pawn-broker refusing the pledge but lending the sum required. Again tbe Madrid correspondent of the St. Jamet's Gazette writes a 9 follows. — '^Tbe Sisters of Charity are behaving splendidly ; they die in great numbers and their places are immediately filled by others. I cannot," he continues, "tell precisely tbe numbers of the Sisters who have died by the bedsides of the patients since the cholera began, but they can be counted by scores." But who can picture the calm bravery of thoße Sisters, of the living as they replace the dead with the certainty of death before them, with ihe terrible spectacle of the contorted, discoloured, corpses of those who have died in agony unspeakable b*for« their eyes— and aerated that a miracle only can

he Continent. The mandate went forth long ,ince from tho M societies, a« Masonic anthoritien now acknowledge, that the education of the whole world should be made irreli K ious, and obedience to t will soon be the rale in great Britain as elßewhere. Bnt will Ireland be spared 1 will the Societies overlook her and suffer her to retain her faith without being subjected to another, and, if a less violent, a more insidious and dangerous, and not less cruel persecution than any of those hitherto undergone by her f The men who mnst deal with this matter are merciless in the pursuance of their object, and it is not to be expected that they will relent. We have said that the opposition offered by the Kadioals to the cause of Ireland it as it should be, and we have spoken advisedly. The Badicah being what they ar«, and Ireland being what she is, we have no desire to see any union or commen bond of sympathy between them. We must judge of every system as we see it broaght to perfection, and it is not as yet to England that we must look to judge of Radicalism. There still it is only in its infancy, and, even though the child aay be promising, we desire to see it developed before Tenturing an opinion as to the capabilites or destinies of the fully grown being. But if we look abroad we shall see it in its completion, —Radicalism has attained to its full Btamre in France for example, and, though for the time it is in some degree restrained there, we hare seen it atting without fetters of any kind, and we still see it in a great degree of freedom.— lts justice, humanity, and brotherly love, are manifested in such doings as those of the great Revolution, and of the outbreak of the Commune fourteen years ago — repeated in a modified form and at intervals ever since, even up to the present, as witness certain explosions a month or two since, once more at Monceau lei Mines where they occurred on a larger scale a year or two ago. Its morality is well illustrated in that description given by Mr. M. Arnold of tbe stage, the literature, and art of Paris,— wherein the worship of nncleanness is set forth, and shown to be a leading point in the religion of those who have no faith .—lt was for the purpose of reducing the whole world to such a frame of mind that the Secret Societies issued their decree with respect to education,— and English Radicals who are now preparing to act upon that decree are giving a proof that they also are willing to advance along the path on which their French brethren have preceded them.— It is well then, we say, that there should be a wide division between them and tbe people of Ireland, and may it broaden, and still grow broader every day — but the only hope that Ireland has of escaping from the imposition upon her also of the secular system is the establishment of a Parliament to frame the particular laws that she needs. In tbe programme therefore, of the English Radicals we see a fresh incentive to work in the national cause.— Meantime, behold the predicament in which English Catholic?, who reject tbe advice of the Bishop of Nottingham are placed. They form a party united on the one hand with the Orangemen of Ulster and on the other with the Eadicals of Great Britain. They are sacrificing the faith and future of their children to their violent and inhuman prejudices. They prefer the alliance of the devil, in fhort, to that of the Irish national party, and they shall have their reward. There is no hope for their schools except that which lies in the defence of them to be made by Mr. Parnell and his party, and those who reject Mr. Parnell because they foolishly, if they are sincere, identify him with M. Rocbefort and the revolutionists, only that they may subject themselves to the imperious and unscrupulous control of the Secret Societies, go as the saying is, from the frying-p^n into the fire. But whatever may be the temper or the fate of English Catholics, we are gratified, as we have said, to see the division that exists between those of Ireland and Radicalism made plain and emphasised. It gives a farther assurance of the soundness of the Irish cause and recommends it to Heaven.

We have already referred to the work done by the priesthood and religious orders among the sufferers from the cholera in Spain. By every mail that

prevent them from themselves lying in a like place ere many hours have passed And the Sisters have faced their fate unflinchingly and in crowds. How fortunate it is for the Spaniards that there are among them no pious people whose ears itch for filthy discourse that must be addressed to them under the polluted garb of piety— for ihlm 1 " 68 ? a l T? be deli 7 ered to wo *en only, and that it miph. ■bameadrabdjingma ditch to have heard in her time. Wnat bothies, or what slums indeed, can vomit forth women to sit under »uch a platform ? Tney do not however exist in Spain, and if they did the subject to suit their appetites must ba wanting-.Who in sieht of that holy body of nuns, of those martyrs laying down their lives in tortures hardly equalled by the firts and lacerating irons of the heathen, would dare to calumniate the convent life. The convent life is there b fore the world, and the man who in presence of such a sight would dare to lay one blot upon it ma9 t be a dastard indeed The woman who woulddoso must be a moaster past all power of des" cnption.-But our pietists are of prurient tastes ; their appetites muit i£ P nf m^ m / that . t . h / ir u hatred is satiated, and their pious scruples be provided for, and if their longing for obscenity may be gratified at set at rest,— what more is to be said?-The requirements of Evangehcahsm are satisfied, and edification and delight are obtained both at once.— Verily, revolting things are still done in the outraged name of religion.-It is only among our Evangelical population, or the Freethinkers of Protestant countries, that such pretended revelations of the convent life are possible.- Even the foreign worshippers of Aselgeia themselves take less brutal means of serving their god-dess.-The nuns have been too long among them, are too well-known to them, and have served them in their necessities too faithfully, to permit of their falling into such extreme license or listening to such infamous inyentions — Louise Michel, for example, promises her protection in the coming massacre to the Sisters o f Saint Lazare, and the communards, protect, and glaJly accept the services among their wounded of the Russian convert Sister Narishkin, and her community, who refused to leave their duties during theout-brepkof 1871. Bad as the obscene mob of the Continental Freethinkers are, they have something woise still to learn from their legs developed brethren of Protestant countries and from the Evangelical sects with whom tney are assuciated.-The noble record of the Spanish nuns, however, by no means surprises us. There is after all nothing irregular or exceptional about it. We had seen such services and such deeds of daring as bravely done last year in France and Italy.— And before last year, we had seen them in the yellow-fever hospitals of the Southern States, and before that, again, in every place where pestilence or war was raging, or any evil present to afflict mank.nd. It is in places like these that the true convent life is manifested.-There is nothiug mysterious in its retirement-for every tree is known by its fruits, and the results of the cloistered life prove its nature. The prowess of the athlete displays his trainng, and the nun who faces a terrible death without a moment's hesi tation, gives evidence of what her life has been, and of the manner in which she has been prepared, fur tne couflict undertaken by her — W ol°' nte? e " mpl6) WUI dare t0 den * the sanctity of Spanish