NEW ENGLAND—OR NEW IRELAND?

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 27, 30 October 1885, Page 9

NEW ENGLAND— OR NEW IRELAND?

The Nete York Nation, revising the statistics of school attendance in New England, is surprised at the disparity between the numbers of adults and of children, as shown by those figures. It finds that " the radical trouble is that there are not bo many children as there used to be," even though the total population is larger. The active, vigorous class of native stock have gone West ; the weak and unenterprising, as a rule, Lave remained home to be outnumbered by the more virile and prolific immigrants. Even of the so-called " native " stock it shows ih.t a large number are grandchildren of people who came from Ireland during the exodus after the famine of 1847, and it forgets, in classiiying the older stock as " original Puritans," the immense proportion of Irish settlers in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts who were of pure Irish blood wholly unmixed with Puritan or Pilgrim. Speaking of the present race proportions, it asks, with an amusing inteirogritive mark :

New Mnglaucl ? New lrelaud, rather, some Yankees are inclined to rename the region, when they see that the natives of Ireland, and the immediate descendants of immigraLts from that island, already number a third of the population in more man one State, and that the chief magistrate of their metropolis is <m Irishman. The comparative suddenness of the translormatiou renders it the more striking, for it has come about withiu tbe life-time of a generation. Forty years ago tbe foreign element in the population was utterly insignificant, and nothing seemed more improbable than that people vroula see that element cons.itutmg half of tbe inhabitants. The man would have been regarded as a lunatic who hau predicted that in 1885 an Insnman would be the Mayor of Boston, while another of the race represented one or the city districts in Congress, and the third delivered the traditional Fourtn ot July oration under the auspices of the city government.

The amalgamation of this great body oi aliens has been the crucial test alike of New Englaud character and of popular government. They have btood the lest. The sudden infusion of bo much new blood has bomewhat disturbed tbe circulation in the body politic, but it is already evident that the two strains will mingle harmoniously aud profitably. A desue for liberal education is developing. From among the thrifty immigrants wqo have settled in the hill towns and are successfully tilling the lands which native emigrants have deserted in disgust, mere are coming Irish students to the colleges of western Massachusetts. Candid Boatonians of the oldest families adm t that the city has not in many years had a representative in Congress who showed more independence or displayed better judgment than Leopold Morse, a native of Bavaria. People who questioned the full comprehension of the American idea bj the ruling element amoug the newcomers have been reassured upon reading tbe thoroughly patriotic oration by Thomas J. Gargan on the Fourtn of July last. The Kepubhcan majority in the Legislature, controlled by ihe descendants of the onginal stock, recently demonstrated their faith in the new blood by co iferrmg vastly increased powers upou the Mayor of Boston, though tney knew that the first man to exercise tue&e prerogatives would be a Democratic Irishman— and Hugh O'Buen is more than justuying their confidence. Ibe newer immigiauts are evideutly going to turn out ultimately as good Amencaus as the old ones— for, though he is apt to forget n, thy Yankee of the longest lineage is himself only tbe off -spang of an immigrant.

" Maxwell," the bt. Louis murdeier. turns out to be one Hugh Mr. Brook-, son of a national schuolmasier at Hyde, England. His pretence Jot Irisu descent and Fienc i birth, as well as of Catholic training, is wtiole-cloth falsehood. Au enthmastic countryman in St. Louis last week sent mm 20dols. as a contribution to a defence fund, signing his letter " An Englishman."— Pilot.

What an argument for the separation of Ohurcn and State is furnished by the infidel Jules Feny's desire for their continued union in France ! M. Ferry advocates this umon on tho shameful plea that, so long as the State controls the purse, so long can it restrain the clergy, a. Church, pour, dependent, dc-spiied, is the all} he covets. He does not fear to declare that he SErmki trom seeing toe Churcn win the freedom which is born of poverty, and declares that once lcJea^L-d from the ties of tne State and with her clergy thrown wholly upon tbe charity of their flecks, the Church would rise above her difficulties, and be more formidable than eftv.— Pilot,

"J. P. L." writing upon another subject, says : " I had only returned from the Invalided, wl ere I had been attending the funeral of Admiral Courbet, when I found an invitation seat to me from the archbishop's palace to go to the metropolitan church. Notre Dame, for the solemn service tor the officers and soldiers of the army and navy who died ia Tonkin. The grand old Gothic church, the first stone of which was laid in the twelfth century, when on the site of /he Paiis of to-day were woods and forests, evo'tes in th<- mind man, ■Demorable scenes— the baptism of the king of Rome, i lie return of "he Bourbons, the deaths of the Archbishops, Mgr. de Quelau, Mgr. Afire, Mgr. Sibour, and Mgr. Darboy. It was decorated on this occasion as it was for the service for Pius IX., and looked very imposing. Tne Caidinal, Mgr. Guibert — whose health, though much improved, is not allowed to go torough these long ceremonies was represented by Mgr. Kichard, Archbishop Coadjutor. High Mass was said by Abbe Petit, the " Sectaiie-General,'' or Chancellor, of Cardinal Guibert, and a good friend of Ireland. There must have been about 4,000 people in the church, and among them men of all ranks and positions. While the service was gomg on, the remains of the admiral were being taken to the station to be forwarded to Abbeville, surrounded by a few of the brave soldiers, quite bronzed from the climate of Tonkm. On Tuesday the body, after coming from a distant country and receiviug just homage everywhere, wilt rest beBiae thobe of M. Courbet's own ielatives in tbe cemetery of the town but will not be the less honoured than if he slept under the dome of the Pantheon or under that of the Invalides."— Nation, Sept. 5.