Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 7, 10 June 1887, Page 1

Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

The Borne correspondent of the Times treats that newspaper to a long disquisition on the Irish question, as he thinks it suitable to represent that it is considered at Borne, and in Italy generally. We have not much to do v. ith his particular opinions or his particular report concerning how the Holy Father or anyone else is effected towards the matter. But he hardly bears out the view that is commonly taken, and apparently witn much reason, of the Pope's character for resolution and consistency when he exhibits his Holiness as anxious to do anything for the sake of peace, favouring the Irish cause since he believes with the aid cf Mr. Gladstone it must needs prove successful, but rather more willing to oppose it should he see grounds to expect its failure. — Meantime we are inclined to ask who is the "loyal Bishop " that, according to this correspondent, was summoned from Melbourne to Rome for the purpose of being appointed Archbishop of Dublin, but who, when the Pope against his will was obliged to appoint Dr. Walsh to the vacant See came back to the antipodes again an archbishop in petto only. It is indeed, a pity that so high a dignitary should walk the streets of the Victorian capital unknown and unnoticed, while an interloper, if not a usurper, holds his place. — As the correspondent nevertheless, tells os that the secrets of the Vatican are well kept we may, perhaps, without presumption call in question the existence of this suppressed archbishop, and refrain from mourning because he is wasting his loyalty on the desert air. An archbishop injtett* wandering disconsolate by the shores of Port Philip, and spending in vain regrets the energy with which as an obsequious servant of the British Government, under happier circumstances, and had not the invidious person of Dr. Walsh interposed, he would[have crushed the disloyalty of Dublin nationalists forms a picture that it would be most harrowing to contemplate, and we are glad to find that it is lawful for us to take refuge from it in a complete state of scepticism.

WHAT A PITT 1

People who delight in variety and something more may lament over the final miscarriage of the Women's Suffrage Bill. — We shall now, in all probability, experience in the coming elections only what we have long been familiar with.— But had the fair sex obtained their rights, ah, then there would be something worth going to see.— At Leavenworth in Kansas the other day, for example, one band of fair electors endeavoured to make a band of Bisters, equally fair no doubt but certainly equally resolute, change their minds as to the candidate they had chosen. — And the result was a free fight among the men who were present. — A husband and wife disagreed as to their votes each selecting a different candidate, but finally consented to pair, and went away in company from the polling booth. The wife, however, presently sloped back and recorded her vote as she had originally intended— having evidently tricked her lord and master* And , yet again, the domestic felicity of another couple became so much deranged that the police had to take charge cf them.— Some ladies would not vote until they had consulted the scrutineers as to the relative merits of the candidates— and one inconstant dame, claim, ing the woman's privilege of changing her mind, would have her vote given back to her so that she might confer it on the rival candidate. She, moreover, let her mind be known when her request was refused and that in a very energetic manner indeed, — The sex, in short displayed all their own peculiarities on the occasion, and several besides that had been so far supposed to be distnctive of the sterner Tessel. It is to be regretted then by those of us who like a little variety now and then, and who are tired of seeing the same candidates, or others that differ from them in no respect, returned in the same manner to do the same things which generally amount to nothing worth speaking of, that the Bill to which we have alluded was defeated. —It would have been carious to watch lovely woman as she developed her amiability and accomplishments in a new sphere.

HOT TALK.

Mb. Labottchebe has sent by cable to the American Press a very spirited message. He declares that in Ras&ia, were it necessary so to resist despotism he would be a Nihilist. Coercion, he says, in Ireland must

An "unfortunate dignitary.

be met in a similar spirit. Secret Societies r at replace constituted* associations, tbe mean and contemptible wn hes who take tbe farm of evicted tenants, and all the agents of de otism most be declared as lepers, and treated as such. " Tbe blood-s d-iron policy of oppression," he says, " has never yet been succes?? illy resisted with rosewater." Mr. Laboachere is evidently as pr< using a subject as any that will be found tor the exercise of their j-uwers by those creature* of tbe Castle, who, under the Coercion Act, are to be the irresponsible masters of the liberties of the Irish people. Captain Moonlight him* self, in fact, could hardly speak more plainly or more fiercely — and O'Donovan Bossa with his bug-a-boo threats of dynamite falls quite into the shade — bat Mr. Labouchere is on the right side of the Channel and can speak out with impunity. It will be impossible, moreover, for the Tory Press to hold him successfully up to the detestation of the English people as a monster of iniquity — and they are wiser than to attempt it.

BEPENTANT.

It is not Germany only, that has found out bow impolitic it is for Governments to impede the influence of the Catholic Church among the peoples over whom they rule. — " From time to time," Says the Boston Pikt, " since President Juarez began bia war on the Church in Mexico, sundry non-Catholic religious organizations make fervent appeals for their Mexican missions, and give vague, but enthusiastic accounts of the conversions they are effecting among the benighted Catholics of that land. They give no figures, however, but figures of speech; and have always some specious explanation of the fact that they are so slow to root in Mexican Boil. ' They have but scratched the surface of the ground,' writes ' F. R.G.,' Mexican correspondent of the Boston Herald, and himself a Protestant. And he further says : ' This nation of 10,000,000 souls, largely Indian, are no more to be won to the cold ideals of Protestant denominationalism, than they are to become theosophists.' The people are nothing if not Catholic. Without the Faith, the Indians will return to their Aztec idols and human sacrifices ; the educated men will become infidelß pure and simple. The tendency in both cases is already strong enough to frighten the State which finds new that the blow it struck at the Church is rebounding upon itself. Juarez thought that he had cru&hed the Church when he deprived^t of its temporalities, but as ' F. R. G. candidly acknowledges, he only crushed ita external shell ; he could not harm its inner self. ' The Church temporal received a deadly blow ; th« Church spiritual remained intact and animated by the zeal of all perspcuted bodies of men.' Patriotic Mexicans are questioning, ' Has it been good policy to alienate tha mightiest force in Mexican society from the cause of the civil Government ?' The State and not the Church suffers, The State wants the Church back as the conservator of public order, and is willing to meet it more than half-way in a policy of reconciliation.' — The experience of both worlds, the old and the new, then, is the same. Neither can exist in peace and prosperity apart from the influence of the Church.

A NOBLE EXTREMIST.

The Marchioness of Queensberry greatiy disapproves of the agitation for Home Rule, She writes a letter to the Pilot prophesying all kinds of evil as to arise from its success. — " It's result, she says, will be that Ireland will be glorified under the " British flag edged with green " — " The divine banner of green and gold buried out of sight," and Irishmen will awake to find themselves •'.legalised West Britons," and everything national will go to the mischief generally. We cannot quite make out what her ladyship's views as to the right measures to be pursued are, but, she appears to insist on complete separation. — She, however, believes, in desperation, that, after coercion, the Tories will " helplessly acquiesce in giving with Parnell and the Unionists this glorious sovereign independence *to Ireland in a subordinate statutory parliament." — And \n this we hope, as we believe, her previsions will be verified.

ENGLAND'S FIBST DUTY.

Mb. Gladstone in a letter to the North Eastern Daily Gaaette, a newspaper published at Middlesbrough—drew the attention of the mining population to the meeting then about to be held in Hyde Park.—" It is the firßt time," he said, " When & Coercion Bill if passed, is to be passed by the vote of England alone, against the Tiewa of Scotland »nd Waleß."— " If England is to coerce Ireland

for crime," he went on to pay, " Ireland can reply that, relatively to population, she has less crime than England. In my opinion, the rejection of this Bill is even more needed by England than by Ireland. For Ireland it is a question of Buffering, and she knows how to suffer ; for England it is a question of shame and dishonour, •nd to cast away shame and dishonour is the first business of a great nation."

TAIN THBZATS.

The correspondent of the Times, to whom we have already referred, attempts to frighten the Pope, or those persons through whom he hopes to influence the Pope, by threatening the anger of the landed proprietors of Italy • who, he says, are the most friendly of Italian classes towards the Church, against the Holy See should the cause of the Irish tenants be favoured by it. — If, however, the Pope were to be a respecter of persons, and were to consider rather the advantages to be gained by pleasing parties than the interests of right and justice, it would , evidently be much more wise of him to take a step which would tend to conciliate the masses in general than one to please a limited class. The strength of the Church lies in the people, and this is fully proved by several notable examples on both sides— the Church being strong where the body of the people are Catholic, and weak where the contrary obtains. The Pope, however, must first consider the justice of the cause, and it certainly cannot enter into his duties to base religion on injustice. Mr. Wilfrid Blunt, moreover, has given us a case in point, and reminded us how, in a struggle, that in some degree resembled that now taking place in Ireland, between landlords and I their tenants in the Campagna the Holy See supported the latter. We have no doubt whatever that the sequel will prove that neither bribes nor threats can move the Holy Father to take part with the enemies of Ireland in working her destruction.

ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE.

Modern Society referring to a revision of ihe Kafir Bible that has just been made by a missionary at King William's Town after eighteen years labour, professes to entertain some doubts as to the results arrived at : — "But certain it is," says our contemporary, " that the missionary, when he first attempts to preach to savages in their native tongue, must commit some very funny blunders. While civilised nations know so little of one another's speech, that a Frenchman preaching to an English congregation can say, ' Yes, my brethren, how true it is that we are all cucumbers of the ground,' what a terrible hash the newly-fledged apostle arriving on a foreign shore must make of the message he is sent out to deliver I In fact, it is not at all improbable that the broad grin, so distinctive of the sons of Africa, is but a facial development caused by listening to the comic comments of the missionary who has picked np a smattering of their outlandish gibberish."

▲ PBOPHECY.

People who delight in mystery are just now much interested by a couple of predictions that concern the Emperor of Germany. It is said that some years before the war with France, as the King of Prussia was one day Tiiitinga forest near Baden-Baden with some friends he was accosted by a Gipsy woman, who, not knowing him to be the king, insisted upon telling his fortune, and on seeing his haDd declared that 9he read there great victories, a great crown, and a life of ninety-six years, to terminate in a time, or after a time, of heavy sorrows. Many years afterwards it is further related, there appeared at the Emperor's Court a young lady of rank, and remarkable for her beauty, who also was rather feared because of her reputed gift of second sight. And they say that one evening at a Court entertainment the Empcrsr in a pleasant mood extended his hand to her, and asked what she saw there, to which she, having never heard of the Gipsy at Baden-Baden replied, "I see a life of ninety-six years." — The ninety years are completed and it remains to be proved what the six that are now •ntered upon may produce.

THE SENTIMENTS OP "BONA FIDE" AMEBIC'ANS.

A person rushing through America, and perhaps, rushing so fast as in his hurry to have dropped all recollections of the gratitude which he himself certainly owes to Irishmen elsewhere, sends to our contemporary the Dunedin Evening Star, the assurance given him by one Mr. A — , whom he describes as a vety nice person indeed, and just married to his own entire satisfaction, and that of this running correspondent — " that the Irish are iv reality almost detested by bona fide Americans." He hastens on ; • inform us that Mr. B — the minister of a fashionable Prepbjten church in New York, is even more decided than Mr. A— in his condemnation of them. — We shall not, however, delay to comment on the especial amiability with which the average John Bull, having done all he coald in a bullying and brutal manner to drive the Irish people out of their own country, is always glad to follow them to those lands in which they have taken rtfuge that he may if possible have an opportunity there of stabbing

them in the back. We shall content ourselves by quoting the evidence of a bonaf.de American publicly born* in America the other day, and by which Mr. A — and Mr. B — and Mr. H — also, we may add for the special benefit of this flying scribe — are very effectually given the lie. The lona fide American to whom we allude is Senator George P. Hoare, who in addressing a great meeting held the other day in Faneuil Hall, Boston, under the presidency of the Governor of Massachusetts, for the purpose of protesting against the Coercion Bill — took the opportunity, not, indeed, of replying to such small game as the happy bridegroom Mr. A— or the fashionable Mr. B— or the rushing and forgetful Mr H— but to no less a person than Mr. Matthew Arnold who had spoken in a similar strain. M When I see these records of the experience of some English travellers," he said, " who spend a few hours or days in the parlours of our men of wealth in our great cities and in college halls, and then go home, I am tempted to wonder why, when they get so near, they don't sometimes travel in the United States ; why they don't go to learn the sentiment of the American people among the men who have made the American people ; why they don't go among the sources of power, among the men who work and the men who think ; why they don't visit the workshops of Worcester ; why they don't visit the streets of Boston around Faneuil Hall ; why they don't go among the farmers of the West." " Bvery locality, every city and town in Massachusetts," he said again, " has its own tender and pathetic story of the heroism and the patriotism of its citizens of the Irish race. I remember when, in the very first week of the war, there went out from Worcester that gallant young company of Emmet Guards, the first company of the Irish race, whose enlistment showed that whatever party reason or prejudice might exist the heart of Irishmen was true to the flag. I remember well when the news came home of the death of some of those boys— of McConville. that natural gentleman, who, when mortally wounded at Fredericksburg, said : • Let the flag of my country be wrapped about me when I am buried, and put a fold of it under my head, and tell my mother that I wish I had ten more lives to give to America.' When I think of the heroic patience of Sergeant Plunkett who gave both arms for the flag that he saved from dishonour amid the storm and shell of Fredericksburg, and bore his loss, as so many of you know, with a patience and courage more heroic than was required to face a battery, I nave it to say that, whatever tongue may be dumb, or heart may be cold, I never will be wanting either in heart or voice to declare my sympathies, and affection, and admiration for the gallant people of Ireland. I thank God, with tears of joy and pride, that in the course of his providence, he has given me such men to be my countrymen," But, perhaps, this was only wrung from Senator Hoare by the political influence of the Irish. — And if it were, what then becomes of the worth and candour of the lona fide American or who need be troubled at possessing his detestation ? It was not so, however, but bore the genuine ring of truth and sincerity, and, as we said, gave the lie most completely to Mr. H — and the sympathetic and fashionable company in which he found himself, Messrs. A— and B— .

DEPLOBABLE FIGURES.

Bur those bona fide Americans, who almost or altogether detest their Irish fellow citizens-Southern Members of Congress, who, perhaps, lament the good eld days of slavery which Irishmen did so much to abolish, or fashionable ministers, whose sensational preaching falls so flat on Irish ears— are very much to be pitied. Hatred is a very bad feeling for any unfortunate man to entertain, and they bid fair to have much occasion given them for its indulgence and exercise. The Irish element in the States is a very large one already, and it must necessarily increase at time goes on. The Boston Pilots for example, furnishes us with figures taken from the official census of Massachusetts for 1885 — and they fully support what we say. — The total population of the State is 1,942,141, of which 855,491 are of native parentage on both sides, and 919,869 of foreign parentage on both sides— the parentage of the rest being unknown or mixed. " The Irish in Massachusetts," says the Pilot, " that is, those born in Ireland, number in all 556,835. This takes no account of the children of mixed parentage, or the uncounted thousands of people with Irish grandparents or remoter ancestors. The analysis of Boston shows that 67,745 of the inhabitants are of Irish birth, and 152,097 are children of Irish parents. • The persons born in Ireland constitute 17.32 percsnt. of the total persons ; the fatheis born in Ireland 39.56 per cent, of the total fathers ; and the mothers born in Ireland 39 41 per cent. of the total mothers.' The Irish, of first or second generation, therefore, constitute 56 per cent, of the whole population of Boston (amounting to 39,0393). As there are tens of thousands of the third and fourth generations of direct Irii-h descent, how high would the percentage be if that element could be analyzed and added to the others ? " — Our contemporary adds that Boston, nevertheless, and probably with truth, is spoken of as the most English city in the States. Really there is reason to fear that the time draws nigh when our A's and Bs and H's will be in danger of being totally poisoned by their own, venom.

The Rome correspondent of the London Times quotes the reply given by the Moniteur de Borne to

FALSE VIEWS.

the attempt made by his newspaper to secure the opposition of tLe P<pe against the Irish movement as tainted with the spirit of the > evolution. The reply runs as follows :—": — " We regi et to see a journal so serious and authoritative affirm gratuitously that the Vatican sympathises with the revolutionary Irish Party, when all the words and acts of Leo XIII. show abundantly the contrary. The Sovereign Pontiff has let no occasion escape him for recalling to the Irish Catholics that it is their duty and interest to separate their cause from that of the anarchistß, and to limit themselves to the claiming of their rights by a legal and pacific agitation. In this respect the attitude of tbe Vatican has never varied. The misunderstanding comes, pei haps, from the fact that the Times affects to confound the legal movement for the legislative independence of Ireland with tbe revolutionary, anarchical movement. As to the first, the Vatican does not intervene while it asserts itself by legal and constitutional action. As to the second, the Vatican has always strongly and energetically reproved it. This is the truth ; the one-sided sopAitmes vntiressis of the Times oblige us to affirm it." The correspondent, a a matter of course, gees on to argue that there is nothing constitutntional in the movement, and to confound it, calumnionsly and falsely, with outrage and crime. But even were the League proved to be in alliance with Moonlighters, and the lawless bands that exist in some parts of the country, there would still be nothing to implicate it in anarchical or revolutionary undertakings. These unfortunate men who commit crimes have themselves no such association, but are the ordinary product of ill-usuage, and have been driven to their criminal courses, not by any ideas or motives connected with the revolution in any of its forms, but by the desire of taking vengeance for something that has occurred in the past, or by the fear that the weakness or the self-interested action of some of their neighbours may rivet the galling, unjust, and evil yoke from which they are resolved to obtain relief. As to the spirit of revolution or anarchy, properly speaking, it bas no place in Ireland, and there is nothing for the Pope to condemn, except that which everywhere falls under the condemnation of the Church — that is, crime or wickedness, however it may be manifested, and whether it occurs in an English city or on an Irish mountain-side.

BOSH.

The Rev. Mr. Watt, in preaching in the First Church, Dunedin the other evening at the induction of Professor Dunlop to the Presbyterian chair of Theology— and in arguing for an educated ministry referred to Luther, Calvin, Beza, Enoz, and Cranmer — •' The great and good men "said his reverence " who had the immortal honour conferred upon them of liberating a large portion of Western Christendom from the trammels of Borne " — as sharing deeply in the spirit of the Renaissance and being therefore as ardent in the cause of education as they were in that of religion. — To any educated man, nevertheless, at the present day, to hear these men quoted as the promoters either of education or religion should sound pretty much as it might sound to them to hear for example, Fagin the Jew, Bill Sykes, and the Artful Dodger brought forward as the advocates of strict honesty and honourable dealing.— We may, however, admit that they were imbued with the spirit of the Renaissance, which was in fact a spirit of paganism. All their action went to retard the progress of education and religion and they opened wide the gates by which ignorance and profanity usurped the sanctuary and took upon themselves, unbidden and unsanctioned, the teacher's office. — But for Luther and the rest of them neitheiiMr. Watt nor the Salvation Army would now occupy a pulpit.

|THE " TIMES " OUTBAGE ON MR. PARNELL.

We take the following from the Toronto Weekly Globe of April 22 . — The letter condemning (he Phoenix Park murders, which the London Times attributes to Mr. Parnell, carries the following evidence that it is a forgery :— (1) The body of it is not written in Mr. Parnell's hand. What could be more strange than for co cautious a man to employ another to write such a document 7 (2) The signature, said to be in his hand writing, is at the top of another leaf. The Times suggests that it was so written that it might be torn away. But the very object for which the letter is said to have been written was that it might be shown secretly to sympathisers with the Invinciblee. What would be the use of showing them a letter not in Mr. Parnell's writing, and without his signature ? And if the intention was that the signature should be detached, how extremely improbable that instructions to that effect would not have accompanied the letter, and been obeyed, if it reached its destination. If it did not reach its destination, but fell into the hands of a detective, where are the instruction?, and where is the post-marked envelope ? (3) How more than improbable that a highly educated man as Mr. Parnell is, would write "he and you " for " you and he," in defiance of a rule the observation of which must be as natural as breathing to the alleged author. The letter is a plain forgery, and its publication an outrage which the Times would probably not perpetrate against any man in the world outside the Irieh Home Bale group.

THE FORGERY EXPOSED.

haad writing — giving also a fac simile of the words as actually written by the gentleman referred to. The difference is very palpable, and shows beyond all doubt a forgery of the most impudent kind. " Any expert," says Truth, " would at once declare the former to be a forgery. The letters in the latter (Parnell's) are cramped, those in the former (the forgery) are flowing. la the latter all the letters are of equal height, those in the former run downwards from left to right. The <a ' in the former is written like a Greek 'a ' ; the 'a' in the latter is made like an English ' a,' from the top. The ' r's ' in the latter are distinctly formed ; the ' r's ' in the former are hardly ' r's ' at all. The forger seems to have exhausted his powers of imitation in his capitals, [ for the ' C,' the • B,' and the 'P ' are tolerable imitations." Nevertheless, as any one can see at a glance, the difference between these capitals and those of Mr. Parnell is very striking. The forged '0 ' has no loop, while that of Mr. Parnell's * 0 ' is very clear and fall ;, the forged ' S ' is straight and stiff contrasted with that made by Mr. Parnell, and the 'P ' has a roundness and heaviness not to be found in the genuine letter.

AN EXPLANATION.

Truth accounts as follows for the forgery : — There are three theories in regard to the manner in which the Times was humbugged. One is that the late Mr. Forster had been furnished with the letter by some informer who wished to eara a trifle, and that Mr: Forster himself, perceiving that he had been tricked, put it aside, and that since his death some person, not possessing Mr. Forster's acateness, has got hold of the document and handed it over to the Times. The second is that the letter was obtained from a person of the name of Pigott, who was once a Nationalist, but who haß of late made money by making what he is pleased to call " revelations." The third is that the letter was bought of a former servant of Mr. Parnell, who pretended that he had stolen it.

HENRY OEOBOE ON THE FORGEBY.

The Toronto QUU of April 29, alluding to the unfairness and absurdity of holding Mr. Paraell guilty, as the London Time*, Lord Salisbury, and other opponents of the Irish cause do, or pretend t» do, of writing the forged letter until he takes an action for libel against the Times, and " puts not only his own reputation," says the Globe, " but his country's cause also, in the hands of an English judge and jury "" — quotes the evidence given by Mr. Henry George in his paper the Standard as to the effect produced upon Mr. Parnell by the news of the Phceaix Park murders, which was first conveyed to him by Mr. George. — Mr. George who was then in London received the intelligence by a private telegram. " I immediately," he says," made what haste I could (for at that hour no public conveyance was to be had), to the Westminster Hotel, and waking Davitt up, showed him the telegram. Springing up with intense emotion he at once sent for Messrs Dillon and Parnell. All three, as well as other members of the Irish party, who were subsequently sent for, were deeply pained and grieved at the rews. Davitt seemed so much ' cut up ' by it that I really felt for him, but the man who seemed stirred the mast was Paruell — ordinarily the mo6t undemonstrative of human beinga — and on tae first impulse he talked immediately of resigning and leaving public life for ever. There could be no question oE the real feelings of these men, and especially of Mr. Parnell. It is not that there vai any personal sympathy with Burke who had made himself thoroughly hated by patriotic Irishmen, but there was personal sympathy with Lord Cavendish, who had just arrived in Ireland and had done nothing to offend Irish sentiment. His appointment, moreover, to take the place of the justly hatad Forster, accompanied a 9it was with the release of the Irish members from Kilmainham and of Davitt from Portland, was deemed the holding out of the olive branch by the Gladstone Government — the dawn for Ireland of a better day. And to this the knives that flashed in Phce nix Park gave terrible answer. At a single unexpected blow Parnell's plans were shattered. To him it was not merely two high officials who were stabbed to death in Phoenix Park, but a great policy and a high hope."

THE PARNKLLITKS DEFENDED.

Mb. John Mobley (says a telegram to the Pilot). addressed an audience of 4,000 persons at Wolver» ham p ton, on April 20. He repudiated the accusation that the liberals countenanced violence and obstruction in Parliament, and that they allied themselves with men whose hands were stained with outrage. He reminded Mr. Chamber* lain, that he, in the Fortnightly llevierv for February, 1886, advised that the Parnellite leaders be taken into the councils of the Queen The Bound Table Conference had been suspended because Mr. Chamberlain, though conciliatory in conclave, continued, in speech and letter, publicly to revive the old bitterness. The Unionists proposed to settle the question by ignoring five -sixths of the Irish peopl v and

Truth, of April 21, gives a fac simile of the con* eluding words of the forged letter published by the Times—" Yours very truly, Oharles 8. Parnell — and asserted by that newspaper to be in Mr. Parnell'a

dabbing their trusted representatives ruffians. On the general charge of complicity in crime brought against the Parnellites, he hai to say that the charge was fully stated before Parliament in 1883, when the Irish Government, after the fullest inquiries, found that the accusation could not be substantiated. With regard to the latest charges made by the Times, until that paper explained how it obtained the letter and the grounds for believing it to be authentic, he should content himself with Mr. Parnell's denial. On the fringe of every popular movement were some bad men, but it was a mistake to call the IrishAmerican Home Rulers the scum of the earth. The Chicago Conven* tipn had resulted in the defeat of the party of violence. The testimony even of prejudiced witnesses was that they had to deal, not with ruffians, but with all that was best and most honourable and most country-loving among the classes of respectable meu in America (cheers).

TAIN MEASURES.

Nothing more completely illustrates the nature of the Coercion Bill now before the House of Commons than the address of Judga Johnson to the Grand Jary at the Spring Assizes for the County Cork, The list of offences, he said, was exceedingly small, comprising only 14 cases for the whole county, and those only such as must occur in every agricultural community." This, however, was far from representing the true state of the county where armed men were roving about and committing acts of violence in many isolated districts. But if it has been found impossible to deal with these marauders by means of the ordinary law, how will coercion afford greater facilities for doing so f It will certainly not render the police force one bit more effective) .nor will it enlist in the cause of detection the general population. It will only provide an efficacious method of harassing and provoking well-disposed people, until, if possible, they also are driven to take part with those already engaged in lawless courses. We may add that the intervention of the Pope, which certain persons are so anxious to obtain, would also prove; completely useless since it could not leach the criminal portion of the pop' 1 Uion, while it would not be needed by the great majority of th. | eople, already determined to avoid all excesses forbidden by re]'£Kv.

A PITEOUS TALE.

The Rpt Fa her Findlay, S.J.. who preached a sermon J itely at St. Francis Xavier's church, in Dublin, in aid of the orphanage at Harold's Cross, conducted by the Poor Clares gave a pathetic description of the miserable condition to which the children of the city poor were commonly reduced. He describsd them as they are frequently brought to the hospitals, as they are captured for the designs of the proselytiser, or as they are carried to the cemetery. And in alluding to the temptation held out to them to break the law, he told the following touching anecdote :—": — " I am not. sure that this is not the happiest lot that is open to then?. If tbeir own opinion goes for anything, they do not esteem it the worst. Only yesterday I had the opportunity of learning the views ot one of the offenders on the point. He had begged a penny from a lady to buy three newspapers which would start him in trade for the evening, and tne lady had consented to furnish him with the means of beginning his moderate business. While she was searching her purse for the coin, the aspiring retailer was unexpectedly seized by a policeman in ' gentleman's clothes,' as the half famished mite somewhat indignantly put it. The small prisoner passed the night 'in the cells.' ' And do you know what I was thinking of all night ?' he asked. The question was interesting— quite as interesting, in its way, as the reflections of Silvio Pellico or the Prisoner of Chillon. ' I was thinking,' said this practical infant philosopher, ' that the best thing could happen me would be to get five years. Else what is to become of me V ' Five years 'is not. perhaps, the pleasantest form in which the interest our paternal Government takes in itß subjects could manifest itself, but in the mind of the individual most concerned, and who would seem to have examined the question closely, it is better than total abandonment." The Rev. preacher warmly recommended the claims of the orphanage to his hearers.

A FASTIDIOUS WARDER

The latest thing that has occurred in connection with that rather interesting institution the Dunedin gaol,is the suspension of a warder who very properly refused to administer a flogging to a young prisoner sentenced to receive one. — But, perhaps, it follows naturally that since a sprig of quality rules the roost the lower employees must be content to be treated as mere common fellows. — Nevertheless, a man who has always conducted himself respectably, and who is connected with respectable people may reasonably object to perform a very degrading office. It is hardly desirable, moreover, that the warders who have a delicate task, requiring humane dealing, to do in managing the prisoners, should be brutalised by such debasing undertakings. It is remarkable, moreover, that the warder required to disgrace himself was the only Catholic warder of late attached to the gaol, where he had recently come from Invercargill. The gaol, at Dunedin, w« may add, ia now a very pious establishment in which no Catholic

is permitted to act as a warder, whether for some other reason or as a homage to the party who backed up the Captain in his revengeful attack on Mr. Caldwell — we cannot My. But as in any case, the mattei is creditable neither to the Inspector nor his supporters, it is hardly worth while to inquire. — Another remarkable fact about this demand made of Warder Corrigan and refused by him, is that it was made in defiance of the strongly expressed opinion of thi House of Representatives which on a former occasion had condemned such a demand. But of this no doubt our " gentleman of position," and his friends at Wellington will give a good account. — We have already seen what Captain Hume thinks of the Parliament of the country.

FRUITS OP SECULARISM .

The rage for secular education wbich is also par* ticularly strong in France has produced in that country an enormous superabundance of candidates for the teacher's position. The present {state of affairs, in this respect, is that 4,922 male and 8,567 female aspirants are competing for the eight or nine hundred places that may become vacant during the year; in the whole of France, leaving out the Department of the Seine. In this department, 19,169, candidates of both sexes are in competition for from 900 to 950 places. The number moreover, has increased by 4,947 in the year, snd it ii expected in the next twelve months to amount to twenty-five or twenty-six thousand. It is easy, meantime, to imagine the condition of things that must obtain in a country where such multitudes of young people are brought up for a calling in which they can obtain no opening, and consequently are for the most part thrown helpless on the world.

DREADFUL WICKEDNESS.

The dear missionaries, it appears, cannot now expect to have everything their own way. Our contemporary the Neo- CaUdonwti, for example, calls the Rev. Jones to account for certain facts stated by him at a meeting held in Sydney last March, and which facts, it affirms, are pure inventions. Our contemporary gives the particulars of a fieht which took place between the natives and the French troops in the Loyalty Islands, and which was due to the efforts of another amiable missionary, the Rev. Macfarlane. The natives came off '.second best on the occasion, and had but little reason to be grateful to their warlike instructor in spiritual matters. The Neo-Caledonien, moreover, denies that the Loyalty Islands were first discovered by the English navigator Butler, and gives reasons for believing that Laperouse was the first explorer who landed there. Finally, he proposes that the Rev. Jones should be called to account in New Caledonia as a calumniator, a disturber, and an exciter of war and rebellion against the French nation.

NEW LANDS.

The following paragraph taken from th« London Times, will prove interesting to our readen : — In addition to the two large islands recently discovered in the Pacific Ocean, a third has jast been discovered lying less than 100 miles from the northern coast of New Guinea. It has been named Allison Island, is nearly three miles long, rises from 100 ft. to 150 ft. above the sea, and has abundant timber. Several stretchei of fertile and inhabited land, some of them much larger than Allison Island, have been found within a few years at a distance of 200 or 300 miles from the New Guinea coast, and similar discoveries are made once in a while in various parts of the Pacific. Although the maps of the Pacific Ocean are studded with islands which appear to be lying close together, vessels may sail among these islands for weeki together without once coming in sight of land. So vaste ie the waste of waters that not long ago a crew which had been shipwrecked in the great island region of the Pacific rowed north for 40 days before they reached Hawaii, the nearest island. Mr. A. R. Wallace, who has travelled widely in the Pacific, has expressed the opinion that there are still a good many islands which have never yet been seen by white men . Now and then a Pacific trader finds some new or little-known island, and opens trade with its inhabitants. When the Woodlark Islands were explored some time ago it was found that an Australian firm had carefully charted the islands several years before, and had been quietly trading there, all unknown to the other Pacific merchants.