Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 21, 16 September 1887, Page 1

Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

JOOTSTEPS ON v-rHIv -rHI SANDS.

Miss Morwenna P. Hawkeb, writing in the Month, giveß an interesting description of an old church half bnried in the sands of the Cornish Coast, and which marks the spot where an Irish •aint and missionary once carried on his holj labours. " « None, l Carrden tells us, ' ever came np to the Irish monks for sanctity and learning,' and St. Piran was an Irish monk and Bishop who received the Episcopal office from the hands of Bt. Patrick himself, and was chosen, on account of his superior wisdom and piety, for the office of conveying the glad tidings of salvation to the Cornish people. Usher places the date of his birth in the middle of the fourth century. His parents were of noble origin. Domuel and Wingela by name and were natives of the province of Ossory, Ireland. For thirty years St. Piran was a heathen, and then with his mother Wingela became converted to Chrißtianity. Butler calls him St. Kieran, and asserts that he journeyed to Rome in company with four holy clerks, who were afterwards Bishops, viz., Lugacius, Columban, Lugad, and Oassan ; that after his return thence he was ordained by St. Patrick. John, of Teignmouth, believes him to have been one of the twelve whom the Apostle of Ireland c msecrated Bishop about the year 382 He appears to have built himself a cell in a place encompassed with woods near the waters of Fulran (Ireland), which soon grew into a numerous monastery. A town was afterwards built there called from the faint, Sier Keran. Here he converted to the faith his family and his whole clan, which was that of the Oaraiga. At length the command came from his superiors for him to leave home and country and to take up his abode in Britain." There it a legend to the effect that the Bamt was miraculously transported to Cornwall— where, «s modern research has fully established, he laboured until his death. " Even in these days," concludes the writer, " the miners believe (and who shall say that they are wrong) that on the eve of the sth of March each year the Cornish mines are blessed hy angel hands, and if a man wanders upon the downs "ear Perran-Zabulo upon that night be will hear strains of sweet music proceeding from St. Piran's ancient chapel in the Sands." No light interest, meantime, centres for Irishmen m the proof thus given as to the part taken by their countrymen of old in converting England to Christianity. Have they no influence of a similar kind on her religions life to-day ?

A rOBTUNATE DOUBT.

The readinesß of Prance for war, as proved by the rapidity with which mobilisation at Toulouse has been carried out, is anything rather than a reassuring feature in the prospects of the day. There is always that spectre of revenge beckoning the nation on to a» attack on Germany, and all that seems required to perfect the motive is what may seem to give the promise of a sure success. Notwithstanding the enlightenment of the times, and the loud preaching concerning universal brotherhood that has distinguished the century, questions of tight or justice no longer hold a foremost place, and interest or expediency i Bi B the ruling power. The union, moreover, of General Boulanger with M. Clemenceau and the extreme Radicals is do light element of danger. Men like these are not wont to feel many icruples as to the means by which they obtain their particular ends, and nothing weighs with them but that which may appear suitable to their pnrposes. The party supported by a General who should prove victorious over the Germans would certainly be the dominant party »* France. They would be the very high-priests of the idol and the who • country would be beneath their feet. All their undertakings would be successfully carried out, and no man dare raise a finger against them. There is but one thing, then, that seems to throw any doubt on the hopes that the Bevolutionists base on General Boulan-« r (supposing them to be otherwise fully grounded), and that is the degree in which they have reason to rely on him. la he a true member of their party ; one to support them through thick and thin and to wm honours which they in common with hi* may enjoy ? Or 18 be a mere time-server, willing to meke use of them in obtaining hie objects, but capable of casting them off when that has been done ?

The General's career as a soldier has hardly had sufficient proof, but it has been folly proved by the history of hit dealing! with the Duk« d Aumale that, a* a man, he is not unacquainted with the prompting of self-interest, or unable to play a treacherous part when it luiti him While readiness on the part of the army therefore, and confidence in the General, may certainly seem doubly formidable, when we know that there is an active and unscrupulous party who might hope by their aid to become dominant in the country, there ii some little reassurance in the doubt that may be felt among the Revolutionist! as to the reliability of Boulanger, or the safety of staking the interests or, perhaps, the very existence of their party, onhissqccesi. Instead of sharing in his triumph if he were succeiiful, they might, possibly, become the slaves of a military despot.

A BEAUTIFUL OFFERING.

The V*ce di Malta gives an interesting description of the gilt to be presented by the island comma. nity to the Holy Father on bis sacerdotal Jubilee. It will be a shield of eilver.square in ehape,and in size four feet sir inches by two feet four,and on it in relief and in golden letters will be printed the account of St.Paula visit to the island.taken from the Vulgate. This most noble page, says onr contemporary, the most glorious page of our history, under its double aspect, both religious and civil, is the humble but most precious object that a ■ mailer people dare place on exhibition amongst an indescribable offering from the homage of the world— secure that if in material and artistic value it may rank below many in symbolical merit, it will be Hot only first but unique of its kind. This golden page records the history of our regeneration to Christ and of our civilisation ; it records that tas Maltese never cast a shadow on tbis hince they were never degenerate from their faith ; it records that the firm chain with which the Apostle bound them to the living Peter, not only never became wsaker, whatever stormy changes this isle underwent, but that it is Btill preserved among us by that most lively affe6tion which,. not lew fervently th.n the affection borne by our fathers, we bear to his glorious Successor now reigning. This page is carved in characters of gold so that the durability and the splendour of that metal may represent how deep and ardent is in us that faith which, engraved by the Great Ship. wrecked One in indelible characters on the hearts of his fortunate hosts, indelibly renewed by their posterity for nearly nineteen hundred years, we carry indelibly in our hearts with the hope of handing it down undefiled to the remotest generations. Of all the Churches afterward? established by the Apoatles none has in the sacred text a hißtory so prolix and so circumstantial as our«.— The Voee di MalU adds details which prove that lightly though it epeaks of the intrinsic value of the offering referred to, this will, nevertheless, be a very beautiful and costly work of art.

MR. J. J, CROFTS IN REPLY.

It Beams that exception has been taken at Auckland in some quarter or another to the article we lately quoted from the Evening Bell. Our old friend, Mr > J« J. Crofta comes to the rescue, and addresses the following letter to the newspaper in question :-« Your articles on the English intrigues at Borne in the appointment of English ecclesiastics to rule over the Irish Catholics of the coloniei hart taken terrible effect. You and every Irish < scoundrel ' who dares to entertain a patriotic aspiration must now hide your diminished heads, retire into obscurity, after having been drenched with the filth of the tab of Piogenes and the seethy, intellectual ilush of « True Nationalist ' and « Irish Catholic, 1 which appear in the Advocate. Yonr articles caused no pain to any Irish Nationalist. On the contrary they have given extreme satisfaction to all except a clique who hold up their chins at anything Irish, and increased the big debt of gratitude which Irishmen already owe you for your manly adTocacy of their rights on every occasion when attacked by open enemies, or by what is worse— by insidious foes. Irishmen do not want to b« told what they have suffered for their faith and nationality, that Dr. Croke is an Irish patriot, that Cardinal Moran is another ; that the Pope is an Italian who loves the Irish. But Irishmen should be told that certain English bishops, lords, and priests are 'conspiring at Rome to have anti-Irish bishops placed over Irishmen in the colonies, and that the British Government is invited by Father Belaney and the Bishop of Salford, and the Duke of Norfolk, and other lay Catholic peers, to place Dr. Croke, Dr. Walsh, and other patriotic

ecclesiastic 'scoundrels,' under the surveillance of spies, to be watched as thieves or traitors. There is the true ring of the flunkey in the letters of « True Nationalist ' and ' Irish Catholic,' which are evidently composed by one and the same person ; and the opinions and principles contained in them might have been written by a Time* correspondent or one of its satellites of the Father Belaney 6tamp. But the writer of this, or any other Irishman that is not an antiIrishman, will not be intimidated by any quantity of threats or Abase from ecclesiastics or laymen, do matter from what quarter it proceeds, to damp our national aspirations, or tone down our feelings to accommodate English prejudices or dislikes. They may sneer at the Dunedin Tablet, but long before the Advocate or its predecessor had an existence the Tablet and Dr. Moran, by indomitable zeal and matchless ability, fought the battles of faith and fatherland— and are still in the front of the battle — for the rights and liberties of Irishmen and Catholics. When the Advocate will have such a record, little Diogenes may have divested himself of his tub, and 1 Trne Nationalist ' and • Irish Catholic ' may have got rid of their cowardice, and be manly enough to attach their names to their snivelling, flunkeyish productions."— As to the sneers that Mr, Crofts says are made at the Tablet, they could not be made more harmlessly. But who has made them ? The censor, for example, that has been of late engaged in lecturing his readers on many most interesting peccadillos — and, among the rest, on the dirty pinafores and dirty noses of their children ? Still, if be succeeds in wiping those noses, he will have done something in his day, and ws may allow that he will have completely fulfilled his mission. For ourselves, when we need a pocket-handkerchief, or a rag to serve instead of it. we shall know where to find one— and though we may find little else worth having, there will be an advantage even in that. Nevertheless, we are grateful to Mr. Crofts for his kind appreciation of our labours and the defence he makes of us. We are almost charitable enough, in Cockney interests, to wish it were more required.

UNIVBBSITT LIS-B.

That letter from a student of the Glasgow Uaiversity explaining the neglect shown to his class by pointing out the average weight reached by their professors has been followed up by a writer in the St. James 1 ! Gazette, who gives several racy anecdotes relating to the student life in question. We do not, however, see the absolute necessity of agreeing with him that Glasgow has any reason to blush for that victor of the Snell scholarship, who, going up to Oxford so that he might carry all before him, failed to pasi even the eatrance exanimation, because of the Biblical questions put to him. Surely his failure may rather be looked upon as an orthodox protest against the perplexities and confusion of Prelacy, and as attributable more to the misunderstanding of the examiners than to the ignorance of the student. Charity should always come into pay when there is room for it. The following anecdote deserves quotation : — " The University in the Scottish capital is remarkable for a scarcity of cloak rooms, and, in the excitement of examinations, hats are, or used to be, flung down anywhere. This examiner announce! one day that if he found another hat on his desk he would rip it up. Next day no bats were laid there when the students aisembleJ. Presently, however, the examiner waa called out of tha room. Then some naughty undergraduate slipped from his seat, got the examiner's hat, and placed it on the desk. When the examiner re-entered the hall every eye was fixed on him. He observed the hat, and a gleam of triumph shot across his face. ' Gentlemen,' he said, ' I told you what would happen if this occurred again.' Then he took his pen-knife from his pocket, opened it, and blandly cut the hat in pieces, amidst loud and prolonged applause. They do say that there were other examiners in the room at the time, who could have warned him had they chosen." As to the suspicions that examination papers had found their way prematurely into interested hands, however they may have justified Edinburgh examiners in printing fresh sets of questions, it is an undoubted fact that some 26 or 27 years ago a case of the kind, wholly beyond suspicion and fully proved, occurred in connection with an examination for commissions in the army. The examination, attended by candidates from all parts of the United Kingdom, was duly held, and on its termination the discovery was made that the papers used had previously been obtained by some of the lads examined. The result was that all passes were cancelled, and, after an interval of some weeks, another examination was held, to the great and undeserved inconvenience of m my candidates who had passed with credit to themselves and without any surreptitious aid.

THE BETTfcH SYSTEM.

As* article in Murray's Magazine for July gives u 8 some information respecting the march of education in England th<r ■'< «->?vrs consideration. We find thai, j.idcincj fi\ in ». • 'unbers of people who themselves signed their name* in tho ruauiage renters diir.n^ 18S4 as compared with those who did so in 1870, there has been a considerable advance made— yet not bo graat an advance as might have been expected, and one by no means in proportion to the increased expenditure. The difference in favour of 1884 between those who made

their marks in the years alluded to was only 4.51 per cent. It is probable, however, that this method of judging by the marriage register, as to the state of education in the country is in some degree fallacious. The man or woman who can sign bis or her name, and that only, hardly possesses a a advantage of much importance over him or her who cannot do so. The Commission, whose report we lately referred to, has placed it on record that of those who have attended the schools many in a few months af tei leaving have forgotten almost all they had learned — but probably those who had learned to sign their names would retain the power of doing so. It is, however* shown by the official tables that the voluntary schools have been much more successful in their results than the Board schools. The pupils educated by them give all the signs of having received a greater degree of care, and the counties in which they predominate are in the van. All the difference is seen, in fact, that might be expected between the results of labour performed by mere hirelings and that done by people whose interest in their work was more deeply grounded. "It will," says the writer in Murray'; " give a rude shock to sanguine optimists, who rely upon municipal or State organisation merely or mainly, to find that the counties which stand superior in all England are distinctively rural, whilst all the great school-board counties with the exception of Middlesex and Surrey, in comparison , take a very inferior position. As to Middlesex and Surrey also.it must be observed that school-board influences there are brought into competition and concurrence with (Jhurch influences and social influence! of the best and highest kind. The wonder is not that the metropolitan counties — the great centres of educating influence for the country — stand so high as they do ; the wonder is that Westmoreland and Rutland stand superior to the counties of Surrey and Middlesex, and to London, and that Sussex stands superior to Middlesex and to the metropolis." It is proved, in short, that higner motives succeed in producing better work, and that no greater mistake can be made than that of shutting out from the education of youth the most powerful and salutary influences that mankind is capable of experiencing — those of religion and benevolence.

THE POPE'S JUBILEE.

The whole Catholic world, is now moving in pre paratioa for ttn approaching sacerdotal jubilee of the Holy Father. The following passages from &n address made recently in Switzerland by Mgr. Memillod to the pilgrims who wers visiting tie tomb of Blesßed Nics'o di Flua may serve as an Illustration of the spirit that is abroad: — God has treated us like chosen children in giving us during this century a series of admirable Popes; Pius VII., Leo XII., Gregory XVI., Pius IX., Leo XIII. There is salvation in Leo XIII., the magnanimous Father who stretches his hand across the ocean t nations that are being born, and who throughout our old Europe has such tender thoughts for the nations that seem aoout to die. These nations would do without the Church, would deny the faith, and misunderstand the priesthood ; but they suffer from illusions. Like the men who built the tower of Babel, they would build without Jesus Christ. But they can only build a fragile tower. God still watches over them, since the holy Church defends them. The Church which is like the Tower of Pisa, always leaning, but which never falls. Let us Catholic Switzerß love the Holy Father. For centuries we hare formed the guard of honour of him who is the protector of the peoples and of the liberty of the world. We should ihow ourselves worthy of this glorious preference by our devotion to the Holy See, and the Vicar of Jesm Christ. While we wish Leo XIII. the joys of hi§ sacerdotal jubilee, let us pray to heaven that the fullness of his fifty years, still speadiag benedictions abroad, may make wide the rules of his prison-house. He who does not understand that the liberty of the Pope is the liberty of the nations, understands nothing of this world's affairs.

INTERESTING LISTS.

In the Fortnightly Review for July Mr. Francis Galton, F.R.S , gives us a list of epithets by which the various kinds of tempers — good or bad — are characterised. It is, however, a rather melancholy reflection that whereas the different phases of good temper amount only to fifteen, those in which bad temper reveals itself are numbered at forty-six. We append the list, as it may form some profitable or at least some amusing occupation for our readers to examine themselves as to which heading they may be ranked under, and it will enable them more especial ly to decide as to the place occupied by their friends. If couples, again, who are about to enter into matrimonial alliances will set down the conclusions they now come torespecting one another, they may have the advantage of comparing them hereafter with the results of experiences they will.have gained : — " Good Temper. Amiable, buoyant, calm, cool, equable, forbearing:* gentle, good, mild, placid, self -controlled, submissive, Bunny, timid' yielding (15 epithets in all). — Bad Temper. Acrimonious, aggressive, arbitrary, bickering, capricious, captious, choleric, contentious' crotchety, decisive, despotic, domineering, easily offended, fiery, fits of anger, gloomy, grumpy, harsh, hasty, headstrong, huffy, impatient, imperative, impetuous,insane temper.irri table, morose .nagging, obstinate, odd-tempered, pacaoarfte, peevish, peppery, pr oud,pugnacloui, qounl

■ome, qnick-tempered, scolding, short, sharp, sulky, sullen, surly, uncertain, vicious, viodic'ive (46 epithets in all)."

▲ BAD STATE 07 THINGS.

Canon Farrar contributes ao article to the Cfc»temporary Review for July, which does not speak very highly of the civilising influences that accompany the march of the Anglo-Saxon, and of which, nevertheless, we are wont to hear a good deal. The subject the writer deals with especially is the influence of the liquor traffic in Africa, and he brings forward many proofs that testify against it in a very strong and overwhelming manner. The following passage, quoted by him from a speech recently made in London by Mr. W. S. Came, M.P., is interesting from more points than one. It seems to show us that there are other people besides the French and Russians who might think it would be to their advantage should the English troops evacuate Egypt, although their reasons might be different. " The native races of Egypt are being demoralised. We did not originally take the drink there. I have no doubt ir was there before our occupation, and before we undertook the joint Government with France ; but it has terribly increased since then. 20.000 troops were sent there, who gave a great stimulus to the drink business. Nearly all the conspicuous public-houses in Egypt bear English sign-boards . 1 The Duke of Edinburgh,' ' Queen Victoria,' • Peace and Plenty,' 1 The Union Jack,' etc. All the great public-houses are Dranded with English names. They do not alone sell liquor, but deal in even a more disgraceful vice than that. Each of these public-houses is a centre of vice and iniquity of the deepest dye. I made careful inquiry as to what was the effect upon the native races of Egypt in consequence of the sale of intoxicating liquors in Egypt. I find that wherever our army had gone up the Nile the liquor trade had followed it ; that when they had left the stations where the publichouses were established, the public-houses remained. Where there bad been five or six of these flaunting public-house 3 which never existed before, there they still retnaiaed after the soldiers had gone. Who buys the liquor now f Why, the natives whom, I am sorry to Bay, the British soldier has taught largely to drink. It i a the commonest thing in the world for the British soldier to treat his donkey boys to intoxicating liquor. I rode on a good many donkeys and became acquainted with the boys in charge of them, and found that the demoralising influence of the British tourists on these boys was something terrible. Wherever the Englishman comes in contact with the natives he drags them down through intoxicating liquors. I went to see a temperance meeting— the only temperance meeting held in Cairo— except those in the barracks for the soldiers. That meeting was a large one, 300 or 400 people being present. Every one of the speakers were natives of Egypt, and speeches were made in Arabic. . . . Nearly every speech was in denunciation of English. men, Levantines, and Europeans, and Christians in particular, for bringing this accursed drink to them. They were urging Maho'medans, whose religion ferbids them to drink, to Bign the pledge, as we do here. That alone is evidence of the truth of what I am saying. ... If I had one thing made more clear than another by social reformers in Egypt, it was this fact, that a native once beginning the drink becomes a drunkard almost immediately, and nothing bring B him back.

SALVATIONISTS IN TBOUBLE.

ACCOBDIM* to the Petit Journal the Salvation Army in France has come into contact with justice under circumstances that, to say the leaat, are suspicious. The Army, it appears, has at Lyons a certain refuge, where women and girls are harboured. It, moreover, appears that the inmates are rather to be regarded as prisoners than as voluntary penitents rejoicing in the light. This, at least, is suggested by the evidence given by a young girl named Berg-nt, who, in company with two otherß, escaped a few weeks ago from durance. Two of the fugitives, says our contemporary, were speedily overtaken by two Salvation officers who, under threats of striking them, brought them back to the refuge. But the third, a young girl hardly sixteen years old, named Marguerite Sergent, succeeded in evading the trackers of the Army, and took refuge with a certain good woman in the neighbourhood. The next day, this poor girl, who had on her face the marks of suffering, complained to the police, and made revelations which seem to indicate that this pretended refuge is not altogether a school of morality. The discipline is rety hard ; thus, a young girl of fifteen is expected to make a shirt every day, or failing to do so, gets her Bhare in the evening of a loaded cane. Theße facts, as well as several others, led to an examination of the captain and the lieutenant, ladies both, before a magistrate. — " You belong to the Salvation Army," quoth his Worship, " you are foreigners. — Young Sergent con- plains of bad treatment, which she has been made suffer at your bouse. She bears on her person the marks of numerous bruises.' To which the pious ladies replied " Allelouya." " Answer my questioo," exclaimed his Worship, " It aopears you beat your boarders 1 And again the ladies replied " Allelouya." A threat that they would be locked up finally produced the ejaculation "Amen," and the accused were discharged for the time to await the pleasure of the

court, which has no notion of remaining satisfied with their insolent sanctimoniousness ,

AN ANECDOTE OP PIUS IX.

Lady Hebbeet has translated from the French of Mgr. Besson a life of the late Mgr. Merode* The following anecdote will give some ide& of the work. It relates to a visit paid to the Hospital of St; Andrea during an epidemic of cholera :—": — " Pias IX started alone with his Chamberlain, taking care to say nothing to his Secretary of State, and not even letting bis servants know where he was going. It was only after his usual drive that bis coachman received orderi to stop at the door of that house where death was reaping twenty-five •oldiers a day. The coachman was so panic-stricken that he caught the disease, and died two days after. The footmen were left in the street, and the Pope went into the hospital alone, only being accompanied by Mgr. de Merode. Pius the Ninth went to every bed, and •aw all the sick, consoling, cheering, and blessing them, with tears in his eyes. * ♦ • On his return he found the whole Vatican in consternation. Cardinal A.ntonelli, turning to Mgr. Me rode, reproached himbitteily. 'What a fearful responsibility you have taken upon yourselt, 1 he exclaimed, • and to what danger you have exposed Hii Holiness ? Only think for a moment that it might have been hi* death !' • Well,' replied Mgr. de Merode, ' and if the Pope had died on the spot, what death would have been more glorious, or more worthy of the Vicar of Jesus Christ?' Pius the Ninth approved of his words, and with a bright smile and a tender voice, replied : ' You are quite right, Mirode, I have only done what was my duty t' "

LAMENTABLE DETAILS.

While the Roman question is once more occupying a prominent place ia public attention— the condition of Italy generally ia one of much interest and reliable details concerning it are ot importance. A reconciliation with the Pope wuio.h would involve a greater regard to the rights of religion, or, at least, a cessation of the active hostilities now conducted against it, is much, to be desired.— Of tha state of things that now exists ia the country alluded to we obtain a melancholy view from an article published by Father O'Beilly, a well known and able writer, in the American Catholio Quarterly Review. He tells of parish priests seiiod on the very altar during the celebration of Mass, and dragged away to serve a term in the ranks of the army ; and of the prescription even in remote country places of the processions of Coipus Christ/ — which have also been forbidden even within the precincts of the city of Rome. The desecration of the Sacrament of Matrimony again calls for his severest condemnation, involving as it does the profanation of the family on which the character and status of society depend. He tells us that the effect of the obstacles placed in the way of the religious ceremony is to increase the custom of being satisfied with the legal form of marriage only, and of neglecting to seek the blessing of the Cnurch. But what the life of tue homes thus begun must be it ii easy for us to imagine. Education also is made godless, and the •areer of the child both at home and abroad is stripped, so far as poasible of all religious influences. Father O'Reilly quotes from a letter written to him recently by the historian Cesare Cautu as to toe results that are to ba wituessed throughout the country. " The low state of public morality in our country," he says, " is something iacredible. There seems to be left no feeling of honour, of delicacy, of honesty." And again he writs, "I am sent statistical tables which show, among other tilings, that from 1863 to 1883 suicides were reckoned by thousands. Our prisons are crowded with condemned criminals. Immorality is daily on the increase, and crimes are multiplying on every hand." The state of matters then, to which the oppression of the Pope has led is evident, and they must, indeed, be malevolent who would resist a settlement that might tend even to some slight amelioration. If a conciliation be made, we may be persuaded it will include arrangements for the general relief of religion, so imperatively jdemanded.

TOUCHING THE NOSE.

It would appear, nevertheless, that the care of the nose forma a legitimate subject for the journalist's pen. We find, for example, a charming article relating to it in the columns of a French contemporary, and what can we do better than reproduce it— more especially for the benefit of those editors who desire to work reforms into which considerations of the kind enter very closely 1 We regret, however, that, possibly owing ; to some failing of our own — we, perhaps, do not possess a sufficient command over the delicacies of the English language, or understand too literally the crudities of the French, we feel obliged to quote in some places from the original as it lies before us. In the sixteenth century, says our contemporary, people Bi ll eat wiihout a fork. They are ateo recommended not to blow thtir noses with the hand that lays hold of the meat. Otherwise they are free to blow their noses with their fingers, provided it be with those of the left hand.

Enfant, si ton net est morvoux, Ne le torche pas & main nue De quoy la viande est tenue ; Le fait est vilaln et honteux. Brasmus in 1530 advised the use of the pocket-handkerchief. NeverIneless, he adds, i* is not forbidden to blow your nose with two fingers, poarra q Ue Ton prenne soin de poser aussitS tle pied aur cc gui sera tonib6 a terre. A hundred years afterwards people may still blow their noses with one finger only. And here our contemporary relates an anecdote recorded by Tallemant des Beaux of a certain great nobleman who one day entertained at dinner the illustrious Tuvenne, •nd the Marquis de Ruvigay. But, even as narrated in the French language, the wit of the story hardly seems to atone for its uncleanlinew, and in our grosser English tongue we shall not venture to reproduce it. Finally we are told that on the eve of the Revolution the use of the pocket handerchief was almost complained of as putting an end to a practice which had become an art, that of blowing the nose with the fingers.