Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 52, 20 April 1888, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

Dom Boboo died at Turin on Monday January 30. The life of this great priest, long reputed a saint, and venerated as such, is known to our readers. We have more than once referred to it in our columns, and given full details concerning it. Our readers will remember Dom Bosco's great work of gathering the neglected boys of Turin together, and carrying on their care and education under difficulties that none but a saint could hare overcome. When the priest who met him at the gates of the town as, in company with his devoted mother, be wad about to enter there with the firm intention of commencing his undertaking, asked him how, since he had no resources, he meant to ye his reply was : " f know nothing about it. Providence will provide/ And, as the event proved, his confidence was well-founded. Providence did make ample provision, but not until his faith and patience had been severely and repeatedly tried. It is almost amusing, notwithstanding the deep pathos of the situation, to read of how Dom Bosco and his boys were driven from one refuge to another, haviDg for a time, no other place of assembly than under the open sky. But the work wae one destined to succeed, and the holy founder has died, leaving more than 130 houses of his Order— that of the Salesian Fathers — in which close upon 100,000 children are sheltered. There are besides connected with them, in every part of the world, workshops and agricultural settlements. The Saint, as he is reputed, died as he had lived. On the day previous to his death, he occupied himself still with his sons, calling them to his bedside, and giving them advice and exhortations for the future. Even when he was in the last agony he raised his left hand, his right being paralysed, and blessed them. Like Piuß IX, be died as the Angelus was ringing, and the parting •hange that appeared on his face was a sweet Bmile, that still lingered after death. His body was exposed in the church of his Order, where it was visited by crowds of people, many of them coming from distant places, but not even the intercession of the Princess Clotilde, the sister of the King, could obtain from Signor Crispi permission for its burial in the vaults of the church. Dom Bosco was looked upon as a saint in bis life, and the impression that he had been so was strengthened in the minds of those who saw the sweet emile upon the face of his corpse as it lay exposed in the church, but the prayers of his survivors, for the repose of his sonl have, nevertheless, been asked for. Dom Michael Bua, the present Superior of the Order, has issued a circular making this request, and explaining that his action was in accordance with the wish of Dom Bosco himself, who had been alarmed at the many good things he heard reported of him. " They will think," he said, " that I do not want prayers, and will leave me in purgatory." But while the prayers offered for a saint will not be lost the charity which prompts them will also have its reward. —Reqwetcat in Pace.

THE BLESSED CLEMENT HOFBAUEB.

As Catholics in New Zealand take a particular interest in the Redemptorist Fathers-to whom many of them owe a great deal— they will be pleased to read some details of the career of the Blessed Clement Hofbauer, a member of the Order, whose beatification lately formed one of the ceremonies of the Pope's Jubilee, Clement Hofbauer began life as a baker's boy at Taswitz, in Moravia He was self-educated, studying hard when his day's work was done, and qualifying himself thus for the great task of carrying on in other countries the labour in Italy of St. Alphonsus, which he was afterwards to perform. Hofbauer left his native country for Vienna, where he worked for some time at his trade, and was noted for his profound piety, but he went after a time to Rome, and devoted himself to the religious life. It was he who was destined to fulfil the prediction of St. Alphonsus that, after his death, the congregation would spread its wings, and extend itself all through the countries of the North. — When the Saint died in 1787 Hofbauer was already established at Warsaw, where he laboured in the spirit of the Saint and with the utmost success. He was, however, driven thence by the revolution in 1808, and betook himself once more to Vienna, particu larly dis. .tinguiahing himself there by hie opposition to the mischievous influences

TUB DEATH Ol 1 A SAINT.

of Josephism, which be did a great deal to counteract. He also nuute foundations in certain •£ the German States, and the legal recognition of his institute in the Austrian Empire was attributed to hit lc )aboiui and prayers— alth ough, as he had foretold, it did not occur until torn* time after his deai b. The general establishment, in ihort, and eztea* fiion of tbe Order a all parts of the world, if it was not dixe&ly due to the Blessed Cle aent Hofbaaer. was in a great degree owing to hia preparing the wa; for it. He is therefore especially deterring of th* reverence and gra itude of those who hare profited, aa so many in all parts of tbe worl i, including our own colony, have done, by tha devoted labours oi tbe sons of St. Alphonsui. ° '

VARIOUS POINTS.

:hb debate in which Mr. Gladstone's great ■peeoh published in onr last issue ocouned was remarkable in several respects. Mr. O'Brien, for example, had an opportunity of contradicting Lord Salisbury's recant statement at Oxford with reg> rd to the advice given by htm at Mitchellstown that, according to his Lordship, the tenants should not pay their just debtt. He showed.that he had arrived in the place at a crisis when evietioft* were about to be staid and that he had done no more than would be done by a man who should arrest the hand of an executioner if both be and the executioner knew that a reprieve was on the point of arriving* Mr. O'Brien's great triumph, however, was that in which, face to face with Mr. Balfour, he challenged all that gentleman's statements with regard to his cos iuct in Tullamore gaol, and exposed their falsehoodwithout leaving it possible for his calumniator to utter one word in reply. — The only attempt made by the right honourable gentleman to reply was afterwards when in his speech he nrged that much harder things had been said of him by Mr. O'Brien in United Ireland, than in the House. He did not, however, show that United Ireland had been unjust in the publication of those things, and he did show that he had taken their publication very much to heart— thus making evident the power of the paper. Mr. O'Brien also made a very good point when, in referring to the prosecution of the editors for publishing the reports of the suppressed branches of the League, he said the right hon . gentleman might as well issue a proclamation forbiddiag the sun to shine and then go about smashing the faces of all the tin* dials because they recorded that luminary's motion. Another good point in the debate was made by Mr. Morley, who represented the Unionists as beating the Orange dram with one hand while with tb« other they slyly plucked Monsignor Persico by the sleeve. Perhaps the meanest thing that has taken place in Parliament also occurred i» this debate, when Mr. Balfour repeated that the charge of boycotting brought by bim against Mrs Dillon the mid-wife bad been true— although he had refused to give Mrs Dillon an opportunity of proving that he had spoken falsely and pleaded privilege when she had him served with a writ. Another accusation of boycotting made by the right hon. gentleman wag exposed by Mr. Parnell, who showed that a boycotted woman whom the right hon. gentleman represented at ov«y eighty years of age was a stirring dame of fifty— somewhat given Iq drink, and employed by a lady who kept a shop and public«houie to go round to the shops of the village where she resided, and get up cases of boycotting against the shopkeepers. There was, in short, * great deal in the debate referred to, besides the general bearing of the speeches, that deserved attention and which should not be without its effect.

A VAILUBB.

The experiences of the "gaol-birds" have been a topic of much interest. The gaol-birds, however in this instance are not creatures of the night, bat fowl sach as many flap their wings in the fall blaze of the sun aid seem well in keeping with the light of day. Mr. O'Brien got enough to eat in Tnllamore and plenty of milk to drink, bat Mr. Cunningham Graham in Fentonville was continually hungry, and Mr. Barns w*§ kept from starvation by bread surreptitously supplied to him in the gaol chapel by other prisoners— while both these gaol-birds got noth* ing better to drink than " skilly," which Mr. Graham says was some* times very good, but Mr. Burns describes as always execrable. The pies, bacon and eggß, with which the gentlemen last named were regaled by a sympathising body of worHog-men, who met them on their coming out, were keenly appreciated and eagerly devoured by them. Mr. O'Brien, on principal, rejected the gaol olothei, ana refused to take exercise with criminals or to perform menial ferrim

in bis cell. Mr. CunniDgham Graham, who, however, had had the experience of twelve years on a ranche in Texas, wore the clothes willingly, enjoyed Tanning racea with the criminals, some of whom» And notably a certain horse-thief— whom in his Texan days he might hare taken part in hanging — ha considered very good fellows, doing their best to keep up his spirits, and scrubbed and ewept in his cell ai he was required. Both Mr. O'Brien and Mr, Graham made a close ■tody of the Bible ; the one preferring and delighting in the book of Job, and the other being confirmed in his preference of Ecclesiastes. Bat Mr. Barns found the tracts supplied to him enough to convert the prison into a lunatic asylum. Mr. O'Brien wrote with a Wooden Bkewer blackened in the fire, or else pricked his finger, and wrote with his blood for ink, and lightened his long hours of solitude by the mental composition of a novel or by thinking over, county by county, every person and place he bad seen in Ireland. Mr. Cunningham Graham fell back tn his contemplations in Texas. And a jolly place a ranche in Texas mast be in which to spend twelve years. Mr. O'Brien, however, persists in bis declaration that be entered Tullamoie with the full conviction that he would never come out alive. Nor does he believe that he would, he says, had cot the Government been alarmed at the commotion that was made. He accounts also for that increase in his weight of which Mr. Balfour speaks. The treatment received by him at first, he says, reduced him from lOst. 71b. to 9st. 61b. But then began the disturbance outside the prison, and, i i consequence, the treatment was altered so that he recovered 9 lb. Mr. Hums, meantime, tells as that the whole time and energy of the doctor in the gaol hospital is devoted to undoing the evil effects of the diet and the treatment in the cells. Bat surely this is hardly a creditable state of things in a civilised country. On the whole, the effect of the experiences of the gaol-birds will not be that of lerrifying evildoers and driving them to amend their ways. The Government have done much to strip the prison of its terrors, and, in making confinement there an honourable distinction rather than a shame. the> have produced effects very different from those desired by them, it will be necessary for the brave Mr. Balfour fully to carry out his original design and kill his prisoners if he would do anything worth speaking of, although, even then, it may be safely predicted, be would not succeed in accomplishing his final object.

MEDDLING AND MALICE.

AND so meddling and malice are qualities of sanctity. " But the plaintiff did not want money," said Dr, Fitchett on Friday last, addressing the jury in an action for libel brought at Dunedin by Mrs. D'Albedhyll, against Mr, Alfred Brunton, " but to clear herself, and he was certain they would do that, and would teach Mr. Bruaton that a meddlesome and malicious man could not with impunity scatter Blander in the way the defendant had done." The jury responded to the plea of the learned counsel by giving a verdict for the plaintiff with the full amount of damages claimed. Brother Brunton, then, has been condemned by twelve of his fellow citizens, and in open court, as a meddlesome and malicious man, scattering scandal — although, fortunately, not with impunity. But Brother Bran ton is a Mint. We have it on his own authority, and who should read his heart if not he himself? Malice and meddliug and the scattering of tcandal are, therefore, the characteristics of sanctity, at least as it is known among select circles in Dunedin. The case was a miserable one, in which the character of a woman at variance with her husband was aesailed and an attack unjustly and scandalously made, as we see; upon her good name previous to her marriage. But it was quite in keeping with the Banctity of such a saint as Brother Brunton and distinctive of the class to which he belongs. He was not alone in his investigations, but, as it transpired on the trial, h?d been countenanced and assisted in them by such like-minded disciples as the Reverend Morley and North, and the Honourable Thomas Dick. How versatile, by the way, is ihe genius of the Honourable Thomas Dick, our timehonoured Statesman, equally c pable a? ho is, for example, of sitting in inquiry into the chastity of a woman in Dunedin, and of giving assistance in the deliberations of a Ministry at Wellington. But whether are we to consider that th' 3 affairs of the Colony have been brought down into the mud by <he presence of such men in the Cabinet and the legislature or that matters of beggarly gosaip, and of what, for want of a better word, we may call muck-snuffing, hive been elevated to' the level of State affairs ? The condition of the Colony will afford a palpable answer. Th'i Colony has evidently been a good deal in the hands of men capable only of degrading and injuring it, and its conditian is prottv much what we might expect it to be as a result of such an influer.ce as that of the Honourable Thomas Dick, even old gossips who arc more or le9B respectable after their kind, are not qualified to act as statesmen. As to Brother Brunton, it is har '-ly worth while Lo waste much time with him. His action in the case referred to may be taken as a matter of course, Chadband, as it will be remembered, was most ta«cr in his pursuit of Lady Dedlock, and Brother Brunton occupied as a muck-snuff jr was appropriately engaged. But decent p ople should profit by this exposure that has been made of sanctity in Dunedin. and learn to

place a proper value upon the saints whoss especial characteristics have been thus revealed to them.