General News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 12, 12 July 1889, Page 20

General News.

Mr. Henry Paxton, son of Geaeral Paxton, of Midhurat, hasljust been received into the Church, in Rome. In 1881 there were six Catholics in the House of Representatives of New Hampshire ; this year there are twenty-four, most of them bearing well-known Irish names. Since the purchase of Alaska it can be said of the United States what has been f-aid of England— that the sun never sets on her dominions. At sunset in Alaska the next morning's san is an hour high in Maine.— Huston Journal. The longest speech General Sheridan ever m-ide, we are told was of a few minutes' duration, but one sentence in it deserves to rank with the greatest of orations : " Every one of my commissions 1 received upon the battlefield." Mr. Parnell never stood higher in the estimation of good men than when he admitted that he had used "gross exaggeration " in urging Parliament to stop coercion in 1881 by claiming that secret societies had ceased to exist. He was at that time fighting for a vital need for his country, against the ignorance and intolerance of a foreign parliament. But when they ask him, in a calmer time, on his sworn testimony, lie fearlessly and honorably admits that his plea was an exaggeration, or in his own words " a gross exaggeration." A less conscientious man would have said that he had been of that opinion at that time, even if he had changed since, etc. But the man to lead a na'ion surely and hecurely will not fear the absolute truth. Mr Parns-lIV noble admission must have smote Attorney-General Webster in the face, in memory of the Pigotts, LeCarons and Houbtons, whom ho has coached and protected — Pilot. Our esteemed contemporaiy, the Catholic Mirror of Baltimore Md., correctly notes as one excellent effect of the hearings in the Mabsactu,s"tt& Legislature on the Anti-Uatholic Sc 00l Bill, that they have been the means of piovicg to the world that the most intelligent non-Catholic public educators m the State do not share the absurd fears or bigotry of the narrow-minded parsons who have led the fi»bt against the parochial schoo s. "After all," add* the Mirror, "the Bay State Catholics may be indebted to the bigots for the sympathy and gooi-fellowship of the best non-Oatho ie element in the Commonwealth." The Archives Judaiqucs of Paris, in solving the question rs to the number of Jewa in me world, computes the total at 6,300,000 Of t: is number rheio ure no fewer tian :., 400,000 in Km ope, 'the' remainder r eing thus apportioned : -Asia, 300.00J ; Africa, 350,000 • and America. 250,000. T.king Europe, the bulk of the Jewish demerit is iv Russia, nearly 3,000,000, an<i of these a large portion (708,500) aic m the old kingdom of Po'and. Austria has 1,044,000 Jews ot whom 688,000 aro in Ga.'icia (Austrian Poland alone.) The other European countries come int.'ia following order :— Germany 562 000 • Roumania. 263,000; Turkey, 105,000; the Netherlands' 82*000 • France, (i 3,000 ; and Italy, 40,000. The numbers in the* Spanish Peninsula and in Great Britain are not given. The original home of the race, Palestine, can only show 25 000 Jewe. 'Ihe illustrious chemist, M. Chevreu', of France, just died at the age of 103, did more for the manufacturing industries all over the world than any other scientist of the present century. But there ia another side ot his life which moßt of the Parisian papers pass over in silence. He was a good man, au honest man, a true Christian. On the Thursday night of last week, when the physician declared his case to be hopeless, M. Chevruel sent immediately for his confessor, Abbe Riche. It was near midnight, and th^ confessor, not being able to attend, his place was gladly taken by the Abbe Lelievre, an old and attached friend of the dying man. M. Chevreul was then in the, full possession of all his faculties, made his confession with childlike simplicity, which marked all his religious act?, and received all the sacraments of tho dying. It was then near 1 o'clock on the morning of Friday. As the day broke and advanced the stiengih of the aged patient waned rapidly. From that mement life ebbed slowly away ; nature, exhausted, sunk into a peaceful sleep. He was true also to both science and religion. He was arA indefatigable and conscientious observer. Every successive Govern-^^ ment delighted in honouring him. For, devoting himself to the pursuit of scientific analysis, he kept aloof fiom politics and the entanglements of political parties. He was a Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, the highest distinction which can be conferred by the French Government ; he was also a Commander of the Order ot Christ, one of the highest distinctions ever granted by the Popes.