General News.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 17, 16 August 1889, Page 7

General News.

Catholicity is making headway in Holland. Although the Protestant religion has been for a long time the established religion of Holland, there are 370 vacancies for the Protestant ministry, and only seven candidates therefor.

" An astronomical observatory, costing 200,000 dols, is to be at once begun by the Vatican. This, in connection with the big Lick telescope on our Pacific Coast, oaghfc to keep us well-informed in regard to the movements of the heavenly bodies. Blindness is alarmingly on the increase in England, and it seems from a discussion that took place in the House of Common's, that thirty per cent, of the cases are caused by juvenile ophthalmia, the result of hot pressure to meet the requirements of the Code. Whenever the Church raises objections to the overstrain thus put upon children, she is reproached with being fond of darknees : but what is the good of bo much intellectual light if it results in material darknees ? We have not yet done with all the splendours of the Code and the results of official education.

The London Figaro is a strong Tory organ. But it is furious with the Times for not paying the forger's witnesses in the Parnell case. There should be honour among thieves, is clearly the opinion of the Figaro. Several witnesses spent months in the capital, incurring, for tnem, enormous expenses, and hare, we are pleased to learn, been left in the lurch by Walter. Walter was to have stripped himself naked, he declared, to recoup the shareholders of the Times for the losses incurred. When he was over here, a couple of years asjo, he did not impress those who had dealings with him as a person of romantic generosity. Very few will pity his Irish victims. To squeeze the orange and fling the rind aside has been a familiar waj of dealing with Irish traitors by Eaglishmen, when they could no longer make use of them. The remark of the English general after the battle of Ivnsaleis true at all times : '' It is true we could not have beaten Tyrone without the aid of the Irishry opposed to him. But what a service it would be 10 her Highness if we could now cut the throats of tbe Irishry who helpei U3 ! '

How great have been the sacrifices exacted of the Prussian Poles, even in the«e last few years of comparative religious peac n , is s'nkingly indicated by an article of the Kuryer Posnantlii, which says : " Uur Archbishop had to resign his Episcopal Stc because he was a Pole, and in things closely connected witb the faith refused to subject himself unconditionally to the State. No Po c wai allowed to be \ i-^ successor, for herein lay a danger to the -«tate. Prelaci-S aid ecclesiastical dignities are conferred almost exclusively on nonPoles, as professors and priests are requisitioned from other dn ce^es, Ihe condinons under whicH the direction of religious instruction in the elementary schools was allowed to a part of the clergy were altogetter impossible, and tlu entire matter had 1o be shelved. In all the higher, «s well as the lower schools, enly Gcini.m is to be lira; 1 ; m the g>mnis T a, and in a very 1 irg«' number of < X nu-nla'y '-c'-'ju s, even religious n struction has been absoibed by that langnaye : the Polish schclars ;-.re di'-lccating their tonguea r md not gi'itiiig oiv ([iiaitercf the huncfit they would icceive from lolitiioiii iii-tiin tu>n la thur owu ia:iguag . N.i\ , eveu fn in elcmentaiy i cioo'-- i^ th 1 mothei-tongii' 1 b m shed, whilit in a few gymnas'a it is treated i.i tne luui9a=an ohj^c' (i antupnty. l'olish clildit-n, unless tl\'lannly home takes pity on them, will grow up without knowing thoir native langUHgi- or being able to us>> a Poli-h piayerbook. W'lumc i . all Europe is such a state ot things to bo fjunii iv pnmiry f-cnouls — in - less, peihaps. in the great Empire ot the Russian ( zat ? " The siuv organ also pcints out that tin 1 majoiity of the elemental? teac'n-is are ignorant of Poli-h : that Polish teacheis 'ire beinj removed westward to Gerruau-s[)caking nistncts ; thit eight-ninths of the -oho)'inspccto.s aie Protestants; that the crnract* rof the gymnasia arid m ddle-schools id Posen is oveiwhdnnmdy Piote-5 ant and Gutcan, and that the condition of all Polish eini loyees 13 one of great opp'o&10D. These complaints aie cmly too well ]uvili:d.

The parish i nest« of jK riyjjmr»t at- Killamoy ou Wol'it". lay, June ~>, under the presidt ncy of Archbist'op Crokc, lor the s It eti ■ >>i of three gentlemen to be lecommendul to the Holy Se ■ fur ihappointment of a succe>- c or to tne li'o Bishop lli^mns, fh •V ly Key. Canon Lalor, of Southward, lnvi g rv<i\el twenty-on ■ vutc-. was dtg)i'ci\'uni/.s ; the Very liev. IJ. a-i Cif -\ , P.P., li.ilcv. was dig nio r, with fireen votes ; and Oh> Venerable Ai oh h ac in O Sal ivan. who roceived five votes, wa3 dignni. Father CAt y. who i- at juspnt Vicar-Capitular, was picsidait of St. I.rend.in -, S nni.at}, Killarney, prcuous to his appointment as IXan. He has lmvlmi pu >f of scholarly attainraont a.i administrative cipioity. Ai.-ldi. con O'Sulnvan was one of the thief prut's chosen at the cleoti n v.hicn took place on th<> death rf tho Mist Rev. 15. shop McCarth) . th • immediate predecessor of Dr. ILegius.

Professor Huxley eontnbuus to the cum nt issue of the .V<«ft(cnth Cintui ij aa article on Agnosticism, in which i is dialed iv skill aud henuentutical knowledge do not show to alvan'age. fctill the article is lnteie-ting, particularly so because of the lefiTencs to Cardinal Newman which it contain?. These references, it is true arc not all in very good taste, and nre not remaikable for lucidity ; but one declaration ot the Ktiow-nothinsj Professor is decidedly no cworthy. Dr. Newman anil the iractanans, he say?, destroyed for ever ihe old anti-Cathol'c I roUstanusm, "Their little leaven has leavened, if not the whole, je'-avery l.irg' 1 lump of the Anglican Church, which is now pretty much of a preparatory school tcr Papistry." Professor Huxley calls on his countrymen to wake up. and consider whither Anglicanism is tending, and the haibour of icfuge he effers them is Agncsticisra. He behoves that Cardinal Newman was right in the conviction that there is no resting-place between Catnolicism and infidelity ; but he would fain destroy the alternative. Tnat is to say, he would place all Englishmen m the same condition as himself— a condition of hazy, nebulous, lLcerntude — Liverpool Catholic Times.

The Emperor of Austria is, for his exalted position, a man of simple, and, one might say, even democratic tastes. Before the death of his son, the Crown Prince, his greatest pleasure was to walk through the streets of Vienna in the evening, arm-in arm with his equerry. In this way he made acquaintance with the poorest pirts of Vienna. Ho had a passion for talking with intelligent workmen on political topics, and has beard many a good story concerning himself from his unsuspecting informants. The Emperor ia an ardent botanist, and every morning goes the round of the magnificent gardens and hothouses attached to his palace. He is a deep student of English literature, speaking and writing our language with ease, and, most of a1!,a 1 !, admires Milton's poems. The most singular trait in his character yet remains to be noted. He smokes tup. cheap cigars of the Viennese pi brn m.and prefers them to the choicest growta of Havana.

The Pall Mall Gazette says, " Mr. Spurgeon may be interested to hear that he was warmly praised from a Kooaan Catholic pulpit last night, 'Ihe Rev. W. C. Robinson, M.A., a distinguished Otfori 'vert to Rome, is d2livering a course of Sunday evening lectures on "The Protestant Reformation" in the Church of St, James's, Spanish Place, W. He illustrated his subject last night with several references to the case of the Bishop of Lincoln, which he anticipates will hava some momentous results. In Father Robinson's opinion dissolution will be the early fate of the Church of England, ' a house divided aeainst itse'f cannot stand.' Dis3°nt was visibly dissolving into various forma of Freethought. and at this po.nt the compliment to Mr. ripurg«on came in fir Father. fiabmson declared that he hal from the first admired the noble stand made by the pastor of the Metropolitan Tabjrnic'e in defence of fundamental Christian truth."

A striking return has been issued. It is an official account of eixtj -three prosecutions to which twenty-five members of the Imperial Parham.-nt have been subjected under the Coercion Act. Of these sixty- bree proportions, thirty-nine resulted in sentences of imprisonment, amounting io the aggregate to more than nine year?. In twenty-ine cue-3 the sentences were appealed against; in one instance the sent' lie-} was increased; i p i seven casss the period of imprisonment was reduced ; and in one the conviction was quashed, lhebe reductions to^k altogether about a year an I i half off the niue years of imprisonment to vvhicu ttiese Members of Parliament were sentenced having seven and a half years as the aggregate terms of impn<?nnm n n'.

A King's Lynn correspondent of the Standard, writing with reference to a thundersoroa thit pissed over ttiat pait of Norfolk lately, says . 1 picked a hailstone up close by the home somj ten nvnuttis sifter the btorm, ani f jmd it j ast under joz in weignt. In section it slimed a central nucl-us h-ilf au inch m diameter of dark and appaie'itly compact ice, surrounded by a ring, wtnte and less dense, one inch in thickness, tbw a^ain surrounde t by a nil* of the a in i c ilour aua appearaoce ap the central nucleus, tne wnole body beiug about two inches and a half iv diameter, with liaes radiating iiom the centie outward? to the circumference. I'iate glass threes.xteen'.hs of an inch in thickne=^ was simshed in wind jws facing the Bt)im,andin the morning the appearauce of toe village iiUggasted t ie idol ut a b jmoaidrnent havmg taken place in the night.

'iwo extraordinary inji lents in counection with the Pennsylvania di-asUr are vouched fur by the non-C uhonc Press. The Mother Supiiior of the rr-nvvnt attached to the Catholic church ,i' Johns' own. h.ippfnniir to look on' ol tie window, saw the •iwful tci roii t sweeping down the doomed valley. She immediately summone i the nuns into tne convent chapel, a d t'eie they kne t an 1 played for the Divine protection, lh toi ie i' b'irat i gams- 1 th • convent and that te re 1 the entue builiim_C t \eept the little c .apjl in which the nuns knelt. N"ot one numbn of the little communi'y. ii is a--,e'ted, perished, and the cbipel instil standing Tie <vh i incident 13 a marvellous escap- ot a stttue of tne Bie-^ei Virgi i at th ■ Geruiiu church. The figure, which is waw was not even sciatched, w hast the i^ging water dcsuojc 1 everything el-e in tlu bulletin,' aad reduced the structure to a cuiup etc wreck.

At a Nationalist demonstiatioii in Belfast-, a letter was read fiom Mr. Gladstone a-> foil jws " I des-uv the success of your meeting not- less on spfcal th >n on g 'ueral ground-*. You have, I tinuk, »s a great part of your i.i-n to v call to the memory of many Protestants ol the North the fact tint they have Jepait'd iroin ttc principles of .heir lurcfrtthci-s. IVose forefathers, a hundred years ago, weie the If, uii rs (i Imli patriotism, and sd late as the yi ar 17'J7 Antnm collec ively idsen'c i all attempts to sever lu»ii Protesta us from their Koiuan Ca'h )hc brethren. Here is a si-iwl tire that s lould again be lighted. It alone can guide ih< S3 who have been misled by s nmter influences back to thit love of couiwiy whan they once dsiily ch.mhed, an i wh.eh r dlj da the oily sj'.i 1 b isisj for true I >\ alty t j cm; ue and th'one.'"

The dtho'ic Truth Society has publishcl a short life of Father D tmien in the form of a penny book, and it lelate 0 in Father Dimier/d t \vn woi.'s. qu )tei irum a letter written by hitn to his brother in I'.elgimn, tlu foil jwing suange mci lent, which had not, so far as we knuw, appealed many previous publication: — '"Among ttie lepers was a C ilv:m?L woman, us she cal'e 1 her-elr, who remained obstinate in «pite of all my efforts to reclaim her. To all I said she vvtuld reply jokingly, and turn my words aside. One day I was summoned to ht'i 1 bedside, and soon peiceived ihut sne was possessed by a spirit not her own. As she nude signs of a wish to write. I handed her a pencil and a p ccc of paper. She wro c thus : 'I am not an evil spirit ; lam the angel guardian of this wi nriu. For six months I have been urging her to be converted : now lam using this violent m-jins. ToiLonow she will bo herself again and will be converted.' I cou'd baldly Iclieve my eyes ; but, on nay return the iv3xt diy, I found her completely changed from her old obstinacy. Vie declared that she wished to hi a Catholic, and asked for baptism, i showed her the writing. 'Do you recognise that / I asked. ' No,' she said. 'Have you felt anything lately .' ' ' For the last six months, every night, I have Ivaid an interior voice telling me to bccoim a Catholic. I always resisted, but no* lam conquered." She was instructed and baptised, and shows a fervour that cdific3 us all. '