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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 10, 4 July 1890, Page 27

The announcement has just been made that the Abbe Gaston dv Chaff ault, the son of a former senator of France, has just entered the Grande Chartreuse. There are now in the Grande Chartreuse six^y members of the Order. The temporal affairs of the community are in charge of a gentleman who was once a military superintendent — Dom Marcel Greeier. It is his sienature that figures on the renowned bottles of Chartreuse and flasks of Elixir. Amongst the other Cbartreux who reside at the famous monastery is Baron Nicolai, an ex-general of the Russian forces. After having pacified the Caucasus he sought peace in the Alps. He receives a pension from the Emperor of Russia and enjoys the pnvLege of wearing the Russian military uniform. The community numbers two other officers of distinction — Prince de Broglie Revel, of the younger branch of the family of the Due de Broglie, and the Comte de Quinsonas, who was a deputy for Is-ore in the National Assembly of 1871.

We had hoped that after the disappearance of Prince Bismarck from the political horizon, a ready dipp'sition would be shown to meet the just demands of the Catholics of Prussia. From the character of the Bill introduced into the Lower House of the Prussian Diet it would appear that there is little change id the policy adopted towards the Church. The Bill, which was referred to a committee, provides that the revenues that have accrued from the discontinuance nf State payments to Catholic priests during ihe Kulturkampf shall W-etained by the Government, but that interest on the capital shall to the Church from April 1, The Government does not make yfetitution, or even create a special fund. It transfers to the general funds of the State revenues belonging to the B, shops and priests — Thi« is a new kind of " secularisation," and it is not stra ige that the project is denounced by the Centre party, aod thut it has produced, as the Germania remarks, " a general disillusion."