Parsian notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 14, 2 January 1891, Page 3

Parsian notes.

AMON« the more remarkable events of the day have been the conferences of the Abbe" Gamier with some of the Socialist leaders. In some instances the meetings were riotous, but on the whole there is reason to believe that the arguments of the intrepid priest have produced a good effect. It is at least certain that he himself has been acknowledged to be sincere in his desire to serve the people, and the place won by him in popular esteem cannot fail to be shared more or less by the priesthood generally. An argument that gained the Abbe much applause was that in which he maintained that the wages of the labourer should not be regulated by any hard laws of supply and demand, but by the needs of the labourer and his family

The national pilgrimase to Lourdes this year was fruit ful in miracles. It is remaiked that many cures of consumptive patients, some of them in the last stages of disease, were worked. A great warvel, however, was that perlormed in the case of a woman from the diocese of Sens, who had been a sufferer for twenty years, and during the last two h&d been confined to bed by a cancerous tumour. The poor creature came to the shrine covered with sores, but, after toe third bath tak>n by her, and at the passage of the Blessed Sacrament, she was restored in a moment of time to perfect health.

The firat part of Pere Didon's long expected work, the Life of Christ, written in refutation of Benan's well known book has appeared in the Rewic let Deux Mondes. It is quite equal to all that was anticipated, high as were the expectations, and promises splendidly for what is still to come.

The impending conscription of the Seminarists is causing some sensation. An amnsing phase of the matter is the fear entertained in some quarters that the ecclesiastics will corrupt the army by inspiring and reviving the religious sentiment in its ranks. A battalion of clericals is a vision that has rare terrors for certain minds. On the other hand apprehension is expressed lest France by being stripped of her priesthood, may become altogether irreligious. The Bishop of Orleans, meantime, has denounced the accusation brought against the French clergy of being guilty of cowardice and want of patriotism. Such an accasaton. he says, contradicts fifteen centuries of history. He points to the recent services of the cbrgy on the battle field as refuting the charge that they shraok from the dangers and hardships of military service.

The Empress of Austria, who has been making a tour Incognita atone time under the name of Madame Nicholson, and at another under that of Miss Si mpson, has visited Paris and one or two other rrench cities. Her Majesty went about unnoticed among the crowd in one instance, she had some difficulty in changing a money order, the banker s clerk seeing reason in the august lady's assumed names to suspect that all was not quite right. An opportune hint, however, fortunately prevented him from finally committing himself

It is announced that an annual holiday, in memory of Joan of Arc, is to be given in the Government schools. The fete will be of a very different signification from that of some already observed. It is to be hoped that the effect on the minds of French school children may take Borne colouring from the character of her whose £??nf V hh ° D ° ured< If Buch turn out t0 be t fa e case, however, inh.nnfi n t£ the P ° Wers that *» will *» thwarted-but not unhappily so. The matter is certainly of fair augury for France.

A monument is about to be erected at Aix to the memory of five thousand priests and religious martyred there under the Terror, and UltolZtoTT DOt dire ° tly executed - man y d .™g from hardship*

A statue of the late Admiral Courbet has been unveiled at AbbeEimnn "^ "^ P"* 1 * th « natUfe ot » reli g i OUB0 U8 f£i£t kX, b « memory n of th « admiral being revered as that of a SllSl <t£ vi well as an eminent, brave, and victorious comminder. The French navy is fortunate in possessing many disanguished officers who partake of a like apiiit T of faith and fervour

Momf £ Xlll tlv fbe I*™ o *?™ «>f our distant schoolbooks rSTnM*. #^. Pa^ lD CODnectlon with tbe recent marriage of a daughter of General Canrobert. What I Canrobert, the father of a daughter still marriagesble-not more, in fact, than some six-and-twenty years old. The daughter of the General's advanced age, it is true, but still the daughter of one wboss renown is a matter of ancient history. What, nevertheless, does it pro™ but the rapid flight of

time, and the few years it takes to make us old, and to include momentous historical epochs. As for the young lady and young gentleman married, they are nowhere. They would be nothing, in fact, were they not startling time-marks.

Erratic genius still seems to characterise the line of the late Victor Hugo. His grandson, George, has jost been placed in tbe hands of guardians, whose duty it is to prevent his insane squandering of his fortune. The youth, it is said, would otherwise prove swifter than even another " Jubilee Plunger."

Doctor Despres, having failed to move the Municipal Council, of which nevertheless he is himself a member, has ano< unced bis intention of appealing to tbe Chamber of Deputies in order to obtain the restoration of the Sisters of Charity as nurses in tbe Paris hospitals. And yet the Doctor is far from being in sympathy on other point! with the « clericals."

The African missionary, Pere Dorgire.was lately employed by the Government of the Republic to negotiate their treaty with the King of Dahomey. His success in the matter has obtained for him the decoration of the Legion of Honour.

The centenary of Lamartine's birth has been celebrated at Mag an. The principal lay speaker on the occasion was M. Jules Bimon. Mgr. Perrand, Bishop of Autua, preached a sermon referring particularly to the religious features in the poet's character.

The bicentenary of the Blessed Margaret Mary, which occurred on October 17th, was celebrated with impressive solemnity at Paray-le-Monial. In the church of the Sacred Heart at Montmartre also it was imposingly observed, the Archbishop of Paris presiding.

Bull-fighting has become a popular amusement in Paris. It is carried ont in a somewhat modified form, both horses and men being protected from injury in the encounter. The bull, however, although not killed, is cruelly tortured, and taken at its best the sport is a brutal one. Demoralisation is quits apparent among the crowds of fashionably-dressed people of both sexes and all ages who look on and of 'en applaud with enthusiasm. The sport is also not without its danger. Recently a bull tissed one of the men engaged in goading it with barbs, and inflicted very serious injuries upon him. In Spain the sport survives as the remnant of a less cultured age, but the significance of its in trod action into France as an accompaniment of the highest secular culture to which the world his yet attained is very evident. Intellectual development, if such really exists, evidently goes band in hand with moral deterioration. The chances are, meantime, that the hoisted culture of the age involves intellectual no less than physical degradation.

Paris had been much grieved by the death from typhoid fever of the favourite actress, Jeanne Samary. This lady was not only the first comedian on the Parisian stage, but was distinguished by admirable virtues, being exemplary as daughter, wife, and mother.

One of the noble ladies of the day is the Duchesse d'Dees. She is a lady of many accomplishments and excels in some branches of the fine arts. Her chief distinction of later days, however, has been derived from tbe great sum she lavished in an attempt to promote tbe interests of the Comte de Paris throueh tbe misadventnrous General Boulanger. The sum in question is estimate! at £120,000. The Duchess indeed is rich, but an expenditure on so vast a scale would prove the devotion of another Croesus. The Duchess comes of the ancient family of Mortemart, of which formerly was the notorious Madame de Montespan. She also however, and as it is rumoured some* what to her discomfort so for as pride of lineage is concerned, though pride of purse may perhaps be set off against it, comes of the family to which belonged tbe Veuve Cliquot, well known in connection with the " sparkling vintage of Champagne." Whether it is the blood of the Mortemarts or the blood of the Cliquots, that is the more accountable fer the attempt to elevate tbe gre*t grand-son, and perhaps the not inconsistent great grand-son, of Egah'.e, to the throne of St. Louis must be left to the discernment of those who are rightly inspired to make the necessary distinctions.