Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 22, 28 September 1894, Page 3

Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

ODD 3 AND ENDS.

and that, therefore, he has made np his mind, for his part, to enjoy it thoroughly. The reasoning, we admit, is characteristic of the reasonableness of the reasoner. Nevertheless, the Tablet haa not fulminated against Zola's " Lourdes." Not having read the book, in fact, we have not given any opinion of our own about it. We have simply quoted the opinions of journalists who had read it, or a portion of it. Last week we gave that, as we said, of an anti-Catholic writer in the New York Tribune, possibly as smart a man as our " Civis" himself. Tastes differ, however. What disgusts others may delight our " Oivia." Did we not see, indeed, a little time ago, that his fancy ran in the direction of unexpurgated editions 1 However exacting our '• Civis " may be with regard to what is ordurier, M. Zola, no doubt — as he otherwise gives us to understand — provides for him to perfection. Oar " Civis '» again, is quite profound with respect to miracles. Whoever may doubt, he knows all about them. " Mental impression," there he says, is the source of the cures. Even M. Zola, he declares, shall Dot persuade him that works of healing have not thus been done at Lourdes. It is, meantime, juat as well that people, even including out ■' Oivis," who sit down to write, should understand what they are going to write about. O.ir "Oivis." for example, tells us that " mental impression," which he maintains has certainly wrought cures at Lourdes, cannot cure, among other things, a broken leg nor consumption. But Lourdes has cured, among other things, a broken log, that, to wit, of the Belgian, Peter Budder, and there is medical testimony, besides, to Fb caring many cases of consumption. Our " Civis," then, in his choice of exceptions, has not betn particularly fortunate. He has Bimply disproved his own assertion that " mental impression " was the cause of the cures at Lourdes, or at any rate, of all of them. Still there is some ro >m to congratulate him. H», at least, shows an advance on men ot his sort a few years ago, who would have declared that there was no cure at all — but tricks and deception only. Beelzebub, sud the Jews ; trickery, said the oldfashioned Protestant ; " mental impression," says the man of tke period. Our " Oivis," too, would seem to imply that what he pertly callß a " British Lourdes " — that ia the king's touching for scrofula — was put an end to by the good sense of KiDg William 111, He lays stress on the touching of Ghirles II and James 11, " moia Papist," he says, "than the Pope." Had our " Civis " forgotten that Dr Johnson, when a little child, was touched by Queen Anne? "' He had ' he said, ' a confused but somewhow a sort of solemn recollection of a lady in diamonds and a long black hood'" The '-silly superstition," therefore, and such, ia ficfc it w<ia, outlived King William, and that, moreover, not among those who were •' more Papist than l he Pope," but true-blue Protestant.

Here, if what the Catliolic Times says about the book in question. The criticism, though severe, is much more moderate than what we had found elsewhere :— " The well-advertised work of M. Z >laon Liurdes has at length appeared in book form, and as it is published at a moderate price it will have many readers, but fow will rise from its perusal with the conviction that the author's moral tone has improved. The book is, in truth, an outrage on Catholic feeling. Through it runs a thread of so-called romance which is in its conception most offensive to Catholic taste. A girl named Marie who was brought up with' a boy named Pierre and bad won his affection, goes, when grown np, to the grotto at Lourdes to be cured of a malady she has contracted and to bring back faith to Pierre, who has become a priest. but is rilled with doubts as to religious truth. The girl's cure is com pletely effected, but Pierre does not become a believer, The slender plot has not even the merit— if merit it might be called — of artistio development. The main portion of the book is narrative and description, and, as might be expected, M. Zola woiksup the sensational element with all the powers of bis vivid imagination. There is little,

The Tablet, than, effects our " Civis " in a contrary kind of way. He cays that the Tablet has persistently fulminated against Zola's " Lcurdes,'

if any positive irreverence, but the whole work is written in a rationalistic, material spirit, and it appears to us tfaat the general idea was borrowed from the author of " Antour dune Source." M\ Zola may attain his object-, the production may have a large circulation, but iti success must be ephemeral. The author who will write a work upon Lourdes that shall win enduring respect and popularity must have qualifications in which M, Zola seems deficient — sincerity, reverence, and faith." Pastor Fisher of the American Methodist Church at Borne whose conversion to Catholicism was recently announced here by cable may be considered the firßt fruits yielded by Protestantism to the Pope's late appeal for unity. It was the encyclical in question that led the convert to inquire. The correspondent of the Pilot quotes as follows from a Catholic journal published in Borne :— " This conversion, says a Catholic j mrnal of Rome, is an encouragement for Catholic! ; they should continue their prayers for the conversion of all who are; separated from the Church. It is evident that the cause of Bach separation is want of thought and examination of the Church's claims; when an American Metholist, who has come to Borne for the purpose of converting the Catholics of that city to Methodism, has the grace given him to become a Catholic, there is certainly no reason' to despair of the conversion of any class or number of Protestants, In the case of the Spanish anarchists striking testimony has been borne to the nature of godless teacbing. The criminal tried and con* victed for the explosion in ths theatre at Barcelona — by which twenty people were kiil;d, dtscribed himself as inspired for his undertaking by reading a revolutionary newspaper published in ths city-" aad certain philosophical works. Another, a penitent, on the scaffold warned his family against such li era ure, and yet another dentu ced it as destructive to society at large. This literature, neverthele-s, is plausible as well as attractive, nnd to men uninfluenced by re igions principles its evils before they have produced their natural fruits can hardly be apparent. If ever there was a ctse in which the old saying, " Prevention is better than cure " applied it is that in question, Cure in this case is hardly possible. Everything, therefore, depends on prevention. With regard to the fate of political prisoners, also, the new state of things in Italy seems hardly to have brought in an improvement* Under Austrian rule or under that of King Bomba, it; may be quee* tioned whether anything worse or even so bad prevailed. The anarchist who lately attempted to aesiastuate Signor Crispi has been senteacad, for example, to tw -nty years' solitary coofiaement, The brutality of this needs no comment. Death, in fact, may well be preferred to madness. Is this a misreading of a classical phrase ? If so, it should have an interest for scholars. We quote our " Civis "as follows. Hit reference is to the cage of a boy who recently died under the treat* ment of a clairvoyant quack at Auckland :—": — " A patient (writes our '■ Civis,") is not going to call in & post mortem examination in order to prove the diagnosis wrongt" It, we say again, we have here a new reading of a classical phrase the interest is for scholars. If not, on the contrary, the interest is possibly for dunces. The connection is one in which we are hardly authoiised to search for a j >ke. The trial of the thirty Anarchists, which began ia Paris on Moi day, August 6, (says the Weekly Freeman), were it reported in fall* as it will not be, should give oae an insight into the forces at work behind the militant Anarchy which has startled Europe daring tie past few years. The thirty prisoners charged ia the indictment with belonging to a companionship the obj.ct of which was " tLe destruction of society, aod the means of action theft, pillage, arson, and murder,'' include some men o( remarkable intellectual gif s. Jean Grave, for example, the writer of the notorious woik, •■ La Societe Mourante et I'Anarchie," which earned two years' imprisonment for its author, is a man oE wide knowledge and singular eloquence. As editor of the Revolts he has been a leading Anarchist propagandist. " hie instigated," according to ths indictment, • the outrage against the Carmaux Company by Emile Henry and the attempted murder by Lsauthier. He used bis newspaper also for colleoing subscriptions with a threefold (object — revolutionary propaganda, assistance for prisoners, and the distribution of phamprlets." Another water and speaker of power ia Sabaetiao Fanre, while P^nl Beclus is a civil

engineer of ability. The court has very properly, as it seema to us, refused to allow the evidence of these men to be reported in the public Press. But at the came time one cannot help feeling some curioeity as to the moral and mental aberration which has resulted in men of this stamp prostituting their talents to tbe most abominable of doctrines.

Owing (writes the Borne correspondent of the Catholic Times) to the fact that we Catholici are so frequently, ban gri, mal 'gri, forced to read so many conjectures and theories concerning the holding of a future Conclave, the following information on the subject m»y prove of interest to our readers. When his Holiness Pope Pius IX. was dying, the Bacred College met to discuss where the election of a new Pontiff would be considered as being most secure and tranquil 1 The late Cardinal Pietro presided— the members of the Sacred College numbering 38. These voted by rank of age upon the proposition : "Should the Conclave be held in Italy ?" Of the thirtyeight memben of tbe Sacred College present, only eight voted for the holding of the Conclave in Italy ; the remaining thirty deliberately Toted for its being held elsewhere. But before taking any steps in the matter, it wbb necessary to know first how the resolution would be received by reigning Sovereigns. In conversations with the vaiious Ambassadors accredited to the Holy See it wsb quickly understood that, generally speaking, most of ithe Governments would not look with favour upon the election of a Pope elsewhere than at Rome. Crisp i, the then Minister of the Interior, wishing to prove that Italy was herself quite capable of respecting, and forcing others to respect > the Law of Guarantees, which promises absolute security and independence to the Sacred College during the vacancy in che Holy See, declared that if they persisted in the project their Eminences could in all security croBS the frontier, but that in the event of their doing ■o the Italian Government would take immediate possession of the Vatican Palace and all its many dependencies. The Cardinals decided at a second meeting, by a majority of thirty-two voices against six, that the Conclave should be held at Rome.

The Borne correspondent of tbe Pilot writes as followß :—": — " The recent Apostolic Letter of the Holy Father, in which he made appeal to those outside of the Church to return to the fold of unity is, it is reported from the East, likely to have a powerful influence on minds well disposed to induce to return to the Catholic Church. Especially amongst the Bulgarians and Servians is that tendency becoming manifest. These are greatly toucheo. by the conciliatory attitude of the Papacy in their regard. The recognition of the Slav liturgy for Montenegro has increased there the current of sympathy towards Borne. The people regard these acts of the Holy Father as marks of favour."

Even a secular paper sometimes catches a glimpse of things as they are in truth. Take the following, for example, from a London wtekly — we quote from memory :— " ' I have lived sixty 3 ears in this world, and have never been able to see the difference between Protestantism and Catholicism.' ' Faith, you'll not lue sixty s.coads in the neat before you see it.' "

So vaiying of late Qs&ys the Weekly Freeman) have been the rumours regarding Pope Leo XIII's health that it is highly satisfactory to learn on tbe excellent authority of the Home correspondent of tha Berliner Tageblatt that his Holiness erjjoys unusually good •trengtb and spirits. The Holy Father's physician declana that 'he Pope is as tough as ever he was— he can even be called robust. For instance, his Holiness takes pleasure in lifting down from the bookshelves with his own hands and laying on his readir.g-desk heavy folios of St Jerome, weighing at leaßt between ten and twelve pounds t " When it is elated categorically that the Pope's legs are losing their power and that he has to be carried in his sed-in-chair, I can simply say in reply that Leo XIII , when he desires to go into the garden^ makes use, like every Pope, of a sedaD-chair which stands in the anteroom, la the chair be is conveyed to the carnage, in which he rides to his summer-house." The Pope daily walk-=, of en for hours, in the Park, leaning on a small stick, and wa ks with a better and less fatigued step than his attendantp. •' N iy," eaid the doctor jestingly, "be is even capable of wearying his Noble Guard." On 1 a average the Pope iB daily walking or standing, wi.h intervals, during a space of four or five hours. A very short time age he administered Huly Communion without any tff.itt 10 30 persons. To t hit) excellent condition of body corresponds that of bs miod. Hw intillrctual faculties, especially his memory, are of ut-toundtng fre-hnebs. It ih a'so Well known that the Holy Father, in sp.te of his gna' age, reads even small print without glaetei,

"Irishman" has Bent us a number of the Li/ttilton Times, containing a review, quoted from the St Jamt.\'i> Jiudgit, ef a bock recently published by one Mr T. C. Arthur, a police official, of thirty. five years' standing, in India. Our correspondent n quests that we ■honld comment on a paiagraph in this review which he has marked. It runs thus : — " In land dihpuies iv lu< i 1 such an atrocity as shooting at, or in m:y way molesting a woman has jet to be recorded It has been reserved for ' the foinest pisantry ia tbe wurrld ' to earn an infamous distinction for their ingenuity and persistent cruelty in harassing maiming, end even murdeiing defenceless females." But

what are we to comment on ? The fact, for example, that a man who has been a police officer in India for thirty-five years displays the imagination and pen of a ruffian ? Consider the effects of a longj familiarity with every form of Eastern filth and depravity. Consi^ der, too, the character of the "mean white" — necessarily that of a man in the writer's position. Besides, if there is any man in the world whom the bare thought of Home Rule may be excusably permitted to throw into a tantrum it is tbe Indian official. Or Bhall we comment on the fact that the St James's Budget had chosen this paragraph fur quotation. But the 8t James's Budget represents a cause that needs for its support all the intamy that foul minds can invent with respect to Ireland. Toryism tries, but vainly tries, to prolong its life on such garbage, and esause must be made for its desperation. There remains only the Lyttelton Times, who has also reproduced the paragraph. Ia it a case, then, in which the Liberalism of the period gives a sly vent to the bigotry by which it is often accompanied ? It seems hard otherwise to account for the reproduction by our contemporary, of such a gross and shamefal calumny.

Father Gasquet, 0.8.8, in the Dublin Review for Jnly; goes very far towards stripping Wyclif of the credit given him as a translator of the Bible, and altogether disproves the charge brought against the medieval Charch of discountenancing the reading of Holy Writ. Father Gaequet argues that up to the time of Wyclif French, and Latin were understood by all Englishmen who conld read at all and that a vernacular version of the Scriptures was not, therefore necessary in England. We may add, for our own part, that in this the learned writer is borne out by even so anti-Catholic an authority as, for instance, Professor Thorold Rodger?, that tha diaries of the medieval farm-bailiffs, which abound, and which he takes also as proving a far wider range of education than that generally supposed are written in Latin. Nevertheless, an Anglo-Saxon version of the Gospels had been in existence before the twelfth century in which it is mentioned as having been copied. In the France and Germany of the Middle Ages, vernacular versions were, respectively, numerous, Once more the fable as to Luther's accidental discovery of a Bible is exposed. The Reformer's own version, indeed, seems to have been largely borrowed by bim from a Catholic source. As to the decree of the Council of Oxford in 1408, which is relied on as proving the prohibition of the Church against translation, it merely forbids, as dangerous owing to a probability of mistakes io translating, that such be done, or the book, booklet, or tract translated be read, until the aporoval and allowance of the diocesan of the place or (if need be) the Provincial Council have been obtained Father Gajquet, in short, completely refutes the old charge as to tbe hostility of the Medieval Church to Bible-reading. He concludes also that the versiocs of the sacred scriptures edited by Messrs Forshall and Madden, and commonly known as Wycliffite, are in reality the Catholic versions of our pre- Reformation fathers.

Our contemporary, the Triad, for the current month, shows a slight melancho'y — a tendency towards Pessimism. It aspires to summon from the vasty deep tbe spirits of Schopenhauer, Rousseau and Lord Byron — to deal with ttie woman of the period as she deserves. We admit that our contemporary Bhows a discreet modesty in not personally at'empting the task — possibly remembering, and let us hope in time, to whom revenge ia especially sweet. Bat what is this? Surely our '■ Principia " has betrayed us I "'0 dear,' 1 " says our contemporary, " is equivalent to the Latin ' O dio mio ' (Oh, my God).' In a sketch quoted by our contemporary, we are told, amoDgat other things that there is a close resemblance" in all save terminology between Theosophy and Paulino doctrine 1 " No doubt — that is, for those who wrest the doctrine in question to their own destruction. And who, io fac', was ever more " unstable " than Mrs Besant, to whom allusion is made ? The Triad contains a well executed portrait of Madame Bell Cole, and in its mußical supplement gives two songs by Mendelsiohn. It is an excellent number.

Here is a pos'cnpt for our " Cms." We take it from the Brooklyn Catholic Review of August 18 :—": — " Dr Boissarie, a French M.D , has published what he calls ihe Medical History of Lourdes, It is not an account of all the wonderful cures which have taken place, and still take place, at Lourdes, but the medical opinion passed on them, and the principles which guide the doctors in these ex'raordinary cases. This history of the Lourdes events ia chronicled in the Aiuiale* de Loiw/h,i ; they are written in the presence of * number of medical me.D, of all shades of opinion ; there ia not much field for the writer's flights of imagination. : . . The first cures which t-ok place were known quickly enough all over the country, As usual the popular rumours had exaggerated some things, misrepresented others ; when tbe first enthusiasm had fallen off. the Biship of Tarbes commissioned Dr Vergez, a man of the highest reputation in the medical world, to examine the principal cates. The result waa published ; much contradiction, much controversy ensued ; do fact could be denied though. Three years were allowed to elapse, and the medical world had had time for a calm scrutiny. A new investigation was held upon the same facts ; no change in the result, and only then ft decision was giveD. Ihe doctors classified the cures under three categories : (1) Oases which contained only a probability of miracle ; (2) Cases which, though surprising, might yet by

some meanß be accounted for by a natural agency ; (8) Cases which without any contestation were above the power of nature. Dr Buchanan, Professor of the Glasgow University, laid down later on in The Lancet similar principles and specified the caves. According to him. many cures may be attributed tothe gieit coi,fHence with which the sufferers cam 3 to Lonrdes : a larorp fi.-M nf nrpniion rmy V>" Wt to faith, imagination, nerves, etc, but wlttp there is fudi'on, complete and lasting cure of enses of broken limbo, of organic 1 *Rion, the agency at w .rk is im-iter than the power of nature. Medical science hag thus been tne means of aoceit'nning for men tbat there are Ptill lunr-rnatnral « ff cU in the worl 1 in thq nnr It hrv nhirv Some have been afraid to approach the question, would not even tit on a board of fxaminim, would not see the pat en's, but c mid not deny the principles laid down, nor the facts to which they were applied.

A case in Napier which has resulted in the conviction of the acensed and his sentence to seven years' penal s> rvi'ude — his ad?anced age saving him from the ca*— has created en at di-gust and same alarm in the n r ighbourhond. Jadgc liichmon '. who tried the case, in his charge to the Grand Jury made some strong remarks, qualified in a degree by the necessity tf not prejudicing the case, but which after the conviction of the prisoner, t.'iku their full f iree. "If be was to assume the truth of the deposui. ns," he saH, •■ then they eimp'y showed a moral rottenness amongs 1 the prople of this town. He was not going to attempt to fa'h'jm the causes of euch a condition of things. He was not g'.inj to siy whether the blame lay with the Church, the State, tne fc o"1, or the home. He was not going to pretend to decide whether such immoral tendencies were inherited from other times and other countries, but no man with any proper feeling could f nil to say th.t when such a state of affairs existed they were on the downward road, ... He was not assuming the truth of everything in the depositions, but they disclosad all the same great javenile depravity, and a sate of things amongst their young people which was positively awful." The conviction of the prisoner, which proves the tru'h of the dep >sitious we siy again, gives full force to his Honour's words. What then is to

blame for this state of things— again to quote the Judge's words — " the Church, the State, the school, or the home ?" A correspondent of the Jlan/.e'f Bay Herald essays to answer this question, '• What the (State could do," he writes, " I know not— unless it were to alter the system of education altogether. At present the schools, with their absence of moral and religious training, pro luce children that have respect for neither God nor man, and the indiscriminate mixing ot all sorts of boys and girls lead to lo.v vulgarity amongst chem that would horrify teacheis and respectable parents if they only kDew of it. But it is festenng there all the Bam >, spite ff their ignorance " The correspondent also refers to the iiru.ikenne=s and foul language of some fathers, and the careles-mets of the Churches. The editor of the Herald, meantime, in a foot-note, defends the parents. " The cif. rices our correspondent alludes to," he says, " were not the result of chil Iren 'running wild on the streets after dark,' but were in every instance c 'tnmitted in daylight, and m many c-ises on Bundav, when the children were supposed to ba in Sunday school. The parents of the children are without exception respectable people, with as strong views on the necessity for the right training of their children as those possessed by our correspondent. All the children have been given a religious education." The evidence, thertfore seems to throw the onus on the schools. The association there is evil ; the moral training is insufficient, and the religious teaching given by the Churches fails to make up for its deficiencies. There is nothing, moreover, to show that the stale of things which Judge ■Richmond characterises as ' positively awful " is confined to Napier only. The chances are, on (he contrary, tbat it attends on the godless eystem generally throughout the Colony.

Our reader?, we trust, have nrt forgotten the few words we have from time to lime, spokeo to them with regard to the revival of the Irish language now being attempted. We had hoped that something more Wjuld come of the matter, and that it would be taken up with cordiality. A letter written to u« by the Very Key Father O'L>ary, of Lawrence, moreover, gave us additiont.l hope, well calculated as it seemed to support cur eff orls with a more powerfnl touch. Silence, nevertheless, remains unbroken, We are, however, unwilling to

gather from it that the «rar.j-ct has been treated with contempt. Meantimp, the receipt from (he Roy Kugene O'Growney, of the three last numbers of the Gaelic Journal reminds us that ** should renew the theme. The periolical is ono, it strikes us, which only to sec m-ist excite ia the heart of every true I Lbman a >l L sa • t. ( uidser its contents. Hire he has the per ius of his people interpreted, as alone it c>n perfectly be, in their own mtive tongue. In ro olh-r can he find the fieshoesp, the naivety. an 1 withal the sparkLne brightness, of I.ish thought and wit bo fully py pressed. The Journal contains selections well adapted to prove this— a-^J cas> It -^ US) i Jesl j fcU) | 0 leacD tnuse Who wou i,j understand the language. What, then, is to hinder its wide circulation among Irish settlers in New Zealand. A study of it might beguile the tedio'isness of many a long evening in lonely places— and recall to many the haunts and habi's of long ago. The subscrimion is a triflemerely six shillings a year. Does not Professor O'Growney who is struggling so valiantly to keep alive the old tongue, an \ to whose sole enterprise is due the publication of tbia periodical— the only one in Ireland dev< t°A to the study of the Nat.onal language and literature, deserve so much support? Come, then— let ug tee some stir in the r.t;ht direction. The study of a languaee is a moat useful exercise for the intellect— and that the Irish language is worthy of etudy, many capable iudges— among them several foreign savant— testify. If our readers have forgotten what we said to them before— let them now at ltast remember.