CATHOLIC NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 13, 26 July 1895, Page 29

CAT HO LIC NEWS.

(From contemporaries.) His Holiness Leo XUI haa addressed a very important letter concerning the attitudes of Catholics at the general elections to his Eminence the Cardinal-Vicar of Borne. In it Leo XIII once again repeats the counsels which have been given to the faithful whenever the question of their taking an active part in political contests of Italy has arisen. The persistent rumours which have been set afloat of la'e by those who have watched certain evolutions in Ministerial quarters is the reason why the Sovereign Pontiff has repeated the unchanging line of conduct adopted by the Holy See. The rumours so wide of the mark which for months have pone the round of the European Press may now be estimated at their proper value by Catholic and Protestant alike, A v* Ty touching incident, iv which interest will be felt by Catholics, ia related in the preface to the admirable work on the Trial and Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, which the Hon Mra Maxwell- Scott, of Abbo'sford, has just published through Meaara Black. We are told therein that the late lamented Father Stevenson, S.J., the historian and the faithful champion of Queen Mary — and to whom the authoress was indebted for much valuable assistance in her work— died, Bingularly enough, on the anniversary of the Queen's death (February Bth>. Mrs Maxwell-Scott bas added a special feature to her book by the presentation therein of a " reproduction" of the valuable but little known portrait of the ill-fated Queen ( which is known as the " Blairs portrait " This painting originally belonged to Elizabeth Carle, one of Mary's devoted maids-of-honour, who at ended her Royal mistress on the scaffold, and was aubse. quent'y presented by her son to the Scotch College at Douai. When, during the troubles on the Continent, that institution was attacked an i p undered, the picture was concealed ii a chimney. Happily, it was discovered uninjured, after the peace of Waterloo and carried into Ssotland, when it came into the possession cf Blairs College, AberbecD, where it still remains, and where much value is attached to this Bouve ur of tha martyred Scottish Q leen.