GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 12, 23 July 1897, Page 7

GENERAL NEWS.

Tm: Ligiie Democratique Iteljjo appointed a short time ago three of its members to make an inquiry into the condition of the miningindustry in England. The delegation consisted of the president of one of the great trades unions in the Centre, a priest of the Order of the Aumoniers dv Travail at Seraing, and a representative of the miners in the Liege district. The three delegates have just returned much gratified with their visit and the reception they met with during their stay in England. They spent the greater part of their time in Northumberland, where Mr. Burt, M.P., very courteously gave them every assistance, putting himself at their disposal, and accompanying them in their visits to the mines and the various institutions connected with them. That which appears to have made the greatest impression on the Belgian delegates was the extent to which organisation has been carried amongst the English miners and the wonderful results achieved by the trades unions. Whilst at Newcastle they assisted at an important miners' meeting, and were extremely interested in the proceedings. The delegates express themselves as delighted with all they saw in the course of their investigation and with the attentious paid to them wherever they went. They took copious notes which will be embodied in a report they are preparing for the approaching Congress of the Ligue Democratique at Louva ; n.

Among the troops sent to South Afrioa are 800 Irish Catholics, and Mr. T. M. Healy wanted to know from the Under-Secretary of War why no Catholic chaplain had been sent out with them, seeing that when the Seaforth Highlanders were ordered to Crete, the ministration of a Presbyterian minister was granted to them. Mr. Brodrick said that it was customary to provide a clergyman of the required denomination from those in the colony to which troops were sent. But he did not say that such would be done in the case of these Irish soldiers. When Mr. Healy pressed hia pomt the Speaker calitd him to order ; but no doubt Mr. He»ly will remember the matter, and if a Catholic chaplain is not appointed he will call the attention of the House to this subject later on. The Catholic University of Ottawa was the first educational establishment in iCanada to have the honour of welcoming Mgr. Merry del Val as the representative of the Holy Father. The delegate was accompanied to the platform of the Aula Maxima by the Archbishops of Ottawa and St. Boniface. He replied with equal ease in Latin, Eng-lish and French to the addresses which were read to him by Father Lacoste, 0.M.1., Abb 6 Razinet, a theological student, and Messrs. Gleeson and Payment. One of the most notable of those who attended the Queen's Drawing 1 Room, held on May 12, was the Dowager Mrs. Charlton, of Hesleydale, a member of an old and a deservedly-respected Northumbrian Catholic family. Mrs. Charlton is eighty years of age, and was present at the Queen's coronation. She was particularly noticed by her Majesty, who spent some time in conversation with her, and offered her the privilege of viewing the jubilee procession from the windows of Buckingham Palace. The Hesleyside estate has been held by the Charlton family for more than six hundred years.

Mr. Hartwell Grissell, Chamberlain to his Holiness, has lately received a letter from the Right Hon. Professor Max Mttller informing him that the Curators of the Clarendon Press have decided to send the fifty volumes of the Professor's " Sacred Books of the East," as an offering in their own name and in that of the University of Oxford, to Pope Leo XIII.

Over 200 prelates attended at the last of the Consistories preliminaiy to the ceremony of canonisation of the Blessed Zaccaria and the Blessed Fourier. Among the British and Irish prelates thus consulted were Cardinal Vaughan, Archbishop of Westminster • Mgr. Foley, Coadjutor Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin ; Mgrl Donnelly, Titular Bishop of Canea and Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin ; Mgr. Mostyn, Titular Bishop of Ascalon and Vicar Apostolic of Wales.

A friend of mine was playing a selection from Spo'ir one day in her apartments, when the lanunidy. entering, t-aid 'Ah I that reminds me of my d' ar son who used to pla;> the piano." •' Why?" asked my friend. •' What did he play ?" '• oh, -ummat from tho great masters," she r- turned ;" I forget tho nume ." " Was it irom Spohr I" questioned my friend. "No, it warn't Spohr, and it warn't Spout." " Whas it Handel ?" asked my friend. '• Ah, yes 1 " cried the old lady, brightening up. " I knew it was something to do with a jug."