Current Topics. AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 7, 17 June 1898, Page 1

Current Topics. AT HOME AND ABROAD.

There is a literary scavenger on the staff of the A LITERARY Dunedin Evening Star. His special function is BAG-and-bone to burrow and snuffle— like an unclean animal— man. among- the street-sweepings of no-Popery literature and serve up therefrom a few malodorous dishes every v\ eek to its readers, instead of intc resting news-items — which cost "moneysh." No-Popery clippings are got without much expenditure of either money or brains. And the creature who burrows after them need not wear clean linen. They may be interesting to some, but we venture to think that they stink in the nostrils of the vast majority of the non-Catholics, as well as the Catholics, of Dunedin. It would be a libel on our Protestant fellow-townsmen to think otherw ise. We do not know who this literary scavenger may be— perhaps one of those whose Christianity consists in hating those who choose to worship God at a different altar, and in serenely forgetting that there is, or ever was, any commandment forbidding one to bear false witness against one's neighbour. Three things, however, are certain : (1) That the Dunedin Eccnhuj Star is, and has long been, disgracing honoimible journalism by making this no-Popery business one of its constant features ; (2) that the only purpose or effect of its policy can be to arouse mutual misunderstanding, ill-feeling, and between various bodies of Chrisfans that have hitherto live-l happily together in Dunedin ; (8) that the Dunrdin JJtnthu, Star is unfit reading for any Catholic individual < r any Cathol.c home. We do not propose to attempt solving the riddleas to why thrt JJn nin / Star should adopt a no-Popery programme in Dunedin. We thall. however, in the interests of fair-play and common decency return to this subject at an early date.

Our readers will recollect the strictures which we the p.issel some time ago on the djings and sayings of campaign a gaol-bird who has been roaming England and or slander. Scotland in company with a female companion, delivering screaming harangues on the "abominations of Popery."' People are evidently getting tin d of the foul crusade of calumny. At York, the precious p (l ir -]c tun ,1 "in the Festival Concert Rooms to veiy scanty a'idwnors. Tin.- Anglican Dean of York took occasion of their pretence tj addles the following letter to the local Pres^: — " As chairman of the trustees of the IVtUval Concert Rooms, I was not a little vexed to find that the hall had bi en let. through the inadvertence of a subordinate, for what scon.s t ) me „n unprovoked and offensive attack upon a large and lnlluonti .1 body of our fellowChristian^. As my position in relation to these room.- it, probably well known, it may be assumed that t!u hill wj, kt for this purpose with my cognioai.ee and sanction, and [ should be very sorry to appear capable of any such proceeding, which i- specially distasteful to myself. There are differences between all sections of Christians which probably have their blemishes, likewise, and there are times and rrethods by which these may be reasonably and profitably discussed, but in the present instance the attack is made by unknown assailants, whose only credentials would, of themselves, give a special and offensive animus to their action, and their method adopted is to suggest insinuations which must be repugnant to many devout minds. I see nothing at the present moment to justify an attack so made, to which all Christian communities are equally Such meetings as those which are taking place to-day I regard as singularly at variance with the history and purpose of the building, and, therefore, I cannot but regret that it should be employed in an unjustifiable effort to wound the most tender susceptibilities of a large number of our fellow-Christians, and to disturb the peace and harmony which, happily, prevail amongst us. I remain, yours faithfully, Arthur P. Pukey-Cust."

A grave situation has arisen in Italy. It has 16 the exd been coming for a long time, and the widespread coming? and fierce character of the present outbreak only serves to show that the throne which the Savoy dynasty placed by fraud and force in Rome is set upon a mine-field. Bread riots on a vast scale arc taking place all over Italy. To speak morp correctly, the price of bread was made the pretext for rioting which continued in full swing after the alleged cause had been r-Mno\e.l. It is the old trouble that crops up year after year in the pleasant springtime, and is suppressed as promptly as may be. The presi nt outbreak is of a far more serious nature — so serious, indeed, that the Government exercises a severe censorship over telegrams for the purpose of preventing the public both at home and abroad from getting an adequate idea of the grave character of the outbieak. But the news that has leaked through shows that the outbreaks are of a most serious nature ; that they are taking place all over the country from Sicily almost to the Alps ; that women take part in them ; that the military have been in many places put to h 1 ght by the rioters ; that at Milan hundreds, if not thousand?, of people (as stated) have been shot down by the troops ; and that there is no immediate prospect of law, order, or prosperity returning: to the unfortunate country which has been L he butt of every curse that military despotism and polit.cal knavery could inflict upon it since the day when the Sardinian troops battered the walls of the Porta Pia, Rome, on the 2Jth of September, IS7U. * • * Is there no hope ? No c, so long as the present rcyimc lasts. There are land evils under which Italy is groaning which might be removed by an enlightened systtm of law-making. This would palliate, but not remove, tha deep curse under which Italy is fast drifting to ruin. Absenteeism and the land-agent (or (jabellotto) are as great a curse in Sicily and other parts of Italy as they have been in lieland. The land-tenure system makes it dillicult, and often impossible, t) break up large estates. There is no encouragement for scientific cultivation. New Italy has scourge 1 the farmer with whips and scoipions, and if they and the labouring classes are still tranquil, it is largely owing to the happily growing influence of the Catholic clergy. The Italian Government has banished God from their schools. It has swallowed up some £30.<)U'),000 of property which was chiefly devoted to charity. It has fore-ed upon the people a military conscription which they hate ; and financial burdens which aiv so inequitably balanced as to fall mest heavily upon the humble cultivators of the soil. * v ■*. Above the peasant there stands a military tyranny, a corrupt Parliament ; around him. ruin ; and in the future utter hopelessness. Four years ago the Left issued a manifesto, every word of which is doubly true to-day :—: — " Commerce is stagn; nt, bankruptcy gencri.l savings are seized, small properties succumb under fiscal exactions agriculture languishes, stifled under taxation, emigration is increasing in an alarming proportion to the population, the municipalities squander and become penniless ; the counuy. in taxes of Aanous kinds, pays no less than seventy per cent, /.<., iouror fivt times as much as is paid by rich natives. Ihe matt-iial taxable diminishes everyday, because production ispaialysed mitt most vital paits. and misery has shrunken consumption : in a woid thr whole land is devoured by military exactions aid the crnmi.ai tolly or a policy given over to interests and ambitions which totally io, ie , v . the true necessities of the people." Had Italy united in a confederacy — as Pius IX. hoped and desired— and remained strictly neutral, like Belgium, instead of aping the co-t'y ways of a great military power, the country would have bein happy and prosperous. Italy's ruin began with the fall of the temporal power. The day may yet come which was predicteel by a well-mlormed writer in the Fort nitjhtly Review some four years ago " that German troops will be aske I to preserve social older in the cities and provinces of Italy. '

TniiKE is Irish Catholic blood on both sides of the under THE present struggle between the United States and SPANISH FLAG. Spain. In two previous issues we have dealt with the prominent place which Irish Catholics have filled in the most stirring pages of American history. The part taken by them in the story of Spain is less generally known. The emigration to the Continent took place after the fall of Limerick and continued through the long period of the penal laws. Besides the army of Limerick, multitudes of por-ecuted young Catholics left their own land, where they were strangers and outlaws-, and sought under foreign iiags — and especially under the banner of France— an opportunity for winning such distinction as exiles might hope for Steinkirk, Landen. Marsiglia, Fontenoy, and many other places "from Dunkirk to Belgiave" proved their prowci. The Abbe M'Geoghegan was chaplain to the Irish brigade in France. He states that researches in the French War Department show that from 1091 to the year of Fontonoy (1745) more than 450,000 Irishmen had died in the service of France. * * * Austria and Spain had their share. The Taaffe', the O'Donnells. the Lacy?, the Nugents, have contributed glorious pages to Austrian history. The same statement is true of Spain. General Wall, for instance, who was Prime Minister under Ferdinand VI., introduced woollen manufactures into Spain, and started mails between his adopted country and America. Count O'Reilly was Commander of the Spanish forces and Governor of Madrid under Charles 111. Napier's unfavourable judgmentoi General Blake is to beiliscounted by the fact of the Iliberno-Spaniard's noted inability to get on with Wellington. We need only mention the name of one of Spain's greatest citizens in the present century — Marshal Count O-Donnell. to whom a grateful country raised such a noble monument in Madrid. The Duke of Tetuan, who was two years ago Minister for Foreign Affairs, is an Irish chieftain in his own right— Charles O'Donnell. Lord of Donegal. He is now 04 years old. of stately presence, fine face, dignified manners — the beau ideal of a Spanish nobleman. Twenty-one years ago, when at Vienna, he laid the foundations of the sovereignty of the present Queen Regent of Spain, who is a daughter of Karl Ferdinand, Archduke of AustriaThe Duke of fetuan is ve-y proud of his Irish name and blood. Towards the close of 189(1 he was distributing prizes to military cadetsamong whom were two O'Neill-', one 0 Connor, and one Maher. The Duke said, in the course of his speech :—: — "We Irish, in settling on the Spanish plains, and offering our swords to Spain, merely returned to our ancestors' ancient homeThe Milesians went from Spain to Ireland. We have merely come back to live among our cousins.'' MANY Cn, holies fondly imagined that the las-^ MOHE EMaXCI- shreds ot the penal laws dropped from the Statute TA'UON lick after the passing of the Emancipation Act in WANTED. IS2H. This is a great mistake. Till 1870, for instance, it was a crime, punishable by two years' Imprisonment or a fine of X. .00, for a priest to celebrate a marriage between Catholics ii both of the contracting parties had not been Catholics for fully 12 mo'iths beforehand. This infamous statute was repeatedly enforced, and was at length repealed by Mr. Glad stone in 1870. Other penal laws still disfigure the British Statute Book, and, worse still, remain in full force, as to certain of their clauses, to the present hour. We refer especially to the law which forbids members of religious orders bound by monastic or religious vows to reside in the United Kingdom, or to acquire property therein whether by deed, will, or otherwise. In consequence of a recent decision in Dublin, a Bill to remove these disabilities has been brought in by Lord Edmund Talbot and several of the Irish members. It is hoped that it will rapidly pass through both Houses. Yet, even then, the last of the Catholic disabilities will not have been removid. Wr>TMJ\\sTi;i! AI;HM is (lie ivcojrni-rii V.ilhall.a AdRAVIMN" of all the mighty denl of KnJ.in '. And a THE AUlii;v. mighty coinmuuuc.ilth lie-* i hereof the immortals who towered ;ib>\ c the de id il.it of the quiet mediocrity of tho race. The Abbey is the ho. no of the im mortals, and one of its most noted figures will be for many a gcner.rion that of the great statesman who has j-ist been hud there, and whose name in a^ssojiati'd with almost ewry progressive public measure for over fifty years of a century of r.ipul change. St. I'.iul's is a rival to Westminster Abbey, but in a molest an I incttVciue way. There still hangs a halo around the old Citholic Abb y that hoi,]., the bones of English Catholic s.\eni_rns ami in table-". And the cost of interment under the same root is much greater than in St. Paul's. In St. Paul's no fee is charged for a burial and only £10 for monument. The authorities of the Abbey do not recognise that all human distinctions cease at death. The fees vary according to the social position, etc, of the deceased, trotn £110 4s Sd

down to £<>1 4s Sd. It is not stated what the fee is for a mural tablet, or fora recumbent statue. That for a bust is £200. Of these sums one-third seems to go to the fabric fund, one-lhird to the dean, canons, verger, etc., the remainder to the choir '• in lieu of scarves."