Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 10, 7 March 1901, Page 18

Notes.

The Nineteenth Century for January contains the following in the course of an article by a non-Catholic writer, Lady Ponsonby : ' The cult of the Virgin Mary in the Middle Ages did far more to raise the status of women than any other cause at work since the age of chivalry, and the efforts towards intellectual discipline in our day are futile in comparison '

In the Rt'vieio of Reviews Annual for the present year Mr. W T. Stead, in reviewing the personalities who bore a conspicuous part in the departed century, makes the following references to the late Cardinal Newman : 'In the religious world,* he Bays, ' Cardinal Newman may be regarded as the Foremost Personality of the Century. . . He exercised a rare personal inflaenoe even over those who differed from him profoundly. Whether at Oxford or in his Oratory at Birmingham, he was a spiritual influence that could be felt, not only by those who followed, but by those who opposed him. As a writer, as a thinker, and as a leader of men, his inflaenoe which was potent during his life, continues to survive after his death.'

When certain of the London dailies set forth in company to dish and carve the Duke of Norfolk for having dared to express a hope for the restoration of the temporal independence of the Holy See, one of them (the Daily Chronicle, to wit) deolared that • all the Catholic disabilities which existed at the beginning of the (nine* teenth) century in Great Britain have been one by one abolished,' But this is precisely what has not happened to them. No Catholic, for instance, can be Lord Chancellor of England or Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, nor can a Catholic sovereign ait on the English throne And to this hoar the members of certain religions Orders are debarred from receiving bequests and from other rights and privileges of ordinary citizenship of the Empire. Becent legal decisions both in Ireland aDd in England prove, too, that this penal enaotment is no dead letter.

A paragraph that appeared in a recent issue of the N.Z. Times reminds one of a story that is told of a Scottish regiment that was on parade. Struck by the splendid physique of one of the men, a high-placed officer asked him : ' Where are you from, my man T From Tipp'rary, sor,' was the unexpected reply. Well, a representative of the N.Z.T imet, during the stay of the Imperial troops in Wellington, took the trouble to settle the ' where do you come from ' question with respect to the individuals oompoaing the late visiting regiments. He asserts that not one of the twentythree Cameronians or Highland Light Infantry was a Scotchman.

Of the others it was found that of the twenty-two men of the Cameron Highlanders seventeen were Scotchmen, nineteen of the twenty-two in the ' Black Watch,' and twenty-two of the twentyfour in the Seaforths. Of the twenty-three Irish Riflemen twentyone were Irish. All the twenty-three Irish Fusiliers are Irishmen, and fifteen of the twenty-two Irish Guards hail from the Emerald Isle.

A Protestant missionary reoently arrived from the Far East, iafurmed a. Dunedin audience a few days ago that ' there arc 80,000 native Christians in China.' The Statesman 1 $ Tear Book for 1900 estimates that there are 'about 1,000,000 (native) Catholics in the Chinese Empire. But perhaps the lecturing missionary does not regard them as 'Christians.' The same publication credits the various Proteßtant sects with a total of about 50,000 adherents. Monsignor Reynaud (Vicar-Apostolic of Che-Kiang) in his recent book, Another China, estimates the Protestant population of the Empire at 60,000. The most generous estimate—and one which is not generally followed— places the number as high as 80,000. These are divided up among three Episcopalian sects, nine Presbyterians, six Methodist, two Baptist, and other minor sects and missionary organisations counting altogether forty-two.

The New Zealand Times, commenting on the adjuration which was made by his Majesty King Edward VII., on taking the oath at the opening of Parliament, says : — ' Cardinal Vaughan's command for a " communion of reparation " by way of set-off to the coronation oath, in which the English Sovereigns are compelled by Act of Parliament to declare that the Sacrifice of the Mass is " superstitious and idolatrous," ia perhaps the most dignified form of protest that could be made against a declaration that is obsolete and stupid, besides being insulting to monarch and people alike. Catholics throughout the British Empire have long agitated for the repeal of the law which was passed in order to make the Protestant succession to the throne secure against all intrigue, evasion, or " arriere pensee." It is contended that the oath is now unnecessary ; that it is a relio of rank intolerance ; that many of those who devised it wished the total suppression of Roman Catholic worship in Britain ; and that an enactment breathing the spirit of the seventeenth century is a glaring anachronism in the twentieth.'

The folio^rin^ cable message appeared in tha daily papers a few days ago : 'The Canadian House of Commons by 12. r > votes to 19 adopted an addret-e to the King praying for the elimination from the coronation oath of expressions offensive to Roman Catholics.' The expressions referred to are those in which the Sovereign swears: 'I, Ed ward the Seventh, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, do solemnly and sincerely, in the Presence of God, profess, testify, and declare that I do believe that in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there ia not any Transubstautiation of the elements of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever . and that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other Saint, and the Sacrifice of the Mass, as they are now used in the Church of Romp, aie superstitious and idolatrous.' We dealt pretty fully with the subject in a recent issue of the N.Z. Tablet. A protest against this 'relic of barbarism I—as1 — as Sir Colmaa O'LoghUn cillel it iv the House of Commons ia 1807 — was recently made by the Catholic peers in the English House of Lords. Their protest, wap, however, disregarded by the Government. In view of the preeent need of humoring the colonies, more attention will probably be piid to the spirited address cf the Canadian House of Commons.