MISCELLANEOUS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 314, 5 March 1875, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

A Strange Disappearance.— An Irish Central Press telegram says that the " Book --..f K..-lls, " written by Saint Coluinba in 475, the oldest book in the world, and the most perfect' specimen of Irish Art, with the richest illuminations, and valued at £12,000, ha 3 disappeared from the College Library, Dublin. It is alleged to "have been sent to the Uiitish Museum for the purpose of being bound. The College Solicitor has been sent, it is said, with sealed orders from the Board of Trinity College to the trustees of the BritA receitp for the volume, signed by a Mr. ish Museum requiring immediate delivery. Bond, purporting to be from the British Museum, has been placed in the hands of the Provost. The greatest excitement prevails in the College respecting the mys terious disappearance of the volume. That it was not removed by any authority who could act in such case is certain from the fact that the Provost himself, wishing to show the unrivalled manuscript to some ladies, found it had disappeared.

The Late City Editor of the Times.—To whatever cause it may be due, the fact is certain that he bitterly hated the United States. Perhaps no man ever went further wrong in financial affairs than did Mr, Sampson during the Civil war ; and perhaps no journalist in financial department ever produced a result so formidable. We do nqt exaggerate in the assertion that the City Editor of the ' Times' cost the Republic money in scoi-es of millions sterling ; nor exaggerate in the statement that the cost to his own country was but little' less. When the City Editor began with Manasses—though he did not end with the surrender at the Appomottox Court House —he succeeded in piling up an account, fcr which success and the arbitration at Geneva could alone atone. The Alabama was a great cruiser, and she was made an instrument of injury under Semmes to the cause of the Union ; but the Alabama was of little account compared to Sampson and his city Article. ■ Anglo-American Times. Home News from Afar.—An Indian paper, called ' Indian Native Opinion, ' says : — :1 In Lon-don an edifice for cremation has been lately erected which is quite ornamental, and where cremation is performed. It is of an oblong octagonal shape, with an arched roof, from the centre of which rises the shaft of the huge furnaces, concealed in an elegant and lofty column. Among -the rabble the opposition to this new custom is yet great, and any procession arriving with-a corpse is hooted at with shouts as down " Down with the Hindus." " Bury your dead," which heartless expressions only intensify the horror of the poor ladies present. This misery is, however, soon at an end, because the mourners enter the building with the coffin, and listen tr a short address from some clergyman or friend of the deceased. When this is over, a heavy door is opened to receive the coffin, and the roaring of the flames in the fiery furnace can be distinctly heard. There is also a seperate waiting room specially provided for those who wish to receive the ashes of the deceased. In a few minutes all is over."

The question of Pope versus Queen is being fiercely fought in the correspondence- columns of the kelson newspapers. One side strongly condemns the .Rev. F. C. Simmons arid his friends for remaining at the Hibernian Society's dinner when the health of the Pope was drunk before that of the Queen ; the other upholds the practice, as sanctioned at public dinners giveu by Catholics in London and other places in the Empire. The Rev. Binstead says :—" The ivason for this etiquette is—that we in the first place consider ourselves Christians; and, secondly, subjects of the temporal power under which we live. That is, as Christians we owe first, obedience to the visible head of the Church in all things pertaining to Eaith and Morals only. This iu no wise impairs our full and unimpaired respect and allegiance to the .temporal power." The Rev. Mr. Simmonds defends himself thus : —"Never having been at a Catholic banquet be-fore,-I had no conception of the order of the tonsts, and having been rather taken aback, I. was wholly unprepared. Lad it have been otherwise 1 should not have been there. There, however, I told those present that " as I did not wish to sail under false colois, 1 must inform thorn that my opinions were opposed to theirs'—though L do respect Catholics for their noble charities here and elsewhere. If persona of different countries and of creeds, however opposed, mingled more freely, there would be less of the odium llieologicum, and of national hatred. My motives, however, for going were almost purely personal. "Without wishing to impugn any one else's loyalty, or to proclaim my own, let me assure you that there is no more loyal Englishman in the British Empire than myself. I am free to admit however, that I made a mistake, which on the spur of the moment, 1 did not know how to repair."—' Star.' *