NOTES OF THE MONTH.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 261, 3 November 1874, Page 2

NOTES OF THE MONTH.

Under this heading the London cor- * respondent of the Australasian, under date Sept. 4, writes as follows:— ] Everybody is now more out of (own than ever, to the devotees of St. Grouse there being now added thos3 of St. Partridge, and, lastly, of St. Edmund. Of these saints, adored in very unequal proportions in these islands, there cannot be any doubt whose wors*hip is the more popular. The birds have vastly the advantage of the bishop. There is a joke of Sydney Smith, on the occasion of some child pronouncing " partridges" as "patriarchs," that he was making game of the fathers of tbe church. But this is just what tbe flock of his eminence, Dr. Manning, or as many of them as could be stirred by flaming posters and Messrs Cook's allurement*?, have been doing with St. Edmund of Abingdon, an English saint who lies buried in a Bnrgundian village called Pontigny. On the Ist of September, they tore themselves away from the stubbles and the turnips to start by ihe London and Brighton railway for Newhaven in full pilgrimage. I was witness to their departure, and certainly a more unromantic business there could not be. I never believed much in pilgrims since; the reading of Chaucer, bnt these were of a sort which which wonld have made his old Prior and Sompnour stare. The party was for all the world like any other excursion party on a cheap trip. In the first place, Ihat it was " personally conducted by the Messrs Gook," took off" a good deal of reverential sentiment from the proceeding. It is impossible to get up one's enthusiasm about a pilgrimage which assumes the outward aspect of a Cook's tour. There was nothing indicative either of a deep religious tone or of eelf-mortification about these pilgrims. There was too strongly developed a propensity among them to secure corner places in the compartments to give rise to much religious feeling. They were for all the world just like any other body of " cheap trippers," displaying the same eagerness to furnish themselves with creature comforts, with an uncontrolled appetite for pork pie, and an undisguised yearning to possess themselves of sherry in little flat bottles. They rushed at the news stalls for the morning papers, and bought comic periodicals, aod were profuse of ru*_s and wrappers. Perhaps about half of them wore the badge— a scarlet shield on a white ground — provided for the occasion, but they were by no means effusive in their desire to exhibit their pilgrim paraphernalia to an unsympathetic mob. Id fact, all one's previous notions as to a pilgrimage were grievously upset by their conduct. There were evidently no peas in their shoes, and the only form in which that Vegetable was likely to appear on the scene was soup at the Newbaven refreshment room. There were barely 400 pilgrims altogether, and fully half of them were priests and seminarists, and children, who looked as if they would be very sick in the Channel. On the whole, a more commonplace sort of function it would be impossible to conceive, leading to a belief that the pilgrimage business is being overdone, if not played out. i The British publio have naturally (For continuation see fourth page )

beiri curious to know what was tbe object ' of the expedition beyond a pleasant summer excursion into Burgundy, nor has tbeir curiosity been satisfied by sny of the explanations which bare been offered. We have been reading up the life of St. Edmund oi Abingdon, and we still remain unconvinced that be merits ali this enthusiasm which Dr Manning bas got up about his burying place. AU tbat we. know historically of tbe Rev. Dr. Edmund Ricb, Archbishop of Canterbury in tbe reign of Henry 111., ie tbat be was a busy and somewhat arrogant defender of the rights of bis order—^defending them, however, as did ' most of tbe English prelates of that age, ratheragainst tbe Pope than against the King. He was, in fact, a prominent; cbampion of the independence of the English Church, and in tbat character is perhaps just as much revered by many orthodox English elefgyme? as by Archbishop Manning. We know tbat he quarrelled with tbe Curia, and narrowly escaped being poisoned on bis visit to Rome, and tbat he afterwards retired, as two of his predecessors in the see of Canterbury bad done before bim, to tbe A h bey of Pontigny and died there. He bas since been canonised as a saint of the Eng» lisb~not of tbe Universal — Catholic Church, and like everybody else who bas been co distinguished, bis body, according to tbe testimony of maoy pious men, bas remained fresh and sweet to this day. I have not smelt it, but tbe fact is asserted by tbe learned Dr Martenne, wbo examined it in tbe lastcentnry, when it was " perfectly without any sign or corruption." But why, in the nineteenth century, Englishmen should make a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Edmund, is one of those mysteries which we dare not ask to have explained. Tbat this is thus not a pilgrimage in the old mediaeval sense is as much as admitted by its projectors — I don't mean the Messrs Cook, bat Dr Manning and the Romish hierarchy— and in fact is proved by thd 'n^f ure of tbe prayers and hymns which have been said or sung oo tbe occasion. : The object of it is said to bO^the-" conversion of bad Catholics," s*_- 'especially the "conversion of England,* .j If this is so, I cannot imagine s more desperate undertaking, nor one D-bre nnlike in spirit to tbe real old pilgrimages in the days when men believed in tbeir efficacy. Even tbe pilgrimage last year to Paray-le-Monial bad some reality abont it, in tbat it was • religions transaction, having reference to certain mysterious revelations connected with the Sacred Heart. Bat tibjtf present pilgrimage is nothing if not political. It is not so much a pilgrimage as a demonstration, something of the kind which Odger nsed to lead about our streets during tbe Reform agitation. It is meant to stir np. a feeling in favor of the Ultramontane policy and tbe temporal power of the Pope— to induce Englishmen to join in tbat battle of sacerdotalism against nationalism and liberty which is 'now raging io more than one part of Europe — to get them to open tbeir parses for the support of their persecuted bishops io Germany, the Carlists in Spain, and the Pope in Rome. But if this was Dr. Manning's real object, it has failed most egregiously. There has been no response to the call he has made upon the faithful of that particular kind which be desires. Tbe Roman Catholics, in spite of tbeir priests and leaders, are true and loyal Englishmen, who are earnest in their faith, but who do not see their way to thrusting it down the throats of rebellious Germans, who'' 1 would like to see the Pope independent, but wbo certainly do not feel called .upon to aid bim to recover hu ikidgdou) from his own people. The demonstration made by this handful _of well- meaning enthusiasts, who went by the 830 train to Pontigny, believing they were doing a pilgrimage,* can only be called an ntter failure, calculated .to bring ridicule on the Uitramontanes and tbeir policy. . *■ * Jthqse.two live moas (says tbe Australasian) tbat were recently captured in Canterbury, New Zealand, escaped before they could be taken to Christchurch, just as some ill-natured people foretold that they would. It is to be hoped that the enterprising Mr. Smythe who caught thorn and lost them will not relax io bis efforts, and that if he cancatch them again he will take better cave of them. It is only by the actual evidence of the fact that the sceptical world is to ba convinced in matters of thisikind. For a long time the existence of the sta serpent was doubted, io spite of tbe assurances of so many highly veracious American sea-captains until one was killed the other day, also by an American, aod in the presence of American witnesses. The most prodigious of ail sea monsters, tbe kraken, which was vouched for 100 years, aj-ro by . the Archbishop oi Upsala, was doubted for several geueia.ions, in spise of ihe occasional testimony ot sailors as to vessels being dragged under water by a " big t-quid," but tbe Rev. Mr Harvey, of St. John's, Newfoundland, has lately placed it beyond question that there are some very " delicate of vast size inhabiting tbe seas around tbat island. Victor Hugo's rdevil fish was believed to be a fable, but now be is a common show to Cockneys in tbe aquariums at Brighton -and tbe Crystal Palace. Aod, so Mr Smytbe may be assured that when be has fairly secured bis live moas, and is able to exhibit them at one shilling a head, witb a reduction to schcolp.and children, any incredulity tbat may fexietiii ill-regulated minds

with regard to the reality of his late capture will be effectually dispelled. And perhaps not till then.