MISCELLANOUS.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 8, 28 July 1883, Page 3

MISCELLANOUS.

An epidemic of secret Societies has set in at "Home, among them " the Skeleton Army,*' which seems almost to have been foreseen by Dickens, so similar is it to the brigade commanded by Mr. Simon Tappertit. Its object is chiefly mischief and the making itself unpleasant to the world afc large, aims with which it 13 possible for the juvenile persons of the male sex to sympathise. It is no wonder, therefore, that a contingent of cadets has been formed and attached to this guerilla force. One of these, aged 1 Shears, has been brought before the polu c for throwing stones, and, imitating the j fashion of all modern conspirators, has turned informer. The principles of the Cadet Contingent would seem to be similar to those of Nihilism, but the rules are more precise : — 1. Every member pays a penny a week to the support of the organisation. 2. Every member pledges himself to break the windows of every empty house. 3. Every boy who does not belong to the Skeleton Army is to be stoned by members of the Society wherever found. A recent issue of the New York Tribune contains the following calculation by O'Donovan Rossa of how much it would cost to bring England te her knees : — " Let us see how much it would cost to burn England, to burn London, the heart of England, say : — Passage money of 1000 evicted Irishmen from Ireland to London, £6 each, £6000 ; rooms in 1000 London hotels, one m'ght, 5s each, £250 ; 1000 boxes of matches, at a farthing a box, £1 0s lOd ; passage money to fly after the 1000 beds are lit, £6 each, £6000 ; contingent pocket money for 1000 men, £5 each, £5000 ; total, £17,261 0s lOd. That is somewhere about 85,000d015. That much would strike England to her knees ; that much would help the men at home to free Ireland. Can the Philadelphia Convention raise it?" This is reckless extravagance on O'DonovanV part, a critic of Ro.ssa said. The £260 for rooms is quite unnecessary, as in the prevailing confusion the 1000 Irishmen could easily " skip out " without paying a penny. O'Douovan also forgets that at the same time they might quietly pocket the jewels of flying guests, and thus not only defray all their own expenses,.but perhaps make a profit out of the transaction. A bitter denunciiitiqn of the established Church of England was uttered by the most prominent speakers ;at a recent Radical meeting in London. John Bright was the severest in his denunciation, and Spurgeon wrote a letter approving of the agitation for , disestablishment. Out of a population df 36,000,000 in the United Kingdom pniy one-third are in communion witn .the Church of JEngland, which has barely accommodation for half that number. This goes to show that it, is no longer the national Church. The dissenters greatly outnumber the Churchmen. Church livings are still bought and

sold, and the , patronage of the higher i clergy is enormous. The two Archbishops of Canterbury and York and ,the tw'o~ Bishops of London and Durfiam are paid salaries by the State aggregating £44,00,0 ' a year. The Bishop of Ely' gets £7000, the Bishop of Winchester £7500, a^d eight other bishops get £5000 each yearly. ' Some churches in London, with incomes as high as £2000 to £3000, have congregations never exceeding twenty persons.