GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 51, 18 April 1874, Page 13

GENERAL NEWS.

(Summarised from our exchange*.) ENGLAND.

Sir John Bennett has announced his intention to offer a premium of one hundred guineas for the best English national song and chorus, »■ jury to be appointed to decide upon the merits of the composition offered. Monsignor Cupel, preaching in St. George's Cathedral, chose for ike subject of hia discourse the persecution of the Church in Prussia, which he denounced as sn attack without right or reason, whilst he scornfully exposed its impotence to the hundreds of Protestants present. So impressed does Mr Arch appear to be with the success of hi« mission to Canada, that he declares publicly, that if the condition of the rural working population of England is not imoroved by the landholders he will drain the country of laborers. Such a declaration has •tartled a good many ensy-going people in Great Britain, and accordingly, we find a certain section of the agricultural press busily engaged m picking to pieces the character and conduct of the man who thus boldly attempts to prescribe a remedy for a condition of things which we believe to be in many respects a disgrace to the boasted civilisation of England. An American recently visited Mr Thomas Carlyle, at his residence near London, and the vigorous old thinker called out during a talk on politics in America and England :—": — " We are all going to the devil together— we here in Engl nd — we have nobody to rule but this Gladstone, who is a bagman, or he they call Dizzy, who is a pedler." We are glud to note a marked decrease in the commitments of Catholic prisoners to Liverpool gaol during the past year. Probably the Temperance Pledge has had something to do with this improvement. Mr Gladstone has replied, through his private secretary to certain •barges of a leaning towards "Popery," and of being, in fact a "Papist" and not a Protestant at heart. These charges were advanced in a •peech delivered by Mr Arundel Rogers, a Conservative candidate for Bodmin ; aid Mr Gladstone, in his reply, says they are " wholly and absolutely void of truth." Mr Butt in London. - The ' Cork Examiner ' of Jan. 1, says : "Mr Butt, M.P , is to meet some of the leading member* of the Home Rule party in London in a few days, tor the purpose of reorganising the various association a in the English Metropolis which are not in a satisfactory condition. Difficulties having arisen from the action of some individuals who have made themselves rather conspicuous an the exponents of somewhat communistic principles. It is reported that Mr Butt will be accompanied by several Irish members. Mr J. Batnber, the father of several priesti of that name, and who died lately, was born at Manchester in 1794. It is remarkable what a change he lived to witness in the religious aspect of hi* native town. When he entered into life there was only one poor chapel in Manchester, on the first floor of a building, hidden in a small back street ; vow there are twenty churches and chapels, many of them very beautiful edifices. Oue solitary priest — old Father Broomhead — sufficed to supply the spiritual wants, not only of the town, but of thd neighborhood for miles around ; now there are fifty in Manchester and Sallord, and within lliecircumfeience of twelve miles there are ro fewer than ninety priests actively employed in the work of the Mission. One of the largest meetings ever held in Manchester for any purpose assembled in the Free Trade Hall for the purpose of proclaiming to England, and to the world, that " self-government is the inalienable right of the Irish peoplo" — that, in the words of John Martin, " we will never givo up the struggle for this right, which is our inheritance," and that we pledge ourselves to use every legitimate means to secure the return of members (T I'm Ii tment for Manchester who will suppoit Home Kule for Treland." Long before the time advertised for the opening of the meeting, the great h^ll was filled almost to its utmost capacity. The greatnat enthusiasm was displayed duriug tbe evening. FBAJCE. M. Pierre Guizot, coi sin of the celebrated statesman, died lately at Nimes at the age oi 94 years, aflor liav.ug abjured Protestantism. It is current 1} reporter? that the great conflagration of the French Opera last spring was tho work of th-j Cumir.unists and that the London police have iutiinni -d to the French government what they have lately discovered about the matter. M. Kigra has returned to this post as Italian ambassador of \ Paris. This show s that Marshal MacMahon has no fear of imperial - intrigues against the present frtate of things in France. Duke Decazes, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs in Fiance, has sent orders to the French Consuls at the ports most in communication with Spain, to stop the transmission of arms and ammunition to the Carlists. Up to this time France had been neutral. Marshal Bazaine arrived at his place of detention iv the isle of St. Marguerite on Deceoinbcr 26. St. Marguerite is one of the Lerius group, a cluster of is}ets nestling under the southern coast of France a few miles off that " warm Provencal shore," which in old times, was <l tho chosen home of chivalry, the garden of Bouiance." In this little island of Sit. Marguerite is a grim old fortress of the middle age. This fortress is to be the residence of the Marshal. It was once the scene of one of the most famous dramas in European history. It was the prison of " tho Man with the Iron mask," that mysterious nud unhappy being, the question of whose iGcntity has exercised the most acute minds of many generations, and still remains an insoluble mystery. This island is only three miles long and less than one mile broad, and the fortress or Stale prison is the only building it contains, the rest of the ground being coveted with orange trees and myrtles. j According to the list census in Frai.ce, in 1872, there is a diminu- | tion of about 1 per cent m* ho population, in tho last six jears. In I the ten years ending 1871, the population of Italy increas.d more than ' 7 per cent. While Corsica, under France, had remained nearly stationary, Sardinia, under Italy, has increased 8 per cent. The'-e is something very remarkable in this difference, especially if it be observed that there is veiy little emigration from France, while from Italy there is very much.

On the 9th January took place at Versailles the ceremony of conferring the hats on the three recently created Cardinals. As the Macs was concluding the Cardinals arrived at the cathedral in state carriages, with Marshal MacMahon's livery, mounted attendants before and behind. The Cardinals were placed on the left of the Marshal. The Ablegates delivered to each of them the Bulb of their creation. Then each Cardinal .came and kcelt before the President's chair. Each Ablegate presented the hat on a golden tray, and the President of the Republic placed it on the Cardinal* head. It is pretty certain that the costs of the Bazsine trial amouiit to upwards of £10,400, the greater part of which the Marshal himself will have to meet. Madame Bazaine has sold all her jewels, and, it ii believed, the Queen of ."-'pain has offered the family a Urge sum, which haa been respectfully declined. The ministerial crisis has been solved, just as most persons forasaw it would by a vote of confidence given to the Cabinet, or rather to Marshal MacMahon, for it was he who was in reality at stake. The death, at the Monastery of La Trappe, is announced of Brother Ambrose, who had been a member of the community for the last ten years. He belonged to one of the most noble families of France, and had filled a very high position in the world, namely* Ambassador to St. Petersburg under the Government of Louis Philippe, his real name being the Marquis Emile de Beaumont de Montifico. His brother, M.Eugene Martin de Beaumont, is at this day employed iv the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. President MacMahon, on the 9th inst, performed the C3remony of delivering the hats to the newly appointed French Cardinals. In his speech on the occasion he thanked the Pope for conferring these honors on citizens of France, and added : " The Holy Father knows our filial attachment and our admiration at the manner in which he supports hi« trials. His sympathies \vere with us in our misfortune, and ours are with him.

During December last a shipload of Neapolitans eight hundred in number on their way to America, fleeing from Italy in order to avoid starvation, arrived at Toulon and were pvit into quarantine. Father Blanc, the superior of the Jesuits at Nice, went to shut himself up with them iv order to instruct, confess and communicate them. This he did with the most consoling success.

The French Minister of War, General dv Barail, is making vigorous efforts to discover the officers of the army who write to the newspapers, under assumed names.