GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 71, 5 September 1874, Page 10

GENERAL NEWS.

The number of letters received by His Holiness on the occasion of his birthday, was over one hundred thousand, and the signatures exceeded three hundred thousand.— The widow of the late Mr J. F. Maguire, M.P., for Cork, has had a special audience of the Pope, to •whom she presented a purse containing 150 sovereigns, the contribusions of some Irish friends.

There has been a march of agricultural laborers through the Eastern and Midland Counties, beginning at Cambridge. They wore blue ribbons, and some carried flags. There were 40 bands of music. Altogether 5,000 were present." Arcli was the principal spokesman. Dr. Fortune, who was nominated to be the first Bishop of the Tiewly-created Diocese of Sandhurst, was obliged to decline that dignity for reasons winch His Holiness was pleased to consider valid. The Propaganda on the 22nd of May selected in room of Dr. Fortune, the Eev. Canon Moguire, of Cork, brother to the late John Francis Maguire, of Cork, and proprietor of the 'Examiner* newspaper. The Pope ratified the selection of the Propaganda, on the evening of the 24th May. X»r. Goold, Archbishop of Melbourne, and Dr.O'Conor, Bishop of Ballarat, have left Eome for Ireland. A valuable addition hus been made to Arcbceolo»ical learning by the appearance of the first volume of Archdall's Monasticon Hiberxucuui, by Kellys, of Dublin. This is a history of the Abbeys, Priories, and other Eeligious Houses in Ireland, by Mervyn Archdall, A.M., edited, with extensive notes, by the Eight Rev. Patrick F. Moran, Lord Bishop of Ossory, and other distinguished antiquarians. It is a work which.when completed, will add one more and invaluable boon to those already contributed by Dr. Moran to Irish ecclesiastical literature and history, in addition to his Archbishops of Dublin, his life -of the Primate Oliver Plunker, the life of St. Brendan, and his essays on the Ancient Irish Church. In the volume before us we are given a fac simtle of Archdall's Map of Ireland, prepared to elucidate the work j Ptolemy's Map of Erin, corrected from Bardic History, showing the locale of the Belgic Septs, and much enlarged srom that published by Charles O'Conor in Dissertations. We have also three very fine views of St. Patrick's, Dublin, one of the Ancient Archiepiscopal Palaces of Tallaght, and of St. Colmau's Cathedral and Kound Tower at Cloyne, all in the highest style of art— and yet these are comparatively nothing to the exquisite engravings in gold and colors oi members of the monastic body, such as a Benedictine monk, a Benedictine nun, an Augustinian hermit, and a Cistercian monk, •which arc perfect gems of art. We should not omit to state that there is also given a copy of the figures of the three Patron Saints of Ireland, originally published, we believe, by Me3singham, with Latin inscription and translation :

In Down three saints one grave do fill ; Bridgid, Patrick, and Columbkille.

,_A. Ter y curi °u3 discovery has been made ot Nancy, in the Convent of Visitation. It appears that the great Bossuet left a pile of manuscript the) c when he visited it, and that it has never been touched since. The present Superioress happened to come across these treasures whilst searching for some other papers concerning the house over which she rules Convinced that the documents were genuine, ehe placed them in the hands of Colonel Ferval, who is at present editing them. They consist of maiay sermons, aud of a series of letters addressed to Madam de Valliere on the occasion of that lady's conversion. The sermons are not only of great beauty, but of the highest historical value. When published, this important work will extend over three volumes.

# Ihe ' Christian "Union ' (Henry Ward Beecher's paper) lad an article on « Appleton's Cyclopedia,' from which we take the following ■extract :— But we took up our pen to thank those editors who have so promptly and in so manly away defended ' Appleton's Cycloptdi*' from the charge of catering to the Eoman Catholic public. A more needless and baseless charge was never made. We have examined the facts with some care, and acquit the gentleman engaged upon this national work of any such design, or of falling into any such error by heedlessness. We honor them for calling Eoman Catholic scholars to their aid. It is right that they should. It is time that we had done with the senseless prejudices \rhich regard Eoman Catholic priests as of course unchristian, and Eoman Catholic scholars as Jesuitic, insincere, and untrustworthy. Some of the noblest prolates and most reliable scholars of to-day are Eoman Catholics. The Louisville . c Catholic Advocate' thus pleaus the cause of "Denominational Education :"— " We have never doubted that the sincere among our separated brethren would in time come to onsider our presout Common School system a snare to those who love Christ. It is such a snare that must, if persisted in, finally land the nation on the shores of unbelief. We are more than pleased, we are delighted vith i the action on the subject of education taken by the Genera 1 Conference of the Methodist Episcopalian Church now holding its sittings in Louisville. There is something in this action that gives us better hope for tiie future. There is a modicum of faith left in Protestant Christianity. Not every Protestant is ready to Bell out, body and bones, to the devil. There is a cry raised, just whence v.c thought it would be raised, to put on the brakes. We are thankful that God has put it into the hearts of these men to divine the danger unseen by so many eyes.'* The age of martyrdom is not ended. The flame of devotion to Catholic faith burns as brightly in the souls of the unlettered peasants of Catholic Poland, as it did eighteen centuries ago in the hearts of those who fearlessly braved all the torments which Eoman paganism could invent. The Eussian soldiery shoot thesa Polish heroes by the , score, because they refuse to abandon their faith and become members of the uational church j but those who escape the carnage in fear 'of losing the eternal reward of bearing testimony to Jesus Christ by their blood, take their places as they did lately at Prutulin ; they barf d their breusts, the remnant of those doomed to die, and cried out : •'Shoot away ; we want to die for the faith." The highest honor the Poles now covet, is to have some members of their families enrolled among the martyrs. They smite in derision when the officials of the

Russian Government threaten them, in their obstinate refusal to become sc humatio*. with the knout, imprisonment, or Siberian exile. Every Tillage ha* its martyr's grave, at which the faithful peasantsdaily kneel, and pray that they may stand firm in this new hour of trial. Weak women and tender children go with the light of heaven'shappinesssm their eyes to the ordeal of death' which the Czar ha 9 prescribed for h,s Catholic subjects of Poland. He may exterminatethe race, but he will never succeed in tearing the Cathoiio faith from tneir hearts.

nfPuTTr ?- Ot , the . nW cathedral at Thurles for the Diocese of Cashe , fixed for Ju y, has been postponed until next yj 8r The new cathedral at Shgo, for the Diooese of Elphin, has been consecrated