GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 134, 26 November 1875, Page 9

GENERAL NEWS.

Progress of the Pdbsecution in Geneva. — A telegram in tho London 'Times/ from the correspondent of that paper in Geneva, contains an announcement which may possibly portend the gravest possible form of religious persecution. The new law just passed by the Grand Council of the Canton, after forbidding any religious ceremony, celebration, or processions in the public streets, except the services provided by the military authorities for the troops, as wall as the wearing by anybody who remains in the Canton for "more than a month of any ecclesiastical or monastic dress, proceeds to enact that " the authors and accomplices of disorders, or those guilty of bringing law and authority into contempt, or of exciting hatred between citizens by means of religious services in private property/ 1 are liable to fine or imprisonment. This last clause may be interpreted in two ways. It may only mean that those persons are to be punished who use " religious services in private property" to " excite hatred between citizens." But it may also be taken to mean that " religious services in private property " tend of themselves to " excite hatred among citizens," and are to be repressed accordingly. If the latter were the correct interpretation all the Catholic services in the Canton would be rendered illegal, for the only places left to the Catholics to hold them in are buildings which are private property, And even if the other interpretation be the right one a Government like that of Geneva will easily find a pretext for putting the law in force. A sermon against the pretension of the schismatics to be considered Catholics, or even against the guilt of schism, would with the greatest ease, and indeed almost certainly, be construed into an attempt "to excite hatred between citizens." The Church in Westphalia. — A letter in the 'Germania' gives a lamentable account of the state to which the ordinary Church organization has been reduced in Westphalia. In many parishes of the diocese of Paderborn — some even reckoning 20,000 souls — all legally recognized parochial authority has ceased. An amazing number of priests are banished, or suspended, or incarcerated, or deprived either totally or in part of the means of existence, and reduced to dependence on the bounty of their spiritual children. Scarcely any new priests have been ordained, and the newly-ordained have been forthwith banished. The Sacrament of Confirmation has ceased to be administered. People are looking forward with terror to a time when, according to an old- prophecy, a man must journey seven hours in Westphalia before he can find a Catholic priest. Tnc Catholic poptilation is making great and noble efforts to maintain the impoverished clergy, and in some rural parishes — for instance, in the diocese of Treves — the tradespeople supply their pastors with the necessaries -which each sells, and regularly sends in the bill x^cceipted, replacing thus the confiscated incomes ot the clergy by offerings in kind. A girl named Parker, who is under 15 years of age, swam from London Bridge to Black-wall, a distance of seven miles, in one hour and thirty-seven and a half minutes. Mdlle. Hossi de la Tour has just entered the noviciate of the Carmelite Nuns. Maddle. de la Tour was the young lady who during the Franco-Prussian war, killed with a table knife a Prussian officer, who was billeted in her father's castle, and made an attempt on her chastity. Prince Frederic Charles, to whom the case was reported, decided that the girl was not guilty, and ordered her to be set free. Statistical tables show that there arc in the whole world about 164.. cities -with 100,000 inhabitants; 9 with over 1,000,000; 12 with from 1,000,000 down to 500,000; 20 with from 300,000 to 400,000; 33 with from 200,000 to 300,000; and 90 with from 100,000 to 200,000. The aggregate of the population of these large cities comprise 50,000,000 inhabitants — that is to say, the twenty-eighth part of the entire population of the globe. In his introduction to his poems in the Somersetshire dialect, Mr. J. Edwards gives some amusing examples of what he describes as West Country grammar. The verb "To be" is thus conjugated: Indicative mood, present tense, "I be, Thee beest, He, She, or it be, Wu'm, You'in, They'm;" past tonse, "I wer, Thee wert, He, She, or it wer, We was, You was, They was." There is also a "finikin" mood used by persons of superior education — present tense, " I are, You ham, He, She, or it are, We ham, You ham, They ham ;" a " querulous" mood, " Be I, Beest, Bea or Ezza, Be us, Be ye, Be uin or 'Es tun" — future tense, "Wool I, Woot, Wool a, Wool us, Wool lay, Wool uin;" imperative mood, "Let I be, Theed'st better be, Miake he, she, or uni be, Let we be, You'd better be, Miake they be;" an extraordinary potential mood, " I mid inebby ha bin, Thee midst mebby ha bin, He mid niebby ha bin, We mid mebby ha bin, You mid niebby ha bin, They mid inebby ha bin;" and a still more extraordinary subjunctive mood, " Spooasin I be, Spooabin thee beest, Spooasin a wer, Spooasin we be, Spooasin you'in, Spooasin thaim." A telegram i'roin Pooen states that the Court of Appeal has rejected the appeal of i)r. Foerster, tho Prince-Bishop of Breslau, and has simply confirmed the decision of the Court of Birnbaum, which condemns the prince-bishop to a fine of 2000 marks, or 133 days' imprisonment, iuv excommunicating Dean Kick, of Kaehme. State op Italy. — At no period of her history has Italy been so terribly impoveribhed as she is at present. The price of provisions is i'ciamilly high, and cases of starvation are becoming alarmingly frequent. A poor young man was picked up in Via Condotti the other clay. He had fainted from want of food, not having tabled any for forty hours. About the same time a whole family, consisting of a mother and her four children, were found dying from the same terrible cause in the Piazza San Claudio. These were Palermitans, and unless aid had been immediately ..ifforded them they would have perished. The taxes are outrageously high, and many poor people are obliged to relinquish their houses because they cannot pay for them. Thus on September 20, in one little town near Rome, called Carpineto, over twenty per-

sons will be ejected from their domiciles. These poor creatures are called in Italian official slang, contribuenti morosi or dilatory contributors. By a curious coincidence, somethiug- lite a dozen of them live in a street called Via Cavour. Now it is precisely Cavour's policy which has thus reduced Italy to a condition bordering on bankruptcy, and it is certainly strange that so many " regenerated Italians" should be sold out of house and home, from the street which a few years ago, in their foolish and thoughtless enthusiasm, they called after him. A Beautiful Empress. — The beautiful Empress of Austria passed through Paris recently, and hundreds of people gathered at the railway station to get a glimpse of her. She is well worth looking at, is the fairest of royal ladies, though she is thirty-eight years of age, and a possible grandmother besides. She dresses very simply now — usually in black, gray, or lilac — never having worn gay colors since the death of her eldest daughter, several years ago Her manners are marvellously sweet and winning, and she is as popular as she is beautiful. It is currently reported, however, that she henpecks her imperial spouse unmercifully, and that he, like a wise man, submits to her dominion. When she first arrived at the imperial court she gave immense offence to her haughty mother-in-law, the Archduchess Sophia, by insisting upon going out walking, and by carrying an umbrella, which last is a fatal sin against royal etiquette. Conversion op a Vicar. — The Rev. R. Hawkes, Vicar of Morwenstowe, Cornwall, an intimate friend of Charles Kingsley, and the poet-laureate of Cornish scenery, was received into the Church at Plymouth the day before his death. Feeling his last illness upon him, he had gone there for that purpose, but was only just in time. A solemn requiem was sung over his remains at the Catholic Cathedral. I leave your readers to imagine the flutter there was in the Exeter Protestant dovecot. One parson wrote to say his mind had been enfeebled by illness, and Dr. Lee, the A. P. TJ. C. Secretary, declared he had known all about it for years. Last of all it turns out that there has been for twenty years a correspondence between several bishops and paTson Hawkes, and that that gentleman had been five-eighths of a Catholic half his life. — Correspondent of the New York ' Tablet.' The Rev. Augustus Petre, nephew of an illustrious English nobleman (Lord Petre), was recently raised to the dignity of priesthood in the pro Cathedial, St. Mary's, by his Grace the Moat Rev. Dr. Vaughan. "We understand," says the ' Freeman's Journal,' " that this rev. gentleman only arrived in this city by the last mail packet from England, in company with the Right Rev. Dr. Quinn, of Bathurst, and that since that time he has been on & spiritual retreat at Villa Maria, Parramatta River. Previous to his settling on a determination of religions life, he wan ?.\\ officer in the army, which post he soon relinquished, and under the able and judicious instruction of the Right Rev. Dr. Errington, he has finally dedicate J himself to the service o£ the altar. A friend of ours, says an exchange, who suffered severe pains from neuralgia, hearing of a noted physician in Germany who invariably cured the disease, crossed the ocean and visited Germany for treatment. He was permanent 1 y oured after a short sojourn, and the physician freely gave him the simple remedy, which was nothing but a poultice and tea made from our common field sow-thistle. The leaves are macerated and used on the part affected as a poultice, while a small quantity of the leaves are boiled down to the proportion from a quart to a pint, and a small decoction.drunk before each meal. Our friend says he lias never known it to fail of relief, while in almost every case it has effected a euro. A young lad recently washed the dirt from underneath the old Bant of New Zealand building at Wetherstones, and netted gold to the value of £7 15s for his labor. The gold yields for the week (writes the ' Bendigo In lependent ') are quite up to the average, being close upon 4000oz. Th.; calls are heavier than usual, namely, £3991 13s 4d., but aye overtopped by the dividends, which amount "to £4500, by £508 8s Bd. New Zealand flax has lately come to the fore in a new character. Rope, matting, and linen cloth have all been manufactured t'l-om it, and now it comes to us in the shape of a good serviceable wrapping paper, and cardboard, and roofing for our hou-es. For some time past, operations have been quietly going on at the Kaihu Mills, in the district of Northern Wairon, Kaipara — ' Cross.' The following items of theatrical news will he read wi'h interest:r — The Lewis dramatic company have had a favourable reception in Bombay. Calcutta is on the qul vive to welcome Alice May and her dramatic company The Carandiuis, after a successful spell iv Ceylon, hare left for Madras and Calcutta. From America we learn that Colonal Wilson, the Napoleon of the sawdust ring, will visit New Zealand with his troupe two or three months hence. A Californian paper describes his show thus : — He lias the largest spread < f canvas ever seen on this coast. In it there is the uiual sawdust ring, while outiide he has a track of an eighth of a mile in circumference. The colouel has almost entirely mo^ed out. of the usual circus fittings. Hi» »how consists of startling races, bareback, and otherwise; gives an idea of ould Donnybrook fair, and a life-like sce^e of Indian frontier life. In fact, his show is simply immense." The Church in Mexico.— The Bishop of Tulancingo, Mexico, in a pastoral letter, deprecates the straits to wluuh thu Church in that country is reduced. The salary of the priests does nob average the wages of a day laborer. The Bishop himself has frequently to dine on a crust of bread. There is not. money enough in the clergy's hands to keep the churches and ornaments in proper repair, and hence the Bishop says the sacristies are being filled with useless rags, giving the House of God the appearance of the most forsaken places.

The TJniversitt. — The Cardinal- Archbishop of Paris, it is said lias sold the old Carmelite and Dominican establishment in the BueVaugirard, Paris, to the Jesuits for a free Catholic University, to be opened next November.