GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 172, 14 July 1876, Page 15

GENERAL NEWS.

The ' Pall Mall Gazette's' Dublin Bpecial says it is pretty certain that the emigration from Ireland for 1876 will be the smallest since 1841. It was only 51,462 last year. The Japanese Government, which has set itself the taßk of completely recasting the institutions of the Empire in a European mould, has just introduced compulsory military service. The decree which bears the date of the sth of November, provides that every Japanese who has reached the age of twenty and is drawn in the conscription shall serve for three years in the active army, and be trained in his own province. The decree is prefaced by a proclamation from the Mikado, to the effect that the time is arrived for the suppression of- one of the unjust laws of feudalism, and a return to the ancient system, under which every citizen was a soldier, and the army was composed of the whole nation. An army in which all the classes in the country are not represented is no better, adds the Mikado, than a Praetorian guard, If this is a correct translation we wonder what idea the comparison will convey to the ordinary Japanese mind. The Mikado's subjects are a remarkably receptive race, but they can hardly yet be very well up in Koman history. On Sunday, March 26, an imposing religious cremony was witnessed in the fine old Catholic town of Drogheda. In the morning all the children of St. Peter's parish who had not made their first Communion, attended in the spacious church, in order to make that first great act in their lives. The boys, to the number of three hundred, were the pupils of the Christian Brothers, whose indefatigable and zealous labors cannot be too highly spoken of. The boys assembled in the school of the Christian Brothers, and at halfpast eight o'clock they were marshalled in order, tinder the charge of the good Brothers, Mr. O'Donnell, the respected Superior, being in chief command, and marched to the church. The lads presented a very neat and comfortable appearance as, wearing medals, green scarfs and white rosettes, they marched in compact order through the streets, with uncovered heads, reciting the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin. In front was carried a large banner, bearing the figure of St. Joseph, patron of the schools. The next banner was the Sacred Heart, in crimson Batin, elegantly embroidered. The third was a pretty green banner of St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland and first Pnmate of " The Island of Saints." The fourth was a neatly got up banner, in white silk, of the Guardian Angels, and was carried by two little boys. The fifth banner bore the figure of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, patron of schools, with neatly illuminated mottcet— "Obe/your parents in the Lord, for this is just;" "Eemember thy Creator in the days of thy youth ;" "My father (De la Salle), thou art the guide of my youth," &c.