NEWS BY THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 186, 20 October 1876, Page 13

NEWS BY THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

[feom otjr exchanges.] The ' Freeman's Journal ' of August 21st, says :—": — " The announcement which it is our most painful duty to make to-day of the death of the Very Rev. Monsignor Dean O'Connell will be read with deep, universal, and unaffected sorrow throughout the length and breadth of Ireland. He expired yesterday at his residence, Welling-ton-road, after a comparatively brief illness, having attained to the patriarchal age of 'eighty-four years. For some time past the venerable Dean had been showing the evidences of bodily decay, but his large circle of friends, hoping almost against hope, were trustful that the sad end might be distant still, and that the good and genial old priest might be spired amongst them for a long while yet to come. But it has pleased God that it should be otherwise, and by the mournful event which we chronicle to-day a void has been made m many a circle which it will not be easy to fill tip. Few names were better or more widely known than his, and even in the ranks of the devoted and cherished hierarchy of the Irish Church there was not one who was regarded with a more affectionate reverence, or held a more honored place in the popular heart. He is nearly the last of a groat old race of ecclesiastics who, whilst they lived, connected the Irish Church of our happier time with the Irish Church,of persecution and of sorrow, and by whom the peace and prosperity it now enjoys were all the more appreciated because o£ their own memories and the traditions of the somewhat gloomy if glorious past. We gladly note that at the matriculation examination at the London University, several of our Irish Catholic colleges have been particularly successful. The examinations were held simultaneously by identical printed papers at London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Ushaw, Stoneyhurst, and the Jesuit College of St. Stanislaus near Tullamore. At the last-mentioned place, out of fourteen candidates who presented themselves from St. Staislaus' itself, from Clongowes, from Carlow College, and from the Diocesan College of Limerick, nine passed with high honors ; the success denoted by which fact becomes all the more marked when we add that of the total number examined in England — 690 — only 302 came up to the required standard. What, then, is that we hear about a Catholic system of education being calculated to " cramp the human mind ?" At the Belfast Police Court, August 18, highly satisfactory evidence was accorded as to the exemplary conduct of the Catholics during the disgraceful riots while subjected to the greatest provocation. It appears that there was a riot in Institution-place, and that the Catholics when called upon to desist from stone-throwing, which they had resorted to in defending themselves from the Orange party, at once complied, while the opposite party not only stoned, but fiired on the police. Dr. Butcher, Protestant Bishop of Meath, died under very melancholy circumstances. He had been suffering for some time past from a vtry serious illness, and had just passed a restless night when a rush of blood to the head supervened, and caused a temporary loss of reason. During the continuance of the mania, he seized the opportunity afforded by the absence of his attendants to cut his throat with a razor. The loss of blood immediately restored his senses, and he gave an explanation of the deed he had done by writing on a piece of paper the single word, " Mad;" but he was too seriously wounded to recover, and he died in half an hour. He ■was a man of consideiable abilities, was popular in his own Church, and recently distinguished himself by an able reply to Professor Tyndall's Belfast address. It is our melancholy duty to record the death of Michael Dunne, Esq., J.P., Ballymanus House, Queen's County, which sad event took place on August IS. The deceased gentleman was ever the kindly host, the cheerful companion. As a magistrate his decisions were always just. As a landlord he was kind and indulgent ; and as a sporting gentleman he took a prominent part

in all the racing events of the province. In 1852 the voters made a mighty effort, and the powerful Fitzpatrick of Ossory waa obliged to relinquish his position as member of Parliament, and honest Michael Dunne, of Ballyinanus, was elected in his place. From that time until 1865 Mr. Dunne held his position as M.P. for the Queen's County, and although in 1857 another serere contest took place, he defeated both the Ossoronian lord and the' premier baronet, Sir Charles Henry Coote. From the very foundation of the Queen's County Independent Club he waa ever one of its warmest and most ardent supporters. The great musical festival at Bayreuth was opened on the 13th August. The subject, Wagner's " Niebelungen-ring," is, in fact, an opera on the great national poem of Germany. ¥o opera of modern times has been placed on the boards with greater "pomp and circumstance." Kaiser William, King Ludtvig of Bavaria (Wagner's patron), the flower of the German nobility, with Doin Pedro and a multitude of foreigners from all countries were assembled at Bayreuth. When we reflect that the Ehein-gold or prologue occupied two and a half hours, we can form some idea of the gigantic conception of the artist who undertook to exhibit in Tinted music the whole historical plot of the " Niebelungen-lied." The Germans are a thorough people — wonderful in their scientific, philological and musical attainments, and the metaphysical air which everywhere invests their literature ; but " Vaterland" is at the bottom of all. Their great poem owed its revival to thereaction against French supremacy in Germany during the first decades of the present century. It did good service then, and it is politic, because soothing to the national vanity of Deutschland, to reproduce it with all the attractions of a gorgeous dramatic dress and appropriate music. No wonder the Germans are wild with excitement. Twelve Sisters of Charity whom the iniquitous ecclesiastical laws of Germany have driven from their native country, arrived in New York last week by the steamer Calland. After a days' stay for necessary repose they left for Manitowac, Wisconsin, where they are to take charge of St. Francis' Hospital. Thus is America gaining- at the expense of Germany. It is consoling to find that not only Catholic but Protestant papers see and write of things in Italy as they really are. • Evangelical Christendom, for July says : — " The works of Strauss and Eenan have done their work only too well in Italy. One and another free thinking society arose, the members of which bury their dead ts ithout the intervention of priest or pastor. Blatant irreligion, in hybrid forms, covers the land. Men in exalted positions are not slow to utter forth their impieties. Doubtless there are members of the English legislatures who have no faith in th« Unseen, but the tone of surrounding society prevents its expression. It is otherwise in the Italian Parliament, there are men who are not ashamed to rise in their place and scout the very thought of the existence of a living and personal God." Great affliction (says the 'Weekly Register') is felt at the Vatican, as, indeed in all Catholic Eome, at the application of the new law in regard to oaths j in obedience to which, from the date of the 20bh July, the book of the Holy Gospels has disappeared from the courts of law as a superfluity ! That so-called and much-prated "public utility" legitimizes many an injustice now-a-days, and many a glaring sacrilege — legitimizes before the world, but not before God. It takes more than public utility to justify in His sight the destruction of His temples, and that more the Vandals in Eome cannot show for the demolition, of the churches of St. Theresa, Santa Maria Maddalena de Pazzi and St. Cajus, situated along the Via Venti Settembre. The ecclesiastical authorities had taken the precaution to remove the altar stones and the relics. But the question is, what is to be done with the bones of the nuns under the Church of St. Theresa ? Many of those nuns died in the odor of sanctity. The sacrilege becomes more horrible when those sacred ashes are disturbed by hands so unholy. The Jewish race still preserves its remarkable vitality. In Austrian Galicia, where there are now 500,000 Israelites, the increase during the semi-century from 1821 to 1870, according to the tables of Joseph Ham, has been 150 per cent ,• while the ordinary population has only increased 25 per cent. Vice-Cons ul Dupuis, in his report this year on the trade of the port of Susa, Tunis, makes remarks on the subject of the project for submerging the region of Djerid by constructing a canal at Gabes, and so creating an inland sea. He considers that the recent surveys compute the idea, of there having been formerly a connection with the Mediterranean, and of the choking up of the passage for the water, an idea, perhaps, based upon the inferiority of level to that of the sea, but in his opinion the observations made seem to endorse the fact of all the region having been under water. The desert has been gradually extended in the district between Tripoli and Egypt, covering parts onc9 fertile, and has in like manner encroached on the Tunisian southern frontier between it and Tripoli. It is presumed that the disappearance of the water is due to the encroachment of the deserts, caused by the action of the winds during the long succession of centuries, aided by absorption and by evaporation occasioned by the presence of the vast scorching desert in the south Tunis being a lake country, and recent discoveries having brought to light vast sheets of water in Africa, the viceconsul suggests that the idea of an inland sea having existed need not seem startling to us. A Protestant lady, -who has been the principal of a public graded school, and who also knows something by experience of public schools in the country districts, writes to the 'Catholic Columbian ' that while she considers " that public schools are certainly better, very much better than no schools at all," she does not think them " the best schools for boys or girls." Her attention, she says, has been lately drawn to the subject of convent schools by a conversation which took place between herself and the " highly ■j educated" wife of a Methodist minister, who, in regretting the

death of her only daughter, remarked that had her child lived she " would have been educated in a convent." " ' Not a CatJiolic convent V " I exclaimed in surprise. " Why, of course," she replied, " they make such good scholars, and then, they make such perfect ladies." "To become good scholars and perfect ladies," continues the ' Columbian's ' correspondent, "is certainly what we send our daughter's to school for. On repeating the above conversation to a good old lady, she said that God had taken the child from the evil to come. The argument was unanswerable, but I could not help wondering why God took little girls who are not intended for convents." "Many good, conscientious Protestants," she adds, " are prejudiced against convents simply because they know nothing about them, perhaps have never been inside of one, yet they will quote such sensational writings as ' The Escaped Nun/ or ' Danger in the Dark,' and consider the matter settled." Our neighbors, that is to say, on their own testimony, are blind chiefly because they are not willing to see. It is her own intention, says the writer of this letter, to visit some of the prominent convents if time and opportunity is granted her, and lay the result of her studies before the public. There are always opportunities to visit Catholic institutions, whether of education or charity ; the difficulty is that they are too seldom availed of by careful and candid observers. It is surely very significant to learn, as we do on the unquestionable authority of the ' Pall Mall Gszette,' that every mail that arrives from Fiji brings news of the continued depression which has existed in that youngest of the colonies since the islands were annexed to the great British Empire. So far from prosperity having been augmented by annexation, it has hitherto steadily declined. If we do not mistake, this happened in the lonian Islands too, till they ceased to be under the benevolent management of England, and it is needless to say that the same thing is happening in India and in Ireland at the present day. We noticed last week the projected destruction of the church of St. Caius and two others. Their destruction has since been completed. The church of St. Caius was one of the most ancient in Rome j it was dedicated to Pope Saint Caius who suffered martyrdom in the year 296, under the Emperor Diocletian of whom he was a relative. He was buried in the cemetery of San Callisto. After his martyrdom his house was changed into a church, a,s also the adjoining house of St. Susanna, niece of St. Caius, daughter of St. Gabrinius. It is believed that in this house St. Caius exercised his pontifical function, and that is was the scene of his martyrdom. St. Sylvester I. gave to the two churches a better form, and placed in both the Lenten stations of the same day. They also became a single cardinalitial title. Later this title was separated, St. Caius was transferred to St. Mary of the Angels, that of St. Susanna remained. In the course of time the churches fell into ruins, and even their original site was forgotten. Under the pontificate of Urban VIII. several noble Dalmatians after a long search succeeded in finding not only the church, but also the body of the saint and that of his brother ,"St. Gabrinius, which had been, transferred from the cemetery to the church. Their relics were placed in the altar of the church when it was rebuilt by Urban VIII., after designs by the architects Paparelli and Vincenzo della Greca. The cardinalitial title was not restored since its separation. The Church of St. Teresa, which has also been destroyed, wasf ounded by Catering Cesi, of the noble families of Orsini and Cesi, widow of the Marquis della Rovera. In the adjoining convent she made her profession as a religious, which in one month was followed by her death. The church was built after the designs of Bartholomeo Braccioli. The first mass celebrated there was on the 25th of April, 1627. Being very near the Quirinal it was very often visited by the Sovereign Pontiffs. There Innocent XIII, while cardinal celebrated the investiture with the white veil of his two grandnieces, daughters of Prince Ruspoli, and when he became Pope invested them with the black veil. Daily the grand old monuments, the seats of piety and learning, the triumphs of art in its noblest form, are disappearing before the ruthless hands of the atheistic destroyers. — ' Catholic Review.' On July 13th, a train full of pilgrims bonnd for Lourdes met with an accident of so singular a nature that all the French papers speak of it as one of the most astonishing events in the history of steam locomotion. It seems that about twelve o'colck at night the pilgrim train was stopped in order to allow the passage of a train coming from Mont de Marsan. To make up for loss of time, the pilgrim train was afterwards set in rapid motion, and travelled at the rate of sixty miles an hour. Suddenly this speed was stayed by a terrible catastrophe. The team had got off the rail and presently was overturned with awful violence — all the carriages were broken to pieces. Every one expected that some of the passengers would have been killed. But, thanks to the protection of our Lady, not one was hurt. The station-master, the conductor, and all the officials declare that they never had seen or heard of so wonderful an escape. Not a man, woman or child was hurt. " Assuredly, Fathex'," said the conductor to Father Briant, " this is the most wonderful miracle yet performed by our Lady of Lourdes. All the carriages are ruined and yet not a human creature injured." The action brought by M. Dubac, the director of the Jesuit College, and fifty-five Jesuit students, against the newspapers for libel in connection with the Ecole Polytechnique's examination papers, has been ,'decided. The Tribunal condemned six newspapers, including the ' Republique Francaise (Gambetta's paper), to a fine of 2,000f . each, and ordered the insertion of the sentence in ten journals in Piris and ten in the provinces. Monsignor Dupanloup, who has so long and so persistently urged the cause of the beatification of Joan of Arc, has recently received an unexpected assistance in the form of a manuscript discovered in the Arsenal Library at Paris. It is of the date of 1585 and is a confutation of the twenty propositions or counts on which the Maid of Orleans was sentenced to the stake by the British. The author was Father Elie Bourdeille of the Franciscan order and afterward Bishop of Perpignan, Archbishop of Tours and Cardinal.

The discovery was made by the famous hagiograph Father Marcellino. It is notable that the war estimates in Prance have steadily gone up since the close of the contest with Germany, until they now stand at 535 millions of francs for 455,000 men ; the same gentleman who in the last years of the Empire used to insist that the time of standing armies had gone by, and that what the nation required to render it irresistible was liberty, now voting in favor of compulsory military service, and, in fact, of almost every demand made by the War Minister ! The ' Times,' commenting on the appointment of General Berthaut as French Minister of Wai*, says — France is striving to resume her old military influence. Europe ca-nnot dispense with it. The Turkish commander, Osman Pasha, who was defeated and taken prisoner by the Montenegrins, is an Hungarian renegade. In 1848 he was implicated in the Hungarian revolution, but on the suppression of that movement fled to Turkey, where he embraced Islamism, and attained high rank. A correspondent complains in '|the *, London Rock' bitterly on un-Protestant and unfaithful bishops, and refers thus to the Model Houses Association'meeting in Willis's Rooms : " The Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol presided. Dr. Manning was on the right. The whole meeting was nothing but a mutual admiration business. 'My Lord Cardinal ' was congratulated on his earnestness, &c; and the Romish dignitary compared notes with an Anglican bishop on the subject of church building and pastoral work. To hear a Protestant bishop say 'My Lord Cardinal ' to a Popish prelate in a public meeting made me indeed sorrowful and pensive. It will not be a matter of great suprise to you to hear that Dr. Elicott's engagements took him away, and that, at the request of his lordship, the scarlet dignitary aforesaid then went to the chair." Belgium and Portugal have just been celebrating on a grand seale — the one the forty-sixth anniversary of national independence, the other the forty-third anniversary of the establishment of constitutional liberty. In the former country religious ceremonies in the Catholic churches, banquets, balls, and illuminations characterized the day; in the latter there were also balls, and banquets, and illuminations, and on Monday evening in Lisbon, writes the correspondent of the ' Daily News,* " a grand review of 7,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry, 42 pieces of artillery, and six mitrailleuses was held by the king, with a brilliant staff." Home Rule has evidently done those little countries no harm. The Antonia Palace of Malta has been taken from November next for the residence of the Duchess of Edinburgh, who will thus be not so far from her husband, at sea in the Sultan. The loss of life and damage caused by the late floods near Dinapore, in Bengal, seem, according to Bombay papers of the 28th July, to have been much more serious than was at first reported. A correspondent at Dinapore,, writing to the Agra paper, says, " A few miles beyond the railway, the Bund or canal works have given way, the consequences of which have been sad. Three villages, with about 500 men, women, and children have been swept off, and their lives sacrificed. The whole of the country for about ten miles is flooded, the water coming down through the station of Dinapore like a fierce mountain torrent." The • Times of India ' says por tions of Bombay have been flooded owing to the heavy rain which fell on the 25th and 26th of July. The Granges overflowed its banks on the 24th. Serious floods are reported from Northern India, The railways have been much damaged, and many miles of country are under water.

Lord Penzance had before him to-day at Lambeth Palace, as Dean of Arches, the second suit under the Public Worship Regulation Act, Hudson and Others v. the Rev. Arthur Tooth, for Ritualistic practices at St. James's, Hatchani. The " representations " under the Act, which had been filed and served on the defendant, set forth that on Sunday, the 19th of December last, and on Sanday, the 9th of January, he had a procession immediately before the Communion service with lighted candles and a crucifix. Mr. Tooth, in the procession, wore an alb girdle, maniple, stole, amice, and chasuble, and had a biretta on his head. Two candles were placed on a table at the side of the chancel, and on the conclusion of the service were carried out in the same manner. There were 18 charges in the articles as to illegal vestments, using incense, having a mixed chalice, adopting the eastward position, having his back to the congregation, kneeling during the prayer of consecration, using wafer bread, making the sign of the cross, having the hymn " Agnus Dei " sung, partaking of the sacrament when less than three persons were present, having a great bell tolled during the communion service, with having lighted candles held by persons in cassocks and surplices, with wearing a belt, and with images near the communion table. Evidence was given, and occupied the whole day. — ' Ulster Examiner,' July 22. The 'Pall Mall Gazette' (London) says:— "At the present time there is not in the peerage a lineal male descendant of one of the many earls and barons created by the Conqueror or his immediate successors, the Norman Kings of England. There is no male descendant of a single baron who was at Runnymede either for or against King John, nor of any peer who was at Agincourt with Henry V., and only one, Wrottesley, who can claim male descent from a Founder Knight of the Garter — the Wrottesleys bavins? reached the peerage within the last forty years. Under their existing creations the dukedoms of Norfolk and Somerset only are older than the reign of Charles 11., the marquisates of Winchester and Worcester only are older than the reign of George 111., and only eleven earldoms, six merged in superior titles, are older than the reign of James 1., the five others being Shrewsbury, Derby, Huntingdon, Pembroke, and Devon. At the death of Queen Elizabeth the peers of England numbered about sixty, and forty of the then existing peerages arc now extinct."