OUR IRISH LETTER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 13, 28 March 1901, Page 9

OUR IRISH LETTER.

(From our own correspondent.) Dublin, January, 1901. NEW YEAR FE6TIVITIEB. So far, the opening of the new century, as far as Dublin society is concerned, has been all joy and weniuifcut; for {.lie little folk. The season for their elders will open with Castle festivities, but the ohildren rush at once into joyous celebrations with, (lie coming of Santa Clans, and this year, nrnre than ever, has been a children's New Year, the most brilliant of all functions having been a juvenile fancy ball at the Mansion House. No scene could exceed in prettineßß that of about 1000 happy little boys and girls dancing away as dancing should be done, with their very hearts in their heels, the marvellous variety of their fancy cobtumes making a rare picture of genuine fairyland such as no imagination could conjure up. Nor were the children of the poor forgotten, for many a rich feast was spread for the waifs and strays of the city and suburbs, and I must record that the best pantomime of the season was that produced at the Rotunda by orphan boys under the charge of the Christian Brothers ; the little fellowß not only delighted the public, bat netted £300 for a most deserving charity. FABEICS MADE FROM PEAT. In my last letter I spoke of great possibilities in the future for theproducte of our native bogs. I read lately that Herr Zcchorner. of Vienna, has been experimenting for the last 12 years with peat, and with the most astonishing results. A building has been exhibited in which everything, ' from the carpets on the floor to the paper on the walls, was made from peat.' It is found that fabrics woven from the fibrous part of the peat have the toughness of linen and the warmth of wool, that there is scarce a textile fabric that cannot be woven from these fibres, and that blankets and other coverings used for horses and cattle have been found to excel in warmth and cleanliness. If all the precious qualities attributed to peat be true, the great peat bogs of Ireland may yet prove a real source of wealth and comfort to this country, and the experiments that have been started or are in contemplation will be watched with great interest over here. HONOR FOB A PBIEST. There ia a series of ' Manuals of Catholic Philosophy ' in use in Catholic colleges. One of these, Psychology : Empirical and Rational, is the work of an Irish priest, the Rev. Michael Maher, S.J., now of StODyhurst, formerly a pupil of Tullabeg, County Carlow. Father Maher's book, noteworthy in many ways, is especially noteworthy in that it shows how full, accurate, and acute were the answers of the schoolmen to practically every question of importance which puzzles the twentieth century psychologists. The Senate of the London University haR just decided to confer the degree of Doctor of Literature upon the learned author, in recognition of the excellence of this work, which has reached its fourth edition and has won the highest praise from non-Catholic scholars at home and in America. THE QUEEN'S DEATH. Jußt as I had written these last lines came a messenger with the startling news : The Queen died at half-past six o'clock. T hough for three dayß it was known that the aged Sovereign was passing away, still it was not until the man suddenly announced the fact and I went out a moment into the dark night to listen to the tolling of the pacing bell that I realised what a strange, solemn break, as it were, upon the life of every individual in these countries is that sudden ceasing to be of the personality that has always, somehow, been in our lives. We never remember a time that we had not some picture of ' the Queen ' stamped in our minds : she was always there ; always a real, living part of our world, from the baby days when we first gazed on a bright penny bearing her likeness and associated ' the Queen ' with something good. Then came the days when we sat upon the ground, rapt in the joys of an immense old volume of The Qumi Ifewxpaper. In our mothers' days, illustrated papers were not carelessly glanced at and then flung away ; they were carefully preserved and bound (I can see the volumes now ■ mottled sides and morocco gilt backs and corners), and we, little people, made acquaintance with her Majesty and Prince Albert and a row of sons and daughters, and wondered much and felt disappointed to find that the Queen was dressed in very plain bonnet and Bhawl and that her little girls wore tucked frocks and curious long white pantaloons, instead of being dressed as were the kings, queens, and princesses in fairy tales. Strange, that at the hour of that aged Queen's death, my memory should suddenly leap back to my childhood's thoughts of royal dignity and bliss, to the days when I firmly believed in the saying ' happy as a queen ' ; and, somehow, that lonely-sounding passing bell, heard as I stood out under the dark eky, brought to my heart a feeling of sorrow for the woman I had known of all my life, yet had never known ; a feeling of sorrow for the children to whom she, ' the Queen ' to all the rest of the world, was always mother ; a feeling of a strange blank, as if something had gone out suddenly from everyone's life. Then, yesterday afternoon, came the booming of guns and the running up of tke royal flag that had hung at half mast from the previous day : 4Le Roi est mort ; vive le Roi ! ' THE KING PROCLAIMED. In Dublin the proclamation of King Edward VII. was kept strangely quiet. When Queen Victoria was proclaimed Queen, hope was high in Ireland. O'Connell and hie fellow Catholic* had been

helpful in securing the young Sovereign in her rights, from which a strong party were intriguing to oust her. It was believed her Majesty would gratefully remember O'Connell's action and be generous to his country, and so there waa a brilliant pageant through Dublin, when the Ulster King at Arms, attended by heralds, noblemen, and a gay throng of citizens, proclaimed Victoria Queen at the Castle gates, at the site of the ancient Tholsel, at the Corn Market, at the Rotunda, at College Green, and at the Mansion House, amid the joyous acclamations of the people. Yesterday, there waa a hastily announced meeting of thn Privy Council, attended by the Viceroy, the Lord Mayor, three Aldermen of the Corporation, and some dozen or two Law Lords, Officials of the Cunll^anJ others. ImrccdiiMy af+cr +*» ° ; g"''"g of the proclamation, a procpssion issued from theCahtle into the^pace outside ihe gal*,*, ttiiJ t.lii.i.o, and there only, the l T l°tcr King ".t \rm* mH the proclamation of the accession to the throne of King Edward VII., hitherto known as the Prince of Wales. Tbe hour at which the ceremony was to take place had not been publicly announced, so that comparatively few witnessed this interesting ceremony. The procession consisted of : two mounted men of the metropolitan police, who led the way ; next came a troop of Lancer* and the trumpeters ; then the Lord Mayor, attended by the sword bearer and mace bearer ; the Lord Chancellor and Chief Secretary came next, followed by the other members of the Privy Council, walking two and two, and wearing their robes and levee dre.Ks. Athlone Pursuivant came next, on horseback, and after him rode Ulster King at Arms, carrying in his hand the proclamation he was to read, both functionaries arrayed in gorgeous heraldic costumes. The procession was closed by the Lord Lieutenant in one of the Slate carriages and attended by his private secretary and aide-de-camp. The band struck up the English National Anthem (henceforth to be known as 'God save the King'), Athlone called aloud, ' Oyez ! Oyez ! All people are commanded to keep eilence while Ulster King at Arms reads the proclamation of his Majesty the King.' Ulster then, in a loud, clear voice, read the proclamation, and at its close, waving his staff of office, called out ' God Save the King,' whereupon trumpets rang out and the band again struck up ' God Save the King,' while the booming of the cannon in the Phoenix Park could be distinctly heard firing three rounds of twenty guns. The ceremony over, the procession returned to the castle, and when the Lord Lieutenant reached his State apartments the historic function was at an end. Had the Queen lived, all arrangements had been made for a three days' visit in April from the Prince and Princess of Wales to Mount Stewart, the Antrim residence of Lord Londonderry, and a subsequent visit of a week to the Viceroy at the Phcenix Park, but it is now decided that the King and Queen will not come to Ireland this year, at least. What will the new reign mean for this country ? It is well known that the Prince of Wales favored Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Gladstone's view*} on the Irish question, but the King may lack both the will and the power to meddle in the question of legislation for Ireland. We can be very wi^e, discreetly shake our heads and say : time will tell. Meanwhile, every Irish heart is softened towards the nged dead Queen, whose heart was broken, it in said, by the many borrows ! that clouded the last years of her long rtign, and there is not one j but says for her that beautiful prayer : May bhe rest in peace. A CONTRAST For some years past a most unpecroly wrangle has been going on between the pas-tor of a Dublin Anglican church, Saint Bartholomew's, and some of his parishioners. The church contained a cross, placed in a conspicuous position ; the parishioners rvaintained this cross to be an unholy, ungodly object and requested the minister to remove it. This the rector refused to do. and after much wrangling over the matter, some members of the congregation stole into tbe church and smashed the cross. Litigation ensued, and finally, after ' much had been paid on both sideV the caso was adjudged a malicious injury, rfTenders unknown, <md the citizens, Catholics and all, have to pay the whole cost. Now, her late Maj n sty the Qneen, Defender of th>-> Faith, was head of the Anglican Church. His Majesty, Edward VII, fuceeeds as Head of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith, yet all the descriptions of her late Majesty's lying in State in the Chapelle Ardente at Osborne tell us that upon her br^a^t was laid a gold cross ; at the head of the bier hung a picture of the Infant Christ in His Mother's arms , on the wall at one ude was a famous painting of the Virgin and Child surroundel by an?eis ; on another a painting of the Visitation, with the inscription : ' Magnificat Anima mea Dominum ;' an immense floral cross was opposite the bier, flowers and lights were on the sacred table. A Btrange contrast to the contention of the^e Dublin Protestant Episcopalians that the cross is an unholy, ungodly sign of idolatry. M.B.