THEY have a Bible Society at Albany, whose charitable mission it is to gratuitously supply to the people what is said to be the "word of God." Unfortunately for the complete success of this charitable undertaking, the Catholic population cannot be persuaded to accept these free Bibles, which, it is needless to say, are the doctored Protestant version, whereat the Society becomes highly indignant over such Popish perversity. Father Ludden, with a charity which we fear will not be appreciated as it deserves, offers to help this worthy body of evangelizers out of their difficulty, and makes them the following very fair proposition: I know you "But I know that you are well-meaning, and that your anxieties for bringing the bread of life to the doors of the Romanists' without money or price, proceed all from pure charity and disinterested zeal. have no proselytizing intentions whatever, so I propose to join your Bible Society, if you accept me as a member: I promise, under heavy forfeiture, that the cup of your joy will flow over at our next annual report. The only condition I shall require on entering is, that when we visit a Protestant family we give them a Protestant Bible, and when we visit a Catholic family we give them a Catholic Bible. Very many of our people are poor. Thank God! the poor gather to us instinctively. The poor ye have always with you.'Matt. chap. v, v. 26. Oftentimes they have not means to buy a Bible, but this obstacle your zeal and charity and your disinterested generosity will easily overcome. The proposition is made solely for your satisfaction, for I have yet my misgivings, even after every one gets a Bible; for I know many who have Bibles read them little, understand them less, and believe what they teach least. Rousseau, Voltaire, and Tom Paine read and studied the Holy Book; and with all your Bibles, the disciples of Tom Paine are getting ahead of you a fearful distance. However, let every one have a Bible. If you accept my proposition, I promise you again that every Catholic that I can reach, will have a Bible at our next annual report. Now, if your professions are honest, if your only desire is to diffuse the Sacred Scriptures, thereby to bring the bread of life to every door-come out like honest men, and like honest and sincerely Christian women, and accept my proposition." THE English government has lately perpetrated two very notable blunders, in the treatment of Ireland, which have done more in a fresh effort to secure their legislative than any thing else to unite the Irish people tion first tried its hand at Bismarckism, but independence. Mr. Gladstone's administraits persecution of the patriotic bishops and priests of Ireland proved a miserable failure, and only served to rally the people around their pastors with increased loyalty and devotion. Then came the Irish University scheme with its concessions, worse than insults, and that, too, met the defeat it deserved. After endowing for years colleges representing an insignificant Protestant minority, and denying the great majority of the people of Ireland their right to a free untrammelled education, the best policy of conciliation and justice English statesmen could devise was, to secularize the government university, and to offer to a thoroughly Catholic nation the means to make infidels of her sons! There could be no doubt as to how Irishmen would receive such a proposition; and that they have rejected it with scorn and indignation, is only the history of their race repeating itself. THE enemies and the friends of Ireland both agree that her demands will never be accceded to by an English Parliament, and that decision must give a new impetus to the Home-Rule agitation. The utter inability even of favorably disposed English statesmen to cope with the "Irish question," is recognized on all sides; and while one party advocates the abandonment of further efforts and is willing to bring personal experience, which cannot be doubted or gainsaid, to bear upon the matter. to meet the issue, the other asks that the people of Ireland themselves be allowed to solve the problem. Until the Irish people have a parliament of their own, they can The revelation was first made by an old never be relieved from the burdens accumu- spirit with a good memory who had been lated by alien legislation, and they will never her father about 3543 years before Christ, cease to regard their connection with England at which date she was an Abyssinian as hateful and oppressive. Loudly as English- princess, it appears; and it was subsequently men declare that these claims of Ireland are confirmed by another spirit who used to preposterous, and much as the English press officiate as her attendant in those days. affect to despise the importance of the move- But to make assurance doubly sure, she ment representing them, there can be no brings forward M. Allan Kardec, lately doubt that the cause of Irish legislative departed, who claimed to have made quite independence is rapidly gaining ground. a stir in the world some four hundred and The bitterest anti-Irish journals acknowledge fifty-eight years ago, in the rôle of John that at the next elections, which cannot long Huss, the Bohemian Reformer, and who be delayed, there will be returned to Parlia- retained, till his recent demise, a vivid and ment a formidable number of Home-Rule unpleasant recollection of the process by members who will hold the balance of power which he made his first exodus from life. and defeat any ministry they choose to combine against. WHAT marvellous humbugs this age of ours is producing! Now we have a new revelation for rational persons to ponder, which may serve to give the preceptive saying, "Know thyself," a wider appreciation than it ever had before. People with lively imaginations will find it a nucleus for any number of pleasant probabilities and sug gestive of many rare enigmas. A Miss Blackwell, residing in Paris, is to be thanked for this. She has been trying to discover who and what we are, a question which, even at this late day, she judges is somewhat involved, and it is gratifying to state that her labors have been attended with most satisfactory results. It does not speak well for the inventive resources of this mighty age of ours, to find poor Plato's doctrine of Metempsychosis paraded in this way with modern improvements tacked on to it. But the men of isms are not content. They clamor for more, and doubtless this refined doctrine of "Spiritism," as the quondam African princess proposes to call it, will find favor in their eyes. Of a verity, it supplies material for the most charming suppositions. What may not one have been two or three centuries ago! If great Cæsar's ashes have been turned to the unpoetical uses to which Shakspeare assigned them, may not his spirit be walking the earth in equally lowly estate? Who can tell whether he himself is not Homer redivivus, or the second edition of Virgil? Genealogical greatness pales before this new light. Pride of descent from High Mightinesses becomes lost in the dignity of identity with them. And then what nice little plans one can arrange to put in action after a few thousand years or so have passed, and what a wholesome, edifying pastime it is, to guess what manner of person we may be then. In truth, Miss Blackwell has supplied us with a fund of most entertaining and enlivening puzzles to occupy our leisure Advices from spiritual, and, consequently, eminently respectable and reliable sources, have been received, and the gist of them is, that our souls are re-incarnated; that, after leaving the body, they remain inactive for a period of years, and then resume their functions, and animate some other body. Of course, Miss Blackwell is prepared to defend her position by proof positive; in fact, she has herself been the medium of this marvellous disclosure from the disembodied, hours through life. OUR BOOK TABLE. REVIEW. Last BROWNSON'S QUARTERLY the Review has strengthened the favorable impression made by the first. The papers on "Synthetic Theology," and Fr. Weninger's "Photographic Views," are deep, logical, and conclusive, dealing with sophistries and errors of many kinds, and dealing with them very summarily, too. In "Bismarck and the Church," the false position the "Old Catholic party" in Germany has taken is defined, and the errors of its ways pointed out. Bismarck's anti-papal administration receives some rough handling, and that minister's policy in recognizing the Döllingerites is severely criticised. The "Democratic Principle" is a trenchant arraignment of Democracy, and has for its text, "Democracy favors inequality and is a heavy burden to the people." The definitions of Congress, asserting what is the principle of Democracy, are denied force and compass; and those entertaining the idea, that the law binds only by virtue of the assent of the governed, without any higher authority, are sharply taken to task. The value of the Review is further enhanced by Dr. Brownson's throwing round it the charm of his own individuality. Passages, estimable for their autobiographical importance, occur at intervals, and in nearly every paper the author takes occasion to exemplify, by his own experience, the changes worked in thought and ethics during his period of life. On the whole, the second number of Brownson's Review more than realizes all that was spoken and written of it, and goes to show that the cordial patronage, so warmly exThe second number of the Last Series of tended the Doctor, has not been misplaced. was. CATHOLIC ITEMS The Italians in New Orleans are to have a new church. The total population of the Dominion of Canada is 3,485,760. Of that, 1,492, 029 are Catholics. Rev. C. Cappola, of Naples, an ex-Jesuit. priest, and late leader of a schismatic party assailing various tenets and restrictions of the Church, has recanted his errors, burnt his books, and expressed his desire to die in the bosom of the Church. The son of Baron Anselm de Rothschild, the head of the Austrian branch, has not only married a Christian, but has abjured his faith for hers. He will succeed his father, and is, indeed, his only son and heir. His wife is a daughter of the Austrian Archduke Regner. This is the first time that a Rothschild has abandoned the faith of Moses for that of Christ. The Chinese have sent Pope Pius IX an offering of 13,862 francs. The franc is a large sum in China, and the good Celestials' offering represents a sum equivalent in their money to 200,000 francs, at the very least. The Holy Father sent back in return to the Empire of the Sun, by a Jesuit missionary, a chalice to the cathedral and a special bene diction to all the Catholics of China. The Greek Catholic bishops have addressed a memorial to the King of the Hellenes, protesting very energetically against the divorce law recently introduced into Greece. The archbishops and bishops declare that the marriage of a Catholic man or woman, who are simply separated, to any one whether Catholic or schismatic, is illegal, and they will most positively refuse to give them the Sacraments of the Church. The Convent of the Jesuit Fathers at Vals, near Puy, Haute Loire, France, has in it at the present time the son of the King of the Sakalaves, who has made the sacrifice of his earthly crown, and become a member of the Society of Jesus, for the conversion of his people. Next year he is to return to his island, and to begin his apostolic labors. The capital of his dominions contains a population of 6000 souls, and his troops are as well disciplined as those of Europe. His territory is as large as France, though of course much less populous. The present Queen of Madagascar is his aunt. The people of Italy, as a proof that they hate the Papacy, and have cast it off for ever, have sent to the Holy Father during the present year, through the office of the Unita Cattolica, over four millions of francs. Work will soon be commenced on a building for the use of the Catholic Young Men's Association of Rochester, N. Y. The edifice will be situated on Buffalo street, a prominent business thoroughfare, will have a front of stone, and is estimated to cost $30,000. The lower story will contain four stores, which will bring an annual rental of $1000 each-enough to pay interest, insurance, and taxes on the whole. The hall will be 74 by 90 feet. Rt. Rev. Bishop McQuaid is working earnestly in aid of the object, and over $22,000 has already been sub scribed. The Unita Cattolica of Turin, justly angered at the atrocious blasphemies perpetrated against the name of our Blessed Lord, has determined to publish an album, each leaf of which shall be divided into three columns -one, to contain the name of the persons who protest against these indecent outrages, another, for them to indicate and describe what public act of reparation they think fit to make, and the third, donation of money, to be expended on some object of a religious and charitable nature. When the album, which is of great size, is entirely filled, it will be sent to the Pope, and preserved in the Vatican. the foul wrong by which he has been deprived of his just rights, in the defiance of every principle of law, of honesty, and of statesmanship; and which is not ashamed, in 'Protestant England,' and in its character of an English Church journal, to offer to the Chief Bishop of the West the homage of veneration and of the most respectful sympathy." THE ROMANS AND THE ITALIANS.-What First ever the Romans may be for moral courage, energy, or self-sacrifice, they are grand at an attitude of passive resistance. Of course, there are plenty who favor the Italians and dislike the Papalini. But the following facts show that the immense majority of the people simply hate the Italian usurpers. the Government schools number only 6000 pupils, whereas the Pope's schools contain 25,000 at the present moment; and yet the Government schools have every sort of attraction that money can procure. Secondly, when the Government took possession of the Roman University, 600 pupils forthwith gave up attending it; 300 of these have been studying under Catholic direction, but, as the Pope's decrees are not recognized by the State, these young men are precluded from almost every public career. The Holy Father, on hearing of this the other day, said that he had no objection to their taking the State degrees in order to qualify for the professions. What has happened? Such is the dislike entertained by these young men for the Government that they have declined to avail themselves of the permission, rather than be beholden to the Italian Occupation We take the following from the Church for any thing. Thirdly, the circles or clubs Herald: "We have only just seen the text established by the Papalini are both more of the Pope's recent Allocution. The para- numerous and better attended than those of graph with which it concludes is so touch- the Occupation. The Papal party are setting ing in its tone of desolation, so childlike up public libraries in the different “rioni." in its simple trust, and yet so dignified in Three or four are already established. Book the evident, though outspoken, conscious- are circulated and lent gratis. Fourthly, ness of right which pervades it, that he the Italians are not admitted into the society would be a hard man that could read it un- of the Romans—a distinct barrier is kept up: moved." Having quoted the concluding the Papalini will not buy in the Italian sentences of his Holiness, our contemporary shops, and the feeling of antipathy is as adds: "We would gladly, if it might be strong as ever, not only among the higher, permitted to us, assure the Holy Father that but also among the middle and lower classes. there is one English Church newspaper Two-thirds of the Romans may be considered which responds to the spirit of these words, as decidedly hostile to the Italian Occupawhich regards with a burning indignation tion. |