erosity. To undertake and bring to completion in such a short time, and with an outlay of very nearly, if not quite, a million dollars, this gigantic undertaking could be the work of no ordinary builder; and the marvel grows, when we consider that in ali likelihood not an item of debt will remain upon it before his Jubilee year closes. If no other work remained as an expression of the loyalty of his people to the prudent designs of their venerated Archbishop, this seminary would more than suffice as a testimony of the successful policy of his administration. Here is also evidenced an example of the prelate's large-heartedness, which as Dame Rumor has it. ever seeks to keep from the left hand the knowledge of what his right hand doeth. The gorgeous Chapel, which has alone cost $100,000, is the individual gift of the Archbishop's muniticence, and here, in this artistic gem the architects have created "a most worthy, harmonious and devotional crowning point" of this marvelous structure, which to the Archbishop is

"the apple of his eye and the jewel of his diocese." If, as His Grace said or the day of the dedication, he was overwhelmed by the profound feeling of heart-felt gratitude that welied up within him, we may hope, that when he reaches the Silver Jubilee day of his Episcopate, both clergy and laity will find suitable way to make him feel again that he is enthroned within their hearts. As a man of God, he will think, no doubt, that "if Paul plants and Apollo waters, it is God alone that giveth the increase," but his devoted people will show, as well, that energy, zeal, gentleness and prudence, such as stand out so strikingly in his character, must ever win their undying gratitude. This great Archdiocese, recognized by the Holy See as the Apostolic Delegate said, not only as the greatest in the United States, but also as one of the foremost in the world, owes much to the great labors of the Eminent Prelates Connolly, Dubois, Hughes and McCloskey. As a precious treasure it has been zealously guarded and made fruitful beyond all

THE GREAT ARCHDIOCESE OF NEW YORK is joyfully preparing for the celebration of the jubilee of its great Archbishop, Doctor Michael Augustine Corrigan.

Under his wise and strong hand the mighty metropolitan see has been magnificently developed and solidified. Its churches, convents, schools, hospitals and various other institutions are to-day so many monuments of the wisdom and zeal of the great prelate. But it is to the splendid pile on the brow of Valentine Hill, the new St. Joseph's Seminary at Dunwoodie, that posterity will turn as the crowning work of Dr. Corrigan.

Matchless for situation and

un

equal in the world for the completeness and fitness of its appointments, Dunwoodie Seminary shall abide a majestic memorial of the gentle, firm Bishop, whose greatest solicitude was for the young men who are to be the priests of to-morrow.

The faithful everywhere felicitate His Grace upon his jubilee. Ad multos annos!

A LECTURE WAS GIVEN a few weeks ago under Catholic auspices, by a Catholic gentleman, for a Catholic object. A number of the reverend clergy graced the occasion by their presence on the stage.

It was a Sunday evening, and the subject of the lecture was religious. Many non-Catholics were present, and so was I. There was the customary concert, which in this case was enjoyable and above the average; and, I am ashamed to add, there was a "literary entertainment" also.

This consisted of a man recitinghis own "poetry."

The fellow said "them kind of folks" and seemed to experience considerable difficulty with his collar.

He was a coarse, vulgar chap who

would have failed to get applause at a tavern because his jokes were dreary as the desert, and his nastiness even lacked the point which might have won him a guffaw in a bar-room.

He was recalled by a vociferous encore! And he reappeared evidently, elated and surer of his ground.

Forgetting his collar and that ladies. were present, the tough abandoned poetry and propriety at once and entertained us with "gags" which would have been tabooed in a Bowery variety show.

The last bit of humor was the filthiest insult I ever heard fall from a man's lips. He retired-and the pastor introduced the lecturer. I was wonder

ing what the Protestants present were thinking of our "Catholic" taste.

ON THE OTHER HAND I was so happy as to be invited to address a large audience in Meriden, Connecticut, on the occasion of a late entertainment given in that city by the young men's Catholic Club.

The beautiful opera house was filled by the friends of the Club, including many of their Protestant neighbors.

An elaborate musical program was rendered by a complete orchestra-an out-come of the Club, while a number of young ladies played delightfully on mandolins and guitars. The Club stands in the community as the nucleus and source of every influence making for civilization and true culture. A priest who sits on the stage at an entertainment given by the Meriden Club is not insulted, nor is our holy mother the Church there made to stand sponsor for the disgraceful vulgarities of too many parochial amateur "shows."

DOCTOR CONDÉ BENOIST PALLEN has done something in the field of letters so strong and so beautiful that I fear

we shall hear very little about it, having recently been assured by a great publishing house that "the public don't want solid food-verse more particularly." Pallen's genius, moreover, will have to contend against other things. He has not a shred of cant in his whole make-up! He has fixed, very fixed principles; he is in key with the sublime past, and woefully out of key with that screeching of owls-modern criticism.

As if these draw-backs were not enough, Pallen also has the literary misfortune of being a Catholic with no strings to his convictions. He has now published a book The New Rubáiyát so unspeakably superior to — anything in verse that has come under my observation for months, so searching, so up-lifting, so tranquil with the tranquillity born of true belief, that I despair of hearing anything about the book except little, damning praises in weak weeklies, wherein it will be bracketed (under "Books Received") with "Loretta's Mission — or How Young Lady Prevented a Mixed Marriage by Converting the Young Man Who Was Keeping Company with Her"!

a

Doctor Pallen's "Rubáiyát" is a majestic work. How many graduates will receive it as a "premium" this coming June?

OUR GOOD PROTESTANT FRIENDS seem to be rapidly splitting and disintegrating and otherwise emasculating themselves to the reductio ad absurdum. To Catholics, of course, their migrations and non-sequiturs and all-round Pecksniffianism, seem amazing and at times pitiably contemptible; but things have come to such a pass that even the hardheaded non-Catholic secular papers are rubbing their eyes and asking rather embarrassing questions. In point is the following from the New York Sun:

IS CHURCH MEMBERSHIP A MERE QUESTION OF TASTE?

The Rev. Dr. Shields, professor in Princeton University, has been confirmed

as an Episcopalian by Bishop Potter after having been a Presbyterian from his youth, and he is now in his seventy-fourth year. He was not merely a Presbyterian, but also a Presbyterian minister, who had given formal allegiance to the Westminster Confession of Faith, with its distinctive Calvinism.

Why, then, has Dr. Shields left the church of his fathers, into whose ministry he was ordained so long ago as fifty years? This is his answer in his own words: "I left the Presbyterian Church on personal grounds in order to protect myself from detraction, as well as to protest against a fanatical form of false temperance which seems now to be terrorizing that communion." That is, he left because he had rendered himself liable to Presbyterian discipline by offending against a rule of its General Assembly requiring ministers_to abstain from assisting the liquor traffic. Dr. Shields had signed the application for a license to the Princeton Inn to sell liquors, and accordingly he was called for trial before the New Brunswick Presbytery, to which he belonged.

That is, Dr. Shields practically tells all Presbyterians that there is nothing of any essential doctrinal consequence, no vital variation in faith, to prevent their going over to the Episcopal Church, if it happens to suit better their personal comfort and convenience. If they prefer the liturgy or the society of the Episcopal Church, he makes that justification enough.

Moreover, if a Protestant's Church rela

tionship can be determined properly by considerations of his mere personal comfort and convenience, without regard to any question of belief, what respectable justification is there for the divisions of Protestantism? If they rest on no vital principle, but express bare differences of taste, are they any more than voluntary clubs?

In other words, is not the explanation by Dr. Briggs and Dr. Shields of their motives in going over to the Episcopal Church simply another indication of the decay of religious conviction? They have changed their ecclesiastical relations, not because of any change in their religious belief, but simply to get more social comfort. It is as if a Republican should go over to the Democratic party for no other reason than that his personal friends were Democrats and some people objectionable to him were Republicans. Such a man might be an amiable enough person, but he would hardly be accredited with political conviction.