Socialism and the Church. AT the recent Catholic Congress at Liége, one of the most remarkable speeches delivered was that of the Abbé Winterer, deputy to the German Parliament and parish priest at Mulhaussen, who has devoted his life to the study of social questions and the condition of the working classes. In the beginning of his speech he reminded his audience how a few months ago Europe forgot all social questions in its fear of political disturbances that at any instant might end in some twelve to fourteen millions of armed men meeting in deadly strife. But if, for a moment, social questions had been put in the background, Catholics had not forgotten their existence, as the Congresses at Treves, Liége, Lucca, and Fribourg showed, as the utterances of many Catholic bishops proved, as the words of the Holy Father himself made clear. Catholics, then, recognized that society was ill; but to recognize the existence of an evil is the first step towards its cure. The orator went on to trace the history of the Socialist movement. It was first revealed fully to an astonished and terrified world by the lurid light of the torches with which the Communists set fire to the public edifices of Paris. But the speedy suppression of the Commune lulled men into fancied security. German Socialism, Russian Nihilism, Austrian Anarchy, French working men and their dynamite, Belgian riots, American street conflicts, these were needed to awaken men to the full sense of their insecurity. "And one must be wilfully blind," said the speaker, "if, at this moment, one does not see the existence in society of two distinct currents: one, salutary; the other, menacing. And if the latter once overflows its banks, it will create ruins such as the world has never yet seen." He next described Socialism in its two different divisions; one division, anarchical in character, has only at intervals shown itself openly: it awaits its hour. The other division is that Socialism which holds power in the Paris municipality, which is gathering strength daily in all parts of the Continent, which sends its members to the German Parliament, which holds its congresses, and directs its strikes, with organized exactitude. It is subversive of all Conservative principles; it strikes at the very root of Christianity, for it teaches the working man to say, "The earth is enough for me; let it be mine heaven I renounce." The speaker said that the doctrines of this Socialism concerning the place of women in society were such that he could not repeat them; he next traced its doctrines as to property doctrines which had lately terrified so many of the continental Liberal party who were possessors of property. Of these 'theories Henry George was the exponent, and one who had many believing in him. "The adepts of this system," he said, "are numerous in England. At a great gathering of working men's associations half the delegates declared themselves in its favor. I ask you, gentlemen, what property will be respected by those who say that the one chief kind of property- the soil-should belong only to the people, to the state? Yet the men who favor the nationalization of the soil say that they are not Socialists!" The Abbé Winterer next described the Socialist press, and how it exposes all that is hideous in modern society; how it exaggerates its defects, and even multiplies them; how it lauds socialism and makes it appear heroic and disinterested; how it scorns and rails at religion. A workman, he said, exposed to such reading, needed the heart of an angel and the courage of an apostle to resist its influence. The speaker next touched on the subject of state intervention in social questions. He said that, as in the past, bad laws were, in part, the cause of present evils, the state was bound to do what it could to mend matters; but the state could not do all. The state comes late to this work, and even had it intervened earlier, after all it is not Providence. Even the most powerful statesman of the day, naturally a great believer in the state, had only partially succeeded with his economic measures. If the intervention of the state in social and agrarian questions were to be of use, it was necessary that the teachings and charity of the Church should. be felt. The orator then drew a wonderfully eloquent picture of the Church's mission in regard to social questions. The Abbé Winterer concluded his speech with a stirring appeal to employers of labor, to workmen, to all Catholics, in a word, to become "Apostles of Labor," to do all in their power to solve the social problems now before the world. One day, he said, in the streets of Paris, a workman met a priest. The former advanced threateningly towards the other. "Priest," he said, "if you only knew how I hate you!" And the priest merely made answer, "Ah, if you only knew how I love you, my brother! The workman's heart was touched, and he begged the priest's pardon. "Ah, if you only knew how I love you!" These are the words, said the orator, of Leo XIII., of the Cardinal Archbishop of Baltimore, of the Bishops of America, of the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster; and they are words which contain a truth which will eventually solve the most difficult problem the world ever had before it. When the workman feels how much the Church loves him, social questions will cease. The speech was immensely applauded and produced a profound impression on the auditory. Two More Bishops. THE progress of the Church at the West is wonderful. "Truth is powerful and will prevail." Right Rev. Nicholas Matz, Coadjutor-elect of the Bishop of Den-. ver, was consecrated on the 28th of October, in the Pro-cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, in the city of Denver, Col. Bishop Matz was born on April 6, 1850, at Münster, a city of Alsace Lorraine. In 1865 he was admitted into the Little Seminary of Finstingen to begin his classical studies, He immigrated to America in 1868, and entered the College of Mount St. Mary's of the West, at Cincinnati, Ohio. Close attention to his studies, solid piety, and amiability of character, soon made him a model for his fellow-students. On Trinity Sunday, 1874, he was ordained priest in the Cathedral of Denver by Bishop Machebeuf, Vicar-Apostolic of Colorado. For three years he worked as assistant priest of the Cathedral at Denver, when he was appointed pastor of Georgetown, Col. During eight years of pastoral work in that city he won the esteem of every one who knew him. A beautiful brick church, school, and hospital, under the charge of the Sisters of St. Joseph, are enduring memorials of his pastoral zeal. The poor health of his sisters induced him, in 1865, to exchange with St. Ann's Church, a newly erected parish in East Denver. His piety and learning, and his knowledge of modern languages, render him eminently fit for this Western diocese, where English, Irish, French, German, Italian and Spanish are requisite accomplishments. May God spare him for many years as a faithful worker in His vineyard. On the same day (Oct. 28), Most Rev. Archbishop P. A. Feehan, assisted by a large number of clergymen of Chicago, consecrated Right Rev. Maurice F. Burke, Bishop-elect of Cheyenne, Wyoming, at the Cathedral of the Holy Name, corner State and Superior Streets, Chicago. Right Rev. Maurice Francis Burke was born in Ireland, May 5, 1845; when but a child of four years he accompanied his parents to this country; they came directly to Chicago. When about eighteen years old he entered the university of St. Mary's of the Lake, in Chicago, whence, in 1866, he was sent to Rome, and spent nine years as a student in the American College. He was ordained a priest May 25, 1873, by Cardinal Patrizi, and, immediately after his return, was appointed assistant pastor of St. Mary's Church, corner of Wabash Avenue and Eldridge Court, Chicago, where he remained until his appointment as pastor of St. Mary's Church, Joliet, Ill., April 24, 1878. A convent, in charge of the Ladies of Loretto, two large parochial schools, and one of the finest churches in the country, will, with many other prosperous enterprises in behalf of religion, bear witness to Bishop Burke's zeal and ability in the service of the Church. Hon. J. G. Blaine on Ireland's Cause. He is PARIS, Oct. 26.—I called a day or two since on Mr. Blaine. pleasantly located with his family in a large and sunny suite of rooms opening to the east, south of the Hotel Benda, where many Americans are congregated. He enjoys his stay in Paris greatly. He is constantly sight-seeing, and shows the effect of his out-of-door life and freedom. from care. At the same time he shuns, rather than seeks, company. It is a common saying among his old friends, many of whom are here, that he looks ten years younger than when he closed his residence in Washington in 1885. Mr. Blaine talks freely to all callers except the professional interviewer, whom he has sedulously avoided since his arrival. He chatted at leisure and easily about a variety of public issues, and touched on the Irish question, apparently without the slightest reserve. I endeavored to keep him on that question as long as I could, in order that I might gather the full scope of his ideas. "Within two years," said he, "what we term the Irish question has been radically changed in its political bearings in Great Britain by the fact that a great party has assumed its advocacy. For years it was a case of a divided Ireland against a united England; but now it is a united Ireland against a divided England." "Then you attach great importance to Mr. Gladstone's advocacy of the Irish cause?" "Yes," replied Mr. Blaine; "the greatest possible importance. Think of it! Here is the first statesman of England, the greatest par. liamentary leader since the death of the younger Pitt, standing at the bar at the House of Commons pleading the cause of Ireland. Ten years ago no one anticipated such a remarkable turn of events." "Well," I remarked, "do you think Gladstone has effected much as yet?" "He Has Effected a Great Deal," said Mr. Blaine, "though, of course, it does not appear in the enactment of a hostile parliament. He has already brought about a community of feeling, a genuine cordiality and co-operation between a large section of the Irish people, and a large section of the English people. For the first time we see Irish speakers crossing the channel, and taking part in English parliamentary elections, and English speakers crossing the channel, and taking part in the Irish struggle, doing this even at the hazard of being arrested and imprisoned under the provisions of the coercion act. All this implies a prodigious change of public opinion, and the working of influences of which no man can yet measure the force of the final effect." "What do you think of the Irish policy of the future?" "In a single sentence," replied Mr. Blaine, "it should and will be to sustain Gladstone. Whatever strengthens his position strengthens their cause, and adds to the number of Englishmen who will espouse it. The friends of Ireland in America should, therefore, keep this point steadily in view. Mr. Gladstone believes that home rule for Ireland is just as reasonable as home rule for England, and that both can, and should be, maintained under the flag of the same empire, in peace, in harmony, in prosperity. Under Mr. Gladstone's lead this question is taking hold upon the hearts and consciences of a large class of Englishmen, who are ready and eager to do justice to a long oppressed people. As confidence grows and strengthens between the Irish Home Rulers and the Liberals of England, a very strong party will be organized, which they will endeavor to make, under Gladstone's leadership, the vanguard of enlightened opinion for the British Isles." SHAKESPEAREAN.-ON the vexed question, "Who wrote Shakespeare?" a correspondent of the New York World sends the following comprehensive epistle: "Hamlet overheard Julius Cæsar tell King Lear on the Twelfth Night after the Tempest that Antony and Cleo patra had told Coriolanus that Two Gentlemen of Verona were the authors of Shakespeare's plays. Lear said: You may take it As You Like It, but I don't believe it, for I heard Romeo and Juliet say Love's Labor was lost when Troilus and Cressida stole the Comedy of Errors, and sold it to The Merchant of Venice for a cup of sack and a dish of caraways. Timon of Athens and Cymbeline were parties to the theft, and after drinking Measure for Measure with the Merry Wives of Windsor, told King James all about it. Richard III., a competent critic, said Bacon could not write even A Winter's Tale, and Henry VIII. said that settles it. So why make so Much Ado About Nothing. Othello was busy discussing a point of honor with Henrys IV., V., and VI., and as Richard II. was absent Taming the Shrew I could get no further evidence as to who wrote Shakespeare, but All's Well that ends Well." The Irish in the English Army. FROM official reports of the English War Department, it is with pride that the son of Erin rejoices to hear of the enormous reduction in the recruiting of the British Army in his native land. In every clime, in all the wars in which Great Britain has been involved, perhaps none has obtained a more extended reputation in the world than the sons of the Green Isle. There was a time when no native-born Englishman would be enlisted in the Fourth, Eighteenth, Eighty-seventh, and Eighty-eighth Regiments of the English Army. But, thank God, that time is past, and that she is no longer able to obtain those men whose country she has for the past hundred years ground in the dust. Glance at this list of the battles, minor fights and campaigns that comprise the honors on the colors or appointments of these regiments, and you will find a series of terse, pithy legends of glorious deeds of arms: Alma, Ava, Badajos, Barrosa, Bladensburg, Bourden, Busaco, Central India, India, Rodrigo, Corunna, Egypt, Fuentes d'Onore, Inkerman, New Zealand, Nive, Nivelles, Orthez, Peninsula, Salamanca, Sebastopol, St. Sebastian, Taku Forts, Talavera, Toulouse, Vittoria, and Waterloo. At all times, on every occasion, when these most distinguished regiments have been called upon to take their post in the forefront of battle, they have not only done their duty, but have earned the applause of their adversaries for many valorous actions which may be said to have been outside and beyond mere duty. That this will be who can doubt, so long as it can be said of the Irish soldier who meets his death in battle, as was said of Seward's son's death in Shakespeare's "Macbeth?" To Seward's inquiry, "Had he his hurts before?" "Ay, on the front." Then said the old man- Had I as many sons as I have hairs, I would not wish them to a fairer death, And so his knell is knolled." Washington, D. C., Sept. 30, 1887. JAMES McDonagh. |