were the principles upon which the government were now dealing with the press in Ireland? They would remember that during the discussions upon the coercion bill, it was persistently stated that the bill would create no new crime. The government had attempted to prosecute the Lord Mayor of Dublin and Mr. O'Brien, and for what? Not for some well-known offence, not for some gross libel which they had been guilty of in their papers, but for publishing accounts of meetings which had been held. It was assuredly creating new crimes to make it illegal for certain papers to publish reports which it was legal for other papers to publish. The action of the government in Ireland, if at all successful, would result in the rights, freedom, and liberties of Englishmen being curtailed and endangered. Lord Randolph Churchill, among others, had said the coercion bill would restore to Ireland her peace, and the country, under its influence, would become quiet and prosperous, and would rise at once upon the wings of deliverance from all her troubles; but Lord Randolph Churchill had been singularly unsuccessful in his prophetic utterances, for law had simply became a byword in Ireland. Referring to recent inquiries which had been made in Ireland, he said that even English papers said the gov ernment had employed provocative agents to goad the people to illegal acts. This, if true, was a most disgraceful, iniquitous, and shameful proceeding. No Time To Read! THE Lewiston (Me.) Labor Advocate, sensibly writes:- We dislike very much to hear a laboring man or mechanic say he doesn't have time to read, because nine times out of ten we know he utters a falsehood when he says it, and nine out of ten of the men who have no time to read spend their evenings loafing on the street or around the beer counter and billiard table. The cases are very rare, indeed, where a man doesn't have time to read one or even three or four weekly papers each week if he wants to. It is because he has not interest enough in in his own welfare to read and post himself on the events that are transpiring for or against him. He is content to let others do his reading and thinking for him. The class of men that claim they do not have time to read are the curse of the community in which they live. They have no minds of their own, and, being as ignorant as a Hottentot, they are used by the sharpers of their town and neighborhood to help them carry out schemes to thwart the will of the educated and respected citizens. The man who doesn't have time to read is usually a loafer. The successful business man has plenty of time to read and post himself on matters pertaining to his business, and that is one reason why he is successful. The educated laboring man finds plenty of time to read, and without neglecting his work either. He is the man whom you will find at home evenings with the family. The nailkeg in the corner grocery is never kept warm by him while he listens or tells smutty stories to an ignorant crowd of gaping loafers. He who cannot find time to read never finds time to be a man, but always is the tool of some man who does read. When we hear a great live man say he doesn't have time to read one paper a week we always pity his wife and children to think they have such an indolent, ignorant, do-little husband and father. Prussian Priests. We think it greatly to the credit of the Catholic Church in Prussia that out of the whole number of priests, estimated at 10,000, at the time of the Kulturkampf, not more than forty to fifty deserted the Church. About half of these were absorbed by the "Old Catholic" defection, the rest becoming "State" priests. Even these latter declined to join the "Old Catholic" heresy, stopping short at the line, not always easily discernible, between heresy and schism. Now they are practically gone. Three, indeed, still remain, of whom one is to be pensioned off at the end of next month; the rest have disappeared, some through death, some have been reconciled with the Church, and some have voluntarily withdrawn from a position which they felt was not tenable. Only two remain, and it is to be hoped that they will soon be disposed of, and cease to trouble the parishes which have so long endured their unwelcome presence. T. P. GILL gives the following pen-picture of Sir Wilfrid Blunt: "Mr. Blunt, who is singularly like Mr. Parnell in appearance, and who bears a considerable resemblance to him in many traits of his character, is head of one of the oldest families in England. He is a large landlord in Sussex, in which the Blunts, who are pure Saxons, have been the chief people since before the Norman conquest. They have never given up their hold upon the Catholic faith. They are related to half of the highest flight of the peerage and to royalty itself. Mr. Blunt is forty-seven, and has devoted a large share of his life to the advocacy of the cause of freedom wherever it was assailed. He was a chief supporter of Arabi Pacha and acted as his counsel at his trial at Cairo. In politics he is a Tory, save on the Irish question. Curiously enough his father was a great friend of the father of the present Lord Clanricarde, a differant type of man from his son, and often visited him in Galway. His wife, Lady Anne, is daughter of the Earl of Lovelace and a granddaughter of Lord Byron, the poet. She is a pious Catholic. THERE never was a saint who did not experience both ecstacy and rapture in life and its operations, by overcoming himself and his natural inclinations. St. Francis de Sales. - Father Strain Invested with the Robes of Office. THE CEREMONIAL NEVER EQUALLED IN NEW ENGLANDSKETCH OF FATHER STRAIN. VERY REV. MGR. STRAIN. THE day so anxiously awaited has come, and with it a halo of glory to Lynn, and particularly to the parish of St. Mary's. Monsignor Strain now wears the purple, and bears officially the title of Chaplain to the Holy Father. The Roman Catholics of Lynn rejoice, and well, for a worthy priest has thus been honored; while they of another faith extend to him and them their heartfelt felicitations. Never before in the religious history of New England has such a grand spectacle been laid before us. The venerable Archbishop of Boston, arrayed in the regal robes of his high office; two hundred priests in black soutanes and snow-white surplices; invited guests from every religious walk of life; an auditorium packed to the doors and hundreds craving entrance; music that would thrill the soul and please the most fastidious critic; a service and a ceremonial that would overawe and mystify the most religious and all this on the 18th of October, in the beautiful church of St. Mary's, to honor him who has labored so long and so well amongst us, The Very Rev. Mgr. Strain. Mgr. Strain was born Nov. 27, 1822, near Banbridge, county Down, Ireland, which was then, as now, a hot-bed of Orange faction. His father, Patrick, was much esteemed for his respectability, amiableness, and integrity of character, and soon succeeded in acquiring a fair competence, even there where he was the only Catholic. His mother, whose maiden name was Jane Henderson, was received into the Catholic Church in her childhood and was remarkable for her energy and zeal in the education of her children. The subject of our sketch, even in childhood, was pointed out as one destined for the Church. His obedience, industry, humility, and keen perception, marked him for something serious. Coming events cast their shadows before," and even in boyhood we find him, who was to be, in our day, New England's first Monsignor, leading his classes in the various branches of study. In 1841, in his nineteenth year, he took leave of his parents, the loved home and sweet scenes of his childhood, and with many a heartfelt benediction, turned the prow westward to greet his brother James, who was a priest in Salem, Mass. After a brief stay with his brother, he entered the Sulpician College at Montreal, so famed for its learning and the virtue and high standing of her alumni. Here he remained two years, studying the French language, winning fresh laurels in Latin, mathematics and Greek. Having severed his connection with Montreal College, amid the universal regret of professors and students, we next find him at the College of St. Hyacinth, where he spent four years in prosecuting the higher branches with such success as to merit the highest encomium, which was publicly paid him at the annual distribution of prizes. His remarkable progress having reached the ears of Bishop Fitzpatrick, of Boston, he was sent to the Seminary of St. Sulpice, at Paris, where, after due preparation, he was ordained priest by Archbishop Sibour in the famous church of Notre Dame, in 1850. While at St. Sulpice he was appointed to the charge of Fr. Camere's Chapel, one of the greatest theologians of his time, which honor Mgr. Strain considers the greatest of his student life. And now, a priest commissioned to preach the gospel, he bids adieu to fair, famed France, and recrosses the Atlantic. With a mind well trained in classic, historic, and theologic love, with a heart inflamed with the love of God, and yearning for the salvation of his fellow man, he presents himself to his worthy superior, Bishop Fitzpatrick. On the sixth day of January, 1851, he assumed charge of the Catholic population of Chelsea and Lynn. The Catholic Church in New England, at that time, was being tried in the crucible of a fiery ordeal. The spirit of Know-Nothingism was buffeting her on every side. His mission, too, was numerically weak, poor, and much scattered. But, rocked as he was in the cradle of Northern Ireland, inured from very childhood to sounds and scenes of Orange outrage; to the woes and sorrows of his native land; imbued by years of prayer, study and self-sacrifice, with apostolic zeal, panting for spiritual conquest, he entered fearlessly the arena of sacerdotal struggle. His children in the faith, he rallied round him by steadfastness of purpose and indomitable courage. His enemies from without he soon disarmed by integrity of life, affability, and forbearance. For nine long years thus he labored on, singlehanded, assiduously guarding the temporal and the spiritual interests of his people. The priestly life was then much more arduous than now. The Church was then, in this country, so to speak, but in her infancy. The people were much scattered, and the laborers in the vineyard very few. Assistant pastors were almost unknown, so that Mgr. Strain was obliged, after saying Mass in Chelsea, to drive, fasting, under the scorching rays of the summer sun, through the blinding, piercing storms of winter, to offer the holy sacrifice at the other missions of his people. Time and time without number was he obliged in every season, at every hour, to answer the "sick-call of some suffering member of his flock in Lynn, Swampscott, and the surrounding country. But his was to do, not to linger; and how he did it, there are many tongues spared to tell. When appointed to his mission in 1851, he found in Chelsea a small, dilapidated, wooden structure, in which a congregation of 250 worshipped. When he left to reside in Lynn in 1867, the Catholics of Chelsea possessed a beautiful church and property valued at $50.000, with a standing debt of only $7,000. When he came to Lynn, he found a church 30x40, a Catholic population of 300. To-day the Catholics of St. Mary's parish worship in one of the most magnificent Gothic edifices in the country, educate their children in a grand parochial building, under the trained and accomplished sisters of Notre Dame, and own a property worth $200,000, in the very centre of the city. The people of beautiful Nahant, also, owe to his efficient zeal, the lovely church of St. Thomas. At the present time in the very townships where Mgr. Strain labored for years without a coadjutor, ten hard-worked priests administer to the wants of the faithful. And now this priest of sixty-five autumns, and thirty-seven years of relentless struggle, begins to reap the golden harvest of his arduous labors. He is made a Permanent Rector, by order of the late Council of Baltimore, with the approbation of his venerable Archbishop. Again we find him raised to the dignity of Missionary Apostolic to the Holy See, and now he has received officially the purple of a Roman prelate, with the title of Very Reverend Monsignor, the first resident priest of New England thus honored. "The following letters apprising Mgr. Strain of his elevation, and that of approval from Archbishop Williams, will be of interest to our readers : BOSTON, Aug. 18, 1887. Reverend and Dear Monsignor :Yours of the 17th inst. is received, and I thank you for your cordial welcome home It pleases me very much to hear of the honor conferred on you by the Holy Father, and I hope God will grant you strength for many years to carry out your good works. 1 am very well, and feel the benefit of the rest from my usual work. Yours, very sincerely, JNO. J. WILLIAMS, Archbishop of Boston. MONSIGNOR P. STRAIN, P. R. M. A., Lynn, Mass. A few words of explanation of this signal title will be appropriate. Every sovereign has his court, and the more brilliant the courtiers, the more resplendent the throne. The Pope, though deprived of his temporal power, is the recognized spiritual sovereign of 250,000,000 Catholics scattered over the globe. As such his subjects revere, love, and obey him. He, too, has his court called Curia Romana, which embraces all the authorities and functionaries that administer the Papal Primacy. As the successor of St. Peter and the Vicar of Christ, the Holy Father must, first of all, govern and feed with sound doctrine the universal church, and his own diocese in particular. The agencies in the Curia — Court — by which he fulfils these purposes are the Sacred Congregations of Cardinals, the Secritariat of State and the Vicariate of Rome, with the Chancery, the Datana, and the Camera Apostolica (the Apostolic Chamber). As the Supreme Judge in Christendom the Pope acts, partly through special congregations and delegated judges, partly through the regular tribunals of the Rota, and the Segnatura and the Penitenziaria. Before the usurpation of his temporal power the Camera also was a court of justice. Again the vicar of Christ must be diligently and uninterruptedly occupied with the worship of God, and to this end corresponds the institution of the Papal Chapel (Capella Pontificia). As living and reigning, the Pope, like any other sovereign, has his household (Familia Pontificia). In this list of Papal officers, Mgr. Strain takes his rank in the Capella Pontificia, or the "Pope's Chapel " in which the order of rank is:- First the College of Cardinals, next the College of Patriarchs, Archbishops and Bishops, assisting at the Pontifical throne. Then come the Vice Camerlergo, the princes assisting at the throne, the Auditor and Treasurer of the Camera, the Majordomo, archbishops and bishops generally, the prelates of the college of Apostolic Pronotaries, abbots, heads of orders, chamberlains, chaplains, etc., every one having his proper place and just prece dence assigned him. The authorities of Curia, or Court, below the rank of Cardinal, are technically divided into two classes, viz., the prelates of the Mantelletta a short cloak, and those of the Mantellone - a cloak long, reaching to the feet. In the first class are ranked Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, Protonotaries, Apostolic, etc. Mgr. Strain is ranked with the Mantellone. The title Monsignor is from the Well Italian, and signifies my Lord. may the Catholics of Lynn rejoice and endeavor to make this day of Mgr. Strain's investiture with the purple one to be remembered, for it is the glorification of work and deeds well done. For thirty-seven years he has labored in the vineyard of the priesthood, unfalteringly and without reproach. In season and out of season has he ever been found at the post of duty, and even now, though far down the steep decline of life, he performs all the arduous duties of his sacred calling with an alacrity and a will most surprising. Though sixty-five years of age, he still officiates at High Mass on Sundays and holydays, sits in the confessional for hours on Saturday evenings, pours the sweet oil of hope and consolation into the wounded souls of his people and attends the sick and the dying, even at the dead hour of midnight. The beautiful edifice of St. Mary's Church looked especially fine on the interior this morning, as the sun found its way through the stained glass Gothic windows, giving that calm and peaceful appearance which is so marked in all Roman Catholic churches. At the Church. The ceremony began with solemn High Mass at 10.30 A. M. Long before the hour of commencement all of the approaches to the church were thronged. Admission was by ticket until 10 o'clock, and after that the doors were thrown open, and the spacious and beautiful church was quickly thronged. The ushers were Gregory Lomasney, Daniel F. White, Thomas L. McKenny, James Kelly, Frank Souther, Michael Mooney, John J. McAndrew, John Ferguson, John Barry, Daniel Lamper, John Hayes, James Lemmon, John Callahan, P. S. Curry and George Doherty. The Mass began promptly at 10.30. Rev. Abbe Hogan, president of St. John's Seminary, Brighton, who attended the same college with Father Strain, was |