The Young Men's Annual Conference was held at Carlisle from Saturday to Monday, August, 2-4. The delegates, who were numerous, were welcomed by the mayor of the city. A crowded public meeting was held at night in the Drill Hall. In a letter, read at the meeting, Cardinal Vaughan recommended to the young men, as a most needed and worthy object of their zeal, "a strong working Apostolate in behalf of the boys who have left school." "Give them," he urges, "by all means, physical exercise, amusements, with some instruction. They are capable of something higher. They may be touched by an appeal to a sense of chivalry. Place them under the Blessed Mother, who is God's Mother as well as their Mother." The Bishop of Galloway, who sang Mass for the Conference on Sunday, pointed out, in his address, the great field for young activity-" They must convert modern democracy that was the mission of the Young Men's Society-the twentieth century lay-apostolate."

The delegates, representing 14,000 young men, vigorously protested against the Royal Declaration, and showed a very intelligent interest in the Education Bill. Catholics and Social Progress, Catholicity in England to-day, the Temperance Question, and other similar subjects, were discussed during the Conference.

Its

A New Cathedral.-The foundation stone of the new cathedral of St. Anne was laid at Leeds by Bishop Brindle, on Saturday, July 26. The mayor of the city and the other members of the corporation were present. So, also, were the school board, the guardians, etc. The new edifice has been designed by Mr. Eastwood of Westminster. cost, with that of the presbytery and schools, will be £46,000. The sum of £30,000 was paid for the site. The old cathedral was sold to the corporation of the city for £76,000. Dr. Kean, O. P., of Dublin preached the sermon. It was a priest of the Domincian Order that re-established the first place of worship at Leeds, at the end of the eighteenth century.

IRELAND.

Homage to the Holy See.-The Irish parliamentary party, in a meeting in the House of Commons on the twenty-ninth of July, tendered, to Pope Leo "in the name of twenty millions of Irishmen, the expression of their joyful congratulation upon the unparalleled length of days and weight of honors with which it has pleased Almighty God to bless his reign. They tender the expression of their sympathy with His Holiness in the manifold anxieties which still surround him ; and their fervent prayer that it may please Providence to prolong to the utmost human limit a reign which has been so fruitful in blessings to religion, to poverty, to human suffering, and to liberty."

Sir Thomas Esmonde was deputed to lay this tribute at the Pontiff's feet.

"It would be affectation," says the Dublin Freeman, "to deny or minimize the importance and the significance of the reverent, heartfelt congratulations which the Irish party, on behalf of the Irish people, tendered to the Sovereign Pontiff. It is an address from the most Catholic country in the world to the Head of the Catholic Church."

The Cult of Irish Patron-Saints.-In confirming the immemorial veneration of twenty-five Irish Patron-Saints, Pope Leo dispenses with the usual lengthy formalities. The decree begins with the words "Faithful Erin, which has ever kept the Catholic religion taught her by her Bishop, Patrick; and, with it, obedience and dutiful service to the Apostolic See of Rome." Twenty of the Patrons were Bishops. Their names were inscribed in the most ancient martyrologies, and have been copied by the Bollandists.

Facts from the Census.-The population in 1901, including the superabundant military, was 4,458,775, marking a decrease of 245,975 in ten years. Catholics have grown fewer, in those ten years, at the rate of something over six per cent. The Episcopalians have decreased, but at a slower pace. They are now 581,089. The Presbyterians, too, are fewer-443,276. The Methodists have grown to 62,006. There is more education in those years, for those who remain at home, 636,777 children attend 9,157 primary schools, showing a decrease of 48, 297 children in the decade. There is, however, growth in the secondary schools by nearly 11,000 students, there being now 38,565 in 510 establishments. The number of families is smaller. The births, in the ten years, 1,052,000; the marriages, 221,582. Catholics form the great majority of the population except in the "Black North" (Ulster); where, however, they largely outnumber any other denomination. They are about forty-five per cent. of the population.

The Centenary of the Christian Brothers.-The Cork Examiner says that, "the centenary of the foundation of the great religious and teaching order of the Christian Brothers, which has been hailed with pride and satisfaction the world over, was observed in Cork on Sunday in a manner befitting the important Municipality with which the Brothers have been for so long honorably and successfully connected. Indeed, it may well be said that in no part of Ireland have the Christian Brothers made themselves dearer to the hearts of the people and won greater distinctions in the educational arena than in the Southern Capital, where is established the splendid institution of

Our Lady's Mount; the branch schools at Sullivan's quay and Blarney street, and the splendid college, added in recent years, at Wellington road. The record of the Brothers in Cork is too well known to call for comment, suffice it to say that they have always maintained a leading part in the secular and religious training of the youth of our city."

The Mayor of the city paid the following tribute to the Christian Schools :

You

"I am here to-day to present you with an address, in furtherance of a resolution passed by the Council of the Borough a short time ago, to commemorate the centenary of the foundation of your Brotherhood. On that occasion, there were members present who differed with you in religion, but they were as unanimous in passing the resolution as those who are of your own persuasion. I believe that not alone in this city of Cork, but all over Ireland, if a vote of Corporations was taken, the same unanimity would prevail in paying you a compliment which you so richly deserved. You have been in Ireland, and in many other parts of the world, during the past one hundred years, devoting your lives as unselfishly and as unsparingly to the work of the glory of God and the good of the country. have imparted to our youth a religious education, a Christian education, I may say, that has proved their safeguard and, indeed, the safeguard of the country. You have trusted to the people during all this time. I think you would have been subsidized long ago in your educational system if you had consented at certain periods, to throw aside the emblem of your faith. You refused to do that, you trusted to the people; you have the people with you, and not alone throughout this land, but all over the civilized Christian world, you have the admiration of the people for your heroic action on that occasion. I don't know that there was such a marked compliment paid to any teaching community before, and I feel that were it in our power to make it more marked you deserve it all. I may say that you have to-day represented the whole of the municipality, and if it were possible to have a meeting of the citizens of Cork you would have them all as one expressing their feelings of gratitude and the love they entertain for you in your heroic efforts in behalf of the youth of our country."

FRANCE.

The Tyranny of the Ministry.-Fanatically unjust as is the socalled Association Law, the ecclesiastic whom the secret societies have set up to rule France as if in sovereign mockery, has as little regard for it as he has for the other laws of France. His measures of persecution have been a continued series of illegal acts. The 135 schools

closed by his first decree were, it is true, opened since the passing of the Associations Bill, but they were opened by private citizens of France, who, in their zeal and pity, endeavoring to furnish children with a religious education, employed religious teachers for their private schools. Such schools did not come under the Law according to the public declaration of Waldeck-Rousseau. It was illegal in Premier Combes to close such schools. Encouraged by the facility of success, he determined to close the remainder of nearly 3,000 Catholic schools. These had not individually received what is called authorization-a thing never needed in France or elsewhere, unless when the sectaries chose to unjustly insist on it. Authorization had not been demanded -as was explained in the Chamber of Deputies notably by M. Cochin either because the mother-houses of the religious teachers had been authorized, or because the teachers were not the owners of the schools, or because it was believed that the schools had already a legal existence. Those reasons rested partly on government declarations and partly on legal advice. In any case, the attempt to close by a simple circular schools in legal existence before the Association Bill was a flagrant violation of justice and of law. Combes falsely declares that only the establishments which resisted were closed. Many had made no resistance. The College of St. Ignatius at Marseilles is now taught by secular priests. The Orphanage of St. Leo, in the same city, is, also, in the hands of diocesan ecclesiastics. These two establishments were authorized by the courts; yet, even while the courts refuse to obey, Combes closes the two houses by a decree. The Sisters of Charity had applied for permission, handing in a list of their schools. They were farcically told they should apply for authorization of each one in particular, and so were stricken like the rest. Hence M. de Mun, in a public letter, denounces "the unworthy effort of the government to hinder protests by menaces under a pretense of legality." The government pretended that schools closing without protest could apply for authorization. He accused the government of open violation of law, in contradiction with the official explanations and promises of Waldeck-Rousseau; of violation of private property and of the rights of private citizens. Private property has been seized and sealed, and private houses invaded without legal permission, and even when the courts forbade. The Marquis de Vogue and others, with no uncertain voice, have uttered similar condemnations.

After his first exploit against the religious teachers, mostly women, the Premier boasted that there had been no opposition. But it came quickly "in the cities and villages, from all classes, everywhere, fraught with grave consequences for the band of persecutors; they cannot conceal it, nor deny it, nor forget, nor hinder," says the

Vérité Française (July 28). The Parisians were amongst the first to show their mettle, and they say that Paris makes France. The young men, organized by their review, the Sillon, met in the Hôtel des Sociétés Savantes. There were two thousand of them and as many outside. They uttered a fierce condemnation of the sectarian ministry. François Coppée, Jules Lemaître and others addressed a meeting of the League of the Fatherland. The Baroness Reille and Countess de Mun, with other noble ladies, called upon Madame Loubet in the name of the Christian women of France. Having been refused an audience, they declared that they were determined, should it cost them the shedding of their blood, to bring up their children religiously. They then called for a peaceful public demonstration. The people literally swarmed to the Place de la Concorde and the Champs Elysées. The mighty voice, like the sound of many waters, demanded common liberty. It was estimated that there were forty thousand persons present.

At Lyons, also, there was a great public reprobation of the tyranny of the ministry. Ten thousand persons, it is said, swore to defend the rights of conscience and religious liberty in schools. The people of Douai exacted a promise from the mayor to send a deputation to demand the return of the Sisters. From various parts of France similar public manifestations are reported. Communal councils have protested with much unanimity against the expulsions. But it was especially in faithful Brittany that the opposition was sternest. The people rose in masses and formed a guard around the Sisters' schools and residences, successfully resisting even the soldiery. Nine brigades of gendarmerie have been resisted, say the newspapers, at Aumont (Lozère). At Sully, near Autun, the defence was headed by the Marquise de MacMahon with a company of ladies. A meeting of five thousand persons protested at Orleans. A letter of appeal, with four thousand signatures, was forwarded to the Pope from Roubaix. Thus the absurdity of employing the soldiers of France to expel nuns from their homes, in face of a hostile people, is sternly brought home to the ridiculous ministry.

Not only leading Catholics, but men like ex-Premier Goblet and Gabriel Monod, a Protestant, condemn, in the name of true liberty, the action of the government. Officers of the army and civil officials. have resigned rather than execute the iniquitous and contemptible decrees. The protestations of the Bishops have poured, one upon the other, in upon the ministry. Madame Lebaudy wrote a touching letter to the Congress actually in session in Paris for the suppression of "the white slave trade," reminding the members that one hundred thousand little French girls are thrown upon the streets from the shel