teachers among the poor Catholics living scattered up and down Protestant Germany. The income of the society during the past year reached 2,600,000 marks. The Windthorst clubs train young men for public life. This association has on its lists the names of 200 speakers, mostly young, clever and energetic men who are ready without remuneration to answer any invitation to deliver speeches or give conferences in Catholic meetings. Last, but by no means least, we must mention the Catholic people's society (Volksverein). This great organization, Windthorst's last creation, has for its object the defense of Christian society against the forces of the revolution and concentrates in one body the efforts of Catholics in religious, social and political work. The anti-Catholic Kölnische Zeitung in its report of the congress thus speaks of it: "This Catholic Volksverein deserves the serious attention of all the other political parties. Even the indefatigable and energetic socialists have nothing to show that can compare with it. The number of 210,000 members does not seem very large, but it must be borne in mind that behind them stand thousands of well-trained and trusted leaders. During the past year the society has held 1,300 popular assemblies all over Germany; it has established courses of instruction for working men, conferences on the social questions, popular libraries, a central bureau of information, employment bureaus, a Catholic book-peddling system; it has scattered over the country millions of tracts and pamphlets on social and religious questions. This society is composed of the élite of the Catholic body. One should learn from the enemy, and here all other parties can learn much."

The limits of space forbid our entering into more details though we feel how bald and incomplete is our sketch. We must omit too the many important resolutions that were passed-with one exception. On the very day that the King of Italy was the emperor's guest in Berlin, the Catholic Congress re-iterated and unanimously passed the resolution protesting against the humiliating and unjust bondage in which the Holy Father is held and demanding full liberty and independence for the head of the Church. The Fiftieth Congress will be held next year in the city of Cologne.

Unrest and Discontent in the Empire.-Germany is in the throes of a great industrial and financial depression, brought on partly by overproduction, partly by reckless and unscrupulous speculation. The country has been shocked by gigantic failures of banks and industrial establishments, with a loss to the people of hundreds of millions of marks, causing widespread suffering and distress, and landing a number of prominent men in the penitentiary. The consequent discontent has reacted upon the political life of the nation. Whenever economi

cal conditions are unsatisfactory the government usually is held, in a vague way, responsible for the situation, and if it happens, at such a time, that the government commits real blunders, these blunders are exaggerated by the press, thus adding fuel to the general discontent. Such is at present the case in Germany. The government is charged with vacillation and inconsistency; it does not know its own mind; a strong and a steady hand is needed at the helm. No doubt the emperor, who is very impulsive and fond of personal interference, often embarrasses his officials and makes it extremely difficult for those who are responsible to the people to pursue an even course.

The position of the Catholics is one of extreme difficulty. The Protestants, as a body, having broken away from all positive Christian doctrine, the inspiration of the Bible and the divinity of Christ being denied by vast numbers of educated laymen and by the bulk of professors and preachers, they fall back, as a rallying point, upon the most savage attacks on the Catholic Church, as if their religion simply consisted of hatred of the Church of God and a desire to destroy it. The Catholics are obliged to defend themselves daily against exasperating slanders and misrepresentations; hence religious controversy has grown exceedingly bitter.

The Polish question looms up as a dark and threatening cloud in Eastern Prussia. This persecution, for so it must be called, as we have repeatedly shown in the Chronicle, is utterly condemned not only by all Catholics and most conservative Protestants, but by many government functionaries even in the unfortunate Province of Posen. The emperor some months ago re-dedicated, with great pomp and ceremony, the "Marienburg," in West Prussia, the old castle of the Teutonic knights, a pearl of medieval architecture, and in a speech which he delivered on the occasion, spoke threateningly of the re-awakened "Polish arrogance." (On the occasion of a visit early in September to the capital of Prussian Poland he tried to soften the bad effect of these regrettable words by assuring the Poles, in the strongest terms, that neither their religion nor their national peculiarities and traditions should be interfered with.) The magnificent church belonging to the "Marienburg," also restored to all its mediæval splendor, was then handed over and solemnly dedicated to Protestant worship, though the Catholics had had the use of it uninterruptedly from time immemorial. It is true that when in the early part of the nineteenth century the Catholics brought suit against the government for the recovery of ownership, they lost their case; but they claim that they did not thereby lose the right to use it, and the government, though owning the church, was not justified in handing it over to the Protestants. The matter will be brought before the Prussian legislature next session and also before the courts.

A painful sensation was caused some weeks ago by the summary dismissal from office of a German Catholic, one of the highest government functionaries in the Province of Posen, because, as some said, he had privately expressed his disapproval of the government's policy against the Poles; as others would have it, and as seems to be the fact, because he had married a young lady whose father at one time had been a subaltern officer in the army. Papers of all shades of opinion censured the action of the government in scathing terms as a stupid piece of folly.

The duelling folly, too, and its consequences have again aroused the indignation of the people. A young officer had killed a comrade for an insignificant offence. He was sentenced to two years in a fortress, and, after a few months, pardoned. On his return to the regiment his fellow-officers, by way of challenging public opinion, gave him a great ovation. The emperor could not help avenging this outrage upon public decency, and dismissed from the army both the pardoned duellist and the other officers who had either been parties to the demonstration or had connived at it.

The emperor's telegram to the Prince-Regent of Bavaria offering him 100,000 marks refused by the Bavarian legislature (MESSENGER, Sept., p. 377), has caused an indescribable sensation all over Germany. The feeling in Bavaria is extremely bitter, and even those who go through thick and thin with the government emphatically declare that at least the publication of the telegram, upon which the emperor had insisted, was a grievous blunder. "If we were to view this affair," says the leading Centre organ in Bavaria, merely from the point of view of party politics and party advantage, we would cry out, Victoria!" The emperor speaks of the "black ingratitude of the legislature" and of his own "profound indignation," and offers to the Regent this sum of money to enable him to carry out his designs for art. A strange spectacle that the head of the Hohenzollerns should offer a present of money to the head of the house of Wittelsbach, when it is a well-known fact that the latter possess a much larger family fortune than the Hohenzollerns. "If the German princes," says a Socialist organ, “have so much money to spare, why do they not build the fleet out of their private purses, instead of heavily taxing the people?" Many papers complain that the emperor is surrounded by sycophantic advisers who withhold from him a knowledge of the true state of public feeling, or lack the courage of speaking out when his impulsiveness makes him take a false step.

Intolerable Arrogance of University Professors.-The Centre-party in Baden has forced the government to allow the establishment of a few convents of men in the Grandduchy, where none have been allowed

to exist for a hundred years. This has aroused the ire of the Liberal professors of Heidelberg, Freiburg and Karlsruhe, who tremble for the safety of Baden. They have sent a remonstrance to the Grandduke signed by 124 of these Voraussetzungslosen, in which they protest against the contemplated action as a danger to the country. A Catholic paper has looked up the antecedents of these gentlemen, and has discovered that just 18 of the 124 are natives of Baden. "If you cannot live," the paper tells them, "in a country where there are two convents of Capuchins, you are free to return whence you came. We can very well get along without you. You did not come into our Grandduchy for the love of us, but for the sake of honorable position and for the salaries paid out of our pockets."

The Catholics of Alsace-Lorraine. In a great meeting of the Catholic Volksverein lately held at Metz, resolutions were adopted declaring that the time had come when the Catholics of Alsace-Lorraine should formally join the Centre-party. Several of the leading Catholic papers of Alsace-Lorraine have taken up the discussion expressing their conviction that it is highly desirable that this union should take place, that the stagnation and apathy existing among them at present would be got rid of by the contemplated action. A considerable number of prominent laymen and priests from Alsace-Lorraine attended the Catholic Congress at Mannheim and took a conspicuous part in the proceedings.

The Catholic Faculty of Theology at Strassburg.-The Kölnische Volkszeitung announces that the negotiations of the German government with the Holy See for the creation of a Catholic faculty of Theology at the University of Strassburg are concluded and that the establishment of the faculty is now assured. Baron von Hertling, President of the Görresgesellschaft, a leading member of the Centre-party, carried on the negotiations on behalf of the government of the Empire.

FRANCE.

The Closing of Religious Schools.-The Figaro estimates that 180,000 children are deprived of all opportunities of attending school in consequence of the recent closing of religious schools. In 23 departments of France the Catholic schools closed voluntarily, numbering in all 591. These, as well as the schools from which the teachers were expelled, have all applied for authorization, which the République Française declares it knows the ministry will not grant. The law courts of Lyons ordered the government seals to be removed from two free (religious) schools as having been illegally affixed, but the procurator of the Republic hindered it. In some few instances the

seals were broken by the lay proprietors of the buildings, who, wher brought before the courts, were acquitted. In some places Catholic ladies are teaching in free schools opened since the expulsion of the

For instance, at Privas, the Mayor of Grospierres opened a. religious school which is taught by his daughter, Mlle. de Bournet. Brittany and Savoy, most severely stricken by the ministry, have most nobly resisted. In Brittany, particularly, everywhere thousands gathered to make a living wall around the Sisters, even to the shedding of blood. In many cases they erected real fortifications; to break through which considerable bodies of troops were necessary. One poor soldier in tears, aided in expelling his own sister, who was At Levallois-Perret some Sisters were recalled by the officials after their expulsion, in order to take charge of a dispensary for the poor: they returned. When Savoy came under French rule, its religious houses were authorized and guaranteed their independence. When menaced before, the senators and deputies of Savoy insisted upon the legal rights of the religious houses, which were admitted in the French law courts.

a nun.

Forty-seven Departmental Councils--there are eighty-seven in allsustained the tyranny of the ministry. This they did on the invitation of the ministry itself. There was only a small majority of votes in many instances; nor do the forty-seven councils preside over a population of more than sixteen millions. Notwithstanding the anticlerical Prefects and Freemasons, eighteen councils condemned Combes and his work; and thirteen demanded the re-opening of the condemned schools. The others abstained from all action.

The strange thing is that it is in Southern France, and where religious practices are generally observed, that the officials-senators, deputies, councillors, prefects-are most bitterly anti-clerical. Toulouse may be considered the centre of this region. Here, in places. where everyone goes to Mass and the majority of the men comply with the Easter duty, where families are proud to have their sons in the priesthood, where pilgrimages are in honor and Freemasons only a handful, the people have not yet learned to elect representatives who will not trample on their most sacred rights. The contrast with Brittany and Normandy is striking.

Meanwhile, the great Petersburg journal, the Novoie Vremya, writes of "the crime of Combes," and assures us that the phrase, the mistake of Combes" is in every Russian newspaper that loves France, and that the Russian press in general is ashamed of the folly of the allied nation. Nevertheless, "the work of laicization goes on actively."

The Ministry Keeps Right On.-Premier Combes, who takes no vacation, is dismissing the mayors who condemned his violence.