pointed out the true causes of the riots, his socialist and free-thinking fellow-captives made it a rule never to hurt his feelings.

The funeral of Don Albertario was a popular triumph. All the people of Carenno and over two hundred priests assembled to honor him. An enormous crowd met the body at Monza, and at Milan more than three thousand persons followed the bier from the station to the church of St. Joachim. During the night the members of the Christian Democratic Union kept watch beside the remains and next day many thousands accompanied them to the grave. Several addresses were made in praise of the loyalty and devoted zeal of the illustrious writer who placed "in so splendid a light the mission of Christian journalism."

The League of Public Morality began its Congress on September 9, in Turin. There was a large attendance, but particularly noteworthy on account of the prominence of those who took part in it. promoter of it, Professor Bettazzi, presided. Amongst those present were M. Gouffré, president of a similar league in France, Count Balbo, Count Della Motta, Professor Arro, Signor Cantù and Canon Gastaldi. Letters of support were received from distinguished persons, lay and clerical, and from various public associations with kindred objects, including The International Bureau of Information against Immoral Literature, which has its headquarters in Geneva. Professor Bettazzi declared they were but the pioneers of a wide movement in Italy-a crusade for the young. The congress considered the means which each individual should employ, under the existing laws, to denounce and cause to be punished immoral pictures, publications and representations. The legal organization of the League was decided upon, so that its protests would have more efficacy. A review was read of the different associations now existing in Italy for the promotion of public morality. The growing evils were considered and denounced-those "which for twenty years have been devastating the family and society, and particularlythe young in workshops and schools." It was not surprising that the assembly should warmly and frequently applaud the account of the many movements begun all through Italy for the raising of the moral tone of a people whom anti-Christian revolution has begun to corrupt. An earnest appeal was made "to all persons of honor and nobleness of heart to coöperate in establishing in each city associations to promote public morality." Practical steps were taken to realize this object, and to federate such associations, giving them greater impulse and vigor by means of a periodical review. An advocate present proposed the distribution

of a program in hotels, cafés, etc., and gave one hundred lire to help to defray the expense.

The third day of the Congress was still better attended and more enthusiastic. Consideration was first bestowed on the means of removing the causes which led to the undermining of the morals of the people. Here came in questions of education and the diffusion of good literature. Efforts should be made to induce teachers, etc., to utter public warning against evil. Parents should be aroused; the young supervised; associations formed in workshops, etc. Many social questions of great consequences were touched uponinsufficient remuneration for labor, the condition of the poorer artisans, the vain display and growing license of many young girls, etc.

Many very prominent ladies were present, and took part in the discussion. The Congress reveals the awakening interest of a great number of people, who begin to realize that the condition of society can be bettered by their efforts.

Workingmen's Homes.-Murano, in North Italy, has given the first example in the peninsula of erecting homes for workingmen. "For each laborer a home and garden," was the motto of the parish priest, Don Cerutti. He proposed first a savings bank for his people. The idea gained favor, and there are now 257 associates, with a fund of 29,876 lire (about $6,000). Then he thought of erecting houses, which would assure comfort and moral safeguards. Nineteen were opened towards the middle of August, making 26 in all. The houses are of different styles and surrounded by gardens with flower-plots. After awhile the tenants become owners. Don Cerutti has had the houses insured and the lives of the tenants in such a way, that, if they die before having paid the full value of the home, the children come to possess it absolutely, without further payment. Public attention has been awakened by this undertaking. Signor Luzzati, author of a law now before Parliament to provide similar houses on a large scale, wrote a flattering letter to the zealous pastor. So did Prof. Toniolo, the great Catholic leader. The opening of the homes was made a religious ceremony, presided over by the Cardinal Patriarch of Venice. A very large number of persons received Holy Communion.

Socialists and Their Catholic Adversaries.-The Catholic Labor League at Monza proposed a referendum in order to agree on arbitration for the strikers of the large Fossati establishment. The Socialist Labor Bureau opposed the design, and endeavored to hinder it by force, making dire menaces against the Catholic work

ingmen. The referendum, however, occurred, and an immense majority consented to arbitrate. The Socialists would not agree and threatened to cause a general strike. The employers, seeing their intolerance and resistance, determined to close their establishment; and thus the toilers are left foodless.

The recent Socialist Congress at Imola turned out to be a mere matter of personal quarrel between the leaders, Ferri and Turati and their supporters, or a matter of hollow insincerity. There were some hundreds of delegates, but a few manipulated the scenes. One workingman appeared amongst professional men. There was also one jewelled, philanthropic woman. Although the government had given them cheap railroad tickets, they denounced it. Ferri, leader of the extreme section, was defeated. The others support the House of Savoy and the Freemasons who rule the land; it is better for them. Meanwhile, there was bloodshed in the south, at CanThe poor peasants, starved by taxation and cheating, become Socialists in great numbers, and without guides save their passions and their misery, come into clash with the soldiers. The misery has been made more acute by the disasters in Sicily, where hundreds of persons have lost their lives.

The Homage of Florence.-Notwithstanding all the scandalous attacks and all the evil influences, the Tuscans have not yet grown indifferent in matters religious. The outburst of popular faith was most impressive on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the crowning of the Annunziata (Our Lady of the Annunciation) in Florence. Very large crowds attending the church during the days of preparatory devotion and receiving the Sacraments, pilgrimages from various parts of Tuscany, the fervor of the many thousands shown in tears of emotion, "presage a renewal of the Christian spirit in this so noble a portion of the Italian race."

Ministerial Care of Confraternities.-The Council of State decided in November, 1900, and the Roman Court of Cassation in May, 1901, that confraternities, even with the sole object of religious practices, come under the law of 1890, and thus are placed "under the vigilance of the Ministry of the Interior." The Ministry of the Interior has already robbed them very extensively. A ministerial circular has made known the late decisions, and steps have been taken to put them into execution, attention being particularly paid to accounts and such like matter. It has happened that anticlericals expelled from a confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament have been reinstated by appealing to the ministry.

The monasteries and convents, too, are objects of government

solicitude. It appears that the ministry has demanded of the Procurators the statistics of the religious establishments which have grown up within ten years.

yet been made clear.

The purpose of the inquiry has not

ROME.

The General Committee of the Work of Catholic Congresses sent to the Cardinal-Vicar its lists for the position of president. The first choice was Count Medolago, the grandson of Joseph de Maîstre "the right hand of the Pope and the inspirer of Toniolo," as La Vie Catholique styles him. The Cardinal wished to retain Count Paganuzzi, on account of his devoted services, but he resigned, desiring to see the newer men advance.

The Cardinal Vicar, in a letter published in the Osservatore Romano, blamed certain addresses made at the Christian-Democratic congress of San Marino, notably that of the priest Don Romolo Murri, who readily submitted, and declared himself to be "with Rome and for Rome forever."

Some Light on Henry VIII.-Mgr. Ehses, Director of the Görres Historical Institute of Rome has disproved, by his investigation, the strange assertion that Pope Clement VII permitted Henry to marry Anne Boleyn. Clement declared, "not indeed categorically at first, but clearly enough," and afterwards as clearly as possible, that he had no power to break the lawful marriage of Henry VIII. Extraordinary pressure was brought to bear on the Pope, who was, moreover, in extraordinary difficulties. He put a final decision off for a time. Paul Friedmann, the English historian, gives the best general view of Henry's envoys to Rome. He says their reports give an incomplete and unreliable account of the negotiations. They were guilty of suppression of facts and deception.

Anniversary of the Taking of Rome.-The "20th of September," although no improvement on the fictitious celebration of other years, has been, if possible, more avowedly Masonic than heretofore. Particularly were the purposes of the secret societies in the unification of Italy more frankly acknowledged. Nathan, the Masonic Grand Master, embittered by his recent defeat at the polls, declared that the taking of Rome had for object the breaking of the Church's spiritual authority. There was a necessity, he said, for great Masonic activity in view of the growth of Catholic religious congregations and of Catholic successes in the administrative elections. The Judeo-Masonic Tribuna re-echoes the Grand Master, and rejoices that they have reduced the Papacy to "absolute impotency."

Meanwhile the Vera Roma publishes a collection of acknowledgements from anti-Papal Italians of much weight in their camp that the taking of Rome-now thirty-two years past-was a very bad mistake, being contrary to the best interests of United Italy. In the chorus are Foscolo, Balbo, Porro, the Gazzetta di Parma, the Gazzetta di Venezia, etc.

IRELAND.

Vicissitudes of Education.-Dr. Starkie, Resident Commissioner of Education, in a paper read before a meeting of the British Association in Belfast, stated that it is now admitted by the best-informed English historians, that the progress of learning in England was crippled by the action of the Reformers for nearly three centuries. The Pre-Reformation schools were the creation of devout Catholics for the education of "poor scholars," and were condemned as "superstitious" by the advocates of "new learning." The majority of them were confiscated in the interest of the purse of Henry VIII, and few escaped the reforming zeal of Somerset and his commissioners. Education was held to be a gift that "should not be distributed too lavishly." In Ireland, English schools were established, "but zeal for learning was not the spring of this lavish generosity. The aim was to denationalize the country and to wean it from its language and its religion. "A rank crop," Dr. Starkie calls the proselytizing schools, which left the people in an ignorance, called by Mr. Lecky "gross and scandalous," which led to improvident habits, bad agriculture and hatred of the rulers.

"

Even in a more enlightened day things were not much better. Under the Penal Laws no Catholic could teach, and the proselytizing schools were unfrequented. The first National Board, created by a hitherto apathetic government after Catholic emancipation had been granted, fatally ignored higher education, thus paralyzing the better intellects of the country. The Catholic Latin ("pay") schools, as well as those of the Presbyterians, were ruined. A Presbyterian resident commissioner and an Anglican Archbishop, Whately, intensely prejudiced as to race and religion, with his purpose of uprooting the gigantic fabric of the Catholic Church,' were the men appointed to direct later educational endeavors. "This most petrified and soul-killing of all systems" forbade Irish and made children read English, which they did not understand, with the result of "almost universal and undiminished illiteracy," according to the census returns. "All interest in education was dead in 1871, the teachers untrained and attraction in their profession lost, because unpaid, save for the blind, the halt and the maimed."