The Results System improved things to a certain extent; but only in 1898 came the Viceregal Commission, from whose labors real progress is expected. - Tablet, Sept. 20.

The wretched condition of many school buildings, half ruined and unheated, is demoralizing and renders, to a great extent, nugatory the Compulsory Education Act. Dr. Starkie's statement that the people, and even the managers, took little interest in education brought out many letters of protest and a flat denial from Cardinal Moran, just then visiting his native country, through which he had travelled extensively and observed closely. His Eminence was equally clear as to the government's share in the blame. They found money, he said, for everything else except that education which the Irish people needed and justly desired.

The Death of Lionel Johnson.-The gentle, mystic singer of the Celts is silent forever, and "all his songs of life, half-sung, are gathered up for reckoning." He was one of the leading spirits of the Gaelic revival. Into his literary work he threw, as the Celts do, spirit and mystery. Irregular, and sometimes, perhaps, overstrained, he was often exquisite, and never careless. "He never constructed a slovenly sentence, nor thought a slovenly thought," writes Mrs. Katherine Hinkson, in the Pall Mall Gazette. His first volume of poems was published when he was not much more than twenty years of age. Since then he wrote much in prose and verse. He became a Catholic soon after leaving Oxford, where, as at Winchester, he had given great promise of future power. He was small and delicate in form and feature, and only thirty-five at his death. His skull was fractured by a fall in Fleet Street, London, and he never recovered consciousness. "He was of a monastic temperament," writes Mrs. Hinkson; "and ought to have been a recluse in a mediæval monastery."

Irish Novices in Natal, South Africa.—We take the following account from the Natal Times: The feast of St. Dominic was this year cebebrated with special solemnity in the Convent of Newcastle, and was marked by the clothing of ten postulants, who, with generous hearts, had come from afar to consecrate themselves to the service of God in the Dominican Order in this land. And well pleased must Mary, the Queen of the Rosary, have been to see invested in its sacred folds the decade of white-robed daughters whom St. Dominic on his Feast presented to her, and placed beneath her maternal mantle.

Generosity in any shape is a thing beautiful to contemplate; but perhaps in no form does it appear so striking and attractive as in the person of a young maiden who, in the April of her life, leaves

home and country for God's sake. The newly-clothed novices all come from the far-off land of St. Patrick, the "Isle of Saints."

The rapid increase of religious teaching Sisters augurs well for the intellectual status of this country in the near future, and it is gratifying to know that some of our up-country towns are in the vanguard of progress. The community of St. Dominic, Newcastle, presided over by the Rev. Mother-Prioress Rose, now numbers forty-two Sisters, the majority of whom are entirely devoted to the work of education, for which they qualify by long study, now hallmarked by University certificates. As the greater number of the boarding pupils had returned for the opening term, St. Dominic's Day was a gala day throughout the establishment, and will long be remembered with feelings of pleasure by all who shared in its festal joys.

Protests Against License of Morals and Unbelief.-The Catholic newspapers of Dublin have protested against theatrical scenes to which they have not been accustomed; namely, against the play produced by the American actress, Olga Nethersole. At first, she threatened to prosecute, but later declared a contrary intention. The Catholic headmasters also protest against some of the books appointed for the new examinations of the Intermediate Board. Those books, they say, give needless offence to their religious beliefs, and are, furthermore, not in harmony with the morality which the Board itself professes to see inculcated in the schools.

Crimeless Ireland. - Evidence of the widespread indignation created by the recent coercion proclamation is still forthcoming. Throughout the length and breadth of the country resolutions of protest have been adopted at public boards and meetings, but the latest and, perhaps not the least important, comes from a bench of magistrates at Multyfarnham, in the county Westmeath. Here Sir Walter Nugent, Bart, proposed and Captain P. H. O'Hara seconded a resolution recording the fact that the district (which is proclaimed) was in an exceptionally crimeless and tranquil condition, expressing the opinion that the proclamation should be withdrawn.

Homage to the Holy See. The silver casket containing the beautifully illuminated address which the members of the Irish Parliamentary Party purpose presenting to Pope Leo XIII, takes the form of a reproduction of the Shrine of Lough Erne, with all the beautiful and varied interlacings only to be found in pure Celtic ornamentation. The casket is surmounted by the Pontifical Arms. Underneath is the motto, "Lumen in Coelo "-Light from Heaven. The casket is supported by four fibulæ, which harmonize beautifully with the whole design and decoration.

FRANCE.

The War against Religious Education.-The order of the day in France is religious persecution. The infamous Associations Law was found to be not sufficiently effective. Premier Combes has introduced a supplementary bill to prevent the re-opening of the proscribed religious establishments. The greater part of the present session of Parliament will be taken up with the regulation of the religious associations and their work. The conditions of authorization, as announced, suppose a long and worrying series of details, the issue being left doubtful and dependent on the mercy of the ministry.

The men who have succeeded in manipulating the political power of France, being certain of their parliamentary majority, announce their designs more and more clearly. Combes, speaking at the annual republican banquet of commerce and industry, said he was fighting against "the counter-revolution which was supported by monks, and which was robbing France of the fruits of her great Revolution" (the Reign of Terror). Lay society, he said, must not and will not be strangled. His speech was bitter and intolerant. Vallé, Minister of Justice, declared in a speech at Mourmelon, that the government left the churches to faith, but claimed the schools. for reason. Buisson, who may be taken as a mouthpiece of his party, announces in the Temps, that they want no monasticism, that no person of ecclesiastical character should be allowed to teach, and that the Concordat with the Holy See should be broken.

The Freemasons, as usual, are to the front. Nathan, the Italian Grand-Master, benignantly sends his congratulations. The Radical assures us that the Masonic Convention of 1902, under the presidency of Brother Desmons, President of the Council of the Order, amid the applause of all, presented an address of confidence and congratulation to the government, for "its energetic action in enforcing the Associations Law." So did the Congress of Free Thought at Geneva.

The use of their language has been forbidden to the people of Brittany in their churches and in all religious instructions. Twentytwo bishops have been notified that they must dismiss the teachers of their large and smaller seminaries because they are the proscribed sons of St. Vincent de Paul, the Lazarists.

Colonel de St. Remy and Major Ladurie have been dismissed from the army because they refused to expel the sisters, and General Frater has been placed in disponibilité-which we may translate "has been disposed of " i.e., deprived of his command, because his testimony at Colonel de St. Remy's trial was in the latter's favor.

Lieutenant de la Motte was fined by Minister Pelletan, and his wife condemned to four days imprisonment, because they were present at some manifestation in favor of the expelled religious. He has resigned. Similar things are occurring frequently. Prosecutions and dismissals continue. Municipal Councils are resigning here and there because of ministerial tyranny. It has been announced that Cardinal Lecot, Archbishop of Bordeaux, is to be prosecuted for his pastoral. The customary Mass of the Holy Ghost has been forbidden this year at the opening of the naval school.

Over all this the rich are now beginning to fear for their temporal goods, seeing that it has been discovered that no money has come from the religious persecution: the Religious Orders had almost nothing that the government could seize. Mr. Davey recalls, in the Fortnightly Review, Thiers' prediction that "Jacobinism will kill the French Republic."

The Schools.-Some municipalities refuse to recommend the authorization of religious schools, others favor; twenty-two schools have been laïcised (made government schools) in the department of Tarn. In the arrondissement of Marseilles alone twenty-nine schools have been ordered not to re-open. In some of these there were as many as 600 children. The Petit Marseillais, which is not proCatholic, acknowledges that the government schools are already insufficient. The work of laïcisation is going on in various places. All the Catholic schools in the department of Gers have been taken by the government.

In Paris the religious schools are opening with Catholic lay teachers. In the department of Gironde a Catholic committee has undertaken to provide schools for the children. Bordeaux has followed the example of Paris. In Brittany the Catholic schools are opening with Mass and public addresses, except those in which the Communes employed religious teachers. The prefecture of the Rhone has received sixty petitions for the re-opening of religious schools. Several municipal councils have recalled the religious. At Scelles (Ille-et-Vilaine) not one child attended the lately opened non-religious school.

At the stormy opening of Parliament on October 14, the ministry was attacked for having employed soldiers against the nuns and the miners. The Catholic leaders were MM. de Mun, Aynard and Beaudry d'Asson.

Catholic Agitation.-M. de la Guillonnière summed up the situation before the Council General of Maine-et-Loire. Remarking

that according to the official statistics, the girls' schools of the department had 38,145 pupils, of whom 30,865 had been in religious schools and only 7,280 in government schools, and that, therefore, the rights of 20,000 parents and 200 proprietors had been violated, said that the national traditions had been trampled under foot, and they were in a period of great danger. The whole country had revolted. The army first, then the magistrates, multiplying acquittals and generally declaring illegal the apposition of government seals. The principal members of the five great academies of the nation, the masters of science, the chambers of commerce, all true liberals of all religions, had condemned the ministry's tyranny. The Prefect of Maine had boasted that the people were with him. But what of the 116,000 signatures to the protests against him, and the protests of 100 municipal councils and of the chambers of commerce, and the labor bureaus ?

After M. de la Guillonnière's address, the council suppressed its subsidies for academic inspection, for the construction and acquisition of schools, and for other school purposes. On the other hand, it voted subsidies to the expelled religious teachers; and then confirmed its permanent commission of education, in view of the ministry's threat" to see things out."

A congress of all true Liberals was announced to assemble in Paris in protest against the ministry on the day of the opening of Parliament. Meetings, protests, petitions, resignations are the indications of Catholic feeling all through France. A meeting of 5,000 persons protested at Orleans, 3,000 at Marvejols in Lozère, 5,000 in Loiret. Besides an imposing demonstration at Mazanet in Tarn, 3,000 women were addressed by the Baroness de Reille and others at Brassac. A large gathering of persons engaged in commerce and industry assembled at Nantes, and petitioned the senators and deputies of Loire-Inférieure against the injury done to the public by the religious persecution. A meeting of 4,000 protested at Marseilles; 2,500 workingmen demanded the re-opening of religious schools at Poitiers. In Vendée the persecution is denounced by placard. In the mines of Lavemarède (Gard) 1,000 men protested against the closing of Catholic schools. At Cantal in Auvergne, the sisters, as they were about to depart, were carried back from the train by a crowd of workingmen, and their carriage was covered with flowers. A compact mass of 700 men marched before them. Catholic associations continue to be formed; some, as at Mans, admitting men and women.

Senator Alfred Rambaud, Minister of Public Instruction in the Meline cabinet, denounces the government's sectarian tyranny