แ

ran away

staff of officers is large and expensive;" and the answer is, "that the children are gathered in a state of degradation and ignorance," i. e. are almost all children of devout and firm Catholics, and involve some trouble before they are thoroughly protestantised. Out of thirteen Catholic boys admitted in 1863, particular mention is made of seven. "One, a bright little fellow, aged seven years," whose stepmother wanted him to go to the nuns' school, to Mrs. J. D'Arcy, who sent him here." We lately read in a letter from " our own correspondent" in Frankfort a hope that some "fanatic priest," who had encouraged a Jewish lad of thirteen to leave his home, would receive condign punishment; and here, in a report printed at Southampton, and dated Wonston Rectory, we have a boast of getting an Irish child of seven to leave his widowed mother, and securing him in a Protestant nursery. Of two little Walshes we are told that their father died when they were infants, and the widow, a Catholic, gave them up on her death-bed. "The family were all Romanists, but the poor mother during her illness was brought to the knowledge of the truth. The children were left quite destitute, until taken up by Mr. Gallagher, who seems deeply interested in them. The first Friday they were at Ballyconree they refused to eat meat, saying it was wrong to do so; but on Mrs. Harris reasoning with them"-much, probably, as Mrs. Gamp would have done-" their scruples vanished, and they made a very hearty meal." "The parents of the three little Dicksons were in very comfortable circumstances. Their mother died rather suddenly a short time before her husband, who was consumptive for some time, and a few months since sank under this disease. The children were left without any means of support." The income of these orphanages, almost entirely raised in England, was 1725l. 6s. 11d. in 1863. A list is given of forty-two boys and thirty-eight girls as the inmates at the close of that year, of ages varying from four to twenty years. There is rather a nest-like look in the government of this institution. Trustees: the Bishop of Tuam, Josiah Smyly, Esq., the Rev. Hyacinth D'Arcy,-who we suppose is also "the pastor who watches for the souls of his parishioners; and who, with his family and friends, is continually visiting the children,"—and the Rev. Alexander Dallas. Committee: the Rev. Hyacinth D'Arcy, James D'Arcy, Esq., and Dr. Suffield, the medical attendant. Lady directors in Connemara: Mrs. D'Arcy, Mrs. James D'Arcy, and Miss D'Arcy; in England, Mrs. Dallas. Treasurers: the Rev. Alex

ander Dallas, and Mrs. Dallas.

To our friends in Ireland we shall probably only have told what they knew more fully before, and, indeed, only a very little of what

they know, and that somewhat tamely. In Ireland many can tell of the very prices given to starving relations to surrender their children, of Protestants paid to personate Catholics and be defeated in controversy, of Protestants being refused relief when they asked for it as Protestants, and getting it at once, with a bundle of tracts, when they applied as "inquiring" Romanists; and of such scenes as that witnessed by the Rev. G. Webster, the Anglican Chancellor of Cork, and recorded by him with proper indignation, when "on a Sunday morning large quantities of bread were given to Roman Catholics for learning a verse of Holy Scripture; and these same people in my presence went away cursing the Protestants, and cursing the very persons who gave them the bread and taught them the verse." But we wished to excite sympathy in our English readers for the Catholics in Ireland, the assaults on whose faith are hardly, we think, adequately realised by us. The Establishment in itself may be little more than a standing insult. But the 100,000l. worth of bribery, mostly raised in England and spent in apparent connection with that Establishment, and generally with the sanction of its ministers, to produce the perversion of infants and the apostasy or hypocrisy of adults, is much more than an insult. And we are reminded afresh of the sort of people with whom we have to do in our own efforts to rescue orphans and prisoners.

We cannot conclude without once more drawing attention and, if our pen could prevail, gaining assistance to the chief bulwark in Dublin against the multiplied machinations of which we have given some account, St. Brigid's Orphanage, 42 Eccles-street, Dublin. Instituted in 1857 with the hope of rescuing 500 Catholic orphans, it had in seven years admitted 570, of whom 314 have been provided for. After reading of the immense sums expended by the proselytising societies, it is wonderful, as well as refreshing, to learn that the Catholic ladies who manage St. Brigid's maintain the 256 orphans on their hands, and keep five day-schools for poor children besides, on an income of 1,9037. It is almost needless to say, that the whole service of superintendents, teachers, officers, and collectors, is entirely gratuitous. The orphans are not collected into a huge expensive building, but are placed under inspection in approved Catholic families, who are paid for bringing them up with their own children; and often contract such affection for their charges as to end by adopting them as their own. Although many of the children are mere infants, and many sick and delicate on admission, the whole mortality has been only one per cent per annum. We have often wondered that a similar plan has not been attempted in England. There would be the difficulty of having to send the

children much greater distances; but the saving of expense in other ways would more than counterbalance this. We wish God-speed to the devoted ladies of St. Brigid's, and to the pious Sisters in the Convent of Mercy at Clifden, close to the Connemara Nursery, who stint themselves to help the destitute around them, and who, if funds would only come in to enable them to carry out their scheme of a Catholic sewing and weaving factory, might almost bid defiance to the proselytisers who are busy all about them.

With the exception of our own private report of the Birds'Nest, and some valuable information from the reports of St. Brigid's, all our matter has been derived from that painful study of Protestant documents to which we alluded at the outset. We might have made our article much more piquant by introducing anecdotes, for which, although credible enough, we cannot refer to proof. And that producible proof of most certain facts may be difficult to obtain will be understood by those who have read the published Correspondence between the Rev. G. Webster and the Revs. H. C. Eade and Al. Dallas, in which it appears that when Archbishop Whately held a court of inquiry into charges against the Irish Church-Missions Society, a respectable parishioner of Donnybrook, who came forward to testify to money given to a Protestant for personating a Catholic in a controversial class, was cautioned by Mr. Dallas, the secretary of the society, that "an action for libel might be the result of some of his statements."

Syracuse and Jetna.

TOURISTS bent on the ascent of Etna leave Catania at the end of the long straight street which terminates in the Piazza Giorni. The ascent begins at once. On both sides of the road luxuriant groves of orange, citron, almond, and carouba trees alternate with vineyards and corn-fields rich in the promise of future crops. Yet all are growing on the lava, and lava meets you at every turn the walls, festooned with the "Bourgainviller," the passion-flower, and beautiful yellow roses, are still of lava; so are the pretty villas, and the riant farm-houses, and the lodges in the vineyards,-all are built of it. The streets through the villages are paved with it. There is a sort of allegorical beauty and poetical justice in the way in which the great common enemy has been, as it were, conquered and subdued— at least for a time-and forced to repair the terrible mischief it has wrought. As the road ascends higher and higher, the vegetation diminishes, and you come at last to a wild waste of rock sprinkled with broom and dwarf oak. A twelve-miles' drive brought our travellers to Nicolosi, where their first visit was paid to the kind old professor and geologist, Dr. Gemmellaro, from whom every kind of assistance is obtained for the ascent of the mountain, which is, as it were, both his child and his home. He is a most good-natured and agreeable old man, whose whole life has been devoted to this one great interest, and whose greatest pleasure seems to be to make others share in the knowledge which he himself possesses. house is a museum of curiosities, and contains a carefully-arranged collection of all the geological phenomena of the mountain. Among other things, he showed the party a ptarmigan which had been "caught sitting" by the lava stream, and had been instantly petrified, like Lot's wife! the bird preserving its shape perfectly. The village of Nicolosi is composed of low houses built up and down a long straggling street, with a fine church in the centre. Horse-races were going on the day of our travellers' arrival, and causing immense excitement among the people, who were all in the street in holiday attire. The horses ran, as at the Carnival in the Corso, without riders, and were excited to a pitch of madness by the shouts of their starters and the bandeleros stuck in their sides. After watching the races for some little time, our travellers returned to the kind professor's, who had seen the guides required for their ascent of Ætna,

His

but who advised them to delay their expedition for two or three days to allow of a greater melting of the snow, the season being backward, and to procure the requisite number of mules for so large a party. It was also necessary to send some one beforehand to clear out the snow from the Casa Inglese, the small house of refuge which the professor had built on the summit of the mountain, at the base of the principal cone, and where travellers rest while waiting for the sunrise, or before commencing the last portion of the ascent to the crater. He is very anxious to have this house better built and provided with more comforts, and tried to enlist the interest of our travellers with the English Government on its behalf. Having arranged everything with him, our party retraced their steps to Catania, having decided to visit Syracuse first, and take Ætna on their return.

The following morning consequently, at half-past 3, they started for Syracuse, so as to arrive there before the great heat of the day, and also in time for Mass. A long marshy plain occupied the whole of the first stage; after which the road wound through limestone rocks and rich cultivation, till they reached the picturesque village of Lentini. The Lake of Lentini is the largest in Sicily, famous for its wild fowl, but also for its malaria. There is a beautiful view of the little town, with its wooded cliffs and deep ravines, from the Capuchin convent above. The scenery increases in beauty as you approach Syracuse, the road descending into deep glens full of ilex, myrtle, oleander, and a variety of aromatic shrubs, and rising again over rocky hills scented with thyme and every kind of wild flower. From hence comes the delicious Hybla honey, which rivals that of Mount Hymettus. Over the wide downs which stretch seaward, the picturesque town of Augusta was seen, perched on the edge of the broad sandy bay.

Our travellers had excellent horses; so that it was not more than half-past ten when they reached the gates of Syracuse and found themselves in the comfortable little hotel near the port. One of the party started off at once to find a Mass; but the good people of Syracuse are very early in their habits, and the lady wandered half over the city before she found what she sought in the beautiful little church of St. Philip, where there happened to be on that day the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and in consequence Masses all the morning. On her return she found that the Vicar-General had been kindly sent by the Archbishop to show her the curiosities of the place. He first took them to the Temple of Diana, now converted into a private residence, and of which nothing remains to be seen but some very ancient Doric columns. From thence they proceeded to the worldfamed Fountain of Arethusa. The spring rises from an arch in the