The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-14 00:00:00

American ShippiLg.

The Secretary of the United States Treasury, in
a report submitted to Congress on the llth of
January, announced that the total amount
of American tonnage before the war might
'')e stated in round numbers at 5,000,000, and that
,‘ 910,466 tons have actually disappeared from our
lists for all causes ; 800,303 tons transferred to
foreign owners, and 110,163 tons destroyed by
pirates." Some idea may be formed from this of
the amount of injury inflicted by the rebel cruisers.
The Secretary has not much sympathy for those
who forfeited the privileges of the American flag
in a time of danger. He expresses the opinion
that " the transfer, in many cases, it is believed fic-
titious or fraudulent, of American bottoms to a
foreign flag, has been a favourite expedient by
which to escape the payment of war rates of in-
urance and to avoid the risks of capture." The
owners of a large portion of the 800,000
tons, which were nominally transferred to foreign
scountries during the terrific struggle in America,
are now claiming readmission to the benefits of
American registry. He is unwilling "to advise, in
their favour, anyyelaxation of therigoird the law:"
The Board of Trade of Philadelphia considered this
question at a recent meeting, and it recommends
the readmission of vessels denationalised by
"
transfer of flag, and not by actual sale, during the
rebellion ; but opposes
"the admission of foreign
sailing or steamships."

The following is the Pastoral given in extenso,
precisely as it was read at all the Catholic
churches of the metropolis on Sunday morning
last :
HENRY EDWARD, by the Grace of God and the
Favour of the Apostolic See, Archbishop of
Westminster, to the Clergy, Secular and Regular,
and the Faithful of the said Diocese,
Health and Benediction in the Lord.
Reverend and Dear Brethren, and Dear Children
in Jesus Christ,—The season of Lent calls us home
to our own hearts. It is the time in which the
Church takes account with its children, and bids
them examine their state before God. All the
year round we are busy and abroad, each one in
his calling, worldly or sacred. Our hearts are full
of it, and we are drawn off from ourselves. Lent
is a time of grace, not only to you who are serving
the world, but to us also who are serving at the
altar. If the dust of earthly things settles upon
your hearts, the handling of holy things has its
higher danger for us. Pastor and flock, we have
all alike need to enter into ourselves, and year by
year to renew our peace and union with God. Lent
then is a kind of retreat for all. The Church
preaches to us, and lays on us the precept of Con-
fession and Communion. There is a wise fore-
sight and a delicate precaution in this obligation.
As the Sacrament of Penance is necessary to sal-
vation for all those who have sinned morally after
Baptism, and as the Church cannot know who are
or who are not in the state of Baptismal Grace, it
lays upon all its children the obligation of confes-
sion once a year. To those who are in union and
peace with God it is a precept not light only but
sweet : to those who are out of grace it is a precept
of absolute necessity. By this means the Church
provides that all its children shall pass, year by year,
through the sacrament of reconciliation, and so abide
in or be restored to the peace of God. And in order
that this may be done, not in word or in name only,
but in deed and in truth, the Church has instituted
these sacred forty days as a preparation for our
.Easter duties, and for the commemoration of our
Lord's Passion.
In the season of Lent the Church calls us to the
three evangelical good works—Fasting, Alms, and
Prayer. But it is not necessary that we should
now dwell upon these primary truths of religion.
We will, therefore, make three applications of these
precepts, very needful at this moment. We would
urge upon you to learn, from the precept of Fasting,
the duty of a habitual restraint upon all forms of
needless indulgence : from Alms, the duty of giv-
ing your own personal service to our Lord and
His poor : and from Prayer, the worthy use of the
infinite gifts of the Blessed Sacrament, by which the
presence of Jesus abides always with us.
I. The precept of Fasting, then, is of divine in-
stitution. Jesus fasted as our example, and His
example is our law. He had no need of the dis:
cipline of Penance ; nor in His deified humanity
were there passions or affections needing to be
subdued. They were in perfect measure and har-
mony with His deified will, and with the Divine
law. In us they are in perpetual conflict, both
with our inferior will and with the will of God. The '
rebellions of the body break in upon the soul.
Pride, anger, sloth, and the like, are fed by the
pampering of the body. Delicacy, softness, indul-
gence of appetite and palate by meat and drink,
fastidious taste and carefulness in seeking its
gratification, as well as excess in quantity—all
these things deaden tho soul, and subject it to the
body. We are not now speaking of gluttons or
of drunkards, of whom it is written they " shall
not possess the kingdom of God." Fasting is not
intended only for them, but for all ; for those also who
by refined indulgence of themselves make th e spiritual
power of the soul heavy, or feeble. The Holy Scrip-
tures describe the Christian as a " spiritual man ;"
that is, one in whom the spiritual life, intelligence,
powers, affections, faculties, instincts, activity so pre-
dominate over the body, its senses and its impulses,
that the body obeys him as a servant and an instru-
ment. Such have bean always the state and cha-
racter of the disciples of Jesus Christ ; especially
of those whom we recognise as saints. It is not
difficult from this to understand what is the un-
spiritual man. It is a man in whom the body pre-
dominates over the soul—sometimes grossly, some-
times with refinement. The civilisation of our age
is too fastidious to be gross, but it is subtle enough
to be intensely unspiritual. The action of material
civilisation over the mind is to hold its faculties
down in the closest contact with the merely natural
operations of the intellect and the will. As an ex-
ample of unspiritual man, we may take the whole
multitude of men of the world who treat the super-
natural as visionary and fanatical ; or, again, the
men of intellect, who place the perfection of man in
the use and enjoyment of his natural powers ; or
who construct for themselves a Christianity of com-
mon sense, with self-confidence as its motive, and
contemplation of its own heroism as its reward ;
a kind of Christian Paganism, formed on the model
of the Greek magnanimity, and the Roman endur-

once of danger and enterprise.
To all such men the precept of Fasting appears
to be a wrong done to nature. They would con-
demn excess as a degradation ; but to deprive the
body of its food for a time, or to deny its palate, or
to mortify its delicacy, is, to them, a violation of
the rights of nature, which claims its full satisfac-
tion in every faculty and appetite.
The Church, in the precept of fasting, exercises a
vigilant care that a sufficiency of food shall be taken
to sustain not only life, but health. So great is its
consideration and care in this respect, that before
Lent in every year it mitigates by Dispensation the
rigour of the Forty Days' Fast. On four of the
seven days, in order to sustain health and strength,
it permits, even to those who are bound to fast, the
use of meat, artd on all days, with few exceptions,
it gives certain relaxations which, as they are con-
tained in the usual Indult attached to its Pastoral,
We need not specify. It may, however, clear some
doubts which have at times been raised to add a few
words.

1. All persons, from the age of reason to twenty-
one years, or who are over sixty years of age, or
who can earn their bread by labour, are bound by
the law of the Church to abstain, but not bound to
fast.

2. All persons, from the age of twenty-one years
to sixty, except those who earn their bread by labour,

are bound to fast.

3. All persons not bound to fast are bound, on
Fasting Days, to follow the quality of the food •
allowed
on those days as the chief meal of those
11111° are bound to fast, but they are not limited as
to the quantity nor as to the time or frequency of
their meals.
4. All Persons
but unable by : bound by the law as above to fast,
or dispensed
as
se33aseon of health, may be exempted
uted.ict XIV. expresses it ob legiti-
mam causam et de
Confessor
medici consilio : that is
to say, their
power to dispense them,
the reason of health c)hr has
The latter clause hze:g certified by a Physician.
as it relieves both the
confessor
doublet value, inasmuch
from doubt and hesitation, by
and the penitent
judg-
ment of the cause to the Y remitting the
pro Per authority,
decision may assure the conscience whose
dispensation is neither granted out both that the
facility nor asked from self-indulge„ef too great
It is, therefore, a contradiction of the mind
intention of the Church to endanger either life
o
and
health by fasting. Nevertheless, the Church weulvd
have us learn that the quantity and quality of food
necessary for life and health is far less and far
simpler than the world pretends. It trains its chil-
dren to use food wisely, for the end designed by the
Creator, that is to sustain healthy and vigorous life;
it teaches us that Ho created all things with their
qualities of sustenance or of sweetness, to be used
not sourly and sadly, but with gladness, and with
singleness of heart, because " Every creature of
God is good, and nothing to be rejected that is
received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctioned
by the word of God and prayer." _Nevertheless,
it trains us to be indifferent as to what is set
before us ; not to be in bondage to the palate,
or to niceties of choice ; to be masters over
ourselves, able to deny ourselves in little things ;
awl, in the midstdst
of
an abundance, to set apart
something for those who hunger and thirst.

When our Lord said, " How hardly shall a rich
man enter into the kingdom of heaven," lle did not
only mean how easily do the men corrupt them-
selves by excess and surfeiting, or how great is their
danger of loving the world and living for it. He
implied also how surely and dangerously
the possession of riches breeds all kinds of
spiritual temptations. Every state has its
proper spirit which is produced by it. Poverty, if
rightly used, makes the poor in spirit; riches pro-
duce the unconsciousness of heart which our Lord
describes in the Apocalypse, " Because thou sayest,
I am rich and made wealthy, and have need of
nothing, and kno west not that thou art wretched
and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, I
counsel thee to buy of me gold fire-tried, and that
thou mayest be made rich, and mayest be clothed
in white garments, and that the shame of thy naked-
ness may not appear ; and anoint thy eyes with eye
salve, that thou mayest see." Even in those who
are free from grosser sin, the possession of abun-
dance without earning it, the command of money
and time, the unlimited freedom of disposing of
themselves, produce a softness, refinement and deli-
cacy of mind which breed many faults: such as in-
dulgence of our own choices, fastidious and curious

indulgence of our own ease, comfort and taste, waste
of money and time, inconsiderateness of others, a
subtil selfishness, an insensibility to the needs and
sufferings of the poor, whom they never see, a heart-
less shrinking from their squalor and sufferings, and
a still more dangerous insensibility to the spiritual
diseases and the spiritual death of souls.
Now it is not only a luxurious but a well-pro-
vided, comfortable life which produces this insensi-
bility. And one effect of the Fast of Lent is to
break through it by awaking a due sense of the
value of our souls, and by the exercise of voluntary
self-denials. We would therefore pray you, dear
children in Jesus Christ, for the love of God, to
begin in this Lent some work for the good of souls.
As we have already specified, with as much exact-
ness as we can, some twenty kinds of work for the
benefit of the poor children in London, we will now
only specify two with somewhat more of usefulness.
The first is the teaching in Confraternities of Chris-

tian Doctrine, or in classes, gathered on Sundays,
or in the evenings. To give alms is good, but to
give the knowledge of Jesus Christ is far better.
To illuminate and transform the mind of one poor
child into the likeness of our Lord is to do a work

for eternity. It is strange that with the power and
opportunity of doing such works, and of laying up
souls and infinite joys in the kingdom of God
always within our reach, we should spend days,
months, years, a whole life, without making even
an attempt. If we had the same power of acquiring
lands, money, titles, pleasures, we should toil day
and night for them. There is a profound apathy
and a practical unbelief in our hearts, and our daily
life bears witness to it.

The first service we would ask of you, then, is to
place yourselves at the disposal of your Pastors to
teach with your own lips. An hour or two in the
Sunday afternoon spent among poor children will
bring unknown blessings to you. You that live the
busiest lives have most need of the graces which
such acts of charity bring down. For a busy life
draws the heart outward upon the things of this
world, and it is hard for such minds to enter into

themselves and to realise the objects of faith. The
depth and vividness of our own spiritual faculties is
sustained and enlarged by teaching others.

The other service we would ask of you is to em-
ploy your time in working such things as may be
sold for the poor. God has given to you various
gifts; and all the natural facilities, both of inven-
tion and of execution, come from Him. The keen-
ness of the eye, the fineness of the ear, the firmness
of the hand, the fertility of the mind, are all gifts
of God. He gave them neither to be squandered
nor abused, but to be used wisely, for His sake, and
with a consciousness of the account we must give.
You, who are free from the necessity of earning
your bread, have time upon your hands. Some of
you have the entire control of your days. Now our
Lord wills that you should use your gifts and your
time for His sake. Choose out -what you can do;
proportion, and make a rule to spend a and
tnhoi
things
small
ls
one, of your free time in workingsuch
may be sold for the service of the poor. The bless-
ings this will bring to you are many : first, it will
preserve you from idleness. Empty hands make
vacant hearts; and none are so full of temptation
as those who leave the doors and windows wide.
Unoccupied minds are open through all their

the unity of the Church, and to overthrow the Go-
vernment of the Vicar of Christ : it must now be
extinguished within our own borders. All the States
of the old world and the new seem to be sick at
heart, and there is little wisdom in Rulers and little
confidence in the power and stability of Govern-
ments. Besides all this the hand of God
is visible in shadow. A murrain wastes our herds,
destroying and tainting the food of man, and
a pestilence which walketh in darkness, for
no man can discern or control it, hangs over
us, suspended for a moment, to descend
upon us, unless God avert, when winter is gone.
Add to all this the sins of this land, past and pre-
sent, against the Faith and the Church of Jess
Christ, against His precepts and the honour of His
blessed Mother ; the multitudes who are dying
every day out of the Fold of salvation, without
Sacrament or Pastor ; the millions who lie in the
unconsciousness of spiritual death, corrupt and cor-
rupting one another ; the monsters and portents of
crime committed day by day among us ; and, lastly,
our own unworthiness of all great graces, " For it
is time that judgment should begin at the house of
God." The sins of Catholics are darker than the
sins of other men, for their light is greater, and the
grace they have received is enough to make them
Saints : Here, then, are motives enough for prayer,
contrite, fervent, and persevering.
To the utmost of your po ever, then, iu this season
of Lent, be on your knees before our Divine Re-
deemer. Where He is day by day be you also.
In every Church through the Diocese He will await
you, as He visits them one by one. Pray for your
own needs ; pray for those who never pray for
themselves. Make reparation to the Sacred Heart

of our dear Lord for the sins, wrongs, and slights
that He endures in this land, and especially for
the wounds He receives in the house of them that

love Him, from us who ought to glorify Him
by every power and affection of the soul.
Pray, too, that He will send labourers into His
harvest, for the fields are white for the reaping, but

the hands are few ; pray that the whole Flock in
the Diocese may be Christian and Catholic in all
the sense of these great names, anointed by the
Holy Ghost, and full of the love of God and of all
mankind.

Finally, dear Brethren and Children in Jesus
Christ, the offerings of to-day will be, as you already
know, for the Orphanages of North Hyde and Nor-
wood. No more ♦ital or blessed work is to be found
than the nurture of Children in the love of God and
His blessed Mother ; and of all children none have
greater claim upon us than Orphans. Give, there-
fore, generously for the love of God, and He will
abundantly reward your generosity. He will not
be outdone by you. The more you offer to Him
the more Ele will pour out upon you of the riches
of His grace in this life, and in the world to come
He will give you life eternal.
That this holy Season may shed abroad upon all
the Flock, Pastors and People committed to our
charge, the riches of His benediction, is our daily
prayer. The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
the Charity of God, and the communication of the
Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.
1- HENRY EDWARD,
Archbishop of Westminster.

A LIVING INSECT IN THE HUMAN EYE.—A living
hyatid, of the species Cysticercus cellulose, belonging to the
entozoa, a series of insects inhabiting the internal parts of
animals, was last week extracted from the eys of a female
by Mr. Woolcott, the oculist, and late surgeon of the Kent
County Ophthalmic Hospital, Maidstone. The animal bad
been perceived for some time floating unattached in the
anterior chamber of the eye, and sight was almost entirely
lost by frequent attacks of inflammation. The occurrence
of the entozoon in the human eye is very rare.-211aiddene
Journal.
FADTERTISEMENT.j—IioIIoway's Pills.—Winterly Draw-
backs.—Whence fogs spring or whither they retire it is not
our present purpose to explain; wo desire to point out how
their ill effects on the human frame can be neutralised.
The blood must be freed from superfluous carbon and
mephitic taints by some purifying medicine like llolloway's
pills, which not only thoroughly cleanse the circulation,
irritations,
the
but adjust in every organ the defects imposed upon it by
that fluid when it has become foul or sluggish. These
pills prevent stagnation, congestion, and are the best re-
gulators and preservatives against internal inflammations,
neyasnt
em d
they ulcerations;coowhile 1
bi lye t h expellingtheir
gently
morbid
aperientmatters
ac-
tion f
and strengthen it by their tonic virtues.