The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-25 00:00:00

Cardinal Cullen on Roman .Catholicism.

Cardinal Cullen is on a visit to Maynooth. He was pre-
sented on Thursday with an address, to which he made the
following reply :—I need scarcely say that I am sincerely
grateful for your address, and for the kind sentiments re-
garding me which it contains. It always, indeed, but never
more so than on this day, affords mespecial gratification to
meet with those who devote their lives to study, and are
zealously and successfully engaged in training by word and
example the youthful Levite for the sanctuary, and to
mingle with students now the hope, as they are destined to
be hareafter the pride and consolation, of our ancient and
venerable Church. Seldom have the eyes of the Catholic
universe been neon) anxiously turned towards the Irish p2o-
ple and clergy than at the present day. The missionary
spirit which pervades our island, the zeal of the clergy, the
fervent piety of our faithful people, their patience in pro-
longed sufferings, the generous charity in the midst of pri-
vations and poverty, their characteristic devotedness to the
Holy See, and their sacrifices for religion,are spoken of with
merited eulogy throughout the world ; and the honours,
though altogether unmerited by me, which it has pleased the
Holy Father to confer upon me, were intended by him as a
mark of his approbation, and as a pledge of his esteem and af-
fection for the Catholics of Ireland. Of our great apostle, St.
Patrick, whose name you! college so appropriately bears, it
is recorded that he saw in vision the future history of that
holy faith of which he had brought the glad tidings to
this country. At first that sacred light grew brighter and
brighter, until it illumined our hills and valleys, and re-
flected afar off its heavenly rays. In the next period it gra-
dually became dim, until only a faint glimmering was to be
seen. But in God's own time a happier era was to arrive.;
the fading light gradually increased in splendour until it
filled the whole island, and once more attained its original
brightness. It would seem that this last era, so full of hope
and consolation, is now beginning to dawn on our Church,
and I trust that, with the blessing of our apostle, many of
you will live to contemplate it in its meridian glories. At
every stage of our chequered history the chid source of the
blessings which enriched our Church was the unflinching
spirit of fidelity and devotion with which our fathers clung
to the chair of St. Peter. It was from that centre of Catholic
unity that St. Patrick brought to us the rich treasure of
faith. United with the successors of St. Celestine, and fos-
tered by their blessing, our Church for centuries grew daily
in holiness and learning; and when the period of calamity
and persecution arrived, it was from that same sacred source
that our pastors and people received consolation in their
trials, and strength to guard the interests of their holy reli-
gion. It is cheering to know that the same filial attachment
to the successors of St. Peter is deeply rooted in their hearts,
and I am confident that, so far from being checked by the
trials to which the present great Pontiff is subjected, it will
grow daily more and more, and that your affection will in-
crease in proportion to the violence of the assaults which are
made on the Vicar of Christ by false friends, hypocritical
protectors, and all the enemies of God. The proud position
which in the way of Providence, notwithstanding all the
sufferings and afflictions of our people, seems destined for
our Chuich, imposes new duties upon those to whom one
day its spiritual guardianship shall be entrusted. To the
period of persecution the Irish ecclesiastical student must
ever turn to learn lessons of sacrifice, and to inspire him
with a desire to emulate the heroism of his father ; but in
all that regards the decorum of religion, and the external
relations of our holy Church, his lesson must be taken from
the brighter era of peace. While the sword was glitter-
ing over the dev.oted heads of the ministers of religion,
our only schools at home were in the marshes or in the
fastnesses of the mountains ; but now, within these tranquil
walls, it is in your power to emulate the glories of Lismore,
Glendalough, Clonmacnoise, Bangor, and Glannevin. Like
the great saints of those hallowed retreats, it will be your
duty to labour incessantly t 3 combine sanctity and learning.
Without sanctity your mission will be fruitless, and your
learning a sterile plant. Without learning you cannot be
the salt of the earth and the light of the world—you can-
not apply proper remedies to the corruption of the human
heart—you cannot uphold the torch of true knowledge, nor
refute the many errors with which the spirit of evil ever
seeks to lead away captive those souls which were redeemed
by the precious blood of the Lamb of God. Among the
many great events which mark the Pontificate of the pre-
sent venerable successor of St.' Peter, the publication
of the Encyclical and Syllabus of the Bth December, 1864,
will ever hold a prominent place. In those documents the
Vicar of Christ proscribes the errors of the present day,
and points out to us thecourse we should pursue. From his
words we learn the necessity of combating socialism, re-
volution, indifferentism, insubordination, and contempt for
authority—the cankers of society in our times—we learn to
denounce that infidelity and Erastianism into which secta-
rianism has degenerated in those countries—we learn also
to repudiate the false and visionary theories of church
union with which some unsettled minds woulddelude their
votaries, as if light could bo combined with darkness, and
au alliance formed between Christ and Belial. In fine, we
learn from the Pontiff's words that human science is the
handmaid of religion, and so far from, true scientific
inquiry being in opposition to, or checked by, the in-
fallible teaching of faith, that cur Holy Church has
ever been a natural guardian and fostering pa-
rent of knowledge. Peculiar to our own country are some
other errors which you will have to combat. For the
enemies of our holy faith, not content with having de-
spoiled the Catholic Church of the endowments conferred
ou her by the piety of our people in former ages, now seek
to deprive us of our brightest glory by pretending that our
faith is of recent introduction into Ireland, and seekin&to
identify the creed of St. Patrick with the ever-varying
tenets of that Church Which owes its origin to a Henry
and an Elizabeth. Such theories are wholly in opposi-
tion to our ancient records and with all the acts of the
early Irish Church ; they must sooner or later redound to
the confusion of those who, despite the evidence of his-
tory, venture to adopt and defend them. Prepared betimes
by sanctity and learning, and emulating the virtues of your
predecessors, you will be able to combat all those errors
and to defend the truth. Your future labours will be fel.:
Wised by the dews of Heaven ; and the Church of Ireland
will have just reason to rejoice one day in finding you
numbered among her pastors, and seeing her destinies,
under Providence, placed in your hands. In conclusion, I
thank you all for your kind address, and I assure you that
the interests and welfare of St. Patrick's College and its in-
mates will ever be most dear to me, and 1 will be happy to
find myself in the midst of you. (Loud applause.)
His eminence and the other prelates adjourned to the re-
ception-room, where a large number of persons were pre-
sented to the Cardinal Archbishop. In the evening a grand
banquet was given in the professors' dining-hall, at which
over 100 guests were present.

COAL SMOKE AND CITY TREES.—It is the custom
to lament that the inhabitants of great towns and cities in
this country are too careless about the embellishing of
public places with trees and flowers, and about the fate of
those plots of ground which are sometimes attached to their
residences, and which beitr the name of gardens. We are
rather disposed to believe that the inhabitants of towns
would gladly encourage any and every kind of horticulture
which might be adopted toreador beautiful and interesting
the circumscribed plots of ground available for such pur-
poses in cities, could they but be sure that success would
crown the endeavour. But there is too much reason for them
to be sure of failure in what they attempt, and it is rather
the result of bought experience than of imagined prejudice
that townsmen generally are careless about the growth of
trees and flowers. The simple truth appears to be that in
exact proportion to the prevalence of coal smoke in a
locality, so without respect to peculiarities of soil and cli-
mate horticulture must decline there. Now this is not to
be regarded as an accident, but as a calamity. Whatever
may be said for or against a display of flowers, and the
smaller forms of miscellaneous vegetation that ordinarily
contribute to the decoration of gardens, there can be no
doubt at all that large trees are essential in cities, essential
for artistic as well as for sanitary reasons; and, perhaps,
wo may add, without impropriety, essential for purposes of
sentiment. There can be no doubt that trees contribute in
a most important manner to the improvement of the atmos-
phere for purposes of respiration. Every kind of vegeta-

tion contributeelmore or less to the elimination from atmos-
pheric air of the carbonic acid with which it becomes
charged after hdving been inhaled into the lungs of ani-
mals, and as tending to preserve the atmosphere in a nor-
mal state. Plants aro essential to the continuance of ani-
mal life on the globe. But trees are useful beyond the
effect of their power to decompose the atmosphere, and
take from it to fix as carbon in vegetable tissue the car-
bonic acid, which is poison to animals. They aro useful
also mechanically, for wherever largo trees are to be found
there smoke and dust are less hurtful to animal life.— City
Press.

THE LATE FATHER PROUT. —lt is said of this
distinguished scholar and man of genius, that during
the cholera season of 1841, he was in London. He was at
that time engaged wholly in literary pursuits, and had laid
aside the active duties of the priesthood; but no sooner
did the plague come, than ho besought the bishop of the
diocese to grant him faculties, and the lowest slums of that
sink of the universe were, for the whole pericd of those
dreadful months, his haunts. There, by the bedside of poor
outcasts of the metropolis, kneeling in the filth and slop of
the lowest hovels, bending over the filthy couch of squalid
want, whispering words of faith, and hope, and comfort in
the dull ear of dying age ; battling with the despair of the
agonising felon struck down in his strength ; fighting,
through all, the fight of Faith, was the brilliant wit who
had delighted Europe with his contributions to Fraser's
Magazine; and there he staid until God bade His angel
sheathe the sword. To Mahoney his religion was a reality.
He knew in whom he believed, and he desired no better
end than to die at his work.—American Paper.

ACCIDENT ON THE GREENWICH RAILWAY.—On
Saturday night.last, about ten o'clock, the last two carriages
of one of the ordinary passenger trains, through some de-
fect in the way, the carriages, or the working, got off the
rails. The train was brought up quickly, without any per-
sonal injury having been sustained by any of the passen-
gers. The carriages were also uninjured. The down line
was blocked for about two hours, but after the expiry of
that time the lino wag open for the usual traffic.