The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-24 00:00:00

to themselves of a certain supernatural power,
touching and softening their hearts, and mov-
ing them to repentance." Canisius, he tells
us, has recorded that nothing was more com-
mon than the instantaneous recourse to con-
fession of sinners, stained with the blackest
guilt, the moment they entered this sanctuary;
the conversion of heretics to the true faith;
the transformation of the cold and indifferent
into devout children of God ; the grace of love
and forgiveness poured into hearts estranged
from each other; the discharge of debts ; the
restitution of goods unjustly acquired ; while
the administration of the Sacraments of Pen -

ance and of the Holy Eucharist was more fre• - I
quent in this sanctuary than in any Church
throughout all France, Germany, or Poland.
Such in substance was the testimony rendered
by Canisius, " who by his missionary labours
in those parts of Europe, was singularly quali-
fied to speak with accuracy." The graces
which Canisius has recorded, still continue to
flow abundantly, and "we cannot but recog-
nize and be thankful for the presence of tl-,e
finger of God, yea, rather of the strength of
His right hand in thus honouring, to the a )n-
-solation of the whole Church, the calks of
Mary in this sanctuary of Loreto. Heretics
may mock and laugh it to scorn ; but a tree
which has borne so many and such excellent
fruits of Christian piety, can only itself be
good." Loreto has stood the test which our
Saviour Himself gave us for distinguishing the'
true from the false, the evil from the good.
The devil, indeed, must have strangely over-
reached himself, had a tree of his own planting,
rooted in superstition and imposture, produced
such fair and goodly fruits of paradise.
Dr. Northcote's familiarity with many of the
holy places he describes, imparts a peculiar
freshness to his narrative. He is well ac-
quainted with the Italian people, and with those
of Naples in particular, of whose lively child-
like faith and piety he gives several pleasing
instances. Whatever their faults may be,
these excellencies the Neapolitans undoubtedly
possess, or must we say possessed ? for his
experience (as he observes) dates twenty years
back, and since that time the country has been
cursed with an irreligious Government, whose
object seems to be to stamp out every spark
of genuine Catholic devotion in the hearts of
the people—not so easy a task, we opine, as
this very book may serve to show. Our
author's account of the Madonna del Carmine
is remarkably interesting, an observation we
might apply to each notice in succession. In
ancient
nctuvLith of the miraculous and very
Santa Maria Dellamr
B rijaunad, popularly
,y relateshe
ac al led
pro-
digy, the very publicity of which attests its
truth. It was the result of a pious venture on
the part of one of the old Aragonese Sovereigns
of Naples, which was justified by the event,
but whose non-success would have been too
palpable to escape public condemnation. Cer-
tain miraculous cures having in the year 1,500
revived the devotion of the people to this pic-
ture, Frederick 11., in a spirit the very opposite
to that of King Ahaz, who erred by not asking
enough, collected " all the sick and infirm, the
blind and the deaf, the lame and the withered,
everybody, in a word, throughout the whole
of his kingdom who *as labouring under any
bodily infirmity," and had them conveyed to
Naples and placed in a hospital prepared for
their reception. " Each person was to bring
with him a properly attested certificate of his
name and age, the place of his birth and
residence, the exact nature of his malady, the
length of time during which he had been
afflicted by it, and every other detail which
could be required for settling beyond dispute
the authenticity of each particular case." On
a stated day they were ranged, a sad and
woeful spectacle, on benches in front of the
altar where hung the veiled picture of our
Lady. The royal family and the nobility occu-
pied reserved seats, and the public was admitted
to the rest of the sacred building. A secretary
read aloud a list of the names and maladies of
the sufferers, and then Mass began. During
its celebration (probably at the " Gloria ") the
curtain was withdrawn. Those who have been
in the habit (says our author) of frequenting
any Church at Naples or its neighbourhood,
where some statue or picture, the object of
special devotion, is thus uncovered only during
some portion of a Mass, can easily imagine
what fervent cries of supplication burst forth
from the lips of the unhappy sufferers; but,
who can describe the extravagance of their
shouts and gestures and their exclamations of
wildest joy, when, at the same moment, a ray
of light was seen to descend from heaven on
the face of the Madonna, and was reflected
thence upon the assembled people ? Every sick
and afflicted person in that great crowd was
instantly healed. Catholics can readily believe
this most wonderful miracle ; indeed, it is diffi-
cult with any shadow of reason to question so
patent a historical fact : but the Bible Chris-
tian, at least, ought to find no special difficulty
in the number of the healed, seeing that (as
Dr. Northcote opportunely observes) in the
Acts of the Apostles, it is recorded that "more
than common, miracles were wrought by hand-
kerchiefs and aprons, brought from the body
of St. Paul ; and that when St. Peter was
in Jerusalem (after the miraculous healing of
the lame man at the gate of the Temple) the
people brought their " sick into the streets,
that his shadow at the least, might rest upon
them, and there came together a multitude out
of the neighbouring, cities, bringing sick per-
sons with them, who Were all healed ;" even
as all who touched but the hem of our Lord's
garment in the country of Genesex, had been
made whole. (Matt. xiv., 3. Acts v., 15, 16 ;
xix. 11, 12.)
The sanctuary of our Lady of La Salette,
founded in our own day, has peculiar claims
on our attention. Although several interest-
ing narratives have been published of the
Apparition, with which our readers are pro-
bably well acquainted, we believe that they
will peruse with renewed pleasure, that for
which we are indebted to Dr. Northcote, who
has himself made the pilgrimage, and has also
enjoyed the opportunity of conversing with one
of the children. They will find here matter,
which (so far as we know) is not contained in
any former account, and, in particular, a very
striking extract from a statement published
in February, 1866, by Maximin (then serving
as a Pontifical Zouave), for the purpose of
contradicting reports, current at the time,
which had their origin in the flippant assertions
of a French journal, to the effect that he no
longer believed in the reality of the Apparition,
and had retracted his former declarations. The
journalist had to retract its false assertions—
assertions which had been reproduced by cer-
tain of our own newspaper writers, who of
course—for it is their habitual practice—did
not reproduce their contemporary's retracta-
tion.

An account of our own Anglo-Saxon and
old English sanctuaries, from another pen emi-
nently qualified for the task, completes this
charming volume. No land was so rich in
sanctuaries of our Lady as Catholic England,
once beautifully styled " the Dowry of Mary,"
and a closer acquaintance with the history
of these ruined shrines, will show (as the
writer well observes) "how identical in all ages
and countries is the spirit of Catholic devo-
tion, and how wholly without foundation is
that theory which represents the religious
practices in use among Catholics of other lands,
as childish superstitions, opposed, not merely
to _Pm c.//c.apt prejudices, but to Enyligh good
sense. The Englishman of the seventh, the
tenth, or the thirteenth centuries, though he
doubtless displayed many of the characteristic
features which we commonly attribute to his
race, had as lively a faith in the supernatural,
and as tender a devotion as the Italian, or the
Spanish Catholic of the same date, and his
devotion was expressed after the same simple,
and often poetic, fashions as theirs." To miny
an English Catholic, this portion of the book
will probably prove the most fascinating, as
it is that to which he will naturally turn on
first opening the volume. We can assure our
readers that they will fuul, the general con-

tE 'nts as deli ghtful as they are inviting ; and
w, 3 will conclude, what we feel to be a very
un worthy, notice of a very valuable contribu-
tioi t to our popular literature, by saying that
this is a book which every Catholic family
ough t--not to borrow for a single perusal,
but to purchase as a household possession.

M ONEE-N 0. 2.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

If the produce of gold is decreasing in California,
that of silver has immensely increased in Nevada
and other of the Pacific States. California is assum-
ing relatively to the mining regions a position not
unlike that in days gone by of the Atlantic States to
the Far West. It has become a base of operations
to the army of prospectors, gold-diggers, mining
companies, and those enterprising individuals who
flock in shoals to the place where life is a lottery,
full of prizes and penalties, finds and blanks. The
Express Companies alone in 1866 carried from Ne-
vada $16,171,381, of which the City of Virginia
contributed $7,807,626; Gold Hill, $7,100,268 ;
the rest being from Carson City, Austin, and
Aurora. The returns for 1867 give a largely in-
creased export, and the estimates for the present
year will probably be far short of the actual re-
sults. But the rapid rise heretofore • shown in
Silver Mining in Nevada is small compared with
what may fairly be expected when the Union Pa-
cific Railroad is completed, the rails of the Central
l'acific branch being now laid along the Humboldt
Valley One of the consequences is that attention
is being directed to Silver Mining, and Eastern ca-
pital attracted for its development. It is but rean
sonable to suppose that a country so enormously
rich in- ore will, under such favourable circum-
stances, yield an abundance which cannot fail to
disturb the values
,as at present existing between
gold and silver.

Contrasting the present value of money in Eng-
land with that of a few centuries ago, we find a
difficulty in selecting the commodity which fur-
nishes the best test. Wheat ought to be, but its
fluctuation during the middle of the 14th century
visas from eighteenpence the quarter, to twenty shil-
lings, and although the average was 6s. Bd., a staple
liable to such an exceptional range can scarcely
furnish a standard. Generally speaking, wages and
the price of food were fixed by Act of Parliament,
and the law as regarded wheat was, that the mer-
chants might import when it rose above the aver-
age, and farmers might export when it fell below it.
Barley averaged at that time three shillings the
quarter ; beef and pork were a halfpenny a pound,
and mutton three farthings—so fixed by Act of
Parliament. Fat oxen sold at twenty-six shillings
and eightpence ; fat wethers and calves for three
shillings and fourpence; and lambs twelvepence.
In London the butchers sold to the poor penny
pieces of beef, each weighing from 2&lbs. to 31bs.,
and thirteen or fourteen of these were exchanged
for one shilling. Although the Act was repealed
regulating the price of meat, as it was unpopular
with both buyers and sellers, yet, as late as the year
1570, beef could be purchased in the gross at a half-
penny a pound. Rent was never fixed by statute,
and therefore comparative rates can only be conjec-
tured. "My father," says Bishop Latimer, in his
sermons, page 101, " was a yeoman, and had no
lands of his own ; only he had a farm of three or
four pounds by the year at the uttermost, and here-
upon he killed so much as kept half a dozen men.
He had a walk for 100 sheep, and my mother milked
30 kine ; he was able and did find the king a har-
ness with himself and his horse. I remember that
I buckled on his armour when he went to Black-
heath-field. He kept me to school, or else I would
not have been able to preach before the king's ma-
jesty now. He married my sisters with five pounds
or twenty nobles each, having brought them up in
godliness and the fear of God. He kept hospitality
for his poor neighbours, and some alms he gave to
the poor, and all this he did of the same farm." If
such was the rent of a farm of such a capacity,
Fronde, in his history, surmises that labourers' cot-
tages could not have cost much. Strong beer, which
is now eighteenpence a gallon, was then a penny,
and table beer less than a halfpenny. Carriage,
both along the coast and along the interior, was
cheap. A vessel, including the crew, was 23. a day.
A cart, two horses, and a man carried corn at
about a penny per ton per mile. French and
German wines were eightpence the gallon ; Spanish
and Portuguese a shilling ; and these were declared
to be the highest rates allowed. Fronde considers the
penny, in terms of a labourer's necessities, to have
been equal in the reign of Henry VIII. to the pre-
sent shilling. Professor James E. Thorold Rogers,
iu his history of agriculture and prices in England
from 1259 to 1773, compares the earlier condition of
the farm hand with his condition in 1771, taking his
facts for the latter year from an author of that day,
who wrote of what was actually occurring around
him. The nominal value of wages in the last half
of the 14th century was one-seventh of what they
were in 1771, while many of the necessaries of
life were one-twelfth of the price of the 17th cen-
tury, bread being an eighth; for, taking wheat at
48s. in the latter period, it would make the 41b.
loaf 40., while at 6s. Bd. the same loaf would be
under three fax things. Comparing the two dates,
it is found that the price of commodities had risen
from 8 to 12 times, while the farm labourer's wages
had risen but little over four times the amount of
those prevailing for long after 1318, the year of the
plague. Professor Rogers then compares the present
prices with those of 1771, and he finds that every-
thing excepting wheat is dearer now, while agricul-
tural wages are only beginning to move upwards.
He says that they remained stationary, but there are
on all sides signs of a rise in the agricultural dis-
tricts. However, his conclusion is sufficiently clear,
which is, that the labourer of 1318 was in a much
better condition than his descendant of 1771, while
he of 1771 was in a better condition than his
descendant of the present day. On this subject
Fronde is also emphatic, for, in writing of the
latter part of the fourteenth century, he asserts
that the labourer could then, with a penny, buy
more beef, bread, beer, and wine, and do more to
provide himself and his family with lodgings and
supply his daily wants, than the labourer of the
19th century can do for a shilling. With thisknow-
ledge in our minds a grave question is suggested,
when we contrast the daily wages of a labourer in
the time of Henry VIII., and his wages in the
time of Victoria. Nor while agricultural labourers
averaged fourpence a day, was this scale, high,
though it be, as compared with the present, his only
advantage. Nearly every parish was surrounded
by large ranges of common and unenclosed forest
lands, which furnished fuel gratis, where pigs, ducks,
and geese might range, and where, if he could
afford a cow, he could keep her. An artizan's
wages were Sid. a day. Statesmen at that time
held the physical wellbeing of all classes to be of
far greater importance than the increase of wealth
and population ; and the care of the State was
directed to promote this object. The average in-
come of an earl in the days of Henry IV. was
estimated at £2,000 a year. Under Henry
the Eighth, the Duke of Buckingham, then
the wealthiest English Peer, had an income of
£6,000, and that of the Archbishop of Canterbury
was rated at the same amount. The state in which
such incomes enabled noblemen to live may be
imagined by the expenses of a court at that period,
remembering that the palace was the focus of in-
trigue—was maintained on a scale of comparative
grandeur, the king himself being the fountain of
honour and promotion. Henry Vll.'s Court cost
little more than £14,000 a year, inclusive of the
king's personal expenses and support of castles,
forests, yeomen of the guard, and all necessary
outlay for public business. Under Henry VIII.
the expenditure had risen to £19,894 16s. Bd., yet
when we compare what that monarch was, what he
did, and how he lived, with the outlay of her
Majesty we may feel assured that the sum repre-
sented much more than twelve times such an amount
in the present day. We assert that a change is in
progress more marked in wages than in anything;
else, but more observable in America than in Eng-
land. The subject was discussed in an article in
the New York Railway Timm, May 22, which gave
an analysis of the difference effected within the last
eight years, the fact being supplied by the lion.