The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-07-04
CURRENT TOPICS.

of which We find the following picturesque con- |
trast between two eras in English history, |
four hundred years apart: elf, after three
hundred and fifty years, HENRY VII. could
come forth from the tomb in his beautiful |
chapel in Westminster Abbey, and revisit the
nation whose "restfulness" he so sedulously |
desired, how many things that he thought es-
sential and enduring, he would miss! In the
streets of his capital, now containing more peo-
pie than in the old days he could have counted
in his whole realm, not cowled monk, not
friar, white, black, or gray, is to be seen. In
the dissolving view of national life, the dissent
ing preacher has emerged in their place. In
the churches he would hear no invocations to
| "MARY; - he would find no one at the shrines
of the saints. For the long train of pilgrims
| vending their way to those gainful offices, he
| would find patients, with their fee in hand,
| crowding the anterooms of the legitimate ply
sician, or repairing to the snare of the empiric.
Quackery, like king in the East, lives forever.
| busy passer-by, he might be innocently and
courteously advised to look into the city Direc-
tory. On conspicuous heights or in shady re-
| treats, where once they had been nestled, he
| would look for monasteries in vain-there are
| cotton mills now in their stead. Baronial
| families, whose prosperity he wisely sapped,
he would learn had long ago become extinct.
ellis light gray eyes" would fall upon no pea
| SAINT with his legs wrapped in wisps of straw,
no citizen clad in leather. With wondering
surprise he might contemplate sovereign
| nearly without veto, and q church without .
Pope But there are novelties that he would
encounter, things the very names of which he
had never heard He would see the descend
ants Of his lieges eating potatoes, drinking tea,
sweetening coffee with sugar, getting tipsy on
gin or other distilled liquors; he would have
to be told what distilling means, and smoking
tobacco. Not wood fire would he find in any
house; the people warm themselves over that
dirty black stone which ENEAs SYLvIUs says
was dug up about the parts of Northumber-
land. The railway companies would run him
from London to Edinburg, "through by day
light" or carry him over wonderful viaducts
and bridges made ofiron tubes, or through tun-
nels in the hills. He could float in balloons
above the clouds of the air, or sink in bells to
the bottom of the sea. "His wonderful beauty
and fair complexion; his countenance merry
and smiling, especially in his communications;
his thin hair; his body lean, but albeit mighty
/ and strong Herewith; his parsonage and stat
ure somewhat higher than the mean sort of
nen be-" could all instantaneously and spon-
tsneously depict themselves for his use upon
Photographic visiting card, etc., etc."
EcUMENIcAL COUNCILS have been described
by Catholic writer's as sthe Parliament or
States General of the Church, assembled BY the.
| authority and under the presidsnH,oi .-o
sovereign" for to the soysss;ss~ Pontiff alone
belongs essentisllY~the right of convoking
General Csansifs. This does not, however, ex-
clrdi the moderate and legitimate influence Of
| temporal rulers. The number Of prelates pre-
| sent at an ecumenicsl council varies great
deal There were one hundred and eighty
bishops at Constantinople in 3sl, one thousand
at Rome in 1889, and ninety-6ve only in the
same in 1872, including the cardinals The
Ave apostles, PETER, JAMES, JOHN, PAUL and
BAHxABAs, with the priests and faithful, con-
stituted the first council known IS the Council
Of Jerusalem. II was called for the purpose Of
deciding on the obligations of pagan converts
and abolishing the distinctions between Jews
and Gentiles. The Council Of Trent opened
It's deliberations December l3, 1916, and was
convened by che Sovereign Pontif, PAUL ILL.,,
for the purpose of fefuting the doctrines Of
the reformation. In the first session there
were, besides the cardinals, but four arch |
bishops, twenty-five bishops, FIVE or six heads
eforders, with great number of doctors5 both |
secular and regular. II lasted eighteen years,
during the successive reigns Of four popes. |
Three patriarchs, twenty-one archbishops, one |
hundred and sixty Eight bishops, and seven
generals of orders, were present at the last |
session of this council.
Adyices from Frankfort on the Maine re-
port that the city is rapidly recovering from
the morbid financial prostration conse-
sequent on annexation to Prussia. Nearly
every kind of security is steadily advancing,
and great accumulation Of capital still exists,
which will absorb rapidly the new stock, most
IL railwsy debentures, lately created. The
transactions on the Bourse are very numer-
GUS. American bonds have been neglected
It is remarked that arrivals from New York
continue, even when the Frankfort prices
leave margin for remittances to the other
side, "and ss this cannot be explained in a
commercial way, it is supposed thut these
sales are based on manipulation Of the f.
nance secretary in connection with the oenver-
sion Of the sevsn-thirty bonds into gold inter-
est-bsaring stock" The Frankfort bank, like
the banks Of England and France, is incum-
barred with q plethora Of money. The German
corn markets are fat, and prices receding,
partly owing to fine weathar, and partly to
large sales for future date effected on Hunga-
rian account. Many Of the magnates, it ap-
pears, have sold their crops beforehand to de-
fray their coronation expense, and the parties
by whom the advances were made desire to Sc
cure their profits by selling at once.
TIE SEASON Of College Commencements has
come, and with commandments comes the Gus
tomary conferring Of degrees. Accordingly,
from all the multitudinous universities in the
country shoals Of new Doctors Of Laws, Medi-
cine and Sacred Theology, and Bachelors and
Masters Of Arts, will be held up for honor; the
Law, Scientific, Divinity and Medical Schools
contribute their Relationships of Laws, Philo-
sophy, Divinity and Doctorates Of Medicine;