, 1875-05-22

The monthly statement issued by the SEQ"
rotary of the Treasury shows that the amount
of the National Debt on the 1st of May was
s2,13l, 800, 43l, being a decrease during
April of So .325,346.
THE FIRE AT OSHKOSH.
New YORK, May /.
Later details of the fire at Oshkosh show
that 500 buildings were destroyed. The TO-
tai loss is estimated at So, 500, 900, of which
100000 0 is covered by insurance.
The liability falling upon British insurance
offices amounts to $4,000.
FRANCE.
PARIS, Sunday May 2.
According to the Moniteur, the Minister Of
Finance, NJ. Leon Say, will propose to leave
TO the next Assembly the task Of meeting the
deficit in the Budget, a deficit which is being
reduced by the increased productiveness Of
the existing taxes.
1t is officially announced to-day that orders
have been given for the replacement of the
statue of Napoleon on the summit of the Ven-
dome Column, and that the complete restora.
ton of the monument will not be long delayed.
1t is not alone at the Sorbonne that Dick
ems is undergoing criticism. III. Serret, hav-
ing given in the UniUerS a favourable notice Of
one of his works and spoken eulogistically of
England, a French lady, in a letter of remon-
STRANGE Published this evening, expresses sur
prise at an Uitram0ntane paper having ex~
tolled a Radical, a ~fanatical Socialist, and a
blind and bitter enemy of Catholicism. Hav-
ing spent a long time in England, she declares
that nowhere are family ties more relaxed
the paternal dignity more despised, and the
independence of children more grossly dis
played. This insurrectionary spirit, she says
Dickens encouraged, always representing par
- .HAA ~ - -s,I-a hSk
ing contempt Of all authority and superiority,
and Ignoring religion except, indeed, when
introducing bypocrites. after abiding to
English family relations, she states the chill
dren address their parents as "Sir" and "Ma-
dam.''-thi3 will be a piece of information
for your readers,-hey speak of them behind
their backs and to each other as L VelAe,"
"Lc Weur," LIE Gourerneur," indulge in poss'
o6its without scruple, and marry without ask
ing their permission If a father speaks to his
daughter Of the moral character of her lover,
she threatens to leave the hOuss for ever if
he adds another word, and although pri-
mogeniture and the right Of making wills
remain, Dickens and his friends tried to aboi-
ish this last check. She concludes by quo
ting from Forster's Life of Dickens a very
uncomplimeutdry opinion Of the monks Of St.
Bernard, which winds up by affirming that were
he a Swiss he would be a. violent as the Radl-
calls against the Catholic cantons and the pro-
psgation Of Jesuitism, the diffusion of Catholic
ism being tao most horrible engine Of moral
and social degradation. NJ. Fouiilot, throwing
NJ. Secret OVERHEARD, endorses the trade of
his correspondent. He says there are two
Eggl4n3s-tae old which is dying, and the
youug which will not live and grow to maturity,
The question being whether the former will be
horn again or be killed by the latter, NJ.
Vorilot thus thinks England in an almost
desperate condition but threatened men live
lonL, and every Protestant nation is, Of coarse,
in his ewes, on the brink of ruin. He describes
Dickens as a compound Of Voltaire and Proud
hon, who destroyed what young England had
retained Of the old truth-that is, the principle
of life-and its only chance of escaping death
is for the Catholic spark to become FIRE and
deyour il. NJ. Veuillot, as usual, is more
lavish thaa exact with his metaphors.
FRANCE AND GERMANY.
BERLIN, May 2.
The C0l0gne Gazette, commenting upon the
article in the Berlin Military Weekly says
sour leading Generals regard the French
ornaments as very serious but though peace
is possibly endangered by these military pre-
parations, France can hardly be in a position
to make war singlebanded, while if she in
duloes in exaggerated ornaments without
finding an ally she will only exhaust her re.
sources. Under these circumstances, it is OF
the utmost Importance to know whether France
has anv chance of finding allies. France has