The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-06-30
FOREIGN CHURCH NEWS.
June oath, 1880

CATHOLICISM IN GREAT BRITAIN
In an address to the English electors the Protes-
tant Alliance states that last year there were 34
Catholic peers, 26 holding seats in the House OF
Lords; and 81 Catholic members of the House of
Commons and five members of the Queens Privy
Council who are Catholics; that there are in
Great Britain Is archbishops or bishops, 2 40
priests, and 1,34S Catholic places of worship
and making all due allowance for the growth of
the population, that Roman Catholicism has
spread very widely in Great Britain.
"A tract distributor, named King,
was tried recently in Dublin, Ireland, and fined
So, with the alternative of II days imprison-
ment for handing priest handful inviting to
meeting for friendly discussion" An appeal
was taken TO the Court of Queens Bench but
the Court refused to quash the conviction. 1t
was not proved that the man had used offensive
language or INSTRUCTED the priest but the Judge
held that the offering of handful of the kind
was an insult to the priest, and might have led
to a breach of the peace.-Presbyterian Journal.
The Robert Raikes centenary will be
one of London's summer sensations. The cele
bration, beginning June 26, will last about ten
days; there will be meetings in Gudhall, in
st. Pauls, in Exeter Hall, in Surgeons Taber-
nacle; there will be concerts in the Crystal Pal
ace and in the Royal Albert Hall, and the great
est ceremony of all will be the unwilling of the
Raikes memorial statue on the Thames embank-
ment. No doubt throughout the Englsh-speak-
ing world the inventor of Sunday Schools will
be talked of on this coming hundredth anniver-
sary. To.
That Rome does not want the Scrip
lures, and cares not to give them to the people
Is manifest from the fact that its missionaries
were IN Japan from 1919 to 1887, but attempted
no translation of the Scriptures, though they
claimed to have 300 priests, college, and 3OO-
700 converts In the country. Protestants have
been there for quarter of a century and the
translation of the New Testament is complete.
The difference is palpable, and it is an immense
difference.
DR.. Gibson, late of Chicago, has
been received by his new church in London
with many tokens of affectionate regard His
salary is to be $4,000, and 81 500 have been
given to defray the expenses of his removal to
London.
CHRISTIAN CONVERTS IN INDIA.-
Rev. w. Gray, Secretary of the English Church
Missionary Society, in correcting a statement
made by Lord Granville, in the House of Lords
In regard to the number of Protestant and Ro.
man Catholic converts in India, sends to the
London Record the following gratifying statis-
tics
" The statement exhibiting the moral and
material progress and condition of India dur
Secretary of State for India and ordered to be
printed July 6, 1874, gave the number of native
Protestant converts in India in 1872 as 318 363
This included Ceylon. Deducting 81 ,976 given
for Ceylon, we get a total for Infia of 2S6 987
in 1872
Between 1862 and 1872, the increase has been
Just nifty per cent. Supposing the increase from
1872 to 1880 to be the same land we have good
reason for supposing that this would be low
estimate), there should be now about 43O 600
native Protestant converts in India mot incud-
ing Ceylon). 100000 native Protestant Chris
tans In connection with. S. P. G. and C. M. s.
Missions may be found at present in the one
colectorate of Tinnevelly, in South India. -
~ T. Observer
The apparition of the Blessed Vir-
GIN, st. Joseph, and st. John at Knock County
Mayo, Ireland, has been embodied in pamnblst
form by Lynch, Cole & Meehan, the text hav.
ing been supplied by Sister Mary Frances Glare
commonly known as I" the Nun of Kenmare y
We cannot see that it is very remarkable that
IN all cases where our Divine Lord has CON
descended to show any extraordinary manifesto
lions Of His presence the recipients of the favor
have been poor and humble" Poor people who
may be very good, honest and humble in the
County Mayo, belong exactly TO that class who
are dreadiully ignorant A irst-class modern
miracle ought to be able to stand all the invest
cations of the telescope and spectroscope
i"O.S SnVuA1 De subjected to all the tests that a
scientific detective could put it TO- Somebodv
with magic lantern has been using the wall Of
Knock Chapel instead of the conventional sheet
Anyhow the Nun, Of Kenmare" in order IN
attest as to the positive character of this miracle
where Mary and an assortment of saints were
projected on the wall Of Knock Church cites
Just as In patent medicine advertisements aorne
23l cures mostly made by swallowing bits of
cement taken from Knock Chapel. Here are
some OF them: Mr. Feeney, hotel.keeper
owiniord' violent toothache, cured by an an.
PfH c Of the cement; girl named Coleman.
~ 'ue arish OF Claremorris, cured Of sore gums
Ine result OF toothache, by washing the narts
WIN water containing portion of tbe cement
f ml,,iam Carty had been suffering intense pain
hnger on the wall the pain ceased en6ro, w r,
might as well be stated that our ladv's Wait ~
Ireland IN the famine year 1880" has not vot
received the sanction Of the Ecclesiastical *,
mission 1t Is quite possible then that tbis
neanderIng around Of the saints in tbis n Tl,'
Iniscuous kind of way in County Mavo witboU,
ApeILa." "'e"ot J"qoeus