The Washington times., 1901-09-03
FOREIGN TOPICS.

4 made over the removal of st. Edmund,
king and martyr, from Toulouse to Arun-
| del in England. it seems that that there
is more than possible shadow of doubt"
that the bones brought back in such hon.
! or are those of King Edmund. The legend
| is that full 700 years ago Louis. the Dau-
| phin of France, took the body Of st. Ed
mund to st. Sternin in the ancient city of
| Toulouse, where 1t remained until a few
weeks ago. The authority for this belief
| is found in volume written by Pierre
| Caseneuve In 1910, and his authority seems
| to have been an inventory of relics COM
| piled in 14s9, which mentions three vasa
| of marble containing the bodies OF the
! four crowned martyrs and of St Aymun-
dus, formerly King of England" 1t seems,
so we are told by skeptics. that there is
not scrap of evidence that the body was
| taken to France by the Dauphin, and. on
the other hand. there is much evidence
| that no such thing ever occurred. None
! of the chroniclers. Matthew Paris. Roger
of Wendover. or Walter of Hemin CHURCH,
while telling much of the misdeeds of the
| French soldiery, says anything of the des-
ecration of the saints tomb. And this
shrine was one of the most popular in
| England the object point of pilgrimages
| from far and near. 1t isn't likely that the
| tomb could have been robbed of its pre-
| ciouS bones without some one comment
| ing on it, without, indeed, its making
! sensation which would last for years
Furthermore the monks of Bury St. Ed
munds believed that the body of their
patron rested in the church until the
monastery was dissolved. Jocelin, In his
chronicle. tells how at least on one occa-
sioc the loculus was opened and the alb
bot touched the head, eyes, and nose or
the royal saint. In word. there is no
evidence of the removal of the saints 8
body, and there is evidence of a contin-
uous belief in its presence in England.
The chances are that the bones which
have been carried from France to Eng
land. ultimately to rest in Westminster
Cathedral, are those of that other St Ed
mund. the Archbishop of Canterbury. who
died in Soisy. France, and was buried in
Pontigny 400 years after the Saxon King
had departed from this life. The whole
question Is stirring up a vast amount OF
interest among English photographers.
The British soldier is the chief sufferer
by the humanity of his countryman liv-
ing in ease and plenty at home HIS
generals. obeying orders from the War
Office. have made l. clear to him that
Boer property is sacred. Hence he has
starved in land of plenty. The eggs
and the chickens, the pigs and the milk.
were left for the commandos of the en-
emy. For months General Rundie's men,
hungry and ragged and footsore, tramp
ed the eastern part of the Orange River
Colony, and The farms of the burghers In
the field were safe from petty thiev-
ing as the farms of Dcvonshire. How
honorable" said the humanitarian, I'd
he never thought that the enforced Sc f
restraint of Tommy Atkins was respc n
sible for the terrible sick lists which haze
been such melancholy feature of the
war. He starved to please the sentmen :
al humanitarian, and in too many cases
he died for it. What did it matter? Eng
lands reputation for magnanimity was
preserved
.<xl
1t was at Senekai. half empty because
the burghers were out on commando, and
the men. after hard days march in
which the sight of a tree or a shrub was
an event, We're sent out to collect fuel to
cook their meat ration. There were
plenty of wooden fences and trees in the
town, but these were not to be taken on
pain of Imprisonment. party of Royal
Mounted Rifles, most of them unarmed.
in their fruitless search for fuel, fell into
an ambush and five were shot dead. In
Senekai itself British soldiers wandered
up and down the streets collecting refuse
in their helmets and handkerchiefs, the
Dutch women grfnning and Jeering at
them from the windows. Over and over
again when the men have been on short
rations a full meal has been ordered for
Boer prisoners, and over and over again
the men. exhausted and hungry, have
had to march on foot while Boer prison
ers were being conveyed by US in British
carts and wagons.
On the Swiss-Itaiian frontier at Mas
lianico last week the custom house Of
ficials stopped a long procession of forty
schoolgirls walking two and two from a
seminary in the neighborhood. Suspicion
had been aroused by the frequency with
which they crossed the frontier In their
daily walks, and on examination It was
found that every one of the schoolgirls
was smuggling a quantity of cigars and
cigarettes to a total value of &c, 600.
All the poor little girls were put In
prison. and it is not certain yet what
punishment will be meted out TO them.
1t seems that this smuggling had been
going on Systematically for long time.
The order of the coronation service
which will mark the official accession to
the British throne of King Edward is not
sanctioned by any act OF Parliament. and
is purely a creation of the Church, which
thus. by immemorial tradition, conse-
crates the State in the person of the
sovereign. The Archbishop of Canterbury
crowns the King and the Archbishop of
York will crown the Queen.
The Bishop of Peterborough, in his ref
erence in his recent charge TO the prob
able use of incense at the coronation of
the King and Queen, seems to have over
looked the fact that the Abbey has been
fumigated with incense at previous coro-
nations before the service, the structure
of which is very interesting.
The sovereign is vested as deacon, in
a dalmatic. with a maniple and stole worn
deaconwise. There are special benedic-
tions of inanimate objects. and more par
ticulsrly of the eucharistic elements. The
holy table is called throughout in the
rubrics the altar, or the holy altar. The
officiating prelates not only wear copes, |
but put them ON in public, as part of the
ceremony.
There are only eight communicants-the
c0N he ATchbiShnn Dean
Westminster, the epistoller, the gospeller, |
the preacher. and the two Bishops who |
sing the Litany. The English Church uses
JUNCTION in this service only, which has
come down from the times of Charlie
magne and is contained in the Liber Re- |
gals, which was certainly not later than
1880.
In the Prussian royal family the curious |
custom exists of selecting some half a |
dozen deserving young couples in July of |
every year and to have them married in |
the Garrison Church at Potsdam on the |
of the death of Queen |
quiry is made into the character and an
tecedents of the young people. Last |
month the weddings took place at the !
above named church in the presence of |
Marguerite. daughter of Prince
and Princess Friedrich Leopold of Prus |
sa, as eldest unmarried princess of the |
Prussian royal family. Her royal high
ness received a special invitation to the |
nuptial ceremonies and afterward shook
hands with each of the young brides Be
fore the wedding rite was performed the
chaplain-in-ordinary to tho Kaiser de
Queen Louise, and at the close each of
the brides received gift of s1l2 to pay
FOR her trousseau and a handsome family |
Bible.