HENRY THE EIGHTH AND MASSES FOR THE DEAD. -The following words are in the rough monarch's SWANMORE MISSION.-This is near to Bishops Waltham, and is attended one Sunday in the month from Gosport. The last appeal on behalf of it is in the follow-will:-"We will, and especially desire and require, ing terms: "This poor and ancient congregation hope that this mission will at length become permanent, but they rely with confidence upon the charity of their more affluent brethren to enable them to erect an humble chapel, into which their dissenting brethren may not be deterred from entering, from the influence of an erroneous idea that they are intruding upon a gentleman's private establishment. As many of their neighbours are thus deterred from hearing the truths of salvation, and the members of this congregation are solicitous that their separated brethren should enjoy with them the benefits and consolations of our holy religion, they beg to urge their appeal upon the special attention of their fellow Catholics. Subscriptions and donations will be most gratefully received by the Right Rev. Dr. Griffiths, 35, Golden-square, London; and by the Rev. John Clark, Gosport, Hants, pastor of the congregation. Oh! when shall we stem the torrent of immorality among our agricultural population, and make the barren desert rejoice!" SAINT EDMUND, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.- His bowels were buried at Provins; but his body was conveyed to Pontigny, and, after seven days, deposited with great solemnity. Many miraculous cures wrought through his intercession proclaimed his power with God in the kingdom of his glory, and the saint was canonized by Innocent V. in 1246. In 1247, his body was taken up, and found entire, and the joints flexible; it was translated with great pomp, in presence of St. Lewis, Queen Blanche, and a number of prelates and noblemen. These precious relics remain to this day the glory of that monastery, which, from our saint, is called St. Edmund's of Pontigny. Dom. Martenne, the learned Maurist monk, tells us, that he saw and examined his body, which is perfectly without the least sign of corruption: the head is seen naked through a crystal glass; the rest of the body is covered with his pontifical garments: the colour of the flesh is everywhere very white. It is placed above the high altar in a shrine of wood, gilt over. One arm was separated at the desire of St. Lewis, who caused it to be shut in a gold case so as to be seen through crystal glasses. But the flesh of this arm is black, which is ascribed to an enbalming when it was taken from the body. Engish women were allowed to enter this church, though the Cistercian order forbade the entrance of women into their churches, which now is nowhere observed among them except in the churches of Citeaux and Clairvaux. In the Treasury at Pontigny are shown St. Edmund's pastoral ring, chalice, and paten: also his chasuble, or vestment in which he said mass, which is quite round at the bottom, according to the ancient form of such vestments. Martenne adds, that the conservation of this sacred body free from curruption is evidently miraculous, and cannot be ascribed to any embalming during above five hundred years, without any change even in the colour. The stupidity and vanity of King Chilperic appear in his rash disputations with St. Gregory about the fundamental articles of the faith, in which the saint vigorously opposed his extravagancies. In 594 the saint went to Rome out of devotion, and was received with distinction by St. Gregory, who made him a present of a gold chain. That Pope admired the great graces and virtues of his soul, and the lowness of his stature. To whom the Bishop of Tours replied: "We are such as God has framed us; but He is the same in the little and in the great"; meaning that God is the author of all the good that is in us, and to him alone all praise is due.-Butler. that where and whensoever it shall please God to call us out of this transitory world to his infinite mercy and grace, be it beyond the sea, or in any other place without our realm of England, or within the same, that our executors, as soon as they conveniently may, shall cause all divine service for dead folks to be celebrated for us, in the next and most proper place where it shall fortune us to depart out of this transitory life: and ever, we will, that whensoever and wheresoever it shall please God to call out of this transitory lffe to his infinite mercy and grace, be it within the realm or without, that our executors, in as godly, brief, and convenient haste as they may or can, order, prepare, and cause our body to be removed, conveyed, and brought into the said College of Windsor, and the service of placebo and dirige, with a sermon and mass on the morrow, at our costs and charges, devoutly to be done, observed, and solemnly kept, there to be buried and interred in the place appointed for our said tomb, to be made for the same intent, and all this to be done in as devout-wise as can or may be: And we will and charge our executors, that they dispose and give alms to the most poor and needy people that may be found, common beggars as much as may be avoided, in as short space as possible they may, after our departure out of this transitory life, one thousand marks of lawful money of England, partly in the same place and call us to his mercy, partly by the way, and part in thereabout, where it shall please God Almighty to the same place of our burial, after their discretions: and to move the poor people that shall have our alms, to pray heartily to God for the remission of our offences, and the wealth of our souls." FLOWERS.-Who can behold, without emotions of purest happiness, the beautiful profusion of flowers which adorn our summer fields, and the sunshine in which they live? There are few branches of science from which we can learn more decisive indica tions of that wonderful symmetry and order, which exist in the disposition and modification of organ ized structures, than from botany. The greatest care seems to have been bestowed, no less on the colouring than on the contrivances under which the forms of flowers are diversified. The love of flowers seems an instinctive passion in man: it breaks forth under every circumstance of life and feeling, and acts on his affections and moral attributes with scarcely less than human power.-Gordon. of Protestant faith appears the following direction for the guidance of the faithful (): We will that all bishopps and preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us unto their spiritual charge, that it is very laudable to pray to saints in heaven everlastingly liveing, whose charity is ever with us to Almighty God, after this manner- All permanent, to be intercessors, and to pray for us and" holy angels and saints in heaven, pray for us and with us unto the Father, that for his deare Son Jesus Christ's sake wee may have grace of him and remission of our synnes, with an earnest purpose; not wanting ghostly strength to observe and keep His holy commandments; and never decline from the same againe unto our lives' end."" INVOCATION OF SAINTS.-In the first "Articles" TASTE. The senses of taste and smell are intended. to convey impressions resulting from the chemical qualities of bodies; the one in the fluid, the other in the gaseous state. The primary use of the sense of taste is evidently to guide animals in the choice of their food, and to warn them of the introduction of noxious substances into the stomach. Poetry. THE PARTING. WRITTEN FOR THE BEAUTIFUL AIR "DURANDARTE." BY MRS. CRauford. Softly breathing lip of beauty, Love must own thy witching spell. Never more those tones may greet me! Still that form shall hover near; O those eyes! how sweet they languish ! Must I-can I-leave thee so? And, oh! there are hearts, though by fate long estranged, And eyes that can lighten our journey no more, That come in those visions still true and unchanged, With the light, and the love, and the gladness of yore! Bright, bright shines the beacon of hope from afar, St. Gregory the Great mentions that he having ordered thirty masses to be sung for a monk named Justus, on the thirtieth day after the last mass was said, Justus appeared to Copiosus his provost, and said;-"I was in pain, but now am well." WATER.-Were water to become sour or sweet, or heavier or lighter, or indeed anything but what it is; or were the air of the atmosphere to acquire odour or colour, or to become opaque; by either of such changes the whole of the present economy of nature would be deranged. Water travels a constant round; from the sea are exhaled vapours, which form the clouds; these clouds descend in showers, which, penetrating the crevices of the hills, supply springs: which springs flow in little streams into the valleys, and these uniting, form rivers, which rivers, in return, feed the ocean. A particle of water takes its departure from the sea, in order to fulfil certain important offices to the earth; and having executed the service which was assigned to it, returns to the bosom which it left. It is entirely owing to the fluidity of water that a free communication is capable of being maintained between the distant parts of the world, and between different parts of the same country. But for the property by which the particles of could never have realized the mighty results of comwater move so easily among themselves, the world merce as depending on navigation. SNOW. The perpetual snow resting on the tops of mountains constitutes a most important provision in the economy of nature, particularly in the warmer climates, where the accumulated snow becomes the prolific source of innumerable rivers, without which these regions would be uninhabitable. To these admirable fruits of the Christian doctrine we may add, that Christianity has abolished that idolatry and superstition which reigned all over the worid; banished those monsters of deities which were worshipped in every nation, to the encouragement of vice; those bloody sacrifices of human victims, whieh were offered to them; all that scene of unnatural lust which had been countenanced by the philosophers, and some of the of the gladiators, the impostures of judicial astrology, most celebrated emperors; the inhuman diversions the extortions of usurers, &c. And in the place of all these vices has esteblished a law, in all things perfectly conformable to right reason, justice, and truth; has tamed and civilized the most barbarous nations, and furnished every silly woman or child, with more perfect notions by far of the divinity, than the wisest philosophers of old could ever attain to. Could this grand reformation of the world be owing to a wicked impostor? Published at the Office, 2, Crane-court, Fleet-street; and sold by all Booksellers, Stationers and Newsvenders n the United Kingdom. All communications for the Editor to be addressed to the Office, 2, Crane-court, Fleet-street. THE NEW WEEKLY CATHOLIC MAGAZINE. No. 11.] SATURDAY, JUNE 5, 1847. POST-MORTEM INJUSTICE TO O'CONNELL. " THE TIMES." Jealousy is a mean vice. It is the vice which of all others is the most unscrupulous for the attainment of its ends. The whole career of the Times newspaper with regard to O'CONNELL is proof of this. That mercenary publication has carried its ill feeling even unto the chamber of death. It has raised the shroud in order that it might spit upon the corpse of him whom in his life it causelessly hated. The first fling it took against O'CONNELL was in a long memoir of him. It was full of vituperation. It was written by Mr. DODD, who is himself an EMERALDER. There is a squeamishness on the part of persons connected with the press as to having their names published in connection with what they diurnally or hebdomadally write. This affected secrecy is most pernicious to society. It puts the honest writer upon a par with the veriest rogue of a scribbler. It would be well if every newspaper article could be badged with its author's name, like cabmen and omnibus attendants with their "numbers." The man who writes an immoral book knows not [PRICE 1d to retaliation upon ourselves, by our adversions to other newspapers. There is a gentleman who at one time was "the Reverend" without any other right to the title than that which a black coat and a white cravat gave him. Next he became secularized, and was paraded as W. J. Fox, Esq. Now he has become Latin-ized, and concocts antitheses for the Dispatch, under the cognomen of "Publicola.” He, too, has had his short-legged kick at the Dead Lion. The other minor fry of the newspapers we will not advert to; but, speaking generally, we may say they have answered themselves. They say he was avaricious and plundered the people. The Sunday Times says "he died a poor Papist." His habits were economical, if not rigid. A "great plunderer," he died poor!! Scarcely had the news of his breath being out of his body arrived in London, than a rumour was spread that he owed £50,000 to the National Bank of Ireland, in Broad-street, of which he was "governor." The proprietors met. It turned out that he owed them £4,000, and that they held securities of the most unimpeachable nature for £7,500. This is the conscienceless mode in which slander is thrown by bad men into a good man's coffin. The posthumous hatred shown to O'CONNELL, we regret to say, is more of an anti-Irish and anti-Catholic than of a political character. What says the Times?— whither or how long it may be sped. Neither did Mr. DODD know how far the virus of his ungenerous memoir of O'CONNELL would extend. It has been reprinted by many publishers, and “Did religious or political zeal preponderate in his sells for a penny. Every reader of it is misled. mind? Did the Church of Rome or Ireland stand first It is like an unwound-up clock, or a wrongly-in his affections? Was he a champion of the church or a tribune of the people? placed milestone, for it tells a lie to every body that looks at it. Various other papers, nay, almost all of them, have taken up the bloodhound of the Times against O'CONNELL, now cry that he is dead. We did not expect that the Sunday Times would write of him as it has done. It crowned a malevolent article upon him by sneeringly saying he "died a poor Papist." Not a paper in London has done him justice, with the exception of the Tablet. The Tablet memoir of O'CONNELL could not have been written by any of the mysterious vaticinators of that paper. Mr. MCCABE, the author of it, was pre-eminently fitted for his task; and we do him only an act of justice in thus proclaiming the transcendent merits of his compilation. It will lead, we know, Mr. O'CONNELL'S foreign admirers claim him for the CHURCH. That any one should vindicate for their communion so mixed a character, so irregular a life, and so eccentric a career, is an important admission. Mr. O'CONNELL, then, is a Roman Catholic hero." The same paper goes on to assert, being a Catholic hero, he was a political, jesuitical " traitor to his country. This is religious rancour, not fair-play political opposition. If O'CONNELL were the "Papist" bigot they try to paint him, why did he advocate the cause of every other class, without regard to their creed? Whilst the Catholics venerated him as their emancipator, the Jew gave him his benizon as his friend; the Dissenter hailed him as his advocate; the benevolent Quaker associated with him as a col league; the exiled Pole blessed him; the Russian miscreant would have cursed him; the negroes thanked God for the strength of his arm which struck off their chains. In every cabin at home, in every clime abroad, his philanthropy was not an exotic. Everywhere, and for everybody, it displayed its beauty, and spread its perfumes. It is upon the grave of such a man that vampire slanderers are trying to stamp the ignominy and odium of "Bigotry and Selfishness." But his name may rest in peace, for the greatest fault they find with him is, that he was truly religious. Their slanders will not form his epitaph nor constitute his history. These will be written and treasured by POSTERITY. It would be rash to seek to do him justice now. As his heart is in Rome, may his soul be in Heaven! How devout and sincere is the AMEN which millions in every land will respond to this prayer! KENTISH TOWN NEW MISSION. To the Editor of the "CATHOLIC MAGAZINE." Mr. Editor,-Some months ago the suburb of Kentish Town was, to the eye of a Catholic, a dreary spot-as sad a prospect as could meet the eye of a pious Christian within an equal distance of London. Overrun by Protestant sectaries of all classes, constantly at variance among themselves, and only agreeing in a bigoted hatred of the ancient faith, unblessed with a pastor to watch over them carefully, and comfort them with his holy services, the few Catholic inhabitants were most painfully situated. The more earnest were obliged to go, careless of weather and fatigue, long distances to perform their spiritual duties; the more lukewarm, too careless to exercise this self-denial, lived, and it is to be feared many died, without the assistance of religion. Many, born and educated as Catholics, lived in such a manner as to conceal their religion from their fellow-Catholics of the same place. Such but a few months since was the unhappy state of this locality. Daily do we now see God wondrously working in this land on behalf his Holy Church; constantly are our ears greeted with some glad tidings, which show that He has not entirely deserted this once favoured island of the Saints; and how many are the prayers, how confident the hope that the reconversion of our country may be at hand! Let us look at the present state of the district we have been considering, and contemplate with surprise and gratitude the works of our great God. The little band of the faithful, no longer scattered and tossed about, have been collected together and are tenderly watched over by a zealous pastor; and where for so long heresy and impiety have been unopposed, the adorable sacrifice is daily offered, the solemn chant of the vespers is heard; and the Catholic religion has assumed a position most unexpected, to the great edification of the faithful, who are daily increasing in number, and to the astonishment and confusion of their enemies. Surprising, indeed, was the sight at the midnight mass of Christmas of a full congre gation assisting at the first midnight mass celebrated for centuries in that place; and delighted must those faithful souls have felt who, after having for long served their God with difficulty and inconvenience, found themselves at last rewarded by being permitted to adore Him at the anniversary hour of His birth; and to be present at the celebration of the holy mysteries in a more complete manner than in this country is generally the case; but still more surprising, on another occasion, was the sight of the blessed sacrament borne to the house of a sick person by the surpliced priest, preceded by lights, and followed by adoring worshippers. What must have been the astonishment of the heretic, what the joy of the believer? Conversions are not wanting to add to the lustre of this new triumph of the church; and truly is the barren desert becoming a fruitful field. The establishment parsons of the place, fearful, it is supposed, of the progress of the faith, have just thought fit to entitle their conventicle (which formerly they were contented to call Kentish Town Chapel) the church of Saint John Baptist, appearing to imagine, from some strange contortion of ideas, that the best method of opposing Popery is to place themselves under the protection of a saint. May his powerful intercession obtain for them grace to discover and courage to embrace that faith by which alone they can be made his companions in heaven! P. Q. The Catholic community are respectfully informed that a spacious plot of ground, in the most eligible part of Kentish-town, has been given for the erection of a Catholic church and schools. This mission has already been opened by the Rev. H. Ivers, who, from October last, has increased his congregation from five or six individuals to more than one hundred; the only accommodation at present for a chapel and school being a large room in his dwelling-house. NERICKX has published a letter in which he states, SOMERS TOWN.-The reverend and venerable Mr. "The Catholic public need not be put in mind that the schools of St. Aloysius are peculiarly the work of Providence, and I trust that we are grateful to that Providence, and by our prayers endeavour daily to make return to those who have been the instruments of the Almighty in this His work. Not many weeks past we received a convincing proof of the mercy of that Providence, but I have many reasons to apprehend that many friends to our institution have been deceived in their judgment of this benefit. In the first place, I beg shall reap no advantage from the magnificent legacy to to inform them, that for a twelvemouth to come we which I allude, though hereafter it will indeed be an annual assistance towards meeting the general expenditure; and in the second place, that at the present moprice to which provisions of all kinds have risen. That ment we are heavily pressed upon by the exorbitant they may form an accurate judgment on this point I will merely instance the additional expense in one article of consumption. The usual expenditure in flour only was ten guineas weekly; at present this same article requires for the same period an outlay of £22 4s., making an annual increase in flour only of over £C00 sterling. The other articles of consumption have of course increased in price in the usual proportion. In the interest of our establishment I thought it my duty to lay this statement before the charitable consideration of our friends, on whom that Almighty God may pour many blessings is our continual prayer.” CONTINENTAL CATHOLIC SKETCHES. No. I. (For the "NEW WEEKLY CATHOLIC MAGAZINE.") It is still a common though oft-refuted calumny against the Catholics, that they worship images, pictures, &c. We do not intend, in this article at all events, to enter into a formal refutation of erroneous opinions that have been often and ably exposed. Those who in this day entertain the notion that Catholics are idolators, and worship wood, stone, and canvas, are impervious to arguments delivered by the tongue or the pen. The first appeal to their reason or their judgment must be made through the most impressionable yet vivifying organ of man—the eye; and that this is so is a beautiful illustration of the universality of the Catholie religion; if we may be pardoned the use of such tautology, or rather the universal adaption of the Catholic religion to the existing mental elevation of mankind generally. For most assuredly the religion, or sectarianism, that addresses itself to a portion only of the people, that is adapted only to the spiritual exigencies of the refined and highly educated class of society, is not, cannot be, the religion adapted to the wants of the great family of man. The religion that denies to its devotees the privilege of drinking in learning, and inspiration, and charity, by the most obvious means supplied to mankind by an all-bountiful Creator, cannot be the religion instituted by the all-wise, the all-merciful, and meek, and gentle Saviour of the human race. The religion, or the fanaticism, that would destroy those elegant books (painting and sculpture) of the unlearned and unlettered peasant or artisan cannot surely be the religion of gentleness and charity. No; and so ill adapted is the reformed religion to the development of kind, or generous, or noble, or elevated sentiments in the human breast, that the more isolated its disciples are from all other associations, the more bigoted and the more gloomy and unreasonable they become; while, should they be transplanted to a more genial soil, aud be surrounded, for a time only, with memorials of goodness and piety, they return to their native homes as wiser, not sadder, but more cheerful and more happy men. The multiplicity of arguments that have from time to time been used in this cause, and the almost impervious bigotry against which they have been hurled, are sufficient reasons for us declining to take that course now. We prefer confirming the assertion contained in the last sentence of the opening paragraph, by a few graphic allusions which ought to come home to every Protestant. The author of the following story is a Protestant himself, and, until now, a most bigoted one against the Catholics; and the following is the version, as he detailed it: He had just returned from a continental tour of only six months' duration, but the noble ecclesiastical architecture, with all its accessories, so easy to be found in every part of Catholic Christendom, had reflected its shadows through the crystal portals of his humanity, and had enshrined themselves within the soul itself as a gem is enclosed within the precious casket. On the Continent he found churches devoted to the purposes which their names denote, as houses for the accommodation of those who worship God, and not, as in England, crammed with square boxes for the use of the favoured few, who declare themselves the chosen of the Lord, to the exclusion of their poorer brethren. Abroad he found the churches open every day, and throughout the day from morning to night, where every well-disposed Christian might retire to address his prayers to the Most High, to offer up his vows of penitence at the altar of God, to soften the rancour, may hap, of his heart towards some offending neighbour, to implore the watchfulness of his guardian angel, to solicit the blessed intercession of the Holy Mother of God. At home the Englishman witnessed the temple of God with closed doors, excluding the children of one Father from access to his altar except on stated occasions. Here is a contrast indeed! But we have yet to see greater contrasts than this. In the numerous recesses extending along the aisles of the Catholic churches on the Continent are raised altars to the worship of God. The gentleman who is the author of this story accompanied a Catholic friend on Sunday last to St. Paul's, London, for the purpose of witnessing the ordination of deacons and priests. On entering the church he was struck with the barrenness of the walls of the house of God. The recesses in which he had been accustomed to witness, during his sojourn on the Continent, altars erected for the worship of the Most High, were here stripped of everything significant of religion. He looked around and saw monuments erected to the author of Babylon, to the fabricator of words, words, words; the warrior, the poet, and the historian had each a post assigned to him in the temple of God; but He for whose especial worship the temple was reared had no monument. The English Protestant looked around the interior of this magnificent temple in vain for something that would announce to his eye that the structure had been raised for the special purpose of offering homage to the great author and head of Christianity. No! it was astonishing that he, a Protestant, and an English Protestant to boot, should discover that there was no outward and visible sign of the Christian religion within the walls of the metropolitan church of the most civilized country on the globe. There was no holy water at the entrance porch, to remind him of the purification to which he ought to be subjected on crossing the threshold of the church-there was no image of a dying Saviour, to remind him of the physical sufferings undergone by the God made man for the redemption of the human race-there was no image of holy Mary, beaming with gentleness and love upon those to whom, by that divine mystery, the incarnation, she had become the blessed mother and intercessor: his eye wandered in vain to catch a glimpse of those speaking witnesses of the events which characterized the life of our Saviour. And is this, then, the temple of God? Where, too, are the priests who should minister at his altar? The reply of his friend was, "You have come too late for the service. See, the gates are closedthe mysteries of our holy religion are performed in secret -the children of our common Father are not permitted to participate in those holy rites which should, to the eye of the Catholic, exhibit the passage of the Saviour of men through a world of sorrow and of sin. Our Protestant was compelled to wander from the house consecrated to the service of God; and he bent his steps in search of some memento of his religion, at a distance from the magnificent temple that raises its head far above the sinful hordes of beings in human form to whom it was intended to act as a talisman of all that is pure and holy. Accompanied by his friend, he approached the eastern suburb of London. Here he found the rectory-house of Shoreditch transformed into a tavern! Disgusted with all the external signs of vice exhibited in the eastern part of the metropolis of christianised England, he sought refuge in what he hoped was a purer region. He wended his way to the West; and here he found a woful confirmation of the fact, that England, boasting of her Christianity, of the |