246
AN GAODHAL.
So. Boston,
July 21, '83.
Dear Sir.
l am highly pleased with the Gael, and think it
greatly to the discredit, and unseeming apathy of
Irishmen that there is not a journal of like char-
acter published in every large city in the coun-
try.
My neglect to communicate before was on ac-
count of severe illness.
Though not born on Irish soil, yet I am not un-
mindful of the land from which my ancestors
sprung, fully believing with Tacitus that the lan-
guage of the conqueror in the mouth of the con-
quered is ever the tongue of the slave and that the
revival of the olden tongue is but a fitting prel-
ude to the regeneration of Ireland, which through
it must be accomplished. A free Ireland without
the language for its fountain-head would be an
anomaly, and those that think or suggest it are en¬
emies of their country.
I remain yous truly,
J.J. Brien.
In concluding a long communication Mr. J. O'D.
Nightingale of Atkinson Neb. writes. —
In describing the appalling terrors of the fam-
ine of 1847, Maurice Richard Leyne ,(the peer of
Meagher in eloquence.) said in "Conciliation Hall
Dublin," that the "frame of the strong man was
bent from inanition", and that "the bloom of beau-
ty was faded from the check of infancy", and now
after 36 years more of cursed alien rule, the reli-
gious, virtuous, brave, and generous sons and
daughters of Ireland, are allowed to
"Go down to the —dust
From whence they sprung
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung."
Mr. Nightingale also sends the following vers-
es—
British Specimens of the Resources of Civiliza-
tion.
About christianizing India,
You make a wondrous noise,
Your bloated bigots bibles send,
To christianize Sepoys.
But before you make a convert,
Of whom you'll have no doubt,
In shreds you'll have to blow him,
From your Christian cannon's mouth.
The Sepoys blown from cannon's mouth,
Are loyal to the core (?)
Therefore they are not frightened by
Your Royal Lion's roar.
Your Butchers in Afghanistan
Have got their hands too full
Annihilation stares them,
Before they leave Cabul.
Written at the time of Gen. Butcher Robert's
retreat from Cabul.
RIGORS OF THE PENAL CODE.
When the aged Countess of Salisbury, sister to
the late Earl of Warwick, and mother of Cardinal
Pole, was commanded to lay her head on the block
at the age of seventy, "My head", said she with
dignity, "never committed reason, so if you must
have it, take it as you can."
It is said that the execution of Sir Thomas More,
who succeeded Wolsey as chancellor of England,
preyed more on Henry VIII's mind than that of
any other incident which took place during that
tyrant's unhallowed reign. More's only crime was
that he would not acknowledge Henry as the head
of the Church. It must be borne in mind that du-
ring Henry's reign very little change was made
in the Articles of the "reformed" code, and were
in bulk as follows, —
It admitted transubstantiation and the mass.
It enforced auricular confession and monastic
vows.
It peremptorily required the celibacy of the
clergy.
It did not altogether renounce the intercession
of the saints, nor forbid respect to their relics.
It is asserted that this confession escaped Hen-
ry's lips at the hour of death — "I never scrupled
to deprive any person I pleased of life or honor,"
"my friends," added he, "we have lost all; our
kingdom, reputation, conscience, nay, heaven it-
self." No wonder he should become conscience
smitten. Having divorced Catherine, his first and
lawful wife, beheaded Anne Boleyn, his second,
Jane Seymour, his third dying, divorced Anne of
Cleves, his fourth, beheaded Catherine Howard,
his fifth, and we presume a similar fate would have
waited his sixth, Catherine Parr, had time remain-
ed to him. He died in his 59th year.
Rumors have lately been prevalent relative to
the conversion to Catholicity of Duke Paul Meck-
lenburg Schwerin, married to the Princess Marie
of Windischgraetz. These would seem some-what
confirmed by a telegram from Berlin dated May
15th., to the Euganeo, of Padua, announcing ,,that
Duke Paul Frederic of Mecklenburg Schwerin has
been banished from the Granducal Castle for hav¬
ing chosen, contrary to the orders of his brother
the Grand Duke to have baptised with the Catholic
rite in place of the Lutheran form, his second son
in deference to the wishes of the mother of the
infant, a Princess of Windischgaetz, who is at
present in Nice. The Duke will become a Catho-
lic, and will take up his residence in Vienna."
London Tablet.
When Sir Thomas More, who succeeded Wolsey
in the chancellorship of England, was in prison
for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII. as the
head of the Church, he wrote with a coal, so that
writing material must have been pretty scarce in
England at that time.
