The Emperor of China has formally invited the Pope to open direct relations between the Holy See and the Chinese Empire by the establishment of a Papal embassy at Pekin.
Miss Gertrude G. McMaster, second daughter of James A. McMaster of the New York Freeman's Journal, was invested with the black veil at the Carmelite Nunnery, in Baltimore. Archbishop Gibbons performed the ceremony. This is the third daughter of the veteran journalist that has joined the various orders in the church.
Reports are again in circulation that Archbishops Gibbons of Baltimore, and Williams of Boston, are to be among the new batch of cardinals that are to be created at the coming consistory at Rome. It looks as if there might be two princes of the church in the United States. The two B's, in all probability, will be the honored Sees.
Gladstone has completed his cabinet, and is now in working order. The Dublin Freeman's Journal, commenting on Mr. Gladstone's election address to his constituents, says the prime minister explicitly recognizes that no settlement of the land or education questions in Ireland is possible without Irish self-government.
The New Secretary for Ireland.—New York Evening Post: Probably the most difficult place of all to fill was the Irish secretaryship. Considering the fate which has overtaken the last three secretaries—Mr. Forster ruined politically, Lord Frederick Cavendish murdered and Mr. Trevelyan undoubted discredited—any Englishman in public life, however able or brave, might well shrink from taking the place. But if any Englishman can succeed in it, Mr. Morley will. He has already, both as a journalist and member of Parliament, achieved distinct success in politics. He is a grave and weighty speaker, and, though not a sentimental man, has, what we may call, a philosophic sympathy with people of a different type of mind and character from the English, to the want of which the English failure in the government of Ireland has been largely due. He is favorable to Home Rule in some shape, and is ready to listen to what the Home Rulers say, and consider it, and is not likely when he gets to Dublin to put on the "English gentleman" air which the Irish find so exasperating. On the whole, in fact, the new cabinet is a considerable advance on its predecessor, as far as the Irish question is concerned, especially.
Michael Davitt Praises Gladstone.—Michael Davitt, speaking at Holloway, England, said he believed that Mr. Gladstone was the only English statesman that had the courage and ability to grapple with the Irish problem and establish peace between England and Ireland. The premier, Mr. Davitt said, had already settled the question of religious inequality, and had made an honest attempt to solve the land problem. His failure to deal in a satisfactory manner with the latter question was due to the fact that he had not gone to the root of the matter.
Parnell—"Would you," said a member in the House after the defeat of the Government, "under any circumstance accept the offer of the Chief Secretaryship?" Mr. Parnell's reply was:—"Certainly not. To administer any law an honest man must be in sympathy with it and believe it to be a just and right law. Now, I am not in sympathy with the English rule of Ireland, but believe it to be both unjust in itself and prompted by alien feelings. Believing this, under no possible circumstances would I have part or lot in administering it."
Martin I. J. Griffin in the I. C. B. U. Journal: Some time, in an amusing hour, we give extracts from newspapers of forty or fifty years ago, about the Irish "foreigners." It might teach a lesson to the sons of the then assailed and the newcomers. Many of them are using language about Poles, Hungarians, and the Chinese, just similar to the utterances against the Irish years ago. As many Irish now feel against others, so the "Americans" of that time felt against the Irish. If the Irish are now just in their denunciations they may think less harshly of those who maligned the Irish in the past. We Irish-blooded Americans must be just.