The Centenary of Christopher Columbus.—Corsica is preparing to celebrate on a grand scale the fourth centenary of the death of Christopher Columbus. It was at Calvi, in Corsica, that the illustrious navigator was born in 1441, as has been proved by the Abbé Cuzanova, after considerable research. The Genoese governor at Calvi, he says, struck with the precocious intellect of the child, sent him to Genoa. At fourteen, he evinced a decided taste for a sea-faring life. He was accordingly sent to the University of Pavia, where he learned geography, cosmography, geometry, astronomy, and the nautical sciences. In 1470, we find him at Lisbon; in 1477 in Iceland; five years later he embarked at Palos, on the celebrated voyage which ended in the discovery of America. The great navigator, we are told, spoke of Corsica, which he called his native island, in the narratives of his adventures at sea, and to which he made some touching allusions.
Catholic University.—Two-thirds of the money necessary to start the Catholic University has already been raised.
Socialism.—Mr. Hyndman, the guiding spirit of the Social Democratic Federation, has hitherto had a considerable amount of public attention paid to the theories he has advanced. No matter how jejune and impracticable his views might have been when closely examined, he has endeavored to explain them with some show of reason, and accordingly influential politicians have treated him as a man who might be led by the force of logic to abandon Utopian schemes. Mr. Hyndman, so far from being convinced that he has been treading a dangerous path, has taken a further stride in the direction to which it tends. Within the course of some days past two meetings of the unemployed, largely promoted by the Social Democratic Federation, have been held in London, and at each the doctrine of force was freely spoken of as the only remedy for the poverty-stricken. Mr. Hyndman, at the first gathering, gave the keynote to his associates and followers. "All we see," said he, "is the employer and the employed, the wealthy and the destitute, the robber and the robbed." He openly proclaimed himself the advocate of a revolution, for which he urged the unemployed to prepare quickly.
The bishops of Australia have petitioned the Holy See to declare St. Patrick's Day a holyday of obligation.
The Orangemen in 1798.
The Orangemen were now on hand to follow up the vanquished, whom they valiantly slaughtered without mercy—this being always their well chosen avocation in war, for the grim fraternity were never soldiers to fight on equal terms. A regiment of them raised from Bandon Orangemen, and known as the North Cork, became notorious for the ingenious tortures they inflicted on those who fell into their hands. This regiment was in Castlebar when the few Frenchmen that landed under Gen. Humbert advanced on that town. There were six thousand British troops in Castlebar at the time, including the North Cork, when, according to the historian Plowden, Humbert attacked it with nine hundred Frenchmen and fifteen hundred of the Mayo peasantry, making twenty-four hundred in all; and these, it is an historic fact, drove the six thousand out of the town like so many sheep. The North Cork, true to their fighting qualities, gallantly ran away, never halting till they reached Tuam, forty miles from the scene of action, and yet, for further safety, started for Athlone. This incident is still remembered as the "Castlebar races." These runaways were part of the army that Gen. Abercrombie declared "dangerous to everybody but an armed foe;" and well they proved the truth of this saying.
President Egan.—At the National Convention of the Irish National League of America, in Boston, a resolution was unanimously passed directing that a sum of $3,000 shall be annually appropriated out of the funds of the League to indemnify the President of the League for his time and services in the interest of the cause. Mr. Egan, when elected President, informed the committee of his intention not to accept any compensation for his services; but notwithstanding this the National Executive Committee of the League, at their recent meeting in Chicago, insisted on voting the $3,000 due under the resolution up to August last, and directed the Treasurer to remit the same to the President. The check for the amount reached Mr. Egan on the 12th inst., and he at once indorsed it back to Rev. Dr. O'Reilly, the Treasurer, as his personal contribution to the League funds.