President Cleveland has expressed himself emphatically in favor of the enforcement of the eight-hour law in the government departments. He is reported to have said, with reference to the subject, that it ill became a government to evade the spirit and the letter of its own enactments.
The Right Rev. Stephen V. Ryan, Bishop of Buffalo, has gone on a health visit to Florida. There is not, probably, in the whole United States, a more beloved bishop, than this modest, hard working and most heavenly-minded spiritual father. Despite the heavy cares of an extensive diocese, Bishop Ryan has found time to make some valuable contributions to doctrinal and ascetic literature. His great work, "The Apostolic Succession," which has gone through several editions, is a standard authority on that important question. Bishop Ryan is a Pennsylvanian (Canadian by birth), of direct Irish descent; of a family whose very name is a synonym of piety and patriotism. Before he was made bishop, he was a prominent member of the Congregation of the Vincentians, better known in America as the Lazarist Fathers.
The Venerable Rector of the Irish College at Rome, celebrated, on New Year's Day, his 86th birthday. High Mass was pontificated in the Church of St. Agatha, attached to the college, by the Archbishop of Cincinnati, U. S. A., after which Bishop Kirby entertained at dinner Cardinal Howard, the Archbishop of Cincinnati, the Bishops of Galloway, Argyll and the Isles, and Davenport, U. S. A., Mgr. Stonor, Abbot Smith, O. S. B., the Rectors of the Foreign Colleges, the Priors of the National Institutes, the Very Rev. Father Lockhart, Mgr. O'Bryen, and several other dignitaries. The Holy Father sent his congratulations and apostolic benediction, in honor of this anniversary of his old and highly valued friend.
The veteran leader of the Centre Party in Germany, Dr. Windthorst, has completed his seventy-fourth year. Like so many aged Ministers and leaders of political parties, the "little excellency" is as full of energy and strength as the youngest of his followers. We heartily join our fellow Catholics in Germany in wishing their distinguished chief many years of health and strength in which to continue to labor for the good cause.
The Rev. Dr. Ullathorne, Lord Bishop of Birmingham, England, will enter his eightieth year on the 7th of May next, and we find it suggested in a Sydney contemporary that his work as a pioneer Australian priest should be commemorated on that occasion by a presentation from the Catholics of Australia. In an address his Eminence Cardinal Moran describes his Lordship as "the living link of the present with the past."
The Rev. James Keegan, of St. Louis, Mo., is a contributor of graceful poems and interesting prose sketches to Donahoe's Magazine, The Current and other publications. He is also an enthusiast in the movement for the study of the Irish language, and is well versed in the ancient literature of Ireland. At a late meeting of the council of the Gaelic Union, in Dublin, Mr. John Fleming, editor of the Gaelic Journal, presiding, a letter from Father Keegan was read, in which he remitted $5, and promised to contribute the same sum monthly, and challenged all Irish clergymen, lawyers and other professional men, who take any interest in their native country, to contribute towards the journal fund initiated by him.
Notices of Recent Publications.
Thomas B. Noonan & Co., Boston.