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Show SHADOWS OF THE CLOSING YEAR The year 1899 is fast drawing to a close a close which is marked by shadows and desolation in different parts of the world. We are accustomed to boast of our wonderful Nineteenth century progress. In self-complacent mood we look back over the history of ages and pride ourselves our-selves upon the fact that we Jive in an age of progressive enlightenment. th- like of which the wor- i has never seen. We frown at the mention f 'the Middle Ages. Indeed, there .is not a past century that we Ot i.ot look upon ! with disdain. And yet if we stop f.ir a ! moment and lunes.ly look back oer the history of the past we will have difficulty in finding a period of time marked with more wanton cruelty and bloodshed than that which marks the closing days of the Nineteenth century. It seems but yesterday that the world looked upon the deliberations of the Peace Congress as marking an era of advancement and good will. Yet scarcely scarce-ly had that Congress adjourned when what is in some respects the most powerful pow-erful nation in the history of the world takes up arms against an independent and weak nation for no other purpose than to exploit the riches of the weaker weak-er nation in behalf of itself. Queen Victoria's reign is fast com ing to a close. Her snn is slowly "setting. "set-ting. Dark and ominous clouds are hove-ig over her Empire. What a mockery it must be to her at ' this Christmas trme to sing, "Glory to God in the Highest, and Peace on Earth to Men of Good Will." What a mockery mock-ery it must seem to her to say peace where there is no peace, and proclaim good will where there is only persecu- tion and desolation. Greed has taken the. place of good will, and war has taken the place of peace. Victoria reigne over a race actuated by sordid motives, whose sole object is to destroy j the weak for the benefit of the strong, j All this is a sad commentary on the I boasted progress and. enlightenment. of I the Nineteenth Century. j But what could be expected from the I Peace Congress, whose deliberations were denied the august counsel and wisdom of the spiritual father of Christendom? Pulitics dominated the conference at The Hague, and peace was made secondary to : commercial gain. .If . Leo XIII had been given an opportunity, op-portunity, to "be represented at this conference, it'is not too much to expect that his wise counsels would have resulted re-sulted in forming among the members of that assemblage a real spirit of peace. In the Consistory held on the 13th Inst, the Holy Father, in his Allocution, Allocu-tion, referred to the fact that the Vatican Vati-can was not invited to send a representative repre-sentative to the Peace Congress at The Hague, an omission which, he said, had been censured by all impartial judges. Continuing, the Holy Father said: "The Czar invited the representatives of the most powerful nations, with a view to establishing peace. Yet there was none more worthy of an invitation invita-tion than the Pope, who had ever desired de-sired to attain justice, to make peace and to prevent conflict an office which by the Divine will was within the attributes at-tributes of. the Papacy. The Holy See had desired a place in that conference," continued the Pontiff. One voice had obstinately opposed itself to this desire and had gained the point. It was the voice of those who, with the conquest of Rome, had deprived de-prived the Pope of his powers. "What hostility," asked the Pontiff, "have we to fear from them when, even in the face of Europe, they do not hepitate to violate the sanctity of the rights and duties which naturally flow from Apostolic powers! Nevertheless, whatever the future may bring, we should certainly never, by God's help, be found on the side of those who are afraid." |
