h post,
officers and sailors of the war-ship moored in the harbor of Qui-nhon,
the crew and passengers of the steamer which came to port August
5th--should witness the horrible sight of ten or twelve different
centres of conflagration. There were as many fires as there were
Christian settlements. These lighted up the horizon all along the shore
for several miles. The officers, soldiers, and travellers were for the
most part strangers, and in some cases indifferent to everything that
concerns the missions. They have seen with their own eyes and with
lively emotion the greatness of the disasters which have befallen us....
Missionaries and Christians, we have literally been deprived of
everything: clothing, houses, rice, vestments for the celebration of the
holy Mass and the administration of the sacraments, books; we are in
need of everything. Scarcely one of us was able to save any part of his
possessions. But that which has the most saddened us missionaries, is to
have been forced to be present, down-hearted and powerless, during the
ruin and extermination of our Christians. How many times have we
repeated the words of Scripture: _I saw the oppressions that are done
under the sun, and the tears of the innocent, and they had no comforter:
and they were not able to resist their violence, being destitute of help
from any. And I praised the dead rather than the living._ (Eccl. iv.
1-2.) Yes, happy are those among us who died before witnessing all
these calamities, in comparison of which a typhoon, an inundation, even
a pestilence, would seem only ordinary misfortunes."

_The Messenger of the Sacred Heart._

Parnell's Strength.

Mr. Parnell will have eighty-six followers in the new Parliament. From
biographical sketches of them the following facts have been
gleaned:--Twenty-three have had some collegiate education; twenty-five
have sat in previous Parliaments; nine of them are lawyers, six editors,
four magistrates, four merchants, three physicians, two educational
workers, two drapers, three tavern-keepers, four farmers, two grocers,
one carpenter, one blacksmith, one florist, one watchmaker, one tailor,
one dancing-saloon owner, and one manager of a dancing-school. There are
also a brewer, an ex-Lord Mayor of Dublin, a Secretary to the Lord Mayor
of Dublin, a Baronet, and a Knight. It appears that the members are
mostly men of the middle classes, who labor in some profession or trade
for a