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4 . ... JfBJlH.f E®M HEV. A. J. RYAN, Editor AUGUSTA,Ga.,NOVEMBER 14, 1868 MASKS AND FACES. Are you treated with kindness, with courtesy, with attention ? It is the Mask that treats you so. Are you over whelmed with praises and flattery? It is the Mask that praises and flatters you so. Arc you gladdened with expressions of friendship and proffers of kindly assist ance ? It is the Mask which so expresses and profiers. It is the Mask which looks so comely, and makes the world— the human world—so beautiful and so seemingly good! Hut strip off the Mask, expose the Face, and what do you behold ? Hypocrisy, Deceit, False hood ! A “dear, dear friend,” meets you, after long weeks, months, or years, of separa tion, and, with the fondest protestations of friendship, invites you to partake of the hospitalities of his home. His wife and his children will be so gladdened to meet you. And, with an earnest pres sure of the hand, he is compelled to leave you. That is the Mask which has address ed you. Now, strip off the Mask. Go to the hospitable mansion ; look into the private apartments, and see the interview of the wife and your “dear, dear, friend. 7 ’ There are hard words spoken of you. “Your visit is so inopportune. They never can be private. The invitation was merely through politeness, and given in the hope that it would be refused.” But you cannot see the Faces. You only see the Masks: and so tho Masks aro again put on, and the dinner is so capital, and the “dear, dear friends” so delighted to see you, that you feel at peace with all the world, and happy to know that tiue friendship exists, at least, in one little spot of the green Earth! Some day, the Mask of Friendship will be torn away, and the Face of Hypocrisy will be exposed to view. The poor mar# meets his wealthy friend. Anything that the latter can do for him will be cheerfully done. Command him at any time. These are the words of the Mask. The day of trial comes; the poor mail is in need; he asks a trifling loan of money, or his name upon some trivial bond. The Mask still speaks its silvery, soothing tones of friendship; but, just at that particular moment, its funds are low’ and it cannot oblige the suffering friend. Oli, wicked Mask! oh, cruel Deceit! some day you will plead in vain for Friendship and Assistance, when Friend ship and Assistance will be your direst need. The Capitalist, with his countless thou sands, wears, in his ill-gotten gains, the Mask of Honesty and Charity. Behind it, glares the Face of Fraud and Avarice. The Mask and the Face will some day be judged together. The Churchman, with his sleek counte nance, his drawling sentences, and his long prayers, is only hiding his corruption behind the Mask of Religion. Wo unto him! lie may deceive the world with his Mask, impenetrable to human eyes; but, to the eye of Heaven, it can hide nothing. The gay Woman of Fashion, with her silks and satins, her paints, and golden tinsel, her gew*gaws and false attractions, wears the Mask of Human Loveliness; but, that torn away, and her hideous de formity makes the world scorn or pity, as it had loved and admired. Oh ! that the pity of another world may make the Face more beautiful thin the Mask w r as here ! And, Lover and Loved wear Masks, and “plight their troths” in soft and honeyed words; and, when holy vows bind them together in links of Love, then the Masks fall away, and Faces, robbed of Truth and Beauty, bring Misery and Unhappiness, where all should been Love and Joy. Employer and Employed wear Masks of Kindness and Mutual Interest; but, sometimes, the Masks come oft*, and Meanness and Dishonesty, are revealed. The Doliticiau, with his honeyed phrases of affection for “the dear people.” and his “devotion to the best interests of his be loved Country,” sometimes drops his Mask, and exposes his venality and cor ruption to his astonished constituency; the People themselves wear the Mask of Devotion to Principle, and Love for Con stitutional Liberty, but the Face of De ceit, of Fraud, of Unprincipled Action, cannot always be hidden behind it, and the day may come when the Giant of Retribution and the Giant of Despair may come and tear this Mask away, and reveal to them their crime and their punishment; and even the little, innocent Children have their Masks of Goodness, which cover Faces of little Falsehoods, little Thefts, and little Deceptions. And thus we find, in every class and every phase of Society, the Mask always prominent. The golden Mask, the brazen Mask, the Mask of Friendship, the Mask of Love, the Mask of Truth, the Mask of Patriotism, the Mask of Charity, the Mask of Innocence, They are so comely ; they are so cheap; they set off Human Nature so handsomely, and are so attractive. They give grace to the appearance, and ease to the movements, of the wearer; and thus they are met with here, there, and every where. You cannot avoid them, if you would; and so you must be content to watch them, and to laugh at the decep tion which they attempt to pass upon you, who know them. If you do not know them, be cautious. Trust them not. They are Hypocrisy and Deceit, and happy is he who is not their victim. But, some day, the Masks will melt and fall away in the warmth of Heavenly Justice; and, as they fade away, they will be silent witnesses against the Hypoc risy and Deceit of the Faces which they covered here. Strive, then, dear Reader, to cast off your Mask in this day, so that your Face will be radiant with joy, at the reward which your Truth and Virtue will receive in that day. CAN THE SOUTH DO WITHOUT THE NORTH? “Let Congress repeal its Reconstruc tion Acts, and put the South once more in the condition it was at the time of Lee’s surrender ! This, it can do, as Recon struction, thus far, has been wholly a legislative proceeding. Then it will have the ground fallow for its proper planting. And, if our husbandry has not been enriched by experience, we miss our calculation. 4Vhat will be needed will be to begin anew, with confiscation of lands, and the total disability of every Rebel— no representation in Congress—Military Government, and the strong band, for twenty years, upon the South. 44'e can do without the South. Let us see if she can get aloDg without the North !”—Pos ton Commonwealth , {Radical.) You can do without the South, can you ? Well, why don’t you? 44 r e, cer tainly, did our best to get rid of you, but you wouldn’t let us. You held on to us with the grip of death. You sent your butchers, your robbers, and your incen diaries down here, to force us to stay with you, to preserve a Union which was hateful to us, and to compel us to stay with a people we abhorred. You murder ed our people ; you robbed our citizens ; you destroyed our peace and prosperity ; and now you have the impudence to say that you can do without the South. Yes, you vile hy-pocrite, you pretended that the only object of your cruel and vindic tive war was the preservation of the Union. And when you had, by over whelming numbers, and the practice ol the worst sort of barbarianism, triumph ed, you then declared that the South was out of the Union, aud must get down on her knees to ask admittance to that Union again. 44 r e never should have done so. 44 r e should have stayed out, 4Ye should MUSS® ©F Ell soirai. have treated you with that scorn and con tempt which you deserve; and, to-day, you would have been on your knees, begging us to go bock into your Union. But there were weak-kneed men in the South ; there were traitors in the South ; and there were spoilsmen in the South ; and the weak-kneed patriots, and the traitors, and the spoilsmen combined to gether ; and, with ignorant Negroes, plunged this unhappy section into the gulf of ruin and despair. What shall we say of base deserters like these ? The veil of Charity may hide them from the gaze of men; but their consciences—if consciences they have—must make them feel the enormity of their crime, and the weight of the evil they have done. YYs, repeal your Reconstruction laws. Put the strong hand of tyranny upon us. Confiscate our lands. Disfranchise our people. Do your worst, you evil spirits of of the North. We have stood this, and we can staud more. But, we tell you, to-day, beware ! The day of Retribution will come, at last. “I will remove far from you the Northern Army,” is the promise that will be kept; and, in that day, wo unto you, men of the North, who dare to stand up, to-day, and advocate injus tice and tyranny ! Yes; v:e can do without the North. Give us the chance, and you will see how well we can get along without you, you Nation of hypocrites and tyrants ! THE PAPAUNVITATION. Ilis Holiness, Pius IX, in view of the approaching Oecumenical Council, has kindly invited the return to the True Faith of all the erring brethren who have been led away to Sectarianism by the allurements which it holds out to i:s votaries. IBs Apostolic Letter to all those calling themselves Christians, yet, who are outside the Church, we published last week. It is written in the kindly and paternal spirit which characterizes all the official communications of His Holi ness, and will, we hope, be received in a like kiudly and filial spirit by those to whom it is addressed. 4Vhy not seek the Truth, and be all of one spirit and one mind? With search ing and prayer, and an anxious desire for the truth of Religion, on the part of all who wish everlasting life, unity of Faith must he attained. Shall we hope for it? Shall we pray for it ? With such seek ing prayer and desire, the good that will result from this timely Letter will be incalculable, and will mark an era in Christianity that will even overshadow the results of the labors of the grand Council itself. RETRACTION oFwRONG IS NOT COWARDICE. There are some very silly people who imagine that it is cowardice to retract anything wrong said or done by them. Now, the truth is, that the person who refuses to acknowledge an error, when convinced of it, is the veriest coward in the world. A brave man will not refuse to acknowledge that he has committed an error, when so convinced, and to make all the reparation in his power. 44 r e are led to these remarks by the fact that, some seventeen years ago, Hon. S. S. Cox, now of New York, wrote a work on Rome, in which lie very grossly misrepresented the Catholic Church and her Priesthood. In after years, he dis covered his errors, and, in a manly and honorable way, publicly retracted them. These statements of his earlier years having been reproduced in the late can vass, Mr. Cox thus boldly and creditably meets the charge. 44 r e honor him for it; and all honorable minded and brave men will respect him for his boldness and candor: [From the New York World, Oct. 29.] CARD FROM MR. COX. To the Editor of the World : Sir —The Tribune will do me the justice to correct the report of a speech attributed to me at the Chicago Conven tion, in 1864, referred to in an editorial of October 28. Another correction I desire made. Before I ever voted or engaged in poli tics, I wrote a volume of travels—a juve nile performance of seventeen years ago. In if, oti the information of one in authority, I made grossly erroneous state ments as to the ritual and personnel of the Catholic Ecclesiastics at Rome. I desire, without and before any compul sion, to say that I corrected these unrelia ble statements: Ist, by my paper at Columbus, in 1854, when I fought the Democratic fight against intolerance; 2d, by anew edition of the volume, purchas ing the stereotype plates to do it; and, often since, refuting any implication of intolerance, by my vote. I rever gave, in or out of Congress, a bigoted vote— standing always on the Constitution, for perfect religious liberty. When erro neous statements are made, he is a coward who refuses to correct them. I never lost a vote by reason of my prompt refutation of even my own errors. I exult in the performance of so pleasing a duty. These statements referred to, were altogether baseless, if not base. But they were given as truth, to a young stranger, on a transient travel in a strange land. They were rectified, when I had the knowledge of their true character. S. S. Cox. THE POLICY OF THE SOUTH. Radicalism is triumphant ; Grant is elected ; but what the fate of the South will be, we know not. There is wisdom and sober tounsel in the following words from our esteemed cotemporary of the Baltimore Catholic Mirror , however, and we cheerfully give them a place in our columns : A SOUTHERN HERO. It is too true that politicians have turned the unfortunate condition of Southern affairs to their own selfish ad vantage, aud painfully and causelessly aggravated the misery of the South. We hope with all our hearts that the poli tical agitators may soon find that their “ occupation is gone,” and we firmly be lieve that the best cure for Southern ills, is for every Southern man to put his shoulder bravely to the wheel, and, trust ing to the natural advantages of the soil and climate, throw dull care behind, and build up, each man, his individual for tunes. We are satisfied, as a general thing, this can be surely accomplished, unless the dominant party, in the face of their new lease of political power, are determined to convert the South into another Poland, and crush out the last vestige of Southern liberties. If the Federal Union is to be perpetu ated, sound policy, to say nothing of the instincts of humanity, dictates a spirit of conciliation, and the removal of all dis turbing causes. We learned a few days ago, from a gentleman who had recently been in New York, that the great millionaire and advocate of General Grant’s election, Mr. A. T. Stewart, denies that Grant will be governed by Radical counsellors, that he is no party man, and that his ad ministration will prove it. Wo earnest ly hope that the sequel may confirm this encouraging news. But whatever may be the course of politicians there are re sources open to the South, which are totally independent of the smiles or frowns of politicians and office-holders. Those resources are to be found in the strong arms, willing hearts, and magni ficent soil of the whole Southern coun try. Let our young men from here to the Rio Grande read the following beau tiful incident in the career of a Louisiana Boy, and learn the great secret of their power from the lesson which it contains. Dawson Beauchamp has a bright des tiny before him, for he is one of those rarely endowed mortals who understands and acts upon the philosophy contained in the couplet of an American poet, “ From the majesty of Nature Teach the majesty of Man.” The poor South needs just such young men at this trying day. They assuredly will prove the best reconstructionists. We copy the story from the New Orleans Picayune , of the 24th ult : What a Louisiana Boy Can Do. — For the benefit of those who are com plaining of hard times, and of all who are waiting for times to get better, we copy from the Clinton (East Feliciana) Patriot the following : Dawson Beauchamp is the son of Mr. S. E. Beauchamp, of this Parish. He is only fourteen years of age, and quite small for his age. At the beginning of this year, his father offered to send him to school, but he declined, for the rea son that his father was in debt, and could not afford the expense. lie proposed to his father to let him have a piece of land, which he would cul tivate on his own account, aud with what he would make he would school himself next year. The following is the result : 100 bushels corn, sold $l5O 00 4 bales cotton, sold 3s; qo 100 bushels potatoes 100 00 Peas and broom corn ........ ‘>s 00 Total 8056 00 All made with his own labor an I with, out help, and quite enough to board, school and clothe him for two years ! All honor to the boy. [From Philadelphia Catholic Universe.] NEW VICARS GENERAL—WHAT VI CARS ARE, The Rt. Rev. Bishop Wood has jti.st issued the following. We cheerfully give it the benefit of our great circula tion: Episcopal Resit exce, Logan Sqttarf | October 26, 1868. ’ 1 Having been deprived of the invalua ble co-operation of' our former Vicar General by his elevation to the See of Scranton, we have this day appointed the Rev. P. A. Nugent, Pastor of St. Patrick’s Church, and the Rev. M. A Walsh, Pastor of St. Michael’s, our Vicars General, and have clothed them with all the necessary powers. We recommend them to the esteem and conijdence of the Reverend Clergy. James Frederic, Bishop of Philadeipl lia. This dissipates the conjecture that Fathers Dunn and McAnany would be the joint successors of Bishop O’Hara. How Tar does the power of each of the new Vicars run ? How much territory has each of them ? Or, are they always to act together ? A Priest, given to the study of the Canons, who has just dropped in, supplies the following notes on Vicars General: I. Vicars General are Priests empow ered to generally exercise the ordinary Episcopal jurisdiction in place of the Bishops, and their acts, under this power, are as valid as the acts of the Bishops themselves. 11. The first idea of Vicars General was given at the Fourth Lateran Council, when Pope Innocent 111. instructed the assembled Bishops to take Assistants when they could not of themselves dis charge the whole responsibility of the Episcopate. This Council was held in the thirteenth century. But it was not until the time of Boniface VIII. that the muniments of Vicars General were dis tinctly laid down. This was in the be ginning of the fourteenth century. 111. By common right , no Bishop is obliged to have a Vicar General. But, in case of non-residence, or inability, the Pope can compel the appointment. IV. There is no law as to the number of Vicars General a Bishop may have, and the custom on this matter is as vari ous as Dioceses themselves are various. In many cases, Bishops have made seve ral Vicars General just to show that they were not restricted to one. V. When two or more Vicars Gene ral are appointed, the Bishop prescribes the jurisdiction of each of them. 4 1. The authority of Vicars General is only ministerial; i. e., it is exercised, not in the name of the Vicars themselves, but entirely in the name of the Bishop who appoints them—lor Bishops govern Dioceses in their own names. 4 11. In one respect, the office of Vicars General is ordinary , not delegated ; for the power of Bishops who appoint them Is ordinary. But Vicars-Generul exor cise a general jurisdiction, and for this it is necessary to commit to them a yew - rality of places and matters; but a gene rality morally taken. VIII. Vicars General are not mere delegates; for their acts are the same as those of the Bishops, and no appeal is made from them to Bishops. If they were mere delegates, the case would be the opposite. IX. 4 icars General can act neither in matters which are of order; i. <*., they cannot confirm, or ordain; nor can they interfere in things which belong to Bishops as representatives of the Holy See; nor can they mix themselves in things which are, by special right, the domain of Bishops; nor can they visit Dioceses, or examine criminal cases, without distinct authority from their superiors. X. In general, nothing prevent- Bishops irom restricting the power < i 4 icars-General as much as ever they like. XL The jurisdiction of 4’icars General ceases by revocation, renunciation, and by the death and translation ul the Bishops. The office, therefore, is wot perpetual. XII. Finally, it is almost always the case that 4 icars General get Mitres be fore they die. 4Ve are sure that all the Priests and people in this Diocese are glad of the ap pointments now made. Be the best har mony always around them !