" CARDINAL ALAN was a man of
good parts and considerable learning; his person was graceful, and his behaviour affable and insinuating; hut his connections with the See of Rome, and bigoted attachment to that religion, occasioned his being concerned in the most unjustifiable and traitorous practices against his country. In the close of his life he was styled at Rome and everywhere abroad, Cardinal of England; and he was regarded as the protector of the nation, and honoured with extraordinary respect. To maintam his mag-nincence he had a revenue of 15,000 crowns per annum. But when it appeared that all this had answered but little purpose, and that there were no hopes of reducing England to the 'Holy See, either by fraud or force, less care was taken of English priests and few of them were raised even to the degree of Bishops."
This charmingly Protestant sketch I found in an old book called British Biography which I picked up last week at the Catholic Worker Bookshop, Croydon (still bravely defying Black-out and getting temporal reward at least by rising book sales) for sixpence. Britiak Biograph.y—my edition of which was published in 1768—has an alternative title, somewhat longer. It is: As. Accurate and Impartial Account of the Lives and Writings of Eminent Persons in Great Britain and Ireland front. Wifikitif, who began the Reformation by his Writings, to the Present Time.; Whether Statesmen, Patriots, Generals, Admirals, Philosophers, Poets, Lawyers, or Divines.
Superior Smile
wraD011f is an American Catholic review. It has eight pages, each half the size of a Ceauome Heferae page. It appears once a month.
Being cognisant of the war-time conditions under which the C.H. Is produced, is one permitted a slightly superior smile when reading above Wisdom's main editorial that its staff consists of an editor-in-chief, three editors (ordinary and not in-chief), four other members of editorial staff, eight staff correspondents, one circulation manager, 25 members of an executive staff, and an advisory board of 33?
Incidentally, Wisdom does show signs of having had some work put into it. It Is much alive and kicking.
Moose Women
ONE of the less intelligent campaigns to make the cinema " moral " has been initiated by the 500 members of the Lynn Chapter of the Women of the Moose, who have requested that local cinemas discontinue :thawing films in which divorced actors or actresses are featured. Lynn is more precisely known as Lynn, Mass., U.S.A.
Unquiet Corner
k ASS HELEN SLINGSBY was my !VI maiden aunt, And lived in a small house near a, fashionable square
Cared for by servants to the number of four,
Now when she died there was silence in heaven And silence at her end of the street. The shutters were drawn and the under-, taker wiped his feet—
He was aware that this sort of thing had occurred before.
The dogs were handsomely provided for, But shortly afterwards the parrot died too.
The Dresden clock continued ticking on the mantelpiece, And the footman sat upon the dining table
Holding the second housemaid on his knees— Who had always been so careful while her mistress lived.
T. S. ELIOT.