Mr. Thomas J. Gargan, of Boston, delivered an oration in Halifax, Nova Scotia, before the Charitable Irish Society, of that city, on the occasion of its one hundredth anniversary. The president of the Charitable Irish Society of Boston, Mr. Morrissey, received a very cordial invitation from the Halifax society to be present at the anniversary, and replied that, in consequence of business here, he could not attend. Mr. Gargan, however, an ex-president of the Boston organization, was delegated to respond at the Halifax banquet for the Charitable Irish Society of Boston. Mr. D. H. Morrissey, president of the latter organization, has invited the president of the Halifax society to attend the annual banquet at the Parker House, March 17. Rev. Patrick Strain, pastor of St. Mary's Church, at Lynn, Mass., has been presented with two elegant altar chairs, an easy chair and an altar robe, in appreciation of his devoted labors during a pastorate of thirty-five years. He went to Lynn from a charge at Chelsea in 1851. Since he has been in Lynn he has raised upward of $200,000 for church work. The old original wooden church is now replaced by a spacious brick edifice. There is also a flourishing parochial school. Rev. Father Nugent has retired from the chaplaincy of the prison at Liverpool, where he has done so much good service for the last twenty-two years. It is said that the retiring chaplain will enjoy a well earned pension of £200 a year. During the twenty-two years of his sacred ministry at Walton, over two hundred thousand prisoners have passed under his charge. Who can tell the number that have been rescued from a life of crime through his ministrations? Hon. A. M. Keiley intends to settle in New York City and practice at his profession of the law. On January 6th, he was admitted to practice at the Bar of that State, by the General Term of the Supreme Court. His standing as a lawyer was certified to by the Clerk of the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia; and ex-Chief Justice Charles P. Daly vouched for him as a moral person. As soon as he was sworn in, Mr. Keiley seconded Mr. Algernon S. Sullivan's motion for the admission of Mr. T. McCants Stewart, a colored lawyer from South Carolina. Mr. Stewart was admitted. NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS. _Thomas B. Noonan & Co., Boston._ THE ALTAR MANUAL for the use of the Reverend Clergy. Price 75 cents. This very useful book contains Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays and holydays. The Litanies, the Stations of the Cross, Litany and Prayers at Forty Hours' Devotion, etc., the whole forming a compact volume of two hundred and forty-one pages. Every clergyman in the country should possess this excellent book. _Excelsior Publishing House, N. Y._ LIFE OF PARNELL AND WHAT HE HAS ACHIEVED FOR IRELAND. By J. S. Mahoney. Price 25 cents.