OURSELVES.
New Zealand Tablet, Volume VIII, Issue 414, 18 March 1881, Page 13
About this newspaper
OURSELVES.
The Wellington correspondent of the Ljttelton Times teiegraphed the following in reference to a new journal which, he says, it is proposed to establish in Wellington It is rumoured that Mr. Walter Johnston is taking a warm and practical interest in the matter. The plant has been telegraphed for, and it is supposed that on arrival, the publication of the Tablet will be removed from Dunedin to Wellington; the two papers being, however, kept quite distinct." So far as the Tablet is concerned there are no grounds whatever for this supposition. No change whatever, in reference either to the time or place of the publication of the Tablet is in contemplation. We do not know whether there are any grounds for the report as to the establishment of a new paper in Wellington. But we shrewdly suspect the report to be a canard, started, with the view of getting up a no-Popery cry against Mr. Johnston, because he is supposed to be favourable to justice to the Catholic body, by the men who, in order to excite the fears of the bigoted, lately gave the public a history of his religion, parentage, education, and speeches. A scandalous proceeding was this, such as we do not remember to have seen exhibited on *ny previous occasion. When other gentlemen were appointed Ministers, similar details in reference to them were not given by the newspapers. When Mr. Stout, for example, was nominated Attorney-General, the public were not informed as to his birth, education, and very peculiar views on the religious question, and his anti-Christian principles. No, but no sooner does a Catlolic happen to become a member of the Cabinet, than a certain class of colonists at once proclaim the principle formerly inscribed on the gates of Bandon Turk, Jew, or Atheist may enter hero, Bat not a Papist.
It should surprise every one who believes the jury in the trial of the Land Leaguers to have been without exception composed of unprejudiced and honest men that even two of them could have been so dull as to bold out for an unfavorable verdict after the withdrawal by Government of the 19th count of the indictment. This count ran as follows For the purpose of exciting ill-will among Her Majesty's subjects," and, in order to meet the accusation contained in it, the traveisers were prepared to bring forward a great number of witnesses who should prove what it was that in truth had caused illwill in the country and necessitated the organisation of the Land League. Among their witnesses were men, too, who had themselves been the victims of cruel eviction, and come of whom had seen their wives or children die of hardships on the roadside, upon which they had been thrown. The Government were afraid to face such evidence as this, and durst at no cost hare such details as would infallibly have been given made public put forward upon oath in the face of the whole world, as they would have been. The count was, therefore, withdrawn, and this fact must convince any man of ordinary sense of the true nature of the prosecution in question. The two jurors who held out must have been more than ordinarily devoted to the interests of the Government. Czar Alexandeb 111. has issued a manifesto in which, as it was only to have been expected, he has warmly condemned the murderem of his father. The Czar, we are told, denounced the murderous attacks upon the dynasty," but •we doubt as to whether there is any special enmity towards the House of Romanoff in the matter. The attack was upon the Emperor and not upon the man, and the Emperor, since the imperial office has cot perished, will still remain the object «f attack. M. Victor Hugo told his followers the other day that emperors and kings were without the pale of their consideration for all other men, whose opinions differed from theirs, he said, they bad pity, but fox emperors and kings only hatred and assassination. And M. Victor Hugo is a leader of the men who have murdered the Czar. Czar Alexander 111, then, we are persuaded, succeeds not only to his father's crown but also to his place in the designs of the secret societies. W ill be be able to set a surer guard over bis life than that which at last failed Czar Alexander 11. Meantime, let us remark that it was not before the vengeance of Catholics, whom he had so greatly persecuted, that the Emperor fell. They left him to the justice of God and it reached him in another way. But like has slain like a tyraany has destroyed a tyrant. We clip the following from our contemporary the London Universe of January 22nd Thomas Stonor, Lord Camoys, in the peerage of England, died on Tuesday at Stonor, the family seat, near Henley-on-Thames. For some time past he had been in feeble health, due to his advanced years, and was unable to attend his son's funeral at Stonor on Saturday last. The deceased peer was the elder of the two sons of Mr. Thomas Stonor, of Stonor, Oxon, by his wife Catherine, daughter of Mr. H. Blundell, of Ince Blundell, Lancashire, and was born on the 22nd of October, 1797. He married, on the 25th of July, 1821, Frances, daughter of the late Mr. Peregrine Edward Towneley, of Towneley Hall, Lancashire, by whom he leaves surviving issue one son, the Very Rev. and Hon. Monsignor Edmund Stonor, Chamberlain to the late Pope Pius IX., and seven daughters (three of whom are nuns). His daughters include the Hon. Catherine Stonor, the Hon. Lady Snaythe, the Hon. Mrs. Agar-Ellis, and the Hon. Mrs. Pereira. The deceased nohleman became Lord Camoys in September, 1839, Her Majesty having been pleased to call out of abeyance the ancient barony, created by writ in 1383. The peerage had been in abeyance from the reign of Henry VI. His lordship had been for a long series of years one of Her Majesty's Lords-in- Waiting- He was returned as M.P. for Oxford in 1832, but was unseated on petition, and he unsuccessfully contested the city in 1835, and the county in 1837. By his death his grandson, Mr. Francis Robert Stonor, eldest son of the late Hon Francis Stonor, who died somewhat suddenly on the 10th inst., born December 9, 1856, succeeds to the barony. R.I.P. What have we got in New Zealand Are we about to found a Bastille Has his Excellency the Governor commenced to set his seal to lettres de cachet Are our excellent fellow-citizen the Govemer of Dunedin Gaol and his compeers in other parts of the colony e»en now engaged, at all hours of the night, in excavating oulllettes. Or have there been lettres de cachet and oubliettes in our gaols all along, and are the powers that be terrified out of their lives lest the screams of the victims and the debris of human bodies shall come within the notice of the public However it be, a man of much importance, who signs himself "P. A. Hume, captain, inspector of prisons," has issued strict orders that all things are to be carried on rigidly under the rose, and that the mischievous newspapers are to b* given no information whatever, unless it come to them in the way of red tape and the Circumlocution office. There may be those, however, who are of opinion that the less mystery there is made about anything connected with our public institutions the better. If there is anything connected with their circumstances or management that the authorities consider undesirable for the public to know, it is plainly a state of things that should not exist, and it ought to be the
first duty of an Inspector of Prisons to remedy it, and see that nothing goes on there that nay not be published to the whole world. We cannot congratulate this gentleman signing himwlf "P. A. Hume, captain, inspector of prisons," on his circular of orders it is a very foolish document, and betrays the mere empty-headed martinet. By the way, whose particular proteg6 is the gallant captain, and where did he come from Does anyone know besides come Minister i Meantime it is an insult to the Press generally to imply that it is ready to publish idle gossip surreptitiously obtained, and calculated to do mischief. We forwarded by yesterday's Suez mail to Mr. P. Egan, treasurer of the Land League, the sum of £31 9s. Od., less coafc of order. We sent it under cover to B. Dwyer Gray, Esq., M.P., so as to insure its safety. A list of the subscriptions will be found in another column. An Ex«pupil of the Christian Brothers' School furnishes us with the following information concerning the late cricket match between the club he belongs to and the pupils of St. Aloysius College At the end of the first inning the score stood— School, 61 College, 53. In the second innings the College reached 127 on tbe fall of the last wicket, -when time was called, and the school was left without a second innings. 9 Meetings of the Land League still continue. Hey were held on Sunday last in twenty different places. So far the authorities have not interfered with them, and it is needless to say th« conduct of the people has been as usual earnest, determined and calm. The Nihilists are jubilant over the success of their murderous attempt against the Emperor Alexander. A manifesto has been issued by them. The actual murderer is a man named Rovsakoff, sometime a student at the Bussian Mining School. He has acknowledged his crime, but it is not likely he will betray any important secret of his society. Ome thousand Boers have left the Free State for the purpose of aiding their friends in the Transvaal. Sir Evelyn Wood, however, is about to hold a cenference with President Brand and Paul Krager to consider terms of peace, and we may be persuaded England will sot now be difficult in the matter. Meantime an offer of assistance against the insurgents by certain Volunteers of South Australia has been declined with thanks by Lord Kimberley, and thus they have all the honour and none of the hard knocks. Was the offer of our Wellington Volunteers also telegraphed to London If not they will be unjustiy defrauded of their sprig of a comfortable laurel bosh. We take the following from the N. Z. Herald of the sth inst. A highly instructive pastoral letter of his Grace Archbishop Steins for the Lent of 1881 was read on Sunday last, not only in St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the other Roman Catholic churches of the city, but likewise those of the diocese the Lenten regulations were also announced. The usual devotions for the holy time and penitential season of Lent commenced on Wednesday evening (Ash- Wednesday) in the cathedral, the Archbishop officiating. His Grace delivered an excellent sermon on the occasion, from the text Remember, man, thou art but dust," &c. There was a very good congregation. The devotions concluded with benediation of the Blessed Sacrament. The Archbishop also conducted the beautiful exercise of the stations of the Crosß yesterday evening, in the same church, and gave a brief but cry touching exhortation on the Passion and Sufferings of our Blessed Lord at each station. The choir rendering at intervals, in a very happy manner, a portion of the Stabat Mater. 1 The congregation was even larger than on Wednesday evening. Thk intelligent telegraphist who sends news by cable to these colonies is evidently guided by some principle peculiar to himself. News that would not be thought worth repetition by the most ordinary chatter-box he sends here, but news that is of importance he withholds. We have for instance been kept informed as to every stupid report ot intended Fenian outrages, but the weighty Fenian manifestation that really occurred has been held back from us. It is of much import to learn, then, that in one night a placard warning the Irish people against any attempt at an outbreak was posted up in every part of Ireland, and in the Irish centres of England and Scotland. It is a fact that bespeaks a powerful organisation still in existence, and, joined to the knowledge we possess of the mannex in which, four or five years ago, the rescue of the Fenian prisoners from Western Australia was brought about many thousands of people being aware of what was on foot, and yet no bint of tbe undertaking leaking out it is suggestive in the extreme. The delay about the introduction of the Land Bill is reported to be occasioned .by disputes in the Cabinet as to the provisions of the Bill. This, we should say, means that such measures as are of radical importance, and intended for the genuine amelioration of the state of things in Ireland, are opposed by some of the Ministers. With a partially hostile Ministry, a largely hostile House of Commons, and a totally hostile House ©f Lords, it is difficult to think that any change of importance may be looked for in the condition of affairs. One of our contemporaries has "boiled down" the Bishop of Brisbane's late utterance on education into a declaration that if the Irishmen of the colonies did not get all they wanted, they would take up arms against tbe English Government. We beg to reaunA
oar contemporary that not only smartness, but truth as well, would become the columns of a well-conducted journal. From the same paper we clip the following It is rather strange that there is starvation in Connemara, in Ireland, where, it is alleged, the land is poor and also starvation in Connemara, in Minnesota, where the land is said to be the richest in tbs world." No, there is nothing remarkable about it. If people have for generations been impoverished, starved, and forced into pauperism, with its attendant dispositions, it is not to be expected that in a few months, and by a mere change of locality, they can iise to the condition of independent men. That would be a miracle, and although the age of miracles is not passed, as it is commonly asserted, we do not look for them to occur on every possible occasion. Our contemporary in this instance sacrifices justice and common sense to smartness, but without some foundation in reason smartness itself grows tiresome and flat. Mb. PA.RNELL advises Irish voters in England to oppose the Liberals and prevent their return to Parliament, so far as it is possible.
