" THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFICT."

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXXII, Issue 5770, 25 March 1876, Page 3

" THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFICT. "

To the Editor : Sir,— There is much in Mr. Ewington's lecture that merits attention at the hands of all sections of colonist3 who are, us all ought to bo, interested in tho freedom of the subject, and in the maintenance of that civil and religious liberty which is supposed to bo the boast of Englishmen. Jew and Gentile, Catholic and Protestant, are alike in tho eye3 of the law, and it is necessary, in justice to all classes, that our civil rights should not be infringed in auy way by any one of these classes. Bearing very closely on, and, indeed, reflecting mx^ch of the sentiments expressed in Mr. Ewingtou's .lecture, as well reported in the Cross of ' "this morning, is an article in a late copy of the Australasian, entitled, "The irrepressible cpnflict;" for certain extracts from which I crave you will afford space in your widely read paper. The extracts are forcible, and speak for'themselves. For me, I am a Cosmopolitan, and look with equal eye, in a civil light, on all sects;, but what I claim, what we must all claim,' 'is a careful guardianship of our common, civil, and social rights* and their freedom from interference therewith by any church or sect, directly or indirectly. The extracts I refer to are these : — That portion of General Grant's seventh annual lnesuage to Congress which deals with the all-important question of national education, is tin emphatio reiteration Of tho memorable words which he uttered, at Des Moinos, on the 29th of September lost. "Encourage free schools," he then ,»aid, ",and resolvo that not one dollar appropriated. for their support shall be appropriated to the support of any sectarian sphools." In his address to Congress ho recommends that a constitutional amendment bo submitted to tho Legislatures of the various States ,for ratification, " making it the duty of bach .State to establish nnd for over unnintain free public schooli adequate to tho education of ajt the children in the rudimentary branches, , within -their respective limits, irrespective i of sex, colour, birthplace, or religion, and forbidding the use t in said schools of irreligious, atheistio, or pagan text-books ; and prohibiting the grouting of any funds or school taxes, or any part thereof, either by legislature, municipal, or other bodies, for the benefit of , any other objeofc, of any nature or kind whatever, in connection with this important questiou." . In addition, he recommends that all church property should be subjected to both national and municipal taxation ; and he asserts that this property < is oF the present value of £200,000,000 sterling, and may bo oxpeoted to reach troblo that valuo by the year 1900. Tho policy thuf foieshndowed is not an aggreuivo but a defensive policy. It has beon forced upon tho llopublican party in the United States by the attitude nnd notion of the Ultny montanes in that country, who have been cultivating an alliance with the' Democrats, in the hope of being able to moke u»e of them in the event 'of thoir .being restored to powor. They woro justified in this expectation by the appropriations rcftll ° ou * of tu0 cifcv f . unrl . s of New York to Eomivn Catholic institutions, while tho the inf.unous Tammany King wob supremo in that city. The figures speak for themselves :— Aggregate to E.O. Institutions, l,396,389dol. ; do. to Protestant do., 112,293dol.; do. to . Hebrew do., 25,852doL ; total, 1,534,0311101. Thu» the Catholics got 91 per cent., and the Protestants little more than 7 per osnt. of the gross amount. Again, ajecrtain per contage of the receipt* for liquor licences, ii made payable by Uvr to public*hnrities ; and, in 1809; out of 214,9G0dol. of this fund, the Eoman Cft'tholios' got 17$,672dol., or 82 per cent., and tho Protestants only fl,500ilol., or less than threo per oont., while in 1870, the proportion was 84 fttld 2 per cent, respectively, tho balance being distributed among Hebrew and «oiv-sect.arinn institutions. ''And this policy was continued down* to tho ' overthrow of the Ring in 1874. Sinbo'tnen, owing to the coalition betwecn^hoDempbratii and thaUltramontanes in New^bfkT tKe Catholic* have sue; coedod in getting 15 dollars for .their 1 own ichools to every one dollar of all other church schools, The Roman Catholic archbishop of

St. Louis, who controls and inspires a newspaper called the Shepherd of the Valley, speaks out with delightful freodom. The aims and objects of Vaticanism are laid bare so unreseivedly us clearly to indicate the confident belief of his Grace in the imminent ascendancy of lmchuieh in the United States ; and, when that has beeu sccuied, all who dissent from it muit look out for squalls. Those nre the ipaittiuM <ci6a of the Shepherd of the Valley. — '• The Church indeed tolerates heretic here, where she is under restraint, but she hates them nioi tally, and employs her forces to secure their annihilation. As soon as the Catholics arc lieie in possession of a considerable majority— an certainly they will be some day, although the moment may delay its coming— then religious liberty will have come to an end in the United States. Our enemies say so, and we agree with them. Our enemies know that we do not pretend to be better than our Church, and as to what concerns that Church its history is open to the eyes of all. They know, then, how it actod with heretics in the Middle Ages, and how it acts with them now wherever it hat the requisite power." The first object of attack has been the common school system. Roman Catholic parents were commanded to withdraw their children from the .State school*. Denominational achoolfi were then opened, and a demand made for a division of the school taxes. The Roman Catholic vote • was next promised to the democratic party, on condition that it favoured this policy ; but the terms of the compact oozed out, and the Protestant feeling of tho country was so thoroughly aroused that the Democrats were obliged to make ' a bolt 'of it ; and now President Grant hap ' put his foot down ' with so much promptitude and decision, that it is not impossible that he may be carried into power for a third term on the strength of his declaration on the education question. In the meanwhile, the lovers of freedom throughout the whole of Christendom ought to be very much obliged to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of St. Louis for assuring 'them, through las 'Shepherd of tho Valley,' that just as tho Chinch acted with heretics in the Middle Ages, so .she will act with them now, whenever she has the lequisite power. The spirit, indeed, is willing, but, fortunately for mankind, tho flesh is exceedingly weak. Let us all ponder these things, and let all sects— Catholi* and Protestant alike, act in the true spirit of true British citizens, and preserve their civil rights and religious liberties, for without luhgious liberty civil freedom is a mei'e Hgmcnt. — Yours, &c, Oivis Roman us Sum,