Hawke's Bay Herald. SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1889.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8331, 6 April 1889, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1889.

THEOLOGY IN POLITICS. A VERY bad condition of affairs is coming into existence. Ricrhtly or wrongly the troubles now constituting what is briefly called the " Irish ' Question are considered by many to be directly due to the Roman Catholic Church. Those who hold this opinion the most firmly are, of course, that section of the community which is flattered wheu called " ultra-Protestant," and which looks upon the Komibh Church as the direst enemy ot mankind, seeking to frustrato social and scientific progress, to crash modern political ideas by Ccesarism, and to seek matorial aggrandisement by working upon the superstitious fears of the most ignorant of mankind. Were the matter confined to those who think that way there would bo room for fearing trouble, but judging by the march of events there is still greater reason for apprehension. All over tho Euglish-speaking world, in Great Britaiti, America, Canada, and Australasia, there is evident a growinp tendency to introduce theology into elections, and a theology, be it understood, which takes note of very little else but the existence of tho Romish and Anglican Churches. In Canada things have got to snch a pass that au acrimonious quarrel over the endowment of the Jesuits in that country has led to the introduction for a second time into Canadian politics of the bugbear ot annexation to tho United States. The soreness may yet lead to civil war. It is. the Protestant Party threatening to bring about annexation, because, as they say, nothing but that will put a stop to the machinations of a crowd of professional politicians, born of manhood suffrage and payment of members, who find that the surest way to get money and position is to buy the Catholic vote by concessions at the expense of the community generally. And here we may say that there is a great deal to justify what is said about " buying " tho Catholic vote. Practically it is always, and in every portion of the British Domiuions, for sale. Catholics who are patriotic, and who are determined to be good citizens, are unfortunately rare. These deserve gifiat honor — greater than they usually get— for they have to fight against a deal of prejudice usually excited by priests against those who do not submit body and soul to ecclesiastical domination, but they are not a body large enough to "leaven the whole lump." That lump, to all intents and purposes, , goes as it is told to go, and there is no secret about what it is told. At eleations in the colonies, for instance, the priests openly proclaim that only one question should interest the good Catholic, that of subsidies to Catholic schools. It is said, boldly, openly, and in so many words, " Never mind any man's opinions on this or that subject, take no account of his capacity to legislate, but in all cases where it is a choice between one candidate who will promise to vote for educational concessions to Catholics, and aaocher who will not promise, vote for the one who promises." This is more than "well" known — it is known to everybody who takes an interest in politics. " Who is going to get tho Catholic vote?" is a common question, and who docs get it is in the majority of cases the candidate who makes the most promises to the priest, who in turn tells his flock which way to vote. There is also an Orange vote, and this is for sale in almost the same sense, but the great difference is that when an Orange Lodge decides to voto this or that way, it is a matter of voluntary combination, but that when a priest promises a candidate the votes of Catholics he does so on the assumption that he, one member of the community, can fulfil the promise. No candid reader needs to be told what an immense djjfference is involved. We bold it to be very wrong for a number of Orangemen to combine to sacrifice their political rights and duties in order to support a candidate, possibly an unfit one, for no other reason than that he will oppose a grant to Catholics from the State purse, but it is Vlso wrong, and much more disgraceful, for a priest to be able to pledge the votes of his flock a« if that word literally described them. There would be as much virtue in a sheepfarmer voting his flock. But whichever side is the more in error over this selling business, it is certain that all over the Empire the Catholic vote is for aale in a very practical and well-displayed fashion, and that to a a lesser extent, and in a more fittul manner, Orangemen act similarly. Out of this is growing the danger referred to at the commencement of this article. Moderate Protestants— some so moderate as to have very little theology indeed— are gradually coming to the conclusion that the persistent bartering by ecclesiastics of " block " votes is a danger to the State, the suffrage being practically abolished in favor of a minority of clever " people of the third sex " who think less of the welfare of the State than of the aggrandisement of a religious sect. The recent meeting of ultra-Protestants in Birmingham, aid the still more recent action taken by the Orangemen of i Duuedin, are serious signß of the times. It begins to look as if politics are to bo t degraded to the level of a squabble in which the contestants will be mustered in squads under so-called "religions" tcacheis, and in which each squad will seek to do nothing beyond what will annoy or injure some other squad from a theological point of view. The worst of it is that those trying to raarshall the Protestant squads have a great many irritating facts to partially excuse them, although not to justify them. In America the Catholic vote is sold to those candidates who will promise to make matters uncomfortable for England, and the "Irish Party " in the States is openly talked of as existing to humble England. That party is now, and always haa been, well organised, and all the small bodies which make up the whole, meet in Catholic schoolrooms and usually with a priest as president. Throughout the Northern States there is hardly a Catholic congregation which has not all its male members adherents of the league now seeking to destroy the British Constitution, and in nearly all cases each knot of malcontents has a priest for a leader, and that priest usually conducts the negotiations when the " block" vote has to be sold to somebody. Nearly every Catholic church in New Zealand is a centre of political agitation, its priest the head of a combination seeking to break up the Empire, and so openly is this professed that it is the rule to purposely omit the toast of "The Queen" at gatherings where toasts are supposed to be necessary. The mere omission would be nothing if not done for a purpose, but it indicates the spirit of organised rebellion which all may discern who wish. Now, ultra - Protestants profess to see in all these things, and particularly in the chorch-designed combinations for making Cathjlics vote in a body instead of as citizens, the attempts ot a power regarded as the embodiment of social, political, and religious tyranny to cunningly worm itself into the position of predominating power in the State. Naturally there comes the attempt to retaliate, "and the call for Protestant combination to imitate Catholic combination by voting at elections irrespeefwe of all considerations but theological ones. This is a misfortune, for it means even more bitterness than elections now have, and the re-creation of a once-prevalent sect hatred all but dead. And yet there seems no help for it. Com- i bination on one side was bound to bring about that combination on the other now forcing itself into prominence. The lover of mankind can only conclude that while' the sublime moral teachings of Christ are calculated to bless the world and all in it, the most hateful things on earth are those ecclesiastical systems which, while pro fessing to present Christ, dishonor and deny him by doing all they can to make people hate each other.