CONYBEARE'S CONVERSION.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8526, 22 November 1889, Page 3

CONYBEARE'S CONVERSION.

(The Times.) The Irish people, including their priests, are capable, happily or unhappily, of turning everything into a joke. There are Catholic prisoners in Derry Gaol, and although the imprisoned peasants belong, of coarse, to an oppressed race, still their brutal and tyrannical Saxon rulers have been in the habit of paying a priest to bring to these incarcerated Irishmen the consolations of their creed. Nobody can want priests more— for either they are sinners, and should be led to repentance, or are innocent patriots, and should be exhorted to bear their undeserved sufferings with Christian resignation. Unfortunately for the poor Papists in tbis particular prison Mr Conybeare was sent to bear them company. In the outer world that restless and eccentric gentleman was nominally a member of the Church of England, but once imprisoned as a friend ts Ireland and her cause, he determined, as a No Popery man would say, to " b.'ack himself all over for the part"— like the thoroughgoing country actor before he personated Othello. He boldly announced, when asked by the prison sutUoritfes to Btste bis creed, that

he was a " Roman Catholic." Of courso, they knew that, as a matter of fact, ho was not j but how could tbey prove that this waa not a case of instantaneous conversion , It was said of a celebrated sinner who died through a fall from his horse, " Between the saddle and the ground He mercy sought and mercy found "-^-and between the sentence tthd the prison doora Mr UdnJ_eai_ may have become suddenly aware of the superior pre* , tensions of the Old churfcli, One i advantage il_me<_aieiy accrued from this remarkable conversion— the Catholic c chaplain became Mr Conybeare's conr stant visitor. It was amazing, in fact, i, how much spiritual consolation this new a inmate frequently requited. Once, at a 3 hydropathic establishment, where no '• spirits or hot grog were allowed, a crafty f commercial told a few of the guests that i when he 'vanted to make a sly glass of 3 punch in his room he called for hot water i to shaVe. Tbe consequence was that next s night there was a rage for shaving in ' almost evety bed - room in the house. ' Something equally suspicious showed ' itself in the fact that Mr Cohybeare i was sooh able to defy the prison rulea 1 and to strntfigle out prohibited corres* ; pondence. The officials were examined, i out the Roman Catholic chaplain refused io answer any questions. He was, of course, dismissed, and his ecclesiastical superior was requested to nomiuate a successor. He has declined to do so, and declares that the Prisons Board will be " responsible for the consequences." So, as a result of the quarrel, the Catholic prisoners in Derry Gaol could not hear Mass last Sunday, and if one of them were dying to-morrow be must depend on the prison officials summoning in haste an outdoor priest who may or may not be at hand. We have said that Irishmen can treat everything a3 a joke; bufc we thought that perhaps they would stop short of the rites ot their own religion. Everybody who has studied the subject knows the transcendent importance the Roman Churoh attaches to the sacrifice of fche Mass. No Protestant iayman attributes to church-going the efficacy and value that, in the eyes of all good Catholics, belong to the ministrations of the priest at the altar. Nothing can be more touching than the exertions made by pious peasants, in the good old times, to attend Mass. Sometimes, when the people were poor, their little chapel was a wretched building too small for the devotees. Then the local Protestants passing by to listen to their liturgy, at their handsome ond half-empty church, saw rows of peasants kneeling on the bare ground, exposed to wind and cold and rain, but catching through the open door a glimpse of their poor altar, and hearing the tinkle 'of the little bell that proclaimed the Real Presence and bowed the heads of the congregation. Off the Kerry coast there was au island separated from the mainland by a narrow strait, sometimes so lashed by storm that no boat could live in it. The cbapel was on the mainland, and the peasants of the island when not able on Sunday to cross, uaed to kneel on their rocks while the progress of the sacred rite was signalled to them by flags. That is aome years ago. Now a Roman priest is so resolute in his hatred of Balfour and Toryism that he leaves the poor prisoners of Derry without the benefits of the Mass, and trusts to chance whether adying sinner departs unshriven. He says that the Prisons Board will be " held responsible for the consequences." The consequences, according to Roman theologians, may be the loss of a soul ; is saving souls tha function of the Castle officials . VV hen during the wanton Mexican war American writers contended that the army had only to obey orders, Lowell wrote, " If you take a sword and dror it, And then run a feller through, Gov'nment's not to answer for it, God will send the bill to you." Must not such a thought occur to this very political priest ? If ifc is his duty to administer the rites of his Church to all within hia parish, prisoners or otherwise, does he think be can escape this duty by throwing all the responsibility on Mr Balfour and the Prisons Board ? The prisoners have no power in the matter. Mr Balfour probably does not recognise the importance to Catholics of the Mass and of Extreme Unction. But haa not fche priest taught hia flock that their Bternal salvation depends on these solemn rites? And can he now make light of them, and practically say, " Oh, they do not matter compared wifch the assistance we may give towards helping Mr Gladstone to office again 1" In all seriousness can an ecclesiastic be indifferent to the peril of a soul being lost because possibly a seat may be gained — at Sleaford, Peterborongh, or North Bucks ? The mere suggestion of such a deliberate subjection of spiritual to political considerations is abhorrent.

THE BUCKEYE HARVESTER.