THE CORONATION OATH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12571, 5 August 1901, Page 6

THE CORONATION OATH.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I have read in your paper a' report of a meeting of Orangemen, field to' protest against any alteration, in the Coronation Oath, and for pure rot and bunkum it takes the cake. We have had an- experience of this sort of narrow-minded ignorance as' being •■ the cause of the Indian Mutiny. This old bugbear, "Romish supremacy," is only a bogey .cry to bring grist to the Protestant mill. 'When the -invasion of the Spanish Armada, and the so-called powers of Rome, were supposed to have aimed at the downfall of Protestant .England, did not the Catholics then help to defend their country against the common foe? His Majesty's Catholic:subjects do •not require to hold public meetings to ad-' vertise their "lip loyalty," for they have proved it on many a hard-fought battlefield. On the sands of Egypt, the plains of India, and out on the veldt of South Africa', they have fought and died in defence of the Empire. Their bodies are mouldering in the same graves with their Protestant brethren. Then why, in the name of common sense and: reason:, should those that are-.still'ready and willing to lay down their lives for their King and country be insulted by an oath that was begot' by ignorance, brought forth by intolerance, and in favour of a' Dutehman. If these people want a Protestant succession, by all means let them 'have it. I think it makes very little difference in this enlightened and democratic age whether it be a Protestant or Budhist that is on the British throne. The people are educated now, and they must rule; two hundred years ago they were not, consequently the King ruled.- And I think it would be a- wise policy on your part to refuse to publish a report of these sort of meetings and sermons. I think it is the' duty of the public Press to try and advance the people on the road to harmony and progress, and not publish anything that will tend to lead them back to a" state' of .things that existed in the dismal past.—l am, etc., YOUNG NEW ZEALANDER.