CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 116, 25 May 1844, Page 47

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Nelson Examiner.

Mr. Editor — After a series of letters on the Governor who displaced and the magistrate who succeeded him — letters which called forth various- opinions on their attempts at wit, and but one on their good taste and feeling — our facetious ex-magistrate, in your number of May 4, has found another safety-valve for his pentup patriotism, in an attack on the Bishop of New Zealand, the church, and religion in general. The connexion of the old gentleman's ideas and sentences so frequently puzzles a casual reader, that I must beg both his and your indulgence for my attempt to construe them by the ordinary rules of reading and writing. He begins with extracts from some letters of the " amiable -and devout bishop of New Zealand," these last words being put between brackets, to guard the reader against supposing them to express the opinion of Mr. White. They inform us that a college, a collegißte school, and a cathedral library are set on foot ; that the bishop purposes dividing his diocese, like others, into archdeaconries ; that he has visited all the settlements, and has confirmed 325 natives at Waimate. And here our well-informed ex-functionary stops short, shakes his head, looks puzzled, and at last, with the air of a mouton gui reve, exclaims " Confirmed, confirmed ? I hope no offence, sirs — no indecorum; but what does ' confirmed ' mean ?" ;_No indecorum, good sir, only gross ignorance, or <an affectation of it. In the Book of Common Prayer, under the head of Confirmation, you will find that it is to the end that those who are come to the years of discretion should openly ratify and " confirm " with their own mouth -and consent what was promised for them in baptism, and also promise to endeavour faithfully to observe what by their own confession they have assented to. And this, whatever Mr. White's opinion may be, I cannot but think a most reasonable and fitting engagement for new converts, as well as a becoming occupation for •a Christian bishop.

The next extract informs us of the means by which the bishop hopes to provide for the building and endowment of churches, schools, par-sonage-houses, &c. Here again our erudite commentator's fear of indecorum interferes, and deprives your readers of a most curious piece of erudition, no less than a " comparison between the acts of the apostles and those who claim to be their descendants, as to their relative mode of diffusing the sacred writings." The apostles diffusing the sacred writings ! Why, Mr. Editor, they had none to diffuse. Of the four Gospels the date of one only is uncertain ; whilst two were written a. d. 63 or 64, and the fourth more than half a century after the events which it commemorates. And yet this writer is only deterred from entering on " the apostles' mode of diffusing the sacred writings " by fear of ""indecorum." Prohpudori' And now a little word in the bishop's announcement of his hope to make the customary gratuities to clergymen considered as dues of the church in general, sets the critic fairly beside himself. He protests — he will oppose. The " hope " of the bishop is tantamount to an attempt to a levy a tax ; it is similar to a most grasping and avaricious attempt to smuggle a bill through Parliament ; and then at flte heels of these assertions comes another of a most astounding description, no less than " that, in England, every individual is by law compelled to contribute a tenth of his substance for the maintenance of the church;" and this most mendacious sentence is written by an Englishman, a lawyer, and ex-police magistrate. Indeed, indeed, Mr. Editor, I have strong doubts of this poor gentleman's sanity : and they are not weakened by bis next flying off at a tangent and proposing that the bishop and the missionaries, instead of peace and goodwill, should inculcate the moral virtues of soap and the Christianity of coats and trowsers, and informing us by inference that Adam and Eve wore mats and blankets, and that smearing his face with red ochre was a favourite amusement of Nebuchadnezzar.

I now come to the last extract, with Mr. White's commentary and opinion, and a fitting close it is to this most extraordinary production.. The extract states that the brave and good bishop exerted himself to the utmost to prevent a murderous battle between some native tribes, and only desisted when the firing became general and all his efforts unavailing. " And this one fact," says Mr. White, " is an answer to all the rest." It proves to him — what? lam almost ashamed to copy what follows, but it proves to him that the practice of both early and late Christians has been always productive of " war, misery, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness to those who differ with them," and till he can he convinced of the contrary (and who would dream of convincing or reasoning even with a man who could write such a sentence ?) he shall cherish an opinion he has long entertained, that moral principles are the only elements out of which a truly religious feeling can be created. A fitting conclusion to such a composition. For a Christian bishop, at the hazard of his life, to interfere between armed savages thirsting for each other's blood, is a practice so productive of war, misery, hatred, &c, that Mr. White in disgust has created for himself a new religion out of moral principles. And this at once lets us into the secret of this rabid attack on the church, the bishop, and on religion. Mr. White has a religion of bis own to substitute for Christianity ! With this key we may contrive to get a meaning out of his letter. Teach, and welcome (says the philanthropist), the advantages of clothing and cleanliness, but keep out Christianity. Instead of which they are founding libraries, schools, and

colleges; they are spreading wide and -sinking deep the foundations of an edifice,

" Quod nec-ignii, nee edax abolere vetMtos Potent." "Arise, awake, or be for ever fallen." We must prevent them from teaching those abominable doctrines of forgiveness of injuries, loving their neighbour, and the like, which produce war, malice, hatred, and all uncharitab-leness ; and substitute sound moral principles, such, for instance, as those of the old Greeks and Romans, which taught to exceed their enemies in injuries, as their friends in benefits; or the Chinese, who allow of infanticide; or the Hindoos, who highly commend self-destruction ; or the Buddhists of Borneo, who kill and eat their parents when they can no longer support themselves, as a matter of high moral principle; or, finally, to come nearer home, and, as I suspect, nearer to the source of this writer's inspirations, shall we send for sound moral principles to that nation, who, having tried all religions, at last discarded all in favour of the goddess Reason ; and, pulling down the altars of God and flinging among their shattered stones the mangled corpses of his ministers, raised high a fitting throne for the new object of their adoration, and bowed down to a naked strumpet ?

I make no apology for the length of these observations. Having circulated the attack, I feel convinced you will also admit the commentary, which I have made as short as I could consistently with my intention to mark the real character of sneers, attacks, and misrepresentations, which have excited the surprise and disgust of all I have met with, and which, should his unfortunate incontinence of ink and gall continue, will warrant you in putting as a motto to his aext flux of words — " Hie Niger eit, hunc tv care to." I am, sir, Yours obediently, Nelson, May 12. Contrarius Albo.