Mr. EWINGTON'S LECTURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4481, 24 March 1876, Page 2

Mr. EWINGTON'S LECTURE.

Mr. .V. G. Ewlngtox delivered his third , lecture on "The Dutch Revolt against Spain,"*' in the Young Men's Christian AssociationBooms last evening. There was a full.attendance. Mr. Eastwood took tbe chair, and made a few opening, remarks, The lecturer said that the motive for taking the subject-upon which he was about to speak, had been greatly misunderstood by some persons. Sonic had imputed bad motives to him. i3o would not take further, notice of such imputations, but would say that the reason he had chosen, as the subject of this and of his previous lectures, "The Dutch Revolt against Spain," was that for years he had studied it, and believed it to be of interest and importance. That the subject was interesting, was proved by the attendance at the lectures, and its importance would manifest itself to those who studied it intelligently and impartially. He did not appear before them as a theologian to bolster up pre-conceived notions, or as a Protestant, to traduce Catholics. Macaulay had well written of the Church of Home, . "That there is not, and never was on this earch, a work of human policy so deserving of examination as the Roman Catholic Church." The lecturer then referred to the success of the Church of' Rome in America, China, and the Australasian'colonies, and quoted fiom Archbishop Manning's inaugural address, to the effect " That there never was a" time when there was a greater tendency on the part of dissenters to Angli- • canism, and on the part of. Anglicanism to the Church of Rome." Though this Pope had lost-the temporal power, which had been held for a thousand years, he was never more beloved by his children than noiv. The lecturer would consider it wicked to inflame animosity between different sections of the commuuity, but he thought there was no more necessity to do this by an impartial review of historical facts, than there was of speaking of the crucirixiou in a community where Jews lived, to offer them personal insult. He then raised the question whether, if the spirit of Rome be the same now as in days gone by, will she ever enforce her doctrines as she did in the past? and cited Protestant and Catholic authorities on the question, leaving his audience to judge for themselves whether she would or no. He believed tbe spirit might be willing, but the flesh at present was comjiarutively weak, and when he noticed how indifferent Catholics were to religion, even as Protestants are, —when he noticed their intermarriages with Protestants, and, above all, the spread of education—the greatest of ali foes to bigotry and intolerance, —he could not personally believe that, so far as Britons are concerned, they have anything to fear. Never again can an English King like John, or a Queen like Mary, hand the Euglish people over to a foreign sovereign—never can Rome have such devoted servants and England such enemies as James 11. and Phillip ll.—but these failed to enslave her, and although she may fall like Egypt and Carthage, tlie hope is that she will not. The struggle in the past teaches how absurd aud wrong it is to get religionists to light for supremacy and dominion over the weak, and he hoped the time had come when men would agree to differ. Let Catholics worship Ged as they please, aud Jet Protestants do the same, for from Nebuchadnezzar to Elizabeth persecution had failed to make one true proselyte. The lecturer then touched on Catholic loyalty, and asked whether if England was involved in war, and the> Pope called on soldiers aud sailors to leave the Queens standard they would do so ! He did not .believe they would. The Catholics had proved loyal to England when the barons demanded from John the great Charter of liberty—they had proved loyal to Elizabeth when the Pope excommunicated her, aud backed up the Armada to crush her and her proselytes, and although Mr. Gladstone thinks Catholics run more heavily weighted since the last Vatican Couucil, eveu he confesses that he believes they would be loyal. This concluded the first part of the lecture, and then he traced the progress of the Dutch war after the fall of Haarlem, aud shewed • the political significance of the struggle ami the points of victory, when peace wa3 gained in Jo'o9, after forty years of v/arfare. The lecturer spoke of the part England took in the war, and the service Drake,.Greuviile, Vere, and EsSex rendered to the cause of liberty. To shew the painful nature of the struggle, aud how the ultimate victory was gainedstep by step, aadyear after year, he described Count Louis' services ancf his death in battle with liis brother Henry at' Mookerheyde. Kext he proceeded to shew what a determined attempt the Calvauists made to oppose liomauism, and.spoke of the fearful sufferings ihey' infiictad by rack, fire, and sword. Especially was this the case with poor old Kopp ana his son, "whose only crime," Motley said, "was a secret adhereuee to the GVtiioiic faith." tie then spoke ol the destruction of cathedral churches, ana

likened the Calvinist desecration of Romish, altars to the desecration'of the' Jewish altar! of sacrifice by Antiochus Ephiphanes. But: he could not wonder at these things when he remembered that not a hundred - years ago : £100 ■ reward was offered in England to informers against Catholic priests—when he remembered that no Catholic might educate, his children in his own faith,'or . even send them to the Continent to be educated. ; May's Constitutional History teems with such cases, and from all this he learnt that no man's creed guaranteed him against persecution ; that the tendency of religionists and politicians the world over was to persecute and oppress those who differed from tho dominant party. Herbert Spencer had spoken truly on this subject in his work on Sociology. Hallam, Mackintosh, and others endorsed the same sentiments, "which were 2 further substantiated ' by the treatment of Catholics by Protestants in Maryland early in the seventeenth cen- " tury. The lecturer concluded with the death of the Maid of Antwerp, and the important battle of Nieuport, when the fate of Holland hung on a silken thread, and Maurice of Nassau plucked victory from the jaws of deat|. conclusion of the lecture, the aud* the National Anthem.