"CHINIQUY CRITICISED."

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1199, 19 February 1880, Page 2

"CHINIQUY CRITICISED."

lOrfe of the best lectures that have been delivered in Christchurch for a lpng while under the above title iast 1 evening by Mr. M. Mosley, in the. Oddfellows' Hall, in reply to certain assertions made by Pastor Chimqny as to the Irish famine, and as to the reason why they should not. subscribe to it. The lecturer commenced bv stating that, he was far from being a Stranger to the city. He did not come forward in the interest' of any sect. He ~was. not a, Roman Catholic, and did not belong to any society, secret or otherwise. He explained that he came before them on the first evening on which he could ob'{ain' the liall, "and that "Mr. Chiniquy had -received ample ; notice of his intention to do so. He then sketched the course of events regarding the famine from the first intelligence received by telegraph to the formation of the Committee here, and the announcement of. the formation of the Irish Distress Appeal Committee inDublin, speaking in,. most flattering terms of the efforts made here and the subscriptions poured home from the other colonies. " Thus in a few words is told a pitiful tale of distress on ond hand and of largehearted, open-handed .response on the other." The arrival of Chiniquy, his preaching, against the fund, and the lecturer's challenge to him were then touched on when the main point of the lecture was reached—namely, Mr. Chiniquy's reply on Wednesday evening last. This iwas referred to in very severe language. " His attempt at defence," said Mr. Mosley, '' was lame and impotent in the extreiiie. He' did not prove the truth of his allegations, but floundering about! in mediaeval history, he foisted on his audience a worn out and oft-refuted canard of the sale of Ireland some 700 years ago, and thus drew the attention of his hearers from the point at issue. He is to be congratulated on having so completely evaded the point put" forward." After referring to the overwhelming evidence at hand.on the subject, the lecturer said with regard to Chiniquy's assertions, " In the words of the great Liberator, ' one half I know to be untrue and the rest I believe to be false.'" Mr. Mosley took up the task of proof of his side of the question. This certainly was overwhelming. First, as to the existence of famine not only in the South, but also even in Protestant Ulster. It will be remembered that Mr. Chiniquy at one of his lectures stated that if it could be proved that Protestant Ulster was in distress he would immediately subscribe LSO. The general state of Ireland was first shown by an extract from an article in "Fraser's Magazine" for September last. Then the letter of die D.uchess of Marlborough to the London Times was quoted from. A copy of the official report of the Central Board to His Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, extracted from the Irish Agriculturist, was next read. This stated that the potato crop was everywhere deficient in quantity, inferior in quality, affected by blight, and that on the-whole there would not be, more than half an average crop. That in Munster much suffering .and / want is anticipated ; in Ulster considerable distress. and destitution ; and increased demand for relief wasexpected, with similar accounts from Leinster and Connaught. A letter from the Archdeacon of Tuam, to the Daily Telegraph, was read. Writing of the farmers on the coast, he says depression has effectually brought their affairs to a crisis;" Then a letter from Colonel the Hon. King-Harman, M.P., to the Times was quoted from. After dwelling at some length on the subject, the writer concludes:—"l deem it my duty to let the people of England know that starvation threatens, nay, is absolutely in the midst of thousands of their fellowsubjects across the Channel." Lord Lifford, writing to the same journal, pointed out that the great danger in the ! winter would arise from the loss of fuel. The Belfast News Letter was quoted. It said : "We have had a succession of at least three years, during which trade has ; been depressed, and of more than three years of agricultural loss in England. The year 1877 was bad, 1878 was worse, : but no living man remembers a season so ■ disastrous as. that of 1879. And if it be worse, nay, even if it be so bad as when our people died on the roadside, and the rates in the Cashel Union went up to 16s 8d in the £, why in the name of all that is merciful should not measures be devised for saving the people while there is , time.'" The Belfast Weekly News was ; next brought forward. After describing the frightful weather during l&Tfl, it says: ; '' The result has been inevitable distress among the laborers, the cottiers, and the small fapniers; and no one can doubt that during the coming months there will be much need of public wealth and private : benevolence to prevent the worst effects being . experienced in places where food and fuel have failed and where labor is ordinarily scarce." The Saturday . Review, after mentioning ; the qpy .of distress, says that relief must be-given, and the choice "lies between 1 private oharity and Government aid, ; If private charity is found strong enough to do the work, it is clearly the less objectionable of the two agencies." Referring particularly to the condition of Ulster, the lecturer, quoting from the Belfast Weekly News, said, " The condition of a : numerous class of tenants 'in Lower Ulster is at this day little better than wa3 the state.of their grandfathers in 1816." The same paper, referring to the appeal by the Duchess of Marlborough, after answering for a generous response to that' appeal, says, " It will not for a mpment be supposed that we think the wealthy among us should overlook those in their own mi(Jst who are in want, and should go abroad into the wilds of Connemarato seek objects for their bounty. Charity indeed begins at home." A wellknown contributor to the same paper, Ulster Scot, writing to Lord Arthur Hill Trevor, M.P. for the County Down, and Supreme Grand Master of the Qrange Institutipji in . England was ako quoted. He writes, "The old year is gasping its last. Not many, I fancy, will watch its last moments with feelings of great sorrow or regret.'' .It .has been the gloomiest and stormiest almost since the Crimean War. Trade has.'languished, machinery hung idlej.ships have been rotting in the docks, property has been depreciated in value, the national income has diminished, capi* talists have feared to invest, business men have been aghast at the prospect. * Landowners and agriculturists have not had a happier lot. The constant rain and want of sunshine .were disastrous, The crops, proved-a failure, In one . instance t<>es. :§old .a.t ,63. 8d per acre, and oats at L2." But the picture drawn, by the writer i of a'leading article in the Belfast Weekly News, read, by the lecturer, was t|ie most heart-rending. After devoting fully three parts of a column to the harrowing subject; he concludes, " Those who live in affluence may, however, try as best they /can to' picture to themselves a wretched hut of mud, in a district bleak aind .exposed even in summer, but' in winter..,,a,, howling wilderness of rain and storm, a'family of ill-clad children. : sqnat,-. ting about the damp earthen floor, the liearth which ,wag •once cheerful,..scarce warmed by an ember, the table almost destitute'ol'iood,'and the beds- not half '.blankets.'! ;;We ;as}k „thpse \Vho can .picture tg. add to it thsjgrim possibilities i of f6ver~waiting on this want of the necessities of life, and to give their plenty generously and auickly j--.n. -.'.i-'-e .e x »■ * _

The lecturer then took up Mr. Chiniquy's statement that if the peasants of the south would till the land, and not waste their time running after seditious meetings they would be as prbsperous as those of the north, as both were under the same laws. He showed that while in the north under the.Ulster tenant-right they could live, in the south and west under the tenant-at-wiU svstem it was impossible for them to .thrive. He said, " If Mr. Ohiniquy knows xio more of the doctrines of the church to which he now belongs or of that from which he is an apostate than he does of the land laws of Ireland, his pastorate is a miserable case of the ' blind leading the blind.'" He showed that he was either ignorant of, or wilfully misrepresenting the state of things in Ireland. The land question now agitating Ireland was but a phase of the great problem which was engaging the attention of thinking men all over the world. Even in New Zealand men had written and thought over the question. In some places it appeared, under the banner of " The.land for the people," and in others the opinion was being expressed that the fee simple of all lands should rest in the Government, the occupiers being only leaseholders. In England this problem was being quietly fought out, and if it caused more clamour and angry speaking in Ireland, allowance must be made for starving, desperate men. So far from the present agitation being a Roman Catholic seditious one, the lecturer said that the foremost, noisiest agitator was Mr. Parnell, a Protestant, while many of the Roman Catholic gentry, including the O'Conor Don, were its opponents, and on the authority of Fraser's Magazine, " the Roman Catholic clergy held aloof from the meetings, and in many cases discountenanced them." The,necessity for a radical alteration . in the land laws of Ireland was advocated, the lecturer quoting extracts from the Nineteenth Century Magazine, John Bright, Earl Beaconsfield, Lord Dufferin, Lord O'Neill of Clanbog, County .Antrim, formerly minister of St. Michael's Protestant Chapel of Ease, Dublin ; the Rev. Johhi Kerr, Wesleyan minister, Maguire'* Bridge ; the Rev. Mr. Galligan, Churchi of England minister, County Fermanagh ; and a host of others. The unreasonable;ness of Mr. Chiniquy's objections to tho formation of the Committee in Dublin was shown, as was also the absurdity of supposing that the whole Committee would be under the influence of tho priets. Mr. Chiniquy's antecedents and and his sayings and doings in Christchurch. were then somewhat severely handled bythe lecturer, who ended with thesewords :—" My task is over. I have, shown you that fearful distress exists in Ireland, not only in Roman Catholic: Tipperary, Kdrry, and Gahvay, but in Protestant Ulster. I have shown you that this is the result of natural causes, such as bad weather, depression of business, &c., intensified by bad land regulations. I have shown you that the fund being subscribed is being carefully distributed. I have proved how utterly groundless are the reasons given by Mr. Chiniquy why you should not subscribe heartily and liberally to the fund. Ami lam amply rewarded if you leave here this evening with kinder feeling towards my land and country, that kingdom of which the immortal Moore sang : Erin 1 Thy silent tear never shall cease. Erin ! Thy languid smile ne'er ahall increase,. Till like the rainbow's light Thy various tints untie, And form in Heaven's sight One arch of peace." The attendance was very good, and the lecturer kept the attention of his hearers without any flagging throughout the lecture. Applause was frequently given, and at the end of the address it was prolonged and loud. —Lyttelton Times.