CATHOLICS AND THE BURNING OF PROTESTANT LITERATURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13643, 12 July 1906, Page 8

CATHOLICS AND THE BURNING OF PROTESTANT LITERATURE.

TO THE EDITOR, SlK.—ln your issue of July 6, under the heading " Pitiful Obedience," a letter appears signed "N. 5.," purporting to give some account of the burning of Proliterature in the yard of tho Sligo Catholic Cathedral. Now, many questions occur to an intelligent person on reading this letter by "N. S.": What was tho nature of this literature? Why was it distributed? Wlio wero the agents employed in its distribution? We who know a little of Protestant polemics in Ireland ami the clnss at literature forced njion the Catholics can easily answer these quostions. Now, let not my dear red-hot, Protestant- zealots and intolerant fanatics bo shocked. Tho literature of which tliov arc (he purveyors is ioo grossly immoral to be read by any self-respecting and decent-minded Catholic., It is high timn that those well-meaning but mistaken old women of Great Britain of both sexes who have been spending large sums on tho publication of a class of literature which at best can only succeed in making infidels and atheists of Ihe peoplo of Ireland should dovote their means and energy to more pressing and charitablo works in their own country.- For tho benefit of this class in the Old Land and here let mo quote a few extracts from Thomas C'arlyle on the state of tho degraded poor in Protestant England ill hi.; day, and which is just as applicable at the present moment: —

''England is full of' wealth, of multifarious produce, supply for human want in every kind; yet. England is dying of inanition. ... Of those successful, skilful workers—-some two millions, it is now counted—sit in workhouses, poor-Law prisons, or have 'out-door relief' flung over tlw wall to them—the workhouse bastille being filled to bursting,- and the slrong poor-law broken asunder by u stronger. They. sit., there, these lliany nnuiihs now: their hopo of deliverance a« yet small. In workhouses, pleasantly su named, because work cannot be done, in the in. Twelve hundred thousand worker* in Kngland alone: their cunning right hand lamed, lyiny idle in their sorrowful besom; their hopes.- outlooks, share of this fair world chut in by narrow walls. They sit. I hero, pent up, as in a. horrid enchantment; glad to be imprisoned and enchanted! that they may not perish, starved. So many hundred thousands sit. in workhouses, and other hundred thousands have not yet got even workhouses. . . . Descend where you will into town or country, by what avenue you will, tho same sorrowful result discloses itself; you have to admit that ihe working body of this rich _ English nation lias sunk, or is fast sinking, into, a state to which,. all sides of it considered, there was literally never any-parallel." (past and present). Here, then, should be work enough for those Protestant .purveyors of Proicstant. literature among the poor and miserable and hungry in England. If this is not enough, try and reclaim your hundreds of thousands of wretched prostitutes—how ntuny . thousands none can tell. Turn, then, to your millions of tin low, degraded, and ignorant, who know the name of Rod only for the purposes of blasphomy, Tho wealth and energy and lime spent on the production of a class of literature, so deservedly burned at Sligo. may indeed be devoted with more benefit to all concerned io the classes 1 have above indicated. I<or WO years you have been converting Ireland, and yet you are farther away at- the present moment than ever you wero before.

Listen to what-31r Samuel Smiles, a I'rolestant of high repute, says in his " Ilisiory of Ireland and the Irish People Under the Government of England": — "W- mo relate to vou some of the measures employed during tho reign of Elizabeth to propagate the 'reformed religion' m One would naturally eupposo (hali religion had been lost sight of amid all tho slaughter, devastation, and birlcous cruelty which characterised this reign, But. no; the propagation of ,i.ho Protestant. religion was actually one of the pretence.-; juit forward by Iho English Government- for its "vigorous'policy' toward ihe Irish. Protestantism and persecution wont hand in hand, aid while Gray. Carow, and Mountjoy vrero burning and'devastating in Munsier, Lciiiiier. antl Ulster the zcalou* propagandists of tho new religion were labouring to extend their creed by moHns_ of tori in-e '.aiid' cruelty. Many Catholic bishops arid nricsls were put lo death during Lord Grey's administration for cxeroi-ing their spiritual function?: some were hanged and cjuaiter-ed; others were beaten . about Ihe head will) stones till their brains gushed out: others were murdered in cold Wood, sometimes at tho very altar; others had their bowels torn open, their nails and fingers torn off, and were thus painfully destroyed by slow torture, their remains being afterwards treated with tho most revolting indignity. 'While Iho Catholic clergy were thus treated, tho Protestants, who had been created, teachers of tho State religion by an Act of Parliitnifflit, were notoriously profligate, lewd, simoniaeal. slothful, and intemperate, ■even, according to the testimony of English Pro. toslaiit writers themselves. Thoy were the refuse of the English Church—wo had almost- said of England—of whom nothing else could lie made hut Irish parsons! Thev went to Ireland for gain, for tithes, for plunder; caring nothing for the eouls of the Hock, and'walching over'thorn rather with the caro of the wolt than that of the shepherd. Tho Irish Church was, in fact, henceforward looked upon as a mora refuge for hungry adventurers from England, who, horn within the atmosphere of gentility, were too idle to work; but were not beneath extracting from the hard earnings of Ihe poor the means of profligate luxury and riotou? extravagance." 'What a comment on Protestantism and its methods!

Protestantism always lias been, is, and ever will bo the religion of two classes --U) the preachers; (2) the proud and rich. For proof of this we have only to look around us and listen to the question to often asked, why men do not go to church. Here I iray quote from Fortcscuc, Lord Chief Justice of England for 20 years and appointed Lord High Chancellor by Henry Vl:—"Every inhabitant is at his liberty fully to use and enjoy whatever his farm proilucetli, the fruits of the earth, the increase of his (lock, and the like; all tho improvements lie makes, whether by his own proper industry or of tlioso ho retains in his service, aro his own to use and enjoy without let, interruption, or denial of any. If he be in anywise injured or oppressed, lie shall have his amends and satisfactions against the narty offending. Hence it is that the inhabitants are rich in gold, silver, and iu all the necessaries and conveniences of life. They drink no water, unless at certain times upon :i religious score and by }vay of doing penance. They aro fed in great abundance with all sorts of flesh and fish, ol which they have plenty everywhere; they are clothed throughout in (rood woollens; their bedding and other furniture iu their houses are of wool, and that in great store. They arc also well provided with all oilier sorts of household goods and iieoessiirv implements for husbandry. Every one according to his rank hath all things which' conduce to make life easy and hnnpy."— (Apud Oobbett.) Just listen to Cobhett's- comment on t-ho above: —

"Go and road this to Ilie poor souls who arc now eating seaweed in Ireland, wlio are detected in robbing the pig-troughs in Yorkshire, wlio are eating horse-flosli and grains (draft) in L'juca'diirc and Cheshire, who are harnessed like horses and drawing gravel in Hampshire and Sussex, who/lmyo twopence 9 day allowed thera by the magistrates ill Xorfolk. who arc all over England wor;e fed than the' felons in the gaols. Go and tell (hem when they raiso their .hands from the uiT-troueh or from the grain tubs and with their dirty tongues crvNo-Poperysro, read to the fir-graded and deluded wretches this account of tho state of their Catholic forefathers, who lived under what is impudently called

'Popish superstition and tyranny,' and in those times which we have the audacity to call 'the dark ages.'"

One indeed must feel amazed why those Protestant preachers and tract distributors never apply to themselves the words that were applied to them of old: "Woe unto to you. scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; becaitso you go round about sea and land to make one proselyte, and when 110 is made, you make him the child of hell two-fold more than yourselves."—(Alatt. xxiii, 151.—1 am. «'«■> •John- Conoit,