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SABBATARIANISM IN MELBOURNE.

The Melbourne correspondent of the " Daily Times " says : — The dying exclamation of the pirate duke in the burlesque novel of Artemus Ward, "The world is governed too much," is nowhere more applicable than in Victoria. There is a growing tendency on the part of the numerical majority to regard the right of enforcing their opinions on the minority as a part and parcel of the correct idea of liberty. With many, liberty means the lioerty of dictating to other people what they shall eat or drink, what religious observances they shall recognise, what opinions they shall hold, or rather profess to hold. lam not vow speaking of politics. In regard to a political measure, it is clear that in a democratic country the will of the majority clearly shown must and ought to become law. Wuen the issue is merely between a majority and a minority, we all admit that the minority must submit. One side must, and it is obvious that which side it ought to be and will be. But in matters of opiniou, every man who can realise the true idea of liberty feels it very hard to have the belief of somebody else forced upon him as his rule of action. What with our Sunday observance enforced by the aid of the police, our promised Permissive Liquor Bill, and the various measures by which theorfchodox majority propose to labour to reclaim a, sinful minority, the tyranny of opinion is becoming too oppressive, and must some day produce a Strong revulsion. The orthodox Sabbatarians, combined with the teetotallers, have sueeeded in imparting to Melbourne every Sunday an aspect of fuueral gloom. For the outward appearance of intense sanctimoniousness, combined with the inner reality of quiet drinking and gambling, Melbourne may be matched against any city in Christendom. These pious people have succeeded, by way of keeping the Sabbath holy, in converting every publican in the city into a secret breaker of the law. They have fined these publicaes over and over again, thsy have turned the police, much against their will, into a set of secret informers ; they have obstructed individual freedom, and occasioned an endless amount of public inconvenience, and all for the glory of Heaven. And the worst feature of the matter is that nobody believes in the sincerity of those who impose these restrictions upon us. To have to submit to fetters imposed by the bigotry of others is to some extent mitigated when you know that it is at least an honest bigotry, but here we know that it is not. The great agent of Presbyterian Sabbatarianism here is Sir James M'Oulloch. Well, no one believes that he is a devoted believer in this opiniou or any other. Like Wilkes, of the old times, he is not even a jl'Culloehite. He has perhaps a certain feeling of stupid, ignoraut orthodoxy about him, a kind of shopkeeper religion, a sort of utilitarianism which, for purposes of convenience, uses the terms of devotion, and by him and such as him are the rules imposed as what we shall and shall not observe. Tiiese people have lately achieved a u«w triumph. One sianding grievances with them has been the Sunday departure of the mail sleainer. Well, they have lately gained a victory in this matter. Not that they have got the day changed, but they have prevailed on the Customs authorities to forbid tSe shipment of cargo on that day. They could not stop the mails, they could not even stop the passengers, a sensu of a higher religion than their own prevented them from interfering with fie shipment of the sacred gold, to which a sanctity attached that theae

people fully recognise, but they drew the line at cargo. And so they arrive at a result that is to them quite satisfactory, a miserable compromise between what they regard of the right and the expedient is effected ; public convenience is impeded *o some degree ; a balm is laid to weak consciences ; and the cause of true religion is thought to be advanced. In connection with this subject, it is gratifying to observe that the annual report on lunatic asylums (recently published) does not by auy means lend support to these people who are so desirous ot attending to the moral welfare of their neighbours. One of their main arguments is that almost all of the crime, an I most of the insanity, of a community, are results of the too fies use of intoxicating drinks. No one can, or, I suppose wishes, to deny that this evil is the cause of miseries unspeakable, aud is a constant source of degradation, wretchedness, and crime. Still, it; appears that in their random assercions about "nine-tenths" of the insanity, the intemperate advocates of temperance have wildly overshot the mark. It is shown that out of the -406 patients admitted during 1870, insanity was in sixty -nine cases the result of drink. This is altogether too small a proportion to be of much service for the reckless oratory of teetotalism. Besides, even this proportion is materially dimished by some further considerations. Of the 69 | cases 53 were men, and of these 30 were simply instauces of severe and prolonged intoxication. The remaining 23 suffered from softening of the brain, and in these, as in some of the 16 women, it is suggested by the report that perhaps insanity was the cause rather than effect of intern perauce. At auy rate, the same form of disease may exist in the inosl abstemious as in the most intemperate. These figures do not in a very great degree support the rignt of any set of people to interfere with or dictate to their neighbours. But then they do not much concern themselves with figures. Their warm imagination supplies them with figures as it does descriptions. They draw their statistics from the same source as their abuse, and both are always in copious supply. Passing to another branch of the subject, it is observable that another popular belief — that lunatics are proportionately much moru namerous than in England — is equally unfounded. The admissions during 1870 were less than in 1869, and of the whole number in lunatic asylums, we are only on a par with England. It is satisfactory to learn that the returns "do not give any appreciable evidence of insanity in . the colony at large."

New Formulary. — V correspondent of the " Fife Herald " gives the following account of a chatechising in a German school upon the rising of Lazarus :— '• Do you regard this chapter as narratiug an actual fact ? " — " No, no ; truly not." What then i s it •? "—»" — » A parable or myth, shadowing out great truths." " Very good. Now what, in a word or two, is the thing shadowed out in this beautiful m y th ? "—"" — " The restoration of learning in the 14th century." " G-ood again; but how do you suppose that a chapter written long before the event could have any reference to it ?" — " It is a fable ot' humanity, true of all times $ it sets f<>rth the inevitable law of reaction." "It is true of this age ?" -_" Yes ; once agaiu has the in-our-fathers'-tinie dead Lazarus came forth, from the grave." "And what ia figured under the name of Jesus ? "—" — "The spirit of philosophical inquiry which energises the dead public heart." — " And of what are the grave-clothes emblematic ? "— " Of clinging-closely but-to -be - got - rid -of su perstitions." How heterodox must not the German of the future be ! ! Livingstone tells us of a strange practice which prevails among some tribes of Africa, when a man suspects thftt any of his wives have bewitched him, he sendß for the witch doctor, and all the wives go forth into the field and remain fasting till that person has made an infusion of the plant called " goho." They all drink it, each one holding up her hand to heaven in in attestation of her innocence. Those who vomit it are considered innocent, while those whom it purges are pronounced guilty and put to death by burning. The innocent return to" their homes, and slaughter a cock as a thank-offering to their guarding spirits. - The practice of ordoai is common to all the negro nations north of. the Zambesi. The women themselves eagerly desire the test on the highest provocation ; each ia conscious of her own innocence, and has the fullest confidence in the muavi (ordeal) clearing all but the guilty. There are varieties of procedure atnon^ the different tribes. The Barotae pour the medicine down the throat of a cock or dog, and judge of the iunoceuct or guilt of the person accused by the vomiting or purging of the animal. On Saturday week, 43 tons of quartz from the Heart of Oak claim were crushed, yielded 2£ ounces to the ton. The Elizabeth Company are now carting down stuff to the machine, which is said to promise good returns. The Border Chief Company will, probably, shortly have a trial crushing. — " Cromwell A ruts." On the sth inst., a child of Mr. Grove, M.P.C., was killed on the Thames Tramway.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TT18710622.2.30

Bibliographic details

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 176, 22 June 1871, Page 7

Word Count
1,519

SABBATARIANISM IN MELBOURNE. Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 176, 22 June 1871, Page 7

SABBATARIANISM IN MELBOURNE. Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 176, 22 June 1871, Page 7