THE BATTLE RAGES-A STORM THREATENS. Auckland.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 44, 28 February 1874, Page 8

THE BATTLE RAGES-A STORM THREATENS. Auckland.

I knoav not what influence your contemporaries the 'Star' and ' Guardian ' may exercise over the public mind in Otngo, or what reputation their respecthe conductors may possess in the republic of letters; but it ia plain to a demonstration that in the recent controversy which they have provoked with you they have met their match, and have got more thati they bargained for. Yet it will be bad for j our cause if the whipping they have got should make them sulky and silent abouMhe " Papists." Samuel Laing I read many years ago, and being myfe'f Scotch, I was not only delighted but surprised at his testimony iv favor of Catholicism on the continent. Kay, I also read many years ago. His book is a most valuablo one, as bearing on the ' question of Catholic education and its results. His description of tho moral or rather immoral state of the English Prote-tant masses, both for town and countiy, struck me as something sickening, humiliating 1 and even revolting. Good God can this really be the pattern Protcs- i tant country which such journals as the Dunedin 'Star' are for ever ' holding up as an illustration of the happy moral fruits of the Lutheran reformation. I read lately a lecture by Bailie Lewis, an old and experienced Edinbugh Magistrate, on the moral condition of Edinburgh, and I must say that unless the Worthy Bailie be exaggerating gieatly, and maligning the character oi his countrymen and" countiy women| Edinburgh and Scotland, must be unmatched for wickedness among all the towns and countries in the world, and what is worse, they are advancing further and further every year in their course of iniquity ; drunkenness and impurity being the prevailing sins. Yet we aroi always told that tho Scotch system of education, of which the entire! people get the benefit, ia the model system, and for which they are! indebted to the saintly and meek John Knox, " The Great Scotch Beformer." Did your Otago contemporaries ever read "Barrow's

Sh ?hi P S;I ?l t d ?W mußfc have read tho Simony winch this honest Protestant missionary bore to the superior purity o"f SedTd^^ 6B^^ 111^ 6911 *^"111" 1116 ' l 0D S before they we™ years He .SIT 11 ?*, 1 * m< ? dern re ™ lutio ™ of the past thirty DeeTteSelT *.*? miXed WilU ttll ranks <* Spaniards from the fn the J™ nt ?ggar> ?° d he v 6Ter £?, fc BftW omon g &n y of them anything in the way of gross immorality. These were the pupils of Jesuits and other priests. Would any Catholic missionary from the continent ever be able truthfully to say as much of the EngSh after nSSng SL the . P? erß « rcxMle class, and beggars in that moral country, harrow had even the candour and justice to admit that the Jesuits S,J° PU v m ? ng tho S P aaish P e °P le ' becaU9e the 7 were good teachers or school masters, and public benefactors ia short Tbe revolutionary convulsions on the continent of Europe which English !« T?"*? Prot , estaat emissaries, political and religious, have done so much to foster during the past eighty years, have proved a curse to' tbe people— a heavy curse— and have sunk them down to their present n?,nJ- %n% no ™ nee a H, d depravity. Yet such writers as those in the 5. A £ ? rot leßtanfc1 eBtanfc Prea9 ha ™ a** effrontery to turn round on the Catholic clergy and reproach them with the very calamities which these reckless and selfish Protestant, political, and religious missionaries have brought on the Catholic masses on the continent. Eneland has been guilty of great crimes against religious liberty and humanity on the Continent of Europe since the calamitous period of tbe reformation, and especially during the past eighty years, ia conwquence of her hostility to the Catholic Church. The justice of hearenpay call her to a reckoning for these national crimes at a time and in a manner which she does not anticipate. She plumes herself on ncr wealth and her power, and laughs to scorn nations and people iets powerful and wealthy then herself. But let her beware. The same ■Being who for his own wise ends has raised her to such a pitch of grandeur, may, if He thinks fit remove her candlestick out of its plaoe, ana humble her to the dust, and brin* some other people in her room. There are some mutterings of a cdming political tempest, at no remote time, which may lead to unlooked for changes. Ireland and Romeare moving; and France is watching. Germany is uneasy. Italy heaving. There are two books which I would fain that your Otago opponents would add to their library, and peruse diligently ere they again come on to break a lance with you iv this controversy, — I mean Sir John Forbes' "Notes of a Tour iv Ireland," and Mayhew's " London poor." Sir John was no Catholic, but a worthy Protestant Scotch doctor, and latterly an officer of Her Majesty's Household. Yet he bears testimony to the superior purity of manners, and power of Christian piety among the Irish Catholic masses. What is more, he attributes their marked superiosity in these respects to the influence of the priests on them, and to their peculiar religious duties as Catholics. Mayhew tells that among all the poor congregated in the great modem Babylon there are none so virtuous and devout as the Irish Catholic women— the young girls especially. Sir, it is not an unreasonable supposition that the Scotch and Irish immigrants now landing, in su.ch numbers on our shores, may bring along with them both the virtues and the vices whishmarke their respective characters ia the countries' from, whence they came. If so, the Irish Catholics already in New Zealand will have no reason to be ashamed of the new arrivals, among those of their own communion, taking them in the gross. There are black sheep of course in every flock. It is only to be hoped tho good among them will retain the pious and virtuous habits in which they were reared, and not suffer themselves to b<. over infected with the 1 irreligious and immoral habits which are but too prevalent among old Colonial Catholics and their families. They will have faithful' pastors and good Catholic schools for their children, ia most places, and it will be entirely their own fault if they ever by their misconduct bring reproach on their Church and " the land of their sires." Old Ibelutd.