THE QUEEN, GOD BLESS HER!

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 63, 11 July 1874, Page 8

THE QUEEN, GOD BLESS HER!

Youe readers must have perused with great pleasure and no little pride the speech of Archbishop Manning, when giving the Queen's health at the dinner on the oscsision of the consecration of the High? Rev. Dr. Redwood.

Her Majesty, said the Archbishop, is a "just sovereign." Could higher praise than that be given to any ruler ? She is the first English sovereign to whom, for the past 300 years, Catholics could award such praise. The manner in which the toust was received on this happy occasion showed that tho hearts of Bishop Redwood's guests were brimful of the most affectionate loyalty to Her Majesty and the reigning family. These loyal sentiments ara no doubt fully shared in by the readers of the Tablet, in common with all other Catholics throughout Her Majesty's widely-extended dominions. If the great body of the Catholic Bubjects of the Protestant Sovereigns of England have in time past, from a sentiment of religious duty, held fast to their loyalty, as they did in temporal affuirs, even when they were beinw treated by Government with injustice and remorseless cruelty, how much more now must they be attached to the reigning sovereign— the just and good Queen Victoria ? What a contrast does the conduct of Queen Victoria afford to that of the German Emperor in the treatment of his Catholic subjects ! Nay, what a contrast between her conduct and that of a portion — though but a small portion— of her own subjects, whom Archbishop described as "firebrands and madmen," ready to set fire to the four corners of the Empire, if thereby they could only destroy the Catholic Church. There may be a fow misguided though well-meaning Catholics who cherish disloyal sentiments to Her Majesty's throne ; but who are they ? Not, certainly the men who habitually frequent the Sacraments, or who show a devoted feeling of loyalty to the Church of which they profess to be obedient children. They'are men whom no one would like to trust in any affair of consequence, whether domestic, social, or political. Not only is Queen Victoria just to her Catholic subjects, but the " people of England " at large also now show a manifest inclination to befriend us. They he.ar us patiently. Anti-Catholic prejudices are fast disappearing in England, in spite of the strenuous efforts of a few " firebrands " to keep alive and fan into a furious blaze a feelinw of distrust and hatred towards Catholics. The mad firebrands are few iv number. They find, however, some influential representatives in the Press, Parliament, and the Pulpit, and elsewhere. In spite of that the Archbishop says emphatically "he fears them not," Tbeir power to injure us is not great now, and it is. becoming less and less every year. For this happy and cheering state of things in England we are indebted in no small degree to the influence which his Grace himself exercises over " the imperial race " of Englishmen of high and low degree. He is an Englishman, and a Londoner. Ho knows the English temper well. The English of all ranks— the poor especially— know, appreciate, and trust him. Great, as the virtues of the Catholic ecclesiastics of other countries may be ; powerful as may be the influence which such virtues are calculated to exercise, and no doubt have exercised and still produce on the English mind and heart j yet Archbishop Manning, from the mere circumstance of his being an Englishman, and having at a former period of his life been a dignitary in the Established Church, I believe has produced and is still producing in England an impression on the feeliugs of the Protestauts masses in favor of the Catholic religion, such as no " alien " could produce, though possessed of equal or even greater natural talents and superior Christian graces compared with his. What Archbishop, Manning has said of the relation in which Catholics in England stand to tkeir beloved Queen, and to the noble Saxon race generally, applies in a great measure to us ia New Zealand. If Victoria be a just Queen, Sir James Fergusson, her representative here, is also a justj ust Governor : just to all, and just to Catholics more especially, because they more especially need his protection. We have seen him on a recent occasion stand publicly forward to defend them from a groundless aspersion cast upon them by a respectable and influential portion of their Protestant fellow Christians, at a Bible Society meeting in Auckland — an aspersion which year after year is repeated in one form or another at the annual meetings of this society, and which is contained in almost every religious publication or " tract " which issues from the Protestant Press of England. The calumny I refer to is that which falsely accuses Hie Roman Catholic Church of having auathematised the Bible, add proHbited the laity by a universal law to read the sacred volume. Sir James said he could find no warrant in history for such an assertion. He considered the object of the Bible Society was not likely to be forwarded by speakers of Bible Society meetings casting unmerited and injurious aspersions on Roman Catholics. It is to be hoped all Protestant zealots, and the Protestant clergy and Press generally in New Zealand, will profit by this mild reproof from the lips of Her Majesty's representative. If there be " firebrands " in England who at any sacrifice of the public interests would set Catholic and Protestant by the ears by inflaming the religious animosity of both by means the most unscrupulous, by statements either utterly false or grossly distorted exaggerated, we have the same or a similar class of men here in New Zealand. The conductors of the Dunedin, Auckland, and Canterbury Press, and Mr Lawyer Barton know well to whom allusion is here made. They would not, perhaps, set fire to the four comers of New Zealand, if only they could thereby destroy the Catholic Church, which they now see conquering on all hands, though they might go a great way in that direction. But "we fear them not." Fortunately, though they have abundance of types and printing presses and glib tongues, they do not carry with them the feelings of the thoughtful, well-educated, aud generous portion of the New Zealand Protestant public. Their influence, it must be admitted, is still considerable. They have still power to harm us, and are not slow to use that pow*er ; but it is ou the wane. New Zea and Catholics have their own apathy and tamo, abject spirit, in a great measure, to blame for being so much at the mercy of their i nemies. Let them register and everywhere unite in sulf-defeace, liki, freemen, who know their duty and are I resolved to perform it. Instead of doing this, they squabble among 1 themselves, allow theiv enemies to divide and. consequently to conquer

them. If Catholics will not avail themselves of those powerful weapons of defence which the Constitution has put into their hands, all that can be said is they richly deserve to bo oppressed, and to be whipped with scorpions as a set of crouching, coward, slaves. Their countrymen and co-religionists .at Home will be ashamed of them and despise them when they learn the timid part they are acting here in vindication of their just rights. But it is believed they aw beginning to shake off their apathy, if we judge from what the Catholics in Auckland have of late been about. The clergy there have not been wanting in their duty. If there ever could be a time when the sacred interests cf religion and justice might fairly call on the Catholic clergy to appear in the political arena, and to exercise all the legitimate influence at their command, the present crisis is surely such a time. The interests of the Catholic Church — her very existence and Christianity itself — are menaced by a large powerful party, who seek to destroy them through the medium of secular schools, which they wish to supersede all other schools. Let Government once get entire possession of the schoolroom, then a long farewell to faith and freedom.