DR. MORAN, MR. BARTON, AND ORANGEMEN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 66, 1 August 1874, Page 8

DR. MORAN, MR. BARTON, AND ORANGEMEN.

Auckland. " I "WAS beaten rather.by Dr Moran than by Mr Wales, and the party who supported nim, and I have satisfied myself that the Catholic voters of this city recorded a block vote against me, their numbers being, to the best of my information, close on 400." Thus wrote the beaten candidate, Mr Barton, in the • Otago Guardian." So far as Dr. Moran is concerned, this statement, it appears, was inexact. Bufc so far as regards the Dunediu Catholic voters recording a block vote against Mr Barton, and thereby keeping him out of the House of Representatives, it is possibly quite a correct statement. If so, all honor to the Catholic voters of Dunedin. They have shewn that they are men of the right stamp. Their example is well worth following by their co-religionists in all parts of the colony. Lot us ever keep well together, and act in concert with, our many Protestant allies. Mi" Barton must have lost his temper and become perfectly demented with rage, else he would never have descended to the use of tho language he employed when speaking of his Catholic fellow citizens. Ira brevis furor est. Mr Barton, an Irish ( gentleman, and a member of a learned profession, to lower himself, his country, and hie cloth, by tho vulgar Orange slang he made ÜBe of in the ' Otago Guardian-— Shame ! Mr Barton, shame ! Your uncle the Archdeacon, your cousin the Dean, and your respected Orange parent, it is to be hoped that if in life, they will never see your letter, and Dr. Moran's reply to it 'in the ' Otago Guardian ; ' else lam sure they would disown you. It is Orangeisin run mad, that letter, and must have afforded an occasion for a hearty laugh among such, rational Irish Protestants of education as happened to see it. I am sure you yourself, after recovering the use of your reason when the fit of madness was over, must have been heartily ashamed at the idea of ever having penned suoh vulgar

Orange nonsense. Your ideas about liberty and justice, lawyer though you bo, are evidently very misty. It d.oes not seem to enter iuto your fanatical brain that Catholics can have any rights at all. The British Constitution, the elective franchise, the ballot and polling booth, and the public press, you seem to think were meant <for the solo and exclusive use and benefit of Protestants and Orangemen. Modest enough, truly. But it won't do, Mr Barton, it won't do. You are behind the age. lam no Irishman myself, and have no Irish Catholic prejudices • Irish Orangemen, I dare say, are mighty fine fellows, loyal to the backbone, and brave as lions ; ready to send the Pope and all his belongings to Old Nick. But you must not run away with the idea that your amiable sect monopolise all the loyalty, patriotism, knowledge and common sense in tho British dominions ; and that we benighted Catholics never read history, nor reflect on the lessons it teaches us. Go to, Sir ; go to ; and before you next venture to break a lance with Dr. Moran, learn to shew a little more modesty, decency, and good breeding, and respect for truth, or to put it more politely, be more full and exact in your statement of facts. As a New Zealander, and a Catholic, I thank you much for the compliment you pay the Catholics in this colony and elsewhore, wheu you represent them as possessing so much political power as you impute to them in the course of your letter to Dr. Moran. It will be our own fault if we do not make our power tell, along with our Protestant allies, in defending right against might, and ourselves against such men as Mr Barton and his very temperate Orange fraternity. — Laio.