THE MARQUIS OF RIPON'S CONVERSION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 86, 19 December 1874, Page 14

THE MARQUIS OF RIPON'S CONVERSION.

Thb 'Church Herald' contains this remarkable article: — "The conversion of the Marquis of Eipon to the Catholic faith, in. the form accepted by our Roman brethren, has a good deal startled the 'Times' and the irreligious and unreflecting public generally. And yet there is nothing remarkable about the event except that it is probably first of a goodly series of similar defections. Brought up in a school of rigid Evangelicalism, Lord Ripon' s mind was too honest, and his heart too warm, to be content with the traditions he inherited. An instinctive rejection of the narrow scheme of Calvinism left him — as it has left thousands of those who, in their early years, have learned nothing better — a Liberal and a Broad Churchman. But Lord Ripon is a man both of deep religious feeling and of large culture. He has read enough to find out that our Lord and his Apostles not only enlightened the world by their teaching, but also founded a Church j and when, like Lord Bute, he looked around him to find the only divinely-grounded religion which had the right to claim his submission, he failed to discover its characteristics in a religious organization superintended, in the latitudinarian interest, by Archbishops Tait and Thomson, under the control of a Parliamentary majority. Therefore like an honest man as he is, he accepted, what had become to him the only alternative, and, with it, whatever obloquy it may bring from those •who are unable to appreciate his motives. We respectfully offer to his Lordship our congratulations. From our own point of view, doubtless, he might have done better ; and had he been brought up in the Catholic faith in the Church of England, there might have remained, all difficulties notwithstanding. At any rate, he has fairly escaped out of the slough of latitoidinarianisin. The ' Times/ of course, represents his Lordship as little better than a goose ; but common sense will retort that a man who believes that our Lord founded a Church, and has left its teaching and worship to the guidance of Mr Disraeli and those other organs of public opinion — the • Times,' ' Telegraph,' and • National Reformer ' — must be at best an idiot. And in the end common sense will prevail. If our Erastian Archbishops are allowed to have their way, Borne or Infidelity will soon be the only alternatives open to intelligent Englishmen. The present race of State-appointed prelates have all but destroyed the citadel which has hitherto been the security of Anglican adherents to the Catholic Faith. Until the mischief thus done can be repaired, secessions to Rome must be constantly expected, and may as well be regarded with equanimity. " It is asserted by those who knew the Marquis of Ripon, that he has been led to take the step in question mainly from a careful study of the subject of Christian education. His Lordship has come to almost the same conclusion as ourselves, viz., that Christian Education in England has become practically destroyed by the recent Education Act — a conclusion likewise come to by Mr E. S. Ffoulkes, whose masterly anonymous pamphlet recently obtained so much attention at Oxford."