A NUT FOR THE 'STAR' TO CRACK.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 117, 23 July 1875, Page 14

A NUT FOR THE 'STAR' TO CRACK.

Thb fact that the Catholics in Germany are being persecuted has been brought home to the English mind in a rather strange "way. When our fellow-creatures are suffering, Englishmen do. not first inquire who and what they are. The instinct of charity rises uppermost, and the fact that suffering is being endured is sufficient to call it forth. It seems to have at last settled into the Englioh mind that, justly or unjustly, the G-ernian Bishops are suffering persecution, and a large number of Oatholic priests are in actual want. This was sufficient. A large sum was subscribed by both Catholics and Protestants, and was sent to their succour, when lo ! •orders came from Prince Bismarck that the sufferers were not to be relieved. It seems that to be an honest Catholic in Germany is to be not only beyond the pale of law, but beyond the pale of Christian charity ! This must seem strange coming from Bismarck, whom Protestants had hitherto regarded as the great champion of toleration. The conviction is gradually dawning upon the Protestant mind that a real and active persecution — so active that the blows cannot even be softened by Christian charity — is being perpetrated. Some months ago the whole of the London press vied with each other in applauding everything Prince Bismarck did. Now they are expressing fears that he has overshot the mark; that he has overstated his case ; that, after all, his charges against the Catholic Church are groundless. Protestants are beginning to see through his pretexts, and to discern that far other motives than fear lest German unity should be endangered are at the bottom of Bismarck's policy. The fact that he will not tolerate Christian charity in the Empire implies a hatred of Christianity itself, rather than anything else. — Sydney ' Freeman.'