Current Topics AT HOME & ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 237, 16 November 1877, Page 1

Current Topics AT HOME & ABROAD.

jffijaSL T was then, it would seem, partly out of consideration for th , e feelings of the Ministry that His Excellency qualified < s£fi*£ his refusal to act on their advice. He snubbed them out wUKfi; of esteem for them ; pretty much as we hare somewhere ffijflfy OT ot^er heard an old song describe the capers of a cerjfßmy tain P«ff^Bgjouß Irishman, who meets with a friend, TOUffJk* " And foFlovc knocks him down." Vj> I* l»ad been open to him to say, " S'w volo, sicjubeo, tit pro rat'wm voluntas," but regard for honesty as well as respect for the gentlemen concerned induced him to the condescension of anticipating the vote of the House. Ministers, however, were hardly to blame if they were not sufficiently sensitive to perceive the delicacy of their treatment, or to estimate at a high value the candour of the Governor. We confess we are unable to see that any other course lay open to them than that adopted by them. They had, without the least ambiguity, been given to understand that His Excellency would for the time being have nothing whatever to say to them, and, therefore, it seems rather out of place to find fault with them because they observed the silence so imperiously enjoined upon them. His Excellency's defence, indeed, all through appears to us singularly unsatisfactory. He deprecates the fact that he has been condemned unheard by the House, as he puts it, but he refuses to enter upon the really important question as to whether it lies in his power, under circumstances at any time procurable, completely to dispense with the services of responsible advisers. His method of action seems at once cowardly and high-handed ; his complaint of ill-usage is couched in tones that approach so closely to a whimper as to make them humiliating to listen to, and yet he determines that the colony is not capable of deciding a question that vitally affects its interests— that, in fact, strikes at the very root of the form of Government believed to be enjoyed by it. The coutempt of the Comttsse d'Excarbagnas for her province was not more keen than that betrayed by His Excellency towards the country governed by him, and yet he shelters himself from its censure under the invocation of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. His appeal to the precedent of Lord Belmore also is unhappy ; he could hardly have hit upon a name less honoured amongst the records of colonial Governors than that of the nobleman referred to. He, however, may prove equally fortunate in being supported by the authority in whose decision he has taken refuge ; personally he may come with satisfaction out of the matter, but hereafter his manner of proceeding may be found to have conduced to the fiat, hitherto so strongly and justly deprecated,— " loose the bond and go."

The Protestant Church in Prussia is at present torn by a struggle that must tend further, if possible, to widen the breach that exists between the people of that kingdom and Christianity. The contest, say, has originated in a measure that might have been supposed calculated to benefit the institution affected by it. The right of self-government has lately been conferred upon the Synods, — bodies that approach in nature to the English vestries, but are of more extended powers, since they partly make the appointment of ministers, and exercise a modifying discretion over doctrine and liturgy. The non- Catholic, but nominally Christian population of Prussia is divided into three principal classes ; the orthodox, the totally indifferent, and a party that desires to make religion liberal and bring it into conformity with the " progressive" customs and thoughts of the period. It is between this last named party and the orthodox that the fight prevails, The contest does not extend to the opposite extreme from the orthodox, that is the Liberals properly so called, because these latter arc completely indifferent to all questions of religion, and could only be rou&cd to interest themselves in the matter were the Synods sufficiently unwary to impose a heavy church-rate, when they would rise up in a resistance that would be overwhelming since they are numercially out of all proportion with the supporters of^rcligion, extreme ov moderate ; being, indeed, no less than the principal body of the educated people of the country, and towards whom, it is believed, the symjiathies of the uneducated

lean. The orthodox, then, hold the upper hand in the Synods, butnot so completely as to prevent bitter strife from raging throughout the Church. " These are serious times for the Church ; " said the Rev. Dr. Grau, Professor of Theology, at a meeting of Lutheran pastors lately held in Berlin. " The protection of the temporal power is no longer awarded to us" to anything like the extent it formerly was.' The great mass of the people is either indifferent or openly hostile to doctrinal teaching. Not a few listen to those striving to combine Christ with Belial, and to reconcile redeeming truth with modern science and culture. There are those who dream of a future Church erected on the ruins of the Lutheran establishment, which by these enterprising neophytes is already regarded as dead and gone." Oil the other hand a Berlin Liberal newspaper, the Volte Zrltnng', speaks as follows :: — v It is not a little remarkable that the Protestant Church in. this country should be kept under the control of superimposed authorities, while Roman Catholics and Jews are allowed to preach what they like. The power of the Catholic hierarchy has been broken by new laws. Catholic clergymen deviating from the approved doctrine of the Church arc protected by the Government from the persecution of their bishops. Catholic congregations are positively urged and instigated to profit by the privileges accorded them, and assert their independence against bishop and priest." We have given more of this last quotation than necessary for our direct purpose, that of exemplifying the struggle of which we write, — because it enables us to point out, par parenthexe, how differently the Berlin journalist interprets the anti-Catholic movement in Prussia, from the false interpretation placed upon it by Prince Bismarck in his interview with the Protestant ministers from Wurtemburg. to which we lately had occasion to refer, and when he would have made it appear that he had only been desirous to reduce the standing of the Chuvch in Prussia to that occupied by it previous to the concessions granted by the late King to the Radziwill family. But to return to our subject, The London Times, from which we have gained our information, in a leader relating to the matter thus concludes :— " After all, controversy is the very breath of Protestantism, and its ' Variations' are signs of its vitality.' The reproach of Bossuet is, in a' sense, the boast of his opponents. Even were Bossuet to live again, he might find his weapons pointed -at his own breast, for Rome herself, the infallible and immutable, does not despise the doctrine of development. There is something better than orthodoxy and that is vitality ; and there is something worse than ' Variations' and that is sloth and indifference. If the Protestant Church of Prussia would recover the lost allegiance of its nominal adherents it will not be by maintaining an 'antiquated orthodoxy as alien to the spirit of Luther as to that of Christianity itself, but by the earnest and intelligent endeavour to comprehend and to control, instead of merely stifling the religious differences of the time." The "breath of Protestantism," then, is acknowledged to be that division which it is the inevitable destruction of the house in which it gains a footing ; development consists in an accommodation to the vagaries of the season, and vitality is not the wholesome life and growth of a body, but the motion seemingly communicated to it by noxious creatures that prey upon it and which arc born of its putridity, tf this be the line of argument described as the " weapons of Bossuet pointed at his own breast," we must confess the weapons seem to us rusty and bluutcd beyo»d recognition, or power to inflict the slightest wound. The writer winds up by giving advice that is in keeping with the logic advanced by him: he admonishes the Prussian Church to enter upon a course that may be exemplified by the old saying "If the mountain will not come to Mahommcd, Mahommed must Tgo to the mountain." She must strike out from the beaten track and follow the flock she seeks to gain into the devious paths where they wander, accommodating licr teaching to the surroundings, — not wisely drowning the syrcn-voiccs but attempting to fit them to a bablard Christianity. The Prussian Church has, however, already done still worse than this ; i£ the laity for the most part, no longer make a pretence of adherence to a Clv istian creed, the clergy it was that gave the initiative in deserting the standard of revealed religion. The pretended preachers of the Gospel, first accommodated it to the fashionable [infidelity of the clay, and they were followed with avidity by the people they professed to teach. They, themselves, it is true, returned after a season to orthodoxy, but the system they uphold affords no guarantee that they may not again err from the way, and, when a generation or so lias passed,

be found once more in the camp of the Liberals, amongst the most earnest votaries of the " Philosophy of the Future."

Of all the gods we should have thought the least likely to be invoked for purposes of State would have been Bacchus. Nevertheless, if report speak true, it would seem that we have been dull-witted in the matter, for amongst the tittle-tattle of the colony it runs that the <• sweet poison of misused wine " has been called into play in order to secure the triumph of a certain party in our <• august " House of Keprcscntativcs. The fact, if fact it be, is far from inspiriting. That conuUtatencies should be represented by men of inferior intellect or t?a motives of self-interest should seem to guide hon. members in tfteir political life, is a source of dissatisfaction, and even of humiliation, but that open vice should be enlisted as the means of influencing tJic larhamentary vote, is a matter that should rouse the indignation of the whole country, and which, if it be not warmly condemned everywhere, is sufficcnt to bring into discredit throughout thcjcivihzcd world, the colony in which it is suffered to go unchallenged. But as for the offending parties— the one can only inspire all Jonest men with the disgust that .addiction to the immoderate use of liquor must everywhere awaken ; more especially where it is found in the midst of surroundings that aggravate its impropriety by calling for something of more than average worth to sustain the character required by them. To the inebriate we must needs accord contempt, Jut contempt temporal by the'pity that victims to the weakness of lmman nature demand from us.

" And they— so perfect is their misery—

U . . Not once perceive their foul disfigurement." But what shall we say of the pander who ministers to vice in order to profit by it 7 We do not know of any term too strong, or of any comparison too gross, to apply to him. It is certain that any we should judge suited for admission into our columns would but weakly fit the case, and we therefore dispense with such altogether. It, however, remains for the people of New Zealand "Jto say if they will consent again to expose themselves to the risk of being so insulted, for an insult is offered to them in the introduction of such an element into the transaction of the business of the country— or even what pretends to be its transaction. Should the electors not combine to keep out of Parliament indefinitely the members of that party against which this accusation has been brought, they will deserve that habitually the government of their country may reckon amongst its motives of action the influence that guided " the rout that made the hideous roar," or anything else unworthy and destructive.

The meeting held at the Temperance Hall, Dunedin. on Tuesday evening last, was one that ought to meet with the consideration of the powers that be, and to exercise due weight on the outcome of the present unhappy political situation. The speakers kept close by their themes, and the moderation and earnestness of their tones bespoke the utterance of genuine convictions. It is, indeed, evident that the contest that has been going on at Wellington has been watched with breathless interest by the country, and the Atkinson party gravely deceive themselves if the heat of combat, or any other cause, has so blinded them to the state of things without the House as to lead them to believe, that were they restored to-morrow to office, the temper of the constituencies would long suffer them to continue there. It is not necessary that we should quote from the speeches made. They wore but more copious statements of views similar to those that we have already put forward in our columns. The necessity of according to the present ministry a fair trial, with the advantages to be almost certainly derived from this : confidence in the proved abilities of Sir George Grey, who had, moreover, received fresh testimony to his btcrling worth from the recent unscrupulous attack made upon him in the House ; a profound mistrust of the late ministry based upon a long experience of their principles and practice, together with a persuasion that the country saw the need of the change that has taken and further desired a dissolution in order that an opportunity might be afforded of confirming it : such were the principal points tlitscubscd. There is no need to study Burke now-a-days in order to learn that the age of chivalry has long since passed away. The fact is evident to the most superficial observer, nor should we attempt to perpetrate an anachronism that might lay us open to the charge of absurdity, were we not emboldened by the example of Major Atkin-

son to do so, in order that we may try the " Tv qtioqve " line of argu-

Hicnt on the ex- Premier. He, then, who was 'prompt to urge the claims of ceremony on Sir George Grey should surely, now that the opportunity oilers, avail himself of it to display a regard for honour and reputation. It lias for .some time been clear from remarks made in the House, as -well as from statements appearing in the Press,

that the administration o£ the hon. member labours under sinister suspicions ; and we gather from certain utterances made at the meeting of which we treat that sue ■ suspicions arc general. Let the Major therefore, for his own bake cfrain from his factious opposition, at least until the Ministry he op .oses has had full time fora thorough investigation of tlic departments so long controlled by him. Should nothing thcu be discovered that incapacity is not sttilicicut to account

for, he may again come forward and renew the fight free from all shadow of reproach. But the age of chivalry is past, and were it not so, Major Atkinson, we fancy, is one of those who would honour its usages chiefly by enjoiningthcir observance on others — more especially if it were possible that he himself might profit by such an observance. As to the opinion expressed by one of the speakers that the Governor Anil probably refuse to grant a dissolution, we do not think it likely to prove well grounded. Up to within the last few days, we confess that we ourselves entertained a similar opinion, but, addicted as His Excellency has shown himself to be to strong and unexpected measures, we do not think that even he will care to offer direct violence to the expressed determination of the country. The alternatives, "Se soumettre ou *c (Unwttre" might perchance prove of wider application than that for which they were submitted by M. Gambetta.