Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 246, 18 January 1878, Page 1

Current Topics

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HE old motto, '•' de mortuis nil «;.«/ bonitm." although frequently ridiculed, appears to' us to be still deserving in a certain degree of attention. It is true it would be straining the point over much to make a pretence of concealing the ill done during his life time by one who is dead, but reverence for the great sentence that has undoabtedly been passed on him should, at least restrain our judgment so far as to strip it of all that is bitter or vindictive. If a man's actions be disgraceful and his motives iniquitous while he continues on this side of the grave, we are justified in condemning him loudly, and duty often calls upon us to do so ; but once he has passed through the portal that leads from time into eternity, he has gone from the limits of our province, and has received the reward of the works that have followed him. What that reward may be, it is not for us to say. It is in such a spirit that we would deal with the memory of the late King Victor Einanuel, now called after a few day's illness out of that life which, by a sacrifice of principle, he had endeavoured to make happy and' illustrious. We do not know that any death which has occurred within our day has been capable of impressing a stronger lesson of the vanity of the world than has this of which we write. It is, indeed, a solemn thing to stand by this man's grave and look back upon his career, and their hearts must be callous who can do so without awe. It has been known all along that, in suffering himself to be constituted a leader of the party of ir religion, and an usurper of the rights of the lope, he was aftinjr in direct violation of his convictions. Had he acted honestly the Revolution would probably have robbed him of his hereditary throne ; but did its possession, with the increase of power which he gained by the usurpations conferred upon him, compensate him for the continual fear in which he lived ? The faith of devils— the belief that trembles— is a scourge sufficient, to mar the most brilliant life And it is certain that Victor Emanuel was constantly tormented by fear ; he gave many evidences, and even practised especial devotions —in him how vain and contradictory— that bespoke a constant dread. But had there been no such secret skeleton to chill the splendours of his palaces, had the few years of his usurpation flowed tranquilly on, would not those short three days while he lay in the grasp of death' have outweighed all the unlawful enjoyments of the past? It can hardly be that the thought did not present itself to him then, that it would have been better for him to have lived in exile and obscurity in order that he might meet death peacefully beneath a roof he might justly call his own, rather than with trembling in the palace he had sacrilegiously wrested from another. And that other, one who, alone of all on earth, could help him in the hour of necd,.in insulting whom, moreover, he had insulted God, at whose terrible tribunal °he wai hastening to appear. The empire of the world throughout a life time could not atone for such an hour at last. We are told, and we hope truly told, that the grace of penitence was granted to him before he died, and that he received the benediction of the Pope. We rejoice that so great a consolation has been reserved for the Holy Father. May this death-bed repentance be the first fruits of a harvest to be reaped by him when many, who now profess themselves his enemies, shall come, still full of life and health, to sue for a like forgiveness at his fest. But of Victor Emanuel we find ourselves happy in bcin» able to say with confidence, Itcnniescat in Pace. °

We perceive that we have excited the ire of a Northern contemporary by speaking the plain truth and calling " a spade a spade " We should have thought that the quotations made by us would have been sufficient to show that we were not relying on our own prejudices, or unsupported judgment. We gave a letter from the London Times, written by a competent authority, which proved that American gaols were thronged with prisoners who had been educated in secular schools, and well educated so far as such schools are capable of educating. And it was from a non-Catholic newspaper, the Spriucr. field Bepubllean, that we borrowed the term "hoodlum" in order to apply it to that future generation of New Zealanders, .which shall be

uufortmiate enough to have been brought up in, such schools— if the present State of things be allowed to continue. The Bf publican defines the hoodlum thus :— " Ho is simply the child of the people, sent to the public schools long enough to gain a smattering knowledge, and a distaste for work, and without a particle of moral backing' a! home to create character, inspire . self-respect, or turn t,o industry." We are now in a position to furnish our contemporary, and our readers generally— our Catholic readers for tlieir effectual Warning, and to show them that no sacrifices they may be called- upon to make are in the slightest degree commensurate with the horrors to be avbided ,by them — with another paragraph, likewise clipped from an American Protestant paper, and wluch shows in the clearest light, and language that perhaps prudery may think too plain, the results of- this secular system which has been intioduccd into Now Zealand, and which has had a fair trial iv America.' We need, not blush to confess that our knowledge of the world .and of human nature is sufficient to have led us to believe that some such state of things must obtain in an institution from which religion had been ruthlessly and impiously thrust out, r.nd whose door, so to speak, had been slammed in the face of the Creator and the Saviour. The Boston Da Hi/ Herald says :— ''Tear after year the Chief of Police publishes his statistics of prostitution in the city, but how few of the citizens bestow more than a passing thought upon the misery v that they represent. Although these figures are large enough to uiaico every lover of humanity hang his head with feelings of sorrow and shame at the picture, we are assured that they represent but a little, as it were, of the actual licentiousness that prevails among all classes of society. "Within a few months, a gentleman whose scientific attainments have made his name a honschold word in all lands (Professor Agassk). has personally investigated the subject, and the rosnlt has filled him with dismay, When he sees the depths.of degradation to which men and women have fallen he has almost lost faith in the boasted civilisation of the nineteenth century. In the course of his inquiries he has visited both the well-known :> houses of pleasure " and "the private establishments " scattered over the city. lie stales that he has a list of both, with the streets and nnmher-oC inmates, and many other facts that would perfectly astonish the people if made public. He freely conversed with the inmates, and the life-histories that were revealed were sad indeed. To his utter surprise, a largo proportion of the " soiled doves *' traced their fall to influences that ■met them in the public school*, aud. although Boston is justly proud of its schools, it would seem from his stoiy that they need a thorough purification. In' too many of them the most obscene and soulpolluting books and pictures circulate among both sexes. The very secrecy with which it is done throws an almost irresistible charm about it ; and to such an extent has the evil gone that we fear' a large proportion of both boys and girls possess some of the articles •which they kindly (?) lend to each other. The natural results follow, and frequently the most debasing and revolting practices arc indulged in. And the evil is not confined to Uoston alone. Other cities suffer in the same way. It is but a few years since the second city of the Commonwealth was stirred almost to its foundations by the discovery of an association of boys aud girls who were wont to indulge their passions in one of the schoolhouses of the city : and not long ago another similar affair was discovered by the authorities, but hushed up for fear of depopulating the schools." Are we to suppose that human nature in America is different from what it is in New Zealand, or that ifc is more capable of becoming debased there than here? We fancy not. The engine that* has worked the corruption iv that great country will be found on trial as powerful for evil amongst ourselves. But already we have evidence to advance that it will be so. In Victoria the system has existed only a few years, yet already it has produced the worst effects. We lately quoted a passage from the Melbourne Atlvocatn in which the writer showed conclusively that the number of prisoners who had been educated in the schools of the colony, had increased since the introduction of secularism, and now we find the Melbourne Dally Telegraph write as follows :—": — " Considering the large amount oC money which the country has invested iv State schools, it is incumbent on the department to take special care of the morals of the children who attend thorn. It cannot be denied, however, that there is an uueasy feeliug springing up iv various parts of the colony respecting the indiscriminate mixing of the sexes in the schools, and also with

j-ejfpeqt'tpTJho system placed-T>ycr-girls~whosc 'ages go to"show l fhejmprop]'ibty*6f such ait arrangement. We have' published a number of letters on the subject, anct -the' 4ftct that; ithey -come, from j different and wide-apart ~ portions ofjtheecolony is an indication that the dissatisfaction is wide-spread, -and'rests on-jvmore substantial foundation than a propensity to grumble " on. the part ( of y, icjvl-csldent^iu any particular locality. A few days ou,f ll cor^qßpp;i(l<intSi yqiiuitcqrcd t i o,jjive''spm ; e ,sQc*ci{ic j , •linformatiou^ but; aa - nothing -has becnj heard f rjomi -the department,. 1 r may tie jifcstimccl'tßat'thcT offer escaped the uoticc~o£~tlie"l I T%stef ~ '^Education, or' that he docs not consider the master, .of; sufficient importance to justify any special inquiries. There is reason Jo apfj're-,.-head, however, that if jthe_> preliminary information, rtttdi'em&nstralftfos '-' which are forthcoming now are treated with 'cotitfempft'^h'e will be forced upon the attention of the Ministcr.,a.nd4hc departments before- very long. perhaps, in'a iimuh ijioj i ciiiip]c«i>:in j fc'wuy.i4f,in«ioji;icfj>« wcro instituted, say, in the metropolitan district, many lutitahcestwotdd 0 be found of parents refusing to allow their daughters to 'accompany 1 Iheir sons to State schoolsptho reason being that the_sohbols,"are'not ' fit places for girls to go to.' We hove no desire t/p attach any stigma to the great national educational system which has been,established, and in_ again calling attention tcrthe subject, we are only actuated by the desire to , have au.evil grappled with in its first stage."' We have been accused of " hot-headed journalism," because of the manner in which we have written, on jthis dreary subject of secular , -iWlnga&on h>arvl,i indeed, we might plead in excuse, if we were hot; r > beaded mi the matteu, thatno'aniount of indignation would be unrea1 when we iview the determined attempt made by the legislaturfcjVn'tCthat much boasted " majority^' which has been set up like Nabuchodonosorfs image, for us to fall down and worship to the tune of all the " scrannel pipes" in the colony, to drive our Catholic children under the influence of so hideous a system as that spoken of in the paragraphs we have quoted. But we deny that we arc hot-headed, we speak the simple truth on a subject towards which our contemporaries display a strange and fatal blindness. Meantime, let, who will take offence, we shall continue to do our duty. We have shown good grounds for the part we have adopted, and we shall carry it out. The time will come, we doubt not, when we shall be able also to clip from our New Zealand Contemporaries paragraphs similar to those wo have selected elsewhere^ for we do not so far depreciate their honesty as to suppose the}' will conceal the evils that will attract their attention, and dissipate the glamour under which they labour at present, when this system to which we allude lias sufficiently matured. The holidays are now drawing to, an end, arid the burden of a double taxation will be felt by da'tholics. But let us recollect that' it is in truth, as the paragraphs we qnpte abundantly prove, the honesty and pnrity of our children that are taxed, and no price we are called upon to pay will be considered by us too high compared with the treasure we would preserve.' Let us, moreover, not forget the legislators who have driven us to,s,uch a, strait, but expend upon them the discontent we cannot but feel and openly manifest.

Surely the fears of the worthy ceclcsiai-ticss who compose the Presbyterian Synod of Dunedin must have gained the butter of their judgment, when they are found to decide that a French protectorate of the New Hebrides is likely to prove fatal to their preaching oC the " Gospel." To hear them talk one would suppose that, the traditional sword of St. Bartholomew was still drawn, and the dray on nudes still in full tramp. Surely the country that sustains their kindred Church deserves a better reputation from them, and we can fancy the shade of Adolphe Monod disgusted at their want of gratitude. How is it possible that a Government which at homo supports all forms of religion should discountenance any oue in particular abroad; or that a Progaganda which is peianitted in Paris should be crushed in Fatuna I Calvinism does its best to make " converts" in the neighborhood of the Boulevards. Its tracts are disseminated openly." Ihisy emissaries carry them to the hovels of the ch\ ffon tcrs, and there are instances on record in which they have been cast in amongst the laces of noble dames, as they reclined in their carriages on Longchamps or the Champs Elyscc.*.. But no one ever thinks of visiting the meddling bodies who thus work out their mission with anything more formidable than ridicule, and the Government concerns itself least of all about them. How then shall it interfere with their brethren's endeavor to interrupt the fetishism of a few savages in the New Hebrides ?