Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 248, 1 February 1878, Page 1

Current Topics

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* E confess that in 'our most sanguine moments we did i not anticipate that the Education Act -would, in the ) very first hour of its being put to the proof, be rc1 cognised as a most egregious blunder. We, however, rejoice for the credit of the colony that it is so, and that the theoretical majority bids^fair to become, or actually has become, a practical minority. Free, secular. • lar. and compulsory— such was to have been the order of the da 3', and the universal panacea of our enlightened legislature for all the ills of the colonial mind. ' Private and denominational schools were to have been swamped, and the Government institutions alone available for educational purposes. But parental instincts have prevailed ; it was very well to contemplate all this from a distance ; when, however, it was brought home to the perceptions of decent people that they were called upon to subject their children to vile companionship, in which, of necessity, obscenity and blasphemy must have become familiar to them as " household words,' they hesitated, lhe ultimate fate of the secular system trembled in the balance, and, we verily believe, it has been decided by the first few days of its existence amongst a people that arc, after all, still^for the most part, .imafaan, although they have been hood-winked by a handful of atheists and anti-Catholic bigots into giving their consent to a measure destructive alike of Christianity and morality. But will uosogood folks, who now are bent on finding private schools and { Mic tuition for their children, recollect that they narrowly escaped | saving it placed out of their power to take such precautionary measures ? Had the Bill passed as it emanated from the brain of its originator, « Poor Bowen," it would have been impossible for them ojjavo saved their boys and girls from the odious contamination mat would have fitted them for the gaols and the lamp-lit streets, as a similar system has fitted their fellows elsewhere. It was intended »>y the gentry who then occupied the Ministerial Benches to have imposed upon us an exaggeiated edition of the measure that has worked such woeful evils in America, and is in the process of n orknig the like in Victoria, and they would have made it compulsory, not only to attend school, but to attend at the degraded Government schools, and there only. We presume that now respectable people wive their eyes in part open to the infamy of the system in question, tuey will nJbo come to view in its proper light the insolence and inMilling conduct of the men who would have tainted the atmosphere of their homes, by forcibly exposing their children to the absorption of all that is filthy and revolting.

AT. Gambktta has, after all, proved a true dictator, and the has accepted one of the alternatives proposed to Mm. He hns choMjn to submit rather than to resign, and, in doing so, we conor that lie has given proofs, cither of extreme short-sightedness and -ousdusm, or elm of an incredible weakness. Unless France was indeed on the verge of destruction last May, the .step taken by the 1 1 rohiilenl in dismissing the Simon Ministry was totally inexcusable. he gravest reasons of Slate could alone excuse the position in which the country was then placed by him. The risk of revolution was encountered at home, and dangerous complications dared abroad. reclamations and appeals of the most exciting nature were made and issued. Heaven and earth were worked, and endless steps of questionable character were taken, a^coursc of action that could only be justified by absolute necessity, and in order to prevent some stnpendous catastrophe. Yet things have now apparently settled down into their former groove, and there would seem to have been no more solid foundation fox the whole commoliou than a panic which seized hold upon the imagination of Marshal MacMahon. Such, we say, is the aspect of the situation, so far as it can be judged by those who have not been initiated into its mysteries, but, at the same time, we confess we feel inclined to accept as true the declaration lately made by tho Due dc Broglie, that, even when apparently calm, the party of the revolution arc busily engaged in working out their sinister ends ;

and we by no means agree with those who suppose that the Government of France has quietly settled down into a moderate republic Cavour rejected republicanism for Italy, and whatever may have been his errors or his crimes — and we admit they were not few — he was undoubtedly right in determining that the form of Kepublic which would suit European nations had yet to be discovered. It had not been discovered in his day, nor has it in ours, and we doubt if the union of the legislative with the executive powers, now sanctioned by MacMahon, will eventually be found to aid in the discovery. If the stroke of the 16th May was attempted, we' say, without just grounds the President has evidently given the clearest proofs of his unntness for the situation occupied by him, and no term of ridicule or contempt would be too severe to apply to his conduct, but if there were valid grounds for the course pursued by him, then the dangers are still imminent, and he has failed to cope with them. In either case Ms tenure of office affords no guarantee for the safety or welfare of the country. As a statesman, his failure has been pitiable ; as a man, we hold, resignation alone would have tended, under the circumstances, to the vindication of his dignity and self-respect. D using the suspense occasioned by the breakage of the cable, which has now proved to be periodical, and which is aggravating to the colony in general, and a thorn in the side of colonial editors in particular, it is impossible to refrain from speculating as to what may be the tenor of the next message received by us from Europe. The philosophy of history teaches us that it is safer, in threatening times, to predict war than peace, for war is the normal condition of nations, and peace that in which they are maintained by good statesmanship alone ; -bat nevertheless* he must be a bold writer who would venture upon a confident paragraph with the consciousness that, ere it waa in the hands of his readers, intelligence might be received setting at naught all his boasted foresight. During the present war more especially deceit has occupied so large a place, that even the clearest vision might be found at fault, and it is necessary to be kept informed of the progress of affairs step by step, in order to arrive at any probable conclusion as to the next phase to be assumed by them. What the last few days may have brought forth in Europe we confess ourselves unable to divine with any reasonable amount of certainty, but, in the absence of reliable data upon which to proceed, we should think it not improbable that we may be informed of a halt of the Russian forces at Adrianople, and an armistice preparatory to the holding of a conference for the determination of the continuance or conclusion of hostilities. Meantime it must be evident that the constant interruptions to which the cable is liable are extremely vexatious, to say the least of it, under any circumstances ; but the unpleasantness of the matter would be infinitely increased were England engaged in the present, or in any other, warfare, and conditions might arise when the safety of the colonies would be seriously compromised by such an accident. It is, therefore, much to be desired that the proposal for a second line of cable may not be allowed to lapse, but that it may bo adopted seriously, and carried out without unnecessary delay.

The action taken by the English Freemasons, with respect to tho declaration of atheism lately made by the Grand Orient of Franco^ in extremely suggestive. Hitherto its friends had pleaded in defence of Euglish Freemasonry that it had no real connection with the more advanced principles acknowledged by the foreign lodges, but followed the craft in all purity of intention, and benevolence of practice. We now, however, learn that such a plea was entirely groundless. It has been found necessary, in view of a movement for which England is not yet ripe, to confess the union that has all the time existed, and, in consequence, English Masonry stands openly convicted oil responsibility for all the enormities hitherto committed by the members of the craft abroad. We confess it had 'all along been difficult for us to believe that men professing Christianity, and many of them even being members of a Christian Ministry, could allow themselves to be so far duped as to become identified with a society branded with such deep infamy ; but nevertheless the testimony that existccVfor their conviction of, unsuspectingly at least, supporting by their influence the worst excesses of the craft was too Btrong to be discredited. Now, however, there is no longer an excuse for the shadow of a doubt. The connection stands revealed in the broad

light of day, and, although the English Grand Lodge may, for the time, shrink from an open profession of atheism, they cannot free themselves from the reproach of fellowship with the men who organised the Commune or murdered the hostages. The Grand Orient has, nevertheless, only acted a little in advance of the due season. The English lodges may not as yet be ripe for the avowal of atheistical principles, but the day is hasteuing forward when such a step will no longer be thought, in England, outrageous or even strange. Cambridge University has led the way far onwards towards such a goal, by conferring the degree of D.C.L. upon Mr. Darwin, the originator of a theory which atheists have seized upon, as other sectarians seize upon some perverted passage of Holy Writ, to advauce in proof of their preconceived doctrines. '• The fact is," said a certain savant in reply to J^e Protestant Bishop of Manchester, " that the Darwinian theory is ie only one whichniakes it possible to account for life without admitting the existence of God ; we are bent upon eliminating the idea of God from the minds of men, and this the reason why we go in so strongly for Darwinism aud teach it so zealously , although probably it is a false theory." The Grand Orient has, then, only anticipated the appointed season, And yet we wonder why the English lodges should take exception to an. atheistical declaration, while they quietly accepted a fellowship in atheistical deeds.