Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 258, 12 April 1878, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME Sf ABROAD.

HATEVER may have been the commotion stirred up or still to be stirred up, with respect to the re-establish-ment of the hierarchy in Scotland, it can hardly again happen that Great Britain shall be so violently moved by any measure proceeding from Rome as it was some thirty years ago, when the Pope resolved upon appointing bishops to English Sees, and the English nation suffered from a temporary attack of mania' caused by this "Papal Aggression.' 1 The Timex newspaper gave warning on October 26th "47 that, instead of Vicars Apostolic, who were the'bishops of Sees In partlhux appointed the administrators of English dioceses, such dioceses would be administered by bishops regularly elected to them, and called by their names, and that, moreover, one or two Archbishops were about to be created. In the January following the Quarterly lleriaw improved upon the announcement thus made by stating that the Pope, by raising the modest Vicars Apostolic into bishops and archbishops, meant to prove that he had '• power and authority both spiritual and temporal .... in this, by law, Protestant realm of England." And, whether it was that he had been put on his metal by reading and digesting the article in which this was stated, or that in some other way his episcopal indigJiatiou had been aroused the Anglican Bishop of Durham, about eighteen months afterwards on the actual establishment of the hierarchy, wrote a letter to Lord John ltussell, which never was published, but the tenor of which may be learned from the terms in which the reply of the noble Lord was couched. Lord John considered the aggression of the I 'ope on their Protestantism insidious and insolent. He had promoted the claims of Catholics to all civil rights, and had even wished their ecclesiastical system to be made the means of instructing the Irish immigrants into England, who would otherwise be left in Pagan darkness, but this might have been carried out in a very different manner from that which was now before his eyes. The documents which had come from Koine displayed an assumption of power, a pretension of supremacy over the realm of England, a claim to undivided sway inconsistent with the Queen's supremacy, with the rights of the bishops and clergy, and with the spiritual independence of the nation, unassorted even in Catholic times. However, although Lord John was choking with indignation, he was not at the same time overcome by alarm. He felt that England was strong enough to bear any outward attacks, and that her people had too long enjoyed the liberty of Protestantism to allow of the imposition of a foreign yoke upon their minds and consciences. This letter may be considered to have led oft in the tumult. It was written ou November A, '50 : next day was tbc ."Jtli, Guy Fawkes' day. and, to use a slung phrase, it was a tcrr or. Anti-Papal saturnalia raged all over the country : the " Abbot of Unreason," himself seemed to be present in a state of raving lunacy every where. Everywhere the I'opc was, overwhelmed with insults ; liit. clligy iv many places was burned ; and equally with, or even still inure than 111* Holmes, was Cardinal Wiseman considered worthy of iv|»rubaticin. and reprobated accordingly. Expressions of hostility were continued thick and fast throughout the land. The mob were glad to lind so good an excuse for riot and disorder : many enormities were actually perpetrated, and in one of the great -manufacturing towns an outrage was, at least, planned that cannot be thought of without a shudder. A good nun, who was there at the time, and who was informed of what was projected, declared that she would certainly be unable to restrain herself from facing the crowd and endeavouring to dissuade them from their purpose. Had she done so there can he little doubt that she would have encountered martyrdom, but fortunately some providence prevented i\m design from being carried out and the excellent lady was left to finish her career in peace and usefulness. At the Lord Mayor's dinner Lord John Russell and other Cabinet Ministers strongly condemned the action of the Pope ; a monster demonstration was made on the subject at York ; deputations IVoiu tlic Corporation of London, and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, presented addresses treating of the matter to the Queen.

and Her Majesty replied to them that it was her " determination to uphold alike the rights of her crown and the independence of ber people, against .('.. v. cessions and encroachments of any foreign power." At tin. .ag of Parliament on Feb. 4, '51, the Queen le. f erred to those ad> ' • „ and repeated the assurance, she said :—": — " The recent assumption -tain ecclesiastical titles conferred by a foreig power has excited , :ig feelings in this country ; and largcbodies of my subjects have j ented addresses to me expressing attachment to the throne, and j .. ing that such assumptions should be resistedI have assured them 'my resolution to maintain the rights of any crown and the independence of the nation against all encroachments, from whatever quarter they may proceed." ' Her Majesty added that a measure on the subject would be laid before the Parliament. Accord, ingly, on the Gth of the month, Lord John Hussbll moved for leave to bring in a bill to prevent the assumption of ecclesiastical titles, lii respect of places in the United Kingdom, and after about a week lad been spent in the debate leave was given by a majority of 3\)~> to 651. On the 4th July following the bill was passed by the House of Commons. Such was the commotion whicli followed upon the re-establish-ment of the Catholic hierarchy in England, a commotion which, however, in nothing retarded the growth of the Church there, and wMch had so soon abated, that, in about fourteen years after,, at the death of its chief victim, Cardinal Wiseman, his Eminence was found to lir.vc become extremely popular and to be universally regretted.

We perceive that at a late meeting of the Christchurch Cathedral G-uild, a certain parson has been " bummi/i? awa'dy hike a iuzzwrdchok" This gentleman is a Hey. H. C. M. Watson, already celebrated in Christchurch for having confirmed in their disbelief in the doctrine of JEtcrnal Puuishment the hearers of one Mr. Cass, who lectured on the subject iv that town some two years ago, and who was confronted there by this Mr. Watson, whose rather confused style of argumentation led his audience to conclude that he either had not studied the matter on which he essayed to dispute, or had not been capable of profiting by such studies of it as he had made, and that in any case if Mr. Cass were to be confuted, Mr. "Watson was not the man to confute him. The Rev. parson has ndw again been holding forth .unintelligibly, and so as to convince all persons of reasonable understanding that he has been talking of whafc he knows not an iota about. This time religious education has been his theme, and not content with deploring that the ineaus of so educating the children of his congregation have not been placed by Government within his reach, and endeavouring to devise a method of obtaining such means, which would have been on his part a highly commendable step, he lias gone out of his way to vilify and slander the Catholic system of Education, concerning which, he knows nothing whatever. He argues that because a large proportion of the criminals of the colony are found to belong to a class of Catholics come from a country where Catholic education has been for ages restricted, and consequently not educated in Catholic schools, that therefore the Catholic system of education is inferior to the Protestant. A line of argument, however, iiuitc in Mr. Watson's Avay. and mo&t characteristic of his intellect. Mr. Watson, it v/ould appear, is indignant against Catholic*,, becjuibo he attributes to them the expunging from the Education Bill of what lie calls the '•' conscience clause."" Had this clause remained in thu Bill he would have been content -with the measure, and satisfied that his duty was being done for him. fully us well as he could himself perform it. l\y which we perceive that Mr. Watson's coiibdonce is not very extensive or difficult to satisfy. He could then have been assured that in. every house there would " have been an open Bible. And that accordiug to Dr. Dollinger, whose rebellion against Home has made him a hero with the ultra- Protestant world, although he himself is far from being a Protestant, has caused the ''greatness, purity, and freedom of Britain."' That Britain is great and free we do not deny—the sterling qun'iti^s. the : mo<! common sense, perseverance and manliness of her poop].;, f^tli.-r with her varied resources* must have insured that in any case. That she is free also is undoubted* for that her constitution has amply made provision, but her constitution was founded on Catholic principles and in Catholic times. But that she is pure we dissent from completely. The country is on the contrary— full of impurity, and this, whose prevention, had the " open Bible "' been of the value imputed io it, inu&i have becu its v e ry first fruits, clearly proves that Dr. Dollhigcr taw added another error of

judgment to those already enounced by him. The " open Bible " and the system to which it belongs, have anything but improved Britain, or made it moral or religious. On the contrary, we find an able illustration of what they have done in the poem from which we have quoted a phrase in order to apply it to the teaching of the Eev. Mr. Watson. We conclude that Mr. Watson will admit, with. St. Paul, that the poets of a country are authorities to be trusted on the characteristics of the race to which they belong, and that therefore in ! Tennyson's " Northern Farmer " we find the just representation of a class. But what a picture of the results of Protestant teaching on a rural population have we here. The people's whole moral character is summed up in the last line of the verses — ■' Gifc ma my yaiile I tell thn, an' gin I mun doy I mini cloy." >p|(f is true that this is intended to represent the " old style," but the same hand which has sketched it for us has also given us a picture of the modern change in it, and in this modern change we discern a state of things still worse than the former. Simplicity has been replaced by cunning, rugged manliness by craft, and satisfaction in having- performed honest work by an all-devouring avarice. Such are some of the much vaunted fruits of the " open Bible." By the San Francisco mail, which arrived at Auckland on Friday last, there are reported several matters relating to the policy of the Pope. We are very chary of according credit to anything which reaches us by such means from Home, and therefore we merely give an abstract of these paragraphs, waiting to receive in due time from our European and Ameiicau Catholic exchanges true versions of the proceedings referred to, or explanations of how the reports, if entirely groundless, arose.— The Catholic hierarchy, then, has been re-estab-lished in Scotland. It is said that His Holiness expresses indirectly a wish for a compromise with Germany ; that he has charged three prelates to examine the state of the Church in Poland ; that he recommended a deputation of parish priests to preach Jesus Christ, His life and teachings, and to guard their flocks against infidelity and immorality, the results of a corrupt Press ; that his having abstained from all reference in his coronation speech to the late Pope has occasioned painful surprise ; that he has determined on a course of conciliation us far as possible in the interests of the Church and State in questions pending with the various Governments : and that he has written to the Czar and the Emperor William concerning the condition respectively of the Church in Polaud aud Germany. Cardinal Franchi has been appointed Pontifical Secretary of State, Cardinal Simeoni, Prefect of Propaganda, Cardinal Morichini, Camerlengo, aud Cardinal Bartohm. President of the Congregation of llites. It is further said that in consequence of Franchi's appointment, the French Ambassador asked to be recalled, and that the disturbance amongst the Swiss Guard continues ; they being fomented by fanatics, who wish to embarrass the action of the Pope— A serious riot occurred in Hyde Park, between the parties of peace and war : the former, to the number of 2000, were being addressed there by Messrs. Bradlaugh and Herbert, when they were attacked by a mob, and driven out with violence. Sticks were freely used, several persons in consequence being taken to the hospitals. Mr. Gladstone's louse was the scene of a hostile demonstration, and the great statesman himself, together with Mrs. Gladstone, was assaulted as they were proceeding to clmrch, and was obliged to seek for shelter from their assailants. Prince Teck also being mistaken for the Russian Ambassador, was to some extent ill-used in the street.— The Russian loan of 50,000,000 roubles was immediately taken up.— The Times declares nothing can be more ominous than the cheapness of money in the continental markets, and nothing is more to be dreaded than the superficially cheap credit at home aud abroad.— The Khedive hasbeen accused of a disposition to refuse the carrying out of the agreement made with the English and French bondholders, through 5 Mr. Uuschcn and M. Goubcrt, but such an intention has been disclaimed, i^aud Colonel Gordon empowered to constitute a commission to examine into Egypt's financial condition so as to ascertain how far sho may be able to meet her creditors. It is said that great excitement prevails, in India touching the downfall of Turkey, ami 2,000,000 Miihoinmiiilan volunteers may be raised there to oppose the Russians.