Current Topics.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 337, 3 October 1879, Page 1

Current Topics.

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If it were not that an element of disgust enters into the matter tr*t (< amusin c t0 find how c^e together keep the tactics of atheist and evangelical » in their attack upon the Church. We now find that Gury s theology, gabled and distorted, thou-h whether in ignorance or not we cannot say, has been made the grounds of a fierce onslaught on the Jesuits in the French Chamber of Deputies by M Paul Bert, who, amongst other things, has distinguished himself by advocating the establishment in the College of France of a " chair of comparative mythology "-that myth, Christianity, being one of the principal subjects to be disposed of thereby. Mgr Freppel the Bishop of Angers, has exposed the errors or wilful dishonesty of M Bert, and we are afraid we must this time deny the benefit of the i 2 norance-plea, such as it is. to the offender, for a man who passes for a savant in Pans can hardly be ignorant. The extracts have however, been shown by the Bishop to be garbled, and to bear a sense entirely opposed to that placed upon them. But before he had had time to deal with the matter, it had been widely commented on, and we have gained the advantage from it of obtaining some very mi portant testimony to the folly of M. Bert's charges, which may serve to refute, not only those particular charges, but others also of the same kind that continually crop up, or are kept current by extreme bigotry. In another column, under the heading " French Education and Jesuit Morality," we give the judgment concerning the affair pronounced by the Satvrday Jlerlew, well known to be a journal that favours nothing Catholic, and our readers will admire its good common-sense, as well as learn fiom it how impossible it is for cultivated Protestant gentlemen, such as the writer of the article in

accepten^ TTI I*T** * *** prßJudices ' to stoo P to «" not Semen bnf T^ ? *""** Whi ° h Protestan ts who are delilht w mmdS Me grOBS md too frequently attention v* rr f eCOmmend ' then ' the "Hole in question to especial ?*' ? qUOtG fr ° m M " de Mazade ' * non.Ca?holic writer of high repute, who contributes to the Xevue de* Deum Monde, w th UoT P f htlCa i article ' the Avowing P^ges to a similar XZ time tootth h t SatUVday ReVien '-" M - Paul B^ who this were botd 0 * Uh^iS & learned maD > and ««J one ceSi a 'Kfi S""* Mm With BUch a demonstration conitacSLh T 3eCt a 8 tbat he ' tbe Other da * hro^t before the Chamber, he would certainly smile at it. He thought nerhaos he waßw aB B ho W i ng . up things that were not known, and P " ving'h S IZuZ?* he ™°»» l y Rawing on archives, where, for three old to '* y S iD thC habit ° f goin^ P«*odicam to fish up old accusations, old stories, old texts a hundred times handed orer to the malignity of the public, and a hundred times set right or explained. M. Paul Bert did not perceive that in wishing to prove too much he proved nothing, and that, in going beyond all measure, m becoming mtoxicated with his own demonstrations, however he might please credulous imaginations, or prejudiced minds, he was no longer speaking seriously. Why !if all M . Paul Bert said were true we must conclude neither more nor less than that, for several centuries, and at the present day as well, whole generations hare been formed in congregational schools to the art of quieting their consciences concerning all sorts of misdeeds provided for by the criminal code. The congregations whose most active contingent are Uwi °? r s their time in teachin s their p^ l - *™to conso c themselves for the death of « father by receiving his heritage ; how to play with murder, with theft, with the honour of families To^i f 0118 of off ence 8 and crimes; without speaking of moral fraud ! Under the veil of pious books, obscenity would reign n the education given by religious houses ! Young girls no mor, than youths would be out of the reach of corruption ol mind and Wfi • t !r d^ d> " h WCre B °' Clause 7 would be an insufficient palliative ; or rather, it would not be even necessary. Are there no laws and no regular system of justice, to hinder, to repress this preaching of crime, and of license disguised under the name of teaching ? If half M . Paul Bert's assertions had any foundation, it is not the Minister of Public Instruction who ought to ba followed as far as clause 7. It is M. Madier de Montjau who would be right a thousandfold. He is logical and goes straight on to the end. He thinks all that M. Paul Bert says, and, without stopping by the way, he demands the exclusion, not only of unauthorised congregations but of the authorised ones themselves, of the secular clergy, of the Church altogether. This intrepid logician, for his part, takei no half-measures with clericalism, which he plumply proposes to extirpate root and branch. Why do they not go to the length proposed by him ? Why did the Minister of Public Instruction think himself called upon to oppose M. Madier de Montjau, and why was ? IT*/ 11 thlS by tbe Whole Chamber ? Because the y knew very well that M. Paul Bert had given the rein to his imagination, that he had sustamed a party-thesis, perhaps, still more, one of a sect, and that the religious houses, such as they are with their shortcomings and their unfitnesses, are not schools of immorality opened in the midst of French society, of tbe society of Europe." This, whether taken in conjunction with the testimony of the Saturday Revieiv o apart from it, is good common-sense, and very important testimony It ought to at once put an end to all the nasty stuff that is talked or written m the connection concerned. We, however, do not in the least expect that it will have any such effect, for Atheism must exdte the hatreds that favour its growth, and vulgar Protestantism must also indulge its hatred and provide for the sensationalism by which it charms the mob-the mob that is still the "great unwashed, and whose mind, however its outside may be vested in silk and broadcloth, continues very dirty.

£-yEv E Fresb^ teriall frien<:i s in America, then, have found out that the flible-m-schools is not the infallible panacea after all. Notwithstanding the Bible reading without note or comment in " a very large majonty of the public schools," the Presbyterian Banner confesses that materialism and atheism are " probably in many place B " to ba

discerned, and that the schools may be irreligious and godless even in a much wider sense than that in which they have been pronounced 60 by Catholics. The youthful commentators are not to be depended on ; the orthodoxy of their private judgment is apt to fail before the tone of the teachers towards religion, and it will not only bo necessary to have the Bible read, but precautions must be taken to ensure its being read by persons who actually go so far as to have so me sort of belief in its truth. It is a sad state of affairs, but there is no denying it ; our kind and considerate Presbyterian friends absolutely cannot Bucceed in thwarting and oppressing their Catholic fellowcolonists unless they persist in a line of policy that may be described by the homely saying, " biting your nose to vex your face." Their spite carries with it its punishment, that is if it really be a punishment, and whilst they force us to pay heavily for Lhe preservation of our children's faith, they are certainly making infidels, or worse, of their own children. The passages from the Presbyterian Banner, to which we allude, are as follows :— " The strongest opposition to these schools has come from the Roman Catholic Church. This Church, as is well known, has not been in favour of circulating the Bible without note or comment among the people ; and as the Holy Scriptures were read in a very large majority of the public schools, this was one occasion why the Roman Catholic hierarchy arrayed themselves against them. But truth requires it to be said that the objection of Romanism took mainly a deeper and wider range ; it insisted that these were godless schools, that as religion was not taught in them and could not be, they would necessarily become irreligious and inidel, if not atheistic. It may be said that this particular opposition arose from the fact that Rome regards everything as godless and unChristian outside its own communion, and therefore no objection urged on this ground from this source would be worthy of consideration. And there may be a good deal in this. Still it has been generally understood that education in the common schools should be in the general line of Christianity, avoiding all that is known a? sectarianism, so far as morals and belief are concerned, and especially that it should not be infidel, much less atheistic. But, unfortunately, there are indications cropping out here and there that the charge that our common schools are irreligious and godless in a much wider sense than intended originally in the objection by the Roman Catholic Church, is in danger of being supported, at lea3t to some extent. The absence of direct religious instruction has been so construed in practice, at least in some, probably in many places, as to admit bald secularism, and even materialism and atheism. The evidences are such as should lead to examination on the part of all the friends, of the common schools and to deep anxiety for their future. It is asserted in some places superintendents of instruction, secretaries of school boards, professors in high schools, and influential teachers, are avowed disciples of Huxley, Tyndall, and Draper, seizing whatever occasion may present themselves to impart their views to their pupils and to others. It is said that while they will not array themselves openly against Christianity and the Bible, they will assume patronising airs, speaking of the former as a harmless institution which has outlived its day, and of the latter as a most valuable book which contains the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, but whose history and general system have been displaced by the progress of philosophy and the discoveries of science. Here and there we even hear of female teachers, who have " advanced "' so far as to discard the religious sentiments in which they were reared, and to adopt the views of Huxley, Tyndall, Draper, and others, though they may have^reached them through several filterings. It has been reported that an educator connected with the common school system, a short time as;o went so far, in a public discourse, as to commend the saying of Ingersoll, that • An honest God is the noblest work of man.' That there are grounds for such charges as these, in some places, cannot be successfully denied ; and the danger that the evil may spread is obvious to all."

We arc continual^ hcariug of all kinds of dreadful deeds committed by " Romanists" on the persons, or property, or both combined, of innocent Protestants. The accounts of these things are invariably derived from the bosom of century long since passed away, or from some locality very far off, so far, indeed, and so obscure as to be of very dubious existence, and it is moreover frequently spoken of as situated in some quaiter of 1 lie globe in which such a thing as a Protestant is never to be encounteicd from one year't, end to the other ; but it is necessary to the maintenance of the great Protestant tradition that there should be Piotes'ants by millions all over the world, and that everywhere they should be dreadfully treated by " Papists," and accordingly the matter goes on iv the realms of the mythic. Unfortunate!}', however, we are by no means wanting in a " local habitation and a name" for the outiageo that tbis kind of pious invention evokes against Catholics on the pait of Protestants, or for the murderous and many times successful attempts often made upon them by the Atheists of the revolution, the trusty allies of our good " evangelical ' fiieuds in their attack upon Home. We, a little time ago, for instance, gave full particulars respecting the ardent disciple of Orangeism who endeavoured to wreck a train

m the United States because, said he, it was full of Catholics, and his conscience directed him to do away with ag many as possible of them from off the face of the earth, and now vre find a Catholic priest in Scotland furnishing a contemporary with the details of the long course of insult and violence to which he and his flock have been subjected by the enlightened Presbyterian Christians amongst whom they are forced to reside. The priest's name is W. J. O'Shaughnessy ; his letter, which appeared»in the Glasgow Herald, some day last July, is dated from Girvan, and the scene of the outrages of which he complains is named Maybole. This is all plain and neither priest, people, nor locality is to be found hidden away in the depths of the Andes, or of " untrodden Spain ; " all are within reach and if there be a " word of lie" in the allegations, it can be at onco contradicted . This priest, then, is building a church at Maybole, and for four years he and all connected with him have been subject to the most brutal ill-treatment ; his church, a beautiful work of art, has been six times attacked and damaged and now for the first time he complains. He writes as follows :— " Myself and my flock and my church have been subjected to a thousand indignities, especially during the past four years. My flock, forbidden by me under the severest penalties a priest can inflict— forbidden to retaliate or take notice of what is said to them, have daily to listen at their work to the most infamous language against all they hold most sacred in religion. Even Protestants have expressed to me their astonishment how Catholics could stand it. My own person has been abused with stone-throwing, dogs have been hounded on me, my ears have dailytingled, not only with the usual anti-Catholic cries, but also with the filthiest expressions that one would expect only to hear in a very Sodom or Gomorrah. And my church has now/o?- tlie sixth time been attacked and damaged.and I now/or the first time make public complaint." So much, then, for our enlightened Presbyterian friends ; and now for their atheistic sympathisers— we clip the following from the London Times : — " Rome, Aug. 3. — Enormous as is the number of crimes of the knife committed in Italy, it is impossible to imagine one of a more cold-blooded nature than has just been perpetrated on the person of an old Dominican monk of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, named Cardoni. Turning from the Corso into the street by the Doria Palace, called the Vicolo Doria, he passed some cabs standing in the shade, when on 2of the men abjut them, a man he had never seen before, stepped forward, and, saying, 'It is tim 3to finish with you fellows,' stabbed him in the abdomen, inflicting a wound from which lie died in the course of tbe night. It was at first suppose^ the deed was a vendetta, but it is now plnced beyond doubt that the assassin had never seen the Padre Cardoni b3fore, nor had either directly or indirectly any cause of quarrel with him, The blow was inflicted in absolute wantonness." Such then are the fruits of atheistical denunciations and of "evangelical" preaching; but if a tree be known by its fruits, surely like fiuits betray the same iree.

We have received a pamphlet written by •• Adam " in answer to Colonel Bob Ingcrsoll's " Mistakes of Mose^."' We have had the colonel's production for some time in our possession together with a collection of answers to it by American divines and others ; but, truth to tell, we have never nad any one of tin lot. When this class of peripatetic, atheistical preacheis were new to us, as in the case of Mr. Ch.ulei Blight, we read, out of curiosity, all that we could find emanating from them. But in a short time our curiosity turned to nausea ; we speedily found that we had to do with folk who bore to the religious world a relation similar to that borne to science and literature by the simpletons ridiculed so wittily by Moliere. And aa in reading their productions we had to do with the raw material, rendered palatable by no gleam thrown on it in any way by external genius, we soon got tired of the matter and flung it aside for good. Tbe tribe is a necessary outcome of the system introduced by the " Reformation," they are one of its most absurd and flattest developments, but there is no use whatever in opposing them, atheistic Chadbandery is an institution absolutely needful for certain classes belonging to the period and it will grow and prosper; it will be well if there be nothing worse to be endured arising from the root from which they spring, than the jobations of " Colonel Bob" and others of his kind. We have looked into " Adam's" pamphlet, and such passages as we have read seem a sufficient answer to the blasphemy they undertake to icfute.

We arc now going to talk of something we know nothing at all about and that we admit is not often a wise proceeding. However, we have a remark to make, and we shall run the risk and make it ; it is about the big Pyramid of Jeczeh of which, we now hear so much. Indeed, we may mention by way of parenthesis, that personally we have been hearing of this pyramid I'oi the last live or six years for the letters of a private correspondent, during all that time, have been thickly bestrewn with allusions to it, but, in the innocence of our bcaits, we took those allusions for affairs of the same kind as the references to the head of King Chailcs I. in tbe memoiialof Mr. Dick, and understanding that it is always well to fall in with the humour of a mauiac, wrote soothingly in reply, carefully avoiding all mention

of the suspicious topic. However, we now perceive that the matter is not one in which maniacs are concerned, but which on the contrary is considered deserving of the attention of the most learned pundits and profound logicians we shall therefore make our remark without any thought of soothing minds disturbed. If then, the Great Pyramid be a work performed under supernatural directions, what is there to show that its building was not directed by those infernal beings that, it is authoritatively affirmed, had of old such power in Egypt, and, tiavellers occasionally hint, have not wholly as yet relinquished all their manifestations there. They would certainly know all about the centre of the earth, the length of the year, and all the rest of it ; and as to the end of the world in 1881, they might naturally be expected to err about that. We throw this last suggestion out for the special benefit of those who in 1882 will want to know, why on earth the big pyramid's prophecy was not fulfilled.

We are encouraged by finding that the advice of the Belgian bishops to their people with respect to the iniquitous Educational Bill lately passed in their country is similar to that which we ourselves have so frequently given to the people of New Zealand respecting the secular system here. The bishops have issued a joint pastoral condemning the law totally ani requesting all Catholics to abstain altogether from countenancing it in any way, either by becoming members of School Boards, or otherwise taking part in the matter. They further exhort their people to do their utmost in the establishment and support of Catholic schools ; and that their exhortation has been complied with, we learn from the following paragraph clipped from one of our American exchanges: — " From all parts of the country we hear of the opening of new Catholic schools, and of the arrangements made bj the purchase or erection of buildings to provide the necessary accommodation. Everywhere the people are firm in their resolution not to send their children to the Government schools, and subscriptions are paid in with the greatest cheerfulness and liberality by all classes. The Catholic papers contain long lists of places in which either a school has already been opened, or arrrangements completed for that purpose. In many cases the buildings are the gift of individual munificence, and everywhere the most admirable spirit prevails. Even workmen pay in subscriptions which, in proportion to their earnings appear almost excessive, remarking that they would rather want bread than not provide for the religious instruction of their children."

The Sydney Morning Herald some time ago affered a prize of 100 guineas foi the best poem to be written on the International Exhibition. The poem has now been written and the prize won by Mr. Henry Kendall, and it is announced that the poet has gained a signal victory, since there proved to be many competitors, uot oaly from these colonies but from the United Kingdom ; and the poetry Bent in was considered remarkably good. We, however, must venture an opinion that the poem which has gained the prize is not good in any very remarkable degree, and although it does not detract from Mr. Kendall's reputation, in itself it never could have recommended him to public favour, nor does it bind a single fresh laurel leaf upon hia bardic crown. It is common-place, albeit stamped with the peculiar mark of the poet who wrote it, and we must believe that the judges who selected it, supposing them to have been acquainted already with Mr. Kendall's writings, which we look upon as a matter-of-course, were perfectly aware of the authorship of the poem under their consideration. The poem is, however, like all those which we have read written by the same writer, musical, and it contains a great deal of veiy pretty woid painting. It is, on the other hand, marked by Mr. Kendall's common faults, for, beautiful as is the scenery described, it is not the ordinaiy scenery of Australia. We are not, in a word, impressed when reading this poet's work that we are listening to one who, like Wordsworth, has thrown himself down passive in the midst of nature to receive, by the mysterious, rare, poetic sense, all the impressions it conveys, in something of the same manner as the eye without an effort sees whatever it re ts on, or the ear hears all the sounds within its reach. Mr. Kendall seems to us rather to allow his imagination to lange to tilings far off, and to be anything rather than the poet of the place he writes in. We cannot undeistand how anyone accustomed to life in the Australian bush, for example, and who is familiar with the parched ranges and shadeless forest-land that 60 largely characterise the country in question, can recognise as a distinctively Australian feature "wet hills" or " daik-green hollows of the noon-tide dew." The allusions, too, to the heathen mythology are extremely aitificial, and the comparison of Sydney with Troy is as far-fetched as ever it can be. There are, moreover, several very queer expressions to be met with throughout this pocrn — we say queer and not quaint, for quaintness properly employed is charming and effective, whereas queerness is ridiculous. We are, for instance, told of a "dell behind a singing bar." What is a " singing bar?" We are sorry to say it suggests to us only a cafi chantant or something of that sort. Again we do not know whether every fair-haired young lady would feel complimented only by being told of " the curious beauty of her golden hair ;" we suspect there are

some, it may be of the Miss Nipper class, who would want to know what there was " curious " about it. Then how comes the grimy» utterly black, Australian Aboriginal to be a " gleaming savage ;" and finally, what on earth is " faith that glitters ?" The Daily Times has given us side by side with the Prize Poem, a poem on the same subject by Mr. Thomas Bracken, which, although comparisons are odious, we venture to say may be read at least without disadvantage in close connection with that of Mr. Kendall. We do not think it devolves upon us to enter upon comparative criticism, but so far as we may judge Mr. Bracken's opening verses, for instance, are quite as sonorous, more spirited, and much more appropriate than Mr. Kendall's invocation of Calliope.

Herb is another illustration of the oft-repeat«d adage, " Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." Mr. Herbert Spencer, it seems, is opposed to the violent wresting away of education from the parent by the State ; he considers such a step injurious, and although he believes that teaching must gradually pass into the hands of a non« sacerdotal class he appears confident enough in the truth of his theories to await their working out in the natural course of evolution. It is but the demi-savant, and smaller pseudo-philosopher who is prepared to assist. the development of his theories by violence and infringement of the rights of others, and by doing so he not only betrajs the injustice by which he is actuated, but the petulance and weakness of a mind not capable of a firm and patient belief. We clip the following paragraph which has suggested these few remarks to us from the French correspondence of the London Times :— " Mr, Herbert Spencer having been cited as an authority by a Clerical Deputy in favour of State non-intervention in education, he has written to M. Alglave, a Republican Deputy, to explain his real views. He is opposed to State education because the State must proportion benefits to merit or capacity, whereas tbe parents increase benefits where capacity is weak ; the adult and the child requiring opposite treatment. Education by the State or by the Church is not, moreover, the only alternative, but rather education by agents of the Stats or by agents of individuals ; and evolution shows that teaching, originally in the hands of political ox ecclesiastical rulers, should gradually pass into those of a special and non-sacerdotal class. The Clericals, however, are evidently justified in citing Mr. Spencer ai an authority against the State monopoly of control of education to the prejudice of private initiative, which is openly avowed by M. Ferry and his supporters."

Thb American Exporter has been giving some information connected with affairs in New Zealand, a few items from which may instruct or amuse our readers. Colonel Roosevelt is the authority quoted, and we are afraid that gentleman must be set down as not in every instance quite accurate in his observations and report of us. We find, then, that two of our chief towns, ranking with Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland, are named Russell and Mongony. We are told that no New Zealand merchant will consent to deal with any foreign merchant who will not give him four months credit, but, doubtless, foreign merchants will be quite willing to agree to these terms when they learn that such a thing as a thief has never been heard of in the islands. We are particularly blessed, it seems, in the class of people -who select New Zealand as a field for emigration, for they almost invariably bring with them capital enough to establish them as farmers or in business at once on their arrival here. Our women are dead set on American shoes, for our shoemakers can only succeed in turning out brogues that would make the faultless feet of Cinderella herself look like clod- crushers. We may here, however, recommend our Yankee friend to go to tho Sydney Exhibition and see the work our New Zealand bootmakers can turn out ; he had better not bring his wife with him, though, or she will insist on his sending here for a whole cargo of boots and shoes, she can find nothing like them in America, we will be bound, or at any iate in sober earnest nothing better But the cream of the joke is to come ; what do our tailors say to this neat little "whopper"? "An Auckland tailor, wanted to buy an old suit of clothes from Colonel Roosevelt to hang in bis shop window as an advertisement and actually advertised 'clothes like the American Consul's made here 1' " And now where are the Good Templars ? " Nearly every man," says he, " drinks spirituous liquors, and American whiskies sell well." Thnt, we think, is tbe crown of the joke, and bo we shall finish with it.

Mr. Matthew Arnold, with the fairness of a gentleman and the model ation of a man of culture and experience, has entered a plea for justice towards the Irish Catholic people in the important matter of University education. Ha affirms that Ireland has a grievance in this matter, and then proceeds to show that it is so by pointing out the manner in which minorities have been treated in other countries, and comparing it with the treatment of Irish Catholics. The hypocritical excuses, he says, moreover, by which it has been attempted to shut out from view the Irish grievance, have but helped to make the matter worse, and to aggravate the people

aggrieved. But the most irritating plea of all is that in which it is advanced that a Catholic University in Ireland is an impossibility because the English and Scotch Universities, and that of Dublin, have been made undenominational, for this is simply to say • We have excluded you Catholics from our Universities until we made them unalterably such as we desired them to be, and now we admit you to these institutions, knowing that you must imbibe their tone while we deny you permission to obtain the education requisite for you without doing so. This utterance of Mr. Arnold's is of double importance for us here in New Zealand, since it applies exactly to the secular system forced upon us. The secular schools are such as godless men desire them to be, and they are unalterably such Catholic children are invited there under the false pretence that their religion will not be interfered with, but once there they will speedily imbibe the godless tone distinctive of the institutions ; and under the cloak of hypocrisy the intention of scularists will be accomplished just as the intention of bigoted Protestants would be accomplished by Catholics entering as students at Protestant Universities disguised as undenominational. Mr. Arnold's letter will be found in another column, and is deserving of all attention.