Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 342, 7 November 1879, Page 1

Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

A WRITEB in the Princeton Review who writes THE HUGUENOT against secularism, and who to a certain extent in fathers consequence has our sympathy, in a few lines very

pregnantly expresses his views respecting the nature of the historical teaching he considers it important to bestow upon Protestant children ; he at the same time adds strength to our conviction that Protestant schools are objectionable in the extreme for Catholic children. The bigotry of the following passage is supreme : " Shall the secular education leave the young citizen totally ignorant of his own ancestry ? But how shall he learn the struggles through which Englishmen achieved those liberties which the colonies inherited, without understanding the fiery persecution of the Protestants nnder ' Bloody Mary,' over which the Pope's own legate, Cardinal Pole, was sent to preside ? How shall the sons of Huguenot sires in New York, Virginia, or Carolina, know for what their fathers forsook beautiful Prance, to hide themselves in the northern snows or the malariows woods of the south, and read nothing of the violation of the ' Edict of Nantes,' the ' Dragonnades' and the wholesale assassination of fit. Bartholomew's Day, in honour of which an ' infallible' predecessor of the Pope sung Te Bewin and struck medals ? " We need hardly pause to defend Cardinal Pole from the charge of having been sent to preside over persecution : it would be amazing that such an accusation could be brought, had anything that comes from sectarian bigotry the power to amaze. We may, however, remark that it is not every Protestant historian who might be relied upon to colour to this writer's liking the " fiery persecution of the Protestants under ' Bloody Mary.' " We doubt for example whether Macaulay's sketch of the chief martyr of the reign in question would serve the purposes required, for says this author of Cranmer :— We do not blame him for not choosing to be burned alive. It is no very serious reproach to any one that he does not possess heroic fortitude. But surely a man who liked the fire so little should have had some sympathy for others. A persecutor who inflicts nothing which he is not willing to endure deserves some respect. But when a man who loves his doctrines more than the lives of his neighbours, loves his own little finger better than his doctrines, a very simple argument a fortiori will enable us to estimate the amount of his benevolence. ... He never retracted his recantation till he found he had made it in vain. The queen was fully resolved that Catholic or Protestant he should burn. Then he spoke out as people generally speak out when they are at the point of death and have nothing to hope or to fear on earth. If Mary had suffered him to live, we suspect that he would have heard Mass and received absolution, like a good Catholic, till the accession of Elizabeth, and that he would then have purchased, by another apostacy, the power of burning men better and braver than himself." It would be almost as well to leave •' Bloody Mary" alone, as to teach children to look in this way upon the prince of the "martyrs" made by her. And now for the " sons of Huguenot sires " : how shall they learn from a Protestant pen what manner of men their fathers were? At this moment we fiad at hand no such sketch of the men, but Thomas Carlyle says a word or two concerning the women which may suffice for the present :— " Respectable edict of Nantes French Ladies, with high head-gear, wide hoops ; a clear, correct, but somewhat barren and meagre species, tight-laced and high-fiizzled in mind and body. It is not a very fertile element for a young soul : not very much of silent piety in it ; and perhaps of vocal piety more than enough in proportion. An element founding on what they call 'enlightened Protestantism,' 'freedom of thought,' and the like, which is apt to become loquacious, and too conscious of itself, tending on the whole rather to contempt of the false, than to the deep or very effective recognition of the true." This is, indeed. a startling picture of those who were in exile for " conscience sake ;" but on the whole it agrees with the disposition shown by others of the same sect, males, and far inferior in rank. And who, moreover, did not go into exile, but renounced their errors and were received into the Church by Bossuct, the refuge and safety of many of those pur-

sued by, what seems to us now at least, the cruel'a'rfd mistaken policy of Louis XIV., when, while at variance with Borne, he revoked the Edict of Nantes, and commanded the " Dragonnades." These men were vine-dressers of Meaux, and said they in their uncouth French : '• Je tie dovtons jjlus, et sommes cmraincux qtCil fa/at etre Catholiques et nous converter entre vos mains. Mais, Monseigneur, Je nc voulons j>as obdir au Pope" The high-starched governesses of Prince Frederick were filled with "contempt of the false," but their " recognition of the true " was neither deep nor effective. The vinedressers of Meaux were not devotedly attached to their creed but they greatly despised the Pope, refusing to obey him, and according to Carlyle the Pope stands for the "false," a "triple-crowned Chimera." But indeed all this agrees most admirably with certain traditions long known to the writer of this note. They are those of a Huguenot family, allowed by special favour of the King to remain unmolested in Brittany for years after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. At length, however, they emigrated into Holland, and came thence to settle in Ireland. The third generation of their descendants are now at least middle-aged people, and we have more than once heard an eye-witness describe the elders who when young gave up their country for " conscience sake." We have never ceased to wonder how people of such moderate religious fervour came to make so great a sacrifice ; Carlyle's " contempt of the false " furnishes us with the only explanation. Such, we doubt not, were also the sires of our American Huguenots. And now we arrive at the St. Bartholomew massacre, the " infallible " Pope, the Te Deum, and the medals. Well, we shall conclude concerning all this with a quotation from Cardinal Newman's letter in the Times of Sept. 13, 72 : — Craft and cruelty and whatever is base and wicked have a sure Nemesis, and eventually strike the heads of those who are guilty of them. Whether in matter of fact Pope Gregory XIII. had a share in the guilt of the St. Bartholomew massacre must be proved to me before I believe it. It is commonly said in his defence that he had an untrue, one-sided, account of the matter presented to him, and acted on misinformation. This involves a question of fact, which historians must decide. But even if they decide against the Pope, his infallibility is in no respect compromised. Infallibility is not Impeccability. Even Caiaphas prophesied, and Gregory XIII. was not quite a Caiaphas.

Wb remember reading some years ago a book of ladies, and travels in the West Indies, which dwelt largely on the stage, the state of affairs that obtained there immediately

after the emancipation of the negroes. Amongst the incidents related the writer told of the consequential airs assumed most absurdly by the blacks. As an instance, he said that one day be had seen an English lady come to the door and call to a negress who was selling fish in the street. The hawker, however, did not hear the call, but was passing on, when the lady begged of another negress who was near to attract her notice. This was accordingly done in tbe following words :—": — " Lady with the fish, this woman wants you." We have on a few occasions, since we read the book in question felt ourselves tempted to repeat sotto vnce '• Lady with the fish I" but never have we found the venerable old title more perverted from its right use than the other day in the Dunedin Police Court, when certain females were brought up there charged with disgraceful conduct in one of our theatres. The report speaks of the " first lady on the list " and the " four other ladies." Mr. Ruskin we believe it is who has enlarged on the term'lady as denoting one who serves her people with bread, and recommended all who bear the title to be true to its original signification. We, however, have been used to consider the woul in a broader sense ; we know that "man does not live by bread alone," and we look to those who are rightly known uuder the name of lady to minister to him with all that is beautiful and refining in life, to feed his nobler nature with high thoughts, and lofty aspirations. Such is the office of the lady, and in proportion as we admire and reverence those wlio nobly fulfil it, we are revolted by any wretched woman who from time to time disgraces it and strives to bring it into contempt. But if such be the office which the lady should perform at home amongst a limited number, how deep are her obligations to perform it when placed in a position from which her influence must extend over multitudes. The stage is such a posi-

tion ; it should be the haunt of the lady only ; the effects of her presence should go out thence into a myriad homes to refine and gentilize their rougher elements, and to help those whose "sweet influences " are already at work there. But for this high and holy task to be duly performed by those who are capable of performing it, the respectability of the stage must be maintained. If the theatre become hopelessly associated with such vile scenes as, to our deep humiliation and burning shame, have recently been witnessed here in the cities of New Zealand, how shall any pure and cultured woman venture to appear there. How shall a Mrs. Scott- Siddons, a Miss Dargon, a Mrs. Walter Hill, condescend to come forward in front of an audience befouled by the approbation of antics that have disgraced the boards on which she should tread? None who worthily bear the name of lady will at length be found to do so. The stage will become the prey of such creatures as now curse our city by their passage, and must leave behind them in many homes, we have too good grounds to fear, an atmosphere more poisonous, if possible, than that which emanates from Mabille itself. For let us not suppose such spectacles as this can pass away and leave no consequence. No, the stage must be either of two things, a blessing or a curse. It must be the pulpit, as it were, whence the laic preaches the broad doctrines of Christianity, and excites to the practice of faith, hope, and charity ; it must be the means by which the love of beauty is developed and heightened, by -which culture is extended and refinement increased ; it must be the means of rational amusement, the arena for the display of true wit and genuine merriment. Or else, on the other hand, it must be the medium of degradation, of the unbridling of every detestable passion, it must be that which vulgarises and brutalises, that which

With devil's leaps, and poisons half the young." It is a blot upon our civilization that we have been forced to doubt as to the prudence of our writing, as we have now at length done. We have been forced on such a doubt by finding that when our contemporaries at Wellington peiforraed their duty and denounced the people to whom we especially refer, they were found to have benefitted their filthy cause, and to have secured for them increased audiences along their route. It was the knowledge of this disgraceful fact that hitherto deterred us from alluding to the matter in question ; but, on reflection, we determined that, although our condemnation of this troupe should result is anywhere swelling their audience, it was a duty we owed the community at large to add our voice to the protest that has been already made by the Press in the towns infected by this pest ; so as to try and prevent a repetition of the gross offence by recommending that the law be so amended as to prevent the escape of culprits of the kind on any technical point whatever. If very effective measures be not taken, now that the example has been set of such filthy exhibitions, and their impunity established, we may at once prepare ourselves to witness the speedy and extreme corruption of all classes of our colonial society.

We clip the following from the Morning Herald :— A BRAGGART "Professor Blackie, famed alike for Gaelic and professor jokes, seems to have a rival in our local college in

the shape of a certain burly philosopher, not unknown to members of the Presbyterian Synod. Owing to recent rains, or some such cause the plaster in his lecture room gave way in several places, to the great alarm of students immediately below. The professor pausing in his lecture dispelled their fears with these words : ' Fear nothing, gentlemen, your heads are thick enough to bear ' all this— ay more,' or I'm mistaken.' " And is this all that has come of the Chancellor's prayer meetings ? Why, even the pagan Horace when a lump of a tree came clattering down about his ears had, according to his notions, some pious reflections to make concerning the matter. But our Professor who has been long warmed by " evangelical" blazes, and some time the object of the fervent prayer of a righteous man, in similar circumstances has not a word to say in hallowed recollection. He only, so well has he seasoned them, denes Jupiter Tonans himself to hammer anything worth speaking of out of the skulls of his students. Of course he was not " mistaken ; " how could he be so after all his years of experience ?

Our contemporary the Morning Herald prefaces as A questiona- follows the report of the alleged ill- treatment of a ble extract, certain servant girl in Ireland :—": — " Female servants

in Otago may feel interested to learn how some of their fellows are treated in the Emerald Isle." Female servants in Otago who have a taste for hoirors need not travel so far to find them recorded. Let them turn up the report of the cause eclebre respecting the alleged manslaughter, in Dunedin, of Margaret Mclntyre by Mrs. Reid, and they will find quite as much as they deed desire. Servant girls arc not well paid in Ireland it is true, because labour there is abundant and money scarce, but they are as a rule well tieated. Our contemporary would do well to recollect that, at least, " those who live in glass-houses should not throw stones." We may further add that it is hardly a very manly task to furnibh tue already sufficiently blustering '■ mi&sus " with a fresh weapon of

mortification. Yet we are at a loss to discover what other motive could have actuated our contemporary in publishing the report in question as he did publish it.

There are various considerations presented to us IRISH by the statistics of crime in Ireland for 1878, morality, furnished by the Dublin correspondent of the

London Times, as compared with those of crime in England and Scotland. We find, in a word, that favourite theories are overthrown by them, and facts established that cannot fail to be awkward and unpleasant to the perceptions of very many worthy people. First of all there are the good folks who keep on declaiming from pulpit and platform, and who write in their small way in that dreary little Press inspired by them that, it has been proved beyond all controversy, the vice of Catholic countries is inestimably in excess of that known in those bright lands where shines the light of the glorious " Reformation." They cannot fail to be a little mortified at finding their assertions irrefutably contradicted by, for instance, such figures as we gave in our last issue, and which we now repeat. Offences punished after trial by jury— lreland (total number), 2,886 ; England (proportional number for equal population), 4,189 ; Scotland (proportional number for equal population), 5,925. Offences against morals— lreland, 142 ; England, 200 ; Scotland, 281. We do not, however, in the least expect that these figures, bejond, perhaps, a mere momentary chagrin, will produce the slightest effect. It is the usual tale that is repeated by them, and once more our good pious folk, who so dearly love to talk of the truth, and declare they enjoy a monopoly of it, will go their way and like that man, of whom Holy Writ speaks, that has seen his face in a glass and in a m mute afterwards forgets all about it, they will forget the defective results exhibited to them of their own system, and still Boanerges will thunder his slanders and somebody with a halting goose-quill will continue to scribble them as unreadably as possible. But the fact remains that the hot-he ided, quick-pulsed Irishman, with all his '• Popery " goes to form a very much more moral people than does the phlegmatic Englishman, or the canny Scot, without a scrap of " Popery " about him, more especially the latter. Another fact we wish to lay before our " Evangelical " friends is also mentioned, and supported with figures, by this correspondent of whom we speak ; it is that primary education in France, where it is so largely influenced by the priests, those foes to enlightenment, is in advance of what it is in England ; the men and boys in England who oannofc read and write being 30 per cent., and in France 29 per cent. In Ireland the per centage of men and boys who are so circumstanced is 38 per cent., but let us score it down to the advantage of the Catholic Church t^at she preserves to the population a superior morality, notwithstanding their inferior means of education. This fact we would also submit to our secularist Meads, if they really care about morality and we are unwilling finally to detjvuiine the contrary, so that they may consider how salutary is the influence they seek to weaken or destroy. Again we find that of the indictable offences committed in Ireland in '78, more than one half were committed in Dublin which possesses only l-16th of the population. This tends to confirm us in a belief we have already expressed more than once that the Irish people are good and moral in proportion as they are faithful to their religious duties. When in the tainted atmosphere of a large city they are tempted to neglect these they are not to be depended upon, and wherever they are to be found, it is the interest of those amongst whom they reside, not to place obstacles in the way of their obedience to the Church, or to endeavour by mockery or bribes to make them relinquish it, but, on the contrary, to encourage them to remain in it. Their doing so alone can insure their proving useful citizens or colonists.

What in the world are our parsons about? Is neglectful there no longer a kick in them? It is nearly a PARSONS ! fortnight now since the conversion of Press-men was begun in Christchurch, and yet there is not a single sign of anything being done for our souls in Dunedin. This is very remiss and very neglectful ; we feel that we are being passed over and left out in the cold very unfairly. We don't like to feel that it is not thought worth while to convert us. Ever since we heard of the great work that has been inaugurated at Christchurch our mouth has been watering ; we have been hungering after tracts, and exhortations, and tea meetings, and all the stock in trade that goes to rig out a " true Christian," and we have been hungering in vain. Not a scratch of a pen, a word in season, or a drop of tea has crossed our senses ; we have only seen a little milk and water, and even that for some reason or another was at a safe distance away. Our contemporary the Evening Star we perceive with regret has been " cutting up rough " about this movement at Christchurch ; somehow or other he has turned more indignant about it than twenty headless Kansas roosters all secularly repeating their a. b. c. could drive him to be. We might almost suspect in fact he had been contemplating a knot of exaggeiated jackasses, animals concerning which out of respect for him we have never yet ventured to make any grotesque

quotations, so hot has he become. It is painful to him to see donkeydom commit itself to anything more ridiculous than usual, and it is no wonder he should be angry. Then the Lyttelton Times Bays, who spoke to the Star, but that he may " talk " to the clergymen as much as he likes. These are two very ill-disposed newspapers, and they don't in the least know what is good for them. We should not be Buxprised to hear they had so horrified the modest clergy in Christcmirch as to deter them from their venture. Meantime write this note for the express purpose of trying to counteract the evil influences. We consider the Christchurch parsons should persevere in the face of all obstacles, and if the Dunedin parsons do not follow their example they will be winking at the devil while he lays snares for the souls of Press-men. They had better take care, our blood may be required at their hands. Let them begin at once, we await them with impatience, and are most anxious to witness their entry upon the totally new line that is to result in our conversion.

Howevbe fashion and superficial manners may FAMILY joyb. change from generation to generation, human nature continues the same. It is about two hundred years ago now since Moliere wrote bis play "XeMidecin Malgri Imx," exhibiting the consequences that follow on an interference in the quarrels of man and wife. A scene in real life, of which we read a description the other day in an Irish paper recalls this to us, and again admonishes us that family skirmishes are not always to be taken as an index of the true feelings of the parties concerned. The scene alluded to occurred in the town of Athy, and the rioters were a man and his wife who carried on the important employment of travelling tinkers. For some cause or another a row broke out between them which led to the appearance of the wife next morning in the police court, whence the following is reported. « Mrs. Wall, who appeared for defendant, said it was true Johnny 'had a dhrop \ but he done or said nothing to any one.'— Constable Clarke : 'You notorious villain, were you not both bleeding like sheep when I went up 7 -Mrs. Wall said there might be a little blood from ' Johnny's' nose ; but it was a failing he had.-His Worship inflicted a fine of ss. and Is. 6d. costs." It does, however, seem a hard case that a man cannot let a little of his claret be drawn now and then for the amusement of his wife, and vice versa, without having to pay a fee .'of 6s. t>a. tor the pleasure. We can very well fancy thatjboth parties would very gladly have interrupted their marital pastime, in o"rder to have together attacked the constable, had not a fear of what must follow deterred them.

The Southland Times of the 24th ult. says feekmasokry K.W.D.G.M., His Honor Judge Harvey, deserves t w ™ d ~ * he thanks of the comi «iinity at large for remaininvercaegill. mg at Invercargill to lay the foundation of the . „ Law Courts, about to be built there, with Masonic ceremomes We beg kave to diffep with mj cont we do not think Hia Honor deserves the thanks of any part of the community at Invercargill or elsewhere for this particular courtesy, and wL«, re >? OnV i nCe ? thereißafcleaSt a lar S ft miaoTii y in t*e country rr O nduct OUn w en , "^ iS t0 bC exceedi^ at His Hono/s aT^lf ! ?' m faCt ' See What ri e hl a ivi vd cce c has t0 belong to tV 001 W J° SerUlßSmay occasi °™»y bring him into close ?ud??/ v ?e? c W ° rSt Crimmal that staods * the d <** to be judged by h lm . Justice should be absolutely and voluntarily blind no motive should be admitted that could in the slightest degree inher orlT f ** an eye behind the bandage that conceals tZ Z g ! VlBlOD ' and yet We have ere now had OCC! *™ *o record the advantage reaped by the criminal because the bonds of Masonry ISXnT ?? CCUpant ° f the tribunal before he had been arraigned We do not consider, then, that His Honor by any means ZZTo^l h T S °l the C ° mmUnity at Md a -nsLrable forno Ml ? 6^ ken a P rinci P al P art in Ending wantonly; wkhnnt «C« C - COUld PoSSibly be plesent at Masonic ceremonies, demn»H BaCr ir g n. biS conscience ' and the heaviest condemnahon of the Church. Masonry was the co ns tant theme of the ttZTS ,?" FiUS ' SiDCe his ascension of the Pontifical ZTo' V ° iCe ° f the great P °P e Leo has not «»** to de111 I A lfc accursed - Our contemporary tells us there cam,', X ,T EOlnaDy MaS ° DS befOre afchered together at InverIZf -i + l' T™ ma " y Were tbeir ™bers, from however far and wide throughout New Zealand they were assembled, they were but r^andful to those assembled at the Hotel de Ville, they were not one garter of those met at the Palace of the Archbishop during the reign of the Commune of 71. Who that should see them with all their paraphernalia and mockeries would not be reminded that the same trappings and ceremonies had been associated with the foulest murders, the most barbaric devastations, the most unspeakable abominations that have disgraced the face of Europe within the whole course nJZ Tf* 7'7 '- JOlJ 01 * " Vain to Bay En^sh Freemasonry has nothing to do with that of France : there were not wanting at Wi--argill itself evideat tokens of the falsehood of such an assertion ; and

its falsehood was, moreover, once for!" all fully established^when English Masons who had kept silence in sight of the enormities of the Commune thought it necessary to protest against the action of the Grand Orient of Paris when they made an open profession of Atheism. Atheism, the word having for respectable English ears a shocking sound, although the deeds that weTe the fruits of such a principle might be passed over with a very moderate shudder.^ jWe say it was a grievous insult to every Catholic colonist in New Zealand to have any public ceremony in which all colonists are alike interested performed with Masonic honours. Why should], Catholics be repelled from witnessing or taking part in such a ceremony ; why should the enjoyment of such an occasion be with-held from them on pain of seriously compromising conscience, of incurring the heavy displeasure of the Church, of seeing with the mind's eye the bleeding spectres of their martyrs warning them back from the forbidden scene 1 Again we ask, are the volunteer ranks of the colony to he closed to Catholics? If it be included amongst their duties to honour such ceremonies as that at Invercargill where they were strongly mustered it must he so. No Catholic can in any capacity take part in anything connected with Freemasonry, and the service that is prostituted to make demonstrations in union with it is no service for Catholics. It is with such considerations as these we now associate R.W.D.G.M., His Honour Judge Harvey, and we by no means thank him for the invidious office be has performed.

We are delighted to find that Jenny Geddes has jenny (jeddes still a representative. We were afraid her influence at napier. had passed away for ever, and that never again

should the world have witnessed a spirit of piety like hers. But we were mistaken, and we are glad of it. There is, in fact, a funny old gentleman up in Napier on whom, the good dame's mantle las fallen. We know he is funny because we have read a letter of his in our contemporary the Weekly Mercury of the 25th ult., and we know he is old because he tells us he is the oldest member of the Church of England in those quarters where he resides, and all the community in question cannot, of course, be young and blooming ; some elders there must necessarily be amongst them. Besides, his letter contains all the marks of extreme senility, and one passage in particular we note as being on the very -verge, at least, of dotage. It is the following :—": — " 'In the Name of the Father,' &c. An ecclesiastical expression which should ever be most delicately handled and sparingly used ; — as such always prefaced the stern, bigoted, and deadly announcements of Holy Inquisitors and Priests, — not of our God, but of Baal." Now, the Bible is the only book with which we are acquainted that affords us much information about Baal, and we have searched it through and through without finding that the Christian invocation alluded to was ever once used by the ministers of the false god. But perhaps this learned elder has something inscribed on a brick in cuneiform that throws some light on the subject ; and if so, he ought to publish it for the benefit of his neighbours. Indeed, we are convinced it must be so, for surely nowhere else has he found authority for saying that " Holy Inquisitors and Priests " have issued " stern, bigoted, and deadly announcements," prefaced or unprefaced by the words in question, or any others. We know so reverend a Bignor would never set to and talk rank nonsense ; depend upon it, he has it all in " good old hearty, and plain Saxon English " set down in cuneiform characters on a brick. But to return to Jenny Geddes. Our funny elder is her lineal descendant, and just such another as she was. He is only longing to find himself in any church of his sect where the unwary minister may commence his sermon with the invocation alluded to. He will "go " for him on the spot. Well, like the narrator of John Gilpin's celebrated adventure, we are inclined to add,

" May we be there to see."

A Quebec telegram to the Montreal Witness says :—": — " The remains of the pioneer missionaries of Canada, which were discovered during the demolition of the Jesuits barrack, together with other curious relics, and were placed for safe-keeping in the regimental magazine, n»,ar the site of the excavation, pending their delivery for permanent disposal to Rev. Pere Bache, superior of the Jesuit Order in Quebec, have been stolen therefrom by some person or persons at present unknown."

On the first of June, Dennis Collins started from San Francisco for Isew York on foot, the distance being 3,500 miles and the wager that he would accomplish it in 100 days being 1,500 dols. He reached Sing Sing on Tuesday the 2nd inst., being then 7 days ahead of time, and since then he has made his way by easy stages arriving in New York in advance of the time required. He has travelled all the way on the railroad tracks, and has kept in a little book the autograph and the stamp of every station agent he has passed, the stamp of course having the date on which he passed the place and furnishing him a practical diary of time and distances. He met with a few adventures, but none of them were noteworthy. The Manchester Guardian reports that the fanners who sailed from Liverpool, Aug. 28, in the steamer Helvetia, for New York, are from Northern Yorkshire and Durham. They are of various classes, ranging from the small tenant-farmer upward. Several of them can command a capital of from £500 to £600, while some others have entered into partnership, one group having raised a capital of £1,200,