Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 345, 28 November 1879, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

"SCUBKILOUS?" OKCE MORE,

We admit that it is most unpleasant to be "up a stump," and the situation is much aggravated when the person so situated cannot bear his elevation, and lias not the

remotest idea of how he is gracefully to descend from it. Such, however, is the situation now occupied by the editor of our contemporary the Daily Times. Some time ago he wrote an article which contained one or two scurrilous passages, and, being naturally of gentlemanly proclivities, he is evidently very sorry for having done so, but litera scrvpta manet ; there it is, all in black and white and he cannot blot it out. Now we frequently tell little children that one fault leads to another, and we find an example of this in the conduct of our contemporary. First he wrote his scurrilous passages and then he goes on to persuade his readers that the Tablet has been so vexed in spirit thereby as never to have left off thinking of them since the beginning of last September ; although he knows very well that it was he himself who recalled the matter to the attention of the Tablet two or three weeks ago. This is not nice or strictly honest, and again proves to us, as we have said, how one fault begets another ; first there were " bad words" and then there followed something very like a fib. Our contemporary seeks to justify himself at our expense by showing that our " discrimination in words" is not " nice," but although we certainly do not take as our motto on sitting down to write, " Part of speech Mary- Anne 1 "—and although we iH some degree hold the opinion of Moliere's Martine,

" Qu&nd on se fait entendre, on parle toujours bien ; " still we think we generally manage to express our ideas in ordinarily correct terms. Whatever, for instance, may be our appreciation of our contemporary's " tropes and metaphors" we must continue to assert that we may justly describe as " scurrilous" any figure into which the idea of " whipping a dead dog" is introduced, for " scurrilous is defined as meaning, amongst other things, " mean, foul, vile," and surely the idea of a "dead dog," whether whipped or left to rot in quietness, is nothing less than the words in question signify. Again, our contemporary thinks we have slipped unpardonably in referring to the epithet " scurrilous" as the " objectionable term," rather than " the term objected to." We, on the contrary, maintain that whichever of the two meanings borne by the adjective " objectionable," may be taken, we were justified in employing it. If we chose to regard the term " scurrilous" from our contemporary's point of view, which we might do at will, even without the trouble of adding "sarkastic" in a parenthesis, we should consider it as "liable to be rightly objected to," while if we took up no such position what could we suppose more "likely to be objected to" than that which had already been made the subject of objection. Both the meanings we here atribute to the word in question are to be found in Webster's Dictionary. But, without entering into any such niceties, we affirm that we had a right, to use the word •' scurrilous," although admitting it to be an objectionable term, for there are many times when a man is obliged, /ante de mieux, to employ that which he considers objectionable. We knew of no other word that could so well express the character of the writing referred to as the word "scurrilous/ and therefore we needs must use it although it was objectionable. And now as to our assumed mistake P'bout the devil. Is Le not an individual, " a single person," "that •'hich cannot be logically divided ? " We believe him to be so, but we are willing to listen to any contrary view put forward by our contemporary. By all means we beg of him to let us have a treatise on the nature of the devil. We are, however, certain that there can be no contradiction as to his existence having been transmitted by tradition. From father to son it has undoubtedly been handed down, and " traditional" is an epithet by which he may he most justly described. If, however, our contemporary determindly sticks out for the term " cove," rather than for the term " individual," or if he has any special pet name for the devil by which he desires him to be generally known, far be it from us to outrage his feelings ; we are quite

RELIGION AND MORALITY.

portion of unmarried persons tried for the gravest crimes is 33 in each 100,000, that of the married, including -widows and widowers is, only 11. Now we may take it for granted that, amongst 100,000 married people in France, there are to be found many more who are practical Catholics than there are amongst an equal number of those who are unmarried, for we know how very lax on this matter are the ideas and the practice of French infidels. Hence, we conclude that religion earns a fair share of the crtdit duo to the holy state of matrimony in the country alluded to. The rela-

ready to adopt it. Let him tack on some " neat periphrasis," then, to the treatise we bespeak ; it will no doubt be taken as a compliment at head-quarters. Finally, as to the passages relating to the education question, we do not see that they much concern us. We know nothing of schools in which the religious teaching consisted in the explanation of Biblical words and references. All we need say, therefore, is that wherever the pupils of Catholic schools have competed with those of other schools they have borne the ordeal famously.

superiority op catholic schools.

In the letter of our Irish correspondent will be found a statement bearing out once more our assertion that wherever the pupils of Catholic schools have been brought into competition with those

educated elsewhere they have come off most creditably. Such has proved to be the case at the first public examinations held under the Intermediate Education Act in Ireland a few months since. The pupils of the Catholic schools have everywhere excelled those of Protestant schools although it was expected that, since Protestant schools had long enjoyed large endowments and been fostered by the State it must take some years before Catholicß were able to bring theirs up to their level. The examination in question has, however, not given satisfaction in Ireland. It proves, on the publication of the papers of questions given at it that examiners seem to have supposed they were engaged rather with university students than school-children, and to have framed their examination accordingly, and in consequence many of the exhibitions granted have not been won. This, however, adds to the credit of those who did succeed, and has detracted in nothing from the relative position gained by Catholic pupils.

We always suspected that it was a very questionable thing not to keep your subscription to a newspaper

A CANNIBAL FAILING.

well paid up. Our suspicions are now confirmed,

and we find that beyond all doubt it is a most uncivilized course for a man to take. We are, in a word, informed that the Waka Maori has been obliged to cease its publication because its Maori subscribers could not be induced to pay up their subscriptions. The Europeans paid very well but the natives flatly refused to pay a penny. It will be seen then that it is a downright savage failing, and must have descended straight from the Cannibal Fathers. We are confident, however, of one thing ; that is, that the fine race of old Ireland will continue to bhow us their superiority by the promptness of their remittances. It would only be like themselves to send in their money even before it was due.

truth and the ielegraph.

The reliability of telegraphic items may be calculated from the following :— "A party of armed and masked men attacked two land agents named Smith, father and son, near

Castlebar, in Ireland. Several shots were fired, and young Smith was shot dead. One of the attacking party's body was found in a hog hole, and recognised as that of a militia man." Such was the paragraph received by us last week amongst the telegrams by the San Francisco Mail. The very contrary, however, turm out to be the truth and it was young Smith who shot the militia man. Particulars will be found in our Irish letter.

The French criminal statistics published lately furnish us with what seems to us to be some further conclusive testimony as to the healthy influence of

religion on morality. They show that while the pro*

tive condition of crime also in the country and the cities tends to a like result. The cities of France show 17 prisoners for every 100,000 of their population, and the country districts only 8. The Times,iiom which we take our information, tries indeed to diminish in some degree the difference between these numbers by asserting that the French criminal peasant takes refuge in the cities, while the criminal citizen never flies to the country. But admitting the inference drawn from this, and that the cities are thus accredited with a greater share m. the country districts with a less share of crime than is their due, although we should have imagined that the prisoners would be classed according to the places in which their {crime had been committed rather than to the localities in which their arrest had been made, still tne balance must remain very highly in favour of the country, consequently we again find the French Catholic peasantry possessed of a morality much superior to that of the French infidel citizen. The statistics of education, again, once more go to prove that increased knowledge uncontrolled by religion is incapable of ameliorating morals. «Of the 4,413 prisoners in 1877," says the Times, "as many as 2,864 were returned as able to read and write, while 177 had received a higher education ; only 1,372 of the prisoners were unable either to read or write."

cooled tastefully,

Our contemporary, the Wellington Evening Chronicle says that, " Amongst the ' books for children' used in the Eoman Catholic schools, is

_, OQ e by Father Furniss entitled 'Light from Hell.' " Inat there is such a book we are aware, but, although we have had considerable experience of Catholic schools, we have not known even of one in which this book was taught, and we do not believe there is one in New Zealand where such is the case, or where anything more concerning the nature of hell is regularly taught than that it is " a place of eternal torments," as the catechism says. Of what these eternal torments are the Church enjoins no especial belief, but everyone may depict them according to his imagination. If he be, for example, a Milton, lie may picture them splendidly, but hardly, if at ail, Jess terribly than Father Furniss ; and if he be a Dante, according to our reading, his depiction will be infinitely more horrible. Our contemporary inserts also a kind of feeble joke to the effect that, in order truly to describe hell as Father Furniss has described it, it would be necessary to be resident there. But surely it must be acknowledged as well that, in order to pronounce it certainly not to be such a place as that described, it would also be necessary at least to have visited it. Can the editor of the Chronicle, or Mr. William iiowitt, with whom, if we recollect aright, this little jest originated. Btate that such has been his experience ? But admitting the belief in a hell, and we confess we hold it very firmly, notwithstanding all the pleasantries we have lately heard concerning the " scare-crow of Otastendom," and all the rest of it, it seems to us highly absurd to eeeit to modify its terrors. If it exist at all, it is a place " where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished," and surely this idea includes everything terrible that can be thought of or pictured, whether in lofty poetry, or, in every sense, most dreadful prose. Our contemporary concludes as follows : " Fancy poisoning the minds and appalling the pure hearts of innocent little children with such supetstitious rubbish as this." Stuff and nonsense ! We have known crowds of children, Protestants as well as Catholics, who were taught to look upon hell in just such a manner, and they were neither mentally poisoned nor appalled by it. It is only within the last few years this delicacy has arisen. The late Rev. Charles Kingsley was one of its pioneers, and we once heard him tearing a hymn on the subject in question to pieces, and foaming over it in a manner that was much more frightful to witness than was anything the hymn contained to read. As stalwart and pure generations of men grew up with a behef in hell, and held it all their lives, and died holding it nrmiy, as any we shall ever see reared without it. In conclusion, our contemporary says this belief is " superstitious rubbish." He would and it hard to deny, however, that there are men who cling to it in whose heads there is hardly to be found room for rubbish of any kind. And, now, we have seen of late, here and there, little captious notices of matters supposed to be taught, or actually taught, in Catholic Schools. We desire to know once for all, then, if there is any chance of its being openly acknowledged that secularism has been adopted, and is maintained, for the pmpose of preventing Catholics teaching Catholic doctrines to their children, for such an acknowledgement would be a clear declaration of the repeal here of the Imperial law< by which Catholics were emancipated, and unless such a step be in the power of our legislature, and people are prepared openly to advocate it, we do not see what can be their object in objecting to the subjects taught fey Catholics in Catholic schools.

A MAX OF THE people on education,

Apropos of the effort which we perceive is now inaugrated to impose an education tax upon us, by which Catholic fathers or mothers would be obliged to pay for the privilege of being allowed to their

keep children between certain ages, just as the owners of dogs have got to pay for licence to] keep them, at £1 per annum a

Me. Fish having advertised that he woald reply to the " strictures of the Tablet " at the Princess Theatre on Tuesday evening last, we went there for

MR. FISH'S ANSWER.

the purpose of hearing what he had to say for himself. We may summarise all we heard as follows : It was that the Editor of the Tablet is an " apostate recreant from the faith of his fathers," which, even in the sense meant by this Thersites, is untrue ; that the contents of the article in the Tablet were " lies," which is untrue ; and that had it not been for exceptional circumstances no such article could have appeared in our columns, which is also utrue.

| head, we desire, in order to support their resistance to the growing burden of the obnoxious, and now openly acknowledged ruinous system that at present prevails to direct their attention to the following advice of Mr. A. M. Sullivan, M.P., a man of whom Ireland may well be proud, and who tells us that he himself is the son of parents, whom it cost a straggle to educate him, and bring him up with the manly and Christian sentiments that distinguish him. Delivering a lecture to a Catholic society the other day in London he told them "he was one of the people. He was born in no mansion or castle, he grew up a child amongst the struggling people, and he should consider himself the meanest creature that walks the streets of London did any emoluments or honours that might fall to his lot make him forget that these little Irish children were, as it were, his own kith and kint He never yet saw the Irishman, however poor he might be, and covered mayhap with the clay of a hard day's toil, that he would not claim as a brother, even if he saw one of those lordling creatures who pursue the path of profligacy and vice on the other side of the street.'/ What is Mr. Sullivan's advice then to the struggling people amongst whom he grew up, and with whom, now that he has attained to a well-deserved distinction his heart still remains. It is this : "Let; them send their children to school. A school ! Not a school merely where they would be instructed in worldly knowledge, and whence they would issue ' smart scholars.' Kurr and Benson were ' smart scholars.' Not a school from which religion was banished, as it was banished now from many schools. He was sick of hearing men belauding their 'noble public schools.' Good God! had they read history that they talked so ? Did they not know that in training up a race in knowledge into which religion did not enter, they were raising up human wolves, tigers, leopards, who would hereafter pull down society 1 No ; let them be sent to a Christian school, where they would be taught to avoid vice and to seek virtue, where they would be taught to love God, and where they would be so trained that their lives would be a credit to the land of their fathers and an honour to the faith they professed." The experience of a man like this i worth the theories of half the world besides. Whatever be the penalties they continue to impose upon us we must have Catholic teaching for our children.

Of the miserable, prying, guard kept over Irish

"MEAN AS ditch-water."

tenants by the agents who carry out practically the tyranny of the greater landlords, we find an

instance given by a Catholic priest who lately had occasion to speak at a meeting of farmers in Clare. Speaking of an interview he had had with a certain agent, his reverence said — " He told me he could scarcely get over a feeling of dismay and astonishment when he beheld on the previous Sunday the daughter of one of the tenants on the property clothed so beautifully — that she had on her back to his knowledge a gale and a hall of rent. ' I assure yon,' said he, ' she had the impudence to wear kid gloves, and, to add to her audacity, I saw her driving to the la--t races on an outside jaunting-car.' " The people to whom the piiest related this speech laughed heartily at it, but we confess the depth of meanness and the extent of oppression it reveals to us check all inclination, on our part at least, to laugh, and leave us only disgusted and indignant. Such is the spirit, however, of Irish landlordism ; united to its tyranny there is the surveillance of the petty, spiteful, old woman of tradition, and not only does it suspect that every outward mark of decency or comfort it descries in its victims must necessarily be acquired at the sacrifice of its usurious profits, but, out of sheer malice, it cannot bear to see anything of the kind. We frequently hear the people of Ireland reproached for slovenliness in their homes and persons, but while they groan under such a system as this, what else can possibly be expected of them ?

AN APPROPRIATE BRAND.

this base money are evidently men of discrimination. They have chosen a most worthy effigy under which to conceal knavery. It is not, however, the only instance in which we know of the same brand's being used to distinguish dishonesty. The hero of the Bojne, so far as possible, continues to pursue in death the career of falsehood to which his life was devoted.

One of our Northern contemporaries warns his readers against counterfeit half-crowns that are in circulation in his district, bearing the ima^e of

King William 111.

The coiners who have issued