OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 26, Issue 349, 26 December 1879, Page 7

OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) _ „ Melbourne. 10th December 1879. Dr. Moorhousc gave a lecture last Friday on the subject of slavery. A very large and respectable audience— principally Pro-testant-gathered in the Town Hall to hear him. I think he must have startled them a good deal, tho«e of them at least who had been taught to identify the Church of Rome as tbe Scarlet Woman He gave a rapid -ketch of the world, especially the Koman world, its pomp, its sensualism, its cruelty, its col tempt for the weak, its worship of force, when Christ came down on earth to establish his Church, and to give her his commision to wre-tle with all wrong, and to redress all evil. Th« lectuie- showed hew c nti rv after cci t ry P<pes Bishops, Monks, the whole Church militant, set themselves to lift up tbe captive to brotheibood with their fellow-men. They began tbig crusade by inculcating tbe duty of suffering for and serving one another ; and showed how the humility and self-denial taught by Chnst was violated by the arrogant and domineering spirit in which slavery took root. He described with fervid eloquence bow the Church had braved Roman power at its loftiest height by excommunicating a gladiator on tbe ground that he was a murderer, *nd any one who bad been present at these combats on lie ground Jbat he was accessory to murder. He showed how, after long years of struggle these gladiatorial combats, in which annually thousands of slaves had lost thvir lives, were abolished ; their final coup being dealt by a monk who had leaped into the arena in the midst of the combatants to protest against tbe carnage, and the blood of this giand soul was the last shed during these •' Roman holidays,'' for all hearts were conquered by this divine example of self-sacrifice. To piovehis Christian brotherhood the Chuich made the slave worship side by side with tbe freeman in her temp'es, and even raised him to the priesthood to teach and to administer sacraments to his old masters. He pointed out the deciees of the Councils of the Church, iiom the 6th century down, for the protection and ireeing of slaves, and dwelt lovingly on the efforts, bo n arvellous iv their romantic incidents and in their success made for the lansom of captives by the faithful, especially by the Bishops many of whom not only devoted their whole propeity, but melted down the plate of their churches for this purpose ; "and" added the lecturer. "by the time tbe Reformation occurred slavery was dead." At tbe meeting of the House yesterday Mr. Berry announced that in consequence of the vote given on the third reading of the Constitutional refoim Bill, be had waited upon bis Excellency and advised a dissolution of Pailiameut. His Excellency had accepted tbe advice and bad authorised him to make tbe statement to the Assembly. The financial bnsin< ss is to be finished at once, when an ! immediate appeal to the country will be made. A two days cricket match betwtea eleven of Tasmania and an eleven chosen from the East Melbourne Club terminated on Monday Ihe East Melbourne men kept possession of the wickets during tha whole of the two days, so that the poor Tasmanians had no inning* at all. The score of the East Melbourne men amounted to 742 • lommy Horan making of his own bat alone 260 not out.

Things must be in a bad state indeed in the Catholic parta of Prussia if special trains are to be organised to convey youths out of FiusMa to be confirmed. The Piustian diocese of Treves bas been without a bi.shop for some years, and so long as the existing strife lasts there can be none. Fortunately that diocese lies close to the Bavarian diocese of Sj.ires, and a fortnight ago, when Mgr. Ehrler, w J ° f visited Hwnbuig a special train went from St. WendU to th t place with 800 youths of Loth 8,-xes to be confirmed by the non-Pru.vsian prelate. Simila. things happen in other dioceses : thus, for instance, the youths of Limburg have to be taken across the frontier into Hesse (o be confirmed by the coadjutor of Mayence. ween, on ! when, is such an absurd and iniquitous 6tate of things to come to an end J