Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 360, 12 March 1880, Page 1

Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

1 v the news be true which wo learn from «a trustwoithy Wellington correspondent, the Government of New Zealand have taken steps for the importation of auothcr " o<led aud curled darling." Our rulers arc of refined and artisocratic tastes, and even amongst the gloomy corridors of the prisons where they command they desire to iind some remant of " sweetness and light." This can be their sole icasc.n for the order they have transmitted to Europe, as we are cred'bly informed, that an Inspector of Prisons may be sent out to this colony without further delay. We do not know what the qualifications by which this gentlemen is to be selected are ; whether the I'niversity of Oxford may be acccordcd a preference over that of Cambridge, or whether a facility in the production of Greek iambics may be preferred to an extreme elegance in Latin hexameters. We are, however, persuaded that due attention is to be bestowed upon appearances ; some exquisite who will make a good show at a Governor's levee, or exhibit a becoming grace in handiug down to dinner a Minister's lady, has certainly been ordered. These may, indeed, seem but trivial surmises ; still, it is on such trivial surmises we arc forced, for no reason in connection with sound iudgment or common sense can for a moment be supposed to have influenced so extraordinary and wild a step. There is an old saying, and ouc frequently repeated, which relates to the absurdity of fetching coals to Newcastle ; and this saying it is that now we rind exactly to fit our need, for we have already here several gentlemen who are eminently calculated to fill with distinction the post proposed. In saying this, however, we may remark that we do not include amongst the number of these gentlemen Mr. Caldwell, whose name has more than once been mentioned in connection with the matter. We do not include Mr. Caldwell, not because he is not mo ,t fitted as well as most desering to hold the position, but because we have good reason to believe he is not available for it : and this we state in special reference to the unwarrantable liberty that was taken in the House at Wellington in Oct., lS7f>, of actually mentioning his name as that of an applicant for the situation. The fact is, on the contrary, that, owing to failing health, as well as to his long tenure of office, he has been for some time, and now is, most desirous of retiring from the service altogether. And, we may add, that the late Government, having been made aware of his wishes in this repect, rather than run the risk of sustaining the loss that would be incurred by his retirement, offered to give him leave of absence, on full pay, for a year, so that he might seek the repose he found necessary for his health. There are, however, other gentlemen, who, if they lack in some degree the experience and ability of Mr. Caldwell, arc, nevertheless, well calculated to fill the office in question with credit to themselves and advantage to the Colon y, and it is strongly in favour of such a view to find that invariably when colonial offices were filled up from men experienced in colonial matters, they were well filled. Take, for example, the late Mr. Brannigau, and the present Superintendent Weldon, under whose charge, as Commissioners, the Police Force of Otago was acknowledged to be the best managed force in the southern hemisphere, and mudj. superior to what it is under the quasi-military system that now pi cmils. Both of those gentlemen were appointed here from Australia ; and we may also include with them, under the heading of colonial appointments, Mr. Conyers, of the Railways Department, who&c career throughout has been strikingly successful. On the other hand, appointments made at home have been, in most instances, deplorable failures. Such has proved to be the case, for instance, with regard to Captain Campbell Walker, Inspector of Forests, and Mr. Carruthcrs. Engineer-in-Chief, both of them political appointments made by Sir J. Vogel to serve some jurpose of his own ; and we may add to these gentlemen, as another instance of failure, Mr. Passmore. late of the noithern railways. Dr. P kac, also, may probably be assigned a like standing. He has done nothing whatever since his ariival here towards the improvement of onr Lunatic Asylums ; he has .simply recommended what was known as a crying want before he ever set foot in the colony, that additional buildings should be pro-

AN IXWECTOtt or riasoxs.

vidcd. This has been the sole outcome of his establishment at Wellington, and the staff by which it is served. His appointment was simply a slight put upon the medical men of the colony, and nothing move. He lias, indeed, we may say, enjoyed almost a sinecure, and we doubt if the additional occupation lately conferred upon him as Inspector of Hospitals will much interfere with his leisure. His prop2r placo would have bicn that of Medical Superintendent of some one of the asylum', whanco he might have visited pcrip^KaUy all the other institutians of the kind in thc\cOTony. But our Government have not only sent from Newcastle for coals ; they have, moreover, sent for coals of a very inferior quality to that which is present to their hands. The Special Commission on Prisons, lately held at Home, with Lord Xi mfecrley fov chairman, pronounced the system of prison discipline in question to be most defective, and condemucd it as conducing to the maintenance of veritable schools for crime. It has further met with a full and most tolling exposure from two works recently pnblished ; one of them uamed " Five years' penal servitude, by a man who suffered it ;" the other, " Convict life." And surely we have none of us forgotten the revelations made by Clancy, the released patriot, which lately appeared in the Dublin Freeman ; not to speak of the talcs told by other prisoners of the same class. The Home prisons, in short, stand condemned of being wretchedly managed under the present military Inspectors, who totally ignore and set at defiance the authority of the visiting justices. This, nevertheless, is the system which it has seemed rib to the Ministry to introduce here, in contrast, moreover, to the action taken by all the Australian colonies, where colonial officers bavc without exception been appointed ; and notwithstanding that the piison of Pentridge, which is so officered, is acknowledged by fie Home authorities themselves to be the best penal prison in the British empire. But the fact is an Inspector of Prisons is not required in this colony. The visiting justices, who truly represent the public, arc thoroughly efficient inspectors, and all that is at any time needed. Now especially, also, there arc serious objections to be urged against the appointment in question. In the present financial state of the colony it is most undesirable. An inspector stationed at Wellington, and provided with a staff of clerks, will be an expensive addition to the civil service : ami the sole recommendation that it will bs in his power to make, after all, in the way of improvement will ba the erection of a central panal establishment at a cost of somewhere about & 100,000. What it is, then, that has induced the Government to take this step we are at a loss to conceive. We arc, however, convinced that it is one of those cases in which public interests have been sacrificed to private advantages— or even it may be conceits. The wife and daughters of some member of the cabinet arc about to visit Europe, and an introduction into high society is being negotiated for them : or some member, again, is in want of a gallery of ancestral portraits, and wishes to have them chosen by an aristocratic eye. It must be something of the kind that is directing the course of this proceeding, for there is no serious reason that any one can discern for saddling the colony with a grave additional expense and flouting a deserving, experienced, and hard-working body of colonial officials. • Finally, in order to afford a convincing proof that nothing whatever remains for an Inspector of Prisons to throw light on here with regard to piison management, we append an extract from the report presented by Mr. Caldwell to the Provincial Government of Otago in April, ISGB, and which was printed in tbc report of the Council of that year. The report in question, we may add, was noticed in very favourable terms at Home, both by the London and Provincial newspapers, as well as by several journals in America ; and shortly afterwards its author, Mr. Caldwell, was appointed a corresponding member of the Howard Association, and of the United States Prison Association. The extract runs as follows :—: — " In my last report I had the honour to state the views which I entertain in reference to the measures to be adopted in order. 'First. To protect the interests of society, by ensuring the safe custody of prisoners, and by subjecting convicted offenders to such an amount of punishment and reformatory discipline as may deter them from a repetition of their crimes and operate as a warning to other evildoers. Second. To effect, if possible, if not an entire, at least a partial reformation of the prisoner. Third. To reduce the expenditure within the closest Fmits consistent with the attainments of the objects I have just indicated ; and Fourth. But subject also to the same

primary consideration — to render the labour of the prisoners to the utmost extent reproductive to the Province which is burdened with their maintenance.' The general notoriety of the existing state of the gaols in New Zealand, and the information which the Government and the public already possess respecting their insecurity, render it, I presume, unnecessary that I should state any circumstances or adduce any arguments to prove that immediate action is imperatively called for, and I need only request attention to the fact that the gaolers in New Zealand have not at their disposal even one cell in which a prisoner can be placed in solitary confinement or prevented from communicating with his fellows, to render it sufficiently obvious that those indispensable requisites— the means of classification, of separation, and of inflicting cilective punishment when called for — are equally wanting. In saying this, I desire to be distinctly understood as attributing no blame or neglect, even by implication, to anyone ; on the contrary, I have nuich pleasure in expressing my belief, as far as my present knowledge permits me to do so, that on the whole the existing arrangements arc nearly as perfect as they could be under existing circumstances. The unexpected and extraordinary increase of the population of the Colony during the last six years ; the sudden influx of loose and disorderly characters from all parts of the world, and the consequent rapid increase of the number of convicted criminals, precluded the possibility of at once providing proper means for their confinement : and it is only from ths force of circumstances beyond the control of the Government, that the gaols are altogether inadequate for the accomplishment of the objects which it is so essential for the public pafcty to attain. I need hardly say that where men, so situated, arc determined to be insubordinate and noisy, any attempt on the part cf the officers to maintain order and quiet must be futile, unless thoy possess the means of effectually separating the offenders from each olhcr. The most turbulent, it is true, might be selected and subjected to corporal punishment ; but lam no advocate for corporal punishment when any other can be effectually substituted — considering its tendency to be brutalising and its effects uncertain — as depending entirely on the character and disposition of the individual on whom it is inflicted ; but it is quite as likely that it would ouly have the effect of increasing the evil. Each man so punished would consider himself, and would be looked upon by others, as a hero and a martyr in the common cause, and it would be, as it were, a point of honour with him to sustain that character and brave every result, rather than give in while remaining under the observation of Us fellows. Place him, however, in a solitary cell, and remove him from the possibility of being seen or heard by his companions, and not only docs the influence of his bad example cease to operate on them, but the main incentive to open insubordination on his part is at once taken from him; no longer encouraged and supported by the approbation and sympathy of others, lie feels, as it wcie, that Lis gloiy Las fadtd away, and that the only consequence of continual miscouduct is increase! icstraint, and an indefinite postponement of the period of his restoration to liberty. The naliual icsnlt of such a feeling is tha f , after sulking perhaps for a ccitain period, varying according to circumstances, he gradually gives way to necessity, submits quietly to that which he finds he cannot avoid, and eventually endeavours by every means in his power to secure the good opinion of those on whose favourable report his return to freedom depend?. One chief thing that we have to remember is, that the separate system is a restraint on natuial and innocent instincts ; every effort, therefore, should be made by physical aud moral means to maintain discipline, but punishment should never be resorted to except in cases of the most absolute necessity. Any item of discipline which cannot be enforced except by docked lations. dark cells, and the lash, had letter be at once abandoned. You must act as a man with men ; you cannot put criminals in at one end of the machine and pass them out at the other clean and virtuous. There must be the work of heart with hcait ,• and this, perhaps, is the scarcest quality in all the rcpcrtoiy of i efoi matory science. A prisoner's bread is bitter food at the best ; place him under the best sanitary conditions, treat him with what humanity you will— the pi ivaiion of liberty, the enforced and compulfory labour, the teniblc monotony of the life, the stern order and the instant obedience, constitutes a terrible punishment. Hard labour, I n peat, is a terrible punishment— it is intended to be so, and <=o it is. Be this, however, as it may, all, I presume, will admit that it is the duty of a humane Government to endeavour (if possible) to combine reformation with effective punishment; while I apprehend that no one will venture to say that either of these objects can be accomplished under existing circumstances, as I have before dcEciibcd them, or to dispute that the best means of securing them arc the classification of the various grades of offenders and a complete separation of the evil from the better disposed. Obviously for these purposes suitable buildings are required ; and the first question which arises is as to their site, respecting which opinions are, I believe, divided. It has been suggested by very able writers in the newspapcis that a penal settlement should be established on the Auckland or Stewail's Islands, or in a distant part of the colony.

But I know of no advantages attendant on such a plan which cannot be equally secured by the erection of proper buildings in the Middle Island, while the objections to it arc numerous, the principal being the constantly -recurring expense of the removal to aud fro of officers and prisoners and of the transport of supplies, the difficulty of maintaining a proper supervision on the part of the Government over an establishment situate at such a distance, .and thirdly the lengthened period -which must elapse and the enormous expense which must be incurred before the necessary accommodation can be provided in any remote locality. Happily for humanity, that abomination upon carth — Norfolk Island — as a penal settlement, is no more. From its disastrous and dread example this colony should take warning never to incur again the fearful responsibility of hoarding together a band exclusively of men, the worst out-casts of society, and allowing them to live under a system in which the lash, the dungeon, and the scaffold were the only instruments used to reform fallen men. What is most urgently wanted is a prison for men of insubordinate and dangerous character, and in which every convict under sentence for a heinous crime could be made to undergo a primary probatioa proportionate to his offence and known character. There is, indeed, good reason to hope that hearty efforts will now be made to give wide and full scope to the reformation of juveniles, and to introduce a system that must bear valuable fruit for all time to come. This helpless but important class — important for good or evil in future years — is, unhappily, an extensive one in New Zealarid. There are circumstances inseparable from th-j peopling of a new country, which arc sufficient to account for this, and especially it becomes our duty to cope with the evil, either by providing Asylums for the protection and training of neglected children, or by rendering their natural guardians responsible for their reform. The different works performed by the prisoners on Bell Hill, Octagon, Hospital Swamp, Dredging the Harbour, (bean Beach Road, &c. &c, under the direction of the very able Overseers (officers of the gaol), will bear very favourable comparison with any freelabour in the Province : and I am confident I could, from the body of prisoners, select a large number whom I could pit against any equal number of free-men upon any work required by the Government or Corporation— provided always that they should be employed exclusively under the directions of their own officers. Aud I wish to add, that I am anxious and quite ready to put it to further proof, cither in execution of the works on the Octagon, Bell Hill, or dredging the Harbor, or at any time and in any way ihat may be deemed desirable or expedient. The prisoners' work is very favourably spoken of by Mr. Uowlisou, Inspector of Government Work«, aud the prisoners as a bo.ly have showed by the anniuit oE work performed and the willingness in performing it, a vciy creditable degree of industry and a general desire to obtain the character of being industrious. My expectations in regard to thj earnings of the prisoners for the year just closed, have been fully realised ; and I have little hesitation in expressing my belief that while labour commands in the colony its present market price, the value of work performed by the department may bo made nearly, if not altogether, to cover its reduced expenditure. Everything connected with this gaol is conducted in accordance with the laws of health— so far as those laws have been ascertained— and it is evident that g-iol has resulted from the fact that duiing six years, notwithstanding the groat number of prisoners in the gaol, there has not been the slightest case of fever, nir has there been a contagious disease."

A CONTRAST.

In* the Rente da Deux Mondes, for January Ist. M. Albert Duruy contrasts (he schools of the Jesuit fathers in Paris, which the atheists of France arc bent on destroying, with the Government colleges which the same pruly arc desirous of seeing established as the only secondary educational institutions in the country. The contrast is, as we migh indeed have anticipated, most favourable to the schools of the fathers. He dcsciibcs the pupils of the Ciovernment Lyceums, quoting from a work on public education, by M. Michel Breal, as committed to the care of Übhcrs who arc cither young men that have accepted the situation in order to enable them to prepare themselves for some higher post, or men matured by age or disappointment who exercise their calling with a desire, but without the hope, of escaping from ifl In the first case the boys arc placed in the hands of those, who have no experience of the schoolmaster's art, and all whose faculties arc engaged with the examinations they arc thinking of passing. In th other the pupils arc confided to the care of men whose continued fulfilment of the functions they arc engaged in of itself betrays their inefficiency. Hence it follows that a kind of half-suppressed struggle i i kept up between the master and the boys, which results in the harmful moral want that characterises the life of the Lyceum. The life of the master in the midst of the rough and malicious throng has been often described, but if sorns there be who manage to endure it with good humour or patience, there are many who only think of making the purgatory in some degree supportable for themselves although this may be at the expense of the pupils, they think they have done enough when they succeed in making the boys keep their

places, and observe silence in class and in the dormitories ; to keep them at a distance, they adopt a part of absolute indifference, of snappishness, of sarcasm, or of gruff facetiousness. Such is education in the country where J. J. Rousseau and Fenclon have written. There is no question either of confidence or attachment ; the Lyceum has replaced education by discipline, and reduced the. influence of the master over the pupil to a system of rewards and punishments. Such i^ the Government College — the goiless secondary school of France. The schools of the Jesuits are far otherwise. M. Duruy wishing, he tells us, himself to inspect the " corrupted youth and the corrupting masters," paid a visit to one of these establishments. He arrived there dui ing the play-hour, and found assembled in a roomy playground live hundred and fifty pupils whose ages ranged from eighteen to twenty years, all without exception were engaged in divers games, and in the middle, inspiriting them by his example, wrestling actively and skilfully with the strongest, was the prefect, that is the supervising master, his face covered with sweat, and his soutane tucked up. His sight led Ihc visitor to go back in thought to the days he had himself spent during recreation in a nano.v and gloomy court engaged in plans and thoughts that he might bcttcv have left unheeded. When the play hour was ended, the visitor was shown through the building — the class rooms were roomy, clean, and well, ventilated. Each pupil had his desk, and underneath it a locker for his books : evezything was in good order, and it was astonishing to find that none of the desks showed the marks of a penknife. The dormitories, if anything, were too good : but the most satisfactory thing in the whole management was the diet. In the lyceums the pupils arc allowed each 200 grammes of meat a day. The fathers allow their big boys 3GO grammes, cooked and exclusive of bone, an- 1 the little and middle-sized boys, 300 gramme*. It is not quite the English bill of fare into which there enter largely beer and roast beef, with other matters of good cheer, but it comes as near to it as possible. The fathers have borrowed much of their physical education from the EnglUh, but only that which is necessary ; they have left them their purely athletic and sporting exercises, such as racing and rowing, and their games of skill, such as cricket. They have, on the other hand, borrowed their long walks, their games of ball and swimming exercises, without speaking of fencing and gymnastics, which are much pursued at their houses, but not obligatory. Besides the usual walks on Sundays and Thursdays, which la&t four hours in summer and three in winter, they have established excursions to the country, with breakfast and dinner in the open air. They go out at dawn and only return with the darkness after having traversed the woods and fields. But of all the exercises the most salutary is the recreation. In the Government colleges, for want of room ilierc is no play, or only the lower classes take part in it. With the Jesuits play is obligatory ; no one must sit down or mope, whether he wish or not, he must run and stir about. The master is there to give the example and for the time being to place himself on an equality with his pupils. He docs not consider it derogatory to him. He is not an official as in the Government establishments, he is a friend advanced in age, and both loved and respected. And how should he not be loved ? He has entered the Companj', not by force or constraint, but by taste and vocation. Very often he is of good family, and bad he remained in the world would have made his mark there. He bore a distinguished name, he had fortune, connection', a career before him. He could have advanced himself and grown rich in business. He preferred to don the soutane and devote himself to education. He does not look upon his task as slavery or as a makeshift ; his part is more important, greater, higher than even that of the professor himself. In fact it is written in the llatio Studiorum, that teaching is only the means ; the true end is to lead the child on to the knowledge and love of his Creator and Redeemer. II is further written that what the young ought above all to derive from the discipline of the Company is good morals, learning takes the second place. The prefect, then, is in nothing inferior to the professor. He is not, as it is in the government establishments, a medical or a law student, who comes to scok the means of living and a shelter, or an aspirant to a professorship, who has not yet gained his degrees : he is, on the contrary a chosen subject, distinguished among&t the brotherhood by his superior and placed in the post which i\ quires the greatest devotion and moral qualities. The impossibility, adds M. Duruy, of rinding such masters for the Government Colleges has led to the belief in some quarters that it would bo prcfciablc to abolish altogether the boarding establishments in connection with them. But the party of irrcligion are chiefly concerned to suppress the schools in which such masters are to be found, those of the Jesuits, of which this writci speaks so highly.

THE BOXD OP uxioy.

In watching the course of events we have been very much struck of late by the unanimity (o be remarked in the attack of the atheists and the " evangelicals "on the Church." It is the bond of union which proves to us most conclusively the trulh of our Saviour's sentence that Satan cannot be divided against himself. \Ye find, then, a change brought against the Church's teaching by

M. Paul Bert, the French atheist, precisely similar to that advanced here about a year ago against the teaching of the Jesuits. The charge is as follows :— The Church, says M. Bert, teaches the lawfulness of the following propositions : (I) A son may wish for the death of his father in order to enjoy his heri'agc ; (2) A mother may wirii for the death of her daughter in order not to be obliged to support her, or give her a dower ; (3) A son may rejoice over the murder of his father, committed by htm while drunk, and this because of the great estates he inherits from him— propositions, all of them, says M. A. Duruy, formally condemned by Pope Innocent XI. (lievtir den des Dew Monde*. January, ISBJ, note p. 184). The lino of antiCatholic argumen 1 -, wo sec. thon, adopted both by atheist and " evangelical ," is the same; the one, it miy bo in ignorance and in malice, the other, certainly in presumptuous ignorance as well as in malice, takes up a book of Catholic theology, understands that which is forbidden to be that which is commanded, and rushes forth to the world with his discovery. Were the object of his attack any other than the Church against which he is backed up by blind prejudice, he would meet only with" the ridicule and di-gust that are thi fitting mneds of presumptuous ignorance anl malice, but as it is he escapes on the whole free from the consequences of detection, and that we know is suitbiont for a dishonest mind. In the present instance, however, it is well to find the " mistake " exposed by one of the leading publications in Europe.

FALSE ACCUSATIONS.

While looking over oiu 1 exchanges, we have come across onj or two further explanations and contradictions of the bitter aiticlc of the "Old Catholic," Von Sclmlte, on the state of. Catholicism in Germany. This worthy schismatic, it will be remembered, was most earnest in insisting on the falling-off of German Catholics in their desire for tli3 education oE their children, and the consequent and remarkable decrease in the number of Catholic students at the various colleges and universities. He, however, at the same time was obliged to acknowledge that Catholic literature had largely increased, and was still increasing. Wo find, tho.n, as we were sure that we should find as time went on. that the accusations thus advanced were false. We perceive that Catholics, having had two evils proposed to them, choso, according to the advics of Thomas a Kempis, the least of the two. They wore require! to surrender the worldly advancement of their children, or else give up their souls to corruption, and they preferred to abandon their worldly interests. The famous '' Academy " of Munster, then, has within the last live years, lost more than half the number of its students, and, apparantly, all because its Rector and the Dean of the Philosophical Faculty are Protestants, or Nationalists perhaps more justly, after the heart of Herr Falk. We hold that, under the circumstances, German Catholics arc to be highly lauded ; they can at least be found fault with only by such persons as despise Christianity, and consider any sacrifice made in its preservation foolisb. Again, where Catholics have been able to take advantage of the educational provision made, they have been able to hold their own with distinction. In proof of this we. find that tt or 30 r3 is at Bonn one Professor Meyer, who is notably hard upon the Catholic students who come within his reach, because, says he, their professors aro apt to be so distracted by "prejudices'" as to be inefficient teaehjrs— an assertion made in dcfUncc of the whole world's cxpciicncc of Catholic teachers. In spite of this worthy man's bigotry, however, it has happened that, both this year and last, Catholic students have carried ofi a prize given for a philosephical essay on a subject proposed by the very professor himself. The second place was also gained by a Catholic student, and Professor Meyer's own pupils made a very poor show indeed in comparison. We sec then that it is no disinclination for learning or want of appreciation of its benefits, that has lessened the number of Gorman Catholic students ; this has been cansod only by the anxiety of Catholics for the spiritual welfare of their children. We have little doubt a like result would have been apparent amongst the early Christians, had they been similarly situated, but as for the Protestant world which to-day pretends to be their successor, no one can hesitate for a moment in the belief that they would without a scruple, plunge their children at once into the midst of the godlessness, rather than lose the least advantage of any kind whatsoever. This is one of the clearest notes of their being a rotten branch.

THE CHUKCII'S CHATUTY.

We were asked the other day whether we believed that every one who is not a member of the Roman Catholic Church, using these terras in the manner in which they arc usually understood, must of necessity be eternally lost. We answered according to the best of our understanding and ability, but as we lay no claim to a right or power of teaching or explaining questions of theology, we have no intention of: reproducing our answer here. We have, however, accidentally come across certain passages in a course of conferences given by the great Dominican, Lacoidaire, which bear upon the subject ; and as we think they aic likely to afford much pleasure to o.ir readers we transcribe them for that purpose, They run as

follows :— " Gentlemen— ln the first place it is an error, in a question of the influence of Christianity, to break it up and argue therefrom in favour of the weakness of such and such of its parts, instead of taking it in its total action on mankind. Doubtless the Catholic Church alone contains Christianity such as God made it, with its hierarchy, its dogmas, its worship, and the full efficacy over souls of its intercession and juiisdiction. But the Catholic Church is not limited, as you suppose, in measuring the outlines of her visible existence. Everywhere, even in the branches ostensibly separated from their primordial stem, the Chuich holds a regenerating sap and produces effects whose honour belongs to her. She is still the bond of schism— the cement, such as it is, of heresy : whatever substance and cohesion remain to them comes from the blood which she has shed, and which is not yet dry, as we sec branches fallen to the ground under the trunk which bore them still holding vegetation sensible to light and dew. Death is not wrought in a day among minds which truth enlightened. For a long time they preserve therefrom gleams which light, impulsions which animate : and to bring them against the source from whence they sprang, and which still acts upon them, is to attribute to an ungrateful son the merits which he holds from his race, and of which treason has not entirely stripped him. Thus England, which you have named as an exception to the social decadency of Christian nations, what has made England what she is 1 Is it since her schism that she has founded the institutions to which she owes peace in liberty, honour in obedience, and security even in agitation ? It is not so, as you know. The British institutions are the monument of an age when England paid to the Apostolic See the tribute which she herself called Peter's Pence, and the hand of a Catholic archbishop of Canterbury, the faithful and magnanimous hand of Stephen Langton, is for ever marked upon the pages to which remount from our age to St. Louis, the political traditions of Great Britain. Her spirit and her laws were formed under the influence of the Church, at the same sanctuary and in the same faith which gave her St. Edward the Confessor for a sovereign. The United States, in their turn, children of Old England, have carried her customs to the virgin fields of America, and, finding there no trace of antiquity which permitted them to settle under the shade of an hereditary monarchy and an aristocracy of birth, they have made of that new world a republic animated by a Christian spirit, although imperfect, showing by that example that the public life is not attached to one simple form of government, but that it depends especially upon the spirit that animates the peoples and the sincerity that co-ordains their institutions. England reigns at home and elsewhere because she has preserved her public right, slowly and wisely appropriating it to the developement of ages, ideas, and wants : the United States reign at home and over themselves, because, as owners of a new land but heirs of an ancient spirit, they have transported the customs of their illustrious mother-country to the shores of their young civilisation. Tt is Christianity which is the father of these two peoples, and the guardian of their charters. Therefore the Count de Maistre, m speaking of the future of the world, did not desire for England that she should become Christian, but Catholic only ; meaning, thereby, in his language, at the same time orthodox and penetrating, that what is wanting to England, is not the faith that inspires but the authority that guides. In facr, a people traditionally devoted to heresy is not the same thing as a heretic who has so become from his own erring heart. He revolts, the people receive his error : they ignore rather than contradict truth, and, even if all are not innocent by their ignorance, because they are able to overcome it, many have neither the time nor the light which would make them guilty "before God. They belong, according to the admirable expression of Catholic doctrine, to the sovl of the Church, children unknown to their mother although borne in her womb, and who still live in her substance as they have sprung from her fecundity. (' Life,' Langdon's Trans, p.p. 215-18). We may add to this as much to the purpose also, an anecdote which we somewhere or other read of our late beloved Holy Father, Pius IX : we do not by any means vouch for its authenticity, nevertheless, but if not true it is, at least, well imagined. One day, then, two ladies of high lank were received in audience by the Pope, the one of them being a convert to the Catholic faith, the other a Protestant. Both of them excellent weir.en and each, according to her light, serving God with all diligence. It happened, then, that the lady who was a Catholic took an opportunity of begging the Pontiff's prayers for her sister's conversion, and while doing so with seme emotion, betrayed an uneasiness as to her welfare in the woild to come. But on this the Pope, while promising the aid of his prayer.*, replied to the following effect:— 'My child, you have no cause to be afraid : those who love and serve Gcd together in this world shall not be separated in the next.' It is, then, the fact that the Catholic Chuieh permits of much wider views en salvation, and of a far larger charity in this mpect. than do thofe accusing sects, who themselves maintain with rigour that all the world is damned, except a few who have experienced seme shange illumination, and received the indelible impicfs of a certain foimula of words upon their brain or heart. Their sole charity consists in extending their privilege of salvation, once gained never to be lost, to

even the most unclean of life, if only they have been once " converted." And, as usual, while they cry out in loud horror over tenets imputed falsely by them to the Church they themselves practice the very thing that they are clamorous in condemning. This, however, is but part of the hypocrisy, which is their portion.

ORGIES.

Last week Dunedin was scandalised or edified by Presbyterian religious orgies, and was compelled to behold an exhibition of blasphemy to teach truth, of lewdness to recommend chastity, and of calumny to stimulate piety ! A Protestant English writer has called John Knox the ruffian of the Reformation : and indeed, if the master may be judged by the conduct of the disciples as represented in New Zealand, it must be conceded that the Scottish leformer has not been inaccurately described by his English neighbour and fellow Protestant.