JUSTICE TO SPAIN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 360, 12 March 1880, Page 11

JUSTICE TO SPAIN.

As vre said last week, glory justly redounds upon Spain, more than upon any one of the other European Powers, that her people have never allowed themselves to be reduced from their allegiance to the Church of their Fathers. During the last few days we have fallen upon other testimony to the glory of the Spanish people. Referring to the move in favour of the abolition of slavery in Cuba, we find a writer in the Catholic Bevietv eulogising the Spanish people : — " Spain is by no means an exhausted and worn-out nation. The sneers and contumelies with which her name has often been associated by shallow and ill-informed or prejudiced and uncandid writers, are altogether undeserved. It is only those who have not merely passed through Spain on railroad trains, or who have spent a few days in sight-seeing at her principal cities, but who have lived there long enough to acquire something like accurate knowledge of her people, who can thoroughly appreciate and value the sterling worth of their character. This one fact is remarkable — everyone who has dwelt long in Spain, or who has even spent five or six months in the country with a sincere desire to become acquainted with the real character of the people, has come away as a cheerful witness to the domestic virtues of the population, — to the purity of the women, and to the sincere honesty, -simplicity, and hospitality of the men." Another testimony bearing in the same direction we find, in the Tablet just come to hand, in the review of Fr. Harper's article in the November number of the Month, upon Pope Leo XIIL's Encyclical JEterni Patris, the doctrine of St. Thomas. We learn there that Spain, of all countries in Europe, has suffered least from the decline of sound philosophical study brought about through the invasion of modern systems and methods. The scholastic system of philosophy holds influence over the schools in Spain more than in any other part of Europe, and to this fact may be traced the vigour and precision of thought as well as the spirit of faith, which, as we have heard from 1 one who was present, was observable in the addresses delivered in the Vatican Council by some of the Spanish Bishops. It was the Spanish Bishops too who, at the Vatican Council, petitioned that, after the example of the Council of Trent, the Summa of St. Thomas should be placed with the Gospels on the Altar in the Hall of Council. Happy Spain, by thee we are reminded of those words of divine truth' " If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed : amd you sliall Mow the truth, and the truth shall make you free"— Bombay Catholic Examiner,