CARDINAL MANNING'S "PROTEST."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 392, 15 October 1880, Page 17

CARDINAL MANNING'S "PROTEST."

(From the Sydney Express.) PKBHAPB nothing has happened during the present year of greater Mniflcance than the "Protest" which has just appeared In tS Mjhneteenth Century by the hand of Cardinal Manning. It deals with WmSff" a m 4 ere vv 88 v Of h , un l a^ty. and is, as the Cardinal calls it t? X ' n A ? 5n5 n « llshman « against the admission of atheists into .the British House of Commons, and against the consequent dis'*2^rt.°SJLTi °* «' moralit y' and rel *g*°Q which followslogically from the denial of a Supreme Ruler and Creator of mankind. Coming rfti! SOlS 01 " 5 Cardinal Archbishop, and being addressed to the English-speaking people throughout the world, who still hold the fundamental doctrines of Theism, his Eminence's "Protest" opens out to the tnoughtful mind a thousand painfully profound conSSteofour l^ 6 intimately connected Si* the 7 Lst essential «n \V\ a rta rtKng foot that such a Protest should be called for at SiJi i?Wnl£"s * he .P ro fi es ? o« Atheism has been rapid and wideX ttl iS dunDg the laßt twenty years. rt Nearly indicates that the governing power in the country has been affected by the 22S£ 11 SFS FI Sr iC S ° f d° f par * lysis whicb ProceedsUm scientific doubt and practical misbelief; and that the old masterSp^^i nn g * P^ tS .- wbic \ at one time sa PP<>rted the vast fabric of ULfnn i* DStltU « On - that Christian civilization and natural £^ } T wf l ~*ll ™ ccxi »? from the dry-rot and have been shaken ffSrE^LS th 7 stabilit £: -Wljlht Catholic Prance is suffering £. , m •""f.T 860111 tbe granny of diabolical despot! who have lost their faith ; whilst Catholic Belgium is honeycombed by the secret sect ; whilst Germany is thrusting the spiked heel of persecution into the Catholic Church, Protested England is being Sf 77 i U l ce T ned , *? her beliefs, -fnd a Roman Catholic Archbishop feels it his duty publicly to protest-not to X cfvif SS*"""* ft**" " Ashman, ag a inst P Cco¥a P s e of that civil power, and that remnant of spiritual belief, which are intimately connected with the doctrines of Theism. He perceive? *%£ to n °be g^n Ttr?* 1 ™ 5° Cc S e **"» of the e^tenc P c of God WW ?L pen W% ahoia > th e veiy joints and sockets of the body politic become as if mercury had entered into and shaken them asunder ; and that human society ceases to possess any stabfflt? Alfred to H* 810 * P°f by binte force. From the days of A^ £ v F- "" *?d? d fr0l » H enry to Elizabeth and William, down to Victoria— untal the case of Bradlaugh opened out new aSHke TTii^ S* 1"^1 "^ and ""^ ba^d U pon a rock-like Theism, and on all those sanctions which had their effiSnn h f P /^°" nd the national beart - With the TdmS E° f Atheism into Parliament, the whole of this basis of a Dmne order is quietly removed. The nation sinks lower than the fSr^T 8 h i 1 - 68 ?OIJ? OI J- The Principles of religion, morality, touth S^Sft"*' md 3, v . Btlcebe come mere empty words, meaning something t b . ID f: accordin g as th e passion and pride wielded by brute S I^ JZ S? a mean i ng ' J - &W ceases to P° 9Besß itß motion for thl Law-giver, who alone has a right to impose restraints, is ignored or denied, or, at all events, is not affirmed ; for were He really believed S'^f h n a *•.?«««* House of Commons wS no more J^ n , athe »» l ° ltS d « llberati °ns, than they would a man who had denied the existence, and. therefore, the authority and rule of Queen Victoria herself. There are some questions that cannot beknowed as destruction. And one of these is, pre-eminently, the doctrine of the existence of God. Once albw that great tenet to be a matter Kin dl £tt?iS d , tbe WOrld , iS tbr ° Wn baCk n °* So^^inrba ce rr r ba f rim *i lowest ravage has a god of some kind-but into brutalism into the condit,on of monkeys, pigs, and dogs. Tbe monarchies rf XrS?* Tit' tbecivllb!atioQ of the Greek race, and the sway of the Roman authority, were, each and all, based upon the ereat d^? fl m fw TT weißw eiB - m ; asda s d tbey held ' the y dld n °t <w? StXi SSsn* 6 W g-°°g -°° d ' ™ e L iust ' and bol y 5 and that His law uS £S 5. ln tfa e natural order, is the rule of hamS life and the guide of all just and uprieht men. It was left for our Z^ B J\ n^ nt IF**? Of civiliza «on based, shnply, on ?£ caprice of shallow philosophers ; to discover sanctions where nonp could possibly exist; and to proclaim the distinctions of right and wrong, and the duties of subjection and obedience, afte? having dSffw fcS^SlS,???^ BUCb *«*taotka. and such w^ 7 1 ' W ? tboufc Go *" exclaims the Cardinal, " there is vZ w? above . t he human will, and therefore no law ; for no will by human authority can bind another. All authority of oarents husbandfl, masters rulers is of God. This is not all If there £no God, there is no eternal distinction of right and wrong ; and, if nSt easily^oS BfTtf^S^tfSA %*&X£ of tt a i e onl7h PP ra rr vv d hCingtbeish Cingtbei s fl °^ rS andtbeir f " uitß S?n2S form as to meet the especial character of the uneducated intellect a mania for upsetting the doctrmesf not onlyrf^Christianitv but of natural religion For year« past, Mr. Bradlaugn has "beS ?educatini h dV^^^ Vg^ head and Birmingham, the theatres or halls are crowded to Thear^the

?f a . of ?? r !f, tblQ^ ers ' wbose .. m-^nm -^n object it seems to be to upset the basis of Christian civilisation, and to introduce anarchy and oiKn^ Pl ?' And besides lectures and public addresse*. £2 It + l tracts, without number, are published and distributed SZE? t^ aBS .- 8 ° f - tbe people ' Tbe imm ense circulation of these poisonous productions is proof enough of the avidity with which they are devoured. « Has Man a Soul ?» and » A Plea for Atheism/ and sSupv 6^ Sir a P d " Wh ° was Jesus Chlist? " and^Jesuf, S2i 7'7 ' and . Ma l 4 ;hus, 1> are some amidst thousands of other blasphemous tracts which the people are fed with. « The Bible : what it wli- *f a commentary ;" « God, Man, and the SSV a a lght , s dlscussion with the Rev. Dr. Baylee ;" » ChrisU \T>* m A Cm t™ S^ d " <<Wfc y do men starve?" «f «i? l££ t V eatb '. and otber writ iPgs of the same sort, subversive of all those fundamental truths on which society rests, have been, for years, working their effect. The masses of the people who can ju°t read and take m the poison that is offered them, without having sufficient education to detect that it is poison, have been graduallf SmS^S* S? d U ° dermin , e 4 by the energetic emissaries ofßqnSyj SSdS^ 'Bradlaugh scare " m England the other day, was simply S^SfSrtLw 6 T re pubH ? and em Phatic advance into higher circles of that blasphemous spirit of the age which is gradually fore ing its way amidst the governing class. Pride in the higher class of ?h™1 S> * PT °2 amon g st the demagogues, point to one issuettae gradual xntroductiou of passion and pride, sustained by brute force, in the place of tbe cardinal principles of supernatural and natural religion, such as supported, in old time, Christian common. n / atn B %f\?;^d! bebaßiß ° f Civilizati ° n ° f the great pagan