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New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 411, 25 February 1881, Page 13

The Times complains that the " reform of the Irish land tenure ia popular in Scotland." Scotland, however, is likely to be pretty well informed as to the wants of Irish tenants. We see, for example, that the tenantry of the Duke of Leinster's Athy and Castledermot estates, amongst whom are a large number of Scotch farmers of a superior class, have applied to his Grace for a reduction of their rents by 25 per cent., or his acceptance of Griffith's valuation. Such Scotchmen will, therefore, have a word to say at home on the Irish land question, that will outweigh all the complaints of English newspapers with their fellow-countrymen. A recent number of the Saturday Review, in an article on the Jewish question, gives the following, which is hardly in harmony with the great Protestant tradition : — "The Judenhetze, however, under whatever variety of forms, is a phenomenon as old as Chxis-

tianity, though it might seem at first sight hardly in harmony with the spirit of the Gospel. And it is fair to remember that, in the darkest times of persecution, Popes and Saints have stood forward to shelter the hated race from popular ferocity. Thus, e.g., in the crusade of 1146, -when a frightful massacre of Jews broke out in Cologne, Mentz, Spires, Worms, and Strasburg, St. Bernard threw the whole of his vast influence into the breach, though it required the full weight even of his sanctity and eloquence to stem the tide of popular passion. ' God,' he told the fanatics, ' had punished the Jews by dispersion, and it was not for man to punish them by murder.' When again, amid the horrors of the Black Death in Germany two centuries later, the plague was ascribed to the Jews, and great numbers of them were put to death, Clement VI. made a noble effort to dispel the illusion. Several other Popes, before and since, have interfered in their favour, and his kindness to the Jews is a redeeming feature even in the career of Alexander VI." Our contemporary the Daily Times had better look out. It is only the other day that an editor in a neighbouring colony was goundly thiashed by a chivalrous gentleman, who travelled several hundred miles for the purpose of chastising him, because ho. bad spoken slightingly of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen. And now we find the Daily Times telling us that certain reports — one of which has frightened the Queen away from Windsor Castle — are only fit to " scare old women," and if that be not calling the Queen's Majesty an old woman we do not know what it is. The only excuse for our editor is that he cannot think a name opprobrious which he has been most untiring in claiming for himself. Heaven send, nevertheless, that there may be no one at this moment coming here by land or sea to castigate him. Our contemporary the Daily T^mes is, however, mistaken. The reports circulated in England, respecting contemplated Fenian outrages, are not meant merely to scare old women. They are very industriously manufactured and disseminated, for the purpose of keeping the English masses in a state of iriitation against Ireland, and to prevent the danger of their sympathy being generally accorded to the Irish people in their present struggle. Had we had any doubt as to the sympathies of Irish Protestants being, to a great extent, with the Land League, it would have been emoved by our reading the naoics of the gentlemen who formed the deputation the other day to the Duke of Leinster. Amongst them we recognised some ultra- Protestants, and one of them is even famed in his neighbourhood as a lay preacher of extreme "evangelical" views. His Lordship the Bishop of the Diocese held a visitation at Queenstown on Sunday last. The Bishop returned to Dunedia on Monday. Our imaginative telegraphist at the other end of the world has been exciting the ire of those who believe in him by informing them that Mr. Parnell had been jn Paris soliciting the moral support of Messrs. Victor Hugo and Eochefoit. Our imaginative friend, however, has not paid a due compliment to the fair sex, for he passed over with silent contempt the heroine of the day, Louise Michel, and surely Mr. Parnell would never have compromised the gallantry of his nation by neglecting to bend a, knee in doing her homage, while he paid his court to the males of the party. Irish-Catholics at home, the telegraphist adds, have been utterly disgusted at Mr. Parnell's conduct — Irish Catholics out here, we need hardly add, do not believe a word of it. The English Government are either very much terrified at the sight of bloodshed, or very desirous of seeing it. This is completely proved by their declared good will, now that so many lives have bpen lost, to do all that the Boers of the Transvaal require of them. But which was it that they were anxious to have a few men killed, so that they would not yield to the wishes of the Boers prior to their outbreak, or that they have been cowed by the sharp-shooting of the Dutchmen? In any case the matter does not reflect much credit on. them. The Ashantees arc about to make a raid upon the English settlement at Sierra Leone. Mr. Pabnell is again in Ireland, advocating the interests of the Land League, and strengthening its members and supporters. The assertion made in our leader relative to the strength of the Church under the present persecution is confirmed by the following paragraph from the peu of the eminent Pasteur M. E. de Pressense : " All that I heard and saw in Constance convinces me of the increasing power of the Ul tramontanes. It is evident that after ten years' war directed against its life, the party is stronger than ever, although it had to deal with a most able, determined and unscrupulous foe . and to-day the representative of a Government, which has accomplished everything in the political field, finds himself helpless to overcome the spiritual opposition which confronts him. Everything that he has done to destroy the party has turned out to its advantage." A VALIANT band of warriors, thirsting for blood and filled with urj, are about to start from Wellington for South Africa. It is not

quite clear from the report, however, whether they go asl'soldiers or sailors ; but if it be as the latter, we shall in all probability be able in a few months to welcome them home again covered with glory, but not much troubled with wounds. If they go as soldiers we may admire tbeir bravery, but arc at the same time compelled to doubt their common sense. It was Dutch Americans, and not Irish Americans, who should have been reported of as desirous of adopting the part of the insurgent Boers. Od the whole America evidently contains a large element not inclined, at least, to gush perpetually over the justice and glory of Great BritaiD. Isr the current number of the Victorian Review, Mr. B. ColonnaClose, who contributes a review of Sir Charles Gavin Daffy's " Young Ireland," sets to himself a thesis, which runs as fellows : " England has a legitimate right to the possession and government of Ireland by a title which every true Catholic will universally acknowledge." And the argument employed by Mr. Colonna-Close to prove his point is this : " Every ex cathedra Act of the Pope is infallible. (This is the doctrine which every true Catholic must believe.) The Pope's confirmation of the Grant of Ireland to the English King was an a cathedra, Act — ergo, the Pope's confirmation of the Grant of Ireland to the English King was infallible. According to this, every true Catholic who seeks or aids, or abets, the doctrine of Repeal commits a mortal sin." We venture to siy there is no other question on earth, except one relating to the Catholic Church, on which any writer ever hoping in the future to hold up his head amongst men of understand* ing could, make so flagrantly ignorant a pronouncement. The Pope is infallible only when he teaches the Church ex cathedra on some question of faith or morals, aud the confirmation of a grant made by him, even though it be ex cathedra, has nothing whatever to say to the matter. But, even supposing the grant had been endorsed by the Pope's infallibility, what of that. The grant was made, if made at all, to a Catholic country, which should substitute for the bad government of another Catholic country a good government. It was not marie to a Protestant Government to the end that it might misgovern, and persecute the religion of a Catholic country, so that in nothing does Mr. Colonna-Close's argument hold good. But, indeed, it is an argument that it is astonishing to find put forward by any man who has learning enough to write so much as a paragraph of decent English. The subject is, fortunately for the writer, a safe one for the display of ignorance. One of the best opportunities that we have as yet seen offered to our colonists is that with which they are now presented by the New Zealand Agricultural Company. This company offers for free selection an immense extent of what is certainly amongst the best land in the Colony, and whose capabilites may be judged of by the crops that are actually growing upon it. It begins a little below the town of Gore and extends thence for a distance of over sixty miles, railway carriage being all through an advantage which it possesses. The terms upon which the land is offered for sale, too, are quite unprecedented. The time of payment extends over ten years, and the rate of interest charged is exceptionally low ; but not only this, it has also been arranged that no portion of the purchase money need be paid for seven years, and for even this accommodation no advance is made in the rate of interest. It is clear, then, that all who are desirous of settling upon the land have means of doing so placed within their reach such as may never again be offered to them, and the opportunity is, therefore, one not to be lost. Undoubtedly the acquisition and cultivation of land is that which ought to form the main object of every colonist who consults his true interests, or those of his children : it is in this way thac "he may attain to genuine independence, and bo placed out of the way of any danger that may in the future arise. There are already many men among us who are left to regret the want of wisdom and foresight which made them neglect opportunities even of much less advantage than that which now presents itself, and we hope we shall not find that any of our friends are added to their number by carelessly overlooking this unprecedented offer made by the New Zealand Agricultural Company.