Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 468, 31 March 1882, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

Ybstebday was to have been celebrated at PaA doubtful lermo, the 600 th anniversary of the Sicilian Vespers, festival, and it is somewhat ominous to find such a celebration occur during the present state of feeling between the French and the Italians. Moreover, it strikes us that, whatever may be the fruits of the outbreak in question, if they still remain indeed, they might much better be enjoyed in silence than commemorated by a festival. The funeral Mass, to be offered on the second day, appears to us the only appropriate celebration to be made. Whatever may have been tyranny of Charles of Sicily, or whatever the faults of the French, the massacre that took place was one of the most detestable that history records, and some of its details are more worthy of a place in Mahommedan chronicles than in those of a Christian people, — of which in fact they are wholly unworthy. The facts of the case are briefly these : A conspiracy had been formed between the Emperor Michael Paleologus, and John of Procida to stir up a revolt in Sicily, and to engage the king of Aragon in its support. In pursuance of this plot a number of the nobles of Sicily had gone to Palermo for Easter, and the town was full of them on Easter Monday when the custom was to go yearly to hear vespers at the neighbouring church of Montreal. — The people, also, amused themselves in the fields around the church. On the occasion in question, the French inhabitants took part in the pro* cessions and amusements, and, either with some suspicion of the conspiracy, or from ordinary prudence, it had been forbidden to the Palermitans to carry arms of any kind with them. While the people then, were gathering flowers and otherwise amusing themselves, a Frenchman, under the pretence of searching for arms, insulted a young woman who had just been ■married and who was there with her husband. She fainted, and her husband cried out in a fury " Death to the French," which cry was at once taken up by the crowd and every one present of French nationality was butchered on the spot ;— two hundred of them fell while the vesper bells were ringing. The people then, still crying their war-cry, hastened back to the town where four thousand of the foreigners were massacred during the night ; the shelter of the churches affording them no safety, and neither the monastic nor the ecclesiastical habit obtaining respect — priests, monks, and nuns, if they were French, were murdered alike with the aged, the children, and the pregnant women. The heads of the outbreak immediately returned to their homes in the country, and in every district made an unsparing slaughter. Some writers assert that the massacre began on the preconcerted signal of the vesper bells, — as, ages afterwards, the slaughter of the Huguenots was appointed to take place when the bell of the church of St. Germain 1' Auxerrois should ring — but the circumstances of the case seem to make this doubtful, and it is more probable that accident alone determined the doomful moment. Meantime, that a great festival commemorative of such an event should be held at all appears somewhat questionable ; but that it should be held while the Italian blood is hot against France must certainly be regarded as unfortunate.

A gentleman named Coutts Trotter, and who touching writes from the Athenrcum Club to the London Missionabies. Times respecting the recent doings of the French in the Pacific, states that a friend who corresponds with him from the islands is much troubled, because, amongst the rest, whatever may be the influence of M. Paul Bert in France the French authorities in the parts referred to are sincere Catholics and " as such are apt to have a short way with Protestant missionaries and the civilisation they represent." We find, nevertheless, that " Protestant missionaries and the civilisation they represent " are occasionally able to defend themselves— and, not only that, but even to offend others. Last August, for example, a party of Catholic missionaries who had been for some three years settled, with the permission of the chiefs, in Damaraland South Africa, and who had

lately completed the building of a residence for themselves with much expense and labour, were summarily ejected from their home, and driven away by the pious Lutherans of the neighbourhood. The attempt was first maie as if it were the work of the natives only, but, when the missionaries resisted and the Damaras seemed deterred from their intention to expel them, the German missionaries them* selves arrived on the scene and accomplished the deed without the least compunction or ceremony, The Rev. Father Hogan, who is the head of the French mission, writes from Walwich Bay where the Fathers had taken refuge, to describe the matter. " A vast crowd of Damaras," he says, " headed this time by four German missionaries, appeared before our door. They (the missionaries) urged upon us to depart peacefully ; upon our refusal, a powerful, raw, naked Damara approached our door, aad with one mighty blow burst it open, smashed the lock, part of which flew right across the room nearly striking M. Comey in its course. Several Damaras entered the house at once, and began putting out our effects, even ourselves were after* wards laid violent hands upon and forcibly removed from our house. We protested in the name of our Government against the injury that was being done to us, and the violation of rights that are most sacred and divine. Thtis, after three years continual toiling, we were unlawfully despoiled of our property, so equitably acquired. The Germans alone are to blame in this affair ; the very fact of their heading a mob who broke open our door, will condemn them before the public, were there not even any more substantial evidence to convict them." But that " Protestant missionaries and the civilisation they represent " in the Pacific, have been hardly behind their brethren in SDuth Africa, we learn from an article published recently by our contemporary the San Francisco Monitor, and from which we borrow the following passages :—": — " Sir George Simpson, an English Protestant, was so hugely disgusted at the state of affairs in the Sandwich Islands, that he uses the following language in describing the slavery he witnessed : ' The missionaries were regarded as the inventors of a servitude such as the Islands had never known before.' ' Let us publish it aloud,' says Dr. Meyen, a Prussian naturalist who visited the Sandwich Islands in 1832, ' it is neither the glory of the Supreme Being, nor the zeal of a noble vocation, which has compelled these hypocritical missionaries to visit these distant shores, but a greedy cupidity and an insatiable thirst for honours. Several of them have already amassed considerable fortunes at the expense of the natives, who, by their detestable frauds are reduced to penury.' In 185G an English writer named Tracy, visited the Sandwich Islands, and in his history thereof, subsequently published, says 1 The poor natives having been already robbed of everything else, and even the missionaries could find nothing more to steal from them but their land, which, with the help of ' offended heaven,' they were prepared to appropriate. 1 They afterwards (adds our contemporary) consummated this final act of robbery, as revealed by recent exposures." "We find, then, that Protestant missionaries and the civilisation they represent, are of a stuff quite capable of holding its own — not to speak of that also which may happen to belong to others when the opportunity offers—and it would even appear that were the French authorities to interfere with them, civilisation might progress none the worse because of this.

Hebe is a dreadful state of affairs. A census of piety AT church attendance was taken one Sunday lately at our dooes. Edinburgh, and it was found that hardly more than a fourth of the inhabitants " sat under " a preacher of any denomination whatsoever on the Sabbath in question. This is an " awfu' " example to be given to the civilised world, and we begin to fear that the saying Victor Hugo tells us originated with the residents in the immediate neighbourhood of Notre Dame of Paris may also be repeated of Auld Reekie itself — " The nearer the church the farther from God." But yet we cannot say ; there still seems a possibility that there may be balm in Gilead. — Perhaps the threefourths that staid at borne were all the day engaged in the digestion of doctrine. It is mighty strong, as we all know, in Edinburgh, and it is quite possible that a meal of it once a month may be sufficient for the spiritual stomach of even the most godly. Depend upon it this is the explanation : one-quarter of the town goes to church every fourth Sunday, and three-quarters stay at home to ruminate the other

three. — We cannot believe sweet Edinbro' in fallen from grace. And why should it ? Are not the preachers there as faithful and as thunderous as of yore ? Meantime, that church attendance has fallen off lamentably elsewhere i* very evident ; everywhere that a census has been taken this fact is undeniable, and elsewhere, doctrine being not nearly so strong as it is in Edinburgh, it can hardly be hoped that the people who keep away from church are engaged with its digestion. Oar consolation here is that church attendance now-a-days p not so necessary as it was wont to be of old. If Mahommed now will not go to the mountain the mountain will go to Mahommed. We have open-air churches on all sides of us at present— some stationary, some perambulating, but all most vociferous at least. Even in Dunedin we are so highly favoured, and it is impossible for the most hardened sinner to cross the city now of an evening without coming ia for some kind or anol.her of a fag-end of the " Gospel " ; sometimes it is sung — and we admit, for we desire to give everyone his dve — even the devil ; that is, when we touch on him — it seems to be as well sung as ever mus'cless lilts can be, and, if you are out of hearing of the vapid rhyme?, the harmony is far from unpieasing. Sometimes it is bellowed — much les pleaiugly — but with the prospect of climbing up one of our hills, it is impossible not to envy the lungs of the preacher— nobody need envy his brains, or his tongue ; but, under such circumstances, we may fairly long for his wind and his lungs' of leather. His metaphorical wind, meantime, nobody need long for ; it is, on the other hand, impossible not to catch a blast of it now and then, and it is a m ost unpleasant squall full of chips and dust. But wo have not as yet attained to our full share of the privilege in question; the " Gospel" is as yet but half developed, half on its Icg3 among us. The Salvation Army has not as yet begun its march among us as it will, we may surely expect, bye-and-by. And we may expect some lively times when it comes too. Ia England its march is everywhere accompanied by a rolling fight, if the enemies of the army are numerous and fierce, the soldiers of the army are valiant men and eager for the fray. If they turn their cheeks to the smiter according to the Gospel precept, they also hold to the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures and seek the hollow beneath his fifth rib with whatever weapon comes to hand — even the very standards of the host it is reported are sometimes availed of for this purpose. The progress of the army is made beneath a shower of sticks and stones, and the imprecations that the wicked shout against it as it passes must, we should think, often serve to do away with the sanctifying and con vei ting effect of its psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. It is a sadly maltreated host, and, in a sense, an army of martyrs— but as to what that sense is let the following passage from the Times explain :—": — " The Salvation Army is not altogether a pleasant phenomenon. Natural as it and its success must be conceded to be, it is overbearing, conceited, and unreal. Its solitary weapon for enticing recruits and subduing enemies is a series of gusts of spiritual intoxication. No fruitful ideas underlie its warciies. It has no laws by which to administer territory it has conquered, or rules for the correction and elevation of hearts and souls. As between the army and its antagonists the scale may well incline in its favour. For the miserable creatures, haunters of publichouses and loiterers at street corners, who lead the onset on its triumphant marches nothing can be said. They simply abuse the ill repute it bears for folly and absurdity to gratify an appetite for brutal uproar. Exemplary punishment should be inflicted upon them whenever caught red-handed in their outrages." Our army of martyrs, then, are martyrs to " folly and absurdity." Nevertheless, the way is being paved for them, and their pioneers are among us, nightly earning their advancement in the ranks, and ready after a little to figure as sergeants or captains, or, if the promotion goes by the power of roaring, generals, and commanders-in-chief. The advance guard of the " folly and absurdity " also are not wanting, and, in short, if we may judge of what goes on inside the churches by what we hear of the kind without them, we cannot ■wonder that attendance there is falling off. — The wonder is how on earth they were so long filled, and that they have not been all shut up these hundred years. Nor need we wonder that Edinburgh only goes to chuTch one Sunday out of four, and stays at home to digest its doctrine the other three. It mutt have a tremendous stomach to be able to digest it at all, and it is a marvel it has not died ages ago of dyspepsia.

ON February Ist a meeting was held in the Mansion SYMPATHY House at London for the purpose of protesting WITH the against the cruelties perpetrated on the Russian JEWS. Jews. Many of the English notables were present, and among them was his Eminence Cardinal Manning, to whom, moreover, the Times attributes the most remarkable of the speeches made. His Eminence's principal contention was that the persecution had not been exaggerated, and he made good his point not only from tte reports given by the English Press, but from the evidence of Russian Government documents. " I hold the proofs in my own hand," he said. " And from whom do they come 1 From

official documents, from the Minister of the Interior, General Ignatidff . The resolution speaks of the laws of Russia as regards its Jewish subjects. Ido not aSßume to be an old jurist in English law, much less to say what the laws of Russia are in this respect. I should not know what to say on the resolution if I did not hold in my hand a rescript of much importance. I hope I shall not be told that, like the UTtase, it is a forgery. These horrible atrocities had continued throughout May, June, and July, and in the month of August tbis document was issued. The first point in it is 'that it laments and deplores— what ? The atrocities on the Jewish subjects of the Czar ? By no means, but the sad condition of the Christian inhabitants of the southern provinces. The next point is that the main cause of these ' movements and riots,' as they are called, to which the Russian <m nation had been a stranger, is but a commercial one. The third point is that this conduct of the Jews has called forth ' protests ' on the pwt of the people, as manifested by acts — of what do you think ? Of violence and robbery. Fourthly, we are told by the Minister of the Interior that the country is subject to malpractices which were, it is known, the cause of the agitation. My Lord Mayor, if the logic of this document be calm, the rhetoiic and insinuation of it are most inflammatory, and I can hardly conceive how, with that rescript in their hand, the Husssian population could not have felt that they were encouraged to go on." The Times again confirms the reports of its correspondents, and says : " Many of the details we gave were actually takerj from Russian newspapers, which reported what was done with an innocent unconsciousness that any gloss or concealment was necessary. Now that their reports are European property they will probably endeavour to minimise the cruelties they at first took as a matter of course. There is, unfortunately, no room to doubt that the account we have given is substantially true. Property was doubtless the first object of attack, but offences against the person of the most atrocious kind were quickly superadded. Indeed, who that has any conception of what a mob is capable of when maddened by fanaticism, drink, and its own contagious passions can fail to see that the probabilities are too strongly on the side of the account we published to allow of its being rebutted by anything but detailed and conclusive evidence ?" But Cardinal Manning had already borne a noble testimony to the general character of the Jewish people. It was when ho touched upon the accusations brought against those of Russia to reject them with " incredulity and horror," but for the purpose of showing that, even were they true, the means taken to reform the degraded people must prove degrading only. " They bring these accusations against the Russian Jews," he continued ; why do they not biing them against the Jews of Germany 1 By the acknowledgement of the anti-Semitic movement the Jews in Germany rise head and shoulders above their fellows. Why do they not bring these accusations against the Jews of France ? Is there any career of public utility, any path of honour, civil or military, in which the Jews have not stood side by side with their countrymen ? If the charge is brought against the Jews of Russia, who will bring it against the Jews of England ? For uprightness, for refinement, for generosity, for charity, for all the graces and virtues that adorn humanity where will be found examples brighter or more true of human excellence than in this Hebrew race ?" Catholics are accredited with fiendish cruelty exercised towards the Jews in the Middle Ages, and they are truly so accredited— what we deny is that they are justly so accredited as Catholics, and we can point back in proof of our assertion to the example of prelates, Popes, and Saints, who displayed towards the persecuted race a charity as Catholic and beautiful as that of his Eminence Cardinal Manning, — who, moreover, were happily able to afford to the persecuted people a refuge and safety which his Eminence has not got it in bis power now to afford them— although we hope his eloquent words united to those of the Anglican ecclesiastics and gentlemen who took part with him in this protest to which we refer may not be without some protecting rosults. But, though we deny that as Catholics we have any special cause to blush for the men of the Middle Ages who were guilty of the recorded cruelties, we blush for them as men, and we would gladly see their deeds atoned for so far as it is possible in the present to atone for them by aiding the people now in distress. We bear the reproach of the Middle Ages— and, again, in the present movement our name has been stained, for most of those who took part in the riots at Warsaw were probably called Catholics also. But we abhor their deeds — we abhor the persecutions of the Middle Ages with all our souls, and we denounce and detest the shameful doings that have disgraced the streets of War aw, and disgraced them ten-fold since they arc the streets of a martyr city. All our sympathy is with the suffering Jews at whosesoever hands they suffer— as was the sjmpathy of St. Hilary of Aries, of St. Bernard, and of the Roman Pontiffs, who invariably protected them. — We conclude with the closing paragraph of Cardinal Manning's speech :— •" There is a book, my lord, which is common to the race of Israel and to us Christians. That book i 8 a bond between us, and in that book I read that the people of Israel are the eldest people upon the earth. Russia and Austria and England arc of yesterday compared with the imperish-

ftblc people which, with an inextinguishable life and immutable traditions and faith in God and in the laws of God, scattered as it is all over the world, passing through the fires unscathed, trampled into the dust and yet never combining with the dust into which it is trampled, lives still a witness and a warning to us. We are in the bonds of brotherhood with it. The New Teßtament re6ts upon the Old. They beliave in half of that for which we would give our lives. Let us then acknowledge that we uuito in a common sympathy. I read in taafc book theso worJs, ' I am angry with a great anger with tbe wealthy nations that are at ease, because I was a little angry with Israel and they helped forward the affliction.' That is, My people were scattered, they suffered unknown and unimaginable sufferings, and the nations of the world that dwelt at ease and were wealthy, and had power in their hands, helped forward a very weighty affliction which was upon them all. My lord, I only hope this — that not one man. in England who calls himself a civilised or Christian man will have it in his heart to add by a single word to that which this great and ancient and noble people suffer ; but that we shall do all we can by labour, by speech, and by prayer to lessen if it be possible, or at least to keep ourselves from sharing in sympathy with, these atrocious deeds."

Rekby Wadswobth Longfellow died on the THE 24th inst, in the 76th year of his age, which h« death of entered on February 27th. In Longfellow tbe LONGFELLOW. English-speaking world loses a writer worthy o£ tbe love and esteem of all its members. There has never lived a purer writer than him, and in an age of impure writers he stands out as a marvel. But purity, although the most striking feature of his poems, and the more striking, perhaps, from the force of contrast, is not their only remarkable feature. "Ashe is pure," says Anthony Trollope in an article lately published by the North American Review, "so also is he graceful. But tbat for which you have to look, and will most suTely find in his poetry, is pathoß. 1 ' Nevertheless, we do not claim for him a place among the greater poets of the English tongue, but he holds a high and peculiar place, and one that may possibly never again be . filled. In almost everything he has written, moreover, there is evident the impress of a nature singularly beautiful, and the many amiable things narrate 1 of the poet come to us in accordance with the expectations we had formed from his verses. Longfellow was not a Catholic, but his writings teem with Catholic sympathies, and that he yielded readily to the influences of the Church's beauty we find many proofs in his poetry. We had always hoped, indeed, that the fulness of the light might have shone upon him before his death, and although we have no reason to believe that our hope has been fulfilled, we still confidently trust that one whose religious sense was so deep and sincere, had at the hour of his death realised all that is implied in the beautiful lines he translated from the Catholic poet, Lope de Vega :— " O wait I—to1 — to tliee my weary soul is crying — Wait for mo I—Yet1 — Yet why ask it, -when I see, With feet nailed to the Cross.—thou'rt waiting still for me 1 "

There is hope for Ireland after all ; the wall of England's hobi- English prejudice is about to be broken down, and zon brightens, we shall see all old animosities and misunderstandings before long swept away for ever. It was from conquered Borne, as we learn from Beranger, that Gaul received its most precious treasure, the source of all its future greatness and prosperity. Brennus brought back with him from his victorious invasion a sprig of the grape-vine, and counted it a sufficient reward for all his labours. He tells us through Father Prout— •' 'Tis enough to repay us for all Our trouble in beating the Roman." It was planted by the King and bis people with rejoicing, and immediately inspired by its influences they read the future with a prophetic eye, and saw their country glowing with all the splendour of modern France. What is our friend John Bull to see in the future for England, for she now stands only on the threshold of good luck , and her true career is still before her ? Who is it that condemns the doctors, and accuses them of being the authors of mortality ? They, on the contrary, are leading in the golden age, and laying the foundations of a new and better life. Grandes doctorea doctrinoo De la rhubarbe et dv s&id — It is a calumny, forsooth, for what have they to do with drugs like these ? Rhubarb and senna, out upon such Btuff 1 Their" doctherin' " deals with something very different. " The chief cause, however, of -the recent popularity of whiskey," says the British Medical Journal, "is no doubt the fact that the medical profession now very extensively recommend it, whenever alcohol is required, as being, when fully matured by age, one of the best of all alcoholic stimulants." But that alcohol is frequently required and fully appreciated by the great British public we learn further, and we learn as well that tbe

alcohol in question is exclusively whiskey, " It is impossible to enter any of the large towns of England without observing important buildings skirting the railway or river, which formerly were used for the storage of wines, rums, brandies, and other purposes, and which now are devoted exclusively to the storage and maturing of whiskey. As an instance, on entering tbe metropolis by the London and NorthWestern Railway, take the immense establishments at Chalk Farm, originally the goods department of the London and North- Western Railway Company, which, with the imposing locomotive 'round house, 1 have all been converted into excise whiskey bonds in the occupation of Messrs. W. and A. Gilbey, and where it is asserted they have upwards of 10,000 butts of whiskey undergoing that maturing which, as we have stated, is an essential element in its quality, and which age alone will give." Good old malt will work the evolution, and in the rosy mist around the buildings so appropriated, the modern Briton may behold the true glories of his country yet to come, as of old the Gaul saw the future shining through the vine tendrils twining on the slopes of his cote Wor. But this is not all ; it is much tbat Hodge should desert his ale-house and no longer carry a brain clogged with the heavy fumes of beer. But still he might have become only half reformed ; he might have adopted the beverage of North Britain, and become merely Scotch in his tastes ; he might have grown to love the Scottish world. And, says Mr. Matthew Arnold, " this world of Scotch drink, Scotch religion, and Scotch manners. ... in itself is not a beautiful world. . . . Burns's world of Scotch drink, Scotch religion, and Scotch manners ia often a harsh, a sordid, a repulsive world ; even the world of hiß Cotters Saturday Night is not a beautiful world." Scotch whiskey might have made the Englishman love this world had not the discerning Faculty pronounced against it, and leaving the Scotchman the monopoly of his smoky stuff, declared that he who required alcohol in England should drink Irish whiskey only. But the new beverage most work a revolution ; whiskey-drinking England can no longer reproach Ireland with drinking whiskey. Hodge stirred to a livelier frame, too, will flourish a brisk shillelagh in his cups, and no longer bring into play his hob-nailed boots against an opponent. John Bull already leans towards becoming more Irish than the Irish themselves, as the vast extent of his whiskey stores proves, and a brilliant future lies before him. The doctors lead a more powerful revolution than that of Mr. Parnell, and to each member of the Faculty we owe a tribute of praise— " Vivat virat, vivat, vivat cent foia vivat (Bv'ry) doctor, gui tarn bene parlat ! Mille, mille annis, et manget et bibat Et seiguet ct tuat 1"

The Holy Father, in a letter written by him on the catholic Jan. 25, to the Archbishops and Bishops of certain PEE6B. Italian Provinces, alludes as follows to the Catholic Press—its uses, duties, and possible abuses: — Firstly, then, you possess in those provinces, journals whose authors protect the principles of justice and of truth, and defend with courage the sacred rights of the Church, the majesty of the Apostolic See, and of the Roman Pontiff. To such as these We accord all encouragement : everything should be done, not only to ensure them success by securing them the good will of their fellow-citizens, but still more to excite numberless friendly rivals who, with them, may resist the daily attacks of the wicked, and make amends, by their defence of morality and religion, for the unbridled license of so many writers. To this end We have more than once blessed their devotedness, and We have warmly exhorted them to continue to do good service by their writings to the truth and to justice, and not to allow themselves to t>3 discouraged by any obstacle. But a course which is so serious and so noble, demands that the means used in its defence should be equally serious and noble ; and these limits should never be transgressed. It is good for the defenders of Catholicity to bo guided in their daily writings by a constant and fearless love of truth ; but they ought, at the same time, to be on their guard against saying anything which might lawfully wound any good man, and never, under any pretext, to dispense with that moderation which should ever be the faithful companion of all other virtues. In connection with these matters, no prudent mind can approve of immoderate vehemence in style, of words of suspicion, or rash departures fiom that respect which is [due to others. Above all let the name of the Bishops be a sacred thing for Catholic writers ; the Bishops, placed as they are at the head of the Hierarchy, deserve all honour on account of the charge imposed upon them. Private individuals should never arrogate to themselves the right of formulating complaints concerning decrees put forward by the authority of their pastors ; this would cause disturbance of order and intolerable confusion. This law of respect, which no one should violate, Bhould by editors of Catholic journals be considered still more sacred ; they should be living examples of obedience to it ; for journals which are published for the diffusion of good principles fall into the bands of all sorts of people, and exercise a powerful influence on the opinions and morals of the multitude.