NECESSITY OF A NEW ZEALAND NATIONAL LEAGUE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 24, 12 October 1883, Page 21

NECESSITY OF A NEW ZEALAND NATIONAL LEAGUE.

" The priests of God are the tribunes of the people,'*' so bkid T3eacbris^ field the wise. He was right. By the 'priests of God hVof course' meant the priests of the Roman Catholic .Church, , They -alone are Iqualified to be true defenders of " popular lights. " Pro Deb et 2»'o } - grege" — for God apd the people— iff their motto." The Catholic Church isthe only free Church, the only public institution ,in Christendom.. It is not the slave or tool of any royal tyront, or any .aristocratic 'orpopular faction, as other so-called Christian Churches are. For this reason its priests are, in the words of Lord Beaconsfield, "the tribunesof the people," and cf all the people. * A Norfolk, farmer, in the" course of conversation with me not long ago, .remarked v " The -landis the mother of all good." What he thus said ol the lana, "in a' material sense, may be truly said of the Church in a' moral" and political sense. Being the sole fountain of, true-religion 'she alone isthe legitimate source of a true system of education, of ..sound morals'' and ot sound politics. Religion, education, morality, aod politics are inseparably intertwined. There is no separating them, try., as you may? The very trial does mischief ; it must issue in failure and rupture. 1^ you have a sound system of religion ybu'will have a sound system of education, pure morals, and a good civil government — but-. hot otherwise. By the way, the gentleman who made the remark to me about the land being " the source of 1 all good " to a nation, had been nearly ruined—had lost £4000 in his farmland fled from" England to the ColqtoieS^to escape utter ruin. The cause of his calamities were, as he torn axe, rack-rent, heavy and rates, poor rates and other rates, and last, not least, free-trade in grain. Now, the ruinous rackrents, heavy taxes, and, above all, heavy poor rates, are the result of a false or mutilated Christianity. In England they came in with the " Reformation,". or Protestantism. As to free-trade in grain, the principle of free-trade is right, provided it be a fair, trade ; bnt when America, with overflowing granaries, "will not practice it, while England, to carry out a theory, does, the consequence^to the English farmer is simply ruin. When the English farmer -is ruined the manufacturer suffers with him. The gentleman I refer to,' sald.the " factory hands " were now beginning to find that the free- trade and a. cheap loaf cry was a delusion. They were being made the -victims of scheming political quack doctors like John Bright and others. JJnt* free- trade and a cheap loaf they would have. They have got them and mast make the best they can of them. We want very much^a political " league " in this Colony for the defence of popular rights, and to prevent those grave political evils here which three centuries of Protestant aristocratic ascendency have brought on the people— the tenant-farmers and industrial classes in England, no less than Ireland and Scotland. But, for my part, I have no faith in any political league — either as a safe or powerful organisation— for good unless it be conducted in sympathy with the Catholic Church, and enjoy ber confidence and countenance. Some " priest of God " like ihe Eagle of Cashel, must take it tinder his wing. Thus alone can we besuietbatit will be a loyal and a constitutional, and, in every point of view, a respectable league. No true Briton could consistently set his face against such a " league," because it would be founded on the principles of " Magna Charta," which is the " key-stone of English liberty," and embodies, in the words of the Protestant divine and historian, Millman, "the eternal principles of justice." I should be delighted to see a League of this kind formed in New Zealand, with affiliated branches all over the Colony. Every interest and class might profit by its labours. It need not necessarily be exclusively a Catholic or Irish " league." Mr, Parnell is not a Catholic though he is the life and s©ul of the Irish National League, which is Catholic, or universal in its aims. Justice and right are the inheritance of the people of all countries and creeds. It is timid, cringing slaves only who are backward to defend them. Tyrants pay but little beed to words or remonstrances coming from isolated persons, but when they come from a powerful •' league " they tell powerfully. Some good Catholics look with suspicion on popular leagues ; but surely tbey could not do so on such a league as I have above indicated, lhey fear the word "agitation." But not to speak irreverently, was not our divine Lord himself with his league of twelve Apostles the greatest of all public " agitators," in defending truth, justice and right ? They agitated within the limits of moderation, prudence, and civil loyalty, but with a^ dauntless courage and spirit, fearing the face of uo man. So should our New Zealand League " agitate," as it would do if the Church had the guiding of its spirit. The Apostolic league was oppospd by the men in power, the wealthy, the bigoted and selfish among the Jews.— So will the New Zealand National League, we may be sure, be opposed among us. We want a branch of some such " association " in Auckland badly, so that we may know who is who— who are the real fxiends of the prople, of justice, and right, and who are mere pretenders to that chai'l|«£j-._ The Catholic people of Auckland do not, for some reason or ottfer, (possess the high independent spirit of their co-religionists in the South, especially in matters educational. I have a notion that no man, no Catholic man at all events, who thwarts the Catholic Church in any matter of great pith and moment, such, as education, can be a true friend of justice and right, and therefore he is no true friend to the main body of the people. He is an exclusionist or political sectarian, and no Catholic. A Greyite he may be, or anything else, but no true Catholic. Ido not go in for despotism, either laical or clerical, but for justice, honesty, and consistency. If we had a Parnell league here 1 should like to see Catholic men, like Mr. Sheeban and Mr. Tole, put to the question, I will not say the torture, by it fcome day. Such an association could not fail to discuss the education question, the financial phase of it in particular, more searchmgly than it has yet been discussed in Auckland either in the Press or on the hustings. Mr. Sheehan and his friend the Herald wanted to show that we, the Catholic laity were fearfully priest-ridden. It would be a good thing for the Catholic laity, for the public at large, and the Government of the Colony, if the Catholic laity were ten times, or a hundred

times, more pTieit-Tidaeh "than theyare^Theriiwe' should f see less drunkenness, disorder, irreligion, and immorality, in the Colony than we do, and fewer Catholic, names on'lthe police sheet. It would not be amiss if even Mr. John Sheehan himself would let the priests ride on him a, bit. NeitheE,his religion nor his morals :would suffer from it— though he may be very good even nqw from a religious and, moral point of view. There can', be little ' doubt but " that the -Protestant people .of this Colony are Press-ridden to a fearful extent, and not always to their profit either. The Protestant Press is often but a blind leader of the blind in such delicale questions as education.- We want things political and..educati6nal Tipped up from the bottom, the Protestant whited sepulchre laid open, so'that its long-festering, hidden rottenness may be fully exposed to view. We want this done calmly by men competent to the task-vof whom I presume Mr. Redmond is one. Others will no, .doubt, come", to .the front iii time. It would not" be beneata the dignity of a priest to lend a hand in such a work. , For my part Ido not " believe' that ihe seculari t-system of r education ever be-subyerteoVin-our'day ; nor yet wilL-the .so-called " Reformation." They "both stand on the same foundation ;' both will stand and fall together., ., The- have both one common, origin— hostility to ,the Catholic'. Cßurclu^-'T^ey both are marked by cruel injustice to the Roman ,Cattio.lUss, ' sihL false pretences.- A Protestant Government like, that of ,New ', Zealand, cannot well do an act of pecuniary justice to the.'Bojnan. Cathqlics in educational masters without passing censure "upon the Reformation itself, And_the men^who brought it about. Did hot the men of the, Reformation, by a shameless ' and unprincipled system of robbery,, take from Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom ttieir" education as well as their religious and charitable institutions, and basely appropriate for their own use and bepefit, . botb.^ public and private, those ample and princely Te venues— with 'which their Catholic ancestors in their piety, liberality, . and patriotism, had so richly endowed these institutions. ' The Government of New Zealand is virtually a party to that act of base spoliation by approving of it. If they begin to make restitution to Roman Catholics by giviDg them in any shape public money for their school?, where are they to stop? If they give the Catholics an inch they will be asking an ell in the way of restitution. They could not well be refused: Government cannot do them partial justice. If it" do them justice at all, it must do them full justice. They will be satisfied with nothing .short of that, and why should they? The Catholics must be placed a 9 regards Catholic schools on the very same footing as non-Catholic with regard to n on- Catholic schools. ■ So His Excellency and his responsible advisers possibly think that the safest plan is to give Catbolics no educational justice at all now lest they ask more'afterwards. The Government would stultify 'themselves if they did partial -justice to Roman Catholics in such a matter, and say so far we go and no further. The Reformation was not established by argument or justice, but by force and fraud, by plunder and hypocrisy. If it will not yield to argument and justice. Catholics will" not seek to subvert it by robbery, brute force, and dissimulation. • They will now assail it honestly and openly by moral force, by appeals to justice, to history, and to the moral and religious sense of the people, leaving the issue in the hands of God. He and his Church together will subvert the Protestant as they did the powerful Arian herself. But we must wait His time. We are not in His councils. Jn the mean time we will fight fer justice by the Press and leagues. Catholics, though in this country they be comparatively few and poor, are, when united solidly, but only when so united, capable of exerting great political power under certain critical circumstances. The same in Ireland. The Irish Catholic party once "by a crushing and sudden blow destroyed Mr. Gladstone's ministry, and pi a question of education too when to all appearance he was unassailable. At the present moment he is fain to pay court to the leader of the " National League," Mr. Parnell, and entreat him to keep Ireland quiet. -Nay, he evea sends his seciet emmissaries to the Pope to try to cajole him into working for his purpose. Roman Catholics in this Colony, if they would only keep well together, and be. rea'ly to strike a blow when opportunity offers and not listen to mischief-makers like Mr. Sheehan, might be a formidable power — numerically small though they be. There is nothing which the enemies of the Church and the people fear so much as a united Catholic party anywhere. Religious and political unity go together, or should do so. I have heard from good authority that the Catholic party in Auckland decided the contest for the superintendency in this province in favour of the late Mr. Williamson against Mr., now Judge Gillies. In England, as in Victoria, Catholics by their solid vote have decided keenly-contested elections. Why not again, and in this Colony ? The opposite party can play the same game. Be it so, Catholics cannot be worse off than they aTe, Protestants would inflict any evil on their country or the religious interests of their ch'ldren rather than see the Roman Catholic Church get fair play. They would, I suspect, send an Atheist, a Pagan, or a Mahometan, or Old Nicky Ben himself into Parliament rather than a Teally faithful Roman Catholic, except under special circumstances, when private or personal interests are in the a-cendant But in pulling down the Catholic Church they pull down Christ and set up anti-Christ, with his ministers, mammon, Bacchus and Venus, and introduce a cultivated Paganism into Christendom. The Catholics of Auckland cannot well expect that the Government of New Zealand, being Protestant or Puritan, will do them justice in the matter of schools until they do -justice to themselves in that respect, as the Catbolics of the South have done and are still doing. The Government of England have never done justice "to Catholics voluntarily, but only under duress, or compulsion, or terror. We have no means of terrifying the Government of this Colony into doing us justice, and it would therefore be something like a miracle if we got it from them. But let us at least to ourselves be true and just. Lord Beaconsfield did, indeed, do an act of educational justice to Irish Catholics, and all other classes in Ireland by his " Intermedia 1 c Eii - cation Bill," without any. very violent pressure put on him. That Bill inaugurates " denominational education," and payments by secular results. In vain do we ask a Bill such as this from the socalled " Liberals '.'.of this Colony. Yet Lord Beaconsfield was no Liberal by political profession. We want a Beaconsfield here, if we

SS d t f °°f' fo . r ™ ore reasons than one. The Tory Beaconsfield has read the Liberal Greys and Bheehans in this' Colony a lesson in liberality,-and they won't like it, the hypocrites.-Wuat can be done? Ihe so-called Reformation evidently weakened almost to destruction, not only sentiments of justice, honour, and humanity, *n ™ e .! nind s of our Protestant statesmen when dealing with Roman Catholics, but even eradicated- a sense of shame also, from their constitution It did the same for Protestantised Roman Catholics, Iwf X r «T*»? he i e * n Dd v, Ot ]? erS of his secfc - Wd Beaconsfield thought Liberals a double-faced lot, and he was not far out. _ The grand old man" is the prince of shams or political impostors. 1 mean the Imperial grand old man, not the New Zealand one. But eV?<T?Ie V?<T?I ]U( ! gi s tc ? m his B(jucat ion Bill, is not the most consistent toler i LaZy notioa3 of the <l ualit y of justice and 85= =— — =-=- N ' B "