CHRISTCHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 32, 7 December 1883, Page 19

CHRISTCHURCH.

(From our own Correspondent.) Kov. 26, 1883. I HAD not intended to write of the celebration of the Luther centenary in this city, but your interesting and amusing comments on the speeches elsewhere delivered in connection with this great Protestant festival, have determined me to have my little say on the lame subject. Fust of all, it seems to have been admitted by the speakers at the te?,-meeting in the Baptist meeting-house that the reunion waß comparatively a failure, so far as ministers were concerned, and one of these gentlt men moaned over the indifferentism which he believes to be creeping over Protestants generally. True, the evening was about the most unfavourable of the many bitterly cold and inclement ones which have fallen to our lot during the present winter (for present it most certainly is as I pen these lines), and we will charitably suppose that the drenching rain not only damped the spirits of the ardent few who suffered no inconveniences to prevent their assisting at the glorification of their hero and saint, but worse than this, positively kept away the many who were eagerNfc waiting the moment to contribute their substantial offering towels the funds of the Benevolent Association, in aid of which — the advertisement stated — a collection would be made (oddly enough, those present must have left their purses at home, as the published list of the 6ums collected for this most deserving charity, omita to mention any pecuniary result of the " monster tea-meeting "). The Rev. Mr. Watson, Church of England parson, philosopher, sage, and scribe, likewise patron of the Salvation Army, vice German neology, eulogised Wickliffe, Cranmer, Calvin, as well as Luther, and then paseed on to the dark times coming, when the next generation will be "at the mercy of religious and political charlatans." It is impossible to make a gueßS as to the politicians Mr. Watson has in his mind's eye. but. apparently the Salvationist glamour is beginning to wear off, so far as he is concerned. The Rev. Mr. West, Presbyterian, of course, referred to Luther's wonderful discovery of a Bible in his monastery, and further expressed his deep■eated conviction, that the sacred volume "has been taken from the schools to please the Roman Catholics "11! The remainder of the speakers scarcely reached the intellectual heights of their predecessors, but simply rang the changes on the exalted merits oi those " pillars of the Piotestant alliance, Luther, Calvin, Cranmer and Knox." You have ably exposed " the profound and ludicrous ignorance of the speakers" in Knox Church, an ignorance which, however, Beems world-wide so far aB regards Luther worshippers. It would be, perhaps, unreasonable to expect them to possess any knowledge of Catholic history, but surely it is not too much to expect them to be fairly well read in the works of historians of their own religious bias. Nevertheless, they appear to be utterly ignorant of the revelations made by such writers as the intensely Protestant Burnet, Heylm, Collier, Strype, and Dean Hook, regarding the character of the English Reformers, who are admitted to be bad men by writers like Hallam, Macaulay, Arnold, and even Froude. As to the effect of the " glorious Reformation." I may be allowed to quote a few passages written by Borne of the so called martyrs. Ridley wrote a tract called the " Lamentations of England," in which he says : " Lechery and oppression, pride, covetousness, and a hatred and scorn of religion were generally spread among the people." Latimer says : " London was never so ill as it is now. In times past men were full of pity and compassion, but now there ia no pity, for in London their brother shall die in the streets for cold " ; and again, " Surely in Popery they had a reverence, but now we have none at all. I never saw the like." Hooper says that " Another life is required of the justified man than that gospellers lead now-a-days." Strype, in his " Memoiia's," especially names covetousness, neglect of the poor, corruption of judges, oppressiveness of landlords, frequency of murder, prevalence of adultery, and consequent divorce, as sins resulting from the Reformation. Now as to the opinion of foreign reformers on the result of their own handiwork. Erasmus says :—: — " Look round on this gospeller people, and show a single one twhom that Gospel has made sober instead of drunken, modest rather han indecent, I can show you plenty who have become much worse than they were." Luther himself says : " The world grows worse daily ; it is evident that men are far more vindictive, more covetous, more destitute of all mercy, more immodest and unruly, and far worse than they were under the Papacy." Again ; " Formerly, when we were led astray by the Pope, men readily followed good works, but now all their aim is to get everything for themselves by extortion, plunder, theft, falsehood, and usury." Wolfgang Musculussays : " X anyc^twish to see a crowd of rascals ami troublers of the public quiet, let him^b to a city where the Gospel is preached in its purity, for it is learer than daylight that never were hcathensjmore profligate and mora stained than these evangelical professors." Melancthon writes : "All the waters of the Elbe would not yield me tears sufficient to weep for the miseries caused by the Reformation." These, and a multitude of kindred statements were brought before the English public by one of the leading writers of the High Church party, and contradiction and refutation of his facts invited, without, however, eliciting any reply. He calls Edward VI. " that young tiger-cub " ; Cranmer. " the most infamous personage in English history"; and the reformers in general, " miscreants and villains," who " in cruelty, impiety and licentious foulness left the Jacobins far behind them." He also considers that the " common misrepresentations on the subject are so wilful and culpable thai, no one has any excuse for accepting, much less for repeating them,' adding that one of his friends is engaged on a work concerning the suppressed facts in Reformation history. Your brief {notice of .Mr. Wilmott's " Story of the Scottish Reformation " reminds me that I have lately read a review in an English journal of a book called " Historical Portraits of the Tudor Dynasty, and the Reformation Period," by S. Hubert Burke (John Hodges, 13, Soho Square, London). It is in a s«ries of four volumes, and as it is published by one of the principal High Church firms, and exposes the shifts and suppressions of Puritan writers, it may very

possibly be the " friend's work " above-mentioned. The reviewer Bpeaks of Mr. Burke as an honest, impartial writer, entirely without sectarian bias, and says thit his revelations concerning the " clerict of the new Learning " are moat startling. He gives a sad picture of Cranmer, and other pillars of the Reformation, and says the statements as to Cranmer's recantations beingjforced.upon him are wholly untrue. "Latimer," he says, " dissembled, not once or twice, but for nearly twenty years." Bishop Shaxton became a reformer ODly because he was cast out of the " Roman fold," and when threatened with death, not only recanted, but preached at the execution of the very men who had been condemned with him. As to Queen Mary, who " wag the victim of the most unmanly and cowardly persecution on account of her religion," during her brother's reign, Mr. Burke says that she was " foremost in her desire to sustain the privilege, the honour, and the happiness of her own sex," many of her ladies int attendance being the wives and daughters of notable Reformers ; they had, moreover, no reason to complain that their " rights of conscience " were invaded by their sovereign. Mary, in her last illness, "edified everyone around her by her gentle manners, her piety, -j>nd her teiignation to the will of Providence." Air. Burke devctea a chapter to the defence of the much slandered if ary of Lorraine, and with regard to her daughter, Mary Queen of Scots, he says triat Bothwell left behind him a death-bed confession, declaring that Mary and her immediate friends knew nothing whatever of Darnley's murder, and that a copy of this confession, attested by four officials of the Danish Government, was sent by the King of Denmark to Queen. Elizabeth, but was not brought forward at Mary's trial. " ' The Industrial Exhibition building' is making good progress, and nearly all the available space has been applied for. The committee have reconsidered the question of allowing packets of 12 tickets to be sold at a reduction of 25 per cent., but have finally determined not to do so ; the price will therefore remain at Is. each. The sites for a confectionery stall and a bar were telected, the latter not without strong protest from an active temperance committee-man. No application for space will be received after the Tst prox., and all exhibits are to be place 1 in the building as soon as possible after that date. Amongst the exhibits will be a sample of copper, weighing about 90 lbs., from the Champion Copper mine, at Nelsio. .' The Hospital Board, on the motion of the Hon. Mr. Stevens, have decided to spend the whole of the Government grant of £1000 in the improvement of the Hospital buildings, leaving Government to fight out the question of the drainage. There seems to exist a wide-spread feeling — in spite of the illnatured comments of the Lyttelton Times — that the Otago competitors at the late Agricultural bhow met with scant justice. However Canterburians may rejoice at Mr. Boag's success in carrying off the big prize, still impartial people cannot but reflect that he only scored 9 points against the N.Z. and A. Land Go's 59 do., Hon. M. Holmes' 46 do., Mr. Menlove's 22 do., and Messrs. Campbell's 28 do. It is to bejhoped that these gentlemen will reconsider their present determination not to enter stock for exhibition in Canterbury during the next three years. The Agricultural and Pastoral Association, at their special meeting on Tuesday, sustained Mr. Haydon's protest against the School of Agriculture, as the exhibitors of the best hams and bacon, and to gaining the prize of the Lyttdton Time* Company. The Association did not think the School could be termed " a bona fide farmer." They also considered the protest of Messrs. Booth and Macdonald, implement makers, which accuses one of the judges in the classes of machines and implements of being biassed in favour of Messrs. P. and D. Duncan's exhibits, and said they could prove that he had acted in collusion with one of the partners of the firm to influence the judges' decision. Messrs. Duncan strongly denied the charge, which was so far modified that Mr. Booth acknowledged that the word collusion had been used without a full consideration of its very strong and disagreeable meaning, but still asserted that Messrs. Duncan had allowed a judge to see their exhibits before the names were hidden as required, as well as to examine the implements before the show. Mr. Booth's witnesses, however, failed to establish his case, and it was resolved that the protest of the firm be not sustained, and that the Committee regret that such a serious charge was made against one of the judges. Messrs. Booth and Macdonald seem to have been let off very cheaply, but it is understood that the matter will not rest here, but is likely to give work for the lawyers. Mr. P. Schourup, photographer, of Colombo street, took an excellent likeness of His Kxcellency the Governor, during the recent visit of the latter here. Happening to pass by Mr. Schourup's establishment the other day, I closely examined the specimens in his window of his new style of photography (the name of which has slipped my memory), and I am by no means sure that I admire it, excellent as the productions are, so far as the photography goes. Young ladies smiling on you from the centre of elaboiate china plates may be all very well, indeed one can imagine that the vision Of a lovely face slowly emerging from the depths of one's soup might not be altogether unpleasant, and might furnish food for the mind while the body was receiving its nourishment ; but the sight of the Hon. Mr. Rolleston, looking preternaturally solemn (and hideous) on a good-sized vase, is quite another thing, oh I The new Armagh street bridge is a very strong and rather handsome structure, and the new bridge between the Domain and the Acclimatisation Gardens is now completed. It looks well, and is of good construction, and of course is a great saving to pedestrians. Messrs. Manning, the brewers, have just added to the Christchurch brewery new premises fronting the Ferxy Road, which consist of counting-house, manager's room, etc., bottling and grain stores. The style is Italian, and the materials are Hoon Hay, Mount Bomers, and Oamaru stone. Professor Black, of your city, who has analysed the hematite ore obtained from Little River, reports it to contain 32 per cent, of pure hematite, and to be about as good aa that found at the Thames, though somewhat inferior to the Nelson product. On Thursday the Working Men's Club gave their first entertainment in their new social hall, which was quite filled with the mem-

bera and their lady friends. The first part of the programme conBisted of songs, glees, and pianoforte solos, bat the feature of the evening was the living chess tournament on the stage, the white queen first reciting some lines written for the occnsiou by Mr. AnderBon. The costumes were designed by Messrs. Victor and Bond, and were in excellent taste, the games being played by Messrs. Wykes ana Scott, and concluding in 21 moves. The Heathcote Steam Navigation Co. are about to run their steamer, the Colleen, regularly from Heathcote, and a trial trip has been made by the directors of the Tramway Co. and some members of the Ljttelton Harbour Board, eta., who found the excursion a very pleasant one, besides recruiting themselves at Patterson's Hotel, where an excellent lunchton had been provided by order of the Chairman of the Tramway Co. Sumner is a very favourite resort of the wives and families of our citizens, and a trip in the comfortable steamer should be more pleasant, at least, in the summer months, than the omnibusses, which, up to the present, convey the passengers to and from the trams. A landing-stage is about to be constructed close to toe Cave- Hock. A few donations have still to be received by the Benevolent Association in connection with, the collections made on Chanty Sunday, the total.* amount so far being £446 Is Bd. Of this the Anglicans contributed £210 Is 4d (14 churches), the Wesleyans about £42, the Congregationalists £6 13a 4d, the Jews £31 12s the Freemasons £36 9s 6d, the Freethought Association £9 ™V n^ DanksWorkmen > overtime ' *2lls. Onr own people gave |the handsome sum of £105 17s. The Baptists and Presbyterians lave f not contributed, charity may lead us to hope that they may still intend to do so, but I hear on authority I cannot donbt that the latter excuse themselves on the ground that they support their own people