Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 16, 7 August 1885, Page 1

Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

THE BOIBNTIPIC DBPABTUKE

It is interesting to speculate as to the glorious future that lies before our Colony, when every hobbedehoy will be an enthusiastic scientist, and when science, made easy by the simplest English terms, will share with dolls, and tops, and lollies, the minds of all oar babes. Is it not Dickens who speaks of intellectual green-peas at Christmas, and mental asparagus all the yea* round— or something to that effect?— But here we shall have no forcing— and simplicity of terms will supersede natnre without any violence whatever. It is a beautiful theory this of making all the baby- world delight in science, so that every one may find a God for himBelf, and not one of them all hold the devil a bit better than the most silly bogle possible, but that each of them may perceive the prophet of his particular God, and the champion who has exposed his bogle, in the apostle of Free-thought. And the plan is well devised for such a purpose. Scraps of a scientific jargon taught, even with the greatest simplicity possible, and in plain but comprehensive words invented, as an improvement on the terms hitherto employed, by our Minister of Education,— of whose qualities to deal in a masterly mannerly with the English language, howsoever % derived-p-let no one doubt.— Let this also be taken for granted— like a good deal more in connection with our Minister, lest he may decline one inch from his high position in the esteem of mankind.— Scraps of jargon so taught, we say, would have the veryj tendency to produce a mental condition in the pupils, incapable of sound thought, overflowing with conceit, and ready to accept as a divine truth every high-sounding piece of emptiness. — Such a method of instruction can lead only to evil— and will be the destruction of all hopes of scholarship or efficient education. And we> do not make a statement of whose justice we are unprovided with proof. In the American schools, for example, scientific lessons are given in some such way. We do not know, however, whether any attempt has been made to simplify the language used in instructing ; nor do we know whether there exists in all the States a man equal to our Minister of Education so far as regards language— or who could produce a work dealing with the simplifying of terms that would be anything like a similar work as produced by Mr. Stout. Probably no such man exists, for it is only needful to refer to any printed utterance of our Minister's, and they abound, to see at once that he enjoys most peculiar facilities. With or without the aid of a man of our Minister's abilities " however, scientific teaching as given in the American schools has been productive of the worst results, and has caused a vast deterioration in the education of the country. The examination, for example, of candidates for admission to the West Point Military Academy may fairly be taken as a test of the whole system of the public schools— and it is declared that, so wretched has the answering become, the friends of the syatem are beginning to agitate for the discontinuance of this examination in order to conceal the failure of the schools. The following paragraph dealing with the answering in question is taken from the West Point C* correspondence or the New York Times, a secular paper :— " Meanwhile the Academic Board draws its own conclusions from the annual numbers of failures. A professor who has had the benefit of a great many years' experience and careful observation told the Timers correspondent to-day that so far as can be judged from the specimens they send here the public schools of the present generation did not give a young man anything like as sound a knowledge of the rudiments indispensable to a thorough education as the private schools of twenty-five years ago. 'We have plenty of boys sent here every year,' he said, * who cannot multiply two vulgur fractions or name the successive Presidents of the United States ; but their common school education has given them a smattering of astronomy, botany, geology, physics, navigation, and numerous other things, to the sacrifice of the mutiplication table and the first rules of grammar. The increasing number of failures is not the fault of the Military Academy. On the contrary, I think it should receive credit for Winging out the weak spots in the common school system. All that is required of a boy between seventeen and twenty -two years old is a fair knowledge 'off Afiieric'a'n 'history and geography, grammar d arit hmetic. Surely that is not too much. In their examination

MB. W. D. STEWAET MAKEE A MISTAKE OB TWO.

the board always tries to ascertain whether the applicant understands the principles of a subject or simply knows a, lot of tales, like a parrot. We try to .impress upon them that the role for doing a certain thing is by no means the reason.' The Class of ',39, when Gen. Grant came in, had rejected ojily; two applicants out of seventy - eight. The Class of '49 had no rejections, and graduated Sheridan. I . Such, then, is the congruence in America of the scientific teaching in schools with which our Minister, of Education proposes to make those of New Zealand per|ect. ?;B^t#iere are' different views as to what it is that constitutes perfection, and if a man's whole aim be the destruction of religion and of a belief in God, thejperfect course, at the present time, for him to take in carrying oat his plan, is so to weaken the minds of the growing generation,' and to endow themwith a false judgment and a boundless conceit, that they may be; led by the particular '• boss " who best flatters their vanity. All this the introduction of the so-called scientific teaching into the public schools should do. We have now received the number of Hansard containing the debate on the Bible-reading in Schools Bill, and, as we had expected, we find the report very interesting. Never, perhaps, has there been a better opportunity for a display of erudition, logic, eloquence and piety, or its opposite, on the part of honourable Members, and certainly never have honourable Members more distinguished themselves by the display the/ made. It is right, as we need hardly say, that our attention shonld be given first of all to the speech in which Mr. W. D. Stewait ex*' plained the object of the Bill, and wherein the hob. Member put forth all his eloquence and all his brilliancy. We cannot, however, pretend to give anything like a full -summary of the speech, but must content ourselves with one passage by way of an example. Let us, then, take the following — it shows us the line of Mr, Stewart's argument, as well as the culture of Mr. Stewart's mind and the general nature of his information. It may, perhaps, also serve to illustrate for us the recklessness with which men of no very extensive education yen*' ture on making assumptions, and the confidence wherewith they put) forth statements that expose them to the ridicule of all well-iuformect people. "If we look to those countries where freedom exists," says 'Mr Stewart, " where civilsation is highest and where the arts and sciences have been cultivated to the greatest extent, we shall find that the Bible' is what may be termed a text-book in those countries." Does Mr* Stewart, then, deny that freedom exists in United Italy, or in republican France, or in the Catholic cantons of Switzerland— where certainly the "unaided "Word," which is the particular Bible he alludes to, has not been a text-book— or will he not admit that under the German Government, where the Bible is to a great extent such a book, liberty is in a considerable degree restricted ? Some of the heaviest tyrannies, again, that the world has ever seen have been carried on in countries where the Bible was the daily guide— as, for example, in the England of Cromwell, in the Scotland of the Covenanters, and in the New England of the Puritans, and these are three countries especially named by Mr. Stewart. But as to their claim of owning the highest civilisation, it may very well be questioned, and even those of their own inhabitants who are acquainted with other countries, will not be unanimously inclined Ito admit it. Mr. Stewart's most conspicuous error, however, is in his belief that Bible-reading countries have cultivated most the arts and sciences. To attribute an excellence in art especially to England, Scotland^ and America, which, we say, are the three countries that Mr. Stewart Beems to keep before bis mind, is simply ludicrous. Modern art was born in mediaaval Italy, and among its principal patrons and followers were the monks — those particularly of the Dominican and Franciscan orders— whose text-book certainly was not the Unaided Word. As to the present position and prospects of art in the world familiar with the Bible, we may gather what they are from a writer in a recent number of the London Daily Telegraph, He is dealing with defects in the English school, and among the rest, he says « M The artist is condemned for his lack of the ideal ; and who will show us the dominant ideal of a society in which the fervour of monasticism, the enthusiasm of chivalry, the glow of the renaissance, the wild faith of the revolution, have successively died out, and which is now, and has for many years past been, wandering between two worlds, one dead, another powerless to be bom ? " H

there is one distinction more than another which Bible-reading countries lack, in fact, it is an excellence in art. There Catholic countries have moat palpably surpassed them. But what, then, about science 1 Surely Mr. Stewart is right in claiming for Protestant countries a pre-eminence in this respect ? Was not Lord Bacon, with his philosophy, the true founder of modern science ? No, replies, for example, Professor Jevons, " It is a great mistake to say modem science is the result of the Baconian philosophy ; he mistook the true mode of using experience, and, in attempting to apply his method, ridiculously.failed." And, again, writes Draper, referring to Leonardo da Vine!, «To him, and not to Lord Bacon, must be attributed the renaissance of science. Bacon was not only ignorant of mathematics, but depreciated it's application to physical inquiries. He contemptuously rejected the Copernican system, alleging absurd objections against it. While Galileo was on the brink of his great telescopic discoveries, Bacon was publishing doubts as to the utility Of instruments in scientific investigations. To ascribe the inductive method to him is to ignore history." But before the time of Leonardo da Vinci the inductive method had been recognised and made use of. Albertus Magnus, in the thirteenth century, declares that he himself had employed it, arid that certain authors whose testimony he relied on had done the same. Dr. Whewell, moreover, relates with astonishment how hehad found the Franciscan, Roger Bacon —also in the thirteenth century— not only acquainted with the value of experiment in scientific inquiries, bnt strongly advocating it. He calls experimental science the " sole mistress of speculative sciences." And so it is in every branch of science; we find everywhere Catholics the chief fore-runners, and well sustaining their position in the foremost ranks down to our own times. If advocates of Bible reading make it their plea that Protestants -have been or are the leaders in scientific enquiries, they are themselves ignorant of what has taken place and is still taking place in the world, and that is all that they prove by their arguments. Let us take geography, for example, from Cosmas Qudicopleutes, the Egyptian monk of the 6fch century, down to De Brazza, Mr. Stanley's rival in Africa, how many Catholic discoverers and explorers have there not been ? and notable among them were and are the members of religious orders, the missionaries of the Church. Take astronomy :— From Gerbert in the ICth century to Father Perry 8. J. to day, there extends a long and honourable list of Catholic names. Cardinal Cusa perceives the faultiness of the Ptolemaic system ; Copernicus publishes < his work at the instance of Cardinal Schomberg and Bishop Giese, and dedicates it to Pope Paul III; Galileo pursues his experiments, under the patronage of Cardinal Bandini, in the Quirinal gardens, and receives a pension from Pope Urban VIII ; the stellar catalogue of the Theatine monkPiazzi is referred to by an Astronomer Royal of England, as a standard catalogue referred to by all astronomers; the Abbe Picard makes the first exact measurements of the earth's meridian the result of which leads to Newton's great discovery as to gravity. Leverrier, in whose observatory hangs his crucifix, discovers the planet Neptune. But it is vain to continue ; the whole records of the Bcienceof astronomy teem with Catholic names, and we cannot here produce a tithe of them. Take mathematics :-we find a like record ; Gerberfc introduces arithmetic into Europe ; a Franciscan monk publishes the first work on algebra •t Venice in 1494 ; Descartes applies algebra to geometry ; Michel Chat les, noted for his piety, is declared by Sir E. Sabine to have invented a method in pure geometry that " may bear comparison with any discovery of the present century." But, again, we are obliged to pass by without record an innumerable multitude of names, and of discoveries and improvements in this branch of science made by Catholics. Take the science of physics, and you will find it associated in an extraordinary degree with the intellect of Catholics, and as much may be said of chemistry., Lavoisier, indeed, is acknowledged as the father of modern chemistry, and even in our own days he has had two worthy successors in Dumas and Becquerel, both lately dead. As to medicine, for over a thousand years the principal physicians were eccleeiastwa, and in the 16th century, anatomy and physiology were put on a scientific footing not by the Reformers or their followers, bat by Professors of the Catholic universities of Home, Pisa, Bologna •nd Padua. The great discovery of an English physician was that of the circulation of the blood made by Harvey, but Harvey did but further develope what he had learned from his master, Fabricins of Aquapendente, and the full development only took place when Malpighi explained the nee of the capillary veins. To-day Pasteur, a graduate of Louvain, is foremost among medical men. Take the natural sciences, again ; Botany owes much to Catholics and especially to Catholic ecclesiastics and missionaries. Linnoeus acknowledges his debt to Cesalpino, physician to Pope Clement VIII., and speaks of his system of classification as the one thing needed for the establishment of the science ; Cuvier assigns to the "Genera Plantarium " of Antoine Jussieu a place as important towards the science of observation as that held by Lavoisier's « Chemistry " towards the sciences of experiment. Mineralogy, and still more crystallography, had an ardent exponent in Father Rene Hatty, a canon of Notre Dame of Paris, and of whom Buckle, in his " History of Civilisation in BDgland " speaks as follows : " This remarkable man achieved a complete union between mineralogy and geometry, and bringing the

laws of space to bear on the molecular arrangements of matter, lie was able to penetrate into the inmost structure of crystals." ■• He further refers to Haiiy's work as tending to show that everything is " regulated by law and that confusion and disorder are impossible." Leonardo da Vinci, whose " anticipations of the great discoveries in astronomy, geology, and other sciences," Hallam regards as "almost preternatural," may be regarded as the father of the science of geology, With him, however, may be reckoned the Catmellite Friar Generelli, the Danish Bishop Steno, as well as Fracostoro, Vallisneri, Scilla and Moro, to whose work moreover, Sir Charles Lyell bears the highest testimony. But that in our own days Catholics are foremost in the science is proved by mere mention of the names of Mon* signorJOastracane, of Father Hamar, and the Abbes Delauny, and Bourgeois. The science of Zoology, also originated and was developed among the Italians and French. When we find men, therefore, speaking of the study of the "unaided Word" as a necessity towards the advancement of the arts and sciences, we may charitably allow that they may mean very well, but we must also conclude in charity that they do not know what they are talking about. We cannot suppose moreover, that Mr. W. D. Stewart, a respectable citizen, and a lawyer of good repute, would so far forget himself as to put forward in all soberness before the Housa of Bepresentatives statements that he knew to be false, and therefoie once more we are obliged to believe that he spoke in complete ignorance. Mr. Stewart may be capable of giving a very sound opinion on any legal point submitted to him, but as to the history of the arts and sciences and the part respectively taken towards them by Catholics and Protestants he is evidently completely ignorant. A respectable man, however, is at least bound to recognise bis ignorance and not to run amuck in a wholly ridiculous manner.

' MOBE MIBTA.KES AITD SOMETHING MOBE.

The next speaker with whom we have to deal is the Hon. Mr. Stout— who replied to Mr. Stewart— not, however, taking notice of Mr. Stewait's errors as to the history of the arts and sciences. — And, let us remark that we regret the omission immensely, for Mr. Stout has certainly all that concerns the artß and sciences — as well as all other knowledge— at his fingers' end, and we should b« sure to learn something, as we always do— were he 1 only to deliver a short address on the subject— we shall hope then for a better time, and live in all attention. But Mr. Stout, on this occasion, was more in the defensive than the [didactic mood — and with a few words of instruction, of condescending though modified approbation, and a valuable passage or- two concerning his wide and important personal experiences,— he devoted himself to the defence of minorities. For the world Mr, Stout would not have any minority persecuted. — " Are we," he criesj "to institute here the persecution of. small bodies of men of particular religious views?"— Nay, nay, good sir, that would not do at all — unless they were one and all of them persecuted in the right direction.— We shall' persecute no religious denomination because they belong to another, and a larger religious "denomination, — bat if there be the members of a denomination who ref ÜBe to renounce their religion altogether,— there we have a different thing, Only deny that you persecute and then smite sharply. — Mr.jStout, knowing that all persecution has been for conscience' sake, and the nature of such persecution, gladly lends all bis influence meantime to persecute his Catholic fellow-colonists— and manfully champions the cause that imposes upon them grave and harassing penalties. — Can we even in charity admit that such a man is anything except grossly and insultingly dishonest I—There1 — There was something to respect even in the bigotted and openly brutal old emperors who ordered the Christian victims into the arena, and did not hide the persecuting band, but the whine of liberality on the part of men who, at heart, are petty tyrants or bullies only is utterly contemptible.— Mr. Stout, ho-veven does nofc wholly succeed in concealing his hand. — He acknowledges that if teachers could be found to teach the Bible as he would have it taught, — that is, if teachers conld be found to teach rank infidelity to the children, he also would be an advocate for the introduction of' the Bible into the schools — and those teachers may, perhaps, hereafter be found, and Mr. Stout by the weakness or wickedness of the colonists may be in a position to force them with their teaching upon the schools— and then we shall see whether he will be content with the course of deception he now finds most suitable, or whether he will throw off the mask, and act openly. Mr. Stout's objections to the Bible itself, again, plainly show the true nature of his opposi. tion to religious teaching.— lt is not, as he pretends, in the defence of minorities, or to promote a friendly spirit among the pupils, that he supports godlessness, but, because he objects to religion in itsel* and is determined to destroy it.—He has no right whatever to exclude the Bible from the schools, on account of any inherent faults he may perceive in it, for that is simply to interfere with the religions of his neighbours in a completely unjustifiable manner, and to prove himself a persecuter so far as it is possible to him to be so. Mr. Stout " acknowledges " that there are in the Bible " passages of great beauty— of great pathos, and of true poetry "—Shades ot John Milton, and many another man of mighty parts, who have in your

days found your delight in the English Bible, rest content, and sleep in peace, your study is approved' and your taste is sanctioned. —But Mr. Stout's acknowledgement of the beauties of the English Scriptures, — fine though it was— was not the culmination of all that passed on the subject, during the debate. — It was surpassed quite by the following gem from the discourse of Mr. Be? an, — " I agree that it (the Bible) contains much beauty, much pathos, and much poetry^ The New Testament may be regarded as one of the finest books ever written to guide men in a true Christian and proper manner of life. 1 ' —Mr. Bevan is to be congratulated for he has qaite out-done his model. — Mr. Bevan is evidently ambitious of emulating Mr. Stout ( and as to the dimensions of the frog who takes Mr. Stout for his ox, and puffs himself out in the attempt to attain to such a size, what can we possibly say of them? Mr. Stout again, pointed the moral of his reply by bringing forward an awful personal reminiscence — wherever Mr. Stout was brought up, it seems, — and in that very felicitous locality productive of genius, — and whales— there were two schools, one of the Free-Church boys and another of those of the Establishment. And those misguided young theologians, devoured by the odiumtheologicum, did actually pelt one another with snowballs in the time of snow, or, when no snows prevailed, with stones, in a most lamentable way.— Where, meantime, was the young Stout? Perched on the fence, or mayhap behind a bush, if bush there were, or, failing that, behind a boulder or a lump of sea-weed, wrapped in the embryo of philosophic thought, and not trembling, but contemplating in his boots ? Is there no painter to paint a historical picture of Borne such scene ? It would form a fitting companion for the bust of Garibaldi in the Christchurch museum. But, for our patt, we would see the young Stout depicted as interposing his tender form between the combatants, like as the monk Telemachus rushed in between the gladiators in the Colosseum, and a poetic license is always lawful to the painter. But the promise of the philosophic man was Burely capable of as much as was the superstitious and halfbarbarous monk. Meantime, we also remember two neighbouring schools, where not one particle of cdium theologicvm divided the boys, and yet the heartfelt aspiration of every boy in the one school was that he might inflict the utmost bodily hurt on whatever boy of the other school he might chance to encounter in any situation. Snowballs would have been held in derision as weapons, and even stones were considered too soft. But are there not various philosophies as well as various religions, and why may they not also prove the grounds of juvenile dissension? Mr. Stout's Fidus Achates, or imitative frog, Mr. Bevan, for example, gives us a quotation from an author, whom he describes as that great writer whom he is so fond of quoting, wherein all men of gloom and austerity are recommended | to consider the pictures in bright and glowing tints that the everlasting book holds wide open to them, and to listen to the songs and cheerful sounds in the summer air. " Remember, also, if ye can," continues the writer, " the sense of joy and hope which every return ! of day brings to the breast of all your kind who have not changed their natures, and try to learn some wisdom from all the mirth and happiness it brings." Another philosopher, nevertheless, takes a very . different view of nature from. this. " The world," he says, •' was not constructed on any plan which, on attentive consideration, produces amiable feelings in the heart of a philanthropist." And again he says, " The world is full of struggle and pain, a world in which the weakest go to the wall. There is a waste of life and an amount of suffering absolutely incompatible with any results that seem to be obtained.." The men of gloom and austerity, then, might have their choice of authorities, and most probably they would choose; him from whom we for our part quote— that is Professor Huxley .j But who is to teach the children to distinguish the true philosophic: opinions from the false, or must they be left untaught lest on this subject also they might fall out ? Philosophers differ, in fact, quite as much as religious teachers, if not more than these do — and a difference of opinion on one subject may be as much the cause of hatred and quarreling as one on another subject. — Mr. Stout's reminiscence, nevertheless, may not be unfavourably compared with that of Colonel Trimble, who, in a most bare-faced way, and relying on his personal experience contradicted facts that challenge contradiction by any one, and in any part of the world. Colonel Trimble maintains that, because the boys of a certain secular school that had the great advantage of possessing the Colonel himself as a joint-manager, beat the boys .of two religious schools, one belonging to the Church of England, and another to the Catholic Church, at several examinations, therefore as good instruction cannot be given in a religious as in a secular school. An admirable logician is this gallant man who reasons so boldly from the particular to the universal. The facts* moreover, have been so well and fully proved to be the direct contrary that the Colonel's assertion becomes merely impudent.— The Jesuits' schools in France habitually beat the Government schools, and their suppression was in part attributed to jealousy on this account. — The same success is reported of the schools of the Christian Brothers, and with the testimony of the highest educational authorities in England and America to the excellent system of these schools and the astonishing work done by their pupils, it is vain to

decry religious education.— The results of the Intermediate Examinations, again, in Ireland have been invariably in favour of the religious schools. In the face of all this then, and of a good deal more, Colonel Trimble's argument may be truly described as a gratuitous assertion foolishly mede and void of all foundation. There is much more which we could say concerning this debate, but we have about reached the limits of our space. We are reluctant, nevertheless, to omit all mention of Sir George Grey's silent monitor, from disobedience to which he hopes hereafter to he. purged, the method of the purgation being as mysterious as the identity of the monitor itself, but let us hope that Sir George may not meet with a final disappointment. — We cannot, however, conclude without reference to the statements of certain Members as to the attendance of Catholic children at the Government schools and their hopes that such attendance may increase. The children of sincere Catholics only attend Government schools, when there is no Catholic school within reach of them, and this necessity their parents see with uneasiness and distress. Wherever there is a sufficient number of Catholics, although with great difficulty and at many sacrifices, they support their own schools, and that is a palpable fact known to every member of the legislature. There are some nominal Catholics here and there who, even within reach of excellent Catholic schools, send their children to the Government schools, but to hope that all Catbolics will emulate their example is to hope, as no doubt the enemies of Catholic education do hope, that the Catholic Church itself will be abolished. These Catbolics care nothing about the Chur«h to which they belong, and only hold to it for some reason that they could not clearly explain— old habit, the recollection, of some dead relative, the dislike of appearing as a pronounced proselyte or apostate, or something of that kind, or even less definite, To compare them with the true Catholic is to compare, as it were, Ephialtes with Leonidas, the traitor to a cause with the man faithful to it until death, or to compare Sheares Armstrong, or Talhotor James Carey with Lord Edward Fitzgerald, or Robert Emmet, or Michael Davitt. It is preposterous to point to theas people as an evidence that Catholics are disposed to be content with the Government schools, and we cannot believe that any of those Hon. Members who do so are themselves in the slightest degree deceived as to the real nature of the case. It is an insult to any society to bring forward the case of its traitorous and rebellious members as an example to be followed with profit or likely to be followed by all its members, and to do so proves only that the destruction of that, society is the objact held in view. And, notwithstanding all the professions made to the contrary, and all the pretences of liberality, the destruction of the Catholic Church is the chief end and object of the godless system, and the main reason for the support accorded to that system.

WONDEBPUIi !

We almost begin to think that the famous Dr Baxter is light now and that the end of the world is closely approaching. He was wrong the last time, but what are fifteen or twenty years in the life of a world ? and the prophets without due latitude would be no where. We begin to think be is right now because we find that our contemporary the Dunedin Evening Star has admitted into his columns more than a very strong hint that the secular system is too costly — and such an act on the part of the Star means a great deal. In fact we should hardly have looked for anything of the kind until the proprietor* the editor, and all the staff of our contemporary bad themselves fo some days been victims to the " pinch of hunger." The hint We allude to occurs in a letter taken over by the Star from the Wellington Prest, to which it was written from. Melbourne by a. gentleman who was once a Member of the New Zealand Parliament and who still 1 takes an interest in the affairs of the Colony. The writer does not think very much of our present Ministry, and is particularly hard on Sir Julius Vogel. He does not even take an exalted view of Mr. Stout—" too much taken up " he says, " with social theories and dreams generally " — But in any other head would not those dreams be nightmares, and send the sufferer screaming from between the blankets ? He condemns borrowed money, and wants the people to be taught self-reliance, and the cost of Government to b« reduced Then " be says, *' the pauper system of education should be modified. Say that this costs, roughly, some £400,000 a year. Out it down one* half and you have still £200,000 wherewith to subsidise local school committees and boards. This education system is too minute and too advanced for a new country. The country wants a good primary education, no doubt, but it wants more than this in the shape of bona and Binew and the necessity for strong personal efforts to draw out the resources of the Colony. The first law should be that every colonist must learn to make a living for himself and those dependent on him ; this, also, is a first law of Nature, but in these days, I fear, is much lost sight of." That we should live to see the great system called a " pauper system " in the columns of our contemporary the Evening Star I — Surely the Millennium is near at band, or if not that the " pincb of hunger " draws nigh, and discomfiture in advance, already possesses the wame. This ex-member, nevertheless, speaks tbf

plain troth and it iB well if the Star begins to suspect that so it may be. Meantime, no alteration of the schools, as proposed, is thought of, bat, on the contrary the proposal is to make the system still more minute and advanced, and productive of conceited and pedantic ignoramuses at an increased cost to the country. This also enters into the dreams or nightmares of Mr. Stout, and frith its connection it is a point, about the only one, on which he has hitherto enjoyed the sympathy of the Star.

THE ABCHBISHOPRIC OV DUBLIN.

Up to the present we have refrained from making any remarks as to the Archbishopric of Dublin or the circumstances connected with the appointment of an ecclesiastic to fill it. All particular allusions to the matter that have appeared in our columns were extracts taken from our con temporaries, or telegraphic reports. We refrained from discussing the subject ourselves because we had no reliable information upon which to proceed, and, besides, we knew that it was a delicate topic, and one that, if dealt with in a rash or unwise manner, might lead to undesirable results. Whatever may have been our personal desires we, for our part, were resolved that no appointment made by the Holy Father should be treated in our columns with anything but due respect, and we were confident that the wisdom of the Pope would make the best choice that could be made— first in the interests of religion, and then in those of Ireland generally. It was only on Tuesday morning that the cablegram reached this Colony upon which we mighb look as decisive, and which, by plainly stating that Dr. Walsh had been consecrated as Archbishop by Cardinal Moran, left the matter no longer doubtful. The wisdom of the Pope has chosen in accordance with the wishes of the Irish hierarchy, clergy, and people, and we very heartily rejoice. The unusual delay that has taken place in the appointment of Archbishop Walsh has been a significant one. It illustrates for us in a remarkable degree the character of Pope Leo XIII., and shows him to us as examining calmly and thoroughly into every question of importance brought before him, and delivering judgment with all coolness and deliberation. The Pope did not at once accede to the desires of the Irish nation, before he had had time to sift all that was connected with them, and merely wishing to perform an action that would increase or insure the popularity of the Holy See. Had he, on the contrary, seen good reason to refuse the request of the people, placed before him, as it was, in various way?, we may be convinced that the firmness which has always been a note of his administration would have stood him in good stead, and that, whatever might have been the consequences, he would have followed the course that nib judgment approved of, and for which he would have been immediately accountable to God. We do not believe that even owing to the threat of a schism — such as some of the English newspapers untruly assert to have been made in this case, but of which there was no danger— Pope Leo world have deviated one inch from his path, or that he would have been influenced by any fears of an injury to religion to make an appointment that he himself judged unsuitable to the interests of religion. The Irish people may rejoice, then, in knowing that, with a full knowledge of the case, after full investigation and inquiry and calm reflection, Pope Leo has confirmed their choice and appointed to the Archiepiscopal See the priest they had with such unanimity chosen. Bat, on the other hand, if the Pope had to examine into all that was urged in favour of the appointment, he also had much to do in dealing with the objections brought against it. The opposition to it was Btrong and violent. The party represented by Mr. Errington were early in the field and worked strenuously, 1 and what they did in secret, was supported openly by the most; powerful organs of the English Press. Dr. Walsh was attacked grossly and every denunciation that could be made of his appointment was made. In spite of all this however, the Pope, taking the matter completely into his own hands as Dr. Croke said at Thurles on his return from Borne, decided against the opposition and acting deliberately and with the utmost coolness made his appointment. The Pope had already said that I nothing should induce him to endeavour to place any restraint on the Irish people in the pursuance of their just rights, and now he has confirmed that promise in the eyss, not only of Ireland, but of England and the world. The overthrow of the party that has meddled so persistently in Irish affairs has been complete, and a powerful Government has been taught that, whatever may be the advantages of its friendship, and however desirable the concessions it is in many instances capable of making, justice holds at the Vatican the highest position of all, and that the consideration of interest is only admitted there when it may lawfully be entertained, and without interfering in any degree with the cause of right. In Dr. Walsh the Holy Father has not only given to the Iri9h people a prelate of the highest qualifications, an ecclesiastic noted for his piety, a man whose scholarship is unsurpassed in depth and range, and a patriot devoted to his country, but he has also given them a pledge of the fearless justice that animates his own paternal heart, and of the unalterable firmness of his determination to consider first of all and above all the good of his Catholic children. And Ireland will duly appreciate all this, and renew the confidence she has ever placed in the Holy See.