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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 39, 22 January 1886, Page 1

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AT HOME AND ABROAD.

Thb desire that tit lately manifested by we Radicals in England to pat an end to »ll voluntary schools, and to reduce education to that dead level which under the description of free, secular, and compulsory, prevail* among ourselves, called ont in opposition many efforts, and amoog^ the rest certain pamphlets and other publications, —We have at present btfore us one of these pamphlets written by Mr. James F. Splaine who seems to fill the place of chaplain to the Millbank Prison, and which ha<* been published by the Truth Society, nnder the title •• All is not Gold that Glitters."— lt is intended for the workingm;j of England, but it also contains much that has a bearing on the education question among ourselves, which might be eonsidsred with advantage by the working classes of the colonies. — Mr. Splaine begins by assarting that the " Board school hobby," as he •alls it, falls on the workingman heavily, f? far as it ia an evil, and hardly touches him so far as it is a good.— He explains that his meaning as to the exclusion of the workingmen from tbe benefits of the system, is to be found in the fact, that their children either remain a comparatively short time at school, or else do not attend there at all— ln London, for example, he says that althongh 41,136,459 3s lOd are spent on Board schools in one year, tbe average attendance is only 73 per cent— the London School Board, then, being extremely exact, it follows that a quarter of the school children of theeouatry are not under instruction, and almost all these children belong to the working classes,— those who are in attendance at ■chool at the same time receiving, for the most part, an education that will do them no permanent good.— But a? to the evil of the system that closely affects the workingman. in the first place he pays for the schools, and tbe poorer he ia the more he has virtually to pay ; for it is harder for example, to spare sixpence out of a pound, than it is to spare a shilling out of two pounds. Nor does he profit by his comparatively greater taxation. Those who profit to the full by it are those children whose parents can afford to leave them at school, people wno are quite able to pay the pension at one of tbe good old-fashioned Grammar Schools ; these are the gentlemen whose children benefit most by the Board schools. '» Tbe consequences of abolishing the Voluntary schools in favour of a Board School monopoly would be these. "At present there is in tbe Board schools of England and Wales," says Mr. Bplainc, an average attendance of one million, twenty-nine thousand children ; costing for mere maintenance, four millions, two hundred and fifteen thousand, seven hundred and seventy -two pounds, eight shillings per annum. . , . But tbe pounds are a formidable sum, and that sum would have to be multiplied by ihree if school fees were abolished and tbe Voluntary schools were done away with. More than twelve millions a year added to the rates I ! Tes, and that is not all. That would be for maintenance alone, but, in addition to that, tbe Voluntary School buildings wouV.l have to be purchased, or else new ones built and famished on new sites. How many more millions that would cost it is impossible to say, but as the School Boards of England and Wales, in spite of rate-fed sinking funds, are already loaded with debts amounting to over sixteen millions, we may safely multiply that sum also by three, and we have the enormous sum of twelve millions a year, and interest on a standing debt of forty-eight millions of money to be got out of the people in rates for education alone. If tbe school rates fell more highly on the poor than on the middle classes, or if the poor profited most by the Board Schools, it would not be so bad. But as I have already proved it is just the •averse." The arguments used by Mr. Splaine, in short, are those that we ourselves have frequently urged. They are, in effect, the manner in which the burden falls heaviest on the working classes— to the advantage of well-to-do people, whose children profit most by the state schools ; the mischief of a monopoly ; the enormous expense of the system increasing every year, and knowing no limit. We have urged such arguments in vain so far as New Zealand is concerned although they a*e quite as valid here as in England, but in England it would appear that they bave obtained tbe hearing due to them, for the education question was made the test in numerous instances dor-

SOUND AIOTTMENTB.

tag tbe late elections and the determination of the people to resist the proposed change was evident. It is much to to d«sired that a like condition of common sense should obtain among tbe settlers in these oolonies.

TUB INFORMATION IX SCOTLAND.

Fathkr Fobbbb Lutr, SJ. in a recently published" volume gi - some interesting details of tbe Reformation in Scotland, as they are found in the letters of Catholic missionaries and others, who were eye witnesses of what they recorded, — and whose testimony places before ns the great morement in question a* one inspired by anything rather than the piety to which its partisans in oar times hare been wont to attribute it. Father de Gouda for example, a Jesuit sent by the Pops to Queen Mary describes the desolate state of religion that presented itself to him, and bears witness as to the fitness of the new preachers to be the heralds and promoters of a religious change as follows :— " The monasteries are nearly all in ruins, some completely destroyed ; churches, altars, sanctuaries, are overthrown and profaned, tbe images of Christ and of the saints broken and lying in the dust. No religious rite is celebrated in any part of the Kingdom, no Mass ever said id public, except in the Queen's chapel, and none of tbe Sacraments are publicly administered with Catholic ceremonial. Children can be baptised only after the heretical form, and that on Buadays only, so that many infants die nnbaptized. The Ministers, as they call them, are either apostate monks, or laymen of low rank, and are quite unlearned, being cobblers, shoemakers, tanners, or the like." Father John Hay writ* ing in 1579 expresses himself as hopeful concerning the possibility of an amendment in the state of affairs, and gives good reason for the dissatisfaction with tbe new condition of things which he remarked, or believed that he remarked, among the people. — •' Ido not doubt that were a few men of influence to set themselves resolutely to the task of raising and reanimating tbe prostrate cause of the Catholic religion in Scotland, it might shortly be restored to its former condition. No one would believe tbe detestation which the common people feel for the CaWinist ministers. As long as the Catholic religion flourished, all the necessaries of life and the materials of food and clothing were plentiful and cheap, but, since heresy name in, the land has been left uncultivated, while dearness and scarcity of provisions of all kinds prevail everywhere. The people acknowledge this, and lament it, confessing that tbe misery they suffer is a just punishment for their crimes. ... It would be no injustice to call such ministers disciples of Kpicurus and not of Christ. Some have married the wives of other men while their husbands were yet alive, and by their countenance and example have engaged others to do tbe same. Their tables are furnished splendidly and luxuriously ; they are unrelenting in the exaction of usury ; and in a word, there is scarcely any wickedness which they do not daily practise. ... I cannot recall without the greatest pain complaints expressed by the poor people against their ministers, accustomed as they had been to the most generous treatment from tbe Churchmen of old times. Now the revenues of a single monastery which formerly supported two hundred people in honesty and comfort are scarcely sufficient to maintain tbe profligacy and extravagance of even one spoiler." Father Robert Parsons gives us an example o tho thrift which he found pervading the people, and which, as we all know, forms even to the present day a most praiseworthy feature in the Scottish character. We doubt, however, whether as exhibited to father Parsons it may not seem to have gone, in this particular instance at least, a trifle too far. He speaks of certain noblemen, 44 to whom," says he, " our labours would neither be unacceptable nor profitless, on condition only that we did not put them to any expense." We confess that to us the desire expressed here for pal ration without money and without price appears to be somewhat extravagant— and indeed, the promise of tin gospel seems to have been too literally interpreted and adhered to. Nevertheless, let us respect so far as it is possible to us a national characteristic of a laudable sort. The martyrdom of Father Ogilvie which took place in 1615, after he had been twice tortured with tbe boot and forcibly deprived for eight days and nine nights of sleep is described by one Baron John of Eckerßdorff, a Protestant who happened at the time to be visiting the coantry and whose conversion was tbe result :— " I happened to be in Glasgow the day Father Ogilvie was led forth to the Gallows, and i

is impossible for me to describe bis noble bearing in meeting death His farewell to the Catholics was his casting into their midst, from the scaffold, his rosary beads just before ha met his fate. The rosary, thrown haphazard, struck me on the breast in Bach wise that I could have caught it in the palm of my hand ; bat there was inch a rash and crush to get hold of it that unless I wished to ran the risk of being trodden down, I had to cast it from me. Those rosary beads bad left a wound in my soul ; go where I would I had no peace of mind. At last conscience won the day. I became a Catholic." This publication, then, made by Father Forbes Leith is very interesting, increasing as it does our knowledge of the Kirk in in origins, and giving as farther particulars concerning that great advance of mankind in the ways of virtue and piety— the Reformation. Everything additiooal revealed concerning it more fully justifies the Church in her resistance to it.

BT. MALACRI'S PROPHECIES.

Thb carious and mach controverted aeries of prophecies relating to the Popes and attributed to St. Malachi, forms the subject of an article by the Marqoiaof Bute in the Dublin Review for October.— The writer tells us that the Benedictine, Arnold Wion was the first who, in a book published by him at Venice in 1595, made known to the world tho prophecies in question, which assuming to have been writen before the election of Celestine II in 1143, give an indication of every Pope between that time and the second coming of our Lord. Wion believed the prophecy to be a forgery and suggested that it had been written to aid io securing the election of Pope Gregory XlV— but the Marquis of Bute points out that the motto descriptive of this Pope is very obscure while that of bis predecessor Urban VII is clearly applicable—being the last that is so until that which designates Pope Pius VI at the end of the eighteenth century The writer therefore suggests that it was during the eighteen days which preceded the election of Urban VII, that the forgery, if forgery it were, was done. The matter, however, has been the subject of a voluminous controversy -in which many devout as well as learned and laborious men have pronounced themselves in favour of the authenticity of the prophecies. •• The learned Feller " says Lord Bute, •• fe*ls himself obliged to confess that some of the predictions have in later limes, been remarkably fulfilled, giving as an instance Peregrinus Apostolicus 1 (an apostolic wanderer) which represents the exiled Pius VI. The attitude of the late Dr. Neate is plain enough from what he says o> the subject and his conjecture as to the meaning of • Crux de Cruce, 1 wai at least one of very friendly neutrality : . . . . It is idle to multiply references to the adherents of the genuine inspiration of these prophecies, and it is only just and fair to admit that he who opposes them will, in a general way, find himself, pro tanto, associated with the whole run of misbelievers and unbelievers in things holy, and o; posed to many of the most pious and orthodox, and not the least learned. When the late Pontiff died in 1878, seme oae wrote to a Birmingham paper calling attention to the motto for the next Pope. Oue week after the da-xj of the letter, Leo XIII. was proclaimed, and many were, and are, quite satisfied that the fiery star in th<* dexter chief of the arms of the new Pope fulfils the prophetic motto • Lumen, in cash ' (light in heaven). 1 External evidence, however, in favour of the prophecies there is none, but, on the contrary, many things seem to tell against them. The internal evidence is the exactness with which each mottefits the Pope it refers to from Celestine 11., in 1143, to Urban VII., in 1590, and •gain in the cases of Pius VI., Pius VII., Pius IX., and Leo XIII.those, as we have said, that intervened between Urban and Pius being doubtful. The Marquis of Bute, who gives no opinion of his owu as to the genuineness of the prophecy, concludes his article thus : — " The concluding words are striking : ' During the last persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there shall sit the Roman Peter, who shall feed the Bheep amid great tribulations, and, when these are passed, the City of Seven Hills shall be utterly destroyed, and the awful Judge will judge the people.' ... It has been pointed out by Dr. Neale that the last Emperor of Rome wa9 Romulus Augustulus, and the last Emperor of New Rome Constantine. The kiDgdom of the Ten Tribei also began and ended in a Jeroboam. That ' the City of Seven Hills ' is meant to indicate Old Rome is most probablealthough, as has aot been unfrequently pointed out, the physical and historical characteristics of New Rome suit the adjective better. It is, however, in the latter portion of these predictions, and especially the closing phrase, that there lies for many one of the strongest arguments in favour of their supernatural character. The belief has widely prevailed, and do.-s still widely prevail among Christians, that the Sabbatic system 6o strongly marked in Scripture will be carried out as regards tUo Second Advent of Christ. It is believed by many that as all the sacred chronology is arranged in periods of Biz and one, so the close of the sixth millennium from the date commonly called the Creation will be followed by that Sabbatic Millennium during which Christ will reign-visibly upon earth. This belief is supported by the consideration that the six millennia now closing have been divided into three equal portions by three great

: events— viz., the epoch called the Creation, the call of Abraham, and the birth of Christ, and that the New Testament especially speiks of the present as the ' last time'— as tlongb meaning the last and concluding third. According to this theory, the Second Advent of Christ is expected about the year a.d. 1996. Now, the average length of the reigns of the Popes up to the present time is rather over seven yean each, but until 1590 it was only somewhat over six yea*. Since 1590, however, the average has been over eleven yeaw each. The author of these prophecies, therefore, points almost exactly to the date of 1996."

IRISH AFFAIRS.

Thk cablegrams have not brought as any very reliable Dews oonoeraing Iriih affairs since the elec« tioDB, and we cannot precisely tell what the nationalist party are now about, nor bow their prospects are, in fact, regarded by the people of the United Kingdom generally. Many reports we have had, some possibly true, some probable, some hardly credible, and some evidently false. We have been told of various measures proposed for the settlement of the question, of promises given and arrangements made for the immediate concession of all t hat Ireland could reasonably desire or venture to expect. We have had (given of such reports, and inconsistent circumstances stated in connection with them, and all that we certainly know is that Mr. Parnell stands with 85 colleagues! their coats taken off, as the Dublin Freeman in all its clever political caricatures now represents them, for the fray, and an object of apprehension and dread to all those who are opposed to them in the Parliament, the balance of whose power they hold in their hands, and to all their opponents in every part of the Three Kingdoms. We are unacquainted even with the comparative condition of Ireland. The cable reported nothing to us concerning the tumults, conflicts, and deaths by violence that tcok place in England during the elections, and although we are told that boycotting is prevalent in Ireland, we cannot tell that anything now occurring there is not surpassed by what is going on in the sister country — if sister country we may dare to call so complete a paragon of perfection. We know that when the noise made because of Irish crime was at its height the Dublin newspapers showed, on the mostj indisputable authority, that crime in England was very much more rife, and ever so much more revolting — and so it may be with regard to this report of boycotting. What right, moreover, has any sympathiser or adherent of the Liberal party — whose followers, by the way, are in a large majority in Great Britain to complain any longer concerning boycotting in Ireland, when a leading association among themselves has jast shown to the world a glaring proof that they heartily approve of the system so much condemned and that they are themselves ready to act upon it without anything like the excuse possessed by the Irish people — indeed, most inexcusably and without the slightest pretence of a just cause. We cannot tell again what is the true cause of Lord Carnarvon's resignation of the Lord-Lieutenancy. 111-health is the assigned reason, but how far is it the true one, or if it be the true one by what has this failure in health been caused ? It would be enough to injure the health of any honest man were he to find himself in a false position. Were he, for example, to find that he had been placed at the head of an utterly rotten institution, whose traditions were too stroag for him, and, where, with the best intentions in the world it would be impossible for him to work the slightest change in the direction of a remedy. In such a position we have ample grounds to believe that Lord Carnarvon discovered himself to be, and we are, therefore, by no means surprised at the failure of his health and his consequent resignation, or, otherwise, at his resignation on the pretsnee of a failure of his health. One thing only, meantime, as we hare said, is certain to us, that is that Mr, Parnell and his colleagues are now prepared for their struggle, and we also gather, however conflicting and confusing reports may be, that there is a tough struggle before them, and that the victory has not as yet been won. The men, nevertheless, are strong, and willing, and determined, and we may expect that victory awaits them if fair play be given in order that they may carry out their valiant fight to its legitimate ending. But, if this is to be done, it will not do for their friends to hold off their hands as if all bad been already accomplished. They still stand in need of aid and, if it be not forth-coming at the critical hour, the ground so well contested and won must be lost again in a great degree. Funds are necessary, in a word, to sustain the Payment of Members' Fund, without which the nationalists cannot hope to maintain the advanced position to which they have now attained. It will be seen from a report in another part of our columns, that this necessity has been already discerned by csrtatn of our true hearted Irishmen, and that they have well inaugurated the patriotic movement of the year by recognising the duty that devolves upon them and making preparations to discharge it— aad we are sure that we may, with the unanimous consent of our frieods, congratulate the members of the League at Qreymouth— for it is to them that we refer, on what the/ have so well done, and what they will certainly as well continue and carry out. We

congratulate them also on the good example they have given and which we hope to see followed generally throughout the Colony. Many things, as we said, are doubtful to us concerning the state of Irish affair* at present, but, we repeat it— ona thing is certain ;it is that the Irish nationalists are entering upon a mo it anxious, trying, and critical passage of their struggle, and thay uje I all the help in it that their countrymen in every part of the worll can hold oat to them.

TH« SPANISH INQUISITION.

" Borne and the Inquisitions " is an article in the North AmeHoan Review, in which Mr. Alfred K # Glover proves, by a consensus of eminent church.! men, that Borne had not spoken in the affair of Galileo, and that the blunder made in the matter was that of the Inquisition and not of the Pope. The writer goes on to defend the Church from charges brought against her from the cruelty of the Spanish Inquisition, and explains that institution and the attitude of the Pope towards it as follows. "The avenge reader never ceases to connect the code and acts of the Roman with those of the Bpanish Inquisition. It is, indeed, a very easy task to discover the collateral tie. but a very difficult one to conscientiously compare their histories in the light of one and the same institution. Founded in 1248 under Innocent IV., its primary object was the guarding of Christian faith and morals against the adverse influences of the various sects that arose from time to time during the later middle ages, and whose votaries had finally become so bold and treacherous that heresy was regarded in those days as the very worst of crimes* Administered at first by the zealous Dominicans, the ' Holy Office ' was the means of instituting the most salutary reforms. It was not until it became identified with the State, that its nature and purpose were corrupted into a tool of the unscrupulous monarch, whereby its religious characteristics were obliterated in Western Europe, acquiring in later days the opprobrious name of ' Spanish Inquisi* tion.' That section of the Inquisitioa operating in Italy, being under the immediate and paternal influence of the Popes, retained its ancient characteristics, and remains to this day a purely religious tribunal. The Church's creed evidently does not embody oppression among its articles, though such was the predominant spirit among the Spanish Inquisitors. Indeed, from their clutches not even an eminent ecclesiastic could free himself when once rendering himself a suspect ; and it was only after a mighty struggle that Sixtus IV. succeeded, by pure virtue of his office, in debarring the establishment of its courts in those cities of Italy then belonging to Spain, yielding to the urgent appeals of Isabella, Sixtus, in 1480, consented to its establishment as a means, more political than religious, of preserving the integrity of the monarchy, then disturbed by the intrigues of the Moors and Jews, and countless criminals. The Pontiffs were ever ready to extend the hand of charity, and offer asylum to the unhappy refugees of every| creed and race who sought protection from the fury of the Inquisitors ; and the seeming anomaly of a Pope excommunicating an Inquisitor for severity of judgment and hsartlcssness in punishment, was but a repetition of the paternal acts of a long line of Pontiff Kings, The Inquisition became virtually a handy instrument of the Spanish crown and the Popes continued in succession to wage a merciless warfare against its practices. Sixtus wrote at least one letter to the sovereigns of Spain, and admonished them that 'mercy toward the guilty was more pleasing to God than the severity which they were using.' The atrocities of the Spanish institution were thoroughly Spanish and the Roman Church may hold herself irresponsible fur them. She more than once has seen her own bishops summoned before that arbitrary tribunal with no hope of pardon, or freedom, even through the good offices of the Holy See. The Spanish court of Inquisition was a mixed tribunal, composed equally of lay and clerical members, and its authority ultimately commenced and ended with the crown ; and to give it a yet more civil character it followed the example of the common law, and followed up conviction and punish, ment by an arbitary confiscation of personal property. The King filled his treasury with these spoils. It was to the interest of the royal family to covertly encourage its excesses. On the other hand* the penal code of the Inquisition was merciful and just when com. pared with the code of the Kingdom as administered in the time of Charles V. The latter was rife in red-hot pincers, mutilation and terrible methods of capital punishment, while the Inquisition wa ß free from all such barbarities. Even Florenti, the fallen priest, historian and avowed enemy of the Inquisitors, declares iv detail that ft marked difference was evident between the inquisitorial and government prisons, and this nominally religious court enjoyed ere long the reputation of being the justest tribunal in Christendom, a title which to us may seem wholly inapplicable to a court that occasioned by its own voluntary acts so much misery and suffering. Whatever accusations may be hurled against the Roman Congregations in the exercise of their offices, it is a solemn historical fact thai, during the long and varied careers of those powerful tribunals, no authenticated case of o apital punishment has ever occurred in the dominions of the Pope, where they exercised their chief authority."