THE TOLERATION OF THE AGE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 31, 26 November 1886, Page 15

THE TOLERATION OF THE AGE.

fIR JULIUS VOGEL in opening the Jewish Bazaar in Dunedin the other day, alluded, with perhaps rather questionable taste, to the persecutions and atrocities committed of old in the name of religion, and congratulated his hearers on living in the age which, said he, " has witnessed so to speak, the almost entire growth of freedom of region." Considering the use that continues to be made of the persecutions and atrocities of the olden times, we say, the taste with which a speaker refers to them in addressing an aisembly on a festive occasion is very doubtful. But let that pass, a matter of taste is after all of comparatively little consequence. The truth, however, is always important, and were feir Julius Vogel's words, with all that they implied, completely true ? Is the freedom of religion fully established at present, and completely removed from all danger in every part of the civilised world ? The Jew hin^self, as well as the Catholic can reply in the negative. But if it be answ red for example, that the recent outrages in Russia and insults in Germany were inflicted upon the Jews rather because of certain practices affecting the social, financial, and moral condition of each population respectively, than owing to any popular dislike of their religion, as much may ue urged in explanation of the persecutions to which they were subjected in former ages. And, in many instances D (i sides theirs religion has been made the pretence of inflicting penalties that were really due to motives altogether different. The fact, nevertheless, remains that ttie Jews as a religious body have quite recently been subjected to severe persecution. In Germany, again, a rigorous interference with the liberty of the Catholic Church, in which in turn the Jews took a principal part, has hardly as yet been ended, and its termination is due, not to the prevalence of more liberal principles, but to the complete failure of the undertaking and the mischief that resulted, and bade fair to result, from it. In Italy, besides, the head of the Catholic Church at this very moment is held in bonds, and a vigorous crusade is being u'rewed against the religious orders, on whose welfare and freedom the interests of religion so largely depend. In France a somewhat similar state of things prevails, and the Government of the Republic does not cease to harass, hinder, and ' embarrass the Church in every way possible to it. This very time of which Sir Julius Vogel boasts, in short, has been most prolific in religious persecution, nor is there any reason | for us to hope that we have as yet seen the end. j Here, once more, even in these colonies of our own, which declare that they delight in a liberty more full than that which is to be witnessed in the older countries, is religion wholly free ? We print in another portion of our paper a i generous protest from a Protestant editor against the burden that the Catholic portion of the inhabitants are made | occasionally to bear — soiue vile man, some infamous woman, j lying for the sake of gain, and shaueless in lying, is able to gather together large audiences to listen to pretended revelations tbat would be heard only by the frequenters of brothels, if it were not that they are uttered in derision, mockery, and hatred of the Catholic faith, and as an insult to those who adhere to it. Is that religion truly free that can only be practised by those who are forced to hear their honesty publicly calumniated and their honour besmirched, and

| to feel that because of their religion they are the objects of detestation and contempt ? Is the religion free, again, whose dearest privilege, the education of the children of those who I hold it, is placed under an embargo, so that to prevent the ; violation, in almost its tenderest point, of the Catholic con1 science, a heavy weight must be borne ? But of the freedom that the Catholic enjoys in this Colony, we have even while we write a flagrant example • before us. The Mayoral election for Dunediu is now taking place, and among the means employed to damage one of the | candidates has been the "No Popery " cry. The attempt I has not been made openly and boldly, but indirectly or I secretly it has been very energetically carried out. Oar worthy contemporary the Evening Star, for instance, has published an anti-Catholic correspondence for the especial purpose— a correspondence, in all possibility, written in its own office— giving insertion, among the rest, to at lea 8 t one letter that smelt rank of the stews, and contained the dirty accusations that common decency must reject, if an indulgence in | filth were not considered lawful when there is any question of opposing the Catholic religion. The Star knows the population with whom it has to deal, and consequently adopts without scruple the means ready at hand for working out its object. As I to the nature of the tactics thus adopted, we need only say ! that they are consistent with the antecedents and general , character of our contemporary, anil, what should condemn i them even more than that, they are consistent with the well- | known character of a certain agent of the opposing candiI date's, who has also been more or less quietly and s'yly making use of them. Worse than that we cannot possibly say of them. We deny, then, that a religion possesses complete freedom while by a scurrilous word violent opposition may be stirred up against anyone who holds it merely because j he does so, and even on matters into which religion by no means enters. While, moreovpr, those who profess it, in order to hand down its inheritance to their children, are subjected to heavy penalties ; while its head is the victim of usurpation, d &resp»ct, and gross injustice ; while its consecrated sons and daughters are lobbed and banished, and its priesthood subjected to deprivation and restraint. We, therefore, affirm that not only did Sir Julius Vogel offend against good taste by tfio words to which wo have alluded, but he also spoke without a due regard for truth and the full circumstances of the times.

from Mr. Sexton, who declares that only on the promise of the Attorney General in Parliament that such examination would be permitted was the Bill allowed to pass unopposed. Notwithstanding the evident intention to force a one sided meaning on the matter under consideration, nevertheless — Town Inspector Carr could not be prevented from testifying that the riots had originated with the Orange shipwrights of Queen's Island who attacked the police without provocation. Assistant Inspector General Cullen attributed a good, deal of the responsibility to exaggerated newspaper reports and inflamatory correspondence, as well as to the wild harangues of the Rev. Doctors Kane and Hanna. President Day, we may add, has probably been chosen for the position filled by him owing to his strong anti-Irish proclivities, for, although a Catholic, he distinguished himself a few years ago at Liverpool by protesting that England would be free from crime were it not for the intruding foreign element. President Day is evidently the right man in the right place, which needs a strong dash of prejudice in him that fills it. The moonlighters of Cork ho far from being the agents of the League, as many people would be glad to prove them, seem to be in league agaiu9t it. Two girls the daughter of a farmer named Jones a staunch Leaguer residing at Kingwilliamstown, have been shot by them while defending their father's house against a raid made for firearms. — One of the girls was badly wounded in the arm and the' other dangerously in the face and throat.— lf Sir Redvars Buller succeeds in trapping these ruffians, the country will be largely in his debt. Thb Belfast Newsletter hag been nicely hoaxed by a correspondent describing himself as the Hon. Thomas Anderson, a member of the Canadian House of Representatives, and offering to send at his own expense certain delegates whom he named out to support Dr. Kane in his Orange mission.— The Newsletter rau over with delight, and favoured Mr. Anderson with an article of rapturous acknowledgement, alluding also in the most flattering terms possible to the gentlemen he had selected as delegates. It immediately turned out, however, that the Hon. Thomas Anderson was a local streetmusician, whose name the writer haa borrowed, and that the other worthies were disreputable characters of whom one. was serving a sentence in gaol.— The feelings of the Newsletter on the discovery may easily be imagined. The Canadian name for Dr. Kane is " Firebug." It seems expressive although we are unacquainted with the precise nature of the creeping thing iv question. Mr. R. H. Leary was returned as Mayor of Dunedin on Wednesday by a majority of 193 over Mr. John Carroll. As the day appointed for the drawing in connection with the art-union in aid of the Queeostown convent fund is now approaching, an Iso that no postponement may be found necessary, persons who have sold tickets are requested to forward the blocks and remittances at their earliest convenience to the Rev. Father Mackay. It is also hoped that, in order to insure the success of so deserving an object , the friends of religion find education will make the best use of the time that still remains in promoting the sale of tickets. The prizes as will be seen in another place, are numerous, handsome, and valuable. v HE n new cburch at Madura, the third erected in the district by the Rev. Father Newport, was opened on Sunday by the Most Rev. Dr. Moran. His Lordship is expected to return to-morrow (Saturday) evening to Dunedin. In another place will be foud a letter from the Rev. Father Grogan, S. M., together with which the Rev. gentleman has forwarded to us a cheque for £U0 subscribed at Hawke's Bay towards the Payment of Members' Funi. We think, therefore, it must be admitted that New Zealand has her full share in the good work, and that her Irish colonists are nobly sustaining their patriotic reputation by thei r generous action. We would refer our readers to Mr. J. B. Redmond's letter in another column, so that they may judge of the need which exists for such aid as that now given by the residents of Hawke's Bay. One of General Buller's measures in Kerry was to reduce by one half the number of policemen engaged in protecting obnoxious individuals, thus leaving more men for bonafide service against the moonlighters. The General also made a rule against receiving information from unknown parties, a practice that had hitherto drawn the police frequently off on false scents. The truly patriotic proposal of erecting a national church of St. Patrick iv Rome, which has gained so warm an approval from the Holy Father, and received Buch fervent support from the Irish hierarchy, seems to us to have a double significance at the present time The church will not only be a monument of the close union that binds Ireland to the Holy See, but also a pledge of her confidence in the ultimate triumph of the Papacy. The erection of such a church in the mere capital of Italy would have no particular meaning, and could hardly be undertaken as a national work. Thr loyalists of Ulster are begining to fear th*t Lord Randolph Churchill may fail them after all, and that perhaps it may be necessary when next their chivalry goes on the rampage to turn their

faces in his Lordship's own direction. The noble Lord's speech at Dartford, to which we alluded in our last issue, has caused deep alarm amon*g those who pull the strings of the Orange faction. The adoption of a Radical programme by the Tories would snit them hardly better than the success of the national desires. " Paddy Murphy," is about to publish another edition of his papers. As in those already published sound opinions on many impor tant subjects will be found expressed with quaintness and humour and, though last not least, in the r«al vernacular. The book will be* looked for anxiously by all those who desire to pass an agreeable literary hour now and then. It is not to much to say (says United Ireland)th&t the tragic ana untimely death of Rev. Dr. Kavanagh, P.P., Kildare, is a 'sore National calmity. With his own immediate flock he was an idol simple as a ctiild, warm-hearted as a father ; the most sagaciona'di counsellors, the most earnest of priests; the sunniest, kindest most considerate and true-hearted of friends ; the very ideal Soggarth whose memory will be recalled with sobs of pride and grief for generations to come among the people for whom he lived and died •nd among their children's children. But Dr. Kavanagh's great heart and splendid abilities were not the possession merely of bis parish. They belonged- to Ireland in a degree and with a potency which only those acquainted with the inner history of the past half a, dozen years can understand. We speak from intimate knowledge when we say that, with the single exception of the Most Rev "Dr Croke, there is no man in the Irish Episcopate or clergy who exercised a more ardent, resolute, and blessed influence upon the memorable politico-ecclesiastical revolution accomplished dnr ing that period than he over whose grave his peoble will be weeping when these lines are read. He was one of those forces, active, unobtiusive, loving, which are the , salt and cement of great public movements. In every moment of discouragement or danger— whether when the Simeoni Circular fell like ice on the Irish heart, or when Sir George Brrington's burrowing influence at the Vatican seemed most fatal, or when Irish ecclesiartica were carrying on with seared and anxious hearts conflicts of which the outside world could scarcely catch the rumour— Dr. Kavanagh was always ready with the cheering, the affectionate, and the unflinching woid. Inheriting the blood of a grandfather who carried a Dike through the Wexford battle-fields, # the dream of his life Was to puree the Irish Episcopacy of all suspicion of hostility to the darline aspirations of their people and to bring about a frank and thoroughgoing community of politics as well as faith between them In his own hospitable house in Kildare he lived to witness the fulfilment of that dream ; and could he only have lived to behold its full fruition in National Independence, he would probably not have asked to fall otherwise than as he has fallen at the altar, with the chalice in his hands and his sacred harness on his back— " true to borne and faith and freedom to the last." May God be good to him I