THE CHURCH'S ASSAILANTS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIV, Issue 42, 11 February 1887, Page 15

THE CHURCH'S ASSAILANTS.

!jg|aig!»Ss HE Premier lately assailed the Church, and '^nlP&slt although he was unable to maintain the position I|X|||*' he had assumed, he, nevertheless, conducted the $$||^a» controversy, if not quite fairly, with decency at rJrj^rMl' l east - This, however, cannot be said of all who assail the Church in the columns of some of our contemporaries. The Rev. A. C. Gillies, for < ~ v ~ example, takes up the thread-bare calumnies which the Premier failed to charge home to the Church, and paying no attention to the example of courtesy given by Sir iiOBERT Stout, adds rudeness to falsehood. The rudeness we shall not further rioticp, but in its issue of Saturday last the Evening Star publishes a letter from this rev. gentleman in which it is stated " that every Roman Catholic clergyman will read on March 7, the festival of rit. Thomas Aquinas, every sentence of the writings of Aquinas has come directly from Gor> (divinitus traditumj, and was miraculously attested." This statement is manifestly so absurd that for educated people a contradiction is not necessary. As all, however, who read the Star are not educated in the true sense of the term, it will not be out of place to say that it is not stated in the Roman Breviary in the place referred to that " every sentence of the writings of St Thomas has come directly from God," nor is it there stated that ev«ry sentence was miraculously attested . This is manifest from the pnssage referred to by the Rev. A. C. Gillies — viz., "In difficultatibus locorum Sacrce Scripturce ad orationem jejunium adhibebat. Quin etiam eodali suo fratri Reginaldo dicere solebat, quidquid sciret, nan tarn studio aut labore suo peperisse guam divinitue accepiese." There is nothing in this passage about writing, nor about miraculous attestation. It is simply an historical statement shewing the piety and humility of St. Thomas — virtues which ought to be more generally cultivated than they are. For the sake of such «s do not kuow even a little Latin we subjoin a translation of the above passage from the Roman Breviary. "In difficult places of Holy Scripture he employed fasting as well as prayer. Nay, he was also accustomed to say to his companion, Brother Reginald that he was more indebted for his knowledge to God than to his own study or labour." How different then are the words in the Roman Breviary from the Rev. A. C. Gillies' misrepresentation of them. We think we shall not be rash in saying that the Hey. A. C. GiiiLiKS has not read the passage in the Roman Breviary to

which he refers, and has trusted in the authority of some ignorant or malicious bigot ; or if he really has a copy of the Roman Breviary he has wilfully misrepresented the meaning of the words. We do not know whether Bishop Moran will think it necessary to take any further notice of a man who is evidently so ill informed, or so dishonest as to give people to ■understand he has read books, which he has either not read, or has wilfully misrepresented. We do not ouppose the Rev. A. 0. Gillies is so uneducated as not to be able to translate into English two easy sentences of Latin. After this exhibition on the part of the Rev. A. C. Gillies, any further notice of him is quite unnecessary.

The Redemptorist Fathers will commence their missions at Mosgiel and Port Chalmers <n Sunday next, the 13th inst. The mission of the Redemptorist Fathers at St. Josephs Cathedral Dunedin, came to an end on Sunday evening. In the morning at the 7 a.m. Mass, what formed a truly magnificent sight to the Catholic eye was witnessed. — A large congregation, men and women, almost without an exception approached the altar and received Holy Communion, the numbers amounting to 1050. — The Mass was celebrated by His Lordship the Bishop and during its course Father O'Farrell repeated aloud prayers and devotioual acts of a character suitable to the great occasion. — No more splendid evidence of the effects of the Fathers' labours could be shown than those to be seen in the crowds communicatiug. At 11 am. the sermon was preached by Father Bergmaan, and in the afternoon, the sacrament of Confirmation was administered by the Bishop to 220 recipients who had beeu prepared for tbe reception of the sacrament duriug the mission. — At 7 p.m. the solemn closing of the mission took place j in presence of a densely crowded congregation — the church, being packed in every part, and numbers unable to obtain admittance accommodated in th^ porch. — Tne preacher was Father O'F.irrell who took for his subject Fi-ial Perseverance, and delivered a most earnest and impressive seira m. —Ha afterward-i tha'iked the Bistnp for his kindness towards hims< If an i his brother missionaries. — Kmdn.'Swhich, hesaid, had not commenc d with their present visit to Danediu but ha i been shown to ihem before thjy lefc the old countn ; on their voyage out to Aus'rilia in which they hat been acompa.ned br his Lordship ; an.l in v>-ry many ways and on various occasions biuce th< ir .'.rrival in thu Colonies. — He also thanked the clergy of D in -dm. Fi hers Lynch anil Vereker who had devotPii so much of 'h_ar timj to tne instruction o! the candidates for confirm ui m, aivl Pith r Keenan wti ) h-vl given so much assistance iv the confessional, He thank d the people also for their docility and cjmpli ince with the dne'tioos aud lequeats of the missionaries, aud on the part of his colleagues aud hi'nself asked pardon for a->y shortcomings that miyht have been rem irked in them. Tne good fa' her then in .1 very aff -ci iu>j manner <s ive the eongregatiou the ble~siu c _c of the uiissi jnar.es, ivnijli was follow jd by that of the Pop 1 , the while co iclu iing with the Benediction of the Most Holy Sacrament. A Plenary indulgence was also to all who had made tbe mission. On Monlay at 9 a.m.. a High Mass of Requiem corant episcopo was celebrated, especially for the s^nls ot the friends a. id relatives of the people who had attended the mission and more particular? those who had died since the former visit of the Kedemptonsts. The celebrant was Father O'Farr 11 with Fathers Hegarty and Keeuan as deicoa and subdeaenn respectively and Father Vereker as Master of Ceremonies. The Dies Irae aid other chains were rendered with aonorom sjletn.iity by a choir of the priests. A short instruction on devotion to the holy souls was given before Mass by Father Hegarty. On Monday evening at 7 a.m., a large number of the women of the congregation attended at the cathedral and were admitted by Father Benjmann into the confraternity of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, and o-i Tuesdiy evening considerable numbers of the men v>ere enrolled as members of the confraternity of the Holy Family. The mission indeed, excede I by its succebs every hope that had been pieviously formed, and the memory of the good Fathers will be held in reverence and love among tbe Catholics of Dunedin. No less than four ot the private letters received by the "editor of this paper on Mond.iy at his private address (sajs United Ireland, of Dec. 24) bore unmistakable ividence of having been rudely and clumsily opened in the Post-office, The edges of the opening flap of tne envelopes were all fiayed and soiled, and in a couple of instances rough dabs of the gum substituted for the gum destroyed by the Postoffice steaming kettle were allowed to trickle over the back of the envelope. Redeunt Satijr-nia regna. Castle rule in Ireland is itself again 1 Master Stanislaus Mahoney, Wellington, and Master Thomas Phillips, Greymouth, pupils of St. Patrick's college, were among the successful can h lateswuo passed the recent matriculation examination in connection with the New Zealand University. These students enjoy t v ie distinction of being the rirst who were sent up for examination from St Patrick's College.

Entebtainments will be given on the evenings of Tuesday and Wednesday, the 15th and 16th inst., in the old church, Dowling street, Dunedin, in aid of the fund for the fitting up of the building as class rooms for St. Joseph's school. A good deal of the work necessary has already been cairied out, and it may be seen what fine accommodation will be afforded to the girls attending the school when the change is made. Considerable expense, however, has been incurred, and it is to enable the Dominican nunß to defray this that the entertainments have been undertaken. The object is one that should recommend itself warmly to all those who are interested in Catholic education. The entertainments will consist of some choice selections of vocal and instrumental music ; tableaux vivants and descriptive scem-a. chosen from Goldsmith's Deserted Village, the history of Joan of Aic, and other sources ; and some interesting and amusing dramatic pieces. A very attractive programme, in fact, has been prepared, and is in active rehearsal. It is earnestly hoped that every effort will be made to promote the desired and much needed success. Speaking at a magnificent meeting in Killarney on Sunday (says the Nation of December 24) Mr. John Deasy, M.P., told the Kerry men that Mr 1 Dillon was unable to attend, owing to the accident he met with a few nights before, while returning from the Loughrea {meeting. Mr. Dillon's only regret was that he could not be with them. He did not care about the two prosecutions hanging over him, but he did care that the people should stand by the principles which brought about those prosecutions. The only result which could follow from the course the Government had taken was the closing up of the ranks of the* people who would not be cowed or dismayed by the recent coup of the executive, but would continue the s ruggle with renewed vigour. If Mr. Dillon or his frienda were sent to prison (cheers) the only party which could suffer by a speedy encounter between tbe people and the so called upholders of the law was the Tory party. The moment the Government brought in a Coercion Bill, that moment its fate was sealed. It was a Government with ouly one leg — the other was supplied by the Unionists. The Radicals and Nationalists would knock the Coercion leg from under Lord Salisbury. Certain cablegrams to the effect that the Pope has recommended the Cataolic electors of Germany to support the demand of the Govt rnmmt for a large military grant, would seem to suggest a disposition on the part of His Holiness to favour the Germans in cveat of. a war's breaking out be wiea them aud Fraace, and p 'Ssibly wich i-ome re ereacj to thi hostile ac.itulioE the Republic towards the Oath ilic Guinea. Tao matter is on 3, h )w<3?er, in which we must hi very careful about receivingithe version given by the cable or.in fact by any non-Uatholic authority, and which we can only expect to find tiuly txplained by ihe Catholic Press. — It becomes more doubtfuh btaLles, owing to the assertion that Herr.Windthorst, the leader of the Herman Catholics, has declared that they will disregard the Pope's advice. If Ireland were like France, a place wh^re a Government might hi killed by an epigram, (says United Ireland) we might hope that -oon the present infamous regime would be found inarticulo mortis. An English member of Parliament, Mr. Schwann, has been studying ihe Insi question from pjr3>nal observation. He has taken an x tended tour throughout our island, and he spoke at Pendleton a couple of nights ago giving the result of his investigations. He coafessed that many prejudices of his had been removed, and he summed up his diagnosis of the situation by saying that " the most lawless thing in Ireland is— the law I " There was never a truer saying ; and there have never bean apter illustrations of its truth than in the occuireaces of the past fortnight, commencing with the bludgeoning of the people of Sligo and Cork and culminating in the ridiculous withdrawals of the Government from the position it assumed at Loughrea and elsewhere. Gallant Tim Hurley whose defence of his mill is historic has been acquitted triumphantly. Gillant Tim some few weeks after he hid dofeiteJ the evictors, was acres ed, as it may ba remembered for having dynamite in his possession, and carried off to Cork, where on his arrival a slight shindy took place in which Dr. Tanner M.P., was bludgeoned in a most inexcusable manner by a noble defender of the law named Milling. — But gallant Tim's arrest, perhaps, was not without a double meaning, for during hi 3 absence the foe returned to the charge — no longer, alas, a siege — and succeeded in evicting his defenceless family, — Ozi the trial, nevertheless, it was proved beyond all shadow of doubt that the dynamite had been procured, and had been also in pirt employed for the purpose of blasting some stumps of trees that remained in the ground, and an acquittal was the consequence. — But in Irelaud as a matter of course one legal event leads to another, and Tim Hurley's arrest has led to the committal for trial of Milling because of bus attack on the patriotic doctor and popular I M.P. Mks. Helen Campbell, a lady who ha 3 been bringing to light the miseries ia which New York abounds, gives among the rest the following graphic and suggestive narrative, related concerning herself and her husband by a poor widow whom she found in a tenement house of a better class, but which was still sufficiently wretched :— !" We lived — I don't just know how we lived. He was going ia

c onsumption an' very set about it. 'I'll have no medicine an' no doctor to make me hang an' drag along,' he says. ' I've got to go and I know it, an' I'll do it as fast as I can.' He was Scotch an' took his porridge to the last, but I came to loathe the sight of it. He c ould live on six centa a day. £ couldn't. 'I'm the kind for your contractors,' he'd say. ' It's a glorious country and the rich will be r icher yet when there's more like me.' He didn't mind what he stii an' when a Biblo reader put her head in one day, ' Come in,' he said, 'My wife is working for a Christian contractor at sixty-six centd a day, an 1 I'm what's left of another Christian's dealings with me, keep' ing me as a packer in a damp basement an' no fire. Come in an' lut' ti see what more Christianity has to say about it.' He scared her, hi t eyes was shiny an' he most gone then. But there's many a one tha doesn't go over fifty cents a week for what she'll eat. God h-lp them that's starving us all by bit*, if there's a God, but I'm donbeing it, else why don't things get better, an' not always worse an' worde ?'' A London telegram under date January 3 speaks a 9 follows : — "Mr. Gladstone-, writing to wish success to a new Scotch newspip,r says it is difficult to wiihhold a degree of provisional sympathy from the Government. The resignation of Lord Randolph Cuurchill, he continues, is attributed to various questions which are of deep interest to true Liberals. The early and serious dislocation of the Ministry from within will tend to promote misgivings as to the solidity of its p olicy with regard to which its unity and determination have been so loudly proclaimed. He concludes as follows : " Knowing the firmness of our position, we can watch the issue tranquilly, and, as far as our leading principles will permit, study every opportunity to restore Liberal unity ." Mb. John Mobley writing in reply to Mr. Dicey 's book on Ireland, argueß that the question is not a theorem, but a problem ; that it is not a matter of proving a thesis, but of curing a malady. If Home Rule is too mischievous to be tolerated, so is everything else. A Crown colony isopposed to the union. Irish representation is opposed to the union. A provincial legislature on the model of the Legislature of Ontario or Quebec would be worse than repeal. A local Government would cure nothing and disturb everybody. Mr. Morley intends writing a second article. ▲ London telegram dated January 3 says :— At Dublin, the trial was resumed of Messrs. Dillon, O'Brien, Redmond, Harris. Crilly and Sheehy, who are charged with conspiring to solicit tenants to refuse payment of their rents. Mr. Gerrard's speech for the Crown ■howed that the prosecution relied upon speeches made by the defendants and upon articles in UniUd Ireland for evidence of con. spiracy. The,accused'scounsel disputed the relevancy of such evidence. The trial was adjourned. Mr. John Dillon has deposited the £1,000 bail required by the recent decision against him for agitating the plan of campaign in Ireland. Mr. Joseph E. Kenny, Member of Parliament for Bouth Cork, and Mr. Joseph G. Biggar, Member for West Cavan, became sureties for Mr. Dillon, in the sum of £1,000 each. The London correspondent of the Western Morniyig News sends the following interesting paragraph to that paper :— " Lord Charles Thynne, who has been received into the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church by Cardinal Manning, is the uncle of the present Lord Bath. He is 73 years of age, and has been for thirty years a member of the Roman Church. He is a widower like Cardinal Manning himself. He married the daughter of a bishop — the Bishop of Bath, by the bye— and was himself a clergyman. At Oxford he was made a very high Churchman, but even in the height of the agitation against Tractarian views, his opinions did not prevent him from reaching the height from which the Canon may be supposed to look down upon ordinary mortals. One of his sons, though a barrister, is assistant tolicitor to the Customs, and his daughter is Countess of Kenmare." The Pall Mall Gazette, alluding to the prospect of war, says : The storm cloud darkens abroad, and as it darkens it fills with new hope the men who are struggling with indomitable resolution against injustice consecrated by law in the sister country. " England's extremity is Ireland's opportunity." England is the friend and ally of Germany. G-ermany is apprehensive of war. General Boulangtr and Admiral Aube demand £20,000,000 next spring for the French army and navy. There is a glitter of bayonets in the air, and already the contingency of early war looms darkly probable before the mindß of men. In 3o far as this weighs upon the brows of England it lightens the heart of Ireland, and with cause. We are maintaining injustice in Ireland. Our law is being converted into what Sir Michael Hicks-Beach describes as " an engine of oppression.' 1 We are prosecuting the men who ought to constit, tie Executive Government of Ireland because they are endeavouring with such means as alone are possible to them to protect an impoverished tenantry from the ruthless exaction of an impossible rent The inevitable result is that the first thought of every Irish patriot on hearing a possible trouble abroad is one of hope, that at last, in ihe hour of England's need she may be compelled to do that justice to Ireland which in the hour of her strength she rudely and stolidly refuses.

Notwithstanding the outrageous lesistance shown by -.he Orangemen to Home Rule, Ulster seems to have a keen eye to interests whose success depends on the measure iv question : The tenant* on the Castle Caafiold estate of Lord Charlemout in South Tyrone for example, held a meeting the other day at which they demanded a reduction of rent, deciding that unless it was granted they would adopt the Plan of Campaign. The demaDd for a reduction has also extended to all the estates in the neighbourhood. Mr. O'Brien, the originator of the Plan of Campaign, will probably not meet with a defeat when next he stands for Bouth Tyrone ; and that, perhaps, may be before very long, as a dissolution of Parliament at an early date is looked for. Mu. Henby Gkorge, whose S'ctalietic theories have been condemned by Aichbißliop Corrigan, has revenged himself by making a fierce onslaught on the Catholic Church, and more particularly with regard to certain ecclesiastical censures incurred by Dr. McGlynn, a Catholic priest who made himsolf prominent among his sapportert. Among the rest, Mr. George professes a respect for the Catholic clergy of the States whom he acknowledges to be, as he says, "for their numbers, the most influential class of men in the country," but whom at the same time he condemns as being " the puppets of a foreign power. 4,000 miles distant in space, and many centuries distant in ideas. 1 ' Speaking otherwise of the Pope personally in a disrespectful manner' Mr. George, meantime, doeßnot seem to understand that it is to their allegiance to the foreign power that the Catholic clergy owe all their influence, and that were they to renounce it, they would become at best no better than any body of Protestant ministers of whose influence he has nothing to say. It is, nevertheless, just as well that Mr. George has shown his hand, for although he was beaten in the late mayoral contest at New York, the minority who voted for him was very large — giving an almost certain promise of a future victory, and doubtless if contained many Catholics. The eyes of their suppoiters have now been opened, and they see the true nature of the man whom they had tried to advance to power. Mr. George has finally and deservedly lost all Catholic support. The boldness and cleverness of the Plan of Campaign seem altogeiher to have driven the authorities out of their wits. An unjustifiable and illegal grab at the money paid into the rent offices appears to have been the only expedient thought of by them. This proceeding was accordingly initiated at the offices on the Clanricarde estate, where Messrs. Dillon, Harris, Sheehy, and O'Brien were acting as agents. An Inspector named Davis, who ia said to have nerved himself for the occasion by calling in the aid of what they call " Dutch courage," suddenly broke in at the head of a posse of policemen and snatched at the cash — assaulting M.r. Dillon at the same time in a savage manner— and all was done without the exhibition of a warrant. Mr. Dillon, it is hardly needful to say, could obtain no redress for the attack made upon him. The National papers describe the affair as the latest coup d'etat. It is, however, gratifying to learn that it was only partially successful, as a portion only of the money was seized by the invaders. A curious circumBtance, moreover, attendant on the matter was the abandonment of the prosecution which followed by the strange device of summoning the gentlemen arrested to answer the charge of conspiracy previously brought against them at the Police Court in Dublin on the second day appointed for their appearance at Loughrea. This is a proceeding that has drawn much ridicule on the G-overnment. Sir Boyle Roche could have told them that only a bird could be in two places at once. But they would be probably unwilling to take any lesson from the member of an independent Irish Parliament, or to receive it as possible that such a person could exist. The risks to which the calling of the publican is exposed received a curious illustration this week in Dunedin. The case we refer to was that in which one of our most respectable fellow -citizens, Mr. J. Liston, and his wife were accused, in effect, of robbing of a considerable sum of money a man who had passed a night in their hotel. The charge, we need hardly say, appeared from the first monstrous to those who were acquainted with the character of the persons accused. And its nature was finally exposed when on the second day appointed for the trial a letter was received from the plaintiff's solicitors announcing that the money had been found in a place " neither in nor near the Douglas Hotel." As we understand that Mr. Liston has laid an information charging his late accuser with perjury, we are precluded from making further comments on the matter. The Very Rev, Dr. Sheridan, V.G., Sydney, .arrived at Port Chalmers on Wednesday from Wellington. The rev. gentleman visited Dunedin, where he was entertained by the Most Rev. Dr» Moran and the clergy of the mission. Lord Salisbury's Government have perceived their mistake in Father Fahy's case. But if they made a bungle in putting him in gaol on an untrue and frivolous chaige in the first place, they erred no less grievously for their own reputation in releasing him, as they have now done, without any credible pretext. The only excuse offered even indirectly is that the priest's evidence being necessary at the Uial of the Woodford prisoners in iligo, the Govtrnnwn* w«re an*

willing to couduct him there in the custody of the police. Such a plea, however, bears its absurdity written on its face. The whole affair has been a lamentable exhibition on the part of the Government of weakness and folly.

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