Current Topics. AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIV, Issue 43, 18 February 1887, Page 1

Current Topics. AT HOME AND ABROAD.

In reply to certain suggestions that have of late OURSELVES. been made to us as to alterations in the character of the tablet, we desire to lay before our readers the following statement of our position. — The object for which the TABLET was originally established, and with which it h-vs so far been carried on, was tbat of defending Catholic interests and the Catholic name, which in many instances were wantonly and cruelly attacked) and for whose defence the secular Press afforded no opportunity. It was also to support and advocate the claims of Catholics as such in any case in which the necessity might arise, as, for example, in that connected with the godless schools. It devoted upon us as well to explain and vindicate the Irish cause and to protect the Irish people against defamation and calumny, or to refute and expose such charges when advanced to their prejudice. If, besides doing this, we could present our readers with interesting and instructive matter for their perusal we felt that our duty would be fully accomplished. As to Colonial affairs, taken in their secular bearing only , we have always believed that they concerned us in a very secondary way. — As a Catholic newspaper our office was to take such a course as might fall in harmoniously with the views of all Catholics who, however united they must necessarily be on subjects purely Catholic, must be expected where secular matters were concerned to differ as other people do. — It would not therefore suit our place, on many questions, to take any decided part. — We could not, for example, hope for the Bupport of the Catholic who was a free-trader if we devoted ourselves to the advocacy of protection— nor on the other hand could we look to the Catholic protectionist to sustain us in advocating the interests of freetrade. — So far as Colonial politics, therefore, in their secular bearings were concerned, it has been our endeavour to steer a perfectly independent course and, whenever the occasion arose for our alluding to them, to do so without an attempt to influence the opinions of any one — merely stating our own, so that they might be taken for what they were worth. — In matters relating to Colonial secular news again we have not considered it necessary to be very copious in our publication. — We are aware that in every place the local newspapers contain all that is of interest in this connection, and as a matter of course, they also are seen by our readers almost without an exception. — To fill our columns, therefore, to the exclusion of the Catholic and Irish intelligence it forms one of our chief ends to provide would serve no useful purpose — while it would hinder one of our principal objects. — But it has been suggested to us that we should furnish our readers with what those who make the suggestion call " light reading " — and this is a suggestion that, we confess, we are completely unable to understand. — We do not suppose that it is thought possible that we should open our columns, for example, to the reports of the police and law courts. — That is done by no respectable Catholic paper that we know of. Such reading has always fallen under the heaviest condem. nation of the ecclesiastical authorities who have from the first ssene n what it must result in. — And of its result, we have a vivid illustration in the revolting details of a late divorce case in London, which have been met with remonstrance even by people known as of any. thing rather than a squeamish mind. No such details, however, would have been published had not the public taste been vitiated and ormed for their reception by the long course of debasing reports that had preceded them.— Nor can we consistently publish sensational tales—These also are of an immoral tendency, and do much , even in their best form, to injure the mind that gives itself up to their study. — There is another class of light reading " which, indeed, we have from time to time rejected. It consists of what are known as " skits " on local people or events, and sometimes we have received it in the shape of an attempt at the reproduction of the Irish brogue. — Verily this kind of "light-reading" etruck us as of excelling heaviness, and we never had the slightest hesitation about consigning it to the waste paper basket. It is not open to us to insult the intelligence of our readers. Perhaps it is from such wits as the producers of stuff like this that the suggestion to which we allude really emanates. — Meantime, we claim that the Catholic and Irish reading which we principally give to our readers is as light as such reading can be. — Religious matters can hardly be lightly treated of consistently with the respect duo to

AN IMMORTAL LIE.

absolute necessity, exist in any intentional malice or well considered design on the part of those who sustain them. Folly and ignorance are equally an excuse for many things — and, above all, we are willing to admit that they excuse many things that happen in the camp of our Evangelical friends. Lies that are repeated and repeated again, therefore, may stand on no more malicious base than the poor silly meagrim3 of some moidered brain. Nay, those who repeat them may mean very well all the time, and if their intentions, according to St. Bernard's famous saying, go to pave a lower region, that is the fault of their intellect and opportunities, and may be counted to them as a misfortune only. What, then, are we to say, for example, concerning this " Secret Qath of the Jesuits," that, like Sir Boyle Roche's rat, is floating in our atmosphere, and producing such strange results as did the angel produce on Balaam's ass. A bray of horror and remonstrance, sweet music of the Land of Beulah, fills all our ears, and doubtless troubles many people who have little else to trouble them. But as to this " Secret Oath of the Jesuits," it was exploded almost as soon as it was born. It saw the light in London in the year of grace 1848, and received a public and con* elusive contradiction in Dublin in 1865. The manner of the exposure was as follows :— The firm of Seeley and Co., Fleet street, London, published in the year 1848 an English translation of the forged document known as the Monita Secreta of the Society of Jesus — a document no longer claimed as genuine even by the most pronounced enemies of the Jesuits, which, for example, Nicolini openly rejects, and of which Cartwright makes no mention. Which document, moreover, was printed for the first time at Cracow in 1 612 by some calumniator of the Society, and immediately condemned as false and scandalous — although Messrs. Seeley apparently unaware of this, attribute its discovery to the year 1622, when, say they, it waß found by Duke Christian of Brunswick in sacking the college of Paderbora in Westphalia. In this English edition published in 1848, the oath

them, but who can truly accuse the Irish national papers of heaviness! Our extracts are very largely taken from the Natim, United Ireland and the Dublin Freeman, aad these are the papers that principally cir« culate among the Irish people at home, and are most enjoyed by them. Have the Irish people abroad become of a more frivolous disposition ! It is not pleasing to us by any means to blow our own trumpet, but relying on high encouragement given to us not once or twice but many times, and on approbation expressed of our paper by authorities whose judgment no one c mid despise, we may assert that we have so far done the work laid out for us, and fairly accomplished what was demanded of us. So far as it could be done by a newspaper, we have maintained the respect due to the Catholic body in New Zealand, and no one has been able to point to our columns in derision as an illustration of what " Irish Papists " could do when they attempted to deal with literary matters. If Irish Catholics are branded, as they sometimes are, with the 'accusation of intellectual inferiority, we may defy anyone to say^with truth that any article or publication that has ever appeared in our paper has done anything to give even plausibility to such an accusation. Sometimes, perhaps, w« have been betrayed into the use of stronger language than it might be advisable for us to employ. But on such occasions, had the circumstances been known, it would be found that we were not with. out some excuse.— Some long course of provocation had been persisted in, or it was necessary for us to reach some hardened mind or some dull understanding, or to smite a hidden enemy behind his screen. Shall we then depart from the position in which relying on high authority we know that we have acquitted ourselves well. Shall we lower our tone and come down to the level of what many people would be glad to point out as the proper level of the Irish Catholic Shall we become a mere gossiping organ, attempting by a forced wit to provoke a laugh, or Jby a little stale chaff to gain a popularity as dishonouring to ourselves as to those by whom it would be bestowed upon us 7 No, we have men, and sensible men to deal with. We have a people who in many ways demand our support and assistance to consult for, and even in the lighter matter that we provide for their perusil they will expect us to keep our graver and more important objects in view. We cannot lower our tone without betraying our cause, and deserting the noble task tnat has been committed to us.

Some lies there are that die hard, and some that never die at all. Still we must admit that the principle of their vitality need not, as a matter of

in question appears for the first time — it being wanting in the original Latin — and Archbirfhop Ussher is given as the authority from which it is taken. Ussher, nevertheless, knew nothing about it. There is no mention of it in his works, and for this there exists the denial of the late Dr. Todd, Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and one of the most learned and eminent men whom that University has produced during the present cjntury. Dr Todd. who had at the time been long engaged in an exhaustive itudy of Ussher's works, in reply to .1 letter written to him by Dr. Madden, of Dublin, and d.ting his letter Tiuuiy College, >th May, 1865, says :—": — " I cannot fiad in Ussher's works any ' Secret Oath,' or mention of such oith taken by members of the S. J," It happened, nevertheless, that an alderman named Bonsall, who had obtained a copy of Messrs Seeley's publication, managed in au excess of Protestant zeal, and in relation to the proposed abolition of the Test Oath in Dublin corporation, in March 1865, to have entered on the minutes of the corporation an allusion to this Secret Oath. This, it hardly need be remarked, caused some disturbance among the members of the Council, and the result was a loDg debate, in which the late fclir John Gray, a Protestant, took a leading part, and which resulted in the carrying by a large majority of the following resolution proposed by the gentleman in question : — Kesolved — That all icference ko the protest which refers to the said oath be expunged from our minute book, said, alleged oath having been proved to thj satisfaction of this house to be a scandalous fabrication, palmed, no doubt, upon the credulity of the parties who procured the publication thereof, and that the minutes be then signeJ.'* The lie, nevertheless, thus publicly •ondemued, and in many ways proved a forgery, having, in fact, nothing whatever to make it in any degree probable that it was anything except a forgery and a fraud, has now been repeated among ourselves. And we are conscious that it will still be repeated and repeated again. It forms part of the stock in trade of tuose poor billy bodies whose rather confused ideas of religion cousist m a great part of their horror at what they imagine the Catholic Church to be, who perhaps mean very well, so far as ignorance and folly permit them and they cannot afford to surrender it. The oath will abide among them until their fortunate entry into thpir hentage in tne Laud ot Beulah, where, perhaps, its words also, with a gieat deal of the same kind, many adorn their phylacteries, as a memorial of the dangers they escaped from in the days of the baser flesh, whereby they are now encumbered.

The French periodicals, the lie v 10 <lv Jfonde Catholique and Le Contemporaui — ot a recent date

fcCIENTIFIC NOTES.

give us some interesting details of the work being

done in the scientific woild of the period. — In one of the articles alluded to, for example, we find a compansoa made between the theory of the creatiou of the eaith adopteel by La Place, ■ad that which M. Fayeuow opposes to it. La Placj supporting the assertion that the sun existed first of all and that the planets were formed from zones of vapour thrown oil by its atmosphere in cooling, while, on the other hand, M. Faye argues in favour of a theory which would assign to the sun an existence in its present form dating from a period subsequent to that at which the eaith and the uiooa were fully developed. — The conc.usion which the writer draws from the opposing theories, is the rashness of placing too great confidence in scientific researches. He, however, at the same time warns us against undervaluing or despising them. — What we have a right to cxac\, he says, is that the savant should be respectful towards every order o. truth, and above all that he shoul 1 not havj the foolish pride oL believing that he can explain everything without God.

Another writer examines the giounds that an given tor a belief that man appeared on earth at a period of time too long ago for even the imagination

A FAILURE OF GEOLOGY.

to reach it. He examines the gravels of the Somme> the turf-beda of the locality in question and elsewnere, and the stalagmites found in various places, bringing to boai upon them all the most recent investigations. His conclusion is as lollows —It is best to confess our impotence to find in this order of phenomena the precise date of the appearance of man. The actual condition of the science only authorises in this matter a negative conclusion. But of all the calculations to which they have had recourse, the least supported are still those which generously distribute hundreds and thousands of centuries among the different phases of the quaternaiy epoch. They have acted in vain ; they have not so far demonstrated the insufficiency of the old chronology. In the geological facts pointed

out to us, and wh'ch we lu\ c l uue summed up we see absolutely nothing that bears oui the gnat estimates before which certain authors have not drawn back.

Yl,: another wnter gives us a sketch of the controversy prevailing touching a certain matter that

AN EYE-OPENEB FOR SCHOOL-BOYS.

every school-boy would almost swear had been settle 1 from the creation, and which under some

circumstances he could not venture to question without incurring bodily danjjer— that is the shape of the earth,

Rome savants will have it still, accotding to the traditional reply, that it is round like an orange, whereas others there are who insist that it is that of a regular triangular pyramid. The controversy is extremely interesting, and we recommend it to the attention of our readers, although the space at our disposal does not permit of our giving such particulars of it as might enable them to understand its various points. The writer's conclusion, however, comes well within our limits. The question of the earth's form remains obscure, then, he says. Before we decide, let us await new arguments ; but in my opinion it was wise to expose the actual state of this question, which, better than any other, shows how much the hypothetic enters into the scientific theones which appear the most solidly established. Such statements should render certain savants less proud, who imagine that they can overthrow the immovable truths of religion by hypotheses concerning which there will be no question in a few days or a few years after their full expansion.

Mr. Bexton in the course of a lecture on Liberty^ lately delivered by him in Dublin, referred as

THE LATEST CRY.

follows to the latest tactics of the party of oppres(rion .—". — " The latest cry that has been raised is ' anarchy in Ireland.' A good word is everything, and anarchy is an excellent word for misleading the Biitish elector. It reminds me of a country letter-writer wno was applied to by somebody with a grievance against a policeconstable. The letter-writer read over the letter to his client until he cirue to the phrase ' this obnoxious constable,' when his client said, 1 Begorra that's a grand word. What docs it mean?' 'Never you mind what it means,' said the letter-writer, ' that word will strip the j icket off him ' (laughter). I suppose the word ' anarchy 'is expected to perform some similar service in Ireland. We have plenty of government in this country. We have plenty of the government that coerces, that robs and plunders, but of the kind of government that saves the homes of the people, and protects them in the interests of the country, of that kind of government we have none in IrelandL)rd Hartington was the first to raise the shriek about anarchy Now Lord Hartington, whatever he may be in other respects, is as a logician, as a man capable of arguing, he is about the most mean lord alive (laughter). I should like to read for you, if you will allow me, one sentence from his speech of the other day or so to show you his method of argument. He wishes to prove that there is anarchy in Ireland, and here is how he does it — ' That such 2 condition of affairs as exists in Ireland leads to anarchy — in fact that it is absolutely anarchy — is a proposition that 1 think no one will dispute. That it is the simple duty of the Government to icpress such a condition by every moans in their power is an equally admitted proposition, anc4 that it is the duty of every good citizen to as-si^t the Government in that position Ido not think any of us in this room will deny.' That certainly is a very cunous mole of argument for an easy-going gentlemau who docs i.ot want to ovetwork his mind in discovering what may pass for a leasoa In hio political faith. It reminds me very much of a very famous --ong. .M} hud, it is a song, so far as I know, that consists entiu-ly of a iefiain, and that refiam is, ' For he is a jolly goo 1 tellow ' (laughtui) 'i.id the singer having made the assertion about 'he j >llit i > of the go >d fellow, couth ms it by adding at the end ' which nobody can de >\ .' That clinches the argument (renewed laughter), and leaves no fun her 100 m for further dispute or doubt (laughter and applause), Mr. Goschen bas swelled the cry of a larchy. and added a masterpiece* of imagination when he compared John Dillon to a garrotter. I wish to goodness you could see the two meu side by side, and jou would confers th.it Mr. Goschcn is as like a ghoul as John Dillon is unlike a gairoticr (applause.) Though it may be; bad enough to have the disposition of a garrotter, yet I think it is very many degrees worse to have, as Mr. Goschen has, a great eienl of the nature of a vampire (applause), He ought to have been shy about talking about gai lotting, for, although many men may have garrotted a man, theie are yen few men who may be or could be said to have garrotted a country (applause). Uobchun garrotted Egypt (applause) ; and I am not surprised that a man who had the wretched peasantry of Egypt plundeied ami (loggeJ, and ground into the very earth to pay the galling load of interest upon the unjust and miserable loans, I am not surprised that that man should be anxious and eager to make the miserable peasautiy of Ireland pay an enormous and unjust rent which the 1 md did not bung forth."'

Ml! cr eluded his leetuiv as follows — O c uf the most remarkable qualities of the great*

me one tiiim. NECESSARY.

Napoleon was his magic power of going to sleep in

the middle of a battle and waking up at the righ moment (laughter) — that he always woke up at the moment to lead the final charge and register the victory (cheers). And without say. ing that Mr. Parnell ever falls asleep, for I have heard some doubt s expressed on that por t, I will only say when the critical moment comes that the destiny of our people is trembling in the balance, the vo'c? of Mr. Parnell, believe me, will ring out, and when it rings out it will img out, I believe in my soul, as the prelude to our freedom (prolonged applause). And what a material and moral blessing freedom will prove to this unfortunate laud ? If we want to understand «rhat

freedom will mean tone, let us consider for a moment what subjugation means to us at the present time. War, pestilence, and famine are the three greatest scourges of a nation, but neither war, ptsti. lence, nor famine, nor the combination of all three, has ever inflicted apon a people sucb a cruel and such horrible wrongs as foreign rule hae inflicte t upon this country (applause). Subjugation has not only destroyed our national life — it has weakened the energy and strength of individual character ; it has misspent our public means ; it has subjected to a course of shameful neglect our capacities and our resources ; it has violated the first duty of all good Governmentviolated not now and then or casually — but always and by a system ; it has violated that first duty by refusing the people due safety in their homes and due security for tbe support of their toilsome lives or the enjoyment of the fruits of their labour (cheers). What will freedom do for us ? It will not only elevate our national life, it wil* not only supply the great stimulus to national existence in the character of every man, but it will place our resources at our disposal 5 it will enable us to Bpend our public means in accordance with the will of the people ; it will enable us to give the children of the people an education suited to the characteristics of their race and the circumstances of their condition ; it will kill the old hatred between class and class ; it will produce a better spirit between man and man ; it will open up new paths for industry and for profit, and it will give us that safety in the home and that security for the labourer which in the blessing of time, I trust in God, will make Ireland the land of a brave and a happy people (applause). Some enemies of our National cause declare that rather than give us Home Rule they would prefer separation. Separation or no separation, freedom at any rate we must have (great cheering)* freedom either with union or with separation is essential to the salvation of our country. Freedom is indispensable to prevent the ruin of our race. Freedom we must have— freedom wt must have, however we achieve it ; and if it were possible, and I believe it is not, that those who are now opposing Home Rule could have their evil way, the day would come when they would bitterly rue their folly, for they would find themselves face to face with a movement in which the banded strength of the Irish race, sundered in their homes and united in their hearts, would be cast into a movement for separation (loud and prolonged cheering, with waving of hats and handkerchiefs).

Modern Society states the following difficult case : In a weltering and sinful little Sussex town there is

A PUZZLE.

a man who so far perverts the custom of the place as to get drunk occasionally and then start upon;praying, and usually in the middle of tbe main street, When he relapses into sobriety be is every bit as sinful as the worst of his neighbours, but with each renewal of the beer-soaking process, piety once again possesses his soul, of which it has a freehold as long as the spree lasts. He is a perfect puszle to the local theologians, and they cannot determine whether it is best that he should keep in a perpetual state of intoxication for the good of his soul, or be a teetotaller and a blasphemer, with a big chance of coming to grief in the hereafter. They would probably agree to keep him on a chronic spree were it not that they would have to stand the racket, for he has not a penny of his own ; and they possibly would keep him always sober if it were not for his rooted aversion to that virtuous state. He is a puzzle, however you look at him, and was obviously created for the benefit of V.M.C.A. debating societies.

A writer who contributes to tbe New York Jimrnal (*/ Commerce an interesting paper on the Resurrec" tion makes some pertinent and striking remarks as

AN IMPERFECT OBJECTION.

to the nature of certain arguments brought against revelation. The following, for example, relating to the objections arising from philology is very important : — " The highest attainments in philology are insufficient to make any one a thorough critic of ancient literature, without almost if not quite equal attainment in knowledge of ancient art. Thus a philological argument on the date at which a passage in the book of Exodus was written, demonstrating its date to be a thousand years later than the time of Moses, while plausible and convincing to the philologist, is weak and worthless to the arcbajologist, who finds in the passage descriptions of art processes and products of the period of Moses which are convincing to him that the author knew the subject by personal observation. The thirty, ninth chapter of Exodus may be cited as an illustration, a wonderful description of art work, down to the very manipulation of aitisaos making gold thread for interweaving in stuffs. Every minute particular in this chapter iB verified by archaeology, which exhibits the worked products of the period ; nor would it be possible for men of later ages to write such a description without falling into errorsPhilology might convince itself that the literature was of the period of the Captivity or later, but if the philologer were an archaeologist he would recognize the demonstration that the former science goes on one leg only until united with tbe latter."

THE USE OF ARITHMETIC.

He speaks particularly of the manner in which thi" neglect is shown in arguments for the great antiquity of Egyptian civilization rising from the large population that existed in the country alluded to at the time of the bmlding of the pyramid of Ghiieh.-Accept the belief, he says, that " Egypt was colonized from the cradle of the human race in Asia, by a Colony coming across to the Nile valley, and estimate that little colony at any number from a hundred to a thousand colonists, then boy or girl can compute how many yean (t would take, by the ordinary modern rule of a generation to «very thirty years, and four or six children to a generation, for the colony to crowd Egypt with a population more dense than it has ever known in the historic period. Such a calculation does not prove that Egypt was only a few hundred years in thus becoming populous, but it doei annihilate all arguments for thouaandsjof years, baaed on the existence of a large population."

The argument from arithmetic also applies to the objection made against the resurrection because of

POSSIBILITY OF THE RESURRECTION.

tbe immense quantity of matter that having existed in human, bodies became dispersed by death

As to this matter, he says, " It is not a million millionth part of the solid substance of the earth on which it lived and into whose keeping it went, If gathered from all quarters of the globe to-day, out of tombs, and dust and growing treei and flowers, wheresoever it had been scattered, and spread in a layer on the surface of the State of New York, it would raise the ground but a trifle above its present level. . . . Average human bodies at three or four cubic feet of solid material, which is an enormous average. Suppose the population of the world to vanish and replace itself three times in a century, and to have been always as great as now. Then you can 'do the sum 'in a few minutes, finding out the solid mass of all tbe human family who have lived, and you will find how small a mound they would make on the earth's surface. For every particle that was ever part of a human body there are thousand!, millions, of particles that have never been annexed to immortal souls." " I am not now defending any doctrine concerning the resurrection," he adds, " but I am showing you how very easy it would be for nature to go on in its processes of life and death, and every atom of matter which had been once incorporated in a human body be forever preserved separate from all other human bodies, so that it might come to its kindred atoms again, uncontaminated by any other Bint than those of the one soul whose purposes it once served. No one who believes in a God can see any impossibility in his commanding a law in the processes of nature for this preservation. And no one believes in the resurrection who does not believe in a God, to be seen and known in that resurrectioc Now don't go to mistaking me and imagine that I insist on your believing in this resurrection of the identical material body. I have said and repeat that it is not impossible. Neither is it improbable. Nature has a host of laws which are the ways of her Master in bringing to pass all her wonders — laws unknown to us and beyond our possible ken. No human philosopher pretends to know anything about that subtle chemistry wherewith the tiny root selects from the earth or the water the particles essential to make now oak leaves, now violets, here the nourishing olive, the gorgeous orange, the luscious pomegranate, there the deadly stramonium, the digitalis, the veratrum. You may safely cast ridicule on the philosopher, howsoever great his reputation, who, admitting his ignorance of that soul-like work of the roots of plants* says it is impossible that they should make any distinction in their selections between atoms which have been man and atoms which have never been man."

It is to be feared that the reputation of the colonies hardly stands very high in the estimation of certain

A SERIOUS CHARGE.

folk in the Northern hemisphere. An English society journal, at least, gives us the following ;— " Mohammedanism promises to spread in the Antipodes, some of the Moslem customs— especially that of having four wives — being already very popular." What have our pious friends got to say to this? We should have thought, judging that is from the noise made by them that their sound had gone out into all lands, and that the very endi of the earth were fully acquainted with the nature of their godliness. Have they not, indeed, proved themselves men of worth and valour in the cause of the gospel. We have heard them in preaching! often, in much psalm-singing, in testimony to the Word, and above all, in strong resistance to the " man of sin "in Rome." If there wai one portion of old England that more than another her children who emigrated to these Southern climes seemed to have carried with them it was what Mr. Matthew Arnold calls the " ugly Puritan element," that is the spirit of religious Protestantism completely unalloyed. But now their report is blackened, and the reproach of apostasy it cast upon them. As to the more particular charge laid to fcteir account , newthelew, It would require * eloter acquaintanceship with

The writer refers also to tbe neglect of so ordinary a matter as arithmetic which learned men are in the habit of displaying in their grave calculations.