Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 45, 2 March 1888, Page 1

Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

If. Piebeb Vbuillot writes to the Univers from Borne, under date December 22, to the following effect : — Coming out »f St. Peter's this morning with my ejes still dazzled, my heart deeply moved and rmy bou! delightfully impressed, I saw the crowd hurrying to the Vatican, a Christian crowd, at once enthusiastic and recollected, joyous and animated, without being either disorderly or boisterous, showing by its attitude, that it looked upon the palace of the Pope as the dwelling of a tenderly loved and piously venerated father, it was one of those beautiful, sweet, and proud spectacles, which, engraving themselves for ever in the memory, console and strengthen. An hour afterwards, the fortune of the road, at the turn of a street little frequented, almost deserted inde«d, placed us in the presence of another pontifical palace, formerly the summer residence of the Holy Father, but at this moment occupied by the King of Italy, the provisional holder of the Roman States. In the precincts of this palace there was nobody ; emptiness, coldness, nothing which could give the impression of a centre. Over there on the opposite bank of the Tiber love and life were breathed. Here were felt only indifference and death. And suddenly, before the Quirinal, a saying^jf M. Taine'si recalled eighteen years ago at the opening of the Council by I ouis Tenillot, came into my memory. " Borne smells of the dead man," M. Tame had Baid. Louis Veuillot, in an admirable article, replied thus, in substance, to the unbelieving philosopher. If you could, now above all, see the capital of the Popes, and of the spiritual world, your prejudices would uot hold out in spite of their strong roots ; you would grasp the evidence of your error, and efface these words. "Certainly," wrote the chief editor of the Univers, "dead things are not wanting here." There are Caesar and the wkole empire ; the Slaves, the gladiators, the lions, the gods. But here these dead things, whose sepulchre is being reopened elsewhere, are buried deep under living things. The perfume of tb.9 livicg Christ burns upon his living altar. The strange conformation of M. Taine's nose is necessary to smell anything here except the odour of full and abundant life. I should wish that M. Tame would withdraw himself from the contemplation of Paris, and would come to see Rome at present when the Church is singiDg the coming of Christ, and sends, from the four quarters of tbe world, her bishops to the Council. Let him only provide himself with a good pair of spectacles, and a Roman prayer-book ; his depraved sense of smelling will no longer deceive him ; he will see and smell life." What is now thought of Rome by this same M. Tame, who, on a sufficiently great number of points, has changed his mind very happily since 1869 ? We are ignorant of it. But if he still has the same ideas on the subject of the Eternal City, if he still believes that it smells of the dead man, lat him come here, and if, by chance, he imagines that Rome no longer smells of the dead man, because of the Piedmontese occupation, let him also come. He will pass like us before the Quirinal, after having remained a few minutes on the place of St. Peter's and this striking contrast will show him, first that an intense, true, and wholesome life makes Borne palpitate ; then that Borne owes the whole of this life to the presence of the Sovereign Pontiff head of the Church. Borne lives, she lives thanks to the Pope, she lives through the Pope. This prisoner remains her soul, and since " a generous soul is always mistress of the body.'she animates," the true and only master of Rome, he, towards whom Rome turns by instinct, and. with whom she occupies herself before all, is the Pope, is Leo XIII. Even those who never asked themselves this question : What would become of Rom* without the Pope? What would she be? feel, understand, and, however brazen in impudence they may be, will not try leriously to deny that Rome reduced to the part of the mere capital of Italy would suffer a frightful loss and would y longer be Rone. She, that, not only for Catholics ; but in the f es of the whole world is first of all great cities, the hearts of nations, Vienaa, Constantinople, Berlin, New York, St. Petersburg, London, Paris, she would fall at a Wow, if the Pope should one day abandon her not only below these immense centres of population, but even below certain capitals of a secondary rank. Rome would be placed

The living BOMB.

after Brussels. Instead of still enjoying that deep and povrerfal life by whick we gee her animated, she woald hare no taora than that sort of unwholesome fever, the deceitful image of life, of which she formerly knew nothing, but which to-day shows itself in some of her, quarters. It iq. at bottom, all the change that can be seen in her, and all that she has been able to take from modern capitals. Wher there is no other support than this death ensues. Rome, perhaps would soon be nothing more than a va«t storehouse of uieless antl^ quities in bad condition. And it is this blow that would make hdc ■mell of the dead man. At present, on the contrary, Rome, this city of the Pope, this recognised capital of the Catholic world, and whose destinies in a mo<»t lively manner interest the whole world, Rome not •nly livei, but makes live. She is a heart which beats with strength, and each of its throbs is felt to the very extremities of the fire parta of the world. Has there ever been seen such a spectacle as Roma offers to ub during these blessed days, and can we f»r a moment imagine ourselve elsewhere ? It is certainly not the first time tkat a reverend, beloved, and illustrious sovereign, as greatjin dignity as in himself, celebrates an imposing anniversary. But can that which has lately takes place at London or Berlin bear comparison with what ia now occurring at Rome— at Roma and on every spot upon the earth ? Tke concourse of emperors , kings, princes and the temporal heads of Stttes, saluting Leo XIII as the first among them, places at a distance every thing of the sort that has been thought ot But the concourse of peoples. It is no longer a question of a city or a paoplp who, with enthusiasm perhaps real, perhaps also dictated by fear no less than by love, arises and salutes with devotion its sovereign and master. It is the world that is in motion, and who, being free and hating neither human hope nor fear, hails its Chief and Father. Tkera is a name which is sounded aloud and constantly on every ooast and> in every inhabited region of the globe — there even where the name of a European king was never pronounced nor murmured, and this name is that of the Pope, that of Leo XIII. There is a city towards which all looks are turned, where all regards are concentrated, and two hundred millions of hearts converge, towards which, at this moment from every quarter, thousands of deputations are wending their way, carrying ten and twenty times more presents than an earthly Sovereign has ever received, — and this city is Rome.— Home is living 1 The Church is immortal 1 We continually hear of th« glories of New England. the decline and the pre-eminence it enjoys in America as th« OF pubitaktsm. home^jr excellence of the | Puritan race. Settledtraditions, however, are often found on examinationto be tolerably void of foundation in fact, and there is some reason tobelieve that the Puritan element in the New England States la hardly, sufficient to give a tone to the whole population. New England, in fact, is rapidly losing its population of Puritan descent, and, as time goes by, bids fair to become the inheritance of a very different people. The family on whose union and welfare the entire framework of society depends has in later years become sadly disorganised among the representatives of the Puritan settlers. Divorces among them exceed those that take place in any other part of the country, and births are comparatively few. Under the circumstances, it is not tobe wondered at that the land of their States ie changing hands and becoming the property of the members of other races. The Irish and German immigrants and their children are, to a large extent, beoomingthe owners and cultivators of the soil, and in the refuge of the Pilgrim' Fathers a generation or two more will see a people fixed upon whom those worthies would parhaps have looked with doubtful welcome.. But the lesson given by this great movement of superseding thePnritan race, in which the Irish immigrants have so large a part, is one that should go a great way towards overcoming prejudices and answering standard reproaches. The Puritan race have been boasted of as that which, owing to the superiority derived from their principles, must needs hold its own under the most adverse circumstances and retain the mastery over all other peoples. Its havimg done so, in countries where it was exceptionally favoured and everything combined to aid its monopoly and exclusive advancement, has been taken as a sure proof of this, and what was the efEect of accident ba9 been claimed as the mark of higher inherent qualities. But in New England this assumption has received a striking contradiction and one which becomes more complete every day. The Puritan lord of th

Boil gives way before the immigrant who has come penniless and worn by hardships to his shore, and, showing all tho warning tokens of ■Seteness and decline, premises to leave nothing more than bis name behind him. The people, in fact, who had been cried down as incapable of any great effort or superior growth, having found an opportunity, prore themselves of better capacity and stronger powers than those whose praise*, as unfailing in strength and unequalled in oapacity, bave been cried aloud ihrough all the world. The lesson is a eignificant one and should be of profit to many people.

HI THBIB TBTJB X.IOHT.

The Pilgrim Fathers have passed away, and as we are credibly informed, their descendants are being replaced upon the lands on whioh they settled, by the children of other peoples. But What would the Fathers themselves have said, had they been able to foresee the change that is taking place ? Would they have gladly Welcomed t» their shores people who came from less fortunate lands and who, in many instances, had been forced to fly in bitter grief from beloved, though humble home 3, where hardship pressed too sor6ly on them to permit of their continued residence. That they would do so might be expected from the Christian character ascribed to them, which ia surely that of the good Samaritan, and still more might be expected from sincere and pious Christians, who themselves had felt the grievous weight of the oppr3S3or's aim, and, therefore to the tender disposition arising from their religion, bad added merely human sympathies. We find certain detiils given in the November namberof the Magazine of American History wbich throw for as some additional light oa the character of the Pilgrim Fathers, and show us more clearly what was the nature of their tender mercies. The details in question relate to a settlement called Shelter Island which which was the abode of certain early settlers, who were of a different disposition from the majority of the Fathers. They were unfortunately one family only, but were brave, as they were charit* able. It was in the middle of the Seventeenth Century that the worthy head of this household, whose name was flylvestus received the refugee Quakers who fled to their protection from Boston. There came an old couple, named Lawrence and Cnsaandra Southwick, who had baen imprisoned, starved, and whipped, and who were then banished as irreclaimable. But they only came to the shelter to die there in peace . As Boston had treated the father and mother, moreover, so did it treat the son and daughter Whom it put np for sale to be taken as slaves to Virginia or Barbadoes. Certain other Quakers named William Robinson and Marmaduke Btevenson came also to Shelter Island, but not to stay there. They Wemt on boldly to Boston where they were thrown into gaol, and only rtleas&d to be banished under penalty of death should they return. Being zealous men, nevertheless, they did return and were duly hangel on Boston common, where also, a little time after, a woman of their sect, named May Djer, shared their fate. "Many," says the writer, who had been maimed, mutilated, their flesh lacerated by the whips, or burned with hot irous, were tenderly nursed, their woundß dressed and healed, by the Sylvestus." It is mach to be feared, then, that were the Pilgrim Fathers to return Christian charity would not be uppermost in their breaßts at seeing their descendants' places filled in many instances by a people whom they held in lower esteem than even the Quakers. It is certainly palpable that New England, like other Puritan lands, has witnessed a change for the better in the departure that has been made from the principles of those renowned and early settlers, the first fruits and particular glory of a new religion.

A WONDEBFUL SPECTACLE.

Among tke more prominent topics of the day the influence of the Papacy, and its place in the civilised world do not form by any means the least. Men who had pereuaded themselves that Rome was little more tban moribund, a cipher in the temporal, and hardly more in the spiritual world than Constantinople is in that of politics and EuropeaP affairs, are awakening in surprise, or rather are wide awake to the fact that, not even in the medieval times, whose darkness forms ■o common a matter for stereotyped remarks, was the|influence of the Pops more widely felt ; or his power capable of producing greater effects than it is to-day. They had flattered themselves that Luther's prediction had at length reached its fu'filment, and that, even if it had proved false as to the death of the Reformer himself, it was proving trno with respect to the religion introduced by mm. If Protestantism as a religion waa dying out, so, in consequence of its having existed, was the religion of Rome. I shall be thy plague while I live, said Lather, impiously addressing the Pope, and my death shall be thine also. But Lather is dead ; his religion is dying, and behold in the sight of all the world the Pope renews his strength and youth In the days of his weakness he has proved strongest, and when the temporal crown has been torn from off his head, kings and rulers have Bought his aid. There is no Government in Europe at the present moment that does not feel the importance of the Pope's attitude towards it, and there is no people that is not conscious of the fact that it is co, and submissive to the exigencies of the case.- Even

when the Queen of England sends a gift to the Pope, and it is used openly by him ia celebrating his Mass in St. Peter's, we hear alone the remonstrance of the traditional Boanerges who thumps his pulpit cushion and roars himself hoarse to the derision of all who hear him. Powers that have long been divided from the spiritual sway of Borne, that have renounced her religious authority, and supported that of pretenders who had rebelled against her, as well as Oatholic powers — Germany as well as Spain — have felt the need of her aid, and have received the assistance they sought from her. And is the example one that powers to a large extent still Catholic, that France or Italy can afford to disregard ? If the rebels whose rebellion has been confirmed by the lapse of ages, and has received from time all the consecration that such a movement could receive, have been obliged to bow their heads, what must be the effect produced on those whose rebellion is of recent date and for whom it is not too late as yet to draw back from the |position in which they have placed themselves 1 We, who have lived during the last quarter of a century, have witnessed what history must record as one of the greatest and most significant speotacles of the Nineteenth Century. We have seen the apparent decline of the power of Rome —the threatened fall, from which the visible arm of God alone could raise her up again ; and we have seen the veil removed which hid from the eyes of all whose faith was not firm, the [[abiding, unahake • able strength of Rome. We have heard the great cry of the enemy denouncing death and destruction, and rejoicing in a victory that left only the coup de grace to bs given, and we have lived to hear the voice of the enemy overwhelmed, to witness their opea acknowledgement or their ailent consent, that the power oE Borne, — whose assumedi downfall they hailed with delight, is a wholesome and necessary power, and one to be mot by at least respectful recognition everywhere. So much has come before us from the world without— from the nations long separate from Borne and hostile for the most part to her. It remains to be seen what influence their example will have with those nations — following, though by different paths, the example of their separation, but which still remain Catholic in a preponderating degree. Will they heal the breach while it is still fresh and comparatively easy of cure, or will they persist in an evil course until a long train of misfortunes drives them to take the backward step necessary to their health and happiness 1 But the Governments or peoples who now paraue the downward course must needs be doubly perverse.

ILLUSOBr BELIEF.

Another illustration has occurred of the timehonoured plan of governing Ireland by illusory promises or measures of relicf — always combined with very real and energetically applied measures of oppression. Lord Salisbury it will be remembered occasioned a good deal of surprise, and incurred pome indignation a little time ago by departing from his pledge to the landlords that no revision of judicial rents should be made. His Lordship declared that he had come to such a resolution on fixed principle, not believing that the step recommended would be honest, and holding it to be most inexpedient. — Lord Salisbury, however, afterwards saw reason to change his mind, or at least to make an alteration in his plans, and the Land Commission was authorised to carry out the revision that he had condemned. The Nationalists, however, were not particularly hopeful. Their disposition was that of fearing the Greeks who offered gifts, and, although they saw reason to ridicule the boasted firmness of the Tories, they did not place much trust in them. The landlords meantime were furious, and called out in piteous tones that their reliance had failed them, and that there was no longer any truth to be found in the world of politics. The Bill introduced into the House of Commonß to confer the necessary powers was passed, and all seemed about to prosper with the proposal, when the Land Commissioners themselves, acting under some influence that has not been explained, came to the rescue, and wrote a letter to the Chief Secretary, in which they expressed their unwillingness to act in connection with the Bill about to become law, unless they were relieved in some degree and given the advantage of precise guidance. On the publication of this letter, the House of Lords, before which the Bill was at the time, proposed an amendment, which was carried, and, notwithstanding the resistance of Mr. Parnell and his colleagues in the House of Commons, fiaally agreed on — to the effect that the alterations made in the rents under revision should be regulated according to the prices of agricultural produce. Thip, Mr. Parnell pointed out, was a most unsafe provision, and one that must result in making the relief given illusory. The prices, he said, formed a most unfair basis on which to settle rents, since they must vary with the quantity of the produce, so that the farmer a* beet would find himself no better off, and might be placed in a very much worse position. He predicted that a reduction of from 10 to 15 per cen'. was the very most that cjuld be expected, and that he complained of as wholly inadequate. The result, however, has been even worse than Mr. Parnell predicted. It turns out to be aa average reduction of from 10 to 12 per cent., and, therefore, proves a mockery of the wants of the agricultural classes concerned in it. The effect

has been to show the people how vain would be aDy reliance they might place in the good-will of Ihe Tory Government to do anything for the fundamental and real relief of their condition, and to make their conviction still more strong that all their dependence is on the National leaders, supported by their own resolution and docility. The Plan of Campaign particularly takes a fresh lease of life, and is conclusively received as indispensable. Ireland has learned many lessons in illusory Government and pretended measures of relief and aid, but none have come at a time more opportune than that now given, or have been better calculated to justify the National demands.

QUEER NOTIONS.

Hebe is a sample of the intelligent foreigner's ideas as to life in the Australian colonies. Here are an intelligent foreign reviewer and an intelligent foreign author. The intelligent reviewer would not by any means recommend his readers to explore the unknown regions for themselves but he is willing that in their chimney-corner?, by the aid of the intelligent author, they should form an acquaintance with this couDtry, which, he says, is peopled by " Englishmen, authropophagi, and rabbits." The intelligent author, for his part, introduces us to a copious stream on whose shady banks certain weary travellers ueek repose, but where they are disturbed at finding a brisk fire, before which is roasting a joint composed of human flesh. The cooks apparently care little as to whether their joint is properly done or not, for they have withdrawn to some distance, where they are discovered in a threatening attitude with weapons in tVir hand?. Tbese weapons, however, which in some instances might disarrange the notions of the philosopher of the period, some of them belonging to the stone age, here in the end of the Nineteenth Century, they at length, on seeing peaceful signsmadeby the wandering new chums, lay dnwn at the foot of a gum-tree— not suspecting in the least, we have no doubt, that the tree, as the author informs us, is an eucalyptus globulvs.— But as for the poor blacks, no ogre was ever painted in such terrific colours. The question, however, that arises is why on earth a party of patriotic folk from AlsaceLorraine should seek a refuge in Australia— even if they knew any. thing about it, and did not expect that, all unprotected by the Englishmen and rabbits, as a natural consequence they might form a meal for cannibals of an especially atrocious kind. Would it not be as patriotic for them to remain at home and in due time become honest Germans as to roam abroad, with the inevitable fate of being merged in a British population 1 This is an aspect of the case which seems to have escaped the notice both of intelligent reviewer and intelligent author, but it is, nevertheless, one that deserves some consideration What is the choice, in short, to an ardent Frenchman as to whether he becomes a habitual consumer of roast-beef and plum-puddiog or of saur-kraut? It is Hobson's choice, if we may judge by recent utterances of certain French newspapers.

MORE ABOUT SECULARISM.

We perceive from the report of a meeting of the Education Board, injthe Napier Evenvng News, that certain evils which accompany the working of secular education in other countries have begun to make their appearance also in New Zealand. In France, for example, the greatest hardships are a result of the excessive number of young people of both sexes trained for the teacher's calling— and a large addition is thus made to the unfortunate classes of the country. It may be remembered that a little time ago we quoted from a French newspaper a typical case of a young girl — the daughter of parents in a humble way of life but who had formed the ambition of bringing up their child for better things. They brought up the poor girl for a calling in which, like hundreds of others, she found no opening, and as a consequence, she was thrown starving on the streets of Paris~ being preserved from falling there into the lowest depths only by an innate shrinking from such horrors, which unhappily cannot be reckoned on in every instance. — We have not as yet reached this stage in New Zealand, but everything has its beginning, and it is evident that such a beginning has been made. The report to which we allude tells us that there are five teachers trained in the district for whom no employment can be fouad there, and, what seems to prove that the case is no exception to the general rule, we are also told that there are large numbers of applications from other" districts. The Inspector indeed, in reply to the question asked by the Chairman as to whether the supply was in excess of the demand, explained that the local men were elbowed out " probably because they were young "—but this explanation is evidently insufficient. The evil, then, which any sensible man might have foreseen has reached the light of day, and the value of our ruinous system of education receives another exemplification. Instead of bringing up children in their schools to serve more effectually in advancing the prosperity of the colony because of the education given them we find that our secularists] are developing the very cream' of their pupils those, who themselves are |capable of Staking >the teacher's place, te become helpless candidates for situations which cannot be found for them. " These young men," said thej Inspector, " might be

employed instead of pupil teachers, on a mere maintenance allowance, until they could get employment." Here is the brilliant realisation of the hopes of parents who, excited by the educational craze of the day, imagined they had only to secure the training of their children to settle them for life in [respectability and competence, if not in affluence, and of the persevering though misapplied industry of boys and youths deserving of a better fate. And such is but the faint beginning of what lies before the country. Verily the position of the colony is a cheerful one. At a ruinous expense children are being unfitted for the legitimate and necessary work of a new country, and are being trained as teachers to subsist thankfully on a " maintenance allowance." And of the outcome of the schools generally crowds »are every week hurrying away from the colony, carrying with them the education that has cost so dear to be turned to all the advantage it can afford in other settlements. How to keep the Colony back seems to have been the problem 'successive Governments in New Zealand proposed to themselves to solve, and they deserve to be congratulated on their successful solution of it. But secular education has been the chief instrument of what they have so far achieved.