WHAT A COMMENTARY!

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 29, 9 November 1888, Page 17

WHAT A COMMENTARY !

♦ SSUMING that the cablegram which states that the London Times contests the jurisdiction of the Scottish Courts to try the case of Parnell v the Times is true, we wonder the proprietors o" the newspaper are not ashamed to adopt such a course. For fully 18 months the Times has seduously libelled Mr. Parnell, and has ajain

and again challenged him to appeal to a jury in England, Scotland, or 7 eland. And yet the moment he accepts, the challenge, the jurisdiction it had itself invoked is denied by it. This is a striking commentary on its sincerity, and its belief in its own assertions. The charges made by the Times against Mr. Parnell are so grave that an honest man would not make them without certain information and a strong sense of duty ; and such a man would not fear to appear before-any jury. The conduct of the Times, then, in contesting the jurisdiction to which it had itself appealed is, in the minds of dispassionate men, equivalent to a confession of recklessness at least. The Times is clearly not certain as to the grounds on which it so grievously slandered Mr. Parnell, is afraid to appear before an Edinburgh jury, and is determined to employ every means in its power to prevent the case being tried by a jury at least in Scotland. Yet this appears the fittest place for this trial. In London the limes might very probably be fortunate enough to secure a jury of friends, even of partisans. The same might be said of Dublin in reference to Mr. Parnell, though not with the same confidence, owing to the practice of packing juries on the part of the Government of the day in cases in which their political opponents are concerned. But Scotland, it might be supposed, is free from prejudice in the case, and consequently most likely to afford the means of providing an unbiased jury. Were the Times, then, anxious for a fair trial, it not only would not have objected to a trial in Scotland, but would have hailed Mr. ParneH's action with the greatest satisfaction. It has not done so, however ; but it has done the contrary, and consequently people throughout the world are ipso jacto disposed to regard the Times as having acted throughout in bad, or at the very least, in doubtful faith, and therefore most criminally. Nor will they be reassured by the attitude of the Times before the Commission at its first sitting. In answer to Mr. Justice Hannen the counsel for the Times declared he was unable to formulate a charge against any one of the Irish Members or others, and secondly that he was unable to prove any charge against any of the Irish Members or others. He took up the position of a non-litigant, and of being there only to help the judges in fishing for charges against Irishmen, that is, against the National League. Of course, this is apart from the forged letters. So far as they are concerned, the charge against Mu. Parnell personally is clear enough. But setting these aside, the Times, when brought to book, was compelled to confess its inability to formulate or sustain a charge against any person. Under these circumstances, it may be asked, what then is the meaning of the Commission of three judges ? Clearly the meaning is, the Commission bag been appointed

solely for the purpose of endeavouring to find out, by careful fishing, proofs, if such can by any possibility be obtained, to sustain the wild and wicked charges of the Times, and to procure some information that may enable the Unionist party to decry the Irish party, and weaken their influence in the English and Scotch constituencies The whole thing is manifestly a political dodge, discreditable and far from honest. Mr. Parnell and his party face their enemies with confidence, and feel assured that the result will bring defeat and confusion to the Times and its backers, and raise him and the other Irish Members higher than ever in the estimation of every man who is not a Tory or an Irish landlord. But the fight will be long and fierce. The Times and the Unionists have power and money in abundance, and they are fighting for dear self, and the prolongation of an ascendancy that has blighted the hopes and prospects of our country, and weighs heavily even on Great Britain itself. Defeat for the Times and this party now means utter destruction, hence the fierceness and the unscrupulous means employed to blacken the fair fame of hones- men, and bring discredit on an agitation Which is likely to rescue Ireland at last from the fangs of a party and a policy which have been to it an unmitigated curse, a party and a policy which have laboured for many long, weary years to brutalise, starve, and expatriate the Irish race. That this race has survived, and preserved its nationality, its religion, and its noble qualities in its old home, is truly wonderful, nothing, indeed, short of miraculous. This Commission is the last effort to stamp disgrace upo 1 it, but like all other efforts to destroy it, this, too, will fail, we may rest assured.

The Most Rev. Dr. Moran left Dunedin on Taesday for Invercargill and Queenstown, in which places his Lordehip will hold visitations daring the next week or ten days.

Thus festival of All Saints and the commemoration of the holy ■oula were respectively observed as usual in St. Joseph's Cathedral on Wednesday and Thursday the Ist and 2nd inst. At the 11 a.m. Mass on Wednesday the Rev. Father Lynch preached on the feast of the day, and on Thursday morning a Pontifical High Mass of Requiem and solemn office for the dead were celebrated. The Bishop acted as celebrant with the Rev. Fatherß Vereker and Lynch as deacon and sub>deacon. On both the occasions referred to the music of the Mass waa effectively performed by the Dominican Nuns' choir,"

At a meeting of ladies held in St. Joseph's schoolroom, Dunedin, on Tueaday, the following arrangements were concluded in connection with the approaching bazaar of the Dominican nuns :— First stall Mrs. Connor and Mrs. Woods ; assisted by Misses Connor, Woods. Faulkner and Perrin. Second stall— Mrs. Wilson and Mre. Lennon ; assisted by Mesdames Palmer, Barnes and Clarke, and Misses Ford, Morrison and K. Cantwell. Third (Japanese) stall— Misses Carroll, Martin and Beany ; assisted by Misses J. Beany, Cohen. Colehan, Skey, Fraaer, Marsh and Coneys, Fourth (artistic) stall— Mrs. Petre ; assisted by Misses Cargill and Petre. Fifth (refreshment) stall— Miss Mackay ; assisted by Mesdames Fergusson, Bunbury, Asbury and Hooper, and Misses Horan, Mills, Smith, A. Drumm, Stumbles, and Goodger. Sixth (flower) stall— Mrs. R. A. Dunne ; assisted by Misses Donnelly, Columb, Lees, Popplewell and Annie Woods. Seventh (N.Z. fancy) stall— Mrs. Eraser ; assisted by Mrs. C. Fraser, Mrs. W. Hall, Misses O'Callaghan, Ancell, Monkman, M. Bmith, Rehberg, K. Fagan, Heley, L. Fagan, Hegarty, Cantwell, and Paveltich.— Art-union blocks and remittances have been received as folbws :— Mrs. Hill, Kaikorai ; [Mr. J. J. Ardagh, Ngapara ; Mr. Pledger, Dunedin ; Mrs. Hussey, Dunedin.

Thk Christian Brothers request us to return their sincere thanks to Rev. Father Burke for the very able and eloquent lecture he delivered on Tuesday evening last ; to J. B. Callan, Esq., for presiding and speaking thereat ; ro Mr. R. A. Dunne, and those who so kindly assisted him in arranging the hall ; to Herr Schweers for acting so efficiently as accompanist ; to Messrs. Brookes, Carolin, Coughlan, Deaker, Macedo, and Day for assisting in the chorus ; and, finally, to all who so generously contributed to make the cntertaiment so great a Buccess.— Net results will be close on £40.

Onb of the most significant things thathave occurred in connection with the Irish agitation'is the opinion given by the judge on the appeal of Mr. O'Kelly. In expressing sympathy with the prisoner he admitted tbe objectionable nature of the law, and virtually condemned the Coercion Act, which, he said, if brought into operation in England would be regarded there with suspicion. He added his belief, besides, that language such aB that for which Mr. O'Kelly was punished would pass unnoticed if used in England. This is a rebuke that muit touch Mr. Balfour very much on the raw, and we may per-

ceive by the quarter whence it comes how the tide is turning. The release of Mr. J. E, Redmond, too, seems to give farther evidence that the course of Balfouiism is not running over smooth^, and, finally, the ovation given to Mr. Gladstone at Birmingham, and all along the line of his journey thither, as well as the thin attendance present at the meeting of the Conservative Association in London ara pregnant signs of the times.

A LIBBBAL Home Rule demonstration is being held at Birmingham where Mr. Gladstone has had a great reception. Mr. Gladstone had come to the city for the purpose of taking part in the demonstration, at which he delivered a comprehensive speech. The only trophy of the Unionists, he said, was the Coercion Act administered by Mr. Balfonr In the character of an absentee, their Local Government Act being nullified by the omission of the licensing clauses He predicted the downfall of the Dissentient Liberals at the next general election. The speaker further declared himself in favour of manhood suffrage— one man one vote, Alluding to American affairs, he condemned the Fisheries Treaty [as an egregious failure, and spoke of President Cleveland's treatment of Sir Sackville West as a serious slight to England.— We ccc, then, that the interests of Home Rule are kept well to the fore, and are not likely to suffer much from the labours of the unfortunate Parnell commissioner j, poking for evidence of crime that does not exist among ,jtwo tons weight of documents.

" The outrages (says the Nation of September 22) which brought strong John Mandeville to nig grave are, we understand, being inflicted on Mr. William Redmond. For refusing to fulfil the menial duties that are demanded only of common criminals, he has been put on punishment diet of bread and water, and subjected to the usual tortures. One would have thought that the horror excited by the light shed on the deeds accomplished in the Tullamore duDgeons would have prevented Mr. Balfour from persevering in his murderous policy towards imprisoned politicians. But Mr. Balfour is as con. sistent as a heartless politician alone can be, and the MandeviUe villanies are being re-enacted." — This will be distressing intelligence to many of our readers. But they know the staff of which Mr. Redmond is made— and the cable has not bronght us news of his giving in,

Here is another proof of the indisoluble Union that binds the United States to Great Britain. Bir Sackville West, the British Minister at Washington, makes some utterance, or writes some letter that is interpreted as supporting the Presidential candidature of Mr. Cleveland, and immediately Mr. Cleveland hands him bis passports and tells him to get out. It is all very well to explain the matter as arising from the fear of the Irish vote — but when so glaring an insult is offered without hesitation to the British Government through any cause whatever, the state of things between the nations concerned cannot be described as indissolubly friendly. And if fear of the Irish vote has been at the bottom of the insult, does not the British Government receive a due punishment for the past as well as a warning for the future. The past cannot be amended. The Irish peasant has been irretrievably turnel out, but with a vengeaice, as his enduring enemy the Times once truly said, aad to become the power to pacify which the expelling Government may be fearlessly humiliated. Is it wise to strengthen the hand of the Irish- American and to increase his animosity by further expulsions — such as must iake place in proportion to the delay of Homa Rule 1 This is a question that no prudent Statesman can refuse to consider. Th c contempt, meantime, poured out upon Ireland in her weakaess is now returned by America in her strength. And as to the marks of indissoluble union they are notably wanting.

We perceive that our contemporary the Danedin Evening Star is a homoeopathist in a historical point of view. He tells us, in a paragrapn referring to the doable festival of the Gunpowder Plot and William the Third's landing at Torbay, that tne arrival of tbe Prince in England was the fouadation of civil and religious liberty through" out the British Empire and the United States. Passing over the consideration of the British Empire where the enaction of fierce penal laws was a queer foundation for liberty of any kind, we may remark that the victories of a Prince with whom the cause of religious persecution triumphed could only have been a homoeopathic cure for the condition of things in communities which, like the Protestant colonies in America, were stern persecutors and oppressors. If like did not cure like in this case, there was no cure made. But our contemporary says there was, and therefore we prove our point that | he is historically speaking a bomccopathist. Let us hope moreover^ that he will be consistent, and administer his/loses in small quantities, for nonsense is mighty hard to Bwallow. But we have now, a double dose of the glories of Kiog William to digest if we can. And some ingredients of tbe mess we do not find on the whole so unhealthy. We are not concerned, for example, to enter upon any very devoted defence of the Stuarts whom the Prince dethroned and who possess but of ovr sympathy, Nor do we believe that, even bad they

succeeded in retaining the kingdom, the Oatholio Church must necessarily have been restored there. King William, however > remains the traitor who broke the treaty of Limerick, or permitted it to be broken, and with whom the penal laws originated. He also must ?9iar the everlasting stigma of tho massacre of Glencoe — as he noes that of the murder of the Da Witts, committed barbarously, and with his connivance, before the landing now celebrated took place. However the memory of King William .therefore, may be rolled upas a bolus and gilded for our swallowing, it must still contain much that is suggestive of cramps and cholics,and narrowly connected with what is poisonous and deadly. But it may appropriately serve to nourish the Orange element among us. Like we know, bb the Star reminds us, onres like. A poison therefore for the poisoned, and to the unreasoning bigot unreasoning bigotry.

The Tories themselves do not seem by any means confident that the Parnell Commission is to result in putting an end to the Home Rule demands. Their spokesman, Mr. Goschen, now shows the weakness of their cause by requesting Mr. Gladstone to state whether he is prepared to place Ireland in the Bame position as that occupied by the colonies towards the Empire. Are the Tories, therefore, resolved even to sacrifice the colonies, England's greatest source of future strength, to their determination to resist the claims of Ireland 1 For the drift of Mr. Goschen's argument can only be to discredit the union of the colonies with the mother country, and to show in like manner how little reliance might be placed on such a union as applied to Ireland. Mr. Gladstone, however, answers with a manifesto, in which he declares himself ready to make provision for the retention of Irish Members in the House of Commons. But the wisdom of King Solomon's judgment still seems to hold good. The false statesman will consent to impair the strength of the empire, in order to carry the object of his party ; the true one is prepared to sacrifice something of Liß project that be may secure his country's good.

A LKTTBB from Mr. Patrick Barrett of Cbristchurch, now stndy. ing medicine in Dublin, gives us, through the kindness of a frlendi tome interesting details relating to the late impr'sonment of Mr. Matthew Barrett, a conain of the writer's, who, for refusing to give evidence before the Star Chamber, was sent to gaol for three weeks. " I was through the gaol at Carrick," writes Mr. Barrett, " and saw the cell in which he spent the time. It is a very small one. When I was standing in the middle of it, I could almost touch the four walls "' But, whatever the cell may be, what nobler monument could any man have to point back to through all future years. Well May the relations of Mr. Matthew Barrett visit with pride the scene of his heroism, and describe it to their distant friends.

Mr. A. C. Be<SG, we perceive, has been seeking, and no doubt receiving the refreshment to his eoul made desirable by his sufferings during the recent synod. There Mr. A. C. Begg was outraged by being obliged to listen to such horrid suggestions, for example, as tba f all babies dying as babies might not be damned eicrnally, and that there was the possibility of salvation for any heathen man or woman in existence. Wno would not pity Mr. A. C. Begg under the circumstances, and rejoice that he has found something to give him consolation as a man of piety and an expounder of the " unaided Word," his consolation being the repeated assurance that, if not the unelect babies and the heathen, the Catholic world are certainly, to a m n, rushing headlong down to hell. Mr. Begg 's appropriate refreshmenttookthe shaDe of a lecture delivered id the Lyceum Hall, Dunedin > on Monday evening by some man called Dr. Hammond, As to the sub-

tance of t be lecture it is not necessary that we should trouble our readers with any lengtbece J allusion to it. It was of the usual Evangelica] penny -dieadful type to which we are accustomed, and which is got up to order for the ddtctation of aunii-nct's which may be distinguished generally as having men of the 13 'gg type as their chairmen. Bu' to come to detaile, we should like to ask, for instance, what really became of those skulls that this lecturer told his hearers had been disposed of separately from the heaps o£ human bon^s he had lately seen in a certain room in Rome — not rep>rted of, nevertheless, even in the revolutionary Press. Had the human heads then, of which the skulls were the mi-erable remains, been used somewhat after the fashion of those sheep's heads which the bounteous Mr. Bcga; recommended the other day as wholesome tood for the poor of Dunedin. Cinnibal usages, we should siy. would not bo more out of place among the society alluded to by this Dr. Hammond than skin-flint and beggarly usages among ourselves. There is one other definite statement reported as made, under Mr. Beg^'s appreciative nosi, by this Hammond. It ig to thetffect that a darkness occurred at the reading of the definition gf the Pope's infallibility in the Vatican Council, so that the gas had A. i)e lit and the document to be handed by the Pope to a Cardinal to ...Id. There is no truth whatever in the statement, and we have no hesitation in characterising it as a lie, pure and simple. Mr. then, has been appropriately refreshed. But great are the privilegi a of the Loid's ekct. Let the unelect baby go to perdition. Let the heathen man and woman, unexcused by their ignorance, perish etc •

nally. But for him who cries " Lord 1 Lord I " there is a crown of glory — even though he may offer to feed the poor on offal, and may take part with the liar and slanderer in his infamoas calling,

The gallant Captain O 'Shea has quit* distinguished himself before the Parcel 1 Commission. The cable tells us he has proved, which, however, means that he has testified with more or less brazennesa and doubtful truth, to several very damaging matters against Mr. Parnell. He identified Mr. Parnell's signature to the forged letters ; stated that he had been in communication with Sheridan, and that he himself, on hearing of his (Mr. Parnell's) knowledge of Sheridan's doings, had tmrned him out of his rooms in Dublin. But, as to the forged letters everyone knows that the signature affixed to them was copied, as i[ might easily be, with much exactness. Everybody knows, besides, that Mr. Parnell had been in communication with Sheridan, whom he had no reason at the time to suspect of any sinister associations. And everyone is quite prepared to believe that Captain O'Shea drawa on his imagination when be says he kicked Mr. Parnell out. The toe, we may confidently believe, has not yet been put in the brogue, nor the leather cut for it, perhaps not even the bullock skinned or calvedr with which he could do bo. But already Captain O'Shea has been flatly contradicted. Sir William Harcourt has written to the London newspapers giving him the lie in a very unceremonious manner as to certain statements made by bim relating to parleying between Mr, Gladstone's Government and the Irish members in Eilmainham. Sir William asserts that some parts of the Captain's evidence are pore fabrication, and we may charitably conclude that the rest of it is no werse than the fruits of a vivid imagination. Meantime, we may wish the Commission joy of the search for the evidence of complicity with crime through the account-books and documents of the League, These have been forwarded to the Court, and weigh the goodly sum of over two tons. The search for a needle in a rick of hay would be a joke to the job that here awaits the Commissioners. Even Mr, " Torquetnada " Day, giving him credit for all the evil designs attributed to him, would seem to be about to be sufficiently punished by the perplexing and humiliating task required of him.

The Eev. Rutherford Waddell, the other evening, in the last o' a Beries of lectures on social problems delivered by him, and which were, one and all, characterised as much by able handling of the subject treate I of, as by lucidity and elegance of style, referred in rather a summary manner to the Catholic Church, which he described as having gone down before the invention of printimg. Now, it is an undoubted fact than the invention of printing, the outcome of Catholic intellect, like the revival of letters of similar origin, wag abused by being turned against the Church. To say that the Church went down before anything of the kind, however, is an inaccurate ex. pression, and one not justified by fact. Countries and communities it is true, fell away from tne Church, but the Church remained firmly standing. Macaulay, for example, who is an unsuspected authority, when he testifies in her favour, records that her gains in the East almost compensated for her losses in the West, la the invention o* printing itself, or the dissemination of learning promoted by it, there was nothing that could injure the Church in. any way. For that the highest condition ef learning or civilization was compatible with faithfulness to her, we may call on Macaulay again to witness. He tells us, for example, it is doubtfnl as to whether any European couatiy of the present day is so highly advanced in wealth and civilization as Italy was four hundred years ago, or during her most Catholic period. But if the art of printing was U9ed in the times alluded to to lead men out of the Church's fold, it is to day a great means of bringing them back there again. Ihe Church depends on the learning that is dispensed by means of the printing press for the preservation of her children, and the enlightenment of those who are without her pale. She leaves it to the ProtestaDt sects, who nevertheless boast of their free use of reason, to gain or confirm their adherents by particular calls and spontaneous experiences. Her reliance, as taught us by her head, the Pope, is on learning, for whos c advancement, therefore, every possible method is adopted by her pastors. The conversion to the Catholic Church which takes place to-day without learning, may be said to be a true miracle, so many and plausible are the aiguments it is necessary to overcome. And a miracle of another sort it may be, but no less a miracle, only can keep ihe learned man who thoroughly examines into the Church's claims from becoming a convert. If the printing press, therefore, was turned against the Church, it was abutei, as everything goo i and useful upon earth has been. But its abus3 did cot overthrow the Church, which to-day stands aB firm anl &? young a 9 she was ages before the learning Bhe fostered had made way for the invention of the piintiog press, and, as the whole history of her past, if there were nothing elae, might assure us she is destined to continue to the end .

OwiNG to pressure on our space, we are oblig3d tQ hold over the Riverton art-union list, and other matter.