Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 44, 22 February 1889, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

We Bee from our American exchanges that the THE chbistiAN beatification of the Blessed John Baptist de 1 BROTHERS. Salle, the founder of the Christian Brothers, still continues to be celebrated in the States with great splendour. In several of the principal cities a triduum has taken place, at which the highest dignitaries of the Church have officiated, and great crowds of the laity have been present. There has, indeed, been something more than the ordinary fitness in marking the joy experienced by the C'.uroh'a recognition of heroic sanctity in the case of the Blessed de la Salle at the present period of the world's history. It is a time at which of all others the interests of Catholic education are at stake, and when a pers stent effort is being made to pot an end to anything of the kind and force the children of Catholic parents' in to godless schools. At such a time the prominence given to the great founder of one most important branch of Catholic education seems in iteelf an earne-st of victorious resistance and cannot be too highly appreciated. If, again, we may judge of tbe claim ot any particular saint to the eppecial veneration of the faithful Ly the success of the efforts he had made while he was still on earth fjr the benefit of his fellow-creatures, the Blessed de la Salle has a light to a very marked and general devotion. His sons, the ChnstiaD Brothers, have performed with eminent success labours that are of the greatest possible value in every part of the world. Tbe proofs of what they had done ami were capable of doing, for example, were shown a couple of years ago at the Health Exhibition in London, where their system, as illustrated and explained there, gained admiration from every visitor capable (f understanding it, and won for them some of the principal prizes given. At an exhibition afterwards held in New Orleans a like testimony was obtained by them, and it was acknowledged everywhere that among the very best teachers of the day they held a leading place— one that some might equal but that none could surpass. Bnt we neeJ not go co far awayfrum home for proofs of the proficiency and success as teachers of the Christian Brothers as London or New Orleans. We have before us now, for example, the returns of the success obtained by their pupils at the last Intermediate Examinations in Ireland, and they speak as eloquently as any witness in their favour can. We d& not know, in fact, of a more apt ce'ebration of the beatification this year of the koly founder of the Order than is made by the results of these examinations. It forms a splendid testimony to the lasting and supremely successful nature of the work for which the wisdom of the Blessed had laid the foundation. Of all the successful candidates in the examinations referred to, 37 per cent, belonged to the schools of the Ohristian Brothers. In the senior grade th.ir pupils took the silver medal for chemistry, and that for Celtic ; two of the special prizes for English and modern languages ; and one of those for Celtic. In the middle grade, their pupils took a silver medal for Celtic aad one for drawing ; and two special prizes for Celtic. They also proved themaelves especially proficient in arithmetic. In the junior grade the pupils of the Brothers won a gold medal for English, a gold m*3al for modern languages ; silver medals, respectively, for Italian, Celtic, and music ; two special prizes for Italian composition, and four for Celtic. They also were amongst the highest placed for answering in arithmetic. They gained, in short, 22 per cent, of all the exhibitions awarded, 21 per cent, of all the prizes, and 20 per cent, of all the medals. On the honour list in every grade the pupils referred to ■cored high in all the general subjects — that is, Latin, French, Snglish j arithmetic, book-keeping, Euclid, algebra, natural philosophy, chemistry, drawing, and music. They also made their mark ou the honour list in the special subjects, consisting of Greek, German, Italian, Celtic, trigonometry, and mechanics. We see, theief ore, that the Christian Brothers are not to be looked upon as mare primary teachers who have to do only wilh the three " R.'s." Doubtless in Ireland their pupils for the mo&t part belong to the classes whose time and opportunity for study of any kind is limited, and therefoie their success in the Junior Grade was most marked, their sc'ioole having passed 42 percent, of all the candidates passed in this giade— of which proportion over 50 per cent, took prizes. Their success, mean-

time, in the higher branches of education generally has been quite on a par with that gained by them as primary teachers, and the students who go up from their classes every year to enter the ecclesiastical seminaries or to matriculate for the learned professions are both numerous and well prepared. Among the celebrations, therefore, made during the past year of the beatification of the Blessed de la Salle, we may justly claim that the record of the work accomplished by the eons of the Blessed, as proved by the Irish Intermediate Examinations, has not been the least. Dean Swift's famous saying, to the effect that obvious eleven men well armed could certainly control one conclusions, man in his shirt.'has al ways been taken as a truism. It is not so sure, however, that it is completely true. We see, for instance, that the English Government cannot rely upon their strong military and constabulary forces to keep the Insh peopla in subjection, but must also have recourse to the aid of such tools as Major Lecaron. The eleven men cannot depend, therefore, upon their manliness nor their fully armed condition but must nave resort al o to secret wiles and plots, and the support of the sed«cer and informer. The matter is discreditable in the highe9t degree to the Government concerned, and, brings English boasts as to the strength and grandeur of the nation, no less than its straightforwardness and honesty, into contempt and ridicule. Here is this great people, six or seven times as numerous, and infinitely better equ'pped in every respect, than the people they oppress, and yet, for their success and safety in their nefarious undertaking, they are obliged to employ also in secret the most infamous means. This honourable and God-fearing England^ who pretends to be a pattern to the world, cannot keep a much weaker and far less pretentious race in order without enlisting in her service the professional perjurer, liar, and traitor — the wretch who is on a par with the hired assassin of more barbarous times. And to pay the wages of such wretches as this th 3 honest Euglishman is taxed. The appearance of Major Lecaron, meantime, both justifies and confirms U9 in an opinion to which we have steadily adhered ever since the commission of the Phoenix Park murders, and to which w have more than once given expression. It is that the conspiracy which resulted in that terrible event was one virtually form ;d by iha English Gove nment itself. We h ive alwajs held that the mysterious '' Number 1 " was an emissary of tha Ca9tle, empl >yed, as Lecaroa says he was employed to Seduce Louis Kiel to his ruin, and to urge Dr. Gallagher to his dynamite attempt. The only difference waß that ' Number 1 " was a little more successful than he meant to be, and organised a plot that bad i'ttal results in another direction besides that intended. But they who play with eiged tools must be prepared for 6uch accidents. It may be questioned, besides, as to whether the Government would not be willing now and then to sacrifice a friendly life or two as well as a hostile one to gain their ends. Such under takings as that, for instance, in which Gallagher was concerned certainly involve such a risk. Our belief, therefore, is strengthened that Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke were the victims of a plot formed, as is usual, in accordance with the method in which Ireland is Governed by a secret employee of the Castle, who, in this case, mismanaged matters, and allowed the murders actually to be committed. Most probably it was because of this very miscarriage which must have involved him in difficulties had his part in it been known, he did not afterwards appear as an informer. And we may add that the probabilities are that this ■' Number 1 " was Lecaron himself :—ln: — In any case, we see what the Government of Ireland, as it has been from time immemorial and is now carried on, involves. Eleven well armel men cannot control one man in his shirt. They mast have secret allies besides, and be aided by the detestable tricks of the hired perjurer and traitor. — What part, moreover, we may ask in passing, will the Govbrnments of those countries be inclined to take, whose subjects, as in the case of Dr. Gallagher a subject of the American Government, are an fully seduced into crime by the agents of a foreign Government and thea punished for it by that Government? But this, although an important question is for the moment beyond our purpose. It is no light boast for Ireland, however, that f she is oppressed, it requires a good deal to carry out the system of oppression, — an immense force of armed men, that cripples the powers of the empire in a very great degree, a heavy sum of taxation, and the employment of nefarious and abominable means that make

tbe name of English greatness, justice, and honour, a bye-word throughout tbe civilised world. Mr. Michael Davitt has lately expressed himself on HOME BULB this subject as follows :—": — " My views on tbe question FOE SCOTLAND, of Home Rule for Scotland are in no way influenced by tbe contention that such an issue might complicate the present Home Rule policy towards Ireland. lam a firm believer in the principle of national self-government wherever it can be applied to the satisfaction of national wants and aspirations ; and asnming that the people of Scotland believe they can administer their own affairs in Edinburgh better and more economically than they are now attended to in Westminster it would be most selfishly unreasonable on my part to say ' You must not demand this advantageous change, as your doing so will postpoae the attainment of a similar change for Ireland.' The Irish question should be made to block the way against reactionary or coercive proposa's, but not against progressive or democratic reforms. The strength of the Land League over previous Irish agrarian movements consisted to a large extent in the international character of its principles and propaganda. What is demanded for Ireland is a 1 so advocated for tbe crofters of Scotland and the farmers of Wales ; and the prevalence of advaaced ideas of l»nd reform in England, Scotland, and Wales to-day is largely, if not mainly, due to the Radical land reformers of Iceland. I am of opinion that a similar attitude to the Home Rule question will serve Ireland better in the eDd than one which excludes England, Scotland, and Wales from present contingent consideration in the matter of national self-government. If Scotland really desires Home Rale, if its national sentiment is evoked in favour of a National Assembly in Edinburgh, tbe very manifestation of such a feeling among the Scottish people will make Home Bule for Ireland an assurance doubly sure. Home Rule for Ireland is a good thing, but 'Home Rale all round ' is better — better for Ireland too, because the moment when the common-sense of the thing dawns upon the popular mind of Scotland und England, Ireland's claim to a common system of national self-rule will become irresistible." AMONG the results of the union of Italy has been A. CONTBAST. the emigration on a large scale of the Italian people. In Italy, strange to say, a change in the Government brought about for the immense benefit of tbe people has been followed by such a condition of general and abject poverty in the country that the people, so benefited, are willing to fly anywhere from the starvation that at home stares them in the face. Toe consequence is that in coma parts of the kingdom whole villages have bten almost completely abandoned and the new world is filled with Italian immigrants. It is, meantime, very significant that, while the Italian Government, whose grinding taxation has principally brought about such a state cf things, takes no trouble whatever about the fate of its exiled subjects, the Pope follows them with the utmost solicitude and makes every effort in bis power for their relief and protection. Thus the Holy Father, finding that their condiliun in America was especially miserable and hazardous, has lately established a special college where priests are trained for tbe purpose of following these exiles iato the strange lands in which they have been forced to seek a doubtful refuge, and watching over them iliere. The Holy Father evidently sympathises with the need of the emigrant for the ministry of a priest belonging to his own race and country, and knows that no other can so efficiently or fully satisfy all he longs for. The Pope has, bebides, addressed a letter on the subject to the American hierarchy, in which he commends, in a particular manner, these poor exiles to their care, and bespeaks for them their sympathy and watchfulness. — What we may particularly remark, meantime, is the difference we can plainly see in all this matter between the false and the true. On the one hand we have the usurping Government so conducting the affairs of the country as to render it impossible for large numbers of the people any longer to find a home there, and when once they are driven out troubling itself no more about them ; on the other, there is the Pope proving himself still the father of these poor people ; straining his limited means to provide for their wants, and to send them clergy who will aid, understand, and sympathise with, them, and in whom they may place the familiar confidence that no stranger, however estimable and respected he may be. can win. Nothing more than this contrast, it seems to us, can illustrate the true nature of the Roman question or mako it clear in what the genuine interests of Italy consist. The unfortunate clergy of the Church of England unfaibly at least as they appear in the colonies, have of lats CONDEMNED, been meeting with a good deal of criticism — not of a very flatteiing kind. We find, for example, a leader on the question in a recent isßue of the Melbourne Age which runs tj such an effect. The writer draws a contrast between the work done by ihj Caihcl c Church and that done by the clergy referred to, iv which he makes more admissions in favour of the Church than wo should have expected to come irom such a quarter. He admits, for

•> example, that the celibacy of the priesthood is an advantage. The' Catholic priest, he says, " has do family ties to divide his attention or dry up his energies, which are, therefore, concentrated upon the pastoral care of his flock." The writer, however, though he rather discredits the report that the Bißbops at the Lambeth conference had spoken of the Aaglican clergy of the colonies as " muffs " and " milksops," hardly looks upon them himself as much better. They have came to the colonies for the most part, he tells us, as " raw recruits," — a stage of existence, nevertheless, that mankind, as a rule, must at ■ome time or another pass through, — and, then fore, they remain useless, The writer's proposal for the amelioration of matters is more pay and more mission work. He would have a better class of men attracted into the Church by the prospects of higher pay, who should then devote themselves to active mission work among that section of the people which is, to all intents and purposes, heathen. The writer, in short, proposes to inspire men by worldly motives to perform work whose successful performance altogether depends on its being performed in an unworldly spirit. The fact is, however, that if, according to this writer's general argument, the success of the Church of England, or rather her salvation from a complete fall, is to depend on her adoption of the methods of the Catholic Church, her fate is sealed. She has nothing to gain by adopting measures that she has neither tbe spirit nor the sanction to carry out, and which can only result, if employed by her, in disappointment and failure. Tbe Church of England cannot borrow from the Catholic Church, because the Catholic Church cannot lend the spirit that quickens her undertakings, and without it even her methods, were it possible to employ them, would be worthless. It is not, then, because the clergy of the Church of England begin |by being raw recruits that their Church in tbe colonies is a weakling, for every soldier must first of all be a raw recruit, to be formed by experience and drill. It is because a system barely existing within its original limits by the force of circumstances has not the strength to bear transplantation, and cannot flourish among new surroundings. The clergy referred to, therefore, may be unfortunate, but it is not fair to condemn them as blameworthy. They are only worthless in performing the impossible.