Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 3, 16 May 1890, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

Come, now, this is interesting ! Mr. Gladstone, it would seem, has indirectly fonnded a new religion. If he has not exactly, like Jupiter, produced from

A new MESIIAH.

his head a goddess, full grown and fully armed, it ii not for nothing that Mr. Gladstone's skull, as they tell us is the fact, baa become more capacious of late years. From it, there is reason te believe, has issued Mrs. Humphrey Ward in the character of a prophetess, or a female Messiah. Had it not been for Mr . Gladstone's criticism, " Robert Blsmere," Mrs. Humphrey Ward's book, would in all probability have fallen flat upon the world. It would hare been found dull, as, indeed, notwithstanding Mr. Gladstone's criticism, competent judges have pronounced it — judges, too, by no means scandalised at its infidel tone, as, for example, Mr. Labouchere. As things are, however, Mrs. Humphrey Ward has been exalted to the skies, and will celebrate her apotheosis in a becoming manner. And yet the female founders of creeds have not been very happy in their success. Johanna Southcote has passed away almost completely into oblivion. Mrs. Gerling, tbe found res* of the Shakers but a few years ago, is hardly any longer remembered among us. Would it were lawful to wi&h Mrs. Humphrey Ward a better fate, for would she were about to do something to deserve such. What it is Mrs. Ward is about to do it is not easy very clearly to explain. But there is the foundress's own definition of it :—": — " To provide a fresh rallying point and enlarged means of common religious action for all those to whom Christianity, whether by inheritance or process of thought has become a system of practical conduct based on faith in God, and on the inspiring memory of a great teacher rather than a eystem of dogma based on a unique revelation." But this jargon by which it is sought to bring Christ into contempt under the pretence of honouring Him, eeems to us in some measure akin to the expression ofireverence made towards Him by the Roman Emperor, who, as some historians say, erected Hi* statue among those of heathen gods — Christ was more honoured by the persecuting Caspars. There is more honesty and less insult in open blasphemy than in this milk and water profanity — "made easy for small minds," as Charles Kingßley's Irish curate says of Pußeyism and " Popery." Take, for example, the open blasphemy of Giordano Bruno, the reformer whose statue was erected in Roraa the other day by the united Freemasons of the world. " Christ was not God," he says among the rest ; "He was a great magician, and having deluded men he was justly haDged, not crucified." Even this imagination of the great magician who deluded m«n is a finer one than that which lies at the bottom of Mrs. Humphrey Ward's absurd ambition.— But the world no longer believes in magicians, and Christ, stripped of His divinity, cannot attain even to such dimensions. We have to see, then, how Mrs, Humphrey Ward's institution, " Hall," Lyceum, or whatever it may be, will replace as a " rally i»g point" Mount Calvary, where a Divine Saviour dies to become for the world an ever-living presence ; to prove by His ever-present influence that, as one who justly boasted that he knew men declared, He is no man, as those who are men only are men. Mrs. Humphrey Ward, therefore, comes forward in the light reflected on her by a novel, made popular, or rather, perhaps, fashionable, by a powerful criticism, to rally the world in favour of a Christianity that has lost everything deserving for it the name. We shall Bee how the world will religh or profit by the mess of savourless salt she sets before it.

* WELL AGBEED ■L

f Units the gross injustice of imposing upon a Catholic people schools nicb, like those of the State 3, are strongly tainted by Puritanism. What, then," he says, "is the complaint of the earnest Catholic? the first place it is this— That his children in the public schools c subjected to the teaching of a religion which he not only does ot believe, but that threatens their souls with eternal ruin, Now

we must give tbe Catholic the credit of being sincere and in earnest. In that case, then, thera is, from this point of view, no more intolerable tyranny on earth to-day than that which is manifested in the management of our public schools. The grievances which led to the rebellion of the colonies against King George were insignificant in the comparison. Any mere question of earthly politic, is as nothing. Were I a Catholic, and did I believe as any honest Catholic must, I would resist such oppression by every means in my power. And if I could not change the school policy of the country, I would pay taxes in its support only on compulsion and under constantly reiterated protest. The position of the Catholic here is impregnable. His cauße is that of simple justice. And so long as the friends of the public school allow one just cause of complaint to remain, they are playing into the hands of its enemies. For the foundations of any institntion are insecure so long as the cry of injustice is beating against its walls. Let all the real friends of free education labour, then, without rest until all fair cause of complaint is taken away." What Mr. Savage does not see, meantime, is the fact that his argument, a just and true one, applies quite as strongly to purely secular schools, as to those coloured by Puritan teaching or prejudices. It is Burely as great a sin to starve a man to death as to kill him with slow poison. Fully extended, what Mr. Savaee says deserves the attention of those who anywhere oppose the concession of justice to Catholics 1

It is a rule that when any cisc is sub judiee journalists and publicists generally Bhould refrain

AT IT AGAIN.

from commenting on it. Indeed, if we understand the law aright, they are liable to punishment for contempt of court if they do not do so. We admit, however, that at the distance of these colonies from the old country some relaxation may ba legitimate. No opinion published here is likely to affect the course of justice at Home. Hence, for our own part, we did not think it unbecoming to comment pretty freely on the evidence given before the late Parnell Commission. Even here, nevertheless, some measure should

also be observed, and it can hardly be claimed as fair or proper to make an attempt to create prejudice and stir up adverse feeling. Yet this is what the cible agency is evidently doing in reference to the divorce case in which Mr. Parnell is concerned. The messages forwarded are clearly framed with the intention of impressing the colonies with the conviction of Mr. Parnell's guilt, and of holding him up to execration as an impostor unveiled. We are given to understand, for example, that his party have withdrawn their leadership from his hanis and placed it in those of Mr. Dillon. Following hot upon this preparatory message again comes one to the effect that Captain 0 Shea has been offered a bribe to withdraw from the prosecution, so that disgraceful details may not be brought forward. What is all this, we would ask, but to prejudge the case and, in advance, to condemn Mr. Parnell as guilty 1 It is plainly a broach of the rule, for which there 18 no excuse. We do noc venture to predict what the results of the trial will be, nor, were we within hearing of the court, should we presume to offer any comment ou the matter. Under the circumstances in which we find ourselves, nevertheless, we may say without impropriety that nothing would astonish us more than Mr. Parnell's conviction. How Captain O'Shea has been influenced to take these proceedings it would not be right for us to inquire. The trial will take place, and all, no doubt, will be brought to light, and then it will be legitimate to express even strong opinions. But, for the moment, notwithstanding reports of many kinds, we are bound to receive it as the fact that Captain O'Shea looks upon himself as an injured man, and acts sincerely. Mr. Parnell's whole life, meantime, Beems completely out of keeping with the accusation brought against him. A self-restrained, cautious man giving himself up entirely to the interests of a great public caaae> should certainly be the last whom those possessing'any knowledge of human nature could suspect as likely to become entangled in a matter of the kind alluded to. Knowing, moreover, as he must have known, that with the exposure which was, sooner or later, inevitable, his career as a Statesman must terminate — for it is only in the House of Lords that these exposures entail no rainous consequences — he would necessarily have been doubly ou his guard. But in addition to all this the accusation now brought against him is only consistent with what has gone before. He has just come out fully

The Rev. Minot J. Savage, a well known Unitarian Minister of the United States, in an article published by him in a recent number of the Arena

vindicated from a plot formed against him for the purpose of implicating him in assassination, and making it impossible that people of any decency or self-respect could any longer associate with him, or accept bis leadership. This divorce case, therefore, has necessarily a very ugly aspect, and can appear to us as nothing more than a fitting sequel to the forged letters and the publication of " Parnellism and Crime." If it proves to be another resort of desperate men — we do not say their last resort, for who can tell what still lies within the compass of their invention — there will be nothing in the matter for which we have not been prepared. As to these cablegrams, then we read them in a different signification from that in which those who are accountable for them would have them read. They seem to be the device of men not sure by any means of their case, but determined, at least, to do aa much mischief as possible while the opportunity lasts, or, as the old saying has it, " to make hay while the sun shines." Such conduct on the part of the cable agency is> moreover, consistent with the course followed by it all along.