Current Topics.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 14, 2 January 1891, Page 1

Current Topics.

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

Hkre are a few more of those wonderful figures, MOBB op those whicli, as lately given by Bishop Moran, astonished WONDBHFUL some of our kind secularist friends, who in theii noCBEP. comments, however, did not remark that the chief

wonder connected with the matter was its complete truth. We quote from an editorial headed "Catholics and Technical Education," and published in the Dublin RerUw for October :— "Ol sixty-seven apprentice mechanicians," says the writer, " who passed in 1888 for the School of Breßt, at the five French naval ports, sixteen were the pupils of the Brothers (of the Christian Schools), and not only were the three highest places gained by their schools at Qapestan, Brest, and Quimper, but with the exception of the fourth, taken by a student of the High School at Mirepoix, all the high numbers up to fourteen were carried off by their schools." May we not echo the Bishop's query ? Does this prove that denominational education has been a failure ? If the opposing voice were an honest and manly one, its answer would be, It proves the direct contrary. Wonderful figures, indeed, borne out by facts quite as wonderful, and both figures and facts, as we have said, wonderful because of their complete truth.

Thebe ia, however, a good deal more than the catholic paragraph given above which is worth quoting in training. this article in the Dublin Beview to which we

allufle, and, as under more aspects than one education is a subject of particular prominence at the present season, we shall make no apology for getting the passages in question before our readers. Indeed, it is very necessary, under the circumstances of the titn^s, that Catholics should be fully informed on this subject of education so that they may not ouly themselves be eettled and firm in their conviction, but that they may be in a position to answer, each for himself, thj arguments advanced with euch groundless assurance and euch obstinate reiteration against the Catholic stand-ing-point. The writer then traces from early times the connection between Catholic institutions and technical education. To the mocks of Como, he attributes the place of the first master-builders of mediaeval Europe. " From architecture, developed by religion," he says, "sprang all the other ar's as its handmaids and auxiliaries." As an illustration of the part fulfilled by the great abbeys, he quotes a passage from a work entitled L'fylisc ,tla Jevnesse Ouvriere, lately published by the Abbr Secretain. •' That of St. Gall, dating from 810, may serve as an example. We find there workshops for shoemakers, barnesE-makers, armourers, shie'dmakers, turners, curriers, goldsmiths locksmiths, fullers ; beaide these the 80 hooi 8 w i, h their dormitories! and further off, nearer to the stables and outhouses, quarters for the grooms acd shepherds, the swineherd", coopers, neat-herdf, etc. Nothing could come up to the solicitude of the CißterciaDs for the labouring classes, and it is in the abbeys of this order that the most perfect organisation of manual labour is found. In a word, alinosc all the generations of woikiugmen at this epoch were moulded by the religious tf Citeaux. The trade corporations came forth from the monastic professional schools." The spirit of the Cistercians, as the writer shows, was revived in the founder of the schools of the Chnstian Brothers, the Blessed de la Salle, who, he tells us, divined id tech d id] education the want of the coming age. " The f und tmental axiom that ' the unity of cience governs the multiplicity of its applications,' was enunciated by him as the bans of the teaching m h s central school of arts and manufacture-. This maxim, then ne*r, but now of universal acceptance, means that metallurgy, carving or moulding wood, stone, or iron, and the artistic handicrafts generally have a ground-work if elememary knowledge common to all.' To give pracical eflVct to this principle schools were opened, that a t Bain!-Yon especially in the last century proving most success, ful. The chief technical school of the Brothers is now that of the Bue Vaugirard, in Paris. "Its 1200 pupils have open to them fifteen different trades, and may become book-binders, lens-

grinders, compositors, printers, workers in bronze, metal engravers, makers of wooden and brass musical instrument! joiners, saddlers, trunk-makers, wood-rnrvers, wood-pngraveira, mathrmitical instrument-makers, map-engravers, or mechanicians. The admirable training bestowed on them enables them to earn good wagtt immediately on leaving tho institution, seldom less than from fonr to five franca a day, even when the general standard is low, and often as much as from six to seven. The artistic handicrafts are still more highly paid, and we read of engravers receiving fifteen francs a day within two months of the completion of their course, and of woodengravers whose wages rise as high as twenty-eight francs. The work produced by the school has a high repntauon, and a carted mautiepiece exhibited in London was valued at 4000 francs, while a book* case from the Rue Vaugirard was the admiration of visitors to the Parisian Palace of Industry in 1889."— Of the success of the Brothers' pupils as tested by competition we have given an example above. «' These results," says the writer, " are achieved not only by the unwearied personal zeal and devotion of the members of the Order, but by traditional methods of teaching, handed down by its foundera and scrupulously adhered to. They have many establishments in the United Kingdom , and the one at Artane, near Dublin, is not less admirable than that of Bue Vaugirard, though intended for a lower class of pupils." The writer gives the monks of La Trappe as another order who have attained particular distinction in industrial training :— " In Algeria, ou the edge of the Sahara, they have introduced flower-farming and the manufacture of perfumes. In the neighbourhood of Rome they have undertaken the reclamation of the Campagna, and by the introduction of the Australian eucalyptus have rendered portions of its fe»er-stricken tract habitable and productive. Among the Natal Kaffirs they have established a great industrial colony at Mariannhill, wheie, on their arrival iv 1882, there was neither house nor homestead, and their waggon was their only shelter. This establishment and its dependencies have now 70,000 acres under cultivation in Natal and GriquaLand, while sixteen miles of road, ten stone bridges, and a magnificent system of waterworks, comprising five tanks and 7000 feet of pipes are among the other tropbies of their industry. Their various undertakings . , . include a great bakery, supplying 60D people on the spot besides the bread sold, a printing-office, in which papers ars published in four languages, a photographic studio, forges, mills, and workshops for carpentry and waggon-making. Paper manufactured from native grasses, and bee culture, for which Italian queens have been introduced to improve the African variety, are among their other specialties." The writer gives one or two other examples of missionary enterprise of a somewhat similar kind. We have, however quoted enough for the present to prove once more that success, not failure, attends upon Catholic education in all its branches. But no doubt we should in v*in challenge the reproduction of these particulars by those journalists and other secular pundits who have preBurned to denounce Catholic education as a failure.

Thb Spectator of November Ist givcß us an insight

an into the spirit of the sge that we confess is someerbatic AGE. what htaitling. "Allen's Indian Mail," fays the

Spectator, " a little paper which during two geceratins bas endeavoured to record all matters of ioterei-t to Englishmen connected in any way with Aria, published on Tuesday, 28th October, the following extraordinary paragraph : • A native gentle* man at Hyderabad has received a le ter from Mrs Cateo, the lrcal secretary of the Liverpool Moslem Society, in which the lady states that there are now in that city no less than twenty-live gentlemen and five ladies who have embraced Islam. Mrs Catea asks for support to carry on the wurk of converting the English nation to Mahommedaniem ; and the leating nooulvies in the city, in response to her appeal, have opened a subscrip-ion li*t for that object. The President of the Society is Mr W. M. Quill am, B A., a solicitor of Liverpool, who has published a pamphlet entiiled 'The Faiih of Islam.' '"— The Spectator nssumes that ihe statement quoted by him will not be easily credited. He, however, expresses his belief that it is true, and declares that he himself has no difficulty in accepting it. lie says, in fact, that a quarter of a century ago he foretold

something of the kind as a necessary consequence of the increased facility of communication between Europe and Asia. " The process," he says, "hu been slower than we expected, but ia many departments of art the influence of Asia has been distinctly marked ; it is felt, on the Continent especially, in all philosophic discussion ; and it naturally extends itself by degrees into the domaio of theology. A trace of what is really Buddhism is getting visible in much theological •peculation and in all pessimut thought. While actual Buddhists, people who believe Gautama's ideas to be the best explanation of the mystery t.f tbe universe, are numerous in France, and can be talked with in the flesh even in England. We are not talking about Tueo* ■cphists, but genuine Buddhists whom Cingalese temples would acknowledge. As most of our readers know, conversions to Judaism have for years been frequent in Germany, Austria, and England, and hare not been confined to descendants of the house of Israel, and it is no matter for surprise, amidst tbe intellectual anarchy of tbe hour, that another great Asiatic creed should capture a few Englishmen." The Spectator, in fact believes that the way for the introduction of Mahommedanism into Christian countries ha B been prepared by one particular school of theology, dating from the so-called Reformation, acd what our contemporary says on this matter might possibly prove interesting, for example, to theologians. now engaged in considering the Westminster Confession. . . " The key-note of the faitb," he says, " the unconditioned sovereignty of God, has been accepted, in theory, by some of the greatest Oalvinists, and indeed, as many think, taint 3 all Calvinism." Our contemporary, nevertheless, does not believe that Mahommedanism is likely to gain a very extensive fooling in England, though he fears for the effects of a propaganda conducted by English converts to Islam among inferior races, including the negroes of tin United States. We quote the above paragraphs, meantime, as an interesting illustration of the chaos which the results of the Reformation, and the fruits of the false principle of private interpretation tend, with incressing strength and greater extension, to produce. Truly in the confusion and danger of the hour, the Catholic has reason to feel thankful for the privileges be enjoys in the safety and certainty bis unwavering creed assures to him.

The London Spectator of October 18 bears some THE TEITIMONY testimony to the condition of the Ireland of the OF an enemy, past that reflects very creditably on the people con-

cerned. Oar contemporary, however, does not leem capable of taking from the facts on which he comments a useful le6BOD. Oo the contrary, be affords us another example of the fatuity that baa been employed so regularly and with such disastrous effects in dealing with Ireland. The passages to which we allude occur in a review of a work recently published in the " Carisbrooke Library," and entitled " Ireland under Elizabeth and James I." " The customs of Ireland had been sorely defaced and confused," says our contemporary, " and murders were wholesale under the name of war; but the fact is noted by the English lawyer (Sir John Davies) that • for the space of five years past, there have not been found go many male factors worthy of death in all the six circuits of this realme is now dividtd ioto thirty-two shires at large) as in one circuit of six shires — namely, the Western circuit in England. For the truth is,' he adds, ' that in time of peace the Irish are more fearful to offend the law than the English or any other nation whatsoever.' " It is worth noting, in passing, that a somewhat Bimilar testimony has been borne by another eminent Englishman in our own days. "In 1884," writes Mr. Gladstone in the Nineteenth Century for January, 1887, the United Kingdom " with a population of about 3t>,000,000 had 14,000 criminals, or one in 2,500 And, as there are some among us who conceive Ireland to be a sort of pandemonium, it may be well to mention . . . that with a population of say 5,100,000 Ireland (in 1884) had 1,573 criminals, or less than one in 3,200." Notwithstanding the treatment received by her and the disadvantages under wbich she laboured, both in the reign of Elizabeth and that of Victoria, Ireland shone by comparison " Yet," eaya the Spectator, "Ireland had been out-lawed from the European community ; indeed, had never belonged to it while the foundations of modern society were laid." What the meaning of English rule has been for Ireland the Spectator explains as follows ; — " The three writers (Spender, Davies, and Fynes Moryson) who contribute to this Elizabethan survey of Ireland describe the country in terms of admiration wbich hardly aeem now applicable. The ' beautiful and sweet country adorned with goodly woods ' has not gained iv fertility. The woollen manufactures, appreciated even by Fynes Moryson, no longer excel, and it is forgotten | that drugget takes its name from Drogheda. The ' Prime Stories,' which it behoved every bard to know by heart h»ve sunk, as Mr. Matthew Arnold perceived, into English prose and poetry, and ennobled them. Yet which of them are recognised now* though in them are phrases that would immortalise a ballad of the Scottish border? The wrecked Ireland, as Spenser and Davids saw it, could yet show men of singular Htrungth and beauty , the borfcp and bound, comjanioM vl meu jn tattle and hunting, were at their

best. It could not have been altogether ' lewd and damnable,' this Irish life which the Fitzurses and Veres, and De Burghs and Geral- ' dines assumed as a garment." Ruin ia almost all its shapes has/ attended on English rule in the country. This the Speotator sees, and yet he would have tbe ruinous methods strengthened and renewed. Is the writer who writes as follows making a false profession or is he really deceived ? And that, by tbe way, is a question we may be urged by charity to ask concerning those aliens almost without exception who have dealt with Irish affairs. The only excuse to be offered for men who act or argue in this way is that of mental aberration. 11 We desire to have done with recrimination," concludes tbe Spectattr, "and to be just and sympathetic to what there is generous, and even ideal, in Irish conceptions of life. These records of disastrous experiments chiefly strengthen our conviction that, though they are not inhabitants of Jupiter or Saturn, the people of Ireland hare not travelled by the same route as the people of England along the centuries. For them trial by jury, legislation by majorities, roughly speaking, all our peculiarly English methods of representation, are as unfitted now as when Poynioga imposed the statute-book on the Irish clans. In the fact that we ate so near lies our difficulty, for English Radicalism stands in the way of a solid cure, and the word ' Crown Colony ' can but be whispered . Yet probably in that direction, rather than by further doses of the English Parliamentary system, can we hope to restore our sister island, let us say, to the comparative prosperity described by Spenser as existing before the Desmond War." The blindness of the proposal is equalled only by its brutality. It dearly enables us to see the absolute necessity that exists for the deliverance of Ireland from all danger of finally falling into the hands of the party the Spectator represents. Fortunately those English Radicals exUt, of whom the Spectator complains, and there is little fear that tbeir power can be lessened or their growth checked.

The defeat of Mr. Parnell's candidate by Sir John fobttjnate Pope Hennessy, in Kilkenny, must be a source of results, satisfaction to all the true friend* of Ireland.

Unfortunately, as we may gather from tbe cablegram!*, although, we are still far from placing implicit reliance on them, Mr. Parnell has forfeited the confidence of the Irish people by more than his principal transgression. His attack on Mr. Gladstone, for instance, has been imprudent in the extreme, and, were he still acknowledged as leader of the party, or even of an important division of the party, it must prove an insurmountable obstacle in the way of success. We do not, however, intend to imply that any consideration personal to himself would cause Mr. Gladstone to alter his mind or to withdraw his sympathy or his aid, so far as it could etill be given, from the Home Rule movement. Mr. Gladstone has certainly not been actuated in the matter by any personal considerations — not even by any considerations confined to Ireland alone, but by the views reflection and experience led him to form as to the well-being of the empire at large. We are convinced that, whatever the Irish party, even as a whole, might do, Mr. G'adstone's views as to tbe fundamental state of the question would undergo no alteration. He has himself told us, nevertheless, that it was the union and determination of the Irish people that induced him to take their eiJe, and to conclude that tbe time had come to help them in obtaining the object of their legitimate desires. It might naturally be argued by him that the arising of a division among them, and of a strong division as must evidently be the case did any considerable portion of the country adhere to Mr, Parnell, changed the aspect of the case and rendered it unadvisable or even impossible in the lace of opposing difficulties to proceed any further ia an attempt to promote it. The election in Kilkenny, therefore, which has been evidently taken as a test of the feeling of the Irish people, and on which all-important isuuco consequently hung, has resulted, we say, in a manner wbicn is completely satisfactory. Of Mr. Vincent Scully, Sir John Pope Hennessy's opponent, we know next to nothing. A generous subscription given by him a few months ago to the funds of tbe League gained for him the applause of the national press. His action, however, in consenting to becomo a tool to be employed in injuring the cause of the country, docs not incline us to believe he would have made a very good or useful member. His intention, perhaps, was laudable, but his judgment was certainly at fault. Sir John Pope Hennessy, on the contrary, is a statesman of experience— one who has more than once acquitted himself well in difficult positions— so that there c«m be little doubt that he must prove an acquisition of much valne to tbe party. He will nndoubtedly give them additional weight in Parliament, and increase the respect with which they are generally regarded. Things, therefore do not look so black for Ireland as we had at first feared. Even if there were more truth than we were willing to admit in tbe reports conveyed here by cable, and scenes of excitement did occur, in which demonstrations were made and things were said that must be exceedingly regretted, the time was one in which strong feeliog must necessarily prevail, and when some degree of forgetfulnesa must be conceded as allowable. Some foolish talk, indeed, wao here anil there as to jiro At giveu that tbe Irish people were uneuitetl

for self-government, and some small joking *s to the riotous nature of an Irish Parliament People, however, whose reading or experience is limited, cannot be expected to form judgments of any great value, and the small jester, according to his kind, must have his little joke. No one of any common sense could be influenced by •tuff of that kind. A great loss the national party have undoubtedly ■ustained.— We cannot pretend to belittle Mr Parnell, or to undervalue his services in the past— They, however, owe to the leader who has failed them a very perfect training, by which their nativs talents •nd long experience have enabled them fully to profit, and they «re now equal to maintaining the contest under a head appointed by themselves. That they will be supported loyally by the country, and that no division worth speaking of will occur, we are assured by the remit of this election in Kilkenny.