Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 15, 9 January 1891, Page 1

Current Topics

A T nOMB AND ABHOAJJ.

SOME MOKE WOIJDKEFUL FIGUBKS AND PACTS.

Here \re some more of those wonderful figure which, as given by Bishop Morau the other day excited so much Astonishment among certain o our candid friends. Oar candid friends, however will not exercise their candour by .quoting them Of that we may be very Bure. The results of the examinations of the Royal University of Ireland for the year jusl closed, that is 189p, give us the following: -At the first Universitj examination, the number passed by the Queen's Colleges of. Cork and Galway was 22, the same numbei being passed by the Catholic colleges of Stephen's Green, Dublin, and Black rock, The honours gained by the Queen's Colleges were 7 ; those gained by the Catholic colleges, 22. The Queen's Colleges gained 2 exhibitions and th^ Catholic colleges gained 9. At the second examination in Arts the Queen's Colleges passed 18,andthe Cnholic colleges 31. The Queen's Colleges gained 6 honours and 2 exhibitions, aod the Catholic colleges gained 16 honours and 8 exhibitions. At the B.A. examinations the Queen's Colleges passed 17 and gained 9 honours aud~7, exhibitions, while the two Catholic colleges passed 15 and gaiael i> honours and 5 exhibitions. To sum up: At the three examina ion ? . ,the two Queen's Colleges'.passed .>7 and gained 33 honouraand exhibitions, two Catholic colleges passed 68andwon 69 honour* and exlii^i-' t TO^l*WWW^fl^*%? r . in J * i sl£& a(i } testify^h^resnlts of Catho.ic education. Facts, moreover, are quite as eloquent in the matter as Are figures. On Saturday, November the 8:h, for example, Mr. William Mather, M.P., a gentleman who has been very active in the promotion of secular tducaiion in England, in laying ibe founda-tion-atone of a Catholic school at Prestwich, expressed bimseif to the following effect :— " He said that, as a Protestant, he regarded as a signal honour the invitation of the Caihoac clergy to take part in a function connected with the public welfare. . . . They were aware that his views upon national eleme itary c lucation were pronounced and that he had had a good deal to do with the advocacy of that widespread system of School Board instruction, >nd the establishment of School Boards which be knew ihe clergy of the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church were not entirely in sympathy with, but ha had always shown the utmost respect for tbe voluntary zeal which manifisted itself in those Churches. . . . He desired to testify to the great zeal and devotion to high principles which had marked the Catholic Cbmch of this country for many years past. The clergy of England and Ireland belonging to that Church had shown they were capable of great self-aacnfices and lifelong devotion to what they considered .he public welfare, and there had also been in their minds the widest tolerance and the most charitable respect for the clergy of other denominations. la the temperance movera<n> they bad been most active in promoting good habits amongst the people, which were now producing a totally different spirit am ngat tl c lower classes in regard to the B ecu!ar side of education. They had taken the cr.ildren of -he lowest class of our population and taught them in the mos- efficient manner in their elementary schools, and no one had besrudeed the Catholic C&urch that amount of support from the Government which th.y had been able to earn. Although he was an advocate of free educa ion, and for the enlargement of the sphere of the School Board influence, he should never be one to lessen the zeal of the Catholic clergy " Mr E J Broadfield, a prominent member of the Manchester School Board' particularly known also as a secularist, spoke likewise on the occasion '• He said the Catholic Church had been almost unrivalled in its' efforts to do its duty towards tbe children of i s community. I Q the oree R's the results in Cathuhc schools compared favourably to these ot other schools, although their educational work was often carded on under great disadvantages. The grant per head of scholars in average attendance at ihe Voluntary schools of England and Wales was 17s 4}i, and in the Catholic schools it was 17a 3±d That was greatly to the credit of Catholic school managers. In school pence they only took 9s 5d per head, while the other Voluntary schools

took ll 8 lid. F,gures and facts, then, still prove the great efficiency of Catholic education. We see, moreover, that this is very effectively recognised aad openly acknowledged by men whose position and experience particularly qualifies them to form sound judgments in the

BEMNA.NTS OP ANTIQUITY,

Among the more interesting discoveries of the day is the ancient gold-field recently fonnd in Seutb' Africa, supposed, with a good deal of apparel probability, to be the Ophir whence Solomon ob. „.,, it _ m tamed the g° ld ÜBed by him with such profusion in bm ding he Temple. A tract of coantry, it appears, has beea par. tially explored and found to contain the remains of mining operations on a large scale and carried out by a civilised people. Our associa tionef the Jew. with religion exclusively has printed on fal,y realising the position they occupied in the ancient world We are accustomed to regard them as a people shunning friendly intercourse w! h the heathen nation, around them, or only now and then, by a til tI "?u ldolatron9 B y»P«thie 8 , forming relations with them. Tbe wars they waged and the victories they won, or in which ; they were defeated, are the chief events that, for the most part we . recall as bringing them into contact with other people*. The fact is, however, that the Jews were very actively engaged* trade. Dr Yea.es for example. 1Q hm.work "Growth and Viei 98 itude 8 of Comnied Ce bv a th Blg p 88 h tOthemaP u iCe aS traderßnn] y^o n dtothatoccu^ pied by the -Pbccwcians, the famous merchants and navigators 6f pnmit^e times :^< AHhough^Mhteniciau trade," .aysDrYeSes ' ".waae^entullymariee,-,^, tb«r iflJarxd trade w ? ,s also and valuable. With their ndgbbours, the Jews, the" "Sow during the .eign. of David and aoionaon were very Intimate. H ram .applied David wuh cedars, and sent skilful metal-woikers to Jer" saena to aid m buld.ng the King's pa !ace, and, in the erection of Solomons Temple Jewish hewers of wood joined with those of Sidon in felling the timber of Lebanon. The resouicesof the two contiguous states dl ffered greatly. Phoenicia produced S3ercely any gram, but fruits, timber, and metals werp abundant. Palestine wain great part a fertile river-plain, producing fiae wheat, barley millet wine .nd oil, as well as balm, honey, gurus, fl aX) byß sus, cot on and wool, which the Tynan prince, were ready to receive in exchange for .umber, RO ld, dyed cloths, metal-work of bronze and tin gas'! pottery, jewellery and carved ivcry. the produce of their foreign traffic, or ot their home iodnitry."-" The Jew,," continues the writer earned on aa extensive inland traffic, as factor,, or middleeTfi I **"?**"*■ The co^ uests of °avid extended the confines of the Hebrew kingdom to tbe Syrian desert, and southwarns over the land of Edom to the Bed Sea, on the shores of which Solomon built the ports of Elath and Ezion-geber The la-ter monarch also built Tad m or in the wilder.,™ called by the Greeks Palmyra, or tbe City of Palm-trees, as a halting-place for the cara! vans bet.en Syria and Mesopotamia. . . .' L JU ins sull att t U. ancxent grandeur. . . . fcolomon in founding these ports end cues was not wuhout a purpos •. His subjects bad as strong a predileotio«,fori land as tbe Pboe .idan. had for maritime traffic, and each nation leit to the other ns special di\ ision of lab mr The Hebre * ports on the Red *c , w, re open to the PI cenicians, brought thither the products of India and Arabia, the Jews conveyno^ cm f T^li t0 PlCEnicia -'- W c »cc, therefore, that there „ nothing far-fetched or intrinsically improbable in the co D jecture made respectmg th.s ne wly-explored district in South Africa, to the eff ct that v was tbe ancient Ophir where the Phoenicians carried on mining, disposing of their gold to King Solomon. Nay very possibly the L eed felt in this matter may have led to the baildine by Kiug Soomonof those ports of Elath and Ezion-geber on the Hed Sea Dr. Ye*tes. indeed, defines Arabia Felix and Ethiopia as forming the Ophir spoken of. '• The rich countries, just referred to '■ he says, •' were the anc.ent Ophir, whence the Jews obtained gold silver ivory, apes, and peacocks. "-But, with .be exception of peacocks, all thtse things might also ba^e been brought from Africa ana .he same name perhaps was given to different parts of the unknown regions where they were obtained.-perbaps indeed by design, for the Phoenicians were jealous as to their trade and cer-

tainly in some instances, kept the details concerning it secret Meantime the value of tbe re-diocovered gold-field would seem to depend on the degree in which the Pboeaicians-if, as conjectured, they were the ancient workers of the country— were efficient miners. Were they able thoroughly to exhaust the field and to extract all its treasures? Time couli hardly have failei toetn to do so, for they continued for many generations, following the reign of King Solomon, to retain their special distinction as navigators and trader?. It seems hardy likely, in any case, that, as also conjectured, they have left any vast storehouse of wealth to be found by fortunate inheritors who have now entered on the scene of their labours.

THAT HUMBUG BABNAHDO.

The benevolent Dr. Baroardo, or somebody on bis behalf, has cabled to the Colony an appeal for aid in giving food and shelter to some four thousand children whom he professes to have rescued from the streets. The pretence is, of coarse, tbat tbe benevolent Doctor rescues children who have no other hope and for Whom he provides with the utmost prudence and economy at the expense of a charitable public. As it occasionally happens, how«T«r, there is some slight variation between the professions made or implied and the facts as they actually exist. A case, for example, bai just been concluded before Lord Chief Justice Coleiidge which throws a sinister light on the matter. Dr. Barnardo has been exposed and condemned as a kid-napper, and as having as such acted in an extremely disgraceful manner. Tbe case was tbat of a Catholic boy detained by the Doctor against tbe will of his mother, and notwithstanding that provision had been made to give him adrantages under Catholic protection fully equal to those so provided. The Doctor, moreover, had attempted to silence the boy's mother by threatening her with a public exposure of certain circumstances of a discreditable nature alleged to be connected with her career, and be had bad her shadowed for the purpose of obtaining evidence of ■nch a kind against her. The Chief Justice, nevertheless, declared that the attack on the woman's character had entirely broken down, and be scathingly condemned the espionage to which she had been subjected.— " Where she went," said bis Lordship, " with whom she oonsorted, how long she stayed in this public-house, how long in that, what she was Been to drink, how much more she may be pretumed to have drunk, what she paid, and what others paid for her nay, what language she used, overheard when she did not know she was being watched through a door ajar, language which a lady was not ashamed to listen to and to Dole down, though she professed to ba ashamed to repeat it, all this collected for months with indefatigable asßiduity by Dr. Barnardo's friends we have bean compelled to listen to at great length, either from affidavits or oral evidence, in order to blacken the character of Mrs. M'Hugh, and deprive her. if possible, cf her control over her own child." — This hardly looks like the conduct of a man solely devoted to tbe aid of the necessitous, and making use in the most economical manner of the funds placed at his disposal for their succour. On the contrary, it exhibits the Doctor as lavishing the money bestowed on him for such a purpose in an unworthy manner — expending on an attempt to detain a child he bad no right to sums that should go towards the support of children legitimately under his care. The Doctor, moreover, has appealed against tbe decision of the Chief Justice, a measure which will necessarily involve him in additional expense. People, therefore, who are inclined to respond to the appeal made by Dr. Barnardo to thie Colony for aid should be warned tbat their money, in all probability, will go, not, as they intend it, for the support of destitute children having no other refuge, but to contest the possession of children unlawfully detained, and for whom provision has been made elsewhere,— or to defray the costs incurred in 6uch a contest. Dr. Baroardo, the protector of children of his own creed— rescued by him from the streets and maintained, by a wise and ecom mical expend ituie of cbantible contributions, is one thing,— but that is tbe Dr. Barnarde of pretence or imagination. Dr. Barnardo the determined proselytiser, expending on the UDJuet detention of one Catholic child sums that might support three or four other children legitimately protected by him, is quite another thing, — but that, unfortunately, is Dr. Barnardo as he really exists. — As such, can he possibly deserve the support and sympathy of the truly charitable?

lI'EOKBNIH OUTDONE.

The reply of the Auckland Trades and Labour Council to General Booth's proposal to establL-h special settlements of hisreforuKd criminals in the colony is a work of geniue. The Council gusheß with sympathy for the General's devotion. No one could possibly enter into the spirit of the undertaking more fervently. They go down on their knees to beg the blessing of Heaven on the General's work. Bat when it comes to anything more direct or more compromising it is quite a < ifftfrcnt thing :— " Wishing yon God-speed in your laudable undertaking to alleviate the sufferings, and improve the minds and social positions of your leas fortunate brethren — still, we canuot suppress the etron^eot f< c in us i f surprise and resentment at ?ny attempt tv luist ujiun uui iLßptctablc and law -abiding cum m unity

the offscouring of God'a most glorious earth."— God may aid the General in fact, but respectability, as represented by the Auckland Trade and Labour Council, never will— except, of course, by its prayers— which, doubtless, may be acceptable, as are those of the righteous man, to whose effect Holy Scripture testifies. How different, meantime, is the reply which General Booth has received from Cardinal Manning. The Cardinal extends to him tbe right hand of fellowship without any pretence. "Your comments," writes his Eminence, " on modern political economy, poor-'aw administration, government statisticp, and official inquiries, are to the letter what I have said in private and in pubtic for years. This is both superficial and unreal. Yon have gone down into the depths. Every living soul cost most precious blood, and we ought to save it, even the worthless and the worst. After the Trafalgar-square miseries I wrote a ' Pleading for the Worthless,' which probably you never saw. It would thow you how completely my heart is in your book." The Cardinal goes on to recall the poor-laws of Queen Elizabeth, which provided for work for the unemployed. •• The modern political economists," he add, '• denounce the giving of work, even in wintert to honest and true men out of work, as alms, and as demoralising. I hold that every man has a light to bread or to work. These modern economists say society must adjust the demand and supply of labour until all are employed. 1 ba»e asked, ' How many years are required for this absorption ; and bow many weeks or days will starve honest men and their children i ' To this I have never got an answer."— The off-scourings, meantime, according to the Auckland Trade and Labour Council have hardly a right to show their faces on " God's most glorious earth," as the Council piously calls it. Off-scourings they are, and off-scourings let them remain — shut out from the light of day and from every chance of a better life in the miserable alums, whose brulalieing influences have in all probability been most accountable for their state. Let us hope the attitude of the Auckland Trades and Labour Council, sympathetic and prayerful though it be, is not that which characterises the body throughout the co'.ony that they are supposed locally to represent. A proletaire steeped in Pharisaism —outdoing Pecksniff himself, in f tct— would be an evil material out of which, as it would appsar, the future government of the colony is to arise. But as to the feelings with which General Booth will read the reply, it would perhaps be vain to speculate upon them. Should the outcome, however, be a process of conversion especially applied to the Council by means of the biggest drum and the most loudlyroaring trombone to be found among all the bands of tbe Salvation Army, it would hardly be more than they merit. In the drummingout of hypocrisy the Army would have our liveliest sympathies.

POOB FELLOW ?

Oub contemporary the JV. Z. Pretlyterian, a copy of which has bten forwarded to us by a friend, is completely astonished by Bishop Moran's sp p ech at tbe breaking up of the Christian Broihers' echools. Our contemporary, in fact, is so much astonished that he has not a word to say — though he says a whole lot. What he says, however, as the saying is, is neither here nor there, aud may go for nothing, or next door to nothing. It is a mere repetition, rather more feeble aud confused than usual, of arguments, if arguments they may be called, that had already been advanced against the Catholic position iv every imaginable shape and form, and its motive seems to be rather a weak, half-hearted kind of plea in favour of Bible-reading in the schools, than any serious attempt to answer the Bishop. Indeed, the exception taken to the strength of the Bishop's language is qaite silly. — How, for example, could any sensible man be hindered in his just and well weighed sympathies by any violence of language? "We sympathise to a certain extent with Dr. Moran and his fellow Catholics," B*ys the Presbyterian, " and we would do so to a far greater extent if he did not assert their claims in such violent language." — We are not above making an attempt to remove ignorance wherever it exists and it comes in our way to do so. Alluding to certain fruits of godlessness spoken of by the Bibhop, our contemporary asks :—": — " Why did not the Catholic Church, after having stamped out Protestantism in France, prevent the Revolution ?" Suppose, for sike of argumenti some atheist were to ask : " Why did not Christianity, after having overcome heathenism in the Roman Empire, prevent the Arian ascendancy ? ' Almighty God sometimes, for reasons unknown to us, permits of the triumph of evil, and the Revolution has not yet prevailed nearly so long as, for example, did Arianism. But was it the Catholic Church lhat stamped out Protestanusm in France ? We fancy the point is not certain. Louis, XIV in his dragonnades and the revocation ot the Edict of Nantes, undoubtedly acted without the support or sympathy of the fljwer of ihe French cpisoopite, who, as Saint- Simon testifies, saw his action with sorrow, but did not dare^ to remonstrate, knowing tha temper of the King. Nor is it true' that the Church, as our contemporary also states, bolstered up in any particular m-uoer the authority of the Grand Monarque. On the contrary, that King during a considerable portion of his reign bad shown himself hostile to the Church, and it was abuses that, contrary to the interests or welfare of the Church, had crept into ecclesiastical aft urs tlunny Ins rugu an^l that of Iris successor, that tended towards

the outbreak and success of the Revolution. Tho Revolution, nevertheless, as M. Tame also narrates, found the Church in France engaged io good and holy work consistent with her Divina origin, Bat to return :— Protestantism, having been stamped oat in France however it was stamped out there, still remained d >minanc in England, and thence the infection of atheism was carried to France and Italy. Voltaire, the apostle of Continental atheism, was the pupil of Bollingbrooke, and thus the origin of the Revolution may be traced to English Protestantism of which Bollingbrooke was a product—ln what degree may ignorance excuse calumny aud falsehood, barefacei lying, indeed, we may say, of a particularly malignant type ? " France and Italy have both rebelled againat the Pops and hit religion," aay< -ur unscrupulous cinfempjrary. " Why we again ask dcea this happen 1 Not b cause of Protestant heresy, but simply because of the corrupt teaching of the Church of Rome and the godless livea of her clergy." There is not a word of truth in this paragraph, and part of it is foul calumny — barefaced lying, indeed, as we have said. France and Italy have not rebelled against the Pope and his religion ; the vast majority in both countries remain faithful Catholics. The teaching of the Church is the teaching against wnich Christ promised that the gates of hell should never prevail, and which consequently could not become corrupt ;— and to say that the clergy of France and Italy lead godlesa lives is a foul calumny, a barefaced, impudent lie, in fact — to call a spade a spade and tell plain truth. We do not know whether this can be excused by ignorance or not, we say ; but if so, it must be by ignorance of an extreme kind. To be excusable, the man making such a statement must have been ignorant that it was a gross thing to make it concerning men of whom he was conscious that he knew nothing. We for our own part know nothing, for example, of the editor of the Presbyterian, of whom or what he is. We, however, know that we would, therefore, to all intents and purposes, be lying did we assert that he was a thief or an adulterer. Nay, we should not even venture to assert that he was a li.r, had he not written himself down as such plainly in black and white. Our contemporary has a word or two to ■ay concerning the Catholic governments of Italy, and especially that of the Pope, that may be allowed to pass as based also on want of information. Some of the governments in question, including that of the Pope, were remarkably good governments. It is patent to the whole world that the condition cf Italy under them was infinitely more prosperous than it is at present. Under their rule, the misery now rife in the unfortunate country was completely unknown. But does our good contemporary himself really understand what the Christianity of the New Testament is ? Heferring to the Catholic Church, he says . "It is only from that Church that tbe Freemasons of Rome and Italy get their conceptions of Christianity, and it is not too much to say that it is not the Christianity of the New Testament that these godless men want to destroy, but the false representation of it which it is no great wonder they have learned to hate."— ls it then an anti-Christ that the New T stament speaka of as eiLosed to the hatred of the world ?— We need not, however, be too bard on this poor fellow. The Bishop has frightened him out of hia wits, and he may rationally claim indulgence. Still there are limits to everything, and no excuse can be made for foul-mouthed calumny. Even the ignorance in which the Presbyterian brings false charges against the clergy of France and Italy is culpable, though on all other points it may be admitted as pleading in his favour.