Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 25, 8 April 1892, Page 1

Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

M. AnATOLB Lbbot-Beattlibu publishes in the Revue det Deux Monde* of January 15, a second article on the Pope's Encyclical. He testifies strongly to the wisdom of the letter and the benefits to result from its being taken as the guide of the people. In all«ding to tbe recognition made by the Holy Father of the people's rights, he points out that in this tha Pope coincides with the teaching of tbe Scholastics, who had taught doctrine on this matter which in later days has been ignorant] y attributed to the men of the Revolution. Tbe Pope, however, he asserts, although he ascribes to the State considerable powers of interference, does not in this respect, go to the lengths to which the Scholastics had gone. This restraint Mr Leroj-Beaulieu attributes to the difference between the forms of Govern man t respectively distinguishing the different epochs. So much, nevertheless, be explains as common to all forms of Govern* meat, that their aim is Csesarism. We gather incidentally that tbe writer does not approve of the late action of the Pope in favour cf the Republic. He speaks very strongly of the impossibility of making a distinction in giving it support, between tho rational and desirable measures taken by it, and those it has adopted for the oppression of religion and for expelling God from the schools. He lays chief stress on the protection afforded to the family by the Church and the resistance she offers to tbe encroachment on it of the State. This, be say 9, has gained for her the sympathy of many men who otherwise care little about her, and has led them to seek for their children a Catholic education. M. Leroy-Beaulieu in effect deprecates impressively the gross materialism of the day and protests against the effort to extirpate from among the people the influences of Christianity. His article, coming as it does from so distinguished a man, who can hardly himself be regarded as a Catholic, should have particular force for reflecting miods among the non-Catholic people. Catholics wil find in it a becoming homage paid to the influence of the Church and the wisdom of Pope Leo XIII.

COMING KTENT 8?

BUT M. Leroy-Beaulien may well point to the influence and teaching of the Catholic Church as influences necessary tor the welfare and safety of society. The other alternative is now well witbin bis light. Behold some results of the education of the period, and what ii got by thrusting out God from the schools of the people and clapping the door of the schoolroom in His face. Shut out God and the devil enters, and these are the fruits of his presence. All Paris it trembling, and London bids fair to tremble with her, at the revelation that anarchy is growing more violent io her streets, and must make its terrible mark there before very long. This is gained by giving the secret societies — and chief among them, the Grand Orient — now openly established among ourselves, free course of action, and allowing them to influence the legislation of the country. This is science %nd learning as man of the more advanced schools andeiAtan I them, for the benefit of the race. The Church kept the people in ignoianoe. That was, and is still, the old cry — ignorant or insolent and lying — according, as those who utter it are stupid, or false and designing. The Church did not keep the people ignorant. Where, for example, wan there, or is there now, a city better provided with schools of all classes than was Borne under the Popes? Where w, a there a country in which a more devoted effort was made to educate the mas?*" than France, where the Blessed Da la Salle and his sons, long before a scheme of national education was thought of fur England, gave themselves up under the encouragement and guidance of the Church to teach the children of the people. The Church was ihe pioneer of enlightenment and education throughout Europe, anl hn~ never ceased to do her utmost there io. their ciuse. Kxc pt iitl c Papal Btites. indeed, the public revenues were not in hr handu— but in the one exceptional country, scbools and universiii s abound, d, and more than abounded. It was not in her power to t-s al>lis>i national systems of education. And these, besides, are of com para-

THB INTLUKNCB OFTHBCHUBCH.

tively recent invention. She might as well, for example, be reproached for not lighting the medieval towns with gas or electricity. A. third of the people or one half of the people, we are told, did not know how to read under Catholic Governments, and we may believe it was so if we will acctpt statistics prepared for their own ends by the enemies of the Church. Bat those of sach people who did know how to read had been taught at a sacrifice that no socie'y except the Catholic Church has ever made for the same cause. Even the Socialist Hyndman, for instance, acknowledge her services to education in England. The education of Europe by the Church has received two great checks — one by means of the Reformation in Germany, so marked and immediate that certain scholars of no great piety who were inclined to adopt the new doctrines were warned and drew back— as, indeed, Professor Earl Pearson also reminds ns in h'l article in the Academy from which we lately quoted- Instead of the continued advancement of science, there were the insurrection of the peasants, wars of the Huguenots, wars in the Low Countries, projected Mohammedan alliance, and other matters of the kin 1 . The other check has been given in our own days. It has come from the Revolution, from the secret societies — and chief among them the Grand Orient, now established hlbo in New Zealand— and already we begin to see the results. And let us, in passing, note the meeting of extremes. The religions so-calltd reformation and the irreligious movement have so much in common that the spirit of plunder and robbery is a characteristic of both. The one robbed the Church, and appropriated to private and profane mes the property held in trust for the poor and devoted to their service in boh tpmporal and spiritual mattera — to their education among the r^sit. The other would—' and possibly will, rob society at large — aad now gives m a foretaste, as we see in Paris, of the methods by which it proposes to do so. What will be the fate of the much boasted educational systems and scientific institutions we should like to know, if, aa Beemq not improbable, an angry mob gets loose to riot in profligacy and excess. It may remain f.r the men of another generation, reclaimed by the devoted efforts and nnfailing ons'aucy of the Gritholic Church— to look back upon these days of ours aid record with regretful indignanation the results of the check given to the good work of Christian civilisation that we ourselves have witnessed. A world recovering from ruin and degradation may chronicle with horror woiks worthy of societies whose god — palpably wor-hippeii by them — is tbe devil, and chief among which is tho Grand Orient of France— now openly established in New Zialand. Well any moderate men, like M. Anatole Leroy-Beauheu, even although they can hirdly be reckoned Catholics, point to the Catholic Church a? the only hope of a threatened world.

THE GOOD OF IT

But what h the advantage of knowing how to read, , and what is the loss to those who cannot do so ? May we judge by newspapers of the day ? Morning after morning, and eveniDg afttr evening, columns filled wi h nauseous, loathßome, almost beastly, details. A detestable series of murders is committed ani, behold, the man accused of them is promoted to the place of a hero 1 His looks are detailed, evi>n his portr< it is published. All bi9 movement* are recorded— we aie made minu'ely acqiMin*ed wuh his lo?a affiirs. Time was when the offFcouriugs of the town assembled ia front of the gallows, and i heir literary require mm j m 8 *ver» appropriately supplied by the la*t dying speech, or the farthing billad. Wa havo now improved matters, and are more rtfmedand better cultured. We do not go to tako our stand beneath the gallows, but the g»l ows literaure adorns our breakfast tables, or solaces the ret.rtd hours of our cvenirgs. Such is the intellectual advancement of tne day. — And, luii'^d, ihn Quarterly Review some sbnit üm« ajro \ üblmhed fvn article (.niai^uiEf on the literary tahte ot thd po v d, and giving- mstinees cf the clasi of b toks most in ' etnand. h was ot a nature to lave lit" le to be wondered at in the execrablj det.i's tint thy da.ly papers are mw po b'isly engag"'i in di-,-em n atiug. Whit, thorefore, is the good of le rui g to re d, if thu < a i a/er.u-' m prepare 1 by wh.ch, for the rjQiist par , lit n.i-uig m tor is conveyid to the mind? Uufirfunate, inde (1, are the piople for whom a mons'er of wickedness takes the parr of a hero- and that greedily devours, r >s r.ews of importance and interest, the details of a career for which the gallows is too good an

•nd. Bnt such is the enligh-e ment of tbe period— such are the tasies and enjoyments resulting from the education of the day— or, at leant, accompanying it— every year in a more marked degree. To do the newspapers justice, they would not publish these abominable details if the demand for them was not irresistible. What, then, we ask again, is tbe advantage, at least to 999 out of every 1000 of the the ordinary crowd, of knowine how to read ?

EDUCATION AND OBIMK.

Wk should say that Mr Braithwaite had, io more ways than one, the best of Sir Robert Stoat in the argument respecting education and crime that has taken place between them in the Otag» Daily Times. Sir Robert evidently took as his motto, tic volo siejubeo, and, in some instance*, laying down the law as to what people were not to do, incontinently himself procteded to do it. But where did Sir Robert pick np that astounding statement that in one year of the reign of King Henry 111. more crime was committed in one shire of England than isnow commuted in a,l England in ten years ? Query, if sach wtre the case, would there be now aoy population left in England to commit eren a tenth of the crime now committed 1 The rate, for example, at which infanticide has in onr own days been committed in England is estimated at 1,000 cases annually. Were there then ten thousand children killed every year in every shire in England under the reign of King Henry 111 ? Multiply ten thousand by the number of counties and see what the result will be. Does it not •eem rather as if Sir Robert Stout bad been talking rank nonsense. And, then, were there very regular and exhaustive statistics com. piled nnder the reign of King Henry III? Bat let us give Sir Robert the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps these infanticides, not being entered among the statistics, are not to be considered as criminal. This is an explanation that would simplify a good deal that Sir Robert Stout has to- say. We hare already seen that if things were made very bad indeed by Catholicism under King Henry 111., they were made very good by it under another king, and tit fur tat is fair play. And are we to congratulate our Presbyterian friends t Sir Robert Stout, the avowed official and pioneer in New Zealand of the Grand Orient of France— that great aggressive atheistical society of continental Europe, whose advanced products are now represented at Paris by M. Bavachal, with hia dynamite and murders, brings our friends forward, in effect, as an example of the virtue to be propagated by means of a non-Christian education. Did John Knox, in his wildest hours of rebellion, contemplate anything like this 7 Is it not time that our friends shonld think of altering their Westminster Confession? After all that document, grim though some of its provisions may be, professes an ardent faith in God Almighty. Sir Robert, indeed, gives a preference to the Wehleyans. If we are correct in our arithmetic, it is about a third more beneficial to give up teaching the doctrines of Arminius than it is to give up teaching those of Calvin. Godless Presbyterians, it setms, produce about t wo-thirds of their full number of criminate, while godless Wealeyans produce little more than one-third of theirs. Godle9B Catholics, we are very sure, would do a great deal more than that. Those statistics quo ed by Sir Robert Stout as to an excess of Catholic criminals we have shown to be, as Sir Robert Stoat is well aware they aie, unfair, and completely deceptive— wilfully so, we must believe them to be, as quo'ed by Bir Robert. ludied we have an example of what godless Catholics are capable of in that M. Havachal, to whom we have already alluded and who is an outcome of the expulsion vi God fiom among a Catholic population, and of the devil worship that, as Leo Taxil ••sores us, has superseded the creed of the Catho'ic Church among tbe secret societies — chief amon* them lhe Uraod Orient— of Continental Europe. But this is what we might expect— corruptio eptiini pessima, '• My tables show azd my piper showea," says Sir Robert Siout, " that those people who are crying out for religious education had better improve their criminal record." But that is precisely wby ihey are calling out f.-r religious elucation. Their desire is to preserve and proUct the iiinocnt, a* well as to reclaim the fallen— and this they know o-ily rehgijus education will enab'e them to do. Meantime, Sir Robert Btout's tables and paper show nothing of thekini be claims. They Bhow only Sr H ibert's determicaiion — in flit contradiction of the specialist, Mr William Douglas Morrison — and even while he acknowledges their incapacity, to rely on bare figures, and on the obf usc*tion he can pro mcc by their means to support him in the task entrusted to him as a recognised official of atheism for the destruction of Christianity. It remains to be seen how far Presbyterians and Wesleyans will be encouraged by the improvement iv their morals arising from their godless departure to gi c him their continued support. To Mr Braithwaite, who so disinterestedly undertook the defence of Catholics, and so well pei formed it, subjecting himself, as *c see, to a bitter outbreak of ili*ti.mp<T— excusable, perhaps, under tha soreness of defeat — our grateful acknowledgements are due.

BIBDB OT A FEATHER. chances are that

We have spoken of Mobamedan alliance as, among other tbingp, characterising the results of the Reformation—and we bare not epoken unadvisedly, Had it not been for the battle of Lepanto the the fleet tf the Sultau Selim would have arrived

piloted by the ships of a strong and pioas body of Reformers, in the service of William the Silent, at Antwerp. What the result of tbeir victorious arrival would have been, let those countries that have suffered under Turkish rale declare. The pioas contingent referred to wore knowa as the gueux de mer, of whom the Vice-Admiral Jarien de la G'aviere, a memb6r of thj Frsncb Academy his recently given ns an historical sketch in the Revue det Deux Monde*. The Prince of Oiange received these men into his service— covenanting with them that he was to receive a certain portion of their piratical booty. " Orange had taken it upon him to forbid tha gueux de mer to undertake anything against the towns, fortified places or vessels of the inhabitants of Germany, England or Denmark, of all the countries, in a word, which had • believed in the Word of God.' As to the o her powers— Spain, Scotland, Italy, Portug.l— Orange did not trouble himself about them. If there were crusades against the Masulmans we see that they were not wani ng any more against the Catholics. Catholicism in the Low Ooantries was found in a legitimate state of defence. I am far from excusing the ferocity with which it defended itself. lam concerned only to affirm that it had not been attacked with velvet gloves. They had put it also outside the law not only because it persecuted, but because ' it did not believe in the Word of God.' " " All the sects," adds the writer, " are account, able foi faoaticism, superstition, and odious acts of violence." Orange, moreover, was greatly encouraged by the hostile action of the Moors in the mountains of Grenada. The defeat of the Turks at Lepanto, in fact, was regarded by these champions of Protestantism as a diaaiter. " The cause of the Turks, as Pope Pius V had clearly discerned, was in part one with that of the Huguenots, Turks and Huguenots recognised the same enemy, aud the enemy bad come out of the fight victorious. Bather the Turk than the Pope, had become the motto of the gueux , The destruction of the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto did not disabuse them of the culpable hope of an intervention which might hecome to disastrous for all Christendom. The reformed of Antwtrp showed themselves disposed to pay for the concurrence of tha Sultan lb« exorbitant price of a subsidy of three millions of florins, aoJ the gueux proudly displayed in their hats the emblem of Mam ism. On the face of the metal crescent was inscribed in the Flemish tongue 1 Bather Turks than Paptists.' " They proposed to Bend vessel! to Cyprus to escort the Sultan to Antwerp. The writer recalls the threatening aspect of tbe Turks towards Europe that had character' ised the epoch— when Germany was oontinually in dread, and the monarchy of Philip II formed the sole bulwark. If the Ottoman cruisers, he tells us, came as Catholic Europe wias threatened they would, to water themselves in the Rhine, the responsibility would, fall on those sects who showed the nselves so ready to form alliances with tbe infidel. " Let as then understand the hatreds of the epoch," he says, " Philip 11. the Duke of Alva, Piaa V himself, could not in justice be tolerant. They did not fight only for the orthodoxy of doctrine. They believed themselves called upon to Bave Christian civilisation." But may we not judge of a cause by the allies by whose aid it seeks to win the day 7

AN UGLY BTOBY,

Mb Stead has given ub a supplementary collection of bis. ghost stories— curious enough, like those that preceded them. They are bo far useful, moreover, that they should give an effectual check to any trifling with api ritualism or hypnotism. Among the stories told, however, t£ere is at least one very ugly one that, even for the sake of the narrator, might have been better omitted. It is related by a gentleman, whose name ia given as Ralph Hastings, of Boadmeadow. Teignmoutb. The scene is laid in a house called Brook House, situated at a watering place on the South-East coast, We have no intention of referring in detail to the phenomena related, which seem completely incredible. Our intention is to point out the evident character of one of the witnesses on whom Mr Stead relies. This Mr Ralph Hastiogq, on his own showing, is a coarse and frivolous person. Mr Hastings, in company with Miss B , a young lady residing in the house, and since, we are told, married to one of the N'e. of Jersey, whether to the advantage of that family or not may be a doubtful point to those who read of the pranks in which she took pait, entered upon a series of horseplay, deriding and daring the supernatural beings believed by him to be in the dwelling. The good taste of this will be all the plainer if we add that among the ghosts was that of an elder eister of Miss 8., which was seen more than once jlisß B'u. mother, also, at the time, was lying dangerously ill in the house. Into this story also the question of religion ii indecorously dragged. Mr Hastings says that he was then a Roman Catholic, and that as such he tried the efficacy of holy water. This failed, and then recourse was had to the Bible, which is described as us<xl with good effect. Lit us suppose, then, that the narrative is true —though it would take infinitely more than the testimony of Mr Hastings and Miss B. to give it even an appearance of verisimilitude. We neve a young man and a young woman playing irreverent and mocking tricks with beings from the other world, of whom ore had been the young woman's sister. Could it be wonderful, under the circumstances, if evil spirits had fallen in with their humour and deceived them as to the comparative powers of holy water and the

Bible? Mr Hastings, if he wer« a Catholic at all, could have been one barely in name. Animal courage be and Hiss B. may have bad, but frivolous and coarie they nndonbtedly were. But this is to receive the story as true. If the story is untrue, and the credulity of those who receive it as otherwise must be great, Mr Hastings, at least, gives to the public the details of what, under the circumstances spoken of by him, he would consider a becoming and desirable line of proceedings. On tbe whole, by quoting this gentleman's narrative, Mr Btead has hardly raised the standard of his work. If he brings forward witnesses at all they should be grave and trustworthy persons, on whose testimony reliance may be placed. Mr Hastings is evidently nothing of the kind.

Apropos of the calumnies relating to indnlgences CALUHNIBB referred to in the Bishop of Dqnedin's sermon, of

AND which we elsewhere publish a report, it will not be THIIB BOTJBOK. out of place to take a short view of the state of

things io which Buoh calumnies had their origin. We find the matter alluded to in a notioe given by the Athenaeum of February 20, of certain State papers of ths reign of Henry VIII., recently arranged. "As early as the Bth of July (1536) Ohapuys write*, 'It is a lamentable thing to see a legion of monks and nuns, who hare been chased from their monasteries, wandeiing miserably hither and thither, seeking means to live.' Yet on the King's part there wm no sign of hesitation. On the contrary, he drove on fnrionaly to his goal— bis trembling slaves could not go fast enough to pleat* him." This state of things, we are told, provoked a rebellion in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. The leaders of the people in the latter county are described as men of remarkable ability and resolution. One of them especially, named Aske, is spoken of as a " person of true nobility of sentiment," and possessed of " many of those qualities which go to make up the heroic character." Aske, nevertheless, having been invited to London on a safe-conduct to •onfer personally with the King, was treacherously remanded to York where he was hanged. " There was no faith to be kept with traitors." As another instance of Henry's mercy, we are told of sixty-two poor wretches, who, on the collapse of the outbreak in Yorkshire, had been left as prisoners in Hull. " They wera released on bail for their reappearance. Who could have thought of their being worth slaughtering 7 Doubtless to the surprise and consternation of all concerned the King was exceedingly angry at the semblance of mercy ; he insisted that these sixty-two should be executed in divers parts of the country. If they could not, without danger, execute all they were to apprehend the priests and principals of that sort, and have them ♦ indelayably executed .' " The Lincolnshire men were not more leniently dealt with. " Early in March the Lincolnshire men were brought to trial; thirty-four of them, including the Abbot of Kirkstall, were condemned for high treason and all were executed within a few days, twenty of them being clergy or monks of the various religious houses." "The plunder of the monasteries," again writes the reviewer, "goes on relentlessly. It is a dreadful story that deepens in horror the more closely we look into it— a story of pillage and crnelty, and ferocious greed and meanness." Is it any wonder we would ask, that such a condition of things, such an infamous undertaking bo infamously carried out, should have left to the future a legacy of calumny and lying ?

It would appear that there is a literary horse-boy MOBE •HBBK. or come character of the kind hanging around the

railway station at Gore for the convenience of passengers. It would also appear that our contemporary, the Otago Wittiest, had appointed the said factotum it's congenial purveyor of Catholic news in tbe district. Here are some of the polished and elegant results :— " Scholastic, Polemic, or Ecclesiastic— Which 1 After going through the ordinary course of a gratuitous and general but so-called godless system of education, three of our district boys were yesterday sent off to the Wellington Roman Catholic Maynooth College to get the ungodly taint rubbed off, and the final polish put on. Whether this is the natural first fruits of some recent missionary enterprise will soon be known, but the paternal care manifested by the prieats of the place in connection with the deipatch of their youthful charge would seem to point in tha direction of special care being about to betaken in training the native article in the orthodox narratives of history, as well as the inculcation of the scund principles of the only true religion under heaven I The R.C. denomination has not been famous for its endeavours to educate the masses, but it cannot fail to observe that some education is requisite whether for the ecclesiastic, polemic, or for scholastic or even forensic purposes, not to epeak of fche money-making trades of farming and whisky selling." This correspondent has evidently been in tbe habit of earning an honest penny by calling in the police, among the rest, and he Bhows himself vexed that what he regards as an objectionable proceeding has now afforded him no excuse for doing so. Was there any attempt m&de, by the way, to pelt the boys or their parents with clods ? Any how, we see how spunkily they are blackguarded in the columns of the Witness. What does this chap know about the R.C. denomination ? But among the things that members of tbe denomination

in question cannot fail to perceive is the complete immunity from all educational requirements enjoyed by certain newspaper correspondents. The "Wellington Roman Cathoic Maynooth College" need be at no trouble in giving its students an intellectual training for that position, as we see from the specimen before us. Why, our "Jims" actually seem 9to suppose that Maynooth is a generic term. They say that drifting straws show which way the wini is blowing. Can the manner in which mud is flung give us any warning of a similar kind ? The publication by the Wltnets of such a paragraph as that we have quoted would at least seem to point at a desire or an intention to control Catholics in the choice of schools for their children. Does our contemporary really mean to appoint a horse-boy spy at every railway station to watch the coming and going of Catholic schoolohildrtn aad report on it 1 Bat let him see that his spiea are correct in their information. The number of boys who went from Gore to Wellington was five, not three, and the priests who saw them off were one. Perhaps our "Jims " saw his raverence with eyes that had previously been inspecting one of those whiskey-9elling establishments he alludes to. Indeed, his whole paragraph is very suggestive as to something of the kind. We have to congratulate the Witness on the devices to which it seems inclined to descend.