ANOTHER CRANK.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 25, 8 April 1892, Page 17

ANOTHER CRANK.

~9- . ISHOP MO RAN delivered a discourse in St Joseph's last Sunday evening, which we publish in another column, and in this discourse the Bishop set before himself the task of explaining the Catholic doctrine on the subject of indulgences. His motive for doing this is obvious. In the beginning of this discourse the Bishop stated he entered on this question not with the intention of treating it controversially, noi even wgumentatively, but merely for the purpose of explaining the real teaching of the Church. But, notwithstanding h;s lucid and simple explanation, a crank writes a letter to the Eoeiung Star, which that paper publishes, in which it is still insisted that the Catholic Church does indeed sell indulgences. What is to be done under the circumstances ? Nothing that we can see, except treat the whole affair with the contempt which ignorance and ill-breed-ing deserve, and take no further notice of men who, if not actually mad, are very nearly fit for a place in Seacliff. STEPS arc about to be inaugurated for raising a sum of from fuur to fiye thousand pounds for the enlargement of St Mary'd Cathedral, Wellington. ThU projxt has baeu adopted, for suflicieat reasons, in prtftrenceto tbe erection of a new building. An appeal will be made

at an early date to the people of the diocese— more especially those of them residing in the city, who are more immediately concerned* " It is proposed to build a church ia Borne city at the side of St Peter's at a cort of four millions sterling."— A Protestant church 7 —to be the biggest empty building ever seen in all the world. If Barnam were still alive, he might hire it for a stupendous exhibition of vacant space. Some lunatics, it would appear, have costly notions. The Bekring Sea row has terminated amicably— as we knew it would. A war between England and America about a lot of seals would be sheer nonsense. Had anything of the kind broken oat, the stakes, of course, would have bee a Canada. The United States, however, would possibly be averse to a union brought about by violence. It also must be amisable if it ever occurs. A cobbespondent of the Daily Times signing himself " PresbyUr " in a letter written in a singularly moderate strain and a truly Christian spirit claims that immorality in Scotland exists without the membership of the Church. Of tbie we have no doubt we are oonvinced that a faithful conformity to the teaching of any Christian creed must be attended with uprightness of life. In rare exceptions only is Calvinism carried out to its logical conclusions. We believe —indeed we certainly know — that a good Protestant is in every respect a good and moral man or woman. We have no taste at all for these comparative statistics. They are forced on us ia self-defence. Iv refutation of the oft* repeated and generally accepted fact that Scotland takes a leading place in illegitimacy, it is stated that in Scot' land, alone of the three kingdoms, are illegitimate births registered as such. We doubt it. We know that in Ireland in the published registers of bath the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church they are so registered, and in Ireland no Catholic and hardly any Anglican leaves a child unbaptieed. What is done in the registers of the Churches is surely done also in those of the Government. But even if it were so, means are still at hand of comparing a Scotch with an Irish population. It is not, for example, in those Scotch counties where the Irish most do congregate that the statistics of illegitimacy are highest, but in counties that are more fully Scotch. As to cock-and-bull stories told of vice imported from Ireland, which we are expected to believe on gratuitous assertions, we have had no personal experience of Scotch towns. We have had abundant experience of Scotch settlers in Ireland, and we have frequently heard them acknowledge the greater virtue of the people— and occasionally ridicule it. The excess of crime or vice attributed to the Irish in Scot, laud is arrived at, as elsewhere, by the unfair comparisons to which we have frequently alluded. A population exceptionally and adversely situated are compared with all the other inhabitants— wealthy bourgeois, gentry, nobility, anJ all— and are found, in proportion to their numbers in the country, to be more numerous in committing crime — generally minor offences. This is to make figures lie with avengeance, and the men accountable for the matter canoot be sostupid as not to know what they are about. It is again stated—" freely," we are told this time, that Home Bale will be immediately followed by civil war in Ulster. But is not pievention better than cure ? Why do not our Orange ditchliners take time by the forelock and begin ? The ditches, perhaps, are too damp, aud might give them cold, so they are waiting for the fine weather. But if they would only beitir themselves betimes and kill off all the Catholics in the country — which of course they could quite easily do if they thought good— there would be nobody asking for Home Rule, and things might remain as they are. Thac seems the simplest plan. By the way, would New Zealand Orangemen kindly oblige by going now, as they have promised, to Ulster and giving their- brethren there an example 1 They would look very pretty forming such a fools' con tinge -it. And are there really people to whom it is not patent that talk like that reported is simply idiotic 1 The British Government would be worth very little if it could not account for the heroes ia question— even if reinforced from New Zealand. It is no wonder that w^rks of genius should be worn threadbare by constant quotation. Whatever it may be that genius deals with » treated exhaus'ively and once for all, and there ii no possibility of finding another example. Moliere, for instance, has given us in his doctors the model of all scientific quacks and humbugs that the world in any shape or form can ever produce. Totre is not, iadeed, a practitioner among them in whom we cannot trace the original of Hir Robert Stout, in his reliance on bare figures and his self-sufficient contempt for everything and every one venturing to depart from bis own particular sandard. Wk do not often see much to borrow from that dear creator* '• Civis," and now that he has taken to dancing jigs to the piping of

tbe Orange ditch-liners, we shall probiblj see still less. Here, bowever is a good paragraph he gives us from an interview between General Booth and a representative of the Daily Nets :— " •By the way, there i« a Zulu chief and his four wives, and a number of his tribesmen, who have been converted by the Army.' • Four wives— that's awkward, is it not 1 ' *« No. We just recognise the fact. If a Zalu h-s got four wives, I simply say to him, • See that you be kind to them.' There th« wives are. If a Zulu bad only one wife, I would ■ay ' Don't have two.' If he had none, I would say, ' Have only one, if you have any. But, however numerous his wives, I would say, 4 You must stand by them.' " But, after all, for people whose spiritual forerunners issued licmses to bigamists, and formed alliances with the Turks, there is nothing bo very inconsistent io the matter.

11 Thjc Unionists have decided to contest the wbole of the Irish constituencies against the Irish Nationalist party." There must be among them a good deal of money to throw away.

"Thb Salvation Army has opened a matrimonial bureau, with Barker in charge." Will it be conducted on the lines established by theGeoeral among the Zulus? If so, there is a chance for superfluous ladies. Darkest Bngland bids fair to grow brighter in some eyes.

T«b Rev A. R. Fitchett seems to have taken to heart Sir Robert Stout's figures proviog that the Anglican community produced something more than their due number of criminals. The rev gentleman's defence appears to be that bad as Anglicaos are at the present day they show an improvement on what has gone before. Preaching on conversion at All Saints' on Sunday evening he is reported as follows : 11 One consequence of sadden change," he said, •' was instability. Accordingly in the early church grievous sins and errors prevailed, and the general level of morality amongst Christians was then much lower than at present. There were members of the church at Corinth, for example, who would not be tolerated in any Christian denomination now. They would be promptly disciplined and expelled." This is a new and original view of the Christianity of the ages that produced the saints and martyrs. But what we should like to know particularly is, when did excommunication become a practice of the Church of England. We have a bazy recollection, for example, that some little time ago something of the nature of an attempt at it made in one particular instance led to an action for libel. Meantime, there is hardly any help for it. Our Aqglican . friends must positively renounce the inculcation of the 39 articles, if they would put themselves on a level with godless Presbyterians, and still more godless Wesleyans, if we may judge by results, But Catholics will stick to their religious schools, lest those figures— unfairly arrived at, let us again protest, and dishonestly quoted— should gain a marked addition and a signification truly sinister.

The irrepressibles, more power to their elbow in the interests of trade, think it worth while to pay for their twaddle. They now publiih a rigmarole of an advertisement in the Ectning Star treating of scapulars and rosaries. But let us admit tbe advantage they have over us even here. They want neither indulgences, nor scapulars, nor rosaries. If they only " get saved," &<k soon as they are aole to speak, they may go to the devil all their lives long, and come off with the saints in the end, Not a spark of purgatorial fire need come near them, and as to hell, their bathing cDstumes of imputed righteousness will make them impervious to its biases. The good to be got out of a «capular or a rosary is a trifls to that. Great are tbe privileges of the Lord's elect. Cannot they leave their less privileged neighbours to ehift for themselves in tbe besb way they can.

TUB drawing of the Art-union in connection with the 8t Mary's Grand Oriental B zaar, Christchurch, will tak^ place on the 23rd inst. Mr B. Dobbin, the hon secretary, requests that blocks of tickets sold should be sent in to him by the 16th inst at )ae< Only a few days remain, therefore, for a last dying effort to dispose of tickets and insure the thorough success of the undertaking. Will not all those concerned prove themselves equal to the occasion 1

Another correspondent of the Witness refers to what he calls " A Holy War "— otherwise the charge made by Bishop Moran as to the use of Collier's history at Queenstown. It seems, according to this correspondent, that a copy of tha book was brought from Riverton to Queenstown by a gentleman named Reid, lately deceased, and that the book might have been seen in the bands of one of Mr Reid's children. Yes, and it might have been Been elsewhere a'so. Bat really this fuss about the Bishop's charge seems very far-fetched. Collier is one of the authors appoiuted for use in the public schools, and is actually used in some of them. Morris's history, which is as bad as Collier's, is used in others of them. Gardiner's history, which is Hitle, if anything, better, is also so used. What, therefore, has the Bishop said that anyone can justly find fault with For what the histories used in the public schools mast teach, if they taught the

truth, we refer oar readers to a note oo certain State papers, which we take from the Athenesum, and which will bs found under oar heading "Current Topica." The Qaaenstowa correspondent of the Witness, if he chooses, will there see what the true meaning of a " holy war " may be.