Current Topics.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 39, 15 July 1892, Page 1

Current Topics.

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

A. FAILURE OF BOIBKOB.

" OUDIA," who, although Bhe unfortunately lacks judgment as to what is true, seems to have a fair eye for the real meaning of much that is vain and false, in an article recently published by her in one of the London xeviews on the French writer, Pierre Loti, speaks a sensible word or two about that worship of science which has been a chief feature of the last few years, and foretells its going the way of other freaks and whims of the errant fancy. The science of the day has not been true to what many of its devotees boasted of it, calling upon us all to forsake our several creeds and kneel with them at its shrine. Evolution, for example, of which they particularly boasted as overthrowing every religious belief that had so far had being, is now in this respeot almost wholly discredited, Tne time to work the needful changes has been all but proved to have been altogether wanting. Tae missing link, moreover, binding together apes and men, has not only not been found — but a chance of its discovery is hardly any longer looked for by naturalists. The famous savant, Professor Virchow, for instance, at the recent Anthropological Congress in Vienna, expressed himself as follows on the subject : — " Since the Darwinian theory of the origin of man made its first victorious mark, twenty years ago, we have sought for the intermediate stages which were supposed to connect man with the apes ; the proto-man, the pro-anthropos, is not yet discovered . For anthropological science the pr»-anthropot is ever a subject of discussion. At that time 'in Innspruck the prospect was, apparently, that the course of descent from ape to man would be reconstructed all at once, but now we cannot even prove the descent of the separate races from one another. At this moment we are able to say that among the peoples of antiquity no single one was any nearer to the apes than we are. At this moment I can affirm that there is not upon earth any absolutely unknown race of men. The least known of all are the peoples of the central mountainous district of the Malay Peninsula, bat we know the people of Terra del Fuego gnite as well as the Esquimaux, Bashkirs, Polynesians, and Lapps. — Nay, we know more of many of these races than we do of certain European tribes ; I need only mentioo the Albanians. Every living iact is still human ; no single one . has yet been found that we can designate as simian or quasi-simian. Even when in certain of them phenomeoa appear which are characteristic of the apes — eg., the peculiar ape-like projections of the skull in certain races— still we cannot on that account alone say that these men are ape-like. — As regards the lake dwellings, I have been able to submit to comparative examination nearly every single skull that has been found. The result has been that we have certainly met with opposite characteristics among various races ; but of all these there is not one that lies outside of the boundaries of our present population. It can thus be positively demonstrated that, in the course of 5000 years, no change of type worthy of mention, has taken place. If yon ask me whether the fir9t man was white or black, I can only Bay, I do not know." When we remember, therefore, how, a little time ago, we were inoidered with this Darwinian theory ; how confident and insolent were its heralds and adherents, and how they jibed and mocked at ns because we refused to acknowledge that men were no better than the beasts that perish, we mast perceive the wisdom of refusing to give ear to such vauntings and awaiting the results of further research. '' Ouida " judges rightly as to the scientific crate. Whether that for a worship of the lower animals, which she seems to propose in Us stead, will suffice or not we have still to learn. But though she has now and then a word to tell us that is true and useful, she tells us a good deal that is false or foolish.

TRADITION CONFIRMED.

One branch of science, there is, however, which has been developed of late years, aod which has already borne ample testimony to the troth of religion. We refer to the science of archaeology, which has done so much to establish the faithfulness of Catholic tradition. In the Month for May, for •sample, there is an article entitled " The Early

History of the True Cross," in which some facts are given that aeem very much to the point. As is Well known, the finding of the Oroat is a matter much dispnted, and nothing more than the veneration paid to it and the manner in which piecei of it have been distributed and reverenced, has excited the ridicule of the foes of the Catholic Church— a ridicule, however, as foolish as it is profane. Becent research has thrown light on this matter that places beyond dispute the authenticity of the traditions connected with it. We are, then, given some details of the veneration shown to the Gross at Jerusalem itself in the years more closely following on its discovery there by the Empress 8t Helena, in or about the year 826. The details in question are taken from the journal of St Silvia, a pious lady of Aquitaine, who made a pilgrimage to the holy places during the reign of the Bmperor Theodosius, and probably about the year 380. The adoration of the Cross on Good Friday is described by tbia lady as carried out after a similar manner to that which we ourselves see observed in the Catholic churches of the present day. The night before had been spent on the Mount of Olives, where the steps of our Saviour's passion were devoutly followed. At an early hour in the morning the faithfulwearied by thewatchings and the fasts of Lent, bat among whom the more fervent had already visited the pillar ot the scourging— assembled at the chapel of the Cross. " The Bishop's chair is placed on Golgotha post Orucem," writes St Silvia. " The Bishop seats himself in his chair, round the table in a circle stand the deacons, and then they bring forth the case of eilver gilded, in which lies the holy wood of the Cross. It is opened, the contents taken out, and both the wood of the Cross and the title are laid upon the table. When, therefore, it has been placed upon the table, the Bishop t still seated, lays hu hand upon the upper surface of the woodi while the deacons who stand around keep watch. Now this 6trict guard is kept by reason it is the custom that all the people, faithful and catechumens, should come op one by one, bow before the table, kiss the sacred wood, and pass on. . , , In this way, therefore, the whole people pass through, ona by one, all of them bowing down, touching the Cross and the title, first with their forebead and then with their eyea, and so after kiaaing the Cross they pass on, but no one puts out his band to touch it. , . . And thus until noon the whole populace move through, entering by one door and departing by another." But as to the manner in which fragments of the Cross had been distribued abroad~St Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, declaring as early as the year 346, or twenty years after St Helena had made the discovery, that such fragments had already nearly filled the world— an inscription recently found in Algeria testifies to it. The inscription referred to was engraved on a slab in the reign of Julian the Apostate, and contains a list of relics. "We have here to do with a list of relics," says the writer in the Month, " and amongst these relics is inclnded d* ligno crucit, a fragment of the wood of the Cross. The date it should be remembered is 359.'' " Twelve years before," he adds, " St Cyril of Jerusalem had said, as we might think with a good deal of rhetorical hyperbole, that the wood o' theCrosshad fillcdthe whole earth; and here inanout-of.the-way corner of Mauritania, in a spot surrounded on all sides by the desert, we have irrefragable evidence of the presence of the same true Cross, which was the object of the devotion of thousands in the holy city." — Another inscription testifying to the presence of a relic of the true Cross in another district of Algeria has also been fonnd. The want of s date, however, makes it less valuable, though it is believed to belong to the same period. But we have here notable instances of the testimony borne by archaeological researches to the truth of Catholic tradition, and that on a point which, as we have said, has been very particularly the object of denial and ridicule. Science, properly understood, in fact, is not the opponent, but the baad-maiden of religion.

A VAIN PLEA.

The New Zealand Craftsman quotes ao article written by Charles W. Dilke in the Speaker, and which calls upon the authorities of the Cfttholio Church in England and in these colonies to show reason wby they should not point out to the Vatican that there is an essential difference between the secret societies of the countries in question and those of Continental Europe. We do not undertake to answer for the authorities in question, nor are we concerned to inquire into the statement

o! tbe writer as to the friendly and benevolent, or harmless and play, f 01, practices of the societies be speaks of. We may, however, remark, in passing, that the malignant secret societies of Italy or of Continental Europe did not exist only, as he implies, between 1815 and 1848, but are in fnll force at tbe present hour, So mach, nevertheless, is plain on the face of the matter : in English-speaking countries the plan drawn oat in Continental lodges for tbe destruction or the Catholic Ohurcb and of the Christian religion, is being energetically worked, and it is every w Here ardently supported by members of the societies referred to by tbe writer in the Speaker. This of itself affords a strong presumption that these societies are made me of by the Continental lodges to carry out their plans, and, therefore, on this point alone a mistrust and condemnation of them by the Catholic authorities is justified. It has always been conceded to members of the English -speaking lodges that, as a rule, they are ignorant of the sinister influences and connections of their system. As to their repudiation of the Grand Orient of France because of its denial of the Great Architect of the Universe, it need hardly signify more than the protest made against the measure by certain members of the Grand Orient themselves, who condemned it as imprudent in the interests of the society. The acknowledgement, meantime, of the Great Architect of the Universe, would not be a sufficient profession of faith for the Catholic. He is bound to adore tbe Triune God, and not a vague god-head, who might, for example, be Jove or Allah, or any other unreal deity. We do not see that this article in the Speaker makes good the claim it urges.

DELUDED KNIGHTS,

Thkbb ia nothing new in the fact that women should form a subject for a difference of opinion. Have they not been at the bottom of everything of the kind ever since anything has been known of them, and most probably much longer than that f If primeval man could have left hia experience on record, no doubt it would coincide with our own. It need not astonish us, therefore, to find, for example, that there is a difference between Bir John Hall and Sir Bobert Stout on the subject. Sir John Hall is a champion of the ftmale franchise, feeling sure that the Conservative party would find in the fair voter a fervent and devoted supporter. Sir Bobert Stout is a champion of the same, but with a most determined conviction that he would have in the enfranchised fair one a promoter of Socialism. The days of chivalry are gone, as we all know, otherwise it would be interesting to place our dissenting knights in the lists and see them ride a joust, each in;vindication of his fair lady's political principles. And, as we Bhall see anon, Sir Bobert, at least would not be wanting in an adequate frame of mind.— But will the aspiring voter be satisfied with the reason Sir Bobert assigns for giving her the object of her desires ? Does she not make her claim under the strong belief and on the plea that man is not more hard, headed than she is ? Sir Bobert will make her a voter and even a Member of Parliament because she ib — sentimental. Have we not justly accredited Sir Bobert with qualities that would make him enter the lists in defence of his ladies' principles ? Behold how large a spice of romance can linger under even what might seem to be the uncongenial shelter of the legal wig.— Why, we should not now be surprised to find that |Sir Robert's bills of costs went out surrounded with a wreath of flowers— and, of all the flowers of tne field that most appropriate for the purpose, we need hardly say, would be the touching little forget-me-not, But here is what Sir Bobert says" in an interview with a Wellington representative of our contem porary the Dunedin Star, The words ara worthy of placing on record and of circulation far ,'and wide :— " I may say that some people imagine that female suffrage will be conservative. I don't believe anything of the sort ; on the contrary, I am certain it will be socialistic in its tendency. Now, Socialism is advocated more on sentiment than individualism, and sentiment rules the fema'e miod more than the male, lam not saying that we are not to have sentiment in politics, but I am merely pointing out that those who imagine that the female suffrage is to be conservative will find out thsir mistake." — Of coarse he is not saying that we are not to have sentiment in politics. Is he not saying the very contrary, that penti. ment 1b to be the soul of our politics 1 Sal volatile, and burnt feathers, and emelling salts are to be added to the conveniences supplied at Bellamy's, for, according to Sir Bobert, the fair voter is to take her seat in Parliament— carrying her sentiment with her as her chief, or, indeed, her only political principle. A division determined by a fit of hysterics or a bill carried by a fainting away of the better part of the House will be among the phenomena of the day. — Socialism established by sentiment in the female voter—there is a pleasing prospect for the immediate future. Well, a measure that implies robbery and ruin of various kinds may well be carried by kicking fits. For our own part, meantime, we incline rather to Sir BoDert's way of thinking than to that cf Sir John Hall. As a sentimental Socialist the female voter and Member could do more mischief than she could as a sensible Conservative — and the most misebe can do is what she is sure to do. — There is the one certain fact of the matter, however opinions may differ.

FAB-FETCHED.

A fbisnd inquires of us what the Bey A. B, Fitchett meant by saying, in a sermon preached by him a Sunday or two ago, that the Oboroh of which he is a minister bad bishops and congregations before there was ■ Pope in Borne. We are unable to answer for the rev gentleman's meaning, Possibly he had been carrying out some archsoologicil researches, and had discovered that, previous to the Christian era, the Braids had adopted an episcopal system. Borne of their elders may have presided as pagan bishops in the oak-tree tops. That the rev gentleman should claim each a succession for the episcopate of his church may seem to us peculiar, bat we have neither the right nor the desire to interfere with his tastes. The Church of England represents the Druid system quite as much as it does the Christian Church that alone existed in England from the conversion of the Britons, and afterwards from that of the Anglo-Saxons, until the so-called Reformation. Some imaginative Anglicans, we know, with very ill success, endeavour to show a descent of their conventicle from an early British Church owning no allegiance to Borne. Mr Fitchett , however, by pltoing his Bishops in England prior to the arrival of St Peter in Borne proves to us that he must have something else in view. No man of any sense could possibly make such a mistake as we must otherwise attribute to him. But let us wait until Christmas. If in the celebration of that festival the rev gentleman promotes the traditional mistletoe from the festive hall to a prominent place among the adornments of his church we shall know that our surmise has been correct. Our friend, farther, desires as to tell him what Mr Fitchett meant in the same sermon by claiming for his Church, privileges not owned by some other denomination to which he made mysterious allusion; This also we are unable to explain, bat if one of the privileges in question was that of a license for certain members of the Anglican clergy to talk rank nonsense, Mr Fitchett's claim would be very much to the point. The nouvtau riche with his gallery of ancestral portraits is a joke to the Church of England claiming connection with the ecclesiastical antiquity of the country. However, we shall not dispute the Druids with ber, if she desires to own them as her forefathers. And, after all, a Church with a married clergy may find something not altogether inappropriate in the worship of the mistletoe. We all know how promotive of matrimony the more modern form of this worship is ; and here, we may add, v another privilege, and a very delightful one. Perhaps, then, there was method in Mr Fitchett's madness. His reference was, no doubt, to the Druids and the mistletoe.

STUPID CONCLUSIONS.

Hebe is an instance of the rushing-in of fools. It occurs in a leader published on Friday the Bth mat, by our contemporary, the Otago Daily Times. The subject is the failure of the attempt to abolish the totalisator, at which our contemporary stems highly indignant, We do not advocate the continuance of the totalisator— nor, in fact, do we oppose it. If, as the Colonial Treasurer seems to think, it is advisable for revenue purposes, it may perhaps be rather better than any other form of gambling— though we admit that bad is the best. The totalisator, however, was introduced in that particular attempt to do what is impossible, which consists in trying to make the people moral by act of Parliament. If it fails to do so, or even seems to have a contrary effect , it is no more than we might expect. Bat gambling is part and parcel of the spirit of the times — and the totalieator can affect it but little. Where the writer of tbe leader to which we refer, transgresses, however, is in a passage in which, in his indignation against the Treasurer, he appeals to the historian of the future. The conduct of the Treasurer in opposing the abolition of the totalioator on fiscal grouods, will be compared, ht sayß, with other striking curiosities of the period— the revival of the belief that the world is flat, of the belief in ghosts, of the anti-vaccination movement, etc— and will be found bracketed with " the miracles of Lonrdes and Knock." But what does this writer know of these miracles— of thoge of Lourdes especially ? These are wonders performed in the middle of a multitude of scoffing unbelievers— cures to whose reality men of eminence in almost every walk of life have testified— and which physicians of high standing have pronounced inexplicable by the laws of their science. If, therefore, the historian of tbe future has anything to write in explanation of these miracles, it will be an account of the discovery, and the application to them, of some law of nature hitherto nnknown— and by which alone such cures can be naturally explained. That such cures occur is no more doubtful or capable of denial than is the fact that the Daily Times is published every day except Sunday. But the discovery of a new law of nature, or the revelation of any law of nature hitherto unknown, must needs be an event of very great importance, and one by no means to be bracketed by the historian of the future— for we give the future credit in advance for committing tbe writing of history to some ojher hands than those of a fool— with anything ridiculous or absurd. Aa to the plaoe to be assigned to a man who, without knowledge or inquiry, thinks himself qualified boldly to deny, it is not hard to fix it. Fortunately for the progress of the world there hare also b«en men of a different disposition.

A CREDITABLE MOTION.

This protest against Kanaka labonr in Queensland, which, on the motion of the Premier, has been carried in the House of Bepresentatives, ia highly to be commended. Undoubtedly this colony is concerned in the matter, even apart from the interest in it which belongs to every civiliEed being. The introdnction of an admitted evil into one of the colonies on the grounds of expediency ia a matter that mast concern as all, if it were only that it would form a precedent from which incalculable mischief might follow. And expediency was the only argument that was urged against the motion by those Members of the House who discredited ihemßelveß by opposing it. White men could not caltivate sugar, and, therefore, they must be supplied with slaves to do so. One member of the Opposition, however, added what he considered a more closely touching plea. They would incite Queensland, be said, to keep out our products. There is a pretty argument in the mouth of an enlightened statesman. Importation of New Zealand products is, then, to form our hush-money I But the Hon Mr Fergus, the Member referred to, takes a very lofty tone. "It was simply playing to the ' mob,' "he said. Let us, however, recognise that here Mr Fergus Bhows a more sympathetic spirit. He himself, as a successful contractor, has made his profit of the " mob." It is well to see that he has a fellow-feel-ing for others who are trying, after their particular manner, to do likewise. Naturally, he has a time-honoured affection for cheap labour, and a consequent contempt for the " mob." Possibly, moreover, he has a grudge against the Government, for their departure 'from the sweating system, in making the working men on Government works both labourers and contractors, Was it not an outrage thus to interfere with the profits of the middleman ? We may take it that it is not only the " mqb " of Queensland or those who speak on their behalf, that come under the scorn of the Hon Mr Fergus. As to the Hon Mr Bollestone's plea that the sister colony, having a representative Government, would not go in the way of crnelty and wrong-doing, it may be dismissed by recalling how the sister colony went in the same path a few years ago. But, in fact, we already Bee at least one proof that cruelty and wrong doing must accompany the traffic in question. We quoted last week from a paper published in the sugar-planters' interests, a statement to the effect that there were too many vessels entering for the trade, considering the number of islanders available, What must such competition entail ? Will not the skippers in self-defence be obliged to resort to kidnapping 1 The temptations, however, to do evil in connection with this trade are - manifold ; the means of preventing such evil from being done ara few. Mr Ballance, therefore, is to be congratulated on his motion, . and it is to the credit of the House that it has been carried.

MURDER WILL our.

There is thejcat oat of the bag— and of all the hands in the world, thO3e of the Otago Daily Times have done the mischief. After all their talk find their boastiDg, and all the sacrifice of the public internets, that have been made, our contemporary, himself a chief advocate of secularism, declares that our much-vaunted system has been a failure. The attendance in school, he Bays, calculating from the last report of the Otago Education Board, has for the last six years ecu almost stationary. "la 1886 ifc stood at 22,255 ; in 1891 it stood at 22,473." — Two thousand children in three years, he adds, have dropped out of school life, and the sad conclusion is that ' "about 10 per cent of our children reap the full value of the elaborate system which has cost so much time and thought in the fashioning and so much money in the maintenance,"— Our contemporary ii , puzzled to know what has become of the children. But there . perhaps, we are not in a position to give him much information — 'though it has always seemed to us that the expectations formed as to tthe intellectual marvels that were to be worked by our educatii n f system were formed without reference to the co-operation necessary <on the part of generations by no means framed for hard study. We •cannot tell, however, whether parents keep their children at home :in idleness, make them help in work at home, or send them i out to earn their bread. It is evident, nevertheless, that from whatever cause a child, who has passed an insufficient time at school, leaves off learning his lessons, be must soon lose even the little he has learned. The cost of our education system, therefore, on the showing of the Daily Times, is money thrown away. Our contemporary complains that the proposal, rejected as injurious both to the children and the State, namely, that the IV Standard ahonld form the limit of free education, is practically accepted by the parents of the children. "Is it then," he asks, " that the impulses of a quarter of a cantury ago are weiring themselves oat ? Is the generation now in middle age apathetic, careless, oblivious ? A speaker at a recent meeting connected with education declared that in former times, when fees were collected and roads bad, the school attendance was at least as good, if not better, than now. Is this a ■fact?" Bat does not our contemporary know that dependence begets an apathetic spirit 7 There is a certain discipline necessary to the development of manliness, and without that quality a people mast always be good for nothing. Our contemporary's conclusion is as -follows. His note of warning, however, will not produce much

effect J— " At any rate," he writes, " what it written in figure* of unmistakable import ia that large numbers of onr young people are in a state of Tery incomplete education, and that the fnll advantages of our system are not Becnred becanse there ii much insincerity and indifference in many quarters. It sounds a paradox in New Zealand to urge upon any section of her people the dangers of allowing the mass of her children to grow up ill-iaformed and ill-trained ; bnt facts are facts, and the few here adduced are sufficient to inspire very serious reflection."