MR GLADSTONE'S STRIKING POINT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 44, 19 August 1892, Page 15

MR GLADSTONE'S STRIKING POINT.

(From the Irish World.) In his first speech in Midlothian at the beginning of the alection campaign a few days ago, Mr Gladstone presented a striking argument against the Tory allegation that the Irish Catholic people want Home Rule in order that they may oppress the Protestant mirority in respect to their religious rights by giving dominance or ascendancy to the Catholic Church. Here is bow Mr Gladstone dealt with that suggestion of tbe enemies of Home Rule :—: — 11 You may have heard of the cruel charges— frivolous beyond al known frivolity and cruel beyond any cruelty that the mere steel can inflict in the barbarous hand— charges against the Irish nation that what they are seeking by this change is to acquire power by means of which they aie to triumph, are to trample down the rights of their Protestant fellow-subjecte. Oh, gentlemen, if the inventor— l won't say the inventors of these charges, for I believe that the violence of paßsion induces men to imagine things in the teeth of all reason, so that it is folly and not wickedness which I believe leads them astray — believe in these charges, ought they not in decency to reflect tbat the Irish members themselves in 1886 willingly and sjalously agreed in this, that we should insert in the Home Rule Bill a provision forbidding absolutely tbe erection of any national Church establishment whatever? What a strange state of things it is. The Irish agreed to that security in order to disarm Protestant apprehension and Baspicion, and though they have agreed to it tbat is not strong enough. But who are they that are called upon to prosecute these suspicions against them to the uttermost ? They are the people of England and of Scotland, and the people of England and Scotland— both of them up to this daU having Church establishments themselves— it is supposed tre to find fault even with the Irish renunciation, and after the Irish have voluntarily excluded themßelves from that privilege, or whatever else any of you may think it to be. Even after they have done that you are asked by the Belfast Convention and by all the dukes and marquises, and all the people that they can persuade to follow them—you are asked Btill to prosecute the lrieh on this moßt unjust, most false, most fictitious charge of bigotry and religious tyranny, and of an intention to trample Protestant rights underfoot."— No fair-minded person can read this without feeling the full force of the poiut which Mr Gladstone makes. It is certainly the height of impudence for English and Scotch Tories who insist upon maintaining their Protestant Church in State-endowed ascendancy for their Church, even while those Irish Catholics are willing, as Mr Gladstone says, to agree to ample securities against any such scheme.

It is rather amusing to find the Tory Unionists basing their opposition to Home Rule on the alleged daoger of clerical dictaii >d and at the fame time attempting to overawe the Liberal party through the dictation of the Orange and semi-Orange parsons. Tbe Protestant Primate, displaying a nice sense of religious propriety, opens tbe Belfast Convention with a prayer for the perpetuation of misrule. To the mind of the anti-Catholic coercionist this is worthy of all praise. A number of Protestant ministers sign a manifesto in favour of tbe ascendancy policy ; the Tory Unionist sees not a trace of clerical dictation in the document. Thi Protestant Archbishop it Dublin uses his pulpit to preach against the political claims of the the majority of his fellow countrymen ; to the ears of the Tory Unionise his preaching is the true gospel. But let the Catholic Archbishops of Dublin or Cashel utter a Home Bule sentiment from the platform, or write it in the Press, then all the pious Tory Unionists from the Premier downwards are shocked and scandalised at this misuse of ecclesiastical power, and waru the nation againt " selling the Irish Protestants into slavery," delivering them up to the tender mercies of Dm Walsh nnd Croke, etc, etc. Truly, the weights and scalej of Tory Unionists are peculiar.

On Tuesday, July 12, the National Education Convention in session at Saratoga was addressed by President Harrison on the great lawn of Congress, Spring Park. The President is always interesting and to the point in his remarks on public questions, but he never drew from his rich fund of instructive aphorisms more happily than on that occasion when pointing out the true direction and purpose of education "It is not simply," he said, "to give tbe power that comes from education, but to give it safe direction, that schools are established. He is not a benefactor of his race who develops or misdirects power. Then it is, we must insist, that in all our schools the morality of the Ten Commandments shall be instilled. That lesson of due subordination to authority shall be taught. In family and in school are the beginning of the fundamental element of good citiz3nship and obedience to the law."— This is the safe and consistent Christian spirit in which the great work of educating the rising generation should be conducted, fitting them for tbe duties and aspirations of the highest Christian civilisation. It recognises the necessity for a religious influence in training the budding intellectual powers on lines of justice morality, and due respect for authority which constitute in tbe State, as in the family and in the school, " the fundamental element of good citizenship." The President's judgment on the subject is in line with that of the best and broadest thinkera of the land.— lrish World,