Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 41, 9 February 1894, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

The entertainment tendered as * benefit to Mr Thomas Bracken at tbe Garrison Hall, Dunedin, on Wednesday evening, July SI, was in every respect a brilliant success. Tbe large hall was crowded in all its partp, testifying eloquently to the place occupied by Mr Bracken in the estimation of the people of this city. The programme was well selected and the performance was excellent Onr principal singers were fully represented. The ladies were Mesdames Murphy and Wakefield-Holmee, and the Misses Bose Blaney and Nellie Stevenson ; the gentlemen— Messrs Arthur Salvini, P. L. Jones, Harry Smith, W. Farqahar Young, B. Pecker, S. Beunert, C. Umbere, A. P. Bobertßhaw, W. Thomson, and W. IbbotBon. There was also present Mr Harry Weir of Christcburch. The instrumentalists were Miss I. Matheeon, B.A.M. ; and Miss N. Black, a clever little lady from Invercargill. Miss Josephine S. Samuel), of Melbourne, and Mr J. B. Mac Donald gave recitations. Miss K. Moloney and Mr A. Vallis acted as accompanists. Of the music we may speak highly. All the singers were heard to great advantage in songs well suited to their powers. Among the more notable per*, formances was the duet from the " Miserere " scene in the " Trovatore" — between Mrs Murphy and Mr Arthur Salvini. This was given with artistic finish and was enthusias'ically encored. Mr Salvini afterwards sang a solo from Verdi's " I Lombardi," of which he gave a splendid interpretation. As an encore he sang, also very finely, ' When other lips," from the "Bohemian Girl." Miss Bose Blaney's song was " My King,'* and, in response to an encore, she sang " Kate O'Shane." Miss Samuell's recitations were very effective. Tbe first — "At rest" described the sioping of a chorister in an Anglicao Cathedral, and afterwards tLe burial of the singer, suitable music being rendered behind the scenes. The second was the " Belief of Lucknow," another and a more realistic adaptation of the tale, familiar to most of us from the verses entitled " Jessie's Dream.' 1 ' Not understood " and " Bogers of Eaglehawk," two of Mr Bracken's poems, were recited by Mr Mac Donald, who did bis part capitally. The first of the two is generally known. The second has been recently written, giving a strikingly dramatic picture of a noble deed. It affords ample scope for spirite.l and touching elocution. The Hon Mr Fergus, who spoke a few cordial words in recognition of Mr Bracken's worth and the debt due to him as a writer by the Colony, read a letter from the gentleman in question, whose medical attendant would not permit of his be ng present. Mr Bracken expressed his gratitude for tbe kindness anown towards him, making special mention of the audience, tbe performers, and Mr Charles Umbers and the gentlemen associated with him in the committee of management. Mr Fergus invited his heaters to join with him in wishing Mr Bracken prosperity and happiness in tht future. The appeal elicited loud applause.

AN IMMORAL AND OFFENSIVE PLAT.

With rel ition to that outrage on religion to which we Recently had occasion to refer, during the visit of the Brough Boucicault Company to Dunedin, we notice that wherever anti-Oattulic bigotry is a die* tinctive feature of a newspaper the abominable play is singled out for especial praise. Our reference to the play eeems to have set our unveiled friend of the Napier Neivi on the gui vive. He therefore takes up for comment some remarks made by the Wellington Post— who fairly states the impossibility of the plot M pointed out by Catholics. Here is what our contemporary has to •ay for himself :— " Between the breaking of the seal of the confessional and the nse of facts which come to the knowledge of a priest in the confessional, there may be a subtle difference, but we cannot ■ay that we quite grasp the point. It is within our own knowledge that a good old priest in Lsunceston, Tasmania, was the cause of an innocent man being liberated aftor having been some years in prison, and, if we remember aright, tha affair came about somewhat in this wise : A young man was placed on hia trial on a capital charge in

MB THOMAS BRACKEN'S BENEFIT.

which a young woman figured. The accused was fouad guilty and sentenced to death. The death sentence wsb commuted to penal servitude for life and such sentence in that day— some 22 yean ago — meant the incarceration of the convict in the prison at Port Arthur. For one or two yeara he was kept in Bolitary confinement in a prison, the very thought of which is sufficient to make one shudder. It was a barbarous business— a remnant of the old convict days. The time came soon afterwards when Port Arthur was done away with, and the ' model prison,' as it was called, drove no more of its viotimi into madness. But to our story. It came to the knowledge of tha good priest we have referred to that the young man in prison was innocent. The girl confessed that she had falsely accused tha unfortuoate fellow. What was to be done ? The priest oould cot denounce the wretched perjurer without violating the secrets of tba confessional ; but he Bet to work and forced her into making knows the whol* story of the crime to the authorities, and, broken in health, and ruined for life, the young man was reltased from prison, while punishment was meted out to one of the guilty pair, though the brute who had been shielded made good hid escape. These art the facts as we remember them, and, as we have already stated, we can see very little difference between what we know to be an actual fact and the story unfolded in the play of the Village Priest.' What our good contemporary cannot grasp, however, or whit he can Bee, is very little to the purpose. The priest at Launcoatoa neither broke the seal of the confessional nor made use of facts with wbiob, under it, he had become acquainted. His action was necessarily to refuse to give his penitent absolution until she had made all the reparation in her power. Possibly Bbc authorised him to act for her* Bes'ituti'n, for example, ie quite commonly made by a confessor, on the part of a penitent, to the person who has been robbed. There ii never either a breach of the seal of the sacrament or a use by the priest of the facts which have thus come to his k ow ledge. As to the play we need not repeat what we have already written. We know, ton, for a fact that it was condemned in Dunedin by religious nooCatholics who had seen it, as a mockery of religion. Can any consistent Protestant, indeed, approve of the introduction of the Bible for miraculous tffects upon the stage? Certainly not, No Protestant can, unless the outrage offered to the Catholic relignn and the Catholic clergy may seem to him means that justify the end, Tie play, we say again, contains a nisty immoral atory of adultery and treachery, written by a French infidel for the mockery of Christianity,

A WITTY P OBLIGATION.

The reviews for December give copious extracts from a book of reminiscencep, entitled " Seventy Years of Irish Life," which baa recently been published by Mr W. B. La Farm, son of a late Dean of Kmly.aad brother of the late Mr J, 8. Le Faou, a well-known author.' The book teams with wit and humour, and regret is expressed at its writer's declaration that, as it is his first, so it must be his last publi. cation. His advanced age, however, seems to mike that necessary He was born in the year 1816. Some of the s ories told have for vi a familiar ring — reminding us, at leas', of something that we had heard before. Such, for example, is one of the famous Dr Barrett, a Fellow of Trinity College, Dablir, whose eccentricities formed the screaming delight of students in the latter years of the last and the earlier years of this century, and left many memories to delight generations of those who succeeded them. The anecdote in question is that of the anxiety of " Jacky," as he was called, on »n occasion when, for once, he had left the precincts of the college to learn what kind of bird was a rooster which he saw in the yard of a hotel, It was afterwards found that he had consulted a book of natural biftory and made a note on the margin. " The ostler was right," he wrot*, "it was a cock." The records of Jacky Barrett's eccentricitlei, how« ever, would fill an extensive volume. We remember bearing from ao old gentleman who had been his pupil, of tbe curiosity be showed on learning that this pupil had come to Dublin by a canal boat, to know bow the horses that drew the boat managed to travel through the water. When be filled the office of college librarian, again, and it was his duty to administer the oath to students who, on taking their degree of 8.A., were made free of the library, bis charge to them was, " Ye're not to stale the books." The learned Fellow spoke wi:h a brogue of a very marked description — a kind of sing-song drawl, as

imi'atad by those who had heard i». "And bo, Mr Brown, you're taking me off," he exclaimed once on surprising an under-graduate addressing, in hit place, the class he was aboat to lecture. " No, indeed, Dr Barratt," replied Mr Brown, in the self-same tone, ' 'tis my natural accent." Jacky, too, was a stickler for old ways. When a proposal was made by a brother Fellow, the late Dr Wall, who long survived him, to introduce into the pronunciation of Latin the English "a," he opposed it vigoroDßly. It happened one morning that it c>me to his turn to officiate in the college cbapel, and publicly in his reci'al of the Lord's Prayer, he made bis protest— " Our Father," he began, in bit broadest brogue, « or, as Dr Wall wcnld say, ' Onr Fay-ther.' ' The effect in a churcb, filled by a congregation none too well-disposed for graTity, may be imagined.— A notable to whom Mr Le Fanu hardly M4tni to do justice is the late Archbishop Whately. " The stories of Whately," sajs the Spectator, " are interesting but not agreeable, •nd only serve to illustrate a sort of brutal brusquerie which be •ffctcd in his intercourse with his social and intell«ctual inferiors." Ao impression, nevertheless, that the Archbishop was bru-que only with his inferiors would be false. Ha was no respecter of persons, o% indeed, of places. We have ourselves seen bim, during the •oleenoity of a confirmation service in one of the principal chnrcbes of the archdiocese, scrubbing bis hands vigorously with a pockethandkerchief— his action beingtnost suggestive of adislike to poma'um ■ A ye&r or two after bii death we were present when a prelate who had been one of his aaffragan bishops alladed to his peculiarities recalling, also, that very brnsqueness of which the Spectator speaks. The bishop gava at an illustration an occasion on which a certain noblemanLord Fermoy, if we recolleot aright— came up, with extreme courtesy, to rentw acquaintance with his Grace. The Archhbishop received aim with a rude stare. " I don't believe I ever saw yon before in all my life," he said. Here, meantime, it an anecdote that Mr Le Fanu tells: -"Two women were watching him (tbe Archbishop) one day playing with his Newfoundland dog in Stephens-green. ' Mary, do yon know who that is playin' wid the dog V ' Troth, I don't, Biddy ; bat he'a a fine-looking man, whoever he is.' • That's the Archbishop, Mary.' •Do you tell me so ? God bless the innocent craythur I lan't he easily amused V ' He's not our Archbishop at all, Mary ; he'a the Protettant Archbishop.' ' Oh, the ould fool I '" Mr Le Fanu gives tereral illustrations of the quickness to be found •mong an Irish crowd. Take, for instance, the following :-" Some piket which bad been found concealed were exhibited at a Conservative meeting in Dublin. Some one cried out, • A groan for the pikes I ' A voice from the crowd replied, ' A bloody end to them 1 ' "—Finally, it it well to learn, from any one and in any way, that even Orangeism may have its uses. The deponent, accountable for the thankful piety here narrated, was engaged in making poteen. "We always dry the malt in the beginning of July, when all the police are taken off to Derry to put down the riota there ; so wa can do it in Bafety then. God ii good, sir, God is good."

ODDS AND ENDS.

MkKinlet i 3 spoken of as the coming man. His notable trinmph in the recent election for the governorship of Ohio is said to presage his election as President. This also is said to be implied in the general success of the Republicans. The Protectionists, therefore* •re rejoicing. McKinley is described as a solid rather than a smart man. He is reticent and prndent, and has great powers of enduranceIt is mentioned as suggestive of his possessing a kindly nature that children are attracted by him. During the late elections, we are told, boys were constantly dodging in between the legs of the company to grasD him by the band, with dirty pawc, and cry " Hello, McKinley." "In one country seat two little girls walked into, the hotel where the Governor's party was stopping and introduced each other to McKinley. The Governor greeted them pleasantly, and, after answering a few questions, they said : ' Well, good-bye, Governor ; we came in because we jaßt wanted to get a glimpse of McKinley .' " Bat is alt this, indeed, suggestive of the Governor's kindliness or of the precocious condition of young America ? The brats I « xclaims the mivivor of a lesa developed age. McKinley is a native of Ohio, but of Irish descent. He is 50 years old, and his mother, who is still a'ive, is 86. Among the Dapuies who were wounded by the Me explosion of dynamite in the French Chamb r, was ihe AbU Lemire. The Paris correspondent of the Liverpool Catholic Thmet gives us the following particulars :— " Abbd Lemire is forty-two years of age, and the son of peasant parents. At his recrnt election for Haz >brouck the whole place was in r j .icing. He was carrtel in triumph throogh the town, •nd at night th«re were illuminations. He had beea professor of rhetoric at the U iversity of Hdzebrouck for twenty-Bye years. This deputy-priest has thrown himself ih. roughly into the movement for the amelioration of the working classes. His sympathies are with the poor and suffaiing, and he is already called the apostle of fraternity an! reconciliation. Whence this bent of all his faculties, so in tone with the needs of the hour and the teachings of the Papal encyclicals 1 Abb 6 Lemire would tell you that he traces it to a single interview bebai with Cardinal Manning. He was w impressed then j

by the great Cardinal's views on social subj ecte that be came home and wrote a pamphlet on him and the Irish Question. The pamphlet was considered at the time a remarkably clear and powerful treatment of the snbjsct. Last year he published a • Life of Cardinal Manning.' Abb 6 Lemire's heroes of predilection are Cardinal Manning and O'Conuell." It would Beem, meantime, that the atmosphere of tht Chamber of Dapu'ieg remains charged with thunderous elements. A scene is now reported in which the Socialist members repeatedly cheered the Commune, the Centre very naturally replying with cries of •' Murderers," " Communards." The situation exposed is meantime serious. With Socialism increasing and shamelessly expressing its sympathy with the Commune, the prospects of the future seem decidedly gloomy. Of what tbe Commune was, of its enormitiesi indecencies, and brutalities, M. Maxime dv Camp, as an eye-witness has given a graphic and terrible account. It argnea ill for the fortunes of France— or, indeed, perhaps for those of all Europe— to find it thus applauded and approved of. The threats of the anarchists are evidently of some significance. Under the circumstances, the information given in the Nineteenth, Century for December by M. Yves Guyot, late Minister for Public Works in France, seems particularly formidable. M. Guyot state* in effect that the body are increasing both iv numbers and energy. He leaves, besides, slight grounds for hope that more moderate views among a section of them are likely to furnish a wholesome leaven for the whole :— " All the Socialists are much more divided by personal questions than by queatione of doctrine. They are all of opinion that the actual state of society is worth'ess ; that legislation should interfere vigorously to give to the labourera all the privileges they demand ; that, however great these demands may be, they will never be sufficient ; and that the end to be arrived at is the expropriation of the ' capitalist class.' " What, meantime, the expropriation of the capitalist class must be, as carried* out by a body— even a regularly established legislature— in Bympatby with tbe Commune, it is not hard to conjecture. A romantic and painful story that has been going the rounds of the newspapers relativt to the suicide of a boy who drowned himself, in order that his starving mother might benefit by an insurance on his life, in the Grand Canal at Dublin, turns out to be the invention of some enterprising Journalist. A Dublin correspondent of the Spectator has given it a flat denial. The name, indeed, that had been given to the boy might have been taken as suspicious— " Ferdinand de Freyne Rwnzi de Oourcy." The inventive journalist has evidently all the qualities to make him successful on the staff of a "Penny Dreßdfal." His political opponents are again trying to make capital out of Mr Gladstone's advanced years. The cable acquaints ua with a controversy that is taking place with respect to his intention to yield to old age and infirmity and retire from tbe Premiership, and no doubt from public life altogether. The old saying that the wish is father to the thought has never had an uglier exemplification. The news, one might think, that a man who had adorned the century, who in more ways than one had conferred honour on his country, had been forced to yield to the necessities of human nature would come unwelcome to all parties alike and form a common bond of sorrow, To try and forestall the ravages of time, on the contrary, and to invite tbe consequences of human weakness, seems an outrage offered to humaniry. All is fair, they say, in love or war. Things, neverthtless, that are ventured in politics are mtan and dastardly. Fortunately such tactics do not Beem suggestive of a wion.ng cause. Mr Gladstone we may hope, will survive to not* their failura. ' The recsnciliatiou of Prioce Bismarckand the Emperor of Germany is no doubt, apleasing matter to all those who are well disposed towards their neighbour in the wide sense of the term. No one could with-hold all sympathy from an aged man, approaching hia grave in ne*. lect and ingratitude. Whether the matter ia to have any political significance is another thing. In that respect there are few ofus who can rejoice to see the Prince restored to favour. On the whole it must be acknowledged that his influence over the affairs of Burooe was not for the best. Mora particularly on the pressing queation tf the hour, the growth of Socialism, he is acknowledged to ?have pro. duced a sinister eff.ct, and it would be unfortunate if the Emperor was likely to be guided by him in dealing with it. It ia thereto™ reassuring to find that the renewal of the Imperial .mile ia not con! sidered to predict the return of its object to power. It would be interesting to know what the end is which writera in anti-Catholic newspapers propose to themselves in inmatine on a misinterpretation of Monsigoor Satolli's attitude towards the eecular schoois in Amenca. Are we, for example, to understand our co" nTwT? t H he h WelhD e to f n PPrr r' 88 im^ in « «»t aeculariat. in NewZjahnd have aecret qualms of conscience with regard to the treatment given by them to their Catholic fellow-coloukts, and are anxious anywhere to find an excuse for their conduct? It cannot be that our contemporary entertains any hope of making an impression on Catholic*, or altering their m.nd on the matter by any areament he can advance. Even our contemporary, we should think

must know that we look elsewhere far guidance. No ; the explanation evidently is fear lest their eenge of fair play should prove too ■•rong for the secularists of the Colony. Dodges, therefore, of the kind alluded to should have the contrary eflaot of encouraging us in our struggle. A series of letters from a " Chatton Farnvr in Ireland," that are being published by our contemporary the Invercargill Weekly Times, are chiefly remarkably for tbeir pawkiness. The writer is a douce body who takes mild and benevolent views of the situation, and admits that, there is a good deal to be amended — but not just in that way, you know ; in some other way that may appear by-and-bye. He would never knock down his enemy with a Belfast '• kidney" — but, if he could give him a sly trip into a muddy ditch, not to kill but to smother him, down be would go. The letters may be studied for their pawkiness, and should amuse the reader. Our douce body, however, is too clever by half. Nothing, for example, can be easier to interpret than his advice as to the relief of the existing distress. The money subscribed towards the support of the evic ed tenants has been a sad grievance to him, and he does not scruple— in what would be a Pecksniffian strain if it did not smack bo strongly of the North Briton — to calumniate the administration of the Evicted Tenants' Fund. Nevertheless, he advises that assistance should ba givenonly not through the National party. He would, in fact, like to kill two birds with one stone, to discredit the National leaders abroad, and create a division at home betweea them aad the priestß. Here is a specimen from this " Holy Willie "of prose and politics. "It is a most unwise policy to send money to this couutry and entrust it to a self-seeking lot of politicians. There has been far too much of that sort of thing in the past, and it would be a great mistake to continue it. The Roman Catholic clergy are always to be found where there is need of their services and to them should be entrusted any money that the kind-hearted colonists have to spare for the poor of Ireland. This winter will witness a deal of hardship in many rural districts, and assistance would be welcome no doubt. Cardinal Logue lately is reported to have Baid that there would always be rich and poor, and that it was not possible to have a world free from want

" bunkum," and a giving of " taffy " all rouod. There are serious defeots and gross evila existing under the American Constitution— unless newspaper reporters, and American journalistsj ournalists generally are wildly inventive and delight ia concocting tales of pessimistic events. Let the Americans, ia short, mmd thoir owa baQiao?B. We are not particularly concerned about them. Oar guidauce, as Catholics, comes to ua from Rome, aad the direct Hue does not lie via San Francisco. But as an example of a failnre of the American Constitution that some of our gushing friends in this Colony must look on as most disastrous, let us take a statement or two made, ia his late report to Parliament, by Chief Inspector Fitch. Compulsory attendance at school is, he tells us, in the United States almost a dead-letter. " Even when the law is to some extent enforced by me^ns of truant officers or otherwise, its requirements cannot be regarded as very exacting." The reason he assigns.is the very spirit of the Oonstitution, Republicanism. " America is essentially republican. The sense of equality and of personal rights is strong, not only ia the adult community but among the young scholars themselves." Attendance at school, therefore, is irregular. In Boston, we are told, which, nevertheless, is a model city, more than one-tenth of the children of school age do not attend school at all — private or public. " Nor," says Mr Fitch again, "is the social and industrial condition of America such as to impress parents strongly with the need for any thorough or systematic coursj of instruction." When, therefore, we read in our contemporaries glowing allusions to the American schools, we are reminded of an old saying they had at Horne — " Cows in Connaught have long horns." Our clever friend " Nemo " of the Dunedin Star, In the course of a few brilliant, but not strikingly original, remarks touching Dr Moran's Lenten Pastoral, declares that he will not " fly in the face of Providence." Of course not. He could not fly in the face of anything. There are, indeed, the flying fox and the flying squirrel, bat nature has still to evolve the flying donkey. Another little bundle of rubbish published by Saturday's Star is a composition in bad doggrel, purporting apparently to rebnke the

under present conditions." We need hardly pjiut out mac the way to follow the advice of a Mentor of this kind is to t-k • the opposite course to that which he recommends. The Irish priests can speak for themselves and need no such patron. A striking illustration of secular effects, by the way, was that explosion in the French Chamber. Yaillant, who threw the bomb, was an educated man, skilled in all the philosophy of the day, and had been for some time a Socialist journalist. Of a similar class are most of the anarchists now before the public. The de'ails of Vaillant's feat, we may add, prove It to have been of particular atrocity. The bomb was charged with nails and jagged pieces of iron, and had it reached the floor of the Chamber, must have resulted in a horrible slaughter. Exploding as it did accidentally against a post, it inflicted severe wounds on many of the Deputies, and on several visitors among whom were some ladies, A man who opposes the secular schools in America, therefore may be, as a contemporary says, a bad American. It is certain that a man who supports the secular schools in France, may not only be a bad Frenchman, but a bad man — and even a monitor. But, talking of " bad Americans," whose example it would seem we are called upon, aa a sacred duty, to shuo, must we also, if we would escape opprobrium, walk about with a copy of the American Constitution in one of our fists? — the left or the right, we forget which. If we are bound to take as a pattern what goes on in America in one chief respect, would it not be more consistent to carry the matter thoroughly out ? Meantime, we confess that, for our own part we have no particular admiratioa for the American Constitution. There are many points in which it falls behind the Oonstitution of the United Kingdom, Uuder it also every abuse : exists chat exists almost anywhere else, and there are, besides, blemishes peculiar to the country. We do not by any means go the full length with Miss Mary Teresa Elder. We m>k3 allowances for her nervousness, and note her exaggerations. We also, in some degree take exception to her slang— at least from the mouth of a lady. Still, it must be admitted that she did appear to have some Blight ground^ for entering a protest against " spread-eagleism " and

ahabbiness of a certain bank in charging 6d exchange on a cheque of one of its branch managers. Next time the facetious individual drops into poetry let him try a cockney dialect. Then, probably, we sha'n't perceive that he is bothered as well as silly. He never heard an Irishman with a brogue speak in his life. Here is a paragraph received among the Sao Francisco mail news : — "Mr Divitt, on being asked by an American pressman whether be bad advised the 'removal' of Dr Cronin, murdered in Ooicago, said he never knew Cronin, and it would be just as true to say that he had advised tha ' removal ' of Julius Caesar or Abraham Lincoln. It was a monstrous fabrication, and the Press of America was the only Press in the civilised world through which ruffianly attacks like this moral assassination of public men could be made." There are, nevertheless, instances to be found in which newspaper! elsewhere take up the lone of those in America condemned by Mr Divitt. Last week, for example, we alluded to an attempt of the j kind made by the Wellington Prtss. The gaiety and splendour of World's Fair at Chicago have been succeeded by a very diff .-rant state of things. We are now told of • starving mob, crying out desperately for work or bread, and threatening violence — for whom, nevertheless, neither work nor bread seems to be provided. A like Btate of affairs appears to prevail gene* rally throughout the country, and disorder of various kinds ia reported as its consequence. Finally, the magnificent building! of the late Exhibition have baen burned down, as is supposed by incendiaries. American democracy, therefore, has also its disadvantages. It may even be suspected without sacrilege that there are blemishes to be found in the much vaunted, and almost worshipful Oonstitution. At any rate American democracy has nut yet spoken the last word to be said in solving the difficulties of the day. The Pope in a recent interview with M. Channoey Depew disclaimed the Idea that his Encyclical on Labour contains anything novel or strange. " That Encyclical," heiiid, " was no new thing in the Catholic Church. It laid down no new doctrines. It simply re-affirmed and enforced what had always been the doctrine and tbe policy of the Church aa to the relations of the riot aad poor, the

employer and the employe, The right of property, the right of man to retain and enjoy that which he has earned by the sweat of hia brow, or by geniua and good fortune, has never been questioned by the Church and never will be."