Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 31, 10 December 1897, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

American papers just to hand contain full partiTHE LA.TE culars of the almost tragically sudden death of henry GEORGE. Henry George, the veteran champion of Land Reform, as embodied in his doctrine of the Single Tax. He was a candidate for the mayoralty of Greater New York and though his prospect of success was by no means hopeful he threw himself into the contest with characteristic ardour and enthusiasm. He had spoken night after night, to large audiences, and on the day before his death he delivered no less than three public speeches. About two o'clock in the morning of Friday, October 29, he was taken suddenly ill, and in less than three hours later he had passed away. The immediate cause of death was apoplexy but the stroke was undoubtedly brought on by the intense nervous strain to which he had been subjected during the campaign. As might have been expected, the funeral, which took place on Monday morning, was a most impressive one. On Sunday the body lay in state at the Grand Central Palace, and during the day 50,000 people passed the casket and took a last reverent look at the face of their dead friend. The funeral service was held in one of the large halls of the city, and the vast building was crowded to excess, a large number having to be content with standing room. The funeral itself is described as one of the most imposing expressions of public grief since the death of Lincoln, and it is estimated that at the very least 125,000 people followed the remains to their last resting place. The story of his life is full of interest, and shows THE story OF that in his early career, at least, Henry George His LIFE. had his full share of those ups and downs, and especially downs, which seem to be necessary to brin ff out all the go and grit that is in a man. He was born in Philadelphia in 1839. His father, R. S. H. George, was a publisher in a small way, and the son used to say that it was in his father's publishing house that he first imbibed the love of reading, which afterwards became so marked a feature in his character. At the age of fourteen young George ran away to sea, and voyaged to London, Melbourne, and Calcutta, before he returned. He was then apprenticed to the printing trade, but in 1858 he was caught by the Fraser River gold fever, and determined to try his fortune in that country. Shipping as a common sailor he went to California before the mast, but on reaching the goldfield he found that the place was practically a duffer. He returned to San Francisco absolutely penniless, when he had the good fortune to meet a printer whom he had known in Philadelphia, and who was able to put him in the way of getting work which, while by no means remunerative, enabled him at least to keep his head above water. He was glad soon after to get a position as weigher in a rice mill, and when he had put together a little capital he joined with two other printers in starting a paper called the Journal. It prospered for a while, but George, not being a member of the Press Association, was unable to furnish his readers with the latest news about the coming war, and his paper was forced to succumb. In the meantime, he had married a Catholic young lady, Miss Annie Fox, who was born in Australia of Irish parents, but had lived for many years in San Francisco. Miss Fox and her family were devout Catholics, and the parents were by no means favourably disposed to young George, who was an Episcopalian, and who was^ besides as poor as the proverbial church mouse. However, the young lady gave her consent, and George succeeded in inducing a landlady of his acquaintance to trust him for 'two weeks' board for himself and bride. He borrowed a waistcoat and necktie for his wedding, and enough to pay for a carriage. He then drove to the bride's house and in due time appeared with her before a minister who performed the marriage ceremony. The ceremony was subsequently repeated when the couple were living in Sacramento, by Father Gallagher, a Catholic

priest. An article written to tihs San Francisco Times first brought Mr. George into notice, and he became in turn reporter, special correspondent, and editorial writsr to various important and influential journals. In 1861 he founded and eiited the San- Francisco Ecening Post, the first penny pap it east of the Roaky Mountains. In 1880 " Progress and Poverty " appeared. The manuscript had been sent to nearly every publisher both in England and America but none of them would have anything to do with it. Finally a former journalistic partner volunteered to print the book, and an author's edition of a few volumes was brought out. At first it fell flat, but at a later period the book became widely known and met with a marvellous success. One edition followed another, and the work has now been translated into German, French, Italian, Swedish, Dutch and Japanese. In 1881 Henry George was selected by the Irish World as its special correspondent in Ireland during the great Land League campaign. His letters during that exciting time, and the fact that while in Ireland he was twice arrested as a dangerous character because of his connection with the Irish World made his name very widely known both in England and America, and helped in no small degree to ensure the complete success of his first great work. After his defeat in the New York mayoralty contest of 1886 Mr. George established the Standard, a paper devoted to the propagation of the single tax doctrine with which his name is so intimately associated. Mr. George has written very largely on social and economic questions, the most important and best known of his works being " Progress and Poverty," " The Irish Land Question," " Social Problems," and " Protection or Freetrade ?" It is not as an economist nor as a politician that AN estimate OF Henry George's title to fame will rest, though he the man. wrote largely on ecnomic questions and took an active interest in politics. It was in the york he attempted and achieved as a social reformer that his greatness really lay. His high intellectual gifts made him quick to see the evils of our existing social and political systems, and his intense human sympathy — one of the most marked features of his character — made him earnest and eloquent in denouncing the ■wrongs and proclaiming die remedy. A prolonged study of the social question led him to the conclubion that the great cause of the terrible poverty and distress to be found in every large and populous community was the vicious systems of land legislation, which allowed private property in land and enabled the owners to reap the whole benefit of the unearned increment, an increment to which they had in no way contributed, and which had been entirely due to the industry of their neighbours. Henry George laid down as the basis of all his teaching the grand cardinal principle of " the land for the people," and declared that the people alone should reap the benefit of the increased value they had themselves created. He was not the first to teach this doctrine. "The land of Ireland," said John Stuart Mill, " the land of every country, belongs to the people of that country." Herbert Spencer had said : " Men may learn that to deprive others of their rights to the use of the earth is to commit a crime inferior only in wickedness to the crime of taking away their lives or personal liberties." But it was Henry George who, by his unflinching loyalty to this great idea, by Ms energy, ability, eloquence, and courage, and, above all, by his persistent iteration of the principle, gave it public prominence and created a large and ever-increasing party pledged to its support. Very few, unless it ba large landowners or very extreme Conservatives, now question the soundness of the principle. Mr. Gladstone can hardly be regarded as a revolutionary, yet a few years ago he said : " Personalty does nob impose limitations on the action and the industry of man and the well-being of the community as possession of land does, and, thereTore, I freely own that compulsory expropriation is admissible, and even sound in principle." There are no doubt practical difficulties in the way of carrying out Mr. George's plan for giving effect to the principle, but his scheme at least furnishes us with the true ideal towards the realising

of which all our land legislation Bhould be dirested, and we are strongly convinced that the nearer we approach to that ideal the better for the well-being and prosperity of the country. But whether accepting or rejecting Henry George's plan of ref >rm, it is impossible not to admire him for his intense sympathy with the poor and suffering, for the earnestness and sincerity of his convictions, and for the courage and eloquence with which he proclaimed them. As Michael Davitt has well paid :: — •' George was essentially the economic apostle of the poor and disinherited. No man ever united more lovable gifts with brighter talents in unselfish devotion to a world-wide movement for the betterment of labouring mankind than he whose loss will be mourned by millions of sorrowing friends and followers throughout the world."

An important and far-reaching change has been THE UNIFICA- made, by an Apostolical Constitution just issued, tion of the in the organisation of the great Franciscan FRANCISCAN Order. The Order, as everyboiy knows, was order. founded by St. Francis of Assisi in the year

1210, and its original rule was very strict. In course of time, from one cause and another, the Order became divided into various branches, the two main branches baing the Conventuals and the Observantines — the former living in large convents and following' a mitigated rule ; the latter living more in the manner of hermits, in rude dwellings, and according to the original rigour of the institute. Still later, another off sboot, the Recollects or Grey Friars, were established in Spain. Although the various branches followed faithfully the main object which St. Francis had in view, and the unity between them was never entirely destroyed, yet the power of the Ordsr for good was necessarily greatly weakened and hampered by this division of its forces. The Holy Father, who has given frequent marks of his love for the Order, has decided that the time is opportune for its complete restoration to the unity of other days, and this is to be effected by the consolidation and amalgamation of the various branches of the Order. In order that this important project might be carried to a Bucces3ful issue, his Holiness consulted with those best able to give wise counsel on this q lestion, and after the matter had been ca«ef ully considered by the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Ileg ilars. and of the Propaganda, the Holy Father issued an Apostolical Constitution to give effect to their recommendations. By the first regulation of the Constitution the na-nes of the Observants, Reformed, Bare-footed or Alcantarin and Recollects are abolished. All these, says the regulation, will '• extinguish "' their several designations and be called " The Order of Friars Minor, without any qualification " — " Ordo Fratrum Minorum, sine ullo apposito." They will be ruled by one Superior ; they will obey the same laws ; they will be under the same administration. Secondly,! with the exception of obligations taken towards third persons, there will be no special statutes, nor any special distinctions. Thirdly, they will wear the same di\33s. Fourthly, they will have one Minister-G-eneral. one Procurator-General, one Secretary-General, one Advocate for Causes of Beatification and Canonization ; and fifthly, the acceptance of these unified conditions is obligatory on all postulants. The net result, therefore, of these changes is that the whole Order will be now known as the Order of Friars Minor, it will be under one Minister-General, and will foUow the same rule, all privileges attaching to particular communities baing withdrawn. If any religious who have already pronounced their solemn vows should desire a stricter rule, each province is empowered to sot apart one or two houses for such a purpose, but without going outside the new Constitution. It may be confidently predicted that this important change will be fruitful in results, and that this great Order, which has given to the Church five popes, more than 50 cardinals, and an immense number of patriarchs and bi-shops, will enter on a career of greatly increased usefulness in the high mission which it was established to fulfil.

We havo already referred at some length to a AN OUTSPOKEX correspondence which was being carried on in the ANGLICAN. columns of the London Tablet between two

Anglican clergymen the Rev. J. K. Luim and the Rev. R. C. Fillingham on the question as to whether or not there is any teaohing authority in the Churoh of England. The Rev. Fillingham stoutly maintained that there was no such .authority anl defied his brother clergyman to po ; nt out precisely where the "teaching voice" was to be found. Mr Lunn mvd 3 various suggestions but after being driven from pillar to post by the pjrsistent logic of his opponent eventually retired, uttcily worsted, from the contest. Other Anglican correspondents came to the help of the belated Lunn and the controversy still continues. It has now shifted to the legality or otherwise of th) vestm -nts usel by the High Church oler^ymen, and though this subject is in itself of little interest to any bub Anglicans some of the statements made by Mr. Fillingham, in his last letter, on the general position of the Anglican Church are mojt interesting and put the whole question in a nutshell. What could be neater for example, than the way iv

which he disposes of the " branch theory," i.e., the theory that the Catholic, the Greek, and the English Churches are all branches of the one true Church. After referring to the logical inconsistency and ignorance of the Bubject shown by one of his opponents, he remarks: — "This is not surprising, as no one could be a High Churchman who has a logical mind— what logical mind could hold^Q the " Branch theory " of the Church, the delightful corollary of which is that the Blessed Virgin Mary is immaculate at Boulogne, bat stained with original sin at Dover ?" After dealing with the question of the vestments Mr. Fillingham continues :—": — " After thi9 I will leave your reviers to decide who is ignorant of his -subject — myself or your correspondent, and whether he is an authority as to the learning of the ju l^es in these cises. He has nixie one delightful statement, which gives away his own case altogether. He accuses me of falsehood in saying that ths Church of England says nothing about General Councils except that they may err, and triumphantly quotes a reference to an Act of Parliament which refers to General Councils. So, according to him, an Act of Parliament and the voice of the Church are synonymous. I want no better admission. I have not gone so far as to say that the Church and an Act of Parliament are the same thing, as your correspondent maintains ; but I have always contended that Parliament alone is an ultimate authority in doctrine and ritual." The concluding words of the letter are specially weighty :: — '• The fact is, sir, loyal members of the Protestant Establishment and honest men are weary of seeing a number of persons trying to make our communion sail under false colours. For my part, it is my indignation at this which makes me speak out. I am a State official — I am no sacrificing piiest, and I am not going to pretend to be. My Church is a department of the State — Statecreated and State-governed And I will not be silent when some of its members pretend that it is a teaching Communion in the same sense that the Catholic Church is." After the tortuous sophisms to which one is accustomed from Anglican controversialists there is a candour and outspokenness about this utterance that is very refreshing. Mr. Fillingham's conclusions are most just and true, and his plain and pointed way of expressing them ought to bring home to all honest and educated Anglicans of the High Church variety the absurdity and inconsistency of their position.

The judgment in the Le Mesurier case, which has odds AND e.vds. exoited so much interest in Ceylon, seems to us

(says the London Tablet) to be marked by both sound legal asunen and sounl common sense. Mr. Le Mesurier a few years ago professed himself a convert to Islam, adopted an Arabic nimj. ail although married to an English lady at the time, promptly asserted his polygainic privilege as a Moslem by taking to himself a second wife in the person of Miss Alice Rivett-Carnac, who also professed to be, like himself, a convert to the religion of the Koran. His first wife very naturally sued for a separation fro n her unfaithful husband. The new Moslem (whom the Ceylon Government hai meanwhile dismissed from the Civil Service, of which hj was a rnembsr) protested that as a Mohammedan he had a right to four, let alone two wives. But the law and common sense have been too much for him. Said the Colombo judge in his judgment, after an elaborate review of both the old Dutch and British law : " The defendant's status in this country is a Christiau status, and it is governed by all the laws universally recognised in Christendom, which have been adopted by our Courts as regards Christians. The obligation of monogamy is certainly one of them, irrespective of whether the man be a Christian, Jew, Agnostic, Buddhist, Mormon or Moorman, so long as he is affected by his English domicile, and even the laws of common sense seem sufficiently to indicate that the defendant is no more entitled to cast off the obligation which he had previously contracted and which, at the time of the contract, was indissoluble by any one-sided act of his own, than his wife, the plaintiff, would be to acquire a Kandyan domicile and claim the privileges of polyandry." It is interesting to learn that Mr. Le Mesurier is '• unable to say whether he is an Englishman or not," for though the son of an English army officer whose family has long been settled in England, he himself " was born in the lonian Islands, his father's father in Algiers, and his mother was of Cretan origin with Mohammedan relatives."

The turbulent election times, which are again upon us, are a favourite season for the revival of the venerable calumny that American Catholic 3 take their politics, as well as their religion, from Rome. They are having an important election in Xew York just now ; and when the ridiculous charge popped up again, Archbishop Corrigan wisely took advantage of it to make a public explanation of the real office of the Holy Father. He then said : •' The Catholic hierarchy has now been established in this country over a hundrel years. In all that period can a single syllable be adduced emanating from the Roman Pontiff for the purpose of directing our ballots ? In these hundred years has a single Pontifical utterance ex cathedra been made bearing in the remotest degree on the ques-

tijn of our politics ? If such a fajt his never existed during our entire history, is it not a little silly ' to fear where there is no fear' ? Is there anything more supremely ridiculous than the bugaboo that the Pop? or the Church is reaching out to control *every rational or intentional act, including the casting of a billot'?" A simple fact m;iy explodj the mo^t pretentious theory. Many true-blue " pat-tree-ots" woul 1 not understand an explanation of the office of the Popo : you might supply them with argument but not with intelligence. The advaut :ge ot tho paragraph which we quote is that so little intelligence i-. required to understand it. — Aw Maria.

The Tris-h pilgrims, ci'" 1 luetcd by Father Clynn, Superior of the Irish Augustinians who serve the Church of St. Patrick in Rome, went on Thursday, October 7, to the Vatiuui to aUond the Papal Mass in the Sixtine Chaptl. Some .".<)■) other persons were likewise almitted to the service. The Pope was borno into the chapel on a carrying-chair at half-past eiuht, accompanied by several prelates, including- Mgri. Stonor and Scott. During the Mass and the solemn thanksgiving, afc which the Pope's chaplain officiated, the choir of the Sixtine Chapel performed some exquisite motets. Afterwards the Pope returned to the altar, from which he delivered, in a firm voice, the Apostolic Benediction. About 20 of the leading pilgrims were then presented to his Holiness, by Father Glynn and Mon«ignori Stonor and Scott. They denied before his Holiness, who was seated on the throne, and who. as he received their offerings, gave them his hand to kiss, and addressed to each a few gracious words. The reception being over, the Pops was borne on a sedia, gestatoria through the ranks of the faithful, and was loudly acclaimed, especially by the Irishmen. Among the pilgrims was Dean Staunton, of Achonry. Apart from a large sum of money contributed to the Peter's Pence Fund, the leaders of the pilgrimage presented to the Pope a commemorative address beautifully engrossed and illuminated in gold, with a frame of silver gilt. All the Irish pilgrims who could not be admitted to kiss the Pope's hand in the morning went to the Vatican during the afternoon, when his Holiness received them in the Clementine Hall. In the evening the pilgrims attended a reception given in their honour at the St. Peter's Club. Cardinal Jacobini and Mgri. Sambucetti and Stonor were invited. It has been decided that successive parties of Irish pilgrims shall go to Rome in February, 181)8, instead of at the present time.

Referring to the reported iline«s of the Pope, the Xrw York Journal takes occasion to say : " Often as his Holiness has rallied and surprised those near him by his ext raordinary recuperative power, his great ago and fragile physique justify the apprehension that his race is nearly run. K-ill the wurld will hope that de-pue his SO years, ]a'o ni'iy long he spuvl. A'-itiridly in his wiakia 1^ and peril he will have the prayei-. Nt Christendom, inside an 1 ouleide his church. His wislo;n. hi-- in-5 charily ha\e -won him a unique ])lace in the alfectiona'e i t^eni of mankind. He is a force for >io ) 1 thitomld ill be spired. A>i le altogether from his lovable personality, Leo, as a st.itesm in. has lendeied high service In a tune when the nuis-es everywhere ha\o bivn stirred to discontent by the pcr-i-tenc • of pov city .side by^ile with the country's splen lid material pro/res^, Leo has spoken v\ or.]s ot peace that have been hetded by labourer and enpitihst alike. V.'ith all the immense authority of his ollice he his shown iriendsiiip for the two great republics, America ami Prance, and pi ice 1 tho Church in '•ympafietic relations with orderly aspirations for lith vi liberty. To him the oppressed everywhere have learned to look with confidence The most recent proof of the readiness ot hi-, lioart to respond Lo the appeal of the weak is his plea to Sp iin\ (,|iilc"i in bchali of the imprisoned and persecuted Iwangelina Cisnero-*. Leo XIII. ranks in his own time as a gre it man. and ln^ton . viewing the di lit icy ot his position and his statesmanship in dealing with the problems involving the Papacy, will confirm that estimate. When in the course ot nature Leo piss.es away, his Church \\ ill indeed be fortunate if his successor shall be cast in the same noble and generous mould.''

The London correspondent of the Dublin. Fret lutttis Jouri'til hns this to say about the publication of certain of Queen Victoria's letters in the Life of IVnny^on :—": — " Lest there should be any doubt as to whether Lord Tennyson acted without the appioval of the Queen in publishing letters containing political allusions, many oi them offensive to Irishmen, Her Majesty has now written to Lord Tennyson, complimenting him on the manner in which he acquitted himself of his biographical task. The political correspondence the Queen and the late poet laiueate was revised by Her Jlajesty herself before it v\ as published." Almost everything bearing on Ireland or the Irish in the biography in question i-how. s (says the Boston J'/lct) a lamentable narrowness ot mind on the part of the poet, who was in most other things so high and generous, hearted. Yet he had feometimes a dim suspicion that England was not always in the right in her treatment of the unhappy sisterisland. To quote his own lines from '' Merlin and Vivien," composed iv one of the Ballybunion caveb —

So dark a forethought roll'd about his brain As on a dull day in an ocean cave, The blind wave feeling round his long seawall

In silence. In 1808, somebody seat him " The Lays of a Convict," dealing with the treatment of Irish political prisoners, whereupon he wrote to Mr. Gladstone : '• My Deau Mr. Gladstone — The enclosed has been sent to me, possibly to you also ; if not, read it now ; it seems to me a terrible cry. I don't much believe in the accuracy of the Irishman generally ; but I wit>h you, who enlightened us formerly on the Neapolitan prisons, to consider whether here, too, there be not a grievous wrong to be righted. — Yours ever, A. TENNYSON." Evidently his subsequent intercourse with Gladstone did not, bowever, awaken him to a realisation of Ireland's wrongs and their only efficient remedy, for his verdict on tho great statesman's Home Rule Bill was '• I love Gladstone, but I hate his Irish policy."