Current Copies AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 41, 18 February 1898, Page 1

Current Copies AT HOME AND ABROAD.

We beg to direct the attention of all our friends to that portion of the Lenten Pastoral of the Bishop of Dunedin, which refers to the claims of the N.Z-

TO ALL OUR FRIENDS.

Tablet on the support of the Catholic body. The Tablet was started in order " to supply good reading matter to all the Catholics of the Colony, and to defend Catholic principles and Catholic interests generally." While disclaiming either any merit or special ability, we shall labour to make this paper worthy of its high purpose. It is our intention to introduce into our columns from time to time, and as far as circumstances will permit, features of interest which will not fail to make the N.Z. Tablet more acceptable to our readers. Some of the improvements which we contemplate involve the engagement of fresh literary talent,-and, therefore, an increased and steadily maintained outlay. This, however, we could not venture upon without a considerable increase in our list of subscribers. We therefore turn with confidence to our friends in every pait of the Colony for that practical aid— in the shape of fresh subscribers—which will enable us to make the N.Z. Tablet more and more worthy of the progress which the Church has made in our midst, and more and more welcome in every Catholic home in the land.

Dr. O'Dwyer, Bishop of Limerick, may be looked upon as an expert in all that relates to the now burning question of providing a proper university

THE IRISH UNIVERSITY.

for the sons of Irish Catholics. In one of his recent utterances he showed that the worst sufferers by the present grievance were not the clergy, but the laity, whose sons were practically excluded from the higher education. " Catholics," said Dr. O'Dwyer, " have practically no university to which to send their sons, unless they are prepared to risk their faith in exchange for knowledge." He pointed out that even Mr. Balfour, Mr. Morley, and the Members of Parliament for Trinity College are in favour of the Catholic demand, and called upon the Government to formulate a scheme without delay. That influential organ, the London Spectator, says thereon :—: —

"We are for once entirely at one with Dr. O'Dwyer. We hold most strongly that the Irish Roman Catholics should be given, not what Protestants consider an ideal, or even a fair, university, but the kind of university which the Catholics themselves want, and what they quite sincerely say is the university they can make use of. We also agree most heartily with Dr. O'Dwyer that to postpone the settlement of this subject any longer will be a scandal and an injustice."

MOKE WOMAN'S RIGHTS.

Hall's measure to give lovely woman the parochial franchise was defeated by the narrow majority of three in a total of 47 vote?. Some people may find a significance in the fact that a strong majority of the bishops and clergy voted against the motion, and a big majority of the lay representatives in its favour. The matter is sure to come to the surface again. In the meantime, it brings up the anomalous position of women with regard to Church work among Anglicans and Dissenters. The Catholic Church, with its multitude of Orders and Sisterhoods, affords scope for utilising

woman's aid in works of charity and general usefulness, to an extent un-

known outside her pale. Till quite recently, our pious Anglican lady friends and their female cousins and their sisters and their aunts had little or no scope for religious effort beyond the limited field offered them by house-to-house visiting and Sunday school teaching. Woman's work in continuing the Anglican Church as by

ONLY BONE-DUST.

coffins of Ingersoll's patron saints were neither empty, nor rilled with tailors' dummies, nor yet with sand or lead. They were offcially opened just before Christmas, in the presence of

Woman's rights have broken out in a fresh place. The question of her right to vote at parish meetings was thrashed out with considerable earnestness at the Anglican Synod in Christchurch. Sir John

law established, is by no means proportioned to the share she had in originating it. Anna Boleyntook a leading, though indirect, part in laying its foundations. Yet another — Queen Elizabeth— decided its theological form and shaped its destiny. Three women — to wit, Queen Elizabeth aforesaid, Queen Anne, and Queen Victotia — have been its governors and heads on earth, its final ctuits of appeal, the centre and fount of all its authority both in spirituals and in temporals. And in the days to come, yet other queens of England may hold the like relation towards the Established Church.

There is, perhaps, in the matter under consideration somewhat more of consistency among the expiring Shakers. The unlettered daughter of an illiterate blacksmith, Lee — (address : Toad Lane , Manchester) — was the prophetess and foundress of this strangest of strange Christian sects. She was also very appropriately its first visible head — a sort of Protestant counterpart of the fabled Pope Joan. And ever since the days of " Mother Anne " the succor. sion has been a female one. There is no Salic law among the celibate and communißtic Shaker communities in New England. It seems eminently fair that woman should rule what woman has made.

Outside the Shaker creed, the undivided skirt shows as marked an inclination to invade the Protestant pulpit as it does to trench upon other hitherto exclusively male occupations of merely human growth. St. Paul — writing of public preaching — said : " Let woman keep silence in the churches" (I. Cor. xiv , H4) ; his discipe, St. Timothy, echoed his words (I. 'Jim.ii, 8); and their instruction has — ever since the days of Pope St. Soter (a.d. 17.V182) — entered into the flesh and bone of the ecclesiastical discipline of all the ages. Some crusty old cynic has said that " all women are good — good for something or good for nothing." The minor Protestant sects appear to be firm believers in their capacity for preaching — despite the apostolical discipline. The practice of the Salvation Army is well known. But even the " Harmy " has ventured on a new departure. According to the West mi niter Budget, Mrs. Ballington Booth was recently •' ordained "in the Uuited States. If a female

■■ chairman" and " vestryman," why not also a lady "clergyman i" According to the Westminster Buiqet, the interesting ceremony was performed by a small Parliament of Religions, consisting of Rev. Dr. Mac Arthur (Baptist), Rev. Dr. Bradford (Congregationalist), Rev. Dr. G regg (Presbyterian), Rev. Dr. Josiah Strong (Evangelical). The reverend functionaries appointed Rev. Mrs. Booth " minister of the Church of God in general," and imparted to her " the power of performing ministerial functions," including the administration of the sacraments and the marriage ceremony.

The same authority tells us that there is quite a little army of " women regularly ordained as ministers " in that " fruitful mother of sects," the United States. Thus, the Church of the Disciples has 46 ; the Universalists 40 ; the Free Will Baptists 38 ; the Unitarians 2i ; the Congregationalists 23 ; the United Brethren 21 ; and other minor sects in proportion. A Mrs. Solomons is said to have recently officiated as Rabbi at the Sinai Temple, Chicago, "Jf England were America," says the Budget, "we should be looking forward in the near future to hearing a woman from the pulpit of St. Paul's." After all, the idea of women ministers is not a very novel one. The nominally Christian sect of the Collyridians, long centuries ago, had their " women regularly ordained as ministers." Is there not in them, and in their later imitators, and in the whole horde of spirit-mediums and fortunstellers of our day, a strong soupcon of the pagan priestesses of the olden time ?

Another historic doubt has been cleared away. Rousseau and Voltaire are buried in the vaults of the Pantheon, Paris, after all. The dust-grimed

a gaping crowd of morbid sentimentalists, who crushed and jostled each other to get a glimpse of the dried bones of the par nubile fratrnm. Voltaire's skeleton, says the chronicler, still sneered. Rousseau's was m inns the bullet-hole which, says tradition, ought to have been visible in his skull. Nevertheless, there lay, beyond all doubt, the twin prophets and high priests of the infidelity which added such a weight of horror to the French revolution. They were well mated in life and in death. Eousseau tells us in his Confessions how he was a cheat, liar, thief, and roue. He openly sent his five illegitimate children to the Foundling Hospital. lie ■was surpassed in sheer malignant wickedness by the more virile Voltaire, who was imprisoned for gross crimes against morality, betrayed his country, traduced the venerable Maid of Orleans, and for half a century— until death cut short his career — wagtd against the Church a bitter war, which assumed at last the proportions of a diabolical mania. "I am tired," said he, '• of being told that twelve men sufficed for the establishment of Christianity ; and I long to prove that only one is necessary to destroy it." The Encyclopedic was written to "crush the infamous one" — to wit, the Church Falsehood, satire, and ridicule were the infantry, cavalry and artillery of Voltaire and his fellow-writers. " One is obliged to lie,'' said he in a letter to Diderot, " and still one is persecuted for not having lied enough." In the eightieth volume of his (Enures Completes he writes to another collaborator, Thiriot : " Lying is a vice only when it does harm ; it is a very great virtue when it does good. Be then, more virtuous than ever. You must lie like a devil — not timidly and for a time only, but boldly and always. . . . Lie, my friends, lie. I will do a similar good turn when occasion offers." Here we have the true keynote to tbe character of Voltaire the summa snmvuc of his ethics, his philosophy, and his history — unmitigated falsehood. Voltaire's bones are mouldering into dust under Tissot's great dome. The Church grows and flourishes as though he had never lived or written. Time is. indeed, a great friend of truth. The end of Voltaire's lying reminds one forcibly of the words which the poet Bryant wrote in his Battlefield :—: — " Truth crushed to earth shall rise again : The eternal years of Cod are hers ; But Error, wounded, writhes with pain, And dies among his worshippers."

large amount, both in money and real estate. We are accustomed to hear of people leaving umbrellas, bags, hats, bicycles, and perambulators in railway carriages ; but it is news to learn that the total of Government stock and dividends thereon still unclaimed amount, in round numbers, to a neat five million sterling. Unclaimed dividends in bankruptcy amount to £1.141,319. In 1886 the Crown got a modest windfall of £47,654 from absence of heirs and illegitimacy. The balance on hand of this account at the close of the year was £125,275. A mere bagatelle of £77,138 represents army prize money, and £110, 54S soldier's balances, which Tommy Atkins — or his heirs and assigns — have not deemed it worth their while to claim ; while the jolly Jack Tar has left in the Government coffers an unconsidered trifle of £261,958. Evidently the dry-bone annals of the Blue Books sometimes contain possibilities of romance which far outvie the story of Treasure Island, or the tales of the days when Paul Jones was a buccaneer bold, and pirates galore sailed the Spanish Main.

A MUCH NEEDED LEAGUE.

done so. For many years there has existed in France an association, the members of which solemnly pledge themselves never to take the name of God in vain. We are glad to learn that a similar crusade against swearing has been started by the Catholics of Brooklyn, and that Sl.ooo men have taken the requisite pledge. This is the beginning of a movement which will, we hope, ultimately find its way into every corner of the English-speaking world. According to Landor, Philip of Macendon's claim to be considered the most pious pagan of his time was based on the fact that he swore more frequently and more awfully than any officer in his army. There is much of this paganising irreverence in the light and airy, or downright blasphemous, fashion in which the most Sacred Names are bandied in the conversation of our workshops, fields, and street-corners. Our godless schools are busy turning out youths of the type of Huck Finn, who could find no comfort in ''talking nice," but had to •' rip out" a while every day, just "to get a taste in his mouth." Catholics brought up under right influences have .i deep and instinctive reverence for the Sacred Name and are shocked at its free and frequent mention by persons of other creeds. Among Protestants, Leibnitz pronounced the name of God with great outward .signs of reverence. Newton, as a mark of veneration, seldom made use of the Sacred Names. In this he imitated, to some extent, the custom of the Jews, who, out of respect, avoided pronouncing the tetragram or >l peculiar name ' of God (Jhvh), which was scarcely ever heard or uttered except in the Holy of Holies.

IN William O'Brien's novel, When We Were Jioys. Captain Plynlymmon says that *' swearing should go out with duelling and prize-fighting." We have, unfortunately, abundant evidence that it has not

OWNEUB WANTED.

the latest issue of Chambers' Journal from the returns presented to the last session of the British Parliament. It appears that on February 2 ( J, 181)6, the English. Chancery had a balance in hand of £59 732 708. A great portion of this poems to represent unclaimed monies.' Of the total t-um in hand, £2,372.822 were appropriated by Government to various purposes, in the absence of claimants. Our readers need not, however, be alarmed : the Consolidated Fund is liable for principal and coir pound interest in case the legitimate heirs appear at any time and make good their claim. On Septem. ber 30 18%, the Supreme Court of Judicature (Ireland) had funds to the amount of £5,381,213. Tbe Chancery division also held a

A BLACKLOOKING PROBLEM.

revival to pass over England in 1873-1875 and 1883-1884. He is now in the sere and yellow leaf — 61 years old and finds himself face to face with the black-looking problem of dealing with the churchless masses — the pagan population of England and the United States. The New Zealand Presbyterian organ, the Christian Oittlooh, quotes him as saying that the Protestant churches are half empty because ministers, instead of preaching the Gospel, are plaguing their congregations with " pulpit essays and political discussions." The people, therefore, "go away empty, and stay away." They "like doctrinal subjects" ; and the way to win them back is to " preach the old doctrines faithfully "" — repentance, atonement, regeneration, the law, love, faith, hope, justice, graoe the resurrection, and generally, " the great fundamental truths of • Christianity, from which," says Mr. Moody, "in many places, the (Protestant) churches seem to be separating, with the result that their audiences are depleted, and the power of the pulpit gone." Ritualists, with their nearer approach to Catholic dogmatic teaching and liturgy, seem to be securing a better hold on the ear and ey« and heart of the masses in England ; but the lamentable absence of definite doctrinal teaching in the pulpits of the Evangelicals and of the great body of the dissenting sects — coupled with the action of Godless schools — -is undoubtedly in great part responsible for the fast-growing unbelief and indifference which are spreading among the English people. The great Evangelical organ, the Bock, says that " in this England of ours, at the end of this century, so marked by advance in all directions, there are millions upon millions as utterly unsaved as the wildest savage roaming the forests of Africa." The Church Review deplores the woful weakening of the faith among the rural population in England, and applies to them the words which Heber wrote of pagan lands :—: — •' Where every prospect pleases, And only man is vile." * * *

The decline in church-going is an old-standing complaint in the Anglican Establishment. The Church Times dealt with the problem in 1895. In the following year the St. James's Gazette had a lively controversy on the subject in its columns. In the same year the N< iccastlr Daily Chronicle published a comparative census of church-attendance in that city aDd Gateshead for Sunday, March 30 1851, Sunday October 2, 1881, and Sunday July 12, 18'J6. Between 1851 and 18% the population of the two places had increased by 200,000. Yet only 13,000 persons were added to the attendanc9 at churches. In the 15 years from 1881 to ISO 6, about 100,000 perj sons had been added to the population ; but, were it not for the vast increase of the Catholic returns, '• there would have been," said the Chronicle, "an absolute decrease in the total number of persons attending places of worship of all kinds." As it was, not one person in ten went to church on Sunday in Newcastle. The London Daily Chronicle published, in April of last year, a clergyman's letter addressed to the Bishop of London, pointing out a vastly more deplorable state of things in thirty-nine churches which lie within the city walls. It is impossible to view without a feeling of uneasiness or dismay the steady advance of the tide of practical infidelity. The only redeeming feature in the melancholy prospect is the splendid manner in which Catholics have stood every test of comparative attendance, and the daily evidence of the advance which the Church is making in a land that may. after all, once again meiit its old title of "Our Lady's Dowry."

Parliamentary returns are usually as ''dry as summer dust,"' But their almost unvarying monotony is occasionally broken by such tales of hidden wealth as were extracted by a writer in

WE do not hold with Mr. Moody, the revivalist None the less, he has said and done many good things in his time, and has had at least the merit of having caused a wave of sorely needed religious

A FRESH ATTEMPT ON SHAKESPEARE.

die young, but when they survive they are oftentimes given to driving full tilt at some darling bit of history or

EVEN in the ranks of literary workers there are many persons of the type of Jim Smiley in Mark Twain's Jumping Frog — with the bump of contradiction abnormally developed. They frequently

legend that has entwined its tendrils around the public heart. They tell us, for instance, that Goethe did not call for " light, more light," as he passed away, that Nelson did not clasp his blind eye to the telescope on a memorable occasion, that a Scottish lady did not hear the cry of the pipes at Lucknow, and that Francis Bacon (Baron Verulam) was really the author of the plays attributed by a mistaken world to a mere stage hand named William ShakespeareMr. Ignatius Donnelly's voluminous attempt to decipher Bacon's cryptogram left the question of th? authorship of the plays about where it was before. It is chiefly memorable as a curious monument of misdirected ingenuity — like the attempts made by the philosophers of Laputa to extract sunbeams from cucumbers.

Mr. M. B. Buckle has. however, returned to the charge in Pearson's Magazine, in an article bearing the dead-sure heading, " Shakespeare dethroned." It is founded on the slender evidence supplied by two anagrams. One of these was recently discovered by Dr. Platt, of Lakewood, New Jersey. It is made up of syllables picked, according to certain recondite rules, out of various words that occur — curiously enough — in a puzzling part of Juice's Labour Lost. The syllables grouped together form the awe-inspiring combination, ilitudlnitatibuK. To the ordinary human mind it would indeed be " labour lost " to pick any hint of meaning out of this verbal monstrosity. To Dr. Platt the meaning is clear as crystal. " It is not hard to pick out of it," says he, •' the words ludi (plays), tuiti (protected or guarded), nati (produced)— or, put in grammatical order: hi ludi tuiti aibi, Fr. liacono nati ("These plays, entrusted to themselves, produced from Fr. Bacon"). The doctor's big word is described by the writer in Pearmm's as "a perfect anagram."

The other anagram is not deemed so intolerably perfect. It occurs in the Northumberland House manuscript. When its fragments are pieced together it looks like this : Ilonorijieabilitudino. By judicious slicing and a series of permutations and combinations, it is found to "infold " the words Imtio hi Indi Fr. liacono ("In the beginning these plays from Fr. Bacon "). Thus far the evidence from the anagrams.

The immortal William has, however, found a doughty champion. Mr. Goldwin Smith, in the Canadian Magazine, describes the idea of Bacon's authorship of the plays as a " whimsical theory." Charles I. and Milton wore both eager readers of the plays ; both were boys when Shakespeare died ; both, though literary men, unhesitatingly attributed the plays to him. Milton, in his IS Allegro, couples him with Jonson as a dramatist. Moreover, Shakespeare bubbles over with passion and humour — two qualities of which we find no trace in Bacon. Shakespeare was also too frequently obscene in parts of his plays. Bacon — as we know him from his books — would scarcely stoop to cater mere filth for the habitue-* of the Globe Theatre. The playwright placed Bohemia on the sea, and had convents in pagan Athens. Bacon knew geography and history too well to make such pretty blunders. Again, some of Shakespeare's plays — such as Jfcnnj VIII., two parts of 11/nnj VI., etc. — were, in part or altogether, the result of collaboration with other playwrights. It is unlikely, Mr. Goldwin Smith contends, that a man of Lord Verulam's high social, legal, and political standing would have entered into partnership with a set of men who were so despised as were the players and playwrights of his day. Dr. Platts" new anagram is not likely to deprive Shakespeare of his title to everlasting fame. It will scarcely even raise a serious historic doubt. Despite many and serious moral blots that appear like rodent ulcers in some of Shakespeare's works, the words which '• rare Ben Johnson"' wrote of him will ever hold true :—: — " He was not of an age. but of all time, Sweet swan of Avon ! "