Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 4, 24 January 1901, Page 1

Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

The Wellington Post has waked up and worked off an editorial pronouncement on the vexed question of precedence at the Sydney Commonwealth celebrations. Our Wellington contemporary accuses the Cardinal of being the first — and indeed the only one — to raise the question of precedence in connection with the Commonwealth celebrations. It is thus made to appear that his Eminence alone struck the one jangling and discordant note that was heard amidst the splendid harmonies that ushered in the birth of the new nation of the South. The accusation reminds one of the wolf in /^Esop's fable charging the lamb with muddying the water up-stream. A wide-awake daily paper might be reasonably expected to know, when dealing with this subject, that the State Governors absented themselves from the Commonwealth functions because of their dissatisfaction with the order of precedence arranged by the Lyne Government and its bungling Committee. Allusion was made to this fact in cable messages to this Colony weeks before the celebrations took place or Cardinal Moran had been compelled by official chuckleheadedness to hold aloof from them. The Post itself published the item that Sir William Zeal, President of the Victorian Legislative Council, walked out of the banqueting hall when he saw the position assigned to him at the feast, and subsequently wrote a very candid letter to Sir William Lyne, in which he stated that, in all the circumstances, he would no longer accept the hospitality of the New South Wales Government. The Fust must have a sleepy head or a short memory to so soon forget what itself and every daily paper in the Colony published at so recent a date. In an interview with a representative of the Catholic Press, the private secretary to the Governor-General said that ' The order of precedence cannot be changed even by the Federal Government ; it cannot be changed even by the Governor- General. The Federal Government J he added, ' may make recommendations, but the 'order comes from the Queen, and can be altered only by her Majesty.' And yet Sir William Lyne and his now famous Committee of All the Blunders coolly took it upon themselves to alter the arrangements made by their Sovereign. • • • This question of precedence has been already fully dealt with in our columns. We refer to it here again for the purpose of pointing out the extent to which even journals of supposed respectability set themselves to pervert public opinion in matters in which the Catholic Church is concerned. We have already had to refer to the Wellington Post, in another connection, in terms of strong disapprobation. This organ of a spurious Liberalism is a pitiful sample of the school of knockknee'd, two-stool journalism. It has chosen to adopt towards our co-religionists an attitude of pat and cuff, of vinegar and treacle — fanning them with a morganatic compliment at each full moon, and roasting them the rest of the time on a devil's gridiron of blistering calumny. Catholic readers of newspapers of this happily rare class have the remedy in their own hands. And they would be a spaniel-spirited race who would

THE ' POST ' ON THE CARDINAL.

contribute in any way towards the financial success of this contemptible form of gutter journalism.

THE DEMON OF THE WAR CABLE.

And yet, despite the frequent lapses of the newspapers from what Kinglake calls ' profane fact,' the superstition of the printed page endures almost undiminished into our day. The average newspaper devourer has somewhat of the spirit of Aunt Cynthia, who held it as an article of faith that the moon is made of green cheese. ' I am certain sure it must be true,' said she, ' for I read it in the paper.' The news from the seat of war is gospel truth to the average reader. But ' Smiler ' Hales, the West Australian war correspondent, — who was captured by the Boers and subsequently released — is clearly of opinion that one writer of war cables is equal to a regiment of ordinary newspaper Ananiases in his capacity for making history ' which is not so.' ' Fully three-fourths of the cable matter,' says he, 'is utter rot. I used to think that the Coolgardie mining expert was the most awful liar that this country had produced, but not now. Bless his simple soul, he was a mere novice in the noble art of dodging the truth and lighting on lies compared to the man who manufactures war news for export. The latter gentleman can stand up in a pair of blucher boots and calmly squeeze more unadulterated crimson lies out through his lace-holes in an hour than than a mining evpert could turn out with a steam typewriter in a week.' ' Mr. Dooley,' the new Irish-American humorist, claims, however, to have discoved a variety of liar that will take first prize every time in the gentle art and craft of fabricating false reports. Mr. Hennessy had made a remark to the Archery Road philosopher to the eftect that very little reliable news appeared in the daily papers about the crisis that drew the warships of the Great Powers to the shores of China. This leads • Mr. Dooley ' to explain to his interlocutor that in reality a grand contest is going on in the matter of lying between the civilisation of the East and that of the West. But the Western, according to ' Mr. Dooley,' is hopelessly handicapped. ' How in the wurruld,' says he, ' can be compete with a country where ivry laborer's cottage poojuces lies so delicate that the workmen iv the West can't understand thim ? We make our lies be machinery ; they turn out theirs be hand. They imitate the best iv our canned lies to deceive people that likes that kind, but for artists they have lies that appeals to a more refined taste. Sure I'd like to live among thim an' find out the find iv bouncers they tell each other. They must be grand. I on'y know their export lies now — the surplus lies they can't use at home. An' the kind they send out are better than our best. Our lies is no more thin a contradiction iv the truth ; their lies appeals to the sinse of honesty iv any civilised man.' ' They can't hurt us with their lies,' Mr. Hennnessy contended; •we have the guns, an' we'll bate thim yet.' But ' Mr. Dooley,' as usual, get in the last shot. And — as usual, too— there is a core of hard common sense within its outer shell. ' Yes,' said he, ' an' 'twill be like a man who's had his house destroyed be a cyclone gettin' up an' kickin' at the air.'

JURIES: A BAD PRINCIPLE.

It is an evil omen that the principle of trying Catholics by exclusively Protestant juries has been introduced into these colonies. The extension of such a principle could not fail to instil into the minds of Catholics a grave distrust in the

administration of justice, even if it would not absolutely make it what it has long been in Ireland — that home of jury-packing —'a mockery, a delusion, and a snare.' Rumor hath it that a little knot of hard-headed, strong-jawed Orange jurors, who 'sat out' for a disagreement, were responsible for the lame and impotent ending of a recent case from which Catholic jurymen were strictly excluded. The rumor may be quite fcjuundlcSb. Bui plentiful usances of the ;r..ir\ cWg'zz CTpi bilities of Orange jurymen are scattered in rank abundance over the judicial annals ot Ireland during the past liumiieJ years. The following instance, which we select out of many, will, perhaps, scarcely find a parallel in the whole history of the jury system. It is given in the Third Report ot the Irish Parliamentary Committee of 1835 on Orange Lodges. It occurred in the case of the King v. Hall, who was charged with having- entered a Catholic church and stolen therefrom vestments, etc. The case was tried at Rnniskillen before Judge Fletcher and an Orange jury — 'good men in bad times.' The prisoner was an Orangeman, and in the dock ' wore an Orange ribbon on his breast.' He pleaded guilty to the charge. Judge Fletcher thereupon told the jury that they had nothing to try, as the prisoner's admission was, in point of law, sufficient for his conviction. The jury immediately returned a verdict of not guilty ! Judge Fletcher knew the ways of Orange juries tolerably well. But he was not prepared for this. ' Thank God, gentlemen,' said he, ' that is your verdict, not mine. • Gentlemen,' he continued, ' I will not treat you in this case as my highly esteemed departed friend, Judge Fox, treated a jury of this country. I will not placard your names on the session-house or grand-jury room door. You shall not have an opportunity of dragging me before Parliament. But I will immediately order the sheriff to discharge you from doing any further duty at these assizes.' The jury was accordingly discharged. So was the self-convicted thief. As soon as he reached the street he was hoisted on the shoulders of the brethren and carried through Enniskillen in triumph.

Within more recent years the conduct of Orange jurors has time and again been made the subject of scathing condemnation from the judicial bench. A sound principle, which we in these colonies seem to be in some danger ot forgetting just now, was enunciated by the Attorney-General for Ireland in the blistering comments made by him in Parliament on the scandalous conduct of the packed jury who tried their brethren, the Orange rioters of iß6g 'It is,' said he, ' the greatest misfortune that could befall the administration of the law, that religious considerations should enter into the selection of juries.'

' ( ONDOMVG REGICIDP .'

The unreliability of newspaper news has been the theme of perennial complaint ever since the d\\^ oi the first Some ■?4<> years ago Samuel Batler, ni the second part of his HudiLuui,, flailed thu^e Diurnals writ for regulation Of lying tj inform the nation. And twenty years before the publication of his splendid satire, the author of the Sacra Nemesis, or Levitss' Scourge, ' defined ' the journalists of his day as ' base spies, hired to invent and vent base lies through the whole kingdom.'

The art of newspaper falsehood has been developed along many and various lines since the days of Samuel Butler. According to Mark Twain, there are now 869 different forms of lying. There are few of these that the modern newspaper has not at least a nodding acquaintance with. A favorite method nowadays is the publication of some injurious report which is subsequently proved to be untrue. Nevertheless, nothing is withdrawn, nothing is qualified, and the slander is left to follow its course. This is especially the case with statements that reflect unfavorably on the Catholic Church or clergy. A recent instance in point is before us at this moment. Father Volponi, an Italian priest, was some time ago unjustly sentenced by a hostile and a hot-headed tribunal to six months' imprisonment on a tiumped-up charge of having condoned the assassination of the late King Humbert. The London Daily News — which the Ciorno calls ' the caluminator of Italy '-— seized on the item, pulled it about and distorted it till it acquired a forbiddingly sensational look, and sent it abroad to tne ends of the earth. Several New Zealand papers echoed the whooping statements of the mail. One of them —which, by the way, is noted for its occasional fits of virulence against Catholics — accompanied the publication with a snuffling pretence of regret which reminds one of the walrus's address to the oysters in Lewis Carroll's fairy tale :—: — ' I weep for you,' the walrus said : ' I deeply sympathise.' With sobs and tears he sorted out Those of the largest size, Holding his pocket-handkerchief Before his streaming eyes.

No mention was made by the Daily Mail or its colonial copyists that Father Volponi promptlyappealed against the sentence ot the lower court as being contrary to evidence. The Italian papers — including our exchange, the Vera Roma — announced so far ba<_k as November the fact that Father Volponi had been completely and honorably acquitted by the Court of Appeal on the ple.i of inesistcnza di reato — that is, O n t> 0 o i: e-tioi of fact. So ♦-!-, good. 13-t t K c discreditable part of the whole business is this : that not one of the newsp.tpus, ciLliei in the Home Lounuics 01 in iliest colonies, that raised the hullabaloo over the wholly unjustifiable condemnation of Father Volponi by a lower court, has published a line regarding his acquittal by the Court ot Appeal.

ONTR KIND Ol ' POET.'

3ur clever contemporary, the Philadelphia Catholic Standard, quotes the following personal note from our columns: ' Mr. Alfred \ustin, the Poet Laureate, is 65. He is so ittle and slight in figure that' he has been nicknamed " The Pocket Edition," and though a thorough sportsman, he prefers his gardens to almost anything else. Mr. Austin was born in Leeds, his father being a wealthy merchant, and after trying the Bar for a time he became a journalist and poet.' It then appends the following editorial note: 'So says a contemporary which has always truly deserved the description of esteemed— the New Zeal u-d Tablet. Nothing could have caused greater astonishment to its friends than to see such a statement in columns hitherto distinguished for good taste as well as accuracy in statement. No one who is capable of appreciation of poetry would describe Mr. Austin as a poet. Poet and Poet Laureate are two widely ditierent things, as he has convincingly proved. The world used to laugh at Martin F. Tupper's pretensions to the title, but he was a Horace as compared with Austin. The Poet Close is possibly the only approximate analogy which the list of English bards, real and sham, can furnish.'

Our bright Philadelphia contemporary is right : ' poet and poet-laureate are two widely different things.' It is easy to classify Alfred the Third and his ' splay-foot rhymes.' But it is by no means so easy to describe by a single word the position that he occupies in the republic of letters. * Poetaster ' hits off the situation pretty accurately; but the word is obsolescent. ' Rhymer ' and ' rhymester ' are likewise on their way to the lumber-room of discaided terms. ' Pote ' would shock our compositors and scandalise our schoolboy readers. Mangan's term, ' bardlm^,' is sc ircely down to our laureate's capacity. And ' versitiei ' is amuiguous. On the whole, we may as well agree to c ill this 'loitured torturer of reluctant rhymes' a poet — by couitesy, just as we agree to designate certain agglomerates ot prinu.d paper and binding ' books.' We owe some little sympathy to one who is struggling so bra\ely, though so hopclessl}, against the influence ot his natal star.

Among the middle age Persians poetry was far too serious an aftair for the small try of the rhyming fraternity to trifle with. The penalty for machine-made rhymes of the TupperAustin brand was crucifixion — with the offending verses nailed over the culprit's head. Or the rhyme-spinner was buried alive in the earth up to the chin, with his manuscript at his feet, and trained elephants were made to walk upon his head until he was killed ' fatally dead.' Fortunately for the budding poets, British royalty is not so particular in the matter of rhyme as the Persian. The laureateship, like kissing, goes by favor rather than by merit. England's crowned heads have had a sort of traditional regard for the small poets. Sir John Denham, for instance, who was a literary ancestor of Mr. Austin, was in high favor with Charles I. In one of the frajs with the Roundheads, Withers — a Puritan officer who was the writer of an unconscionable amount of prosy doggerel — was taken prisoner by the Cavaliers. He was condemned to die by the halter. But Sir John successfully besought the King to spare the wretched versifier's life, ' because ' — as a quaint old history naively puts it — ' so long as Withers lived, Denham could not be accounted the worst poet in England.'

Several sorry versifiers were during the nineteenth century placed — heaven knows why — upon the British Civil List. Among them was one who filled the description given by Reginald Scot in his curious Discovenc of Witchcraft : he could ' rhyme any man or beast to death.' This was one Robert Young, otherwise ' Old True Blue.' He was the ' laureate ' of the Orange lodges, and published a volume of ' poems ' for the use of the satfron-scarved brethern in the sixties. Among the gems of his poetic fancy is one in which he tunes his lyre to sing of the great day on the Boyne, When William's ctghtrt n thousand men Crushed James's fin -ami •twenty 1 Another of his ' poems ' had at the end of each verse the following soul-stirring refrain : Tow, row, row, row. row !

Through some high influence 'Old True Blue' contrived to get a pension of £40 a year from the Literary Fund, and, of all others, from the scholarly translator of Homer, Lord Derby, who, however, had probably never read a line of the wretched prose which Young had chopped into lengths— like the twigs that boil a cottager's pot. There was a lively debate in the House of Commons over the grant. In anticipation of the debate, all available copies of 'Old True BiueV 'poems ' were secured by his friends, so that the members of ihe Hous>e should not be able to procure any. And the London Morning Star had some scathing articles on the degradation to which the other recipients of the Literary Fund — writers of real eminence — had been subjected by the grant to the semiilliterate composer of Orange street ballads.

A gratifying story of Catholic progress LIKE the comes also from the United States. AccordCREEN BAY tree, ing to the New York Independent, the following figures were presented at the recent meeting of the Presbyteries of New Jersey, as showing the growth of the different Churches in the State from 1890 to 1900: — Communicants.

♦ Perhaps,' says Mulhall in his Congress article, • the progress of Catholicity in the United States will be better understood if we compare the census returns of the various religions in 1890 with those for 1850, viz. : —

According to this table the Catholic Church in the United States had, in 1890, 735 churches for every 100 that it had in 1850; the Methodists had 346; the Baptists 380; and the Presbyterians 260. During the same period the church property held by the various denominations increased at the following rates: Catholic, 13 times ; Methodist, 8 7-10 times; Baptist, 7> ; Presbyterian, 6±. It should be noted that under the general title of ' Methodist,' ♦ Baptist,' and ' Presbyterian ' some 42 or more separate and independent religious denominations are included.

• What a marvellous transformation,' says Bishop Spalding in a recent article, * has taken place in the last fitly years, for it is scarcely longer than this since the Catholic revival in the English-speaking world began. More than one-fifth of the bishops who govern dioceses are now found in the British Empire and in the United States. The Catholics who speak English are twenty millions or more. In the last half century they have built probably as many churches, schools, convents, and institutions of charity as the two hundred million Catholics besides. There have doubtless been losses, but in the midst of struggle and battle loss is inevitable. . . . Nevertheless, the history of the Church in the English-speaking world during the nineteenth century is one of real and great progress ; and there is good reason to think that we shall continue to advance, since both priests and people are animated by the spirit of confidence, of courage, of generous and devoted loyalty to the faith.'

Number of Church tea. Value of Chi .ue o lurch Property. iurc Property. 1850. 1890. torn an Catholic... 1.200 8.816 lethodist ... 13,300 46,140 baptist 9,600 36,670 'reabyterian ... 4.800 12,470 1850. 9.100.000d01. 15,200,000d01. 11,200,000d01. 15,100,000d01. 1890. 118,000,000d01, 131,500.000d0l 82,000.000d01. 91,500,000d01,

Churches. toman Catholics Episcopal 'ongregmtional... Saptist lethodiat 'resbyterian 1890. 1900. 222,274 344,490 30,103 40,311 4,912 (3.534 39.760 52,088 82,955 96.7.")5 58,759 62,278 Increase per cent, 55 34 33 31 17 1G