Notes

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 33, 18 August 1904, Page 18

Notes

* Mangling Done Here ' Every student of Irish history is familiar with the story of the tortures inflicted by the Orange soldiery on the unhappy people of Dublin with a view to goading them into insurrection in 1798. Berosford's Rid-ing-house was the headquarters of the cruel sport. A wag placed the following inscription by night over the entrance :' ' Mangling done here.' The same inscription might have been very appropriately placed over the con-sulting-room (or shall we say dissectiiig-room ?) in Wellington where the Bible-in-schools Conference vivisected and dismembered tlie Bible, eviscerated it of its grandest and most vital truth, the Incarnation of the Son of (Jo'd, and left of it only what an Anglican archdeacon aptly calls ' an emasculated caricature ' Vet the perpetrators of this Bible-mangling have had the courage to lecture other people about ' what is due ' to the Sacred Scriptures ' Is it because of its rarity that consistency is called a jewel ? 1 Defeat of Protestantism * The Rev. D*r. Fitchett is a past master of the art anjs~ craft of evolving material for argument and ' history ' out of his inner consciousness. His series of gilded historical romances, beginning with ' Deeds that Won tihe Empire,' furnish one instance in point ; his contributions to the Bible-in-schools controversy aLC another. In both cases he displays an equal unwillingness to take facts as he finds them, but must clout and anvil-shape them in an effort to make them dovetail in a rough way into his immediate purpose. His latest ' break ' consists of a statement which he announced with portentous solemnity in his paper, to the effect that ' the whole Romish press is chanting hymns of triumph over the " defeat of Protestantism " in Victoria ' at the recent Bible-in-schools plebiscite. Reputable controversialists -have, by the way, long since dropped such offensive theological slang-terms as 1 Romish,' etc., and Dr. Fitchett, in retaining them, classifies his manners as proper to the strident enthusiasts who rave and rage on Orange platforms during the temporary insanity that seizes the lodges when the dog-star is blazing in the North. We have carefully periisetl every pronouncement of every Catholic paper published in Australasia on the recent plebiscite. The quoted expression, ' defeat of Protestantism,' was notused by so much as one of them in reference to the failure of the attempt to scctariajnise the public schools. Dr Fitchett's statement is, in plain terms, a falsehood through and through. Here is how the Archbishop of Melbourne scored it in the course of a recent speech : ' Their (the Bible-in-srhools party's) complaint is that we did not assist them in the recent referendum, and that in opposing their scheme we sought to brihg about -the " defeat of Protestantism." But that is utterly untrue. At the very first moment I used an opportunity which offered of disclaiming any such . intention. I ascribed our victory in great part to the generosity and good .sense of the non-Catholic electors of the State. The result, instead of being a " defeat of Protestantism," is, 1 believe, a great vindication of the intelligence and fairmindedness of the great majority of Ahe voters who are Protestants.'

The Lark and Her Young ,On the tame, occasion the Archbishon o f Melbourne— wh.6 has a rare faculty oi bringing from the treasures of his knowledge things old and new— made the following happy application of one of Aesop's fables. ' Catholics,' said he, ' arc mindful of the old fable of Ihe lark and its young. Once a lark built its nest i n a corn field, and when tahe young birds were fledged, but were not fit for flying, the farmer who owned the field came, and in the hearing of the old bird said : " This crop is ripe, but I must wait for a few days to get help from my neighbors to cut it " When . the farmer went away the old bird said : ' Have no fear, we can safely lemain longci , Llial uj«m i!s depending on In* neighbors, and the man who depends on his neighbors for the work he should undertake himself will be disappointed." A few days later the farmer came and found Mie corn over-ripe, the young corn shed and lying on the ground, to be trampled under foot, and the crop on the verge of ruin. He, however, said : " I -mist still wait a few days for my neighbors." The old lark said to her young : " Have no fear still ; that .man is still trusting to his neighbors, and the man who trusts to his neighbors for the work he should do himself is bound to be disappointed " The farmer came again a few days later, and found the crop being ruined, and in a fit of virt'iimis indignation he sniri • " To-innrrow I will cut it down with or without my neighbors." The old lark then said : "We must go to-night ; he is goino; to do it himself, and when a man intends to depond on himself instead of on his neighbors, he ■-■vill carry out his resolution " Catholics did not look at the educational necessities of their children and say: " We, cannot provide for them until we get help from someone— the Government, or the State school teacher, or some other extraneous body.'-' Catholics had said : " The .crop is ripe , we must reap it with or without the help of our neighbors If the neighbors come and give us help we will be thankful and grateful, hut if they withhold it from us we will gird ourselves to the -Rork, for we have a duty to discharge." He wished to urge that application only as far as Catholics were concerned. If it had any application to others, let others apply it to themselves.'

It is the good old piinciplc of self-help that was raised <in cxcelsis ' by Samuel Smiles. A wagon-load of accumulated reflections would not have made the impression deeper than the Archbishop left it.