Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 30, 27 July 1905, Page 1

Current Topics

The Lie Direct

Somebody has said that a little man m>ay gain notoriety by throwing mud at a great man. A notor-iety-seeder of tins sort recently achreved Ins purpose by a side-spi'itting oratoiical exhibition at the latest Orange demonstration m Melbourne. It is scarcely necessary to say that the orator is a clergyman. He has ' discovered ' that the Archbishop of Melbourne has got his loot on the neck of the Victorian Parliament ;' that he spoiled the fun of the plebiscite on the Biblc-in-schools ; that he is the man who ' bent Premier Thomas Bent ' to his imperious' "will , that he ' determined the decisions of the \ ictonan Cabinet ' on the Serinture refcrenAlum', that he 'dominates' a State which oug^it 'to be Orange, with only a speck of green here and there upon it , and that he has perpetrated other enormities too numerous to mention The speech was not, of course, so coherent as this It was a delirium tremens of oratorical fury — a grand epilepsy of nietaphor;cal kicking and yelling and frothy assertion And ' there weie \isions about ' — \ lsions of the Scarlet Woman a(nd the Beast and the Man of Sin and Jesuits in disgfuLse and a whole menagerie of Roman ' tigers ' and spotted pink snal es, all ali\e and their c) es open. Aryd the Grand Screech was punctuated with enough big-drum thuwder and applause and ' Kentish fire ' t.) make the walls 1 ij Deny shake Taken all in all, it was probably as exhilarating an exhibition of Aeibal hysteria as our tawny frrends across the Tasmain Sea have ever enjoyed. And, no doubt, it has- saved the world from ' ltonie ' till the next animersaiy of the glorious, pious, ami immortal memory of the little Boer monarch.

But there was a sequel to the affair. Premier Bent took a hand in the game, lie struck the declamatory orator at high \elocity. ' A man who talks like that,' siaid Mr. Bent, 'is not entitled to the reply courteous, biut deserves the lie direct. And I give him the he. What he has stated is a lie. I don't care for the Catiho^c Church „ any more than I do for any other Church. Archbishop Carr did not make any representation to me ab oft.it the Scnptuie instruction referendum. The only Bishop I saw was Dr Clarke, the Anglican Bishop. I am as good a Protestant as the accuser is, aiv'd what he says about Archbishop Carr and myself is a lie.' And theie, for the time being, the July enthusiast lies— under a sti>gnia that would wither

up any cleric, unless the color of his political gkin wer© yellow. And this (we mean no pun) is the end of his tale.

' It's fate, so bit-bit-bitter, Is a story fit-fit-fitter For a sad little sigh and a tear in the eye Than a thoughtless tit-tit-titter.' It is the librettist's lament over the amorous goldfish in the ' Geisha.' And in two obvious respects it is appropriate 1o the present case.

An echo of the Melbourne cleric's hysterical romance has just been made by a religious newspaper in iNew Zealand whose traditions would .have led us to expect from it better things. However, even Homer nodded at times and the weasel has been known to snatch forty winks once in a way. The present 'break' is probably one of those accidents to which even the bet-regulated newspapers arc subject. In the present case, the story is practically a repetition of the Melbourne fiction, rnutato nomine— with a change in the names of persons and places, and little more besides. It is laid down as a matter of sheer fact that our ' Archbishop and his creatures ' ' bargain with political parties' for the disposal of tlie CaWiolic vote! With a spirit of fairness which does him credit, the editor of the journal referred to permits us to discuss the $übjeet m his columns. Interesting developments may, theiefoie, be expect ©t! For the present we make only these three remarks: (1) We know of no clerics in New Zealand, except those of the Bible-in-schools League, that aic puspiing and jostling 'political parties' and pursuing towards them a policy which looks remarkably like intimidation. (2) When a man has an optic of such piercing power that, it sees, through a ctone wall, the thing that is not, there is a "bright future for him boring for oil for a company-floating syndicate. (3) It is, we think, more than a mere coincidence that the same painful yarn, in practically identical terms,, was spun by an Orange candidate in Caversham in December, 1901. It is tho sajne old tale (but sadly bedraggled) of the same old ' bargain,' with the same old tag requiring the Ckiv'ment to make railway surface-men (or some such thing) of a good part of the Catholic population, mala and female, of New Zealand. The whole story of the Bishops' 'bargaining ' has in it the same amount of historic and literal truth as the nursery tale of the cow that juniipea over the moon. The Melbourne Orange platform is not the only place where ' there areWisions about ' during the fervid religious and political temperatures that rage in the middle of July.

A Correction

Some years ago (so the story runneth) a Nebraska weekly paper charged a hard-hitting militant politicianone Major Starkwright— with beisng a man of pie-crust promises. 'He was never known to keep his word,' said the weekly. It was during the agony of a hardfoKight electoral campaign. Some days later the Major — according to promise— called to the office 'of the offending newspaper. He ' reasoned ' with the editor— his most convincing arguments being of the kind that are bound in calf or driven home with what is known in the language of the ring as ' a dirty left ' and ' a straight-jobbjng right.' In its very next issue the Nebraska weekly said . •We regret having done Major Starkwright an injustice, and cheerfully prini this acknowledgment. The Major promised to visit this office, and has done so. He is a man of his word, polished and scholarly, and can kick like a brindled ox.'

We never had much idea of the quality of Justice that is done, so to speak, at the point of the baypnet, or under the ungentle suasion or knuckle-dusters or tanned cowhide. For this reason we have consistently set (too often, alack ! in vain) the non-Catholic religious presg of New Zealand the example of the open column and of spontaneous correction of any error regarding other creeds that may have^ inadvertently crept into our columns. In our issue of the 6th inst., for instance, we stated that tire Rev. J. J. Oairney, at a recent meeting of the Dunedin Presbytery, opposed the Bible-in-schools scheme. A careful re-reiading of the report, however, shows that the opposition displayed by him was to the following resolution : " That t/he presbytery promises to support the (BiMe-in-schools) League financially by recommending to the congregations within its bounds, to give a retiring collection for this purpose, or otherwise to give the people encouragement and opportunity to support the League.' The report really contains no expression of opinion by Mr. Cairney on the merits or demerits of tihe 'project for having a Bowdlerised version of King James's Bible tawght by public officials, at the public expense, in the public schools of New Zealand. Mr. Cairney is entitled to this correction, which we "insert of ourjown accord, and without request or pressure from any source.

Wanted to Know

Bishop Montgomery (Anglican) said in a recent address in Tasmania : ' Nowhere is a gentleman so much' needed as in the mission field. ... If we are to succeed in the mission field, we can only do so by sending out those who have the instincts of gentlemen as missionaries.' The failure of Protestant missions to Catholic countries is to be chiefly attributed to other causes besides the evil manners and generally low social standing of the ' evangelists ' themselves. The more logical Catholic mind, for instance, sees no mental halting place between Catholicism and infidelity. But, incidentally, contempt or dislike for the Reformed propaganda is fostered by the manner in whkih (as we can testify from personal knowledge) many missionaries— who fall notably short of Bisliop Montgomery's requirements— ram their wooden heads against the institutions anti customs of the country and shout and publish coarse and violent attacks upon the cherished religious sentiments of the people. And then, we presume, they pose as martyrs if any resentment is shown towards displays of evil taste and bad manners.

The Italian and the Spaniard, fjr instance, know a gentleman as far as they can see him. And no people are quicker to pick out a boor amd set him in his proper social grade. Recently in Spain popular resentment ran. high in protest against the oratorical violence of some of those enthusiasts who were plying the profession of proselytisers without having taken the

slajne pirecaiutiom of furnishing themselves beforehand with the instincts of gentlemen. The upshot, of the affair was the enforcing of an evil law— which was once in full action in the British Isles— prohibiting the uss of external emblems of a religious character on churches not 'belonging to the State creed. In the present case a difficulty is also said to have arisen over an inscription on the ciuirch-front, which (it is contended) was offensive in intent or implication. The affair ga\e rite to an angry query in the London ' Guardian ' : 'By what right does the Spanish Government order two crosses to be removed from the English church recently consecrated at Barcelona ? " The ' Cathiolic Times ' made haste to give the following reply : 'By the same right that the British Government orders «yhat no Catholic shall occupy the throne, nor become Lord Chancellor of England, or Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. By the same right, too, that the British constitution oalls all Catholics idolaters and blasphemers, and insults believers in the doctrine of Transubstantiation. By the same right, too, that British law forbids legacies for Masses for deceased persons, and calls prayers for the dead a superstitious use. And more of the kind ; b-ut why go on ? The reverend gentleman trusts " that thiose in authority will bring pressure to bear, and see that a protest is made on behalf of the English Church-people dwelling in Spain." If he is a man of logical principles, he will himself protest on behalf of English Catholics dwelling in England, and also of their brethren dwelling in— or rather flying from~ Ireland.'

Things are, in some respects, mo\ing nowadays at a pace th-aJt is calculated to scare somber-minded people out of their seven senses. But the spirit of tolerance-— which implies changes in the inner sentiments and feelings of large fbfojdies of people— sometimes drags along with t(he silow and leisurely crawl of a bmLloick^e-am alcmg a Tarafratoi by-road, or like some of those Swiss glaciers or frozen rivers of ice, that grind their slow way through the u,plan'd valleys at the rate of four to seven miles a year. But, thank God, it does n*ove. ' As late as 1844,' says the noted American Protestant d'i\ine, Dr. Starliuck, in the ' S.H. Review' of J\ine 24, ' a Catholic convert in Sweden was virtually put to death, dying inidigent and broken-hearted « in Copenhagen. the year after 'his own coirntry had disfranchised him, confiscated his goods, and banished him.' Sweden's pace m has been conspicuously slow ; but sine has moved far from the spirit which animated the legislation of 1843. In England, till 1870, it was a crime, punishable by two years' imprisonment; or by a fine of £500, for a priest to conduct the marriage ceremony for two Catholics, if one of the contracting parties had 1 not been a Catholic for fully twelve motaths. And the famous Ycherton trial in the sixties and a later case at Ennis'killen proved that the law was no dead letter. Here again the worfd has moved to pleasant places along the paths of peace. *"~

Germany hoe still to travel far before equal religious liberty will be enjoyed by the subjects of the Kaiser. At the clofse of the last session of the Reichstag a BUI was dropped which had for its object to secure personal and corporate liberty of worship throughout the Empire. 'As an instance of what takes place,' says> the ' Catholic Times,' •' we may say that the three hundred Catholics of the industrial town cf Meerane, in the Kingid'om of Saxony, which counts thirty thousand inhabitants, petitioned the Saxon Ministry to be allowed to have Mass six times in the year. They waited nine menths for an answer. Then .the answer came. It was to the effect that the Ministry failed to see the need of a Catholic service in the town, and that the holding of such a service would disturb the religious peace. A priest who was staying for a few weeks at Heiligendamm, a watering place in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, asked permission of the authorities to say Mass at the local

churchy but it was not granted. There is a great deal of room for progress in some of the German States. The Tolerance Bill will be r-eiintroduoed at a future time. Meanwhile the pu*blic will be enlightened as to the necessity for it.' But even in the Germain Fatherland] the movement is a forward one—' nulla vestigia retrorsum ' isi tine present motto— and complete religious toleraton is getting in sight, although, like Bonnie Prince Charlie, it has been ' long a-comin'.' In democratic New Zealand, on uhe contrary, retrograde legislation is being ur^ged by a ooterie of clamorous clerics. They are erfdeaivorin'g to inaugurate a State religion, based on • an emasculated caricature ' of a Protestant version of the Bible ; and the good men want to compel Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, and other objectors, by Act. of Parliament, to either contribute towards the endowment of the newly devised creed, or to go to gaol till they rot there. The platform volleys of certain clerical smooth-bores may intimidate— as they are clearly intended to intimidate— a few politicians of the laprdog breed ; but they will not, we ween, scare the libertyloving public , of New Zealand to assert a principle that lies at the root of all religious persecution.