Coarse-grained Calumny

New Zealand Tablet, 13 September 1906, Page 9

Coarse-grained Calumny

Dr. Johnson deemed abuse dangerous only when it was marked with wit or delicacy. He had no fear of coarse abuse. There was neither wit, delicacy, nor common Christian decency in the defamatory statements made fey the Rev. Dill-Macky .in Sydney-on the .last , ' glorious, pious, and immortal * anniversary of the undersized Dutch Patron Saint tp whom all good Orangemen offer their annual prayer of supplication from ' The Protestant Boys '. Coarse calumny is certainly not ' dangerous ' among the class to whom Dr. Johnson refers.. It merely gives them nausea. But it sets up local irritation—especially in factories, workshops, warehouses, public departments, and, generally, where workers of various creeds" are assembled in considerable numbers. 'The iron is, in such circumstances, made to enter the souls of Catholic youn© men and maidens. For the sake of those who are subjected to this most despicable form of religious persecution, we rejoice to , see that representations arc being made to induce the aggrieved parties to pillory in the law-courts the authors, utterers, and publishers of the calumnies against the Good Samaritan nuns at Tempe. The story and its exposure are already familiar to our readers. The Rev. Dill-Macky's organ, the_ ' Watchman ', ate the , story as soon as it scented a libel action. We hope the last has not 1 been heard of a peculiarly infamous attack upon innocent and holy women, the head and front of whose offending is their profession of the. \ Catholic faith and their daily practice of the most noble Christian charity. ' - It was the hard lot of Henry George Ward to have, at dinner in Oxford University, to sit beside 'and be agreeable to an insufferable firebrand who had jjust delivered a ' special sermon ' that should not have been tolerated in that ancient seat of learning. Ward was then a Protestant. But his gorge had been raised b^ the sermon, and he found it ' labor dire and heavy woe ' to keep on saying civil things to the black-coated offender. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the preacher persisted in talking aibout his sermon. ' ' All went fairly well ', says his son and biographer, * until the preacher touched on the question of his fee - . for the sermon. " How much do they pay you ? " Ward asked. "~Five pounds ",- was the reply; and- after a pause: "Don't you think- that enough ?" Thef answer that suggested itself was irresistible: " I don't know," Ward replied ; "I wouldn't have preached it for fifty." '

' We are glad to believe, that there are not i'n_ Australasia^ more, than half-a-dozeti clergymen , (and they are ■all "yellow") , who would' have taken ten-times -fifty pounds to preach'as the jßeyi "Dill-Mkcky ,did to his "fellow-Orangemen in Sydney; when ihe .July', microbe "got into-his tongue.\ , Yet "in, the face of 'va-lf this c"oa,rse-and vehement -invective -we are treated-to-' an annual "homily on tfoe love and affection which 'lodges and' lodge- - orators are .supposed ."-to display,, as an -, * obligation,' to their 'Roman Catholic, brethren"'! 'Brethren _J Ah, does not this recall ~ in a-way,- the French .revolutionists' * Fra'ternite— commc,,Cain avee son frere 't_ the,sort" of, brotherly feeling,that Caiii showed to Abel?, /The'-'ln- . ;dian ', says a Sioux proverb, -'scalps "his" enemy ;' "the pale face skins his brethren/'. i?" ; '