Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 2, 10 January 1907, Page 9

Current Topics

Catholics and Crime f ~ _ - ' Anonymous writing,' says Cardinal Manning, 'is a 'dangerous trade. Few men can resist the temptation to write under a mask things which they would not say with open lace.' This, Is especially true of the anonymous accuser. He lakes an * alias ' and dons the mask for a purpose— just as his confreres the burglar and ihe assassin do. And, like them, he prefers to rob and stab in the dark. The. New Zealand. Parliament expressed 1 the general verdict of civilised society when, on October 5 of the paso year, men of allpoli-*-tical parties joined in applauding the' Premier's statement that the human ' reptiles ' who endeavor to shield themselves in writing anonymous charges against their. " feUow-imen, are J worse than assassins '. The notorious' untrustworthiness and,' general mendacity of-/riasked accusers are even recognised by the law of every cibilised country ; and the testimony of such witnesses would not be accepted by any court of justice in Christendom or pagandom, from, Nome lo the Bluff or from Tokyo both ways around to Timbuctoo. -

From time to time during the past few years a little knot of men in saffron 1 masks have been inflicting upon the Otago public sundry controversies on the allegedly high criminality, immorality, and . general chucifle-headedness of ' Papists ', and especially of Irish ' Papists '. These dull and vacuous discussions are (as we twice pointed out, in the columns of the secular press) plulnly ' puL-up jobs V We have over and over again the same old style ; the same old fallacies and 1 faked ' figures ; the same droll claim to ' deep ' and ' practical ' expert Knowledge of statistical science. We have, too, the same old clumsy and transparent tactics. If there is any risk of the controversy lapsing prematurely lor lack of genuine opposition, ' Roman" Catholic ' or ' Colonial ' sets up an opportune ' -defence '—usually talking arrant nonsense that is palpably intended— after the fashion of the boy-talk in ' Sanforti and 1 Merton ' — to afford one of his ' pals ' an " opportunity of emptying on the heads of a long-suffering public the festering contents of a controversial slop-barrel. In • the- general absence of a bona fide defence, the mock ' controversy, ' formally terminates., with the wholesale charges already referred to, topped, off "with a whoop about Catholic women and the Liverpool prison statistics of the early eighties. Then .the ' Colonial 'or the bogus ' Roman Catholic ' thanks the ' experts ' for. their enlightening information, acknowledges a change -of heart, the ' opponents ' shake hands all round, and— the curtain drops. ■

■A controversy orf this subject ia our local morning contemporary is not, however, fated to end with the limelight blazing upon this happy tableau • of 'doubters' converted and 'enemies' reconciled. One part of it reminds us that some time ago, in the course of a similar discussion, a masked man (presumably a member of the 'controversial syndicate) set forth "to prove -that the state of morality, among Catholic women in ' Ireland_ is ' si|mply appalling. > For this purpose, he made a statement that we do not care to

reproduce textually in these columns. In veiled substance," it amounted to this": that for many years the statistics- (which he professed to quote) of certain institutions -in Dublin and Cork disclosed the existence of -am altogether ' appalling ' amount of a nameless disease in the Catholic parts of Ireland. ,By, . copious official -statistics, taken at first-hand, we were able to prove in • the secular press and in our own columns that the story spun by that anonymous accuser ' was, through and through, "a fabrication ; that his figures were sheer inventions ; . that no such institution as stated exists in

Cork ; 'and that (so far as actual comparative returns extending over a long period, showed), the. record- of Catholic Ireland is in this respect relatively immaculate.' It is difficult to use eight-ounce gloves and soft phrases ■to the coa'se-grained criminal who Concocted this abominable calumny against that purity wl.tch (as even Janies Anthony Froude admitted) is one of the proudest glories of Irish CaOholic womanhood. . In one vof his lectures (reported in the Times ' of November . 16, 1872) this bitter enemy, of Irish Catholics felt compelled to say : ' lii the last hundred years, at least, impurity had been almost unknown in Ireland. . This absence of vulgar crime, and I'hisT exceptional delicacy.and modesty of character, were due, to their everlasting honor, to tfie influence of the Catholic. clergy.' - A lie of the whole cloth is,- in ail reason,, bad 'enough, "' But. Tennyson has ..written ' „'<• •' .. - 'That' a' lie which is half a truth is ever 'the Slackest of. lies ; • , -"■•'. That' a lie which is all a lie may be met : and fought "with outright, l ■ . ■'*".■ But a lie which is part of" a truth is a harder matter to fight '. . _ *-\ That is just ~ what is the matter/ with the Liverpool and other ' statistics ' which the' ' experts ' in figure manipulation have thrice inflicted upon- the puolic for the purpose of * establishing ' the low.- morality of the • 4 Komish ' Church. -On a thin and rickety foundation'of s statistical fact they have piled up a cairn of false j' statement and" Illogical inference. The ' Catholic Times' has been qiuoted (at least in a former sham discussion) to ' prove ' the assertion that the number of Catholics , (alleged to be 13,676) who passed through the Liverpool prison some twenty-three years ago was altogether out of proportion to the population of that city. We would lay Lombard Street to a China orange that not one of the masked men— really, quoted from the ' Catholic' Times ' either in this or in any other connection,. In our last issue we, quoted an editorial paragraph from the ' Catholic Times ' of November 16, 1906,, which credits the story as given above to a fanatical organisation which- called " itself the Protestant" Press-Bureau. Some time ago that association carried on in England a No-Popery campaign of extraordinaryvirulence. Such, - 'in fact, was the- deplorable'.indeeency of the methods to which it, resorted, that Mr. Edwin Charles (a non-Cath-vr olic writer, we think) x declared" in an Ilford paper that ne\er, in the course v of twenty-Jive years' experience as .- a journalist, had he -seen the like, of it for wilful mis.representation" and unblushing, mendacity. * The Bureau supplied ample justification for this grave indictment by (among;- other matters galore) its scandalous suppression of -the following vital facts, which will bear rcpublicaflon in this connection : (1) Only a part of the jalleged ' Roman Catholic ' prisoners .referred to .were, from Liverpool. - Prisoners were sent' *tp! Liverpool from St. Helens, ' Widnes", Southport, " Waterloo-, Seaforth, Crosby,; Ormskirk, Bifkenhead, Liscard, and from Flint Borough and Flint County in Wales,. (2) Over" fifty per cent, of the alleged ' Roman Catholic ' prisoners werepetty offenders who were committed for less than - a fortnight, mainjy. through inability to pay ' Tines"; thirty eight per cent, of them were imprisoned for a week or less ; and only four per cent, of .them had to serve sentences of three months or longer. These facts have been for some time before the New Zealand public. They amount to this : that there was hardly any •serious crime among the alleged ' Roman Catholic ' prisoners who went through the Liverpool .gaol . some- ' three arid twenty years ago* Jury-packing is supposed to be now restricted to one part of the Empire. But a still more violent and unconstitutional outrage against justice is the gagging of - witnesses for the defence, or the suppression of .their testimony. Why were the pertinent facts given above suppressed ? Why wa\s the evidence for trie defence shut out? Why was the jury (the newspaper-reading public, to wit) invited to

deliver a verdict on a one-sided and shameless misrepresentation of the facts of the. case ? Ah ! '-Anonymous writing !is a dangerous trade . •Morally, there is little to choose between William Sikes" in a black mask and his cousin the anonymous slanderer in a yellow one. Arcades ambo— they~aTe well matched. Such be our censores morum — the men who, from the plane of the loftier ' morality ' of the bearer 6i false witness, thank (rod from behind their masks that they are not' as the rest of men, but especially like those^ wicked ' Papishes '. It ,is a queer world, good maste s.

' Salting ' Crime Statistics

We make all reasonable allowances for •the extent to which anti-Catholic controversialists .may be the victims of inculpable personal error or of conscious de- 1 ception practised upon them by .others. ' But we cannot " shut our" eyes to_ tlie facts that are before us— to the cogent evidences of collusion, to the frequency and bitterness of the attacks, to the failure to' learn ihe lessons 'of previous humiliation and exposure, and to the serene disregard of facts and principles bearing upon the matter which readily suggest . themselves even to uneducated common-sense. 1 hus far we have only touoheti upon the grosser and clumsier forms of the statistical lie as practised by the masked ' experts ' or (through them) by the- able-bodied fibsters "in whom they placed a faith that was too childlike and blan-d. But there, is a worse statistical falsehood than the outright, fabrication—' the lie which is "all a lie. Fraudulent company-promoters ' salt ' gold-mines by firing grains of the previous yellow metal inlo poor or barren stone or wash-dirt— to the cruel deception and loss of incautious and too-trusting v victims. The manipulators of the statistics of Catholic crime behave in a similar way. They ' salt ' -the figures, and then tiftumphantly draw out of them i»ore than is honestly and naturally in them. the • salting ' is done by injecting or ' sneaking ' into them more or less heavy doses of state-ments-and assumptions that do not properly 'belongthere', as our American friends- say. '1 his is a peculiarly odious form of controversial fraud— a crymg case of ' the lie which is part of a truth ', that " is_ ever the blackest ot lies V

Here are a few leading samples of the misfctatements or false or undue assumptions that the maskeL ' experts ' ''salt '. or inject or _read into criminal statistics in order to ' prove . the" lower morality of • Papists ' generally, and estfedally of Irish' ' Papists' '*■

1. They assume that- criminal statistics - furnish an

accurate criterion of .the moral merits or demerits of various religious faiths. Statisticians are not such mooncalves as" to advance such a claim for 'their * figures. 1

2. The masked men assume that legal crime and sin (transgression of ihe moral law) are convertible terms, • and coextensive v,Uh each other. In other words, they assume that violations of the civil law are all ways and in all circumstances transgressions of the law of God, and that transgressions of the law of God are always and everywhere violations, of. the civil, law.. This is, of course, a palpable absurdity. There is, for \ instance, a vast and noisome world of degrading ' and even diabolical vice that the statute law takes no cognisance of. If they plead that they do not interid such an assumption as is mentioned above, thentheV > con.vjct themselves of passing judgment in a grave matter of morals, on a statement of -a fractional part of the facts of the case. The assumption Is a folly ; the biassed judgment is a crime

3. They assume that all crime is detected and punished; and that the religious beliefs of all offenders are ■correctly recorded. But (a) a vast deal of crimeeven of grave crime— is never detected. Take, for instance, the wholesale massacre of innocents that is one

of the blackest blots upon our civilisation'— a crime from- which Catholics} and especially Irish Uatholips, are comparatively 'free, (b) The officers of the-law-'fail

to sheet home great numbers of the crimes that tfiey detect, (c) The majority of offences .against the criminal code, are compounded for a: fine or mulct, (d) Only, the small' percentage of convicted persons that are sent to prison (through having no option, lor through inability to pay "a. nnej haye -their religious profession) (or alleged reli^ous profession) entered upon the public records.

4. In comparing country with country, the masked ""•'experts ' assume (a) an all-round uniformity of political, legal, - and social' conditions affecting crime; and (b). uniformity in^ statistical methods of recording crime? Such uniformity* as is here postulated does not exist. _(a) One naturally expects the higher rate of 1 crime in a", country where misgovernment, oligarchical tyranny, coercion, ., bad laws, over-taxation, and chronic poverty -prevail. Yet, despite all these ; grave disadvantages, I eland (as Blue-books before us show) has less- total

crime, and much less serious crime, in proportion to population than either England or Scotland. For the years 1900 to 1904", the tables before us give Ireland, roughly, a proportion of about twelve convicted criminals to every thirteen in England, and about three to every five in Scotland. Pleasing features in ' the records of the western isJe are the small number of its

juvenile delinquents, .the almost complete'" disappearance " of the female convict, the comparative fewness""~of its long-sentence prisoners, the singular frequency of the presentation of white gloves to judges at assizes, the recent closing of numerous prisons, and the absence of the great guilds of crime that are such. a. feature of

law-breaking on the other side of the- Irish Sea. (b) The liability to legal punishment atso diners wwfceiy in different countries-, arid even in the same country. The excitability of the western Celt, for instance—' which is a racial and not a religious trait-exposes him .more to arrest, when tipsy, than his more canny or phlegmatic neighbors that hail from other>~portions of the British Jsles. Two other exceptional -circumstances- also tend to increase the apparent criminality of Ireland and seriously handicap it in a comparison with other countries. One is the heavy oy.er-policing of the country by an armed military (not peace) force that is in antipathy with the people, and wholly independent of their, control. Aud to this the fact that, over the greater part of Ireland, large classes of acts are made ' crimes ' or ' outrages ' that are perfectly legal in England and Scotland, and that are even permitted or at - least, winked at - in the • yellow • portions of Ulster. And yet>, despite the mass of lawmade ' crime ' and « outrage \ Ireland manages to make a brave showing. •

„_ • ' In the South and West of Ireland a stroke of . the Lord Lieutenant's pen "can '(and often does) make 'it a thousand-barrelled 'outrage ' for people to assemble, however peaceably to hear an address by their Parliamentary representatives. Again, in the Southland West, it is an ' outrage ' for -a little boy to whistle. ' Harvey Duff ' or for an, adult to ' smile in a threatening manner' Vat a p'leeceman, or (as recently at Malahide) to 'blow his nose in a disrespectful- manner ' in the presence ot another member of the military constabulary that are placed as a hostile garrison in a conquered country And yet m the north-east corner of Ulster tens of .thousands of armed -men are permitted to ' move in gangs through the country, terrorising the .people, defying the -forces of the crown, and at times throwing large districts into a state of civil war, wit^serious loss of life. and enormous destruction ot property s in the South and West, such disturbers (if they -appeared) would he shot down like rabid dogs. But the condition of violence, riot, and rebellion that is almost endemic in the ' yellow ». regions of Ulster" is allowed

'to leave only a comparatively insignificant .trace upon the 'criminal records of the province. We need not here 'refer to the- remarkably high rate of illegitimacy that is_ a -distinguishing feature of those counties' in Ulster that return Orangemen to the Imperial Parliament. But we may . direct the attention of the men in the saffron masks to the pre-eminence of their corner of 'Ireland 'in serious crime. According to the ' admission of -their friend Mr. Long in the House of Commons in Tast May, five" of Ireland's six cases of bigamy occurred in Ulster ; the same province was credited with ,'ll out of the country's total of 81 cases of robbe -y and assault with intent to rob— 34 -of tfhe cases occurred in Belfast ; and 17 out of a total of 41 cases of- concealment of birth took place in Ulster. In all Ireland there_ were 475 cases of burglary and housebreaking ; 188 of these were in Ulster— l 27 in Belfast alone. We d,raw no conclusions. We merely offer these statistical nuts for our censors to crack with thrown teeth— that is, with the principles which they use against us. It is a "bad principle that will not work as well for Orangemen as for ' Papists '. (b) We now turn to the methods of statistically recording crime. These, are by no means uniform in all countries. England and Scotland, for instance, are happily free from , the methods' of collecting and cataloguing so-called 1 agrarian outrages ' in the South and West^of Ireland. The methods referred to represent, ■ not a statistical, but a party-political resort that is an 'outrage' on common-sense and common justice. Many of- our readers will probably remember the sweeping exposure of the official methods of ' outrage ' manufacture that shook the British Parliament with- storms of diaphragmshaking laughter in the early, eighties. Some ama'Ang samples of the modus operandi will be found in T. P. O'Connor's ' Parnell Movement. In New Zealand every conviction, even of a habitual offender, counts upon the records as a separate individual ! So much for the ' experts^.'- assumption of uniformity of law, of legal administration, and of statistical methods.

5. The man who makes the mere numerical count of crimes a test of the comparative morality of religious faiths, thereby assumes that all the crimes so enumerated are equal. It is, according 'to our anonymous censors, the mere number, and not the weight, of the crimes that lips the balance of wrongdoing to this side or that. They thus place the casual" neighbor's quarrel, or the blow that resents an insult to a woman, or the theft of a few potatoes to save t?he life of a starving chxia, on the same level of immorality as forgery, burglary, and the sin— crying to heaven for vengeance— of the brubalised ' professional ' who has massacred more innocents than Herod-. Unlike our

masked ' experts ', statisticians and moralists take thegravity as well as. the numerical count into consideration in •determining questions of comparative crime.

6. Our coy ' experts ' assume thai all prisoners who enter themselves asi '.Roman Catholics ' upon the register are ' Roman Catholics ' in reality. What is the ground for this assumption ? In a large class of cases, the mere assertion— not even a statutory declaration—of hardened criminals whose uncorroborated oath would not "be accepted by any court of justice. A-dtt to this the overwhelming evidence of the practice of many old criminals fraudulently describing themselves as ; Roman Catholics '.We have from time to time given details ' of this resort, including the case of a long-sentence? Jew in the Dunedin prison who had himself improperly entered upon the records as a ' Roman Catholic '. A digest of ""the prisoners' reasons for this practice was given in our columns a 'few years, ago by a, keen and observant chaplain to one of the largest ' prisons .in New Zealand. 7. It is furthermore assumed that the alleged ' Roman Catholic ' prisoners are all practising Catholics. For is not their lapse from the path of rectitude set

forth, directly or by implication, as the • fruit ' or the ' result ' of ' Komish ' teaching and practice '! Experience,, however, shows that a large percentage of offenders, and a very big percentage of habitual offenders, gi ye in their fred and ordinary life no . allegiance to any Church or creed. • ,', ..

- 8. In comparing Catholic wijbh non-Catholic criminality in New Zealand,, the masked 'experts' fall habitually into one other pit of undue assumption : They take it Tor granted that Catholics are an ' integral '

seventh of the population of this Colony. As a matter of fact, they are only a ' numerical ' seventh. To be an ' integral ' seventh of our population, Catholics -would have' to. be a seventh of. all the -principal sec£ tions of the people, and possess a seventh of the wealth and other advantages of the> country — they would have to be a seventh of the land-owners, the merchants, the farmers, the manufacturers, the mineowners 1 , the shopkeepers, the professional men, etc. But this is far ' from being- t/tie case. Owing to causes ' which are written broad and deep upon the history of the British Isles, Cai holies in New Zealand belong , mostly to the working and the poorer classes. They aie (as stated )\ only a ' numerical ',~not an 'integral', seventh of our population/ For purposes of- comparison, they should therefore not be contrasted wiuh the total population of the country, but with the classes to whom they for the greater part ' belong, and with whom alone they, as a body, have much or anything in common. Now, as everybody knows, it is precisely, from the working arid the poorer classes *that thevast bulk of our prison population is drawn. Are Catholics represented "on our c ime' calendar, above '-their proportion to that part of the population to which they mainly belong ? No attempt has ever been made" to^ prove this. And the statistics do not say. In the matter of grave crime, are Catholics represented on our calendar in their full proportion to that part of the population to which they chiefly belong ? We do not .believe - they are, and we confidently challenge comparison. And :; wfiat about • divorce, suicide, infanticide, foeticide,' race suicide; and tlie ' other darling abominations of our day '! Jtiere, too, Catholics can throw down the gauntlet of comparison to the world at large.-

It is, of course, the height of folly to judge the relative morality of creeds from an infinitesimal part of their adherents'" sins, and to judge their relative criminality f om a small -fractional part of the" offenders against statute, law— namely, from those who happen to get lodged in gaol. Even a Jourdain or a Justice Shallow would not fall into such a supreme foolishness. But it is worse than tolly— it is a crimeto coin figures, to manipulate figures, to ' sneak ' false statements and false or unwarrantable assumptions and inferences into figures, for the purposes of these 'odorous comparisons'. In the ...Church of ..Christ, the poor we have always wilh us, and the- tares are permitted to grow up with the wheat till the harvest time. Christ -was ever gentle with the- sinners who fell through- frailty or the pressure of environing temptation. vßut His thunders were reserved tor the Pharisee and -for those who saw the mote in, their brother's eye and did not consider the beam in their own. . .

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