The New Zealand TABLET THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 1907. SECTARIANISM IN POLITICS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 3, 17 January 1907, Page 21

The New Zealand TABLET THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 1907. SECTARIANISM IN POLITICS

♦"^J^W^jy"" N June, 1780, a'v-ast mob, under the leader- \^ i l)* ship of a sullen and, crack-brained fanatic, •££ jpV Lord George Gordon, pillaged the liquor ' shops in London, emptied the gaols,, fired )s^Jo[ whole streets, '.purged ' the cjty "of 'Papists', jSfcJ&t proceeded l in drunken fury to terrorise -$%&s*) , Parliament into permanently riveting the shackles of persecution that had Been "forged in the days -of William the Third. The Gordon" fanatics were composed of the members -of politico-religious organisations known collectively as the Protestant Assoota-

tions—swelled •by incendiaries, liberated thieves, and the dregs of the city slums. These' Associations were the political forbears of the Protestant Electors' Committee that played such a prominent part in the , recent Federal elections in Victoria! As "to its leadership and general management, 'the Protestant Electors' -Committee was the Orange Society under" one of the * aliases' that it assumes when it. desires to capture for passing political purposes those large sections_of the Protestant /community to whom' the name and the associations of Orangeism are a byword of contempt and scorn. - The object of the Committee was (like, that of. the -Gordon mob and the Orange fraternity) the absolute exclusionrof Catholics, because of their creed, from public life. 'If', said Mr. John G avail Duffy, '.the pews of the Protestant Electors' Committee- are carried to their logical conclusion, there would be -no Catholic member Snathe State Parliament, no Catholic member in the Parliament of the Commonwealth. Catholics would find it difficult to enter into the Public Service and impossible to obtain promotion when in '. The small clerical canaille,- the notoriety-seeking preachers of back-street conventicles, and, the rest of the lewd fellows of the baser sort were, of course, in congenial surroundings in - the -ranks of the Protestant Electors' Committee: But it was a grave scandal that, as in a_fgrmer No-Popery movement, a man of somerank—an Anglican archbishop, to wit—should lend the influence' of his high and responsible position to a movement so fraught with evil to UuTpeace of the community. As to the politicians, there are those among them on. the other side of 'the Tasman Sea "who (in Bacon's phrase) would set a house on fire _to cook their eggs. One party-leader and his. lieutenants— who, in the country'-s interests, would be much more usefully employed in cultivating carrots— allied themselves with the sectarian movement and spared no effort (though happily in vain) to rise to place and power on. a wave of religious hate and passion. The temper in which the sectarians carried on their electioneering was oiot conspicuously better than that of the raucous and fanatical Lord George Gordon. Here is how a Sydney secular paper describes it :~ • 'On the <*. Reid side, practically every candidate anjft every ,newspa-per strove to .raise the sectarian issue. (Jr. Reid himself preached sectarianism always.His lieutenants shrieked weekly from Orange Lodge .platforms. The most strenuous efforts were made to identify antiSocialism with Protestantism, "and to represent DeaUn and- WJatson as ihe minions of Rome. Vague' threats were circulated as to what was going to happen to Ronfan Catholicism *f only Protestants rallied. round the standard of G. Reid and Voted Anti-Socialism. Horrible pictures were drawn of the Flames of Smithfield lighted on Manly hill and fed fat with Protestant victims if G. Reid were not given a majority. Is it a matter for wonder, that these, lies had the effect not only of attracting some Protestant sectaries, but also of detaching some Roman" Catholic^ sectaries, who otherwise would have voted for G. l ßeid?_ That was bound to happen, and the responsibility for it rests with- the . G. Reid following and the. G. Reid press.' Here -is how the same -paper deals with the statement of Archbishop Clarke (a new-comer from England) that there is a ' solid, well^disciplined ' Catholic vote in Australia,, '.given in obedience to, orders '.:— - t ""~~ ' Laymen with a proper .'sense of responsibility. ", for their statements will hesitate, however strong their^prejudice against Roman Catholicism', to endorse this statement. Can Archbishop Clarke produce any proof at all of the existence of this well-disciplined vote ? To be " well-disciplined " it must be taught, trained, drilled. That discipline necessitates a literature, meeting places,officers, exhortations, records. Can the Archbishop produce any ? That there is, and always has been, an orgjanisadi Protestant vote— the Orange .organisation (though, as a rule, it represents only a small aud contemptible fragment, of the Protestant body).— lS known, because reports of its meetings arid copies' of its recom-" mendations ale constantly transpiring/ Will Archbishop Clarke produce similar proof of the evidence of a Rom a n

Catholic electoral organisation,, or will he fall- hack' on the unbelievable explanation that. a religion representing more than a quarter of the populace; is able to driints "members- into a. solid, well-disciplined, obedient electoral . body without allowing' to transpire the names of* any leaders, reports, of .- any exhortations, minutes of any proceedings, • copies of any manifestoes or circulars ? ' : ' The solid -" Roman 7 Catholic vote," ' it adds, | is a myth. The same i statement applies to the , same story about the Catholic vote in New- Zealand.^ On . both \ sides of the seg,, the r tale is ju mere political confidence trick. „ " ~ 'But '," pleads Archbishop Clarke^ '-you - began it.; ' The plea ', replied Mr. . John Gavan. Duffy, ' is not new> Every, schoolboy uses it when he wantsrtolick a smaller— , boy and must have some" excuse ; and - there is a somewhat well-known fable about a wolf and a^ lairop, which •- is in point.'' If Archbishop- Clarke had known the his_tory of the Church Act and of Orangeism in Australia, he would, "we ween, have, hesitated before pleading that ' the other slide ' struck the first- .blow \ Coming to the immediate question,- the plain facts were set forth as follows by the Archbishop of Melbourne in the course of a ; 'speech at "the Christian Brothers' College,- East' Melbourne, on December 21 :— ' ' ,' ' In the firsts place, he had said that, for whatever unpleasantness had arisen „in connection with 'the- elec-~ tions, Catholics were in no way responsible.. He said that deliberately. The Catholics bad v absolutely no organisation, "no" political organisation of any kind, or hakl % a thought of a political organisation, until the- Council "of Churches instituted a sectarian Registration" Society . ' Well; the object of . that ;was quite evident, The rights, privileges,, arid liberties of Cathblaps were aimed at, . . and, like sensible /men, he. 'believed some, of the Catholic laymen undertook" to provide for the registration of Catholics. £Jo, person co;uld 'blame- 'them, for tjhey. were only copying the example set to them. In the next place, Catholics had no desire, as far _as he knew (and he was certain the members of -the Registration 'Society r had no such intention), of selecting any person, or' proposing any person, as candidate until .a sectarian committee was formed expressly for the purpose of. putting forward candidates of- sectarian mind, not on - political grounds, and npt because the men put forward were likely to become wise and good legislators, but because they were likely to become bitter anti-Catholics. -It was not till then that the Society "selected th>ree candidates for. the Senate,^ and -recommended them for adoption. .In that they only ..followed the, example ■set to them. Unless they wished -to allow 'themselves to be completely wiped out, H was obyiftusly their right, and many, would say their duty, to resist the attempt, that, was 'made at suppression.' -. ' - ■ The Catholic ' Archbishop's plea ' was ' '.(says rthe ' Otago Daily Times ' .of January 11) ' well founded ' in fact. So high an authority as the -English Select Parliamentary Committee of 1835 - "on Orange • Lodges . declared in their report that ' the obvious tendency and effect* of anti-Catholic associations is to raise up; asso-, ciations ' among the Catholics in their own "defence and for- thcAir own protection . All this is natural and Obvious. It is to the credit of. the Catholic ecclesiastical authorities that they from the first deprecated the introduction of the sectarian issue, and that, after, the fight ~was> over, .they were the - first to Jiold out " the olive-branch to their assailants. Archbishop _ Clarke has proposed a conference to deal' with the, subject. . But in the same breath he has invited the Protestant Electors' Committee to prepare" for- the next State elections, and reiterates- the fable of the ' solid, well-disciplined ' Catholic vote.: He and his party have=sbwn the wind. The country will reap the. whirlwind. And the Parson in-— Politics promises to be a more bitter curse to Australia than drought and fire and the; locust plague.

A- preliminary meeting was held in St. .Joseph's Hall, Dunedin, on Tuesday evening, for the purpose of., organising a men's branch of the St. Vincent de Paul Society * Rev. Father Cofley presided, and the following officers were elected :— President, Mr. P. • O'Neill ; secretary, W. .Rodgers; treasurer, J. Bernich.