The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1908. ' PRIESTCRAFT' AND IRISH DISCONTENT

New Zealand Tablet, 10 September 1908, Page 21

The New Zealand Tablet THURSD AY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1908. ' PRIESTCRAFT' AND IRISH DISCONTENT

N all matters that' relate to the Catholic Church, the Rev. "Dr. Jtiorton, of Hanipstead (England), is one of the ungehtlest ; of living controversialists. Yet in his latest and wildest book - (My Belief) he has the grace to make the following naive declaration :—: — ' Tfie old polemic' against Catholicism is out of" date ; the methods aild the tone of it are unsuitable to -the modern world. If we are to be Pro-

testants, we must.be Protestants- of a new type; we must understand the position Setter. Our. antagonism to JRome must be more respectful*, more sympathetic, and for -that reason more firm "and more uncompromising.,^' " ' We hold no. brief to disparage any., creed or view genuinely held by man. " 1 ' What Christians are divided upon,-that.we should' hold with modesty and deference.' " " - " - . Even Kingsley declared- in -his Miscellanies that . the old bitterness of controversy o'ervaulted" itself and produced, by reason 'of its bitterness- and exaggeration, a- sturdy" reaction in, favor of ' Rome.' The same general remark must be deemed to apply to the furies of invective of an article contributed by an anonymous writer to a recent issue .of "thY Tapanui Courier. The writer belongs to the extremist- section- of the class whom Newman -describes in" the -following -classic lines : — ' 'Such a one: cannot' afford- to be fair; he cannot be*- fair if he tries. He is ignorant, and he goes on ~to be unjust. He has always-" viewed things. Jn one light,- and ; he cannot adapt "himself to any other ; rhe . cannot throw himself into the ideas of . other men, 'fix upon the principles on which those ideas depend, and then set himself to ascertain . how those, principles differ, or •whether they differ „at.,alL. from., those : which. he. acts upon ■ himself.' '['.*'" . ]'.'-■... ' J . .' ' ,• -,-._-'" - , .-Are *r«-' ~-. • -- In our last issue we dealt with one phase of his wild_ and unsupported statements. In the present -article we refer to his anonymous onslaught on the priesthood . of the Catholic Church in Ireland at whom he habitually flings the. offensive theological , nickname of ' Romish,' and whom he accuses of being the wßple and sole cause of the poverty and discontent that prevail in 'the most distressful -country. ' - - , >; -. ,~

We are ready to make the fullest allowances for unconscious error — even-for the error which views. Catholics and their clergy ; as compounds of ape .'and "demon ; a/id we nourish .-no unkindly' personal thought or; feeling. Jotrrthe*; convinced-- ' brother ' who openly and above-boar.d , pour^yitriolic abuse at Catholics from the, July platform. <- -But the. hand .of every man Js against ' the , mischievous _varlet ' (as Discaeli calls . him) ..' who pelts us,wilh mud-,as we walk along, and then hides behind a dustbin \ of " . anonymity. - Of course/ no_ attempt whatever, was made .by the v masked . assailant in Tapanui -to establish his statement by evidence.. Such a bourse would be against all^the rules of anonymous accusation. " We may, however, take a few outstanding causes of- Irish- poverty discontent, and see>hdw far they are or have been due. to *' priestcraft ' :—: — i. Was it ' priestcraft '- that, in the interest of English manufacturers and-traders, . destroyed, by Act of Parliament, the flour-

ishing woollen -industries of ~the^ West-an^iJou'th,.' the trade in cattle, salt meat, wool, and (in 1831) the jich and flourishing tobacco-growing industry of the South? irWas it 'priestcraft' that"" robbed" Ireland, in "1800, of theGrattan Parliament,' 'which'" had given "her the one bright gleam of' prosperity that' ihe 'has ever known since the English connection ? History says - that no' Catholic had - act - or- part in the black and wholesale 1 ' bribery, force, and fraud ' by which traitors sold their bleeding country 'as Judas sold his God. * That foul transaction and its fouler methods were' devised by a British Prime Minister (Pitt), and carried out' by a British Viceroy (Cornwallis). It cost from' first to last ;£Ja 1,053,000, every penny of~ which had to be paid by -the ruined and -betrayed country. It was - opposed by . the overwhelming majority of the Irish people, including. numerous .Orange lodges ;. and the. descendants of- Pitt's purchased .Irish tools • are now th.c Tammajiy that rules the country from Dublin .Castle. 3. Was it ' priestcraft ' that, between 1800 and 1887,' passed - mpra than a hundred Coercion Acts .for Ireland? The terrible and almost incredible nature of those Coercion Acts will be, dealt with in a volume that wili shortly be published ' at She office of this paper. / 4. Was it ' priestcraft ' thai-, since the Union in 1800, has ruled Ireland, not (as New Zealand is ruled) in accordance with the wishes' of the majority of its people, but according, to the dictation of a numerically small ' garrison ' or ascendancy faction of landlord capitalists and their tools, alien in race, and faith to the vast bulk of the population ? ' Is it ' priestcraft ' that, to this very hour, makes non-competitive positions of honor and emolument and power under the Government the close preserve of one particular creed, and which admits Catholics practically only when they are ' tame ' — that is, renegades to their faith or to 'their country ? Is if ' priestcraft ' that so bars Catholics from employment in the municipalities of Derry, Belfast, Armagh, and Portadown, and in certain railway corporations, that Parliament has had repeatedly to interfere — even as late as 1907, and against a tremendous- clamor — to abate the scandal in some slight degree? The details of this grave scandal have already been sufficiently placed before our readers. In the parts of Ireland where ' priestcraft ' is alleged by the Courier writer- to ' rule,' no such scandals prevail, and Protestants are treated with great generosity by elective public bodies in the matter of place and salary. . We have in our possession- figures covering a great part of Ireland, and in due course these will be placed by us in book-form before the public. 5. Is it ' priestcraft ' that has filled the scandalously overmanned and over-paid Irish Bench with strong. political partisans, nearly all of them of one particular religious faith? Here again 'we write with - the figures before us- - Is ' priestcraft ' responsible ' for the maddening wrongs that are,- even, to this very hour, perpetrated by open and shameless jury-packing? It was this crying scandal, together with the deplorable and bitter partisan- . ship of Irish judges, that (as English Lord Chief Justice Denham officially -declared) made the administration of justice in Ireland 'a mockery, a delusion, and a snare.' It so happens that the Irish priesthood have alt along opposed these bitter scandals. Frantic opposition- to reform 1 in this ■ direction has- all along- come from the side that cries out against '. priestcraft.'6. Was it ' priestcraft ' that-r.passed the terrible Irish land laws since the Union? North-east Ulster was happily protected by ' the Ulster Custom ' (which .had the force of law) against landlord tyranny and rapacity. Not so the rest of-Ireland. Was • it priestcraft ' that' four times confiscated the- property of Irish > Catholics before the Unipn, and many times - since? Was" ;t; t ' priestcraft ' that furnished bayonets to . Irish landlords to confiscate over and over again (even within past few months) the tenants' interest in Irish, land,, and the vast property created' by the .farmers^-estimated by- the Right- Hon.- Mr. Shaw Lefevreat more than one-half of the' total /capital value- of all the land in the country? Did 'priestcraft* make those laws which brought about the series of ; famines -that, -between the Union and 1880; slew, in round numbers-, two million persons? According, to the great statistician' Mulhall, i ,'2257600 persons- died 1 " of famine in the first- fifty years of the late Queen Victoria's feign. But there is . worse . to- tell. TKese" famines were all artificial. The

It was this

two millions- died- -in~ s .the 1 -'midst^of- r plenty. 'Was it* 1 priestcraft' " that, in- everyone of 1 those; famirres-'-.sent- the- bayonets* of "the soldiery to.> seize for • rack ; rents, and -exported' before 1 the" eyes of the starving, people (even in thd 'famine' 1 0f '1879-80),'" food thathad' been raised", by 1 them; in" sufficient: quantity to ( have 'prevented a single death by hunger*? - Was- it -p riestcraft* that* (according.to Miilhall) -evicted; in the -first ■ fifty "years- of the 'late ' Queen's reign, 3 ,668,000 ■ persons - from their homes, at- the pomt 1

of the bayonet, threw sick women, dying men, and infant children by thousands on the unsheltered roadsides in the bitter northern winters, and confiscated in 'a wholesale way the farmers' interest "in their holdings < and the property -created "By '-'.them? Did ' priestcraft * pass the Incumbered Estates Act in 1849— an Act - under which millions of pounds of values created by Irish tenant' ■j farmers were "seized by the Crown and auctioned in ' garrets ' (as ■f they were termed) in Dublin City? Was it 'priestcraft* that . made people flee from such an oppressed country, or drove them out by great ' clearances,' till the population reduced "from nearly ; nine' "millions in 1845 to only a little over four millions in' the year?- Is it ' priestcraft ' that makes Ulster the greatest' sufferer by emigration?' Is it ' priestcraft ' that enables the' land- . lords, to this hour, to levy rents on values created by the tenants, * , and- to sell' (and- fob payment for) these same values?' It* so ■ happens that the Irish priesthood -all along opposed these various forms of capitalist tyranny. -The people who fought savagely inch -by inch against reform were those who make pious protestations, against ' priestcraft.'

• 7. Was it ' priestcraft ' that (according to the economist Lough) moved the British Government to exact in taxes over ', in repayment of ' the trivial relief ' of a famine loan , of in 1846-7? Is it 'priestcraft' that makes the British Government overtax Ireland to the tune of nearly three millions a year above her taxable capacity, according to' the 1896 report of the Financial Relations Commission, coiriposed entirely of Englishmen of the first eminence' in the , world of finance? Was it 'priestcraft* that clapped a year additional taxation on an impoverished country just after the great famine of 1846-51? The population of Ireland has been halved in fifty years, but it's taxation has been doubled. And (as 1 a table- before us shows) a vast proportion of that increased taxation has been expended in finding more .places and, bigger salaries for the favored creed -and -the" ruling, caste. All this plunder and extravagance have been steadily opposed by the Irish priesthood. The defence of over-taxation ■ and these crying admir.istrative scandals comes' from thepartywho cry out against ' priestcraft.' '

We might give eye-opening details regarding the tithe war; the tithe proctors'; the tens of millions of money that, during the nineteenth century alone, were dragged from the unwilling Catholics of Ireland for the maintenance of an alien creed ; and the insurrectionary storms that were raised by sworn ' loyalists ' when it was proposed to relieve Catholics of these terrible burdens. If any clergy has added to Irish poverty and discontent, that clergy is not the Catholic. On the contrary, it is largely due to their noble efforts that the position of the Irish, people is becoming more tolerable, and that they are nearing the dawn or a better day. (i) To the intense chagrin of the greaf Irish Tammany, the Irish priests have ever been on the side of democracy and for the extension of popular rights. (2) They spurned the offer of Government salaries, and preferred to remain poor among the poor, who love them as the apple of their - eye. (3) Of all the clergy in Ireland, they are relatively the least numerous and the least costly to their people. At the end' of the year 1904 there were in It eland 3542 priests (unmarried, of course) for 3,301,661 Catholics. That works out at one priest for every 934 Catholics. Deducting -members of Religious Orders and priests engaged in teaching, " there were 2714 — that is, one in every 1206. According to" the Irish Church Directory ' (Anglican) for 1903, there were 1724 Anglican clergymen, in Ireland for 581,089 Protestant Episcopalians— which works out at' one for every 331. There were 800 Presbyterian- clergymen for 443»- 2 76 Irish Presbyterians (one for every 554)'; *while the Irish' Methodists had one clergyman for every 248 adherents. counting in the families of the non-Catholic bishops arid clergy; we arrive, at "a grand total of some * 1,000 "persons that have to be supported by the 1,086,-371 Protestants' of all sorts Jh '4he ■ most distressful country,' as against the slender ecclesiastical" households that are maintained 'by nearly three and a half ' millions of Catholics in Ireland. * (4) Bitter an enemy as Froude was of the Irish people and priests, he made a glowing eulogium of the purity of, Irish Catholics,^declared that crimes against mprals are almost unknown among 'theni;- and added that thi9 j happy state of things is, *to their eternal honor, due to the influence of the Roman Catholic clergy. ' The Blue Books, before us show that Ireland is, in the matter of sexual crime, a model to s the nations, and this despite the relatively low moral, tone prevalent "in the north-eastern counties of Ulster' and (as», the ' Registrar-General's returns, now before us, show) their high rate of* illegitimate births. (5) To the Catholic clergy is also, no

doubt, in a. great.. measure, due the fact that there is less crime in ..Ireland than in England and Wales, and much less than in Scotland. ,We write this with the crime statistics, before us," in Blue Books*" and /other publications, for.- many of the years from rßßo. to the close of. the year 1907. (6) The Irish Catholic clergy are <at the hea*d of the industrial revival, as they have been- at the head of every movement for the betterment of :the people. (7) To them is also, in good measure, due the marked supremacy of the Catholic colleges and schools in the battle of education — a supremacy which (as our columns have from, time to time shown) has been handsomely acknowledged by high-placed Protestant' divines! In this connection we may usefully quote r a letter that appeared in the London Times of July 28, 1908, from the pen of the Rev. Dr. Delany, S.J./ President of the (Catholic) University- College, Dublin. It institutes a luminous comparison between the college _ that is conducted by Irish priests on the one hand and, on the other hand, the three heavily-endowed Queen's Colleges (State institutions) and the Magee (Protestant) College, Derry. The letter runs as follows :—: — ' The Honor Lists of the undergraduate intermediate examinations in arts of the Royal University of Ireland are published to-day in the Dublin newspapers ; and from the tabulated summary^ of the results as given in the papers I have taken the following figures, which seem to me to deserve attention in relation to the Irish " Universities Bill now before Parliament. They show the comparative successes of the approved colleges' s of the Royal University ; and, I think, they prove conclusively how urgent is the need of a more equitable distribution in Ireland of public educational funds, as well as of a thorough reconstruction of the Queen's Colleges of Galway'and Cork.' •Honors and Prices.

And finally — not to menuon many other things that must be recorded to their credit — (8) to the teaching and influence of the Irish Catholic priesthood is also undoubtedly due the fact that the storms of religious strife and passion that are chronic in the north-east of ' yellow ' counties of Ulster are quite unknown in the west and south. The substance of this, as well as of our previous article, was forwarded last week for publication in the Tapanui Courier.

Cost to Public Fonda Colleges Ist Class 2nd Class Totali £6,000 University College, Dublin 50 56 106 ,25,000 i £400 Q aeon's College, Belfast Queen's College, Galway Queen's College, Cork Magea College, Derry 7 3 0 0 23 I 4 3 2 30' 7 3 2 Total for fonr colleges 10 32 42