Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 12 May 1910, Page 729

Current Topics

Death of King Edward On Saturday afternoon the cables flashed the painful intelligence that the King— had been suffering from a severe bronchial attackhad passed away at midnight of the previous day. Throughout the Dominion— may safely say throughout the Empire— news was received with the most genuine and heartfelt sorrow. An appreciation of our late beloved monarch appears in our leading columns. • *■' Carlyle on France and England The accompanying letter, which has never before been published, was addressed by Carlyle to Kitty Kirkpatrick, who is generally regarded as the original of ‘ Blumine ’ in Sartor Besartus. It is of interest, not only as showing Carlyle’s attitude towards France at a critical moment of her history, but also by reason of its remarkable appositeness to the present condition of that unhappy country. It appeared in the London Spectator of March 19 ‘Our poor little French tour, so pleasant and full of interest in those old days—alas, what it has grown to I Surely no country I have read or heard of ever by its own delirium and ill luck fell into such an ignominious welter of anarchy and misery as poor France is now in. With you I altogether heartily and sorrowfully pity it, with the ardent wish which struggles to be the sure hope that it may recover its pristine beauty and brilliancy and be once more the ornament of Europe. But too evidently it has infinite delirium, vainglorious unveracity, and open disregard of the laws of God and man to cast out of it, with sore travail enough, before any real prosperity or welldoing can return to it. * ‘ Few persons, I believe, perhaps au fond not you yourself, have a deeper sense of the beautiful graceful and shining qualities Nature has lodged in the French, but except in conforming , in perpetually striving to conform to the Laws which Nature has eternally appointed, no Nation can prosper, or at length can exist at all in this world. ‘ Alas, my common idea, withal, is that England’s turn must come next, and that in exact proportion to England’s folly, wickedness, and worldly baseness must England’s disasters and disgraces likewise be. And often it strikes me, moreover, that the hour cannot now be distant, and is fast hastening on. But let us quit these sad considerations, too dismal to be dwelt on hereor elsewhere if one could help it.’ A 4 Medium ’ Exposed Some eight or nine months ago a series of alleged * manifestations,’ by an alleged ‘ medium ’ named Charles Bailey, created a great sensation in Wellington; and later, the same individual aroused considerable stir also in Christchurch. Bailey was described as a Melbourne bootmaker. He wa=j vciv baky in his grammar, fell frequently into Sinn dropped his g’s in participial endings, and behaved anything but fairly to the initial letter h. In spite of these drawbacks the ‘manifestations’ were of quite a sensational kind. Bailey would allow himself to be tied up in a black hag; hag and medium were then surroundedaccording to the daily press reports— ‘ a huge sack of mosquito netting’; a guarding circle was formed; the lights were turned down or out by trusty hands; a hymn was sung; and after the usual ‘spook’ business, the ‘medium’ produced ‘a small bird and a brand-new Samoan waistbelt ’— and the audience were serenely requested to believe that the bird was brought by spirit-hands from the depths of the Indian jungle, and the waistbelt from the Pacific Islands, and that both were precipitated through the solid walls of the seance-chamber. And many grown people did believe it, and murmured, ‘Wonderful!’ when the bird, or the egg, or the foreign mat-apron appeared on the scene. The ‘ manifestations ’ began at twenty-five shillings per head for the curious and credulous crowd, though later the fee dropped to five shillings. Bailey’s followers stuck to him to the last; but before he left New Zealand many pressing questioners were moved to scorn by the evasiveness, the childish folly, and the vapid ‘ flummery ’ of the alleged ‘ spirits ’ that were alleged to ‘ control ’ the ungrammatical ‘ medium.’ * The sequel has shown that both the scepticism and the scorn were well grounded. ' The bootmaker ‘medium,’ it seems, has been visiting France; and the English Spiritualistic journal Light has made a clean breast of the fraudulent nature of Bailey’s later performances. ‘We regret to learn,’ writes the editor of Light, referring to the French ‘manifestations;,’ ‘ that Bailey resorted to artifices at the

Sittings, which is all the more deplorable because, judging fiom the published reports of his test seances in Australia, ge'nume phenomena have occurred in his presence. . , , In a letter which we have received from Colonel de Rochas, that gentleman informs us that the two birds that were produced at the recent sitting as being brought from India were purchased in Grenoble (where the seances took place) by Bailey, that they were identified by the bird-seller, who also identified Bailey as the purchaser, and that at a subsequent meeting Bailey refused to submit to a test search and to give further sittings. . . This bitter experience is another illustration of the fact that even otherwise reliable mediums sometimes “help out” the phenomena when their power becomes weak.’ Mr, W. C. Nation, president of the National Association of Spiritualists in New Zealand, has expressed himself much more emphatically on the matter. Writing to a Wellington paper, that gentleman says; ‘I am not going to defend his (Bailey’s) conduct. Judging by the account of his actions in Light, he has added to the sin of ingratitude that of imposition of the basest kind. It is at least to the credit of the English Spiritualist paper and the New Zealand president that they have themselves let in the light on Bailey’s crookedness, and have not attempted to conceal or cover up the misdeeds of their idol. As to Bailey, the sooner he remembers that after all ‘ there’s nothing like leather,’ and gets back to his last, . the better for his health. On his present shaping, he is heading straight towards gaol. Who was «Jack the Ripper ’ The memory of the gruesome career of the degenerate on whom popular fancy fastened the nickname of ‘ Jack the Ripper has been revived by some belated disclosures just made by Sir Robert Anderson, for many years chief of the Scotland Yard detective staff, in a series of articles which ho is contributing to Blackwood' s Magazine under the title of The. Lighter Side of My Official Life.’ About three weeks ago a cable appeared in our daily papers to the effect that ‘ Mr. Kebbell, a lawyer who defended “ Jack the Ripper,” the Whitechapel murderer, had written to the Pall Mall Gazette stating that he believed that the Ripper died from poison while undergoing ten years’ penal servitude. He added that he was an Irishman, originally educated for tile medical profession.’ In view of the fact that ‘the Ripper’ was never brought to justice at all, the statement of this legal romancer is on the face of it absurd, and may be dismissed as unworthy of the slightest notice. Sir Robert Andersonwhose garrulous indiscretions will assuredly get him into serious trouble before his articles are concluded—goes somewhat fully into the matter, and declares the murderer to have been a low-class Jew, who labored under sexual mania and was locked up in an asylum for insane criminals. The Jewish Chronicle is very naturally indignant at the disclosure, but the ex-chief refuses to withdraw his statement. 9 Here is his account of the matter as given in the Blackwood's article: ‘ One did not need to be a Sherlock Holmes to discover that the criminal was a sexual maniac of a virulent type; that he was living in the immediate vicinity of the scenes of the murders; and that, if he was not living absolutely alone, his people knew' of his guilt, and refused to give him up to justice. During my absence abroad the police had made a house-to-house search for him, investigating the case of every man in the district whose circumstances were such that he could go and come and get rid of his blood-stains in secret. And the conclusion we came to was that he and his people were low-class Jews, for it is a remarkable fact that people of that class in the East End will not give up one of their number to Gentile justice.’ « ‘And the result proved,’ he continues, ‘that our diagnosis was right on every point. For I may say at once that “undiscovered murders” are rare in London, and the “Jack the Ripper” crimes are not within that category. And if the police here had powers such as the French police possess, the murderer would have been brought to justice. Scotland Yard can boast that not even the subordinate officers of the department will tell tales out of school, and it would ill become me to violate the unwritten rule of the service. The subject will come up again, and I will only add here that the “ Jack the Ripper ” letter which is preserved in the Police Museum at Scotland Yard is the creation of an enterprising Loudon journalist.’ And in a foot-note the writer adds; Having regard to the interest attaching to this case, I should almost be tempted to disclose the identity of the murderer and of the pressman who wrote the letter above referred to, provided that the publishers would accept all responsibility in view of a possible libel action. But no public benefit would result from such a course, and the traditions of my old "department would suffer. I will only add that when the individual whom we suspected in an asylum,' the only person wjiq

had ever had a good view of the murderer at once identified him, but when he learned that the suspect was a fellow-Jew ho declined to swear to him.’

If there is anything in this Jew story, one can only I say that it is strangely out of keeping with the general I character and traditions of the race. As a ruleas one of | our Catholic contemporaries points out —the Jewish popula- I tion furnishes only a very small quota to the criminal I ranks; and their love of kindred and nation and their close- I knit family ties all make for the higher ideals of living I and for the safe paths of peaceful industry. If Sir Robert I Anderson is able to clear up finally, absolutely, and beyond I all question the mystery surrounding the identity of this I notorious criminal, he might, perhaps, be justified in re- I ferring to the matter; but if, as seems more likely, he is I unable to do this, he ought to have altogether held his 9 peace. I The * Nelson System * and the Teachers The view’s of . the teachers regarding the attempt to smuggle Bible , lessons into , the State schools by means of the ‘ Nelson System ’ must necessarily be an important factor in any agitation on the subject; and the fact that the introduction of such lessons would, in effect, mean the imposition of a religious test on the teaching body, will, one would imagine, prove an insuperable obstacle to any general adoption of the. system. As a body, the teachers are opposed on principle to any proposal which involves the giving of Bible lessons on their part; and the general attitude of the profession was well exemplified by the action of Mr. W. T. Grundy, headmaster of the ClydeQuay School, Wellington, who plainly intimated to the meeting held for the election of a school committee that | he was not prepared to allow any member of his staff to give any religious instruction in the school. Occasionally teachers’ institutes have put on record their official attitude towards the Bible-in-schools question, of which the following series of resolutions — some time ago by the Tapanui branch of the Otago Educational Instituteis a sample. It was resolved: ‘ That this branch of the Otago Educational Institute is of opinion that the introduction of the Bible into the State schools would be opposed to the best interests.of education, of the State, and of religion itself, and for the following reasons; (1) That the syllabus is already overloaded. (2) It _ would lead committees to reject teachers who, for conscientious reasons, were not prepared to take charge of the Bible lessons. The institute holds that religious beliefs should be no bar to State employment. (3) It would lead to a distinction being made in our schools between Protestant and Catholic children. In our schools all children should meet merely as children of the State, and the Institute believes that their ability so to meet for over 25 years has been of very great advantage to the State. (4) It would tend to establish the authority of the State to interfere in religious affairs, an interference which, in the opinion of the institute, history plainly show’s, to have had evil results on both State and religion. (5) It would be a serious injustice to our Catholic fellow-citizens, inasmuch as they would be compelled to pay for that which they cannot conscientiously approve of. (6) That the institute is of opinion that religious education should be given by religious persons, otherwise there is a danger of the Bible itself being brought into contempt, arid of a dislike for it being created in the minds of the children.’ These objections are well taken, and they all apply to the ‘ Nelson system.’

The effect which the adoption of the system would have on the position of the teachers was clearly brought out and strongly emphasised by the Rev. Father Holbrook on the eve of the recent school committee elections. Preaching at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Auckland, Father Holbrook spoke of the agitation ior the Nelson system as ! a deliberate attempt on the part of the ministers to turn the State schools into Protestant Sunday schools.’ If the stem were adopted, it would, he said, be ‘ only a question of time when there would be no Catholic teachers in the public schools of the Dominion, for they would not be able to conform to the interpretation of the Bible as laid down in the Protestant version.’ Commenting—after the elections— Father Holbrook’s statements, the Wellington Evening Post remarks; ‘ The wisdom of Mr. W. T. Grundy’s protest at the Clyde-Quay householders’ meeting on Monday is abundantly demonstrated by the danger which the Rev. Father Holbrook scents from afar. As headmaster of the Clyde-Quay School, Mr. Grundy said that he would be glad to welcome to the school any worker in the cause of religion so far as the law allowed, but he was not prepared to allow any member of his staff to give any religious instruction in the school. Though such a rule may work harshly in many cases, and may often exclude a teacher who is thoroughly competent to give, a religious lesson and would be glad to. volunteer, the objection taken in Auckland

shows that it is absolutely necessary. If any of the State ' school teachers were allowed to undertake this, work, those r who refused to do so would he marked men and women,: and pressure from and trouble with parents, school com- : mittees, and Education Boards would inevitably follow’.; The ultimate result might well be the elimination of the teachers whose consciences forbade them to give the religious lesson. No ground must be left for the just fears of the Roman Catholics in this respect. The religious instruction must be strictly voluntary for both teachers and pupils, and on no account must the State school teachers be allowed to take a hand in it.’ Devotion to Mary; More Protestant Tributes Last week we gave a fairly varied selection of Protestant poetic tributes to the Blessed Virgin. The collection, though not exhaustive, was sufficient to show’ how numbers of the great Protestant poets, breaking through the fetters of official religion, have acknowledged, in terms the ten* derest and highest that the human mind can command, the unique character of our Blessed Lady. We conclude' our reference to the subject by giving a few testimonies from prose writers to the unquestionably elevating and ennobling influence of Catholic love for and devotion to the virgin Mother. Our citations shall in all cases be from distinctly non-Catholic writers. * We have before quoted in these columns Ruskin’s wellknown tribute. To the common non-Catholic mind,’ lie says, ‘ the dignities ascribed to the Madonna have always been a violent offence; they are one of the parts of the Catholic faith which are open to reasonable dispute and least comprehensive by the average realistic and materialist. temper of the Reformation. But, after the most careful examination, neither as adversary nor as friend, of the influences of Catholicity for good and evil, 1 am persuaded that the worship of the Madonna has been one of its noblest and most vital graces, and has never been otherwise than productive of true holiness of life and purity of character. . . There has probably not been an innocent cottage house throughout the length and breadth of Europe in which the imagined presence of the Madonna has not given sanctity to the humblest duties, and comfort to the sorest trials of the lives of women; and every brightest arid loftiest achievement of the arts and strength of manhood has been the fulfilment of the assured prophecy of the Israelite maiden, “He that is mighty hath magnified me, and holy is His Name.” 5 Lecky, the historian of Rationalism, who certainly cannot be accused of any bias towards the Catholic faith, writes: ‘ The world is governed by ideals, and seldom or never has there been one which has exercised a more salutary influence than the medieval conception of the Virgin. . . . All that was best in Europe clustered round it, and it is the origin of many of the purest elements of civilisation ’ ( nationalism in Europe , c. iii., p. 234). Again, in his History of European Morals, v. ii., p. 389, he very strikingly corroborates Ruskin’s testimony. ‘ Whatever may be thought of its theological propriety [he is speaking, of course, from the Rationalist point of view], there is, I think, little doubt that the Catholic reverence of the Virgin has done much to elevate and purify the ideal woman, and to soften the manners of men. It has had an influence which the worship of the pagan goddesses could never possess; for these had been almost destitute of moral beauty, and especially of that kind of moral beauty which is peculiarly feminine. It supplied in a great measure the redeeming and ennobling influence in a strange amalgamation of licentious and military feeling, which was formed around women in the age of chivalry, and which ho succeeding change of habit or belief has wholly destroyed.’ . « Schlegel, one of the German translators of Shakespeare, a great poet and critic, and a staunch Lutheran, witnesses to the same truth. In his Lectures on Dramatic Literature., p. 8, he claims that ‘with the virtue of chivalry was ; associated a new and purer spirit of love; an inspiredhomage for genuine female worth, which was now reared as the pinnacle of humanity, and enjoined by religion itself under the image of the Virgin Mother, infused into all I hearts a sentiment of unalloyed goodness.’ ; * We conclude with a brief but beautiful passage from Nathaniel Hawthorne, the great American novelist: ‘I have always envied the Catholics their faith in that sweet, sacred Virgin Mother, who stands between them and the Deity, intercepting somewhat of His awful splendor, but permitting His love to stream upon the worshipper more intelligibly to human comprehension through the medium of I a woman’s tenderness.’ Commenting on which passage,’. a 1 well-known Catholic writer supplies the following interestI ing and significant fact: ‘ One wonders whether Hawthorne,

< when penning these lines, was permitted, momentarily indeed, to peer beyond the impenetrable veil which hides the future from mortal eyes. Then might he have seen what has since come to pass, his own beloved daughter embracing the Catholic faith, consecrating her life to Christ through Mary, as a Dominican Tertiary, and lavishing “a woman’s tenderness,” made heroic under the influence of that faith in the sweet Virgin Mother, upon incurable cancer patients in a quiet lonely retreat not fifty miles from New York.’