HOME RULE AND BIGOTRY

New Zealand Tablet, 5 February 1914, Page 43

HOME RULE AND BIGOTRY

f SOME STRAIGHT QUESTIONS It has been . stated that the appeal made to what is desenoed as ‘ the Protestant sentiment was very effective in the West .Lothian election— that, indeed, it was an important factor in reducing the Home Rule majority, and - that in view of this a vigorous campaign on similar lines is to be carried on in the other constituencies (says the People's Journal , a paper which is said to have the largest circulation in Scotland). In other words, it has been found that thq game of fanning religious animosities in order to make political profit can still bo played with success in Scotland, and as a consequence it is deemed to be a good thing to go on playing it. Now we have not the' slightest doubt that those who care to employ such methods to advance the Tory cause will not be denied a certain amount of success, though its extent is much exaggerated. Enlightened, broad-minded, and tolerant though we be in Scotland in these days, there are still people in the country whose religious feelings may bo exploited for party ends. We do not blame them. Opinions or prejudices which have been inherited by one generation from another are hard to eradicate. 111-Begotten Rewards. But we do blame the Tory leaders for taking the ill-begotten rewards of a despicable and unscrupulous campaign which they know to be wrong and with which as individuals they have not the slightest sympathy. Honest bigots we may pity; men who assume bigotry or employ it for political purposes we must wholly despise. This is a matter which the Tory Party for its own credit must face straightly; because so long as it does not openly disavow its emissaries and eject them from its camp incontinently it lies under the conviction of practising nauseating cant. What is Being Said. Let us look into the matter closely. What is being said in the constituencies is that if Ireland gets Home Rule the result will be Rome rule ; that what is regarded as an evil form of religion will gain complete dominance in the country, and that as a result the life of a Protestant will not be worth living. Now we do not want to enter into the question whether Roman Catholicism is right or wrong, but if it is the terrible thing which it is represented to be when an appeal is made to Protestants to vote Tory, why does the Tory Party not close its ranks to all members of the communion ? That at least would be consistent. But the Tories do nothing of the kind. On the contrary, they eagerly welcome the assistance of Roman Catholics, and they honor the distinguished adherents of the faith by placing them high in the councils of the party. The Duke of Norfolk, the leader of the English Catholics, was a member of the last Tory Government; and his. brother, Lord Edmund Talbot, is at present one of the party Whips : and all throughout the country we find prominent Catholics holding office in the Tory associations’, and we have a number of them sitting in Parliament as Tory members. The Veriest Humbug. • , J In such circumstances is it not the. veriest humbug for the party to traffic with an anti-Papal crusade and accept the fruits of its labors? It is, indeed, a piece of the most disgraceful hypocrisy and double-dealing that has been seen in our politics for many a long day. But apart from that, the man or party that foments religious strife is doing the wojrst disservice to the Empire that can well be imagined.' Roman Catholics form a large part of his Majesty’s subjects both at home and in the colonies. In Canada we had. for many years as Liberal Prime Minister a very distinguished member of the Church of Rome: in the present Canadian Cabinet (Conservative) there are several prominent .Catholics ; and in every country over which . the British flag flies will be found men of the

same communion holding high. office in the public service. What can these men think and what can their co-religionists think when they see their faith' attacked in order that the interests of the party which professes to be Imperialist above all things may be advanced ? It is simply sowing the wind from which the whirlwind will be reaped. | A Guilty Past. f ‘ , V.v' It is really time that an end was put to this fatuous Orangeism —certainly the most abhorrent phase of our British politics. Its fears rest on no substantial foundation; they arise from a sense of a guilty past. Nowhere was Protestantism, with all its noble ideals, dragged in the mire as it , was in Ireland, and it is Orangeism we have largely to thank for that act of degradation. It was for years and years the willing instrument of the most outrageous persecutions that have ever besmirched the pages of history. Catholics were hunted down like wild beasts they were placed under abominable, penal laws; they were despoiled of their goods and reduced to a state of miserable serfdom, all because they differed from the religion of the dominant caste. Need we wonder that Protestantism has made no headway in Ireland, when we remember how it was prostituted by its professors and all the dark deeds that were done in its name ? Lived Upon Persecution^ The Orangeman should be the last to talk of religious persecution. For years he lived upon it, and when at last the * conscience of Great Britain was aroused by the pitiable cry of his victims he fought like grim death against the removal of their shameful disabilities. And now to-day, when the last link of Ireland’s fetters is about to be struck off, and she is to take her place as a free community in the Empire, the raucous voice of the Orangeman is again heard in the land trying to awaken those religious antipathies by which he lives and moves and has his being. > But he will not succeed. The game is up. No longer is he to be allowed to retain ascendancy in Ireland by trading on our religious feelings. We shall see that he is placed on a plane of equality, and that he receives the protection which every British subject is entitled to, be he Protestant or Catholic. But we are determined that no longer shall he be allowed to obstruct the advance of that beneficent policy which is destined to weld the only broken link in the British Empire. i