RELIGION IN POLITICS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 501, 6 December 1881, Page 4

RELIGION IN POLITICS.

TO THE E WTOK. I ij Sib,—The letter of Mr Walsh in your '. issue, of yesterday was just exactly;the : sort of letter I expected tp read in reply J to my own', so that'l din not in any way ; .diiappointed at the ‘‘high falutin’fit contains. I expected to be called a “stirrer up of hate and discord,” etc., and to be accused of writing for a purpose other than simply stirring up the Pro'teStSnts fo look after the interests of their own cause. But when ,Mr Walsh writes

in the .strain he does, and denies that any canoidate is favored by the Catholics as a body, or that tha clergy of their Church has suggested anyone as the proper recipientof their votes*, the writer forgets that , i letter was inspired by the manifesto or the head of the Catholic Churchy in

New Zealand—Bishop lledwpod. That ' .-manifesto- went the round of the press, VandwhehMr Walsh finds the head of his Church commanding his people; to vote ifor those who would -be moat likely; to favor the-. Church’s schemes, he can scarcely blame me (an enthusiastic, but, I hope, honest opponent of what, as a Protestant,,l will no doubt be forgiven for believing to be the errors of Rome) because I show an activity equal to the Bishop’s at a critical time. With the • doings in Ireland I have nothing to dp, but with the religious politics of New, .... Zealand I have something to do. _ Yet, t" apeing that Mr Walsh has nd- desire, to . raise religious rancour, and is willing to ... I’ dwell in peace with his fellow colonists, I will refrain from making use of a single word calculated to hurt his religious sensi- ’ bUities. But I must not let him forget . that it was his own Bishop showed me the ■. . way when, 1 hinted to my fellow-Protes-tants their duty in this and in other elections. I respect a man loyal to his victions, and when 1 know what the Church of Borne demands from her sons, and what they must yield to be good Catholics, I cannot admire Mr Ivess’a desertion of his Church’s cause, if he is not a denominationalist, and I do not step aside one word from the sentences with which I concluded my last letter. As to Mr Ivess’s “martyrdom,” let the readers of the Mail and those who remember last Coleridge election bear witness.—l am, etc. Loth bean. Friday, Dec. 2.