MR BARTON TO THE ELECTORS.

Evening Star, Issue 3492, 2 May 1874, Page 3

MR BARTON TO THE ELECTORS.

To the Editor. Sir,—l was not aware that the official declaration of the poll was to bo made on Saturday last, and- consequently did not attend on that occasion. Ttua might seem an unimportant matter on which to ask a portion of your space; but I do so not so much on my own account as that I have Something to say to the electors that may

guide them in future political struggles. I am told, alike by friends and opponents, tha [ was beaten rather by Ur. Moran than by Mr Wales and the party who supported him, and I have satisfied myself that the Catholic voters of this i ity recorded a block vote against me, their numbers being, to the best of ray information, close on 400. If this is correct, then the Protestant voters (w bo do not vote at nictation, but according to their opinions) were divided as fellow : Barton 541 Wales 229 Protestant majority ... 312 During the contest I was told by many influential Catholics that the Catholic vote would be considerably divided, the larger number, as they believed, being in my favor. Ihe same identical gentleman, after my defeat, told me that the Catholic party had given a block vote against me, and would do 80 afc every election where 1 presented myself. borne of my supporters have informed me that certain leading Catholics went about among the Protestant electors representing that I am myself a Catholic, and my family bigoted Catholics ; while at the same time it was represented to certain Catholic electors that I am a renegade Cath lie, and had wantonly and grossly insulted the Catholic body. I learn, also, that whenever, in the course of their canvass, they met a warm supporter of mine, they stated that my friends need not exert themselves—that ( was quite safe, as the great bulk of the Irish Catholics had determined to support their countryman. I must here stop to say that i am a Protestant, and that none of my name ever were Catholic. lam not only a Protestant, but I am the nephew of an Archdeacon and cousin of a bean of the Church of England, and my father was not only a Protestant but an Orangem an. Therefore a grosser falsehood could scarcely have been uttered than the assertion that 1 am either a Catholic or a renegade from that faith. The cause, or pretended cause, of this priestly, hostility to me is as follows lb will be within public recollection that shortly after Bishop Moran came here he complained of certain paragraphs in our public schoolbooks, which he thought were calculated to children of Catholic parents, the respect due to their own priesthood. It seemed to me that if such were the case, Bishop Moran would have just cause of complaint, and I expressed this opinion to persons*who conveyed it to Dr Moran. The result was that he desired an interview with me, and at that' interview he stated his grievance, and asked me in what way he could best obtain a fair hearing before the Provincial Council, of which I was then a memU**’ me that all his congregations throughout the country warmly coincided with him. My advice was that a petition should be drawn up and sent to each 0! the congregations for signature.' and that the whole of them should be presented to the Council by the members sitting for the teapective’ districts. I heard no more of the matter for a long time. But one night, in the Provincial Council, I was told by a member that an evening or two before, during my absence from the Council, a great number of Catholic petitions had been presented, and that one which should have presented by me had been duly presented b\ another member. On the evening when these petitions were presented, I was engaged in the Magistrate’s Court, in the inquiry in Keichelt’s case, the Court sitting throughout the evening, as well as the day, for a number of days.

Some time after my interview with Bishop Moran, nis partisans in the Council brought forward a morion affecting the subject of his alleged grievances, and proposing changes in our education system. This motion went beyond what I felt I could conscientiously support, and I accordingly did m*t support i , although I would have supported a motion for an inquiry, and for the removal of any causes of jc.st co'nplaint. Some time afterwards I was informed by Mr_ C, E, Haughton that Dr Moran complained that I had insulted him by declining to present the Catholic petition he had for warded to the Council Chamber. lat once called on him, to explain how it was that I had been unable to present the petition, and to assure him that it had been presented, though not by me. I reminded him that he had given me no notice, and assured him that I never heard of the petition till after it had f ,been presented. To my surprise he declined to accept ipy explanation, and rising from his chair he went over a list of names hanging on the wall, and pointing to one written a little way down, he said, “ Mr Barton ! There is your name. We Catholics are not strong enough to put in a member of our own, but whenever you or any of the other gentlemen named on this paper come forward to contest any constituency we will show you that we are. strong enough to keep him out !” My no 11 -presentation of the petition under the above circumstances is the ground put forward by Catholics (since the election) for their opposition to me; but my own belief is that the real ground is my well-known views on secular education, and my detire to uphold our liberties, whether assailed by priest or layman.

Before this election came on I was aware from what I had seen in the ‘ Tablet’ that the Bishop’s hostility to me still remained ; nevertheless, 1 refrained, during the contest, from any allusion to the subject, from a feeling of reluctance to raising the “ Popery” cry. I have been watching the struggle now going on in Kuropeau countries, and i gather that the real object of the Dltramontanists is to keep their own flock unthinking and uneducated, aud to do what they can to retard the education of others in all respects in which education would fit them to guard the liberties they possess, or increase those liberties with wisdom and moderation. We Protestants know that no free country that ceases to struggle for this class of education will long retain its liberties, however democratic its institutions' may appear to be. To use the words of an eminent French writer, Ultramontane Catholicism—and since the promulgation of the decree of Infallibility there is no other—is bent on making itself master, in order to cut up by the very roots the liberties which the Cburch condems.” The danger our constituencies are in from that party is greatly increased by the darkness of their workings and the crookedness of their paths, Protestants will yet have a severe' struggle to maintain the right, won through so much blood and persecution, to have education without big itry. But they must fight. Happily in these countries as yet the Romish priesthood can only rule the elections through the apathy of Protestants, unce we awake to the fact that the Catholics vote m a block against any candidate who will not further their schemes, and thus that a pressure can be brought to bear sufficient to force every Ministry to yield more or less to their demands: then the spirit of the country will be aroused, and the bare suspicion ot Catholic support will defeat any candidate, and overthrow any Ministry. I ob serve that Mr Stafford has lost an election in Canterbury Province, aod some of the newspapers account for the defeat of so eminent a man by stating that the Catholic support received by him alienated the Protestant electors. If this be so, Canterbury is awaking. The Dunedin election was the converse of Mr Stafford’s case. Here the Catholics, by con oealxng their true alliance, and pretending a connection with me, put in my opponent I take this opportunity of thanking the electors who voted for me, and I hope the contest, however barren in results to me, may

not be without its uses to them. I believe that every eligible Catholic in Otago is on che electoral roll, I hope the Protestants will at once follow their example, ■'•hall those who are working to undermine liberty be the only pt-rsons who carefully secure the right of voting?—l am, .tic., - George Ulliott Barton. Dunedin, May 1.