"NATIONAL RIGHTEOUSNESS."

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2152, 7 August 1907, Page 2

"NATIONAL RIGHTEOUSNESS."

MISS MURCUTT REPLIES TO DR. COLLINS.

“I have a little reply to make to some remarks emanating from l)r- I Collins, relative to my address on Sunday night,” remarked Miss Mujcutt to a crowded audience at the I Theatre Royal last night. Later in the evening tho lecturess little re- I ply” .was given, and very emphatic it. proved, her remarks being punc- I tuated with hearty applause. I . Miss Murcuttt quoted from the “Times” report, to show that/ Hr. 1 Colli preceded his remarks on another subjoct by the attack upon I her lecture. The medical gentleman I led off by saying “This lady had been I brought‘to Gisborno to speak m the I cause of prohibition.” "Well, was it I a crime to speak in tlie cause ot pro- I hibition. (Cries of “No.”) The. re- I port continued, “But was doing so I under a veneer, as she was advertised I U, relate incidents of travel.” Miss I Alurcutt pointed out- that her Sun- I lay evening’s lecture, to which the I doctor made special reference, was I not one of her lectures on travel; she I advertised that she would speak on I “National Righteousness,” and did so. Dr. Coliins remarked that he “had been disgusted to hear her make ■m attack oil the British Empire. She- was sorry the gentleman did not understand that she .was not attacking the British Empire hut tho evils of the British Empire. (Applause.) To continue tho report, “speaking in such a way as would have a tendency to breed disloyalty to the Mother j Country.” Miss Murcutt begged to differ from this opinion. “I think, she added, “disloyalty is when we allow sin to go unreproached.” As she had said the previous night—whilst the gentleman in question was occupying himself by attacking her behind her back elsewhere —it. was because she loved this great British Empire tliat she spoke in such a strain. She said these things because she realised the great latent ability for good in Great Britain. She believed no country in tho world could exercise such a power for righteousness as we could when we are cleansed from our faults and sins. (Applause.) AVouhl not loving parents sacrifice a child’s deceased limb in order to save the little one’s life; so should the evil incubus of a nation be amputated for the welfare of its people. Referring to her remarks on the opium" trade Dr. Collins had. said — “He had no hesitation in stating that her remarks in this connection were contrary to fact. As an instance she had stated that Britain had forced opium oil the Chinese. This was by no means the case.. Opium had been exported into China, by the Persians. Turks and Egyptians long before it was sent from India.” She had herself said this; it was what followed she condemned. The lecturess traversed Dr. Collins’ statement about the Chinese not objecting to the opium trade, but sinking a vessel containing £30,000 wortli of opium because of prejudice to the white people. Did this explanation suffice? Dr. Collins had continued, “And the British had to fight for the right to trade with that country,” and designated the taking of Hong Kong "as one of the finest achievements in English history (“I am very sorry for him,” commented Miss Murcutt), because it secured to us the Chinese trade worth now from seven to eight million sterling. This bore out, remarked the lecturess, that the object was greed of gold. Dr. Collins -ut seven million pounds worth of commerce before the moral and spiritual welfare of a great nation. She would quote from a great authority to show that her words were merited. John Ruskin said “A groat, notion does not spend its entire national wits for a couplo of months in weighing evidence of a single ruffian’s having done a single murder, and for a couple of years see its own children murder each other by their thousands or tens of thousands a day, considering only what tho effect is likely to be on tlie price of cotton, and caring nowise to determine which side of the

batttle is in the wrong. . . Neither does a great nation allow large landed estates to he bought ,by men who have made their money by going with armed steamers up and down the China seas, selling opium at the cannon’s mouth, altering for the benefit of the foreign nation the common highwayman’s demand of “your money or your life” for “Your money and your life.” That, declared Miss Murcutt was what Great Britain had done; therefore, logically, it was not a great nation in that respect. They were not talking in this argument about the greatness of trade, blit the greatness of morality and righteousness Another authority, “The Life of a Century,” edited by Edwin Hodder, was quoted by Miss Murcutt as fol-. lows :—“Despite the continued edicts if the Chinese Government, the Birtisli Parliament in 1832 sanctioned, by a law, the revenue derived from the opium trade, commended the proluotion of the drug, and approved : ts destination. Not long after this matters reached a crisis. Commis-

sioner Len, who had great powers given him by the Emperor,, ordered dl opium to be given up, and threatened serious proceedings against the lives and property of the foreign merchants who were importing it into Tie country.” Reviewing the crisis vliicli followed, and the war, the historian concluded,, “So ended the miel and debasing war, which was lesoribed by a leading member of t 1 'Louse of Commons as “one of the nost lawless, unnecessary and unfair ■.(niggles! in the records of history—i war in which Christians shed more heathen blood in two years than the heathens: bad shed of Christian blood hi two centuries.” The lecturess said she had to thank i gentleman in town for this reference ; she was glad that there were ionic people in Gisborne intelligent enough to know facts when they heard them. (Laughter and applause.) Tn the face of this authority Dr. Colins could not deny Britain’s debasing

ict, yet he said lie was proud of the way we got possession of Hong Kong 1 The same authority, Hodder, said “It

vas a strange anomaly ■ that while British missionaries were pouring into every foreign land to preach the Gospel, and British philanthropists vere advocating at homo every poslible reform in manners and morals, British statesmen could be found defending, for the sake of the revenue, i system which there could be little . loubt was ruining the lives of tens of thousands of the Chinese people. . . . In spite of, all the overwhelming pressure brought to bear upon them the Chinese steadily refused to legalise the opium traffic, although they were impotent to enforce their laws and edicts against it.” This was a clear indictment. The other statements made by Dr. Collins were as misleading and erroneous as those, she had answered. He said, “This lady had made the most definite statement that 90 per cent of the diseases we were subject to was the result of the liquor traffic. This was absolutely wrong, for 10 per cent only was due to the cause mentioned.” She had never made such a statement. What she said was that doctors, magistrates, police and otlier competent authorities told us that 90 per cent of the crime, misery and poverty of this world was caused by strong drink. (Applause.) She doubted her critic’s qualifications to set his opinion qgainst their. (Laughter.) She did not know anything about medicine or music, for instance, but when slie spoke on great moral questions she knew absolutely what she was talking about. (Applause.) Proceeding, the lecturess quoted from the report of the committee, presented to the British Parliament, pointing out that the abuse of alcoholic stimulants is a most potent and deadly agent of physical deterioration! Copies of this in large placard form were officially posted m \\ oolwich, Battersea and other large centres, It set out the ruin to famines,

neglect of social duties, disgust lor work, and the misery, theft and crime due to drink, and characterised alcohol as “the most terrible enemy to personal health, to family happiness and to national prosperity.” . Dr. Collins had also remarked “Miss Murcutt had made tho astound ing statement that Britain, in extending her dominions, hud done her evangelistic work by liquor. This j was a most unjustifiable slander, etc.” She had never made such ail assertion, and would ask those present at her Sunday lecture whether she had done so. (Cries of “No.”) What she said was that wo sent, tho drink traffic into these countries and that it was comical, were it not so tragical, to find wo sent missionaries and Bibles iii the sumo vessels that curried tho liquor. [ As to it being an unjustifiable slander 't was not half so unjustifiable as the lentloman’s attack on her behind her nek.

Dr. Collins had said he had been surprised that a Gisborne audience could have sat still without challenging the statement. “It simply shows,” remarked Miss Murcutt, “ that my audience was intelligent' enough to understand what I really did say.” She was only too pleased to hoar that Dr. Collins respected missionary work. That gentleman said he was a prohibitionist, although ho “drank a glass of whisky when he felt like it.” Personally she did not call a man who drank whisky a prohibitionist (laughter) ; she was afraid such a man would be a "rail-sitter” and drop down on the winning side. (Laughter.) The lecturess denied the imputation of disloyalty; there was a higher form of patriotism than cash patriotism—it was patriotism for the men and women who formed the Empire, it

was because she had seen the suffer- I ings of the masses that she attacked I the country’s wrongs. She was not I hero under any “veneer.” When I advertised to speak on travels she did I so; on Sunday night she adhered to I her programme and spoke on “National Itighteousness.” She was interested in every movemoiit that had for its object the uplifting of humanity, and would use whatever gifts God had given her in that cause. (Applause.) The.speaker recognised that her straight hitting was bound to bo felt by some people. “You know,” she remarked, “if you cast a .stone at a pack of dogs on the street corner, it is the dog that is hit that howls.” So sho had found it in the course of her work; hut criticism would not deter her, in fact she ratliei; welcomed it, for she had the right end of the argument. Dr. Collins wished to speak, hut the chairman announced that Miss Murcutt was unwilling to give the use of the platform. Dr. Collins said he had the greatest respect for Miss Murcutt and her treatment of the subject. He had heard Miss Murcutt’s Sunday evening lecture, hut it being Sabbath and I the sjioaker a lady, lie could not clialI lengo her statements then, and had I taken the opportunity next day to do I so. Ho came this evening, knowing I he was to be criticised, and claimed I the British right of answering the I case against him. (Cries of “Sit I down” and “Let him speak.”) I Miss Murcutt said sne did not exI pcct everyone to agree with all she I said. But if Dr. Collins had wished I to sjieak ho might have acquainted I her of the fact previously, and she I would have been pleased to give him 1 the opportunity. She did not considI er it gentlemanly of him to speak as Ihe had done elsewhere. However, I she would now grant him the courtesy I of permitting him to say what he deI sired. (Applause.) | Dr. Collins mounted the platform, I thanked the lady, for her courtesy, I and made a brief speech. He agI reed with prohibition as a fine moral I sentiment that must appeal to every I one of them. Miss Murcutt took a I Socialistic stand; that must also meet I with approval. He thought, however, I that Miss Murcutt in lier criticism I had not treated him as nicely as* lie I had treated lier. (Laughter and disI sent.) He remarked jocularly that I he supposed he was the dog that ran I away howling. (Laughter.) But lie I maintained that in discussing prohiI bition they must use such arguments I as would not decry tile Mother ConnI try. (Dissent.)

He objected more particularly to the opium argument that had been used. He would point out that long before India fell into the hands of the East India Company opium of vile quality was being made in Persia and Turkey, and carried over the borders into China. Later on it was being taken surreptitiously from India. It was then the British Government came forward and said that onlv pure opium was to be sent in. That was the first step legislated, for. England then sent a cargo of, opium into the harbors of China, and it was destroyed. English legislators then took the matter in hand and forced the hands of China to open a trade in pure opium rather than to allow it to be surreptitiously landed over the borders by other nations. This led to opening the port of Hong Kong for British traffic, and the traffic of the world. It brought about the free trade which we lived under, and by which we, the sons of those legislators, benefited to-day. What fault there was should not be saddled on the Britain of to-day, oven admitting for tile sake of argument that Miss Murcutt was correct. Were we to be accountable for the actions of our progenitors? Was the morality of England to-day to be based on tho_ morality of 50 . years ago? (“Yes.”) It was not fair nor logical. Regarding the statement about 90 per cent, of disease, Miss Murcutt had distinctly recounted the case of an asylum for imbecile children, and said that 90 per cent, was traceable to the effects of drink. A matron’s ■ statement on the spur of the moment should not be given as accurate statistical information that 90 per cent, of tho imbecility of the world was due to drink. As a medical man with a knowledge of the Chinese, he said much of the imbecility and idiocy, or moral degeneracy, was through diseases originating with the Chinese and brought into this country. If drink was such a great curse the nation would have been killed long ago, for since Henry VIII. the nation had

been addicted to drink. Tli e speaker went on to say that the moral life of the British nation had never been at a higher level than it was to-day. ..Who were tli e nation responsible for the emancipation of negro slavery ? Not till the day that dishonor could be proved against the flag would an Englishman hide his head and say “Bye-bye” .to anyone who chose to preach against her national righteousness. (Applause.) Miss Murcutt, in a brief reply, blamed Britain for continuing the opium trade, but was glad to acknowledge an awakening of the national conscience on the matter. A resolution unanimously passed by the House of Commons proved this. She quoted the opinions of 1500 doctors against the use of liquor, even in moderation, and also traversed the other arguments raised. The meeting then concluded.