ARTIMAS IN REPLY.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1735, 11 September 1879, Page 2

ARTIMAS IN REPLY.

To the Editor of the Globe. Sib, —I see by your issue of the 6th inst. that there is a fresh hand at the bellows, and from his letter I would take it he is the cut of a good citizen, otherwise a cameleon. He asks is there any other denomination which has struggled as the Catholics have at the present time to educate their children. I have answered this question before. The teaching is secular, and the schools are open to all, and would be accepted by the parents if the Church did not interfere. Surely there is no heresy in the multiplication table, and no ghost of an alien creed in the English grammar, and no peril to the Romish faith in a copy-book. The State has said—'• We cannot teach dogma, but wo commit ourselves to the education of the children who are to be the future citizens of the land." I can only come to the conclusion that the priests have been so long accustomed to be blindly obeyed and to have all their dogmas received with such meek and unquestioning submission that they cannot understand the boldness of the Protestant position, so alien to the Catholic mind. "Citizen," in calling for sympathy, says—" Catholics may be remembered among the poorest of the population." This I don't deny, nor can they be otherwise while they pay taxes to two Governments—one tax to New Zealand and a heavier ore to Rome. It is the Pope first, the Queen afterwards. As to the Church being political I am pleased he does not deny that, although his clergy do outside the Church. Two prelates said at a public meeting not long since that with politics as politics they had no desire to meddle. They must have looked at one another when they said that. My friend John said of the education system of Nelson some years ago, that that system was taught by French priests, good and holy men, men that did not interfere with the State, and therefore good came of it. Irish priests had not been imported in those days. As to Chiniquy, he will be able to answer for himself, for he will be among us presently, when he will come down with facts that have not, nor can be disputed. " The hedge schoolmaster," I cannot pass him by; when parents took their children from the national schools by order of the clergy, 'twas then the " Hedge schoolmaster " came into requisition Well it was charitable on the part of the Protestants to teach Catholic children in these days (forty years ago), besides giving them two suits of clothes yearly, as my friend admits. "Citizen's" vituperative spirit appears to increase when he comes to the name of England and English history ; he then commences talking of bribery and persecution. I can only answer this by stating that all true history is subverted before it reaches the hands of Roman Catholics, as they are forbidden to read any other. While we are on education I will give you verbatim a pastoral from Bishop Vaughan, of Sydney : —" Let all Catholic parents know that they cannot, without seriouß guilt, place their children in proximate danger of perversion. Let them bear in mind that to do so it is to set at defiance the teachings of the Catholic Church; and that, unless there be exceptional reasons, and the danger be remote, of which things the Church is the judge, no confessor can absolve such parents as are to expose their childrens souls to the blighting influence of an alien creed." " Now, Sir, all this is very plain, but mark the pastoral whip and the long lash of excommunication at the end of it. The real intent of the pastoral is to coerce the judgment and break down the righteous authority of the parent. I will not trouble following citizen through all the nonsense he puts forth, but will give you statistics which will prove what I said in a former issue of the "Globe." They are as follows:—"Dividing Italy into three great provices—northern, central, and southern—we find in the first that it in the old provinces of Lombardy there is a school for 521 inhabitants, and the total number of scholars is at the rate of one pupil for every 13 of the population. In the central region —the Marches, TJmbria, Emilia, and Tuscany —there is a school for every 1407 of the inhabitants, and one scholar for every 42 of the population. In the provinces of Naples and Sicily there is but one school for every 2484 persons, and but one scholar for every 73 of the population. Thus it appears from the tables of Signor Matteucci, ex-Minister of Education for Italy, that of every thousand males in the old provinces and Lombardy, 539 were more or less able to read, and 461 did not know their letters. Of every thousand females 426 could read and 574 could not. That is to say, about one-half the population was able to read. But nearer to Rome—in Emilia, Tuscany, the Marshes, and Uinbria—of every thousand males those who could read were only 359, leaving 641 who could not; of every thousand females 750 were unable to read. So that in those provinces a little over one-fourth only of tbe population could read. In Naples and Sicily—where the reign of thepriests was most unrestricted—those who could not read wore—of every thousand males,. 835; of every thousand females, 938. In other words, in the- Neapolitan province in every hundred of the population tec only were able to read."

Not having any knowledge of the parts of England and Scotland that " Citizen " refersto, I have no hesitation in giving my opinion that those places are nnder Popish rule. Take Mr Glapstone's testimony. Mr Gladstone, the greatest statesman, not only of" England but of the world. He said concerning Italy—" It was a land of misrule in which he had seen perjury the daughter of fraud, the mother of cruelty and vice stalk abroad under the sanction of its Government. A country where, by. means of a ' philosophical catechism for the use of Primary Bchools,' there were taught under the veil of religion principles at onoe false,.base, and. demoralising, and where there was shown. a> real resolution to preoccupy all minds-in thotime of their tender and waxen youth and. before the capacity of thought with thoseprinciples." Of this teaching, for Primaryschools Mr Gladstone himself with a> righteous indignation that does him honor, records his deliberate judgment that no more tunning plot was ever devised, at leaat by man, .'against the freedom, the happiness, the virbae of mankind. 3neof the raeans-by which the Raman Catho'.io prelate here proposed to remedy the great and crying wrongs of which they complained was the coercion of parents. In conclusion I. will quote Gladstone! again. He said : " After Parliaments givixg the Roman Catholics equality, he found, to his sorrow it was power they wantad instead of equality."' Therefore, we haio tried to overcome eviii with good;, it is-not appreciated, and I am. afraid never will be. Now, Mr. Editor, if you are E»t tired of this discussion I am, bsaause. my friends " Independent" and " Ciiizfin'* both harp on. the saaae theme,, and three times have 3 the same questions, although they were all embodied in nij letter in your issue of the 20th of August, and, except they can crft4e something noiK, I now, with your liborty, take the opportunity of bidding them gosd-bye now and for ever. V"oU*-s. A-';.. ' ' ARTIMAS. [Both sides of the question having now been laid before the public at considerable length, it is not obvious that any good will be done by lengthening the disoass:on.—* Editor, Gi,obb.]