THE POPE AND THE QUEEN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 39, 15 February 1875, Page 2

THE POPE AND THE QUEEN.

To. the Editor of the ' Evening Mail.' Sir—l find that, as I anticipated would be the case, the three guests at the late Hibernian Society's dinner have considered it incum) ent upon them to release themstlvis from the awkwa'd position in -which they were placed by Mr Bunny's letter. As the correspondence on the subjtce. originated with myßelf it would not be right for me to allow the Utters of Messrs Broad. Simmons, and Maclean to remain unnoticed, a though 1 shall devote but a very few words to each. Mr Simmons has had the moral courage to a^mit that he wag in the wrong, and to express his regret for tha const quences of his error and for this he is entitled to the respect of the many he had pained by what lie allows was an unwise action. Mr Broad, in general terras, upholds the loyalty of the Catholics

as a body, which, I may he permitted to say, ' 1 had never impugned. But be avoids the ni'<m question so far as he himself was concerned, which was, whether the Resident Magistrate of Nelson, holding her Majesty's commission, was justifie \ in heing a party to placing the Queen of England in a position inferior to that of the Pope of Home. Mr Maclean assures us thst "he holds the Queen and her Throne in the deepest reverence. ' Such an assurance will be accepted with pleasure, but it does not clear him from the charge to which he has rendered himself liable of having committed an net which was per se one of disrespect, if not of disloyalty, to ins Sovereign. Something more we had a right to expect under the circumstances fom a gentleman holding a commisdoo in her Majesty's colonial force. I desire now, in retiring from this correspondence, to say a few words with regard to myself. lam blamed for having written anonymously, but I do not think it was necessary that I shorn" t append my name to my letters, nor do I see anything wrong in my commenting in a newspaper on any event of importance, provided that I do so in a fair, nonest, and straightforward manner, ard without dealing in inuendoes or making unproved or doubtful charges. All I did was to commentupon facts asl (ound them. I fully admit that an anonymous writer has no right to expect a reply, but in the present instance I think it was manifest that the explanation was due to the public, and not merely to a single individual. I was extremely sorry to see in Mr Simmonß' letter to the Cobvist that he accused m.» of'being " rash and boisterous" in challenging his silence. I had no wish to expre-s mytelf otherwise than courteously, and if there was anything seemingly offensive to any one of the three gentlemen referred to in mv manner of stating my case I regret it exceedingly. I am, &c, Englishman.