CHARLES BRIGHT & SIR HERCULES ROBINSON.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 21, 24 January 1878, Page 2

CHARLES BRIGHT & SIR HERCULES ROBINSON.

To tub Editor of the 'Evening Mail.' Sir, — Your correspondent "X" seems wrath with Mr Charles Bright for two reasons — 0110 for promulgating his unorthodox views of current creeds, and the other in doing so for money. The latter objection is too trivial to combat ; but the former appears more formidable, as Sir Hercules Robinson is pressed into the service, and part of a speech quoted in italics reported as being delivered by him in Australia. Your correspondent evidently uses the words " the happiest state," &c, as meaning the wisest state, &c. This to me reverses Sir Hercules' meaning. But assuming that wisest was meant, ifc is perhaps worth a few minutes' thought to try and ascertain how far the sentence is true in that sense. We read that our mothers and grandmothers believed in witches aud witchcraft; yet doubt and increased knowledge, freely expressed and circulated, extinguished the belief, and put an end to the cruelties practised on that subject. Was this course Nvrong or foolish? A generation or two earlier it is probable that the maternal relatives of "X." believed in the intercession of the Virgin Mary and Papal indulgences to commit sins or crimes, though "X." may now abhor such beliefs. Going still further back amongst his grandmothers he might discover that some of them believed in the gods of the Druids or the old Scandinavian gods. Yet these beliefs are things of the past, through the awakened spirit of doubt and scepticism. Does " X." then wish us to understand that it is wisest to keep iu the faith taught us by our mothers; if so, how does he reconcile the Christian Missionary Propagaudisin to upset other people's religious faith with the sentiment he endorses. I am, &c, Y.