Passing Notes.
Launceston, Tasmania, is an orthodox place, and firm in the grip of the priests. Messrs Osborne having commenced the sale of freethought literature, they were denounced both from press and pulpit, while the police seized some of their books, and announced their intention of prosecuting the booksellers. In perhaps twenty years, Launceston will have arrived at the state of the towns of New Zealand in the matter of religious freedom.
The Christian religion still includes less than onethird of the population of the globe among its adherents. The present estimate by best German statisticians puts the total at 1,500,000,000 of whom 450,000,000 are Buddhist, 235,000,000 Mohammedan, 247,000,000 Heathen, 225,000,000 Roman Catholics, 140,000,000 Protestants, 110,000,000 Brahmins, 85,000,000 Eastern (Catholic) Churches, and 8,000,000 Jews.
The Rev. Charles Stubbs, vicar of Granborough, and author of Village Politics, has just sent to press with Messrs Sonnenschein a volume of sermons preached before the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. They all deal with the attitude towards social and political questions which, in the opinion of the author, the National Church must adopt if she would seek to influence the modern democratic movement in England.
The editorship of the Rolls Series of what is known as " The Tripartite Life of St Patrick," contained in Irish MSS. in the Bodleian Library and the British Museum, has been entrusted to Mr Whitley Stokes, of Oxford. The life is composed of three biographical homilies, and each homily contains a few old Irish poems and proverbial sayings. Though written in a rude, disjointed style, it has great value to the historian and philologer, and throws some light on ancient Irish institutions.
A believer in " conditional immortality" writes us urging that there is no text in the Bible supporting the contrary view. This is a matter of interpretation of the texts. The remarkable thing about most of these controversies is that the Bible supports all sides — this respect, like Paul, being ' all things to all men.' But all heresies make for liberty. On this common ground we meet the " conditional immortalists" in a spirit of brotherly love. The opinion that might be honestly expressed with respect to the doctrine is that it is preferable to the Lake of Brimstone.
We have received a pamphlet published at Auckland entitled " The Electric Universe," by " Torpedo." The author guarantees to point out to " any of the governments of the world (or others etc.). for £SOO, a Force that is self acting, self renewing as long as machinery will last." The discoverer of perpetual motion however has to confess that " there is now patented in England and America what I was really the inventor of." The author's familiarity with the Sciences are out of keeping with his too evident aberration of intellect.
One of Moncure Conway's " Lessons for the Day" is "The Madonna of Montbazon" which Mr. Conway describes as *' the largest bronze statue in Europe." "The head," he says, '• was encircled by what seemed a strange kind of halo made of darting rays of light. But examination proved these to be the diverging points of a lightning rod. The rod ran up the Madonna's back, and branched out into a circlet of points. It seemed rather droll that the pious people should have thought it necessary to protect their protectress, to shield the Queen of heaven from the lightnings of heaven."
Moncure D. Conway, who succeeded the eloquent member for Oldham, W. F. Fox, in the pastorate of the famous Unitarian Church near the Bank of England, about 20 years ago, has arrived in the colonies. He resided in London all these years, and became identified with its literature and social life. His letters in the Cincinnati Commercial have exercised a wide influence in America. It is not known whether he will make the tour of New Zealand, but he will probably lecture in Australia. He goes on to India, where he will reside some time studying the dialects of the Hindostani, in connection with a book on " Comparative Philology " which he is writing. Mr Conway is an enthusiastic student of Sanscrit, and reads from the Zendavesta at his regular Sunday services in London.
We take the following from the Australasian of September 15th:—"The Hon. Robert Stout, of New Zealand, writing in reply to a reference in a lecture by Bishop Moorhouse and the resolution of sympathy passed by the Australasian Secularist Conference with Messrs Foote and Ramsay, contends that the Bishop did injustice to those who carried the resolution, and proceeds : —" The Bishop has mixed up Messrs Foote, Ramsay, and the Secularists' Conference with Nihilists, Socialists, Anarchists, and Irish assassins, and he led his audience to infer that the cause of Nihilism, Socialism, Anarchism, and Irish assassination was Atheism. Now, I first remark, that all the Irish assassins were pious Roman Catholics. Then [ state what cannot be controverted, that the majority of the Nihilsts have been trained in the dogmas of the church with which many of Bishop Moorhouse's co-religionists desire to unite Further, I might ask how comes it that in those countries where the Christian religion has held and has now the greatest power, there is the greatest Social unrest—l refer to Russia, Spain, Italy ? Compare the safety of property and life in countries where Freethinkers are allowed freedom, with the assassinations and robberies in lands where the priest is all powerful, and will the post hoc ergo propter hoc be applicable." [This is condensed from Mr Stout's letter published at length in the Argusa letter that we hear has created a wide interest in Melbourne. We regret we have not seen the copy of the Argus containing it.]
Mr Moncure D. Conway was interviewed during his brief stay in San Francisco, and freely stated his views of men and things in England. Mr Conway, it should be remembered, is a native of Virginia, U.S ~though he has been for 20 years resident in England as minister of a kind of Eclectic Church in London. Being questioned as to Bradlaugh and radicalism, he said:—" I have no desire to criticise him or his methods. He works in entirely different mental, moral, and social regions from myself. It is a mistake to suppose that he has loose
principles on the question of marriage, when the fact is he is a stickler for old-time ideas on that subject. He was formerly married; but his wife is dead. His relations with Mrs Annie Besant, his present business associate, have never been otherwise than honorable, and no other opinion is entertained in London by those who are familiar with his affairs. She was driven out of her husband's house because she was too liberal in religion for him, not because she was too free in morals. But, as I have said, he works in entirely different lines. My own radical views led me to a somewhat bold republicanism. I look upon a President as a monarch, and think the Swiss Republic, without any President, the best. lam also in favour of a Parliament, Assembly, Congress, or whatever you choose to call it, of only one house. I regard Mrs Besant as the most refined and highly-educated woman in London since the death of George Eliot. She is a mistress of all the modern European languages. She is also a shrewd business woman, who attends to the great publishers firm in which she is a partner. She knows how to take care of money, and is therefore prosperous.
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Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 2, 1 November 1883, Page 6
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1,244Passing Notes. Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 2, 1 November 1883, Page 6
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