THE PAST AND PRESENT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 49, 4 April 1874, Page 8

THE PAST AND PRESENT.

I confess I almost dread to see the Catholic party in England now advancing so rapidly and steadily to power ; and st ruining themselves so eagerly to strengthen themselves by a Catholic newspaper press. Better we proceed cautiously and fearfully. We know how wealth and power corrupt their possessors; and the Catholic Church, especially in England, has in times past suffered more than she ever gained by the possession of great wealth and political power. True, the times are changed. But human nature remains (hi sane, and it would not surprise me to see, even now, the interests of religion and justice suffer at the hands of Irish or English Catholic politicians, raised to power in part by popular favour, and partly by the influence of certain portions of the Catholic press. Wealth and power are never so grossly abused or prostituted as when they get into the hands of bad Catholic's. On the other hand, wealth and power when in the hands of good and honest Catholics, carry all before them, and prove a universal blessing Let us be good practical Catholics first ; politicians if you p'easo afterwards. Why is it that tha Catholic religion is making su h rapid and wonderful progress in England at this day? For th'.B aaiong other reasons, I verily believe because the Catholics there are as poor in this world's goods as they are rich and fervent in Catholic faith. In England, there is as all see no worldly inducement to embrace the Catholic religion, but the contrary. They who do embrace it can be actuated by the love of G-od alone. Accordingly, it is only the truly fervent and devout among the Protestant English people who now enter the Catholic Church, and generally after lon* hesitation and a severe internal trial — to overco we their sc uples, and the prejudices in which they were seared. But when they do enter the Church, they literally "pray without ceasing" for the conversion of their Protestant brethren, friends and kinsfolk. Need wo wonder at the pi-esent rapid progress of the Cathol c religion in England, so r ccnily the stronghold of Protestantism ? Why tto Catholic converts piuy so incessantly for the conversion of their Protestant friends ? Because they are sensible of the inestimable blessing they now enjoy as members of the true Church, and are anxious that others iv whom they are inteiestea should share in that blessing; and because they are sensible of the innumerable pnctical evils which spring from heresy. They see that Protestantism not only tends to a.ip tha very foundations of repealed religion, and paves the way for infidelity, but relaxes the reins of all moral discipline, in every relation of lift, private or public. Would England ever have enjoyed the reputation and power she now so proudly po^s 'sses, had she not held the Catholic faith for nearly a thousand years ? It was the Saxon and Plu,nlagen«t races of kings and queens and nobles, who luicl the solid foundations of England's prosent grandeur and power ; and they were animated with that fervent zeal for the Catholic faith which we now see reviving in B igland at this hour. The spirit which actuated the Royal Alfred and his loyal, hardy and virtuous subjects, is walking abioad in fiT^-Mid now and visiting the halls of our nobles, and tho cottages of

the poor, if not the palace of our Queen. Who among our Protestant princes or nobles, ever displayed the religious and patriotic and charitable spirit displayed by tho Saxon and Plantn genet kings and queen? ? Few indeed if any. What would England think if she now foun 1 the present enormous private resources of our royal family devoted to the pu-pose of reaiintf such a Bplendid national monument of taste and piety as exists in Westminster Abbey, erected by a Saxon king, ei^ht hundred years ago nnd more. Ed ward the Confessor was not so rich as his worthy descendant Queen Victoria, yet he raised Westminster Abbey to the glory and honor of Almighty God, and ti> testify his own reverence for the King of Kings. What has Queen Victoria done in that direction, or what i« she or any of her family likely to do ? There is something about tlie character of nations as well as of individuals, ■which command respect and reverence altogether independent of national riches or power ; and I believe Catholic England, under our Saxon and Plantagenet princes, possessed stronger claims on the respect and admiration of mankind, than Protestant England under Queen Victoria now does. Even your Scotch Presbyterian frients in Dunedin might recal with feelings of pride and exultation the virtues of their Caledonian Catholic ancestors, in the days of Wallace and Bruce. Then they did what their degenerate Protestant ancestoiß ould not do now — whip " the Southern loons," and sent them back to England crest-fallen. If the Catholic Scotchmen of that day were Ip.-s wealthy and luxurious than the S'-otchmen of our day are, they wore more virtuous aud les3 selfish. The so-called " Reformat m" in Scotland was not the work cf the Scotch people properly to cilled, but a party of Goths and Scotch fanatics, instigated by certain schenv ing " Scotch noblemen and gentlemen," rapacious and bloodthiisty, who feared not God, nor regarded the interests of their neighbou-8. The conduct of the so-called " Reformers " in Scotland, will bo an eternal blot on their country, and on human nature itself. Bui So*otlmd ii becoming Catholic again, and may yet wipo out that foul stain on her national escutcheon. Who founded the Scotch Universities and Public Schools, and gave the first impulse to science and learning in Scctlmd? Not Presbyterians — but Catholics and even Popes. Read vhat LOl d Macaulay said on this subject when installed some yearc back as Lord Rector in the Ui'iremty of Glasgow. He then d.ew the literary character of Popo Nicholas (the IV I think), and a splendid piece of oratory it was. Ho showed the zeal, the princely z -al,a 1 , of that Pope for letters, and the means lie took to collect learned works from all parts of the world, even ransacking ior that purpose the bazaars of the far East by collectois employed by himself. Shame on the Scotchman who would reproach the Catholic Church as hostile to letters or science. His knowledge or love of truth is at fault.