THE LONDON 'TIMES' AND LORD RIPON. — HIDDEN CAUSES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 92, 30 January 1875, Page 8

THE LONDON 'TIMES' AND LORD RIPON. — HIDDEN CAUSES.

The article from the London ' Times ' on Lord Ripon' s conversion which you reproduce to-day, is a remarkable one. It will be read with deep interest both by Protestants and Catholics. So far aa regards Lord Ripon's new religious creed, nothing can with propriety be said of that in the pages of a non-sectarian secular journal like the ' New Zealand Herald' and London 'Times:' but itis assumed that he has assumed a new "political creed," and which he now holds in common with all Catholics— including, of course, the Catholics in this Colony, The London ' Times' makes Lordßipon's new political creed the subject of severe condemnation. It attempts to impress on the public mind that he will hereafter devote himself to the evil task of " iinderniining the steady devotion of the Enffhsh people to a free and independent career of religious and political development." He has no fear that the men who have been born of Catholic parents, and reared from their youth as Catholics, will be able to exercise, or attempt to exercise, any influence hostile to mv" ""^pendent career ot religious and political development." JLhey, he thinks, are quite harmless. Not so " converts," like Lord Ripon. These will be dangerous men, and powerful for mischief . A little time will show how far the prognostications of the ♦Times' will prove correct. It seems to be the object of the London ' Times' and Mr Gladstone to show that the decisions of the Vatican Council have placed the Queen's Catholic subjects in a very different position, politically considered, from that in which they stood to her at the time the Emancipation Bill passed. The civil loyalty of Catholics has been, by the decision of that Council, placed "at the mercy of the Pope," It was not so when they were admitted by the Emancipation Bill within the pale of the constitution in 1829. Such is Mr, Gladstone's doctrine, if I understand him right. The logical consequence of such an opinion, if correct, would be to agitate for a repeal of the Emancipation Act. Can this be what Mr. Gladstone and the ' Times' are driving at ? The 'Times' thinks that there is small danger from a " stray peer" adopting the political creed of Rome. It is simply "a melancholy spectacle," and indicates some inexplicable infirmity or peculiarity of intellect. One swallow does not make summer. But that consolation seems to be withdrawn if it be true, as reported, that since Lord Ripon went to Rome, Lord Grosvenor and the Duke of Leeds have followed, and the Duke of Northumberland is " suspected." Who can tell when this Roman epidemic may stop, now it has fairly beo-an to spread in the ranks of the English peerage ? Lord Ripon/ as the ' Times' justly remarks, has made no avowal — in public, at least — of the reasons which induced him to secede from the Anglican and enter the Catholic Church. These reasons were, ro doubt, Partly religious and partly political. My suspicion is strong that he was afraid that the " Liberal party," the Cosmopolitan party, are now going too far, and believes that, in fact, revolutionary principles, endangering the security of all property, can only be arrested by Catholic influence. It is some confirmation of this suspicion that the English peers who have just gone over to Rome are among the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest, in the country— Lords Bute, Ripon, Grosvenor, and Dunraven— large holders of what was once '•Church property," which revolutionists covet 60 much, and have already made so free with on the Continent. They may sniff a revolutionary storm approaching. The Russian Emperor seems to fear something of the same kind. What if he, too, followed Lord Ripon to Borne ! Could we wonder at anything after Lords Ripon and Grosvenor hoisting Roman colors ? By the way, the ' Xhnes ' speaks of the Jesuits as a " secret society." This must be a mistake. I notice that Bishop Moran lately made the following remarks, when speaking of the " Hibernians," at Hokitika :— "Whenever there was secrecy in any society, there was suspicion. Men who meant well had nothing to fear from an open disclosure of their proceedings." The principles of the Jesuits and Dr. Moran, I presume, are the same. The ' Times' thinks Lord Ripon's political influence is now gone for ever. But surely an English nobleman may be a wise and just ruler, or Minister, though a Catholic. The Governor of Tasmania holds the same political creed as Lord Ripon in the main. If the ' Times' were correct, Mr. Weld is unfit to hold his present office, or to exercise any power whatever under her Majesty. Politically speaking, Catholics— all Catholics— are in the same boat with Lord Ripon, whether " converts ". or Catholics by birth. The idea that the Catholic religion is " unEnglish" is a strange one, considering the illustrious English scholars, statesmen, and sovereigns who in past ages have held* and professed it.