A GENEROUS CRITIC.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 31, 10 December 1897, Page 15

A GENEROUS CRITIC.

TO THE EDITOR, Sir, — The intimation conveyed in your issue of the 3rd inst., that Mr. J. A. Scott has severed his connection with the Tablet in consequence of the state of his health will cause a feeling of keen regret amongst your readers. The manifest improvement in the reading matter which has taken place during bis editorship has been frequently brought home to me in conversations with my fellow-priests and with intelligent laymen. Mr. Scott seemed to have grasped the true idea that animated the late Bishop Moran in founding and shaping the policy of the Tablet. Whilst uniformly maintaining the language of courtesy and consideration for those who are not of our way of thinking he did not flinch from a vigorous and fearless enunciation of the principles underlying our claims for justice and fair play. His previous intimate knowledge of all that was good amongst many who are not of the household of the faith, enabled him to extend a charitable forbearance towards those of whose bona fides he had ample evidence, whilst at the same time the Pharisee and the malignant bigot were trenchantly exposed by his facile pen. For the sake of the good cause espoused by the Tablet, it is much to be regretted that it loses the services of its late editor ; but as self-preservation is the first law of nature, we could not expect a man of his undoubted ability to sacrifice himself in the capacity of literary drudge, and abandon the career of usefulness and success which his qualifications entitle him to expect in the legal profession. In one respect Mr. Scott's position as editor of our Catholic paper will be of inestimable value to him. In a short time he has had a unique opportunity of running through the whole gamut of what may be described as the inevitable disillusionment which intellectual converts frequently spend years in achieving. He has come down to the solid bed-rock of hard facts and common sense, in estimating the relation of the Divine Founder of Christianity with His Church militant, which is so well expressed by St. Paul in I. Cor. i., 27-28 verses. The effect of this on him will certainly be to intensify his love for the priceless pearl of the true faith, for which he has already made some considerable sacrifices. Wishing him all the success he deserves in his new'sphere. — I am etc., J. O'Neill. St. Mary's, Milton, December 5.