Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 46, 15 November 1900, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

A BAD BOOK.

The pyrotechnic and sensational Marie Corelli has surpassed all her previous exploits in her latest work of fiction, entitled — Heaven only knows why — The Master Christian. It is characterised by her usual hysterical declamation, and by the low moral tone and unwholesome sensationalism and blasphemy which she has so successfully borrowed from Zola and Maupassant. Despite a verbal disclaimer, the new book is an attack upon the Catholic Church as direct and vulgar as Hocking's Purple Robe and as brutal and unfair and ignorant a travesty of the Vatican and high ecclesiastical persons as Zola's Rome. A reviewer in the Outlook aptly describes The Master Christian as ' the vulgar no-Popery tract, which seemed to be dead, come to life again in cloth, bound and gilt, as a six-shilling novel.' ' Its plot,' says an English reviewer, ' X impossible, its characters imaginary, its teaching injurious,' and its he.iitless reference to the domestic grief of a great English nobleman ' would degrade and disgrace any story but the one she has just published.' Undoubtedly the most shocking feature in this bad book is the introduction of the Divine Saviour as one of the characters. The Son of God made Man is dragged into the company of libertines, sensualists, men about town, and women with a low idea of womanly virtue, and into His sacred mouth are crammed some hundreds of pages of the airy rubbish and silly vaporing and lurid imaginings which bhbttr the pages of Barabbas and the Sorrows of Satan, and which form the staple of the topsy-turvey ideas of hte and duty adopted by this curious but clever apostle of the 'electric religion.' Catholics will naturally be disgusted at her presentment of the characters of the Abbe Vergniaud and Monsignor Gherardi, whom she coolly sets up as types of the clergy of the Catholic Church.

Miss Corelli's idea — and her animus — in writing- this book are sufficiently indicated by her declaration that it was her intention to get admission to the pages of the Index Exputgatotius. Her wish has apparently been granted. The Daily Nevis Rome correspondent says : ' What all the papers say is that no author ever displayed greater ignorance of the Vatican and of the Eternal City. The Vatican journals themselves observe a discreet silence on the subject, but the Cardinals who compose the Congregation of the Index have decided to put the book in the Index so that it is now a sin for any Catholic to read it.' We trust that New Zealand Catholic-, will keep their eyes off the envenomed page-, of this bad book. Meantime it is pleasant to find so well-known a literary figure as Mr. Hall Came stating that the general impression left on his mind by his long visits to Rome is that 'nothing could exceed the devotion of its worship, and, speaking broadly, ]the sincerity and the purity, and often the nobility of its priesthood.'

'DIRTY FOES.'

A lewd fellow of the baser sort has lately been trailing his controversial coat-tails and cutting sundry drunken capers on the Donnybrook Green of a small provincial paper. His whoops and antics have had a disquieting effect upon the mind ot one of our readers, who wonders why we or some other of the

clergy don't descend into the arena and give the combative cobbler — or whatever he may be — the father and mother of a (strictly metaphorical) ' batin'.' Good old Samuel Butler supplies a bit of wisdom which fits such cases to a nicety. He makes Hudibras say: — ' . . That man is sure to lose That fouls his hands with dirty foes ; For where no honor's to be gained, 5 Tis thrown away in being maintained."

Don Quixote— the Spanish Hudibras — took a somewhat similar course of action in his dealings with ' dirty foes.' He gave the following friendly counsel to his squire, Sancho Panza : ' Friend Sancho, for the future, whenever thou perceivest us to be any ways abused by such inferior fe'lows, thou art not to expect that I should offer to draw my sword against them, for I will not do it m the least. No , do thou then draw and chastise them as thou thinkest lit. But it any knight come to take their part, then will 1 be sure to step in between thee and danger.'

A FRIENDLY WARNING.

There are two partcular'y heirtless classes of fraud practised on the green and credulous public. The one is that ot the Spiritists, who, for a fee, profess to put a too trusting parent into communication with the loved child that lias gone before. Catholics are h ippily seldom or never caught by the silly platitudes and the ckimsy conjuring of the Spiritistic tricksters, did these even charm with the cunning of the notot ious Mis. Mellon. As a set-off, C.Uhohcs are the victims of a parasitic class that is without a counterpart among- our Pro-te-^t int fi lends. We refer to rert un oily-tongued agents who perambulate the country at long intervals disposing of a heavyCatholic book or a particular piece of p'ous lumber at a price that varies from four to ten times its intrinsic value. The stock-in-trade of such adventurers usu illy consists of some easily-learned pious talkee-talkee, plus a 's unple ' of a gaudy and corpulent book or of some trimcrack and more or less useless article ot small first-cost, olfer.'d at a prici which would supply a family with thirty to sixty volumes of the publications of the Aye Maria or the Catholic Truth Society, or one and a halt to two years' subscription to the N.Z. Tablkt, or other benefits which would be of real advantage to the Catholic home. Bleeding people through their most sacred domestic affections is, in all reason, a nasty trade; but what shall we say ot the ghbtongued sons of Ananias who, by strenuous lying or a cheap affectation of piety, cxiott enormous profits out of the religious feelings chiefly ot the Catholic women-folk of New Zealand, and then flit from the ( olunv with little fortunes in their fob? We have learned that some persons of thib ( lass are again touring the Colony. \\'e have time and again issued fair and friendly warnings regarding itinerant agents of this class. A newspaper can give good advice to the best of its ability. When it has done so its duty is discharged. It cannot give good sense.

TOURISTS.

The tourist season is close upon us, and soon the traveller from afar will be amongst us • to look at mountains and citch cold in spouting trash on lakes by moonlight' — as ht. George says in Vivian Grey. Once upon a time British youth ' went abroad '

after vast preparation and with no small trepidation of mmd — wi h couriers and body-servants and as much baggage per man as an infantry battalion or a modern lady. The chief object of their travels was, as Bacon recommended, to frequent the courts of princes. But Stephenson and Cook have changed all that, and the purpose of travel has altered almost as radically as its mode. Contanni Fleming's bitter saying is no longer true : that ' our first scrape generally leads to our first travel.' For all the world travels now, just as it wears •deckers' and evening dress on occasion. But it travels more and inuit lv fc Ist il=, eyes, upon the jiggedj igged mouniain-iop and the placid lake and the wooded valley and the storied wall, and apparently less and ever less to study hum in nature •when man is busy and th" beasts asleep.' The nineteen-year old Bayard Taylor travelled through the unspoiled by-ways of Europe with his eyes skinned and his pencil and note-book in hand, and the record of whit he saw is contained in that wonderful boy's production, Views Afoot (1846). The nineteenyear old youth tours nowadays with slung kodak and his impressions — sometimes sadly blurred or • halated ' — are contained on sundry oblong scraps of albumenised paper. Well, one's experiences are enlarged by the contemplation of nature in its many moods and tenses as well as by the study of human beings in the places where they most do congregate. Chesterfield's letters were written for other times, and Dr. Johnson was in one of his cynical humors when h» declared that • time may be employed to more advantage, from nineteen to twentyfour, almost in any other way than in travelling.' The gruff old porpoise did not tour till late in life, and to the end he never overcame his dislike of foreigners: he catalogued them holus-bolus as ' fools.' Let us not despise the youth with the slung kodak : • travel,' says Disraeli, ' teaches toleration.' And the lesson is easiest taught and learned in the mornine of life. ■ *

We in New Zealand are so intent upon increasing the revenue derivable from mines and frozen meat and agricultural produce that there is a risk of neglecting, by comparison, the easily won wealth that might be enticed into a country that is so chock-full of natural be luties and wonders as this fair land of ours. A piece of chuckle-headed administrative folly committed last year might have resulted in partially closing the wonders of Mount Cook to the enterprising tourist. And yet the tourist is a substantial and practical friend. According to a recent number of Engineering, the tourist traffic in Ireland (luring the past summer gave a substantial addition to the revenues of the Irish railways at a time when English stock dividends were slipping back or holding their own with great difficulty, like a locomotive whose wheels are 'racing' on a steep up-hill grade. But tourist traffic has been systematically encouraged in Ireland, and the erection of up-to-date hotels by the railway companies is a judicious step which will secure a still larger influx of visitors 111 the future. It is estimated that over £2,000,000 per month was spent in France by foreign visitors during the present exhibition year, and that as much gold enters the country in the pockets of travellers as through the Custom House. Switzerland depends chiefly upon the foreign visitor. As far back as 1879 no few than 947,000 tourists visited the mountainous little republic: of these 350,000 were Germans, 210,000 Americans, and 160,000 Russians. Since then the tourist traffic has enormously increased in Switzerland. Our Switzerland of the South is too far removed from the great pulsing centres of population to emulate its rival in the north. But our tourist traffic is none the less both capable and deserving of expansion.

NO-POPERY AND RELIGION.

There is no necessary connection between no-Popery and 'having religion.' Indeed, they are sometimes — as in Belfast — poles asunder. The (Protestant) Church of Ireland Gazette bears testimony to us that there are few that more urgently need to have the Gospel preached to them than the hoarse-throated mob that set the atmosphere of that fair northern city a-quivering every twelfth of July with vociferous cries of 'To hell with the Pope,' and 'We'll kick the Pope before us.' In its issue of June 29 the Gagette has the following in the course of an article on ' The Belfast Problem ' : ' A considerable number of the inhabitants have drifted into Paganism. There are whole streets where the people go to no place of worship — their religion is purely political. They seem to think it sufficient to be a Protestant; while meaning and committing all kinds ot sin, it will get them to heaven at last. This portion of the population will soon become a great danger to the government.'

FACTS OF ADAMAVT

• Facts are stubborn things,' says the Aye Maria. ' After all that has been said ag.unst Spain for her misrule in the Philippines and oppression of the Filipinos, this fact remains: She found a population v.uiously estimated at less than five hundred thousand ; and, instead of exterminating it, leit bitwttn five and six millions of people, a great number of whom had been Christianised and taught the arts of civilisa-

tion. This one fact is sufficient refutation of the calumnies against Spain so industriously circulated of late years by preachers and politicians.'

THE TRADE IN IDOLS.

London weekly has the following curious paragraph in connection with this strange traffic :—«: — « One result of the Chinese outbreak, so far as Birmingham is concerned, is that the manutacture ot Chinese deities is falling off. These manufactories turn out gods of all sorts and sizes. Some are gods of war, judging by their stern looks and murderous swords ; another, with a bland look, is a god of peace; others bear hideous leers. All are thoroughly Chinese in character and expression. An enterprising Birmingham manufacturer is said to be prepared to supply to order all sorts of gods at varying prices. You may have one as* low as £2 10s, or one of superior workmanship and size at graduated scales up to £100 or more.'

THE PENNY POST.

Sir Rowland Hill is commonly credited in the public mind with being the originator of the penny post. Indeed, in two cyclopedias before us he is named as the ' author ' of the penny post, since, through his recommendation, it was introduced into Great Britain by an Act of ihe Imperial Parliament passed in 1839. But Sir Rowland was by no means the ' author' of the penny post. New Zealand's approaching introduction of the penny rate of postage to every part of the British Empire gives the Westminster Budget occasion to say : ' Strange as it may seem, there existed two centuries ago an ocean penny postage between England and America which was only suppressed by a meddling and muddling officialism. In 1698 it was the custom of the masters of ships bound for America to hang up bags in coffee-houses, and any letters that mi^ht be dropped into these bags they carried jver, and were glad to do so for a penny or twopence a letter according to the number of sheets ot which it consisted.'

That was probably the first penny postal service across the Atlantic or any other ocean. But an inland penny post had been established fifteen or sixteen years beforehand in London, and for all we know to the contrary rates as cheap or cheaper may have prevailed in the regular and well-manned postal service which the conquering Spaniards found in full operation four centuries ago among the highly civilised Indian races that inhabited Mexico. A curious circumstance in connection with the first British penny post was this : it was howled at and spat upon as a Jesuit plot to destroy the liberties of the English people. The story is told as follows in Connor Sydney's Social Life in England from the Restoration to the Revolution, pp. 227-30: — ' Within the last two years of the reign of Charles 11. a penny post was initiated in the capital, for the conveyance of London letters and parcels, by Robert Murray, an upholsterer. Murray, in common with many other citizens of the time, had felt considerable dissatisfaction with the provision which the Post Office authorities had made for the delivery of letters in the various districts of the capital. Correspondence between London and the rural districts was generally more expeditious than it was found to be within the boundaries of the metropolis. The post which was inaugurated by Murray was quickly placed under the control of William Docwra, the regulations being that all letters which did not exceed one pound in weight, and any sum of money which did not exceed ten pounds in value, and any packet which did not exceed ten pounds in value, should be conveyed at a cost of one penny within the city and suburbs, and of twopence to any distance within a circuit of 10 miles. Accordingly six spacious offices were opened in convenient spots in London, and receiving houses were established in all the chief thoroughfares. It is mentioned by Strype that huge placards, bearing the inscription, " Penny post letters taken in here," printed in bold characters, were to be seen suspended in the windows, or hanging at the doors of the offices. " Letter carriers," wrote an old annalist, "gather them every hour, and take them to their grand office in their respective districts. After the said letters and parcels were duly entered in the books, they are delivered, at stated periods, by other carriers." As many as six and eight times during the course of the day these deliveries of letters were effected in the busy and crowded streets in the vicinity of the exchange. In the outlying districts of the capital there were generally four deliveries daily. It is not surprising, in the least degree, to find that the great and decided success of the post which Murray had been instrumental in establishing, became an eyesore in the eyes of some, or that when it was fully known that the speculation was proving advantageous to its originator, the I Juke of York should have complained that the monopoly which he had so long enjoyed was being infringed. Neither is it surprising that the Government should have been induced to believe that it was a policy the reverse of a wise one, to permit the continuance of the penny post under separate management from

It has long been known that Birmingham is the headquarters of the trade in idols with the P2ast. A recent issue of a non-Catholic

the General Post. The system was loudly denounced by the Protestants as a contrivance, on the part of notorious Papists to facilitate the communication of their plots of rebellion one to another. The infamous Titus Oates assured the public th a he was convinced of the complicity of the Jesuits in the scheme and that undeniable evidence of it would c_ruinly be found by searching the baps. The city porters were loud in their complaints that their interests were being ignored, .md long continued to tear down every placard within their reach which announced to the public the establishment of the innovation on what they deciiu d their n^ht.;. Ot nl! thL up: r,ur the C\^rn. ment does not appear to have taken verj much notice, although it was undoubtedly concerned at the success by winch the undertaking had been attended. An appeal to the Court of King s Bench resulted in a decision that the new office with all its profits and advantages, should form part and parcel of the royal establishment ' r