A Blow that Failed

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 28, 9 July 1903, Page 1

A Blow that Failed

What is the matter with the Yellow Agony ? The King has been to Rome, visited the ' Man of Sin,' had an interview of great cordiality with him, and yet ' the cold chain of silence ' hangs over the Voice of the Lodge. The brethren pumped vitriol over King Edward when, as Prince of Wales, he visited ' the head of the Popish Church in Rome ' and when, at various recent periods, he dared to ' dally with the dragon ' — that is, to give evidence of a fair and friendly feeling towards his ' Popish ' subjects or Catholic institutions. The present Queen was also treated to furious abuse and open threats by ' the accredited organ of the Loyal Orange Institution ' in Australia for having, in company with her son, paid a visit to the Personification of the Devil in the Vatican. In 1888, 1893, and at other dates, the late Queen Victoria was hotly denounced on the anniversaries of ' the glorious, pious, and immortal memory ' for having interchanged courtesies with ' her own and

God's enemy ' (the Pope, to wit). And many of our readers can recall the rushing soar of oratorical skyrockets at Newbliss and elsewhere in 1868-69, when the loyal ' sons of the 6affron sash threatened to depose their lawful Queen and ' kick her crown into the Boyne ' if she dared to exercise her constitutional right of signing the Bill for the disestablishment of the State Church in Ireland.

Tho^o lip-loyalists do not lightly forego the luxury of abusing and threatening their Sovereign when they can find or make the smallest pretext for doing bo. In the circumstances we are unable to explain why they have been playing 'possum about King Edward's visit to the ' Man of Sin ' and ' the Mistress of Abominations.' Does it portend, on the coming ' glorious twelfth,' a special display of coruscating Catherinewheels of the sort of rebellious ' loyalty ' that has been part and parcel of the society since it began its sanguinary career in far Armagh ? Or are the brethren satisfied with having attempted to inflict a vicarious diubbing on his Majesty in the person of Sir Edmund Barton, the Commonwealth Premier ? Artaxerxes had his offending nobles stripped and their garments soundly whipped. There is the case of a whipping-boy at Westminster School. Charles T had one Murray — a page — us whipping-boy to bear the sins of the couitieis. And it is possible that the brethren may have discovered in Sir Edmumd Barton a whipping-boy who should bear vicariously the cat-o'-nine-tails strokes that were intended for the expansive back of royalty. The attempted rib-roasting of Sir Edmund was one of those failures that add to the gaiety of the nations. It took the shape of a petition to the House of Representatives from the brethren in New South Wales— as usual, in the name of 'Protestantism.' The portentous document was presented on June 17 by the Member for Baknain. It uttered a pompous protest against Sir Edmund having visited the Pope, having received a gold medal from him, and having assured his Holiness that ' so long as he remained at the head of the Australian Government, Catholics might rely on receiving a greater shaie of liberality and benevolence than they enjoy in otherparts of the Empire.' This ama/ing and amusing document concluded by beseeching the House to withhold further honors and dignities from Sir Edmund until the electors of the Commonwealth shall ha^e had an opportunity of voting on the subject ' The fiamers of the 'petition ' had not an atom of the ' di\me mv mg grace ' of humor, which is the concentrated quintessence of common-sense, and dees more than any power on earth to keep people out of scrapes and lollies. Max O'Hell (who passed into the Land of the Hereafter a few da\s ago) expiessed the emphatic coimction that this weary old world will approach the millennium w hen it is go\erned by people who. like 'Mr ]>roley.' h.i\ c a strong sense of humor The Comn on wealth House of ltepresentathes, at any rate, had a reasonable measure of its saving grace. They greeted the Oiange petition (as the daily papers &ivd) with ' loud langhtei and dei ision '

A despicable and cowardly attempt was then made to muzzle Sir Edmund Burton r J he hi other who held introduced the petition rose to a point of ou'er Civs of 'shame 1 and 'Rag' .ian round the Hou-e 'The Speaker,' says the Sydney ' Freeman,' ' allowed the I'rime Minister to makt' aj ci son.il explanatu n, m which he showed that he had o\er nnd <>\ er a 'am c irrected the misstatenunt attributed to him that Catholics "might exptct a greater shaie ot libeial.ty and hene\olcnce from him than they tiijov m other j arts of the Empire," and that these corrections were published in the press, and must ha\e been known to the alle.ge'l Fiotestants " who coined the petition and to Mr Wilks, their mouthpiece, yet these persons deli 1 vrately repeated the iahsehood, and bra-e"ed it out, until an opportunity was afloided the Federal I'ai hament of expressing the opinion of the whole of the Fiee Austi alian Commonwealth nnd the citizens then of, which opinion was cogently exp-esn-d in " 1.0 i.d lauphtei and derision ' " '