Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 3 August 1911, Page 1457

Current Topics

Hooliganism in High Places If it be trueas an old writer so long ago observed that ‘manners makyth man,’ Lord Hugh Cecil, Viscount Castlereagli, and the others associated - with them in insulting Mr. Asquith and in creating the disorder in the House of Commons last week, must be accounted poor specimens of manhood.- Not a single extenuating circumstance can be pleaded' in their behalf. Outbursts of such a sort are understandableand perhaps to some extent excusable — the influence of sudden excitement or of some unexpected provocation ; but in this case the outrage was gratuitous and unprovoked, and -was planned and organised deliberately, in cold blood. Nor was there, from any point of view, any sort of redeeming feature about the display. There was neither cleverness, wit, nor point in the verbal missiles heaved at Mr. ' Asquith—nothing whatever to lift the exhibition above the level of bare, bald, brainless hooliganism. It was simply Mr. Birrell aptly described it— ‘ a cold-blooded, well-organised orgy of stupidity and ruffianism.’ At such a time, when the peers are, in a very critical sense, on their trial, the sight of a noble lord behaving like a sort of Parliamentary Bill Sykes is a spectacle for gods and men. There is a remedya very plebeian one— ill-mannered lawnessness of that sort; and if there are any further ‘scenes’ by these scions of the nobility it may yet have to be invoked. It is indicated in the following sentence from that courtly English gentleman, Dean Hole : ‘ The most devoted admirers of Sir Robert Peel would not venture to assert that in his wonderful prescience he foresaw a time when the mutual courtesies which always prevail among gentlemen would be ignored in the House of Commons, but they certainly may say of him that he provided the remedy, the only remedy, for this disgraceful rowdyism when he instituted the new police.’ The Revolt in Albania The cable message which Appeared in the daily papers the other day to the effect that Albanian women ■who did not flee to Montenegro were being outraged and beaten, and in some instances afterwards burned to deaththe victims in several cases being nuns—goes to show that the young Turks are carrying out to the full the policy of ‘ thorough ’ which it was intimated some time ago they intended lo adopt in dealing with the present insurrection. The revolt in Albaniaa north-western province of Turkey, bordering on the independent State of Montenegrohas been going on for four or five months ; but it is less than two months ago since the Mirdite tribe, the most powerful in Albania, took up arms and joined in the rising. According to the Times correspondent at Cettigne, they are able to place 10,000 armed men in the field. They occupy an almost inaccessible mountain district, and for centuries have maintained their independence, defying every effort of the Turks to subdue them, as the}'’ in former days defied the Roman emperors. The tribe are all Catholics, It would appear that their leaders, civil and religious, have counselled submission, and have done their best to hold the tribe back, but without success. Commenting upon the message from Cettigne, The Times says: ‘The Mirdites are much the largest of the Albanian tribes, and, unlike their neighbours, they are all of one religious faith, a circumstance which presumably adds to their internal cohesion They are all Roman Catholics, and, like the Roman Catholics of Albania, they stand under the religious protectorate of Austria-Hungary.’ £ ■ . „ There is nothing in the demands of the Albanians which might not have been made the subject of reasonable discussion and negotiation; and with any sort of decent government there would have been no need for any revolt at all. According to a summary in the Saturday Review all the Albanians asked for was that (i.) Their local journals should not be subject to Turkish

supervision; (ii.) Albanian schools should be conducted by natives in the native tongue; (iii.) taxes raised in Albania should be expended in local administration. The situation is more serious for Turkey than at first sight appears. ‘Montenegro,’ says the London Chronicle, ‘is watching, wholly sympathetic with Albania ; behind Montenegro is Italy, at heart equally sympathetic. But Italy is the ally of Austria, and by the side . of Austria, in any emergency, is Germany in shining armour.” ’ The Austrian and German semioffiicial Press have counselled the Young Turks to come to terms; and the Austrian Press in particular are unanimous in demanding that something shall be done to prevent the Albanians from being overpowered. The general Austrian point of view is , thus expressed in a Vienna paper: “In virtue of our protectorate Count Aehrenthal must lay before the Porte a positive programme of reform—for instance, the autonomy of Northern Albania under a vali; the permission to bear arms; freedom from taxation and from military service; the appointment of Christian officials; liberty of language and worship; and, above all, the cessation of' the campaign. This he must demand and obtain, and that rapidly and strikingly; not in order to preserve European Turkey, ..which is the concern of the Turks themselves, but in older to preserve our influence over the Christian races of European Turkey.’ The Turkish forces have had some slight measure of success; but they show no disposition to push on with serious fighting along the Montenegrin frontier. If the. struggle should be continued, it seems certain that Austria will intervene. The ‘ Outlook * on Catholic Literature Apropos of the mouth-filling overtures regarding Ye Temere which are to be launched at the Presbyterian General Assembly in November, our Dunedin Presbyterian contemporary, the Outlook , sanely and sensibly; x exnarks that while overturing is well enough in its wa y, an d while protection against the ‘ Catholic invasion ’ whatever that mysterious phrase may mean —should be ‘sedulously agitated for,’ the' ‘Assembly would, nevertheless, be doing a much more practical service to Presbyterianism if it would ‘ awake to the necessity for the right sort of literature being placed in the hands of the people ’; and, in particular, if it would make a determined effort to circulate its own paper. In this connection, our contemporary is. honest enough to pay to our present-day Catholic writers a tribute as thoughtful as it is true—a tribute, moreover, which carries added weight from the fact that the present editor of the Outlook is one of the bestinformed and most competent authorities in the Dominion on all questions connected with general literature. Our readers will thank us, for quoting our contemporary in full. ‘This “simple faith in God and in his Saviour,” together with a sense “of death, of sin, of eternity, of salvation,” he writes in the issue of July 18, ‘ is noticeably absent in the literature of the present day. Many of the most-quoted writers adopt a frankly pagan attitude to life, others are notoriously materialistic, and the only approach to-the religious impulse to be found in modern first-class fiction consists in an attempt to solve the mysteries of a future life by dangerous dabblings in spiritualism and occultism. • To all this, however, there is-a notable exception- namely, in the case of the rapidly-growing army of Catholic men and women of letters. It is several years since Canon Sheehan ranks with Dr. William Barry as Catholic critic and litterateur ofnote—wrote these words: “I believe that we have not yet fully recognised the vast importance of literature as a means of conveying Catholic truth to the world” ; but within the last decade the recognition has been amply made. The number of, prominent modern writers who have embraced the Catholic faith is certainly surprising. Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton, counted the two cleverest men in London, and indubitably among the most Widely read, are’both. Catholics; and in their essays, stories, and articles adopt the. Catholic standpoint. Francis Thompson, whose

poetry since his death is having considerable vogue, and whose prose writings rival those of De Quincey in their exquisite form, was a devout Catholic; and ■when we come to the novelists the Catholic Church can claim Lucas Malet, Marion Crawford, Mrs. Craigie (John Oliver Hobbes), and Father Hugh Benson, to mention only a few among many." It is obvious that this continued output of the- best literaturewe use the adjective, of course, from the standpoint of style, — imbued with Catholic ideals, and filled with the Catholic spirit, must all the while be influencing the public (conscience, more especially as the non-Catholic literature of the age is neo-pagan in its tendency, if not absolutely materialistic, In face of these facts the apathy of the average Protestant as to the value , and influence of literature is absolutely .appalling. One of the Popes of Rome once declared, “A good Catholic paper is a mission in each parish,’ while another Catholic writer has conjectured that if St. Paul were living to-day he would probably be a journalist. Thus while every possible barrier against the Catholic invasion which the Legislature can be persuaded to erect should be sedulously agitated for, yet it is impossible to disguise the fact that the current of literature will speedily undermine all purely legislative barriers. The Protestant Church, and especially the Presbyterian Church, must awake to the necessity for the right sort of literature being placed in the hands of the people. To cite a case in point, the circulation of the Outlook , proportionately to the strength of Presbyterianism in the Dominion, is a shame and a reproach. And while overtiming the General Assembly is well enough in its way, a determined effort to circulate the Outlook would go a great deal further.’ We would be glad to be able to hope that our contemporary’s homily might bear fruit: but the leading spirits of the Assembly are much more likely, we imagine, to take advantage of the opportunity to let loose wild whirling words against ‘ Rome ’ than to descend to the practical, but much more prosaic work of promoting the circulation of Christian literature. A German Temperance Programme ; ; It would be a pity if the vehemence with which legislative prohibition is nowadays preached as the one and only solution of the drink problem were allowed to over-shadow the value of moral suasion in bringing about reform, and the, value also of the virtue of true temperance and self-control. There is a widespread conviction amongst many earnest thinkers on the drink question that if the tyranny of certain social customs could be overcome— in particular, of that known as 'shouting’ or ‘treating’—an enormous advance in the crusade against intemperance would be made. Acting on this belief, temperance advocates in Ireland established some few years ago an ‘ Anti-treating League, which is admittedly effecting a very notable measure of good. As we learn from Current Literature, German temperance reformers are now adopting the same principle, and are following on similar lines. The positive demand of the German abstainers,’ says the English journal, 'is not that drinking shall be forbidden by law, but that “compulsory” drinking, the so-called Trinkzwanrf , shall be done away with by common consent. The cry is: “You shall not be compelled to drink by social custom, and we appeal to your reason to become, a total abstainer.” The social compulsion to drink, which exists in this country in a mild form only, holds tyrannical sway in Germany Festive occasions without libations are unthinkable to the German mind. There also exists the conventional obligation to order alcoholic beverages with one’s meals. In fact, most restaurants exact a cash penalty from teetotaller's with each meal.’ •ft '“Drinking not Compulsory.” This inscription at the entrance to German branches of the Young Men’s Christian Association illustrates the German attitude of “moral suasion,” as opposed to prohibition, in dealing with the drink problem. While America attempts to restrain by law, Germany prefers to exercise moral

suasion. The matter is put up to the individual conscience. Instead of . a legal and political, we have a hygienic and ethical question solely. The German advocate of temperance distinctly discountenances the idea of compulsion, “Everywhere,” we read in the pamphlet of the Imperial Statistical Bureau, “experience has shown that the abuse of alcohol can be most effectively combated not by coercive measures, but by those educational means which act as preventives.” There is a clear distinction drawn between temperance and legal restriction.’ . .' . • ' ' , ' - * Current Literature then gives the practical programme of reform now being promoted by temperance advocates in Germany. ‘Even the total abstainers in Germany,’ it says, ‘ are not advocates of prohibition. They aim chiefly to enlighten the public, particularly the young. They advocate temperance instruction in the schools, the exclusion of children from.the use of alcohol, abstention from the use of intoxicants at business meetings, the substitution of money for drinks where trade customs require the latter (as in breweries), the abolition of “compulsory” drinking customs, and the abolition of “treating.”’ That commends itself as a safe and sensible programme; a programme that is as well suited to the needs of these new countries as it is to those of older lands a programme in which all sections of the community—Prohibitionists and StateControllers, total abstainers and ‘ moderates ’ —could heartily unite. Sleeping in Church There are those who hold that the responsibility for the occasional cases of slumbering in church cannot fairly be confined to the pew; and Henry Ward Beecher went so far as to instruct his deacons that if they ever saw a member of the congregation sleeping during the sermon they were to go at once and shake-—the preacher. Certainly if the preacher himself is half asleep and persists in speaking in a perpetual monotone, he will inevitably produce the soporific effect described in the parody on Gray’s well-known lines:- ‘ Now fades the glimmering subject from the sight, And all the air a sleepy stillness holds, Save where the parson hums his droning flight. And drowsy tinklings lull the slumbering folds.’ Various devices have been tried, or suggested, by preachers to arrest the .* sleeping sickness ’ which occasionally attacks a whole congregation. We have read of a Scottish minister, of the old school, who recommended an old lady in his congregation to take snuff in order to keep from dosing; but the old lady got even by retorting that if he. ‘ would pit a little mair snuff into his sairmon ’ she would be awake enough. Mr. Spurgeon tells of a minister, who, seeing that the people would sleep, calmly sat down and observed, ‘ I saw you were all resting, and I thought I wquld rest too.’ And it is related of Andrew Fuller that on one occasion he had barely commenced a sermon when he saw the people going to sleep. Whereupon he paused for a moment, and then called out, ‘ Friends, friends, friends, this won’t do. I have thought sometimes when you were asleep that it was my fault, but now you are asleep before I begin, and it must be your fault. So wake up and give me an opportunity of doing you some good.’ v * But these were mildness itself compared to the method adopted by a Kentucky preacher the other day for securing proper attention to his discourse. We give the facts as reported in the North West Review (WinniP e g)j of May 6:— ‘ Dr. H. H. Crossfield, president of Transylvania University, Kentucky, was greatly annoyed during a sermon last night at a series of revivals he is holding at the First-Christian Church by two of the brethren who had fallen asleep because of unusual exertion during the day. After calling attention to the fact that he was listened to most attentively by all but the two, the doctor noticed that one of the transgressors, evidently a light sleeper, was aroused.

The other, however, sitting in the next to the front pew, was not awakened by such a soft rebuke. The Kentucky person could stand it no longer. Keeping right on with the sermon, he shied a song book at the sleeper. One book followed another until the audience was in a titter, but the tired man simply opened his eyes for a moment and shifting his position from full face to profile, slept right on until the benediction without apparent interruption.’ Who would not envy, such a gift of sleep ? • J