Protestant Meetings in Scotland.—Mr. Michael J. F. M’Carthy, B.A., Barrister-at-Law, and author of “Priests and People in Ireland,” addressed Protestant meetings in Glasgow and Edinburgh on the 11th and 12th January respectively. The first of these meetings was in the Christian Institute, Bothwell Street, with Sir Archibald Campbell, Bart., in the chair. Mr. M’Carthy delivered a very able and impressive address on “Home Rule in Ireland and Protestantism”—one of the best Protestant lectures we have ever had the privilege of listening to. It was packed with information about the workings of Popery in Ireland, and contained eloquent and earnest passages setting forth the principles of Protestantism, which he termed “pure Biblical Christianity.” He highly commended the Church of Scotland, as founded by Knox and Henderson. Mr. M’Carthy was brought up in the Church of Rome—it is even said he has not yet formally severed his connection with it—but the connection, if any, cannot be but of the thinnest and most nominal kind. For the note and ring that ran through his address were not those of a man who had become a merely intellectual Protestant, but a Christian Protestant “in spirit and in truth.” However, to his own Master in this respect he standeth or falleth; but as far as we could form a judgment, we would wish to see many who occupy pulpits and speak on platforms, and call themselves Protestants and Presbyterians, possess the same light, earnestness, and zeal for truth as distinguish Mr. M’Carthy. We should add that he disclaimed all intention of advocating any political party at the present crisis. The address ought to be in the hands of everyone, and may be had for one penny from The Scottish Protestant Alliance, 227 West George Street, Glasgow.
Jesuits as Journalists.—”The modern newspaper proprietor naturally,” says Mr. Michael J. F. MacCarthy in a recent lecture on Jesuits and the Press, “staffs his paper with catholic-minded men, or boys, who will not offend anyone likely to be of any use to them, and who think that a man who can only take one side in a controversy is a man of very restricted outlook. Now, who supplies these newspapers with the class of journalist required? The Protestant young men who used to go in for journalism in the old days have practically abandoned the profession. A totally different class of men is now wanted in the business. Roman Catholic education has always been particularly suited to journalism. In Italy shoals of educated young men, who have no profession and will not work at a legitimate trade, go into journalism, with the most unhappy results for themselves and for their country. In Ireland it is the same, and it is becoming the same in England. You will find also High Churchmen of the Anglican type in big numbers, and between them and the Romanists there is very little difference. Their religious creeds
attach more importance to externals than to the substance of Divine worship, and it is not to be wondered at that the characteristics of their writings should be the same, and that their style of writing exactly suits the new journalism.”
Suppressing Protestant News.—”I would appeal,” says Mr. MacCarthy in the same lecture, “to the press of England to reconsider its position in regard to British Protestantism, to which it owes its freedom and all its readers. I would appeal to newspaper owners to change their present policy of suppressing Protestant news. This policy is carried out by refusing to report Protestant meetings, and reporting at great length the meetings and movements of Catholics and High Churchmen; by representing Catholics and High Churchmen as leaders of public opinion; by refusing to insert letters from Protestant Christians, while inserting those written by their opponents. I warn them that that policy is doing the work of Jesuits, and of a Church which, if it could, would make a newspaper a very unremunerative class of property indeed.”
Kidnapping Girls.—Two attempts, says the Catholic, have recently been made, one on “Sunday,” 21st November, and one on Thursday, 25th November, to kidnap a converted Roman Catholic girl, as she walked away from our hall in Dawson Street. On the second occasion a priest was in command of the kidnappers. Both attempts were frustrated by our workers; but the girl has had to leave her situation and is supposed to have emigrated to Canada. A young girl from Trim was taken away from Blackrock because she, of her own free will, attended Protestant services. There is no trace of this girl, and she is supposed to be confined in a convent laundry, sweating over a wash tub from morning till night, with indifferent food and no pay, in order to swell the profits of the nuns. Two other converted Roman Catholic girls have been kidnapped within a few months, one from Limerick, and one from County Kildare. Both of these escaped and are now safe. This, remember, is under the British flag, and with a smug-faced Chief Secretary going around England advocating Home Rule. We have got Rome Rule here already as some of us know to our cost.
Monastic Morality.—We have more than once referred to the slashing articles of Father H. Thurston, S.J., in the Jesuit organ The Month. He faces squarely the evidence, for or against, the Mother Church. Reviewing a book, The Scottish Grey Friars, in the December issue of that magazine, he makes one or two noteworthy admissions: “No one who is at all acquainted with the mediæval records will feel disposed to deny that terrible corruptions prevailed at almost every period, and that the ranks of the Religious Orders passed through the ordeal by no means unscathed. In particular the Grey Friars, who probably outnumbered the rest, or at any rate, were more in evidence, were exposed, by the very nature of their vocation, to quite exceptional temptations. Undoubtedly their ideals suffered, and it is no
marvel that in an age before the Jesuits had appeared upon the scene to attract to themselves the largest share of obloquy, the Franciscans . . . should often have been singled out as special objects of attack.” At p. 615 Father Thurston says: “Degeneration undoubtedly there was. It is possible that, at one period or another, or in one locality or another, this degeneration went to the length of extreme moral decay.”—Vanguard.