The “British Weekly” and the McCann Case.—
The editor of the “British Weekly” is still in search of light on the Belfast kidnapping case, which he mildly describes as “the case of desertion.” Surely the children did not desert, neither did the furniture, nor the woman’s clothing. In his difficulty, he writes for information to Mr. Stephen Gwynn, M.P. The be-knighted editor of the “British Weekly” could scarcely have gone to a better quarter, for Mr. Stephen Gwynn is at the head of the Redmondite Press Agency, Great Smith Street, Westminster, an engine designed for pumping dust into the eyes of English Non-conformists. Then the Ne Temere decree could not be without interest for Mr. Gwynn, for he is married to a Roman Catholic wife and his children have gone with the mother. (Mr. Birrell is in the same position.) “I do not believe,” says Mr. Gwynn, “that any priest advised him (McCann), to this action. But if it were proved that a priest had so advised, I would denounce that priest to any assembly of Roman Catholics, basing myself on natural justice.” This will be almost as great a comfort to poor Mrs. McCann as the generous offer of Mr. Birrell, made in the House of Commons, to subscribe to any fund which might be raised for the purpose of enabling that poor woman to secure her legal rights.
Mr. Michael J. F. MacCarthy in the North.—
This well-known writer and lecturer delivered lectures at Inverness, Dingwall, and Wick, on the 14th, 15th, and 16th of March. His subject was “The Roman Power in Britain.” Large audiences attended the lectures, and Mr. MacCarthy was highly pleased with the attention his audiences paid to him. It is to be hoped that the information given may have abiding results in awakening the people to resist the encroachments of Popery in Church and State.
The Tame Protestant.—
I have just seen, says Mr. Walter Walsh in the Protestant Observer, the subjoined quotation from Sinn Fein, a Nationalist paper published in Dublin, and edited, I believe, by a Roman Catholic. Its comments on “The Tame Protestant” are well worth reading by Protestants, for it confirms my opinion that Romanists despise those Protestants who, for political purposes, flatter and toady to the Church of Rome. In its issue for 24th December, 1910, it says: “The Tame Catholic in Ireland has been very justly a target for satire, but as his ancestors got the spirit knocked out of them by the Penal Laws, he can be pitied while he is despised. The Tame Protestant is a lower type. He is a political adventurer who exploits the creed he professes in order to work his way into the British Parliament. He is always drivelling about the ‘tolerance’ of his Catholic fellow-countrymen—he is to be found on the platforms of the Mumbo-Jumbo organizations of illiterate men who exclude Protestants from their membership—he rejoices in a curate’s smile and trembles at a parish priest’s frown—he is more subservient to a political Catholic cleric than the tamest Catholic who breathes the air. Such fellows as these are no credit to the creed they profess or the country they exploit. Irish Protestantism is not to be caught by them—and Irish Catholicism is never deceived. Irish Catholics know that a good Irishman never speaks of his religious belief from a political platform. They despise the Tame Protestant who obsequiously thanks them for their ‘tolerance’ even while they vote for him.”
The Ritualists of Scotland.—
Mr. John Lumsden continues his articles on Ritualism in Scotland in the March Bulwark. He purposes in future issues to deal with the Church Service Society, the Ecclesiologial Society, and the Scottish Church Society. These articles shed a welcome light on the manifold workings of the ritualistic type of mind, and these are the gentlemen that are working for the unity of Christendom. Union, forsooth!
“The Truth about Spain.”—
This work shows clearly the terrible social state of Spain, and that it is owing to Popery, past and present. This able work shows plainly that Spain is evilly administered by its Romish officials, robbed by its Romish politicians, without exception, and that it is ruled by the Jesuits, under the patronage and protection of the astute and ultra-bigoted Queen-Mother; and all this is admitted by the general mass of natives. Mr. Ward bases his arguments on facts and quotations. The Queen-Mother has been, he shows, a disastrous incident and power in Spanish affairs. Her “obstinate intolerance” has caused her to aim at cutting off Spain from the rest of Europe and handing it over to the Jesuits. She was instrumental in bringing about the disastrous Spanish-American War. She has established a new form of Inquisition, having for its object the incarceration and torture of so-called anarchists at Montjuich. And the Church is aided by the Jesuit-guided State, regardless of what party may be in power.—Protestant Observer.