I
T II E II E S 1 E R TAN. tf II
Petition. Under such circumstances a fraternity must
deteriorate no matter how good it may have been at
first. If a fraternity would promptly expel a mem
ber when it is found that he is not desirable
he fraternity might then hope to maintain the lofty
principlesupon which it is supposed to be founded,
but even under such circumstances it is questionable
wl ether or not a fraternity is an unmixed blessing.
In what light then should all fair minded men regard
an institution that would seek, if nccccssury, to de
fend the misdeeds of its members? Is not the man
who knowingly defends wrong as much guilty as the
person who has done the act?
LITERARY.
The position ot the Catholic church of America with ref
crcncc to the temperance reform lias long been a source of
sorrow to tltosc having nt heart the interests oi this move
ment. Even protcstaul churches have been too slow, as
some believe, in supporting the claims of temperance. But
the great body of the Catholic church has been, to all appear
ances the opponent of any measure looking towards a reform
in the drinking habits of the people. Statistics, as well as
common observation, shows that, in America, at least, Ca
tholicism furnishes a disproportionately large number of
patrons of the saloon.
In view of these considerations it is with interest that one
notes the lively discussion in Catholic periodicals of the mer
its of total abstinence and other proposed means of lessening
the evils of thujiquor traffic. This discussion is occasioned
at the present lime by the celebration, October 10, 1890, of
hundredth annivcisary of the birth of Father Matthew, the
the Irish apostle of total abstinence. It is to be hoped that
in recalling the virtues and labors of this most estimable
priest the masses of the church may be impelled more and
inure to emulate his good qualities.
One cheering thing to be noted in the contributions to
this discussion which are furnished by eminent Catholic
divines from all portions of the United States is the unquali
fied manner in which declaration ii made that viewed from
the standpoint of temperance the state of tlvJu'iliolic church
is deplorable. In an article in the Cntholir World for Sept
tembcr, Rev. Walter Elliott makes the following candid
statement: "Now comes the horrible truth. In all the cities
of the Union a large proportion of these notches 1. e.
drunkards arc Catholics. To deny this is a great weakness.
It is folly to try to conceal it. Mr. IWdcrly ought to know
whether the working classes are given to excessive drink, and
at the last meeting of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union
of America he affirmed that nine out of ten of the supporters
of the saloon are workingmen the very class which forms
nearly the whole of our Catholic community. In many cities,
big and little, wc have something like a monopoly of the
business of selling liquor and in a few something equivalent
to a monoply'of getting drunk. Scarcely u Catholic family
amongst us but mourns one or other of its member as a vic
tim of intemperance," There is no equivocation in the fore
going declaration. It is the assertion of a man who plainly
feels the truth of what he writes, and who is anxious tc find a
,iepi-dy for th svil to which he calls attention, He sees no
yvay for the church to cscupe from this lamentable condition
except by an effort, along with the administration of the sac
raments, to establish within the individual communicant cer
tain natural virtues, one of the most essential of which is
tcmpcrcuce. " The regular administration of the aids of
religion," he venture to assert, "to a population defective
of so essential a natural virtue as restraint from excessive use
of drink, is like scattering good seed upon the matted sod of
the unbroken prairie or rather the ash-heaps oi the foundry
dump". And he speaks not for himself alone, but as the ex
poncnt of Total Abstinence Society of the Catholic Church
in America.
The assertion that, beyond the administration of the sacra
ment, practical efforts arc needed to reclaim the drunkard,
gives evidence of the existence within the Catholic church of
a piogrcssivc clement. While it is perhaps to be regretted
that this great organization, so potent for good when rightly
directed, docs not see fit to enroll itself in favor of the most
effectual means of suppressing intemperance, it is still grati
fying that some Catholics arc laboring with might and main
to compass reform at least along the lines of total absti
nence and moral suasion.
V
In fourteen centuries the Saxon race in the isle of Britain
has formed a great nation, the nucleus of an empire extending
round the globe. England is justly renowned for her genius
in the departments of law and government. To her credit be
it said that she is the "mother country" thai lias sent forth
colonies of which some arc now great nations. Hut her com
mercial supremacy, for many years so unapproachable, was
partly secured by means unwoi thy of modern civilization.
No more terrible indictment could be proffered against
any country than to state that it had followed out a pplicy
analogous to that which for the iast three centuries has guided
England's course toward Ireland. Christians shudder, and
well they may, at the sacrifice of the heathens to Moloch.
Hut to the Moloch of English greed, the industrial interests,
yes, even the lives, of the Irish people, have till within recent
years been offered. The maxim, "Whatever Is, is right," is
cruelly wrong in the presence of such woes inflicted by one
Christian nation upon another.
Irclond's natural facilities for agriculture and particularly
for commerce are said to surpass England's by far. What,
then, has made England so rich and Ireland so poverty
stricken? ' What have been the salient features of England's
policy towards Ireland? Has it been characterized, except
in comparatively recent years, ly regard for Ireland's welfare?
To these queries history answers that, in the Seventeenth
century, nearly the whole of Ireland was confiscated and di
vided among protcs'.ant proprietors from abroad, by which
action rights that had existed for centuries were violated, and
dissensions engendered, the termination of which even the
present age has not seen; that, in the Seventeenth, and part
of the Eighteenth, century, Irish commerce was crushed by
restrictions placed upon it to benefit English traders; and that
only within the present century has an inclination been shown
on the part of England to remove abuses ai.nl anomalies that
just legislation has reared in Ireland.
The logical result of such a policy is to be seen in the
famine which destroyed one and one-half million of the Irish
people between 1846 and 1848. That famine was due to the
dependence of the Irish peasantry on one article of food.
This dependence was due to legislation that annihilated Irish
commerce and had hampered agriculture. That legislation
was prompted by England's desire for commercial supremacy.
In view ijf all this, and of the tendency which for half , a cen
tury has been converting Ireland into w pasloiui country a
fwrw
