| Show BRITISH POLITICS Y jf The Decline and Decay to Which They are Tending IOKD StLI8 TRY TOTlIEFJtO J > 555 f S DIsestablishment Disendownteiit and Gladstone Notes b f a Wanderer BELFAST October 101835 To the Editor of THE HERALD The political pot continues to boil and instead of their being any abate inentthe interest is if anything on the increase Notwithstanding the great efforts however that are being made by both parties to catch the unwary voter observe that tradestrikes continues resulting either for a decrease in the wages of the men employes to whiCh they are unwilling to submit or from a demand for increased renumeration on the port of workmen to which the employer em-ployer refuses to yield I notice also that the lack of labor is still a lamentable lamen-table fact which continues with stubborn stub-born and unyielding persistence despite de-spite the Utopian promises of demagogues dem-agogues who are determined to catch votes even if it beat the expense of brains and veracity One can see also despite the promising accounts which are given by political orators of the future to which they are forever pointing point-ing with the inevitable pride that a sensation of profound uneasiness pervades per-vades the ranks of business men which becomes the more apparent in commercial commer-cial circles as time advances and as a drowning man is said to grasp at a straw so the eyerwise and universally informed politician together with his journalistic henchman are convulsively convuls-ively clutching at any circumstance which favorable winds may blow within their reach All this time decay continues t con-tinues its encroachments and men and societies are lured from a contemplation contempla-tion of the approaching dissolution by the hourly topics which degenerate statesmen are conjuring up to attract and rivet attention There is however very little interest manifested by the body of the people It is true the daily publications are full of the statements state-ments of this man or that man lengthy and indigestible editorials are spun out on the most improbable suppositions so as to make the pill which is to do the cleansing work as palatable as possible I pos-sible but after ail the marrow and the bone remains stubbonly indifferent to the controversy and as by English law votes no longer dare be bought the principal incentive to the average elector has lost its flavor and he no longer cares a button how the confounded con-founded thing goes Talk about braidS It is rot Nowhere in the world do the II good people exercise their intellects ih political matters They are the machines which a few tricksters con trol and operate It is so in Great Britain it 13 So in the United States that great asylum of intellectual giants and while the ballot Iras the appear I ante of being the mend and power of the poorand perhaps might beit is themost deceptive thing imaginable as by it all manner of rascality and downright blackguardism is sustained and operated The only proof a man needs of it is to note the character the individuals who are supported and grow pecuniarly fat by this pallad um this quintessence of liberty the ballot And since the average man cannot see beyond his pocket and his stomach it is not suprising to witness the spectacle of a country like the United Uni-ted States controlled completely and under the thumb of demagogues and political scoundrels Such being the case the ballot is simply a means by which a few unprincipled individuals carry on practices they dare not otherwise other-wise be guilty of It is the old story of the boi e thrown to the hungry watchdog which the dog grinds at in silent contentment while the robber goes through the house the public being the dog the ballot the bone and I the politician the thief Lord Salisbury has now bounced to the front and the papers of an independent inde-pendent character as of course those of his own way of this lkng refer to the effort as statesmanlike in every particular partic-ular He does not agree with Mr Gladstone and he is bitterly opposed to the disestablishment of church and state Now Lord Salisbury is a fool if the Utah patriots are right and if Lord Salisbury is right the inference is that the Utah patriots arenever perish the thought Never let it be intimated no nor even insinuated that anyone of those who are laboring so hard to save Utah from that ruin which 28 years has been establishing and which is to be seen in the most prosperous section of country years considered be found in the world could possibly befools be-fools Perhaps a few of the PremeS ideas on the disestablishment oj the church in England might not be uninteresting un-interesting He speaks of it as will be seen in no ambiguous language and the leading papers of England actually refer to his utterances as statesmanlike It is to the youthful press in Utah that we must look however for a correct analysis of the work of his Lud ships utterances on this question and there is little doubt that a very lucid overthrow of the position of the Earl Premier can speedily be accomplished by the thinkers of Utah Referring to the subject of disestablishment in Mr Gladstones manifesto Earl Salisbury Salis-bury said I confess I never believed that I Should see Mr Gladstone among those who would admit the disestablishment and disendowment of the established churches of the land as among the pos siblemeasures to which he could be induced in-duced to consent But deeply as we may lament this evidence of the power which party ties possess we must not theless misinterpret the significance of this avowal or the duty that it imposes upon us It means that the time of ultimate and supreme conflict is at Hand It means that the danger which we have foreseen for many days is now close to our doors It may come upon us even in the new Parliament The language that Mr Chamberlain has usedthe fact that he has used it without with-out rebukethe fact that he is being 1 allowed to assume the position of leader of the Liberal party almost without with-out demurthese things now show that even in the new Parliament you may have a proposal for the disestablishment disestablish-ment of the churches of this country proposal more fraught with frightful c I disaster us as a nationmore fraught J with calamitous eventsthan Anything in legislation than has taken place since Parliamentary Government was foun ded The church will be stripped and bare and in every part of the land the machinery ma-chinery by which Gods word has been preachedby which Christianity has been upheldby which the sick has been visited and comfortedby which all the ministrations of religion have I been carried to suffering humanity in its various stages and needall this machinery will be by one blow destroyed des-troyed and generations will be required before it could be replaced This it is which with a lightheart Mr Gladstone is prepared to sacrifice We have no sympathy with those who think that by supporting the Liberal party now they may get better terms when the catastrophe occurs further on There are Liberal churchmen whose action I confess in this great crisis astounds me I can understand men who think the interests of the church are of an inferior character who think that the imp or tance of keeping the party together and supporting the party funds and getting the party into office and pay ing homage to the party leader that these things are more important than keeping up aright that provision for the teaching of Christianity which has existed for a thousand years But to those who are of an opposite mind to those who are believed to be numerous to those churcumen who think that the interests of the church are the dearest matter upon the whole field of political controversy with which they could have to do to them I appeal to consider as to the course which they shall pursue Now that it is announced in no obscure accents that their leader is prepared to desert them on the first convenient op portunity they at all events must know the importance of the stake for which the contest is being waged Liberal churchmen who now support the Liberal party after the declarations that have been made are supporting the machinery which is to destroy that which they hold most dear They are sharpening the weapon by which the church is to be struck down they are furnishing party strength and eiv ing an opportunity of extended organization to those whom they know are the enemies of the institution which of all institutions they in their heart hold dearest I cannot conceive what the sophistry is that induces them at such a time to join their hands to join their feet and to join their efforts with those who are ready to undertake the destruction of the mechanism by which Christianity has been upheld in this country At all events we can hold no ambiguous language on this matter Our party is bound up with the maintenance main-tenance of the established and endowed churches of this island Referring to religious topics calls to mind a story which is going the rounds of the press now and which promises frightful results for 1886 It is to the effect that an old prophecy has been unearthed by somebody at Rome which applies to the year mentioned It appears ap-pears that at Okermel near the city of rreveri Germany there is a stone tablet some centuries old on which is cut a prophetic verse which may be rendered in proze as follows When Mark shall bring I us Easter and Anthony shall sing praises at the feet of Corpus Domini then shall the whole earth resound with weepings and wail ines Now it so happens that next year falls on St Marks Day Pentacost on that of St Anthony of Pnrlnn and the Corpus Domini comes on St John the Baptists Day June 24 Here then are the first conditions of the prophecy fulfilled so that believers in quaint old prophecies and anxious minded persons generally have only to sit down and imagine everything disagreeable that can possibly happen to this poor old planet and the dwellers thereon between be-tween January and December of 1886 In truth if the cyclones earthquakes epidemics and disasters generally together to-gether witk wars and rumors of wars of the last three years are to be eclipsed the prospect is certainly not an agree one It is amusing to note the peculiar turn which the animosity of North Irishmen takes for their countrymen of the South Not satisfied with referring to their religion as ar ungodly one by insinuating that an alliance with a Nationalist Na-tionalist because of the Roman Catholic character of Nationalism they are now given to mimicing their use of English or as Saxe in his stuttering wife says I mimicked her speech like a churl that I am In a recent leader of overpowering length together with words of learned length and thundering sound in which Mr Parnell and his followers werp getting get-ting a fearful lashing a conservative sheet referred to them as pathrkta italicizing the word here quoted It was using the brogue expression in such a sneering manner that it recalled a circumstance very like it in all respects which happened in my hearing Two of the circumsized descendants of Abraham were quareling over some paltry matter and each was striving to show his abhorrence for and contempt of the other by the use of every degrading degrad-ing expression active brains could conjure con-jure up or originate Finally one of them nit the nail on the head and wound up the fight bv triumphantly exclaiming Go ahead my poy Go ahead Vy you was nuttink but a dam Jew anyhow I Marriage does not seem to be all bliss here A young man has been sent to jail for six months for getting married or rather for making false statements in order that he might call the darling of his heart by the term wife It is a queer place to spend ones honey moon but the fellow that wouldnt be willing to remain in jail six months in Order to get so great a prize is chickenhearted Hejmigltbe comforted com-forted by the knowledge that he is not the only one who is warded by government gov-ernment for marrying by a six months soiourn behind prison walls I Scene in court judge = Madame what is your profession pro-fession herI am an actress Judge How old arsyou SherI am just 22 JldgeMr Clerk You may now I swear the lady ji Ai DEER |
