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Show BISHOP POTTER IN THE PHILIPPINES. PHILIP-PINES. Bishop Potter of the Episcopal diocese dio-cese of New York can find a far better field for his missionary efforts among the much many married of his ultra fashionable diocese than he can ever hope to find in the Philippines. The good bishop can cry "Stop thief!" just as much as he phases, but he will throw dust in the eyes of no one, nor will he by pointing out alleged evils in the monastic system distract attention from the horrible evils of divorce from which he has run away. After spending about ten minutes In Manila, Bishop Potter cabled several luiuuiiis uj. an opinion to the New York Herald as to the best method to deal with the Philippines. Commenting on this well digested opinion, one drawn from the bis.hop's vast experience between be-tween the going down of the sun and the coming up thereof, the Chicago Tribune pointedly observes: What Bishop Potter of New York calls his views about the Philippine question have been cabled from Manila. It is evident that a man can travel far and yet have nothing to say which is worth saying. The bisihop announces that "The Filipinos can1 be conquered and subdued by our armies; they can be routed and scattered, so far as their military forces are concerned, but the instincts of justice in them cannot be extinguished, whether by armies or navies. It is to be hoped that it will not be the office of the United States to attempt to extinguish them." Nobody has said that whatever instincts in-stincts of justice the Filipinos may possess can be extinguished by force of arms. Nobody, has suggested that the United States shall extinguish those instincts. It is not seeking to do so. The bishop's expression of a hope that it will not do so is a work of supererogation. super-erogation. He has conjured up "gor-gons "gor-gons and hydras and chimeras dire." The bishop says also that the Filipinos "have been robbed and oppressed by those who in their wrongdoing have shielded themselves behind the highest sanctions. Their lands, which have been taken from them by force and fraud, should be restored to them" so the authority of the United States may "stand for honesty-and justice." Pre. sumably, the wrongdoers the bishop has in mind are the friars. If they have unlawful possession of any lands the United States will attend to the matter. mat-ter. It cannot do so now, however. This is not the time to investigate the validity of land titles which may be two or three centuries old. The bishop might have waited till the insurrection is suppressed before demanding, that religious bodies of another church be deprived of property of which he assumes as-sumes they have become possessed unlawfully. un-lawfully. Eishop Potter's views, where accurate, are trite... A bishop's sermon has been described as a few hortator words at the end of the service, and quite unimportant as compared with it. Perhaps it is in the order of things that a bishop's views should also be unimportant. ;t 4. |