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Show THE MARQUIS OF QUEENSBURY. He fells a. Reporter About California Califor-nia and Consignor Capcl. "Do you know, I think I knocked Mon-signor Mon-signor Capel out in our discussion at San Francisco not long since," said the Marquis Mar-quis of Queensbury, at the New York Hotel Ho-tel to a reporter for the Mail arid Expreis. i He was dressed in a pair of light striped trousers and a short jacket. He carried a small cane and wore a very narrow-brimmed narrow-brimmed silk hat. His height was below the medium and his weight about 135 pounds. Few persons would imagine him to be by his looks the world-famous author of the prize ring rules that bear his name. "No; tell something about the controversy." contro-versy." 1 . "Well, when I reached San Francisco I found Mgr. Capel there lecturing. I know the distinguished priest intimately and have a high regard for his learning and eloquence. He knows, too, that 1 am an agnostic and an advocate of sci ence as opposed to orthodox religion. In one of his lectures he quoted from Huxley Hux-ley this sentence about miracles : 'But true agnosticism will not forget that ex-istencei ex-istencei motion and law abundantly operating op-erating are more stupendous miracles than any recounted by the mythologists.' This statement quoted, as coming from Huxley quite took my breath awav. The idea that Huxley gave utterance "to such a sentence is quite ridiculous. I felt that j the Monsignor had- either misquoted or I made a mistake as to the author. I wrote a letter and expressed mvself to that effect. I attacked from the" shoulder the idea of miracles. I put in home thrusts at each sentence. If that sentence quoted above were true, then water, ice, snow, any phenomena in nature would be a miracle. The beautiful rose that from a bud gradually opens would be more of a miracle than any recorded bv sacred history. his-tory. Hence the fallacy of the lecturer i quoting that sentence was so patent I i had no other alternative Vnf t roirr I j He answered me in ten lines by saying i that he intended to publish a book on the subject. That showed that my argument argu-ment was unanswerable. Now, strange to say, nobody seemed to notice that"! got the best of him. It was a clear knock-out in the first round. That answer an-swer threw up the sponge and acknowledged acknowl-edged defeat as neatly as anvthing I ever saw. My idea was "to enter the ring against many of his lectures, but I found it would be useless, because our ideas were diametrically opposite. For instance, take his lecture about divorce I would j never agree with him. I met him after- I wards when I came East, but we did not i discuss the subject," j j WANTS TO LEAVE ENGLAND. j " What did you visit California for ?" j I 'I went there to buv land : huf T tk;nu I j the distance is too great. I had no idea that my sons, in time, . might locate in this country. My situation as a peer in Great Britian is very disagreeable. I am disfranchised, an alien in my own land and politically dead. My estates are in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. I was chosen ( to the House of Lords as one of the six- j teen peers to represent Scotland. They I never knew my religious views until I i was elected. Then these 'fifteen Scottish 1 peers, six months before Bradlaugh was j ejected from the House of Commons, did I 0 a sneaking thing. They met without my knowledge and debarred me from taking my. seat. Lord Lothian got up in a pompous pom-pous way and said : 'Alas ! yes, 'tis true the Marquis of Queensbury is an Atheist,' and moved that I be rejected, which was carried. So practically I am not a citizen citi-zen of my own country. Times are changing chang-ing in. England and Scotland now. The people generally are becoming -more liberal lib-eral in their religious opinions Prejudice is dying, superstition is being choked by science and progress is on the march. It is only a question of time when bigotry must perish and the true era of refonh and progress begirf. In my political opinions opin-ions l am a Liberal. It places me in closer sympathy with the people and comes nearer giving universal justice. But in America you do not know 'what wretchedness and poverty prevail in Great Britian. - You are not ground down by a class rult. The rich people in our country "are very rich and the poor are miserable beyond description. If the people are poor here, not so much of it is seen and their condition is not hopeless. A humanitarian cannot see such poverty and distress in my country without weeping. It makes me unhappy, and I often think seriously of coming to America to reside. In Scotland ,real estate is declining rapidly in value. Times are depressed, and the future uncertain. un-certain. The Irish question is always agitating England. . I think that Ireland should have home rule.. The people are able to govern themselves. The Irish Parliament could certainly make laws for their country. I do not believe though in the disunion of United Great Britian. |