The Irish standard., 1889-05-25
VIRTUOUS AND CHIVALROuS
of An English Protest ant
Minister Formed From a Visit
to Ireland.
THE TEST OF FAMILY AFFECTION.

THE TEST OF FAMILY AFFECTION.
With all Its Dangerous Situations, the Land
of Sban1rocks the Furest Under
Rev. f. l.. Everett, an English Pro-
testAnt minister, who visited Ireland
recently, wrote for the Christian
World his Impressions Of Catholicity
in that unhappy land. After praising
the Irish observance Of Sunday, he
writes:
'''By their fruits ye shall know them
said the Lord of all Christians, speaking
OF His disciples. Apply this text to the
Catholic Irish. Is their religion al
forms and superstitions, or has it a real
bold upon their hearts and lives? Take
the text of the Ten Commandments. Is
purity Christian virtue? where is
Protestant Britain in comparison with
Catholic Ireland in regard to this?
Simply nowhere. All statistics and all
testimonies affirm this? a young man
who sins against woman IN this re-
spect in Ireland is 50 condemned by al
his neighbors that his life is made a
burden to him, and he is forced to emf
grate.'
HER SONS vIRrJOUs AND CHIvALROUs.
''Even in the Wild outburst of 1898,
it is admitted on al! hands that not a
woman was wronged at the hands OF
rebels, while, both before and after it,
sins against the Catholic women on the
part of che troops were shamefully fire.
quent. What stronger testimony cal
We have to the power OF the Catholic
religion than its ability to hold in res
traint the strongest passions Of human
nature. The conditions of life under
which the Catholi: religion obtains this
conquest in Ireland increases Our ad-
miration for it's power. The people live
there crowded together in their poor
cabins, and thus necessarially are in
the way of temptation; and their land
too, is full of priests, sworn to a single
life, yet in familiar and constant social
intercourse with family life and with
other SEX ..M.
1.-The island is full Of int1ammable
material and of dangerous situati0ns,yet
it is the purest land under the sun, at
least as regards the Catholic part Of it's
population. How can any fair-minded
Christian man withhold high praise to
the Catholic teachers for this good prac-
ticai fruit which their teachings bear.
Then, again, take the test of family af
fection. He that provideth not for his
own, and especially for those Of bis
own house, says the Apostle, has denied
the faith and is worse than an inidel
I have heard steady, well-conducted,
religious men in England, il called up
on to contribute to aged father or moth
ef complain, most bitterly OF having
the old father or mother hung around
their necks. The feeling and conduct
of the Irish TO their aged parents might
we'll shame such as these, and | have
quoted actual words heard from the lips
OF agricultural laborers decidedly above
the average of their class.
THE POOR.
sin the histories of evictions in Ire
land three generations are generally
found in the cabins; place by the turf
fire having been kept for the old folks.
Then look at the money sent from
America to the fatherlanl bY the exiled
Irish. How many a rent which the
land would not carry has been paid out
Of the earnings Of sons and daughters
in America sent over by them to the
old folks at home? There was no poor
law in Ireland till 1888; until then they
had to keep their old and sick, or see
them starve. In the early part of this
century the support of these were actu-
ally estimated to cost the poor of Ire
land some 5000, 600 a year out of their
incredibly scanGy earnings. No doubt
the poor law has been a bad school,
master in England, and the absence of
it may have strengthened family ties in
Ireland. But the poor law has never,
we believe, been the chosen Catholic
mode Of relieving the poor.
COMPARATIVELY CRIMELEss.
''And in Catholic Ireland it is certain
that family affection and family mutual
help far exceed what are to be seen in
Britain. This again is a good fruit of
no mean order. Take again, the test of
ordinary crime. Outside of agrarian
outrages there is less of murder and
savage brutality, or of stealing, OF of
wife beating, or Of drunkenness, than
in England. The records of the court
show this. In our own travels in the
country we saw only three drunken
men, and they were, each of them, En-
glish soldiers. If it were not for the
land question they would hardly need
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