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Tomahawk (1867-1870), 26th June 1869, Edition 1 of 1, Page unpag, No. 112.] LONDON, J UNE 26, 186 9. [Pric...

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    • THE GREAT MAGEE /
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      The Tomahawk: A Saturday Journal Of Sati...

      THE TOMAHAWK : A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SATIRE . t iYxttis bg § , xt \ nx tfgJttJutt . " INVITAT CULPAM QUI PECCATUM PRETERIT . "

      No. 112.] London, J Une 26, 186 9. [Pric...

      No . 112 . ] LONDON , J UNE 26 , 186 9 . [ Price Twopence .

      The Great Magee /

      THE GREAT MAGEE /

      By The Time This Reaches Our Readers, It...

      By the time this reaches our readers , it is to be hoped the Lords will have talked themselves out , and will have shown that they are wise , spite of Mr . Bright ' s fiat to the contrary , — at least , wise enough not to reject the second reading of the Irish Church Bill . There seem to have "been some very fine speeches on all three sides , notably from the Bishop of St . David ' s , the Marquis of Salisbury , and , last not least , the new glory of the Tories , the great Magee , Bishop of Peterborough . The vocabulary of praise has been exhausted on this performance ; and we are told that we must go back to the days of Plunkett to find any parallel to the Bishop ' s eloquence . It is worth while to examine this great oratorical performance , as it certainly may be taken as a compendium of all that can be said for the doomed establishment . Bishop Magee begins with ominous professions of modesty , which , experience teaches us , generally precede a display of self-confidence , if not of merit . Followed , as these flourishes of bashfulness were , by an accusation against the House of Commons " of howling down" all speakers on the unpopular ' sidewe knew what to expect from the sequel . Abandoning the oft , -repeated fallacies about the violation of the Coronation Oath , and the robbery of private property , which the Bill involves , he stated , somewhat epigrammatically , that revolutions " commence in sacrilege , and go on on to to me communism j , —that is ,

      they begin witn tne ^ nurcn ana go -, ana . Admitting the truth of this dictum , it may not have suggested itself to the humorous intellect of Bishop Magee that revolutions are produced by abuses of trust or power ; that if they have generally commenced with the Church , it is because the Church had abused its trust and power more flagrantly than any other institution ; or , if not more flagrantly , still the Bishop may consider that any neglect or perversion of her duty , that any attempt to ally herself with a tyrannical and unjust executive j that any avarice or cruelty , when practised in the " name and under the authority of those whose sacred privilege it is to uphold justice and mercy , to afford in their own persons an example of Christian gentleness and forbearance , to preach goodwill and peace , among men by actions as well as words j that any shortcomings or misconduct on the part of the Church and her ministers , is more keenly felt , and more violently resented , by the people in exact proportion to the reverence and love which they feel towards their religion . We are now naturally brought to the great Magee's specious argument in favour of a dominant Established Church of the

      minority of the people . He says that the State supports the Church not for its own good , but for the good of the people ; that the State contracts , as it were , with some religious sect , which it thinks best fitted for the task , to defend it against its internal enemies—" sin , ignorance , and crime "—just as it contracts with an army to defend it against its external enemies . Now , granting that the Protestant sect is the best adapted to fulfil this duty , have the clergy of Ireland carried on this defensive war with such skill and energy as the State had a right to expect ? Have they fought against sin , ignorance , and crime to the best of their ability 1 Against what forms of sin or crime had they to fight ? Against indolence , against an exaggerated notion of self-importance and individual rights , against an unreasoning vindictiveness , and a callous disregard of human life on the part of the tenant ; against selfishness , rapacity , and a contempt for individual rights , and a corrupted sense of justice on the part of the landlords . Have they not only preached against but urged upon the tenants by every argument , whether secular or divine , the wickedness of conspiracy and assassination ? Have they remonstrated with the landlords on the criminal neglect of their estates consequent on absenteeism ; on the impolicy and injustice of disregarding the complaints of their tenants , and of always setting their face against any attempted reform of the Land laws ? Have they , in short , recognised the fact that the first object of the Christian religion is morality , and not polemics ? As to the attempt of the Bishop to compare the Irish Church

      question with the Land question , we must say that this part of his speech was most mischievous , as . tending to encourage , far more than even the spontaneous utterances of Mr . Bright , that mistaken notion of their inalienable right to the soil , which lies at the bottom of all the agrarian conspiracies and outrages on the part of the Irish peasantry . The Protestant clergy may be the most popular and constantly resident landowners in Ireland . It would be strange indeed if they lived elsewhere than among the flocks who set such a high value on their services ; it would be more strange if , considering the select and somewhat limited nature of their duties among their own congregation , they did not try and do something to relieve the necessities of those around them who had no claim but that of misery on their benevolence . The Protestant clergy of Ireland have not been , as a rule , the objects of violence or assassination j but this does not prove the popularity of the Established Church ; it only proves how entirely corrupted the minds of the peasantry are on the Land question—that they can respect the lives of those who are the visible signs of the Saxon domination , while they cannot forgive or show any mercy to those

  • Citation
    • Tomahawk (1867-1870), June 26, 1869, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/t/issues/ttw_26061869/page/3/