During what may be called the reign of Palmerston, the war of the
intellectual party against Christianity, intensified in the dark counsels
of the _Alta Vendita_, became accentuated and general throughout Europe.
It chiefly lay in the propagandism of immorality, luxury, and naturalism
amongst all classes of society, and then in the spread of Atheistic and
revolutionary ideas. During the time of Palmerston’s influence not one
iota of the advices of the _Alta Vendita_ was permitted to be wasted.
Wherever, therefore, it was possible to advance the programme mapped out
in the “Permanent Instruction,” in the letter of _Piccolo Tigre_, and in
the advices of _Vindex_, that was done with effect. We see, therefore,
France, Italy, Germany, Spain, America, and the rest of the world,
deluged with immoral novels, immodest prints, pictures, and statues, and
every legislature invited to legalise a system of prostitution, under
pretence of expediency, which gave security to sinners, and a kind of
recognized status to degraded women. We find, wherever Masonry could
effect it, these bad influences brought to bear upon the universities,
the army, the navy, the training schools, the civil service, and upon
the whole population. “Make corrupt hearts and you will have no more
Catholics,” said Vindex, and faithfully, and with effect, the secret
societies of Europe have followed that advice. Hence, in France under
the Empire, Paris, bad enough before, became a very pandemonium of
vice; and Italy just in proportion to the conquests of the Revolution,
became systematically corrupted on the very lines laid down by the _Alta
Vendita_.
Next, laws subversive of Christian morality were caused to be passed in
every State, on, of course, the most plausible pretexts. These laws were,
first, that of divorce, then, the abolition of impediments to marriage,
such as consanguinity, order, and relationship, union with a deceased
wife’s sister, etc. Well the infidels knew that in proportion as nations
fell away from the holy restraints of the Church, and as the sanctity
and inviolability of the marriage bond became weakened, the more Atheism
would enter into the human family.
Moreover, the few institutions of a public, Christian nature yet
remaining in Christian States were to be removed one after another on
some skilfully devised, plausible plea. The Sabbath which in the Old
as well as in the New Dispensation, proved so great an advantage to
religion and to man—to nations as well as to individuals—was marked out
for desecration. The leniency of the Church which permitted certain
necessary works on Sunday, was taken advantage of, and the day adroitly
turned into one of common trading in all the great towns of Catholic
Continental Europe. The Infidels, owing to a previous determination
arrived at in the lodges, clamoured for permission to open museums
and places of public amusement on the days sacred to the services of
religion, in order to distract the population from the hearing of Mass
and the worship of God. Not that they cared for the unfortunate working
man. If the Sabbath ceased to-morrow, he would be the slave on Sunday
that they leave him to be during the rest of the week. The one day of
rest would be torn from the labouring population, and their lot drawn
nearer than before to that absolute slavery which always did exist, and
would exist again, under every form of Idolatry and Infidelity. Pending
the reduction of men to Socialism, the secret conclave directing the
whole mass of organized Atheism has therefore taken care that in order to
withdraw the working man from attending divine worship and the hearing of
the Word of God, theatres, cafés, pleasure gardens, drinking saloons, and
other still worse means of popular enjoyment shall be made to exert the
utmost influence on him upon that day. This sad influence is beginning
to be felt amongst ourselves. Then, besides the suppression of State
recognition to religion, chaplains to the army, the navy, the hospitals,
the prisons, etc., were to be withdrawn on the plea of expense or of
being unnecessary. Courts of justice, and public assemblies were to be
deprived of every Christian symbol. This was to be done on the plea of
religion being too sacred to be permitted to enter into such places. In
courts, in society, at dinners, etc., Christian habits, like that of
grace before meals, etc., or any social recognition of God’s presence,
were to be scouted as not in good taste. The company of ecclesiastics was
to be shunned, and a hundred other able means were devised to efface the
Christian aspect of the nations until they presented an appearance more
devoid of religion than that of the very pagans.
But of all the attacks made by Infidels during the reign of Palmerston,
that upon primary, middle-class, and superior education was the most
marked, the most determined, and decidedly, when successful, the most
disastrous.
We must remember that from the commencement of the war of Atheism on
Christianity, under Voltaire and the Encyclopædists, this means of doing
mischief was the one most advocated by the chief leaders. They then
accumulated immense sums to diffuse their own bad literature amongst
every class. Under the Empire, the most disastrous blow struck by the
Arch-Mason Talleyrand was the formation of a monopoly of education for
Infidelity in the foundation of the Paris University. But it was left for
the Atheistic plotters of this century to perfect the plan of wresting
the education of every class and sex of the coming generations of men
from out of the hands of the Church, and the influence of Christianity.
This plan was elaborated as early, I think, as 1826, by intellectual
Masonry. About that time appeared a dialogue between Quinet and Eugene
Sue, in which after the manner of the letter of Vindex to Nubius the
whole programme of the now progressing education-war was sketched out. In
this the hopes which Masonry had from Protestantism in countries where
the population was mixed, were clearly expressed. The jealousy of rival
sects was to be excited, and when they could not agree, then the State
was to be induced to do away with all kinds of religion “just for peace
sake,” and establish schools on a purely secular basis, entirely removed
from “clerical control,” and handed over to lay teachers, whom in time
Atheism could find means to “control” most surely. But in purely Catholic
countries, where such an argument as the differences of sects could
not be adduced, then the cry was to be against clerical _versus_ lay
teaching. Religious teachers were to be banished by the strong hand, as
at present in France, and afterwards it could be said that lay teachers
were not competent or willing to give religious instruction, and so that,
too, in time, could be made to disappear.[21]
We may here call to mind the fact that it was while Lord Palmerston
directed Masonry as Monarch, and English policy as Minister, that
secularism was insidiously attempted to be introduced into higher
education in Ireland by Queen’s Colleges, and into primary education
by certain acts of the Board of National Education. The fidelity of
the Irish Episcopacy and the ever vigilant watchfulness of the Holy
See, disconcerted both plans, or neutralized them to a great extent.
Attempts of a like kind are being made in England. There, by degrees,
board schools with almost unlimited assistance from taxes have been
first made legal, and then encouraged most adroitly. The Church schools
have been systematically discouraged, and have now reached the point of
danger. This has been effected, first, by the Masonry of Palmerston in
the high places, and, secondly, by the Masonry of England generally, not
in actual league and knowingly, with the dark direction I speak of, but
unknowingly influenced by its well-devised cries for the spread of light,
for the diffusion of education amongst the masses, for the banishment
of religious discord, etc. It was, of course, never mentioned, that
all the advantages cried up could be obtained, together with the still
greater advantage of a Christian education, producing a future Christian
population. It was sedulously kept out of sight that the people who would
be certain to use board schools, were those who never went themselves to
any church, and who would never think of giving religious instruction
of any kind to their children. Nothing can show the power of Freemasonry
in a stronger light than the stupor it was able to cast over the men
who make laws in both Houses of the English Parliament, and who were
thus hoodwinked into training up men fitted to take position, wealth,
and bread itself, from themselves and their children; to subject, in
another generation, the moneyed classes of England to the lot that befell
other blinded “moneyed people” in France during the last century. In
England, the Freemasons had, unfortunately, the Dissenters as allies.
Hatred for church schools caused the latter to make common cause with
Atheists against God, but the destruction of the Church of England—they
do not hope for the destruction of the vigorous Catholic Church of the
country—will never compensate even Socinians for a spirit of instructed
irreligion in England—a spirit which, in a generation, will be able and
only too willing to attempt Atheistic levelling for its own advantage,
and certainly not for the benefit of wealthy Dissenters, or Dissenters
having anything at all to lose.
The same influences of Atheism were potent, and for the same reasons,
in all our Australian legislatures. There the influence of continental
Freemasonry is stronger than at home, and conservative influences which
neutralize Atheistic movements of too democratic a nature in England
and Scotland, are weaker. Hence, in all our Australian Parliaments,
Acts are passed with but a feeble resistance from the Church party,
abolishing religious education of every kind, and making all the
education of the country “secular, compulsory, and free.” That is,
without religion, enforced upon every class, and at the general expense
of the State. Hence, after paying the taxation in full, the Catholic and
the conscientious Christian of the Church of England, have to sustain in
all those colonies their own system of education, and this, while paying
for the other system, and while bearing the additional burden of the
competition of State schools, richly and completely endowed with every
possible requisite and luxury out of the general taxes.
A final feature in the education-war of Atheism against the Church
especially, and against Christianity of every kind, is the attempted
higher education without religion of young girls. The expense which they
have induced every legislature to undertake for this purpose is amazing;
and how the nations tolerate that expense is equally amazing. It is but
carrying out to the letter the advice of Vindex:—“If we cannot suppress
woman, let us corrupt her together with the Church.” For this purpose
those infamous hot-beds of foul vice, “lodges of adoption,” lodges
for woman, and lodges “androgynes,”—lodges for libertine Masons and
women—were established by the Illuminati of France in the last century.
For the same purpose schools for the higher education of young girls are
now devised. This we know by the open avowal of leading Masons. They were
introduced into France, Belgium, Italy, and Germany for the purpose of
withdrawing young girls of the middle and upper classes from the blessed,
safe control of nuns in convents, and of leading them to positive Atheism
by infidel masters and infidel associates. This design of the lodges
is succeeding in its mission of terrible mischief; but, thank God, not
amongst the daughters of respectable Christians of any kind, who value
the chastity, the honour, or the future happiness here and hereafter of
that sex of their children, who need most care and delicacy in educating.
In the extract from the permanent instruction of the _Alta Vendita_, you
have already seen how astutely the Atheists compassed the corruption of
youth in Universities. It is since notorious that in all high schools
over which they have been able to obtain influence, the students have
been deprived of religion, taught to mock and hate it, allured to vicious
courses, and have been placed under professors without religion or
morality. How can we be surprised if the Universities of the Continent
have become the hot-beds of vice, revolution, and Atheism? When Masonry
governs, as in France, Italy, and Germany, moreover, the only way
for youth to obtain a livelihood on entering upon life is by being
affiliated to Masonry; and the only way to secure advancement is to be
devoted to the principles, the intrigues, and the interests of the sect.
The continuous efforts of Masonry, aided by an immoral and Atheistic
literature, by a corrupt public opinion, by a zealous Propagandism of
contempt for the Church, for her ministers and her ministrations, and by
a sleepless, able Directory devoted to the furtherance of every evil end,
are enough, in all reason, to ruin Christianity if that were not Divine.
But, in addition to its intellectual efforts, Masonry has had from the
beginning another powerful means of destroying the existing social and
Christian order of the world in the interests of Atheism. We shall see
what this is by a glance at the action of