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THE AUSTRALIAN ............................................... 9

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which the Prime Minister said that the move-
ment was a justifiable one, but that the Govern-
ment could not express any further advice on
the subject. There is no reason to think that
the promoters of the movement will take any
action which is not strictly legal --- and there are
many reasons why, as the governor of the Bank
of England hinted, the city should be anxious to
support the landlords in Ireland. But, granting
that the movement is natural and justifiable, its
expediency may still be questioned. Its object
has been defined by those who support it to be
that of "enabling landlords to collect their
rents." To enforce payment of rent is always a
thankless task, and it would have been better to
have left it to the Government. No doubt the
result may be that a larger proportion of rents
will be collected, but not sufficient to cover the
expense of this new organisation. That it will
tend to the diminution of outrages is very proble-
matical, while it is certain that it will inflame
still more the bitter animosity which already
exists between class and class. --- Tablet.

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Catholics in the British Army.

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On the 1st of January this year there were
41,335 Catholics in the British army, out of a
total of 180,000. Twenty years ago there were
58,000. This gives a proportion of 234 Catho-
lics this year to every thousand men. There are
36,879 Irishmen in this service, of whom only
1600 are in the cavalry, and 5800 in the artillery,
and 294 foreigners, besides 4200 born in India
or the colonies. There are only 14,400 Scotch-
men in the army. There were 3800 men raised
in Ireland in the year 1880. There were 83,896
cases of desertion in the past 20 years.

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SCOTLAND.

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Professor Blackie on "Christianity and
the Land Laws."

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The fourth of the series of lectures delivered
under the auspices of the Glasgow Sunday
Society (says the Glasgow Herald of December
24) was given on Sunday night in the Queen's
Rooms, Clifton-street, by Professor John Stuart
Blackie, Edinburgh, who took for his subject
"Christianity and the Land Laws." There was
a numerous attendance, the hall being crowded.
Mr. J. Shaw Maxwell, the hon. secretary of the
society, presided, and briefly introduced the
lecturer.

Professor Blackie (who was received with
loud applause) said the reason why he had
chosen the subject on which he was to speak
that night was that Christianity had been
preaching for 2000 years in the world, and it
had not been applied to the organisation of
society. ... (Applause.) ... It was no use preaching
general religion about sin and salvation, about
duty and neglect of duty; they must show
people what they were to do and what they were
not to do. Most people were slow and stupid to
correct their vices, and therefore general preach-
ing is a matter of no consequence. The thing
was how to make life noble and society better,
and to make the world feel that we had left it
better than we found it. ... (Applause.) ... If they
made any distinction between Christianity and a
vulgar superstition it must be that in a supersti-
tion morality was not the essence of the busi-
ness, while in Christianity it was. They must
tell people what to do, otherwise they instilled
into people the notion that religion was a thing
for Sunday and not for Monday. He was in-
clined to think that they would be the better of
a course of sermons on social questions. As
ministers did not do so he intended to try. ... (Ap-
plause.) ... He had no intention of treating social
problems in vague generalities intended to keep
people in a pious sleep, but by practical advice.
Religion, if it meant anything at all, should give
instruction for the conduct of the whole week.
He acted on that principle at the risk of being
brought before the venerable Free Church Pres-
bytery of Glasgow. ... (Laughter.) ... However, he
intended to expound the land laws as inter-
preted by Scripture, for he held the Scriptures
to be the highest laws of morality, and he took
the Scriptures as a good test to measure the
land laws by. In the first place, they had
some very interesting notices of the land laws
in the Hebrew legislation. They knew
this remarkable thing, that the land belonged
to the people. ... (Hear, hear and applause.) ...
The land was divided among the tribes
in the same way as in the Highlands the land
was divided among the M'Donalds [McDonalds] and the rest,
and it was the intention of the legislation to
keep the land in the hands of the people. The
laws were established in the interest of thrift.
The great tendency of the land laws of the
Hebrews was to preserve great masses of man-
hood and society, to prevent men from being
banished from their homes. Therefore the pro-
phets who were a kind of half-way house be-
tween Moses and the Gospel --- (laughter) --- they
need not laugh and show their ignorance. ...
(Renewed laughter.) ... It was most certain that
the germ of the Gospel lay in the prophets,
which were the laws of Moses, and if they were

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right then we were wrong. In Isaiah xlv [XIV]., 18,
it was written: --- "For thus saith the Lord that
created the heavens, God himself that formed
the earth and made it; he hath established it;
he created it not in vain; he formed it to be
inhabited; I am the Lord, and there is none
else." Was that the way in the Highlands, or
with rich Glasgow merchants who acquired
property and established deer forests and drove
out the people who inhabited the soil? Did they
act in the spirit of Isaiah? Those who wrote and
spoke on the land question were bound to take
into account all the Mosaic enactments on the
subject. Contrasting Christianity and Judaism,
the Professor said Judaism was a religion of
ordinances, institutions, services, and religious
ceremonials; but Christianity was neither the
one nor the other. It was an affair of motives,
and its inspiration was to purify the fountain-
head of the moral action. Therefore, there was
nothing in Christianity about external matters
--- nothing about the land laws for instance.
Christianity did not even interfere with slavery;
but they were not to suppose that because
Christianity did not directly interfere with civil
government it did not intend to exercise an in-
fluence over institutions. It meant to do so and
did so. The fundamental principle of Christi-
anity was to establish such motives as would
produce a well-ordered state of society. The
inspiration of Christianity was love, and sym-
pathy, and the equality of all men before God.
The lecturer then quoted, from Goethe's
"Wanderjahre," the conversation on reverence.
We called it love; Goethe called it reverence,
the habitual existence not for yourself, but for
your brother, and that was the thing they must
hold to be the test of land laws, and everything
else in the world. ... (Applause). ... Having read from
the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians at the fourth
verse, the Professor said he did not believe the
salvation of society was to be got from political
economy or any other science, but by moral in-
spiration, and in nowhere could they find higher
moral inspiration than in the New Testament.
Let a man look in the face of Jesus Christ or
the Apostle Paul, and if he was not a shallow
conceited puppy he would come away a great
deal wiser. ... (Applause.) ... Now, let them inquire
into our existing land laws and see if they acted
in such a manner as to strengthen the weak
against the strong, or, rather, to make the weak
stronger. Study the history of the land laws,
and then ask him this single question. Who
made the land laws? Was it Moses? No. The
land laws were made by the strong men ---(ap-
plause) --- and it would have been a miracle if the
land laws had been just. ... (Renewed applause.) ...
He did not blame the strong men; he blamed
the men who allowed them to make them. ... (Ap-
plause.) ... The land laws were made by the
strong to make the strong stronger and to pre-
vent the weak standing upon their legs. Let
them take the question of rent. How were they
to know what the rent ought to be. They would
say by that market it would be soon found
out what the value was. But that was a different
thing from poor tenants under their landlord
and the thumb of their factor. Would they
tell him that was making a fair bargain. It was
not a free contract, it was imperious imposition.
... (Applause.) ... Laws had been made to preserve
game; why were laws not made to preserve the
population? ... (Loud applause.) ... Because land-
lords want to preserve game, and to get rid of
the people. Was that love of the people?
Under certain conditions he approved of deer-
stalking and all kinds of exercise. These were
the men who fought our battles and took Sebas-
topol. Well, they did not take Sebastopol ---
(laughter) --- but these were the men who fought
our battles and made British officers the
bravest in the world. But while deerstalking
was allowed, the people must not have the
right to allow their cattle to browse upon the
braes. The deer came down among the corn,
but if a word was said about it the man was
turned out next year. There were, however,
good landlords in the Highlands, and they must
not suppose that he was a radical ...(laughter). ...
There was no better man than an aristocrat
when he did not go mad about deer. There
were good landlords, especially amongst the
Tories --- (laughter, applause, and slight hissing)
--- but some of the worst landlords he knew were
amongst those upstarts, those Glasgow merchants
who wanted to hob-nob amongst the aristocrats.
It was a firey Highland Radical who told him
that the Tories were the best landlords in the
Highlands, but one of the best landlords he
knew, who was not a Tory, was Sir Kenneth
Mackenzie ... (applause). ... Regarding leases, the
Professor thought the tenants ought to have a
lease if they pleased, and they ought to have
security that they would be kept upon the
ground to reap the fruits of their improvements,
if they had any. In the Highland glens there
was no passage because of his Lordship's deer ---
(laughter) --- but if they were prevented from
going there they should make a row in the news-
papers ... (renewed laughter). ... But when a law
was made to protect deer, a law should be made
to enable tenants to shoot deer when they came
down among the corn. If the laws had been
made by poor people or even by vagabond pro-
fessors --- (laughter) --- there would have been more