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of the hour, are ever proposing geological or ethnological comments -which they have to alter or obliterate before the ink is well dry, from changes in the progressive science which they have so officiously brought to its aid.'

(3) Cardinal Newman's third proviso is this: When I advocate the independence of philosophical thought, I am not speaking of any formal teaching at all, but of investigations, speculations, and discussions.' The results reached are not dogmatic affirmations, but conclusions from the evidence available, liable to revision as research and thought advance and are further co-ordinated.

As to the course actually adopted by Ecclesiastical Authority, Cardinal Newman maintains that although it has at times interposed and checked the propagation of valuable or even true lines of thought suggested by the expert few, at a time when they were upsetting religious belief in the many, there are also striking instances in which it has refused to unite with zealous men who called for condemnations of scientific hypotheses as disedifying. St. Boniface petitioned the Holy See to condemn the writer who first taught the existence of the Antipodes, and the Pope refused to do so. The Cardinal urges that where the danger to faith was not clear and urgent, it has been the policy of the Holy See even to encourage that freedom of philosophical and scientific speculation which is the necessary condition of intellectual life among Catholics. And he instances the large liberality of the Church as regards philosophical inquiry' in the age of the mediaval Universities. It was a time,' he writes, when she had temporal power and could have exterminated the spirit of inquiry with fire and sword, but she determined to put it down by argument.' She admitted into her schools the Aristotelian philosophy which so many of the Fathers had opposed as anti-Christian in its tendency. Catholics met the rationalism of the day with its own weapons and by its own methods.

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This large liberality' is perhaps even more requisite if Catholics are to hold their own at the present time in the transformation which is being effected in science and criticism. The Catholic thinker or critic, if he is to deal with other thinkers or critics on equal terms, must, provisionally at least, have his share of the liberty inseparable from their methods. Aristotle was opposed by the Fathers at one time as dangerous to the faith of the multitude. His metaphysical works were burnt by Ecclesiastical Authority in the reign of Innocent the Third. But later on, when it was clear that the problems he raised could not be ignored, his methods were adopted by the Catholic schools. And so too at the present time, authoritative condemnations which would have been wise and valuable when such censures were effectual— when they really checked the reckless diffusion of new lines of secular thought which were dangerous to the faith of the multitude-might now bear the aspect of useless and obscurantist protests against the free

exercise of a trustworthy method of inquiry. For critical and scientific hypotheses are already public property.

Moreover, such hypotheses, even where they conflict with current theological positions, may ultimately prove true-as did Galileo's discovery. Once they are started the reconciliation with theology can only be stably effected by pursuing them further. They must be threshed out on their own merits and according to their own methods, until gradually the true elements are separated from the false. Such a separation is impossible to outside authority until the specialists have had time to sift the questions in debate quite fully. In this process of sifting the Catholic specialist ought to take his share. He must perhaps, on occasion, defend the interests of religion in his own science. But he cannot, with his arms tied, compete with other inquirers whose limbs are free. Deny him the liberty he needs, condemn at the outset the positions in his science which have the appearance of conflicting with current theology, and if he is a wise man he will retire from the field. Inferior minds who are not alive to the requirements of modern thought will perhaps continue, in simple confidence, expositions which have no effect on the thinking world or even provoke its ridicule; while those Catholics who really understand its conditions and command its respect, will refrain from a campaign in which they see too clearly that defeat is inevitable.

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The general fact urged by the Cardinal-the fact of which it behoves the guardians of all interests concerned to remind themselves— is that all sciences are progressive; that the application of theological principles to secular science is also progressive; and that, at a given stage, sciences, theological or secular, may therefore appear to point to contending conclusions. The true solution is not at once to fall foul of each other. Nothing is gained by calling names. It is as narrow for the man of science to dub theology obscurantist,' because it does not at once take his word on faith, as it is for the theologian promptly to rule out as 'heretical' the proposition that the earth goes round the sun. The fact is that the dawn of every new scientific discovery is like the dawn of day-a streak of light visible amid darkness. Both sides, the theological and the scientific, are unable to see clearly in the dark; and fighting in the dark often ends in killing your own friends. Let each inquirer peacefully pursue his own way until more light emerges. When light does emerge the contradiction will often be seen to have been apparent and not real; and while twilight obstinately remains a little faith may draw the same conclusion.

WILFRID WARD.

VOL, XLV-No. 268

3 S

THE GOLD DIGGINGS AT BATHURST

IN 1851

THE present excitement about the Klondike goldfields recalls to my mind that of the people of New South Wales, on the discovery of gold at the Turon, near Bathurst, beyond the Blue Mountains,

in 1851.

Prior to this, an old shepherd had from time to time brought into Bathurst small quantities of gold in quartz or flakes. Nothing would compel him to divulge where he had discovered it, he putting off his questioners with nigh such a place,' or 'thereabouts '-answers most probably given to mislead. The real find came later. At that time I was staying with my parents in Bathurst, then a town of a few streets, with straggling houses, the chief feature of which was an enormous square, where every third house was a public-house. This I vouch for, as, for curiosity's sake, I once went round and counted them.

Our pretty cottage, with its shingled roof, stood atop of a sloping garden, above the high road from Bathurst to the Turon. I see distinctly the hammock slung to the right between two high gum-trees, with their bark hanging down like rags from their stems. Hither on summer nights, weary with tossing sleepless on my bed in the sultry heat, I would steal out somewhere about 2 A.M., and stretch myself out in the cool netted hammock to court the sleep denied to me indoors. It seemed to me that hardly had I begun to doze than I was aroused by the stir of living creatures, by the melodious whistling of flocks of piping crows perched upon the fences, accompanied by the insufferable noise of myriads of cicadas, sounds only to be compared with that of the grinding of hundreds of knives. Tired and nerveless, I would return to the house, where nothing remained but to bathe and dress. Alas! the cold water was tepid, and to face a new day of fiery heat on the Bathurst plains! It may be better to quote from letters of mine to a friend in England, which describe the excitement, the difficulties, and straits of those times :

'The Turon Mountain diggings, through which runs the Turon

river, are thirty miles from Ophir, and about twenty from Bathurst. These are called the Poor Man's diggings, those of Ophir the Rich Man's, not from the different rank of the goldseekers, but because that at the Turon the gold for the most part is found in minute flakes or grains about the size of a pin's head. Very few could suddenly become rich, as nuggets were scarce, yet by patient labour a man might nearly always be sure of success in the long run; whereas at Ophir, by a find of nuggets, which are common, a digger may blaze into riches in a single day.

'These discoveries are fast turning the heads of the inhabitants of Bathurst, and even of the people of Sydney, who have just been made aware of the great find. A Mr. Hargreaves, who was formerly up here, and who has since visited California, felt convinced from the nature of the country that gold must abound here, and after examining the land, discovered several pieces of gold, and the further promise of a golden harvest. He has communicated with the Government about it. No one is permitted to dig until licences are issued. Yet people are hurrying to the Vale of Ophir, as it has been named, in the full belief that their fortunes are made for ever. It is scarcely possible to give you an idea of the frenzied excitement which has seized all ranks. Masons, smiths, and shepherds are deserting their employers; flocks are being handed over to the butchers for boiling down, as it will be impossible to get shepherds to tend them; and it is feared that, though many will grow rich beyond hope, many more, and these principally squatters, will meet with a corresponding reverse.

'The master smiths in this town are all employed in making pickaxes, and whilst I write men, on foot, on horseback, and in drays, pass by in one long never-ending line, with pickaxes and shovels on their shoulders, leading horses with well-filled saddle-bags, and the invariable accompaniment of great pannikins dangling from their sides.'

One morning my mother and I saw pass by from our verandah, during the space of two hours, some seventy men and many drays and carts, piled up to what seemed a dangerous height with bedding, sacks of flour, potatoes, &c., and surmounted by miniature haystacks, atop of which were perched women and children. Many had come from Sydney, some from Van Diemen's Land, and many, from the scraps of conversation that reached us, had even journeyed from California.

May 15, 1851.-Everyone seems to be racking his brains for some successful speculation in connexion with the diggings. Flour is now up to 271. the ton, and is expected to rise to 60l.; everything else will rise in price. My father this morning was obliged to make a virtue of necessity, and offer his men a fortnight's leave of absence, to prevent them from taking it themselves. By this means, and an

additional holiday now and then, he will, I hope, secure their services. Mr. Green's house at Rock Forest, being only twenty miles from the goldfields, will be let as a public-house. He has already been offered 2001. a year for it, and expects to get 500l. The wool-washing business in conjunction with Messrs. Griffiths and Fanning is now entirely stopped; indeed, he can get no men to finish the buildings. Lewes Ponds, a station belonging to Griffiths and Fanning, is one of the localities mentioned by Mr. Hargreaves as possessing gold, which has since been confirmed by a find of nuggets. One piece was sold on Saturday for 30l. Mr. Green, Mr. Kennedy, and Mr. Hawkins rode out, and in half an hour found several smaller pieces. My head aches with talking and thinking of this exciting subject. No one speaks of anything else. It is a new version of "Miss Kilmansegg and her Golden Leg," and, like her leg, more likely to prove a curse than a blessing. How astonished the late emigrants hence to California will be when they hear that the land they left is rich in the precious metal for which they abandoned it!

'There will doubtless be numerous robberies, perhaps murders, through the drunken quarrels of the miners; but I think we need not fear a repetition of the dreadful scenes of California, possessing as we do a Government who will guard against them.'

All this time we Bathurst folk were in sore plight. The town was deserted. The bakers had left, so no bread was to be had. The butchers too. But scant grocery and other supplies were to be had at the stores, for nearly all had been carted to the diggings. Nearly every man, wild with the fever of gain, deserted his employ. We, too, were left to shift for ourselves; our man cook, also our stableman and factotum, both ticket-of-leave men, had fled. Only a young English girl remained with us. She and her mother had been lacemakers in France, but, fearing loss of sight through their occupation, had emigrated to Australia. She was eminently refined, quite a rare exception to the usual run of emigrants, and valued accordingly. I well remember going out to the backyard with Emma and trying, with her help, to chop enough wood for lighting the brick oven to bake bread, for of flour we had plenty. Between us we managed that, and also the drawing of water from the well. I contrived to make good bread and cakes, and curries from our stock of fowls, but both she and I always failed in the vegetables. I could also saddle the horse and harness him, and put him between the carriage-shafts, with Emma's help, and feed him. But how glad I was when the necessity for this ceased!

Our great straits lasted some twelve weeks. By that time many of the wanderers, and foremost the Bathurst folk, had returned, having discovered that the best way to grow rich was by supplying the diggers with provisions and clothing, and everything else they might need. Our servants returned too, having been unsuccessful.

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