Bishop Browne on Religion and the Poor
Dr. Harold Browne, the new Bishop of Winchester and successor of Bishop Wilberforce, has spoken out in behalf of the poor. At his last conference he told his clergy that he was afraid that in all Protestant countries, not the church only, but religion, was losing its hold upon the poor. In the Church of England, at all events, this would be a great calamity; for “of the two, it had better lose the rich.” “The minister of God,” he said, “is the defender of the poor, and he had better err by defending him too much than by deserting him when he needs defense. It is admitted that in many parts of England the laborer has had wrongs.” The fact that this speech was received by the poor with a surprised enthusiasm is in itself a melancholy phenomenon. What else should the poor expect to hear from a Christian minister? The matter of hazing at the Syracuse University is to be tested in the civil courts. Two freshmen were assaulted by a company of sophomores for wearing interdicted hats; their hats were stolen, and the young men left to go home hatless. The freshmen properly entered complaint at the police court, and the sophomores are under arrest. The charges for which the smart sophomores are arrested are, “assault and battery and petit larceny”—the same as would be brought against a party of common rowdies and thieves.