RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN AUSTRALIA.
By W. N. G.
An effort is being made to form the United States of Australia, and to establish a federal parliament composed of delegates from all the colonies. Our latest news from there stated that the federal convention was in session at Adelaide, S. A., working on a constitution, or basis of federation. As would naturally be expected, the Church and State spirit was on hand to gain a dominant position in the proposed new government. Cardinal Moran, speaking for the Roman Catholic Church, proposed that the preamble of the new constitution should include this declaration:— "Religion is the basis of our Australian Commonwealth and of its laws; and in accordance with the spirit of religion, genuine liberty of conscience is the birthright of every Australian citizen, and full and free exercise of religious worship, so far as may be consistent with public order and public morality, shall be accorded to all." Like all other Jesuit propositions, this would sound very smooth to the unwary. But with the government on a religious basis, what would constitute "public order and public morality" would be a subject of religious legislation; and "full and free exercise of religious liberty" would be estimated from a Church and State standpoint. Of course in practical working this would mean such free exercise as the civil law would prescribe; and if such a proposition should carry, a people who would vote such a measure into operation would naturally place in office men entertaining such views. From such a parliament we would logically expect the legal prescription of religious liberty to be anything but "full." But the Council of Churches of New South Wales and Victoria also wanted to take a hand in the matter. So they assiduously circulated a petition to the convention, containing the following suggestions:— "1. That in the preamble of the Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth it be recognized that God is the Supreme Ruler of the world, and the ultimate source of all law and authority in nations.
"2. That there also be embodied in the said Constitution, or in the standing orders of the federal parliament, a provision that each daily session of the upper and lower houses of the federal parliament be opened with prayer by the president and speaker, or by a chaplain.
"3. That the governor-general be empowered to appoint days of national thanksgiving and humiliation." This sounds very much like the National Reform demands in the United States, and shows how this spirit of religious control in civil government is permeating the world. When the Government of the United States was instituted, its liberal Constitution was translated into many languages and circulated as a kind of missionary document for the inculcation of the principles of liberty in other nations. Following in the wake of the great Reformation it was the means of inspiring the measure of civil and religious liberty now enjoyed in Europe and in the colonies of European governments. But with the efforts for reaction which the National Reformers of various religious factions are putting forth in the United States, we see a kindred spirit moving with great zeal in other countries where liberty was supposed to be gaining ground. However, with all the persistence of the leaders in this reactionary work, they do not find smooth sailing. The adherents of civil and religious liberty in Australia were not asleep, and the following counter petition was sent in to the convention:— "We, the adult residents of ——, believing that religion and the State should be kept entirely separate, that religious legislation is subversive of good government, contrary to the principles of sound religion, and can result only in religious persecution, hereby humbly but most earnestly petition your honorable body not to insert any religious clause or measure in the Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth which might be taken as a basis for such legislation; but that a declaration be made in the Constitution stating that neither the Federal Government nor any State Parliament shall make any law respecting religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Advices by mail, dated April 7, state that the committee of the convention, to whom the petitions were referred, had opposed the plea of the petition of the Council of Churches. We deem this the overruling of Providence, that the free Gospel of Christ may have "free course and be glorified" in Australia, rather than be hindered with the incubus of a Church and State government. W. N. G.