The Project Gutenberg EBook of Catholic World, Vol. 17, April, 1873 to September, 1873, by Various This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. Title: Catholic World, Vol. 17, April, 1873 to September, 1873 A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science Author: Various Release Date: December 19, 2015 [EBook #50721] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CATHOLIC WORLD, VOL. 17 *** Produced by Giovanni Fini, David Edwards and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: —Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected. —The transcriber of this project created the book cover image using the title page of the original book. The image is placed in the public domain. [i] THE CATHOLIC WORLD. A MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. VOL. XVII. APRIL, 1873, TO SEPTEMBER, 1873. NEW YORK: THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION HOUSE, 9 Warren Street. 1873. [ii] [iii] CONTENTS. “Abraham”—“Abron”—“Auburn,” 234 Abuse of Diplomatic Authority, An, 130 Antiquities of the Law, 69 Appeal to Workingmen, 751 Art, Necessity versus, 558 Art Pilgrimage through Rome, An, 808 Bolanden’s The Russian Idea, 27, 161 Bolanden’s The Trowel or the Cross, 308, 473 Bread-Winner, Woman as a, 223 Brittany: Its People and its Poems, 252, 537 Bruté, Memoirs of the Rt. Rev. S. G., 711 Casgrain’s The Canadian Pioneers, 687 Casgrain’s Picture of the Rivière Ouelle, 103 Chapman’s The Evolution of Life, 145 Charlevoix, Shea’s, 721 Charities, Public, 1 Chartres, 834 Church and State in Germany, 513 Civilization? What is, 486 Conciliar Decrees on the Holy Scriptures, 195 Country Life in England, 319 Darwinism, More about, 641 Dick Cranstone, 392 Diplomatic Authority, An Abuse of, 130 Domestic Festivities, English, 630 Dubois’ Madame Agnes, 78, 182, 330, 446, 591, 731 Early Marriage, 839 Education, Home, 91 Empire, The, 606 England, Country Life in, 319 English Domestic Festivities, 630 Erckmann-Chatrian, Mme. Jeannette’s Papers, 566 Error Rectified, An, 144 Evening at Chamblay, An, 765 Evolution of Life, The, 145 Fiske’s Myths and Myth-Makers, 209 Fontainebleau, 241, 382 For Better—For Worse, 257, 408 Germany, Church and State in, 513 Grapes and Thorns, 362, 498, 655, 792 Heaven, 220 Holy Scriptures, Conciliar Decrees on the, 195 Home Education, 91 Indians of Ysléta, The, 422 Jerome Savonarola, 289, 433, 577 Jesuits in Paris, The, 701 John Baptist de Rossi, and his Archæological Works, 272 Joseph in Egypt, a Type of Christ, 77 Koche, King of Pitt, 545 Lace, Something about, 56 Laughing Dick Cranstone, 392 Law, Antiquities of the, 69 Legend of S. Christopher, A, 278 Legend of S. Martin, A, 137 Life, The Evolution of, 145 Madame Agnes, 78, 182, 330, 446, 591, 731 Madame Jeannette’s Papers, 566 Marriage, Early, 839 Memoirs of a Good French Priest, 711 Middlemarch and Fleurange, 775 More about Darwinism, 641 My Cousin’s Introduction, 171 Myths and Myth-Mongers, 209 Necessity versus Art, 558 Palais Royal, The, 113 Paris, The Jesuits in, 701 Peace, 157 People and Poems of Brittany, 252, 537 Philosophical Terminology, 463 Picture of the Rivière Ouelle, The, 103 Poet and Martyr, 40 Political Principle for the Social Restoration of France, The, 348 Present Greatness of the Papacy, The, 400 Public Charities, 1 Ramière’s The Political Principle of the Social Restoration of France, 348 Records of a Ruin, The, 113 Reminiscence of San Marco, A, 707 Rome, An Art Pilgrimage through, 808 Rossi, John Baptist de, and his Archæological Works, 272 Russian Idea, The, 27, 161 Sales, S. Francis de, 171 San Marco: A Reminiscence, 707 Savonarola, Jerome, 289, 433, 577 Scholars en Déshabillé, 844 Shakespearian Excursus, A, 234 Shea’s Charlevoix, 721 Something about Lace, 56 Southwell, F. Robert, 40 Stories of Two Worlds, The, 775 Terminology, Philosophical, 463 Travellers and Travelling, 676, 822 Trowel or the Cross, The, 308, 473 Unity, 307 What is Civilization? 486 Woman as a Bread-Winner, 223 Workingmen, Appeal to, 751 Ysléta, The Indians of, 422 POETRY. Angel and the Child, The, 570 Beati qui Lugent, 271 Christe’s Childhoode, 472 Dante’s Purgatorio, 24, 158, 304 Dies Iræ, 221 Marriage Song, 462 May Carol, A, 407 Mother of God, 710 Music, 807 Sonnet: The Poetry of the Future, 399 Sonnet: To the Pillar at S. Paul’s, Rome, 590 Sonnet: To the Ruins of Emania, 750 Temple, The, 764 To a Child, 426 To a Friend, 497 To be Forgiven, 821 To the Sacred Heart, 536 Virgin Mary, The, to Christ on the Crosse, 39 NEW PUBLICATIONS. Augustine, S., Harmony of the Evangelists, etc., 855 Augustine, S., On the Trinity, 855 Alcott’s Aunt Jo’s Scrap-Book, 142 Amulet, The, 575 Bagshawe’s Threshold of the Catholic Church, 572 Bateman’s Ierne of Armorica, 427 Begin’s La Primauté et l’Infaillibilité des Souveraines Pontifes, etc., 576 Bolanden’s, The Progressionists, and Angela, 281 Brady’s Irish Reformation, 573 Brady’s State Papers on the Irish Church, 573 Brann’s Truth and Error, 142 Brothers of the Christian Schools during the War, The, 430 Burke’s Lectures and Sermons, 718 [iv] Caddell’s Wild Times, 284 Catechism of the Holy Rosary, 428 Church Defence, 280 Conscience’s The Amulet, 575 Conscience’s The Fisherman’s Daughter, 575 Constance and Marion, 432 Deaf Mute, The, 288 Devere’s Modern Magic, 575 Directorium Sacerdotale, 574 Doctrine of Hell, 571 Donnelly’s Out of Sweet Solitude, 720 Ernscliff Hall, 288 Elements of Philosophy, 427 Estcourt’s Anglican Ordinations, 856 Filiola, 288 Fisherman’s Daughter, The, 575 Formby’s Catechism of the Holy Rosary, 428 Garside’s The Prophet of Carmel, 858 Gaume’s Sign of the Cross in the XIXth Century, 429 Gaume’s Suema, 428 God Our Father, 143 Greatorex’s Homes of Ober-Ammergau, 288 Hare’s Memorials of a Quiet Life, 431 Herbert’s Wilfulness, 285 Hill’s Elements of Philosophy, 427 Humphrey’s Mary magnifying God, 428 Hundred Meditations on the Love of God, A, 574 Ierne of Armorica, 427 Illustrated Catholic Sunday-School Library, 430 Isabelle de Verneuil, 430 King and the Cloister, The, 430 Laboulaye’s Poodle Prince, 431 Landroit’s Sins of the Tongue, 719 Landroit’s The Valiant Woman, 858 Life and Letters of a Sister of Charity, 142 Life of Dorié, 281 Life of Vénard, 281 Limerick Veteran, 719 Lunt’s Old New England Traits, 720 McGee’s Sketches of Irish Soldiers, 860 Mary magnifying God, 428 Marshall’s Church Defence, 280 Marshall’s My Clerical Friends, 138 Meditations on the Blessed Virgin, 860 Meline’s Two Thousand Miles on Horseback, 286 Meyrick’s Life of S. Walburge, 855 Mericourt’s Vivia Perpetua, 575 Money God, The, 282 Mulloy’s A Visit to Louise Lateau, 574 Munro’s Lectures on Old Testament History, 858 Nesbits, The, 283 Old New England Traits, 720 Only a Pin, 574 Out of Sweet Solitude, 720 Palma’s Particular Examen, 860 Peter’s Journey, etc., 285 Potter’s Rupert Aubrey, 859 Primauté, La, et l’Infaillibilité des Souveraines Pontifes, etc., 576 Proceedings of the Convention of the Irish Catholic Benevolent Union, 287 Progressionists, The, and Angela, 281 Quinton’s The Money God, 282 Reverse of the Medal, The, 288 Sainte-Germaine’s Only a Pin, 574 Sermons for all the Sundays and Festivals of the Year, 428 Sign of the Cross in the XIXth Century, 429 Snell’s Isabelle de Verneuil, 430 Sœur Eugénie, 142 Southwell’s Meditations, 574 Stewart’s Limerick Veteran, 719 Suema, 428 Sunday-School Library, 430 Sweeney’s Sermons, 428 Taylor’s Lars, 430 Thebaud’s The Irish Race, 432, 718 Thompson’s Hawthorndean, 430 Threshold of the Catholic Church, 572 Truth and Error, 142 Two Thousand Miles on Horseback, 286 Valuy’s Directorium Sacerdotale, 574 Visit to Louise Lateau, A, 574 Walworth and Burr, Doctrine of Hell, 571 Wild Times, 284 Wilfulness, 285 Winged Word, A, etc., 572 Wiseman’s Essays, 431, 575 Wiseman’s Lectures on the Church, 143 [1] THE CATHOLIC WORLD. VOL. XVII., No. 97.—APRIL, 1873. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by Rev. I. T. Hecker, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. PUBLIC CHARITIES. Modern civilization has no higher or more important question to deal with than that of ameliorating the condition of the poor, the unfortunate, the ignorant, and the vicious. Governments are and can be engaged in no more appalling work than that of legislating wisely in regard to these classes, and in seeing that not only are their inevitable wants provided for and the public interests protected, but also that their rights are secured in fact as well as in theory, and that the instruments employed in these exalted spheres of public administration are suited to their purpose, and are guarded against degenerating from means of amelioration into agencies of oppression, cruelty, and injustice. There are two chief motives which lead to the care and provision for the unfortunate members of the social body—charity on the one side, and philanthropy on the other. Religion inspires every motive for this great and holy work, and of all the virtues which religion inspires, charity is the highest, purest, and best. Charity is the love of God, and of man for God’s sake. That God of charity has revealed to us that, of faith, hope, and charity, the greatest is charity; that he that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord; that he who performs works of charity to the least of the human race performs them ipso facto to the Lord, creator and ruler of the universe; and that the eternal doom of every human being at the last dread day will be decided by this great test. Christianity itself, like her divine founder, is charity. The church of God, like her Lord and Spouse, is charity. She is imbued with and reflects his divine essence, which is charity. Charity arises from no statute or arbitrary decree, which might or might not be made according to the option of the legislator; it is the essence and motive of all good. It exists in the very nature of things. And as the love of God by man is the first and necessary relation of the creature to the Creator, and as our fellow-creatures exist from God, and in and by him, it is only through God and in him that we love them. Thus charity is no human sentiment or affection, like philanthropy or the natural love of our neighbor and brother; it is a supernatural virtue, springing from God, and sustained by his grace. The man who does not love his neighbor cannot love God, but rejects his love and violates the first law of his being. Every word and act of our divine Saviour, while engaged on earth in establishing his church, proves this, if there be need of external proof. Even after his work on earth was done, and he had ascended to his Father, he speaks to us through the mouth of S. Paul: “If I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and have all faith, so I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and should give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”[1] Philanthropy, on the other hand, is the love of man for the sake of man; in other words, humanitarianism. It is a human affection springing from natural motives. To alleviate human sufferings, and promote human pleasures and enjoyments, are its aims. Its object is the body rather than the soul, earth rather than heaven, time rather than eternity. Its motive power is sentiment or feeling rather than reason or religion. It is a sensitiveness to all human suffering, because suffering or pain is repulsive to human nature. Philanthropy is a virtue in the natural order, springing from human motives, and not a supernatural virtue springing from religious motives and inspired by divine grace. Philanthropy is good in itself, for our human nature still remains; nature and grace are not antagonistic, and may co-exist; nature is dependent on grace to raise it to the supernatural state and transform it into charity. Charity includes philanthropy, as the greater includes the lesser. Philanthropy without charity is earthly in its aims, frequently rash and sometimes unjust in its measures, tyrannical in the exercise of power, and not unfrequently barren in its results. Now, the church and the state are the organized representatives of these two virtues, the divine and the human. The church is a divine kingdom, and cultivates the divine virtue of charity; the state is a human kingdom, and cultivates the human virtue of philanthropy. The church is a supernatural body, and practises the supernatural virtue of charity; the state exists in the natural order, and practises the natural sentiment of philanthropy. The church is of heaven, and her greatest jewel, charity, is of heaven; the state is of earth, and the greatest of her merits is philanthropy, which is of earthly birth. The church is eternal, so is charity; the state is temporal, as is philanthropy. The church is of God, God is charity, so the church is charity; the state is of man, so is philanthropy. The rewards of the one are eternal; of the other, temporal. Charity is a Christian virtue, and can violate no other Christian virtue in adopting her measures; she cannot make the end justify the means; but philanthropy is a human virtue, and stops at no means necessary to attain its end. Abuses are not necessarily the results of philanthropy, for philanthropy, guided by even human reason, is capable of respecting the rights of God and men, and, when guided by supernatural grace, is exalted to [2] [3] charity.[2] What we have chiefly to deal with in this article are institutions of benevolence, which are either wholly public property, and such as, though conducted either by private individuals or by incorporated boards of citizen managers, yet receive large shares of the public funds for their foundation, buildings, or current support, and thus become, to that extent, public institutions, and as such liable to be inquired into and criticised by the state and its citizens who pay the taxes thus expended. The state in our times and in almost every country undertakes the restraint and custody of the persons of idiots, lunatics, drunkards, and other persons of unsound mind, for their safety; of paupers, for their maintenance; and of minors, unprovided with natural guardians, for purposes of their education, reformation, and maintenance. It is not for us to discuss at length in this article the right of the state in any country to educate and reform minors, or, in other words, to assume the place of teacher and priest; for it cannot undertake to educate without assuming the place of teacher, and still less can the state undertake the work of reformation without usurping the sacred functions of the sacerdotal office. Our faith, our reason, and our convictions teach us that such offices belong not to the state, but to the church. The state can establish places of restraint and punishment, and support and maintain them, both for the protection of the public, for the safety of the individuals themselves, and for purposes of philanthropy. Having done this, it is the duty of the state to leave free the consciences of its wards and prisoners, and to give every facility to the ministers of every church and religious persuasion to have free and unrestricted access to the children and prisoners belonging to those respective churches or persuasions. We claim this for ourselves as Catholics, and we leave the sects, the Jews, and every other society of religionists to claim the same for themselves. We are willing to make common cause with them for the attainment of our rights. That it is a charity for the state, or, more correctly speaking, a work of humanity, to assume the temporal care and provision for those unfortunate members of society who, either by their own fault, by the visitation of Providence, or by misfortune, are unable to take care of themselves, we are not disposed to deny at present, though even this belongs primarily to the religious duties of the individual, and, therefore, comes within the province of the church; and we know how well the church discharged this duty before the Reformation, and is doing it now. Yet we do not deny to the sects, to all men, and to the state, the right to perform good deeds and to practise the broadest philanthropy. Such at least seems to be one of the accepted works of government. We therefore accept such institutions and works as we find them, and we will view them in the same light in which our fellow-citizens generally regard them. As citizens, as Americans, we feel the same interest in them, experience the same pride in them, and, as a question of property and public right, we hold them as a common heritage, in which we have the same interest and authority as our fellow-citizens. We are, therefore, equally interested in their proper management and good government, and we yield to none in our desire to promote their prosperity and success. There is no part of public administration more sacred or important, no function of the state so momentous, no public responsibility so awful, as this. Accepting them, as we do, as a part of our common property and united work, we shrink not from any effort for their good government and success, and, if need be, for their improvement, reformation, and correction. When properly conducted, we have nothing but praise for them; and if, on the other hand, they are mismanaged, the funds extravagantly applied; if they are made the instruments of cruelty, perversion, or despotism; if in them or any of them religious liberty is violated, and systems of proselytizing are carried on against Catholic children, or the children of the sects, or those of the Jewish Church, we as Catholics and as American citizens will speak out freely and boldly in denouncing them. We are not disqualified from doing this, either as citizens or Catholics; not as citizens, because they belong to us as much as to other citizens; our money is there with that of others; and the Constitution gives us liberty of speech and of the press, and guarantees to us “the right to assemble and petition for the redress of grievances”;[3] not as Catholics, for we have as such the experience of eighteen hundred years of the most exalted works of charity; and because we claim for ourselves no special privilege over others, but are willing to concede to all what we claim for ourselves. No clamor will deter us from the exercise of this right, or from the performance of this duty. And whilst we cannot yield our rights to any one sect of Protestantism, we are equally determined, while respecting the rights of all Protestants, not to yield our constitutional rights to all the sects of Protestantism combined under the false and deceptive name of unsectarianism. We do not believe in ex-parte and sham investigations of public abuses in respect to public institutions, and we do not belong to, and are determined not to be deluded by, whitewashing committees of investigation and amiable grand juries. We are ever ready to praise, yet we shrink not from administering censure. The theory upon which governmental institutions are founded, and those established by private citizens or boards are assisted is, that of protecting society from a large, idle, ignorant, [4] vicious population, by providing the means for the temporal relief and social improvement and correction of these classes, so as to bring them to the age of self-support in the case of children, to punish criminals, relieve the poor, and thus gradually return them all to society as sober, enlightened, honest, industrious, and thrifty citizens. For these purposes heavy taxes are laid on the citizens, immense piles of buildings are erected at the public expense, and such institutions are annually maintained or aided at enormous cost to the people. In our November, 1872, number, while admitting and praising the philanthropic motive which sustains these institutions, we regarded them “as really nuisances of the worst kind, so far as Catholic children are concerned, on account of their proselytizing character. Moreover,” we said, “in their actual workings they violate the rights both of parents and children, and we have evidence that these poor children are actually sold at the West, both by private sale and by auction. The horrible abuses existing in some state institutions are partly known to the public, and we have the means of disclosing even worse things than those which have recently been exposed in the public papers.” It is difficult to perceive the success of such institutions as ameliorating or reformatory agents, for our public press is loaded every day with evidences of the enormous increase of crime and pauperism, and with dissertations on the causes of such increase. The public are naturally slow in believing that such institutions, upon which so much treasure has been spent, are failures. Such a reflection is an unpalatable one; it is humiliating to our pride, and damaging to the boasted progress of the XIXth century. It crushes our self-esteem to know that, of all places needing correction, our Houses of Correction need correction most; and that, of all institutions calling for the stern hand of reform, there are none that need so much reformation as our schools of reform. A religious paper called The Christian Union has given strong proof of its dislike to have the public eyes opened to these unpalatable truths, and we do not think we should have returned so soon to this subject but for a rather disingenuous article in that paper, couched in terms not calculated to convince the public that it derived its name from the practice or spirit of the virtue of Christian union, which, while challenging us to expose these wrongs and abuses, declared but too great a willingness to believe “that these charges, so frequently made in Roman Catholic journals, have already received thorough investigation and perfect refutation.” We complain that our Catholic children in institutions which are supported in whole or in part by public funds—funds, therefore, in which we have a common property with our fellow-citizens—instead of being allowed the instruction and practice of their Catholic religion, are taught Protestantism in its, to us, most offensive form, and are thus exposed to the almost certain loss of their faith. The facts upon which we base the charge have never been denied, but, on the contrary, they are openly admitted and announced. Protestants deny that they proselytize Catholic children so as to make them members of any distinctive sect, but they admit that Catholic teaching and practices are rigidly excluded, and yet that the children are taught a certain religion. Is it not evident that, if such religious instruction produces any result, it is to make these children cease to be Catholics, to become non- Catholics, to take the Bible as their only rule of faith, to reject the infallible teachings of their own church, and to accept the teachings of the institutions as all that is necessary for them to know? This is proselytism of the most offensive kind; our children are either made liberal Christians, or are placed in circumstances which inevitably lead to their joining one or other of the distinctive forms of Protestantism or lose all religion whatever. Wherever a chaplain is employed, he is either a Methodist minister, such as Rev. Mr. Pierce in the New York House of Refuge, or he is a Baptist, Episcopalian, or other sectarian minister. In many of these institutions, the religious instruction is under the direction of a lay superintendent, as in the Providence School of Reform. And here we beg to give a piece of testimony showing how incompetent laymen are for religious instruction in public reformatories. The witness under examination was at the time one of the trustees of the Providence Reform School: “Q. Have you any knowledge in relation to the distribution of religious books among the pupils, and their being taken away? “A. I don’t of my own knowledge; I furnished once one book of a religious character, and one only; I furnished it to the officer having in charge the devotional exercises on the girls’ side; I gave that to the officer for his own use; it was given to him in consequence of considerable religious feeling that there was existing among the girls at the time; the girls were holding among themselves what they called prayer-meetings; the gentleman having in charge the devotional exercises said he felt utterly incompetent to conduct the devotions in suitable words,” etc. Religious liberty is openly and positively denied in the New York House of Refuge, as will be seen from their own “Report of Special Committee to the Managers of the House of Refuge,” 1872; from which it appears, at pp. 21, 22, that the religion of the house consists in “Christian worship in simple form, and Gospel lessons in Sunday-schools,” and that the “inmates are brought into the same chapel for public worship,” and that “the whole regimen of the house,” including of course the religious part, “is devised and pursued with careful [5] [6] attention to the wants of the inmates, but is not submitted to the control of themselves or their friends.” As Americans we have been taught from our infancy that liberty of conscience is the dearest right of the American citizen. We learned in our college days that even “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”; but we now learn that what the highest legislative power in the nation, and what no state legislature, can do, the managers of the New York House of Refuge have done and are now doing: they have made a law respecting the establishment of a religion in the House of Refuge, a public institution—a religion which they have called variously “Christian worship in simple form,” “Gospel lessons,” “Unsectarianism,” “The Broad Principles of Christianity”—and have forbidden the free exercise of any other religion. Even if all Christians were united in this worship and in these principles, have Jewish citizens no rights under the Constitution? As citizens of the State of New York, we have learned from the state constitution and Bill of Rights “that the free exercise and practice of religious profession and worship without discrimination or preference shall for ever be allowed to all mankind.” Chancellor Kent, in his Commentaries on American Law, says that “the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship may be considered as one of the absolute rights of individuals, recognized in our American constitutions and secured to them by law.”[4] And Story, in his Commentaries on the Constitution, maintains in equally strong terms “the freedom of public worship according to the dictates of one’s conscience.”[5] But we are now told by the Managers of the House of Refuge that “delinquency has, under the law, worked some forfeiture of rights, and that neither the delinquents nor their friends for them can justly claim, while under sentence of the courts, equal freedom with the rest of the community who have not violated the law.”[6] Such was the answer given by American citizens, constituting the Board of Managers of the New York House of Refuge, to the committee of American citizens sent by the Catholic Union to demand liberty of conscience and freedom of religious worship for the Catholic children in the Refuge! Either this answer means that the children in the House of Refuge are not a portion of mankind, or that religious freedom is one of the rights forfeited by delinquency, or the Board of Managers have proclaimed themselves guilty of the grossest violation of the rights of man and of God. We presume these gentlemen will not admit either the first or the third of these alternatives; indeed, they almost say in terms that a commitment to the House of Refuge works a forfeiture of that religious liberty guaranteed to all mankind. We know delinquency under the law suspends the civil rights of the delinquent while in prison, such as the right to hold public office or administer a private trust; but it does not work even a forfeiture of property except in the case of an outlawry of treason. These are all the forfeitures worked by the highest crimes known to the law. Religion is not a civil right; no crime can forfeit it; no power on earth can extinguish it. The greatest of public malefactors, the murderer and the traitor, enjoy it even on the scaffold: does the child whose only offence is poverty or vagrancy forfeit it? In the sacred names of Liberty and Religion, what sort of Refuge is this to stand on American soil? The Children’s Aid Society is another New York institution largely supported by public funds. We learn from its Nineteenth Annual Report, 1871, that one of its objects is to shelter in its lodging-houses the orphan and the homeless girls and boys, and labor incessantly to give them the “foundation ideas of morals and religion” (p. 5). Alluding to the Italian School, No. 44 Franklin Street, the report says: “We have conquered the prejudices and superstition of ignorance, and converted into useful citizens hundreds of this unfortunate class.” With such a programme of unsectarian conversion, the leading feature in which is indifferentism in religion, the immediate forerunner of infidelity and agrarianism, it is no wonder that the report immediately proceeds: “So much so, indeed, that the Italian government,” that same godless government which is so ferociously waging war on Catholicity, “has taken a deep interest in our institution” (p. 28). It is only necessary to read these reports to be convinced that the system either leads to materialism, the religion of worldly prosperity and thrifty citizenship, or to some form of Protestant sectarianism. The system of “emigration” pursued by such institutions, by which children are sent out West and placed with anybody and everybody who will take them, completes the work commenced in the East. On pages 54-56 of the report last quoted is related the case of a youth sent East, who “cannot speak of his parents with any certainty at all”; it matters not what religion they were of, the son is now preparing for the ministry of one of the sects. His letter also recites a similar case in reference to another boy “who was sent out West.” It is certain that he is not preparing for the Catholic ministry, for his impressions of a miracle are thus expressed: “To be taken from the gutters of New York City and placed in a college is almost a miracle.” The story of young “Patrick,” p. 59, whose education was obtained at the Preparatory School at Oberlin and at Cornell University, is significant. On page 60 is told the story of an Irish orphan girl sent to Connecticut, and [7] [8] placed with “an intelligent Christian woman, who means to do right.” On page 63 is told the history of a little boy sent to Michigan, who is well pleased with toys and new clothes, “like all other children; he has a splendid new suit of clothes just got, and he attends church and Sabbath-school.” A similar case is related at page 65, of a little girl sent to Ohio, and we shall show below what has become of little girls sent to that state. These are some of the model cases of which this unsectarian society makes a boast in its report. It is a significant fact that, of the 8,835 who came under the influences of this society in one year, 3,312 were of Irish birth, and it may be estimated with certainty that a considerable proportion of the other children of foreign, as well as many of home birth were Catholics. The number of children born in Ireland who were sent West during the year was 1,058. This institution received for the furtherance of these unsectarian objects the sum of $66,922.70 in this year from our public funds. We have also before us the Twentieth Annual Report of the New York Juvenile Asylum, 1871, which proves the proselytizing character of this public-pap-fed unsectarian institution. “The children that are entrusted to us are at the most susceptible period of life,” etc., “when their destiny for time, if not for eternity, may be fixed” (p. 9). “They must be drilled into systematic habits of life in eating, sleeping, play, study, work, and worship” (p. 10). To “attend church” (p. 21), and “the evening worship,” and religious services generally, are frequently recurring duties of the children. In this institution the children of foreign birth during the year were 3,648, and of these 1,981 were born in Ireland. Of course we cannot say how many of the children of home birth were the children of Irish and Catholic parents. We have, alas! but too much certainty that a large proportion of the children are Catholic. We casually met recently with an interesting proof of this in Scribner’s Magazine, November, 1870, in an account given by a visitor to the Juvenile Asylum. In the evening the visitor was invited to see the girls’ dormitory as the girls were going to bed. She writes: “All the children were saying their prayers. I noticed that several of them made the sign of the cross as they rose.” Touching evidence of their traditional faith and parental teaching! a simple but sublime tribute to holy church! an earnest sign of love and hope for those sacraments which came to us through the cross, but which, like that cross itself, were not a part of the religion, worship, and practice of this unsectarian asylum. In the list of model examples presented in the report of the Western agent will be seen the usual proselytizing influence of such institutions. The cases either show mere material or worldly advantage, or the embrace of pure sectarianism. On page 50 is related the case of a little girl, who “scarcely remembers her parents,” of whom it is related that “she is a member of the Presbyterian Church.” Two other girls are indentured to members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The “church and Sunday-school” are prominent features in nearly every case. The amount received during the year by this unsectarian institution from our public funds was $62,065.24.. The Five Points House of Industry, which received, from 1858 to 1869, the sum of $30,731.69. from our Board of Education, states in its charter, among the objects for which it was incorporated, the following: “III. To imbue the objects of its care with the pure principles of Christianity, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, without bias from the distinctive peculiarities of any individual sect.” This means that the children belonging to distinctive religious denominations, instead of being allowed to follow the distinctive tenets, and practise the worship, in which they were reared, are deprived of this right, and, as respects the Catholic children, they are to reject and exclude every tenet and devotion distinctively Catholic. How far even this profession of unsectarianism is carried into practice will be discovered from the Monthly Record of the Five Points House of Industry for April and May, 1870, p. 302, giving an account of the dedicatory exercises: “The services consisted of an opening anthem by the children, followed by a prayer by Rev. Dr. Paxton, asking a blessing upon the House and its objects. “This was followed by a hymn; a statement of the affairs of the institution, by Rev. S. B. Halliday; a recitative by the children; a statement as to city missions, by Rev. G. J. Mingins; a short discourse on the ‘Union of Christian Effort,’ by Rev. H. D. Ganse; a discourse on the ‘Lights and Shadows of Large Cities,’ by Rev. John Hall, D.D.; and, finally, a roundelay given by the children.” How far the pledge given in the charter of this establishment, “without bias from the distinctive peculiarities of any individual sect,” is carried out is further seen from the following extract from a letter addressed by the president to the Rev. John Cotton Smith, a prominent minister of the Episcopalian sect: “Between your church and the institution the most kind and harmonious co-operation has ever existed. They will ever cherish a most pleasing remembrance of the relations that have subsisted between them.”[7] We might have alluded to the “Howard Mission and Home for Little Wanderers,” founded by that arch-proselytizer, the Rev. W. C. Van Meter, which during seven years disposed of 7,580 “little wanderers” of this city, in an unsectarian manner; but want of space [9] forbids our doing so. But the animus pervading this and other unsectarian institutions is exhibited to us now in the fact, that this reverend has transferred the field of his labors from the Five Points to the city of Rome, the centre and headquarters of Catholicity. He has there established a mission and home for the little Romans. We do not stand alone in our opinion that such institutions are nuisances for Catholic children, and we quote the closing words of a letter recently addressed to the Rev. Mr. Van Meter by the editor of the Voce della Verita, at Rome: “Now, dear sir, excuse me if I remind you, that although a very ignorant person, ‘when I was a little boy,’ I also went to school, and learned a few things about your country. I remember to have heard it said that misery and ignorance abounded there, and that many hundreds of thousands of your compatriots knew of no other God than the almighty dollar. Why do you not go back and teach in Nebraska or Texas, and leave us alone? You might positively do some good there—now you are a—well, let me tell the truth—a nuisance. By your homeward voyage, you will benefit both your own country and ours.”[8] Another complaint that we make against our semi-governmental charities relates to the violation of the rights of parents and children, in the sale of these children at the West. This pernicious practice of exiling and transporting children from New York to the West is still in full vigor amongst these institutions. How can we boast of our charities, when their main feature consists in shifting the burden from our own shoulders to those of others, and they are strangers? It is in vain that we claim these children as the wards and protégés of society and of our city, if we repudiate the duties and responsibilities of our guardianship. Against this cruelty and injustice we protest in the names of civilization and Christianity. The institutions whose reports we have referred to not only admit, but they boast of this outrage upon the rights of parents and of children. One of them, the Children’s Aid Society, refers to this branch of operations, “its Emigration System,” as the “crown” of all its works. The number of children thus exiled from the state by this society and transported to distant regions, during the year of the report referred to, was 3,386; the whole number since 1854 was 25,215. More than half the 3,386 were sent to Ohio, and to the distant states of Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska. Of one little boy thus exiled, who was separated from his parents at the age of eight years, the Western agent reports: “I think his mother would scarcely know him.” He reports that the mistress to whom another was “disposed of” writes of him: “Indeed, I don’t know what I should do without him, for he saves me a great many steps. I wish we could find out about his brother and sister, he often cries about them.” Exile and transportation of children is also practised by the Five Points House of Industry. They have obtained extraordinary powers for this purpose from the Legislature. For while the Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction, a purely governmental institution, possess the power of indenturing children to citizens of the state of New York and adjoining states only, the Five Points House of Industry has received the power to send them anywhere and everywhere. But the Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction send the poor children they get into their power to the most remote states in violation of the express law of the case. For instead of confining their indentures to citizens of New York and the adjoining states, as the law directs, they send them indiscriminately to every state, even the most distant. We ask those public servants by what fiction of law they make California and Texas adjoin New York? The New York Juvenile Asylum has also a “regular agency at Chicago, by which the work of indenturing children at the West is conducted.”[9] The total number of children sent West during fifteen years, from 1857 to 1871 inclusive, is 2,206, and the annual average, 147-1/15 (p. 47). The extent to which this crowning cruelty of our non-sectarian institutions is carried, is appalling. We have only cited the cases of the three whose reports happened to be before us. But we have been informed, unofficially, and we think the statement can be made good, that there are in the city of New York no less than twenty-eight charitable institutions engaged in this cruel practice of transporting our New York children to the West and other remote parts, and the average number of these little exiles per week is about two hundred, making about ten thousand every year. What untold abuses and hardships must result from this barbarous practice! However noble, generous, and philanthropic may be the motives of the citizen- managers of these institutions, they cannot attend in person to the details or even the general management of their work. Not only are their houses in the city confided to the management of hired and salaried agents and servants, but the work of transporting children to the West is confided generally to the same class of agents, and we intend to show how this charitable function is discharged. They are actuated by no higher motives than usually actuate their class. The love of God, and of man for God’s sake, is not the spirit that inspires their labors and guides their steps. Corruption and infidelity to duty have stalked brazenly into the public [10] [11]