WHAT HAS POPERY DONE?

You (Jesuits) claim the liberty to instruct. For some centuries you have held in your hands, at your discretion, at your school, under your ferule, two great nations-Italy and Spain, illustrious among the illustrious; and what have you done with them? I am going to tell you. Thanks to you, Italy, of which no one can think, or even pronounce her name, without inexpressible filial grief-Italy, that mother of genius and of nations, which has diffused over the whole world the most astonishing productions of poetry and art— Italy, which has taught our race to read, does not to-day know how to read herself! Yes, Italy has, of all the states of Europe, the smallest number of native inhabitants who are able to read! Spain, magnificently endowed— Spain, which received from the Romans her first civilization, from the Arabians her second civilization, from Providence, and in spite of you, a world-America; Spain has lost, thanks to you, thanks to your brutal yoke, which is a yoke of degradation-Spain has lost that secret of her power which she received from the Romans, that genius in the arts which she received from the Arabs, that world which God gave her. And in exchange for what you made her lose, what has she received? She has received the inquisition ! The inquisition! which certain men of a certain party are endeavouring to-day to re-establish, with a modest timidity for which I honour them. The inquisition! which has burned upon the funeral pile five millions of men. history. The inquisition! which exhumed the dead, in order to burn them as heretics. Witness Urgel, and Arnault, Count of Forcalquier. The inquisition! which declares children heretics, even to the second generation. It is true, in order to console Spain for what you have taken from her, that you have surnamed what you have given her Catholic. Ah, do you know you have drawn from one of the greatest of men that dolorous cry which accuses you, "I would much rather that Spain should be great than that she should be Catholic?" See what you have done with that focus of light which you call Italy. You have extinguished it. That Colossus which you call Spain you have undermined. The one is in ruins, the other in ashes. See what you have done for these two great nations.-Victor Hugo.

Read

THE JESUITS.

"PASSING from the Old World to the New, we find still the same sort of system, and the same sort of men to promote it. Neither the waters of the Pacific nor of the Atlantic can wipe away the leprous taint of Jesuitism. In the New World they came in contact with the untutored minds of simple Indians-very different from the pre-occupied minds of Chinese and Hindus. But the willow-like pliancy of their system does not forsake them. Having discovered the natural inclinations and propensities of any people, they studiously comply with these, and as studiously avoid anything calculated to give offence. Having noticed the easy, good-natured indolence of one tribe, such as the Irraquois, they frame a catechism of religious and useful knowledge to suit their taste. Of this catechism, a copy, with a translation annexed, fell into the hands of Dr. Mather, It consists chiefly of questions like these:'How is the soil made in heaven ?-It is a very pure soil; they want neither for meat nor clothes; we have only to wish and we have them. Are they employed in heaven ?-No; they do nothing-the fields yield corn, beans, pumpkins, and the like, without tillage. What sort of trees are there ?— Always green, full, and flourishing. But how are their fruits ?—In this respect they excel ours, that they are never wasted; you have no sooner plucked one than you see another hanging in its room," etc. Having met with another tribe so ferocious that it could listen to nothing with patience, save accounts of the execution of scalping knives and tomahawks, they, with unheard-of

JEALOUSY OF THE PRIESTS.

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audacity, actually declared that the meek and lowly Jesus was a mighty chieftain and successful warrior, who, in three years, had scalped innumerable men, women, and children!! Can the force of sinful blaspheming compromise proceed further than this ?"-Duff.

A RAGGED SCHOOL WITHOUT A BIBLE.

TRAVELLING down the Shannon in a Limerick steamer, I got into conversation with a Roman Catholic priest. He was an intelligent, kind-hearted man, and much interested in efforts made on behalf of the neglected poor. I told him of our Ragged Schools, of our collecting them from the highways and byways, the lanes and streets of the city, of our teaching them their duties to God and man by means of the Word of God.

He listened with great interest, and told me at last, that he had opened a Ragged School in his own locality, (somewhere in Clare,) and that he was succeeding beyond his most sanguine hopes in humanizing and civilizing his rude scholars. I ventured to ask if his scholars read the Bible, or if he used it in his school. He answered, "That is a book we don't think fit to put into the hands of the young or the unlearned." Then," said I, "you consider yourselves wiser than God, for he says, Teach these things diligently to your children,' and Christ himself says, Search the Scriptures, etc., for they are they that testify of me.' How can your people search the Scriptures if you keep them from them ?"

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We shortly after parted, but I felt very sad at the thought of a Ragged School without a Bible.-W. L.

JEALOUSY OF THE PRIESTS.

[WE extract the following important statement from The Tablet. It will be seen with what a jealous eye the priests are looking upon our Ragged efforts. The opposition to our schools manifested in Marylebone, has been little short of that experienced by our friends in Liverpool. In one instance, about two years ago, they emptied a school entirely, which had afterwards to be filled with another class of children. The reference herein made to their gratuitous labourers may put to shame many a half-hearted Protestant, especially in connection with the fact that many of our schools can scarcely obtain more than one teacher for three that we require.]

"We are looking forward with deep interest to the future hopeful labours of this pious and zealous community in their new convent in Blandford Square. This chaste and beautiful edifice, which will afford accommodation for fifty nuns and one thousand poor female children, which was commenced in May last, is now being roofed in. It is situated in the centre of St. Marylebone, which contains a population of about 20,000 Catholics, most of whom are poor natives of the sister isle. The great necessity for strenuous efforts to rescue the children of the Catholic poor of this parish from the perils which surround them, is obvious from the report of the Ragged-poor School Committee, submitted to their subscribers in the May of last year, wherein the statement was set forth, that they had no less than 600 of the poor Catholic children of this parish imbibing the erroneous principles of the Reformation in their schools. Though we may make considerable allowance for exaggeration in this statement, still it suggests a powerful motive to excite us to draw these poor little innocents back to the faith of their forefathers, and to the one fold of the one Shepherd. Though our building funds are now nearly exhausted in the new erections, we confidently hope that the charitable munificence of the friends of the poor will enable us to carry out this good and great work to its completion. Were we to allow our Protestant neighbours to surpass us so far in their zeal for the education of the poor as to allow our poor children the benefits of gratuitous education, whilst they make ample provision for the instruction of the poor of

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their own community, at the same time that the Catholics are inert and contented with an imperfect, scanty accommodation for the remnant of our poor children, the contrast would be to us most disreputable. Our holy religion is enriched with more efficacious and more ample means for the education of poor than any other body in the empire. It is true, indeed, that Protestants have their quasi nuns, whose spirit and usefulness we consign to the pencilling of a popular contemporary, with their well-requited teachers, and well-paid staff of collectors and secretaries for their schools. We, on the other hand, have religious communities, which, in most cases, supply us with gratuitous teachers, ready to carry on permanently the work of charity, without any further tax upon the Catholic body beyond the bare expenses of erecting our school building."

Plans and Progress.

AN EVENING IN A RAGGED SCHOOL.

As we had previously been informed that the business of the school commenced at seven, we determined to be there at this hour. Exactly six minutes before it, we reached the corner of the dirty street in which the school was situated. Already some twenty boys and girls had collected opposite to the door; some of them were engaged in play, others were quarrelling, while the rest looked on. After waiting ten minutes, the master came, and in less than a minute the door was opened, and each boy was pushing aside his neighbour that he might get in first. "Take that," said as dirty a looking rascal as we have seen for many a day, as he struck a boy who was near to him, and who appeared some years younger than himself. "Go it Tom," called out another, as Tom with hands and feet attacked his assailant. This disturbance in the passage soon brought the schoolmaster, whose appearance ended the quarrel, and cleared for us a way into the school. As all was noise and confusion inside, we had begun to consider what part we should act; whether we should remain longer as mere spectators, or, at the risk of giving offence, try what we could do to secure order-when the teacher commenced to sing the hymn, "There is a happy land, far, far away," etc., and as all the children seemed on intimate terms with the words of the hymn, if not its music, they sung it with all their might. Prayer was the next exercise in which the teacher engaged. In a pre-eminent sense, the prayer was entirely his own. The talking, laughing, and tricks of the boys showed that he was not their mouthpiece. In what we heard of it there was nothing which related to the peculiar circumstances of the children. It might have become the pulpit, or the social prayer-meeting, but it certainly did not become the Ragged School; and till teachers remember in such exercises that children do not pray like men, we have no hopes of their acting otherwise than they generally do on such occasions. After prayer the girls were taken charge of by two ladies, who had arrived some fifteen minutes after the proper time, and as we saw they were about to be engaged in needlework, we turned our attention entirely to the boys. They were divided into three classes, those who could not read, those who could read a little, and those able to read the Bible. The first two classes were supplied with monitors from the Bible class. As we were anxious to hear what and how the master taught, we placed ourselves near to the Bible class. The chapter read was the fourteenth of John, and with two or three exceptions it was read well. Immediately the last verse of the chapter was read, the class shut books, and evidently expected to join some other exercise, when the teacher said, You have not had your questions; you must wait till we see whether you know what you have been reading about." Though the questions which he put were few, and

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AN EVENING IN A RAGGED SCHOOL.

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although almost all of them involved their own answers, such as, "Was Christ the Son of God?" and "Who was the Son of God?" yet no attention was paid by the boys to them. They yawned, laughed, and talked, during the whole time of this exercise. After spending nearly an hour thus, the boys and girls were ranged in rows fronting the master's desk, preparatory to writing. As the slates were handed out, several of the girls requested the master to allow them to sing, and our friend, who appeared more accommodating than we exactly liked, assisted them with Lady bird, lady bird, fly away home;" and when this was finished, there were loud calls for another, which he granted, after stipulating with the scholars that it should be the last. As it was near nine o'clock before the writing was over, the teacher announced what appeared to be a very gratifying statement to the children, that there would be no cyphering that evening, so says he, You may go." The words had scarcely passed from his lips when all the children were in the streets, bawling as loud as their voices would permit.

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After such an exhibition, we need hardly say we were deeply pained, not so much because of what had been done or what had not been done, as that the manner, tone, and character of all the teacher's performance showed that he did not know his work-in short, that he was ignorant of what may be called the functions of a schoolmaster. There was nothing in all we saw or heard likely either to mould or form the character. Even the Scriptural lesson was in no way suited to operate on the intellect or affections of the children; the questions put called forth no exercise of mind, and the lessons which he derived from these were not practical, and those which might be termed doctrinal were not communicated in a way adapted to their capacities. If all such teachers would but remember that before any truth can be received into the mind so as to influence it, the mind and the truth must stand related in some particular stage of progress-that the known must be used as an instrument in explaining the unknown-we think they would see the folly of dealing with children in this respect as if they were men, and the necessity of taking up what they already know, and by it lead them to higher and more advanced truth. We are much mistaken if this is not the principle of education. God has established in both revelations for the advancement of the individual as well as the race. The history of the first families of mankind, as given in the Word of God, shows how He recognized them as the children of their race; as a Father he appears before them, and commands them to "do this, and live." From the Fall to the giving of the Law, they are taught principally from the consequences of their own acts. The effects of sin are the instruments used by Him for explaining its nature, just in the same manner as a wise parent seeks to govern his household-he awards punishment, and presents the motive most likely to influence the child. Higher reasons and nobler motives could be presented, but the child is not a man; so the parent seeks to use only such instruments as are suited to its capacity. As we advance in the world's history, we find the same principle of education continued. At sundry times and in divers manners, God makes known his will to the children of men, and it is to be borne in mind that in no case does the last communication set aside what they had previously learned, but rather perfects it; the one is no more lost in the knowledge of the other, than the knowledge of the boy is lost in that of the man. The instruction God communicates by the law and through symbol and type, does not destroy what had preceded, but unites with it in meeting the wants of a more advanced Do this," comes now forth with the annexed reason, "I am the Lord your God;" and as the day of the Lord advances, want after want is felt, and type after type is added, that these wants may be supplied, until like a building too broad for its foundation, the whole is upset, and the truth as it is in Jesus made manifest by the fulfilment of the law. Did our space permit, we would show that the same principle of education is manifested in the natural revelation; in fact, it is so much in harmony with the light of nature, that our surprise is that any reflective man should depart from it. Of course our

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readers are too well acquainted with our schools to require being told that this description applies to but few schools in connection with our Union; still as this very exception not only perils the existence of our movements in the locality in which the school is situated, but inflicts an injury on the general cause, we have thought it our duty to point it out.

Literary Notices.