The pilot and transcript. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1840-1841, 1840-11-09

J Hence, while Bishop England Is eNertng his
influence to bring the whole foreign Catholic
vote into the support of MIR. Van Buren,, we fird
Bishop Hughes, and others, exorting their infu-
enee to get possession of the school funds in New
York; and some of their ablest writers are en-
gagged in writing anew that part of history which
displays the bloody prosecutions of the church,
and which have aroused the ''politicdi ani'1aos-
tiles" Of which NJ. De Toequeville speaks.
And we have a striking instance of the progress
they have already made, ia the facts that
the directors of the school in New York have
gone so far as to mutilate their school books
and falsify history, by expunging from them
so much of the historical lessons as were often
sive to Catholics, and that the L. S. Gazette,
edited by a New England Protestant, now be-
fore us, contains studied eulogy of book adj
mttcd to be one of a series intended to indicate
catholicism from "politicaI a1unoSitieS to 'ohich
it has giren rise"
These remarks seemed to US to be an appro-
pirate introduction to NJ De Tocquevilles sixth
chapter, which he entities:
~OF THE PROGRESS OF ROMAN CA
THOLICS IN THE UNITED STATES"
America is the most democratic country in
the world, and it is at the same time according
to reports worthy of belieO the country in which
the Roman Catholic religion makes most pro-
gress. At first sight this is surprising.
"1'wo things must here be accurately distln-
guished: equality inclines men to wish to form
their own opinions, but on the other hand, it i'm
bucs them with the taste and the idea OF unity,
simplicity and impartiality in the power that
governs society. Men living IN democrats ages
a. off
authority +; but if they consentsto subject them
selves to any authority of this kind, they choose
at least that it should be single and uniform. Re
ligious powers not radiating from common cen
tire, are naturally repugnant to their minds; and
they almost as readily conceive that there should
be no religion, as that there should be several
" At the present time, more than IN any pre-
ceding one Roman catholics are seen to lapse
into infdelity, and Protestants to be converted
to Roman Catholicism. If the Roman Catholic
faith be considered within the pale of the Church,
it would seem to be losing ground; without that
PALE to be gaining it. Nor is this circumstance
difficult of explanation. The men of our days
are naturally little disposed to believe; but as
soon as they have any religion, they find within
themselves latent propensity which urges them
towards Catholicism. Many of
the doctrines and practices of the Romish Church
astonish them; but they feel secret admiration
for its discipline; and its great unity attracts
them. Ii Catholicism could at length NlthuraW
itself from the political animosties to which it
has given rise, l have hardly any doubt but that
the same spirit of the age, which appears to be
so opposed TO it, would become favorable as to
admit its great and sudden advancement.
q One of the most ordinary weaknesses of the
human intellect is to seek to reconcile contrary
principles, and to purchase peace at the expense
of logic. Thus, there has ever been, and will
ever be, men who, after having submitted some
portion of their religious belief to the principle
of authority, win seek to exempt several other
parts of their faith from its influence and to keep
THAR minds floating at random between liberty
and obedience. But am inclined to believe that
the number of those thinkers will be less in de-
mocratic than in other ages, and that our pos
terity will tend moro and more to a single divi-
sion into two parts-some relinsuishing chris
hanity entirely, and others returning to the
bosom of the ehurh Of Rome"