Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1863-05-07

both provinces are divided each into
certain equal number of divisions .,.,
these sending member to Parliament,
and that nearly every division in Low
Canada, and some in Upper Canada s.n,,
Catholic members, We can readily see III, {,
though the Western Province h..
much larger population and at least thru,
fourths Protestant, the Catholics will b
more largely represented in Parliam.n.
than will the Protestants. Hence ar;..
many wrongs and injustices to the Pm
testant population Of Upper Canad,
Long and bravely have they struggled
Various have been the means they bav.
tried to secure their rights from priestlv
innovation. They have been for wear.
demanding representation by population.
but this by giving them majority wOo,d
be fatal to Catholic interests. Hence in
this they are strongly opposed.
A year or two since some politicians
more shrewd than others, proposed as
substitute for rep. by pop, means called
the "Dobble Majority to secure the RIGHT
of both provinces. By this principle no
measures could be forced upon eithe,
Province while a majority of its own mem.
bers was opposed to it. But subsequent
events prove this to be mere sham.
So much for the past. | can now be
understood respecting the present
The last and worst act of injustice to
Protestant Upper Canada, is an attack
by the Catholics on her excellent common
school system, by the passage of bill
granting Roman Catholics the privilege of
establishing when, and where they will,
separate schools in which the doctrines of
the Romanish Church are to be taught,
and giving them an equal share in the
government school fund.
Now taking all things into consider.
alton, this is a grivous wrong; for the
former common school system was such as
to exclude sectarianism of every kind,
and such as to give all of whatever dc.
nomination, and whether rich or poor, an
equal chance to obtain good education,
not in Catholic mummery, but in solid
science ar--.
The former system was neither Protes-
tant nor Catholic, but national, devised
and perfected by men of every denomi-
nation, irrespective of creeds. This bill
makes radical change. Henceforth toe
schools will be Protestant and Catholic.
In the one will be taught arts and solid
science, while in the other will be taught
beads, ave Marias, Pater-nosters, creeds,
ignorance, superstition, and mummery, by
brothers and sisters of St. Mary, St.
Joseph, St. Benedict, St. Nebuchadnezzar,
&C., &c. What, however, the people of
Upper Canada feel most severely, is that
In this concession to the hierarchy, they
see an attempt on the very life of their
most highly cherished institution. For
in the first place it is going to weaken
many sections so that the Professionals will
be deprived Of education altogether; and
in the second place it opens the way for
every denomination to make the same de-
mands, thus placing education wholly in
the hands of bigoted clergymen, of the
evil effects of which, the world has had
examples enough. They feel that their
money,--for the wealth ofthe Country is in
the hands Of Observation-Disclosures to the
advancement of sound learning. is, con-
trary to their wishes to be expended in
Catholicism, and, for aught
they know, in replenishing the empty
Golfers of Pho Mono himself.
There was decided Upper Canada ma
jority against the bill, and it was hoped
that on this, its first trial, the Double
Majority principle would effect what its
friends claimed for it. But it was decided
that since the government grant to schools
was from the general government, this
bill effected both Provinces, and so not
withstanding hundreds of remonstranccs.
protests and petitions, signed by thous-
ands of the most influential men of Up
per Canada, this obnoxious bill passed,
.,.1 AT l.