Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-05-09

tnries crushed freedom and the Bible in
continental Europe, and are now rotting
along with the life of the nations whose
manhood they have emasculated. This is
the scene that meets US, and we are deter
m ined "to give way by subjection, no, not
for an hour Weare determined, if possible
to prevent the agents of this system from
using political influence to get control of
even portion of our public funds. We
will keep those funds intact for their pur-
poses, for we well know where the en-
tire animal will soon be, if we let the head
in. If our Roman Catholic citizens will
join us in the common school, we will
freely allow them the influence which as
iediutduats they may exert. But we can
not tamely suffer them to erect themselves
into organized hostility to our system, and
use the public funds to fight with.
4. THE QUESTION OF sECTARIAN BIAS.
Father Finnegan maintains that it is
impossible for common school to be nom
sectarian. He thinks every teacher must
have 'bias." l need not spend time on
this assertion. Suppose he has a bias. 1t
will come outin teaching spelling, reading,
and arithmetic, in no very prominent way.
Then, little latitude in this matter, among
tho various teachers will only have the
effect of whetting off some of the angles of
den0minatiOnal prejudice, and do no harm.
Then again, there will be some Roman
Catholic teachers in the schools, and they
will manifest their "biasn in the direction
oftheir own church. Where the system is
such as to repress all proselyting in the
offensive sense, no great influence need be
feared. Teachers, will under the then ex-
listing circumstances, be careful to confine
themselves to their own proper work, leav-
ing to more competent hands the work of
specific doctrinal christian training.
S. STATISTICS AGAIN.
1 should not have again touched this
question, if the Fathers statements had
not compelled me. 1t is not pleasant
subject, for we must all feel profoundly
humiliated, whether Protestants or Roman
lists, that the gospel in our hands has not
been more faithfully and successfully ap-
piled to the salvation of the people, and
thus to the prevention of crime. But it is
not as the Father. would have il, mere
question of "casting out the beam from
our own,eye." We are here on question
of great public concernment. The Fathers
claim for superior moral results from the
teaching in the schools of his church,
sprung the question upon us. [ have
shown from tables taken from actual gov
ernment statistics-nOt that the Roman
Church fosters crime-but that it has less
power to restrain it than the Protestant
Church. This exhibit the Father meete
by counter statements. In some cases he
gives the statements without mentioning
any authority at all. In others he gives
authorities of private character, such as
the assertion of clergymen and physicians,
loosely made, and therefore, in such con-
nectiOn worth very little.
To show how much reliance is to bs
placed on these statements of the Father,
take one or two cases. In one of his ar
tioies he gives statement from All
authority unknown to me, that
during an entire year there was not a
single conviction for murder in Ireland.
How untrustworthy any such statement
must be is evident to all who have seen the
Irish people in great tcities where they gen.
orally furnish more criminals than
all the other classes of population combin-
ed. But take in this connection the figures
in tables, laid before Parliament and pub
hshcd by the House in 1852. From these we
learn that the total number of committals
for murder during the year 1851 in Eng
land