The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-01-18
The Question Of the Hour.
From tho Baltimore Mirror.l


From tho Baltimore Mrror.l
Catholic education for Catholic peo-
pie ~ is proclaim that rings to. day loudly !
In the ears of the British Government. |
More than twenty years ago his Eminence, |
Cardinal Cullen, began the crusade against |
education by the State in ireland, and he |
was ably seconded by the intellect and faith
of the famous scholars who had shaken the |
dust from off their feet at the gates of the
Established Church. To-day when on the
eve of forcing the Government of that coun-
try to concession to his demands in this
respect, Archbishop Manning, the prelates
and laity of England have made the first
step in the same battle by the establishment
of Catholic University, and in the British
provinces OF North America another pre-
late, Morsignor Sweeny, Bishop of St.
Johns, is boldly agitating the same q1es-
ton. So obvious is the correctness and
good faith in which this Catholic Bishop
urges the claims of his people, that it has
already cost the Federal Government the
loss of the services of an able minister, in
Mr.. NJ. r. Mason, the member of Parlia
mept for Terreborne, who was offered the
Office held recently by the deceased SIR
George Cartier. When Mr.. Mason was
requested by the Cabinet to accept posi-
ten amongst its members, he declared that
he would not consent to take any part in
the Administration unless the question of
the religious authorities of New Brunswick.
The Government desired then to ascertain
the demands to be acceded to, and Mr..
Mason went to that province. He met
the Bishop Of St. Johns, he met the
Lieutenant Governor and many of the local
| which the Bishop submitted the following
| propositions
! 1st. That the Christian Brothers and Sisters
| of Charity be licensed to teach in the public
| schools on successfully passing an examination
conducted in a special manner. in which test
! papers furnished by the Board of Education,
to be filled in by the candidates, should be GER
! tilted by the Bishop as having been written by
| the parties SO examined.
I'd. That the schools tau sht by the Christi an
! Brothers and Sisters of Charity should be open
| to the Roman Catholic children resident in any
| part of the district.
Sd. That in such schools no books shall be
| used which might be objected to by the Bishop
whilst for instruction in subjects on which any
books of the Board of Education shoald be
Objectionable, the books of the Christiun Bro
theirs should be used.
OF course, these proposition were all re-
Brunswick was filled with steady deter
usination not to do justice to the persecuted
Catholics. They had no objection to license
the Christian Brothers or the Sisters o.
Charity, butthe Bishops mode ofexamina
ton they would not have. The Sister,
should leave their cells and be drilled at al
examination in public, to show the powe
} of tho Government examiners, and tn
Christian Brothers should be used in tn
same fashion. 1t was something of hom
age they required to their power, like tn
homage that Governor Gesler, in Altorf
exacted from the peasants to his hat. II
grant the Bishops demand would be deal
ing exceptionally in favor of a single de
: nomination, according to those wiseacres
and then they rejected his second PROPOSE
tion and made the school trustees and no
the parents of the children, the judges o
the schools, where their little ones shoul'
be educated. They capped the climax o
all, however, when they refused to admi
any of the books of the Christian Brother
to be used. The Board Of Education wa
: to do all that, and no one else. The book
, which they prescribed were to be as tn
: law and the Gospel and 10 other. N
matter how Objectionable to Catholics som
I of the books might be, no matter hoy
false their teaching, no matter how muc
calculated to disturb, to change, to weak
en- their religious sentiments, the Bishop
9 the Christian Brothers, the Nuns and tn
= children should swallow them, even if the
a yielded every ether point. That wa
). enough. 1t closed all argument, and MI
' Mason refused point blank to enter til
ministry.
What did the bigots of the local Govern
!. ment of New Brunswick gain by this NJ
8 even 30 much as a temporary triumph, fo
y public opinion has arisen to warn them
It their defeat eventually. "There ID not
d says lie Nouceau Monde, speaking of tt
3. reply of the Council, "any concession o
l. fered here which can disarm our co-rel
gionists, and there is nothing which the
can accept as a PREPARATION. 1t is the efo
of weak men who feel themselves carrie
'ee away by the current" The Canadit
a a Freeman states that "the essential porto
~ of the propositions made by the Bisht
!. from the first to the last are that the i
st struction ought to be religious and Cat
ID Ollie in the schools to which Catholics ser
to their children, and that any book dlsa
9. proved by the Bishop should not DO u.s.
a. in these schools.
to The 'Moniteur Acadien asserts, wi
-, warmth, whatever these enraged fanati
" may do, the fate of the Schools Act is ses
y" ed, and unless the Legislature amends
=, in the next session so as to do justice to
n classes, the elections shall fix its repeal,
ss all probability, next summer, if the Fedel
s,.k1 1NnfN