Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-12-28
ACQUISITION OF EDUCATION
Of the Children of Catholic and Protest
ant Marriages.
New York SUM-

new 1ork hun,l
Are the three infant daughters Of !
the Hon. Mr.. and Mrs. Leopold Agar
Ellis, who will be respectively in Jan
uary next thirteen, twelve and ten
years of age, to be educated as Prot
estants or Roman Catholics? Such
was in substance the specific question
which the English Court of Appeal
has just been called upon to decide,
but the decision thereon is note
worthy, as likely to be a controlling
one in future cases of mixed mar
riages. Mr.. Agar Ellis, who is a mem
Der of the Church of England, before.
he married his present wife, the
daughter of Lord Camoys and Ro-
man Catholic, promised her that any
children born of the marriage should
be brought up in the lady's re-
| ligious faith. But as soon as the first
child was born he retracted this prom
Use, and has ever since then been firm
in the determination to bring up his
children in the Church of England.
Mrs. Agar Ellis, however, disregarded
her husbands positive commands and
indoctrinated the little girls with all
the tenets peculiar to the Roman
Catholic Church, such as the adora-
ton of the Virgin, the invocation of
patron saints, and practice of cOnfes-
sion. Itwas conceded by counsel that
the ante-nuptial promise was in point
of law absolutely void. As between
the husband and wife therefore said
Lord Justice James, who delivered
the Judgment Of the court, the ques-
ton was to be determined as if there
had never been any such promise, and
Just as if she or her husband had EN-
braced new faith after the marriage.
In the unanimous opinion of Lords
Justices James, Baggally and Thesi-
ger, who heard the appeal, it is the
husbands undoubted right to remove
his children from the influence of a
mother who is avowedly using that in
huence to thwart his wishes. The
main argument before the court was
not, however, on any conflict OF rights
between husband and wife, it being
conceded that by the law Of England
the father is undoubtedly charged
with the education of his children
but the conflict of rights as between
the father and the children themselves
was the great issue. In other words,
! is the right of the father to control
the education of his children reason
able discretion or an absolute one2
1t was held by the court that unless
the father had forfeited such parental
right by moral misconduct or the pro
fession of irreligiouS opinion, his legal
right could not be interfered with.
; IF good and honest father, taking
into his consideration, reads the opin-
ion, "the past teaching to which his
children have, in fact, been subject
and the effect of that teaching on their
minds, and the risk of unsettling theil
convictions, comes to the conclusion
that it is right and for their welfare
temporal and spiritual, that he should
take means to counteract that teach.
| ing and undo its effect, he is by Law
the sole judge Of that. \ He is
quite as likely to judge right as we are
to Judge for him. At all events, the
law has made him, and not us, The
; Judge, and we cannot interfere with
| him in his honest exercise Of the juris
diction which the law has con6ded t
: him" The appeal of Mrs. Agar Ellis
was therefore unsuccessful, and during
the remaining years of the children
minorities the whole responsibilit!
of their religious education is throw
: upon their father. The moral sough
e BY some to be deduced from the cas-,
is that these mixed marriages ought t,
be discouraged by Protestant anC
Roman Catholic parents alike.