The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-12-26
A QUESTION OF EDUCATION,
or the Children Of Catholic and Protestant Mar.
riageg.

or the Children Of Catholic and Protestant Mar
rlsges'
Are the three infant daughters of the
Hon. Mr.. and Mrs. Leopold Ager Ellis
who will be respectively 10, l2 and l3
years Of age, to be educated as Protest
ants or Roman Catholics ? Such was in
substance the specific question which
the English Court of Appeals has just
been called upon to decide, but the de-
Cision thereon is noteworthy, as likely
to be controlling one in future cases Of
mixed marriages. Mr.. Ager'Ellis, who
is member of the Church of England,
before he married his present wife, the
daughter Of Lord Camoys and Roman
Catholic, promised her that any of the
children born of the marriage should be
brought up in the lady's religious faith.
But as soon as the first child was born he
retraCted this promise, and has ever
since then been firm in his determina
ton to bring up his children in the
Church of England. Mrs. Ager Ellis,
however, disregarded her husbands pos
tive commands, and indoctrinated the
little girls with all the tenets peculiar to
the Roman Catholic Church, such as the
alteration of the Virgin, the invocation
of patron saints, and practice of Confes.
sion. 1t was 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 judg.
ment of the Court, the question was to
be determined as if there had never been
any such promise, and just as if she or
her husband had embraced new faith
after the marriage. In the unanimous
opinion of Lords Justices James, Bag
gally, and 1hesger, who heard the ap.
peal, it is the husbands undoubted right
to remove his children from the inhu.
enCe of mother who is avowedly using
thatinhuenCe to thwart his wishes. The
main argument before the Court was not
however, on any conflict of rights be.
tween husband and wife it being ConCe-
ded that by the law of England the ia.
ther is undoubtedly charged with the
education of the children, but the con.
aict 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 She education of his
children a reasonable discretion or an
absolute oneP
1t was held by the Court that unless
the father had forfeited such parental
right by moral misconduct or the pro.
fession of irreliglous opinion, his legs
right could not be interfered with. "If
a good and honest father, taking into
ibis consideration" reads the opinion,
'"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 funsettling their convictions, comes
to the conclusion that it is right and for
their welfare, temporal and spiritual, that
he should take means to CounteraCt that
teaching and undo its effect, he is by law
the sole judge ofthat. He is quite
as likely to judge rightly 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 jurisdiction which
the law has confided to him." The ap.
peal of Mrs. Agar. Ills was therefore un-
successful, and during the remaining
years of the children's minorities. the
whole responsibility of their religious
education is thrown upon their father.
The moral sought by some to be deduced
from the case is that these mixed mar
riages ought to be discouraged by Prot
estant and Roman Catholic parents alike.
IN. Y. Sun.