Smyrna times., 1889-04-10
The Jesuit Question in Canada.
BY GOLDWIN SMITH.

tIfGTl
that II they did not take care trouble.
as II had come to them from the South
would some day come to them from
the North. 1t will not be trouble of
| the same kind. or trouble which will
Drug on four years of civil war. II
! viii be trouble with which. if citizens
nave common patriotism and resolu-
ton, the ballot may deal; but it will
be trouble, and perhaps serious trouble
The Souit Carolina of second ire
presslbie conflict is not unlikely to he
found in French Canada, dominated
by the Jesuit
Ihat a second irrepressible conflict.
tho' happily of a much milder tvpe
lHpehds over society on this CONT
hehC is tact To which Americans are
apparently beginning to awaken
me hight over the public school svs.
tenn at Boston is the prelude probably
To general struggle, other pYrludes IN
which are the fights over grants of
public money on land to the sectarian
purposes OF The Roman Catholic
Ihurch at New York, Chicago. Gin
cInnatl and elsewhere. Once more as
IN the case Of Freedom and Slavery
two social systems radically autaoo-
nlstic, each with its political and in
teliectual concOmitants, confront each
other On one side is the social svs-
tenn of the New World. the system of
individual liberty. Of freedom of opin-
ion and speech, Of religious equality. of
science and prOgress-the system which
leaving all Churches to themselves and
the religious conscience to Itself re-
pudates all ecclesiastical domination
ana claims for the State as paramount
the undivided allegiance of everv
citizen. On the other side is the svs-
TEN OF the Church Of Rome, that com
paralively late but formidable immi-
grant-the system Of the encvclical
and the syllabus, the system which
seeks to make the Pope, as represen-
'allVe OF the ecclesiastical power, su-
preme lord OF all in things temporal, so
far as the Church pleases, as we'll as in
things spiritual. which demands for
the ecclesiastical power the first allie
glance Of the citizen, which denounces
freedom of opinion and asserts the
right of the inlallible Church. to mt
down opinions opposed TO hers bv
force which declares that the Papacy
will not make terms with modern sci
ence and progress, which combats ex-
pHcitly liberty OF speech and of relig-
iouS conviction, implicitly liberty of
every kind. \ y ~
Ia attacking the public school sys-
TEN Rome attacks the key of her en-
emy's position. Free institutions can
not possibly continue to exist without
an educated people. Over an educa-
ted people Rome can never reign.
NomiHally she opposes the religious
system of education to the secular
system. Really if she could extinguish
her rival aud have things all her own
way, popular education would cease.
Look at the countries which have
been thoroughly under her sway.
Look AT Spain, Portugal, Italy, espe-
cially Calabria, Sicily, Brittany and
other ultra Catholic districts Of France,
the remote provinces of Austria. Mex
leo and the South American colonies of
Spain. In French Canada, where the
Church is absolute, the bulk of the
people are illiterate, and we are told
that even the mayor of a town is not
always able to write. In British Can
ada the Roman Catholic Church has
managed to secure for herself separate
schools, and these are unquestiOnably
inferior to the rest Ireland has a
national system of education, but it was
introduced by the Parliament of the
United Kingdom against the wishes
and in spite of the half-veiled resist
ance of the main body of the Roman
Catholic hierarchy and priesthood
ha ,f al 1
deliberate or not, as it is everywhere
the same, we may infer that it is root
ed in her character, and that her vic
tory would be the death not only of
the secular school system but of pop
ular education. The Jesuit was, as
Bacon saw, a great, and, in his way,
successful educator. But of whom
Not of the people, but of princes,
mobiles, youth of the wealthier class, of
those over whom he wished to get in
huenoe, because influence over them
was political and social power. Nor
was his object in teaching that of the
genuine educator, but that of the social
and intellectual intriguer. What he
impaired was not light much less in
dependence of mind, but only genteel
accomplishments, with a hollow show
of learning, in return for which he ex-
acted the entire submission of his
pupils mind His aim was, in short
to extirpate by educational vaccina-
ton that dangerous malady, the love
of knowledge, which the Reformation
and the Renaissance had set up. If
the Church of Rome throws herself
into the work of popular education it
is to take the people away from the
heretical schools. She cannot posi-
bly, love it for its own sake. Where
education is she dares not venture on
the performance Of miracles, and
scarcely on the exhibition of relics.
We have miracles and relics in Quebec
The scene of battle now shifts to
French Canada. / have tried to de-
scribe before the French Canadian
theOcraCy, and those who bear the
facts in mind will see that the Church
Of Rome has in that theocracy an ad-
mirable basis for her reactionary op-
erations on the continent. The Church
in French Canada is virtually estab-
lished. She retains the legal power of
collecting from all Catholic tithes and
other ecclesiastical dues which she had
before the Conquest, while she is not
like all other Established Churches
under State control Her priesthood
is supreme in all things temporal as
we'll as spiritual. her people are uned-
ucated and submissive. Amid the
general poverty Of the people she is
rich, and her wealth is always being
increased by gainful investment as
well as by pious contribution. 1t is
reekoned that she now holds realized
property to the amount Of eighty mil
lions and has eight millions Of revenue.
She derives a great addition ofstrength
and Of security from her Identification
with French nationality, which in late
years has been growing more intense
aud more aggressive, the British Ca
madam element having not only failed
to assimilate the French, but having
begun visibly to recede before it. The
Eastern Townships, once British. are