The Irish standard., 1898-09-17
IS REFUTED FROM RELIABLE SOURCES
ITALIAN GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBLE
AND NOT THE CHURCH.
"R01ES OF A TRAVELLER" CIrDE
ZEAL. OF THE CATHOLIC CLERGY IN
PROMOTING EDUCATION.

l3aptlSt pfcac1eI--lldIHe y. II. L|"-
ger-who has been in Italy, has recently
been telling what he knows, or pretends
he knows, about that country and its
people. Judging from the report OF ms
words in the Nashville American, we
suspect he is of the same kidney ana
calibcr as the Methodist preacher, bart
ton, whose false reports from Puebla,
Mexico, have been exposed by Mexican
priest of that town, whose scorching
letter will be found in another column,
saws Father Lambert in the New York
Freeman's Journal.
The Rev. Eager admits that Italy
taught the world to read AS the world
was pretty well taught to read before
Professionalism had existence, and when
Italy, and the rest of the Christian
world was most Catholic, it would seem
to follow that the Catholic church was
not opposed to education. 1t is not like
ly that he saw this conclusion when he
made the admission, but there is no way
out of it.
Unfortunately, his other statements
are not as true as the one we have quot
ed. Let us examine some of them. He
says:
There are thirteen universities and
about 300 colleges in Italy, but only the
rich can patronize them
Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia for 1882,
page 434, says there arc twenty-five uni
vcrsties. The Rev. Eager is therefore
nine universities short. 1t is true of all
countries that only the rich or well-to-
do can patronize universities and col
leges, and Italy is no exception to the
rule.
There is no provision made for the
education of the masses"
The same Appleton Annual says: "ln
1882 there wore primary schools main
The number of teachers employed was
about 41,000, of whom onc-half were
women. The annual appropriation for
the schools is 100000 lire. There were
also 1922 private elementary schools,
employing 7,422 male and 4,4i4 female
teachers, and attended by G2,000 male
and 92,22S female pupils. There are be-
sides 11,161 evening schools for males
and 492 for females, the former with
439,G24, the latter with 1G,O63 scholars.
In the twenty-five universities there
were 1850 students in 1S7S.'
This gives a total of schools of all
kinds of 2G,G30. We will quote from Mr..
Samuel Laing. a Protestant writer, who
wrote as follows of education in Rome
before the present government usurpcd
the temporal power of the Pope. In his
Notes Of a Traveller Mr.. Laing writes:
I'm every street in Rome, for instance,
there are at short distances primary
schools for the education Of the chill
drcn of the lower and middlcs classes in
the neighborhood. Rome, with pop,l-
lntion Of 15S,G7S souls, has 372 public
primary schools, with 4S2 teachers and
Edinburgh SO many schools for the in
struction Of those classes? l doubt IT,"
Glazing was a Scotch Presbyterian
Berlin, with a population about double
that of Rome, has only 2G4 schools.
Rome has also her university, with an
average attendance of GG0 students, and
the Papal states, with a population of
$500, 900 Nn 1S4G), contain seven univcr-
sites. Prussia. with population of
14,OO0,000 (nearly six times as greaU i,
has but seven universities * 81 * *
The statistical fact that Rome has above
q hundred schools more than Berlin for
population little more than half of
that of Berlin, puts to flight world of
humbug about systems of national edu-
cation carried on by governments and
their moral effects on society"
Thus for the Protestant Lang. His
evidence contradicts that of Rev. Eager,
as does also that of Appleton. Should
Rev. Eager say there are not as good
school accommodations now as when
Laing wrote, the fault must be attrib-
uted to the present anti-Papal govern
ment, which has had control of affairs
for the last thirty years or more, and
which Rev. Eager calls "enlightcned,
bold, aggressive and progressive"
They the Italian people,, are pur-
posely kept in a state Of ignorance and
superstition, because it is easier to con-
troll an ignorant and superstitious
man, but an educated man will control
himself"
BY whom are they kept in ignorance?
By the church or by the Italian gov
errment, which you call enlightened
and progressive? This progressive gov
ernment has control of education in
Italy. Does 1t purposely keep the peo-
pie in a state of ignorance and supersti-