is drawn the better; the sooner the scabbard is flung to the winds the better; and the sooner the bridges are torn down, or burned, the better. There is no satisfactory compromise possible. This controversy cannot come to an end until the hand of this foreign ecclesiastical power no longer shall be felt, pressing with its withering touch upon our journalistic literature, and upon all the free institutions of this country, which are as dear as life to every true American citizen."

Oh, my patriotic friends, let us work and pray for a day when we shall have in reality and in truth a free press; a day when the beams of truth radiating from this free press will dispel the gloom of mental night, chase from the world the superstitions of the dark ages, unmask the tyrannies and gigantic wrongs of despots, wake humanity from its sleepy ignorance, break the bondage of papal reign, and bathe the world in a flood of light, until the triumph of truth shall be complete, and the "wilderness and the solitary place shall be made glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom like as a rose."

ROME'S ATTACK ON OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

"I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say."-I. Cor. x. 15.

I have a little book compiled by a Roman Catholic priest, entitled "Judges of Faith: Christian vs. Godless Schools." It is published by a Catholic publishing house, and bears the endorsement of Cardinals Gibbons and Newman, and of many other authorities of the Church. It contains the rulings of more than twenty councils; six or seven synods; two Roman pontiffs; three hundred and eighty high church dignitaries, besides the views of prelates and priests of various ranks. To indicate its spirit we will give some of the choice epithets which it uses in denouncing our public school system: "Godless," "irreligious," "unchristian," "scandalous," "grossly immoral," "filthy," "vicious," "diabolical," "a detestable system," "positively dangerous," "a place where children imbibe the poisonous germs of infidelity and immorality," "your very blood would curdle at the scandal of which they are the scene." On page 9, the author tells us "Catholics will continue building schools on their own grounds" until our school buildings, "left empty by Catholics deserting them, shall be

lawfully acquired and occupied by denominational schools." This little book is of the highest Roman Catholic authority, and has a wide circulation; it is addressed to Catholic parents, and unreservedly commits the Church as the implacable enemy of the public school.

We must mention some special attacks made upon our schools by some of their dignitaries and official organs.

The Catholic Quarterly Review, of Boston, says: "We would much rather our children should grow up in ignorance than be taught in a school that is not Catholic."

Freeman's Romish Journal says: "Let the public school system go to where it came from-the devil. We want Christian schools, and the State cannot tell us what Christianity is."

The Cincinnati Catholic Telegraph says: "It will be a glorious day for the Catholics of this country, when, under the blows of justice and morality, our school system will be shivered to pieces."

Cardinal Manning says: "The common school system of the United States is the worst in the world."

Father Walker declares, "Unless you suppress the public school system, as at present conducted, it will prove the damnation of this country."

The Catholic Columbian, edited under the supervision of the Bishop of Columbus, says: "Secular schools are unfit for Catholic children. Catholic parents cannot be allowed the sacraments who

choose to send their children to them when they could make use of the Catholic schools."

Pope Pius IX., in the 45th proposition of the syllabus issued by him in 1864, declares: "That the Romish Church has a right to interfere in the discipline of the public schools, and in the choice of the teachers of these schools." And in proposition 47th, that "public schools open to all children for the education of the young, should be under the control of the Romish Church; should not be subject to the civil power, nor made to conform to the opinions of the age." In proposition 48th, he says: "Catholics cannot approve of a system of educating youth which is unconnected with the Catholic faith and power of the Church."

Edmund F. Dunne, LL.D., said at the Catholic Congress (Baltimore, 1889): "Why should the state ask for the child? What can it do with it? It cannot educate it. It has no power in that direction. . . . That is beyond its charter, beyond its rights, beyond its power." Again he says: "Why should we not love this land? Is it not our own? Is it not under the care of Catholic saints? With a Catholic people this land were surely Catholic."

Bishop Gilmour, at the dedication of the Catholic University at Washington, said: "Catholics are willing to accept the public schools in America. as they have done in Europe and elsewhere, on condition that an arrangement should be made that the child be taught religion." I ask, what religion? Pope Leo XIII., in a letter to one of his cardi

nals, dated March 25, 1879, says: "Nor can we here pass over in silence the opening of anti-Catholic schools, with singular effrontery, under our very eyes, even at the gates of the Vatican, the venerated seat of the Roman Pontiffs. In contrast to this licentious liberty so amply conceded to heterodox schools, in ways indirect indeed, but yet supremely efficacious, they endeavor to impede the increase and development of Catholic schools."

I have in my possession a sufficient number of discourses, letters and decrees denouncing our public schools, from Roman Catholic dignitaries, to make a good-sized volume. The hierarchy has thoroughly committed itself aganist the public school system, and as it is infallible it cannot retreat; to do so would be a refutation of its infallibility.

HOW ROME ATTACKS OUR PUBLIC

SCHOOLS.

1. BY ABOLISHING THe Bible.

This was the first attack; this the entering wedge; this she has accomplished in many towns and cities. "The Judges of Faith" objects to the Bible, because, it declares, "The very reading of the Bible in the public schools is an attempt to pervert the hearts of Catholic children." Bishop Spotswood says, "I would rather one-half the people of this nation should be brought to the stake and burned than one man should read the Bible and form his judgment from its contents "