nine million; Bishop Hogan of Missouri at thirteen million; Edmund F. Dunne, at the Catholic Congress, 1889, said: "We have twelve million Catholics now, and of them the end is not yet."

But perhaps the most reliable statistics of Catholicity are those given on page 378 of Sadlier's History of the United States: "The Catholic Church in the United States now numbers fourteen archbishops, one being a cardinal, seventy-three bishops, more than nine thousand priests, over twelve thousand churches, fifty-four theological seminaries, one hundred and thirty-eight colleges, more than six hundred academies, three thou. sand five hundred parish schools, and six hundred charitable institutions. The Catholic laity include about ten million."

In 1800 there were one hundred thousand Roman Catholics in the United States; there was then, one Romanist to every fifty-three of the population; in 1850, one to fourteen; in 1890, one to six and one-half. The Roman Catholic Church has increased more rapidly than our population. Its rate of growth has been more rapid than that of the Protestant churches.

Josiah Strong says: "From 1800 to 1880 the population increased ninefold, the membership of all Evangelical churches twenty-seven-fold, and the Romanist population sixty-three-fold. From 1850 to 1880 the population increased 185 per cent., and the Romanist population 294 per cent.; during the same period the number of Evangelical churches increased 125 per cent., and the number of Evan

gelical ministers 173 per cent., while the Roman Catholic Churches increased 447 per cent., and the priests 381 per cent."

In 1800 the Roman Catholic population was 21 per cent. of the number of Evangelical church-members; in 1850, 45 per cent.; in 1890, 75 per cent.

The census for 1890 gave the number of communicants in the Evangelical churches as thirteen million four hundred thousand. Sadlier's history gave the Roman population as ten million.

Her growth is significant. She believes the West is to dominate the nation, and she has determined to dominate the West by concentrating her forces there. There are six Western States in which there are four times as many Romanists as Protestant church-members. I have traveled extensively through every State and Territory in the West. I spent six years in that country, and I know that the Jesuits, with their churches and schools, are everywhere, and are now an overwhelming evil.

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Rev. Mr. Warren, writing from California, said: 'They are at work, night and day, to break down the institutions of the country, beginning with the public schools. As surely as we live, so surely will the conflict come, and it will be a hard one."

MEANS BY WHICH ROME INCREASES HER

1. Immigration.

means of increase.

MEMBERSHIP.

This has been her greatest

Roman Catholic congregations

are largely made up of foreigners and their chil

dren and grandchildren; the majority of our immigrants for the past fifty years have been Roman Catholics.

S. W. Barnum claims that seven-eighths of all who come to our shores from Ireland are Romanists, and one-half the immigrants from Germany are of the same faith. That immigration has been the principal source of Roman Catholic increase in the United States, is conceded by both Protestants and Romanists, so further citation of statistics is unnecessary.

2. Family Increase.-The Catholic World boasts that "Catholic families increase much faster than others." The majority of Roman Catholics belong to the laboring class, and are decidedly more vigorous than the non-laboring class. Dr. Mattison says: "In Roman Catholic families there are four or five children, while in the average non-Catholic family but two or three." There is no doubt that the priests use both the pulpit and the confessional as a means of inculcating upon the married the duty of multiplying and increasing the race.

3. Mixed Marriages. In the majority of cases when a Romanist and Protestant marry, it generally turns out to the advantage of the Catholic Church. The children of such marriages are generally brought up Catholics, and frequently the Protestant parent becomes a Catholic.

4. Conversion of Protestants.-These are numerous. Her educational establishments are the principal instrumentalities in winning Protestants. Special effort is made to attract the children of

Protestants to these schools, in order to convert them to Romanism. Those in charge of the schools declare the non-interference with the religion of the pupils, and though coercion may not be used, yet sufficient influence is exerted to bring about the conversion of seven-tenths of the Protestants thus educated.

The Sisters declare they make no effort to convert Protestant children, but facts speak for themselves. Their text-books are smirched with Roman Catholic doctrines; in many schools, frequent and systematic instruction is given to Catholic children. in the presence of Protestant children; books on Catholic doctrine are frequently placed in the hands of Protestant children, and the exceptional kindness of the nuns becomes a most persuasive and convincing argument to win them to Romanism.

The daughter of Winfield Scott was educated in a convent in Montreal, and consequently became a Romanist. Thirty-eight out of forty Protestant girls that were sent at one time to a convent in Montreal became Catholics. I am personally acquainted with five young ladies, all Protestants, who attended one of their institutions in Indiana, and strenuous efforts were made to convert every one of them to Romanism. A lady in the city of Toledo, who spent two years in a convent in the District of Columbia, told me that during those two years, she knew more than two hundred Protestant girls were converted to Romanism in that one convent. Rev. F. N. Walcott says: "I knew of four young ladies, daughters of prominent Prot

estants who resided in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who attended St. Joseph's Convent in St. Paul, and as a result three of them became Catholics."

Such instances are common. Will Protestants ever take warning, and keep their children out of these proselyting institutions, and will they ever cease contributing of their funds for the building

of them?

Other methods of winning Protestants, through missions, political influences and the giving of money alleged to have been surrendered through the confessional, we shall not consider.

Rome's losses in the country will probably not be so great in the future as they have been in the past. The main cause of her loss has been the public school, and now she is able to overcome this through the establishment of thousands of parochial schools and academies. On this subject Mr. Strong says: "The now pronounced parochial school system policy can hardly fail to keep great numbers in the Roman communion, which through the broadening influence of the public school would have left it, thus greatly stimulating the growth of the Church in the future."

In this article we have discussed the numerical strength of Rome in the United States. Her political and social strength are equally as great. Father Hecker prophesied that the present generation would see the Roman Catholics as numerous in this country as the Protestants. Their motive is to contro! our country, and they are using their utmost exertions to bring about that result.