there was, according to the official statement of 1873 (furnished Parliament by the Secretary of State for India), 190,895,548 inhabitants- a well-graded system of education, for girls as well as for boys, has been in process of organization and development since 1854. Madagascar, which has lately been rescued from brutal degradation, and, to a great extent, evangelized, is now enjoying the blessings of a common-school system. The hundreds of millions of Chinese, supposed to number about a third of the population of the world, are already enjoying, to some extent, the blessings of enlightened statesmanship regarding education. The Japanese1 have within the last few years adopted a common-school system. To-day, in Japan, millions of youth, including girls, are attending public schools. Not to dwell in detail upon the educational progress which has been made in different heathen countries, it is pleasant to notice, that, in Turkey, the Mohammedans have opened free schools for girls as well as boys. Many

the state of education in India, see Appleton's New American Cyclopædia, art. India. Notwithstanding the noble efforts of some English statesmen to secure to India a good school-system, ninetyfive per cent of the people are illiterate. (See Schem and Kiddle's Cyclopædia of Education, art. Illiteracy, and Table of Illiteracy.) It is not unlikely that some of the statesmen of England will strive to secure a good school-system, not only for India, but for all the dependencies of Great Britain.

1 See Education in Japan, -a work prepared by the Japanese Government for the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, 1876; also The Mikado's Empire, W. E. Gritis, pp. 561, 563, 573.

2 Buisson states that one per cent of the population of Turkey is enrolled as attending public and private primary and secondary schools. In Egypt one-half of one per cent are thus enrolled.

Christian congregations of natives have been formed among the heathen and Mohammedans. Sabbath schools have been opened, and thousands of educated natives are sincerely admiring and teaching the truths of the Christian religion.

Although some of the missionaries from America and Europe have been remarkably noble Christian men and women, yet the results of their labors would have been comparatively small if they had not succeeded in interesting the people in the praiseworthy work of providing free school-instruction for all classes of society.

Citizens of the United States need not think that the people of benighted nations belong to inferior races to themselves. It should be remembered that in Canada and in some parts of the United States, before public schools were opened in them, the people were almost incredibly unlettered. If the citizens of the United States had never had any better advantages than those possessed by the inhabitants of Spain and some other countries, they would probably be as degraded as are their less-favored brethren. The history of every country 2 in which the people

1 "See a very eloquent speech delivered in Parliament by Lord Macaulay, April 19, 1847. John Adams, in his Essay on the Right Constitution of a State, published with his History of the Principal Republics of the World, vol. iii. p. 476, speaking of education being supplied by private munificence, said, "This source, although sufficient to maintain a few schools and a university in a great nation, can never be sufficient to maintain schools in sufficient numbers to educate a whole people "

2 "Poland, at the time of the Reformation, was one of the principal 'powers' of Europe. While fearful persecutions were in prog

have long been illiterate, and in which the Bible has been a sealed book, presents a solemn lesson to the world. The history of Spain is a record of misgov

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ress in many parts of Europe, the Poles were tolerant. Many an exile found a home among them. Poland passed through an Augustan age of literature. The Jesuits visited Poland. The government gave the great national university into their hands. They became immensely wealthy. Fearful persecutions were organized against Protestants, and members of the Greek Church. A gloom settled over the land like unto that of the dark ages. In time, John II. (Casimir), a Jesuit of royal birth whom the Pope permitted to leave his order, was made king. With fearful cruelty he strove to subjugate Protestants, and members of the Greek Church, to Rome. Under his reign the celebrated 'Liberum Veto' was adopted, by which any deputy in the Polish Diet could veto any measure of government. Thus the opposition of a single nobleman could prevent any decision being arrived at upon any business, - 'a madness which has not its like in history,' unless the attempt, in Pres. Andrew Jackson's time, of John C. Calhoun to force upon the people of the United States 'State nullification,' be compared to it. Some of the nobility received an education, such as it was, from the Jesuits. The people, as a rule, were illiterate. Revolution and anarchy continuously followed each other in quick succession. Russia sympathized with the persecuted Greek Christians, Prussia with the Protestants. Austria and the other powers saw in Poland a country helpless because of civil strifes. Poland, which in the seventeenth century had had twenty millions of inhabitants, - Poland, whose soldiers had victoriously entered Moscow as well as Prussia, and had even hurled back a mighty Turkish army which was about entering in triumph Vienna, - Poland, which had a history dating back hundreds upon hundreds of years, was at last 'stricken from the list of nations.' The learned Prof. Döllinger, at the close of a brief review of the history of Poland, says, "Here is not the place to judge the procedure of the three great powers who divided Poland among themselves. The three powers have been only the grave-diggers of a corpse already fallen into entire corruption."

See Report of the Union Conference of the Old Catholics at Bonn in 1875, pp. 154-164. Translated from the German by S. Buell. Sold by T. Whittaker, New York. During the conference, Prof. Döllinger, for many years a Roman-Catholic professor of history, passed the history of a number of nations in review.

ernment and degradation. The despotism has been so great, that it baffles, at this period, conception. In Spain, during the last few hundred years, millions of people have been terribly persecuted—many of them to the death-because they would not be Roman Catholics. In what language shall the degradation of a nation be pictured which has let the "secular arm" as the officers of the Spanish Inquisition1 have been ingeniously called-do its fiendish work? For hundreds of years, the small number of the people who could read and write in Spain have not been allowed to read the Bible. Until 1868, when a republic was temporarily established, to teach or to embrace Protestantism, or to circulate, buy, or sell Protestant books, was punishable by law. Only a few congregations of foreigners were allowed to worship God in Protestant houses of worship. Not to dwell at length upon the awful past, on the results of a union of the Roman-Catholic Church and State, on the fruits of not encouraging public schools, suffice it to say, that, for the last hundred and more years, almost one unceasing series of wars, revolutions, and anarchies, have been in progress in Spain. A large amount of the vast properties of the Roman-Catholic Church in Spain has been, for State reasons, confiscated within the last half-century. It is greatly to be regretted that the

1" See John Lothrop Motley's History of the Rise of the Dutch Republic, chap. on Spanish Inquisition. See History of the Great Reformation, by W. Carlos Martyn. See History of the Inquisition, from its Establishment in the Twelfth Century to its Extinction in the Nineteenth, by William Harris Rule.

present king of Spain has already re-enacted unbearably persecuting laws regarding religion.

Italy has a history in many respects similar to that of Spain. The number of revolutions which have occurred in various parts of Italy within the last two hundred years is immense. In Italy, as well as in Spain, it has been made manifest that for a people not to provide schools for their children is not the best way for them to befriend the Christian religion. In the year 1848 the Pope fled for his life from the ignorant and yet exasperated people of Rome and the Pontifical States. It is believed, that, for long years, the Pope was only enabled to remain in Rome by means of French bayonets. The first opportunity given by the victorious Victor Emmanuel to the citizens of Rome to vote upon casting off the yoke of the Pope, they decided to join "United Italy." In Italy, as well as in Spain, the Roman-Catholic Church has been deprived of vast possessions; yet the people are nominally Roman Catholics. In the public schools which the present energetic government has opened, the Roman-Catholic catechism is taught. Although the catechism is taught, the essayist is informed that some of the Roman-Catholic clergy are conducting schools in opposition to the public schools. The recent changes in Italy are thought by Protestant nations to be a step towards liberty and improved government; but these facts may be mentioned to draw the attention of intelligent Roman Catholics to the question, "Whether it is desirable. that the same policy regarding school-instruction