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Boards of Poor Law Guardians, that the further increase of teachers' emoluments should come, not from the Poor's rate or any other local tax, but from the Consolidated Fund or the residue of Church property, and from school fees. It is only right and just-and it would be undoubtedly for the interest of education-that parents able to pay for their children's education, should do so according to their means. If parents are bound by the laws of God and of the State to provide, at their own cost, for the corporal wants and well-being of their children, they are surely bound by a far stricter obligation, and under more severe penalties, to provide, by their own care, and at their own expense, for the wants and interests of those children's souls. This sacred duty no Christian parent will deny or neglect. How, then, has it been to some extent forgotten by Catholic parents in Ireland? Why have they ceased to pay, or to be disposed to pay, for the instruction of their children in the National Schools? The reason is patent; it is because the Government, owing partly to its anxiety to cover the country with those schools, took on itself, from the first introduction of the National system, to pay the salaries of the teachers and other expenses connected with the schools, calculating that an impoverished people, remarkable for their love of learning, would be attracted to schools where education was proffered to all-even the poorest-as a matter of right; and that young men and women would be attracted to the profession of teachers by the substitution of a Government pension for the precarious fees obtainable from parents. It is thus parents have come to regard our school teachers as paid Government officials, bound to do their work like other officials, for the State salary paid to them. It is thus parents have been led by the State itself to throw upon it the duty of educating their children; and hence it is that, contrary to their Catholic principles and Irish traditions, many Catholic parents have lost much of their old esteem and love for learning, and have come to take but a divided interest in their children's education. We should therefore consider it a most salutary arrangement, that parents should pay school fees directly to the teachers; and that the desired increase in the teachers' emoluments should be drawn partly from that source. Such an arrangement, besides presenting the great moral and religious advantages we have referred to, would, we are convinced, have the happy effect of securing for our schools a much larger and more regular attendance, and of stimulating the industry of the children and increasing their love of learning, whilst it would greatly help to place the teachers in relations

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of confidence and intimacy with the parents-relations that are reversed and made impossible under the present school system, and which should become still more impossible were the teachers to derive any part of their support from a forced and unpopular tax. It is easy to foresee that, should the teachers become mere civil servants of the State, supported by State salaries and public taxes, they would be soon regarded by our people as mere state functionaries, and treated very generally as a detective department of the Constabulary Force. This is a result of the teachers' agitation which we should endeavour to prevent, as much in the interest of the teachers themselves as of education. Whatever mode of payment is adopted in favour of the teachers, we must see that it shall neither withdraw nor weaken any of the few remaining guarantees which enable Catholics to remain in connexion with the Education Board. The transfer of the management of our schools from the clergy to School Boards-a favorite scheme with Presbyterians and other anti-Catholic bigotsshould, we may safely predict, speedily result in the total wreck of this mis-called National system, and in a disastrous conflict of warring elements, both religious and social. Although we may hope never to witness an attempt so fraught with danger to the peace and prosperity of our country, we must be prepared to meet and resist it. To subject the education of our Catholic children to the control of boards, in which Protestant members would predominate in number or influence, would be to revive in a new but more dangerous form the old proselytizing schools, by which former English Governments sought to poison the souls of our children, and rob them of their Faith; it would be, in truth, a new phase of religious persecution, which could result only in making the persecutors more odious, and rekindling, with peril to England as well as to Ireland, the old social, political, and religious animosities, which it is the duty of all, and especially of the State, to suppress and extinguish. You will pray, dearly beloved brethren, that we may be allowed to live in peace and to bring up our children in that one true faith which we have inherited from our persecuted fathers, and which is dearer to us than life.

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DOCUMENTS.

SUPREMAE SACRAE CONGREGATIONIS INSTRUCTIO
AD PROBANDUM OBITUM ALICUIUS CONIUGIS.

MATRIMONII vinculo duos tantummodo, Christo ita

docente, copulari, et coniungi posse: alterutro vero coniuge vita functo, secundas, imo et ulteriores nuptias licitas esse, dogmatica Ecclesiae Catholicae doctrina est.

Verum ad secundas et ulteriores nuptias quod attinet, cum de re agatur, quae difficultatibus ac fraudibus haud raro est obnoxia, hinc Sancta Sedes sedulo curavit modo Constitutionibus generalibus, saepius autem responsis in casibus particularibus datis, ut libertas novas nuptias ineundi ita cuique salva esset, ut praedicta matrimonii unitas in discrimen non adduceretur.

Inde constituta sacrorum Canonum, quibus, ut quis possit licite ad alia vota transire, exigitur, quod de morte coniugis certo constet, uti cap. Dominus, de secundis nuptiis, vel quod de ipsa morte recipiatur certum nuncium, uti cap. In praesentia, de sponsalibus et matrimoniis. Inde etiam ea, quae explanatius traduntur in Instructione Cum alias, 21 Augusti 1670, a Clemente X. sancita, et in Bullario Romano inserta super examine testium pro matrimoniis contrahendis in Curia Emi Vicarii Urbis et ceterorum Ordinariorum. Maxime vero quae propius ad rem facientia ibi habentur nn. 12 et 13.

Et haec quidem abunde sufficerent, si in eiusmodi causis peragendis omnimoda et absoluta certitudo de alterius coniugis obitu haberi semper posset; sed cum id non sinant casuum propemodum infinitae vices (quod sapienter animadversum est in laudata Instructione his verbis: Si tamen huiusmodi testimonia haberi non possunt, Sacra Congregatio non intendit excludere alias probationes, quae de iure communi possunt admitti, dummodo legitimae sint et sufficientes), sequitur, quod, stantibus licet principiis generalibus praestitutis, haud raro casus eveniunt, in quibus ecclesiasticorum Praesidum iudicia haerere solent in vera iustaque probatione dignoscenda ac statuenda; imo, cum pro summa illa facilitate, quae aetate nostra facta est, remotissimas quasque regiones adeundi, in omnes fere orbis partes homines divagentur, eiusmodi casuum multitudo adeo succrevit, ut frequentissimi hac de re ad Supremam hanc Congregationem habeantur recursus, non sine porro partium incommodo, quibus inter informationes atque instructiones, quas pro re nata, ut aiunt, peti mittique necesse est, plurimum defluit temporis, quin possint ad optata vota convolare.

Quapropter Sacra eadem Congregatio huiusmodi necessitatibus occurrere percupiens, simulque perpendens, in dissitis praesertim Missionum locis ecclesiasticos Praesides opportunis destitui subsidiis, quibus ex gravibus difficultatibus extricare se valeant, e re esse censuit uberiorem edere Instructionem, in qua, iis, quae iam tradita sunt, nullo pacto abrogatis, regulae, indigitentur, quas in eiusmodi casibus haec ipsa S. Congregatio sequi solet, ut illarum ope, vel absque necessitate recursus ad Sanctam Sedem, possint iudicia ferri, vel certe, si recurrendum sit, status quaestionis ita dilucide exponatur, ut impediri longiori mora sententia non debeat. Itaque,

1. Cum de coniugis morte quaestio instituitur, notandum primo loco, quod argumentum a sola ipsius absentia quantacumque (licet a legibus civilibus fere ubique admittatur) a sacris Canonibus minime sufficiens ad iustam probationem habetur. Unde sa. me. Pius VI. ad Archiepiscopum Pragensem die II Julii 1789, rescripsit, solam coniugis absentiam, atque omnimodum eiusdem silentium satis argumentum non esse ad mortem comprobandam, ne tum quidem, cum edicto regio coniux absens evocatus (idemque porro dicendum est, si per publicas ephemerides id factum sit) nullum suimet indicium dederit. Quod enim non comparuerit, idem ait Pontifex, non magis mors in causa esse potuit, quam eius contumacia.

2. Hinc ad praescriptum eorumdem sacrorum Canonum, documentum authenticum obitus diligenti studio exquiri omnino debet; exaratum scilicet ex regestis Paroeciae, vel Xenodochii, vel militiae, vel etiam, si haberi nequeat ab auctoritate ecclesiastica, a Gubernio civili loci, in quo, ut supponitur, persona obierit.

3. Porro quandoque hoc documentum haberi nequit ; quo casu testium depositionibus supplendum erit. Testes vero duo saltem esse debent, iurati, fide digni, et qui de facto proprio deponant, defunctum cognoverint, ac sint inter se concordes quoad locum et causam obitus, aliasque substantiales circumstantias. Qui insuper, si defuncti propinqui sint, aut socii itineris, industriae, vel etiam militiae, eo magis plurimi faciendum erit illorum testimonium.

4. Interdum unus tantum testis examinandus reperitur, et licet ab omni iure testimonium unius ad plene probandum non admittatur, attamen ne coniux alias nuptias inire peroptans, vitam caelibem agere cogatur, etiam unius testimonium absolute non respuit Suprema Congregatio in dirimendis huiusmodi casibus, dummodo ille testis recensitis conditionibus sit praeditus, nulli exceptioni obnoxius, ac praeterea eius depositio aliis gravibusque adminiculis fulciatur; sique alia

extrinseca adminicula colligi omnino nequeant, hoc tamen certum sit, nihil in eius testimonio reperiri, quod non sit congruum atque omnino verisimile.

5. Contingit etiam, ut testes omnimoda fide digni testificentur, se tempore non suspecto mortem coniugis ex aliorum attestatione audivisse, isti autem vel quia absentes, vel quia obierint, vel aliam ob quamcumque rationabilem causam examinari nequeant; tunc dicta ex alieno ore, quatenus omnibus aliis in casu concurrentibus circumstantiis, aut saltem urgentibus respondeant, satis esse censentur pro sequutae mortis prudenti iudicio.

6. Verum haud semel experientia compertum habetur quod nec unus quidem reperiatur testis, qualis supra adstruitur. Hoc in casu probatio obitus ex coniecturis, praesumptionibus, indiciis et adiunctis quibuscumque, sedula certe et admodum cauta investigatione curanda er ita nimirum, ut pluribus hinc inde collectis, eorumque natura perpensa, prout scilicet urgentiora vel leviora sunt, seu propiore vel remotiore nexu cum veritate mortis coniunguntur, inde prudentis viri iudicium ad eamdem mortem affirmandam probabilitate maxima, seu morali certitudine promoveri possit. Quapropter quandonam in singulis casibus habeatur ex huiusmodi coniecturis simul coniunctis iusta probatio, id prudenti relinquendum est iudicis arbitrio; heic tamen non abs re erit plures indicare fontes, ex quibus illae sive urgentiores, sive etiam leviores colligi et haberi possint.

7. Itaque in primis illae praesumptiones investigandae erunt, quae personam ipsius asserti defuncti respiciunt, quaeque profecto facile haberi poterunt a coniunctis, amicis, vicinis, et quoquo modo notis utriusque coniugis. In quorum examine requiratur ex. gr.:

An ille, de cuius obitu est sermo, bonis moribus imbutus esset; pie religioseque viveret, uxoremque diligeret; nullam sese occultandi causam haberet; utrum bona stabilia possideret, vel alia a suis propinquis aut aliunde sperare posset.

An discesserit annuentibus uxore et coniunctis; quae tunc eius aetas et valetudo esset.

An aliquando, et quo loco scripserit, et num suam voluntatem quamprimum redeundi aperuerit, aliaque huius generis indicia colligantur.

Alia ex rerum adiunctis pro varia absentiae causa colligi indicia sic poterunt.

Si ob militiam obierit, a duce militum requiratur, quid de eo sciat ; utrum alicui pugnae interfuerit; utrum ab hostibus fuerit captus; num castra deseruerit, aut destinationes periculosas habuerit, etc.

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