into account the repeated expression of the desires of Catholic parents, and the declarations of those whom these Catholic parents recognise as their spiritual guides. The control of the State over the education of the country has been enlarged in a degree perilous to liberty, while the circle within which the rights of parents or of conscience should have sway has been proportionately narrowed.

Within the last twenty-five years much has been successfully done to guard against the dangers of these educational institutions, but much more remains to be done. In obedience to the decrees of the Sovereign-Pontiff declaring the system of education, of which the Queen's Colleges were part, to be fraught with grievous and intrinsic perils, the Fathers of the Synod of Thurles warned you against these institutions with all the energy of their zeal and all the weight of their authority. Hardly had they communicated their decision to their flocks when, as a body, these Catholic people of Ireland turned away from the Godless places of education, peremptorily rejecting the proffered boon because it carried with it injury to religion. And although from time to time, a few Catholics have judged it to be their interest to grasp at the rich prizes held forth to entice students to enter these Colleges, yet, the official records show that these institutions have failed to attract any considerable number of Irish Catholics, for whose benefit they were ostensibly erected. Never before was so vast an expenditure of money and of powerful patronage followed by failure more unmistakable. It soon became felt that a remedy should be applied to a state of things, which was admitted to be miserably and scandalously bad. And although the remedy it was sought to apply fell short of its aim, yet the admission of the necessity that existed for its introduction, and still more, the history of the causes that led to its failure, go to show that a footing has been secured in public opinion for the interests of religious education, which, however narrow as yet, affords no insecure basis to build upon in the future. Never again, we confidently trust, will any government attempt to force upon Catholic Ireland a system of education adverse to the purity and integrity of our Holy Faith.

To supply the youth of the country with a sound and comprehensive system of higher education, based on religion, denied them in the Queen's Colleges, the Catholic University of Ireland was founded. In announcing this important undertaking, the Synod of Thurles, conscious of the difficulties that barred the path to success, indulged in no fond hopes of a rapid and premature development

resources,

for the institution. "As great undertakings cannot be realized in a moment," said the Synod, "some time will be necessary for collecting and combining our and giving maturity and organization to the plan." promote the work thus inaugurated, material resources have not been wanting.

To

And in spite of the competition of the richly endowed Universities of the State, in spite of the opposition of politicians, in spite of the frown of those in power, and notwithstanding its present inability to give degrees, the Catholic University has bravely sustained for twenty-five years the unequal struggle against irreligious education. It is forming in its own spirit the professors and masters, who in a few years will have the intermediate education of the country in their hands. Recently its examining function, on the principle of the London University, has received a considerable development, and already the students of some forty affiliated colleges, among which are those most conspicuous for wealth and numbers, submit to its tests their proficiency in studies undertaken under its direction. Thus, gradually, peaceably, laboriously, the University is binding to itself a force which, by its healthy expansion, will securely lift it into a position of authority which no government can give or take away. It will be impossible to withhold from an University, the educatrix of a nation, that legal recognition and those public rewards of learning which, although the property of the entire people, have hitherto been monopolized by a section of the community. As long as it shall be esteemed an excellent thing in a people to hold unsevered in their hearts love for God, for country, and for learning, so long shall the present generation of Irishmen be entitled to praise for having, with great sacrifice, laid broad and deep the foundations of an University, which, living by and for the Irish race, should give back the resources drawn from their generosity, in every form of highest culture, sanctified by Religion, enlightened by Science, and in fullest harmony with the national spirit.

To counteract the evil influences of the Model and Training Schools, and to meet the ever-increasing need of Catholic teachers, we have determined to establish a Catholic Training School for Masters, under the protection of St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, and under the immediate care of the Vincentian Fathers. The establishment of such an institution we regard as a highly important condition of success in the struggle in which we are engaged on behalf of Catholic

education. We look forward with earnest longing for the day in which, by its means, we shall be enabled to confide the little ones of our flock to teachers who, themselves trained under the salutary influences of religion, shall have learned how to form the opening mind of the child, and store it with secular knowledge, while they guide it to the better and higher knowledge and practice of religion. This important work we confidently recommend to your generous charity. You who know how awful the responsibility that weighs on a parent's soul, and how appalling the sentence pronounced by the Apostle against the man who has no care of his own, and especially of those of his own household, will, we have no doubt, assist us in this new undertaking, from which you yourselves are to receive the greatest help towards the discharge of one of your most solemn obligations.

As for ourselves, dearly beloved, it is our clear duty, as it is our fixed determination, never to desist from our exertions until Catholic education shall have been placed on a firm and permanent basis in the country. We have not read the history of our country's struggles for Catholic Emancipation without fruit. We know that the constitutional battle against Protestant ascendancy had to be maintained for more than one generation; and now a generation has scarcely passed since Emancipation was won, and not only has Protestant ascendancy disappeared, but the Protestant Church, which gave it consistency, has been disestablished by the Legislature. Even should our struggle for religious education against the mixed system last as long, we will not flinch; for on our steadfast perseverance depend the religious destinies of our country, and the faith of millions yet unborn.

But, there are yet other dangers against which we must raise our warning voice. With deepest pain, and after the example of the Apostle, weeping, we say, that the abominable vice of intemperance still continues to work dreadful havoc among our people, marring in their souls the work of religion, and in spite of their rare natural and supernatural virtues, changing many among them into enemies of the Cross of Christ, whose end is destruction; whose god is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame.1 Is it not, dearly beloved, an intolerable scandal, that in the midst of a Catholic nation, like ours, there should be found so many slaves of intemperance, who habitually sacrifice to brutal excess in drinking not only their reason, but

1 Philipp. iii. 18, 19.

their character, the honour of their children, their substance, their health, their life, their souls, and God himself? Το drunkenness we may refer, as to its baneful cause, almost all the crime by which the country is disgraced, and much of the poverty from which it suffers. Drunkenness has wrecked more homes, once happy, than ever fell beneath the crowbar in the worst days of eviction; it has filled more graves and made more widows and orphans than did the famine; it has broken more hearts, blighted more hopes, and rent asunder family ties more ruthlessly than the enforced exile to which their misery has condemned emigrants. Against an evil so widespread and so pernicious, we implore all who have at heart the honour of God and the salvation of souls, to be filled with holy zeal. We warn parents and employers that they are bound to set in their own persons an example of temperance to those who are subject to them, and to watch lest through their own negligence those intrusted to their charge should fall victims to drink. We exhort artisans and other members of the working classes, to join some one of the pious confraternities approved of by the Church, in which, if they be faithful to the observance of their rules, they will find a school of Christian self-denial. We bless from our hearts those zealous ecclesiastics and others, who, in accordance with the spirit of the Church, devote their time and energies to forwarding the cause of temperance; and we would remind all that however valuable other helps may be, there exists but one unfailing source whence human weakness can draw strength to resist temptation and break the bonds of evil habits. That source is the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the everflowing fountain of mercy, from which through prayer and the Sacraments we receive grace in seasonable aid. The habit of daily prayer faithfully persevered in ; frequent and worthy approach to the Holy Sacraments; the devout hearing of the Word of God; and the avoiding of dangerous occasions, are the only sure means by which intemperance can be overcome.

We must also warn you, beloved brethren, against a serious evil which threatens to sully the lustre of that modesty and purity for which Ireland has always been remarkable among the nations. We allude to those dangerous amusements in theatres and elsewhere, in which the delicacy of Christian feeling is outraged by representations, either unblushingly licentious, or more dangerous still from the half-veiled indecencies they suggest. To these we must add the improper dances which have been imported into our country from abroad, to the incalculable detriment of

morality and decency. Such dances have always been condemned by the Pastors of the Church. This condemnation we here renew; and we call upon all to whom God has intrusted the care of immortal souls, to use every exertion to banish from our midst what is clearly of itself an occasion of sin. St. Francis of Sales,1 that most indulgent of spiritual guides, addressing people of the world, has left it written that innumerable souls are suffering eternal punishment for sins they had committed in dancing, or which were occasioned by dancing. We cannot but admire those heads of families, who, in obedience to the teaching of their Pastors, resisting the torrent of evil custom, have closed their doors against these forbidden amusements, lest they should stain their conscience by exposing themselves or others to the danger of spiritual ruin. God is a faithful rewarder; and such parents may rest assured that, as in the government of their household they have imitated the holy Tobias, who taught his child from his infancy to fear God and abstain from every sin,2 so, like him, they shall one day find joy and comfort in the domestic happiness of the children they have brought up so well, and through them be filled, even in this life, with all good.

At no other time, perhaps, in the history of the Church have Catholics had more need of prudent energy than at the present. The spectacle of Catholic progress galls our enemies. as sorely as the sight of the towers of Sion, rising from their ruins under Esdras, galled the Gentiles around, who, when they heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and the breaches began to be closed, were exceedingly angry and they all assembled themselves together, to come, and to fight against Ferusalem, and to prepare ambushes. And the enemies said: let them not know or understand, till we come in the midst of them, and kill them, and cause the work to cease Wherefore also, we, who, like the Jews, are engaged in again building up the Holy City of God, like them, must defend, inch by inch, the sacred fabric as it springs up beneath our hands. The more so because our adversaries, like those of the Jews, affect a warfare of mingled violence and craft. One distinguishing characteristic of the policy that at present assails the Church is, that it deals its most deadly blows in the name of civilization, and in defence of authority.

It is highly instructive to note the cause and progress of the striking change that has taken place in this respect, within the last twenty-five years. The authors of the revolutionary excesses of 1848, imitating the example of their predecessors, 1 "Devout Life," chap. xxiii. 2 Tobias i. 10. 32 Esdras, iv. 7—11.