ntless universities, colleges, academies, and free
schools established by the Catholic Church, and by Catholic governments,
throughout Christendom. Where is the common school book whose author has
manly honesty enough to acknowledge that even the famous universities of
Oxford and Cambridge were founded by Catholics, and plundered from their
lawful possessors by an apostate government?

Moreover, Catholic children are often singled out by their
school-companions, and sometimes even by their teachers, as objects of
ridicule. Now what is the result of all this training? The consequence
is, that either the Catholic children become ashamed of their holy
religion, and despise their parents, or, if they have the courage to
hold out, their tender minds are subject to numberless petty annoyances;
they must endure a species of martyrdom. This is no exaggeration; I have
it from good authority. Practically speaking, the present common school
system is but a gigantic scheme for proselytism and for infidelity.

Now we intend that our children shall be taught to love and revere their
holy Church. We wish to teach them that that Church has been, for over
eighteen hundred years, the faithful guardian of that very Bible of
which Protestants prate so loudly, and which they dishonor so much. We
wish our children to learn that the Catholic Church has been, in all
ages, the friend and supporter of true liberty; _i.e._, liberty united
to order and justice. We wish them to know that the Catholic Church has
ever been the jealous guardian of the sanctity of marriage; that she has
always defended it against brutal lust, and heathen divorce courts. We
wish our children to know, moreover, that the Catholic Church holds the
sword of vengeance uplifted above the heads of the child-murderers, and
the perpetrators of unnatural crimes. We wish our children, in fine, to
regard the Church as the only hope of society, the only salvation of
their country, the only means of preserving intact all the blessings of
freedom.

The Public Schools are not only seminaries of infidelity, they are,
moreover, in many cases, hot-beds of immorality. In these schools every
child is received, no matter how vicious or corrupt he or his parents
may be. "One mangy sheep," as the homely proverb says, "infects the
whole flock." So one corrupt child in a school is capable of corrupting
and ruining all the others. And, in fact, where have our young people
learned the shameful h