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life. These pious Catholics carry the blessing of heaven with them
wherever they go. Amid all the cares and troubles of life they are gay
and cheerful, whilst others grumble and are sad. The religious doctrines
and practices learned in youth, can seldom or never be blotted out. The
question of Catholic schools is a question of making the country
Catholic. If this means be neglected, all other means will avail but
little.

There are others, again, who assert "that the discussion of the
education question should be put off for the present as yet, under the
pretence that our adversaries are as yet too numerous, and that it is
well for us to do nothing until their feelings are more in our favor."
If we are to wait until it will please them to say that our claims are
just, the day will never dawn when our rights shall be admitted;
darkness cannot coalesce with light, vice with virtue, or Belial with
Christ. Will those who deny the Divine authority of the Church, assail
her doctrines, and seek her destruction, ever cordially assist us in
obtaining from our rulers a system of public instruction not dangerous
or destructive to our faith? If we consent to defer the education
question until the torrent of bigotry will be dried up, we shall be
laughed at, and compared to the simple peasant who determined to sit on
the bank of a great river and not to attempt to pass it until all its
waters should have rolled by; or we shall be compared to the careless
farmer who allows rank weeds to grow up in his garden, together with the
good plants, till at last the good plants are dwarfed and smothered by
the noxious weeds. In my opinion, our own policy with those in authority
should be to insist on our rights in season and out of season; and even
when our claims may have been slighted or rejected, to continue our
demands until every grievance shall be removed.

We must make great exertions to obtain the object of our desires, and
display great energy in our proceedings. We have numerous and active
enemies to contend with--men as enthusiastic in a bad cause as the
Pharisees of the Gospel, who compassed earth and sea to make a
proselyte, but who cared very little for his moral progress, once they
had secured his adherence to their views. However, we are not left alone
in our struggle for religious education. With us we have the sympathy of
the Catholics of the world, who are fighting the same battle as we
ourselves, and cheer us on by their