The last year terminated with the establishment in Dublin of an
association, which, we trust, whilst protecting the material interests
of the country, will contribute to put an end to religious oppression
and intolerance, and to spread the blessings of Catholic education
through all Ireland. Undertaking a task so meritorious in itself, and so
much in accordance with the objects of the _Record_, the association
will have our best wishes and co-operation. Its first meeting was held
in the Rotundo on the 29th of December last, and a vast number of
influential and respectable laymen, from city and country, many
clergymen, and several archbishops and bishops attended. Its proceedings
were most impressive, and the speakers all displayed great moderation
accompanied with energy and firmness in their addresses. We may add that
the speeches of the Archbishop of Cashel and the Bishop of Cloyne, on
the claims of tenants for compensation for beneficial improvements, were
most eloquent and convincing; that the Bishop of Elphin made an
excellent and learned defence of the rights of Catholics to a Catholic
system of education; and that the Archbishop of Dublin, supported by Mr.
O'Neill Daunt, proved to the satisfaction of all present that the
Protestant Establishment in Ireland is a nuisance and an insult, and
ought to be abolished. We regret that the limits of this periodical will
not allow us to enter fully into the various questions discussed at the
meeting: we must restrict ourselves to a brief article on the topics
most closely connected with the objects of the _Record_--we mean the
question of education and of the Church. We cannot, however, but
recommend our readers to assist the association by their influence,
their counsels, and contributions, being full of hope that Ireland will
derive great advantages, temporal and spiritual, from its labours.
The Lord Mayor, by whose influence and authority the meeting had been
convened, having taken the chair, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Cullen,
was called on to propose the first resolution. Before doing so he
explained the objects of the association, and showed that they were so
moderate, so reasonable, and so necessary, that no liberal minded man
could refuse to support them.
"It is proposed", said he, "to protect liberty of religion
by relieving the great majority of the inhabitants of this
country from an oppressive and degrading burden, forced on
them for the maintenance of the Protestant Establishment,
which they look on as a galling and permanent insult; it is
proposed to encourage the growth of learning, by holding out
equal hopes to every class, and putting on a footing of
equality all who engage in the career of letters and
science; and finally it is proposed to restore prosperity to
this country, by giving inducements to the people to invest
their capital in useful and permanent improvements".
Having thus stated the reasons for founding the new association, the
Archbishop briefly alluded to the necessity of a good education, to the
services of the Catholic Church in promoting science and letters, and to
the glorious mission of carrying the light of the gospel and true
civilization to pagan nations, which was given to Ireland for centuries
after her conversion. That mission was interrupted by Danish and
Anglo-Saxon invasions. Continued attempts to force the Reformation on
our forefathers, the prohibition of Catholic schools, and a most galling
system of penal laws, afterwards reduced our country to a state of
misery and degradation, in which it was impossible for the masses of the
people to approach the fountains of knowledge, or to render services to
other countries. As soon, however, as liberty began to dawn, active
efforts were made by the Catholic laity and clergy to repair the ruins
of past times, and within the present century innumerable schools,
colleges, convents, and other educational establishments, have been
called into existence, which are rendering great services to the
country, and preparing to make it again what it once was--a land of
sages and saints. The exertions and sacrifices made in this holy cause
are a proof of the zeal of the Catholics of Ireland for education, and
reflect the greatest honour on their charity and generosity.
Let us now look to what government has done in regard to Catholic
education. In the first place, our rulers in past times prohibited all
Catholic schools under the severest penalties, determined, it would
appear, to sink the people into the degrading depths of ignorance, or to
compel them when acquiring knowledge to imbibe at the same time
Protestant doctrines. Secondly, a Protestant university and Protestant
schools were founded and richly endowed with the confiscated property of
Catholic schools or monasteries, and all possible privileges and honours
were lavishly conferred on them by the state, in order to give them
weight and influence, and to render them more powerful in their assaults
on the ancient creed of Ireland. Thirdly, these institutions are still
preserved, and possess immense property, nearly all derived from public
grants. Besides other vast sources of income, Trinity College holds
about two hundred thousand acres of land, and the several endowed
schools are worth seventy or eighty thousand a year and own a great deal
of landed property. Fourthly, it is to be observed that the management
of these schools is altogether in Protestant hands, the teaching
Protestant, and their atmosphere thoroughly impregnated with
Protestantism. If any Catholic be admitted into those institutions, his
faith is exposed to great danger, and unhappily it is too true that many
who ventured to run the risk, perished therein, so that we find it
recorded that several Catholics, when passing through the ordeal of
Protestant education, lost their faith and became ministers and
preachers of error. At present there are Protestant bishops and
archdeacons, and other dignitaries, now enemies of the ancient faith,
who commenced their career in Trinity College as very humble members of
the Catholic Church. I say nothing of the many Catholics who, in
consequence of the training received in Trinity College, never frequent
any sacrament of their Church, and neglect all religious duties. The
parents who expose their children to such dangers cannot be excused from
a grievous breach of the trust committed to them by God. Can they be
admitted to sacraments?
Keeping in mind the facts just stated, may we not ask, were not
Protestants provided with everything they could desire for educational
purposes? was it necessary to adopt other measures in their favour?
Now such being the case, had not we a right to expect that when new
educational arrangements were to be made, the past sufferings of
Catholics, the spoliation of their property, and their actual wants,
should be taken into account? Was it to be supposed that _their_ claims
should be overlooked in order to give further advantage to
Protestantism? Reason and sound policy would have prohibited such
suppositions. But "aliter superis visum". Instead of repairing past
injustice and making some compensation for the confiscations of times
gone by, the government, in all new measures for promoting education,
seemed to forget the Catholics, and to think only of Protestant
interests, just as if they were not abundantly provided for already.
Thus, when the Queen's Colleges were projected, it was determined to
establish them, and to endow them at the expense of the Catholics of the
country, and on principles so hostile to Catholicity, that the Sovereign
Pontiff and Irish bishops were obliged to condemn them as dangerous to
faith and morals, whilst a Protestant statesman admitted that they were
a gigantic scheme of godless education. Hence, no Catholic parent,
though taxed for their support, unless he be ready to immolate his
children to Baal, can send them to institutions thus anathematised. Have
not Catholics great ground to complain upon this head?
The national system was also founded on bad principles, and to protect
the consciences of Protestant children, even in schools where they never
attend, Catholic instruction was prohibited in them during the common
hours of class.
To illustrate the effects of this prohibition, the Archbishop refers to
part of his own diocese--the county Dublin--in which there are 145
so-called National Schools, frequented by 36,826 Catholic children,
without the intermixture of one single Protestant, and asks is it not
most unjust and insulting to banish Catholic books, Catholic practices,
the history of the Catholic Church, from such schools, and to treat them
as if they were mixed or filled with Protestants? If the case were
reversed--if there were so large a number of Protestant children in
schools without any mixture of Catholics, would Protestants tolerate any
regulation by which every mention of their religion would be banished
from such schools? Why apply one rule to Catholics and another to
Protestants? The Archbishop then adds:
"Let me repeat it: Catholic children in purely Catholic
schools must pass the greater part of the day without any
act or word of religion, lest they should offend Protestants
who are present only in imagination. No crucifix, no image
of the Blessed Mother of God, no sacred pictures, no
religious emblems, though experience teaches that such
objects make excellent impressions on the youthful mind, are
tolerated in National schools, even when no Protestant
frequents them. No Catholic book can be used, and even the
works of such men as Bossuet, Massillon, Fenelon, the most
eloquent writers of modern times, must be excluded because
they were Catholics and inculcate Catholic doctrines. The
only books used by Catholics in these schools have been
compiled by the late rationalistic Archbishop of Dublin, by
Dr. Carlisle, a Presbyterian, and other Protestants, and are
tinged with an anti-Catholic spirit. It is to be added, that
the history of our Irish saints and missionaries and of the
ancient Church of Ireland and its doctrines, as well as the
sad narrative of our sufferings and persecutions, is
completely ignored. Were it necessary to throw still greater
light on the spirit of the mixed system, we could show that
the late Dr. Whately, one of its great patrons, declared in
his last pastoral charge to the clergy of Kildare, that his
object in introducing certain Scripture lessons into the
schools was to shake the religious convictions of the
people, and to dispel what he is pleased to call their
_scriptural darkness_. When things are thus conducted, have
we not here again great reason to complain?"
The Archbishop also urges against the national system, its tendency to
throw the education of this Catholic country into the hands of a
Protestant government, whose past history proves that it has been
always hostile to Catholic interests. Model and training and
agricultural schools, which are completely withdrawn from Catholic
control, have this tendency. Are not inspectors and other managers of
the system altogether government nominees? When books were to be
selected, was not the same object promoted by deputing to compile them
Protestant archbishops, Presbyterian ministers, and other Protestants,
who banished from them everything Catholic and national, and made them
breathe a spirit of English supremacy and anti-Catholic prejudice? May
not the experience of past ages be appealed to to prove that education
under such government control becomes hostile to true religion, tends to
introduce a spirit of despotism, and to rob the subject of his liberty?
This was the tendency of all government enactments on education in
Ireland for centuries. The Archbishop observes:
"Robespierre and other French despots fully understood all
this, when they proclaimed that all children were the
property of the state, to be educated under its care, at the
public expense. When the instruction of the rising
generations and the direction of schools falls under the
absolute control of the ruling powers of the Earth, that
sort of wisdom which Saint Paul calls earthly, sensual,
diabolical, soon begins to prevail; the wisdom from above
falls away, and neither religion nor true Christian liberty
can be safe".
Having examined in this way the present defects and shortcomings of
education in Ireland, as far as it receives aid from the state, the
Archbishop insisted that Catholics have a decided claim to a Catholic
university, with every privilege and right conferred upon Protestant
universities, to Catholic training and model schools, and to a system of
education under which the faith and morals of Catholic children would be
safe from all danger. In England[24] the schools for the people
supported by government are denominational, and the Catholics, though
only a fraction of the population, have all the advantages of a Catholic
system of education. Why should Ireland be deprived of rights which are
freely granted to every class of people not only in England and
Scotland, but in all the British colonies? Are the Catholics of this
country to be degraded and insulted on account of their religion? Would
such a mode of acting be in conformity with the liberality of the
present age?
Since the Archbishop made the foregoing observations, the Holy Father,
our supreme guide in matters of religion, has published a series of
propositions which he had condemned and reprobated on various occasions.
We insert three of those propositions which bear upon education:
The forty-fifth is as follows:
"XLV. The entire government of public schools in which the
youth of any Christian state is educated, except (to a
certain extent) in the case of episcopal seminaries, may and
ought to appertain to the civil power, and belong to it so
far that no other authority whatsoever shall be recognized
as having any right to interfere in the discipline of the
schools, the arrangement of the studies, the conferring of
degrees, in the choice or approval of the teachers".
The forty-seventh adds:
"XLVII. The best theory of civil society requires that
popular schools open to the children of every class of the
people, and, generally, all public institutes intended for
instruction in letters and philosophical sciences, and for
carrying on the education of youth, should be freed from all
ecclesiastical authority, control, and interference, and
should be fully subjected to the civil and political power,
at the pleasure of the rulers and according to the standard
of the prevalent opinions of the age".
The forty-eighth bears on the same subject:
"XLVIII. Catholics may approve of a system of educating
youth, unconnected with Catholic faith and the power of the
Church, and which regards the knowledge of merely natural
things, and only, or at least primarily, the ends of earthly
social life".
Let our readers attentively consider these propositions. They
undoubtedly reprobate what is called mixed education, or the system
which endeavours to separate education from religion, as the Queen's
Colleges profess to do. They appear to us also most distinctly to
condemn the principles on which the National Schools are founded. In
many of those schools all religious education is excluded, and in those
which are under Presbyterian and other similar patrons, as well as in
model and training schools, the rights of the bishops of the Catholic
Church, to whom Christ gave the power of teaching all nations, are
completely ignored. In every National School the teaching and practice
of religion are strictly prohibited during the hours of class. Such a
system appears to fall under the condemnation of the Holy See. We shall
return to this matter again on some future occasion. In the mean time,
we shall merely add, that if we wish to be true children of the Church,
we must receive with humility, and in a spirit of obedience, the
decisions of Christ's vicar on Earth, and reprobate and condemn from the
inmost of our hearts the propositions which he, using the power given
to him by the Eternal Shepherd of our souls, reprobates and condemns.
The only view his Holiness proposed to himself in censuring the
propositions we refer to was, to secure for the rising generations the
greatest blessing that can be conferred on them--a good religious
education, and the preservation of their faith from danger. As dutiful
members of the true Church we ought to act on the lessons of wisdom that
have been given to us.
Having treated at some length of the education question, the Archbishop
next directed the attention of the meeting to the condition of the
agricultural and manufacturing interests of Ireland, showing that it is
the duty of those in power to apply immediate remedies to the evils of
the country, which menace us with universal ruin, and then proceeded to
examine the proposed disendowment of the Protestant Establishment.
History informs us that the Irish Protestant Church had its origin in an
act declaring Henry VIII. head of the Church, which was passed by the
Irish parliament in 1536, and in another act of the same parliament by
which a similar dignity was conferred on Queen Elizabeth. A statement on
this subject made by Dr. Gregg, Protestant Bishop of Cork, in a late
pastoral charge, is altogether at variance with history. His Lordship's
words are:
"She (the Protestant Church) sprang from the truth, was
nurtured in truth, laden with truth, in truth she delights,
to the truth she appeals, and by God's gracious blessing, in
mighty truth shall she stand".
These are emphatic words; but, if he wished to speak correctly, the
writer should have said that the Church he eulogises sprang from the
passions and despotism of Henry VIII.; was nurtured by the avarice,
hypocrisy, ambition, and corruption of Elizabeth; derived spiritual
powers from a body of men who had no such powers themselves; that to the
sword, the gibbet, and penal laws she owes her propagation; that her
existence still depends upon brute force; and that, so little does she
stand on or uphold truth, that she is not able to defend the Gospel any
longer, or to support the doctrines and ordinances of religion. She
could not restrain the late Protestant Archbishop of Dublin from
explaining away the fundamental mysteries of the Trinity and
Incarnation, nor Dr. Colenso from denying the inspiration of the Sacred
Scriptures, nor Rev. Mr. Barlow, a Fellow of Trinity College, from
impugning the eternity of punishment in another world. She affords so
little light to her children, that, according to a report of the Church
Pastoral Aid Society, signed by several dignitaries of the
Establishment, millions of those children are pining away _in worse than
pagan vice and ignorance_. Finally, so far from resting on truth, her
only support is the arm of the State, whose creature she is, and at
whose nod she may cease to exist.
Having obtained spiritual authority by an act of the temporal power,
much in the same way as the Roman emperors obtained divine honours by
decrees of the senate, Henry VIII. and Elizabeth set about their new
functions, and determined to show themselves worthy leaders of the
Reformation. There were many richly endowed monasteries in Ireland at
the time of Henry, and several continued to exist even till the days of
Elizabeth. The inmates of those institutions passed their time in prayer
and study; they had rendered great services to literature by copying and
preserving the works of classical antiquity, whilst their labours for
religion and the poor were worthy of the highest praise. There were also
many convents of religious ladies, who devoted their lives to the
service of God and their neighbour, to the education of youth, and who
edified the world by the sweet odour of their virtues. By the new heads
of the Church, and the new patrons of the Gospel, those merits were
looked on as crimes, and all religious orders were suppressed.
In Ireland there was an ancient institution founded by St. Patrick,
which for more than a thousand years had maintained its connection with
the Apostolic See, the true rock on which Christ built His Church, and
had always preserved the integrity and purity of the Catholic faith. The
existence of that venerable Irish Church was not consistent with the
supremacy of the crown in spiritual matters, and its destruction was
decreed.
At the same time, a religion, with new doctrines, a new ceremonial, new
liturgical books, and forms of prayer in the English language, then
almost unknown in Ireland, was proclaimed, and all the sanction was
given to it that could be derived from an act of parliament or a royal
decree. It was pretended that this religion was to restore liberty of
conscience to the world; but history shows that it enforced its teaching
by penal laws, by fire and sword, and by every sort of violence.
The monasteries of men, the convents of nuns, the episcopal sees, and
the parochial churches, were possessed, at that time, of considerable
revenues. This property was not the gift of the English government. In
great part it was of ancient origin, as we may conclude from the fact
that in the year 1179, shortly after the English invasion, Pope
Alexander III. confirmed to St. Laurence O'Toole nearly the same
possessions which are still held by the see of Dublin, and which he had
inherited from his predecessors who lived before English rule began in
Ireland. It was also private property, belonging to monasteries and
convents, and to the Church, so that neither king nor parliament had any
claim on it. But ancient rights and justice and prescription were no
longer to be respected; the reforming monarchs did not hesitate to
change the law of God and of nature, and to ignore the maxim that every
one should have his own. Hence, all ecclesiastical property was
confiscated. A large portion was given to the agents and minions of
royal despotism, and another portion was devoted to the support of
bishops and ministers of a new creed and religion, and turned away
altogether from the purposes for which it had been destined by the
donors; so that what was originally given for the support of the
Catholic Church was now handed over to an establishment just called into
existence, whose principal aim has always been to decry and misrepresent
the ancient Church, to persecute its ministers, and to uproot it, if
possible, from the soil.
The heads of the Irish Protestant Establishment, Henry and Elizabeth,
having commenced their spiritual rule by an act of robbery and
spoliation, continued to propagate their new religion by intimidation,
by violence, and penal enactments. The old nobility of Ireland, both of
Norman and Irish descent, were persecuted and robbed of their
possessions in order to convince them of that Gospel truth which first
beamed from Boleyn's eyes; for the same purpose whole provinces were
laid desolate, and torrents of blood inhumanly shed. In such proceedings
we find a great deal to remind us of the persecutions inflicted on the
early Christians by the Roman emperors and a singular resemblance to the
system adopted by Mahomet for the propagation of the impure doctrines of
the Koran; and as that impostor spread desolation through the most
flourishing regions of the East, so did the founders of the Protestant
establishment reduce the blooming fields of Erin to the condition of a
howling wilderness, and like him they became the votaries of ignorance,
and carried on a long and destructive war against Catholic schools and
education.
There was, however, something worse in the mode of propagating the
doctrines of the Reformation than in that which was adopted for the
maintenance or introduction of Paganism and Mahometanism. Those forms of
worship openly avowed their designs, and publicly professed their enmity
to the Christian religion. The proceedings of those who promoted and
supported the Church Establishment were, on the contrary, marked by the
vilest and most degrading hypocrisy. They pretended and professed to be
the sincere friends of liberty of conscience, and of the progress of
education and enlightenment, whilst at the same time they were the most
dangerous enemies of every kind of freedom and progress, and endeavoured
to establish the most galling despotism, and to spread ignorance through
Ireland.
Innumerable proofs are at hand of the despotic tendencies of the
Establishment. We merely give one instance, related by Mant in his
_Ecclesiastical History_ at the year 1636, in which the Protestant
bishops, with Usher at their head, made the following declaration:--that
"The religion of the Papists is superstitious and
idolatrous; their faith and doctrine erroneous and
heretical; their Church, in respect to both, apostatical. To
give them, therefore, a toleration, or to consent that they
may freely exercise their religion and profess their faith
and doctrine, is a grievous sin."--_Mant_, vol. i. p. 510.
And recollect that this declaration was made against the ancient
religion of the country, a religion established in it for more than one
thousand years, and that it was made for the purpose of excluding
millions of the people from every office of trust and emolument. Nothing
worse can be found in the annals of Paganism or Mahometanism. The
Archbishop continues:
"But, passing over a remoter period, have we not to regret
that the spirit which then prevailed still continues to
manifest itself in our own days? And, indeed, were not the
heads of the Protestant establishment the most active
opponents of Catholic Emancipation? Who were the great
promoters of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill? Was not the
head of the Establishment, in this city, most anxious, a few
years ago, to put convents and monasteries under police
control, and to give every annoyance to the holy and pious
virgins who devote themselves to the service of God and the
poor? And are not the principles acted on by the
Establishment still embodied in Protestant oaths? and can we
be surprised that dissensions exist in this country, and
that it is reduced to so deplorable a state as it is now in,
when we reflect that by such oaths and declarations discord
is excited in the country, rulers and subjects placed in a
state of hostility, and the people divided into factions and
parties?"
As to education, we shall merely observe that the supporters of the
Establishment left no means untried to banish it altogether from among
the masses of the people in Ireland. Catholic schools were suppressed,
and their property confiscated; the erection of new schools prohibited;
no Catholic parent allowed to give a Catholic education to his children
at home, and he was subjected to the severest penalties if he sent them
to foreign schools. What more could be done to suppress the knowledge of
the Christian religion by a Julian or a Mahomet? Yet, those who acted in
that way cry out that they alone are the friends of progress and
enlightenment, and that Catholics seek for nothing but darkness. Was
there ever a more decided manifestation of recklessness and hypocrisy?
Having given in detail some other instances of the violent and
persecuting measures which were used for the propagation of
Protestantism, the Archbishop proceeds to examine the results obtained
by them:--
"Let us now ask", says he, "what have been the fruits of so
much bigotry, of so much violence, and of so many penal
laws? The late census tells us that every effort to
introduce Protestantism has been a complete failure, and
that notwithstanding so many persecutions and sufferings,
the old Catholic faith is still the religion of the land,
deeply rooted in the affections of the people. Without
entering into details which would occasion too much delay, I
shall merely state that all the members of the Establishment
in this kingdom are under seven hundred thousand; that out
of the two thousand four hundred and twenty-eight parishes
into which Ireland is divided, there were, in 1861, one
hundred and ninety-nine parishes containing no members of
the Establishment, five hundred and seventy-five parishes
containing not more than twenty, four hundred and sixteen
containing between twenty and fifty, three hundred and
forty-nine containing between fifty and one hundred--in all,
one thousand five hundred and thirty-nine parishes, each
with fewer than one hundred parishioners. I will add that,
according to the same census, the parish of St. Peter's, in
Dublin, contains more Catholics than the eleven dioceses of
Kilmacduagh, Kilfenora, Killala, Achonry, Ossory, Cashel,
Emly, Waterford, Lismore, Ross, and Clonfert contain
Protestants: and that the Catholics of the diocese of Dublin
exceed by thirty-five thousand all the Protestants of the
Established Church in twenty-eight dioceses of Ireland;
indeed, in all the dioceses of Ireland, excepting those of
Armagh, Clogher, Down, and Dublin. Whilst such figures show
that all the protection of the State, the persecution of
Catholics, the confiscation of their property, the
suppression of Catholic schools, the lavish endowment of
Protestant schools, and innumerable penal laws, have not
been able to establish Protestantism in Ireland, they must
convince us at the same time, that it is most unreasonable,
and contrary to the interests of the people and to a sound
policy, to keep up a vast and expensive ecclesiastical
establishment for the sake of so small a minority, and in
opposition to the wishes of the great mass of the
population".
The Archbishop next quoted several authorities from Protestant writers
condemnatory of the Anglican establishment, and among others, that of
Lord Brougham, who, confirming his own views by those of the celebrated
Edmund Burke, says:
"I well remember a phrase used by one not a foe of Church
Establishments--I mean Mr. Burke. 'Don't talk of its being a
church! It is a wholesale robbery!'... I have, my lords,
heard it called an anomaly, and I say that it is an anomaly
of so gross a kind, that it outrages every principle of
common sense, and every one endowed with common reason must
feel that it is the most gross outrage to that common sense
as it is also to justice. Such an establishment, kept up for
such a purpose, kept up by such means, and upheld by such a
system, is a thing wholly peculiar to Ireland, and could be
tolerated nowhere else. That such a system should go on in
the nineteenth century; that such a thing should go on while
all the arts are in a forward and onward course, while all
the sciences are progressing, while all morals and religion
too--for, my lords, there never was more of religion and
morality than is now presented in all parts of the
country,--that this gross abuse, the most outrageous of all,
should be allowed to continue, is really astonishing. It
cannot be upheld, unless the tide of knowledge shall turn
back, unless we return to the state in which things were a
couple of centuries ago".
After quoting several other authorities similar to that of Lord
Brougham, the Archbishop called on his hearers to unite with him in
calling for the abolition of the Establishment.
"When you consider", said he, "the reasons and the weight of
authority which I have alleged, I trust you all will admit
that an establishment which traces back its origin to the
lust, the avarice, and the despotism of Henry VIII. and his
daughter; an establishment introduced by force and violence,
and that has no support save in the protection of the state,
of which it is the creature and the slave; an establishment
that has been the persevering enemy of civil and religious
liberty; that has called for penal laws in every century
from the days of Elizabeth to the passing of the
Ecclesiastical Titles Act; that has never failed to oppose
every proposal for the relaxation of such laws, not only in
the days of Strafford and Clarendon, but even when there was
question of emancipation in the midst of the liberality of
the present century; an establishment that has inflicted
great evils on Ireland by depriving the mass of the people
of all the means of education, by persecuting schoolmasters,
and seizing on and confiscating schools, and that has been
always the fruitful source of dissensions in the
country--when you consider all these things, you will
undoubtedly agree with me, that such an establishment ought
not to be any longer tolerated in this country--that it
ought to be disendowed, and its revenues applied to purposes
of public utility".