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the account the Catholic female academies of Georgetown, Mount de Chantal, Brooklyn, and Notre Dame, and there is very little left of the Catholic educational resources of the United States. Among the remainder there may be an exception or two; but even after making this liberal allowance, it would still be too true, that nine-tenths of our Catholic educational institutions, male and female, are below mediocrity, and vastly inferior, in all that is essential to true intellectual culture, to the Protestant educational institutions claiming a similar rank.

We might easily point out too many evidences of this generally low grade of Catholic education in the United States, but there is one fact so significant that it might almost be regarded as sufficient evidence by itself. Thus, far be it from us to deny that the Catholics have several journals, weeklies and monthlies, in different parts of the country, which are conducted by educated, enlightened men and women-by writers who, by their moral worth, as well as by their talents and abilities, would do credit to the press of any denomination. There is one of this character published at Boston, one at Baltimore, two at Philadelphia, and two at New York. It is almost needless to say that so far as the first class colleges and academies to which we have alluded may be said to need any organs, they avail themselves of some of these respectable journals. But which are the organs of the opposite class of educators, and educational institutions? One, by a strange contradiction of terms, is called The Freeman's Journal, and is published at New York; the other, by a contradiction equally obvious, is called The Catholic Telegraph, and is published at Cincinnati. Each of these hires itself by the week, month, quarter or year, to about a score of the sham universities, colleges, and academies, male and female, with the understanding that they are to do any sort of work, rough or smooth, clean or unclean. Although the duties thus undertaken by these worthy organs are various, they consist chiefly in the most extravagant adulation of their employers, and in the most extravagant abuse of all who venture to hint that those employers are not the learned people they pretend to be.

This adulation, as coarse and ungrammatical as it is mercenary and false, and redolent of "the liquor business," is quoted in scores of catalogues and circulars, with apparently as much faith in its efficacy as if it were a new revelation. We could give abundant specimens of this precious drug from catalogues and circulars now before us, but having no wish to give pain to those whose only sins may be their ignorance and bad taste, we prefer to allow those having sons or daughters to educate to make those discoveries for themselves.

We cannot pretend to be surprised that while those organs teem with matter of this sort" recommendations" and "first rate notices"-we search them in vain for as much as one paragraph such as one might expect to be devoted to the memory of an educator like Father Early. It is true that we never handle one or the other except when we are called upon to examine it as a curious specimen of a "religious religious" illuminator and champion; and since we want, even then, to throw it aside as soon as we can, partly to avoid soiling our fingers, and partly to obviate the degrading suspicion of being numbered among its regular readers, it is possible that something has found its way into either of the twain, or into both, which we might, had we seen it, have regarded as a decent tribute to Father Early. No doubt the editor-convert, especially, has had some lucubration on the subject, since a Presbyterian turned Catholic is always in more or less danger of being accused of showing the cloven foot, if he fail to display his Catholic zeal on all proper occasions. The case of poor Bronson serves as a melancholy example of this; although we must beg Dr. Bronson's pardon for comparing him, for one moment, in any way whatever, except by way of contrast, to either of the two champions referred to.

Nay, we feel that we should apologise to all our readers for taking any notice of such parties. Our excuse is, not that they have abused us many a time without our having ever disobliged them in any way; not that they have done so as the hired bullies of sham colleges, sham universities, sham academies, billiard saloons, etc.,-precisely as we have been abused by the organs of the quack doctors, the quack

insurers, and fraudulent politicians. All this is really not the reason why we notice them, for we cordially despise their abuse, and have no objection to their devoting a column of such to us every week, cramming as many lies into it as possible. We notice them as a melancholy illustration of the degeneracy of the Catholic church in America, and of the "lower depth" to which Catholic education has fallen. At the time of the Reformation the church had its Erasmus, its Staupits, and its Bembo to give a classical tone and character to its educational institutions. She could boast of such in the poorest countries of Europe, and in those countries least enlightened, but now one of the richest and most enlightened countries in the world beholds the spectacle of its Catholic educational institutions ruled by persons like the McMasters, the Purcells, and the Corrigans!

It is almost superfluous, then, to say that it is not Georgetown College alone which has sustained an incalculable loss by the death of Father Early; his death is a loss to the cause of education in general, but especially to that of Catholic education—it is a loss, in a word, to the educational prestige of the Catholic church in America, a prestige which, as we have shown, had already fallen to a low ebb, in spite of the noble efforts of a few good men and women qualified for their task.

Not that we deny that there are competent men to take the place of the deceased President of Georgetown College. We believe Father Healy, the gentleman who occupies that position pro tempore, is fully qualified, although personally we know nothing of him. But an educator of the first rank, belonging to another institution, in whose judgment and integrity we have implicit faith, describes Father Healy to us as "a gentleman of rare attainments, gifted by nature and improved by culture in the first colleges of Europe," adding: "He is one of whom any society has just reason to be proud. You may safely, therefore, congratulate the students over whom he (even for the time being) presides." We do congratulate them, accordingly, but still more heartily, we confess, would we congratulate them on the appointment of

Father Clark, who did so much to elevate the character, and improve the prestige of Holy Cross College, Massachusetts, as the president of that highly respectable institution. There is yet another gentleman on whose appointment to the same important position we would congratulate the students of Georgetown-we mean Rev. Edward J. Kelly, S. J., formerly the accomplished professor of Greek and Latin at Holy Cross. But, although we have always made a broad distinction between the Baltimore provincial and the New York provincial of the Jesuits-as broad a distinction as we have made between the Jesuit College of Georgetown and the Jesuit colleges of New York and Fordham-yet we do not suppose, or expect, that our congratulations, suggestions or opinions will exercise any influence on the choice or decision of that gentleman.

We have said nothing of the loss the University of the City of New York, and the cause of higher education in general, in this country, have sustained by the death of Dr. Ferris ; but it is needless for us to assure our readers that the omission has not been caused by any lack of appreciation on our part of what the venerable Chancellor has done for both. We have, however, made the omission intentionally, our reason for doing so being that when one has attained the age of seventyfour, or seventy-five, he may well be allowed to rest from his labors, even if still free from disease. But, unhappily, the kind, amiable old gentleman had long been suffering from an incurable malady, and had become so feeble that he was sometimes unable, for weeks, to leave his room. Accordingly the trustees very properly accepted his resignation, some two years ago, of the active duties of the chancellorship, so that death found him resting, but still fatigued and exhausted, from the educational labors of half a century, twenty-one years of which were devoted to the University. Thus, the end of all that was mortal of him was like that of the noble, trusty ship, which, after having performed many a voyage, and defied many a tempest, carrying the blessings of civilization wherever she went, lies at last, disabled in the harbor, partly from age, and partly from her many hard struggles with the winds and

billows, until a gust, which would have done her no harm in the vigor of her life, makes her a complete wreck.

But while none set a higher value than we on the services which the amiable and venerable Chancellor has rendered to the cause of American education, and especially to the University of the City of New York; while none more profoundly regretted the loss of those services to the youth of America, or will longer hold in affectionate remembrance the kindness and generosity of him who performed them; at the same time, none are more willing to admit that among the present faculty of that institution are men who would rank as firstclass educators in any country in the world, and men who deservedly have a European fame in literature and science.

ART. VI.-1. The Works and Correspondence of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke. In 8 vols. London.

2. Memoir of the Life and Character of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke: with Specimens of his Poetry, Letters, etc. A New Edition. By JAMES PRIOR, Esq. In 2 vols. Boston.

3. Edmund Burke; a Historical Study. By JOHN MORLEY, B. A., Oxon. London.

4. The Public and Domestic Life of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke. By PETER BURKE, Esq., of the Inner Temple and the Northern Circuit. London.

5. Maxims, Opinions, and Characters, Moral, Political, and Economical, from the Works of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, etc. By the late Dr. LAWRENCE. In 2 vols. London.

6. The Life of Edmund Burke, comprehending an Impartial Account of his Literary and Political Efforts, and of his Contemporaries. In 2 vols. By ROBERT BISSEL, LL.D. London.

SOCIETY is founded on law, natural, civil, and municipal. It is preserved and kept together by repressing evil and ad

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