cloak their design under popular names, and profess only patriotism. Whatever in public opinion does not agree with their ideas of things, they set down as a "foreign influence" to be eradicated by an "American education." The opinion that Jesus Christ was God-that He founded a Church which He is both able and faithful to preserve from error-that He left a living authority-the Pope of Rome to decide all controversies relating to faith and morals-is a "foreign opinion," to be eradicated by an "American education."

The children of the poor faithful Irish who, first fleeing from the most loathson e oppression of those whom our educationists delight to call allies, and next struggling by hard, honest labor, to gain a material living, have but scanty, if any means to provide for the education of their offspring, are to be picked up, and have “eradicated" from them the few "foreign notions" of faith and devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and obedience to the Church which their mother has had time to instil into their tender minds.

Who gave these men the right to call Catholicity a "foreign influence?" Is the doctrine that man should do his duty towards himself, towards his neighbor, and towards his God, a foreign influence? Is virtue, the restoration of ill-gotten goods-of fame-a foreign influence in our country? Are not Catholics citizens of the country? Were not many of us born in the country, and those who were not, have they not been adopted citizens-nay, and stood by the country in its dark hour, when the Hartford ancestors of Horace Mann, and the other fathers of this system were burning blue lights as signals to our enemies, the English? "Foreign influence"-forsooth!

2. The system of State Schools is contrary to the natural law. In it the State assumes the right to control public sentiment. The State decides what studies are to be pursued, and in those studies what treatises are to be read: that is, the State decides what is true (for what is study but the pursuit of truth?) in every science. The State determines what is true in geography, in astronomy, in philosophy, in ethics, and consequently in theology. Now it is contrary to the natural law to attribute to the State any power that it cannot have. But this system gives the State right to act as though it were infallible; and infallibility belongs to none besides the Church. Therefore this system of education is contrary to the natural law. Protestants are exceedingly shocked at our daring to believe in Jesus Christ, when he said he would guide His Church into all truth, and keep her from all error. How then can they bear the idea of the State's assuming itself to be infallible?

What right has the State to control public sentiment, and direct the education of young souls created for eternity, unless it is sure that it directs them right? If it is sure that it is right, then it is infallible; if it is not sure, then its pretensions are arrogant and to be reprobated.

We are accused-we Catholics-in this country, of which we are citizens, of meddling in politics. The enemies of our religion seek to establish over us a religious despotism, under the name of a political law. They avow their intention of employing the public money, of which we pay our part-to subvert our literary institutions, to crush our colleges, our convent schools-our free schools, our private select schools to root out our religion as a "foreign influence;" and because we raise a feeble remonstrance against this wholesale sending of our children to hellwe are held up to odium as "meddling in politics." We have too much confidence in the public sense of justice, however, to believe that these clamors of interested cliques will ever injure us very far beyond the purlieus of bigotry, in which they originate.-Cath. Tel.

11

VOL. I.-No. 2.

AUTHORSHIP IN AMERICA.

LET us not be understood to maintain that want of success in authorship is always evidence either of want of merit, or of want of prudence. We mean no such thing: on the contrary, we know that works of the most unquestionable excellence have often to wait for appreciators,-in fact, that genius, as a general thing, must create its own audience; but this is as true of other professions as it is of literature. It is true in art; true in science; true in mechanical inventions; and sometimes true in practical enterprise; and all that we design to urge is simply that authorship is no exception to other pursuits. We believe that if competent men engage in it with industry, patience and consistent purpose, conducting their affairs with average foresight, they will reap at the least the average pecuniary rewards. The depreciating view that prevails is an unjust as well as an injurious one, and one therefore that ought to be removed. It is unjust because it exaggerates the disparagements of a true and worthy literary life, and injurious because it happens in this world, that the respectability of a pursuit too much depends upon what the Californians call the "prospecting," or the chance of turning up some genial and ravishing deposit of sunny ore.

Nowhere has the literary profession been supposed to be more hopeless than in the United States; and yet, we are persuaded that here as elsewhere, in spite of all the drawbacks, adventitious or necessary, a career of honor and profit is open to all who engage in it with the proper qualifications, and pursue it with fidelity and self-control. We do not say that the pecuniary rewards of it are as generous as they ought to be, or probably will be hereafter; we do not say that it will become in the present state of society as fertile as trade, or even as the learned professions; but we do say that, besides its peculiar harvests in the way of reputation and influence on the great cotemporary and prospective movements of thought, it holds out the guerdon of reasonable pecuniary success,-and of social compensations that ought to satisfy reasonable desires.

In proof of this, we appeal to the experience of those writers among us, who have shown by their works, their fitness for their vocations. They are nearly all in comfortable positions, and many of them are affluent. Mr. Putnam's book* contains an account of some twenty of them, (announcing others that are to follow)—and scarcely one of the number can be said to be poor. Mr. Prescott enjoys a princely income, a part of it inherited, it is true, but the other part derived from his books: the old age of Irving is made glad by more than competence, worthily won by his pen: Mr. Cooper's novels enabled him to live generously during his whole life: Bancroft is indebted for his political and social position to his merits as a historian: Bryant, though not altogether by his poetry, yet by the exercise of his literary abilities, for the newspaper is a branch of literature, has been placed at his ease: while among those not included in this volume, Melville, Mitchell, Headley, Stephens, Curtis and others, have reaped large rewards from their publications. On the other hand, if Hawthorne and others are not yet at the summits of fortune, they have at least a glimpse of the golden heights.

These results are the more remarkable, because in this country, success is rendered difficult by an artificial obstruction thrown in its way. The American author has to contend against two rivalries,—both formidable-first, that of his native

"Homes of American Authors."

competitor; and second, that of the foreign writer. And in respect to the latter, he enters the lists under the additional disadvantage, that while his own works must be paid for by the publisher, those of the foreigner are furnished like the showman's wonders, "free gratis and for nothing." No sooner is a literary venture of Bulwer, Thackeray, or Dickins afloat, than a whole baracoon of "bookaneers," as Hood called them, rushes forth to seize it, and so long as they may do this, they will not spend money,—not much of it certainly,-in any regular merchandise. Who will buy domestic goods when he can import foreign goods without price? It is not in human nature to drive so thriftless a trade. Our manufacturing friends of the protectionist school, declaim dolorously against the policy of government which exposes their arts to the cheap competition of Europe; but what a clamor would they raise if the exotic productions, which come into mar- . ket against their own, were admitted, not merely duty free, but without having been subjected to an original cost? Yet this is precisely the sorrow of the American author! At great expense himself, he works against an antagonism which costs nothing; for the slight per centage allowed to foreign writers by our American publishers, for the privilege of a first copy, is virtually nothing. His case, therefore, is even worse than that of the broom-seller of the old anecdote, who, stealing his raw materials, wondered how his rival could undersell him; until he was told that the cunning rogue stole his brooms ready-made. Thus, the publisher gets his commodity ready-made, and floods the market with it, while the poor American producer hawks and sings his articles about the streets in vain! Putnam's Monthly.

NOTICE OF THE RIGHT REV. DR. O'HIGGINS,

LATE BISHOP OF ARDAGH.

DR. O'HIGGINS was born in 1793, and was the youngest of a large family of brothers and sisters, nearly all of whom, with their descendants, have preceded him to the grave. Having been instructed in the rudiments of the Irish and English languages by his mother, he was placed under the tuition of one of a class no longer known-wandering classical teacher who talked nothing but Latin at his little pupil for three years and a half. His lordship used to excite many a hearty laugh by his amusing anecdotes of this good-natured and eccentric old pedant, whom he used to picture as a person of slovenly habits, and dressed in a huge red wig, which, as if in sympathy with the habits of the proprietor, was continually finding itself in the very position which it ought not to hold. From this peculiarity of his old tutor his lordship gave the name of redwiggism to all low pedantry. When between fourteen and fifteen years of age he was removed to a school, kept by a Protestant minister in the neighborhood, where he finished his classical studies with great credit and success. In after-life he retained a grateful recollection of this old clergyman, and ever spoke of him in terms of regard and esteem.

Having completed his preparatory studies, Mr. O'Higgins entered an ecclesiastical seminary at Paris, and three years after, he became connected as professor with the Irish college in that city, in the re-opening of which he had successfully co-operated with some of his fellow-countrymen. After his ordination to the priesthood, he continued his academical labors for several years, and graduated

with distinction at the Sorbonne as bachelor of divinity. His health now begining to decline, he repaired to Vienna, and afterwards to Rome, where having recruited his strength he applied himself for five years longer to the study of the ecclesiastical sciences. In 1825, after a brilliant academical display, he was admitted to the degree of doctor.

The following year he returned to Ireland, and successfully competed for the chair of dogmatic theology at Maynooth, in the first public concursus ever held in that college. He had only been about one month at Maynooth, when he was examined before commissioners appointed by his Majesty to inquire into the doctrine taught at Maynooth, and indeed in the whole Catholic Church. The depth and variety of his information; his lucid, masterly statements of the Catholic doctrines; his correct and satisfactory exposition of the Gallican and Ultramontane theories; his admirable definition of the papal authority, and the logical precision and accuracy of his replies to all the various questions put to him on that occasion, have been frequently the theme of admiration, even by those most hostile to his creed. The ability, tact, and zeal with which he filled the important chair of dogmatic theology, are well known. He numbered fifteen bishops, with innumerable professors and superiors of colleges, who had studied under him, in the various institutions in which he taught philosophy, theology, Scripture and canon law.

On the death of his dear friend, the Right Rev. Dr. McGauran, in 1829, he was called on to preside over his native diocess, and was consecrated Bishop on the 30th of November in that year. He was now placed in a position in which his genius, his patriotism, his piety, and the nobler qualities of his nature had ample field for display, and nobly did he discharge his trust. His generous encouragement gave an impulse to the zeal of his admirable clergy and people, and religion quickly began to assume a proud and flourishing appearance. The thatched cabins on the mountain side, in the secluded glen which sheltered his fathers during the celebration of the tremendous Mysteries, fast disappeared and were replaced by commodious and stately houses of worship worthy of the times. The Ardagh cathedral, but yet, alas! in process of erection, is an acknowledged memorial of his zeal and munificence. Indeed, nothing mean or small had place in his conception. When he would build a house to God, he wished to make it, as far as human means could effect it, worthy of the Divinity. He built it to God and not to man; hence, in the most secret recesses of that splendid edifice, where the eye of the Divinity alone can penetrate, as much pains have been taken-as much intricacy of detail exhibited, as in those most visible to the eye of man. Indeed, this church, an edifice of the purest Grecian architecture, is in its chaste and severe simplicity and greatness a faithful expression of the character of the good prelate who founded it. Whenever the Irish Church was to be represented at any foreign court, Dr. O'Higgins was sure to be selected for the honorable office, for which his familiarity with various European languages, the courtesy and dignity of his manners, and his acquaintance with many of the principal men of Europe eminently qualified him. Amongst his papers have been found autograph letters from Emperors and Popes. He was deputed to visit the Irish college at Paris; he was unanimously chosen to go and treat with the court of Belgium about the Irish educational foundations lost during the revolution, a great portion of which he recovered, and twice he went to Rome, sent by a majority of the prelacy on the question of education.

But it is not in his spiritual capacity alone that Ireland has to bewail the death of Dr. O'Higgins. He was an ardent patriot as well as a zealous ecclesiastic.

He was ever foremost in the battle for Ireland and her faith. He gave his active and zealous co-operation to the Liberator in every struggle of his country for the last twenty-three years. And how highly O'Connell valued the services of his episcopal friend, he lost no opportunity of testifying both publicly and privately. His lordship possessed, as a rare treasure, many private letters from O'Connell and his son, breathing the warmest attachment and admiration. An ardent and powerful supporter of Repeal, he openly denounced the Young Ireland policy, as destructive of the great confederation which it had required so much intellect and labor to achieve. The event which he apprehended arrived, and when the lamp of the Liberator was quenched in gloom, the heart of the prelate sunk him in the grave. His health sensibly declined from the day of O'Connell's death. He made many efforts to unite the friends of Ireland under the supremacy of the son of his old friend, whose love for the old faith he valued above aught else. Indeed, much of his lordship's hostility to the Young Ireland party arose from his hatred of the godless colleges, which he so much abhorred. His last visit to Rome was made in company with his friend, the Archbishop of Tuam, to procure the condemnation of those obnoxious establishments, and the arrival of the papal rescript was the only consolation which he witnessed since O'Connell's death. After all this political notoriety, Dr. O'Higgins used to startle his friends occasionally by declaring that he was no politician, and, indeed, he was not as the world understood the term. But if to desire with his whole soul the freedom of the Catholic religion, to struggle with his whole strength to vindicate it from the bondage of centuries, and to remove the brand of inferiority from off the brow of its children, he most certainly was a politician.

In private life he was loved and respected by all parties and creeds. The Protestants of the town in which he resided joined as heartily as the Catholics in the general illumination which used to hail his return home after a protracted absence. The refined urbanity of his manners, polished at many of the principal courts of Europe-his sweet and amiable disposition, and the enchanting brilliancy of his conversation, in which he most excelled, made him the idol of every circle in which he moved. Every bitter feeling of political and sectarian animosity was laid by his presence, and those whose lives were devoted to overthrow what every pulsation of his heart was devoted to sustain and establish-those who were ever more hostile to the tenets and advancements of his Church forgot their instincts in his conciliating presence. Sincere and single-minded himself in the last degree, he treated the belief and feelings of others with forbearance and respect.

Perhaps no more honorable testimony to his amiability in private life could be given than that of a Protestant journal, which lost no opportunity of abusing him during life. "We would not," he said, "be doing justice to our feelings if we did not say that he was a learned, a talented and a most benevolent man, and that we believe no feeling of hatred, malice, or any uncharitableness ever found place for a moment in his bosom. The poor in his neighborhood have good reason to lament his death. He was a most generous benefactor who visited their dwellings and relieved their wants. Like the venerable Fenélon, his lordship died worth as much money as paid his debts and no more."

On his return from the continent, in December last, he seemed to have recruited his health but he had been only a few days at home when he was visited by his old malady, a nervous prostration, which baffled the efforts of medicine. On the 3d of January, at the age of 59, he was summoned to receive the reward of the good and faithful servant.-Abridged from the Tablet.