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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



ism, and magnetism, on astronomy, mathematical 

 and descriptive, on botany, geology, and mineral- 

 ogy. They maintained that in these schools the 

 children of the poor acquire a distaste and con- 

 tempt for manual labor, and are made discontented 

 with their " rank and station in life." But even 

 these gentlemen were as anxious as any of their 

 fellow-citizens to sustain the efficiency of the ele- 

 mentary schools and to keep them in the hands 

 of the school boards. 



The Roman Catholic hierarchy are, of course, 

 hostile to the fundamental principle of the Ameri- 

 can system. In America, as in Europe, it is their 

 contention that education should be under the 

 control of the Church. The large number of Ro- 

 man Catholics in the city and State of New York, 

 and the importance of the Roman Catholic vote 

 to the rival political parties, led the bishops, a 

 few years ago, to hope that, by skillful political 

 management, they might be able to secure for 

 their parochial schools grants from the Public Ed- 

 ucation Fund. The disposition on the part of a 

 certain section of the American people to regard 

 English precedents with sympathy and admira- 

 tion was in their favor. In England, where a 

 Protestant Church is established, Roman Catho- 

 lic schools receive large grants of public money ; 

 conspicuous English statesmen — Liberals as well 

 as Conservatives — have declared again and again 

 that to withhold public assistance from schools 

 which are managed by Roman Catholic priests 

 and the clergy of other religious denominations 

 would be a violation of religious liberty. Why 

 should Americans be less " liberal " than Eng- 

 lishmen ? Why should Roman Catholics under 

 the American Republic, which has no national 

 Church of any kind, enjoy inferior advantages to 

 those which they possess under the English mon- 

 archy, which has made the sovereign the head 

 and the defender of a Protestant establishment ? 

 There was one serious difficulty to be got over. 

 In an act passed in 1851, for amending and con- 

 solidating the acts relative to the common schools 

 in the city and county of New York, it was pro- 

 vided — 



" that no school shall be entitled to or receive any 

 portion of the school-moneys in which the religious 

 doctrines or tenets of any particular Christian or 

 other religious sect shall be taught, inculcated, or 

 practised, or in which any book or books contain- 

 ing compositions favorable or prejudicial to the 

 particular doctrines or tenets of any particular 

 Christian or other religious sect, or which shall 

 teach the doctrines or tenets of any other religious 

 sect, or which shall refuse to permit the visits and 



examinations provided for in this act. But noth- 

 ing herein contained shall authorize the Board of 

 Education to exclude the Holy Scriptures, without 

 note or comment, or any selections therefrom, 

 from any of the schools provided by this act ; but 

 it shall not be competent for the said Board of Ed- 

 ucation to decide what version, if any, of the Holy 

 Scripture?, without note or comment, shall be used 

 in any of the schools : Provided that nothing here- 

 in contained shall be so construed as to violate the 

 rights of conscience, as secured by the constitution 

 of this State and of the United States." l 



While this clause remained unrepealed it was 

 impossible for Roman Catholic parochial schools 

 to receive any appropriations from the Public 

 School Fund. The Board of Education of the 

 city of New York is, however, specially empow- 

 ered by the acts under which it is constituted to 

 make grants to certain " corporate and asylum 

 schools " which are not under the direct govern- 

 ment of the board. The schools to which the 

 grants may be made are specifically named in a 

 series of acts of the State Legislature, the earliest 

 of which was passed in 1851 and the latest in 

 1874. The total amount apportioned in 1876 to 

 schools of this class was a little under £20,000, 

 the whole amount expended by the board on 

 schools of every kind during the same year being 

 a little under £250,000. Of the £20,000, the 

 Children's Aid Society, which establishes and 

 maintains industrial schools for the worst and 

 most destitute classes of the population, received 

 considerably over £7,000. The society is "un- 

 sectarian," and I heard so much of its success in 

 dealing with "wastrel children" that I regret 

 that I was unable either to visit its schools or to 

 make myself acquainted with its methods of op- 

 eration. Societies for " the Reformation of Juve- 

 nile Delinquents " and for " the Reception of Ju- 

 venile Delinquents " receive between them rather 

 more than £2,000. The schools established by 

 the " New York Juvenile Asylum " and by the 

 " Five Points House of Industry " receive rather 

 more than £2,000. Orphan asylums which are 

 not described as connected with any religious de- 

 nomination receive £1,000. The schools of the 

 " American Female Guardian Society " receive 

 more thai) £3,000 ; a school, established by the 

 Ladies' Home Missionary Society of the Methodist 

 Episcopal Church, receives rather more than 

 £800 ; and the Roman Catholic Orphan Asy- 

 lum about £2,700. The rest is divided among 

 "Schools for Colored Orphans," "Schools for 



1 " Mannal of the Board of Education of the City 

 and County of New York," 1876, p. 37. 



