IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. 



149 



the Relief of the Ruptured and Crippled," and 

 other minor charities. With one possible excep- 

 tion, none of these schools seem to be ordinary 

 day-schools ; in most of them the children are 

 lodged, boarded, and clothed. The grant which 

 they receive appears to be determined by the cost 

 of the elementary instruction which is given to 

 their inmates. Only one of the schools can be 

 recognized as Roman Catholic by its description 

 in the schedule of the report from which these 

 figures are quoted ; and this school, as I have 

 said, received less than £3,000 in the year 1876. ' 



The grants to these " corporate and asylum 

 schools," though insignificant in amount, and 

 constituting less than a twelfth of the whole sum 

 expended by the New York Board for educational 

 purposes, were a convenient instrument in the 

 hands of the priests. They argued that if the 

 board was willing to assist in maintaining Roman 

 Catholic schools which boarded and lodged the 

 children as well as educated them, there was 

 flagrant inconsistency in refusing assistance to 

 ordinary Roman Catholic day-schools. 



The struggle was a fierce one. It ended in a 

 very unexpected manner. Party spirit ran high. 

 It was resolved that the priests should be sharply 

 punished for attempting to undermine an institu- 

 tion which the American people regard as one of 

 the chief glories of the commonwealth. It is 

 one of the current scandals of New York that 

 the party which governed the municipality in its 

 evil times secured the Roman Catholic vote by 

 the sale of sites for Roman Catholic churches at 

 nominal prices. The defenders of the common 

 schools alleged that sites and buildings for Ro- 

 man Catholic schools had also been sold, by the 

 municipality at prices far below their value in the 

 open market. They alleged that by means of 

 corrupt influence the intention of the Legislature 

 to withhold public aid from ordinary day-schools 

 under denominational management was persist- 

 ently thwarted, and that the time had come for 

 putting a stop to abuses which had become fla- 

 grant and intolerable. The clause I quoted from 

 the act of 1S51 was left as it stood, and an act 

 was passed (June 13, 18*73) in which there ap- 

 pears the following stringent provision : 



" No money belonging to the city, or city and 

 county, of New York, raised by taxation upon the 

 property of the citizens thereof, shall be appro- 

 priated in aid of any religious or denominational 



1 I have the impression, however, that there are 

 other Roman Catholic schools of this class, not fle- 

 acribed as Roman Catholic, which may receive £1,000 

 or £1,500 more. 



school ; neither shall any property, real or person- 

 al, belonging to said city, or said city and county, 

 be disposed of to any such school, except upon the 

 sale thereof at public auction after the same has 

 been duly advertised, at which sale such school 

 shall be the highest bidders, and upon the pay- 

 ment of the sum so bid into the city treasury ; 

 neither shall any property belonging to the city, 

 or city and county, be leased to any school under 

 the control of any religious or denominational in- 

 stitution, except upon such terms as city property 

 may be leased to private parties after the same has 

 been duly advertised." » 



I believe that the agitation was continued for 

 some time after the passing of this act, but it 

 appears now to have collapsed, and the friends 

 of the common-school system have won a definite 

 victory. In the city and State of New York the 

 denominationalists are probably stronger than in 

 any other part of the Union, and they fought 

 with great energy. For a time the English op- 

 ponents of the denominational system watched 

 the contest with anxiety, and even with appre- 

 hension ; and I remember very well the sense of 

 relief which came to us when we heard of its re- 

 sult. But, if I may trust the assurances of many 

 gentlemen whom I saw last autumn in different 

 parts of the country, our anxiety and alarm were 

 needless. I was told again and again that the 

 common-school system was never in serious dan- 

 ger. 



Defeated in their attempts to obtain public 

 money for the support of Catholic education, the 

 priests have not closed their schools, but are 

 maintaining them with characteristic vigor. In 

 the city of New York they have nearly ninety 

 schools, with an average attendance of between 

 30,000 and 40,000. 1 In the archdiocese of Cin- 

 cinnati, with a Catholic population of 240,000, 

 there are 140 parochial schools, with an average 

 attendance of nearly 30,000. In the archdiocese 

 of Philadelphia, with a Catholic population of 

 250,000, there are 51 parochial schools, with an 

 average attendance of 20,000. In this diocese 

 there are also a few parochial schools, under the 

 charge of the Christian Brothers, the attendance 

 at which is not included in these figures. In the 

 diocese of Chicago the Catholic population is re- 

 ported as numbering 300,000 ; there are nearly 

 ninety parochial schools, and an average attend- 

 ance is reported of rather less than 25,000, but, 



1 " Manual of the Board of Education," etc., 1876, 

 pp. 81, 82. 



3 " Sadlier's Catholic Directory for 1877." All the 

 Roman Catholic statistics in this paragraph are giv- 

 en on the same authority. 



