ROMAN CATHOLICS IN THE STATES. 409 



implicit faith to the dogmas of a priesthood. There is 

 here, nevertheless, in the Protestant Episcopal Church, a 

 sprinkling of those worshippers of the Fathers and lovers 

 of tradition who are troubling the Anglican Church ; 

 and, in the more southern States, both the number of 

 this class is greater, and their tendency to Rome more 

 distinct. Of real Roman Catholics, however, there are, 

 in Massachusetts, as is seen in the list above given, 

 only thirty-five congregations, with forty-five priests. 

 They reckon the number of the Roman Catholic popula 

 tion, however, at 90,000, or one-tenth of that of the 

 State. In this there may be some exaggeration, though 

 the fact of Boston being a shipping port at which many 

 emigrants arrive, the greater part of whom are Irish, 

 may account for so large a portion of the population of 

 Massachusetts consisting of this denomination. 



Much has been said and apprehended in regard to the 

 present and future influence of the Roman Catholic body 

 in the United States. Of the entire population of the 

 United States, however, they form barely 5 per cent, 

 their numbers, according to their own estimate, amount 

 ing only to 1,276,300 out of the 23,000,000. This, con 

 sidering the faith of the original French settlers on the 

 Mississippi, and; the flocks of Irish emigrants, is but a 

 small proportion. Their strength consists in their unity 

 and organisation, and in their keeping together and 

 acting in masses. It is altogether a political and local 

 strength. They impose by the force of their local vote, 

 the noisiness of their people, and the sliowiness of their 

 cathedral and other churches, and ceremonies, but their 

 moral weight in the Union is small. While schools 

 abound, and instruction is freely given and received, 

 there can be no great inroads made upon the American- 

 born Anglo-Saxon part of the population by the preachers 

 of the Romish creed. 



The only other sect that equals them in numbers in 



