State Legislation 107 



synonym of the good old word shillalah, and in re- 

 proving a colleague for opposing a bill to increase 

 the salaries of public laborers, he said, very impres- 

 sively, "The throuble wid the young man is, that 

 he uses the wurrd economy as a shibboleth, where- 

 with to strike the working man." Afterward he 

 changed the metaphor, and spoke of a number of us 

 as using the word "reform" as a shibboleth, behind 

 which to cloak our evil intentions. 



A mixture of classical and constitutional misin- 

 formation was displayed a few sessions past in the 

 State Assembly when I was a member of the Legis- 

 lature. It was on the occasion of that annual nui- 

 sance, the debate upon the Catholic Protectory item 

 of the Supply Bill. Every year some one who is de- 

 sirous of bidding for the Catholic vote introduces 

 this bill, which appropriates a sum of varying dimen- 

 sions for the support of the Catholic Protectory, an 

 excellent institution, but one which has no right 

 whatever to come to the State for support ; each year 

 the insertion of the item is opposed by a small num- 

 ber of men, including the more liberal Catholics 

 themselves, on proper grounds, and by a larger 

 number from simple bigotry a fact which was 

 shown two years ago, when many of the most bitter 

 opponents of this measure cheerfully supported a 

 similar and equally objectionable one in aid of a 

 Protestant institution. On the occasion referred to 

 there were two Assemblymen, both Celtic gentle- 

 men, who were rivals for the leadership of the mi- 

 nority ; one of them a stout, red-faced man, who may 



