America,) has taken the same views that I have here presented; the popularity or unpopularity of these views affects me not; the remarks which I have made presented themselves to my mind during my travels, and I narrate them simply and faithfully, indifferent to the criticisms they may provoke, or the surprise they may elicit. But the powers of a woman are inadequate to treat of matters so high and so profound. To some abler hand than mine I shall hope to see committed the more elaborate discussion of considerations and facts which, like these above referred to, involve the present and future destinies of an Empire.

These introductory remarks will have assisted, in some measure, to point out and explain the exalted station held by the Bishop of the Diocese of New York. He is the master mind of that Hierarchy which is the main instrument in producing the results I have alluded to; and I learned from the highest authority in Canada, that by the Ecclesiastical Court of Rome, he is considered as

* The remarks of Mr. Wyse, alluded to at page 169, I happened to alight upon in the Economist Newspaper, where they were published as Extracts.

the Right Arm of the Catholic Faith throughout the World, and that there is no Dignitary in the whole sphere of the Church whose movements are the subject of such intense and anxious interest as those of this modest, retiring, and illustrious Prelate.

It is a common proverb that circumstance makes the hero; but no circumstance has made the Bishop; on the contrary, he has himself carved out the circumstance of his position. His native country* is oppressed; his Religion persecuted; his birth obscure, and friends unknown; no great event presented to his ambition the means and opportunity of self elevation; genius and poverty were his only portion; but "sweet are the uses of adversity;" the apparent drawbacks became the stepping stones of his advancement; he cast behind him persecution and obscurity, and in the unconscious nobleness and enthusiasm of his youth, he sought and found a sphere worthy of his life and of his virtue. Mere change of country is all the circumstance that has befriended his lot; and it is to his own indefatigable self-subduing

* Ireland.

mind that we must attribute his progressive fortunes; his comprehensive faculties at once grappled with his position, and the laborious but exemplary labours which it involved; and every energy has been applied to the vast range of duty which he has allotted as his own appointed task. No man ever struggled for an earthly, as he for a heavenly,

crown.

Evil and ill informed men have, for their own purposes, accused him of attempts to mingle in politics, because he dared to assert, in free America, the civil and religious privileges of his people.*

Cruel attacks were made upon his

To avoid prolixity, the whole case is resolved into the following brief statement. Bishop Hughes addressed the School Commissioners of New York, and requested, as the guardian of the faith of Catholic children, that the Bible, that is, the version of King James, or as it is commonly called, the Protestant Bible, might not be used for a reading book in the Public Schools; and that if it would not be dispensed with, that then, as the Catholic population were taxed to support the system, he might be allowed to have them separately instructed, and be allowed the same sum for the education of Catholic children as was paid by the public for the instruction of the others. This is a fair, honest statement of the request. Bishop Hughes did not ask that the Catholic Bible (the Douay) should be introduced instead of that of King James. He never intimated such a thing. He asked that his children might not be compelled to listen to the reading of a version of the Bible which he considered incorrect; he did not require that the Vulgate should be used, but he presented the request that he

character, and had he not been steeled in conscious rectitude, his sensitive nature must have sunk beneath these ungenerous insinuations. Seven successive days saw him sustaining the unequal contest, for his single voice was opposed to multitudes; but the cause was righteous, and affected the Salvation of his flock; and neither intolerance nor bigotry were suffered to prevail against him. He was triumphant in the result of every argument, and left his opponents equally dismayed and humiliated by his talents and his victory. His constancy is equal to his courage, and were the same ordeal to be repeated, this brave Priest would be found, despite injurious calumny and

might remove the Catholic scholars from the Public Schools, promising to have them fully educated in all the secular branches, and that he should have an appropriation, per capita, et pro rata, with the public expense of teaching.

This communication of the Right Rev. Gentleman fanned into a more furious flame the war which had already been waged against the Roman Catholics. The School Commissioners declined granting the prayer of the Bishop, and it was finally referred to the decision of the ballot boxes, or a popular election. "Protestantism and No Popery" became arrayed against "Catholicism and Bishop Hughes," and the struggle was warm and animated. Its final issue was the granting of the petition of Bishop Hughes; and the Catholic children are now educated separately.-Extract from a Pamphlet entitled "The Truth Unveiled," by a Protestant and a Native Philadelphian.

bigoted opposition, firm at the post of danger and of honour.

But these events developed the vast influence he possesses, by the singling out of parties, and by showing in bold and striking relief the ascendancy of the magnificent Prelate; men were suddenly awakened and surprised into a sense of his overwhelming authority.

Venal minds are incapable of comprehending the possession and consciousness of power as distinct from its exercise or its abuse; and the host of political intriguers at once inferred that, the Bishop being all-powerful, must, of necessity, be all-mischievous. Selfish and active demonstration is, in their crude apprehension, the sole attribute of dominion; they cannot understand that Power does oft-times love to slumber; that to forbear is mightier than to execute;-to will, than to act; that the first is the prerogative of the Supreme; the second the portion of the delegate. In their vulgar, self instructed capacity, they judged the Bishop; and presumed that he would bow his Mitre before the God of their vile world, and bend his Crozier at the altar of their base Mammon.