answer given by American citizens, constituting the Board of Managers of the New York House of Refuge, to the committee of American citizens sent by the Catholic Union to demand liberty of conscience and freedom of religious worship for the Catholic children in the Refuge! Either this answer means that the children in the House of Refuge are not a portion of mankind, or that religious freedom is one of the rights forfeited by delinquency, or the Board of Managers have proclaimed themselves guilty of the grossest violation of the rights of man and of God. We presume these gentlemen will not admit either the first or the third of these alternatives; indeed, they almost say in terms that a commitment to the House of Refuge works a forfeiture of that religious liberty guaranteed to all mankind. We know delinquency under the law suspends the civil rights of the delinquent while in prison, such as the right to hold public office or administer a private trust; but it does not work even a forfeiture of property except in the case of an outlawry of treason. These are all the forfeitures worked by the highest crimes known to the law. Religion is not a civil right; no crime can forfeit it; no power on earth can extinguish it. The greatest of public malefactors, the murderer and the traitor, enjoy it even on the scaffold: does the child whose only offence is poverty or vagrancy forfeit it? In the sacred names of Liberty and Religion, what sort of Refuge is this to stand on American soil?

The Children's Aid Society is another New York institution largely supported by public funds. We learn from its Nineteenth Annual Report, 1871, that one of its objects is to shelter in its lodging-houses the orphan and the homeless girls and boys, and

labor incessantly to give them the "foundation ideas of morals and religion" (p. 5). Alluding to the Italian School, No. 44 Franklin Street, the report says: "We have conquered the prejudices and superstition of ignorance, and converted into useful citizens hundreds of this unfortunate class." With such a programme of unsectarian conversion, the leading feature in which is indifferentism in religion, the immediate forerunner of infidelity. and agrarianism, it is no wonder that the report immediately proceeds: "So much so, indeed, that the Italian government," that same godless government which is so ferociously waging war on Catholicity, "has taken a deep interest in our institution" (p. 28).

It is only necessary to read these reports to be convinced that the system either leads to materialism, the religion of worldly prosperity and thrifty citizenship, or to some form of Protestant sectarianism. The system of "emigration" pursued by such institutions, by which children are sent out West and placed with anybody and everybody who will take them, completes the work commenced in the East. On pages 54-56 of the report last quoted is related the case of a youth sent East, who "cannot speak of his parents with any certainty at all"; it matters not what religion they were of, the son is now preparing for the ministry of one of the sects. His letter also recites a similar case in reference to another boy "who was sent out West." is certain that he is not preparing for the Catholic ministry, for his impressions of a miracle are thus expressed: "To be taken from the gutters of New York City and placed in a college is almost a miracle." The story of young "Patrick," p. 59, whose education was obtained at the Preparatory School at Oberlin and at

It

Cornell University, is significant. On page 60 is told the story of an Irish orphan girl sent to Connecticut, and placed with "an intelligent Christian woman, who means to do right." On page 63 is told the history of a little boy sent to Michigan, who is well pleased with toys and new clothes, "like all other children; he has a splendid new suit of clothes just got, and he attends church and Sabbath school." A similar case is related at page 65, of a little girl sent to Ohio, and we shall show below what has become of little girls sent to that state. These are some of the model cases of which this unsectarian society makes a boast in its report. It is a significant fact that, of the 8,835 who came under the influences of this society in one year, 3,312 were of Irish birth, and it may be estimated with certainty that a considerable proportion of the other children of foreign, as well as many of home birth were Catholics. The number of children born in Ireland who were sent West during the year was 1,058. This institution received for the furtherance of these unsectarian objects the sum of $66,922 70 in this year from our public funds.

We have also before us the Twentieth Annual Report of the New York Juvenile Asylum, 1871, which proves the proselytizing character of this public-pap-fed unsectarian institution. "The children that are entrusted to us are at the most susceptible period of life," etc., "when their destiny for time, if not for eternity, may be fixed" (p. 9). "They must be drilled into systematic habits of life in eating, sleeping, play, study, work, and worship" (p. 10). To "attend church" (p. 21), and "the evening worship," and religious services generally, are frequently recurring duties of the children. In this institution the children of foreign birth during the year were

3,648, and of these 1,981 were born in Ireland. Of course we cannot say how many of the children of home birth were the children of Irish and Catholic parents. We have, alas ! but too much certainty that a large proportion of the children are Catholic. We casually met recently with an interesting proof of this in Scribner's Magazine, November, 1870, in an account given by a visitor to the Juvenile Asylum. In the evening the visitor was invited to see the girls' dormitory as the girls were going to bed. She writes: "All the children were saying their prayers. I noticed that several of them made the sign of the cross as they rose." Touching evidence of their traditional faith and parental teaching! a simple but sublime tribute to holy church! an earnest sign of love and hope for those sacraments which came to us through the cross, but which, like that cross itself, were not a part of the religion, worship, and practice of this unsectarian asylum.

In the list of model examples presented in the report of the Western agent will be seen the usual proselytizing influence of such institutions. The cases either show mere material or wordly advantage, or the embrace of pure sectarianism. On page 50 is related the case of a little girl, who "scarcely remembers her parents," of whom it is related that "she is a member of the Presbyterian Church." Two other girls are indentured to members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The "church and Sundayschool" are prominent features in nearly every case. The amount received during the year by this unsectarian institution from our public funds was $62,065 24.

The Five Points House of Industry, which received, from 1858 to 1869, the sum of $30,731 69 from our Board of Education, states in

its charter, among the objects for which it was incorporated, the following: "III. To imbue the objects of its care with the pure principles of Christianity, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, without bias from the distinctive peculiarities of any individual sect." This means that the children belonging to distinctive religious denominations, instead of being allowed to follow the distinctive tenets, and practise the worship, in which they were reared, are deprived of this right, and, as respects the Catholic children, they are to reject and exclude every tenet and devotion distinctively Catholic. How far even this profession of unsectarianism is carried into practice will be discovered from the Monthly Record of the Five Points House of Industry for April and May, 1870, P. 302, giving an account of the dedicatory exercises:

"The services consisted of an opening anthem by the children, followed by a prayer by Rev. Dr. Paxton, asking a blessing upon the House and its objects.

"This was followed by a hymn; a statement of the affairs of the institution, by Rev. S. B. Halliday; a recitative by the children; a statement as to city missions, by Rev. G. J. Mingins; a short discourse on the Union of Christian Effort,' by Rev. H. D. Ganse; a discourse on the 'Lights and Shadows of Large Cities,' by R. John Hall, D.D.; and, finally, a roundelay given by the children."

How far the pledge given in the charter of this establishment, " without bias from the distinctive peculiarities of any individual sect," is carried out is further seen from the following extract from a letter addressed by the president to the Rev. John Cotton Smith, a prominent minister of the Episcopalian sect: "Between your church and the institution the most kind and harmonious co-operation has ever existed. They will ever cherish a most pleasing remembrance of the

relations that have subsisted between them."*

We might have alluded to the "Howard Mission and Home for Little Wanderers," founded by that arch-proselytizer, the Rev. W. C. Van Meter, which during seven years disposed of 7,580 "little wanderers " of this city, in an unsectarian manner; but want of space forbids our doing so. But the animus pervading this and other unsectarian institutions is exhibited to us now in the fact, that this reverend has transferred the field of his labors from the Five Points to the city of Rome, the centre and headquarters of Catholicity. He has there established a mission and home for the little Romans. We do not stand alone in our opinion that such institutions are nuisances for Catholic children, and we quote the closing words of a letter recently addressed to the Rev. Mr. Van Meter by the editor of the Voce della Verita, at Rome:

"Now, dear sir, excuse me if I remind you, that although a very ignorant person, 'when I was a little boy,' I also went to school, and learned a few things about your country. I remember to have heard it said that misery and ignorance abounded there, and that many hundreds of thousands of your compatriots knew of no other God than the almighty dollar. Why do you not go back and teach in Nebraska or Texas, and leave us alone? You might positively do some good there now you are a-well, let me tell the truth-a nuisance. By your homeward voyage, you will benefit both your own country and ours.Ӡ

Another complaint that we make against our semi-governmental charities relates to the violation of the rights of parents and children, in the sale of these children at the West. This pernicious practice of exiling and transporting children from New York to the West is still in full vigor

*Monthly Record, p. 285.

Catholic Review, January 11, 1873.

amongst these institutions. How can we boast of our charities, when their main feature consists in shifting the burden from our own shoulders to those of others, and they are strangers? It is in vain that we claim these children as the wards and protégés of society and of our city, if we repudiate the duties and responsibilities of our guardianship. Against this cruelty and injustice we protest in the names of civilization and Christianity. The institutions whose reports we have referred to not only admit, but they boast of this outrage upon the rights of parents and of children. One of them, the Children's Aid Society, refers to this branch of operations, "its Emigration System," as the "crown" of all its works. The number of children thus exiled from the state by this society and transported to distant regions, during the year of the report referred to, was 3,386; the whole number since 1854 was 25,215. More than half the 3,386 were sent to Ohio, and to the distant states of Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska. Of one little boy thus exiled, who was separated from his parents at the age of eight years, the Western agent reports: "I think his mother would scarcely know him." He reports that the mistress to whom another was "disposed of " writes of him: "Indeed, I don't know what I should do without him, for he saves me a great many steps. I wish we could find out about his brother and sister, he often cries about them."

Exile and transportation of children is also practised by the Five Points House of Industry. They have obtained extraordinary powers for this purpose from the Legislature. For while the Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction, a purely governmental institution, possess

the power of indenturing children to citizens of the state of New York and adjoining states only, the Five Points House of Industry has received the power to send them anywhere and everywhere. But the Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction send the poor children they get into their power to the most remote states in violation of the express law of the

For instead of confining their indentures to citizens of New York and the adjoining states, as the law directs, they send them indiscriminately to every state, even the most distant. We ask those public servants by what fiction of law they make California and Texas adjoin New York?

The New York Juvenile Asylum has also a "regular agency at Chicago, by which the work of indenturing children at the West is conducted."* The total number of children sent West during fifteen years, from 1857 to 1871 inclusive, is 2,206, and the annual average, 147 (p. 47).

The extent to which this crowning cruelty of our non-sectarian institutions is carried, is appalling. We have only cited the cases of the three whose reports happened to be before us.

But we have been informed, unofficially, and we think the statement can be made good, that there are in the city of New York no less than twenty-eight charitable institutions engaged in this cruel practice of transporting our New York children to the West and other remote parts, and the average number of these little exiles per week is about two hundred, making about ten thousand every year. What untold abuses and hardships must result from this barbarous practice! However noble, generous, and philanthropic may be the motives of the citizen

*Twelth Annual Report, p. 12.

managers of these institutions, they cannot attend in person to the details or even the general management of their work. Not only are their houses in the city confided to the management of hired and salaried agents and servants, but the work of transporting children to the West is confided generally to the same class of agents, and we intend to show how this charitable function is discharged. They are actuated by no higher motives than usually actuate their class. The love of God, and of man for God's sake, is not the spirit that inspires their labors and guides their steps. Corruption and infidelity to duty have stalked brazenly into the public service everywhere; what reason have we for claiming an exemption in favor of those who find profitable employment in the administration of public charities?

But, as the Christian Union demands further proof than is accessible to the public, we will produce some additional evidence, although we think we have already shown enough to condemn this system; and the tone of that journal's article leads us to believe that if an angel from heaven disclosed to its view the same corruption and oppression which we see in this branch of public administration, it would still cling to its idols.

Now we have before us a letter, dated September 23, 1872, addressed by a clergyman at Tiffin, Ohio, to a clergyman in the East, from which we quote:

"In answer to your request concerning those children brought on some four or Sve years ago from the East to be disposed of, I might say with prudence, that to several counties of Ohio had been brought car-loads of children from three years on to twelve and thirteen years old, and offered to the public to take one or more; for they who offered the children

id those who would take them had to

pay the expenses of bringing them to the place. For some children the man said the expense would be fifteen dollars, for others more, others less. This is the way the affair was carried on for some time."

The gentleman to whom the foregoing letter was addressed, and who sent it to us, gives also his own testimony on this public traffic in innocent human beings. His letter is dated September 25, 1872, and reads as follows:

"At that time," some four or five years ago, "I was on a trip to Tiffin. Delayed for a short time at Clyde, I asked some

questions of the baggage-master. Three little girls were near him, and I asked him: Are these your daughters?" A. No, I bought them?' 'Bought them!

how? from whom?" A. 'Oh! from the ministers. They bring car-loads of these little ones every few weeks, and sell them to any one who wants them. I gave $10 for this one, $12 for the next, and $15 for the oldest. I had not the money, but I borrowed it from the tavern-keeper, and paid for the girls. Lately there was an

other load of them. There was a very fine girl. I wanted her. But the minister said, 'No; I have promised her to a rich man in Forrest, who will pay more than you. After some further conversation of a similar character, the train came in sight, and I left. The next day I was speaking of the circumstance at table. Rev. Mr. baggage-master well, and that what he said was true. He added, 'Within the last month there was a sale of some thirty of these children in our Court House.

remarked that he knew the

One of my parishioners, Mr. —, came along as the sale was about over. A little boy was standing before the Court House crying; the German asked him,

'What is the matter?' He said, 'That man wants to sell me, and no one will buy me.' The boy was bought by the German for $10. I had heard such transactions described in one of his lectures by F. Haskins. But I scarcely realized how fearful such conduct is until I heard a description of these sales from persons who had seen them."

Such, indeed, is the "crowning" work of some of the charitable insti