in it so perfectly the seen with the unseen, as to fill the soul with the reality, and save to faith its merit; unlimited knowledge of man, his nature, his wants, his feelings, his frailties, his dangers, his powers, his wishes, such as only belongs to the Creator, and the Searcher of the reins and heart, to adapt it exactly to every possible desire of his spirit, and every imaginable want of his weakness: almighty power, to put nature into perpetual bondage to grace, so that to the end of time a marvellous combination of supernatural effects should take place, in obedience to a continuous law, without disturbing or ruffling the visible current of natural things; supreme dominion, to communicate and delegate to man the exercise of this very act of omnipotence; and above all, consummate and incomprehensible goodness and love, to set all the rest of these divine attributes in motion, and bind them in one harmonious action :such was the abundance of the Heart from which alone the mouth of Jesus could have spoken those words of life.

To them we owe the best and sweetest privilege of love, that of being able to draw grace and life from their very source, by receiving Him within us, who contains it in Himself. There the heart of man reposes upon the Heart of his Redeemer, not outwardly as John's did, but in closer and even holier union, when his frail and perishable body becomes the temple of God, the tabernacle of his Lord, the abode, however humble, of his Saviour. Thence his very body sucks in immortality, from that imperishable Body which could not see corruption; there his soul feasts spiritually upon the virtues and excellences which adorn the Soul of God made man; and there, more wonderful still, his whole being becomes invested with the dignity and glory of the divinity which dwells within him, and bestows on him rights and privileges that have their final fulfilment and possession in heaven. How truly indeed may it be said of man, that "God entertaineth his heart with delight!"

O rich abundance of the Heart of Jesus, whence all these good things issue, through His unfailing words! Who will refuse to love Thee, and to adore Thee, O Blessed Saviour! Who will not own that in that blessed Heart of Thine are centred all the manifold forms of Thy love for man, from Thy cradle to Thy cross? And if in Thy sacred word, even the heart of man receives praise from God, for good qualities amidst its shocking corruption, how much more must all these be found in Thine, sinless and untainted by the contact of evil! Thy Heart, then, is perfect," one and undivided, simple, right before God," strong;25 it is wise, prudent," intelligent,28 watchful,29 profound;30 it is great," and wide as the sands of the sea; it is clean, innocent," pure, spotless, splendid, good,”

22

32

23

33

21 Jos. xxiv. 14; 4 Reg. xx. 3; Is. xxviii. 3. 221 Reg. xii. 20; Ps. cxviii. 2; Jer. xxix. 30. 24 Ps. xxxv. 11, lxxii. 1; Prov. xxvii. 21.

26 Eccles. viii. 5; Eccli. iii. 32. 29 Cant. v. 2; Eccli. xxxix. 6. 31 2 Mac. ix. 14.

35

36

26

32 Reg. xv. 11; Job xxxiii. 3.
25 Ps. cxi. 8.

27 Prov. xviii. 15.
28 Deut. xxix. 4.
30 Prov. xx. 5; Ps. lxiii. 7.

32 Ps. cxviii. 52; Eccli. iv. 29. Cordis latitudinem quasi arenam.

33 Ps. xxiii. 4; Matt. v. 8. 36 Ps. cxviii. 80.

34 Ps. lxxvii. 72, c. 2.

35 1 Tim. i. 5.

37 Eccli. xxxix. 6. Cor splendidum et bonum.

F

holy, burning, inflamed; it is humble, contrite," ready, joyful, mourning, constant, mild.

But enough, dearly beloved, of this inexhaustible theme: let us come to ourselves. If the Heart of Jesus has been thus good to us, if we have tasted its sweetness in so many ways, in compassion, in forgiveness, in liberality, in kindness, in forbearance, in patience with us, shall we refuse to requite it, by some mercifulness, generosity, and charity on our side? Let our hearts be tender too, and loving, and full of affection to others. And to whom more than to those whom the Heart of Jesus particularly loved on earth, and recommended to our care? His little ones, He will tell you, are starving, are naked, are pining with distress, of the spirit more than of the body; and in honour of His adorable Heart, He claims from you relief and succour for them. Honour Him thus, and you will honour Him worthily, for you will honour Him by imitation.

We therefore enjoin, that on Sunday, the Feast of the Sacred Heart, after the reading of this our Pastoral Letter, a collection be made at the offertory of every mass, for the Catholic Poor-School Committee, in every church and chapel of our diocese ; and we entreat you therefore, in addition to your usual offertory, to give what your hearts shall suggest for this highly laudable and important object. Or rather we pray most fervently, that the Heart of our Blessed Redeemer will speak to your hearts, and prescribe, by Its charitable inspirations, the measure of your charity. And may He, in return, pour out on you of His abundance, grace, and blessing, and life everlasting.

Given in Westminster on the octave of Corpus Christi, in the year of our Lord, MDCCCLIII.

N. CARD. ARCHBISHOP.

APPENDIX E.

Observations on a Statement in Mr. Marshall's Report.

In a late Number of the Catholic School, dated October 1853, we published the Report of Mr. Marshall for the preceding year. We were especially anxious to do so, that we might aid by our circulation the admirable testimony therein borne to the teaching of our Religious Ladies.

In giving, however, publicity and circulation to this triumphant vindication of the beneficial effects of the presence of our Religious Communities, against the hostile denunciations of the enemies of our religion, we were far from intending to adopt the general observations of her Majesty's Catholic Inspector in other portions of the Report.

28 Dan. iii. 87.

41 Ps. 1. 19, cviji. 17. 44 Lam. i. 22.

39 Jer. xx. 9; Luke xxiv. 32.
42 Ps. lvi. 8, cxi. 7.

451 Mac. ix. 14.

40 Ps. Ixxii. 21. 43 Prov. xv. 13. 46 Matt. xi. 29.

We allude more especially to a paragraph condemning in such general terms the Catholic Education of London, as almost, by the very exception of the new religious schools in Blandford Square, and a few others, to lead to the conclusion that other important schools had not been erected, nor were in course of erection, within the wide extent of the denunciation.

As, by the publication of Mr. Marshall's Report in extenso, we have tended to promulgate, and may therefore be supposed to have sanctioned, this sweeping condemnation, we consider it only due to ourselves, and still more to the exertions which have been made, and are now making, to erect school-houses, and above all to open new schools in many of the poorest and most crowded localities in the metropolis, to enter our protest against this general condemnation. Indeed, we must, once for all, express our opinion that, considering the position held by her Majesty's Inspector with reference to Catholic education, limited as his powers of inspection are to the secular portion of the teaching in Catholic schools, and therefore clearly distinct from the most valuable portion of education-the religious teaching of our Catholic poor,-we think it highly important that if condemnation is considered a duty, that duty should be rigidly restricted to the objects of inspection.

This might indeed give an inspector a right to criticise particular schools subject by agreement to his inquiry into their secular teaching, or into their exterior or interior arrangements. But even here the most important portion of education is excluded from his inquiry,—a portion, the state of which may compensate for many of the deficiencies of the more showy appearances of secular learning, whilst the highest secular examination would lamentably attempt to supply any deficiencies in what, to a Catholic, and we will say to the Catholic Poor-School Committee especially, must always form the great object of Catholic education.

When, then, Mr. Marshall says, speaking of London, "this is almost the only discouraging fact connected with Catholic education which I have noticed," we must at once say, that her Majesty's Inspector of certain schools is not a judge of Catholic education; for the Minute of the 18th December, 1847, defines the conditions of aid to Roman Catholic schools, "that Roman Catholic schools receiving aid from the Parliamentary Grant be open to inspectors, but that the inspectors shall report respecting the secular instruction only." It may be that Catholic education is extremely deficient where the course of an inspector's limited examination may call for eulogium; whilst, on the other hand, it is notorious that there may be, and that there are, many schools which are doing much, and very much, for Catholic education, of which, in his office of inspector at least, Mr. Marshall does not and cannot know any thing.

In this very London, the Catholic education of which is denounced, many schools lately opened in its most densely populated streets and courts must be ignored in the report of an inspector, as beneath the notice of a Protestant government scheme of education; but they are

not on this account the less dear to religion, nor less important in the scale of Catholic education.

What shall we say again of night-schools, where hundreds of those poor children, who during the day are eking out a precarious subsistence by earning a few halfpennies, are united by the indefatigable efforts of London clergy in participating in by far the most estimable portion of Catholic education, and are affording the most gratifying proofs of it by the practice of those religious exercises infinitely exalted above all the temporary advantages of secular instruction.

We never have undervalued, nor do we now wish to undervalue, secular instruction. Such is fairly within the scope of government inspection and government encouragement. We value it the more because we hope and believe it may, under due care, prove a valuable adjunct to religion. But let there be no mistake in the relative positions of mere literary or scientific knowledge and practical religious Catholic education.

We can hardly leave this view of the subject without alluding to the important feature of teaching Catholic schools through the instrumentality of Religious Brothers. It is because we believe that thereby a religious impression is made on the young minds of our children which no lay teachers, however otherwise competent, can produce, that we think all the efforts of the promoters of Catholic education should be directed to the supply of these invaluable supports to the future religion of our Catholic poor. It was also upon these grounds that the Poor-School Committee presumed to suggest to the Provincial Synod a system of examination of schools concurrent with, and we may say corrective of, some of the evils of government inspection.

Such diocesan inspection would fitly report upon what we say is foreign to, and removed from, government inspection. It would indeed draw the line of demarcation more clearly between the interference of government and the imprescriptible and inalienable rights of our ecclesiastical authorities; and, we would confidently hope, engraft an increased religious character upon our schools, whilst the class of pupil-teachers, now looking to her Majesty's inspector and to scientific acquirements for promotion, would learn to look to their spiritual superiors, and to their own moral conduct, as the only safe and sure grounds of being one day intrusted with the all-important charge of educating the rising generation. We give below a short account of some of the schools which have been erected within the last few years, or are now erecting. Some indeed, we believe, commenced since the date of Mr. Marshall's late report.

Fulham-Hammersmith - Brook Green - Chelsea- Hackney Clarendon Square-Albany Street-Spicer Street, Spitalfields-John Street, Commercial Road East-Schools of the Holy Family, Holborn Bridge-besides Blandford Square.

Plans are also now prepared for the immediate erection of extensive schools in Winchester Row, New Road. Schools of a less imposing character have been opened in the courts and alleys of the metropolis,

by hiring premises where it would be impossible to purchase sites for school-buildings.

In the district of Spanish Place alone there are no less than six such schools open; and when we remember the efforts making by the enemies of our religion to seduce Catholic children into their ragged schools, such counteracting efforts on the part of the London clergy surely claim a place in what has been done for Catholic education.

But we especially rejoice at the increase of Religious Teachers lately introduced into many of the London schools; their presence, we fully believe, being the best pledge for what such schools will effect for sound religious education. Seven years since, the only female schools in London, conducted by religious teachers, were the schools at Somerstown and Bermondsey. Now there are, in addition to the above, Religious Teachers conducting the schools at Blandford Square, Albany Street, Chelsea, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Warwick Street District Schools, Baldwin's Gardens, Westminster, and, we believe, the schools of St. Philip Neri, near Oxford Street. Hence it is clear that very great efforts have been made of late years to improve the quality of the teachers, as well as to increase the accommodation for teaching. Several of them are under government inspection. But the large boys' schools at Chelsea ; High Street, Marylebone; Sutton Street, Soho; Tudor Place; Gate Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields; Wellclough Square, are all taught by the Christian Brothers, who, it is well known, do not admit the government Inspector; but nevertheless form no small part in the estimate of Catholic education in London.

We have thought it necessary to enter into these details for the reasons alluded to in the former part of this article; would that we could conclude without expressing our conviction, that whilst we have endeavoured to show that much has been done and is doing, much still remains to be done.

That there are many educational wants still to be supplied in the metropolis, who can doubt who is aware of the thousands of the most destitute class of the inhabitants of this immense city, who are yearly swelling its Catholic population? Above all, when we reflect on the efforts making by the wealthy enemies of our faith to induce the naked and starving by bribes of clothing, food, and even money, to frequent their proselytising schools, and abandon the faith of their fathers, surely no further incentive need be applied to urge every Catholic who can, we will not say only spare from his superfluities, but who can, even at the sacrifice of some portion of his comforts, contribute an aid to the rescue of these poor children of the faith.

We cannot conclude without stating the gratification with which we hear that private charity has enabled the Cardinal Archbishop to devote the services of three of his clergy to the exclusive charge of religious instruction of the Catholic children of his diocese.