ence without the embarrassment of being seen by his scholars; no proper school furniture, such as desks, benches, globes, maps, &c.; no fire in winter, no water to drink in summer, no water closet,-a want common to every farmhouse in Ireland. Who are the authorities empowered to provide school accommodation I do not know, whether the National Board or the County Grand Jury, but there appears to be no local authority to control the expenditure of the public taxes, like the Guardians of the Poor-houses. It would be well to give some encouragement to the most efficient among Sunday school teachers, by appointing them as teachers or assistants in parochial day schools; and every opportunity should be given the children of all the schools to attend all public exhibitions of art which would both interest and instruct them. Concert singing should be taught in all the schools, and dancing would be an accomplishment and a pleasing exercise.

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS.

Among the social improvements of Ireland, as compared with what it was ten years ago, are the extension of railroads and direct steam communication with America, from which country many improvements, the inventions of necessity, have been derived, such as washboards, pegged boots, sowing machines, cheap clocks, rubber shoes, and the American style of dress has been in vogue for some time, including the peculiar cut of the beard known as the "goatee." Tramways, on the American principle, are about being introduced in the large cities and on the public roads in connection with trunk lines of railroad. The low-backed car is still the favorite mode of private conveyance, from its cheapness, its light and easy draft, and the advantage which it affords of seeing everything on the way; it is used as the principal hack conveyance in the large cities. The pretty station-houses on all the railroad lines are good specimens of architecture,-mostly Elizabethan,-and would be convenient models for country schools and farm cottages. There is more industry among the people, and less of the

old-fashioned hospitality than formerly. There is an improvement in agriculture: in adopting machinery for threshing and reaping, to a great extent; in the use of lime, guano, and other fancy manures, in raising green crops, and in drainage.

The political improvements are mostly prospective-the £6 franchise, the taking off the paper duty, the doing away with patronage in the disposal of public situations, by throwing them open to free competition, without even a previous nomination by an M. P., the acknowledgment of the necessity of Tenant Right made by the ministry, in the sham bill which they have introduced in Parliament. More of the public offices are filled by Catholics than formerly, but his vicemajesty of Dublin and his head men are all English and Scotch. In Scotland all the principal offices are filled by natives, and Ireland should ask the same. The two petty instalments of £50,000, which had been granted by English generosity to appease the famine and feed the hungry, have been repaid by a tax, designated the "the rate in aid," levied immediately after; and this is the money which English officials distributed among their own favorites, and allowed the people no voice in its distribution, as if they were not to pay it back again; this is the money which instead of being appropriated to beneficent works, drainage of bogs, building schools, &c., was spent in filling up seas and levelling mountains, and frequently in aiding "souperism" in its war upon the souls and salvation of the people!

The general spirit of the people is more independent than formerly, there is not that fear of the "peeler," nor is the soldier that mysterious personage he used to be. The experience of military life which the young men on town have acquired in the militia, has made them familiar with the use of arms and discipline, and the clothes and accoutrements of the disbanded militia, may be seen in the possession of every ragged urchin in the street. The spirit and intelligence of the young men in Ireland have risen above being the hired machines of despotism, especially of enlist

ing in the gladiatorial service of that oligarchy whose interests and bigotry combine to make them adverse to civil and religious liberty. There is nothing so destructive of morality-nothing so depraved as enlistment in the standing army of the English oligarchy. The fact of so many men, not being engaged in an industrial occupation, scattered over every town in Ireland, and being frequently shifted from place to place, makes the soldier the principal cause and support of prostitution in that country, for he feels that he is not known and responsible as an individual whose character is at stake and whose interests are settled in any particular locality. None of the peasantry now join either the militia or the line; the militia is generally made up from the scamps of the towns, who are induced from their experience of a few weeks stay at home after being disbanded to join the line-the term of service in it having been reduced to ten years without a pension. Dr. Cahill's letters are inducing the farmers' sons and their workmen to emigrate to America, and it is the best thing they can do. As for Ireland becoming populated by Protestant English, there is no fear-the present exodus is a surplus of the population which must arise every decade. I saw while in Ireland, all last winter, just as many people attending the chapels, keeping the holidays, and at fair and market, as I did ten years ago. In this country they will spread the Gospel and build temples of Catholic devotion to the Almighty, and their posterity will become a terror to their former oppressors, by the influence and power of America.

J. H.

ART. III.-School Days at Rugby. By AN OLD BOY. Ninth edition. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1859. 16mo. pp. 405.

WE presume few of our readers have neglected to read Tom Brown's School Days, and that few who have read it have failed to admire it, or to be amused and instructed by

it. It is, perhaps, a little Carlylish, though hardly perceptibly so, and we confess we like it hugely, and would warmly commend it if the public had not already anticipated us. The book gives, we are assured, an admirable and faithful account of the spirit and character of the famous English school at Rugby, under the head-mastership of the celebrated Dr. Arnold, saving that he was a Protestant, one of the most successful educators of modern times, and perhaps of any time; and our purpose is to make some few remarks apropos of the article on Dr. Arnold and Catholic Colleges, in the Review for July last, and on some criticisms it has called forth. The article, as far as it went, coincided in substance with our own views, which may be found in Conversation X. of Conversations of Our Club, October, 1858, and that offence has been taken at some of its expressions, or that it has been made the occasion for the usual quarterly onslaught upon ourselves, has not surprised us in the least.

There are persons, very excellent persons too, placed in positions of trust and influence, who think a Catholic publicist should resolutely defend every thing called Catholic, and especially every thing said, done, or approved by spiritual persons, direct all his attacks against outside barbarians, and studiously avoid agitating any question on which Catholics differ among themselves, or which may lead to discussions offensive or disagreeable to any portion of the Catholic community. But a good general spends usually much time in collecting and disciplining his troops and preparing their appointments before taking the field against the enemy; and he who wishes to conduct a successful campaign, must also take precautions that when he has taken the field he be not exposed to a fire from his friends in the rear as well as from the enemy in front.

The evils which from time to time befall the Church, and often so great and so deplorable, are in most cases, if not in all, far more attributable to the faults, errors, and blunders of Catholics themselves, than to the craftiness or wickedness of non-Catholics. If we Catholics always understood

and observed our religion, were really enlightened and virtuous, the enemy would have no power against us; heresies and schisms could never obtain; and the whole world would acknowledge in a short time the truth and beauty of our religion. But baptism does not take away concupiscence, grace does not change the laws of human nature, and though members of a holy and infallible Church, we are liable to all the infirmities of the flesh. We have our human side, our human passions, propensities, and appetites, and may become slaves of ignorance and vice, and even superstition. It may happen that the more luxuriant our faith, the ranker the growth of the weeds of superstition that infest it, while the fear of scandalizing the weak may prevent the pastor from taking effective measures for uprooting them. Superstition and error may be transmitted from parents to children, as well as religion and faith. The pastor himself, but poorly instructed in his theology, as is sometimes the case, may fail now and then to distinguish between the true and the false tradition, and mistake the traditions of Catholics, when traditions of his own countrymen, in which he himself has grown up, for Catholic Tradition itself. He may also, misapplying the admonition of our Lord, in the parable of the wheat and the tares, "let both grow together," really fear to distinguish suddenly and sharply between them, lest he shake or weaken faith in the true Tradition, and occasion the ruin of precious souls committed to his care. Moreover, pastors are men, and they may think certain superstitions with which they have been familiar from childhood, and which they have seen in a venerated father or an honored mother, although they know them to be superstitions, are harmless, perhaps poetical, the exuberant foliage of a believing soul, and really have no tendency to obscure faith, or to smother devotion.

Protestants accuse our Church of overlaying faith with a mass of errors, and smothering true piety with a multitude. of superstitious practices and observances. The charge is false; but if brought against portions of a Catholic Рори