become exiles for Christ, now that the Holy See has shown its deep appreciation of our efforts by confiding to us such an important field of labour, there can be little doubt that we shall avail of the opportunity that is offered us of becoming one of the very foremost among the Missionary Nations of Christendom. And we would add that it is certain that what e do for the cause of the Faith will redound a hundred- ld to the honour and glory and credit of the Fatherland. CORRESPONDENCE ECCLESIASTICAL SCULPTURE REV. DEAR SIR,-Could you find a place in the I. E. RECORD for the following short extract from Ruskin? 'Be assured that endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty; and that it is not in the high church pews, where the gay dresses are, but in the church free seats, where the widows' weeds are, that you may see the faces that will fit best between the angels' wings in the church porch.'-(Two Paths, Lecture iv, third last paragraph.) And in the same lecture, speaking of 'nobleness of gesture and feature in the human form' he bids us remember that 'the highest nobleness is usually among the aged, the poor, and the infirm.' Bearing these words in mind might help us to form correct judgments as to the features and forms of our church statues. May not the same principles be applicable to the figures in our stained glass windows and in our Stations of the Cross ? Your obedient servant, P. B. DOCUMENTS PRONOUNCEMENT OF THE IRISH HIERARCHY AT A GENERAL MEETING HELD AT MAΥΝΟΟΤΗ ON TUESDAY, JANUARY 27 I THE EDUCATION BILL THE Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland assembled on January 27th at Maynooth, his Eminence the Cardinal Primate presiding. The following pronouncement was adopted : (1) We endorse the statement issued by our Standing Committee in condemnation of the Education Bill, which is the most denationalising scheme since the Act of Union, and we recommend that statement to the earnest study of our people. [Last Easter the principle of the Bill was rejected by anticipation with a resolution published by the Standing Committee. We direct that both documents be republished and read in the churches, together with the statement now issued.] (2) Until Ireland is governed by her own Parliament we shall resist by every means in our power any attempt to abolish the Boards of Primary, Intermediate, and Technical Education. (3) The Bill is an attempt on the part of the British Government to grip the mind of the people of Ireland, and form it according to its own wishes. We are convinced that the enactment of the measure would deprive the Bishops and clergy of such control of the schools as is necessary for that religious training of the young which Leo XIII declared to be a chief part in the cure of souls. (4) In any case, should the Government force the Bill on Ireland and set up an educational department controlled by British Ministers, no matter what their religion may be, it will be our duty to issue instructions to Catholic parents in reference to the education of their children in such a deplorable crisis. (5) As the indirect taxation takes as much from the poor man as from the rich, and as the income per head in Ireland is not near a half of what it is in Great Britain, the system of identical indirect taxation results in draining an altogether excessive amount of revenue year by year from Ireland; and this evil is greatly aggravated when such a service as education, in which, if anywhere, compensation might be expected to manifest itself, is starved instead, despite constant protests. It is, moreover, a gross and intolerable abuse of public power to endeavour to make the just remuneration of our teachers depend on the passing of a Bill that is framed in defiance of the will of our people and utterly repugnant to the interests of Ireland, whether educational, national or religious. (6) We have intense sympathy with the teachers in the grievances to which they are so unjustly subject, and we shali do everything in our power to help in securing fair treatment for the excellent body of instructors, primary, secondary and technical, on whose services the public welfare so much depends. We think the country should combine to insist on justice to the teachers, apart from the national indignity of a Bill like this, and the intolerable burden of rates it imposes in addition to the enormous pile of over-taxation. The principle of disregarding national feelings and national rights and of carrying everything with the high hand, above the head of the people, has, we are sorry to say, become a general rule of government in Ireland, and has brought about the dreadful confusion and disorder from which the country unhappily suffers, and which we view with deepest distress. The legitimate demand of Ireland that she should be accorded what is now the acknowledged right of every civilized nation, and for the establishment of which as a world principle the late war was waged, at least ostensibly, at the cost of so much suffering and misery, the right, namely, to choose her own government, has not only been denied to her, but every organ for the expression of her national life has been ruthlessly suppressed, and her people subjected to an iron rule of oppression as cruel and unjust as it is ill advised and out of date. The result is what might have been easily foreseen, violent collisions and retaliations between exasperated sections of the people and the forces of oppression, growing ever more serious, and eventuating too often in the most sorrowful tragedies on both sides. And while the Government is thus occupied almost exclusively in the odious work of political repression, and the police diverted from their proper functions as the guardians of civil order, the lives and property of peaceful citizens are left unprotected and a free opportunity afforded to the wicked for the perpetration of robbery and murder, forms of crime hitherto rare in Ireland. We have already, with a deep sense of responsibility, published our united protest against this unhappy state of things. We once more renew our appeal, if indeed it is now possible to make our voices heard above the din of the prevailing confusion. We would represent to the advocates of military rule in Ireland that government by force, which was never right, is to-day wholly obsolete and cannot hope to prevail for long against the democratic spirit now animating the world. We have, therefore, to declare that the one true way to terminate our historic troubles and establish friendly relations between England and Ireland, to the advantage of both countries, is to allow an undivided Ireland to choose her own form of government. And meanwhile we appeal to our own people to exercise patience under the terrible provocations to which they are subjected, to remember the law of God, to combine amongst themselves for the prevention of crime, to restrain the promptings of revenge, and abstain from deeds of bloodshed and outrage calculated to bring on themselves and their country shame and the anger of Heaven. The following members of the Hierarchy were present :- |