munity of learned priests, thoroughly zealous and active, might snatch many a brand from the burning. But this is altogether different from sending young Catholics to Oxford for education. One thing is certain: it is a greater evil for a Catholic to lose the brightness of spiritual vision, and the instincts and sympathies of the faith, than for a Protestant to be left in the ignorance in which he has been brought up.

We purposely avoid entering upon the subject of a Catholic college at Oxford. It was a project put forward some years ago by persons as desirous as ourselves for the common good. But it was considered, and finally set aside by the highest authority. It is, therefore, neither necessary nor desirable to reopen the discussion. We may remark, however, in passing, that, whatever might become the character and the influence of such a college, it would render the future foundation of a Catholic University morally impossible, for it would effectually tap the small stream of our Catholic youth, and establish a tradition all the more difficult to break up, because of its worldly and local fascinations, and of the expenditure and foundations to which it would have given rise.

Were a Catholic hall in Oxford permitted, as an act of expediency and condescension to the wants of the moment, and were some to build a college, and were others to endow it with a number of Fellowships, it would become, not only morally, but legally impossible to apply them to the establishment of a Catholic University. Such a permission would be to build up obstacles to the work, which all Catholics must have at heart.

III. A last objection. It will be said that we have made no admissions in favour of Oxford education; that we are blind to its benefits because we see its evils. We have no desire to shirk the truth. We are quick to admit that there are two considerable advantages which Oxford presents to her sons. The first is intellectual: and consists in the friction and attrition of mind with mind. This is the process of eliciting and stimulating the mental powers by the presence and action of superior and varied abilities, guarded by laws imposed by mutual respect and self-restraint. It is the refining, smoothing, and polishing process of intellectual contact and attrition, as of pebbles in a running stream. It is the chastening of the rawness and rudeness of boyhood.

But even this, undeniable boon as it is, is half paralyzed by the Oxford system, if we may believe the evidence of her own sons, one of whom declares that, "between the Heads and Fellows of the same society there is a distance; between the Fellows and the Undergraduates an impassable gulf. And

yet the junior Fellows (the usual residents) and the Undergraduates are not so much removed from each other in years, as to impede an unembarrassed and friendly intercourse. Another yet weightier authority truly remarks, that "the insensible action of the teacher's character on the pupil's is the most valuable part of any education; and any scheme which involved the loss of this influence would be much to be deprecated. But it is contended that this influence is not now exerted by the body of Fellows on the Undergraduates. College life has ceased to be the life in common, even for the Fellows, that it once was: as between the Fellows as a body and the students it creates no society whatever. Our existing system of college habits so far separates the Undergraduate from the Fellow that his merely being lodged under the same roof makes him no real member of the family, brings him into no contact with his seniors. The relation between the student and the college official is, in general, as distant and technical as that between the officer and the private in our army. young men associate with and form one another's character mainly."

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We only remark that this was not the old Catholic system at Oxford, and that such drawbacks to mental and moral friction and training could not exist in a Catholic University.

But we fully admit that we Catholics are called upon to make some sacrifices for the salvation of our souls. We cannot have all that this world offers, and secure the joys of the next. And we think, in the matter of University education, that the particular point we must be willing to forego, in part, is the advantage of that peculiar mental friction which belongs to Oxford and Cambridge. We cannot, indeed, hope to bring together for long years to come the same number of undergraduates as there are gathered at Oxford, and therefore we must rest satisfied to be shorn of the benefit which springs out of great numbers. But, on the other hand, of this we may be certain, that there will never be "an impassable gulf” between our students and their masters. And that the constant contact with their superiors, men of ability and high education, will have an elevating tendency and a power of attrition far beyond anything which is generated at Oxford by a congeries of untrained youths brought together from the Protestant schools of England.

The other advantage which we allow to Oxford is one we should be glad to insist upon, did space permit. It is one, however, which it is perfectly open to us to share. It is this: the wisdom of putting a youth into rooms, enlarging his liberty, and permitting his visits to home to be longer

and more frequent. He is thus gradually prepared to enter the world and public life. To learn how to use our liberty is a great business of education. The "rod of discipline" must, "with a great reverence" and charity, indeed, be held in the hand of another for the boy; but it ought betimes to be passed into his own hand, that he may wisely learn to use it upon himself during life. Here, again, Protestantism has been a mar-plot in the system of education. Sloth, gambling, moral evil, and extravagance are brought into too close proximity to youth. Liberty is not learned by license. We believe a Catholic English University, bent upon driving a wedge into English public life, would offer a far higher security to the right use of liberty than Universities which must daily become more common, more rationalistic, and therefore more unrestrained in thought and act.

To sum up, and to take leave of this part of our subject. We thoroughly recognize the high motives which actuated several Catholic parents in sending their sons to Oxford as soon as Oxford was open to receive them. They sought the best intellectual culture for their children, the best preparation for their after-life. So far good: we ardently desire to second their noble aspirations. But they knew not the peculiar dangers of Oxford-how should they?-and the Church had not then clearly spoken. But the question has since been examined in principle and in detail, and the Church has now plainly declared that "parents are to be in all ways dissuaded from sending their sons to the Protestant Universities." It is not for us to explain the petition, "Lead us not into temptation," nor to insist upon the sinfulness of frequenting the proximate occasions of sin. This is not the province of a public reviewer; but we may take leave to point out, however briefly, what appear to us will be the natural consequences, the natural fruit of Catholics continuing to go up to Oxford.

(1.) They will grow up imbued, as we have shown in an earlier page, with the principles of a false philosophy; in ignorance, therefore, of Christian philosophy; and, as we have also seen, in ignorance of those points of their religion which it most behoves them in these days, as men of education and position, to understand and defend. They will present, therefore, the shameful spectacle of men of cultivated intellect undervaluing and holding cheap the most practical doctrines of their religion, and unable to explain or justify them.

(2.) They will form a school, more or less united, of liberal, rationalizing Catholics: because this is the atmosphere of young On and this is the intellectual attitude

their religion, or ignorant of its proper influence and imperative claims, or are bent on the delusive scheme of reconciling the maxims of the world and of the Church, and on joining the broad and narrow ways together.

They will be jealous of Rome; for they have lived in an atmosphere saturated with hatred and contempt for Rome;jealous of Rome, because they do not study, or listen with docility to, the constant teaching of Rome, or conform their judgment to hers concerning the evils and errors which are ever cropping up in human society;-jealous of Rome, in a word, because they began to act in opposition to her, by disregarding her warning voice when she spoke to them against mixed education. Such a disposition of disregard for her authority must increase so long as they persevere in it.

They will become abettors of nationalism in religion. Every influence in Oxford is in this direction. The history of England for 500 years before the Reformation; her history for 300 years since; the national character; the spirit of independence; the example of all around them; the absence of those who could speak truly and deeply from a Catholic point of view; a false notion of patriotism; an ingrained pride and mistrust of others whom they will learn to consider narrow-minded and unenlightened (perhaps for no better reason than because they have not been educated in a Protestant University), will practically lead them to gravitate to the happily exploded principles of the old Cisalpine Club.

(3.) They will probably be found to keep aloof from Catholics on Catholic questions. They will be wiser than the wise they will enjoy an enlightenment above their fellows. They will be suspected by Catholics, and they will resent that suspicion with contempt. Or else they will act at times boldly and enter into the field, as a wolf in sheep's clothing; and behave according to the bias and character of the education they have received.

When the trial comes, they will choose the world; they will sell their master for thirty pieces of silver; for a smile at Court; or for the praise of men; or to obtain a place, or for the bauble of some earthly gain. There will be apostates from such a school, as there always have been.

(4.) Or if their temptation is to immorality, they will probably exceed even Protestants and Rationalists in evil and extravagance ;-proving to the world that their religion holds them no tighter than their associates in crime, and illustrating again the too well-known maxim "corruptio optimi pessima."

Of course there will continue to exist counteracting influ

:

ences upon many such Catholics, though not on all; such as family tradition, hereditary Catholic policy, domestic relations, early associations, and the training of boyhood. It will be well if they prevail. Sometimes they have prevailed, in the end it is probable they will sometimes prevail again; but we have no security; we must take the rule, not the exception; and we have abundant proofs and examples that pride of intellect, contact with error, tampering with faith, love of the world, the pursuit of ambition, which are essentially kindled and nurtured in such godless temples of learning, are too apt to trample upon divine grace and its instincts, when these stand between a man and his strong desires.

It may be said that ordinary and every-day youths will not be exposed in the same degree to these intellectual dangers. But they will be exposed to them indirectly, for they will learn to regard liberal and rationalizing Catholics as the recognized leaders of Catholic thought. And to the temptations against morality they will be ever more susceptible than are the able and intellectual.

If it be said that we have overcoloured the evils and magnified the prospect of danger, we fully admit that in Oxford there is much which is good, while we deny the allegation that we have overcoloured the evil or magnified the danger.

It is not so much a question of quantity as of quality. We treat of poisons: and mixed education is a deadly poison. That the poison be administered in "a golden cup," or in honest bread and homely fare, matters little. Oxford is poison to true Catholic life. Of how many soever other ingredients Oxford may boast, there is not one which is love of Rome.

We have performed an ungracious and a painful task; and certainly we should never have interfered in the affairs of Oxford had not Oxford, by inviting our youth, made herself a domestic question; and had not an exaggerated estimate of her merits become a dangerous bait and a snare to some of our own Catholics. Have we written with a view to destroy all hope of University education for Catholics? Far from it. We have wished to demonstrate the necessity of a Catholic University which should crown and complete the educational establishments which flourish amongst us.

III.

It would be beyond our province, as a Catholic periodical, to bring forward any plan of our own for a Catholic University; to exhibit schemes without authority, and to challenge idle discussions as to ways and means. Such a matter is in the hands of others; and is vested ultimately in the Holy See.