The Roman Catholic Archbishop and Bishops of' the Province of
Westminster have put forth a very jubilant pastoral letter to the Catholics of the province; on the occasion of the conclusion of the fourth Provincial Council of Westminster, which, after deli- berating for twenty-two days in that, "perfect unity of faith and charity, of heart and mind, of will and purpose, which is the heirloom of those alone who inherit from the Apostles," has closed its sittings, and sent its decrees for approval to Rome, with a perfect confidence in "the incalculable gain" which the Synod has brought. Pending the Pope's approval of their decrees, they insist to the faithful on the abso- lute necessity of Catholic education for the young-; on the sin of sending Catholic youths to be corrupted at the national Uni- versities in faith or morals, or "perhaps both "; on the necessity of educating them for the present in Catholic seminaries only ; and on the evil of mixed marriages, and. the duty, in case of a dis- pensation, of making the conscience of the heretic party give way in everything to that of the Catholic party to the contract. We have commented on this last, and as it seems to us most in- tolerant section of the address, elsewhere, and here need only add that all sincere Catholics do not agree with the Bishops as to the danger of the national -Universities for Catholic youths. Mr. F. A. Paley, the eminent classical scholar and editor, himself a Catholic, writes from Cambridge to Wednesday's Times to say that while no one in this age of knowledge and honest inquiry van fail to be aware of the existence of scepticism, there is not more of it at Cambridge than elsewhere, and "not only is the utmost consideration and respect shown by all for the convictions of Catholics, but the morality of the students is now more care- fully watched and protected than perhaps it can be anywhere else away from home." We suspect that in their attempt to create a hot-house system of education, hermetically sealed against heresy, the Catholics will only succeed in providing one which unfits all its protiges for any contact with thereat world. Whence have the Catholics borrowed by far their ablest existingteachere ? From the halls of Oxford and Cambridge.
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