sexes; and it is a terrible ordeal for him to be introduced by unchristian teachers to the sensualities and heresies of English and other literatures, and to the lies and misrepresentations of bigoted histories.

When we consider the dreadful cost of a diluted faith and morals at which higher education has to be acquired by our youth in nonCatholic institutions, there ought to be no hesitation about making a supreme effort to supply them with the training they need, whilst safeguarding that which is the most precious of all possessions. The demand for such a supply is urgent, the means for giving it are within our reach.

The foundation and support of free Catholic high schools in every large centre is, then, the first and most pressing need of our secondary educational system. But, as we have already hinted, there is a still further need. We need a certain number of firstclass colleges and technical schools exclusively devoted to, the higher part of secondary education, doing for our young men what so many hundreds of similar institutions are doing for others. We want some colleges able to do for our people what Princeton, for instance, does for the Presbyterians; we want some colleges that can afford to confine themselves to the four years' course, to set a standard for entrance, a standard for progress, a standard for graduating. We have not one such at present in the whole United States. Our new university professes not to deal with such work, but rather with the still higher which is its proper sphere.

There are several of these four years' course colleges for nonCatholics in every State of the Union. Take, for instance, this State of Pennsylvania. Here there are more than a dozen such sectarian institutions, not counting the larger non-sectarian universities. We Catholics have not one. Yet we number about a million; that is about one-fifth of the whole population; and we are far more numerous than, and probably quite as wealthy as, several of the sects that own and conduct these higher colleges in the interests of their members. We seem to rest contented with seminary work, and the training of a mere fraction of the laity in our private, unendowed, agglomerate colleges. The result is, that whilst our clergy are, as a rule, well trained, our laity are far behind. We have not anything like the proportion we should have of educated laymen able to hold their own in the higher walks of life-in the professions, in business, in the applied sciences, in the arts, or in literature. Our disproportion in this respect is becoming more and more marked as time advances and educational methods progress. Our system of secondary education, if system it may be called, smacks too much of the monastery school with

out the endowments of the monastery, of the Petit Séminaire with much of its petitesse, of the penal times when our laymen were debarred from knowledge.

Surely, there is no wisdom in continuing on those lines in these times and in this country. Yet continue on them we must, unless our pressing needs in this respect dawn upon those who have the power and the duty to come to the rescue. Every man who owns a dollar has this power, and every Catholic has this duty-the power and the duty of putting higher education within the reach of our people, in the only way in which it can be done, that is, by endowing directly or indirectly institutions of learning.

Here comes the question: How endow establishments of secondary education in the present state of things, seeing that they are nearly all in the hands of religious orders? To this it may be replied that no religious order could expect to receive endowments without giving satisfactory guarantees that they would be properly used; but, with such guarantees, there is no reason why a religious order would not be trusted as well as any other board of trustees. If, however, these guarantees (which should include power of inspection and of control) were not forthcoming, then let the endowments be made outside the religious order. Personally, we would like to see established amongst us what have made the greatness of other countries and peoples, and what are doing the same all around us here for non-Catholics, that is, some colleges endowed, organized and conducted, not in the interests of any particular order or section, but under the public eye and for the public good. The orders will know how to take care of the special interests confided by Divine Providence to their care. Some of them would, perhaps, be glad to be relieved of the burden which the education of outsiders puts upon them. stronger ones would, probably, in presence of competition, concentrate a number of their present small collegiate departments in one or two real colleges. A few independent colleges would open once more to our laity the profession of teaching from which they are now practically excluded.

The

But, if the required direct endowments are beyond reach of Catholics at present, the same cannot be said of indirect ones, such as the foundation of prizes and scholarships in and the increased patronage of existing colleges. If Catholics are to remain beholden for secondary education to the self-sacrifice and zeal of the religious orders, the institutions which these are conducting should receive more encouragement.

Too often even the leaders of Israel seem quite indifferent as to what school or college will be frequented by the Catholic boy, once he has gone through the parochial school. And there is a

growing tendency among Catholics of means to send their sons to the fashionable non-Catholic seats of learning, even though they hear the most famous of them spoken of by those who should know as hot-beds of immorality. It is certain that if the Catholic brains and money that are now contributing to the support and fame of non-Catholic colleges were concentrated in our own, our position in this matter of secondary education would be far superior to what it is. The bodies that conduct our colleges could with proper encouragement afford to provide themselves with better equipment, better apparatus, better teachers, better programmes of studies, and thereby secure better results.

The importance of this question cannot be too strongly urged. Secondary education is the plateau on which the war of good and evil, light and darkness, will ever be decided. It is here that the strong and skilled forces, which are the mainstay of truth, are at the same time trained and brought into action. The result will influence the masses of young recruits on the plains below, as well as the select posts of observation on the mountain peaks above. It is from the plateau of secondary education that the proper stimulus can be given to the masses in the parochial schools; it is from thence, too, that must be derived the select forces of the university.

Let us then see to it. Let us strengthen and equip our forces on this most important field of operation, so that the keen talents and high morality of our people may be extensively and efficiently utilized in the interests of light and strength.

JOHN T. MURPHY, C.S.SP.

D1

THE EPISCOPATE OF BISHOP BARAGA.

IRECT episcopal jurisdiction over the Upper Lake Missions of Michigan was established by Pius IX., July 29, 1853, by the creation of the Apostolic Vicariate of Upper Michigan. Rev. Frederick Baraga was appointed Vicar Apostolic; he was at the time 56 years old, and for twenty-three years he had labored among the Ottawas and Chippewas.

He was consecrated Bishop of Amazonia, in part., in the cathedral at Cincinnati, by Archbishop Purcell, in whose province the newly-created vicariate was, November 1, 1853. There were present at the solemn ceremony the Coadjutor Bishop of Detroit and the Bishop of Milwaukee, in whose respective sees the vicarial territory was situated. Bishop Spalding, of Louisville, was the

orator.

In order to place under the jurisdiction of the venerable prelate the Indian missions which he had established and maintained on the littoral and islands of the Lower Peninsula, Bishop Lefevere, Administrator of the Diocese of Detroit, ceded his power to Bishop Baraga over the five counties in which these missions. were located, namely, Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Emmet and Leelenaw. Bishop Henni, of Milwaukee, ceded his power over La Pointe, and the group of the Apostle Islands, in the headwaters of Lake Superior, in the State of Wisconsin.'

It will be remembered that La Pointe had been the centre of missionary work during the first decade of Bishop Baraga's residence at the headwaters of Lake Superior, the crucial experience of which has been described in our article on the "Chippewas of Lake Superior."2

Bishop Baraga, thus honored by the Hierarchy of the American Church, and with the concurrence of the Holy See, obtained episcopal control over all the territory of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, over the littoral and islands of Lakes Huron and Michigan in the northern portions of the Lower Peninsula, and in that part of Wisconsin which had been the scene of his earliest missionary labors in the Lake Superior region. Most of the Indians residing in this extensive territory had been evangelized during the two preceding decades, and were leading Christian lives.

1 These cessions were made in 1854.

2 See the AMERICAN CATHOLIC QUARTERLY REVIEW for April, 1896. Vol. xxi., No. 82, p. 354.

VOL. XXII.-30

Leaving his missionary home at L'Anse, Bishop Baraga came to Sault Sainte Marie, and established there the cathedra of his apostolic vicariate.

Upon assuming the mitre, he is said to have exclaimed, "Now I can do something for my missions!"

He probably had in mind that as a bishop he could recruit and ordain priests; while he would personally receive the allocations annually made by the Propaganda of Lyons, France, and of the Leopoldine Society of Vienna, for the spread of the Gospel in this part of America, which allocations had previously generally been sent to the ordinaries of the dioceses in whose territory were located his respective missions, but from which he had derived but slight pecuniary aid. "Now I can do something!" There was much significance in this exclamation.

He who uttered it began his apostolic work when he landed at La Pointe, in 1835, with three dollars. After one year's experience among the unfortunate Chippewas on this island, during which year he suffered from the rigors of the climate and the paucity of food, he became so appalled at the prevalent misery that he went to Europe to procure financial aid wherewith he might be enabled to relieve their utter wretchedness.

By hard work and persistent effort, before the end of his first decade among the Chippewas on the island of La Pointe and subordinate missions, he had succeeded in improving their social condition. Divine Providence inspired him to move to L'Anse, and to establish there a colony of Chippewas who would cultivate the soil and provide a comfortable support for their families.

To purchase from the government the tract of land upon which the Chippewas were to make their new homes, to build the houses in which they were to live, and to furnish these houses to some extent, absorbed the last dollar realized from the capitalization of his patrimonial income; so that when he assumed the mitre of his apostolic vicariate it became a serious question with him, so denuded was he of material resources, where he was to procure the funds requisite to provide his episcopal outfit. Such was the status of Bishop Baraga when he was consecrated. From whatever source the money came to enable him to appear according to his episcopal rank is a question immaterial; it did come, and not in stinted measure.

Bishop Baraga had so well established his Indian missions that the priests to whom he confided their spiritual care had but little trouble in continuing his apostolic work. These missions, during all his subsequent episcopal experience, never caused him inquietude; while the welfare of those he had won from paganism-men, women, and children-was ever cherished. We shall see how his