the pious prayers of thy Church, and grant that what we ask in faith we may effectually obtain. Through our Lord, &c. Amen. Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope; to thee do we cry, poor banished sons of Eve; to thee do we send our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears: turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us, and after this our exile ended, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus! O most clement, most pious, and most sweet Virgin Mary ! V. Vouchsafe that we may praise thee, O blessed Virgin. Let us pray. (Defende quæsumus.) Defend, O Lord, we beseech thee, by the intercession of -blessed Mary ever Virgin, thy Church from all adversity; and being prostrate before thee with our whole heart, mercifully protect us from the snares of our enemies. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.* LONDON.-PETITIONS TO PARLIAMENT.-The following petition to both Houses of Parliament, which has emanated from the Catholic Institute, is now in the course of being signed by the members of a number of the Catholic congregations throughout Great Britain : "Sheweth, That there are various grievances affecting your petitioners, in common with the other Roman Catholics of Great Britain, which do not affect persons belonging to the Established Church, although it was the principle as well as the object of the Catholic Relief Bill, to place the Catholics of the British Empire upon a footing of perfect equality in point of civil rights and enjoyments with Her Majesty's subjects professing other religious persua sions. "That the grievances of which your petitioners complain, are the more extensively felt, inasmuch as the Catholics form fully one-third of the inhabitants of the British Isles, and are more numerous than any other single persuasion within those Islands. "That the first grievance of which your petitioners complain relates to the naval service. It is probable that at least one fifth of the persons engaged as seamen and marines in the naval service of the country are Catholics; yet your petitioners have the melancholy duty to perform of calling the attention of this Honourable House to the astounding fact that no provision whatsoever is made for the spiritual instruction, or for administering the sacraments, or performing divine service, for the Catholics in the naval service, whether sailors or marines. "That your petitioners show that this grievance does not end here, inasmuch as the sailors and marines are not only deprived of any Catholic religious instruction, but in many instances are placed under the necessity of attending, or are actually compelled to attend, Protestant worship, in direct violation of their freedom of conscience. "That your petitioners further show that with respect to Her Majesty's army, your petitioners are confident that full one-third of that army consists of Catholics. Yet, although a sum of £12,000 is allocated by the army estimates for purposes of religion and divine service, not above £800 thereof, that is, less than one-fifteenth of the whole, is applied to Catholic purposes, so that great destitution of religious instruction and divine service pervades the British army. *We had hoped to have been able to have given in this Number the Pastorals of all the Vicars Apostolic; but Bishop Briggs's has not yet been issued, and that of Bishop Brown, V.A. of Lancashire, has been only lately received from Rome.-Ed. "That this destitution to which your petitioners allude, is somewhat alleviated in the British Islands, and in many of our colonies where there are resident Catholic clergymen; but it is most grievously and afflictingly felt in the British dominions and dependencies in the East Indies, and in the other countries in Asia in which the British soldiery are employed on duty. "That there is another grievance accompanying those we have already stated a grievance with a double aspect, inasmuch as on the one hand Catholic children are frequently excluded altogether from the naval and military schools, so on the other hand the children of Catholic sailors and soldiers are not unfrequently compelled to attend those schools wherein they are educated in the Protestant religion exclusively. "That your petitioners further show that there is another afflicting grievance of which the Catholics have a right to complain, namely, that in the prisons of this country, where there happen to be persons of the Catholic persuasion imprisoned, the Catholic clergy are practically excluded from all communication with the Catholic prisoners, either before or after sentence. Your petitioners, however, are aware that in point of law any Catholic prisoner who demands the attendance of a Catholic priest is entitled to have him admitted; but this provision of the law is totally inadequate, as the keepers of the jails in general, and some Protestant chaplains, discourage the Catholic prisoners in making such requests, and elude the same: and when it is recollected in what abject submission the prisoners must be to the managers and jailors of the prisons, it is manifest that very few prisoners can have the moral courage to persevere in a demand repugnant to the feelings, judgments, or prejudices of their keepers. Besides, the class of prisoners whose mental and spiritual state most want the attendance and instruction of a priest, is exactly that class which would never have the good feeling and moral courage to ask for the attendance of such clergyman. "That your petitioners further show that the grievances of which they complain respecting the prisons exist with a very considerable severity in many of the poor law union and other workhouses, especially in great towns. The Catholic inmates of such poor houses are persons unconvicted or even unaccused of any crime; their only fault is their poverty, but that is a fault which your petitioners respectfully but most firmly assert cannot, without the grossest injustice, be punished by depriving them of spiritual succour and instruction. 'May it therefore please this Honourable House to take these grievances into consideration, and to afford a prompt and adequate remedy. "And your petitioners shall ever pray." LONDON. HENRY HOWARD, ESQ., OF CORBY.-Among the assembly of the faithful who attended the dirge on the 10th of March, in the Bavarian Chapel, Warwick-street, from respect to the memory of this truly good, much lamented, and highly respected gentleman, were the following ladies and gentlemen, viz.Lord Stourton and Lady, the Hon. Sir Edward Vavasour, Bart., Mr. Darell, of Calehill, Mrs. and Miss Canning, Lady Hales, Mrs. French (her sister), Mrs. Wm. Pole, Miss Catherine Talbot, daughters of Admiral Sir John Talbot, Mr. Stanley Constable, Mr. and Mrs. John Selby, Lady Bourchier Wrey, Mrs. Searle, MichaelJones, Esq., Charles Weld, Esq., John F. Vaughan, Esq., of Courtfield, Mrs. Standish, the Hon. Edmund and Albert Petre, Hon. Mrs. Douglass, and Hon. Arabella Petre. RICHARDS, PRINTER, ST MARTIN S LANE, CHARING CROSS. THE CATHOLIC MAGAZINE. VOL. VI. JUNE 1842. No. LXV. THE LIFE OF BERNARD OVERBERG. CHAP. XIV. THE ᏢᎪᎡᎢ TAKEN BY OVERBERG IN THE ADMINIS TRATION OF ECCLESIASTICAL AND EDUCATIONAL AFFAIRS. OVERBERG was not only teacher, educator, guide of souls: he also took an important part for more than forty years in the administration of the ecclesiastical and educational affairs of his country. In the very first years of his public life, he was named, by the ecclesiastical authorities, examiner of the rising ecclesiastics. The new path into which he had thought it right to strike, in the education of youth, had already obliged him to make the study of theology one of his leading regular pursuits; his appointment as synodal examiner imposed this on him as a duty upon new motives. In the questions which he proposed for the examination of candidates for the ecclesiastical state, there was this peculiarity, that he aimed not only at discovering what each had learned, but rather, how much each had really improved himself by his theological knowledge. The ecclesiastical superior used to call on the examiners to give their advice on all important matters concerning the administration of the Church. The judgment of Overberg was calm, perspicuous, formed, after due pondering of all motives for and against, with great circumspection, knowledge, and experience, and elaborated with zealous care. He declared his opinion without hesitation. The steadiness of his convictions, and the positive character which predominated in all his habits of thinking and feeling, prevented his wavering in this respect. He was guided neither by prejudices, nor by old habits of thinking, but by principles; yet with cautious and wise regard to existing circumstances. His disposition led him to gentle and conciliatory measures. In this manner, VOL. VI. 21 he had a considerable, though not a prominent, share in most of the important determinations, which the ecclesiastical authorities had to take, in new and most critical times, the character of which was so widely different from what had ever previously been known. He had a greater share in the administration of what regarded education. In the years 1782 and 1788, were published detailed regulations for the management of elementary schools. It seems probable, that Overberg helped in preparing them on the last of these occasions. They were formed on the principles of Furstenberg, and pointed out the manner in which the affairs of education were to be directed, and which has in fact been followed till now. These regulations, however, were put forth only as provisional regulations for schools, and as such only were sanctioned. Furstenberg did not choose that his own views, however well reflected and weighed in all their bearings, should be considered as law, till they should have been found, by experience, not only to be good in a general way, but to be applicable exactly to the local circumstances of the country. The regulations for schools were first to be brought into action; the whole system of country schools was to be organised according to them, and by this means it was to be seen which particular rules must be altered, which better explained, and which made more complete. It has been already remarked, that the number of village schools, which, till that time, had been looked upon as private undertakings, had had to be lessened, and that those only among them had been kept up which were really wanted, this being the only method by which the means of support for the masters could be improved, and by which it could be brought within the limits of possibility to provide the schools with masters possessed of the necessary qualifications. It required the most accurate local knowledge to determine which auxiliary schools were necessary, to mark out a district for each of them, and to arrange the terms of their dependence on the head schools and on the parish itself. Particular claims were to be attended to, and yet the grand general object was to be gained. The right, or, to speak more properly, the duty of parents to take the best means for the education of their children is founded on natural principles; the state must use the greatest caution in meddling with this matter; the Church, because of its supernatural purpose, is able to exercise a greater influence over the interior of men and their mutual relations. In the code of laws for schools in Munsterland, the state and the Church were brought conjointly into action. The organization of the schools naturally went on, on principles corresponding with the laws passed for them. The whole of this very difficult affair was brought to a conclusion by a commission which consisted of deputies of the sovereign and of the states, in thirty-three conferences, during the years 1799 and 1800; the preparatory work having been gone through by the parish priests and parish officers. In this work, the late counsellor Tenspolde took a prominent part. Fürstenberg writes thus to the elector, on 28th August 1800: "Counsellor Tenspolde has, with labour altogether astonishing, made an abstract of, analysed, and arranged, the whole chaos of petitions from the townships, of reports, and of tables, from the priests and parish officers, which, for the greater part, had to be sent back and corrected, so that his indefatigable diligence and spirit of order has made it possible for the commission to bring this affair to a termination." In the same report, Fürstenberg speaks as follows of the co-operation of Overberg: "His zeal, his discernment, his knowledge of schools and localities have very greatly contributed to the carrying out of the views of your highness." of In this manner was brought to a completion the regulation for the schools, at the same time with the general organization of them. These regulations received the sanction of law on the 3rd of September 1801, from the cathedral chapter during the interregnum, as a last legacy of the prince elector, who died during the transaction. This system of regulations for schools is entitled to a distinguished rank among all those which had till then appeared. Without infringing on the rights parents, it ensures the constant influence of the Church and of the state on the education of youth and on the progress of schools for the country; it places them in their natural relation with the parishes, with the parish priests and the officers, as well as with the superior authorities, who are charged with them, and directs each, to whom it belongs, by virtue of his office, to exert influence on the affairs of education,in the fulfilment of the duties to which he is, in this manner bound. It not only was exactly suited to local circumstances, but it sprung from these very circumstances, under which the schools were organized; it up, as it were, from the soil of the country. Hence its practical utility, which manifests itself more and more everyday by experience. The affairs of education in Münsterland were conducted by the shot |