C 3 \ K I CN' p ' ARCHBISHOP PURCELL OUTDONE! ik THE Human $ atftnlk Cfynwli IN NEW YORK CITY. AND PUBLIC LAND AND PUBLIC MONEY. n i DEXTER A. HAWKINS, A.M., OF THE NEW YORK BAR. 1 a S IT OPPOSES THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. IT MULTIPLIES PAUPERISM AND CRIME. It has obtained Donations of Public City Lots, $3,500,000 00 Public Money in Eleven Years, . . . 6,043,626 45 Total, $9,543,626 45 It is now Drawing from the Public Treasury Annually, $700,000 00 805 BROADWAY, NEW YORK: PHILLIPS cL HUNT CINCINNATI ; HITCHCOCK & WALDEN. W as crw 1880. ,L.. lStaLiaiXx4 :*)i9 / ARCHBISHOP PURCELL OUTDONE! THE mm €itt(|olitt IN NEW YORK CITY. AND PUBLIC LAND AND PUBLIC MONEY. BY DEXTER A. HAWKINS, A.M., OF THE NEW YORK BAR. IT OPPOSES THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. IT MULTIPLIES PAUPERISM AND CRIME. It has obtained Donations of Public City Lots, $3,500,000 00 Public Money in Eleven Years, . . . 6,043,626 45 Total, $9,543,626 45 It is now Drawing from the Public Treasury Annually, , . . . $700,000 00 805 BROADWAY, NEW YORK: PHILLIPS cfc HUNT. CI NCINN ATI : HITCHCOCK & WALDEN. 1880. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IH HEW YORK CITY, AND THE PUBLIC MONEY AND PUBLIC PROPERTY OF THE PEOPLE. BY DEXTER A. HAWKINS, ESQ. The Roman Catholic Church has obtained from the City Donations . of Real Estate to the amount of $8,300,000. In eleven years the Roman Catholic Church has received from the Public Treasury $6,048,626 43. It received in 1878 $710,830 98 ; in 1879, $693,616 29. Are the Roman Catholic Church and the State United in the Treas- ury of this City ? The constant attempts of the Romish Church to get control of primary education, to interfere in temporal affairs, to obtain grants of the public real estate and donations of public moneys sufficient to support its numerous so-called eleemosynary in- stitutions and its army of non-producing priests, monks, and mm3, and its Brothers and Sisters of various orders—in a country like ours, where not only is a State religion and State Church prohibited by both the State and Rational Constitu- tions, but where even the State Constitution goes so far as to prohibit any 44 discrimination or preference ” in favor of any one form of religious profession or worship over another — should arouse a tolerant public to protective and preventive measures before the evil becomes too deeply rooted for safety. ITS IDEA OF EDUCATION. Some years ago, while spending a winter in Rome, at the house of a cousin of the late Cardinal Antonelli, Papal Secre- tary of State, I investigated, under a commission from one of our States, the condition of public education in Rome and the Papal States, where the Romish Church had absolute con- trol of all affairs both spiritual and temporal. 2 The public schools had accommodations for only a small portion of the children of school age. The instruction was of the most meager character, consisting chiefly of the Catechism, writh very little reading or writing, a smattering of the four simple rules of arithmetic, and little geography beyond that of the Papal States—a. territory containing 3,000,000 of inhab- itants, and only about three times the size of the State of Con- necticut. The mass of the people could neither read nor write. A primary school in a log school-house in the back settle- ments of our country, in its instruction, course of study, and proficiency of its pupils, was far superior to the parochial schools even in the city of Rome. I described to Antonelli the free public schools and the state of public education in Massachusetts, giving that as a model of the American system. His reply was that he “ thought it better that the children should grow up in ignorance , than to be educated in such a system of schools as the State of Massa- chusetts supported ; that the essential part of the education of thepeople was the Catechism • and while arithmetic and geog- raphy , reading and writing , and other similar studies , might be useful , they were not essential.” His cousin, in speaking of the state of society in the Holy City, remarked sarcastically, “its leading and most numerous institutions were a church, a monastery, a nunnery, and a foundling asylum.” Ho Protestant Church was allowed in the Papal States; and even the foreign ministers, in order to have worship of their own respective faiths, were required to have their chapels either actually or constructively under their own roofs. For carrying on my person a pocket Bible I was warned that I ran the risk of twelve months’ imprisonment. On ap- plj'ing to Mr. Cass, the then American Charge d’’Affaires at Rome, I was informed by him that I “ had better put the Bible out of sight till I left the Papal States , as , if Igot into trouble on account of it, he might not be able to help meP A husband and wife in another part of Italy were then serv- ing a term of imprisonment in separate prisons for the crime of holding a prayer-meeting in their own house. I now have a copy of the argument of the counsel (presented to me by himself) who defended them. While visiting Ireland a few years ago I was gratified to 3 see the island dotted over with national school-houses, neatly built of brick or stone by the British Government, in order to try to elevate the Irish race from the slough of ignorance, idleness, mendicity, and bigotry, into which centuries of priestly instruction had brought them. But while driving across the country one day I found, standing by the roadside, near one of these school-houses, a Catholic priest, with a switch in his hand, with which he scourged home the Catholic children as they approached the national school-house. On conversing with this priest, I found he appeared sincerely to believe he was doing God’s work in preventing the children from attend- ing the free public school. I did not suppose such a spectacle would ever be seen in our country. But I learn that a child in Massachusetts has within a few weeks been scourged upon his naked back by a Catholic priest for attending a free public school. The state of public education in the Catholic part of Ireland, when taken hold of by the English Government a few years ago, was nearly as low as in the Papal States when Victor Emmanuel entered Rome, turned the priests out of the schools, and, advised by the American Minister, began to establish a national system of education modeled after that of New En- gland. Under the parochial schools of the Romish Church, both the Irish and the Italians had fallen in intelligence so far behind other races, that they were becoming mere “ hewrers of wood,” and “ drawers of water,” and occupiers of the most menial po- sitions for the nations that sustain a system of free public edu- cation abreast of the age. IT INTENDS TO CONTROL THE CIVIL POWER. . The course of the Romish priesthood, as to public education and civil government, is directed and controlled by a power that they dare not disobey, so long as they believe in the dog- mas of their Church ; and the enormous estates acquired by this Church in every country where it has the power, from the public property and public money, are the logical sequence of these dogmas. The Pope, the head of their Church, has, under the lead of the Jesuits, been solemnly declared by the Vatican Council to be personally infallible ; hence, his statements and orders must 4 be obeyed and carried into effect by his followers as the un- changeable truths and orders of God. On December 8, 1864, the late Pope, Pius IX., published an Encyclical Letter, con- demning as errors eighty of the leading and ruling principles of modern civilization. He stated them in his letter negatively, but the corresponding affirmative statements will give us sub- stantially the doctrine of the Romish Church on each one of these eighty points. I select from the Encyclical, by their numbers, those that bear direct^ upon civil government and public schools, and, with the same numbers, put them in the corresponding affirma- tive form, that we may see what principles are guiding the Romish Church in its war upon these two essential supports of modern civilization. The fundamental principle of democratic government is, that all civil power emanates from the people—they are the sovereigns ; but the Romish Church denies this, and holds that : (39.) The people are not the source of all civil power. In countries like the late Papal States, when this Church gets full possession, it assumes all power, spiritual and civil, to itself, and grants to the people only what it chooses, and takes it away when it pleases. (19.) The Romish Church -lias a right to exercise its author- ity , without having any limits set to it by the civil power. In other words, it arrogates to itself all the pow7ers of gov-, eminent, both spiritual and temporal; and where it has the power, it permits civil government to exercise its functions only where it consents to do so in subordination to the Church. (24.) The Romish Church has the right to avail itselfofforce, and to use the temporal powerfor that purpose. It uses, and has for centuries, used, force, directly and through its own officers, wherever it gets possession of the temporal power—as formerly in the Papal States ; and wherever the tem- poral or civil power, though separate from it, is yet subordinate to it—as in France at the time of the massacre of St. Barthol- omew, or in Spain during the tortures for heresy, and the burn- ing at the stake under the Inquisition—it uses as a mere tool the officers of the civil power to execute its decrees and inflict its punishments. 5 IT INTENDS TO ABSORB PROPERTY, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE, WITH- OUT LIMIT. (26.) The Romish Church has an innate and legitimate right to acquire , hold, and use property without limit. In our country Churches and religious corporations, as well as all other corporations, can hold property only when authorized so to do by statute, and for the uses specified by statute, and then only to the amount fixed by statute. The Romish Church opposes all this, as it prevents it from swallowing up the property of the country. In England, before the statutes of mortmain, it had got possession of one third of the property of the kingdom ; and so astute were the priests in evading these statutes, that it took four hundred years to perfect them sufficiently to protect the public against the rapacity of this Church. Blackstone says that, but for those . statutes, ecclesiastical corporations would soon have engulfed the whole real estate of England. With all these precautions the civil power had finally to resort to confiscation, to restore enough of the lands to the people to insure the prosperity of the realm. In Italy, Spain, and Mexico, the civil government, for like reasons, though it was Roman Catholic, has been compelled to resort to confiscation. In this country, if we should admit that this Church has the innate power of acquiring, holding, and using property without limit, we should soon have to resort to confiscation to save some- thing for the people. History repeats itself. In the Middle Ages this Church acquired enormous estates by threatening the sick and the aged with the terrors of the next world if they would not turn over a large part of their property to the Church. If a person’s heirs were not Roman Catholics, he was taught that it was a duty he owed to God to leave his property to the Church instead of to heretic heirs. In France, Germany, and England, the most careful and stringent laws have been enacted to protect estates against the rapacity of this Church ; but it can, in this country, easily avoid such laws as we have, by estab- lishing Church charities, under the control of the Bishop or Car- dinal, and have the money left nominally to these charities. Such a case occurred in Brooklyn thirty years ago. Corne- lius Heeney, an Irishman, came to this city just after the Revolutionary War, was naturalized in 1795, and purchased a 6 farm adjoining the village of Brooklyn in 1806, extending from what is now Court-street down to the East River, and lying between what is now Warren-street and Pacific-street; and being about half a mile in length by three hundred and fifty feet in width. It comprises nine blocks and parts of blocks, nearly two hundred city lots in all. He also afterward be- came possessed of store and house property in Hew York. He was a bachelor, and in the latter part of his life lived in a cottage on this farm. All his relatives were Protestant; some of them lived with him in this cottage, and others were frequent visitors there for many years. But w’hen ninety years of age, and losing his faculties, the priests managed to surround him with their satellites, to exclude his relatives from his house, and to obtain a will from him giving to institutions of the Roman Catholic Church nearly his entire estate. The bulk of this was to go to a society not then incorporated. In 1845 they obtained from the Legislature an act of incor- poration for this society, under the style of “ The Brooklyn Benevolent Society.” The Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Hew York for the time being is one of the trustees.' It was so arranged that practically the society would be en- tirely under the control of this Bishop. They then discovered that the will was illegal; and in 1845, a few weeks after getting their society incorporated, they ob- tained from poor old Mr. Heeney, then enfeebled in mind as well as body, and ninety-two years of age, a codicil devising his entire estate to this Brooklyn Benovelent Society—that is, to the uses of the Romish Church. But, fearing that by possi- bility his relatives might get access to him and learn his con- dition and discover what had been done, and attack the will, they kept them at a distance for two years ; and then, in 1847, protected themselves perfectly against the consequences of an- other will by having the poor old man declared a lunatic, and one of their own satellites appointed a committee of his person and his property. IT INTENDS TO PAY NO TAXES ON ITS PROPERTY. In this way they had so intrenched themselves around him and his estate that they felt secure of their prey. But it oc- curred to them that so large a property as this would necessa- rily, in time, when the city of Brooklyn spread over it, be 7 called upon to pay a large amount of public taxes. So the next year, 1846, and before any estate had vested in the so- ciety, or the public suspected what an enormous property would soon fall into their possession, they got an Act passed, of a single section, declaring that “ all property , real and per- sonal , that this society shall hold , shall he and remainfree and exempt from all taxation whatsoever. (See chap. 330, Laws of 1846.) They now had secured themselves, not only against the rela- tives of poor old Mr. Heeney, but against the tax-gath&rer also. The only remaining thing to be done was to guard their lunatic and his estate till he should die and leave them the whole of it. The priests and their satellites kept watch and ward over him two years longer, till May 3, 1848, when he died, at the age of ninety-four, and they then found themselves in posses- sion of his property, free and clear of taxes forever. The village of Brooklyn has grown to be a great city, and spread over and around this entire farm. It is let out on long leases, the tenants to make the improvements, and as these leases fall in, this society is gradually becoming enormously rich. The property to-day is nearly all built up with handsome structures. The dock property alone pays a rental of between $5,000 and $6,000 a year. The Sixth Ward, in which this great ecclesiastical estate is situated, is oppressed with an enor- mous rate of taxation ; but this large property, though enjoy- ing all the benefits of the government, bears none of its bur- dens, but goes tax-free ! It is calculated that if the law freeing it from taxation was repeal#!, the tax on it next year would be nearly $100,000. But so long as it remains tax-free, it will bring, on the re- newals of the leases, just the amount of the tax more money into the hands of this Church. I say Church, because, while nominally it is simply a benevolent society, practically it is worked solely for the purpose of building up and strength- ening the Romish Church. The following is a diagram of the Heeney estate in Brooklyn, obtained as above, that readers in that city may see exactly the extent of this single Romish grab, and know what blocks of houses and stores go tax-free for the benefit of this Church : 8 COURT . ST. L..I EAST RIVER 9 Repeated attempts have been made in Brooklyn to have the law exempting this enormous estate from all public taxation repealed ; but the local politicians are paralyzed through fear of losing at the polls the support of this Church. Such outrages as this upon the tax-payers , if not corrected hy wise legislation , in the end lead to confiscation . This is not a solitary instance of the Church disinheriting the legal heirs, and appropriating their property. The process is steadily going on all about us. The instructions given in the secret manual by the Jesuits to their satellites, are to be on the watch for aged people of large estates, who have no children ; or if they have children, then to excite prejudice against them, and obtain wills, if pos- sible, giving their estates to the institutions of this Church. The <{ Merrill will-case,” now pending before the Surrogate in this county, in which some $400,000, bequeathed to Car- dinal M’Closkey by a will obtained by the priests in Europe from an aged and weak-minded widow of this city, who visited Rome, is an illustration of this. IT CLAIMS TO BE ABOVE THE GOVERNMENT. (27.) The Pope and the priests ought to have dominion over temporal affairs. Hence, in all countries, when not prevented by law, they always have and always will interfere in politics and elections, and threaten with spiritual penalties voters of their faith, in order to get control of the State. Whenever a political party or a corrupt political ring is in a strait for power or existence, its leaders are, if open to busi- ness, invited by a dignitary of this Church, in the most polite and insinuating manner, to subscribe generously for some object of the Church. Such an invitation, given to the managers of the Tweed ring, when it was “ in extremis brought nearly $200,000 for the completion of the Cathedral ; and , to the astonishment of good citizens , Tweed, after exposure , se- cured votes enough in his district to he re-elected to the State Senate hy the largest majority ever given in this city for one Senator. In those days, the Irish Roman Catholic vote was in doubt until after mass on the Sunday before election. Then word would pass that “ so and so is the man.” Personal Papal infallibility filtered down through the priests to the voters is a 10 secret and invincible force—provided the voters are educated to that degree of superstition and ignorance attainable only in their parochial schools. The city contractors under Tweed obtained double prices from the public treasury for their work ; but many of them before they secured a contract were invited to subscribe large sums for Roman Catholic institutions, and did so. These, with the amounts paid to the ring direct, left not a very large profit to the contractor. In those days the Romish institutions in this city multiplied and waxed strong. (30.) The Romish Church and her ecclesiastics have a right to immunity from civil law. An essential principle of our government is, on the contrary, that every person and every corporation, whether lay or ec- clesiastic, is equally answerable to the civil law. (31.) The Romish clergy should he tried for civil and crim- inal offenses only in ecclesiastical courts. In 1853, just after the free governments in Italy had been crushed out, and the influence of this Church restored, I at- tended trials in the courts in Florence for a month, and almost daily questions and cases arose involving in some way the Church or ecclesiastics; and in every instance the judges promptly held that the civil power could not entertain any case or question affecting the Church or ecclesiastics, but that all such must be referred to the tribunals of the Church. But in our country, priest and layman, all alike, must be tried for civil or criminal offenses in the civil courts. The same law protects and punishes all without discrimination or favor. (42.) In case of conflict between the ecclesiastical and civil powers, the ecclesiastical powers ought to prevail. Under this principle the Romish Church, in countries where it is in full power, has set aside and annulled laws and judgments on the ground that they were in conflict with the policy and rules of the Church. It claims the right here, but lacks the power. IT INTENDS TO CONTROL OR DESTROY THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. (45.) The Romish Church has the right to interfere in the discipline of the public schools , and in trie arrangement of the studies of the public schools, and in the choice of the teachers for these schools. It has exercised this right in every country where it had the 11 power to do it. If it had the power here, it would rewrite or throw out from our public schools a large part of the text-books, and substitute the Catechism ; and no teacher would be permit- ted to instruct, in either public or private schools, unless first approved by this Church ; as was the case formerly, but not now, in Italy, Spain, and Austria. (47.) Public schools open to all children for the education of the young should be under the control of the Romdsh Church, and should not be subject to the civil power , nor made to con- form to the opinions of the age. In countries where it has the power, no school is allowed to exist, nor is any one allowed to teach, unless first approved and permitted by this Church. Many schools have been closed and teachers punished in Italy, Spain, and Mexico, for attempting to go on without this approval and permission. In our free country any one has a right to establish a school, and to teach in it without the permission of any Church, or even of the civil authorities. To acquire and impart knowledge is one of the sacred and inborn rights of our people. (48.) While teaching primarily the knowledge of natural things , the public schools must not be separated from thefaith and power of the Romish Church. It knows well that the only sure way to make the human mind accept the irrational and absurd dogmas and practices that to-day characterize this Church, and give the priests abso- lute and despotic power over the minds and consciences of the communicants, is to twist, squeeze, compress, and distort the mind, while young and impressible, into the molds and forms prepared by the priests in the Middle Ages. Hence Cardinal Antonelli’s declaration, that “ the Catechism alone was essential for the education of the people.” The Catechism and the prac- tices of the Church are the chief end and aim of the parochial schools ; every thing else is secondary. IT MULTIPLIES PAUPERISM AND CRIME. In this city they are dwarfing the intellects of the Catholic children, and fitting them only for the coarser, poorer, and simpler occupations of life. Catholic parents are seeing this, and the priests have to visit them with the regularity of Rus- sian police patrols, and threaten them with purgatory, to say nothing of a warmer place, if they fail to withdraw their chil- 12 dren from the public schools. One parent angrily replied to these threats that he had, by the priest’s orders, withdrawn hi» boy from the public school, and sent him to the priest’s school for three years, and he had learned in that time nothing but Catechism ; and he wished now to send him to the public school, where he could learn how to get a living in this world, since he must spend his life here. The training of the priests’ schools falls so far short of quali- fying the pupils to earn an honest living, that the Irish, who usually attend these schools in this city, in a term of years furi;- ish more than three times as many paupers and criminals, ac- cording to their number, as the Americans who, as a body, at- tend the public schools. The parochial school, in comparison with the public school, has relatively reduced and dwarfed the ability of the brilliant Irish race to gain a livelihood to such an extent, that in the city of Hew York, from 1871 to 1875 inclusive, five years, the de- partment of Charities and Corrections cared for Irish paupers to the number of 98,787 ; while of Americans there were only 63,178 ; of Germans, only 21,273 ; and of all other races only 17,563. In addition to this there were each year several thou- sand of the Irish race assisted by the charitable institutions of their Church, of which we have no reliable data. The above table, reduced to a comparative ratio based on the last United States census of each race in this city, taking the Americans as the unit of the ratio, gives the following : Americans 1.00 Irish ... , 3.50 German 1.33 All others 1.50 In other words, a child trained up in the Roman Catholic parochial school is so much inferior intellectually to one trained up in the public school, that he is three and a half times as likely % to become a pauper as he would be if he attended the free public schools of the city . But, says the Romish priest, in answer to the remonstrance of the parent, u If the Catechism and the dogmas, and practices of the Church taught in the parochial school don’t enable the children to earn their living as well as does the course of in- struction in the public schools, they at least correct their morals, and so make them better members of society.” 13 This is a great mistake, for the facts show just the opposite. In this city, in fifteen years and four months ending December 31, 1875, the record of arrests gives the following: Number of Irish arrested 571,497 Americans 387,154 Germans 119,659 All other races 92,934 And the names of those arrested show that a large percent- age of those classed as Americans in the above table are of Irish parentage, and hence, to a large extent, attended the parochial schools. But taking the table just as it stands, and reducing the figures to a comparative ratio based on 'the number of each race in this city, as fixed by the last United States census, and adopting the American as the unit, gives the following : Americans 1.00 Irish 3.28 Germans 1.07 All other races ’. 1.27 In other words, a child trained in the parochial school of the Roman Catholic Church is more than three and a quarter times as likely to get into jail as the child trained in the free ; public school. The above tables are the outcome of so large a generalization running through so many years, that they are safe and sure in- dications of the tendency of the two systems. Parents desire the welfare of their offspring ; they see plainly the difference between the parochial-school boy and the public- school boy; hence it requires the constant application of the spiritual, and often of the corporeal lash of the priest, to com- pel them to withdraw their children from the feast, of knowl- edge offered free at the public schools, and to send them to meager and medieval diet of daily Catechism, doled out at the parochial schools. Pauperism and crime are the two most troublesome evils that infest and afflict society. This Church has raised mendicity from a vice to the dignity of a virtue ; and its more ignorant followers believe that through the confessional and penance its priests have the . power to pronounce absolution of crime : hence its failure to repress these two evils. In view of these facts is it not an unwise if not criminal mis- use of the public money to divert it from the legitimate pur- poses of civil government to the uses of this religious sect ? 14 Knowledge, as understood and required by the exigencies of life and national progress to-day in this country, and as taught in the public schools, makes free, independent , self-supporting , and tolerant citizens / while this Church requires and gives only education sufficient to produce obedient , dependent , and bigoted subjects. IT INTENDS TO CONTROL THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. (53.) The civil power has no right to assist persons to regain theirfreedom who have once adopted a religious life ; that is , become priests , monks , or nuns. Where this Church has control, the civil authorities are pow- erless to enable these persons to escape from ecclesiastic imprison- ment in convents, nunneries and monasteries; while in our coun- try a writ of habeas corpus will at any time set them at liberty. (54.) The civil power is inferior and subordinate to the ec- clesiastical power , and in litigated questions of jurisdiction should yields to it. In other words, the Romish Church holds that the supreme authority in this country should be their Church, and not the civil government. Civil law holds that to marry two wives is a crime called bigamy and a State-prison offense. This Church holds it no crime at all, provided the first wife is not a Catho- lic and the first marriage is not performed by their Church. (55.) Church and State should be united. Our forefathers left the old country to escape the oppression of that doctrine ; and the organic laws of the nation and of every State declare the absolute separation of Church and State. IT INTENDS TO SUPPRESS ALL OTHER DENOMINATIONS. (78.) The Roman Catholic religion should be the only religion of the State , and all other modes of worship should be excluded. In every country, whether monarchy or republic, where the Romish Church has obtained the power, it has excluded all other forms of worship, and made public worship in any other form than their own a crime severely punishable •; but in this free country, absolute toleration and protection of all forms of worship is the fundamental law of the land. Under the present constitution of the Romish Church it cannot change these guiding and ruling principles, even if it would ; for that would destroy the doctrine of the infallibility. 15 It cannot refuse obedience to these doctrines without ceasing to be itself, any more than the “leopard can change his spots ; ” therefore, we must expect the Romish Church to wage ; perpetual war upon our public schools , and to make persistent attacks upon the public treasury , and to persevere in their at- tempts to control the civil power , until we thoroughly convince it that the public schools and the right of the children to attend them are to be perfectly protected; / and that neither it nor any other Church can be allowed to get a dollar out of the public treasury ; and that the civil power in all temporal affairs is , at all hazards , to be kept above and superior to any and all ecclesiastical powers. Rota cent can be paid from the public treasury to any sectarian institution without acknowledging the principle of a State Church, and the right to tax the people at large to sustain that Church. Such a course admits the thin end of a wedge that, if driven home, will destroy the principle of toleration and of absolute separation of Church and State. In this regard our politicians in this city and in this State have erred greatly — grievously , the fleeced tax-payers would say. They have for years bid high, and are now bidding high, for the votes controlled by this Church ; and have paid, and are now paying, their bids, not with their own money, but with the property and money of the tax-payers. I. Some of the Real Estate given by the City ofNew York to the Romish Church. The Cathedral block, and the block in the rear which has a small brick chapel on it, were obtained from the city as fol- lows : 1. The Church got possession of a lease from the city at a nominal annual rent ; 2. When forfeited for non-payment of this rent, the city waived the forfeitures, and, on payment by the Church of $83 32, converted the lease into a fee ; 3. This lot, eight hundred feet long, running from Fifth to Fourth Av- enues, had no frontage on Fiftieth-street, but was cut off from that street by a strip ten inches wide on Fifth Avenue, and five feet six inches wide on Fourth Avenue. The city made an even exchange with the Church of this freehold strip for a much smaller leasehold strip on the block above. This gave the Church the whole block—now, by the extension of Madison Avenue through it, two blocks ; and then the city paid the Church $24,000 for said extension of the avenue, and also gave it $8,928 84 to pay an assessment, thus making substantially a 16 donation of these two blocks—worth now, without buildings, at least, $1,500,000, and a gift in money of $32,928 81. The city, also, gave the Church the block above this, from Fifth to Fourth Avenues, now two blocks, by two leases for ninety-nine years at $1 a year rent each. These two blocks, without buildings, are worth now, at least, another $1,500,000. The city, for $1 a year, gave to the Archbishop for the u Sisters of Mercy ” half a block of land on Madison Avenue, between Eighty-first and Eighty-second streets. This, without buildings, is worth now at least $200,000. The city, for $1 a year, gave for the “ Sisters of Charity” a whole block of land on Lexington Avenue, between Sixty- eighth and Sixty-ninth streets. This, without buildings, is worth now at least $300,000. Total, five and a half blocks of land in the best part of the city , worth $3,500,000. II. Donations to it ofpublic money in New York City. The following tables, compiled from the public records in the offices of the Comptroller of the city of Hew York, of the Board of Education, of the Board of Apportionment, of the Commissioners of Emigration, of the Comptroller of the State, and of the State Commissioners of Charities, show under what guises or names the Romish Church in this city has drawn public money from the City and the State treasuries for the last eleven years. A small sum distributed by the order of the Board of Apportionment, January 7, 1880, is included because it was for the year 1879. But two items, amounting to over $20,000, distributed to two Roman Catholic institutions by a like order, made January 27, 1880, are not included. The first column gives the total, so far as yet found, paid to each institution in the eleven years ; the second column the names ; the columns under each year the sums paid in the respective years to each institution; the top line shows, first, the grand total for eleven years, namely $6,043,626 45, or an average annual donation to this one Church, even during the five hard years of financial depression, of $549,420 59 ; second , the total for each year. The sum is, in fact, larger than these ; for the statement of some of the societies for certain years is not yet fully examined, and all the guises under which this Church preys upon the public treasury are not yet ferreted out. MONEY DONATED IN ELEVEN YEANS PNOM THE PUBLIC! TREASURY TO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 18 Money Donated from the Public Treasury to the Catholic Church—Continued, Total am’*, paid to eact Institution. 5,266 5S 12.954 00 6 222 00 6,852 00 10,000 00 900 00 828 00 420 00 12,000 00 10,000 00 6,170 00 12.500 00 5.549 46 7.000 00 6,800 00 16,700 00 864 60 8,153 44 17,S57 68 19,830 00 15,000 00 5S.168 00 5.000 00 4,317 85 22,135 00 1,2S0 00 5,000 00 5,000 00 9,890 00 2.173 33 17,015 00 1,500 00 18.456 00 5,316 00 840 00 1,500 00 15,118 00 55,122 00 400 00 140 00 38,68S 00 10,462 00 5,000 00 5.000 00 34,S40 00 387 75 39,596 00 12,900 00 31,548 00 800 00 22.400 00 23,966 00 1.124 50 2.014 02 5,182 48 3S,878 00 10,004 64 5,850 00 965 70 8,048 00 639 -60 645 45 8,565 35 1.272 00 463 12 918 26 1.035 31 1,560 00 1.296 00 13.080 00 15.000 0d 7.272 00 Institutions. 18G9. $2,071 91 2.000 00 3,180 00 3,410 00 5,000 00 8t. Joseph’s Parish School, Manhattanville St. Joseph’s Parochial Female School St. Joseph’s G-er.-Am. Industrial School.. German Free Schools of St. Joseph’s 3.000 00 10,000 00 4.000 00 5.000 00 2,774 73 Charity Week-day School Academy of Dominican Church, Lexington Avenue School of St. Nicholas, Order St. Dominic. 3,500 00 6,800 00 5.000 00 364 60 8,153 44 8,928 84 8,000 00 5,000 00 23,540 00 St. Patrick’s Orphan Asy., Mott & Prince st. 5,000 00 4,317 85 7.730 00 Sister Helena St Teresa’s School St. Teresa’s Church 640 00 School of St. Teresa’s Chapel 5,000 00 5,000 00 1,500 00 208 40 In aid of school attached to St. Teresa’s Ch. St. Ann's Parochial School St. Ann’s Church, 8th -street St. Peter’s Free School 5,000 00 1,500 00 14,000 00 Ger.-Am. School St. Peter’s Church German-American Free School St Paul’s Church Parochial Schools Free School of St. Mary’s Asumptiou Ch. . St. Lawrence Church 1,500 00 5,000 00 20,000 00 200 00 St. Lawrence Parish School St. Mary’s School St. Mary’s Church, Grand street Sisters of Charity, St. Mary’s Church School of the Most Holy Redeemer 70 00 11,000 00 St. Michael’s Parochial School 2,500 00 5,000 00 5,000 00 11,830 00 3S7 75 In aid of school attached to St. Michael’s Ch. St. Michael’s School St. Gabriel’s School Church of Transfiguration Transfiguration Free School 11,500 00 St. James’ Parochial Male School 6,000 00 7,000 00 800 00 St. James’ Parochial Female School St. James’ Church School of Our Ladv of Sorrow 8,000 00 6,120 00 562 25 St. Columba Charity and Week-day School Church of the Holy Innocents St. Andrew’s Church 1,007 01 5,000 00 10,000 00 5,004 82 3,150 00 965 70 Church of the Immaculate Conception School of the Immaculate Conception Church of St. Paul the Apostle German-American School, 19th Ward Church of St. Boniface. St. John the Evangelist Free Sch. for Girls Parish School Church of the Nativity Roman Cath. Ch. 2d Ave., 2d and 3d sts.. Church of the Holy Cross 2,140 00 639 60 645 45 2,123 75 1,272 00 463 12 459 13 Parochial School Church of the Holy Cross Church of Holy Name, or St. Matthew Church of the Assumption Church of St John the Baptist 533 31 Parochial School of St. John the Baptist.. Free School of Sisters of Notre Dame. . . . Free German School 5,000 00 5,000 09 7,272 00 German Mission Association College of St. Francis Xavier 1870. 1871. 187a. $3,194 67 2,000 00 3,042 00 2,574 00 5,000 00 $5,768 00 } 868 00 $3,186 00 900 00 828 00 420 00 8,000 00s’ 000 '66 3,000 00 2,774 73 3,500 00 2,170 00 7,500 00 11.700 00 8,928 84 7,000 00 13,972' 66 4,830 00 10,000 00 7,656 0013,666’ 66 3,825 00 640 00 6,860 00 3,720 00 1.500 00 5S0 40 4.500 00 2,496 66 3,920 00 1,884 53 4,599 00 ' 1 * 960*66 2,970 00 2,916 00 5,316 00 840 00 4,566 66 13,607 00 200 00 70 00 11,000 00, 2,000 00 2,954 00 12,761 00 2,664 00 8,754 00 9,800 00 3,556 00 6.888 00 2,406 00 11,550 00 11,460 66 11,500 00 6.900 00 5.900 00 7,500 ’66 5,750 00 562 25 1,007 01 182 43 10,750 00 4.999 82 2,700 00 2,560' 66 11,340 00 j- 9,618 00 5,256 00 9,030 00 4,200 00 6,510 00 • 2,700 00 5,586 00 11,354 00 6,774 00 2,240 00 1,168 00 6,411 60 459 13 502 00 1,560 00 1,296 00 3,600 00 5,000 00 4,4S0 00 5,000 00 19 Money Donated from the Public Treasury to the Catholic Church—Continued, Total am’t paid to each Institution. Institutions. 1869. 1870. 1871. 1872. 1,042 90 1,987 2S 652 60 645 45 765 71 770 00 4,270 00 7,384 00 3,861 00 21,370 00 3.000 00 3,174 00 7,372 00 7,449 00 27,591 00 8,524 00 1.000 00 8,140 00 9,744 00 700 00 2,165 00 10.000 00 3,000 00 5,600 00 202,095 00 St. Peter’s 1,042 90 1,987 28 652 60 645 45 765 71 770 00 1,500 00 7,3S4 00 3.861 00 3,798 00 3,000 09 3,174 00 “770*66 Church of the Covenant Church of the Nativity Church of the Epiphany School of Bethlehem St. Boniface Church School 770 00 1,230 00 St. Patrick’s Free School St. Francis Xavier Male School J 6,167 00 6,167 00 5,238 00 St. Francis Xavier Female School Sacred Heart Female Academy Church of the Annunciation Church of the Annunciation School 2,240 00 2,240 66 j- 11,550 00 2,240 00 2,892 00 11,460 00 1,044 00 St. Gabriel’s Male School 7,449 00 4,581 00 3.000 00 1.000 00 3,000 00 3,000 00 700 00 555 00 St. Gabriel’s Female School St. Alphonsus’ School 2,240 00 Church of the Holy Redeemer School of St. Francis of Assisi 1,820 00 2,520 00 1,820 00 2,520 00 1,500 00 1,704 00School of the Holy Cross School of the Nativity School of St. Chrysostom 574 00 10,000 00 1.000 00 5.600 00 96,755 00 574 00 462 00 Orphan Asylum, Prince and Mott sts Sisters of St. Mary’s 2,000 00 School of the Order of Sisters of St. Dominic Other Born. Cath. Institutions, N. Y. City 36,120 00 69,220 00 Some of the Protestant religious denominations receive a small donation from the public treasury in this city for their charities ; but they are opposed to the whole business, as recog- nizing the principle of a union of Church and State, and would be glad to have each tub stand on its own bottom ; that is, each Church support its charities with its own money, and not with the money of others, but the Roman Catholics oppose it. HOW IT EVADED THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. In this city this Church was subsidized by the Tweed Ring, and nearly $800,000 paid to it in a single year, 1869. In 1870 petitions from more than one hundred thousand citizens caused the Legislature to repeal the law, the repeal to take effect near the end of that year, imposing a perpetual tax of nearly $250,000 on this city for their parochial schools. Hence the fall- ing off, shown in this table, the next year, 1871, in the subsidy. On Washington’s Birthday, 1872, a detailed exposure of this “Tweed Ring ” .subsidy for the. three preceding years to the ex- tent of $1,396,389 51 was made by the writer, and the subsidy in consequence fell that year to $121,674 03. In the autumn of 1872 the “ Tweed Ring ” were driven from power in both the city and State. The writer remained at Albany nearly the entire sessions of 1873 and 1874 to expose and denounce this class of legislation, and the annual sectarian appropriation bills, 20 that had grown to over $1,000,000, were wholly defeated. This subsidy in this city was in consequence, reduced for 1873 to $338,336 21, and for 1871 to $326,797 90. Constitutional amendments were prepared in 1873, and finally adopted in 1871, which, had they not been interfered with, and two pesti- lent clauses Jesuitically introduced into the amendments to Article YIII by the skill and influence of a Catholic member of the Constitutional Commission, would have cut those subsi- dies up by the roots. These two legal wolves in sheep’s clothing were the apparently harmless phrase, “ andjuvenile delinquents,” in sec. 10, and the sentence, “ This section shall not prevent such county , city, town , or village , from making such provision for the aid or support of its poor as may be authorized by lawf in sec. 11. Under the “juvenile delinquents,” this Church saved chap. 617, Laws of 1866, giving the Roman Catholic Protectory an- nually out of the city treasury $50 per head ; and chap. 128, Laws of 1867, giving it annually $60 more per head (total, $110 per head, or double the actual cost) of its inmates, thus secur- ing a subsidy of from two to three hundred thousand dollars per year from the taxpayers, and, if well managed, a clear profit to the Church of at least $100,000. So profitable to this sect is this Protectory, that they keep sentinels on the watch at each police court to induce commitments to the Protectory, and have had laws enacted compelling justices to commit to it. They made war on a public school connected with the city almshouse, and, by act of Legislature, broke it up for the purpose of get- ting possession of a portion of the inmates to swell their own numbers and profits. Charity is the using of one’s own means for the good of oth- ers. It is the highest Christian virtue, and the duty especially of all Churches ; but to get hold of and use the public money to make a profit, and to build up a sect under the pretense of charity, is hypocrisy. HOW IT AGAIN GOT INTO THE PUBLIC TREASURY. Immediately after the above amendment to sec. 11 of the Constitution was adopted, this Church made haste to set its skilled talent to devise schemes to connect whole broods of their institutions by a sort of sectarian suction-hose with the public treasury. It accomplished this under the word “poor” in the 21 above sentence in sec. 11. It had the word “poor'' defined by chap. 221, Laws of 1875, so as to include, among others, “the sick, destitute, friendless, and infirm,” and the occupants of their enormous boarding-house, built on land given by the city, and improperly called the “Foundling Asylum of the Sisters of Charity;” and by the same statute they grabbed the Excise moneys, thus adding several hundred thousand dollars more to their annual subsidy. These so-called “ foundlings ” may be two years old when re- ceived by the “ Sisters,” and may board with them, or under their control, till 18 years old if girls, and 21 years old if boys. They may be indentured to this institution, if half-orphans, by either the father or mother ; and the mother may board there, also, to look after the children. For every child boarding there, these “ charitable Sisters ” draw from the city treasury $138 70 per year, and for every mother boarding there, $216 per year • total for a mother and child, $354 70 per year, besides having the work of the children and mothers. Most of the hard-working laborers throughout the country would be glad to turn “poor" and support themselves, if they could draw from the city treasury at this rate. These advan- tages to this sect are secured by chap. 635, Laws of 1872 ; chap. 644, Laws of 1874; and chap. 43, Laws of 1877. The cost to the city treasury of this Church boarding-house of the Sisters of Charity is now between two and three hundred thousand dollars per year, and if well managed brings annually not 9 less than $100,000 net profit to the Church. By concentrating their forces, and by a change of name or of statement as to what they are doing, so as on paper to appear to be “ aiding or supporting the poor," nearly all their organ- izations have got back into the public treasury again, and the annual subsidy to this Church is now as great as in the palmy days of the “ Tweed Ring.” In the last two years in this city it drewfrom the public money $1,403,967 27! They may call any persons in their schools and institutions “ the poor" and so pension them upon the public treasury. There is no investigation of their statements or accounts, or supervision of their institutions by any public officer, as com- mon safety requires where the public money is paid out to them ; but whatever statement under oath they choose to make is accepted as the basis of payment to them. 22 An amount ofpublic money equal to iwo and one halfper cent, of the entire tax levy , or six per cent, of the administrative ex- penses of the entire city government , is thus paid annually to this Church in this city. Any taxpayer can from his tax bills readily calculate how much of this is exacted from him; and this, too, in a country where a State Church is prohibited by the Constitution, and in a State where the organic law forbids “ discrimination or favor ” to any Church. An examination of the roll of taxpayers in this city shows that those belonging to the Roman Catholic Church pay about one tenth part of the public taxes; while they draw from the public treasury for the societies belonging to their Churches nearly ten times as much as those of all the other religious sects together. The fact that Roman Catholics excel all other sects in the number of their paupers and criminals in this city is no reason for thus pensioning this denomination upon the public treasury; but, on the contrary, is a reason against doing it ; for the inter- ests of the taxpayers, and of society, and of civilization all re- quire that public support should not be given to a sect that has made such a signal failure in reducing pauperism and crime among its adherents. THE REMEDY. There is but one effectual remedy for these subsidies, and but one effectual way of putting a stop to this indirect building up a State Church with the public treasure, and enabling its satellites and dependents to live on the public without work. It is for the taxpayers and the opponents of a State Church and a State religion , and all friends of toleration in religion , TO INSIST UPON THE STRIKING OUT OF THESE TWO JESUITICAL CLAUSES IN THE STATE CONSTITUTION, AND THE REPEAL OF THE STATUTES THEY PROTECT. New YorJc, January 28, 1880. SUPPLEMENT. HOI THE ROUSH CHURCH OBTAINED THE CATHEDRAL BLOCK. [The Editor of The Catholic World, in the March number, labors through a sixteen-coluunrn article to make an exhibit of himself. Mr. Hawkins sets him right as to the Cathedral block.] Whenever the facts of how the Pomish Church managed to intrench itself upon four of the most valuable blocks of ground in the heart of New York city, namely, those between Fifth, Madison, and Fourth Avenues and Fiftieth and Fifty- second streets, worth to-day, free of buildings, $3,000,000, for a mere nominal consideration, are made public, the doughty champions of this Church lose their temper, and pour out upon the party stating the facts a wordy torrent of abuse. Why is this? Is it in imitation of their patron, St. Peter, who, at one stage of his progress toward a true Christian life, when confronted with what he thought was a dangerous fact, cursed and svrore and denied the truth? (Matt, xxvi, 74.) The proposition, the correctness of which the facts demon- strate, is this : The Romish Church has obtained these four blocks of ground, directly and indirectly , from the city of New York far sub- stantially nothing. In other words, this Church, on the whole, in the various trans- actions that resulted in transferring these four blocks from the city to this Church, and resulted from such transfer, has re- ceived more money from the city treasury than has been paid into the city treasury for the four blocks, including the Cathedral blocks ; so that in substance and fact, though not in form, this Church, by this series of transactions, has obtained what is equivalent to a gift from the city of these four blocks, now worth, iffree of buildings, at least $3,000,000. 26 IIow was this accomplished ? This Church works by long reaches, often running through a century. In 1799 the city of Hew York, for the consideration (stated in provincial currency, but reduced at the time to United States money) of $1,012 50 and an annual rent offour bushels of wheat , •payable on May 1 in each year , granted by a sort of perpetual lease lot Ho. 62 of the common lands of the city to one Robert Lylburn. The grant contained a condition, usual in long leases, that on ten days’ default in payment of this annual rent the city could enter upon the land and distrain, and in case not sufficient distress was found thereon to pay the rent, then the city could immediately re-enter into its original estate of fee simple absolute in the lands, and the lease or grant would at once become wholly void. Lylburn executed to the city the usual counterpart of this lease, wherein he accepted the conditions, and bound himself and his assigns to pay the annual rent, or to forfeit , as above stated, his title to the land. This counterpart is in the proper book in the Comptroller’s office, and Lylburn ’s part is recorded in the Register’s office in liber 150 of Conveyances, page 232. This defeasible title to this lot by sundry transfers turned up in 1829 in the possession of the Catholic Church, and the rent from time to time was paid in Lylburn’s name, but by the Catholic Church. The amiable, courteous, and truth-telling disciple of St. Peter, the Editor of the Catholic World, says of these facts in his March number : “ This is a rank invention The records show it is a r&dkfact. From 1829 to 1852—twenty-three years—this lot was for- feited each year by the Church not paying the rent within the ten days required by the lease / and even in one instance, not paying the rent for nine consecutive years . Yet this disciple of the irate and inchoate St. Peter says : “It never was for- feited. ” Shade of St. Peter ! how your followers walk around the truth ! What are the facts in detail ? The land was vacant, (except a brick chapel, built upon four lots of what is now the block between Madison and Fourth Avenues and Fiftieth and Fifty-first streets, to defend the sixty- four lots against public taxes,) and had no distress on it whatever. 27 The rent due May 1, 1827, May 1, 1828, May 1, 1829, and May 1, 1830, was in default till January 22, 1831 ; when the slow disciples of the truth-telling saint paid up. The rent due May 1, 1831, was not paid till September 3. That due May 1, 1832, was not paid till June 23. That due May 1, 1833, was not paid till May 25. That due May 1, 1834, was not paid till October 11. That due May 1, 1835, May 1, 1836, May 1, 1837, May 1, 1838, May 1, 1839, May 1, 1840, May 1, 1841, May 1, 1842, and May 1, 1843 — nine years—was not paid till May 6, 1843, and then only a portion of it was paid ; ,a little more was paid May 13. The remainder of this rent for these nine years was not paid till May 16, 1846 ; when the Church paid it, and also at the same date paid the rent due May 1, 1844, and May 1, 1845. The rent due May 1, 1846, and May 1, 1847, was not paid till July 17, 1847. The rent due May 1, 1848, was not paid till July 1. That due May 1, 1849, was not paid till Novem- ber 30, 1849. That due May 1, 1850, was not paid till October 30, 1850. That due May 1, 1851, was not paid till J une 30, 1851. That due May 1, 1852, was not paid till November 11,1852. Then, to escape the risks of these annual forfeitures for non-payment of the rent within ten days of May 1 , and the consequent annual liability to have the city re-enter and re- sume its original estate in this block, and, now two blocks , the Church, having escaped the previous defaults and forfeitures by inducing the city to take the rents long after they were due, and thus waive the forfeitures that had been incurred, com- muted the annual rent (of four bushels of wheat or its value) by paying to the city $83 32 cash, and obtained a release from the city. This for the first time vested a fee simple absolute title in the Church . The disciple of St. Peter who edits the Catholic World, says the above facts are “ partly an invention, and partly a ridicu- lous travesty.” This statement of his is equally as true as the one referred to above of his patron, St. Peter. I will leave him to ease his conscience the next time he goes to confession and asks for ab- solution. It is convenient for some people to think they can 28 get absolution from their sins by appealing to one of their brethren. It allows them greater license in both word and deed ; but it compels all others to take what they say and do with a large grain of salt. The exchange, by the city with the Church, of the entire frontage of this block, 800 feet on the north side of Fiftieth- street, with a fee simple absolute title, for a frontage subject to an annual rent, and more than a quarter smaller in area , on the block above, was a far greater shave on the city by this Church than I stated on page fifteen of this pamphlet. It was, in substance, though not in form, a free gift by the city to the Church of this 800 feet frontage, covering the fronts of 32 city lots. For the smaller quantity, subject to an annual rent, that the Church pretended to give to the city in exchange for this frontage, the Church took back again to itself , by ob- taining from the city two leases for ninety-nine years, covering the entire block between Fifty-first and Fifty-second streets and Fifth and Fourth avenues, containing, on one side, this ,small strip, and paying the city for this block, thus obtained for ninety-nine years, and worth now $1,500,000, only $2 a year rent ! So that the city, in substance, got nothing at all for the ex change of this 800 feet frontage ; yet my amiable and truth- telling disciple of St. Peter has the effrontery, in bis Catholic World , to say : “ These were exchanged , to the equal advantage of both parties.” So thought the noted Dominican monk, Tetzel, who was authorized by the Pope to sell indulgences to raise money to complete St. Peter’s at Rome, and who used to say to the parties who paid him money for indulgences, that the moment the coin jingled in the coffers of the Church, the soul for whose benefit it w T as given leaped out of purgatory. But a plain business man would say the advantage of this exchange, as well as Tetzel’s, was all on the side of the Church. She got something for nothing. A simple comparison of what the city has received for the Cathedral block from 1799, with interest on the same, and what it has paid the Church for running Madison Avenue across it, will show whether, in substance , though not in form, the block has been obtained from the city for nothing. The original sum paid for the lease was $1,012 50. This, at four per cent, compound interest, payable semi-annually, like 29 Government interest, amounted in 1852, when the Church ob- tained the release from the city, to $8,425 01. The annual rent for fifty-three years and six months, supposing it had beeny paid promptly, (which it never was,) at the same rate of com- pound interest, amounted in 1852 to $805 90. Add to the above two items the amount paid by the Church for the re- lease of the rent in 1852—$83 32—and we have, as the amount received by the city up to 1852, with compound interest to that date, $9,314 23. This $9,314 23, at the same rate of compound interest from 1852 to 1864, the date of the Madison Avenue payment by the city to the Church, amounts to $14,977 28. This is the total amount the city has received from all par- ties for the Cathedral block, reckoning four per cent, com- pound interest on the same, payably semi-annually. I put the interest at four per cent., since that is Government rates. Row, in 1864 the city paid the Romish Church in cash for running Madison Avenue across this block $24,000, and also paid the Church’s assessment on the block, $8,928 84. Total paid by city to the Church, $32,928 84. Deduct total amount received by the city, with compound interest upon it as above, to 1864, $14,977 28 ; leaves as net loss to the city, or bonus paid by the city to the Romish Church for taking the Cathedral block, $17,951 56. On page fifteen of this pamphlet, the statement which aroused the ire of the editor of the Catholic World is, that the Church, by getting possession of that lease and having the forfeiture waived, and converting the title into a fee simple ab- solute, and then by getting the 800 feet frontage' on Fiftieth- street, had substantially obtained the Cathedral block (now two blocks) from the city for nothing. The above exact calcula- tions show that the city fared even worse than that at the hands of this Church—for this block (now two blocks), worth now $1,500,000, slipped out from the possession of the city into the bosom of the Church, and $17,951 56 of public money, in substance, went with it, to say nothing of the many thousand dollars of taxes and assessments on this block paid or waived by the city for the benefit of this Church. As a sort of corollary to this problem in ecclesiastical geometry or land-getting, the Church, for $2 a year, grabbed, as already stated, the two blocks above these, worth another $1,500,000. 30 This Church for years avoided taxation on the Cathedral block, consisting of some sixty-four city lots, by keeping a brick chapel on four of the lots. Persons often inquire why this small brick chapel is still kept up, close to the Cathedral ; being practically of no use for a church, so near is it to the Cathedral. The answer is, It is now an ecclesiastical shield against the taxation of thirty valuable city lots on the block between Madison and Fourth Avenues, the tax on which, were it not for this chapel, would be nearly $8,000 per year. The use- lessness of this chapel for a church is manifest from the fact that the Church now offers the block for sale, and the Tax Commissioners have given notice that they shall next year tax these thirty lots. The tone of the champions of this Church indicates that the more real estate it gets, the more bad temper it manifests when one exposes the manner of its getting. The history of every country where religious sects have been permitted to lay hold of the public land and the public money, shows that in the end ecclesiastical corporations become gorged with wealth; while the public lands disappear in the bosom of the Church, and the public treasury is afflicted with chronic emptiness. The same history shows that whenever religion is made an affair of State, instead of a matter of the individual mind and conscience, it in the end grows to be a gigantic, tyrannical, political machine, and morally an empty shell, and is afflicted with a sort of heart and soul rot, and oppressed with outward ceremonies. The Founder of Christianity nowhere teaches us to support our religion out of the public treasury ; but, on the contrary, rather to keep it distinct and separate from the political powers. In that way it can permeate all countries, exist under all forms of government, rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s. By concen- trating and directing its efforts to the heart and conscience of the individual it can, by regenerating him, purify, elevate, and reform society. But by neglecting that, and devoting its energies to secular affairs, to acquiring wealth and temporal power, it abandons Christ and liis teachings, and falls into the practices and habits of paganism. Hew York, March 15, 1880. / t p