as well as with all the duties that flow therefrom. For the rest, to decide in what institutions their children shall be instructed, who shall be their teachers of morality, is a right inherent to parental authority. When, then, Catholics demand, and it is their duty to demand, and to strive to obtain, that the teaching of the masters shall be in conformity with the religion of their children, they are only making use of their right; and there can be nothing more unjust than to force on them the alternative of allowing their children to grow up in ignorance, or to expose them to manifest danger in what concerns the supreme interests of their souls. It is not right to call in doubt or to abandon in any way these principles of judging and acting which are founded on truth and justice, and which are the safe-guards both of public and private interests. Therefore, when the new law in Manitoba struck a blow at Catholic education, it was your duty, venerable brothers, to freely protest against the injury and disaster inflicted; and the way in which you all fulfilled that duty is a proof of your common vigilance, and of a spirit truly worthy of bishops; and, although each one of you will find on this point a sufficient approbation in the testimony of his own conscience, learn, nevertheless, that you have also our conscience and our approbation, for the things which you sought and still seek to protect and defend are most sacred. The difficulties created by the law of which we speak by their very nature showed that an alleviation was to be sought for in a united effort. For so worthy was the Catholic cause that all good and upright citizens, without distinction of party, should have banded themselves together in a close union to uphold it. Unfortunately for the success of this cause, the contrary took place. What is more deplorable still, is that Catholic Canadians themselves failed to unite as they should in defending those interests which are of such importance to all—the importance and gravity of which should have stilled the voice of party politics, which are of much less importance. We are not unaware that something has been done to amend that law. The men who are at the head of the federal government and of the Province of Manitoba have already taken certain measures with a view to decreasing the difficulties of which the Catholics of Manitoba complain, and against which they rightly continue to protest. {63} We have no reason to doubt that these measures were taken from love of justice and from a laudable motive. We cannot, however, dissimulate the truth; the law which they have passed to repair the injury is defective, unsuitable, insufficient. The Catholics ask—and no one can deny that they justly ask—for much more. Moreover, in the remedial measures that have been