Again, the celebrant must be a priest, the deacon must have received deacon’s orders, and all others who, although laymen, may, as acolytes and choristers, aid the consecrated personages in their duties, are invested with a quasi‐ecclesiastical character while in office. No one should ever dream of engaging the services of Jews, Protestants, or infidels, or even of Catholics whose lives were notoriously bad, or who scandalously neglected receiving the sacraments, as our “gallery‐choirs” are constituted in many a church in this country. In the event of the priest not been able to sing, through any infirmity, no layman of the congregation could take his place, although he were the finest singer in the world, the very prince of _cæremoniarii_, and a greater saint than S. Peter himself. From which considerations it will readily be seen how unsuited music is for the use of such persons acting in such a capacity. Practically, music is the song of women. We shall show further on that it is essentially effeminate. There is music which men and boys can perform, it is true, but it is not the genuine article. The want of the female voice for the soprano is always felt; and in some countries where women are not yet admitted as church singers, and “church music” is highly prized, this want is supplied by _castrati_. It is not the song of ecclesiastics. That the use of it is _tolerated_, we know; that the singing of women and _castrati_ in church is also tolerated, we know; but the “Instructions” (we guarantee that nineteen out of twenty would agree with us in saying that “Restrictions” would be their better title) of the cardinal vicar on “church music,” referred to by the writer of the late articles on that subject in THE CATHOLIC WORLD, remind us of the probable “instructions” that would be given if the abuse of female acolytes were to creep in to any great extent. We would find, without doubt, prohibitions against the wearing of the hair in curls, or _frisée_, or _à la_ Pompadour, short sleeves, low necks, and crinoline. They would be instructed also, without doubt, to wear a plain black cassock and linen surplice, be shod like men, and let not their courtesies savor of the _débût_ of actresses upon the stage of a theatre. If these instructions would be faithfully observed _ex animo_, and boys were not extinct as a sex in the congregation, we do not think they would very long have any practical application.