they can to his support in their usual way. But, as they have the impression that on the whole the institution is rather Irish than Roman Catholic, they keep aloof, and constantly refuse to join in the religious solemnities peculiar to that people. The reader may often have heard, as we often have, Irish persons say that other Catholics are not so good as the Irish; that the Irish are the most faithful Catholics in the world. Here, then, there are two facts which certainly are not without meaning. On one side are the Catholics from the European continent refusing to be assimilated with the Irish Catholics, and, in many instances, preferring to worship alone as independent societies, rather than commune with them in ecclesiastical matters. On the other, the Irish Catholics monopolize through their priests the government of the Church, under the pretence of being, as a nation, alone true Catholics, and with the conviction that God has constituted them the lords of this land. Now what does this mean? Can several millions of men be mistaken in judging of those things that stand nearest to their hearts, as the religious institutions under which they were educated undoubtedly do? No: the Germans, the French, the Spaniards, the Italians, all equally believe and feel that if there is an American Catholic Church, it must be, in doctrine as well as in practice, in her ritual as well as in her prescriptions, one and the same with that of their native countries. So much the more so, as it is necessarily formed of elements gathered from all nations of the earth. No other idea of Catholicism can they conceive; and, not seeing it realized in the Church pointed out to them as the only Catholic Church, they refuse to acknowledge it. In their turn, the Irish also are right. Their religious belief, their moral principles, their ecclesiastical practices, practically and essentially differ from those of other European nations; and as they do not perceive that others do what they do, they very naturally conclude that the Irish are the best, if not the only, Catholics in the world. It may be objected that the Roman Catholic Church never claimed to be one in so strict a sense. Uniformity in doctrine, and submission to the Pope, are the only requisites,

VOL. LXXXVII. — NEW SERIES, VOL. VIII. NO. II.

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properly speaking, that constitute her character, and the only essential conditions for any church of communion with her. Every church has, and is allowed to follow, her own usages; and, in several instances, a difference in ritual and language is even permitted. Nay, it is a duty for such churches to observe their particular forms, and use the prescribed tongue, which they in no case whatever can change without a permission from the Supreme Pontiff. This permission is only granted when the greater good of the Church universal evidently requires it. This condescension, this adaptation of herself to the habits, manners, and laws of the various countries where her children happen to be found, is in conformity with her catholic spirit. If all the members of Christ's body are united to the same visible Head, and profess the same dogmas, it matters but little how they move, how they manifest their submission and show their faith, provided they do so with the sanction of the Church. This Variety in Unity constitutes one of the greatest glories of which she can boast. These, and other like things, might be objected. But such objections do not apply to this case. The question is not whether the Coptic or the Greek branches of the Catholic Church have any title to be considered as such; but whether what is called the Catholic Church in America is really one with that of the continent of Europe, which alone is known as the Latin Catholic Church. It does not claim to be an American branch, or to follow the Ambrosian rite: it claims to be the Latin or Roman Church, and to follow the corresponding ritual. If Roman, why does not her teaching agree with that of Rome? If she observes the Latin rite, why cannot Catholics recognize what they have been used to from their childhood? Is it not rather an Irish Church, than an American Catholic one? Has not the original American Catholic Church, founded mostly by French and English missionaries, been supplanted by an institution which is to all purposes Irish and antiAmerican? Is the affected love and subjection of that institution to the Bishop of Rome a valid title to absorb into itself all other Catholics, because of its numerical superiority?

Is it not rather a specious pretence to obtain an influence which otherwise it would be foolish to hope for?

A satisfactory answer to all these queries may be difficult, may be impossible. But surely a few more years will show that the Pope is rather an instrument than a cause; that he is as ignorant of what is done in his name in this country, as we are of the plans to be executed by the Catholic Church. The spirit and aim of the two institutions are the same. What one has already done, the other intends to do. But the sins of the daughter, though often a consequence of the mother's example, do not always turn to the benefit of the mother. Besides, the Pope at the present time has so much to do in watching his own interests at home, that he may be very willing to abandon the Church abroad to the care of others, and be satisfied with several millions of dollars to pay the enormous, ever-increasing debt of his wretched State.

ART. V. THE CHINESE QUESTION.

We may at last feel assured that the negro question is practically settled, and can no longer afford a legitimate bone of contention for our great political parties.

Many fondly flatter themselves that now the winds of political dispute must cease. Others, less confident, wonder vaguely if there can be any longer any thing for the country to quarrel about and divide upon. The politicians, fearful of losing their occupation, are taking up every semblance of a question, and blowing the empty bubbles in hopes of puffing them into "issues." Eight Hour laws and Women's Rights, Free Trade and Cuban Independence, Catholicism and Temperance, coal and cotton, are all eagerly drummed into the political field, and their meagre ranks made to raise as much dust as possible, in order to delude people into thinking them the embattled hosts of great armies. But, meanwhile, there has arisen, just above the horizon, a cloud that is a real one;

a most serious and vital subject of dispute and honest difference, threatening to cover every thing else from view, and effect a complete reorganization of parties. This is the Chinese question.

We have heard something of the Chinese in California for several years. But they have been so distant, and communication with the Pacific coast has had such obstacles, that we have not concerned ourselves much about them. But the Pacific railroad has made a great change in our relations with that part of our country. It has brought San Francisco within a week's journey of New York. It gives an immense impetus to the commerce and communication between our country and China. The Chinese have been employed in large numbers in the building of that great highway, and their efficiency as laborers has been published throughout the whole country. Some of the Chinese have already arrived at Chicago; and an immigration company has been formed in that city, which has contracted for the importation thither of fifty thousand. A convention of agriculturists from all the Southern States was held at Memphis on the 13th of July, at which it was determined to organize a Chinese immigration company for the South immediately, with a capital of a million dollars. The general introduction of the Chinese into all the Southern States is intended. The Southerners hail John Chinaman as the "coming man;" an industrious, submissive, reliable, and cheap laborer, to take the place of the uncertain supply of the hated freedmen.

The number of the Chinese that are already in the country is much larger than is generally supposed. The six great Chinese companies, to one or the other of whom most of the Chinese on the Pacific coast belong, have record of 65,000. The whole number is thought by good observers not to fall short of 100,000. According to this estimate, one in every four of all the adults on the Pacific slope is a Chinaman. Every town of that section of the country, from the gulf of California to Vancouver's Island, and from the Golden Gate to the Rocky Mountains, has its Chinese quarter. The immigration is swelling with immense velocity. Every immigrant

that comes will bring a hundred others, just as fast as word can return from him to his brethren at home of the ease and rapidity with which money can be made here, and as fast as Americans learn the excellence and cheapness of the labor which the Chinese can supply. A Chinaman will pursue a few "sapecks" to the uttermost parts of the globe as devotedly as an American will a dollar; and wherever our employers try Chinese labor, they find not only that they can obtain it at a price much less than other labor, but that it is also more steady and careful, and that it is capable of carrying on almost any occupation or manufacture in which it may be wanted. The Chinese in California have found their way into almost every manual employment. They grade railways, open roads, cut wood, and pick fruit. They tend cattle and sheep, and wash and iron clothes. They run sewing-machines, and weave cloth. They make first-class factory operatives, being preferred to any other kind by the superintendents of cotton and woollen mills in California. They act as firemen to steamers and stationary engines, paint carriages, repair furniture, make boots, shoes, and cigars. They make tin and wooden ware, paper bags and boxes, and label and pack medicines. Placer mining has, from the first, been one of their chief occupations. They tend vineyards, and cultivate market-gardens. Their patient care produces the finest vegetables for the Sacramento and San Francisco markets. They have become especially useful and expert in domestic service as cooks, lackeys, and men-of-all-work in the house, filling completely the place of servant-girls. They are anxious to learn every thing that can be of pecuniary advantage to them, and their patience and imitative faculty enable them to do so with surprising celerity.

The field and demand for the labor of the Chinese would therefore seem to be immense. The supply is unlimited, as China, from her swarming population of four hundred million, could spare us ten or twenty million a year, without parting with any but the surplus increase of her people; and the immigration companies are doing their best to bring supply and demand together. The Pacific may be six thousand