SOME SCHOOL BOOKS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 17, 21 August 1885, Page 16

SOME SCHOOL BOOKS.

In the list of books recommended to be used in public schools by the Education Department, we find the " Royal History of England." This department wishes all children to attend the public schools ; and, indeed, under certain circumstances, can compel attendance. One would expect, under such circumstances, that care would be taken to recommend only such books as all could read without offence, and without imbibing false notions on religion and history. fc»ueh, however, is not the case, as we can easily show. To-day we mean to confine ourselves in our criticism of our public school books to the " Royal History of England " so strongly recommended, and which, of coarse, such unfortunate Catholic children as attend some public schools must both read and study. In page 204, fhildren are told, Catholics as well as others, the following :— " The Reformation — whence the greatest changes of modern times have sprung — was now in progress. The Cbnrch of St. Pbtbe had for many years been rising on- the banks of the Tiber. To raise funds for the building, Leo X. had sent out monks to sell indulgences — a mode of procuring money

invented: by 'Urban 11., in the days of tEe l <Tnuacteß? irßhfl lSr this passage there are two- lies, the first is that Leo tni X.r sent monks to sell indulgences", ~the second is that ÜbbSt 11. invented indulgences. In : page 428 we read these words :—": — " In 1791, the society of United ; Irishmen, formed by Boman Catholics for the same purposes, agitated the separation of Ireland from the British Empire." This is not a fact. Wolfe Tone, a Protestant, was the founder of the United Irishmen, and almost, all the leaderß, from first to last, were Protestants. IH page 82, ; under the heading "Contemporary 1 Foreign Ev.ents," we read :" 68 a.d.— The Apostle Piui/was beheaded' at Rome by the order of Nero." Why has not the name of St. Peter been mentioned ? He was a more important person than Paul, and he was put to death at the. same time and in the same city as St., Paul.. But it would hot suit oureducation authorities to , let children know, that such a person as StJ Peter ever existed. The suppression of the fact of his martyrdom has been designed for a' purpose which is" obvious.' St. Paul is to be exalted above the Prince of the Apostles, that the authority of the Boman Pontiff may be concealed ■ from Catholic and all other children. These three specimens of the way in which our school histories have been composed will suffice for to-day. On ; considering them, Catholics will understand the nature of the, teaching prepared for children in the schools which they are compelled to maintain in this country. And it will be manifest that a great wrong is done, and a great tyranny exercised, in compelling them to pay for teaching the rising generation falsehoods about their- religion" andthecountry from which the vast majority of them have conte/ We may say, in conclusion, that the, tone of this book, the " Royal History of England," is, in addition to its downright falsehoods, anti-Catholic. Behold the nature of the much-belauded secular system under which we are groaning.