SHALL Rome rule America? To a great many Protestants of our country this question has no interest, because they believe there is not the remotest possibility of such a thing. This confidence and complacency is the result of ignorance rather than knowledge. Those who know the purposes and methods of the Papacy say there is need of watchfulness; those who are familiar with the history of Rome in America during the last fifty years tell us we may well be alarmed. In certain regions of our country Rome rules America to-day. In many places she dictates the policy of government, though it is so silently, and with so little show, that the people at large do not know that they are thus ruled. She works under cover; and only those who are on the alert are aware what is going on. She is thoroughly Jesuitical in her movements, and so is the more dangerous. In her fundamental principles she is opposed to our American institutions. A subject of Rome owes allegiance first to the pope, and afterwards to the civil government. This was well illustrated by a recent occurrence in Newark, N. J. At a public meeting arrangements were making for the Columbus celebration. It had been moved that all national flags be permitted in the parade, provided the Stars and Stripes should lead. An ex-alderman, John Bruder, arose, and, taking his place in the central aisle, said with great earnestness: "We should have the papal flag first. We are Catholics first and Americans afterwards." Straws show which way the wind blows. John Bruder simply said what every loyal Papist thinks and is taught to think. It is a fundamental principle of Romanism that the pope is supreme. If any have an idea that the motto of Catholicism here is not "Rome first and America afterwards," then remember that the most sacred guarantee of the Constitution of the United States is liberty of conscience. Then, in the light of this fundamental truth, let them read the utterance of Pope Pius IX. in an encyclical letter, in which he says:— "The absurd and erroneous doctrines or ravings in defense of liberty of conscience are of most pestilential error—a pest of all others most to be dreaded in a State." In 1864 the same pope anathematized "those who assert the liberty of conscience and of religious worship." That the Catholic Church in America is in accord with these views is abundantly proved by such utterances as the following: "Religious liberty is merely endured; until the opposite can be carried into effect without peril to the Catholic world," says Bishop O'Connor. The Catholic Review says: "Protestantism, of every form, has not and never can have any right where Catholicity is triumphant." "No good government can exist without religion," says the Boston Pilot, "and there can be no religion without an Inquisition." While the Rambler, another Catholic journal, declares: "No man has a right to choose his religion. None but an atheist can uphold the principles of religious liberty." Thus does Catholicism plant itself in direct and positive antagonism to that Magna Charta of our liberties, the Constitution. But Rome is as much opposed to free speech and a free press as she is to a free religious conscience. Liberty of the press and liberty of speech the pope already justly calls "the liberty of perdition." It was no less a man than Lafayette who said, "If the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed, they will fall by the hands of the Roman clergy." There is every reason to believe that the pope has recently taken a forward step in his war upon American institutions. The present point of attack is the public school system. To lead the campaign and to give us lessons as to the management of our schools, an envoy from Rome has recently arrived. One of his special qualifications for his duties is inability to speak the English language. If Uncle Sam does not kick him out of the country as an impertinent dog (to speak in mild metaphor), it will be because he has learned the lesson of self-control to an unprofitable degree. Says the Christian Inquirer: "If such an insult should be offered us by England, or France, or Germany, it would be instantly and properly resisted." Yet the pope sends his envoy to assist us in managing our educational affairs, as though it were his special prerogative. We must say that we consider it the height of meddlesome impudence, deserving sharp and prompt rebuke. But this insult from the pope is not the only one that has been offered us as a people. The following came under our eye the other day. "In November, 1889, in Baltimore, at a great Roman banquet, President Harrison was insulted, assigned a place inferior to the seat of honor at the right, which was given to a Canadian cardinal. They drank the first toast in honor of the pope, and the second to the President." Now we have no quarrel with the President on this matter. If he is pleased with such company and such treatment, he is at liberty to enjoy it. But we decidedly object to our chief executive being relegated to the second place with respect to the old man of the Vatican. What was evidently intended to be taught by the proceeding was, Rome first, America afterwards. In 1891, at the funeral of his daughter at a mass-house in Washington, Secretary Blaine was hissed by the congregation because he did not bend his knee to the wafer. This insult passed unrebuked by Cardinal Gibbons. The greatest barrier to the advance of Romanism in our land to-day is education. Rome can never become triumphant where the masses are equipped with even a common school training. None know this better than the pope and his corps of cardinals and bishops. Their chief point of attack, therefore, is the public school. If she can destroy our public school system, she may hope for success. Till this is done, her hope for supremacy is vain. Every patriotic American should rise to the defense of the public school, as the mightiest barrier against Romanism. Figures given by Dr. Josiah Strong in his invaluable little volume, "Our Country," indicate a growth on the part of the Catholic Church that may well startle the most indifferent. He says: "From 1800 to 1880 the population increased nine-fold, the membership of our evangelical churches twenty-seven fold, and the Catholic population sixty-three fold. . . . From 1850 to 1880 the population increased 116 per cent.; the communicants of evangelical churches, 185 per cent., and the Catholic population, 294 per cent." Dr. J. H. Warren wrote ten years ago what is more apparent than ever to-day: "The Roman Catholic power is fast becoming an overwhelming evil. . . . They blow no trumpets, are sparing with statistics, but are at work night and day to break down the institutions of the country, beginning with the public schools. As surely as we live, so surely will the conflict come, and it will be a hard one." —The Leader (Baptist).