Note 2 — PUBLIC CHARITIES.

We had intended to give a brief outline of what the church has done from time to time for the various forms of human want, but found we could not do so in the present article without departing from the diversified character essential to a magazine. Such a sketch of the efforts made by the church, during her long history, to alleviate physical suffering, and for the moral elevation of the race, would almost be a history of the church itself, inasmuch as the poor have always been her heritage, in accordance with our Lord’s words. To the Catholic reader this would have been unnecessary; and if this reference serves the purpose of inducing the candid non-Catholic to look into the record, a desirable end will have been accomplished.