The Annual Conference of the Catholic Truth Society opened at
Newport, Mon., on Monday. Dr. Hadley, the Bishop of the diocese, devoted his presidential address to the immense influence of the modern Press, and the best way of counteracting its hostile influences. He said it was acknow- ledged, from the Holy Father downwards, that the only way to neutralise it was to work a rival Press, since it was quite im- possible to capture it. To promote such a Press was a duty, but the difficulty was not entirely one of funds ; it was how to give a rival Press, moral and religious, anything like the ubiquity of the general Press. In his view, the success of such a scheme depended on their own education; above all, on the University education which they lacked in this country. " Who had done the most effective work in Catholic literature in the last fifty years P Undoubtedly the Oxford and Cam- bridge converts." This he attributed not to individual superiority, but to the fact that the converts bad learned the language of the great world, had mixed with men who knew what excellence was, and had been taught to use their English tongue. In order that the full power of the Catholic body might be exerted on a secular Press by the means of a rival Press, be would like to see "a great company, with a large capital, guided by men of determined businesslike views, with fastidious ideals, and the zealous co-operation of Catholics of position, possessed of literary attainments, throughout the country." We are strongly in favour of all forms of competi- tion in the Press, for nothing in the end does more to keep it in a healthy condition; but with the example of La Croix before us—a paper originally owned and written by a Roman Catholic religious community—we cannot feel very sanguine as to the good effects of the Bishop's scheme, though no doubt an English La Croix would be a very different publication.
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