ity of Virginia was a charity, or that it came
before the courts claiming of the law of that State protection as
such. It stood on its charter.

I repeat again, before closing this part of my argument, the
proposition, important as I believe it to be, for your honors'
consideration, that the proposed school, in its true character, objects,
and tendencies, is derogatory to Christianity and religion. If it be so,
then I maintain that it cannot be considered a charity, and as such
entitled to the just protection and support of a court of equity. I
consider this the great question for the consideration of this court. I
may be excused for pressing it on the attention of your honors. It is
one which, in its decision, is to influence the happiness, the temporal
and the eternal welfare, of one hundred millions of human beings, alive
and to be born, in this land. Its decision will give a hue to the
apparent character of our institutions; it will be a comment on their
spirit to the whole Christian world. I again press the question to your
honors: _Is a clear, plain, positive system for the instruction of
children, founded on clear and plain objects of infidelity, a charity in
the eye of the law, and as such entitled to the privileges awarded to
charities in a court of equity?_ And with this, I leave this part of the
case.

THIRD DAY.

I shall now, may it please your honors, proceed to inquire whether there
is, in the State of Pennsylvania, any settled public policy to which
this school, as planned by Mr. Girard in his will, is in opposition; for
it follows, that, if there be any settled public policy in the laws of
Pennsylvania on this subject, then any school, or scheme, or system,
which tends to subvert this public policy, cannot be entitled to the
protection of a court of equity. It will not be denied that there is a
general public policy in that, as in all States, drawn from its history
and its laws. And it will not be denied that any scheme or school of
education which directly opposes this is not to be favored by the
courts. Pennsylvania is a free and independent State. She has a popular
government, a system of trial by jury, of free suffrage, of vote by
ballot, of alienability of property. All these form part of the general
public policy of Pennsylvania. Any man who shall go into that State can
speak and write as much as he pleases against a popular form of
government, freedom of suffrage, trial by jury, a