Mr. JOHNSON. The purpose of the bill is evidently a proper one, and Iall propose to do by way of amendment is to secure to the parents of vagrant children who are too poor to do anything for them, and who are members of a church, the privilege of having their children turned over to a society which may belong to that church and which may be capable of taking care of them in the way suggested by the bill. I understand that there was at one time in NewYork a bill pretty much like the one upon the table, and the operation of it was found to be very injurious in the estimation of the Catholic church, particularly in what they supposed was the interest of that church. Children were taken up found wandering about the streets and sent to some Protestant association, and the parents never found out where their children were, and had no means of finding out. A society was afterward incorporated in NewYork authorized to take charge of children of that description, and it was made obligatory on the persons whose duty it was to take charge of vagrant children and children without parents to turn them over to the particular church of the parents if it had an association of the kind. We have in the city of Baltimore an institution of that sort, which operates, as I have reason to believe, very beneficially, and it is approved of, not only by members of the Catholic church, but by the members of the other religious societies. I propose, therefore, to amend this bill by inserting as a new section, after the 3rd section, the following: Abife:, That when the said courts omromnyagistrates shall discover from competent testi that the children brought beforethem belong to parents who are members of some particular religious denomination or society.thesechildren shall be handedover by the action of the courts or magis trates or the agentor committee of their respective religious denomination: Provided, It be well ascertained that the latter have madesufficientprovision for the care and protection of such children: A provided also, That the parentsor guardians of the children beimmediatelynotified of such proceedings.