But Doctorum, the Island of St. Patrick and St. Columba. if the Irish who have not emigrated are not indifferent to education, why has there been no outcry for real reform, why is there so much opposition to compulsory education? Scotland, which for long was quite as poor as Ireland, set her face steadily towards knowledge, and in 1872 was ready before England to undergo compulsion. As to the religious question, the tendency has been continually towards separate schools. In 1870 there were 400,000 Catholics and 27,000 Protestants in schools attended by one denomination only. In 1895 there were 455,000 and 125,000 respectively, in spite of the decline in population. In 1870 in schools taught solely by Catholics there were 25,000 Protestant children, in 1895 16,000'. In 1870, in schools in which some or all of the teachers were Protestants, there were 42,000 Catholic children; in 1895 there were but 17,000, although in 1891 75.4 per cent. of the population were Catholics. And yet in all these schools the absence of children during religious teaching of another denomination was enforced as far as the National Board could enforce it. Mr. Butt in 1865 put it very graphically: 'Walking down King's Inn Street (in Dublin) the passenger may see, divided by a narrow lane, two separate buildings both bearing the inscription of National School. On one side of the lane is a school under the management of the ladies of a convent; on the other side is the school of a Presbyterian Church. Not a single Protestant child attends the one; not a single Roman Catholic child the other. Yet in both religious education is fettered and controlled. . . . In the narrow compass of that lane, about four yards wide, any observer can estimate the reality of the system of united education and the deep practical wisdom of its rules 2' In fine it is clear that the Irish, whether Catholics or Protestants, simply will not have combined education. 1 In 1896 a different basis of reckoning was adopted. 2. PRIVY COUNCIL. The Science and Art Department. The rules and grants of the Science and Art Department apply to Ireland equally with England; but for elementary drawing and manual training the Department limits its aid to such schools as are not under the National Board. In 1897 eighty-seven schools (of which sixty-seven belonged to the Christian Brothers) earned £1,071 for the drawing of 14,304 children in average attendance', but the grant amounted only to Is. 6d. per head, against an average of IS. 8d. in Scotland and Is. 9d. in England and Wales 2. Only two Irish schools received grants for manual instruction in 1897, both belonging to the Christian Brothers. Apparently the transfer of drawing and manual training to the Education Departments in England and Scotland has not affected the arrangement in Ireland, which is now the only country where the Science and Art Department takes cognizance of elementary teaching in these subjects. The extreme need of Ireland for more instruction in drawing is shown by the fact that in 1897 only 31 per cent. of all the children in the National Schools were taught this subject, and only 24 per cent. passed in it. Owing to the withdrawal of grants for second class passes by South Kensington, Elementary Science has 'practically disappeared from the primary schools of Ireland 3.' 3. THE COMMISSIONERS OF EDUCATION IN IRELAND. 4. THE COMMISSIONERS OF CHARITABLE DONATIONS AND BEQUESTS. 5. EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENTS (IRELAND) COMMIS SIONERS. These Commissions have filled relatively so much larger a part in the history of Secondary Education that 11870: about 30 schools. 1880: 12 schools. 1890: 48 schools. 2 Forty-fifth Report of Science and Art Department, p. xxix; Appendix, p. 643. 3 Belmore Report, p. 36. I have placed them under that heading, and they will be found at page 203. But it must be remembered that they deal also with endowments for elementary education, and that it is only because so much more public money has been granted to the lower branch that its endowments have been of comparatively little importance to it of late years. Thus in 1791 of an income of £30,000 arising from educational endowments, £22,000 sooner or later was applied to elementary foundations; and in 1838 there were 349 elementary endowed schools in Ireland, exclusive of the Erasmus Smith and Royal foundations 2. 6. THE HOME SECRETARY FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM. i. The Factory Acts. The English Acts have applied to Ireland from the beginning. The English Education Act of 1876 did not apply the Factory Act of 1874 to non-textile factories in Ireland, but this was remedied by the Factory Act of 1878. There are three Inspectors in Ireland who report to the chief office in London. But in 1893 there were only 204 schools attended by factory children, nearly all of them in the North of Ireland 3. Under 41 Vict. c. 16 a certified efficient school in Ireland is defined as 'any national school or any school recognized by the Lord Lieutenant or Privy Council as affording sufficient means of literary education for purposes of this Act.' ii. Mines. The first Acts which applied to Ireland were the Coal Mines Regulation Act and the Metalliferous Mines Act in 1 Kildare Report, i. 18. 2 Wyse Select Committee Report, p. 9. 3 Report on Child Labour, P. P., 1893, No. 311, p. 27. 1872', but since that date the law has been the same throughout the United Kingdom. 7. THE GENERAL PRISONS BOARD. Prisons in Ireland were regulated after 1826 by 7 Geo. IV, c. 74, and various amending Acts. There was a Board of Superintendence appointed by the Grand Juries, with whom also the appointment of all officers rested. In 1843 Gaol Schools were placed on the same footing as Workhouse Schools, and grants of books made on similar terms by the Commissioners of National Education. In 1853 gratuities were paid to teachers in special cases. In 1868 thirty-eight masters and twenty-three mistresses were employed in thirty-six gaols. Thirteen of these schools were connected with the National Board, but only four received gratuities 2. The General Prisons Board was constituted in November, 1877, under 40 and 41 Vict. c. 493, and they insisted on the rule for separate confinement being observed. The Commissioners of National Education refused to allow their Inspector to examine prisoners in separate cells, and so the privilege of their inspection was withdrawn 1. 8. THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND. Reformatories and Industrial Schools. The Irish system of the Reformatories and Industrial Schools was created by and is administered under different Acts from those in force in Great Britain, but the Irish Acts were modelled on the statutes already passed in this country, and, as far as education is concerned, the differences lie rather in the application of the principles than in the measures themselves. The Chief Secretary for Ireland 1 35 & 36 Vict. c. 76 and c. 77. 2 Powis, i. 478. 3 The appointment of all officers rests with the Lord Lieutenant, subject to the approval of the Treasury (Art. 5). First Report of Prisons Board for 1879, p. 11. takes in these Acts the place of the Home Secretary in England. Reformatories. The first Act for the establishment of Reformatories was passed in 1858', and this was repealed and replaced in 1868 by the Irish Reformatory Schools Act 2. In 1881 44 and 45 Vict. c. 29 gave power to Grand Juries and the Town Councils of Dublin, Limerick, and Cork to contribute to their establishment or maintenance, and to borrow money for building. Industrial Schools. The Industrial Schools (Ireland) Act was passed in 1868. The Inspector of Reformatories in Ireland was to be identical with the Inspector of Industrial Schools. 43 and 44 Vict. c. 151, enabling children found living with prostitutes to be sent to Industrial Schools, applied to Ireland. The chief differences between the English and Irish laws are that in Ireland neither to Reformatories nor Industrial Schools may any child or juvenile offender be sent, except to an institution under the exclusive management of persons of the same religious persuasion as that professed by the parents or guardians of the pupil 5. With this exception there is but little difference between the Reformatories of the two countries as far as the letter of the law is concerned ". With certified Industrial Schools the other chief distinctions are that in Ireland a parent cannot get a refractory child committed to a certified Industrial School, even on payment; nor is a child admitted, one of whose parents has been convicted of a crime or offence punishable with 1 21 & 22 Vict. c. 103. 3 Ibid. c. 25. 2 31 & 32 Vict. c. 59. • Vide p. 57. 5 This rule led in 1895 to the closing of the only female Protestant Reformatory in Ireland from want of inmates, and Protestant girls eligible for a Reformatory now have to be sent to prison (Report of Inspector of Reformatories and Industrial Schools in Ireland for 1895). For a list of the variations, vide Aberdare Report, i. paragraph 87, and Appendix A. 9. |