The Government

lines to different management. cannot undertake mining operations and other works for the sake of increasing the traffic. The Midland Great Western, one of the best managed of the lines, has reduced the freight of coal to a halfpenny per ton per mile. If this rate of carriage, with the extraordinary value of coal in the market, does not develop the resources of the coal region round Lough Allen, the Government management could effect no industrial charm. The Midland has also led the way in attaching third-class carriages to every train, and an increase in passenger traffic returns has rewarded the liberality of the directors. The returns of the Great Southern and Western, and of the Ulster railway, also among the best managed lines, have shown steady increase. The details on all disputed points will be brought out in the debate.

As far as I can judge, the public advantage of the purchase of the railways cannot be great, but the risk is also small. If the measure is sought for the benefit of Ireland, and not of the shareholders, its adoption would do no harm, and would furnish additional experience in case the greater question of the purchase of all English railways should arise. This would involve a sum at least twenty times the amount of the Irish investment. It is the old story of the experimentum in corpore vili. The precedent of the rail

ways may prove as remote from practical use as that of the disestablishment of the Church, or the interference with contracts about land tenure. I should like to know whether a home Parliament in Dublin would buy the Irish railways, or whether it is only proposed because the imperial exchequer will furnish the money.

The large amount of patronage is another point to consider. There would need to be stringent rules as to qualifications and appointments, for political recommendations would not here be of the same unimportance as in the post-office service, and other departments not involving safety of life.

Nothing ask, nothing get," seems to be the practical proverb with Irishmen of all grades, from beggar to cardinal. Few people are aware of the enormous sums already granted to Ireland. For the police alone (Dublin and Constabulary) the grant from public revenue is above a million sterling; and the education grant, for national and industrial schools, is about half a million. An amusing illustration of the continual attempts to get grants from public revenue in aid of local taxation was recently reported. An influential deputation came to ask that pensions as well as salaries of poor-law medical officers should be paid by Government. Lord Hartington fenced off the application by humorously suggesting that this

might lead to frequent and early retirements from service.

Of Ireland and the Irish character in the matter of "jobbery" Charles James Fox had a decided opinion, which he thus expressed in a letter to Lord Northington in November, 1783: "This country is reduced low enough, but depend upon it we shall be tired if, year after year, we are to hear of granting something new, or acquiescing in something new, for the sake of pleasing Ireland. I am sure you must feel as I do upon this subject, but situated as you are among Irishmen, who, next to a job for themselves, love nothing so well as a job for their country, and hardly ever seeing anyone who talks to you soundly on our side of the question, it is next to impossible but you must fall insensibly into Irish ideas more than we do, who see the reverse of the picture, and who of course are much more sensible to the reproaches of this country than of that. Ireland appears to me to be like one of her most eminent jobbers, who, after having obtained the Prime Sergeantry, the Secretaryship of State, and twenty other great places, insisted upon the Lord-Lieutenant adding a major's half-pay to the rest of his emoluments."

CHAPTER XXIV.

IRISH NATIONAL EDUCATION.

Historical Sketch-Origin and History of the National Board-Grants now Denominational more than National-Christian Brothers, Schools-The National School Teachers.

A

FEW days before the opening of Parliament

an educational meeting was held at Exeter Hall, by the Birmingham League, at which reference was made to the Irish National Schools. One of the speakers said, "he had opposed the principle of denominational education in England, and he should oppose the principle if it were attempted to be carried out in Ireland." Such a statement, from a member of Parliament too, reveals a strange ignorance of the real conditions of the national system in Ireland, which was probably shared by the crowded audience who applauded the sentiment.

Lord Hartington, on the part of the Government, has stated that no essential change is at present proposed in the Irish system, but it is a question the discussion of which cannot be long postponed, and a

brief statement of the history and actual position of the primary education of Ireland may be useful for reference.

Education in Ireland has taken a wonderful start within the present generation. So far as primary schools are concerned, Ireland is now abreast of the most advanced countries of Europe, at least as to the number of schools to the population, and of pupils on the school rolls. There are now not much under 7,000 National schools, with above a million of enrolled pupils. The average actual attendance, however, is not greatly above a third of the enrolled number. More can be said also in favour of the quantity than the quality of the education. The results can hardly be said to be commensurate with the extent of the organization of the national system, or with the vastness of the sums placed at the disposal of the Board of Commissioners. The parliamentary grants in forty years have been nearly seven and a half millions sterling. This large amount of money is supposed to be applied to purposes of National education; but, in point of fact, the great proportion of it has been under denominational control. In a large portion of the country the schools are wholly under the control of the Roman Catholics.

That this result has been the fault of Protestants themselves is well known. With the exception of a