sures can be entirely successful.” The abolition or commutation of tithes would relieve the peasantry from a most oppressive, arbitrary, and ruinous impost. And the consolidation of the governments of the two countries, with the reformation of the magistracy and civil power, would go far to take away the spirit of partisanship from the acts of the executive, at the same time that it would give the people confidence in the administration of the laws, and provide for their being carried into effect by cheap, adequate, and constitutional means. Hitherto the dominant party have overlooked the real cause of the disturbances and atrocities of which Ireland has been the theatre. It does not lie in the perverse habits and inclinations of the wretches whom they have browbeaten, oppressed, and sent to the gallows, but in themselves in their own domineering, rapacious, and intolerant behaviour. If they reform their own conduct entirely, the poor, they may be assured, will not be long in reforming theirs. Let them bear in mind that “ exile and death are not the instruments of government, but the miserable expedients which show the absence of all government.”+ Let them treat the peasantry as men who ought to be as free, and who have the same rights and feelings as themselves, and those disorders which are the result of religious and political habits and animosities, will soon cease to disturb the peace and tranquillity of society.

IV. Education.-But although it is unquestionably true that much of the turbulence and disorderly habits of the Irish people have their source in the political and religious oppressions to which they are subjected, it is no less true that much also is owing to their ignorance, poverty, and redundant numbers. The adoption of the measures we have already suggested, will do a great deal to promote the tranquillity and prosperity of the country; but, to render them completely effectual, they must be combined with others. A vigorous effort must be made to change the habits of the people—to wean them from idleness to industry, and to induce them to exercise a little more prudence and forethought in the formation of matrimonial connexions. We do not wish to underrate the difficulties which must always oppose every plan which has for its object to effect any considerable change in the habits of the bulk of the people; but these difficulties are not insuperable. And the astonishing increase of population in Ireland, the habitual and growing poverty of the people, and their total incapacity to provide for themselves in seasons of scarcity, are evils of the first magnitude, and call upon government immediately to adopt such measures as may tend to arrest the progress of pauperism, and, if possible, to lessen its amount.

Of the different measures which have been proposed as likely to attain this object, none have been more generally recommended than the extension of education. But we are of opinion, that infinitely more benefit would result from the adoption of a different system of education, than can ever result from the utmost extension of the present system. The Irish are ignorant; but they are not ignorant in the common acceptation of the word. In so far as mere reading and writing are concerned, they are quite as well, if not better instructed

• Mr. Plunketi's Speech, 26th April, 1816.

*

than the English. But the schoolmasters of England, and, more emphatically still, of Scotland, are a highly respectable, as well as a most useful body of men. Besides instructing their pupils in the elementary branches of education, reading, writing, and arithmetic, they have imbued their minds with a deep sense of the obligations of religion and morality, and with a just respect for the laws and institutions of their country. But such, we regret to say, has not been the line of conduct pursued by the greater number of the country schoolmasters of Ireland. They have not enforced a regard for the benevolent precepts of the gospel on the infant minds of those entrusted to their charge, and they have sedulously inculcated not a respect, but a contempt, for the laws and institutions of the country. “ Instead of expanding, the education of the Irish peasantry has served to narrow their minds; and instead of inspiring them with notions of morality, it has paved the way for the commission of every species of vice."*

“ The country schoolmaster," says the well informed and liberal author of the • Thoughts and Suggestions on the Education of the Peasantry of Ireland,' “is independent of all system and control; he is himself one of the people, imbued with the same prejudices, influenced by the same feelings, subject to the same habits; to his little store of learning he generally adds some traditionary tales of the country, of a character to keep alive discontent. He is the scribe, as well as the chronicler, and the pedagogue of his little circle,-he writes their letters, and derives from this no small degree of influence and profit; but he has open to him another source of deeper interest and greater emolument, which he seldom has virtue enough to leave unexplored-he is the centre of the mystery of rustic iniquity, the cheap attorney of the neighbourhood, and, furnished with his little book of precedents, the fabricator of false leases, and surreptitious deeds and conveyances. Possessed of important secrets and of useful information, he is courted and caressed; a cordial reception and the usual allowance of whiskey greets his approach ; and he completes his character by adding inebriety to his other accomplishments. Such is frequently the rural schoolmaster,-a personage whom Poe. try would adorn with primeval innocence, and all the flowers of her garland! So true it is that ignorance is not simplicity, nor rudeness honesty." p. 12.

And yet it does not appear to us that either the schoolmasters or the people are to blame—the fault is not theirs, but ours. The immorality, prejudices, and disaffection of the one and the other, are the result of the persecution they have undergone. Instead of establishing parochial, or other schools for the education of the poor Catholics, we actually forbad their instruction. Under pretence of discouraging popery, laws were enacted, prohibiting, under heavy penalties, any Catholic from teaching in any school, or instructing youth either publicly or privately! It is highly to the credit of the Irish people, that their taste for knowledge was not altogether effaced by eighty years operation of these brutal and disgusting statutes. But their tyranny and injustice were too gross and glaring to render their rigorous execution possible. In summer, the children of the peasantry sought instruction from their teachers beneath hedges, in the open air; and in winter, they followed them to some miserable hovel. Surely, however, it was not to be expected that men exposed to so unmerited, and so intolerable a persecution, were to inculcate moderation and the forgiveness of injuries—or that the victims of injustice

P. 39.

Essay on the Condition and Manners of the Irish Peasantry, by Dr. Bell. + 7th William III. cap. 4. $ 9.; Sth Anne, cap. 3. $ 16.

and oppression were to enforce the duty of obedience to government, and of respect for the laws! Gratitude is one of the strongest marked traits in the Irish character; and, had the schoolmasters been kindly treated, they would, doubtless, have laboured to promote the interests of government; but, finding themselves persecuted and oppressed, they laboured to instil a rooted hatred of the English name and nation, and of the professors of the Protestant religion, into the minds of their pupils. They represented the English as plunderers, who had robbed them of their lands, and reduced them to a state of bondage, and as infidels who had abjured the only true faith ; and they taught them, that it was their duty to avail themselves of the first favourable opportunity for expelling the invaders from their shores, and for repossessing themselves of that property they had usurped. Every one who knows any thing of the state of Ireland, knows what a powerfully disastrous influence this early training has had on the public mind.

The laws prohibiting Catholics from teaching, were repealed in 1782; but the infection which they generated has not yet been extirpated. It has been sheltered and protected by the miserable remnant of the penal code. Men naturally hate and undervalue that in which they are not permitted to participate. And so long as emancipation is withheld, it will be worse than idle to expect that the Catholic schoolmasters should be sincerely attached to the institutions of the country, or that they should seriously inculcate a respect for them.

The poor and dependent condition of the schoolmasters is also productive of very bad effects. Their salaries are so small, that no respectable, or well educated man, would choose to devote himself to so unprofitable and irksome an occupation. Neither are the books generally used in the schools of the class best fitted to instruct and inform the mind. So far indeed from this being the case, they are, with a very few exceptions, of the very worst description. For the most part, they consist of the lives of thieves, witches, smugglers, and prostitutes, or of wild and extravagant tales; of books which either tend to inflame and strengthen the worst passions, or to fill the mind with extravagant and absurd notions of real life. It is an abuse of language to say that people taught to read only such books are educated. They are worse than ignorant. Their understanding is depraved and perverted. To learn, they must begin by unlearning most of what they have already acquired.

There is no country in which larger sums have been expended ostensibly for the purposes of education than Ireland. Seven royal

a

* Mr. Wakefield has given (vol. ii. p. 400) a list of some of the common school and cottage classics of Ireland. It contains, amongst others, the “ History of the Seven Champions of Christendom;” “History of Fair Rosamond and Jane Shore,” two prostitutes;" “Ovid's Art of Love;" “ Devil and Dr. Faustus ;” “Moll Flanders;” “ Mendoza's New System of Boxing;” “History of Donna Rozina,” a Spanish pros. titute, &c. &c. Mr. Wakefield's censure has not abated the nuisance. In the debate on Sir John Newport's motion, 220 April, Mr. Spring Rice stated there were 8000 schoolmasters in Ireland :-“Ainong these, however, he was sorry to say there existed much mischief. In some of the schools he knew pernicious books were used. In one instance he had found that the text book for the boys was the history of a famous robber, the Captain Rock of some fifty years ago.” Mr. Grant corroborated Mr. Rice's statements, “ The schoolmasters and the books,” he observed,

were of the very worst species."

66

schools were founded by Charles I., and endowed with large estates by Charles II. But the funds have, in most cases, been perverted to very different purposes from the education of youth. Dr. Bell mentions, that he "knew one of these schools, from which the master, a beneficed clergyman, who never went near it, received £1500 a year, while the usher, a man of learning, who did all the duty, received only £40."* Neither does it appear that the state of these schools has been improved since. The estates belonging to them are generally let far below their real value, and the rents are principally divided among nominal or honorary masters. When Mr. Wakefield was in Ireland, the rental of the estates belonging to the Cavan school amounted to £900 a year, but there was not a single scholar. “ Who," asks Mr. Wakefield," will talk of lower orders after such an exposure as this?"

Besides the royal schools, there are thirty-nine charter schools. These schools were founded in 1733, for the laudable purpose" of instructing the Popish and other poor natives in the English tongue." But the religious prejudices of the Ultra-Protestants, to whom the charge of these establishments was committed, have produced a total failure in the objects for which they were avowedly intended. Their real object has been to make proselytes, not scholars. But instead of accomplishing this object, they have made only enemies; and their proceedings have tended, in no slight degree, to exasperate the different sects, against each other. They have always been regarded with peculiar aversion by the Catholics. We are told by Mr. Wakefield, that the lower class of Catholics seldom pass one of these schools without giving vent to their feelings in curses and execrations. Nor can it be denied that they have had pretty good grounds for their disgust. Mr. Wakefield has given the following extract from a Catechism which was very lately, if it be not still, in use in the charter schools.

"Q.—Is the Church of Rome a sound and uncorrupt Church? "A.-No. It is extremely corrupt in doctrine and practice.

"Q.-What do you think of the frequent crossings upon which the Papists lay so great a stress?

"A.-They are vain and superstitious. The worship of the Crucifixion, or figure of Christ upon the Cross, is idolatrous; and the adoring and praying to the Cross itself is, of all the corruptions of the Popish worship, the most gross and intolerable."

"I am persuaded," says Mr. Wakefield, "that it is impossible for any but a member of the Church of Rome to judge of the feelings of a parent of that sect, who knows that his child is brought up to abhor and condemn every rite which he has been taught to venerate." (vol. ii. p. 412.)

The support of these nurseries of bigotry and intolerance costs the public upwards of £30,000 a year, besides about £10,000 a year derived from private sources. They are supposed to have, on an average, about 2000 scholars, which gives an annual expense of £20 a year for each.

In addition to these establishments, there are twenty diocesan schools with considerable revenues; thirty-three publicly endowed classical schools with a revenue of about £9000 a year; fourteen classical schools endowed by individuals, two of which are possessed of estates yielding an annual revenue of about £1500 a year; four classical

* Condition and Manners of the Irish Peasantry, p. 43.

schools, on the endowment of Erasmus Smith, with a revenue of £4000 a year; and a vast number of schools on private foundations, some of them with large revenues, for instruction in English, writing, &c. If to these we add the sums expended on the Blue-Coat Hospital, and the Hibernian School at Dublin, &c., it will be seen that there are in Ireland ample funds, had they been properly administered, to have provided for the instruction of a large proportion of the people. But most of these funds have been wholly misapplied and perverted; and the late extension of education has been chiefly owing to the laudable efforts of the various benevolent associations for providing for the instruction of the Irish poor. Altogether, there are at present in Ireland no fewer than 8000 schools of all descriptions, which are supposed to be attend. ed by about 400,000 scholars.*

But, great as have been the efforts of these societies, nothing short of the establishment of Catholic parochial schools, will ever secure a proper system of education for the Irish people. Something of degradation must always attach to the idea of being educated in a school which is wholly, or even partially, supported by charitable contributions. The parents of the children who attend such schools, and even the children themselves, cannot but feel that they are there only because they are paupers, dependent on the bounty of others; and this feeling has a strong tendency to destroy that sense of manly independence, of moral dignity, and of self-respect, for the want of which no education can compensate. We would not have the people of Ireland educated by an eleemosynary system, but by such a system as is established in this country. We would bring education within their reach. We would do this, however, not by beating up for alms in every corner of the kingdom, but by a grand legislative measure, establishing public, and not charity, schools in every parish, where both poor and rich would be placed on a footing of equality, and where the fees would be moderate.

Besides the grants already mentioned, Government gives £8000 or £9000 a year towards the support of the Catholic College at Maynooth. This establishment is of the greatest utility. It has prevented the Catholic youth destined for the Church from seeking their education in foreign countries, and must thereby have prevented their imbibing many prejudices hostile to the public interests. The grant from Government only affords a pittance of about £25 or £30 to each professor and an allowance of about as much to each student. The students, who amount to about 250, have to pay £9 25. of entry-money, and to provide themselves with clothes, books, &c. Considering the vast importance of having the Catholic priesthood well educated, and considering also the great poverty of that body, we certainly think that the grant given by Government to this College ought to be greatly increased. We despise the miserable economy of those who would save a few thousand pounds, by stinting the education of those who are to be the instructers and spiritual guides of so large a proportion of the people. But the grant to Maynooth might be sufficiently increased, without costing the public a single additional sixpence. Now that the folly of the attempts at proselytism has become obvious, there can be no reason whatever for continuing the grant to the charter schools. The

Mr. Grant's Speech, 220 April, 1822. VOL. I. No. 4.-Museum.

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