The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-25 00:00:00

IRELAND.

Dt LIB JVIKE

The cause of mixed Education in Ireland has sus-
tained a heavy blow and great discouragemen, by
the recent decision of the National Board of C ni-
missioners, under whose guidance and control the
primary schools which receive assistance from Go-
vernment in that country have long been placed.
It is now more than two-and-twenty years since,
at the suggestion of Mr. Wiste., our present
minister at Athens, the national system of
primary instruction was introduced by the
then Whig Government, of which Lord STANLEY,
now Lord DERBY, was a prominent member. The
fundamental idea of that system, as is well known,
was that of mixed education in all things appertain-
ing to moral and intellectual training, while suitable
opportunities for separate sectarian teaching were to
bn rffurded to the pastors of all denominations. To
carry out this purpose, a whole series of class books
was carefully prepared under the joint superin-
tendence and revision of the heads of the
Anglican, Presbyterian, and Roman Cat 11 AM
Churches; and, amongst other manuals of daily
instruction, a volume of extracts from the old
and New Testaments, entited Scrip ure Lessens,
was prepared with elaborate care for the use in com-
mon of children of all persuasions. The intrinsic
excellence and unquestioned fairness displayed in the
compilatiun of the mark, secured fur it tire sanction of
the pious and tolerant of every creed ; and it speedily
became the universal class book of the National
Schools. Some of the more violent polemics in the
itiffst communions objected, it is true; and political
passions were intermingled with controversial bitter-
ness. But while many clergymen of the Established
Church thought fit to denounce the volume of Scrip-

tore extracts as being what they termed ''a
mutilation of the Word of God"—the Roman
Catholics for the most part cheertui:y availed them-
selves of a book which had been prepared and slue-
tioced by Archishop MURRAY, as one of its k)int
editors, and which in point of tact contained nothing
more than the historic facts and moral truths of
Revelation.

Bat things are now changed. 1)r. MunitAir has
been gathered to his fathers, and Dr. CULLEN rules
in his stead. A wholly different spirit has lately
been infused by him into all who come within the
scope of his influence. As the most recently appointed
delegate of the PorE, Archbishop CULLEN has under-
taken to revise and re-constitute the entire discipline
and practice of the Itowan Catholic Church, which
acknowledges him as its provincial head ; and
what his views and intentions are on the subject of
primary instruction is not doubtful. Dr. CULLEN is
the avowed opponent of mixed education. In a
synod of the Roman Catholic bishops and clergy of
the province of Leinster, held during the present
month, an address or pastoral appears to have been
adopted, which has since been published, with the
signature and sanction of Archbishop CULLEN, and
his several suffragans. In this address two
of the books made use of in the National Schools are
denounced by name. The one is a brief manual of
the " Evidences of Christianity," composed by Arch-
bishop WIIATELY, and which, although for several
years made use of without objection in almost every
Roman Catholic diocese in Ireland, is now declared
to be fraught with Protestantising tendencies, and is
consequently henceforth interdicted. But what is
of far more interest and importance is the unqualified
denunciation of the " Scripture Extracts." We quote
from the synodical address the passage which relates
to this subject;
The other work is entitled Scripture Lessons. It an-
teing most difficult 'mileages from the Cid and New Testa-
ments ; and there are questions proposed at the end of
each chapter, which would open the way to the tesching of
false doctrines, and which the unlearned and unwary
might wrest to their own destruction. This little work
appears to have been compiled far the purpose of giving a
united religious instruction to catholic and non-catholic
children in the lame class. We reprobate suds a project.
• • It is contrary to the spirit and practice of our holy
church to sanction united religious instructions, or to sanc-
tion any instruction on matters connected with religion given
to Catholics by persons who themselves reject the teaching of
the Catholic Church. The injunction we now give you to
remove the two little works just mentioned from the hands
of your children will be the more easily carried into effect,
as the rules of the National Board do not at all require the
use of them.

The assertion with which the foregoing interdict
concludes, would ten da)•s ago have excited the
surprise and called forth the contradiction of ninety-
nine out of every hundred persons, connected
either as patrons, teachers, or scholars with the na-
tional system. But the proceedings of the Beard at its
last sitting seem fully to warrant the statement
thus made. The question has, in point of fact, been
for some time one of internal controversy in that
body. Archbishop WIIATELY, Mr. BLACK/WANE
(ex-Chancellor of Ireland), and Mr. BARRON GitEENz,
are said to have contended hat the reading of the
Scripture extracts was by long usage and common
consent, if not by the literal terms of a fundamental
rale, part and parcel of the system founded in 1831.
They therefore urged that any change in the general
administration of the schools, which would in effect
facilitate or sanction the exclusion of the " Scripture
Lesson." as a class book, would amount to
a virtual abrogation of the essential principle on
which the system was based. But these opinions
have, it appears, been overruled by the decisive
vote of a majority of the Commissioners, who have
adopted as a standing rule that wherever the parent
of any child in any school shall object to the reading
of the condemned volumes during school hours, not
only Dr. WHATELEY'S Book of Evidences, but the
extracts from the Bible also, shall be banished from
the schooL

What the ultimate aspect of these cotemporaneous
decisions by the Roman Catholic Synod and the
' National Board of Education may be, it would be pre-
mature to anticipate. But as it is notorious that a
preponderating number of the Commissioners are
Government officials, it is most desirable that the
views of Ministers and of those who are charged with
the conduct of affairs in Ireland should, without any
needless delay, be laid before Parliament and the
country.

A grand horticultural fete, on a scale never at-
tempted before in Dublin, was given yesterday in
the fine botanic gardens of the Royal Dublin So-
ciety at Olasnevin. It was attended by his Excel-
lency the Lord Lieutenant and the Countess of St.
Germans, and by all the persons of ratat and fashion
now assembled in Dublin, and exceeded in success
the most sanguine expectations. A proportionate
falling off in the attendance at the Great Industrial
Exhibition was of course anticipated, but fortu-
nately such was not the result ; for while the season
ticket-holders were drawn off to the Irish Chiswick,
the number of visitors at the Exhibition amounted
Ito some 7,500, and the receipts at the door actually
exceeded the amount of any former day. The work-
ing classes are now beginning to enjoy the wonders
of the new temple of industry, and large excursion
parties are beginning to arrive daily from the coun-
try. One party of 400 arrived yesterday from Dun-
dalk by steamer, and after spending the day at the
Exhibition returned home in the evening.
Mr. John Leaky, of Killarney, has addressed the
electors of Tralee, offering himself as a recruit for the
"Irish independent party." He is a gentleman of
much local influence, and next to Air. Daniel
O'Connell has decidedly the best chance of success.
Some lands in the county of Roscommon were sold
yesterday
.in the Ineumbered Estates Court, and
fetched prices varying from 19 to 24 years' purchase
on the nett yearly rent.

A meeting of the Ulster provincial tenant right de-
puties was held in Belfast on Tuesday, to consider
the Landlord and Tenant Bill now before parliament.
Mr. Sharman Crawford stated hie views on the sub-
ject at some length, and after a good deal of consul-
tation, the following resolution was unanimously
adopted :

That this meeting feels that the bill styled a Tenants'
Compensation Bill, u prepared by the select committee of
the House of Commons, is objectionable and insufficient in
many respect•, both as regards its provisions and its omis-
aions, and in its present form would be wholly unfit for
acceptance by the tenants of Ireland—at the same time, we
do not propose its rejection, but recommend that such alte-
rations and amendments should be made in it as would im-
prove its construction and operation, and render it capable
of being received as an instalment of those claims which the
tenants of Ireland are justly entitled to demand front the
legislature.

A committee was then formed to consider the
amendments which ought to be urged on the House
of Commons, and to communicate with the deputa-
tion appointed at a meeting held in March last, who
are requested by this meeting to continue their
'services.