The Express.
London, England, 1853-07-05 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL SCHOOLS OF IRELAND.

(Pros the Daily IV, we.)
THE serious question has now arisen : What is to
be done to preserve the great hope of Ireland—its
National Schools? It can be no surprise to anybody
that the difficulty hus arisen—that that collision
between Catholic and Protestant principles and feel-
ings has come to pass which must always have been •
mere question of time. The wonder is that the
system should have worked for twenty years. And
it is an inestimable blessing that it has so worked ;
for it has provided a new generation of well.troined
and enlightened young people; and several hun-
dreds of well-qualified teachers, who will spread its
benefits forward still, into many future years. That
this has been effected is matter for earnest gratitude
on behalf of Ireland. That such a blessing should
be preserved to Ireland in the existing crisis of her
fortunes, when she may, if duly supported, ris'‘ into a
position of security and tranquillity, is now one of
the foremost claims on the thoughtfulness and kind-

linen of every one of us who knows or cares anything
about the need of Education in Ireland, and the way
in which that need has been met for twenty years
past.
The Catholic Clergy arc re-opening the religions
question, which has been managed with so much
delicacy and auxious care all these years. Tim
Board has condemned and banished the selections
from Scripture originally agreed to, and used in tho
schools from time beginning : and also a volume of
" Christian Evidences," prepared by Archbisl•op
WIIATELY. It is understood that the Archbis.hop
and one or two other eminent members of the
Board are about to withdraw. if they have not
already done so. The anticipated coikequence
is that the schools will coast, to comprehend
Catholic and I'rotestant cbildr.n and teachers in
training. That the Catholics should withdraw from
the benefits of the system which they are now at-

tempting to engross is not to be expected; nor yet,
that they should be permitted to Lute it to them-
selves. The vast number of workhouse schools in

connexion with the system renders such an issue im-
possible. Some conclasion must be conic to, and
that immediately. • •
What then is to be done? Is the system to till?
Is this greatest of blessings to be snatched front
the Irish people? By no means. If we are wise
and courageous, it may continue to be the blessing it
has been, to future generations us to the past. If
it is boldly admitted that the system must be one of
secular education, leaving, as now, the religious
training to the ministers of the respective setts,—
carefully affording time and opportunity for retch
teaching, and treating it with entire respect in nll its
manifestations, all the good of the system may not
only remain, hut become secure, instead of
' precarious. None but those who live on the spot,
or who have watched the whole transaction irons
the beginning, can hive any conception of the
anxiety, the unremitting vigilance, the painful ap-
prehension that has been caused, through all this
long course of years, by the attempt, as fielder's as
benevolent, to achieve the impossible, and maintain
peace among the very elements of discord. There
has never been any reconciliation of principles, but
only a waiving of them. There has never been any
true union, but only an arbitrary junctiun of powers,
determined by superior difficulties, which could
be only temporary. The old Kildare-street Society
thought that it had done everything liberal
in permitting the reading of the Bible, without note
or comment ; but the reading was enfireed, and of
course Catholic children were excluded. "It seems

to have been overlooked," wrote Lord DEmitv in
1831, "that the principles of the Roman Catholic
Church (to which,in any system intended for general
diffusion throughout Ireland, the bulk of the pupils
must necessarily belong) were totelly at variance
with this prireiple, and that the indiscriminate
reading of the Holy Scriptures, without note or com-
ment, by children, must be peculiarly obnoxious to
a church which denies, even to adults, the right of
unaided private interpretation of the sacred volume
with respect to articles of religious belief." So the elii I-
dren were driven to the hedge schools or none ; un
evil which the Catholics felt so severe!) that some of
their prelates hailed with joy the offer of a system
from which they might extract the benefit of a better
education with a very small exposure to the dangers
of heresy. Bishop DOYLE wrote to his clergy in
December, 1831—" The rule which requires that all
teachers henceforth to be employed be provided from
some model school, with a certificate of their compe-
tency, will aid us in a work of great difficulty—to
wit, that of suppressing hedge schools and placing
youth under the direction of competent teachers,
and of those only." In view of the new and vast
advantage Bishop DOYLE lost sight of the
principles of his own church, and wrote like a
Protestant, as did many other Ca:holies
who were at that time using the Protestant
plea of liberty of conscience. " This assumption'. (of
the Commissioners claiming to control the books to
be used in schools) " would produce evil if the Com-
missioners sought to corrupt the education of the
Irish people. We defy them to do so, even if they
were so minded ; but they are not. Their purpose is
upright ; their views are to promote education, reli-
gious as well as literary, and to preserve full and en-
tire freedom of conscience." But the approbation on
the part of Catholics, of liberty of conscience, can
never be more than a transient phase of their adver-
sity. This is not said in censure, but in sympathy.
Believing, as they do, that there is no salvation
but in their own Church, they cannot, in
common humanity, permit liberty of conscience, but
as a temporary means of sustaining, and a means of
the future extension of their Church ; and the plea
must dissolve under any marked change of political
or social circumstances. That change is now taking
place. The social amelioration of Ireland brings
with it a new kind of adversity to the Catholic
Church in that land. The prodigious emigration
which has long been going on is of Catholics, almost
exclusively. A multitude of priests have lost all
their parishioners; and in many rural dis-
tricts, where their power was supreme, and
where throngs used to gather to religions
festivals, the pastor now wanders alone,
to take a last look at the silent moors and deserted
villages, before repairing to some distant place where
his function may still be in request. Those who have
departed are but too likely, he knows, to leave their
Church for that of their Protestant neighbours in
. America and Australia. Again, there is the great
r Protestant conversion movement in the west and
south, drawing away thousands and unsettling the
obedience of thousands more. Liberty of conscience is
no plea for Catholics under such circumstances, and
. no one can wonder that they are trying to use
, such power as they have, through the Education
, Board, as everywhere else. At this remarkable
i crisis something must be done; and to thoughtful
and dispassionate observers it is clear that there is
only one thing to be done—to commit the religious
training of the children of Ireland wholly and en-
, tirely to the ministers of their respective Churches,
and to render the system of education altogether
secular, affording every facility for religious teaching
to those whom it concerns. We wish we had any
confident hope that this will be done—timely, and
with a good grace. If it be not done, the scene of
rain will be more mournful than all the other seen,
of ruin in the land. It is sad to sea
unroofed villages, and hearths overgrown with
nettles and docks, and burial-grounds trodden level
by cattle, and their broken crosses scattered about;
but it will be worse to see nearly 5,000 school houses
t closed, and the 400,000 children now on the rolis
turned adrift. Instead of struggling further for an
object which is, on the face of it, unattainable for a
I permanence, we must be wise, and secure that vast
benefit of intellectual and moral training for the
, children of Ireland which remains in our power.

MAD DOG.—Ths• dog that we noticed in our paper
of Friday last as runriug at large in Parr, deottoyinz
several hens, and which was shot by Mr. Reeves, belonged
to Mr. !Wiley, gam, keeps r. of Bold. On Saturday, tie
18th of June. the 'tog had bitten one of Mr. Ridley's sons,
who is an assistant gamekeeper, nn the nose, and inflicted
serious it not dangerous injury. The young man has bet n
under medical treatment ever since. Mr. Braybroek, the
owner of the game at Bold, on hearing of the cirt
directed that all his dogs which were under Mr. Bartley '3
core should be killed. and ten valuable dogs have sint e been
destroyed. On Saturday morning, a dog answering the
description of the rabid animal entered the ground, of
Michael Hughes, Reg,. Sutton, and bit a dog Lelonging to
that gentleman, worth W., and which It.ia since been
destroyed. On the same day, three dogs, belonging to
Mr. Menthall farmer, Sutton, were bitten by a strange
dog, all of which have since been destroyed.—Livelroui
Msrawy.