The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1807-12-17 00:00:00

SOCIETY OP ST. PATRICK.

The following i; the circular letter of that truly
excellent Institution :
BENFVOLENT SOCIETY OF ST. PATRICK,
FOUNDED IC LI RRRRR 01., 21.111 CM 17, IS07•

The Right Hon. Earl FITZ MIL4IAM, Permanent Patron.
In presenting you with a copy of ibis rules and
regulations by which it is proposed to govern this
Society, the Committee can have no doubt that you
will feel rather gratified than offended, at the op-
portunity which is afforded to you of recording
your approbation of this very excellent and lauda-
ble Institution. The donations that have been
made, and the annual subscriptions that have been
entered into, in the support of the Society, ate very
liberal indeed ; and from the little exertioa thAt has
hitherto been made, they may justly be considered
as purely spontaneous. Thus our.benevolent Insti-
tution has opened under prospeas the most pleasing,
and with expeEtAtions of increasing patronei4.e and of
permanent stability.
The great, valuable, and prominent objeft,
which was contemplated in Ireland, by our illus-
trious Patton. namely, the gratuirou, instruEtion of
the poor children of that country, without any
reference to their religious tenets, is the ground-
work upon which we have modelled our intaot In-

stitution.
. In this town we cannot look around us without
Witnessing the numerous monuments of its benefi-
cence as well as greatness; and, considering the
extent of the Irish population, (little, perhaps, if
any, under 10,000,) it certainly ha., with many,
been a matter of astonishment, if not of reproacn,
that the establishment of an institution so conducive
to the general happiness, and so essential to the
public morals, should have been so long deterred.—
We must, however, in justice, assert, that our Eng-
lish friends have, upon all occasions of public
emergency, or of individual calamity. evinced a
spirit of the most enlightened philanthropy. lot
ourselves, too, it may with justice be asserted, that
the very circumstances which made the establish-
ment of the charity essential to the public good,
. did, in a great degree. retard the execution of it ;
for our Irish population, until lately, consisted al-
most exclusively of the poor and distressed classes ;
and the exceptions, even as they exist now, when
estimated with relation to the extent of our Irish
population, are numerically insignificant.
In almost every region of tne world, we find a
promiscuous distribution of the Irish ; but, of the
poorer sort, an excessive share is allotted to us. To
these distressed beings, the instability or the inane-
tions of trade, are the fearful and indubitable as-
surances of misery. 53131: must uniortimattly be
abandoned to those perilous and mischievous pur-
poses, which a condition or unavoidable necessity
is but too apt to create or to encourage; acid des-
titute, perhaps, of food as well as of edugtstioo, they
cannot reasonably be said, in such a utiration, to
aft under the precise or atipropriate iuduence of
choice.
It would be idle and unporposed to utter into any
elaborate exposition of the advantages which must
incontestibly result from subjeCting the children of
the poor to the moral disc.pline of a salwol. It
would be equally idle to deny, that amongst that
' class of the eoromunity, there exists mochsirdostr
of mind, with little or no cultivation. This ardetu
or spirit must derive its particular efficacy from the
natare of the education under which it is regulated;
and, of course, it will shoot forth to evil or to
good, as the culture is heedless or diligent. Indeed,
next to those great and tumultuous evils to which
almost every community is constantly exposed by
the effervescence or irregularity of human pas-
sion, perhaps nothing can be more revolting to the
moral nature of man, tl.an that want of know-
ledge to welch those evils must in general be refer-
red ; and, when we consider how delightful it is,
at all times, to prevent crime, and bow painful it is,
under any circumstances, to inflia punishment—
how few can be said to be innocent without instruc-
tion, or faulty without ignorance—there surely can
be no duty, more exalted in its claims, or more
blessed in its consequences, than that very important
one which calls upon the rich to dispense to the
punr the solid and the permanent advantages of
education.
Such are the animating impulses of patriotism.
that the farther we are removed from our country,
the stronger is our attachment to it—tbe more
dearly do we esteem it. It is the distant branch
that is most deeply rooted to its natiye laud. Indi-
vidually a spirit of charity exists amongst us. That
spirit is eager, alive, and sedulous to discover ob-
jetts upon which to exert. its benevolence; but no
great scheme of benevolence can be accomplished
without the force of general, And of united exer-
tion. In this work of dimity you are earnestly
called upon to participate.
At present the attention of the Society is exclu-
sively diretted to the educating, clothing, and ap-
prenticing of thechildren of the poor and distressed
Irish : to preserve to them the innocence and the
simple integrity of their youth—to establish and
refine the moral feeling—to allure them, by means
that are wise, into the praftice of habits that are
virtuous, will sorely be regarded, even upon the
most common maxims of prudence, as the attain-
ment of very important objets.
As we move on in the increase of our funds, it is
possible that the institution isseit may assume a more
diffusive (butler. We may look to the aged, as
well as to the young, that the indigent may be sup.
plied with food, and the ignorant with light ; and,
in fgt, that the charity may become still more wor-
thy of our Noble Patron, and our beloved country.
Subscriptions and donations will be received by
Messrs. A. Heywood and Co. and Mesas. Roscoe,
Clarke, and Roscoe, bankers, Liverpool; or may be
transmitted. to them through any tespeclabie chan-
nel.
We recommend the insertion of this letter to the
Editors of the London and provincial Journals,
that an opportunity may be given to the benevolent
natives of Ireland, residing in different parts of this
country, to dispense their assistance to the Institu-
tion. The establishment in this town, bring a place
of great TCSOTt with the poor and distre,sed Irish.
may become most extensively useful; end we are
happy to find that it is the wish of several of the
direaurs to bind the pupils, after a suitable educa-
tion, to some of our most expert farmers. Their