The Sun.
London, England, 1837-02-28 00:00:00

IRISII EDUCATION,

Viscount MELBOURNE rose and said—My Lords, in
rising to submit to your Lordships the motion of which I had
given notice, in urging the propriety of the appointment of a
Committee to consider the plan of education which has been
established for some years in Ireland--in urging an inquiry
into the whole proceedings of that system of education—into
the whole manner in which the expenditure connected with it
—the whole mode of education presented by the Com-
missioners—the manner in which they have acted, and the
effects which may be expected to result from it—l
api rehend that it will not be necessary for me to enter into
any very lengthened detail or very extended arguments, as I
consider that on the present occasion it will be better to ab.
stain from all topics calculated to excite political dis-
cussion, and to avoid all matters which might produce
that warmth of debate which on former occasions characterised
the discussions both here and in the other House on this sub-
ject.—( Hear.) My Lords, as I shall go into a full, fair, calm,
and dispassionate inquiry into the operations of this system of
education, I think it better in doing so to avoid whatever may
be calculated to promote that eagerness of debate, or to in-
flame those • passions which are so easily excited.—( Hear,
hear.) In respect to the question itself, your Lordships arc
perfectly well acquainted with its merits ; your Lordships
are aware that at the commencement of the present Ses-
sion the attention of Parliament was called to the state of
Ireland, and particularly to the expediency, the necessity, and
the great desirableness of extending to that country the bene-
fits of education, which are the source of all morality, the
source of all religion, the source of -all order—of good order
and peace ; and your Loaships know that they have produced
sueh effects in other parts of his Majesty's dominions 'Year
Lordships are also aware that Commissioners had been ap-
pointed to inquire into this subject, and they recommend what
I am ig-lad to see has been recommended in the petition pre-
sented by the Noble Lord on the subject ; and your Lord-
ship's arc also aware that Government, in pursuing the regula-
tions recommended by those Commissioners, whether they
were right or wrong, made a grant to a society which your
Lordships know then existed in Ireland—the Kildare-place
society—( Hear, hear)--of their proceedings, the number of
their schools, and the number of children connected with them,
your Lordships arc aware, and also of the discontent which the
proceeding-3 of that society—into the causes of this, how-
ever, I shall not enter upon this occasion—( Hear)--but the
discontent to which I have alluded was created, and existed to
a great extent in the public mind as to the proceedings of the
society, and the manner in which their schools were conducted
—and in conssqusnee the Government, shortly after it came
;nto power, proposed to Parliament the presenr system of edu-
cation which is to-night to be the subject of consideration.
That system was proposed in the month of November, 1831 ;
it was carried by the Parliament, and a Board of Commis-
sioners were appointed, who proceeded to carry it into effect,
under the directions contained in a letter written by my Hon.
Friend ( Lord Stanley), at that time Chief Secretary to the
Board. In the month of March following the Noble
Earl opposite brought the matter under the consideration
of this House by moving a series of resolutions inculpatory
and condemnatory of that system, but these Resolutions were
not acceded to by the House. It was afterwards made the
subject of repeated discussions, but no direct motion was made
on the subject until within the last Session, when the Right
Rev. Prelate who has just now presented these petitions to
the House, made a motion for a Select Committee to en-
quire into the subject, at the same time stating that it was not
his intention to overthrow or destroy that system, and if such
a motion was entertained by his Majesty's Government, he
should not persevere in it, and that motion was subsequently
withdrawn. My Lords, I think, considering the tine this system
has been in progress, now more than six years—considering
the progress it has made I think it is prudent and wise in your
Lordships to institute an inquiry into the manner in which it
has been carried on, and the mode in which it has operated.
—( Hear, hear.) There are several reasons for this, and
although I do not wish to countenance the attacks made
upon the Commissioners or the system—although I do not
mean to give any countenance to tisem, yet the difference of
()pillion that still continues to prevail, and the various complaints
that have been made, and the quarters from
.whence they come
call upon your Lordships to give it your serious consideration,