The Sun.
London, England, 1837-10-23 00:00:00

' justice, to give to all their due, and what are we to think o€
of a church which cannot afford to do this without ex-
' posing herself to danger?—(Cheers.) Gentlemen, there
is no branch of the policy of her M‘ij. sty's Ministers
which is more virtually opposed by the Toi ies, and in
regard to which greater misrepresentation prevails tliirn
the National System of Education in Ireland, Now, it
is the distinctire character of this system that its (Avail-
! tars arc open to all classes of the community—it giro 00
supet'iority to owl rr!llgiuus ticnornirlatiun over antot,r,
Ott much had 1 hoard of the irreligious, anJ
popish character of this plan of education, asserted by
those who ought to assert nothing but the truth, and Who
ought to know that it is the truth before they assert it,
that I actually procured copies of the different books lips
pointed by the National Board to be used in the schools,
and after carefully examining them, I declare it to be my
solemn conviction, that the education supported by. the
government in Ireland is more imbued with Christianity—
contains a larger proportion of the religion and morality of
the Bible, and of the reading of the Scripture, than the
parochial school education of Scotland. - This of course,
gentlemen, is merely my opinion, and you may attach
what value to it you please ; but you have it in your power
to judge for yourselves at the expense of a few shillings ;
and if any of you entertain any doubts as to the excellence
of this education, I would entreat you to satisfy yourselves
by procuring copies of the books anti portions of the Scrip-
tures, and regulations of the schools, and I have not the
smallest, doubt hut you will be astonished at the state-
ments which from time to time are put forth on this sub-
ject. I shall just read you a sentence from one of these
statements, by the Rev. Hugh Stowell, at the anniversary
meeting of the Hibernian Society :—" I solemnly avow
that the prevailing opinion of the Irish clergy is, that they
would actually prefer the barbarism of utter ignorance—
rather have no education at all for the peasantry, than the
insidious and pernicious system of the National Board."
Gentlemen, you all know that this system of education
which these Reverend Gentlemen, who love the darkness
and hate the light, declare to be worse than the barbarism
of utter ignorance, was introduced by Lord Stanley, and
that during the short period when Sir Robert Peel was
last in office, and which I hope is the last time that ever
he will be in office—(lmmense cheering)—he announced
his determination to increase the grant from the National
Treasury for extending this pernicious system of educa-
tion ; and although there were from thirty to forty ministers
of the Church of Scotland present at the great Tory ga-
thering in Glasgow in January last, every one of them try-
ing who should render the most profound homage to Sir
Robert, not one of them moved a lip against the Irish Edu-
cation. Yet, I believe, gentlemen, many Tories are ho-
nestly opposed to it on account of its liberality, because it
makes no invidious distinctions between any classes of her
Majesty's subjects on account of religion, but is equally
accessible to Churchman and Dissenter, to Catholic and
Protestant. It is a religious, a Christian, but not a secta-
rian education—it is thoroughly pervaded by the spirit of
Christianity, but contains nothing of the spirit of party.
It is not committed to the management of any particular
denomination, and in my opinion it is deeply to be la-
mented that ever this was the case with the education of
any country. A Reverend gentleman belonging to the
Church of Scotland lately declared that he had always been
a Whig till the present Ministry came into power, but that
education without creed had settled him. But whose creed
would he wish to have combined with the education of
the country ? The creed of the Episcopalian ? No. Of
the Catholic ? Oh, no. Of the Wesleyan Methodist ? Of
the Baptist? Of the Independent ? No indeed. Whose
creed then ? His own—certainly. But has not every
other man in the nation just as good a right to have his
creed United with the education of the country ? What
gives .to
,any man a title to impose his creed upon the
children of another man whose creed is different ? If the
creed of one part of the community is to be combined with
education, it is impossible it can be a national education.
And is it not obviously unjust to apply the national fund to
which all the members of the community contribute, to
the exclusive education of a particular sect ? Perhaps the
parochial education of Scotland is 'as inoffensive as any
system of education that ever was connected with a parti-
cular creed, and committed to the exclusive superinten-
dence of a particular denomination. But what is it? A
national education ? No such thing. By the returns made
to an order of the House of Commons, which have been
lately published, it appears that there are only about
64,000 of the youth of Scotland attending the parochial
schools, whereas the whole number attending education in
Scotland is between two and three hundred thousand.
But, gentlemen, notwithstanding all the misrepresentations
of the policy of the Ministry in regard to Ireland, and all
the injustice done to Ireland by the efforts of the Tories,
to prevent the progress of. civil and religious improvement
in the country, it is a fact that peace has been preserved,
and outrage, and violence, and bloodshed, which so fear-
fully prevailed under Tory administration, have in a great
measure disappeared. It is established by the concurring
testimony of the Criminal Judges, that the amount and
magnitude of crime have greatly diminished, so that in
many parts of the country they do not exceed that of Eng-
land. I therefore beg leave to propose the National Board
of Education. (The Rev. Gentleman sat down amidst
great cheering.)