The Sun.
London, England, 1839-08-06 00:00:00

EvEN I NiG ,11)1111fIN.

Will not disapprove of the Board, however it may lay
down principles discordant; for as its regelations de-,
pend upon civil enactments, we are not ece'esiastically
rosponsibie for it. ; but it will be our duty :o see that
practically it does not operate incompatiley with the
authority of our Church. We do not wish to destroy
it, because we wish to make use of it ; but vse shall only
make use of it in strict accordance with our ovse principle!.
lVe will assert primarily our own authority, and stand in
a position as if it never existed. In our clerical
capacities, it is not necessary we should be cognizant
of its existence. We will resolve that the children of
our Church shall be educated in our faith after that
fashion which their Bishops will approve of. We will
receive pecuniary assistance if, under the circumstances,
it is offered to us, we care not from what quarter it
comes, or from what Board, however constituted, as to
its fundamental principles, provided it does not inter-
fere with us in its practical operations. Therefore the
Bo ird stands in this position : it has eight Bishops sepa-
rating from it because it is not established upon certain
principles, and the remainder of the Bishops will hold
no connexion with it unless those principles are put
into operation. Therefore unless you adopt. the sugges-
tion in this resolution which he proposed, you exclude
more than one third of the population of Ireland from
the benefits of your system, and unless in your prac-
tice you follow the spirit of t his resolution, you ex-
clude almost the whole of the population. This
you do under any circumstances. But he had
strong reason to believe that Haut approval had
been given by the majori!y of the Bishops to
the Board, with a reservation which would prove
fatal to the system. The matter was refsrred to a
higher authority, and to one which must necessarily be
omnipotent with the ecclesiastics of the Roman Catholic
Church, and he believed that the decision, though it
was not yet officially announced, was in accordance with
the opinions of Dr. But whatever might
have been the peculiar decision upon that peculiar case,
there were recent circumstances connected with the
ecclesiastical history of Europe which rendered it a
matter of little doubt. In fact, every day the oppo-
nents to the Board of National Education were in-
creasing. It was hut a short time since Dr. 'Miele
stood alone ; it was found that eight Bishops adopted
his principles when suggested, and when it was generally
supposed he would not base had one to support him ;
in feet, Catholic hostility to the Board was spreading
rap over Ireland. He would take the libtrty of read--
nig an extract from a letter received from a divine
of the highest character, and of acknowledged talents ;
he was not at liberty to mention the name, as the letter
vas only just put into his hands by a party who was not
authorised to give its publicity, but it came from an indi-
vidual not connected with the eight Bishops who were,
allied to Dr. .ll. Hale, and it comprehended what he con-
ceived to be the principal objections to the Board of
Education, and given in language better than he could
adopt :—" The chief objections to the existing system as
far as I can recollect are the following—lst. A combined
,ystem of education on the basis of religion, and yet ex-
cluding religious peculiarities, must either exclude the
Catholic religion altogether, or give offence to some
party. 2d. Government interference is bad. 3d. Struc-
ure of the Board is vicious and sectarian, because a Board,
in which there are only three Catholics, does not repre-
sent in due proportion the Catholic population; because,
as is notorious from the errors of the scripture lessons
and fifth book of lessons, it affords not a sufficient security
for our faith ; because the composition of these books was
entrusted to Carlisle, a Presbyterian; and because thp •
structure of that Board is a formal recognition of Protest-
ant aseen4ancy in a Catholic country and national
concern. 4th. The system of district inspectors has
'seen objected to. sth. Training school also objec-
tionable. 6th, Scripture lessons hate been proved
to contain heresy and error almost in every page..
The questions appended to them embrace all ex-
aiting controversies. The notes are saturated with the
Calvinistic errors. The text is faithless, corrupt, and un-
authorized. And the uncontrolled power of the masters
in expounding these books makes the thing still more dan-
gerous. 7th. The sth book of lessons contains theories
at variance with Moses, and has been strongly objected to.
Bth. The provisions of the existing system have been
proved to be at variance with the resolutions of the epis-
copal body in 1826. 9h. It has been urged also that the
fundamental principle of the system is vicious and anti-
' Catholic. As the primary object of the system is to unite
ill in a forgetfulness of religious destinations, to impart
,cluestion upon neutral grounds, and to thrust peculiar
tenets into the contemptuous obscurity of separate in- •
struction. Finally, it has been contended, and it is in
impres,ion, that nothing but a separate grant will ever
satisfy the people of Ireland." Those were the send.
ments of a Learned Divine with which he perfectly
coincided. He would not allude to the opinions .
of Doctor Mg-lalc—they were well known to the
House and to the country ; and they were °pi-- .
moos which would be respected by every Catholic and.
every Irishman, as emanating from a man who was _UP
ornament to his Church and to his country, who shone
brightest amongst the Catholic hierarchy, and who fille& -
the vacancy left in it by Dr. Doyle; indeed the peoples)!
Ireland, in mourning for the loss of that great polemical_
champion, might turn to Dr. M'Hale, applying the quota-
tion made use of on a late occasion by the Noble Lord the
Member for North Lancashire, and . when they saw one
golden fruit fallen from the parent stem, might exclaim
truth—

4' Prieto avulso non_ deficit alter aurius
Et Simili frondeseet verge metallo."
He thought that the present system of national educa-
tion could never work, that no power or no art could force
it upon the consideration of the people of Ireland. The
desire of a favourite Government could not do it. Even
the support to it, if given by the great champion of the
liberties of his country, would not do it. Nor would it be
efl:cted by the bland temporising of Dr. Murray. The
policy of Englind had ever been to force upon the Irish
people the religion of their conquerors, to Anglo- Saxonize
the country in every respect. And the people had shown.
under circumstances the most trying, the most unexampled
fidelity to their religion. The history of our country
proves how assiduously our persecutors pursued their ob-
ject, and how faithfully the persecuted clung to their
altars. In every age and under every circumstance, the
history of Ireland is sadly connected with religious per-
secution, and is brightly illustrative of national fidelity to
religion. We ruay.revert to the remotest period, whether
our liberties were trampled by the hoof of the heatbeneof under the banners of the cross. There is an evidence of
otlpreonsame oobtjheccr. We
t on the
mayorl lookside,
baanedktirf:sosame o
rrgees os
il
oust i ott;,,,-
Cromwell, and from Cromwell to the present time, and
while invariably we see the frequent brand cast into the-
Temple, as we trace the ravages of the barbarier, up the
steep of time, we, at the same time, mark in oter progrees
how, still undismayed, the Catholic
clung to the
sanctuary. Do you think, fox, that that people who have
been so faithful to their creed, will permit a proseletysieg
Government Board, coming with a smiling face, to under-
mine their principles ? What they refused to persecutions.
will they yield to sophistry and intrigue ? The wolf which,-
they repelled, will they now admit into the fold, because'
it approaches under sheep's clothing ? Will they desert
their Priesthood ? When you passed every law that bi-
eotry could suggest and tyranny enforce, to shut the
people of Ireland out from religious instruction, did their
priesthood desert them? When you endeavoured to put 1
out the mind of Ireland, and when you rendered it penst
not alone to educate its Catholic population, but when you
declared it to be a crime of peculiar atrocity to educate al
minister of religion, did the people then want religious in-
struction ? They then obtained it—they now will draw it
from the same source, and they will not forget that in the
days of persecution that that priesthood sought abroad,
for their sakes alone, that education which was denied
them at home, and collected, even amid the convulsions
that agitated England, those seeds which they have scat
tered in their native land, the glorious harvest of which
Ireland now exhibits in her seven millions of Roman
Catholic population. The Hon. Member concluded by ,
moving," That, to satisfy the conscientious scruples of a large
proportion of the Protestant, as well as Roman Catholic
population of Ireland, and conciliate to the Board of Na.
tional Education in that country the general confidence of
the community, it is expedient that this House do recom-
mend to the Commissioners the discontinuance of the use
of the " Scripture Lessons," which are equally offensive to
persons of all religious persuasions as a mutilation of the
Word of God ; that it be a further recommendation to the
Commissioners to adopt in practice the principle of setting
.part an hour of each day for the religious instruction of
the children of different creeds, to be communicated in se-
parate sections of the schools connected with the Board. ,
either by the spiritual pastors of the children respectively,
or by other competent persons duly accredited by tbece,
and subject to their supervision and control ; that no reli-
gious instruction be communicated to the chldren in such ,
schools except by their pastors, or by persons so accredited;
and that, there being but two Roman Catholics amongst
the seven members of whom the Board consists, it is desir-
able, in order to secure the confidence of seven-eighths of .
the Irish people, both with reference to religious instruct.
tion, and to the impartial distribution of the funds at the
disposal of the Board, that a Roman Catholic divine, ate--
proved of by the body of Roman Catholic prelates in Ire- e
land, should be added to the Board of Commissioners." ' .
The motion not having been seconded, the House went
into a

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COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY.
On the motion that 50,000/. be granted for education id
Ireland,
Mr. JAMES GRATTAN tiusted that certain returns
on this subject would be printed in the course of the sum-
mer, and he should then be able to draw the attention O.
the House to the matter.
Mr. SHAW said, •
that it appeared by the testimony On:
all sides, that the system of education adopted did net work
well.—(No, no.) He had never concealed his objection
to the principles of education adopted by the Irish Board,.
which recognized the characteristic principle of the I.l°-
man Catholic religion, namely, that the Scriptures should
not be allowed without restriction, and it repudiated the
principle of the Protestant Church, that they should be
unfettered.
Lord MORPETH trusted that the Hon. Member for
Mayo would recollect that his motion did not find a se--
c,nder. The chief complaint of the Right Hon. Gentle-.
man opposite was that the Board recognised the grer.t.
principle of the Roman Catholic Church in not adrnit-,
ting the unqualified use of the Scriptures, while the
complaint on the other side was of an opposite nature.
He thought these complaints were equally unfounded.. •
Mr. M. J O'CONNELL said that in the diocese in
which he resided, where the Roman Catholic Bishop had
Kinked with the Commissioners and given his assietanee,
the system had
done great service to the intellect as well
as the morals of the rising generation, and it "-
been met in the same spirit in other pars of Ireland
there would have been an unanimous al
7proval of it.
Mr. REDINGTON said that
tic Catholics looked on
the plan as conferring ou ti' em inestimable good, and as
- ;.
a boon which tended to
u.-
prove the state of the country.

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