The Sun.
London, England, 1837-11-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1837.

IRISH NATIONAL EDUCAI lON.

The Oueeii take atidibrie94 yoterday at the new Palace,
n St. James's-park, to the Earl of Millgrive; the Earl of
Albemarle, and Viscount Melbourne. _ .

COURT CIRCULAR:

EDITOTi ar TEE
Stii,—Your edlurnns being frequently occupied with arti-
cles devoted to elucidate the position of Ireland, with regard
to the remaining portion of the Uuitcd Kingdom, and the dif-
ficulties the present Ministry encounter in their attempts to
improve and tranquilize this portion of the British empire, I
flatter myself that a few observations', on the System of
National Education for the Poor, patronised by tioVernment,
and vituperated by the Tory Press, will not be unacceptable,
particularly when the fact is adverted to, that th e support af-
forded to this system is adduced as one of the strongest argu-
ments of the indifference of the Queen's servants to the inte-
rests of the Church, and is made a powerful engine to endea-
vour to enlist the religious feelings of the more conscientious
and rigid part of the community in opposition to that Govern-
ment.
A brief narrative of the circumstances which preceded and
gave rise to the present National Board will be useful in dis
pelling false notions. After the lapse of ages, in endeavousiug,
by Draconian laws, to coerce the Irish Roams Catholics to
change their creed, and millions spent in endowing and sup_
porting Protestant Charter Schools, and similar foundations,
for the purpose of withdrawing the rising generation from the
faith of their forefathers-,--the futility of these plans being
proved by the increasing number of Roman Catholics in the
existing population, and the misery of that population, from
vicious government and ignorance, being manifest—about a
quarter of a century since, an attempt was made to establish a
Society for the Education of all classes of the Irish Commu-
nity, without religious distinction. This was the origin of
what was afterwards known as the Kildare-place Education
Society, which obtained large grants from the public purse.
It was a fundamental rule of this institution, that no school
should be taken under its protection, or obtain pecuniary aid
from its funds, in which the Bible, without note or comment,
should not be made a school book. It is a fundamental doe.
trine of the Roman Catholic religion, that what, by those of
that persuasion, is considered the Church, is the only judge of
the meaning of controverted passages of Scripture, and that
Church denies the propriety and right of private judgment to
its members in matters of faith. From these circumstances,
collisions and differences arose between the Roman Catholic
Clergy and the more active favourers of the plan of Instruc-
tion of the Kildare-place Society. One party apprehended
that children using the Bible as a school book would be neces-
sarily led to the adoption of the right of private judgment.
Various attempts were made by honest people of all parties,
sincerely anxious to improve the rising generation, to prevent
these collisions, and reconcile these differences, by proposing
regulations as to the hours of reading the Scriptures and the
selections to be made from the unmutilated volume. Notwith-
standing such well meant efforts, the opposition of the Catho-
tic Priesthood yearly increased. Their hostility was probably
aggravated by the meddling with their flocks of certain re-
ligious ladies, often members of the family of the peasants'
landlords, who, visiting the schools from which the Priests
withdrew, acquired a knowledge of such of the children as
were able to read, and among these distributed Tracts, hostile
to Roman Catholic doctrines, and tending to make proselytes
from that belief. Thus, it appears, that the Kildare-place
Society advocated the plan of educating Protestants and Ca-
tholics in the same schools, and received largo grants of money
for promoting this object ; though through the influence of
landlords, and the anxiety of the lower Irish for education,
considerable numbers attended these schools, this attendance
afforded a constant source of difference between the Clergy
and the poor—so that though the returns presented a consi-
derable number of Catholic learners, and I believe these were
bona fide returns—from the irregularity of attendance, and
the repeated withdrawing altogether of pupils, this scheme of
Educatiorkwas not working efficiently. As the desire fur
education among the very humblest class of Irish is very ex-
traordinary, an allusion to one of its causes may not be here
out of place. Perhaps the most remarkable is—that occa-
sionally, in that rank, smart boys were noticed by the Priests,
assisted and encouraged to go on with their education, and
qualify themselves for the Catholic Ministry. Some of these
rose to high dignities in the Catholic Church, both in their
own and foreign countries. Others, going' to Irish establish-
ments in France, Spain, and the Austrian dominions, before
they were bound by the obligation of Ordination, changed
their original intention, entered into the military service of
these Powers, and many of them rose to fame and rank. Facts
like these transmitted to and remembered by a peasantry, who
are proud from thinking they can trace their lineage either
from the royal lines of Heber or of Heremon, and imaginative
by constitution, make them particularly anxious for the educa-
tion of their offspring. The time is not very remote, or beyond
the recollection of some of the present generation, when the
existing laws gave such power of interference with Popish
teachers, and Popish schools, to the Irish Magistracy, and to
the Clergy of the Established Church, that all Irish Catho-
lics, who sought a liberal education; were obliged to leave
their country for a foreign land, and might exclaim, in the
words of the Mantuan bard—
" Nos patrim fines et dulcia linquimus arva ;
Nos patriam fugimus."
Such was the state of things when, during Lord Grey's
Administration, in the Secretaryship for Ireland of Lord
Stanley, an effort was made to obtain the influence of the
Catholic Priesthood in promoting the instruction of the rising
generation. It was believed, and I think correctly, that any
attempt at promoting a system of education for the great mass
of the Irish people to which their Clergy were opposed would
be unsuccessful. It must not be lost sight of that this priestly
influence was the growth, not of a few years, but of centuries ;
and the most zealous for its destruction, and the most san-
guine believers in the probability of effecting this measure,
allowed that it would be the work of time ; while others, and
these I believe to be the sounder thinkers, saw no probable
chance of bringing about this measure. By the co-operation
of Lord Stanley (then Mr. Stanley) on the part of the Go-
vernment, with the aid of his Grace the Duke of Leinster, his
Grace Dr. Whately, Archbishop of Dublin ; the Most Rev.
Dr. Murray, Roman Catholic Archbishop ; Rev. Dr. Sadlicr,
Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin ; Rev. Mr. Carlyle,
Dissenting Clergyman ; and Mr. Holmes, Barrister ; the pre-
Sent Board of National Education, for the instruction of all
classes, without religious distinction, was established, and
the regulations were so framed as to obtain the aid of the
Roman Catholic Priesthood. I record the names of these
distinguished individuals, who gave their time and exertions
for the sole purpose of promoting the civilization of the people
of Ireland, because I am certain unborn generations will have
reason to bless their memory. The Protestant and Dissenting
members of this Board have been assailed with much political,
and more religious hostility. The arguments advanced against
their conduct would, if valid, prevent practical aid being af-
forded to improve, by education, our Hindoo or Mahometan
fellow-subjects in the East, or our red brethren in the West.
They would tend, were the members of the Jewish persuasion
as numerous in the British isles, in proportion to the popula-
tion, as they are in Poland, to prevent any plan for their edu-
cation, founded on the precepts of the Decalogue, alike obli-
gatory on Jews and Christians, unless the former transferred
the observance of their Sabbath to the Christian Sabbath.
Surely no sane person, in the case of the Ilindoo or Mahome-
dan, would make any regulation essentially requisite to be
conformed to, in attending school, which violently shocked
their prejudices. No one sincerely desirous to improve and,
promote increased civilization in our Indian empire, by extend-
ing education, would propose to make a strip of cow hide the
instrument of correction to the one, or force the other to eat
a slice of ham for his morning repast. Or, to bring it nearer
home, would the most zealous member of the Church of Eng-
land refuse aid to the Parochial Schools of Scotland, unless on
the condition that the business of the day commenced by the
Master reading one of the Prayers in the Morning Service of
that Church, and that all the pupils who did not reverently
join in this religious act should be excluded from instruction.
It is scarcely necessary to inform my readers, natives of Eng-
land, and members of the National Church of that country,
that the believers in the doctrines-of the Church of Scotland
condemn set forms of prayer.
I recollect being an auditor at one of the politico-religious
meetings, held annually at the Rotunda in Dublin, during the
month of April. The withholding of the entire Word of God
in the National Schools was a theme adverted to by several of
the declaimers, and the Ministry wl:ich afforded pecuniary aid
to these establishments was condemned, in nr, measured terms,
as unfriendly to the Protestant religion. Several of the speakers
on this occasion wore spectacles. In using my right of imivate
judgment, and applying it according to the rules of common
sense, I was irresistibly led to infer, that, if these gentlemen
were blind, spectacles would be useless to them ; so I came to
the conclusion that if they were sincerely desirous to have the
Bible read by the great majority of the Irish people, and had
no other object in view but their instruction and religious im-
provement, they would not oppose a system of education which
would give the entire rising generation the advantage of being
able to read the Bible. Wnen, looking at these grave spec-
tacled gentlemen, I compared the advantages of glasses in the
case of an individual totally blind, and their advantages to a
short-sighted person, in the first instance they were quite
useless • and, as useless as spectacles are to a blind man,
the Bible is, fur the purpose of being familiar with it, to a per-
son uninstructed in reading.
Selected extracts from the Bible, inculcating the moral
doctrines of Christianity, and good feeling and benevolence
between the members of different creeds, are not only allowed.
in the Irish National Schools, but must be used to entitle the
particular establishment to receive aid from the Parliamentary
grant, placed at the disposal of the Commissioners of National
Education. I will appeal to any dispassionate man of sound
understanding, if such extracts, besides their intrinsic value in
strongly impressing moral obligations, are not calculated to
excite a desire to be further acquainted with The Book, from
which they are taken? The permanent impression made by
sentences fixed on the memory, in early life, may be illustrated
by considering the influence for evil which the short proposi-
tions, " There is but one God, and Mahomet is his Prophets"
have had among the believers in the Koran. It is it fact, stated
by the best informed writers on the state of China, that what-
ever moral superiority that people possess, over other Eastern
nations, is due to their early committing to memory certain
sentences of Confucius, inculcating moral conduct.
I know it has been stiffly asserted that allowing Scripture
extracts to be used in the Irish National Schools is a conces-
sion to Popery, and contrary to Protestantism. If so, publish-
ing the Psalms in a separate volume, or publishing the Book
of Job in the same manner, is contrary to P, otestantism the
toleration in our schools of the ancient lit le book entitled
" Reading Made Easy," with its wood-tuts of scenes from the
Bible, and its Scripture Histories, was c mtrary to Protest-
antism. The same might be said of the various Harmonics of
the Gospel, and of every kind of Scripture History not in the
exact words of the authorised version.
Not to encroach on your columns, or fatigue your readers, I
have only slightly glanced at what appeared to me the inost
prominent objections made to the system of Irish National
Education, and have been equally brief in adverting to the ar-
guments by which it may be supporte I. Perhaps on a future
occasion I may again return to the subject. •

Her Majesty went in State last evening to Drury-lane
Theatre. The Royal party dined at an early hour, and at
a quarter before seven o'clock her Majesty ani suite left
the new relate ih teted datriatleg, with state liveries, es-
corted by a party of the lioyal Regiment of horse Guards ;
theDuchcss of Sutherland, Mistress of the Robes:, and the
Earl of Albemarle, G.C.H., Master of the Horse, were
with the Queen in the last carriage. In the other six car-
riages were the following Ladies and Gentlemen of her
Majesty's Household :—Lady Barham, the M irchioness of
'ravistock, Countess of Mulgrave, Hon. Miss Pitt, Miss
Spring Rice, Miss Lister, Miss Murray, Lady Caroline
Barrington, the Duke of Argyll, G.C.H., Lord Steward.
the Marquis of Conyngliam, K.P., Lord Chamberlain ; the
Earl of Ilehester, Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard ;
Viscount Combermere, G.C.8., Gold Stick in Waiting ;
Marquis of Headfort, Lord in Waitin,, ; Earl of Surrey,
Treasurer of the Household ; Hon. Col. Cavendish, Clerk
Marshal ; Hon. C. Murray, Groom in Waiting ; Colonel
Greenwood, Silver Stick in Waiting ; Colonel Wemyss,
Equerry in Waiting ; Sir Frederic Smith and Mr. Martins,
Gentlemen Ushers in Waiting ; Master Ellice, Page of
Honour ; and Mr. Charles Hancock, Exon of the Yeomen
of the Guard in Waiting.
The Queen arrived at seven o'clock at the royal entrance
to Drury-lane Theatre, in Russell-street. A guard of
honour of the foot guards received her Majesty with mili-
tary honours. A party of the yeomen of the guard lined
the approach to the royal box. Mr. Bunn, hahited in the
uniform of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms,
received the Queen at the entrance, and preceded her Ma-
jesty to the royal box, bearir'g wax lights. The Lord
Chamberlain also preceded the Queen with wax lights.
Sir F. Roe, Mr. Lee (the high constable), Messrs.
Gardner and Leadbitter (Bow•street officers), and a party
of the Metropolitan Police, were in attendance at the royal

entrance.
The Duchess of Cambridge, accompanied by the Prin-
cesses Augusta and Mary of Cambridge, took a carriage
airing yesterday.
The Duchess of Gloucester visited the Duke and Duchess
of Cambridge yesterday at Cambridge House.
Mr. Wallace, 111. P., had an interview with Viscount
Melbourne yesterday, in Downing-street.
A Cabinet Council assembled at 12 o'clock yesterday, at

the Foreign-office, at which most of the Ministers were pre-
sent. The Council sat upwards of two hours.
Sir Willoughby Gordon had an interview with Lord
Glenelg yesterday, at the Colonial office.
M. de Hummelauer, Austrian Charge d'Affaires, tran-
sacted business at the Foreign-office yesterday.
The paymaster-general has arrived in town from Ireland.
The Earl and Countess of Mulgrave and a small party
dined with the Marquis and Marchioness of Lansdowne on
Tuesday evening, at Lansdowne House.
Despatches from the Earl of Gosford, Governor of the
Canadas, were received yesterday, at the Colonial-office.
Despatches for Sir Lionel Smith, Governor of Jamaica,
and for the Governors of the other West India colonies,
were sent off last evening from the Colonial-office.