The Sun.
London, England, 1834-06-09 00:00:00

IRISH CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT.

The following calculations, made from parliamen-
tary returns, seem to throw such light on this subject,
that any person of common intellect may under-
stand it in a few minutes.

Accordin to t;;;;econci report education in
Ireland, ordered by the House of Commons to be
printed, November 28, 1826," it appears that in Lein-
ster, Munster, and Connaught, there were in attend-
ance in all the schools, both pay and free, of these
provinces, 58,029 Protestant and 362,827 Catholic
children.

On examining the details of this report, it will be
round that of these children there were—

PAr.shes.

Protestant Children. Catholic Children

In 587
In 1,517

54,395
3,634

193,501
169,358

2,004 58,029 362,859
In the 1,517 parishes 46 Catholics to 1 Protestant.
Of these 1,517 there were 456, containing 52.525
Catholic children, and not one Protestant child re-
turned.

The first 557 parishes belonged to cities, towns, or
large villages. I calculate their population at about
2,300,000, leaving for the 1,517 parishes 3,281,847,
the gross population of these three provinces being
5,581,847.
It does not appear very difficult to obtain an esti-
mate of the Protestant inhabitants of these parishes,
which, if not quite accurate, will not be far from the
uth. _ _

In Prussia there appears to be one-seventh of all
classes attending schools. In some of the states of
America there is said to be one-fourth of the inhabi-
tants at school. ( A bounce " I guess.") In the
counties of Clare, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary,
there were, according to the report mentioned above,
69,854 male children under process of education, out
of a male population of 524,973. This is nearly one-
seventh out of a population with scarcely any access to
gratuitous education, for of these there were only
about 3,300 Protestant children. The total number
of Protestant children, males and females, was 6,649.
In Munster the number of Protestant children stated
in this report was 18,088 ; of these 6,446, or more
than one-third, were procuring education from the
funds granted by Parliament for educating the poor of
Ireland. Out of 171,754 Catholics, only 10,466 were
deriving any benefit from these grants. Hence it is
clear that the latter had not the same facilities as the
former had to educate their children, and to this is to
be ascribed the immense disproportion observable be-
tween the number of females and males in this pro-
vince, the latter being more than two to one.
I
schools
sl sutpepr ,0
rot
eudt obfy It4blo,sBeBf2u
bcdhsi I; d raennd,
b4e6r,e4t2b6e wdei
srpe r
oa-t
great.
notitt
tioafabswuntt hgeos
It is not difficult to prove, that allowing the lower
t
classes fivel
not more
umen
:as
oaor
rtwps
ie'
ouh
nlateahnrtt
where
on tnehsodaaenuyl betterone
-half,
education
lthat
ni at
aies tsclassesst heasy
teh au ten years' edu-
cation,
Ot the
Of the
t hl thereoew Pe
rr
ow:
leoassu:slaedns
t. be eoTf fromhLeeyinraset
reside,
et
Mb,
with
shat seventhe rfe,
wa and
de xccpoeapnr
o
ftiwo,nrhntooeo
school.than
mfoaoncsect-,essbi
sxe,tlhoa belong
the
therefore be to charge them with a want of
their number would be under this process, in towns
particularly. We have, then, only to multiply the
number of their children by six, and we shall obtain a
sufficiently accurate idea of the total number of the
members of the established church in these three pro-

vinces.
They will then stand thus :
Protestant Number of Total number of
Children. Protestants. Inhabitants.
In 587 parishes 54,395 326,370 2,300,000
In rural parishes they should be multiplied by 8,
access to schools not being so easy.
Children. Protestants. Inhabitants.
In 1517 parishes 3,634 29,062 3,281,847

! ~~~

Total number - - 355,432 3,581,847
In Ulster, the Protestants being less disproportionate
in numbers to the Catholics, would have more of the
members of that religion mingled with the lower
orders ; they, therefore, might have their children in
the returns multiplied by 7.
Establ4hed Presby- Other
Church. terians. Dissenters. Total.
Ulster
17,332 578,852
Inn ht ahbei t
othera nt s 2psrolv,
35,977 44,383 2,476
- - 355,432
8i
provinces s 310,681
Total Protestants in Ireland - - 934,284

From the foregoing the numbers of the established
church appear to be 609,271, or one-thirteenth of the
whole population.
The dissenters are not so numerous as they have
been considered, being, according to the abov while to
calcu-
lation, only 325,067. But if it were worth