Star.
London, England, 1825-06-07 00:00:00

EXTRACTS FROM THE FIRST REPORT OF,
THR °OMISSION= OF IRISH SIOUCATION INQUIRY.

The school of Sligo was visited by two of the Com-
missioners, who foundthe school house and premisesin
very good order, and the appearance of eighty-two chil•
dren which it contained, was fatourable. The reading
,byalle.loso.Alteir..manner of answering to questions
from the different expositionsof the Catechism, and some
speciniens..of writing which were shewn, were highly
cred.table to the conductors of the school. It appeared,
however, on an attentivetzamination, that the master
was a man of violent and ungoverned passions, and that
the b we.e most severely and cruelly punished, not
only by him, but also by his son, and by a foreman in
the weaving d•ci irtment, and that these punishments
were infEctesi for very slight faults.
The habitual practice of the master was to seize the!
boys by the throat, and press them almost to suffoca--
and to strike them with a whip or his fist upon
the he id and face du. ing the time his passion listed.
One boy had, black eyes'at the time of our visit,
caused .by hi ovs of the master's fist ; and. the punith-
meat of another boy, who had received, many years
ago, by an accident, a severe and permaneht injury in
has eyes, was attended with circumstances of 'peculiar
violence. The anger Of the master, was chiefly excited
by the boys performing less work than he expected' in
the weaving shop (of which the master had the profit),
or by their not weaving well; they were also obliged to
get up at five, or sometimes four o'clt;ck in the morn-
ing, when there was a pres.ing demand ; one little boy
had been severely punished for complaining of this vio-
lation of the rules of the S giety: The fear of the mas-
ter ge erally deterred the b.ors from stating their
grievances to the catechist, to the local .Committee, or
to casual visitors. It will be seen, however, by the re-
port of Mr. Thackeray, that the boys in 1818 corn-
plaiiied to him that they were forced to work fir the
master at hours not sanctioned by the rules of the So-
cety, arid that the master had promised to -Correct that
irregularity in future; we found also that great paroof
the boys had been kept at home one Sundry front
Church, to write specimens of reamanship, which were
to be laid before the Committee of Fifteen, and which,
if written on a o erk day, would have taken up time
whiii might, more profitably for the master, have 'seen
employed in weaving. •
The school at S:radbally, which contains eighty-three
boys, was first visited by two Commissioners on the
2d, and again by' another Commissioner on the 9th of
October. Oa the first. visit the boys did not complain
Of any severity, though called upon, in the absence of
any person connected with the Establishment, to state
if they had any ground of complaint. • Un •lie second
visit the boys were again called upoa in the aame M 311.;
net ; at first they were War, but on being told that the
'Commissioner present came from the Government to
inquire. into the state of the school, and world protect
them if they had any just ground of complaint, the
whole school immediately came forward, and said they
were very cruelly used, but were afraid to speak, for that
they had complained once to th' catechist, and that the,
boys who complained had been "half killed' in con-
sequence, and that it was only on receiving a full
assurance that the Commissioner who was present
would protect them, that they were. induced to make
any di-_closures. Upon being asked why they had not
complained to the Conimissioners on the first visit? they
said they.had taken them for ccmmon visitors," and
that, upon the s;econd occasion, if it had not been men•
tioned expressly that the Commissioner came from
Government, they would not have dared to complain
to him either. 'Front • the evidence taken on this seer
sicin,At. was sufficiently proved, that about three wee
before the first visit, one boy had been .flogged with a
leather strap nine times in one day, his clothes being
taken doss n each time, and that he received in the
whole nearly 100 Lobes, all for a " sum in long division:
On the same day ?Other boy appears to have receivea
67 lashes, un account of another sum in arithmetic ;
another boy, only 13 years old, had received 17 stripes
With a rope.
On the Bth of Octobei, tha day before the second
vis!t,. eight boyi had been so severely punished, 0114
their persons were found ode*of the Commissioners
in a shocking state of laceration and contusion. The of-
fence with IvhiCh these boys were charged by the usher
was " looking at; two police men playing at ball 'in the
;'"and he stated, that the catechist re-
commended him to flog the boys. This, however, was
denied by the catechist, and was, we have no doubt, ut-
terly false's even if it had been tree' it could only have
applied to two of the eighs boys, whilst the cruel treat-
ment of the other six teirtains unexplained, Onless• by,
the suggestion of the master, whd states that he he-,
heves. the usher may have been actuated in the punish-
ment by his feelings as to what the boys might have
said of him on the former visit orthe Cosnmiissoners
en which, occasion; however,
.as before stated, the
boys had not _in flu Made any.complaint. The in-
struments of punitbratent -were In the first arse, a
leather Cats and a rope; and in the latter, branches
from elm trees.' Theie severe punishments were all in
acted by the usher in the abience of then:tatter, and
without his knowledge. The latter appeared a Mild
*ad busnane man, but had taken? very little priftin the
stini4sset *of the school.' It Wits alleged that the Cause
had lattei Iy 'been his ilI-health ;. but a better reason
seemed to be. that he Was occupied in the mo-
vement of three farms,' comainiog . together nearly
me hundred and thirty acres, of which only twenty%
nine belonged to the Society: One faint of hearly6o
ores was two and a half miles distant horn the school,
nd the boys wert ecchsitMally taken thereto wont. • .
, On 'examining the boys, they were YoUnd able tra
repeat the Catechism and the expositions of it correctly',
but attached little or no meaning 'to the *Words. they.
repeated. The two head classes consisted of twenty
boys, of thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen years of age;
zrenteen of them declared they had* never heard of
St. Paul, and half' of them had no idea whether the
word " Europe" meant asm4n, a place, or a thing ; and
only three boys in the school could name the four quar-
ters of the world. Two boys only appiared ever to
have beard
.of Job, and only one could give any ac-
count of his history.
In the school at Castledermot We found that the
master took very little pait in the instruction of the
boys.. They complained of being ill-fed and cruelly.
beaten, both by the master and Mistiest. An insprisve-
*Me% bad taken place in the dietary within the fortnight
preceding the dme of our visiting this school,*cottil
wench* from the day on which the master learnt that'
'theCothmissioners were proceeding through the
Two boys hid recently been very severely punished to
'the master. They stated that they had been set to
aeork is the garden, and
fast, thei•Were honey,

Ind hams had but little break- supposes, who was forcing his way into the roost as the
Lutarox P.intrd mu! Po?disked by J. F. IL r...t ateit Smut Orrice '
Ind had eaten a taw cabbage; .company were leaving. '
• - Au t, l'ideet.Pkices.Tet.tfitc•lbtr 9 )11.
•