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g is to form an association in this
the Irish Church Education Society. Some

'ear that we have no room for a new so-
Etat we are already so full, and all our
len so entirely occupied, that it is hope-
vigorous staff for a new society. I
;tire of the apprehension, while at the

same time -I
hope in a few words to allay it. The society to
be brought before you this evening is one of no common
character. It has for its chief promoters the Primate and
Bishops of the Irish Church ; it has the cordial sanction of
the Archbishop of Canterbury ; it comes to this town with
s of the parish. I expect, there-
men, you will give it a favourable
ar.) And when I tell you, in addi-
Adam Hodgson has consented to be
rer, that Mr. Nolan and Mr. Baylee have consented
I think I shall have satisfied you in a
that our project is not only practical but
The Irish Church 'Education

Iction 0

consideration. (Hear,
Lion to this, that Mr
the tr

to be the s

'etaries

very simple w
practicable.

to existence by very peculiar circum-
stances, which it is impossible to understand without revert-
ing to other societies previously in operation. The education
of the poor in Ireland was conducted by a number of socie-
ties, all of them, except one, supported exclusively by pri-
vate contributions—that one was supported partly by private
contributions, and partly by a government grant of money.
The one I allude to was called the Kildare-place Society.
The system adopted by all these societies, although not alto-

Society

gether what we could wish as members of the church, was,
nevertheless, in a certain degree satisfactory. It required
that all the children should read the Holy Scriptures in the
authorized version, and commit a portion of the Scriptures to
ominations were found in those
were members of the church,

ers of various dissent-
Protestant and Popish dissenters.
Hal information was communicated
cools—so much so that the priests of Rome began
'raid of the consequences, and they determined, if
stop to that system. For this purpose they

ers from the church, wit

possible, to

of the disposition existing- in English
statesmen to treat with kind conciliation the people of Ire-
land. They complained of the existing system as a grief-

Epressing the real cause, which was the amount of
formation it gave, but setting forth as the ground
s an exclusive system, that the

grievar

peremptory use of the Eloly Scriptures in the authorised ver-
sion, was what they, as priests of the Romish schism, could
It is very true they could not hear it; but the
schools. This, however, was the ground
_;ed—that the system was exclusive ; and
the hands of conciliating statesmen that they
a united system, a system in which children of
;ht learn- together. (Hear. hear.) They urged
ht be right for individuals of one certain
f a peculiar kind for their own people,

..,ent having charge of all classes, ought
to arran6.. stem so as to embrace all the people. This
sounded fair id reasonable; and Lord Stanley, who at that
is chi for Ireland, coincided in these views.
.nxict; vith the people of Ireland, and to
every possible juvtice, he coincided in these views, and
^elebrated board of education in Ireland. To this
r. grant was given, and for this it was greatly
from the Kildare-place so"iety,
..es then in existence in Ireland for the edu-
, poor were left to struggle without assistance,
hole weight of the national assistance was given
w board. (Hear, hear.) This board, by way of intro-
united system, introduced extracts from the scrip
--w translation. (Hear, hear.) Here was a two-
' 2bjection. There was an objection to ex-
made as they were made, not for mere convenience,
r a party purpose, and as a party against God's truth
-re made for the purpose of excluding the fundamen-
,,ospel, for the purpose, it was said, of

time w;
in his a
do their
hence t

to deal kindly

;ed. It was withdra

to the t

tures in a t
fold ground of

tal doctrines of the

controverted matters, that is to say, the funda-
mental truths of the gospel. (Cheers.) Another ground of
objection lay to the circumstance of their being a new trans-
lation. These extracts were not made either in the Douay
translation or in the English translation, but they were made
in a fresh translation, thus throwing discredit on every ex-
isting translation of the Bible, and creating what Rome
always desires to create, a feeling of uncertainty about the
written word of God. (Hear, hear.) According to the re-
gulations of the board, no religious instruction could be given
during school hours except from these extracts—these new
translations. For one hour after school permission was
—nay, let us grant that encouragement was given—to
pastors of all sorts to come and give religious instruction to
their own children. Pastors of the Socinian schism, pastors
of the Unitarian schism, pastors of the Independent schism,
pastors of the Baptist schism, pastors of the Popish schism,
—they might all come there one hour after school. The pas-
tors of the Church of Christ could not come upon any sueli
terms ; they could not consent to any such arrangement as
would keep them from teaching " the whole counsel of God"
whithersoever they went ; and they could not be partakers
of other men's sins by conniving at any secret or fraudulent
departure from their own rules by the board. (Great ap-
plause.) The board found that a rigid adherence to their
own rules would not do, and they became practically squeez-
able. (Hear, hear.) They were squeezed into an.exclusively
popish system upon one hand ; they have been squeezed into
an exclusively Presbyterian system upon another hand; and
they hold themselves in readiness to be squeezed into a
Church system with a third hand. But, though Romish
priests felt themselves at liberty to avail themselves of a
connivance of the board of a departure from their own rules,
and though the Presbyterians of the north of Ireland have
felt themselves at liberty, by getting an exclusively Presbyte-
rian system of education, to connive at a similar departure
from their own rules by the board, the pastors of the church,
I say, cannot be partakers of other men's sins by conniving
at a fraudulent departure from their own rules by the mem-
bers of the board, and, therefore, they would not squeeze
her. (Hear, hear.) They had stood aloof from her, and
what, then, were they to do ? To endeavour, doubtless, to
educate the children of the poor in the truth as it is revealed
in Christ Jesus, and as it is held up by the pillar and ground
of the truth, which is Christ's church upon earth. (Hear,
hear.) This is what they were to do • but how were they to
do this ? Means must be used, schools must be had ; and in
order to have schools, and to use means, money must be
had, but where was the money to be got? The British go-
vernment would give none ; the parliament would give none ;
both government and parliament had got into Popish bands
at the time to such an extent that it was vain to expect any-
thing from them. What then was to be done ? Money was
to be asked for from the members of the church ; it was
asked for, and members of the church gave money. The
primate came forward, nearly all the bishops, the members
of the church come forward, and the Church Education So-
ciety for Ireland was established. (Hear.) The Church
Education Society for Ireland then is in operation under the
circumstances I have described. It has got considerable
support in Ireland, but not enough, and some of its mem-
bers and friends are now in England seeking for increased
support from the members of the united church of England
and Ireland. (Hear.) So it is come to you. (Hear, hear.)
Now your case is peculiar, because all this is an old story to
you. (Hear.) In some parts of England this would be
news, but in Liverpool it is an old story told under a new
name. (Hear.) Most of you can recollect that this same
Irish board system was not confined to Ireland. We had a
late corporation. (Laughter.) The late corporation, anxious
to manifest the overflowings of their liberality, determined
to import the Irish monster, and import it they did. They
brought the extracts over—these new translations; they
passed resolutions that in their schools the Irish system
should have a fair trial, and no other books be used but
those belonging to it. These resolutions were printed
and published under the authority of the Education Com-
mittee of the Council at that time. In compliance
with these resolutions the Irish extracts were introduced, and
the authorised version of the Bible was excluded during
school hours. If it was not, their rules were not complied
with ; if their rules were complied with, it was excluded.
Their friends here say it was not excluded ; if so, then they
were practically squeezable too. (Cheers.) But, while their
lthoritative resolutions, printed and published for our in-
ction, did exclude the Bible from school hours, they did
4- the Irish extracts. Whatever their practise might be,
-y to their resolutions, we took thous upon their own
As we say what we mean, and mean what we say,
„ give credit to other people for saying what they mean,
id meaning what they say ; and when they said that no books

given—

were to be used in their schools except those of the
board, we believed that they meant what they said. (Hear,
hear.) Therefore we did not go to those schools; and we
_ .

ppealed to the people of Liverpool to give us money to build
chools for our children instead of those schools. (Hear.)
did so. We got a few weeks £ll,OOO. (Great
We built the schools, filled them with children,
the truth, as the church of Christ ought to

Ind now, aye, now's the rub

(laughter) ; now, thanks to you, and the like of you in the
town whom we instructed—and though it seems to be praising-
myself and my order, I must be bold to say it—thanks to
your clergy for teaching you right principles. (Cheers.) We
taught you the whole matter before the Ist of November came;
we taught it to you over again before the next Ist of Novem-
ler came ; and we taught it to you a third time before the
at Ist of November, and upon the last Ist of November you
Ight the late corporation to retire. (Great cheering.)
w I think you have the subject sufficiently before you for
:tire, and call upon the deputation from Ireland to
..tte their case, and enlist your sympathies. The reverend
chairman then sat down amidst great applause.
The Rev. THOMAS WALKER, of Dublin, Secretary to the
moved the first resolution, which was in these

That •
the circumstances in which the great body of the
.embers of the Chuurpl. of Christ in Ireland are placed, by
the withholding of
p
which they lc aid from any system of education in
can conscientiously concur, are such as to require
the existence and extended usefulness of a society which
shall provide them with pure religious instruction:,
The rev. gentleman commencedo by saying he felt confident,
that if the pious portion promoters of the Irish system
of national education had foreseen the actual working of the
system in Ireland, they not have put their hand to if,
but would be found among itst strongest opponents. The
ground, however, upon which
regarded by
being that of
expediency, which was never christians as spiri-
blipped from the high
tual ground, they not only failed, but
position in which they might have stood.
be Romish schism
be an impossibility to induce members of
t It was stated to
word of God—that
in Ireland to accept from us the whole
they would not have from our hands the u
will—that they would not receivenautilated
fromrecordour teach-
the way of salvation as the commissioned messengers of
' -t High were bound to teach it. It was thenman, that if
put for-
somey
ward as an argument, and it had weight with
we could obtain a system of education whereby
iportions
of divine truth might be brought in contact with the minds of
the mass of Irish Romanists, we might look forward in time
to the attainment of the great object in view, the dissemina-
tion of the whole unmutilated scriptures of God. This
argument was urged by Sir Thomas Fosvell Buxton, then
Mr. Buxton, in the year 1836, in the House of Com-
mons, when he was supporting the celebrated " appropria-
tion clause," as it was called, by which the church was to he
robbed of its property, and the property so taken appropri-
ated to any purpose that the minister of the day might think
tit. Sir T. F. Buxton thought it would be right to take the
property of the church, and apply it to the establishment of
this board which, he said, was a national and religious object.
The grand argument urged by the liberal section of the
house (and this, he believed, was conscientiously desired
upon the part of 'Mr. Buxton) was, that a certain portion of
the divine records should be presented to the people in the
Scripture extracts—and that the board should enforce the
reading of them. The board did so for sonic time. It ap- ,
peared, however, that in the details of the system these ex- i

of God's

tracts were irk

tAw.,3. 1

'upboards in various schozi:?

1)0.k.

rounds, observed this, and he entered the feet in the
at the same time commenting upon the circumstance of the.
Scripture extracts not being read. This was complained of
by the local managers to the board in Dublin, on the 31st of
August, 1838, and the board, beilvz squeezable, withdrew the
extracts. (Hear.) This occurred in a popish school, under
a popish priest ; the glimmer of light shed upon the sur-
rounding darkness by these extracts was unpalatable to him—
he, therefore, remonstrated, and the extracts were with-
drawn ! (Hear.) The 26th section of the report made by
the board in the year 1829 had these words—" We should
also state that we by no means insist upon having the Scrio-
ture extracts published by our authority read in any of our
national schools." Now the board was established for the
purpose of affording to children of Roman Catholic parents
some knowledge of the divine will through the use of these
extracts—hence was it supported by Sir T. F. Buxton and
other pious liberal members, and the public money was
granted for that purpose ; but the board had betrayed its
•ist and it had given up 0- popish part of the Irish pop,

true,„, 'me
lation wholly into-the hands of the liornish priests. (Hear,
hear.) He mentioned this to show that in dealing with the
board as it is now, theylwere dealing with a very different
thing to what the board was when first originated. If he
used strong language in speaking of the board, he must be
understood as not applying it to those who had the formation
of it, for the board had departed from the original intentions
of those who formed it. And if strong language was used
with regard to Lord Stanley, who had the purest motives in
all he did, he begged that Lord Stanley might not be made
accountable for the present doings of the board. Lord
Stanley intended that through the instrumentality of this
board, some light, if not the whole, should be caused to fall
upon the darkness of popery in his (Mr. Walker's) unhappy
native land. Next to the design of causing some portion of
divine truth to be disseminated through the length and
breadth of the land, was the grand object of uniting the va-
rious parties and sections in Ireland. England was fatigued
with stories of Irish misery and woe, and in order to heal
them, it was said " establish a system which shall unite all
the various conflicting parties in beautiful harmony and
order." This system was formed, and great sacrifices were
made to obtain this promised union ; and what had been the
consequence? Why that you had now a board of education
in Ireland that had done more to dissever the various par-
ties and denominations in Ireland than anything ever perpe-
trated in the history of that country. (Hear, hear.) You
had a board of education directly endowing Popery, Pres-
byterianism, Socinianism, and every other schism that chose
to ask its aid. (Hear.) The rev. gentleman then cited a
letter of Dr. Cooke, of Belfast, dated the 11th February, in
the present year, in which that celebrated man said he was
free to confess that the government system of education ge-
nerally was just as had as ever, although the Presbyterians
had obtained some relaxation or modification of three of its
rules, by which thee were eniblerl to havr cehnolc anon their

own principles. The same advantage, privilege, and oppor-
tunity of giving education upon a system peculiarly their

own mat nau peen uttered to the Presbyterians was, there-
fore, open to every other class and denomination, for it was
the principle of the National Society to afford equal facilities
for teaching error and truth. It was known before that this
was so, but now the matter was made perfectly tangible.
After another quotation from Dr. Cook, further exposing the
anomalies of the system endowed in Ireland with the national
money, one expression in which was this " if we join the
board we shall be prevented carrying light into popish dark-
ness," the reverend speaker proceeded to say that the object
of the deputation was to present to the notice of the meeting
a society which possessed peculiar advantages and facilities
for " carrying light into popish darkness." Hear, hear.)
The Church of Ireland had come forward as the teacher of the
young, and organized a system, whereby the word of God
would be given to them in its unmutilated entirety in order
that they might know the way of salvation, and come to the
hope of them that believe in Jesus. (Cheers.) Endeavour-
ing to fulfil His commission, the church was asking, through
the instrumentality of this society, the means of bringing be-
f ,re the people a full, large, and Catholic system of education.
Its object was to enable the parochial clergy in Ireland to offer
to all a religious education—to offer to every one within the
boundries of their parish a sound and Scriptural education—
the same system that it was now intended, he believed, to be
pursued in the corporation schools in this town. (Hear, hear.)
The rev. gentleman then contended that the clergy of the
Established Church ought to have the charge of the education
of the people, and he showed that this principle had been re-
cognized and acted upon from the reign of Henry VIII down
to the year 1825. They had not, however, a legal provision
now to effect this, hence they were compelled to apply to the
generosity of England. Not one farthing of the public funds
could they obtain for the education of the young, therefore
were they wholly thrown upon the liberality of the good people
of England and Ireland. When he stated that last year,
which was thesecond year of their existence, they raised nearly
X 15,000 to extend the society, that they had in connection
1,100 schools, containing upwards of 60,000 scholars-20,000
and upwards of whom were Romanist children, he had shown
plainly that the society was prospering. It was conducted
upon sound principles, and as a guarantee for that, he would
mention that it was in union with the National Society of
England—that glorious institution established in this country
for the purpose of giving church education to all the children
of the land. It was taken into union at a meeting held in
London, and presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury,
who expressed his satisfaction at the for tion of the society
under the auspices of the Primate and trshops of the Irish
Church, and upon principles which were scriptural and church
in their character. Their system of education, and their plan
in all its details was alike; they had formed diocesan branches ;
they had twenty model schools throughout the dioceses ; they
had a training school in Dublin for the preparation of com-
petent masters ; and they were seeking, by close inspection,
to have the system fully and efficiently worked throughout
the length and breadth of the land. (Applause.) They had
come to this town under the patronage and sanction of the
rectors. In no case, indeed, did they presume to enter into
any parish to ask for support, unless they had the patronage
and sanction of the head of the ecclesiastical establishment
in the place. (Hear, hear.) After a few further recom-
mendatory observations the rev. gentleman moved the reso-
lution, and sat down amidst great applause.
The Rev. DAVID JAMES, in a brief speech, seconded the
resolution, and on being put from the chair it was unanimously
carried.

The Rev. W. A. BUTLER, Professor of Moral Philosophy,
in Trinity College, Dublin, moved the second resolution.
I rejoiced, sir, proceeded the rev. gentleman, to have dis-
covered upon my arrival in this city in the character of a
deputy from the Church Education Society for Ireland, and
through it, from the bishops and clergy of the Irish Church,
that in this city itself we were likely to find so large a body
of this most respectable and influential population, interested
in the very cause which we had ourselves come over here to
plead. As you, sir, have clearly shown in sour most lucid
and perspicuous address at the opening of this meeting, we
are here as the advocates of principles identically the same
with those for which you yourselves, my friends, have been
struggling. The circumstances indeed may in some respects
differ, but the great principles for which we contend—to wit,
education founded upon the broad basis of the unmutilated
Scriptures of God, and superintended and guided and directed
by God's appointed clergy, these important principles are no
other than those which have regulated the Church Education
Society for Ireland, in behalf of which I and my brother emiss
sary appear before this meeting this evening. (Hear, hear.)
Aad yet it is true there are some differences, but not sub-
stantial differences, between the cases. The church that
undertakes to educate the poor in Ireland is situated, it must
be confessed, in some respects, in different circumstances
from the church that undertakes to educate the poor of Eng-
gland. How I feel when I behold before me in this room
so large a body of gospel taught, and gospel believing peo-
ple ! How I feel when I behold in this city so vast a mass
of persons instructed in the great fundamental principles of
the truth as it is in Jesus ! How I feel when 1 know that
the whole tone and current of public opinion in this great city
is enlisted in behalf of those immortal principles of divine
truth that are taught by our apostolic church ! When I be-
hold these things, is it to be wondered at that my thoughts
should wander across the sea that divides us and you, and
bring to my recollection that less happy land in which the
truth is in jeopardy as it were, in its own home, in which
the gospel of Christ, to be preached at all, must often be
preached amidst difficulty, persecution, peril, and dangers
of every description, and in which, in some instances (I do
not say in all, and perhaps I ought not to say in many) we are
not martyrs for the cause of Christ by our flesh, only because
we are martyrs from day to day for his cause ! (Hear, hear.)
It is not so with you. God has been pleased to place you in
different circumstances. (Hear.) Oh ! what circumstances
they are in which He has been pleased to place you ! Oh,
what it is to be citizens of an empire which God has des-
tined, as events have shown, to be the great citadel of His
pure and indwelling truth for the sake of an unbelieving and
unregenerate world ! Oh, what it is to be members of a
church, of which, more than of any other that ever existed,
we may confidently pronounce that God of old predestined
that from it should go forth those saving principles of divine
truth which he has ever intended should be the bulwark of all
true national advancement, the salt of the earth, the saving
principles by which the world's salvation was ultimately to
be secured ! This is the position which England occupies;
and in that position you, my friends, this evening are enabled
to share. Oh, from your vantage ground, from the height
of the position in which Providence has been pleased to place
you, from that elevated and eminent post which you are called
upon to occupy, we ask you to look down upon Ireland ! We
ask you to look down upon a country which is bound to so
many of you by the dear ties of family or of birth ! We ask
you to behold how dependent she is upon you for all that
makes life valuable, or eternity secure ; and in that con-
viction, and under that persuasion, liberally, openly, and
with all the energy of your honest English hearts to become
supporters of this last and greatest effort to enlighten Ire-
land, and make her what she ought to be, " great, glorious,
and free "—(cheers)—free by a divine enfranchisement, free
by a spi:itual emancipation, free—not by that miserable free-
dom which is but slavery, that her boasted friends advocate
—but free by that divine unfolding of all her spiritual ener-
gies, by that service of God, which one of our own beautiful
collects has declared to be the only " perfect freedom. "
(Great cheers.) Now, my dear friends, the resolution lam
here to support, states to you a cardinal principle of the so-
ciety which we have undertaken toaavocate. It states that this
society is distinguished from other societies in one important
respect—that it comes before you chartered by the all but
unanimous patronage and superintendence of the legitimate
governors of the Church of Christ in Ireland. (Hear.) This
is important upon several accounts. It is important because
it forms a security, a satisfactory pledge for those who are
inclined to bestow their liberality upon the society ; it en-
sures to them that whatever they do bestow shall be devoted
to purposes such as meet the approbation of those who, by
authority of station, and by length of experience, are best
qualified to know what is suitable to uphold the church and
people of Ireland. (Hear.) This is a matter, I need not say,
of great and peculiar moment. You are " a thinking peo-
ple," as has often been said by one of the most illustrious of
your popular leaders. You are " a thinking people ; "
moreover, you are a mercantile people. You naturally, be-
fore you enlist yourselves in any cause, require that a clear
statement should be laid before you, to ensure and ascertain
that what you do bestow shall be effectively administered.
The sponsors we put before you on behalf of the Church
Education Society for Ireland—[they are sponsors that no
other education society can bring forward]—are the Pri-
mate and the Bishops of the Church of Christ in the sister
kingdom. (Hear, hear, hear.) There is another aspect in
which the same matter may be viewed. Our denomination
is this—the Church Education Society for Ireland. We do
not call ourselves the Bible Society for Ireland ; we do not
call ourselves the Scripture Society for Ireland. It is not—
God forbid it should for a moment be imagined that it is—
that we do not make the Scriptures the cardinal point upon
which all our education is to rest ; but it is for this reason—
that in this society there is an additional element superadded,
over and above, to mere Scriptural teaching—an element in-
dispensable, as we conceive, whether we regard our wants as
ministers of the Anglican Church in Ireland, or the general
consistency and propriety of our proceedings as teachers of
Christ's undefiled truth. Our society, then, is this. We
offer education in the fundamental principles of the truth of
Chrpt to every living soul; we declare to every immortal
spirit, if that spirit is thirsting for the water of life, " ap-
proach near unto us," and, as tar as the Spirit of God will
enable us, " he shall partake of the waters of life freely,
without money and without price." (Cheers.) That is our
fundamental principle.
positive error. But, t, then, we cannot but remember that
It applies to all ; it excludes nothing
but
there is a large
and dearer ties • we
cannot
are connected with us by yet nearer.
minis-
ters of the Chil reh f rohtrtibsut remember
in Eaglaad andthat
Ireland,w•e, as m naivs
have
undertaken to declare
page
4: merelyad the Scriptures as they
stand in the revealed
according to tba sound interpretation which alsot
has
se Scripturesee fixe
by our blessed forefathers at the period of the Renforma-
tion, and from them transmitted to us, their successors.
(Hear, bear.) Thereforeit is that to all those who have.