Elizabeth-Town gazette., 1821-02-13
FROM LONDON PAPERS
Received at the Office of the N. Y. Com. Adv
MR.. PHILLIPS SPEECH,

Delivered at the Annual Meeting OF the London
ffibernian School Society, held at Sligo.
Sir-I have very great pleasure in ac.
ceding to the request of your jealous Sec
retary, and proposing a resolution Con-
graduation Oh the success Of this institu-
iioD, and of appreciation Of the sacred prin-
ciples on which it has been founded. ]
confess, that until | peTused the report
with which he was so polite as to furnish
me, had very imperfect idea Of ii'e val.
ue ofthis institution, or Of the great graf.
itude which we owe TO our generous Eng
lish brethren, who have so nobly aud dis
interestedly established it amongst US. 1t
is an emanation Of that glorious spirit
which has spread their name among The
nations of the earth, and made that name
synonymous with every virtue. ! had no
idea that no less number than $4,000 of
the infant population of this Kingdom, iII-
Guiding two Thousand children Q: o;sr own
country, who now crowd this hall with
pious gratitude, were thus gratuiIously
receiving from them the blessed fruits Of
education and religion. How gratifying
it is to turn from the abominable and in
fernal perjuries by which the public mind
is now hourly polluted, aud the public
heart afflicted, and the public morals in-
suited, to the contemplation OF such a
subject! Fifty.eisht thousand children,
raised from the mire of ignorance and
perstiton-redeemed from state Of ale
most brutal barbarism, and led through
the temple Of knowledge, even 10 the very
altar Of God, is spectacle which envy
not the man who can behold it without
enthusiasm. In this country it borrows
from circumstances even an adventurous
interest, for surely there never was a
country more ripe for its exlIibition--nev.
er was there land more full offine intel
ligence, obscured aud darkened, or of
nobIer impulse, more miserably perverted.
The mind of Ireland has by no means
hitherto had fair deyelopememt. Acute
but active-masnificent but uncultivated,
the passing stranger beholds the people as
he does their country, with admiration il
is true, but still with mournful admiration,
at their neglected grandeur and their I'M
productive loveliness II has been to lit
tie purpose that the genius Of the nation
has occasionally burst the bondage that
enthralled it; that nature, as it were to
vindicate herself, has shot some spirit of
light athwart the gloom, 10 whose lastre
the land became for moment visible
Il was but for moment, and the cloud i:
touched scarcely retained a tirge OF the
profitless phenomenon. There was no
permanent source whence its radiarce
could be fed; and the mere glimmerings
OF unassisted nature struggled but family
through the denseness OF the atmosphere.
To rescue the country from this foul dis
grace--to dispel the mist of barbarism aud
ignorance, with their attendant train Of
vices and Of crimes-to elevate the peas
antry from vice and superstition to a NOR
al practice and holy contemplation, your
institution has been founded. A glorious
work, and worthy Of a Christian! A work
characterized by the most glowing benev-
olence, and not less replete, even in a
worldly sense, with the wisest and the
soundest policy, for you may depend up
on il that, sooner or later national good
cannot fail to flow from moral regenera-
ton. The sobriety, the temperance, the
good faith, the industry, naturally con-
sequent upon early culture, will, in time,
" like rich stream, run back and hide
their fountain" The principles Of free
dom, by being better understood, will be-,
come, Of course, more fondly cherished !;
the impolicy, as well as the impiety Of
crime, by being more clearly proved, will
be, Of course, more sedu.ously avoided.
An educated slave--an educated criminal,
are moral contradictions. In the very
dawn of knowledge, the phantoms that
alright, and the vices that despoil us,
gradually disappear; and !, is only when
its light has vanished. that You find igno-
rance and superstition crawling from their
cavern, aud amid spectral shapes aud hor-
ned apparitions, taking their incubus sta
ton upon the bosom Of society. II truths
like these needed an exmaple, all history
is eloquent on the subject. No bsrbarous
country ever rose TO greatness and contin-
ued barbarous. No peasantry ever yet
became educated without becoming COM
paratively viriuous--the spirit Of inquiry
consequent upon literature, and the spirit
Of genuine freedom, have been in genera!
co.existent, and flourished and decayed
together. Turn your eyes 70 Athens in
the ancient time.-the temple alike Of lib
erty aud letters--ihe seat ofthe arts--the
mount OF the Muses-the immortal shrine
of all that could constitute The healhen's
immortality, where even battle smoothed
his rugged foot, and the warriors sword
was garIanded with roses Behold bei
now her sages silent, and her temples