The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-06-26

ORNING STAR AND CATHOLI'
xdneatisnal Persssatim N Iss,and.
Among the Catholic Assistant Commits.
si0ners, whose unpublished reports on Pri.
mary Education i Ireland we hope to NO.
tice, the first Is Mr.. Walter Scott Coward
The district allotted to him for examina-
tion was that Of Cork, extending from
Youghal to Skibbereen. The most striking
points in his report are the systematic in
Justice of the authorities towards Catho-
lie schools, and the general demand for de,
den0minational education. As an instance
Df the first point we will begin by taking
two schools in Cork itself, to which Gov.
ernment aid has been refused after due ap-
plication one OF them is the school taught
by the Sisters of Mercy in Blarney Lane,
and known by the name of st. Mary of the
Rock the other is a new school for boys,
called the Greenmount Schools which was
tation. 1t has been very generally and
very justly considered, according to Mr..
Coward, that the refusal of aid to these
two schools has been arbitrary and tyran-
nical; as they were both built by private
charity and are attended by children OF
Unreasonable refusal is made still more
hard to bear by the fact that the aid re-
fused to these useful and necessitOus estab
Ilishments has been granted to height Dor
ling endowed schools and Presbyterian
schools, which want it either much less or
Assistant Commissioner feels sure, on the
other hand, that the Christian Brothers
I" will in time supplant' in the towns
of Cork all the National Schools" The
great secret of the success of all these In
stitutions lies, he found, in the moral in-
Eauence of the teachers. If many boys are
but imperfectly Instructed when they leave
the care of the Christian Brothers, they att
all events carry with them something bet
ter than mere learning, namely, a deep re-
-gard for the virtues which they have seem
Exhibited in the daily lives of those by|
whom they have been educated. Again, in|
another passage Mr.. Coward states that
Imuch Of the favor with which the Christian
Brothers is regarded is due to the fearless
assertion of Nationality which they COM
'bine, like all good Catholics, with spirit
|of submission to the Government UNDER
(which they live. In consequence OF their
recent introduction at Middleton, the Ma
|tional School has disappeared entirely from
Itbat parish, which has moreover incurred
Ian expenditure of f25OO in erecting build-I
Iings for them, besides an annual liability
lie $50 towards their lnaintenance.-AtB lar-|
|ney the National School is SO thoroughly
Catholic that the Anglican rector has re-
yOueSCeU, ana mas OUCtllucuS SuppOAt lAohS
.tbe Board for Protestant school at which,
1.-The, average attendance of children is four.
lat Bandon the school children of the Pres
Ibyterians are about fifteen, and those of the
|Methodists and other Dissenters barely
forty six, yet two separate schools are}
maintained for these different Protestantf
bodies. To return to Cork itself, the Boardl
has established, without asking a question,
PRESBYTERIAN schools with a grant of ma
|tiopal money for people who are well able1
Ito pay for the education of their families,
while it is at the same time refusing aid TOT
which are struggling, underI
manifold difficulties, to educate hundreds
of really poor children. Most natural II
the Commissioned, heard that complaints
|are made "against the National Board of
their unfairness in allowing PresbyteriansY
land others to have their own schools with
bout limit as to numbers, while they refnse1
the same privilege to Catholics. This gr1ev-
|ous system of persecution inevitably bri0gsl
with it sad waste of public money. Wei
learn elsewhere that the maintenance OF the
Protestant National Schools cost the STATED
annually Ell Is. Sd. per child, and the edu- :
cation is miserably deficient.
The ministers of the Presbyterian per- (
suasion are, as we gather from Mr.. Cow &
ards report, tiercely opposed to the de- 2
system, although they takeS
good care to have denomina-
tional schools of their own, even in places
where there is no reason whatever for their
But the Presbyterians are
an exception to the general rule. The
clergy and laity of the Catholic Church,
and nearly all the members of theH
body, are distinctly in favor
Of the connection between education andE
a definite religious belief. 1t must
ever be borne in mind that this
great question, the question of de- +
nominationalism, reigns supreme in the (
minds of all who are in any degree con- 5
cerned with the education of the people,
To the Catholic priesthood, as well as to
the Catholic laity, the recognition andE
adoption of the denominational schoolsE
would be the solution of the difficulties of
Irish education, and would 'be the one thinSfs
wanting to perfect the system. 1t wouldE
give to the schools the religious tone inH
which the National institutions are now,
with such miserable results, so lamentabiyE
it would remove the great OBJ +
stacle which now exists to an adequateE
supply of trained teachers; it would abol- x
ish the vexatious and unnleaning regula-k
tons which at present conceal the emblemsk
and discard the books which the peopleE
love ; and it would put an end to the in- X
sulting disqualifications and the arbitrary
which, under the present sys-
tenn, stand in the way of the very best Off
all teachers-the Religious of both sexes. 4
and incidentally the same mea-
sure would prove the most effectual meansy
of bringing about an end which even bigot- s
ed Protestants ought to appreciate, namely,
the gradual extinction of ideas of socialism
and reyOlutiOn,4Idblet.