New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-04-26
IRISH SOCIAL CONDITION.
.nrRoRs AND sCHooLMAsTERs.

JURY LAwS-POwER OF THE CIEhGF ofEh Tile
sCHooIMAsTERs.
PRom AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE rRibuhbI
DUBLIN March 27-Your correspondents was one Oh
those who labored hard quarter OF century ago
to reconcile the religious bodies of this country to
the National System of Education. He showed the
social advantages that would result from the MIN
Cling of Protestants and Catholics In the same classes
producing feelings of good win and laying the toun-
dation of lifelong friendships, and asked: no"
else could the members of the rival churches ever De
blended into one nation capable of working out its
own destinyi He pointed with pride to the excel
lence Of the school-boOks, Astounding in useful
knowledge and-though free from dogInas-per-
vaded by the spirit of Christian morality, free from
the faint of Proselytism, practically teaching the
right 10 differ and in the Conscience Clause, ex-
hibiting in every school-room standing testimony
in favor of rel gious freedom. Nearly half million
sterling has been voted yearly for the support OF TINS
system. Az the population decreased, and wages
rose and farmers got better prices and the Savings
Banks had their Golfers full, it fondly hoped
that the generation that has grown up under the
system of national education would be an enlight-
ened generation Besides, the children did not de-
pend on those schools All the churches and sects
busy with their Sunday schools, their or
phanages &c. All seemed very anxious to possess
auu polish bne IOuRh INTELLECTUAL ultiHonuh lutJ
picked up in the gutter, and make them meet TO
adorn the Redeemer's diadem. From such holy
competition what might not have been expected in
the development of Irish talent and the spread of
general intelligence
Alas it was all an Illusion The darkness Of
primeval ignorance dense and chilling, still lies on
the mind of large portion Of the Irish nation. For
a third of the population the schOOmaster has been
abroad in vain. This startling revelation has been
made by Lord 0Hagan's Juries Act. A reform OF
the jury law was needed. Partisan shertfs could
pack juries. and packed them 80 often that, when
you the twelve men in the box You might swear
that the prisoner at the bar would be either con-
vcted or acquitted 1t depended on the creed and
politics of the parties concerned Az natural re-
suit the Roman Catholics had no confidence in the
administration of Justice. The judges were--with
rare exceptiOns-impartial but the iures let their
charges in at one ear and ont at the other. Lord
O'Hagan the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, the first
Catholic that filed the office since the Revolution,
one of the most upright and accomplished of Judges,
as we'll as of the most amable and estlmaDle OF
men, undertook to remedy this great evil by bill
which provided that the jurors should be called
alphabetically on the paueI and that the sheriff
should have no power to set them aside. If rightly
placed on the books according TO their rating under
Lue IOOI Law lub plAullkAo y SuohOhN
but unfortunately the qualification was much too
low that the jurors were found in substratum
of ignorance that astonished everybody. In some
cases not even the foreman could write his name
Many of them came from the pillow and the spade
Most of them had never served on iuries before.
Few of them had any idea of the nature of evil
dence. In the important case of Sub-lnspeetOr
MONTGOMERY tried the second time at Omagh for
one of the f0ulest murders record the jury were
a set of ignOramuses, on whom a weeks swearing
and logic and eloquenee had been as completely
thrown away as if they had been addressed 10
twelve heads of cabbage. In another important
case in Dublin one of the jurors was absent. When
hunted up III back lane not the most reputable, he
said he went into a shop to get a penny rowL' In
still another ease, juror became tired IN the box,
and went for a change, into the body of the court.
In fourth case Juror was called and answered IN
the dock. In a similar ease of this kind the man
was liberated, for the Crown entered nOtle prOseqa
in order that the great end of the British Constlu
uon might be accomplished namely to put twelve
men in the jury box.
The Grand Jures however. have stirred in the
matter it has been taken mp in Parliament, and no
doubt Lord O'Hagans Act will be amended before
the end of the session. The startling state of things
which it revealed among the rate-payers and elect
ors who ought all TO be the alumni of the National
Board of Education led me TO look for solution of
the mystery in the returns of the last census-lS7l
The figures here are really astounding The total
population in Ireland the night of April p 1871,
was 8 402 $50. The number of those who could read
and write was 2,l05,95S; the number of those who
could neither read write was l9I3.3S2-in round
numbers. nearly two millions. The total number
of pupils attending school reported il tue previous
census was 4G6Slo.
Ihave lust. while writing, received a visit from
an eminent Clergyman Of the Irish Church, who has
always supported United Education, and he has men,
TONED facts which tend 20 mitigate the feeling Of
disaupointment produced by the idea of two millions
ont of Eve being unable to read. First children as
Young as five years taken into the estimate
Seven or eight years would be better starting point
and a reduction should be made accordingly. Sec
ond the children are required 10 work by the small
farmers 10 herd cattle and do one thing or another
so that their attendance at school is most limited
and irregular Third, il is next to impossible 10 nave
a monitor now in anatiOnaL school Boys and girls
at 70 TO "A years Of age, leave school TO earn their
bread The teachers, too are tempted IN large num-
bers byihigher pay to accept elerkshps and mercan
tile employments of various kinds. The best men
90 and the inferior minds remain To conduct the
education of the people
Tothese considerations We may add another which
oecuped public attention IN this country some time
AGO. The great Observation-Disclosures, no Doubt
Of the patrons" of the National Schools are priests
They have an absolute power of dismissing the mas
tiers at day notice without cause assigned, with
out trial or appeal We can imagine the position Of
moor fellow. with wife and children, liable to be
turned out of doors if he dispeased his patron by
the least freedom of thought, by reading book OF
paper which his Reverence did not approve or by
lacking in that sort of demonstratiye devOutness or
pety in ceremOnals, so repumant TO honest, truth
loving minds. The masters, feeling the misery Of
this dependence applied to the Commissioners and
nettioned for a quarters notice. or the payment Of