Our readers may have obse...
The Times, 1824-07-30T00:00:00

Xrl-.daieis m2ay aveobserved that a Commission has been>?>diitEtt by-]Ii8 sM'aJEsTY to cerlattt gentlezten, Mzs~ Am?LANnD-LZwISv, Lt.EsL OSTER>.XlLLIA.M. g.^9'ig,ppil eb30illilig t!lelh,O ;y tlitee of tbem quire into and repokt upon the general state of education among the people of Ireland. The particular subjects cOn- stituting the course and order of their investigations are to be--I. The nature and extent of the instractionr (nffo.ded by the~aeveral institutions in Ireland, estathihi for the purposed edu arad maintained, either in; the whoie or ini .iart, fro77 ze public funds. 2. The state If the diocesan and district schools, anid the nature of the instruc- tion afforded -by.them. 3; Thepakochial-schoo*s, andAbe regulations best adapted to them. 4. The best measures for exteuding generally to-the peopleof Ifeland the benefits of education. We cannot deny that, speaking in thb ab- stractj it is very wvise and expedieiit to educate a people; nor can wve refuse to the gentlemen now selected by the Crown, the praise of bearing such a charac- ter as would lead us to expect from them, not mere- ly a conscientious, but an industrious and able dis- charge of tbe duty imposed upon tbem by His MAJESTY, viz., that of inquiring how far the modes or opportunities of popular education in Ireland would admit of being im- proved and enlarged, where they are actually'erroneous or contracted. In short, it is our vish to. state, that to the extent to which wvhat is vulgarly termed education-mean- ing thereby reading; wriling, and arithmetic-can be pro- ductive of good to the unfortunate Irish, under their pre- sent circumstances, there is nothing in the commission or in the commissioners of which the public have a right to complain. Perhaps we may go further, and add, that some bencfit canuio fail to be effected by an inquiry directed to such I objects, even should it produce little other result than a conviction upon the mind of Government, that education, through the medium of books, is not the primary nor most essential want, which the people of Ireland sufflr. Thie English generally are not aware that the faculty of reading and writing is, and bas been for many years, fae more com- mnoii among the Irish peasantry than among those of Eng- land; yet is the fact beyond dispute. In the wvildest parte of Munster the vacancies in the priesthoood were long ago and frequently filled up by youths, born under hovels, instructed by the hedge-side, so far as English, nay, classical tuition went, and finished at Douay or St. Omers, These were but the smartest and most diligent among the chil- dren of Irislh labourers. They were technically called " poor scholars," wlo, in their wanderings tlhrough the couutry, begged their bread at the doors of their charitable countrymen, and aftervards proved an equal honour to the miniistry which received them, and to the humble race from wbich they sprung. But, strong and decided as is our concurrence in the general principle, that for all human beings the 'great avenues of knowledge ought, through letters, to; be opened to the infant mind, we cannot shut our senses to the conivictioin, how much more urgent a necessity exists in Ireltand fbr other means of popular improvement than any that books can furnish. Irish tur- bulence has not subsided, crimes lhave not diminished, nor has a respect for the laws increased, in the ratio in which the arts of reading and iwriting have spread themselves throughout the community. The reason is, that reading hs -been acquired as an amusing or vainglorious art-not .thought of as a source whence rules of conduct moral or prulential might be borrowed. In spite of the schoolmas- ters-and there are myriads of them-dirt and ferocity flourish as vigorously as they (lid loo years ago. Idleness, ir fact, and destitution, and misery have outstripped ih a terrible proportion, the praiseworthy efforts of the priests and of the benevolent part of the laity to teach and reclaim the poor of Ireland. Beneficence ought to begin in Ireland with the belly: the people are suffering under an alnost perennial scarcity of food. He is the best and tnost seasonable benefactor who will, in such a case, teach them to procure sufficient sus- teniance by the honest labour of their own hands-the best preceptor who will point out to them the path to employ- ment. WVhere that is notoriously lost to any country, it is cruel to make a parade about supplying your secondarv or third-rate wants. If we were, apart from wages, to pre- scribe a course of education for the Irish, it would be one which went straight-forward to correct the whole mass of their domestic habits-to render the peasant population more active and dexterous both in finding employment for themselves, and in making the most of it when supplied by others. This is one real exigency under which they lan- guish; and on it we 'may throw out a hint or two hereafter.