ments, the vast obligations which the religious and the loyal, in every part of the empire, owe to the man who has championed their cause with such undaunted intrepidity, such inflexible perseverance, such tempered zeal, and such matchless ability, in the very worst of times, and to mark with particular emphasis the large debt of gratitude which is due to him from the Protestants of Ireland. We cannot but recognize a protecting Providence in the very fact, that such a man, at such a time, should occupy the very post which he now occupies; and we do trust that the time is not distant when the importance of his services will be so far appreciated by others, as that he may be called to take a higher station, in shaping and regulating the destinies of the empire. If Lord Morpeth was inclined to act sincerely in the spirit of the act of Henry VIII. to which he referred, the Irish clergy could desire nothing better. It would place them precisely where they ought to be, and where they would be, but for the indifference of latitudinarians, jealousy of sectaries, and the rancorous hostility of papists. It would, in fact, reverse the position in which he would have them placed. The object of the act was, to raise this country, morally and intellectually, to the level of England, in order that an identity of English manners might prepare the people for English institutions. The object of that system of national education which his lordship patronizes, and which he would tax the clergy to support, is, virtually, to take the education of the people out of their hands, and to put it into the hands of those who will assuredly not take any considerable pains to root out and to extirpate the prejudices and the antipathies which, as long as they exist, must render British dominion insecure, and retard the progress of national improvement. To our minds nothing can be more preposterous, than, in devising a system of national education, to consult, in the first instance, the prejudices of the people. It is for the purpose of correcting those very prejudices that such a system is, or, at least, ought to be designed; assuredly it never should be so shaped as to countenance or confirm them. An enlightened government should see in what consisted the moral and intellectual wants of the people, and for these it should An effectually provide, no matter how strenuously its enlightened provisions for that purpose might be disrelished by bigotry, or resisted by faction. uncompromising perseverance in its own righteous policy, must, in the end, be successful. The statesman who is truly worthy of the name, would no more make the peculiar predilections of the people his regulators, in matters that concerned their moral improvement, than he would make the peculiar interests of individuals his guide in the construction of roads, or in the erection of tanks, which might be necessary for the national convenience. He would consider, first, the best mode in which such works could be effected; and then he would bend all his energies to accomplish them in a manner that should render them most conducive to the end which he had in view. We will suppose the case of a faction resolved to thwart him in his project, and we can even suppose them refusing to make use of the advantages that are thus gratuitously provided for them. If this proceed from ignorance, they are to be pitied, and better things are to be hoped for, when time shall have allayed prejudice, and experience increased knowledge. The enlightened statesman will wait quietly for this. If it should proceed from faction, and if it be only a cloak by which the cloven foot of treason is disguised, those who can view it in that light, if they be just and wise, will not, assuredly, lend it any countenance, but will rather consider the very opposition which they experience a test of the excellence of their system. In the mean time, they need not be over solicitous. If they are only steady to their purpose, time alone will prove an infallible corrector of such discontents as they experience. They have cast their bread upon the waters, and they will find it after many days. When the factions see that nothing is to be gained by their opposition, they will not be likely to persevere in it, to their own detriment. Every day will dimiuish their hostility to a system against which no reasonable objection can be pleaded, and of which every day is exhibiting the advantages. We may suppose indeed that the malcontents will adopt a system of their own, and that evils may then threaten society, against which it would be difficult to guard. But the very same may be feared if they should be suffered to make the system to which they have objected their own, by a tame compliance with their demands on the part of those by whom it was devised; with this difference, that, in the latter case, there would be nothing to resist the evils that might threaten, and that those by whose connivance or compliance they were permitted, must share their responsibility, with those by whose activity they were promoted, or by whose contrivance they were designed. As the act of Henry the Eighth has been referred to, it may be as well to lay before the reader the opinion of the late Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Magee, upon that subject, as given before the education commissioners by whom he was examined in 1825 : "My view of the duty of the clergy, as growing out of the act of 28th Henry Eighth, is, that there is no obligation imposed on the incumbent of a parish to keep a free school. The law, as it appears to me, has become obsolete, or rather is virtually repealed, respecting certain duties enjoined to the clergyman, such as telling the beads in English, &c. because these duties themselves have passed away. But the duty of keeping, or causing to be kept, an English school, I conceive to be still in force under the statute. The mistake that has prevailed on this head seems to be, that the clergy are bound by this act, and the oath prescribed by it, to keep a free school, whereas the act expressly describes the school to be kept, not as a free school, but on the contrary, as one in which a stipend is to be paid by the scholars resorting to it, conditioning only that the stipend shall be such as is usually paid by scholars in English schools in that district of the country; at the same time, I conceive that the clergy are to the utmost of their power bound to keep, or see that there be kept, an English school for the instruction of the poor, although they are not bound to see that it shall be a free school. The true intention of the law I consider to be conveyed and enforced in the act of the 7th of William Third, in tituled An Act to restrain Foreign Education.' In this act it is declared that the clergy shall, in their respective parishes or districts, keep English schools, or cause them to be kept, according to the true intent and spirit of the act of Henry the Eighth; and this, I conceive, sets aside all those minor considerations growing out of the change of times, and brings the matter to the fair honest equity of the case, that the clergy were intended to be the guardians of the education of the country, and to promote it in every fair and practicable way. I have always felt it as such, and considered that the oath imposed on the clergy at institution bore broadly upon this, without entering into the minutiae of the legal considerations, which admit of, and have led to, a great deal of special pleading; but which, when gone into, even with a liberal interpretation, seem decidedly to preclude the idea that the clergy are bound to keep free schools." To this opinion the Commissioners assent, clearly exonerating the clergy from any pecuniary obligation, under the provisions of the act, and as clearly recognising the duty, or, as we would call it, the privilege of superintending the national education. This duty they would limit to the superintendence of the education of their own flocks ; thereby giving a sectarian character to the Established Church, and merely prescribing to the clergy a duty to be sliared with all other dissenters. But this was not to fulfil, or carry out, but to pervert, or obstruct, the spirit of that enlightened enactment. Henry's act, as we before observed, was designed to aid in that grand process of imperial assimilation, upon which he was resolved, and without which it would be impossible to legislate upon enlightened principles for the people of Ireland. It was intended to bear directly against the barbarous customs, and the barbarous prejudices, by which they were degraded and brutalized, and which, he clearly saw, must be utterly extirpated, before any progress could be made in civilization. For this purpose the clergy were called upon to be aiding and assisting, to the utmost of their power; should not be counteracted by any influence from any other quarter, a sort of monopoly is conferred upon them in the business of education, and penalties are enacted against any unlicensed individuals who might presume, contrary to the tenor of the statute, to intrude into their province, by assuming the character of instructors. Such was the drift of the act of Henry the Eighth an act passed shortly-after Henry had incurred the charge of heresy, by assuming to himself the title of head of the church. Such was the character in which the national clergy were recognised, and such the privileges by which they were fortified. Such, also, was the jealousy with which all interlopers were regarded, in whom a similar confidence might not be placed. And yet the commissioners and in order that their labours in 1825 deemed that they were acting in the spirit of this statute, when they discharged the clergy from their obligation of being superintendents over the education of the people at large, and merely required of them, in common with popish and dissenting teachers, to preside over the education of those of their own communion. We believe that an instance of perversion more egregious could not easily be found. Henry so allocated education to the clergy, as to preclude all others from engaging in it without their consent. The commissioners so limit the clergy to the education of their own flocks, as to preclude them from any participation in the moral guidance of the congregations of papists or dissenters! We do not, at present, enter into the wisdom or the policy of this. Let it be esteemed wise-let it be esteemed politic-but, assuredly, it receives no countenance from a statute, which, when it conferred an important privilege upon the established clergy, did not so much as contemplate the existence of a recusant or a dissenter. Well, the commissioners, it will be conceded, have special-pleaded the letter of the statute against its spirit, and sought to overthrow the privileges, and to lower the character, while they seemed to be merely relieving the consciences of the clergy. This, no doubt, was very wrong. But times have greatly changed since the days of Henry the Eighth; and, although it cannot be based upon this statute, the project which they patronised may still be expedient. We cannot now refuse to contemplate the existence both of recusants and dissenters. On the contrary, we must recognise them as a formidable body of men, whose wants and wishes must be taken into account, in any project for the instruction of those over whom they possess any spiritual influence. This is a concession imperiously required by the spirit of the age, which will not endure any limits to toleration; and the plan of united instruction, as far as children can go together, and separated instruction, in those things wherein they differ, to be given to each class respectively, by its own spiritual advisers, is, perhaps, the only one that could reconcile the conflicting pretensions of the several parties who take an interest in the question, and without whose cooperation it is vain to expect that any system of national education can be so carried on, as to confer any ex tensive benefits upon the people. This is, at least, a fair and an honest mode of putting the case, and one entitled to a candid and respectful examination. It does not pretend to carry an ancient statute into effect, after a fashion that must ensure its abrogation. Times, we are told, are changed. They are, undoubtedly; and in nothing more than in the facility with which all classes of persons may now avail themselves of the advantages of elementary education. This has increased in a ratio much beyond the increase of the population. Almost any one may now obtain a knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic, at far less expense, either of time or money, than would formerly have been indispensible for that purpose; and the motives for acquiring such knowledge, both in the advantages which it affords, and in the disgrace of being without it, must ensure the acquisition of it, in all those cases, where the obstacles to its attainment can, with any ordinary diligence, be overcome. Therefore, we would say, a spring tide has set in in favour of intellectual improvement; and, as far as the acquisition of elementary knowledge is concerned, there can be very little fear that, in the present state of things, the generality of individuals will not acquire it for themselves. So far, it will be allowed, a spontaneous impulse has been given to civilization. No additional stimulus can be necessary, to prompt the mass of the community to avail themselves of the means within their reach to acquire those accomplishments, by which they may be raised in the scale of rational beings, beyond the example of others, and the prospects which may thus be opened to their ambition. And the duty of the wise government will consist rather in directing and controlling, than in extending or multiplying, the facilities which are so abundantly furnished for the improvement of the national mind. The Nile has, as it were, overflowed, and the object of the skilful husbandman is, not to cause the overflow to increase, but to avail himself of the fertilizing effects, while he obviates the ravages of the inundation. And it was while the natural facilities for the education of the lower orders were thus accumulating, that the zeal of various powerful bodies of religionists was exerted in the cause, and led to such a multiplication of the means and opportunities of acquiring elementary and scriptural knowledge, that if, before, there was a famine in these respects, there might now be said to be a surfeit in Ireland. The charter schools were early in the field, and although they were badly conducted, and negligently superintended, they must be allowed to have accomplished something for the moral and intellectual improvement of the people. Had their abuses been corrected, they would have been exceedingly valuable; but, as proselytism was their avowed object, the infidel spirit which lurks under the masque of liberalisin, would not endure them; and defects which might have been easily supplied, and mismanagement which could have been readily corrected, were made the pretexts for their destruction. The Association for Discountenancing Vice, (to the operation of which we, in a former number, called the attention of our readers,) was also most serviceable in diffusing useful knowledge, and sound religious principles; and has proved a most valuable auxiliary to the Established Church, in the promotion of that scriptural piety which is the end and the aim of its institution. Even the commissioners of twenty-five bear ample testimony to the excellence of its schools, which, enemies as they almost all were to the Established Church, furnishes a convincing proof that there was nothing very objectionable in its arrangements. They affect to consider the very peculiar manner in which it is under the superintendence of the established clergy a ground for believing that it could not be very acceptable to the people at large; but they do not dwell upon the fact, that its schools contained, at the time they made their report, nearly equal numbers of Protestants and Roman Catholics, and that no complaint was ever made of any attempt, on the part of their masters or governors, to tamper with the religious opinions of the children of another communion. The commissioners, however, had a theory to support, or an object to carry, to which matter of fact, in this particular, was rather strongly opposed; and like wise and honest men, they took for granted the impossibility of doing the very thing that was actually done, and recommended the withdrawal of their grant from the Association, because of its exclusively Protestant character, at the very time when there was evidence before their eyes, that there was no thing either in its principles, or its management, or its arrangements, which prevented Roman Catholic children from availing themselves of the many advantages which it held forth to them, or which caused even a murmur on the part of their parents or pastors, as though these advantages were but lures to seduce them from their faith. There were from eight to ten thousand children receiving education in the schools of the Association, at the time the commissioners made their report. Of these, one half, at least, were Roman Catholics; and nothing, we are fully persuaded, but want of means prevented this enlightened educational system from being co-extensive with the wants of the population. Then came the London Hibernian Society. This society originated in the zeal and piety of some benevolent individuals in London, in the year 1806, who were touched by the moral and spiritual destitution of the peasantry in Ireland, and who resolved to attempt, "by the ministry of the gospel, by the dispersion of the holy Scripture, and religious tracts, by the formation and support of schools, and by every other lawful and prudent measures, calculated to promote pure religion, morality, and loyalty," to bring a benighted people out of darkness, and into the marvellous light of the gospel. This society was wonderfully successful, by means of its scriptural readers and schools, in drawing the attention of the people to the important subjects which it was their object to hold before them; but, as proselytism was its scarcely disguised object, it excited the animosity of the Roman Catholic clergy, and may be said to have caused the beginning of that opposition on their part, which has been unhappily but too successful. We are not ourselves approvers of the loose and latitudinarian manner in which religions knowledge is sought to be conveyed, by the zealous and estimable persons by whom this society is patronised. It is far too vague and indefinite to constitute, in our minds, a saving faith, or to lay a secure foundation for adequate religious guidance. Its utility consists rather in shaking the confidence which the superstitious Irish place in a bad system, than in leading them into a good one; but in this way no doubt, it has its use, and may be, subordinately, instrumental in moting the great work of national amelioration. But it is important to re pro mark, that the spirit of opposition began with the spirit of compromise; and that, while the Association for Discountenancing Vice, which had been in operation for nearly twenty years, and whose avowed principle was, the promotion of scriptural knowledge and piety, according to the doctrine and discipline of the Established Church, was regarded even by Roman Catholics with esteem and favour, the London Hibernian Society, which made an ostentatious disclaimer of any intention to interfere with the religious tenets of those under their care, and from whose schools all catechisms, and books of controversy were most rigidly excluded, had no sooner entered upon their labours, than the cry of proselytism was raised against them; and they found, that, so far from winning the regards, they had to contend against the prejudices and the bigotry of the people. It would almost seem as if they were suspected, in proportion to their anxiety, to avoid all causes of suspicion; while the more open, straightforward, and ingenuous, conduct of the other society, whose object it was “ to do good unto all men, but especially unto them that were of the household of faith," secured to them a degree of confidence and love, which has to the present day, notwithstanding all the causes that have been in operation to diminish or to pervert it, enabled them to extend the blessings of their institution far beyond the limits of their own communion. Next followed the Kildare-place Institution. It was established in 1811, and was intended to do, upon a large scale, what the London Society had been attempting upon a small one. There can be no doubt whatever of the zeal, the benevolence or the piety of its founders. As the cooperation of all sects was earnestly solicited, and as the leading directors of this society consisted of individuals who might be considered as representing the various religious bodies into which the community was divided, so it was hoped that its operations night go on unchecked by any adverse influence, and that all might work together for good. This society first held its meetings in School-street, an obscure and inconvenient situation in the Liberties of Dublin, "but to which they had been attracted by the circumstance of a 1825. large school having been there most successfully established ever since 1786, and which had been conducted to the satisfaction of all concerned, precisely upon the principle which the new society proposed for their own guidance."'* But they had not been long in operation, when the fourteenth report of the Education Commissioners of 1812, made its appearance, in which the commissioners, amongst whom we find the names of the Primate, the Archbishop of Dublin, the Provost, the Archbishop of Cashel, and the Bishop of Killala, state, that they had applied their efforts to the framing of a system, which, whilst it should afford the opportunities of education to every description of the lower classes of the people, might, at the same time, by keeping clear of all interference with the particular religious tenets of any, induce the whole to receive its benefits as one undivided body, under one and the same system, and in the same establishments." In order to produce this desirable result, the commissioners proposed, that, in any system to be devised for that purpose, "all interference with the particular religious tenets of those who were to receive instruction, should, in the first instance, be unequivocally disclaimed, and effectually guarded against. "We conceive this," they add, "to be of essential importance in any new establishments for the education of the lower classes in Ireland; and we venture to express our unanimous opinion, that no such plan, however wisely and unexceptionably contrived in other respects, can be carried into effectual execution in this country, unless it be explicitly avowed, and clearly understood, as its leading principle, that no attempt shall be made to influence or disturb the peculiar religious tenets of any sect or description of Christians." This report was under the consideration of the government, who were, no doubt, anxious to carry its recommendations into effect, when their attention was attracted by the Kildareplace Society, whose principles and whose practice approached so nearly to those recommended by the commissioners, that it was resolved, instead of appointing a new board, to try the experiment which had been proposed, by making a grant to a society already in First Report of the Commissioners of Education Enquiry, page 39. June 3d, |