rater to It eater.
ID. I SR NATIONAL EDUCATION.
• Dublin, 23d March 18.52. Sm—Since I had the honour of addressing you last,* one of the three sores which makes up the "Irish difficulty " has been subjected to a little probing, with a result not unworthy of attention. The chafing of the Educational strife by the Marquis of Clanricarcle, and the trembling of Lord Derby's hand while salving the wound, do both indeed confirm the opinion I ventured to advance as to the real nature of the case. The grievance is not one of Ireland but of Irishmen ; and an excellent grievance it has proved to factionaries on both sides. I could count you up a round dozen of Bishops and Deans and scores of Rectors who have grown into goodly ecclesiastical condition upon this nutriment alone. It has sustained publics vitality in some very estimable members of the present Government ; and that it may become ratabane in the porridge of Lord Derby is probably within the hopes of the Marquis of Clan- ficarde and Mr. Bernal Osborne. It is, however, in the power of the first- named nobleman to eliminate from the National Education question all its lac- tious uses, whether alimentary or poisonous, if he will only be true to himself, and will not, as Prime Minister in 1852 shrink from upholding in all es- sentials the policy in this matter of the Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1831. That he is heartily disposed to this course, I augur from the general tone of his reply to Lord Clanriearde ; that his personal con- victions may not be strong enough to prevent a wavering action under the influence of misrepresentation of the opinions of those whom he desires to please in Ireland, I fear from the turn of particular expres- sions in his speech. There was some disposition evinced to " let I dare not wait upon:I would," and yet enough was said to show that the speaker's own judgment decided against any concession. Lord Derby "fully 'believed that the Natiopal Education system had deeply rooted itself in the institu- hone and affections of Ireland, and that its progress was as certain as its results on the whole had been beneficial." Ile repudiated all intention of 'violating the principles of combined education,' or of "diminishing the Influence of the Board of Education, an extension of whose powers he most anxiously desired to see promoted"; and yet he hesitatingly assented-to an ?Denny which, he admitted, might end an the establishment of exclusive instead of combined education, and in the necessary overthrow of the in- fluence of the Board. This concession Lord Derby manifestly made with his eyes .fully open to the consequences; and he did not fail to warn those to whom he conceded of the fatal nature of the boon they leek. If the de- mand of the intemperate section of the clergy of the Estafilished Church for a separate grant for Protestant schools be acceded to, Lord Derby informs they that like aid cannot be withheld from exclusively Roman Catholic schools. What, then, will be the results ? I put the question without a shadow of doubt as to the answer that will rise up in the mind of every candid member of the Church Education Society who knows the social condi- tion of any district in Ireland. Taking the public grant at its present amount of about 120,0001., and dividing it per capita among Protestant and Roman Ca- tholic claimants for free education, would be to confer upon the Roman Ca- tholic priesthood the control over an endowment of at least 100,0001. Nor would the balance be quietly enjoyed by the clergy of the Established Church. The Presbyterians would no more suffer a compulsory teaching of the Church Catechism to their children than would the Roman Catholic submit to com- pulsory instruction in the Holy Scriptures. At a rough guess, I would say this scruple would absorb a good fourth of what would remain after helping .0 Spectator for March 6 ; page 222. the priests. I am aware of an objection that will be made to this c....ikulatinit. It will be said that the Church schools do at present InclUde a large ta of Roman Catholics who should be reckoned in the tale of account a quota of the grant should be awarded. I kno the fact; but I know also that if an exclusive system we the Roman Catholic priests would take care that no distric without an endowed school under their own management, and that no chi of their flock would be permitted to attend any other. The truth is, the de• sire of education is so strong among the peasantry as to oppose a consider- able resistance even to the power of the priesthood; and accordingly, out of
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a total of 118,000 children in the schools of the Church Education Society in the year 1849, there were 37,000 Roman Catholics. It is this desire also which has operated to fbrce the mass of the priests into the grudging and un- willing assent they have given to the National system. It is a fact full of hope for Ireland, and as affecting as it is irrefragable, that the mere thirst of know- ledge innate in the breast of the poor degraded Irish peasant has overmatched the craft; learning, and power of Rome. Primate Cullen and Archbishop M'Hale have been powerless in this contest : even when leagued in "a holy alliance" against, knowledge with Earl Roden and Primate Beresford, they have not prevailed against the National School teacher armed only with his book of power:- But the struggle would become altogether unequal if the public purse were once placed at the command of the religious zealot, to be used for the propagation of exclusive modes of faith-. To attend a school would then be to conform to a creed ; and, scattered as the Protestants are in many of the Southern and Western districts of Ireland, to exclude them from a Roman Catholic school would be to condemn them to permanent ignorance. I say, then, that every one who knows Ireland must know, that to esta- blish an exclusive system of public schools for the poor, would be to refuse to Protestants in many districts the assistance of the State for the education of their children. I saw further, that every one who knows Rome must know, that to intrust to the Roman Catholic priesthood a large grant of public money for exclusive education, would be but to pay a tribute from the trea- sury of England into the chest of the Congregation de Propaganda Fidd. The contribution would necessarily, and (considering the position of the ma- nagers) of right, be used not to extend but to restrict knowledge ; not to make good citizens of the constitutional monarchy of England, but to break down the will of British subjects, and to reduce them " peripde ac cadaver " to the yoke of an Italian despotism. It seems to mes that Lord Derby clearly foresees these results, and that he clearly warned his Irish friends against them. I fear he does not know, however, that the mind of his Irish friends has undergone a radical change in reference to this subject ; and most earnestly do I hope that no step will be taken which might have the effect of binding some of them to a ruinous consistency. So general among the clergy of the Established Church has been the error of opinion as to the National system, that a change equally general, which I know has taken place silently among them, brings with it no disgrace. Let them not be bound to their error by a point of honour. My own nearest clerical neighbours, more than a year since, admitted to me, that they saw the mistake into which they had fallen in opposing—they were among the bitterest opponents of—the National system. But as men of honour, they asked, where was the opening through which to escape from a proscribed party ? One of these gentlemen has since had the courage to atone for his original fault by a public recantation ; and he has accordingly been stigmatized as a renegade by his weaker associates. It is within my personal knowledge that this example tells the general feeling of the clergy of Ireland. They anxiously desire to be reconciled to the National system, and most of them know that the gravest of its defects are traceable to the want of local supervision, which their own fatal estrangement has occasioned. As the ban of Government disfavour has been now taken off those men, they will quietly give in their adhesion to the Board; and greatly do I rejoice that Mr. Walpole's answer to Mr. Osborne has given no encouragement to the piroposition for an inquiry during the present session. Such a step would, I am convinced, be wise and useful at another time but " quiera non movere" should now be the motto of all friends of Irish education.
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