AN ARCHBISHOP'S CONFESSION.
Iv is well known that the British Government has firmly resisted the demand for mischievous changes in the Irish system of Na- tional Education. The Ultramontane Roman Catholics inspired by Dr. Cullen, who is himself only the mouthpiece of the Papacy, have striven their best to extort from the Government the adop- tion of the denominational system, and to give them a separate grant for Roman Catholic schools. The object was, of course, to obtain for the Papal Court the entire control of the education of Irish youth ; had the concession been made, Ireland would have been divided into two camps, sectarian animosities, softened by nearly thirty years of happier treatment, would have been revived in all their asperity-, and the Roman Catholic • laity would have been brought under priestly subjection. The Government quietly, courteously, but firmly refused to destroy an institution which has done so much, and which Icill do so much more for the welfare of Ireland.
At the same time the Church Education Society, helping the Ultramontanists, attacked the Government on the other flank, and "asked for grants of money in aid of its schools ; thus proposing to place the established Church of Ireland on the same sectarian foot- ing as regards education, with the Papal church. On both sides, there was disingenuousness in the statement of reasons. The Roman Catholic priests pretended that the faith of Roman Catho- lic children suffered detriment from attendance at the National
• schools ; a statement which has been proved to be the reverse of .the fact. The Church Education Society pleaded that their schools were based on the same principle as those of the National Board —namely that no child was compelled to receive religious teach- ing not approved of by its parents. A perfectly true but highly disingenuous statement. It does not mean, as one unacquainted with the facts would suppose that a child may go to those schools
without receiving religious suppose, objectionable to its parents ; but it means that none can go who is not prepared to receive the teaching of the Church, since all parents are fully warned that in these schools church doctrine is taught. A very different prin- ciple, that, from the comprehensive principle lying at the base of the national system.
Mr. Cardwell, in replying to the demands of the Church Edu- cation Society, showed how wide is the difference between the two principles. If the Society could so arrange that no Christian child should be excluded from its schools on account of the reli- gious teaching therein, and that before and after school hours the children might receive religious instruction each from its own proper pastor, their aid would cheerfully be given : otherwise not. The system of education is national ; no distinction is made ; common secular, and separate religious teaching—that is the principle of the system ; and it has never been violated in any case.
We should not have alluded to this well-known decision if it had not had an important consequence. Dr. Beresford, the Arch- bishop of Armagh, a prelate venerable from his great age and consistent life, shocked at the condition of the poor as regards education, so grievously affected by ecclesiastical disputes, has nobly broken silence to tender sound advice to the Church Educa- tion Society. He gives up all hope of any relaxation of the rules of the National Board in favour of the sectarian society. He frankly says that "the National system, first introduced as a con- cession to the Roman Catholics [a phrase that does not do justice to Lord Stanley's plan] is now maintained in its integrity as a safeguard against the demands of the ITItramontane party—de- mands, which, if conceded, would, in his judgment, prove in- jurious to the interests of education, religion, and liberty in Ire- land." Undoubtedly it is so maintained, not as a safeguard against Dr. Cullen alone, but against all who would break up its broad and just foundations. The Archbishop proceeds to offer advice, the most sage and momentous ever given by one of his party. He tells the society that it should strenously endeavour to maintain its schools out of its own resources. Failing in that, what next ? The Society has failed, or we should not have had the touching confession from Dr. Beresford, that he feels bound, be- fore he dies, regardless of his own ease, not to shrink from making an effort "to place the education of the poor of his dio- cese in a better condition than it has been of late years." He therefore recommends the Church Education Society "to seek for aid from the Commissioners of National Education, rather than allow the children of our communion to grow up in ignorance ; " and he advises a loyal fulfilment of the conditions of the Board in every case where aid may be obtained. The Primate, therefore, full of years, and grown wise by experience, has had the moral courage to make an avowal of failure, and to suggest this dis- tasteful but certain remedy. There have been few more important incidents in the history of this long agitated question, and few more touching spectacles than this of reverend age yielding to the teachings of a vast experience, and, for the sake of the chil- dren of the poor and the true interests of Ireland, begging the partisans of exclusive education to surrender their honest but mistaken views.
We wish we could add that the Education Society had yielded to the wisdom of the venerated prelate. But they have not. In their answer to the missive of the Primate, they concur in that part of his advice which recommends prompt exertions to raise lands for the schools ; but the rest of their response is not explicit. They ray they will " assist all patrons who may conscientiously desire to continue their oonnexion with the society under all cir- cumstances"; a sentence that may or may not mean that they will assist patrons who, taking the Primate's advice, obtain aid from
the National Board by fulfilling its conditions. The Society is shaken, as well as it may be, by Dr. Beresford's letter, but not convinced, and would seem to prefer that the schools should languish into death one by one, rather than that they should yield to the broader Christian principle which animates the con- fession and advice of the Archbishop of Armagh. Would it had been otherwise A frank adoption of Dr. Beresford's solemn counsel would have been as honourable to the Society as it would have been beneficial to Irerand. The Primate gave the Society a happy opportunity of yielding. Such opportunities rarely occur, and they who have neglected this one, must take the full re- sponsibility.
Previous page
