The lower class of people in Ireland are by no means averse to the improvement of their children. At the cabins on the roadside I saw several schools, in which, for the payment of 3s. 3d. Irish per quarter, children were instructed in reading, writing, and accounts. Some of these I examined as to their proficiency, and found them much forwarder than those of the same age in the charter schools. They were clean and wholesome, and consisted of children of both protestant and catholic parents. I hope I shall not be thought, as a protestant dissenter, indifferent to the protestant cause, when I express my wish, that these distinctions were less regarded in bestowing the advantages of education, and that the increase of protestantism were chiefly trusted to the dissemination of knowledge and sound morals. A.D. 1785. 74.-Schools for Drawing, and other useful Sciences.' [Irish Statutes, 25 Geo. III. c. 61.] Whereas by an act passed this session......the sum of £5000 be given to the Dublin Society,...one half the said sum at the least to be applied to the encouragement of agriculture and planting, and the other half to be applied for the encouragement of manufactures, arts, and sciences, ......be it enacted that the said sum of £2500,...for the encouragement of manufactures, arts, and sciences, shall be applied...in encouraging the silk and woollen manufactures, in encreasing the leather trade...in encouraging the dyeing business, and in supporting schools for drawing, and other useful sciences......by such ways and methods as the said society shall think proper...... A.D. 1785. 75.-John Wesley visits the Charter School at Ballinrobe. [Works of Rev. John Wesley, A.M., London, 1872. Vol. iv. (Journal), pp. 307-8.] Wednesday, 18 May, 1785: at Ballinrobe. Having heard a remarkable account of the Charter-School here, I resolved to see it with my own eyes. I went thither about five in the afternoon, but found no master or mistress. Seven or eight boys, and nine or ten girls (the rest being rambling abroad) dirty and ragged enough, were left to the care of a girl half the head taller than the rest. She led us through the house. I observed first the school-room, not much bigger than a small closet. Twenty children could not be taught there at once, with any convenience. When we came into the bed-chamber, I inquired 'How many children now lodge in the house?' and was told ' Fourteen or fifteen boys, and nineteen girls.' For these boys, there were three beds, and five for the nineteen girls. For food I was informed the master was allowed a penny-farthing a day for each! Thus they are clothed, lodged, and fed. But what are they taught? As far as I could learn, just nothing! Of these things I informed the Commissioners for these schools in Dublin. But I do not hear of any alteration. If this be a sample of the Irish Charter-Schools, what good can we expect from them? A.D. 1783-88. 76.-Educational Purpose of the New Geneva' Plantation near Waterford. [Hist. MSS. Commission: (a) Vol. 19, p. 191; (b) 13th Report, Appendix viii., pp. 68-70.1 (a) [Earl Temple, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to Mr. Secretary Grenville; from Dublin Castle, 9 February 1783.] Tell Lord Shelburne that I am full of the idea (which he must keep secret because of our University) of founding a Genevois College for education, in pursuance of the idea which we discussed together. Many circumstances decide me to wish to place them in the South; and I think we have nearly fixed our spot (near Waterford). I wish to remove them from the Northern republicans, and to place them where they might make an essential reform in the religion, industry, and manners of the South, who want it more. (b) [William Campbell, D.D., to Earl of Charlemont: from Armagh, 9 February, 1788.] ...It is said that the government intends to bring forward some plan of education. I hope it will not be Mr. Orde's. But is there any reason to hope that Presbyterians will be considered in it? Or are we to remain neglected? When Earl Temple was Lord Lieutenant, he thought highly of the Presbyterian mode of education, and recommended to commissioners for establishing Les Genevois,' that they would also establish a college under their care, and after the model of Geneva. Might not we, whose fathers were long fixed in this kingdom, have some claim to the like privilege ?.... 77.-Government Proposals for Education. ['Mr. Orde's Plan of an Improved System of Education in Ireland, submitted to the House of Commons, April 12, 1787; with the debate which arose thereon; Reported by John Giffard, Esqr.' (Haliday Pamphlets, R.I.A., Vol. 508. Speech of Mr. Orde, pp. 1-124; Resolutions, pp. 124-128; Debates, pp. 129-150.] [Resolutions (passed unanimously, save as noted below): with quotations from Mr. Orde's speech appended.] I, 2. ...It is expedient to revise the Act 28 Henry VIII. c. 15.,...to establish...an annual fund...for the purpose of...providing proper schoolhouses...in every parish...within this kingdom......for the residence of a schoolmaster, and the free instruction of the poor. (Speech, pp. 30-31. If we look back...to the history of the times, in which the act alluded to was made, we shall find that there was something of policy as well as of charity in the institution of parish schools; a policy, however, of most excellent tendency, and worthy of being perpetuated. The more general knowledge and use of the English language were...the principal objects...'). 4. ...It is proper and expedient to institute...at public expense, one provincial school or hospital, in each province within this kingdom, for the gratuitous maintenance and education of children in the established religion, and in such branches of learning and science as may tend to qualify them for...occupations in husbandry, manufacture, trade, commerce, and arts. form... (Speech, p. 47, 57-8. 'These academies are designed to Mariners, Merchants, Manufacturers, Artificers, Farmers, Surveyors, Architects; and therefore Navigation, Mercantile Knowledge, Modern Languages in most use,...Drawing, Husbandry, and Agriculture in all their branches, must here be the objects of instruction....The children should be indispensably brought up in the established religion....Perhaps...the number of these schools would not require to be...beyond two. New Geneva is so situated on the confines of two provinces..as to answer both... The other sex also...might be brought up...in the exercise of those occupations which women are competent and well suited to; reading, writing, grammar, arithmetic, spinning, knitting, needlework, embroidery ...housekeeping, drawing, etc., etc....It is...perhaps most adviseable to provide separate establishments for the females.') 9. ...It is proper and expedient...to establish one or more great school or schools......for the future pursuit of learned professions, and for the honourable discharge of the highest duties of the community. (Speech, pp. 83, 84. of Westminster is...well The mode of internal discipline in the College calculated for successful imitation in the plan which maybe adopted here....every endeavour should be used to bring instructors from some of the great schools in England....') [Mr. Orde on Presbyterian Claims in Education.] (Speech, pp. 120-1. 'The General Synod of the Presbyterian Church... request the aid of Parliament for the support of an academy, which is designed for the distinct education of their youth, under teachers of their own persuasion...We have no reasonable discretion or means for the creation of such institutions, or...for a claim of present support from the public purse, than upon that of the religion of the state. The respectability or loyalty of his Majesty's Presbyterian subjects...are not called in question ;....they will readily perceive...the evident propriety of forming these public establishments, thus made in general open to all disciples of all religions, upon the single basis of the established church.') II. ...The foundation and gradual endowment of a second University within this kingdom....in addition to the present excellent establishment of Trinity College, might conduce...to the wider diffusion of learning and science throughout the nation. [Passed with one dissentient-Mr. A. Browne, M.P. for Trinity College.] (Speech, p. 100. 'Perhaps the school of Armagh should be the immediate nursery of succession...The great schools in England, and her universities, will, I trust, still be frequented by very many of...the first families of this kingdom...thereby to draw the two countries still closer... in assimilating their manners and their habits.') A.D. 1791. 78.-Religion of Scholars of Trinity College, at a Parliamentary Election. [Haliday Pamphlets, R.I.A., 605 (1). Report of the Proceedings in the Case of the Borough of Trinity College, Dublin, As heard before a Select Committee of the House of Commons, A.D. 1791. Published from notes taken on the spot. Dublin, 1791. (a) pp. 1-3; (b) pp. 82-3; (c) pp. 186-7; (d) pp. 270-72.] (a) The Committee for trying this cause was chosen on Monday the 14th day of February, 1791, and consisted of [fifteen members, including 'Hon. Arthur Wesley' (subsequently Duke of Wellington) and the Right Honourable Lord Edward Fitzgerald.'] Petitioner, Laurence Parsons, Esqr..... Sitting Member, Hon. Francis Hely Hutchinson..... That the Fellows and Scholars of the said College, who are not incapacitated by the general law from voting for Representatives in Parliament, have alone a right to vote on such Election.... That no person is eligible to the office of Fellow or Scholar of the said College, who is not at the time of the Election a legal Protestant..... That the Right Hon. John Hely Hutchinson, the Provost of said College, who presided at said Election as the returning officer, and who is father of the said Hon. Francis Hely Hutchinson...received for the said Hon. Francis Hely Hutchinson the votes of several persons who had no right to vote.... (b) Mr. Martin Toomy, examined by Mr. Plunket. Is a Scholar of the House-was so previous to the last election—... Witness had exerted himself at first in support of the sitting memberdid not vote at the election, because his vote would be of no use, as he was a Roman Catholic-....the first time he had informed the sitting member of his being a Roman Catholic was in Cork, a good time before the election, when the sitting member enquired of him whether he knew any Scholars who were Roman Catholics-the sitting member then pressed him to conform-...Lord Donoughmore pressed him very much to conform-Lord Donoughmore told him that his own ancestors had been Roman Catholics, and yet that he was a Protestant-and that were he in a Roman Catholic country, he would be a Roman Catholic.... Mr. Martin Toomy, cross-examined by Mr. Chamberlayne. Witness promised his vote to the sitting member more than a year before the election-did not then inform him that he was a Roman Catholic-... Witness had heard, and knew, that Popery was a disqualification before he promised the sitting member-did not tell the sitting member in Cork whether he would conform or not-his sole reason for not voting for the sitting member was his objection to conforming-and could he have prevailed on himself to conform he certainly would have voted for the sitting member.... (c) Robert Day, Esqr., examined by the Recorder. Witness received a letter from Lord Donoughmore, stating that Toomy was skulking...-Witness went with Dean Bond to Toomy's chambers...-Toomy assigned as his reason for not voting, that he had |