educated in the reformed religion; and partly from the circumstance of their being boarding schools. A general system of education, to make it useful, must be conducted on the most popular plan. National education should be directed to general utility; general utility cannot be pursued, while we confine our views to one particular sect or class. Education, to be generally useful, must be something, in which all without reluctance may co-operate. Intolerance must not counterfeit the amiable countenance, and clothe herself in the venerable garb of charity, that she may grasp with profane hand, the funds that should be consecrated to the most holy purposes,-to the diffusion of practical morality-of general industry-of national prosperity.

In these protestant charter schools," the children are too much at the mercy of the masters and mistresses; and too little judgement is shewn in the selection of the persons who are invested with the important trust of educating these children. The consequences are such as might naturally be expected; frequently gross inattention, or worse, with respect to the cleanliness, the diet, and apparel of the children, as well as to their morals, and progress in industry. Hence, it too frequently

comes to pass, that when the charter school children are taken as apprentices, to be trained up as domestic servants, or instructed in manufactures, they most commonly prove slothful, dirty, and vicious * "

In the report of the commissioners there is not one word about teaching the children in the Irish language: from their silence we may infer that there is no such thing taught; though of this I was previously aware from personal observation. Now, it is most certain that in the diocese of Killala, to which the report refers, the lower orders of the Roman catholics, or the greater part, understand no continued discourse but in Irish: this is the only language in which they think, in which they converse among themselves, and to which they are accustomed in their chapels. To go to such a diocese, therefore, to erect English schools for their instruction, does not appear perfectly absurd, only because the public mind has not been sufficiently informed to consider it in this light. I have already had occasion to observe that the Roman catholics in such districts are, in general, prejudiced

*Preston's Essay on the Natural Advantages of Ireland, p. 148.

against the English language: their hostility to protestantism they transfer to the only tongue which they have ever heard protestants use; and they are confirmed in this hostility by the insinuations of their priests, who uniformly address them in the endearing and endeared speech of their fathers. We might expect, therefore, a priori, that they would discover some prejudice against a mere English school; that all their prepossessions as to catholicism, and all their fears as to heresy, would be awakened. This accordingly has been the case; the experiment has been tried; and the result confirms the truth of this opinion. "It certainly, however, appears," say the commissioners, "from our returns, that religious prejudices, "in too many parts of this country, but more particularly in the south and west, have operated against the attendance on the parish "schools." Now, the south and west of Ireland are those very parts in which the Irish is chiefly spoken, and where there are comparatively few protestants.

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I might perhaps be confounded, and even hesitate as to the truth of the opinion which I hold on this subject, from the confident assertions of some Anglo-Hibernians, were it not that I have actually been in the west of Ireland,

and have it in my power, from repeated and continued observation, to form my judgement. Wherever it was announced that the scriptures would be read in the Irish language, crowds of catholics came to hear, who never till then heard a protestant read the bible; and I shall ever recollect the manifest pleasure with which they seemed to receive instruction, the seriousness and devotion with which they listened. Those gentlemen who were accustomed to oppose every effort to enlighten the people otherwise than in the English tongue, who witnessed this singular scene, were not only satisfied from that period of the fallacy of their notions, but of the indispensible obligation and necessity of pursuing that mode of instruction for which I always have contended. One of these gentlemen was once strongly opposed to this mode, from the idea that it would take much time and labour to teach them Irish; and that though the people could not understand English, yet it was useless to publish the Scriptures in Irish, since there were few who could read it. From the time to which I refer, however, he was of a very different opinion. "It is true," says he, " very "few of the people can read; and is it not "equally easy to teach them to read English

"as any other tongue? To this it may be "answered; First, though they should be taught "to read English, they cannot understand it so "as to reap any benefit from it. Secondly, they have not the same desire to learn English, especially from a protestant school-master, as "Irish. In the one case, there is no feeling "of patriotism awakened, no favourite prejudice flattered; in the other, both these ends

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are attained; and that of which an Hibernian " is most disposed to be proud, is rendered sub"servient to his intellectual and moral im"provement. Thirdly, from the extreme "attachment of the people to their own tongue, "there is not the same probability of successfully accomplishing the ends of education by teaching them to read in another."

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These are some of the reasons which induced Mr. in the diocese of Killala, to change his opinions on this important subject; and I think they will appear conclusive to any one who candidly considers them. The truth of the first seems self evident. For example, how could the populace of England derive any benefit from teaching them to read French,to read the bible, in this language? The task would be so arduous as to make its accomplishment hopeless, and if not hopeless, it would be