have been regarded as almost an entire failure. As it is, we can only say that the success, though great, is less than it was expected to be, might have been, or ought to have been. The great practical question now is,-Can the obstacles to the equal instruction of the children belonging to the Established Church in Ireland, be removed by any interference of Government, so as to extend to the whole of the population the great benefits now received by a portion only? In considering such a question, it would evidently be most unfair to the children of the minority to make them continue to suffer on account of the short-sighted prejudices of their superiors. It would be still more unfair to the children of the majority, to make them suffer for the prejudices of another sect. And it would be the unfairest proceeding of all, to ruin the whole of the present admirable system of education, by the vain attempt to conciliate its opponents by altering its essential principles.

It is evident from several passages in the last Report of the Commissioners that they regard the opposition of the English Church as on the decline; and some of the statistics given above seem to corroborate this opinion. It will, therefore, be but right to allow things to proceed as at present, in the hopes that a few more years may bring about a more satisfactory result.

So all-important, however, is Education, that its progress cannot be allowed to be permanently im

peded by the misjudgment of any sect or party. The children of the land must not be permitted to fall into the ditch, because their leaders are blind. They must be taught, though even at the sacrifice, on the part of Government, of submitting its own juster views to the requirements of prejudice. If the Protestants of Ireland are found to persist in withholding the children of their church from the National Schools, a just and paternal rule must remember the loss and forget the wrong; and build and endow schools for Protestants as well as for Catholics. But the time has not yet come for making this sacrifice.

Although I should be sorry to see any attempt now made to alter the principles which guide the conduct of the Commissioners of the National Schools of Ireland, as to religious instruction, I am decidedly of opinion, that were the Institution to be founded anew, it would be much wiser, as leading to more harmony and to richer educational results, to make the schools exclusively Secular Schools, as they have been called, discarding all pretence and all attempts to instruct the children religiously by the Masters of the Schools. And I would advocate this plan even on religious grounds alone, if on no other; as I feel assured it would lead to a much more complete religious education of all the children, than is now attained either in the schools of Ireland or England. Under the present system of what is

called religious instruction in the schools, parents and guardians, and the clergy themselves in many cases, are led to rely mainly, if not altogether, on it, and so to neglect all separate religious instruction at home or elsewhere; when the fact unquestionably is, in a large proportion of cases at least, that the religious teaching in the schools is very imperfect, being too often merely technical and verbal, and learnt by rote but not by heart. If parents capable of instructing their children in religion, knew that it was not taught at school, they would feel that the responsibility of this great work necessarily devolved on themselves, and would surely act accordingly. It will hardly be doubted that, cæteris paribus, the instruction so given by the parents to their children, will have a heartiness and warmth in it, which could not fail to leave an impression very different from that of the formal teaching of a hired master. In the cases where parents are incapable of being themselves the instructors-and even where they are so-I think we might reasonably impose on the Clergy of every parish or school-district the office of instructing in religion the children of members of their own flock, and orphans of their own religion; a duty they would, no doubt, like the parents, feel the more imperative from knowing that the entire responsibility of it was left to themselves. A sufficient portion of one day in the week, or an hour each day, might be appropriated to the religious lessons; and in order that this most important duty might be fulfilled with

perfect convenience to all parties, I would have one or more rooms, exclusively devoted to this object, attached to every school-house, and placed in the immediate charge of the clergy.

Where it is not a mere pretence, it is certainly a delusion, that there is any more impiety in teaching reading and writing, and arithmetic, and geography, and history, without any formal admixture of religious lessons,-than it is to teach any art or trade without them. Both kinds of knowledge are, no doubt, essential; but I maintain that here, as in so many other departments of learning, each can be best taught by itself. The division of labour will be found as valuable in this, as in any other department of knowledge.

CHAPTER XV.

IRELAND IN THE PAST, THE PRESENT,

AND THE FUTURE.

Ir will, I doubt not, be expected by all those who have followed me thus far, that after concluding my numerous and manifold observations relating to the individual things of Ireland, I should have something to say, of a more general character, respecting the past and present state of the country and its prospects in the future. Such an expectation, I admit to be both natural and just; as it would be unreasonable to believe that the extensive and prolonged exercise of thought, necessarily implied in the original process of collecting the memorandums, and in the subsequent elaboration of them into their present shape, should not have led the writer to reflect seriously on these important questions, and prepared him, in some measure at least, to hold opinions of a more or less definite character respecting them. Such opinions, and of a very positive kind, I undoubtedly have formed in regard to several of the matters alluded to; and some of these opinions I am now prepared, in all humility, to submit to the