is, no doubt, very proper for girls to learn, but it ought not to supersede intellectual culture, which is still more important.

In the Commissioners' Reports I find this school recorded as having, in the September quarter of 1850, 65 boys and 64 girls; and in the same period of 1851, 53 boys and 40 girls on the books. The same Reports give, at corresponding periods, the returns of the other National School as follows:1850-boys, 137; girls, 115; 1851-boys, 138; girls, 74.

There are three Protestant Schools belonging to the Church Education Society, viz., a boys' and girls' school, called the Fortshill Schools, and an Infant School. According to the Society's last Report, these schools in 1851 had the following numbers:

At the time of my visit, the average attendance at the boys' school was 56, of which number 3 only were Catholics. The number of Catholics attending these Protestant schools has been greatly reduced since the present priest came into office. In the time of his predecessor there had been as many as 20, and at one time even 27 Catholic children in the school. The priest now puts a veto on their

attendance. All the Catholic children that do

attend must read the Bible with believe, they are not catechised. children of parents who have

the others, but, I

At this school the

money, pay from

2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. a quarter; others pay one penny per week; but there are a good many who pay nothing at all.

In the girls' school there were 42 on the books, with an average attendance of 33. Here also there were 3 Catholics. This is an industrial as well as a literary school; literary work being attended to from ten to one, and sewing, &c., from one to three. Ten of the girls have a free attendance, the others pay one penny per week. Both these schools seemed well conducted, and the pupils, especially the girls, were very respectably clothed, and well advanced in their studies.

One of the seven Royal Endowed Schools of Ireland is in the immediate neighbourhood of Enniskillen, and is named Portosa School. The present principal, the Rev. Dr. Graham, was kind enough to afford me all the information I required respecting the establishment. old foundation, and are chiefly derived from foundation lands.

These schools are of maintained by rents They are in some

respects similar to our endowed classical schools in England, and are intended to educate the children of the upper or middle classes destined for the University or otherwise. According to a Parliamentary return of 1849, Portosa School had an annual in

come from rents of 1877/. 10s. 4d., and had 57 boys on its books. It and the other endowed schools of Armagh, Dungannon, and Cavan, have, to share by their pupils, no less than thirty exhibitions of from 251 to 50l. each, both while at school and at Trinity College, Dublin; and they are all equally open to Catholics as to Protestants.

There are 20 boys from the town who have a claim to gratuitous education in this school; all others pay fees to the master, and attend either as day scholars, or reside as boarders in the master's house. The latter pay forty guineas a year. There are at present 70 pupils, 24 of whom are boarders. Formerly the attendance at this school seems to have been considerably greater, the number of pupils, in 1838, amounting to 176, viz. 96 boarders and 80 day scholars. It is said that the increased religious agitations of late years have affected the prosperity of these schools as well as all other prosperities in Ireland.

The Union Workhouse at Enniskillen is situated on an elevated and very healthy spot, on the right bank of the river, beyond the town. It is an excellently-arranged house, and clean and neat as usual. It was opened in December 1845, and is planned for the reception of 1000 inmates. At the time of my visit, there were only 446 persons in the house, the smallest number that it has ever contained. Out of this number there were only two healthy and able-bodied men, all the rest being

either superannuated, sickly, or children. I see by the Commissioners' Report that, on the 29th of April, 1848, it contained (with the additional accommodation then temporarily provided) 1171 persons. During the two last years, 1850 and 1851, the master said the average numbers in the house were respectively 822 and 574. Out of the present number in the house no fewer than 92 were in the hospital, and 20 in the fever-hospital. Of the persons now in the house, the master (who is a Protestant) reckoned that two fifths were Protestants, and three fifths Catholics.

On a former occasion I gave a statement of the amount of rates levied in the Killarney Union for the support of the poor, for a period of some years; and I here subjoin, for the sake of comparison, a statement of the rates in the Enniskillen Union for five years. For the sake of clearness, I have taken the average of the rates levied on the twenty electoral divisions of the union, as they vary considerably:

Only one rate has been levied since 1849, viz. in 1851, and this averaged from 10d. to 1s. in the pound.

The dietary of this house is according to the

established regulations, but with some slight modification. The able-bodied adults receive no bread, but only stirabout for dinner and supper. This is made from equal parts of Indian meal and oatmeal, the allowance of the mixed meal being 8 or 9 oz. for breakfast, and 9 or 10 oz. for dinner: at both meals butter-milk is allowed. Besides the stirabout, children under fifteen, and the aged and infirm, are allowed bread-the former brown bread, the latter white bread; and children under nine get white wheaten bread instead of brown. Another modification in the dietary of this house, which I have nowhere before met with, is the allowance of potatoes on alternate days, during a certain period-that is, while the crop reared on the workhouse grounds lasts: 3 lbs. being allowed to each able-bodied person (and to the other classes in proportion) for dinner, in lieu of stirabout.

This total absence of potatoes in the workhouse dietaries of Ireland has always struck me as very singular. Has it been adopted with any view of weaning the people from the taste of that root which has been so fatal to their country, both by its prosperous condition and by its failure? Or has it originated in purely economic views? If so, what are these views?

The schools in this house were formerly in connection with the Board of National Education, but are now withdrawn. I found them in excellent order, the boys' school containing 100, and the