the appointment of teachers and admission of scholars it should be uninfluenced by religious distinctions, and that in its schools no attempt should be made to interfere with or disturb the peculiar religious tenets of any sect or description of Christians. All catechisms and controversial tracts were to be excluded from its schools.

This scheme of popular education, unleavened by proselytism, was well received by the Catholic clergy, and was approved of by Parliament. The Society received a Parliamentary grant of 6,9801. in the session of 1814–15, which gradually increased until it reached 25,000l. in 1827, and 30,000l. in subsequent years. The number of schools in connection with the Society increased from 8 in 1817, to 1,490 in 1825; and the number of pupils in the same time increased from 557 in 1817, to 100,000 in 1825. On the whole, the Kildare Place Society worked well, as long as it adhered to its original principles. But when it departed from those principles, and enforced in all schools 'the reading of the Holy Scriptures without note or comment, thereby contravening the principles of the Roman Catholic Church, to which the bulk of the pupils must necessarily belong,' it proved a failure; the attendance of Catholic children gradually fell off from its schools; and the Parliamentary grant was withdrawn in 1832.

Another important body, if we take into account the number of children attending its schools, is the

Church Education Society.

The Church Education Society for Ireland was established in 1839. The objects of the Society are 'to assist schools at present existing in the country, and to establish new schools, on an improved system, for the purpose of affording to the children of the Church instruction in the Holy Scriptures, and in the catechism, and other formularies of the Church, under the direction of the Bishops and parochial clergy, and under the tuition of teachers who are members of the United Church of England and Ireland.' The Holy Scriptures in the authorized version must be daily taught to every pupil. The main object of the Society is the raising of annual funds for the maintenance of schools, and not their permanent endowment. Although it is a voluntary association, and not necessarily connected with permanent endowments, the schools were visited by the Assistant Commissioners of the Endowed Schools Commission of 1858, who report on them most unfavorably. 'Their efficiency is impaired by want of adequate means.'. 'The male teachers are almost invariably the parish clerks of their respective districts, and the female teachers their wives. They are usually very illiterate.' 'The school-books are of an inferior description, being, in fact, the old stock of the Kildare Place Society, out of date, and behind the time.

Equally unfavorable is the report given of these schools by the Commissioners of Inquiry on Primary Education in 1870. The teachers have had no training for their work, except such as may be given in the central school in Kildare street. . . . The consequence is that their

school business is conducted in the most unmethodical way-the classification of the children, the time-table, the manner in which the school rolls are kept, even the arrangement of the rooms-in all these points the parochial schools contrast very unfavorably with the national schools.' Again, 'the picture previously presented of the inefficiency of Scriptural schools renders any detailed report of the capabilities of their teaching necessary.'

The number of pupils in the Church Education Society's Schools on June 25, 1868, was 31,491, or 6-973 per cent. of the total number of children attending the primary schools of Ireland. The number of schools at present in connection with the Society is 1,202. The number of children on the rolls is 52,166; viz., 44,662 Protestant Episcopalians, 3,747 Protestant Dissenters, and 3,757 Catholics. One of the principal reasons why these schools are maintained at such disadvantage-with inadequate means and inferior teachers-is, that many of the Protestant Episcopalians entertain conscientious objection to the system of the National Board of Education.

Schools of the Christian Brothers.

The institute of the Christian Brothers may next be briefly described. This will be best done in the words of the Assistant Commissioner :

I come next to a very different class of schools, those, namely, of the Christian Brothers. As the Church Education Society is exclusively and essentially Protestant, so the institute of the Christian Brothers is exclusively and essentially Roman Catholic. It was first established in Ireland in 1802, by a merchant of the town of Waterford. This gentleman, a Mr. Rice, having retired from business, determined to devote his time and his wealth to some religious and useful purpose. After deliberation, he resolved on founding the institute of the Christian Brothers, for the gratuitous education of boys, according to the principles of the Roman Catholic religion.

The teachers themselves are members of the order, and are specially trained and set apart for their work. The headquarters of the institute are in Dublin, where it has a normal or training institution, and large and flourishing model schools. By the kindness of Mr. Grace, the head of this establishment, I was able to see all the internal arrangements, and found them complete and admirable even to the minutest details. The novice who wishes to enter the order has to spend two years in the training school, learning his profession. He is afterwards sent to one of the branch establishments in Dublin itself it may be, or the provinces. Here he lives a community life with one, two, or more Brothers, as the case may be, and according as the circumstances of the school may require, or can support a larger or smaller staff of teachers. He does not, however, at once become a life member of the institute, but has to spend a long probation of eleven years. During that term he is at liberty to leave the society, or to attach himself to any other towards which he feels himself drawn. At the close of his probation, having now learned and practiced all that is required of him, he is finally admitted, after examination, as a life member of the institute.

Although not an eccieslastical corporation, the institute is after the strictest sort a religious society. .. They wear a particular dress, and are bound by vows of celibacy. Teaching, however, is their profession, and through it they seek to promote the interests of their Church and their own welfare. They entertain ennobled and lofty ideas of the vocation to which they have been called. It is the highest exercise of Christian charity. They who give their lives to it are engaged in employments of which the holiest men might be emulous.

The Christian Brothers' Schools are favorably noticed by the Royal Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry of 1825; and, in a special manner, by the Endowed Schools Commissioners of 1858. Their system is thus accurately described by the latter :—

The knowledge communicated in these schools embraces not only reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, and book-keeping, but also an acquaintance with such branches of mathematical science as are suited to the tastes and talents of the pupils, and to the stations in life they are destined to occupy. Geometry, mensuration, drawing, and mechanics become special objects of attention. As to the manner of communicating knowledge, the most approved methods have been carefully reduced to practice. But it is to the communication of religious knowledge that this institution is chiefly devoted. To this object the members direct their main energies. The teachers are all under a religious obligation; they are in the first instance carefully selected and trained, and they are placed under a strict system of organization and discipline.

A visit to any of their schools will best enable us to appreciate the devoted zeal and efficiency of the Brothers, and the great amount of good they accomplish. Indeed, one of the most interesting objects that can be shown to a stranger in some of the cities or towns of Ireland is the Christian Brothers' School. The success of the pupils in after-life is proverbial. As tradesmen, shop assistants, junior clerks, and other employés, the boys educated in the Christian Schools are eagerly sought for. Some of them have risen to high positions. Not many years since, one of them who, by his ability and integrity, had honorably won for himself a high commercial status, filled the office of Lord Mayor of Dublin. And it is an interesting fact, that at the annual charity sermon in aid of the Christain Schools in Cork, it is not unusual to have a donation of ten pounds or twenty pounds, anonymously sent in, marked, 'from a former pupil.'

The Endowed Schools Commissioners of 1858, conclude their notice of these schools in the following terms:

The entire amount of endowments belonging to the Christian Brothers' schools is very moderate. Several of them were inspected by our Assistant Commissioners, and are returned in the tables of schools and endowments. In their general reports, some of our Assistant Commissioners notice the state of instruction in these schools.

Thus, Mr. Crawford says:-'The most efficient schools, in my opinion, are those managed by the community of Christian Brothers; and I attribute this efficiency to the excellence of their system, the training of the teachers, and their zeal in the cause of education.'

Mr. Pennefather says:-'In the school under the management of the community of the Christian Brothers, which I was directed to visit, I found the teaching efficient, and the masters zealously devoted to their work.'

Dr. M'Blain says:-'I was much impressed with the general aspect presented by these schools, and particularly with their discipline and order, combined with the cheerfulness and docility of the people. The boys educated in the Christian Brothers' schools have in general attained an unusual degree of proficiency in the different branches of learning in which they are instructed.

'The superiority of these schools is doubtless, in a great measure, to be ascribed to the extraordinary personal influence exerted by the teachers over the pupils-an influence based on the distinction that these teachers have devoted their lives to the cause of education, for no private or personal gain or reward, but solely in the discharge of a sacred and self-imposed duty.

In addition to this cause, the Christian Brothers who teach in the schools appear to have been remarkably well trained for the business of instruction; not merely that they are themselves good scholars, but that they have acquired a great aptitude in the art of teaching, and no ordinary skill in devising the most efficient method for the organization and discipline of their school.'

With respect to the schools under the care of the Christian Brothers we received no complaints. Our Assistant Commissioners have expressed most favorable opinions as to these schools, in which we entirely concur.

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In the educational census, taken by the Royal Commissioners of Inquiry on Primary Education, the number, of boys attending the schools of the Christian Brothers in Ireland on June 25, 1868, was found to be 20,026, or 4-434 per cent. of all the children attending the primary schools of the country. The Christian Brothers compile and publish their own school-books, which are fully equal to those published by the National Board. These books are used also exclusively in the convent schools not connected with the Board. They are much more difficult than the National series, the Third Book being as advanced as the Fourth of the latter class, and they are fuller of interesting matter of all kinds, and combine nationality and Catholicity in considerable proportions. They are, of course, more expensive than the National books, but are nevertheless bought by the scholars, who, owing to their price, take much care of them, and make them last longer. We shall see further on, how, from conscientious motives, at an early period, the Brothers withdrew from connection with the National Board.

Besides the Christian Brothers, there are the Presentation Monks, and other similar congregations of religious men, devotedly laboring in the work of educating the poor.

The following are the statistics in brief of the school endowments in operation in Ireland :—

Number of Endowments,

Total acreage of the lands belonging to these,

Estimated annual value of the school premises,

Net annual income derived from land,

Net annual income arising from trust-funds,

These make an aggregate income of 68,570l. per annum.

976

75,600 acres.

14,6157

37,5641 16,3911

The number

of schools supported by these endowments is 1,321. To these must be added the National schools, which have no permanent endowments other than sites vested in the Commissioners of National Education, or in trustees for them. They are 1,507 in number, and the annual value of the school premises is 7,8927.

Thus, it will be seen, the total number of endowed schools in operation in Ireland is 2,828, with permanent endowments amounting in the aggregate to 76,4637.

I have gone thus largely into the subject of the Endowed Schools, because, although many of them are now devoted to intermediate education, they were nearly all intended by their founders for the poorer classes, and therefore must be taken into account in any review of the history of primary education in Ireland.

In the constitution and rules of nearly all the public educational institutions of the country, up to the close of the first quarter of this century, we find the same leaven of hostility to the national faith and disregard of the feelings of the people. Therefore the endowments, and large grants, whether Royal, Parliamentary, or individual, were of very little avail to the great bulk of the population.

And yet, there never was a people more anxious for instruction. Unwilling to pay the price demanded for participation in the advantages of the endowed and State-supported establishments-the renunciation of the faith of their fathers—they made, out of their slender means, the best provision they could for the education of their children. Many private schools were established-first stealthily, in fear and trembling, and subsequently openly, as the Penal Laws were gradually relaxed. In the rural districts, hedge schools abounded, as described by Arthur Young and other travelers; and, in these, the wretched stipend of the devoted and often classically learned teacher was made up, not of school pence, for they had none, but of sods of turf, and handfuls of potatoes, contributed by his ragged pupils.

From the Report of a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, ranging from 1824 to 1827, we learn that in the year 1824 the number of children whose parents were paying for their education in Ireland was 400,348, viz., 319,288 Catholics, and 81,060 Protestants, being a proportion of four to one. The population then was 7,150,000.

In making their report, the Commissioners recommended a totally new system of popular education, based on the principal that in a country where mutual divisions exist between different classes of the people, schools should be established for the purpose of giving to children of all religious persuasions such useful instruction as they may severally be capable and desirous of receiving, without having any ground to apprehend any interference with their respective religious principles; and they expressed their entire concurrence in the 'unanimous opinion' of the Commissioners of 1812, 'that no plan of education, however wisely and unexceptionably contrived in other respects, can be carried into effectual operation in Ireland unless it be explicitly avowed and clearly understood as its leading principle that no attempt shall be made to influence or disturb the peculiar religious tenets of any sect or denomination of Christians.'

The Commissioners recommended the appointment by Government of a Board, who should be empowered to receive and dispose of Parliamentary grants, and have a general control over the whole of the proposed establishments for the instruction of the poorer classes in Ireland.

They further recommended the appointment of two teachers in every school, one Protestant and the other Roman Catholic, to superintend separately the religious education of the children; and they hoped to have been able to agree upon a selection from the Scriptures which might have been generally acquiesced in by both persuasions. These schemes however were soon found to be impracticable.