be able to give a sufficiency of scriptural instruction to the children attending the national school?

But, replies the advocate of the national system, why cannot the protestant clergyman attend, after the business of the school is over, to give scriptural and other religious instruction, as well as the Romish priest? Now the answer to this question and the argument founded on it is very simple. The Romish priest does not attend the national schools for the purpose of giving religious or indeed any instruction, except in very few cases. I speak, of course, with reference to the schools I visited myself. In the county of Wexford there are twentyeight national schools, of which I visited twenty-seven. In twentyone of these, as I was informed by the masters, the very best authority on the subject, the priest never gives any religious instruction. There was but one in which he attended regularly once a week, and to the other five he came only occasionally.

In the twenty-one schools, however, where the priest never attends, religious instruction is given regularly by the masters, who are all Romanists.* Here we may notice the great danger to protestantism arising from the national system being such, that the protestant clergy cannot conscientiously become patrons of its schools. The masters, being appointed by Romish patrons, are all, with very few exceptions, Romanists, and, being such, they are, in some measure, capable of giving Romish religious instruction, but entirely unfit to instruct children in the scriptures or any other book containing protestant principles.

To remedy this crying evil, I would make such alterations in the system as would remove all reasonable objections from moderate men of both parties, and then, if the protestant clergy and laity did not take advantage of the benefits held out by the state in the national schools, they must not only not complain, but stand condemned in the eyes of the nation.

The alterations that I would suggest are not many in number. As I mentioned already, I would have the peculiar religious instruction given in the respective places of public worship, or some other places different from the school houses; I would, in the next place, require from every child that had attained a suitable proficiency in reading the daily use of unobjectionable selections+ from the scriptures, and

In the twenty-eight national schools of the county of Wexford, there are thirty-five teachers employed; of these, thirty-four are Romanists, and only one a protestant. In the Appendix to the third, which I believe is the last, Report of the National Board, I find six signatures of clergy men of the established church to applications for aid to the board, returned for the county of Wexford. This return would seem to contradict a statement made by me in a former letter, that, of all the clergymen of the established church in this county, not one sanctioned the national system. But, what is the truth with regard to these six signatures, which are still continued in the reports of the board? Five of them are the signatures of two clergymen, of whom one, Mr. Gore, is nearly four years dead, and the other, Mr. King, long since publicly retracted his hasty sanction to the system; while the sixth (namely, that to the application for the boys' school of New Ross,) is, as I am informed on good authority, a forgery; for no clergyman of the established church signed it.

The great difficulty is, to get unobjectionable selections. To meet this difficulty, many plans have been proposed. To me that appears the most practicable, (though I

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that during ordinary school business, and at the same hour in every school, so that visitors, by coming in at that hour, might see whether the rule was observed or not; and, above all, I would insist upon the Bible, the whole Bible, being admitted into the school at all hours, and the free, unrestricted, daily use of it being open to all children These few changes whose parents wished it, or did not object to it. would, in my mind, satisfy the great bulk of the protestants of Ireland. But so long as the Bible is excluded from the national schools, the protestants will submit to any sacrifice rather than send their children to them; and in this view they will be supported and encouraged by It their clergy, be the consequences to themselves what they may. may suit other parties in the state, or other individuals, titled lords and wealthy commoners, to vibrate between two opinions, or to change their principles according to the popular fancies of the day; but such has not been the conduct of the protestant clergy of Ireland. As a body, though insulted, persecuted, and robbed, they have stood faithful to the cause of truth; and I trust in God they will be enabled to bear up even against greater trials than they have yet endured, if such should befal them. They believe the Bible to be a divine book, the source of every social, moral, and religious virtue, and that mere literary knowledge without an acquaintance with it would poor, and be rather mischievous than profitable to the children of the therefore they never will consent to a system that deprives them of the use of that sacred volume. They conceive that the state, on the same grounds, should never sanction the national system, and more especially the Queen, who, at her coronation, by the acceptance of a Bible, will acknowledge its divine, its paramount authority, and virtually engage to adopt the book herself, and recommend it to her subjects, as the safe rule of Christian principle and Christian practice. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, J. BOOKER.

Killurin Parsonage, Wexford,
Nov. 6th, 1837.

ADDITIONAL CURATES FUND.

THIS excellent institution has now been put into a state of further efficiency by the appointment of a committee, including a large number of names which will command respect and confidence in all quarters, under the direction of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. This announcement cannot fail to give deep and heartfelt

am aware there are many objections to it,) which would provide two sets of selections, Were the notes to be and leave the choice to the patrons of the respective schools. removed from the present National Lessons, and the notes are not an essential part of them, the lessons, except from the circumstance of their being in a new and a bad version, would not be so offensive to protestants as they are now, and Roman catholics could not consistently object to them, for, by admitting the use of them, as they have done, they virtually admit the correctness of the text, which would alone remain. There have been many sets of selections drawn up in this country and England, which it is needless for me to mention here, as they are well known to all persons who have at all turned their attention to this subject. Still, however, with respect to the National Selections, even if their objectionable notes were removed, this difficulty would remain, that no clergyman could consistently sanction a version of holy scripture not authorized by the church.

satisfaction to all the friends of the church. They must indeed feel also deeply indebted to the zealous and able services of the provisional trustees and secretary, when they remember the success with which their labours have been crowned. But provisional officers, however active in obtaining support to the new society, could have no power to put into activity the resources with which they were entrusted. This only obstacle to the usefulness of the society is therefore now removed; and the work which has so happily begun, will, it is hoped, be prospered from on high, and spread its usefulness over a large portion of the land.

BATH CHURCH OF ENGLAND LAY ASSOCIATION.

THE following extract from the speech of Sir W. Cockburn at a late meeting of that excellent institution, the Bath Church of England Lay Association, will give pleasure to all good sons of the church of England. Unhappily there is no space to record the excellent speeches of Colonel Daubeny, Mr. Jeff's, &c.

"They might remember that at the meeting in February before alluded to, when he occupied so much time, and Mr. Tottenham so ably pleaded their sacred cause, when he (Sir W. Cockburn), amongst a few of the countless claims which the church in England had upon the gratitude of the population, stated as one of them, the establishment of Sunday schools; that claim was vociferously denied by dissenters present, and to his surprise their denial was confirmed by several of his clerical friends, so that he was constrained to withdraw that claim at the time, though with the protest as to the good authority whence he derived it; that he had since taken great pains to gain the best evidence upon the subject, and they would sympathize with him in the feelings of satisfaction with which he again confidently made that claim, and hoped to be the humble medium of settling that disputed point generally, to the well-known and undisputed history of Sunday schools,―viz. :

"It was in the year 1784, that Sunday schools were first established by Mr. Raikes, of Gloucester; and in 1788, only four years after, they afforded shelter and protection to not less than 250,000 of the children of the poor. Mr. R. first men

tioned his plan to a worthy clergyman of the name of Stock, and well knowing that religion was the only foundation on which education ought to be built, they began by gaining the consent of the parents that their children should meet them (Mr. Raikes and Mr. Stock) at the early service performed in the cathedral on a Sunday morning. "When Mr. Raikes was on a visit at Windsor, the good Queen Charlotte sent for him to inquire into the nature of his plans, and to express her unqualified approbation of his Sunday schools, and her confident hope that they would prove an incalculable benefit to the human race.'

"He rejoiced to add the testimony of the nephew of the immortal Raikes himself, as to his having been a devoted member of our established church. He had only lately obtained the following conclusive and satisfactory note:

"Dear Sir, I have great pleasure in replying to your inquiries, as I can reply most explicitly, and most confidently.

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My venerated uncle, Robert Raikes, was not only a member of the church of England throughout the whole of his life, but he was also a most attached and devoted one.

"I should much doubt whether he ever entered a single place of worship unconnected with the establishment, and he was uniform in his attendance at his parish church on Sundays, frequent in his attendance at the early prayers in the cathedral on week days.

"His memory is still cherished by some of the oldest inhabitants of Gloucester, who would remember that though his mind overflowed with charity and good will to men of all denominations, his affections and allegiance were wholly with the church of England. Yours truly, 'H. RAIKES.'

Chester, Jan. 1, 1838.'

[The reading of this letter called forth the most cordial cheers.]

"Thus was this, one of the greatest benefits ever conferred upon the population, not only matured, but originated, by churchmen."

The following extract from the Report will also be acceptable :"It is gratifying for us to record that, through our exertions during the past year, between two and three hundred petitions, most numerously and respectably signed, have been presented to the legislature in support of our venerable church, not merely from this city, but from different parishes in the diocese, more particularly on the subject of the church rates, after the meeting at the assembly rooms, on Tuesday, the 14th of February; and we take this opportunity of returning our most cordial thanks to the clergy in the rural districts, for the kindness and activity which they displayed in forwarding our endeavours on that and other occasions.

The lord archbishop of Canterbury having appointed Wednesday, the 26th April last, as the day on which he would receive the address which was signed by this association and other inhabitants of Bath and its vicinity, thanking his grace for the firmness with which he and other members of the episcopal bench protested against the measure before alluded to, which was proposed by his late majesty's ministers, for the abolition of church rates, a deputation accompanied Colonel Daubeny, one of the vice-presidents, accordingly, on that day to Lambeth palace, on which occasion they were received with every possible mark of urbanity and kindness."

THROWING OPEN OF ST. PAUL'S.

THE letters of the Rev. Sydney Smith, relative to this subject, are reprinted in the Miscellanea of this month, because they contain, from the pen of one of notoriously liberal opinions, a distinct statement of the great indecencies sure to occur from throwing open such buildings as St. Paul's, in a metropolis like London.

REGISTRATION AND MARRIAGE BILLS.

An excellent petition to the House of Commons, in reference to the Registration and Marriage Acts, was agreed upon in Totnes, at the end of last year. It contains some practical suggestions calculated to make the parochial registers capable of superseding the present civil registration. The petition was agreed on at a meeting of the clergy of the archdeaconry of Totnes; the archdeacon presiding, The petition was moved by the Rev. H. F. Lyte, and seconded by the Rev. Prebendary Holdsworth. It is hoped that the petition, or its substance, may be given in the next Number.