Art. II. An Inquiry into the Abuses of the Chartered Schools in Ireland: with Remarks on the Education of the Lower Classes in that Country. Second Edition. 8vo. pp. 206. Price 68. don. 1818.

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E have scarcely ever called the attention of our readers to a subject of more awakening interest, than is that of the volume before us. Ireland, the younger sister of the British empire, which has every capability of being rendered our strength and our glory, and which ought, upon every principle of reason and right, to have been made to bless the day of its union with this country, has been for ages our perplexity and reproach. With a rarely failing punctuality we have acted up to Franklin's picture of our politico-national character: I have but one rule to go by in judging of those people, which is, that whatever is prudent for them to do, they will omit; and what is most imprudent to be done, they will do it.' It would seem as if Ireland had been the field of experiment, for the agency of weakness and wickedness in the cultivation of crimes and miseries. Overwhelming proofs of this are adduced in the present work. A system of education for Ireland, pretending to be national, and supported by an annual grant from our taxes of forty thousand pounds, in addition to an income of twenty thousand a year from vested property,-is, in fact, a perfidious mockery of the public, a fraud on the Government, an insult to England, and a curse to Ireland! This may seem extravagant language; but it is fully borne out by the facts of which we have here a melancholy detail, supported by official papers.

From the signature of the Dedication to the Committee of the House of Commons on the Education of the Poor, we find that the Author is Mr. Robert Steven, a gentleman well known among the body of London merchants, for his prohity, benevolence, and public spirit. We are sure that he has volunteered this service to humanity and patriotism, and has taken upon him the deep responsibility of his averments, without the slightest personal interest or influence of connexions, and from no earthly motive but the love of virtue, and the hope of serving the best interests of our sister island. We cordially wish him success in this generous work; and most devoutly we trust that the grief and indignation which this exposure will raise in every honest mind, will rise to the proper quarter, and lead to a remedy of the crying evil.

From the time of Elizabeth to that of George I. a variety of methods were employed by Government, for improving the condition of the Irish, and for promoting the Protestant religion among them. Had these methods been the device of an enemy, in order to counteract in the most effectual manner their avowed purpose, we should say that they were well con

trived. Of these Mr. S. gives us some brief notices, before he arrives at his principal subject.

From the reign of Henry the Eighth it became a favourite object with the English Government, to eradicate the Irish language. The statesmen of that day, and even of later times, did not under stand, that the destruction of a living language by force, even of a conquered country, could only be effected by the extermination of the people.

Every attempt served only to attach them more fondly to the language of their forefathers, and induced them to cling with more enthusiastic affection to the last relic of their ancient independence. About the year 1537, a law was passed, to render general the use of the English language, habit, and order. English schools were to be opened, and the children compelled to learn that foreign tongue, The road to spiritual preferment was confined to those who could speak English. As might have been expected, the English language made little way. What was done by the Government in the way of education was more from political motives, than any wish for the moral improvement of the people. Accustomed to consider the existence of the Irish language as hostile to the interests of England, they carried their antipathy so far as to order, that when no minister could be found capable of reading the Liturgy in English, it should be read in Latin.

Who can look back on the condition of Ireland at that time, without the deepest regret? Several millions of our fellow-subjects, age after age, shut up in the grossest ignorance and superstition! No Protestant ministers, no Protestant schoolmasters, who could instruct them in their own language, were provided for them. Thus they were left to the devious impulse of an untutored mind, the influence of the priest became doubly augmented, whilst that of the Protestant teacher was proportionably diminished. In proof of this, I need only state, that those counties which are properly Irish, where the English is rarely spoken. are considered as consisting chiefly of Catholics. There the proportion of Protestants is very small.

Had the Highlands of Scotland been treated in a similar manner; had the same mistaken policy obtained there; had Protestant ministers refused to instruct the people in their own language, and had the Gaelic been confined to the missionaries of Rome; who, that is acquainted with the Highland character, does not perceive what would have been the consequence? Happily for Caledonia, her sons, in their own tongue, wherein they were born, have heard their instructors declare the wonderful works of God.' pp. 2—4.

The Chartered Schools originated in the year 1733, when King George the Second incorporated by charter a Society for the encou ragement of Protestant Schools throughout Ireland. The professed object was to put down Popery, and extend the Protestant religion; but its actual operation went to the kidnapping of children of Catholics above six years of age, and afterwards at the age of two years, and removing them from their parents to the distant provinces of the kingdom, the better to prevent all communications with their relations." P. 7.

On this feature of the plan Mr. Steven indignantly exclaims, Who could blame a Catholic parent for revolting at the thought of entrusting his infant into the hands of strangers? This measure left him the only sad alternative, of either sacrificing parental affection, or sealing up his offspring in ignorance and superstition. And do we bring the present state of the Catholic population as a charge against them? In truth, we are principals in the offence. O! it is full time to change our measures. Let the Country, let Parliament, act liberally, Justice compromises no right, and sacrifices no principle.' p. 10.

We shall extract two or three passages more, and we are convinced that these passages will be more satisfactory to our readers, than any speculations of our own on the subjects discussed in it.

I have endeavoured to give a concise history of the origin of the Society; the objects which it embraced, the powers with which it was armed, the sources and amount of its income, and its progressive increase, with its disbursements; the mismanagement and abuse of the public funds intrusted to its care, and its failure in the accomplishment of the objects for which it was incorporated, and for which the large grants I have stated, were made; viz. the increase of Protestantism, and the extension of education. I have exhibited, in the Report of 1788, such a complication of misery in the treatment of the poor children, and such gross mismanagement and improper conduct on the part of most of the masters and mistresses, as has seldom, if ever, been exceeded in any similar national establishment. And I now respectfully call on the Committee of Fifteen to state to Parliament and to the British Empire, whether the masters are not still allowed to trade on the labour of the children for their own profit? as well as how far all or any of those evils which that Report details are yet continued. I have shewn, that after an expenditure of more than a million and a half sterling, Ireland, as far as the Chartered Schools are concerned, has been left, nearly as they found her. More than half a century, the most important era of Ireland's history, has been lost to her, as it regards a national system of education; by which she has been prevented from holding on her march, in national improvement, with the other kingdoms of the British Empire. After seventy years' experience, what impression have the Chartered Schools made on the moral condition of Ireland? What portion of the moral wilder ness has she enclosed and cultivated by means of this large expenditure? Where has the vine and the myrtle taken place of the bramble and the thorn? Who, acquainted with Ireland, and the state of society there, does not deplore the want of education, by which generation after generation has been suffered to grow up and die in the grossest ignorance? And whilst the poor, in all the provinces of Ireland, have been sighing for the education of their children, this Society, whose funds have been sufficiently ample for the instruction of two hundred thousand children annually, on a plan of daily schools, have been expending all on thirty-three schools, and little more than two thousand children! pp. 140. -142.

It will be scarcely credited, (except by a reference to the yearly grants,) that in the course of seventeen years, the Imperial Parliament, as a matter of course, without any public inquiry, that I am aware of, and without any increase of schools, have expended the enormous sum of £554,000 and upwards; a sum larger, by £200,000, than was granted by the Irish Parliament during a space of forty-six years, when very considerable sums were expended on buildings and furniture, and a greater number of schools supported by the Institution. If the present waste of the public money, on a scale of education small and unproductive, be persisted in, no wonder if the finances of the country be embarrassed. Here is a sum granted by Parliament, to the amount of £41,539 annually, for thirty-three Chartered Schools and all this, independent of the large income enjoyed by the Society from estates, public government funds, &c. &c. &c. which may be safely estimated at a sum not less than from £10,000 up to £20,000, making an aggregate of £61,000 per annum.

And I would ask, What correspondent good has been done by this vast sum, for the improvement of Ireland? Let the Committee of Fifteen answer this question, if they can. I ask, What great moral or political benefit has accrued to Ireland, or to the British Empire, which now contributes to this vast expenditure, from these Chartered Schools, as an apology for a national system of education for the poor of Ireland?

But had it been otherwise; had it appeared in the course of this inquiry, that the plan was good as far as it went; that the funds, private and parliamentary, had been honestly, discreetly, and economically expended; that the children were well fed, well clothed, well lodged, not over-worked, and their education good; that a stranger could not visit any of the schools, without seeing peace, plenty, health, and comfort written in legible characters on their chubby cheeks; that all the boys and girls turned out Protestants, and had grown up good, virtuous, and useful men and women: if all this and much more had been the result of the Chartered School scheme, my objections to the system would, in the late and present state of education in Ireland, have been still insurmountable..

'Were there at this time a general dearth of the necessaries of life in Irelard, and, through the private liberality of individuals and the bounty of Parliament, a fund of £60,000 was annually collected, expressly for the maintenance of poor starving children throughout the kingdom, during the time of famine, what would be thought of those to whom the funds were intrusted, when it was understood, that instead of extending relief generally, they had selected two thousand children, and built houses for their reception at a great expense; that they gave large salaries to officers, and to masters for superintending the children; and that they spent more money on buildings, officers, and others connected with the establishment, than would feed the two thousand children? pp. 145-147.

It remains therefore to be accounted for, how, in the year 1816, with a reduction of more than twenty schools, and consequently of masters' salaries, land, and board for themselves and families, &c., with but a small increase of children, and without the heavy expense of building school houses, the Society has been receiving annually, from Parliament,

£41,539, independent of perhaps not less than £20,000 of fixed annual income. No change in the value of money, prices of provisions, or clothing, can fairly account for this.' p. 19.

'Let this charter school system be farther investigated 'on the fair statement of Dr. and Cr. as between the Committee of Fifteen and the Public. Deriving so large a sum as £40,000 a year from Parliament, let us see how the account stands.

By the Society's own shewing, there is a vast sum to account for, annually, over their expenditure.

They state the charge of board, education, clothing, masters, servants, &c. for each child to be £13 annually; and I shall state the account as it will stand on their own authority.

The Chartered School Society in account with the Public.

£15,000 per ann. for 105,000 By balance due to the

187,500

415,000

In the first edition of this work, we read statements absolutely revolting to every feeling of humanity and honesty, in relation to the perversion of private bequests, by the shameless dishonesty of trustees. Most generous endowments have been left by benevolent noblemen and others, for the purposes of free education in Ireland; but the number of instances in which these have been made the mere instruments of base gain, with an open dereliction of the object contemplated by the Founders, are amazing and disgusting. But we see that these passages are expunged from the Second Edition; from a regard to prudence, no doubt, and the hope that the delinquents would rather be constrained to some kind of reluctant reformation, than be exhibited as they deserve, before the tribunal of the public. It is, however, a beginning of consolation to the friends of Ireland, that, notwithstanding these atrocious iniquities, something has been done, and is still doing, with faithfulness and efficiency, for the education of its swarming population. The Hibernian Society, instituted in London in 1806, now educates in day-schools above 27,000 children, chiefly catholics.

I now proceed to describe the kind of Schools which I would recommend, instead of the boarding and clothing plan. In doing this, I am happy in being able to refer my readers to an extensive and continued experiment, which has been carrying on for years in the west of Ireland, under the care and at the expense, of the London