THREATENED INTERRUPTION OF THE IRISH NATIONAL SCHOOL SYSTEM.
A_ milieus danger hangs over the National system of Education in Ireland. In spite of long-continued and vehement opposition, it had been bravely maintained, and there is little doubt that an honest perseverance in the original principles would have resulted in complete acceptance. We are assured on credible authority that the clergy of the Established Church were coming over in numbers, and that many only awaited a suitable opportunity to revoke their old opposition. It is just at the end of this wearing war tbat a new flame is about to be kindled ; and the mischief is imputed, with too much show of reason, to weakness and little fait li in tried principle on the part of the paid Commissioners ; who have been helped in their irresolute vacillation by the pre- sent Irish Government. But let us tell the story. In the original constitution of the National system in Ireland, it was a rule that certain extracts from the Scriptures should be read in all the schools : the extracts were of an historical or moral kind, thoroughly catholic in their spirit, and involving no allusion to disputed points of doctrine. Some of the patrons of schools— probably, we might say, some of those patrons who were priests— objected even to this qualified use of the sacred volume ; and the rule was so far relaxed as to permit the exclusion of the extracts from the schools of patrons thus objecting. The extracts were still read, however, in Model Schools, whose patrons are " the Board." The reaotionists next demanded that the extracts should be regarded as-" religious teaching," and that children whose pa- rents required it should be withdrawn while such passages were read. It should be kept in mind, that before these modifications the schools had attained considerable success amongst the more in- telligent of the Roman Catholic population ; the principal oppo- nents being clergymen of the Established Church. Comparatively little concession was made to them, but the extreme Roman Catholics obtained the concessions which we have described.
A much more striking encroachment was made more recently. In one of the schools, a child who had migrated from the jurisdic- tion of Dr. M'Hale formally objected to the reading of the ex- tracts at the Model School in Dublin ; and, to the astonishment of the real friends of the system, the objection made by this child is sustained ! There is a technical warrant for it. In the Eighteenth Report of the National Board, at page 11, there is a modified rule, by virtue of which, in any school, a single child may, through its parents or guardians, object altogether to the reading of the extracts, although approved of in the proportion of ninety-nine hundredths. How this extraordinary modification was smuggled in, we do not know ; but the effect threatens to be disastrous. At a meeting of the Board, the Archbishop of Dublin, who has been a consistent supporter of the National system, proposed the repeal of the rule ; which is in fact not an act of tolerance, but an act of intolerance, arbitrarily excluding from a school that which the majority desire. It is suspected that the Jesuits, or their re- presentatives called by whatsoever name, have engaged in some machinations against the system ; and they are playing into the bands of the old Church party too conveniently for that party to resist the temptations of a practical coalition, unnatural as it is. The proposal of Archbishop Whately was evaded for several months, until he threatened to withdraw from attendance at the Board. It was then to have been decided, but a recommendation came down from "the Castle," to postpone the further considera- tion of the subject for a fortnight.
Up to this time the National system had been decidedly gain- ing ground upon the Ultramontane part of the Roman Catholic Church. Its advance upon the opposite direction also was seen undisguisedly when the Church. Education Society held its meeting a few days ago, and proved a miserable failure. The Bishop of Ossory admitted that his cause had been altogether abandoned by statesmen of every kind, and that his party were absolutely left to their own resources.
Dr. Whately, we understand, had gone to London, indignantly, to represent the absurd conduct of "the Castle." The friends of the N ational system fear that he may be compelled to withdraw ; and if so he would be followed by Baron Green and Ex-Chancellor Blackburn. There will then be an end of the National system for any purpose but the promotion of Ultramontanism and the exclusion of all useful knowledge from the people. "The Board," in short, would be the Irishman's old hat made the substitute for a pane of glass,—not admitting the light of day, but excluding the refreshing breeze. Do the friends of education or Protestantism intend to permit that anti-climax ?
Previous page
