[To THE EDITOR or THE "SPEOTATOR:n Sin,—Mr. Montgomery, in the
Spectator of the 11th, urges com- pulsory education as the most necessary of all educational reforms in Ireland. We must, of course, look to this coming in time, but it would be putting the cart before the horse in a very absurd way to force children into school before decently good schools have been provided. Besides, it would be scarcely possible to apply compulsion if a parent could say, however insincerely, that his conscience would not permit him to send his child to a school of which his priest disapproved. What, then, would become of the Conscience Clause, adherence to which, in the face of the opposition of both the Churches, has been the chief merit of the National Board of Education ? We must postpone compulsion till the State has won in its inevitable struggle against the Roman Catholic Bishops.—I am, Sir, &C., JOSEPH JOHN MURPHY.
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