CLERICAL. AGITATORS IN IRELAND.
Dublin, 8th February 1853.
Sr a—One of your correspondents, in a late number of the Spectator, at- tributes the acknowledged success of Lord Eglinton, in his dealings with! the Irish difficulty, to the prevailing opinion that he would rigidly dis- countenance clerical agitators. I believe that view is common to all Irish- men; as well as the impression that " the prevalence of the opinion was due entirely to the public estimate of the late Chancellor Blackburne's discretion, and the belief that he in reality was the governor of Ireland." The arguments of the writer were directed exclusively against the Romish priests; but there are unmistakeable signs that another section of the same cheese danyereuse is about to issue from the holes and lurking-places in which, during the last year, its members have hidden themselves from the presence of authority wielded by a strong hand and directed by a sound head. For some weeks past, a considerable rustling in the straw that covers the Angli- can clerical agitators against "National Education" has denoted that the vermin survive the torpor in which they rested during the existence of the Derby Administration ; and within the last few days a head or two may be seen cautiously protruded into the public eight. It is announced, on authority, that Lord Clancarty and Mr. George Alex- ander Hamilton will bring the question respectively before the Houses of Lords and Commons ; and the sympathy of the people of England is soli- cited as for a struggle in the cause of Protestant liberty, by men whose policy and course of action are framed upon the truest model of Romish despotism and intolerance. The war now reopened by the Archbishop of Armagh and the Bishop of Meath in no respect differs in its character or object from that so long waged by the Jesuits throughout the Christian world, and now, un- fortunately for mankind, brought near to a successful termination in almost every Roman Catholic state in Europe. The subjection of secular education to a priesthood is the cause that has been gained in France, in Austria, in Spain; that is still manfully contested in Prussia, in Belgium, and in Pied- mont ; and that is fought for in Ireland with equal bitterness, though with disproportioned energy and success, by Dr. M'Hale and Dr. Singer, by Lord John Beresford and Monsignore Paul Cullen. That cause I sincerely trust, will never by any amount of misrepresentation and falsehood be successfully recommended to the sympathy of the British people. Yet so credulous is that people, so disposed are Englishmen to respect and accredit venerable names, and so well is their disposition. in that particular known, that I hope I shall be excused for directing the attention of the friends of national education to the shabby attempt to delude the public mind, made in the publication of the following document, which purports to be a resolution adopted by the Committee of the Church Education Society for Ireland, held on the 2d instant
" Resolved, That the Honorary Secretaries do convey to the Committee of the National Club the thanks of the Committee for the clear and faithful statement contained in their address, No. 9, of the facts connected with the education of the poor in Ireland, as carried on by the National Board and the Church Education Society respectively. " J. H. Mzersr Chairman."
" I approve of the above resolution. JOHN G. Anstkon." The address here alluded to is in itself altogether unworthy of comment ; 'vouched by two Prelates of the Irish Church, it merits exposure as delusive and untrue. It is delusive, because it suppresses the truth as to the factious origin of the opposition to the National system, as to the present feelings of the Protestants of Ireland in relation to it, and as to the facts bearing upon the religious character of the National Schools. It is untrue, inasmuch as it falsely asserts that the aid of the State is withheld from the Church Edu- cation Schools, " because permission is asked to read in them the Holy Scriptures to all the pupils voluntarily attending them." The simple truth is, that the opposition to the " National system " was in its origin a purely factious party movement against the Whigs, in whose ranks Lord Stanley then served, just as it is now a purely factions movement against Lord Aber- deen's Government, to whom Lord Derby is now opposed. Into a participation in this movement the clergy were duped or intimidated by the gross- est fabrications, or by the most unscrupulous exercise of the ex- tensive patronage of Tory Bishops. That a great and all but com- plete change of opinion has taken place among Irish Protestants, clerical and lay, is equally certain; and that the open adhesion to the National system of the great majority of the clergy is only prevented by bringing the vituperative power of a so-called Christian journal to aid the influence of J. H. Meath, J. G. Armagh, and their fellows, is known and ac- knowledged throughout Ireland. Against such odds, it is wonderful indeed that any ministers of the Established Church shofild connect themselves with National Schools ; yet we find that eighty-one clergymen have been so bold, and that this fact >a coupled with those still more instructive "that of the managers of the National Schools considerably more than one-third are Pro- testants; of the schools considerably more than one-fourth part are under Protestant management ; of the children on the rolls on the 31st March 1852, nearly one-seventh part were Protestants ; of the teachers trained in the central establishment, one-fifth, and of the applicants for grants to new schools during 1841, one-fourth were Protestants." In addition to these 81 clergymen of the Church of England who patronize National Schools, there are 271 laymen of the same confession, and 251 clerical and 163 lay Protest- ants of other denominations. These facts are suppressed from the docu- ment vouched by the Bishop of Meath and approved of by the Archbishop of Armagh ; and there is asserted in it the false statement that a restriction is placed upon the reading of the Holy Scriptures to all pupils voluntarily at- tending. Any one who chooses to examine the rules of the National Board, can satisfy himself that no restriction is laid except upon those who would force pupils involuntarily to attend at the reading of the Scriptures.
These facts will, I hope, suffice to expose the character of the new clerical agitation ; which is not less disgusting to all honest Irishmen than any that has ever been stirred under Romish influence. H. M.
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