On Tuesday Sir Hugh Cairns brought on his vote of
censure on the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland for the resolutions adopted by them with regard to giving aid to convent and monastic schools on the 21st of November last. He succeeded of course in making out that the principle of common education, and the principle of subsidizing schools which give a rather exclusive and Ultramontane Roman Catholic education, are not the same ; but Mr. O'Hagan was able to show, as we have done, that the latter principle has in part been recognized from the very foundation of the system, and that if it is now being somewhat extended, it is by no means an undesirable " develop- ment " of a quasi-English practice, in aid of the other, which, for large parts of Ireland, would be practically sterile of any good result to the population. The debate was adjourned.
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