christ," Latin Prayers not fit for Irishmen,"-"Close conformity between the Jews and Roman Catholics," are distributed at the same time, and by the same hands, with the Bible, is it surprising that the latter should be viewed with some degree of suspicion? Were these efforts at conversion made through any other agency than that of education, they would not be so objectionable; and, if they were made fairly and above-board, they would not be so deserving of moral censure. But every school into which this evil spirit enters creates around it a circle of suspicion and alarm, and limits the exertions of those who ought to be successful, because they are honest and sincere. May we not ask these friends to proselytism, avowed or concealed, whether they would tolerate from the Catholics the conduct they themselves pursue What would they think if Dr. Doyle and Mr. O'Connell were to make an apostolic tour throughout England, lecturing publicly at every market town against the error of heresy, and recommending the consolatory doctrines of indulgences and absolution. The conversion of a single Protestant, even that of a bar-maid at Shrewsbury, or a waiter at Barnet, would shake all Bartlett's buildings to their centre.

Our readers must not imagine, however, that we consider the Roman Catholics, though excusable, altogether blameless. They have sometimes taken alarm when danger was not impending, and have refused the services of friends, who had no second or hidden object in view. Such is the natural consequence of any system like that which prevails in Ireland, mischievous no less by the evil it produces, than by the good which it prevents. Whilst we admit the great sacrifices made out of their poverty by the Catholic clergy, whilst we are grateful for the services they have rendered, we cannot consider them a proper body to be unreservedly intrusted with the duties of education. These duties we consider as both civil and political; and in their discharge the clergy of neither sect should be allowed any dominion. An unrestrained power may be conceded to them in religious instruction, and it is their duty to prevent any improper interference in matters of faith; but this is all they should seek or obtain. They may be useful instruments; they would be dangerous masters.

On what plan then ought the education of the poor to be placed in Ireland? Our answer is a simple one-on such a foundation as will ensure to all sects equal advantages, and will extend to every peasant the means of instruction. One common system for all, whether Protestant or Catholic, we consider to be infinitely preferable to separate and exclusive schools. But if separate schools are to be maintained for Protestants, a measure which we deprecate, it is the grossest injustice to leave the establishment exclusively Catholic, without similar assistance. With respect to the course of reading to be adopted in liberal schools, those who have considered many of the elementary books of Catholic religious education are aware that the greater part of them deserve the approbation even of Protestant instructors. We would refer to Chalmers's Morality of the Bible, the Evangelical History of Christ, Reeve's History of the Bible, and many others. In some of the periodical circulating libraries we have described, the following books are admitted-Dr. Hornihold's Explanation of the Commandments-Bossuet's Exposition of Christian Doctrine-Gother's Exposition of the Epistles and Gospels-Imitation of Christ-Chaloner's Meditations. On these books the religious education of Catholics might very safely be founded. We are also convinced that certain extracts might be made from the Scriptures themselves, which would give no offence to pious Roman Catholics. In the

schools of mutual instruction, both in France and Italy, works of this description have been introduced and approved of by the clergy. We particularly call the attention of the Irish Catholics to the Sacred History of Autonelli, published at Florence in 1819. (Compendio d'Istoria Sacra, ad uso della scuola d'insegnamente reciproco a Firenze.) The tablets used in the French schools are also worthy of attention. "Les tableaux de lecture choisie, tous des sujets religieux revêtus de l'autorite ecclésiastique, font de chacun des exercices une sorte d'instruction pour le cœur, en développant les sentimens les plus favorables à la pratique de la vertu." (Rapport de la Société pour l'Instruction élémentaire, 1823, p. 31.) The study of such extracts seems to have been all that was contemplated by the Commissioners of Education, when they speak of "a selection from Sacred History, which shall not be liable to any of the objections made to the use of the Scriptures in the course of education.' This, too, is all that is suggested by Mr. Leslie Foster, when he recommends "such extracts from the New Testament†as no candid Roman Catholic can imagine to have any bearing on points in dispute."

That this proposition would not be rejected by the Roman Catholics, we infer from the reasonableness of the case, and the document presented to Mr. Grant by Lord Fingall and the five Bishops, and also from Dr. Doyle's directions given in a printed letter to one of his clergy. "To meet the wishes of others, a lesson or lessons of the Douay Bible may be read for the Roman Catholic children each day, by the master who teaches them their catechism." Such a volume of extracts, and other elementary books, having been approved of by some of the most authoritative persons on both sides, we would willingly give to the parish clergy of either persuasion an absolute veto on the introduction of new books into the primary schools. These gentlemen should have a constant power of superintendence, and certain hours should be allotted to them for the peculiar religious instruction of the children of their respective communions. If Parliamentary grants are necessary, they should be appropriated exclusively in building schoolhouses, training masters and mistresses, and providing useful and cheap books. The school itself should be maintained by the contributions of the clergy, and, where those were inadequate, by parish assessment, this charge being thrown upon the landlords' rent, and not upon the occupying tenant. Subscribers to a certain amount, and the parishioners in a special vestry, should be allowed the nomination of the master; but no appointment should take place, except of a person bringing a certificate of qualification from a central school maintained in Dublin. A garden, and wherever it is practicable some acres of land, should be attached to each school; and agricultural instruction, with an elementary knowledge of mechanics and chemistry, should form part of the course of study. Every school should be a school of industry.

Though we are convinced that such a proposition as this would be received with gratitude in Ireland, and would be most useful, we are not such enthusiasts as to imagine that it would remedy all the evil consequences of injustice and oppression. "An improved course of Education," observed Mr. Plunket, ought to grow out of an improved system of Government. We are otherwise only teaching wretched peasantry to calculate wealth he

66

} Fourteenth Report. Education.

Appendix to Fourteenth Report.

Pastoral Instruction, p. 63.

can never possess, and to read of happiness he is not destined to enjoy." A writer who, though he conceals his name, is well known as a friend and correspondent of Burke, observes, "Learning is not only considered by some instructors to be better than house and land, but to be preferable to meat, clothing, and all such coarse enjoyments. If a child's mind is fed, it seems this is all the nourishment he requires. The energies of his spirit are to support the weakness of his flesh, and science is to check the progress of starvation! Then as to clothing, provided his intellect is well lined, no matter how thinly his body is covered.-Murtagh Shaughnessy's children are very naked! Poor things, they ought to be sent to school-They have nothing to eat! They should be taught to read without a moment's loss of time!By writing, reading, and arithmetic, all the evils of life are to be cured, and all its wants supplied."*

But this is too miserable for mockery. Education is not a nostrum that is to cure every possible disease. We know that equal laws fairly administered, personal freedom, and more extended employment, are the first wants of Ireland. But it is no less true that even these remedies, did we possess a government sufficiently strong and virtuous to try them, would be incomplete without a wise, a comprehensive, and truly liberal system of Education †.

Letter to the Right Hon. C. Grant, by Atharnie.

See another article, in which the State of Education in Ireland is discussed, vol. xxxvii.

page 60.

APPENDIX.

ACCOUNT OF THE LATE DR. BROWN'S CONNEXION WITH
THE EDINBURGH REVIEW.

Reference is made to the following Narrative in page 162. (Note.)

WHEN the Edinburgh Review commenced, the ideas of authorship being somewhat different from what they are at present, the papers were contributed without any pecuniary compensation. Some articles were writen by Dr. Brown, and bear the marks of his genius. He was the author of the leading article of the second number-a Res view of the Philosophy of Kant; and I believe every one who has attended to the subject will allow that he has made it as intelligible as the nature of it admits. In reference to this subject I may here insert two extracts from the letters of Dr. Currie :-"I have heard that you are engaged in the Edinburgh Review, which makes a great impression here, and which certainly displays uncommon vigour and information. It struck me that the article on Kant must be from you. I received from it great pleasure and instruction. I could wish there was a little less severity in the Review; but I have scarcely now a right to speak, lest it should be imputed to personal feeling,-- having observed that there is a little touch at myself, or rather, perhaps, poor Burns, in the last number.” In another letter he thus writes:-" I assure you that the compliment I paid you on the review of Kant was perfectly sincere. I had been endeavouring to penetrate into his system with no great success. The demonstration you have given of the points in which it agrees and disagrees with Berkeley, has, I think, thrown light upon the whole. I shall trouble myself no more with transcendentalism: I consider it as a philosophical hallucination. We must rest after all, I believe, for the present, in the system of Dr. Reid; such, at least, is the inclination of my mind. Mr. Stewart's view of the life and writings of this sage has given me extraordinary pleasure."

His connexion with the Review, however, was but of brief continuance. Some liberties that were taken with one of his papers, by the gentleman who had the superintendence of the publication of the third number, led to a misunderstanding, which terminated in his withdrawing his assistance from the work.

Many of Dr. Brown's friends regretted that any circumstance should have occurred to put an end to his connexion with the Review. To his immediate fame it certainly was in some degree injurious,--both because at that time there was no means by which a young man could so easily be brought into public notice as by writing in that work; and, more indirectly, because, without imputing any improper motive, his name has scarcely ever appeared in it with the approbation it deserves. In other respects, however, the circumstance was perhaps not to be regretted. There are minds to which the neglect of their contemporaries is not disadvantageous; and the facilities to immediate applause, enjoyed by a contributor to a popular periodical publication, are not always favourable to those habits that seem necessary for the production of a work of permanent fame. Though repeatedly and earnestly solicited to join again the Edinburgh Review, he constantly declined, and he was never afterwards connected with any individual in any. terary work. Life of Brown, by Welsh, p. 79-81.

In a Note at Page 163, the Subject of the foregoing Remarks is again reverted to in the following Terms.

THOUGH the distinguished individual who at present conducts the Edinburgh Review * had the superintendence of the papers from the commencement, he was not nominated Editor till the publication of the fourth number; and the publication of the third number was, in his absence, intrusted to the care of a gentleman who has long been known as one of the most popular contributors to its pages. † It may be proper to add, that none of these eminent individuals allowed this unfortunate misunderstanding to lessen their sentiments of mutual regard, or to interfere with their habits of intimacy. Dr. Brown had prepared some materials for the fourth number, which were never used. In particular, he had written a very ingenious paper on the second volume of Miss Baillie's Plays. An able article, but in a very different spirit, upon the same work, appeared from another hand. This he regretted no farther than as he was prevented from bearing testimony to the merits of an author of whose genius he entertained a very high idea. He used to take credit to himself for being one of the first in Edinburgh who appreciated her excellences; and he regretted that her works had not met with a more favourable reception. Upon the subject once being mentioned, I recollect he said, with a smile, "I really consider this to be one of the great heresies of the Edinburgh Review."

In stating that Dr. Brown's name has scarcely ever appeared in the Edinburgh Journal with the approbation it deserves, I must except the very flattering allusion to the first edition of his work “On Cause and Effect," to which reference is made in another part of this work. "The Paradise of Coquettes" also met with a very high eulogium; but without any idea that he was the author. Indeed, till after his death, his name was never mentioned either as a poet or philosopher. In a late number a pledge has been given, which it is anxiously hoped will be speedily redeemed.‡

ON THE UTILITY OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIND.

The Controversy to which the subjoined Observations refer is mentioned in a Note, page 163. THE philosophy of the mind, in order to have any chance of improving upon former advances, must share at least some degree of that estimation which the other sciences enjoy. But we are told by some persons, that when the pretensions of this boasted philosophy are sifted to the bottom, it will be found that it is incapable of making any substantial additions either to our knowledge or to our power. To counteract these depreciatory views is the main object of Mr. Stewart in his preliminary dissertation. He rightly judges that his favourite science has much at issue in such an investigation. The public seems already sufficiently disposed to neglect, if not to undervalue it; and if the idea should prevail, that it has nothing either new or useful to communicate, it is pretty clear that all remaining curiosity about the laws of the intellectual world would be extinguished, and all farther improvement of this great and interesting department of knowledge entirely abandoned. The occasion of this important discussion, which occupies the far greater part of the preliminary discourse, is stated by Mr. Stewart in the following passage :

"When I first ventured to appear before the public as an author, I resolved that nothing should ever induce me to enter into any controversy in defence of my conclusions, but to leave them to stand or to fall by their own evidence. As this indifference, however, about the fate of my particular doctrines, arose from a deep-rooted conviction, both of the importance of my subject, and of the soundness of my plan, it was impossible for me to be insensible to such criticisms as were directed against either of these two fundamental assumptions. Some criticisms of this description I had, from the first, anticipated; and I would not have failed to obviate them in the introduction to my former work, if I had not been afraid to expose myself to the imputation of prolixity, by con

Mr. Jeffrey is the gentleman here alluded to. He was the Editor of the Review at the period when these observations were written.

Probably the Rev. Sidney Smith.

The article on Drs. Brown and Reid, republished in this volume, is the only one that has appeared since the foregoing observations were written by the Rev. D. Welsh.