LETTER eliciting from the Education Society TO DANIEL O'CONNELL, Esq. in Kildare-street the avowals made at their last general meeting; and I On his proposed Plan of forming a heartily join in the public acknowNational Association for the Edu-ledgments voted to you by that vecation of all Classes of Christians. SIR, THE fied, and you would have more reason to be proud, if, when you trod upon the tail of the serpent of bigotry, you had resolved to disarm the reptile of its sting, because her hisses would then be harmless, and her attempts to annoy us without danger. The plan, however, which you recommend will leave her to shoot forth the venom of her tongue with undiminished force, while it will place the objects of her malice more exposed to the poison she disseminates. Before I enter on an elucidation of this subject, I will here give your own words, from the letter you addressed to the most reverend and right reverend the catholic prelates of Ireland, dated the 25th of February, 1820, and inserted in The Dublin Weekly Register of the succeeding day. nerable patriarch of our church, Dr. Coppinger, bishop of Cloyne and Ross, and his clergy, on that occaTHE notice given by Mr.sion; but I should feel more gratiBrougham, in the present session of parliament, of his intention to bring forward an Education Digest, reminds me of the promise I made to my readers, at the close of the Journal for March, to enlarge on the plan which you have submitted to the Irish catholic prelates, of immediately forming a National Association for education. As I consider this plan fraught with the greatest danger to the existence of the catholic religion in Ireland, 1 shall convey the opinions, on which my conviction is formed, to the pub lic in the shape of a letter to you, the propounder; and, before I conclude, I shall take the liberty of pointing out a counter plan, by the adoption of which, I feel equally convinced you would render a much greater service to your religion, to your country, and to your poor After exposing in proper terms suffering countrymen, than if you the hypocrisy and intolerance of the were to succeed to the utmost of Education Society, you conclude,your anticipations in your education" Having thus, my lords, contriproject. I am willing to allow you buted to strip this association of its all the merit due to your conduct in pretences, and left it to enjoy all ORTHOD. JOUR. VOL. VIII. the advantage of its future classifica- | is worth making; it is worth shew tion amidst dst the branches of the bible ing to the empire that ow me most respectfully in Ireland-and there are men society, the catholic to solicit the attention of your lord-prelates are amongst the foremost ships to the necessity of counteract- of them-who sincerely wish to proing the mischiefs that might flow mote mutual charity and educated from torpor or remissness on this benevolence, and desire to extirpate subject. We shall, my lords, be for ever those religious animosities calumniated; we shall be charged which have hitherto distracted and with discountenancing education, divided our country, and plunged and above all, religious education. her in misery, degradation, and Let us meet our calumniators with ruin.” the best possible refutation. Such, sir, is the plan which you say "every honest and liberal mar of every sect and persuasion will patronize and support;" I shall, however, take the liberty to dissent from your opinion; and though I will not yield to you nor to any man for honesty of intention and liberality of feeling towards my dissenting brethren, yet as I am not a professor of any sect or persuasion, but a firm believer in the only true faith, I for one will never consent to patronize and support such a plan, and I fervently hope there is not a catholic prelate or priest inclined to sanction your views. That such notions as you have here disclosed should originate in so great a mind, is a sub "For this purpose, I, with becoming deference, submit the propriety of immediately forming a NATIONAL ASSOCIATION for education. An association which shall honestly practice what others merely profess-namely, the education of all classes of christians, conjointly and without interference with their religious tenets. They can and ought to be educated together in literature and benevolence. Learning and charity can go together; and as to religion, let each child be separately and apart instructed in the religious tenets of its parents by persons of its own religion. "Such is the plan which my ve-ject of regret to me, but not of surnerable friend, the right rev. Dr. Archdeacon, has lately recommended. Such is the plan which every honest and liberal man of every sect and persuasion will patronize and support. I think it is indeed probable, that of such a society his grace the duke of Leinster will be easily persuaded to become the patron; let the rich subscribe their pounds, and the poor will cheerfully pour in their pence. Parliament itself will, in its wisdom, either transfer the annual donation from those who only profess to those who openly and honestly practice the true principle of CHRISTIAN education-or, at least, it will be likely to share that donation between the two: at all events, the experiment prise, wher. I recollect the part you took against the ancient Douay di vines in 1817, in consequence of the serpent of bigotry making considerable hissing at the re-publication of their doctrines. I lament this feel. ing, and can only attribute it to that temporizing spirit into which you have lately sunk, in order to conciliate men seeking their temporal preferment, rather than religion's cause and their country's good.In 1817, the bitter enemies of our faith calumniated our principles by garbling and misconstruing the sen timents of the Douay doctors, and you joined in the outcry; and now, because it is become a fashionable topic with persons of every sect and persuasion to advocate a promiscu lic prelates are amongst the foremost of them-who sincerely wishto promote mutual charity and edu tirpate for ever those religious ani- ous education of youth, you propose that the children of your poor coun trymen, who are all, I may say, catholics, should be debarred the ad-cated benevolence, and desire to exvantages of a perfect and unalloyed religious education, to meet the views of those who are indifferent to this most essential formation of the infant mind. And on what grounds do you rest the merit of your plan? Because" we shall be charged with discountenancing education, and above all, a religious education."Therefore you call upon the prelates to meet our calumniators with the best possible refutation ;" and that refutation is proposed to be the sanction and formation of an establishment for education where religion shall be neither named nor taught! This, sir, is a strange way of refuting those who accuse us of discountenancing religious education. You propose this establishment for the education of all classes of christians conjointly, because, you observe, "they can and they ought to be educated together in literature and benevolence. Learning and charity (you add) can go toge ther." Now, if these are your real sentiments, what are we to infer from them, but that benevolence and charity are not taught in schoolsment upon such grounds is really expressly catholic, where it is well unpardonable. You could not be known religion is the ground work ignorant surely that the religion of on which the other branches of edu- Ireland is of divine origin; that its cation are raised? By recommend-heavenly Founder was a model of ing your plan, then, you virtually, yet unintentionally I believe, support the charge you are desirous of refuting; for your words imply that literature and benevolence, learning and charity, do not constitute a branch of the system of education in catholic schools and seminaries. This opinion is further strengthened by your concluding observation, that, at all events, the experiment is worth making-it is worth shewing to the empire that there are menin Ireland and that the catho benevolence and charity; and that its believers, prelates, priests, and people, are bound to follow his example. Neither could you be ignorant, that in no part of the catholic world have those bright virtues been practised with greater effect than by the hierarchy and people of Ireland, both before and since the reformation so called. The mendicant secretary of the baptist missionary society, Mr. Ivimey, in his lecture to the good people of Bristol, at the close of the year 1818, quotes the following words of archbishop | tensive, that it flowed in a continued Usher, on the authority of Bede, to shew the unbounded benevolence and charity of your ancestors :→ "About the middle of the seventh century, numbers, both of the nobles and the second rank of English, left their country, and retired out of England into Ireland, for the sake of studying theology, or leading there a stricter life. And all these, he affirms, the Irish most willingly received, and maintained at their own charge, supplying them also with books, and being their teachers without fee or reward. A most honourable testimony, not only to the learning, but also to the hospitality and bounty of that nation."Sir Francis Burdett, in the house of commons, about the same time, bore evidence to the benevolence and charity of the Irish in these words : With reference to Ireland, respecting which such early prejudices were imbibed in this country, he was bound to declare, that when he visited it, he was most agreeably disappointed. The Irish were frequently represented as a nation of savages: he could only say, that if they were savages, they were the gentlest on the face of the earth.Generally speaking, the Irish were as civilized as any nation on the face of the earth, not excepting the polite French; and as full of humanity, hospitality, and charity. He was persuaded that Ireland was the only country in which, if a stranger were thrown naked on the shore, he would find shelter in the first house he came to ; and might travel through the whole island without a penny in his pocket, and never be in want of either a meal or a night's lodging. That religion (sir Francis observed) could not be bad which prompted to such practice. The amiable qualities of the heart adorned the humbler as well as the higher classes in Ireland. Their charity was so ex stream, 'till that the very means: did ebb.' There was no people more susceptible of kindness, no people more capaple of being led, and none more difficult to be driven." Here, sir, we have the admission of an enemy to the catholic faith, that, in the seventh cen tury, when that faith was the only one in Ireland, literature and benevolence, learning and charity, were blended together; and we have the declaration of a senator of liberal and really enlightened principles, that, in these days, notwithstanding the accursed code of laws, passed when religious animosities raged with the greatest fury, had nearly destroyed every vestige of literature and learning amongst the peasantry of Ireland, the streams of benevolence and charity were still in full course, even to an overflow. Can a greater proof be required of the sincerity of the catholic prelates to promote mutual charity, when the uneducated of their flocks practise the purest benevolence? How absurd must it be, then, to talk of making an experiment to shew to the empire, that there are men in Ireland, and amongst the catholic clergy too, who sincerely wish to promote mutual charity and educated benevolence? Would not the very joining in this plan be an acknowledgment, that the previous system of education in catholic schools and catholic countries was devoid of these essential qualities? Would not the catholic prelacy, by patronizing and supporting your plan, Mr. O'Connell, admit the accuracy of the calumny which you anticipate, and contradict the assertion made by sir Francis Burdett, that "that religion could not be bad which prompted to such practices" of benevolence and charity as he had been an eye witness to? I feel convinced that you yourself must, by this time, be sensible of the impropriety of the experiment on these grounds, and that there is no necessity existing for making it. ment. Mr. Windham objected to the measure as pregnant with great mischief; and for his opposition he was assailed by the press as an enemy But, admitting the experiment to to the happiness of his fellow-creabe worth making, do you seriously tures. Well, the scheme was put in think it would tend in the least even motion; Lancasterian schools, and to allay, much more "to extirpate Bell's schools, and National Society those religious animosities, which schools have been established: but have hitherto distracted and divided are mutual charity and educated beyour country?" If you do, I am nevolence practised more at this day really sorry for it. To me it is clear than in former periods? Is Engthat no such benefit will be derived land more virtuous, more happy, from the trial, unless you expect it more prosperous, than before this will lay a charm on bigotry, and con- wonderful panacea was first discovey her to the cave of Somnus.vered? I wish Mr. Windham was But will the union you propose de- alive, that he might witness the acprive that serpent of its sting?-curacy of his predictions, and beWill it diminish the zeal of the bi- hold those who censured his opible society gentry, of the disciples of nions now swallowing their own evangelism, of the baptist and me- words. The great diffusion of the thodist missionaries societies, and knowledge of letters, added to the the thousand other enemies to the unexampled state of misery, degrareligion of Ireland, which this island dation, and ruin, into which Engis constantly raising and sending land is now plunged, after having over, to fan the flame of religious kept her sister island for centuries animosity? These, sir, are the di- in that unhappy situation, have conviders and distracters of your coun- tributed to throw a new light on try. These are the men who have men's minds, and given them a new plunged, and who contribute to mode of thinking. They now begin keep, her in misery, degradation, to perceive the cause of all their miand ruin. And what will it avail series; and the abettors of corrupto give the poor education without tion now begin to feel the effects of religion, leaving that all-important their educating system. The earl blessing to the precarious instruction of Liverpool, in the debate on his of parents and pastors, unless you majesty's speech, in the house of remove the cause of discontent and lords, is reported to have said, that poverty from them? Will you not "in proportion as the advantage of rather furnish the means of increas- diffusing instruction was great and ing religious animosity, by making eminent, so was it peculiarly essen• them more sensible of the oppres-tial that the instruction given should sions which the more favoured class be sound and wholesome; offering of religionists heap upon them? It rather a protection against the preis now somewhat more than twenty valence of irreligious and unsocial years ago since this modern doctrine doctrines, than facilitating their proof national education without reli- gress." If this position of the prime gious instruction was first set on minister stands good for protestant foot. It had its rise from French England, and few will attempt to philosophy, I believe. The late deny it, it must apply with double Mr. Whitbread was one of its origi- force in the case of catholic Ireland. nal patrons in this country, and in- I am by no means averse to have the troduced the subject before parlia-meanest peasant in his majesty's do |