CHAP x. might be enlarged, and maintained with a libe rality proportioned to the occasions of Ireland.

Maynooth Academy1795.

Sect. 9.

3

The Chancellor and Chief Judges for the time being, together with 6 laymen, and 11 Catholic clergymen, were nominated Trustees of an Academy for educating Catholics onlywith the usual visitatorial powers and regulations.

"No person," however, "professing the, "Protestant religion, or whose father proany Protestants." fessed it, is to be received or educated there e;

Not to admit

Inadequacy of this Academy.

"and any teacher, instructing any Protestant "there, is made liable to the same Penalties "as existed previously to the Act.".

This Academy is supported by an annual sum, reluctantly granted by Parliament, and not exceeding £8000. Its utmost possible establishment, upon such a contracted allowance, cannot exceed 200 Students of Divinity: which may furnish, at the most, an annual supply of about 35 clergymen for all Ireland.

Now, estimating the number of Catholics in See Ante, P. 2. Ireland so low as 4,200,000-and allotting only one Clergyman to every 1400 souls, (a very inadequate proportion) it appears, that the least number of Catholic clergy, requisite for administering spiritual comfort and counsels to the Irish population, ought not to fall short,

Maynooth

of 3000.-To expect, that this number, or even CHAP. X. one-fourth part of it, can be kept up by a yearly supply of only 35 clergymen, is quite prepos- Academy. terous. This consideration alone will shew, very intelligibly, the insufficiency of Maynooth Inadequate; Seminary to the professed object and how justly the sum of £8000. annually voted for its support (out of taxes paid, too, by the Catholics themselves) has been termed a "paltry pittance."

for Catholic

6. Of public establishments, for even No Education the nominal Instruction of the Catholic laity, Laity, &G Catholic poor, &c.-Ireland is wholly des titute.

C. 21.5.

It is true, that a Catholic may now keep a 32 Geo. 2. school, and may teach and may even do so without a licence from the Bishop: but he 179% acts at his own peril and charge-unaided by the Legislature, unsanctioned by the Executive

power.

No public Institution contributes to the Education, or cherishes, by rewarding, the studious diligence, of any Catholic who chooses to remain steadfast to his Religion.

Until 1793, the Catholics were not admissible 33 Geo 3to Trinity College, in Dublin-even as humble students, unambitious of academical emolu

Trinity College

CHAP. X. ment or promotion. In that year, however, it was enacted, that Catholics might take any in Dublin. of the degrees usually conferred there: and Stat. of 1793- it is understood, that the Collegiate statutes, or 33 Geo. 3.c. 21, Bye-laws, have been since somewhat modified by

Sect. 7.

the board-so as to dispense Catholic studeuts from attendance at the service and ceremonies of the established church.

But the same Statute rigidly re-enacts the exclusion of Catholics from any situations as Members of the College-and this reservation of this College. is so construed and enforced, in practice, that at this day no Catholic, of what merit or dili

Catholics can

not be Members

Scholars.

gence soever, can attain even the humble situation of a "SCHOLAR" of this College. From

Not eligible as delicacy towards the Provost and Fellows, we forbear at present to particularize some painful instances (of which we are in possession) where these scholarships have been indecently held out to Catholic students as baits of proselytismthus perverting the meed of cultivated talent into a premium for religious Apostacy.

Apostacy invited.

Mischiefs of

instruction, in

Ireland.

7. Every liberal and ingenuous mind refusing public must lament that obstinacy, which refuses to the Catholic laity, and to the poor of Ireland, any provision for public Instruction. The People of Ireland are distinguished by an aptitude

and avidity for Learning, an enthusiastic admi- CHÀP. X. ration of talent and genius, beyond what is Aptitude for perhaps to be found in any other country.-learning, in The miserable private schools within their reach actually swarm with little Scholarswho evince an astonishing eagerness in the acquirement of knowledge whilst the poorest Peasants chearfully submit to every privation, Eagerness of in order to defray the charge of purchasing for instruction. Instruction for their children. What good

Prince would not feel happy in meeting such noble dispositions of his peasantry with suitable. succour and culture!

the peasantry

Law.

But, in Ireland, the Law seems to adopt the Discouraged by principle that the knowledge, of reading, writing, and arithmetic, is a dangerous weapon in the hands of any Dissenter from the established Church-and not to be entrusted to any person, who has not previously (though without inquiry or judgment) adopted the politics of the Charter school catechisms.

illustrated by

8. Many important facts, intimately This subject connected with this subject, have been collected Mr. Newenham. and admirably illustrated by a Protestant gentleman of the highest reputation for literature, genuine talent, and patriotism-in a Work

CHAP. X. which justly claims the public gratitude, Mr. Newen- entitled, "A View of the Natural, Political, "and Commercial circumstances of Ireland,

ham's works, respecting Ire land,

highly valuable.

Appendix,

No. 26.

316 schools,

21,892 scholars.

Cork.

by Thomas Newenham, Esq." [4to, 1809. Cadell and Davies.]

This and the other valuable Treatises of Mr. Newenham ought, indeed, to be profoundly studied by every man, who desires to understand the great resources of Irelaud, and the best interests of the Empire.

Mr. Newenham adverts to the immense number of private Catholic Schools in Ireland, all unendowed. He has ascertained, for instance, that in two dioceses only (Cloyne and Ross) there are 316 Catholic schools, containing 21,892 scholars being an average of 69 to each school. He states that, in the petty vil lage and neighbourhood of Kilfinane in the county of Limerick, he found 310 children in 4 Catholic schools, within 6 miles of each other.

That, throughout the diocese of Cork, there are two or three Cathclic schools in every parish.

Again he observes, that, notwithstanding the costly public establishments for the education of Protestants, yet the entire number of Protestant children, thus maintained, (even were