secular element in education, bishops or priests as such have never sought any control beyond what in their civil capacity they have an inherent civil right to. Control of secular education in Ireland, as far as they possess it, has been thrust upon them; first of all by the exigency of the case, but most of all, strange to say, by the action of the Government which has been specially directed ever and always towards their exclusion. That clerical control is the Nemesis. The Catholics contributed towards the maintenance of Government; but Government, whilst demanding their duties, denied their rights. That happened in education as in other phases of Catholic civil life in the country. If the bishops and priests had not thrown themselves into the task of building colleges and schools, which they did as soon as the law allowed them, how many educational Institutions for Catholics would there be in Ireland to-day? They did it because there was nobody else to do it. And it is remarkable that those, Catholics or non-Catholics, who are heard most in. protest against their presence in the school are those who have never done anything for the education of the people, little even for the education of themselves. I for one should not like to see the secular education of the country under the exclusive control of the clergy. There are elements in the education of the laity which laymen should be the best to direct. But, as the foregoing review shows, the Catholics, clergy or laity, have never had, at least in modern times, such exclusive control; and for that reason they repudiate responsibility for any reproach which may be justly attached to the present condition of education in the country. But they claim, and it is for them a matter of pardonable pride, that those colleges and schools which they most control are, in spite of their disadvantages, the best. If they had devised the educational systems which we have, and

had the administration of them without let or hindrance, they would indeed be responsible. But they

have not been allowed to frame systems to suit themselves, nor have they been allowed to administer those systems which have been framed for them by others. Indeed, as far as I have been able to observe, none of those systems has been framed with a view to educate us; they are mostly makeshifts which have been made in time of stress to stop our clamour by conceding something of our claims.