IRELAND
no
IRELAND
farmer's family. Then he Ijecame a hedge-school-
master, and the manner in which he attained to this
position was pecuHar. Challenging the schoolmaster
already in possession to a public disputation, they met
at the church gates on Sunday in presence of the con-
gregation. The intellectual swordplay between the
combatants was keenly relished, and, if the younger
man won the applause of the audience by his depth of
learning and readiness of reply, his opponent left the
district and the victor was installed in his place. His
school, built by the roadside by the people's vohmtary
efforts, was of earthen sods, with an earthen floor, a
hole in the roof for a chimney, and stones f or t he pu-
pils' seats. In many districts the teacher received
little fees, but the people supplied him lilierally with
potatoes, meal, bacon, and turf, and entertained him
at their houses. A centurj' before Carleton's time the
Charter schools were established, and endowed to edu-
cate the children of the destitute poor. They were to
give industrial as well as literary training, and took
religion and learning as their motto. But thej' be-
came dens of infamy, with incompetent and immoral
teachers, who taught the pupils nothing except to hate
Catholicism. As such the schools were shunned by
the Catholics, and were manifest failures, and yet till
1832 they received government grants. Such socie-
ties as the Society for Discountenancing Vice, the
London Hibernian Association, and the Baptist So-
ciety were proselytizing institutions. The Kildare
Street Society founded in 1811, though Protestant in
its origin, was on diiferent lines. The design was to
have Catholics and Protestants educated together in
secular subjects, leaving their religious training to
the ministers of their religion outside of school hours.
O'Connell favoured the scheme and joined the govern-
ing board, grants were obtained from Parliament, and
for some years all went well. But again the liread of
knowledge given to Catholics was steeped in the poison
of proselytism. The bigots insisted on having the
Bible read in the schools "without note or comment " ;
the Society was then vigorously assailed by John Mac-
Hale, at the time a yoimg professor at Maynooth, and
O'Connell retired from the board.
Recognizing the failure of such a sy.?tem, Lord Stanley, the Irish chief secretary, passed through Parliament in 1831 a bill empowering the lord lieu- tenant to constitute a National Board of Education with an annual grant for building schools, and for payment of teachers and inspectors. Religious in- struction was to be given on one day of the week by ministers of the different religions to children of their own Faith. The schools were open to all denomina- tions, and even "the suspicion of proselytism " was to be excluded. But the Catholics were treated un- fairly. In spite of their numbers they were given but two of the seven members of the Board. Mr. Car- lisle, a Presbyterian, was made resident commis- sioner, and as chief executive officer appointed non-Catholics to the principal offices; and he and his fellow-commissioner, Dr. Whately, the Protestant Archbishop of Dublin, compiled lesson-books, in which the liistory of Ireland and the Catholic religion were treated with injustice. In a few years the origi- nal rules of the Board were so changed that Catholic priests were entirely excluded from all I"lster schools mider Presbyterian management. Outside of Ulster, a bigote<l Protestant clergyman, named Stopforil, was able in 1847 to abrogate the rule compelling Catholic children in Protestant schools to leave when the hour for religious instruction arrived. This left it optional with the children to remain, and brought much suffer- ing on poor Catholics at the hands of tyrannical and bigoted landlords.
Among the Catholic bishops there was toleration rather than approval of the Xaliimal system. But Dr. MacIIale, who had become Arehliishop of Tuam in 1834, opposed the system from the first, believing that
edueat ion not founded on religion was a curse. He pre-
ferred to have in his diocese the Christian Brothers'
schools in which religious instruction was given the
premier place. Dr. Murray of Dublin and Dr. CroUy
of Armagh were not so hostile, and, when the matter
was referred to Rome in 1841, the reply was that the
National system might be given a further trial. The
"Stopford Rule" strengthened MacHale's hands, as
did a board rule in 1S45 providing that all schools
even partially erected by a board grant should be
vested in the Board itself, and not as hitherto in the
local manager, who in Catholic schools was usually
the priest. MacHale also objected to the disproportion-
ately small representation of Catholics on the Board,
to the char.acterof the lesson-books, to the large num-
ber of non-Catholics in the higher positions. These
attacks told. In 1850 the Synod of Thurles con-
demned the National schools as then conducted. In
1852 Dr. Murray of Dublin died, and was succeeded by
Dr. CuUen, who shared MacHale's views. The follow-
ing j'ear Whately's lesson-books were withdrawn from
the Board's lists, and Wliately in consequence re-
signed his seat. In 1860 the Board was enlarged from
seven to twenty, and thenceforth half of these were to
be Catholics. The "Stopford Rule ' ' and the rule regard-
ing the vesting of schools were abrogated, and, with
the resident commissioner a Catholic, the system be-
came more acceptable to Catholics. For the training
of teachers however there was only one Training Col-
lege under non-Catholic control, but the Catholics es-
tablished the Training College at Drumcondra, and in
1883 that at Baggot Street, Dublin, and since then
they have established others at Belfast, Limerick, and
Waterford. But even as the National system stood in
1873, Mr. Gladstone thought that the Catholics had no
substantial grievance, and did nothing.
Nor did he interfere with the state of things in inter- mediate education, though the inequality which existed was glaring. The diocesan free schools of Elizabeth, maintained by county contributions, and the free schools of James I antl those of Erasmus Smith, maintained by confi.scated Catholic lands, were under Protestant management and as such generally shunned by Catholics. Furtlier, the Protestants were the richer classes, and, though tlieir Church had been disestablished, it had been but jiartially disendowed. The Dissenters also had wealth and had well-equipped schools. But the Catholics, long prohibited from having any schools, got no help from the State even when the pressure of penal legislation had been re- moved. They had, however, set manfully to work, and, partly by private donations, principally by col- lections, had established colleges all over the land. Carlow College was founded in 1793, Navan College in 1802, St. Jariath's College, Tuam, in 1817, Clongowes by the Jesuits in 1814, and others in the years that followed. But they could get no state assistance till 1879, when the Intermediate Education Act was passed. The J'early interest on £1,000,000 was then appropriated for prizes and exhibitions to pupils, and for result fees to colleges, and without distinction of creed, following competitive examinations to be annu- ally held. The system, depending so m\ieh on exam- ination and encoiu'aging cramnuug, is certainly not itleal, but it has lieen of enormous assistance to .strug- gling Catholic schools.
It was in the field of higher education that Catholics suffered most. In 1795 Maynooth College had been founded for the education of the clergy. Its annual Parliamentary grant had been lost in 1869, but it nevertheless continued to flourish, and flourishes still as one of the first ecclesiastical colleges in the world. There were other ecclesiasrieal colleges at Carlow, Thurles, Waterford, and Drumcondra. But the laity had only Trinity College or the (Queen's Colleges. The former tiad first opened its doors to Catholics in 1793, l)ut wotild give them no share in its emoluments, nor
