upon his mind. I do not mean modern honour, but what you yourself admire; "The service of the heart sincere ; «The gen'rous wish to warm affection dear; "Friendships, the growth of many a youthful day." For selecting which, where will you find a more ample field? where will the real disposition be more readily discovered? The next thing which you have animadverted upon, is, the manner in which the play hours are wasted. This accusation, indeed, you have confined chiefly to the schools of the metropolis. But, nevertheless, here, as throughout, I must disagree with you: not contented with painting the Devil black, you have painted him blacker than he really is. You have witnessed a few, who have followed this vicious course, and immediately prejudged the whole You have extracted dross from the metal, and thence depreciated its real worth. The assertion, likewise, which you have made, of" the total want of all diffidence in boys," thus brought up, I conceive to be as erroneous as the rest of your attack. I do not mean to insinuate, that they possess that awkward, ridiculous, timidity, which characterizes the lout, who, never having mixed "intu æqualis," or with those who have had a less confined education than himself, sits at table, Jike an automaton, and the limit of whose conversation seems to be the negative and affirmative. But, that they are always ready to push themselves forward on all occasions, I receive as another of those many assertions, which you have advanced, without one convincing argument of their validity; nay, that very mingled society, which you seem to despise so much, is the most efficacious method, by placing every one on a par, of preventing that self-sufficiency, which you so unjustly attribute to those who have had a public education. In short, sir, you and the author seem to have gone on in the old system of extolling the old times, at the expence of the new ones, to do which with the greater facility, you have considered public schools as evils peculiar to the present day, which have sprung up in a moment, like mushrooms, not as having flourished for centuries, the nurses of genius and literature, where "Sons reap classic lore, "Where erst their honest sires have reap'd before." I would ask, whether it is from these public schools, under the direction of the most eminent scholars, and most estimable men, that we are to look for the brightest ornaments of this nation, or from "The parent smile, the petrifying frown, "The port majestic, the gold-headed cane, Of some village pedagogue; who, to quote the words of a late dramatist, "Swells, like a shirt in a high wind," with the idea of his own consequence, "while he enters the school with a hem, and frightens the apple-munching urchins with the creeking of his shoes?" His, sir, I fear, you will not find the seat of literature, but rather, what you attribute to us, (for I do not blush to own myself to have been thus educated) the habitation of assuming ignorance. Look around you! although you have declared a public education unfit for every station of life which you have pointed out, still you will find that the highest offices of church and state are ably filled by those who have been thus brought up. We cannot accuse the legislative powers of inability, or the episcopal of immorality. "Turning to the military man:" this is not the sort of education he requires, or in general receives; but, nevertheless, even in that profession, I could point out many, who have eminently distinguished themselves in the last campaign, vitiated as they have been by this destructive system. I shall now take leave of the subject; and if I have too presumptuously offered my opinion, and if I have weakly defended that which I have endeavoured to protect, I have only to beg that you will not attribute it to any want of strength in the cause, but to the inability of the writer. C. T. A regard to that principle of justice which has ever influenced our conduct, induces us to submit the preceding remarks to our readers, unaccompanied by any other observation of our own, than, that our sentiments, on this subject, as explained in our comments on the Bishop of Meath's Sermon, and Dr. Vincent's animadversions upon it, remain unaltered. Observations on the REV. DOCTOR MILNER'S Strictures, on the Charter Schools of Ireland, contained in his Tour through that country; entitled, "An Inquiry into certain Vulgar Opinions concerning the Catholic Inhabitants and Antiquities of Ireland," in a letter from a Member of the Incorporated Society, to R. H. Esq. DEAR SIR, YOUR friend in the Imperial Parliament seems anxious to know what degree of credit he should attach to the statements of Dr. Milner, in the account which he has published of his late tour in this kingdom; this anxiety is natural to every man who feels an interest in the prosperity of the Empire, and I have long hoped to see a full and satisfactory answer to a work obviously calculated to excite and nourish a spirit of discontent and disloyalty in the great mass of the people of Ireland. For such an Answer I have neither time, nor probably ability: but as he particularly misrepresents the Charter- Schools, I think it my duty, being intimately connected with that Institution, to point out to your friend, and through him to the public, some of Doctor Milner's most palpable mis-statements, which, from the general temper of his work, I fear are intentional. Page 23, Dr. Milner states "the sum annually granted by Parlia ment to the Charter-Schools at 25,000/. independent of the rents of immense landed estates, for the purpose of purchasing the Children of indigent Catholics, inasmuch as no Protestant Child can be admitted into a Charter-School." At page 228, this sum is exaggerated to 30,000l. and the landed property is asserted to be 30,000l. per annum, or probably a great deal more, with an assertion that it is the property of the Public; and in pages 228 and 232, the State is represented as contributing 60,000l. per ann. for the purpose of purchasing Roman Catholic Children, and educating them to hate and persecute their fathers, mothers, and brothers. In page 23 he says, "that these purchased victims, in violation of the laws of nature, are uniformly, transported, in covered waggons, to the greatest distance possible from the residence of their parents, in order that the parent may never have the consolation of embracing the child, lest he, or she, should again make a Papist of it." In page 228 he states, the Incorporated Society to be a continuation of one of the most odious and fatal kinds of persecution, devised by the religious politicians of the last century;" and affirms, (page 22) "that the government of this country has professedly acted upon this system, ever since it gave up that of putting its subjects to death, for adhering to their religion.' To these extraordinary assertions, I shall add another, that breathes the same spirit, and attributed, in the public papers, to an Irish Member in the Imperial Parliament, viz. that " to elude the parent's Search, the names of the children are frequently changed." 79 A simple statement of facts, on the truth of which your Friend may rely with implicit confidence, will be the best answer to Doctor Milner. A public Parliamentary Grant is annually made, and its precise amount is so easily ascertained, being always stated in the public Papers, as well as in the Votes and Journals, that no person who can read English can offer any sufficieut plea for a mis-statement so wide of the truth as the above. The first Parliamentary Grant to the Incorporated Society was in 1752, amounting to 5000l. since which period the annual grants have gradually increased to 23,000l. which sum they have never exceeded, though stated by Dr. Milner at 25,000l. 30,000l. and 60,000l. As to the immense landed estates belonging to the Public, and estimated by the Doctor to exceed considerably 30,000l. per annum, they are to be sought for in nubibus, the Society not being possessed of a single acre of this description. Several pious persons have, indeed, at various periods, devised to the Society both lands and considerable sums of money, which have been managed with economy, producing at present an annual income of about 97007. but these are vested in the society exclusively, in trust, for promoting the humane intendons of the donors. On what authorities, or with what views Dr. Milner ventured to give the public such palpable and inconsistent mis-statements, I will not presume to determine. The Doctor affirms that no Protestant Child is admissible into a Charter School; where did he learn this? Not from the Charter, for that, in specifying the objects of the Charity, says explicitly, "that they must be the Children of Papists, and other poor native of Ireland," clearly including the Children of poor Protestants; nor could he draw this conclusion from the conduct of the Committee of Fifteen, who alone can grant admission. They have uniformly acted according to their Charter, and regularly admit the Children of such indigent Protestants as appear to them qualified, and in numbers much greater than the proportion of Protestants to Roman Catholics in the districts from whence the Schools are supplied. According to our Register, which is kept with the strictest regard to truth, the number of the Children of Roman Catholics in the Schools on the 5th of January, 1807, was 1465, that of Protestants at the same period, was 379, which numbers are nearly in proportion of 39 to 10; now, I doubt much that there are in the very poor and wild districts from whence the Schools are supplied, 10 Protestants to 39 Roman Catho-` lics. I am certain that Dr. Milner and his friends will not admit it. There were at the same period 228 children, one of whose parents was a Protestant, the other a Roman Catholic. The Doctor says that the Parliamentary Grant, levied in a great measure on Catholics themselves, is for the purpose of purchasing their Children. How far that august Body, the Imperial Parliament, may think themselves obliged by Dr. Milner, for his charitable developement of their motives and purposes in this assertion, is their business, not mine; but as far as the Incorporated Society is concerned in it, I will affirm that it is a charge most certainly false. Many of the children educated in the charter schools, are either orphans, or children deserted by their unnatural parents, who, falling into the hands of persons of humanity, are by them presented to the board for admission; but one purchased child has never yet, "I can with confidence affirm, entered a chartered school. In truth, such a proceeding is totally unnecessary, it would be a crime without temptation, as of the numbers of Roman Catholic children voluntarily offered, nay pressed upon the society, many, very many are annually rejected for want of room. In fact, the committee of fifteen, so charitably represented by Dr. Milner as KIDNAPPERS, are, in the admission of the children of Roman Catholics, cautious to a degree of scrupulosity, and, it is morally impossible for men to be more anxious in avoiding any thing like an inducement to a parent to give up his child; on the contrary, great pains are taken to explain and make him comprehend the consequence of his resigning it. He is informed that our schools are scattered over the kingdom, and that his child must, after a short residence in Dublin, be removed to some one of them; and that it will certainly be educated in the Protestant Religion. He is asked has he consulted his relatives and friends on the expediency and propriety of his intentions? If he appears able to support his child, he is advised to take it back; if he presents several for admission, more than he appears able to provide for, one or more of the younger and more helpless are admitted, and the elder, whose assistance may be more useful to him, are returned. He voluntarily, and in the presence of one or more witnesses, signs a Petition which is first carefully extained to him, in which he entreats the Committee of fifteen to receive his Child into one of their Schools or Nurseries, and gives his free consent that it should be educated in the Doctrines and Principles of the Protestant Religion. If in any moderate time afterwards, his friends come forward and pledge themselves to support the Child, or if any change in his own circumstances enables him to do so, the Child is restored to him, on his paying the expence the Society were at in maintaining it; and if he appears unequal to this expence, it is generally remitted. The nearest living relative must always present the Child for admission. If the Mother presents a Child whose Father is living, it is uniformly rejected, unless he signs the Petition for admission; and should it be admitted in consequence of a false statement of his death, it is always restored to him on his demanding it. Now, Sir, I leave you to judge if these poor Children are purchased victims. 'The Child, when admitted, is received, according to its age, into a School or Nursery; if into the latter, it is treated with a tenderness suited to its years, and permitted to remain there until it attains a proper age to be drafted to a School, which is always performed in the warm summer months, in open day, and on appropriate Cars, covered with an awning open on one side, and not in covered waggons with an intent of concealment, as stated by Dr. Milner with his usual correctness. While the Child continues in the nursery, the parent or nearest relative is permitted to have free intercourse with it, on every Thursday from eleven until two o'clock, where he enjoys, not only the paternal embrace, but frequently experiences the heartfelt pleasure of beholding his once-squalid and half-fami-hed infant, renovated by comfortable clothing and wholesome food. This interview, according to the printed orders of the Society, ought to take place in the presence of the Master or Mistress; but the observance of this restriction is almost universally dispensed with, and the communication between Parent and Child is never interrupted by the interference of the Master or Mistress, except in cases where they have reason to suspect that the Parent visits his Child with dishonest views. The day or hour of removal is indeed not communicated to him, in order to avoid the intolerable inconvenience and embarrassment which must necessarily arise from the interference and interruption of the relatives of perhaps twenty Children; the School, however, to which the Child is drafted, is never made a secret; here, on any day of the week, and on stated hours, the Parent or nearest Relative has the same free intercourse with it; but as a journey to any considerable distance may, from his poverty, be seldom in his power, he may, by applying to the Society's Secretary, at his office, learn four times in each year, his Child's state of health, with a particular account of its progress in learning. As to the assertion, that the Child's name is changed, in order to elude the Parent's search, it |