is a groundless assertion, and consequently unworthy of the Irish Member in the Imperial Parliament to whom it has been ascribed in the public papers.

Doctor Milner says, that the Society, in violation of the law of Nature, " uniformly transports these purchased victims to the greatest possible distance from the Parent's residence, in order that the Parent may never have the consolation of embracing his Child. The fact as stated is certainly untrue: this removal takes place seldom not uniformly, and never from the diabolical motives he assigns, it is always the result of necessity on the part of the Society, and its sole and invariable cause is the frequently insolent, disingenuous, and dishonest conduct of the profligate Parents themselves, who often in violation of the indulgence of the Society, not only offer the most gross and unprovoked abuse to the Master and Mistresses, but employ the hours of free intercourse which they are permitted to enjoy with their Children in endeavours to infuse a deadly hatred of the Institution into the minds of those very persons whom they, but a few years before, entreated the Society to take under their care, and educate as Protestants. To prevent the interruption of business by preserving peace and harmony in their Schools, to disconcert the plans of seduction thus repeatedly formed, and to prevent the numerous clopements which from experience they know would otherwise most assuredly follow, the Society are absolutely forced to adopt the measure so distressing to the feelings of Doctor Milner. The Children admitted in Dublin are necessarily sent to Country Schools, which, with this exception, are almost uniformly filled from the immediate vicinity, or from the Counties contiguous to each; but as to transportations to distant Schools, they can occur rarely, and only in cases, as above stated, of unavoidable necessity, a necessity originating with the Parents themselves.

The Doctor has insinuated that religious impressions are wrought on these purchased victims at a great expence; and from his exaggerated statement it would appear, that the Incorporated Society has been shamefully lavish of the public money. To this insinuation I shall oppose a simple statement of facts: never did there exist any Corporate Body from which any thing like jobbing is more completely excluded: in consequence of the indefatigable and unremitting exertions of the Cominittee of fifteen, the very complicated business of the thirty-four Schools, and four Nurseries, under its direction, is managed by a Secretary and two assistant Clerks, the entire of whose salaries amount only to 4131. 15s. per annum. These Schools have not been at any period of their existence in so flourishing a state as at present; the Commissioners appointed by the Board of Education to take an actual, survey of them have returned, having executed the trust committed to them with great ability and fidelity, and from their report it appears that the greater number of them are in an excellent state of discipline, and 'under the immediate direction of Masters or Mistresses who, both from purity of morals, and extent of information, are competent to the trust reposed in them; the

remainder appear to be in a progressive state of improvement, and such is the economy that pervades every part of the system, that including rents, salaries, buildings, repairs, apprentice fees, bounties, with every other item of expenditure, the average annual expence of clothing, maintaining, educating, and apprenticing a Child is nearly 147. sterling, a sum that must appear very moderate when we consider that the expence of a similar education at the best regulated and most œconomic of our Dublin Charity Schools is seldom under 15. and in some instances exceeds 201. per annum. Lest Dr. Milner, however, should doubt the truth of a statement in direct opposition to his assertion, I will supply him with data to enable him to draw the conclusion himself. The Children in the Schools and Nurseries in the year ending 5th January, 1808, were 2251, the expenditure for that year 31,722l. 17§. 8d.; and of course the average for one Child is 14. 1s. 10d.

As to the Protestant Catechism, I can only say that it was written at a period when religious differences dictated a language perhaps less conciliating than could be wished by sincere Christians; it is however a blunt assertion of truths which, with possibly one or two exceptions, every Protestant must avow; in consequence of these objections (which, perhaps, are not sufficient to justify the out-cry raised against it in the Imperial Parliament) this Catechism was long since referred to a Committee, who unanimously recommended a substitute in its place, which, while it answered the original intention more fully, should be as free as the nature of the subject can admit, from every objection which reasonable and religious men could raise against it, as being deficient in liberality and christian charity: I say reasonable and religious men, because there are gentlemen, who though nominal Protestants, have really no religion, and who are ever ready to raise unfounded objections, and to be immensely liberal, even at the expence of truth and religion. The substitute recommended is " the six sermons of Archbishop Secker on the errors of Popery," abridged and reduced into the form of a Catechism, and the Sermons of this excellent Prelate were selected, not only from the established orthodoxy of his doctrines, but from his conciliating language with regard to the members of the Church of Rome.

Dr. Milner asserts, that in the Charter Schools the Children are taught to hate and persecute their Fathers, Mothers, and Brothers; this is most certainly a falsehood; the Sacred Scriptures, and particularly the New Testament, the vital principle of which is mutual love and forbearance, are continually in their hands; they form the ground work of their Instruction, all their Catechisms uniformly. speak the same language, enforcing with energy filial duty and affection. Even in the Protestant Catechism, Dr. Milner may find these words, viz." Have Christians a right to persecute and destroy any person on account of religion? Answer, "No; the religion of Christ is a religion of peace and charity. Christ says, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another; and Saint Peter says, love one another with a pure heart fervently." The

assertion therefore is an unchristian calumny, though I scarcely hope Dr. Milner will have the candour to retract it.

The books put into the hands of the Charter School Children are Sellon's Abridgement of the Holy Scriptures; Explanations of the Catechism, by Doctors Mann, Stopford, and Crossman; Hannah More's Moral Tracts; Selections from the Old Testament, by Mrs. Trimmer, with the New Testament; from these are the moral and religious principles of our Children derived, and with these Dr. Milner may compare Dr. Butler's Catechism. The triumphant parallel which he draws between the latter and the Protestant Catechism; is manifestly absurd, these Works being perfectly dissimilar in their subject matter and end. I shall, however, present to the Reader that passage from each which I think most reprehensible, that he may be able to decide what is the amount of that superior liberality and Christian Charity in Dr. Butler's Catechism, so boasted of by Dr. Milner.

*

In page 8 of the Protestant Catechism, we read thus:-Q. May salvation be had in the Church of Rome ? Answer, They who live in that communion and cannot get better information, we doubt not will be accepted by our all-gracious God, but they who can, and yet will not use it, are most assuredly in great hazard of their souls.* The latter part of this answer is neither Christian nor Protestant, and the Catechism that adopts such a doctrine, has been judiciously suppressed. In Dr. Butler's Catechism, p. 16, we read :- Q. Are all obliged to be of the true Church? (meaning the Church of Rome.) Answer, Yes, no one can be saved out of it." This Catechism is put into the hands of the Children of all Roman Catholics, who are thus taught to believe that all Protestants, however otherwise amiable and excellent, are, without exception, in a state of reprobation, at enmity with God, and condemned by him to the torments of hell, and the society of devils to all eternity. This is not an old exploded doctrine, it stands in a book printed in 1807, and sanctioned by the four Roman Catholic Archbishops of Ireland; and if Dr. Milner adopts it, as no doubt he does, I cannot conceive how he can coine forward to questhe liberality or charity of even the Protestant Catechism.

Two of the Schools under the care of the Incorporated Society, it should be observed, were endowed by the last Earl of Ranelagh, and by his will have been appropriated to the Children of poor Protestants exclusively; to which I shall add, that Lady Louisa Conolly, endowed with a mind superior to the impressions of prejudice or bigotry, reflecting that she was the last surviving trustee of the Charitable Foundation at Celbridge, and anxious to secure permanent prosperity to an institution, to the interests of which she has so long attended with a solicitude truly maternal, has, after mature deliberation, transferred to the Incorporated Society that fine school, capable of accom

*To render the latter part of this Answer unobjectionable, it might be altered thus: " but they who can have information which they are conscious is better, and yet will perversely reject it when offered, are most assuredly in great bazard of their souls.

modating 150 female children, together with an endowment of 5091. per annum ; thus evincing to the world the implicit confidence she reposes in the enlightened zeal, humanity, and integrity of a body of men, represented by Doctor Milner as odious persecutors and kidnappers.

Were Doctor Milner to be present when the objects of this charity are admitted, the scene would, perhaps, soften his heart; he would behold the perishing children of the honest, but infirm or unemployed poor; he would behold orphans who know not a parent's care; with the far more numerous, and still more wretched offspring of the profligate and profane, to whom the existence of a parent is but an additional source of misery: he would behold all these clothed in filthy rags, with emaciated bodies, and famine in their pallid countenances, brought forward by their supplicating parents, or nearest relatives, as objects of commiseration and mercy, to the Committee of Fifteen; and he would behold, at the same time, a Society of Christians ready to adopt these outcasts of creation. Now let me seriously ask the humane Doctor Milner, will he allow the Committee to impart to these forlorn beings the comforts of wholesome food and warm raiment, such instruction as may render them hereafter useful members of society, with habits of industry, protection from a vicious world, and the word of God to teach them how to live for time and eternity? or will he dismiss them to encounter want, and neglect, and disease, and vice, and infamy; to become pilferers, and liars, and Sabbathbreakers, and drunkards, and robbers, and murderers; in short, to live and die the pests and disgrace of society; and all this to avoid the greater horror of being educated a Protestant ? Such precisely is the description of Children presented to us for admission; such, gene rally, the portion allotted to these poor Children by our determination; and can any man, whose heart has been warmed by a single ray of the gospel of Christ, balance for a moment how, under such circumstances, he ought to act?

As I have been astonished at the ignorance and unfounded assertions of those gentlemen who, in the Imperial Parliament attacked the system of the Charter Schools, so have I been equally mortified at the want of good information in those who attempted to defend it. I am happy, of course, to find that there are members of that House who wish to suspend their opinions until better informed by the exertions of the Board of Education, which will shortly, I hope, supply authentic information sufficient to remove every prejudice, and silence every clamour on a subject in which every friend to his country must feel an interest.

I shall now close this long letter with an observation, severe indeed, but not more severe than just: Is it not very singular that Doctor Milner through the whole of his Strictures on the Charter-Schools of Ireland, should have kept at such an awful distance from truth, as not to have, in any one instance, even accidentally stumbled on it, I have the honour to be,

Dear Sir, &c. &c.

W. L.

P. S. It is universally allowed, that no work ever appeared, which, for its magnitude, contains so many gross falsehoods, as Dr. Milner's Tour in Ireland, entitled, "An Inquiry into certain vulgar opinions concerning the Catholics of Ireland ;" and all those falsehoods seem to be peculiarly calculated to inflame the Irish Papists against the govern→ ment. In page 26, he untruly asserts, that Popish students in the university of Dublin, are required to attend the established service. Now it is universally well known, that the provost and fellows of that seminary never interfere with the religious principles of the Roman Catholic students; for the truth of which we appeal to them; `and we defy Doctor Milner to adduce an instance to the contrary.

We would recommend to the perusal of the public, an excellent pamphlet written by the Rev. Doctor Elrington, late fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, ou Doctor Milner's tour; in which its numerous falsehoods and calumnies are refuted, and the spirit of disaffection which it breathes, is exposed. It is sold by Messrs. Rivingtons, St. Paul's church-yard, and by Hatchard, Piccadilly.

DIETETIC MEDICAL DISPENSARY.

Convinced that much more good may be done to the Poor by furnishing them with nutriment than powerful drugs, we are happy at finding such a plan proposed as deserves the approbation of every liberal mind, and we avail ourselves of this opportunity to lay before our readers the following,

66

Proposal and Abstract from a Report of Dr. M. Garthshore and Patrick Colquhoun, Esq. to the Society for bettering the condition of the Poor, on the Expediency and Practicability of establishing a Dispensary in the Metropolis, comprising in its Economy, medicated food, raiment, and physic, for the diseased Poor.

"The Reporters having stated the number of poor persons relieved in the Metropolis, according to the Parliamentary Returns to be about 86,000, proceed to observe, that it will be seen, from the above abstracts, that the permanent out-door relief seldom averages above 2s. to 2s. 6d. per week, while the occasional relief is infinitely less-barely sufficient to pay the weekly rent of a miserable halffurnished lodging.

"Many thousand cases occur where half-famished families cannot obtain an asylum in their parish-work house for want of room,-And the proportion of those who are relieved at their own dwellings is Dearly four toone; the 60 workhouses in London, being able to contain only 17,000 persons.

"It follows, that there always must be a very large proportion of the poor of the metropolis who can derive no benefit from the maintenance afforded in the parish workhouse-and that the pittance allowed in money can afford little for food, where a family is borne down by sickness, and their only property (the labour of their hands) no longer effectual or productive.-Hence, in such cases, the pawnbroker assists in filling up the chasm, until their little all is exhausted, and