foundations, which might be rendered so highly useful to the community, is too shameful to need any comment.

The Commissioners reported no less unfavorably of three other Royal Schools in 1791. The master at Banagher school had not a single scholar, though he held his appointment during the King's pleasure from 1777 to the time of their report. Somewhat similar were the cases of Carysfort and Raphoe. The Commissioners recommended that Government should institute proceedings against the masters of these three schools, unless the Lord Lieutenant should remove those of them, the tenure of whose appointments was during the pleasure of the Crown. Of Armagh Royal School, an honorable exception, they reported most favorably. As to free pupils, the Commissioners reported that in 1791, they found that of the six schools in operation two had none free; two, only five each; one, twelve; and one, sixteen; making in all thirty-eight free pupils out of two hundred and eleven.

In conclusion they stated that the schools on Royal foundation had not answered the intentions of the founders, and that the benefits derived from them had been 'totally inadequate to the expectations that might have been justly formed from their large endowments; those schools being free schools, and the number of free scholars only thirty-eight, each boy (and they are only day scholars) costs the public annually above 100%. As to the intention of the founders that the Royal Free Schools should be non-exclusive, the Committee on Foundation Schools reported, in 1838, that

Though the course pursued in the instance of diocesan schools, of appointing masters from the Church of England, and generally clergymen, prevailed also in the case of the Royal schools, it does not rest on any law. The Lord Lieutenant, as in the case of the diocesan, has the appointment solely in his own hands, unshackled by any limitation of a religious exclusive character. The assistants also are usually Protestants, but chosen from the laity. The Royal schools have at all times been considered open to all religious persuasions.

At present, these schools, which are now under the control of the Commissioners of Education of Endowed Schools, show considerable improvement; but they fall very for short of what they were intended to accomplish by their founders.

In the first place, although professedly Free Schools and largely endowed for this purpose, they numbered only 47 free pupils on a roll of 311, in 1858. 'The whole number of free pupils now, in the six schools,' observe the Commissioners of that year, 'is forty-seven, deriv. ing a benefit of about 10%. each, or 4707. in all, out of endowments of about 6,000l. a year.'

Secondly they continue to be almost exclusively reserved for one religious denomination-the pupils on the rolls in 1858 being, Established Church 285, Presbyterians 19, Roman Catholics 3, and others 4; total 311. 'We are of opinion that the Royal schools are, by their constitution, essentially non-exclusive,' say the Commissioners, they are not intended for pupils of only one religious persuasion, and the master has no power to compel all the pupils to receive religious instruction in

his own tenets. The Royal Schools therefore belong to the class of those which we recommend should be placed under the proposed Board of Commissioners of Endowed Schools. The right of free admission, being I unlimited, is practically defeated; and we recommend that a minimum number of free places should be fixed by statute, with power to the proposed Board, on the appointment of a new master, to increase the number.

The six Royal Free Grammar Schools of Ireland, one in Leinster, Banagher, and five in Ulster, Armagh, Cavan, Raphoe, Enniskillen and Dungannon, possess estates containing 21,334 acres, and yielding a net annual income of 5,7471. The estimated annual value of the school premises is 1,0831. The masters' salaries amount to 1,6007., and those of assistants to 9007. There is a scholarship of 801. at Enniskillen ; and there are college exhibitions amounting to 1,1757.; viz., Armagh 250l., Cavan 125l., Enniskillen 4007., and Dungannon 400%. The surplus income (if collected) available for repayment of advances, for repairs, and for assistance to other schools, is 1,9927.

The annual charges range from 37. 38. up to 107. 108. for day scholars; and from 201. up to 601. for boarders.

Schools of Erasmus Smith.

Next in rotation of date are the Schools of Erasmus Smith. These schools were founded by Mr. Smith, an alderman of London, under the Protectorate and in the reign of Charles II., out of estates, which he received at the time of the settlement of Ireland. His first intention was to found five grammar schools; but, in order to secure a more liberal maintenance upon the schoolmasters, and also to make some provision for clothing poor children in the grammar schools, and binding them as apprentices under Protestant masters, by the charter of 1669, he founded only three schools, Drogheda, Galway, and Tipperary.

In the course of time the income of this foundation largely increased, with the greatly enhanced value of land; and, in 1723, the Governors of the schools obtained a private Act of Parliament authorizing them to apply the surplus to charitable purposes. This Act ratified the application of the surplus to exhibitions in Trinity College, which the Governors, from an early period, had granted to poor scholars; and it also enabled them ultimately to establish the English schools.

There are four Grammar schools, and 140 English schools in connection with this foundation. In the four Grammar, and 117 of the English schools, the masters' salaries are paid out of the funds of the charity. In 23 English schools the only endowment is the site and schoolhouse vested in the Governors.

The average attendance of pupils in all the grammar schools, in 1855-56, was 116; and the number of pupils on the roll, 160. Of these, 128 were of the Established Church, 23 Roman Catholics, and 1 a Presbyterian. Of the 160 on the roll, only 30 were free pupils. There is schoolroom accommodation for 627, and dormitory for 170. The

annual charges range from 17. 108. up to 107. 10s. for day scholars, and from 317. 108. up to 421. for boarders.

The exhibitions are:

School. Drogheda .. Ennis College

Galway

Tipperary.

Exhibitions at Trinity College, Dublin.

10 at from 251. to 50l. each; and 25 at 81, per annum each, with free chambers, tenable seven years.

10 at from 251. to 40l., tenable five years; 25 of 81. annual value each, with free chambers, tenable seven years.

5 of 50% and 5 of 25l., annual value, with free chambers, tenable five years.

35 Exhibitions at Trinity College, Dublin.

The Grammar schools are reported on, as to state of instruction, in 1858, as follows:-Drogheda, 'generally satisfactory, but limited;' Ennis, very satisfactory;' Tipperary, 'unsatisfactory;' Galway, 'not satisfactory.'

6

The average attendance for the same year in all the English schools was 4,241. The number of pupils on the roll was 7,010. Of these, 4,293 were ascertained to be members of the Established Church, 875 Roman Catholics, 1,420 Presbyterians, and 47 of other religious denominations.

These English schools are simple elementary schools. In those reported on, the great majority are free pupils.

The net annual income of Erasmus Smith's fund, applicable to schools, is estimated by the Commissioners at 7,4627. The inspector of estates reports that the letting value of the estates may be set down as 9,5167.; and, deducting 15 per cent. for cost of collection and taxes, this leaves a net income from land of 8,0891. The amount of stock held by the governors is 2,4317., giving, at 3 per cent., an annual income of 73l., making the entire net income of the governors 8,1627. There are two trusts not connected with schools—one of about 6007. a year, for certain Fellows and Professors of Trinity College, and one of 1007. a year, for Christ's Hospital, London. Deducting these, we have the net annual income applicable to schools at 7,4621.

Such was

Erasmus Smith's schools are essentially Protestant. evidently the intention of the founder. In a letter to the governors, dated London, June 6, 1682, he says:-'My end in founding the three schools was, to propagate the Protestant faith, according to the Scriptures, avoiding all superstition, as the Charter, and the bye-lawes, and the rules established do direct. Therefore, it is the command of His Majesty to catechise the children out of Primate Usher's catechism, and expound the same unto them, which I humbly desire may be observed upon the penalty of forfeiting theire (the masters') places. At this time, thirteen years after their foundation, these schools had made but little way against the 'popish schools;' for Mr. Smith continues in the same letter

My Lords, my design is not to reflect upon any, only I give my judgment why those schools are so consumptive, which was, and is, and will be (if not prevented), the many Popish schools, theire neighbors, which, as succors, doe

starve the tree. If parents will exclude theire children because prayers, catechism, and exposition is commanded, I can not help it, for to remove that barre is to make them seminaries of Popery. I beseech you to command him that shall be presented and approved by your honors to observe them that decline those duties, and expel them, which will obleege [me], my Lords and Gentlemen.

For the same reason, many of the schools are 'consumptive' in our day also. Thus we read that

Mr. Crawford states that the inefficiency of several of the schools in the south of Ireland arises from the exclusively Protestant character of the trust not being satisfactory to the Roman Catholic population. Thus, he says:'The masters of these schools are required to be of the Established Church, and all the pupils are required to read in school hours the Holy Scriptures. In many of the places where these schools exist in the south of Ireland the population of the district is, in a large degree, Roman Catholic; and schools in which the teachers are exclusively Protestant, and in which the Holy Scriptures are read under such teachers, are regarded with suspicion by the Roman Catholic clergy, who generally exercise their influence to keep the children of their flocks, who are more than infants, from attending the school. The effect of this has been, in several cases, that after a large expenditure in erecting and establishing the school, the Governors have been obliged to abandon the school and the value of the house to the landlords.'

Mr. Abraham, whose district lay in the centre and west of Ireland, where the population is chiefly Roman Catholic, classes the Erasmus Smith English schools with the Church Education Society's schools, and states that they appeared to him miserably inefficient. He ascribes their inefficiency, amongst other causes, to the incompetency of the teachers, the defects of the system, and the inferiority of the school-books.

Charter Schools.

We next come to the Charter Schools, which were established, under George II., in 1733, for the education and industrial training of 'the children of the popish and other poor natives,' who were to be supported at the public cost. The children were all to be brought up Protestants. These schools were warmly supported by the clergy of the Establishment, and, for many years, received large parliamentary grants. In addition to these grants they were aided by considerable subscriptions, donations, and bequests. The founders, who were all Protestants, were constituted, at their own request, a corporate body, styled the Incorporated Society. The chief object of this society was proselytism, as we learn from the Lord Primate, Boulter, who writes as follows to the Bishop of London, from Dublin, under date of May 5, 1730:

The great number of papists in this kingdom, and the obstinacy with which they adhere to their own religion, occasions our trying what may be done with their children to bring them over to our church; and the good success the corporation established in Scotland for the instruction of the ignorant and barbarous part of that nation has met with, encourages us to hope if we were incorporated for that purpose here, that we might likewise have some success in our attempts to teach the English tongue, and the principles of the Christian religion; and several gentlemen here have promised subscriptions for maintaining schools for that purpose, if we were once formed into a corporate body. This has set the principal nobility, gentry, and clergy here on presenting an address to His Majesty to erect such persons as he pleases into a corporation here for that purpose. And one of the most likely methods we can think of is, if possible, instructing and converting the young generation; for, instead of converting those that are adult, we are daily losing many of our meaner people, who go off to popery.

The Incorporated Society were given by the legislature the most extensive and arbitrary powers. Thus they could appoint persons in all parts of Ireland to take up children, begging or led by vagrant beggars, and between the ages of five and fifteen years, and, under the warrant of a local magistrate, send them to a charter school. These children, no matter what the creed of their parents, would be brought up Protestants; and the Society was empowered to bind them out at a proper age to Protestants as servants, until they reached twenty-one, or as apprentices, till twenty-four.

Under the same Act, children received at a Charter School, with the consent of their parents, were thenceforward considered children of the public, and could be bound out by the Incorporated Society to Protestant masters or mistresses, 'notwithstanding any claim of right to such child or children made, or to be made, by the father, or mother, or any person whatsoever.'

In 1775, the members of the Incorporated Society, in their zeal for proselytism, passed a resolution not to admit any but Catholic children into their schools, although in their charter it is stated that the schools were established for the education of the children of popish and other poor natives.' This resolution was a cause of great irritation to the Catholics, against whose faith it was leveled. It was rescinded in 1803. We are indebted for an interesting account of these Charter Schools to an English Protestant gentleman, who spent some time in Ireland, in the beginning of this century, collecting materials for a most valuable work on the statistics and political condition of the country. He tells us that they were detested by the Catholic population, in whose mouths the words constantly were, 'Have not they (the Protestants) robbed the necessitous poor of their children, to bring them up in their own religion?'

Respecting what these children are taught (continues Mr. Wakefield), I speak only from my own observation. It has been represented to the Board of Education, that'a Protestant catechism,' which till very lately was in general use in these schools, is now discontinued; but I find it in more schools than one, and brought away with me a copy from the charter school at Abraakan in the county of Meath. This was on the 29th of July, 1808, and I was in company with the bishop of the diocese at the time. It is drawn up in the usual manner of question and answer; and I here subjoin a specimen." Q. Is the church of Rome a sound and uncorrupt church?

A. No: it is extremely corrupt, in doctrine, worship, and practice.

Q. What do you think of the frequent crossings, upon which the papists lay so great a stress in their divine offices, and for security against sickness and all accidents?

4. They are vain and superstitious. The worship of the crucifix, or figure of Christ upon the cross is idolatrous; and the adoring and praying to the cross itself, is, of all the corruptions of popish worship, the most gross and intolerable.

I am persuaded that it is impossible for any but a member of the church of Rome, to judge of the feelings of a parent of that sect, who knows that his child is brought up to abhor and condemn every rite which he has been taught to venerate.

But there was another ingredient in the bitter cup, which we must not overlook. For many years, it but too frequently happened that the