state of Ireland, that the character of the native inhabitants is low, and their circumstances wretched in the extreme.

"To this unhappy state of things, different causes, moral and political, which it is here unnecessary to specify, have probably contributed; but there can be no question, that one cause which has had a predominant influence on the circumstances and character of the Irish is the want of education. Through the injurious influence of that powerful cause, which still exists to a degree that is hardly credible, the natural advantages which they enjoy are in a great measure lost intellect, capacity, warm affections, generally unimproved, and often ill directed, bring no suitable benefit to the possessor of them; it is well if they be not made the means of precipitating him deeper into vice, and increasing his power of doing mischief.

"At a time when the tone of philanthropic feeling is more than ordinarily high-when the benevolent of every denomination are zealously exerting themselves to minister relief to their fellow-men, in different countries, and under different descriptions of suffering or of want; so large and so interesting a portion of our fellow-subjects cannot surely be suffered to continue in their present unpropitious circumstances; circumstances in which it is manifest that their intellectual energies are cramped, their moral character depressed, their personal happiness obstructed, and the welfare of the state materially injured. In this case the most forcible considerations that can be addressed to the mind-humanity, justice, sound policy, patriotism, true Christianity-all concur in calling loudly on Britons to consider the

state of the lower classes in Ireland, and to assist in the design of ameliorating their state, by furnishing them with the necessary means of moral and religious instruction.

"This generous design, to which we wish to call the attention of our countrymen, is not entirely new. The education of the poor in Ireland has, at different periods, attracted the attention of the public mind, and different measures have been employed to promote it. Free schools were at an early period established in several of the large towns, and have since been extended to some parts, of the country. Provision is also made, at a great expense, for maintaining what are called the Protestant Charter Schools. These establishments have, however, been productive of very limited effects. The utility of the Charter Schools has been much impeded by the narrow and exclusive principle on which they are instituted, none being received into them but the children of Protestants, or of Catholics who allow their children to be educated in the Protestant religion; and though the free schools are conducted on more liberal principles, being open to the children of parents of every religious persuasion, yet their number is so small as to be altogether inadequate to the wants of the community."

The Earl of Selkirk is President of this society.

But although the communication of religious knowledge is merely a department of charity as far as the exertions of individuals are concerned, it is also a matter of positive political duty on the part of the legislature and government of a country. The neglect of it interferes more with the progress of society and the good of the commonwealth, and is more likely to

introduce the peculiar evils arising from an abuse of the principle of population, than the relaxation of all other laws; because these have ever been found insufficient to restrain men from crimes, and from imbibing habits unfavourable to the decencies and proprieties of life, while their hearts continue depraved, and their wills unsubdued: whereas religious instruction, by converting the heart, and subduing the will, affords, in proportion to its prevalence, an effectual control over men's outward actions. There is in particular a department of this duty peculiarly connected with the subject of population, which, on that account, and also because it has been hitherto grossly neglected by most governments, cannot be omitted in this treatise-I mean a legislative provision for the more enlarged performance of religious rites, and for imparting public instruction, in proportion to the gradual increase in the number of the people. It is taken for granted, that no Christian, or even rational government, can neglect the primary duty of establishing, as an essential part of the constitution, what it conceives to be a pure religion, calculated to afford sound and uniform principles of moral practice to its people. Still less can it be thought probable that, having provided such an establishment, any government in its senses will undermine its foundations by entrusting its management to weak, corrupt, or ignorant superintendants. For such conduct would at once annihilate all the political advantages of the institution, by rendering it contemptible in the estimation of the very people, whose minds it had elevated in its purer days into a condition to appreciate the value of what they had lost. But yet, it is not altogether sufficient to establish a pure religion, and to

place it under the superindence of able, learned, zea+ lous, and spiritual pastors, unless provision be also made for enlarging the frame of the establishment, and for conveying public instruction to the people in proportion to the wants of an augmented population. The people will be driven without the pale of the church as much by the want of physical power in their pastors for the performance of their duties, as by the corruption of their doctrine, or the abatement of their spiritual zeal. And it is no less cruel than absurd in any government to permit the exigences of a pure and spiritual church insensibly to extend themselves beyond the physical powers of its ap pointed pastors. Despair of performing their whole duty will often lead to a total dereliction of any performance at all; and even where it has not this lamentable effect, where the zeal of a minister is not relaxed by the obvious disproportion of his means to his ends, still a large portion of the people must either be abandoned to ignorance and depravity, or consigned to the spiritual direction of persons, of the moral consequences of whose instructions the state at least has no sufficient assurance, and therefore cannot be absolved from the charge of a gross dereliction of its duties towards the people.

It seems impossible to deny that these conclusions are justly applicable to every state, where the population has greatly extended itself, or been accumulated in large masses in new situations, without a proportionate increase of public schools and of established churches and ministers. If the evil has continued long enough to render the disproportion considerable, it will be extremely difficult of remedy; for the new population will necessarily be fixed in the sectarian

habits in which it has been educated; and wherever its numbers approach to an equality with the adherents to the established church, these last will be considered merely as another sect; they will be disliked as a privileged sect; and a great and dangerous jealousy will exist with regard to any measures that may be thought necessary for checking the progress of the evil in the only legitimate way; viz. by spreading the knowledge of the established doctrines through the medium of public instruction, and by increasing the number and enlivening the zeal of the established clergy.

It is in this state of things however, that the purity and spirituality of an established church is brought to a severe but wholesome test; if its doctrines be corrupt or its practice impure, it must presently sink under the accumulated load of neglect within, and of opposition from without. It is certainly not too much to assert that no Roman Catholic Church, nor any heathen system of religion, could endure this rude trial. But if the doctrines of the establishment in question be scriptural, and its practice pure and liberal; if in short, upon a candid comparison of its doctrines with the Bible, and of its precepts and practice with their moral effects upon the heart and life, it has a clear advantage over the opposing sects in the estimation of an enlightened people; a well-grounded hope may be indulged. For truth, especially religious truth, will ultimately triumph; and the means in the case before us are as obvious as, under Providence, they are certain of success. Legislative enactments for the supply of existing deficiencies in schools, churches, and ministers; the appointment of zealous, able, and spiritual