effect upon the people on whom it was disastrous failure, and, if even the forced. An authority from the Party semblance of justice was to be done them, opposite, in speaking of that policy of if their country was not to be kept for the National Board of Education, used ever in the background, radical changes words as strong as could possibly have must be immediately effected. Educabeen employed by any Irish Member. tion, from the national school to the Attacking the lamentable lack of moral University, must be nationalised-both fibre on the part of Irish children, that as to control and curriculum. Gentleman said, was it any wonder that the Irish nation had-as, undoubtedly, they had the characteristics which they exhibited? "The national factor in Ireland has been studiously eliminated from national education, and Ireland is perhaps the only country in Europe where it was part of the settled policy of those who had guidance of education to ignore the literature, history, arts, and traditions of the people. It was a fatal policy for it obviously tended to stamp their native country in the eyes of Irishmen with the badge of in feriority and to extinguish the sense of healthy self-respect which comes from the consciousness of high national ancestry and traditions. This policy dulled the intelligence of the people, impaired their interest in their own surroundings, stimulated emigration by teaching them to look on other countries as more agreeable places to live in, and made Ireland a social desert." The same author said further- 66 Nothing is more evident to the student of Danish education, or I might add of the excellent system of the Christian Brothers in Ireland, than that one of the secrets of their success is to be found in their national basis, and their foundation upon the history and literature of the country." The Irish people were now determined to tolerate this national insult no longer. They meant to insist on getting educational systems which would draw forth all that was best in their race, which would give character as well as information. The Gaelic League, during the ten years of its existence, had done more for the interests of education, for the true advancement of the nation, than all the Boards that ever cursed their country. It had awakened an enthusiasm which would not tamely submit to insult; and even Sir Horace Plunkett would find that the Irish people would have sufficient moral fibre to insist that Irish education hould henceforth be national and administered by themselves. The system imposed on them over seventy years ago, and continued unaltered ever since, should now be able to show exceptional results to justify its continued existence. On the contrary it had been a hopeless and Mr. Thomas O'Donnell. from the number of boards of titled men A foreigner at first sight would think who were charged with the educational Czar. to The welfare of Ireland that it should be the most progressive nation on earth. They had the National Board, the Intermediate Board, the Local Government Board, the Technical Education Board, the governing bodies of the Queen's Colleges, the Senate of the two Universities all charged with giving good education out of the public funds, each board independent of the other, and all independent of the Irish people and even of this House. Irish parent whose child's future was at stake, whose taxes supported the whole fabric, whose country's welfare and prosperity were concerned, was given no voice or control whatever. Such a state of things could not could not be paralleled in any country in Europe. In this twentieth century it would be a disgrace the government of the England, Scotland, and Wales had long ago left this antiquated stage. In America, in France, in Germany, the greatest public interest was taken, and public control given, in the education of the young. Public men, ministers of religion, parents, all united in interest and zeal for their proper training. The father felt that his children were his greatest charge, that it was his duty to fit them for life's battle. He felt that this could only be done by giving them, while at school, such a training as would lay open to them all the fruits of knowledge, and therefore it was that, in those countries, no cost was spared in getting the best possible teachers and in equipping the schools suitably for their great work. It was ungenerous and absurd to charge the Irish people with taking no interest in the education of their own children when by law they were practically excluded from this part of a free citizen's national duty. The same charge was made when technical education was administered from South Kensington. Yet how great had been the interest aroused, how wide- that country, could contemplate without spread the desire to devote the rates to feeling that they had hopelessly failed this important branch, since control was in their duty. They made the Irishman given to the people. There were no feel that so far had his country been people who valued education more than kept behind the rest of the world through the Irish, none would more cheerfully being denied proper systems of education, give their time and money for so laud- that nothing but the most enthusiastic able a purpose as the Irish people; yet of application on the part of the people, all European nations they alone were guided and encouraged by a fostering denied this elementary right. The time Irish Parliament, could ever repair the had arrived to remedy this indefensible mischief of the past. A change, revoluunconstitional anachronism. Irrespon- tionary and immediate, was required. sible boards must be swept away and one The whole system should be torn up by central authority responsible to the the roots and education from the national people put in their place. Much money school to the University placed on a proper was yearly wasted by the system which basis. The systems could not beconsidered prevailed at present of one board acting apart. They reacted and interacted on independently of the other. Why should each other, and that scheme would be primary, secondary, technical, and Uni- most successful where they were all conversity education be carried on in water-sidered as part of one whole. The influtight compartments? Why could not ence of the University helped to supply one education authority unite the functions of all, giving at the same time large local control and encouraging local initiative? Why could they not devise one scheme leading from the national school to the University, so as to draw forth the rich native talent of the Irish peasant, at present lying dormant because of his poverty and lack of effort? The system of nominated boards had proved a disastrous failure in Ireland. Nobody could now defend it. There was nothing to justify its continued existence. Mr. Dale's Report was more sweeping in its condemnation than the most advanced Irish Member had ever been. He saw nothing but schools badly built, wretchedly equipped, insanitary and cheerless, children shivering in the winter with no fire to warm them, teachers poorly paid and with poorer prospects of promotion or recognition of service, and, what was most important in this Report, he recognised that neither teachers, managers, nor people were to blame for this deplorable state of things, but rather the system which centred all authority in Dublin and deprived the nation of all power whatever. This Report, read side by side with the eleven volumes on the educational systems of Europe and America published under the direction of Mr. Sadler, showed a state of things in Ireland which no English Government, pretending to take any interest in the future welfare of good teachers, while the good teachers afterwards supplied good University students, and thus from the lowest to the highest class was felt the influence of University training. As it was in the primary school that five-sixths of their boys got their first and only education it was evident that this must be for them their University. If this school was badly managed, if the teaching given therein was of a low order, it was a poor consolation for them to know that the children of their richer neighbours could get University education in Dublin. How were they to get the blessings of University education? They could not all send their children away. He would make two suggestions, which, if carried out, would, to his mind, go very far towards bringing the University to every man's door. He would place the teaching profession on an equality with other professions in this country, give them an equally high educational training and give them a salary commensurate with the importance of the work they had to discharge. He would remodel the present system of training teachers, and would give the teacher a position in the University which would enable him to avail himself of all the social and intellectual advantages which were amongst the greatest boons of University training. He would do everything in his power to fit him—and it was a difficult and slow process to train a competent teacher-for the very important work of shaping the youth of the of the clever, but poor, boy, trained under the teacher he had described, was a scheme of county scholarships which would give free admission to, and a free education in, the University. To do this thoroughly he would establish in suitable centres, say the central town of three or more adjoining parishes, a higher national school. The teachers in those schools should be, of course, University graduates of distinction. To every primary school within those parishes, he would allocate one, two, or three scholar. ships to be competed for yearly, the winners to have free entrance to the higher national school. The pupils of those higher schools would compete for the county scholarships giving free admission to the University, or to the technical college attached thereto. nation. President Garfield said of Professor Hopkins of Williams College, where Garfield was a student, that "he considered it a liberal education to sit at one end of a log with Mack Hopkins at the other." So it was with every true teacher. His influence in forming the character, in shaping the destiny of those who came under his control was a thing which could scarcely be realised. They spent £54,000 a year on training Irish teachers who got no opportunities of the University training as in Scotland or America. Half the Scotch teachers were University graduates. Everybody was aware that the system of educating one particular class or profession entirely apart from the general education and wide contact given in a University was educationally unsound, and tended to produce characteristics which did not mark a "liberal education." Professor Munsterberg of Harvard University, writing in 1900, said- "That was the secret of German schools; the most elementary teaching was given by men who were experts in their field, whose scholarly interest filled them with an enthusiasm that inspired the class. To bring that condition about must be the aim of every friend of American school life. That is the one great reform which is needed, and till this burning need is removed, it is useless to put forward unimportant changes. Just as it has been said that war requires three things-money, money, and again money--so it can be said with much greater truth that education needs not forces and buildings, nor pedagogy and demonstrations, but only men, men, and again men. The right kind of men is what the schools need ; they need teachers whose interest in the subject would banish all drudgery." If permitted he would now summarise what he had just said and put to the Chief Secretary what he considered the most important points. He had proved that the present system should not go on any longer, it had ruined and blighted the men of Ireland and kept them fifty or a hundred years behind the rest of the world, and no reason could be brought forward for its continuance. What was to be submitted for it? The Chief Secretary and his colleagues took on themselves the right to govern Ireland, and said the Irish were better off now than they had ever been. But if he might express an opinion he would say that the Government of Ireland by this House attitude condemned by its Professor Russell, of Columbia Univer- stood sity, said "No one will deny that the interests of public education are as great and as urgent as the interests of law, medicine, or engineering. The University is true to itself, therefore, when it undertakes the professional training of teachers." These eminent authorities recognised the essential factor of progress in national education to be the well-trained teacher. If he hal availed himself of University training he dispensed his knowledge, and, what was more important, his culture and character, to those who were entrusted to his care. The second point to which he wished to direct attention, and by means of which he hoped to further facilitate the advance Mr. Thomas O'Donnell. to the education of that country. In every other civilised country in the world the people had the right of managing the education of their children, and the possession of that right created an interest in, and awakened an enthusiasm for, education which were of the greatest value. Why should Irishmen be refused that right? In America they had not proved to be incapable of administering education or of benefiting by it. Their capacity could not be denied, and the Government which held them to be unworthy, itself stood hopelessly condemned. Education in Ireland required to be nationalised and modernised; nominated boards should be swept away; the people should be granted the results in a people who were anxious to secure, and capable of benefiting by, the full advantages of education. He begged to second the Motion. Amendment proposed— "To leave out from the word that' to the end of the Question, in order to add the words in the opinion of this House, the system of Primary Education in Ireland is fundamentally defective, and has proved injurious in its operation.'"'Mr. Nannetti.) Question proposed, "That the words proposed to be left out stand part of the Question." right of training their children; primary, SIR JOHN GORST (Cambridge University) said it was impossible for the House of Commons not to sympathise with the demand for a proper system of education in Ireland. As far as education went, he did not think the record of the English Government was a very creditable one, and unless they took steps to legislate for the needs of Ireland in this respect Parliament would show a singular indifference to the valuable asset which the Empire possessed in the peculiar qualities of the Irish people if only they were properly developed and trained. He hoped, therefore, that the debate would result in serious steps being taken to give to Ireland similar opportunities to those now enjoyed by England, Wales, and Scotland. But when one passed from the general demand and right of the Irish people to the desirability of reforming the present system, it was dence and caution. He knew enough necessary to step with the greatest diffiabout education to be aware that it must be adapted to the peculiarities, and even to the prejudice, of the people it was intended to benefit, and that it was impossible to force one rigid system upon all the peoples inhabiting the various parts of the United Kingdom. If he might make one or two general remarks as to the principles on which Irish education should be conducted, he would say that the first thing was to bring it under popular control. present it was impossible for any body of Members to exercise any influence over the matter, inasmuch as, under the present system, Irish education was taken entirely out of Parliamentary control. The Lord Advocate had to answer the At criticisms made in this House on behalf local interest in education. That local of the Scottish Education Department, but when they came to Irish education the Chief Secretary for Ireland had to answer for the National Board of Education. Considerably more than ten years ago he was invited to visit one of the most admirable schools he ever saw in any part of the world, and it was a school for poor boys at Cork. It was admirable in every way and the teaching and discipline were excellent. It was a school conducted by the Christian Brothers, and, although a debate took place in the House of Commons upon the question, the then Chief Secretary was obliged to state that he was unable to grant this admirable school full assist ance from the fund for Irish education. interest had always been the key-stone of the Scottish system. The reason why Scotch education had been so successful and why it was so far ahead of the rest of the United Kingdom, was that there had always been in Scotland a greater local interest taken in education. In those parts of England where there had formerly existed this local interest, and where the parents had taken an interest in education, the schools were the best and there they made the best use of those schools. No doubt one difficulty in applying the system of England and Scotland to Ireland was the extreme poverty of the people. In England three-fourths of the cost of education was paid out of the Consolidated Fund, and one-fourth out of the local rates. He believed that something like the same proportion was contributed in Scotland, but he did not think they ought to ask the people of Ireland to pay as much as one-fourth. If some official body was formed responsible for the general direction of the education of the district, he did not think they needed to despair because the people were incapable of bearing a substantial part of the cost of education. He had been very much struck by what he had read of something that was done sixty years ago in a small parish in Somersetshire, which contained He wished to impress upon the Chief Secretary that in any scheme brought forward for remodelling Irish education they ought to put a stop to the multiplicity of boards in Ireland. There were, at present, three great boards in Ireland administering education, namely, the National Board of Education, which dealt with elementary education; the Intermediate Education Board, which dealt with what was called in this country secondary education; and the Board for Technical Education. The work of these three boards was so closely connected that it was quite impossible to have a population of 1,125, composed almost proper system unless the three were entirely of agricultural labourers receiving amalgamated. The principle of technical between 6s. and 9s. a week, which was education was one which should provide about the same rate of wages as was now the whole of the instruction from the being paid in some of the districts in kindergarten to the University, and the Ireland. There were no rich people in elementary school could not be properly that parish, and yet the rector, by enlisting carried on unless the principle of the interest of the people, succeeded in technical instruction, and the supervision establishing a most remarkable model of the persons versed in technical in- school supported entirely by the small struction, was made use of during the Government grant and the fees of those whole course of elementary training. Elementary education ought to lead poor people. He succeeded in establishing Elementary education ought to lead in that school a system of education directly on to intermediate, and it was absolutely essential that these three kinds of education should not be kept in water-tight compartments with no connection the one with the other. Another thing they required in Ireland was the encouragement and establishment of some kind of local interest in education. That was one of the great advantages of the English Act of 1870, for it aroused in every part of the country a keener Sir John Gorst. something like that which sixty years afterwards they were striving to obtain with the assistance of all the inspectors and machinery of the Education Department. But although Ireland was very poor, and although it might be incapable of giving any considerable rate aid to the elementary schools that was no reason why a local interest should not be created. They could have excellent schools in a poor parish with a keen local interest, and |