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That the periods in the two reports to which I refer should nearly correspond, is thus proved. The second report of the national board was published for the year ending March 31, 1835; the public instruction commission was issued in September, 1834, and their second report drawn up about May, 1835; and, as to the county of Wexford, I know that the commissioners visited many, if not most, of the parishes in it, during the months of February and March, 1835. The public instruction commissioners, too, had the best means of collecting accurate information respecting the schools, particularly as to the point now in question, for they personally visited the parishes, inspected the rolls of the schools on the spot, and examined the masters, and sometimes the patrons, on oath.

Having seen so extraordinary a discrepancy between the numbers as returned in the two reports to which I have alluded, I was led to examine how the case stood as to the reports of the education societies. I could find but one detailed report for the year ending March 31, 1835, and that was the report of the Association for Promoting the Knowledge and Practice of the Christian Religion, which is the society chiefly supported by the clergy. This society has a few schools in the county of Wexford, and it is worthy of particular observation, that the numbers returned by the public instruction commissioners as on the rolls of these schools, instead of being considerably less, are greater than those for which the society takes credit in its report.

Now I will not undertake to say that the national board has been guilty of a fraud, an assertion which would imply that they were conscions of the falsehood of their reports; but there appears in what I have stated good reason to suspect unfair dealing in some quarters connected with them. The large number of scholars in attendance at the national schools are repeatedly brought forward to shew the success of the system, and as repeatedly contrasted with the numbers attending the other schools in Ireland.

In my tour of inspection my attention was a good deal directed to the state of the female national schools, of which there are some in this county. Of these, the two connected with nunneries are, I doubt not, well conducted; but as to the other female schools under Romish patronage, not only in this county, but in every other part of Ireland, with few exceptions, and these, perhaps, confined to cities, it is, I conceive, out of the question that they can be carried on efficiently. Except in the cases I have specified, there are no ladies or other qualified persons to superintend them, and without such superintendence I am quite satisfied that a female school never will go on well. The Romish priests have no wives, and there are very few, comparatively, Romish gentry in Ireland.

The mistresses now employed in the national schools certainly are not of a superior class; I rather think that, in general, they are much inferior to those who conduct the scriptural schools, and yet I see no provision in the present national training establishment, nor in the more extensive one which is in contemplation, for educating or training a better order of mistresses, who might be expected to discharge their duties in the absence of the superintendence to which I have alluded. VOL. XII.-Dec. 1837. 4 x

This practical defect in the present working of the national system I consider a most serious one; for there is nothing more wanted in Ireland, particularly in the country parts, than good female schools, in which the children could be taught not only reading, writing, and arithmetic, but habits of cleanliness, and the various kinds of plain work which are so useful to them in after life. At present there are very few of the grown-up females among the Irish peasantry, so far as I know, that can properly do the needle-work of their own families. In many respects I look upon the education of the females among the peasantry to be a matter of more consequence than that of the males, so much depends upon the character and habits of the mother of a poor man's family. I have myself observed, and heard it remarked by others, that the women among the peasantry of Ireland are far inferior to those of the same rank in England and Scotland, as to intelligence and those acquirements which are so necessary for females in their rank and circumstances. This is not the case with the men, and the difference arises chiefly, I should say, from there having been so much greater attention paid to their education than to that of the women of Ireland.

If I did not fear that I had already trespassed too far upon your pages, I would send you another letter containing my views as to how the more serious objections to the national system might be removed, or rather how the system could be modified so as to meet the scruples of moderate men. I have also yet remaining untold several curious facts respecting the education and means of acquiring scriptural knowledge supplied by the Romish clergy of the county of Wexford.

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Bishop of Worcester, the Chapel at Hartlebury Castle..........

October 22.
October 22.

October 29.

November 5.

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The Bishop of Winchester will hold an Ordination on Sunday December 17th.

The Bishop of Worcester purposes holding a general Ordination on Thursday, the 21st of December, being St. Thomas's Day. The examinations will take place at the palace, in Worcester, on the mornings of the 19th and 20th of December, at the hour of eleven.

The next general Ordination in the diocese of Oxford will be holden on Sunday, December 17th, instead of Sunday, December 24th; and the Candidates who desire to be ordained on that day are required to present themselves to the Archdeacon of Oxford for examination, on Monday, December 11th, and on Wednesday, December 13th, instead of the 18th and 20th.

The Lord Bishop of Oxford requires that every person who desires to be admitted to

holy orders in the diocese of Oxford, shall give to the Archdeacon of Oxford notice of his intention, at least six months previous to the season at which he may wish to be ordained.

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol intends to hold a general Ordination in the Cathedral Church of Gloucester, on Sunday the 24th of December. The examination will commence on Thursday the 22nd, at eleven o'clock.

The Lord Bishop of Lichfield will hold a general Ordination at Eccleshall, on Sunday, the 28th of January, 1838. Candidates are required to send in their papers for approval on or before the first of January instant, and such candidates whose papers have been approved of are requested to attend at Eccleshall, on Thursday, the 25th of January, at ten o'clock in the morning, for examination.

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Head Master of the Grammar School at Ashby-de-la
Zouch.

High Master of the Free Grammar School, Manchester.
Huddersfield, a Proctor in Convocation for the Arch-
deaconry of Craven.

Lecturer of All Saints', Cambridge, and C. of Barrington.

Chaplain to the Bishop of Norwich.

Proctor in Convocation for the Archdeaconry of
Craven.

An additional C. of Wigan Church, Lancashire.
Classical Master of the Birmingham and Edgebaston
Proprietary School.

Minister of the Episcopal Church about to be opened
at Glasgow.

Domestic Chaplain to the Earl of Carrick.

Commercial Master of the Birmingham and Edgebaston
Proprietary School.

Sur. Master of the Free Grammar School, Manchester.
C. of St. Nicholas, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Bishop of Madras.

Chaplain to the Rt. Hon. the Lord Mayor of York.
Master of the Truro Grammar School.

Chaplain to her Majesty's Ship "Edinburgh."

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