Sir Robert Batesonpresented a Petition from a parish in Londonderry, against the new system of public Education in Ireland; also, a petition from a Congregation of Seceders from the Presbytery of Ulster, in the county of Down, against the same system; and another, to the same effect, from the Sunday school teachers in Belfast, and praying that the 229 grant to the Kldare-street Society might be continued.
Major Macnamarasaid, that the whole of the disturbances in the county of Clare, in 1829, originated in the attempts which were made to compel the Catholics, under the auspices of that Society, to send their children to schools in which the Scriptures were used as a school book.
Mr. James E. Gordondenied that the disturbances in Clare had any such origin. He referred to the report of the Commission of Education, published in 1825, to show that the Catholics of that county were desirous that their children should receive a scriptural education, but that they were prevented by their priests from sending them to the schools of the London Hibernian Society. He was surprised that, in the face of these facts, any man would presume to say that compulsory attempts to force the Catholics to send their children to the scriptural schools were the causes of the disturbances.
Mr. O'Connellwas sure that his hon. and gallant friend, the member for Clare, being a resident landlord, a Magistrate, and a Grand Juryman of that county, must be better acquainted with the causes of the disturbances which took place there than any other gentleman, Englishman or Scotchman, in that House. The hon. Gentleman who so flatly contradicted his hon. and gallant friend was much out in his chronology: the hon. Member had attempted to show that persecution was not the cause of disturbances in 1829, because in 1825 there was no persecution, and the people were compelled to receive a scriptural "Iddication." His hon. and gallant friend had pledged his high character to the statement he had made as to the origin of the disturbances in Clare. And most truly had he stated, that they proceeded from the cruel persecutions of the bigots of that country, seeking to force Catholic children into the hands of Protestant teachers. A Magistrate of that county had been publicly convicted at Sessions of breaking into a house were a Catholic priest was administering the sacrament to a dying Christian, for the purpose of disturbing him in the exercise of his sacred functions.
Mr. James E. Gordonbegged permission to make a remark upon the observations which the hon. member for Kerry (Mr. O'Connell) had made upon him, and upon the language the hon. Member had dared 230 to use. He asked that hon. Member, how he dared to criticise his language? He believed he had the good fortune to be always able to make himself intelligible to the House; and if he was not so competent a master of the King's English as the hon. member for Kerry, at least he could pride himself upon not bringing into the discussions of that House, as the hon. Member did, the vulgarity of a pauper, and the insolence of a demagogue.
§ The Speakerwas sure that, in the phraseology which the hon. Member had just used, be had been guilty of a gross violation of order. The hon. Gentleman would see the necessity of making some explanation to the House for the error into which he had been betrayed.
Mr. James E. Gordonwas willing to apologise to the House if he had been guilty of any sin against its laws. To the House he limited his apology, because he could conceive nothing more vulgar or unwarrantable than for one Member of that House to criticise the pronunciation of another. This was not the first time that hon. Member had taken this course. He denied that he had used the word "iddication," as put into his mouth by the hon. Member. "Education" was the word he had used. With reference to the allegations of the hon. Member against the Protestants of Clare, whom he called "bigots," he thought they ought to have names given as authority for such assertions; they ought not to rest on the mere ipse dixits of individuals.
§ The petition to be printed.