§ MR. SEXTON (Belfast, W.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he has noticed a resolution of the Belfast United Trades' Council, adopted at a special meeting on the 2nd ultimo, declaring certain passages in the Lessons on Political Economy in the Fifth Book of the Irish Commissioners of National Education to be contrary to the fact and prejudicial to working men who are Trade Unionists; whether he has observed by the selection of extracts from the Fifth Book circulated by a Special Committee of the Belfast Trades' Council that the lessons in question contain a number of absurd or inaccurate propositions and statements, 178 as, for instance, that if a law were made to fix the rent of land, the only effect would be that the landlord would no longer let his land, and whether this passage was brought years ago to the notice of the House of Commons; whether, at the instance of the London Trades' Council, passages of an analogous character were many years since struck out of the school books in use in England; and whether the Irish school books will now be revised, with a view to expunging propositions and statements which are manifestly absurd or grossly incorrect?
§ MR. JACKSONThe Commissioners of National Education report that the Fifth Book is at present under revision, and that the Lessons on Political Economy will be revised.
§ MR. SEXTONIf this revision is not properly carried out, I shall ask for the appointment of a Select Committee to consider the matter.