The Bishop of Norwichsaid, that he had a Petition to present from Roman Catholic inhabitants of the county of Mayo. The petitioners complained, and, in his opinion, very justly complained, that notwithstanding the great measure of relief, so consistent with principles of good policy and of Christian charity, they were still deprived, in consequence of the religion they professed, of the benefit of the parliamentary grants destined for the education of the poor in Ireland. They stated that they could not conscientiously send their children to be educated at the schools of the Kildare-street Society, and they therefore prayed for a more equitable distribution of the national funds.
Lord Carberythought the attacks that were frequently made on the Kildare-street Society most unfair, for that society had diffused the benefits of education in different parts of the country, and would have been more extensively useful but for the Catholic priesthood. Parents were disposed to send their children to school, but the priests would not allow them. He had heard that they had refused spiritual consolation to their followers when these latter persisted in sending their children to the schools of the Society, and he knew that their influence had been noxious to a Society, to the utility of which he desired to bear his testimony.
The Bishop of Norwichthought the noble Lord's observations confirmatory of the statement in the petition, and an additional proof that the national funds should not be exclusively confined to one Society to which the great majority of the people were hostile.
§ Petition to lie on the Table.