Lords Sitting of 15 March 1832

MINUTES.
Bills. Read a third time; Mutiny; and Marine Mutiny.
Returns ordered. On the Motion of the Earl of WICKLOW, Copy of a Letter from Mr. STANLEY to the Duke of LEINSTER, on the formation of the New Board of Education for Ireland, with the Document accompanying it.
Petitions presented. By the Duke of ARGYLL, from the County of Argyll, against certain parts of the proposed measure of Reform for Scotland; and from the Parish of Dunoon, in favour of the same measure:—By the Bishop of BATH and WELLS, from Blackburn, Lancashire, and by the Earl of RADNOR, from Devonport, in favour of the Factories Bill:—By the Earl of RODEN, from the Corporation of Shoemakers; and the Corporation of Bricklayers; and the Guild of Merchants, Dublin, against the Irish Reform Bill:—By Viscount LORTON, against the New System of Education in Ireland; from the Archbishop and Clergy of Tuam, from the Archbishop and Clergy of Armagh, and from the Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese of Elphin:—By Lord KING, from the Roman Catholic Inhabitants

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of Drogheda, and by Lord CLONCURRY, from the Landholders and Tithe-payers of Harristown, for the Abolition of Tithes.

NEW SYSTEM OF EDUCATION (IRELAND.)
The Earl of Rodenpresented a Petition from the Protestant Nobility, Clergy, and Gentry, of a part of the County of Down, against the New System of Education in Ireland. He presented Petitions to the same effect from Stanmore and Clonmel.
Lord Cloncurrysaid, if he had been aware of the intention of the noble Lords to present petitions of this nature, he should have been enabled to present petitions in opposition to them sufficient to cover their Lordships' Table. The best portion of the Protestants were favourable to the system, whereas these petitions came only from a faction, and that they did not represent the opinions of more than half a million of people. The greatest neglect prevailed in Ireland for a considerable period on the subject of education. The Catholics, who composed the great body of the people, were altogether neglected, and had long been kept in ignorance, and thence arose the disturbances in Ireland, while Protestant schoolmasters were appointed in every district, though on an average there were not fifteen Protestants to each school. It was for a long period a capital offence for Roman Catholics to keep schools, and afterwards it was a misdemeanour. But the restrictions had been removed, and the best portion of the Protestant population were favourable to the instruction of the Catholics, and to a sincere friendship with them.
Viscount Lortonsaid, he was astonished at the noble Lord calling those persons, from whom he and other noble Lords presented petitions against the new system of education in Ireland a party or a faction.
The Earl of Rodencould not suffer the noble Lord to call the nobility, clergy, and gentry, from whom he presented a petition, a faction. They were resident noblemen and gentlemen, who had the interest of their country at heart, and it was most unjust to call them a faction. The noble Lord was mistaken in other respects; and if he inquired into the fact, he would find, that two millions and a half of Protestants, and not half a million, were adverse to the new system of education.
Lord Cloncurrysaid, he did not mean to offend either of the noble Lords, or to cast any imputation on the respectable persons
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from whom they presented petitions. He was aware that many Protestant clergymen had done their duty, but he did not think the Kildare-street Society had been useful to the country, or that its schools had dispensed such an education as the people of Ireland desired to have.