teachers, as at Rouen, Paris, Lyons, and elsewhere, to comprehend the value of the services which they render to society, and the vast amount of social and moral influence which they exert upon those indocile and formidable masses in whose prudent discipline, culture, and development the destinies of every state and community are ultimately involved. These services have been wisely appreciated by the different political Governments who have profited by them. Many interesting particulars might be adduced in illustration of this fact. It was during the administration of M. Guizot, whose careful observation of the great social phenomena of our epoch is well known, that many of the prisons and penitentiaries of France were committed to their skilful direction. During a prolonged residence in that country, an equally significant fact more than once fell under my own observation. At periods of confusion and disorder, and in several widely separated localities, I had occasion to notice, that while many of the Ecoles Communales furnished active agents to the party of movement and sedition, hardly an instance was known of their ranks being recruited from the pupils of the Frères de la Doctrine Chrétienne. But I am persuaded that the labours of these excellent men, and the obligations of modern society to them, are not unknown to any who watch with interest the progress of popular education; and I will content myself with adding, that what they are in France and Belgium, such are they in England and Ireland, and that the same great moral and social work which they accomplish in other states they are performing in our own land also, within the comparatively limited sphere of their employment.

The purport of the above remarks will be understood, when I state that, up to the present moment, not a single school under the charge of this class of teachers in England, Scotland, or Wales has invited Government inspection, though some have expressed their sense of its advantages. Now it is certain that, whether we consider their general moral tone, the amount of religious and secular instruction diffused in them, or the technical and scientific methods upon which they are conducted, these schools are, with very few exceptions, both the largest and the most efficient of all those which are now in operation for the training and instruction of the poor children of the Roman Catholic population of this country. In London, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, and many other towns, thousands of Catholic children are receiving instruction in the schools of the Christian Brothers. It is evident, therefore, that no experience which does not include an intimate knowledge of such schools can be sufficiently extensive to justify general and positive statements as to the condition and prospects of elementary education amongst the class referred to.

Under these circumstances I propose to confine myself in the

present Report to several points which have been recorded in my notes, from time to time, as worthy of special observation, and to some remarks upon certain distinctive features, whether pleasing or the reverse, of the schools which I have hitherto inspected.

1. Connerion of Roman Catholic Schools with the Committee of Council. The extension of your Lordships' administration to Roman Catholie schools, and the invitation now offered to the managers of such schools to co-operate with the Committee of Council in the education of one class of Her Majesty's subjects, is the first topic which calls for remark. It was to be expected that some hesitation should be manifested in accepting that invitation, and that misconceptions should prevail, for a time, and in some quarters, with respect to the conditions with which it was accompanied. No one, however, who recognises the office of the ministers of religion as the natural guardians and instructors of the children of the poor can blame the jealous solicitude with which they acquit themselves of their special responsibilities. "The clergy prove that they are animated by the true spirit of their mission," said M. de Salvandy, himself Minister of Public Instruction in a neighbouring country, "whenever they evince their susceptibility in matters relating to education." And it was a recent observation of the Duc de Broglie, a not less eminent authority, that "wherever liberty of conscience is included in the catalogue of constitutional principles, there liberty of instruction must exist together with it, both by strict justice and wise policy." It is, therefore, both the duty and the constitutional privilege of the clergy to scrutinize with peculiar vigilance whatsoever affects the education of the poor, or is capable of modifying its scope and character.

But the promoters of educational institutions for the Roman Catholic poor of this country have already proved, by the attitude which they have assumed in relation to the Committee of Council, that, whilst they know how to guard the sacred trust committed to them, they entertain no ungenerous suspicions or jealousies of the intentions of Government; and also, that the invitation to unite their efforts with those of the civil power did not take them by surprise. When that invitation was made, it was frankly and thankfully accepted, because all that it involved had been carefully weighed and considered by anticipation. The principles which ought to regulate the relations between the State and the various religious communities which exist under its protection had, for them, been fully defined. They did not need to be investigated when the moment arrived for their practical application. The legitimate influence of the civil authorities, in the direction and control of primary education, was not only not called in question by the class referred to, but was even asserted as a constitutional

principle. "We ask for no unlimited nor unconditional liberty," said one who was for many years the well-known superior of an important educational institute in Paris, and who is now Bishop of Orleans. "In proclaiming the liberty of instruction, la liberté d'enseignement," he added, "the State ought to preserve its action, its tutelary surveillance, its temporal providence, over all establishments of education, over the morality and capacity of those who direct them, over their discipline, and their sanitary arrangements. This is its duty. God forbid that the State should ever lose sight of it!" The same sentiments have been authoritatively reiterated, on various occasions, by the whole Episcopate of France, Belgium, and Holland.

Far from complaining, then, of the "interference" of the State in the extension and diffusion of popular education, there are few countries in Europe in which Catholics have not been forward to stimulate and invoke it; and in this country they not only see with pleasure that the Government has resumed functions which it had too long abdicated, but are accustomed to remark, as a singular anomaly, that of all the great European States, England is the only one in which interests so deeply affecting the welfare of the population are not confided to the charge of a recognized and responsible minister.

But while these are the sentiments of all who have spoken authoritatively, and who apprehend nothing from the prudent and limited intervention of the State, because they know how to use good laws and do not fear bad ones, and because they are too much accustomed to survive real calamities to dread such as are visionary and chimerieal, it cannot be denied that a certain amount of prejudice, which operates unfavourably for the welfare of Roman Catholic schools, remains to be overcome. In one class this is to be attributed to a total misconception of the real intentions of the Committee of Council; in another, to feelings and views which it is not necessary to analyse. When a great social and religious work, such as the education of the poor of this empire, is in progress of accomplishment, the agents to whom a portion of that work is entrusted may well be pardoned, if they have no leisure to appease the prejudices, or to detect the misrepresentations, which may safely be left to the correction of time and experience. But it is to be regretted that any of those, whether amongst the clergy or the laity, whose cordial co-operation is really indispensable to the full success of plans now in operation, should attribute to the "Government scheme of education," as it is erroneously styled, a character of which all the repulsiveness is due to their own misconceptions. It was truly observed, in a Report presented to your Lordships during the past year, that" the Government plan is, to enforce no plan whatever." It is of the utmost importance that the managers and teachers of Roman Catholic schools

should understand this. They know already, or may know, that the whole of the moral and religious culture of their schools, as well as every detail of their interior economy and management, is absolutely committed to them,-since they alone, and not the State, are qualified to be entrusted with it. They may know also, that in receiving the aid, and profiting by the experience which the Committee of Council is willing to place at their disposal, they accept no conditions which can even tend to limit or enfeeble the action of their own control and supervision; much less to oppose an obstacle to that powerful and salutary influence of the clergy, which they wisely regard as at once the distinguishing characteristic of their schools, and the primary condition of their welfare and success. "In England, in Germany, everywhere," says M. Dupanloup, in one of his most valuable educational works, "the ministers of religion are the real instructors of youth." In England it is quite certain that they will continue to be so, and that the measures of the Committee of Council, when rightly understood, tend only to secure this result.

And here I cannot neglect to observe that, as far as my present experience has enabled me to notice the fact, the schools of which the managers have evinced the most zealous and intelligent co-operation with the Committee of Council are precisely those of which the direction had been previously the most active, judicious, and successful. Having neglected nothing in other times which could contribute to the efficiency of their schools, these persons were naturally the first to scrutinize the new advantages proffered to them; and although the Roman Catholic clergy exhibit a prudent indifference to the changes which are ever going on in the world without, and receive with a composure which may sometimes be mistaken for excessive caution even those which have the fairest promise, and present themselves under the most attractive form, yet they had been so accustomed to recognize, in theory, the action of an impartial and provident Government, duly solicitous for the training and instruction of the people under its charge, that they could not but applaud the actual manifestation of its benevolent schemes when at length invited to co-operate with them.

Nor have they been alarmed by the frequent repetition of a phrase which to some has appeared ill-omened and inauspicious; I mean the phrase, now so often heard, "national education.' It may even be said that they do not comprehend what is meant by an education which is not "national." It is true that they put their own interpretation upon this phrase, and it may be well to explain in what sense they understand it.

I am not aware how far it is a peculiarity of the schools with which I have the honor to be connected, that the obligations

of citizens are included in them amongst the very highest class of religious duties; and that, being designed to educate those who move within the sphere of their influence for all the complex relations of social life, they aim at making good subjects as well as good Christians. It is in this sense that the term "national education" is understood. It is not long since that Count Molé, speaking of this very subject, declared to an illustrious auditory; "the clergy will be the conservators of public order in preparing new generations for the practice of every virtue, for there is a closer connexion than some men think between private and public virtues, and the perfect Christian is most likely to become a great citizen."

It was in the spirit of this admirable reflection that the Cardinal Archbishop of Malines, and all the Episcopate of Belgium, in their circular to the clergy on the subject of elementary education, said, in 1843; "Let the teachers diligently inculcate attachment to the institutions of the country, obedience to the laws, a sincere love for the sovereign and his dynasty, and devotion to the welfare of the country.' The exhortation was publicly commended, and enjoined upon the notice of the Civil Inspectors of Schools, by an official letter of the Comte de Theux, Minister of the Interior, in 1846; and it has been so carefully adopted and acted upon in most of the schools which I have hitherto been instructed to visit, that I do not hesitate to speak of this as one of their most pleasing characteristics, and am glad that the first distinctive feature of those schools which I have been led to notice should be one which serves to indicate how wisely their managers interpret the words, national education.

There is, then, for the managers of Roman Catholic schools nothing suspicious in the terms "Government" or "national education." They comprehend that the Government is not only justified in claiming a certain share in its direction, but even obliged, by a just conception of its own office and functions, to do so; and they accept the idea of "national" education in the only true sense in which the present state of society allows it to be received. If the one should ever propose new and objectionable forms, which is a purely gratuitous hypothesis, or seek to insinuate principles to which their own are and must always be in antagonism; or if the other should, which is an equally superfluous supposition, corrupt into a system either negatively or positively mischievous, they will know how to act in such a crisis as they have known how to act in every other. Meanwhile they avail themselves gratefully and without misgiving of the boons which they can accept with a tranquil conscience, and are ashamed to anticipate anything but fair and generous dealing from those whose measures have been distinguished up to the present moment only by their practical wisdom, justice, and impartiality.