the colony had done
nothing in that direction; that the great majority of children in
the island did not go to school at all, while those who did attended
most irregularly, and learnt little or nothing; {290} that the
secular system of education had not attracted, as it was hoped, the
children of the Hindoo immigrants, of whom scarcely one was to be
found in a ward school; that the ward schoolmasters were generally
inefficient, and the Central Board of Education inactive; that there
was no rigorous local supervision, and no local interest felt in the
schools; that there were fewer children in the ward schools in 1868
than there had been in 1863, in spite of the rapid increase of
population: and all this for the simple reason which the Archbishop
had pointed out--the want of religious instruction. As was to be
expected, the good people of the island, being most of them
religious people also, felt no enthusiasm about schools where little
was likely to be taught beyond the three royal R's.

I believe they were wrong. Any teaching which involves moral
discipline is better than mere anarchy and idleness. But they had a
right to their opinion; and a right too, being the great majority of
the islanders, to have that opinion respected by the Governor. Even
now, it will be but too likely, I think, that the establishment and
superintendence of schools in remote districts will devolve--as it
did in Europe during the Middle Age--entirely on the different
clergies, simply by default of laymen of sufficient zeal for the
welfare of the coloured people. Be that as it may, the Ordinance
has become Law; and I have faith enough in the loyalty of the good
folk of Trinidad to believe that they will do their best to make it
work.

If, indeed, the present Ordinance does not work, it is difficult to
conceive any that will. It seems exactly fitted for the needs of
Trinidad. I do not say that it is fitted for the needs of any and
every country. In Ireland, for instance, such a system would be, in
my opinion, simply retrograde. The Irishman, to his honour, has
passed, centuries since, beyond the stage at which he requires to be
educated by a priesthood in the primary laws of religion and
morality. His morality is--on certain important points--superior to
that of almost any people. What he needs is to be trained to
loyalty and order; to be brought more in contact with the secular
science and civil