f the union of the two countries in 1800 (S562), the
maintenance of the Protestant Episcopal Church continued to remain
obligatory upon the Irish people, although only a small part of them
were of that faith. Mr. Gladstone, now Liberal Prime Minister,
succeeded in getting Parliament to enact a law which disestablished
this branch of the National Church and left all religious
denominations in Ireland to the voluntary support of those who
belonged to them. Henceforth the English Protestants residing in that
country could no longer claim the privilege of worshiping God at the
expense of his Roman Catholic neighbor.

[2] The Disestablishment Bill was passed in 1869 and took effect in
1871.

602. The Elementary Education Act, 1870.

In 1870 Mr. Forester, a member of Mr. Gladstone's Liberal Cabinet
(SS534, 601), succeeded in passing a measure of the highest
importance, entitled The Elementary Education Act. This act did not
undertake to establish a new system of instruction, but to aid and
improve that which was then in use. In the course of time, however,
it effected such changes for the better in the common schools that it
practically re-created most of them.

It will be remembered that before the Reformation the Catholic
monasteries took the leading part in educating the children of the
country (SS45, 60). The destruction of the monasteries by Henry VIII
(S352) put a stop to their work; but after Henry's death, his son,
Edward VI, established many Protestant schools (SS364, 365), while
tohers were founded by men who had grown suddenly rich through getting
possession of monastic lands. These new schools did good work, and
are still doing it; but they seldom reached the children of the poor.
Later on, many wealthy persons founded Charity Schools to help the
class who could not afford to pay anything for their tuition. The
pupils who lived in these institutions (of which a number still exist)
were generally obliged to wear a dress which, by its peculiarity of
cut and color, always reminded them that they were "objects of public
or private benevolence." Furthermore, while the boys in these
institutions were often encouraged to go on and enter Grammar Schools,
the girls were informed that a very little learning would be all that
they would ever need in the humble station in life to which Providence
had seen fit to call them.

Meanwhile, the Church of England, and other religious denominations,
both Catholic and Pr