lose
of the eighteenth century, and that a large majority of the Irish people
had not full and free access to even primary and secondary education
until the passing of the Emancipation Act in 1829. At the present day,
the absence of any provision for higher education of which Roman
Catholics will avail themselves is not merely an enormous loss in
itself, but it reacts most adversely upon the whole educational
machinery, and consequently upon the whole public life and thought of
that section of the nation.

One of the very first things I had to learn when I came into direct
touch with educational problems, was that the education of a country
cannot be divided into water-tight compartments, and each part
legislated for or discussed solely on its merits and without reference
to the other parts. I see now very clearly that the educational system
of a country is an organic whole, the working of any part of which
necessarily has an influence on the working of the rest. I had always
looked upon the lower, secondary, and higher grades as the first,
second, and third storeys of the educational house, and I am not quite
sure that I attached sufficient importance to the staircase. My view has
now changed, and I find myself regarding the University as a foundation
and support of the primary and secondary school.

It was not on purely pedagogic grounds that I added to my other
political irregularities the earnest advocacy of such a provision for
higher education as Roman Catholics will avail themselves of. This great
need was revealed to me in my study of the Irish mind and of the
direction in which it could look for its higher development. My belief
is based on practical experience; my point of view is that of the
economist. When the new economic mission in Ireland began now fourteen
years ago, we had to undertake, in addition to our practical programme,
a kind of University extension work with the important omission of the
University. We had to bring home to adult farmers whose general
education was singularly poor, though their native intelligence was keen
and receptive, a large number of general ideas bearing on the productive
and distributive side of their industry. Our chief obstacles arose from
the lack of trained economic thought among all classes, and especially
among those to whom the majority looked for guidance. The air was thick
with economic fallacies or half-truths. We were, it is true, successful
beyond our expecta