in matters from which religion
could not be separated. They were to be instructed in mental
philosophy by a professor, specially appointed for that
purpose. This training must be given them that they may be
qualified to direct 'the thoughts and inclinations of Irish
children in a right direction'. Would it have been
unreasonable, is it unreasonable now, that the guardians of
the faith of any portion of the Irish people should feel
anxious to have some security for the character of the
'mental philosophy' in which the teachers of the people were
trained?

"Comparing the plan announced in Lord Stanley's published
letter with that which was carried into effect, under the
joint operation of the interpolated passage and the report
of 1835, it is obvious that those who might be perfectly
satisfied with the arrangements of the first, either as to
religious or national feeling, might yet be wholly
dissatisfied upon the very same points with the second.

"Under the covert and guarded language of the report of
1835, we can clearly trace the inauguration of a new
system--a system wholly unlike anything that had preceded it
or had ever been recommended--a system which was to
establish in every parish a government agent, under the name
of a national schoolmaster, and which was also to become a
great government university for the teaching of the middle
classes.

"This last was to be accomplished by the medium of the model
schools. One of these was to be established in each county.
The master was to be a person of superior attainments, with
a salary very far above that of any curate of the
Established Church, and in these schools a superior
education was to be conveyed. We shall see how steadily the
plan, first broached in the annual report of 1835, has been
carried out.

"In 1837, the report tells us that 'they had added to their
normal establishment in Dublin a scientific department and a
school of industry, in the immediate neighbourhood of
Dublin, with work-rooms and a farm of from forty to fifty
acres attached to it'. In the same report they propose to
appoint a superintendent for each of twenty-five
districts--residing at the model school, and having L125
a-year, with apartments and allowances. The head master of