of Education in Dublin, Well; and who think you are the members? Why-the Protestant Archbishop of Dublin, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of the same, the Provost of Trinity College, the President of the Royal College of Maynooth, and the Moderator of the General Synod of Ulster. Moreover there are to be certain persons chosen, if we well recollect, resident in Dublin, and others from the provinces. Of the whole Board, one-half is to be Protestant, Presbyterian, or other Dissenters, the other half always Roman Catholic: the members first appointed by Parliament always to elect their own successors, with the exception of the few who are members ex-officio.

7. And now what, think ye, are the modest powers and important duties of this sweetly amalgamated Board? We shall rehearse them in order, as they rise to our recollection. Our detail, however, of the system being merely from memory, may be found defective; but will not, we trust, be found, in any thing, materially erroneous. 1. On application from special vestries, they are to have power to tax the parishes for erection of schoolhouses, and the local expenditure of schools. 2. To have the power of appointing all teachers in the endowed schools, whom they have examined and approved. 3. Power of dismissing all such schoolmasters. 4. The editing, and circu. lating, and authorizing of all books for the schools. 5. The decreeing of the time to be occupied in literary education, say four days in the week; and the time to be occupied in separate religious education, say one day for Protestants, and one for Roman Catholics. 6. The right and duty of demanding from the children certificates of attendance at their respective places of worship. We really dare not tax our memory with the entire powers of this most concordant and puissant Board; but, on what we have stated, we must beg leave to offer a few practical remarks, touching the merits or demerits of the plan.

1. To us it appears to possess the distinguished recommendation of being utterly impracticable. We have not, and most probably we never shall have, the honor of knowing the Archbishop of Dublin; but we do, in his writings, know and respect Dr. Whately; and we only wish to see the learned Protestant author of "Errors of Romanism traced to their Origin in Human Nature," in conclave with the Most Rev. Doctor Murray, expurgating the Bible. We do, however, know the Moderator of the Synod of Ulster;

and we know the extensive body, of which he is the temporary head; and of him and them we can tell, with the certainty of a prophetic prediction, that into such an "unprotestant alliance" they will never enter. Spirits of Hamilton, and Wishart, and Knox! you are with your God and your Saviour, in rest and in glory, else would the base compliance burst your "marble cearments," and call forth the frown of a righteous indignation-could the sons so far degenerate from the fathers, as to commingle with Rome in any act of recognition.

So far then as regards the Presbyterian body, the scheme can never succeed. But what if the Established Church comply then will the Presbyterian body be left to lament their own neglect and obstinacy. We dare not speak for the feelings of the Established Church, though we should fondly hope they still retain the Protestant decision of the Latimers and the Ridleys; and that were the Bill passed into a law, they would yet refuse compliance. But supposing they comply, there will be the nobler and the higher ground on which Presbyterianism will lift up her standard of "unchanging blue," the emblem of her simplicity and her truth; and should she stand alone, she will stand in a good and holy cause, in which her God will conduct her to final and glorious victory.

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2. We have said that this proposed scheme contains " deceptive recognition of Presbyterianism" it is deceptive, for if the Synod of Ulster and their Moderator were, like silly fishes, foolish enough to swallow the bait; or like reckless Esaus, profane enough to "sell their birth-right for a mess of pottage ;" it is a bait so worthless, and a mess so miserable, that the act would as much mark their folly as their venality. For the Board, let us suppose, of THIRTY, or what number you will, more or less, is to consist of onehalf Roman Catholics, one-half Protestants—that is, be it known and understood, fifteen Roman Catholics, fourteen members of the Established Church, and one Presbyterian !! Excellent! Most excellent! The Presbyterians, we tell the Parliament, constitute nearly one-half the Protestants of Ireland; and in a Board, say of thirty members, they are to be favoured with one representative!! What will the Reformers of the age say to this style of representation? But the Presbyterians are perhaps poor; they are below the ten pound franchise. We tell the framer of the report and father of the Bill,-the Presbyterians of Ulster are not

poor. They are rich and successful merchants; they are industrious and independent farmers; they are laborious and skilful mechanics; they are a peaceful, educated people; and if not always the aristocracy of rank, they stand high in the aristocracy of intellect; and were they to form a part in such a heterogeneous and debasing scheme, it is not by one representative they would come into a joint Board, but by a representation equal to their constituency; nor would they come seeking a partial monopoly of influence for themselves, but an equable representation of every denomination deserving to be recognized on account of numbers, principles, and property.

The more efficiently and certainly to prevent any Presbyterian influence in this illjointed Board, it is provided, that the members shall receive no remuneration for their labours, unless for time bona fide dedicated› to committee, when specially appointed. The plan of no emolument we highly approve; salaried commissioners, in all such cases, we utterly detest. But in this scheme more is meant than meets the eye. For when remuneration is granted, the one out of thirty, the solitary, unpatronized one, gets it not; he is left to labour at his own expense. Then the two Archbishops are resident in Dublin, he in Ulster. They are rich: the one abundantly provided for by the state; the other, judging from his equipage, not quite so poor as a primitive apostle. Meantime the Moderator of the Synod of Ulster is often almost literally "passing rich on forty pounds a year;" and yet he must travel to Dublin as often as the Board meets, and supply, as best he can, his congregation at home. He is therefore in a situation that disables him from doing his duty, were he ever so minded to do it. The expenses of his travelling and attendance would double his yearly income, so that dire necessity would compel him to stay at home, and remit all his duties to his lordly colleagues. Surely the Presbyterian people are not to be cajoled by this most preposterous proposal-a proposal which to us seems manifestly calculated to hoodwink their eyes, tie up their hands, and, under pretence of national education, rob them and their children of their Bibles and their religion.

We have said that this system attempts the establishment of Popery by Act of Parliament. And so it does, as will be evident from the following analysis:-1. Were this Bill to pass into law, the principles of the report being

adopted, it enables the Roman Catholics, according to their avowed principles, to excludeall our Protestant Bibles from the parish schools; for no book can enter a school without the sanction of the Board, in which the fifteen Roman Catholics forbid the Bible. 2. The report turns out the Protestant youth one-seventh of their time to afford op portunity for the Priest to inculcate the dogmas of Rome. 3. The Priest, according to the report, is to be authorized to teach in the parish schools, that Protestants are heretics; and that heretics, being out of the pale of the Church of Rome, cannot be saved. He is now, for the first time since the morning of the Reformation, to be authorized, by the legis lature, to inculcate, in the parish schools, the worship of the Virgin Mary, and the substitution of the Mass for the one sacrifice of Christ. And where, it may be said, is the evil of all this? Does not the Priest do so already? And is not freedom of conscience a universal privilege? To be sure the Priest already does inculcate these destructive dogmas, and assuredly we have neither wish nor design to abridge his liberty of conscience; in all these matters, we leave him to account with God. But we protest against the plan that would make Protestants co-partners in his work; nay, would require them to watch and ascertain, by certificate, that the work was done. As Presbyterians, we protest against a plan which requires the Moderator of the General Synod of Ulster to become a trustee for the protection of Popery; and a member of a joint stock company for the propagation of its errors and delusions.-4. The proposed system generates a new influence for the advancement of Popery, and the destruction of Protestantism. We think we are not timorous, and we would not be alarmists; nor shall we meddle with politics; yet are we free to confess, we are alarmned at the religiopolitical bearing of this system; still more are we alarmed at the blindness and fatuity of the Committee, by whom it has been proposed for consideration and adoption. To exhibit the ground of our alarm, we must analyse the elementary madness of the proposal. 1. We pretend not to any very intimate knowledge of the religious state and sentiments of Roman Catholics. It is said, indeed, there is much laxity of opinion, and even infidelity amongst them. Of this we have overflowing evidence in France; and it is strongly suspected to exist to an equal extent in Italy and Spain. Be these things as they may in Ireland, one point is cer

tain-the Roman Catholics form a body united in one sentiment and object-the absolute attainment of religious supremacy. 2. There are, on the other hand, multitudes of nominal Protestants, who are so lukewarm about their reli gion, that they seem to care not whether it sink or swim. A minister of state has been bold enough and bad enough to intimate, that he could see no great evil in the overturning of Protestantism in Ireland, and the establishment of Popery on its ruins. 3. With parties so constituted, what would the joint Board produce, but an admirable instrument for the advancement of Popery. 4. But let us look beyond the Board itself, to the more fearful instrumentality it would create and wield.

There were in 1826, upwards of 8,300 Roman Catholic teachers in Ireland. But now that the Roman Catholic Priests are to be vested with a new influence, and in most cases with an absolute veto against any Protestant candidate, it is not too much to conclude, that the race of Protestant parish schoolmasters will soon be extinct; and that within a few years, we may fairly calculate upon many more thousands of Roman Catholic schoolmasters being scattered throughout the kingdom, totally dependant on the will of the parish Priests; a body of police at the beck of the Romish Hierarchy, fitted by their office and intelligence for every purpose of espoinage, and impelled by their zeal, to aid in every effort that might disturb or overturn our Protestant institutions. We do look upon the prospect with terror; not because we dread the comparison, or the mental conflict, between Protestantism and Popery, but because we look upon the system as an evidence of the madness of its proposers, and a presage of the judgments with which God is threatening the land. "Quam deus vult perdere, prius dementat." Whom God would destroy, he first delivers over to madness, is a sentiment that should make those men pause, lest by one and the same act they confirm their folly, and seal

their doom.

5 Another important feature of the proposed system appears in the total destruction of all local influence or patronage in the immediate friends of the School, and the usurpation of it by the all-grasping Board in Dublin. The patrons of a school, the men whose funds have built the houses, the men whose children are to receive instruction, will be spoliated of every particle of power to appoint or