Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

the globe. The public have now the assurance that the necessary works for our coaling stations have been taken in hand. The charge on imperial funds can be kept within reasonable limits. The cost of permanent fortifications will be borne by the wealthy communities established under the protection of our flag at Hong Kong and Singapore. The Australian colonies are fully prepared to provide their own local defences. We look for assistance from India for the fortification of Aden. At the Cape, Malta, and Gibraltar the charge must necessarily be borne by the Imperial exchequer. In connection with these works of defences the patriotic efforts of our most powerful colonies to create a naval force deserve attention. They already possess ironclads, torpedo-vessels, and powerful sea-going boats, and they have organised a considerable naval reserve. The late Admiralty readily afforded all the assistance which it was in their power to give to the colonial governments.

Under the late Board the dock accommodation for the Navy was considerably extended. They completed a dock of the first class at Devonport, and they commenced a similar dock at Malta. They obtained the sanction of the Treasury for a grant towards the construction of a private dock at Hong Kong, large enough to take in ironclads of the most powerful class which would be despatched to those distant waters. They assiduously represented to the Government of India the necessity for providing a dock at Bombay capable of receiving an ironclad.

In concluding, two points may be specially urged: let there be less of self-depreciation and less of party spirit in dealing with the Navy. In the anxious desire to arouse public opinion, and to bring pressure to bear upon the Government, accuracy has been too little. regarded in the comparisons of our Navy with foreign fleets from time to time presented to the public. Happily these pessimist views are not accepted abroad with the credulity which is exhibited at home. Foreign observers know very well that we are not defenceless, and they have a wholesome respect for our naval power. This impression is our best protection against the miseries of war. In recent years the naval debates in Parliament have been free from the acrimony formerly displayed. The discussions in the House of Commons on naval matters were lifted out of the region of party conflict. It was agreed on both sides to treat the affairs of the Navy as a common object in which, if the rivalry of party was to be felt at all, it should be displayed not in mutual recrimination, but in striving which would contribute most from his stores of knowledge and experience for the advantage of the public service.

The permanent strength of the Navy must ever depend on the will of the nation. No movement such as that which has lately taken place could proceed from the action of a particular party or the influence of an individual minister. Lord Beaconsfield said truly: 'It

is quite a wild idea that a body of men, though they may be ministers, can meet in a room and suddenly alter the establishments of the country. The establishments of the country are adapted to the policy which the country pursues.'

Under the late administration the building votes were increased from 3,082,000l. in 1880-81 to 5,047,000l. in 1885-86. They were increased because at the bidding of the nation we entered upon a new policy. We have undertaken to provide upon a scale never contemplated before for the protection of the commerce of the country. We have resolved on a complete re-armament of the Fleet.

In asking for a full and fair recognition of the strength and resources of the Navy as it was handed over by the late Government to their successors, the present writer disclaims any special share of credit for the Board with which he was connected. The strength of the Navy as we see it to-day, in its officers and men, in its ships, in the great stations and establishments which it possesses in all parts of the world, is the result of the labour of a long succession of Boards of Admiralty, and it is intimately bound up with the history of the country. The ablest ministers in a short and precarious term of office can add but little to our maritime power: a short interval of bad administration may do much to weaken it.

A thousand years scarce serve to form a State:

An hour may lay it in the dust.

It may be confidently asserted that under the late Board of Admiralty much was done to maintain the traditional superiority of the British Navy.

THOMAS BRASSEY.

IRISH EDUCATION.

For nearly fifty years the system of mixed education imposed upon Ireland for politic reasons by Parliament, against the almost unanimous wishes of her people of all religious denominations, has been fairly tried, and, all must acknowledge, has been found wanting.

The primary or national schools have owed whatever success they have attained to the circumstance that practically they have been worked upon the denominational principle.

Of the Queen's colleges it may be said that only one, that of Belfast, has achieved any real success, and that for the same reason, for to all intents and purposes it is a Presbyterian college; those of Cork and Galway being conspicuous failures. Coming to higher or university education, the Queen's University, founded as a portion of the above system, may be dismissed as a thing of the past.

There have been two large and generous attempts in later times to meet the inequality under which the Roman Catholics suffer, but still adhering to the principle of avoiding actual and open denominational endowment.

The first, Mr. Gladstone's Bill of 1873, was wrecked, partly from want of support from the Roman Catholic hierarchy, but chiefly through the bigoted opposition of Mr. Gladstone's own English Nonconformist and Radical supporters.

Then came Lord Beaconsfield's measure, on much the same lines as his Intermediate Education Bill, which had attained a certain degree of success: the principle of which is the liberal endowment of scholarships open to all.

This is the present Royal University, which, as an examining and rewarding machinery, has been eminently successful; but still it leaves the great grievance of our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects unredressed. We still have, face to face, the magnificently endowed Trinity College, which cannot help retaining its Protestant character, and the Catholic University, which has never received one shilling from the State.

Now, it is in these circumstances, and with the view of suggesting a remedy for this manifest inequality and injustice, that I venture to put forward the following remarks.

There can be no doubt but that public opinion has ripened very much of late on this matter, and appears to offer an opportunity for its generous settlement.

I think that, in the face of the evidence of feeling upon the subject of religious education shown in the English elections, the secularist party in Parliament can hardly maintain their rigid attitude of hostility to all denominational endowment; and from the declarations of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, as leader of the opposite party, and from a remarkable article on the subject in the Dublin Evening Mail of November 7, 1885 (the organ of the most uncompromising section of the Tory party in Ireland), I do not think much opposition would be offered on that side of the House. There is also at the present time the great desire of all parties to meet in a favourable spirit the wishes of the National party in Ireland on any subject that does not involve danger to the empire.

There are two alternatives in dealing with the question: one being the conversion of the present Royal University into a purely Catholic one, and affiliating the Catholic colleges to it; the other, the formation, as Mr. Gladstone proposed, of only one university for all Ireland. The latter is the plan on which I propose to write now, because it is alleged that the Catholics have, as is no doubt the case, the grievance that they have to start from a lower level than the Protestants, on account of their want of an ancient and well endowed and equipped university, such as is possessed by the latter at Trinity College, Dublin.

The omission of the chairs of History and Philosophy in Mr. Gladstone's Bill was an attempt to remedy this inequality, by relegating these controversial subjects to private study; but this was looked upon by everyone as an objection to the measure, and it seems as if now it might be possible to obtain equality by a method which did not meet with public favour at that time-the establishment and endowment of Catholic colleges under a common university.

The Catholic hierarchy both in England and Ireland have always pronounced emphatically that religion should be inculcated in connection with education in all its branches, as well in primary and intermediate schools as in universities and colleges.

The Protestants of Ireland also hold that opinion, and the doctrinal differences between them have always proved the crux which has prevented any agreement between them in mixed education.

Any one who lives in Ireland, as I do, cannot but observe the impossibility of mixing the two antagonistic creeds, but I write with great diffidence on the subject, from not having, unfortunately, received a university education myself. On the other hand, I have lived a good many years in constant communication with both parties, and have therefore thought right to endeavour to press this most important subject upon public attention.

In primary schools, under the National Board, it is well known that, wherever there is a sufficient number of scholars of each creed, it has been found best to establish a Catholic and a Protestant school, side by side, with teachers and managers, in each case, of the creed of the school children respectively.

I have established this on my own estate with the greatest success, and no complaints have been heard on either side since this practically denominational system has been in force.

Of course there are some places where this is not possible-where the number on one side or the other is too small to admit of two schools receiving grants from the National Board; but in these cases, where the Protestants are generally in the minority, sometimes there are private schools, not under the Board, supported by the local landlords or other persons. There must be very few places in Ireland where the Catholics are in so small a minority as to be unable to obtain a grant. Probably, therefore, the main alteration which would be required in the National Board would be that a sufficient number of the Commissioners should be always of the creed of the majority. That is, as I understand, the view expressed by the Catholic authorities in Ireland. I believe that, even in Ulster, the Catholics are 47 per cent., or thereabouts, of the population, and in the other provinces, of course, the proportion of Catholics is much larger. The National Board might, if necessary, have power to declare schools which are practically in most cases already denominational to be such in fact and name.

I am quite convinced that it is useless attempting to go on, in any grade of education in Ireland, on the mixed system, which satisfies neither one side nor the other, and that it would be better in the interest of peace as well as of every other good influence to agree to differ, as I have said above-some provision being made in the rules of the National Board to prevent the interference by the members of one creed with the rights of the other. Each party having their full rights conceded and guaranteed, there would not be any just cause for jealousy or interference.

But to return to the higher education in the universities: the Royal University has been lately established, with the view of meeting the claims of the Catholics, who did not think themselves justified in entering either the Queen's University or the, until lately, Protestant University of Trinity College.

A large proportion of Catholics are on its Senate, including the Vice-Chancellor, Lord Emly, who succeeded the late Lord O'Hagan. Still, the inequality under which the Catholics suffer as to endowment is left untouched.

England has but too often legislated for Ireland upon lines which are well suited to English affairs, and then has turned round in surprise because everything has not worked as smoothly as she VOL. XIX.-No. 107.

K

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »