Now, as to the Statistics compiled by the Census Commissioners who selected the week ended 14th May, 1881, and which give for all Ireland 46-5 attending school, and 53.5 not attending school (taking the school-going age from 5 to 15 years or perhaps up to 16, as the Commissioners, for aught I know, may have done), it is evident that a gross error underlies them. The English Commissioners may be right in assigning so long a period to primary education elsewhere, but certainly they are not warranted in its extension to Ireland. If they were dreaming of some Boeotia the mistake might be overlooked, but where the youth of the country are universally acknowledged as endowed with the highest mental qualities, so apt and so fond of learning, showing their superiority frequently in competition with their coevals in other countries, it is out of the question to confine them to school for the term of ten years in order to attain the highest standard in a national school. The teachers themselves admit that a child of ordinary capacity may finish the sixth book at twelve years of age. What is to become, then, of the three additional years at least required by the computation of the English Commissioners? In those parts of the country where business is brisk and the various branches of it afford plentiful employment to both boys and girls as soon as they enter upon their teens, they will, as a matter of course, be employed at some art or industry; and yet the Census Commissioners would enumerate them amongst those not attending school-although it be to their credit that they have passed the goal of their youthful course.

But the Commissioners do not take into their consideration whether the studies pursued in national schools be completed in seven years or in ten. Hence the illusiveness of their tables, which deceive many who take merely a superficial view of such matters, and who do not reflect that the facts belie the figures.

Take the case of three schools in three different localities, each of which opens with an attendance of 30 pupils. At No. 1 school, five pupils leave at the age of fourteen, when they have attained the highest standard, viz., the sixth book. At No. 2, five more leave at thirteen; and at No. 3, the goal is passed at the age of twelve. It is evident that here both teacher and pupils are entitled to the highest degree of credit for having secured the highest standard in the shortest time. Yet, how would the Census Commissioners report upon the state of education in these three localities?

Of course, that neglect prevails throughout them all, and in a very sad degree in No. 3, where 50 per cent. only attend school.

It is thus I explain the low position of Ulster in the following table given by the Census Commissioners:

Of course in Connaught the attendance is explained on other grounds; partly from the scarcity of school accommodation, and partly from the fact that the Commissioners of National Education have not yet satisfied the wants of a Gaelic-speaking population. But in Ulster the schools. are numerous, in fact, too numerous, according to some Inspectors, and not far apart, except in some rural and remote mountainous districts, and may be reckoned by the score in large towns of commercial activity, where as a matter of self-interest people are in the habit of sending their children to school at a very early age, in order to earn their bread in the mills and factories and warerooms, or become apprentices to different professions and trades. To confirm my case as against the Census Commissioners, I quote the report of the shrewd and able Inspector, Mr. Skeffington, whose district No. 10, extends from Donaghadee to Belfast:-

"The returns give of 8,000 examined 2,000, or about 25 per cent. infants, while 20 per cent. of infants is the average for Ireland, showing how young the pupils attend here, which is still more evident from the promoted. This district had 75 per cent. of classed pupils, against 80 per cent. generally, and 28 per cent. in senior classes (fourth to sixth); while only 60 per cent. of senior pupils passed for Ireland, 70 per cent. passed in District 10." Ex uno disce omnes.

In the North of Ireland children go early to school, and they leave at a comparative early age. I therefore dispute the statistics as given by the Census Commissioners, as they are based upon a false hypothesis, at least, so far as the greater part of Ulster is concerned. It is indeed a matter of curiosity to ascertain why the week ended 14th May, 1881, was the one of all others selected by the Commis

sioners as the exponent of children's attendance at school. Any week in May no doubt seems plausible to readers as an excellent criterion of attendance. Yet whoever takes the trouble of making enquiry, as I have done, may find the issue of it unfavourable to the honesty and candour of those who made up the report. I shall confine my remarks to the three schools in my parish, in the County of Antrim, of which I am manager. In No. 1 one of the days was marked "struck out," and in No. 2 "very wet," in which school the attendance of pupils was 21 per cent. lower than the average for the year; and in No. 3, it was 30-3 below the average for the same year '81. It is not for me to assign a reason for their selecting that now celebrated week. A better test surely would have been the average attendance for the whole year, for one cannot help thinking that the above week in May was chosen in sustainment of what may fairly be considered a foregone conclusion in favour of compulsion. It cannot be said that there is here an argument from a particular case to a general, except one should say that the district about Glenavy was alone visited with rain at that time, and therefore I am right in assuming it as the general cause for the bad attendance of that week. The Census report is intended both for the government and the general public, and should be extremely accurate and above suspicion of taxing the credulity of the people, on the one hand, or supplying false materials for legislation, on the other. One thing is certain, if the Census Commissioners had taken the yearly average quotation instead of about the lowest actual numbers in any single week, they would have been better entitled to the praise that has been so lavishly bestowed upon their labours by a portion of the Irish press.

After such gross inaccuracies on the part of the Census Commissioners, it is not hard to deal with the second table furnished by them for four decennial periods, but two of them will suffice:

So that these Commissioners inform us that in the latter year when the population of Ireland was returned at 5,159,839, there were no less than 1,348,021 children of school-going age, viz., more than one-fourth of the people

of Ireland, or about 26 in 100! Why if such a rule were applied to England, there should have been 6,741,732 at school, whereas, for that year, only an average of 2,863,535 was found in attendance in all the primary schools of England! It is plain to be seen that the whole structure of figures piled together by the Census Commissioners is at once fallacious and rotten; and if critics of ordinary discernment had consulted the report books, which are so easy of access to the Manager, or been conversant with the working of the schools, they might have long since detected the leaven, which runs through all their calculations. As to this question of regular attendance at school, is there no allowance to be made for those two powerful factors in Ireland, migration and emigration? Is there no allowance for the children of the poor to exchange schools and to frequent the nearest in winter, whilst they betake themselves in summer to those of their own choice? Children of the same family are known to attend school half the time alternately, that they may master the rudiments, if nothing else. It may not be a wise course to pursue, but one should be slow to condemn them for doing what they conceive is the best. Such children, it is true, although they may attend 99 days at one school and 99 days at another, earn no results-fees for their teachers.

In Great Britain, in the absence of a compulsory law, the parent would send his child to school, knowing well he must pay to the teacher his fee, or he would keep him at home, if he had no fee to spare; but in Ireland, admission is granted on the easiest terms, or rather without any terms at all, no guarantee being exacted or given relatively to attendance of 100 days in order to obtain result-fees. Thus for many reasons there cannot be instituted a fair comparison between Ireland and England, or between Ireland and Scotland, in the matter of school attendance. It is not so much a question of irregularity of attendance at school as it is a failure of continuous attendance at the same school, for in the national schools in Ireland the same pupil is frequently entered on the rolls of different schools, two or three times in the year. If a return were given to Parliament of the collected instead of the divided attendances in Irish elementary schools for last year, it would be much more to the credit of Ireland. The Chief Secretary, proposing his scheme, said:

"I was startled by finding that out of the whole number of children who attended school in Ireland during the last year for

which I have seen the analysed returns, there are 197 who attended 150 attendances-which means days--and only 24·7 who attended between 100 and 150; 24.0 who attended between 50 and 100 times; and the number of attendances less than 50 was 30.6."

This return is clearly misleading. But if it be the desire of the Government to secure more favourable attendance, why do they allow the Saturdays to be excluded from computation? As in most of the higher schools their pupils attend on the half of the last day of the week, why should it not be the same in national schools? This claim may in justice be advanced by Catholics, as between holidays and other days of devotion there is fully a vacancy of a fortnight; and in this simple way education would be largely promoted and result-fees more generally obtained by the teachers. It is remarked that amongst those who advocate legal compulsion are the very persons who complain most of the present system of national education. In fact, they advance pleas which are utterly subversive of what they demand. The system, they maintain, is, in no sense, national; the history of the country is ignored by it, the text-books are unintelligible to the great bulk of the children; the instruction imparted is anything but practical, without a knowledge even of the commonest things. There is want of technical and industrial training, in a word, they maintain the present system is rotten in root and branch. Now, if these lackadaisical critics would but use the influence of the Press at their command, in order to effect a reform of the system and make it more popular than it is, something might be done which would preclude the necessity for compulsion. At present the only conclusion they should draw from the maladministration of the Government system of education is that it exculpates any defective attendance throughout the greater part of Ireland. Exceptional cases may be found in some of the larger towns where youth have facilities for making attendance at school. But why not apply to them the present Factory Laws, or why not make the attainment of a certain standard of education a sine qua non to apprenticeship to trade or business of any kind? Surely, the country at large should not be punished for the negligence of a few towns. Whilst in some districts schools are reported to be too numerous, there is a want of school accommodation in many others, and the schools in many instances are returned as unhealthy and uncomfortable, and