State of Education in Ireland. 219 



On the supposition that the returns are correct, an estimate may- 

 be made of the state of education, by comparing the pupils enu- 

 merated, either with the children actually existing from 5 to 10 

 years of age, or from 5 to 15, the latter being probably the limits 

 between which the majority of the pupils must be found. In this 

 way the intensity of education may be discovered, and those dis- 

 tricts made known where its blessings are experienced in the 

 highest degree, or where ignorance, superstition, and error, most 

 abound. 



The first of the following tables has been deduced^ from the Po- 

 pulation Returns, for the purpose of making a comparative esti- 

 mate of the different degrees in which male and female education 

 prevails, and from which it will be perceived that low and de- 

 graded as is the state of the males the condition of the females is 

 still more to be deplored. The table exhibits for both sexes the 

 relation between the pupils found in each county, and the total 

 population of all ages, and which mode of comparison was neces- 

 sarily adopted in the present case, on account of the distinction of 

 sex having been unfortunately omitted in the classification of the 

 ages. The counties are arranged in the order adopted in the Po- 

 pulation Returns ; audit will" be immediately seen by the nume- 

 rical results, what rank each county holds in the scale of mo- 

 ral and intellectual improvement. 



Dublin Philosophical Journal, containing an interesting paper on the popula- 

 tion of Ireland, and in which the author obsarves, " we regret that the number 

 of pupils at the schools were inserted. They are obviously entirely void of 

 accuracy, and were any conclusions to be drawn from them, tliey must be en- 

 tirely fallacious." This remark, however, is too sweeping in its consequences. 

 The returns may be correct, and our ideas of their inaccuracy erroneous ; at 

 all events, calling the public attention to the question can do no harm. 



