State of Education in IrelancL 227 



25 by the latter. So likewise only 3 in 1 1 will be found in the 

 first class for Londonderiy, and 3 in 22 for the second. If indeed 

 we direct our attention exclusively to the numbers contained in 

 the second column for each province, a most humiliating picture 

 is presented of the state of education, no town or county present- 

 ing an example of the whole of its adult population receiving the 

 advantages of education. t 



I would again observe, in conclusion, that the preceding rcf^ 

 marks have been formed on the supposition that the returns are 

 correct,, and I have therefore abstained from making any observa- 

 tions but what are strictly warranted by the tables themselves, and 

 the sources from which they were derived. I have refrained also 

 from making any allusion to the state of religion in the different 

 counties, from the full and perfect conviction that comparisons of 

 the kind only tend to foster and perpetuate a spirit diametrically 

 opposed to the mild and beneficent principles of Christianity. ^ 



Plymouth,, January 3, 1825. 



Art. VII. — An Account of the Eruption of Mount Etna, of 

 the21thMay, 1819. 



[Extracted from the Journal of Signer M. Gemmellaro.] 



During the first four months of the year 1819, the mountain was 

 remarkably quiet, and no other phenomena were remarked in the 

 crater than the occasional evolution of white vapours. It re- 

 mained thus tranquil until the morning of the 27th of May, 

 when it suddenly sent forth copious volumes of smoke, and the 

 whole mountain trembled. Three large mouths or caverns 

 opened very near those which were formed in the eruption of 

 1811, at the south-east foot of the high hicarne,, in the lava called 

 delfilosofo, formed in 1792, about half a mile distant from my 

 cottage*. Flames, and red-hot cinders and sand, amidst dense 

 smoke, soon began to burst into the air from these mouths, with an 

 inconceivable noise, and the dust, transported by the wind, covered 



• See plate IV., flg. 2. 

 Q2 



