RELIEF OF THE POOR. 32? 



3. The new system of education has been in operation 

 for several years, without occasioning any increase of 

 religious animosity, but, on the contrary, has tended 

 rather to allay such feelings ; much more, therefore, 

 may we expect that a similar system for the relief of 

 the poor may be conducted not only without any ex- 

 acerbation of religious animosity, but with a healing 

 and uniting influence. In the process of education 

 religious jealousy is much more likely to arise than in 

 giving relief to the destitute. In conducting a system 

 of education it is extremely difficult to exclude all 

 occasions of jealousy from the operation of instructing 

 children; but in relieving the destitute, whatever 

 causes of jealousy might arise among the different 

 persons employed, none could be occasioned by the 

 mere administration of pecuniary relief. Any attempt 

 indeed to place the Roman Catholic poor under the 

 exclusive guardianship of Protestants, whether clergy 

 or gentry, would unquestionably increase religious 

 animosity; but an offer of assistance towards sup- 

 porting the poor of all denominations, without refer- 

 ence to their religious denominations, would be still 

 more likely to bring them together on a friendly and 

 a confidential footing. It may be pleaded that Pro- 

 testants are to a very considerable extent at least hos- 

 tile to the system of national education, and it is not 

 to be denied that such hostility exists among very 

 many Protestants ; but the chief reason which they 

 give for their dislike of the system is one that would 

 not enter into a plan for the relief of the mere bodily 

 wants of the poor : for, however much some may con- 

 ceive it to be their duty not to give education to those 



