296 



IRELAND. 



Education. 



Ardagh and Tuam are united dioceses. 

 From the returns, it appears, that,, exclusive of the 

 charitable institutions, there are 3736 schools in these 

 dioceses, in which are taught 162,4.67 children, of 

 which number 45,590 are Protestants, and 116,977 Ca- 

 tholics. Of the schoolmasters, 1271 are Protestants, 

 and 2455 Catholics. 



" Hence we collect, that, as these dioceses may be 

 estimated to contain four-fifths of the population of 

 Ireland, the whole number of schools, including the 

 parochial schools, amount to 4600 the scholars taught 

 in them to 200,000, being an average of 43 to each 

 school ; and as these returns were made generally in 

 the winter, when many children are unable to attend, 

 and as itinerating schoolmasters, whose number is very 

 considerable, are frequently not included in them, we 

 are confident that more than 200,000 children, of the 

 poorer class, receive annually such sort of instruction 

 as those schools afford. 



" That instruction, except in a very few instances, 

 extends no farther than reading, writing, and the com- 

 mon rules of arithmetic , and the prices paid are, on 

 an average, 10s. per annum for reading, 17s. 4d. when 

 writing, ami 1,6s. when arithmetic is added." (Four- 

 teenth Report from the Commissioners of the Board of 

 Education in Ireland. ) 



L'nion. ' n tne hi storv ^ Ireland, the union of it with Eng- 



land has been noticed; and also the number of peers 

 and representatives which, by that union, she is en- 

 titled to send into each house of the British Parlia- 

 ment. 



Freehold:. The following Table exhibits the number of regis- 

 tered freeholds in each county, of the values of 40s. 

 20, and 50. 



Stati-tios. 

 Education 



A viceroy, or lord lieutenant, still resides in Dublin, Govern. 

 to administer the executive government of Ireland, mem. 

 There are some minute differences between the statute 

 and common laws of this country and those of Eng- 

 land. 



The Irish language is a dialect of the Celtic. It is Language, 

 spoken throughout the province of Connaught by all 

 the lower orders, a great part of whom scarcely un- 

 derstand any English. It is also spoken very general- 

 ly in the other provinces, except among the descend- 

 ants of the Scotch in the north. It is supposed, that 

 there are about two millions of people in Ireland, who 

 are almost entirely ignorant of English. The music of 

 the Irish is strictly national. It is diitinguished by a 

 pensive simplicity. " Few nations have given more 

 undeniable proofs of a genius adapted to scientific and 

 literary pursuits ; but it is to be lamented, that the pre- 

 valence of dissipation has exerted so unfavourable an 

 influence upon the general habits of .life, that scarcely 

 any European country is less distinguished by the pro- 

 ductions of its press.'' 



The principal antiquities of Ireland, are the crom- Antiquiiii 

 lechs; the carnedds ; the oratories, chapels, and round 

 towers ; the stone crosses ; earthen works ; and religi- 

 ous buildings. The round towers are singular build- 

 ings, supposed to have been erected about the ninth 

 century. Of the religious buildings, the chapel at 

 Cashel exhibits elegant and rich architecture, of remote 

 and singular antiquity. 



Beaufort's Memoirs of a Map of Ireland. 



Young's Tour in Ireland. 



Wakefield's Account of Ireland. 



Preston's Prize Essay on the .Manufactures of Ire- 

 land, in the 9th vol. of the Irish Transfer it>ns. 



Dr. Stephenson on the Linen and Hempen* Manu- 

 factures in Ulster, in the 2d fasciculus of the Select Pa* 

 pers oj the Belfast Literary Society. 



Newenham On the Population of Ireland, 



Boate's Natural History of Ireland. 



On the Mineralogy of the Vicinity of Dublin, in the 

 1st vol. of the Geological Transactions. 



Dewar On the Character of the Irish. 



Reports from the,Commissioners of Education, andfrom 

 the Commissioners for Improving the Bogs ; and Accounts 

 and Papers relative to the Manufactures, Trade, Reve~ 

 ma's, Sfc. of Ireland, laid before Parliament, from 1812, 

 to 1817. (w. s.) 



