1 74 Schools on the Plan of Bell and Lancaster 



from public grants and private legacies, amouir. > 

 to above thirty thousand pounds per annum : 

 great abuses are suspected to have taken place 

 in the administration of these funds, which 

 have not in all cases, perhaps, been corrected. 

 The number of children educated is calculated 

 at two thousand, at an expense of fourteen 

 pounds each. 



Schools in most of the great towns are esta- 

 blishing on the systems of Dr. Bell or Mr. 

 Lancaster; and as the gospel is now put into 

 the hands of so large a portion of the rising 

 generation, this diffusion of knowledge must 

 be attended with the happiest effects. The 

 universal principles of charity and forbearance, 

 so conspicuous in the doctrines of the Redeemer 

 of mankind, cannot fail to make an impression, 

 and to soften down those asperities so repugnant 

 to the professions of the Christian religion. 

 Should the catholic be happily induced to wave 

 his disinclination to the instruction of his 

 children in the English Old and New Testament, 

 it would, in my opinion, remove one of the most 

 formidable of the objections to Catholicism 

 that of keeping the people of that pursuasiou 

 in a state of utter darkness and lamentable 

 ignorance. The advantages of education not 

 long ago were forcibly impressed on my con- 

 sideration by a poor Irishman, whom I was 



