204 STRAY' AW AYS 



ism, and dismisses the Irish peasant with " one sweep- 

 ing observation, namely, that the brains and tongues 

 of the Irish are somewhat differently formed or 

 furnished than those of other people." The Irish- 

 man may be dismissed with an epigram, or a curse, 

 but, as England knows, he has a way of recurring. 

 Even Barrington, with all his pessimism, admits that 

 " a good steady Irishman will do more in an hour, 

 when fairly engaged upon a matter which he under- 

 stands, than any other countryman." He spoke of 

 the educated Irishman. " The lower orders," he is 

 careful to add, " exhibit no claim to a participation 

 in the praise I have given to their superiors." It 

 would seem to a present-day observer that Edgeworth 

 and Barrington, approaching the matter from opposite 

 poles, met at the vital point, which is Education. 

 Vital to-day as it was when Richard Edgeworth, in 

 his daughter's words, "turned the attention of the 

 House " (i. e. the Irish House of Commons) " to a 

 subject which he considered to be of greater and more 

 permanent importance than the Union, or than any 

 merely political measure could prove to his country, 

 the Education of the people." 



