IRELAND. 3 65 
the defeels enumerated above, they polfefs innumerable 
good qualities, though thefe partake more of the energy 
of courage, the warmth of patriotifm, and the generofity 
of hofpitality, than of the cool, confiderate, and prudent, 
perfeverance of indullry.” “ Every unprejudiced tra¬ 
veller who vifits Ireland,” fays Mr. Young, “ will be as 
much pleafed with the cheerfulnefs as obliged by the 
hofpitality of the inhabitants, and will find them a brave, 
polite, liberal, learned, and ingenious, people.” The cou¬ 
rage of the Irilh indeed has ever been highly elteemed by 
thofe foreign nations whole good fenfe led them to profit 
by the bad policy of the Britilh government. Inftead, 
however, of fwelling the ranks of our enemies, the Irilh 
now contribute largely to the fleets and armies of Britain, 
and have had their full fhare in thole glorious victories 
by which the dignity and independence of the empire 
have been fupported. 
Among the peculiarities in the manners of the Irifli, a 
ftranger will be Itrftck by the prodigious crowds’which 
often attend funerals, and by the howling of the mourners, 
though this praftice begins to be lefs frequent than for¬ 
merly. The wake, which precedes one of thefe ceremonies, 
is a grand fource of joy and amufement. 
The handfomelt peafants in Ireland, as we are informed 
by Carr, are the natives of Kilkenny and the neighbour¬ 
hood ; and the molt wretched and lqualid, thofe near Cork 
and Waterford, and in Manlier and Connaught. In Meath 
they are very heavily limbed; and in Kerry, and along 
the weftern Ihore, where the Spaniards had a kind of fet- 
tlement from which they were not expelled till Crom¬ 
well’s time, the inhabitants very much referable that na¬ 
tion in expreflion of countenance and colour of hair. 
Beauty feeuis to be.lefs generally diffufed among the 
lower ranks in Ireland than in England ; but this is al- 
cribed to the dift’erence in the modes of living, and the 
want of thofe comforts in regard to food, lodging, and 
clothing, which the meaneft cottagers in the latter coun¬ 
try conlider necelfary to their exiltence. 
The native idiom Itill continues to be generally preva¬ 
lent among the lower orders of the Irilh; but Englilh is 
daily gaining ground, and might indeed by this time 
have become the univerfal language of the country, had 
proper attention been bellowed on the national education. 
The ancient Irifli is a dialed: of the Celtic, intermixed 
with many Gothic words. The moll valuable remains 
extant in this language are the annals of Tighernac, and 
other writers of the eleventh and following centuries. 
The literature of Ireland has a claim to high antiquity. 
Its chief glory arifes from the refledion of the rays of 
fcience, which had retreated hither on the fall of the 
Roman empire-in the weft. The Anglo-Saxons, in par¬ 
ticular, derived their firll illumination from Ireland; and 
in Scotland literature continued to be the fpecial province 
of the Irilh clergy till the thirteenth century. An in¬ 
genious writer of the feventeenth century publilhed a 
frnall volume containing a chronological catalogue of 
about two hundred Irilh authors, from the year 4.50 to 
his own time. Since that period the illuftrious names of 
Ulher and Ware have been followed by a long train of 
eminent fuccelfors, among which vve find thofe of Swift, 
Parnell, Congreve, Sterne, Goldfmith, King, and Berkeley ; 
and in our times, Burke and Sheridan, Kirwan, Murphy, 
Malone, and many others, have refleded In It re on their 
native land. The late lamented earl of Charlemont af¬ 
forded a diftinguilhed example of the union of rank and 
literary fame, which it is hoped will be followed by other 
dignified perfons, in preference to low or boifterous re¬ 
laxation. 
In no quarter of the Britilh dominions has education 
till of late been more negleded than in Ireland : yet it 
mull not.be fuppofech that there are few or no fchools for 
the poor in that illand. The parilh-fchools, the oldeft of 
the kind in this country, are coeval with the introduction 
of the Reformation, and were eltablilhed in 1.537, in the 
twenty-eighth year of the reign of Tlenry VIII. when an 
Voi;. XI. No. 760. 
ad of parliament was palled intituled “An Ad for the 
Englilh Order, Habit, and Language.” With a view to 
the general introdudion of the Englilh tongue, it enaded 
that fpiritual promotions Ihoulcl be given to fuch perlbns 
only as could fpeak Englilh, unlefs, after four procla¬ 
mations made in the next market-town, luch could not 
be had; and that they fnould take an oath to keep, or 
caufe to be kept, an Englilh fchool within their refpedive 
livings. Under this ad the pari(h-fchools of Ireland were 
eltablilhed ; ar.d every beneficed clergyman, on being in- 
dnded to a living, Hill takes the path required by it. 
The cultom has obtained among the clergy of allowing 
forty Ihillings yearly to a deputy, who is J'uppofed to keep 
fchool for the incumbent; in many of theie fchools the 
parilh clerks are alfo the fchool-mailers; and in fome 
cafes five, in a few others ten, guineas per annum, with a 
lioufe and garden rent-free, are allowed for this duty. 
"About the year 1788, an enquiry took place into the 
condition of thefe fchools: 361 were reported, the mailers 
of which received the forty Ihillings; but of thefe 74- were 
only nominal, the mailer keeping no fchool. In 4.03 be¬ 
nefices neither was a fchool kept, nor the .allowance paid.. 
In Ireland there are about 1122. benefices. By the re¬ 
ports of the Commiflioners of the Board of Education, 
made conformably to an ad paffed in 46 Geo. Ill- it ap¬ 
pears that, in 736 benefices from which returns have been 
received, there are 549 parilh fchools, and that the num¬ 
ber of children attending them is about 23,000. The 
northern provinces are bell provided with theie means of 
inltrudion. Befides thefe, the charter-fchools, the found¬ 
ling hofpitals at Dublin and Cork, and others, receive 
about 7000 children, who are clothed, fed, and inltruded 
in the proteftant religion. There are many other Protef- 
tant a,| well as Roman-catholic charity-fchools, at which 
numbers of poor children are inltruded. A fociety has 
alfo been recently ellabliflied in Dublin under the name 
of the Hibernian Sunday-fchool Society, the objed of 
which is to promote the eflabii'hment, and to facilitate 
the conduding, of thofe admirable inllitutions, Sunday- 
fchools, in this portion of the empire. 
Ireland polfeifes but one univerfity, that of Dublin. 
This inltitution was firft projeded by archbifhop Leech 
about the year 1311: but, death having interrupted his 
defign, it was executed by Bicknor, his fuccelfor; and 
the eitablilhment enjoyed a moderate degree of profperity 
for about forty years, when the revenues failed. It was 
not till the reign of Elizabeth that the univerfity was re¬ 
founded by voluntary contribution, under the aufpices of 
the lord-deputy Sidney. In 1591 it was removed from 
the precinds of St. Patrick’s church, to the fite of an 
Augulline monallery, and received a charter from Eliza¬ 
beth by the appellation of Trinity College. Her two 
immediate fuccelfors were liberal benefadors. The uni- 
verfity confilts of a chancellor, vice-chancellor, provoll, 
vice-provoll, twenty-two fellows, and thirteen profelfors 
of various fciences. The number of ftudents is commonly 
about fix hundred, including feventy fcholars on the foun¬ 
dation, and thirty fervitors or fixers. 
In 1795, the parliament of Ireland, jullly fenfible of the 
evil ariling from the Roman-catholics being obliged to 
refort for education, efpecially for the miniftry, to foreign 
countries, eltablilhed a college at Maynooth, about twelve 
miles from Dublin, by the name of the Royal College of 
St. Patrick. It is governed by a prefident, under the 
occalional fuperintendence of a refpedable board of trus¬ 
tees ; and has feven refident profelfors, and a proviliort 
for the education of young men for the Romifh church. 
The Catholics have alfo a lay-college at Maynooth, ef- 
tablifhed by private lubferiptions in 1802, and a college 
for the education of prielts at Carlow. 
There are man.; endowed fchools in Ireland, of which 
that at Kilkenny is one of the bell. Schools of all de~ 
feriptions are rapidly improving; and it may with truth 
be alferted, that the education of the higher and mid¬ 
dling clalfes is nearly as much attended to as in England. 
.3 A Among 
