ADVERTISEMENT. THE matter contained in the following pages is partly a fragment-partly a compression-of the materials of a larger essay, in the preparation of which I have for some time been at intervals engaged. In that essay I had hoped, in a more full and deliberate manner, to have invited the attention both of the English and Irish public to the position of this great question of Irish education, and to have made an attempt to place before them the principles upon which a fair and just settlement of that question should be made. Other avocations have prevented me from completing that design; and there are many reasons which induce me to desire that the plan which these pages contain should at once be placed in a formal shape before the public. I believe the time is come when the friends of religious education of all creeds should endeavour, if possible, to press their views upon the attention of Ministers and of Parliament. Something, perhaps, may be done to bring this about by the presentation of |