Patent of Precedence._

It has been urged, that professional honours should not be withheld from
a gentleman who is entitled to them, on account of political offences. I
beg to set the noble Lord right on that point. The offences of which Mr.
O'Connell was convicted, were not political or professional, but legal
offences. They were pronounced such by the law of the country; and it
was to an individual who had been convicted of such offences, that his
Majesty's Government thought it right to give a patent of precedence in
Ireland.

_February 27, 1832._

* * * * *

_Opinion of the "National" System of Education in Ireland._

I agree in opinion with the noble and learned Lord (Plunkett), who has
declared that opinion with so much eloquence, that any system of
education, to succeed, must be founded on religion; and that it cannot
stand on any other foundation. The noble and learned Lord has truly
said, that this is to be desired, not simply from the advantages to be
derived from religious instruction, but for the promotion of those
habits of obedience and discipline which it is necessary to instil into
the mind of youth. I admit that the system proposed by Ministers is
founded on, and justified by, the reports of the commissioners and of
committees of the other House of Parliament; but the doubt I entertain
is this--whether the system laid down in the reports, and in the letter
of the Right Honourable Secretary for Ireland, is a system which would
inculcate those habits of discipline and obedience which are required by
the noble and learned Lord, and which would alone satisfy my own mind,
that in adopting it we should be doing that which we ought to do: this
is my apprehension. What I feel is this--that there is much doubt
whether the new system of education in Ireland will apply to the
education of nearly 500,000 persons, in the same advantageous way as is
now the case with the existing Societies--the London Hibernian Society,
the Sunday School Society, and the Kildare Place Society. What I would
say is, that there is already going on a system of religious education,
extending its operation to nearer 500,000 than 400,000 persons--a system
of real religious education, founded on the Scriptures, which can be
interfered with by nobody--neither by priest nor by any other man--and
which is so directed by this Kildare Place Society, as not to give
offence to anybody; and now, when the Governme