unishment did not often produce retaliation
against the master; these were only exceptions, isolated cases that did
not affect the general character of the discipline in such schools.

Now when we consider the total absence of all moral and religious
principles in these establishments, and the positive presence of
all that was wicked, cruel, and immoral, need we be surprised that
occasional crimes of a dark and cruel character should be perpetrated?
The truth is, that it is difficult to determine, whether unlettered
ignorance itself were not preferable to the kind of education which the
people then received.

I am sorry to perceive the writings of many respectable persons on
Irish topics imbued with a tinge of spurious liberality, that frequently
occasions them to depart from truth. To draw the Irish character as it
is, as the model of all that is generous, hospitable, and magnanimous,
is in some degree fashionable; but although I am as warm an admirer of
all that is really excellent and amiable in my countrymen as any man,
yet I cannot, nor will I, extenuate their weak and indefensible
points. That they possess the elements of a noble and exalted national
character, I grant; nay, that they actually do possess such a character,
under limitations, I am ready to maintain. Irishmen, setting aside
their religious and political prejudices, are grateful, affectionate,
honorable, faithful, generous, and even magnanimous; but under the
stimulus of religious and political feeling, they are treacherous,
cruel, and inhuman--will murder, burn, and exterminate, not only without
compunction, but with a satanic delight worthy of a savage. Their
education, indeed, was truly barbarous; they were trained and habituated
to cruelty, revenge, and personal hatred, in their schools. Their
knowledge was directed to evil purposes--disloyal principles were
industriously insinuated into their minds by their teachers, most of
whom were leaders of illegal associations. The matter placed in their
hands was of a most inflammatory and pernicious nature, as regarded
politics: and as far as religion and morality were concerned, nothing
could be more gross or superstitious than the books which circulated
among them. Eulogiums on murder, robbery, and theft were read with
delight in the histories of Freney the Robber, and the Irish Rogues and
Rapparees; ridicule of the Word of God, and hatred to the Protestant
religion, in a book called Ward's Cantos, wri