In the present very comprehensive Report, as in all preceding Reports on the state of Ireland, [Sidenote: Education.] whether by committees of parliament or Royal commissions, the necessity for education is adverted to as a matter of paramount importance. It is now moreover said, that “the entire body of the Roman catholic hierarchy have by petitions to both houses of parliament, entreated that the recommendations of the select committee of 1827,[53] should be adopted”—on which account, as well as on account of its intrinsic importance with regard to the question of education generally, that Report now requires to be noticed. ----- [53] The committee consisted of twenty-one members, and Sir John Newport was the chairman. ----- [Sidenote: 1828. Report of the Select Committee on Education in Ireland.] The Report of the select committee appointed in 1827 here referred to, was printed by order of the House of Commons on the 19th May 1828.[53] The committee declare that they “have proceeded to consider the Reports on the state of education in Ireland, with a full sense of the importance of the subject, and of the peculiar difficulties with which it is encompassed.” During several centuries, they observe, the necessity for providing the means of education in Ireland has been recognised. As early as the reign of Henry the Eighth the prevalence of crime was attributed to the ignorance of the people, “and education was relied upon as producing moral improvement, and supporting the institutions of civil policy.” Various statutes were passed and charters granted, and endowments made, with a view to this object; and inquiries had likewise been at different times instituted with the same intent. Of the commissions appointed, the two latest are the most important, namely that issued in 1806, and which terminated in 1812, after making “fourteen Reports upon the schools of royal and private foundation, the charter schools, foundling hospital, and the parochial and diocesan schools;” and that issued in 1824, which terminated in 1827, after making “nine Reports on the various establishments for education.” But the interference of the State was not solely confined to regulation and inquiry. “Parliamentary grants have been at various times most liberally made for the purposes of education,” and of these a list is given, amounting in the whole to 2,914,140_l._ The number of scholars receiving instruction in the existing schools in 1826, is stated to be 560,549, “leaving in all probability upwards of 150,000 without the means of education.” Of the number of scholars returned, it is said that 394,732 are brought up in the common pay schools, 46,119 in schools supported exclusively by the Roman catholic priesthood and laity, 84,295 in various establishments of private charity, and 55,246 in schools maintained in whole or in part at the public expense.