"This last was to be accomplished by the medium of the model schools. One of these was to be established in each county. The master was to be a person of superior attainments, with a salary very far above that of any curate of the Established Church, and in these schools a superior education was to be conveyed. We shall see how steadily the plan, first broached in the annual report of 1835, has been carried out. "In 1837, the report tells us that 'they had added to their normal establishment in Dublin a scientific department and a school of industry, in the immediate neighbourhood of Dublin, with work-rooms and a farm of from forty to fifty acres attached to it'. In the same report they propose to appoint a superintendent for each of twenty-five districts--residing at the model school, and having L125 a-year, with apartments and allowances. The head master of each model school was '_to be authorised to receive a limited number of boarders at such charge to their parents and friends as the commissioners might think proper, having regard to local circumstances'_. "At the same time, they stated their intention to establish, generally, schools termed secondary, in which 'scientific instruction' and 'instruction in manual occupation' should be given;--a portion of land for garden husbandry to be an indispensable adjunct to each secondary school. "In 1839 they modestly announce a model farm, near Dublin, as only in its infancy, with twelve agricultural pupils, 'deriving much benefit from the judicious system of farming which they see practised there'. "In 1840 they determine to establish twenty-five agricultural model schools--each of them in connection with an elementary national school. They subsequently establish twelve pupil-teacherships in their central agricultural institution--scholarships, in fact, which are competed for by the most promising students in their rural agricultural schools. "I have referred to these establishments in proof of the assertion that the national system has been gradually expanded into a vast educational institution, absorbing and controlling the education of the poorer classes, and, to a great extent, that of the middle classes of the country. "The extent to which this has proceeded will be understood by a reference to the last report of the Commissioners, that for the year 1864. "It appears by this report that there are at present in operation twenty-six model schools (classing the three metropolitan schools as one establishment). The expenditure within the year upon these model schools amounts to nearly L25,000.