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Untitled Article
78 UNITARIAN CHRONIC-LE ;
having thought upon the subject , I can truly say , Mr . Chairman i that the scheme of education for the people of this country , which has at length jbeen put forward under the patronage
of the government , was precisely that which had always presented itself to J ^ y ^^ gBieM ^ O ^ it might have grown upon myliopes ^) as one which was most adapted to our wants , —and most consistent with policy , justice , and true religion . 1
Sir , I am disposed to regard it as but little evincing a capacity for the conduct of affairs , in any great project , and more particularly in so critical and delicate an enterprise as that of instructing on a national scale the population of this island , to undervalue the difficulties , or miscalculate the obstructions , which may oppose themselves to our efforts .
It mighir no doubt be vastly desirable that no such embarrassments should exist : but in the condition of human nature , and especially of this country , such a spirit of docility or concession is not to be expected .
The temper of a nation is not to be changed by a wish ; the prejudices of a people will not disappear at our bidding . The disasters of seven centuries may instruct us that a new method must be tried . Above all
other countries on the globe , it most behoves him who would legislate for Ireland , and especially him who would enlighten the mind of the country , to remember that the age of miracle is no more—that the age of violence is passed away—and that it is time we essay what the age of intelligence may now accomplish . 4
Sir , an opportunity of bringing such experiment into action has now been offered to us . The government of Ireland , often mistaken , sometimes unjust , rarely enlightened , has at
length put an instrument of good into our hands , by which a revolution more signal than any which her annals have yet recorded , may be effected in this country . It gives a power which she has not yet been practised to resist .
Untitled Article
It ^ g ives ^ us the promise of her confidence . It opens an avenue to her affections . It carries us into the hearts of her people ^ -a noble region ! ¦—where her conquerors have never yet trodden ^—but where friends may gather an abundant harvest , if they have only the skill to prepare , and fl ^ ^ jg ^ g g-to ^ aw ait 4 tT ~^ I n-a-word ~; this measure for the national education
of Ireland supplies us with a great moral lever by which we may raise the community to an elevation hardly yet contemplated , if , in despite of the ignorance or the madness of blunderers , we will only apply our force in the right place , and erect our fulcrum in its true position .
' But not only is it policy thus to act—but it is that without which * truly speaking , there can be no ; such thing as policy at all ; and without which , I believe it is in the irreversible order of things that no great or permanent good ever was , or ever can be , effected . Sir , it is justice I It is obedience to the fundariiental law of
God's immutable will . It is ' doing toothers that which we would desire of others to do unto us . " > In the spirit , then , of this great maxim , I would concede at once the right of every man living , ( saving the equal right of others , ) to hold fast possession of his prejudices , until he chooses spontaneously to resign them . I would not , if I could , pluck up an error with an over-strenuous hand , I would
spare my ignorant neighbour the torture of too sudden an extrication from its embrace : . and preferring to loosen the soil about it , would sever the taproot remotely below , that the process of decay might be gradual , and the restoration of the encumbered etem to life and 1 air be less abruptly . felt .
' But after all , it may be said , why all this finesse ? why all this reserve ? Do these obstructions to our purpose indeed exist ? and are there any such formidable prejudices , such obstinate jealousies , to cross our path , and embarrass or defy our progress ? I apprehend there are . 1 apprehend tk
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 1, 1832, page 78, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1813/page/14/
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