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ment to the entire satisfaction of the governors; at the last return of the numbers in the school, there were one hundred and sixty boys, and one hundred and thirty-two girls. The former he teaches reading, writing, and arithmetic, with the assistance of monitors only (as practised in doctor Bell's system.) An usher, at thirty pounds per annum salary, instructs the girls in writing and accounts. A catechist is employed to inspect the school, and to catechise the children, with a salary of sixty pounds per annum. The master and mistress have one hundred pounds per annum, besides an allowance of coals, and the payment of their house-tax and other

taxes.

The other English schools at Nenagh, Tarbert, and Templederry, are on a more confined scale. The masters have each a house, and a salary of twenty pounds per annuin. It cannot be expected that, with so scanty an endowment, these schools can be productive of much advantage. We feel it our duty indeed tɔ state our opinion, that the allow

ance to the masters of almost all the schools of this establishment, is inferior to what the state of the fund's could well afford, and to the reasonable claims and expectations of persons duly qualified for such appointments. We subjoin an abstract of the last returns made by the several masters, of the number of scholars in their respective schools; and conclude our report with expressing an hope and persuasion, that the attention of the present gover nors to the management and ‘application of their large and increasing income, will direct it to the production of proportional advantage. to the community.

Council-Chamber, Dublin Castle, }

Sept. the 21st, 1809.

Appendix, No. 4.

ISAAC CORRY.

GEO. HALL, Provost. JAMES VERSCHOYLE, dean of St. Patrick's JAMES WHITELAW, vicar of St. Catherine's. WILLM. DISNEY.

R. LOVEL EDGEWORTH.

ANNUAL DISBURSEMENTS OF THE GOVERNORS OF THE SCHOOLS FOUNDED BY

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100

To writing-master, catechist, ministers, coals, stationary, taxes, &c. about 200
To Trinity College

970

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Brought over

To the Blue-coat Hospital, for maintaining and educating 30 boys, about

To the Charter School at Sligo

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Nete. The expenses of repairs and buildings are very considerable.
The balance on hands on the account made up to 1st May, 1807, is
And on 1st May, 1808,

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2,188 0 0

800

250

60

50

50

3,398 6

3, 638 17 0 3,293 19 5

SCHOOLS.

3 English Schools are supported at an annual expense of 1.20 to each Master An English School at the Coombe, in the city of Dublin, for Boys and Girls, at an annual expense of about

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Eleven English Schools have been agreed to be founded, the building of

which at £.300 each, will cost

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And the salaries to the Masters will be at £.30 a year each

L. s. d. 60

300

of 9,300

830

A new School has been ordered to be built at Galway, which will cost above 5,000

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Appendix, No. 5.

NUMBER OF SCHOLARS IN THE DIFFERENT SCHOOLS OF ERASMUS SMITH,

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To facilitate the erection of school-houses on grants out of the funds of Erasmus Smith's schools, an act was passed in last session of parliament, empowering land-owners under settlement, or tenants for life, to grant land not exceeding half an acre, within a corporate town, or two acres elsewhere; and archbishops, bishops, and other ecclesiastical persons, with consent of Diocesan, to grant one acre of their glebe, or otherwise, to any person, or persons, body, or bodies, aggregate or sole, who shall be approved of by the bishop of the diocese in which such lands lie, in trust, and for the use of a resident school-master, subject to such conditions, as shall be made between the granter and those, whether individuals or public bodies, who shall advance or shall have advanced any of his or their money, or any part of the funds entrusted to their management, to the amount of not less than one hundred pounds, sterl. either for the building of a school-house on the land so granted, or for the endowment of the school-muster.

BELFAST MAG. NO. XXX.

For the Belfast Monthly Magazine.

(RAMBLE CONTINUED.) From vol. 5, page 271. THIS island, or rather peninsula, was formerly called M'Gwye's or Maguy's isle, from its inhabifants being mostly of that name, and belonged to the bishop of Down and Connor; about the year 1604, Robert Humpston, bishop of Down and Connor, made a fee-farm lease of the island to sir Henry Piers and Sir Francis Annesly, at the yearly rent of £6. 13s. 4d. It was afterwards granted by James 1st to Sir Arthur Chichester, with the rectorial tythes and advowsons of the churches, but on the 22d September 1640, Edward, first Viscount Chichester surrendered the tythes, &c. and in lieu thereof receiv

ed the tythes and advowsons of the vicarage of Shankhill. The island was immediately after united into one parish. It is now divided into 26 townlands, and contains 3100 acres of excellent land, at the average price of 18s. per acre; the tythe is now compounded for at 2s. 8d. per acre, and is paid to the Rev. Thomas Graves, dean of Connor, rector. The number of dwelling bouses amounts to about 290. The cess here is usually higher than in any other parish of the county, this year it amounted to £559. Os. 8d. only about sixty pounds of which was expended on roads, &c.

• Before the general dissolution of Monastic houses, the rectory of Whitekirk, in this island, was attatched to the abbey of Muckamore, near Antrim; Kilkeran paid tythe to the abbey of Disart, alias Kells, county Antrim, and the two townlands, now called Ballypriors, anciently Ballypormagna and Parra, to the abbey of Coodborn, alias Goodburn, near Car rickfergus.

within the island; this has caused much grumbling at present, and I think with some reason, as several roads here stand in need of repair. The church cess this year amounted to £24. 5s. 8d. But to

return from this long digression, having walked pretty fast for about the better to enjoy the prospect two miles I stopt on a rising ground, which was really ample; before me was the ocean, with a long ridge of the black mountains of Galloway and Argyle-shires in the back ground; the mull of Cantyre was most conspicuous, jutting out boldly towards the Irish coast, where a promontory seemed to meet that of the opposite shore; their rugged sides and there their summits were lost were smoothed by distance, and here to the naked eye by the haze of the atmosphere. Nearer, the prospect, deur, was much more interesting, though deficient in romantic granthe gentle swelling hills of Braidisland and Magheramorn, being finely chequered with the fields of ripening grain, which sight gave a more pleasing sensation to my mind than any scene of sterility whatsoever farther northward the Country gradually assumed a wilder aspect, and the view was terminated by the rugged headland of the county of Antrim already mentioned. An hypothesis has been formed by several learned authors, that Britain and Ireland were formerly nited near those capes, and that they were seperated by some terrible convulsion of nature; this opinion receives some support from the proximity of the capes, which are only about twenty miles asunder; some even go so far as to suppose that the island of Rahery, and some of the Western isles are fragments of a country buried at a very remote period under the ocean. Laying aside those learned guesses, I renewed

my journey, pleased to behold such snug farm-houses, and fields with such luxuriant crops; the fields of beans were now rather unpleasing to the eye from their dark hue, however they are still considered by the farmer as a steady crop, and not liable to be much injured by an inclement season, their harvest can also be attended to, when all others are over; besides, this crop does not reduce the soil, but rather enriches it.

The country presenting no striking objects, I soon reached the house of my acquaintance near Portmuck; he received me kindly, treating me with all that hospitality for which the inhabitants of this peninsula are said to be so conspicuous; after which he showed me several curious fossils found in the neighbourhood; they consisted chiefly of stones impregnated with dif. ferent kinds of ore, also some of calcarious sandstone found on the beach, to which various marine shells adhered, all in a petrified state. But what most attracted my notice, was a brass gouge, about three inches long, and near half as much round, found in a chunk of a limestone rock, about thirty feet below the surface of the carth.As this metal has not been used for such instruments since the introduction of iron, it must have remained there many centuries, but how it came there is not easy to determine, as upwards of nine feet deep of solid clay-earth was dug off the limestone where the gouge was discovered. After examining those rarities some time, we took a walk out along the adjacent coast, opposite the isle of Muck; this small isle is merely a large rock covered with a thin stratum of earth, it is seperated from the main-land, but can be entered on the west at low water; it appears to have been anciently

were

a place of defence, as on the land
side some vestiges of a stone wall
are still visible: on the northern
side is the small port to which it
gives name. On the north side of
this haven are the ruins of the
castle of Port-muck, a small qua
drangular building, which seems to
have been built for a fortress; in
the outside of the western wall
is an aperture like a chimney, cal-
led Peak's-bole, probably Puck's
hole, alias Browney, a fictitious per-
sonage, formerly very famous in
this country. Adjoining this is a
small building roofed with lime-
stone, which seems coeval with the
castle, and as those kinds of build-
jugs are said to have been erected
by the Danes, perhaps both
built by that nation; it seems by an
opening in the wall to have been
intended for a necessary, but tra-
dition is silent as to its original
use or founder. A little northward
of this building are some remains
of an ancient church. The fine-
ness of the day now determined
me to return home by a circular
route, so taking leave of my
acquaintance, I took a path leading
across the island towards the ferry;
this part of my walk was solemn-
ly delightful; sometimes the path
led along the verge of a precipice,
beneath which the waves were
dashing with some fury against the
rugged projections of the rocks, it
being now about high water; at
other times it sunk into a little dell,
or meandered along the borders of
corn fields, &c. "Where large en-
crease had blessed the fruitful
plains." In my course I came to a
large stone, or rather rock, com-
monly called a Rocking-stone; it is
several tons weight, yet can be
moved with facility by the hand;
these stones are sometimes called
lagans or logans, and are said to
have been engines of the drudical

priestcraft; this one, however, appears in its natural situation, and seems to have become tremulous by the earth being walked from about its base: I am the more confirmed in this opinion as there is one similar to the above on the Maiden, alias Whillan-rocks, which lie a few miles off the the entrance of Larne lough, where it is more than propable the Druids never resided.-I now arrived at the ferry, or en trance of Larne lough, which here divides this island from the mainland of the county of Antrim; but the boats which ply to and fro here were both at the other side; so I sat down on the beach to wait the coming of either. The prospect was pretty agreeable; on the opposite shore were several white houses with the ruins of the castle of Olderfleet, near which several brigs, sloops, &c. were lying at anchor, and gave the place an appearance of some trade; the breeze scarce curled the surface of the lough, which inflected southward and was soon lost from my sight; the view was terminated by high hills near the village of Glynn, which rise boldly and gave an air of wildness to this part of the prospect. I had not remained long in this situation when a boat arrived, and three other passengers arriving about the same time, we instantly embarked; and I shall now present the reader with a view of the persons, &c. of my fellow-passengers.

(To be Continued.)

For the Belfast Monthly Magazine.

ON TREATMENT OF PERSONS LIBER-

The

ATED FROM PRISON.

The genuine philanthropy of W. L. in his essay on prisons, in your last number, is pleasingly conspicuous. Prisons indeed require a speedy and radical reformation. In

a

stead of assisting to correct vice, and lessen the number of crimes, they have, under their present system of management, a tendency to give to vice a bolder and more hardened front, and by their dangerous reaction on society, to increase the number of objects for confinement within their walls. I am afraid, however, that W. L. overlooks strong principle in human nature, if he suppose, that those who have had their manners still more corrupted in a prison, will on their acquit tal, or the expiration of their sen tence, voluntarily submit to a second confinement, however mercifully regulated, while almost all their wishes, powerfully increased by the idleness of a prison, have been turned to the period of liberation, when they may put in practice the lessons of additional depravity and knavery, which they have learned from their profligate associates, and come out greater pests to society, than they went in. Such evils are

separably connected with the present system of jails, where promiscuous intercourse between offenders, and idleness tend most strongly to corrupt the human heart, and where a corrective restraint on their morals is almost totally wanting. To remedy the defects which W. L. so feelingly points out, I can see no other remedy, than for the friends of humanity to turn their undivided attention towards aiding Sir Samuel Ro milly's benevolent plan of penitentiary houses, in which the moral improvement of the prisoners may be especially attended to, and such correctives used, compounded of a judicious mixture of solitary confinement, and hard labour, without excluding the strong stimulus of hope, in case of improvement, as has been found to be so efficient. In the American system of prison-management, the produce of the labours of the cri

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