A Descriptive and Statistical Account of the British Empire Exhibiting Its Extent, Physical Capacities, Population, Industry, and Civil and Religious

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1847 edition. Excerpt: ...bodies, to whom the management of particular departments of education had been delegated from time to time, with the reports of the numerous voluntary associations for the same purpose, supply much authentic information, which, however, it is difficult to extract from the voluminous and irrelevant matter in which it is buried. It is remarkable that an inquiry into the state of Trinity College, Dublin, which draws so large an income from public grants, and from its teaching the higher departments of science and literature to the sons of the nobility and gentry, formed no part of the investigations, nor consequently of the reports, of these commissions. The system of public instruction may be considered as divided into the following leading departments: --Collegiate, affording instruction in the higher branches of science and literature; Classical, for the rudiments of the same branches; Mercantile or English, designed for the middle classes, who do not require a knowledge of the higher sciences or of the learned languages; and Elementary, for the instruction of the great body of the population in reading, writing, and the simpler processes of calculation. The colleges consist, 1st, of those supported wholly or in part by grants of public money; and, 2nd, of those wholly supported by the contributions of private associations or individuals. The first class comprises Trinity College, Dublin; the Royal College of St. Patrick, Maynooth; the Royal Academical Institution, Belfast; and the new colleges of Cork, Belfast, and Galway, founded under the Act 8 and 9 Vict., c. 66. The second class comprises the college of St. Columba, Stackallen; St. Patrick, Carlow; St. Jarlath, Tuam; St. Kyran, Kilkenny; and the Catholic Missionary College of All..