That, had such attempts been made, they would not justify the mode of conduct which has been adopted; as it does not appear that complaint was ever made thereof to any governor or governess, or at any general quarterly meeting; nor does it appear that the interests of their religion could possibly have been injured by deferring this violent measure one week longer, when the general quarterly meeting of this day would have afforded an opportunity of complaint and redress.

That the female school of industry was established at a time of universal scarcity and distress; and that the children of the Romish religion were admitted into said school, and therein educated, and in part clothed and fed; not, as is falsely asserted, to induce them to barter their religion for the supply of their wants; (of such baseness the governors and governesses of that school are incapable,) but to prevent those wretched children from falling the immediate victims of poverty and vice, to enable them to earn their daily bread by honest industry, and to teach them virtue.

That, when this subject, if cause of complaint did actually exist, could have been so easily adjusted by a temperate conduct, and a proper representation, on the part of the Romish clergy, of any grievance or defect, which occurred to them in the arrangements or conduct of this

infant institution, we lament the precipitancy which compels us to order, that the resolutions. be three times inserted in the Dublin Journal, and that two hundred copies of them be printed for circulation here.

(Signed, by order)

JOHN MONTGOMERY, Sec.

Wexford, Feb. 1, 1802.

WEXFORD POOR SCHOOL OF INDUSTRY.

Rev. John Corrin, parish priest of Wexford, having been particularly censured by the governors and governesses of the Wexford poor school of industry, in their resolutions of the 1st. inst. published in the Dublin Journal, and in hand bills, deems it incumbent on him to lay before the impartial public, the principal reasons which induced the Roman catholic clergy of Wexford to admonish the Roman catholics to withdraw their children from the female poor school of industry therein.

Among the regulations for the government of the school, it was a fundamental one, that no person whosoever should be permitted to interfere, in any manner, with the respective religion of the children; and to prevent any jealousies, or suspicions of such interference, it was resolved, that the protestants; should be sent to the church, and the Roman catholics to the chapel, to be instructed in the catechism. Those regu

Ee

lations have been notoriously violated. On the day the children got new clothes, the Roman catholics were conducted in procession from the school to the church, where they remained during divine service, although to a message from one of the governesses, by Miss Jane Sutton, to Mr. Corrin, requesting to know whether the Roman catholic children would be permitted to appear in church on that day, it was answered, that the rules of the Roman catholic church forbid its members to join in any religious worship but its own on any account whatsoever. 2dly. The protestant catechism was taught publicly in the school. The Roman catholic catechism was not. The consequence of this was that the Roman catholic children, when questioned concerning the christian doctrine, answered from the protestant catechism, and knew more of it than their own. 3dly. They were compelled every day to join the protestants in prayer, 4thly. Four of the children, viz. Eliz. Elliot, Eliz. Murphy, Mary M'Namay, and Bridget Doyle, since they frequented the school, quitted the chapel, and went to church; and Mary M'Namay, and Bridget Doyle are become protestants. 5thly. The Roman catholic children were compelled to work on the days commanded to be kept holy by the Roman catholic church.

The undernamed, who appear to be the best informed of the Roman catholic children of the

school, the youngest of whom is, at least, twelve years old, some of them fourteen and fifteen, viz. Elizabeth Breene, Mary Whitty, Margaret Pierce, Ann Clements, Mary Barret, Ann Synnot, Mary Cuzens, Elizab. Hilfoy, Catherine Kirvan, Margaret Walsh, Mary Walsh, Mary Pierce, Judith Gall, have solemnly declared, that Mrs. Gibson, one of the mistresses of the school, Miss Hannah Jacob, and Miss Charlotte Turner, the two most frequent visitors of the school, so frequently attacked them on the different points of their religion and of their clergy, that scarcely a day passed, especially since the death of Mrs. Parker, but they heard something said to excite in them a detestation of their religion, and of their clergy. They particularly remember that Mrs. Gibson told them they were all idolators; that they kept but nine commandments; that they paid divine worship to images; that priests had no more power to absolve from sins than other men; that the virgin Mary was no more than any other woman; that she ought not to be called blessed; that it was a fine thing to go to church, where they would understand what the minister said; and Mary Cuzens declares, that Mrs. Gibson endeavoured to prevail on her particularly to go to church, which she believes she would have done, had she not been withdrawn from the school, Mrs. Gibson told them the Pope kept a Miss, or lewd woman.

She

frequently repeated stories of the incontinency of priests, and of the sad fate of a young lady, who was so intimate with a priest, that her · friends were obliged to use violence to separate them. She said that no people were more callous to the wants and necessities of the

poor than priests, and instanced a case, that a poor woman had died lately in Bride-street without a priest, as Father Corrin would not attend her, because she had not money to give him. Ann Clements declared that Miss Hannah Jacob endeavoured to induce her to become a protestant, and pointed out several texts of scripture which, she told her, plainly proved that the doctrine of the Roman catholic religion was false; and she believes that, had she not been withdrawn from the school, she would have become a protestant. She likewise declared, that when she asked Miss Jacob's permission to read the Roman catholic catechism for the ignorant Catholic children, Miss Jacob said, she would not permit false doctrine to be taught in that school; she also declared, that Mrs. Gibson beat her severely for vindicating the Rev. Mr. Corrin, when his character was aspersed by one of the scholars, who now goes to church, and said she fought for her priest like a game cock, and desired the scholars to call her nothing else but the pet for. That the protestant children, from the example of Mrs. Gibson, had frequent broils with the Roman catholics, par