Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/351

After Limerick five and twelve found begging, and such children once taken up could never be seen again by their parents. It was these laws concerning the education of their children which were resented most bitterly by the Irish Catholics. The laws interfered with the domestic happiness of the people, and they were regarded by them as the most insidious and poisonous form of bribery. In spite of the terrible poverty of the people and the passion for knowledge which has always distinguished them, they preferred as a rule to starve themselves to a still greater extent than to ensure some relief by allowing the State to provide for their children under the conditions offered. Love for their faith was more strongly rooted than even hatred of seeing their children suffer; and the extraordinary way in which, in spite of everything, they managed to maintain their hedge schools, says a great deal for their inherent love of learning. The result was that. after a few years of partial or apparent success, the charter schools declined, as children were not sent. In 1757 a petition was sent up to the Irish Parliament stating that children could not be got to fill the schools. It was thought that it would be easier to induce mothers to leave their children in infancy, and so a nursery was set up in Dublin and one in each of the provinces. This 339