The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1883.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4644, 22 November 1883, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1883.

There would appear to be some misapprehension in the public mind as to a proposed amalgamation of the purposes animating the originators of the Irish National League, and those desirous of effecting a change in the educational system of the country. The Bight Bey. Dr Luck, has expressed his approval of a suggestion thrown out by a correspondent to a Christchurch paper, to the effect that the League should be used for a purpose which it was never intended for, and that its object should be diverted towards an end which would, as our morning contemporary very sensibly puts it, have the effect of its extinction.' We have no desire at the present time to enter into the much vexed question of the present system of Education, but the proposal made, that which has elicited the Bishop's sympathy and approval, is, without doubt, impracticable * and improper. His Lordship is not to be blamed for using, or attempting to use, any instrument within his reach for carrying out : views which we must suppose he consciently believes to be correct ; but it 1 must be apparent, not only to those concerned in the working of the National League, but to any ordinary observer, that the combination of objects applauded by His Lordship could not but hare the effect of striking a death-blow at the institution named: one which met with so little sympathy from him when it was proposed to establish a branch of it within his diocese, and which, as far as he was concerned, wduld probably have been relegated to obscurity had not this chord been struck by a Southern writer. It must be apparent to a man of the meanest capacity that were the combination which produced the Bishop's "Bravo " effected, the intentions of the founders of the National League would be thwarted, and a work

totally foreign to that conceived by the originators of the movement be interfered with yery detrimentally. People of all creeds and varied shades of religious belief have become adherents to the cause of the Irish National League, and its deserving objects havo caused members of various nationalities to accord their support to it. There is no such thing as a denomination recognised by it as a body, and it would be simply suicidal on the part of those forming the League to allow any importation of religious feeling or discussion within its ranirs. The League has done much good, and has it in its power to extend its usefulness, but it must not be made an instrument for any secular purpose, or there its existence as a national body will end.