James Carlile (1784-1854), Scottish clergyman, was born in Paisley, educated at Paisley Grammar School and then at the universities in Glasgow and Edinburgh. He was licensed in 1811 by the Paisley Presbyterians and in 1815 was a joint minister of a Scots church in Dublin and an Irish Commissioner of Education. He introduced a different style of education in Ireland whereby children of different denominations could go to the same school. In 1817 he made an important speech which changed Irish church policy : "Let us tell our people that we will never permit his Majesty's bounty to operate as a bribe to induce us to desert what we believe .... or whether we deserve that Lord Castlereagh should drive his chariot into the midst of us, and tread us down as the offal of the streets." This speech was in protest at Lord Castlereagh's suggestion that the synod should recognise the Belfast Academical Institution instead of a Scottish university ot educate their ministers. Carlile was appointed resident commissioner to the new Irish board of national education in 1831. He devised and introduced a radical system of education. It was based on the idea of both Protestant and Catholic children being educated together, except for separate religious education. He sat on the school board with the Anglican Archbishop Richard Whately and the Roman Catholic Archbishop Daniel Murray. The two Dublin archbishops both regarded Carlile highly despite the objections they all received from less radical wings of both denominations.

Physical description: xxiii, [2], 26-118 pages ; 22 cm.