CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
LA648 .ClT" """'*""V "-Ibran, 
 
 oifn 3 1924 030 564 136 
 
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 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
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UNIYERSITT EDUCATION 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 BT 
 
 J. E. CAIRNES, M.A., 
 
 PBOFBSSOK OP jnKISPBDDENOB ASD POLITICAI, HOONOMT, 
 queen's OOLLEQE, GALWAT. 
 
 Reprinted from the Theological Eeviev. 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 1866. 
 
 PRICE ONE SHJLLim. 
 
UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN IRELAND. 
 
 A MOTION, made by an Irish Member aifc the close of 
 the last Parliamentary session, which received httle and 
 rather slighting notice at the time, has raised some issues, 
 both practical and theoretical, in the province of education, 
 of very grave importance. The motiop. was a demand for 
 a Charter for a Eoman Catholic College established some 
 twelve years ago in Dublin, and commonly known as " The 
 Catholic University," though hitherto without the power of 
 granting degrees. It was met on the part of the Govern- 
 ment by a counter proposal, to the effect, that, instead of 
 constituting a new university in Ireland by the grant of a 
 charter, the Catholic establishment should be afiBliated as a 
 distinct college to one of the universities which now exist, 
 to wit, the Queen's. This compromise was eagerly embraced 
 by the mover, and in general by the representatives of the 
 Catholic party in Parliament, Mr. Hennessy being the single 
 dissentient. The precise form which the Government scheme 
 is destined to take is not yet known; but it has been 
 shadowed forth in a series of announcements which purport 
 to be authoritative, and which — as they proceed from the 
 section of Catholics whom the concession is designed to 
 conciliate, and who have certainly through their leaders been 
 in communication with the Government — may be assumed 
 to embody, with more or less exactness, the principal fea- 
 tures of the pending arrangement j and the prospect has eli- 
 cited a discussion which at all events exhibits very clearly 
 the hopes and the fears of the supporters and the opponents 
 of the proposed change. These hopes and fears alike point 
 to the same result — are-modeUing of the liberal and "mixed" 
 system of State education hitherto maintained in Ireland 
 ^ a2 
 
in a denominational, which in the present instance means 
 an ultramontane, sense — to a direct reversal therefore of the 
 policy pursued in that country for the last thirty years. 
 When we add that the controversy has brought up, in a 
 practical shape, some of the nicest and most perplesdng 
 problems regarding the relations of the State to education, 
 it wiU be seen that the occurrence is highly deserving of 
 attentive study, whether we regard its, bearing on the wel- 
 fare of Ireland or on the prospects of educational process. 
 We shall perhaps best introduce the reader to this con- 
 troversy by a brief narrative of what has been done in re- 
 cent years in promoting that department of education in 
 Ireland which is the subject of the present discussion. 
 Down to 1845, Trinity College, in the University of Dublin, 
 formed the only provision made for the higher secular learn- 
 ing in Ireland. Founded in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 
 for the purpose of promoting the Protestant religion, its 
 constitution and character were suitable to the circumstances 
 of its origin. We shall perhaps convey a sufficiently precise 
 notion of this establishment for our present purpose, if we say 
 that it belongs, with many differences in detail, to the same 
 order of educational bodies of which Oxford and Cambridge 
 are the type in this country. It was of course inevitable 
 that, as originally constituted, its basis should be rigidly 
 sectarian ; every religious denomination, save that established 
 by law, was excluded alike from its degrees and its emolu- 
 ments. But towards the end of the last century, under the 
 influence of the more liberal ideas which then began to 
 prevail, Trinity College opened its doors to Roman Catholics 
 for admission to degrees ; and a succession of measures, 
 introduced at intervals from that period, and conceived in 
 a spirit of consistent liberality, has placed it now in a posi- 
 tion very decidedly in advance, in point of comprehensive- 
 ness and national character, of either of our ancient univer- 
 sities ; Eoman Catholics and Dissenters being now freely ad- 
 mitted to all its degrees, except those of divinity, to its senate 
 and parliamentary constituency, and to a large share of its 
 emoluments. In spite, however, of these substantial reforms, 
 it would scarcely, we should imagine, be maintained by any 
 candid Churchman, that Trinity College — retaining, as it 
 did, its essentially Protestant character and traditions, and 
 still excluding all but Protestants from its higher dis- 
 
tinctions — formed an adequate provision for the higher 
 education in a country of which three-fourths of the popu- 
 lation were Eoman Catholics. This was the view taken by 
 a Select Committee of the House of Commons appointed 
 in 1835, of which the late Sir Thomas Wyse was chairman. 
 Among other recommendations of this Committee was one 
 for the establishment of four colleges, one in each of the 
 provinces of Ireland, which should extend to that portion 
 of the people not already provided for in the National 
 Schools the opportunity of an education, to borrow the 
 language of the Eeport, " of the most improved character," 
 "general, common to all, without distinction of class or 
 creed." The policy advocated in the Eeport was adopted 
 by the Government of Sir Eobert Peel. It was determined 
 to supplement the Elizabethan university by institutions 
 conceived in the spirit of modern times, and directed to 
 promote the interests of all classes of the community. In 
 1845, two measures were introduced ; one for the re-con- 
 stitution of Maynooth on an independent footing, and 
 with a liberal endowment, as a seminaiy for the Eoman 
 Catholic priesthood ; and the other for the establishment, 
 in the interest of the laity, of three provincial colleges in 
 Belfast, Cork and Galway, constituted on the principle of 
 strict religious equality, and designed to attract the various 
 religious denominations to receive there an education in 
 common : in the words of Sir James Graham, in the speech 
 in which he introduced the measure, " The new Collegiate 
 System was avowedly an extension, and nothing more than 
 an extension, of the present system of National Education" 
 — [that system established in 1831 on the*basis of "com- 
 bined secular and separate religious instruction," and which 
 had already, in 1845, achieved a remarkable success] — 
 " from the children of the humblest to the children of the 
 upper and middle classes." 
 
 Such was the origin of the Queen's Colleges : they were 
 opened in 1849 ; and in 1850, in conformity with the ori- 
 ginal conception of the scheme, the Charter was granted by 
 which the Queen's University was founded. In the words 
 of the Charter, its object was " to render complete and 
 satisfactory the courses of education to be followed by stu- 
 dents in the said Colleges," and, with a view to this, it was 
 invested with the power " of granting all such degrees as 
 
6 
 
 are gtanted by other universities or colleges to students 
 who shaJl have completed in any one or other of the Col- 
 leges the courses of education prescribed and directed for 
 the several degrees :"— the University was thus the natural 
 completion and crown of the collegiate edifice. We need 
 only further say, as regards this part of the case, that, while 
 considerable powers were assigned to the local Colleges, the 
 general government of the central institution, including the 
 fixing of the eoxirses of study for degrees and the appoint- 
 ment of university examiners, was placed with the Chan- 
 cellor and Senate of the Queen's University. 
 
 And now we would ask the reader's attention to an 
 important part of this story^ — the attitude assumed by the 
 Roman CathoUc community towards the new institutions. 
 It was the expectation of the Government of that day — 
 surely not an unreasonable one, considering the essential 
 fairness, and, account being taken of the grant to Maynooth, 
 even liberality, of the arrangement, and further that the 
 scheme was but an extension to the higher education of 
 that plan "which had already in the primary schools of the 
 National System been received amongst Roman Catholics 
 with all but universal favour — that the Queen's Colleges 
 and their University would have been accepted by priest 
 and people in the spirit in which they were offered. And 
 for a brief moment there was every prospect that this 
 expectation would be realized in the fullest sense. Doctors 
 Murray and Croly occupied then, as Archbishop of Dublin 
 and Primate, the highest places in the Irish Eoman Catholic 
 Church : they had both from the first accepted with cordial 
 loyalty the principle of the National System, which they had 
 aided in working, and the success of which was largely due 
 to their enlightened efforts. They were now, with other 
 leadittg members of the hierarchy, in communication with 
 the Government on the subject of the Queen's Colleges. 
 With such negotiators the Government had no difficulty 
 in coming to an understanding. The statutes were drawn 
 up, submitted to their inspection, and approved. It was 
 admitted that the securities provided for the protection of 
 "faith and morals" were ample. It wiU probably sound 
 strange to many people now that amongst the names of the 
 original members of the Queen's University Senate the third 
 in order is that of Daniel Murray, Eoman Catholic Archbishop 
 
of Dublin. The priesthood, indeed, were nqt unanimous : 
 thpre was an active dissentient minority ; but looking to 
 the influence then exercised by Doctors Murray and Croly, 
 one can hardly doubt that a few more years of tljeir gentle 
 and enlightened rule would have carried with them in sup- 
 port of the Cplleges, as it had already carried with them in 
 support of the National Schools, the great body of the 
 priesthood. Most unfortunately for peace and educational- 
 progress in Ireland, just at this time — the same year in 
 which the Queen's Colleges were opened — Df. Croly died ; 
 and he was followed, two years later, by his abler coad- 
 jutor. The successor to each was Pr. CuUen, who, appointed 
 in the first instance to the See of Armagh — through a 
 stretch of papal authority exercised in defiance of the im- 
 memorial usage of the Irish Church, according to which 
 the dignissimus of those recommended for th? honour by 
 the clergy of the diocese is selected— was, on the death of 
 Murray, transferred to Dublin. Dr. Cullen's preparation 
 for the post he was now called to fill had been a sojourn of 
 some thirty years in Eome, where, in the capacity of Di- 
 rector of the Irish Department of the Papal Government, he 
 had made himself conspicuous as a zealous supporter of all 
 the extremest pretensions of the ecclesiastical party. It was 
 indeed avo'vs'edly to advance the aims of ultramontane policy 
 that he was sent to Ireland, the better to equip him for 
 which service he was furnished with the further autho- 
 rity and distinction of Apostolic Delegate. Scarcely had 
 he entered on his mission, when, we must own with true 
 instinct, he laid his hand upon the State system of mixed 
 education as presenting the most formidable obstacle to 
 his aims. He at once denounced it, alike in the higher 
 and the primary department ; and, finding the Queen's Col- 
 leges, then just opened, still strugglmg with the difficulties 
 of a cUhut made in the face of nruch carefully prepared 
 odium, one of his first acts was to summon a Synod to 
 Thurles for the express purpose of condemning them. As all 
 the world knows, the Colleges were condemned ; but it is a 
 noteworthy fact— as shewing how entirely the course which 
 the Eoman Catholic clergy have since followed has been 
 due to the foreign influences imported by Dr. Cullen into 
 the Irish Church — that the condemnation was only carried 
 by a majority of one ; not only this, but — what may not 
 
8 
 
 be so well known — even this slender triumph was obtained 
 by questionable means — through an accident improved by 
 an artifice. During the sitting of the Synod, a bishop, 
 known to be favourable to the Colleges, fell sick: his 
 place was at once filled by Dr. CuUein with a delegate of 
 opposite views ; the sick bishop recovered ; but it was not 
 deemed advisable to restore him to his place tOl the vote 
 on the Colleges had been taken. The Queen's Colleges 
 were thus condemned ;* and the next step was to start a 
 rival in the same field. For this purpose an apostolic brief 
 was obtained, addressed to " the bishops of Ireland," autho- 
 rizing and directing them to found a " Catholic University." 
 Ere the Synod of Thurles had separated, a Committee was 
 appointed, consisting of eight bishops, eight priests, and 
 eight laymen (all of course Eoman Catholics), to whose 
 charge the organization and government of the projected 
 institution was entrusted. Under these auspices appeared 
 in due time in the middle of the nineteenth century 
 "The Catholic University of Iceland," established, in the 
 admiring language of its accomplished advocate, on "the 
 eternal principles which regulated the relations of the Ca- 
 tholic Universities of the Middle Ages."-}- 
 
 Prom the sitting of the Synod of Thurles dates the 
 
 * Condemned ; although (afl it may surprise some of our readers to learn) 
 only nine years before, the same mixed system of education which the Queen's 
 CoUegeB represent had been sanctioned by the same infallible authority in the 
 person of Pope Gregory XVI. We find the fact stated in the following terms 
 by M. de Laveylg in the current number of the Beime des Deux Mondes, pp. 
 227, 228: "Apres des discussions violentes et prolong^es, les Catholiqnes des 
 deux partis se dgciddrent ^ en appeler ^ I'autoritS infaillible, aux decisions de 
 laquelle tons deux faisaient profession ^ ob6ir. Le Papa Gregoire XVI. repon- 
 dit en 1841 par une lettre que la propagamde adressa aux ^vdques d'Irlande. 
 Cette rSponse mSrite attention, oar eUe montre que, m6me dans une question 
 aussi grave que ceUe d'enseignement primaire, Eome se' d&ide & transiger quand 
 elle croit y trouver son inter4t. Le Pape ne condamne pas I'ecole laique, il 
 exige mSme qu'on n'y enseigne point du tout la religion, de sorte que le prin- 
 cipe moderne de la secularisation de I'enseignement primaire donnfe par I'Stat, 
 que I'figlise combat ailleurs comme une monstruositfi, est accepte par elle en 
 Irlande comme en Hollande, c'est-i-dire la, oil le pouvoir gtant Protestant, elle 
 ne peut esp&er r«gnar en souveraine." There is thus, it seems, an infallible 
 declaration in favour of, as well as against, mixed education. We commend 
 the fact to Dr. Corrigan in case he contemplates a reply to the author of 
 " Notes" on his pamphlet. 
 
 + Two Articles on Education, by Myles W. O'Reilly, B.A., LL.D., M P. 
 (reprinted from the DvMin Reviem), p. 53. 
 
systematic opposition of the Eoman Catholic priesthood to 
 the plan of mixed education in Ireland ; and from this 
 point, or rather from the elevation of Dr. CuUen, dates 
 also a new policy in ecclesiastical patronage in Ireland, 
 under which, within twenty years, a complete change has 
 been effected in the character of the Irish Eoman Catholic 
 priesthood. In 1848 the spirit of that organization was, 
 with few exceptions, national : under the rule of Dr. Cullen 
 it has become, except in the ranks of the lower clergy, 
 an almost purely ultramontane body, absolutely devoted to 
 ideas of which Eome, and not Ireland, is the originating 
 source. 
 
 The Eoman Catholic priesthood had condemned the Col- 
 leges. We have yet to ascertain how they were regarded 
 by the Eoman Catholic people. Now this is manifestly a 
 point of great importance in connection with our present 
 theme. For if the Colleges have failed — or even though 
 they should not have failed utterly, if they have failed as 
 regards the section of the Irish people for whom they were 
 principally intended — the Eoman Catholics — then, sohmntur 
 tabulcB ; whatever may have been the benevolent views of 
 the founders, or the abstract excellence of the scheme, there 
 is no reason that they should be a moment longer maintained : 
 by all means let the advice of Major O'Eeilly be adopted, 
 that the officials be pensioned off and the buQdings sold. 
 But if, on the other hand, the Colleges have in fact suc- 
 ceeded, if provision has by their means been effectually 
 made for training in the higher learning those of the 
 Irish people — not already provided for by Trinity College 
 — for whom (regard being had to their social position) 
 such training is suitable — provision, too, accordant to 
 their wants and feelings — then, whatever the advocates 
 of change may have to say for themselves on grounds of 
 theory, there is at least no substantial grievance to be 
 remedied ; and the question for statesmen in this discus- 
 sion is not qf supplying a felt need — of "filling a gap 
 (to borrow Mr. Gladstone's phrase) in university educa- 
 tion in Ireland" — biit of remodelling, with a view to im- 
 provement, a system already practically effective. To the 
 importance of this point ultramontane advocates have 
 shewn themselves fuUy alive, so far as this can be shewn 
 by invariably assuming it in their own favour. According 
 
10 
 
 to them, " the Queen's Colleges have wholly failed,"* while 
 "The Catholic University" is in an eminently successful 
 
 * Major O'Reilly, from whose pamphlet we baye taken the allegatiQn of 
 entire failure which we have placed in quotation marks, subjoins in a foot-note 
 what we suppose we are to regard as the grounds of that statement : — ** This 
 has been admitted (with regret) by both Mr. Cardwell and Sir Robert Peel, 
 and in fact by the Commission appointed to inquire into them." 
 
 We confess this statement, proceeding from a writer whom, however much 
 we differ from him, we are inclined to respect, startled us a good deal. We 
 have looked through the expressions of opinion on the subject in question by 
 the authorities referred to, and we shall now lay before our readers a few spe- 
 cimens — we regret our space does not permit us to give more— of the results of 
 our search. 
 
 On the 25th of July, 1859, Mr. Cardwell said in Parliament—" he had no 
 hesitation in saying that the Colleges had not met with the success which was 
 originally expected by the founders." This, it must be admitted, is not a 
 favourable opinion ; but it is something very far from an admission of entire 
 failure — how far, may be seen by reading it in connection with a passage from 
 a speech made by the same minister a, few days previously. On tb^ 22ud of 
 July, 1859, in the debate on Mr. Hennessy's motion, Mr. Cardwell said ; — • 
 
 "He thought they would be of opinion that the result which they had 
 attained to might not indeed be an example of complete success, but was an 
 
 encouragement and a reason for hope The attendance of such a number 
 
 (493) to obtain an education such as was given in these Colleges, was an im- 
 mense advantage to a country situated as Ireland was. Moreover, it appeared 
 that the pupils had been drawn pretty equally from the various religious bodies 
 
 into which the population was divided That surely gave great cause for 
 
 encouragement for the cause not only of advanced, but of mixed education in 
 Ireland." 
 
 These expressions of opinion, it will be observed, were uttered in 1859, at 
 which time the number of students attending the Colleges was little more than 
 half the amount it has since attained. Recognizing this altered state of facts, 
 Mr. Cardwell, speaking on the 6th of July, 1862, on the University vote, said :— 
 
 " The Colleges had had great difficulties to contend with, having met much 
 opposition J but the number of students was now continually increasing, and 
 in the last year the number of pupils was 752. Those 750 pupils were nearly 
 
 equally divided between Catholics, Protestants and Presbyterians The 
 
 constant increase of pupils, the numerical equality in the religions opinions of 
 those who entered, and the success of the students in public competition, at 
 which they had to meet students from the older Universities, from Trinity 
 College, and from every school and seminary in the kingdom, all shewed that 
 the sum granted was accomplishing the object for which it was voted — namely, 
 educating indiscriminately the different classes of the people of Ireland." 
 
 So far Mr. Cardwell. The citation of Sir Robert Peel in support of the 
 statement that the Queen's Colleges "had wholly failed," we confess we have 
 some difficulty in dealing with. The simple fact is, thaj^ Sir Robert Peel's 
 speeches on the Queen's Colleges (and he rarely lost an opportunity of making 
 one) have flowed in a strain of almost unqualified pau<egyric, equally full of 
 admiration for the past and of hope for the future. His only complaint on the 
 subject has been that their endowments are inadequate ; to remedy which 
 defect, as ail the world knows, he set. on foot a public subscription some years 
 ago, to which he himself munificently contributed. We do injustice to our case 
 by making extracts : still we give the following, which strikes the key-note of 
 the whole : — "I have watched the institution from its commencement, and am 
 
11 
 
 position."* They have not in general offered any reasons 
 for these assertions. But, of course, when a demand was 
 
 glad to tra«e its deTelopment. It has opened to three-fonrths of the youth of 
 Ireland those academic advantages which they were before denied, and it has 
 rendered immense benefits not only to the cause of popular education, but to 
 the good government and to the charatter of this country. And what is the 
 criterion of the success of this institution ? Not mere numbers. They would 
 be very significant if we looked only to that. But the proof of its success is 
 the great political gain which has been derived by the establishment of a system 
 in Ireland which has opened to men of difierent religious denominations com- 
 bined secular instruction upon the broad basis of religious equality." 
 
 Lastly, the Commission, appointed to inquire into the Colleges, and which 
 Major O'Reilly cites as "in fact" admitting that they "had whoUy failed," 
 delivered its opinion in these words : — 
 
 "We should be glad to be able to report a larger number of students avail- 
 ing themselves of the great advantages held out to them in the Queen's Col- 
 < leges ; but we think that the Colleges cannot be regarded as otherwise than 
 successful, when, notwithstanding opposing causes, to which we shall presently 
 allude, they have in their halls, attending lectures, nearly 450 students. " 
 
 This was in 1858. Major O'Reilly's pamphlet was published in 1863, in 
 which year the numbers had increased from 460, which the Commissioners 
 thought not capable of being regarded otherwise than as an indication of suc- 
 cess, to 787 ; and it is under these circumstances that Major O'Reilly thinks 
 himself justified in quoting the authority of the Commissioners for the utter 
 failure of the Queen's Colleges. The following figures shew the progress of the 
 Colleges from the period ^ the Commissioners' report down to the present 
 time : 
 
 1858-59 490 
 
 1859-60 546 
 
 1860-61 657 
 
 1861-62 758 
 
 1862-63 787 
 
 1863-64 810 
 
 1864-65 835 
 
 To exhibit fully, however, the opinion of the Commissioners on the Colleges, 
 the passage which we have quoted must be supplemented by the following ; — 
 
 "We think, however, that the good done by the Queen's Colleges, as great 
 public institutions in Ireland, cannot be estimated merely by -the number at 
 students in their halls, or by the successful candidates whom they may send to 
 the great public contests of the educated youth of the empire. We believe that, 
 beyond this, they are, by the honourable competition existing between the stu- 
 dents and professors of the several Queen's Colleges amongst themselves, -and 
 also by the healthy and, we hope, friendly competition with the Umversity of 
 Dublin, materially aiding in advancing learning in Ireland. We believe that 
 the Colleges are calculated, and we trust the association of students of various 
 creeds and opinions within their walls does operate, to soften those feelings of 
 party antagonism and sectarian animosity which have heretofore unhappily had 
 too extended an existence in Ireland ; and that they are rapidly generating a 
 feeling of local self-reliance and of self-respect, and exciting an interest in the 
 culture of literature and science throughout the commuiiity at large." 
 
 Our readers are now in a position to judge of the value of assertions as to 
 the failure of the Queen's Colleges made by ultramontane writers, of whom, we 
 are bound to say, the most candid and scrupulous we have encountered is 
 Major O'Reilly. 
 
 * Two ArUeles on Education, pp. 46, 78. 
 
12 
 
 made to Parliament to reverse the policy it had followed 
 for thirty years, it became necessary to sustain the allega- 
 tion of failure with some show of proof This task was 
 accordingly undertaken by the O'Donoghue — the mover 
 of the resolution to which we referred at the opening of 
 these remarks — who produced on the occasion certain sta- 
 tistics from which he drew the desired conclusion. Strange 
 to say, the O'Donoghue's reasons were never traversed by 
 the Government, though directly at variance with the re- 
 peated assertions of several of its members who had filled 
 the offices of Lord Lieutenant and Chief Secretary of Ireland. 
 But since the parliamentary debate considerable light has 
 been thrown upon this question from other quarters. Those 
 interested on behalf of the Colleges have supplied the answer 
 which the Government, for whatever reasons, declined to 
 give, and the whole case may now be regarded as pretty 
 fully before the public. We shall endeavour to state briefly 
 how the facts in reference to this important matter stand. 
 
 The case for the failure of the Queen's Colleges as pre- 
 sented by the O'Donoghue was briefly this : — The total 
 number of students in Trinity College he set down (we 
 
 know not on what authority) at 1000 
 
 The total number in the Queen's Colleges at 837 
 
 Giving an aggregate receiving education in both of... 1837 
 Of the 1000 students in Trinity College, but 45 were Eoman 
 Catholics : of the 837 in the Queen's Colleges, but 223 ; 
 that is to say, 268 Eoman CathoKcs altogether as against 
 1569 Protestants, in an aggregate of 1837, or 14 per cent. 
 With this state of facts he contrasted certain returns of 
 attendance in intermediate schools, from which it appeared 
 that the Roman Catholics and Protestants receiving educa- 
 tion in these were about equal in number. Hig inference 
 was — an inference adopted by the Government — that the 
 Eoman Catholics were deterred from going on to the higher 
 education by conscientious objections to the institutions 
 through which it was provided. On these grounds he de- 
 manded a charter for " The Catholic University." 
 
 The reply on the part of the Colleges has been as follows : 
 Accepting the facts so far as they are given, they do not 
 sustain the O'Donoghue's conclusion. For why is it to be 
 assumed that the relative numbers of Eoman Catholics 
 and Protestants in the intermediate schools furnish a just 
 
13 
 
 basis for a comparison of their numbers in the Universities ? 
 Are there not in every population large numbers who 
 avail themselves of the education afforded in intermediate 
 schools who never think of prosecuting their studies further ? 
 and is it not possible that this class may be larger among 
 Irish Eoman Catholics than among Irish Protestants ? No- 
 toriously this is the fact. The discrepancy therefore between 
 the comparative returns of the intermediate schools and 
 the universities finds in part an obvious explanation in 
 the social condition of the two classes. But, secondly, it 
 finds a further explanation in a still graver flaw in the 
 O'Donoghue's argument, a flaw so grave as in fact to vitiate 
 it altogether — the entire omission of the principal element 
 of the returns on the Catholic side. The Protestant students 
 are set down at 1569 — a number which includes, besides 
 students intended for the several lay callings, the great bulk 
 of those designed for holy orders in the several Protestant 
 Churches ; but the 268 Eoman Catholics who are contrasted 
 with them comprise lay students only. For the education 
 of the Eoman Catholics intended for the priesthood the State 
 has provided Maynooth with an endowment of ^^26,000 
 a year ; and besides Maynooth, several other colleges exist 
 in Ireland maintained from private sources for a similar 
 purpose.* The students attending these, and who have 
 their counterpart on the Protestant side in the divinity 
 classes of Dublin and Belfast included in the quoted figures; 
 the O'Donoghue wholly omits ! It illustrates curiously the 
 spirit in wluch this gentleman's argument was encountered 
 by the Government, that in the discussion which ensued 
 this huge and glaring omission was never detected. It has, 
 however, since been both detected and supplied by less 
 complaisant disputants. As corrected, the comparison 
 stands thus : — 
 
 * "Of seminaries for the education of ecclesiastics in 1800, Maynooth, which 
 had existed just five years, was the only one; in 1864, besides the national 
 seminary of Maynooth, which has now an annual endowment of ie26, 000, and 
 numbers 500 students, our bishops hare also established seventeen diocesan 
 seminaries ; and in addition to these institutions for the education of the priest- 
 hood, several of the religious orders have houses in Ireland where their members 
 are educated for the priesthood : such are the Oalced Carmelites, Dominicans, 
 Augustinians, Cistercians, Jesuits, Vincentians, Passionists, Eedemptorists, 
 and Oblates of Mary." — Progress of Catholicity im Irelcmd in the Nineteenth 
 Cenimiry, a Paper read before the Catholic Congress of Mechlin, Sept. 1864, 
 by Myles O'Reilly, LL.D., M.P., pp. 15, 16. 
 
14 
 
 Protestant students, lay and clerical, receiving the 
 
 higher education 1569 
 
 Eoman Catholic, ditto ditto 1155 
 
 We think it must he allowed that this considerahly alters 
 the aspect of the case. But the consideration remains : 
 does the number of Eoman Catholic students, thus enlarged, 
 fairly represent the proportion of the body who would in 
 the present social condition of Ireland naturally aspire to 
 an academic status ? Now on this point an accurate cri- 
 terion is plainly not attainable ; but such facts as the fol- 
 lowing wQl serve to giTe the reader an approximately correct 
 idea as to how the matter stands. It appears* that in an 
 aggregiate of 6483 members composing the learned profeS" 
 sions in Ireland, the Eoman Catholic proportion is 2239, or 
 33 per cent. ■: in. the aggregate magistracy Eoman Catholics 
 stand for 24 per cent; amongst those returned ia the census 
 as " ladies and gentlemen," for 27 per cent. These facts, 
 we say, do not afford an accurate measure of the compara- 
 tive need amongst Eoman Catholics for university educa- 
 tion ; but they furnish an approxima,te standard, which 
 taken in connection with the statistics of the higher educa- 
 tion jnst given, justifies us, we think, in asserting that, as 
 regards thi's department of instruction, Eoman Catholics in 
 Ireland are already not badly provided for. 
 
 Such, substantially, has been the reply on the part of the 
 CoEeges. It is, in our opinion, as conclusive as a reply 
 founded on mere statistical data can be. We will now add 
 a consideration wliich, if we are not mistaken, renders the 
 argument complete, and converts strong presumption into 
 something very like positiTe demonstration. A common 
 objection urged against the Queen's Colleges, and, we own, 
 with some plausibility, is, that they foster among the people 
 a habit of looking to the State for a career. Major O'Eeilly 
 has adopted this amongst other charges. In a foot-note to 
 page 31 of his pamphlet he thus states the point in some- 
 what triumphant style : — 
 
 " We will stake oui reputation for accuracy on a very simple 
 test : let any one of our readers go into a national school, and 
 after a little conversation with the cleverest lad in it, find out 
 what his highest aspirations are : we will answer for it they will 
 
 * See the Table of the Census setting forth ithe "occupations" of the popu- 
 lation. 
 
15 
 
 be fotind to be a Govetmnent clerkship or an appointnient in 
 the Post Oiflce. Let him also try a Queen's College, and ten to 
 one, the goal of the student's ambition will be found to be a 
 eadetship in the constabularyj a clerkship in one of the public 
 T)fflces, or a Gtovemment appointment in India." 
 
 Now, passitag by the case of the National Schools, with 
 ■which we are not at present concerned, we have no doubt 
 that, as regards the Queen's Colleges, the learned author's 
 accuracy would be sustainfed by the experiment. Beyond 
 all question, a considerable proportion ©f the Queen's Ool* 
 lege Students look for th'eir future career to such openings 
 as are offered by the constabulary, the public offices and 
 India ; but what 'does this prove ? That the Queen's Col- 
 leges foster a habit of dependence upon State employment ? 
 We are paradoxical enough to think that the tendency to 
 look to the State for employment follows rather the amount 
 of patronage at the disposal of the State, than the means 
 "which exist for quaHiying for the effective discharge of such 
 State work as is to be done : we ventare even to believe 
 that if the Queen's Colleges ceased to exist to-morrow, 
 there ■Would not be an Irish candidate the less for the public 
 'offices. The effect would be felt, as it seems to us, not in 
 the number of candidates, but in their qualiication ; nor 
 can we conceive anything better calculated to correct the 
 evils of the bureaucratic spirit than the liberalizing effects 
 of an university education. Bnt, not to dwell on this point, 
 ■what does the faet — ^for fact no doubt it is— to which Major 
 O'Eeilly calls attention prove? That there is a gap in 
 "unitersity education in Ireland still to be filled up ? Eather 
 does it not conclusively establish the very point which 
 Major O'Eeilly and his allies are never weary of denying 
 —the practical success of the Queen's Colleges ; since it 
 shews that the numbers of the Irish population to whom 
 "university studies are through their means accessible, is 
 largely in excess of those whom the private demand for 
 intellectual services furnished by the learned profossions 
 win absorb ? No student in the'Queen's'CoUeges who saw 
 a prospect of success in one of the learned professions 
 would think of offering himself as a candidate for the con- 
 Stabulaty or the public offices ; but the professions being, 
 like most other industrial walks in Ireland, much over- 
 crowded, students, not conscious of more than average 
 
16 
 
 ability, but who have received some tincture of university 
 culture, will naturally prefer the constabulary or the public 
 offices to a mere mechanical or purely rural calling. This 
 is the true explanation of the fact — an explanation so ob- 
 vious that we venture to say no one could have missed it 
 who had not a theory to support. Had it been Major 
 O'Eeilly's object to prove that the Queen's Colleges had 
 overdone their work, the test which he proposes of his accu- 
 racy would have been also much to his general purpose : 
 his object being to prove that their work has been left 
 undone, the verification of his accuracy necessarily results 
 in the defeat of his argument. 
 
 To the argument, in the position to which it has now 
 been brought, there is but one objection which we can 
 imagine a candid opponent of the Queen's Colleges to ad- 
 vance — the suggestion that, though the Queen's Colleges 
 have in fact succeeded, they have succeeded only as a dernier 
 ressort ; that the Eoman Catholics have gone to them be- 
 cause they desired university education, and had no other 
 means of obtaining it. But unfortunately for the case of 
 the ultramontanes, they have, by the establishment of their 
 model institution, effectually estopped themselves from this 
 reply. It can scarcely be said that the Queen's Colleges 
 are a dernier ressort, while there is the alternative for stu- 
 dents which this institution offers. If the Eoman Catholics 
 entertain conscientious objections to the Queen's Colleges, 
 is there not abundant room for them in " The Catholic Uni- 
 versity"? We shall be told "The Catholic University" has 
 not a Charter ; which is true ; but if " The Catholic Uni- 
 versity" cannot confer degrees on its alwmni, London Uni- 
 versity can, and does.* It may not be generally known 
 
 * And it would seem by methods entirely in accordance with the views of 
 the extreme Catholic party, at least if Major O'Reilly may be taken as an ex- 
 ponent of those views. In reference to this point he writes : ' ' The London 
 University does not undertake to teach, or to regulate the teaching of the dif- 
 ferent institutions whose pupils present themselves at its examination ; nay, it 
 carefully avoids, even in laying down the subject of examinations, anything 
 like a dictation as to the opinions to be taught : and for this reason a general 
 statement of the subjects of examination in moral philosophy has been substi- 
 tuted by the Senate for an enumeration of certain works of Butler and Paley ; 
 as the latter might, it was thought, be looked upon as requiring an assent to 
 
 the teachings of those writers Thus education is left absolutely free and 
 
 voluntary; and the State only interferes to ascertain results, and that only 
 through the medium of bodies wholly independent of Government control." 
 
17 
 
 thatj according to a recent admirable aiTangement entirely 
 in keeping with its true character, that body now holds its 
 examinations in all parts of the United Kingdoili ; indeed, 
 in all parts of the British Empire. This year one matricu- 
 lation examination was held in the Mauritius, another in 
 the Irish town of Carlow. It is a central institution with 
 its centre everywhere. Practically, therefore, as regards 
 facilities for obtaining degrees, the students of the Queen's 
 Colleges enjoy no advantage which is not shared by those 
 of the rival institution. Nor can it be said that the former 
 are successful through the superior attractions which, as 
 State institutions, they hold out ; for it seems — a fact cre- 
 ditable to the zeal of its promoters — that, even in the matter 
 of endowments, "The Catholic University" stands in a 
 position little, if at aU, inferior to that occupied by a Queen's 
 College ;* and if we admit that there is something in State 
 prestige, it must be admitted, on the other hand, that there 
 is also something in spiritual prestige. 
 
 So far the rival institutions stand, in regard to the pro- 
 spects which they open to students, pretty nearly on a 
 par; but, over and above the considerations which have 
 been adverted to, there is one more which must be taken 
 account of, if we would fairly appreciate the value of the 
 experiment made by the Queen's Colleges' system on the 
 intellectual tastes of the Irish people. The Queen's Colleges 
 have succeeded not merely against the legitimate rivalry of 
 an institution founded on different principles, but- — a car- 
 dinal fact in this controversy — against the illegitimate and 
 tyrannical opposition of a priesthood, who have refused to 
 leave the decision to the unbiassed judgment of those whom 
 the question concerned, — against an opposition availing 
 itself of all the arts at its command for inspiring superstitious 
 terror, of denunciation from the altar, exclusion from sacra- 
 ments, in a word, of expedients resembling rather the spiri- 
 tual appliances of Jesuit despots dictating to Paraguayan 
 savages than remonstrances fitted to be addressed to reason- 
 able and civilized men. For example, every Eoman Catholic 
 entering a Queen's College does so under a fire of this kind : — 
 
 * According to Major O'Reilly (Progress of Catholicity, p. 15), the sum 
 raised (partly by subscriptions from abroad) for the first foundation of the 
 "Catholic University" was £40,000, which has since been sustained by an 
 annual collection of £8000, about the income of one of the Queen's Colleges. 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 " The Holy Father sees the conspiracy that has been organized 
 to withdraw the education of youth from the influence of the 
 Catholic Church ; and in the anguish of his paternal heart he 
 declares that the result will be moral and intellectual corruption. 
 He invites us aU, clergy and laity, to join with him in deploring 
 that Satanic scheme for the ruin of faith in the rising genera- 
 tion Parents and guardians of young men are to under- 
 stand that by accepting education in them [the Queen's Colleges] 
 for those under their charge, they despise the warnings, entreaties 
 
 and decisions of the Head of the Church Adhering to the 
 
 discipline in force in this diocese, we once for all declare that 
 they who are guilty of it shall not be admitted to receive the 
 holy sacrament of the Eucharist, or of Penance, whilst they con- 
 tinue in their disobedience."* 
 
 Are we unreasonable in concluding that popular success, 
 achieved against opposition such as this, proves something 
 more than simple preference for the denounced system on 
 the part of those who accept it ? It seems to us that nothing 
 short of singular adaptation to the wants and aspirations 
 of the Irish people would account for so striking a pheno- 
 menon. 
 
 It would seem, then, that "the gap" in university educa- 
 tion in Ireland has yet to be discovered : in plain terms, 
 there is not a tittle of evidence to shew that any appreciable 
 proportion of Irish Eoman Catholics are by conscientious 
 objections, or by any other cause than their social position 
 and circumstances, excluded from the existing Irish univer- 
 sities. Let us now add to the presumptive proof of what has 
 not been omitted, the positive evidence of what has been 
 performed. Omitting details, then, the general results ac- 
 complished by the Queen's University and its Colleges in 
 a career of fifteen years are these : they have in that time 
 educated 3330 Irishmen, that is to say, 957 members of the 
 Established Church, 938 Eoman Catholics, 1197 Presbyte- 
 rians, and 238 of other denominations. They are at the 
 present moment educating more than at any previous time ; 
 their students now being within one-fifth as numerous as 
 those of Trinity College, Dublin, and within one-third as 
 numerous as those of the University of Oxford. In a period 
 of fourteen years the Queen's University has conferred 886 
 
 • PaBtoral of Doctor Deny, Bishop of Clonfert, addressed last March to the 
 faithful of his diocese. 
 
19 
 
 degrees (exclusive of diplomas and ad evndems) ; the number 
 conferred by the London University during the conespond- 
 ing period of its Career being 841, or about 5 per cent, less* 
 The Colleges have since their establishment trebled the 
 number of Eoman Catholic laymen receiving university edu- 
 cation.-}- The quality of their education, as shewn by every 
 available test, is not inferior to that obtainable in any of 
 the older universities. Lastly, they have eminently suc- 
 ceeded in what was a leading object of their establishment — ■ 
 the bringing together in the same class-rooms of students 
 from all the various religious bodies in the country. 
 
 We have been anxious to dispose of the questions of 
 failure and practical grievance before engaging in the dis- 
 cussion of the projects of university reform, which the an- 
 nouncement by the Government that they were prepared 
 to concede some modification of the existing system has 
 naturally brought upon the carpet. The course of the con- 
 troversy has already disclosed the fact, that the ideas of 
 those who criticise the present arrangements do not run in a 
 single channel. Under the assumed banner of " freedom of 
 education," two distinct, and to some extent conflicting, poli- 
 cies are advocated ; one of these, that of the ultramontane 
 party proper, aims avowedly (its liberal watchword notwith- 
 standing) at the erection of " The Catholic University" — an 
 institution, it will be remembered, established-at the insti- 
 gation of the Pope, and now worked through a committee 
 of which two-thirds are Eoman Catholic ecclesiastics — into 
 a position of paramount and pervading authority over the 
 
 * We borrow these figures from a "Statement adopted by the Graduates of 
 the Queen's University in Ireland, assembled in Public Meeting in Belfast on 
 Wednesday, 6tli December, 1865," — a paper which gives with admirable clear- 
 ness and precision all the important facts of the question. 
 
 + At p. 47 of Major O'Reilly's pamphlet, the following passage occurs : "On 
 the other hand, the recognized authorities of the Catholic Church would decide, 
 with judgment and prudence, what changes were necessary to remove the objec- 
 tions which prevent Catholics attending Cork College," Considering that, when 
 this was written, there were 123 Catholics on the rolls as attending Cork Col- 
 lege — a fact with which Major O'fieilly would surely not have failed to acquaint 
 himself — we are driven to suppose that that gentleman refuses the name of 
 " Catholics" to those who attend a Queen's College. In this he may or may 
 not be justified ; but it seems to us that it would have been only fair, before 
 adopting this course, to have apprized his readers of this his habit. We call 
 attention to the circumstance, because it may furnish a clue to his meaning, 
 and possibly to the meaning of others who share his opinions, when they assure 
 ns that "the Queen's Colleges have wholly tailed." 
 
 b2 
 
20 
 
 whole higher education of Eoman Catholics in Ireland ; 
 the other — whatever may be our judgment on its general 
 merits — would seem at least to be conceived with a bona 
 fide desire to promote educational freedom according to 
 the ideas of those who support it. We are even disposed 
 to suspect that its advocates (who, we may observe, are 
 Eoman Catholics, but laymen) have, consciously or uncon- 
 sciously, not been uninfluenced by a desire to counteract 
 the aims of the parti pritre ; though, we own, we have 
 been led- to this conclusion, more from the violence with 
 which the policy in question has been assailed by that 
 party, than from anything that we can discover in the pro- 
 posals put forward calculated to offer an effectual obstruc- 
 tion to its designs. However this may be, our object now 
 is to place before our readers each of these schemes of edu- 
 cational reform, so far as we have been able to collect them 
 from the manifestos of the two sections, and, without refer- 
 ence to a possible arriire pens^e, to endeavour to estimate, 
 as correctly as we are able, their real character and ten- 
 dency. 
 
 Taking, first, what for distinction we may describe as the 
 lay proposal, its leading idea would seem to be to remodel 
 the existing institutions for the higher education in Ireland, 
 on the pattern presented by the London University and the 
 various seminaries which prepare candidates for its degrees. 
 The adoption of the principle in its integrity would require 
 the abolition of both the present Irish universities : on their 
 ruins would be raised a new university, to be called the 
 University of Dublin or of Ireland, which would be in fact 
 simply an examining Board, under which would be ranged 
 as strictly co-ordinate institutions the various teaching 
 bodies of the country, including amongst these as equal 
 members Trinity College, the Queen's Colleges, St. Patrick's 
 College, Maynooth, "The Catholic University," &c. These 
 would send up candidates for matriculation and degrees to 
 the central institution, where, without reference to the 
 antecedents of their training, they would be received, exa- 
 mined and certificated. But this scheme, though "com- 
 prehensive, well-founded in theory, and national in aspect,"* 
 
 * "University Education in Ireland," p. 3. This pamphlet, by a distin- 
 guished member of the Queen's University Senate, which we take as the 
 best exposition of the views we are now considering, has not been published • 
 
21 
 
 it is thought advisable, from considerations of practical 
 expediency, suggested by the opposition which it would be 
 in the power of Trinity College to oifer, to relinquish, in 
 favour of another less perfect but more feasible. It is accord- 
 ingly proposed to leave Dublin University with its College 
 aside as refractory elements, but to throw the remaining 
 educational institutions of the country into the crupible. 
 The connection between the Queen's University and its 
 Colleges would be dissolved ; the University in its present 
 character would cease to exist ; and the outcome would 
 be an examining Board, to be named the Queen's Uni- , 
 versity, and a group of co-ordinate institutions, amongst 
 which the Queen's Colleges and "The Catholic University" 
 would rank with a host of preparatory schools now little 
 conscious of the dignity which is intended for them. These 
 would work together on an equal footing, engaged in the 
 common task of preparing candidates for the matriculation 
 and degree examinations to be held by the Central Board. 
 
 Such in outline is the scheme which has been propound- 
 ed, and which enjoys, we understand, in Ireland a certain 
 amount of favour. It is also a part of the proposal that the 
 Senate of the University should be increased from sixteen 
 (the present number) to thirty members, — twenty of these 
 to be nominated by the Crown and to consist in equal 
 numbers of Protestants and Catholics, the remaining ten to 
 be elected by Convocation. Further, it is proposed thajt the 
 appointment of Professors in the Queen's Colleges should 
 be transferred from the Crown to a local Board, constituted 
 on a plan, as it seems to us, equally complicated and unpro- 
 mising. Tor the present, however, we purpose confining 
 ourselves to the more fundamental and characteristic fea- 
 tures of the scheme. 
 
 And in the first place, it occurs to us to ask, why, sup- 
 posing it is proper to abolish one or both of the existing 
 Irish universities, erect another in their room ? According 
 to the theory, propounded, the proper function of a univer- 
 sity is to test actual acquirement, without reference to the 
 place or mode of acquisition. A university is thus conceived 
 as a sort of intellectual mint to which all the pure metal 
 
 but as it has enjoyed a very large circulation, probably muoli larger than if it 
 made its appearance in the ordinary way, we do not think that, in treating it as 
 public, we violate any rule of literary etiquette which deserves to be held sacred. 
 
22 
 
 of knowledge in the country is to be brought to receive the 
 stamp which is to make it current. Well, adopting this view, 
 is there not already the London University to perform the 
 required office ? It is not denied that it performs its office 
 well : on what principle, then, are we required to establish 
 a second mint for knowledge, and thus to introduce into 
 the economy of letters double standards and measures? 
 The writer who has advocated this plan takes the "Jury 
 Central" of Belgium (the exact position of which in the 
 Belgian scheme of education, by the way, he seems to us 
 to misconceive) as the model of a national university ; and 
 he teUs us that the London University is in this countiy 
 the analogue of that institution. Then why not act on this 
 analogy, and re-organize the " unharnessed" Irish seminaries 
 under the London " Central"? It cannot be said that local 
 convenience would require a second Irish university ; for, 
 as we have already pointed out, under the arrangement 
 which now exists the staff of the metropolitan establish- 
 ment is brought to the doors, it may be to the halls, of the 
 Irish Colleges. Nor can we suppose — at a time when the 
 mischief of keeping alive a distinct national sentiment is 
 just receiving such painful illustration, when even to the 
 Irish Lord Lieutenancy everything which looks in this direc- 
 tion is carefuUy discountenanced — that an Irish " Central" 
 will be demanded on national grounds. It seems to us, 
 therefore, that the leading feature of the scheme stands con- 
 demned upon its author's own principles. The present uni' 
 versities of Ireland, constituted as ih^y now are, may have 
 something to say for themselves : how far this is so we shall 
 presently examine : an Irish university constituted on the 
 plan proposed, as a second " Central Jury," would be abso- 
 lutely without a reason for its existence. Nay, there would 
 be abundance of reasons for its non-existence ; for what 
 other effect could the creation of such a body have but to 
 introduce between it and the university already in posses- 
 sion of the field a vicious competition for candidates, such 
 as this writer himself, in the case of the medical schools, 
 has shewn almost necessarily results in a degradation of the 
 standard of knowledge ? 
 
 But the policy of the scheme we have described is open 
 to objections more fundamental far than this. What is the 
 conception of education which it presents to us ? Simply 
 
23 
 
 that of a preparatory process for a uniform examination. 
 For culture properly so called, for the process by which the 
 mind is opened, liberated arid rendered productive, for any 
 results which may not be tested by categorical question and 
 answer, the scheme we have described makes no provision : 
 nay, there are abundant indications that these objects lie 
 absolutely outside its author's mental horizon. It is laid 
 down, for example, that universities should " test the man 
 for what he knows, not where he learned it," apparently 
 under the impression that the object of restricting Univer- 
 sity degrees to those trained in particular institutions is to 
 create a " monopoly" in favour of the institutions, or the 
 localities where they happen to exist. The same view is 
 almost grotesquely brought out in another passage : 
 
 " The student of St. Patrick's College, Carlow, passes through 
 Dublin, where the Queen's University ignores him, on his way 
 to the London University, which admits him — surely such an 
 absurdity cannot be permitted to continue." 
 We do not know whether the fact that the student of St, 
 Patrick's College, Carlow, can now obtain his degree from 
 London University without passing the site of the Queen's 
 University, will diminish in our author's eyes the absurdity 
 which he here discovers ; but to our minds the only absurd- 
 ity in the case — and it is a very great absurdity — is the 
 application of such tests to such subjects. 
 
 In presence of arguments of this order, it may perhaps 
 be well to state that the end of a university system — the 
 purpose by success or failure in which it must be justified 
 or condemned — is not to bring aspirants to academic degrees 
 by the shortest route before the nearest examining Board, 
 much as criminals are hurried before the nearest Justice, 
 but to furnish the means for the largest, freest, and most 
 varied development of the human faculties. Now this is 
 not to be accomplished by a system which proposes no other 
 aim, and provides for no other result, than success at an 
 examination, a system which converts the entire educational 
 machinery of a country into an apparatus for encouraging 
 and facilitating " cram." We are not amongst those who re- 
 gard with anything but unmixed satisfaction the application 
 in recent years of the method of competitive examination 
 to the public service. Employed within certain limits, and 
 applied with discretion, it is, we believe, an invaluable ex- 
 
24 
 
 pedient in working the machinery of administration. But 
 the method obviously, admittedly, has a tendency to engen- 
 der certain well-known intellectual defects, of which the 
 chief is the habit of loading the memory with the mere 
 results of knowledge rapidly accumulated, and, when the 
 pressure is passed, almost as rapidly forgotten. Nor will it 
 be denied ttiat the evil is one which many other modern 
 influences powerfully contribute to foster. This being so, 
 it would seem to be the part of wisdom so to frame our 
 educational arrangements as to neutralize as far as possible 
 this besetting tendency. One obvious means — we own, so 
 far as we can see, the only effectual means — of accomplish- 
 ing this object is to supplement the examination test by 
 others ; for example, by the condition that the student, 
 before presenting himself for examination, shall have gone 
 through certain prescribed courses of study under the guid- 
 ance of the best minds which the teaching body of the time 
 can furnish. This is what the academic or collegiate system* 
 seeks to do, and what, with more or less success, it accom- 
 plishes ; and this is the condition which the plan we are 
 considering 'proposes altogether to annul. Under the notion 
 that it is placing all localities on a par, that it is ex9luding 
 the element " where" from the conditions of the acquisition 
 of knowledge, it in fact places all methods of instruction on 
 a par, and excludes from the conditions required as evidence 
 of knowledge that one which forms the chief and almost 
 the only security for its thoroughness. Tar from providing 
 checks against the prevailing intellectual vice of the time, 
 it makes a clean sweep of such inadequate securities as now 
 exist, and even invites the advances of the enemy by open- 
 ing to his ambition a new and boundless field. 
 
 But perhaps we shall be told that these consequences are 
 not involved in the proposed scheme. The plan — so we 
 can imagine an advocate might put the argument — far from 
 favouring any scheme of instruction in particular, is essen- 
 tially neutral as regards aU, and neither seeks, on the one 
 hand, to discourage the system of collegiate training, nor, 
 
 * We may explain here, to avoid misapprehension, that by the "collegiate 
 system, " we merely mean instruction carried out through regular attendance 
 on courses of lectures delivered in institutions established for the purpose of 
 general mental cultivation. This necessai-ily implies residence near a college, 
 but not necessai-ily roensal residence, 
 
25 
 
 on the other, to promote private teaching. People under 
 the new regime, it may be said, might continue, if they 
 thought proper, to send their sons to colleges as now ; and 
 no doubt (such a reasoner might add), if, the advantages of 
 this course are as great as is pretended, this is what would 
 happen. The essence of the scheme, in short, it might be 
 urged, is not protection or favour, but freedom-=-the exten- 
 sion into the field of knowledge of that stimulus to effort 
 and improvement which healthy competition supplies — in 
 a word, " free trade in education." 
 
 But this, however plausible, is, in reality, wholly irrele- 
 vant to the issue which we have raised. Our objection to 
 the proposed scheme is, not that it applies the examination 
 test unfairly, but that it applies no other test. If the condi- 
 tion of passing an examination be the only one required by 
 a university for obtaining its degrees, it is plain that the 
 qualities of education 'which an examination is competent 
 to elicit are the only ones which such a university will tend 
 to develop. The Central Board of Examination would, no 
 doubt, be perfectly impartial as between the various systems 
 of which the results would be submitted to it ; but if its 
 tests are only fitted for the discovery of merit of a certain 
 kind, it could not but favour the systems which were most 
 efficacious in producing that sort of merit. But we need 
 not on this point rely altogether on speculative considera- 
 tions. We have already had tolerably large experience of 
 the working of such a system in the examinations for the 
 Indian Civil Service. These examinations are probably con- 
 ducted in a manner as well fitted to defeat " cram" as in 
 the nature of the case is possible ; and what is the lesson 
 which the experiment teaches ? We believe it is this, that 
 in such a contest the places of education in which collegiate 
 training is enforced are not competent to hold their ground 
 against the competition of the professional " coach." Un- 
 fortunately it is not possible to exhibit the results of the 
 experiment in statistical form ; as it is the custom of the 
 Civil Service Commissioners to ignore in their returns the 
 places of special instruction, in which the majority of the 
 candidates spend two or three years before presenting them- 
 selves for examination. The effect of this, of course, is that 
 the work of the professional trainers is concealed ; the uni- 
 versities and schools obtaining credit largely for successes 
 
which are in fact due to other means of instruction. _ The 
 wbrking of the System, therefore, as regards the point in 
 hand, cannot be exhibited statistically. We will, however,, 
 quote the opinion of a friend who, with the advantage of 
 some experience as an examiner, has watched the experi- 
 ment. " My own opinion," he writes, " is that university 
 candidates are declining and must decline in numbers ; the 
 Indian Civil Service examinations are making a sort of 
 university themselves. A lad of 16 or 17 goes to a ' coach,' 
 and at the end of a year goes in to the examination to see 
 what it is like ; he thus feels his way, ascertains his weak 
 points, and has some means of judging whether he may be 
 successful in a second or third venture ; and it constantly 
 happens that a selected candidate has been up once, if not 
 twice, before. The Civil Service Halls, institutes and what 
 not, are thus in the same relation to the Indian Civil Ser- 
 vice examination that the af&liated Colleges of London 
 University are to it. It is quite impossible that the older 
 Universities can compete with this system." Such, in the 
 opinion of careful observers, is the tendency of competitive 
 examination in relation to collegiate training in the most 
 important instance in which it has yet been tried ; and this 
 may enable us to form an idea of what would be the result of 
 remodelling our entire university system on the plan of the 
 Civil Service Commission, which is in effect the reform now 
 proposed. It could only, as it seems to us, discourage, and 
 ultimately lead to the abandonment altogether in the higher 
 education of systematic training in colleges, — the one effec- 
 tual safeguard which we possess against the gravest intel- 
 lectual danger of the time. The older universities might, 
 under such a regime, for a time hold their ground : their 
 prestige would not at once perish. But for places like the 
 Irish Queen's Colleges, — institutions of yesterday — ^institu- 
 tions which, far from being aided by prestige, have had to 
 struggle against a weight of disingenuous misrepresentation 
 and carefully fostered odium, — the result of such a policy 
 could only be quick destruction.* 
 
 * We are inclined, on consideration, to think that it would prove even more 
 certainly the destruction of "The Catholic University." Over and above the 
 causes indicated, which would affect this institution (as it also enforces the 
 collegiate principle) equally with the Queen's Colleges, there would be the 
 desire to escape ecclesiastical dictation. To the plea of poverty with which the 
 
27 
 
 Nor would the mischief of this movement he confined to 
 its intellectual consequences. With the collegiate system 
 would also be lost advantages of a moral and social kiad, 
 scarcely, if at all, less important than its more direct and 
 palpable benefits, — those manifold helps to the formation of 
 character which arise from bringing young men together at 
 the most impressionable period of life, and placing them 
 under the influence of minds not unsympathetic with theirs, 
 while instructed and mature. In the friendly intimacies 
 and honourable rivalries of those three or four years, what 
 opportunities occur for lessons in the practical ethics of 
 life! — lessons at once in modesty and self-respect, laid 
 silently to heart as the student measures himself against 
 his fellows, and ascertains his true mental stature — lessons 
 in candour and toleration as he discovers how most ques- 
 tions have two sides, on either of which good and earnest 
 men are found to range themselves — lessons in the practical 
 value and skilful handling of the truths learned in the lec- 
 ture-room, afforded by conversation with his companions 
 and by the opportunities of the debating club ; — lastly, 
 lessons in self-reliance, simplicity and manliness of charac- 
 ter, inhaled with the moral atmosphere of a place in which 
 the only distinctions known are those which in the actual, 
 arena have made their pretensions good. 
 
 These are advantages incidental to the Collegiate system' 
 wherever it is established ; but for a country like Ireland, 
 long torn with religious dissensions, where for centuries 
 Protestants and Catholics educated in opposite camps have 
 learned to regard each other almost as natural enemies, the 
 system, carried out as it is in the Queen's Colleges, has 
 manifestly a special adaptation. What can be better fitted to 
 qualify the virus of bigotry and engender feelings of mutual 
 consideration and respect, what better preparation for the 
 duties of citizenship in a country of mixed religious faith 
 can be imagined, than a system of education which furnishes 
 to the youths of all religious denominations neutral ground 
 on which they may meet and cultivate in common, without 
 reference to the causes which divide them, those pursuits 
 
 in which they have a common interest ? It is a noteworthy 
 
 — . ' — « 
 
 recommendation of the priesthood to parents to send their sons to "The Ca- 
 tholic University" could easily be met, there would be no effective reply. 
 Hence, no doubt, the strenuous repudiation by the clerical party of this lay scheme. 
 
28 
 
 fact, and one for which, let us observe in passing, the 
 authorities in those institutions deserve some little credit, 
 that throughout the fifteen years of their existence, with 
 one single and transient exception * not an instance in any 
 of thte Colleges has occurred of dissension due to religious 
 differences. And this result has been attained, while reli- 
 gious controversy has been raging with the utmost fury aU 
 around, and while propagandist societies — in the case of one 
 of the colleges at least, and that one in which CathoKcs and 
 Protestants meet in almost exactly equal numbers — have 
 been pushing their operations almost at the College doors. 
 Yet, in spite of these provocatives to discord, Catholics and 
 Protestants have left those institutions, and are leaving 
 them year by year, having there formed friendships which 
 will last with their lives.-|- These are achievements to which 
 the academic system, as carried out in Ireland through the 
 
 * On one occasion some students, at a visitation of Belfast College, raised 
 "the Kentish fire." The incident has, we believe, been much exaggerated; at 
 all events, it was unique. There was a fine illustration of the habitual spirit 
 of the plafie at a recent very numerous meeting of the graduates to protest 
 against the proposed changes in the University. Each of the speakers referred 
 to the advantage he had derived from mixing with men of different creeds, but 
 the tone of the remarks, and the patient attention with which the assembly 
 listened to a solitary dissentient, were better evidence of their tolerance than 
 any direct testimony. 
 
 f We beg the reader to contrast these results with the theory of education 
 inculcated in the following passage from a pamphlet which has just appeared, 
 expressing the views of the clerical party : — 
 
 "You say young men of different religions mixed together, refrain, even 
 from a motive of pride for their own religion, from discourses against religion 
 or morality : that is to say. Catholic youths — for it is chiefly with regard to 
 them that we are discussing what educational system is the best — Catholic 
 youths find the society of Protestant, of irreligious — am I to add, of immoral ? 
 ■ — youths, provided they are not Catholics, less likely to lead to irreligious or 
 corrupt conversation, than the society of young men, who have the happiness of 
 professing the true faith. I suppose, you admit, that ' as there is but one 
 God and one baptism, there is but one true faith,' and that they who profess 
 it are, cceteris paribus, better Christians and better men than they who do not. 
 Well, then, association with those who, cceteris paribus, are better Christians 
 and better men, is more corrupting than association with others, who, through 
 God's inscrutable judgment, are in the darkness of error ! In other words, 
 good companions are no longer good companions ; evil company is no longer the 
 occasion of evil, but of greater virtues. This is not the lesson which the expe- 
 rience of all time teaches. From it we learn that of all the agencies for the 
 corruption of youth, evil company is perhaps the worst," &c. ("Notes on 
 ' University Education in Ireland,'" by U. R.) 
 
 What hopeful promise for future peace and progress in Ireland when the 
 principle maintained in this passage is taken as the basis of its educational 
 system, and the youths of each religious denomination are warned to shun those 
 of the others as they would shun "evil company" ! 
 
29 
 
 Queen's Colleges, may point with pride ; and they are such 
 as, it seems to us, no wise Government would hghtly im- 
 peril or willingly let die.* 
 
 The writer, indeed, whose scheme of university reform we 
 have been criticising, is, as one would expect, sceptical of 
 these advantages. He tells us : " It is held that the inti- 
 macies and associations thus formed may be, and indeed 
 often are, as much for evil as for good, when young men or 
 boys are sent for three years away from guardians and 
 parents. Studious and well-disposed young men do not 
 obtrude their advice or example on their companions ; the 
 idle and ill-disposed are always obtrusive, and their per- 
 suasions and example often exercise a most injurious 
 influence over their companions." Now we have no hesi- 
 tation in repudiating this representation, which we can 
 scarcely believe to be the reflex of an actual experience, as 
 a fair account of the influences evolved amid the intercourse 
 of undergraduate life. At least, speaking from our own 
 experience, self-distrust and morbid reserve are not the 
 characteristics which we remember to have observed in 
 the men who took the highest places in the honour lists 
 and the foremost parts in the debating club. Of course, 
 where many youths congregate, there will be " studious and 
 well-disposed young men" whose virtue will seek the shade, 
 and "idle and ill-disposed" who will thrust themselves into 
 the foreground ; but these, we submit, are not the prevailing 
 types. Self-assertion, rather than morbid shyness, is the 
 side on which we venture to think youthful merit, intellec- 
 tual and moral, is apt to err ; and it would speak little 
 indeed for the administrative adroitness of those who bear 
 rule in collegiate circles, if this natural proneness of the best 
 minds under their authority to impress themselves on all 
 who come within their range, were not turned to account in 
 
 * One objection to the enforcement of residence in the Queen's Colleges might 
 be, and indeed has been, urged with much apparent force — that it is unsuited 
 to a poor population. So serious did this consideration seem to the Commis- 
 sioners who reported on the state of Trinity College in 1852, that, while express- 
 ing in the strongest terms the value they attached to academic residence, they 
 yet declined to recommend that it should be made indispensable. Fortunately, 
 the advocates of the collegiate system are now enabled to meet this reasonable 
 apprehension with the most satisfactory of answers — the fact of success. In 
 spite of the rule of residence, the Queen's Colleges, as has been seen, have at- 
 tracted to their halls quite as large a proportion of the several classes as the 
 social circumstances of the country give warrant for expecting. 
 
80 
 
 generating a public opinion favourable to virtue and honour- 
 able distinction. As a matter of fact, we believe that this 
 result is generally attained. In the great academic bodies 
 of the country, undergraduate opinion is, we venture to say, 
 in the main healthy and sound. If it is not invariably so, 
 the exceptional result is, doubtless, due to an exceptional 
 cause ; to something, we should conjecture, radically wrong 
 in the constitution of the bodies which yield the noxious 
 fruits. The fact, if it be one, ought not to be blinked ; but 
 its proper moral is, not the abolition of the academic system 
 in education, but the reformation of the peccant institutions. 
 As we have ventured to impugn the theory of university 
 reform advanced in the proposal we have been examining, 
 it may perhaps be expected that we should indicate, ia 
 lieu of the principle we have combated, what' in our opi- 
 nion is the sound ideal of a university system. Eeverting, 
 then, to what we said a few pages back, that the true end 
 of universities is to provide means for the largest and freest 
 development in all directions of the national mind, and 
 remembering that culture implies systematic training, and 
 that distinct forms of culture imply distinct and indepen- 
 dent institutions, a perfect system for the higher education 
 would, in our opinion, be one in which university degrees 
 should represent, not a mere quantum of uniform attain- 
 ment, but, along with knowledge, types of culture.; and in 
 which the number of distinct universities should correspond 
 with the number of distinct types of culture which mental 
 movement in/ the country might assume, Of course it 
 would be necessary in practice to restrict the application of 
 this principle to those forms of mental movement which 
 were sufficiently characteristic, and at the same time the 
 expression of the intellectual condition of a sufficiently 
 large number of persons, to make the establishment of in- 
 dependent institutions for their promotion worth the while. 
 And it would also be necessary, in order to the complete 
 freedom of education, — inasmuch as there are in all com- 
 munities persons who, whether from narrowness of means, 
 mental idiosyncrasy, or from other causes, decline to take 
 part in the coUegiate system through which a;lone types 
 of culture can be generated and maintained — that the 
 imiversities, constituted on the plan indicated of represent- 
 ing culture, should be supplemented by a university con- 
 
31 
 
 stituted npon that of representing attainment merely ; or, 
 to state our meaning in concrete language, that, in addition 
 to universities of the Oxford, Camhridge and Dublin type, 
 there should be a university also of the London type. 
 There is no reason that persons, unable or unwilling to 
 take part in the collegiate system, on giving proof that they 
 have acquired a due amount of knowledge, should not be 
 admitted to the intellectual rank of university -educated 
 men ; and the natural and obvious means of effecting this 
 object would be through a university in which collegiate 
 training was not imperative. Such a system, it seems to 
 us, would realize the conditions requisite at once for the 
 freedom and the solidity of mental progress ; and in fact it 
 is a system of this kind at which in the natural course of 
 things — practice in this instance as in others preceding 
 theory — we have arrived in this country. Under the im- 
 pulse of particular motives, with slight regard to general 
 views, the founders of our universities, whether private indi- 
 viduals or governments, have traced out an organization 
 of the higher learning, which, in its actual condition, does 
 not differ materially from that which would have been real- 
 ized if the principles we have indicated had been deliberately 
 followed. We have not one, but many universities, which 
 in the main represent specific and distinct intellectual re- 
 sults. The culture of Oxford is not the culture of Cambridge ; 
 and both are distiuct, on the one hand, from the culture of 
 Scotland, on the other, from that represented by Trinity Col' 
 lege, Dublin. To these types of culture we can now add that 
 imparted in the Queen's University and its Colleges, which 
 we venture to assert is not less specific and distinct than any 
 of the better-known forms. It is true we cannot, in the 
 case of Colleges fifteen years old, justify this language by an 
 appeal to experience. But if the time and the object of the 
 establishment of the Queen's Colleges be considered— the 
 time, when the modern languages and the physical sciences 
 had just begun to attract that attention as instruments of 
 education which has of late been so liberally accorded them ; 
 the object, to educate the youths of different religious deno- 
 minations on equal terms in common — ^the candid will, we 
 think, acknowledge that a system of education conducted 
 on a plan so different from any which has been tried else- 
 where, and which drew its adherents from classes of society 
 
32 
 
 not hitherto reached hy the higher education, is not unlikely 
 to yield intellectual fruits equally characteristic and distinct. 
 The system provides for wants not hitherto supplied, and 
 provides for them in a way fitted to generate and preserve 
 a type of culture suited to the circumstances of the country 
 and to the character of the people ; and herein consists its 
 justification on the principles we .have set forth. But to 
 return to our immediate point — in the main, we say, the 
 several universities of Great Britain and Ireland justify 
 their separate existence by representing distinct forms of 
 culture ; while over and above the universities representing 
 culture, there is the University of London representing at- 
 tainment merely, wherever or however acquired, adapted, 
 therefore, to meet the wants of all who are unable to find a 
 place in the more normal institutions. Now if these views 
 be sound, it follows that the principle and entire scope of 
 the scheme of centralization now advocated for the higher . 
 education in Ireland are essentially a mistake. The scheme 
 starts with a false ideal ; it moves in a wrong direction ; 
 and, if carried into practice, it must inevitably issue in per- 
 nicious results. What is wanted in our university system 
 is not revolution and re-organization, but remedial legis- 
 lation, directed to the correction of inequalities and minor 
 abuses which have come down to us from ages of bigotry, 
 and embracing no doubt also the adaptation of its courses 
 and methods to the advancing conditions of human know- 
 ledge. 
 
 And from the principles just laid down we may deduce 
 one or two more conclusions, not irrelevant to the question 
 in hand. We may perceive in them, for example, a new 
 reason, in addition to that already adduced, in favour of 
 maintaining the collegiate system in university education. 
 The connection of universities with particular colleges, far 
 from being the factitious and obstructive incident which 
 it has been represented — a hindrance to be got rid of by 
 all means — is, we may now see, in truth an essential con- 
 dition to their fulfilment of the main purpose for which 
 they exist ; since it is manifestly only by maintaining this 
 connection that degrees can be what they mainly ought to 
 be — the representatives or emblems of culture. Aiid again 
 those principles furnish the reply to another question, of 
 which, so far as we know, no intelligible solution has yet 
 
33 
 
 been given — the question under what circumstances and 
 within what limits the competition between universities or 
 other bodies granting degrees is productive of good. Every 
 one recognizes ihe fact that in some instances such compe- 
 tition is beneficial, in others injurious ; but. we are not 
 aware that any one has furnished an explanation of these 
 apparently conflicting phenomena. We are now, however, 
 in a position to do so. Competition will, be useful among 
 such bodies, so long as their number is confined within the 
 limits indicated by the principles laid down ; that is to say, 
 so long as they represent distinct types of culture, or, as we 
 may otherwise state it, so long as they render distinct ser- 
 vices to the community ; and it becomes mischievous the 
 moment this line is passed. It wUl not be difficult to 
 sustain this position by examples. 
 
 Thus a notable instance of the mischief caused by compe- 
 tition among bodies granting degrees is furnished by the 
 medical school? of the United Kingdom. There are, we 
 believe, altogether in the country some nineteen independent 
 schools and colleges granting degrees in medicine and sur- 
 gery. Of these the greater number perform identical func- 
 tions, and as a consequence address themselves to the same 
 classes of the population ; their constituency being one and 
 the same, their competition inevitably takes a commercial 
 turn, and they seek to recommend themselves to their " cus- 
 tomers" by cheapening the commodity in which they deal. 
 The result is that which is deplored by ievery eminent 
 member of the profession* — a general deterioration of the 
 standard of medical knowledge. And such inevitably 
 would be the tendency of the propost^l which has been ad- 
 vanced of establishing in Dublin a second university on the 
 London University plan. Such a university could only 
 rende^ services already adequately rendered by the Univer- 
 sity of London. The two bodies woidd stand to each other 
 in precisely the same relation as the competing medical 
 schools, and we cannot doubt with the same result. ISTow 
 take an example of competition of another kind amongst 
 degree-granting bodies — the competition of Oxford with 
 
 * Amongst others we may cite the author of the scheme we are eon3idering> 
 In reference to the evils in question, he observes : " They have arisen from the 
 competition among the nineteen licensing Universities and Colleges for the 
 profits arising from candidates and pupils." — P. 21. 
 
 C 
 
34 
 
 Cambridge, and of both with, the University of London ; 
 and an instance more pertinent to our purpose still — the 
 competition between Trinity College, Dublin, and the 
 Queen s University and its Colleges. With regard to the 
 former, it will not, we imagine, be denied that the effects of 
 the competition, so far as it is felt, are altogether salutaxy ; 
 and as regards the Irish universities, we can 'from personal 
 knowledge af&rm that this has been eminently the case. 
 Not only has their mutual rivalry heightened the esprit de 
 corps of each, and stimulated the ardour of scientific and 
 literary pursuit, but it has also borne fruit in substantial 
 measures of great practical utility. And why is this? 
 Manifestly because in all these cases the degrees of the 
 xmiversities represent something specific and distinct, and, 
 because in virtue of this fact, they address themselves in the 
 main to distinct classes in the community. The competition 
 under these circumstances has no tendency to degenerate 
 into a process of underbidding, but rather becomes a race for 
 , distinction. The graduates of the several universities meet 
 in the lists of life — in the professions, in politics, in litera- 
 ture, in society : they are known as Oxford, as Cambridge, 
 as Dublin, and as Queen's University, men : the world takes 
 note of the connection between the achievement and the 
 preparation ; and the university from which each has issued 
 gains or loses prestige. Such has been the working of com- 
 petition in this country under legitimate conditions. We 
 borrow the following account of the operation of the same 
 principle in Germany from Major O'Eeilly's able and 
 instructive, though one-sided and prejudiced, essay : 
 
 " The existing government of Prussia retains the entire direct 
 tion of education- — of the village school, the college, and the 
 
 imiversity. But with regard to their internal organization 
 
 and the regulation of their studies, the Prussian Universities 
 differ wholly from the French : instead of one University organ- 
 ized by fixed and uniform rules, there exist six, subject indeed 
 to the Miaister of Public Instruction, but having each their own 
 independence, their own organization and administration, and, so 
 to speak, their separate hfe. Each is a corporation, has juris- 
 diction over its own students ; has its own senate and its own 
 faculties ; determines its own courses of study, its own exami^ 
 
 nations, and grants its own degrees Such is the Prussian 
 
 system ; of which the chief characteristics are the great freedom 
 
35 
 
 left to the Universities under the nominal control of the govern- 
 ment, and the freedom of emulation in teaching.* As Mr. 
 
 Loomans says, ' The foundation of the Prussian organization is 
 the esprit de corps which keeps up the emulation between the 
 different Universities ; and the competition which keeps up the 
 standard in each. To form an idea of the emulation, we should 
 rather caU it the rivalry, which exists between the German Uni- 
 versities, one must be in the midst of that German society so. 
 occupied with the interests of science. The Universities have 
 acquired a consideration and an influence which are surprising. 
 Not only are they at the head of education, but they rule all 
 scientific and literary movement. This situation is the principal 
 cause of their prosperity ; placed, as it were, under the eyes of 
 the entire nation, they naturally seek to conciliate the sympathies 
 of aU.'" 
 
 This is healthy, invigorating, elevating rivalry, rivalry, too, 
 identical in principle with that which is now in this country 
 actually yielding similar fruits, similar in kind if still infe- 
 rior in amount and quality ; and it is rivialry of this kind 
 which it is now proposed to abolish in Ireland in favour of 
 a rivalry between two central institutions " open to all 
 comers," performing precisely the same functions and ad- 
 dressing themselves necessarily to precisely the same classes 
 of the population ; in favour of a rivalry which, judging 
 from experience, could only issue in the double evil of encou- 
 raging "cram" and degl'a(fing the standard of knowledge. 
 
 So far as to the lay scheme of Irish university reform. 
 Turning now to the demand of the clerical party, it will be 
 
 * We may point out in passing the essential similarity in several funda- 
 mental points between the Prussian University system, highly applauded by 
 Major O'Keilly, and that of the Queen's Colleges, for which he has only 
 terms of reprobation. A more apt characterization could not be given of 
 the organization of the latter institutions than in the words quoted above — 
 "Great freedom, under the nominal control of the Government." Thus the 
 governing bodies in the Colleges are Councils consisting of the Presidents 
 and Professors representing the several Faculties ; and these are vested with 
 very considerable powers, having full authority to prescribe the courses, arrange 
 the lectures of the Professors, settle all questions connected with the internal 
 management of the Colleges, and in general, in the words of the Charter, "not 
 being in any way under- the jurisdiction or control of the University Senate 
 further than as regards the regulations for qualification for the several degrees." 
 We desire especially to call attention to the following point. " The Professors" 
 pn the Prussian Universities], says Major O'Reilly, " are named by the King 
 on the proposition by the Faculties of a list of three." We venture to afiirm 
 that the plan adopted in the Queen's Colleges does not in effect differ from this. 
 
36 
 
 remembered that originally this was for a charter for " The 
 Catholic University." Let us here frankly express our 
 opinion that we see nothing in such a demand on the face 
 of it inadmissible. On the contrary we freely concede that 
 it is for those who resist such a claim to make out grounds 
 for their resistance. It signifies in our view nothing that 
 the ideas of those who founded " The Catholic University" 
 on " the eternal principles" first evolved in the dark ages 
 may have little in common with prevailing modes of thought 
 in this country ; if those ideas are in fact the ideas of a sec- 
 tion of the Irish people, we, for our parts, see no reason that 
 every facility should not he afforded — a charter of incor- 
 poration if that be desired — in order that such separatists 
 from the thought and feeling of the age should, so far as 
 they are themselves concerned, carry, into effect their educa- 
 tional designs. On the assumption, therefore, that the 
 demand for a charter for " The Catholic University" means 
 simply a demand, on the part of persons holding certain 
 peculiar views, to be placed on an equality, as regards State 
 recognition, with the rest of the community, our principles 
 would certainly lead us to the conclusion that such a claim 
 ought to be conceded. 
 
 But, in truth, to discuss the question now before the 
 public as if it were confined within such dimensions as 
 these, would be to ignore all the most important elements 
 of the case, and in fact to beat the air. The leaders of the 
 ultramontane party have never disguised the fact that their 
 object in this movement has been to supplant, not to supple- 
 ment — to carry over the Eoman Catholic population as a 
 whole from the institutions which they now frequent to 
 others which it is their purpose to establish, not "merely to 
 provide an exceptional institution for some exceptionally 
 constituted persons. That this is their aim is implied in the 
 whole course of their procedure, from the sitting of the Synod 
 of Thurles down to the publication of Dr. CuUen's latest pas- 
 toral, in the name and pretensions of their university, and in 
 all the circumstances of its origin, above all, in the system 
 of spiritual terrorism put in force against those who have 
 dared to avaU. themselves of the mixed schools and colleges 
 of the country. The necessity of resorting to such courses 
 — of resorting to them, not occasionally, but incessantly and 
 on system, of year after year raising the pitch of denuncia- 
 
37 
 
 tion till it has culminated in threats of exclusion from the 
 sacraments and other ordinances of the Church — a measure, 
 be it rememhered, equivalent in Eoman Catholic estimation 
 to exclusion from salvation — shews more conclusively even 
 than the statistics which in a former part of this article vi^e 
 adduced, that the system of education against which such 
 expedients are employed is as agreeable to the people of 
 the country as it is obnoxious to those who have recourse 
 to such measures of aitack. N"o doubt those who have 
 brought forward this cause in Parliament have taken care 
 not to present it in this form. Parliament hears only of 
 " the Irish people" as chafing against the grievance of liberal 
 institutions and hungering for a mediaeval university ; the 
 bishops, if they are brought upon the scene, only appearing 
 as intercessors in behalf of their much-enduring flocks. But 
 even as thus stated, the argument at least implies that those 
 who urge this demand contemplate nothing less than the 
 overthrow of the institutions to which the " Irish people" 
 now resort. To be sure, it is denied by these advocates that 
 the Irish people do resort to them, but we have already fur- 
 nished the reader with the means of judging of the value 
 of such denials. 
 
 Such, then, and not a mere demand for freedom of educa- 
 tional development for a dissentient section, is the real 
 scope and aim of the question now before the public. 
 Started indeed and still upheld by a mere section, its pur- ' 
 pose is to deal with the intellectual interests of the whole 
 Irish people. A fraction of the community — the ultra- 
 montane bishops of Ireland — seek a place for their exotic 
 institution in the national system of the country, not for 
 the legitimate purpose of offering its services to those who 
 have need of and desire them, but, if not avowedly, at all 
 events by necessary implication from their acts, in order 
 that they may thus obtain a vantage-ground from which 
 with more effect to coerce* into the adoption of their 
 
 ■ * We use the term "coerce" advisedly. The following specimen — it occur- 
 red quite recently and has been pretty generally commented on by the press — 
 of the mode of conduct pursued will enable the reader to say whether we do so 
 justifiably . The transaction in question was not connected with the particular 
 subject of this essay ; but the principles of conduct laid down and acted on are 
 obviously applicable to that and all like cases. 
 
 Some time ago some Roman Catholic gentlemen in Belfast formed themselves 
 into a Society for the cultivation of science and' literature, under the title of 
 
 D 
 
38 
 
 scheme the entire Roman Catholic community; in order 
 that — their fulminatious and threats having fallen short of 
 their object — they may reinforce terror by attraction, and 
 bring such honour and emolument as the State can confer 
 to second their ineffectual anathemas. 
 
 We confess we are wholly unable to see that this country 
 is called upon by any principle of freedom to yield to a 
 demand of this sort. Tyranny is not the less tyranny when 
 its seat is in the human soul, and when it seeks its ends 
 by threats of torture to be inflicted hereafter instead of 
 now ; and though it may be true that in this form it eludes 
 the grasp of human legidation, though it may not be pos- 
 
 "The Belfast Catholic Institute." From causes which we need not enter into 
 here, the Society flourished financially, and in course of time a question arose 
 as to 1(he disposition of some surplus funds. The majority of the Directory had 
 certain views upon this subject ; Doctor Dorrian, the Coadjutor Bishop of the 
 diocese, had others. The Bishop, in fact, desired to apply the disposable funds 
 to ecclesiastical purposes, and moved a resolution to this effect, which the ma- 
 jority of the Directory negatived. The Bishop remonstrated, at first with the 
 Directory, afterwards with the shareholders individually ; but the Society stood 
 firm. Whereupon the Bishop addressed to each member of the Society a cir- 
 cular letter, in which he made the following announcement : 
 
 "The following, as conditions of recommendation and approval, I cannot 
 forego. They are essential to my sanction being given to this or any new com- 
 pany into which the Institute may be transformed, as the above condemned 
 propositions prove : 
 
 " 1 — The approval hy the Bishop of such Articles of Association ashe shdU 
 judge satisfactory, amd their adoption as the iasis of any new com- 
 pany to be formed. 
 "2 — The same right, on the part of the Bishop, of approving the rides of 
 
 management of Lectwe-haU, lAhrary and News-ro<yni. 
 
 "3 — A veto by the Bishop on any member acting on, the Directory, whose 
 
 morals, religious principles and habits of life, the Bishop may object to. 
 
 "4 — The approval by the Bishop, or one appointed by him, of all books and 
 
 newspapers to be admitted for reading into News-room or Idbrary ; 
 
 and the lihe approval of any lecturer to be invited to lecture for the 
 
 members. , 
 
 "If these conditions be not made the basis of the Institute, I wish to give 
 
 fair notice that, by whatsoever name the new association be called — and to 
 
 change the name, if such be in contemplation, is not a very hopeful sign — I 
 
 SHALL OONSIDEK IT MY DUTY, POE THE PKOTEOTION OF MT PEOPLE, TO BEBAK 
 FKOM SaOKAMBNTS ALL AND EVERY ONE WHO MAT BECOME A MEMBEB, OR AID IN 
 
 ITS ooHSTRnoiiON — these securities for its proper management not being first 
 provided." 
 
 _ It seems to us that this is " coercion" as truly as if the menace had been of 
 direct physical chastisement ; and this, it will be observed, is not an isolated 
 instance, but a specimen of a system of conduct. Another example, to which 
 we have already referred, occurred within the present year in the Bishop of ' 
 Clonfert's pastoral denouncing the Queen's Colleges, and, were there any need, 
 we could fill our pages with similar brutal episodes. 
 
39 
 
 sMe to bind the 'subtle essence of spiritual terrorism with- 
 out at the same time endangering the pMy of legitimate 
 moral influence — though, therefore, intolerance itself when 
 it assumes this garb must needs be tolerated — at least there 
 seems no reason that a liberal State should play into its 
 hands, and make itself by deliberate action the accomplice 
 of its designs. Many unworthy acts have been committed 
 in the name of Liberty ; but we question if the sacred word 
 was ever more audaciously prostituted than when invoked 
 by ultramontane bishops against the system of education 
 established by Sir Eobert Peel. 
 
 The question, however, is no longer respecting a distinct 
 Charter, but of affiliation to the Queen's University: it 
 remains to consider how this modification affects the con- 
 siderations we have just urged. Affiliation may, of course, 
 mean very little or a great deal, according to the terms by 
 which the relation is determined. As we have already said, 
 the Grovernment has not yet made public its plan ; but the 
 parti pritre, though they have on the whole kept their 
 counsel well, have not been altogether silent. We have 
 just had the advantage of reading a pamphlet which, though 
 appearing anonymously, we have reason to believe proceeds 
 from a source than which none is more likely to be well 
 informed on the subject in hand.* It is in the form of a 
 reply to the lay proposal to which we have devoted so large 
 a portion of this paper. That proposal the writer of the 
 pamphlet repudiates with unmeasured scorn, and, in doing 
 so, takes occasion to lay down certain negative conditions 
 as weU as certain principles of a positive kind, which, in 
 his view, inust govern the arrangement. Amongst other 
 significant passages, we find the following : 
 
 " Permit me to say" (the writer is addressing himself to the 
 author of the lay scheme) " that I think you have fallen into 
 two or three mistakes : first, in supposing that the bishops 
 would for an instant entertain the thought of affiliating their 
 University to the Queen's University as at present constituted : 
 secondly, in thinking that the Catholic University would ever 
 
 • This production, entitled "Notes on ' University Education in Ireland,'" 
 is announced as ' ' printed for private circulation onty ;" but as it is unques- 
 tionably intended to influence public opinion on a matter of the gravest public 
 importance, we do not feel ourselves bound to connive at what we must regard 
 as an unfair artifice for evading the ordinary liability to legitimate criticism, 
 which is the proper condition attaching to such attempts in a free country. 
 
40 
 
 be changed by them into a 'Queen's College,' or into an institu- 
 tion at all like a Queen's CoUege : thirdly, in taking for granted 
 that the Catholic University and its founders and guardians, the 
 bishops, would surrender all 'pretensions' to its present title and 
 to its University privileges derived from the Pope and admitted 
 by all Catholics, although not recognized by the State. Nay 
 more, I believe you are wrong in thinking that any Government, 
 which deserves the name of ' Liberal,' would offer the Catholic 
 Bishops of Ireland the insult of asking them to do any one of 
 the three things I have mentioned. Solely with respect to the 
 third, the bishops might waive the question of the recognition 
 by the State of the style, title and University privileges of the 
 
 Catholic University. But now to answer your question : 
 
 Where is the line to be drawn iu a system of affiliation? — I 
 answer : It is to he drawn so as to secure for the Catholic Uni- 
 versity the position she is entitled to, at the head of Catholic Edu- 
 cation in Ireland. (The italics are the author's.) Less than this 
 the Sovereign Pontiff wiU not sanction ; and it was at his sug- 
 gestion the University was first established. With less than this 
 the Bishops of Ireland will not be satisfied, and it was they who 
 founded the University, and who by their continued and deter- 
 mined opposition to dangerous systems of education have brought 
 this question to its present stage ; less than this our Catholic people 
 will not accept, and they have shewn themselves able and deter- 
 mined to discriminate between godless and Catholic education." 
 
 The writer does not state what constitution of the Queen's 
 University would lead the bishops to "entertain the thought" 
 of affiliation ; but we infer from the whole passage that they 
 would not accept the modification suggested by the lay 
 reformer. That suggestion, it will be remembered, is that 
 the Senate should consist of thirty members, of which 
 twenty (equally divided between Protestants and Catholics) 
 should be nominated by the Crown, and the remaining ten 
 elected by Convocation ; and this suggestion, it seems, is 
 inadmissible. Here then, at least, we have a negative 
 datum. A further clue to their requirements on this point 
 we may find in the composition of another body in which 
 the bishops do place confidence. The governing committee 
 of " The Catholic University" — we mean the present body 
 — is composed, as we have already stated, of twenty-four 
 members, of which eight are bishops, eight priests, and eight 
 laymen, the last, we believe, the nominees of the Episcopate. 
 Keeping this in view, and remembering that this institution 
 
41 
 
 has been put forward as in all things a model, it will argue 
 singular moderation if, in the constitution of the Senate of 
 the new University, the same party is satisfied with simple 
 preponderance, symbolized, say, by the presence on the 
 Board of some 'leading members of the Episcopate. And 
 this is the body that is to preside over and regulate the only 
 university education to be permitted to Catholics in Ireland ! 
 
 Then "The Catholic University" College is to be "at the 
 head of Catholic education in Ireland," or, as the condition 
 is more clearly expounded in another passage, " although 
 there may be many halls, that is to say, colleges or schools, 
 where Catholic youth can study, still there should be but 
 one University College, and it should have the right to 
 mould aU according to its own idea." On this principle, it 
 seems, " the line is to be drawn" in the system of affiliation, 
 and such is to be the first practical exemplification of " free- 
 dom of university education" for Catholics. 
 
 We must call attention to one passage more : 
 
 " Again, in the system you [the lay reformer] propose, why, I 
 ask, are the colleges to be still maintained 1 If the University 
 does not need its special colleges, why is this great expense to be 
 annually incurred? The answer is obvious. Some endowed 
 colleges would be an anomaly, unless our rulers wish to maintain 
 the system of State education apart from religion, on whose 
 principle these colleges were founded, and to give no counte- 
 nance to the Catholic University, which was established for the 
 maintenance of the contrary principle. But I would beg you to 
 remember, that such an arrangement will not meet the views of 
 the bishops, priests, and Catholic people of Ireland ; and it was 
 precisely in order to meet their views, that the present educa- 
 tional movement was set on foot." 
 
 We cannot say what reply the lay reformer would give 
 to these questions ; but our answer would be, that the 
 Queen's Colleges are to be maintained because they are 
 based on equality and justice ; because they represent the 
 ideas of the nineteenth century, not those of the thirteenth ; 
 because they have proved themselves by success suited to 
 the requirements and tastes of the people for whom they 
 were designed — in a word, because they are national col- 
 leges ; and, on the other hand, that ""The Catholic Univer- 
 sity" is undeserving of support, because, in spite of its 
 pretensions, it is sectarian and not "Catholic;" because it 
 
42 
 
 is out of relation with the ideas and wants of the time, and 
 has given no evidence of being acceptable to any consider- 
 able section of Eoman Catholics outside the episcopal order ; 
 because, in short, such a step would be retrograde and fatal 
 to the best interests of Ireland ; and for the rest, we would 
 remind the writer of what he and others who advance claims 
 of this kind seem to have become wholly oblivious, that 
 there is now a CoUege at Maynooth in possession of the 
 handsome endowment of J'26,000 annually, established for 
 the special and exclusive benefit of the Eoman Catholic 
 priesthood ; this sum, we may observe in passing, being 
 larger than that assigned to the Queen's University and its 
 Colleges — institutions performing, to borrow the language 
 of, the Times, "truly national service." 
 
 But it is idle to criticise further. If there be any value 
 in the remarks we have made on the proposition for a 
 distinct Charter, they are obviously applicable with 
 augmented force to this scheme. This is not a plan for 
 affiliating the " Catholic University" College to the Queen's 
 University : rather it is a plan for reconstructing the system 
 - of the Queen's University on the pattern of the " Catholic 
 University" College. The "compromise" when examined 
 turns out to be the original demand so shaped as to com- 
 prise an ulterior over and above the original object. This 
 contemplated the establishment of a " Catholic Univer- 
 sity," but left the Queen's University in its present position. 
 That would equally establish a " Catholic University ;" but 
 would do so on the ruins of its rival. 
 
 To conclude. We know not how far the Government 
 may have committed itself in concession to this party ; but 
 it seems unquestionable that to some extent it has done so. 
 A pledge given on the eve of a general election can scarcely, 
 after the price has been paid, be recalled with honour. But 
 the pledge was given by the G-overnment, not by the Liberal 
 party or the English people ; and we have yet to see how 
 far the country is prepared to sacrifice a great and successful 
 policy to the exigencies of a party struggle. But should it 
 prove that the intellectual interests of the Irish people are 
 only thought deserving of regard as they may be turned to 
 account in weighting the scales of an EngUsh party,, we 
 trust at least we are not too sanguine in hoping that a 
 greater sacrifice will not be made than the due adjustment 
 
43 
 
 of the political balance imperatively requires. If " some- 
 thing must be done," let us hope that it wiU be done in a 
 manner as little mischievous as possible. If " mixed edu- 
 cation" as a principle must be given up, let us at least save 
 the coUegiate system, and with it as far as possible accom- 
 plished results. If a mediaeval University must be recog- 
 nized, let us at least maintain in its integrity the single 
 University in Ireland which represents the ideas of the 
 niueteenth century. The concession of the origiual demand 
 of the Episcopate would at least leave a rival in the field ; 
 and it is not absolutely certain, in spite of the thimders of 
 the Vatican and the more incessant and more telling can- 
 nonade maintained from Irish altars, that this rival might 
 not yet hold its own. 
 
 Printed by WhitOeld, Green St Son, 178, Strand. 
 
44 UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 
 
 dantly evident that its tendency would be powerfully the 
 reverse. Just consider for a moment what its operation 
 would be. At present, so far as there is any rivalry between 
 the Queen's and the London University, it is a rivalry in 
 reputation, and therefore essentially a healthy one. The 
 idea of underbidding each other for students never enters 
 into the heads of the authorities on either side ; for, as at 
 present constituted, they meet distinct educational needs. 
 But assimilate them ; and, by the law of their nature, a 
 competition for students wiU at once set in. The position 
 of the London University at present may be sufficiently 
 assured to render it superior to such a policy; but the 
 Queen's University would certainly endeavour to attract 
 to itself those Irish students who now get their degrees 
 from what would then be its rival; and what means so 
 obvious for this purpose as to lower the cost of the com- 
 modity, that is to say, to render the acquisition of a degree 
 somewhat easier? The new competition would thus at 
 once result in a depression of the standard of education. 
 This can scarcely be regarded as matter of speculation: 
 the experiment has been already tried in our medical 
 schools ; with what result let Sir Dominic Corrigan say. 
 
 But the depression of the standard under the new system 
 would be determined by causes still more decisive. The 
 prospect of obtaining a degree on the terms of passing one 
 or two examinations would lead numbers to prefer this 
 method to the more arduous and expensive one of spending 
 three years in going through regidar courses of instruction 
 in the Queen's Colleges. Now, all who have had any 
 acquaintance with the working of the Queen's Colleges 
 know the wretched state of preparation in which, owing to 
 the want of good intermediate schools in the country, the 
 great majority of the candidates for matriculation now pre- 
 sent themselves. The effect of this has been to depress 
 the standard of requirement at matriculation, in spite of 
 the anxiety of the college authorities to prevent this result, 
 for in practice it is impossible to reject candidates in the 
 wholesale fashion which would be necessary if none but 
 the qualified were admitted. Still, while the collegiate 
 system is enforced, the practical evils are pot of a serious 
 kind. The chief sufferers are the professors, on whom 
 
IN IRELAND. 45 
 
 falls, in addition to their proper duties, the work which 
 ought to have been performed by the schoolmaster. The 
 work, however, is done ; ' and the students are brought at 
 the end of three years to a respectable state of proficiency, 
 as their success in the various open examinations of the 
 Country shows. But suppose the Government scheme to 
 be carried, and a collegiate course no longer indispensable, 
 and what will be the result 1 A large number of those 
 who now go to the colleges will pass direct from the schools 
 to the new Queen's University ; year after year a crowd 
 of utterly unqualified candidates will present themselves 
 for degrees; and does any one suppose that the Exa- 
 mining Board in Dublin will reject these by the scores, 
 or perhaps by the hundreds, who must be rejected if the 
 present standard of attainment is to be maintained ? For 
 my part, I hesitate to give my countrymen credit for such 
 stoical virtue. The case of the London University is not 
 in any way parallel. In the first place, the state of inter- 
 mediate education in England is, as compared at least with 
 its state in Ireland, at a high pitch. Secondly, it would be 
 vaiQ to expect that we should have in Dublin such a 
 governing body, more especially if it be constituted in 
 conformity with the principle iudicated by Sir George 
 Grey, as the Senate of the London University now presents. 
 And, lastly, if the attempt were made to keep the Dublin 
 standard up to the London level, competition would effec- 
 tually compel a reduction. 
 
 It wHl, perhaps, be said that the new system would 
 operate beneficially on the intermediate schools, through 
 the competition it would open for them in the new Queen's 
 University, in the same way as in England the examina- 
 tions for "Associates in Arts," conducted under the English 
 universities, are benefiting the English schools. I do not 
 know how far the latter experiment can really be considered 
 a success ; but, assuming that some benefit would accrue 
 to the intermediate schools in Ireland in this way, the result 
 would only be realized so far as candidates for degrees 
 passed at once from the schools to the university, — that is 
 to say, so far as training in the intermediate schools was 
 substituted for training in the Queen's Colleges. If any 
 one supposes that this would be a gain for education in 
 
46 UKIVERSITY EDUCATION 
 
 Ireland, I can only say, his notions of the character of the 
 instruction given in the schools and in the Queen's Colleges 
 have been derived from other sources than mine. As for 
 the free-trade maxims with which some people think they 
 can solve all educational problems, I need scarcely say that 
 they are simply inapplicable. If they are not. State edu- 
 cation itself is a blunder, and the question we should have 
 to discuss is not the reconstruction of the Queen's Uni- 
 versity, but its abolition. 
 
 Such, it seems to me, would be the tendency of the pro- 
 posed scheme, even without taking account of the in- 
 evitable accessory — the introduction into the governirir;- 
 body of men who would sit there as the representatives of 
 a religious party. Formally, no doubt, the proposition of 
 the Government will be for the admission of a certain 
 number of Catholics on the Senate ; and Parliament will 
 be asked why Catholics should not have a place in the 
 government of an institution in which Catholics have so 
 large an interest? But this way of talking is, in truth, 
 the sheerest hypocrisy. No one — at least, no liberal poli- 
 tician — objects to a Catholic, as such, taking his seat on 
 the Senate. At the present time the Senate contains five 
 Catholics.* If that be not a sufiicient representation, 
 there is no reason that it should not be enlarged, if the 
 Crown can find Catholics who possess the proper qualifica- 
 tions for such a post. But what Sir George Grey means 
 by "the requisite alteration in the composition of the 
 "Senate" is very evident: his words doubtless point to 
 such an alteration as would bring the Senate into harmony 
 with its new relations to " the Catholic University : " they 
 imply, therefore, the introduction on the Senate, not of 
 Catholics simply, but of Catholics of a certain colour — 
 Catholics who are in the confidence of the party who desire 
 the destruction of the system they would be called upon 
 to administer — such Catholics, for example, as Major 
 
 * At least it did according to the latest Calendar whicli I have at hand 
 (that for 1861). How the case stands now I cannot precisely say ; .several 
 recent vacancies having, for some mysterious reasons, not yet been filled 
 tip, The mystery has since (July 9th) heen solved by the appointment 
 (27th June, nine days after the Government had constitutionally ceased to 
 rule) of a batch of new senators, amongst whom are Lord Dunraven, Mr. 
 Monsell, and Professor Sullivan. 
 
IN IRELAND. 47 
 
 O'Reilly, or Mr. Monsell, to whom I shall do no injustice 
 in assuming that, as they have no faith in united education, 
 and look upon it already as a failure, and as, on the other 
 hand, they regard the denominational scheme as the true 
 one, they would, as members of thg Senate, so use their 
 powers as to assist the definitive triumph of the system in 
 which they believe. 
 
 But it has been argued, that the experience of the 
 London University does not justify such apprehensions. 
 Under that university, we are reminded, distinct educa- 
 tional systems also exist, — King's CoUege, for example, 
 representing the denominational, as University College re- 
 presents the secular plan ; yet these antagonistic schemes 
 affect in no way the action of the Senate, the character of 
 that body being essentially neutral. The inference sug- 
 gested is, that in Ireland, also, we should have a governing 
 body free from all bias — at least as far as the discharge of 
 its public functions went— in favour of particular systems 
 of education. Those who attach much weight to this ar- 
 gument seem to me to be singularly oblivious both of the 
 salient facts of the present case, and of the avowed policy 
 of the Government. Has it not been one of the grounds 
 on which the Catholic Bishops have demanded a charter 
 for their Catholic University, that their views are unrepre- 
 sented in the Senate of the University of London ? And 
 has not Sir George Grey recognised the validity of this 
 argument, when he speaks of " the requisite alteration in 
 the composition of the Senate" as following from the* 
 admission to its degrees of the students of the Catholic 
 College ? Besides, we cannot overlook the distinctly avowed 
 policy of the Government. In that speech at the opening 
 of the session, in which his admirers see such profound 
 statesmanship, Mr. Gladstone announced, as the basis of 
 his Irish poHoy, the principle of governing Ireland, no 
 longer according to imperial, but according to Irish ideas ; 
 and he particularly instanced education as eminently a de- 
 partment to which this rule was applicable. Now, I am 
 not at present going to canvass the principle laid down by , 
 Mr. Gladstone — though, if I were, I think I could show, 
 that, as left by him, it is capable of being turned to almost 
 any conceivable account, good or bad, according to the 
 taste or purpose of him who applies it ; but with this 
 
48 UNIVERSITY EDUOATU)N 
 
 principle distinctly announced by the Government as the 
 basis of their policy, and remembering that their entire 
 action in this matter has been induced by a desire to con- 
 ciliate that party which arrogates to itself the title, par ex- 
 cellence, of " Irish," and " Catholic," I ask, what, in the face 
 of these facts, would be the value of the precedent of the 
 London University, in connexion with the present contro- 
 versy ? Suppose the Government schemecarried, and that, 
 when "the requisite alteration in the composition of the 
 Senate " came to be made, Mr. Lowe, or some other ad- 
 vocate of the secular principle, objected to the appointment 
 of religious partisans, urging as a precedent, the neutrality 
 of the London University Senate, would not the ready 
 answer be at hand, that this was falling into the precise 
 error which the Government wished to avoid — that of 
 applying English ideas to the exceptional circumstances of 
 Ireland ? 
 
 Nor is the precedent of the Irish National Board any 
 more to the purpose than that of the London University; 
 There is no need now to consider how far the course pur- 
 sued by that Board since its reconstruction in 1860 might 
 be used in the way of warning on the present occasion, on 
 which perhaps something might be said ; but, assuming 
 that the practical results of that change have been in all 
 respects satisfactory, what I contend is, that this would 
 form no grounds for anticipating a like result from the 
 contemplated changes in the Queen's University. For 
 between the two cases there is this fundamental distinction, 
 that in the one — ^that is to say, in the case of the National 
 Board — ^the members, whatever may be their private senti- 
 ments, are bound, if not formally, at least in honour, by the 
 fundamental rules of the National System, wliich are those 
 of united education ; whereas under the proposed changes 
 in the Queen's University, the members would be bound by 
 no rules whatever, while those who should be admitted in 
 pursuance of Sir George Grey's promise to the Bishops 
 would inevitably take their place on the Board as the 
 partisans of a system opposed to that which now prevails. 
 The paramount duty of these latter would not bej as is the 
 ease with the members of the National Board, to administer 
 the institutions entrusted to them in conformity with the' 
 principles of united education, but, quite the contrary, -to 
 
IN IRELAND. 49 
 
 represent on the Board the interests of denominationalism', 
 and to promote these as far as their powers permitted. 
 
 It is under this aspect of the case, as involving the 
 admission to the governing body of what is now a system 
 of united education, of those who will enter that body 
 avowedly as the enemies of united education, that the 
 Government measure, apart from the objections to it on 
 the general grounds which have been already stated, is 
 obnoxious to the friends of that principle ; and it is, I 
 apprehend, the same consideration that gives the measure 
 any value it possesses in the eyes of the enemies of the 
 united system. Both parties also doubtless perceive that 
 the present step cannot be a final one ;■ that the secta- 
 rian and the mixed colleges, once co-ordinated under - a 
 central head, must in the end be treated according to the 
 same rule, and that consequently the present measure will 
 entail as an inevitable corollary the endowment of "the 
 Catholic University." This at least is certain, that no 
 party in Ireland has asked for, or desires, the proposed 
 measure as a definitive scheme. On the contrary, they 
 have each in turn, with uimiistakeable emphasis, rejected 
 it. The Bishops tell Sir George Grey that " if the changes 
 referred to ... be unaccompanied by an endowment of 
 our Catholic University and a reconstruction of the 
 Queen's Colleges, we cannot regard them as satisfactory to 
 the Catholics of Ireland. . . . Without an endowment the 
 proposal of the Government would confer but little, if any, 
 substantial benefit upon our Catholic University, for 
 degrees can be obtained through the London University, 
 and property can be acquired and transmitted without a 
 charter by availing of certain legal expedients." Doctor 
 Woodlock, dealing with the same proposal when pro- 
 pounded by Sir Dominic Coirigaa, and replying to his 
 question urged in support of the "open" plan — "Where 
 is the line to be drawn in the system of affiliation?" 
 answers : — " It is to be drawn so as to secure for the' 
 Catholic University the position she is entitled to, at the 
 head of Catholic education in Ireland. Less than this the 
 Sovereign Pontiff will not sanction ; and it was at his 
 suggestion the University was first established. With less 
 than this the Bishops of Ireland will not be satisfied; aiid 
 
 D 
 
50 UNIVEKSITT EDUCATION 
 
 it was they who founded the University, and who by their 
 continued and determined opposition to dangerous systems 
 of education have brought this question to its present 
 stage ; less than, this our Catholic people will not accept," &c. 
 Lastly, Professor Sullivan, representing, as I conjecture, 
 another section of the party, is not less distinct in his 
 repudiation of the principle of the scheme. " I am much 
 mistaken," he says, "if there be half a dozen educated 
 Catholics in Ireland who agree with Mr. O'EeUly and Sir 
 Dominic Corrigan about the principle upon which that 
 [the London University] is founded." This is the light ia 
 which the measure is regarded by those for whose special 
 behoof it is designed. I need scarcely say that it finds no 
 favour among the supporters of united education. In every 
 one of the numerous memorials emanating from the dif- 
 ferent sections of this party, which are published in the 
 correspondence lately presented to Parliament, the principle 
 of the Government scheme is in the strongest terms con- 
 demned. 
 
 To sum up the substance of the foregoing remarks, this 
 scheme of so-called University reform tends at once to 
 depress the standard of education in Ireland, and to break 
 up the mixed system. Based upon a principle, as I have 
 attempted elsewhere to show, radically unsound, certainly 
 unsupported by a single high authority, it has not even 
 the poor merit of offering an effective compromise ; for 
 it meets no want, and it will settle no controversy. It 
 is wholly uncalled for by any party ia Ireland : as a 
 definitive scheme it is positively offensive to every party. 
 If accepted at all, it is avowedly only as a means towards 
 an end which its authors repudiate. It has, however, one 
 recommendation which in the eyes of the Government 
 outweighs all that can be said against it : in the words of 
 Mr. Porteseue, it enables the Government " to redeem the 
 pledge which was given last year to his honourable friend 
 the member for Tralee." 
 
 Believe me, dear Sir, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 J. E. CAIRNES. 
 
 Mill Hill, Hendon, N.W. 
 15th June, 1866. 
 
IN IRELAND. 51 
 
 POSTSCEIPT. 
 
 While these sheets are passing through the press, it has 
 transpired that a supplementary charter, effecting all the 
 objects indicated in the several announcements of the late 
 Government — so far as these may be accomplished without 
 an Act of Parliament — has been issued, and has actually 
 passed the Great Seal of Ireland. This has been done not- 
 withstanding Mr. Gladstone's promise that the House of 
 Commons should have ample opportunity for discussing the 
 merits of the measure " before the Crown should be com- 
 mitted to any formal act." Mr. Fortescue, indeed, has 
 stated in the House of Commons that the promised oppor- 
 tunity was afforded on two occasions — first, when Sir 
 George Grey's letter to the Lord Lieutenant was laid before 
 Parliament, and again, when on introducing the Irish 
 Eeform Bill he referred to the plans of the Government 
 with reference to the Queen's University. "Whether the 
 announcements made on these occasions amounted to a 
 technical fulfilment of Mr. Gladstone's promise or no, is 
 really a question of no practical moment. Where every 
 one has been deceived, I suppose deception must have been 
 practised ; and it is a simple matter of fact that, outside 
 the limited circle of officials who were privy to this busi- 
 ness, no one, whether , friend or foe, understood the an- 
 nouncements in question in the sense which Mr. Fortescue 
 assigns to them. The undeniable fact, therefore, is that the 
 issuing and signing of this charter has been the act of 
 a few officials performed while Parliament, absorbed in 
 another subject, remained under the impression that the 
 question was still open and reserved for its discussion. 
 Now, if an act so performed is to determine definitively the 
 policy of the country ; if a system of education, long estab- 
 lished, admittedly successful, approved by successive Par- 
 liaments, may be altered in its essential features, and 
 perhaps broken up by such means, put in force under cover 
 of the excitement caused by a Eeform debate ; if this can be 
 done in the teeth of distinct pledges to the contrary given 
 to Parliament, then it is plain constitutional government 
 in Ireland is a mere name. The course taken by the late 
 
 D 2 
 
52 UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN IRELAND. 
 
 Government has thus raised a question of immeasurably 
 greater moment than even the character of the Irish edu- 
 cational system. That question is briefly this : — whether 
 Ireland is in future to be governed by a clique, acting 
 under the dictation of the Irish Ultramontane party — more 
 remotely under that of the Sacred College at Eome — or by 
 the British Parliament. In comparison with this issue the 
 Irish University system becomes an affair of small account ; 
 and what every constitutional politician, be he Liberal or 
 Conservative, will desire, is, that it be decided quite irre- 
 spective of the merits of the particular measure which has 
 been the occasion of raising it. As, for my part, I do not 
 believe that the people of this country are prepared to 
 deliver over a portion of Her Majesty's dominions to the 
 rule of Ultramontane priests and their lay abettors, I can- 
 not regard the signing of this charter under the circum- 
 stances I have describedas settling in any degree the question 
 with which it proposes to deal. On the contrary, I fuUy 
 expect that in the result it wiU open this question more 
 effectually than ever. Parliament, I feel assured, will find 
 the means of asserting its authority, to the discomfiture of 
 those who have put this slight upon it; and Irish University 
 education will, I believe, receive its permanent form and 
 character, not from the juggling of back-stairs intriguers, 
 whether in Downing Street or Dublin, but from the con- 
 stitutionally expressed opinion of the people of the United 
 Kingdom. 
 
 J. E. C 
 
 9th July, 1866. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 (A.) 
 Extract from Professor JVesbitt's Pamphlet, pp. 15 — 23. 
 
 Charge of injustice to Boman Catholics in the Collegiate Appoint- 
 ments. — I now come to a topic which Dr. Corrigan says he approached 
 with reluctance, and into which, I assure you, I follow him with a like 
 feeling. It is, however, a necessary part of the task I have assigned 
 myself. 
 
 The point to which I refer, is the allegation that the principle of 
 religious equality upon which the Queen's Colleges were founded has 
 been departed from, — a position which Dr. Corrigan seeks to maintain 
 by contrasting two ministerial statements with the actual administration 
 of the Colleges. 
 
 The first statement I have already cited. It is that in which Sir 
 James Graham speaks " of the Collegiate system as avowedly an ex- 
 tension of the National System of Education." This statement Dr. 
 Corrigan regards as a ministerial assurance or pledge " that the principle 
 of the system of National Education was to be the principle for the 
 Queen's University and Colleges ;" and he holds that in both the prin- 
 ciple has been infringed. As regards the University, the infringement 
 consists in this — " that the Senate does not include, like the National 
 Board, an equal number of Protestants and Catholics." " The Senate 
 of the Queen's University," he says, " may be considered analogous in its 
 constitution and action, in many respects, to the Board of National 
 Education. The Board of National Education consists of twenty com- 
 missioners ; these commissioners are equally divided into Protestants 
 and Catholics, ten of each ; and on this mainly depends the success of 
 the system, for this equal division carries with it an assurance of justice 
 and impartiality. Were they all one-sided, they might be still impartial 
 [our English neighbours will perhaps think this possible only for Irish- 
 men], but ' Caesar's wife must be free even from suspicion.' The Senate 
 of the Queen's University does not consist, as on the same principle it 
 should, of an equal number of Protestants and Catholics." 
 
 Now a very brief statement of facts will suffice to show the candour 
 of this objection. The ministerial statement was made in 1845. Dr. 
 Corrigan was nominated to the Senate in 1850, and that constitution 
 
56 APPENDIX. 
 
 of the National Board on which we are told the success of the system 
 mainly depends, and which, we are further led to believe, secured Dr. 
 Corrigan's services to the Queen's University, was first introduced in 
 I860* 
 
 What then Dr. Corrigan's charge of ill faith comes to is this, that 
 some fifteen years after Sir James Graham's declaration that the col- 
 legiate system was identical in principle with that of primary instruction, 
 aoad ten years after Dr. Corrigan's appointment to the Senate, a change, 
 not contemplated at the time Sir James Graham's declaration was made, 
 and in fact, as I shall presently show, of a nature which that statesman, 
 rightly or wrongly, regarded as inadmissible, is made in the constitution 
 of the National Board, and because a corresponding change is not made 
 in the Senate of the Queen's University, the original principle on which 
 the Colleges were founded has been departed from, and the under- 
 standing on which Dr. Corrigan accepted office is violated ! 
 
 So far as to the first count in the indictment — that which relates to 
 the University. A similar one is brought against the Colleges. We 
 are told that a direct ministerial pledge was given that a certain pro- 
 portion of the Professors should be Catholics, and that in the appoint- 
 ment of professors the pledge has been systematically ignored. 
 
 Now it is no doubt true that it was stated by Sir J. Graham, in 
 replying to the memorial of the Roman Catholic bishops, that in 
 certain cases the profession of the Eoman Catholic faith would be an 
 additional recommendation. But this very language implies, what Dr. 
 Corrigan tells us the minister explicitly stated, that the first considera- 
 tion would be competence. And that competence did not then bear 
 the fantastic sense which some would now give it, may be seen from 
 the language of Sir Robert Peel, who, in showing that it would be 
 the interest of any ministry to give the most hberal consideration to 
 the claims of Catholics, at the same time declared " that the honour 
 and interest of the Crown were involved in the appointment of the 
 most competent persons to these professorships." Again, when it is 
 said that the minister, though he could not assent to legislation on the 
 subject, admitted that the demand was " reasonable in principle," it 
 should be further stated that the demand was accompanied by a yet 
 further requirement, that some six chairs, including those of logic, 
 geology, and anatomy, should be filled exclusively by Catholics, and 
 that the ministerial reply was that " the proposition could not for a 
 moment be entertained." The truth of the matter is that the principle 
 laid down for the selection of professors — and none other could have 
 been laid down consistently with the constitution of the Colleges — 
 was that of fitness for the office, not the profession of a particular 
 
 Dr. Corrigan forgets -that when Sir James Graham introduced the 
 Colleges Bill, religious equality did not mean the numerical equality of 
 religious sects. The proportion of Roman Catholics to Protestants on the 
 National Board was then four to seven, but amongst the four were a 
 Murray and a Blake, and it may be that Catholic interests were no less 
 secure in their hands than in those of the numerous guardians of the faith 
 who have succeeded them. When Dr. Corrigan took his seat at the 
 Senate, the proportion was four to nine. 
 
APPENDIX. 5 7 
 
 form of religious belief ; that on this ground the GoTemment refased 
 to allocate particular chairs to members of the Roman Catholic 
 Church, or to reserve for them a definite proportion of the whole ; but 
 that it was at the same time conceded that, saving the paramount 
 consideration of merit, it would, under certain circumstances, be a 
 strong recommendation, en, seconde ligne, that a candidate should be 
 a Roman Catholic. 
 
 I need not tell you how faithfully this programme has been carried 
 out. You know, as I do — and but for his letter I should have said, as 
 Dr. Corrigan does, how anxious successive Governments have been to 
 appoint Roman Catholics — how it had occasionally required all the, 
 efforts of those upon whom the working of the Colleges devolved, and 
 who were answerable for their success, to make the adherence to the 
 Roman Catholic faith only ap additional, not the primaay, recom- 
 mendation for a professor's chair. I am less acquainted with the 
 circumstances of Belfast than with those of the other Colleges ; but I 
 have made strict inquiries, and I am told by those most conversant 
 with the facts, that the charge of "the exclusion or elimination of 
 Catholics," preferred against that College, is quite without foundation. 
 Two of the original professors were Catholics. One of these, an 
 eminent philologist, died ; the other transferred his services to the 
 University of Melbourne. In the period which has elapsed since the 
 foundation of the Colleges, the same authorities assure me, there have 
 been only three occasions on which there has been a serious competition 
 on the part of Roman Catholic candidates. On the first of these, the 
 Roman Catholic candidate was, I gladly acknowledge, a man of great 
 accomplishment, and of remarkable purity and simplicity of character. 
 He was not appointed, but an exceUent appointment was made ; and 
 so I leave the case, merely asking that some weight should be at- 
 tached to the assurance to which I have referred, that it was not 
 religious belief that turned the scale. On the second occasion a man 
 was appointed who stood out conspicuous above the other competitors, 
 one whose claims even a Catholic tribunal would have found it 
 difficult to set aside, and whose selection even his rivals must have 
 approved — 
 
 " Pan etiam Arcadia dioat se judice victum." 
 
 On the third, a Catholic, a highly distinguished alumnus of the Col- 
 lege, was chosen amidst general applause. 
 
 As regards the other Colleges the charge is simply ridiculous. I 
 assert without the slightest hesitation — and if any one desires detailed 
 proof, I am prepared to enter into an examination of the particular 
 appointments^ — ^that in no single instance from the opening of the 
 Colleges has any Catholic competitor with anything like equal preten- 
 sions to a Protestant rival been in these Colleges set aside. If the 
 rule of merit was ever departed from, the relaxation was in favour of 
 Catholics. I had rather, however, not be forced to such a scrutiny ; 
 the task would be invidious. I choose to leave the matter to the 
 successive administrations whose conduct is arraigned, fully cognizant 
 as they are of the facts. It is more pleasing, and it wUl at the same 
 time best illustrate the unsoundness of Dr. Corrigan's principle of 
 
58 APPENDIX. 
 
 selection, to refer to the results of that which, in common with the 
 founders of the Colleges, I regard as the true principle, and in doing 
 so I will take an instance which those acquainted with the condition 
 of education in Ireland will admit to be not the least favourable to the 
 views of Dr. Corrigan — I mean the chair of mathematics. 
 
 Up to the present this chair has been filled in the several Colleges 
 by eight professors. Of these, four have been senior wranglers ; one 
 was a man who could derive no honour from universities, but from 
 whom universities sought to gain lustre by enrolling him among their 
 members ; the others have been taken from the Mite of the University 
 of Dublin. The tangible results of the teaching of these men have 
 been remarkable ; but I attach more importance to that for which we 
 have no measure — the influence they must have exercised on the youth 
 with whom they have come in contact. 
 
 This is what has been, under the rigvme of unrestricted competition. 
 And now let us for a moment speculate on what might have been, had 
 Dr. Corrigan's principle of selection been admitted — had, as he pro- 
 poses, Protestants been held ineligible tiU at least one-third of the 
 chairs in each College was filled by Catholi<;3. To begin with, most 
 of these men would have been excluded from the chairs they have 
 flUed.* They have aU been Protestants, save one, whom let me 
 mention m memoriam — a Catholic, but a man whose " praise was in 
 aU the churches" — the lamented Mulcahy. But the evU would not 
 have ended with depriving the Colleges of the services of these men. 
 The source of supply would have been cut off — it could not, of course, 
 be expected that superior men would submit to the degradation of a 
 mock candidature, or stand waiting for " a Protestant vacancy," — and 
 the era of what are called " the competent" would have been definitely 
 inaugm-ated. 
 
 And whence, under existing circumstances, could a sufficient supply 
 of the competent be secured, if Catholicism is to be a " note " of com- 
 petence ? At first sight it is not easy to see. No one dreams that 
 Catholic intellect is less acute than Protestant ; but to get an adequate 
 supply of CathoKc intellect of the required maturity, it is necessary to 
 have a sufficient seed-plot for its cultivation, and at present it would 
 not be easy to point to such. Less than one-twentieth of the students 
 of Dublin are Catholics. The proportion at the English and Scotch 
 Universities is stiU smaller. The Queen's University does more for 
 Catholic education than, perhaps, all the others put together ; but, then, 
 it has been only a few years in existence ; its students come with a much 
 more limited stock of knowledge than the ilita of the old universities, 
 and there are none of those valuable foimdations within their reach 
 which enable the students of those universities to prolong and deepen 
 their studies ; lastly, the ablest of them are generally carried away by 
 the attractions of tlie public service. To Dr. Corrigan, however, the 
 matter is all plain sailing. " There is never," he observes, with great 
 Tuuiveti, " any difficulty in Ireland in procuring competent persons from 
 
 * A consideration of the condition of the Colleges at the time of the 
 several appointments will show that nearly all the candidates would, under 
 this rule, have been disqualified. 
 
APPENDIX. 59 
 
 either side." He has ascertained, for instance, that the Commissioners 
 of National Education have had no difficulty in procuring Catholic 
 clerks for the Education Office. But he is not satisfied with even this 
 proof : he takes " a higher test." He finds, amongst other distinctions 
 he enumerates, that within the last seven years some sixteen Catholic 
 students have obtained honours at the matriculation examination of 
 the London University ; and he infers that, with such facts before ua, 
 " it is presuming too far on credulity to believe that a Catholic teacher 
 could not be found with Latin and Greek enough for Galway or 
 Belfast, or even for Cork." 
 
 Here, then, we have, at last, a definition of " competence " — " Latin 
 and Greek enough for Galway or BeHast, or even for Cork" — and 
 if clerks for the Education Office are forthcoming, surely professors 
 with this slender equipment cannot be far to seek. The only pity is 
 that they should be sought at all. Dr. Oorrigan has already told us 
 that these languages, with the other branches of liberal education, may 
 be taught at home ; and this being the case, there is surely no reason 
 for transferring to a college those worthy teachers who are already in 
 their several localities doing aU that is required — ^no reason at least 
 but one, that they may be secured a competence; which, after all, 
 is perhaps more germane to the matter than we might at first 
 suppose.* 
 
 It may seem waste of labour to dwell on reasoning of this kind, 
 but it is well we should see clearly where the principle of " com- 
 petence" will lead, and we may be grateful to Dr. Oorrigan for 
 showing us the way. This he has done effectually. Once give up 
 the principle of choosing the best, and there is no safeguard against 
 taking up with the worst. Never was there a case in which the adage 
 was more true — 
 
 " Si pauUum summo decessit, vergit ad imum." t 
 
 Proposed mode of appointing Professors. — Perhaps of all the 
 strange things in this strange letter the strangest is the way in which 
 competence is to be ascertained. The " mistake of [appointing senior 
 wranglers and the Kke, with now and then a man of original genius] 
 has been committed equally by all the successive Govenmients which 
 have been in office for the last fifteen years," and may easily be made 
 by their successors. It is, therefore, necessary to find a tribunal 
 which, recognising that " the cleverest men are by no means the best 
 
 * A friend once said to me that he never heard mention of a " competent 
 man" without suspecting a job. 
 
 + Dr. Oorrigan urges the appointment of Catholics, as such, by the 
 example of the Belfast Academical Institution. In that Institution, it 
 appears, a particular religious communion which had acquired the power, 
 set about appointing exclusively professors of their own faith, and the 
 remedy applied was the application of what Dr. Mommsen calls "the 
 collegiate principle " — that is, the appointment of a colleague to each pro- 
 fessor to neutralize his influence. One would have thought that the 
 obvious lesson from this case is the inexpediency of appointing professors 
 on sectarian ground$. 
 
60 APPENDIX. 
 
 professors,'' shall be more likely to choose the "competent." The 
 Government, then, is to be superseded, and the appointment is to 
 rest in a local board made up of the Council of the Queen's College 
 in which the vacancy may arise, the municipality, and the neighbouring 
 gentry; and candidates for professorships are to lecture before this 
 august body, which wiU thus be able to dispense with testimonials, — 
 " testimonials can be had in any number and for any office," — and to 
 judge for itself of " their power of conveying information lucidly in a 
 lecture-room." It requires some effort of imagination even to conceive 
 an arrangement of this kind, but it is worth while to make the effort. 
 Just fancy the Town Commissioners of Galway sitting in judgment 
 on the lucidity of Mr. D'Arcy Thompson's analysis of a chorus of 
 jEschylus, or a Town Councillor of Cork criticizing the late Dr. Boole's 
 exposition of the fundamental conceptions of the differential calculus. 
 
 "Spectatum admissi risum teneatis." 
 
 But the spectacle would be impossible. Of course no man of eminence 
 could fulfil the conditions of such a candidature, even if he were not 
 stricken with the fatal disqualification of being a Protestant. " Com- 
 petence " would have exclusive possession of the field. 
 
 To me — if I may express the humble judgment of one who has 
 watched the appointment of professors from the opening of the Colleges 
 with the utmost care— it seems that the present method of selection is 
 as nearly perfect as any that could be devised. The Government is 
 alone responsible for the appointments that are made, but this is far 
 from implying that the Government appoints arbitrarily, or on its 
 unaided judgment. In every instance the Colleges are fuUy and fairly 
 consulted through their heads, and in this way the Government secures 
 all the assistance which enlightened self-interest can supply ; at the 
 same time that the Colleges, whUe exercising their legitimate influence, 
 enjoy immunity from the solicitations of candidates. The actual system 
 is in effect as nearly as possible identical with that which has given to 
 the German Universities the most distinguished expositors of every 
 branch of science and learning.* 
 
 * Mr. O'Keilly, in his " Two Articles on Education," tells us that " the 
 Professors (in the Prussian Universities) are named by the King on the 
 proposition by the Faculties of a list of three." I can endorse the state- 
 ment of Professor Caimes, " that the plan adopted in the Queen's Colleges - 
 does not in effect differ from this." 
 
APPENDIX. 61 
 
 (B.) 
 Extracts from the Colleges Act and tlie Statutes. 
 
 COLLEGES ACT. 
 [Chapter lxvi. 8th & 9th Vic] 
 
 XIV. And for the better enabling every student in the said Colleges 
 to receive religious instruction according to the creed which he professes 
 to hold, be it enacted,'That it shaR be lawful for the President and 
 Professors, or other governing body of each of the said Colleges which 
 shall be constituted in and by the said Letters Patent, to assign lecture 
 rooms within the precincts of such College, wholly or in part, for the 
 use of such religious teachers as shall be recognised by such governing 
 body, subject in each case to the approval of Her Majesty, her heirs 
 and successors, and also subject to the like approval to make rules con- 
 cerning the days and times when such religious instruction shall be 
 given therein, and for securing that the same shall not interfere with 
 the general discipline of the College : Provided always, that no student 
 shall be compelled by any rule of the College to attend any theological 
 lecture or religious instruction other than is approved by his parents or 
 guardians, and that no religious test shall be administered to any per- 
 son in order to entitle him to be admitted a student of any such 
 College, or to hold any ofiftce therein, or to partake of any advantage 
 or privilege thereof ; but this proviso shall not be deemed to prevent 
 the making of regulations for securing the due attendance of the 
 students for divine worship at such Church or Chapel as shall be ap- 
 proved by their parents or guardians, respectively. 
 
 STATUTES.— Chapter VI. 
 
 VIII. " That if any Professor shall, in any Lecture or Examination, or 
 in the discharge of any other part of his Collegiate duty, teach or advance 
 any doctrine, or make any statement derogatory to the truths of 
 revealed religion, or injurious or disrespectful to the religious convic- 
 tions of any portion of his class or audience, or shall introduce or 
 discuss political or polemical subjects tending to produce contention 
 or excitement, such Professor shall be summoned before the Council, 
 and, upon sufficient evidence of his having so transgressed, shall be 
 formally warned and reprimanded by the President ; and if any such 
 Professor be guilty of a repetition of said or similar offence, the Presi- 
 dent shall forthwith suspend him from his functions, and take steps 
 
62 APPENDIX. 
 
 officially to recommend to the Crown his removal from office, as having 
 transgressed the Statutes of the College, and violated his obligations to 
 its authorities. 
 
 IX. That every Professor shall, upon entering into office, sign the fol- 
 lowing Declaration : — I, A. B., do hereby promise to the President and 
 OouncU of the Queen's College, 
 
 that I will faithfully, and to the best of my ability, discharge the duties 
 of Professor of in said College ; and I 
 
 further promise and engage that in Lectures and Examinations, and in 
 the performance of all other duties connected with my chair, I will 
 carefully abstain from teaching or advancing any doctrine, or making 
 any statement derogatory to the truths of revealed religion, or injurious 
 or disrespectful to the religious convictions of any portion of my class 
 or audience. And I moreover promise to the said President and 
 Council that I will not introduce or discuss in my place or capacity of 
 any subject of politics or polemics tending to 
 produce contention or excitement, nor will I engage in any avocation 
 which the President and Council shall judge inconsistent with my 
 office ; but I will, as far as in me lies, promote on all occasions the 
 interests of education, and the welfare of the College. 
 
 We will and ordain that any Student guilty of any of the following 
 offences shall be liable to expulsion from the College ; but it shall be 
 competent to the Council, shall they deem it more conducive to the 
 discipline of the College and the reformation of the offender, to impose 
 some lighter punishment for the same : — 
 
 Chapter XVII. 
 
 I. Habitual neglect of attendance for Divine Worship, at such Church 
 or Chapel as shall be approved by his parents or guardians. 
 
 II. Habitual neglect of attendance on the religious instruction 
 provided for Students of his church or denomination, in the licensed 
 boarding-house in which he may reside. 
 
 III. Immoral or dishonest practices. 
 
 IV. Treasonable or seditious conduct. 
 
 V. Drunkenness. 
 
 VI. Grievous offences against College rules or discipline. 
 VI. Wilful and serious injury to the property of the College. 
 
 Chapter XVIII. 
 
 I. We will and ordain that every Matriculated Student, being under 
 the age of twenty-one years, shall be required to reside during the 
 College Terms with his parent or guardian, or with some relation 
 or friend to whose care he shall have been committed by his parent 
 or guardian, and approved of by the President, or in a boarding-house 
 licensed and arranged for the reception of students in manner herein- 
 after described. . . . 
 
 V. That if the Bishop, Moderator, or the constituted authority of any 
 church or religious denomination, shall notify to the President his or 
 their desire that there shall be boarding-houses specially licenced for the 
 
APPENDIX. 63 
 
 exclusire use of the Students of such church or denomination, andshall 
 specially recommend persons applying for licence to establish the same, 
 the President shall, in every such case, grant such licence, provided he 
 shall obtain satisfactory evidence of the suitableness of the proposed 
 establishment, and of its means of providing for the health and comfort 
 of the Students. 
 
 VI. That in the case of Collegiate Students residing in a seminary or 
 school which is under the special jurisdiction of the Bishop, Moderator, 
 or the constituted authority of any church or religious denomination, 
 the President shall, on receiving a notification from such authority, 
 consider residence in such seminary or school as equivalent to residence 
 in the house of a parent or guardian, and shall exempt such seminary 
 or school from licence or inspection, but shall require the same attend- 
 ance at matriculation as in the case of a Student residing with his 
 parent or guardian. 
 
 VII. That for the better maintenance of moral and religious discipline 
 in the licensed boarding-houses, such clergymen or ministers as We shall, 
 from time to time, by warrant under Our Sign Manual, appoint Deans 
 of Residences, shall have the moral care and spiritual charge of the 
 Students of their respective creeds residing in the licensed boarding- 
 houses. 
 
 VIII. That the Deans of Eesidences shall have authority to visit the 
 licensed boarding-houses in which Students of their respective creeds 
 reside, for the purpose of affording religious instruction to such Students, 
 and shall also have power, with the concurrence of the Bishop, 
 Moderator, or other ecclesiastical authority, respectively, to make 
 regulations for the due observance of the religious duties of such Stu- 
 dents, and for securing their regular attendance on Divine Worship. . . . 
 
 IX. That no clergyman or minister shall be competent to assume or 
 continue to hold the office of Dean of Residences, unless approved by 
 the Bishop, Moderator, or constituted authority of his church or reli- 
 gious denomination. 
 
 X. That the Registrar shall, at the commencement of every Collegiate 
 Session, furnish each Dean of Residences with a list of the names and 
 residences of the Students of his religious persuasion who may reside 
 in the licensed boarding-houses. 
 
 XI. That each Dean of Residences shall, at the termination of every 
 Collegiate Session, report to the President on the general conduct of 
 the Students under his moral care and spiritual charge, in the licensed 
 boarding-houses, and on the manner in which discipline, regarding such 
 Students, has been observed in the several licensed boarding-houses in 
 which they reside. 
 
 R. CLAY. SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTliRS, BRRAU STREET HIr.L.