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 UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 
 
 IN 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 s, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. SAMUEL HAUGHTON, M.D., F.K.S., 
 
 FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. 
 
 LONDON: WILLIAMS & NORGATE, 
 
 DUBLIN : M C GLASHAN & GILL. 
 
 1868. 
 
 Price One Shilling. 
 THE LiBKAKY 
 
 uwiVERsrrv or CALIFORNTJT 
 
 LOS ANGELKS
 
 Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN 
 
 DUBLIN : 
 
 Prfotrtf at tfje Snibcrshi? 
 
 BY M. H. GILL.
 
 Stack 
 
 it i ' 
 
 Annex 
 
 UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN IRELAND. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE political condition of Ireland is, at present, grave ; 
 and, in the event of a war with the United States, would 
 become menacing, to England. 
 
 Irish politicians assert and it is partly admitted by 
 their opponents that, in the existing state of Ireland, 
 three questions demand an immediate solution : these 
 questions are, the Land Question, the Church Question, 
 and the Education Question. 
 
 The tenant farmers of Ireland wish for fixity of 
 tenure, and care but little for compensation for improve- 
 ments, except as a means of obtaining a practical fixity 
 of tenure ; and they would, unquestionably, rejoice to 
 see transferred to themselves, as occupiers of the soil, 
 the rights now enjoyed by absentee noblemen and land- 
 lords. It is the opinion of many that the Land question 
 cannot be settled without such a change of owners as 
 would practically amount to a revolution. 
 
 "With respect to the question of the Church, the more 
 intelligent laymen of the Irish National party openly 
 avow their wish to alienate the property of the Church, 
 on the ground that its existence forms a barrier to the 
 union of Irish Protestants with the Catholic majority in 
 the formation of a truly National Irish party. It is 
 asserted, and apparently not without reason, that if the 
 Irish Protestants felt themselves cast off by England, 
 
 200O545
 
 4 UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 
 
 and their Church endowments confiscated, they might 
 
 become more willing to join their countrymen in an anti- 
 
 "EHglish policy, which the rude breath of war might 
 
 " Some day fan into a demand for an Irish Republic, 
 
 under the guarantee of France and America. It is for 
 
 English politicians to decide how far the advantages of 
 
 religious equality would compensate for the risk of 
 
 national disloyalty. 
 
 The questions of the Land and Church in Ireland will, 
 doubtless, be fully discussed in the House of Commons 
 by persons acquainted with those questions, and compe- 
 tent to do them justice ; but it may be fairly doubted 
 whether the question of Education in Ireland will be ex- 
 amined with as full a knowledge aswill be brought to bear 
 on the other questions. The following lines are written 
 in the hope of adding a contribution of facts towards the 
 discussion of one branch of the Education question that 
 which relates to University Education in Ireland. 
 
 My apology for writing on this question is, that I 
 have been a Fellow of Trinity College for nearly a quar- 
 ter of a century, during which time I have taken an 
 active part in the educational reforms which have placed 
 the Graduates of Trinity College foremost in all the 
 competitions for the public services of India, of the 
 Army, and of the Colonies. I am also entitled to be 
 heard as a Clerical Fellow of Trinity College, holding in 
 trust for his brother Protestants the precious gift of edu- 
 cation based on pure religion, handed down to us by 
 our forefathers, in defence of which all true Protestants 
 are prepared, if necessary, to sacrifice their lives. 
 
 Two proposals were discussed, and a third was inci- 
 dentally alluded to, in the summer of 1867, in the House 
 of Commons, respecting University Education in Ireland; 
 one of these proposals involves a betrayal of the reli- 
 gious base on which the Protestant College of Elizabeth 
 was founded ; and another involves a surrender for 
 ever of the high literary and scientific standard of 
 Dublin University, and a permanent lowering of high 
 class education in Ireland. Against the one I feel
 
 IN IRELAND. O 
 
 bound to protest, as an earnest Protestant, and against 
 the other as an advocate for the advancement of science 
 and letters. (~ 
 
 The proposals made in Parliament respecting Uni- 
 versity Education are all founded on the generally ad- 
 mitted fact that Roman Catholics in Ireland have not 
 got the same facilities for University Education as the 
 Protestants of that country, and that it is expedient at 
 once to redress this grievance. In order to do so, it has 
 been proposed to do one or other of three things : 
 
 I. To secularize Trinity College, by throwing open 
 its Fellowships and Scholarships to all Students, irre- 
 spective of religious qualification. 
 
 II. To open the University of Dublin to other Col- 
 leges than Trinity College, thus transforming the Uni- 
 versity of Dublin into a National Irish University, on 
 the model of the University of France. 
 
 III. To grant a Charter and Endowment to a Roman 
 Catholic University, in which the education given shall 
 be based on religion, as in Trinity College at present. 
 
 I shall endeavour to state briefly the objections which 
 seem to me to be so fatal to either of the first two pro- 
 posals, as to leave us no alternative but to accept the third 
 horn of the Educational dilemma : 
 
 I. SECULARIZATION OF TRINITY COLLEGE. 
 
 Trinity College was founded in Dublin by Queen 
 Elizabeth, in 1591, as a Protestant University, and for 
 the purpose of giving to Irish Protestants a University 
 Education, based on the doctrines and discipline of the 
 Reformed Church of England. This infant University 
 was fostered by the guiding hand of the great Lord 
 Burghley, its interests were defended by the ill-fated 
 Essex, and its Statutes were drafted by the highly gifted 
 Bishop Bedell. 
 
 Trinity College has been well described by her 
 enemies as a " handful of Protestant Clergymen ;"
 
 6 UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 
 
 because her Fellows, with the exception of three, were 
 required to take Holy Orders in the English Church ; 
 and at the present moment five only of her thirty-two Fel- 
 lowships are permitted by Statute to be held by laymen. 
 
 Trinity College is now nearly three centuries in ex- 
 Jtence, and may be regarded as the only English insti- 
 'tution that ever succeeded in Ireland. 
 
 The sons of the Alma Mater founded by Elizabeth 
 may be excused if they point with pride to the names of 
 Ussher, King, and Magee, among her theologians ; to 
 Berkeley, Brinkley, and Hamilton, among her thinkers 
 and mathematicians ; and to Swift, Goldsmith, Burke, 
 and Plunket, amongst those whom she has given to litera- 
 ture, oratory, and politics, whose names shall live so long 
 as religion, science, and letters attract the respect and 
 claim the study of educated Englishmen; 
 
 Trinity College has never been, and never was in. 
 tended to be, a national institution ; her emoluments, 
 her Fellowships and Scholarships, are the property of 
 the Irish members of the English Church ; and the 
 proposal to throw them open to the competition of 
 Roman Catholics and Dissenters is a proposal for the 
 confiscation, so far, of the property of Irish Protestants. 
 Trinity College has well and faithfully discharged the 
 part she was required to fill ; she has maintained the 
 pure doctrine of the English Church, against all op- 
 ponents ; she has reared her Students as faithful children 
 of that Church ; she has given them an education that 
 enables them to compete successfully with all rivals in 
 the walks of literature and science ; and it cannot be 
 fairly alleged against her as a fault that she has not pro- 
 vided for the educational wants of Irish Catholics ; she 
 was never intended to do so. 
 
 The lovers of the gorgeous Rose need' not blush 
 because she wants the colour and grace of the beautiful 
 Lily ; and I rnay well be pardoned for believing that 
 no brighter or fairer flower blooms in the garden of the 
 
 o - o 
 
 West, than the Tudor Rose planted in Dublin by the 
 proud Elizabeth.
 
 IN IRELAND. 7 
 
 In order to estimate rightly the effects of the secula- 
 rization of Trinity College, both upon the Protestants 
 and the Roman Catholics of Ireland, it will be neces- 
 sary to give a numerical view of the relative proportions 
 of the different religions arid professions among the Stu- 
 dents of that College. Taking an average of the past ten 
 yi'iirs, there are 1200 Students on the books of Trinity 
 College. Of these 1200 Students, 800 are in daily attencfc . 
 ance upon lectures, and may be classified as follows: 
 
 1. Divinity Students, 160 
 
 2. Medical Students, 240 
 
 3. Law Students, 70 
 
 4. Engineering Students, ... 60 
 
 5. Civil Service of India, . ... 30 
 
 6. Non-professional Students, . . 240 
 
 Total, .... 800 
 
 In order to find the proportion of Roman Catholics,* 
 I have taken, at random, five years from 1855 to 1859, 
 during which 1378 Students entered Trinity College, of 
 whom 80 were Roman Catholics, and 61 were Protestant 
 Dissenters and Jews. We may, therefore, assume that 
 the 1200 Students are distributed as follows: 
 
 1. English Church, 1077 
 
 2. Roman Catholic Church, . . 70 
 
 3. Protestant Dissenters, ... 53 
 
 Total, .... 1200 
 
 The preceding figures give an average of six per 
 cent, of Roman Catholic Students in Trinity College, 
 and in no department of the College do they exceed ten 
 per cent. Thus, in the Medical School, in which there 
 is a larger proportion than in other professional schools, 
 during the four years ending 1867, out of 300 Students 
 matriculated in Medicine, exactly thirty were Roman 
 Catholics, and three were Jews. 
 
 * Roman Catholics were first admitted into Trinity College by an 
 Act passed by the Irish Parliament in 1793.
 
 8 UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 
 
 Let us now examine briefly the effect of secularizing 
 Trinity College upon the Protestant and Roman Catholic 
 Students respectively. 
 
 It cannot be believed by any one, that the passing of 
 an Act of Parliament secularizing Trinity College would 
 alter in the slightest degree the sentiments and wishes 
 of the 1100 Students of the English Church, or those of 
 the parents and guardians who placed them in Trinity 
 College, knowing and expecting that they would there 
 receive, not only a liberal education, but instruction and 
 training in the principles of the Church of England. 
 Those 1100 young and intelligent Students would still 
 demand an education based upon religion ; a demand 
 which would be promptly answered by the Clerical Fel- 
 lows of the College ; and it cannot be doubted that, if 
 they were well led by earnest and competent teachers, 
 they would found a second Trinity College within the 
 walls, which would perpetuate the principles of the 
 College founded by Elizabeth. Such a movement the Par- 
 liament would find itself unable to control ; for the portion 
 of the funds of Trinity College thatis now expended on 
 the education of the Clergy would be allowed, in common 
 justice, to be allocated in future to the same object ; and 
 the Clerical Professors and Fellows would gather round 
 them the germ of the Trinity College of the future, 
 faithful to the traditions of the past, and perchance sur- 
 passing the reputation of the old College for learning. 
 
 From what I know of the earnest spirit of Irish 
 Protestants, and of their determination to secure for their 
 children an education founded on the pure word of God, 
 I believe that the Clerical Tutors of the College would 
 at once transfer to themselves the great majority of the 
 Protestant Students of Trinity College. 
 
 Some 100 or 200 Students might prefer to receive 
 the instruction, and reward the care, of such lay Fellows 
 as might find their way into the secularised Corporation, 
 and thusapermanentdomestic schism would become estab- 
 lished between the clerical and lay elements of the College,
 
 IN IRELAND. 
 
 winch are now happily at peace. Whatever might be 
 the future of the College, it is certain that, at the outset, 
 the Secular Fellows of the College would huve to undergo 
 the vividiy of a trained band of Protestant teachers, 
 supported by sympathizing Students, both smarting 
 under MII angry sense of wrong and injustice. 
 
 Let us now inquire how the secularization of Trinity 
 College would please the Roman Catholic party in Ire- 
 land. The Roman Catholic Clergy warn their flocks 
 against Trinity College as a Protestant Institution, ne- 
 cessarily dangerous to the principles of Catholic Stu- 
 dents ; and, in thus warning them, they are practically 
 wise, for it is simply impossible for seventy Catholics to 
 associate with 11 CO Protestants, as equals and fellow 
 Students, without renouncing, more or less, the narrow 
 views respecting Protestants that prevail among the 
 higher circles of their Hierarchy. 
 
 Trinity College, however, although considered dan- 
 gerous, has never been placed by the Roman Catholic 
 Clergy in the same category as the Queen's Colleges, 
 whicli are essentially secularized institutions, without a 
 recognized religion, and "godless:" as such they are ab- 
 solutely condemned by the Hierarchy, and faithful Ca- 
 tholics are prohibited from entering their Avails. 
 
 The practical effect of secularising Trinity College, if 
 the experiment were successful, would be to convert it 
 into a fourth Queen's College, arid it would thus become 
 one of a class of Educational Institutions which the 
 Church of Rome has always, and consistently, forbidden 
 her children to enter. It is hard to see how such apian 
 as this can be rationally advocated, on the ground that 
 it would satisfy the just demands of the Catholics of 
 Ireland. 
 
 So far, therefore, as Irish Roman Catholics are con- 
 cerned, the secularization of Trinity College would be to 
 them a loss, and not a gain; for it would transfer educa- 
 tion in this College from the list of dangerous to that of 
 prohibited enjoyments.
 
 10 UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 
 
 I need scarcely add how mean and vindictive would 
 be the spirit that would secularize Trinity College, in 
 order to injure the Irish Protestants, without any cor- 
 responding benefit to the Irish Catholics. 
 
 I believe, therefore, that it would be impolitic for the 
 English Parliament to secularize Trinity College, for the 
 following reasons : 
 
 1. It would irritate the Irish Protestants to deprive 
 them of a College founded on the principles of their 
 Church, which has done its duty, and has possessed their 
 confidence for three centuries. 
 
 2. It would not satisfy the just demand of the Irish 
 Catholics for University Education, merely to admit them 
 to the Fellowships and Scholarships of a secularized Col- 
 lege, the principle of which they must feel bound to 
 condemn. 
 
 II. NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND. 
 
 The second plan that has been suggested for solving 
 the University question in Ireland, in one form or other, 
 amounts to a proposal to throw open the University of 
 Dublin, or the Queen's University in Ireland, or both, so 
 as to embrace in one University a number of Colleges, 
 each retaining its own system of religious training and 
 discipline, and its own endowments, and sending up its 
 Students to pass the Examinations of the Central Uni- 
 versity, whose functions would be reduced to those of an 
 Examining Board. 
 
 I readily admit that this proposal is free from one of 
 the objections I have urged against the proposal to solve 
 the University problem by secularizing Trinity College, 
 and that it leaves both Protestants and Catholics free to 
 train their sons in the religious faith and traditions of 
 their forefathers. 
 
 This advantage, although great, would, however, in 
 my opinion, be purchased at the cost of degrading for 
 ever the standard of University Education in Ireland. 
 
 If this objection can be established, it ought to have
 
 IN IliELAND. 11 
 
 peculiar weight in considering the question of Irish 
 University Education. England differs essentially from 
 Ireland, in affording to her young men countless 
 openings in every walk of life, with or without the 
 benefits of University Education, which in England 
 may be regarded as a luxury enjoyed by the rich ; 
 whereas in Ireland an University Education is frequently 
 a necessity imposed upon the sons of the less wealthy 
 middle classes. The openings in life for young men of 
 this class in Ireland are so very limited, that they must 
 either emigrate, or rely on their talents and education, 
 in pushing their way in the learned professions in 
 England and the Colonies. Hence it follows, that 
 any lowering of the standard of University Education 
 in Ireland would be followed by peculiarly disastrous 
 effects. 
 
 At the present moment, Trinity College may be re- 
 gardcd as a manufactory ibr turning out the highest 
 class of competitors for success in the Church, at the 
 English Bar, in the Civil Service of India, and in the 
 Scientific and Medical Services of the Army and Navy ; 
 and any legislation which would produce the effect of 
 lowering the present high standard of her degrees, would 
 tend to destroy the prospects of the educated classes in 
 Ireland, and become to those classes little short of a 
 national calamity. 
 
 In order to establish my objection, it is necessary 
 to call to our recollection the ancient and true notion 
 of an University. 
 
 With the exception of Oxford and Cambridge, there 
 is no example of an ancient University in Europe com- 
 posed of a collection of free Colleges, united by the 
 common bond of an University, of which all are mem- 
 bers, and which conducts the Examinations for Degrees. 
 
 All other ancient Universities resemble the Univer- 
 sity of Trinity College in Dublin, in consisting of a 
 single College possessing, either from the Pope or from 
 the Crown, the University privilege of granting De- 
 grees.
 
 12 UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 
 
 In modern times, no nation but France has seen fit to 
 depart from this ancient form of University Education ; 
 and in that country centralization is so popular and so 
 complete, that the University of France, with its affiliated 
 Colleges, has met with a success very certain not to follow 
 a similar experiment in Ireland. All the Colleges in 
 France are moulded upon the same type, from which no 
 deviation is permitted ; and alPare under State con- 
 trol, which in France restrains freedom of education by 
 the same trammels as freedom of speech, or liberty of 
 the press. The Minister of Public Instruction can 
 boast that when the clock strikes his telegraphed order 
 sets in motion the tongues of his Professors in Paris, in 
 Strasburgh, in Lyons, and that the same lectures, in 
 almost the same words, are delivered within the same 
 hour to all the educated youth of France. This drilling 
 of the intellect by the sergeants of the Emperor pleases 
 for the present the fancy of the French ; it would infal- 
 libly fail in Ireland. 
 
 The condition essential to success in uniting several 
 Colleges into a common University is sameness of type 
 in the education given, and sameness of discipline in the 
 various Colleges. This condition is attained in France 
 by the centralizing and irresistible power of the State ; 
 in. Oxford and in Cambridge it has grown up spon- 
 taneously, and has partially succeeded ; in Oxford, how- 
 ever, as in Cambridge, the multiplicity of Colleges and 
 of rival, though similar interests, has produced feebleness 
 in the government of the central authority, which is a 
 fault little complained of in the University of France. 
 
 I shall presently inquire whether the Colleges of 
 Ireland present that similarity of type which is essential 
 to the success of the experiment of fusing them all into 
 a common University ; but in the meantime, admitting, 
 for the sake of argument, that the experiment would 
 succeed, it is worth while to ask whether it would be an 
 advantage to the country. 
 
 In France we see the perfection of centralization 
 and identity in the Lyceums and Colleges of the entire
 
 IN IRELAND. 13 
 
 country ; in Germany, on the contrary, we witness the 
 full development of the ancient collegiate idea of the 
 University; twenty-seven distinct and independent Uni- 
 versity centres of education exist among forty millions of 
 Germans, each University differing from the other, and 
 each possessing its peculiar type of excellence, to attract 
 its Students. I believe that all who are acquainted with 
 the present condition of science and letters in the two 
 countries will be disposed to agree in thinking that the 
 intellect of France is cramped by the imperial cradle in 
 which it is reared, while the genius of Germany is fostered 
 by the freedom of thought, stimulated by such excellent, 
 though diverse centres of development, as Vienna, Mu- 
 nich, Heidelberg, Bonn, or Berlin. 
 
 University education in France pleases the doctrinaire, 
 just as parterres of flowers of similar hue please the eyes 
 of the gardener; while the Universities of Germany de- 
 light the thinker, as the graceful forms and varied 
 colours of the flowers of some tropical forest please 
 the traveller, whose instinctive taste prefers the charms 
 and grace of nature to the symmetry and rules of 
 art. 
 
 The experiment of the union of different Colleges 
 in a common University has. succeeded in France, in 
 Oxford, and in Cambridge, in consequence of the simi- 
 larity of the Colleges united together ; but such an ex- 
 periment attempted in Ireland would fail, as certainly as 
 an attempt to unite Oxford and Cambridge into one 
 University would fail. 
 
 We possess in Ireland three distinct types of Col- 
 legiate education, of which may be cited as examples 
 Trinity College, in Dublin ; the Roman Catholic College of 
 Carlow, and Queen's College, in Belfast. These Colleges 
 represent, respectively, the religious Protestant type, the 
 Roman Catholic type, and the secular or mixed type, of 
 Collegiate discipline and training. Any person of educa- 
 tion acquainted with Ireland knows the impossibility of 
 fusing such distinct elements in a common crucible ; 
 and yet each system, in its way, is excellent, and will
 
 14 UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 
 
 produce good fruits, if left to develope itself, and not 
 forced upon those who conscientiously dissent from its 
 fundamental principles. 
 
 Let us suppose, however, the experiment tried by 
 persons only partially acquainted with education, and 
 with the condition of Ireland and by such only could it 
 be attempted then it is easy to see that success could 
 be obtained only at the expense of lowering the standard 
 of education. 
 
 It is plain that one or other of two things would 
 happen : either the University Senate would be composed 
 of persons altogether independent of the Colleges, and 
 appointed by the State, or it would consist, as in Oxford 
 and Cambridge, of heads of Colleges and persons repre- 
 senting their varied interests. 
 
 In the first case supposed we should witness the 
 painful and degrading spectacle of Irish Colleges sub- 
 mitted to the rule of State-appointed, perhaps, State- 
 paid Governors, who, under the name of an University 
 Senate, would prescribe the curriculum for degrees, ap- 
 point Examiners, and confer the titles awarded by those 
 Examiners. 
 
 It is not possible to suppose that a Senate appointed 
 by an authority outside the Colleges, and consisting of 
 persons removed from the details of University Educa- 
 tion, would be competent to decide the weighty and im- 
 portant questions that must come before them ; in fact, 
 a Senate constituted as I have supposed, in discussing 
 questions of education, would be about as likely to come 
 to a wise decision as a collection of shoemakers specu- 
 lating on the structure of a watch, and making proposals 
 for its improvement, who will certainly destroy the deli- 
 cate machinery they are unable to understand, unless 
 they have the sagacity to call in the watchmakers to 
 their aid. 
 
 It might be imagined that the standard of educa- 
 tion could be maintained by such a system, on the hy- 
 pothesis that a State-nominated Senate would always 
 appoint competent Examiners ; but in such a case those
 
 IN IRELAND. 
 
 Examiners would themselves become the University, and 
 would regulate the value of the degrees conferred by 
 it, and the country could have no guarantee that the 
 standard of education would continue to be maintained ; 
 for this would be to suppose, on the part of successive 
 Governments, a purity in their appointment of Senators 
 which no rational man expects will ever be found out- 
 side the boundaries of the kingdom of Laputa. 
 
 If the Senate of the National University were com- 
 posed of State officials, they would feel themselves bound 
 to maintain the interests of all the Colleges committed to 
 their care, and it would be impossible to maintain the 
 standard of Degrees at a point higher than the attain- 
 ments of the weakest College in the partnership, whose 
 defective standard would regulate that of the University 
 Degree, just as the sailing of the slowest tub in the 
 squadron regulates the manosuvres of the entire fleet. 
 
 If, on the other hand, the Senate of the National 
 Irish University should be composed, after the model of 
 Oxford and Cambridge, of the heads and representatives 
 of the various Irish Colleges, although liberty of educa- 
 tion might be preserved, the standard of the degrees 
 would become degraded by the simple operation of a 
 natural law easy to explain. 
 
 The heads of the Irish Colleges, united into a "happy 
 family" University by the hands of a paternal Govern- 
 ment, would either struggle with each other for supre- 
 macy, or enter into a compromise for peace sake, on 
 some such plan as the following : 
 
 After a few preliminary skirmishes, to try each 
 other's skill, in arranging a common curriculum in 
 Morals or History, it would be found that profound and 
 irreconcileable differences existed among the Colleges on 
 the most elementary principles, and that it would be im- 
 possible for the heads of Trinity College, of St. Patrick's 
 College of Maynooth, of Queen's College of Belfast, and 
 of other institutions, to agree upon a common curriculum 
 of education, or even of examination for Degrees, that 
 would satisfy the reasonable and conscientious scruples 
 of all parties.
 
 16 UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 
 
 Under these circumstances, q, sort of bargain would 
 be made between the heads of the various Colleges, 
 who would agree to take each other's certificates with- 
 out challenge, and confer the Degrees recommended 
 by each independently of the others. 
 
 The University and its Senate would thus become 
 simply a machinery for authorizing the Students of the 
 various Colleges to add certain letters, such as M. A., or 
 LL. B., after their names ; and it would become the in- 
 terest of all the Colleges in which a really good education 
 was given, that such letters should have a formal sig- 
 nificance only ; the education itself, testified by the ad- 
 dition of the name of the College, having alone a real 
 market value readily appreciated by the public. Each 
 College of reputation would be careful to have its own 
 name inserted after the letters signifying the University 
 Degree, and thus would be practically created as many 
 Universities as there are Colleges in Ireland, and a dis- 
 astrous competition downwards would be the inevitable 
 result. 
 
 The Degrees of the so-called National University 
 would be like the bills of a weak firm dishonoured by 
 the public unless endorsed by the name of a solvent 
 trader and the letters M. A., or LL. B., would become 
 like the praises on a bad man's gravestone, purchase- 
 able at so much a letter. 
 
 I believe, therefore, that I am entitled to protest 
 against the scheme of forming a National University by 
 fusing together the different Colleges in Ireland, on the 
 following grounds : 
 
 1. Because such a scheme for a National University 
 would prove to be a failure, on account of the want of 
 similarity in the Colleges composing the University. 
 
 2. Because such a scheme would, in the long run, 
 infallibly lower the standard and degrade the character 
 of Irish University Degrees; a result that would prove 
 peculiarly disastrous to the educated classes in Ireland.
 
 IN IRELAND. 17 
 
 III. ROMAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND. 
 
 Having disposed of the first two schemes for satisfy- 
 ing the demand of the Irish Catholics for University Edu- 
 cation, and shown one to be impolitic, and the other 
 to be injurious, it might naturally be expected that I 
 should now proceed to advocate the advantages of the 
 remaining plan, which consists in a Charter and Endow- 
 ment for a Roman Catholic University in Ireland, in 
 which the Irish Catholics and their Clergy should be 
 allowed to arrange their own programme of University 
 Education without the interference of Irish Protest-ants, 
 or of English doctrinaires ; but this course I feel to be 
 unnecessary, as it mainly concerns Roman Catholics 
 themselves to state their wishes and explain their views 
 respecting it. 
 
 Protestant interference in such a question is as irri- 
 tating and as useless as would be the interference of a 
 mutual friend in a quarrel between a man and his wife. 
 
 English politicians, in the matter of University Edu- 
 cation for the Irish Catholics, have hitherto imitated the 
 doctrine laid down by Mr. Bumble that " the great 
 principle of out-of-door relief is, to give the paupers 
 exactly what they don't want ; and then they get tired 
 of coining." 
 
 Twenty-seven out of twenty-nine of the Irish Catholic 
 Bishops ask for a Catholic University Charter and En- 
 dowment, and are supported in this claim by an over- 
 whelming majority of their flocks. 
 
 The Irish Catholics asked the English Parliament for 
 bread, and they gave them a stone : instead of a Chartered 
 University, with a fair endowment and perfect freedom of 
 Education, they received Queen's Colleges, which were 
 condemned as godless, and which they were prohibited 
 by their Church from using. 
 
 Let the Parliament of England for once try an ex- 
 periment which will meet with the approval of Irishmen 
 of all classes, and give to Ireland a third University, in 
 
 B
 
 IFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 reles 
 
 18 UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN IRELAND. 
 
 which the highest and best type of Catholic education 
 shall be developed freely. Protestantism cannot suffer 
 by the contrast, and education must certainly benefit. 
 
 If Germans can proudly boast of their twenty -seven 
 Universities if Italians can point to twenty-one Univer- 
 sities, awaking from their slumbers at the call of liberty 
 if little Belgium can support her four Universities, all 
 active, and required by the wants of her people surely 
 it cannot be too much for the Irish people, divided as 
 they unhappily are by distinctions of religion and bitter 
 recollections of ancient feuds, to^ask that the Protestant 
 University of Elizabeth, and the Secular University of 
 Victoria, shall be supplemented by a Catholic University, 
 possessing the confidence of Irish Catholics, and sharing 
 with her friendly rivals, no longer jealous sisters, the 
 glorious task of leading the youth of Ireland into the 
 pleasant paths of Literature and Science. 
 
 The milk-white Lily is not less beautiful than the 
 crimson Rose; let them flourish side by side *n "he 
 garden of Ireland. 

 
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