CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 LA636.7 .A57 
 
 Studium generale 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 030 563 708 
 
B Cornell University 
 f Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030563708 
 
A CHAPTER 
 
 CONTEMPOKARY HISTORY. 
 
LONDON 
 
 PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODH AND CO. 
 
 NEW-STEEET SQUAHK 
 
STUDIUM GENERALE. 
 
 A CHAPTER OF 
 
 CONTEMPORABY HISTORY; 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY. 
 THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY. THE COLLEGE OF MAYNOOTH. 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS ANDEEWS, M.D., F.R.S. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 LONGMANS, GEEEN, ANI> CO. 
 
 1867. 
 
LA 
 
 
 <-- % 
 
 \ 
 
 ^ \:- 
 
STUDIUM GENEEAIE. 
 
 The University ef London. — The Queen's University. — The 
 Catholic University. — The College of Maynooth. 
 
 The projected chaxges in the Queen's University in 
 Ireland, from having been interwoven with a great poli- 
 tical struggle, have attracted an amount of general atten- 
 tion rarely given to any question involving the interests 
 of a comparatively young institution. The pubhc mind 
 has, however, correctly felt that far greater interests were 
 involved in the true solution of this question than those 
 of the Queen's University, or of tlie Queen's Colleges in 
 Ireland. When the Senate of the University of London, 
 departing step by step from the principles of the original 
 charter of ^YiIham IV., accepted, in opposition to the 
 almost unanimous opinion of its graduates,^ and without 
 the approval of any one of its colleges,^ the charter of 
 
 ' Five hundred and thirty-one graduates memorialised the Senate against 
 the acceptance of the charter of ISoS ; only thirty-eight graduates in 
 favour of it. — Muiufes of the Senate of the Unhersiti/ of London for 1857, 
 pp. 81, 90. 
 
 " The Senate, indeed, claims the adhesion of the President of St. Patrick's 
 College, Thurles (Mimites for lSo7, p. 130) ; hut the following extract from 
 the letter of that functionary shows that his opinions on the suhject were 
 scarcely matured at the time he wrote: 'I was thinking,' he ob.serves, 'to 
 "ive a general adhesion to your views, which must he well formed in all 
 that regards the honour and welfere of the university. This I continue to 
 do, while I submit my own views on the matter to your correction and the 
 superior judgment of the graduates of the London T7niversity.' He further 
 states that the sentiments to which he has given expression are his private 
 views. The letter will be found in the Minutes of Senate for 1857, p. 72. 
 
 B 
 
1858, which admitted persons without college or univer- 
 sity training of any kind to its degrees in arts ; it in- 
 troduced a practice previously unknown, except in one 
 solitary case, in the great European seats of learning, and 
 which has been truly described as ' at variance with the 
 understanding which has prevailed in the learned society 
 of Europe from the first foundation of universities to the 
 present day.'^ The same Senate gave thereby its sanction 
 to a change of meaning in the honoured titles of learning 
 Avhich have everywhere been recognized, since the uni- 
 versity system was moulded into its present form, at the 
 early dawn of the revival of learning, in the great schools 
 of Paris and Bologna ; and it has substituted elaborate exa- 
 minations, wholly unsuited to the youthful mind, for the 
 methods of mental training and culture which, under 
 diversified forms, have hitherto been the characteristics of 
 university teaching.^ 
 
 ' Address from the Senate of University College, London, on the new 
 charter proposed for the University of London, June 1857. — Mimctes of the 
 Senate of the University of London for 1867, pp. 81, 90. 
 
 ^ As an illustration, I will give a summary of the examination, which aU 
 candidates for Matriculation in the University of London are required to 
 pass, at the very threshold of university life. This examination comprises — 
 in Arithmetic and Algebra, the Elementary Rules, Arithmetical and Geo- 
 metrical Progression and Simple Equations ; in Geometry, the Firet Four 
 Books of Euclid ; in Mechanics, the Composition and Resolution of Statical 
 Forces, the Mechanical Powers, the Definition of the Centre of Gravity, the 
 General Laws of Motion, and the Law of the Motion of Falling Bodies ; in 
 Hydrostatics, Hydraulics and Pneumatics, the Pressure of Liquids and 
 Gases, the Definition of Specific Gravity and the Method of ascertaining 
 the Specific Gravity of Bodies, the Explanation of the Barometer, the 
 Siphon, the Common Pump, the P^orciug-punip and the Air-pimip ; in 
 Acoustics, a description of the nature of Sound ; in Optics, the Laws of 
 Refiexion and Refraction, and an Explanation of the Formation of Images 
 by Simple Lenses ; in Chemistry, the Sources of Heat, Expansion, Ther- 
 mometers, Specific and Latent Heat, Calorimeters, Liquefaction, Ebullition, 
 Evaporation, Conduction, Convection, Radiation, the Chemistry of the Non- 
 • Metallic Elements, Oxygen, Ilydi'ogen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Chlorine, Bro- 
 mine, Iodine, Fluorine, Sulphur, Phosphorus, Silicon, Combining Propor- 
 tions, Symbols and Nomenclature, the Atmosphere, Combustion, AVater 
 Carbonic Acid, the Oxides and Acids of Nitrogen, Ammonia, Olefiaut Gas 
 Marsh Gas, Sulphurous and Sulphuric Acids, Sulphuretted Hydrogen 
 Hydrochloric Acid, Phosphoric Acid and Phosphuretted Hydrogen, Silica ■ 
 
The exception to whicli I refer is the University of 
 Dublin, where a practice unknown to, or rather in con- 
 travention of, its statutes^ grew up about the middle of 
 
 in the Greek and Latin Languages, one Greek and one Latin subject from 
 the works of certain authors, with questions in Grammar, History and Geo- 
 graphy, and the translation of easy sentences of English into Latin ; in 
 the English Language, Orthography, Writing from Dictation, and the Gram- 
 matical Structure of the Language ; in English History and Modem Geo- 
 graphy, outlines of the History of England to the end of the 17th century, 
 with questions in Modem Geography ; in the French or the German 
 Language, passages for translation from certain works previously announced, 
 and questions in Accidence, together with easy passages for translation into 
 English from prose works not previously announced. Candidates must 
 show a competent knowledge in all the foregoing subjects, with an option 
 between French and German. — London University Calendar for 1866, pp. 40 
 to 44. In a memorial addressed, about four years ago, to the Senate by one 
 hundred Heads and Professors of institutions in connection with the Uni- 
 versity of London, the memorialists state that 'they have a clear and 
 decided conviction that the number of subjects included in the [Matriculation] 
 Examination is larger than either sound theory or experience will justify,' 
 and suggest ' that Chemistry should either cease to be required at Matricula- 
 tion, except from medical students, or that candidates should be free at that 
 stage to choose between it and Natural Philosophy.' — Minutes of Senate for 
 1862, p. 14. This proposal was not acceded to by the Senate, id. p. 38. Few^~ 
 who have had any experience in the training of youth will be disposed to 
 dispute the opinion, that the pruning knife might with advantage be applied 
 far more freely than has been suggested by the memorialists. 
 
 ' 'Sociorum singulis, absentise dies, sexagiuta tres, discipulorum autem 
 singulis, triginta duos, vel continuos, vel interpolates, quolibet anno, 
 incipiendo a Dominica Trinitatis, concedimus. . . Statuimus item, ut 
 nemini sociorum, vel discipulorum, praeter dies prsescriptos ultra unam in 
 singulis annis quartam, a prseposito, vel eo absente, vice-prseposito etmajori 
 parte seniorum, nisi gravissimaurgentissimaque de causa, unquam concedatur.' 
 — LitercB Patentes 13 Caroli I. cap. 22. By a previous section, the pupils, viz. 
 the Fellow Commoners, Pensioners, and Sizars, are declared to be subject to the 
 same laws as the scholars in respect to scholastic exercises. 'Pupilli omnes, 
 quocunque vocentur nomine, volumus, ut iisdem legibus ac statutis, quoad 
 mores et exercitia scholastica, teneantur, et pareant, quibus discipuli et 
 scholares collegii expensis sustentati, et eodem mode, si deliquerint, 
 puniantur, exceptis nobilibus et filiis hseredibus alicujus consiliarii regii, 
 respeotu quarundam poenarum, non autem vel morum, vel exercitiorum.' — Id. 
 cap. 10. That the '_ exercitia scholastica ' included attendance on the college 
 prelections is manifest from chapter 15 of the same letters patent. By a 
 letter of William TV., the number of terms is reduced from four to three ; 
 but so far from non-residence being recognized, it is alleged, as a reason for 
 this change, that the Trinity Term is so short as to afford no opportunity for 
 any effective course of lectures, and that ' it seems altogether unreasonable 
 
 B 2 
 
the last ceatury, or porhaps a little earlier, of allowing a 
 part of the undergraduate students to substitute pass exa- 
 minations for attendance upon the courses of instruction 
 delivered in the college of the university. I have made 
 careful inquiry among the present Fellows to ascertain, if 
 possible, the origin of this practice ; they all agree that it 
 Avas unknown during the earlier period of the existence 
 of the university, but at what precise time, or from what 
 cause it began, the existing records fail to show.-^ On 
 one point there is a common consent ; the practice has 
 always been felt to be an evil, and the authorities have 
 of late years used their best efforts to discourage it. On 
 this subject I cannot quote any higher authority than Dr. 
 Lloyd, the present provost. 
 
 ' The testing of progress or of merit,' he justly observes, 
 ' by frequent examination, has always called forth a set 
 
 that students should be examined without the benefit of previous instruction 
 in the subjects of that examination.' I have taken the above extracts from 
 a semi-official work entitled ' Chartfe et Statuta Collegii SS. Trinitatis 
 Reginae Elizabethje juxta Dublin,' 1844. Since this work was published, 
 the statute of 18 Vict, has relaxed some of the provisions regarding residence 
 in the statute of 13 Car. I., but it does not in any respect sanction indis- 
 criminate non-residence. After referring to the long vacation, it declares : 
 ' Ceteris autem anni temporibus, nemo sociorum vel discipulorum a coUegio 
 absit, nisi prtepositus, vel eo absente, vice-proepositus, ei veniam concesserit.' 
 The section ah-eady quoted, which places the pupil in the same position as 
 the scholar in respect to scholastic exercises, is still in force. 
 
 ' ' As to the origin of the Dublin non-residence system, I have no doubt 
 it is to be traced to the provision in the stat. 13 Oar. I., that an examination 
 should be held at the beginning of every term on the subjects of the lectures 
 of the preceding term. This was intended merely to promote diligence and 
 attention to lectures, but gradually, no doubt, the examinations assumed 
 more and more importance ; they became the end, and the previous lectures 
 merely a meaas, of preparing for them. Then it came to be reckoned 
 sufficient to pass the examinations, and private study (if it proved to have 
 been sufficient to eifect that result) was held an equivalent for attendance on 
 lectures ; the state of the comitvy, the difficulty of travelling, and the 
 poverty of the students made many of them, no doubt, prefer to prepare for 
 their examinations at home ; and so the usage would grow up. But, like 
 all abuses, it was of course gradually developed.' I am indebted for the 
 foregoing interesting remarks to the Rev. J. Gwynn, formerly a Fellow of 
 Trinity College, Dublin, and "Wai'den of St. Columba's College. 
 
of men who undertake the task of preparing the student 
 for these tests, and that, unfortunately, often without any 
 view to his real mental progress. The great end of aca- 
 demic teaching — the discipline of the mind itself — is thus 
 overlooked ; it is, moreover, often marred, for the habit 
 of rehance upon another in all intellectual difficulties has 
 an obvious tendency to enfeeble and enervate the mind.' 
 After referring to a carefully selected private tutor, as 
 being all but necessary to the non-resident student. Dr. 
 Lloyd continues : 'But valuable as are his offices, it cannot, 
 I think, be maintained that they compensate for the lec- 
 tures of the college tutor, and for all those other moral 
 influences which form an important part of all university 
 training ; and I would earnestly press, as one of the most 
 urgent of all academic reforms, the importance of some 
 provisions by which residence should be more directly 
 encouraged, if it cannot be enforced.'^ 
 
 Although certain changes were made, a few years ago, 
 in the arrangements of the undergraduate course of the 
 University of Dubhn, in order to discourage non-resi- 
 dence, and the relative number of non-resident students 
 is now less than formerly, yet the practice has not by 
 any means been discontinued. With a view to the present 
 inquiry, I considered it therefore important to institute a 
 careful investigation into the results of the system in the 
 University of Dublin. For this purpose, I placed myself 
 in communication with several of the former a;nd present 
 Fellows, who have had actual experience of its working 
 both in former years and at the present time, and I have 
 likewise been so fortunate as to obtain, from an authority 
 which none will dispute, an account of its working in the 
 earher part of the present century. But as general state- 
 ments, however high the authority from which they ema- 
 
 ' Suggestions of the Rev. H. Lloyd, D.D. — Mepoti of Dublin Univeriity 
 Commission, 1853, p. 303. 
 
nate, cairy always greater weight when supported by 
 documentary evidence, I apphed for and obtained per- 
 mission to consult and make extracts from an official 
 register entitled ' The Eecord of Terms and Examinations,' 
 which contained a great deal of the information of which 
 I was in search. This renter has only been kept in its 
 present complete form since the year 1855. As the labour 
 of copying the whole record, which fills several bulky 
 volumes, would have been very great, I confined my 
 attention to the history of two entire classes, the earhest 
 and latest, of which there was a complete account. Ac- 
 cordingly, I transcribed the entire register of the class of 
 1855 to 1859, and also that of the class of 1861 to 1865 ; 
 and aided by a young friend and student of the Univeraity 
 of Dublin, I afterwards made, with scrupulous care, a 
 digest of both registers. It would exceed the limits of 
 the present work to give the full detmls of this investi- 
 gation ; but the general results are easily stated, and are 
 of great value and interest. 
 
 In order to render these results inteUi^ble, it is neces- 
 sary to explain that the undergraduate course in the Uni- 
 versity of Dublin extends over four years, and that the 
 student must keep at least three terms in the first two 
 years of the course, and the same nvunber in the last two 
 years. These six terms ought all to be kept by attending 
 the college lectures and passing the term examinations ; ^ 
 but in conformity with the usage already referred to, 
 terms are allowed to be kept, either by attendance on 
 the coUege lectures, or by passing the term examinations.- 
 Students residing within the collie, or at such a distance 
 
 * ' A student who desires to avail himself, to the full extent, of the bene- 
 fits of a nnlTersity education •will reside and keep eveiy term bv attendance 
 on lectures, and pass every term examin ation.' — Dublin Vniceraty Calendar 
 for 1866, p. 30. 
 
 ' I have omitted several details as not being pertinent to my object ; for 
 example, two of the six terms most in all cases he kept by examination. 
 
as renders attendance practicable, are required to attend 
 college lectures.^ Accordingly, I have employed in the 
 following pages the term resident to designate those 
 students who have kept terms by attending college lec- 
 tures during the whole or part of their undergraduate 
 course ; and have confined the term non-resident to those 
 who resided at such a distance from Dublin during their 
 whole course, that they were unable either to attend 
 lectures, or to receive any college instruction. 
 
 The names of 279 undergraduate students appear on 
 the college books as belonging to the class of 1855-59. 
 Nine of these left immediately after matriculation, and 
 270 proceeded, in part or in whole, with the under- 
 graduate course. 
 
 Of the 270 students who proceeded with their course, 
 186 were resident, and 84 were non-resident. 
 
 115 of the resident students, or 61'9 per cent., pro- 
 ceeded to the degree of B.A., while 26 of the non- 
 resident students, or only 31 per cent., proceeded to the 
 same degree. 
 
 Of the resident students 23 were promoted, at the 
 degree examination, to the rank of Moderator, and 26 to 
 the rank of Eespondent. 
 
 Of the non-resident students none were promoted, at 
 the same examination, to the rank of Moderator, and 
 none to the rank of Eespondent. 
 
 In the class of 1861—65 there were 365 students, of 
 whom 20 left after matriculation. 
 
 Of the 345 students remaining 223 were resident, and 
 122 were non-resident. 
 
 137 of the resident students, or 61-5 per cent., pro- 
 ceeded to the degree of B.A., while 28 of the non- 
 resident, or only 23 per cent., proceeded to the same 
 degree. 
 
 ' Calendar for 1866, p. 54. 
 
Of the resident students 21 were promoted to the 
 rank of Moderator, and 17 to the rank of Eespondent. 
 
 Of the non-resident students none were promoted to the 
 ranlc of Moderator, and none to the rank of Eespondent. 
 
 It thus appears that, for the years to which these 
 returns refer, the first class, which is composed of the 
 Moderators and Eespondents at the degree examination,^ 
 contains no students except those who have resided and 
 received college instruction, and this class, it will be 
 observed, embraces one-fourth of all the graduates. The 
 system of non-residence does not appear, therefore, to be 
 favourable to high scholarship ; and to the system alone 
 this failure must be attributed, since the non-resident and 
 resident students, it is well known, come from nearly the 
 same classes of the community. 
 
 Starthng as these results may appear, they are entirely 
 in conformity with the experience of the PeUows and 
 Tutors of the college, who all concur in the statement, 
 that the non-resident students furnish a very insignificant 
 number of the men who obtain college or university distinc- 
 tions. The writer has had the opportunity of inquiring 
 from many, whose college hfe leads them back to various 
 periods since the year 1830, and they all agree that the 
 country students, formerly a more numerous class rela- 
 tively than now, so seldom appeared as serious candidates 
 for honours, that the working men of the college, when 
 calculating their prospects of success, had rarely, if ever, 
 to consider them. And I am informed by the eminent 
 
 ' There were two Respondents, one in the class of 1855-59, the other in 
 the class of 1861-65, with regard to whom I was unable to obtain precise 
 information. If they resided, the resident Respondents must be increased to 
 27 and 18 respectively ; if they did not reside, one non-resident student was 
 promoted in each year to the rank of Respondent. 
 
 ' The first class or grade of candidates of the degree examination ia 
 composed of the Moderators and Respondents, the former being the best 
 
 answerers in special subjects, the latter at the general examination. 
 
 Calendar, p. 36. 
 
Astronomer of Armagh that the same state of things 
 existed at a still eariier period.^ But if the system of 
 non- residence be found to be unfavourable to the forma- 
 tion of habits of industry and of application to study in 
 the case of the higher student, it is attended with not less 
 unfavourable results in that of the ordinary student. Its 
 injurious action upon tlie numerous and important class 
 of students who belong to the latter type, has been brought 
 out by this inquiry in a form, and to an extent, for which, 
 I confess, I was not prepared, and I must therefore request 
 the particular attention of the reader to the brief remarks 
 I am about to make upon this part of the subject. 
 
 The most zealous advocates of the system of conferring 
 university degrees without university education have 
 never, so far as I have been able to learn, defended it on 
 any higher grounds than that by placing such degrees ' 
 within the reach of many who coiild not otherwise attain 
 them, it would lead to a more general cultivation of 
 hterature .and science throughout the community. A 
 careful analysis of the Dublin returns points to quite an 
 opposite conclusion. It shows that a bare system of exa- 
 aminations has a depressing influence upon young men, 
 
 ' ' My experience of Trinity College,' says Dr. Robinson, in a letter with 
 wUcli he has favoured me on this subject, ' during the time of my connection 
 ■with it (from 1806 to 1822) leaves no doubt in my mind that the students 
 who resided in the country, and merely came up for examination, were 
 decidedly worse prepared than those who were resident in college chambers, 
 or who lodged in the city, but were equally obliged to attend, during term, 
 the public and tutorial lectures. Indeed, I do not remember an instance of 
 an individual of the first class obtaining a premium or certificate at the 
 quarterly examinations. Of course, a young man of high talents, and with 
 pecuniary means sufldoient to command the aid of an accomplished private 
 tutor, might be successful without the usual college training, but such a case 
 did not come across me ; and even under these favourable circumstances, 
 the results obtained would be inferior to those proceeding from the other 
 system. Even in the entrance course, the inferiority of private education 
 to that given in public schools was obvious, and I am convinced that the 
 assembling of students is of the greatest use, not only in acquiring know- 
 ledge, hut also in attaining the power of making that knowledge available.' 
 
lO 
 
 and discourages them from going through a regular 
 course of reading and study. The ordinary student who 
 attempts, in a desultory way, to contend with the dim- 
 culties of a high' course of reading, soon finds himself con- 
 fronted by obstacles he is unable to surmount, and is in 
 most cases forced to abandon an attempt which, without 
 the aid of proper appliances, is beyond his strength. If 
 he is in a position to obtain the aid of a member of the 
 large and increasing body of crammers, whose baneful 
 influence upon the young mind Dr. Lloyd has so clearly 
 described, he may be able to overcome some of the diffi- 
 culties of the examinations ; but in the great majority of 
 cases, he will discover that he is only submitting to a 
 painful and irksome labour, without gaining positive 
 knowledge, or making progress in mental discipline. Is 
 it then surprising if the student in this position, imless he 
 require a degree as a professional qualification, wiU often 
 feel inclined to abandon his university course?^ 
 
 Taking the average of the results for the two classes 
 of 1855-59 and 1861-65, it appears that, while 62 out 
 of every 100 resident students complete the under- 
 graduate course, and proceed to the degree of B.A., only 
 27 out of an equal number of non-residents arrive at the 
 same position. "We are thus led to the astonishing con- 
 clusion that no less than 73 per cent, of the students of 
 the latter class fall ofi" during their course, and do not go 
 forward even to the lower degree of Bachelor of Arts.''' 
 
 ' The rare case, referred to ty Dr. Lloyd and also by Dr. RoMnson, 
 ■where a young man has the means of procuring at home the aid of an 
 accomplished tutor, has nothing to do with the present argument, as of all 
 modes of education this is the most expensive, and can be attempted only 
 in the wealthiest families. We have, moreover, the testimony of both those 
 high authorities that the results of this kind of education, even under the 
 most favourable conditions, are, on the whole, greatly inferior to those of 
 regular university training. 
 
 * It is not meant that none of these resume tlieir studies in future years- 
 the reverse is Imown to be true. But this makes no difference in the general 
 
1 1 
 
 Still more remarkable is the result if we confine our 
 attention to the first year of the course. A careful exa- 
 mination of the college record has shown that the falling 
 off among the non-residents in that year is more than five 
 times greater than the corresponding falling off among 
 the resident students.^ 
 
 Eesidence on the part of the undergraduates has always 
 been required at Oxford^ and Cambridge, and also in the 
 universities of Scotland. The universities of Italy and 
 Germany, many of which have played so conspicuous a 
 part, during the last four centuries, in the development 
 of human thought, and in the advancement of modern 
 science, have been eminently teaching bodies, and have 
 always considered the university life to be essential to the 
 university student.^ The Imperial University of France, 
 still retainirig the semi-military organisation it received 
 
 result. I have taken each class as it stands in the college books, and by so 
 doing tbe average working of the university is correctly found. It is 
 manifest that the losses a class may sustain from those who suspend their 
 studies will be, as nearly as possible, balanced by its gains from those who 
 have in like manner suspended their studies ia former years, and 'dropped ' 
 into the class. 
 
 ' Taking the aggi'egate numbers for the two classes, it appears that of 409 
 resident students, 20 gave up during the first year, or 4'9 per cent ; while of 
 196 non-resident students, 54 gave up in the same year, or 27-5 per cent. 
 It will be remembered that in reducing these results, I have carefully 
 excluded all who, after matriculating, made no further attempt to pursue 
 their course. 
 
 ' The University of Oxford will not allow any imdergraduate of the 
 University of Dublin to be incorporated, that is, received as member of the 
 University of Oxford of his own standing or degree, unless he has kept as 
 much residence in his own university as would have been required of him 
 at Oxford. A graduate must have kept nine terms by hondfide residence 
 before being admitted to the B.A. degree. — Official paper, entitled Incor- 
 poraticm, 1864. 
 
 ' Any one who has resided at a German university knows that the 
 privatdocent of Germany has nothing in common with the English crammer. 
 He is a teacher, usually of the highest acquirements, duly authorised by the 
 university, and his lectures are delivered with the same formality as those of 
 the ordinary professor, and are held to be equivalent to them. If the latter, 
 from old age or other cause, become inefficient in the discharge of his 
 duties, the student is always sure to fihd an excellent substitute in the 
 privatdocent. 
 
12 
 
 from the first Xapoleon, embraces in its vast network the 
 whole education of the French nation ; and private educa- 
 tion, in the sense in which it is understood in this coim- 
 try, can scarcely be said to exist in France. Xor do the 
 universities of the smaller States of Western Europe, so 
 far as the writer has been able to ascertain, exhibit any 
 marked deviation from the same rule. An exception, 
 apparent rather than real, occurs, it is true, in the case of 
 Belgium, where a new university organisation was intro- 
 duced shortly after the revolution of 1830, according to 
 which the students of its four universities, together with 
 other persons prepared by private study, go before, certain 
 Boards (Jurys d'examen) in order to be examined for 
 their degrees. The degrees so conferred constitute, in 
 
 DO ' 
 
 some instances, an indispensable qualification for official 
 appointments, and thus serve the same purpose as the 
 higher class of civil service examinations in this country.^ 
 In one respect the returns of these examinations are of 
 interest, as they enable us to compare the results of uni- 
 versity with private teaching in the kingdom of Belgium. 
 I have these returns now before me, in fuU detail, for 
 eight years ending in 1843, and they show that, wliile 
 26"5 per cent, of the candidates educated at the univer- 
 sities were rejected at the examination for the lower 
 degree in philosophy and letters, 3S per cent., or one-half 
 more of those educated by private study, were rejected at 
 the same examination. For the degree in science, the 
 corresponding rejections were 4:5"5 and 59 per cent.- 
 
 ' They certainly do not preclude the universities in all cases from exer- 
 dsing- their right of conferring degrees. The Catholic University at Louvain 
 undoubtedly confers, of its own authority-, degrees in canon law and 
 theology ; and the Rector, by the 19th article of its statutes, has the power 
 of admitting to degrees in all the faculties, 
 
 - Etat de I'lnstruction Sup^rieure en Belgique. Bapport presents aux 
 Chambres legislatives par M. Xothomb, Ministie de I'Interieur, lS-14 
 vol. ii. pp. 18-50 to 1S73. 
 
We have uow to consider the results of this system in 
 the Univei-sity of London, where it has neither grown up 
 as an ancient usage, nor been regarded as an abuse of 
 such magnitude that to abate it, in the words of Dr. 
 Lloyd, is the most urgent of aU academic reforms ; but 
 where, on the contrary, it has been dehberately adopted, 
 as a valuable measure of improvement, and as a powerful 
 auxiliary for giving a cosmopohtan character to universitj- 
 education. In order to render tliis part of the subject 
 intelligible, it wiU be necessaiy to mention briefly the 
 circumstances which save rise to the establishment of 
 this miiversity. 
 
 The existing University of London is not the body to 
 which that name originally belonged. The great institu- 
 tion in Gower Street, which was founded by private 
 munificence, fii-st assumed that title; and, from 182S to 
 1836. its professors dehvered theu- prelections and distri- 
 buted rewards to their students, in the halls of the 
 ' Umveraty of Loudon.' A di-aft charter for its incor- 
 poration under that title, and for enabhng it to grant 
 degrees in arts and law, was approved in 1831 by the 
 law officers of the crown ; and in 1 835 the House of 
 Commons presented an address to the King, praying that 
 this charter might be carried into effect. The recom- 
 mendation of the House of Commons was not adopted 
 by the government which soon after came into power.' 
 The institution in Gower Street was eventually incorpo- 
 rated as the college of a university, under the title of 
 University College ; and a new body, entirely distinct 
 
 ' The Address ■was carried on ATarch 26. 1835, against the govem- 
 nient of Sir E. Peel, by a majoritr of 246 to 136. On April 18. Sir 
 E, Peel resigned, and 'svas succeeded by Viscount Melbourne. "V\lien 
 the University of London obtained its first charter, Iiord J. Russell -was 
 Home Secretary, and Mr. Spring Rice Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and 
 the constitution of the University of London appears to have been chiefly 
 the TV'ork of these ministers. 
 
14 
 
 from University College, was empowered by royal 
 charter to assume the name of the University of London, 
 and to grant degrees in the faculties of arts, law, and 
 medicine. 
 
 During the brief period of its existence, the present 
 University of London has obtained no fewer than five 
 charters from the crown. By the first and second 
 charters, granted in 18S6 and 1837, candidates for 
 degrees in arts were required to produce certificates 
 from University College or King's College in London, or 
 any other institution in the United Kingdom, which might 
 afterwards be authorized, under the sign manual, to issue 
 such certificates.^ The third charter (1849) extended 
 this provision to the colonies and . to India. The fourth 
 charter (1858) empowered the Senate, with the consent 
 of one of the secretaries of state, to alter, vary, and 
 amend the list of institutions in connection with the 
 university. It also gave to the Senate the power of 
 making regulations for admitting to matriculation, and to 
 all degrees other than medical, persons not educated in 
 any university or college, or authorized institution.^ 
 
 The University of London has on its list of affiUated 
 institutions at least fifty universities, colleges, and schools, 
 chiefly in the United Kingdom, but some of them in the 
 
 ' Ac-ting in the spirit of the original charter, the crown for some years 
 recognised only Uniyersity College (1836), King's College (1836), and the 
 University of Durham (1838). But during his hrief tenure of the Home 
 Office, Lord Normanby inaugurated a new system, and in 1840 he made the 
 extraordina'7 announcement to the Senate that the following institutions 
 were raised to the rank of colleges of a university, viz. St. Cuthhert's Col- 
 lege, Ushaw ; Stonyhurst College ; the Royal Belfast Academical Institu- 
 tion ; Bristol College ; Manchester College ; and St. Maiy's College, ( )scott. 
 The barrier having been thus broken down, a crowd of institutions, many of 
 them, like some of those on the preceding list, with scarcely the semblance 
 of a claim, were afterwards raised to the same rank. 
 
 ^ The fifth charter (1863) enables the Senate to grant tlic degree of 
 Master in Surgery, but does not nller any of the above provisions of the 
 charter of 1858. 
 
15 
 
 distant colonies of the Britisli crown. The sole qualifica- 
 tion for its degree of Bachelor of Arts (besides some 
 limitations as to age) is to pass three examinations in the 
 course of not less than two years. The student may spend 
 those two years at an affihated college and pursue a 
 regular course of study, but he is not required, nor even 
 recommended to do so, and no privilege or advantage of 
 any kind, as far as I can discover, belongs to the graduate 
 who has studied at such a college. We have here, then, an 
 elaborate attempt to substitute for the regular training 
 and instruction which the undergraduate has hitherto re- 
 ceived at the university, the simple machinery of a small 
 number of examinations. If the results are encouraging, 
 a discovery of no httle importance to the pubhc has been 
 made, and the higher walks of hterature and science will 
 henceforth be readily accessible to all, at a nominal cost, 
 and without the cumbrous apparatus and complex arrange- 
 ments of the old universities. 
 
 Although the returns pubhshed by the Senate of the 
 University of London are not so fuU or complete as might 
 be desired, they are sufficient, when carefully considered, 
 to allow a correct judgment to be formed of the actual 
 working of the new system. The university commenced 
 its operations in 1839, by conferring the degree of B.A. 
 on the modest number of 17 candidates, being the whole 
 number who in that year presented themselves for exami- 
 nation. In the following year the candidates increased to 
 32, of whom 30 were successful. Henceforth the pro- 
 gress was slow, and sometimes the movement was retro- 
 grade. In "1846, the candidates and graduates were 
 again 32 and 30, the same as in 1840. From this date, 
 there is on the whole an increase till 1854, when, out of 
 93 candidates, 73 were promoted to the degree of B.A., 
 the largest number hitherto attained in any one year by 
 this university. Of late years the number of graduates 
 
i6 
 
 has been variable, but on tlie whole rather diminishing 
 The average for the five years terminating in 1860 is a 
 little more than 63, and for the five years terminating in 
 1865 a httle less than 60, showing a falling off of about 
 -^^th in the latter quinquennial period.^ A similar falling 
 off occurs in the average number of Masters of Arts for 
 the same periods. A new degree in this country, that oi 
 Bachelor of Science, was sanctioned by the charter of 
 1858; but it does not appear to have found much favour. 
 In the years 1862, 1863, and 1864, the recipients of this 
 degree were 13, 11, and 16 ; and in 1865 they fell to 9.^ 
 As regards the working of the system of the charter 
 of 1858, whereby students are allowed to become candi- 
 dates for degrees without even such training as the 
 affiliated colleges afford, the Senate has vouchsafed to 
 give information in the case of one examination only, but 
 the information thus afforded is very instructive. At 
 the second B.A. examination in 1865, it appears that 104 
 candidates presented themselves, of whom 50 came fi'om 
 the affiliated colleges, 11 from other colleges and schodls, 
 and 43 are described as private students. Of the first clasps, 
 one-third were rejected ; of the second, more than one- 
 half ; and of the third, or those educated privately, the 
 almost mcredible number of nearly three-fourths of the 
 whole. ^ 
 
 In order to estimate at their real value the foregoing 
 numbers, which contain, in a sliort compass, the brief 
 history of all that has been achieved by the University of 
 
 ' The graduates in pnoh year, from 1861 to 18G5 inclusiTe, -n-ere respec- 
 tively 55, 55, 09, 70, and 50. From a li.--t publisliod in the Times of Xov. 5 
 18C6, it appears tliat tlie number for 1800 is 61, or nearly the same as the 
 average of the five preceding j'oara. 
 
 2 In 1H(!(J thi-y were again 9. — Times, Nov. 6, 1800. 
 
 ' 31 out of 4;! candidates educated privately wito rejooted. The exact 
 percentages of rcjci'tioiia for the three classes U'ppcctivtly were 34 54-5 
 and 70-5.— Minuhs of iSeiiu/c for 1805, p. 87. " ' ' 
 
17 
 
 London for the promotion of general education, it will be 
 useful to compare tliem A\dtli the returns of the univer- 
 sities in Ireland. In the year 1865, the Queen's Univer- 
 sity conferred the degree of B.A. on 56 students, and the 
 University of Dublin on 137 students, who had qualified 
 by keeping terms as well as by passing examinations.^ 
 In the same year the University of London conferred the 
 degree of B.A. on 50 candidates ; but as this appeal's to 
 have been rather an exceptional year, I wiU take the 
 average of 1864, 1865, and 1866. or 60, as representing 
 the corresponding number of B.A. degrees granted by 
 the University of London. The average number of de- 
 grees of Bachelor of Science conferred in the same three 
 yeai-s was eleven ; and in order to give every advantage 
 to the London University, I will consider this degree to 
 be equivalent to a degree in arts, although the candidate, 
 after matriculation, is not examined in, or required to 
 pureue, any course of literature. It appeal's, then, that 
 in the year 1S65, 193 degrees of B.A. were confen'ed by 
 the two universities of Ireland, and we will assume that 
 71 degi'ees of B.A. and B.Sc. together were conferred in 
 the same year by the metropohtau univei-sity of England. 
 To qualify for a degree in the Queen's University in 
 Ii'eland, the student must reside for thi'ee years at one 
 of the Queen's Colleges, and pursue a regular course of 
 study under the instruction and guidance of the collie 
 professors. The progress of the student, during liis 
 course, is not only tested by fi-equent, in some cases 
 daily, examinations, but he is not allowed to proceed 
 from the studies of one year to those of the next till he 
 has pas=ed a qualifying examination in the subjects of 
 the preceding year. In the University of Dublin, the 
 
 ' There -n-ere in addition 2S graduates of the University of Dublin who 
 had not resided; but these I have omitted for the purpose of this 
 comparison. 
 
undergraduate course extends over four years, and the 
 tests of progress are not less severe than in the Queen s 
 Colleges. In the University of London, as we have seen, 
 the candidate has only to pass a matriculation examin- 
 ation and two degree examinations, the undergraduate 
 interval (for there is no course prescribed) extending 
 over two yeaxs. Thus, after thirty years of trial, with 
 every possible restriction upon the time or convenience 
 of the student removed, with all compulsory attendance 
 on lectures or teaching of any kind abolished, with its 
 affihated colleges scattered over the globe, and with - a 
 town population around it exceeding in number that of 
 the entire kingdom of Scotland, and unequalled anywhere 
 for wealth, and for the extraordinary development of a 
 great middle class, the University of London finds its 
 honours so little in demand that its graduates in arts, on . 
 the highest possible estimate, amount to scarcely more 
 than one-third of the graduates of the universities of 
 Ireland.^ From an inspection of the returns of the Uni- 
 versity of London, it may be roughly estimated that 
 about one-half of its graduates in arts come from London 
 itself It therefore follows that the gi'aduates from 
 London amount to about one-sixth of the graduates of 
 the Irish universities, and to not much more than one- 
 half of those of the Queen's University alone. Yet the 
 latter derives its students from the same classes of the 
 population as the University of London. 
 
 It may be perhaps alleged that the L-ish degrees 
 correspond to a lower state of mental cultiu-e in the 
 graduate than the degrees of the University of London. 
 This is a vital question to the present inquiiy, and must 
 
 ' They do not amount to one-third, if we add to tlie Irish graduates those 
 who graduated in the University of Dublin without residence ; and if we 
 omit from the London graduates the Bachelors in Science, they will amount 
 to little more than one-foui'th. 
 
be carefully considered. Let it be remembered, in the 
 first place, that all the undergraduates enumerated above 
 of the universities of Ireland pass through a course of 
 college or university teaching, in most cases for three or 
 four years, while the undergraduate life of the London 
 student extends over two years only, during which he is 
 left, at the unripe age of from sixteen to eighteen years, 
 to grope his way, and prepare for his two degree exa- 
 minations, without chart or guide of any kind.-"- In the 
 
 ' It mig'lit be sxipposed that these observations would not apply to students 
 educated in the affiliated colleges ; but the testimony of the Senate itself of 
 the University of London is conclusive on this point. ' The Senate possess,' 
 — I am quoting from its report of 1857 — 'no direct means of knowing, still 
 less of continually watching, the value of the education which each college 
 confers. They have no acquaintance with the college except so far as is set 
 forth in its prospectus, reciting the number of professors and students, 
 length of courses, date of establishment, with perhaps some annual reports 
 and other matters of public notoriety. But as to the efficient teaching, or 
 interior management of the college, the Senate have no information peculiar 
 to themselves. . . It [the University of London] neither teaches, nor 
 supervises, nor maintains discipline, nor exercises authority over students ; 
 its functionaries are in no way connected, except by accident, with any 
 college ; nor have its colleges any local or traditional tie among themselves. 
 . . . The collegiate system, which was assigned by the then government 
 of the country to the University of London, is a mere name, without any 
 effective principle of unity or peculiar co-operation of parts ; having no 
 other positive attribute in common with Oxford and Cambridge except the 
 inauspicious attribute of exclusiveness, without the same justifying reasons 
 as may be pleaded by those two universities.' — Report of the Senate of the 
 University of London on the Amended Draft Charter. Mimrtes of Senate 
 for 1857, p. 133 and p. 135. In the year after the report was written from 
 which I have made this extract, the charter of 1858 (sec. 35) conferred upon 
 the Senate, with the concurrence of one of the secretaries of state, the 
 power of altering, varying, and amending the list of affiliated institutions, 
 by striking out any already on that list, or by adding others to it. This 
 provision clearly imposed upon the Senate the duty of inquiring into the 
 character of its colleges, and into the manner in which they discharged 
 their functions as teaching bodies, since it could never have been intended 
 to confer upon it the power of capriciously striking off an old institution, or 
 of adding a new one, without previous inquiry, or any cause being assigned. 
 I have examined with care its minutes since 1858, and have not been able 
 to discover that the Senate has ever entered even upon the consideration of 
 this most important duty. The list of recognized institutions published in 
 the Calendar for 1866 is the same as that contained in the charter of 1858. 
 What did the Senate mean when, in language scarcely befitting its position, 
 
20 
 
 next place, I may refer to the results of the competitive 
 examinations for admission to the public service, and 
 particularly those for the civil service of India, as 
 supplying a rough criterion of the education at the 
 colleges from which the candidates proceed, particularly 
 when the students are in the habit of entering those 
 colleges at about the same age. It appears, from the 
 returns of the Civil Service Commissioners, that from 
 1855 to 1863 (since which latter year the places of 
 education are not stated), 419 candidates were successful 
 at the first examination for the civil service of India. 
 Of these, 98 proceeded from the imiversities of Ireland, 
 or their colleges, and 32 from the University of London, 
 or the colleges or institutions recognized by it, but not by 
 other universities.^ Again, 41 of the 98 successful candi- 
 dates from Ireland, or 41 '8 per cent., are found among 
 the highest twenty on the lists of the several examinations, 
 while 10 of the 32 successful candidates from the colleges 
 of the University of London, or only 31-3 per cent., are 
 in the same position. I wiU not attempt to institute any 
 comparison between the absolute number of successful 
 
 it described in 1857 the collegiate system of the Uuiversity of London as a 
 mere name, ■without any effective principle of unity or co-opei ation ? It 
 could scarcely have intended to insinuate that that system itself should be 
 abrogated, inasmuch as the very charter it was defending, and which it 
 shortly afterwards accepted, gave to the Senate the most ample powers to 
 control the colleges and to remove the reproach of which it had complained. 
 In all former charters the crown had reserved the power of recognizing 
 colleges; but the charter of 1858 not only transferred this power to the 
 Senate (-with the concurrence of a secretary of state), but likewise gave it 
 the power of amending the list of recognized colleges, — of adding any new 
 college to it, or striking any old college otf it. Can any reason be assigned 
 why so important a provision, manifestly framed to remedy an aelmowledo-ed 
 delect, should have been suffered to remain for eight years a dead letter P 
 Am I not further justified in asking whether, if these statements be correct, 
 the Senate of the University of Loudon has not been guilty of a serious 
 neglect in the management of a great public trust ? 
 
 ' As the list of affiliated institutions of the University of Londou includes 
 all the universities and all the colleges of the universities of the United 
 Kingdom, I am obliged to use this qualifying expression. 
 
21 
 
 candidates who proceeded from the colleges of the 
 universities of Ireland and from those of the University 
 of London ; but I am fully justified in considering that 
 the fact of the relative number of the former, high upon 
 the list, being so much greater than of the latter, is 
 at least strongly in favour of the truth of my position, 
 that the mental culture of the graduates of the univer- 
 sities of Ireland is, on the whole, not inferior to the 
 mental culture of the graduates of the University of 
 London.^ 
 
 To pursue this analysis into the results of the other 
 examinations for the public service would greatly exceed 
 the limits of this work ; but a careful scrutiny of the 
 returns for the higher appointments (such as Chinese 
 interpreterships and Ceylon writerships) wiU show, that 
 where the students from the universities of Ireland have 
 competed with those from the universities of Great 
 Britain, they have well maintained their position, and 
 have not only carried off their full share of the prizes. 
 
 ^ The results are nearly the same for the students of the two universities 
 in Ireland. 69 of the Duhlin students were successful, of whom 29, or 42 
 per cent., were among the upper twenties ; 29 of the students of the Queen's 
 Colleges were successful, and of them 12, or 41-4 per cent., attained the 
 same rank. — Reports of Her Majesty's Civil Service Commissioners from 1856 
 to 1864. It will scarcely, I presume, be seriously maintained that the Irish 
 universities have exhausted their strength, or have drafted off all their 
 best men for these examinations. Such a statement, to any one who 
 knows the University of Dublin, will be as manifestly absurd as it would 
 be, if applied to the University of Cambridge, and it requires no serious 
 reply from me. But I have thought it right to anticipate this objection 
 in the case of the college with which I have the honour to be connected ; 
 and, with this view, I have made a careful examination of the college books 
 for the years to which the above returns apply, and have compared the 
 relative position which the successful competitors at the Indian examina- 
 tions held during their college course with that of other students who did 
 not compete for any public appointment. As the result of this investiga- 
 'tion, I am prepared to show that for every successful candidate who 
 proceeded from Queen's College, Belfast, to those examinations, five others 
 at least could have gone forward, if they had so desired, with as fair a 
 prospect on the whole of success. 
 
22 
 
 but, what is even more important, have, as a general rule, 
 stood high on the list of the successful competitors. 
 
 On higher grounds, however, than any I have yet 
 referred to, a strong presumptive case may be raised in 
 favour of one large section of the Irish graduates. The 
 Queen's University in Ireland and its colleges are not 
 sufficiently old to allow the graduates to have done more 
 than give evidence of good promise, and the same obser- 
 vation applies, althougli with less force, to the graduates 
 of the University of London. But as my object is only 
 to render it probable that the graduates of Ireland are 
 not an inferior class, I am at liberty to support my argu- 
 ment, in the case of one portion of those graduates, on 
 the ground of the eminence of the men who h.ave been 
 taught in the University of Dublin. If it must be 
 acknowledged that Irishmen, however eminent they may 
 become elsewhere (and in the two cases, at least, of the 
 great philosophical statesman of the last, and of the great 
 military commander of the present century, they have 
 given to history imperishable names), nevertheless have 
 done little woi'thy of record in Ireland itself, yet, even to 
 this observation, there are some striking exceptions. Xot 
 the least remarkable of these is the mathematical school 
 of the University of Dublin. For the last half century 
 that school has run a friendly and not unequal race with 
 its great rival on the banks of the Cam, and the labours 
 
 1 While taking advantage of the results of these ccmpetitive examina- 
 tions as one argument to show that there are no reasonable grounds for 
 imputing inferiority to the students of the Irish universities, the writer 
 does not wish to express anjf favourable opinion of these examinations in 
 themselves, as really good tests either of high proiicieiicy or of sound 
 scholarship, much less as supplying in their present form what thev pro- 
 fess to do — the best criterion for tlie selection of young men to appoint- 
 ments, civil as well as military, under the crown. It would he a service 
 of no little importance to tlie public to submit the whole subject of the 
 competitive examinations, as now conducted, to a discussion not less 
 conscientious, and, if possible, more searching than that which is the 
 subject of these pngrs. 
 
of Eobinson, of the first and second Lloyd, and, above 
 all, of MacCullagli and of Hamilton, have raised the 
 university in which they were educated, and where they 
 taught, to a position second to none in Europe. The 
 reputation thus acquired, it is known to all who have 
 followed the recent history of the exact sciences, has 
 been well sustained by their successors ; and on the 
 ground of the eminence of its mathematical school, if 
 there were no other, I consider myself justified in as- 
 suming that the graduates of the University of Dublin 
 are not likely to be inferior to those of the University of 
 London.^ 
 
 ' The brief career of MacOullagh was yet sufficiently long to place liim 
 in the highest rank among the mathematicians of Europe, and to allow 
 him to leave the impress of his powerful mind on the mathematical school 
 of the University of Dublin. Of that school, if not the actual founder, he 
 has always been regarded as the Master who gave it a mighty impulse, 
 which, it is to be earnestly hoped, will long continue to be felt. Fortunately 
 for science and for the university, Hamilton's career was longer, and has been 
 marked by a series of mathematical works of so high an order that few 
 indeed are able to read them, much less to form an opinion of their merits. 
 The impartial testimony of a distinguished professor of the University of 
 Edinburgh may, however, be cited without reserve, as the opinion of one 
 who, from the extent of his own mathematical acquirements, and from the 
 special study he has made of the writings of Hamilton, is perhaps of all 
 men living the most competent to anticipate the verdict of posterity. 
 Speaking of Hamilton, Professor Tait lately remarked that, ' if to genius 
 be added enormous erudition and untiring energy, we can hardly set limits 
 to our expectations of what its possessor may achieve, if only life and health 
 be granted to him .... His (Hamilton's) name will not only rank with 
 any in the foregoing list (Napier, Maclaurin, &c.), but will undoubtedly be 
 classed with the grandest of all ages and countries, such as Lagrange and 
 Newton.' And Sir D. Brewster, in his address last year, as president of the 
 Royal Society of Edinburgh, after referring to the well-known observations 
 made some tliirty years ago by Sir J. Herschel, on the decline of mathema- 
 tical studies in these countries, used the following language : ' Hamilton, 
 v/hile second to none, was one of the earliest of that brilliant array of 
 mathematicians who, since Herschel wrote, have removed this stigma, and 
 well-nigh reversed the terms of the statement. Another was the late Pro- 
 fessor Boole. Their death has made a gap in the ranks of British science 
 which wiU not soon be filled, and our sorrow is but increased by the recol- 
 lection that they were removed in the full vigour of their intellect, and when 
 their passion for work was, if possible, stronger than ever.' Is it needful to 
 add that Professor Boole, whose name is deservedly associated with that of 
 
24 
 
 If there are sufficient grounds, as I have endeavoured 
 to show, for beheving that the graduates of the universities 
 of Ireland are not inferior in culture or acquirements to 
 the graduates of the University of London, we must 
 look for some other explanation of the extraordinary 
 disproportion between the number of the latter, as com- 
 pared with that of the former. There is certainly nothing 
 excessive in the number of the Irish graduates, but the 
 London graduates fall far below the most moderate esti- 
 mate of what might reasonably have been expected. 
 And, unless I am greatly mistaken, Ave shall not have to 
 travel very far, in order to discover why there are so few 
 graduates in the University of London. 
 
 Let us endeavour to follow the career of one hundred 
 young men who, at the age of seventeen or eighteen, 
 have left school and matriculated at the university. 
 They have just passed from the condition of the school- 
 boy, and have entered that term of life to which every 
 thoughtful parent looks forward, in the case of his child, 
 with the greatest anxiety. Their future career will now, 
 more than ever, depend on the skill with Avhich they are 
 managed, and will be greatly influenced by the conditions 
 in which they are placed. It will be convenient for my 
 purpose to suppose these one hundred young men classed 
 in four equal divisions of twenty-five each. The highest 
 division, or the upper twenty-five, will contain those who, 
 under any system, will work well, and here will be found 
 the men wlio carry off the highest honours, and those 
 who dispute with them the palm of victory. The lowest 
 division, also twenty-five in number, will contain those 
 who, from indolence or deficiency of natural parts, either 
 fail in passing tlie ordinary examinations, or with great 
 
 Hamilton in this eloquent tritute, filled the chair of mathematics in 
 Queen's College, Cork, from the opening of that college in 1849 till his 
 lamented death in 1864 ?— North British Review, No. 89, p. 37. 
 
■^5 
 
 difficulty work their way through them. The second and 
 third divisions, comprising fifty young men, or one-half 
 of the whole, will contain the men of average talent and 
 moderate desire for improvement, whose future life 
 depends, in a great measure, on the care and culture 
 they receive from the hands of others. If neglected, or 
 treated by a faulty method, they fall away, and are heard 
 of no more ; if fostered by judicious treatment, and 
 encouraged by the presence and example of more gifted 
 companions, they often attain high distinction, and, from 
 their ranks, society recruits no inconsiderable number of 
 its most valuable members. Yet these men find no place 
 in the University of London. They meet, at the outset 
 of their career, a matriculation examination, which the 
 average school-boy may attempt to cram but cannot 
 master. They find that they must prepare, as best they 
 may, for two other examinations, at the last of which 
 thirty per cent, of one class of candidates, fifty per cent, 
 of another, and seventy per cent, of a third are rejected. 
 Is it then surprising that, in a large number of cases, 
 they give up their studies, and turn their attention 
 to some other pursuit?^ But this is not all. The com- 
 panions of those who have drawn off, or have been re- 
 jected, hear of the disappointment of their friends, and 
 they too avoid the cold shades of the New Academy. 
 
 It has been stated, with what truth I do not know, 
 that the Senate of the University of London points with 
 pride to the large number of candidates rejected as a 
 proof of the excellence of its arrangements. These rejec- 
 tions prove, I admit, that the examiners have faithfully 
 performed a most painful duty; but, combined with the 
 
 1 About sixty per cent, of all the candidates at the first B. A. examination 
 fail eventually to proceed to the degree. A still greater number of those 
 ■who matriculate must fail to proceed to the degree of B.A., but the returns 
 published by the Senate do not distinguish the arts from the medical students 
 at matriculation, and I am therefore unable to make the calculation. 
 
26 
 
 poor results the university can show, notwithstanding 
 the high character of the examiners, they prove at the 
 same time that the arrangements of the Senate must be 
 faulty in the extreme, and wholly unsuited to their pur- 
 pose. Those arrangements are based upon a system 
 approved and accepted, if not actually devised, by the 
 Senate itself, and it must therefore accept the entire re- 
 sponsibility of their failure.-^ 
 
 The Senate of the University of London includes among 
 its members several persons of good position in the state, 
 and a few names of great eminence in literature and 
 science. But its acts must be defended on other grounds 
 than the repute of some of its members. A corporation 
 founded by royal charter enjoys no immunity from the 
 operation of those laws, which experience has shown 
 apply to all companies, whether pubHc or private, in 
 which large and important interests are entrusted to the 
 care of a few individuals. If sound principles, guided by 
 prudence and wisdom, characterise its management, such 
 an organisation often attains an amount of success far 
 beyond the compass of individual efforts. If, on the 
 other hand, the governing body, however distinguished for 
 ability, or talent, or even genius some of the indi\-iduals 
 composing it may be, once enter upon a false path, 
 ultimate failure is, in almost all cases, the inevitable 
 result, and every attempt to arrest the downward course 
 of events has usually the effect of accelerating it. A 
 sense of false security, or a feeling of imaginary success, 
 often takes possession of men acting collectively, who, 
 with individual responsibility, would never ha\-e been 
 deceived. And what would scarcely be credible, if ex- 
 perience did not again prove the truth of the assertion, 
 
 ' The degrees of B.A. conferred by the University of London in 18l!y, a 
 low year, it is true, were only 50 (less than in any year since lt?5'2), the 
 degrees of M.A., G, and of B.Sc, 9. 
 
27 
 
 the wisest men are apt, in such cases, to rely on the 
 statements, and defer to the opinions of the least trust- 
 worthy of their colleagues, if only those statements and 
 opinions are put forward with sufficient confidence. Its 
 most strenuous supporters will scarcely venture to de- 
 scribe the University of London as a prosperous insti- 
 tution, or one which has gained the confidence of the 
 country. Many wiU doubtless agree with the writer of 
 these pages, that it has neither deserved nor achieved 
 success. The last act of the Senate will be hailed by 
 some as the recognition of a great natural right ; but wiU 
 be regarded by others as not likely either to extend the 
 usefulness, or to improve the position, of the university .■■■ 
 
 ^ A motion declaring it to be desirable to establish in tlie University of 
 London a special examination for women was recently passed by a large 
 majority of tlie Senate. Lord Overstone, Mr. Fowler, and Dr. Miller Yoted 
 against the motion. — Minutes of Senate for June 1866, p. 3. On a former 
 occasion Earl Granville, chancellor of the miiversity, Mr. Faraday, Dr. 
 Amott, and Mr. Kiernan, among others, recorded their votes against a simi- 
 lar motion. — 3Iinutes for 1862, p. 4.3. Before leaving this part of my subject, 
 I think it right to make a long extract from an address, written in 1857, by 
 the Senate of University College, London, on the occasion of the draft 
 charter of 1858 being submitted to them : — ' We oppose the change (the 
 admission of persons without having studied at a college or recognized 
 institution to degrees),' observes this distinguished body of professors, ' be- 
 cause we believe that the principles from which it proceeds are unsound ; 
 because we believe it would lower the standard of the degree, and of the 
 studies which lead to it, and encourage mistaken notions as to the objects of 
 liberal education ; because we believe that it would lower the character and 
 impair the utility of the university itself; and especially because it would 
 make it impossible for the university to fulfil one of the two great duties 
 
 it was created by the crown to perform Wherever the degrees of 
 
 Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts, and similar academic titles, have been 
 known, they have alwaj's implied a regular course of training and discipline 
 in a learned Tsody. This is, in reality, what society at large chiefly regards 
 in them ; and it is comparatively incurious with respect to the particular 
 examinations after which the degrees are conferred. Nor is this at all 
 unreasonable. Many persons can form a sound judgment of the eifect likely 
 to be produced upon a young man's mind by a regular course of training 
 and by intercourse with intelligent teachers, and with a large number of 
 other young men engaged in similar pursuits and submitted to the same 
 influence, who cannot judge at all of the value of a particular examination. 
 Academical degrees have hitherto been believed to imply academical train- 
 
2» 
 
 Is it too late to hope that the recommendation made 
 by the House of Commons so long ago as 1835, in a 
 formal address to the Crown, may yet receive attention, 
 at least in some modified form, and that the two great 
 colleges of London (University and King's) may be in- 
 corporated into one university — the University of Lon- 
 don in fact as well as in name— which, recognizing the 
 great principle, equally true now as in the days of an- 
 cient Greece, that on the efficient training of its young 
 men mainly rest the hopes of a nation, will be satisfied 
 with modifying the arrangements wliich long experience 
 has sanctioned in the old universities, so as to meet the 
 wants of those for whom the new university is designed, 
 instead of making a weak attempt to educate a nation 
 through the sole agency of encyclopedic examinations? 
 If some such scheme as this were carried into effect, 1 4 
 feel very svire that, instead of a degree in arts being 
 conferred upon fifty persons in one year, ten times that 
 number of candidates would qualify themselves annually 
 for this distinction, by passing through a well-digested 
 undergraduate course, to the great advantage of the com- 
 munity, and the elevation of the middle class of English 
 society. The success of the Scottish nation, in the face 
 of few natural advantages, has been greath^ due to the 
 excellent training which its four imiversities have af- 
 forded, at a moderate cost, to a very large portion of the 
 middle class of that country ; and the clergy in particular 
 of all the great churches in Scotland, enjoy the advantage 
 
 ing. The -world will continue to believe that this is the proper meaning of 
 them. If a class of graduates is created who have not received an academic 
 education, either the world will he deceived, and the new gi-aduates wiU 
 enjoy a consideration to which they have no right ; or else, when the differ- 
 ence comes to he understood, the degree will he regarded with that suspicion 
 with which society never fails to look upon titles assumed without warrant, 
 and the genuine academic graduates of the university will he confounded in 
 this depreciation of its hououvs.'—Mimdes of the Senate of (he Viiiiersiti/ of 
 Lnmhii for 1857, pp. 53, 54. 
 
29 
 
 of receiving a regular university education in arts, before 
 they enter upon their special studies. The same remark 
 cannot, I fear, be applied to a large number of the non- 
 conforming clergy of England ; and even in the Church of 
 England itself there are too many cases, where the novitiate 
 does not receive any university training. May I further 
 add that the ancient city of Manchester, with its vast 
 population, its scientific triumphs, and its Philosophical 
 Society, piiblishing memoirs for upwards of half a century, 
 is the only place in Europe, with similar pretensions, 
 which is not the seat of a great university ? More than 
 one name of European reputation now sustains in science 
 the character of the town where Dalton lived, and it 
 ought surely not to be too great an effort for Manchester, 
 following the example of Brussels, to found and maintain 
 a free university of its own.^ 
 
 The Queen's Colleges in Ireland were founded by 
 Letters Patent in 1846, provision having been made for 
 their endowment by an Act of Parliament passed in the 
 preceding year. The presidents and vice-presidents were 
 soon after appointed, and having received general instruc- 
 tions from the government, they proceeded to frame the 
 statutes of the new institutions, and to make other 
 arrangements. In conformity with their instructions, 
 
 ' A full account of the free university of Brussels will be found in the 
 Mapport sur Vetat de V Instruction Superieure en Belgique, par M. Nothomb, 
 vol. ii. pp. 2,133 to 2,252. At its inauguration in 1834, M. Eouppe, chief 
 magistrate of Brussels, referred in' the following terms to the motives which 
 led to this patriotic design : ' De simples citoyens de Bruxelles, sans autre 
 but que de concourir au progres des lettres et des sciences, sans autre d^sir 
 .que d'etre utiles a la jeunesse studieuse, se r^unissent, s'imposent des sacri- 
 fices, en imposent a leurs amis, et tons ensemble fondent, au sein d'une 
 population nombreuse, intelligente et active, un gtablissement ou ils appel- 
 lent, pour les seconder, des personnes z61(5es et d^vou^es comme eux au plus 
 grand bien-etre de la generation qui s'^leve : telle est I'origine de I'univer- 
 site libre qui s'ouvre en ce moment.' In 1842 it contained twenty-two 
 ordinary and ten extraordinary professors, and in the first eight years of its 
 existence, 2,5-30 students had been enrolled on its books. 
 
3° 
 
 and ill anticipation of the foundation of a university to 
 confer academic degrees upon students educated at the 
 Queen's Colleges, they also prepared in detail the full 
 courses, graduate as well as undergraduate, to be pursued 
 by candidates for degrees in arts, medicine, and lav;-. In 
 
 1850 the Queen's University was founded by a charter 
 from the crown, with full powers to confer degrees, after 
 examination, on students who had studied in the Queen's 
 Colleges. The same charter confirmed the courses for 
 degrees prepared by the presidents and vice-presidents, 
 until they were altered by the Senate of the university.^ 
 
 The colleges were opened in 1849, and the arrange- 
 ments for their government, as well as the courses for 
 degrees, originally prepared by the presidents and vice- 
 presidents, have continued, with a few modifications, in 
 force till the present time. The student intending to 
 proceed to the degree of B.A. in the Queen's University 
 in Ireland must, in the first instance, pass a matriculation 
 examination in one of the Queen's Colleges.^ He must 
 afterwards pursue a defined course of education, during 
 three sessions, in one or other of the same colleges. The 
 session extends from the middle of October to the 
 middle of June, and is divided into three terms. All 
 
 ' The instructions accoi'ding to which the presidents and -vice-presidents 
 acted, will be found under the title ' Memoranda of Subjects for the Con- 
 sideration of the Board of Colleges,' in Appendix B. to the Heport of the 
 Queens Colleges Commission (1S5S\ p. 315. Tlie original charters of the 
 Queen's Colleges and of the Queen's University, the former embodying the 
 first statutes of the colleges, are given in the same appendix. 
 
 " The matriculation examination in Queen's College, Belfast, embraces 
 the first and second books of Euclid, the fundamental rules of arithmetic 
 and algebra, two Latin and two Greeli authors, Euglish grammar and com- 
 position, and tb.e outlines of Roman history and modern geography. This 
 scheme of examination was originally drawn up in 1840 by the presidents 
 and vice-presidents, and has since been in use with scarcely any modification 
 in the Belfast College. See the Cnhnchn-s of Queen's Colhyc, Selfast, from 
 
 1851 to ISC.li. It may be instructive to compare it with the matriculation 
 examination of tho Uui\-ersity of London, an outline of which has already 
 been given. 
 
31 
 
 undergraduates in arts are required to attend the pre- 
 scribed lectures and examinations in the first and second 
 terms of each session, but they may obtain exemption 
 from attendance in the third term by a special grace of 
 the college council.-^ A course of education from which, 
 with one exception, no deviation is allowed, is laid down 
 for the first and second undergraduate years ; but in 
 the third year, a certain power of selection is given to the 
 student, so that he may, according to the particular bent 
 of his mind, or his future views in life, study the higher 
 departments of mathematics or of classics, or pursue 
 what may be called the newer sciences, such as chemistry 
 or political economy. The system of instruction is so far 
 professorial that the several branches of study are taught 
 by special persons, but the students are not in the posi- 
 tion of mere listeners to the professor's prelections ; on 
 the contrary, they are required, by the aid partly of text 
 books, partly of their own notes, to prepare themselves 
 diligently in the subjects of the course, and their progress 
 is tested both by written exercises and oral examinations, 
 the latter held in some classes daily, in none less than 
 once a week. 
 
 At the end of each session, formal examinations are 
 held in all the classes, and no undergraduate in arts is 
 allowed to pass from the studies of one year to those of 
 the succeeding, unless he has qualified by passing the class 
 examinations of the former year. In addition to these 
 college examinations, the candidate must pass two univer- 
 sity examinations before being admitted to the degree 
 of B.A.2 
 
 ' In practice tUs is never refused if the student has attended with due 
 regularity the 'first two terms. Nearly three-fourtha of the students in arts 
 of Queen's College, Belfast, continue in attendance during the third term. 
 
 ^ It will be observed that no attempt was made in framing their original 
 constitution to separate sharply the functions of the Queen's University from 
 those of the Queen's Colleges. The latter, it is true, have all the actual wor'c 
 of teaching to perform, but they have also extensive functions of a diifereni 
 
32 
 
 Such is an outline of the undergraduate course hitherto 
 followed in the Queen's Colleges. The general features 
 of this scheme were already sketched in the instructions 
 or memoranda which the presidents and vice-presidents 
 received for their guidance when they met in 1846. 
 These instructions emanated from the government which 
 
 kind. The matriculation examination is prescribed, under the authority of 
 its statutes, by the council or governing body of the college, and the same 
 body has control over all the courses of education pursued in the college. 
 For the convenience of the students intending to proceed to degrees, the 
 college courses are at present identical with those prescribed by the university, 
 but they are not necessarily so. On the other hand, so close is the connection 
 between the colleges and the university, that the higher or senior scholar- 
 ships of the colleges can only be held by graduates of the Queen's University. 
 The professors of the colleges are by charter university professors, and the 
 presidents of the colleges have, by virtue of their office, seats on the uni- 
 versity Senate. If tliis constitution be compared with those of other 
 universities, it will be found to conform to them as nearly as could be 
 expected, allowance being made for the circumstance that the Queen's 
 Colleges are widely separated from one another, and from the place where 
 the meetings of the university are held. In the University of Paris, the 
 government was at an early period vested in the rector, the procurators, or 
 heads of nations, and the de.ins of the faculties, while the power of granting 
 degrees belonged to the chancellor, usually a high ecclesiastic, who derived 
 his authority from the pope. But, in course of time, this constitution was 
 widely departed from in most universities, and the governing body of the 
 university, sitting as an academic board or senate, assumed or acquired the 
 power of making regulations for degrees. Except in the Universities of 
 Oxford and Cambridge, the distinction between the teaching body and the 
 body which examines for degrees has almost eveiywhere practically dis- 
 appeared. In the University of Glasgow, for instance, which acquired by a 
 papal bull still extant, of the 15th century, the constitution and privileges 
 of the University of Bologna, there existed a college of the faculty of arts; 
 and some of the professors were, till lately, profes.^tirs of the university, 
 others, professors of the college ; yet, in reality, the University and the 
 College of Glasgow have long been convertible terms. The quaint 
 description of Trinity College, Dublin, as the mother of a imiversity, in the 
 original charter of Elizabeth, is in strict conformity with the true concep- 
 tion of the relation of a college to a university. In the English universities, 
 the great wealth of the colleges gave rise to an exceptional separation 
 between the university and them ; but elsewhere, the university and the 
 colleges became intimately blended, or rather fused into a homogeneous 
 whole. This -liow has, I find, been also taken by the late Dr. Miller, author 
 of the 'Philosophy of History,' as appears by a short extract from a pamphlet 
 published liy him in 1804, wliich is given in the able introduction prefixed 
 to the Dublin Uiihrrsiti/ Calendar for 1833. 
 
33 
 
 introduced the Colleges' Act, and advised the crown to 
 carry it into effect by founding the Queen's Colleges of 
 Belfast, Cork, and Galway. It is scarcely necessary to add 
 that Sir E. Peel was Prime Minister in that government, 
 and Sir J. Graham Home Secretary, and that the instruc- 
 tions therefore embodied the views of those distinguished 
 statesmen regarding the proper development of their 
 scheme for the extension of higher education in Ireland. 
 The same principles were afterwards adopted and carried 
 out by the Earl of Clarendon, who was Lord-Lieutenant 
 of Ireland, when the university and colleges received their 
 present organisation. 
 
 A Eoyal Commission was issued in 1857 to inquire into 
 the progress and condition of the Queen's Colleges. The 
 commissioners, after visiting each of the colleges, and col- 
 lecting a large mass of evidence, declared themselves ' able 
 to report with unqualified satisfaction of the educational 
 progress of the colleges.' Some changes, none of them 
 however of great importance, or affecting the principles of 
 the system, were adopted in consequence of this inquiry.^ 
 
 ' The most important of tliese changes was a judicious modification of 
 the order of the subjects taught in the undergraduate course, and the power 
 given to the student of choosing, to a certain extent, his subjects of study 
 in the third year. The writer hopes he will here be excused for making 
 a short extract from his own evidence before this Commission. His re- 
 marks had reference to a proposal to reduce from three years to two the 
 compulsory attendance of the undergraduates in arts. This proposal was 
 made with the view of encouraging a larger number of students to frequent 
 the colleges. * I beg to place on record,' the writer remarked, ' my decided 
 opinion, that under no conditions should the system of non-residence be 
 introduced into the Queen's Colleges. I think it would entirely subvert 
 their utility and be attended with pernicious results. I do not see this 
 anomalous system anywhere except in the sister university in this country. 
 I believe that to be an exceptional case, and that nothing of the land 
 occurs in any other part of Europe. The highest authorities in the Univer- 
 sity of Dublin are most anxious to do away with the system of non-resi- 
 dence. . . In short, it appears to me that such a proposal would be fatal 
 to the best interests of the colleges.' — Report of Queen's Colleges Commisdon, 
 Minutes of Evidence, p. 12. At the time this evidence was given (March, 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 A very short statement will suffice to show the exact 
 progress which the Queen's Colleges have made. Al- 
 though they were opened in 1849, the courses of instruc- 
 tion did not come into full operation till three years later, 
 and it is therefore from the session of 1852-53 we must 
 start, in order to obtain a correct view of their history. 
 In that session the total number of matriculated students 
 in attendance at the colleges was 283 ; in the session of 
 1857-58, 861 ; and in that of 1865-66, 714. The ma- 
 triculated students, all of whom have to pass the whole 
 matriculation examination, with the exception of the stu- 
 dents of engineering, who are exempted from Latin and 
 Greek, have therefore nearly doubled in the last eight 
 years, and now amount to the not insignificant number of 
 714. Confining our attention, in the next place, to the 
 matriculated students pursuing the arts course, it appears 
 that they amounted in 1852-53 to 137, in 1857-58 to 
 155, and in 1865-66 to 314. The rate of increase in this 
 important class of students is even greater than in the 
 matriculated students at large, and their number has more 
 than doubled since 1858. The degrees in arts conferred 
 by the Queen's University in Ireland during the same 
 period exhibit a corresponding increase ; the numbers for 
 the degree of B.A. having been 22 in 1852, 28 in 1857, 
 and 56 in 1865 ; and for the degree of M.A., 9 in 1857, 
 and 15 in 1865.^ 
 
 1857), the charter of 1858 of the University of London did not exist, nor 
 had the Senate of that university then informed the world that its collegiate 
 system was a mere name, having no positive attribute in common with the 
 system of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, except the inauspidous 
 attribute of exclusiveness. 
 
 1 All the above numbers, with the exception of those for 1865-66, are 
 taken from the tables appended to the Meport of the Qteeen's Colleges Com- 
 mission, pp. 865, &c. My authority for the whole niunber of matriculated 
 students in 1865-66, and for the graduates in 1865, is the Queen's University 
 Calendar for 1866 ; and for the number of matriculated students in arts, 
 attending in 1865-66, 1 must refer to returns with which I have been 
 
35 
 
 The echo of the minister's voice in expounding the 
 scheme of the new colleges in Ireland had scarcely died 
 away, when the House of Commons was startled to hear, 
 from a quarter whence argument rather than invective 
 might have been looked for, the revival under a new and 
 intensified form of one of the worst of the factious cries 
 of bygone days.^ A century and a half before, the Church 
 was in danger ; now it was rehgion itself. But the mind 
 of the EngUsh nation was no longer the same as in the 
 days of- Queen Anne. It felt that the new scheme of edu- 
 cation was neither gigantic nor godless, but a modest pro- 
 posal to improve the intellectual condition of the middle 
 classes in a backward portion of the British dominions. 
 The ominous words made, therefore, no lasting impression 
 on the public or on parliament, and the government was 
 allowed, without serious opposition, to take its own way. 
 Elsewhere the result was different ; and the Sacred Con- 
 gregation at Eome quickly responded, but in a more 
 becoming tone, to the language of the member for the 
 University of Oxford. On the 9th of October, 1847, a 
 Eescript was issued cautioning the Catholic prelates of 
 Ireland from having anything to do with the new insti- 
 tutions, on the ground of their being dangerous to 
 the Catholic faith and hurtful to religion. On the 11th 
 of October, in the following year, a second Eescript was 
 written, in which the Sacred Congregation declared as the 
 
 favoured by the registrars of tte colleges. It will be observed that I bave 
 carefully excluded from the above statements all reference to a class of 
 students wbo attend lectures without passing tbe matriculation examina- 
 tion, and are hence designated non-matriculated students. 
 
 ' Sir Robert Inglis spoke twice in the debate which followed Sir James 
 Graham's speech on moving for leave to bring in the bill for establishing 
 the colleges. In his first remarks, he declared that a more gigantic scheme of 
 godless education had never been proposed in any country than that under 
 consideration, and when he addressed the House a second time, he delibe- 
 rately repeated the offensive words. — Annual Register for 1845, p. 146 and 
 p. 149. 
 
 d2 
 
36 
 
 result of mature consideration, that the sentence abea-dy 
 pronounced against the colleges, and with the approbation 
 of the Holy Father communicated to the four Metropo- 
 litans in Ireland, could not in any respect be mitigated. 
 These Eescripts were written, it will be observed, long 
 before the statutes of the colleges were promulgated by 
 the crown.''* 
 
 In the Eescript of 1847, the Sacred Congregation sug- 
 gested to the Irish bishops the importance of establishing 
 in Ireland a Catholic university, after the model of that 
 which had been founded by the prelates of Belgium in the 
 city of Louvain.^ Three years later, the archbishops and 
 bishops assembled at the Council or Synod of Thurles, 
 resolved to carry out this suggestion, and for this purpose 
 
 ' ' Attamen, re mature et quolibet sub respectu penitus considerata, fructm 
 hujusmodi ex ea coUegiorum erectione Sacra Congregatio baud sibi audet 
 polliceri; grave irao periculum fidei Catbolicse inde obventurum timet; uno 
 verbo, religioni institutionem bujusmodi deti-imento existere arbitratur. 
 Monitos proinde voluit Arcbiepiscopos et Episcopos Hiberaias ne ullam in 
 ejusdem executione partem habeant.' — Extract from a Rescript written er 
 cedihua Sacrce Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, die 9 Oct. 1847, and 
 signed by the Cardinal Prefect Fransoni. The following extract is taken 
 from the second Rescript of October 11, 1848. ' Omnibus tamen mature 
 pensatis, Sacra Congregatio adduci non potuit, ob gravia et intrinseca 
 eorundem coUegiorum pericula, ad emoUiendam sententiam de iUis prolatam 
 ac, probaute Sanctissimo Domino Nostro, quatuor Metropolitanis expositam 
 nonis Octobris anni superioris.' The Rescripts are given at full length in 
 the Appendix to the Decreta Synodi Phnaria, Epise. Hib. apud Thurles habita. 
 Dublin, 1851. 
 
 " It would appear, however, from a passage in the second Rescript, that 
 certain extracts from the proposed statutes had reached the Sacred Congrega- 
 tion, together with cominents on them from the Irish bishops, who, it may be 
 inferred, from a long exhortation to concord with which the Eescript con- 
 cludes, had not been quite unanimous in their opinions. 
 
 ' ' Imprimis vero opportimum Sacra Congregatio fore duceret, si, coUatis 
 viribus, Catholicam academiam ad iUius instar quae per Belgii Antistites in 
 civitate Lovaniensi fuudata est, in Hibernia quoque erigendam Episcopi 
 ourarent.' The Rescript of 1848 refers to the same proposal in language if 
 possible more urgent. ' Imo consilium hujusmodi iterum iterumque com- 
 mendarunt, ut in ejusdem executionem omnes pro viribus operam suam 
 coufsrant, sicque ple.niori Catholicorum insti-uctioni satisfiat quin uUmu 
 exinde eorumdem religio detrimentum patiatur.' 
 
37 
 
 they appointed a committee, at the head of which were 
 the titular Archbishops of Armagh and DubHn.^ Con- 
 sidering the extreme depression at that time of a popula- 
 tion never wealthy, contributions poured freely in ;^ a large 
 building was secured, as a temporary locahty for the uni- 
 versity, in the great square or rather park of the metro- 
 polis ; and, in 1852, Pius IX., having in the preceding 
 year given his sanction to the acts of the Synod of Thurles, 
 issued a Brief by which, in similar language to that em- 
 ployed by his predecessor when authorizing the prelates 
 of Belgium to found the Catholic University at Louvain, 
 he gave his apostolical approval to the establishment of a 
 Catholic University in Ireland.^ 
 
 ^ Archbishop (now Cardinal) Oullen, who then filled the see of Armagh, 
 and the late Archbishop Murray. 
 
 * Before the end of 1851, the committee state that they had received 
 26,0001., and in annual subscriptions nearly 60.0/., although returns had been 
 received from only one-third of the parishes in Ireland. 
 
 ' 'Igitur memoratsB universitatis ereotionem, quam HibernenseS' Antistites 
 promovent, Apostolica Nostra Auctoritate tenore prsesentium Literarum 
 approbamus ac conflrmamus.' — Extract from Brief of March 23, 1852. Al- 
 though - not immediately connected with the purpose of the writer, he 
 considers it to be not wholly irrelevant to make a quotation from one letter 
 addressed to the Catholic clergy of Ireland by the university committee of 
 the Synod of Thurles. The letter is signed by the present Cardinal CuUen, 
 who, it may be remarked, although an Irishman by birth, was educated and 
 spent his life in Rome, till, contrary to common usage, he was appointed, 
 without having previously been recommended by the clergy of the diocese, 
 to the R. 0. archiepiscopal see of Armagh. Since then he has been raised, 
 as is well known, to the high position of a cardinal of the Church, a dignity 
 never before conferred upon an Irish ecclesiastic. He is also kno^n to enjoy 
 the confidence of the Holy See, and rescripts and briefs have poured freely 
 of late years into Ireland, to aid him in carrying out his views. Here, 
 therefore, if any-where, we have an authoritative exponent of the views 
 which the Catholic Church holds towards the Church of England. If these 
 pages should meet the eye of any* of those who now uphold in England so 
 strongly the catholicity of the latter, the following passage will, I think, satisfy 
 them that the sentiment is not reciprocated by at least one high authority 
 in the great Western Church. ' The Chvu'ch of England has her exclusive 
 universities, furnished with the most ample means to call forth and reward 
 talent of every description ; she has her establishment, the richest in the 
 world, her prebendaries, her canonries, to attract and remunerate her literary 
 champions. The provinces are studded with her numerous and richly 
 
38 J 
 
 In order more clearly to understand the powers con- 
 ferred by this Brief, it wiU be necessary to revert to the 
 history of the Cathohc University at Louvain. The first 
 conception of that university appears to be due to the 
 prelates of Belgium, while that of the Catholic University 
 of Ireland must be referred to the Sacred Congregation 
 itself. But in all their other relations to the Holy See, 
 the two universities may be regarded as twin institutions. 
 The bishops of Belgium having apphed to Gregory XVI. 
 for authority to found a university, in which the professors 
 should be of the orthodox faith and of the Eoman-CathoUc 
 religion,^ were gratified by receiving in a very short space 
 of time the Brief of December 13, 1833. In that Brief, 
 the Pontiff expresses his satisfaction that the prelates 
 should have applied for his authoritative approval of their 
 scheme, in conformity, as he states, with the usages of 
 former times, in which Catholic sovereigns had always 
 both consulted the Holy See, and obtained its authority, 
 before founding universities in their dominions. He there- 
 fore willingly grants to them on this occasion the autho- 
 rity they have asked for.^ 
 
 endowed schools. She has her extensive Protestant literature, characterized, 
 it is true, rather by a hatred of Catholicism, than by any well-defined principle 
 of religious belief. She has her history, of which one of the first writers of 
 the present day has well remai-ked, that "it is one vast conspiracy against 
 truth.'" — Letter of November 12, 1851. — Addresses issued by the Com- 
 mittee of the Catholic University of Ireland during the Tears 1850 and 1851. 
 Dublin, 1852. 
 
 ' ' In quibus bonarum artium ac scientiarum documenta a professoribus 
 orthodoxOB fidei cultoribus et de Romano-Catholica Eeligione recte 
 sentientibus ingenuas juventuti traduntur.' — Rapport stir TInst. Step, en 
 Belgique, p. 1919. It is curious to see the name Roman Catholic, hitherto 
 commonly regarded in these counti-ies as a Protestant designation for mem- 
 bers of the Catholic Church, thus freely adopted by the prelates of Cathohc 
 Belgium. 
 
 ' As the language of this document is important, I must make rather a 
 long extract. ' Nostrum gaudium abunde auxerunt obsequentissimte Liters 
 quas die decima quarta proximfe elapsi mensis ad Nos dedistis et quibus 
 nedum de Catholica in Belgio constituenda, et a "S'obis tontum reffenda 
 
39 
 
 A few months later, a second Brief was issued, autho- 
 rizing in a more special way the University of Louvain to 
 confer degrees in theology and canon law. This latter 
 Brief appears to have been written to satisfy the extreme 
 scruples of the Belgian prelates, who were most desirous 
 that nothing should be wanting to the canonical integrity 
 of the university.^ Acting under the Brief of 1833, the 
 Archbishop of MaUnes and his suffragan bishops founded 
 soon after, on their own authority and that of the Holy 
 See, the Catholic University at Louvain, and drew up a 
 body of statutes for its government.^ According to these 
 
 studiorum. Universitate consilium signiflcastis, sed etiam, expositia commodia 
 qusB tiim animarum aalus turn religio ipsa inde possunt accipere, Apostolica 
 nostra Auctoritate probari illud voluiatis. Hanc tos rationem aequuti, id 
 egisfia, quod ab antiquis tempoiibua consuetude induxit, quodque debita 
 huic SanctSB Sedi reverentia et obaervantia meritd exigit. Oura enim ad 
 Romanos Pontifices pro concredito Ipsis Apoatolici Officii mimere maxime 
 pertineat Catbolicam Fidem tueri, aanctseque ejus doctrinse depositum 
 integrum ac intemeratum custodire ; Eorum quoque ease debet sacraium 
 disciplinarum quse publice in Universitatibua traduntur, inatitutionem mode- 
 rari. Atque hsec causa fuit, cur Oatholici etiam Principes ciim de hujus- 
 modi Academiia seu Universitatibua atudiorum atatuendia cogitarunt, 
 ApoatoUcam Sedem consulendam, Ejusque auctoritatem exquirendam 
 duxerint. Hinc celebriorea, illustrioreaque Europse UniYersitates, nonnisi 
 ex sententia et aasensu Romanorum Pontificum fuisse constitutas, gravis- 
 aimee illarum historise amplissime teatantur. Nobia itaque, quibus persuasum 
 eat ex recte comparatis studiorum universitatibus plurimum emolumenti in 
 Chriatianam Rempublicam dimanare, jucundiua niMl accidere potest, quam 
 ut Tobis gratificemur et ad Litterarum prsesertim Sacrarum prseaidium et in- 
 crementum aupremse Nostrse Auctoritatia robur adjiciamus.' — Mapport sur 
 VInst. Sup. en Belgique, p. 1909. 
 
 ' ' Quamvis poteatas conferendi gradua academicoa priori Brevi apoatolico 
 de die 13 mensis Decembria auni 1833, jamjam conceasa et aaserta foret; 
 attamen 111. ac Rev. Belgii Episcopi, ne quid ad canonicam Universitatia 
 Catholicee integritatem desideraretur, a Sede Apostolica suppUciter petierunt 
 specialem insuper Conatitutionem pro Seminario Provinciali, in quo S. 
 Facultaa Tkeologica constituta est, ipaiusque Alumni commorantur.' THa 
 note is appended by M. de Ram, the rector of the university, to a copy of 
 the second Brief in the Mapport sur VInst. Sup. en Belgique, p. 1915. 
 
 ^ The reader will not confound this university v^ith the ancient university 
 of Louvain, which was founded in 1425. A state university appears to 
 have taken the place of this old foundation after the year 1817 ; but in 1835 
 this atate university ceased to exist, and its buildings were restored by the 
 
40 
 
 statutes, the university embraces the five faculties of letters, 
 science, medicine, law, and theology, and is under the 
 direction of a rector, who is appointed and may be re- 
 called by the episcopal body. The same body nominates 
 all the professors- on the recommendation of the rector, 
 and has also the power of revoking these appointments. 
 The rector is to be present at the examinations for degrees 
 in the several faculties, and has authority to declare the 
 admission of candidates to degrees and to dehver to them 
 their diplomas.^ It does not appear, from the reports 
 of the university, that this power of conferring degrees 
 has ever been exercised, except in the case of degrees in 
 the faculty of theology. It certainly has not been con- 
 firmed by the state, nor have I been able to discover, 
 among the official documents, any reference to the state 
 having even been asked for its sanction. These powers 
 were assumed, under a wide interpretation of the article 
 of the constitution of Belgium, which declared instruction 
 in that country to be free, and the clergy to be indepen- 
 dent. But it is one thing to claim authority, and another 
 to exercise it ; and a government, recently founded by a 
 revolution, was not likely to provoke a collision with the 
 Church regarding a nominal assumption of power.^ 
 The Brief addressed, on March 23, 1852, by Pius IX. 
 
 Belgian government to the town council of Louvain, by whom they were 
 transferred to the prelates of Belgium, for the use of the Catholic Umveiaty. 
 
 ' ' Sur le rapport des facult^s respectives, le recteur magnifique admettra 
 les iSlevea a fairs les examens pour les grades ; il assistera a ces examens, et, 
 apres avoir entendu la d(51ib(5ration et la resolution de la facult(5, il pronon- 
 cera I'admission au grade et en fera dfiUvrer le diplome.' — Art. 19 of the 
 Statutes of the Catholic University. — Happoii, p. lOiO. 
 
 ^ ' Availing themselves of the same liberty, the bishops, by an order of the 
 10th of June, 1834, have decreed the erection of the Catholic University at 
 Louvain, after the suppression of the Government University in that town. 
 Constitutionally the State is a stranger to that institution.' — Extract from 
 the Reply of the Government of Belgium to a Circular Despatch, dated 
 November .30, 18.53, from the Earl of Clarendon. — Appendii- to liepoH of 
 Mmjnooth Cuiiiniifision, p 227. 
 
41 
 
 to the Irish prelates, declares that in compliance with 
 their prayer, he wilUngly grants the approval and con- 
 firmation by his apostolical authority of the erection of 
 the proposed Catholic University in Ireland.^ I have 
 not heard of any special Brief having been addressed to 
 the Irish prelates confirming the power of the Cathohc 
 University in Ireland to confer degrees in theology ; but 
 this is of little moment, as the corresponding Brief, in the 
 case of the Catholic University at Louvain, was considered 
 by competent authority to be merely a declaratory docu- 
 ment. The CathoUc University in Ireland is, I beheve, 
 fully justified in claiming the possession of the same privi- 
 leges from the Holy See, which had before been granted 
 to the university in Belgium, on whose model it was 
 founded. Whether it has actually conferred any degrees, 
 ecclesiastical or other, in pursuance of the papal authority, 
 I do not know ; it has probably considered it prudent to 
 allow its privileges for the present to remain in abeyance. 
 No one would be inchned to dispute its power to grant 
 degrees in canon law or theology ; but the authority of 
 the state would manifestly be required, in order to give 
 legal force to any degrees it might confer in arts, or 
 medicine, or civil law. 
 
 The course of this narrative brings me down to events 
 which are still fresh in the public mind, and have led to 
 long and keen discussions in parliament and in the public 
 press. The subject is painful under more aspects than 
 one, and, in considering it, I shall endeavour to confine 
 myself to official documents, and to avoid, unless it be 
 
 1 ' Cumque plurium Episcoporum nomine exhibite nobis preces fuerint, ut 
 Catholicse bujusce Universitatis erectionem Apostolica Nostra Auctoritate 
 peculiariter probare velimus, de consilio eorundem V. Fratrum Nostrorum 
 porrectis bujusmodi preoibus libenter censuimus adnuendum. , Igitur 
 memoratse Universitatis quam Hibemenses Antistites promovent, Apostolica 
 Nostra Auctoritate, tenore prsesentium Literarum, approbamus ac confirm- 
 amus.'— Extract from Brief of March 23, 1853. 
 
42 
 
 absolutely necessary to the right understanding of the 
 question, all references to speeches or discussions m par- 
 liament. On the eve of the last general election, the 
 claims of the CathoUc University in Ireland were formally 
 brought under the notice of the House of Commons, and 
 a motion for an address to the crown, praying for the re- 
 moval of the disability under which, it was alleged, many 
 Eoman Catholics in Ireland laboured from their objections 
 to the present university systems, was only withdrawn on 
 an assurance from the Home Secretary that the govern- 
 ment would devise some means for removing the grievance 
 complained of.^ In consequence of this announcement of 
 the intentions of government, the E. C. archbishops of 
 Ireland were deputed by the episcopal body to solicit an in- 
 terview with the Home Secretary, which appears to have 
 taken place in London towards the end of the year 1865.^ 
 On January 14, 1866, the E. C. archbishops and 
 bishops sent forward to Sfr George Grey an elaborate 
 statement of their views on the subject of miiversity 
 education in Ireland. Eegretting to find that the go- 
 vernment did not intend for the present to grant to the 
 
 ' Although the Catholic UiuTersity was not directly mentioned in the 
 motion itself, its incorporation was stated distinctly by the O'Donoghue, when 
 he brought forward this motion, to be the object in view. After declaring that 
 between the Catholic clergy and the Queen's Colleges there never could be 
 any harmony or sympathy, since these institutions had been condemned by 
 the Church, he proceeded : — ' What then was the remedy ? It was a very 
 simple one, and one which depended upon the parliament and government 
 of this country to apply or not. Let a charter, conferring the power of 
 granting degrees, as well as a charter of incorporation, be granted to the 
 Catholic University which already existed in Dublin, though without a 
 legally recognized existence. That institution had been foimded by the 
 Catholics, and was supported by them. A sum of :£130,000 had already 
 been contributed by the Catholics for its support. They did not come to 
 the state and ask for a grant of public money. All they asked the state to 
 give was those powers and that charncter without which a university could 
 be of no benefit.'— r/wifs, June 21, 1865. 
 
 ^ ParliamentaryPaper,entitledf7«i!'(rs!<y n«(?A'(rfitina/£'(fi<oa?i'uH(7/-efan(f) 
 March 5, 1866, p. 5. 
 
43 
 
 Catholic University the privilege of conferring academical 
 degrees, and reiterating their condemnation of the system 
 of united academical education as one intrinsically dan- 
 gerous to the faith and morals of Catholics,'^ they proceed 
 to state certain conditions without which no proposal 
 could be regarded by them as satisfactory to the Catholics 
 of Ireland. The most important of these conditions are, 
 the re-arrangement of the Queen's Colleges on the deno- 
 minational system, the endowment of the Catholic Uni- 
 versity, its incorporation as a Cathohc University College 
 within a new university, with powers by charter to affi- 
 liate colleges and schools to itself, and the use of certain 
 safeguards at the university examinations for the protec- 
 tion of the religious principles of the Catholic students.^ 
 
 ^ ' We deem it our duty again to declare emphatically our condemnation 
 of the system of united academical education on which the Queen's Colleges 
 are founded, and which, in accordance with the repeated declarations of our 
 Church, we hold to he intrinsically dangerous to the faith and morals of 
 Catholics.'— Par. Paper, March 5, 1866, p. 8. 
 
 * Par. Paper, March 5, 1866, pp. 8, 9, 10. As it is important that the 
 views of the prelates on the last of these conditions should be clearly under- 
 stood, and as their language, although bearing marks of care, is, on a first 
 perusal, somewhat difficult to understand, — so much so that Sir G. Grey, in 
 replying to this memorial, said that Her Majesty's government were not sure 
 that they clearly apprehended the meaning of the two paragraphs on ' the 
 tests of knowledge,' — I think it may be useful to give here both the original 
 text of those paragraphs and an interpretation of it. 
 
 Text. 
 
 ' That the tests of knowledge be applied in such manner as to avoid the 
 appearance of connecting, even by the identity of name, those who avail 
 themselves of them, or co-operate in applying them, with a system which 
 their religion condemns. 
 
 ' That these tests of knowledge be guarded against every danger of abuse, 
 or of the exercise of any influence hostile or prejudicial to the religious 
 principles of Catholics ; that they be made as general as may he consistently 
 with a due regard for the interests of education, the time, manner, and matter 
 of examinations being prescribed, but not the books or special authors, at 
 least in mental and social science, in history or in cognate subjects ; and 
 that, in a word, there be banished from them even the suspicion of inter- 
 ference with the religious principles of Catholics.' 
 
 Inteepeeiation. 
 That the university examinations be so conducted as to avoid the appear- 
 
44 
 
 The prelates also gave the draft of a charter which they 
 considered would be suited to the ' Catholic or Boman 
 Catholic University CoUege of Ireland.' All the^ chief 
 clauses of this proposed charter are either copied or 
 abridged from the decrees and statutes dra-WTi up by the 
 prelates of Belgium for the government of the Catholic 
 University at Louvain. There are, it is true, one or two 
 important points of difference, which will be afterwards 
 mentioned. The Irish prelates declare that they have 
 borrowed the main details of the proposed charter from 
 the charter of King's CoUege, London ; but, after a com- 
 parison of the two documents, I can find no ground for 
 this assertion. In both, mention is made of two kinds of 
 governors, under the same names of perpetual and life, 
 but here the agreement ceases. In every other respect 
 no two deeds drawn up for a similar object could differ 
 more widely than the charter of King's College, London, 
 and the draft charter of the Catholic University College. 
 This draft charter proposes that the four E. C. arch- 
 bishops in Ireland shall, in virtue of their office, be 
 perpetual governors of the college, and that eight life- 
 governors shall also be appointed ; the archbishops to 
 have the power to nominate any persons they think fit 
 to fill up vacancies, as they occur among the life-gover- 
 
 ance of conrecting, even by the use of the name Queen's University, the 
 Catholic candidates and Catholic examiners with the system of the Queen's 
 Colleges which has been condemned by the Catholic religion. 
 
 That these examinations be guarded against every risk of abuse, or cf 
 influence prejudicial to Catholic principles; that with this view they are to 
 be made as general as possible ; and that while the time, mode of conducting 
 them, and subjects may be prescribed, no books, on the other hand, are to be 
 prescribed to the candidates, at least in mental or social science, or in history, 
 or other kindred subject; in short, that due care be taken to exclude from 
 these examinations even the suspicion of an interference with Catholic 
 teaching. 
 
 Did the prelates mean seriously to ask, not only that the fundamental 
 principles, on which the Queen's Colleges and the Queen's Universitv were 
 founded, should be abandoned, but that the vei-y name the sovereign bad 
 graciously conferred upon the latter should be changed ? 
 
45 
 
 nors.' The four' archbishops are to be the visitors, and 
 ' their authority is to be supreme in questions regarding 
 rehgion or morals, and in all other things in the said 
 college.' The same four archbishops are also to be the 
 trustees of all college property. The governors are to 
 have full power to appoint, and, as they shall see occa- 
 sion, to remove the rector, vice-rector, professors, tutors, 
 masters, secretary, as vyell as all officers, agents, and 
 servants. The college is to embrace the five faculties of 
 theology, law, medicine, letters, and science. The council 
 of the college is to be composed of the rector, vice-rector, 
 five deans of faculty, a dean of discipKne, and three other 
 members of corporation, of whom the last four are to be 
 appointed by the governors. The general management 
 of the college, but not of its finances, is entrusted to the 
 council, subject, however, to the powers given by the 
 proposed charter to the visitors and governors : its acts, 
 moreover, are to be submitted once a year to the visitors 
 and governors, and are hable to be deprived of all weight 
 or value, at any time, within twelve months after they 
 have been so submitted, if they ' be deemed by the said 
 governors or visitors injurious to religion, or morals, or 
 otherwise of detriment to the college.'^ 
 
 ' The draft gives the names of the proposed eiglit life governors. They are 
 all taken from the R. 0. episcopate. From the small number of prelates in 
 Belgium (one archbishop and five bishops), the supreme government of the 
 Catholic University at Louvain is vested in the whole episcopal body of 
 that coxmtry. 
 
 " The prelates of Belgium were supposed to have retained suiBciently in 
 their own hands the powers they received from the Holy See over the 
 Catholic University of that country. Bat the proposal of the Irish bishops 
 (and probably the actual constitution of the Catholic University in Dublin) 
 far exceeds anything to be found in the constitution or statutes of the Belgian 
 institution. According to the latter, the prelates recognizing, as they say, 
 the importance of the affairs of a university being governed by one person, 
 delegate the entire direction of their university to the grand rector (rector mag- 
 nificua), leaving him at liberty to make all necessary arrangements for 
 instruction and discipline. He is to make a report every year to the 
 bishops, but there is no insulting mention of his acts being possibly dis- 
 
46 
 
 On January 30, 1866, Sir G. Grey informed 
 Archbishop CuUen that the government, having consi- 
 dered the memorial from the E. 0. archbishops and 
 bishops, and the draft of the proposed charter for the 
 institution (CathoHc University) in Dublin, decline to 
 recommend any measure which would involve a depar- 
 ture from the principle on which the Queen's Colleges 
 were established,^ but propose to assimilate the Queen's 
 University in principle to the London University,— a 
 decision in which the government are glad to observe 
 (on what authority they do not, however, state), that the 
 E. C. prelates recognize ' an intention to place Eoman 
 Catholics on a footing of equality, as respects university 
 education, with their fellow subjects of other denomi- 
 nations.' The government further express their willingness 
 to recommend a charter of incorporation, as a college, to 
 the institution founded in Dublin by the E. C. archbishops, 
 but not in the form proposed in the memorial. They 
 also decline to propose to parliament that an endowment 
 
 allowed long afterwards. 'Interim eidem Becfori strictissime injungimus, ut 
 Notis singulis annis exponat ajnplam, fidelem et sinceram relationem de 
 totius Academiae statu.' The Belgian prelates reserve to themselves the no- 
 mination of the professors, but allow the rector to appoint the secretary and 
 inferior officers. The office of rector in the Catholic University at Louvain 
 is, in short, one of trust and honour ; and, although controlled by a board 
 of irresponsible ecclesiastics, the rector is at least assumed to be a person 
 in whom confidence can be reposed. The rector and council of the proposed 
 Catholic college in Ireland, under the draft charter, would be placed in a 
 position which I can only describe as degrading ; their acts liable, after a 
 whole year of revision, to be set at naught, on the score of being hurtful to 
 religion, or morals, or detrimental to the university. The four archbishops, 
 in their triple capacity of visitors, perpetual governors, and nominators of the 
 life governors, reserving to themselves supreme authority over 'morals,' 
 ' religion,' ' property,' and ' all other things,' would possess adespotic control, 
 for which no precedent can be found, over the college, its rector, its pro- 
 fessors, its officers, and its students. Such are the powers these ecclesias- 
 tics claim, and have asked the crown of England to sanction by a royal 
 charter 1 
 
 ' 'They [Her Majesty's government] have, therefore, no intention of pro- 
 posing any alteration of the principle on which those [the Queen's Colleges] 
 are conducted.' — Par. Paper, Mai-ch 5, 186G, p. 15. 
 
47 
 
 should be given to the E. C. college ; and, with regard to 
 the power claimed for that college, to affiliate colleges 
 and schools to itself, they observe, that they are not 
 aware of such a power having ever been granted by 
 charter to any college, and that it appears to be exclu- 
 sively appropriate to a university.''- 
 
 I now come to the celebrated letter, dated March 
 26, 1866, and soon after communicated ■ to parhament, 
 in which the Home Secretary announced to the Lord- 
 Lieutenant of Ireland the course which the government 
 had decided to adopt on the subject of university educa- 
 tion in Ireland.^ After giving a sketch of the previous 
 history of the question, and admitting, ' as a matter of 
 fact, the existence of the disadvantage complained of,' 
 Sir G. Grey proceeds to state that the government were 
 of opinion, that an alteration should be made in the 
 charter of the Queen's University, so that it might be 
 enabled, like the University of London, to grant degrees 
 to any of its matriculated students, irrespective of their 
 place of education. If this course were adopted. Sir G. 
 Grey observes, it would be unnecessary to affiliate any 
 college with the university. The government were 
 further of opinion, that the Senate of the university should 
 
 ' The latter part of Sir G. Grey's letter shows that the government were 
 most imperfectly acquainted at the time it was written with the true position 
 of the Catholic University in Ireland. That foundation had already received 
 the fuU privileges of a university from an authority, which every Catholic 
 ecclesiastic must, in such a case, consider to he superior to any royal 
 charter. The government manifestly assumed that if the Catholic Univer- 
 sity received a charter as a Catholic College, it would cease to claim its 
 university rights. In justice to the prelates, I must say that, after a careful 
 perusal of the whole correspondence, I can find no statement of theirs to 
 support this conclusion of the government. The intimate union of a university 
 with a college in the great Protestant imiversity of Ireland might surely have 
 suggested itself and prevented the government from falling into so palpable 
 an error. 
 
 ' Par. paper, entitled Universtty Education {Ireland). Copy of a letter 
 dated March 26, 1866, &c. 
 
48 
 
 be remodelled, so that it might command general conn- 
 dence, and not be hable to the suspicion of exclusiveness 
 or partiality. This object, it appeared to them, would be 
 best attained by some enlargement of that body, and by 
 a judicious selection of persons of different religious 
 denominations.! Sir G. Grey contrasts the composition of 
 the Board of National Education, where the number of 
 Protestants and of Eoman Catholics is equal, with that of 
 the Senate of the Queen's University, in which he states, 
 that only four, out of the seventeen members, are of the 
 Eoman Cathohc Church; and. the Lord-Lieutenant is in- 
 formed that the government expect he will be able to 
 I'ecommend, as new members of Senate, persons 'best 
 qualified for the efficient performance of the duties which 
 would devolve upon the Senate, and most likely to conci- 
 liate general confidence and respect.' He is, at the same 
 time, to bear in mind the deep interest felt in this 
 question by the Presbyterian population of L-eland. In 
 conclusion, Sir G. Grey states, that the government having 
 consulted the law officers with regard to the surrender of 
 the existing charter of the university, had been informed 
 that the powers of the Senate, as weU as of the Convoca- 
 tion, are too limited to enable a valid surrender to be 
 made by either, or both, of those bodies, and that they, 
 therefore, proposed to submit a bill to parliament to 
 enable them to accomplish the object they had in view. 
 
 The course eventually taken by the government to 
 carry out their intentions was different from that announced 
 in Sir G. Grey's letter. Instead of appljang to parlia- 
 ment, in the first instance, for authority to deal A^dth the 
 charter of the Queen's University, they shortly afterwards 
 advised the crown to issue, without a previous surrender 
 of the existing one, a supplemental charter, which autho- 
 
 ' The government were also of opinion that the presidents of the Queen's 
 Colleges should cease to be ex oificio members of the Senate. 
 
49 
 
 rized the Queen's University to grant degrees to persons 
 who had not matriculated or studied in any of the 
 Queen's Colleges. This document, which received the 
 royal signature only six days before the resignation of 
 the ministry, and had the great seal affixed to it after 
 that event, bears marks of having been drawn up in great 
 haste, and without due consideration.^ The extension of 
 
 ' The supplemental charter received the sign manual on June 13, 1866, 
 and on the 25th of the same month, it was enrolled in the Irish Court of 
 Chancery. On June 19 the ministry had tendered their resignation, and on 
 the 26th it was accepted. The publication of the supplemental charter made 
 a great noise at the time, as the House of Commons and the public (and 
 among the public none more than the members of the Queen's University) 
 had been led, by reiterated ministerial declarations, to believe that the 
 powers of the crown would not be exercised till parliament had an opportu- 
 nity of expressing an opinion on the subject. The Chancellor of the Exche- 
 quer (Mr. Gladstone) assured one member of the House of Commons, so 
 long before as February 23, that ' he need not be in the least afraid that he 
 would be unable in point of time to bring the subject under the notice of the 
 House, and to challenge ' the government, if he thought lit, before the 
 crown had committed any formal act; ' and in reply to another member, he 
 further informed the House, that ' it would be perfectly practical, right, and 
 convenient that no definite proceeding should be taken by the crown before 
 the House had an opportunity of expressing its opinion.' The subsequent 
 history of the session shows that no such opportunity was afforded. The 
 formal letter of March 26, from the Home Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant 
 of Ireland, went still further than the declarations of the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, for it declared that the government, finding it impossible other- 
 wise to give effect fully to their intentions, proposed to submit a bill to 
 parliament. Soon after the resignation of the ministry, there was a discus- 
 sion on the subject in the House of Commons, but the explanations of the 
 retiring ministers failed altogether to account for the apparent inconsistency 
 between their former declarations and the advice they subsequently gave 
 to the crown. The language of the public press, reflecting as it usually 
 does contemporary opinion, was singularly unanimous on this occasion ; and 
 the leading journal of Scotland (an organ not unfriendly to the general 
 views of the late government) did not hesitate to declare it to be painfully 
 plain, that the late ministers made and broke a promise to the House of 
 Commons, and that the explanations put forward in their defence made this ■ 
 only more painful and more plain. — Scotsman, July 19, 1866. The writer 
 has deemed it to be his duty, while examining the official documents, to read 
 carefully, for the second time, the speeches of the ministers and the discus- 
 sions in parliament, in order to obtain, if possible, a clear and unbiassed view 
 of the whole question. The real question at issue, it appears to him, is a far 
 more serious one than the personal character of a great minister, important 
 
 E 
 
5° 
 
 the power of obtaining degrees from the Queen's univer- 
 sity to persons who had never studied in the colleges oi 
 that university, is in direct opposition to the provisions 
 of the existing charter, which was granted so recently as 
 18C4. The great seal has, in short, been affixed to two 
 documents, both professing to be in force, and to be of 
 equal authority ; one of which, in direct terms, forbids 
 that which the other, in equally direct terms, allows. 
 The charter of 1864 provides that no degree, nor even 
 distinction, similar to those hitherto granted after a 
 regular course of study, shall be conferred on any candi- 
 date who has not pursued his studies in some one or 
 more of the colleges of the university,^ to the extent 
 prescribed in a previous part of the charter.^ The sup- 
 as ttat may be. It is wliether its responsible advisers, finding their tenure 
 of office precarious, were justified in recommending the crown to affix the 
 sign manual to a document, when there was a doubt as to the propriety of 
 the advice, much less when words had been used, which, according to their 
 ordinary meaning, could hardly be otherwise intei-preted than as a promise or 
 pledge that, before the sign manual was affixed, a notice or opportimitj 
 would have been given, or afforded, so that the House of Commons might 
 have discussed, and, if it thought fit, expressed an opinion upon the subject. 
 A deep anxiety to remove a disability under which any portion of the popu- 
 lation labours is a laudable feeling ; but the present case was not so m-gent 
 as to warrant any departure from the strictest constitutional rules. One 
 false step has in this, as in similar cases, led to others not less serious. The 
 validity of the document itself, as we shall see, is more than doubtful, and 
 the powers it professes to confer are such as would never have been intro- 
 duced into a royal charter prepared after due deliberation and ^vith befitting 
 care. 
 
 ' Section 10 declares the Queen's Colleges of Belfast, Cork, and Galway, 
 and any other college or colleges which may hereafter be founded under the 
 provisions of the Colleges Act (8 & 9 "\'iet. cap. 60.), to be colleges of the 
 university, and all professors of the same colleges to be professors of the 
 university. 
 
 ° According to sections 14 and 15, candidates for degrees in law and 
 medicine may pursue part (but only port) of their professional studies 
 undt-r teachers recognized by the university, although not professors of the 
 university. No similar relaxation applies to candidates for degrees in arts, 
 nnle.is they have pursued part of their undergraduate coui-se in a universitv 
 when, in conformity with the statutes of the colleges, thev mav claim ad 
 eundem privileges. The university has also the power of grantinir ad 
 cundem and honorni'v degi-ees. 
 
plemental charter authorizes the university to grant all, 
 or any of its degrees, to any person who had matriculated 
 in the university, and was deemed qualified by the Senate, 
 ' notwithstanding that such person may not have matricu- 
 lated in any of the Queen's Colleges, or pursued any of 
 his studies therein.' ■*• 
 
 ' In Sir Gr. Grey's letter, so often referred to, we are informed that the 
 law officers reported that the crown could, by a supplemental charter, enable 
 the Queen's University to grant degrees to persons who had not received any 
 part of their education in any of the colleges of the university, but that 
 without a surrender of the present charter, such graduates could not obtain 
 the status of members of convocation, nor be introduced into the corporation 
 of the university. The writer, after a careful examination of the charter, is 
 wholly at a loss to discover on what ground this opinion has been formed. 
 The eleventh section of the existing charter of 1864, declares that 'the 
 chancellor, senators, secretary, professors, and registered graduates of the 
 university for the time being shall constitute the convocation of the uni- 
 versity, and that all graduates of two years' standing shall be entitled to 
 register;' with this sole proviso, that no ad eundem or honorary graduate 
 shall, without the consent of convocation, he a member of convocation. The 
 third section declares that 'the body politic and corporate shall con.iist of a 
 chancellor, senators, secretary, professors, graduates and students.' From 
 these passages it is clear that all graduates of the university of two years' 
 standing (not being ad eundem or honorary) may claim, as a matter of right, 
 <o have their names placed on the register of the convocation, and that all 
 graduates, without limitation or exception, are members of the body politic and 
 corporate. The sixteenth section of the same charter, after authorizing the 
 Senate to grant to any candidates whatever, whether members of the univer- 
 sity or not, certificates of proficiency, to be tested by examination, continues : 
 ' Provided that no degree shall be conferred on any candidate who shall not 
 liave pursued Ms studies in some one or more of the colleges of the univer- 
 sity, so far as is hereinbefore prescribed ; provided further, that no distinc- 
 tion of the same name as a distinction for which a regular course of study is 
 p:-escribed in the colleges of the university shall be conferred on any such 
 candidate.' To place the reader in possession of the whole legal case, I give 
 at full length the clause relating to degrees in the supplemental charter. 
 ' We do will, ordain, constitute, and declare that the said university, created 
 by our said charter, shall have power to grant to any person who may 
 have matriculated in the said university, and who may be deemed qualified 
 by the Senate of the said Queen's University in Ireland aforesaid, to obtain 
 the same, all such or any of the degrees or distinctions which, by our said 
 charter, the said Queen's University in Ireland is empowered to grant, not- 
 withstanding that such persons may not have matriculated in any of the 
 said colleges, or pursued any of their studies therein.' Would it be possible 
 to frame two clauses more plainly contradictory than the proviso in the six- 
 teenth section of the charter of 18G4, and the passage just quoted from the 
 
52 
 
 But, apart from their most doubtful legality, the pro- 
 visions of this supplemental charter, or, to speak more 
 correctly, its one and sole provision, is liable to the 
 gravest objections. The charter of the University of 
 London, of 1858, was framed for the purpose of removing 
 every restriction from candidates for academic degrees in 
 arts, with what fruit I have already endeavoured to show ; 
 but the persons who advised the issue of that charter did 
 not venture to carry their peculiar views of free education 
 so far as to authorize the Senate of that university, if it so 
 willed, to grant medical degrees on an examination quaUfi- 
 cation solely.^ It was reserved for the supplemental charter 
 of the Queen's University in Ireland to venture upon this 
 hazardous experiment, and to entrust to the Senate of 
 that university an absolutely uncontrolled poAver over the 
 qualifications for a profession involving the health and 
 lives of the subjects of the crown.^ The future course of 
 this narrative will show whether the Senate of the Queen's 
 University has, of late, acted with such calmness, dehbe- 
 ration, and sound judgment, as to justify this unlimited 
 confidence.^ 
 
 supplemental charter of 1866 ? Was the writer not justified in saying that 
 the responsible advisers of the crown acted without due care and deliberation, 
 when they counselled the crown to attach the sign manual to the supple- 
 mental charter ? 
 
 ' Section 37 of the present charter of the University of London requires 
 the Senate to report, from time to time, to one of the principal secretaries of 
 state, regarding medical institutions from which, in its opinion, candidates for 
 medical and surgical degrees should he admitted, and its report, before 
 coming into force, must be approved by the same secretary. It further 
 provides that no persons shall be admitted as candidates for medical or sur- 
 gical degrees unless they have completed at one or more of such recognized 
 institutions the prescribed courses of instruction. 
 
 ' The acts of the Senate imder the supplemental charter do not require 
 the sanction of the executive government, nor do they seem liable to be 
 reviewed or controlled in any way except by an appeal to a court of law. 
 
 ' I hope it will not be supposed that I mean to .^ay that the person or 
 persons who drew up the supplemental charter saw these or other residts 
 of their own work ; on tlie contrary, as I have before stated, this document 
 (ippoavs to me to have been prepared with so much haste and precipitation 
 
53 
 
 By a warrant, dated June 27, 1866,^ six new mem- 
 bers of Senate were appointed, on the recommendation 
 of the Earl of Kimberley, the ministry still retaining the 
 seals of office, although their resignation had at the time 
 been tendered and accepted.^ Hitherto the Senate of the 
 Queen's University had been kept free from the element 
 of sectarian bitterness, and the great body of the orthodox 
 Presbyterians of Ulster, which sends more than one-half 
 of all the graduates in arts to the Queen's University, 
 had never complained, although it happened that out of 
 a Senate of seventeen members two only belonged to their 
 Church. But the letter of Sir Gr. Grey gave utterance to 
 a new policy, and the suggestion that the Senate sho.uld 
 be extended by the judicious selection of persons of 
 different religious denominations, ' so that it might not 
 be liable to the suspicion of partiahty or exclusiveness,' 
 implying thereby that it was liable at the time Sir G. 
 Grey wrote to that suspicion, was, under the circum- 
 stances, unworthy of a constitutional minister. Before 
 making this suggestion. Sir G. Grey should have recol- 
 lected that the members of the Senate had been selected 
 by the crown, and he might also have thought it worth 
 while to recall to his memory the part he had himself 
 taken in their selection. When the Queen's University 
 was incorporated in 1850, Sir G. Grey was home secre- 
 tary, and was directly responsible for the appointment of 
 the original members of the Senate. During the sixteen 
 years which have since elapsed, with the exception of 
 two short intervals of ten and sixteen months, the duties 
 of secretary of state for the home department have de- 
 
 that its real meaning and arbitrary character were probably perceived, 
 neither by those who prepared, nor by those who recommended it. 
 
 ' Official information. 
 
 ^ By a comparison of dates, it will be seen that this warrant was dated 
 eight day's after the ministry had tendered their resignation, and one day 
 after it was actually accepted. 
 
54 
 
 volved upon Sir G. Grey, Lord Palinerston, and Sir G. 
 C. Lewis. If the implied accusation have then any real 
 foundation, the responsibility must be accepted by >-.n- (a. 
 Grey and his former colleagues. Nor can it be alleged 
 that the government in 1850 was ignorant of the hostility 
 of the Catholic Church to the system of the Queen's 
 Colleges, as the second Eescript, in which the final and 
 absolute decision of that Church was declared in the 
 most formal manner, had been published two years 
 before.' 
 
 In the same letter Sir G. Grey observes, that in a 
 country where the great majority of the inhabitants are 
 Eoman Catholics, it might fairly be expected that a con- 
 
 ' Sir G. Grey was liome secretary also at this time (1848). The second 
 Eescript -was founded upon certain extracts from the statutes of the colleges 
 (excerpta nonnuUa ex statutis), which it is well known had reached the 
 Holy See, not altogether without the privity of the English govemment. 
 As the Eescript received a wide circulation, and also partook to some extent 
 of the character of an indirect official reply from the Court of Eome to an in- 
 direct communication from the government of England, it cannot be pleaded 
 that the latter were ignorant, either of the existence, or of the contents, of 
 this document. The decrees of the Synod of Thurles, which were agreed 
 to in 1850, added nothing to the force of the previous declarations of the 
 Church ; they only expressed the entire and dutiful concurrence of the Irish 
 hishops in those declarations. ' Cum in Eomano Pontifice, Christ! in tends 
 Vicarium, et Sancti Petri successorem agnoscamus ac veneremur, ciii 
 divinitiis munus optimis doctrinis fideles instituendi, et a pestiferis et veneno 
 infectis pascuis arcendi, commissum est; libenti animo, et eo quo par est 
 obsequio, nionitis et rescriptis assentimur, quoe respiciunt qusestionem de 
 Collegiis Eeginte apud nos nuper erectis, qureque ipsius Christi Viearii 
 auctoritate munita, a S. Congregatione de Prop. Fide nobis sunt commu- 
 nicata.' — Decreta Synodi, p. b'2. I subjoin the passages in Sir G. Grev's 
 letter, which are referred to in the text. ' The next question for considera- 
 tion related to the mode of constituting the Senate. It appeaj-ed to Iler 
 Majesty's government obviously important that the Senate should be so con- 
 stituted as to secure, as far as possible, the confidence of all those who were 
 to share the advantages of the university, to whatever religious denomination 
 they might belong, and that it should not be liable to the suspicion of par- 
 tiality or exclusiveuess The object, bufore stated, of so composinf 
 
 the Senate as to entitle it to general confidence would, they thouo-ht be 
 better attained by some enlargement of the present Senate, and by a j udicioiis 
 selection of persons of dilferent religious denominations.' 
 
55 
 
 siderable portion of the Senate should be Eoman Cathohcs ; 
 and he contrasts the Board of National Education, on 
 which the Eoman Catholics and Protestants are equal in 
 number, with the Senate of the Queen's University, on 
 which, at the date of his letter, four only, out of seventeen 
 members, were Eoman Catholics. He further adds that 
 the government considered it desirable to remove the 
 latter, as he alleges, great inequality between Eoman 
 Catholics and Protestants. As it was Sir G. Grey himself 
 who chiefly gave this untoward composition to the Senate, 
 it wiU not, I trust, be deemed unfriendly if I attempt to 
 defend the acts of his long administration from his own 
 hostile criticism. But on other grounds than the defence 
 of Sir G. Grey's administration, I deem it important to 
 consider whether the principle set forth in his letter ba 
 correct. The statement that four Eoman Catholics, out 
 of seventeen members in the Senate, is a great inequality, 
 and the reference to the equality of numbers which 
 prevails on the Board of National Education, plainly 
 imply that, according to the views of the government, 
 the Catholic and Acatholic meinbers of the Senate of 
 the Queen's University ought, as nearly as possible, to be 
 equal in number. According to the census of 1861, the 
 Catholic population of Ireland bears to the Acatholic 
 population almost exactly the ratio of seven to two.' The 
 preponderance in favour of the former must be still 
 greater in that class of the population for whose use the 
 primary or national schools are designed; and if the 
 administrative boards of the country are to be constituted 
 on the principle of giving to the great religious bodies 
 a representation proportional to their numbers, a very 
 strong case might be made out for extending the Catholic 
 
 ' The approximation is remarkable, the true ratio heing that of 7: 2-004. 
 The actual numbers were 4,505,265 and 1,289,599. Of 4,103 persons, the 
 relioion was not ascertained. 
 
56 
 
 representation on the Board of National Education. But 
 if it be true that the Cathohc population has a great 
 numerical superiority over the Acatholic, whether we 
 consider the whole population of Ireland, or only the 
 humbler classes, the reverse of this statement is equally 
 true, if we direct our attention to the classes of the 
 population from which, except in rare and exceptional 
 cases, the students of a university are drawn. It is im- 
 possible here to appeal to statistical returns, or even to 
 define with precision the limit which separates the two 
 portions of the population ; but, after giving the subject 
 the best consideration in my power, and consulting the 
 most competent and impartial persons I could find, I have 
 been led to the conclusion that the numbers already given 
 would, in inverse order, express very nearly the relation 
 among the latter between the Catholics and Acatholics in 
 Ireland ; in other words, that the Acatholic population 
 preponderates over the Catholic in the classes of higher 
 culture and intelligence, as much as the Catholic preponde- 
 rates over the Acatholic in the masses of the people. Having 
 regard to the existence of the Protestant University of 
 Dublin, and to the condemnation by the Cathohc Church 
 of the principles on which the Queen's Colleges and the 
 Queen's University were founded, I will not attempt to 
 say what W9uld, on Sir G. Grey's principle, be a legiti- 
 mate representation of the rehgious bodies in the Senate, 
 further than this, that the present representation of the 
 Presbyterians of the General Assembly would plainly be 
 quite inadequate.^ 
 
 But, on general grounds, it will not be difiicult to show 
 that the views taken by Sir G. Grey are founded on prin- 
 
 ' Sir G. Grey appears to have been aware of this, as he instructs Lord 
 Kimherley, in making the new appointments, to hear in mind the deep in- 
 terest felt in this question by the great body of the Presbyterians in Ireland. 
 It would cany me entirely outside the scope of this publicaticn to discuss 
 wliether Lord Kimberley gave effect to this suggestion. 
 
57 
 
 ciples which neither experience nor sound reasoning can 
 justify. The attempt to estabhsh an even balance of 
 power, on the public boards in Ireland, between the mem- 
 bers of the Catholic Church and of the other churches 
 taken collectively, can lead to no other result but the per- 
 petuation of those hostile feelings between the Eoman 
 Catholics and their fellow-subjects which, more than any- 
 thing else, have, of late years, retarded the improvement 
 and social progress of the country. The government of 
 the day will be expected, as a matter of justice, to appoint 
 a person of strong and known opinions ; in a word, a de- 
 cided partisan, to fill up every vacancy, whether on the 
 Catholic or Acatholic side, and the public boards will 
 in the end be composed of men selected on account of 
 their extreme views and not of their fitness for office. It 
 is not difficult to foresee how a board so constituted will 
 do its work, and, in making this forecast, we have the 
 advantage of some experience to guide us. If both parties 
 be equally zealous, perpetual strife wiU ensue ; but if, as 
 will generally be the case, one party have less energy, or 
 less leisure than the other, it will sooner or later retire 
 from the field, and allow its opponents, for a time at least, 
 to carry everything their own way. It will be the old 
 story, under a new form, of the rule' of a faction. 
 
 Theprinciple by which an enhghtened statesman should 
 be guided in such cases is easily stated, and is very dif- 
 ferent from that set forth in Sir G. Grey's letter. Where 
 purely Catholic interests are concerned, let the adminis- 
 tration be placed in Catholic hands ; where the interests 
 of any other church are concerned, let the administration 
 be placed in the hands of members of that church. But 
 where the interests are those of the community at large, 
 let the administration be entrusted to men of high cha- 
 racter, calm judgment, and at the same time capable, 
 from education or experience, of forming a sound and 
 
58 
 
 independent opinion on the subjects they may be called 
 to consider. On a board so selected and appointed to 
 administer for the general interests of education, apart 
 from the dogmatic teaching of religious communions, no 
 member ought to know to what church another belongs, 
 or, at least, he ought to allow his memory on that point 
 to fall into oblivion while engaged in transacting the 
 business of the board. It may be difficult, at least for 
 some time, to bring about in Ireland so desirable a state 
 of things, but it should be the aim of every wise govern- 
 ment to move in this direction.^ 
 
 • The -writer has already attempted to interpret a passage in the memorial 
 of the R. C. prelates, the meaning of which, it appeared, had presented diffi- 
 culties to the late government. He must add that he has found the ofEciKl 
 documents to he in some places not less difficult of interpretation than the 
 prelates' memorial. Whether this ohscurity is to he attributed to imperfect 
 Ifnowledge, or habits of inaccurate thought on the part of the writers, or 
 to the difficulty of reconciling the claims of the Catholic Church with the 
 principles of a constitutional State, would be a difficult question to decide ; 
 but it probably depends fully as much on the fonner as the latter causes. It is 
 surprising, indeed, how often in the present day, obscure and faulty statements 
 are to be found in the writings of persons of acknowledged position. To ex- 
 plain this circumstance, in an age in which the physical sciences have made 
 such astonishing progress, is difficult, unless on the supposition that those 
 sciences have made too heavy a demand on the intellectual resources of the 
 country. A few years ago, the finest intellect in Europe had to stoop in Eng- 
 land to expose the follies of table-turning, and so recently as 1854, the same 
 great authority used the following remarkable language in reference to what 
 he had found to be a common defect in the use of the ordinary faculries of the 
 mind : — ' Let me endeavour,' Mr. Faraday remarked in a lecture delivered 
 at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, ' to point out what appears to me 
 to be a gi-eat deficiency in the exerci.se of the mental powers in every direc- 
 tion ; three words will express this great want — deficiency of judgment. I 
 do not wish to make any startling assertion, but I know that, in physical 
 matters, multitudes are ready to draw conclusions who have little or no 
 power of judgment in the cases ; that the same is true of other departments 
 of knowledge; and that, generally, mankind is willing to leave the faculties 
 wliioh relate to judgment almost entirely uneducated, and their decisions at 
 the mercy of ignorance, prepossessions, the passions, or even accident.' Fara- 
 day's Mesearclies, vol. iv. p. 465. A more remarkable example of feebleness 
 of thought and deficiency of judgment than any referred to by Faraday has 
 recently been exhibited by two writers who profess to guide the opinions of 
 others ; and a short digression on this subject the writer does not consider 
 
S9 
 
 The subsequent history of the supplemental charter 
 may be briefly told. A meeting of the Senate, held in 
 July, postponed its consideration ; but at a later meet- 
 ing, in the following November, it was accepted by a 
 
 to lie outside his main purpose, as supplying a proof that sound education 
 is as much required in this century as at any time since the great civilian 
 Irnerius first revived the study of the Roman law, and rendered the Univer- 
 sity of Bologna illustrious by the precision and accuracy of his teaching. The 
 following passage is taken from a work published in I860 : — ' That tlie re- 
 verse of the most familiar principles of arithmetic and geometry might have 
 been made conceivable even to our present mental faculties, if those faculties 
 had coexisted with a totally different constitution of external nature, is in- 
 geniously shown in the concluding paper of a recent volume, anonymous, 
 but of known authorship, " Essays by a Barrister." "Consider tliis case. 
 There is a world in which, whenever two pairs of things are either placed 
 in proximity or are contemplated together, a fifth thing is immediately 
 created, and brought within the contemplation of the mind engaged in put- 
 ting two and two together. This is surely neither inconceivable, for we can 
 readily conceive the result by thinking of common puzzle tricks, nor can it 
 be said to be beyond the power of Omnipotence. Yet, in such a world, 
 surely two and two would make five." ' — rAn Examination of Sir W. Hamil- 
 ton's Philosophy, by J. S. Mill, p. 69. If these two writers, before venturing 
 to declare that the truths which Newton did not hesitate to set forth under 
 the name of Universal Arithmetic, are not universally true, had previouslv 
 mastered the elementary parts of his great works, they would have learned 
 that a number is the abstract ratio of any quantity to another of the same 
 kind, taken as unity ; and that neither any different constitution of external 
 nature, nor tricks of legerdemain, could render it either conceivable or pos- 
 sible that the familiar principles of arithmetic should either be reversed or 
 fail. ' Per numerum non tarn multitudinem unitatum, quam abstractam 
 quantitatis cujusvis ad aliam ejusdem generis quautitatsm quse pro unitate 
 habetur, rationem intelligimus.' — Newtoni Opera, v. i. p. 2. And a little 
 further on, Newton, in illustrating the meaning of the sign +, remarks, ' Sic 
 2+3, sive 2 plus 3, valet summam numerorum 2 et 3, hoc est 5.' — Id. p. 4. 
 If a body of Lilliputian philosophers should, at some future time, set about 
 making a new language for their own use -out of the materials of our 
 Anglo-Norman tongue, on the fantastic principle of retaining the old mean- 
 ing for some words, and giving a new meaning to others ; and if the word 
 ' two ' should continue to be used to designate the number 2, while the 
 word 'five 'should have its meaning changed and be used to designate the 
 number 4 ; in this case, and in no other, is it conceivable, under any pos- 
 sible constitution of external nature, that two and two should make five. 
 And the reason why two and two would, in this case, make five, has been 
 given long ago by an authority scarcely inferior to Newton. For — ■ 
 
 ' That which we call a four, 
 By any other name would count as well.' 
 
6o 
 
 small majority.^ Six days after this meeting of Stnate, 
 the convocation assembled for the first time, and a large 
 attendance of graduates from all parts of Ireland showed 
 the interest they felt in the affairs of the university. A 
 resolution hostile to the acceptance of the charter was 
 adopted by convocation without a division.' The power 
 of the Senate to accept this supplemental charter, even if 
 its provisions were compatible with those of the existing 
 charter, is extremely doubtful. No authority of the kind 
 is given in the charter of the university, and it is difficult 
 to see how a body, unable to give a valid surrender of the 
 old charter of a corporation, could have authority to 
 accept a new one. 
 
 The majority of the Senate proceeded with great ra- 
 pidity to make arrangements for carrying out the provi- 
 sions of the supplemental charter. Although the question 
 of its legality was immediately raised in one of the supe- 
 rior courts of law, they appointed, without waiting for 
 a legal decision, a committee to prepare a new code of 
 regulations in order to give effect to its provisions. This 
 
 ' The numbers were eleven to nine. All the six new members voted in 
 the majority, and the motion was carried by their votes against a large ma- 
 jority of the old members. The Earl of Rosse, the Lord Chancdlor of 
 Ireland, the Bishop of Killaloe (Dr. Fitzgerald), Sir Robert Peel, Dr. Shil- 
 lington, Dr. Adams, and the Presidents of the Queen's Colleges, voted 
 ao-ainst the acceptance of the supplemental charter. 
 
 * At this meeting the convocation elected a member of Senate, but it was 
 too late to allow him to record his vote at the meeting of the Senate at which 
 the supplemental charter was accepted. The vacancy caused by the death 
 of Lord Monteagle occurred eight months before, and no reason has ever 
 been gjven why the Senate did not airange sooner for the meeting of convo- 
 cation, or why its own meeting to consider whether the supplemental charter 
 should be accepted was held six days before the meeting of convocation, 
 instead of six days after that event. The supplemental charter was thus 
 accepted by the Senate before it was informed of the opinion of convocation 
 on the subject, and while the latter body had no representative upon it. 
 The reader at a distance will perhaps call in question the good faith of the 
 writer, and refuse to believe that such a procedure could have taken place ; 
 but the facts are undoubted, and the whole transaction ought to form the 
 subject of a searching inquiry. 
 
6i 
 
 committee held no fewer than nine meetings in eighteen 
 days, and was prepared with a full report in less than one 
 month after it was appointed. A sort of fatality, however, 
 appears to have attended these proceedings at every stage, 
 and I must crave the reader's indulgence, when I venture 
 to assert that in the most prominent portion of their 
 scheme, the committee travelled quite beyond the text of 
 the supplemental charter itself. In short, with a haste 
 for which no sufficient cause can be assigned, they hurried 
 to put in force a document whose legality was disputed 
 on the strongest possible grounds, and, in so doing, they 
 assumed powers for which, as the writer believes, the docu- 
 ment itself gives no warrant of any kind.' In the details of 
 the subjects of examination there is little novelty ; and 
 they appear to be almost the same as those hitherto pre- 
 scribed by the Queen's University. But I have been greatly 
 surprised to observe that, in direct opposition to the wishes 
 of the E. C. prelates, the committee have prescribed books 
 not only in logic but in metapliysics.^ Considering the 
 
 ' On referring to the clause in the supplemental charter, which I have 
 quoted at full length in a previous note (p. 51), it will be seen that the 
 Senate is authorized to confer degi-ees upon any persons matriculated in the 
 Queen's University who are deemed qualified by the Senate, although they 
 have not studied at the colleges of the university. Under this clause the 
 committee considered itself at liberty to affiliate colleges, and to distin- 
 guish the students educated at the affiliated colleges from other students. It 
 is manifest that, although the supplemental charter gives the Senate free 
 power to make any regulations it may think fit for admission to the degrees 
 of the university, the power is a general one, and the regulations must 
 apply, without favour or distinction, to all who have matriculated under the 
 provisions of that charter. Will anyone maintain that the Senate could, 
 imder this charter, miake one set of rules for Jews, another for Presbyte- 
 rians, another for Roman Catholics ; or that, anticipating the Senate of the 
 University of London, it could appoint special courses for the admission of 
 women to university privileges ? 
 
 " See the views of the prelates, p. 43. In the course of logic, the com- 
 mittee have prescribed Mansell's edition of Aldrich's ' Artis Logicse Rudi- 
 menta,' Thomson's ' Outlines of the Laws of Thought,' Mill's ' Logic,' &c. In 
 metaphysics, attention is directed to Locke and his critics, especially Cousin, 
 and portions of the works of the Scotch metaphysiciail Hamilton, are posi- 
 tively prescribed.— TJpjf^wi, p. 12. 
 
extraordinary diligence displayed by the committee, I 
 am surely justified in assuming that this recommendation 
 was made after due consideration, and on general grounds 
 I entirely concur in its propriety ; but I am at a loss to 
 imagine how it will be received by the B. C. prelates, 
 or whether the retention of this -hostile arrangement' 
 will be considered by them to be satisfactory to the Ca- 
 tholics of Ireland. 1 The report of the committee was 
 adopted by the Senate, but, before the arrangements were 
 completed, the proceedings of the Senate were arrested by 
 an injunction from the Master of the Eolls. 
 
 Our narrative has now been brought to a close, and 
 the writer passes, with feelings of relief, from the task of 
 recording events, in which there is so little to praise and 
 so much to blame, to the consideration of some general 
 questions, not easy of solution in themselv-es, but whose 
 solution has been rendered more difficult, from their 
 having been distorted by the passions and prejudices of 
 men. Few subjects are more delicate to handle than the 
 relations between religion and education, and wise and 
 thoughtful men commonly shrink from grappling with the 
 inquiry, satisfied if they can evade its difficulties, and 
 secure, on any reasonable terms, to the masses of the 
 people, the advantages of intellectual culture. But the 
 subject, although difficult, is not beyond the reach of 
 investigation ; nor will it, I hope, be impossible to make 
 some real progress in the inquiry. It has been a favourite 
 theme with the divines of all Christian churches ; and 
 their writings upon it, if brought into one place, would 
 form a library of goodly dimensions. To pretend to 
 have consulted any large number of these writings 
 would be affectation on my part ; but I have read with 
 care a few works of acknowledged authority, without 
 
 ' Letter of Prelates to Sir G. Grey, Par. Paper, p. 9_ 
 
63 
 
 receiving much aid in the object of my research. The 
 
 language of the Cathohc Church has been repeated with 
 
 httle variation, but somewhat less precision, by the leading 
 
 writers of the other churches of Western Europe.^ And in 
 
 justice to that Church I am bound to say that, allowance 
 
 being made for what it deemed to be its paramount duty 
 
 — the maintenance of the Catholic faith — it was in former 
 
 times singularly zealous in encouraging, to the best of its 
 
 abiUty, the cultivation of literature and science. Nor 
 
 were its efforts without success. It could point with 
 
 allowable pride to the fact, that the central country of 
 
 Catholicity had alone, in the history of nations, stood 
 
 twice at the head of civilisation, and that the triumphs of 
 
 the Augustan age had been rivalled, if not surpassed, by 
 
 the intellectual glories of the age of Leo. Even since the 
 
 latter period, the same Catholic country has had her full 
 
 share of those great discoveries which extend the new 
 
 ground, slowly but surely gained in the course of ages, 
 
 for the use of the human family, from the great ocean of 
 
 unknown truths.^ If any are disposed to maintain that 
 
 ' I have not Lad access to tlie writings of the Greek Church on this sub- 
 ject ; but for the present its influence is too distant to malie its views of any 
 importance in this country. 
 
 ^ If we search the nnnals of science since the time of Newton, it will be 
 difficult to discover any greater name than that of Volta, whether we regard 
 his discoveries as having enlarged the bounds of science, or look to the mar- 
 velloHs benefits their applications have already conferred on mankind. — 
 The history of Galileo will doubtless occur to many as contradicting the 
 statement I have made with respect to the attitude of the Church in former 
 times to science ; but if space permitted, it would not be difficult to show 
 that few cases of abuse of power are on record admitting more easily of 
 palliation, or where an innocent victim was treated with less severity. Be- 
 fore condemning too harshly the judges of Galileo, we must recollect that 
 the new discoveries appeared, on a first view, to contradict the teaching of 
 Scripture, and that even now there is some difficulty in reconciling them to 
 certain passages in the history of the Jews, without taking some liberty with 
 the text. The Church had hastily committed itself, and Galileo had failed 
 to keep his promise to the Pope to desist from teaching the new views. The 
 consistency of the Churoli, and the safety of the greatest of her sons, were 
 both secured by an act of abjuration, which all must regret, on liis own 
 
64 
 
 science, literature, and the fine arts have flourished in 
 Italy in despite of the Catholic Church, I must leave it to 
 them to prove the truth of the assertion. 
 
 The great universities of Europe, in those countries 
 where the revolutionary floods have spared the ancient 
 landmarks, are, with few exceptions, monuments to the 
 zeal of the Church for the promotion of learning in the 
 centuries preceding the Eeformation. Even in Scotland 
 the universities survived the shock of that great event, 
 and to this day the ancient Universities of St. Andrews 
 of Glasgow and of Aberdeen derive their authority, 
 their laws, and their customs chiefly from pre-protestant 
 times. -^ But the question which now presses for solution 
 did not arise when one form of religious faith was every- 
 where acknowledged ; nor even after the Eeformation, so 
 long as it was assumed to be the duty of the whole 
 people of a country to belong to the church of the nation. 
 The toleration of other religions implied in its very 
 language the permission of an abuse, which was only 
 
 account, that Galileo signed, but whicli it -was not surprising, under the 
 circumstances, for the Church to require. His subsequent confinement ad- 
 mils of no excuse ; but it was not carried out with any great rigour. If we 
 compare with this celebrated episode in the history of the Catholic Church, 
 the condemnation to death by the Athenians of the grandest personage in all 
 antiquity, the actual infliction by the Swiss reformers of a lingering death at 
 the stake on the physician and theologian Servetus, and the wanton massacre 
 of the astronomer Bailly and of the chemist Lavoisier by the zealots of the 
 French revolution, we shall perhaps be led to take a more just view of the 
 whole transaction, and to make a due allowance for men who believed, how- 
 ever erroneously, it to be their office and duty to repress by force the propa- 
 gation of error. We must also remember that other churches held the same 
 opinion, and acted upon it, long after the Reformation, and that the practice 
 of religious toleration in modem Europe can scarcely he traced further back 
 than the middle of the seventeenth century. — fame's I{istori/ of JEtiffland, 
 chap. Iviii. ; also Ilallam's Coiintifiitiaiwl Jliston/ of England, chap. x. For the 
 lives of Galileo and Servetus, the Biographie Univeisdh- mav be consulted. 
 
 ' The reformers Mehille and Buchanan attempted to remodel the Univer- 
 sity of St. Andrews, but the original constitution was restored in its entirety 
 by the Scottish parliament in 1021, and, with the exception of a union of 
 two of its colleges in 1747, it was not again interfered with till iSoS 
 
6s 
 
 allowed because it could not be suppressed, and did not 
 impose upon the state the duty of taking measures for 
 the improvement or edification of the sectary. But a 
 new state of pubhc law and of public feehng has arisen 
 in England ; and, with the reservation of old rights and 
 privileges, all religious bodies claim, and the claim appears 
 to be tacitly recognized, to be placed in any new legisla- 
 tive measures on a footing of perfect equahty.^ We have 
 seen, in a preceding part of this narrative, the Catholic 
 prelates of Ireland go so far as to ask safeguards from 
 state for the protection of the Catholic faith, and the 
 reply of the minister, although somewhat uncertain in 
 tone, seemed to acknowledge the reasonableness of the 
 request. 
 
 The authoritative statement of Gregory XVI., that 
 from a rightly-constituted university great benefits flow 
 in all directions through the Christian republic, will 
 scarcely be disputed by any one ; but it affords little aid 
 in resolving the question we are now considering. The 
 difficulty of giving efiect to such general principles 
 in countries where diversified rehgious worship is not 
 only tolerated but free, and where the population is 
 divided into large sections, each having views pecuhar to 
 itself,' to which it attaches great value, was felt by no one 
 more strongly than by the leading divine of the Church 
 of Scotland. After remarking that a government should 
 
 ' The failure to recognize this principle led a large portion of the clergy of 
 the Established Church in Ireland for many years into the mistake of taking 
 up an untenable position, when opposing what is called the national system 
 of education in that country. On the other hand, the demand by the E. 0. 
 prelates that their flocks should, in Ireland, be placed in the same position 
 by the state, in regard to primary education, as their co-religionists in 
 England, is so fair and reasonable, that it must, sooner or later, be conceded. 
 Whether this should be done by changing the system now, pursued in Ireland, 
 so as to bring it into harmony with that of England,, or by altering the 
 systems of both countries, the writer will not presume to say. 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 not be diverted from eivinof a Christian and general 
 education to the people of a country, in consequence ot 
 the differences which have broken out in the Christian 
 world, Dr. Chalmers is forced to suggest, as the only 
 remedy, that the orthodox (Protestant) sects in Scotland 
 should give up for this object their differences of opinion, 
 and unite into one Church. The subsequent history of 
 the Scottish Church has not been in conformity with these 
 catholic aspirations ; but has, on the contrary, added an- 
 other to the many cases already on record of the sudden- 
 ness with which great religious communities sometimes 
 spHt into fraginents, and of the difficulty aftervi^ards of 
 reuniting them. The suggestion of Dr. Chalmers is a 
 further proof of the anxiety for the advancement of 
 education which has characterised the great divines of aU 
 churches ; but it gives no more help to the solution of 
 our question than the declaration .of Gregory XYI.^ 
 
 All ecclesiastics, and, with few exceptions, all laymen, 
 are agreed that the young should be taught secular 
 learning, moral lessons, and religious principles. Not 
 long ago, many were apprehensive of danger to the state 
 from the too great diffusion of secular learning ; and few 
 maxims used to be more frequently repeated than the 
 advice of the poet, to refrain from tasting the springs of 
 
 '■ 'Must the conveniences of an object,' asks Dr. Chalmers, 'so mighty as 
 the Christian education of the people, be on this account trampled underfoot; 
 and we ask, whether it would not be far more beautiful and good, that these 
 ■ distinctions between sect and sect should be offered up a sacrifice on the 
 altar of one common faith, and for the well-being of our common and general 
 humanity, than that a cause so dear, both to piety and patriotism, as a uni- 
 versal schooling in the lessons of sound principle for all the people of the 
 land, should bo given to the winds P '—Chalmers' lJ'o>7;s, vol. xvii. p. 346. 
 I ought, perhaps, to add, that these remarks bad no special reference to uni- 
 versity education. I ought also to add that, in a previous passage, the 
 Roman Catholics of Scotland, although a poruon of the people of the land, 
 were expressly excluded by Dr. Chalmers from the advantages of a public 
 education, on grounds which few will now be found to uphold but which - 
 it would be foreign to my purpose to discuss. 
 
67 
 
 knowledge, unless they were deeply quaffed. If the deep 
 draught be understood to imply accuracy of knowledge, 
 I am satisfied of the truth of the. observation. Society 
 does not require any large number of men with know- 
 ledge both extensive and profound ; but it does require 
 the information of all, as far as it goes, to be accurate, 
 and their judgment to be carefully trained. On moral 
 training, a priceless pearl, it is not needful here to dilate ; 
 and I will only observe that the subject has not been 
 exhausted, and that few' accustomed to the vapid dis- 
 courses of common teachers know what a useful addition 
 might be made to our stock of information, if some com- 
 petent and judicious hand would collect, and turn to 
 account, the scattered knowledge now locked up in 
 professional storehouses. 
 
 Few subjects have furnished a more fruitful or more 
 attractive theme to eloquent writers than the innocence 
 of the unlettered rustic ; and it is painful to dispute the 
 fidelity of the picture which forms the groundwork of 
 the charming and; in many respects, most accurate work 
 of St. Pierre. But experience shows, what it was only 
 reasonable to expect, that intellectual culture and moral 
 improvement, on the w^hole, go hand and hand. So 
 true is this statement, that those engaged in the noble 
 work of elevating the unimproved portions of the human 
 race have at last discovered, that the foundation for any 
 improvement, either religious or moral, must be laid with 
 the rudiments of letters and of the arts of civihzed life. 
 On the other hand, it would be idle to dispute that reli- 
 gious and moral training, accompanied by httle intellectual 
 progress, has a good and useful influence upon men. But 
 it is not less true — and here I wish to use very plain 
 language — that intellectual culture in itself is a good and 
 precious thing, and that its tendency is to improve all the 
 faculties, moral as well as other, of those who receive it. 
 
 f2 
 
68 
 
 The opinion, implied rather than directly stated, by many 
 divines, Protestant as well as Catholic, that secular educa- 
 tion, unaccompanied by religious teaching, is positively 
 hurtful, and tends to develop the worse instead of the 
 better qualities of human nature, is a wild conceit, contra- 
 dicted by the wliole history of mankind. The citizen of 
 ancient Athens, whether taught the lessons of wisdom in 
 the Academy, the Garden, the Porch, or the Grove, was 
 not only an incomparably grander form of humanity, but 
 was, in all respects, a far better man, than the untutored 
 Carib or Peejee islander. This remark applies with equal 
 truth to mankind in every stage of social development. 
 The more enlightened the commonwealth, the more ad- 
 vanced in art, in science, and in letters, the better, on the 
 whole, are the individuals who compose it. In war itself, 
 where the characters of men are brought out in such 
 strong relief, the peaceful occupier of the soil has learned 
 by experience to regard with very different feelings the 
 soldier of a civilised and of an uncivilised race. The 
 excesses of the first Prench revolution have had some 
 effect in producing the impression that secular knowledge 
 contains a hidden element of danger, Avhich must be 
 eliminated, in order to render its reception safe to man- 
 kind. But that revolution must be traced to deeper 
 sources than the writings of the encyclopedists, and, in 
 its progress, it selected indifferently for its victims the 
 noblest and most exalted citizens of Prance.' The same 
 
 ' Lavoisier, who, with. Laplace, holds in the estimation of his countrjnien 
 the highest position among the men of science of France of the last century, 
 was hurried off from his scientific labours to the guillotine, at the early age 
 of fifty-one years. He begged for a few days' respite, in order to finish the 
 researches on which he was engaged, but the request was peremptorily re- 
 fused by the chief of his judges, on the ground that Fi-ance had no longer 
 any occasion for men of science. Lavoisier was a landed proprietor and in 
 the disastrous year of 1788, he advanced the large sum of 50 000 francs for 
 the relief of distress in the town of Blois. See his life, by Cuvier in the 
 Biographie Unieerscllc. 
 
69 
 
 sentiment has also been encouraged by a sort of reac- 
 tionary feeling against the extreme views of a small but 
 active portion of the community, who, regarding with a 
 jaundiced eye the weak points of the clerical character, 
 take pleasure in dwelling on the grievous mistakes which, 
 as history records, have been often committed by domi- 
 nant churches. According to the views of this party, if 
 mankind could only get rid of clerical interference in 
 education, a happy era would dawn upon the human race, 
 and the passions of youth would be found to yield effec- 
 tually to the influence of sound secular teaching, combined 
 with athletic games. 
 
 Eeligious training in an advanced state of society be- 
 longs essentially to the family life, and any attempt, on 
 the part of a state or a church, to interfere with the free 
 action of parental authority, will in the end lead only to 
 unhappy results. In its details, this training will assume 
 the greatest possible variety ; but the head or heads of 
 the family must decide, whether it shall be left altogether 
 to the spiritual adviser, or whether they themselves will 
 undertake, in whole or in part, the responsibility. When 
 the student resides under the parental roof, or has been 
 entrusted by his parent to the care of a responsible guar- 
 dian, the college may safely confine its functions to secular 
 teaching ; and, far from rendering itself thereby liable to 
 the imputation o'f being hostile to religion, or to the 
 Catholic, or any other form of the Christian faith, it may, 
 on the contrary, declare with truth, that any other course 
 would interfere with that freedom of action which is 
 essential to the freedom of religious worship. When the 
 student neither resides with his parents, nor with a guar- 
 dian, the case is different ; but it may be satisfactorily met 
 without infringing just principles. If the college or uni- 
 versity be placed in a large town, where representatives 
 of all the leading churches are to be found, the parent 
 
himself, or the college with the approval of the parent, 
 may place the student under the spiritual care of an 
 accredited clergyman or mmister ; or the coU^e may 
 connect with itself clergymen of different churches, in the 
 capacity of deans, for the special purpose of attending to 
 such students. It is at the same time open to all the 
 religious communiti^ to erect halls for the r^dence of 
 students, and this course wiU probably be adopted at 
 Oxford and Cambridge, if, as is greatly to be desired, the 
 Dissenters should hereafter resort in larger numbers to 
 those ancient seats of learning.^ 
 
 The education of the youth of these countries, both at 
 the imiversity and the school, remains chiefly in the hands 
 of the members of the clerical profession. That they 
 have, on the whole, performed their duty well, no one will 
 be inclined to dispute. They have never proposed to 
 banish the classical writers of Greece and Rome, because 
 their views are not those of Christian times. Xot only 
 are the works of Homer and Plato, of Virgil and Cicero, 
 everywhere taught, but Ovid is a common school author, 
 and Horace is universally read. If the great poet-philo- 
 sopher of antiqmty has been less fortunate, the cause is 
 to be found in the difficulty of his subject and the pto- 
 foimdness of his method of teaching it, so that even 
 the accomplished scholar, unless well versed in physical 
 science, often finds himself at a loss to follow his meaning.^ 
 
 ' The principle of tlie authority of the parent being ablate and final in 
 the case referred to, has been fiilly recognized by the English legislatoie in 
 the Colleges Act (8 & 9 Vict. cap. 66, sec. 14, 15). The imputatiiHi 
 against the system of the Queen's College in Ireland, as implying a nega- 
 tion of religion, has no real foundation ; but it might perhaps be alleged 
 with some plausibility against the old universities, from the time they 
 admitted Dissenters, without making any provision whatever directly or 
 indirectly, for their spiritual instruction. 
 
 ' These remarks apply to the portions of the ' De Eerum Xatura ' devoted 
 to physical subjects. It is nevertheless singular how little the works of the 
 most original writer in the Latin language are read, particularlv as they are 
 also remarkable for purity and vigour of diction. 
 
When the school or the college is the residence of the 
 student, and, for the time, takes the place of the parental 
 home, it must accept the duty of moral and religious 
 training; and it is obviously convenient, although not 
 essential, that the head of the school should be a clergy- 
 man, particularly if the pupils are all of the same religious 
 faith. But while allowing his fair position to the clerical 
 teacher, we must strenuously guard against conceding to 
 him an exclusive control over the education of the country. 
 He belongs to a powerful profession, whose members, in 
 addition to some serious faults of their own, are not ex- 
 empt from many of the failings of the members of other 
 professions. From their special training, they are well 
 fitted to develop many of the higher qualities of youth ; 
 but they are often deficient in a knowledge of what is 
 going on around them ; and they have hitherto failed in 
 the important object of grafting the young and vigorous 
 shoots of modern science on the old stock of classical 
 learning.^ 
 
 The foundation of the Catholic University in Belgium 
 by the prelates of that country under the authority of the 
 pope, and of a similar institution in Ireland, form a new 
 epoch in the relations of the Catholic Church to higher 
 education. No greater mistake could be made than to 
 suppose that the constitution of these new institutions 
 has any resemblance to that of the old universities of 
 Paris, or Bologna, or Prague. The constitution of the 
 latter was framed for the purpose of encouraging the free- 
 dom of learning, and was worthy of the brightest days 
 of the Catholic Church ; the constitution of the former 
 
 ' While objecting to the strain upon the powers of the school-boy from 
 such an examination as that prescribed for matriculation by the University, 
 of London, the -writer has always been of opinion that, in addition to the 
 elements of mathematics, portions of the physical. sciences should be taught 
 in schools ; and that they ought also to take a prominent place in the un-- 
 dergraduate course of every university. 
 
72 
 
 attempted to reconcile the requirements of learning witli 
 the most abject submission to ecclesiastical power, and 
 corresponds to what, if speaking of a temporal institution, 
 we should describe as a period of decline and decay. 
 Their subordination in all respects to the Church is shown 
 in the very designation they have received, and the reader 
 must take care not to confound, even in name, the ' Ca- 
 thohc University at Louvain ' with the old ' University of 
 Louvain,' any more than the ' Catholic University of Ire- 
 land ' with the short-lived ' University of Dublin,' which 
 was founded under the bulls of Clement Y. and John XXII. 
 in the early part of the fourteenth century. In the Catho- 
 lic University of Belgium, the rector takes an oath of 
 fidelity and obedience to the episcopal body, and the 
 professors one of homage to the rector.^ I have not seen 
 the statutes of the Irish University, but it may safely be 
 presumed that they do not essentially differ, in regard to 
 episcopal control, ffom the draft charter proposed to the 
 late government by the prelates for the CathoHc Univer- 
 sity College of Ireland. Whether this assumption be cor- 
 rect or not, the latter document embodies unquestionably 
 the claims of the episcopate in Ireland over the higher 
 education of Eoman Cathohcs in that country. In the 
 fuU analysis I have already given of this important paper, 
 I have adduced abundant proofs that the Irish prelates 
 are not less vigorous in their demands for absolute control 
 than were their brethren in Belgium ; while their claims 
 are put forward in a far more offensive form, and in a way 
 not only to interfere vnth its fi-eedom of action, but to 
 lower both the position and dignity of the univei-sity.^ It 
 
 ' Formula juramenti emittendi a Eectore ilagnifico : — 'Eiro X. nominatii5 
 Rector Universitatis Catholiea;, fidelis et obediens ero ccetui Episcoporum 
 Belgii, et pro yiribus juxta illorum mentem curabo honorem et prosperi- 
 tatem dictee UniTersitatis. Sic me Deus adjuvet/ &c. — RappoH nar V 
 Kothomh, p. 1927. 
 
 ' Vide supra, p. 45, note 2. 
 
73 
 
 is impossible that such claims, when clearly understood, 
 can receive an authoritative sanction, either from the 
 crown, or the pavliament of England ; and the prelates 
 themselves seem to have had a feeling of this kind, when, 
 apparently to disguise the true character of their proposal, 
 they stated that the draft charter of the Catholic College 
 was borrowed in its main details from the charter of 
 King's College, London.' The attempt to obtain by royal 
 charter a confirmation of the absolute authority, which 
 the bishops had already acquired from the Holy See, was, 
 if possible, a greater mistake than the implied proposal 
 to remove a Cathohc disability in Ulster, where there are 
 nearly one milhon Eoman Catholics, by changing the 
 present Queen's College at Belfast into an exclusively 
 Presbyterian institution.^ 
 
 The impartial inquirer will probably come to the con- 
 clusion that the Church has been ill advised, and has 
 acted without proper consideration throughout all these 
 transactions. It condemned the Queen's Colleges before 
 their statutes were even promulgated, although it had 
 not condemned the free University of Brussels, whose con- 
 stitution was far more unfavourable to Catholic principles 
 than that of the Queen's Colleges. It established, after 
 great sacrifices on the part of the lay members of the 
 Church, a Catholic Uni\ Tsity in Ireland ; and it refused 
 to allow any but ecclesiastics to have a voice in its* govern- 
 ment. It declared the system of the Qucien's Colleges to 
 be intrinsically dangerous to the faith and morals of 
 Catholics ; and it did not complain, although it saw four 
 lay members of acknowledged position acting for years on 
 
 ' Vide mpra, pp. 4.3, 44. 
 
 "^ According to the census of 1861, there were 066,613 Roman Catholics 
 in Ulster, and 947,067 Protestants. The number of the former likely to 
 talie advantage of a university education is comparatively small, but certainly 
 not so small as to be entirely disregarded. 
 
74 
 
 the Senate of the university which conferred degrees on 
 the students of the condemned colleges.^ 
 
 The parhament of Ireland, five years before tljc legis- 
 lative union with Great Britain, passed an act authorizing 
 an academy to be founded and endowed in Ireland, for 
 the education of persons professing the Koman Catholic 
 religion, and it named a mixed board of Protestant and 
 
 ' I subjoin two extracts in confirmation of tHe opinions I have ventured 
 to express of these new Catholic universities ; the first, from an address 
 delivered by M. de Earn, rector of the Catholic University at Louvain, on 
 the occasion of its inauguration in 1834; the second, from a work on Uni- 
 versities by the Rev. J. H. Newman, who was the first president of the 
 Catholic University of Ireland. ' Ut hseo vota cumulatissime perficiantur, 
 tandem supplices convertimur ad Virginem illam beatiasimam, cuj us nutu 
 ccelorum thesauri dispensautur. Tuam opem, Maeia, nunquam frustra 
 imploravit Belgium, quod singulari suo erga te reverentiee et grati animi 
 sensuinclaruit. Tibi, quse cunctas hsereses solaexstirpastiinmundouniverso, 
 conservatum referimus fidei depositum. Tu genti nostras, nomini tuo avita 
 hasreditate devotee, semper adfuisti turns altera David, ex qua niille clypei 
 pependere, quiim a coutrariis Fidei potestatibus nostrates appeterentur. 
 Immensis beneficiis, omni »vo Belgicee tuse largiter concessis, hoc insuper 
 adjicias precamur, ut nascentem Academiam, tibi addictissimam futuram 
 tuoque nomini eonsecratam, sub pallio maternse tuteloe propitia recipias. 
 Te patronam agnoscimus et veneramur; ad te Steilam Makis, stellam 
 coelesti lumine radiantem suspicimus, ut quod tuo patrocinio est institutum, 
 tua auctoritate protegatur, tuo beneficio confirmetur, tuoque preesidio ad 
 Dei laudem et Ecclesiie honorem multis soeculorum setatibus conservetur.' 
 — HappoH par M. Nothomh, p. 1942. ' When, then, I con.'ider what an eye 
 the Sovereign Pontiff's have for the future, and what an independence in 
 policy and vigour in action have been the characteristics of theii' present 
 representative, and what a flood of success, moimting higher and higher, 
 has lifted uj) the Ark of God from the beginning of this century ; and then, 
 that the Holy Father has definitely put his finger upon Ireland, and se- 
 lected her soil as the seat of a great Catholic University, to spread religion, 
 science, and learning, wherever the English language is spoken ; wheu 
 I take all these things together, I care not what others think — I care not 
 what others do — God has no need of men — oppose who will,— I know 
 and cannot doubt that a great work is begun. It is no great imprudence to 
 commit oneself to a guidance which never yet has failed ; nor is it surely 
 irrational or fanatical to believe that, whatever difliculties or disappoint- 
 ments, reverses or delays, may be our lot in the prosecution of the work its 
 ultimate success is certain, even though it seem at first to fail : just as the 
 
 greatest measures in former times have been the longest in carryin"' out 
 
 as Athanasius triumphed, though he passed away before Arianism and Ilil- 
 debrand died in exile, that his successors might enter into hjs labours ' 
 — The Office and Work of ITniversitics, bj' J. H. Newman, p, 224. 
 
Catholic trustees to carry the provisions of that act into 
 operation. Such was the origin of the College of May- 
 nooth, whose merits have been the subject of so much 
 popular discussion. In the original act, no allusion is 
 made to the education of the Catholic piiesthood ; and 
 although the college was no doubt chiefly intended for 
 their use, it was also designed for the education of the lay 
 members of the Catholic Church. One stringent clause 
 prohibits any Protestant from being received into the col- 
 lege, an unmeaning enactment if applied to the students 
 of an exclusively theological seminary. Accordingly, in 
 addition to the college for ecclesiastics, a lay college with 
 a prefect and teachers of its own was established in 1797, 
 and continued in existence till 1817, when it was closed 
 from causes which are not now clearly known.-' 
 
 Four acts of parliament, two commissions of inquiry, 
 and the augmentation of the annual grant to more than 
 triple its original amount, testify to the interest the legis- 
 lature has taken in this college.^ The failure of a vehement 
 and somewhat unscrupulous party to induce the parlia- 
 ment of the United Kingdom, even after Catholic emanci- 
 pation, to deprive the Eoman Catholics of Ireland of the 
 only favour they had ever received from the legislature, 
 
 • The original act is entitled ' An Act for the better education of persons 
 professing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion ' (35 Geo. III. c. 21.). It 
 appoints trustees ' for the purpose of establishing, endowing, and maintaining 
 one academy for the education only of persons professing- the Roman Catholic 
 religion,' and authorizes them to receive subscriptions and donations for this 
 purpose, and to acquire lands not exceeding the annual value of one thou- 
 sand pounds. The ninth section declares ' that it shall not be lawful to re- 
 ceive into, or educate or instruct in the said academy, any person professing 
 the Protestant religion, or whose father professed the Protestant religion ; 
 and that any president, master, professor, or teacher, who shall instruct any 
 person in the said academy professing the Protestant religion, shall remain 
 liable to such pains and penalties as he would have been liable to before the 
 passing of this Act.' 
 
 " The grant in 1796 was 7,7t>Ql, and after several fluctuations it was fixed 
 in 1813 at 9,673/. In 1845 it was made a charge on the Consolidated Fund, 
 and augmented to 26, .360/. 
 
76 
 
 showed clearly that the mind of the people of England 
 was sound, and that the time had arrived when Protestant 
 opinions could be maintained without acting unjustly to 
 others. No institution has ever been subjected to more 
 searching investigation than the College of Maynooth, and, 
 whatever may be its merits or its faults, they have been 
 exposed to the public view with a clearness which leaves 
 nothing to be desired. Questions have been entered into 
 which ought never to have formed the subject of a parlia- 
 mentary inquiry, and attempts have been made, on weak 
 and frivolous grounds, to lower the character and injure 
 the position of the institution. The voluminous evidence 
 appended to the reports of the commissions contains a large 
 mass of interesting information for the student of Church 
 history, and gives, on the whole, a favourable impres- 
 sion of the acuteness and ability of the professors. The 
 system of education, however, appears to be unnecessarily 
 severe, even after making every allowance for the difficulty 
 of training young men for the Catholic priesthood.^ 
 
 When a great population, such as the Eoman Catholic 
 in Ireland, express an earnest wish for any reasonable 
 object, it is the duty of the government, and it ought to 
 be the desire of all dispassionate men, to consider the 
 proposal carefully, and to endeavour if possible to accede 
 to it. For sixteen years the E. C. prelates of Ireland have 
 laboured sedulously to "^tablish the Catholic University, 
 and in order to give its degrees a legal position in this 
 country, they have endeavoured to obtain for it a charter 
 of incorporation as a university. It is not easy to ascer- 
 tain with certainty the feelings of the lay members of the 
 Catholic Church ; but their contributions on the one hand, 
 
 ■■ Referring to the period from Easter to the end of the academical year, 
 Dr. Russell, who is now president of the college, made the following re- 
 marlc in 1853 ; — ' The studies of that part of the year, I certainly think, are 
 found very oppressive, and particularly by the younger students.' — lieport of 
 Maynooth Commission (1833), Minutes of Evidence, p. 64. 
 
77 
 
 and the language in parliament of their leading repre- 
 sentatives on the other, may perhaps be considered as 
 conveying their approval.^ I have already shown the 
 difficulties — to my mind insuperable difficulties — which 
 stand in the way of a charter being granted by the crown 
 of these realms to confirm the apostolical constitution of 
 the Catholic University in Ireland. Unless its constitution 
 differ greatly from that proposed to the late ministry by 
 the prelates for the government of the E. C. University 
 College, it must be one of the most arbitrary and despotib 
 which ever emanated from any body, lay or ecclesiastical. 
 Such a constitution would place the higher education of 
 the Catholics of Ireland, without check or appeal of any 
 kind, under the authority of four ecclesiastics, and, I con- 
 fess, I am lost in surprise to find that the lay members of 
 the Church gave, either openly or tacitly, their adhesion 
 to such a measure. But happily their adhesion, whether 
 given from actual approval or from motives of expediency, 
 is not likely to prevail in carrying a scheme, fraught with 
 the most unfavourable consequences, to the intelligent 
 portion of the Eoman Catholic population of Ireland.^ 
 
 The modified proposal, to which the prelates gave a 
 reluctant consent, to connect the Catholic University with 
 the Queen's University in Ireland, as a sort of fourth col- 
 lege, is liable to all the foregoing objections, with this 
 objection over and above, that it would be fatal to the 
 existing Queen's Colleges. The prelates, we have seen, 
 demanded, as the price of this concession, that the system 
 of these colleges should be changed, so as to render them 
 no longer free to all, a proposal involving as a necessary 
 
 1 Vide stip-a, p. 42. The language of the O'Donoghue is clear, but the 
 facility with which he withdrew his motion suggests a doubt as to whether 
 it was intended to be seriously pressed. 
 
 2 It will be remembered that in Belgium the state has kept apart from 
 the Catholic university at Louvain, and that constitutionally it is a stranger 
 to that institution.— -Swi^ra, p. 40, note 2. 
 
78 
 
 consequence the conversion of one, if not two of them, 
 into exclusively Catholic institutions.'- It would lead also 
 in several subjects to the appointment of two sets of uni- 
 versity exaniiners, one for the students of the Cathohc 
 University College, another for the students of the Queen's- 
 Colleges. The application of the tests of knowledge, of 
 which an interpretation has already been given, would 
 destroy the independence of the Queen's University ; it 
 would cease to be frequented by any except students of 
 the Catholic faith ; and the prelates would gain the double 
 victory of seizing a hostile fortress, and turning it into a 
 place of strength for their own use.^ 
 
 It is needless to refer further to the doctrinaire scheme 
 of the late government, which, like other schemes of the 
 same kind, was scarcely approved by any except those 
 Tv'ho proposed it, and was altogether unsuited for its 
 purpose.^ 
 
 ' 'In the clianges referred to, as we understand them, we recognize a token 
 of the wiiling-ness of Her Majesty's government to grant an instalment of the 
 justice in educational matters to which our flocks are entitled; but, if un- 
 accompanied by an endowment of our Catholic University, and a recon- 
 struction of the Queen's Colleges, we cannot regard them as satisfactory to 
 
 the Catholics of Ireland Without re-arranging the Queen's 
 
 Colleges on the principles of the denominational system, so as to meet the 
 conscientious objections of Catholics, much of the evils and injustice of 
 which C.itholics complain will remain unredressed.' — Par. Papa; March 5, 
 1866, p. 8. 
 
 '' For the teats of knowledge, vide supra, p. 43, note 2. 
 
 ^ The convocation of the Queen's University, as we have seen, passed a 
 resolution at its first meeting, disapproving of the acceptance of the supple- 
 mental charter. Even the majoi-ity of the Senate, by whom that chaiter 
 was accepted, proceeded to make an'angements for affiliating colleges, not 
 sanctioned, as the writer has endeavoured to show, by its provisions, and in 
 direct opposition to the statement in Sir G. Grey's letter, that the admis- 
 sion of candidates for degrees, not educated at an affiliated college, would 
 render it unnecessary that any colleges should be affiliated. The disap- 
 pointment of the K. 0. prelates is very clearly stated in a letter dated Feb- 
 ruary 11, 18(i6, from iVi-chbishop Cullen to Sir G. Grey: — 'Having commu- 
 nicated your reply to those [the E. C] prelates, I regret to say that they ai-e 
 of opinion that the promises held out to them in that document are far from 
 corresponding to the hope which they had entertained that the present "-o- 
 vernment, so liberal and enlightened, would have taken some eflective step 
 
19 
 
 More than a year and a half ago, the Avriter of these 
 pages ventured to suggest, as the best way of settling this 
 difficult question, that the structure, whose foundation was 
 laid by the parliament of Ireland, should be completed, 
 and that the College of Maynooth should be raised to the 
 ^igiiity, and receive the privileges, of a university. It has 
 already been shown that the Irish parhament estabhshed 
 this college for the education of the Cathohc laity, as well 
 as the priesthood, of Ireland ; and the proposal of the 
 writer was that this purpose should be fully and com- 
 pletely accomplished. His view was, and still is, that a 
 lay college for general education should be added to the 
 present college, entirely distinct from the latter, and go- 
 verned by different laAvs ; but so arranged that the students 
 of both might pursue portions of their secular studies to- 
 gether. Such a system would be in accordance with that 
 which has hitherto prevailed throughout the Catholic 
 world, and, notwithstanding the increase in recent times 
 of diocesan seminaries, continues in most parts of Europe 
 to be in fuU operation. In the greater number of the 
 universities of Germany, such, for example, as those of 
 Vienna and Munich, there are Catholic faculties of 
 
 to place them and their flock on a footing of equality with their fellow-sub- 
 jecta of other religious denominations in regard to religion. However, they 
 are not willing to give any decided opinion upon this matter until they shall 
 have seen the proposed charter of the new university, and the draft of a char- 
 ter for the Roman Catholic University, in the form in which the government 
 would consider it admissible.' — Pari Paper, March 5, 1866, p. 17. In reply, 
 Sir G. Grey hopes to be able, in a very short time, to transmit to Archbishop 
 OuUen a copy, not of the charter of the new university, but of the new 
 charter for the university, and also the draft of a charter which the govern- 
 ment would be prepared to advise the crown to grant to the R. 0. Univer- 
 sity College. Id. p. 17. As this reply of Sir G. Grey closes the corre- 
 spondence between the government and the prelates, so far as it has been 
 communicated to parliament, it does not appear whether Sir G. Grey was 
 able to fulfil his design of sending copies of these charters to the prelates for 
 their consideration. The writer would be glad to learn in what way the laf e 
 government proposed to modify the draft charter of the bishops, so that they 
 mio-ht be able to advise the crown to sanction it. 
 
8o 
 
 theology, and the young student .intended for the Church 
 mingles with the other students when attending the 
 public lectures on philosophy or letters. In the Univer- 
 sity of Freiburg, one-half of the students belong to the 
 faculty of theology, and one-fourth to that of philosophy ; 
 but even in that ecclesiastical school, nearly one-fourth 
 of the students belong to the faculties of law and 
 medicine. At Eome itself, the capital of the Catholic 
 Church, the lay and clerical students may be seen in the 
 CoUegio Eomano pursuing their secular studies together. 
 The system of educating the novitiate from a tender 
 age in special seminaries formed the subject of an ordi- 
 nance of the CouncU of Trent ; but it was the concordat 
 concluded in 1801 between ISTapoleon, when First Consul, 
 and Pius VII., which first gave to this system a complete 
 organisation. The education of the secular clergy in 
 France is now conducted in seminaries, one of which is 
 to be found in every diocese, as well as a preparatory 
 institution (petit seminaire) for early training. The 
 student before entering the seminary is permitted, but is 
 not required, to have pursued his previous studies in the 
 public colleges and lyceums which are open to the laity. 
 In order to enter the Church, he is not obliged to proceed 
 to the university ; but he cannot otherwise graduate as a 
 bachelor, licentiate, or doctor in theology.^ Seminaries 
 now exist very generally throughout Western Europe; 
 the view of the Church being that, in every Catholic 
 diocese, a seminary and preparatory school should be 
 established, under the superintendence of the bishop, for 
 the education of those intended for the clerical profession. 
 In some countries, lilce Portugal, where the State deprived 
 the Church of its property, without making any adequate 
 
 ' Reply of M. Fortoul, Minister of Tublic Instruction, to Lord Clai'en- 
 don's Circular Despatch of November 30, lS53.—A2}j}eiidtx to Seport of 
 Mai/nooth Commission, p. 215. 
 
8i 
 
 provision for the support of the clergy, the bishops were 
 unable, so late as 1853, to provide, by seminaries or 
 otherwise, for the education of the future ecclesiastics of 
 the country ; ^ but such cases are exceptional, and, 
 under Cathohc as well as Protestant governments, the 
 education of the priesthood is now chiefly conducted in 
 diocesan seminaries. 
 
 The number of persons required for the service of the 
 Catholic Church is so great that it would be impossible 
 to give them all a regular university education. The 
 plan of educating all, in the first place, in special semi- 
 naries, and of encouraging those who can afibrd the 
 expense, or who have shown superior abilities, to proceed 
 afterwards to the university, appears to be well adapted to 
 meet the exigencies of the case.^ It obtains, at a mode- 
 rate cost, a sufficient supply of the ordinary clergy, while 
 it provides a higher education for a select number.^ 
 
 ' Sir E. Pakenham, the British minister at Lisbon, vmting in 1854, after 
 describing the respective parts which the seminaries and the University of 
 Coimbra played in the education of the clergy, observes : ' It must be care- 
 fully remarked that these statements are true only of the period previous to 
 1833 ; for since that year there has been scarcely anything in the shape of 
 ecclesiastical education in this country ; that is, this country has been, during 
 twenty years, without diocesan seminaries, or without any system or place 
 of education for the clergy. The only exceptions to this statement are the 
 existence of a few students in the University of Ooimbra, and the struggling 
 endurance of the remote seminaries of Braga and Oporto for their respective 
 dioceses. In latter years, the patriarch of Lisbon has succeeded, out of his 
 scanty means, in maintaining daily lessons for a few external students in 
 theology and canon law. The students reside where they please. The 
 bishops would have their diocesan seminaries if they could ; but the short- 
 sighted policy of 1833 left the bishops and clergy scarcely enough to support 
 and clothe themselves. The state has at last recognized its fatal error,' &c. 
 —Beply to Lord Clarmdon's Circular Despatch. Seport of Maynooth Cotn^ 
 mission, p. 232. 
 
 ' It is perhaps, beyond the province of the writer to express an opinion on 
 the subject, but the application of the exclusive system to the smaller or 
 preparatory seminaries, which receive young persons at the age of twelve 
 years appears to him to be ill devised for training a class of men who are 
 intended to instruct the community at large. 
 
 ' We have already seen, on the authority of M. Fortoul, that even in 
 Franc© where the seminaiy system has been so fully developed, and where 
 ' G 
 
8f2' 
 
 The College of MayriootH in its present state has been 
 described as a combination of diocesan seminaries, a con- 
 dition of things contemplated by the Catholic Church 
 only in the case of the poverty of the dioceses, and of 
 their inability to support separate seminaries.^ The pro- 
 posal of the writer would bring the system of education 
 in Ireland into harmony with that which prevails in other 
 countries of Europe, and would remedy many of the de- 
 fects of the existing, arrangements. A certain number 
 of the humbler or less able students, who now resort to 
 Maynooth, would qualify themselves at the seminary for 
 the less responsible situations in the Church, while a 
 superior training would be given to those educated at 
 Maynooth itself. It is manifest, from the evidence before 
 the last commission, that far too large a number of young 
 men intended for the clerical office are congregated toge- 
 ther at. Maynooth, and that the duU system of routine 
 and exclusive teaching, adapted to the ordinary or infe- 
 rior student, has a most depressing iniluence upon those 
 whose minds are cast in a better mould. The reference 
 may appear a little extravagant, but the view of the 
 writer is that Maynooth should become in Ireland a E. C. 
 
 it is partially supported by the statej no ecclesiastical student can obtain a 
 degree in theology unless he proceed to the university. In Austria, the 
 young clergy are, as a rule, educated in establishments or seminaries spe- 
 cially instituted for that purpose, and, with one or two exceptions, there is 
 a seminary in every diocese of that country. On the other hand, a portion 
 of the candidates for holy orders study theology at the universilies, and the 
 bishops often recommend persons already admitted to clerical orders to pro- 
 ceed to them, in order to finish their general education, especially when they 
 intend to derote themselves to the office of teaching. In Portugal, previous 
 to 1833, great inducements were held out to students to graduate at the 
 imiversity, and those who had attained university honours were selected in 
 preference for ecclesiastical benefices. Each congregation of the regular 
 clergy had a representative house or hospitium in Coimbra, and the most 
 talented students were sent thither from every part of the kingdom, and 
 supported at the expense of their respective hospitiums. — Meplies to Lord 
 Clarendon's De^atch. Maynooth Report, pp. 217, 218, 219, and 232. 
 
 * The clear and able evidence of Bishop Moriarty before the Maynooth 
 Commission may be read with advantage. — Mmtctet of Evidence, ri^.-lW- 
 125. 
 
S3 
 
 Oxford^ and 'that its- constitution shotildj as'far aspossible, 
 be framed after tlie model of that noble but essentially 
 medigeval university.^ 
 
 . To the success of such a measure, it is above all 
 things essential that the independence of Maynooth be 
 maintained. The pretensions of the Church, of late 
 years, would place the superior education of the Eoman 
 CathoUcs of Ireland under the absolute sway of one or 
 two powerful ecclesiastics, and would lead to a spiritual 
 despotism, fatal to ah freedom of thought, alike among 
 the clergy and laity. That the cause of human progress 
 has nothing eventually to fear from this, or other similar 
 efforts, to roll society backwards, and to assert the most 
 indefensible claims, without even the excuse of high 
 Ifearning on the part of those who put them forth, cannot 
 be a question of doubt ; but, for the moment, a heavy drag 
 is thereby applied to the chariot of social advancement.^ 
 
 ' According to the proposal of the writer, the University of Maynooth 
 would have the power of granting degrees in law and medicine. From its 
 position it would not be the seat of a medical school, and for many years 
 the medical instruction at Oxford was only formal ; hut the students of me- 
 dicine might spend with advantage one or two years in preparatory studies 
 at Maynooth, and, after pursuing their professional education elsewhere, 
 obtain their degrees from it. 
 
 *The present constitution of the College of St. Patrick, . Maynooth, is 
 chiefly derived from the provisions of an. Act passed in the last session of 
 the parliament of Ireland (40 Geo. III. c. 85). By that Act the govern- 
 ment of the college is chiefly vested in a board of trustees — a mixed body, 
 hitherto composed of eleven K. 0. ecclesiastics and six R. O. laymen. Thisi 
 board has the power of appointing the president, professors, and scholars, 
 and of making statutes and bye-laws for the government of the college, 
 which are valid if not disapproved by. the lord-lieutenaiit within one month 
 after they have been submitted to him. The nomination of the presi- 
 dent is subject to the approval of the executive government. The profes- 
 sors are usually selected by a concursus, but the choice of the successful 
 candidate rests ultimately with the trustees, who are not bound by the result 
 of the examination. There is also a board of visitors, five of whom, under 
 the Act of 1845, are appointed by the crown, and the other three by the trus- 
 tees with the approval of the lord-lieutenajit. The chief secretary for 
 Ireland is one of the visitors, who are not exclusively members of the R. C. 
 Church. If Maynooth should receive the extension proposed by the writer, 
 
 g2 
 
84 
 
 It will, no doubt, be objected by many, that the pro- 
 posal of the writer is contrary to the principle, assumed 
 in recent legislation, that no new privileges of an exclu- 
 sive kind should be conferred upon any religious body^ 
 The position of the Eoman Cathohcs in Ireland is, how- 
 ever, very pecuhar, and niay well justify them in preferring 
 a claim for even an exceptional privilege. The clergy of 
 the other two great churches in Ireland are mainly sup- 
 ported from public sources, while the Eoman Catholics, 
 with an overwhelming population, scarcely above the 
 pauper class, have hitherto received no special aid of any 
 kind, except a small provision for education, originally 
 intended for all, but latterly confined to ecclesiastics. 
 But on the higher ground of public utility, I am ready to 
 defend this exceptional measure. The views of the E. C. 
 clergy, and of many of the laity, on the subject of higher 
 education are so different from those prevalent in England 
 and Scotland, that it is idle to look for any good results 
 from a forced attempt to introduce one uniform system. 
 This policy has been tried too long in Ireland, and with 
 very poor results. The system of education which the 
 Eoman Catholic of Ireland prefers may be less perfect 
 than that of his Protestant fellow-subject of the sister 
 island, but, unless it be (like the draft charter so often 
 referred to) incompatible with constitutional principles, it 
 ought to be freely allowed, and it will in his hands yield 
 a far richer harvest of results than the other. Among the 
 names which adorn the history of science in France, none 
 stands higher than Pascal ; and the last of the briUiant 
 array of mathematicians, who are the pride and boast of 
 that country, was the late M. Cauchy; yet both these 
 illustrious men were, if possible, more devotedly attached 
 
 tlie lay element on the board of trustees would require to be greatly 
 strengthened, or a separate board, composed chiefly of lay members, should 
 be appointed for the government of the non-theological part of the univeraty. 
 
85 
 
 to the Catholic Church than to science itself. If the 
 Eoman Catholics of Ireland are to rise to their proper 
 position among the inhabitants of the British Empire, they 
 must be allowed to improve themselves after their own 
 fashion.^ 
 
 ' The -writer does not believe that all the Roman Catholic students, or 
 even a majority of them, would resort to Maynooth, any more than to the 
 Catholic University, if either of those institutions obtained by charter the 
 power of granting degrees. Some would, in his opinion, proceed as hitherto 
 to the University of Dublin, a few to Oxford and Cambridge, and many 
 would even continue to resort to the condemned Queen's Colleges. The 
 growing wants of the population, as the material resources of Ireland are 
 gradually discovered and turned to use, would give full occupation to all 
 these universities ; and an honourable rivalry might even spring up among 
 them. If the University of Maynooth secured, as it might readily do, the 
 services of a few professors of European reputation, there is no reason why 
 Protestants should not resort to it, as they now resort to Paris and Vienna, 
 for general or professional information. If Maynooth were so fortunate as 
 to have a Dumas teaching chemistry, a Regnault teaching phj'sies, or a 
 Rokitanski teaching pathology; will anyone doubt that students would 
 proceed thither, not only from all parts of Ireland, but also from Great 
 Britain ? The old story, related by Alciun of the Northumbrian missionary 
 Willibrord,— 
 
 ' Qnem tibi [o Francia] iam genuit fecundi Britannia mater, 
 Soctaque nutriiut studiis sed Hibemia sacris/ — 
 
 might be repeated, after the lapse of more than ten centuries. But to the 
 success of this or any other scheme for the improvement in intellectual cul- 
 ture of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, one condition is essential, failing 
 which, the cause for the present is hopeless. The laity must perform their 
 part. They must openly and firmly maintain their proper position, which, 
 whether from respect for the leaders of the Church, or from regard for their 
 political influence, they have not latterly done. The cardinal ai-chbishop, 
 speaking in the name of the episcopate, assumes to be the absolute and sole 
 representative of the Roman Catholics, lay as well as clerical, of Ireland. 
 He does not hesitate to declare authoritatively that certain measures cannot 
 be satisfactory to the Catholics of Ireland; and the laity, by their silence, 
 ^ve a tacit consent both to the claim and the statement. The power 
 of the central authority of the Church was brought into action, some time 
 ago to crush any display of independence, or of free opinion among the 
 bishops and clergy ; and the same power has silenced the laity. That this 
 condition of things depends on temporary causes, and will pass away with 
 the political influence of the Catholic Church in Ireland, the writer fully 
 believes ■ but in the meantime, no relief will be found in weak and indefen- 
 sible measures, like the proposed supplemental charter of the Queen's 
 University. 
 
86 
 
 The admirer's of the institutions which have arisen in 
 France, out of the wreck caused by the revolution of 
 1789, will not view with favour the proposal to establish 
 a third university in Ireland, whoUy distinct from the two 
 already existing in that country. According to their 
 views, the present institutions for higher education ought 
 rather to be assimilated to one another, and combined 
 into a national university, hke the Imperial University of 
 France. Considering the great control over the education 
 of the country such a system would give to the execu- 
 tive government, it is not surprising to find it regarded 
 with favour in some influential circles. It may, perhaps, 
 be said that it would afford facilities for the prevention 
 of abuses, and for the introduction of new methods of 
 teaching. But such advantages would be a poor com- 
 pensation for the depressing influence a gigantic organi- 
 sation of this kind would exert upon the free play of 
 thought and action.^ The similarity of the universities 
 
 ' Sir J. Grraham, ■while advocating one vmiversitjr for the Queen's 
 Colleges in Ireland, instead of investing each of them with the power of 
 granting degrees, was. entirely opposed to the ahsorption of the Universiiy 
 of Dublin in a national university. In the formal statement which he 
 made on introducing the Colleges Act, he declared that he was decidedly of 
 opinion that neither policy nor justice permitted any interference with 
 Mnity College, Dublin, as it existed at the time he spoke. — Annual 
 Register for 1845, p. 144. The writer has had good opportunities, in 
 early and later life, of acquiring from personal experience a knowledge 
 of the actual working of different imiversities, both in these countries and 
 on the continent of Europe. He was a member of the original Board of 
 Colleges appointed by Sir J. Graham {supra, p. 29), and since that time 
 he has been officially connected with one of the Queen's Colleges. He 
 hopes he wiU, therefore, be excused from the charge of presumption if he 
 ventures to express the opinion, as the result of his experience and observation, 
 that the government of Sir E. Peel committed a serious mistake, when 
 they departed from fonner precedent, in their scheme for extending higher 
 education in L-elaud. If, instead of the present complicated arrange- 
 ments, they had established two universities, one in the north and the 
 other in the south of Ireland, on the same free principles as the Queen's 
 .Colleges, they would, in the opinion of the writer, have acted more wisely; 
 and they would also have laid the foundation -of institutions, of whose per- 
 manence there could be no reasonable doubt. The Board of CoUeoes used 
 
87 
 
 of Scotland, and the abolition of religious tests, are perhaps 
 favourable to the introduction of the Imperial system into 
 that country ; but the proposal has happily been received 
 there with little favour ; and, for the sake of sound 
 and free education, it is earnestly to be hoped that the 
 Scottish universities will be able to maintain the inde- 
 pendence they have so long enjoyed. Universities, if 
 properly conducted, ought to be what they are in Gerr 
 many — centres of intelligence scattered over a country — 
 each shining brightly with its own peculiar light, and not 
 coldly reflecting the rays of a distant luminary. The only 
 considerations, which ought to limit their number, are the 
 requirements of the country, and the means of sustaining 
 them in efficiency. From their nature, they must always 
 be costly institutions, for they will utterly fail in their 
 object, and fall into disrepute, if conducted by inferior 
 men, or with insufficient appliances. The two countries 
 in Europe, where university education has been made 
 most largely available to the middle classes, arie Scot- 
 its best endeavours to mould the new scheme into a working form ; but the 
 writer, while claiming credit to the Queen's Colleges for what they have 
 done, woiUd be acting disingenuously, if he expressed an approval of the 
 peculiar features of the system of which they form a part. That that 
 system has, at the same time, worked well on the whole, and is deserving 
 of further trial, he hopes to have convinced every candid reader of these 
 pages ; and, if the public expect to receive a return in useful work for the 
 large expenditm-e incurred, they ought to discourage any attempt unneces- 
 sarily to meddle with it, or to tamper with its fundamental principles. 
 The Queen's University is aa much an integral part of the system of the 
 Queen's Colleges, as the University of Dublin is of that of Trinity College. 
 Even the Catholic prelates appear to have recognized the truth of this 
 statement, and they accordingly demanded, not only that the original con- 
 stitution of the colleges should be changed, but that a new university 
 should be incorporated. The writer must give them credit for having 
 acted throughout these proceedings with great boldness, if not altogether 
 with candour ; but their present %-iew3 are very different from those held 
 by the legislature when it sanctioned the measure of 1845. The writer 
 will scarcely be accused of having shown any reluctance to yield to the 
 reasonable claims of the Catholic Church, but he does not think it should 
 be permitted to have any control over institutions designed for the use of 
 the whole population of Ireland. 
 
88 
 
 land and Germany. No one is ignorant of the influence 
 the four universities of Scotland have had in promoting 
 the material prosperity of that country ; but few, except 
 those conversant with the practical arts, are aware of the 
 immense advantages England herself has derived from 
 them, particularly in her great northern seats of industry. 
 It may indeed be said, without exaggeration, that England 
 would long ago have been forced to establish universities, 
 after the Scottish or German model, for the use of the , 
 middle classes, if the imiversities of Scotland and Ger- 
 many had not furnished her with a large supply of men, 
 weU versed in the sciences connected with the useful arts'.^ 
 In the present century, no coimtry has laboured more 
 sedulously, or more successfully, than Prussia in improving 
 and extending her great imiversities, and she has been 
 
 * The Univeisity of Glasgow, after the appointment of Dr. Thomson to 
 the chair of chemistry, in 1818, began to educate a number of scientific 
 and practical chemists, many of whom were afterwards scattered over 
 Lancashire, and aided greatly in developing the manufactures of that 
 district which are dependent on chemical skilL Dr. Turner, who long 
 held the professorship of chemistry in Uniyeiaty Collie, studied under 
 Stromeyer, in the University of (rottingen. THa successor, the present 
 Master of the Mint, who, with the illustrious Faraday, so long sustained the 
 character of England in experimental science, was a student of the 
 Universify of Glasgow, and was the first to teach practical chemistry in 
 London, as Dr. Thomson had taught it in Glasgow. The genius of Liebig 
 founded, about the same time, in the small University of Giessen, a school 
 of chemistiy destined, in modem times, to rival in celebrity and usefulness 
 the school of the Stagyrite in ancient Athens. "Wohler, at GiSttingen, and 
 Bunsen, first at Marburg and afterwards at Heidelberg, followed dose upon 
 the footsteps of Liebig. To one or other of these German universities, all 
 the young chemists of England, for many years, repaired, in order to com- 
 plete their education; and Great Britain is, in this way, indebted to the 
 universities of Germany for no inconsiderable portion of her material 
 prosperity. It would be invidious to refer to individual names, where so 
 many are distinguished ; but I may be excused for giving expression to a 
 feeling of regret that this country diould have recendy lost the services of 
 one whom England and Germany are alike proud to claim. Had London 
 possessed a university, such as the University of Berlin, the result would 
 probably have been different, and the name of Hofmann, like that of 
 Heischel, might have been permanently inscribed on the roUs of British 
 science. 
 
89 
 
 influeaeed ia this course by the highest motives which 
 can animate a nation.^ The United States of America 
 have followed in tiie same path, and have covered their 
 vast territories with universities, some of which are al- 
 ready fiavourably known. Canada and Australia have 
 likewise not fiiiled in this respect to perform their duty, 
 and have fviUy supplied their inhabitants with the means 
 of university education. 
 
 As r^ards the internal arrangements and methods of 
 teaching, it is desirable, according to the writer's view, 
 that they should be as varied as possible in different 
 univereities. In the world we inhabit, we find everywhere 
 unity of design with variety of execution, and this is true 
 even of the communities into which mankind is divided. 
 Education and training must form the foundation of 
 dvihzed life in every country; but how diversified in 
 detail, yet how rich in results, will be manifest if the arts 
 and industries of "Western Europe are compared with 
 those of Eastern Asia. The imperial institutions of France, 
 from their magnitude and imposing form, may captivate 
 the rulers, and even the people of a coimtry ; but similar 
 institutions were coincident with the decline of the Eoman 
 
 ' ' The UniTeisify of Berlin, like her sister of Bonn, is a creation of our 
 century. It was founded in the year 1810, at a period when the pressure of 
 foreign domination weighed almost insupportably on Prussia; and it will 
 erer remain significant of the direction of the German mind, that the great 
 men of that time should haye hoped to develop, by h%h intellectual 
 training, the forces necessary for the political regeneration of their country.' 
 — Sqiort OH the Laboratories m the Univarsities of £ohh and Berlin, by A. W. 
 Hofinann, p. 47. Previous to the late war, there were ax universities in 
 Prussia. The newly-acquired territories have added three to the list, vii. 
 Eel, GWttingen, and Marbuig. — Id. p. 1. The writer has ventured to suggest 
 (sMpro, p. 29) tiiat a tmiversity should be founded in Manchester, on a scale 
 wmthy of that great centre of inteUigence and industry. Since the passage 
 referred to was sent to the press, he has observed, with gratification, that a 
 meeting was lately held in Manchester, for the purpose of ^ving a large 
 extension to Owen's College. He hopes that this movement, if it does 
 not already embrace it, will lead to the larger design of founding a Eree 
 University. 
 
90 
 
 Empire, and literature and art soon withered under their 
 protection. The example of ancient Greece, or of mo- 
 dem Germany, is more worthy of imitation than that of 
 imperial Eome or imperial France; and the chief end 
 of higher edHcation, the cultivation of habits of accurate 
 and independent thought, will be best attained by aUow- 
 iog the fullest freedom of action, to those who are engaged 
 in the difficult task, of training the youth of a country in 
 the noble walks of Uterature and science. 
 
 I.OXDOV 
 
 rmiHTBD BY SPOTTiSTraODB ./MJ CO 
 
 XKW-STnEET SQLMJIB