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THE IRISH 
 
 UNIVERSITY QUESTION. 
 
 BY 
 
 JONATHAN PIM. 
 
 
 DUBLIN : 
 
 HODGES, FOSTEK, AND CO., 104, GEAFTON STEEET. 
 
 18 7 4 
 
 Price Six Pence. 
 
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 .fS(^ 
 
 O’NEILL LlBRARf 
 
 ;*’^ILEGE 
 
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THE IRISH UNIVERSITY QUESTION. 
 
 For many years I have taken a deep and active interest in 
 the Irish University Question. Being thoroughly convinced 
 that the Homan Catholics of Ireland have a real and substan- 
 tial grievance to complain of, I have been very desirous that 
 this grievance should be redressed. But feeling, as an Irish- 
 man and as a Protestant, a warm interest in the prosperity 
 of Trinity College, I have been anxious that whatever 
 measure might be adopted by Parliament to redress the Homan 
 Catholic grievance, should not be such as would tend in any 
 way to the injury of this institution, which is perhaps the only 
 thoroughly successful institution of which Ireland can boast. 
 Whilst desiring, in this and every other matter, to accord to 
 the Homan Catholics of Ireland a full measure of justice, I 
 have been equally desirous of preserving for the Prote.stants of 
 Ireland every right and privilege to which they are justly 
 entitled. 
 
 Whilst in Parliament, I freely expressed my opinions on 
 this important subject on several occasions; but I am aware 
 that they did not meet with much approval from Protestants 
 generally ; and there may have been some who believed that 
 the views which I put forward were not sincere, but were 
 taken up for the purpose of pleasing my Homan Catholic 
 constituents. Now, however, as I am no longer a Member of 
 Parliament, and as I have no intention of again offering my- 
 self as a candidate for the suffrages of any constituency, there 
 can be no such reason for anyone to look on my declarations 
 of opinion with suspicion. 
 
 I desire, therefore, once more, before the proposed seculari- 
 zation of Trinity College is carried into operation, to ask the 
 
4 
 
 attention of the members of the University, and of the public, 
 to a statement of my views, and the reasons on which they 
 are founded ; for I am convinced that the secularization of 
 Trinity College, which evades instead of meeting the Koman 
 Catholic grievance, will place the interests of the College, as a 
 place of Education for the Protestants of Ireland, in great 
 jeopardy, and may eventually prove fatal. 
 
 Hitherto the Protestants of both England and Ireland have 
 held that the principle on which the Universities of Oxford, 
 Cambridge, and Dublin were founded — viz., that religion and 
 learning should go together — was sound ; but when the 
 Roman Catholics of Ireland asked to be placed upon an 
 equality with the Protestants of Ireland, by a charter and 
 an endowment being given to the Catholic University, the 
 Protestants, in order to avoid having to grant to the Roman 
 Catholics what they asked for, declared that they preferred 
 that the equality should be arrived at by taking away from 
 Trinity College its Protestant and Christian character. 
 
 The Government Bill of last year proposed to settle the 
 difficulty by affiliating Trinity College as a Protestant institu- 
 tion, on the one hand, and the Stephen's Green College, as a 
 Roman Catholic institution, on the other hand, to a new 
 mixed University. The Roman Catholics rejected the offer, 
 as being insufficient ; and the Protestants of Ireland, and the 
 Conservative party, took advantage of the circumstance to 
 throw out the Bill. I am not now going to defend the Bill, 
 many of the provisions of which I publicly condemned last 
 year ; but I regretted then, and still regret, not that the Bill 
 was lost, but that it was not allowed to pass into committee, 
 in order that, by the thorough discussion of its details, the 
 possibility or impossibility of working out the principle on 
 which it w^as founded might have been conclusively shown. . 
 
 The Bill having thus been thrown out, the Government 
 agreed to accept that part of Mr. Fawcetts Bill which abol- 
 ished tests, rejecting the clauses which altered the constitution 
 of the governing body of the University ; and it is to the con- 
 sequences which are likely to result, if this should lead to the 
 complete secularization of Trinity College, that I desire to ask 
 the consideration of my readers. 
 
5 
 
 The College authorities are now seeking to give full effect 
 to that Abolition of Tests Act, by means of a Queen’s letter 
 altering the statutes of the College ; and for this purpose they 
 are eliminating the word “ religion wherever it occurs in the 
 statutes ; thus, so far as the influence of the statutes extends, 
 rendering the College a purely secular institution, in which 
 men of any religion, or of no religion at all, may hold the 
 highest places, and direct and give the tone to the education 
 of the University students of Ireland. 
 
 It is generally supposed that this will be a complete settle- 
 ment of the University question. It is therefore well to con- 
 sider what will be its probable results. The authorities of the 
 Roman Catholic Church have, as is well known, refused to 
 accept it; yet individual Roman Catholics will, no doubt, 
 avail themselves of it, and will contend for fellowships and 
 become candidates for professorships and other such offices. 
 But how will it be looked on by the Protestants ? Are the 
 Protestants of Ireland really as much enamoured of united 
 education as the authorities of the College appear to suppose ? 
 Will the increased number of Roman Catholic students, and 
 the presence of Roman Catholics as professors and as members 
 of the Academic Council, be an inducement to them to send 
 their sons to Trinity College as resident students? It may be 
 considered by some as an unworthy prejudice; but I fear there 
 are very many Protestants who will consider the increased 
 number of Roman Catholic students to be no recommendation 
 for Trinity College, when compared with the English Uni- 
 versities, and who will look with much suspicion at the presence 
 of Roman Catholics on the Academic Council. If there be 
 any foundation for this idea, and there certainly is some foun- 
 dation for it, the effects of this prejudice on the part of Pro- 
 testants must increase according to the increase in the number 
 of Roman Catholic students, and of Roman Catholics holding 
 professorships or any other offices in the College or University. 
 
 Again, the natural outcome of the new system is the expulsion 
 of the Faculty of Theology ; for how is a Protestant Theological 
 Faculty to be kept up under a mixed council, of which those 
 who hold the doctrines of the Irish Protestant Episcopal Church 
 
6 
 
 may perhaps be only a minority ? The loss of the Divinity 
 School will, no doubt, deprive the College of a large number 
 of those students who are preparing for orders in the Church, 
 thus still further diminishing the proportion of Protestant stu- 
 dents, and increasing the unwillingness of Protestant parents 
 to send their sons to be educated in the College. 
 
 But the cessation of Divine worship in the College Chapel 
 must almost necessarily follow the giving up of the School of 
 Divinity, thus completing the secularization of the College. 
 Can it be supposed by any one that this will be satisfactory to 
 the Protestants of Ireland ? Have they not even a prejudice, 
 if you will not call it a principle, in favour of the recognition 
 of Christianity in connexion with education ? Do they not 
 wish to have their children educated religiously as Protestants! 
 How, then, can it be expected that a College deprived of all 
 recognition of Christianity will compete on equal terms with 
 other Colleges, for the support of those Protestants who are 
 sincerely attached to the faith which they profess ? I cannot 
 believe that it will ; but rather anticipate that the Protestant 
 gentry of Ireland will, for the most part, send their sons to 
 Oxford and Cambridge for their education, while the less 
 wealthy classes will probably prefer to enter theirs as non- 
 resident students. 
 
 The preamble of the Act passed last year for the abolition 
 of tests, recognizes ‘'the schools of the University as places of 
 “ religion and learning and the Act specially excepts from its 
 operation “ the professors of and lecturers in Divinity, so long 
 “ as the University of Dublin shall continue to teach, and to 
 “grant degrees in the Faculty of Theology.” There is no 
 reference in the Act to the College Chapel, but Divine wor- 
 ship is still continued in it, and I believe there is no present 
 intention of discontinuing it. How the schools of the Univer- 
 sity are to be maintained as “ places of religion ” under a 
 mixed Board, composed of Protestants and Eoman Catholics, 
 and men of no particular belief, is a difficulty which I cannot 
 pretend to solve; but the Provost looks forward to “an 
 “ arrangement being made for the religious worship and reli- 
 “ gious teaching of Koman Catholics and Presbyterians” within 
 
7 
 
 the walls of the College, and no doubt he hopes that such an 
 arrangement will preserve the College from the pure secularism 
 which now threatens it. I think those who have watched the 
 progress of events in Ireland will see little reason to expect that 
 the Roman Catholic Prelates will accede to this proposal, 
 after having refused to avail themselves of the provision for 
 Deans of Residences in the Queen's Colleges. 
 
 I have been informed that the number of Roman Catholic 
 students entering Trinity College has increased since the 
 passing of the Act of last year. This is what might natu- 
 rally have been expected. The Roman Catholics have, 
 I suppose, given up the hope of any immediate settlement 
 of this question, which would place their own College in 
 the position to which it is entitled, and which they had 
 hoped for, and therefore they naturally try to do the best 
 they can for themselves under existing circumstances. Their 
 numbers will probably increase still more, and the num- 
 ber of Protestants, or at least of Episcopalian Protestants, 
 will probably decrease. The Roman Catholic students may, 
 before many years, become a majority, in which case they will 
 soon obtain a majority in the Senate. They will, I have no 
 doubt, prove their ability and industry by the acquisition of 
 fellowships, and the Academic Council will be called upon to 
 appoint a fair proportion of Roman Catholics as Professors ; 
 and this they will do, if only to prove their liberality and 
 freedom from prejudice. 
 
 In fact, it will become necessary in every appointment, from 
 the College porters upwards, to consider the religious pro- 
 fession of the candidates, so as to hold the balance evenly. 
 The Government will certainly be pressed to appoint a Roman 
 Catholic as Provost when a vacancy occurs; and if the College 
 is to be the National Institution for Ireland, it is only fair that 
 its Provost should, at least occasionally, be a Roman Catholic. 
 We may therefore reasonably anticipate that such an appoint- 
 ment will be made. But the presence of a Roman Catholic 
 Provost, no matter how profound his learning, how pure his 
 life and morals, and how wise and just his administration, 
 will scare from the College a large number of Protestant 
 
8 
 
 students. What must we expect to be the future course of 
 events ? It has been said that there is nothing certain but 
 the unforeseen. I do not pretend to be a prophet; but I 
 cannot help believing that, if the School of Divinity be given 
 up, the College Chapel closed, and a Roman Catholic ap- 
 pointed to be Provost, the Roman Catholics will, before many 
 years shall have passed away, have obtained the majority 
 in the Academic Council as well as in the Senate, and the 
 Establisliment of Elizabeth will, notwithstanding Mr. Fawcett s 
 Act, have become Roman Catholic in every respect — the 
 Protestant University of Ireland will have ceased to exist. 
 
 If Trinity College should come thus under the control of 
 Roman Catholics, they will find no difficulty in re-establishing 
 religious teaching and religious worship within its walls ; and it 
 is much better that they should do so, than that it should remain 
 as a secular establishment wholly unconnected with Christi- 
 anity in any form. But the loss to the Protestants of Ireland 
 wdll be great ; and it is a loss which even now might, I think, be 
 avoided, if the claims of justice, or even the ]3romptings of self- 
 interest, could so far overcome sectarian jealousy, and the 
 odium tJieologicum, as to induce the Protestants of Ireland 
 to second the Roman Catholics in pressing on the Govern- 
 ment, whether Liberal or Conservative, the establishment of a 
 Roman Catholic University suitably endowed. 
 
 When Mr. Fawcett first brought forward his plan for open- 
 ing Trinity College, the College authorities opposed him 
 strenuously. Afterwards they turned right round and sup- 
 ported him, alleging that the disestablishment of the Church 
 had altered their position. But was it not the disendowment- 
 rather than the disestablishment which induced them to change 
 sides ? Was it not the fear that some of its property might be 
 taken from the Protestant College, which induced them to 
 turn round and support a principle which they had previously 
 denounced ? Were their opinions really changed, so that they 
 considered the secularization of the College to be in itself a 
 good thing, and likely to promote the interests of religion and 
 learning in Ireland ? or did they support the plan of seculari- 
 zation in order to defeat the claims of the Roman Catholics 
 
0 
 
 for a University of their own ? I am far from attributing any 
 motive of private interest to the Board or to any of the other 
 members of the College, Their own life-interests were safe 
 under any circumstances. Their fears were not for them- 
 selves personally, but on account of the noble institution which 
 was under their care, and for which they felt a strong personal 
 interest. But in my opinion they have sacrificed principle to 
 expediency, and have sold the Protestant birth-right of Trinity 
 College for a mess of pottage. 
 
 One thing is evident. They knew the change would not 
 have any immediate effect. It was a change of principle of the 
 most important character, which must produce the most im- 
 portant results hereafter, but which would work gradually, and 
 perhaps be scarcely felt by the present generation. There is a 
 record left us in the history of the kingdom of Judah, of a king 
 who, when told by a prophet that the time should come when 
 the enemies of his country would carry away his children as 
 captives, and take all that was in his house as their spoil, 
 consoled himself with the reflection that these evils were not 
 to take place during his lifetime ; “ for,"" said he, “ there shall 
 be peace and truth in my days."" 
 
 The change will be the gradual work of years. Some one 
 or two persons who have hitherto been excluded, may, perhaps, 
 be now chosen as members of the Academic Council. Those 
 who hereafter attain to that position will have grown up from 
 their youth under the influences of College associations. They 
 will have lived in constant intercourse and free interchange of 
 thought with men of various creeds and various opinions on 
 every subject, whose work and occupation will have been the 
 acquisition of knowledge and the investigation of truth. It 
 seems to be expected that this intercourse and these intima- 
 cies will so far influence the minds of Roman Catholic students 
 that old jealousies and political and religious differences will 
 be forgotten, and all will work together harmoniously for the 
 good of the University. It is a pleasing picture. But put 
 this idea in other words. Does it not really imply the expec- 
 tation that Roman Catholics, educated in Trinity College, and 
 in close intimacy with Protestants, will cease to be Roman 
 
10 
 
 Catholics ? — will cease, at all events, to care for their Church, 
 whether they openly renounce her communion or not ? Is 
 there in the events of the past any foundation for such an 
 expectation ? And if no foundation in the past, what reason 
 is there to expect it in the future ? 
 
 Some Protestants think that a change is taking place 
 among the members of the Roman Catholic Church every- 
 where, and they expect the results of this change to show 
 themselves in Irehxnd, in a much greater freedom on the part 
 of the laity from the influence of, and dependence on the 
 clergy. Such men speak of Roman Catholics as under a bond- 
 age from which they are striving to be freed, and they think 
 that the opening of Trinity College as a secular institution will 
 assist these strivings for independence. In my opinion the re- 
 lation between the clergy and laity is an affair for the Roman 
 Catholics themselves, with which Protestants have nothing to 
 do, and in which their interference can do no good ; and I look 
 upon it as most insulting to Roman Catholics to speak of 
 them in this way. They have the remedy in their own hands, 
 if they feel themselves in a state of bondage ; and Protestants 
 would do as well not to proffer their assistance until they are 
 asked for it. If the safety of the University, under a mixed 
 governing board, is to depend upon any such supposed change, 
 by which Roman Catholics will cease to consider the interests 
 of their Church as more important than those of any human 
 institution, I cannot look upon the position as very secure. 
 
 But there are those who go much further, and who expect 
 that, before many years have passed away, the spirit of free 
 thought will have made such progress, that educated men — 
 such as they hope will be found in the Universities of England 
 and Ireland^will regard with equal indifference the doctrines 
 of all Christian Churches. AVhether these views have in- 
 fluenced any of those members of the University who have as- 
 sisted in the recent changes I know not ; but it must be evident 
 to everyone who sees what is ^^assing in the world around 
 him, that such views have a powerful influence in the present 
 agitation for the separation of secular learning from religious 
 culture, and in the assertion that morality may and ought to be 
 
11 
 
 inculcated without any reference to religion or to the Bible. 
 
 The men who hold these opinions look upon the seculariza- 
 tion of Trinity College as only one step in the change which is 
 in progress; and they expect it to be followed soon by the 
 prohibition of the Bible in English Primary Schools, and by 
 further changes of a similar character in the Public Schools 
 and Colleges of England and Scotland. 
 
 Such persons regard the elimination of religion from the 
 College Statutes, the expulsion of the School of Divinity, the 
 shutting up of the College Chapel, and the complete seculari- 
 zation of the College, as things to be expected in the ordinary 
 course of events, which will all tend to the progress of civiliza- 
 tion and the advancement of the human race. It is natural 
 that they should try to forward changes which they believe 
 will work usefully. But why are truly religious Christian men 
 to be found in the same ranks, allied with those whose ulti- 
 mate object so widely differs from theirs ? The answer is, I 
 believe, to be found in that theological hatred which in Eng- 
 land impels the Nonconformists to combine with the secular- 
 ists in attacking the Church, and w'hich in Ireland induces 
 the Protestants to give up religious culture and teaching in 
 their owm schools and colleges, rather than consent to the 
 State giving any countenance or support to schools or colleges 
 in which Poman Catholic doctrines are inculcated. Such self- 
 denial is certainly a strong protest against Rome ; but it is not, 
 I think, the true Christian protest : it is a protest of mere ne- 
 gation : it is a protest which the sceptic or the Deist can make 
 as well as the Christian: it is the protest which says, “You 
 are wrong;'' but it does not add, as St. Paul would certainly 
 have done, “ Come and we will show you the better w'ay.” 
 
 There is no such thing as neutrality in religion. A college 
 in which Christianity is recognized and honoured is a Chris- 
 tian college. A college from wdiich Christianity is elimi- 
 nated is a non-Christian college. Can anyone believe that 
 in this country, where three-fourths of the people are Ro- 
 man Catholics, this non-Christian college will be allowed 
 permanently to retain its endowments, if there be no recogni- 
 tion of, and no endowment for, a Roman Catholic Univer- 
 
12 
 
 sity ? If equality is to be produced by levelling down, after 
 the precedent set by the Church Act, it must be complete: 
 the revenues of Trinity College must be confiscated, and ap- 
 plied to other purposes — the present life-interests being, of 
 course, respected. If equality is to be produced by levelling 
 down, the maintenance of education, like that of religious 
 worship, must be voluntary, without any endowment on the 
 part of the State, of either Protestant or Roman Catholic col- 
 leges ; or even of a secular non-Christian college. 
 
 In the disestablishment of the Church, the State has de- 
 clared that it will not, for the future, make itself in any way 
 responsible for the celebration of religious worship in Ireland. 
 But its policy as respects education has been directly the 
 reverse : both in England and Ireland, it has, year after year, 
 taken increased interest in educational matters ; and it has 
 fully adopted the principle, that it is the duty of the State to 
 provide the means of education for every individual. The 
 only consideration is, how it can best carry out its educational 
 system, so as to secure the object in view — namely, that of 
 making all the individuals in the State better citizens. 
 
 The principle of the Church Act, therefore, is wholly dif- 
 ferent from that of the recent University legislation. By 
 the Church Act the Irish Church was disestablished and 
 disendowed, and all the Religious Bodies in Ireland were 
 placed on the same level, being left to the voluntary sup- 
 port of their own members. The University has neither 
 been disestablished nor disendowed, nor will all sects or all 
 persons be placed on the same level by the course which is 
 now apparently about to be pursued ; for, if the College be 
 secularized and religion excluded from it, so far as Acts of 
 Parliament and the College Statutes can do it, a decided 
 advantage will be given to those who care only for secular 
 learning, over those persons, whether Protestants or Roman 
 Catholics, who believe that all education ought to be openly 
 connected with, and influenced by, Christianity. 
 
 To show the absurdity of looking upon the recent univer- 
 sity legislation as dependent upon the Church Act, let us 
 suppose, for a moment, that the University Act had been passed 
 
13 
 
 first, and that the Church Act had afterwards been framed on 
 the principle which had previously dictated the University 
 Act. It would not, in such case, have disestablished or disen- 
 dowed the Church ; but it would have abolished all tests, and 
 enacted that “from and after the passing of this Act, no per- 
 “ son shall be required, in order to enable him to take or hold 
 “ any benefice or any office in the Church of Ireland, to sub- 
 “ scribe to any article or formulary of faith, or to make any 
 “ declaration respecting his religious belief or profession, or to 
 “ conform to any form of public worship, or to belong to any 
 “ specified church, sect, or denomination.’" 
 
 This would have been opening the Church to all persons, 
 without any distinction on account of religious belief, on the 
 plan adopted in the University Act — a plan which, whether 
 good or bad, has no connexion with that actually adopted 
 in the disestablishment and disendowment of the Church. 
 
 It may be alleged with much more appearance of justice, 
 that the abolition of tests in the English Universities neces- 
 sarily drew after it the abolition of tests in Ireland. But the 
 English precedent was not really followed in the Act passed 
 last year for the University of Dublin. The preamble of the 
 English Act states that “ it is expedient that restrictions, tests, 
 “ and disabilities should be removed but it adds the qualifi- 
 cation : “ under proper safeguards for the maintenance of 
 “religious instruction and worship in the said Universities, 
 “and the Colleges and Halls subsisting within the same.” 
 The first part of this is repeated in the Irish Act, but the 
 qualification is wholly omitted — there is no reference to “ safe- 
 “ guards for the maintenance of religious instruction and 
 “ worship.” 
 
 The enacting parts of the two Acts of Parliament faithfully 
 carry out the provisions of their respective preambles. The 
 English Act expressly excepts from its operation all those 
 offices which, “ under the authority of any Act of Parliament, 
 “ or any Statute of the University or College in force at the 
 “ time of the passing of the Act, were restricted to persons in 
 “ Holy Orders.” And it also provides that no office, except 
 those specially mentioned, shall be opened “ to any person 
 
14 
 
 “ who is not a member of the Church of Eugland, when such 
 “ office was, at the passing of this Act, confined to members of 
 “ tlie said Church, by reason of any such degree as aforesaid 
 “ [Holy Orders] being a qualification for such office/' The 
 English Act further provides that there shall be “ no inter- 
 “ ference with the lawfully-established system of religious in- 
 struction, worship, and discipline,'’ and that “ Morning and 
 “ Evening Prayer ” shall be “ used as herecofore." There are 
 no such exceptions in the Irish Act, and no such safeguards 
 for the maintenance of “ religious instruction, worship, and 
 discipline." 
 
 Thus, in the English Act, care is taken, so far as legislation 
 can do it, for the preservation of the Colleges as places of re- 
 ligion as well as places of learning ; and it may well be ex- 
 pected that these Colleges will remain as places of religious 
 instruction for the students belonging to the Episcopal Church 
 of England, so long as the majority of the students who resort 
 to Oxford and Cambridge for their education shall belong to 
 that Church. In Ireland all this is reversed. No care is 
 taken to preserve the College as “ a place of religion." On 
 the contrary, religion is expelled so far as words can do it ; and 
 if the intention and expectations of the promoters of the Act 
 be realized by Trinity College becoming the National College 
 for the whole people of Ireland, the proportion of Poman 
 Catholic students must gradually increase, until ultimately 
 they become the majority, and the government of the Clollege 
 and University must then pass from Protestant into Roman 
 Catholic hands. 
 
 The great majority of the students at Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge are and will be members of the Church of England, 
 whether Established or Disestablished ; there will probably 
 be a considerable number of Protestant Dissenters, but the 
 Roman Catholics will be comparatively few Under these 
 circumstances, the Roman Catholics must submit to the re- 
 gulations which are suited to the Protestant majority. But 
 in Ireland the case is wholly different ; and the Roman 
 Catholics cannot be expected to submit permanently to Pro- 
 testant or to secular regulations. They will naturally require 
 
15 
 
 to have the arrangements suited to themselves as the major- 
 ity, just as the arrangements in England are suited to the 
 Protestant majority, and everyone who looks a few years 
 ahead must see tliat, in some way or other, their object will 
 certainly be attained. 
 
 I can understand Protestants who believe Protestantism to 
 be truth and Roman Catholicism to be error, thinking that it 
 would be a o^reat benefit to Roman Catholics to be educated 
 along with Protestants, and under Protestant influence ; but I 
 can scarcely believe that they think it would be a correspond- 
 ing benefit to Protestants to be educated along with Roman 
 Catholics, and under Roman Catholic influence. If they really 
 do wish for united education, is it that they are so unselfish as 
 to be willing to subject their own children to the risk of injury 
 from an influence which they consider to be dangerous, for the 
 sake of the benefit which they expect to confer upon the chil- 
 dren of others ; or is it that they expect to be able always to 
 keep the upper hand, and to retain the University really Pro- 
 testant though nominally unsectarian ? If the latter, are they 
 giving the fair play to the Roman Catholics which they profess 
 to be giving, and creating a National University which shall 
 place all upon equal terms ? 
 
 To force people to come together is not the way to produce 
 good feeling and harmony. It is better in education, as in all 
 other matters, to leave men to choose for themselves whether 
 they will work separately or in union with others. I have so 
 much faith and confidence in Protestantism, that I am quite 
 willing to place Roman Catholicism in a position of perfect 
 equality; but I am not willing to silence Protestant teach- 
 ing in order to justify the refusal to recognize the right of 
 Roman Catholics to Roman Catholic teaching. 
 
 If any Protestants cherish the idea of being able always to 
 keep the upper hand in the governing body of the University, 
 they must be as singularly unobservant of the events which 
 are passing around them as those are who indulge the pleasing 
 hope that all sectarian differences will be forgotten in the 
 serene atmosphere of the University. Do they not know that, 
 with a few special exceptions, the question of religion perpe- 
 
16 
 
 tually crops up at every mixed board in Ireland? — that it enters 
 into the consideration of every appointment, so that the reli- 
 gious profession of even a dispensary doctor has really more 
 influence on his election than his professional skill? Are they 
 unaware of the great advance in wealth and in social position 
 which has been made by the Roman Catholics of Ireland 
 during the last half century ? Do they not see that, except 
 in Ulster, they have obtained the control of almost all the 
 Town Councils and other elective boards ? And with facts 
 such as these patent before them, how do they expect to be 
 able, for any long period of time, to keep the upper hand 
 in the Academic Council of the University ? 
 
 In self-governing institutions the majority must bear sway. 
 The Queen's Colleges are not self-governing — all the profes- 
 sors and officers being nominated by the Crown. But Trinity 
 College and the University of Dublin govern themselves ; and, 
 with the single exception of the Provost, all their offices are 
 or will be either elective or obtained by competitive examina- 
 tion. The whole control, therefore, depends upon the gra- 
 duates; and the party to which the majority of graduates 
 belong, will in the end control the College and University. 
 
 The great objection which was made to the Government 
 Bill of last year was, that the mixed University Board would 
 never work harmoniously. The present scheme proposes a 
 mixed governing body for both the University and the College. 
 It is, I believe, impossible for Roman Catholics and Protes- 
 tants to work together satisfactorily in the management of a 
 College. Their views differ too widely in many points. 
 Whether the question could, at any time, have been settled 
 by the affiliation of separate denominational colleges to a 
 mixed National University is doubtful. I thought that the 
 attempt was, at all events, worthy of a trial. It is now, 
 however, too late : the only solution that is now possible is 
 the establishment of two separate Universities. The opening 
 of Trinity College without any safeguards, may eventually 
 lead to its becoming a Roman Catholic College ; but it must 
 be after a contest, in which there is much reason to fear that 
 the College itself will be ruined — the interests of education 
 being forgotten in the strivings for the control over it. 
 
17 
 
 The Bill of last year provided no endowment for the Koman 
 Catholic College; and in not providing an endowment it 
 failed, in my opinion, to satisfy the requirements of justice 
 and equity. It would, however, have redressed one part of the 
 Roman Catholic grievance, for it would have given to the Ro- 
 man Catholic College a status equal to that enjoyed by Trinity 
 and the Queens Colleges, as members of the same University, 
 and would therefore have placed the higher education of 
 the Roman Catholics of Ireland on a level with that of the 
 Protestants. Such equality is no more than justice requires. 
 It must form the basis of any equitable settlement of this 
 question ; and a settlement on such terms as shall allow each 
 party to work out its own educational ideas separately, is, I am 
 convinced, the mode of settlement which would tend most to 
 the promotion of religion and learning in Ireland. The claim 
 of the Roman Catholics is for a university in which learning 
 shall be united with religion, and such a university must for 
 them be denominational. Their claim is just; and a univer- 
 sity which is open to all, but from which religion is excluded, 
 utterly fails in satisfying it. The agitation for the redress of 
 this grievance will certainly continue, and I have no doubt it 
 will eventually be successful. But until the question has been 
 settled, the position of Trinity College and the University of 
 Diiblin will be insecure. Their safety lies in the Catholic 
 University obtaining a charter and a fair endowment. 
 
 It may appear to many that the die has been cast, and that 
 there is now no hope of success in trying to stem the current. 
 But I cannot thus give up hope. The pernicious principle of 
 separating learning from religion has certainly been acknow- 
 ledged; but it has not yet been carried into effect. The 
 Abolition of Tests Act has been passed, but Trinity College is 
 still practically a Christian establishment, and its government 
 is still in the hands of Protestants ; and it may still be pre- 
 served as a Christian, and practically a Protestant institution, 
 if a charter and endowment be conferred upon the Catholic 
 University. Earnestly appealing, therefore, to those with whom 
 the power may rest, I would say : Do not forget your responsi- 
 bility to the Protestants of Ireland, for whose benefit the 
 
18 
 
 institution under your care was founded : do not part with 
 what remains of the religious character which properly at- 
 taches to the University of Dublin : preserve the Theological 
 Faculty, and the School of Divinity for the Protestant Epis- 
 copal Church ; and keep up the service in the College Chapel. 
 If with this you assist the efforts of the Roman Catholics to 
 obtain the recognition and support of the State for the 
 Catholic University, then Trinity College and the University 
 of Dublin, notwithstanding their being opened to persons of 
 all creeds, may still be preserved as Protestant institutions, 
 for the promotion of religion and learning under Protestant 
 guidance and control. 
 
 0 
 
 R. D. Webb and Son, Piinters, 74, Middle Abbey-street, Dublin. 
 
«0V 1983 
 
 BOSTON COLLEGE 
 
 90 : 
 
 1 026 587