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 I COLLEGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
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 DELIVERED 
 
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 IX THE DINING-HALL OF TRINITY COLLEGE, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 ! I 
 
 Jftrst llteetiug 0f tljc SebmfeentJj Session, 
 
 
 NOVEMBER 9, 1859. 
 
 
 BY THE AUDITOR, 
 
 DAVID R. PLUNKET, A. B. 
 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 
 HODGES, SMITH, & CO:, GR AFTON-ST RE ET 
 
 BOOKSELLERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 
 m 
 
 mi 
 
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 1859 . 
 
UNIVERSITY OF 
 ILLINOIS LIBRARY 
 UnSANA-CHAMPAIGN 
 STACKS 
 
Hrakmtg of gutrlhr. 
 
 COLLEGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 IN THE DINING-HALL OF TRINITY COLLEGE, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 Jfixst faceting: of tjte SebxntecntE) Bfssion, 
 
 NOVEMBER 9, 1859. 
 
 BY THE AUDITOR, 
 
 DAVID R. PLUNKET, A. B. 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 
 HODGES, SMITH, & CO., GRAFTON-STREET, 
 
 BOOKSELLERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 1859. 
 
DUBLIN : 
 
 ^rtnttTJ at'tfjc SanltjersUp ^ress, 
 
 BY M. H. GILL. 
 
EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES. 
 
 The opening meeting of the Seventeenth Session was held 
 in the Dining Hall, on Wednesday evening, November 
 9th, 1859. The Chair was taken at 8 o’clock by the Right 
 Hon. Joseph Napier, President of the Society. 
 
 Among those on the platform were the Right Hon. the 
 Lord Justice of Appeal; the Right Hon. Baron Greene; 
 the Hon. Justice Hayes ; the Right Hon. James Whiteside ; 
 the Lord Mayor ; Master Brooke ; Master Bushe ; Sir J. J. 
 Coghill, Bart. ; Master Lyle; J. A. Lawson, LL. D., Q.C. ; 
 J. H. Otway, Q. C.; A. Gayer, LL. D., Q. C.; Rev. S. 
 Butcher, D. D., Regius Professor of Divinity ; Rev. Dr. 
 Moore, S.F.T.C.D.; Rev. Dr. Graves, F. T. C. D. ;JRev. 
 Prof. Galbraith, F. T. C.D. ; J. E. Walsh, LL. D., Q. C. ; 
 
 E. Sullivan, Q. C. ; Rev. W. C. Plunket; T. H. Barton, 
 Esq. ; Dr. Shaw, F. T. C. D. ; Dr. Ingram, F. T. C. D. ; 
 J. A. Wall, Q. C. ; J. George, M. P. ; Rev. J. W. Stubbs, 
 
 F. TC.D. ; D. C. Heron, LL. D., Q. C.; J. Anderson, 
 Esq.; C. Otway, P. L. C.; Henry Darley, Q. C. ; Wm. 
 Gibson, Esq.; T. Geoghegan, Esq.; Rev. Wm. Greene; 
 Rev. J. Wills, D. D. ; J. Ball, Esq. ; Josias Smyly, M. D. ; 
 J. R. Stewart, Esq. ; Dr. Anster, Regius Professor of Civil 
 Law; Rev. G. Sidney Smith, D.D. 
 
 The Minutes of the last meeting having been read by 
 the Secretary, the Auditor, Mr. David R. Plunket, deli- 
 vered the opening Address. 
 
 It was moved by the Right Hon. F. Blackburne, Lord 
 Justice of Appeal : — “ That the thanks of the Society be 
 given to the Auditor for his Address.” 
 
 A 2 
 
4 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES. 
 
 The Right Hon. James Whiteside, M.P., seconded the 
 motion, which was passed unanimously. 
 
 It was moved by J. A. Lawson, LL. D., Q. C. : — “ That 
 the Address of the Auditor be printed and circulated at 
 the expense of the Society.” 
 
 E. Sullivan, Esq., Q. C., seconded the motion, which was 
 carried nem. con . 
 
 The President then presented the Medals and Certificates 
 to the successful candidates in the following order : — 
 
 FOR ORATORY. 
 
 Gold Medal, W. E. H. Lecky, A.B. 
 
 First Silver Medal, . . . F.C. Wills. 
 
 Second Silver Medal, . . J. W. Rynd. 
 
 Certificates ofmarked thanks, A. Houston, A.B. 
 
 ,, ,, I. Heazle, A. B., sch. 
 
 FOR HISTORY. 
 
 Gold Medal, C. E. Cartwright, A.B. 
 
 Silver Medal, C. W. Benson, A.B. 
 
 The Society’s Prize for Prose Composition ; subject — 
 41 Party Government,” was awarded to Mr. F. C. Wills. 
 
 The Napier Gold Medal (instituted 1859) was awarded 
 to Mr. Edward Gibson, A.B., for the best Essay on “The 
 Future of Italy.” 
 
 The President shortly addressed the Society, and the 
 meeting separated. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen, 
 
 It is one of the many pleasant duties of 
 that office with which you have honoured me, that 
 I should, in opening a new session of our Society, 
 review our past labours, and seek to stimulate you 
 to fresh exertions for the future ; and never, I be- 
 lieve, did this duty devolve upon any Auditor under 
 more cheering circumstances. Before, however, 
 proceeding to these particular considerations, it is 
 my intention, in accordance with a series of most 
 imitable precedents, to consider somewhat more ge- 
 nerally that object which we profess pre-eminently 
 to pursue in this Society — Eloquence. You need 
 not, however, fear from me a treatise upon Oratory 
 in the abstract. That subject has been so often and 
 so satisfactorily dealt with in all ages, by men of the 
 greatest ability, that I feel convinced that any at- 
 tempt on my part, in the same direction, would be 
 certain to result only in vague generalities, or bare 
 
6 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 truisms. The topic which I have selected is circum- 
 scribed within much narrower limits ; but is for us, 
 I think, of no less importance. It is — Public Speak- 
 ing at the present day. 
 
 I have chosen this view of the subject, not only 
 because I hoped that it might prove interesting to 
 such an audience as I have this evening the privi- 
 lege of addressing, but also because its consideration 
 must involve the discussion of questions, on the re- 
 spective decisions of which depends altogether the 
 value of such a Society as ours ; questions, too, as 
 it seems to me, of the uttermost importance to him 
 who entertains high hopes of some day doing ho- 
 nourably by himself, and well by his country. 
 
 Moreover, Gentlemen, I feel convinced, that on 
 this subject most erroneous and confused notions 
 popularly prevail ; for it seems to be very often be- 
 lieved among practical people, that the day is now 
 gone by when Eloquence, or, as it is sometimes 
 rather discourteously termed, “ Talk, 7 ’ can avail in 
 anywise with men. This is regarded by some with 
 indifference, as an inevitable social tendency ; by 
 others with complacency, as a notable sign of the 
 increased common sense of the day. From either 
 view of the case, the inference, even when not 
 stated in terms, is irresistible, that the study of Ora- 
 tory as an art, in such an institution as this Society, 
 is useless, if not something worse. I am not there- 
 fore aware of any subject, which, for one holding 
 the position that by your courtesy I now occupy, 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 7 
 
 it could be more pertinent to discuss ; and I accept 
 the task with the greater satisfaction, as I am con- 
 vinced that a fair and practical consideration of the 
 subject will lead to the conclusion that there never 
 was a time in the history of our country, when a 
 nobler opportunity was afforded for the exertions 
 of the Public Speaker. 
 
 I think, Gentlemen, that we shall find the truth to 
 be, that while in some of its departments the style of 
 Eloquence has altered in obedience to the changing 
 tastes and circumstances of the times, in its charac- 
 ter, as a great social fact, Eloquence has in our day 
 gained in power and importance. 
 
 I propose, then, to examine Public Speaking at 
 the present day, successively, in its respective de- 
 velopments in the Senate, on the Platform, in the 
 Pulpit, and at the Bar. 
 
 In the first place, then, Public Speaking at the 
 present day, in its political aspect, viz., in the Senate. 
 
 I think that to any one who has studied the Parlia- 
 mentary speeches of sixty years ago, or thereabouts, 
 and has impartially compared with them the corre- 
 sponding productions which are now daily reported 
 in the newspapers, the reflection must have suggested 
 itself, that when this generation shall have given 
 place to another, and our successors come dispas- 
 sionately to compare the Parliamentary Eloquence 
 of our predecessors with our own ; when all the little 
 incidents that to us give intense interest to the sim- 
 plest statements, and point to many a passing allu- 
 
8 
 
 ADDKESS. 
 
 sion, shall have been forgotten ; when the speeches 
 of each period shall be read and judged purely 
 in the light of isolated intellectual efforts, that a ver- 
 dict will go against this generation ; that in powerful 
 appeal to the reason, in fanciful appeal to the ima- 
 gination, in fiery appeal to the passions, in sublime 
 appeal to the primal sensibilities and noblest prin- 
 ciples of man’s nature, — in almost every attribute 
 which goes to make up what we call Eloquence, — the 
 Parliamentary Orators of our day did not approach 
 to that high standard of excellence which was at- 
 tained by their predecessors. 
 
 This, I think, is the comparative judgment at which 
 future critics will arrive ; but, on the other hand, I 
 am far from asserting that the present style of Par- 
 liamentary Eloquence has not its peculiar merits, — 
 merits which, when we consider closely that great 
 assembly itself, seem more appropriate to its altered 
 circumstances than those qualities which it has lost. 
 For those excellencies consist in a business-like pre- 
 cision of manner, an unexaggerated fairness of state- 
 ment, and a calm purity of language, which, on 
 occasion, gathers to a glow T of intense earnestness, 
 that in its simplicity approaches nearly to the sub- 
 lime. All that I mean to assert is this, that our 
 age has not produced many great speeches, that can 
 be compared to the eloquence of sixty years ago. 
 Are we in this generation likely to behold — is it 
 possible to conceive — the re-enactment in the new 
 Houses of Parliament, at Westminster, of such scenes 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 9 
 
 of sumptuous Eloquence, of absorbing excitement, 
 as accompanied the trial of Warren Hastings, or im- 
 mediately preceded the Union of 1800 ? I think it 
 is scarcely too much to say, that the generality of 
 Parliamentary Speaking is little above the average 
 of the articles in our leading journals; and that it is 
 only on very rare occasions that it rises to anything 
 that can be fairly called lofty Eloquence And yet I 
 think that when we shall have considered the causes 
 of which this Parliamentary dulness is the necessary 
 result, so far from experiencing unavailing regrets, 
 we shall be filled with feelings of the deepest satis- 
 faction and gratitude. 
 
 Now, there is one way of accounting for this on 
 the very face of it: Parliament has no time for any 
 superfluous speaking, because not only has every 
 town and county in the United Kingdom an un- 
 questionable right to have its particular wants sup- 
 plied by the collective resources of the realm, and 
 its peculiar wrongs redressed by its collective wis- 
 dom ; but also, because from that assembly must 
 proceed the policy, that is to sway one-fifth of the 
 world. And thus the ever increasing intricacy of 
 our social system, and the continual extension of 
 our commercial interests, have led to such an accu- 
 mulation of business details as have rendered it ne- 
 cessary to establish, not only a system of precedents 
 called Rules of the House, but also a very strict eti- 
 quette. And the usefulness of these restrictions on 
 any but the most business-like speaking has been 
 
10 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 found so great, that few are now hardy enough to 
 question their authority. 
 
 Again, the effect must be very considerable which 
 is produced on the mind of the orator, when at the 
 moment that he feels himself rising to a burst of elo- 
 quence more than usually impassioned, a chilling 
 consciousness comes upon him that every statement 
 made in the heat of debate must appear in fearful 
 integrity in the morning journals, there to be calmly 
 sifted by the cool and reflective mind of the break- 
 fast table critic; and that for every word lightly 
 spoken he shall have to render a terrible account to 
 the pens of a hundred ready writers, who are eagerly 
 awaiting an opportunity for an attack on the party 
 to which he belongs. And this must act upon him 
 with redoubled force when he recollects that at no 
 distant period, he must again appeal to his constitu- 
 ency. This cause of oratorical dulness has, doubt- 
 less, operated with much greater effect since the 
 Reform Bill of 1832 ; for, before that period, many 
 an old Lord or wealthy Commoner had in his power 
 the return of several Members to Parliament. This 
 privilege was often exerted in favour of some young 
 man of oratorical promise, whose first object it was 
 to prove in debate that the discriminating judgment 
 of his patron had not misplaced the trust. Since, 
 however, the great Reform Bill was carried, the 
 power of returning Members has almost entirely 
 passed into the hands of a different and more prac- 
 tical class, who do not so much care that their poli- 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 11 
 
 tical views should be stated in fine words, as that 
 their wishes should be carried into effect with as 
 much rapidity and certainty as possible. But, Gen- 
 tlemen, there is another cause of the absence in ge- 
 neral of good speaking which I think we cannot but 
 regard with a feeling of anxiety and regret. It arises 
 from the hollow and insincere professions of prin- 
 ciple too often made by the members of contending 
 parties. For, in order that the great parties may have 
 what is technically called a “ good cry,” with which 
 to influence their respective constituencies, they are 
 in the habit of holding extreme views, and making 
 exaggerated statements from the hustings and else- 
 where, with regard to questions whose true merits 
 have long since been decided upon by men of en- 
 lightenment. When, however, these gentlemen 
 come to support the same opinions before an assem- 
 bly so well informed and so fastidious as the House 
 of Commons, they hesitate to appeal to patriotic and 
 immutable principles, that accord so ill with the 
 narrow bigotry of their professed political creed — 
 well knowing that a glance at “Hansard” is sufficient 
 to show that their motives are in fact very personal 
 and unsteady. For views fixed by party vicissitudes 
 rather than political ethics, are ever inconsistent. I 
 think there is a curious indication of the existence 
 of this disease to be found in the terrible edge which 
 has of late years been set upon that scalpel of Par- 
 liamentary practice, personal satire. 
 
 This last consideration is not very gratifying to us, 
 and it has long afforded a fair mark for the sarcasms 
 
12 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 of other governments. But, Gentlemen, there is one 
 cause, of which I have not yet spoken, but of which 
 I must now tell you. It is indeed the final cause, 
 for it produces all the others ; and, when I think upon 
 it, I am reconciled to every drawback of less impor- 
 tance. This Parliamentary dulness is to us the con- 
 sequence of a long and enduring peace, founded upon 
 a perfect freedom ;• and other Governments are 
 welcome to their small sneer. It is under the influ- 
 ence of this security and this freedom that has been 
 developed a spirit of commercial energy, and steady, 
 unyielding endurance, that has spread into every 
 corner of the earth an empire of which we can boast, 
 in no lying profession, that its spirit is peace. It is this 
 security and this freedom that have rendered the last 
 shackles of the press unnecessary, and that permit 
 and compel the Government to appeal through a 
 hundred journals to that common sense that is indeed 
 the only tenure of its authority. It is because of this 
 security and this freedom that the nation views with 
 comparative indifference the squabbles of factions 
 and the petty jealousies of party, well knowing that 
 to its own surer keeping is committed the peace and 
 liberty that it holds so dear. Yes, Gentlemen, it is 
 because from year to year, and from age to age, the 
 
 * “ Les Anglais ont considere l’art de la parole comme tous 
 les talents en general, dans le point de vue de l’utilite ; et c’est 
 ce qui doit arriver a tous les peuples, apres un temps de repos 
 fonde sur la liber te .” — Madame de Stael , “ De V Eloquence et de 
 la Philosophie des Anglais .” 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 13 
 
 voice of Eloquence has pleaded throughout this land 
 for liberty, — rousing the energy of the patriot, tem- 
 pering the zeal of the reformer, appealing alternately 
 to the dauntless courage and the calm moderation of 
 Englishmen, until at last we have arrived at a happy 
 era, when it is no longer necessary to instil into the 
 heart of the nation a love of freedom that is its very 
 life-blood. 
 
 Let us not, then, lament that the Parliamentary 
 eloquence that roused our forefathers to deeds of 
 daring seems now to slumber, — the sleep, not of 
 death, but of security. I do believe that there is in 
 the breasts of Englishmen a sober, though intense 
 feeling of patriotism that is too sacred to be lightly 
 spoken of, but to which in hour of need the patriot 
 orator shall appeal with magic power. It is not many 
 months since there was but a suspicion that some- 
 thing else was sought to be relied upon for the safety 
 of the freedom of Englishmen, than their own deter- 
 mination to defend it. “ An old Peer” spoke a few 
 eloquent words of trust, and courage, and patriotism. 
 It was but a short speech, after all ; but the heart of 
 England bounded wildly in answer to the appeal.* 
 
 But though we can now seldom hope to find in 
 its accustomed place in Parliament that kind of elo- 
 quence which once culminated there, let us not 
 therefore hastily infer that the orator’s occupation is 
 gone. There are other opportunities demanding 
 his utmost exertions ; for the eloquence that once 
 
 * Lord Lyndhurst’s speech on the National Defences, July 5, 
 1859. 
 
14 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 flooded the galleries of the House with tears, and set 
 peeresses fainting, may now find itself other and 
 nobler avocations. It may ascend the Pulpit to 
 startle lethargic congregations, to give contentment 
 to the poor, and rest to the weary-hearted ; it may 
 enter the Lecture-room and Assembly-hall to rouse 
 the intellect of the people, slumbering too long, — to 
 advance the great cause of human happiness, to preach 
 an Intellectual Revival to the masses. This is what I 
 have called the Eloquence of the Platform ; and this 
 I conceive to be a noble opportunity for the exer- 
 tions of the orator. Perhaps some of you may think 
 this scheme novel, far-fetched, and Utopian. Novel 
 it certainly is, but so are the circumstances that have 
 called it forth ; and do not decide that it is altogether 
 far-fetched and Utopian until you have considered it 
 more closely, for it is no crude theory of my own, 
 but the proposal of the best and wisest of English- 
 men, — such men as the late Sir Robert Peel, Lord 
 Brougham, and the good Arnold ; men who not only 
 advocated the scheme by eloquent precept, but in the 
 midst of pressing and multitudinous employments, 
 found time to labour in it earnestly themselves. 
 
 And, indeed, if you consider for a moment or two 
 the condition of the lower orders, the necessity and 
 opportunity for such exertions will at once present 
 themselves. The state of the masses is a considera- 
 tion on which we seldom suffer our minds to dwell. 
 Now and then it is thrust upon us ; and, as some 
 instance of horrible crime, or lamentable folly, forces 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 15 
 
 itself upon our observation, we put it away again 
 with the remark, that it is strange these things should 
 occur in an age of enlightenment, and with a feeling 
 that we are glad that we, at all events, have nothing 
 to do with such people. Gentlemen, we have every- 
 thing to do with such people ; and if we do not look 
 to it now, our boasted enlightenment may play us a 
 dangerous trick. At this day, the state of the masses 
 is socially and morally miserable and degraded. 
 Even you, Gentlemen, who have made a pleasant ex- 
 citement of school and college, — even you, with your 
 good things in this life, and perhaps your hope of 
 better things in a life to come, — even you sometimes 
 grumble about the vanity of your pursuits, the 
 finality of your pleasures, and, on the whole, you 
 are inclined to agree with the Hebrew of old, “ that 
 man is born to misery.” But picture to yourself a 
 darkness through which no pure hope ever beckons, 
 a darkness so thick that it seems as if the very eye 
 of God could not pierce it ; imagine souls whose 
 only affinities are with the gin-shop, or sodden, 
 smoky lanes that soil the very sunshine, whose future 
 is work, — a weary dead level of work on to the very 
 horizon, and there only doubt and uncertainty ; no- 
 thing to-day but to eat and to drink and to work, 
 and to-morrow to die. This is actually the state of 
 tens of thousands of the manufacturing populations 
 of England ; and if we do not feel it here with equal 
 force as yet, still, with the growth of our commerce 
 and manufactures, it will grow upon us. Know- 
 
16 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 ledge comes to them just in a sufficient degree to 
 make them fully conscious of their misery ; nor 
 should we feel much surprised at the result. The 
 hard riddle has been proposed to them of well-fed 
 idleness and ill-fed toil ; they read that God ordained 
 that those who work should live, but they find that 
 society has reversed the fiat, and that those who work 
 must starve. We cannot, then, I say, much wonder 
 if their notions on political economy are rather 
 vague, — if they regard with bitter hate those classes 
 that, isolated high above them in the upper regions 
 of society, lade them with heavy burdens, grievous 
 to be borne, but will not so much as touch them with 
 the tip of their fingers. 
 
 Added to all this, there is here in Ireland a pecu- 
 liar necessity for our exertions. The hard lot of the 
 lower orders, that in England expresses itself in So- 
 cialism and Chartism, has here another form. The 
 history of an old oppression, long since broken up, 
 still dwells in the traditions of the people, and all 
 the sufferings that are inevitable in their position 
 are attributed to the tyranny of the Saxon rule ; to 
 it they ascribed every ill that flesh is heir to — their 
 poverty, and even their crime ; the blood they spilt 
 was upon its head; and the reward of their own 
 sloth and aversion to change was visited on it. 
 But now, when a long season of prosperity has set 
 in — when our countrymen are no longer indignant 
 that ill-tilled land should yield a scanty harvest, be- 
 cause the harvests are plentiful ; when they are no 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 17 
 
 longer outraged, that crime brings punishment, be- 
 cause crime has almost ceased, they have still the 
 miseries that are inseparable from a working lot ; 
 these, now, they begin to lay on the broad shoulders 
 of Saxon rule. A little knowledge makes the people 
 sensitive to the hardships belonging to their state, 
 and gives them strength and unity, but not wis- 
 dom. A generation ago they had been thankful for 
 their present prosperity, because they were ignorant 
 then — they tilled the soil in their strength, and let 
 politics alone. A fighting, blundering, pig-driving, 
 and intensely amiable people, enthusiastic, visionary 
 Young Irelanders strove to shake them up into politi- 
 cal life — in vain ; a sensitive imaginative nation, they 
 searched them with the fire of eloquence — in vain ; 
 they spoke of real grievances, for those were the 
 “Penal days,” and orators never spoke as they 
 spoke — in vain ; they spread the past before them 
 with its lights and shadows — in vain ; what did they 
 rouse them to ? Here the burning of a farm-house, 
 there a scuffle with the constables — that was all ; 
 ignorance kept them disunited ; in the dark they lost 
 one another. But you have built a school-house in 
 every parish in the last thirty years; you have taught 
 them to read, and to write too ; you have given 
 them a Press, which makes the cause of crime and 
 anarchy the cause of Ireland, and unites the people 
 in this wretched delusion. Have a care, or the day 
 is coming when the Orator shall speak — not in vain ; 
 when he shall misrepresent, and exaggerate, and in- 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 flame — not in vain ; when they shall recall the 
 past — not in vain ; and the people shall answer with 
 a shout — not in vain. 
 
 Gentlemen, it is into these masses of ignorance 
 and discontent that I call upon you to go down, to 
 stir up amongst them a spirit of self-improvement, 
 and give it a safe direction; to raise their moral 
 standard, by branding vice, intemperance, and im- 
 providence with loathing, and by showing the beauty 
 and excellence of morality, of virtue, and of truth ; 
 to raise their intellectual standard, by interesting 
 them in scientific and literary pursuits; to break 
 down the prejudices so natural in their circum- 
 stances, by expounding the great principles of social 
 progress ; to teach our own countrymen that good pa- 
 triotism can never be opposed to good common sense ; 
 and to show them that by self-improvement they 
 may gain a nobler independence than any Young 
 Irelander ever preached, freeing themselves, not 
 from Saxon connexion, but from Saxon superiority; 
 and, finally, to bridge over that chasm that now 
 yawns between the upper and lower classes, by es- 
 tablishing feelings of intellectual sympathy and mu- 
 tual confidence. 
 
 Gentlemen, there are ample opportunities of mak- 
 ing the experiment : there is scarcely a town of any 
 importance in these islands that has not a Mechanics’ 
 Institute, or an Athenceum, or a Young Men’s So- 
 ciety, or some organization of the kind — the result of 
 the people’s strong desire to improve themselves — 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 19 
 
 where you may lecture to audiences that will gladly 
 listen to you. But, perhaps you will say, what effect 
 could we produce upon such deeply-rooted preju- 
 dices ? I do not, indeed, propose that young men 
 should lecture upon Sociology, or the rights and 
 wrongs of their audience. Such delicate questions 
 must be left to men, who, from their experience and 
 matured wisdom, as well as from their position and 
 character, are calculated to inspire respect, and carry 
 conviction with them. But outside of these there 
 are a hundred questions, in the wide domains of 
 history, of literature, of science, and of art, on which 
 many of you are perfectly capable of lecturing ; and, 
 remember, that every such opportunity, rightly taken 
 advantage of, is not only an addition to their stock 
 of knowledge, but actually raises their intellectual 
 standard by so much. Do not, then, shrink from this 
 noble undertaking, because the work seems mighty 
 and the means seem small. I do not, indeed, expect 
 that all the lower orders will be immediately turned 
 from their prejudices and mistakes, by a few lectures 
 delivered here and there ; the process must be re- 
 peated again and again ; and even then it is not so 
 much to the immediate effect that we must look, — it is 
 to the after influence that they will exert on the read- 
 ing and thinking of the people, for there is an earnest 
 spirit of inquiry abroad amongst them, — they are 
 seeking some means of escape from their ignorance 
 and degradation ; and of this you may be sure, that 
 if you do not avail yourselves of this mode of assist- 
 
 b 2 
 
20 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 in g them, there will be found amongst themselves 
 an abundance of Orators, who, knowing well the 
 passions and prejudices of their audience, will not 
 fail to suggest those short and easy methods of free- 
 ing themselves from their miseries, — Revolution and 
 Communism. Nor can you expect that sound books 
 and cheap journals will take your place. When the 
 poor man comes home fagged and weary from a day of 
 unceasing toil, he will scarcely apply himself to root 
 sound views out of deep books, to digest, and com- 
 pare, and remember ; and as to that class of journals 
 which prevails amongst the people, in nine cases out 
 of ten, instead of rectifying their errors, they will be 
 found to confirm their prejudices, and pander to 
 their passions. This is just the want that the Plat- 
 form can supply: from it you can present to them 
 sound views, comprised in a short space, and served 
 up in the most interesting and impressive form, 
 combining your lessons with amusement, which is, 
 after all, the most memorable mode of teaching. 
 
 Of course, on these occasions you can only ad- 
 dress a small section of the classes of which we speak ; 
 still it is the most important section that we thus 
 come at : it is the lower grades of the middle classes, 
 and those of the lower classes who have, by their 
 own independent exertions, raised their intellectual 
 status — men who have won their way up the steep 
 incline of knowledge by steps, cut by themselves, in 
 the hard rock of an over-worked existence. Intel- 
 lectual culture is not the business of their lives ; it 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 21 
 
 must be had in exchange for hours stolen from a 
 dearly-earned slumber. Do not believe that to these 
 men truth does not come with power. If you ever 
 meet with, or speak to such men, you will find in 
 them an honest pride in their intellectual candour 
 and integrity, and an individual reality of mind, 
 which, I fear, you might often seek for in vain 
 amongst the more conventional, though enlightened 
 upper classes. These are the men that, in times of 
 tranquillity, form the opinions of the masses ; and, in 
 times of revolution, rise high above them to sway 
 with absolute authority. 
 
 Gentlemen, I now call upon you solemnly not 
 to neglect this social instrument — The Platform ; 
 greatly powerful, as it is, to educate, to regenerate, 
 to liberate our people. This has been the question 
 of fifty years ; it is the question of to-day : others pass 
 and repass, but this of the education of the masses 
 ever holds an uneasy place. We know that the 
 people are rising up around us, a very tide of igno- 
 rance and discontent ; strange forms of error move 
 amongst them ; strong, fierce currents of passion stir 
 them ; the growing strength of the people’s will gains 
 upon us ; and in every lull of political excitement 
 their voice comes like the roar of a far sea. The 
 present state of things cannot last. Thank God ! 
 this system of human machinery and moral degra- 
 dation cannot last ; sooner or later a great change 
 must come social, and, therefore, political. I do be- 
 lieve that it is for us to decide whether this change 
 
22 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 shall come in stormy revolution or grand constitu- 
 tional movement. Now, Gentlemen, there is ample 
 opportunity for your exertions ; but if you do not 
 avail yourselves of it now while you can, perhaps the 
 day may come when, in the terror and turmoil of 
 revolution, too long delayed, you may long for a 
 sympathy that now you may kindle if you will ; you 
 may then appeal frantically, but in vain, to principles 
 of political wisdom and moderation, which you failed 
 to inculcate while you might — “ charming to the 
 deaf adder, that will not hear, charm you never so 
 wisely.” Gentlemen, there are great dangers, though 
 we seldom think about them ; but there are great 
 hopes too. In the gigantic educational schemes 
 that shall produce more deeply, and, therefore, more 
 safely, learned generations : there are, too, plastic 
 elements in our old constitution, that have brought 
 it safely through many a dangerous crisis, though 
 none, I think, more perilous than this. 
 
 It is written in the elder history of that constitu- 
 tion, that when, in the progress of the people from 
 barbarism, the pressure of a social system of degrad- 
 ing villeinage began to be felt, there was found to 
 subsist between the lord and the serf, on the one 
 hand an affectionate sympathy, on the other a re- 
 spectful gratitude, that led to and made easy that 
 voluntary granting of freedom by the lord to the 
 serf, on which all the after power and glory of Eng- 
 land have been built. That was the day of social 
 progress ; this is the day of intellectual enlighten- 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 23 
 
 ment. When the time shall come for a great change, 
 let us be found toiling among the people, in friendly 
 intercourse and sympathy of mind, and then, per- 
 haps, we may accomplish an intellectual regenera- 
 tion — a mental manumission that shall, with the help 
 of God, prove a second youth to our country. 
 
 Gentlemen, I do not think it necessary to dwell, 
 at any length, on Public Speaking at the present day 
 in its two other leading developments. The existence 
 and importance of Eloquence at the Bar seems to 
 be tacitly admitted, even by those who are sceptical 
 about it elsewhere. Important changes, indeed, 
 have of late taken place in many of the principles, and 
 much of the practice of our Courts, but they seem all 
 rather to have a tendency to elevate the style of fo- 
 rensic Eloquence, by simplifying the process of jus- 
 tice, and making it more a matter of common sense. 
 
 Pulpit Oratory remains to be considered, and I 
 have come to it last, not as the least important in 
 this age, but as the most obviously important. The 
 flocking after and pursuit of eloquent preachers 
 signifies a want felt by the people, and if the parish 
 church is deserted, it is because mediocrity in preach- 
 ing has been outgrown, and a higher standard must 
 be had. At the same time, to Pulpit Oratory a li- 
 terary measure of excellence is less applicable. 
 Bringing the same message to many classes, — the 
 rough-]) anded peasant, and the highly-refined gentry 
 — to Lazarus and Dives, — it must adapt itself every- 
 where to its hearers. To thus adapt itself thoroughly 
 
24 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 is its perfect excellence. There is but one charac- 
 teristic, which should be common to all — that is, 
 earnestness in the preacher ; to lose himself in his 
 subject, to see his subject through his hearers, is, 
 perhaps, the only comprehensive definition of all 
 good preaching. 
 
 Thus far have I treated Public Speaking at the 
 present day in its various important developments ; 
 but, before dismissing the subject, I will consider 
 very shortly one sweeping objection to Eloquence in 
 all of them. It is one of the many cants of this day, 
 to contrast the offices of the great doer and the elo- 
 quent talker, as utterly and irreconcileably opposed 
 to each other, — to compare silent individual labour 
 with what they call contemptuously, “ the Orator’s 
 barren harangue.” Gentlemen, to this great doer 
 I would answer thus : — Exert, by all means, the 
 faculties you have upon whatever silent individual 
 work ever occurs to you ; and it is the labouring 
 together of thousands of such silent workers that 
 carries out, and, in fact, composes all the great 
 movements amongst men. The work of the soldier 
 who stands patiently in his ranks, and drops where 
 he stands, is as noble, it may be nobler, than that of 
 the general who bids him stand fast from a safe hill. 
 But the general carries away the fame of that fight, 
 and the world gives him the glory of it, not that his 
 office is intrinsically noblest, but that it is most 
 widely important — all important, as it were. The 
 Orator, too, is a captain amongst men ; he shares his 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 25 
 
 command with the writer and journalist ; but, were 
 his action as general as theirs, he would be the most 
 powerful of the three. He marshals the crowd ; he 
 directs their work ; in the assault upon ignorance 
 and prejudice he beckons them on, and in the de- 
 fence of truth he leads them. These are his actions ; 
 he,, too, is a great doer * and that in the highest 
 sense, for he works with a thousand hands, and 
 moves onward with a thousand feet. History is 
 laden with the great deeds of Eloquent Talkers, the 
 annals of England are telling of their power. At 
 the self-same time that in France Mirabeau over- 
 turned the most effete monarchy on earth, did not 
 the eloquence of Burke preserve for England that 
 constitutional freedom, of which his speeches are at 
 this day the text-books ? Is not the name of Henry 
 Grattan the watch-word of Irish nationality ? and 
 shall not the memory of Wilberforce be linked with 
 the rights of equal freedom the wide world over ? 
 Gentlemen, I cannot believe that since those days 
 the world has changed so much, that great deeds 
 can no longer be done by Eloquent Talkers. 
 
 Gentlemen, if I have at all succeeded in estab- 
 lishing the assertion, which, in the outset of my ad- 
 dress I made, you must now agree with me that a 
 power of Public Speaking is at this day as important 
 as it has ever been. I do not think it necessary to 
 go over, for you, the old arguments so often tri- 
 umphantly maintained, that it is in such institutions as 
 this, and not in solitude, that best may be acquired 
 
26 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 that power. There is one practical argument, 
 which, under the circumstances, renders the use of 
 any others quite uncalled for ; it is the character of 
 the audience that I have this evening addressed. 
 Before me I see a gathering of the members of this 
 Society, amongst whom are the representatives of 
 every honour that this University can bestow. 
 Around me (on this platform) are seated men of all 
 religious denominations, who have attained the 
 highest eminence in every branch of intellectual 
 and professional distinction ; the vast majority of 
 them are old members, and they have come down 
 here this evening to testify their approval of that 
 Society whose pleasant social intercourse they once 
 enjoyed, and which for them is linked with the 
 earliest recollections of the practice of those abilities 
 that they have since so nobly developed. This is 
 a strong fact. 
 
 Another duty now devolves upon me : it is to tell 
 you of the progress of our Society during the last 
 Session ; and not only to rouse our present members 
 to fresh exertions, but also to seek to induce those 
 to join us, who, though qualified by their College 
 standing, have not yet done so. 
 
 I do not believe that since this Society returned ' 
 within the walls of College, it has been in the power 
 of any Auditor to chronicle a Session so altogether 
 successful as that over which we have now to look 
 backwards. Within the last twelve months the list 
 of our members has been increased one-fourth ; and 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 27 
 
 on the muster-roll appear the names of twenty Scho- 
 lars, and a still larger number of Medallists at the 
 Degree Examination. Almost the only losses with 
 which we are threatened are of those whom that un- 
 sparing Examination, for the Indian Civil Service, 
 has torn from our ranks. And on the whole, Gentle- 
 men, 1 think that our sorrow is in this case mitigated 
 when we remember the circumstances which compel 
 them to leave us. 
 
 The course laid down for the History Medal Ex- 
 amination of this year was in accordance with the 
 suggestion thrown out in the eloquent address of my 
 predecessor, selected from the annals of our own 
 island; and the answering was most satisfactory. 
 The subject chosen for the Society’s composition 
 prize, “ Party Government,” is eminently calculated 
 to call forth productions which will be read with 
 interest. 
 
 Gentlemen, we have no Napier Prize this year, for 
 in its place our President has instituted a yearly 
 Medal, which, at the Society’s request, is to be called 
 “ The Napier Medal and, Sir, you must permit me 
 to observe — and I know that I am but speaking the 
 feeling of the whole Society when I say it — that we 
 gladly accept this opportunity of marking, not only 
 our respect for the great abilities that have won for 
 you your august position, but also our affectionate 
 gratitude for that unwearied kindness that, through 
 years of pressing business, has never ceased to watch 
 our progress, — a kindness to which, more than to any 
 
28 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 other single cause is attributable, I believe, our pre- 
 sent prosperity. 
 
 But, Gentlemen, it is in our. grand pursuit, the 
 study of Oratory, that our progress has been most 
 decided and unmistakeable. Not only are the marks 
 on which the Gold Medal has this year been obtained 
 most deservedly high, but this has been accomplished 
 under the difficulties of a much raised standard of 
 merit. Again, I have to notice with pleasure the 
 decided tendency of our meetings to partake more of 
 the nature of debates than of opportunities for the 
 exhibition of long set speeches. The style, too, I 
 should say, has less of display, but more of earnest 
 reality about it. This is, I confess, that feature of 
 our progress which I view 7 with the most complete 
 satisfaction ; and if you will allow me, I would add 
 this suggestion, not in the least as dictating a rule, 
 but as a hint, — one I think very likely to counteract 
 the most dangerous tendency of the practice of such 
 a Society as this : I should advise, especially such as 
 are beginners, to avoid what I must take the liberty 
 to call the “ artf ul dodges ” of rhetoric. What it is 
 most important to acquire, at all events, at first is 
 such confidence as may enable you to speak out 
 simply and strongly your views on any question that 
 may arise. In order to acquire this habit, it is only 
 necessary to speak always on that side of any question 
 which you believe to be the right one, never affect- 
 ing any excitement which you do not feel, or putting 
 forward an argument in wffiich you do not fully be- 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 29 
 
 lieve. The adoption of any other system is certain 
 to lead, not only to the worst moral and intellectual 
 effects, but also to a vicious and unsatisfactory style 
 of speaking ; for there is a strongly marked diffe- 
 rence between the argument, the appeal, and the il- 
 lustration, thrown out by the innate power of a mind 
 thinking upon a truth of which it is fully convinced, 
 and of which it is earnest to convince others, and the 
 same process when attempted by one who has under- 
 taken, right or wrong, to maintain a certain position. 
 I have always observed that such persons find it much 
 easier to deceive themselves, than to deceive an 
 audience. 
 
 But, Gentlemen, it is not only that in the com- 
 petition for our Prizes you may acquire a certain 
 knowledge of History, or fluency of pen, or even a 
 readiness and power in debate, that I would press 
 you to join this Society, but because here you may 
 acquire that other knowledge still more necessary 
 for a successful life : I mean that knowledge of your 
 fellow-men — those habits of hearty social inter- 
 course which make a man an agreeable and prospe- 
 rous as well as a useful member of society. You 
 cannot gain this knowledge in the home circle, nor 
 yet at school amongst boy-companions. The College 
 Examination Hall and Lecture-room do not admit of 
 it, nor even the pleasant social evenings of College 
 sets. But in our Society every clique is represented : 
 no religious difference excludes, no rancorous party- 
 spirit is admitted. In the honourable contests of 
 
30 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 manly emulation, mean envy or petty jealousy would 
 not for a moment be tolerated. In the intellectual 
 refinement of our literary pursuits, coarseness and 
 ill-feeling find themselves out of place, and retire 
 abashed. Intimacies are formed, and friendships 
 spring up that bid fair to last with life : for of this 
 much you may be sure, that the friendships formed 
 while the heart is fresh and the affections are warm, 
 are worth all the after-thoughts dictated by the cal- 
 culations of self-interest. But, Gentlemen, on these 
 subjects I need dwell no longer : to you who are 
 members, descriptions of your past experience are 
 unnecessary ; to you who are members not yet, no 
 description can convey the enjoyments of this So- 
 ciety half so well as you may experience them by 
 joining us. Moreover, Gentlemen, I fear that you 
 may begin to think that this Society is, after all, only 
 a pleasant loitering place to while away an evening 
 or to meet your friends ; and I confess, as I turn 
 from the discussion of the great questions that we 
 have just now considered to review the past Session 
 of this Society, the contrast comes upon me with a 
 feeling of rest and relaxation ; for, though those 
 subjects are very noble in themselves, — though they 
 are fraught with great thoughts and high hopes, — 
 though I believe that to the brave heart and strong 
 will the struggles of life are not so difficult as we 
 grapple with them, — though I doubt not that many 
 an eminence that now seems cloud-capped and im- 
 practicable grows less and less formidable as we ap- 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 31 
 
 proach it, still these great questions somehow suggest 
 the programme of a future of unceasing toil and 
 varying fortunes, — of much good to be done, and but 
 a short, weak life to do it in, — of much wrong to be 
 undone, with fierce, unyielding antagonists in the 
 struggle. How much, too, of disappointment and 
 disaster before we can hope to do anything by which 
 to be remembered ! — I say, when I turn from this 
 scene of struggle in the future, to review our calm 
 and happy labours now, it is with a feeling of un- 
 mixed satisfaction. Do not, however, believe that 
 this feeling is akin to faint-heartedness or feeble de- 
 spondency. I believe that there is no man so much 
 to be pitied as the man who, having ability, wants 
 energy ; no life so miserable as a life without an 
 object. It is just because I believe this Society is 
 the best means for providing you with both one and 
 the other that I would press you to join it ; because 
 I am sure, that though it is with a feeling of deep 
 regret that, one by one, we are obliged to leave it, it 
 is with a feeling, too, that we are men the better pre- 
 pared for what is to follow. 
 
 There is, indeed, but one responsibility, I know 
 of, that you incur on entering our guild : it is, to be 
 patriotic Irishmen. This Society is now in its nine- 
 tieth year. Called into being at first at the moment 
 when the spirit of an awakening freedom and a new- 
 born nationality began to breathe upon this land, it 
 has watched that freedom’s progress, — tenderly 
 nursed that nationality. For ninety years it has sent 
 
32 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 forth the best and greatest Irishmen. — Gentlemen, as 
 I speak these words, great memories come thick upon 
 me. This Society had existed for scarcely twelve 
 short years when Ireland was roused from ages of 
 torpor and slavery, and a people of serfs became in 
 one day a na tion of freemen ; and if you ask me how 
 this was accomplished, I answer — pre-eminently by 
 the Eloquence sent forth from this Society : and if I 
 am to say what guarded that freedom and that inde- 
 pendence well and long, and when that freedom fell 
 and that independence was extinguished in the ig- 
 nominy and despair of the nation, — what it was miti- 
 gated the disaster and half effaced the shame, — I must 
 answer again — it was the Eloquence sent forth by this 
 Society. And, as the mind passes on over years and 
 years of our country’s oppression, and suffering, and 
 sin, what was it that still guarded her interests and 
 pleaded her cause ? I must answer still — it was the 
 Eloquence sent forth by this Society. And when 
 the Emancipation had at last been carried, and that 
 great justice had been done, what was it that, through 
 times of plague, of rebellion, of famine, ever held 
 forth hope and comfort, and what at last has helped 
 to win for Ireland peace, prosperity, and plenty ? I 
 answer still — it was the Eloquence sent forth by this 
 Society. Finally, if I am asked what it is that at this 
 day reflects the ancient fame of Ireland in the British 
 Senate, brings back the bygone glory of her Bar, and 
 makes the old Halls ring again, I answer — it is the 
 Eloquence sent forth by this Society. And we, young 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 33 
 
 men — what have we to do with this ? It is a grand 
 position that we stand in. Behind us stretches away 
 the history of our country, over ages of sorrow and 
 oppression ; it brightens as it approaches the present ; 
 and the future is full of hope and promise. In the 
 day of Ireland’s sore distress the men sent forth from 
 this Society did not fail their country ; shall it be 
 said that in the hour of her prosperity we were found 
 wanting ? 
 
 Gentlemen, these are the great thoughts by which 
 I would seek to rouse you, my fellow-members, to 
 renewed exertions ; these are the inducements that 
 I would hold out to those who have not yet joined 
 us to do so now. I have no others to offer : I desire 
 to offer no others ; for if you are not roused by am- 
 bition, — if you care not for friendship or good fel- 
 lowship, — if you are cold to patriotism, I have no 
 wish that you should become of us. 
 
 My task, Sir, is almost done ; but one short duty 
 remains, — short, but most difficult : it is to thank 
 you, — you, Sir, and those other distinguished men 
 who have come down here this evening, — on the 
 part of the Society, for patronizing us, — on my own 
 part, for the consideration with which you have heard 
 the crudenesses, it may be the impertinences, of a 
 very young man. I must thank you all, Gentlemen, 
 for your tolerance during so long a trial ; but, my 
 fellow-members, when I come to thank you, I have 
 no words to do it with. To return thanks for a 
 single favour is a difficult thing, — to return thanks 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 for a multitude is impossible ; and now, on this night 
 of your crowning kindness, I have no words to thank 
 you with ; I shall not attempt it. I shall ask you 
 one favour more : it is that you will believe that all 
 I have now said, I have not said merely for oratorical 
 effect, or only to fill up the Address which it was my 
 duty to deliver. I have chosen very practical sub- 
 jects ; I have sought to treat them very practically ; 
 and I now ask you individually to take them home 
 practically to yourselves : for this is the hope that I 
 would seek to rouse in the hearts of all of us, that, 
 if Providence should spare us, perhaps in the evening 
 of our lives we may enjoy that highest human happi- 
 ness, an approving conscience, and the gratitude of 
 our fellowmen ; that, when our race is almost run, 
 we may perhaps hear the generation of Irishmen, 
 rising up to take our place, declare that the men who 
 at this day went forth from this Society were not the 
 altogether unworthy successors of the Members of 
 the old Historical. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 (Megt gistoiirat jfooelg. 
 
 MDCCCLIX. 
 
 FOUNDED 1745. REVIVED 1848. 
 
 fatam: 
 
 The Lord Primate, 
 
 Ei.ected. 
 
 . 1848 
 
 JJtegibjmt : 
 
 The Right Hon. Joseph Napier, LL. D 1854 
 
 $hz-^xz%xixznU : 
 
 George Alexander Hamilton, Esq 1843 
 
 Right Hon. F. Shaw, Recorder of Dublin, 1843 
 
 Right Hon. F. Blackburne, Lord Justice of Appeal, 1846 
 
 Right Hon. M. Brady, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 1846 
 
 Right Hon. T. Lefroy, Chief Justice of Queen’s Bench, 1846 
 
 Right Hon. Philip Cecil Crampton, 1847 
 
 Right Hon. T. B. C. Smith, Master of the Rolls, 1848 
 
 The Earl of Rosse, 1849 
 
 Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., D. C. L., F. R. S 1851 
 
 Right Rey. R. Daly, Lord Bishop of Cashel, &c 1851 
 
 Right Hon. David R. Pigot, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, .... 1851 
 
 Right Hon. James Whiteside, Q. C., M. P 1857 
 
 John Kells Ingram, Esq., LL. D., F. T. C. D 1857 
 
 Isaac Butt, Esq., LL. D., Q. C., M. P 1858 
 
 John Toleken, Esq., M. D., S. F. T. C. D 1859 
 
36 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 OFFICERS FOR THE SESSION, 1859-60. 
 
 §bbztor : 
 
 David Robert Plunket, A. B. 
 
 fatvwaxtx : 
 
 Samuel Lee Anderson, A. B. 
 
 Sfomtarg : 
 
 James Walsh, sch., A, B. 
 
 ffibxmim : 
 
 Freeman C. Wills, A. B. 
 
 GENERAL COMMITTEE. 
 
 Ex-Officio Members. 
 
 The President. 
 
 The Junior Dean. 
 
 The Ex- Auditor. 
 
 The Auditor. 
 
 The Treasurer. 
 
 The Secretary. 
 
 The Librarian. 
 
 Ordinary " M embers. 
 
 Henry Stewart, A. B. 
 Arthur Wilson, sch., A. B. 
 W. E. H. Lecky, A. B. 
 
 John R. Garstin, A. B. 
 James W. Rynd, A. B. 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Ex-Officio Members. 
 
 The Auditor. 
 
 The Secretary. 
 
 The Librarian. 
 
 COMMITTEE. 
 
 Ordinary Members. 
 
 John'Ribton Garstin, A. B. 
 C. Cartwright, A. B. 
 
 W. D. A. Babington, A. B. 
 W. Bourke, A. B. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 37 
 
 MEMBERS OE THE SOCIETY, 1858-59, 
 
 ARRANGED IN ORDER OF SENIORITY. 
 
 Honorary Members: The Fellows of T.C. D., and the Members of the Oxford 
 and Cambridge Unions. 
 
 1. William Bradford, scA., A. B., E#- | 
 
 Auditor. 
 
 2. George Arthur Waller, A. B. 
 
 3. John Ribton Garstin, A. B., Li- 
 
 brarian. 
 
 4. Hon.H.Leeson, sch ., soc. com., A.B. 
 
 5. Thomas William Snagg, A. B. 
 
 6. Edward Gibson, A. B., Auditor. 
 
 7. Isaac Bond, A. B., Ex- Secretary. 
 
 8. David Robert Plunket, A. B. 
 
 9. John Boxwell, sch., A. B. 
 
 10. Robert Daniell, A. B. 
 
 1 1. William Chessborough le Poer Ken- 
 
 nedy, A. B., Ex-Librarian. 
 
 12. Samuel Lee Anderson, A. B. 
 
 13. Walter M. Bourke, A. B. 
 
 14. Thomas George Dudley, sc&., A.B., 
 
 Ex- Secretary. 
 
 15. Arthur Wilson, sch., A. B., Trea- 
 
 surer. 
 
 16. Conway Edward Cartwright, A.B. 
 
 17. Raymond d’Andemar Orpen, A B. 
 
 18. William Cooper, A. B. 
 
 19. Thomas Wingfield Webber, A. B. 
 
 20. Henry Stewart, A. B., Secretary. 
 
 21. Richard Creed, soc. com. 
 
 22. William Edward Hartpole Leckey, 
 
 soc. com., A. B. 
 
 23. Wm. John Napier, soc. com., A. B 
 
 24. Freeman Crofts Wills. 
 
 25. Joseph B. Grant, A. B. 
 
 26. John Pen tland Mahaffy, sch. 
 
 27. Arthur Cecil Lillingston. 
 
 28. Matthew Saunders Greene. 
 
 29. Andrew Craig Robinson. 
 
 30. Clement Richardson, A. B. 
 
 31. John Woodroofe, sch., A. B. 
 
 32. William Sherlock. 
 
 33. James William Rynd. 
 
 34. Terence Michael Dolan, A. B. 
 
 35. David C. Cochrane, A. B. 
 
 36. Richard William Enraght. 
 
 37. Arthur Houston, A. B. 
 
 38. Charles William Benson, A. B. 
 
 39. John Blake Kilkelly. 
 
 40. Robert William Buckley. 
 
 41. William Carroll, A. B. 
 
 42. John S. Leatham, sch., A. B. 
 
 43. John Yesey Nugent, soc. com. 
 
 44. Henry J. Moses. 
 
 45. John Woollaston Mainwaring. 
 
 46. William D’ Alton Babington, soc. 
 
 com., A. B. 
 
 47. John Fallon, n.f. sch., A. B. 
 
 48. Anthony Traill, sch. 
 
 49. Arthur John Booth, soc. com. 
 
 50. John J. Digges La Touche, A. B. 
 
 51. Charles Echlin. 
 
 52. Gerald Fitzgibbon, sch. 
 
 53. William Power. 
 
38 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 54. William Shaw Darley, sch. 
 
 55. James Walsh, sch., A. B. 
 
 56. Hussey Burgh Macartney. 
 
 57. John James Browne, sch. 
 
 58. James Lowry Whittle. 
 
 59. Lucas Burnet Blacker Kin g, A. B. 
 
 60. Isaac Stamers Heazle, sch., A. B. 
 
 61. George Keys. 
 
 62. John W. Chambers, sch., A. B. 
 
 68. Robert Keith Arbuthnot, soc. com. 
 
 64. John Gifford Jacob. 
 
 65. Archibald Henry Hamilton. 
 
 66. Francis William Kirkpatrick. 
 
 67. Henry Lissignol Dobree. 
 
 68. Edward Haughton, A. B., M D. 
 
 69. John Newenham Hoare, sch. 
 
 70. Thomas William Bell, n.f sch. 
 
 71. John Cotter Wood, soc. com. 
 
 72. John M‘Grorty. 
 
 73. Guy Alfred Thompson. 
 
 74. Goddard Richards Purefoy Colles. 
 
 75. Michael Browne, A. B. 
 
 76. Richard E. Shakleton, sch., A. B. 
 
 77. J. MacDowell. 
 
 78. Samuel Radcliffe. 
 
 79. Langlois Lefroy, soc. com., A. B. 
 
 80. George Hamilton King. 
 
 81. John Gray. 
 
 82. T. W. Banks. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 39 
 
 EXAMINATION FOE MEDALS IN HISTOEY. 
 
 (fammnzxti : 
 
 Edward Gibson, A. B., First Senior Moderator in History, Political£Science, 
 and English Literature. 
 
 Arthur Houston, A. B., Senior Moderator in History, Political Science, and 
 English Literature. 
 
 Arthur Wilson, A.B., First Senior Moderator in History, Political Science, 
 and English Literature. 
 
 Mr. Gibson. 
 
 I — What laws regulated the succession to principalities and private property 
 respectively in Ireland before 1172 ? Mr. Hallam mentions a remedy which was 
 sometimes attempted to prevent disorders on the death of a chief ? 
 
 II. Mention the date and enactments of the Statutes of Kilkenny. How far 
 does Sir John Davies think they were intended to extend? Who was Lord 
 Deputy at that time ? 
 
 III. — 1. Mr. Froude states two causes for the decline of the authority of the 
 Norman leaders in Ireland ? 
 
 2. Mention the two expedients by either of which the English Government 
 could be maintained, indicating that which Mr. Froude says was exclusively 
 adopted. 
 
 IV. — Mention the date and provisions of Poyning’s Law. By what article is 
 it peculiarly known ? 
 
 V — Write short notes on — 
 
 1. John de Courcy, Earl of Ulster. 
 
 2. Lambert Simnel. 
 
 3. Silken Thomas. 
 
 4. Sir Arthur Gray. 
 
 Mr. Houston. 
 
 I 1. What were the most important measures passed by the first Parliament 
 
 held in Ireland during the Government of Strafford ? 
 
 2. Mention some of the chief grievances complained of by the Irish Parliament 
 in their accusation against that nobleman. 
 
40 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 II. — Give some account of the proceedings instituted by the Commons with 
 respect to the University of Dublin soon after his fall. 
 
 III. — Enumerate the principal causes which led to the Rebellion of 1641. 
 
 IY. — Trace briefly the connexion of the following individuals with the Irish 
 history of this period : — 
 
 Edward Somerset, Earl of Glamorgan. 
 
 Touchet, Earl of Castlehaven. 
 
 Rinunccini. 
 
 Y. — Narrate in detail the events of Cromwell’s Irish campaign. 
 
 Mr. Wilson. 
 
 I. — Give a short account of the campaign of 1691. 
 
 II. — Trace historically the connexion between the British and Irish Parlia- 
 ments from the Revolution to 1782. 
 
 III. — Describe the proceedings with respect to the Regency in 1789. 
 
 IY. — Who were the principal leaders in the Rebellion of 1798 ? What foreign 
 attempt was made to assist that Rebellion ? 
 
 V. — State the chief provisions of the Act of Settlement (1660), the Treaty of 
 Limerick, and the Act of Union. 
 
This book is given special protection for the reason 
 indicated below: 
 
 Autograph 
 
 Association 
 
 Condition 
 
 Cost 
 
 (^Edition ^ 
 FmeT)inding 
 Format 
 
 Giftbook 
 Illustration 
 Miniature book 
 Original binding or covers 
 Pre sentation 
 Scarcity 
 Subject 
 
 L82 — 5 M— 9-64— 84330-K