Part 2 — UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN IRELAND.

There are two Universities recognized by law in this country. One of these, the University of Dublin, or Trinity College, although it has shown of late years a more liberal spirit towards Catholics than formerly, must always remain essentially Protestant in character, until the way is open for Catholics to be appointed on its governing body—a change, of which there does not appear to be the slightest probability.

As a matter of fact, its governing body, consisting of the provost and senior fellows, are all members of the Church as by law established, and, with two exceptions, are Protestant clergymen. The other fellows, and the scholars on the foundation, are likewise Protestants; and this in a city where, of a population of 254,000, only 58,000 are Protestants (of all denominations), and in a country in which only 11.8 per cent. of the inhabitants are members of the Established Church.

It is true that within the last few years some scholarships of small value have been opened for Catholics and Dissenters. Masters of Arts, even such of them as are not Protestants, have votes in the election of members to represent the University in Parliament; but these scholarships are not on the foundation, the holders of them do not belong to the corporation, and no Catholic has any share in the government of the University, nor (with one trifling exception) in its teaching. Trinity College was founded for the purpose (as stated in its original charter) of destroying Catholicity and promoting the ascendancy of the Established Church in Ireland. It has religiously endeavoured to discharge that trust; and, although some of its members have been and are men of liberal and enlarged views, still it continues to the present day the work given it to do by its foundress, Queen Elizabeth. At this moment there is a Protestant bishop in Ireland who was a Catholic till he entered Trinity College; the same can be said of the archdeacon of another diocese, and his two brothers; the female members of the families of these dignitaries still remain good Catholics; and on the list of the fellows, professors, and scholars of the University itself, are the names of several who were baptized in the Catholic faith, and declared themselves Protestants when wishing to become members of the University of Dublin! What wonder, then, that Catholics should be unwilling to leave the chief education of the country in the hands of the Protestant University of Dublin, more especially since it has been observed that a very large proportion of the Catholics who have studied there, cease during their University course to be communicants in the Church to which they still belong by name? What wonder that Catholics should consider it a hardship to be forced, if they wish to get University education near home, to seek it in an institution from whose dignities and management they are excluded, in which an antagonistic creed is always put forward ostentatiously in a position of superiority, while the faith of their fathers, if it be not contemned and scoffed at, is systematically treated with silent indifference, or with supercilious patronage? What wonder that Catholics being declared by Act of Parliament "freemen" in every way equal to their Protestant fellow-countrymen, should be unwilling to continue begging as a favour at the gates of such an institution for the academical honours and distinction to which they are entitled as a right? It is absurd that in the metropolis of a free country, containing inhabitants of various religions, a handful of clergymen of one denomination should pretend to a monopoly of University education; should hold in their hands the keys of knowledge, doling it out as they please, and obliging even those whose faith they denounce as idolatry and superstition, to send their sons to their schools. Would such a system be allowed in any other country? Would a few Catholic priests be allowed, even for one hour, to monopolize the University education of Protestant England?

We need not be surprised, then, that the number of Catholics entering Trinity College has steadily diminished during the last thirty years, and that they now form only six per cent. of the total number of entrances. In the official return contained in the last report of the Census Commissioners, we find that on the 17th May, 1861, of one hundred and forty-seven students resident in Trinity College, only five were Catholics.

In order to remedy, in some measure, this evil, the late Sir Robert Peel founded the Queen's Colleges. But the remedy was ineffectual. These colleges incurred the reprobation of the authorities of the Catholic Church, and, consequently, by far the greater part of Catholics object to these institutions on conscientious grounds, and many of them on political and social grounds also.

According to the last census, there were in Ireland in 1861, ninety-eight classical schools under the management of societies or boards, and two hundred and three private classical schools. The total number of pupils in these schools was 10,346, of whom 5,118, or about one-half, were Catholics. There were also 1,242 Catholics returned as receiving collegiate education on the 17th of May of that year. We have thus a total of 6,360 Catholic youths receiving a superior education in Ireland. Few, if any, of the Catholic institutions to which these pupils belong look with favour on the existing universities. On the other hand, none of these youths ought to be excluded from University education on account of conscientious objections: and yet by far the greater number are practically excluded at present, at least they are excluded from participation in the highest University dignities, and from the management of those seats of learning and centres of intellectual progress, one of which is essentially Protestant, the other is condemned by their Church. Is this justice? is it equality? is it intellectual freedom?

The unfairness of the present system will appear more clearly, if we consider the question of professional education. In the profession of the Law, out of 758 barristers in Ireland in 1861, 216 were returned as Catholics; 674 out of 1,882 attorneys; of 2,358 physicians and surgeons, 761 were Catholics; and 210 out of 419 apothecaries, many of whom hold a medical license. Of 1,065 members of other liberal professions, not ecclesiastics, the Census Commissioners state that 358 belonged to the Catholic religion; and of 267 professors in colleges, and tutors, 141 held the same faith. To these we must add 83 law students, 40 of whom are Catholics; and 329 Catholic medical students out of a total of 954. We have thus 2,729 Catholics out of a total of 7,758 persons engaged in the liberal professions, or aspiring to them.

Let us now see the disabilities under which this large number, more than one-third of the whole, labour, when on conscientious grounds they object, as is generally the case, to existing University arrangements.

With respect to the profession of the Law and to Attorneys, the following arrangement is at present in force by Act of Parliament, or by the resolution of the Benchers.

All graduates of Trinity College or of the Queen's University can be called to the Bar at the end of three years from the date of their registration as law students; while non-graduates are inadmissible to such call until the expiration of five years from such date.

Graduates are obliged to attend only two courses of lectures, either at the King's Inns or at Trinity College, or (in the case of students of the Queen's University) at any one of the Provincial Colleges; while non-graduates are required to attend four courses, viz.:—two courses at the King's Inns, and two additional courses at Trinity College. Moreover, graduates are required to attend twelve terms' commons, viz.: six in the King's Inns and six in any Inn in London; while non-graduates are required to attend seventeen, terms' commons, viz.: nine in the King's Inns and eight in England. Finally, the fees payable by graduates are less than those imposed upon non-graduates.

With regard to the apprentices of solicitors and attorneys, all matriculated students of Trinity College and of the Queen's Colleges are exempt from the preliminary examination imposed upon all other apprentices who have not been so matriculated. They may further be admitted to the practice of their profession two years earlier than non-matriculated apprentices, and are exempt from one of the courses of lectures appointed by the Benchers for such apprentices.

From this it appears that Catholics, and indeed all who object to the Protestant University and to the Queen's Colleges, are delayed in their course to a profession one or two years longer than the graduates of the favoured institutions, and are obliged to attend additional lectures and to pay extra fees, irrespectively of their proficiency in literature and science, or in law. Nearly one thousand Catholics (930) must submit to these inconveniencies, or must, on the one hand, choose between a University founded to maintain the ascendancy of the Established Church in Ireland, and, on the other hand, institutions condemned by their Church.

With respect to the Medical Profession, every one knows the high value set by practitioners, and by the public, on the title and degree of "Doctor of Medicine". Now, no one can obtain that high distinction in Ireland unless by becoming a member of one of the two Universities recognized by law; and the 329 Catholic medical students must either give up all chance of that honour and professional advantage, or trample under foot their self-respect, if, contrary to their religious principles, they enter one of the institutions which their faith condemns.

As to professors in colleges, and tutors, besides the injustice to the persons themselves, there is no one but must see the injury inflicted on the education of the nation, when more than one-half of the teachers in its superior schools and colleges are obliged to forego the advantages of University education (we ought in their case rather to say, the necessary training for their important office, which can be had only in an University), or to secure it with the fear which nearly all Catholics feel of forfeiting more sacred advantages, of endangering more important interests. And although some persons may deem these fears excessive, still, has any one the right to tamper with these religious opinions? Is it fair or reasonable to place such trammels on men in the pursuit of the highest education? In fine, is it just to oblige parents to choose for their sons either half-educated tutors, or else men whose views may have become unsettled on matters most important, most sacred to their eyes in their children's education—men who have been trained in an institution which Catholics, as a body, reject and repudiate?

The Census Commissioners, in the report referred to, remark: "The high proportion of members of the Established Church receiving intermediate instruction (as compared to Catholics) is due in a great measure to the numerous endowments in connection with that Church, and to the relation existing between many of these endowments and the University of Dublin". Might they not have added, that this disproportion is also due to the fact, that little or no inducements are held out to Catholics to pursue University studies, or rather, that no University career is left open to the large number of Catholics who, on conscientious grounds, object to the Protestant University and to the Queen's Colleges? The following sentences in the Report seem fully to bear us out in this remark: "The very small proportion of Roman Catholic students receiving University instruction requires, perhaps, more explanation, because they are taken from the class of those undergoing intermediate instruction, which has an absolute majority over the Protestants of the same class. If, however, we deduct from the number of Roman Catholics pursuing classical studies those who pass to the College of Maynooth, All Hallows, and several Continental seminaries, to follow up their studies preparatory for the priesthood, the disproportion will appear less, when we take into account that nearly all the candidates for the ministry of the Established Church graduate in the University of Dublin, to which they contribute a very large proportion of its students". It might be asked: Why ought the Catholic students here referred to, be deprived of the advantages of University education, if they wished for them, as they are enjoyed by ecclesiastical students in Belgium, Prussia, and Austria?

The Report then continues: "Taking an average for ten years of the numbers graduating in the University of Dublin and Queen's University, we obtain a representation of the number receiving University instruction yearly in Ireland not very far removed from the truth. That average is 335, or 0.006 per cent. of the entire population. This being so, we regret to say that, as compared with other European countries, Ireland occupies a lower place than several—namely, than Prussia, Austria, or Belgium; the first mentioned of those countries having had, in 1852, 0.028 per cent.; the second, in 1853-4, 0.026; and the last, in 1850, 0.017 per cent. of her population engaged in University studies; so that whatever advantage any one section of the Irish people may seem to have over any other in this respect, much yet remains to be done by all before the entire population of Ireland can take a prominent rank among civilized countries in the cultivation of liberal studies"—Report of Census Commissioners, page 60.

The "much which remains to be done" is, we submit, to take off the restrictions on University education which still remain, and to allow Catholics who conscientiously object to the Protestant University and to the Queen's Colleges, to gain University honours and distinctions without violating their religious principles. At present they are excluded, practically, from University education on account of their religious opinions. Let these disabilities be removed, either by placing on an equality with the other Universities the Catholic University, which is founded on the principles they admit, as the others are based on principles antagonistic to them; or else establish one central University of Ireland, an institution which will be, not a teaching, but an examining and graduating body, before which all who desire degrees or other academical honours may equally present themselves, and where every man, no matter under what system he has studied, will find his religious convictions respected, and will be asked not where or how he has learned, but what he knows—a University, which, with some necessary modifications, will be for Irish Catholics, and indeed for all Ireland, what the London University is for the Dissenters of England.

If precedents for either of these plans be asked for, they will be found, for the first, in the Catholic University of Laval, Quebec, chartered by her present Majesty; and for the other, in Belgium, and in the University of Sydney.