The first of them was the

Oxford, and we did it in two ways. establishment of a new Governing Body. In Cambridge, the Caput, supplemented by conventional meetings of the Heads of Houses, in Oxford more formally the Hebdomadal Board, composed almost wholly of the Heads of Colleges-were in practical possession of the initiative, and were the rulers of the University. We abolished the Hebdomadal Board in Oxford and the Caput in Cambridge, and carried over the powers in each case to the Council. And now

similarly, that we should establish a new Governing Body for the University of Dublin is evidently the conclusion to which both principle and policy should bring us. The other great measure of emancipation consisted in the introduction within the Universities. of members not belonging to any College at all. Until within the

last few years, no one could belong to the University of Oxford or of Cambridge without belonging to some College or Hall within it, just as now no one can belong to the University of Dublin without belonging also to Trinity College. Parliament enabled the English Universities to enlarge their borders by taking in members not belonging to any College or Hall. Speaking for Oxford, I rejoice to say that Act has been fruitful of good; and already, although the change is a very recent one, there are 120 young men to be found in the University enjoying all the benefits of careful training, but all able to pursue a social scheme of their own, to live as economically as they please, to seek knowledge in the way they like best, provided they conform to the rules of the University; and we may reasonably expect that a very powerful element of University life will in this way ultimately be established. Another method by which we have proceeded-I will not say to emancipate the Universities, but to make the Colleges conducive to the purposes of the University-is a very important one, and that is, to use a very emphatic little word, by "taxing" the Colleges for the benefit of the Universities. That is a principle which has already received in Oxford a considerable development. We already oblige Corpus Christi, Magdalen, and All Souls' Colleges to maintain Professors out of the College revenues, not for College but for University purposes; and as for Christ Church, with which I have been myself connected, though a poor College in comparison with Trinity College-I greatly doubt whether it is half as wealthy-yet in Christ Church five Professorships of Divinity, at a cost of probably between 70007. and 80007. a year, are maintained out of the property of the College for the benefit of the University.

"These, sir, are the principles of academic reform on which we have proceeded in England. There are other principles which it would be necessary to observe in Ireland, in consequence of her peculiar circumstances; yet these are the main ones. But there are two points among those which the special case of Ireland brings before us, that I must particularly notice. To the one I would refer with some satisfaction-at least as regards Trinity College-to the other with pain. It is this. If we are about to found a

University in Ireland in which we hope to unite together persons of the different religious persuasions into which the community is divided, we must be content to see some limitations of academical teaching. It would not be safe, in our opinion, to enter with our eyes open into largely controverted subjects. In theology no one would wish the University of Dublin, if it be reformed, to teach; and we also think there are some other subjects with regard to which it will be necessary to observe limitations that I will presently explain. There is another matter on which we must pursue a course somewhat different from that taken in England. In England, when we reformed the Universities, we may say we did nothing to increase the influence of the Crown. In Ireland, as far as Trinity College is concerned, I should not propose to increase the influence of the Crown. It appears to me that it may be safely limited. But if we are to have an effective and living Dublin University with a new Governing Body, I am afraid it will be necessary to introduce for a time the action of Parliament and of the Crown in consequence of the unbalanced state of the University at the present moment—a state which must continue, at all events, for a time."

The Bill contemplates three periods. On January 1, 1875, the powers now exercised by the Provost and the seven senior Fellows of Trinity College in relation to the University will be handed over to the new Governing Body; then will follow a provisional period, during which certain special arrangements will prevail; and after 1885, when the new system has been fully developed, the permanent rules will come into force. Coming next to describe in detail the changes which are to be made in the present position of the University, Mr. Gladstone said that first of all the University of Dublin will be incorporated, which it never has been yet; the theological faculty will be separated from Trinity College and handed over to the representative body of the Disestablished Church, with compensation for vested interests and a charge for its maintenance. The Chancellor will be appointed by the Crown, and will retain his present function of visitor of Trinity College; and the Vice-Chancellor will be elected by the Governing Body. The Queen's Colleges of Cork and Belfast, the Roman Catholic University, and the Magee College will become colleges of the University, as will probably other institutions also, though on this point Mr. Gladstone spoke in a tone of uncertainty, having had no opportunity of communicating with the persons interested.

"The next change," said Mr. Gladstone," which I have to mention is probably the most important of all; it is the constitution of the new Governing Body of the University of Dublin. I have shown that we strictly follow the analogy of English legislation in substituting a new Governing Body for the old one, and as a necessary step in the process of emancipating-I do not use the word in any invidious sense or detaching the University. But in the case of Oxford and Cambridge we had, already supplied to our hands, a large, free, wellbalanced and composed constituency, to which we could at once

entrust the election of the new Governing Body. This, it is evident, is not the case with respect to the University of Dublin. Were the new Governing Body to be elected at once by the Senate of the University of Dublin, it would represent one influence, and one influence only. We have, therefore, determined to introduce an intermediate or provisional period, and we shall not ask Parliament to place in the hands of the Crown the nomination of the Council which is to govern the University for that period; but, passing by the Crown, shall ask the Legislature itself in the main to nominate the list of persons for that purpose. I need hardly say that we are not now prepared to bring that list of persons before the House. It would be impossible for us to do it. It was impossible for us to ask gentlemen of eminence in Ireland to allow us to propose their names until we were aware of the general view which they would be disposed to take of the plans of the Government and of the intentions of Parliament; and I have already explained the reasons why it has not been within our power to hold any such communications. There is, however, one point on which I wish not to be misunderstood, and that is the principle on which we shall endeavour to make the selection of names which we shall submit to Parliament. There is, indeed, another class of members of the Council, to whom I shall presently refer; but I speak now of the names we shall submit to Parliament of members whom I propose to call the ordinary members of the Council. They are twenty-eight in number, and will form the principal and therefore the predominating portion of the Council. These names of ordinary members we shall endeavour to submit to Parliament, not as representatives of religious bodies as such, but on wider grounds. For we think that the lists should be composed-without excluding any class or any man on account of his religious profession-from among all those persons in Ireland who, from their special knowledge or position, or from their experience, ability, character, and influence, may be best qualified at once to guard and to promote the work of academic education in Ireland. That is the principle on which we wish to make our choice, so far as we are concerned, and if we make it amiss, it will be in the power of Parliament to correct it.

"I will next, sir, proceed to describe the manner in which the Council is to be brought into action. It will be necessary for it to perform certain preliminary functions before the 1st of January, 1875. It will have to matriculate students, to complete its number as I shall presently explain, and to make appointments of officers, so far as may be needed, to prepare it for entering on its career of full authority. On the 1st of January, 1875, it will take over those powers of ordinary government which have hitherto been exercised by the Provost and seven Senior Fellows of Trinity College. It will have the power to admit new Colleges over and above those named in the Act; it will have a general power of governing the University, and the function of appointing Professors and Examiners; and it is only in respect to the method of its own elec

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tion that it will remain under an intermediate or provisional constitution until it reaches the year 1885, when its constitution will assume its permanent form. The composition of the Council will be made complete from the first. But I have not yet fully described the mode of its appointment. There will be the twenty-eight ordinary members to be named in the statute, as I have already mentioned. During the ten years from 1875 to 1885-the provisional period-there will be, probably no great number, but still a certain number of vacancies in the Body which it will be necessary for us to make provision to fill up. For that limited period we propose that the vacancies should be filled alternately by the Crown and by co-optation on the part of the Council itself. At the expiration of the ten years it will come to its permanent constitution, and I will describe what that, as we propose it, is to be; and then the Committee will be able to judge of the meaning of what I said when I stated that our desire was that the University of Dublin should be founded, as far as possible, on principles of academic freedom. After ten years, we propose that service on the Council shall be divided into four terms of seven years each, four members retiring in each successive year. There will therefore be four vacancies among the twenty-eight ordinary members to be filled up every year, and these four vacancies we propose shall be filled in rotation -first, by the Crown; secondly by the Council itself; thirdly, by the Professors of the University; and fourthly, by the Senate of the University. There is a separate provision with regard to casual vacancies in the Council, to which I need not now more particularly refer. The ordinary members will constitute, according to the proposal of the Government, the main stock or material of the Council or Governing Body of the University; but we have been very desirous to see in what way that which we aim at may meet the general wants and wishes of the people of Ireland; and, considering how desirable it is to prevent the action of too strong an unitarian principle-I have, I believe, ample authority for using that word, which is familiar in the present politics of Germanywe have been very anxious to discover in what manner it might be possible to give to those bodies, which I have described as Colleges of the University, a fair opportunity, not of governing the action of the Council by any exertion of influence or combination among themselves, but of being heard in the Council, so that all views and desires with respect to education might be fairly brought into open discussion, and that right might have the best chance of prevailing. It is evident we could not adopt the system under which any one College should be allowed to send to the Council a large number of members. It is also evident that it would not be safe to adopt a system under which Colleges, insignificant in magnitude, should be permitted to claim a representation in the Council. What we wish is this-that considerable Colleges, which represent a large section of the community and of its educating force, should have a fair opportunity of making their voice heard in the Council. With

regard to all those dangers which would be likely to arise from too great a rigour of unity in the examinations, or too narrow a choice in their subjects and tone, though we introduce several other provisions on the point into the Bill, it is to the freedom and elasticity of the Council itself, I think, that we should look as the main security against anything either inequitable or unwise. We We propose, then, that there shall be in the Council from the outset that is to say, from the 1st of January, 1875-a certain number of what we call collegiate members, the basis of whose position in the Council will be that any College of the University which has fifty of its matriculated students, those students being in statu pupillari matriculated also as members of the University, may send one member to the Council, and if such College have 150 students, then it may send two members. That would be the maximum; and this element, so far as we can judge, while it ought to be and will be secondary in point of numbers, would become very valuable and necessary for the purpose to which I have just adverted. The Senate of the University of Dublin, as it now exists, does not, I may observe, discharge one of the living and standing duties which a University is called upon to perform. I mean the election of representatives to be sent to Parliament. The election of representatives for the Dublin University is mainly conducted by gentlemen who, except for that purpose, do not belong to the University at all-that is to say, who have ceased to belong to it, and who are empowered to exercise with regard to it no other function. What we propose is that henceforward the Senate shall elect the representatives of the University. The Senate will, of course, consist of all those who are now in it, and of all the doctors and masters who may hereafter have their names kept on it according to the rules which may be in force. I need not add that care will be taken that all those individuals who are now entrusted with the privilege of the franchise will have their rights preserved; but for the future we shall lay down the principle that the members for the University ought to be elected by the Senate as they now are by the Senate of Cambridge and the Convocation of Oxford, and by them alone."

The new University would be a teaching as well as a governing body, and in describing the securities for conscience which would be taken, Mr. Gladstone said there would be no chairs in theology, in moral philosophy, or in modern history.

"We do not think it necessary," said Mr. Gladstone, "to exclude these subjects from the examination, provided the submission to examination in them is voluntary. As I have said already, the University is to be a teaching University; but we propose to extend the voluntary principle still further, and to provide that, as a rule, no attendance upon the lectures of the University professors shall be compulsorily required from the students. We intend to trust to the excellence of the instruction which will be given, and to the vast advantages the University will enjoy from being placed in the metropolis of Ireland for the attraction of students to it; but we