difficult, and while the Liberal party offered him a zealous and unanimous support, the immediate victims of his reforming energy feared to risk the withdrawal of the compromises by which he offered to mitigate the sacrifices which he imposed. In an attempt to legislate on Irish University Education the prospects of success were far less favourable. It was necessary to satisfy the conflicting demands of Roman Catholic Prelates, of English and Scotch Liberals, and of Protestant Nonconformists, who were already on other grounds threatening a rupture with the Government. The abolition of religious tests in Trinity College had only been prevented by Mr. Gladstone's refusal in a former session to sanction a partial measure of reform. The sole complainants were the Roman Catholic clergy, and, except for the satisfaction of their demands, there was no pressing need for legislation. By the terms of their alliance with the Dissenters for the overthrow of the Irish Establishment the priests had interposed insuperable difficulties in the way of concurrent endowment; and when the bond formed by common enmity was dissolved after the attainment of victory, it was difficult to conjecture how any Liberal Government could effect a practical settlement of the Roman Catholic claims. It is true that there are in Ireland vast funds of which Parliament has found itself unable to dispose, and that a richly-endowed Roman Catholic University would have less tendency than a number of cheap clerical seminaries to promote either disaffection or bigotry; but all parties in Parliament had, for various reasons, repudiated the most obvious solution of the problem; and, as the result proved, Mr. Gladstone himself was unable to reconcile contradictory opinions and pretensions. Even if his marvellous ingenuity had resulted in the proposal of some logical compromise, far more commonplace political observers might have told him that no University Bill which would satisfy the Roman Catholic Bishops could by possibility command the approval of the House of Commons. Mr. Gladstone, nevertheless, addressed himself to his embarrassing task with a confidence which may probably not have been shared by less enthusiastic colleagues. The Irish University Bill occupied a conspicuous place in the Queen's Speech, and a week after the meeting of Parliament the Prime Minister explained a measure which, if not in its language, in its details as well as in its conception was emphatically his own. His opening statement was a masterpiece of lucid exposition, and few more genuine tributes to oratorical ability have ever been paid than the seemingly assenting silence with which a Bill which afterwards provoked universal dissatisfaction was in the first instance received. The elaborate provisions of the Bill were, in truth, not to be comprehended without careful study. Eagerly adopting a convenient version of academical history, Mr. Gladstone described as an abuse or an accident the ancient union of the University of Dublin with Trinity College, and he accordingly proposed to abolish the exclusive connexion, and to affiliate Trinity College and several other educational institutions to the University. Of the Queen's

Colleges established by Sir Robert Peel, two were to be associated with the University of Dublin; but the Queen's University was to be abolished, and, on the allegation that it had failed to attract an adequate number of students, the Queen's College at Galway was to be suppressed. The so-called Catholic University, and several other Roman Catholic seminaries, were to be in the same manner attached to the University of Dublin, which was, however, not to be, like the University of London, a mere Examining Board, but a real University, with due appliances of lecture-rooms, of professorships, and of fellowships. To its revenues Trinity College would, under the provisions of the Bill, contribute 12,000l. a year, while the remaining revenues were to arise from a charge on the Consolidated Fund of 10,000l. a year. The government of the new University was to be vested in a council of persons to be named in the Bill. Future vacancies were to be filled for a certain number of years by the Crown, and afterwards by a mixed system of co-optation and election, in which the preponderating power would ultimately have devolved on the affiliated colleges.

For the third time, the Premier said in introducing the Bill, he rose to discharge a duty vital not only to the honour and existence of the Government, but to the welfare and prosperity of Ireland. Referring to the opinion held in some quarters that Ireland offered but a barren field for these efforts of legislation, he declared emphatically that the Government did not share in that view. Industry there flourishes, the wealth of the community increases, order is respected, ordinary crime is less than in England, agrarian crime has greatly diminished, and treasonable crime has disappeared. Bespeaking indulgence for the intricate and complex details into which he should be obliged to enter, and promising that though the Government admitted the urgent necessity for dealing with intermediary education, they did not intend to mix that question up with University education, Mr. Gladstone referred, in a vein of sarcastic pleasantry, to the anticipatory criticisms in one of the leading journals on his measure, and repelled energetically the insinuation that it would be tinged with Ultramontane influence. As a matter of fact, the Government had not communicated with any of the bodies interested in university education, and the measure appealed for support solely to the equity and justice on which it was based. "We have heard much, sir," he said, " of Ultramontane influence (Hear, hear!) and it may be well, therefore-that cheer is an additional reason why I should notice the point-to refer to it for a moment. I cannot wonder that apprehensions with respect to Ultramontane influence should enter into the minds of the British public whenever legislation affecting the position of the Roman Catholics in Ireland is projected; and we cannot, I think, be surprised that the influences which appear so forcibly to prevail within the Roman communion should be regarded by a very great portion of the people of this country with aversion, and by some portion of them even with unnecessary dread. It appears to us, however, that we have one

course, and one course only to take, one decision, and one only to arrive at, with respect to our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects. Do we intend, or do we not intend, to extend to them the full benefit of civil equality on a footing exactly the same as that on which it is granted to members of other religious persuasions? If we do not, the conclusion is a most grave one; but if the House be of opinion, as the Government are of opinion, that it is neither generous nor politic, whatever we may think of this ecclesiastical influence within the Roman Church, to draw distinctions in matters purely civil adverse to our Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen-if we hold that opinion, let us hold it frankly and boldly; and, having determined to grant measures of equality as far as it may be in our power to do so, do not let us attempt to stint our action in that sense when we come to the execution of that which we have announced to be our design. But there really, as I shall explain, is no room for any suspicion of either Ultramontane or any other influence with respect to the measure which I am now about to submit to the House. The truth is that circumstances entirely independent of our own will have precluded us from holding communications with any of the large bodies which may be said, as bodies, to be interested in Irish University education. The Governing Body of Trinity College, Dublin, have thought fit, in the exercise of their discretion-a discretion which they had a perfect right to exercise-to adopt a policy and to propose a plan of their own, or at least to associate themselves with the plan which was proposed in this House by the hon. member for Brighton, with the direct concurrence and sanction of one, perhaps of both, of the members of the Dublin University. That being so, it is obvious that it would not have been consistent with the respect which we owe to that learned body that we should have attempted to induce it by private persuasion to accept a plan of a different character, or that we should have entered into communications with it as to the nature of the proposal which we are about to lay before the House. Under these circumstances, the principles of equal dealing prevented us from similar proceedings in any other quarter. Therefore, the door was shut in that direction by no act of ours, but by an act altogether independent of ourselves; and consequently it was plain that the best course for us to take was to look as well as we could to the general justice and equity of the course we felt ourselves called upon to pursue, to devise a plan founded upon our own matured convictions, to spare no labour in drawing up the details of that plan, and to forego altogether the advantage-an advantage often considerable-of holding communications beforehand with the various parties who were interested in the matter. Therefore, the measure I am about to submit to the House is a measure solely of the Government. It is a measure of the Government alone; our responsibility for which is undivided, and our hopes of the acceptance of which are founded entirely upon what we trust will be found to be its equity and its justice. The provisions of the Bill have been drawn up without any disposition to shape them for the

purpose of currying favour or of conciliating any irrational prejudice, or of enabling the Government to pursue any other course than that which the most enlightened patriotism and the objects we have in view must dictate to every honourable mind.”

Examining next the alternatives which had been offered to the Government or imputed to them, he declared that with regard to denominational endowment the Government was not only precluded from proposing it by their own pledges, but by a sincere belief that it would be unwise. The "Supplemental Charter" scheme had entirely gone by, and was not equal to the present emergency, and to set up another University by the side of Dublin University and the Queen's University would be no settlement of the question. Passing then to the principles on which the Government had determined to act, he started from the proposition that the exclusion of the Roman Catholics from University education in Ireland constitutes a religious grievance-a civil disability imposed for religious opinions. That both Roman Catholics and Presbyterians were debarred from the benefits of University education by their unwillingness to send their children to places where religion was not taught on authority as part of the system of training was a fact which, however some might deplore it, must be dealt with as a fact which could not be altered. To prove this, Mr. Gladstone quoted the

returns.

"In the Queen's College, Ireland, the total number of matriculated students is returned to me as 708. The number of Roman Catholics among them is 181, or somewhat over one-fourth. But my proposition is this: in the return there is a fundamental fallacy; the great bulk of these matriculated students, or, at least, a very large portion of them, are simply professional students, and not students in art. But when we speak of University education as an instrument of higher culture, we mean University education in art; schools of law, schools of medicine, schools of engineering, and I know not how many other schools, are excellent things; but these are things totally distinct and different from what we understand by that University training which we look upon as the most powerful instrument for the culture of the mind. Therefore I am obliged to break down these figures in pieces, and ask, Out of these 181 students, how many are students in art? I now give the Roman Catholic students in art in the Queen's Colleges, Ireland. From 1859 to 1864, in these three Queen's Colleges, the Roman Catholic students averaged 59; from 1864 to 1869 they averaged 50; from 1869 to 1871 they averaged 45. I think these figures justify the statement that the numbers are miserably small, and, small as they are, they are dwindling away. When I speak of recognizing only students in arts, I am not hazarding the opinion of an individual; I am giving utterance to a judgment which I know every University man will sustain. It is the opinion upon which the University of Dublin has uniformly proceeded in its handling of this subject. The number of Roman Catholics matriculated as students in arts at Trinity College seems to be about 100. That

may not be the exact number, but, from the figures kindly supplied to me, it must be within two or three, one way or the other. Adding these 100 at Trinity College to 45 at the Queen's Colleges we have 145 as the whole number of persons whom 4,000,000 and upwards of Roman Catholics in Ireland at present succeed in bringing within the teaching of a University to receive academical training in the faculty of arts. Well, I think that is a proportion miserably small. It is something, but it is really almost next to nothing. Again, sir, the total number of students in arts in Ireland I find to be 1179. So that the Roman Catholics, with more than two-thirds-I think nearly three-fourths of the populationsupply only an eighth part of the students in arts. I think there are hardly any in this House who will think fit to say that that is anything like an adequate proportion-anything like the numbers which they ought to furnish, even after making every allowance which ought fairly to be made for the relative proportions of Roman Catholics in the different classes of the community. Well, I think, then, I have shown that there is a great religious grievance in Ireland. Had I been able to point to a state of things in which the movement was in the other direction-in which, instead of an almost constant decrease of Roman Catholic attendance at the Queen's Colleges, there was a steady, healthy, and progressive increase-the case would have been greatly different. You might have said, 'It is well to wait and see what happens.' But I am afraid if we wait to see what happens, the only result of that would be to aggravate a state of things already sufficiently bad.

"I now, sir, quit the topic of the religious grievance. But quite apart from the religious grievance, there is a great and strong necessity for academical reform in Ireland. I will test the question first as to the quantity or supply of academical training in that country; and all along I will keep broadly and plainly in view the distinction between training in arts and mere professional training. Now, in Trinity College there are attending lectures in arts 563 young men, about the same number-I think it is a little moreas attend in Trinity College, Cambridge. In the Queen's Colleges the students in arts are as follow-I take the year 1871, which is the latest I possess:-At Belfast, 136; at Cork, 50; and at Galway, 35-in all, 221. Adding these two figures together we get 784 as the total for Ireland of University students in the proper sense of the word; that is to say, in the sense in which it is understood in Scotland, much more in the sense in which it is understood in England. Seven hundred and eighty-four is the whole number of students who are receiving regular instruction in arts, for the whole of Ireland, with its five millions and a half of population. But there are a large number of students in the Queen's Colleges who are receiving professional education in law, in medicine, and in engineering. The number of these is at Belfast, 201; at Cork, 174; and at Galway, 80-in all, 455. Thus, when we include students preparing for a professional career with the arts students, we come