University Education in Ireland Part 1

University Education in Ireland.

by Samuel Haughton.

INTRODUCTION.

The political condition of Ireland is, at present, grave; and, in the event of a war with the United States, would become menacing, to England.

Irish politicians a.s.sert--and it is partly admitted by their opponents--that, in the existing state of Ireland, three questions demand an immediate solution: these questions are, the Land Question, the Church Question, and the Education Question.

The tenant farmers of Ireland wish for fixity of tenure, and care but little for compensation for improvements, except as a means of obtaining a practical fixity of tenure; and they would, unquestionably, rejoice to see transferred to themselves, as occupiers of the soil, the rights now enjoyed by absentee n.o.blemen and landlords. It is the opinion of many that the Land question cannot be settled without such a change of owners as would practically amount to a revolution.

With respect to the question of the Church, the more intelligent laymen of the Irish National party openly avow their wish to alienate the property of the Church, on the ground that its existence forms a barrier to the union of Irish Protestants with the Catholic majority in the formation of a truly National Irish party. It is a.s.serted, and apparently not without reason, that if the Irish Protestants felt themselves cast off by England, and their Church endowments confiscated, they might become more willing to join their countrymen in an anti-English policy, which the rude breath of war might some day fan into a demand for an Irish Republic, under the guarantee of France and America. It is for English politicians to decide how far the advantages of religious equality would compensate for the risk of national disloyalty.

The questions of the Land and Church in Ireland will, doubtless, be fully discussed in the House of Commons by persons acquainted with those questions, and competent to do them justice; but it may be fairly doubted whether the question of Education in Ireland will be examined with as full a knowledge as will be brought to bear on the other questions. The following lines are written in the hope of adding a contribution of facts towards the discussion of one branch of the Education question--that which relates to University Education in Ireland.

My apology for writing on this question is, that I have been a Fellow of Trinity College for nearly a quarter of a century, during which time I have taken an active part in the educational reforms which have placed the Graduates of Trinity College foremost in all the compet.i.tions for the public services of India, of the Army, and of the Colonies. I am also ent.i.tled to be heard as a Clerical Fellow of Trinity College, holding in trust for his brother Protestants the precious gift of education based on pure religion, handed down to us by our forefathers, in defence of which all true Protestants are prepared, if necessary, to sacrifice their lives.

Two proposals were discussed, and a third was incidentally alluded to, in the summer of 1867, in the House of Commons, respecting University Education in Ireland; one of these proposals involves a betrayal of the religious base on which the Protestant College of Elizabeth was founded; and another involves a surrender for ever of the high literary and scientific standard of Dublin University, and a permanent lowering of high cla.s.s education in Ireland. Against the one I feel bound to protest, as an earnest Protestant, and against the other as an advocate for the advancement of science and letters.

The proposals made in Parliament respecting University Education are all founded on the generally admitted fact that Roman Catholics in Ireland have not got the same facilities for University Education as the Protestants of that country, and that it is expedient at once to redress this grievance.

In order to do so, it has been proposed to do one or other of three things:--

I. To secularize Trinity College, by throwing open its Fellowships and Scholarships to all Students, irrespective of religious qualification.

II. To open the University of Dublin to other Colleges than Trinity College, thus transforming the University of Dublin into a National Irish University, on the model of the University of France.

III. To grant a Charter and Endowment to a Roman Catholic University, in which the education given shall be based on religion, as in Trinity College at present.

I shall endeavour to state briefly the objections which seem to me to be so fatal to either of the first two proposals, as to leave us no alternative but to accept the third horn of the Educational dilemma:--

I. SECULARIZATION OF TRINITY COLLEGE.

Trinity College was founded in Dublin by Queen Elizabeth, in 1591, as a Protestant University, and for the purpose of giving to Irish Protestants a University Education, based on the doctrines and discipline of the Reformed Church of England. This infant University was fostered by the guiding hand of the great Lord Burghley, its interests were defended by the ill-fated Ess.e.x, and its Statutes were drafted by the highly gifted Bishop Bedell.

Trinity College has been well described by her enemies as a "handful of Protestant Clergymen;" because her Fellows, with the exception of three, were required to take Holy Orders in the English Church; and at the present moment five only of her thirty-two Fellowships are permitted by Statute to be held by laymen.

Trinity College is now nearly three centuries in existence, and may be regarded as the only English inst.i.tution that ever succeeded in Ireland.

The sons of the Alma Mater founded by Elizabeth may be excused if they point with pride to the names of Ussher, King, and Magee, among her theologians; to Berkeley, Brinkley, and Hamilton, among her thinkers and mathematicians; and to Swift, Goldsmith, Burke, and Plunket, amongst those whom she has given to literature, oratory, and politics, whose names shall live so long as religion, science, and letters attract the respect and claim the study of educated Englishmen.

Trinity College has never been, and never was intended to be, a national inst.i.tution; her emoluments, her Fellowships and Scholarships, are the property of the Irish members of the English Church; and the proposal to throw them open to the compet.i.tion of Roman Catholics and Dissenters is a proposal for the confiscation, so far, of the property of Irish Protestants. Trinity College has well and faithfully discharged the part she was required to fill; she has maintained the pure doctrine of the English Church against all opponents; she has reared her Students as faithful children of that Church; she has given them an education that enables them to compete successfully with all rivals in the walks of literature and science; and it cannot be fairly alleged against her as a fault that she has not provided for the educational wants of Irish Catholics; she was never intended to do so.

The lovers of the gorgeous Rose need not blush because she wants the colour and grace of the beautiful Lily; and I may well be pardoned for believing that no brighter or fairer flower blooms in the garden of the West, than the Tudor Rose planted in Dublin by the proud Elizabeth.

In order to estimate rightly the effects of the secularization of Trinity College, both upon the Protestants and the Roman Catholics of Ireland, it will be necessary to give a numerical view of the relative proportions of the different religions and professions among the Students of that College.

Taking an average of the past ten years, there are 1200 Students on the books of Trinity College. Of these 1200 Students, 800 are in daily attendance upon lectures, and may be cla.s.sified as follows:--

1. Divinity Students, 160 2. Medical Students, 240 3. Law Students, 70 4. Engineering Students, 60 5. Civil Service of India, 30 6. Non-professional Students, 240 ---- Total, 800

In order to find the proportion of Roman Catholics,[1] I have taken, at random, five years from 1855 to 1859, during which 1378 Students entered Trinity College, of whom 80 were Roman Catholics, and 61 were Protestant Dissenters and Jews. We may, therefore, a.s.sume that the 1200 Students are distributed as follows:--

1. English Church, 1077 2. Roman Catholic Church, 70 3. Protestant Dissenters, 53 ---- Total, 1200

The preceding figures give an average of six per cent. of Roman Catholic Students in Trinity College, and in no department of the College do they exceed ten per cent. Thus, in the Medical School, in which there is a larger proportion than in other professional schools, during the four years ending 1867, out of 300 Students matriculated in Medicine, exactly thirty were Roman Catholics, and three were Jews.

Let us now examine briefly the effect of secularizing Trinity College upon the Protestant and Roman Catholic Students respectively.

It cannot be believed by any one, that the pa.s.sing of an Act of Parliament secularizing Trinity College would alter in the slightest degree the sentiments and wishes of the 1100 Students of the English Church, or those of the parents and guardians who placed them in Trinity College, knowing and expecting that they would there receive, not only a liberal education, but instruction and training in the principles of the Church of England.

Those 1100 young and intelligent Students would still demand an education based upon religion; a demand which would be promptly answered by the Clerical Fellows of the College; and it cannot be doubted that, if they were well led by earnest and competent teachers, they would found a second Trinity College within the walls, which would perpetuate the principles of the College founded by Elizabeth. Such a movement the Parliament would find itself unable to control; for the portion of the funds of Trinity College that is now expended on the education of the Clergy would be allowed, in common justice, to be allocated in future to the same object; and the Clerical Professors and Fellows would gather round them the germ of the Trinity College of the future, faithful to the traditions of the past, and perchance surpa.s.sing the reputation of the old College for learning.

From what I know of the earnest spirit of Irish Protestants, and of their determination to secure for their children an education founded on the pure word of G.o.d, I believe that the Clerical Tutors of the College would at once transfer to themselves the great majority of the Protestant Students of Trinity College.

Some 100 or 200 Students might prefer to receive the instruction, and reward the care, of such lay Fellows as might find their way into the secularized Corporation, and thus a permanent domestic schism would become established between the clerical and lay elements of the College, which are now happily at peace. Whatever might be the future of the College, it is certain that, at the outset, the Secular Fellows of the College would have to undergo the rivalry of a trained band of Protestant teachers, supported by sympathizing Students, both smarting under an angry sense of wrong and injustice.

Let us now inquire how the secularization of Trinity College would please the Roman Catholic party in Ireland. The Roman Catholic Clergy warn their flocks against Trinity College as a Protestant Inst.i.tution, necessarily dangerous to the principles of Catholic Students; and, in thus warning them, they are practically wise, for it is simply impossible for seventy Catholics to a.s.sociate with 1100 Protestants, as equals and fellow Students, without renouncing, more or less, the narrow views respecting Protestants that prevail among the higher circles of their Hierarchy.

Trinity College, however, although considered dangerous, has never been placed by the Roman Catholic Clergy in the same category as the Queen's Colleges, which are essentially secularized inst.i.tutions, without a recognized religion, and "G.o.dless:" as such they are absolutely condemned by the Hierarchy, and faithful Catholics are prohibited from entering their walls.

The practical effect of secularizing Trinity College, if the experiment were successful, would be to convert it into a fourth Queen's College, and it would thus become one of a cla.s.s of Educational Inst.i.tutions which the Church of Rome has always, and consistently, forbidden her children to enter. It is hard to see how such a plan as this can be rationally advocated, on the ground that it would satisfy the just demands of the Catholics of Ireland.

So far, therefore, as Irish Roman Catholics are concerned, the secularization of Trinity College would be to them a loss, and not a gain; for it would transfer education in this College from the list of dangerous to that of prohibited enjoyments.

I need scarcely add how mean and vindictive would be the spirit that would secularize Trinity College, in order to injure the Irish Protestants, without any corresponding benefit to the Irish Catholics.

I believe, therefore, that it would be impolitic for the English Parliament to secularize Trinity College, for the following reasons:--

1. It would irritate the Irish Protestants to deprive them of a College founded on the principles of their Church, which has done its duty, and has possessed their confidence for three centuries.

2. It would not satisfy the just demand of the Irish Catholics for University Education, merely to admit them to the Fellowships and Scholarships of a secularized College, the principle of which they must feel bound to condemn.

II. NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND.

The second plan that has been suggested for solving the University question in Ireland, in one form or other, amounts to a proposal to throw open the University of Dublin, or the Queen's University in Ireland, or both, so as to embrace in one University a number of Colleges, each retaining its own system of religious training and discipline, and its own endowments, and sending up its Students to pa.s.s the Examinations of the Central University, whose functions would be reduced to those of an Examining Board.

I readily admit that this proposal is free from one of the objections I have urged against the proposal to solve the University problem by secularizing Trinity College, and that it leaves both Protestants and Catholics free to train their sons in the religious faith and traditions of their forefathers.

This advantage, although great, would, however, in my opinion, be purchased at the cost of degrading for ever the standard of University Education in Ireland.

If this objection can be established, it ought to have peculiar weight in considering the question of Irish University Education. England differs essentially from Ireland, in affording to her young men countless openings in every walk of life, with or without the benefits of University Education, which in England may be regarded as a luxury enjoyed by the rich; whereas in Ireland an University Education is frequently a necessity imposed upon the sons of the less wealthy middle cla.s.ses. The openings in life for young men of this cla.s.s in Ireland are so very limited, that they must either emigrate, or rely on their talents and education, in pushing their way in the learned professions in England and the Colonies. Hence it follows, that any lowering of the standard of University Education in Ireland would be followed by peculiarly disastrous effects.

At the present moment, Trinity College may be regarded as a manufactory for turning out the highest cla.s.s of compet.i.tors for success in the Church, at the English Bar, in the Civil Service of India, and in the Scientific and Medical Services of the Army and Navy; and any legislation which would produce the effect of lowering the present high standard of her degrees, would tend to destroy the prospects of the educated cla.s.ses in Ireland, and become to those cla.s.ses little short of a national calamity.

In order to establish my objection, it is necessary to call to our recollection the ancient and true notion of an University.

With the exception of Oxford and Cambridge, there is no example of an ancient University in Europe composed of a collection of free Colleges, united by the common bond of an University, of which all are members, and which conducts the Examinations for Degrees.