ACADEMICAL EDUCATION IN IRELAND.
Another scheme, emanating from government, for the improvement of the Irish people, was a plan for the extension of academical education in Ireland. This measure was developed by the secretary of state for the home department. On moving for leave to bring in the bill, on the 9th of May, Sir James Graham said that the object in bringing it forward was to improve the social condition of Ireland. The difficulty of accomplishing such an object, he said, would be discerned, when he stated that the plan which he conceived to be the most essential was the diffusion of the benefits of education among the higher classes of the people. Religious differences formed the great obstacle to the adjustment of the general question of education in Ireland. For a long series of years the religion of the majority of the Irish people had been treated by the state as hostile. That notion, however, had been gradually abandoned: the penal laws had either been removed, or were in the course of removal, although traces of them were still perceptible, and operating most noxiously in their interference with the education of the people. Sir James Graham next proceeded to discuss what was the best mode of educating the people of Ireland, contending that it consisted in the absence of all religious tests. It was on this principle that the bill he proposed was founded. Government recommended to the house the establishment of three provincial institutions for education in Ireland, and founded upon the same principles as the metropolitan colleges of London and Edinburgh. Cork was proposed as the site of the college for the south; Galway, or Limerick, for the west; and Deny, or Belfast, for the north of Ireland. He could not pledge himself for the exact amount of the expense which would be necessary to carry this proposal into execution; but he conceived that £30,000 would be wanted for the erection of each college; and he would therefore mention £100,000 as a sum amply sufficient for that purpose. He further recommended the sum of £6000 for each of the colleges, to meet the annual expenses of the officers of these institutions, and of the prizes to be established for the encouragement of learning. Sir James Graham then gave a sketch of the different officers whom he would establish in these institutions. In each college there was to be a principal and ten or twelve professors; and at Belfast and Cork there would be a medical school attached to each college. The professors were to be nominated by the crown; and the crown was to possess the power of removing them for good cause. There were no professorships of divinity to be established; but religion was not to be neglected; on the contrary, every facility would be given for the voluntary endowment of theological professorships; but the attendance at these lectures would not be compulsory, for the fundamental principle of the measure would be the avoidance of all interference, positive or negative, in all matters affecting the conscience. The right honourable baronet went on to state that there was already an academical institution at Belfast for the Presbyterians of the north of Ireland, which was supported by a parliamentary grant, at the cost of £2100 per annum; and government proposed to continue this grant. There was another subject, he said, with which, although a difficult one, he was prepared to grapple. The bill only founded colleges in Ireland: the question was:—“Should these three colleges be incorporated into one great central university, or should parliament invest each of them with the power of granting degrees in the arts, sciences, and medicine?” He proposed that the bill should afford her majesty means to establish a new university in Dublin for this purpose—Trinity College being founded on Protestant principles, and therefore excluding Roman Catholics or dissenters from all privileges—or to incorporate into the existing university these colleges. Lord Palmerston promised ministers the fair and honest support of the Whigs. The measure was opposed by Sir Robert Inglis; but leave was given to bring in the bill, and it was read a first time. On the motion for the second reading, which was moved on the 2nd of June, a debate was commenced, which continued by adjournment for two nights. The debate was opened by Lord John Manners, who moved that it be read a second time that day six months: his belief was, that if it passed in its present shape it would prove a curse, and not a boon to Ireland. Sir James Graham defended it from this charge. He proceeded to state some proposed alterations in the bill. The first change proposed was with regard to the visitorial power of the crown. He proposed to give the crown the power of appointing visitors, which visitors would have authority to inquire into any abuse which might arise in these institutions, and to apply an effective remedy thereto. He also now thought that there should be attached to each of the colleges a hall or halls in which religious instructions might be given to the students by pastors of their own religion; and he was disposed to add a clause to that effect. The Roman Catholic bishops had presented a memorial praying that a fair proportion of the professors and office-bearers in the new colleges should be members of the Roman Catholic church; that Roman Catholic professors should fill the chairs of history, logic, metaphysics, moral philosophy, geology, and anatomy; that there should be a Roman Catholic chaplain in each of the colleges, to superintend the moral and religious instruction of the Roman Catholic pupils, and that each of these chaplains should be provided with a suitable salary; and that all Roman Catholic professors should be appointed to a local board of trustees. Sir James Graham could not consent to such demands: as a majority of the students would belong to the Roman Catholic church, it was probable that a majority of the professors would belong to it also; but they could not be exclusively provided by the measure. Mr. E. B. Roche, who had at first hailed the measure as a boon, now declared his intention of opposing its further progress, because the nomination of all the professorships was in the crown, and there was no “fixity of tenure” for any administration which entertained friendly sentiments toward the Roman Catholic population of Ireland. Sir Robert Inglis repeated that this bill was “a gigantic scheme of godless education;” and agreed with Mr. O’Connell in thinking that these new institutions would be deficient in that species of education which was the only legitimate one for an immortal being—education in the duties which every man had to perform, and the principles on which those duties rested. The second reading was supported by Lord John Russell, who nevertheless wished to amend it in committee, and Lord Mahon, and Messrs. Redington, Milnes, Osborne, Wyse, and R. M. O. Ferrol; and opposed by Messrs. Acland, B. Hope, and Hamilton. Mr. Acland called attention to the fact that some of the speakers in behalf of the bill gave an unqualified support to it; and contended that not one of them had proved that it would give such education as would be useful in any respect to Ireland. Sir Robert Peel spoke at great length in behalf of the measure; and announced that, if adopted, and the plan worked well, government would consider whether the three colleges should be incorporated into a university, and what power that university should have in conferring degrees. After a few words from Messrs. M. J. O’Connell and Shaw in favour of the second reading, though not of entire approval of the measure, the amendment was negatived by a majority of three hundred and eleven against forty-six, and the bill was read a second time. Upon the resolution of the committee of the whole house for the grant being reported, Mr. O’Connell took occasion to declare his protest against it; and to thank Sir Robert Inglis for calling it “a godless system of education.” Subsequently, on the committal of the bill, he again declared his objections to its principle: and Lord John Russell coincided with him in his statement, that unless the bill was made acceptable to the Roman Catholics, by providing for the religious instruction of the pupils, it would be useless. On the first clause, relating to the grant of £100,000 for building the three colleges and necessary buildings, Lord John Russell proposed, as an amendment, to include among the buildings to be thus paid for, halls for the accommodation of the students. This motion, however, was negatived; as was also another, moved by Mr. Wyse, on the clause which declared that the appointment of professors should be vested in the crown, and after a time limited should revert to parliament. Mr. Wyse desired that the professors should be chosen, after an investigation into their qualifications, by a competent board of examiners; but Sir Robert Peel opposed the amendment, as premature, and likely to operate to the discouragement of the students.. Several other amendments were proposed in committee, but they were all rejected; and on the third reading Mr. Bernai Osborne introduced a collateral discussion upon the revenues and management of Trinity College, Dublin, by proposing the following resolution:—“That an humble address be presented to her majesty, praying that she will be graciously pleased to direct an inquiry to be made into the amount of the revenue of Trinity College, Dublin, from rents of college-lands, endowments, and bequests, fees on matriculation, on taking degrees, and from every other source; also into the manner in which that income is expended; the number of senior and junior fellows, of professors, scholars, and all other officers of the college, with the amount of salary and allowances to each of them, with a view to ascertain whether the income or funds at present applied solely to the benefit of Protestants in Trinity College, Dublin, might not be beneficially extended so as to make Roman Catholics and Protestant dissenters eligible if otherwise qualified, to all scholarships, and to all such fellowships, professorships, and other offices in Trinity College, Dublin, as are not intended for ecclesiastical purposes immediately connected with ecclesiastical endowment.” Mr. Osborne, in support of this resolution, contended that Trinity College was not founded with Protestant money, but with the property of the Roman Catholic Earl of Desmond, confiscated by Elizabeth in 1592; and that it was not until forty years afterwards, in the time of Strafford, that Roman Catholics were mentioned, and rendered ineligible for the professorships. The motion was opposed by Sirs Thomas Freemantle and R. Inglis, the latter of whom denied that the college was founded with Roman Catholic money. It was erected on the site of the old monastery of All-Hallows, which having become vested in the mayor and citizens of Dublin, by grant from Henry the Eighth, was by them given for the establishment of this college. The funds for its erection and endowment were raised by a contribution among the gentry of Ireland, for which purpose a circular letter was sent to them by the Lord-deputy Fitzwilliam, the archbishop, and the lords of the council in 1791: the original foundation of the college might, therefore, he said, be as purely Protestant as could be imagined. The motion was supported by Messrs. Warburton and Shiel, the latter of whom contended that Queen Elizabeth’s charter did not contemplate exclusively Protestant objects. But it was rather on the ground of justice than on such grounds, he said, that this subject ought to be discussed. He remarked:—“There are seventy scholarships; the scholars have lodging and commons for a nominal sum, with £10 a-year and £40 a-year in the last three years: the scholarships being exclusively Protestant. So long,” he continued, “as you keep up Trinity College in its supremacy you will make your measure of academical education, for all political purposes, an entire failure. Your provincial academies will be marked with all the characteristics of mediocrity, which will only render the elevation of Trinity College more conspicuous by the inferiority with which it will be surrounded. How stunted and dwarfed the groves of our new academies when compared with the rich luxuriance of the gardens of Trinity! I had a thousand times rather you had applied your £18,000 a-year to the establishment of new fellowships and new professorships in the metropolitan and national institutions; because if you had done so, Englishmen would have got a value—a value in peace, a value in contentment, a value in pacificatory results—for their money. Now your measure, for political purposes—I say, for political purposes, though I won’t deny that the advantages of education will be distributed to a certain extent—but your measure, though for political purposes it may partially succeed, yet as a message of peace it will be a failure.” Sir Robert Peel contended that he and his colleagues had exerted themselves to make equality in Ireland, at the expense of giving umbrage to the majority of the people in this country. He appealed to the enlarged grant to Maynooth, and to the way in which the charitable bequests act had been carried out, as showing the conciliatory disposition of the government. Yet, after all their exertions for peace they were doomed to be disappointed. He regretted Mr. Shiel’s speech on account of the use that would be made of it in this country. It would be said—“See how unavailing all attempts are to conciliate the Roman Catholics of Ireland. Regardless of the warnings, the feelings, and fears of their friends, they hoped by proposing certain measures, that they would make an impression on the Irish mind; but, instead of this, the leading Roman Catholic member in the house of commons gets up and tells them that, unless they went ten times as far as they had yet gone, they would have an insurrection in Ireland.” This he believed, however, was not the feeling of the Irish people; he believed that government had made an impression on the feelings of the Irish people. After a few words from Lord John Russell, the house divided on Mr. Osborne’s amendment, which was negatived by a majority of one hundred and sixty-eight against ninety-one, and the bill was then read a third time and passed.
The second reading of the Irish education bill was moved in the house of lords by Lord Stanley on the 21st of July. The Earl of Shrewsbury opposed the measure. Government he said, had been overawed by the fanatic feeling of the English people; and he urged ministers to withdraw the bill for a season, and reintroduce it in a shape better suited to the wants and wishes of Ireland. The bill was further opposed by the Earl of Carnarvon, who protested against the divorce of religion from education, and expressed his fears that such a precedent might be applied to Oxford and Cambridge. The bill was defended by the Duke of Newcastle, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Bishop of Norwich, and Lords Brougham, Beaumont, and Clifford. The second reading was affirmed without a division; and subsequently the bill passed through committee, and was read a third time without any fixed opposition.