The Book of Trinity College Dublin 1591-1891

by Ireland) Trinity College (Dublin

FOOTNOTES:

[87] Cf. Stubbs, p. 161.

[88] Dunton speaks in 1699 of the Provost’s House as a fine structure in process of construction. This, if he reports correctly, must have been some residence intermediate between the old “Provost’s lodgings,” on the south side of the original quadrangle, and the present house. But there is no other allusion to such a house.

[89] He obtained from the Trust of Erasmus Smith, of which he was one of the administrators, large sums for the founding of new Chairs—nearly £800 per annum, which was distributed in salaries of £100 to £250.

[90] I conclude this from the last chapter (27) of the Statutes, which ordains that three authentic copies shall be deposited (1) as safely as possible in the archives of the College, (2) with the Lord Deputy of Ireland, (3) with the Chancellor of the University. The copy held by Strafford when Lord Deputy is now in private hands in Dublin. What has become of Laud’s copy we do not know; perhaps it is at Lambeth. There is no provision for taking any other copy from these; nay, rather, the opening sentence of the chapter ordains that lost any should offend against them from ignorance, they shall be read out publicly in the Chapel at the beginning of each Term by the Deans, in the presence of the whole College.

[91] So have Mornington’s Te Deum and Jubilate, composed for the service on the following Sunday. The March, however, a trifling composition, survives.

[92] Cf. the list in Stubbs’ History, p. 222.

[93] This was the lineal descendant of the Wm. Hawkins who in 1672 had got a 99 years’ lease of this land, then waste, for the purpose of reclaiming it and building a quay. The Bishop had interest enough with the Board in 1771 to stay the resumption, and even to obtain a new lease of a valuable property from the College estate, which his descendants still enjoy. In 1799 this lease had yet 33 years to run—hence a 60 years’ lease.

[94] Provost Baldwin had asserted this right of veto, and had nominated against the majority, not without protest, but without being challenged at a Visitation.

[95] “The effects [of the Provost’s duel] are already visible; scarce a week passes without a duel between some of the students; some of them have been slain, others maimed; the College Park is publicly made the place for learning the exercise of the pistol; shooting at marks by the gownsmen is everyday practice; the very chambers of the College frequently resound with explosions of pistols. The Provost has introduced a fencing-master into the College, and assigned him the Convocation or Senate House [over the gate] of the College as a school, to teach the gownsmen the use of the sword, though this is strictly forbidden by the Statutes.”—Lachrymæ, p. 109. Is the first part of this true? Surely the names of students killed or maimed in duels would have been paraded before us in the pamphlets of the time. The Provost’s duel with Mr. Wm. Doyle, arising from anonymous attacks attributed to the latter, is described at length in the Dublin papers of 17th and 19th January, 1775.

[96] I quote from Dr. Stubbs, extract, op. cit. p. 264. It appears from Duigenan’s Lachrymæ, p. 145, that in Hutchinson’s time £200 a-year was voted by the Board of Erasmus Smith for Prizes in Composition only.

[97] He was so popular in Dublin as to receive the honorary freedom of the city.

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[CHAPTER V.]
DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

“Semel arreptos nunquam dimittet honores.”

Motto from the Earliest Gold Medal.

1792-1892.

Roman Catholics were not permitted to take Degrees in the University of Dublin up to the year 1793. By an Act of the Irish Parliament of that year, followed by a Royal Statute of the College in 1794, this disability was removed, but neither Roman Catholics nor Protestant Dissenters could at that time, nor for nearly eighty years after, be elected to Fellowships or Scholarships on the foundation of the College. In 1843 an attempt was made to contest the law on this point. Mr. Denis Caulfield Heron, a Roman Catholic Sizar, became a candidate for Scholarship in 1843, and was examined in conformity with the Statutes. There were sixteen vacancies, and his answering would have placed him fifth in order of merit, but the electors did not consider him to be eligible on account of his religion. Mr. Heron appealed to the Visitors, who declined to enter into an inquiry on the subject. He then, in Trinity Term 1844, applied to the Court of Queen’s Bench to grant a mandamus to force the Visitors to hear his appeal. This, after argument, was granted by the Court in June, 1845. In accordance with this command, the Visitors held a Court of Appeal in December, 1845, and they heard the arguments of eminent counsel on both sides, aided by their assessor, the Right Hon. Richard Keatinge. Their decision was to the effect that, considering the precise and pointed language of the Act of 1793, and the whole body of College Charters and Statutes, it was the clear intention of the Crown, by the Royal Statute of 1794, merely to give to Roman Catholics the benefit of a liberal education and the right to obtain Degrees, but without allowing them to become members of the Corporation of Trinity College, or in any manner changing its Protestant character.

In order that the students who were not members of the then Established Church should not be debarred from the advantages of Scholarships, the Board in 1854 decided to establish a class of “Non-Foundation Scholars,” which should not be restricted to any religious denomination. The Scholarships were awarded as the results of the same examination by which the Foundation Scholars were elected, and were confined to those whose answering at the Scholarship Examination was superior to that of the lowest of those who were elected to Foundation places. The tenure and the value of the Non-Foundation Scholarships was the same as of those on the Foundation, and they were awarded for good answering either in Mathematics or in Classics.

Matters remained in this state until the year 1873, when the late Mr. Fawcett, afterwards Postmaster-General, succeeded in passing an Act of Parliament, 36 Vic. c. 21, with the full assent of the College authorities, which abolished Tests in the University of Dublin, except in the case of Professors and Lecturers in the Faculty of Theology, and opened all offices and appointments in the College to every person, irrespective of his religious opinions.

At the time of the Union with Great Britain, in 1800, the University lost one of its two members, but it continued to return one member to the Imperial Parliament, the electors being, as before, the Provost, Fellows, and Foundation Scholars. This constituency, taking account of minors, fell much short of one hundred. By the Reform Act, in 1833, the second member was restored to the University of Dublin, but the constituency was enlarged so as to include ex-Scholars, Masters of Arts, and Doctors in the several faculties, and special Commencements were held in the following November, at which a very large number of Masters’ degrees were conferred; the number of registered electors at once rose to 1,570. The constituency now numbers 4,334.

The history of Trinity College during the first half of the nineteenth century offers but little to note, apart from the great advances which were made in the studies of the University and the Professional Schools, and which will be hereafter detailed in their proper places. The increase in the funds of the College admitted, and the requirements of the College demanded, an augmentation in the number of Junior Fellows from fifteen to eighteen. This increase was made by a Royal Statute in 1808. It was enacted that there should be no election to any of these Fellowships in any year in which there was a natural vacancy, and that in the case of no such vacancy happening, one of these new Fellowships should be filled until the number of three was in this way completed. These three additions were made in the years 1808, 1809, and 1811. In the years 1802, 1803, 1804, and 1806 there had been no Fellowship vacant at the time of the annual elections, and, but for this addition, from 1802 to 1811 there would have been seven years without a Fellowship Examination.

At this period, although the Statutes of the College forbade the marriage of the Fellows, yet it was well known that for a good many years many of them more or less openly violated the law of the College in this respect. In some cases their wives continued to be known by their maiden names; and the public understood this, and did not discountenance it. In 1811 a new and very stringent Statute was enacted, which required every Fellow on his election to swear that he was then unmarried, and that, should he marry at any time of his tenure of Fellowship, he would within three months inform the Provost. This practically required all future married Fellows to resign. An exception, however, was made in favour of the existing Fellows, whether married or not in 1811. The Celibacy Statute, as it was called, remained in force until 1840, when it was repealed, and all restrictions upon marriage removed. This repeal was not effected without considerable agitation, which commenced in 1836. The value of the benefices in the gift of the College had fallen at least twenty-five per cent., in consequence of the commutation of tithe payable by the occupier of land into a rent charge payable by his landlord. In the greater part of the South of Ireland where the anti-tithe war had raged, and where the clergy had found it impossible to collect the revenues of their benefices, the change was decidedly advantageous. In the North of Ireland, however, where the College livings lay, no such resistance to the payment of tithes had been experienced, and consequently the change was a loss to the clergy. This, added to the poor’s rate, which was then introduced, and the ecclesiastical tax upon livings, which was at that time first imposed, had so greatly reduced the value of the College benefices, that many of them failed to attract the Fellows. In addition to this, the income of the Junior Fellows had become more equable and more certain, and their labours had diminished in consequence of the change which was effected by the adoption of a division of tutorial fees and of tutorial lectures in 1835; consequently few of the Junior Fellows were disposed to change an agreeable literary life in Dublin for a retirement in the country, even though they should be thus enabled to marry.

In February, 1836, the Provost and Senior Fellows, two only dissenting, agreed to join the Junior Fellows in an application to the Lord Lieutenant for a repeal of the obnoxious Statute, suggesting, however, that the six most Junior of the Fellows should be exempted from the permission to marry. The Earl of Mulgrave, then Viceroy, declined to recommend the change. At the end of 1838 a further memorial was presented to the representative of the Crown, praying that the Fellows above the lower nine of the body should be allowed to marry. The Provost and Senior Fellows concurred in the prayer of the memorial, stipulating, however, that the plan should be accompanied by such measures as would prevent the College livings from being declined by the whole body of Fellows. On the arrival of a new Viceroy (Lord Fortescue) in 1839, a memorial was presented to him by the College asking for a repeal of the Celibacy Statute. To this there was a considerable opposition on the part of the great body of the Scholars and prospective Fellowship candidates, on the ground that the existing Fellows would be settled for life in the College, and the vacancies for fresh elections would become very rare, and thus the highest mathematical and literary studies in the College would suffer. It was known, also, that the Archbishop of Armagh, Lord John George Beresford, who was then Vice-Chancellor, and who took a warm interest in the welfare of the College, was strongly opposed to the repeal of this Statute. In the end the Government was guided by the advice of Dr. Dickinson, afterwards Bishop of Meath, and in 1840 the Celibacy Statute was repealed; ten new Fellowships were added, one to be elected each year; the six junior of the Fellows were excluded from the emoluments of the tutors, and restricted to the statutable emoluments of a Junior Fellow (about £37 a-year, with rooms and dinner in the Hall); and the number of Tutor Fellows was increased from fifteen to nineteen, the average income of the tutors being thus diminished by 21 per cent.

It could scarcely be expected that an institution like Trinity College, which at that time had many political enemies, should escape a searching inquiry at the hands of a Royal Commission; and accordingly, in April, 1851, a full and minute investigation was made into the working of the College, the Commissioners being Archbishop Whately, Lord Chancellor Brady, the Earl of Rosse, the Bishop of Cork, Doctor Mountiford Longfield, and Edward J. Cooper, Esq. The Commissioners reported in April, 1853, and in a manner highly favourable to the College. They found “that numerous improvements of an important character have been from time to time introduced by the authorities of the College, and that the general state of the College is satisfactory. There is great activity and efficiency in the different departments, and the spirit of improvement has been especially shown in the changes which have been introduced in the course of education, to adapt it to the requirements of the age.” They ended in recommending some twenty-five changes. But they took care to add that these recommendations did not involve any great or fundamental alteration in the arrangements of the University, or in the system of education pursued in it. “From its present state,” they add, “and from what has already been effected by the authorities of the College, we do not believe such changes to be required.”

Most of these recommendations have since that time been carried out by Royal Statutes, which were obtained at the request of the Provost and Senior Fellows, and in the application for which they were strengthened by the report of the Commissioners. 1. The Statutes underwent a complete revision. 2. Senior Fellows ceased to hold Professorships. 3. The Board obtained power to vary, with the consent of the Visitors, the subjects prescribed for the Fellowship Examinations, and to regulate the mode in which the Examination should be conducted, so that any Junior Fellow who holds a Professorship may now be summoned to examine in the subject of his Professorship. 4. Each vacancy for Fellowship or Scholarship is now filled by a separate vote of the electors, and the successful candidates are placed in the order of merit. 5. The fees payable to the tutors are no longer divided irrespectively of the number of pupils of each tutor, but a proportion of the fees paid by each student is paid directly to his College tutor, and the remainder paid into a common fund, from which certain Professorships are endowed, which are tenable by Junior Fellows alone. 6. The general obligation to take Holy Orders is no longer imposed on the Fellows, the number of Lay Fellows being at first increased from three to five. 7. Ex-Fellows are now eligible for the Regius Professorship of Divinity. 8. The Professors of Modern Languages are now elected as other Professors, and these languages may now be selected by students of the Sophister Classes and for the B.A. degree in lieu of Greek and Latin. 9. The Board and Visitors have now the power of altering the subjects for the Scholarship Examination, and by a recent Statute the tenure of the Scholarship has been limited to five years. 10. Twenty Senior and twenty Junior Exhibitions of £25 each tenable for two years have been founded, and they are open to students without respect to creed. 11. No distinction is now made between Pensioners, Fellow Commoners, and Noblemen as to the course of education required for the B.A. degree. 12. The formal exercises then required for the different degrees have been discontinued, and (except the M.A. degree) all the higher degrees have been made real tests of merit. 13. Full power to admit readers to the College Library has been conferred upon the Provost and Senior Fellows. 14. An auditor of the College is now appointed by the Visitors, and an audited balance sheet and account of income and expenditure is annually presented to them, and is open to the inspection of all members of the Corporation. 15. The Bursar is now paid by salary and not by fees, and local land agents have been appointed in cases in which the occupying tenants hold directly from the College. 16. The College officers formerly paid by fees are now paid by salaries in proportion to the services performed by them. 17. There has been a gradual reduction in the number of Non-Tutor Fellows created by the Statute of 1840. These form the great majority of the recommendations of the Royal Commissioners.

In addition to these alterations some considerable improvements were effected by the Royal Statute of the 18th Victoria. The whole of the College Statutes were carefully revised, and the obsolete and injurious enactments were repealed. The power of assigning or of transferring pupils from one tutor to another, which Provost Hutchinson attempted to exercise in an arbitrary manner, was removed from the Provost and vested in the Board; and to the Board, with the consent of the Visitors, was given the power, which they had not before, of founding new Professorships and offices, and of assigning salaries to be paid to them from the revenues of the College.

Immediately after these powers had been granted by Letters Patent, the Board and Visitors acted in conformity with their new authority. In 1855 a decree was passed dividing the subjects of the Fellowship Examination into four—Mathematics, Classics (including Hebrew), Mental and Moral Sciences, and Experimental Physics; the time for the examination was greatly extended. Science scholarships were founded, and the number of days of examination, both for classical and science scholarships, increased; and in the same year a similar decree regulated the salary and duties of the Regius Professor of Greek, and founded new Professorships of Arabic and of English Literature. In 1856 certain salaries of College officers were fixed, and the salaries of the Professor of Geology and of Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Natural Philosophy (when held by a Junior Fellow) were regulated. In 1858 a decree was passed which transferred all fees hitherto payable to College officers to the general funds of the College, and assigned fixed salaries in lieu of them. Two Senior Tutorships, each with a salary of £800, were founded; the salary of the Examinerships held by Non-Tutor Fellows was raised to £100 per annum; Classical Honour Lectureships were instituted, and a Professorship of Sanscrit and Comparative Philology. In 1862 two Professorships of Modern Languages were established, the salaries of the holders being paid out of the funds of the College—the Act of Parliament 18 and 19 Victoria, cap. 82, having deprived the College of two annual sums of £92 6s. 2d. each, which had been granted by the 41 George III., cap. 32, out of the Consolidated Fund for this purpose. The same Act dispossessed the College of its earliest, and only, subvention from the State, which was granted by Queen Elizabeth—an annual charge of £358 16s. on the revenues of Ireland; the grounds assigned for this deprivation being the removal of the stamp duties on Degrees,[98] which had been imposed on the College only thirteen years before. These duties (which have long since been abolished in England) were £1 on matriculation, £3 for the degree of B.A., and £6 for any other degree.

The University—consisting of the Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor, Doctors in the several faculties, and Masters of Arts—having been governed for more than two hundred years by certain rules or Statutes which had, by lapse of time, become in many respects obsolete and unsuited to the present state of the University, and doubts having been raised as to whether the Provost and Senior Fellows of the College had the power to alter or amend these rules, Letters Patent were asked for and granted by the Crown (July 24, 1857), confirming all former powers, usages, and privileges, giving the Board power to make laws concerning the conferring of Degrees, provided that such laws should be afterwards confirmed by the University Senate, enacting that no “grace” should be proposed to that body which had not been first adopted by the Board; incorporating the University Senate under the name of the Chancellor, Masters, and Doctors of the University of Dublin, and giving the Senate power to elect the Chancellor from three names to be submitted to them by the Board, who relinquished their old right in this respect. Further Letters Patent were obtained in 1858, which enabled the Board to commute the fees of certain offices for lesser salaries, and to forego fees hitherto payable to them for Degrees which were in future to be applied to the benefit of the College; and out of the funds so transferred fourteen Studentships were founded, at a salary of £100 per annum for each, tenable for seven years, to be given every year at the Degree Examination; two new offices (Senior Tutorships), to be held by Junior Fellows, were created; two of the Non-Tutor Fellowships were merged among the Tutor Fellowships, and the remaining four were gradually discontinued. The Board was given power to sanction new rules for the distribution of the tutorial fees, and a clause was added enabling candidates for Fellowships to attend only on the days on which the courses in which they compete are examined in, and giving other powers to the Board.

In conformity with the powers granted to the Board by the Letters Patent of 1857, in December of the following year they remodelled, with the approval of the Senate, all the University rules with respect to Degrees. Further Letters Patent were obtained in 1865, rectifying defects in the existing Statutes, specially with respect to the examination for Fellowships, and in 1868 for the creation of a Regius Professor of Surgery. In 1870 the Provost and Senior Fellows founded a Professor of Latin, under the same regulations which prevailed with regard to the Professor of Greek; and at the same time they founded forty Exhibitions of £25 each, tenable for two years, twenty Senior and twenty Junior, to aid deserving students in the prosecution of their undergraduate course. In 1871 the Professorships of Ancient History and of Zoology were founded, and in 1872 a Professorship of Comparative Anatomy.

The Act of Parliament amending the law with regard to promissory oaths, and that of 1873 abolishing religious tests in the University of Dublin, necessitated further changes in the Royal Statutes of the College, and these were effected by Letters Patent of 1874, which also founded the Academic Council, and transferred to it, from the Provost and Senior Fellows, the nomination to Professorships, and gave to it, concurrently with the Board, the power to regulate the studies of the College.

This Council consists of sixteen members and the Provost—four elected by the Senior Fellows, four by the Junior, four by the Professors who are not Fellows, and four by the Senate at large (excluding those who are already represented). The representatives of each class hold office for four years, are elected at the same time, and vacate office in rotation. The electors can give all their votes to one candidate, or they may distribute them among the candidates as they think fit. The election to Professorships in the Divinity School, of Medical Professors founded by Act of Parliament, and of Professors of private foundation the appointment of which is by the wills of the founders vested in the Provost and Senior Fellows, remains with the Board.

In 1851 a very important Act of Parliament was passed, which extended the leasing powers of the College in respect to the estates belonging to the Corporation. Prior to that year it was precluded from giving leases of the lands belonging to the College for a longer period than twenty-one years, except in cities, where sites for building might be leased for forty years. The rent to be reserved should be equal to one-half of the true value of the lands, communibus annis, at the time of making the lease. The Provost and Senior Fellows, however, might grant leases for twenty-one years at a rent equal to that which was hitherto payable out of the lands, even though it was less than half the value. The custom was for the College to renew these leases when a few years had expired, on the payment of fines which were in some cases considerable, and which were divided among the members of the Governing Body of the College. These renewal fines formed the principal part of the incomes of the Senior Fellows. By the Act of 1851 (14 and 15 Victoria, cap. 128) additional powers of leasing were granted up to ninety-nine years without fines, reserving a minimum rent of three-fourths of the annual value; making, however, a reduction in respect to the tenant’s interest in an unexpired lease when it was surrendered. Also, powers of granting leases in perpetuity were given to the Board on the surrender by the tenants of the existing leases. These perpetuity rents were fixed by a regulation contained in the Statute, and were variable from time to time, at intervals of ten years, according to the changes in the prices of certain agricultural commodities. Renewal fines were abolished, and the Provost and Senior Fellows were compensated for the loss of them by a fixed annual sum of £800 paid to each of them out of the revenues of the College. Consequent upon the changes which have been indicated above, the Senior Fellows relinquished their claims to an annual sum, which, according to the Report of the University Commissioners, amounted to about £2,650, their official salaries being now fixed at sums according to the duties of the office; and, on the whole, the income of each Senior Fellow is on the average about £363 less than it was in 1851. The difference has been employed in the foundation of Studentships and Exhibitions, the annual charge for which is about £2,000.

The most serious danger with which Trinity College has been threatened during the present century arose from an attempt which the Government of the day made in 1873 to deprive it of its University powers, and of a large portion of its endowments. A Bill was introduced into the House of Commons by Mr. Gladstone for the purpose of establishing one University in Ireland, and an essential part of its proposals was that Trinity College should cease to be the University of Dublin, and that another Mixed Body should take its place. That the power of conferring Degrees and regulating Professorships in this University, and of appointing and dismissing the Professors, should be vested in a Council of twenty-eight members, of which Trinity College should have the power of nominating only two. It proposed that there should be a number of affiliated Colleges in the country, and that they too should be represented on this Council, so that a College able to matriculate fifty students should send one representative, and a College able to matriculate one hundred and fifty should send two members, and that no College, however numerous its students, should be represented by a larger number of members. It was, moreover, another essential part of this measure, that neither Mental and Moral Science nor History should form any part of the Professorial instruction or of the University Examinations. In order to assist in making up an endowment of £50,000 per annum for the purposes of this University, it was proposed to suppress Queen’s College, Galway, and allocate the £10,000 a-year of its endowment; to put a charge of £12,000 annually on the estates of Trinity College; and to transfer, moreover, the Degree fees, which are now paid into the general funds of this College, to the Governing Body of the new University. The buildings, the library, and the remainder of the endowments were to belong to the College, which in other respects should remain, as at present, as a teaching institution.

It is needless to say that this Bill, if carried into a law, would have ruined Trinity College. A large number of its students would have been withdrawn, for they could have the prestige of the Degree of the University of Dublin without being members of the College, and the fees which they at present pay to the support of the College and its teachers would have been no longer available. It is not too much to assert that the College would have lost 33 per cent. of its available revenue, and that it would have been impossible to maintain it on the income which remained.

Fortunately for the College, the Roman Catholic Bishops opposed the plan of the Government, which did not include the endowment of a Roman Catholic College, and which did not meet their demand for a Roman Catholic University. After a debate lasting for four nights, the Government proposal was rejected on the 11th of March, 1873, by a majority of three.

There were two important occasions upon which entertainments on a scale of considerable grandeur were given during the present century in the Hall of Trinity College. The first was in 1821, on the occasion of the visit of George the Fourth to Ireland, when the King honoured the College with his presence at a great banquet. His Majesty was received in the Library, where addresses were presented to him, and after receiving them most graciously he was conducted through a passage made for the occasion into the Examination Hall, where were collected at dinner a considerable number of the Irish nobility, the Bishops of the Irish Church, the Judges, and many of the most influential persons in the country, along with the distinguished suite which attended the King.

His Majesty afterwards expressed himself as much gratified by the reception which he met with in the College. On this occasion the scholars were entertained at the same time in the Dining Hall, under the presidency of Dr. Sadlier, then a Junior Fellow, and afterwards Provost. It was in connection with this visit of the King that the University of Dublin asserted and secured its right of precedency after the Corporation of the City.

The second occasion was in August, 1835, when the British Association made its first visit to Dublin; Dr. Bartholomew Lloyd, then Provost, was the President of the Association, and some of the leading scientific men of England and of the Continent were present. A considerable number of these were accommodated during the meeting with chambers in the College, and had their breakfasts and dinners in the Hall. A great banquet was, moreover, given to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (the Earl of Mulgrave), and to about 300 members of the Association, in the Examination Hall. The guests assembled before dinner in the College Library, and His Excellency took the opportunity of conferring the honour of Knighthood upon the Professor of Astronomy, William Rowan Hamilton. This was the first instance in which an Irish Viceroy had so honoured an individual for eminent scientific merit. At the dinner which followed, Professor Whewell of Cambridge remarked in his speech that it was then just one hundred and thirty-six years since a great man in another University knelt down before his Sovereign and rose up Sir Isaac Newton. Among the foreign visitors were De Toqueville, Montalembert, Barclay de Tolly, L. Agassiz, and many others.

The general history of Trinity College during the nineteenth century would be incomplete if some reference were not made to a matter which elicited considerable public feeling at the time, but which is now almost forgotten. On the 12th of March, 1858, the Earl of Eglinton, who had been very popular as Viceroy of Ireland on a previous occasion, returned as Lord Lieutenant on a change of Ministry. It was quite a holiday in Dublin. Several hundreds of the students had assembled within the enclosed space in front of the College (which was at that time larger than it is now), and had crowded out into the street, for the purpose of witnessing the procession in its progress up College Green and Dame Street to the Castle. For some time previous to the approach of the Lord Lieutenant, they amused themselves by letting off squibs and crackers, and by throwing orange peel and other similar missiles at the crowd outside, as well as at the police. The Junior Dean, apprehending some ill results if the disposition and temper of the students were misunderstood by the people and by the police, went out amongst them, and begged that they would not resent these demonstrations on the part of the students. No political display was intended by them, and consequently if good humour were preserved on both sides all would pass off quietly. Colonel Browne, who was in command of the police, on two or three occasions went inside the railings to reason with the students; his reception on each occasion was courteous, and he was cheered by the College men. From the period when the Viceregal procession came in sight, there was a suspension of the bombardment from within the College rails. As the Lord Lieutenant passed by, there was very little political manifestation by the students. After the procession had passed, those within the railings commenced again to throw crackers, squibs, and oranges, and the confusion increased. Colonel Browne rode up, and in vain endeavoured to be heard. He was struck in the face by an orange, amidst a shout of laughter from the students and from the crowds in the street. At this time he seemed to lose his temper, and went to Colonel Griffiths commanding the Scots Greys, who were posted near the Bank of Ireland, and asked him to charge. Colonel Griffiths laughed, and asked whom he was to charge—was it a parcel of schoolboys? Colonel Browne then brought a party of the mounted police in front of the soldiers, and drew up immediately in their rear a body of the foot police, with their batons in their hands. At this juncture the Junior Dean, foreseeing that something serious was likely to ensue if the students did not at once disperse, called on such of them as were outside the College railings to come within the College gate, and he succeeded in getting a considerable number of them inside the College, and had the gates closed. Many of the students, however, were unable to get inside—some were with the Junior Dean inside the railings and some in the street. Immediately after this Colonel Browne ordered the mounted police to Charge. The outer gates of the enclosure were forced open; the police, mounted as well as on foot, at once rushed on the students within the railings (the statues of Burke and Goldsmith had not at that time been erected); they cut at them with their sabres, rode over them, and the unmounted men used their batons in every direction and indiscriminately as regarded the persons with whom they came in contact. The students had no means of defending themselves, the Junior Dean having early in the proceedings induced them to give up to him the sticks which they carried. Several of them were struck down, and deliberately batoned again and again while on the ground by the foot police in a most inhuman manner. The Junior Dean then went outside the railings, and, addressing Colonel Browne, said that he would engage to withdraw the students if the Colonel would withdraw the police. This was assented to, but the foot police for a considerable time waited within the enclosure. So great was the violence of the assault of the mounted men that, in following the students who rushed into the College through the open wicket gate, they used their swords with such vigour against the wooden gate that it showed several marks of their sabres, large pieces being cut off in some places. Among the students whose lives were endangered by the onslaught of the police were Mr. Leeson, Mr. J. W. Gregg, Mr. Pollock, Mr. Fuller, Mr. Leathem, Mr. Brownrigg, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Lyndsay, and Mr. Chadwick. Some of them suffered very severe injuries. Mr. Clarke was wounded in the back with a sabre cut while he was stretched on the ground from the blow of a baton. The College authorities prosecuted Colonel Browne and some of the police criminally for an assault on the students, but they were acquitted by a jury at the ensuing Commission. It is pleasing to add that since that time the best relations have existed between the students and the Metropolitan police; indeed, the feelings of the latter body were supposed at the time to have been excited by some strong observations which were made in the columns of a Dublin newspaper which appeared on the morning of the occurrence.

The Divinity School of Trinity College.—The institution of a special school designed for the instruction of the future clergy of the Church of Ireland did not take effect until the close of the eighteenth century. The students of Trinity College, under instruction, were at the beginning of this century either undergraduates or Bachelors of Arts. The undergraduates were lectured in classics and mathematics by public lecturers appointed by the College, and their religious training was specially entrusted to the Catechist. After they took the B.A. degree they still continued under instruction by the several Professors of the mathematical and physical sciences, of Greek, and of the several faculties, while their religious instruction was under the special care of the Regius Professor of Divinity, and of a Lecturer of early but uncertain foundation, which latter post was afterwards endowed with the interest of £1,000 by Archbishop King. Junior Bachelors attended the prelections of this Lecturer, and Middle and Senior Bachelors the prelections of the Regius Professor; and this attendance was compulsory upon all graduates in residence. Many ex-Scholars of Trinity College remember well that until recent times all Scholars who were graduates were obliged to attend, at their choice, certain courses of lectures with the Professors of Greek or Oratory or Mathematics or Law, but all were, without distinction, under pain of losing their salaries, obliged to attend lectures with either the Regius Professor of Divinity or Archbishop King’s Lecturer. In the year 1790, at a meeting of the Irish Bishops, it was determined that they would in future not ordain any candidate who had not the B.A. degree and a certificate of having attended lectures in Divinity for one academic year (at that time consisting of four terms), and they forwarded to the Board a list of books in which the Bishops had decided that candidates for Holy Orders should be examined prior to ordination. The Board, in reply, informed the Bishops that they would direct the assistant to Archbishop King’s Lecturer to prepare the students in these books. From 1790 to 1833 Divinity students attended the lectures of the assistants to Archbishop King’s Lecturer (the Regius Professor had not at that time any assistants) on two days in the week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, from eight to nine in the morning. They were put through Burnet on the Thirty-nine Articles, and if any student attended three-fourths[99] of the lectures in each of the four terms of the Junior Bachelor year he received a certificate, which was inserted in the testimonium of his degree, and on this he was entitled to present himself for the Ordination Examination. The Rev. Richard Brooke, in his Recollections of the Irish Church, gives a very vivid account of his experience as a Divinity student in 1827. The books he then read—they could not have been all lectured on (and there is no record of any compulsory Divinity examination)—were Burnet, Pearson, Mosheim, Paley’s Evidences, Magee on the Atonement, Wheatley on the Common Prayer, Tomline on the Articles, Butler’s Analogy, and the Bible and Greek Testament, with Patrick Lowth and Whitby’s Commentary. It is believed, from the testimony of clergymen who were students at that period, that the lectures were confined very much to Burnet and Butler.

At that time, Archbishop King’s Lecturer in Divinity was an annual office poorly endowed, and, like the Professorships of Greek, of Mathematics, and of Civil Law, held always by a Senior Fellow. Such was the condition of things up to 1833. The Divinity Professors were mainly engaged in prelecting to graduate Scholars, and to such graduates as desired to attend their lectures. In that year the Divinity School was arranged upon its present basis. Dr. Elrington was, in 1833, Regius Professor of Divinity; and the annual office of Archbishop King’s Lecturer was separated from a Senior Fellowship, was endowed with £700 a-year from the funds of the College, and was given to Dr. O’Brien, afterwards Bishop of Ossory, but at that time a Junior Fellow, as a permanent Professorship. The course was extended to one of two years’ length, compulsory examinations were instituted, assistants to the Regius Professor were then first appointed, and he and they had the care of the Senior class, consisting only of those who had passed the B.A. examination. Archbishop King’s Lecturer and his assistants had the instruction of the Junior class of Divinity students entrusted to them. These were for the most part Senior Sophisters.

The Divinity course now comprises two years’ study of Divinity, each consisting of three academic terms. Students generally begin to attend lectures at the beginning of their third year in Arts. In the Junior year they are lectured by Archbishop King’s Lecturer on the Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, and in the Socinian Controversy; and by his assistants in the Greek of the Gospels and of the Epistle to the Romans, and in Pearson on the Creed. There are three days set apart for composition of sermons and essays each term, when the students are brought into the Hall, and are given either a text of Scripture, or a subject connected with the Professor’s lectures for that term, to write upon; two such compositions at least, in each term, are obligatory. During the Christmas and Easter recesses the students are obliged to study one of the Epistles in Greek, and a portion of Ecclesiastical History, in which they are examined on the first lecture-day of the following term. Having completed three terms’ lectures, they pass an examination in certain text-books connected with the studies of the Junior year, and in the English New Testament; in specified portions of the Greek Testament, and in the Professor’s prelections. Having passed this examination, they are permitted to attend the lectures of the Regius Professor of Divinity and his assistants for the next three terms. The lectures of the Regius Professor are upon the Book of Common Prayer, the Canon of Holy Scripture, and the Roman Catholic Controversy; and his assistants lecture upon Bishops Burnet and Browne on the Thirty-nine Articles, and upon the Greek of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians and the Epistle to the Hebrews. The rules with regard to study in the intervals between the terms and composition are nearly the same as those of the Junior year; and when the student has completed his sixth term of study, he presents himself at the examination for the Divinity Testimonium, after he has, in nearly every case, taken his B.A. degree. Lectures in Ecclesiastical History, in Hebrew, in Pastoral Theology, and in Biblical Greek are provided, but they are not compulsory. The number of Divinity Testimoniums granted for each of the last five years averaged 35, and for each of the previous five years the average was 32.[100]

The subjects of the Divinity lectures for the Junior year were arranged in reference to the controversies which were most prevalent in the Irish Church in the year 1833, and also in reference to the special theological aptitudes of Dr. O’Brien. He was peculiarly fitted to treat of the evidences of natural and revealed religion, and to reply to the objections to both which were then current. Those who remember his prelections can bear testimony to the wonderful ability and skill with which he dealt with the infidel controversy of his time, and the light which he threw upon the well-known arguments of Bishop Butler. The Socinian controversy at that period occupied the serious attention of the Irish clergy, and it was necessary that all the young ministers of the Church should be prepared to deal with the arguments of the Unitarian when they entered upon their duties as curates.

Prior to 1814 the Regius Professor of Divinity held no public examination in the subjects of his course. In 1813 Dean Graves, who at that time held the office, submitted to the Board a plan for the improvement of Divinity lectures, and a new Royal Statute was obtained regulating the duties of the Professor. He was bound to deliver prelections during term, but they were practically confined to the first week in Michaelmas term, the first and second weeks in Hilary term, and the first week in Easter term. He was also bound to hold an examination once a-year, open to Bachelors of Arts. The subjects of this examination were fixed by Statute. On the first morning it was the Old Testament, the first afternoon the New; on the second morning in Ecclesiastical History, and the second afternoon in the Articles and Liturgy of the Church of England. In 1814 the Board instituted prizes at this examination, which was otherwise voluntary. On the first occasion thirty graduates entered their names for the examination, but only five attended, and it ended in only three or four highly prepared Divinity students presenting themselves each year for a searching examination in an extended course. In 1859 these Divinity prizes were enlarged into Theological Exhibitions, two of which, of £60 and £40 a-year, tenable for three years, are now awarded as the result of this examination, greatly enlarged and extended by the addition of selections from the writings of the Fathers and specified portions of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. Prizes also at the end of the first Divinity year, called after the name of Archbishop King, were founded in 1836. Both these stimulants to theological study, aided by annual prizes at examinations held by the Professors of Biblical Greek and of Ecclesiastical History, have very widely extended the reading of the best class of Divinity students. Candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Divinity are now required to pass an examination in the whole of the extended range of theological subjects required of candidates for the Exhibitions; but as those who seek Divinity degrees are generally clergymen who are engaged in the duties of their calling, they are allowed to divide the examination into parts and to pass it in detail instead of on one occasion. Few of the modern arrangements have been so successful as this. By directing and encouraging a wide course of theological reading among the younger clergy, it has produced an excellent effect, and the popularity of the arrangement is manifested by the large increase in the number of candidates for the B.D. degree by examination.

It would give an incomplete account of the preparation of candidates for Holy Orders in Trinity College, Dublin, if we were to omit the mention of the important training which the College Theological Society affords to the students. Once in each week during term the members meet under the presidency of either the Regius Professor or of Archbishop King’s Lecturer in Divinity; essays on theological subjects, or on one of the important religious questions of the day, are read by the students in turn; a debate upon the essay follows, which is watched over and moderated by the President, who, at the conclusion, makes such observations as he thinks fit. The students are in this manner practised in thoughtful and carefully prepared composition, and in extempore speaking; and the great benefits derived by Divinity students from this voluntary society are universally admitted—advantages which have been mainly due to the unremitting care of the late Bishop Butcher, formerly Regius Professor, and his successors in that chair.

The Medical School.—The marked and rapid growth of the Medical School of the University of Dublin has been one of the most notable events in its history during the nineteenth century. Although it was in existence in Trinity College since 1711, it was only in 1786 that it was placed on its present footing by an Act of the Irish Parliament, which united the College of Physicians with Trinity College in the joint management of the instruction given in this school. Five of the teachers are appointed by the Provost and Senior Fellows, and four (designated King’s Professors) by the College of Physicians, the Trustees of Sir Patrick Dun’s estates. This Statute further required that all who shall be in attendance on medical lectures, whether students of Trinity College or extern students in Medicine, shall be matriculated by the Senior Lecturer.

For the first fifteen years these matriculations averaged only 4·7 each year. The numbers gradually increased, until in the years 1809-1813, inclusive, the average reached 41·4 each year; from 1814 to 1824 they rose to an average of 66·5. In the next quinquennial period they increased to the large number of 90·8 annually. In the years from 1831 to 1835 the average fell to 63, and in the following two years the number barely exceeded 28 each year. The great increase of medical students in the period between 1814 and 1835 is to be attributed mainly to the eminence of the University Professor of Anatomy and Chirurgery—James Macartney[101]—a man of the greatest powers both as an anatomist, a biologist, and surgical teacher. On his ceasing to hold the Professorship, the number of students in the Medical School fell to what it had been before his appointment; and having continued at a low level for thirty years, it suddenly rose to an average of nearly 80 entrances in 1864, in which year Doctor Edward H. Bennett, the present Professor of Surgery, was appointed to the office of University Anatomist—an office which had, after being in abeyance for a century, been revived in 1861. From this time the numbers have gradually risen until they amounted to more than they were in the most flourishing period of Doctor Macartney’s teaching. Doctor Macartney held the Chair of Anatomy for twenty-four years, until July, 1837, when he resigned the office, very much because he was unwilling to submit to the rules laid down by the governing body of the College. In the year 1834 a complaint was made to the Provost and Senior Fellows, by the other Professors of the Medical School, that he had fixed his lectures at an hour, from 3 to 4 p.m., which interfered with those of the other Professors of that school. In December, 1835, the Board informed him that they would permit him to continue his lectures during that session at the hour which he had announced, but that this privilege would not be further continued. In November, 1836, Dr. Macartney persisted in lecturing at 3 o’clock. He was ordered by the Board to lecture at another hour, and this order was conveyed also to the College of Physicians. Dr. Macartney persisted; and the Board took the advice of counsel as to their powers, and, as a result, they ordered the Anatomy House to be closed from 3 to 4 o’clock. In the end the Professor yielded. But another cause of dispute soon rose. In April, 1836, the Board received a letter from the Registrar of the School of Physic, which stated that Doctor Macartney wished to have his lectures advertised as being two in Anatomy and two in Surgery each week. This was held by the Board to be insufficient, inasmuch as the University of Edinburgh required five lectures in each of these subjects every week, and would require from the Dublin Professors certificates to that effect. Notwithstanding the remonstrance of the Provost and Senior Fellows, Doctor Macartney persisted in his advertisement. Doctor Sandes, one of the Senior Fellows, undertook at their request to write to the Professor in the hope that he would be able to induce him to change his decision, but his attempt was not followed by success. A case was laid before Mr. Pennefather, K.C., and as a result of his opinion, on November 26, 1836, Doctor Macartney was required to deliver five lectures in each week at one o’clock during the session. On July 13, 1837, he resigned the Professorship—four years before his tenure of office would otherwise have expired.

In consequence of his quarrel with the authorities of Trinity College, all Doctor Macartney’s valuable collection of preparations became the property of the University of Cambridge. That learned body agreed with Macartney that he should transfer his collections to them in consideration of an annuity of £100 for a period not exceeding ten years. In making arrangements with Doctor Harrison, his successor, the Board took care to renew the understanding which they had made in 1802 with Dr. Hartigan, but which they had, through an oversight, omitted to establish on Doctor Macartney’s election—that all such preparations should become the property of the College.

It should be added, in justice to Dr. Harrison, who succeeded Macartney, and who was an excellent human anatomist and a most painstaking and attractive lecturer, that the great falling off of medical students in his time must be attributed to many causes beyond his control: first, the refusal of the Irish College of Surgeons to receive certificates of his lectures, very much through professional jealousy; secondly, the opening of large medical schools in the central parts of England, which drew away all the Welsh students who had before that time come to Dublin in considerable numbers, and the opening of the Ledwich School of Medicine in Dublin; and thirdly, to the institution of the Queen’s Colleges in Belfast, Cork, and Galway, which retained in those towns the students in Medicine who had previously been in the habit of coming to Dublin for lectures.

The old Anatomy House, situated between the College Park and the Fellows’ Garden, was a small and inconvenient building. It became altogether unsuited to the numbers attending Doctor Macartney’s classes. In 1815 space was made for them by the removal of the wax models from the room in which they had been placed to that over it, and a small building was erected in the Fellows’ Garden adjacent to the old house. This was but a temporary expedient, for we find that in 1820 the floor of the lecture-room was reported to be in a dangerous condition, and the Board directed that, in future, lectures in Anatomy and Chemistry should be delivered in the public lecture-room in No. 22 of the Library Square. A committee was appointed to arrange for a new site for the Medical School. That which was at first fixed upon was at the east side of the Fellows’ Garden, between the old Anatomy House and Nassau Street; but on further consideration it was changed to the ground, hitherto the Bowling Green, at the remote extremity of the College Park. On April 1, 1823, estimates were laid before the Board for the building of an anatomical and chemical theatre on the above site. The estimates ranged between £3,980 and £5,350, and a contract was made for the work. Macartney seems to have taken a great interest in the selecting of the site. Thus we find him writing to the Registrar, Dr. Phipps, from Newry, in May, 1822:—

“As our interest, and that of our successors, and the future prosperity of the Medical School, will be affected by the situation and mode of erecting of the building intended for the Anatomical and Chemical instruction, we beg leave to lay our opinions before the Board on this subject. (1.) With respect to situation, we consider any part of that side of the Park next Nassau Street as being eligible, but if we were to select a particular place on this line it would be opposite to Kildare Street, showing the front towards the street. The Bowling Green we think a disadvantageous situation, as being damp, and the entrance being through a private yard, which has been proposed by the architect, we think would be highly injurious to the respectability of the School. The distance of the Bowling Green would be very inconvenient to students in Arts, of whom our classes are chiefly composed. The above objection equally applies to the side of the Park next Brunswick Street. (2.) We are of opinion that, to make the buildings distinct, however contiguous in situation to each other, would much facilitate and simplify the plans, and expedite their erection, and would add greatly to the respectability of both establishments; as the shape and disposition of the apartments in the two houses might be different, we are satisfied that less expense would be incurred by adopting a separate plan for each house.”

And while the building was being erected he wrote about the light, sending the following characteristic letter to the Board (29th March, 1823):—

“The light we want in the lecture-room may still be had without displacing a single timber of the roof as it at present stands, but after the copper is put on, any change will be attended with delay and expense, and I am satisfied that the Board (if not now) will hereafter be disposed to yield to the just complaints of the pupils with respect to the want of light. I think it will be generally acknowledged that, after the experience of teaching in different lecture-rooms for twenty-five years, my opinion ought to have more weight than that of any architect. I wish to add that I have no direct interest in the matter; whether there be good or bad light would not increase or diminish my class, as is fully proved by the number of pupils who attend in my present room, where one half of the objects used at lecture cannot be seen for the want of light, and where, from want of space, some are obliged to stand in the lobby; but I should think myself deficient in public duty if I did not persist in stating to the Board the inconvenience and injury that will be sustained by the pupils, of what they have now for several years anticipated the removal, by the erection of a suitable building for carrying on the business of the School.”

These Medical School buildings were in use from 1825 for more than fifty years. When of late years the number of medical students increased so largely, and it was found that this latter building was altogether unsuited for the modern requirements of the school, the present chemical laboratory and dissecting-room were erected, and a histological laboratory and physiological lecture-room were added. In 1884 a bone-room, a preparation room, and private laboratories were built. In the same year the new chemical theatre was opened, and in the following year the new anatomical theatre was completed, which is fitted for a class of 230 students. Since that time the entire of the new great Medical Schools have been finished, which, in addition to Professors’ rooms and lecture-rooms, contain a fine chamber specially fitted up for the great pathological collection originally purchased from the late Doctor Robert Smith, whose lectures as Professor of Surgery had a large share in the great recent success of the school. This collection has been largely added to by the indefatigable labours of his successor, Doctor Edward H. Bennett. The anatomy and chemistry lecture-rooms of 1824 were completely removed, in order to make a space for part of the present range of buildings, which have been completed at a cost of over £20,000.

In a lecture delivered in 1837, the Professor of the Practice of Physic (Doctor Lendrick) attributed to Provost Bartholomew Lloyd the improvements which were even at that time beginning to be effected in the medical education of the members of the College. “The candidate for a medical degree,” he said, “no longer finishes his medical education in a single year, nor is he compelled to complete a septennial period of (perhaps) idleness before being permitted to practise his profession.” In the years 1832-42, inclusive, the average number of degrees of Bachelor of Medicine annually conferred by the University was 18. In the next decade this number fell to 11·7. After the great improvements in the medical education and the appointment of more attractive lecturers, this number rapidly increased. In the decade 1872-1881 the average was 39, in the following ten years the annual average was 43·6, being nearly four times that of forty years before the present time.

During the first half of the present century the University conferred degrees in Medicine only. The Irish College of Surgeons, towards the end of that period, refused to recognise the lectures delivered in the Medical School of Trinity College as a part of the professional education required for a surgical diploma, although two of the Trinity College Professors had previously occupied a similar position in the College of Surgeons’ School. The University of Dublin was consequently, in 1851, obliged to institute for their medical graduates a diploma or license in Surgery. This they did, following the best legal advice, under the clause in their charter which gave them authority to grant degrees “in omnibus artibus et facultatibus.” This was followed by the institution, in 1858, of the degree of Master of Surgery. This degree was, by the Act 21 and 22 Victoria, chap. 90, recognised as a qualification for the holder to be placed in the Medical Register—a privilege which was afterwards, by the Act 23 Victoria, chap. 7, extended to diplomas or licenses in Surgery. In 1872 the degree of Bachelor of Surgery was instituted, and placed on the basis of Bachelor of Medicine. To be admitted to either of these degrees the candidate must have previously graduated in Arts, and must have spent four years in the study of Medicine and Surgery. Degrees are now given also in Obstetric Art. The University of Dublin was the first in modern times to institute degrees in Surgery, and its example has been since followed by Cambridge and other English, Irish, and Scotch Universities.

The change of opinion in the Universities with respect to the status of the profession of Surgery is well illustrated by a correspondence, which has been preserved in the College Register, between the University of Cambridge and the authorities of Trinity College, Dublin. On June 30, 1804, a letter was received from the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, in which it was stated that that University had declined to consider any student who had, subsequently to his admission, practised any trade or profession whatsoever as qualified for a degree, and consequently had refused this to Frederick Thackeray, who, since the time of his admission as an undergraduate, had been constantly engaged in the practice of surgery. The Provost and Senior Fellows, in reply, informed the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge that, after consideration of his letter, they had agreed to adopt the same regulation.

In the early part of this century, before Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital was erected, great difficulty was experienced in the clinical instruction of the medical students. In 1800 the Governors of Stevens’ Hospital permitted Dr. Crampton to give reports of medical cases under his care in the Hospital for the winter six months to matriculated medical students, and to none others. Attendance on these lectures was required for medical degrees. In 1804 clinical lectures by Dr. Whitley Stokes at the Meath Hospital were considered to be adequate for this purpose. In 1806, attendance for six months with Doctor Crampton at Stevens’ Hospital was sanctioned by the College of Physicians as adequate for a medical degree. On the completion in 1808 of the west wing of Dun’s Hospital, which had been commenced in 1803, the clinical instruction connected with the School of Physic was given in the wards and lecture-rooms of the Hospital; and in 1835 candidates for medical degrees were required to present a certificate of one year’s attendance at this institution. Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital was originally intended for medical cases only, but in 1864 the College of Physicians, which had hitherto occupied the central position of the building as a library and Convocation Hall, transferred this part of the building to the Governors of the Hospital, and it was enlarged and changed into a medico-chirurgical institution for the complete instruction of the students both in Medicine and Surgery. Attendance at this hospital is no longer compulsory on the candidates for degrees; nine other Dublin hospitals are joined with it, and the student may, if he wishes, receive his clinical teaching in any of these.

In the early part of the century, Trinity College for a short time granted diplomas in Medicine to matriculated students who were not students in Arts, but who attended the same lectures and passed the same examinations as were required of Bachelors of Medicine. This system prevailed up to 1823, when the Board received a letter from the College of Physicians in London, in which it was stated that that College did not consider such a diploma as sufficient to warrant them to grant an examination for a license to practise physic in England. The issue of these diplomas was then discontinued. For a short period the degree of Bachelor of Medicine was granted to students who had completed two years’ study in Arts, but this was found to be so unsatisfactory, that the University decided that no one should be admitted to a degree in Medicine or in Surgery who had not previously graduated as Bachelor of Arts.

As to the method of conducting examinations for degrees in Medicine, we gather some curious information from a letter which the College of Physicians sent to the Provost and Senior Fellows in October, 1814, in which they informed the Board that they had ordered the King’s Professor not to be present at any examination for medical degrees in the University in which any question may be put, or answer received, in the English language. The Registrar was directed to write to the Regius Professor of Physic (Dr. Hill) to inquire whether these examinations were conducted in Latin. In reply, Dr. Hill assured the Board that he would not, under any circumstances, examine in English. It may be conjectured that the newly-elected Professor of Anatomy (Mr. Macartney), who was not a University man, broke through the old rule as to the language in which he examined.

The great growth of medical and surgical studies in the University may be gathered from the number of the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine which have been conferred at different periods of the present century. In nearly all cases, students of the University who now graduate in Medicine take also degrees in Surgery and the Obstetric Art. The number of Medical Matriculations for the last three years has been as follows:—1889—Students in Arts, 55, Externs, 28; 1890—Students in Arts, 61, Externs, 26; 1891—Students in Arts, 100, Externs, 28. During the five years previous to 1889 these numbers averaged—Students in Arts, 62; Externs, 34; total of each year, 96. The religious professions of the medical students who were matriculated in 1891 were as follows:—Church of Ireland, 85; Church of England, 10; Presbyterian, 12; Roman Catholics, 12; Methodists, 6; other denominations, 3;—total, 128.

Arts Course. 1792-1892.—At the beginning of this period, and for some years after, there were four academic Terms each year, during which the students, both undergraduates and graduates, attended lectures. In each Term two days were set apart, according to the directions of the Statutes, for the general examinations of all the undergraduate classes. It was found that the increasing number of students could not be properly examined in this limited time. Application was made to the Crown for a Royal letter giving power to the Provost and Senior Fellows to increase the number of days for this purpose in each Term, and a Statute to that effect was enacted in 1792. In the following year a new and greatly improved list of the subjects for each examination in all the parts of the Undergraduate Course was adopted.[102] At the same time, a scheme was devised for stimulating the study of the Greek and Latin Classics, and for extending the cultivation of Latin Composition, both in prose and verse, by special prizes at these examinations.[103] The subjects for the examination for admission to the College were also carefully re-modelled and set out for the use of schools; and in 1794 a well-devised system of examinations and of prizes for proficiency in Hebrew was instituted. Yet at this period there were no special lectures for advanced students, either in Mathematics or in Classics. The dull and the clever student were taught together, both at the public lectures and by the College Tutor; and at the Term Examinations all the students in each division were taken together, the Examiner having at the same time, in a very limited number of hours, to satisfy himself of the progress which each undergraduate had made in his studies, to distinguish between the idle and the diligent, between the badly and the well-prepared, and at the same time to pick out and reward the best answerer in each division of about forty students.

The first earnest attempt to provide Classical instruction of a higher order for the better class of students was devised by Provost Kearney in 1800. Special Classical Lectures were arranged to be given by the ablest scholars among the Fellows twice a-week, at 7 a.m. The first special Lecturers appointed for this purpose were—Dr. Miller in Greek, and Mr. Walker in Latin. These lectures appear to have been instituted for the purpose of advancing the classical studies of such graduates as intended to devote themselves to the instruction of boys in schools; for it was arranged, at the same time, that every graduate, who should appear to the Provost and Senior Fellows to merit such encouragement, was to be entitled to a certificate under the College Seal testifying that he was “qualified to instruct youth in the grammatical principles, the classical idioms, and the prosody of the Greek and Latin languages.” The salary of each of these Lecturers was fixed at £40 annually. In 1804, Dr. Miller was succeeded by Mr. Kyle as Lecturer in Greek, and Mr. Walker by Mr. Nash as Lecturer in Latin. In 1801 the Professor of Oratory was authorised to give prizes for excellent answering at the lectures delivered by him and his assistants; and, in order to stimulate the study of the Hebrew language at school, prizes for good answering in that subject, at the monthly entrance examinations, were instituted; and in order to encourage further the study of composition, both in Greek, Latin, and English Prose and Verse, in 1805 the Vice-Chancellor assigned that portion of the fees for Degrees which was then payable to him, to form a fund for prizes, to be given at the time of the Commencements, for the best compositions in each branch. In 1808 Catechetical Lectures and Examinations in Holy Scripture for the two Freshmen classes on the basis of the ordinary Term Examinations were first instituted, and, at the same time, regular weekly instruction by the Clerical Fellows in a fixed course of Holy Scripture and religious knowledge was arranged. On the same occasion Algebra was for the first time made a part of the Undergraduate Course, the only Mathematics which all the students had been taught before that time being four books of the Elements of Euclid.

In order to stimulate the more advanced students to an increased pursuit of Mathematical Physics, Dr. Bartholomew Lloyd was appointed to deliver lectures on Mechanics at a salary of £100 annually, on the condition that he should resign his claims to any other Professorship, Lectureship, or Assistant’s place, except that of Catechetical Lecturer. In 1815 a new scheme of Mathematical Lectures was promulgated. The following distribution of the work to be done by the Professor and his assistants was arranged by the Provost and Senior Fellows:—

The Junior Assistant to lecture on Arithmetic and Algebra to Biquadratic Equations, including Newton’s Method of approximation to roots of Equations, also on the application of Algebra to Geometry as given by Newton. The Senior Assistant to lecture on Logarithms, Analytical Trigonometry, with its application to Terrestrial Measurement, application of Algebra to Geometry managed by the equations of figures. The Professor to lecture on the more advanced parts of Mathematics, including the Method of Indeterminate Coefficients, with its application to the management of Series, and other matters not contained in the Course of the Assistant, also Differential and Integral Calculus and the Method of Variations.

The programme of the subjects of these lectures shows that there was a large advance in the mathematical education of the students made at this time. Analytical Geometry and Trigonometry were taught to the Honour men among the undergraduates, and the Differential and Integral Calculus and the higher branches of Mathematics were expounded by the Professor of Mathematics to the candidates for Fellowship. Hitherto the mathematical studies of the members of the College were mainly geometrical. The great start in analytical science, which has developed itself so largely in the University, seems to date from this time, and is due very much to the influence of Dr. Bartholomew Lloyd, who had in 1813 been appointed to the Chair of Mathematics. It was not until 1830 that a similar progress was made in the study of Mixed Mathematics. We find that in November of that year a committee, consisting of the Professors of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, with Dr. Wall, was appointed to recommend to the Board a proper course of Mixed Mathematics, and they were instrumental in introducing the Mechanics of Poisson into the subjects for examination for the higher mathematical honours. A small but important improvement in the existing method of conducting the Term Examinations of ordinary students was made at the same time. Hitherto some of the classes were submitted to be tested by the same Junior Fellow in Science and in Classics. In 1831 it was decided that these branches of studies should be judged by separate examiners in every case. At this time there was no special examination for the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Senior Sophister students who answered in an unsatisfactory manner at the Michaelmas Term Examination were “sent to the Regent House” to be examined.

In 1807 it was decreed that every student who is “cautioned to the Regent House” shall be examined in every part of the Undergraduate Course for which he has got a mediocriter at his last examination. It was not until October, 1838, that this examination in the Regent House was formally discontinued, although it had fallen into disuse. It was then arranged that one vix mediocriter for the B.A. degree should subject the candidate to another examination.

This is the suitable occasion upon which to mention in detail the great services which the mild energy and enlightened views of Dr. Bartholomew Lloyd performed in the reformation of the studies and the literary work of Trinity College. To no one man during the present century does the University owe so much. A native of the County of Wexford, he was elected a Fellow in 1796, and after a service of twenty years as College Tutor, which he discharged with zeal and ability, he was co-opted to a Senior Fellowship in 1816, and he was appointed to the Provostship in 1831. Dr. Lloyd held the Professorship of Mathematics from 1813 to 1822, when he exchanged this chair for that of Natural Philosophy. He occupied the latter office until he was made Provost, and he was thus for eighteen years engaged in the direction of the highest studies of the most advanced classes in the branches of Pure and Mixed Mathematics. He quickly saw the need of introducing a more complete knowledge of the more advanced analytic methods which prevailed on the Continent, and he compiled a course of lectures, as we have seen, in order to introduce them to his class; and partly by his lectures and partly by his writings[104] he completely revolutionised the mathematical and physical studies of the University, and was the means of directing the researches of the higher class of thinkers to the methods which have rendered the Dublin school of mathematicians so celebrated in Europe.

Shortly after his appointment to the Chair of Natural Philosophy, he published his well-known treatise on Mechanical Philosophy, which supplied a want widely felt by students of that science in this and the sister country, and which was the means of introducing to them the researches of the French labourers in the field of Applied Mathematics.

During the six years of his Provostship he was the means of effecting very large and beneficial changes in the College. Up to 1831 all the important Professorships were held by Senior Fellows, and in most cases (except in those on the foundation of Erasmus Smith) they were held, like other College offices, as the result of an annual election. Dr. Lloyd saw the necessity of setting apart some of the Junior Fellows for the fixed and exclusive work of Professorial study and teaching. For this purpose he influenced the College Board to set apart three of the Junior Fellows, whose tastes were specially directed to these particular studies, to the Professorships of Mathematics, of Natural Philosophy, and the office of Archbishop King’s Lectureship in Divinity. Mr. M‘Cullagh was elected to the first of these chairs, Mr. Humphrey Lloyd to the second, and Dr. O’Brien to the third. They were freed from all the distracting cares of College Tutors, and the salaries were fixed at something rather below the average value of a Junior Fellowship. The tenure of the Professorship was terminated by the co-option of the holder to a place among the Senior Fellows. The Fellowship Examination was improved by a Royal Statute which was then obtained, and which enabled the Professors of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy to be called up to undertake the examination in the courses belonging to their respective chairs.

Provost Bartholomew Lloyd saw also the necessity of fostering the study of Mental and Moral Philosophy among the members of the College. Prior to 1833 the study of these sciences was joined with that of Mathematics and Physics under the common designation of Science. But for the attainment of prizes and other University distinctions, the Mathematical part of the examination placed that of the Logical and Ethical portions of the curriculum completely in the background. In 1833 a new system of awarding Honours and Medals at the Degree Examination was instituted, and in addition to the distinctions in Mathematics and Classics, which had been in existence since the year 1815, a third course was fixed for a separate examination in Ethics and Logics, and gold and silver medals were awarded for distinguished answering in these subjects, in addition to the similar rewards for merit under the designation of Senior and Junior Moderatorships in Mathematics and in Classics. This arrangement was carried out in 1834, and the first name in the list of Ethical Moderators of that year was that of William Archer Butler—a brilliant and afterwards most distinguished man, both as a writer and a preacher, who was taken away by death from the service of the Church and of the University at the early age of thirty-four.

Provost Lloyd had long seen the necessity of a separate Professorship of the Moral Sciences, and in 1837 he induced the Governing Body of the University to found it. On the day on which it was instituted Archer Butler was appointed to the Professorship, which he held for ten years, much to the benefit of the class of thinkers to whom these studies were interesting. By these arrangements Dr. Lloyd may be well said to be the founder of the distinguished school of Metaphysics which has taken such deep root in the College, and has borne much fruit. In 1850, mainly through the exertions of his son, Dr. Humphrey Lloyd, a fourth Moderatorship in Experimental Physics was founded.[105] But it was not only with the advancement of higher class education that Provost Lloyd was engaged: he effected enormous improvements in the lectures and examinations of the undergraduates at large. To this he was stimulated by a remarkably thoughtful and searching pamphlet, written in 1828 by Dr. Richard MacDonnell, who was then a Junior Fellow, and had an experience of twenty years of the great defects in the method of conducting the Term Examinations. Most of the suggestions in this pamphlet were adopted in course of time. Before the year 1833 the work of the College was distributed over four separate Terms, at the beginning of each of which the students were examined in the subjects in which they had been instructed during the previous Term. These Terms were of unequal and variable length. The Easter Term was far too short for the appointed course of study; and the Trinity Term, depending on the movable feasts, was often merely nominal. In order to obviate these inconveniences, the Provost and Senior Fellows applied for and obtained a Royal Statute reducing the number of Academic Terms from four to three, and fixing them so that they would be generally of equal length. The hours of examination for each class of students were altered so as to meet the change of social habits; and while it was formerly the custom to have the first part of the examination of each day to continue from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., followed by a breakfast at the chambers of the College Tutors, in 1833 the change was made to the present hours of examination—from 9.30 to 12 in the morning of the first day, and from 10 to 12 in the morning of the second day of each Term Examination. The subjects of the Undergraduate Course were in the same year submitted to a very wide-reaching review.

In the year 1793, great improvements had been made in the Classical Course set out for the studies of the undergraduates. These were, it is said, largely due to the influence of Dr. Thomas Elrington. On that occasion the works of the great Greek historians, Herodotus and Thucydides, were brought for the first time under the attention of the classical students in Trinity College; but, during the forty years which followed, little change had been made in the classical authors which were read by the undergraduates. In 1833, for the first time, a distinct and shorter course was arranged for students who were not candidates for Honours, while a larger portion, generally of the same authors, was set out for candidates for Honours, and a wider course of classical studies was appointed for those who competed for Classical Moderatorships at the Degree Examination. Similar arrangements were adopted for the students in the Mathematical and Physical portion of their curriculum.

Before this time the students of the same division, of from thirty to forty men, were examined together, and they had no opportunity of competing with other men of their year in the Sciences; and in classical studies at the Scholarship Examination only, at which they rarely competed until the third year. It was now arranged that those who answered well at each Term Examination in Science or in Classics should be returned by the Examiner to compete at a more searching examination in an extended course, at which all the best men in the class should be examined together, on days separate from those of the Term Examinations, by three Examiners in Science and three in Classics set apart for that purpose; and so by this means each student was able to measure himself each Term, not only with those who happened to be in his own division, but with all the men of his year; and in this way the undergraduates were incited to continued study by healthy competition. Premiums in books, which were formerly awarded at each examination to the best answerer in each division, but which could be obtained only once in the year, were confined to that of the Michaelmas Term, at which there were two orders of prizes, first and second—the number of the first rank prizes being restricted to one fortieth of the class, and that of the second to one twentieth.

There was another and a very important improvement in the teaching of the undergraduates which Provost Lloyd was mainly instrumental in effecting. Hitherto the lectures of each Tutor were given to his own pupils. He was supposed to instruct all the men of each of the three Junior Classes at the least for an hour every day. Each Tutor received the fees of his own pupils, and those who had a large number in what was technically called his “chamber” had a considerable income, but others who were not so popular had but a scanty support.

In 1835 the Tutors, under the persuasion of the Provost, agreed to adopt a new system. The fees paid by the pupils were put into a common fund, and the Tutors were divided into three grades, in the order of seniority, and their dividends were fixed, not in relation to the number of their pupils, but of the standing of the Tutor among the Fellows; each of them was thus assured of a certain and increasing income—the only advantage accruing to the Tutor from the number of his pupils arose from the arrangement that, when he ceased from any cause to be a Tutor, the payments of the Tutorial fees of his existing pupils, as long as they remained in College, instead of being paid into the common fund, were paid to the Tutor himself or to his representatives.

A corresponding division of Tutorial labour, as far as lectures were concerned, was effected at the same time. Each Tutor was required to lecture only two hours every day, except on Saturday; and the efficacy of the lectures was greatly increased, and the regularity of the attendance of the lecturer in the instruction of his class guarded by stringent rules. Every student in the two Freshman Classes was now lectured for two hours instead of one; under the old arrangement the lecture in Classics was often a mere form, not always observed; by the new system an hour’s lecture in Latin was secured to each undergraduate in these classes. The Junior Sophisters were lectured by the Tutors in Mathematical Physics and Astronomy only. In addition to the Tutorial Lectures, the undergraduates attended, as they did before, the Public Science Lectures, the hours of the lecture being changed from 6.15 to 7.30 a.m., and the lectures of the assistants to the Greek Professor on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, which were delivered at 9 a.m. Again, there was a great improvement effected with respect to the attendance of the undergraduates at Tutorial Lectures. At this time these lectures were not obligatory; Terms were not kept by attendance at them, nor did the College keep any record of them. A student did not advance in any way his College standing by seeking the instruction given by his College Tutor. No cognizance was taken of irregularity, either on the part of the lecturer or of the lectured. A Tutor was often absent from his class, and the class was oftener absent from the Tutor. An important rule was adopted to counteract this: a weekly return was required to be made to the Tutorial Committee of the attendance upon his lectures, which was to be transmitted to the Provost, and the Tutor had an opportunity of judging of the regularity of the studies of his pupils, who were, according to this inter-tutorial system, in attendance on the lectures of other Tutors. In a very few years the lectures were much better arranged, some of the Tutors being set apart to lecture the candidates for Honours in each class, while others devoted themselves to the greater drudgery of instructing the mere pass-men.

In order to secure the diligent discharge of the duties assigned to each Tutor, the Tutorial Committee was bound to employ deputies to lecture in his place in case of his failure from any cause, and to remunerate the deputies out of the income of the defaulting Tutor.

That this division of labour added very much to the ease of the conscientious Tutors is quite evident. Doctor Romney Robinson, who was a Fellow and Tutor under the old system, wrote as follows in the preface to his treatise on Mechanics, published in 1820:—“The Fellows of Trinity College can scarcely be expected to devote themselves to any work of research, or even of compilation; constantly employed in the duties of tuition, which harass the mind more than the most abstract studies, they can have but little inclination at the close of the day to commence a new career of labour.... In the present case the author happened to be less occupied than most of his brethren, yet he was engaged from seven to eight hours daily in academical duties, for the year during which he composed this work.”

Had Bartholomew Lloyd lived, he would no doubt have originated many other improvements in the Arts Course, and in the other studies of the College which have been effected since his time. He was, however, suddenly removed by death from his exertions in reforming the College, on the 24th November, 1837, at the age of 65, having held the Provostship for only six years. He was succeeded by Dr. Franc Sadleir, and during the fourteen years of his mild sway the improvements originated by his predecessor were gradually carried into effect. Dr. Richard MacDonnell succeeded him in the office of Provost. He had been long engaged in the work of the College as an able and painstaking Tutor, and a vigorous administrator of the College Estates. Dr. MacDonnell had long seen the necessity of large reforms in the education of the students, and had ably pointed out the abuses which required to be remedied, in the pamphlet which has been already mentioned. Most of these defects he lived to see corrected, and the most important of which were removed when he was himself Provost.

One of the events which, beyond question, stimulated intellectual exertions among the undergraduates in the University of Dublin, was the opening of the appointments in the Civil Service of India, and of the Army and Navy Medical Service, to public competition in 1855. A number of the ablest students had a new career opened to them, and they were afforded an opportunity of measuring their attainments with students of similar calibre from Oxford and Cambridge. The course of study was at once widened. Classical studies received an impetus which roused the teachers from their old routine. The English Language and Literature, and Modern History, as well as foreign languages, became important parts of Collegiate education. The heads of the College at once saw the necessity of largely remodelling the instruction given to the undergraduates. The Greek Professorship was very soon separated from the offices which were restricted to Senior Fellows; a Professor was elected from among the Tutors under the same arrangements which had been carried out in the cases of Natural Philosophy and Mathematics. He was enabled to give his entire time to the duties of his chair. Similar arrangements were made as to the Professorships of Geology and of Experimental Physics. A Professor of Arabic and Hindostanee was established, and soon after one of Sanskrit as well. The Professorship of Oratory was virtually changed into one of English Language and Literature. The immediate effect of these changes was at once visible in the great and remarkable success of the Dublin candidates at the open competitions for the Indian Civil Service and the Army Medical Services. In the first seven years, fifty-three succeeded from the Dublin University for the former and twenty-nine for the latter appointments. The new regulations with regard to the study of English Literature which were made in 1855 have produced very widely felt effects in the intellectual life of the University. It was not for the first time that a want of the means of being acquainted with this important branch of knowledge was felt by the students; and in order to remedy it, in October, 1814, during the Provostship of Dr. Thomas Elrington, the Board directed that lectures in the English Language and Literature should be regularly delivered by the assistant to the Professor of Oratory, and elaborate rules were made as to the means of carrying this course into effect, but it seems to have ended in failure; at any rate, during the next forty years there was no public instruction given to the students in this important subject. The plan adopted in 1855 of making History and English Literature a distinct branch, in which honours and medals at the Degree Examination can be obtained, aided by the special prizes which are given for proficiency in these subjects during the Undergraduate Course, has created a widely felt interest among the students, and has eventuated in the spread of a refined taste for these subjects among the members of the College. The subjects in which the student can distinguish himself at the B.A. Degree Examination have now been increased to seven—1, Mathematics, pure and mixed; 2, Classics; 3, Mental and Moral Science; 4, Experimental Physics; 5, Natural Sciences; 6, History, Law, and Political Economy; 7, Foreign Languages and Literature. Frequent and well-considered changes in the courses for the ordinary students, and in the subjects read by the candidates for Honours, have been made since that period, and they have been on the whole successful.

One of the most marked developments in the intellectual life of the College during the present century has been the growth of the great Classical School for which it is now so well known. This may be mainly attributed to the separation of Classics from the other branches which form the subject of competition for Fellowships. A keen competition among Classical men for those highly-coveted prizes has been the consequence. The tone of Classical Scholarship has been raised among the best of the candidates for University Honours, and some of the ablest men devote themselves to stimulate the knowledge of the Greek and Latin Languages and Literature among the students. There has, moreover, a higher Critical School grown up in the University, limited in numbers, being composed of Classical Graduates who are engaged in reading for Fellowship, or who have competed for the Berkeley Medals in Greek, or for the Vice-Chancellor’s Medals in Latin. This school, exclusive of the Fellows and Professors, never numbers more than ten or twelve in the College at one time, but from the ability and classical culture of its members it has more influence in giving a tone to the studies which are pursued in the University than its numbers would at first sight render probable. The causes of the growth of this school are—1st, the Critical Examination for the highest Classical distinctions; 2nd, the fact that there is an examination for Fellowship every year; 3rd, the annual publication of Hermathena; 4th, the publication of critical editions of the Classics by the Fellows of the College.

We can trace the growth of the Mathematical studies to the wonderful genius of MacCullagh and Hamilton, and to the labours of Townsend, of Jellett, of Roberts, and of others who have passed away. Fortunately for the College, all the creators of the revived School of Classics are still spared to the College, and their names are therefore not here mentioned.

Another vast improvement effected was in the method of conducting all examinations in the College. Prior to 1835 they were (with the solitary exceptions of those for gold medals at the B.A. Degree Examinations) altogether oral. The examination for Fellowships was a public vivâ voce trial of the candidates, and in the Latin language, without any use whatever of writing. Greek authors were translated into Latin, and Latin authors were interpreted in the same language. This continued to be the practice down to the year 1853. Now, all this is changed. The Fellowship Examination, which is spread over a much longer period, is mostly conducted in writing, although there is in every course a public examination of the candidates vivâ voce and in English. The examinations for Honours (except in Classical subjects) are now altogether written, and at the ordinary Term Examinations students are tested orally and by written questions by separate Examiners. At the general Term Examination at the end of the second year, and at the B.A. Degree Examination at the end of the fourth year, the candidates are arranged according to their answering in three classes, and those whose marks do not entitle them to be classed, but who satisfy the Senior Lecturer, are passed without any mark of distinction. This method of examination for the B.A. degree was adopted in July, 1842, at the suggestion of the then Senior Lecturer, Dr. Singer, afterwards Bishop of Meath. It was found to work in such a satisfactory manner that, in 1845, it was adopted at the other public University Examination, at the end of the second or Senior Freshman year.

Engineering School.—The University of Dublin was the first to establish a course of education and degrees in the art of Civil Engineering. Shortly after the construction of railways in Ireland was undertaken, there was a necessity found for properly educated men to carry on the required work; and the plan of an Engineering School originated with Doctor Humphrey Lloyd, Professor of Natural Philosophy; Doctor MacCullagh, Professor of Mathematics; and Doctor Luby, Assistant Professor of Natural Philosophy. These three gentlemen laid a memorial before the Provost and Senior Fellows on April 3rd, 1841, recommending the foundation of a Professorship of Civil Engineering, and giving a plan for the studies of the proposed school for teaching that branch of education. This was finally approved by the Board early in the following June. The length of the course as first proposed was two years, and on July 9th, 1842, Mr. M‘Neill (afterwards Sir John M‘Neill) was elected to the Professorship. It was arranged that the business of the School of Engineering should be conducted by five lecturers—viz., the assistant to the Professor of Mathematics, the Professor of Natural Philosophy and his assistant, together with a Professor of Chemistry and of Geology applied to the art of Construction, and a Professor of the practice of Engineering.

Mr. M‘Neill was so completely occupied with his large works in the construction of railways that he could give only a general superintendence to the school, and on the 5th of November, 1842, Mr. Henry Rennie, formerly a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, was appointed Assistant Professor and Lecturer. After holding the office for two years he resigned, and Mr. Thomas Oldham, B.A., was appointed in his room. Doctor Apjohn was elected to the joint Professorships of Chemistry and Geology; but in 1843 it was found necessary to appoint a distinct Professor of Geology, and on December 30th, 1843, Mr. John Phillips, the eminent geologist, was elected to this chair at a salary of £200, to be increased to £400 on the death of Doctor Whitley Stokes, then an old man, which took place in 1845. In the latter year Mr. Phillips resigned the Professorship, and he was succeeded by Mr. Thomas Oldham, afterwards Director of the Geological Survey of India. In 1846 Mr. Samuel Downing was appointed to the Professorship of Engineering, which he continued to hold until his death in 1882.

It was soon found that a two years’ course in Engineering was insufficient, and in 1845 it was extended to one of three years. The studies of the first year are in the main theoretical; in the second and third years they are practical—viz., drawing and office work, levelling, surveying and general engineering, and chemistry as taught in the laboratory.

At first, diplomas in Engineering were granted to students who had passed successfully through this school. In 1860 it was resolved by the University Senate that in lieu of these the license of the University should be conferred publicly at the Commencements; and in 1872 it was further resolved that the degree of Bachelor in Civil Engineering should be created, and that it should be conferred on Bachelors of Arts who were entitled to the license by having completed the full course in Engineering. From the year 1860 to 1891 inclusive, 352 students obtained degrees and licenses in Engineering. The degree of Master of Engineering is conferred on those who, after taking the degree of Bachelor of Engineering, have practised for three years in the work of their profession.

At each final examination in Engineering, special certificates are awarded to students who answer in a distinguished manner in the following subjects:—I. Practical Engineering; II. Mechanical and Experimental Physics; III. Mining, Chemistry, Geology, and Mineralogy.

School of Law.—The lectures of the Professor of Feudal and English Law remain very much as they were in 1792. The Professorship of Civil Law was then and for many years afterwards held by a Senior Fellow, often by a clergyman; the duties were nearly nominal, and the salary small. In the year 1850, however, the Board, being anxious to found an effective Law School in Dublin, decided that in future the Professorship of Civil Law should be held only by a Doctor of Laws, and a Barrister of at least six years standing; and as such he was required to regulate the courses and lectures in the Civil Law class, and bound to deliver at least twelve lectures in each Term.

The Law School of the University of Dublin is under the control of the Provost and Senior Fellows of Trinity College, who, however, act in concurrence with the Benchers of the King’s Inns.

The Regius Professor of Laws delivers lectures on Roman Law, Jurisprudence, and International Law. The Regius Professor of Feudal and English Law delivers lectures on the subject of Real Property; a third professor, whose chair was founded in 1888 by Mr. Richard T. Reid for the study of “Penal Legislation, including principles of prevention, repression, and reformation,” delivers lectures on—(1) Penal Legislation; (2) Constitutional and Criminal Law; (3) the Law of Evidence. These lectures are open to the public and King’s Inns students, who have credit for the Term’s lectures, and those who have credit for the academic year have their names reported to the Benchers.

The Law Professors also examine all candidates for degrees in Law. These degrees, like those in the other professional schools, can only be obtained after a course of legal study or strict examinations in Law.

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