These improvements were followed rapidly by the building of a new Dining Hall, commenced in 1740. A bequest of £1,000 seems to have been the only help required, and in 1745 it was even adorned with some of the portraits which still survive. But in 1758 this Hall was so unsafe that it was taken down, and after dismissing the College bricklayer for his work,[78] the present Hall was set up on the same site, and apparently without change of plan. It must be added, in extenuation of the bricklayer’s conduct, that the ground in that part of the College affords very insecure foundations, as we know from recent experiences. The present building has many great cracks in it, and the new rooms just added have had their foundations sunk to a great depth.[79] What is, however, more interesting as history, is to note that the style of this Hall, not finished till after 1760, is rather the plain and panelled building of the preceding generation. The Theatre (Examination Hall) is decorated in a very different, but not, perhaps, a better style.
THE OLD CLOCK TOWER.
While this work was going on, bequests of £1,000 were left to build an ornamental front and tower at the west end of the old Hall; and the well-known architect, Cassels, did so, close to, but a little west of, the site of the present belfry, in 1745. In this the present great bell, cast at Gloucester in 1742, was hung.[80] The aspect of the court, therefore, upon entering the gate, was that of a small square, closed towards the east with a building much nearer than the present belfry. The centre of this east range had the ornamental front and belfry of Cassels’ design, which, according to the extant plan, must always have been ugly, and looks very top-heavy.[81] The north and south sides of this Front Square (built 1685) were of inferior character; while the small quadrangle beyond, on the south side, including the Provost’s lodging, was still the original structure of Queen Elizabeth’s time. The bell tower was taken down as unsafe, and the Hall removed, at the close of the century. We see, therefore, that in this great building period there were many serious mistakes made. There was so much work of the kind going on all through the city, that there must have been a scarcity of competent artisans, and much hurry. The buildings which remain are indeed solid and well finished; but when we attribute these characteristics to all the Dublin buildings of that date, we forget that their bad work has long since perished—what was done well and carefully is all that has remained. While Cassels was building his unsound tower, he erected another pretty building according to a bequest of Bishop Stearne—the Printing-House, from which issued in 1741 an edition of seven dialogues of Plato, in a good though much-contracted type (which is still preserved in the office), and on good paper, but disfigured by a portentous list of errata. The book is now rare, and in request among bibliographers. A few years later, neat editions of Latin Classics issued from the same press.
This architectural activity, based upon liberal but insufficient bequests, somewhat excuses the systematic begging petitions with which the College approached the Irish Parliament for the rebuilding of the Front Square, Theatre, and Chapel, petitions which that Parliament seemed never tired of granting, and yet never able to satisfy. If the taste for fine building and the Parliament in College Green had not both expired with the end of the century, Trinity College would now be the most splendidly housed College in the world. Even as it is, intelligent visitors cannot but be struck with the massive and dignified character of its buildings. Queen Anne and George I. had already granted (in three sums) £15,000 for the Library. George II. granted £45,000 for the present Front Square and Examination Hall. George III., besides the relief of £70 yearly in pavement-tax, granted (in 1787) £3,000, in response to a petition for £12,000. So that, in all, the country granted the College at least £60,000 for building during the eighteenth century.[82] It is set forth in these various petitions that the beauty of the metropolis is one of the objects to be attained, as well as the health of the students, and accommodation for increasing numbers.[83] There was a curious hesitation about the plan of the west front. A central dome and two cupolas at the north and south ends were designed; the south cupola was actually finished. Anyone who enters the present gateway will see clearly that it is designed to sustain a dome. But this dome was never built; the southern cupola was even taken down in 1758, and the front left as it now stands.[84]
These buildings are still far the best and most comfortable in the College. All the bedrooms have fire-places, and even the inner walls are nearly three feet thick. The rooms in the towers and beside the gate are very spacious; and as we may presume that the streets in front of the College were not so noisy as they now are, were evidently intended as residences for Fellows, and were occupied by them exclusively till the rise of the various societies, to which they have afforded excellent reading and committee rooms. Thus they remain to the present day a noble and practical monument of the enterprise shown by the College and the Irish Parliament in the eighteenth century. It is now no longer the city only, but the country which is interested in the College. Constant private bequests added to the public liberalities no small increments; and so far as material prosperity was concerned, the history of the College during the century is one of continued growth in popularity and importance.
When we turn to the internal history, the estimate afforded us by the facts recorded is by no means so satisfactory. As has been already told, the Jacobite spirit at the opening of the century, and the violent efforts of Provost Baldwin to subdue it, produced the insubordination which usually accompanies tyrannical conduct among young men of spirit living in a free country. Dignified as the Provost affected to be, he was exposed to personal insults more than once, not only from Fellows, but from students. Some facts have been collected by Dr. Stubbs, from whose work I quote the following:—
During the reigns of Queen Anne and of the first two Georges, the annals of the College show that the Society suffered from much insubordination on the part of certain of the Students. This partly arose from laxity of discipline, and from the influence of some disorderly and violent Students, and partly from political causes which were connected with the party feelings which prevailed [as at Oxford] with regard to the Revolution and the Hanoverian Succession. It is quite clear that the great majority of the Fellows, especially of the Senior Fellows, were loyal to Queen Anne and to the House of Hanover. Yet it could not be expected that an unanimity of views should prevail among the Students. There appears to have been a small, but determined, body among them warmly attached to the fortunes of James the Second and his family, while the governing body of the College resolutely determined to suppress all manifestations of disloyalty to the reigning Sovereign. The earliest instance of this is a case which occurred in 1708. One Edward Forbes, on the same day on which he was admitted to the M.A. degree (July 12), took occasion to make a Latin speech, in which he asserted that the Queen had no greater right to sit on the throne than her predecessor had—that the title of each Sovereign eodem nititur fundamento. This speech is said to have been made at the Commencement supper. Forbes’ words, having been repeated to the authorities, gave great offence to the loyal feelings of the heads of the College, and to the leading members of the University, and the orator was consequently expelled from the College, and suspended from his degrees by the act of the Provost and Senior Fellows. On the 2nd of the following month, at a meeting of the Vice-Chancellor, Masters, and Doctors of the University, Forbes was deprived of his degrees, and degraded from his University rights; on the same occasion a declaration of loyalty was put forward by the leading members of the University Senate, and signed by the Vice-Chancellor, the Archbishop of Dublin, and the Provost. This document, with the names of the signatories, is preserved in the College Library. [Cf. Appendix xxxiv. of Dr. Stubbs’ work.]
A strong party of Graduates was dissatisfied with the action of the Provost and Senior Fellows in the case of Forbes, partly from political reasons, and partly, perhaps, from a feeling that the punishment awarded was more severe than the circumstances of the case required. There can be no doubt that the sentiments of the members of the Board agreed very closely with those of the Whig party. We learn, however, from Dr. Edward Synge, afterwards Archbishop of Tuam, that Forbes had a party of sympathisers in the University. He says in his pamphlet, which he wrote vindicating his well-known sermon on Toleration, preached in 1711:—