“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.