With respect to the Medical Profession, every one knows the high value set by practitioners, and by the public, on the title and degree of "Doctor of Medicine". Now, no one can obtain that high distinction in Ireland unless by becoming a member of one of the two Universities recognized by law; and the 329 Catholic medical students must either give up all chance of that honour and professional advantage, or trample under foot their self-respect, if, contrary to their religious principles, they enter one of the institutions which their faith condemns.
As to professors in colleges, and tutors, besides the injustice to the persons themselves, there is no one but must see the injury inflicted on the education of the nation, when more than one-half of the teachers in its superior schools and colleges are obliged to forego the advantages of University education (we ought in their case rather to say, the necessary training for their important office, which can be had only in an University), or to secure it with the fear which nearly all Catholics feel of forfeiting more sacred advantages, of endangering more important interests. And although some persons may deem these fears excessive, still, has any one the right to tamper with these religious opinions? Is it fair or reasonable to place such trammels on men in the pursuit of the highest education? In fine, is it just to oblige parents to choose for their sons either half-educated tutors, or else men whose views may have become unsettled on matters most important, most sacred to their eyes in their children's education—men who have been trained in an institution which Catholics, as a body, reject and repudiate?
The Census Commissioners, in the report referred to, remark: "The high proportion of members of the Established Church receiving intermediate instruction (as compared to Catholics) is due in a great measure to the numerous endowments in connection with that Church, and to the relation existing between many of these endowments and the University of Dublin". Might they not have added, that this disproportion is also due to the fact, that little or no inducements are held out to Catholics to pursue University studies, or rather, that no University career is left open to the large number of Catholics who, on conscientious grounds, object to the Protestant University and to the Queen's Colleges? The following sentences in the Report seem fully to bear us out in this remark: "The very small proportion of Roman Catholic students receiving University instruction requires, perhaps, more explanation, because they are taken from the class of those undergoing intermediate instruction, which has an absolute majority over the Protestants of the same class. If, however, we deduct from the number of Roman Catholics pursuing classical studies those who pass to the College of Maynooth, All Hallows, and several Continental seminaries, to follow up their studies preparatory for the priesthood, the disproportion will appear less, when we take into account that nearly all the candidates for the ministry of the Established Church graduate in the University of Dublin, to which they contribute a very large proportion of its students". It might be asked: Why ought the Catholic students here referred to, be deprived of the advantages of University education, if they wished for them, as they are enjoyed by ecclesiastical students in Belgium, Prussia, and Austria?
The Report then continues: "Taking an average for ten years of the numbers graduating in the University of Dublin and Queen's University, we obtain a representation of the number receiving University instruction yearly in Ireland not very far removed from the truth. That average is 335, or 0.006 per cent. of the entire population. This being so, we regret to say that, as compared with other European countries, Ireland occupies a lower place than several—namely, than Prussia, Austria, or Belgium; the first mentioned of those countries having had, in 1852, 0.028 per cent.; the second, in 1853-4, 0.026; and the last, in 1850, 0.017 per cent. of her population engaged in University studies; so that whatever advantage any one section of the Irish people may seem to have over any other in this respect, much yet remains to be done by all before the entire population of Ireland can take a prominent rank among civilized countries in the cultivation of liberal studies"—Report of Census Commissioners, page 60.
The "much which remains to be done" is, we submit, to take off the restrictions on University education which still remain, and to allow Catholics who conscientiously object to the Protestant University and to the Queen's Colleges, to gain University honours and distinctions without violating their religious principles. At present they are excluded, practically, from University education on account of their religious opinions. Let these disabilities be removed, either by placing on an equality with the other Universities the Catholic University, which is founded on the principles they admit, as the others are based on principles antagonistic to them; or else establish one central University of Ireland, an institution which will be, not a teaching, but an examining and graduating body, before which all who desire degrees or other academical honours may equally present themselves, and where every man, no matter under what system he has studied, will find his religious convictions respected, and will be asked not where or how he has learned, but what he knows—a University, which, with some necessary modifications, will be for Irish Catholics, and indeed for all Ireland, what the London University is for the Dissenters of England.
If precedents for either of these plans be asked for, they will be found, for the first, in the Catholic University of Laval, Quebec, chartered by her present Majesty; and for the other, in Belgium, and in the University of Sydney.
[LITURGICAL QUESTIONS.]
(From M. Bouix's "Revue des Sciences Ecclesiastiques".)
1. Should the altar-charts be placed on the altar except at the time of Mass?