Mr. Butt has brought forward a scheme for an Irish
Univer- sity, which will have, we suppose, no chance with the Liberal party, and which we greatly fear the Conservatives will be too cautious to take up. Bat so far as its general outline goes, it seems to us founded on common-sense, and but for the conven- tional panic against concurrent endowment, it should have a good chance of success. Mr. Butt proposes to create a University consisting of two Colleges,—Trinity College, Dublin, and the Catholic College recently founded there at an expense of 1200,000. This College would be incorporated, but all the degrees would be granted by the University,—that is, by Examiners formally repre- senting both Colleges, with additional Examiners selected by the Governing Body of the University. No theological degrees would be granted. The Bill endows the University out of the Irish- Church surplus fund, and also gives an endowment of 1250,000 to the Catholic College, as a make-weight against the great pro- perty of Trinity College ; and it throws open some of the Fellow- ships and Scholarships of Trinity College to all members of the University. Cannot even the Conservatives emancipate them- selves from the new and mysterious popular prejudice against any religious endowment by the State, as if a curse rested on such transactions?
Previous page
