21 DECEMBER 1872, Page 14

THE IRISEI UNIVERSITY QUESTION.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " EPSOTATOR.1

Sin,—Allow me to thank you, even so late as this, for your- thoroughly liberal article on the Irish University question in your number of December 7, and, by way of adding some slight modicum to the light which is wanted from every quarter on this most perplexed subject, to enforce, from an independent point of view, one consideration which you have not expressly touched upon, but which ought to have great weight with British politi- cians,—I mean the incalculable advantage of gaining over the- Irish priests to a love or at least a loyal acceptance of the Union, and the ever recurring dangers of their present attitude of reluc- tant submission to what they consider a foreign domination.

The example of France ought to be quite sufficient to make sober politicians of every shade of opinion recoil from any measure which would have the effect of divorcing the priesthood from the national life, and shutting them up in an isolation into which no light can enter. It is now eighty years since the Great Revolution,. and yet, as every successive French Government knows to its cost, the words "Clerical" and " Legitimist" are still, practically, almost• synonymous. There is, indeed, properly speaking, as yet no such thing as a national life in Ireland; but it exists in embryo, and the

proposed University reform will either be the chief factor in its development, or will strangle it again for an indefinite period._ On the solution of this " University question " it depends whether anarchy shall have a new lease of existence in Ireland, or the great work of conciliation and enlightenment go on without interrup- tion, gathering new impetus from its motion.

Now all who know Ireland are well aware that the only way to- govern the Catholics (persecution apart) is to have the support of their clergy. And this, not because the Catholic masses of Ireland. are more stupid and superstitions than the masses in England or elsewhere, but simply because the priests in Ireland represent, as no other national clergy in Europe, except perhaps the Polish, represents, the quintessence of the sentiments, ideas, aims, and prejudices of their flocks. Is it not, then, a suicidal policy to ex- clude, forcibly without trial, from the projected intellectual re- generation of the country these representative men, these shepherds- of the people, to whom common-sense points as a means ready to hand for spreading the benefits of culture throughout Ireland, at least as widely as in Scotland, and with a rapidity that not even Scotland can boast? You,,Sir, need not be told, and no educated Englishman should need be told, that, if the Irish priests were frankly loyal to the Empire, agrarian outrages would cease, capital would flow in, emigration from an already depopulated country would subside, agitation for Repeal in any form would die of inanition, and men among us already past middle life might live to behold the novel spectacle of an Ireland as much merged in the Imperial Unity as is the Scotland of to-day.

The first, the most necessary, the longest step towards such a

devoutly-to-be-wished-for consummation is to educate the Irish priest. Peasant-born and peasant-bred, he thinks he cannot be a good Irishman without a spice of hatred of England and the English. He hopes for nothing from England (and I must say the Times almost justifies his scepticism) ; he is for ever looking backward, brooding over wrongs which are now but matter of history ; political horizon is of the narrowest ; he has no forecast and no- definite political creed. He likes Mr. Gladstone for the Church and Land Acts, but he does not see what those Acts prove,—that the power of his oppressors is broken, that the future belongs to the Liberal party, and that the Liberal party, although it will never grant him all that he at present asks for, will yet, in the main, and in the long run, and all necessary allowances made, do justice to him and to his country. But all this is just what a liberal educa- tion would open his eyes to see.

An Irish National University, then, instead of shutting its doors

against the," Church student," or contemptuously passing him by, which would be to perpetuate the darkness and bitterness that now reign over the land, should invite, attract, offer every induce- ment to the intending priest to come in and share the " sweetness and light" which it is the high mission of a national university to shed abroad without respect of persons.

I need not insist that, in order to attain this end, concessions

must be made to the Irish Catholic Bishops. Liberals must get accustomed to this idea. Something must be yielded, even to the Ultramontanes. What demands can be admitted and what must be refused will be seen when the question assumes a definite shape.

lkfeanwhile, for the consolation of those who cannot reconcile themselves to grant anything demanded by Catholic Bishops, I venture to prophesy that judicious concessions now (such conces- sions, I mean, as shall induce the Bishops to look with favour on a candidate possessing a university degree) will reap their reward. Future English Governmenta will have a much easier task in negotiating with Bishops who have had a university training than their predecessors of the present generation have in dealing with Cardinal Cullen or Archbishop McHale. Is the gain small?—I .am, Sir, &c.,