TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE IRISH UNIVERSITY QUESTION.
IT would greatly have conduced to the clearness of Wednes- day's debate, and it would greatly conduce to the clear- ness of the discussion in the Press, if only the speakers on the Irish University Question would be a little more candid. If Mr. Fawcett, and those of our Liberal contemporaries who take the same side as Mr. Fawcett, would be quite candid, they would say openly that their object and their wish is to place at a real disadvantage in Ireland those Irishmen, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant, but perhaps especially the former, who hold upon principle that religion and even theo- logy enter so deeply into the structure of the higher Educa- tion, that no adequate University curriculum can be conceived which evades the thorough discussion of religious questions and the assumption of some distinct basis in regard to them. If Dr. Ball and Mr. Plunket and those who vote with them would be quite candid, they would say frankly that their object in now conceding the abolition of tests in Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of Dublin, is to save to those institutions their virtual monopoly of the better degrees in Ireland, and to supply, we will not say an adequate, but a plausible answer to the Roman Catholic demand for some Irish University in which good, degrees may be taken, without imposing on the students who take them the necessity of united education with Protestants and amenability to the influence of Protestant teachers. If the Government were quite candid, they would say that their great difficulty is, not want of time, but the extreme unpopularity among a large section of the Liberal party of the slightest concession to the conscientious Roman Catholic scruples as to separate education ;—and perhaps also they might add, though this, of course would be a stretch of candour not only impossible and absurd, but mischievous, that the Cabinet itself is divided on this matter, and that it is not possible for Mr. Gladstone and his Irish Secretary to agree. And if the Irish Catholics were quite candid, they would admit frankly that they don't want Trinity College opened more completely than it is now to Catholic.s,—first, because the result might be that more Catholics would go there, though not near enough to obtain anything like a fair equality of influence in the government of the institution, and so they might be tempted into laxity, if not virtual apostacy ; and next, just for the very same reason for which the University of Dublin desires the reform—that it would be one small grievance removed, and, therefore, the loss of an argument in favour of the further demands they put forward. Now, the discussion of Wednesday and also the discussion in the Press, would be enormously simpler and more instructive than it is, if all these suppressed premisses of debate were put plainly forward ; if Mr. Fawcett and his friends would say openly, We wish to make it diffi- cult for the Irish Catholics, however well educated, to get a degree without associating with Protestants, and submitting to attend the lectures of Protestant, or at least non-Catholic teachers ;' if Trinity College, Dublin, would say, We want to save our virtual monopoly, and we submit reluctantly to Liberalizing measures only in the hope of doing so ;' if the Government would say, We are really afraid of a large section of our own followers, who seem to us very bad Liberals in this matter ;' and if the Irish Catholics would say, We had rather Trinity College tests were left in fall force, both because we approve of Church education and theological tests in the abstract, and because we shall get what we want mach sooner if they are not dis- turbed ' I Were all these confessions frankly made to the public,—and that all of them would be made, if the whole truth were spoken, we do not feel the slightest shadow of doubt,—the public opinion of Great Britain would, we believe, pretty soon dispose of the question. But as it is, so many side- issues are raised, and so much political dust is blown into people's eyes in the discussion, that the public are hardly the wiser for one of the best debates of the session. Mr. Fawcett covers the weakest part of his position,— the extremely and almost absurdly inefficient reform of the governing body of the Dublin University which he proposed, — by talking rather magniloquently of the duty of keeping the institution free from "the blight- ing and baneful influence of political patronage," as if the evil of political intervention in Universities were an evil comparable to that of academical exclusiveness and religious bigotry. Dr. Ball conceals his infinite *gust at Mr. Glad-
stone's willingness to accept the Dublin University's offer of opening its doors freely to Catholics without giving him the slightest guarantee against the rivalry of some larger and more national University, by taunting him with small incon- sistencies of language and large accessibility to Jesuit influence.
The Prime Minister excuses himself behind the feeble and almost exhausted plea of other more pressing measures, for not boldly taking the question out of a private member's.
hands and dealing with it as a whole. And the Irish Catholic& lay stress on their extreme respect for the Protestant training of Trinity College, Dublin, whereas what they really feel most is disappointment at the prospect of any alleviation in the con- ditions of their political martyrdom.
Nobody could have listened to Wednesday's debate without feeling that the justice of the question was certainly simple,. though the practical problem, in face of all this elaborate strategy of clashing prejudices, may be difficult enough. We can hardly believe that any considerable public in Great Britain can be really prepared to assert that the Roman Catholic aversion to mixed education is so evil, that even in a Roman Catholic country, in a country where, if the island were self-governed, all the popular institutions of the State would be professedly Roman Catholic at once, we ought deli- berately to impose the disadvantage of inability to obtain any Irish degree on those whose parents wish them to be brought up under specifically Catholic teaching. Such a doctrine is so monstrously absurd, when viewed in the light of recent his- tory, is so hesitating, so feeble, and so contemptible a return upon the strong and intelligible, though cruel policy Of the penal code, that it hardly admits of rational defence. Without the covering folds of sophistical excuses, it would not bear the light of day. We may think, and do think, the practice of united education infinitely preferable. But the followers of Mr. Fawcett and Mr. Plunket argue as
if the alternative were between compelling united edu- cation and compelling separate education. That is not the alternative at all. The real alternative is between the policy of putting those who choose separate education under a distinct academical, pecuniary, and worldly disadvan- tage, and the policy of leaving the choice absolutely to them- selves, and doing all in our power to give equal opportunities. for graduating, and graduating with distinction, to all,— whatever path to the degree they may choose. Nobody can deny for a moment that Catholic parents who really object to the influence of Protestant or mixed colleges for their sons would be, under Mr. Fawcett's Bill, at as great a disadvantage as ever. The young men would have no scholarships open to them available for the time of education, no fellowships open to them after they had taken their degree, and no Irish degree, consistent with their course of study at a Catholic college, open to them at all. It is idle saying that that is no disadvantage. It is not only a disadvantage, but the true drift of the party whom Mr. Fawcett represents is to use this disadvantage as a makeweight against the theologi- cal or religious scruples which keep Catholic students out of Protestant and mixed Colleges. There are about 68 Catholic students to 1,020 Protestants, or 1 in 16, in Trinity College,. Dublin. There are about 37 Catholics to 762 Protestants in the Queen's Colleges of Belfast, Cork, and Galway (the two last being most Catholic of Catholic provinces), though the population is Catholic in the proportion of 18 to 1 in Cork and Galway, and half Catholic in the Northern province. And yet, even on Mr. Plunket's own showing, of the class likely to compete for degrees about half would be Catholic, if Catholics really approved the mixed education. In the face of such facts as these, it is mere dishonesty to assert that there is no infliction of a griev- ance in refusing the Catholics any Irish University where they might have all the advantages which Protestants have in the Queen's University and the University of Dublin. Nor is it easy to understand what Mr. Fawcett and the Pall Mall Gazette mean by intimating that the only way of meeting the views of the Catholics is to endow a Roman Catholic University or a Roman Catholic College either out of the funds of Trinity College, Dublin, or out of other public resources. Every one who knows anything of the subject, knows that a national University estab- lished, like the University of London, for the purpose of testing knowledge and conferring degrees only, and well endowed with scholarships that might be competed for at the entrance or matriculation examination, and should be tenable at any affiliated College (Catholic, Protestant, or secular) during the whole period of study for the degree, would practically meet the demands of the Catholics without involving in any measure the principle of concurrent endowment and without violating
religious equality. All the Catholics ask for is a fair share of the Irish revenues devoted to Education, and they would have a fair share if they had an equal chance with the Protestants of winning their share without accepting any con- dition to which they conscientiously object. The Government cannot endow afresh sectarian institutions. But it can open to all equally, whether designated for sectarian, or for unsec- tarian, or for secular colleges, the opportunity of winning scholar- ships which will help them through the years of academic life. We regret that the Government has not had the courage to propose a measure founded on this principle. A Parlia- ment which will not hear of interfering with Scotch views of religious education could hardly, for very shame, object to any such scheme as we have suggested that it would leave the Irish Catholics at liberty to educate their sons under the direct influence of their own religious teachers. The illiberal Liberalism of some of Mr. Gladstone's followers would have echoed, no doubt, the more consistent Conservatism of Mr. Planket when he breathed an aspiration for an English Bismarck to put down Cardinal Cullen. But Prince Bismarck would be only too happy if he had as little to fear from the Roman Church as Mr. Gladstone, and would probably go a vast deal further in the direction of propitiating Rome for the sake of her influence in Ireland, than Mr. Gladstone will ever think of going.
Of all schemes for governing Ireland, now that by uni- versal consent we have removed all political and civil dis- abilities, and done our best to establish religious equality, the most paltry, unstatesmanlike, and almost contemptible seems to us to be that of holding out to Roman Catholics large pecuniary temptations to associate in academical life with Protestants, and of imposing, of course, on those who refuse to do so, special and serious disadvantages. Let us see, by all means, that the united education is under no disadvantage, that those of the Catholic laity who prefer it for their sons shall not lose anything by their preference, while they gain, as they must do, in breadth of sympathy and knowledge of all classes of their countrymen. But there is something beyond measure peddling in the plan of retaining a half- disguised pecuniary bribe to the practice of united education, after we have inaugurated with a great flourish of trumpets the era of religious equality, and sternly deprived the Pro- testant Church of that unjust national dowry, by the help of which the Church of the vast majority of the Irish nation was humiliated and despoiled.
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