We regret to note the death of Dr. Salmon, the
venerable Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, who passed away on Friday week in his eighty-fifth year. Though he was a staunch Unionist and an inflexible opponent of Papal pretensions, Dr. Salmon's commanding personality and powerful intellect secured the admiration of all Irishmen, irrespective of creed or politics, in proof of which it is only necessary to recall the unique compliment paid him by the Nationalist Corporation of Dublin, who presented him with the freedom of the City in 1892. Trinity College, Dublin, has been remarkable for the versatility of its most eminent men, and Dr. Salmon—duplices tendens ad sidera palmos, as a witty compatriot once remarked of the recipient of an honorary degree—attained a European reputation as a mathematician before he devoted his mature powers to those theological works on which his reputation as a thinker is no less securely founded. At the moment we can think of no other parallel save that of Pascal, though other instances of this dualism doubtless exist. It is worthy of note that Dr. Salmon's death coincides with what may prove to be a critical phase in the history of the University he did so much to adorn.