Even if the protest made by Trinity graduates bad not
been so strong and so united, we should have felt obliged to condemn the Government's proposals on their merits. Under the existing system we have at any rate an institution which perfectly satisfies one section of the population of Ireland. To render this institution unsatisfactory to its adherents, while at the same time setting up another institution which will not satisfy the other and larger section of Irish publics opinion, seems to us little short of madness. The net result will be to leave Ireland without any University which is cordially approved of by any body of Irishmen. Surely it would be much wiser to leave Dublin University exactly as it is, and to set up by its side a true Roman Catholic University which will fully satisfy the aspirations of the Roman Church in Ireland. We should like to see the representatives of Roman opinion—and .these must necessarily be the Roman Archbishops and Bishops—given a blank sheet of paper on which to draw up their ideal University. That University we would endow from public fends as liberally as Trinity College.. We trust that Mr. Balfour, as Leader of the Opposition, will find it possible to tell the Government that if they will found a Roman Catholic Univemity on these lines, they will meet with no sort of opposition, but rather support, from the official representatives of the Unionist Party.
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