LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
DUBLIN UNIVERSITY AND THE LIBERAL PARTY.
rutEDITOR 07 Tug .SPHCMTOR..3
Sia,—You say in last week's issue with regard to the proposed University for Ireland :—
"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 Arch- bishops and Bishops—given a blank sheet of paper on which to draw up their ideal University. That University we would endow from public funds 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 found a Roman Catholic University on these lines, they will meet with no sort of opposi- tion,'but rather support, from the official representatives of the Unionist Party."
°Will you permit me to point out that you advocate your policy in such a manner as needlessly to prejudice it ? I agree with you that the solution you propose is the most desirable. But it has always been pronounced politically-impossible,—and for what reason ? Because. distinctively Protestant opinion in England has always been so hostile to the endowment of a University controlled by the Roman hierarchy that Mr. Balfour, in spite of his declared convictions, never ventured to propose a measure giving effect to them. Yon now suggest that a Government mainly dependent on Noncon- formist support should introduce a University Bill, the terms of which are to be dictated by - the Catholic hierarchy without the least reference to the laity, and you state that the opinion of Catholic Ireland must necessarily be repre- sented by the hierarchy alone. This is a singular method of commending your scheme to the body of opinion which it aims at conciliating, and it is (quite undesignedly) false to the situation. You omit entirely to recognise what should be the governing fact, that in December, 1905, Mr. Dillon put for- ward at great length his scheme for the constitution of a new autonomous national University, and that no Bishop of the Catholic Church, then or since, expressed any dissent from its principles. Nonconformists and other Protestant Liberals need not suppose that the only alternative to accepting Mr. Bryce's scheme is to place a large sum of money at the disposal of the Catholic Bishops. If the recognised political leaders of the Irish Party (who answer to your Cabinet) were set to draw the lines of a University which should be acceptable to Catholics, who supposes that they would not be able to accomplish the task in such a manner as to meet the requirements of their Church? Or who. supposes that the Catholic Bishops—on whom the responsibility for existing disabilities sits heavily—would be anxious to raise objections ? Even against Mr. Bryce's scheme, though it runs counter to the express declarations of some among them, they have raised no voice. They doubtless see the faults in the scheme, and dislike it on many grounds—as, for that matter, I myself do —but matters have come to that pass that whoever loves Ireland as a whole will accept almost any settlement consistent with his conscience which is likely to pass into law, rather than allow the existing privations to continue indefinitely.
Let me state, the position as it appears to me. To endow on the same scale as Trinity a new and separate University having its headquarters in Dublin, but with the Colleges at Cork and Galway at least temporarily affiliated to it; to leave Trinity as it is, and to make generous provision for Belfast, either as a separate institution or as allied to Trinity,—that is the settlement which would be supported apparently by Sir Edward Carson no less than by Mr. Dillon, and -by a great body of academic Protestant opinion in Ireland as well as by the bulk of Catholics. This settlement is, however, impossible
because English Nonconformists will not assent to it. We may therefore dismiss it from our minds unless and until English Nonconformists express an altered view on the matter. We are presented instead with Mr. Bryce's scheme of a single federated University for Ireland, which Noncon- formist opinion is prepared to accept. I believe that scheme will pass into law, and I believe that the boon which it will confer upon Catholics is quite out of all proportion to the injury which it will undoubtedly (in my judgment) inflict upon Trinity College. For that reason I shall support it with conviction, but at the same time with a sense that only the prejudice (as I must hold) of English Protestants prevents us from having a scheme under which the Irish Catholic ideal of a University and the Irish Protestant ideal of a University —which differ in regard to many matters besides religion— would be left to develop side by side unhampered by each other. I would call attention to one fact. Ireland is pre- dominantly Catholic, and if England insists that there is to be only one University for all Ireland, Irish Catholics will naturally and inevitably aim at securing the control of that University, and will ultimately impress upon it their own ideals. Holding as I do that Irish Catholics are no less fit to manage a University than Irish Protestants, I view this result without apprehension; but valuing the existence of the separate types, I should prefer to preserve for each type its free and full
P.S.—I had not observed before writing this letter the communication from "An Old Cromwellian," who wishes to give the Irish Bishops a million with which they " could start a University after their own hearts, priest-and-Bishop-ridden, as you, Sir, have put it." My acquaintance with the Catholic Bishops and clergy does not lead me to believe that they desire any such kind of a University. The essential point, however, is that Catholic Ireland of to-day would neither accept nor tolerate it. This is simply the expression of my personal judgment; but it is based, as I think "An Old Cromwellian's " would hardly be, on intimate personal acquaintance with the Catholics of Ireland, lay and clerical, acquired in many various public and private relations. People are seldom clearly or thoroughly understood by their political opponents; and Ireland, as a rule, is a country where the absence of intercourse between the opposing sides is a fruitful source of misunderstandings.
[We cannot agree with Mr. Gwynn that Liberal Non- conformists, who are for the most part Home-rulers of the Gladstonian type, would refuse to give the Irish Roman Catholics the University which they desire. To accuse them, us Mr. Gwynn in effect does, of such a refusal, while at the same time demanding that the majority in Ireland shall be given the power to establish any type of University they may desire —a power which would certainly be enjoyed under Home-rule- seems to us utterly inconsistent. Home-rulers are both in morality and in reason estopped from refusing the Irish Roman Catholics their own way as regards the creation of a howl-fide Roman Catholic University. Unionist objectors to the establishment of such a University are, no doubt, in a different position. They are, in our opinion, utterly in the wrong, and their opposition should be disregarded ; but, at any rate, they are not inconsistent, for they do not demand that Ireland should be given the management of her own affairs.—En. Spectator.]
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