UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN IRELAND.

195

the universities usually abstain from granting them, except to men already illustrious as medical practitioners. In October, 1866, however, the Queen's University conferred the degree of M.D., honoris causa (being the first time it had exercised the privilege), on a gentleman who had not pursued any course of medical education, and for the purpose of enabling him to compete for a chair of botany, for which a medical degree was required. The graduates of that university who had trod a more difficult path before being capped publicly expressed their indignation. The little game did not succeed, for the electors chose a bona fide doctor for the chair.

The state of university education is, perhaps, the most exciting topic of the day; but here the only division of the subject interesting us is that of Medicine. Roman Catholics cannot obtain a medical degree in Ireland without studying in the Queen's colleges-to which many of them conscientiously object, as religious. instruction forms no part of their system, and for which reason they are condemned by the heads of that churchor in Trinity College, where the highest places are denied to those of their faith, and where the expensive and prolonged arts course must be previously pursued. Again, there is no place in Dublin at which the 400 or 500 students at the other medical schools can graduate, and it is unreasonable to expect them to migrate to Belfast, Cork, or Galway to study medicine. The London University does not supply the want, for, its situation in another country makes it expensive, and if candidates are examined in Ireland they cannot obtain honours. The Catholic Hierarchy demand, as a remedy, that the Catholic University shall be chartered and endowed. Objections to the multiplying of universities and licensing bodies have been previously stated-and it must be allowed that degrees from a new university will not have as much weight with the public as those of an old and famous one, and that competitive

1

196

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN IRELAND.

strife between young men of every creed and class, which is so valuable, will not exist. The governing body of the Catholic University is solely constituted by twelve archbishops and bishops. It has been asserted that in no university of ancient or modern times has there been a board so completely ecclesiastical. The regulation of the medical and legal faculties, and the choice of examiners in them, must be managed by the advice of one or more of the professors of each, who can be scarcely regarded as responsible or disinterested. If only those students who were educated in its medical school were eligible for the degree of M.D., those attending the school of the College of Surgeons, for instance, where the library and museum are at least superior, would be placed under disadvantage; and this is the very institution in which the students of the Catholic University have hitherto enjoyed great advantages. By a supplemental charter, granted to the Queen's University in 1866, many of the difficulties of Irish education were proposed to have been removed: students from other colleges recognised by the senate, besides the Queen's Colleges, and from medical schools, were to be admitted to degrees. The plan had been forcibly advocated by Sir D. Corrigan, and was identical with that of the London University when first founded. This institution has always received the fullest support from the many admirable Catholic colleges which flourish in England. The Calcutta University, constructed on a similar plan, has been most successful. This supplemental charter, not having received the sanction of Parliament or the approval of the graduates of the university, mainly owing to the way it was introduced, was after much litigation abandoned, and the question remains unsettled.

The great majority of Catholic laymen and liberals earnestly hope that Mr. Monsell's proposal shall be adopted by the government. According to it, the

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN IRELAND.

197

Dublin and the Queen's Universites would be abolished, and a National University created, of which Trinity. College, the Queen's Colleges, the Catholic University College, and perhaps some other institutions, should be all colleges governed as at present, and suitably endowed. The senate of the university should be constructed so as to fairly represent all these separate institutions.

66

The opposition to this plan mainly proceeds from Trinity College, and is expressed in a pamphlet by the Rev. Prof. Haughton, written with all the force and caustic wit which that extraordinary man possesses. It is, however, but a selfish appeal to let his college alone on the ground that it is not national, but for a "handful of Protestant clergymen." If such be the character of Trinity College, the expected Reform Bill may fairly diminish its parliamentary representation, and give at least one of its members to the seats of more liberal education. If the interests of his own college are safe, he is indifferent as to the chartering of a university for other creeds. In a letter to the Medical Times and Gazette, and subsequently in his pamphlet, he asserts that the standard of the new university degrees would of necessity take its character from that of the lowest of the colleges admitted into partnership, just as the manoeuvring of the whole fleet depends on the sailing qualities of the slowest tub in the squadron." That the tendency would be in the opposite direction the instances of Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris universities. indicate, but is clearly proven by the London University, whose medical degrees are the most honourable in the world, owing to the high standard of examination which is enforced. It is indeed to be regretted that one so pre-eminent in physical and medical science as Prof. Haughton should be the most powerful advocate of sectarian monopoly. No one is in all things or at all times wise. Nevertheless, so great is his genius, and. so useful would it prove in the Senate, that we ear

198

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN IRELAND.

nestly hope to see him returned to parliament as soon as the restriction against clergymen is removed.

That such a plan is feasible will be allowed when it is remembered that in continental universities-Bonn, for instance-Protestant and Catholic colleges, with theological faculties in each, are united. Disputes as to the choice of subject could not arise, and if the senate selected several works on each subject, no candidate for examination would be obliged to study a book disapproved of by his church. The examiners should be chosen indiscriminately from the professors of all the affiliated colleges, or, what is far better, from the learned world at large; and senators should never be chosen on political grounds.

It is a great error in the Queen's and Dublin Universities that the examiners are the professors, who are allowed thus to be the vouchers of their own success. As failures in the candidates passing must do injury to the professor's repute, must he not be expected to be overindulgent? The selection of an independent staff of examiners, on the ground of merit alone, and not because connected with institutions it is politic to propitiate, would do much to increase the value of these degrees.

It is certain that the Queen's University, as at present constituted, will never become a popular institution in this country. It is too directly connected with the government of the country to be self-reliant and independent, as a great centre of learning should be. It was promised that after a few years the professorships should cease to be political appointments, but the promise has not been fulfilled. It has most highly trained a great number of professional men, and in one leading intellectual position, the bar, its graduates are allowed on all hands to supply the "rising men." The Rector of the Catholic University condemns the Queen's University, yet three of his professors hold offices in it; and he objects to the College of Science as infidel and alien,

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN IRELAND.

199

although one of the Catholic University professors of pre-eminent ability teaches also in it, and only three out of the eight literary chairs in his own institution are filled by Irish gentlemen. The principle of giving degrees in arts, as in the London University, without study at any college was advocated in regard to medicine by Adam Smith in 1774: "When a man has learned his lesson very well, it surely can be of little importance where or from whom he has learnt it." If final examinations were thoroughly practical and demonstrative, there would be no objection, to the same free-trade practice in medicine also; but even in the London University, where the examination tests partake of those characters more perfectly than in any other body, attendance at recognised schools and hospitals is insisted on.

The unfettered and unaided competition which it is the object of the "Wealth of Nations" to uphold, may serve the public in regard to mechanical and commercial pursuits, for they can judge of the ability of those who follow them; but with regard to medicine, of which such ignorance prevails, the case is wholly different.

A National University receiving on equal terms those educated in Trinity College, the Catholic College, the Queen's Colleges, and other recognised schools, all of which institutions would be controlled by independent. bodies, would foster intellectual competition, and as there is nothing dwarfing or repressive in the Catholic faith, those who profess it would gain more by this ennobling strife than by any separate charter.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS.

To avoid repetition it seemed most suitable that any remarks on the management of corporate bodies should be made specially of one, and that which it was most natural to select was the Irish College of Surgeons. Many of its rules which could only be talked of in terms of praise are not commented upon, and some others are