o be called
the Royal University, which, however, was not to be a real university at
all, but only a set of examiners plus some salaried fellowships, to be
held at various places of instruction. Regarding this as a gross
educational blunder, which would destroy a useful existing body, and
create a sham university in its place, and finding several Parliamentary
friends on whose judgment I could rely to be of the same opinion, I gave
notice of opposition to the Bill. Mr. Forster came to me, and pressed
with great warmth that the opposition should be withdrawn. The Bill, he
said, would satisfy the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and complete the work
of the Land Bill in pacifying Ireland. The Irish members wanted it: what
business had an English member to interfere to defeat their wishes, and
thwart the Executive? The reply was obvious. Not to speak of the
simplicity of expecting the hierarchy to be satisfied by this small
concession, what were such arguments but the admission of Home Rule in
its worst form? "You resist the demand of the Irish members to legislate
for Ireland; you have just been demanding, and obtaining, the support of
English members against those amendments of the Land Bill which Irish
members declare to be necessary. Now you bid us surrender our own
judgment, ignore our own responsibility, and blindly pass a Bill which
we, who have studied these university questions as they affect both
Ireland and England, believe to be thoroughly mischievous to the
prospects of higher education in Ireland, only because the Irish
members, as you say, desire it. Do one thing or the other. Either give
them the power and the responsibility, or leave both with the Imperial
Parliament. You are now asking us to surrender the power, but to remain
still subject to the responsibility. We will not bear the latter without
the former. We shall prefer Home Rule." Needless to add that this
device--a sample of the petty sops by which successive generations of
English statesmen, Whigs and Tories alike, have sought to win over a
priesthood which uses and laughs at them--failed as completely as its
predecessors to settle the University question or to range the bishops
on the side of the Government.

The autumn and winter of 1881 revealed the magnitude of the mischief
done by making a Coercion Bill precede a Relief Bill. The Land Bill was
the largest concession made to the demands of the people since Catholic
Emancipation. It was a departure, j