, not being in opposition to the consciences
of the Presbyterians of that city, has resulted in the fact that the
College there has succeeded to a far greater extent than have the other
two.

The Royal University, founded in 1882, is, as I have said, nothing more
than an examining body, established on the lines of the London
University as it existed at that date, with power to award scholarships
and fellowships. About fifty years ago John Henry Newman founded the
Catholic University in St. Stephen's Green. Unendowed and depending on
the voluntary contributions of the poorest people in Western Europe, it
is not surprising that the venture failed. From it, however, rose the
University College, controlled by the Jesuit Fathers, which occupies the
same buildings, and the pupils of which compete for the degrees of the
Royal University as those of the Queen's Colleges have done ever since,
on the foundation of the Royal University, the Queen's University--of
which the three colleges were components--was destroyed. The indirect
mode in which the Catholic University College is endowed is worthy of
attention. The Royal University, out of its income from the Irish Church
Fund, maintains twenty-nine fellows, each with an income of L400 a year
on condition that they should act as examiners in the Royal University,
and in addition give their services as teachers in colleges appointed by
the Senate (namely, the three Queen's Colleges, University College,
Dublin, and the Magee College in Derry). Of these Fellows fifteen are
allotted to University College. On the assumption that of their salary
one-quarter represents the payment as examiners to the University--and
the estimate is generous in view of the payment of only L30 to each
examiner in the Cambridge Triposes--if this be assumed to be the case,
the remaining L300 stands for the salary given as teacher in University
College, which thus, albeit indirectly, is endowed to the extent of
L4,500 a year--a fact which, though contrasting unfavourably with the
L12,000 or L13,000 enjoyed by each of the Queen's Colleges, nevertheless
would have seemed to cut the ground from under the feet of those who
argued that the University question was insoluble since they would not
countenance the application of public funds to a sectarian college.

It is often alleged that the anxiety of the Irish for other facilities
for higher education than are at present afforded arises from their
priest-ridden c