n purely Catholic principles."

On the motion to go into Committee on the Bill for the abolition of
tests in 1873 an Irish member moved a motion to the effect that a
Catholic College should be founded in the University of Dublin, in
addition to Trinity College. Two years later Mr. Isaac Butt, the
Protestant leader of the Irish Nationalists (himself a Trinity man), and
The O'Conor Don, a Catholic Unionist, brought in a Bill on the same
lines, but both motion and Bill were defeated. The advantages of this
mode of dealing with the question are seen from its acceptance by the
hierarchy and the general mass of the Catholic laity. The Senate of the
Royal University have since its promulgation readily recognised its
soundness and have given it their support, as have the Professors of
University College, Dublin. It will serve to make an end of the
underhand manner by which, as we have seen, that College, though not
merely a denominational, but, moreover, a Jesuit institution, is
subsidised by public money, though we are always told that State
endowment of religious education is alien to all modern principles of
government.

One would have thought that the authorities of Trinity would have felt
themselves estopped from refusing to accept this solution. The offer of
facilities inside Trinity itself--if it is the generous concession it
professes to be--must be made with a full recognition that, if accepted,
the process of "capturing" the College would be effected before long,
thus modifying the Protestantism which is its proudest boast. If, on the
other hand, the expense of life in Trinity College would prove
prohibitive to any but a small section of the four thousand matriculated
students in the Royal University, the much-vaunted liberality of Trinity
is seen to be very greatly restricted, since the results of acceptance
of the offer would only touch the mere fringe of the educational demand.

Last year, of the 1,114 students on the books of the College only 261
were resident within the College--there being accommodation for only
275. Of the 853 returned as residing outside the College, more than a
hundred do not attend lectures or classes, and are entitled to call
themselves members of the College though their only connection with it
is in the examination hall--an evil system which the Commission has
condemned, and which one must suppose was borrowed from the Royal
University.

Everyone is agreed that a university to be wort