earnest spirit of Irish Protestants, and of their
determination to secure for their children an education founded on the pure
word of God, I believe that the Clerical Tutors of the College would at
once transfer to themselves the great majority of the Protestant Students
of Trinity College.

Some 100 or 200 Students might prefer to receive the instruction, and
reward the care, of such lay Fellows as might find their way into the
secularized Corporation, and thus a permanent domestic schism would become
established between the clerical and lay elements of the College, which are
now happily at peace. Whatever might be the future of the College, it is
certain that, at the outset, the Secular Fellows of the College would have
to undergo the rivalry of a trained band of Protestant teachers, supported
by sympathizing Students, both smarting under an angry sense of wrong and
injustice.

Let us now inquire how the secularization of Trinity College would please
the Roman Catholic party in Ireland. The Roman Catholic Clergy warn their
flocks against Trinity College as a Protestant Institution, necessarily
dangerous to the principles of Catholic Students; and, in thus warning
them, they are practically wise, for it is simply impossible for seventy
Catholics to associate with 1100 Protestants, as equals and fellow
Students, without renouncing, more or less, the narrow views respecting
Protestants that prevail among the higher circles of their Hierarchy.

Trinity College, however, although considered dangerous, has never been
placed by the Roman Catholic Clergy in the same category as the Queen's
Colleges, which are essentially secularized institutions, without a
recognized religion, and "godless:" as such they are absolutely condemned
by the Hierarchy, and faithful Catholics are prohibited from entering their
walls.

The practical effect of secularizing Trinity College, if the experiment
were successful, would be to convert it into a fourth Queen's College, and
it would thus become one of a class of Educational Institutions which the
Church of Rome has always, and consistently, forbidden her children to
enter. It is hard to see how such a plan as this can be rationally
advocated, on the ground that it would satisfy the just demands of the
Catholics of Ireland.

So far, therefore, as Irish Roman Catholics are concerned, the
secularization of Trinity College would be to them a loss, and not a gain;
for it would transfer educati