ating and as useless
as would be the interference of a mutual friend in a quarrel between a man
and his wife.

English politicians, in the matter of University Education for the Irish
Catholics, have hitherto imitated the doctrine laid down by Mr.
Bumble--that "the great principle of out-of-door relief is, to give the
paupers exactly what they don't want; and then they get tired of coming."

Twenty-seven out of twenty-nine of the Irish Catholic Bishops ask for a
Catholic University Charter and Endowment, and are supported in this claim
by an overwhelming majority of their flocks.

The Irish Catholics asked the English Parliament for bread, and they gave
them a stone: instead of a Chartered University, with a fair endowment and
perfect freedom of Education, they received Queen's Colleges, which were
condemned as godless, and which they were prohibited by their Church from
using.

Let the Parliament of England for once try an experiment which will meet
with the approval of Irishmen of all classes, and give to Ireland a third
University, in which the highest and best type of Catholic education shall
be developed freely. Protestantism cannot suffer by the contrast, and
education must certainly benefit.

If Germans can proudly boast of their twenty-seven Universities--if
Italians can point to twenty-one Universities, awaking from their slumbers
at the call of liberty--if little Belgium can support her four
Universities, all active, and required by the wants of her people--surely
it cannot be too much for the Irish people, divided as they unhappily are
by distinctions of religion and bitter recollections of ancient feuds, to
ask that the Protestant University of Elizabeth, and the Secular University
of Victoria, shall be supplemented by a Catholic University, possessing the
confidence of Irish Catholics, and sharing with her friendly rivals, no
longer jealous sisters, the glorious task of leading the youth of Ireland
into the pleasant paths of Literature and Science.

The milk-white Lily is not less beautiful than the crimson Rose; let them
flourish side by side in the garden of Ireland.

FOOTNOTES:

1: Roman Catholics were first admitted into Trinity College by an Act
passed by the Irish Parliament in 1793.

End of Project Gutenberg's University Education in Ireland, by Samuel Haughton

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN IRELAND ***

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