so knew them better and how to handle them. Unlike Gladstone, he allowed himself time to ruminate upon the vicissitudes of human affairs, and his judgment on men and things are consequently all the more valuable. But he was never fathomed by the British public. To them he was always an insoluble mystery; and, as this was a tacit acknowledgment of their greater mental weakness, it was the chief reason of his own power.

To return-The University Bill of 1873, which was impracticable from the first, for the same reason that the National System and the Queen's Colleges were failures, was, notwithstanding its flaws, a signal mark of Gladstone's courage; for no harder task was ever given to man, and he had to make of it what he could. His whole fervent, aspiring soul was in the work of reform, and he believed that Ireland was about to enter the harbour of perpetual calm. He had already done much for her, but lived in the spirit of one-nil actum reputans dum quid restaret agendum.1

The Roman Catholic clergy yearned for an exclusively Catholic University for themselves, undefiled by what was for them the cloven hoof of heresy, and this was to be denied them. They therefore denounced the Bill. The measure was likewise opposed by nearly the whole of the Irish members, and it was finally rejected by the House of Commons after a series of stormy debates on the second reading by three votes only, Gladstone making a declaration against denominational endowment of university education. The Premier hereupon resigned, but was obliged to resume office, as Disraeli could not get a ministry to work for him. Thus even Gladstone, with all his enthusiasm and power, had been unable to hew off the third branch of the fatal Upas tree. After this defeat an attempt was made at the instance of Trinity College to broaden the basis of its regulations, and a Bill was introduced by Fawcett on March 23 of the same year and passed by Disraeli's Government, abolishing tests in the College and University, making the members of the College eligible to all its honours without regard to differences of creed, and at the same time divesting the governing body of its purely Protestant character. But the remedy was insufficient for the chronic disorder, and Trinity College continued to be a thoroughly Protestant seat of learning impregnated with the tradition of years. Its professors, fellows, and scholars remained nearly all Protestants after the passing of the Act, its Catholic students did not amount to eight per cent., and the Irish Catholic Church was more than ever opposed to Catholics entering its precincts in order to suck the brains of to them an impious and tainted heresy.

In 1879 the Royal University was established, the Bill for its

1 Appendix LXVIA, extract from speech by W. E. Gladstone,

2 Appendix LXVII, Cardinal Cullen's Declaration,

foundation being passed by Disraeli's Government in order to render more equitable, as far as Catholics were concerned, the system of higher education in Ireland. Isaac Butt had introduced a Bill in 1876 for the creation of a second college in connection with the University of Dublin. The Catholic College was to be this second string to the fiddle, with a voice in the government of the University and with suitable endowments. Trinity College was no longer to be identical with the University of Dublin, but, like the Catholic College, to be free and self-governing. No degrees in Divinity were to be given by the University, which was to confer other degrees after adequate examination. The Board of Examiners was to be chosen from each College. The University was to have an endowment of £200,000 out of the Church surplus. The Catholic College was to get £30,000 for buildings, etc., all the assets of the Catholic College being handed over to it, whilst double this amount was to be paid to it out of the Church Surplus. But the Bill failed to pass. In 1879 the O'Conor Don, who had co-operated with Butt in fighting for the Bill of 1876, brought in a measure mainly founded on the principles accepted in the Intermediate Education Act of 1878. Under it existing universities and colleges in connection with it were to be established. This new establishment was not to be directly a teaching University, although something more than a mere Examining Board, and a sum of £1,500,000 was to be set aside out of the Church surplus for its endowment and expenses. But this Bill likewise suffered the fate of the other. The same year the Royal University Bill was introduced in the Upper House by Lord Cairns as a substitute for the O'Conor Don's. In the shape in which it eventually passed it was substantially different from the measure which was first agreed to by the Lords. The Bill that had first emerged from the Upper House created a new Senate for the Queen's University, and enabled it to grant degrees to students outside the Queen's Colleges. But it practically did nothing more. Under the provisions of the Act, however, as it finally passed into law, Queen's University was extinguished, and power given to a new institution in the shape of the Royal University to confer degrees on and award prizes to the students of all Irish colleges without religious distinction, provided they passed through the examinations required for the purpose. The duty of framing a scheme of exhibitions, prizes, scholarships, and fellowships, for which Parliament was to supply the funds, was entrusted to the Senate of this Royal Establishment.1 The Catholic University

1 The Senate decided at a meeting held in November 1882, that fellowships should be assigned to the following institutions:-University College, Dublin (15), Queen's College, Belfast (7), Queen's College, Cork (3), Queen's College, Galway (3), and the Magee Presbyterian College, Londonderry, which was opened in 1865 (1).

There was no provision under the Act of 1879 for the endowment of the Royal

and other similar institutions were in this manner enabled, although indirectly, to secure degrees for the students who were educated within their precincts. But the Royal University, although opening up a road for Catholic talent, and cracking after many years of stubborn frost the thick ice of bigotry, was after all merely an examining Board, and not a University in the proper sense of the word. Moreover, the members of the Senate were thenceforward selected for their religious creed rather than their academic eminence, and when a vacancy had to be filled the question considered was, not whether the candidate was distinguished intellectually, but whether his appointment would upset the denominational equilibrium. The Catholic University still remained unendowed, while Trinity College and the Queen's Colleges, two of which proved glaring failures,1 were amply fed at great expense by the State.2

University, but in 1881 the omission was made good, and an Act passed for the payment of £20,000 annually out of the Irish Church surplus to defray the expenses of the Establishment.

1 The dissolution of the Queen's University considerably impaired their importance. In 1881-82, the number of students in Belfast was 567; in Cork, 402; in Galway, 201. In 1901-2, the numbers were-in Belfast, 349; in Cork, 190; and in Galway, 93.

2 Lord Granville wrote to Lord Emly on October 16, 1879-"No one knows better than you the latent hostile feeling which unfortunately still exists against the Irish and against the Roman Catholic religion. . . .

66

CHAPTER XV

LAND ACT OF 1881

Suppose I am told that without the agitation Ireland would never have had the Land Act of 1881, are you prepared to deny that? I hear no challenges upon that statement, for I think it is generally and deeply felt that without the agitation the Land Act would not have been passed. As the man responsible more than any other for the Act of 1881-as the man whose duty it was to consider the questions day and night during nearly the whole of that session-I must record my firm opinion that it would not have become the law of the land if it had not been for the agitation with which Irish society was convulsed."-WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, House of Commons, March 3, 1890.

"Is it remarkable that those interested, the representatives of the Irish people, should in this conjuncture of things feel alarmed for the future? Is it remarkable that there should again be conjured up in the minds of the people the dread of the recurrence of those nameless scenes of horror, the memory of which hung like a dark cloud over the recollections and the lives of the people who had taken part in those scenes, and who had suffered in them? I am unable, and I will not attempt to give a picture of those scenes. The nameless graves, the members of one family thrust into unhallowed ground, the fearful want and agony of children dying before the eyes of parents, ay, and children, innocent infants, found struggling for their young life at the nipple of the mother, hours after life had left her! Is it possible, my Lords, for men who think of these things, who have their recollections revived by the dread of such things-is it right that their language should be tested by the same rules which men apply to those who are philosophically and calmly discussing some problem of economy or politics?"-SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, before the Parnell Commission.

"I can imagine no fault attaching to any land system which does not attach to the Irish. It has got all the faults of peasant proprietary, of extreme landlordism, and of landlords who spend no money upon their property, and with a large part of their territory managed by a court-all the faults of tenants to whose interest it is to let their farms go out of cultivation when they are approaching the end of their term."— ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR, House of Commons, May 4, 1903.

IRELAND, on the whole, with the exception of an outbreak of crime in West Meath in 1870-1, the result of clearances upon an enormous scale, never seemed so prosperous as during the years 1871 to 1877. They were times of plenty and high prices, and the Irish lower classes appeared for a short span almost to forget the inclemency of the régime under which they lived. But appearances were deceitful. Figs do not grow on thorns. As Disraeli said about the year 1874-" Neither liberty of the press nor liberty of the person exists in Ireland. Arrests are at all times liable. It is a fact that at any time in Ireland the police may enter into your house, examine your papers to see if there is any resemblance between the writing and that of some anonymous letter that has been sent to a third person. In Ireland, if a man writes an article in a newspaper and it offends

the Government, he has a warning, and if he repeats the offence his paper may be suppressed. They say Ireland is peaceful. Yes, but is she so, not because she is contented, but because she is held under by coercive laws?" During this period the soil was prepared for future legislation and various attempts were made to anticipate the measure which was eventually carried in 1881. In 1871 Lord Cairns recommended a measure supplemental to the Land Bill of 1870, stating very lucidly the reasons for his proposal—

"A considerable property in the north of Ireland being about to be sold, preparations were made in the Landed Estates Court for advertising it and for stating the rights and encumbrances to which it was subject. Some of the tenants applied to the Court, not as litigants, but asking the judges, in their administrative capacity, to place on the particulars of sale and in the conveyance, some notice of their rights. The judges conceiving this to be unnecessary, and their rights to be sufficiently secure, the tenants carried the matter to the Court of Appeal, where both judges sustained the decision of the Landed Estates Court. They did so, however, on different grounds, the Lord Chancellor thinking their rights sufficiently secure, while Lord Justice Christian doubted whether they could be enforced, and apparently thought that the Landed Estates Court could take no cognizance of them."

In view therefore of the indeterminate nature of their security, Cairns proposed that a short declaratory Act should be passed, providing that, in the case of any proceedings in the Landed Estates Court, the rights of tenants under the Act of 1870 should remain valid, even though they might not be specified or referred to in the conveyance. His proposal was welcomed as a moderate step in the direction of reform, and having been accepted by both houses received the Royal assent on the 21st of August.

In 1871 a Land Bill was also introduced by Sergeant Sherlock, but was not accepted. In 1872 Butt made an attempt to carry a Land Act with a similar result, and the same year brought in a second Bill for the amendment of the Act of 1870, but was unable to obtain sufficient support for it. Heron had also proposed a Bill dealing with the land question in 1870, and had likewise failed to carry it. In 1874 various Bills were introduced on the subject, but all of them fell through. One was brought forward by Isaac Butt; another by Sir John Gray1; a third dealing with the Ulster Tenant Right again by Butt, and a fourth in regard to the Land Purchase Extension

1 Sir John Gray (1816-1875). Member for Kilkenny.