they ran counter to all Catholic principles of education, which demand at least some connection between secular and religious teaching, and the taboo to which they have in large measure been subjected has to a great extent resulted in making a failure of Cork College, and still more of Galway College.  The undenominationalism of Queen’s College, Belfast, 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.