How far the demands of the bishops were just or extravagant, is not a fit subject of inquiry here.  But the fact of making the demands stamps the principle of the bill with their incontrovertible approval.  The argument which denies it involves an accusation against those Most Reverend and Right Reverend divines, of evasion, treachery and untruth.  Any defence which implies that they avoided the direct condemnation of the principle because they knew their memorial would be disregarded, which would enable them to interdict the whole Bill, principle and details, on the ground of the immorality of the latter, involves an implication that moral and Christian turpitude is synonymous with Catholic zeal.  Such an implication, inevitable from the premises assumed by the opponents of the mixed system, would be foulest calumny.  The Catholic prelates were eminently sincere; and had they been warmly seconded they might have obtained such ameliorations in the details of the system as would be satisfactory to every rational, liberal and honest man.  But the old jealousy, division and calumny which had grown out of the Bequests Act, obtruded themselves on every attempt at calm consideration, and scattered the elements indispensable to successful moral combination.  The principle and details of the academic project became confused and confounded, and while some clamorously opposed, others unthinkingly supported, the entire.  Thus the minister was enabled to balance the voice of public opinion as he found it arrayed for and against his measure, and under pretence of indifference to despise both parties.  For a long while, the action of the Association was paralysed.  There were deeper questions at issue there than even those which appeared on the face of the bill.  The educational party insisted that any measure which did not embrace the University was scanty and illiberal.  They claimed its honours, advantages and emoluments for all the youth of Ireland alike; and they sought to make the academic subordinate to and parcel of the collegiate system.  The Dublin University and Trinity College are separate and distinct foundations and establishments.  They proposed that Maynooth and Trinity College should be both sufficiently endowed for all purposes of ecclesiastical education, without any interference, direct or indirect, from each other or the Government, while the University should be open alike to all who had obtained distinction in the provincial colleges.  Any measure of narrower scope would, they contended, leave dullness and bigotry where it found them.

Mr. O’Connell, on the other hand, insisted on the inviolability of Dublin College as a Protestant institution, inaccessible to Catholics, except through the slough of perverted and perjured faith.  He would then have new colleges purely Catholic and entirely under the control of the Catholic bishops, but endowed by the State, and chartered to confer literary degrees.  He would extend the same right to the members of other