e sympathies are wholly with the
class from which they have sprung, and who are given no training
calculated to afford them a broader view than that of the narrowest
class prejudice.

As for the much discussed Irish university, I do not myself believe it
will be founded.

Should even an English Government be blind enough to allow it, an Irish
university could only become a hot-bed of treason, and practically all
educated members of the Roman Catholic community would avoid sending
their sons to such a seminary of sedition, where the influence would be
insidiously directed to make the undergraduates even more hostile to
England than they already are by inherited instincts and by all they
have been told in their own homes.

On the very day this page is written, I have mentioned the question of
an Irish university to two Protestants in the Carlton, both Members of
Parliament, and both approved of the idea in a languid way. I have also
mooted the topic this afternoon to two leading Roman Catholics, and both
vehemently disapproved, alleging that it will work endless mischief.

As far back as 1872 Dr. Macaulay wrote:--

'The Irish university question has been put off from year to year, and
at length presses for settlement.'

In the best interests of Ireland, may the same thing be written thirty
years hence!

If the Roman Catholics of England send their sons to Oxford and
Cambridge, why should not more Irish Roman Catholics send theirs to
Trinity College, Dublin? Only a very few do, although the education is
said to be quite as good as at either of the great English Universities.
A far tighter hold is kept, however, on the Roman Catholic laity in
Ireland than in England. It always surprises English people to learn
that, in Ireland, Roman Catholics are not allowed to enter Protestant
churches to attend either funerals or weddings. Nor do I think there is
much probability of these restrictions being removed.

Of course, in the years of outrage and terror in Ireland, many of the
priests from the altar denounced loyal members of the congregation, or
incited their hearers to deeds of wickedness by their inflammatory
sermons. These facts are among the blackest in the history of any creed,
and I do not hesitate to class the work of some of the priests who
disgraced their Church with the worst perpetrations of the Spanish
Inquisition.

Fortunately all priests were not, and are not, after this style. I have
known many good a