lege, Dublin, on condition that she removes all religious tests, retain such of her endowments (Fellowship endowments excepted) as she has already so worthily devoted to the promotion of secular learning; and let her be, for all time to come, in reality though not in name, the Dublin Queen's College. The endowments of her Divinity School must share the same fate as those of the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth and the Presbyterian College of Belfast. From the funds now applied to Fellowships, from the superfluous income of the Provost (whose income might be fairly reduced to 1,000l. per annum), from the surplus endowments of her Divinity School, and from the moneys (estimated by Mr. Gladstone at 100,000l.) due to the College from the Irish Church Commissioners on account of lapsed ecclesiastical patronage, a large sum will be available for Fellowships and Prizes in connection with the new University. And these must be awarded by competitive examination to the most deserving candidates, irrespective of college, class, or creed. Such in its rough outlines is a plan which, if wisely carried out, would, we believe, be most conducive to the interests of higher education in Ireland.

And in the detailed carrying out of this plan no difficulty need be apprehended. Ample funds would exist for the endowment of Fellowships, which should be limited in number but valuable in amount, so as to secure the development of high class scholarship in connection with the University. And what has always been considered a great difficulty in connection with a National University-the difficulty of obtaining a governing body which should be satisfactory to all parties would thus be successfully met. Let a certain number of the Fellows (who should understand University education, if they understand anything), say fifteen or

twenty, of those longest in office, be the governing body. The plan has wrought admirably for some centuries in the University of Dublin, and we see no reason why it should fail in the new Irish University. A place in the governing body would thus be obtained on account of literary and scientific merit, and not on account of political principles or religious belief. And if any denomination stepped forward and complained of not being sufficiently represented in the Senate, the answer would be: Then make your students work harder, and you may get as much representation as you choose.

Of course, in the first instance, there would require to be a provisional Senate, until after the election of a sufficient number of Fellows (two of whom, one in Literature and one in Science, should be elected each year) in the new University. But ample materials exist for the construction of a Senate which ought to be satisfactory to all parties in the governing body of Trinity College, the present Senate of the Queen's University, and the eminent Catholics who adorn the Irish legal profession. This provisional Senate should consist of about twenty members, and as vacancies occurred in it from time to time they could be filled up by the Fellows, until the ultimate constitution of the governing body would be that which we believe most advantageous to educational interests.

The intrinsic advantages of one great central University, altogether apart from the conditions of expediency which demand its creation,

are neither few nor small. And when we consider that the alternative which must be adopted is one truly National University, or at least four sectarian institutions, each with its little ring of associated colleges, the course which legislation should take seems pretty obvious. With one central Uni

versity we shall have a definite standard of education, represented by a degree. But the D.D. of Trinity College and the D.D. of Schenectady, U.S., are not representatives of more diverse standards of qualification than would be the degrees in Arts of our separate denominational Universities. Universities with some traditional character to maintain might for a time keep up their standard, but they would soon be obliged to 'go with the multitude to do evil,' or else lose their students. The competition between the two Universities in Ireland at present may have been perfectly healthy (though even this we doubt, and we can give a reason for the doubt that is in us); but where two could compete favourably for educational interests, four would compete fatally. And yet the advantage of one central University for keeping up the educational standard has been denied, and its degradation, instead of its elevation, has been predicted as a consequence of the central system. No argument in favour of this assertion has been adduced, but an eminent scientific writer tries to prove it by the following illustration: The

defective standard of the weakest college would regulate that of the University degree, just as the sailing of the slowest tub in the squadron regulates the manoeuvres of the entire fleet.' Would any professor teaching a class try to equalise the attainments of his students by endeavouring to stupify the industrious rather than stimulate the idle? And would any University Senate, composed of rational men, introduce into the performance of an important public duty a principle the absurdity of which could be demonstrated by the youngest under-graduate? If the increased competition for degrees consequent on the creation of one National University were

found to lower the standard, it would be the first instance on record of a brisk demand cheapening the market.

The objection to a central University comprising so many differently constituted colleges that it would be impossible to arrange any course of examination suited to all, is of no weight. The University has to examine for secular degrees in secular knowledge; in other words, on those subjects in which the different denominations agree, and not on those in which they differ. There is no Protestant Mathematics or Chemistry as distinguished from that taught in a Catholic college; and the advocates of united education and denominational education do not differ in the main as to the nature of the secular knowledge imparted, but as to the nature of the religious atmosphere with which it is desirable to surround the student when acquiring secular knowledge. We apprehend that a clear-headed student's conception of a theorem in the Calculus will be very much the same whether he acquired it in Trinity College, Dublin, the Queen's College, Belfast, or the Catholic University. In several instances the same text-books are used in the different institutions; and, at any rate, all good examiners now frame their questions so as to suit any good text-book. For party purposes it does very well to point to the absurdity of asking a Protestant Fellow of Trinity and the Head of the Catholic University to sit down together to arrange an examination course in those portions of Moral Science and History which evoke religious controversy. They would have no necessity and no business to sit down to arrange any such course. No existing University makes a knowledge of all religious wars in history and all the absurdities of medieval meta

VOL. V.-NO. XXV. NEW SERIES.

F

physics an imperative condition for obtaining a University degree; and why should this intolerable idiocy be supposed to be reserved for the new Irish University? The new University will examine on those branches of secular knowledge which are generally admitted by educated men to be essential to a liberal education, and denominations who want their students trained in anything else can drill and examine them to the utmost of their bent in their own denominational colleges.

To notice in detail, however, how the new University, if properly managed, might be expected to work, is beyond the scope of the present paper. We have noticed the two insuperable objections (as

JOHN

CHAPTER I.

JOHN STAPLETON was an old bachelor-a bachelor certainly, and what we young people call old, a shade perhaps on the shady side of fifty. He did not look so very old; more than a touch of grey in his whiskers, and a bald crown, still left him a well-preserved specimen of his years. He had been good-looking; but the toils of youth and manhood spent in making money had left him little time to render his looks available. His money was made, and ease and affluence had found him for some years member for Radcliffe-on-theShore, the owner of a house at Princes Gate and a charming villa in Surrey, and almost alone in the world.

He had only three relatives, as far as he knew. One, by far the most important in his own opinion, and perhaps in Stapleton's also, was his nephew Egerton Tracy, commonly called Edgy by his familiars. He was a good-looking, lighthaired, well-attired, and well-mannered young Guardsman, and had, for the season which had just ended, been one of the most popular of partners among the ball-going damsels of Belgravia. The matrons looked more doubtfully on him, for excepting his commission in the Blues, his visible means of subsistence were not extensive. Subsist, however, he did, in a quiet, luxurious style; and was in all respects such a man as may be seen any day in the season on the sunny side of St. James's Street, sauntering down to the club at half-past four.

Stapleton was very fond of this valuable piece of porcelain, or say, this hot-house flower, the only one which had ever graced the substantial family tree of his house. He

was the son of an earl's youngest son, who exchanged his honours, his good looks, and his debts, for Miss Stapleton and 50,000l. The union, although fashionable, was not a happy one; and when their only child, Egerton, reached twenty-one, he had lost both his parents, and inherited a very fractional portion of the 50,000l. In spite of his imperturbable self-conceit, Egerton was good-humoured and kind-hearted, and had a real regard for his uncle; and John Stapleton, on the other hand, had an amount of complacency he would not have owned to himself when, in walking down to the House with a brother member, he encountered this fashionable apparition, and received, as he always did, an affectionate greeting.

Egerton had always taken it for granted, and so had all the mammas who allowed him to waltz with their daughters, that old Stapleton's money was to come to him. Indeed, the expectation was natural, for Stapleton paid him a great deal of attention and had him constantly at his house. But shortly before the time at which this story of mine begins, an event had occurred which had filled the young Guardsman's heart with dismay. A young lady had suddenly appeared in the bachelor establishment, and had been installed at its head. She was a grand-niece, the daughter of a Stapleton vaurien, who had married a French actress, and who from that time forward had been lost to sight at least, although not to memory. The father was dead, the mother had married again and gone with her husband to India, and this young lady, who had been maintained by her grand-uncle at a Parisian pensionnat, and whose existence had been forgotten by Tracy, was suddenly summoned to take her place

as the mistress of John Stapleton's house.,

The third of Stapleton's relatives was also a nephew, to whom, as a boy, he had been very kind; but the lad had a high spirit, and the uncle was rather exacting; so he had gone off to Australia, and for ten years little or nothing had been heard of him.

'Hah! Edgy,' said a dark counterpart of the Guardsman, on his way down to Pall Mall on a bright fresh July morning in London, "How went your Sunday? Governor in good feather?'

'H'm

-

but

- very affectionate I suppose you've heard?-New importation.'

'Yes, I've heard-lovely apparition. Looks ill for the post obits, I fancy.'

'Don't speak in that way, Charlie. He's deuced kind to me, you know, after all.'

'What did he give you?' 'Advice, Charlie.' In fact, he wants me to marry the girl.' Nice girl?' 'Very nice girl.' 'Pretty?'

'Depends on taste,' said Egerton, slowly. 'Blue liquid eyes have been rather overdone, you know, this season. Hazels decidedly in. But in the blue line these are very good. Fine figure. Talks French like a Parisian.'

When and no But what

'So I suppose you entered for the stakes. Made running?' 'An awful bore, Charlie. I thought it a walk over, number up but my own. can a fellow do who cannot afford to have his hair cut, and who has ceased to shave from sheer economy? 'How did you get on?' 'Rather well, I fancy. was another little girl with her. No end of fun. I saw her sniggering in the corner while the Great Palaver was in progress. Thought her the more likely of the two, I fear, but did not dare to show it.'

There

You must keep on the square,

Edgy, to have a chance. Indiscriminate attentions won't do.'

'I am pretty well trained, as you know, Charlie. I know the weights to a feather, and did my very best, I assure you. Played croquet on a Saturday evening, went to church, and carried her prayer-book on Sunday morning. Gave up my afternoon cigar to walk with her, and sat for what seemed about three weeks with the governor after dinner, while we consumed more claret than was good for me or him.'

'Was there anyone else there?' 'No. They expect a parson fellow this week. Don't know who he is, but he brings a letter from Australia, from Tom Rivers. You remember Tom. He was at Harrow with you.'

'Rivers? I heard that name the other day somewhere. Something about Stapleton, too. Cannot think where it was. Yes I remember him as a boy.'

'I never saw him after we left Harrow, and he and my uncle had no end of a row before he went to Australia.'

'Parson not a rival ? '

'Hardly think so. An Irish fellow, and very shy and awkward, Tom says.'